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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35572-8.txt b/35572-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..12274dc --- /dev/null +++ b/35572-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14269 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Socialism and Democracy in Europe, by Samuel P. Orth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Socialism and Democracy in Europe + +Author: Samuel P. Orth + +Release Date: March 13, 2011 [EBook #35572] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE *** + + + + +Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | + | been preserved. Bold text is represented =like so=. | + | Superscripted text is represented like^{so}. + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | + | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + SOCIALISM AND + DEMOCRACY IN + EUROPE + + By + + SAMUEL P. ORTH, PH.D. + + _Author of "Five American Politicians" "Centralization of + Administration in Ohio," etc._ + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK + HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + 1913 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1913 + BY + HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + + Published January, 1913 + + THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS + RAHWAY, N.J. + + + + +PREFACE + + +It is becoming more and more evident that democracy has served only +the first years of its apprenticeship. Political problems have served +only to introduce popular government. The economic problems now +rushing upon us will bring the real test of democracy. + +The workingman has taken an advanced place in the struggle for the +democratization of industry. He has done so, first, through the +organization of labor unions; secondly, through the development of +political parties--labor parties. The blend of politics and economics +which he affects is loosely called Socialism. The term is as +indefinite in meaning as it is potent in influence. It has spread its +unctuous doctrines over every industrial land, and its representatives +sit in every important parliament, including our Congress. + +Such a movement requires careful consideration from every point of +view. + +It is the object of this volume to trace briefly the growth of the +movement in four leading European countries, and to attempt to +determine the relation of economic and political Socialism to +democracy--a question of peculiar interest to the friends of the +American Republic at this time. + +In preparing this volume, the author has made extended visits to the +countries studied. He has tried to catch the spirit of the movement by +personal contact with the Socialist leaders and their antagonists, +and by many interviews with laboring men, the rank and file in every +country visited. + +Everywhere he was received with the greatest cordiality, and he wishes +here to express his appreciation of these many kindnesses. + +He wishes especially to acknowledge his obligations to the following +gentlemen: Mr. Graham Wallas of the University of London; Mr. W.G. +Towler of the London Municipal Society; Mr. John Hobson of London, and +Mr. J.S. Middleton, assistant secretary of the Labor Party; to Dr. +Robert Herz and Prof. Charles Gide of the University of Paris; Dr. +Albert Thomas and M. Adolphe Landry of the Chamber of Deputies; M. +Jean Longuet, editor of _L'Humanité_; to Dr. Franz Oppenheimer of the +University of Berlin; Dr. Südekum of the Reichstag; Dr. Hilferding, +editor of _Vorwärts_; Prof. T.H. Norton, American Consul at Chemnitz; +M. Camille Huysmans, secretary of the "International," Brussels; as +well as to many American friends for providing letters of introduction +which opened many useful and congenial doorways. + + S.P.O. + January, 1913. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. WHY DOES SOCIALISM EXIST? 1 + + II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALISM 17 + + III. The Political Awakening of Socialism--The Period + of Revolution 42 + + IV. THE POLITICAL AWAKENING OF SOCIALISM--THE + INTERNATIONAL 56 + + V. THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF FRANCE 75 + + VI. THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY 118 + + VII. THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 146 + + VIII. GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND LABOR UNIONS 171 + + IX. THE ENGLISH LABOR PARTY 207 + + X. CONCLUSION 250 + + APPENDIX 273 + + INDEX 347 + + + + +SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTION--WHY DOES SOCIALISM EXIST? + + +The answer to this question will bring us nearer to the core of the +social movement than any attempted definition. The French Socialist +program begins with the assertion, "Socialism is a question of class." +Class distinction is the generator of Socialism. + +The ordinary social triptych--upper, middle, and lower classes--will +not suffice us in our inquiry. We must distinguish between the +functions of the classes. The upper class is a remnant of the feudal +days, of the manorial times, when land-holding brought with it social +distinction and political prerogative. In this sense we have no upper +class in America. The middle class is composed of the business and +professional element, and the lower class of the wage-earning element. + +There are two words, as yet quite unfamiliar to American readers, +which are met with constantly in European works on Socialism and are +heard on every hand in political discussions--_proletariat_ and +_bourgeois_. The proletariat are the wage-earning class, the poor, +the underlings. The bourgeois[1] are roughly the middle class. The +French divide them into _petits_ bourgeois and _grands_ bourgeois. +Werner Sombart divides them into lower middle class, the manual +laborers who represent the guild system, and bourgeoisie, the +representatives of the capitalistic system.[2] + +It will thus be seen that these divisions have a historical basis. The +upper class reflect the days of feudalism, of governmental prerogative +and aristocracy. The middle class are the representatives of the guild +and mercantile systems, when hand labor and later business acumen +brought power and wealth to the craftsman and adventurer. The lower +class are the homologues of the slaves, the serfs, the toilers, whose +reward has constantly been measured by the standard of bare existence. +Socialism arises consciously out of the efforts of this class to win +for itself a share of the powers of the other classes. It is necessary +to understand that while this class distinction is historic in origin +it is essentially economic in fact. It is not "social"; a middle-class +millionaire may be congenial to the social circles of the high-born. +It is not political; a workingman may vote with any party he chooses. +He may ally himself with the conservative Center as he sometimes does +in Germany, or with the Liberal Party as he sometimes does in England, +or with either of the old parties as he does in the United States. On +the other hand, a bourgeois may be a Socialist and vote with the +proletarians. Indeed, many of the Socialist leaders belong to the +well-to-do middle class. + +This class distinction, then, is economic. It is a distinction of +function, the function of the capitalist and the function of the +wage-earner. Let us go one step further; it is a distinction in +property. The possessor of private wealth can become a capitalist by +investing his money in productive enterprise. He then becomes the +employer of labor. There are all grades of capitalists, from the +master wagon-maker who works by the side of his one or two workmen, to +the "captain" of a vast industry that gives employment to thousands of +men and turns out a wagon a minute. + +The institution of private property is the basis of Socialism because +it is the basis of capitalistic production. It places in one man's +hands the power of owning raw material, machinery, land, factory, and +finished product; and the power of hiring men to operate the +machinery, and to convert the raw material into marketable wares. As +long as this power was limited to hand industry the proletarian +movement was abortive. When the industrial revolution linked the +ingenuity of man to the power of nature it so multiplied the potency +of the possessor that the proletarian movement by stress of +circumstances became a great factor in industrial life. + +While the possession either of wealth or family tradition was always +the basis of class distinction, the industrial revolution brought with +it the enormously multiplied power of capital and the glorification of +riches. The proletarians multiplied rapidly in number, and all the +evils of sharp class distinction were heightened. In all lands where +capitalistic production spread, the two classes grew farther apart, +the distinction between possessor and wage-earner increased. + +It is not the mere possession of wealth, however, which forms the +animus of the Socialist movement. It is probably not even the abuse of +this wealth, although this is a large factor in the problem. It is the +psychological effect of the capitalist system that is the real +enginery of Socialism. It is the class feeling, the consciousness of +the workingman that he is contributing muscle and blood and sweat to +the perfection of an article whose possession he does not share. This +feeling is aroused by the contrasts of life that the worker constantly +sees around him. He feels that his own life energy has contributed to +the magnificent equipages and the palatial luxuries of his employer. +He compares his own lot and that of his family with the lot of the +capitalist. This feeling of envy is not blunted by the kaleidoscopic +suddenness with which changes of fortune can take place in America +to-day. By some stroke of luck or piece of ingenious planning, a +receiver of wages to-day may be the giver of wages to-morrow. + +Nor does the spread of education and intelligence dull the contrasts. +It greatly heightens them. The workman can now begin to analyze the +conditions under which he lives. He ponders over the distinctions that +are actual and contrasts them with his imagined utopia. To him the +differences between employer and employee are not natural. He does not +attribute them to any fault or shortcoming or inferiority of his own, +nor of his master, but to a flaw in the organization of society. The +social order is wrong. + +The workingman has become the critic. Here you have the heart of +Socialism. Whatever form its outward aspect may take, at heart it is a +rebellion against things as they are. And whatever may be the +syllogisms of its logic, or the formularies of its philosophy, they +all begin with a grievance, that things as they are are wrong; and +they all end in a hope for a better society of to-morrow where the +inequalities shall somehow be made right. + +In his struggle toward a new economic ideal, the proletarian has +achieved a class homogeneity and self-consciousness. The individuality +that is denied him in industry he has sought and found among his own +brethren. In the great factory he loses even his name and becomes +number so-and-so. In his union and in his party he asserts his +individuality with a grim and impressive stubbornness. The gravitation +of common ideals and common protests draws these forgotten particles +of industrialism into a massed consciousness that is to-day one of the +world's great potencies. The very fact that we call this body of +workers "the masses" is significant. We speak of them as a geologist +speaks of his "basement complex." We recognize unconsciously that they +form the foundation of our economic life. + +The class struggle, then, is between two clearly defined and +self-conscious elements in modern industrial life that are the natural +product of our machine industry. On the one hand is the business man +pursuing with fevered energy the profits that are the goal of his +activity; on the other hand are the workingmen who, more and more +sullen in their discontent, are clamoring louder each year for a +greater share of the wealth they believe their toil creates. + +There is some reason to believe that this class basis of Socialism is +vanishing. In England J. Ramsay MacDonald denies its significance.[3] +Revisionists and progressive Socialists, who are throwing aside the +Marxian dogmas, are also preaching the universality of the Socialist +conception. However, the economic factor based on class functions +remains the essence of the social movement.[4] + +What are the ideals of Socialism? They are not merely economic or +social, they embrace all life. After one has taken the pains to read +the more important mass of Socialist literature, books, pamphlets, and +some current newspapers and magazines, and has listened to their +orators and talked with their leaders, confusion still remains in the +mind. The movement is so all-embracing that it has no clearly defined +limits. The Socialists are feeling their way from protest into +practice. Their heads are in the clouds; of this you are certain as +you proceed through their books and listen to their speeches. But are +their feet upon the earth? + +For a literature of protest against "suffering, misery, and +injustice," as Owen calls it, there is a wonderful buoyancy and hope +in their words. It is one of the secrets of its power that Socialism +is not the energy of despair. It is the demand for the right to live +fully, joyfully, and in comfort. The Socialists demand ozone in their +air, nutrition in their food, heartiness in their laughter, ease in +their homes, and their days must have hours of relaxation. + +The awakening aspirations of the proletarian were expressed by one of +their own number, William Weitling, a tailor of Magdeburg. He +afterwards migrated to America and became one of our first Socialist +agitators. His book is called _Garantieen der Harmonie und Freiheit_ +(Guaranties of Harmony and Liberty). The book is illogical, full of +contradictions, and all of the errors of a child's reasoning. But it +remains the workingman's classic philippic, one of the most trenchant +recitals of social wrongs, because it blends, with the illogical +terminology of sentimentalism, the assurance of hope. "Property," he +says, "is the root of all evil." Gold is the symbol of this world of +wrongs. "We have become as accustomed to our coppers as the devil to +his hell." When the rule of gold shall cease, then "the teardrops +which are the tokens of true brotherliness will return to the dry eyes +of the selfish, the soul of the evildoer will be filled with noble and +virtuous sentiments such as he had never known before, and the impious +ones who have hitherto denied God will sing His praise." The humble +tailor is assured that the reign of property will be terminated and +the age of humanity begin, and he calls to the workingman, "Forward, +brethren; with the curse of Mammon on our lips, let us await the hour +of our emancipation, when our tears will be transmuted into pearls of +dew, our earth transformed into a paradise, and all of mankind united +into one happy family."[5] Nor is the closing cry of his book without +an element of prophecy. He addresses the "mighty ones of this earth," +admonishing them that they may secure the fame of Alexander and +Napoleon by the deeds of emancipation which lie in their power. "But +if you compel us (the proletarians) to undertake the task alone with +our raw material, then it will be accomplished only after weary toil +and pain to us and to you." + +Let us turn to Robert Owen, who was at an early age the most +successful cotton spinner in England. He adapted an old philosophy to +a new humanitarianism. He saw that a "gradual increase in the number +of our paupers has accompanied our increasing wealth."[6] He began the +series of experiments which made his name familiar in England and +America and made him known in history as the greatest experimental +communist. His experiments have failed. But his hopefulness persists. +In his address delivered at the dedication of New Lanark, 1816, he +said that he had found plenty of unhappiness and plenty of misery. +"But from this day a change must take place; a new era must commence; +the human intellect, through the whole extent of the earth, hitherto +enveloped by the grossest ignorance and superstition, must begin to be +released from its state of darkness; nor shall nourishment henceforth +be given to the seeds of disunion and division among men. For the time +has come when the means may be prepared to train all the nations of +the world in that knowledge which shall _impel them not only to love +but to be actively kind to each other in the whole of their conduct, +without a single exception_." + +Here is an all-inclusive hopefulness. Its significance is not +diminished by the fact that it was spoken of his own peculiar remedy +by education and environment. + +This faith and hope runs through all their books like a golden song. +Excepting Marx, he was the great gloomy one. Even those who condemn +modern society with the most scathing adjectives link with their +denunciations the most sanguine sentences of hope. + +The Christian Socialism of Kingsley is filled with optimism. "Look up, +my brother Christians, open your eyes, the hour of a new crusade has +struck."[7] + +The song of the new crusade was sung by Robert Morris: + + "Come, shoulder to shoulder ere the world grows older! + Help lies in naught but thee and me; + Hope is before us, the long years that bore us, + Bore leaders more than men may be. + + "Let dead hearts tarry and trade and marry, + And trembling nurse their dreams of mirth, + While we, the living, our lives are giving + To bring the bright new world to birth." + +This song of hope is sung to-day by thousands of marching Socialists. +Their bitter experiences in parliaments and in strikes, and all the +warfare of politics and trade, have not blighted their rosy hope. They +are still looking forward to "the bright new world," in which a new +social order shall reign. + +Linked with this optimism is a certain prophetic tone, an elevation of +spirit that lifts some of their books out of the commonplace. The +sincerity of these prophets of Socialism contributes this quality more +than does their originality of mind. + +In their search for happiness the Socialists see a great barrier in +their way. The barrier is want, poverty. There are no greater +contrasts, mental and temperamental, than between John Stuart Mill, +the erudite economist and philosopher, and H.G. Wells, the romancer +and sentimental critic of things as they are. Both begin their attacks +upon the social order at the same point--the vulnerable spot, +_poverty_. Mill places it first in his category of existing evils. He +asks, "What proportion of the population in the most civilized +countries of Europe enjoy, in their own person, anything worth naming +of the benefits of property?" "Suffice it to say that the condition of +numbers in civilized Europe, and even in England and France, is more +wretched than that of most tribes of savages who are known to us."[8] + +Wells bases his racy criticism in his popular book, _New Worlds for +Old_, on the facts revealed in the reports of various charity +organizations in Edinburgh, York, and London. To both the exacting +economist and the popular expositor of Socialism, poverty is the +glaring fault of our social system. To Wells poverty is an "atrocious +failure in statesmanship."[9] To Mill it is "_pro tanto_ a failure of +the social arrangement."[10] + +These examples are typical. Every school of Socialism finds in poverty +the curse, in private property the cause, of human misery, and in a +readjusted machinery of social production the hope of human +betterment. + +All Socialists, learned and unlearned, agree that poverty is the +stumbling-block in the pathway to better social conditions. They all +agree as to the causes of poverty: first, private capitalistic +production; second, competition. It is private capitalistic production +that enables the employer to pocket all the profits; it is competition +that enables him to buy labor in an open market at the lowest possible +price, a price regulated by the necessities of bare existence. To the +Socialist, competition is anarchy, an anarchy that leaves "every man +free to ruin himself so that he may ruin another."[11] + +To do away with private capital and to abolish competition means +bringing about a tremendous change in society. All Socialists +unhesitatingly and with boldness are ready, even eager, to make such a +change. The problem is not insuperable to them. + +The three theories that underlie Socialism permit the hope of the +possibility of a social regeneration. These theories are, first, that +God made the world good, hence all you need to do is to revert to this +pristine goodness and the world is reformed. Second, that society is +what it is through evolution. If this is true then it is only +necessary to control by environment the factors of evolution and the +product will be preordained. Third, that even if man is bad and has +permitted pernicious institutions like private property to exist, he +can remake society by a bold effort, i.e., by revolution, because all +social power is vested in man and he can do as he likes. The ruling +class can impose its social order upon all. When the Socialist becomes +the ruling class his social system will be adopted. + +This great change which the Socialist has in mind means the +substitution of co-operation for competition and the placing of +productive property in the care of the state or of society, instead +of letting it remain under the domination of individuals. To abolish +private productive capital by making it public, to establish a +communistic instead of a competitive society, that is the object. + +In the Socialist's new order of society, where poverty will be +unknown, there is to be a common bond. This bond is not possession, +but work. With glowing exultation all the expositors and exhorters of +the proletarian movement dwell upon the blessedness of toil. They +glorify man, not through his inheritance of personality, certainly not +through his possession of things, but through his achievements of +toil. + +When all members of society work at useful occupations, then all the +necessary things can be done in a few hours. Six or four, or some even +say two, hours a day will be sufficient to do all the drudgery and the +essential things in a well-organized human beehive. There is to be +nothing morose or despondent in this toil. It is all to be done to the +melody of good cheer and willingness. + +How is this great change to come about, and what is to be the exact +organization of society under this regime of work and co-operation? +Here unanimity ceases. As a criticism Socialism is unanimous, as a +method it is divided, as a reconstructive process it is hopelessly at +sea. + +At first Socialists were utopians, then they became revolutionists. +This was natural. Socialism was born in an air of revolution--the +political revolutions of the bourgeois, and the infinitely greater +industrial revolution. The tides of change and passion were rocking +the foundations of state and industry. The evils in early +industrialism were abhorrent. Small children and their mothers were +forced into factories, pauperism was thriving, the ugly machine-fed +towns were replacing the quaint and cheerful villages, rulers were +forgetting their duties in their greed for gain, and the state was +persecuting men for their political and economic opinions. Every face +was turned against the preachers of the new order, and they naturally +thought that the change could be brought about only by violence and +revolution. Louis Blanc said "a social revolution ought to be tried: + +"Firstly, because the present social system is too full of iniquity, +misery, and turpitude to exist much longer. + +"Secondly, because there is no one who is not interested, whatever his +position, rank, and fortune, in the inauguration of a new social +system. + +"Thirdly, and lastly, because this revolution, so necessary, is +possible, even easy to accomplish peacefully."[12] + +These are the naïve words of a young man of thirty-seven, the youngest +member of the ill-fated revolutionary government of France in 1848. +Not every one thought that the revolution could be peacefully +accomplished, and, it must be admitted, few seemed to care. + +In their "Communist Manifesto," the most noted of all Socialist +broadsides, Marx and Engels know of no peaceful revolution. They close +with these virile words: "The communists disdain to conceal their +views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained +only by the forcible overthrow of all existing conditions. Let the +ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians +have nothing to lose but their chains. They have the world to win. +Workingmen of all countries, unite!" + +These words are often quoted even in these placid days of evolution +that have replaced the red days of violence. The workingmen of all +countries are uniting, as we shall see, not for bloody revolution nor +for the violence of passion, but for the promulgation of peace. To-day +the silent coercion of multitudes is taking the place of the eruptive +methods of the '40's and the '70's. + +As to the ultimate form of organized society, there is nothing but +confusion to be found in the mass of literature that has grown up +around the subject. The earliest writers were cocksure of themselves; +the latest ones bridge over the question with wide-arching +generalities. I have asked many of their leaders to give me some hint +as to what form their Society of To-morrow will take. Every one +dodged. "No one can tell. It will be humanitarian and co-operative." + +If one could be assured of this! + +Finally, all Socialists agree in the instrument of change. It lies at +hand as the greatest co-operative achievement of our race, the state. +It is the common possession of all, and it is the one power that can +lay its hands upon property and compel its obedience. The power of the +state is to be the dynamo of change. This state is naturally to be +democratic. The people shall hold the reins of power in their own +hands. + +It must be remembered that every year sees a shifting in the +Socialist's attitude. As he has left the sphere of mere fault-finding +and of dreaming, and has entered politics, entered the labor war +through unions, and the business war through co-operative societies, +he has been compelled to adapt himself to the necessities of things as +they are. + +I have tried briefly to show that Socialism originated as a class +movement, a proletarian movement; that the classes, wage-earner and +capitalist, are the natural outcome of machine production; that +Socialism is one of the natural products of the antagonistic relations +that these two classes at present occupy; that Socialism intends to +eliminate this antagonism by eliminating the private employer. I have +tried to show also that Socialism is a criticism of the present social +order placing the blame for the miseries of society upon the shoulders +of private property and competition; that it is optimistic in spirit, +buoyant in hope; and that its program of reconstruction is confused +and immature. + +Stripped of its glamour, our society is in a neck-to-neck race for +things, for property. Its hideousness has shocked the sensibilities of +dreamers and humanitarians. Our machine industry has produced a +civilization that is ugly. It is natural that the esthetic and +philanthropic members of this society should raise their protest. +Ruskin and Anatole France and Maeterlinck and Carlyle and Robert +Morris and Emerson and Grierson are read with increasing satisfaction. +It is natural that the participants in this death race should utter +their cries of alternate despair and hope. Socialism is the cry of the +toiler. It is not to be ignored. We in America have no conception of +its potency. There are millions of hearts in Europe hanging upon its +precepts for the hope that makes life worth the fight. + +Their Utopia may be only a rainbow, a mirage in the mists on the +horizon. But the energy which it has inspired is a reality. It has +organized the largest body of human beings that the world has known. +Its international Socialist movement has but one rival for homogeneity +and zeal, the Church, whose organization at one time embraced all +kingdoms and enlisted the faithful service of princes and paupers. + +It is this reality in its political form which I hope to set forth in +the following pages. We will try to discover what the Socialist +movement is doing in politics, how much of theory has been merged in +political practice, what its everyday parliamentary drudgery is, and, +if possible, to tell in what direction the movement is tending. + +Before we do this it is necessary to state briefly the history of the +underlying theories of the movement. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners +of the means of social production, and employers of wage-labor. By +proletariat, the class of modern wage-laborers, who, having no means +of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power +in order to live."--FREDERICK ENGELS, _Notes on the Communist +Manifesto_, 1888. + +[2] See SOMBART, _Socialism and the Social Movement_, Introduction, +for discussion of the class movement. + +[3] _The Socialist Movement_, p. 147. + +[4] The all-embracing character of Socialism was eloquently phrased by +Millerand in 1896: "In its large synthesis Socialism embraces every +manifestation of life, because nothing human is alien to it, because +it alone offers to-day to our hunger for justice and happiness an +ideal, purely human and apart from all dogma." See ENSOR, _Modern +Socialism_, p. 53. + +[5] _Garantieen der Harmonie und Freiheit_, pp. 57-58, edition of +1845. + +[6] Letter I, addressed to David Ricardo. + +[7] Tract No. IV. + +[8] _Socialism_, pp. 71-72. + +[9] WELLS, _New Worlds for Old_, p. 36. + +[10] MILL, _Socialism_, p. 72. + +[11] LOUIS BLANC, _The Right to Labor_, p. 63. + +[12] _Organization of Labor_, p. 87, 1847. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALISM + + +I + +Socialism began in France, that yeast-pot of civilization. It began +while the Revolution was still filling men's minds with a turbulent +optimism that knew no limit to human "progress." + +Saint-Simon (Count Henri de) may be considered the founder of French +Socialism. He was of noble lineage, born in 1760, and died in 1825. He +took very little part in the French Revolution, but was a soldier in +our Continental army, and always manifested a keen interest in +American affairs. Possessed of an inquiring mind, an ambitious spirit, +and a heart full of sympathy for the oppressed, he devoted himself to +the study of society for the purpose of elaborating a scheme for +universal human betterment. + +Before he began his special studies he amassed a modest fortune in +land speculation. Not that he loved money, he assures us, but because +he wished independence and leisure to do his chosen work. This money +was soon lost, through unfortunate experiments and an unfortunate +marriage, and the most of his days were spent in penury. + +He attracted to himself a number of the most brilliant young men in +France, among them De Lesseps who subsequently carried out one of the +plans of his master, the Suez Canal; and Auguste Comte, who embodied +in his positivism the philosophical teachings of Saint-Simon. + +Saint-Simon believed that society needed to be entirely reorganized on +a "scientific basis," and that "the whole of society ought to labor +for the amelioration of the moral and physical condition of the +poorest class. Society ought to organize itself in the manner the most +suitable for the attainment of this great end."[1] + +The two counteracting motives or spirits in society are the spirit of +antagonism and the spirit of association. Hitherto the spirit of +antagonism has prevailed, and misery has resulted. Let the spirit of +association rule, and the evils will vanish. + +Under the rule of antagonism, property has become the possession of +the few, poverty and misery the lot of the many. Both property and +poverty are inherited, therefore the state should abolish all laws of +inheritance, take all property under its dominion, and let society be +the sole proprietor of the instruments of labor and of the fund that +labor creates. + +Through the teachings of Saint-Simon runs a constant stream of +religious fervor. In Christianity he found the moral doctrine that +gave sanction to his social views. He sought the primitive +Christianity, stripped of the dogmas and opinions of the centuries. In +his principal work, _Nouveau Christianisme_ (New Christianity), he +subjects the teachings of Catholicism and Protestantism to ingenious +criticism, and finds in the teachings of Christ the essential moral +elements necessary for a society based on the spirit of association. + +Saint-Simon was a humanitarian rather than a systematic thinker. His +analysis of society is ingenious rather than constructive. His +teachings were elaborated by his followers, who organized themselves +into a school called the "Sacred College of the Apostles," with Bazard +and Enfantin as their leaders. They were accused, in the Chamber of +Deputies, of promulgating communism of property and wives. Their +defense, dated October, 1830, and issued as a booklet, is the best +exposition of their views. They said that: "We demand that land, +capital, and all the instruments of labor shall become common +property, and be so managed that each one's portion shall correspond +to his capacity, and his reward to his labors." "Like the early +Christians, we demand that one man should be united to one woman, but +we teach that the wife should be the equal of the husband." + +On the question of marriage, however, the sect split soon after this +defense was written. Enfantin became a defender of free love, and +inaugurated a fantastic sacerdotalism which drove Bazard from the +"Sacred College."[2] + +The second French social philosopher of the Utopian school was +François Marie Charles Fourier (1772-1837). He was a bourgeois, son of +a draper, and brought as keen an intellect as did his noble +fellow-countryman, Saint-Simon, to the analysis of society, and a much +more practical experience. In his youth he had been employed in +various business enterprises. He recalls, in his works, several +experiences which he never forgot. As a lad, he was reproached for +telling a prospective customer the truth about some goods in his +father's shop. When a young man of twenty-seven he was sent to +Marseilles to superintend the destruction of great cargoes of rice +that had been held for higher prices, during a period of scarcity of +food when thousands of people were suffering from hunger. The rice had +spoiled in the waiting. The event made so profound an impression upon +his mind that he resolved to devote his life to the betterment of an +economic system that allowed such wanton waste. + +To his mind the problem of rebuilding society was practical, not +metaphysical. But underlying his practical solution was a fantastic +cosmogony and psychology. He reduced everything to a mathematical +system, and even computed the number of years the world would spin on +its axis. He believed that God created a good world, and that man has +desecrated it; that the function of the social reformer is to +understand the design of the Creator, and call mankind back to this +original plan, back to the original impulses and passions, and +primitive goodness. + +This could be done only under ideal environment. Such an environment +he proposed to create in huge caravansaries, which he called +phalansteries. Each group, or phalange, was composed of 400 families, +or 1,800 persons, living on a large square of land, where they could +be self-contained and self-sufficient, like the manors in the feudal +days. The phalanstery was built in the middle of the tract, and was +merely a glorified apartment house. Every one chose to do the work he +liked best. Agriculture and manufacture were to be happily blended, +and individual freedom given full sway. Each phalange was designed to +be an ideal democracy, electing its officers and governing itself. The +principle of freedom was to extend even to marriage and the relation +of the sexes. + +It was Fourier's belief that one such phalange once established would +so impress the world with its superiority that society would be glad +to imitate it. Ere long there would be groups of phalanges +co-operating with each other, and ultimately the whole world would be +brought into one vast federation of phalanges, with their chief center +at Constantinople. + +The general plan of this apartment-house utopia lent itself to all +sorts of fantastic details. It gained adherents among the learned, the +eager, and even the rich, and a number of experiments were tried. All +of these have failed, I think, excepting only the community at Guise, +founded by Jean Godin. Here, however, the fantasies have been +eliminated, and the strong controlling force of the founder has made +it prosperous. There is no agriculture connected with the Guise +establishment. + +A number of Fourier colonies, most of them modifications of his +phalanstery idea, were started in the United States. Of thirty-four +such experiments tried in America all have failed. The most famous of +these attempts was Brook Farm.[3] + +Robert Owen (1771-1858) was the great English utopian. He was the son +of a small trader. Such was his business ability and tenacity of +character that at nineteen years of age he was superintendent of a +cotton mill that employed 500 hands. His business acumen soon made him +rich, his philanthropic impulses led him to study the conditions of +the people who worked for him. In 1800 he took charge of the mills at +New Lanark. There he had under him as pitiful and miserable a group of +workmen as can be imagined. The factory system made wretchedness the +common lot of the English workingman of this period. The hours of +labor were intolerably long, the homes of the working people +unutterably squalid, women and tiny children worked all day under the +most unwholesome conditions; vice, drunkenness, and ignorance were +everywhere. + +Owen began as a practical philanthropist. He improved the sanitary +conditions of his mills and town, was the first employer to reasonably +shorten the hours of work, founded primary schools, proposed factory +legislation, and founded the co-operative movement that has grown to +great strength in England. He was one of the powerful men of the +island at this period. He had the enthusiastic support of the queen, +of many nobles, of clergy and scholars. But in a great public meeting +in London he went out of his way to denounce the accepted forms of +religion and declare his independence of all creeds, an offense that +the English people never forgive. + +By this time he had perfected his scheme for social reform. He +proposed to establish communities of 1,000 to 1,200 persons on about +1,500 acres of land. They were to live in an enormous building in the +form of a square, each family to have its own apartments, but kitchen +and dining-room to be in common. Every advantage of work, education, +and leisure was planned for the inmates. + +A number of Owenite communities were founded in England and America. +The one at New Harmony, Ind., was the most pretentious, and in it Owen +sank a large portion of his fortune. None of the experiments survived +their founder.[4] + +The Utopians were all optimists--the source of their optimism was the +social philosophy that prevailed from the French Revolution to the +middle of the last century. It was the philosophy of an unbounded +faith in the goodness of human nature. A good God made a good world, +and made man capable of attaining goodness and harmony in all his +relations. The evil in the world was contrary to God's plan. It was +introduced by the perversity of society. The source of misery is the +lack of knowledge. If humankind knew the right way of living, knew the +original plan of the Creator, then there would be no misery. You must +find this knowledge, this science, and upon it build society. Hence +they are all seeking a "scientific state of society," and call their +system "scientific." From Rousseau to Hegel, the theory prevailed that +evil is collective, good is individual; society is bad, man is pure. + +Cabet expresses it clearly. "God is perfection, infinite, +all-powerful, is justice and goodness. God is our father, and it +follows that all men are brethren and all are equal, as in one +all-embracing family." "It is evident that, to the fathers of the +Church, Christianity was communism. Communism is nothing other than +true Christianity...." "The regnancy of God, through Jesus, is the +regnancy of perfection, of omniscience, of justice, of goodness, of +paternal love; and, it follows, of fraternity, equality, and liberty; +of the unity of community interests, that is of communism (of the +general common welfare), in place of the individual."[5] + +This edenesque logic was dear to Fourier, who left more profound +traces on modern thought than the fantastic Saint-Simonians.[6] + +Fourier began with God. "On beholding this mechanism (the world and +human society), or even in making an estimate of its properties, it +will be comprehended that God has done well all that He has done."[7] +Man has only to find "God's design" in order to find the true basis of +society; and man's system of industrially parceling out the good +things of life among a few favored ones, is the "antipodes of God's +design." The finding of this design is the function of "exact +science"; man, who has stifled the voice of nature, must now +"vindicate the Creator."[8] + +Saint-Simon's whole system rests on this principle: "God has said that +men ought to act toward each other as brethren." This principle will +regulate society, for "in accordance with this principle, which God +has given to men for the rule of their conduct, they ought to organize +society in the manner the most advantageous to the greatest +number."[9] + +The social philosophers at the end of the eighteenth century did not +believe that this rightness should be brought about by violence. "What +I should desire," says Godwin, "is not by violence to change its +institutions, but by discussion to change its ideas. I have no +concern, if I would study merely the public good, with factions or +intrigue; but simply to promulgate the truth, and to wait the tranquil +progress of conviction. Let us anxiously refrain from violence."[10] + +Owen, who lived a few decades later, came into contact with the +theories of the succeeding school of thought. His utopianism remained, +however, upon the older basis. He taught that the evils of society +were not inherent in the nature of mankind. The natural state of the +world and of man was good. But the evils "are all the necessary +consequences of ignorance." Therefore, by education and environment he +could "accomplish with ease and certainty the Herculean labor of +forming a rational character in man, and that, too, chiefly before the +child commences the ordinary course of education."[11] + +The Utopians are hopefully seeking the universal law which will +re-form society. This was a natural view of things fundamental, to be +taken by men who had witnessed the political emancipation of the Third +Estate and had seen "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" carved over every +public portal in France, and the abstract principles of justice +debated in parliaments. A feeling of naïve simplicity runs through all +their writings. Just as civil liberty, they believed, had come by the +application of an abstract principle of natural law, so social and +economic freedom would come by the application of one universal +abstract principle of human conduct. From this simplicity came a +violent reaction, which reached its climax in the anarchy of +Proudhon. + + +II + +The Utopian period of Socialism may be said to end, and the +revolutionary era to begin, with the year 1830. The French Revolution +was a bourgeois uprising. But behind it was the grim and resolute +background of the proletarian mass. When the Third Estate achieved its +victory, it proceeded to monopolize the governmental powers to the +exclusion of its lowly allies. From 1830 to 1850 the ferment of +democratic discontent spread over Europe and forced the demands of the +workingman into the foreground. The first outbreak occurred in France, +in 1831, when the workingmen of Lyons, during a period of distressing +financial depression, marched under the banner, "Live working, or die +fighting," demanding bread for their families and work for themselves. +This second chapter of the development of Socialism begins with a red +letter. + +Louis Blanc (1813-82), the first philosopher of the new movement, +struck out boldly for a democratic organization of the government. +This differentiates him from Fourier and Saint-Simon, and links him +with the leading Socialist writers of our day. He published his +_Organisation du Travail_ (Organization of Labor) in 1839. It +immediately gave him an immense popularity with the working classes. +It is a brilliant book, as fascinating in its phrases as it is +forceful in its denunciation of existing society. + +He said that it is vain to talk of improving mankind morally without +improving them materially. This improvement would not come from +above, from the higher classes. It would come from below, from the +working people themselves. Therefore, a prerequisite of social reform +was democracy. The proletarian must possess the power of the state in +order to emancipate himself from the economic bondage that holds him +in its grasp. + +This democratic state should then establish national workshops, or +associations, which he called "social workshops," the capital to be +provided by the state and the state to supervise their operation. He +believed that, once established, they would soon become +self-supporting and self-governing. The men would choose their own +managers, dispose of their own profits, and take care that this +beneficent system would spread to all communities. + +He was careful to explain that "genius should assert its legitimate +empire"--there must be a hierarchy of ability. + +Louis Blanc believed in revolution as the method of social +advancement. He was himself a leader in the abortive revolution of +1848, the revolt of the people against a weak and careless monarch. As +a member of the provisional government, he may be called the first +Socialist to hold cabinet honors. And, like his successors in modern +cabinets, he accomplished very little towards the bringing in of a new +social order. It is true that national workshops were built by the +French government at his suggestion; but not according to his plans. +His enemies saw to it that they served to bring discredit rather than +honor to the system which he had so carefully elaborated.[12] + +Louis Blanc did not entirely free himself of the earlier utopian +conception that man was created good and innocent. He blames society +for allowing the individual to do evil. But he does take a step toward +the Marxian materialistic conception when he affirms that man was +created with certain endowments of strength and intellect and that +these endowments should be spent in the welfare of society. The empire +of service, not the "empire of tribute," should be the measure of +man's greatness. + +The doctrine of revolt was carried to its logical extreme by Proudhon +(1809-65). He was the son of a cooper and a peasant maid, and he never +forgot that he sprang from the proletariat. He was a precocious lad, +was a theologian, philologist, and linguist before he undertook the +study of political economy. In 1840 he brought out his notable work, +_Qu'est-ce que la Propriété?_ (What Is Property?), a novel question +for that day, to which he gave an amazing answer, "Property is theft," +ergo "property holders are thieves." + +Proudhon was a man with the brain of a savant and the adjectives of a +peasant. His startling phrases, however, are merely spotlights thrown +on a theory of society which he permeated with a genuine good will. He +was puritanic in moral principle, loyal to his friends, and a despiser +of cant and formalism. But his love for paradoxes carried him beyond +the confines of logic. + +Property is theft, he says, because it reaps without sowing and +consumes without producing. What right has a capitalist to charge me +eight per cent.? None. This eight per cent. does not represent +anything of time or labor value put into the article I am buying. It +is therefore robbery. Private property, the stronghold of the +individualist, is then to be abolished and a universal communism +established? By no means. Communism is as unnatural as property. +Proudhon had only contempt for the phalanstery and national workshop +of his predecessors. They were impossible, artificial, reduced life to +a monotonous dead level, and encouraged immorality. Property is wrong +because it is the exploitation of the weak by the strong; communism is +equally wrong because it is the exploitation of the strong by the +weak. To this ingenious juggler of paradoxes this was by no means a +dilemma. He resorted to a formula that was later amplified into the +most potent argument of Socialism by Marx. Service pays service, one +day's work balances another day's work, time-labor is the just measure +of value. Hour for hour, day for day, this should be the universal +medium of exchange. + +Proudhon was really directing his attacks against rent and profit +rather than against property. He proposed, as a measure of reform, a +national bank where every one could bring the product of his toil and +receive a paper in exchange denoting the time value of his article. +These slips of paper were to be the medium of exchange capable of +purchasing equal time values. This glorified savage barter he even +proposed to the Constituent Assembly, of which he was a member, and +when it was rejected--only two votes were recorded for it--he tried to +establish it upon private foundations. He failed to raise the +necessary capital and his plan failed. + +Proudhon is the father of modern Anarchy. His exaltation of +individualism led him to the suppression of government. Government, he +taught, is merely the dominance of one man over another, a form of +intolerable oppression. "The highest perfection of society is found in +the union of order and anarchy." + +For his bitter tirades against property he received the scorn of the +bourgeois, for his attacks upon the government he served three years +in prison, and some years later he escaped a second term for a similar +cause by fleeing to Brussels. + +The ultimate outcome of his individualism was equality, which he +achieved in economics by his theory of time-labor and in politics by +his theory of anarchy. + +One cannot escape the conviction that the outcome of all his brilliant +rhetorical legerdemain is man in a cage. Not man originally pure and +good as the utopians would have him, but man wilful, egoistic, capable +of enslaving his fellows, a very different being from the man of mercy +and love crushed by the collective injustice of society. Proudhon +frees this man from his oppressor and his oppressiveness by creating a +condition of equality through the destruction of property and of +government. But in destroying property he retains possessions, and in +establishing anarchy he maintains order. "Free association, +liberty--whose sole function is to maintain equality--in the means of +production, and equivalence in exchanges, is the only possible, the +only just, the only true form of society." + +"The government of man by man (under whatever name it be disguised) is +oppression. Society finds its highest perfection in the union of order +and anarchy."[13] + +Proudhon has had a large influence on modern Socialism. His trenchant +invectives against property and society are widely copied. From his +utterances on government the Syndicalists of France, Italy, and Spain +have drawn their doctrine. The general strike is the child of his +paradoxes. He wrote as the motto for his most influential book, _What +Is Property?_, "Destruam et aedificabo" (I will destroy and I will +build again). But, while he pointed the way to destruction, he failed +to reveal a new and better order. + +The way to modern Socialism was paved in Germany. The teaching of +Hegel cleared the way for the political unrest that spread over Europe +in the '40's. Hegel was the proclaimer of the social revolution. He +gave sanction to the tenets of destruction. Everything that exists is +worth destroying, may be taken as the primary postulate at which the +Young Hegelians arrived. Truth does not exist merely in a collection +of institutions or dogmatic axioms that could be memorized like the +alphabet; truth is in the process of being, of knowing, it has +developed through the toilsome evolution of the race, it is found only +in experience. Nothing is sacred merely because it exists. Existing +institutions are only the prelude to other and better institutions +that are to follow. This was roughly the formula that the radical +Hegelians blocked out for themselves when they split from the orthodox +conservatives in the '30's. + +In 1843 appeared Feuerbach's _Wesen des Christentums_ (Essence of +Christianity), putting the seal of materialism upon the precepts of +the Young Hegelians.[14] The God of the utopians was destroyed. +Things were not created in harmony and beauty and disordered by man. +Things as they are, are the result of evolution, of growth; nothing +was created as it is, and even "Religion is the dream of the human +mind."[15] + +Out of this atmosphere of philosophical, religious, and political +rebellion sprang the prophet of modern Socialism, Karl Marx,[16] a man +whose intellectual endowments place him in the first ranks among +Socialists and link his name with other bold intellects of his age who +have forced the current of human thought. There have been many books +written on Marx, and every phase of his theories has been subjected to +academic and popular scrutiny. His treatise, _Capital_, is the +sacerdotal book of Socialists. It displays a mass of learning, a +diligence of research, and acumen in the marshaling of ideas, and a +completeness of literary expression that insures it a lasting place in +the literature of social philosophy. Whatever may be said of the +narrow dogmatism, of Marx, of his persistence in making the facts fit +his preconceived notions, of his materialistic conception of history, +or of the technical flaws in his political economy, he will always be +quoted as the founder of modern scientific Socialism and the Socialist +historian of the capitalistic régime. + +I must content myself with a bare statement of his theories. + +The economic basis of Marx is his well-known "Theory of Surplus +Value." It was not his theory in the sense that he originated it. +Economists like Adam Smith and especially Ricardo, Socialists like the +Owenites and the Chartists in England, and Proudhon in France, had +enunciated it; and in Germany Rodbertus, a lawyer and scholar of great +learning, had elaborated it in his first book, published in 1842. +Marx, with German thoroughness, developed this theory in all its +ramifications. + +All economic goods, he said, have value. They have a physical value, +and a value given them by the labor expended on them. Labor is the +common factor of economic values. And the common denominator is the +time that is consumed by the labor. Labor-time, therefore, is the +universal measure of value, the common medium that determines values. +But this labor is acquired in the open labor market by the capitalist +at the lowest possible price, a price whose utmost limit is the bare +cost of living. The reward for his labor is called a wage. This wage +does not by any means measure the value of his services. What, then, +becomes of the "surplus value," the value over and above wages? The +capitalist appropriates it. Indeed, the great aim of the capitalist is +to make this surplus value as big as possible. He measures his success +by his profits. + +"Surplus value," or profit, is, then, a species of robbery; it is +ill-gotten gain, withholding from the workman that which by right of +toil is his. + +How did it come about that society was so organized as to permit this +wholesale wrong upon the largest and most defenseless of its classes? +It is in answer to this question that Marx makes his most notable +contribution to Socialistic theory. With great skill, and displaying a +comprehensive knowledge of economic history, especially of English +industrial history, he traces the development of modern industrial +society. He follows the evolution of capital from the days of medieval +paternalism through the period of commercial expansion when the +voyages of discovery opened virgin fields of wealth to the trader, +into the period of inventions when the industrial revolution changed +the conditions of all classes and gave a sudden and princely power to +capital, establishing the reign of "capitalistic production." + +Always it was the man with capital who could take advantage of every +new commercial and industrial opportunity, and the man without capital +who was forced to succumb to the stress of new and cruel +circumstances. In every stage of development it has been the constant +aim of the capitalist to increase his profits and of the workingman to +raise his standard of living. + +Marx then declares that, in order to have a capitalist society, two +classes are necessary: a capitalist and a non-capitalist class; a +class that dominates, and one that succumbs. There have always been +these two classes. Originally labor was slave, then it was serf, and +now it is free. But free labor to-day differs from serf-labor and +slave-labor only in that it has a legal right to contract. The +economic results are the same as they always have been: the capitalist +still appropriates the surplus value. + +The method of production, however, is very different in our +capitalistic era from the earlier eras. The industrial system herds +the workmen into factories. Property and labor is no longer +individualistic; it is social, it is corporate. Marx calls it "social +production and capitalistic appropriation." Here is the eternal +antagonism between the classes, the large class of laborers and the +small class of the "appropriators" of their common toil. + +These factories, where labor is herded, spring up willy-nilly wherever +there is a capitalist who desires to enter business. They flood the +markets, not by mutual consent or regulation, but by individual +ambitions. Each capitalist is ruled by self-interest; and +self-interest impels him to make as many goods as he can and sell them +at as big a profit as he can. Result, economic anarchy, called +"over-production" or "under-consumption" by the economists. This leads +to panics and all their attendant woes--woes that are further heaped +upon the proletarian by the fact that he must compete with machinery, +which, being more and more perfected, forces him out of the labor +market into the street. + +These crises have the tendency to concentrate industry in fewer and +fewer hands; the weaker capitalist must succumb to the inevitable laws +of struggle and survival. The survivors fatten on the corpses of their +fallen competitors. Thus the factories grow larger and larger, the +number of capitalists fewer and fewer; the number of proletarian +dependents multiplies; the middle class is crushed out of existence; +the rich become richer and fewer, the poor more numerous and poorer. + +In this turmoil of social production, capitalistic appropriation, and +anarchic distribution, there is discernible a reshaping of social +potencies. The proletarian realizes the power of the state and sees +how he may possess himself of that power and thereby gain control of +the economic forces and reshape them to fit the needs of a better +society. This will mean the appropriation of the means of production +and distribution by society. Private capital will vanish; surplus +values will belong to the people who created them; the people will be +master and servant, capitalist and laborer. + +This is the Socialistic stage of society. It will be the result of the +natural evolution of human industry. Its immediate coming will be the +result of a social revolution. This revolution, this social cataclysm, +is written in the nature of things. Man cannot prompt it, he cannot +prevent it. He can only study the trend of things and "alleviate the +birth-pangs" of the new time. + +Of this new time, this society of to-morrow, Marx gives us no glimpse. +His function is not to prophesy, but to analyze. He is the natural +historian of capital. He described the development of economic society +and sought to ascertain its trend. In the first chapter of _Capital_ +he says: "Let us imagine an association of free men, working with +common means of production, and putting forth, consciously, their +individual powers into one social labor power. The product of this +association of laborers is a social product. A portion of this product +serves in turn as a means of further production. It remains social +property. The rest of this product is consumed by the members of the +association as a means of living. It must consequently be distributed +among them. The nature of this distribution will vary according to the +particular nature of the organization of production and the +corresponding grade of historical development of the producers." + +This is the only mention of the future made by Marx. It is a dim and +uncertain ray of light cast upon a vast object. + +The formulæ of this epoch-making study may be summarized as follows: + +1. Labor gives value to all economic goods. The laboring class is the +producing class, but it is deprived of its just share of the products +of its labor by the capitalistic class, which appropriates the +"surplus value." + +2. This is possible because of the capitalistic method of production, +wherein private capital controls the processes of production and +distribution. + +3. This system of private capitalism is the result of a long and +laborious process of evolution, hastened precipitately by the +industrial revolution. + +4. This industrial age is characterized (a) by anarchy in distribution, +(b) private production, (c) the gradual disappearance of the middle +class, (d) the development of a two-class system--capitalist and +producer, (e) the rich growing richer and the poor growing poorer. + +5. This will not always continue. The producers are becoming fewer +each year. Presently they will become so powerful as to be +unendurable. Then society--the people--will appropriate private +capital and all production and distribution will be socialized. + +It is necessary to keep in mind the leading events in the life of this +remarkable man in order to understand the genesis of his theories. +Marx was born in Treves in 1818, of Jewish parentage. His mother was +of Dutch descent, his father was German. When the lad was six years of +age his parents embraced the Christian faith. His father was a +lawyer, but his ancestors for over two hundred years had been rabbis. +The home was one of culture, where English and French as well as +German literature and art were discussed by a circle of learned and +congenial friends. Marx studied at the universities of Bonn and +Berlin. He took his doctorate in the law to please his father, but +followed philosophy by natural bent, intending to become a university +professor. + +The turmoil of revolution was in the air and in his blood. There was +no curbing of his fiery temperament into the routine of scholastic +life. In 1842 he joined the staff of the _Rhenish Gazette_ at Cologne, +an organ of extreme radicalism. His drastic editorials prompted the +police to ask him to leave the country, and he went to Paris, where he +met Frederick Engels, who became his firm friend, partner of his +views, and sharer of his labors. The Prussian government demanded his +removal from Paris, and for a time he settled in Brussels. He returned +to Germany to participate in the revolution of 1848, and in 1849 he +was driven to London, where, immune from Prussian persecutions, he +made his home until his death, in 1883. + +In 1842 he married Jennie von Westphalen, a lady of refinement, +courage, and loyalty, whose family was prominent in Prussian politics. +Her brother was at one time a minister in the Prussian cabinet. + +Marx was an exile practically all his life, though he never gave up +his German citizenship. He never forgot this fact. He concluded his +preface to the first volume of _Capital_, written in 1873, with a +bitter allusion to the "mushroom upstarts of the new, holy Prussian +German Empire." He lived a life of heroic fortitude and struggle +against want and disease. + +From his infancy he had been taught to take a world view, an +international view, of human affairs. This gave him an immediate +advantage over all other Socialist writers of that day. At Bonn he was +caught in the current of heterodoxy that was then sweeping through the +universities. This carried him far into the fields of materialism, +whose philosophy of history he adopted and applied to the economic +development of the race. He received not alone his philosophy from the +"Young Hegelians," but his dialectics as well. It gave him a +philosophy of evil which, blending with his bitter personal +experiences, gave a melancholy bent to his reasoning, and revealed to +him the misericordia of class war, the struggle of abject poverty +contending with callous capital in a bloody social revolution. + +There are four points which gave Marx an immense influence over the +Socialistic movement. In the first place, he put the Socialistic +movement on a historical basis; he made it inevitable. Think what this +means, what hope and spirit it inspires in the bosom of the +workingman. But he did more than this: he made the proletarian the +instrument of destiny for the emancipation of the race from economic +thraldom. This was to be accomplished by class war and social +revolution. Marx imparts the zeal of fatalism to his Socialism when he +links it to the necessities of nature. By natural law a bourgeoisie +developed; by natural law it oppresses the proletarian; by natural +law, by the compulsion of inexorable processes, the proletarians alone +can attain their freedom. Capitalism becomes its own grave-digger. +Liebknecht said in his Erfurt speech (1891): "The capitalistic state +of the present begets against its will the state of the future." + +In the third place, Marx gave a formula to the Socialist movement. He +defined Socialism in one sentence: "The social ownership of the means +of production and distribution." This was necessary. From among the +vague and incoherent mass of utopian and revolutionary literature he +coined the sentence that could be repeated with gusto and the flavor +of scientific terminology. + +And finally, he refrained from detailing the new society. He laid down +no program except war, he pointed to no utopia except co-operation. +This offended no one and left Socialists of all schools free to +construct their own details. + +The Marxian system was no sooner enunciated than it was shown to be +fallible as an economic generalization; and the passing of several +decades has proved that the tendencies he deemed inevitable are not +taking place. The refutation of his theory of value by the Austrian +economist, Adolph Menger, is by economists considered complete and +final. The materialistic conception of history, which is the soul of +his work, lends itself more to the passion of a virile propaganda than +to a sober interpretation of the facts. Further, the two practical +results that flow from the use of his theory of surplus value and his +materialism--namely, the ever-increasing volume of poverty and the +ever-decreasing number of capitalists--are not borne out by the facts. +The number of capitalists is constantly increasing, in spite of the +development of enormous trusts; the middle class is constantly being +recruited from the lower class; there is no apparent realization of +the two-class system. And finally, the method by revolution is being +more and more discarded by Socialists, as they see that intolerable +conditions are being more and more alleviated, that "man's inhumanity +to man" is a constantly diminishing factor in the bitter struggle for +existence.[17] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _New Christianity_, p. 38, English edition, 1834. + +[2] Saint-Simon's principal writings are: _Lettres d'un Habitant de +Genève_, 1803; _L'Organisateur_, 1819; _Du Système Industriel_, 1821; +_Catéchisme des Industriels_, 1823; _Nouveau Christianisme_, 1825. See +A.J. BARTH, _Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism_, London, 1871; REYBAUD, +_Études sur les Réformateurs Modernes_, Paris, 1864; JANET, +_Saint-Simon et le Saint-Simonisme_, Paris, 1878. _New Christianity_ +was translated into English by Rev. J.E. Smith, London, 1834. + +[3] The best popular exposition of Fourierism is GATTI DE GAMMONT'S +_Fourier et Son Système_. His most eminent commentator is Victor +Considerant, whose _Destinée Sociale_ is the most complete analysis of +Fourier's System. + +[4] It is interesting to note that the word "Socialism" first became +current in the meetings of Owen's "Association of All Classes of All +Nations," organized by him in 1835. + +[5] _Le Vrai Christianisme_, Chap. XVIII, edition of 1846. + +[6] An apt selection from the works of Fourier has been made by Prof. +Charles Gide, prefaced by an illuminating Introduction on the life and +work of Fourier. An English translation by Julia Franklin appeared in +London, 1901. + +[7] _Le Nouveau Monde_, Vol. I, p. 26. + +[8] _Thème de l'Unité Universelle_, Vol. II, p. 128. + +[9] _New Christianity_, p. 2, English edition, 1834. + +[10] _Political Justice_, Vol. II, pp. 531, 537. + +[11] _Third Essay on a New View of Society_, pp. 65, 82. + +[12] See ÉMILE THOMAS, _History of the National Workshops_. + +[13] _What Is Property?_ Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 286. + +[14] In 1845 Marx made this note on the work of Feuerbach: "The point +of view of the old materialism is bourgeois society; the point of view +of the new materialism is human society or the unclassed humanity +(vergesellschaftete Menschheit). + +"Philosophers have only differently _interpreted_ the world, but the +point is to _alter_ the world." See FREDERICK ENGELS, _Ludwig +Feuerbach und der Ausgang der Klassischen Deutschen Philosophie_, +Stuttgart, 1903. + +[15] _Essence of Christianity_, Preface, p. xiii. + +[16] For a concise statement of the development of Marxian Socialism +out of the German philosophy of that period, see FREDERICK ENGELS, +_Die Entwickelung des Sozialismus von der Utopie zur Wissenschaft_, +Berlin, 1891. It is the third chapter out of his _Dühring, Umwälzung_. + +[17] For a criticism of the teachings of Marx, see SOMBART, _Socialism +and the Social Movement_, Chap. IV. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE POLITICAL AWAKENING OF SOCIALISM--THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION + + +From the point of view of our inquiry the most significant event in +the history of Socialism is its entrance into politics. This endows +the workingman with a new power and a great power; a power that will +bring him farther on his way toward the goal he seeks than any other +he possesses. Because the modern state is democratic, and the +democratic state bends in the direction of the mass. The revolutions +attempted in the middle of the last century are child's play compared +with the changes that can be wrought when constitutions and courts, +parliaments and administrative systems, become the instruments of a +determined, self-possessed, and united political consciousness. + +Scarcely half a century elapsed between the French utopians and the +time when the proletarians organized actual political parties, and +arrayed themselves against the older orders in the struggle for +political privilege. In the interval, revolution had its brief hour, +and reaction its days of waiting. + +The French Revolution was a necessary preliminary to the proletarian +movement. It was the most powerful instrument for the propagation of +those democratic ideas that were so attractively clothed by Rousseau +and so terribly distorted by the revolutionists. While this revolution +was a bourgeois movement, not a proletarian uprising, not a +revolution in the sense that Marx, for instance, uses the word, it +must not be forgotten that the proletarians were in the revolution. +The dark and sullen background of that tragedy was the mass of +unspeakably poor. They were not machine workers whose abjectness came +from factory conditions, like the workmen of England a few decades +later. They were proletarians without a class consciousness, but with +a class grievance; proletarians in the literal sense of the word, +poor, ragged, hungry, wretched. + +Such democracy as was achieved by the revolution was bourgeois. The +powers of monarchy were transferred from the "privileged" classes to +the middle class, who, in turn, became the privileged ones. The day of +middle-class government had come. The class that had financed the +fleets of adventurers to new and unexploited continents, and had +backed the inventions of Arkwright and Hargreaves, were now in power +in politics as well as in commerce and industry. A unity of purpose +between industry and statecraft was thus achieved; new ideals became +dominant. The patriarchal precepts of the feudal manors were +forgotten. The people were no longer children of a great household +with their king at the head. The king, when he was retained, was shorn +of his universal fatherhood, and remained a mere remnant of ermine and +velvet, a royal trader in social distinctions. + +While the old ideal, the feudal ideal, prevailed, governing was the +_duty_ of a class. The newer ideal made governing an incident in the +activities of a class whose dominating impulse was the making of +profits. These ideals are at polar points; one deals with things, the +other with men. + +The change in the form of government was wrought while the people were +talking about the glittering abstractions of equality, liberty, +justice, as if they were commodities to be exchanged in the political +markets. The newer form of government marked an advance on the older. +It represented a step forward in human political experience. A larger +group of citizens was drawn into the widening circle of governmental +activities. It was an inevitable step. The discovery of the New World +and the invention of machinery were making a new earth--an +unattractive earth, but nevertheless a new one. The balance of power +was shifting from hereditary privilege to commercial privilege, and +nations were fulfilling the law of human nature, that the power of the +state reposes in the hands of the dominant class. The dominant class +is actuated by its dominant idea. In the aristocratic class it is +politics, in the middle class it is trade. + +All this inevitably accentuated the proletarian's position in the +state. Under the older régime, as historians of our economic +development have clearly shown, the antagonisms and grievances were +fewer. The trader and the craftsman were overshadowed by the lord and +the bishop. Social, political, and economical values were distributed +by custom and imposed by heredity, rather than by individual effort or +individual capacity. When, therefore, this great change came over +society, a change that would have been unthinkable in the days of +Charlemagne or of Elizabeth,--a change that virtually destroyed the +most powerful of the classes and put human beings onto a basis of +competition rather than of birth, and shifted power from tradition to +effort, and transferred values from prerogatives to gold,--then the +whole class problem changed, and entirely new antagonisms were +created. + +The first movements of the new proletarians were mob movements. +Actuated more by a desire to revenge themselves than to better +themselves, they gather in the dark hours of the night and move +sullenly upon the factories, to destroy their enemies, the machines. +They pillage the buildings and threaten the house of their employer, +whom they consider the agent of their undoing. In France and Germany, +and especially in England, these infuriated workmen try to undo by +violence what has been achieved by invention. + +When their first fury is abated and they see new machinery taking the +place of that which they have destroyed, and new factories built on +the foundations of those they have burned, they see the impotence of +their actions. In England a new movement begins. They try to re-enact +the Elizabethan statute of laborers, to bring back the days of +handicrafts, of journeyman and apprentice. They soon learned that the +old era had vanished, never to return. The workingman possessed +neither the power nor the ingenuity to bring it back. He turned, next, +to possess himself of the machinery of the state. + +Political conditions paved the way. France, after her orgy, had fallen +back into absolutism. Germany and Austria had remained feudal in the +most distasteful sense of the word; the nobility retained their +ancient privileges and forsook their ancient duties. The landlord +class even retained jurisdiction over their tenants. The old industry +had been destroyed by Napoleon's campaigns; the new machine industry +did not establish itself until after the enactment of protective +tariffs and the creation "Zollverein," in 1818. This cemented the +bourgeois interests. Manufacturers, traders, and bankers achieved a +homogeneity of interest and ambition which was antagonistic to the +spirit of the _junker_ and the feudalist. The new bourgeoisie wanted +laws favorable to trade expansion. They needed the law-making +machinery to achieve this. By 1840 the upper middle class had become +feverish for political power. They imbibed the doctrines of the +literature of that period which preached a constitutional +republicanism. Hegel gave the weighty sanction of philosophy to the +overthrow of absolute monarchy. + +The great mass of the people were, of course, workingmen, small +traders, and shopkeepers, and the rural peasantry. The small trader +was dependent upon the favors of the ruling class on the one hand, and +of the banker and manufacturer on the other hand. When the interests +of these two clashed he was alarmed, for he could neither remain +neutral nor take sides. The peasants were abject subjects, little +better than serfs. The laboring men, as we shall see presently, were +achieving a mass consciousness. + +In Germany Frederick William, the Romantic, was face to face with +revolution. This was not an economic revolution. It was a political +revolution. It was joined by the communists and the Socialists. Marx +himself, was a leader in the revolt, and one of its most faithful +chroniclers. In 1844 the weavers of Silesia rose in revolt. There was +rioting and bloodshed. This was followed by bread riots in various +parts of Germany. In 1848 the whole country was in the turmoil of +revolution, a revolution led by the upper middle class, but prompted +and fired by the zeal of the proletarians, who, in some of the +cities, notably Berlin, became the leading factor in the uprising. +Marx says: "There was then no separate Republican party in Germany. +People were either constitutional monarchists or more or less clearly +defined Socialists or communists."[1] + +In Austria conditions were even more reactionary than in Germany. +Metternich, the powerful representative of the ancient order of +things, had a haughty contempt for the demands of the constitutional +party. With the hauteur of absolutism he not only retained political +power in the feudal class, but suppressed literature, censored +learning, and rigorously superintended religion. A greater power than +caste and tradition was slowly eating its way into this country, which +had attempted to isolate itself from the rest of the world. This was +the power of machine industry. It brought with it, as in every other +country, a new class, the manufacturers, who, as soon as their +business began to expand, sought favorable laws. This led them into +political activity, which, in turn, brought friction with the +feudalists. Both sides took to the field. The revolution broke in +Vienna, March 13, 1848, seventeen days after the revolutionists had +driven Louis Philippe out of Paris, and five days before the Prussian +king delivered himself into the hands of a Berlin mob. + +It was in France that the revolution assumed its most virulent +character. In Paris the revolution was "carried on between the mass of +the working people on the one hand and all the other classes of the +Parisian population, supported by the army, on the other."[2] This +Parisian proletarian uprising was the red signal of warning to Germany +and Austria. The bourgeois were now as anxious to rid themselves of +the Socialist contingent as they had been eager for its support when +they began their struggle for political power. Compromises between +feudalists and commercialists were effected, and a sort of +constitutionalism became the basis of the reconstructed governments. + +Of these revolutions Marx says: "In all cases the real fighting body +of the insurgents, that body which first took up arms and gave battle +to the troops, consisted of the working classes of the towns. A +portion of the poorer country population, laborers and petty farmers, +generally joined them after the outbreak of the conflict."[3] + +They were not merely bourgeois uprisings. The Parisian revolution was +virtually a proletarian rebellion. Here "the proletariat, because it +dictated the Republic to the provisional government, and through the +provisional government to the whole of France, stepped at once forth +as an independent, self-contained party; and it at once arrayed the +entire bourgeoisie of France against itself.... Marche, a workingman, +dictated a decree wherein the newly formed provincial government +pledged itself to secure the position of the workingman through work, +to do away with bourgeois labor, etc. And as they seemed to forget +this promise, a few days later 200,000 workingmen marched upon the +Hôtel de Ville with the battle-cry, 'Organization of labor! Create a +ministry of labor!' and after a prolonged debate the provisional +government named a permanent special commission for the purpose of +finding the means for bettering the conditions of the working +classes."[4] + +It is evident that Marx considered the revolutions of 1848-50 as a +compound of proletarian and bourgeois uprisings against _feudal_ +remnants in government. He is not always clear in his own mind as to +the direction of these movements. But we now know that the direction +was toward democracy. + +The French, or Parisian, uprising was more "advanced" than the other +Continental attempts. The Parisians had piled barricades before; they +were experienced in the bloody business. + +They tried again in 1871. This time the workingmen ruled Paris for two +months. It was a bloody, turbulent period. Marx characterized it as +"the glorious workingman's revolution of the 18th of March," and the +Commune "as a lever for uprooting the economical foundations upon +which rests the existence of classes, and therefore of class rule." +Its acts of violence he extolled, its burning of public buildings was +a "self-holocaust." This "workingman's Paris, with its Commune, will +be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society."[5] + +So the attempt to possess the state by revolution has been tried by +the proletarian. The revolutions were all abortive. The Socialists say +they were ill-timed. Writing in 1895, Frederick Engels, the companion +of Marx, could see these uprisings in a different perspective. He +acknowledged the mistake made by the Socialists in believing that they +could by violence somehow become the deciding factor in the +government, and therefore in the economic arrangement of society. +"History has shown us our error," he says. "Time has made it clear +that the status of economic development on the Continent was far from +ripe for the setting aside of the capitalistic régime."[6] + +These revolutions were not merely bourgeois, as is so often affirmed. +There was everywhere a large element of Socialistic unrest. They were +revolutions begun in the fever heat of youth--"Young Germany," "Young +Austria," "Young Italy," were moved by "Young Hegelians" and "Young +Communists." They embraced bourgeois tradesmen and proletarian +workingmen, who, in their new-found delirium, thought that with "the +overthrow of the reactionary governments, the kingdom of heaven would +be realized on earth."[7] "They had no idea," continues Kautsky, who +speaks on these questions with authority, "that the overthrow of these +governments would not be the end, but the beginning of revolutions; +that the newly won bourgeois freedom would be the battleground for +the great class war between proletarian and bourgeois; that liberty +did not bring social freedom, but social warfare." + +This is to-day the orthodox Socialist view. It believes that these +revolutions taught the proletarians the folly of ill-timed violence; +revealed to them their friends and their enemies; and, above all, gave +them a class consciousness. + +Let us turn, for a moment, to a proletarian movement of a somewhat +different type, the Chartist movement in England. The flame of +revolution that enveloped Europe crossed the Channel to England and +Ireland. But here revolution took a different course. In Ireland it +was the brilliant O'Connell's agitation against the Act of Union; in +England it was the workingman's protest against his exclusion from the +Reform Act of 1832, an act that itself had been born amidst the throes +of mob violence and incipient revolution. + +The Chartist movement was promulgated by the "Workingmen's +Association." It was a workingman's protest. Its organizers were +carpenters, its orators were tailors and blacksmiths and weavers, +surprising themselves and their audiences with their new-found +eloquence, and its writers were cotton spinners. The Reform Bill had +been a bitter disappointment to them. It gave the right of suffrage to +the middle class, but withheld it from the working class. A few +radical members of Parliament met with representatives of the +workingmen and drafted a bill. O'Connell, as he handed the measure to +the secretary of the association, said: "There is your charter"--and +the "People's Charter" it was called. Its "six points" were: Manhood +suffrage, annual Parliaments, election by ballot, abolition of +property qualifications for election of members to Parliament, payment +of members of Parliament, and equitably devised electoral districts. +These are all political demands, all democratic. But economic +conditions pressed them to the foreground. The "Bread Tax" was as much +an issue as the ballot. They demanded the ballot so that they might +remove the tax. "Misery and discontent were its strongest +inspirations," says McCarthy.[8] + +Carlyle saw the inwardness of the movement. "All along for the last +five and twenty years it was curious to note how the internal +discontent of England struggled to find vent for itself through any +orifice; the poor patient, all sick from center to surface, complains +now of this member, now of that: corn laws, currency laws, free trade, +protection, want of free trade: the poor patient, tossing from side to +side seeking a sound side to lie on, finds none." + +One of its own crude and forceful orators said on Kersall Moor to +200,000 turbulent workingmen of Manchester: "Chartism, my friends, is +no mere political movement, where the main point is your getting the +ballot. Chartism is a knife and fork question. The charter means a +good house, good food and drink, prosperity, and short working +hours."[9] + +The protest of this discontent became the nearest approach to a +revolution England had encountered since Charles I. Monster meetings, +for the first time called "mass meetings," were held in every county, +and evenings, after working hours, enormous parades were organized, +each participant carrying a torch, hence they were called "torchlight +parades." These two spectacular features were soon adopted by American +campaigners. A wild and desperate feeling seized the masses. "You see +yonder factory with its towering chimney," cried one of its orators. +"Every brick in that factory is cemented with the blood of women and +children." And again: "If the rights of the poor are trampled under +foot, then down with the throne, down with aristocracy, down with the +bishops, down with the clergy, burn the churches, down with all rank, +all title, and all dignity."[10] + +In their great petition to Parliament, signed by several million +people, the agitators said: "The Reform Act has effected a transfer of +power from one domineering faction to another and left the people as +helpless as before." "We demand universal suffrage. The suffrage, to +be exempt from the corruption of the wealthy and the violence of the +powerful, must be secret." The whole movement had all the aspects of a +modern, violent general strike. Its papers, _The Poor Man's Guardian_, +_The Destructive_, and others, were full of tirades against wealth and +privilege. When the agitation became an uprising in Wales, there was a +conflict between the Chartists and the police in which a number were +killed and wounded. In the industrial centers, soldiers were present +at the meetings, and the outcry against the use of the military was +the same that is heard to-day. A number of the leaders were tried for +sedition, and the courts became the objects of abuse as they are +to-day. It was a labor war for political privilege; a class war for +economic advantages. + + +SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION + +These revolutions were political in that they were a protest against +existing governmental forms. The revolutionary proletarian was found +in all of them. He not only stood under the standard of Daniel Manin +in Venice, when that patriot again proclaimed a republic in the +ancient city, and shared with Mazzini his triumph in Rome, and fought +with Kossuth for the liberty of Hungary; but he formed also the body +of the revolutionary forces in Germany, Austria, and France. + +In all the Continental countries the uprisings were directed against +the arrogance and oppression of monarchism, and against the +recrudescence of feudalistic ideals. In France Louis Philippe had +attempted the part of a petty despot. He restricted the ballot to the +propertied class, balanced his power on too narrow a base, and it +became top-heavy. + +While the workingmen of Germany and Austria were taking up arms under +command of the middle class against the feudal remnants, the +workingmen of France were sacking their capital because of an +attempted revival of monarchic privilege, and the workmen of England +were marching and counter-marching in monster torchlight parades in +protest against middle-class domination. + +The panorama of Europe in these years of turmoil and blood thus +exhibits every degree of revolt against governmental power, from the +absolutism of Prussian Junkerdom and the oppression of the Hungarians +by foreign tyranny, to the dominance of the aristocratic and +middle-class alliance in Great Britain. + +The bread-and-butter question was not wanting in any of these +political uprisings. The unity of life makes their separation a myth. +One is interwoven with the other. The social struggle is political, +the political struggle is social. + +Socialism is not merely an economic movement. It seeks to-day, and +always has sought, the power of the state. The government is the only +available instrument for effecting the change--the revolution--the +Socialists preach, the transfer of productive enterprise from private +to public ownership. "Political power our means, social happiness our +end," was a Chartist motto. That is the duality of Socialism to-day. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] MARX, _Revolution and Counter-Revolution in 1848_. + +[2] MARX, _Revolution and Counter-Revolution_, p. 70. + +[3] _Op. cit._, pp. 123-124. + +[4] MARX, _Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich_, pp. 26-28. + +[5] See the third address issued by the International Workingmen's +Association on the Franco-Prussian war, 1870-71. + +The Italian Socialists in Milan, June, 1871, closed a rhetorical +address to the Parisian Communards as follows: "To despotism they +responded, We are free. + +"To the cannon and chassepots of the leagued reactionists they offered +their bared breasts. + +"They fell, but fell like heroes. + +"To-day the reaction calls them bandits, places them under the ban of +the human race. + +"Shall we permit it? No! + +"Workingmen! At the time when our brothers in Paris are vanquished, +hunted like fallow deer, are falling by hundreds under the blows of +their murderers, let us say to them: Come to us, we are here; our +houses are open to you. We will protect you, until the day of revenge, +a day not far distant. + +"Workingmen! the principles of the Commune of Paris are ours: we +accept the responsibility of its acts. Long live the Social Republic!" + +See ED. VILLETARD, _History of the International_, p. 342. This +sentiment was also expressed in London and other centers. + +[6] Introduction to _Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich_, p. 8. + +[7] KAUTSKY, _Leben Friedrich Engels_, p. 14, Berlin, 1895. + +[8] _The Epoch of Reform_, p. 190. + +[9] ENGELS, _Condition of the Working Classes in 1844_, p. 230. +Engels, who came to England at this time and was employed in +Manchester in his father's business, and was therefore in the heart of +the movement, says that Chartism was, after the Anti-Corn Law League +had been formed, "purely a workingman's cause." It was "the struggle +of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie." "The demands hitherto +made by him (the laborer), the ten-hours' bill, protection of the +worker against the capitalist, good wages, a guaranteed position, +repeal of the new poor law--all of these things belong to Chartism +quite as essentially as the 'Six Points.'"--_Supra cit._, pp. 229, +234, 235. + +[10] R.G. GRUMMAGE, _History of the Chartist Movement_, 1837-54, p. +59, Newcastle, 1894. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE POLITICAL AWAKENING OF SOCIALISM--THE INTERNATIONAL + + +With 1848 vanished, more or less rapidly, the revolutions of the old +school. "The street fight and barricade, which up to 1848 was +decisive, now grew antiquated," says Engels.[1] A new species of +plotting and propaganda began. The exiled agitators and revolutionists +met, naturally, in their cities of refuge for the discussion of their +common grievances. They complained that "the proletarian has no +fatherland," and internationalism became their patriotism. + +In Paris a few of the ostracized Socialists, in 1836, founded "The +League of the Just," a communistic secret society.[2] The group were +compelled to leave Paris because they were implicated in a riot, and +when some of them met in London they invited other refugees to join +them. Among them was Marx, and his presence soon bore fruit. Their +motto, "All men are brethren," was singularly paradoxical when +contrasted with their methods of sinister conspiracy. Marx, with his +superior intellect, at once began to reshape their ideas, a +reorganization was effected called "The Communist League," and Marx +and Engels were delegated to write a statement of principles for the +League. That statement, written in 1847, they called "The Communist +Manifesto." + +The "Manifesto" is the most influential of all Socialist documents. It +is at once a firebrand and a formulary. Its formulæ are the well-known +Marxian principles; its energy is the youthful vigor and zeal of +ardent revolutionists. Nearly all the generalizations of _Capital_ are +found in the "Manifesto." This is important, for it gave the sanction +of a social theory to the Socialist movement. Hitherto there had been +only utopian generalizations and keen denunciations of the existing +order. It was of the greatest importance that early in the development +of the movement it was given an economic theory expressed in such +lucid terms, with the gusto of youth, and in the terminology of +science, that it remains to-day the best synopsis of Marx's +"Scientific Socialism." + +As a piece of campaign literature it is unexcelled. Combined with its +clearness of statement, its economic reasoning, its terrific +arraignment of modern industrial society, there is a lofty zeal and +power that placed it in the front rank of propagandist literature. + +Engels, the surviving partner of the Marxian movement, wrote in the +preface of the edition of 1888: + +"The 'Manifesto' being our joint production, I consider myself bound to +say that the fundamental proposition which forms its nucleus belongs to +Marx." That proposition embraced the materialistic theory of social +evolution, that "the whole history of mankind has been a history of +class struggles ... in which nowadays a stage has been reached where +the exploited and oppressed classes--the proletariat--cannot attain +their emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling +classes--the bourgeoisie--without at the same time and once for all +emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class +distinctions, and class struggles." + +This liberation was, of course, to be accomplished by revolution. The +"Manifesto" closes with these spirited and oft-quoted words: + +"The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly +declare that their ends can be obtained only by the forcible overthrow +of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling class tremble at a +communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their +chains, they have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite." + +This was the language and the spirit of the times. The "Manifesto" was +published only a few days before the February revolution of 1848. For +a moment the ruling class did tremble; but the ill-timed uprisings +were promptly suppressed and the days of reaction set in. + +Soon the workingmen of different countries were busy with the +stupendous development of industry which followed in the wake of the +wars and revolutions that had harassed the Continent for over fifty +years. The revival of industry brought a renewal of international +trade. This was followed by a wider exchange of views and greater +international intimacy. In 1862 the first International Exposition was +held. + +Before we proceed with the development of the "Old International," as +it is now called, let us notice three points about the "Manifesto." +First, it was not called the "Socialist Manifesto," although adopted +by Socialists the world over. Engels, in his preface of 1888, tells us +why. "When it was written we could not have called it a Socialist +Manifesto. By Socialist, in 1847, were understood, on the one hand, +the adherents of the various Utopian systems; Owenites in England, +Fourierists in France, both of them already reduced to the position of +mere sects, and gradually dying out; on the other hand, the most +multifarious social quacks who, by all manner of tinkering, professed +to redress, without any danger to capital and profit, all sorts of +social grievances; in both cases men outside the working-class +movement, and looking rather to the 'educated' classes for support. +Whatever portion of the working class had become convinced of the +insufficiency of mere political revolutions, and had proclaimed the +necessity of a total social change, that portion then called itself +communist. It was a crude, rough-hewn, purely instinctive sort of +communism; still it touched the cardinal point and was powerful enough +amongst the working class to produce the utopian communism in France +of Cabet, and in Germany of Weitling. This Socialism was, in 1847, a +middle-class movement; communism a working-class movement. Socialism +was, on the Continent at least, 'respectable'; communism was the very +opposite." + +It would be interesting to know how Engels would define Socialism +to-day. + +Second, it is important for us to know that the "Manifesto" recognized +the necessity of using the government as the instrument for achieving +the new society. "The immediate aim of the communists," it recites, +"is the conquest of political power by the proletariat"; to "labor +everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of +all countries." + +The governmental organization of the communists' state was to be +democratic. + +Thirdly, a provisional program of such a politico-socio-democratic +party is suggested in the "Manifesto." Its principal points are: + + "1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents + of land to public purposes. + + "2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. + + "3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. + + "4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. + + "5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means + of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. + + "6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport + in the hands of the state. + + "7. Extension of factories and the instruments of production + owned by the state: the bringing into cultivation of waste + lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance + with a common plan. + + "8. Equal liability of all labor. Establishment of industrial + armies, especially for agriculture. + + "9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; + gradual abolition between town and country, by a more equable + distribution of population over the country. + + "10. Free education for all children in public schools, + combination of education with industrial production," _etc._ + +Though the "Manifesto" was written in 1848, neither Marx, who lived +until 1882, nor Engels, who died in 1895, made any alteration in it, +on the ground that it had become "a historical document which we have +no longer any right to alter."[3] + +"However much the state of things may have altered during the last +twenty-five years, the general principles laid down in this manifesto +are, on the whole, as correct to-day as ever."[4] + +On one very important point, however, they could not refrain from +further comment. The revolutionary language in the original draft +would be radically mollified if written at the time of the joint +preface in 1872. The example of the Paris Commune was disheartening. +It demonstrated that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the +ready-made state machinery and wield it for its own purposes."[5] + +These, then, were the principles of the international movement of +which the "Manifesto" was the supreme expression. When labor had +revived from its first stupor, after the hard blows it received in the +years of revolution, the "Manifesto" was translated into several +Continental languages. With the revival of internationalism, it has +been translated into every language of the industrial world, and I am +told a Japanese and a Turkish edition have been issued. This is a +gauge of the spread of international Socialism. + +In 1862 a number of French workingmen, visiting the International +Exhibition in London, were entertained by the Socialist exiles, and +the question of reviving an international movement was discussed. Two +years later, in St. Martin's Hall, London, workingmen from various +countries organized a meeting and selected Mazzini, the Italian +patriot, to draw up a constitution. But the South European view of +class war was out of accord with the German and French views, and +Mazzini's proposals were rejected. Marx then undertook the writing of +the address. He succeeded remarkably well in avoiding the giving of +offense to the four different elements present, namely, the trade +unionists of England, who, being Englishmen, were averse to +revolutions; the followers of Proudhon in France, who were then +establishing free co-operative societies; the followers of Lassalle in +Germany and Louis Blanc in France, who glorified state aid in +co-operation; and the less easily satisfied contingent of Mazzini from +Spain and Italy. + +Marx's diplomacy and his international vocabulary stood him in good +stead. He began the "Address" by a clever rhetorical parallelism. +Gladstone, whose splendor then filled the political heavens, had just +delivered a great speech in which he had gloried in the wonderful +increase in Britain's trade and wealth. Marx contrasted this growth in +riches with the misery and poverty and wretchedness of the English +working classes. Gladstone's small army of rich bourgeois were +adroitly compared with Marx's large army of miserably poor. The growth +of wealth, he said, brought no amelioration to the needy. But in this +picture of gloom were two points of hope: first, the ten-hour working +day had been achieved through great struggles, and it showed what the +proletarian can do if he persists in fighting for his rights. Second, +Marx alluded to the co-operative achievements of France and Germany as +a proof that the laboring man could organize and carry on great +industries without the intervention of capitalists. With these two +elements of hope before them, the laborers should be of good cheer. +Marx admonished them that they had _numbers_ on their side, and all +that is necessary for complete victory is organization. In closing he +repeats the battle-cry of '48: "Workingmen of all lands, unite!" + +The "statutes," or by-laws[6] were also drawn by Marx. The preamble is +a second "Manifesto," in which he reiterates the necessity for +international co-operation among workingmen, and concludes: "The First +International Labor Congress declares that the International +Workingmen'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 fellowmen, 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 +duties without rights." + +The "Address" and the "Statutes" were adopted by the association at +its first congress, held in Geneva in September, 1866, where sixty +delegates represented the new movement. With the vicissitudes of +Marx's International we are not especially concerned here. It met +annually in various cities until 1873, when its last meeting was held +at Geneva. + +Marx had successfully avoided offense to the various elements in his +masterly address and preamble. But the organization contained +irreconcilable elements more or less jealous of one another. The two +extremes were the Anarchists, led by the Russian Bakunin, and the +English labor unions. The Anarchists believed in overthrowing +everything, the English laborists abhorred violence. Between these two +extremes stood Marx's doctrine of evolutionary revolution, as +distasteful to the English as it was despised by the Anarchists. + +When the congress met at The Hague, in September, 1872, Marx was one +of the sixty-five delegates. He had hitherto held himself aloof from +the meetings. But here even his magnetic presence could not prevent +the breach with Bakunin.[7] There were stormy scenes. The Anarchists +were expelled, and the seat of the general council was transferred to +New York, where it could die an unobserved death. + +Before the final adjournment a meeting was held in Amsterdam. Here +Marx delivered a powerful speech characterized by all the arts of +expression of which he was master. He compared these humble "assizes +of labor" with the royal conferences of "kings and potentates" who in +centuries past had been wont to meet at The Hague "to discuss the +interests of their dynasties." He admitted that in England, the United +States, and maybe in Holland, "the workmen might attain their goal by +peaceful means. But in most European countries force must be the lever +of revolution, and to force they must appeal when the time comes." + +These were his last personal words to his International, the +crystallization of his lifelong endeavor to lead the workingmen's +cause. There was one more meeting at Geneva, in 1873; then it +perished. + +Bakunin's following, renamed the International Alliance of Social +Democracy, meanwhile went the way of all violent revolutionists. They +took part in the uprisings in Spain in 1873; the rebellion was +promptly suppressed, and the alliance came to an end. + +During its brief existence the International was the red bogey-man of +European courts. The most violent and bloodthirsty ambitions were +ascribed to it. Such conservative and careful newspapers as the London +_Times_ indulged in the most extreme editorials and news items about +the sinister organization that was soon to "bathe the thrones of +Europe in blood" and "despoil property of its rights" and "human +society of its blessings." + +In the light of history, these fears appear ridiculous. The poor, +struggling organization that could summon scarcely one hundred members +to an international convention was powerful only in the possession of +an idea, the conviction of international solidarity. Its plotting +handful of Anarchists were a great hindrance to it, and the events of +the Commune put the stamp of veracity on the dire things the public +press had foretold of its ambitions. + +The programs discussed at the various meetings are of more importance +to us because they reveal whatever was practical in Marx's +organization. For the second meeting, 1866, the following outline was +sent out by the general council from London. It was unquestionably +prepared by Marx himself. + + "1. Organization of the International Association; its ends; its + means of action. + + "2. Workingmen's societies--their past, present, and future: + stoppage, strikes--means of remedying them; primary and + professional instruction. + + "3. Work of women and children in factories, from a moral and + sanitary point of view. + + "4. Reduction of working hours--its end, bearing, and moral + consequences; obligation of labor for all. + + "5. Association--its principle, its application; co-operation as + distinguished from association proper. + + "6. Relation of capital and labor; foreign competition; + commercial treaties. + + "7. Direct and indirect taxes. + + "8. International institutions--mutual credit, paper money, + weights, measures, coins, and language. + + "9. Necessity of abolishing the Russian influence in Europe by + the application of the principle of the right of the people to + govern themselves; and the reconstitution of Poland upon a + democratic and social basis. + + "10. Standing armies and their relation to production. + + "11. Religious ideas--their influence upon the social, + political, and intellectual movements. + + "12. Establishment of a society for mutual help; aid, moral and + material, given to the orphans of the association." + +This reads more like the agenda of a sophomore debating society than +the outline of work for an international congress of workingmen. The +discussions of the congress were desultory, quite impractical, and +often tinged with the factional spirit that ultimately ruptured the +association. At its first meeting the discussion of the eight-hour +day, the limitation of work for women and children, and the +establishing of better free schools took a modern turn. But the French +delegates brought forward a proposal to confine the membership in the +association to "hand workers." This was to get rid of Marx and Engels, +who were "brain workers." Socialism was evidently no more clearly +defined then than it is to-day. + +Occasionally practical subjects were debated, as the acquiring by the +state of all the means of transportation, of mines, forests, and +land. But their time was largely taken up in the discussion of general +principles, such as "Labor must have its full rights and entire +rewards." Or they resolved, as at Brussels in 1868, that producers +could gain control of machines and factories only through an +indefinite extension of co-operative societies and a system of mutual +credit; or, as at Basle the following year, that society had a right +to abolish private property in land. + +It is apparent to any one who reads the reports of their meetings that +very little practical advance had been made since the "Manifesto." +Socialism was still in the vapor of speculation. It had absorbed some +practical aspects from the English unions. These were at first +interested in the International, and at their national conference in +Sheffield, 1868, they even urged the local unions to join it. This +interest waned rapidly as they saw the Continental contingent veer +towards the Commune. + +However, the beginnings of a new movement, a "new Socialism," were +distinctly seen in the questions that the English element introduced: +the length of the working day, factory legislation, work of women and +children. These had been the subject of rigid governmental inquiry. +Marx was thoroughly familiar with these parliamentary findings. They +are no small part of the fortifications he built around his theory of +social development. But his German training inclined him to the +Continental, not the Anglo-Saxon, view of social progress and of +politics. + +The "Old International," then, was an attempt to spread Marxian +doctrines into all lands. As such an attempt it is noteworthy. The +Marxian _modus_, however, did not fit the world. Some Socialist +writers attribute its failure to the fact that the time was not ripe +for Marx's methods. The time will never be ripe for the Marxian +method. Marx tried to move everything from one center. He was a German +dogmatist. His council was a centralized autocracy, issuing mandates +like a general to an army. This is an impossible method of +international organization. The center must be supported by the +periphery, not the periphery by the center. There could be no +proletarian internationalism until there was an organized proletarian +nationalism. + +Its conceptions of its detailed duties were even cruder than its +machinery. The discussions were a blending of pedantic declamation and +phosphoric denunciation. Its programs were a mixture of English +trade-union realities and Continental vagaries. Such a movement had +neither wings nor legs. + +But it had an influence, nevertheless, and a very important one. It +was the means of bringing the new generation of leaders together, the +men who were to make Socialism a practical political force. Even the +fact that an international laboring men's society could meet was +important. It realized the central idea of Marx, that the labor +problem is international. That is the important point. Human +solidarity is not ethnic, but inter-ethnic. The "Old International" +was a faltering step toward that solidarity of humanity that has been +advanced so rapidly by inventions, by international arbitrations, by +treaties of commerce, and every other movement that makes +international hostilities every year more difficult. + +On Socialism the "International" had at least one beneficial effect. +It cleared its atmosphere of the anarchistic thunder clouds and +prepared the way for the present more practical movement. This was +largely due to the influence of the English trade unions. They were +not inclined toward philosophical dissertations like the Germans, nor +brilliant speculative vagaries like the French. Their stolid forms +were always on the earth. That Marx was anxious for their support is +apparent, and he drove them out of the movement by his indiscreet +utterances on the Parisian Commune of 1871. + +The "Old International" was a revival of the "Society of the Just," +tempered with English trade-unionism and tinged with Anarchism; it was +also a connecting link between the old and the new Socialism. + +The characteristics of the "New Socialism" cropped out at the first +meeting of the "New International," as it is called. In the first +place, the co-operative movement and the trade-union movement were +both amply represented at the Paris meetings, where the "New +International" was formed in 1889. This is indicative of the new +direction that the economic phase of Socialism has since taken. In the +second place, the Socialist congress split into two parties, +ostensibly over the question of the credentials of certain delegates, +but really over the question that divides Socialists in all countries +to-day: Shall Socialists co-operate with other political parties or +remain isolated? The Marxian dogmatists believed in isolation; the +opportunists or Possibilists believed in co-operating with other +parties. There were two congresses. The Marxian congress had 221 +French delegates and about 175 from other countries. The Possibilist +convention was composed of 91 foreign and 521 French delegates. It was +virtually a labor union convention, for over 225 unions were +represented. It is of great significance that these two meetings, +which divided on a question of political policy, discussed virtually +the same questions. They were against war, believed in collectivism, +demanded international labor legislation, the eight-hour day, the "day +of rest," etc.[8] + +Liebknecht, the distinguished German Socialist, who was one of the +chairmen of the Marxian convention, wrote in his preface to the German +edition of the _Proceedings_ that the Paris meeting began a new era, +"and indicated a break with the past." He told the delegates at the +convention, "the Old International lives in us to-day." There was a +continuity of proletarian ambition. In this respect the old movement +was resurrected in the new. But in every other respect the old +movement was dead. The abstractions about property and the rights of +individuals did not interest the new generation. They were more +concerned with wages than wage theories, and in the purchasing power +of their wages than in a theory of values. Even the spirit of the +class consciousness had changed. Marx's organization was the source of +the old; national consciousness was the source of the new. The +present internationalism is the result of nationalism. The delegates +at Paris were representatives; they represented nationalities. One of +the rules of the Marxian congress was that votes should be counted "by +the head," unless a delegation from any country should unanimously +demand "voting by nationalities." + +In the twenty years that had elapsed since Bakunin and his +conspiracy-loving following had disrupted the "Old International" by +their preaching of violence against nationalism, labor had increased +with the rapid strides of the increasing industry and commerce of the +world. This labor had organized itself into unions and all manner of +co-operative and protective associations. It had done this by natural +compulsion from within, not by a superimposed force from without. They +had thereby found their national homogeneity, and were ready to go +forward into a great and universal international homogeneity. + +The International Workingmen's Association now embraces the labor +movement of all the leading countries of the world. At the last +congress, held in Copenhagen, 1910, reports were received from the +following organizations: the British Labor Party, the Fabian Society, +the Social Democratic Federation of England, the Social Democratic +Party of Germany, the Social Democratic Labor Party of Austria, the +Commission of Trade Unions of Austria, the Social Democratic Labor +Party of Bohemia, the Social Democratic Party of Hungary, the +Socialist Party of France, the Socialist Party of Italy, the +Revolutionary Socialist Party of Russia, the Social Democratic Party +of Lettland, the Social Democratic Party of Finland, the Socialist +Party of Norway, the Social Democratic Labor Party of Sweden, the +Danish Social Democracy, the Social Democratic Party of Holland, the +Belgian Labor Party, the Socialist Labor Party of the United States, +the Social Democratic Party of Servia, and the Bulgarian Laborers' +Social Democratic Party.[9] These names indicate the threefold nature +of the modern movement. It is a labor movement, it is democratic, and +it is Socialistic. And the list of countries shows that it is +international. + +At Brussels a permanent International Socialist Bureau is maintained, +with a permanent secretary, who is in constant touch with the movement +in all countries. + +There are two directions in which this remarkable co-operation of +millions of workingmen of all lands may have a practical effect on +international affairs. + +In the first place, there is an effort being made to internationalize +labor unions. In Europe this has been done, to some extent, among the +transportation workers. They have an international committee of their +own, and keep each other informed of labor conditions and movements. +The great railway strike in England, in the summer of 1911, was +planned on the Continent, as well as in London and Liverpool, and +there was a sympathetic restlessness with the strikers in various +countries adjacent to the Channel that threatened to break out in +violence. During the post-office strike in France the strikers +attempted to persuade English and Belgian railway employees to refuse +to handle French mail. The Syndicalists confidently look forward to +the day when an international labor organization will be able to +compel a universal general strike. + +In the second place, the new international organization will have a +far-reaching influence on militarism. This is due to two causes: +first, the recruit himself is filled with the discontent of the +Socialist before he dons the uniform. In France, Germany, Belgium, +Austria, and other countries the anti-military virus has been long at +work. But more potent than this is the feeling of international +solidarity that binds these recruits into a brotherhood of labor who +are unwilling to fight each other for purposes that do not appeal to +the Socialist heart. Warfare, to the laboring man, is merely one phase +of the exploitation of the poor for the benefit of the capitalist, and +patriotism an excuse to hide the real purposes of war. At St. Quentin, +in 1911, the French Socialists denounced the war in Morocco as an +exploitation of human lives for the purposes of capitalistic gain. The +German Social Democracy has always opposed the colonial policy of the +chancellors on the same ground, and the Belgian Labor Party has been +the severest censor of the Belgian Congo campaigns. + +During the summer of 1911 the Morocco incident threatened a war +between France and Germany, with England involved, and the other great +powers more than interested. In August and September the situation +became so acute that England and Germany were popularly said to have +been "within two weeks of war." A profound sense of danger and an +intense restlessness possessed the people. During this period of +excitement the French Socialists held anti-war demonstrations. The +German Social Democrats met in their annual convention at Jena and +passed a resolution condemning the German Morocco policy, and Herr +Bebel made a notable speech, detailing the horrors of war with grim +exactness, and arraigning a civilization that would resort to the +"monstrous miseries" of war for gaining a few acres of land. This +speech was quoted at length by the great European dailies, and made a +deep impression upon the people. In England the leaders of the Labor +Party admonished the government that, while they were patriots and +believed in national solidarity, the English workingman would never +cease to consider the German and the French workingman as a +fellow-laborer and brother. The International Socialist Bureau met in +Zurich to discuss the situation and to consider how the organizations +of labor might make their protests against war most effective. + +It is difficult to measure the influence of such an international +protest against the powers of governments and of armies. That the +protest was made, that it was sincere, rational and free from the +hyperbola of passion, is the significant fact. Forty years ago such +action on the part of labor would have been ridiculed. To-day it is +respected. + +Disarmament, when it comes, will be due to the influences exerted by +the recruit rather than to the benevolent impulses of governments and +commanders. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Introduction to _Klassenkämpfe_, p. 13. + +[2] See ENGELS, Introduction to MARX'S _Enthüllungen über den +Kommunisten Process zu Köln_. + +[3] Joint-preface of edition of 1872. + +[4] _Ibid._ + +[5] See "Address of the General Council of the Workingmen's +Association on the Civil War in France." + +[6] Many of the original documents, and extensive excerpts from others +are given in DR. EUGEN JÄGER'S _Der Moderne Socialismus_, Berlin, +1873, and in DR. R. MEYER'S _Der Emancipations-Kampf des Vierten +Standes_, 2nd edition, Vol. I, Berlin, 1882. Both of these works give +a fairly detailed account of the development of the International and +of its annual meetings. + +[7] See _Ein Complot gegen die International Arbeiter Association_, a +compilation of documents and descriptions of Bakunin's organization. +The work was first issued in French and translated into German by S. +Koksky. + +[8] The Possibilists declared for an eight-hour day; a day of rest +each week; abolition of night work; abolition of work for women and +children; special protection for children 14-18 years of age; workshop +inspectors elected by the workmen; equal wages for foreign and +domestic labor; a fixed minimum wage; compulsory education; repeal of +the laws against the International. + +The Marxian program included: an eight-hour day; children under 14 +years forbidden to work, and work confined to six hours a day for +youth 14-18 years of age, except in certain cases; prohibition of work +for women dangerous to their health; 36 hours of continuous rest each +week; abolition of "payment in kind"; abolition of employment bureaus; +inspectors of workshops to be selected by workmen; equal pay for both +sexes; absolute liberty of association. + +For the first meeting of the "New International," see WEIL, _Histoire +Internationale de France_, pp. 262 et seq. + +[9] See Appendix, p. 340. for list of countries that maintain +Socialist organizations and the political strength of same. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF FRANCE + + +I + +The Commune abruptly put an end to Socialism in France. The caldron +boiled over and put out the fire. Thiers, in his last official message +as president, claimed that Socialism, living and thriving in Germany, +was absolutely dead in France. It was, however, to be revived in a +newer and more vital form. + +The exiled communards, in England and elsewhere, came in contact with +Marxianism, and in 1880, when a general amnesty was declared, they +brought to Paris a new and virile propaganda. The leader of the new +Marxian movement was Jules Guesde, a tireless zealot, burning with the +fire that kindles enthusiasm. + +The "affaire Boulanger" absorbed attention at this time, and Guesde, +in his newspapers, _La Révolution Française_ and _Égalité_, supported +the Republic. But he was also insisting upon "Le minimum d'état et la +maximum de liberté" (a minimum of government and a maximum of +liberty). This may be taken as the political maxim of the Socialists +at that time, although it leads them into the embarrassing anomaly of +using their own slave as their master. + +Meantime a political labor party had arisen. In Paris, in 1878, a +workingman became a candidate for the municipal council, and he headed +his program with the words "_Parti Ouvrier_"--Labor Party. This is +the first time the words were used with a political significance.[1] +It was a small beginning, his votes were few, and the newspaper that +espoused the workingman's cause, _Le Prolétaire_, was constantly on +the verge of bankruptcy for want of proletarian support. In other +cities the political labor movement began, and in 1879 a labor +conference was held in Marseilles. + +The two movements, labor and Socialist, drew together in 1880 at a +general conference of workingmen at Havre. Here there were three +groups which found it impossible to coalesce: the Anarchists, under +Blanqui, formed the "Parti Socialiste Révolutionnaire"--the +Revolutionary Socialist Party; the co-operativists, calling themselves +the Republican Socialist Alliance, included the opportunist element of +the Socialists; and the Guesdists, who were in the majority, organized +the "Parti Ouvrier Français"--the French Labor Party--and adopted a +Marxian program. + +The Guesdists entered the campaign with characteristic zeal. They +polled only 15,000 votes in Paris and 25,000 in the Departments for +their municipal tickets, and 50,000 in the entire country for their +legislative ticket. + +From the first the Socialists in France have been rent by petty +factions. We will hastily review these constantly shifting groups +before proceeding to the larger inquiry. + +In 1882 the Guesdists split, and Brousse formed the "Fédération des +Travailleurs Socialistes de France"--the Federation of Socialist +Workingmen of France. In 1885 Malon formed a group for the study of +the social problems, "Société d'Économie Sociale"--Society of Social +Economics--which rapidly developed into the important group of +Independent Socialists--"Parti Socialiste Indépendent." The labor +movement was stimulated by the act of 1884, and in 1886 the +"Fédération des Syndicats"--Federation of Labor Unions--was organized +at Lyons, and in 1887 the Paris Labor Exchange--"Bourse du +Travail"--was opened. + +In 1882 Allemane seceded from the Broussists to found a faction of his +own, the Revolutionary Socialist Labor Party of France--"Parti Ouvrier +Socialiste Révolutionnaire Français." In 1893 the first confederation +of the labor exchanges (bourses) was held, and the first conspicuous +victory at the polls achieved. + +In 1899 an effort was made to unify the warring factions, and a +committee representing every shade of Socialistic faith was appointed. +It was called the General Committee--"Comité Général Socialiste." +Within the year the Guesdists withdrew on account of the rigorous +quelling of the strike riots by the government at Châlons-sur-Saône. +In 1901 the Blanquists withdrew and, coalescing with the Guesdists, +formed the Socialist Party of France--"Parti Socialiste de France." +This movement was soon followed by the uniting of the Jaurèsites and +the Independents, who called themselves the French Socialist +Party--"Parti Socialiste Français." + +After the expulsion of Millerand, the two parties united in 1905 at +Rouen. This unity was achieved at the suggestion of the International +Congress held at Amsterdam, 1904. The "United Party" is officially +known as the French Section of the International Workingmen's +Association--"Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière." + +The United Party, after its years of ridiculous factionalism, is the +most compact and disciplined group in the Chamber of Deputies, and +this in spite of the fact that the Guesdists and Jaurèsites have not +forgotten their ancient differences. The French people are not +amenable to discipline and party rigor as are the Germans and the +Anglo-Saxons. At the last election (1910) the United Party elected 76 +deputies in a chamber of 590 members. + +There are to-day two other groups that are more or less Socialistic +but are not in "the Party." The Independent Socialists, numbering +thirty-four members in the Chamber, are men who, either because of +their intellectualism or because of their political ambitions, have a +repugnance to hard and fast organization. This group includes a number +of college professors and journalists; also Briand, Viviani, and +Millerand, former ministers. They are not committed to any definite +political program, take a leading part in all social reform measures, +and are accused by the "united ones" of using the name Socialist +merely as a bait for votes. + +The other group is the Socialist-Radical Party, numbering about 250 +members in the Chamber. In most countries their radicalism would be +called Socialism. But in France they are only the connecting link +between Socialists and liberal Republicans.[2] + + +II + +The "social questions" were slow in entering parliament. In 1876 a +Bonapartist deputy, known for his charities, interpolated the +government, asking what inquiries were being made toward securing the +moral and material betterment of "the greatest number," and amidst the +cheers of his followers the Prime Minister replied that the +government's duty was comprehended in securing to the country +"liberty, security, and education." This was the old idea of the +functions of government. The new social movement had not yet gathered +momentum. + +With the development of the workingman's political party, interest and +sympathy for his problems suddenly increased. In 1880 the Republicans +adopted a resolution in favor of freedom of association. At this time +labor unions were illegal. In 1881 the government removed the +restrictions that had been placed on the press. In the following year +it extended the primary schools into every commune, and Gambetta did +everything in his power to promulgate what he termed "an alliance of +the proletariat and the bourgeois." Social science, he said, was the +solvent of social ills. The Socialists, however, believed that +politics, not "social science," was the solvent. + +It was not until 1884, while Waldeck-Rousseau was Minister of the +Interior, that labor was given the legal right to organize. +Immediately unions--called _syndicats_ by the French--sprang up +everywhere. Article 3 of the act declared that these unions had for +their exclusive object "the study and the promulgation of their +interests, economic, industrial, commercial, and agricultural." They +were not given the liberal legal powers that English and American +unions have. + +The social movement now invaded French politics in full battle array. +A government commission was intrusted with the study of the +co-operative movement. In 1885 several deputies, calling themselves +Socialists, began to interpellate the ministry on the labor questions. +The government brought in two proposals, one pertaining to communal +and industrial organizations, the other to the arbitration of +industrial disputes. Both were tabled. + +In 1887 a man appeared in the Chamber ready to debate the social +questions with the keenest and the ablest. This was Jean Jaurès, a +professor of philosophy, whose profound knowledge and superb oratory +immediately commanded attention. He was joined by another new deputy, +M. Millerand, scarcely less proficient in debate, and even more +extreme in his convictions. Both were considered members of the +radical party. But they soon formed the nucleus of a new group, the +Independent Socialists, that grew rapidly in influence and power. + +The social question was forced on the public from yet another +direction. The Anarchists, who had been expelled from the Havre +conference, remained passive until the organization of trade unions. +They then began to promulgate the doctrine of the general strike. The +unionists began not only to compel their employers to accede to their +demands, but to coerce workingmen to join the unions. It was during +this agitation that the government established an elaborate system of +labor exchanges--"Bourse du Travail." + +From the labor unions the doctrine of the general strike was +insinuated into Socialist circles. In 1890 it was proposed as a +practical measure for enforcing the demand for an eight-hour day among +the miners. In 1892 the Departmental Congress of Workingmen at Tours +passed a resolution favoring the general strike, and it was discussed +a few days later in a general convention of the unions, at the +suggestion of Aristide Briand, a Socialist who was destined to play an +important rôle in the development of the theory and practice of +general strikes. + +The government could no longer dodge the social question. Millerand +announced his conversion to Socialism and became the leader of a small +parliamentary coterie who pressed the issue daily. In a signed +statement to the unions they said: "The Republic has given the ballot +into your hand, now give the Republic your instructions."[3] The +parliamentary _entente_ of the liberal Socialists with the Radical +Left dates from this time. The campaign spread with surprising fervor. +Labor unions and parliamentary Socialists joined their forces. In 1893 +they elected forty Socialists to the Chamber of Deputies. Among them +were Jaurès, who now espoused the cause of the Socialist opportunists; +Millerand, conspicuous as leader of the independent group; Guesde, the +vehement Marxian; and Vaillant, a communard and Socialist of the older +type. + +Now began the actual parliamentary Socialism in France. Jaurès, in +introducing the group--they were scarcely a party--to the Chamber, +affirmed their allegiance to the Republic and their devotion to the +cause of humanity. The misery of the people had awakened, he said, +after right of association had been granted. Labor had, through +strikes, gained certain minor improvements. It was now prepared to +conquer public authority. But so much of their time was spent in +quarreling with each other, and debating whether they should vote with +the Radicals, that very little substantial work was accomplished by +the Socialists. + +Finally, encouraged by their unusual success in the municipal +elections of 1896, the leaders of the various factions met at +Saint-Mandé to celebrate their victory. They were tiring of their +quarrels and were ready to unite. At least they agreed that each group +could name its own candidate for the first ballot; on the second +ballot they should all support the Socialist who polled the most votes +on the first ballot.[4] + +But who is a Socialist? Here for the first time a political definition +was attempted. Millerand, a Parisian lawyer who, we have seen, made +his political début with Jaurès, as a member of the Radical Left, +attempted the answer. It was made in the presence of Guesde, Vaillant, +and Jaurès, and many local leaders from various parts of France. So, +for the moment and for the occasion of rejoicing, there was a united +Socialism. And it gave assent, with varying enthusiasm, to the general +definition and program outlined by Millerand. He defined the ground to +be covered as follows: + +"Is not the Socialistic idea completely summed up in the earnest +desire to secure for every being in the bosom of society the +unimpaired development of his personality? That implies two necessary +conditions of which one is a factor of the other: first, individual +appropriation of things necessary for the security and development of +the individual, i.e., property; secondly, liberty, which is only a +sounding and hollow word if it is not based on and safeguarded by +property." + +He then accepted _in toto_ the Marxian theory that capitalistic +society bears within itself the enginery of its own doom. "Men do not +and will not set up collectivism; it is setting itself up daily; it +is, if I may be allowed the phrase, being secreted by the capitalistic +régime. Here I seem to have my finger on the characteristic feature of +the Socialist program. In my view, whoever does not admit the +necessary and progressive replacement of capitalistic property by +social property is not a Socialist." + +Millerand was not satisfied with merely including banking, railroads, +and mining in the list of "socialized" property. He believed that as +industries become "ripe" they should be taken over by the state, and +cites sugar refining as an example of a monopoly that is +"incontestably ripe." Millerand also laid great stress on municipal +activities, and hastened to guarantee to the small property owner his +modest possessions. All this taking over by the state was to be done +gradually. "No Socialist ever dreamed of transforming the capitalistic +régime instantaneously by magic wand." The method of this gradual +absorption by the state must be constitutional. "We appeal only to +universal suffrage. To realize the immediate reforms capable of +relieving the lot of the working class, and thus fitting it to win its +own freedom, and to begin, as conditioned by the nature of things, the +socialization of the means of production, it is necessary and +sufficient for the Socialist party to endeavor to capture the +government through universal suffrage."[5] + +This mild formulary, which places the "socialized society" far into +the dim future, was accepted as long as it was rhetorical. But when +Millerand himself became a member of the cabinet in the +Waldeck-Rousseau coalition, and began to translate his words into +deeds, a rupture followed. + +In the meantime occurred the Dreyfus affair, which shifted all the +political forces of the Republic. At first the Guesdists remained +indifferent, while Jaurès, with great energy, threw himself into the +contest in behalf of Dreyfus. But when the affair took an +anti-Republican turn and democracy was threatened, then all the +Socialists united, with no lack of energy and zeal, in the defense of +the Republic. On June 13, 1898, Millerand was spokesman in the Chamber +of Deputies for the Socialist group, which now held the balance of +power. With threats of violence against the Republic in the air, he +assured the deputies that his comrades were united for "the honor, the +splendor, and the safety of the Fatherland" (l'honneur, la grandeur, +et la sécurité de la Patrie). And this was part of the price of their +adhesion: old-age pensions, a fixed eight-hour day, factory +legislation protecting the life and health of the workman, military +service reduced to two years, and an income tax. The Radical Left +adopted this "minimum program" of the Socialists, and the famous +"Bloc" was formed. Jaurès was made vice-president of the Chamber and +soon proved himself master of the coalition. Now for the first time in +history the Socialists were in political power, and what occurred is +of the greatest interest to us. + + +III + +And now for the first time a Socialist becomes a cabinet member. In +1899 Waldeck-Rousseau appointed Millerand Minister of Commerce, to the +consternation of the Conservatives and the division of the Socialists. +Jaurès congratulated his colleague on his courage in assuming +responsibility. But while the Independents were jubilant over the +elevation of one of their number, the Guesdists and Blanquists withdrew +from the "Bloc." They issued a manifesto setting forth their reasons. +They did not wish further alliances with a "pretended Socialist." They +were tired of "compromises and deviations," which for too long a time +had been forced on them as "a substitute for the class war, for +revolution, and the socialism of the militant proletariat."[6] + +To them the war of the classes forbade their entrance into a bourgeois +ministry; and the conquest of political power did not imply +collaboration with a government whose duty it was to defend property. +Jaurès proposed to put the question up to the party congress, and in +1899 at Paris a bilateral compromise resolution was adopted. Guesde, +however, restless and dissatisfied, compelled the congress to vote +first upon the question, "Does the war of the classes permit the +entrance of a Socialist into a bourgeois government?" The answer was +818 "no," 634 "yes." Jaurès' compromise was then adopted, 1,140 to +240.[7] + +The international congress held in Paris, September, 1900, adopted +Kautsky's resolution declaring that the acceptance of office by a +single Socialist in a bourgeois government "could not be deemed the +normal commencement of the conquest for political power, but only an +expedient called forth by transitory and exceptional conditions." + +At the Bordeaux congress, April, 1903, the whole time was given over +to this perplexing question. The congress was composed largely of +friends of Millerand and Jaurès. By this time the Socialist minister +had had three years' experience in the cabinet. The Waldeck-Rousseau +premiership had given way to Combes, who was also dependent upon the +Socialists for his power. + +Millerand had especially offended the Socialists by voting against his +party on three separate occasions: first, on a resolution abolishing +state support for public worship; second, on a resolution to prosecute +certain anti-militarists for publishing a book that tended to destroy +military discipline; and, third, on a resolution asking the Minister +of Foreign Affairs to invite proposals for international disarmament. +He had further offended the Socialists by officially receiving the +Czar on his visit to Paris. + +The debate, then, was disciplinary rather than doctrinal. But it was +political discipline, evidence therefore that a party consciousness of +some sort had been achieved. This meeting is significant because it +tried to fix definite limits for Socialistic action and committed +Jaurès to the narrowing, not to the expanding, policy of the party. + +M. Sarrante expressed the Millerand idea when he told the delegates +that they were to judge "an entire policy," the policy of "democratic +Socialism, which gains ground daily on the revolutionary Socialism, a +policy which Citizen Millerand did not start, which he has merely +developed and defined, and which forces itself upon us more and more +in our republican country." The test of Socialism, he said, was just +this "contact of theory with facts." + +Jaurès found himself in logical difficulty when he endeavored to +reconcile both sides for the sake of party unity. He said that +Sarrante was wrong "when he thinks it enough to lay down the principle +of democracy in order to resolve, in a sort of automatic fashion, the +antagonisms of society.... The enthronement of political democracy and +universal suffrage by no means suppresses the profound antagonism of +classes.... Sarrante errs in positing democracy without noting that it +is modified, adulterated, thwarted by the antagonism of classes and +the economic preponderance of one class. Just as Guesde errs in +positing the class war apart from democracy." + +To Jaurès the problem was to "penetrate" this democracy with the ideas +of Socialism until the "proletarian and Socialistic state has replaced +the oligarchic and bourgeois state." This can be brought about, he +said, by "a policy which consists in at once collaborating with all +democrats, yet vigorously distinguishing one's self from them." + +Jaurès acknowledged the awkwardness of this policy, which required a +superhuman legerdemain never yet accomplished by any party in the +history of politics. + +Guesde's motion to oust Millerand from the party was lost. And a +compromise offered by Jaurès censuring him for his votes, but +permitting him to remain in the party fold, was adopted by 109 to 89 +votes, fifteen delegates abstaining from voting. This was a very close +margin, and in spite of Millerand's promise that he would in the +future be more careful of his party allegiance he was expelled the +following year from the Federation of the Seine. The stumbling-block +was removed.[8] + +More important than the party discipline is the question of the +economic measures attempted by Millerand. In general he followed the +outlines laid down in his Saint-Mandé program.[9] His experience +carried him farther away from the Guesdists every year until he +repudiated the class war and adhered to social solidarity; substituted +the method by evolution for the method by revolution, still espoused +by Guesde; and placed the national interests upon as high a plane of +duty as the international and the personal. His program of labor +legislation was comprehensive, and he succeeded in getting some of it +passed into law. These were his leading proposals: + +1. Regulating the hours of labor and creating a normal working day of +ten hours. He began the reduction at eleven hours, reducing it to ten +and a half, and then to ten within three years. In the public works of +his own department he reduced the working day at once to eight hours. + +2. In public contracts he introduced clauses favorable to workingmen. +These clauses embraced the number of hours in a normal work day, the +minimum wage for every class of workmen, prohibition of piece-work, +guarantee of no work on Sunday, and the per cent. of foreign workmen +allowed on the job. He arranged that the workingmen should unite with +the employer in fixing the wages and the hours of labor before the +contract was signed. In these contracts, furthermore, the state +reserved the right to indemnify the workmen out of the funds due to +the contractor. + +3. An accident insurance law. + +4. The abolition of private employment agencies, with their many +abuses, and replacing them with communal labor bureaus free to all. +The voluntary federations of the trade unions were put on a similar +footing with the communal labor exchanges, and were encouraged to +co-operate with them. Millerand took great care to perfect the +organization of trade unions. He introduced amendments to the old law +of 1884, giving greater scope and elasticity to the unions, granting +them greater corporate powers, and making the dismissal of a workman +because he belonged to a union ground for a civil suit for damages. He +began a movement to secure the co-operation between the unions and the +state workshop inspectors. There had been a great deal of abuse in the +operation of the inspection laws by the employers. An attempt was now +made to define strictly the rights and duties of the inspectors. + +5. His pet scheme was the establishing of labor councils (conseils du +travail). On these councils labor and employer were to have equal +representation. The duty of the councils embraced the adjudication of +all disputes arising between employer and employee, suggesting +improvements, and keeping vigilance over all local labor conditions. +In 1891 a supreme labor council had been established. To this +Millerand added lay and official members and greatly increased its +efficiency. He tried to make it a central vigilance bureau, keeping in +close touch with local conditions all over the land. + +6. He elaborated a plan for regulating industrial disputes. This was +to be effected by a permanent organization in each establishment +employing more than fifty men, a sort of committee of grievance to +which all matters of dispute might be referred. In case of failure to +settle their difficulties an appeal to the local labor council was +provided. By this democratic representative machinery Millerand hoped +to solve the labor problem. + +It will be seen that Millerand's plan was an attempt, by law, to +project the working class, not into politics but into the capitalist +class. He would do this by compelling the employer to share the +responsibility of ownership with his employees. This would mark the +beginning of a revolution very different from the revolution +ordinarily preached by propagandists, because this revolution would +substitute class peace in place of our present incessant economic +class war. + +The Socialists made it plain that Millerand's procedure was not +Socialism. When Millerand was first asked to take a cabinet portfolio +his friend Jaurès told him to accept. When he had perfected his +practical procedure, and the bulk of the proletarians evinced their +disappointment and chagrin that the elevation of a Socialist had not +brought utopia, Jaurès gradually slipped away from his former alliance +and finally left the reformist group. + +Jaurès also had his day of power. The Dreyfus affair presented the +issue in tangible form--the old traditions, religious, political, +social, against the new ideas of society, property, and government. It +was the heroic period of modern French Socialism. Red and black flags +were borne by enthusiastic multitudes through the streets of Paris. +The "_Université Populaire_" was inaugurated by students for the +purpose of instructing the common people in the issues that were at +stake. The flame of eager anticipation spread over the Republic. + +As master of the "Bloc" in the Chamber, Jaurès became the first real +head in the first French democracy. Two great reforms were undertaken: +the disestablishment of the Church, carrying with it the +secularization of education and the reorganization of the army. The +old Royalist families had continued to send their sons into the army +and navy. Many of the officers were suspected of royalist sympathies. +An elaborate system of espionage was instituted, and the suspects +weeded out. The last vestige of the old monarchy has now disappeared +from French officialdom. France has a bourgeois army, a bourgeois +school system, a bourgeois bureaucracy, thanks to the power of the +proletarian Socialists led by Jaurès in the days of the Republic's +danger. + +Jaurès remained orthodox; Millerand became heretic. The Millerand +episode left a deep impression on the public mind. The first Socialist +minister shaped not only a program but an entire policy. In 1906, when +a new cabinet was formed, Millerand declined a portfolio, but two +other Socialists accepted cabinet honors; Viviani, a well-known +Parisian lawyer, held the newly created ministry of labor and social +prevision (prévoyance sociale), and Aristide Briand became Minister of +Public Instruction and Worship, and later Minister of Justice. + +The public regarded the elevation of two Socialists to the cabinet as +a matter of course. Millerand's activity had taken the fear out of +their hearts. Even the Marxian Socialists failed to notice the event. +They had written into their party by-laws that no Socialist could +accept office, so the new ministers, by their own acts, ceased to be +"Socialists." + +Clémenceau, the new Premier, ushered in the next period of social +adventure by a brilliant debate in the Chamber with Jaurès in which +the philosophical basis of individualism was reviewed with great skill +and some of the social questions discussed.[10] + +Jaurès claimed for the Socialists a dominant share in the great +victory won by the friends of the Republic during the Dreyfus turmoil, +and made much of the multitudes of workingmen to whom the Republic was +now under great obligation. These workingmen, the proletariat, were +the force now to be dealt with. "If you really wish society to evolve, +if you wish it really to be transformed, there is the force you must +deal with, and that you must neither repress nor rebuff." The +parliamentary experience of Socialism Jaurès passed over lightly; it +added nothing new, he thought, to the theory or the arguments of the +Socialists. + +His opponent, however, in a single sentence laid bare the weakness of +the Socialist's logic: "The truth is that it is necessary to +distinguish between two different elements of the social organization, +between the man and the system." Clémenceau read the Socialists' +program upon which they had won their victory. It embraced: the +eight-hour day, giving state employees the right to form unions, +sickness and unemployment insurance; a progressive income tax; ballot +reform (scrutin de liste) and proportional representation, and +"restoration to the nation of the monopolies in which capital has its +strongest fortress." + +"What a terribly bourgeois program!" exclaimed Clémenceau. "M. Jaurès, +after expounding his program, challenged me to produce my own. I had +very great difficulty in restraining the temptation to reply: 'You +know my program very well. You have it in your pocket. You stole it +from me.'" + +This debate was significant, not in what was said, but in the fact +that it was possible to enlist the Prime Minister, the cleverest of +French statesmen, and Jaurès, the greatest of French orators, in a +discussion of Socialism from the tribune of the Chamber of Deputies. +The whole country listened. During this brilliant tilt Clémenceau +taunted Jaurès that his Socialism was impractical, a dream. "You are a +visionary, I am a realist; you have dreams, I have facts." Jaurès +replied with great fervor that he would prove to the people of France +that Socialism is not impracticable and that within a year he would +produce a plan for the new social order. The "Unified" Socialist +Party, built up largely on Jaurès' abandonment of his former colleague +and his earlier liberal convictions, may be considered a part of the +fulfilment of this promise. The other part, the plans and +specifications for the new society, is not yet before the world. Its +introduction, properly its prelude, is the volume published by Jaurès +in 1911, _L'Armée Nouvelle_, containing suggestions for reorganizing +the state defense along lines of voluntary militia and cadets.[11] + + +IV + +Clémenceau's régime was destined to test the Socialist policy in a new +direction. The law of 1884 gave state employees the right to form +associations, but not to federate or organize _syndicats_. A great +many organizations were formed, especially among the postal employees +and teachers. They were mutual benefit societies, "friendly" +associations, and the government recognized them to the extent of +discussing their grievances and questions of mutual interest with +them. + +Among the workmen in the navy yards and the national match, tobacco, +and porcelain works similar organizations existed. The Syndicalists +would not let the matter rest there. They demanded that these +organizations become members of the C.G.T. (General Confederation of +Workingmen). The government objected because that would give the men +the right to strike, a dangerous anomaly giving to the state's +servants the right to make government nugatory. This extreme doctrine +found ready advocates in the Chamber among the Socialists. + +In March, 1909, the post-office clerks and telegraph operators went +out on strike. The government promptly discharged thirty-eight of the +ringleaders and arrested eight of the strikers in Paris on the charge +of resisting the police. In the course of a few days over 800 out of +15,000 employees were discharged. Soldiers were introduced into the +service, and with the help of local chambers of commerce and other +civic bodies the postal service was renewed. The strikers were then +willing to make terms. They stipulated that the dismissed employees be +reinstated and that M. Simyan, the Under-Secretary of Posts and +Telegraphs, be dismissed. The first request was conceded, the second +was denied. The ostensible cause of the strike had been the attitude +of the under-secretary; the men asserted that he was arbitrary and had +imposed petty political exactions upon them. The government refused to +allow the men to dictate its affairs, the under-secretary remained, +and the men went back to work. + +The Socialists censured the government for not being considerate with +the men, and placed the entire blame upon the ministry for refusing +the national employees a right to organize as other workmen. To this +Simyan replied: "We are in the presence of an organized revolutionary +agitation ... this is blackmail by strike." The Minister of Public +Works said: "Over our heads these officials have revolted against you +and against the entire nation. These are serious hours when the +government needs perfect facilities of communication with its +ambassadors and consuls [the Balkan question was in the pot], and in +such hours a strike is an attack upon the national sovereignty. In +these circumstances I cannot re-enter into negotiations with the +general postal association. If I did so that would mean +abdication."[12] The Socialist deputies voted against the government's +resolution "not to tolerate strikes of functionaries." + +The general strike committee was not discharged when the men returned +to work. When it became evident that the government did not intend to +ask the under-secretary for his resignation the post-office employees +organized a trade union, unauthorized by law. The government refused +to meet representatives of this union, on the ground that state +employees had organized for one purpose only, namely, to have the +right to strike, and the government would not concede that right. + +On May 12 a second general post-office strike was called. The +government immediately dismissed over two hundred of the strikers. The +Socialists in the Chamber began a demonstration against the +government. One of their number started the "Internationale," the +Socialist war-song. After the first blush of indignation had passed, +the whole Chamber sprang to its feet, there were shouts of protest, a +Republican started the Marseillaise, and the two revolutionary hymns, +bourgeois and proletarian, were blended for the first time in a +parliamentary chamber. + +Now the general confederation of labor (C.G.T.) took charge of the +strike, and soon plots began to be carried out in various parts of the +country. There were indications of violence everywhere. The general +committee of the C.G.T. declared a general strike. The situation +threatened to become serious, but the soldiers distributed over the +affected territory had a tranquilizing effect. Men in other trades +were reluctant to follow the orders of the committee. A few electric +workers succeeded in cutting some wires in Paris, leaving the city in +darkness a few hours. There were desultory acts of _sabotage_, but +there was more terror than enthusiasm, and in two days the general +strike was over.[13] + +Here was an attempt to place the 800,000 French state employees into +the revolutionary current of the C.G.T. The real question at issue was +this: Is striking an act of mutiny? Barthou, a member of the ministry, +said in the Chamber of Deputies that "the more solemnly you denounce +the strike as a crime against the state, the greater the victory of +the Syndicalists." The Syndicalist journal, _Le Voix du Peuple_, the +day after the first strike was settled proclaimed "the victory which +our comrades of the postal proletariat have won over their employer +the state." This, they said, showed that the state conceded the main +contention of Syndicalism--that it is not different from a private +employer. And the Syndicalists gloried in the fact that the +government, instead of treating the strikers as mutineers, parleyed +with them and reinstated them. + +Clémenceau brought in a bill designed to relieve the situation by +fixing the status of the state employees. The men were to be given the +right of association for "professional" purposes only,--i.e., for +improving their efficiency,--but were absolutely prohibited from +striking and from joining other unions. A comprehensive civil-service +reform was embodied in the bill, aimed to prevent the men from +becoming victims of political abuse. + +Before the bill could be thoroughly considered the Clémenceau ministry +fell and a new Prime Minister was called to the helm. This was none +other than Aristide Briand, the first Socialist Prime Minister in +European history. His former comrades had long before this disowned +him, and he was soon to participate in events that would forever +alienate them. He had been a furious Socialist, an anti-militarist, +and defender of the general strike. In the Socialist congress at +Paris, 1899, he said: "The general strike has the seductive advantage +that it is nothing but the practice of an intangible right. It is a +revolution which arises within the law. The workingman refuses to +carry the yoke of misery any farther and begins the revolution in the +field of his legal rights. The illegality must begin with the +capitalist class, if it allows itself to be provoked into destroying a +right which they themselves have professed to be holy." At the same +meeting he expressed himself on the soldiery as follows: "If the +command to fire is given, if the officers are stubborn enough to try +to force the soldiers against their will, then the guns might be +fired, but perhaps not in the direction the officers thought." Briand +repeated these sentiments at the Amsterdam congress in 1903. + +This was the man whom destiny had chosen to lead the French government +against the organized revolt of government employees. + +On assuming the premiership he announced his program: + +1. Parliamentary and electoral reform, he said, were of the first +necessity, but he deemed it best to experiment with the new methods of +balloting locally before adopting a national system of reform. + +2. A graduated income tax. + +3. Fixing the legal status of state servants. + +4. Old-age pension. + +October 10, 1910, the men employed on the Northern Railway went out on +strike. Before they did so they had a conference with the Prime +Minister and the Minister of Public Works, Millerand, requesting that +they try to arrange a meeting between the men and the officials of the +railway. The ministry offered its services to the railway directors, +but they refused to meet the strikers, although Briand had volunteered +to preside at such a meeting. The Prime Minister told the men firmly +that the government could not tolerate a suspension of railway +service, that it would exert its authority to prevent it, and that it +relied on the common sense and patriotism of the men to prevent it. + +However, the strike spread to other lines, including the state +railway. The men's demands were three: 1. A minimum wage of five +francs a day. 2. A revision of the railway pension act making the +pensions retroactive. 3. A weekly day of rest--the men had been +excluded from the "rest day" act when it was passed. + +Briand at once characterized the strike as political in motive and +revolutionary in character. In his mind the strike ceased to be merely +a question of the right to strike, but was a criminal outbreak, an act +of rebellion planned by a few revolutionary leaders and submitted to +by the rank and file without their even voting on the question. He was +greatly incensed at the sudden calling out of the men after the +government had received their representatives, and especially since +the railway companies had granted their request for a minimum wage and +had taken under advisement the other demands of the men. + +Five of the ringleaders were promptly arrested under dramatic +circumstances. They were attending a meeting in the office of +_L'Humanité_,[14] attended by Jaurès and Vaillant and other leaders of +the party. They were arrested under color of Sections 17 and 18 of the +law of 1845 dealing with railway traffic.[15] + +This law proved a powerful factor in checking the strike. Arrests were +made far and near. The energetic Prime Minister did not wait for acts +of violence; he anticipated them. Briand called out the reserves +(militia), and nearly all of the strikers were compelled to put on the +uniform. If they refused they were guilty of a serious offense; if +they obeyed they could no longer strike. + +The railways were run as in times of war, under military rigor. In +spite of these precautions acts of violence occurred, and _sabotage_ +was reported from various railway centers.[16] + +In one week the soldiery, under the determined minister, had done its +work. The strike was over. The government refused to reinstate about +2,000 men employed on the state railway. + +The strike committee issued a manifesto excusing the failure of the +strike, assuming the full responsibility for calling it, and affirming +that the government had "lowered itself to the level of the most +barbarous employer." + +The strike was hastily conceived, never had the sympathy of the +public, and the destruction of property was deplored even by the labor +unions, which, when it was all over, passed resolutions condemning +_sabotage_. The leaders of the Syndicalists, the plotters of the +strike, no doubt believed that the time was opportune. The Prime +Minister and two of his cabinet, Viviani and Millerand, were +Socialists, and a third member, Barthou, was a Radical who had as a +private member of the Chamber, a short time before his appointment to +the cabinet, vigorously defended the railway men's "right to strike." +But official responsibility had its usual effect.[17] + +Now began a series of dramatic events in the Chamber. The united +Socialists maintained that the men had a legal right to strike and +that the government had denied to French citizens their legal +privileges. Briand replied (October 25) that the strike had nothing to +do with the labor problem. The government, had been confronted with +"an enterprise designed to ruin the country, an anarchistic movement +with civil war for its aim, and violence and organized destruction for +its method"; and he had treated it as a rebellion, not as a strike. +The government, he said, had evidence of a well-laid plot for +_sabotage_; and the Syndicalist idea of liberty he characterized as a +"hideous figure of license." + +Millerand (October 27) characterized the strike as a "criminal +enterprise," and the _saboteurs_ as "criminals" guilty of "a +revolutionary mobilization with a political object." For the +Socialists Bouveri, a miner, replied. He defended bomb-throwing and +_sabotage_; asked the Minister of War if, in case of invasion by a +foreign foe, he would not blow up the bridges; and said the strikers +were engaged in a social war and had the same excuse for destroying +property. + +The climax of the debate came October 29, when Briand, turning to the +Socialists, said: "I am going to tell you something that will make you +jump (que vous faire bondir). If the government had not found in the +law that which enabled it to remain master of the frontiers of France +and master of its railways, which are the indispensable instruments of +the national defense; if, in a word, the government had found it +necessary to resort to illegality, it would have done so." + +No words can describe the disorder of the scene that followed this +challenge. Cries of "Dictator!" "Resign!" were mingled with catcalls +and hisses. Finally Jaurès was heard in bitter rebuke of his former +comrade. Viviani answered Jaurès; they had fought together the battles +of the workingman and would do so still "if Socialism had not adopted +the methods of _sabotage_, of anti-patriotism, and of anarchy." + +A few weeks later Briand and his cabinet resigned, although sustained +by a majority of the Chamber. But President Fallières immediately +requested the dauntless Prime Minister to form a new cabinet. In his +new program he included measures that would greatly strengthen the +arms of the government in times of strikes, punishing _sabotage_ by +heavy fines and penalties, penalizing the public railway servant for +striking, and contemplating an elaborate system of conciliation boards +patterned after Millerand's plan. + +These rigorous suggestions increased the flame of hatred against him, +and his life was threatened. Nothing daunted, he proceeded in his +warfare against the C.G.T., which he denounced as a handful of +plotters exercising a wicked tyranny over Socialists and workingmen. +Finally, February 27, 1911, he resigned, refusing to hold office by +the sufferance of the reactionary Right. The Socialists voted with +their enemies to dethrone their first Premier, whom they considered a +traitor to the course.[18] + +So ended one of the most significant episodes of modern political +history. Every government, especially every democratic government, +will within the next few decades be compelled to meet the railway +problem and the question of the relation of the government to its +state servants. + +Two important details in the Briand affair are of especial interest. + +First, the Prime Minister's attempt to project the authority of the +state into the contract relations of the railway employees and the +companies. Instead of hostility, Briand's plan might well have +deserved the support of the Socialists. For he was expanding the +functions of the state, was enlisting the power of society in behalf +of a contract that is of universal interest. + +Secondly, Briand's bill making it unlawful for a railway servant to +strike was quite as revolutionary as the C.G.T.'s contention that the +state had no right to interfere. Here, too, Briand was the Socialist +and the Socialists were the individualists; the one recognized the +paramount interests of society, the other saw only the interests of +the individual worker. Put to this test, French Socialism failed as +signally in theory as the violence, _sabotage_, and insubordination of +the C.G.T. failed in practice.[19] + + +V + +Who were these revolutionary labor leaders, this small handful of +plotters to whom Briand constantly alluded?[20] In order to understand +the Socialist movement in any country, both politically and +industrially, it is necessary to understand the organization of labor. +Socialism began as a class movement, and in every country it is +endeavoring to capture the labor organizations.[21] + +In no two countries are the relations quite the same. In the United +States the unions have traditionally kept out of politics altogether. +In Great Britain they refused to be busied with politics until a few +years ago, when the Labor Party was organized. Since then a number of +union men have identified themselves rather loosely with Socialism. In +Germany there is the closest co-operation between the party and the +unions, but not any organic unity. In Belgium the political and +economic organizations are virtually merged. + +In France the most interesting development has taken place. From the +Revolution until 1864 no labor organizations were allowed. The +National Assembly abolished all the trade guilds and corporations. The +_Loi le Chappelier_ forbade unions of workers and of masters, and the +_Code Napoléon_ imposed a penalty of imprisonment on those engaging in +unlawful combinations. In 1864 the criminal laws were revised, and +unions of twenty members were allowed. The law of 1884 left the way +untrammeled for their development.[22] + +Within a few years unions were formed everywhere.[23] In 1886 the +Guesdists organized the National Federation of Trade Unions, a +Socialist body of workers subordinated to the Workingman's Party. Soon +thereafter the Municipal Socialists, the Broussists, founded the Paris +Labor Exchange, built a large clubhouse for if, and succeeded in +getting an appropriation of 20,000 francs a year from the city for +its maintenance. Within ten years about fifty of these exchanges were +formed in as many cities, and about seventy per cent. of the union +members belonged to them. The object of these exchanges was +educational and benevolent. But they were soon made the hotbeds of +Socialistic politics. In 1892 they were all federated in the +Federation of Labor Exchanges (Fédération du Bourse du Travail). + +In 1895 Guesde's political adjunct, the National Federation of Trade +Unions, became extinct. The Blanquists then organized a new +federation, the notorious General Confederation of Labor +(Confédération Générale du Travail), commonly called the C.G.T. These +two bodies were bitter rivals, after the French fashion, until, in +1902, they amalgamated, retaining the name C.G.T.[24] The organization +is dual, retaining the benevolent activities of the local exchanges +and the trade activities of the local unions. These activities are +federated into national councils. The union of these councils forms +the central governing body of C.G.T. The organization allows a great +deal of local autonomy, but the central control is none the less +effective. In 1907 the C.G.T. claimed 350,000 members, in 1911 it +reported 600,000. + +This body of workmen is known for its violence. Within its ranks has +spread the doctrine known as revolutionary Syndicalism, a resurrection +of the spirit of Proudhonism in the body of labor unionism. Briefly +stated, it is class war in its most violent form without the aid of +parliaments and politics; with the enginery of the general strike, and +the spirit of universal upheaval and anarchy. It is the most effective +outbreak of Anarchism since the days of Bakunin. + +The intellectual revival of the doctrine of violence may be dated from +the appearance of Georges Sorel's book, _The Socialist Future of Trade +Unions_, in 1897, and the culmination of the tide in his volume +_Reflections upon Violence_, in 1908. + +For a movement so young Syndicalism has had a peculiarly expansive +literature, written by professors and journalists of the bourgeois +class, who live on respectable streets, receive you in comfortable +drawing-rooms, and from their upholstered ease display a fine zeal for +the oppressed proletariat.[25] + +It is not easy to classify Syndicalism, for it refuses to be called +Anarchism, repudiates the leadership of Socialism, and scorns to be +merely trade-unionism. The following are its principal characteristics: + +1. It is disheartened with Socialism because, it says, Socialists have +lost their ideals in the race for political power. Law-making is +useless, because no laws can emancipate the workingmen. It therefore +despises governments and abjures parliaments. But its ideals are +Socialistic; it believes "in reorganizing society on a communistic +basis, so that, with a minimum of productive effort, the maximum of +well-being will be obtained."[26] + +2. But repudiating governments and parliaments, they say, does not +make them Anarchists. Syndicalists believe in local or communal +government. Their state is a glorified trade union whose activities +are confined to economic functions, their nation is a collection of +federated communal trade societies. When I went among them they were +especially solicitous that they should not be regarded as "mere +Anarchists." + +3. Syndicalism is not trade-unionism pure and simple, because its +method is violence and its ideal the industrial unit, not the trade or +craft unit. The weapon of Syndicalism is the general strike. A +circular issued by the executive committee in 1898 defined the general +strike as "the cessation of work, which would place the country in the +rigor of death, whose terrible and incalculable consequences would +force the government to capitulate at once. If it refused, the +proletariat, in revolt from one end of France to the other, would be +able to compel it." Sorel says that "revolutionary Syndicalism +nourishes in the masses the desire to strike, and it can thrive only +in places where great strikes, occupied with acts of violence, have +taken place."[27] The strike committee of the C.G.T. in 1899 +proclaimed the general strike as "the only practical method through +which the working class can fully liberate itself from the +capitalistic and governmental yoke." The general strike includes the +boycott, _sabotage_, and all kindred forms of violence.[28] + +4. Syndicalism revives the old revolutionary methods of conspiracy, of +a dominant minority swinging the masses into line; "a conscious +minority, which, through its example, sets the masses in motion and +drives them on."[29] There are plots, underground manoeuvers, and +sudden outbursts. An air of mystery pervades their spectacular +uprisings. In order to accomplish their purpose there must be a +solidarity of labor. But this unity is the result of the energy of the +"conscious few," not of the assertive many. + +5. Finally, Syndicalism proclaims that democracy is a "fraud" +perpetrated upon the workingmen by the property-owning bourgeois; +representative government and majority rule is to them merely a polite +form of tyranny, and patriotism a farce. Potaud says: "Patriotism can +only be explained by the fact that all patriots without distinction +own a part of the social property, and nothing is more absurd than a +patriot without a patrimony." + +"We workingmen will have none of these little fatherlands! Our country +is the international world!" cried Yvetot to the post-office strikers +in Paris. + +They regard the soldiers with enmity. At the national congress at +Amiens, 1906, they resolved that the "anti-military and anti-patriotic +propaganda should be promulgated with the greatest zeal and +audacity."[30] + +Syndicalism is the extreme pessimism of the laboring class. It reached +its height about 1907-1908. Portions of France were terrorized, more +by its extravagant language than by its overt acts. There was no limit +to their superlatives. "Rip up the bourgeois!" "Turn your rifles on +your officers!" "Cut buttonholes in the skins of the bourgeois!" were +familiar battle-cries. There was so much talk about putting vitriol +into coffee, ground glass into bread, pulling the fire-plug out of +engines, that finally language came to mean nothing. + +The "new commune" thought it was coming into reality with the +post-office and railway strikes. We have seen how these outbreaks were +met by a Radical government. Since then their ardor has cooled, and +their adjectives grown flabby. They are now devoting themselves to +organization. + +Anti-militarism does not mean merely opposition to standing armies. +All Socialists are opposed to the maintenance of armaments. +Anti-militarism is opposition to all force used by the state to assert +its sovereignty. This includes the police and constabulary as well as +the army, and courts and parliaments as well as the navy. Since +soldiers and policemen are servants of the state, and since the state +is the expression of nationalism, the anti-militarist concludes that +his supreme enemy is the nation, the master of the soldier. +Anti-militarism is the forerunner of anti-patriotism. + +In 1906 this doctrine was so rampant that, on May Day, an uprising was +feared in Paris. A prophet had arisen, proclaiming the most extreme +doctrines of anti-patriotism. This was Gustave Hervé, a teacher of +history from Auxerre. He had spoken the suitable word, and became +famous overnight: "The French flag arose from dirt!"; and to the +peasantry he shouted, "Plant your country's flag in the barnyard +dung-heaps!" He came to Paris and started a daily paper, _La Guerre +Sociale_. Syndicalists and Socialists flocked to his standard, and +even Jaurès was compelled to acknowledge his influence.[31] + +Hervé has a simple remedy for militarism: "The way to stop war is to +refuse to fight." He exhorts his fellow-Socialists to join the army, +but fire on their commanders, not on their comrades. He was arrested +several times for these utterances and the overt acts that they +aroused. Some years ago a Parisian workingman was arrested for an +offense against public morals. He protested his innocence and, when +released, in revenge killed a policeman. He was promptly executed. +Hervé used the occasion for an onslaught upon the government in his +paper. He said: "If the working class would display one-tenth of the +energy that this workman displayed, the social revolution would not be +long in coming." For his imprudence he was imprisoned for a term of +four years.[32] His influence is waning, but the words he and his +following have planted in the hearts of the conscripts may bear some +strange fruit.[33] + + +VI + +While the French Socialists have been prolific in the developing of +factions and theories, they have been slow at achieving practical +results. As early as 1887 they acquired considerable power in Paris. +They contented themselves with establishing a labor exchange and +extending a few municipal charities. + +The local program, as outlined at Lyons, included: the feeding of +school children; an eight-hour day and a fixed minimum wage for +municipal employees; the abolition of the "_octroi_"; sanitary +regulations for workshops and factories; abolition of private +employment bureaus; establishment of homes for the aged; maternity +hospitals; free medical attendance for the poor; free public baths; +sanitaria for children of workmen; free legal advice for workingmen; +pensions for municipal employees; and the publication of a municipal +bulletin giving record of all the votes cast by the councilors.[34] + +In 1892 a number of important cities were won by the Socialists, and +in September of that year the first convention of Socialist municipal +councilors was held at Saint-Ouen. The discussions were filled with +revolutionary phraseology. In a few years the ideas of violence were +discarded for more practical issues. In 1895, when the municipal +convention met at Paris, the time was largely given over to the +question of organizing the municipal public service, public hygiene, +etc. + +In Lille the Socialists began their administration of local affairs by +raising the budget from 740,000 francs in 1897 to 1,019,000 francs in +1899. Free industrial education was established for the working +people; a municipal theater was opened; school children were fed and +clothed; and an attempt was made to regulate the length of the working +day and fix a minimum wage for municipal employees. At Dijon the +feeding and clothing of school children was regulated by the amount of +wages earned by the parents. Free medical aid was provided, and a +drug-store was induced to sell medicines to the poor at reduced cost. +The local labor exchange was voted an appropriation from public funds. + +These illustrations show the general trend of municipal Socialism in +France. The results are not numerous. But the French Socialists +justify their meager practical results by pointing to the centralized +system of administration which enables the prefect and other +administrative officers to veto many of the acts of the municipal +councils. The first thing that the Socialists attempted to do in their +towns was the readjustment of the finances for the benefit of the +working classes. Their acts were vetoed on the ground that they were +_ultra vires_. The attempt to fix a minimum wage for municipal +employees met the same fate. Then the municipalities petitioned the +central government for greater financial autonomy. This was denied. In +Roubaix the opening of a municipal drug-store was disallowed by the +prefect on the ground that the corporations act does not grant that +power to municipalities. Municipal bakeries met the same fate. During +the last few years, however, the rigor of the central administration +has relaxed and the towns are allowed greater liberty in municipal +affairs. + +Under the circumstances it is perhaps little wonder that French +municipal Socialism is a poor housekeeper. You look in vain for the +high ideals of the Socialist evangelist. If you visit the towns where +Socialism abounds you will be told that the Socialists have spent more +money on the poor than their predecessors. You will find better +nurseries for the babies of the working mothers, meals and stockings +doled out to school children of the poor, here and there a physician +or a lawyer retained by the town to render free service to the working +people. On inquiry you will find that the soldiers are drawing +increased pensions, the widows and orphans of the workingmen are +especially provided for, and that bread is delivered to the needy at +the door so they need not go ask for it, need not be beggars. + +You are impressed that these proletarian town governments are trying +to destroy poverty. Their ideal is noble, but some of their efforts +are very crude. + +The French Socialists are not by any means a unit on the municipal +question. In 1911 it was the principal question discussed at their +national convention at Saint-Quentin. Professor Millhaud of the +University of Geneva, in a very clear and able speech, pointed out the +merits of municipalization, citing the ownership of street railways, +gas, waterworks, garbage plants, and other public utilities of +European and American cities. He included municipal drug-stores, the +feeding and clothing of school children, the establishing of +playgrounds, and many other municipal activities familiar to American +practice, in his local Socialistic program. + +His exposition met with the approval of the Jaurès faction. But the +Guesdists were not satisfied. "Who would benefit by cheap municipal +gas?" cried a delegate from the rear of the hall. "The rich man, for +he needs a great deal of gas to light up his big house. But what +laboring man needs gas? When has he time to read? In the evening he is +too tired, and he gives no receptions." Guesde maintained with great +vehemence that municipal ownership and state ownership are not +Socialism; they may be a step toward Socialism, but often result in +substituting the tyranny of the state for the tyranny of the private +employer. + +The convention adopted a municipal program after a prolonged +discussion that brought out clearly the fact that the Guesdists are +not devoted to state or municipal ownership as a principle, but only +as a means to a greater end. + +During the last few years a very important movement has been taking +place among the peasantry of southern France. Under the leadership of +Compère-Morel, a gardener and member of the Chamber of Deputies, +Socialism is spreading rapidly among these small and independent +landowners. There are several million of these thrifty peasants in +France, and their acquisition to Socialism will mean, not only a great +increase in political power, but a modification of their theory of +property. The Socialists are luring the small land-holder by telling +him that they are with him in his fight against the large estates. +They assure the peasant that they have no designs upon his small +holdings. It is the _great_ property, not merely property, that is the +object of their hostility.[35] + +There are other evidences that French Socialism is mellowing. Most of +its leaders are bourgeois. Of the seventy-six united Socialists in the +present Chamber, only thirty are workingmen, or trade-union officials; +eight are professors in the University or secondary schools; seven are +journalists; seven are barristers; seven are farmers; six are +physicians; three are school teachers; and two are engineers. This +does not suggest class war. + +Socialism is a power in French politics. An observer who moves among +the middle class wonders how much of a power it is in French life. The +Radical Party would be considered Socialistic in England or the United +States; half of it calls itself Socialist-Radical. It rules the +Republic from the Chamber of Deputies. Everywhere you hear the people +talking about collectivism, the nationalization of railways, of mines, +of vineyards, of docks, and ultimately of wheat-fields and +market-gardens. + +But the French are a nation of small farmers and shopkeepers who cling +to their property while they argue and vote for their radicalism and +Socialism. This is the duality of their temperament; they love +possessions and they love philosophical speculation. They keep their +fields and their little shops, and speculate about the new to-morrow. +They vote and debate with imaginative fervor; they pay taxes with +stolid commonplace silence. In measuring the strength of French +Socialism it is necessary to keep this in mind. Not that the +Frenchman does not take Socialism seriously. He takes it as seriously +as he takes monarchism or republicanism, and much more seriously than +he takes religion. There is only one thing he takes more +seriously--his property. + +That is why the Socialists number among their adherents all classes +and all conditions of men, from Anatole France, most fastidious of +literary aristocrats, to gaunt and hungry proletarians who infest the +cellars and garrets of ancient Paris. + +The French are, after all, the greatest of realists. They speculate in +dreams and delicate theories; but they never lose their grip on their +little farms and their little shops and the gold bonds of Russia. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] GEORGES WEIL, _Histoire du Mouvement Socialiste en France_, Paris, +1904, p. 220. + +[2] Other groups--the word party is hardly applicable in the French +Chamber of Deputies--are the reactionary Right; the republican +Conservatives, or Center; the Radical Left, or Liberals. + +[3] WEIL, _supra cit._, p. 276. + +[4] In France, when any one candidate for the Chamber of Deputies +fails to receive a majority of the votes cast, a second ballot is +taken, for the two receiving the highest number of votes + +[5] Quoted by ENSOR, _Modern Socialism_, pp. 48-55. See also a +collection of Millerand's speeches, _Le Socialisme Réformiste +Français_, Paris, 1903. + +[6] See "Manifeste 14 Juillet," 1899. + +[7] See _V^{me} Congrès Général des Organisations Socialistes Français +tenu à Paris du 3 au 8 Décembre. Compte-rendu sténographique +officiel_, 1900, p. 154 ff. + +[8] A partial report of the debate of the Bordeaux congress is given +in ENSOR'S _Modern Socialism_, pp. 163-184. + +[9] See A. LAVY, _L'Oeuvre de Millerand_, Paris, 1902, a sympathetic +account of his work; contains also extracts from his speeches and +state papers. + +[10] See the _Contemporary Review_, August, 1906, for a brief abstract +of this debate. + +[11] One of the first laws passed with the aid of the Socialist vote +was the "day of rest" law, commanding one day of the week as a day of +rest. It met the obstinate opposition of the Conservatives. The +operation of the law is of interest, and instructive. The workmen +naturally rejoiced over this increased leisure. The employers, on the +other hand, found themselves paying wages for hours in which no +service was rendered. They lowered the wages; the workmen resisted. +Finally the law was so amended as virtually to annul its effect, in +certain trades. The Socialists became irritated to the verge of +breaking their _entente_ with the Radicals. + +[12] Proceedings Chamber of Deputies, March 19, 1909. + +[13] During this agitation the teachers of the public schools, who had +formed a great number of associations, joined in the demand of the +Syndicalists. One of their number who had signed a vitriolic circular +was dismissed by M. Briand, the Minister of Education, and for a time +a strike of schoolmasters was threatened, but it did not materialize. + +[14] _L'Humanité_ is the leading Socialist daily of Paris. Briand had +written editorials for it in his "red" days. + +[15] These sections declare that the employment, or abetting or +instigating the employment, of any means of stopping or impeding +railway traffic is a crime; and if it has been planned at a seditious +meeting, the instigators are as liable to punishment as the authors of +the crime, even if they did not intend to provoke the destruction of +railway property. The penalties imposed are very severe. + +[16] Placards displayed the bitterness of the men. "For our vengeance +Briand will suffice" was read on the walls under flaming posters that +quoted fiery sentences from Briand's earlier speeches. + +[17] Viviani, Minister of Justice, resigned soon after the close of +the strike. He did not agree with Briand in his efforts to pass a law +making all railway strikes illegal. He said as long as railways were +private property men had the right to strike, but not to destroy +property. + +[18] Before his resignation, the old-age pension bill had passed the +Senate and thus became a law. The Socialists supported the bill; but +Guesde voted against it in spite of his party's instructions, because +labor was charged with contributing to the fund. The syndicalists were +also violently opposed to it because they believe the amount of the +pension is too small. + +[19] When in January, 1912, M. Poincaré was appointed Prime Minister, +he promptly invited Briand into his cabinet as vice-president and +Millerand as Minister of War. + +[20] The co-operative movement is spreading gradually throughout +France. There are two kinds of societies--the Socialist and the +independent. In 1896 there were 202 co-operative productive societies. +In 1907 there were 362. The following figures show the increase in the +number of co-operative stores: 1902--1,641; 1903--1,683; 1906--1,994; +1907--2,166. + +[21] The following table, compiled from the reports of the Minister of +Labor, shows the growth of the labor-union movement: + + Year Number of Number of + Unions Members + 1885 221 ... + 1886 280 ... + 1887 501 ... + 1888 725 ... + 1889 821 ... + 1890 1,006 139,692 + 1891 1,250 205,152 + 1892 1,589 288,770 + 1893 1,926 402,125 + 1894 2,178 403,430 + 1895 2,163 419,781 + 1896 2,243 422,777 + 1898 2,324 437,739 + 1899 2,361 419,761 + 1900 2,685 491,647 + 1901 3,287 588,832 + 1902 3,679 614,173 + 1903 3,934 643,757 + 1904 4,227 715,576 + 1905 4,625 781,344 + 1906 4,857 836,134 + 1907 5,322 896,012 + 1908 5,524 957,102 + + +[22] See _Journal of Political Economy_, March, 1909, for a +comprehensive article on French labor unions by O.D. SKELTON. + +[23] From the beginning there were two kinds of unions, named after +the color of their membership cards. The "yellows" are those pursuing +a policy of peace, and the "reds" are the militants. + +[24] The following figures show the increase of strikes since the +organization of the C.G.T.: + + Years Average Average + Number Number Average Number + of Strikes of Strikers of Days Idle + 1890-1898 379 71,961 1,163,478 + 1899-1907 855 214,660 3,992,976 + + +[25] The doctrines of Syndicalism may be found in the writings of +Georges Sorel. Also in the following: POUGET, _Les Bases du +Syndicalisme_; GRIFFUELHS, _L'Action Syndicaliste_, and _Syndicalisme +et Socialisme_; POUGET, _La Parti du Travail_; POTAUD and POUGET, +_Comment nous ferons la Révolution_; PAUL LOUIS, _Syndicalisme contre +l'État_. + +[26] POUGET, _The Basis of Trade Unionism_, a pamphlet issued in 1908. + +[27] _Réflexions sur la Violence._ + +[28] See YVETOT, _A B C du Syndicalisme_, Chap. V. This pamphlet is +issued by the C.G.T. + +[29] Statement of Strike Committee C.G.T., 1899. + +[30] "In every state, the army is for the property owner; in every +European conflict, the working class is duped and sacrificed for the +benefit of the governing class, the bourgeoisie, and the parasites. +Therefore the XVth Congress approves and extols every action the +anti-military and anti-patriotic propaganda, even though it only +compromises the situation of all classes and all political parties." +See YVETOT, _A B C du Syndicalisme_, p. 84. + +[31] Hervé has written a history of France that has had considerable +vogue as a text-book in the public schools. He begins with the +significant year 1789; glorifies the violence, and praises the +Socialistic manifestations and the heroism of the revolutionists, that +have made the past century one of turmoil and perpetual commotion. +This book is a sample of the reading given into the hands of the +children of the Republic. I was told, upon careful inquiry, that a +large number of the primary and secondary school teachers are +Socialists. Thiers, before he became President, while still a +functionary of monarchy, objected to the establishment of government +schools in every village, because, he said, he did not want "a red +priest of Socialism in every town." To-day he would find these "red +priests" everywhere. They have even organized _syndicats_ and joined +the C.G.T. + +[32] When I called upon him in the Prison Santé he told me that he was +as sincerely opposed to military measures as ever; but that it would +be a long time before the people would regard all mankind, rather than +a single ethnic group, as the object of their patriotism. Pointing to +the grim walls of his prison, he said, "Vive la République! Vive la +Liberté!" + +[33] Syndicalism and anti-militarism have spread to Spain and Italy. +But they have not found favor among the phlegmatic North-European +countries. + +[34] See STEHELIN, _Essais de Socialisme Municipal_, 1901. + +[35] See _Les Paysans et le Socialisme_, a speech delivered by +Compère-Morel, in the Chamber of Deputies, December 6, 1909. Also +published in pamphlet form by the Socialist Party. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY + + +I + +In Belgium the physical, political, and economic environment is suited +to a symmetrical development of Socialism. It is a small country, "at +the meeting-point of the three great European civilizations," +Vandervelde, the leader of the Belgian Socialists, has pointed out. +And his boast is true that the Belgian Socialists have absorbed the +leading characteristics of the social movement in each of these +countries. "From England Belgian Socialists have learned self-help, +and have copied their free and independent organizations, principally +in the form of co-operative societies. From Germany they have adopted +the political tactics and the fundamental doctrines which were +expressed for the first time in the 'Communist Manifesto.' From France +they have taken their idealistic tendencies, and the integral +conception of Socialism, considered as an extension of the +revolutionary philosophy and as a new religion, an extension and a +realization of Christianity." + +This threefold growth would have been impossible if the environment +had not been favorable. The Belgian population is congested into +industrial towns that are thickly strewn over the country, like the +suburbs of one vast manufacturing community. These working people have +always been miserably housed and poorly fed. In 1903-05 a public +inquiry into housing conditions was instituted in Brussels. In the +most congested portions of the city, 564 households, comprising 2,224 +persons, lived in one-room tenements. The houses were in miserable +condition. + +The commission appointed after the riots of 1886 describes conditions +that are little better than those that prevailed in England in 1830. +Even as late as 1902, out of 750,000 working men and women one-tenth +only worked less than ten hours a day; the rest worked from ten to +twelve hours. One-fourth of these working people had a wage of 2 +francs (40 cents) a day, another fourth had 2 to 3 francs (40 to 60 +cents) a day, and the upper section only 3.50 to 4.50 francs (70 cents +to 90 cents) a day. The government inquiry in 1896 disclosed the +following rate of wages: + + 170,000 persons received less than 2 fr. (40c.) a day. + 172,000 persons received less than 2-3 fr. (40-60c.) a day. + 160,000 persons received less than 3-4 fr. (60-80c.) a day. + 102,000 persons received more than 4 fr. (80c.) a day.[1] + +In the low countries where agriculture is the leading occupation, +conditions are no better. The peasant is poor; the conditions of +tenancy hard, though recent legislation has modified them somewhat in +the tenant's favor; and the holdings small. Agricultural wages are +very low. The men in the Flemish district receive an average of 1.63 +francs (33 cents) a day, without board, or about .90 francs (18 cents) +with board. The women receive 1.06 francs (21 cents) without board and +.64 francs (12-1/2 cents) with board.[2] + +Here, then, is a population of industrial and peasant workers who are +barely able to make a living, who have little time and less +opportunity for education and general development. The percentage of +illiteracy is very great; and is equaled only by the most backward +countries of southern Europe. In 1902, out of every 1,000 militiamen, +101 were entirely illiterate; in France, 46; in England, 37; in +Holland, 23; in Switzerland, 20; in Denmark, .08; in Germany, .07. In +1909 Rowntree estimated the illiteracy in the four largest Belgian +cities to be 11.75 per cent.; in the Flemish communes, 34.69 per +cent.; and in the Walloon communes (excepting Liège), 17.34 per cent. + +Outward circumstances have not been wanting to arouse this teeming +population into violent discontent. The government for years paid no +heed to their misery, and the Church, which is very powerful in +Belgium, was content to distribute charity and consolation, and to +admonish the employer to patriarchal care for his men. + +The national status of the country is guaranteed by the powers; there +is no fear of invasion and no need for the intolerable military +burdens that weigh down the great countries of Europe. There have been +no international complications. This little country, with its clusters +of thriving towns, its mines, farms, and seaports, could settle down +contentedly to its daily tasks like a large family. + +The great manufacturers and industrial leaders took even less interest +in the welfare of the working people than the state or the Church. No +one seemed to care how the worker fared, and when he himself learned +to care the first reactions were violent. + +We will limit ourselves, in this inquiry, to the political development +of the labor movement. + +Belgium is a constitutional monarchy. The Constitution, provides for a +parliament composed of the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives, +both elected by the people, the Representatives by direct, the +Senators by indirect, elections. The King has the veto power and the +power to prorogue parliament. A general election follows prorogation, +in which the whole membership of Senate and House are elected. The +communes are governed by elective communal councils. + +From the establishment of the constitution, in 1831, there have been +two leading political parties--the Clerical or Catholic, and the +Liberal. The Clerical Party has been not merely conservative, it has +been reactionary. It clings not only to monarchic prerogatives, but to +ecclesiastical supremacy. This medieval policy it imposed upon school +and government and Church. The party has until very recently been in +the majority. It is strongest in the low counties, among the +agricultural Flemings. When the activity of the Socialists and +Radicals forced the question upon the country, a "left" wing of the +party began to interest itself in the laboring man, through the +traditional methods of the Church, rather than by means of state +interference. + +The Liberal Party is a protest, not only against the predominant +influence of the Church in political affairs, but also against the +financial policies of the Conservatives. The Liberals early espoused +the cause of free schools, modified tariffs, greater local autonomy, +and liberal election laws. + +The election laws confined the electorate to the few property-holders +and professional men of the country. In 1890, out of 1,800,000 male +citizens, 133,000 were qualified electors. + + +II + +These were the conditions that prevailed when the Socialists quite +suddenly appeared on the scene. There had been a Socialist propaganda +for years in Belgium. Brussels was a city of refuge to many fleeing +revolutionists of 1848. In 1857 a labor union was organized among the +spinners and weavers of Ghent. The same year Colin published his book, +_What Is Social Science?_ This volume prepared the way for the +remarkable collectivist movement, which was stimulated into modern +activity by Anselee, a workingman of Ghent and organizer of the +Vooruit Co-operative Society. Cæsar de Paepe, a disciple of Colin and +a man of remarkable intellectual endowments, tried to bring unity to +the Belgian movement. But the factionalism was not cast aside until +1885, when the Belgian Labor Party (Parti Ouvrier Belge) was +organized. + +Now Socialists of all factions were drawn together. But, unlike +Socialists in other countries, they did not expend their energies on +political action. The Belgian labor movement had a threefold +origin--the co-operative movement of Colin, the labor-union movement, +and the Socialistic or political movement of de Paepe. These three +activities, united in the Labor Party, have continued to develop, +until they are a model for Socialists in all countries. + +The organization of the party is simple. The various organizations are +federated into large groups, e.g., the co-operative group, each with +a separate organization. The provinces and communes have their local +committees for each separate activity. Over the entire party sits a +general council (conseil général). An executive committee of nine is +chosen from this council, and this committee has practical control of +the party. The annual convention is the supreme authority. It elects +the general council and decides, in democratic fashion, all important +questions of policy and activity. Every constituent organization, such +as the co-operative societies, etc., contributes from its funds to the +support of the party. The party is therefore a federation of many +societies with various activities, not a vast group of individual +voters, as the German Social Democracy. Its solidarity is not +individual, but federal. + +The organization of the Labor Party proved a stimulus to all the +constituent societies. From 1885 to 1895 over 400 co-operative +societies were formed, and within a few years 7,000 mutual aid +societies were organized. The membership of the labor unions increased +from less than 50,000 in 1880 to 62,350 in 1889, and nearly 150,000 in +1905. + +The Socialist movement had now achieved solidarity, and was prepared +to enter into a conflict for power. Its issues were two: universal +suffrage and free secular education. The second was necessarily +included in the first; for without parliamentary power it would be +impossible to secure liberal educational laws, and without a liberal +franchise it would be impossible to get parliamentary power. All their +political energies were therefore devoted to the reform of the +election laws. + +It is in this activity that the Belgian movement forms for our +purpose one of the most instructive chapters of European Socialism. +Here is a proletarian horde deprived of participation in government in +a constitutional monarchy, struggling toward political recognition. It +is armed with all the weapons of militant Socialism: a revolutionary +tradition; a national history rich in mob violence, street brawls, and +conflicts with police and soldiers; possessed of a well-organized +party, a class solidarity, and capable and courageous leaders who are +willing to go, and do go, to the extreme of the general strike and +violence in order to achieve their goal. + +In short, here we have the Socialist political ideal working itself +from theory into reality through class struggle. But there is the +usual important modification of the Marxian conditions; viz., the +liberal bourgeois prove a potent ally to the Socialists in the press +and on the floor of the Chamber of Representatives. While the +Socialists were surging in vehement earnestness around the Parliament +House, the Liberals were as earnestly pleading their cause within. + +The definite fight for universal suffrage began a few years before the +organization of the Labor Party. In 1866 a group of workingmen issued +an appeal to their fellows to begin the battle for the ballot. In 1879 +the Socialists issued a manifesto which stated the case as follows: +"'All powers are derived from the nation; all Belgians are equal +before the law,' says the Constitution of 1831. + +"In reality all powers are derived from a small number of privileged +ones, and all the Belgians are divided into two classes--those who are +rich and have rights, and those who are poor and have burdens. + +"We wish to see this inequality vanish, at least before the +ballot-box. For the most numerous class of society ought to be +represented in the Chamber of Representatives, because the people +whose daily bread depends upon the prosperity of the country should +have the power to participate in public affairs. + +"Constitutions are not immutable, and what was solemnly promulgated on +one occasion may, without revolution, be altered on another."[3] + +The proclamation then proceeded to call a meeting at Brussels for the +following January (1880). At this meeting it was decided to circulate +a monster petition asking Parliament to pass a liberal election law +and to organize a demonstration to be held in Brussels the following +summer. In this, the first of a long series of demonstrations, about +6,000 persons from various parts of the kingdom paraded the streets of +the capital. There was a clash with the police, and a number of +arrests were made. From 1881 to 1885 the Liberals tried to persuade +the Clericals to agree upon a constitutional revision; and the +Socialists brought to bear upon them all the pressure of the streets. +But the Clericals were firm. Then the Socialists tried another +manoeuver. They issued a manifesto "to the people of Belgium," +complaining of the dominion of the Church over education, the dominion +of a few families over the nation, and the failure of the government +to grant liberty to the people. "The hour has come for all citizens to +rally under the republican flag." + +Instead of a republican uprising, something more significant and +potent occurred; the Labor Party was organized, welding together all +the forces of discontent and unifying their demands into a protest so +strong that the government was finally compelled to yield. Not, +however, until it had exhausted almost every resource of resistance. + +The party was organized just in the crux of time. A financial crisis +was beginning to increase the hardships of the industrial classes. The +unrest was intensified by an ingenious piece of propagandist +literature, a _Workingman's Catechism_ (_Catechism du Peuple_), +written by a workingman. Two hundred thousand copies in French and +60,000 in Flemish were scattered among the discontented people. Its +influence was wonderful. A few questions will indicate the power that +lay behind its simple questions and answers. + + _Question._ "Who are you?" + + _Answer._ "I am a slave." + + _Q._ "Are you not a man?" + + _A._ "From the point of view of humanity I am a man, but in + relation to society I am a slave." + + _Q._ "What is the 25th article of the Constitution?" + + _A._ "The 25th article of the Constitution says: 'All power is + derived from the nation.'" + + _Q._ "Is this true?" + + _A._ "It is a falsehood." + + _Q._ "Why?" + + _A._ "Because the nation is composed of 5,720,807 inhabitants, + about 6,000,000, and of this 6,000,000 only 117,000 are + consulted in the making of laws." + +And so through every grievance, social, economic, and political. Every +workman learned his catechism. Those who could not read gathered in +groups around their more fortunate comrades and listened to the +effective questions and answers. + +By the beginning of 1886 the little land was a seething caldron of +political and economic unrest. The strike movement began at Liège and +soon spread to Charleroi and other industrial centers. There was +enough destruction of property and clashing with police and soldiery +to create a panic in the country. In Brussels business was at a +standstill for days. The Socialist Party, in a circular issued to the +people, said: "The country is visited by a terrible crisis. The +disinherited classes are suffering. Strikes are multiplying, riots are +provoked by the misery. The constantly decreasing wages are spreading +consternation everywhere." + +The disorder aroused a number of Anarchists in Brussels. They posted +anonymous placards inciting the people to violence. The Socialists +repudiated the Anarchists, and one of their orators said: "Do not let +yourselves be carried away by violence; that will only benefit your +adversaries." + +A mass demonstration was planned, but the mayor of Brussels prohibited +it. The Labor Party, however, were allowed to hold their annual +convention and to march under their red flag, the government merely +requesting that the demonstrants refrain from shouting, "Vive la +République!" Thirty thousand laboring men joined in the demonstration. +The Liberals and Radicals refused to take part in it because they +claimed it was only a workingman's movement, and the Anarchists +refused because "elections lead to nothing." This demonstration was so +serious and imposing that it made a deep impression upon the people, +and was not without effect upon the government. + +The crisis finally passed over. A great many rioters were imprisoned +in spite of the popular clamor for universal amnesty. The general +strike brought no immediate advantage to the workmen. + +The next few years the Socialists devoted to organization. They were +determined not to enter upon extended strikes again without thorough +preparation. In the meantime the Liberal Party split. The Radicals, or +Progressists, at their first congress in 1877 declared themselves in +favor of the separation of Church and state, military reform, +compulsory education, social and electoral reform. They were, however, +not yet prepared to commit themselves to universal suffrage. They +favored rather an educational test for voters. This, however, they +abandoned in 1890, and virtually placed themselves upon the Socialist +platform. + +On August 10, 1890, another great demonstration in favor of universal +suffrage took place in Brussels. Over 40,000 men joined in the parade. +The Progressists did not take part in the marching, but they were +stationed along the route to cheer the men in line. Before they +dispersed, all the participants united in taking a solemn oath that +they would not give up the fight "until the Belgian people, through +universal suffrage, should regain their fatherland." This is the +famous "Oath of August 10." + +After this demonstration the Progressists joined with the Socialists +in a conference for discussing ways and means for securing universal +suffrage.[4] This conference is notable because it drew Radicals, +Progressists, and Socialists into a united campaign for suffrage +reform. The conference resolved to organize demonstrations in every +corner of the kingdom and to memorialize Parliament. This was to be a +final peaceful appeal. If it remained unheeded a general strike would +follow. The bourgeois Progressists assented to this ultimatum. + +A few days before the Socialist-Progressist conference met, a clerical +social congress had convened at Liège. The agitation of the Labor +Party had at last aroused the Conservatives. The resolutions of this +conference were pervaded by the traditional apostolic paternalistic +spirit of the Church. It demanded social reform, amelioration of harsh +conditions, state arbitration, industrial insurance; but it set its +face against universal suffrage. On the wings of an awakened +conservatism it tried to ride the whirlwind of Socialism. + +But no halfway measures would now placate the agitators. The great +mass of Belgian workmen were aroused, and nothing but the ballot would +satisfy them. + +A propaganda was begun in the army. The enlistment laws were favorable +to the rich, who could purchase freedom from military service. The +poor conscripts were especially susceptible to the Socialist +propaganda. + +In the autumn of 1890 at the Labor Party's annual convention it was +suggested that, inasmuch as the parliament of the Few had not heeded +the wishes of the nation, a parliament of the People should be called, +to be composed of as many members as the existing parliament, but +chosen by universal suffrage. Even a program was proposed for this +fancied parliament. + +By this time the petitions prepared by the suffrage congress were +ready. In every arrondissement there were demonstrations. In Brussels +8,000 men marched to the city hall and handed the mayor their petition +protesting against the privileged election laws and demanding +universal suffrage. From every village in the kingdom protests were +brought to the government demanding universal suffrage. + +Finally on November 27, 1890, a Liberal member in the Chamber of +Representatives proposed a change in the Constitution enlarging the +electoral franchise. He explained the injustice of the limited +franchise, dwelt on the dangers of strikes and riots, and said that he +believed the Belgian workmen as capable of exercising the rights of +citizenship as those of neighboring countries. All parties agreed to +discuss the amendment. The debate held popular excitement in abeyance. +But as it became more and more evident that nothing would be done the +workingman became restive. Early in 1892 riots broke out in various +cities. The situation became acute. Socialists and Radicals organized +a popular referendum on the question. It was not an official +referendum, and its results were not binding. But it was an effective +method of propaganda, and in many of the communes the councils gave it +their sanction, thereby lending it the color of legality. + +Five propositions were submitted to the voters: (1) manhood suffrage +at twenty-one years; (2) manhood suffrage at twenty-five years; (3) +exclusion of illiterates and persons in receipt of public or private +charity; (4) household suffrage and mental capacity defined by law; +(5) the exclusion of all who have not passed an elementary educational +standard. As a rule the Clericals refused to participate in the +referendum. + +In Brussels, out of 72,465 entitled to vote only 38,217 voted, with +the following results: manhood suffrage at twenty-one years, 29,949; +manhood suffrage at twenty-five years, 5,253; all other propositions +together, 3,015. In Huy, out of 3,513 voters only 1,800 voted, and +1,700 of these were in favor of universal suffrage. In Antwerp, where +Liberals and Clericals are about evenly divided, only forty-three per +cent. of the electors voted, and of 18,701 votes cast, 15,704 were for +universal suffrage. + +This referendum, and all the demonstrations, had very little effect +upon parliament. The deputies were in favor of revision, but could not +agree upon a plan. The Radicals were in favor of universal suffrage, +the Clericals unalterably opposed to it, and the Liberals only +sympathetic towards it. + +Finally, in April, all the proposals were voted down by the Chamber of +Representatives. The Socialists immediately ordered a general strike. + +It began in the coal mines of Hainault, spread to the weavers and +spinners of Ghent, to the glass and iron works of the Walloon +districts, to the printers and pressmen of Brussels, and to the docks +at Antwerp. Two hundred thousand men stopped work in the course of a +few days. While the mills and mines were idle the police and soldiers +were busy. Six men were killed at Joliment, six killed and twelve +wounded at Mons. In Brussels the mob pried up the paving-stones for +weapons; the city guards patrolled the city, meetings were forbidden, +the streets were cleared of people, and the mayor was wounded in a +mêlée. A band of "communists" threw a barricade across Rue des +Eperonniers, the last of the barricades. The troops made short work of +it. Scores of arrests were made in the various cities and the +offenders received sentences varying from six years' imprisonment to a +fine of fifty francs. + +In the height of the excitement the Chamber of Representatives +convened and agreed upon a franchise amendment. Immediately the +general council of the Labor Party met and declared the strike off. It +sent out this pronouncement: "The Labor Party through its general +council records the insertion of manhood suffrage in the Constitution. +It declares that this first victory of the party has been won under +pressure of a general strike. It is resolved to persist in the work of +propaganda until it has won universal political equality and has +suppressed the plural voting privilege." + +The new electoral law (1893) was a compromise suggested by Professor +Albert Nyssens of the University of Louvain. It recognized the three +principal demands of the three parliamentary factions: universal +suffrage of the Radicals, property qualifications of the Clericals, +and educational qualifications of the Liberals. Universal suffrage was +granted to all male citizens twenty-five years of age. But this was +modified in favor of property and education by the granting of +additional votes. One additional vote was give (1) to every voter +thirty-five years of age who was the head of a family and paid a +direct tax of 5 francs (one dollar); (2) to every owner of real +property valued at 2,000 francs ($400.00), or who had an annual income +of 200 francs ($40.00) derived from investments in the Belgian public +funds. Two additional votes were given to the holders of diplomas from +the higher schools, to those who were or had been in public office, +and to those who practised a profession for which a higher education +was necessary. No one was allowed more than three votes. + +Whatever may be said of this fancy franchise, it is at least +ingenious. It satisfied the first popular hunger after the ballot. The +workmen could vote. The conditions imposed for the casting of two +votes seem very liberal and the majority of American voters could +qualify under them. But in Belgium, the land of low wages and +congested populations, they were real barricades. Nearly two-thirds of +the voters failed to reach even this low standard. + +Voting made compulsory. Election was by _scrutin de liste_.[5] + + +III + +Under these conditions the Socialists went into battle. There were +1,370,687 electors; 855,628 with one vote 293,678 with two votes, +223,380 with three votes. The Socialists polled 346,000 votes, the +Clericals 927,000, the Liberals 530,000. The new parliament was +composed as follows: Chamber of Representatives--Clericals, 104; +Liberals, 19; Socialists, 29; Senate--Clericals 71; Liberals, 21; +Socialists, 2.[6] + +From the first the Socialists in Belgium have not been reluctant in +making election arrangements with other parties. In this their first +election they united with the Progressists. In Brussels on the second +ballot they proposed terms to the Liberals, which were refused. The +Socialists, however, instructed their followers to vote against the +Clericals in every instance. Wherever there were no Radical or +Socialists lists they supported the Liberals.[7] + +The same widespread alarm that the first Socialist parliamentary +accessions aroused everywhere, was caused by these twenty-nine Belgian +Socialist representatives, especially as some of their number were +promoted from prison to parliament, and one striker was given his +liberty for the time being so that he could attend the session. +Vandervelde allayed popular apprehension when he announced the program +of his party, which combined with the usual labor legislation the +demand for the state purchase of coal mines, state monopoly of the +liquor business, and communal election reforms. The proposals of the +Belgian Socialists in parliament have invariably been practical, not +revolutionary or visionary. One of the first bills introduced by them +provided for the reduction of the stamp tax and the tax on the +transfer of property and leases. This tax was extremely high, nearly +seven per cent., and worked a peculiar hardship on the small tenant. +The bill failed of passage. But the government was so impressed by the +facts presented in debate that it brought in a law reducing the tax on +transfers for all small estates. + +It is by this indirect method, by their presence in the Chamber, and +by their powers in debate that the Belgian Socialists have achieved +many practical reforms. They have not the hauteur and aloofness of +the German Social Democrat, nor the fiery passion for idealistic +propaganda of the French; they are more sensible than either. Since +their entrance into parliament a Secretary of Labor has been added to +the cabinet, and every department of labor legislation has felt their +influence. The delegation is in constant touch with the party in the +various districts. An old-age pension act has been passed, great +reductions have been made in military expenditure, the conscript laws +have been modified, and the Socialists led in the opposition to the +Belgian policy in the Congo. + +Their two main contentions have been over the educational laws and the +electoral laws. A school law was passed by the Clericals in 1895. It +was regarded as reactionary by the Socialists, and stormy scenes +accompanied its enactment. Its provisions are still the source of +constant agitation among Socialists and Liberals. They protest +especially against the teaching of religion in the communal schools. +It is true that any parent may have his child excused from attending +such instruction for reasons of conscience on written application to +the proper authorities. But they insist that this subjects the +objecting parent to harsh treatment in Clerical communities.[8] + +The provincial and communal election laws were less favorable to the +Socialists than the national law. In 1895 the government brought in a +new local election bill which fixed the voting age at thirty, +required three years' residence in a commune, and strengthened the +plural voting system by giving a fourth vote to the large +land-holders. The Socialists and Radicals united in contesting 507 of +the communes (about one-fourth of the whole number). They won a +majority in eighty and a considerable minority in 180 of these +communal councils. Necessity had cemented the alliance of Radicals and +Socialists. The Radicals were now called "_Chèvre-choutiers_" because +they tried to carry the goat and the cabbage, Liberals and Socialists, +across the stream in the same boat. + +In 1899 the government brought in its new election bill in which it +proposed to concede to the demand for proportional representation. But +only the large constituencies were to be included in the change, +leaving the smaller districts, mostly in the Flemish section, to the +Clerical majorities that prevailed there. The measure was unpopular. +The people organized protests against it in every city in the land. In +Brussels a mob gathered in front of the Chamber of Deputies. +Paving-stones were ripped up and hurled through the windows, and there +was charging and counter-charging between police and populace. Inside +the Chamber the scene was not less tumultuous. The Socialists tried to +prevent business by mob tactics. Desk-lids were banged, there was +shouting and singing, one deputy had provided himself with a horn. The +government was compelled to adjourn the session. All that night (June +28) there was rioting in Brussels. When the Chamber met the following +day the wild scenes were re-enacted, when a Clerical deputy moved that +any member causing a disturbance be expelled. In the debate that +followed the government declared itself willing to adjourn and study +the various proposals of the opposition. This cooled the crowd waiting +outside the Chamber, and at Vandervelde's suggestion the mob quietly +dispersed. + +In the meantime the mayors of Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, and Liège +waited on the King and told him they would no longer be responsible +for the maintenance of order in their cities if the minister did not +withdraw the obnoxious electoral bill. The Liberals now joined the +Socialists and Radicals in their processions in every town, singing +their war-songs and carrying placards and banners of protest. + +All this had its effect on the government. A committee representing +all the groups in the Chamber was appointed to consider all the +proposals that had been introduced. Vandervelde, in supporting the +committee, said that he "spoke for the country that had so effectively +demonstrated its power and achieved a victory." Soon after this the +reactionary ministry fell, and the new government brought in a bill +providing uniform proportional representation for all the districts. +This bill was promptly enacted into law. + +The first general election under this law resulted as follows: + + Total vote cast 2,105,270 + Socialists 467,326, electing 32 deputies. + Clericals 995,056 " 85 " + Liberals 449,521 " 31 " + Radicals 47,783 " 3 " + Christian Democrats 55,737 " 1 " + +The Clerical majority was cut from seventy to eighteen and at last the +Liberal elements were hopeful of gaining the government and effecting +universal suffrage "pure and simple." + +We have now seen how popular agitation wrested, first, a law +permitting plural voting; second, a law permitting proportional +representation, from an unwilling government. The contest for +universal suffrage "pure and simple" has continued to the present day. +In 1901 the Labor Party at its congress at Liège decided to renew the +agitation in favor of universal suffrage, "even to the extent of the +general strike, and agitation in the streets, and not to cease until +after the conquest of political equality." Vandervelde introduced a +bill into the Chamber providing for "one man, one vote," and it was +defeated by a vote of 92 to 43. Immediately Vandervelde and the +Radical leader proposed a revision of the Constitution. The debate on +this motion continued until the spring of 1902. All the old spirit of +unrest and violence broke out anew. To the violence of protesting mobs +was added the coercive force of the general strike. Three hundred +thousand men stopped work and began demonstrating. Troops were called +out to guard the government buildings in Brussels and to hold the +crowds at bay in the provinces. In Louvain eight strikers were killed +by the soldiers, and in other localities there was bloodshed and +destruction of property. + +Finally the Chamber of Representatives voted to close the debate and +dismiss the question entirely for the session. The strike was declared +off and quiet restored. + +In the elections the following May the Socialists lost three seats. +This had its effect. A meeting of the party was called and it was +decided not to resort to further violence. A delegate from Charleroi, +the seat of the most tumultuous element in the party, expressed regret +that the Labor Party had compromised with the bourgeois parties in +calling off the strike. Vandervelde defended the action of the council +on the ground that the continuance of the strike threatened internal +dissensions because of the misery of the strikers and the violence of +the government. + +The party organ, _Le Peuple_, said on June 5, 1902: "We are no longer +in 1848. The days of barricades have gone by. The narrow little +streets of former years have expanded into wide avenues. The soldiers +are armed with Albinis and Mausers. Even if all the people were armed +it would only be necessary to plant a few cannon at strategic places +in the city to put down an insurrection in spite of the greatest +heroism of the insurgents."[9] + +Van Overbergh, in his history of the strike, says: "The period of +romantic Socialism in Belgium is past; the days of realism have +commenced."[10] And Bertrand, the historian, adds the reason: "Its [the +general strike's] effect was to keep down the vote. Even in the +elections of 1904 and 1906 the vote has remained quite stationary."[11] + +Whether this means the apotheosis of the general strike in Belgium +will depend no doubt upon circumstances, it is significant that the +words were uttered, and still more significant that political +coalition has taken the place of industrial warfare. The Liberals and +Radicals now plan with the Socialists. They no longer stand aside and +let the Socialists march, but they join step with them and carry +banners. + +The greatest of all Belgian demonstrations for universal suffrage and +free schools took place in August, 1911. In spite of the extreme +heat, nearly 200,000 Radicals, Liberals, and Socialists gathered in +the capital, "not so much to impress the government," a Socialist +leader said to me, "but to impress the people that we are in earnest, +and then to prepare for the coming elections." + + +IV + +It must not be inferred from this rapid survey of its warfare for +political privilege that Belgian Socialism has forgotten the +co-operative movement and all the various activities that were blended +in the making of the Labor Party. Belgian Socialism is primarily +economic. This makes it unique. It has succeeded in becoming economic, +in building dairies and bake-shops, in running dry-goods stores and +grocery stores and butcher shops, in the present dispensation; and it +has succeeded in doing so by accommodating itself to the present +conditions. It adopts the eight-hour day when it can, but it is not +averse to ten hours when necessary. It pays its employees the highest +wage it can, but it recognizes talent and ability like the bourgeois +shopkeeper across the street. It has insurance funds that draw +interest at the same rate that is paid by bourgeois banks, and it has +no scruples about putting the latest approved machinery into its +workshops and bakeries. + +In all this, their activities have remained Socialistic. They compete +with the bourgeois, but co-operate among themselves. The profits of +their activities go to the members of their societies and to the +party. Their competition has brought ruin to the door of many a +shopkeeper who finds his customers flocking to their own shop. +Government commissions have inquired into the movement at the nervous +requests of merchants and tradesmen, but only to find every +co-operative enterprise carefully conducted and thriving. + +The Belgian Socialist leaders all emphasize the importance of this +unity of economic and political activity, and the priority of the +economic over the political. It has been a splendid stimulant for the +Belgian workman. It has aroused him out of the lethargy that has been +his greatest enemy for years. It has taught him to work with others, +the value of mass movement, the futility of separateness. It has +schooled him, not only in reading and arithmetic, in the night classes +established everywhere; but in business, in weights and measures; in +percentage, in profit and loss; and most of all, in the real hardships +that meet tradespeople and commercial men everywhere in their endeavor +to get on. Workingmen often think that a business man is a necromancer +juggling profits out of other people's necessities. The Belgian +co-operativist has found out that trading is a commonplace and tedious +task which requires constant alertness and is merely the drudgery of +detail. This experience has taught him, moreover, the futility of laws +and the utility of effort. In Belgium I was impressed most of all by +the nonchalance, almost contempt, that the workman displays toward +mere legislation. "Why should I toy with words when I have this?" And +he points proudly to his co-operative store. + +The Belgian workman has been taught through his co-operative +experience the value of patient toil and frugality. Slowly he has +built up these institutions out of his own savings. When he thought +his scant wages were barely enough for bread, he discovered means +somehow to pay his dues in the "Mutualité." As an instance of his +thrift, he saves every year a little fund which is used by the family +for an annual holiday, usually a short excursion to a neighboring +place of interest. Every member of the family contributes to this +fund, and, no matter how poor, they look forward to their yearly +holiday. + +The Belgian Socialist has also been successful in another field. While +in other countries the Socialists have tried usually in vain to lure +the peasant and small farmer, the Belgians have made constant progress +in this direction. The agrarian movement began with the organizing of +the Labor Party.[12] + +Vandervelde and Hector Dennis, a Professor of Economics in the +University at Brussels, have been constant in their zeal for the +agrarian interests. Again, the lure is not Socialism in the abstract, +nor the gospel of discontent. It is practical, business co-operation. +Dairies, stores, markets are proving powerful propagandists, even in +the Catholic lowlands. Dr. Steffens-Frauenweiler quotes from a +conservative newspaper: "From different sides we have heard the remark +that Socialism would never penetrate into the country. In +contradiction to this opinion we must observe that those who express +this view, and presume to laugh away the Socialistic movement among +the peasants and farmers, are either not well informed or are +submitting themselves to illusions. Only a serious attempt to fight +Socialism through positive reforms will prove a lasting check upon the +ambitions of Socialists."[13] + +In Belgium the general strike has been used as an aid in the warfare +for political power. We have seen how the first strike was premature, +the second effective, and the third proved a boomerang in its reaction +upon the Labor Party. + +Vandervelde distinguishes between the general strike as a means toward +social revolution, and the general strike as a political weapon used +for securing a _definite_ object.[14] He says: "The revolutionary +general strike is itself the revolution. The reformist general strike, +on the contrary, is the attempt of the proletariat to secure partial +concessions from the government without questioning the existence of +the government, and especially the administration that represents the +government." To effect this, it is not essential that all the workmen +go out, but only enough to interrupt "the normal course of business, +even if the majority of the workers remain at work."[15] + +The political general strike has its example, then, in the Belgian +movement for the electoral franchise. Whether it would succeed in +wresting other political privileges from the state, is conjecture; +that it would not succeed except under the most favorable conditions, +is certain. + +The Belgian movement has displayed great absorptive powers and +facility of adaptation. It has absorbed all the labor activities of +the Radical and Socialist workmen. It has adapted itself to the +necessities of the hour, giving up the daydreams of intangible things. +In all this, it has displayed a saneness, in spite of its +revolutionary traditions and anarchistic blood.[16] It has the most +"modern" program of the European Socialist parties, and the most +worldly efficiency. + +In visiting one of the large workingmen's clubhouses found in the +cities, the visitor is impressed with the beehive qualities of the +Belgian movement. At the "Maison du Peuple" in Brussels--that was +built by these underpaid workmen at a cost of 1,000,000 francs--you +find activity everywhere. The savings-bank department is swarming with +women and children, come to conduct the business of the family. The +café, the headquarters of the party, the offices of the co-operative +societies, all are busy. In the evening there are debates, gymnasium +contests, moving-picture shows, classes for instruction in the +elementary branches, in art, and literature.[17] A temperance +movement, started by the workmen some years ago, has attained a great +deal of influence. Placards are on the walls of the clubhouses, +setting forth the evils of the drink habit. + +Or you visit a co-operative bakery or butcher-shop or grocery store, +and the same spirit of diligence, thrift, and reasonableness is there. +And you are quite convinced that here is Socialism approximating +somewhere near its ultimate form. If the Belgian Labor Party should +secure control of the government to-morrow it would be more competent +to assume the actual obligations of power than would the Socialists in +any other European country. For they have not built a structure in +mid-air, with merely an underpinning of more or less indifferent +theories. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _L'Enquête Gouvernementale_, Vol. XVIII. + +[2] _L'Annuaire Statistique._ + +[3] BERTRAND, _Histoire de la Démocratie et du Socialisme en Belgique +depuis 1830_, Vol II, p. 331. + +[4] This conference sent the following telegram to the King: "You have +asked what is the watchword of the country; the watchword is universal +suffrage." + +[5] The candidates are arranged in groups or "lists," and the voter +votes the list as well as for the individual names on the list. Any +100 electors may prepare such a list. The successful candidate must +receive a majority. This often necessitates a second ballot between +the two receiving the highest number of votes. + +[6] BERTRAND, _Histoire_, Vol. II, p. 552. + +[7] One of the significant incidents of this election was the contest +against Frère Orban, for thirty years a parliamentary leader and one +of the greatest politicians of his day. His seat was contested by an +obscure workingman, and the distinguished parliamentarian was +compelled to submit to the ordeal of a second ballot. + +[8] The Clerical forces are gradually retreating before the repeated +onslaughts of Liberals and Socialists. But the loyalty to the Church +remains undiminished. On May 17, 1901, a Clerical deputy remarked in +the Chamber that he would like to see the temporal power of the pope +restored. The Socialists immediately started an uproar which ended in +their singing their "Marseillaise" and the adjournment of the sitting. + +[9] BERTRAND, _Histoire_, II, p. 590. + +[10] _La Grève Générale Belge d'Avril_, 1902, Brussels, 1902. + +[11] _Histoire_, II, p. 592. + +[12] See DR. STEFFENS-FRAUENWEILER, _Der Agrar-Sozialismus in Belge_. + +[13] _Op. cit._, p. 37. + +[14] See an article by E. VANDERVELDE, "_Der General Streik_," in +_Archiv für Sozial-wissenschaft und Sozial-Politik_, Tübingen, May, +1908. The same article was published, same date, in _Revue du Mois_, +Paris. + +[15] _Supra cit._, p. 541. + +[16] Bakunin had a large following in Belgium during the days of the +"Old International," and Anarchists have never entirely ceased their +activities in the large cities. + +[17] On the walls of the "Maison du Peuple" you will find noble +paintings. Here labored Constantine Meunier, the sculptor, on his +notable "Monument au Travail." Three remarkable sections of this +monument, "La Mine," "L'Industrie," "La Glèbe," can be seen in the +Gallery of Modern Art, in Brussels. There are evidences everywhere of +the art interest of these alert working people. One of them, with +sincere indignation, pointed out to me the large pile of stone that +surmounts the heights of the city, the Palace of Justice, completed in +1883, and said its "bourgeois Babylonian hideousness is the high-water +mark of bourgeois taste in art and bourgeois power in politics." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY + + +I + +It is the constant complaint of the German Democrats that there is no +Liberal Party in Germany. The wars that repeatedly devastated the +country during past centuries drove property owners to seek the +protection of a strong, centralized government. This habit has +survived the centuries. Whenever the middle classes show signs of +breaking away from the conservatism of the "Regierung," the Prince +always finds a way of bringing them back. The Period of +Revolution--1850--ended in a compromise that ignored the workingmen +and virtually left absolutism on the throne. When the new era dawned, +and Bismarck, like a young giant, shaped the highways of empire, he +used the Liberals so adroitly that, when his national legerdemain was +accomplished, they were a broken and impotent faction, lost in the +conservative reaction of the hour. + +Universal suffrage for the Reichstag elections was written into the +Constitution of the new empire, not because the Chancellor and his +Prince loved democracy, but because the smaller states insisted upon +this safeguard against Prussian omnipotence. + +Democracy and Liberalism have never been strong enough to break the +fetters of national habit; and nearly all the democracy, certainly all +the workingman's democracy, in Germany to-day is found in the Social +Democratic Party. + +In order to understand the development of Social Democracy in Germany, +it is necessary to bear in mind the bureaucratic, autocratic, +paternalistic character of the German government.[1] + +It is the German governmental policy to do everything for the welfare +of its citizens that can be done; and, in return, it expects the +people to let the government alone. The medieval conception of class +responsibility survives. It is the attitude of a self-righteous parent +toward ignorant and wilful children. The government assumes the right, +and possesses the power, to regulate every phase of the citizen's +life, in domestic, industrial, educational, moral, and political +affairs. It is a regal survival of the theory that government is +omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. + +Germany is a made-to-order country that clings to medieval +conservatism in government; a country that is thoroughly modern in +industry and distinctly middle-age in caste; where the workingman has +always been treated with patronizing condescension and his political +acts watched with jealousy; and where he has, against great odds, +determined to work out his own salvation. Surrounded by preordained +and rigid conditions, he has perfected an organization that is the +most remarkable example of proletarian achievement found anywhere in +history. To the development and description of this organization we +will now address ourselves. + +German Social Democracy, while Marxian in theory, owes its active +existence to Ferdinand Lassalle, one of those brilliant and daring +geniuses who flash, in an hour of adventure, across the prosaic days +of history.[2] He was pronounced a _Wunderkind_ by William von +Humboldt; dashed his way through university routine; attracted the +friendship of poets, philosophers, and politicians; was lionized by +society; became a revolutionist in 1848, and was, at the age of +twenty-three, indicted for inciting a mob of Düsseldorf workingmen to +acts of violence. He defended himself in a brilliant speech which +launched him fully into the campaign of the workingman.[3] + +Early in his career he volunteered to defend the cause of the Countess +Hatzfeldt, whose unfaithful husband was squandering his estates and +suffering her to live in want. Lassalle fought the case through +thirty-six courts for nine years, and won an ample fortune for the +countess, who became the main financial support of Lassalle's +campaigns. + +After his first arrest, Lassalle was kept under vigilance by the +government. But finally, through the interposition of distinguished +friends, he was allowed to return to Berlin. There, in 1862, he +delivered a series of addresses that soon brought him into conflict +with the police. His defense in the court was published later under +the title, _Science and the Workingman_. This he followed with a +letter, _Might and Right_,[4] sent broadcast over the land. + +In these two publications he succinctly enunciated his theory of +democracy: "With Democracy alone dwells right, and in Democracy alone +will might be found. No person in the Prussian state to-day has the +right to speak of 'rights,' except the Democracy, the old and true +Democracy. For Democracy alone has constantly clung to the right, and +has never lowered herself by compromising with might."[5] + +In the political turmoil of that period, when new forces were +awakening to their power and feudalism, conservatism, Cobdenism, and +democracy were all contending for supremacy, there were three +predominating currents of thought. The first was naturally the feudal, +the absolutist that would put down by the police power, and failing in +that by the soldiery, every attempt at changing the organization of +the government. This was embodied in the reactionary, or Conservative +Party, which held then, as it still does, the high places in army and +government. Bismarck was its leader. It had ample nationalist aims, +and was called the "Great German Party" ("Gross Deutschland"); Austria +was included in its ambitions, and monarchic supremacy was the token +of its power. It comprised the landowners, the nobles, and the +agrarians. + +The second tendency was commercial, bourgeois. It found expression in +the National Liberal Party, which was liberal in name only. It was the +"Small German" ("Klein Deutschland") Party, preferring the ascendency +of Prussia. It comprised the enterprising traders, manufacturers, and +bankers, and was strongest in the cities. It was attached to monarchy, +cared little for military or political glory, except as it affected +trade and taxes. + +The third tendency had nothing in common with the other two. It was +the revolt of the proletarians, led by men of great ability. It was +the democratic movement. It abhorred both the idea of feudal +prerogative in government, as expressed by king and noble, and the +vulgar trade patriotism, as expressed by the National Liberals, the +bourgeoisie. It took its inspiration from France and its example from +England. From France came the political platitudes of equality and +liberty with which we are familiar in America; from England, the +example of strongly organized trade unions. In Germany these two +movements, economic and political, were blended into one. + +Not that the workingman's movement was a unity. Schultze-Delitsch, the +founder of the German co-operative movement, contended that labor +should keep out of politics and devote itself to economic activities +alone. Rodbertus, the distinguished economist, who was potent in +shaping economic and political thought in Germany, wrote Lassalle, +when he was entreated to join the brilliant agitator's propaganda, +that he could "tolerate no political agitation which would excite the +working classes against the existing executive power."[6] + +There was no unity in the theories of the workingman's movement. The +first organizations, the "Workingmen's Associations," were founded +soon after 1848, as soon as the laws gave a limited right of +association to the working class. The government looked with suspicion +on every political act of labor, and especially upon organizations for +political purposes. The ban of the law was put upon those +organizations in July, 1854, and the right of public meeting was +greatly restricted; police autonomy increased, giving them arbitrary +power to stop meetings; and the right of free press was virtually +denied. Democracy became a movement of silent intrigue and occasional +rough outbreak. + +At this juncture a new political party was organized, to absorb what +was "legal" in the democratic workingman's movement and what was truly +liberal in the National Liberal Party. The new party was called +Progressist ("Fortschrittler"). It was a German party, devoted to the +Manchester doctrine: Free commerce, free trade, free press, free +speech; freedom of expression in every phase of human activity. It was +_laissez-faire_ to the uttermost plunged into the reactionary mass of +German politics. The economic issue became freedom of contract +_versus_ feudal status; the political issue, freedom of ballot +_versus_ hereditary prerogative. + +The new party began to appeal for the workingman's support. Their lure +of free speech and freedom of organization was not without effect. The +older workingmen, who were not familiar with the teachings of Marx and +Engels, and who had not even read Weitling's communistic +idealizations, were brought, in some numbers, into the new party. + +The younger and more radical element in the workingmen's clubs were +restless. In 1862 some of them had visited the International +Exposition in London and had talked with Marx. The fire of the +"International" was kindled. A movement for calling a national +workingman's convention was started among these radicals. The +Progressists tried to check the agitation, saying that every effort +should be directed toward establishing a new Constitution. But it was +in vain. In Leipsic a group of radicals seceded from the Workingman's +Union (Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein), and formed a new organization, which +they called "Vorwärts" (Progress). These now invited Lassalle to +address them on his views of the labor situation. + +The movement was opportune, and Lassalle's answer is the basic +document of present-day Social Democracy.[7] + +There is no salvation for the workingman except through "political +freedom," he says. This freedom demands laws, and to secure laws +united action is essential. They must be powerful enough to get laws +to their liking. This power they will not get by being an appendix to +the Progressists, for they are dominated by a trade doctrine, not by +altruistic ideals for the oppressed. + +With a clearness that has not been excelled, he showed the dependence +of economic upon political power and influence. His economic program +was none other than Louis Blanc's state-subsidized workshops. It made +no great impression and soon faded away. But his bold plan of a +workingman's party fighting fiercely for democracy, and for the +betterment of the "normal conditions of the entire working classes," +has been developed to surprising perfection. + +The state, he says, must be the instrument of their power, not the +object of their striving. They are in politics, not as politicians, +but as proletarians. "The state is nothing but the great organization, +the all-embracing association of the working classes." No "sustaining +and helping hand" will be their guide. Political supremacy is the +"only way out of the desert." And how win the state? There is only one +way: through universal suffrage, democracy. "Universal suffrage is not +only your political but also your social foundation principle, the +condition precedent of all social help. It is the only means for +bettering the material conditions of the working classes." + +Cut loose from Rodbertus economically, and from the Progressists +politically, Lassalle was invited to take the leadership of the new +movement, which from the start was political rather than economic. He +aimed to organize the German workingmen into a great national party, +so powerful that it could control governments, make laws, and demand +obedience. But it was slow work, and to the fiery spirit of Lassalle +its snail's pace was exasperating. It provoked him into violence of +speech which led him everywhere into the courts and into constant +altercations with the Crown's solicitors. + +His powerful personality and unusually active mind made a profound +impression everywhere. At the last conference of his association which +he attended he claimed the Bishop of Mayence and the King of Prussia +as converts. The Bishop, Baron von Ketteler, was indeed turning toward +Socialism, but not Lassalle's political Socialism. He was the founder +of that Christian Socialism which has made the Catholic Church in +South Germany and the Rhineland a potent factor in the labor movement. +The King, whose conversion Lassalle boldly announced, had only +received a delegation of Silesian weavers who laid their grievances +before him and were promised the royal sympathy. + +However, Lassalle and Bismarck had formed a general liking for each +other, and the great minister received from the brilliant agitator +many suggestions which he later embodied in his state insurance laws. +Both Bismarck and Lassalle believed in the power of the state for the +amelioration of social conditions. They met several times at the +Chancellor's solicitation, and Bismarck disclosed their conversations +to the Reichstag, on the insistence of Bebel, when the insurance bills +were under discussion. The Chancellor expressed his admiration for the +virility of the Socialist's mind and said he believed Lassalle +perfectly sincere in his purpose.[8] + +Lassalle did not live to see his General Workingmen's Association +("Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeitsverein") attain political power. He was +killed in a duel over a love affair August 31, 1864. His brilliant +campaign for democracy had resulted in a petty organization of 4,610 +members. + +Lassalle's influence is increasing every year. His death-day is +celebrated by the German Socialists (Lassalle Feier). The present-day +German movement is Lassallian rather than Marxian.[9] + +In a letter to Rodbertus, February, 1864, Lassalle says that he aimed +to show the workingman "how identical the economic and the political +forces are. Every separation of them is an abstraction, and I believe +that uniting the two is the principal potency which I can give to the +cause." + + +II + +The little handful was soon rent by internal strife and threatened +with utter extinction, both by police aggression and by Marxian +competition. The year Lassalle died the International Workingman's +Association was organized and agitation began in Germany under the +leadership of William Liebknecht, a friend and disciple of Marx. +Liebknecht was the scholar of the early Social Democratic group. He +possessed a university education, was a revolutionist in 1848, a +fugitive in Switzerland and England until 1862. His foreign sojourn +did not mellow his natural dogmatism; on the contrary, his long +intercourse with Marx in London hardened his orthodoxy. He was a +powerful polemist. However, alone he could not have organized a +national movement. He did not possess the personal traits that lure. +He made a notable convert when he won August Bebel, a Saxon +woodturner, to his cause. "I was Saul and became Paul," Bebel said to +me. The words are not inapt: his power is Pauline. Lie has been +persecuted and imprisoned, has written speeches and epistles, has +made many missionary journeys, and kept constantly in intimate touch +with every local phase of his propaganda. His imprisonments have +undermined his health, but they have not diminished his mental vigor; +and more than once the Iron Chancellor winced under his ferocious +assaults. + +Liebknecht and Bebel were more advanced than the Workingmen's +Association, which now had fallen under the leadership of Schweitzer, +an able but dissolute disciple of Lassalle. The two organizations +fought each other as rivals. The international wing, under Liebknecht +and Bebel, in 1869, organized the Democratic Workingmen's Party at +Eisenach, and were called "Eisenachers." Their program is of great +importance. It stated that the first object of the new party was the +attaining of the free state (Freier Volkstaat). This state Liebknecht +explained at his trial in 1872: "The idea of a free state is +interpreted by a majority of our party to mean a republic; but does +this necessarily imply that it is to be forcibly introduced? No one +has expressed an opinion as to how it is to be introduced. Let a +majority of the people be won for our opinions, and the state is of +our opinions, for the people are the state. A state without a king is +conceivable, but not a state without a people. The government is the +servant of the people." + +This free state, the program continues, can be won only by political +freedom, and political freedom is the forerunner of economic freedom. +Demand is therefore made for universal, equal, direct suffrage, with +secret ballot, for all men twenty years of age, in both parliamentary +and municipal elections. Other leading demands were: direct +legislation; the abolition of all privileges, whether of birth, +wealth, or religion; the establishment of militia in place of standing +armies; the separation of Church and state; the secularizing of +education; the extension of free schools and compulsory education; +reform of the courts and extension of the jury system; abolition of +all laws restricting freedom of speech, of press, and of association; +the establishment of a normal workday; the restriction of female, and +abolition of child, labor; the abolition of indirect taxes; the +establishment of an income and inheritance tax; the extension of state +credit for co-operative enterprises. + +This program sounds very modern and moderate. But its expositors were +not restrained to moderation, and when the congress met at Dresden in +1871 it adopted a resolution extolling the French Commune. A great +deal of popular sympathy was lost through this action. + +Meanwhile the Lassalle party was slowly gaining ground. In 1875 the +two parties united at Gotha. There were 9,000 members in the +Liebknecht party and 15,000 members in the Lassalle party. Here was +adopted the first program of the united German Social Democracy. Its +economics are thoroughly Marxian in theory and are only slightly +tinged by the teachings of Lassalle and Schultze-Delitsch in practice. +Labor, it affirmed, was the source of all wealth and was held under +duress by the capitalistic class. Its only emancipation could come +from the social ownership of the means of production. The way to this +goal could be found through productive copartnership with state aid. +The political part of the program embraced the demands made at +Eisenach. + +With its unity, a new vigor took possession of the party. Its +organization was perfected; 145 agitators were in the field; its +twenty-three newspapers had over 100,000 subscribers. This meant +increased police vigilance. All the leaders served terms in prison, +newspapers were suppressed, organizations dissolved, houses searched, +agitators ordered to leave the country. The government did everything +in its power to suppress the movement. Every act of oppression +popularized the Democracy among the proletarians. The blood of the +martyrs bore the usual harvest. + +The new empire had been launched amidst the greatest enthusiasm, +shared by every one except the discontented workingmen who had so +stoutly fought for entire political freedom. The new imperial +parliament was thrown open to them because Bismarck had found it +necessary to include universal suffrage in the constitution of the +Reichstag. In 1871 the Socialists elected two members, and the feudal +lords beheld the novel sight of workingmen sitting with them in the +imperial Diet. The voting strength of the party was 124,665. This was +increased to 351,952 in 1874, when nine members were elected. In 1877 +the party cast 493,288 votes, electing twelve members. This was cause +for alarm. The party had now reached fifth place in point of votes +among the fourteen parties or factions that contended for power in +Germany, and eighth place in point of members elected. But in point of +agitation, of perfervid speech and pointed interpellation, it ranked +easily first. Its delegation in 1877 included Bebel and Liebknecht, +now out of jail, and Most, afterwards the notorious Anarchist in +America, and Hasselman and Bracke, who were not modest in the +expression of their opinions. These representatives of democracy let +no occasion pass to embarrass the government with peppery questions. + +Bismarck was slowly evolving a scheme for checking the Socialist +growth and satisfying the demands of labor for better conditions. Both +revolved around the pivot of patriarchal omnipotence. The suppression +was to be accomplished by force; the gratification, by paternal rigor. + + +III + +He addressed himself first to repression. He entreated the governments +of Europe in 1871 to unite in stamping out Socialism, but he received +no encouragement. In 1872 Spain, exasperated by the revolutionary +outbreaks, addressed a circular to the Powers, asking their +co-operation to check the growth of the revolutionary element. +Bismarck was ready. But Lord Granville, for England, said the +traditions of his country were favorable to an unrestricted right of +residence for foreigners as long as they violated no law of their +host. This ended the international attempt. Next (in 1874) Bismarck +attempted to tighten the gag on the press, but the Reichstag refused +to sanction his proposals. Then he fell back on existing legislation +and with great vigor enforced the statutes against revolutionary +activity. The police were given wide latitude in interpreting these +laws. + +Several acts of wanton violence now occurred which brought about a +sudden change of temper in the people. On May 11, 1878, while driving +in Unter den Linden, Emperor William was shot at by a young man. The +Emperor was not struck by the bullets, but the shots were none the +less effective in rousing public indignation. Popular condemnation was +turned against the Social Democrats because photographs of Liebknecht +and Bebel were found on the person of the intended assassin. Two days +later Bismarck introduced the anti-Socialist laws. They were debated +in the Reichstag, while Most was being tried for libeling the clergy. +But the Reichstag was not ready to go to the lengths of the +Chancellor's desire, and by a vote of 251 to 57 rejected his bill. +Here the matter would have rested had not a second attempt been made +on the life of the aged Emperor. This occurred on June 2, and this +time the Emperor was seriously wounded. + +Naturally the indignation of the nation was thoroughly aroused. In the +midst of the excitement, a general election was held, and Bismarck +won. His own peculiar Conservatives increased their delegation from 40 +to 59, the Free Conservatives from 38 to 57; the National Liberals +reduced their number from 128 to 99, the Liberals from 13 to 10, the +Progressists from 35 to 26. The Socialists retained nine seats, losing +three; their vote fell from 493,288 to 437,158. + +Immediately a repressive law was introduced. It was called "a law +against the publicly dangerous activities of the Social Democracy" +(Gesetz gegen die gemein-gefährlichen Bestrebungen der +Sozial-Demokratie).[10] + +Bismarck prefaced his law with a very clever prologue (Begründung). In +simple language he arraigned the Social Democracy as being, first, +anti-social, because it aims at the modern system of production, and +does so, not through "humanitarian motives," but through revolution; +second, as anti-patriotic, because it makes "the most odious attacks" +on the German Empire. "The law of preservation therefore compels the +state and society to oppose the Social Democratic movement with +decision.... True, thought cannot be repressed by external compulsion; +the movements of minds can only be overcome in intellectual combat. +But when movements take wrong pathways and threaten destruction, the +means for their growth can and should be taken away by legal means. +The Socialist agitation, as carried on for years, is a continual +appeal to violence and to the passions of the multitudes, for the +purpose of subverting the social order. The state _can_ check such a +movement by depriving Social Democracy of its principal means of +propaganda, and by destroying its organization; and it _must_ do so +unless it is willing to surrender its existence, and unless the +conviction is to spread amongst the people that either the state is +impossible or the aims of Social Democracy are justifiable.[11] + +The law was passed against the vehement protest of the Socialists. +They disclaimed any connection with the dastardly attempts on the life +of the aged Emperor. Bebel, in an impressive speech, declared that +while Socialists do "wish to abolish the present form of private +property in the factors of production, labor, and land," they had +never been guilty of destroying a penny's worth of property. Nor did +they aim to do so. It was the system of private ownership of great +properties, that enabled a few to oppress the many, that they were +fighting. And here they were in good company: Rodbertus, Rosher, +Wagner, Schaeffle, Brentano, Schmoller, and a host of other scholars +and economists, Bebel affirmed, were Socialistic in their tendencies. + +Bismarck was unyielding. He said he would welcome any real effort to +alleviate harsh conditions. But the Socialists were a party of +destruction and were enemies to mankind. + +The leader of the Progressists said, "I fear Social Democracy more +under this law than without it." The vote of 221 to 149 in favor of +the law showed the grim Chancellor's sway over the assembly. + +The law made clean work of it. It forbade all organizations which +promulgated views controvening the existing social and political +order. It prohibited the collecting of money for campaign purposes; +put the ban on meetings, processions, and demonstrations; on +publications of all kinds, confiscating the existing stock of +prohibited books; and created a status akin to martial law by endowing +the police authorities with the power of declaring a locality in a +"minor state of siege," and exercising arbitrary authority for one +year. + +A commission was appointed by the Chancellor to carry out these +inquisitions, and the war between Socialistic democracy and medieval +autocracy was on. Its events are instructive to every government; its +sequel a warning to all nations.[12] + +The government organized its commission; the Socialists met at Hamburg +to consider the situation. They determined to perfect their +organization, to promulgate a secret propaganda, and to use the +tribune in the Reichstag as the one open pulpit whence they could +proclaim their wrongs. + +The government promptly declared Berlin in a "minor state of siege." +In the course of a few months about fifty agitators were expelled, +bales of literature confiscated, organizations dissolved, meetings +dismissed, gatherings prohibited, and the Socialist agitation pushed +into cellars and back rooms. + +But there was one tribune which the Chancellor could not close--the +Reichstag tribune. Here Bebel and Liebknecht talked to the nation, and +their speeches were given circulation through the records of debate. +Prince Bismarck, in his extremity, tried to muzzle the Socialist +members and expunge their words from the records; but the members of +the Reichstag refused this extreme measure. Then Bismarck asked +permission to imprison Hasselman and expel Fritzche from Berlin. These +two deputies had been especially vituperative in their attacks upon +the law. The Chancellor claimed that the famous Section 28 of the +anti-Socialist law authorizing the minor state of siege extended to +members of the Reichstag. But the House, under the vehement leadership +of Professor Gneist, the distinguished constitutional lawyer, refused +to sanction this dangerous measure on the ground that the thirty-first +article of the federal Constitution exempted members of the Reichstag +from arrest. + +Bismarck soon had another plan for ridding himself of the Socialist +nettles in the Reichstag. He introduced a bill creating a +parliamentary court chosen by the House, who should have the power to +punish any member guilty of parliamentary indiscretion. The bill also +empowered the House to prevent the publication of any of its +proceedings if it desired. The Reichstag also refused to sanction this +measure. + +The assassination of Czar Alexander of Russia in March, 1881, gave +Bismarck the opportunity to renew his efforts to quell Socialism and +Anarchism by international concert. He asked Russia to take the +initiative, and a conference was called at Brussels to which all the +leading states were invited. Germany and Austria eagerly accepted, +France made her participation dependent on England's action, and +England refused to participate. Bismarck next tried to form an Eastern +league, but Austria failed him and he had to content himself with an +extradition treaty with Russia. + +Bismarck now fell back on his Socialist law. He enforced it with +vigor, extending the minor state of siege to Altona, Leipsic, Hamburg, +and Harburg. His commission reported yearly. Its words were not +reassuring. In 1882 it said: "The situation of the Social Democratic +movement in Germany and other civilized countries is unfortunately not +such as to encourage the hope that it is being suppressed or +weakened." The Minister of the Interior said to the Reichstag: "It is +beyond doubt that it has not been possible by means of the law of +October, 1878, to wipe Social Democracy from the face of the earth, or +even to strike it to the center."[13] + +The duration of the law had been fixed at two years. At the end of +each term it was renewed, each time with diminishing majorities. +Meanwhile the rigor of the law was not diminished. The minor state of +siege was extended to other centers, including Stettin and Offenbach. +Meetings were suppressed everywhere, and dismissed often for the most +trivial reasons. The police were given the widest powers and exercised +them in the narrowest spirit.[14] "A hateful system of persecution, +espionage, and aggravation was established, and its victims were the +classes most susceptible to disaffection."[15] + +On the unique _index expurgatorius_ of the government were over a +thousand titles, including the works of the high priests of the party, +the poetry of Herwegh, the romances of Von Schweitzer, the photographs +of the favorite Socialist saints, over eighty newspapers and sixty +foreign journals. Bales of interdicted literature were smuggled in +from Switzerland to feed the morose and disaffected mind of the German +workingman. + +I can find no record of how many arrests were made. Bebel reported to +the party convention in 1890 that 1,400 publications of all kinds had +been interdicted and that 1,500 persons had been imprisoned, serving +an aggregate of over one thousand years.[16] Every trial was a +scattering of the seeds, and every imprisoned or exiled comrade +became a hero. The awkwardness of the government was matched against +the adroitness of the propagandists. A good deal of terror was spread +among the people, stories of sudden uprisings and bloody revolutions +were told. Even the National Liberals lost their heads at times. But +Bebel was always superbly cool. This woodturner developed into one of +the ablest political generals of his time. + +Persecuted and pressed into underground channels of activity the party +persisted in growing. In 1880 it rid itself of the violent +revolutionary faction led by Most and Hasselman. + +In the elections of 1881 the Socialists gained three deputies, but +their popular vote was reduced over 125,000. In the next election, +1884, they won twenty-four seats and polled 549,990 votes; two out of +six seats in Berlin were won, and one-tenth of the voters in the land +were rallied under the red flag. The police were alarmed and the law +was enforced with renewed energy. + +With this powerful backing Liebknecht asked the repeal of the +"Explosives Act." A violent debate took place. Liebknecht said: "I +will tell you this: we do not appeal to you for sympathy. The result +is all the same to us, for we shall win one way or another. Do your +worst, for it will be only to our advantage, and the more madly you +carry on the sooner you will come to an end. The pitcher goes to the +well until it breaks."[17] + +Bebel roused all the fury of Bismarck when he warned him that if +Russian methods were imported there would be murder. In July of this +year (1886) at Freiburg occurred the memorable trial of nine +Socialist leaders, including Bebel, Dietz, Von Vollmar, Auer, Frohme, +and Viereck, charged with participating in an illegal organization. +All were sentenced to imprisonment for terms varying from six to nine +months. + +Preceding the election of 1887 the Reichstag had been dissolved on the +army bill. The patriotic issue, always effective, was made the +universal appeal by the government. In spite of this the Social +Democrats polled 763,128 votes, a gain of 213,128. Saxony had +succeeded in holding down the vote to 150,000; but in Prussia the +result was startling; in Berlin forty per cent. of the voters were +Social Democrats. With all their voting strength the party elected +only eleven members to the Reichstag. With proportional representation +they would have elected forty. The Bismarck Conservatives returned +forty-one members with fewer votes than the Socialists. + +Finally in 1890 came the end of this farce. It was also the end of the +chancellorship of Bismarck. His old Emperor had died, and a young and +daring hand was at the helm. Bismarck proposed to embody the +anti-Socialist laws permanently in the penal code. This might have +passed; but he also proposed to exile offenders, not merely from the +territory under minor siege, but from the Fatherland. This +expatriation the Assembly would not brook and the Reichstag was +prorogued. + +The Socialists left parliament with eleven members, they returned with +thirty-five; they left with 760,000 mandates, they returned with +1,500,000, more votes than any other party could claim, and on a +proportional basis eighty-five seats would have been theirs. Bebel +was justified in saying in the Reichstag, "The Chancellor thought he +had us, but we have him." + +When midnight sounded on the last day of the existence of the +oppressive law, great throngs of workingmen gathered in the streets of +the larger cities, to sing their Marseillaise, cheer their victory, +and wave their red flag. Now they could breathe again. + +For the first time in thirteen years they met in national convention +on German soil. The veteran Liebknecht, recounting their hardships and +sacrifices, raised his voice in jubilant phrase: "Our opponents did +not spare us, and we, too proud and too strong to prove cowardly, +struck blow for blow, and so we have conquered the odious law."[18] + + +IV + +During the enforcement of the anti-Socialist law Bismarck began the +second part of his policy. He would repress with one hand, with the +other he would placate. In 1883 he introduced his sickness insurance +bill, followed in 1884-85 by his accident insurance, and in 1889 by +his old-age pension act.[19] + +It is not unnatural that these measures were opposed by the Social +Democrats. They had no love for the Chancellor. The Dresden congress +decided to "reject state Socialism unconditionally so long as it is +inaugurated by Prince Bismarck and is designed to support the +government system." Bismarck "had sown too much wind not to reap a +whirlwind."[20] He had planted hatred in the hearts of the workingmen; +he could not hope to reap respect and affection. + +Bismarck believed that Socialism existed because the laboring man was +not sufficiently interested in the state. He had no property, and was +not enlightened enough to appreciate the intangible benefits of +sovereignty. In 1880 German trade had reached a low ebb. Agriculture +had fallen into decay. German peasants and workingmen were emigrating +to America by the tens of thousands. Bismarck promulgated his +industrial insurance, first, to placate the workingman; second, to +restore prosperity to German industry. + +As a result of his policy Germany is to-day the most "socialized" +state in Europe. Here a workingman may begin life attended by a +physician paid by the state; he is christened by a state clergyman; he +is taught the rudiments of learning and his handicraft by the state. +He begins work under the watchful eye of a state inspector, who sees +that the safeguards to health and limb are strictly observed. He is +drafted by the state into the army, and returns from the rigor of this +discipline to his work. The state gives him license to marry, +registers his place of residence, follows him from place to place, and +registers the birth of his children. If he falls ill, his suffering is +assuaged by the knowledge that his wife and children are cared for and +that his expenses will be paid during illness; and he may spend his +convalescent days in a luxurious state hospital. If he falls victim to +an accident the dread of worklessness is removed by the ample +insurance commanded by the state even if his injury permanently +incapacitates him. If he should unfortunately become that most pitiful +of all men, the man out of work, the state and the city will do all in +their power to find employment for him. If he wanders from town to +town in search of work the city has its shelter (Herberge) to welcome +him; if he wishes to move to another part of his town the municipal +bureau will be glad to help him find a suitable house, or may even +loan him money for building a house of his own. If he is in difficulty +the city places a lawyer at his disposal. If he is in a dispute with +his employer the government provides a court of arbitration. If he is +sued or wishes to sue his employer, he does so in the workingmen's +court (Gewerbe Gericht). If he wishes recreation, there is the city +garden; if he wishes entertainment let him go to the public concert; +if he wishes to improve his mind there are libraries and free +lectures. And if by rare chance, through the grace of the state's +strict sanitary regulations and by thrift and care, he reaches the age +of seventy, he will find the closing days of his long life eased by a +pension, small, very small, to be sure, but yet enough to make him +more welcome to the relatives or friends who are charged with +administering to his wants.[21] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] For a comprehensive description of the German government, see +DAWSON, _Germany and the Germans_, Vol. I. + +[2] Liebknecht said, in the Breslau congress of the Social-Democratic +party: "Lassalle is the man in whom the modern organized German labor +movement had its origin."--"Sozial-Demokratische Partei-Tag," +_Protokoll_, 1895, p. 66. + +[3] For sketch of Lassalle and his work see KIRKUP, _History of +Socialism_, pp. 72 et seq.; ELY, _French and German Socialism of Modern +Times_, p. 189; RAE, _Contemporary Socialism_, pp. 93 ff. For an +extended account, see DAWSON, _German Socialism and Ferdinand +Lassalle_, London, 1888. GEORG BRANDES, _Ferdinand Lassalle_, +originally in Danish, has been translated into German, 1877, and into +English, 1911. Also see FRANZ MEHRING. _Die Deutsche Sozial-Demokratie: +Ihre Geschichte und ihre Lehre_; BERNHARD BECKER, _Geschichte der +Arbeiter Agitation Ferdinand Lassalles_, Brunswick, 1874: this volume +contains a good detailed account of Lassalle's work. + +[4] Published in Zürich, 1863: _Macht und Recht_. + +[5] _Macht und Recht_, p. 13. + +[6] Letter dated April 22, 1863. + +[7] "Öffentliches Antwort-schreiben an das Zentral Committee zur +Berufung eines Allgemeinen Deutschen Arbeiter Congress zu Leipzig," +first published in Zurich, 1863. + +[8] In the Reichstag, September 16, 1878. + +[9] When Bernstein collected Lassalle's works he wrote a sketch of the +agitator's life as a preface. A number of years later, 1904, he +published his second sketch, _Ferdinand Lassalle and His Significance +to the Working Classes_, in which he shifted his position and assumed +a Lassallian tone. This change of mind is typical of the Social +Democratic movement toward the Lassallian idea. + +[10] The law is reprinted in MEHRING, _Die Deutsche +Sozial-Demokratie_. + +[11] See DAWSON, _German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle_, pp. 251 +ff., for a discussion of this law. + +[12] A good description of the working of this law is found in DAWSON, +_Germany and the Germans_, Vol. II, Chap. XXXVII. + +[13] December 14, 1882. + +[14] "At a large Berlin meeting a speaker innocently used the word +commune (parish), whereupon the police officer in control, thinking +only of the Paris Commune, at once dismissed the assembly, and a +thousand persons had to disperse into the streets disappointed and +embittered.... 'Militarism is a terrible mistake,' said a speaker at +an election meeting, which legally should have been beyond police +power, and at these words, further proceedings were forbidden and +several persons were arrested. The Socialist deputy Bebel, in +addressing some workingmen on economical questions, said that 'In the +textile industry it happens that while the wife is working at the +loom, the husband sits at home and cooks dinner,' and the meeting was +dismissed immediately."--DAWSON, _Germany and the Germans_, Vol. II, +pp. 190-1. + +[15] DAWSON, _supra cit._, p. 192. + +[16] _Protokoll des Partei-Tages_, 1890, p. 30. + +[17] Reichstag debates, April 2, 1886. + +[18] _Protokoll des Partei-Tages_, 1890, pp. 11-12. + +[19] For discussion of German industrial insurance, see W.H. DAWSON, +_Bismarck and State Socialism_, also J. ELLIS BARKER, _Modern +Germany_. + +[20] R. MEYER, _Der Emancipations-Kampf des Vierten Standes_, p. 475. + +[21] See Appendix for table showing cost of industrial insurance. + +In Germany the state owns railways, canals, river transportation, +harbors, telephones, telegraph, and parcels post. Banks, insurance, +savings banks, and pawnshops are conducted by the state. +Municipalities are landlords of vast estates, they are capitalists +owning street cars, gas plants, electric light plants, theaters, +markets, warehouses. They have hospitals for the sick, shelters for +the homeless, soup-houses for the hungry, asylums for the weak and +unfortunate, nurseries for the babies, homes for the aged, and +cemeteries for the dead. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND LABOR UNIONS + + +I + +Before we proceed to describe the present organization of the Social +Democratic Party it will be necessary to say a few words about the +organization of labor in Germany.[1] There are four kinds of labor +unions: the Social Democrat or free unions, the Hirsch-Duncker or +radical unions, the Christian or Roman Catholic unions, and the +Independent unions. All except the last group have special political +significance; and only the Independents confine themselves purely to +economic activity. The Socialist unions are called "Reds," the +Independents "Yellow," the Christians "Black." + +The Hirsch-Duncker unions were the first in the field. They were +organized in 1868 by Dr. Hirsch and Herr Franz Duncker, for the +purpose of winning the labor vote for the Progressists. Dr. Hirsch +went to England for his model, but the political bias he imparted to +the unions was very un-English. They have grown less political and +more neutral in every aspect, probably because political radicalism +has dwindled, and because they contain a great many of the most +skilled of German workmen, the machinists. They are a sort of +aristocracy of labor, prefer peace to war, and hesitate long before +striking. + +The Christian unions are strongest in the Rhine valley and the +Westphalian mining districts. They are the offspring of Bishop +Kettler's workingmen's associations, organized to keep the laborer in +harmony with the Roman Catholic Church. They have undergone a great +deal of change since the days of the distinguished bishop, and are now +modeled after strict trade-union principles. They retain their +connection with the Church and the Center Party (the Roman Catholic +group in the Reichstag). For some years there has been a restlessness +among these unions. The more militant members are protesting against +the influence of the clergy in union affairs, and demand that laborers +lead labor. + +The "Yellow" unions stand in bad repute among the others. They are for +peace at any price. Their membership is largely composed of the +engineering trades; and they are usually under contract not to strike, +but settle their differences by arbitration. The employing firms +contribute liberally to their union funds. + +By far the largest unions are the Social Democratic or "Free" unions. +They embrace over eighty per cent. of all organized labor. Their +growth has been very rapid during the last twenty years. In 1890, when +the Socialist law was lifted, they numbered a little over 250,000; in +1910 they numbered nearly 2,000,000. + +As organizations, the Social Democratic unions possess all the +perfection of detail and painstaking craftsmanship for which the +Germans are justly celebrated.[2] Not the minutest detail is omitted; +everything is done to contribute to the solidarity of the working +classes. The theory of the German labor movement is, that physical +environment is the first desideratum. A well-housed, well-groomed, +well-fed workman is a better fighter than a hungry, ragged man; and it +is for fighting that the unions exist. The bed-rock of the German +workingman's theory is the maxim: "First, be a good craftsman, and all +other things will be added unto you." + +These unions strive to do everything within their power to make, +first, a good workman; second, a comfortable workman. This naturally, +without artificial stimulants, brings the solidarity, the class +patriotism, which is the source of the zeal and energy of these great +fighting machines. In all of the larger towns they own clubhouses +(Gewerkschaftshäuser), which are the centers of incessant activity. +They contain assembly halls, restaurants, committee rooms, and +lodgings for journeymen and apprentices (Wander-bursche) seeking work. +There are night classes, public lectures, educational excursions, and +circulating libraries. In Berlin the workingmen have organized a +theater.[3] + +The workingman has a genuine sympathy for his union. It enlists his +loyalty as much as his country enlists his patriotism. He finds social +and intellectual intercourse, sympathy and responsiveness in his +union. He saves from his frugal wages to support the union and to +swell the funds in its war-chest. He is never allowed to forget that +he is first a workingman, and owes his primary duties to his family +and his union.[4] + +This vast and perfect organization of labor has a complete +understanding with the Social Democratic party, but it is not an +integral part of the party. When the unions began to revive, after the +repeal of the anti-Socialist law, there was a short and severe +struggle between the party and the unions for control. The victory of +the unions for complete autonomy was decisive. Since then good feeling +and harmony have prevailed. The governing committees of the two bodies +meet for consultation, the powerful press of the party fights the +union's battles, and often party headquarters are in the union's +clubhouse. They are virtually two independent branches of the same +movement. + +In the national triennial convention of the Social Democratic unions +at Hamburg, 1908, a speaker said: "We can say with truth that to-day +there are no differences of a fundamental nature between the two great +branches [the Social Democratic unions and the Social Democratic +Party] of the labor movement."[5] + +Bebel has said of the relation between the unions and the party: +"Every workingman should belong to the union, and should be a party +man; not merely as a laboring man, but as a class-conscious +(Classenbewustsein) laboring man; as a member of a governmental and a +social organization which treats and maltreats him as a laboring +man."[6] This is the class spirit of Socialism, carried into practical +effect. + +In Germany, then, the vast bulk of organized labor is co-operating +voluntarily with the Social Democratic Party. + + +II + +And what is the present organization of the Social Democratic Party? +It is the most perfect party machine in the world. It is organized +with the most scrupulous regard for details and oiled with the +exuberance of a class spirit that is emerging from its narrowness and +is finding room for its expanding powers in the practical affairs of +national and municipal life. The only approach to it is the faultless, +silently moving, highly polished mechanism devised by the English +gentry to control the political destinies of the British Empire. Our +American parties are crude compared with the noiseless efficacy of +the English machine, or the remorseless yet enthusiastic and entirely +effective operation of the German Social Democracy. + +Every detail of the workingman's life is embraced in this remarkable +political organization. Every village and commune has its party +vigilance committee. A juvenile department brings up the youth in the +principles of the Social Democracy. The party press includes +seventy-six daily papers, some of them brilliantly edited, a humorous +weekly, and several monthly magazines. This press co-operates with the +trade journals. Some of these--notably the masons' journal and the +ironworkers' journal--have a vast circulation, numbering many hundred +thousand subscribers. + +The party propaganda is stupendous. In 1910 over 14,000 meetings were +held, and over 33,000,000 circulars and 2,800,000 brochures were +distributed. Every workingman, every voter, was personally solicited +during the campaign just closed (January, 1912). Committees and +sub-committees were everywhere in this national beehive of workers. +Women and children were enlisted in the work. + +The national party is controlled by an executive committee, elected by +the national convention, who govern its many activities with the +gravity of a college faculty, the astuteness of a lawyer, and the +frugality of a tradesman. They issue annual reports, as full of +statistics and involved analyses as a government report. And they have +no patience for party stars who are ambitious to move in the orbit of +their own individual greatness. + +Because the keynote of the party is solidarity, which is a synonym for +discipline, "We have no factions, we are one. Personally any Social +Democrat may believe as he pleases and do as he pleases. But when it +comes to political activity, we insist that he act with the party." +These are the words in which one of the younger leaders of the party +explained their unity to me. + +In 1890, when the Bavarian rebels were under discussion in the +national congress, Bebel told the delegates that "a fighting party +such as our Social Democracy can only achieve its aims when every +member observes the strictest discipline."[7] + +Evidences of party discipline are not lacking. The Prussian +temperament is rough, dogmatic, implacable; the South German is +mellow, yielding, kind. The two temperaments often clash. The one +loves individual action; the other, military unity. The southern +Socialist votes for his local budgets in town council and diet, and he +receives the chastisement of the northern disciplinarian with mellow +good-nature. But solidarity there is, whatever the price; and a +class-consciousness, a brotherhood: they call each other +"Comrades."[8] + +The membership of the party includes all those who pay party dues and +will oblige themselves to party fealty, to do any drudgery demanded of +them.[9] In six parliamentary districts the membership equals thirty +per cent. of the Social Democratic vote cast; in twenty-four other +districts there is a membership of over 10,000 per district.[10] It is +difficult to say what proportion of the members of the union are +members of the party. The vast bulk of the party members are laboring +men, and no doubt the majority of them are members of the union. + +In the last imperial elections (January, 1912) this party cast +4,250,000 votes, almost one-fourth of the entire federal electorate, +and elected 110 members to the Reichstag, over one-fourth of the +entire membership.[11] In nineteen state legislatures the Social +Democrats have 186 members, in 396 city councils 1,813 members, and in +2,009 communal councils 5,720 members.[12] + +The supreme authority of the party is the annual national convention, +called "congress." Here detailed reports are made by the various +committees; and the parliamentary delegation make an elaborate +statement, detailing every official act of the group in the Reichstag. +Everything is discussed by everybody; the speeches made by the members +in the Reichstag, the opinions of the party editors in their daily +editorials, the party finances, everything is freely criticised. The +most insignificant member has the same privilege of criticism as the +party czars; and the criticism often becomes naïvely personal. No +doubt the party patriotism is largely fed by this frank, fearless, +aboveboard airing of grievances, this freedom from "boss rule." Every +one has his opportunity, and this robs the plotter and backbiter of +his venom. + +Having listened to the faultfinder, they vote; and having voted, they +rarely relent. When a decision is reached, the members are expected to +abide by it faithfully and cheerfully. They make short work of +traitors.[13] + +Every year a detailed report on the imperial budget is read, showing +how the money is spent on armaments, on police, on courts, and every +other department of the empire; and how the money is raised. The +convention resolves itself into a school of public finance. This +analysis is sent broadcast, as a campaign document. So yearly a report +is read of the number of arrests made and the fines and penalties +ensuing, on account of _lèse-majesté_ and other laws infringing upon +the liberty of the press and of speech. Also, every year the central +committee report, in great detail, every party activity in every +corner of the empire. A well-knit hegemony of party interest is +created. The mass is willing to listen to the individual, to bend to +the needs of the smallest commune. + +Throughout their frank discussions and involved debates there runs a +certain polysyllabic flavor that is characteristically German. They +often choose, a year in advance, some important national question, +such as the tariff, mining laws, the agrarian situation, and discuss +it in great detail, more like an academy of universal knowledge than a +political party. The learned blend their involved phraseology and +store of facts with the refreshing frankness and ignorance of the +unlearned. + + +III + +We will now return to the present activities of this party that was +born in revolution and nurtured by persecution. In order to +understand this activity, it is necessary to review the present +attitude of the government toward democracy and Socialism. The repeal +of the anti-Socialist law could not suddenly alter the spirit of +opposition. It merely changed the outward aspect of the opposition. + +The government indicates in many ways its distrust of Social +Democrats. No member of the party has ever been invited by the +government to a place of public honor and responsibility. Indeed, to +be a Social Democrat effectively closes the door against promotion in +civil life.[14] This silent hostility is not confined to political +offices and the civil service; it extends into the professions. Judges +and public physicians, pastors in the state church, teachers in the +public schools, professors in the great universities are included in +the ban. A pastor may be a "Christian Socialist," a professor may +nourish his "Socialism of the chair," and a judge or a government +engineer may be inclined toward far-reaching social experiment. But +with Social Democracy they must have absolutely nothing to do.[15] + +The government's attitude is based on the theory that the Social +Democrats are enemies of the monarchy, and are designing to overthrow +it and declare a republic the moment they get into power. The Kaiser, +on several public occasions, has expressed his distrust and +disapproval for this vast multitude of his subjects. A number of +years ago he is reported to have said that "the Social Democrats are a +band of persons who are unworthy of their fatherland" ("Eine Bande von +Menschen die ihres Vaterlands nicht würdig sind"). And more recently: +"The Social Democrats are a crowd of upstarts without a fatherland" +("Vaterlandslose Gesellen"). The Kaiser joined in the public rejoicing +over the check that had apparently been administered to the growth of +the Social Democracy by the elections of 1907, and in a speech +delivered to a throng of citizens gathered for jubilation in the +palace yard in Berlin, he said that the "Socialists have been ridden +down" ("niedergeritten"), a military figure of speech. + +Retaliation is not unnatural. The pictures of the Hohenzollerns and +the high functionaries of state and army do not adorn the walls of the +homes of the Social Democrats. There are seen the portraits of Marx +and Lassalle, Liebknecht and Bebel. The members of the party never +join in a public display of confidence in the government. They +exercise a petty tyranny over their neighbors. Instances are told of +shopkeepers who were compelled to yield to the boycott instituted +against them because they voted against the Social Democrats, and of +workmen coerced into joining the union. + +This feeling of bitterness is most clearly marked in Prussia. In +southern Germany a feeling of good will and co-operation is becoming +more marked every year. The King of Bavaria is not afraid to shake +hands with Von Vollmar. Some years ago a Bavarian railway employee was +elected to the Diet on the Social Democratic ticket, and his employer, +the state, gave him leave of absence to attend to his legislative +duties. In Baden the leader of the Social Democratic Party called at +the palace to present the felicitations of his comrades to the royal +family on the occasion of the birth of an heir. + +The principal immediate issue of the Social Democrats in Germany is +electoral reform. None of the states or provinces are on a genuinely +democratic electoral basis. In Saxony a new electoral law was passed +in 1909 which typifies the spirit of the entire country.[16] The +electorate is divided into four classes according to their income. The +result of the first election under this law in the city of Leipsic was +as follows: There were 172,800 votes cast by 79,928 voters. + + 32,576 voters in the one-vote class cast 32,576 votes + 20,323 " " " two- " " " 40,646 " + 8,538 " " " three- " " " 25,614 " + 18,491 " " " four- " " " 73,964 " + +There are ninety-one members in the Saxon Diet. The law provided that +only forty-three of these should be elected from the cities. The three +leading cities of Saxony, Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipsic, are strongholds +of Social Democracy, while the country districts are Conservative. The +Social Democrats feel that the property qualifications and the +distribution of the districts impose an unfair handicap against them. +In spite of these obstacles they elected so many deputies that they +were offered the vice-presidency of the Chamber of Deputies. The +offer, however, was conditioned upon their attending the annual +reception given by the King to the representatives. They had hitherto +refused to attend these royal functions and were not willing to +surrender for the sake of office.[17] + +The ancient free cities--Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck--have election laws +as ancient and antiquated as their charters. In Lübeck a large +majority of the legislative body is elected by electors having an +income of over 2,000 marks a year. In Hamburg the nobles, higher +officials, etc., elect 40 representatives, the householders elect 40, +the large landholders elect 8, those citizens having an income of over +2,500 marks a year elect 48, those who have an income from 1,200 to +2,500 marks a year elect 24, those who have an income of less than +1,200 marks have no vote. In Bremen the various groups or kinds of +property are represented in the law-making body. Property, not the +person, is represented. + +Prussia is the special grievance of the Social Democrats. Here the +three-class system of voting prevails. The taxpayers are divided into +three classes, according to the amount of taxes paid, each class +paying one-third of the taxes. Each class chooses one-third of the +electors who name the members of the Prussian Diet. By this +arrangement the large property class virtually controls the +elections.[18] By this system the Social Democratic representation is +held down to 6 in a membership of 420. In 1909 the party polled +23-9/10 per cent. of the entire Prussian vote. Here again the +districts are so arranged that the majority of the members are elected +from the Conservative rural districts, while the cities, which are +strongholds of Social Democracy, must content themselves with a +minority, although nearly 60 per cent. of the population of Prussia is +urban. These examples are sufficient to indicate the general nature of +franchise legislation in Germany.[19] For the past several years +universal suffrage demonstrations have been held throughout the +empire. The general strike has not been used as a method of political +coercion. It is doubtful whether the German temperament is adapted to +that kind of warfare. Mass-meetings, however, and street +demonstrations are the favorite means of the propaganda. Sometimes +there are conflicts with the police, but these are diminishing in +number every year. The government has not diminished its vigilance, +and its jealous eyes are never averted from these demonstrations.[20] + +An incident occurred in March, 1910, which illustrates the temper of +the people and the government. A gigantic demonstration was announced, +to be held in Treptow Park, Berlin. The Police-president forbade the +meeting and had every street leading to the park carefully guarded. +One hundred and fifty thousand demonstrants met in the Thiergarten, in +the very heart of the city, and so secretly had the word been given, +so quietly was it executed, and so orderly was this vast throng of +workingman, that the police knew nothing of it until the meeting was +well under way. Permission for the Treptow meeting was not again +refused. + +The immediate issue, then, of the German Social Democracy is universal +suffrage. Lassalle's cry is more piercing to-day than when that +brilliant and erratic agitator uttered it: "Democracy, the universal +ballot, is the laboring man's hope." The name of the party is +significant. The accent has shifted from the first to the second part +of the compound--from the Marxian to the Lassallian word. + +The German Social Democrats have never had a Millerand or a Briand or +a John Burns; their participation in imperial and provincial affairs +has been strictly limited to parliamentary criticism. Even in local +government, in the communes and cities, they have been allowed only a +small share in actual constructive work. But in spite of these facts +the party has undergone a most remarkable change of creed and tone. + + +IV + +We will concern ourselves only with the most significant changes. +These follow two general lines: (1) the attitude of the party towards +legislation and practical parliamentary participation; (2) the +internal changes in the party. We will follow these changes through +the official reports of the annual party conventions. + +First we will briefly see what change has taken place in their +attitude toward parliamentary activity. The Social Democrats began as +revolutionists and violent anti-parliamentarians. They entered +parliament, not to make laws, but to make trouble. In 1890 they +changed their name from the Socialist Labor Party to the Social +Democratic Party; and when some of the older members thought that this +was a compromise with their enemies, one of the leaders replied that +"a Socialist party must _eo ipse_ be a democratic party."[21] In 1890 +Liebknecht said: "Formerly we had an entirely different tactic. +Tactics and principles are two different things. In 1869 in a speech +in Berlin I condemned parliamentary activity. That was then. Political +conditions were entirely different."[22] Gradually tactics and +principles have coalesced until their line of cleavage is obscured. + +The earlier reports of the parliamentary delegation are tinged with +apology--they are in parliament as protestors, as propagandists, not +as legislators. They seem to say: "Fellow-partisans, excuse us for +being in the Reichstag. We don't believe in the bourgeois law-making +devices. But since we are here, we purpose to do what we can for the +cause. We will not betray you, nor the glorious Socialistic state of +society that we are all working for." + +From the first, Social Democrats have voted against the imperial +budget, have opposed all tariffs, indirect taxes, extension of the +police power, increase in naval and military expenditure, and colonial +exploitation. They took no part at first in law-making, held +themselves disdainfully aloof from practical parliamentary efforts, +and especially avoided every appearance of coalition with other +parties. + +But gradually a change came over them. In 1895 they nominated one of +their number for secretary of the Reichstag.[23] + +Gingerly they dipped their fingers into the pottage of reality. Soon +they began to introduce bills. In 1901 they proposed a measure that +increased the allowance of the private soldier. Their bill became a +law. In the next national convention, when they were called to task +for their worldliness, they excused themselves by saying that ninety +per cent. of the private soldiers were proletarians and their parents +were too poor to supply them with the money necessary for army +sundries, and the allowance of the state had been inadequate. This was +therefore a law that actually benefited the poor. + +In 1906 and 1908 they were compelled to face the practical question of +an inheritance tax. The delegation supported the measure, after +prolonged deliberation over what action to take. This action +precipitated a heated discussion in the party congress; the veterans +feared the party was surrendering its principles. They were assured by +Bebel that the vote was orthodox.[24] + +In 1906 the party instructed its delegation to introduce bills for +redistricting the empire for Reichstag elections; to reduce the +legislative period from five to three years; to revise the laws +relating to sailors and provide for better inspection of ships and +shipping. These instructions mark a revolution in German Social +Democracy, a change that can best be illustrated by the shift in its +attitude on state insurance. In 1892 the party resolved: "So-called +state Socialism, in so far as it concerns itself with bettering the +conditions of the working people, is a system of half-reforms whose +origin is in the fear of Social Democracy. It aims, through all kinds +of palliatives and little concessions, to estrange the working people +from Social Democracy and to cripple the party. + +"The Social Democracy have never disdained to ask for such +governmental regulations, or, if proposed by the opposition, to +approve of those measures which could better the conditions of labor +under the present industrial system. But Social Democrats view such +regulations as only little payments on account, which in nowise +confuse the Social Democracy in its striving for a new organization of +society."[25] + +They are now not above collecting even small sums on account. In 1910 +their convention declares that state insurance is "the object of +constant agitation. For what we have thus far secured by no means +approaches what the laborer demands."[26] + +The committee on parliamentary action reported, a few years ago, that +"no opportunity was lost for entering the lists in behalf of political +and cultural progress. In the discussion of all bills and other +business matters, the members of the delegation took an active part in +committee as well as in _plenum_."[27] There is no longer half-abashed +juvenile reluctance at legislative participation. The reports boast of +the work done by the party in behalf of the workingman, the peasant, +small tradesman, small farmer, and humbler government employees. +Eleven bills were introduced by the delegation in 1909-10, relating to +factory and mine inspection, amending the state insurance laws, the +tariff laws, the redistricting of the empire for Reichstag +elections--i.e., all pertaining to labor, politics, and finance. +Twenty resolutions were moved by the delegation, and many +interpellations called. + +Interpellation, however, is not very satisfactory in a government +where the ministry is not responsible to parliament. In 1909 the +Social Democrats introduced a bill to make the Chancellor and his +cabinet responsible to the Reichstag. Ledebour, who made the leading +speech for the Social Democrats, gave a clear exposition of his +party's contention. He wanted a government "wherein the people, in the +final analysis, decided the fate of the government. For, in such a +government, only those men come into power who represent a program, +represent conviction and character; not any one who has succeeded, for +the moment, in pleasing the fancy and becoming the favorite of the +determining kamarilla." If the election should turn on this issue, +"whether there shall be a perpetuation of the sham-constitutional, +junker bureaucracy, or the establishing of a democratic parliamentary +authority," the parliamentary party would win. "The will of the people +should be the highest law."[28] + +In January, 1912, this party of isolation entered the Reichstag as the +strongest group: 110 members acknowledge the leadership of Bebel. By +co-operating with the Radicals and National Liberals, the progressive +elements had a majority over the Conservative and Clerical +reactionaries for the first time in the history of the empire. Here +Bebel consented to become a candidate for president of the Chamber. He +received 175 votes; the candidate of the Conservatives, Dr. Spahn, +leader of the Clerical Center, received 196. Enough National Liberals +had wavered to throw the balance in favor of Conservatism. A Socialist +was elected first vice-president, and a National Liberal second +vice-president. The President-elect refused to act with a Socialist +vice-president and resigned. The Radical member from Berlin, Herr +Kaempf, was then elected President.[29] Thereupon the National Liberal +second vice-president also resigned, and a Radical was chosen in his +stead. The Social Democrats and the Radicals were made responsible for +the leadership of the new Reichstag. + +It is customary for the President and the vice-president of the +Chamber to announce to the Kaiser when the Reichstag is organized and +ready for business. The Kaiser let it be known that he did not care to +receive the Radical officers. The Socialist first vice-president +refused to join in the proposed official visit. The Prussian temper is +slow to change. + +These illustrations clearly indicate the trend of Social Democratic +legislative and political policy. It is the universal story--ambition +brings power, power brings responsibility, responsibility sobers the +senses. + + +V + +The second development that we are to trace relates to the program, or +platform, of the party. The official program has not undergone any +change, but the interpretation, the spirit, has mellowed. The Erfurter +program of 1891 is still their party pledge. The program is in two +parts; the first an elaborate exposition of Marxian economics, the +second a series of practical demands differing only slightly from the +Gotha program. + +Only one speech was made in the national convention on the adoption of +this bifurcated platform, that attempted to link Marxian theory to +Lassallian realism. This speech was made by Liebknecht, friend of +Marx, who elaborately explained his friend's theory of value, doctrine +of class war and social evolution. The program was adopted _en bloc_. +The chairman ignored a few protesting "noes" when the vote was called, +and declared it unanimously adopted. These few voices of protest soon +swelled to considerable volume. Within one year after the repeal of +the Socialist law the party had entered upon the difficult task of +being both critic and parliamentarian, constructive and destructive, +under rigid military discipline. + +To the few protesters at Erfurt, it seemed as though the party had +entered the lifeboat, manned the oars, and neglected to untie the +painter. + +When the elections of 1897 recorded a severe setback for the party the +progressives were told to keep the eyes of faith on the "ultimate +goal" of Socialism. One of the réformistes replied: "The whole idea of +an ultimate goal is distasteful to me. There is no ultimate goal; for +beyond your ultimate goal is another world of striving."[30] And +another critic said: "Nothing wears threadbare so rapidly by constant +use as words of faith. Constantly spoken or heard, they become +stereotyped into phrases, and the inspired prophet creates the same +offensive impression as a priest who has nothing else to offer but +words." The interest of the workingman "finds its expression in the +practicalness of the second part of the Erfurter program, and the +wholly practical work of the party."[31] It was at this time that +Edward Bernstein, friend and literary heir of Engel, published a +series of critical papers in the party journal, _Die Neue Zeit_, +attacking especially the catastrophic and revolutionary postulates and +saying "the movement is everything, the goal is nothing." Kautsky, the +dogmatist of the party, replied to these articles and a feverish +discussion followed in all the party press.[32] + +In the party conventions of 1898 and 1899 this controversy was waged +with considerable energy. Von Vollmar made merry over Kautsky's +"inquisition" and called the debate "a noisy cackling over nothing." +The mass of the party, he said, did not trouble their heads about +theories, but plodded along unmindful of hairsplitting.[33] Bebel made +a herculean effort to reconcile both elements. To the revisionists he +said, "We are in a constant state of intellectual moulting,"[34] to +the orthodox he said, "We remain what we have always been."[35] + +It was at Dresden, 1903, that the revisionist tempest reached its +height in the party teapot. The Germans' love for polysyllabic +phrase-making, for which Jaurès taunted them at the Amsterdam +congress, was here given full play. Von Vollmar repeated that nobody +except a few dull theorists read Kautsky's or Bernstein's views; the +mass of voters cared for practical results, and "revisionists and +anti-revisionists are nothing but a bugbear."[36] + +Here the matter rested until the elections of 1907 opened the eyes of +the party high priests. They gained only 248,249 votes and lost +one-half of their seats in the Reichstag. A number of the leading +Socialists promptly began to attack the dogmas of the party program as +illusions and pitfalls. The class war, the revolutionary method, the +theory of an ever-increasing proletariat and decreasing bourgeoisie +were attacked as unscientific, and illusory. "The Erfurt program +recites a vagary, it repels the intellect, it must be changed;" that +was the opinion of the advanced thinkers of the party. + +No party congresses, no priestly pronunciamentos have been able to +check the spread of revolt. As long as Kautsky and Bebel live the +program will probably not be re-phrased. But even Kautsky is mellowing +under the ripeness of years and circumstances; and Bebel, shrewd +politician, knows the campaigning value of appearing at the same time +orthodox and progressive.[37] + +To-day one hears very little of Marx and a great deal of legislation. +The last election, with its brilliant victory for Social Democracy, +was not won on the general issues of the Erfurter program but on the +particular issue of the arrogance of the bureaucracy, and ballot +reform. A large mass of voters cast their ballots for Social +Democratic candidates as a protest against existing governmental +conditions, not as an affirmation of their assent to the Marxian +dogmas. The truth is, Marx is a tradition, democracy is an issue.[38] + +Another indication of the notable changes that have come over Social +Democracy is seen in the Socialists' relation to other parties. Here +their dogmatic aloofness is the most tenacious. During the years of +their bitter persecution by the government they found their excuse in +an isolation that was forced upon them. Von Vollmar told his +colleagues, immediately after the repeal of the anti-Socialist law, +that the South Germans were ready to co-operate with every one who +would be willing to give them an inch. In reply to this Bebel +introduced a resolution affirming that "the primary necessity of +attaining political power" could not be "the work of a moment," but +was attained only by gradual growth. During the period of growth the +Social Democrats should not work for mere "concessions from the ruling +classes," but "have only the ultimate and complete aim of the party in +mind." The Bebelian theory linked the ultimate goal with ultimate +power, both to be attained by waiting until the flood tide. + +This question became practical when the Social Democratic members of +the provincial legislatures voted with other parties for the state +budget. The national party claimed authority over the local party, a +claim which was resented by the Bavarians and other South German +delegations.[39] + +In 1894 the South Germans were chastised by a vote of 164 to 64 for +voting for their state budget. They were rebuked again in 1901 and in +1908. In the latter year Bebel told them "three times is enough," +indicating that there would be a split in the party if they insisted +on voting for their local budgets. The South Germans defended their +action by saying that they had always agitated for more pay for state +employees, and that they were willing to vote the funds that would +make this possible. A new champion appeared for the réformistes--Dr. +Frank of Mannheim, a brilliant speaker who is called by his following +a "second Lassalle." He made a withering attack on the Marxian school, +but Bebel's censure was carried by 256 to 119. + +Finally at Magdeburg, 1910, the budget question reached its climax. +Bebel boasted that his policy of negation had wrought great changes in +Germany. "I say it without boasting, in the whole world there is no +Social Democracy that has accomplished as much positive good as the +German Social Democracy."[40] He claimed the insurance laws, factory +laws, and the repeal of special and oppressive legislation as the +fruits of his policy. Bebel then warned the Badensians that this is +the last time they will be forgiven; one other offense, and they will +be put out of the party. + +Dr. Frank made an elaborate reply. He said that there was a working +agreement between the Social Democrats and Liberals whereby they +co-operated against the Conservatives. In the state legislature they +had a "bloc" with the Liberals and had elected a vice-president and +secretary and important chairmanships by means of this coalition. They +had, moreover, reformed the public school system, secured factory +legislation, and had secured direct elections in all towns of 4,000 +or over. The réformistes' principles are so clearly stated in this +speech that I quote several paragraphs: + +"I tell you, comrades, if you think that under all the circumstances +you can win only small concessions; with such a message of +hopelessness you will not conquer the world, not even the smallest +election district. [_Great commotion and disturbance._] But what would +be the meaning of this admission that small concessions can be +secured? In tearing down a building dramatic effects are possible. But +the erection of a building is accomplished only by an accumulation of +small concessions. Behold the labor unions, that are so often spoken +of, how they struggle for months, how they suffer hunger for months, +in order to win a concession of a few pennies. Often one can see that +a small concession contains enormous future possibilities, and in +twenty or thirty years will become a vital force in the shaping of the +society that is to come." + +"Nor will I examine the question whether in parliamentary activity +only small concessions can be won. Is it not possible, through +parliamentary action, to take high tariffs and business speculations +from the necks of the workingmen? Is it not possible to modify police +administration, and the legislative conditions that profane Prussia +to-day? Are these conditions necessary concomitants of the modern +class-state (Klassenstaat)? Is it not possible to create out of +Prussia and Germany a modern state, where our workingmen, even as +their brethren in Western Europe, can fight their great battles upon +the field of democratic equality and citizenship? If you wish to view +all that as 'small concessions' you are at liberty to do so. I view it +as a tremendous revolution, if it succeeds, to secure, through such a +struggle, liberty for the Prussian working class."[41] + +The censure was carried, the Baden delegation left the hall during the +voting. On the following day it returned to declare its loyalty to the +party, but with the proviso that they would by no means promise how +they would vote on their state budget in the future. + +Events are shaping themselves rapidly in Germany. Ministerial +responsibility cannot much longer be denied. The elections of 1912 +should serve as a plain portent to the reactionaries. That Bebel is +willing to be a candidate for President of the Reichstag is a +significant concession; that the Radicals and many National Liberals +are willing to vote for him, would have been deemed impossible ten +years ago. + +Such conditions as prevail between the government and the Radicals and +Social Democrats cannot long continue. The break with the past must +come, sooner or later. The pressure of Radical and Democratic votes +will become so powerful, that not even the strong traditions of the +empire can wholly withstand it. + +In May, 1911, I visited the Reichstag on an eventful occasion. The +Social Democrats had voted with the government for a new Constitution +for Alsace-Lorraine containing universal manhood suffrage. Herr Bebel +was jubilant. He said: "It marks a new epoch. We have voted with the +government. Not that we have capitulated. But the government have come +to our convictions, they have granted universal suffrage to Alsace, +now they cannot long deny that right to Prussia and the other +states."[42] + +We have now seen that politically a great change has come over the +German Socialists; that they are participating in legislation, and are +especially solicitous about all acts that pertain to labor and +political liberty; that they are gradually moving toward co-operation +with other parties; that they are gradually sloughing off the +inflexible Marxian armor, and are assuming the pliable dress of +modernism. + +All this is to be expected of a party that began as a vigorous, +narrow, autocratic party of revolution and protest, and is emerging +from its hard experiences, a self-styled "cultural party" ("Kultur +Partei"). Dr. Südekum, editor of Communal Praxis, in his report of the +parliamentary group, in 1907, wrote: "We have in the Reichstag two +kinds of duties; first, the propaganda of our ideas and program; +second, practical work, i.e., to enhance, not alone the interests of +the working class, but the entire complex, so-called cultural +interests. The problems that the Social Democratic party as a +'cultural party' has to solve, which are assigned to it as the +representative of cultural progress in every realm of human activity, +must increase in the same proportion that the bourgeois parties allow +themselves to be captured by the government and neglect these +problems."[43] + +It is a far cry from "class war" to "human cultural activities." Such +an expansion of purpose requires a greatly enlarged electorate. The +majority of the workingmen are already in the party, where will the +increase come from? + +There are two directions in which the party can hope to gain new +recruits--the small farmer and the small tradesman. The small farmer +is peculiarly hard to reach. He is well guarded--the Church on the one +side, the landlord and _junker_ on the other. To step in and steal his +heart is a very difficult task. The work is pushed steadily, with +tenacity, but results are slow in coming. + +Among the tradespeople and business men, there is more rapid progress, +especially in southern Germany. In Munich a great many tradespeople +vote for Von Vollmar.[44] + +Primarily it will always be a workingman's party. Its soul is the +labor movement. Its political aim is democracy, and its hope is the +power of sheer preponderance of numbers. What it will do when it has +that power is a speculation that does not lure the prosaic Teutonic +mind. "We will find plenty to do," one of them said, "when we have the +government. We have plenty to do now, that we haven't the government." +This is wisdom learned of France. + +This means that the party have given up their "splendid +isolation"--what Von Vollmar called their "policy of sterility and +despair"[45]--a policy which they acknowledged by words long after +they had abandoned it in fact. They abandoned it the moment they +championed labor legislation, and sought the sanitation of cities and +the opening of parks, in their municipal councils. + +The pressure of things as they are has been too powerful for even the +German Social Democracy, with its dogmatic temper and strength of +millions. Revolution has, even here, been replaced by a slow and +orderly development. + +The rapidity with which the medieval empire will be democratized will +depend upon the formation of a genuine liberal party that will enlist +those citizens who are inclined toward modernism but cannot be enticed +into the Social Democratic or Radical parties. When such a party is +formed, and an alliance made with the Social Democrats, then the +transformations will be rapid.[46] Among the most significant +accessions to the Social Democracy are many professional men: lawyers, +physicians, engineers, etc. This augurs a change in party spirit and +method. Dr. Frank of Mannheim told me that he considered the extent to +which the party could lure the intellectual element the measure of the +party greatness and power. + + +VI + +A word should be added upon the attitude of the Social Democrats +toward militarism. The standing army and the increasing navy of +Germany are a heavy tax upon the people. The Germans for centuries +have been military in ambition, soldiers by instinct. + +The Social Democrats, in common with all Socialists, are opposed to +war. But the German is a patriot. In the International Congress at +Stuttgart, the French and Russian delegations imposed an extreme +anti-military resolution upon the Socialists, against the protest of +the Germans. Bebel called their anti-patriotic utterances "silly +word-juggling."[47] + +The Berlin congress, 1892, adopted the following resolution, in view +of the added military burdens proposed by the Reichstag: "The +prevailing military system, not being able to guarantee the country +against foreign invasion, is a continual threat to international peace +and serves the capitalistic class-government, whose aim is the +industrial exploitation and suppression of the working classes, as an +instrument of oppression against the masses. + +"The party convention therefore demands, in consonance with the +program of the Social Democratic platform, the establishment of a +system of defense based upon a general militia, trained and armed. The +congress declares that the Social Democratic members of the Reichstag +are in complete accord with the party and with the politically +organized working classes of Germany, when they vote against every +measure of the government aimed at perpetuating the present military +system."[48] + +During a debate in the Reichstag in 1907, Bebel declared, in the +defense of the Fatherland, _if it were invaded_, even he in his old +age would "shoulder a musket." He demanded military drill for youths +as a preliminary to the shortening of military service in the standing +army; if this were not done the defense of the country would be +weakened whenever the service shall be reduced to one year. + +The Chancellor had on this occasion introduced a bill making all +military service uniformly two years, and abolishing the privileges +that had been granted to a few favored classes. + +For this action they were severely criticised in the next party +convention. Bebel replied: "I said, _if the Fatherland really must be +defended_, then we will defend it. Because it is our Fatherland. It is +the land in which we live, whose language we speak, whose culture we +possess. Because we wish to make this, our Fatherland, more beautiful +and more complete than any other land on earth. We defend it, +therefore, not for you but against you."[49] This patriotic +declamation was received with "tremendous applause." + +Von Vollmar, himself a soldier of distinction, said, in the Bavarian +Diet, a few years ago: + +"If the necessity should arise for the protection of the realm against +foreign invasion, then it will become evident that the Social +Democrats love their Fatherland no less than do their neighbors; that +they will as gladly and heroically offer themselves to its defense. On +the other hand, if the foolish notion should ever arise to use the +army for the support of a warring class prerogative, for the defense +of indefeasible demands, and for the crushing of those just ambitions +which are the product of our times, and a necessary concomitant of our +economic and political development,--then we are of the firm +conviction that the day will come when the army will remember that it +sprang from the people, and that its own interests are those of the +masses." + +This makes their position very clear. + + +VII + +The party that for years held itself in disdainful aloofness, was so +defiant of co-operation, in the national parliament, is ductile, +neighborly, and eager to help in the municipal and communal councils. +It has a communal program of practical details, and no small part of +the splendid progress in municipal administration in Germany is due to +the Social Democrats. Everywhere you hear praise from officials and +from political rivals for the careful work of the Social Democratic +members of municipal bodies. + +Owing to the unfavorable election laws, the Social Democrats do not +elect a large number of members to local councils. In no important +city do they preponderate. If universal manhood suffrage were enacted, +they would control the majority of the local legislative bodies. As it +is, they are an active minority, and guard jealously the interests of +the working classes. + +Munich may be taken as the type of city in which the Social Democrats +are active.[50] + +In 1907 there were 130,000 qualified electors for the Reichstag +election in Munich, in 1905 there were only 31,252 qualified electors +for the municipal elections. This shows the restrictive influence of +property qualifications for local elections. + +In a city council of 60 members, the Social Democrats elected only 9. +And of 20 elected members of the chamber of magistrates they elected +only 3. + +This minority is an active committee of scrutiny. It carefully and +minutely scrutinizes all the acts of the municipal authorities, +especially pertaining to labor, to contracts for public work, and to +the conditions of city employees. They vote consistently in favor of +the enlargement of municipal powers; e.g., the extension of parks, of +street-car lines, the building of larger markets. For a number of +years the Social Democrats of Munich have urged the utilizing of the +water power of the Isar, which rushes through the city. And the +municipality is now utilizing some of this power. + +The Social Democrats also favor every facility for the extension of +the art and culture for which Munich is justly celebrated. They take +no narrow, provincial views of such questions, and set an example that +might with profit be followed by parties who claim for themselves the +prerogative of culture. They are constantly working for better public +educational facilities, and are especially hostile to the +encroachments of the Church upon the domain of public education. + +They are in favor of increased public expenditures; opposed to all +indirect taxes, especially those that tend to raise the price of food. + +Their special grievance is the property qualification required for +voting. They say that a law which allows only one-fifteenth of the +citizens (30,000 out of over 500,000) a right to vote is "shameful," +and they are bending every effort to change the law. + +What is true in Munich is true in other cities: democratic election +laws are denied them. But they are active everywhere, and do not +despise the doing of small details, doing them well and with zest. It +is obvious that Socialism in Germany cannot be put to a constructive +test until the election laws are democratized and the higher +administrative offices are opened to them. That will bring the real +test of this colossal movement. + + * * * * * + +We may sum it all up by saying that Social Democracy in Germany is +first of all a struggle for democracy. The accent is on the second +part of the compound. It is, secondly, a struggle for the +self-betterment of the working classes; and it is, thirdly, a protest +against certain conditions that the present organization of society +imposes upon mankind. + +An American sojourning among the German people must be impressed with +the painstaking organization of the empire. Every detail of life is +carefully ordered to avoid waste and to secure efficiency, even at the +cost of individual initiative. This military empire, of infinite +discipline, is now undergoing a political metamorphosis. The force +that is bringing about the change is being generated at the bottom of +the social strata, not at the top. This signifies that a change is +sure to come. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See MEYER, _Emancipations-Kampf des Vierten Standes_, Chap. V; +also J. SCHMOELE, _Die Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften in +Deutschland, seit dem Erlasse des Sozialistischen Gesetzes_, Jena, +1896, et seq. + +[2] The following table compiled from _Statistisches Jahrbuch_ shows +their growth in recent years: + + Year Members + 1902 733,206 + 1903 887,698 + 1904 1,052,108 + 1905 1,344,803 + 1906 1,689,709 + 1907 1,865,506 + 1908 1,831,731 + 1909 1,892,568 + +In 1909 their income was 50,529,114 marks, their expenditure +46,264,031 marks. See Appendix, p. 295, for membership of all the +unions. + +[3] When I visited the Berlin _Gewerkschaftshaus_, a model three-room +dwelling--living room, kitchen, and bedroom--had been furnished and +decorated in simple, durable, and artistic fashion. This exhibit was +thronged with workingmen, their wives and daughters. + +Some years ago it was discovered that the youth of the working people +were reading cheap and unworthy literature. The Central Committee of +the Unions now issues cheap editions of the choicest literature for +children and young people. + +These two incidents show the vigilance of the unions, in looking after +all the wants of their people. + +[4] The number of strikes in recent years are given as follows: 1902, +1,106; 1903, 1,444; 1904, 1,990; 1905, 2,657; 1906, 3,626; 1907, +2,512; 1908, 1,524.--From _Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche +Reich_. + +[5] _Protokoll: Sozial-Demokratische Partei-Tag_, 1908, p. 14. + +[6] See Bebel, _Gewerksbewegung und Politische Parteien_: Preface. + +[7] See _Protokoll des Partei-Tages_, 1890, pp. 156-7. + +[8] "_Genossen_": the word really means "brethren." + +[9] Party membership has grown as follows: 1906, 384,527; 1907, +530,466; 1908, 587,336; 1909, 633,309; 1910, 720,038; 1911, 836,562. + +[10] _Bericht des Partei-Vorstandes_, 1909-10. + +[11] See Appendix, p. 296, for complete election returns. + +[12] _Bericht des Partei-Vorstandes_, 1909-10. + +[13] In 1891-2 the "Berliner Opposition" threatened a revolt. They +were given every opportunity of explaining their grievances, were told +what to do, and, disobeying, were promptly shown the door. + +[14] "It has been truthfully said that in Germany a Social Democrat +cannot even become a night-watchman."--PROF. BERNHARD HARMS +(University of Kiel), _Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine Bedeutung für die +Sozial-Demokratie_, 1909, p. 103. + +[15] "Do you enjoy freedom from political interference?" I asked a +high official in the civil service. "Absolutely. We think as we +please, talk as we please, and do as we please. But we must let the +Social Democrats alone." + +[16] See Appendix, p. 293, for synopsis of this law. + +[17] The vote for the Saxon legislature at this time was as follows: + + Party Voters Votes + Social Democrats 341,396 492,522 + Conservatives 103,517 281,804 + National Liberal 125,157 236,541 + Independents (Freisinnige) 41,857 100,804 + Anti-Semites 20,248 55,502 + +The Social Democrats included over one-half of the voters, cast about +one-third of the votes, and elected only one-fourth of the members. + +[18] Some curious instances of inequality appear in the cities. In +Berlin in one precinct one man paid one-third of the taxes and +consequently possessed one-third of the legislative influence in that +precinct. In another precinct the president of a large bank paid +one-third of the taxes, and two of his associates paid another third. +These three men named the member of the Diet from that precinct. + +[19] For the struggle for ballot reform in Bavaria, see _Der Kampf um +die Wahlreform in Bayern_, issued in 1905 by the Bavarian Social +Democratic Party Executive Committee. + +[20] February 13, 1910, was set aside as a day for suffrage +demonstration throughout the empire. In Berlin alone forty-two +meetings were announced. These provoked the following edict: "Notice! +The 'right to the streets' is hereby proclaimed. The streets serve +primarily for traffic. Resistance to state authority will be met by +the force of arms. I warn the curious. Berlin, February 13, 1910. +Police-president, VON IAGOW." The Social Democratic papers called +attention to the fact that these notices were printed on the same +forms that the Police-president often used to announce that the +streets would be closed to all traffic on account of military parades. + +[21] _Protokoll_, 1890, pp. 119-120. + +[22] _Protokoll_, 1890, pp. 96-7. + +[23] There are eight secretaries elected. They are distributed, by +custom, among the parties, according to their voting strength. The +Social Democrats had always refrained from taking part in any of the +elections; now they enter the lists, abstaining from voting for any +candidate except their own--who, in turn, received no other votes. + +[24] Bebel was not present in the Reichstag at the time this vote was +taken, but he told the convention that, had he been present, he should +have supported the Tax Bill. _Protokoll_, 1908, p. 364. + +[25] _Protokoll_, 1892, p. 173. + +[26] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 469. + +[27] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 95. + +[28] Reichstag Debates, December 2, 1908. + +[29] In the election of January, 1912, the Social Democrats carried +every district in Berlin excepting the one in which the Kaiser's +palace is situated. Here a spirited contest took place. A second +ballot was made necessary between the Radicals and Social Democrats, +and the Conservatives, throwing all their forces on to the Radical +side, succeeded in keeping this last stronghold from their enemies. +But Herr Kaempf's majority was only 6 votes. + +[30] _Protokoll_, 1898, p. 89. + +[31] _Supra cit._, p. 90. + +[32] This controversy is known as the "revisionist movement." The +revisionists' position is set forth in Bernstein's book, _Die +Voraussetzung des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozial-Demokratie_. +The Marxian position is set forth in Kautsky's reply, _Bernstein und +die Sozial-Demokratie_. An English edition of Bernstein's book has +been published in the Labor Party series in London. + +[33] _Protokoll_, 1899. + +[34] _Supra cit._, p. 94. + +[35] _Supra cit._, p. 127. + +[36] _Protokoll_, 1903, pp. 321-45. + +[37] In the congress of 1907 Bebel tried to dispel the gloom by a long +and optimistic speech in which he declared that their success was not +to be measured by the number of seats they won, but by the number of +voters. He closed by saying, "We are the coming ones, ours is the +future in spite of all things and everything."--_Protokoll_, 1907, p. +323. + +[38] One of the veteran party leaders answered my question as to the +present-day influence of Marx as follows: "The bulk of our party have +never read Marx. It takes a well-trained mind to understand him. +Conditions have entirely changed since his day, and we are busy with +questions of which Marx never dreamed and of which he could not +foretell. He laid the philosophical basis for our party, but our party +is practical, not philosophical." + +[39] In 1900 Bebel proposed the necessity of a working coalition with +other parties in Prussia to gain electoral reform. He said: "We cannot +stand alone. We must attempt to go hand in hand with certain elements +in the bourgeois parties--without, however, endangering our identity." +But the party was not willing to go as far as the veteran, and a +resolution was adopted limiting such co-operation strictly to Prussia +and giving the central committee full power to veto the acts any +electoral district might take in this direction. + +[40] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 249. + +[41] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 272. + +[42] In November, 1911, Berlin's new city hall was dedicated. The +members of the city council were invited to be present. The Social +Democrats cast a large majority of all the votes in Berlin. But the +Social Democrats refused to attend the ceremonies. The program, as +published, called for a "Hoch!" to the Kaiser, and the Social +Democrats never joined in public approval of the government. +_Vorwärts_, the leading Social Democratic daily, said that Social +Democrats have nothing to do with such a display of "Byzantinism." "If +any one thought it necessary to shout 'Hoch!' he could shout 'Hoch!' +to the working population of Berlin." + +[43] _Protokoll_, 1907, pp. 227-8. + +[44] Amongst the business people of Mannheim, Munich, and other cities +in Baden, Bavaria, and Hesse, there are many who support the Social +Democratic candidates, because, they say, there is no genuinely +liberal party. It should, however, be borne in mind that the Social +Democrats of these southern districts are liberal and progressive, not +the unbending, orthodox variety of Prussia. + +[45] VON VOLLMAR, _Über die Aufgaben der Deutschen Social-Demokratie_. + +[46] The _Hansa Bund_ (Hanseatic League), organized a few years ago, +may be the nucleus of such a party. It is composed of smaller +manufacturers and business men opposed to tariffs and the trusts, and +in favor of a more liberal government. + +[47] _Protokoll_, Social Democratic Party, 1907, p. 228. + +[48] _Protokoll_, 1892, p. 132. + +[49] _Protokoll_, 1907, p. 255. + +[50] See _Die Sozial-Demokratie im Münchener Rathaus_, issued by the +Bavarian party executive committee, 1908. Also _Die Sozial-Demokratie +im Bayerischen Landtag, 1888-1905_, 3 vols., issued by the Party Press +in Munich; and E. AUER, _Arbeiterpolitik im Bayerischen Landtag_. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE ENGLISH LABOR PARTY + + +I + +We come now to the land of the industrial revolution--that colossal +upheaval which changed the face of society, as the vast continental +uplifts of past geological epochs changed the face of the earth. And +just as the continents were centuries in settling themselves to their +new conditions, so human society is now slowly adjusting itself to the +conditions wrought by this violent change. One of the evidences of +this gradual readjustment is Socialism. For to Socialism machine +industry is a condition precedent. In this sense England has produced +modern Socialism. + +There is no blacker picture than the England of 1780 to 1840, and no +drearier contrast than the quaint villages and their household +industries of the earlier period and the "spreading of the hideous +town," after Arkwright and Hargreaves and Watt. These inhuman +conditions are faithfully and dispassionately revealed in the reports +of the various Royal Commissions of Inquiry: statistical mines where +Marx and Engels found abundant material for their philosophy of gloom. +And from these dull and depressing government folios Charles Kingsley +drew his indignant invectives, and Carlyle his trenchant indictments +against a society that would imprison its eight-year-old children, +its mothers, and its grandmothers in dingy factories fourteen hours a +day for the sake of profits, and then release them at night only to +find lodgings in the most miserable hovels and rickety tenements. It +is almost surprising to one familiar with the details of this gruesome +record that a social revolution did not follow immediately in the wake +of the industrial revolution. + +There were riots at first, and machines were smashed. But the hand of +the worker was impotent against the arm of steel. The workman soon +resigned himself to his fate and his misery. The poor laws did not +help, they only multiplied the burdens upon the state without taking +the load from the poor. The laborer was too helpless to help himself, +and the state and society were apathetic. The rapid expansion of +industry found an ample outlet in the growing commerce to every corner +of the world. England was making money. She was gradually shifting +control from the traditional landowner to the new factory owner. The +landed gentry had inherited a fine sense of patriarchal +responsibility. The factory owner had no traditions. He was a parvenu. +His interests were machinery and ships, not politics and humanity. He +acquiesced in the poor laws as the easiest way out of a miserable +mess; he let private charity take its feeble and intermittent course, +paying his rates and giving his donations with self-satisfied +sanctity. + +All this time labor was abundant. The markets of the world were hungry +for the goods of English mills. Then came suddenly the Chartist +Movement.[1] The flame of discontent spread and a revolution seemed +impending. This first great outbreak of English labor was a political +movement, fed by economic causes. The repeal of the corn laws and the +passage of the factory acts modified economic conditions and mollified +labor for the time. The repeal of the corn laws brought cheaper food; +the factory acts brought better conditions of labor. + +Meanwhile individualism was evolving an economic creed. The Manchester +doctrine was the logical outcome of England's insular position and her +driving individualistic manufactures. But it was _laissez-faire_ in +industrialism, not in unionism. The laboring men were now beginning to +organize, and Cobden himself proposed the act that made unionism +ineffective as a political force. However, indirectly, free trade +stimulated labor, because it brought great prosperity, made work +abundant, and employers sanguine. Unions now rapidly multiplied, but +they were local, isolated. Their federation into a great national body +came later. + +Socialism, or unionism, or any other general movement cannot develop +in England with the rapidity and enthusiasm that is shown for +"movements" on the Continent. The traditions of the English people are +constitutional. Socialism can thrive among them only if it is +"constitutional," and the Fabians are to-day talking about +"constitutional Socialism" with judicial solemnity. All the training +of the English people is contrary to the theory of progress through +violence. They have had few revolutions accompanied by bloodshed, they +have had a great many accompanied by prayers and Parliamentary +oratory--"constitutional" methods. They have, moreover, a real +reverence for property. The poor who have none are taught to respect +the rich who have. The Church, the common law, the statute law, the +customs, all the sources of tradition and habit, have emphasized the +sanctity of property. Only within the last few decades, as will be +seen presently, has a radical change, a veritable revolution, come +over the people in this respect. + +The British temperament is not given to nerves. This stolid, +phlegmatic, self-contained individualist has no inflammable material +in his heart. Ruskin failed to arouse him, he wove too much artistry +into his appeal; and Carlyle could not move him, his epigrams were too +rhapsodical. Such temperaments are not given to rapid propagandism. +And finally, the Englishman is too practical to be a utopist. He +concerns himself with the duties of to-day rather than the vagaries of +to-morrow. Utopianism made no impression on him. Owen, the great +Utopian, was a Welshman. The Celt has imagination. Nor do intricate +theories or involved philosophies touch the mind of the Briton. The +splendor that enraptures the Frenchman, the abstruse reasoning that +delights the German, are alike boredom to this practical inventor of +machinery and builder of ships. + +In spite of these characteristics there is no country in Europe where +there is more agitation about Socialism than there is in England +to-day. It is discussed everywhere. Almost the entire time of +Parliament during the past few years has been taken up with more or +less "Socialistic" legislation. The public mind is steeped in it. + +There is more actually being done in England toward the +"socialization" of property, and the state, than in any other European +country. And less being said about the theory of value, the class +war, capitalistic production, proletariat and bourgeois, and the +other Continental pet phrases of Socialism. + +Marx, who lived among the English for many years, but whose heart was +never with them, would not call this rapid social movement +Socialistic, because it does not avowedly "aim" at "socializing +capitalistic production." The doings of the English are certainly not +accomplished in the spirit of his orthodoxy. But the current toward +state control, toward pure democracy, land nationalization, +nationalization of railways and mines, has set in with the swiftness +of a mill-race and is grinding grist with an amazing rapidity. + +As I write these words, London and the whole country are wrought up +over Lloyd George's Insurance Bill and the projected ballot reform +bill. Meetings everywhere, fervid Parliamentary debate, the papers +filled with letters from everybody; every organization, debating +society, and board of directors of great industries passing +resolutions. Even the Labor Party is divided over the paternalistic +measure that aims to bring relief to the sick and disabled working man +and woman. Amidst all this discussion, noise, and party zeal is +discerned the drift of the nation toward a new and unexpected goal. + +Nowhere is it so difficult to define a Socialist, or to mark +boundaries to the movement. But why mark shore-lines? The flood is on. +I will here take the position that whatever extends the functions of +the state (community) over property, or into activities formerly left +to individuals or to the home, is an indication of the Socialistic +trend. Old-fashioned Socialists like Keir Hardie are constantly +warning the people that what is now going on in England is only social +reform, not Socialism. The Fabians, on the other hand, are exerting +every effort to add to the swiftness of the present movement. + +To a student of democracy things now passing into law, and events now +shaping into history, in England, are of peculiar significance. Such +events, transpiring in a country so long abandoned to a rampant +individualism, are portents of a newer time. They are signals of +approaching changes to America, to us who have inherited the common +law, the governmental traditions, the democratic ideals of liberty, if +not the substantial stolidity of temperament and self-complacent +egoism of the Briton. + +All parties, Socialists and Conservatives, will admit this: that all +this turmoil, these rapidly succeeding general elections, these public +discussions, these new laws, indicate that a new social ideal is being +formed. That in itself is worthy of consideration. For the ideal will +shape the destiny. + + +II + +Present-day Socialism in England seems to have risen to sudden +magnitude from vacuity, to have permeated this cautious island over +night. For over a generation all Socialism had disappeared from view. +The elaborate schemes of Owen, the altruistic propaganda under the +gentle Kingsley and his noble companion Maurice, the artistic revolt +against the ugliness of commercialism led by Ruskin, who even shared +the toil of the breakers of stones to prove his sincerity--all these +movements seem suddenly to have disappeared from the face of the +island, like a glacial current dropping suddenly, without warning, +into the depths of the Moulin. + +England was given over to a highly prosperous industrialism. The +Manchester doctrine was enthroned. Commercialism and a glittering +pseudo-humanitarian internationalism found expression in the +alternating victories of the astute Disraeli and the grandiloquent +Gladstone. + +Meanwhile poverty and misery infested the underplaces of the land, a +poverty and misery that was appalling. Every protester was proudly +pointed to the repeal of the corn laws, the revision of the poor laws, +the reform act of 1832, and the factory acts. + +When Sir Henry Vane had ascended the scaffold which his sacrifice made +historic, he said: "The people of England have long been asleep; when +they awake they will be hungry." When the England of to-day awoke it +was to a greater hunger than the politically starved Roundhead or +Cavalier ever endured. + +It is no figure of speech to speak of hungry England. Its brilliant +industrialism has always had a drab background of want. Chiozza Money +says of the present position of labor: "The aggregate income of the +44,500,000 people in the United Kingdom in 1908-9 was approximately +£1,844,000,000; 1,400,000 persons took £634,000,000; 4,100,000 persons +took £275,000,000; 39,000,000 persons took £935,000,000."[2] And he +sums up the condition as follows: "The position of the manual workers +in relation to the general wealth of the country has not improved. +They formed, with those dependent upon them, the greater part of the +nation in 1867, and they enjoyed but about forty per cent. of the +national income, according to the careful estimate of Dudley Baxter. +To-day, with their army of dependents, they still form the greater +part of the nation, although not quite so great a part, and, according +to the best information available, they take less than forty per cent. +of the entire income of the nation." Although during this time the +national income had increased much faster than the rate of population, +"the Board of Trade, after a careful examination of the question of +unemployment in 1904, arrived at the general conclusion that 'the +average level of employment during the last 4 years has been almost +exactly the same as the average of the preceding 40 years.'"[3] + +While the general level of wage-earners has been maintained, and while +wealth has greatly increased, the poverty of the kingdom has shown +little tendency to diminish. "As for pauperism, it is difficult to +congratulate ourselves upon improvement since 1867, when we remember +that in England and Wales alone 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 persons are in +receipt of relief in the course of a single year. This means _one +person in every 20_ has recourse to the poor-law guardians during a +single year." + +"If our national income had but increased at the same rate as our +population since 1867, it would in 1908 have amounted to but about +£1,200,000,000. As we have seen, it is now about £1,840,000,000. Yet +the Error in Distribution remains so great, that, while the total +population in 1867 was 30,000,000, we have to-day a nation of +30,000,000 poor people in our rich country, and many millions of these +are living under conditions of degrading poverty. Of those above the +line of primary poverty, millions are tied down by the conditions of +their labor to live in surroundings which preclude the proper +enjoyment of life or the proper raising of children."[4] + +An event occurred in 1889 that aroused public opinion on the question +of labor conditions. The dockers along the great wharves in London +went out on strike, and forced public attention upon the misery of +these most wretched of British workmen,[5] whose wages were so low +that they could not buy bread for their families and their employment +was so irregular that they were idle half of the time. John Burns came +into prominence first during this strike. He raised over $200,000 by +public appeals to support the strikers. General sympathy was with the +men; and the arbitrators to whom their grievances were submitted +awarded most of their demands. + +The effect of this strike was far-reaching. All over the kingdom +unskilled labor was roused to its power, and a new era in labor +organization began. + + +III + +In no country has the labor-union movement achieved a greater degree +of organization than in England.[6] The movement has been economic, +turning to politics only in recent years; it concerned itself with +wages and conditions of labor, not with party programs and +Parliamentary candidates. + +The characteristic feature of English trade-unionism is collective +bargaining, long since introduced into America, but unknown in most +European countries. The English unions also organized insurance +societies called "Friendly Societies."[7] + +For many years the laws regulating labor unions had been liberally +construed by the courts, and the unions had done very much as they +pleased. Two decisions have been rendered during the last decade that +threatened the unions' existence both as a political and economic +force. + +In 1900 the Taff Vale Railway Company brought suit against the +Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, charging the men with +conspiring to induce the workmen to break their contracts with the +company. The court enjoined the union from picketing and from +interfering with the men in their contractual relations with the +employing company, and assessed the damages at $100,000 against the +offending union. The House of Lords, sitting in final appeal, affirmed +the judgment of the trial court. This virtually meant the stopping of +strikes, for strikes without pickets and vigilance would usually be +unavailing. It also meant financial bankruptcy. + +A second far-reaching decision was made by the House of Lords in +December, 1909, when the "Osborne Judgment" was affirmed, granting to +one Osborne, a member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, +an injunction restraining the union from making a levy on its members, +and from using any of its funds for the purpose of maintaining any of +its members, or any other person, in Parliament. The unions had taken +it for granted that they had the legal right to contribute out of +their funds to political campaigns, and to pay the labor members of +Parliament a salary out of the union treasury.[8] The court held such +payments were illegal, on the ground that they were _ultra vires_. The +charter of the unions did not sanction it.[9] + +The English workman has not only had the trade union for a training +school in practical affairs, but the co-operative movement began here; +and here it flourishes, not as widely spread among the poorer workmen +as in Belgium, but among the better-paid workers it is very popular. + +It is singular that the only practical result left of Owen's +stupendous plans was the little co-operative shop, opened in 1844 at +Rochdale, with a capital of $140 and a gross weekly income of $10. +Owen did not start this shop, but a handful of his followers were the +promoters of the tiny enterprise. The co-operative union to-day +embraces wholesale, retail, productive, and special societies, with +nearly 3,000,000 members, increasing at the rate of 70,000 a year, and +doing $550,000,000 worth of business annually. + +There is also a rapidly growing co-partnership movement, especially in +the building of "garden suburbs" and tenements. In 1903 there were two +such companies, with $200,000 worth of property. In 1909 they had +increased to 15 associations, with over $3,085,000 worth of property. +The membership is not confined to workingmen, but they form the +bulk.[10] + +From the beginning of the modern labor movement we see that the +British workmen have shown a strong tendency to organize. Their +organizations included at first only the skilled workers. There was a +gulf between the trained worker and the unskilled worker. The latter, +forming the substratum of poverty, were too abject for organizing. + +These two great bodies of workers, skilled and unskilled, have been +gradually brought together and their interests united. The Taff Vale +and Osborne judgments have forced them into politics. The unskilled +have been given the benefit of the experience of the skilled, and a +fair degree of homogeneity and group ambition has been reached. + +To enter politics a new form of organization was necessary. We will +see how one was prepared for them. + + +IV + +We will now turn to the Socialist organizations. They are more +numerous than in the other countries we have studied, and more varied +in color. But not any of them are as strong as the French or German +organizations. + +In 1880 William Morris and H.M. Hyndman, a personal friend of Marx, +organized the "Democratic Federation." For a few years it was the only +Socialist organization. It split on the question of revolution. Morris +and his friends, many of them inclined toward Anarchy, founded the +"Socialist League." This league has long since vanished. Hyndman and +his followers renamed their society the "Social Democratic +Federation." It still persists, under the name Social Democratic Party +(popularly "S.D.P."), and remains the only organized trace of +militant, reactionary Marxianism in England. For a long time it +refrained from politics, advocated violence, and was the faithful +imitator of the Guesdist party in France. These are doctrines and +methods that repel the English mind, and the Federation never has been +strong. It has a weekly paper, _Justice_, and a monthly paper, _The +Social Democrat_; claims one member in Parliament, elected however by +the Labor Party, and (in 1907) 124 members of various local governing +bodies. Its aged leader, Hyndman, clings tenaciously to the dogmas of +Marx, and all the changes that have come over the Socialist movement +during the last decades have not altered his views or methods.[11] The +Federation's affiliations and sympathy have been with the +International rather than the British movement, and until a few years +ago it monopolized British representation on the International +Executive Committee. + +Soon after Morris left the Federation a new and novel Socialist +society was formed in London. Two Americans gave the impulse that +started the movement--Henry George, through his works on Single Tax, +and Thomas Davidson of New York, a gentle dreamer of the New +To-morrow. Henry George's books had been read by a group of young men +in London, and when Dr. Davidson went there to lecture he found these +young men ready to listen to his utopian generalizations. Soon these +men organized the Fabian Society. They were not sure of their ground, +and took for their motto: "For the right moment you must wait as +Fabius did when warring against Hannibal, though many censured his +delays; but when the time comes you must strike hard, as Fabius did, +or your waiting will be in vain and fruitless." + +A number of brilliant young men soon joined the Fabians, and their +"tracts" have become famous. Among their members they include Sidney +Webb, the sociologist; George Bernard Shaw, the playwright and cynic; +Chiozza Money, statistician and member of Parliament; Rev. R.J. +Campbell of the City Temple; Rev. Stewart Headlam, leader in the +Church Socialist Movement; and a horde of others, famous in letters, +the professions, and the arts. + +It is difficult to estimate the influence of this unique group of +personages, and it is very easy to underestimate it. From the first +they committed themselves to the policy of "permeation," instead of +aggressive propaganda. They would transform the world by intellectual +osmosis. They have, thus, not only contributed by far the most +brilliant literature to modern Socialism, but have touched some of the +inner springs of political and social power. Prime ministers and +borough councilmen, poor-law guardians and chancellors of the +exchequer, have been influenced by the propulsion of their ideas. But +it has all been done so noiselessly and so well disguised, that to the +Social Democratic Federation the Fabians are "mere academicians," and +to the Independent Labor Party they are forerunners of "tyrannical +bureaucracy." + +Eleven Fabians are in Parliament, and they are not silent onlookers. +For years the Fabians have dominated the London County Council. Its +brilliant "missionaries" attract large audiences, and "Fabian Essays" +have passed through many editions. Each member of this society is the +creator of his own dogma. The Marxian formulas, especially the theory +of surplus value, are not reverenced by them. + +England is the only country in Europe where there is a strong Church +Socialist Movement. In 1889 the Christian Social Union was formed by +members of the Church of England. It is not a Socialist organization, +but it has enlisted a wide practical interest in the labor movement. +It was the outgrowth of the Pan-Anglican Congress, which met at +Lambeth in 1888. At this conference a committee on Socialism made a +noteworthy report, recommending the bringing together of capital and +labor through the agency of co-operation and association.[12] + +In 1906 "The Church Socialist League" was organized. "It seeks to +convert the christened people of England to Socialism. Its members are +committed to the definite economic Socialism of accredited Socialist +bodies. The League is growing rapidly. Branches are springing up all +over the country. Its members have addressed thousands of meetings on +behalf of both Socialist and labor candidates at Parliamentary and +principal elections.... The members of the League are Socialists. They +seek to establish a commonwealth in which the people shall own the +land and industrial capital collectively and administer the same +collectively."[13] + +The influence of the Church Socialist League and the Fabians has +spread to the universities, especially to Oxford and Cambridge. A +number of distinguished professors are active Socialists. + +The movement thus gained ground more rapidly among the intellectuals +than among the workingmen. It was not until 1893 that a Socialist +Labor Party was organized. The Social Democratic Federation was too +dogmatic, hard, and bitter to draw the English laboring man; the +Fabians and the Church Socialists were avowedly not partisan. In 1893 +a group of labor delegates met at Bradford and, under the leadership +of Keir Hardie, organized the Independent Labor Party (I.L.P.). This +definite step had been preceded by many local political organizations +among labor unionists. The necessity for political activity had been +felt in many places. The Bradford convention was merely the coalescing +of many local movements. The I.L.P. is a Socialist body, but it is not +dogmatically, not obnoxiously so. It forms, rather, a connecting link +between Socialism and labor unions. + +It entered politics at once, but with discouraging results. Its 29 +candidates polled only 63,000 votes; only 5 were elected. A closer +alliance with the labor unions was necessary. This was accomplished +when the unions, in 1899, appointed a Labor Representative Committee, +whose duty it was, as the name implies, to increase labor's +representation in Parliament.[14] This committee had first to +determine its relation to the other political parties. The Liberals +and Conservatives among the laborites were outvoted, and the committee +determined upon a new course. Representatives from the Socialist +bodies--the I.L.P., S.D.F., and Fabians--were asked to join the unions +in an alliance that should use its united strength in electing members +to Parliament. All agreed, but the S.D.F. soon withdrew. + +In 1906 the name of the committee was changed to the Labor Party. It +is founded upon the broadest basis of co-operation, so that neither +Socialist, no matter how radical, nor non-Socialist should find it +impossible to work with the party. Its constitution defines this +coalition: "The Labor Party is a federation consisting of Trade +Unions, Trade Councils, Socialist Societies, and Local Labor Parties." +"Co-operative Societies are also eligible," as are "national +organizations of women accepting the basis of this constitution and +the policy of the party." + +The object of the party is "to secure the election of candidates to +Parliament and to organize and maintain a Labor Party with its own +whips and policy." + +Party rigor is carefully prescribed: "Candidates and members must +accept this constitution and agree to abide by the decisions of the +Parliamentary party in carrying out the aims of this constitution; +appear before their constituents under the title of labor candidates; +abstain strictly from identifying themselves with or promoting the +interests of any Parliamentary party not affiliated, or its +candidates; and they must not oppose any candidate recognized by the +national executive of the party." "Before a candidate can be regarded +as adopted for a constituency, his candidature must be sanctioned by +the national executive." + +The party, thus centrally controlled, is well organized in every part +of the kingdom. It maintains a fund for paying the election expenses +of its members.[15] The Osborne judgment has been a serious setback to +the party, especially in local elections. The payment of members was +voted in 1911 by Parliament as a partial remedy, and the government +has promised a reform election bill that will impose the burden of all +necessary election expenses upon the state. + +The party membership has grown from 375,000 in 1900 to nearly +1,500,000 in 1912. Such leading members of the party as J. Ramsay +MacDonald, Keir Hardie, Philip Snowden, and over one-half of the +Parliamentary group, are Socialists. The party refused to commit +itself to Socialistic principles until 1907, when it declared itself +in favor of the following resolution: "The socialization of the means +of production, distribution, and exchange to be controlled in a +democratic state in the interests of the entire community, and the +complete emancipation of labor from the domination of capitalism and +landlordism, with the establishment of social and economic equality +between the sexes."[16] + +In 1908 the party had 26 members in county councils, 262 in town +councils, 168 in urban district councils, 27 in rural district +councils, 124 in parish councils, 145 on poor-law boards, 23 on school +boards. There are (1910) about 1,500 labor men and Socialist members +on the various local governing bodies in Great Britain.[17] + + +V + +We see, then, that Socialism and trades-unionism in England coalesced. +But a more important confluence of political ideals was soon to occur. + +The elections of 1906 indicated to the people of England that a new +force had entered the domain of political power, which had so long +been assigned to the gentry and men of wealth. A careful observer of +political events, and a member of Parliament, described the results as +follows: "When the present House of Commons (1907) was completed in +January last, and it was discerned that 50 labor members had been +elected, a cry of wonder went up from press and public. People wrote +and spoke as if these 50 members were the forerunners of a political +and social revolution; as if the old party divisions were completely +worn out, and as if power were about to pass to a new political party +that would represent the masses as opposed to the classes. These fears +or hopes were reflected in the House of Commons itself. During the +early months of the session the Labor Party received from all quarters +of the House an amount of deference that would have been described as +sycophantic if it had been directed towards an aristocratic instead of +towards a democratic group."[18] The tidal wave of reaction following +the Boer war had swept the Liberal Party into power, and had given +fifty seats to the Labor Party. The effect was nothing short of +revolutionary. + +Disraeli, in his _Sibyl_, spoke of "two nations," two Englands, the +England of the gentry and the England of the working classes. The +elections since the Boer war have given this "other England" its +chance. The gentry, the Whigs and Tories, will never again fight their +political jousts with the "other England" looking contentedly on. This +"mass mind of organized labor" has become the "new controlling force +in progressive politics."[19] + +The "transformed England" began to see evidences of the change. The +first bill brought in by the Labor Party provided for the feeding of +school children, from the homes of the poor, out of public funds. "The +business in life of my colleagues and myself is to impress upon this +House the importance of the poverty problem," said the spokesman of +the Labor Party in an important debate.[20] + +England had awakened hungry. + +Now occurred the most significant political event in the history of +modern England. The Liberal Party took over the immediate program of +the Labor Party. This is significant because it swept England away +from her industrial moorings of individualistic _laissez-faire_, and +extended the functions of the state into activities that had hitherto +been left to individual initiative. A complete revolution had taken +place since Cobden's day. The state acknowledged new social and +economic obligations. In the Parliamentary struggle that followed +hereditary prerogative in property was undermined and hereditary +prerogative in government virtually destroyed, and the principles of +democracy enormously extended.[21] + +In England the question of co-operation between Socialists and other +parties has been more important than in any other European country: +because in a democratic parliament concessions are always made to +large portions of the electorate by the parties in power, and because +the practical temperamental qualities of the British discard the +fine-drawn distinctions between groups and sub-groups that are so +assiduously maintained in France and Germany. + +In the Amsterdam Congress of The International the question was +discussed whether Socialists should act with other parties. Jaurès and +his _bloc_ were the occasion of the debate. Kautsky said that in times +of national crises like war it might be necessary for Socialists to +co-operate with the government to insure national safety. No such +extraordinary standard has ever existed among practical Englishmen, +who usually know what they want, and are not particular about the +means of getting it. + +William Morris, uncompromising dogmatist, inveighed against the Whigs +in 1886 as "the Harlequins of Reaction." Democracy was his ideal of +government, and he was not entirely averse to political action on the +part of Socialists. "To capture Parliament, and turn it into a popular +but constitutional assembly, is, I must conclude, the aspiration of +the genuine democrats wherever they may be found." + +But he was wary of compromise. "Some democrats take up actual pieces +of Socialism, the nationalization of land, or of railways, or +cumulative taxation of incomes, or limiting the right of inheritance, +or new patent laws, or the restriction by law of the day's labor.... +All this I admit and say is a hopeful sign, and yet once again I say +there is a snare in it.... A snake lies lurking in the grass." "Those +who think they can deal with our present system in this piecemeal way +very much underrate the strength of the tremendous organization under +which we live, and which appoints to each of us his place, and, if we +do not choose to fit it, grinds us down until we do."[22] + +Morris' advice, "Beware the Whigs," was uttered at a time when the +leader of that party, Gladstone, was beginning to see that the chief +event of the century would be the merging of the social question with +politics. The "piecemeal" method that Morris decried became the actual +method of Parliamentary activity as soon as a new party, a third +party, arose and drew its inspiration from the working classes. + +Such a party was anticipated. Lord Rosebery said in 1894: "I am +certain there is a party in this country, unnamed as yet, that is +disconnected with any existing political organization--a party that is +inclined to say, 'A plague on both your houses, a plague on all your +politics, a plague on all your unending discussions that yield so +little fruit.'"[23] And the same year John (now Lord) Morley +prophesied: "Now I dare say the time may come, it may come sooner than +some think, when the Liberal Party will be transformed or superseded +by some new party."[24] And Professor Dicey, over a decade ago, spoke +of the waning orthodoxy of Liberalism and its rapid merging into +Socialism. + +The "piecemeal" party of Morris, the "transformed" party of Morley, +the radicalized party of Dicey, is the Liberal Party of to-day. The +"unnamed" party of Rosebery is the Labor Party, which not only says, +"A plague upon all your discussions," but, "A plague upon all your +fine-spun theories of class war--it's results we want." + +Before detailing some of the significant acts of this new democratic +coalition, it should be added that the motive of the Liberal Party has +not been unmixed with politics. The Labor Party possesses not only the +30 or 40 votes in the House of Commons; there are hundreds of +thousands of labor votes outside. This background of silent, vigilant +voters forms the greatest force of the Labor Party. Many Liberal +members hold their seats by its favor. + +There are in both the great parties men with strong sympathies for the +labor ideal. In fact, a number of Socialists are sitting with the +Liberals. There is no clear demarcation. It is only a difference of +the degree of infusion. + +The Labor Party has had a strong influence upon the House of Commons. +For many years the "Government" has ruled quite arbitrarily. When +there are only two parties this is possible. But when an influential +third party appears on the scene, government by the "front benchers" +must be moderated.[25] + +The "cross benchers" have wrested a good deal of power from the +leaders. This is necessary in a democracy which is kept alive only by +contact with the people. There is more government by the Commons, and +less government by the ministry. This _entente_ can degenerate into +Parliamentary tyranny if it wishes. It can demand the clôture, as well +as open the valves of useless debate. But an arbitrary act +unsanctioned by the cross benchers would be likely to bring +destruction upon the government that perpetrated it. + + +VI + +A review of the Acts of Parliament since the Liberal-Labor coalition +and a perusal of the debates are convincing proof of the character of +the new legislation and the opinions that prompt it. We must confine +ourselves to a few types of this legislation, enough to show the +actual changes now in process. + +The first bill introduced by the Labor Party, and enacted into law, +authorized the providing of meals for poor children in the schools. It +does not make this compulsory, but under its sanction in 1909 over +$670,000 were spent in providing over 16,000,000 meals. Nearly half of +these were in London.[26] This law is especially assailed by the +anti-Socialists. They claim its administration has been too lenient, +not discriminating between the needy and those capable of self-help. +It is only the entering wedge of Socialism, they say; it is only a +step from feeding the child to clothing him, and from feeding and +clothing the child to caring for the parent. They recall that Sidney +Webb has often said that if the city furnishes water free to its +citizens it should be able to furnish milk as well. + +The second bill introduced by the Labor Party was the Trades Dispute +Act. This was framed to annul the Taff Vale decision, making the +unions immune from suits for tortious acts and providing an elaborate +system of arbitrating labor disputes. The provisions of this act were +tested by two railway crises. In 1907 the railway employees threatened +to go out on strike. Lloyd George, then president of the Board of +Trade, averted the strike by enlisting all the power of the government +in persuading the companies and the men to agree to a scheme of +arbitration. This was to last a stipulated term of years, but before +the time had elapsed the men actually struck (1911), and for a week +the country was in a panic. Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the +Exchequer, again used all the power of the government to bring peace, +and a commission was appointed to investigate the grievances of the +men, who had agreed to abide by its decision. In this way the +government has become the most active force in settling labor +disputes--a subject that was formerly left to the two parties of the +labor contract. + +A Workman's Compensation Act and an Old-Age Pension Act soon followed. +The latter provides a pension for all workmen who are 70 years old. +Unlike the German act, the government provides all the funds. In 1909 +the Labor Exchange Act empowered the Board of Trade to establish labor +exchanges. These have been established in every city. At first there +was some friction with the unions because "blacklegs" were assigned to +places. But since union men have been invited to sit on the local +governing committees, things are running smoother. + +There are three laws which show the trend of the changing relation of +the state to property. + +The Development Act of 1909 provides for the appointment of five +commissioners, upon whose recommendation the Treasury advances money +to any governmental department or public authority or university or +association of persons for the purpose of aiding agriculture and rural +industries of all sorts; the reclamation of drainage lands and of +forests; the general improvement of rural transportation, including +the building of "light railways"; the construction and improvement of +harbors; the improvement of inland navigation, including the building +of canals; and the development and improvement of fisheries. This law +endows the government with the necessary authority for the absorption +of virtually all the internal means of communication except the trunk +railways, and extends the paternal arm of the government over +agriculture and the fisheries and subsidiary industries.[27] The +first report of the commission, 1910-11, indicates that work under +this law has begun in earnest. A comprehensive plan of regeneration, +embracing the entire kingdom and based on adequate surveys, is +outlined. One of the interesting features of the plan is the proposal +to do as much of the work as possible by direct labor rather than by +competitive bidding. The commission wants to make sure "that the funds +shall not go into the pockets of private individuals."[28] Under an +enthusiastic commission there will be practically no limit to the +influence of this law. + +Two other acts are closely allied with this scheme: the Small Holdings +Act of 1908, and the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909. The Small +Holdings Act gives authority to county councils to "provide small +holdings for persons who desire to buy or lease and will themselves +cultivate the holdings." This provision is extended to borough, urban, +district, and parish councils. These authorities may purchase such +lands "whether situate within or without their county." + +The Town Planning Act gives cities and towns the power to purchase +land and allot it, to tear down undesirable buildings, to co-operate +with any workingman's association for improving and erecting +dwellings, and to buy the necessary land for making improvements of +all kinds. John Burns, who stood sponsor for this bill, explained that +it gave complete authority to local governing bodies "to make a city +healthful and a city beautiful." + +Following the British habit, work has very cautiously begun under +these acts. Up to December, 1910, about 28,000 acres were purchased or +leased under the allotment act, and sublet to 100,498 individual +tenants. "Town planning" has progressed rapidly, and the regeneration +of the British slums, the most dismal in the world, may be not far +distant.[29] + +Under the Small Holdings Act there were, up to December, 1910, nearly +31,000 applicants, asking for over 500,000 acres. Only one-fifth of +this amount was acquired, for 7,000 holders. Thirty per cent. of the +applicants are agricultural laborers, and the majority of the others +are drawn from the rural population who have some small business or +trade in the villages and wish a plot of land for a garden. This +"often makes the difference between a bare subsistence and comparative +prosperity."[30] + +These laws show the drift of the current. The question of the +nationalization of railways has been the subject of Parliamentary +inquiry, and the great railway strike of 1911 emphasized the matter +profoundly. The state in 1911 completed the taking over of all the +telephone lines; it conducts an extensive postal savings bank and a +parcels post. + +In local affairs some British cities are models of municipal +enterprise. Even London, that amorphous mass of human misery and +opulence, is changing its aspect. Since the granting of municipal home +rule it has built a vast system of street railways, cleaned out acres +of slums, opened breathing spaces, built tenements, and in many other +ways displayed evidences of an awakening civic consciousness. + +Three other pieces of legislation must be described more in detail, +because they are more revolutionary, far-reaching, and democratic than +anything attempted by the British nation since the days of the Reform +Bill. + +First is the famous "Budget" of Lloyd George. When this virile +Welshman became Chancellor of the Exchequer he cast his budget in the +mold of his social theories. He said: "Personally, I look on the +Budget as a part only of a comprehensive scheme of fiscal and social +reform: the setting up of a great insurance scheme for the unemployed +and for the sick and infirm, and the creation, through the development +bill, of the machinery for the regeneration of rural life."[31] + +The land system of England is feudal. Tenure still legally exists. +There still clings the flavor of social and political distinction to +fee simple. This the landowners have fortified against all the changes +that industrialism has wrought. There has been no general land +appraisement since the Pilgrims landed at the new Plymouth. The "land +monopoly" successfully resisted every attack until the famous budget +of 1908. Chiozza Money quotes John Bateman's analysis of the "New +Domesday Book," fixing the ownership of land in England and Wales as +follows:[32] + +In 1883, in the United Kingdom, there was a total area of 77,000,000 +acres; of this 40,426,000 acres were owned by 2,500 persons. "While +the total income of the nation is £1,840,000,000, the landowners take +£106,000,000 as land rent."[33] England is a great industrial and +commercial nation living on leased land. + +The development of the industrial towns has enormously multiplied the +value of some of these vast estates.[34] + +The new budget proposed, first, to tax the land values; not a +fictitious sum, or the value of the land with improvements, but the +site value--the increment value with which the land is endowed because +of its favorable location. Second, to this was added a 10 per cent. +reversion duty. Third, a tax was levied on undeveloped land held for +speculative purposes. And, fourth, a 5 per cent. tax on mineral rights +was assessed on the owners of the land that contained the mines. + +These proposals raised a storm. They aimed at the traditional +stronghold of English aristocracy. The budget passed the House of +Commons by a large majority; the Lords rejected it. The government +promptly prorogued Parliament and went before the people. And what was +at first only an attack upon hereditary rights in land became an +attack also upon hereditary rights in politics. The House of Lords +became an issue as well as the budget. After a fiery and furious +campaign, in which Socialists and Laborites joined Radicals and +Liberals, the budget won by a safe majority.[35] The Lords passed the +measure. But this resistance cost them dear. One of the first +prerogatives established by the House of Commons was the right to +control the purse-strings of the kingdom. Custom has given the +sanction of constitutionality to this prerogative. And the Lords, in +first denying and then delaying the budget, laid themselves open to +the charge of "hereditary arrogance" and "unconstitutionalism." + +After the passage of the budget there followed six months of +conference between the two front benches, to find a basis of reform +for the House of Lords upon which all could unite. When it became +evident that this was impossible, the government again prorogued +Parliament and went to the people for a mandate on the question of +"reforming the Lords." The Liberals and their allies were, for a third +time, returned to power, and in February, 1911, the Prime Minister, +Mr. Asquith, introduced his "Parliament Bill," taking from the House +of Lords the power to amend a money bill so as to change its +character. If any other bill passed by the Commons is rejected by the +Lords, the Commons can pass it over their veto; and if this is done in +three consecutive sessions of the same Parliament--provided two years +elapse between the introduction of the bill and its third rejection by +the Lords--it becomes a law. The law is intended as a preliminary +measure. The preamble states that it is the intention of the +government to provide for a second chamber "constituted on a popular +instead of hereditary basis." The bill was so amended by the Lords as +to change its character and returned to the Commons. The Prime +Minister then informed the leaders of the opposition that the King, +"upon the advice of his ministers," had consented to create enough +peers to insure the passage of the bill in its original form. Rather +than have their house encumbered by 400 new peers, the Lords gave a +reluctant consent to the measure that virtually destroyed the +bicameral system in England. + +This profound constitutional change, that practically makes England a +representative democracy pure and simple, was unaccompanied by any of +those popular and spectacular demonstrations one naturally expects to +see on such occasions. The debate in both houses rarely touched the +pinnacle of excitement, its fervor was partisan rather than +patriotic.[36] + +In 1832, when the hereditary peers stood in the way of the Reform +Bill, which had passed the Commons by only one majority, the populace +rose _en masse_, surged through the streets of the capital, and +threatened the King and his Iron Duke,--whose statue now adorns every +available square in the city,--and made it known that their wishes +must be respected. To-day the people, secure in the knowledge of their +supremacy, scarcely notice the efforts of the opposition, in its +attempts to bolster the falling walls of hereditary prerogative in +representative government. So far has England assumed the air of +democracy. + +The third piece of legislation, to which allusion has been made, +indicates the direction that this democracy is taking. It is the +Insurance Bill, also introduced by Lloyd George, and passed in +December, 1911. It insures the working population against "sickness +and breakdown." It is planned to follow up the law with insurance +against non-employment. The law is of especial interest to Americans, +because it adapts the principle of the German system to the +Anglo-Saxon's traditional aversion to state bureaucracy. It commands a +compulsory contribution from employer and employee, supplemented by +state grants. These funds are not administered by the state, but by +"Friendly Societies" (insurance orders organized by the unions) and +other benevolent organizations of workingmen now in existence. These +are democratic, voluntary organizations. Where no such organizations +exist, the post-office administers the fund. + +The keynote of this law is the prevention of invalidity. Its details +are largely based upon the reports of the Royal Poor Law +Commissioners, 1905-9. The commission made two voluminous reports; +Mrs. Sidney Webb, a member of the commission, prepared the minority +report.[37] + +The Labor Party, in all of these measures, voted with the Liberals. +The Insurance Bill was denounced by the most radical Laborites on the +ground that labor was charged with contributing to the fund, and that +the bill was inadequate. But the majority of the delegation voted for +the measure. + + +VII + +Enough has now been said to indicate the changes in economic and +social legislation that are being brought about in England by the +coalition of Socialists and Liberals.[38] The causes for this change +cannot be laid to Socialism alone. Socialism is an effect quite as +much as a cause; it is the result of industrial conditions, as well as +the prompter of changes. The permeation of the working classes with +the principles of state aid; the spread of discontent; the lure of +better days; all deepened and emphasized by the poverty of the Island, +are the sources of this Social Democratic current. This has led, +first, to the unification of the several Socialist groups; secondly, +to the coalescing of labor union and Socialist ambitions into the +Labor Party; thirdly, to an effective co-operation between the Labor +Party and the Liberal-Radicals. + +Sagacious Socialists saw this trend long ago. In 1888 Sidney Webb +appealed to the Liberals to espouse the cause of labor. He pointed out +the inevitable, and it has happened.[39] + +Two questions naturally arise: First, how far will this movement +toward Social Democracy go? Second, how long will the Labor Party hold +together and prompt the action of the Liberals and Radicals in social +legislation? + +The first question is not merely conjectural. The Reform Bill now +(1912) prepared by the government will destroy the last vestige of +property qualifications for voting. It will destroy plural voting, +which now allows a freeholder to vote in every district where he holds +land. In some districts the absentee voters hold the balance of +power.[40] Votes for women are also promised. This increased +electorate will not be conservative in its convictions. Along with +this will come the abolishing of the custom that compels candidates to +bear the election expenses; the payment of members of Parliament has +already begun; the lure of office is no longer a will-o'-the-wisp to +the poor with ambition. + +The new Liberalism is, then, devoted first of all to real democracy, +in which the King's prerogatives retain their sickly place. As to the +functions of the state, it will "probably retain its distinction from +Socialism in taking for its chief test of policy the freedom of the +individual citizen rather than the strength of the state, though the +antagonism of the two standpoints may tend to disappear in the light +of progressive experience."[41] + +As to property, it will probably continue to make unearned increments +and incomes bear the burden of social reform; create a business +democracy for running the public utilities, leaving more or less +unhampered the fields of legitimate industrial opportunity. "Property +is not an absolute right of the individual owner which the state is +bound to maintain at his behest. On the contrary, the state on its +side is justified in examining the rights which he may claim, and +criticising them; seeing it is by the force of the state and at its +expense that all such rights are maintained."[42] This, the +well-considered opinion of a well-known scholar, may be properly taken +as the gauge of present-day English Radical sentiment on the +inviolability of property rights. + +As to the second question: How long will the coalition hang together? +the Socialists are now (1912) showing signs of restiveness. The old +question, that has rent all Socialists in all countries, and always +will, because Socialism is a wide-spreading and vague generalization, +has arisen among these practical Englishmen. In the convention of the +I.L.P., 1910, there was a prolonged discussion on the policy of the +party in its relation to other parties. "The Labor Party should stand +for labor, not for Liberalism," was the complaint. Keir Hardie +suggested that they were not in Parliament to keep governments in +office or to turn them out, but "to organize the working classes into +a great independent political power, to fight for the coming of +Socialism."[43] A resolution objecting to members of the party +"appearing on platforms alongside Liberal and Tory capitalists and +landlords," was defeated by a large majority.[44] + +In the House of Commons clashes are not infrequent between the +Laborites and the Liberals. Annually the labor members move an +amendment to the Address of the Crown, asking for a bill "to establish +the right to work by placing upon the state the responsibility of +directly providing employment or maintenance for the genuinely +unemployed."[45] John Burns opposed their amendment in 1911, in a +brilliant and vehement speech, not so much because the government was +opposed to the principle, but for the political reason that the +government was not ready to bring in a bill of its own, which should +be a part of its comprehensive system of social reform.[46] + +The great strike of transportation workers, in the summer of 1911, +widened the breach between Laborites and Liberals, and between the +extreme and moderate Socialists. This strike spread from the dockers +of Liverpool to London, from the dockers to the railway workers, and +then to the teamsters and drivers of the larger cities, until a +general tie-up of transportation was threatened. It came very near +being a model general strike. Its violence was met with a call for the +troops. The labor members in Parliament protested earnestly against +the use of soldiers. But the government was prompt and firm in its +suppression of disorder. A bitter debate took place between the +government and the labor leaders.[47] + +How much of this give and take must be attributed to the play of +politics, it is impossible to declare. But this great strike clearly +revealed the difference between violent Socialism and moderate +radicalism. The one is willing to effect revolutions through law and +order, the other to effect them through violence and disruption. + +The moderate Socialists seem willing to take a middle course between +these extremes. The following quotation from a speech delivered by +Ramsay MacDonald, leader of the Labor Party, at a convention of the +I.L.P., clearly illustrates the moderate view: + +"We can cut off kings' heads after a few battles, we can change a +monarchy into a republic, we can deprive people of their titles, and +we can make similar superficial alterations by force; but nobody who +understands the power of habit and of custom in human conduct, who +appreciates the fact that by far and away the greater amount of an +action is begun, controlled, and specified by the system of social +interrelationship in which we live, move, and have our being; and +still more, nobody who understands the delicate and intricate +complexity of production and exchange which keeps modern society +going, will dream for a single moment of changing it by any act of +violence. As soon as that act is committed, every vital force in +society will tend to re-establish the relationship which we have been +trying to end, and what is more, these vital forces will conquer us in +the form of a violent reaction, a counter revolution. When we cut off +a newt's tail, a newt's tail will grow on again. + +"I want the" I.L.P.'s action "to be determined by our numbers, our +relative strength, the state of public opinion, the character of the +question before the country. I appeal to it that it take into account +all the facts and circumstances, and not, for the sake of satisfying +its soul and sentiment, go gaily on, listening to the enunciation of +policies and cheering phrases which obviously do not take into account +some of the most important and at the same time most difficult +problems which representation in Parliament presents to it."[48] In +another place MacDonald has detailed the steps in the progress of +Parliamentary Socialism. He begins with "palliatives," such as factory +inspection, old-age pensions, feeding of school children; next, the +state engages in constructive legislation, "municipalization and +nationalization in every shape and form, from milk supplies to +telephones," and finally insists on the taxing of unearned increment +and a general redistribution of the burdens of the state.[49] + +Not all the members of the I.L.P. are agreed upon this moderate +statement. Keir Hardie and his immediate followers still cling to the +"larger hope" of a socialized society, to which commonplace +legislation is only a crude preliminary. + +Bernard Shaw has confessed the orthodoxy of the new Social Democracy. +"Nobody now considers Socialism as a destructive insurrection ending, +if successful, in millennial absurdities," and of the budget he said: +"If not a surrender of the capitalist citadel, it is at all events +letting down the drawbridge."[50] The public utterances of the Radical +leaders are often less restrained than those of the Socialists,[51] so +that it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the difference. + +Professor Hobhouse, in his analysis of the difference between +Liberal-Radicalism and Socialism, says: "I venture to conclude that +the differences between a true and consistent public-spirited +liberalism and a rational collectivism, ought, with a genuine effort +at mutual understanding, to disappear. The two parties are called on +to make common cause against the growing power of wealth, which, by +its control of the press and of the means of political organization, +is more and more a menace to the healthy working of popular +government."[52] + +And Brougham Villiers stated, a year before the Liberals gained +control of the government, that the hope of the country lay in an +"alliance, won by persistent, intelligent helpfulness on the part of +the Liberals, with the alienated artisans, for the betterment of the +conditions of the poorest, so as to give at once hope and life and +better leisure for thought."[53] + +So we see Socialism and Liberalism united in accomplishing changes in +legislation and ancient institutions--changes that are revolutionary +in character and will be far-reaching in results. It is not the red +revolutionary Socialism of Marx; it is the practical British Socialism +of amelioration. "This practical, constitutional, evolutionary +Socialism," a chronicler of the Fabians calls it.[54] It would have to +be practical to appeal to the British voter, constitutional to lure +the British statesman, and evolutionary to satisfy the British +philosopher. + +In the troublous days of 1888-90 there were a great many young +Socialists who believed the social revolution was waiting around the +next corner and would soon sweep over London in gory reality. Many of +these young men are sober Fabians now, or staid Conservatives or +Liberals. To-day they think they were mistaken. They were not. There +was a revolution around the next corner. It has already captured the +high places. Society, government, is rapidly encroaching upon private +property through the powers of taxation, of police supervision, and +all manner of constitutional instrumentalities. Ownership, even in +land, is now only an incident, the rights of the community are in the +ascendant. Democracy has conquered hereditary privilege. And the +revolution is still advancing. England is showing the world that "The +way to make Socialism safe is to make democracy real."[55] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See _supra_, p. 51. + +[2] See CHIOZZA MONEY, _Riches and Poverty_, first page, edition 1911. + +[3] _Op. cit._, p. 337. + +[4] _Op. cit._, pp. 337-8. + +[5] See V. NASH and H.L. SMITH, _The Story of the Dockers' Strike_, +London, 1890. + +[6] See SIDNEY and BEATRICE WEBB, _History of Trades Unionism_, +London, 1911. + +[7] There are about 650,000 members in those unions that pay +out-of-work benefits. The following table gives some conception of the +magnitude of the out-of-work problem in England. It shows the sums +expended by the unions for out-of-work relief: + + Year Amount + 1898 £234,000 + 1899 185,000 + 1900 261,000 + 1901 325,000 + 1902 429,000 + 1903 516,000 + 1904 655,000 + 1905 523,000 + 1906 424,000 + 1907 466,000 + +Out of a body of 15,000,000 workmen, Chiozza Money estimates that +500,000 are always out of work. _Opus cit._, p. 122. + +[8] Members of Parliament received no pay until 1911, when the +Radical-Liberal government passed a law giving each member a salary of +$2,000 a year. + +[9] A discussion of this case from the Fabian point of view is found +in the Preface to WEBB'S _History of Trades Unionism_, edition of +1911. The labor unions and the Labor Party have issued pamphlets on +these two decisions. The legal points are fully discussed in the +official reports of the cases. + +[10] There are 15,000,000 working men and women in Great Britain; +3,000,000 belong to co-operative enterprises, 2,500,000 to trade +unions. + +[11] See H.M. HYNDMAN, _Autobiography_, London, 1911. + +[12] Dr. Wescott, Bishop of Durham, was the founder of the Christian +Social Union. His pamphlet, _Socialism_, is a real contribution to the +literature on the Church and its relation to labor. The present +attitude of the Union may be gleaned from the following quotation +taken from the letter written by Dr. Gore, Bishop of Birmingham, to +his diocese, on the occasion of his transfer to the bishopric of +Oxford. The letter was written during the railway and dockers' strike, +in September, 1911: "There is a profound sense of unrest and +dissatisfaction among workers recently. I cannot but believe that this +profound discontent is justified, though some particular exhibitions +of it are not. As Christians we are not justified in tolerating the +conditions of life and labor under which the vast mass of our +population is living. We have no right to say that these conditions +are not remediable. Preventable lack of equipment for life among +young, and later the insecurity of employment and inadequacy of +remuneration, and consequent destitution and semi-destitution among so +many people, ought to inspire in all Christians a determination to +reform our industrial system." + +[13] From _Statement of Principles of the League_. + +[14] Even at this time the conservatism of the unions was hard to +break. The vote to take this step was 546,000 to 434,000 in favor of +appointing the committee. + +[15] Election expenses are borne by the candidates, not by the state. +They frequently are over $3,000, and it obviously is impossible for a +workingman to conduct such a campaign at his own expense. + +[16] Proceedings of Labor Party, Annual Congress, 1907. + +[17] See _Socialists in Great Britain_, a compilation published by the +London _Times_, p. 24. + +The following table shows the membership of the Labor Party since its +formation in 1900, from the annual report of the party executive, +1911: + + Trades Councils + and Local Labor + Trade Unions Parties Socialist Societies + No. Membership No. No. Membership Total + 1900-1 41 353,070 7 3 22,861 375,931 + 1901-2 65 455,450 21 2 13,861 469,311 + 1902-3 127 847,315 49 2 13,835 861,150 + 1903-4 165 956,025 76 2 13,775 969,800 + 1904-5 158 885,270 73 2 14,730 900,000 + 1905-6 158 904,496 73 2 16,784 921,280 + 1906-7 176 975,182 83 2 20,885 998,338{1} + 1907 181 1,049,673 92 2 22,267 1,072,413{2} + 1908 176 1,127,035 133 2 27,465 1,158,565{3} + 1909 172 1,450,648 155 2 30,982 1,486,308{4} + 1910 137 1,306,473 125 2 31,377 1,342,610{5} + +{1} This total includes 2,271 Co-operators. {2} Includes 472 +Co-operators. {3} Includes 565 Co-operators, and 3,500 members of the +Women's Labor League. {4} Includes 678 Co-operators, and 4,000 members +of the Women's Labor League. {5} Includes 760 Co-operators, and 4,000 +members of the Women's Labor League. + +The decrease in membership during the last year is ascribed to the +Osborne judgment. + +[18] HAROLD COX, _Socialism in the House of Commons_, p. 1. + +[19] See J.A. HOBSON, _The Crisis of Liberalism_, for a discussion of +the new party alignments. + +ÉMILE BOUTMY, philosophical critic of the English, says that England, +"transformed in all outward seeming, ... has just begun a new +history." See his _The English People: A Study in Their Political +Psychology_, London, 1904, for a keen analysis of English political +proclivities. + +[20] _Parliamentary Debates_, 5th series, vol. 21, p. 649. Speech by +G. Lansbury. + +[21] The new Liberal government invited John Burns into the cabinet. +He is the first workingman in English history to occupy a cabinet +position. The more restless Socialists are inclined to call him a +Liberal because responsibility has taught him caution. But he still +persists that he is a Socialist. He is a Fabian, and boasts of the +three times that he was imprisoned for participating in labor +agitations. About twenty years before his elevation he said in the Old +Bailey, where he had been arraigned for "sedition and conspiracy" in +conducting a strike: "I may tell you, my lord, that I went to work in +a factory at the early age of ten years and toiled there until five +months ago, when I left my workshop to stand as Parliamentary +candidate for the western division of Nottingham." + +It must be kept in mind that many of the Conservatives are committed +to social legislation. They are not, however, in favor of the +indefinite expansion of democracy, and are opposed to the adult +suffrage bill as proposed by the Liberals. + +[22] WILLIAM MORRIS, _Signs of Change_, p. 4. + +[23] Speech delivered in St. James' Hall, March 21, 1894. + +[24] Speech delivered at Newcastle, May 21, 1894. + +[25] In the British House of Commons the ministry and the opposition +leaders sit in the front benches on opposite sides of the House facing +each other. A "front bencher" always commands a hearing, owing to his +high position in the party. The members of the party sit behind their +leaders and are called "back benchers." The minor groups, the Labor +Party and the Irish Party, sit in the cross benches at the lower end +of the chamber and are called "cross benchers." + +[26] See _Annual Report Board of Education_, 1909-1910. + +[27] Keir Hardie, the dean of the Socialist group in Parliament, +fathered this law. Sidney Webb, the distinguished Fabian, was made a +member of the commission. + +[28] See First Annual Report of the Commission. + +[29] See _Annual Report Home Office_, 1909-1910. + +[30] _Ibid._ + +[31] The money for these things he proposed to raise by taxes, and +especially by a tax on land values. + +[32] CHIOZZA MONEY, _Riches and Poverty_, p. 82. + + No. of Owners Class of Owners Acres owned + 400 Peers and peeresses 5,729,927 + 1,288 Great landowners 8,497,699 + 2,529 Squires{1} 4,319,271 + 9,589 Greater yeomen{1} 4,782,627 + 24,412 Lesser yeomen{1} 4,144,272 + 217,049 Small proprietors 3,931,806 + 703,289 Cottagers 151,148 + 14,459 Public bodies 1,443,548 + Waste lands 1,524,624 + ------- --------- + 973,015 34,524,922 + +{1} This classification is purely arbitrary. + +[33] _Op. cit._, p. 91. + +[34] The leaseholder is burdened with "rack-rent" and "premiums"; when +the lease expires the improvements revert to the landlord. There has +been, for years, a well-organized Single-Tax movement in England that +points to the evils of this land system as conclusive proof of the +validity of Henry George's theory. + +[35] One of the choruses popular with the great throngs that paraded +the streets in that eager campaign is full of significance. It was +sung to the tune of "Marching through Georgia." + + "The land, the land, 'twas God who gave the land; + The land, the land, the ground on which we stand; + Why should we be beggars, with the ballot in our hand? + God gave the land to the people." + + +[36] During the debate on the second reading in the House of Commons, +the writer one day counted twenty members on the benches, and a labor +member called the attention of the Speaker to the fact that "in this +hour of constitutional crisis only twenty brave men are found willing +to defend the prerogatives of the realm!" + +[37] Some of the Fabians, nevertheless, fought the bill, and their +champion, Bernard Shaw, called Lloyd George's effort "The premature +attempt of a sentimental amateur." + +[38] In 1909 the Labor Party claimed credit for the following measures +passed during the Parliamentary session of that year: + +"(1) The grant of an additional £200,000 ($1,000,000) for the +unemployed, and the extraction of a promise that, if it was +insufficient, 'more would be forthcoming.' + +"(2) The passing of the Trades Boards Bill--the first effective step +against 'sweating.' + +"(3) The smashing of the bill authorizing the amalgamation of three +great railways. + +"(4) A discussion, protest, and vote against the visit of Bloody +Nicholas, the Tsar. The Labor Party's amendments secured 70 +supporters, whilst only 187 members of the British Parliament were +dirty enough to support the Tsar's visit. + +"(5) The introduction of the Shop Hours Bill and the extortion of a +promise that it shall be adopted by the government and passed."--From +a campaign pamphlet, _The Labor Party in Parliament_, p. 20. + +[39] See _Wanted--A Program: An Appeal to the Liberal Party_. S. WEBB, +London, 1888. + +[40] See article by PROFESSOR HOBHOUSE, on "Democracy in England," +_Atlantic Monthly_, February, 1912. + +[41] J.A. HOBSON, _The Crisis of Liberalism_, p. 93. + +[42] L.T. HOBHOUSE, _Democracy and Reaction_, p. 230. + +[43] See "Report Eighteenth Annual Conference, I.L.P.," 1910, p. 59. + +[44] _Supra cit._, p. 71. + +Some of the I.L.P. members are Continental in their views. The +president of the party used these words in his address, 1910: "All +this jiggery-pokery of party government played like a game for +ascendency and power is no use to us" (_supra cit._, p. 35). The +discipline of the Labor Party was unable to keep half a dozen of its +ablest debaters from fighting the Insurance Bill. The reversion of the +radical Socialist element to the I.L.P. is by some observers +considered not unlikely. Then the liberal or _réformiste_ element will +become either a faction of the Liberal-Radical party or melt entirely +away as the Chartists did in 1844. + +[45] This was the language used in the amendment moved in January, +1911. + +[46] See _Parliamentary Debates_, 5th series, vol. 21, February 10, +1911. + +[47] The Socialist workmen always resent the activity of the police +and soldiers during strikes. In 1888 F. Engels wrote to an American +friend: "The police brutalities in Trafalgar Square have done wonders +in helping to widen the gap between the workingmen Radicals and the +middle-class Liberals and Radicals." (See _Briefe und Auszüge aus +Briefen von Fr. Engels u. A._, Stuttgart, 1906.) + +One of the incidents of the debate over the railway strike in the +House of Commons was a clash between Lloyd George, the Liberal leader, +and Keir Hardie, the Socialist. Keir Hardie had made inflammatory +speeches to striking workmen, and for this the Chancellor of the +Exchequer gave him a terrific and unmerciful flaying. (See +_Parliamentary Debates_, 5th series, vol. 29, Aug. 22, 1911.) + +[48] J. RAMSAY MACDONALD: speech delivered at Edinburgh, 1909. + +[49] See J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, _The Socialist Movement_, pp. 150-7. + +[50] G.B. SHAW, Preface to "Fabian Tracts." + +[51] See LLOYD GEORGE'S famous "Limehouse Speech." + +[52] L.T. HOBHOUSE, _Democracy and Reaction_, p. 237. + +[53] BROUGHAM VILLIERS, _The Opportunity of Liberalism_, Preface. + +[54] See article by Secretary PEASE, of the Fabians, on the Fabian +Society, _T.P.'s Magazine_, February, 1911. + +[55] J.A. HOBSON, _The Crisis of Liberalism_, p. 156. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CONCLUSION + + +We have now concluded our survey of the political activities of +Socialism in the four countries that present the most characteristic +features of this movement of the working classes. It is peculiarly +difficult to draw general conclusions from the study of a movement so +protean. Democracy is young; Socialism is in its early infancy. + +Is there a rational trend in Socialism? Or is it only a passing whim +of the masses? Is it a crude theory, an earnest protest, a powerful +propaganda? Or is it a current of human conviction so strong, so +deep-flowing that it will be resistless? + +It is futile to deny the power of the Socialist movement. The greatest +proof of its virility is its ability to break away from Marxian dogma +and from the fantasies of the utopists, and acknowledge mundane ways +and means. In spite of this earthiness, it still has its fanciful +abstractions. Some of its prophets are still glibly proclaiming a new +order,--as if society were artificial, like a house, and could be torn +down piecemeal or by dynamite, and then rebuilt to suit the vagaries +of a new owner. + +On the other hand, a portion of the Socialists are learning that +society is a living thing that can be shaped only by training, like +the mind of a child. Socialism, as a whole, is metamorphosing. Some of +its vicious eccentricities, like the ravings against religion and the +espousal of free love, have already vanished. It is learning that +institutions are the product of ages, not of movements, and cannot be +changed at the fancy of every new and disgruntled social prophet. + +The best school for Socialism has been the school of parliamentary +activity. Here the hot-blooded protesters become sober artisans of +statecraft. We have seen how the early utopian ideas, with their +edenesque theory of the guilelessness of man, were abruptly exchanged +for the theory of violence, based on the materialistic conception of +the universe and of man. Neither the soft humanities of the utopists +nor the blood and thunder of revolution overturned the existing state. +But when the workingmen appeared in parliaments, then things began to +change. + +In every country where the Socialists have entered parliament, they +appeared suddenly, in considerable numbers. So in France, Germany, +England, Belgium, Austria. And they always produced a flutter, often a +scare, among the conservatives. They were an untried force. Their +preachings of violence and their antagonism to property made them an +unknown quantity, to be feared, and not to be lightly handled--a bomb +of political dynamite that might explode any moment and scatter the +product of ages into fragments! + +But no explosion came. And one more example of the persistence of +human nature was added to the long annals of history. + +In every country the parliamentary experience has been the same: the +liberal and radical element, attracted by the legislative demands of +the labor party, coalesced, for specific issues, with the Socialists, +and a new era of economic and social legislation was ushered in. Even +in Germany, with its unmodern conditions in government, all the powers +of feudal autocracy failed to crush the rising forces of the new +political consciousness. + +In France and England we have seen Socialists take their places in the +cabinet, to the chagrin of that portion of the Socialists who still +regard social classes as natural enemies, and consider social +co-operation among all the elements of society impossible. + +In brief, Socialism has entered politics and has become mundane. You +need a microscope to tell a Socialist from a Socialist-Radical in +France, and a Laborite from a Radical-Liberal in England. Briand and +Millerand may be voted out of the Socialist Party, and John Burns may +be spurned by the I.L.P. But these men are teaching a double lesson: +first, that there are no new ways to human betterment; second, that +the old way is worth traveling, because it does lead to happier and +easier conditions of toil. Socialists the world over will soon be +compelled to realize that the political force which shrinks from the +responsibility of daily political drudgery will never be a permanent +factor in life. A political party that is afraid to assume the +obligations of government for fear that it will lose its ideal, is too +fragile for this world. + +The Socialist Party wherever it exists is a labor party, with a labor +program that is based on conditions which need to be remedied. Their +practical demands as a rule are of such a nature that all of society +would benefit by their enactment into law. The mystery has all gone +out of the movement. It is not necromancy, it is plain parliamentary +humdrum which you see. The threatened witchery is all words; the +doing is intensely human, of the earth earthy. + +The Socialist movement tends toward the latest phase of democracy, +which is social democracy; the democracy that has ceased to toy with +Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, and the other tinsel abstractions +of the bourgeois revolutions; the democracy that sees poverty and +suffering increase as wealth and ease increase. It is the democracy of +the human heart, that cares for the babe in the slums, the lad in the +factory, the mother at the cradle, and the father in his old age. +Against all these helpless ones society has sinned. And it is to a +universal, sincere, social penance that the new democracy calls the +rich, the powerful, and the comfortable. + +Socialism is merging rapidly into this new democracy. In doing so it +is abandoning its two great illusions. The first illusion is that the +interests of the worker are somehow different from the interests of +the rest of the community. Class war has been a resonant battle-cry, +and has served its purpose. It is folly for any class to magnify its +needs above those of the rest of society. Civilization and culture +embrace the artisan and the artist, the poor and the powerful. Any +class interest that clashes with the welfare of society as a whole +cannot survive. Socialism is abandoning the tyranny of class war, is +being mellowed by class co-operation. Socialists are now claiming that +their interests are the interests of society. The social complexion of +the party in the countries of its greatest advancement is an +indication of this. Many of the party leaders are of middle-class +origin. Some of them are rich. You call at their homes and servants +open the door and receive your card on a silver tray. Multitudes of +lawyers, physicians, journalists, and professors are in the movement. +Dr. Frank of Mannheim, the leader of the Badensian Socialists, said to +me that the degree to which Socialism can gain the support of the +intellectual element is the measure of success of the movement. All +this indicates that Socialism is breaking the bonds of self-limited +class egoism. The peasant landowner, the small shopkeeper, the +intellectualist, and occasionally a man or two of wealth and high +social position are being drawn into this new democracy. + +The question is now being seriously asked: Can there be a social +co-operation? Must there always be industrial war? Von Vollmar, +Millerand, Vandervelde, MacDonald proclaim the possibility of rational +co-operation. MacDonald says: "The defense for democracy which is far +and away the weightiest is that progress must spring, not from the +generosity or enlightenment of a class, but from the common +intelligence." "It must be pointed out that the labor legislation now +being asked for is very much more than a sequel to that passed under +the influence of Lord Shaftesbury. This differs from that as the +working of the moral conscience differs from the motives of the first +brute man who shaped his conduct under a contract of mutual defense +with a friendly neighbor. To use the arm of the law to abolish crying +evils, to put an end to an ever-present injustice, is one thing; to +use that arm to promote justice and to keep open the road to moral +advancement, to bring down from their throne in the ideal into a place +in the world certain conceptions of distributive justice, is quite +another thing. And yet this latter is now being attempted, and was +certain to be attempted as soon as democracy came into power. When +society is enfranchised, the social question becomes the political +question."[1] + +"The state is not the interest of a class, but the organ of +society."[2] There can be no broader foundation for political action +than this. All progress springs from the "common intelligence" to +which every one contributes his quota. + +The second great illusion of Socialism is the social revolution. No +one except a few extremists any longer thinks of the revolution by +blood. Engels, the friend of Marx, shows that everywhere violence is +giving way to political methods. "Even in the Romance countries we see +the old tactics revised. Everywhere the German example of using the +ballots is being followed. Even in France the Socialists see more and +more that no lasting victory is to be theirs unless they win +beforehand the great masses of the people. The slow work of propaganda +and parliamentary activity is here also recognized as the next step in +party development."[3] Engels shows how Socialists have entered the +parliaments of Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Bulgaria, Roumania, as well as +the parliaments of the great powers. And he indicates that the +revolution of the Socialist must come as a revolution by +majorities--which is democracy. + +Engels still believed that violence would follow the accession of +democratic power. If he had lived another decade he would have +discarded this last remnant of the theory of violence. In Germany the +bourgeois are more frightened over the legal than over the illegal +acts of the Socialist. They fear the results of elections more than +rebellion. Violence they can suppress with a bayonet, but laws--they +must be obeyed. + +This is true in every country. The power of the ballot is infinitely +greater than the power of the bullet, provided it is followed up with +common sense and energy. + +The theory of violence, then, has almost disappeared. The Syndicalist, +in his reversion to anarchy, attempts to revive the forsaken theory. +He does this by a general strike. But the general strike is not to be +confused with the social revolution. The general strike, wherever it +has been tried as an economic forcing valve, has failed. But whenever +it has been used as a political uprising, demanding political rights, +it has been more or less successful. In Belgium we have seen how it +brought results. In Sweden a few years ago there was a general strike +that not only shut every factory, but stopped the street cars and all +transportation lines, closed the gas-works, and even the newspapers +were suspended. It was a powerful political protest, but the number of +striking workmen did not equal the non-strikers. + +In Italy in 1904 a general strike was called to protest against the +arbitrary attitude of the government toward the labor movement. In +some of the cities all work ceased, even the gondoliers of Venice +joined the strikers. In Russia in 1904-5 the transportation lines and +post and telegraph lines were tied up while the workingmen +demonstrated for their political liberty. + +The violence of Socialism to-day is political; the violence of trade +unionism is economic. As the democratic consciousness spreads, there +may be such a coalescing of interests that violence will cease. But a +human society without warfare and contention is still a tax upon the +imagination. Strikes are increasing in number and bitterness and all +the arbitrations and devices of democracies seem helpless in the +turmoil of economic strife. + +I am not unmindful that behind all this parliamentary activity there +is the dim background of hope in the hearts of many Socialists that +somehow the wage system will vanish, that competition will cease, that +the primary activities of production and distribution will be assumed +by society, and that economic extremes will become impossible. In a +people of fitful temper and ebullient spirit the doctrine of +overturning remains a constant menace. Socialism in Spain and Italy +wears a scarlet coat, in Germany a drab, and in England a black. The +danger to civilization lurks, not in the survival of the doctrines of +the older Socialism, but in the temper of the people who espouse them. + +The Socialist movement has accomplished three notable things. First, +it has spread democracy. The bourgeois revolutions established +democracy; Socialism extends it. We have seen how in Belgium it +compelled the governing powers to give labor the ballot; how in +Germany, hard set and dogmatic, it is shaping events that will surely +lead to ministerial responsibility and to universal suffrage; and how +in England it is resulting in universal manhood suffrage and probably +"votes for women." Socialism is spreading the obligations of +government upon all shoulders. It is not, however, democratizing the +machinery of administration. In France the centralized autocracy of +Napoleon's empire remains almost untouched. In England the ancient +traditions of administration are slow to change. In Germany the civil +service will be the last barrier to give way. + +Secondly, Socialism has forced the labor question upon the lawmakers. +This is a great achievement. The neglected and forgotten portions of +the human family are now the objects of state solicitude. The record +of this revolution is written in the statute books. Turn the leaves of +the table of contents of a modern parliamentary journal, and compare +it with the same work of thirty years ago. Almost the entire time is +now taken up with questions that may be called humanitarian rather +than financial or political. Grave ministers of state make long +speeches on the death-rate of babies in the cities, on the cost of +living in factory towns, on the causes of that most heartbreaking of +modern woes, non-employment. Budgets are now concerned with the +feeding of school children as well as the building of warships, and +with the training of boys as well as the drilling of soldiers. + +Nowhere has this radical change taken place without a labor party. The +laboring man forced the issue. He bent kings and cabinets and +parliaments to his demands. The time was ripe, society had reached +that stage of its development when it was ready to take up these +questions. But it did not do so of its own free will. When labor +parties sprang like magic into puissance, a decade ago, the social +conscience was ready to hear their plea. Bismarck foresaw their +demands. But he was too obsessed of feudalism to realize their +motives. Therefore his state socialism failed to silence the +Socialists. The workman had his heart in the cause, not merely his +tongue. + +And the third great achievement is the natural result of the other +two. When democracy is potent enough to force its demands on +parliament, then the power of the state is ready to fulfil its +demands. So we find in every country where Social Democracy has gained +a foothold a constant increase of the functions of the state. What +shall the state do? That is now the great question. One hundred years +ago it was, What sort of a state shall we have? That is answered: a +democratic state; at least, a state democratic in spirit. The state is +no longer merely judge, soldier, lawmaker, and governor. It is +physician, forester, bookkeeper, schoolmaster, undertaker, and a +thousand other things. Society has grown complex, and the state, which +is only another name for society, has developed a surprising +precocity. + +We have seen that in England especially the trend of legislation is to +deprive the individual, one by one, of those prerogatives which gave +him dominion over property. A man owning land in the city of London, +for instance, has not the liberty to build as he likes or what he +likes. He must build as the state permits him, and the exactions are +manifold. He can be compelled to build a certain distance from the +street,--that is, the city demands a strip of his land for common use. +He can build only a certain height,--the community wants the sunlight. +If his older buildings are dilapidated, the city tears them down. If +the streets through his allotment are too narrow, the city widens +them. In short, he may have title in fee simple, but the community has +a title superior. Even his income from this parcel of land is not all +his own. The state now takes a goodly slice in taxes. If he is +inclined to resent this, and does not improve his property, the state +taxes him on the unearned increment, and if he refuses to submit to +this "socialism," the constable seizes the whole parcel, and he can +have what is left after the community has satisfied its demands. + +The taxes that he pays are distributed over a vast variety of +activities. They go to feed school children, to pension aged workmen, +to send inspectors into the factories, to keep up hospitals, as well +as to light and pave the streets and pay policemen. Other taxes that +he pays on other forms of property go to the improvement of +agriculture, to the payment of boards of arbitration, and so on. In +short, ownership is becoming more and more only an incident; it is not +merely a badge of ease, but a symbol of social responsibility. + +The burden of the law is shifting from property to persons, from +protecting things to protecting humanity. This change from the Roman +law is almost revolutionary. Even Blackstone, our halfway-mark in the +evolution of the common law, is busy with postulates protecting +property. + +Where is this encroachment of the state on private "rights" going to +end? There are some things which the state (society) can do better +than the individual; like the marshaling of an army or conducting a +post-office, and things that are done to counteract the selfishness of +individuals, like factory inspection. But there are other things which +society cannot do; things that depend on individual effort, like art, +literature, and invention. The two fields of state and individual +activity merge into each other. Each nation marks its own +distinctions. But this is certain: _in a democracy the state will do +the things which the people want it to do_. And in a Social Democracy +these things are numerous. + +Social Democracy strikes a balance between individual duty and +collective energy. It brings the power of government (collective +power), not to the few who are rich, therefore ignoring oligarchy; nor +to the few who are clever, thereby ignoring tyranny; nor to the few +who are well-born, thus discarding aristocracy; but it brings all the +power of the government to all the people. It attempts to coalesce the +cleverness of the tyrant, the experience of the aristocrat, the wealth +of the industrial nabob, and the aggregate momentum of the mass, into +a humanitarian power. It attempts to use the gifts of all for the +benefit of all. + +Social Democracy is the resultant of two forces meeting from opposite +directions: the forces of industrialism, and Socialism, of +collectivism and individualism. No one can draw the exact direction of +this resultant. It attempts to avoid the tyranny and selfishness of +the few, and the tyranny and greed of the many. + +Our study of the operation of governments under the sway of Social +Democracy has shown the sort of legislation that is demanded. It is +not necessary to repeat here the details of these laws. But it is +necessary to bear in mind that there are two industrial questions +which have absolutely refused to bend to the power of government: the +question of the length of the workday and the question of wages. The +vast majority of strikes are due to differences over these two +questions. The eight-hour day and the minimum wage have been +successful only in a limited government service.[4] Nor has any +machinery set up by governments to avoid industrial collisions between +workmen and employers been successful in avoiding differences over +hours and wages. The elaborate system of Germany, for instance, is +nothing more than the good will of the state offered to the warring +industrial elements in the interests of peace. The questions of hours +and wages are so fundamental that they embrace the right of private +property. Any power that divests an individual of the right to dispose +of his time or substance by contract virtually deprives him of the +right of ownership. + +The limits to the possibilities of Social Democracy are the limits of +private ownership. This brings us at once to the verge of the eternal +question of government--the finding of a just ratio between individual +and collective responsibility: a ratio that varies with varying +nationalities, and that will vary with the passing years. Each +generation in every land will have to fix the limitations for itself. + +The new Social Democracy has acquired certain characteristics which +will help us in determining the trend of its movements. In the first +place it is an educated Social Democracy. The taunt of ignorance +applied to the old Socialism of passion cannot be applied to the new +Socialism of practice. The nations of Europe no longer debate the +suitability of universal education. That question happily was settled +for the United States with the landing of the Pilgrims. It took one +hundred years for Europe to understand the Ordinance of 1787, that +"schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." Not +all of the European nations have touched the heights of this ideal, +but Social Democracy is struggling towards it, and schools, more or +less efficient, are open to the workmen's children. This education is +extended to adults by the press and by self-imposed studies. The +eagerness with which men and women flock to lectures and night classes +is a great omen. In Paris the _École Socialiste_ and _Université +Populaire_, in Germany and Belgium the night classes in the labor +union clubhouses, the debates and the lecture courses, are evidences +of intellectual eagerness. + +In the second place it is a drilled democracy. It is organized into +vast co-operative societies and trade unions. Here it learns the +lesson of constant watchfulness over details. This training in the +infinite little things of business is a good sedative. Socialists +bargain and sell and learn the lessons of competition; do banking and +learn discount; engage in manufacture and learn the problem of the +employer. + +They are, moreover, drilled in parliaments, in city and county +councils, in communal offices. They learn the advantages of give and +take, are skilled in compromise, and feel the friction of opposition. + +All this has wrought a wonderful change in Socialism. To a Belgian +co-operativist running a butcher-shop, the eight-hour day is a +practical problem; and to a Bavarian member of a city council the +question of opening communal dwellings ceases to be only a subject for +debate. Nothing has brought these people to earth so suddenly as the +infusion of earthly experience into their blood. And this transfusion +has given them life. It has rid them of their many adjectives and +given them a few verbs. It has robbed them in large measure of their +mob spirit.[5] Every year the arbitrary governments of Europe are +finding police coercion more and more unnecessary. The Socialist crowd +is growing orderly, is achieving that self-control which alone +entitles a people to self-government. + +It is not unnatural that this movement has made leaders. Of these, +Herr August Bebel is the most remarkable example. This woodturner, +turned party autocrat and statesman, is a never-ending wonder to the +German aristocracy. His speeches are read as eagerly as those of the +Chancellor, and his opinions are quoted as widely as the Kaiser's. +When in 1911 he made his great speech on the Morocco Question in the +Social Democratic Convention, it was reported by the column in all of +the great Continental and English dailies. Bebel is an example of what +the open door of opportunity will do, and he had to force the door +himself. A few years ago, in a moment of reminiscent confidence, he +confessed that he used to cherish as an ideal the time when he could, +for once, have all the bread and butter he could eat. In America we +are accustomed to this rising into power of obscure and untried men. +But in Europe it is rare. European Social Democracy is an expression +of the desire on the part of the people for the open highways of +opportunity. + +In the third place, Social Democracy is self-conscious. I have not +used the word class-conscious, because it is more than the +consciousness of an economic group. History is replete with instances +that reveal the irresistible power generated by mass consciousness. +This is the psychology of nationalism. The dynamo that generates the +mysterious voltage of patriotism, of tribal loyalty, is the heart. +Socialism has replaced tribal and national ideals and welded its +devotees into a self-conscious international unity. Whatever danger +there may be in Socialism is the danger of the zealot. The ideal may +be impracticable and discarded, but the devotion to it may be blind +and destructive. + +As a rule, Socialist leaders and writers maintain that this drawing +together of Socialism and democracy is only transitory, and that +beyond this lies the promised land of social production. Jaurès has +explained this clearly: "Democracy, under the impetus given it by +organized labor, is evolving irresistibly toward Socialism, and +Socialism toward a form of property which will deliver man from his +exploitation by man, and bring to an end the régime of class +government. The Radicals flatter themselves that they can put a stop +to this movement by promising the working classes some reforms, and by +proclaiming themselves the guardians of private property. They hope to +hold a large part of the proletariat in check by a few reforming laws +expressing a sentiment of social solidarity, and by their policy of +defending private property to rouse the conservative forces, the petty +bourgeoisie, the middle classes, and the small peasant proprietors to +oppose Socialism."[6] + +So we see that in spite of their experiences Socialists still draw a +clear distinction between their Socialism and democracy. The Socialist +is willing to ignore the experiences of the past twenty years in his +ecstasy of vision. He claims that whatever has been done is mere +reform. He affects to belittle it, the Marxian scorns it. To the +Socialist, democracy is only the halfway house on the road to the +economic paradise. He has his gaze fixed on the New Jerusalem of +"co-operative production" and "distributive justice." Whether this New +City, with its streets paved with the gold of altruism and its gates +garnished with the pearls of good will and benevolence, will be +brought from the fleecy clouds of ecstatic imagination to our sordid +earth remains a question of speculation to that vast body of sincere +and practical citizens who have not scaled the heights of the +Socialistic Patmos. + +European Socialism has been transplanted to America. But its growth +until quite recently has been very slow, and confined largely to +immigrants. There is no political spur to hasten the movement. Here +democracy has been achieved. The universal ballot, free speech, free +press, free association are accomplished. Many of the economic +policies espoused by the Social Democratic parties of Europe are +written into the platforms of our political parties. There will be no +independent labor party of any strength until the old parties have +aroused the distrust of the great body of laboring men, and until the +labor unions cut loose from their traditional aloofness and enter +politics. How socialistic such a party will be must depend upon the +circumstances attending its organization. The two third-party +movements which have flourished since the Civil War, the Greenback +movement of the '70's and the Populist movement of the '90's, were +virtually "class" parties, restricted to the agricultural population +of the Middle and Far West; and both of them feared Socialism as much +as they hated capitalism. Neither of these parties outlived a decade. +Economic prosperity abruptly ended both.[7] + +The stress of political exclusiveness and the harsh hand of government +will not produce a reactionary movement among the workingmen of +America. But economic circumstances may do so. We are still a young +country full of the hope of youth. The ranks of every walk of life are +filled with those who have worked their way to success from humble +origin. Most of our famous men struggled with poverty in their youth. +Their lives are constantly held up to the children of the nation as +examples of American pluck, enterprise, and opportunity. A nation that +lures its clerks toward proprietorship and its artisans toward +independence offers barren soil for the doctrines of discontent. We +have no stereotyped poverty in the European sense. Our farmers own +their acreage, and many of the urban poor are able to buy a cottage in +the outskirts of the city. + +But there are signs that these conditions are undergoing profound +changes. Unlimited competition has led to limitless consolidation of +industries, and the financial destinies of the Republic repose in the +hands of comparatively few men. So much of the Marxian proposition is +fulfilled, at the moment, in America. This concentrated wealth has not +been unmindful of politics. Governmental power and money power are +closely identified in the public mind. Our cities are overflowing with +a new population from the excitable portions of southern Europe, a +population that is proletarian in every sense of the word. Panics +follow one another in rapid succession. The uneasiness of business is +fed by the turmoil of politics. Unrest is everywhere. Labor and +business are engaged in constant struggles that affect all members of +society. The cost of living has increased alarmingly in the last ten +years. We are becoming rapidly a manufacturing nation; the balance of +power is shifting from the farm to the city.[8] + +European Socialists are taking a keen interest in American affairs. +Bebel said to me: "You are getting ready for the appropriation of the +great productive enterprises and the railways. Your trusts make the +problem easy." John Burns prophesied that violence and bloodshed alone +would check us in our mad career for wealth. Jaurès asked how long it +would take before our poverty would be worse than that of Europe. At a +distance they see us plunging headlong into a Socialist régime. + +Professor Brentano of Munich knows us better. He said to me, +"Conservation will be your Socialism."[9] If the fundamental +principles of conservation can be embodied in constitutional laws, +then there will be an almost indefinite extension of the power of the +state over industry. It will embrace mines, forests, irrigated +deserts; it will extend to the sources of all water supply and water +power; the means of transportation may ultimately be included. So that +without radical legal and institutional changes it will be possible +for many of the sources of our raw materials to be placed under +governmental surveillance, leaving the processes of manufacture and +exchange in the hands of private individuals. + +There are at present many indications that this will be our general +process of "socialization." The people appear to want it; and in a +democracy the will of the people must prevail. + +Before we have advanced far along the new road of conservation we will +find it necessary to reconstruct our whole system of administration. +The haphazard of politics must be foreign to public business. +Everywhere in Europe, especially in Germany and England, the people, +including the Socialists, appear satisfied with the efficiency of +their administrative machinery. Who would intrust the running of a +railroad to our Federal or State governments? + +We have reached the extreme of rampant _laissez-faire_. Our youthful +vigor and material wealth have kept us buoyant. Politically we will +become more radical, economically less individualistic, in the next +cycle of our development. There is no magic that saves a people except +the magic of opportunity. In a democracy especially it is necessary to +constantly purge society by free-moving currents of talent and virtue. +This replenishing stream has its sources in the sturdy, healthy +workers of the nation. The movement is from the depths upward. It is +the supreme function of the state to keep these sources unclogged. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, _Ethical Democracy_, pp. 61-71. + +[2] J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, _Socialism and Government_, Vol. II, p. 117. + +[3] FREDERICK ENGELS' Introduction to MARX' _Klassenkampf_, pp. 16-17, +1895. + +[4] The coal strike in England in March, 1912, brought the question of +a legalized minimum wage before the people. + +[5] On November 28, 1905, a vast army of working men and women, +estimated at 300,000 by the anti-Socialist papers, marched under the +red flag through the streets of Vienna as a protest against the +existing franchise laws. They were given the right of way and walked +in silence through the streets of the capital. Their orderliness was +more impressive than their vast numbers. It was an object-lesson that +the government did not forget. + +[6] JEAN JAURÈS, _Studies in Socialism_, Eng. ed., p. 25. + +[7] What the so-called Progressive Party will accomplish, in this +direction, remains to be seen. + +[8] The Socialist vote in the United States is as follows: + + 1892 21,164 + 1896 36,274 + 1900 87,814 + 1904 402,283 + 1908 402,464 + 1910 607,674 + 1911 1,500,000 (estimated) + +The vast increase shown in 1911 was made in municipal and other local +elections. On January 1, 1912, 377 villages, towns, and cities in 36 +States had some Socialist officers. Several important cities have been +under Socialist rule, notably Milwaukee and Schenectady, where the +Socialists captured the entire city machinery. In 1912 the Socialists +lost control of Milwaukee, although their vote increased 3,000. Their +overthrow was accomplished by the coalescing of the old parties into a +Citizens' Party, a line-up between radicalism and conservatism that +will probably become the rule in American local politics. + +The party is organized along the lines of the German Social Democracy. +Its membership has grown as follows: + + 1903 15,975 + 1904 20,764 + 1905 23,327 + 1906 26,784 + 1907 29,270 + 1908 41,751 + 1909 41,479 + 1910 48,011 + 1911 84,716 + 1912 (May) 142,000 + + +[9] In this statement, Professor Brentano re-enforces the opinions of +the American economist to whose teachings and writings the +"progressive" movement in American economics and politics, and +especially the movement for conservation of natural resources, must be +traced. For many years Professor Richard T. Ely has been pointing the +way to this conservative "socialization" of our natural wealth. + + + + +APPENDIX + + + + +I. BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +The following list of the principal works consulted in the preparation +of this volume may serve also as a bibliography on the subject. There +are very few American books in the list, because the object of this +volume is to summarize the European situation. + +For the spirit of the movement the student must consult the +contemporary literature of Socialism--the newspapers, magazines, and +pamphlets, and the campaign documents that flow in a constant stream +from the Socialist press. These are, of course, too numerous and too +fluctuating in character to be catalogued. Lists of these publications +can be secured at the following addresses: + +The Fabian Society, 3 Clements Inn, Strand, London, W.C. + +The Labor Party, 28 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, S.W. + +The Independent Labor Party, 23 Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London, E.C. + +German Social Democracy, Verlags-Buchhandlung _Vorwärts_, 68 +Lindenstrasse, Berlin, S.W. + +Belgian Labor Party, _Le Peuple_, 33-35 rue de Sable, Brussels. + +French Socialist Party, _La Parti Socialiste_, 16 rue de la Corderie, +Paris. + + +GENERAL WORKS: THE FOUNDERS OF SOCIALISM + + BLANC, LOUIS: _Socialism._ An English edition was published in + 1848. + + ---- _Organization of Labor._ English edition in 1848. + + BOOTH: _Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism._ + + CABET, ÉTIENNE: _Le Vrai Christianisme_, 1846. + + FEUERBACH, FRIEDRICH: _Die Religion der Zukunft_, 1843-5. + + ---- _Essence of Christianity._ An English translation, 1881, in + the "English and Foreign Philosophical Library." + + FOURIER, F.C.M.: _Oeuvres Complètes._ 6 vols. 1841-5. + + GAMMOND, GATTI DE: Fourier and His System, 1842. + + GIDE, CHARLES: _Selections from Fourier._ An English translation + by Julien Franklin, 1901. + + GODWIN, WILLIAM: _An Inquiry Concerning Political Justice_, 1796. + + KINGSLEY: _Cheap Clothes and Nasty_, 1851. + + MORRELL, J.R.: _Life of Fourier_, 1849. + + MORRIS, WILLIAM: _Works of_; _Chants for Socialists_, 1885. + + OWEN, ROBERT: _An Address_, etc., 1813. + + ---- _Addresses_, etc., 1816. + + ---- _An Explanation of the Distress_, etc., 1823. + + ---- _Book of the New Moral World_, etc., 1836. + + PROUDHON, PIERRE JOSEPH: The Works of. English translation by + Tucker, American edition, 1876. + + SAINT-SIMON: _New Christianity._ An English translation by Rev. + J.E. Smith. 1834. + + WEIL, G.: _L'École Saint-Simonisme--son Histoire_, etc., 1896. + + WEITLING, WILLIAM: _Garantieen der Harmonie und Freiheit_, 1845. + + +GENERAL WORKS: MODERN DISCUSSION + + BEBEL, A.: _Woman, in the Past, Present, and Future._ An English + translation appeared in London in 1890. + + BERNSTEIN, EDWARD: _Responsibility and Solidarity in the Labor + Struggle_, 1900. + + BROOKS, J.G.: _The Social Unrest_, 1903. + + ELY, R.T.: _French and German Socialism_, 1883. + + ENSOR, R.C.K.: _Modern Socialism._ A useful collection of + Socialist documents, speeches, programs, etc. + + GRAHAM, W.: _Socialism New and Old_, 1890. + + GUTHRIE, W.B.: _Socialism Before the French Revolution_, 1907. + + GUYOT, Y.: _The Tyranny of Socialism_, 1894. + + JAURÈS, J.: _Studies in Socialism_, 1906. + + KAUTSKY, K.: _The Social Revolution._ An English translation by + J.B. Askew. The best Continental view of modern Marxianism, + and the most widely read. + + KELLY, EDMOND: _Twentieth Century Socialism_, 1910. The most + noteworthy of recent American contributions to Socialist + thought. + + KIRKUP: _A History of Socialism_, 1909. A concise and + authoritative narrative. + + KOIGEN, D.: _Die Kultur-ausschauung des Sozialismus_, 1903. + + LEVY, J.H.: _The Outcome of Individualism_, 1890. + + MACDONALD, J.R.: _Socialism and Society_, 1905. MacDonald is not + only the leader of the British Labor Party, but his writings + comprise a comprehensive exposition of the views of labor + democracy. + + ---- _Character and Democracy_, 1906. + + ---- _Socialism_, 1907. + + ---- _Socialism and Government_, 1909. + + MILL, J.S.: _Socialism_, 1891. A collection of essays, etc., from + the writings of John Stuart Mill touching on Socialism. + + RAE, J.: _Contemporary Socialism_, 1908. A standard work. + + RICHTER: _Pictures of the Socialist Future_, 1893. + + SCHAEFFLE: _The Impossibility of Social-Democracy_, 1892. + + ---- _The Quintessence of Socialism_, 1898. Probably the most + authoritative and concise refutation of the Socialist dogmas. + + SOMBART, WERNER: _Socialism and the Social Movement_, 1909. Widely + read, both in the original and in the English translation. + Contains an interesting critique of Marxianism. + + SPENCER, HERBERT: _The Coming Slavery_, 1884. A reprint from _The + Contemporary Review_. + + STODDARD, JANE: _The New Socialism_, 1909. A convenient + compilation. + + TUGAN-BARANOVSKY, M.I.: _Modern Socialism_, 1910. A systematic and + scholarly résumé of the doctrines of Socialism. + + WARSCHAUER, O.: _Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte des Sozialismus_, + 1909. + + WELLS, H.G.: _New Worlds for Old_, 1909. One of the most popular + expositions of Socialism. + + +MARX AND ENGELS + + AVELING, E.B.: _The Student's Marx._ A handy compilation. 1902. + + BOEHM-BAWERK: _Karl Marx and the Close of His System._ An English + translation was made in 1898. + + ENGELS, FRIEDRICH: _Die Entwickelung des Socialismus von der + Utopie zur Wissenschaft_, 1891. + + ---- _Socialism--Utopian and Scientific_, 1892. + + ---- _L. Feuerbach und der Ausgang der Klassischen Deutschen + Philosophie_, 1903. + + ---- _Briefe und Auszüge von Briefen_, 1906. + + ---- _Friedrich Engels, Sein Leben, Sein Wirken und Seine + Schriften_, 1895. + + MARX and ENGELS: _The Communist Manifesto._ There have been many + editions; that of 1888 is probably the widest known for its + historical Introduction. + + MARX, KARL: _The Poverty of Philosophy._ An answer to Proudhon's + _La Philosophie de la Misère_. An English translation was made + by H. Quelch, 1900. + + ---- _Enthüllungen über den Kommunisten Process zu Köln_, 1875. + Engels' Preface gives an account of the origin of the "Society + of the Just." + + ---- _Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich, 1848-50._ + + ---- _Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany in 1848._ An + English translation appeared in 1896. + + ---- _Capital_, 1896. + + ---- _The International Workingmen's Association._ Two addresses + on the Franco-Prussian War, 1870. + + ---- _The international Workingmen's Association--The Civil War in + France._ An address to the General Council of the + International, 1871. + + +THE INTERNATIONAL + + DAVE, V.: _Michel Bakunin et Karl Marx_, 1900. + + ENGELS, F.: _The International Workingmen's Association_, 1891. + + FROEBEL, J.: _Ein Lebenslauf_--for an account of Marx vs. Bakunin. + + GUILLAUME, J.: _L'Internationale: Documents et Souvenirs_, 1905. + + JAECKH, GUSTAV: _L'Internationale._ An English translation was + published in 1904. + + JAEGER, E.: _Karl Marx und die Internationale Arbeiter + Association_, 1873. + + MAURICE, C.E.: _Revolutionary Movements of 1848-9_, 1887. + + TESTUT, O.: _L'Internationale--son origine, son but, son + principes, son organisation_, etc. Third edition, 1871. A + German edition translated by Paul Frohberg, Leipsic, 1872. + + ---- _Le Livre Bleu de l'Internationale_, 1871. + + VILLETARD: _History of the International._ Translated by Susan M. + Day, New Haven, 1874. + + _Ein Complot gegen die Internationale Arbeiter Association_, 1874, + gives a careful version of the Marxian side of the Bakunin + controversy. + + "International Workingmen's Association"--"_Procès-verbaux, + Congrès à Lausanne_," 1867. + + _Troisième Congrès de l'Association Internationale des + Travailleurs_, Brussels, 1868. + + _Manifeste aux Travailleurs des Campagnes._ Paris, 1870. + + _Manifeste addressé à toutes les associations ouvrières_, etc. + Paris, 1874. + + _International Arbeiter Association Protokoll._ A German edition + of the Proceedings of the Paris Congress, 1890, with a + valuable Introduction by W. Liebknecht. + + +FRANCE + + JAEGER, EUGEN: _Geschichte der Socialen Bewegung und des + Socialismus in Frankreich_, 1890. + + JAURÈS, JEAN: _L'Armée Nouvelle--L'Organisation Socialiste de la + France_, 1911. The initial installment of the long-promised + account of the Socialist state. + + LAVY, A.: _L'Oeuvre de Millerand_, 1902. An appreciative history + of Millerand's work. Contains many documents, speeches, etc. + + PEIXOTTO, J.: _The French Revolution and Modern Socialism_, 1901. + + VON STEIN, LORENZ: _Der Sozialismus und Communismus des Heutigen + Frankreichs_, 1848. + + WEIL, GEORGES: _Histoire du Mouvement Socialiste en France_, 1904. + + +BELGIUM + + BERTRAND, LOUIS: _Histoire de la Démocratie et Socialisme en + Belgique depuis 1830_, 1906. Introduction by Vandervelde. + + ---- _Histoire de la Coopération en Belgique_, 1902. + + BERTRAND, LOUIS, et al.: _75 Années de Domination Bourgeois_, + 1905. + + DESTRÉE et VANDERVELDE: _Le Socialisme en Belgique._ + + LANGEROCK, H.: _Le Socialisme Agraire_, 1895. + + STEFFENS-FRAUWEILER, H. VON: _Der Agrar Sozialismus in Belgien_, + Munich, 1893. + + VANDERVELDE, ÉMILE: _Histoire de la Coopération en Belgique_, + 1902. + + ---- _Essais sur la Question Agraire en Belgique_, 1902. + + ---- Article on the General Strike in _Archiv für Sozial + Wissenschaft_, May, 1908. + + +GERMANY + + BEBEL, AUGUST: _Die Social-Demokratie im Deutschen Reichstag._ A + series of brochures detailing the activity of the Social + Democrats--1871-1893. Of course from a partisan point of + view. + + ---- _Aus Meinem Leben_, 1910. An intimate recital of the + development of Social Democracy in Germany. + + BERNSTEIN, EDWARD: _Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine Bedeutung für die + Arbeiter Klasse_, 1904. + + BRANDES, GEORG: _Ferdinand Lassalle: Ein Literarisches + Charakter-Bild._ Berlin, 1877. An English translation was + published in 1911. This is a brilliant biography. + + DAWSON, W.H.: _German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle_, 1888. + + ---- _Bismarck and State Socialism_, 1890. + + ---- _The German Workman_, 1906. + + ---- _The Evolution of Modern Germany_, 1908. + + EISNER, K.: _Liebknecht--Sein Leben und Wirken_, 1900. A brief + sketch of the veteran Social Democrat. + + FRANK, DR. LUDWIG: _Die Bürgerlichen Parteien des Deutschen + Reichstags_, 1911. A Socialist's account of the rise of German + political parties. + + HARMS, B.: _Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine Bedeutung für die + Deutsche Sozial-Demokratie_, 1909. + + ---- _Sozialismus und die Sozial-Demokratie in Deutschland._ + + HOOPER, E.G.: _The German State Insurance System_, 1908. + + KAMPFMEYER, P.: _Geschichte der Modernen Polizei im Zusammenhang + mit der Allgemeinen Kulturbewegung_, 1897. A Socialist's + recital of the use of police. + + ---- _Geschichte der Modernen Gesellschafts-klassen in + Deutschland_, 1896. From a Socialist standpoint. + + KOHUT, A.: _Ferdinand Lassalle--Sein Leben und Wirken_, 1889. + + LASSALLE, FERDINAND: _Offenes Antwortschreiben an das + Central-Comité zur Berufung eines Allgemeinen Deutschen + Arbeiter Congress zu Leipzig_, 1863. + + ---- _Die Wissenschaft und die Arbeiter_, 1863. + + ---- _Macht und Recht_, 1863. A complete edition of Lassalle's + works was published in 1899, under the title "Gesamte Werke + Ferdinand Lassalles." + + LOWE, C.: _Prince Bismarck: An Historical Biography_, 1885. A + sympathetic description of Bismarck's attempt to solve the + social problem. + + MEHRING, F.: _Die Deutsche Sozial-Demokratie--Ihre Geschichte und + Ihre Lehre_, 1879. Third edition. A compact narrative. + + MEYER, R.: _Emancipationskampf des Vierten Standes_, 1882. + + NAUMANN, FRIEDRICH: _Die Politischen Parteien_, 1911. History of + German political parties. A Radical account. + + SCHMOELE, J.: _Die Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften in + Deutschland seit dem Erlasse des Sozialisten Gesetzes_, 1896, + etc. + + _Sozial-Demokratische Partei-Tag-Protokoll._ Annual reports of the + party conventions. + + _Documente des Sozialismus._ An annual publication edited by + Bernstein. + + +ENGLAND + + ARNOLD-FOSTER, H.: _English Socialism of To-day_, 1908. + + BARKER, J.E.: _British Socialism_, 1908. A collection of + quotations. + + BIBBY, F.: _Trades Unionism and Socialism_, 1907. + + BLATCHFORD, R.: _Merrie England_, 1895. + + CHURCHILL, WINSTON: _Liberalism and the Social Problem_, 1909. + + ENGELS, F.: _The Condition of the Working Classes in England in + 1844_, 1892. + + FAY, C.R.: _Co-operation at Home and Abroad_, 1908. + + GAMMAGE, R.G.: _History of the Chartist Movement_, 1894. + + HARDIE, KEIR: _From Serfdom, to Socialism_, 1907. + + HOBHOUSE, L.T.: _The Labor Movement_, 1898. + + ---- _Liberalism_, 1911. + + ---- _Democracy and Reaction_, 1904. + + HOBSON, J.A.: _The Crisis in Liberalism_, 1909. + + HOLYOAKE: _History of Cooperation_, 1906. + + KNOTT, Y.: _Conservative Socialism_, 1909. + + LECKY, W.E.H.: _Democracy and Liberty_, 1899. + + MACDONALD, J.R.: _The People in Power_, 1900. + + ---- _Socialism To-day_, 1909. + + MASTERMAN, C.F.G.: _The Condition of England_, 1909. + + MCCARTHY, J.: _The Epoch of Reform_, 1882. For Chartism and the + reform movements of the nineteenth century democracy. + + MONEY, CHIOZZA: _Riches and Poverty_, 1911. + + NICHOLSON, J.S.: _History, Progress and Ideals of Socialism._ A + criticism of the Socialist viewpoint. + + NOEL, CONRAD: _The Labor Party._ A criticism of the attitude of + Liberals and Conservatives toward the social problems. From + the Labor Party viewpoint. + + SNOWDEN, P.: _The Socialist Budget_, 1907. + + TOWLER, W.G.: _Municipal Socialism._ The anti-Socialist viewpoint. + + _The Times_: _The Socialist Movement in Great Britain_, 1909. A + reprint of a series of carefully prepared articles in _The + Times._ + + VILLIERS, B.: _The Opportunity of Liberalism_, 1904. + + ---- _The Socialist Movement in England_, 1908. + + WEBB, S.: _Wanted--A Program: An Appeal to the Liberal Party_, + 1888. + + ---- _Socialism in England_, 1890. + + WEBB, B. and S.: _Industrial Democracy_, 1902. + + ---- _The History of Trade Unionism_, 1911. + + + + +II. FRANCE + + +1. NOTE ON THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT + +Yves Guyot, the distinguished French publicist, told the writer that +there was only one compact, disciplined political party in France, the +United Socialists. Other than the Socialists, there is no +well-organized group in the Chamber of Deputies. The Right, Center, +and Left coalesce almost insensibly into each other. Party platforms +and party loyalty are replaced by a political individualism that to an +American politician would seem like political anarchy. + +The Chamber of Deputies is supreme--the ministry stands or falls upon +its majority's behest. This gives to the deputy a peculiar personal +power. He is only loosely affiliated with his group, is a powerful +factor in the government of the Republic, and is directly dependent +upon his constituents for his tenure in office. The result is a +personal, rather then a party, system of politics. + +This remarkably decentralized system of representative governance is +counterbalanced by a highly efficient and completely centralized +system of administration, which is based on civil service, and +outlives all the mutations of ministries and shifting of deputies. The +ministry, naturally, has theoretical control over the administrative +officials. During the campaign for reorganizing the army and navy, and +the disestablishment of the Church, under the Radical-Socialist +_bloc_, a few years ago, General André, acting for the ministry, +resorted to a comprehensive system of espionage to ferret out the +undesirable officers. Every commune has its official scrutinizer, who +reports the doings of the employees to the government. + +This, in turn, has created a clientilism. The deputy is needed by the +ministry, the deputy needs the votes of his constituency, the local +officials need the good will of the deputy. The result is a fawning +favoritism that has taken the place of party servitude as we know it +in America. + +The Socialists have precipitated a serious problem in this relation of +the government employee to the state: Can the state employees form a +union? There are nearly 1,000,000 state employees. This includes not +only all the functionaries, but all the workmen in the match +factories, the mint, the national porcelain factory and tobacco +plants, and the navy yards. In 1885 and again in 1902 the Court of +Cassation decided that "the right of forming a union (_syndicat_) is +confined to those who, whether as employers or as workmen or employed, +are engaged in _industry, agriculture, or commerce_, to the exclusion +of all other persons and all other occupations." + +The government has, however, countenanced some infringements. A few +syndicates of municipal and departmental employees are allowed; but +they are mostly workmen, not strictly functionaries. There are several +syndicates of elementary school teachers. But they have not been +allowed to federate their unions. At Lyons the teachers formed a union +and, according to law, filed their rules and regulations with the +proper official, who turned them over to the Minister of Justice, and +after a cabinet consultation it was decided that the union was +illegal, but would be ignored. They then joined the local _Bourse du +Travail_ (federation of labor), and Briand, then Minister of +Education, vetoed their action. Then a number of branches in the +public service, including post-office and customs-house employees, +teachers, etc., united in forming a committee "_pour la défense du +droit syndical des salaries de l'état, des départements et du +commerce_." This "Committee of Defense" petitioned Clémenceau on the +right to organize, and intimated that the great and only difference +between the state and the private employer is that the former adds +political to economic oppression. This is pure Syndicalism. Under the +individual political jugglery that takes the place of the party system +in France, the problem is not made any the easier. + + +2. PROGRAM OF THE LIBERAL WING OF THE FRENCH SOCIALISTS, ADOPTED AT +TOURS, 1902, UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF JAURÈS + + +_I.--Declaration of Principles_ + +Socialism proceeds simultaneously from the movement of democracy and +from the new forms of production. In history, from the very morrow of +the French Revolution, the proletarians perceived that the Declaration +of the Rights of Man would remain an illusion unless society +transformed ownership. + +How, indeed, could freedom, ownership, security, be guaranteed to all, +in a society where millions of workers have no property but their +muscles, and are obliged, in order to live, to sell their power of +work to the propertied minority? + +To extend, therefore, to every citizen the guarantees inscribed in the +Declaration of Rights, our great Babeuf demanded ownership in common, +as a guarantee of welfare in common. Communism was for the boldest +proletarians the supreme expression of the Revolution. + +Between the political régime, the outcome of the revolutionary +movement, and the economic régime of society, there is an intolerable +contradiction. + +In the political order democracy is realized: all citizens share +equally, at least by right, in the sovereignty; universal suffrage is +communism in political power. + +In the economic order, on the other hand, a minority is sovereign. It +is the oligarchy of capital which possesses, directs, administers, and +exploits. + +Proletarians are acknowledged fit as citizens to manage the milliards +of the national and communal budgets; as laborers, in the workshop, +they are only a passive multitude, which has no share in the direction +of enterprises, and they endure the domination of a class which makes +them pay dearly for a tutelage whose utility ceases and whose +prolongation is arbitrary. + +The irresistible tendency of the proletarians, therefore, is to +transfer into the economic order the democracy partially realized in +the political order. Just as all the citizens have and handle in +common, democratically, the political power, so they must have and +handle in common the economic power, the means of production. + +They must themselves appoint the heads of work in the workshops, as +they appoint the heads of government in the city, and reserve for +those who work, for the community, the whole product of work. + +This tendency of political democracy to enlarge itself into social +democracy has been strengthened and defined by the whole economic +evolution. + +In proportion as the capitalistic régime developed its effects, the +proletariat became conscious of the irreducible opposition between its +essential interests and the interests of the class dominant in +society, and to the bourgeois form of democracy it opposed more and +more the complete and thorough communistic democracy. + +All hope of universalizing ownership and independence by multiplying +small autonomous producers has disappeared. The great industry is more +and more the rule in modern production. + +By the enlargement of the world's markets, by the growing facility of +transport, by the division of labor, by the increasing application of +machinery, by the concentration of capitals, immense concentrated +production is gradually ruining or subordinating the small or middling +producers. + +Even where the number of small craftsmen, small traders, small peasant +proprietors, does not diminish, their relative importance in the +totality of production grows less unceasingly. They fall under the +sway of the great capitalists. + +Even the peasant proprietors, who seem to have retained a little +independence, are more and more exposed to the crushing forces of the +universal market, which capitalism directs without their concurrence +and against their interests. + +For the sale of their wheat, wine, beetroot, and milk, they are more +and more at the mercy of great middlemen or great industries of +milling, distilling, and sugar-refining, which dominate and despoil +peasant labor. + +The industrial proletarians, having lost nearly all chance of +individually rising to be employers, and being thus doomed to eternal +dependence, are further subject to incessant crises of unemployment +and misery, let loose by the unregulated competition of the great +capitalist forces. + +The immense progress of production and wealth, largely usurped by +parasitic classes, has not led to an equivalent progress in well-being +and security for the workers, the proletarians. Whole categories of +wage-earners are abruptly thrown into extreme misery by the constant +introduction of new mechanisms and by the abrupt movements and +transformations of industry. + +Capitalism itself admits the disorder of the present régime of +production, since it tries to regulate it for its gain by capitalistic +syndicates, by trusts. + +Even if it succeeded in actually disciplining all the forces of +production, it would only do so while consummating the domination and +the monopoly of capital. + +There is only one way of assuring the continued order and progress of +production, the freedom of every individual, and the growing +well-being of the workers; it is to transfer to the collectivity, to +the social community, the ownership of the capitalistic means of +production. + +The proletariat, daily more numerous, ever better prepared for +combined action by the great industry itself, understands that in +collectiveness or communism lie the necessary means of salvation for +it. + +As an oppressed and exploited class, it opposes all the forces of +oppression and exploitation, the whole system of ownership, which +debases it to be a mere instrument. It does not expect its +emancipation from the good will of rulers or the spontaneous +generosity of the propertied classes, but from the continual and +methodical pressure which it exerts upon the privileged class and the +government. + +It sets before itself as its final aim, not a partial amelioration, +but the total transformation of society. And since it acknowledges no +right as belonging to capitalistic ownership, it feels bound to it by +no contract. It is determined to fight it, thoroughly, and to the end; +and it is in this sense that the proletariat, even while using the +legal means which democracy puts into its hands, is and must remain a +revolutionary class. + +Already by winning universal suffrage, by winning and exercising the +right of combining to strike and of forming trade-unions, by the first +laws regulating labor and causing society to insure its members, the +proletariat has begun to react against the fatal effects of +capitalism; it will continue this great and unceasing effort, but it +will only end the struggle when all capitalist property has been +reabsorbed by the community, and when the antagonism of classes has +been ended by the disappearance of the classes themselves, reconciled, +or rather made one, in common production and common ownership. + +How will be accomplished the supreme transformation of the capitalist +régime into the collectivist or communist? The human mind cannot +determine beforehand the mode in which history will be accomplished. + +The democratic and bourgeois revolution, which originated in the great +movement of France in 1789, has come about in different countries in +the most different ways. The old feudal system has yielded in one case +to force, in another to peaceful and slow evolution. The revolutionary +bourgeoisie has at one place and time proceeded to brutal +expropriation without compensation, at another to the buying out of +feudal servitudes. + +No one can know in what way the capitalist servitude will be +abolished. The essential thing is that the proletariat should be +always ready for the most vigorous and effective action. It would be +dangerous to dismiss the possibility of revolutionary events +occasioned either by the resistance or by the criminal aggression of +the privileged class. + +It would be fatal, trusting in the one word revolution, to neglect the +great forces which the conscious, organized proletariat can employ +within democracy. + +These legal means, often won by revolution, represent an accumulation +of revolutionary force, a revolutionary capital, of which it would be +madness not to take advantage. + +Too often the workers neglect to profit by the means of action which +democracy and the Republic put into their hands. They do not demand +from trade-unionist action, co-operative action, or universal +suffrage, all that those forms of action can give. + +No formula, no machinery, can enable the working-class to dispense +with the constant effort of organization and education. + +The idea of the general strike, of general strikes, is invincibly +suggested to proletarians by the growing magnitude of working-class +organization. They do not desire violence, which is very often the +result of an insufficient organization and a rudimentary education of +the proletariat; but they would make a great mistake if they did not +employ the powerful means of action, which co-ordinates working-class +forces to subserve the great interests of the workers or of society; +they must group and organize themselves to be in a position to make +the privileged class more and more emphatically aware of the gulf +which may suddenly be cleft open in the economic life of societies by +the abrupt stoppage of the worn-out and interminably exploited +workers. They can thereby snatch from the selfishness of the +privileged class great reforms interesting the working-class in +general, and hasten the complete transformation of an unjust society. +But the formula of the general strike, like the partial strike, like +political action, is only valuable through the progress of the +education, the thought, and the will of the working-class. + +The Socialist party defends the Republic as a necessary means of +liberation and education. Socialism is essentially republican. It +might be even said to be the Republic itself, since it is the +extension of the Republic to the régime of property and labor. + +The Socialist party needs, to organize the new world, free minds, +emancipated from superstitions and prejudices. It asks for and +guarantees every human being, every individual, absolute freedom of +thinking, and writing, and affirming their beliefs. Over against all +religions, dogmas, and churches, as well as over against the class +conception of the bourgeoisie, it sets the unlimited right of free +thought, the scientific conception of the universe, and a system of +public education based exclusively on science and reason. + +Thus accustomed to free thought and reflection, citizens will be +protected against the sophistries of the capitalistic and clerical +reaction. The small craftsmen, small traders, and small peasant +proprietors will cease to think that it is Socialism which wishes to +expropriate them. The Socialist party will hasten the hour when these +small peasant proprietors, ruined by the underselling of their +produce, riddled with mortgage debts, and always liable to judicial +expropriation, will eventually understand the advantages of +generalized and systematized association, and will claim themselves, +as a benefit, the socialization of their plots of land. + +But it would be useless to prepare inside each nation an organization +of justice and peace, if the relations of the nations to one another +remained exposed to every enterprise of force, every suggestion of +capitalist greed. + +The Socialist party desires peace among nations; it condemns every +policy of aggression and war, whether continental or colonial. It +constantly keeps on the order of the day for civilized countries +simultaneous disarmament. While waiting for the day of definite peace +among nations, it combats the militarist spirit by doing its utmost to +approximate the system of permanent armies to that of national +militias. It wishes to protect the territory and the independence of +the nation against any surprise; but every offensive policy and +offensive weapon is utterly condemned by it. + +The close understanding of the workers, of the proletarians of every +country, is necessary as well to beat back the forces of aggression +and war as to prepare by a concerted action the general triumph of +Socialism. The international agreement of the militant proletarians of +every country will prepare the triumph of a free humanity, where the +differences of classes will have disappeared, and the difference of +nations, instead of being a principle of strife and hatred, will be a +principle of brotherly emulation in the universal progress of mankind. + +It is in this sense and for these reasons that the Socialist party has +formulated in its congresses the rule and aim of its +action--international understanding of the workers; political and +economic organization of the proletariat as a class party for the +conquest of government and the socialization of the means of production +and exchange; that is to say, the transformation of capitalist society +into a collectivist or communist society. + + +_II.--Program of Reforms_ + +The Socialist party, rejecting the policy of all or nothing, has a +program of reforms whose realization it pursues forthwith. + + +(1) _Democratization of Public Authorities_ + +1. Universal direct suffrage, without distinction of sex, in every +election. + +2. Reduction of time of residence. Votes to be cast for lists, with +proportional representation, in every election. + +3. Legislative measures to secure the freedom and secrecy of the vote. + +4. Popular right of initiative and referendum. + +5. Abolition of the Senate and Presidency of the Republic. The powers +at present belonging to the President of the Republic and the Cabinet +to devolve on an executive council appointed by the Parliament. + +6. Legal regulation of the legislator's mandate, to be revocable by +the vote of any absolute majority of his constituents on the register. + +7. Admission of women to all public functions. + +8. Absolute freedom of the press, and of assembly guaranteed only by +the common law. Abrogation of all exceptional laws on the press. +Freedom of civil associations. + +9. Full administrative autonomy of the departments and communes, under +no reservations but that of the laws guaranteeing the republican, +democratic, and secular character of the State. + + +(2) _Complete Secularization of the State_ + +1. Separation of the Churches and the State; abolition of the Budget +of Public Worship; freedom of public worship; prohibition of the +political and collective action of the Churches against the civil laws +and republican liberties. + +2. Abolition of the congregations; nationalization of the property in +mortmain, of every kind, belonging to them, and appropriation of it +for works of social insurance and solidarity; in the interval, all +industrial, agricultural, and commercial undertakings are to be +forbidden to the congregations. + + +(3) _Democratic and Humane Organization of Justice_ + +1. Substitution for all the present courts, whether civil or criminal, +of courts composed of a jury taken from the electoral register and +judges elected under guarantees of competence; the jury to be formed +by drawing lots from lists drawn up by universal suffrage. + +2. Justice to be without fee. Transformation of ministerial offices +into public functions. Abolition of the monopoly of the bar. + +3. Examination from opposite sides at every stage and on every point. + +4. Substitution for the vindictive character of the present +punishments, of a system for the safe keeping and the amelioration of +convicts. + +5. Abolition of the death penalty. + +6. Abolition of the military and naval courts. + + +(4) _Constitution of the Family in conformity with Individual Rights_ + +1. Abrogation of every law establishing the civil inferiority of women +and natural or adulterine children. + +2. Most liberal legislation on divorce. A law sanctioning inquiry into +paternity. + + +(5) _Civic and Technical Education_ + +1. Education to be free of charge at every stage. + +2. Maintenance of the children in elementary schools at the expense of +the public bodies. + +3. For secondary and higher education, the community to pay for those +of the children who on examination are pronounced fit usefully to +continue their studies. + +4. Creation of a popular higher education. + +5. State monopoly of education at the three stages; as a means towards +this, all members of the regular and secular clergy to be forbidden to +open and teach in a school. + + +(6) _General recasting of the System of Taxation upon Principles of +Social Solidarity_ + +1. Abolition of every tax on articles of consumption which are primary +necessaries, and of the four direct contributions;[1] accessorily, +relief from taxation of all small plots of land and small professional +businesses.[2] + +2. Progressive income-tax, levied on each person's income as a whole, +in all cases where it exceeds 3,000 francs (£120). + +3. Progressive tax on inheritances, the scale of progression being +calculated with reference both to the amount of the inheritance and +the degree of remoteness of the relationship. + +4. The State to be empowered to seek a part of the revenue which it +requires from certain monopolies. + + +(7) _Legal Protection and Regulation of Labor in Industry, Commerce, +and Agriculture_ + +1. One day's rest per week, or prohibition of employers to exact work +more than six days in seven. + +2. Limitation of the working-day to eight hours; as a means towards +this, vote of every regulation diminishing the length of the +working-day. + +3. Prohibition of the employment of children under fourteen; half-time +system for young persons, productive labor being combined with +instruction and education. + +4. Prohibition of night-work for women and young persons. Prohibition +of night-work for adult workers of all categories and in all +industries where night-work is not absolutely necessary. + +5. Legislation to protect home-workers. + +6. Prohibition of piece-work and of truck. Legal recognition of +blacklisting. + +7. Scales of rates forming a minimum wage to be fixed by agreement +between municipalities and the working-class corporations of industry, +commerce, and agriculture. + +8. Employers to be forbidden to make deductions from wages, as fines +or otherwise. Workers to assist in framing special rules for +workshops. + +9. Inspection of workshops, mills, factories, mines, yards, public +services, shops, etc., shall be carried out with reference to the +conditions of work, hygiene, and safety, by inspectors elected by the +workmen's unions, in concurrence with the State inspectors. + +10. Extension of the industrial arbitration courts to all wage-workers +of industry, commerce, and agriculture. + +11. Convict labor to be treated as a State monopoly; the charge for +all work done shall be the wage normally paid to trade-unionist +workers. + +12. Women to be forbidden by law to work for six weeks before +confinement and for six weeks after. + + +(8) _Social Insurance against all Natural and Economic Risks_ + +1. Organization by the nation of a system of social insurance, +applying to the whole mass of industrial, commercial, and agricultural +workers, against the risks of sickness, accident, disability, old age, +and unemployment. + +2. The insurance funds to be found without drawing on wages; as a +means towards this, limitation of the contribution drawn from the +wage-workers to a third of the total contribution, the two other +thirds to be provided by the State and the employers. + +3. The law on workmen's accidents to be improved and applied without +distinction or nationality. + +4. The workers to take part in the control and administration of the +insurance system. + + +(9) _Extension of the Domain and Public Services, Industrial and +Agricultural, of State, Department, and Commune_ + +1. Nationalization of railways, mines, the Bank of France, insurance, +the sugar refineries and sugar factories, the distilleries, and the +great milling establishments. + +2. Organization of public employment registries for the workers, with +the assistance of the Bourses du Travail and the workmen's +organizations: and abolition of the private registries. + +3. State organization of agricultural banks. + +4. Grants to rural communes to assist them to purchase agricultural +machinery collectively, to acquire communal domains, worked under the +control of the communes by unions of rural laborers, and to establish +depôts and entrepôts. + +5. Organization of communal services for lighting, water, common +transport, construction, and public management of cheap dwellings. + +6. Democratic administration of the public services, national and +communal; organizations of workers to take part in their +administration and control; all wage-earners in all public services to +have the right of forming trade-unions. + +7. National and communal service of public health, and strengthening +of the laws which protect it--those on unhealthy dwellings, etc. + + +(10) _Policy of International Peace and Adaptation of the Military +Organization to the Defense of the Country_ + +1. Substitution of a militia for the standing Army, and adoption of +every measure, such as reductions of military service, leading up to +it. + +2. Remodeling and mitigation of the military penal code; abolition of +disciplinary corps, and prohibition of the prolongation of military +service by way of penalty. + +3. Renunciation of all offensive war, no matter what its pretext. + +4. Renunciation of every alliance not aimed exclusively at the +maintenance of peace. + +5. Renunciation of Colonial military expeditions; and in the present +Colonies or Protectorates, withdrawn from the influence of +missionaries and the military régime, development of institutions to +protect the natives. + + +3. BASIS OF THE UNITED SOCIALIST PARTY OF FRANCE + +_Adopted January 13, 1905_ + +The representatives of the various Socialistic organizations of +France: the revolutionary Socialist Labor Party, the Socialist Party +of France, the French Socialist Party, the independent federations of +Bouches-du-Rhône, of Bretagne, of Hérault, of the Somme, and of +l'Yonne, commanded by their respective parties and federations to form +a union upon the basis indicated by the International Congress of +Amsterdam, declare that the action of a unified party should be based +upon the principles established by the International Congress, +especially those held in France in 1900 and Amsterdam in 1904. + +The divergence of views and the various interpretations of the tactics +of the Socialists which have prevailed up to the present moment have +been due to circumstances peculiar to France and to the absence of a +general party organization. + +The delegates declare their common desire to form a party based upon +the class war which, at the same time, will utilize to its profit the +struggles of the laboring classes and unite their action with that of +a political party organized for the defense of the rights of the +proletariat, whose interests will always rest in a party fundamentally +and irreconcilably opposed to all the bourgeois classes and to the +state which is their instrument. + +Therefore the delegates declare that their respective organizations +are prepared to collaborate immediately in this work of the +unification of all the Socialistic forces in France, upon the +following basis, unanimously adopted: + +1. The Socialist Party is a class party which has for its aim the +socialization of the means of production and exchange, that is to say, +to transform the present capitalistic society into a collective or +communistic society by means of the political and economic +organization of the proletariat. By its aims, by its ideals, by the +power which it employs, the Socialist Party, always seeking to realize +the immediate reforms demanded by the working class, is not a party of +reforms, but a party of class war and revolution. + +2. The members of Parliament elected by the party form a unique group +opposed to all the factions of the bourgeois parties. The Socialist +group in Parliament must refuse to sustain all of those means which +assure the domination of the bourgeoisie in government and their +maintenance in power: must therefore refuse to vote for military +appropriations, appropriations for colonial conquest, secret funds, +and the budget. + +Even in the most exceptional circumstances the Socialist members must +not pledge the party without its consent. + +In Parliament the Socialist group must consecrate itself to defending +and extending the political liberties and rights of the working +classes and to the realization of those reforms which ameliorate the +conditions of life in the struggle for existence of the working class. + +The deputies should always hold themselves at the disposition of the +party, giving themselves to the general propaganda, the organization +of the proletariat, and constantly working toward the ultimate goal of +Socialism. + +3. Every member of the legislature individually, as well as each +militant Socialist, is subject to the control of his federation; all +of the officials in all of the groups are subject to the central +organization. In every case the national congress has the final +jurisdiction over all party matters. + +4. There shall be complete freedom of discussion in the press +concerning questions of principle and policy, but the conduct of all +the Socialist publications must be strictly in accord with the +decisions of the national congress as interpreted by the executive +committee of the party. Journals which are or may become the property +of the party, either of the national party or of the federations, will +naturally be placed under the management of authorities permanently +established for that purpose by the party or the federations. Journals +which are not the property of the party, but proclaim themselves as +Socialistic, must conform strictly to the resolutions of the congress +as interpreted by the proper party authorities, and they should insert +all the official communications of the party and party notices, as +they may be requested to do. The central committee of the party may +remind such journals of the policies of the party, and if they are +recalcitrant may propose to the congress that all intercourse between +them and the party be broken. + +5. Members of Parliament shall not be appointed members of the central +committee, but they shall be represented on the central committee by a +committee equal to one-tenth of the number of delegates, and in no +case shall their representation be less than five. The Federation +shall not appoint as delegates to the Central Committee "_militants_" +who reside within the limits of the Federation. + +6. The party will take measures for insuring, on the part of the +officials, respect for the mandates of the party, and will fix the +amount of their assessment. + +7. A congress charged with the definite organization of the party will +be convened as soon as possible upon the basis of proportional +representation fixed, first upon the number of members paying dues, +and second upon the number of votes cast in the general elections of +1902. + + + + +III. GERMANY + +1. POLITICAL PARTIES IN GERMANY + +There are a great many "fractions" in German politics. But, following +the Continental custom, they are all grouped into three divisions, the +Left or Radical, Right or Conservative, and the Center. In Germany the +Center is the Catholic or Clerical Party. The leading groups are as +follows: + +1. _Conservative._--The "German Conservatives" are the old tories; the +"Free Conservatives" profess, but rarely show, a tendency toward +liberal ideas, although they have, at intervals, opposed ministerial +measures. The Conservatives are for the Government (Regierung) first, +last, and all the time. They were a powerful factor under Bismarck and +docile in his hands. Since his day they have suffered many defeats +because of their reactionary policy. But the group still is the +Kaiser's party, the stronghold of modern medievalism, opposed to +radical reforms, and adhering to "the grace of God" policy of +monarchism. Economically they are _junker_ and "big business." The +anti-Socialist laws were the expression of their ideas as to Socialism +and the way to quench it. + +2. _National Liberal._--This party is not liberal, in the sense that +England or America knows liberalism. It is really only a less +conservative party than the extreme Right, although it began as the +brilliant Progressist Party of the early '60's. It was triumphant in +the Prussian Diet until Bismarck shattered it on his war policy. In +the first Reichstag it had 116 members, nearly one-third of the whole. +But Bismarck needed it, got it, and left it quite as conservative as +he wished. It voted for the anti-Socialist laws and for state +insurance. + +3. _Progressive_ (_Freisinnige_, literally, "free-minded").--This +faction is a cession from the old Progressist Party of which Lassalle +was a member for a few months. They are Radicals of a very moderate +type, and are opposed to the junker bureaucracy. There are two +wings--the People's Party (_Freisinnige Volkspartei_) and the +Progressive Union (_Freisinnige Vereinigung_). It is a constitutional +party, and has counted in its ranks such eminent scholars as Professor +Virchow and Professor Theodor Mommsen. They are in favor of +ministerial responsibility, are free traders of the Manchester type, +opposed to state intervention and state insurance, but favor factory +inspection, sanitation, and other social legislation. They are in +favor of freedom in religion, trade, and education, and espouse ballot +reform. They have a well-organized party, but do not seem effective +in winning elections. They share, to some degree, with the Social +Democrats the prejudice of the religious folk against free-thinking +and religious latitudinarianism. It is the middle-class party of +protest against bureaucracy. + +4. The _Center_, or Catholic Party, is a homogeneous, isolated, +well-disciplined, inflexible group, dominated by loyalty to their +religion. Whenever they have co-operated with the government it has +been in return for favors shown. The ranks of this party were closed +by the _Culturkampf_, which resulted in the expulsion of the Jesuit +orders and the separation of the elementary schools from the Church. +The party is reactionary in politics and economics. + +5. _Anti-Semitic._--The name discloses the ideals of a party inspired +by dread and hatred of an element that comprises less than 1.5 per +cent. of the population, and whose political disabilities were not all +removed until 1850 in Prussia and 1869 in Mecklenburg. This party was +formed in 1880, largely through the agitation of the Court Chaplain, +Pastor Stöcker, whose diatribes were peculiarly effective in Berlin, +where some very disgraceful scenes were enacted by members of this +party. + +6. _Independent groups_ are formed by the various nationalities that +are under subjection to German dominance. These are the Danish, +Hannoverian, Alsace-Lorraine, and Polish groups. They usually are +grouped with the Center. + +7. There are also a number of independent members in the Reichstag. +They adhere loosely to the larger groups, but as a rule merit the name +given them--_Wilden_, "wild ones." + +The accompanying table (p. 297) shows the distribution of seats in the +Reichstag, for the past thirty years. + + +2. SOME MODERN GERMAN ELECTION LAWS + +_Analysis of the New Election Law of Saxony_ + + _A._ One vote--every male 25 years of age. + + _B._ Two votes, every male, as follows: + + 1. Those who have an annual income of over 1,600 marks + ($400). + + 2. Those who hold public office or a permanent private + position with an annual income of over 1,400 marks ($350). + + 3. Those who are eligible to vote for Landskulturrat + (Agricultural Board) or Gewerbskammer (Chamber of + Commerce) and from their business have an income of over + 1,400 marks. (This includes merchants, landowners, and + manufacturers.) + + 4. Those who are owners or beneficiaries of property in the + kingdom from which they have an income of 1,250 marks + ($312.50) a year, and upon which at least 100 tax units + are assessed. + + 5. Those who own, or are beneficiaries of, land in the + kingdom, to the extent of at least 2 hectares, devoted to + agriculture, or forestry, or horticulture, or more than + one-half hectare devoted to gardening or wine culture. + + 6. Those who have conducted such professional studies as + entitle them to the one-year volunteer military service. + + _C._ The following have three votes: + + 1. Those who have an income of over 2,200 marks ($550). + + 2. Those in division B, 2 and 3, who have an income from + office or position of over 1,900 marks ($475). + + 3. Those who are not in private or public service and have a + professional income of over 1,900 marks. (This includes + lawyers, physicians, artists, engineers, publicists, + authors, professors.) + + 4. Those in B, 4, whose income is over 1,600 marks ($400). + + 5. Those in B, 5, with 4 hectares devoted to agriculture, + etc., and 1 hectare to gardening or wine culture. + + _D._ The following have four votes: + + 1. Those who have an income of 2,800 marks ($700). + + 2. Those in B, 2 and 3, or in C, 3, with an income over 2,500 + marks ($625). + + 3. Those in B, 4, with an annual income of over 2,200 marks + ($550). + + 4. Those in B, 5, with 8 hectares devoted to agriculture or 2 + hectares devoted to gardening or wine culture. + + _E._ Voters over 50 years old have an extra vote (Alters-stimme), + but no voter is allowed over four votes. + +Sachsen-Altenburg, in 1908-9, modified its election laws as follows: +The legislature is composed of 9 representatives elected by the +cities; 12 by the rural districts; 7 by the highest taxpayers; one +each by the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Agriculture, the Craft +guilds (Handwerks-kammer), and the Labor Council (Arbeiter-kammer). +The vigorous protest of the Social Democrats did not avail against the +passage of this law. + +Saxe-Weimar recently modified its election law as follows: All +citizens of communes were given the right to vote. The great feudal +estates (165 persons in 1909) elect 5 representatives to the Diet; the +rest of the highest taxpayers, i.e., those who have a taxable income +of over 3,000 marks, elect 5. The University of Jena elects 1 member, +the Chamber of Commerce 1, the Handwerks-kammer (Craft Guilds) 1, +Landwirthschaftkammer (Agricultural Board) 1, the Arbeitskammer (Labor +Council) 1. There are 38 members in the Diet: the remaining 23 are +elected at large. + + +3. STATISTICAL TABLES + +STATE INSURANCE IN GERMANY + + _Industrial Insurance in Germany, 1908._ + + Sick benefits: Number insured 13,189,599 + Men 9,880,541 + Women 3,309,058 + Income 365,994,000 marks + Outlay 331,049,900 " + Accident Insurance: Number insured 23,674,000 + Men 14,795,400 + Women 8,878,600 + Income 207,550,500 marks + Outlay 157,884,700 " + Old-Age Pensions: Number insured 15,226,000 + Men 10,554,000 + Women 4,672,000 + Income 285,882,000 marks + Outlay 181,476,800 " + +From 1885 to 1908 a total of 9,791,376,100 marks ($2,447,844,025) was +paid out in industrial insurance. (Compiled from _Statistisches +Jahrbuch des Deutschen Reiches_.) + + +LABOR UNIONS IN GERMANY + + =================+===================+=============+====================== + _Name of Union_ | _Membership_ | _No. of | _Amount in + | | Unions_ | Treasury--Marks_ + -----------------+---------+---------+------+------+----------+----------- + | 1908 | 1909 | 1908 | 1909 | 1908 | 1909 + +---------+---------+------+------+----------+----------- + Social Democratic|1,831,731|1,892,568|11,024|11,725|40,839,791|43,743,793 + Hirsh-Duncker | 105,633| 108,028| 2,095| 2,102| 4,210,413| 4,372,495 + Christian | 264,519| 280,061| 3,212| 3,856| 4,513,409| 5,365,338 + Patriotic | 16,507| 9,957| 69| 91| 57,786| 24,858 + "Yellow" | 47,532| 53,849| 79| 85| 386,305| 437,602 + Independent* | 615,873| 654,240| | | 1,357,802| 1,655,325 + -----------------+---------+---------+------+------+----------+----------- + * This is a nondescript group of local organizations, containing (1909) + 56,183 Poles, as well as the organization of railwaymen, telegraph + operators, postal employees, all in the government service, and + organized as friendly societies rather than as fighting bodies. + Government employees are not supposed to participate in "Unionism." + Compiled from _Statistisches Jahrbuch des Deutschen Reiches_. + + +TABLE SHOWING VOTE CAST IN REICHSTAG ELECTIONS SINCE THE FOUNDING OF +THE EMPIRE* + + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + Election Year | 1871 | 1874 | 1877 | 1878 | + Population of Empire |40,997,000|42,004,000|43,610,000|44,129,000| + Number of voters | 7,656,000| 8,523,000| 8,943,000| 9,128,000| + Number who voted | 3,885,000| 5,190,000| 5,401,000| 5,761,000| + Per cent. of vote cast | 51.0 | 61.2 | 60.6 | 63.3 | + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + Conservative | 549,000| 360,000| 526,000| 749,000| + Imperial Conservative | 346,000| 376,000| 427,000| 786,000| + Anti-Semites | ... | ... | ... | ... | + Other Conservative Groups| ... | ... | ... | ... | + Center | 724,000| 1,446,000| 1,341,000| 1,328,000| + Guelphs | 73,000| 72,000| 86,000| 107,000| + Danes | 21,000| 20,000| 17,000| 16,000| + Poles | 176,000| 209,000| 216,000| 216,000| + Alsatians | ... | 190,000| 149,000| 130,000| + National Liberal | 1,171,000| 1,499,000| 1,470,000| 1,331,000| + Other Liberal groups | 281,000| 98,000| 89,000| 69,000| + Progressist or Radical | 361,000| 469,000| 403,000| 388,000| + People's Party | 50,000| 39,000| 49,000| 69,000| + Social Democrats | 124,000| 352,000| 493,000| 437,000| + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + Election Year | 1881 | 1884 | 1887 | 1890 | + Population of Empire |45,428,000|46,336,000|47,630,000|49,241,000| + Number of voters | 9,090,000| 9,383,000| 9,770,000|10,146,000| + Number who voted | 5,098,000| 5,663,000| 7,541,000| 7,229,000| + Per cent. of vote cast | 56.3 | 60.6 | 77.5 | 71.6 | + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + Conservative | 831,000| 861,000| 1,147,000| 895,000| + Imperial Conservative | 379,000| 388,000| 736,000| 482,000| + Anti-Semites | ... | ... | 12,000| 48,000| + Other Conservative Groups| ... | ... | ... | 66,000| + Center | 1,183,000| 1,282,000| 1,516,000| 1,342,000| + Guelphs | 87,000| 96,000| 113,000| 113,000| + Danes | 14,000| 14,000| 12,000| 14,000| + Poles | 201,000| 203,000| 220,000| 247,000| + Alsatians | 147,000| 166,000| 234,000| 101,000| + National Liberal | 747,000| 997,000| 1,678,000| 1,179,000| + Other Liberal groups | 429,000| ... | ... | ... | + Progressist or Radical | 649,000| 997,000| 973,000| 1,160,000| + People's Party | 108,000| 96,000| 89,000| 148,000| + Social Democrats | 312,000| 550,000| 763,000| 1,427,000| + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+ + Election Year | 1893 | 1898 | 1903 | + Population of Empire |50,757,000|54,406,000|58,629,000| + Number of voters |10,628,000|11,441,000|12,531,000| + Number who voted | 7,674,000| 7,753,000| 9,496,000| + Per cent. of vote cast | 72.2 | 68.1 | 75.8 | + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+ + Conservative | 1,038,000| 859,000| 935,000| + Imperial Conservative | 438,000| 344,000| 333,000| + Anti-Semites | 264,000| 284,000| 249,000| + Other Conservative Groups| 250,000| 250,000| 230,000| + Center | 1,469,000| 1,455,000| 1,866,000| + Guelphs | 106,000| 109,000| 101,000| + Danes | 14,000| 15,000| 15,000| + Poles | 230,000| 252,000| 354,000| + Alsatians | 115,000| 107,000| 127,000| + National Liberal | 997,000| 984,000| 1,338,000| + Other Liberal groups | 258,000| 235,000| 285,000| + Progressist or Radical | 666,000| 558,000| 538,000| + People's Party | 167,000| 109,000| 92,000| + Social Democrats | 1,787,000| 2,107,000| 3,011,000| + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+ + ==========================+==========+=========== + Election Year | 1907 | 1912 + Population of Empire |61,983,000|65,407,000 + Number of voters |13,353,000|14,442,000 + Number who voted |11,304,000|12,207,000 + Per cent. of vote cast | 84.7 | 84.5 + ==========================+==========+=========== + Conservative | 1,099,000| 1,126,000 + Imperial Conservative | 494,000| 383,000 + Anti-Semites | 261,000| ... + Other Conservative Groups| 272,000| 424,000 + Center | 2,159,000| 1,991,000 + Guelphs | 94,000| 91,000 + Danes | 15,000| 17,000 + Poles | 458,000| 448,000 + Alsatians | 107,000| 157,000 + National Liberal | 1,696,000| 1,723,000 + Other Liberal groups | 435,000} + Progressist or Radical | 744,000} 1,506,000 + People's Party | 139,000} + Social Democrats | 3,259,000| 4,250,000 + ==========================+==========+=========== + + * In round numbers. From Kürschner's _Deutscher Reichstag_, p. 24. + + +PARTY REPRESENTATION IN THE REICHSTAG + +THE YEARS ARE THOSE OF GENERAL ELECTIONS--EXCEPTING 1911 + + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + _Party or Faction._ | 1881 | 1884 | 1887 | 1890 | 1893 | 1898 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + RIGHT + Conservatives | 50 | 76 | 80 | 72 | 67 | 53 | + German or Imperial | | | | | | | + Conservatives | 27 | 28 | 41 | 20 | 28 | 22 | + "Wild" Conservatives | 1 | 2 | -- | 1 | 5 | 4 | + Anti-Semites | -- | -- | 1 | 5 | 16 | 14 | + League of Landowners | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 5 | + Bavarian Land League | -- | -- | -- | -- | 4 | 5 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + CENTER + Center | 98 | 99 | 98 | 106 | 96 | 102 | + Poles | 18 | 16 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 15 | + Guelphs | 10 | 11 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 9 | + Alsatians | 15 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 8 | 10 | + Danes | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | + "Wild" Clericals | 2 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + LEFT + National Liberals | 45 | 51 | 98 | 41 | 53 | 48 | + RADICALS + United Progressives | 47 } | | { 14 | 13 | + (Radicals) | } 64 | 32 | 64 { | | + Other Progressive | } | | { | | + groups (Radicals) | 59 } | | { 23 | 29 | + People's Party | 8 | 7 | -- | 10 | 11 | 8 | + "Wild" Liberals | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + Social Democrats* | 12 | 24 | 11 | 35 | 44 | 56 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + _Party or Faction._ | 1900 | 1903 | 1906 | 1907 | 1911 | 1912 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + RIGHT | + Conservatives | 51 | 52 | 52 | 58 | 59 | 43 | + German or Imperial | | | | | | | + Conservatives | 20 | 19 | 22 | 22 | 25 | 14 | + "Wild" Conservatives | 7 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | + Anti-Semites | 13 | 11 | 14 | 20 } 29 | 13 | + League of Landowners | 4 | 3 | 4 | 7 } | | + Bavarian Land League | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | -- | 2 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + CENTER | + Center | 102 | 100 | 100 | 104 | 103 | 90 | + Poles | 14 | 16 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 18 | + Guelphs | 7 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | + Alsatians | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 9 | + Danes | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | + "Wild" Clericals | 1 | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 1 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + LEFT | + National Liberals | 53 | 50 | 51 | 54 | 51 | 45 | + RADICALS | + United Progressives | 15 | 9 | 10 | 14 } | | + (Radicals) | | | | } | | + Other Progressive | | | | } 49 | 42 | + groups (Radicals) | 28 | 21 | 20 | 28 } | | + People's Party | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 } | | + "Wild" Liberals | 3 | 2 | -- | 4 | 4 | 2 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + Social Democrats* | 58 | 81 | 79 | 43 | 53 | 110 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + + * They form the extreme Radical Left. + + (These groups are those given in Kürchner's _Deutscher Reichstag_, + p. 398.) + + +4. PROGRAM OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY + +_Adopted at Erfurt, 1891_ + +The economic development of bourgeois society leads by natural +necessity to the downfall of the small industry, whose foundation is +formed by the worker's private ownership of his means of production. +It separates the worker from his means of production, and converts him +into a propertyless proletarian, while the means of production become +the monopoly of a relatively small number of capitalists and large +landowners. + +Hand-in-hand with this monopolization of the means of production goes +the displacement of the dispersed small industries by colossal great +industries, the development of the tool into the machine, and a +gigantic growth in the productivity of human labor. But all the +advantages of this transformation are monopolized by capitalists and +large landowners. For the proletariat and the declining intermediate +classes--petty bourgoisie and peasants--it means a growing +augmentation of the insecurity of their existence, of misery, +oppression, enslavement, debasement, and exploitation. + +Ever greater grows the number of proletarians, ever more enormous the +army of surplus workers, ever sharper the opposition between +exploiters and exploited, ever bitterer the class-war between +bourgeoisie and proletariat, which divides modern society into two +hostile camps, and is the common hall-mark of all industrial +countries. + +The gulf between the propertied and the propertyless is further +widened through the crises, founded in the essence of the capitalistic +method of production, which constantly become more comprehensive and +more devastating, which elevate general insecurity to the normal +condition of society, and which prove that the powers of production of +contemporary society have grown beyond measure, and that private +ownership of the means of production has become incompatible with +their application to their objects and their full development. + +Private ownership of the means of production, which was formerly the +means of securing to the producer the ownership of his product, has +to-day become the means of expropriating peasants, manual workers, and +small traders, and enabling the non-workers--capitalists and large +landowners--to own the product of the workers. Only the transformation +of capitalistic private ownership of the means of production--the +soil, mines, raw materials, tools, machines, and means of +transport--into social ownership and the transformation of production +of goods for sale into Socialistic production managed for and through +society, can bring it about, that the great industry and the steadily +growing productive capacity of social labor shall for the hitherto +exploited classes be changed from a source of misery and oppression +to a source of the highest welfare and of all-round harmonious +perfection. + +This social transformation means the emancipation not only of the +proletariat, but of the whole human race which suffers under the +conditions of to-day. But it can only be the work of the +working-class, because all the other classes, in spite of mutually +conflicting interests, take their stand on the basis of private +ownership of the means of production, and have as their common object +the preservation of the principles of contemporary society. + +The battle of the working-class against capitalistic exploitation is +necessarily a political battle. The working-class cannot carry on its +economic battles or develop its economic organization without +political rights. It cannot effect the passing of the means of +production into the ownership of the community without acquiring +political power. + +To shape this battle of the working-class into a conscious and united +effort, and to show it its naturally necessary end, is the object of +the Social Democratic Party. + +The interests of the working-class are the same in all lands with +capitalistic methods of production. With the expansion of +world-transport and production for the world-market the state of the +workers in any one country becomes constantly more dependent on the +state of the workers in other countries. The emancipation of the +working-class is thus a task in which the workers of all civilized +countries are concerned in a like degree. Conscious of this, the +Social Democratic Party of Germany feels and declares itself _one_ +with the class-conscious workers of all other lands. + +The Social Democratic Party of Germany fights thus not for new +class-privileges and exceptional rights, but for the abolition of +class-domination and of the classes themselves, and for the equal +rights and equal obligations of all, without distinction of sex and +parentage. Setting out from these views, it combats in contemporary +society not merely the exploitation and oppression of the +wage-workers, but every kind of exploitation and oppression, whether +directed against a class, a party, a sex, or a race. + +Setting out from these principles the Social Democratic Party of +Germany demands immediately-- + +1. Universal equal direct suffrage and franchise, with direct ballot, +for all members of the Empire over twenty years of age, without +distinction of sex, for all elections and acts of voting. Proportional +representation; and until this is introduced, re-division of the +constituencies by law according to the numbers of population. A new +Legislature every two years. Fixing of elections and acts of voting +for a legal holiday. Indemnity for the elected representatives. +Removal of every curtailment of political rights except in case of +tutelage. + +2. Direct legislation by the people by means of the initiative and +referendum. Self-determination and self-government of the people in +empire, state, province, and commune. Authorities to be elected by the +people; to be responsible and bound. Taxes to be voted annually. + +3. Education of all to be capable of bearing arms. Armed nation +instead of standing army. Decision of war and peace by the +representatives of the people. Settlement of all international +disputes by the method of arbitration. + +4. Abolition of all laws which curtail or suppress the free expression +of opinion and the right of association and assembly. + +5. Abolition of all laws which are prejudicial to women in their +relations to men in public or private law. + +6. Declaration that religion is a private matter. Abolition of all +contributions from public funds to ecclesiastical and religious +objects. Ecclesiastical and religious communities are to be treated as +private associations, which manage their affairs quite independently. + +7. Secularization of education. Compulsory attendance of public +primary schools. No charges to be made for instruction, school +requisites, and maintenance, in the public primary schools; nor in the +higher educational institutions for those students, male and female, +who in virtue of their capacities are considered fit for further +training. + +8. No charge to be made for the administration of the law, or for +legal assistance. Judgment by popularly elected judges. Appeal in +criminal cases. Indemnification of innocent persons prosecuted, +arrested, or condemned. Abolition of the death-penalty. + +9. No charges to be made for medical attendance, including midwifery +and medicine. No charges to be made for death certificates. + +10. Graduated taxes on income and property, to meet all public +expenses as far as these are to be covered by taxation. Obligatory +self-assessment. A tax on inheritance, graduated according to the size +of the inheritance and the degree of kinship. Abolition of all +indirect taxes, customs, and other politico-economic measures which +sacrifice the interests of the whole community to the interests of a +favored minority. + +For the protection of the working-class the Social Democratic Party of +Germany demands immediately-- + +1. An effective national and international legislation for the +protection of workmen on the following basis: + +(_a_) Fixing of a normal working-day with a maximum of eight hours. + +(_b_) Prohibition of industrial work for children under fourteen +years. + +(_c_) Prohibition of night-work, except for such branches of industry +as, in accordance with their nature, require night-work, for technical +reasons, or reasons of public welfare. + +(_d_) An uninterrupted rest of at least thirty-six hours in every week +for every worker. + +(_e_) Prohibition of the truck system. + +2. Inspection of all industrial businesses, investigation and +regulation of labor relations in town and country by an Imperial +Department of Labor, district labor departments, and chambers of +labor. Thorough industrial hygiene. + +3. Legal equalization of agricultural laborers and domestic servants +with industrial workers; removal of the special regulations affecting +servants. + +4. Assurance of the right of combination. + +5. Workmen's insurance to be taken over bodily by the Empire; and the +workers to have an influential share in its administration. + +6. Separation of the Churches and the State. + +(_a_) Suppression of the grant for public worship. + +(_b_) Philosophic or religious associations to be civil persons at +law. + +7. Revision of sections in the Civil Code concerning marriage and the +paternal authority. + +(_a_) Civil equality of the sexes, and of children, whether natural or +legitimate. + +(_b_) Revision of the divorce laws, maintaining the husband's +liability to support the wife or the children. + +(_c_) Inquiry into paternity to be legalized. + +(_d_) Protective measures in favor of children materially or morally +abandoned. + + +5. COMMUNAL PROGRAM OF THE BAVARIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY + +Inasmuch as our communes are hindered in the fulfilment of their +economic and political duties by reactionary laws, we demand: + + +A.--OF THE STATE: + +1. A change of the municipal code, granting genuine local autonomy. A +single representative chamber, a four-year term of office, one-half +retiring every two years. Universal adult suffrage, secret ballot, the +franchise not to be denied to those receiving public aid. + +2. Radical tax reform, through the establishing of a uniform, +progressive income and property tax, collected by the communes; local +taxes to be assessed upon increment value; and prohibition of all +taxes upon the necessaries of life. + +3. A common-school law providing universal public education free from +all religious bias, compulsory up to fourteen years of age. Obligatory +secondary schools, the inclusion of social and political economy in +their curricula; the defraying of expenses of pupils by the state. +Substitution of professional supervision of schools for clerical +supervision. + +4. Enactment of a domiciliary law, in place of the present inadequate +laws, providing for all the necessary sanitary and socio-political +demands. Extending the municipalities' right of condemnation to the +extent that towns may erect houses and schools, open streets, and make +all necessary public improvements demanded by the public welfare. + +5. Passage of a sanitary code. Regulation of sanitation in the public +interests. Free medical attendance at births. Public nurseries. + +6. The administration of public charities by the local authorities. + + +B.--OF THE COMMUNE WE DEMAND: + +1. Abolishing all taxes upon the rights of citizenship and of +residence. Granting of full franchise rights after one year's +residence. + +2. Elections to be held on a holiday or on Sunday. + +3. Pensions for communal employees. + +4. The cost of local administration to be borne by local property or +from additions to the direct state taxes. Abolishing of all indirect +taxes. Denial of all public aid to the Church. + +5. All public services to be conducted by the commune; these to be +considered as public conveniences and necessities, and not to serve a +mere pecuniary interest, but to be run as the public welfare demands. +Rational development of existing water-power, means of communication, +etc. + +6. Stipulating, in every contract for municipal work, the wages to be +paid, and other conditions of labor, such arrangements to be made with +the labor organizations; the right to organize into unions not to be +denied to laborers and municipal employees and officers. Abolishing of +strike clause in contracts for public works. Prohibition, of the +sub-contractor system. Securing wages of workmen by bonds. Forbidding +municipal officers participating in any business that will bring them +into contract relations with the municipality. + +7. Development of a public school system which shall be non-sectarian +and free to all. Restricting the number of pupils in the classes as +far as practical. Furnishing free meals and clothing to needy school +children; such service not to be counted as public charity. +Establishing continuation schools for both sexes, and schools for +backward children. Establishing of public reading-rooms and free +public libraries. + +8. The advancement of public housing plans. The purchasing of large +land areas by the municipality, to prevent speculation in building +lots. Simplification of the procedure in examination of building +plans, and the granting of building permits. Simplifying the +regulations pertaining to the building of cottages and small +residences. Municipal aid in the building of workingmen's homes. +Providing cheaper homes in municipal houses and tenements. Providing +loans of public moneys to building associations and agricultural +associations. Leasing of land by the municipality. Municipal +inspection of dwellings and of all buildings, the municipality to keep +close scrutiny on all real estate developments. Establishment of a +public bureau of homes, where information and aid can be secured, and +where proper statistics can be gathered concerning building +conditions. + +9. Providing for cheap and wholesome food through the regulation and +supervision of its importation and inspection. + +10. Extension of sanitation. Conducting hospitals according to modern +medical science. Establishing municipal lying-in hospitals. Free +burials. + +11. Public care for the poor and orphans. The bettering of the +economic condition of women. The granting of aid out of public funds. +Public inspection and control of all orphanages, hospitals for +children, and nurseries. + +12. The establishment of public labor bureaus, which are to act as +employment agencies, information bureaus, gather labor statistics, and +supervise the sociological activities of the municipality. + +Providing work for those in need of employment, on the public works of +the commune. Provision for the support of those out of work in +co-operation, with the labor unions' efforts in the same direction. +The extension of municipal factory inspection and labor laws, as far +as the general laws permit. Appointment of laborers as building +inspectors. The development of the industrial and commercial courts. +Sunday as a day of rest. + +13. Liberal wages to be paid workmen employed on public works. Fixing +a minimum wage in accordance with the rules of the labor unions; +formation of public loan and credit system; eight-hour day. Insuring +public employees against sickness, accident, and old age. Making +provision for widows and orphans of public employees. Right to +organize not to be denied all municipal employees and officials. +Recognition of the unions. Annual vacation, on full pay, to every +municipal employee and official. Municipal employees to be given their +wages during their attendance on military manoeuvers, and the payment +of the difference between their wages and their sick-benefits in case +of illness. + +14. Formation of a union of communes or towns, when isolated +municipalities find themselves impotent in securing these demands. + + +6. ELECTION ADDRESS (WAHLRUF) OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS FOR THE +REICHSTAG ELECTIONS OF 1912 + +On the 12th of January, 1912, the general election for the Reichstag +takes place. Rarely have the voters been called upon to participate in +a more consequential election. This election will determine whether, +in the succeeding years, the policy of oppression and plundering +shall be carried still farther, or whether the German people shall +finally achieve their rights. + +In the Reichstag elections of 1907 the voters were deceived by the +government and the so-called national parties: many millions of voters +allowed themselves to be deluded. The Reichstag of the "National" +_bloc_ from Heydebrand down to Weimar and Nauman has made nugatory the +laws pertaining to the rights of coalition; has restricted the use of +the non-Germanic languages in public meetings; has virtually robbed +the youth of the right of coalition, and has favored every measure for +the increase of the army, navy, and colonial exploitation. + +The result of their reactionaryism is an enormous increase of the +burdens of taxation. In spite of the fact that in 1906 over +200,000,000 marks increase was voted, in stamp tax, tobacco tax, etc., +in spite of the sacred promise of the government, through its official +organ, that no new taxes were being contemplated, the government has, +through its "financial reforms," increased our burden over five +hundred millions. + +Liberals and Conservatives were unanimous in declaring that +four-fifths of this enormous sum should be raised through an increase +in indirect taxes, the greater part of which is collected from +laborers, clerks, shopkeepers, artisans, and farmers. Inasmuch as the +parties to the Bülow-_bloc_ could not agree upon the distribution of +the property tax and the excise tax, the _bloc_ was dissolved and a +new coalition appeared--an alliance between the holy ones and the +knights (Block der Ritter und der Heiligen). This new _bloc_ rescued +the distiller from the obligations of an excise tax, defeated the +inheritance tax, which would have fallen upon the wealthy, and placed +upon the shoulders of the working people a tax of hundreds of +millions, which is paid through the consumption of beer, whiskey, +tobacco, cigars, coffee, tea--yea, even of matches. This +Conservative-Clerical _bloc_ further showed its contempt for the +working people in the way it amended the state insurance laws. It +robbed the workingman of his rights and denied to mothers and their +babes necessary protection and adequate care. + +In this manner the gullibility of the voters who were responsible for +the Hottentot elections of 1907 was revenged. Since that date every +by-election for the Reichstag, as well as for the provincial +legislatures and municipal councils, has shown remarkable gains in the +Social Democratic vote. The reactionaries were consequently +frightened, and now they resort to the usual election trick of +diverting the attention of the voters from internal affairs to +international conditions, and appeal to them under the guise of +nationalism. + +The Morocco incident gave welcome opportunity for this ruse. At home +and abroad the capitalistic war interests and the nationalistic +jingoes stirred the animosities of the peoples. They drove their +dangerous play so far that even the Chancellor found himself forced to +reprimand his _junker_ colleagues for using their patriotism for +partisan purposes. But the attempt to bolster up the interests of the +reactionary parties with our international complications continues in +spite of this. + +Voters, be on your guard! Remember that on election day you have in +your hand the power to choose between peace or war. + +The outcome of this election is no less important in its bearing upon +internal affairs. + +Count Bülow declared, before the election of 1907, "the fewer the +Social Democrats, the greater the social reforms." The opposite is +true. The last few years conclusively demonstrate this. The +socio-political mills have rattled, but they have produced very little +flour. + +In order to capture their votes for the "national" candidates, the +state employees and officials were promised an increase in their pay. +To the high-salaried officials the new Reichstag doled out the +increase with spades, to the poorly paid humble employees with spoons. +And this increase in pay was counterbalanced by an increase in taxes +and the rising cost of living. + +To the people the government refused to give any aid, in spite of +their repeated requests for some relief against the constantly +increasing prices of the necessities of life. And, while the +Chancellor profoundly maintained that the press exaggerated the actual +conditions of the rise in prices, the so-called saviors of the middle +class--the Center, the Conservatives, the anti-Semites and their +following--rejected every proposal of the Social Democrats for +relieving the situation, and actually laid the blame for the rise in +prices upon their own middle-class tradesmen and manufacturers. + +_New taxes, high cost of living, denial of justice, increasing danger +of war_--that is what the Reichstag of 1907, which was ushered in with +such high-sounding "national" tom-toms, has brought you. And the day +of reckoning is at hand. Voters of Germany, elect a different +majority! The stronger you make the Social Democratic representation +in the Reichstag, the firmer you anchor the world's peace and your +country's welfare! + +The Social Democracy seeks the conquest of political power, which is +now in the hands of the property classes, and is mis-used by them to +the detriment of the masses. They denounce us as "revolutionists." +Foolish phraseology! The bourgeois-capitalistic society is no more +eternal than have been the earlier forms of the state and preceding +social orders. The present order will be replaced by a higher order, +the Socialistic order, for which the Social Democracy is constantly +striving. Then the solidarity of all peoples will be accomplished and +life will be made more humane for all. The pathway to this new social +order is being paved by our capitalistic development, which contains +all the germs of the New Order within itself. + +For us the duty is prescribed to use every means at hand for the +amelioration of existing evils, and to create conditions that will +raise the standard of living of the masses. + +Therefore we demand: + +1. The democratizing of the state in all of its activities. An open +pathway to opportunity. A chance for every one to develop his +aptitudes. Special privileges to none. The right person in the right +place. + +2. Universal, direct, equal, secret ballot for all persons twenty +years of age without distinction of sex, and for all representative +legislative bodies. Referendum for setting aside the present unjust +election district apportionment and its attendant electoral abuses. + +3. A parliamentary government. Responsible ministry. Establishment of +a department for the control of foreign affairs. Giving the people's +representatives in the Reichstag the power to declare war or maintain +peace. Consent of the Reichstag to all state appropriations. + +4. Organization of the national defense along democratic lines. +Militia service for all able-bodied men. Reducing service in the +standing army to the lowest terms consistent with safety. Training +youth in the use of arms. Abolition of the privilege of one-year +volunteer service. Abolition of all unnecessary expense for uniforms +in army and navy. + +5. Abolition of "class-justice" and of administrative injustice. +Reform of the penal code, along lines of modern culture and +jurisprudence. Abolition of all privileges pertaining to the +administration of justice. + +6. Security to all workingmen, employees, and officials in their right +to combine, to meet, and to organize. + +7. Establishment of a national Department of Labor, officials of this +Department to be elected by the interests represented upon the basis +of universal and equal suffrage. Extension of factory inspection by +the participation of workingmen and workingwomen in the same. +Legalized universal eight-hour day, shortening the hours of labor in +industries that are detrimental to health. + +8. Reform of industrial insurance, exemption of farm laborers and +domestic servants from contributing to insurance funds. Direct +election of representatives in the administration of the insurance +funds; enlarging the representation of labor on the board of +directors; increasing the amounts paid workingmen; lowering age for +old-age pensions from 70 to 65 years; aid to expectant mothers; and +free medical attendance. + +9. Complete religious freedom. Separation of Church and State, and of +school and Church. No support of any kind, from public funds, for +religious purposes. + +10. Universal, free schools as the basis of all education. Free +text-books. Freedom for art and science. + +11. Diminution and ultimate abolition of all indirect taxes, and +abolition of all taxes on the necessities of life. Abolition of duties +on foodstuffs. Limiting the restrictions upon the importation of +cattle, fowl, and meat to the necessary sanitary measures. Reduction +in the tariff, especially in those schedules which encourage the +development of syndicates and pools, thereby enabling products of +German manufacture to be sold cheaper abroad than at home. + +12. The support of all measures that tend to develop commerce and +trade. Abolition of tax on railway tickets. A stamp tax on bills of +lading. + +13. A graduated income, property, and inheritance tax; inasmuch as +this is the most effective way of dampening the ardor of the rich for +a constantly increasing army and navy. + +14. Internal improvements and colonization; the transformation of +great estates into communal holdings, thereby making possible a +greater food supply and a corresponding lowering of prices. The +establishment of public farms and agricultural schools. The +reclamation of swamp-lands, moors, and dunes. The cessation of foreign +colonization now done for the purpose of exploiting foreign peoples +for the sake of gain. + +Voters of Germany! New naval and military appropriations await you; +these will increase the burdens of your taxes by hundreds of millions. +As on former occasions, so now the ruling class will attempt to roll +these heavy burdens upon the shoulders of the humble, and thereby +increase the burden of existence of the family. + +Therefore, let the women, upon whom the burden of the household +primarily rests, and who are to-day without political rights, take +active part in this work of emancipation and join themselves with +determination to our cause, which is also their cause. + +Voters of Germany! If you are in accord with these principles, then +give your votes on the 12th of January to the Social Democratic Party. +Help prepare the foundations for a new and better state whose motto +shall be: + +Death to Want and Idleness! Work, Bread, and Justice for all! + +Let your battle-cry on election day resound: Long live the Social +Democracy! + + EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC + REPRESENTATION IN THE REICHSTAG. + + BERLIN, December 5, 1911. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Personal tax; tax on movables; tax on land; door and window tax. + +[2] A license to trade is required for many businesses in France. + + + + +IV. BELGIUM + +POLITICAL UNIONISM IN BELGIUM + + +The Catholic Church essayed to organize in Belgium a "Christian +Socialist" movement, patterned after Bishop Kettler's movement in the +Rhine provinces. The movement was called "Fédération des Sociétés +Ouvriers Catholiques" and grew to considerable power. The federation +soon, however, developed democratic tendencies that separated it from +the Clerical Party, and the Abbé Daens, their first deputy in the +Chamber of Representatives, provoked the hostility of the +ecclesiastical authorities and was deprived of his clerical +prerogatives. + +The Catholic labor unions, which did not join in this democratic +movement, have in the last few years developed some strength, and have +now about 20,000 members. + +The Progressists or Radicals have from the first been favorable to +labor and have in their ranks many workmen from the industries "de +luxe," such as bronze workers, jewelers, art craftsmen, etc. + +The Liberals have a trades-union organization which does not flourish. +It has about 2,000 members. The Liberals have, however, together with +the Progressists, some influence over the independent unions, with +their 32,000 members. + +The Socialist labor unions are the largest and most powerful. Their +average yearly membership in the years 1885-90 was 40,234; in 1899 it +was 61,451; in 1909 it had increased to 103,451. + + +STATISTICAL TABLES + +TABLE SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN BELGIUM + + =======+===========+============+===========+=========+ + | | | | | + | _No. of | _Sales-- | _Profits--| _No. of | + _Year_ | Societies_| Francs_ | Francs_ | Members_| + -------+-----------+------------+-----------+---------+ + 1904 | 168 | 26,936,873 | 3,140,210 | 103,349 | + 1905 | 161 | 28,174,563 | 3,035,941 | 119,581 | + 1906 | 162 | 33,569,359 | 3,493,586 | 126,993 | + 1907 | 166 | 39,103,673 | 3,843,568 | 134,694 | + 1908 | 175 | 40,655,359 | 3,855,444 | 140,730 | + 1909 | 199 | 43,288,867 | 4,678,559 | 148,042 | +---------+-----------+------------+-----------+---------+ + =======+===========+============+============ + | _No. | _Value of | _Paid-up + | of | Realty | Capital + _Year_ | Employees_| Francs_ | Francs_ + -------+-----------+------------+------------ + 1904 | 1785 | 10,302,059 | 1,146,651 + 1905 | 1752 | 12,091,300 | 1,655,061 + 1906 | 1809 | 12,844,976 | 1,694,878 + 1907 | 2093 | 14,280,955 | 1,940,175 + 1908 | 2128 | 14,837,114 | 1,942,266 + 1909 | 2223 | 15,850,158 | 1,893,616 +---------+-----------+------------+------------ + +TABLE SHOWING THE GROWTH OF THE WHOLESALE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN +BELGIUM FROM THE DATE OF ITS BEGINNING IN 1901 + + ========+===================== + | _Amount of Business + _Year_ | Done--Francs_ + --------+--------------------- + 1901 | 760,356 + 1902 | 1,211,439 + 1903 | 1,485,573 + 1904 | 1,608,475 + 1905 | 2,219,842 + 1906 | 2,416,372 + 1907 | 2,796,196 + 1908 | 2,995,615 + 1909 | 3,221,849 + 1910 | 4,489,996 + --------+--------------------- + + +PROGRAM OF THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY + +_Adopted at Brussels in 1893_ + + +DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES + +1. The constituents of wealth in general, and in particular the means +of production, are either natural agencies or the fruit of the +labor--manual and mental--of previous generations besides the present; +consequently they must be considered the common heritage of mankind. + +2. The right of individuals or groups to enjoy this heritage can be +based only on social utility, and aimed only at securing for every +human being the greatest possible sum of freedom and well-being. + +3. The realization of this ideal is incompatible with the maintenance +of the capitalistic régime, which divides society into two necessarily +antagonistic classes--the one able to enjoy property without working, +the other obliged to relinquish a part of its product to the +possessing class. + +4. The workers can only expect their complete emancipation from the +suppression of classes and a radical transformation of existing +society. + +This transformation will be in favor, not only of the proletariat, but +of mankind as a whole; nevertheless, as it is contrary to the +immediate interests of the possessing class, the emancipation of the +workers will be essentially the work of the workers themselves. + +5. In economic matters their aim must be to secure the free use, +without charge, of all the means of production. This result can only +be attained, in a society where collective labor is more and more +replacing individual labor, by the collective appropriation of natural +agencies and the instruments of labor. + +6. The transformation of the capitalistic régime into a collectivist +régime must necessarily be accompanied by correlative transformations-- + +(_a_) In _morals_, by the development of altruistic feelings and the +practice of solidarity. + +(_b_) In _politics_, by the transformation of the State into a +business management (_administration des choses_). + +7. Socialism must, therefore, pursue simultaneously the economic, +moral, and political emancipation of the proletariat. Nevertheless, +the economic point of view must be paramount, for the concentration of +capital in the hands of a single class forms the basis of all the +other forms of its domination. + +To realize its principles the Labor Party declares-- + +(1) That it considers itself as the representative, not only of the +working-class, but of all the oppressed, without distinction of +nationality, worship, race, or sex. + +(2) That the Socialists of all countries must make common cause (_être +solidaires_), the emancipation of the workers being not a national, +but an international work. + +(3) That in their struggle against the capitalist class the workers +must fight by every means in their power, and particularly by +political action, by the development of free associations, and by the +ceaseless propagation of Socialistic principles. + + +I.--POLITICAL PROGRAM + +1. _Electoral reform._ + +(_a_) Universal suffrage without distinction of sex for all ranks +(age-limit, twenty-one; residence, six months). + +(_b_) Proportional representation. + +(_c_) Election expenses to be charged on the public authorities. + +(_d_) Payment of elected persons. + +(_e_) Elected persons to be bound by pledges, according to law. + +(_f_) Electorates to have the right of unseating elected persons. + +2. _Decentralization of political power._ + +(_a_) Suppression of the Senate. + +(_b_) Creation of Legislative Councils, representing the different +functions of society (industry, commerce, agriculture, education, +etc.); such Councils to be autonomous, within the limits of their +competence and excepting the veto of Parliament; such Councils to be +federated, for the study and defense of their common interests. + +3. _Communal autonomy._ + +(_a_) Mayors to be appointed by the electorate. + +(_b_) Small communes to be fused or federated. + +(_c_) Creation of elected committees corresponding to the different +branches of communal administration. + +4. _Direct legislation._ + +Right of popular initiative and referendum in legislative, provincial, +and communal matters. + +5. _Reform of education._ + +(_a_) Primary, all-round, free, secular, compulsory instruction at +the expense of the State. Maintenance of children attending the +schools by the public authorities. Intermediate and higher instruction +to be free, secular, and at the expense of the State. + +(_b_) Administration of the schools by the public authorities, under +the control of School Committees elected by universal suffrage of both +sexes, with representatives of the teaching staff and the State. + +(_c_) Assimilation of communal teachers to the State's educational +officials. + +(_d_) Creation of a Superior Council of Education, elected by the +School Committees, who are to organize the inspection and control of +free schools and of official schools. + +(_e_) Organization of trade education, and obligation of all children +to learn manual work. + +(_f_) Autonomy of the State Universities, and legal recognition of the +Free Universities. University Extension to be organized at the expense +of the public authorities. + +6. _Separation of the Churches and the State._ + +(_a_) Suppression of the grant for public worship. + +(_b_) Philosophic or religious associations to be civil persons at +law. + +7. _Revision of Sections in the Civil Code concerning marriage and the +paternal authority._ + +(_a_) Civil equality of the sexes, and of children, whether natural or +legitimate. + +(_b_) Revision of the divorce laws, maintaining the husband's +liability to support the wife or the children. + +(_c_) Inquiry into paternity to be legalized. + +(_d_) Protective measures in favor of children materially or morally +abandoned. + +8. _Extension of liberties._ + +Suppression of measures restricting any of the liberties. + +9. _Judicial reform._ + +(_a_) Application of the elective principle to all jurisdictions. +Reduction of the number of magistrates. + +(_b_) Justice without fees; State-payment of advocates and officials +of the Courts. + +(_c_) Magisterial examination in penal cases to be public. Persons +prosecuted to be medically examined. Victims of judicial errors to be +indemnified. + +10. _Suppression of armies._ + +Provisionally; organization of a national militia. + +11. _Suppression of hereditary offices, and establishment of a +Republic._ + + +II.--ECONOMIC PROGRAM + + +A.--_General Measures_ + +1. _Organization of statistics._ + +(_a_) Creation of a Ministry of Labor. + +(_b_) Pecuniary aid from the public authorities for the organization +of labor secretariates by workmen and employers. + +2. _Legal recognition of associations, especially--_ + +(_a_) Legal recognition of trade-unions. + +(_b_) Reform of the law on friendly societies and co-operative +societies and subsidy from the public authorities. + +(_c_) Repression of infringements of the right of combination. + +3. _Legal regulation of the contract of employment._ + +Extension of laws protecting labor to all industries, and especially +to agriculture, shipping, and fishing. Fixing of a minimum wage and +maximum of hours of labor for workers, industrial or agricultural, +employed by the State, the Communes, the Provinces, or the contractors +for public works. + +Intervention of workers, and especially of workers' unions, in the +framing of rules. Suppression of fines. Suppression of savings-banks +and benefit clubs in workshops. Fixing of a maximum of 6,000 francs +for public servants and managers. + +4. _Transformation of public charity into a general insurance of all +citizens--_ + +(_a_) against unemployment; + +(_b_) against disablement (sickness, accident, old age); + +(_c_) against death (widows and orphans). + +5. _Reorganization of public finances._ + +(_a_) Abolition of indirect taxes, especially taxes on food and +customs tariffs. + +(_b_) Monopoly of alcohol and tobacco. + +(_c_) Progressive income-tax. Taxes on legacies and gifts between the +living (excepting gifts to works of public utility). + +(_d_) Suppression of intestate succession, except in the direct line +and within limits to be determined by law. + +6. _Progressive extension of public property._ + +The State to take over the National Bank. Social organization of +loans, at interest to cover costs only, to individuals and to +associations of workers. + +i. _Industrial property._ + + Abolition, on grounds of public utility, of private ownership + in mines, quarries, the subsoil generally, and of the great + means of production and transport. + +ii. _Agricultural property._ + + (_a_) Nationalization of forests. + + (_b_) Reconstruction or development of common lands. + + (_c_) Progressive taking over of the land by the State or the + communes. + +7. _Autonomy of public services._ + +(_a_) Administration of the public services by special autonomous +commissions, under the control of the State. + +(_b_) Creation of committees elected by the workmen and employees of +the public services to debate with the central administration the +conditions of the remuneration and organization of labor. + + +B.--_Particular Measures for Industrial Workers_ + +1. _Abolition of all laws restricting the right of combination._ + +2. _Regulation of industrial labor._ + +(_a_) Prohibition of employment of children under fourteen. + +(_b_) Half-time system between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. + +(_c_) Prohibition of employment of women in all industries where it is +incompatible with morals or health. + +(_d_) Reduction of working-day to a maximum of eight hours for adults +of both sexes, and minimum wage. + +(_e_) Prohibition of night-work for all categories of workers and in +all industries, where this mode of working is not absolutely +necessary. + +(_f_) One day's rest per week, so far as possible on Sunday. + +(_g_) Responsibility of employers in case of accidents, and +appointment of doctors to attend persons wounded. + +(_h_) Workmen's memorandum-books and certificates to be abolished, and +their use prohibited. + +3. _Inspection of work._ + +(_a_) Employment of paid medical authorities, in the interests of +labor hygiene. + +(_b_) Appointment of inspectors by the Councils of Industry and Labor. + +4. _Reorganization of the Industrial Tribunals_ (Conseils de +Prud'hommes) _and the Councils of Industry and Labor_. + +(_a_) Working women to have votes and be eligible. + +(_b_) Submission to the Courts to be compulsory. + +5. _Regulation of work in prisons and convents._ + + +C.--_Particular Measures for Agricultural Workers_ + +1. _Reorganization of the Agricultural Courts._ + +(_a_) Nomination of delegates in equal numbers by the landowners, +farmers, and laborers. + +(_b_) Intervention of the Chambers in individual or collective +disputes between landowners, farmers, and agricultural workers. + +(_c_) Fixing of a minimum wage by the public authorities on the +proposition of the Agricultural Courts. + +2. _Regulation of contracts to pay farm-rents._ + +(_a_) Fixing of the rate of farm-rents by Committees of Arbitration or +by the reformed Agricultural Courts. + +(_b_) Compensation to the outgoing farmer for enhanced value of +property. + +(_c_) Participation of landowners, to a wider extent than that fixed +by the Civil Code, in losses incurred by farmers. + +(_d_) Suppression of the landowner's privilege. + +3. _Insurance by the provinces, and reinsurance by the State, against +epizootic diseases, diseases of plants, hail, floods, and other +agricultural risks._ + +4. _Organization by the public authorities of a free agricultural +education._ + +Creation or development of experimental fields, model farms, +agricultural laboratories. + +5. _Purchase by the communes of agricultural implements to be at the +disposal of their inhabitants._ + +Assignment of common lands to groups of laborers engaging not to +employ wage labor. + +6. _Organization of a free medical service in the country._ + +7. _Reform of the Game Laws._ + +(_a_) Suppression of gun licenses. + +(_b_) Suppression of game preserves. + +(_c_) Right of cultivators to destroy all the year round animals which +injure crops. + +8. _Intervention of public authorities in the creation of agricultural +co-operative societies--_ + +(_a_) For buying seed and manure. + +(_b_) For making butter. + +(_c_) For the purchase and use in common of agricultural machines. + +(_d_) For the sale of produce. + +(_e_) For the working of land by groups. + +9. _Organization of agricultural credit._ + + +III.--COMMUNAL PROGRAM + +1. _Educational reforms._ + +(_a_) Free scientific instruction for children up to fourteen. Special +courses for older children and adults. + +(_b_) Organization of education in trades and industries, in +co-operation with workmen's organizations. + +(_c_) Maintenance of children; except where the public authorities +intervene to do so. + +(_d_) Institution of school refreshment-rooms. Periodical distribution +of boots and clothing. + +(_e_) Orphanages. Establishments for children abandoned or cruelly +ill-treated. + +2. _Judicial reforms._ + +Office for consultations free of charge in cases coming before the +law-courts, the industrial courts, etc. + +3. _Regulation of work._ + +(_a_) Minimum wage and maximum working-day to be made a clause in +contracts for communal works. + +(_b_) Intervention of trade associations in the fixing of rates of +wages, and general regulation of industry. The Echevin of Public Works +to supervise the execution of these clauses in contracts. + +(_c_) Appointment by the workmen's associations of inspectors to +supervise the clauses in contracts. + +(_d_) Rigorous application of the principle of tenders open to all, +for all services which, during a transition-period, are not managed +directly. + +(_e_) Permission to trade-unions to tender, and abolition of +security-deposit. + +(_f_) Creation of _Bourses du Travail_, or at least offices for the +demand and supply of employment, whose administration shall be +entrusted to trade-unions or labor associations. + +(_g_) Fixing of a minimum wage for the workmen and employees of a +commune. + +4. _Public charity._ + +(_a_) Admission of workmen to the administration of the councils of +hospitals and of public charity. + +(_b_) Transformation of public charity and the hospitals into a system +of insurance against old age. Organization of a medical service and +drug supply. Establishment of public free baths and wash-houses. + +(_c_) Establishment of refuges for the aged and disabled. +Night-shelter and food-distribution for workmen wandering in search of +work. + +5. _Complete neutrality of all communal services from the +philosophical point of view._ + +6. _Finance._ + +(_a_) Saving to be effected on present cost of administration. Maximum +allowance of 6,000 francs for mayors and other officials. Costs of +entertainment for mayors who must incur certain private expenses. + +(_b_) Income tax. + +(_c_) Special tax on sites not built over and houses not let. + +7. _Public services._ + +(_a_) The commune, or a federation of communes composing one +agglomeration, is to work the means of transport--tramways, omnibuses, +cabs, district railways, etc. + +(_b_) The commune, or federation of communes, is to work directly the +services of general interest at present conceded to companies--lighting, +water-supply, markets, highways, heating, security, health. + +(_c_) Compulsory insurance of the inhabitants against fire; except +where the State intervenes to do so. + +(_d_) Construction of cheap dwellings by the commune, the hospices, +and the charity offices. + + + + +V. ENGLAND + +GROWTH OF SOCIALISTIC SENTIMENT IN ENGLAND + + +In 1885 the Earl of Wemyss made a speech in the House of Lords +deploring the advancement of state interference in business and giving +a résumé of the Acts of Parliament that showed how "Socialism" invaded +St. Stephens from 1870 to 1885. + +His speech is interesting, not because it voices the +ultra-Conservative's apprehensions but because the Earl had really +discovered the legal basis of the new Social Democratic advance, which +had come unheralded. The Earl reviewed the bills that Parliament had +sanctioned, which dealt with state "interference." Twelve bills +referred to lands and houses. "All of these measures assume the right +of the state to regulate the management of, or to confiscate real +property"--steps in the direction of substituting "land +nationalization" for individual ownership. Five laws dealt with +corporations, "confiscating property of water companies," etc.; nine +dealt with ships: "all of them assertions by the Board of Trade of its +right to regulate private enterprise and individual management in the +mercantile marine;" six with mines, "prompting a fallacious confidence +in government inspection;" six with railways, "all encroachments upon +self-government of private enterprise in railways--successive steps in +the direction of state railways." Nine had to do with manufactures and +trades, "invasions by the state of the self-government of the various +interests of the country, and curtailment of the freedom of contract +between employers and employed." "The Pawnbrokers' Act of 1872 was the +thin edge of the wedge for reducing the business of the 'poor man's +banks' to a state monopoly." Twenty laws dealt with liquor, "all +attempts on the part of the state to regulate the dealings and habits +of buyers and sellers of alcoholic drinks." Sixteen dealt with +dwellings of the working class, "all embodying the principle that it +is the duty of the state to provide dwellings, private gardens, and +other conveniences for the working classes, and assume its right to +appropriate land for these purposes." There were nine education acts, +"all based on the assumption that it is the duty of the state to act +_in loco parentis_." Four laws dealt with recreation, "whereby the +state, having educated the people in common school rooms, proceeds to +provide them with common reading-rooms, and afterwards turns them out +at stated times into the streets for common holidays." + +Of local government and improvement acts, there were passed "a vast +mass of local legislation ... containing interferences in every +conceivable particular with liberty and property." + +The Earl quotes Lord Palmerston as saying in 1865, "Tenant right is +landlord wrong," and Lord Sherbrooke, in 1866, "Happily there is an +oasis upon which all men, without distinction of party, can take +common stand, and that is the good ground of political economy." And +the noble lord concludes by predicting, "The general social results of +such Socialistic legislation may be summed up in 'dynamite,' +'detectives,' and 'general demoralization.'"[1] + +In 1887 the Earl again turned his guns upon the radical advance, but +only seven peers were on the benches to listen. In 1890 he made a +third résumé under a more liberal patronage of listeners; this time +the factory laws and inspection measures came in for his especial +criticism. He said: "Now, my lords, what is the character of all this +legislation? It is to substitute state help for self help, to regulate +and control men in their dealings with one another with regard to land +or anything else. The state now forbids contracts, breaks contracts, +makes contracts. The whole tendency is to substitute the state or the +municipality for the free action of the individual."[2] + + +AN EARLY POLITICAL BROADSIDE BY THE MARXIANS. + +The earlier attitude of the Marxian Socialists of London toward +participating in elections is shown in the following broadside, dated +July, 1895: + +"We, revolutionary Social Democrats, disdain to conceal our +principles. We proclaim the class war. We hold that the lot of the +worker cannot to any appreciable extent be improved except by a +complete overthrow of this present capitalist system of society. The +time for social tinkering has gone past. Government statistics show +that the number of unemployed is slowly but surely increasing, and +that the decreases in wages greatly preponderate over the increases, +and everything points to the fact that the condition of your class is +getting worse and worse. + +"Refuse once for all to allow your backs to be made the stepping +stones to obtain that power which they (the politicians) know only too +well how to use against you. + +"Scoff at their patronizing airs and claim your rights like men. +Refuse to give them that which they want, i.e., your vote. Give them +no opportunity of saying that they are _your_ representatives. Refuse +to be a party to the fraud of present-day politics, and + + "ABSTAIN FROM VOTING." + + +THRIFT INSTITUTIONS IN ENGLAND FOR SAVINGS, INSURANCE, ETC., 1907 + +(FROM CHIOZZA MONEY--"RICHES AND POVERTY," p. 56) + + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + _Name of Institution_ | _Number of | _Funds_--£ + | Members_ | + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Building Societies | 623,047 | 73,289,229 + ========================================+==============+============== + Ordinary Friendly Societies | 3,418,869 | 19,346,567 + Friendly Societies having branches | 2,710,437 | 25,610,365 + Collecting Friendly Societies | 9,010,574 | 9,946,447 + Benevolent Societies | 29,716 | 337,393 + Workingmen's Clubs | 272,847 | 381,463 + Specially Authorized Societies | 70,980 | 532,717 + Specially Authorized Loan Societies | 141,850 | 897,784 + Medical Societies | 313,755 | 65,513 + Cattle Insurance Settlers | 4,029 | 8,570 + Shop Clubs | 12,207 | 1,349 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Total | 15,983,264 | 57,128,168 + ========================================+==============+============== + Co-operative Societies, industry and | | + trade | 2,461,028 | 53,788,917 + Business Co-operative Societies | 108,550 | 984,680 + Land Co-operative Societies | 18,631 | 1,619,716 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Total | 2,588,209 | 56,393,313 + ========================================+==============+============== + Trade Unions | 1,973,560 | 6,424,176 + Workmen's Compensation Schemes | 99,371 | 164,560 + Friends of Labor Loan Societies | 33,576 | 260,905 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Grand Total of Registered Provident | | + Societies | 21,301,027 | 193,660,351 + ========================================+==============+============== + Railway Savings Banks | 64,126* | 5,865,351@ + Trustee Savings Banks | 1,780,214* | 61,729,588@ + Post Office Savings Banks | 10,692,555* | 178,033,974@ + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Bank Total | 12,536,895 | 245,628,634 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Grand Total | 33,837,922 | 439,388,985 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + | * Depositions| @ Deposits + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + + In this table allowance must be made for those belonging to more + than one society, and, of course, not all the depositors or + members are workingmen, especially in the savings banks and + building-societies. + + +CONSTITUTION AND STANDING ORDERS OF THE INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY OF +ENGLAND + +STANDING ORDERS (1911) + + +_Contributions_ + +Affiliation Fees and Parliamentary Fund Contributions must be paid by +December 31st each year. + + +_Annual Conference_ + +1. The Annual Conference shall meet during the month of January. + +2. Affiliated Societies may send one delegate for every thousand or +part of a thousand members paid for. + +3. Affiliated Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties may send one +delegate if their affiliation fee has been 15s., and two delegates if +the fee has been 30s. + +4. Persons eligible as delegates must be paying bona fide members or +paid permanent officials of the organizations sending them. + +5. A fee of 5s. per delegate will be charged. + +6. The National Executive will ballot for the places to be allotted to +the delegates. + +7. Voting at the Conference shall be by show of hands, but on a +division being challenged, delegates shall vote by cards, which shall +be issued on the basis of one card for each thousand members, or +fraction of a thousand, paid for by the Society represented. + + +_Conference Agenda_ + +1. Resolutions for the Agenda and Amendments to the Constitution must +be sent in by November 1st each year. + +2. Amendments to Resolutions must be sent in by December 15th each +year. + + +_Nominations for National Executive and Secretaryship_ + +1. Nominations for the National Executive and the Secretaryship must +be sent in by December 15th. + +2. No member of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union +Congress or of the Management Committee of the General Federation of +Trade Unions is eligible for nomination to the National Executive. + + +CONSTITUTION + +(As revised under the authority of the Newport Conference, 1910) + +ORGANIZATION + +I. _Affiliation._ + +1. The Labor Party is a Federation consisting of Trade Unions, Trades +Councils, Socialist Societies, and Local Labor Parties. + +2. A Local Labor Party in any constituency is eligible for +affiliation, provided it accepts the Constitution and policy of the +Party, and that there is no affiliated Trades Council covering the +constituency, or that, if there be such Council, it has been consulted +in the first instance. + +3. Co-operative Societies are also eligible. + +4. A National Organization of Women, accepting the basis of this +Constitution, and the policy of the Party, and formed for the purpose +of assisting the Party, shall be eligible for affiliation as though it +were a Trades Council. + +II. _Object._ + +To secure the election of Candidates to Parliament and organize and +maintain a Parliamentary Labor Party, with its own whips and policy. + +III. _Candidates and Members._ + +1. Candidates and Members must accept this Constitution; agree to +abide by the decisions of the Parliamentary Party in carrying out the +aims of this Constitution; appear before their constituencies under +the title of Labor Candidates only; abstain strictly from identifying +themselves with or promoting the interests of any Parliamentary Party +not affiliated, or its Candidates; and they must not oppose any +Candidate recognized by the National Executive of the Party. + +2. Candidates must undertake to join the Parliamentary Labor Party, if +elected. + +IV. _Candidatures._ + +1. A Candidate must be promoted by an affiliated Society which makes +itself responsible for his election expenses. + +2. A Candidate must be selected for a constituency by a regularly +convened Labor Party Conference in the constituency. [The Hull +Conference accepted the following as the interpretation of what a +"Regularly Convened Labor Party Conference" is:--All branches of +affiliated organizations within a constituency or divided borough +covered by a proposal to run a Labor Candidate must be invited to send +delegates to the Conference, and the local organization responsible +for calling the Conference may, if it thinks fit, invite +representatives from branches of organizations not affiliated but +eligible for affiliation.] + +3. Before a Candidate can be regarded as adopted for a constituency, +his candidature must be sanctioned by the National Executive; and +where at the time of a by-election no Candidate has been so +sanctioned, the National Executive shall have power to withhold its +sanction. + +V. _The National Executive._ + +The National Executive shall consist of fifteen members, eleven +representing the Trade Unions, one the Trades Councils, Women's +Organizations, and Local Labor Parties, and three the Socialist +Societies, and shall be elected by ballot at the Annual Conference by +their respective sections. + +VI. _Duties of the National Executive._ + +The National Executive Committee shall + +1. Appoint a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Treasurer, and shall +transact the general business of the Party; + +2. Issue a list of its Candidates from time to time, and recommend +them for the support of the electors; + +3. Report to the affiliated organization concerned any Labor Member, +Candidate, or Chief Official who opposes a Candidate of the Party, or +who acts contrary to the spirit of the Constitution; + +4. And its members shall strictly abstain from identifying themselves +with or promoting the interests of any Parliamentary Party not +affiliated, or its Candidates. + +VII. _The Secretary._ + +The Secretary shall be elected by the Annual Conference, and shall be +under the direction of the National Executive. + +VIII. _Affiliation Fees and Delegates._ + +1. Trade Unions and Socialist Societies shall pay 15s. per annum for +every thousand members or fraction thereof, and may send to the Annual +Conference one delegate for each thousand members. + +2. Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties with 5,000 members or under +shall be affiliated on an annual payment of 15s.; similar +organizations with a membership of over 5,000 shall pay £1 10s., the +former Councils to be entitled to send one delegate with one vote to +the Annual Conference, the latter to be entitled to send two delegates +and have two votes. + +3. In addition to these payments a delegate's fee to the Annual +Conference may be charged. + +IX. _Annual Conference._ + +The National Executive shall convene a Conference of its affiliated +Societies in the month of January each year. + +Notice of resolutions for the Conference and all amendments to the +Constitution shall be sent to the Secretary by November 1st, and shall +be forthwith forwarded to all affiliated organizations. + +Notice of amendments and nominations for Secretary and National +Executive shall be sent to the Secretary by December 15th, and shall +be printed on the Agenda. + +X. _Voting at Annual Conference._ + +There shall be issued to affiliated Societies represented at the +Annual Conference voting cards as follows: + +1. Trade Unions and Socialist Societies shall receive one voting card +for each thousand members, or fraction thereof paid for. + +2. Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties shall receive one card for +each delegate they are entitled to send. + +Any delegate may claim to have a vote taken by card. + +PARLIAMENTARY FUND + +I. _Object._ + +To assist in paying the election expenses of Candidates adopted in +accordance with this Constitution, in maintaining them when elected; +and to provide the salary and expenses of a National Party Agent. + +II. _Amount of Contribution._ + +1. Affiliated Societies, except Trades Councils, and Local Labor +Parties shall pay a contribution to this fund at the rate of 2d. per +member per annum, not later than the last day of each financial year. + +2. On all matters affecting the financial side of the Parliamentary +Fund only contributing Societies shall be allowed to vote at the +Annual Conference. + +III. _Trustees._ + +The National Executive of the Party shall, from its number, select +three to act as Trustees, any two of whom, with the Secretary, shall +sign checks. + +IV. _Expenditure._ + +1. _Maintenance._--All Members elected under this Constitution shall +be paid from the Fund equal sums not to exceed £200 per annum, +provided that this payment shall only be made to Members whose +Candidatures have been promoted by one or more Societies which have +contributed to this Fund; provided further that no payment from this +Fund shall be made to a Member or Candidate of any Society which has +not contributed to this Fund for one year, and that any Society over +three months in arrears shall forfeit all claim to the Fund on behalf +of its Members or Candidates, for twelve months from the date of +payment. + +2. _Returning Officers' Expenses._--Twenty-five per cent. of the +Returning Officers' net expenses shall be paid to the Candidates, +subject to the provisions of the preceding clause, so long as the +total sum so expended does not exceed twenty-five per cent. of the +Fund. + +3. _Administration._--Five per cent. of the Annual Income of the Fund +shall be transferred to the General Funds of the Party, to pay for +administrative expenses of the Fund. + + +THE INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY: CONSTITUTION AND RULES, 1910-1911 + +NAME + +_The Independent Labor Party._ + +MEMBERSHIP + +Open to all Socialists who indorse the principles and policy of the +Party, are not members of either the Liberal or Conservative Party, +and whose application for membership is accepted by a Branch. + +Any member expelled from membership of a Branch of the I.L.P. shall +not be eligible for membership of any other branch without having +first submitted his or her case for adjudication of the N.A.C. + +OBJECT + +The Object of the Party is to establish the Socialist State, when land +and capital will be held by the community and used for the well-being +of the community, and when the exchange of commodities will be +organized also by the community, so as to secure the highest possible +standard of life for the individual. In giving effect to this object +it shall work as part of the International Socialist Movement. + +METHOD + +The Party, to secure its objects, adopts-- + +1. _Educational Methods_, including the publication of Socialist +literature, the holding of meetings, etc. + +2. _Political Methods_, including the election of its members to local +and national administrative and legislative bodies. + + +PROGRAM + +The true object of industry being the production of the requirements +of life, the responsibility should rest with the community +collectively, therefore:-- + +The land being the storehouse of all the necessaries of life should be +declared and treated as public property. + +The capital necessary for the industrial operations should be owned +and used collectively. + +Work, and wealth resulting therefrom, should be equitably distributed +over the population. + +As a means to this end, we demand the enactment of the following +measures:-- + +1. A maximum of 48 hours' working week, with the retention of all +existing holidays, and Labor Day, May 1st, secured by law. + +2. The provision of work to all capable adult applicants at recognized +Trade Union rates, with a statutory minimum of 6d. per hour. + +In order to remuneratively employ the applicants, Parish, District, +Borough, and County Councils to be invested with powers to:-- + +(_a_) Organize and undertake such industries as they may consider +desirable. + +(_b_) Compulsorily acquire land; purchase, erect, or manufacture +buildings, stock, or other articles for carrying on such industries. + +(_c_) Levy rates on the rental values of the district, and borrow +money on the security of such rates for any of the above purposes. + +3. State pension for every person over 50 years of age, and adequate +provision for all widows, orphans, sick and disabled workers. + +4. Free, secular, moral, primary, secondary, and university education, +with free maintenance while at school or university. + +5. The raising of the age of child labor, with a view to its ultimate +extinction. + +6. Municipalization and public control of the Drink Traffic. + +7. Municipalization and public control of all hospitals and +infirmaries. + +8. Abolition of indirect taxation and the gradual transference of all +public burdens on to unearned incomes with a view to their ultimate +extinction. + +The Independent Labor Party is in favor of adult suffrage, with full +political rights and privileges for women, and the immediate extension +of the franchise to women on the same terms as granted to men; also +triennial Parliaments and second ballot. + + +ORGANIZATION + +I.--OFFICERS + +1. Chairman and Treasurer. + +2. A _National Administrative Council._--To be composed of fourteen +representatives, in addition to the two officers. + +3. No member shall occupy the office of Chairman of the Party for a +longer consecutive period than three years, and he shall not be +eligible for re-election for the same office for at least twelve +months after he has vacated the chair. + +4. _Election of N.A.C._--Four members of the N.A.C. shall be elected +by ballot at the Annual Conference, and ten by the votes of members in +ten divisional areas. + +5. _Duties of N.A.C._-- + +(_a_) To meet at least three times a year to transact business +relative to the Party. + +(_b_) To exercise a determining voice in the selection of +Parliamentary candidates, and, where no branch exists, to choose such +candidates when necessary. + +(_c_) To raise and disburse funds for General and By-Elections, and +for other objects of the Party. + +(_d_) To deal with such matters of local dispute between branches and +members which may be referred to its decision by the parties +interested. + +(_e_) To appoint General Secretary and Officials, and exercise a +supervising control over their work. + +(_f_) To engage organizers and lecturers when convenient, either +permanently or for varying periods, at proper wages, and to direct and +superintend their work. + +(_g_) To present to the Annual Conference a report on the previous +year's work and progress of the Party. + +(_h_) To appoint when necessary sub-committees to deal with special +branches of its work, and to appoint a committee to deal with each +Conference Agenda. Such Committee to revise and classify the +resolutions sent in by branches and to place resolutions dealing with +important matters on the Agenda. + +(_i_) It shall not initiate any new departure or policy between +Conferences without first obtaining the sanction of the majority of +the branches. + +(_k_) Matters arising between Conferences not provided for by the +Constitution, shall be dealt with by the N.A.C. + +(_l_) A full report of all the meetings of the N.A.C. as held shall be +forwarded to each branch. + +6. _Auditor._--A Chartered or Incorporated Accountant shall be +employed to audit the accounts of the Party. + +II.--BRANCHES + +1. _Branch._--An Association which indorses the objects and policy of +the Party, and affiliates in the prescribed manner. + +2. _Local Autonomy._--Subject to the general constitution of the +Party, each Branch shall be perfectly autonomous. + +III.--FINANCES + +1. Branches shall pay one penny per member per month to the N.A.C. + +2. The N.A.C. may strike off the list of branches any branch which is +more than 6 months in arrears with its payments. + +3. The N.A.C. may receive donations or subscriptions to the funds of +the Party. It shall not receive moneys which are contributed upon +terms which interfere in any way with its freedom of action as to +their disbursement. + +4. The financial year of the Party shall begin on March 1st, and end +on the last day of February next succeeding. + +IV.--ANNUAL CONFERENCE + +1. The _Annual Conference_ is the ultimate authority of the Party, to +which all final appeals shall be made. + +2. _Date._--It shall be held at Easter. + +3. _Special Conferences._--A Special Conference shall always be called +prior to a General Election, for the purpose of determining the policy +of the Party during the election. Other Special Conferences may be +called by two-thirds of the whole of the members of the N.A.C, or by +one-third of the branches of the Party. + +4. _Conference Fee._--A Conference Fee per delegate (the amount to be +fixed by the N.A.C.) shall be paid by all branches desiring +representation, on or before the last day of February in each year. + +5. No branch shall be represented which was not in existence on the +December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Annual Conference. + +6. Branches of the Party may send one delegate to Conference for each +fifty members, or part thereof. Branches may appoint one delegate to +represent their full voting strength. Should there be two or more +branches which are unable separately to send delegates to Conference, +they may jointly do so. + +7. Delegates must have been members of the branch they represent from +December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Conference. + +8. Notices respecting resolutions shall be posted to branches not +later than January 3d. Resolutions for the Agenda, and nominations for +officers and N.A.C. shall be in the hands of the General Secretary +eight weeks before the date of the Annual Conference, and issued to +the branches a fortnight later. Amendments to resolutions on the +Agenda and additional nominations may be sent to the Secretary four +weeks before Conference, and they shall be arranged on the final +Agenda, which shall be issued to branches two weeks before Conference. +A balance sheet shall be issued to branches two weeks before the +Conference, showing the receipts and expenditure of the Party for the +year, also the number of branches affiliated and the amount each +branch has paid in affiliation fees during the year. + +9. The Chairman of the Party for the preceding year shall preside over +the Conference. + +10. _Conference Officials._--The first business of the Conference +shall be the appointment of tellers. It shall next elect a Standing +Orders Committee, with power to examine the credentials of delegates, +and to deal with special business which may be delegated to it by the +Conference. + +11. In case any vacancy occurs on the N.A.C. between Conferences, the +unsuccessful candidate receiving the largest number of votes at the +preceding election shall fill the vacancy. Vacancies in the list of +officers shall be filled up by the vote of the branches. + +12. The principle of the second ballot shall be observed in all +elections. + +13. The Conference shall choose in which Divisional Area the next +Conference shall be held. + +V.--PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES + +1. The N.A.C. shall keep a list of members of the Party from which +candidates may be selected by branches. + +2. Any Branch at any time may nominate any eligible member of the +Party to be placed upon that list. + +3. The N.A.C. itself may place names on the list. + +4. No person shall be placed upon this list unless he has been a +member of the Party for at least twelve months. + +5. Branches desiring to place a candidate in their constituencies must +in the first instance communicate with the N.A.C., and have the +candidate selected at a properly convened conference of +representatives of the local branches of all societies affiliated with +the Labor Party, so that the candidate may be chosen in accordance +with the constitution of the Labor Party. The N.A.C. shall have power +to suspend this clause where local or other circumstances appear to +justify such a course. + +6. Before the N.A.C. sanctions any candidature it shall be entitled to +secure guarantees of adequate local financial support. + +7. No Branch shall take any action which affects prejudicially the +position or prospects of a Parliamentary candidate, who has received +the credentials of the Labor Party, without first laying the case +before the N.A.C. + +8. Each candidate must undertake that he will run his election in +accordance with the principles and policy of the Party, and that if +elected he will support the Party on all questions coming within the +scope of the principles of the I.L.P. + + * * * * * + +_The Constitution shall not be altered or amended except every third +year, unless upon the requisition of two-thirds of the N.A.C. or +one-third of the branches of the Party, when the proposed alterations +or amendments shall be considered at the following +Conference._--Resolution, Edinburgh, 1909. + + +BASIS OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY + +The Fabian Society consists of Socialists. + +It therefore aims at the re-organization of society by the +emancipation of land and industrial capital from individual and class +ownership, and the vesting of them in the community for the general +benefit. In this way only can the natural and acquired advantages of +the country be equitably shared by the whole people. + +The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property +in land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of +rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as +for the advantages of superior soils and sites. + +The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the +administration of such industrial capital as can conveniently be +managed socially. For, owing to the monopoly of the means of +production in the past, industrial inventions and the transformation +of surplus income into capital have mainly enriched the proprietary +class, the worker being now dependent on that class for leave to earn +a living. + +If these measures be carried out, without compensation (though not +without such relief to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to the +community), rent and interest will be added to the reward of labor, +the idle class now living on the labor of others will necessarily +disappear, and practical equality of opportunity will be maintained by +the spontaneous action of economic forces with much less interference +with personal liberty than the present system entails. + +For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the +spread of Socialist opinions, and the social and political changes +consequent thereon. It seeks to promote these by the general +dissemination of knowledge as to the relation between the individual +and society in its economic, ethical, and political aspects. + +The following questions are addressed to Parliamentary candidates by +the Fabians: + +Will you press at the first opportunity for the following reforms:-- + + +I.--_A Labor Program_ + +1. The extension of the Workmen's Compensation Act to seamen, and to +all other classes of wage earners? + +2. Compulsory arbitration, as in New Zealand, to prevent strikes and +lockouts? + +3. A statutory minimum wage, as in Victoria, especially for sweated +trades? + +4. The fixing of "an eight-hours' day" as the maximum for all public +servants; and the abolition, wherever possible, of overtime? + +5. An Eight-Hours' Bill, without an option clause, for miners; and, +for railway servants, a forty-eight-hours' week? + +6. The drastic amendment of the Factory Acts, to secure (_a_) a safe +and healthy work-place for every worker, (_b_) the prevention of +overwork for all women and young persons, (_c_) the abolition of all +wage-labor by children under 14, (_d_) compulsory technical +instruction by extension of the half-time arrangements to all workers +under 18? + +7. The direct employment of labor by all public authorities whenever +possible; and, whenever it is not possible, employment only of fair +houses, prohibition of sub-contracting, and payment of trade-union +rates of wages? + +8. The amendment of the Merchant Shipping Acts so as (_a_) to secure +healthy sleeping and living accommodation, (_b_) to protect the seaman +against withholding of his wages or return passage, (_c_) to insure +him against loss by shipwreck? + + +II.--_A Democratic Budget_ + +9. The further taxation of unearned incomes by means of a graduated +and differentiated income-tax? + +10. The abolition of all duties on tea, cocoa, coffee, currants, and +other dried fruits? + +11. An increase of the scale of graduation of the death duties, so as +to fall more heavily on large inheritances? + +12. The appropriation of the unearned increment by the taxation and +rating of ground values? + +13. The nationalization of mining rents and royalties? + +14. Transfer of the railways to the State under the Act of 1844? + + +III.--_Social Reform in Town and Country_ + +15. The extension of full powers to parish, town, and county councils +for the collective organization of the (_a_) water, (_b_) gas and +(_c_) electric lighting supplies, (_d_) hydraulic power, (_e_) +tramways and light railways, (_f_) public slaughter-houses, (_g_) +pawnshops, (_h_) sale of milk, (_i_) bread, (_j_) coal, and such other +public services as may be desired by the inhabitants? + +16. Reform of the drink traffic by (_a_) reduction of the number of +licenses to a proper ratio to the population of each locality, (_b_) +transfer to public purposes of the special value of licenses, created +by the existing monopoly, by means of high license or a license rate, +(_c_) grant of power to local authorities to carry on municipal public +houses, directly or on the Gothenburg system? + +17. Amendment of the Housing of the Working Classes Act by (_a_) +extension of period of loans to one hundred years, treatment of land +as an asset, and removal of statutory limitation of borrowing powers +for housing, (_b_) removal of restrictions on rural district councils +in adopting Part III. of the Act, (_c_) grant of power to parish +councils to adopt Part III. of the Act, (_d_) power to all local +authorities to buy land compulsorily under the allotments clauses of +the Local Government Act, 1894, or in any other effective manner? + +18. The grant of power to all local bodies to retain the free-hold of +any land that may come into their possession, without obligation to +sell, or to use for particular purposes? + +19. The relief of the existing taxpayer by (_a_) imposing, for local +purposes, a municipal death duty on local real estate, collected in +the same way as the existing death duties, (_b_) collecting rates from +the owners of empty houses and vacant land, (_c_) power to assess land +and houses at four per cent. on the capital value, (_d_) securing +special contributions by way of "betterment" from the owners of +property benefited by public improvements? + +20. The further equalization of the rates in London? + +21. The compulsory provision by every local authority of adequate +hospital accommodation for all diseases and accidents? + + +IV.--_The Children and the Poor_ + +22. The prohibition of the industrial or wage-earning employment of +children during school terms prior to the age of 14? + +23. The provision of meals, out of public funds, for necessitous +children in public elementary schools? + +24. The training of teachers under public control and free from +sectarian influences? + +25. The creation of a complete system of public secondary education +genuinely available to the children of the poor? + +26. State pensions for the support of the aged or chronically infirm? + + +V.--_Democratic Political Machinery_ + +27. An amendment of the registration laws, with the aim of giving +every adult man a vote, and no one more than one vote? + +28. A redistribution of seats in accordance with population? + +29. The grant of the franchise to women on the same terms as to men? + +30. The admission of women to seats in the House of Commons and on +borough and county councils? + +31. The second ballot at Parliamentary and other elections? + +32. The payment of all members of Parliament and of Parliamentary +election expenses, out of public funds? + +33. Triennial Parliaments? + +34. All Parliamentary elections to be held on the same day? + + +THE PROGRAM OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION, 1906 + +OBJECT + +The Socialization of the Means of Production, Distribution, and +Exchange, to be controlled by a Democratic State in the interests of +the entire community, and the complete Emancipation of Labor from the +Domination of Capitalism and Landlordism, with the establishment of +Social and Economic Equality between the Sexes. + +The economic development of modern society is characterized by the +more or less complete domination of the capitalistic mode of +production over all branches of human labor. + +The capitalistic mode of production, because it has the creation of +profit for its sole object, therefore favors the larger capital, and +is based upon the divorcement of the majority of the people from the +instruments of production and the concentration of these instruments +in the hands of a minority. Society is thus divided into two opposite +classes: one, the capitalists and their sleeping partners, the +landlords and loanmongers, holding in their hands the means of +production, distribution, and exchange, and being, therefore, able to +command the labor of others; the other, the working-class, the +wage-earners, the proletariat, possessing nothing but their +labor-power, and being consequently forced by necessity to work for +the former. + +The social division thus produced becomes wider and deeper with every +new advance in the application of labor-saving machinery. It is most +clearly recognizable, however, in the times of industrial and +commercial crises, when, in consequence of the present chaotic +conditions of carrying on national and international industry, +production periodically comes to a standstill, and a number of the few +remaining independent producers are thrown into the ranks of the +proletariat. Thus, while on one hand there is incessantly going on an +accumulation of capital, wealth, and power into a steadily diminishing +number of hands, there is, on the other hand, a constantly growing +insecurity of livelihood for the mass of wage-earners, an increasing +disparity between human wants and the opportunity of acquiring the +means for their satisfaction, and a steady physical and mental +deterioration among the more poverty-stricken of the population. + +But the more this social division widens, the stronger grows the +revolt--more conscious abroad than here--of the proletariat against +the capitalist system of society in which this division and all that +accompanies it have originated, and find such fruitful soil. The +capitalist mode of production, by massing the workers in large +factories, and creating an interdependence, not only between various +trades and branches of industries, but even national industries, +prepares the ground and furnishes material for a universal class war. +That class war may at first--as in this country--be directed against +the abuses of the system, and not against the system itself; but +sooner or later the workers must come to recognize that nothing short +of the expropriation of the capitalist class, the ownership by the +community of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, can +put an end to their abject economic condition; and then the class war +will become conscious instead of unconscious on the part of the +working-classes, and they will have for their ultimate object the +overthrow of the capitalist system. At the same time, since the +capitalist class holds and uses the power of the State to safeguard +its position and beat off any attack, the class war must assume a +political character, and become a struggle on the part of the workers +for the possession of the political machinery. + +It is this struggle for the conquest of the political power of the +State, in order to effect a social transformation, which International +Social Democracy carries on in the name and on behalf of the +working-class. Social Democracy, therefore, is the only possible +political party of the proletariat. The Social Democratic Federation +is a part of this International Social Democracy. It, therefore, takes +its stand on the above principles, and believes-- + +1. That the emancipation of the working-class can only be achieved +through the socialization of the means of production, distribution, +and exchange, and their subsequent control by the organized community +in the interests of the whole people. + +2. That, as the proletariat is the last class to achieve freedom, its +emancipation will mean the emancipation of the whole of mankind, +without distinction of race, nationality, creed, or sex. + +3. That this emancipation can only be the work of the working-class +itself, organized nationally and internationally into a distinct +political party, consciously striving after the realization of its +ideals; and, finally, + +4. That, in order to insure greater material and moral facilities for +the working-class to organize itself and to carry on the class war, +the following reforms must immediately be carried through:-- + + +IMMEDIATE REFORMS + +_Political_ + +Abolition of the Monarchy. + +Democratization of the Governmental machinery, viz., abolition of the +House of Lords, payment of members of legislative and administrative +bodies, payment of official expenses of elections out of the public +funds, adult suffrage, proportional representation, triennial +parliaments, second ballot, initiative and referendum. Foreigners to +be granted rights of citizenship after two years' residence in the +country, without any fees. Canvassing to be made illegal. All +elections to take place on one day, such day to be made a legal +holiday, and all premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating +liquors to be closed. + +Legislation by the people in such wise that no legislative proposal +shall become law until ratified by the majority of the people. + +Legislative and administrative independence for all parts of the +Empire. + +_Financial and Fiscal_ + +Repudiation of the National Debt. + +Abolition of all indirect taxation and the institution of a cumulative +tax on all incomes and inheritance exceeding £300. + +_Administrative_ + +Extension of the principle of local self-government. + +Systematization and co-ordination of the local administrative bodies. + +Election of all administrators and administrative bodies by equal +direct adult suffrage. + +_Educational_ + +Elementary education to be free, secular, industrial, and compulsory +for all classes. The age of obligatory school attendance to be raised +to 16. + +Unification and systematization of intermediate and higher education, +both general and technical, and all such education to be free. + +State maintenance for all attending State schools. + +Abolition of school rates; the cost of education in all State schools +to be borne by the National Exchequer. + +_Public Monopolies and Services_ + +Nationalization of the land and the organization of labor in +agriculture and industry under public ownership and control on +co-operative principles. + +Nationalization of the trusts. + +Nationalization of railways, docks, and canals, and all great means of +transit. + +Public ownership and control of gas, electric light, and water +supplies, as well as of tramway, omnibus, and other locomotive +services. + +Public ownership and control of the food and coal supply. + +The establishment of State and municipal banks and pawnshops and +public restaurants. + +Public ownership and control of the lifeboat service. + +Public ownership and control of hospitals, dispensaries, cemeteries, +and crematoria. + +Public ownership and control of the drink traffic. + +_Labor_ + +A legislative eight-hour working-day, or 48 hours per week, to be the +maximum for all trades and industries. Imprisonment to be indicted on +employers for any infringement of the law. + +Absolute freedom of combination for all workers, with legal guarantee +against any action, private or public, which tends to curtail or +infringe it. + +No child to be employed in any trade or occupation until 16 years of +age, and imprisonment to be inflicted on employers, parents, and +guardians who infringe this law. + +Public provision of useful work at not less than trade-union rates of +wages for the unemployed. + +Free State insurance against sickness and accident, and free and +adequate State pensions or provision for aged and disabled workers. +Public assistance not to entail any forfeiture of political rights. + +The legislative enactment of a minimum wage of 30s. for all workers. +Equal pay for both sexes for the performance of equal work. + +_Social_ + +Abolition of the present workhouse system, and reformed administration +of the Poor Law on a basis of national co-operation. + +Compulsory construction by public bodies of healthy dwellings for the +people; such dwellings to be let at rents to cover the cost of +construction and maintenance alone, and not to cover the cost of the +land. + +The administration of justice and legal advice to be free to all; +justice to be administered by judges chosen by the people; appeal in +criminal cases; compensation for those innocently accused, condemned, +and imprisoned; abolition of imprisonment for contempt of court in +relation to non-payment of debt in the case of workers earning less +than £2 per week; abolition of capital punishment. + +_Miscellaneous_ + +The disestablishment and disendowment of all State churches. + +The abolition of standing armies, and the establishment of national +citizen forces. The people to decide on peace and war. + +The establishment of international courts of arbitration. + +The abolition of courts-martial; all offenses against discipline to be +transferred to the jurisdiction of civil courts. + + +THE LABOR PARTY: SESSION OF PARLIAMENT, 1911-1912 + +[At the beginning of every session of Parliament, the Labor Party +members agree on a program of procedure to which they adhere for that +session. They stick to the bills, in the order chosen, until they are +either passed or defeated. The following is the list for 1911.] + +Bills to be balloted for in order named: + + 1. Trade Union Amendment Bill. + 2. Unemployed Workmen Bill. + 3. Education (Administrative Provisions) Bill. + 4. Electoral Reform Bill. + 5. Eight-Hour Day Bill. + 6. Bill to Provide against Eviction of Workmen during Trade + Disputes. + 7. Railway Nationalization Bill. + +Motions to be balloted for in order named: + + 1. Militarism and Foreign Policy: (on lines of Resolution passed + by the Special Conference at Leicester). + 2. Defect in Sheriffs' Courts Bill (Scotland) relating to power of + Eviction during Trade Disputes. + 3. General 30s. Minimum Wage. + + Other Motions from which selection may be made after the three + foregoing subjects have been dealt with: + + Saturday to Monday Stop. + Eviction of Workmen during Trade Disputes. + Extension of Particulars Clause to Docks, etc. + Nationalization of Hospitals. + Adult Suffrage. + Commission of Inquiry into Older Universities. + Workmen's Compensation Amendment. + Atmosphere and Dust in Textile Factories. + System of Fines in Textile and Other Trades. + Inclusion of Clerks in Factory Acts. + Eight-Hour Day. + Electoral Reform. + Inquiry into Industrial Assurance. + Poor Law Reform. + Truck. + Railway and Mining Accidents. + Labor Exchanges Administration. + Labor Ministry. + Veto Conference. + Day Training Classes. + School Clinics. + Indian Factory Laws. + Hours in Bakehouses. + House-letting in Scotland. + + +FABIAN ELECTION ADDRESS + +[The following is an election broadside issued for the municipal +election of London, soon after the establishment of municipal home +rule for the metropolis, by the organization of the London County +Council. It discloses the practical nature of the earlier Fabian +political activities.] + + COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTION: ADDRESS OF MR. SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B. + (LONDON UNIVERSITY), (PROGRESSIVE AND LABOR CANDIDATE) + + Central Committee Rooms, + 484, New Cross Road, S.E. + +ELECTORS OF DEPTFORD, + +On the nomination of a Joint Committee of Delegates of the Liberal and +Radical Association, the Women's Liberal Association, the Working +Men's Clubs, and leading Trade Unionists and Social Reformers in +Deptford, I come forward as a Candidate for the County Council +Election. I shall seek to lift the contest above any narrow partisan +lines, and I ask for the support of all who are interested in the +well-being of the people. + +_The Point at Issue_ + +For much is at stake for London at this Election. Notwithstanding the +creation of the County Council, the ratepayers of the Metropolis are +still deprived of the ordinary powers of municipal self-government. +They have to bear needlessly heavy burdens for a very defective +management of their public affairs. The result is seen in the poverty, +the misery, and the intemperance that disgrace our city. A really +Progressive County Council can do much (as the present Council has +shown), both immediately to benefit the people of London, and also to +win for them genuine self-government. Do you wish your County Council +to attempt nothing more for London than the old Metropolitan Board of +Works? This is, in effect, the Reactionary, or so-called "Moderate," +program. Or shall we make our County Council a mighty instrument of +the people's will for the social regeneration of this great city, and +the "Government of London by London for London?" That is what I stand +for. + +_Relief of the Taxpayer_ + +But the crushing burden of the occupier's rates must be reduced, not +increased. Even with the strictest economy the administration of a +growing city must be a heavy burden. The County Council should have +power to tax the ground landlord, who now pays no rates at all +directly. Moreover, the rates must be equalized throughout London. Why +should the Deptford ratepayer have to pay nearly two shillings in the +pound more than the inhabitant of St. George's, Hanover Square? And we +must get at the unearned increment for the benefit of the people of +London, who create it. + +_A Labor Program_ + +I am in favor of Trade Union wages and an eight-hours day for all +persons employed by the Council. I am dead against sub-contracting, +and would like to see the Council itself the direct employer of all +labor. + +_Municipalization_ + +At present London pays an utterly unnecessary annual tribute, because, +unlike other towns, it leaves its water supply, its gas-works, its +tramways, its markets, and its docks in the hands of private +speculators. I am in favor of replacing private by Democratic public +ownership and management, as soon and as far as safely possible. It is +especially urgent to secure public control of the water supply, the +tramways, and the docks. Moreover, London ought to manage its own +police, and all its open spaces. + +_The Condition of the Poor_ + +But the main object of all our endeavors must be to raise the standard +of life of our poorer fellow-citizens, now crushed by the competitive +struggle. As one of the most urgent social reforms, especially in the +interests of Temperance, I urge the better housing of the people; the +provision, by the Council itself, of improved dwellings and common +lodging-houses of the best possible types, and a strict enforcement of +the sanitary laws against the owners of slum property. + +_Local Questions_ + +I believe in local attention to local grievances, and I should deem it +my duty, if elected, to look closely after Deptford interests, +especially with regard to the need for more open spaces, and the early +completion of the new Thames tunnel. + +A more detailed account of my views may be found in my book, "The +London Programme," and other writings. I am a Londoner born and bred, +and have made London questions the chief study of my life. I have had +thirteen years' administrative experience in a Government office, a +position which I have resigned in order to give my whole time to +London's service. With regard to my general opinions, it will be +enough to say that I have long been an active member of the Fabian +Society, and of the Executive Committee of the London Liberal and +Radical Union. + + SIDNEY WEBB. + + 4, Park Village East, Regent's Park, N.W. + +The following meetings have already been arranged. Others will be +announced shortly. + + February 11.--Lecture Hall, High Street, at 8 P.M. + February 25.--Lecture Hall High Street, at 8 P.M. + March 3.--New Cross Hall, Lewisham High Road, at 8 P.M. + + +FABIAN ELECTION DODGER + +[The Fabians and other Socialists broke into London municipal politics +under the name "Progressives." The following is one of their earliest +election dodgers.] + +COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTION + +_Saturday, March 5, 1892_ + +Part of the + +PROGRAM OF THE PROGRESSIVES + +_Rates._--Reduce the Occupiers' Rates one-half, by charging that +portion upon the great Landlords, whose ground values are increased by +every improvement, and are now untaxed; and by a Municipal Death Duty. + +_Gas and Water._--Reduce the cost and improve the quality and quantity +by new sources of supply, if the present Companies will not come to +terms favorable to the Taxpayer. + +_City Companies._--Apply their whole Income of, say £500,000 (on leave +obtained from the new Parliament), for the benefit of London. The +Royal Commission of 1884 stated that this income is virtually Public +Property. About £300,000 is now squandered each year among the members +and their friends. + +_Homes for the Poor._--The Poor can all be comfortably housed, as in +the Municipal Dwellings of Glasgow and Liverpool, without extra cost +to the Taxpayer, and the "Doss-houses" abolished. + +_Cheap Food._--By doing away with the Market Monopolies of the City +Corporation and other private owners, Food can be lowered in price. +Good food, especially fish, is now often destroyed or sold for manure +to keep up the price. + +_Poor Man's Vote._--One-third of your Votes are lost. The Registration +Laws must be thoroughly altered. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Debates, House of Lords, July, 31, 1885. The speech was privately +printed. + +[2] Debates, May 19, 1890. This speech was also given private +circulation. + + + + +VI. GENERAL + + +1. ORIGIN OF THE WORD "COLLECTIVISM" + +"This word, invented by Colins, came into common use toward the end of +the Empire. Bakunin used it in the congress at Berne in 1868, to +oppose it to the communistic régime of Cabet. An economist in 1869 +designated, under this name, the system under which production will be +confined to communes or parishes. The Socialists who opposed +authority, disciples of Bakunin, used the word for a long time to +designate their doctrine. The section of Locle was one of the first to +employ it. But by and by, about 1878, the Marxists, partisans of the +proletarian reign, used the word 'collectivism' to distinguish their +'scientific Socialism,' of which term they were fond, from the +communistic utopias of the older school, which they discovered. And +they gave to Bakunins the name Anarchists. These accepted the name, +taking care to write it with a hyphen, _an-archie_, as their master +Proudhon had done. They soon dropped the hyphen and accepted the word +anarchy as a declaration of war against all things as they are."[1] + + +2. TABLE SHOWING RESULTS OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS + +(COMPILED FROM REPORT OF SECRETARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL, 1910) + + ====================+===========+===========+===========+============== + | _No. | _Total No.|_No. Seats |_Per cent. of + _Country_ | Socialist | Seats in |Held by |Socialists + | Votes_ |Parliament_|Socialists_| Seats_ + --------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------- + Great Britain (1910)| 505,690 | 670 | 40 | 5.97 + Germany (1912) | 4,250,000 | 397 | 110 | 38.81 + Luxemburg (1909) | | 48 | 10 | 20.8 + Austria (1907) | 1,041,948 | 516 | 88 | 17.06 + France (1910) | 1,106,047 | 584 | 76 | 13.01 + Italy (1909) | 338,885 | 508 | 42 | 8.26 + Spain (1910) | 40,000 | 404 | 1 | 0.25 + Russia | | 442 | 17 | 3.82 + Finland (1910) | 316,951 | 200 | 86 | 43.00 + Norway (1907) | 90,000 | 123 | 11 | 8.94 + Sweden (1909) | 75,000 | 165 | 36 | 21.81 + Denmark (1910) | 98,721 | 114 | 24 | 21.06 + Holland (1909) | 82,494 | 100 | 7 | 7.00 + Belgium (1910) | 483,241 | 166 | 35 | 21.08 + Switzerland (1908) | 100,000 | 170 | 7 | 4.11 + Turkey (1908) | | 196 | 6 | 3.06 + Servia (1908) | 3,056 | 160 | 1 | 0.62 + U.S.A. (1910) | | | 1 | + --------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------- + +IN 1910 THE SOCIALISTS HELD THE FOLLOWING NUMBER OF LOCAL OFFICERS, +ACCORDING TO THE REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY + + ============================+============================ + Great Britain 1126 | Finland 351 + Germany 7729 | Norway 873 + Austria-Bohemia 2896 | Sweden 125 + Hungary 96 | Denmark 1000 + France 3800 | Belgium 850 + Bulgaria 7 | Servia 22 + ----------------------------+---------------------------- + + +3. TABLE SHOWING THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY, IN VARIOUS +COUNTRIES + +(COMPILED FROM REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL, 1909-10) + + =========================+===================+=================== + | 1907 | 1908 + -------------------------+-------+-----------+-------+----------- + |_Local | |_Local | + _Country_ |Groups_| _Members_ |Groups_| _Members_ + -------------------------+-------+-----------+-------+----------- + Great Britain, L.P. | 275 | 1,072,412 | 307 | 1,152,786 + | | | | + Great Britain, J.L.P. | 600 | 35,000 | 765 | 50,000 + Great Britain, S.D.F. | 202 | 14,500 | 250 | 16,000 + Great Britain, Fabians | 10 | 1,207 | 27 | 2,015 + Germany | 2704 | 530,466 | 3120 | 587,336 + | | (10,943)| | (29,458) + Austria | | | | + Bohemia | | | | + | | | | + Hungary | | 130,000 | | 102,054 + France | | 48,237 | | 49,328 + Italy | | | | 43,000 + Russia* | 8 | 16,000 | 8 | 5,000 + Spain | | | | + Poland-Prussian | | | 10 | 400 + Poland-Russian | | 22,700 | | + Finland | 1156 | 80,328 | 1127 | 71,266 + | | (18,873)| | (16,826) + Norway | 499 | 23,000 | 602 | 27,500 + | | (1,800)| | (2,000) + Sweden | | | 296 | 112,693 + Denmark | | | | + Holland | 167 | 7,471 | 176 | 8,411 + Belgium | 803 | 161,239 | | 183,997 + Switzerland | | | | + Servia | | 615 | | + Bulgaria | 71 | 2,658 | 80 | 2,886 + U.S.A. | 1900 | 26,784 | | + -------------------------+-------+-----------+-------+----------- + =========================+==================== + | 1909 + -------------------------+-------+------------ + |_Local | + _Country_ |Groups_| _Members_ + -------------------------+-------+------------ + Great Britain, L.P. | 318 | 1,481,368 + | | (4,000) + Great Britain, J.L.P. | 900 | 60,000 + Great Britain, S.D.F. | | 17,000 + Great Britain, Fabians | 39 | 2,462 + Germany | 3281 | 633,309 + | | (62,259) + Austria | | 126,000 + Bohemia | 2462 | 156,000 + | | (6,000) + Hungary | 769 | 85,266 + France | 2500 | 51,692 + Italy | | 30,000 + Russia* | 8 | 3,000 + Spain | | + Poland-Prussian | 40 | 1,500 + Poland-Russian | | 3,500 + Finland | | + | | + Norway | 637 | 26,500 + | | (2,500) + Sweden | 338 | 60,183 + Denmark | 360 | 47,000 + Holland | 211 | 9,289 + Belgium | 906 | 185,318 + Switzerland | 23 | 21,132 + Servia | | 1,950 + Bulgaria | 109 | 4,287 + U.S.A. | 3200 | 53,375 + -------------------------+-------+----------- + + * Province of Lettland. + + Figures in parenthesis indicate number of women members. + + +4. AMERICAN SOCIALIST PARTY PLATFORM + +[Adopted by National Convention May, 1908, and by Membership +Referendum August 8th, 1908. Amended by Referendum September 7th, +1909.] + + +PRINCIPLES + +Human life depends upon food, clothing, and shelter. Only with these +assured are freedom, culture, and higher human development possible. +To produce food, clothing, or shelter, land and machinery are needed. +Land alone does not satisfy human needs. Human labor creates machinery +and applies it to the land for the production of raw materials and +food. Whoever has control of land and machinery controls human labor, +and with it human life and liberty. + +To-day the machinery and the land used for industrial purposes are +owned by a rapidly decreasing minority. So long as machinery is simple +and easily handled by one man, its owner cannot dominate the sources +of life of others. But when machinery becomes more complex and +expensive, and requires for its effective operation the organized +effort of many workers, its influence reaches over wide circles of +life. The owners of such machinery become the dominant class. + +In proportion as the number of such machine owners compared to all +other classes decreases, their power in the nation and in the world +increases. They bring ever larger masses of working people under their +control, reducing them to the point where muscle and brain are their +only productive property. Millions of formerly self-employing workers +thus become the helpless wage slaves of the industrial masters. + +As the economic power of the ruling class grows it becomes less useful +in the life of the nation. All the useful work of the nation falls +upon the shoulders of the class whose only property is its manual and +mental labor power--the wage worker--or of the class who have but +little land and little effective machinery outside of their labor +power--the small traders and small farmers. The ruling minority is +steadily becoming useless and parasitic. + +A bitter struggle over the division of the products of labor is waged +between the exploiting propertied classes on the one hand and the +exploited propertyless class on the other. In this struggle the +wage-working class cannot expect adequate relief from any reform of +the present order at the hands of the dominant class. + +The wage workers are therefore the most determined and irreconcilable +antagonists of the ruling class. They suffer most from the curse of +class rule. The fact that a few capitalists are permitted to control +all the country's industrial resources and social tools for their +individual profit, and to make the production of the necessaries of +life the object of competitive private enterprise and speculation is +at the bottom of all the social evils of our time. + +In spite of the organization of trusts, pools, and combinations, the +capitalists are powerless to regulate production for social ends. +Industries are largely conducted in a planless manner. Through periods +of feverish activity the strength and health of the workers are +mercilessly used up, and during periods of enforced idleness the +workers are frequently reduced to starvation. + +The climaxes of this system of production are the regularly recurring +industrial depressions and crises which paralyze the nation every +fifteen or twenty years. + +The capitalist class, in its mad race for profits, is bound to exploit +the workers to the very limit of their endurance and to sacrifice +their physical, moral, and mental welfare to its own insatiable greed. +Capitalism keeps the masses of workingmen in poverty, destitution, +physical exhaustion, and ignorance. It drags their wives from their +homes to the mill and factory. It snatches their children from the +playgrounds and schools and grinds their slender bodies and unformed +minds into cold dollars. It disfigures, maims, and kills hundreds of +thousands of workingmen annually in mines, on railroads, and in +factories. It drives millions of workers into the ranks of the +unemployed and forces large numbers of them into beggary, vagrancy, +and all forms of crime and vice. + +To maintain their rule over their fellow-men, the capitalists must +keep in their pay all organs of the public powers, public mind, and +public conscience. They control the dominant parties and, through +them, the elected public officials. They select the executives, bribe +the legislatures, and corrupt the courts of justice. They own and +censor the press. They dominate the educational institutions. They own +the nation politically and intellectually just as they own it +industrially. + +The struggle between wage workers and capitalists grows ever fiercer, +and has now become the only vital issue before the American people. +The wage-working class, therefore, has the most direct interest in +abolishing the capitalist system. But in abolishing the present +system, the workingmen will free not only their own class, but also +all other classes of modern society. The small farmer, who is to-day +exploited by large capital more indirectly but not less effectively +than is the wage laborer; the small manufacturer and trader, who is +engaged in a desperate and losing struggle for economic independence +in the face of the all-conquering power of concentrated capital; and +even the capitalist himself, who is the slave of his wealth rather +than its master. The struggle of the working class against the +capitalist class, while it is a class struggle, is thus at the same +time a struggle for the abolition of all classes and class privileges. + +The private ownership of the land and means of production used for +exploitation, is the rock upon which class rule is built; political +government is its indispensable instrument. The wage-workers cannot be +freed from exploitation without conquering the political power and +substituting collective for private ownership of the land and means of +production used for exploitation. + +The basis for such transformation is rapidly developing within present +capitalist society. The factory system, with its complex machinery and +minute division of labor, is rapidly destroying all vestiges of +individual production in manufacture. Modern production is already +very largely a collective and social process. The great trusts and +monopolies which have sprung up in recent years have organized the +work and management of the principal industries on a national scale, +and have fitted them for collective use and operation. + +There can be no absolute private title to land. All private titles, +whether called fee simple or otherwise, are and must be subordinate to +the public title. The Socialist Party strives to prevent land from +being used for the purpose of exploitation and speculation. It demands +the collective possession, control, or management of land to whatever +extent may be necessary to attain that end. It is not opposed to the +occupation and possession of land by those using it in a useful and +bona fide manner without exploitation. + +The Socialist Party is primarily an economic and political movement. +It is not concerned with matters of religious belief. + +In the struggle for freedom the interests of all modern workers are +identical. The struggle is not only national but international. It +embraces the world and will be carried to ultimate victory by the +united workers of the world. + +To unite the workers of the nation and their allies and sympathizers +of all other classes to this end, is the mission of the Socialist +Party. In this battle for freedom the Socialist Party does not strive +to substitute working class rule for capitalist class rule, but by +working class victory, to free all humanity from class rule and to +realize the international brotherhood of man. + + +PROGRAM + +As measures calculated to strengthen the working class in its fight +for the realization of this ultimate aim, and to increase its power of +resistance against capitalist oppression, we advocate and pledge +ourselves and our elected officers to the following program: + +_General Demands_ + +1. The immediate government relief for the unemployed workers by +building schools, by reforesting of cut-over and waste lands, by +reclamation of arid tracts, and the building of canals, and by +extending all other useful public works. All persons employed on such +works shall be employed directly by the government under an eight-hour +work-day and at the prevailing union wages. The government shall also +loan money to states and municipalities without interest for the +purpose of carrying on public works. It shall contribute to the funds +of labor organizations for the purpose of assisting their unemployed +members, and shall take such other measures within its power as will +lessen the widespread misery of the workers caused by the misrule of +the capitalist class. + +2. The collective ownership of railroads, telegraphs, telephones, +steamboat lines, and all other means of social transportation and +communication. + +3. The collective ownership of all industries which are organized on a +national scale and in which competition has virtually ceased to exist. + +4. The extension of the public domain to include mines, quarries, oil +wells, forests, and water power. + +5. The scientific reforestation of timber lands, and the reclamation +of swamp lands. The land so reforested or reclaimed to be permanently +retained as a part of the public domain. + +6. The absolute freedom of press, speech, and assemblage. + +_Industrial Demands_ + +7. The improvement of the industrial condition of the workers. + +(_a_) By shortening the workday in keeping with the increased +productiveness of machinery. + +(_b_) By securing to every worker a rest period of not less than a day +and a half in each week. + +(_c_) By securing a more effective inspection of workshops and +factories. + +(_d_) By forbidding the employment of children under sixteen years of +age. + +(_e_) By forbidding the interstate transportation of the products of +child labor, of convict labor, and of all uninspected factories. + +(_f_) By abolishing official charity and substituting in its place +compulsory insurance against unemployment, illness, accidents, +invalidism, old age, and death. + +_Political Demands_ + +8. The extension of inheritance taxes, graduated in proportion to the +amount of the bequests and to the nearness of kin. + +9. A graduated income tax. + +10. Unrestricted and equal suffrage for men and women, and we pledge +ourselves to engage in an active campaign in that direction. + +11. The initiative and referendum, proportional representation, and +the right of recall. + +12. The abolition of the senate. + +13. The abolition of the power usurped by the supreme court of the +United States to pass upon the constitutionality of legislation +enacted by Congress. National laws to be repealed or abrogated only +by act of Congress or by a referendum of the whole people. + +14. That the Constitution be made amendable by majority vote. + +15. The enactment of further measures for general education and for +the conservation of health. The bureau of education to be made a +department. The creation of a department of public health. + +16. The separation of the present bureau of labor from the department +of commerce and labor, and the establishment of a department of labor. + +17. That all judges be elected by the people for short terms, and that +the power to issue injunctions shall be curbed by immediate +legislation. + +18. The free administration of justice. + +Such measures of relief as we may be able to force from capitalism are +but a preparation of the workers to seize the whole power of +government, in order that they may thereby lay hold of the whole +system of industry and thus come to their rightful inheritance. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] GEORGES WEIL, _Histoire du Mouvement Social en France_, p. 208. + + + + +INDEX + + +Allemane, 77 + +American Socialist Party platform, 341 + +Amsterdam Congress, 228 + +Anarchy, 29, 65, 127 + +Anselee, 122 + +Anti-militarism, in France, 110-112; + in Belgium, 129; + in Germany, 201-202 + +Anti-Socialist Law (German), 160-167 + +Asquith, Premier, and the Parliament Bill, 238-240 + +Austria, revolution in, 47 + + +Bakunin, 65, 71 + +Barthou, on French post-office strike, 97; + on railway strike, 101 + +Bebel, August, 155, 158; + on Anti-Socialist Law, 161, 162, 163, 165, 166; + arrest of, 167; + candidate for President of Reichstag, 190; + on defeat of Socialism, 1907, 194; + on inheritance tax, 188; + as a party leader, 264; + on new Alsatian Constitution, 198; + on militarism, 202-203; + on participation in legislation, 188, 189; + on party discipline, 177, 193, 195, 196; + on Socialism in United States, 268 + +Belgium, 118-145; + government of, 121-122; + co-operative movement in, 140-145; + agrarian movement in, 142; + nature of Belgian Socialism, 143-144; + labor organizations in, 122-125; + Labor Party in Parliament, 133-135; + political parties in, 121; + poverty and illiteracy in, 118-120, 125, 128 + +Bernstein, Ed., 192 + +Bibliography, 273-279 + +Bismarck and Lassalle, 154; + and Reichstag suffrage, 158; + and repression of Socialism, 159-161; + Anti-Socialist Law, 160-168; + and State Insurance, 168-169 + +Blanc, Louis, 13, 26-28, 62; + Lassalle adopts plan of, 152 + +Bourgeoisie, defined, 2 + +Bourse du Travail, 77, 80; + federation of, 77; + organization of, 105-106 + +Brentano, Prof., on Socialism in U.S., 269 + +Briand, Aristide, 78, 81, 91, 97; + became Prime Minister, 97; + program of legislation, 98; + and the railway strike, 99-104 + +Brousse, 76, 105 + +Brussels, city of refuge, 122; + demonstrations in, 127, 128, 139-140; + Maison du Peuple of, 144 + +Burns, John, 215; + in cabinet, 228, 234; + on right to work, 244; + on Socialism in U.S., 268 + + +Cabet, 23 + +Carlyle, on Chartist movement, 52 + +"C.G.T." _See_ Syndicalists and Syndicalism + +Chartist movement, 51-54, 208 + +Christian Socialism, 9, 221-222 + +Christian Social Union, 221 + +Church Socialist League, 222 + +Class basis of Socialism, 1-6, 15, 35. + _See also_ Marx + +Class interests, illusion of, 253-254 + +Class War, Guesdists on the, 85 + +Class War and Syndicalists, 106-107 + +Clémenceau, debate with Jaurès, 92, 94; + on post-office strike, 96-97 + +Clerical Party in Belgium, 129, 134, 135, 136, 308; + in Germany, 200. + _See also_ political parties + +Colin, co-operative movement started by, 122 + +"Collectivism," origin of word, 339 + +Communal Program of Bavarian Socialists, 301; + of Belgian Socialists, 314 + +Communist League, the, 56 + +Communist Manifesto, 13, 56-61 + +Compère-Morel, 115-116 + +Competition and the Socialist theory, 11, 35 + +Co-operation, 11; + in Belgium, _see_ Belgium; + in England, 217-218; + _see also_ England; + statistics of, 308, 309 + + +Davidson, Thomas, 220 + +Democracy and Socialism, 42, 43; + spread of, by Socialists, 257 + +Democratic revolutions, 26-55; + in Germany, 146-148 + +Dennis, Prof. Hector, 142 + +Development Act (Eng.), 233 + +Dicey, Prof., on the Liberal and Socialist parties, 230 + +Dockers' strike, 215 + +Dreyfus affair, 84-90 + + +Eisenach Program, 157-158 + +Election laws, German, 293-294 + +Electoral reform. _See_ Saxony, Prussia, "Free Cities," Chartist Movement + +Ely, Prof. R.T., conservation in U.S., 269 + +Emperor William's life attempted, 159-160 + +Engels, Frederick, 50, 52, 56-61; + on English police, 245; + on changes in revolutionary ideals, 255 + +England, growth of Socialism in, 315; + thrift institutions in, 318; + Socialism in, 207-249; + character of Socialism in, 211-212. + _See also_ Chartist movement; Engels; Industrial Revolution; + Insurance Bill; Labor Party; Labor Exchange Act; Land System; + Liberal Party; Lords, House of + +English, characteristics of the, 209-211; + income of the, 213-214 + +Erfurt Program, 191; + dissatisfaction with, 192-194 + + +Fabian Society, origin, 220-221; + famous members, 220-221; + attitude toward constitutionalism, 248; + basis of, 327; + an election address of, 335; + an election dodger of, 337 + +Feudalism, class ideals of, 43, 44, 45; + in Germany, 147 + +Feuerbach, 31-32 + +Fourier, 19-22, 24 + +France, Revolution of 1848, 47; + commune of 1871, 49, 61; + Socialist Party of, 75-117; + factions in Socialist Party, 76-78; + "United Socialists," 77, 78; + Socialist Radicals, 78; + the "Bloc," 84, 85; + labor unions in, 77; + post-office strike in, 94-97; + railway strike in, 98-99; + local Socialism in, 112-113; + government of, 280-281 + +France, Anatole, 117 + +Frank, Dr., on the Baden budget, 196-198; + on the intellectual classes and Socialism, 254 + +"Free Cities," election laws in, 183 + +French Revolution, 42 + + +Gambetta, 79 + +General strike, 256; + in Belgium, 126, 131, 138, 143 + +George, Henry, 220 + +George, Lloyd, 232; + budget of, 236-238; + Insurance Bill of, 240-241; + flays Keir Hardie, 245 + +Germany, Social Democracy in, 146-170; + revolution in, 46; + character of government in, 147; + the new Empire, 158; + most "socialized" country, 169-190; + labor unions in, 171-175; + party representation in Reichstag, 297; + vote of all parties in, 296; + political parties in, 292-293. + _See also_ "Free Cities;" Suffrage; Progressists; Labor + Organizations; Liberal Party + +Gneist, Prof., and Anti-Socialist law, 162 + +Godin, J., 21 + +Godwin, 24 + +Guesde, Jules, 75, 76, 81, 85, 87, 105, 106 + +Guise, community at, 21 + + +Hardie, Keir, 222, + and Development Act, 234, 243; + on using military during strike, 245; + on goal of Socialism, 247 + +Hasselman, 158; + expelled from Social Democratic Party, 166 + +Hegel, 23, 31 + +Hegelians, Young, 31, 50 + +Hervé, Gustave, 110, 112 + +Hobhouse, Prof., 247 + +Hyndman, H.M., 219 + + +I.L.P., organization of, 222, 243; + on Liberal coalition, 243-244; + attitude on Insurance Bill, 244; + constitution and by-laws, 322 + +Industrial revolution, 43; + change in social ideals, 44, 45; + violence of first days, 45; + in England, 207-209 + +Insurance Bill (Eng.), 240-241 + +International, the, 56; + "Old International," 56-69; + "New International," 69-74; + Amsterdam Congress of, 228 + +International Socialist Bureau, 72, 74 + +International Socialist Statistics, 339, 340 + +International Workingmen's Association, 71 + + +Jaurès, Jean, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 87, 100; + leader of "Bloc," 90-91; + debate with Clémenceau, 92-93; + in Amsterdam Congress, 228; + on difference between Socialism and Democracy, 265; + on Socialism in U.S., 268 + + +Kaiser, the, and German Social Democrats, 180, 181 + +Kautsky, K., 50, 85; + on Revisionism, 192-193; + on Amsterdam Congress, 228 + +Kingsley, 212 + + +Labor Exchange Act (England), 233 + +Labor Organization in France, 104; + in Germany, 150-151, 171-175 + +Labor Party, English, 74, 274, 223-225, 226, 227-232, 228, 231, 241, 242; + Program of, 318, 334 + +Labor Party, the first, 75; + in Belgium, _see_ Belgium; + Program of, 309 + +Labor Questions and Socialism, 258 + +Labor unions in Belgium, political activity of, 308. + _See also_ Belgium + +Labor unions in England. _See_ Trades Unions + +Labor unions in France. _See_ Bourse du Travail, and Syndicats + +Labor unions in Germany, 295. + _See also_ Germany + +Land system of England, 236-237 + +Lassalle, 147-155, 185; + Leipzig address, 152; + General Workingman's Association, 152-154; + influence on German Social Democracy, 154 + +League of the Just, 56-57, 69 + +Ledebour, on ministerial responsibility, 189 + +Legislation, advocated by Socialists, in Germany, _see_ Social + Democratic Party; + in England, 231-241 + +Liberal Party, in Germany, 146-148, 150, 151; + in England, 226, 227, 228, 230-231, 242-245 + +Liebknecht, 70, 155, 156, 157, 158, 163; + in Reichstag, 166; + arrested, 167; + on party tactics, 186; + on Erfurt Program, 191 + +London, progress in, 235 + +Lords, House of, an issue, 237-239, 240 + + +MacDonald, J. Ramsay, on I.L.P., 245-247; + on Democracy, 254-255 + +Mazzini, 54, 61, 62 + +McCarthy, Justin, on Chartism, 52 + +Marx, Karl, 9, 32, 38, 39; + theories of 32-36; + formulæ of, "capital," 37-38; + influence on Socialist movement, 39-40; + criticism of, 40, 41; + theory of Revolution, 43; + on German revolution, 47, 48, 49; + on the Commune, 49, 69; + the Communist Manifesto, 56-61; + "address" and "statutes" of the "Old International," 62, 63, 67, 68; + at The Hague, 64; + present influence in Germany, 194 + +Marxian influence in the International, 69-71 + +Marxians and the Possibilists, 85, 91 + +Marxians in England, 219, 317 + +Maurice, 212 + +Menger, Adolph, critique of Marxianism, 40-41 + +Mill, John Stuart, 10 + +Millerand, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 91; + at St. Mandé, 82; + Program of, 88-90; + expelled from Socialist Party, 87; + on railway strike, 101, 102; + on ideals of Socialism, 6. + +Militarism, and the International, 72-74; + and the Syndicalists, 108-109 + +Money, Chiozza, 213, 214, 215, 236 + +Morley, Lord, on new Liberalism, 230 + +Morris, Wm., 9, 219; + on Whigs, 229 + +Most, Herr, in Reichstag, 158; + expelled from Socialist Party, 166 + +Munich, Socialist activity in, 204-206 + +Municipal Socialism in France, 112-115; + in Germany, 204-206 + + +Old Age Pensions, 101 + +Osborne Judgment, the, 217 + +Owen, Robert, 6, 8, 21-23, 25; + Rochdale, 27 + + +Paepe, Cæsar de, 122 + +Paris, Commune. _See_ Commune. First meeting of "New International," 69-71 + +Parliament Bill, 238-240 + +Peasantry, French, 115-116; + Belgian, 142-143 + +Possibilists, 70 + +Poverty and Socialism, 10-11; + in England, 213-215; + in Belgium, _see_ Belgium + +Progressists, in Belgium, 128, 129; + in Germany, 151, 162, 190 + +Proudhon, 28-31, 62 + +Proudhonism in England, 106 + +Prussia, election laws, 183 + + +Réformistes, in France, _see_ Millerand, Briand; + in Germany, 192-193 + +Revisionist controversy in Germany, 192-193 + +Revolution, social, 12, 13, 255, 256; + modern idea, 53 + +Revolutionary era, 26-55 + +Rodbertus, 150, 153, 155 + +Rosebery, Lord, 229 + +Rousseau, 42 + +Ruskin, 212 + + +Sabotage, 96, 100, 101, 102, 104, 108 + +Sachsen-Altenburg, election law, 294 + +Saint-Simon, 17-19, 23 + +Saxe-Weimar, election law, 294 + +Saxony, new election law, 182, 293 + +Schultze-Delitsch, 150 + +Shaw, G.B., 220, 240, 247 + +Simiyan, on French post-office strike, 95 + +Small Holdings Act, 234, 235 + +Social Democratic Federation, (English), 219, 220, 317, 330 + +Social Democratic Party (German), 175-190; + discipline, 177-179; + attitude of government towards, 179-181; + change in temper, 186-204; + attitude towards legislation, 186-191; + first bill in Reichstag, 187; + attitude on state insurance, 188; + present temper, 191; + program of, 191, 198, 199, 297; + attitude towards other parties, 194, 199; + election address of, 303 + +Socialism, ideals of, 6-10; + theories, 11; + development of, 17; + political awakening of, 42; + modern conception of revolution, 51; + what is, 62, 63; + changes in, 250; + illusions of, 253; + in different countries, 257; + limits of, 262; + characteristics of present, 262-266; + in Parliaments, 251; + what it has accomplished, 257-260; + nature of its demands, 261-262; + difference between Socialism and Democracy, 265-266; + when the word was first used, 23 + +Socialist officers, list of, 340 + +Socialist Party, membership of, 340 + +Socialist vote in leading countries, 339 + +Sorel, Georges, 107 + +South Germany budget controversy, 159-199 + +State, increased functions of, 259-260 + +State Insurance, opposed by Socialists, 167; + attitude of present-day Socialists, 188; + in Germany, 169, 170; + statistics, 295; + _see also_ Bismarck + +Südekum, Dr., on nature of Social Democratic Party, 199 + +Suffrage, struggle for, in Belgium, 124-133; + electoral laws of Belgium, 132-136; + struggle for, in Germany, 146, 182-185 + +Syndicalism, 94, 107-110, 96-98, 99-102, 105-106, 256 + + +Taff Vale decision, 216-217, 232 + +Thiers, President, 75 + +Town Planning Act, 234, 235 + +Trades Disputes Act, 232 + +Trades Unions, English, and the International, 62, 67, 69; + characteristics, 215, 216, 217, 218; + and Socialism, 69, 72; + and Syndicalism, 108 + +Transportation strike, England, 244, 245 + + +United Socialist Party of France, Basis of Union, 289; + U.S., Socialism in, 266-270; + Socialist vote in, 268; + platform of Socialists in U.S., 341 + + +Vaillant, 81, 82, 100 + +Vandervelde, 118, 134, 137, 138, 142, 143 + +Villiers, Brougham, 247-248 + +Viviani, 78, 91, 101 + +Von Kettler, Baron, Bishop of Mayence, 153, 172 + +Von Vollmar, 181, 193, 195, 200, 203, 204 + + +Waldeck-Rousseau, 79, 84, 85 + +Webb, Sidney, 220, 221, 234, 242 + +Weitling, Wm., 7 + +Wells, H.C., 10 + +Wescott, Dr., Bishop of Durham, 221 + +Workingmen's Association of Lassalle, 154, 156, 157, 158 + +Workingmen's Compensation Act (England), 233 + + +Yvetot on Syndicalism, 108, 109 + + + + +MEN VS. 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margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Socialism and Democracy in Europe, by Samuel P. Orth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Socialism and Democracy in Europe + +Author: Samuel P. Orth + +Release Date: March 13, 2011 [EBook #35572] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE *** + + + + +Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<br /> +<p class="noin">Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.</p> +<p class="noin" style="text-align: left;">Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. +For a complete list, please see the <span style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="#TN">end of this document</a>.</span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/cover.jpg" width="45%" alt="Cover" /> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + + +<h1>SOCIALISM AND<br /> + DEMOCRACY IN<br /> + EUROPE</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>By</h4> + +<h2>SAMUEL P. ORTH, <span class="sc">Ph.D.</span></h2> + +<h5><i>Author of "Five American Politicians" "Centralization of<br /> +Administration in Ohio," etc.</i></h5> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/deco.png" width="10%" alt="Publisher's Mark" /> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>NEW YORK<br /> +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY<br /> +1913</h4> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4><span class="sc">Copyright, 1913</span><br /> +by<br /> +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Published January, 1913</h4> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS<br /> +RAHWAY, N.J.</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>It is becoming more and more evident that democracy has served only +the first years of its apprenticeship. Political problems have served +only to introduce popular government. The economic problems now +rushing upon us will bring the real test of democracy.</p> + +<p>The workingman has taken an advanced place in the struggle for the +democratization of industry. He has done so, first, through the +organization of labor unions; secondly, through the development of +political parties—labor parties. The blend of politics and economics +which he affects is loosely called Socialism. The term is as +indefinite in meaning as it is potent in influence. It has spread its +unctuous doctrines over every industrial land, and its representatives +sit in every important parliament, including our Congress.</p> + +<p>Such a movement requires careful consideration from every point of +view.</p> + +<p>It is the object of this volume to trace briefly the growth of the +movement in four leading European countries, and to attempt to +determine the relation of economic and political Socialism to +democracy—a question of peculiar interest to the friends of the +American Republic at this time.</p> + +<p>In preparing this volume, the author has made extended visits to the +countries studied. He has tried to catch the spirit of the movement by +personal contact with the Socialist leaders and their antagonists, +and by many interviews with laboring men, the rank and file in every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span> +country visited.</p> + +<p>Everywhere he was received with the greatest cordiality, and he wishes +here to express his appreciation of these many kindnesses.</p> + +<p>He wishes especially to acknowledge his obligations to the following +gentlemen: Mr. Graham Wallas of the University of London; Mr. W.G. +Towler of the London Municipal Society; Mr. John Hobson of London, and +Mr. J.S. Middleton, assistant secretary of the Labor Party; to Dr. +Robert Herz and Prof. Charles Gide of the University of Paris; Dr. +Albert Thomas and M. Adolphe Landry of the Chamber of Deputies; M. +Jean Longuet, editor of <i>L'Humanité</i>; to Dr. Franz Oppenheimer of the +University of Berlin; Dr. Südekum of the Reichstag; Dr. Hilferding, +editor of <i>Vorwärts</i>; Prof. T.H. Norton, American Consul at Chemnitz; +M. Camille Huysmans, secretary of the "International," Brussels; as +well as to many American friends for providing letters of introduction +which opened many useful and congenial doorways.</p> + +<p class="right">S.P.O.</p> + +<p>January, 1913.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdr" width="10%" style="font-size: 80%;">CHAPTER</td> + <td class="tdl" width="70%"> </td> + <td class="tdr" width="20%" style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">I.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Why Does Socialism Exist?</a></td> + <td class="tdr">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">II.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">The Development of Socialism</a></td> + <td class="tdr">17</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">III.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">The Political Awakening of Socialism—The Period of Revolution</a></td> + <td class="tdr">42</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">IV.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">The Political Awakening of Socialism—The International</a></td> + <td class="tdr">56</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">V.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">The Socialist Party of France</a></td> + <td class="tdr">75</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VI.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">The Belgian Labor Party</a></td> + <td class="tdr">118</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">The German Social Democracy</a></td> + <td class="tdr">146</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VIII.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">German Social Democracy and Labor Unions</a></td> + <td class="tdr">171</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">IX.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">The English Labor Party</a></td> + <td class="tdr">207</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">X.</td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Conclusion</a></td> + <td class="tdr">250</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#APPENDIX">Appendix</a></td> + <td class="tdr">273</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></td> + <td class="tdr">347</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1>SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<h3>INTRODUCTION—WHY DOES SOCIALISM EXIST?<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The answer to this question will bring us nearer to the core of the +social movement than any attempted definition. The French Socialist +program begins with the assertion, "Socialism is a question of class." +Class distinction is the generator of Socialism.</p> + +<p>The ordinary social triptych—upper, middle, and lower classes—will +not suffice us in our inquiry. We must distinguish between the +functions of the classes. The upper class is a remnant of the feudal +days, of the manorial times, when land-holding brought with it social +distinction and political prerogative. In this sense we have no upper +class in America. The middle class is composed of the business and +professional element, and the lower class of the wage-earning element.</p> + +<p>There are two words, as yet quite unfamiliar to American readers, +which are met with constantly in European works on Socialism and are +heard on every hand in political discussions—<i>proletariat</i> and +<i>bourgeois</i>. The proletariat are the wage-earning class, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>poor, +the underlings. The bourgeois<a name="FNanchor_1-1_1" id="FNanchor_1-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> are roughly the middle class. The +French divide them into <i>petits</i> bourgeois and <i>grands</i> bourgeois. +Werner Sombart divides them into lower middle class, the manual +laborers who represent the guild system, and bourgeoisie, the +representatives of the capitalistic system.<a name="FNanchor_2-1_2" id="FNanchor_2-1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-1_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>It will thus be seen that these divisions have a historical basis. The +upper class reflect the days of feudalism, of governmental prerogative +and aristocracy. The middle class are the representatives of the guild +and mercantile systems, when hand labor and later business acumen +brought power and wealth to the craftsman and adventurer. The lower +class are the homologues of the slaves, the serfs, the toilers, whose +reward has constantly been measured by the standard of bare existence. +Socialism arises consciously out of the efforts of this class to win +for itself a share of the powers of the other classes. It is necessary +to understand that while this class distinction is historic in origin +it is essentially economic in fact. It is not "social"; a middle-class +millionaire may be congenial to the social circles of the high-born. +It is not political; a workingman may vote with any party he chooses. +He may ally himself with the conservative Center as he sometimes does +in Germany, or with the Liberal Party as he sometimes does in England, +or with either of the old parties as he does in the United <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>States. On +the other hand, a bourgeois may be a Socialist and vote with the +proletarians. Indeed, many of the Socialist leaders belong to the +well-to-do middle class.</p> + +<p>This class distinction, then, is economic. It is a distinction of +function, the function of the capitalist and the function of the +wage-earner. Let us go one step further; it is a distinction in +property. The possessor of private wealth can become a capitalist by +investing his money in productive enterprise. He then becomes the +employer of labor. There are all grades of capitalists, from the +master wagon-maker who works by the side of his one or two workmen, to +the "captain" of a vast industry that gives employment to thousands of +men and turns out a wagon a minute.</p> + +<p>The institution of private property is the basis of Socialism because +it is the basis of capitalistic production. It places in one man's +hands the power of owning raw material, machinery, land, factory, and +finished product; and the power of hiring men to operate the +machinery, and to convert the raw material into marketable wares. As +long as this power was limited to hand industry the proletarian +movement was abortive. When the industrial revolution linked the +ingenuity of man to the power of nature it so multiplied the potency +of the possessor that the proletarian movement by stress of +circumstances became a great factor in industrial life.</p> + +<p>While the possession either of wealth or family tradition was always +the basis of class distinction, the industrial revolution brought with +it the enormously multiplied power of capital and the glorification of +riches. The proletarians multiplied rapidly in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>number, and all the +evils of sharp class distinction were heightened. In all lands where +capitalistic production spread, the two classes grew farther apart, +the distinction between possessor and wage-earner increased.</p> + +<p>It is not the mere possession of wealth, however, which forms the +animus of the Socialist movement. It is probably not even the abuse of +this wealth, although this is a large factor in the problem. It is the +psychological effect of the capitalist system that is the real +enginery of Socialism. It is the class feeling, the consciousness of +the workingman that he is contributing muscle and blood and sweat to +the perfection of an article whose possession he does not share. This +feeling is aroused by the contrasts of life that the worker constantly +sees around him. He feels that his own life energy has contributed to +the magnificent equipages and the palatial luxuries of his employer. +He compares his own lot and that of his family with the lot of the +capitalist. This feeling of envy is not blunted by the kaleidoscopic +suddenness with which changes of fortune can take place in America +to-day. By some stroke of luck or piece of ingenious planning, a +receiver of wages to-day may be the giver of wages to-morrow.</p> + +<p>Nor does the spread of education and intelligence dull the contrasts. +It greatly heightens them. The workman can now begin to analyze the +conditions under which he lives. He ponders over the distinctions that +are actual and contrasts them with his imagined utopia. To him the +differences between employer and employee are not natural. He does not +attribute them to any fault or shortcoming or inferiority of his own, +nor of his master, but to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>flaw in the organization of society. The +social order is wrong.</p> + +<p>The workingman has become the critic. Here you have the heart of +Socialism. Whatever form its outward aspect may take, at heart it is a +rebellion against things as they are. And whatever may be the +syllogisms of its logic, or the formularies of its philosophy, they +all begin with a grievance, that things as they are are wrong; and +they all end in a hope for a better society of to-morrow where the +inequalities shall somehow be made right.</p> + +<p>In his struggle toward a new economic ideal, the proletarian has +achieved a class homogeneity and self-consciousness. The individuality +that is denied him in industry he has sought and found among his own +brethren. In the great factory he loses even his name and becomes +number so-and-so. In his union and in his party he asserts his +individuality with a grim and impressive stubbornness. The gravitation +of common ideals and common protests draws these forgotten particles +of industrialism into a massed consciousness that is to-day one of the +world's great potencies. The very fact that we call this body of +workers "the masses" is significant. We speak of them as a geologist +speaks of his "basement complex." We recognize unconsciously that they +form the foundation of our economic life.</p> + +<p>The class struggle, then, is between two clearly defined and +self-conscious elements in modern industrial life that are the natural +product of our machine industry. On the one hand is the business man +pursuing with fevered energy the profits that are the goal of his +activity; on the other hand are the workingmen who, more and more +sullen in their discontent, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>are clamoring louder each year for a +greater share of the wealth they believe their toil creates.</p> + +<p>There is some reason to believe that this class basis of Socialism is +vanishing. In England J. Ramsay MacDonald denies its significance.<a name="FNanchor_3-1_3" id="FNanchor_3-1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-1_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +Revisionists and progressive Socialists, who are throwing aside the +Marxian dogmas, are also preaching the universality of the Socialist +conception. However, the economic factor based on class functions +remains the essence of the social movement.<a name="FNanchor_4-1_4" id="FNanchor_4-1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-1_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>What are the ideals of Socialism? They are not merely economic or +social, they embrace all life. After one has taken the pains to read +the more important mass of Socialist literature, books, pamphlets, and +some current newspapers and magazines, and has listened to their +orators and talked with their leaders, confusion still remains in the +mind. The movement is so all-embracing that it has no clearly defined +limits. The Socialists are feeling their way from protest into +practice. Their heads are in the clouds; of this you are certain as +you proceed through their books and listen to their speeches. But are +their feet upon the earth?</p> + +<p>For a literature of protest against "suffering, misery, and +injustice," as Owen calls it, there is a wonderful buoyancy and hope +in their words. It is one of the secrets of its power that Socialism +is not the energy of despair. It is the demand for the right to live +fully, joyfully, and in comfort. The Socialists <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>demand ozone in their +air, nutrition in their food, heartiness in their laughter, ease in +their homes, and their days must have hours of relaxation.</p> + +<p>The awakening aspirations of the proletarian were expressed by one of +their own number, William Weitling, a tailor of Magdeburg. He +afterwards migrated to America and became one of our first Socialist +agitators. His book is called <i>Garantieen der Harmonie und Freiheit</i> +(Guaranties of Harmony and Liberty). The book is illogical, full of +contradictions, and all of the errors of a child's reasoning. But it +remains the workingman's classic philippic, one of the most trenchant +recitals of social wrongs, because it blends, with the illogical +terminology of sentimentalism, the assurance of hope. "Property," he +says, "is the root of all evil." Gold is the symbol of this world of +wrongs. "We have become as accustomed to our coppers as the devil to +his hell." When the rule of gold shall cease, then "the teardrops +which are the tokens of true brotherliness will return to the dry eyes +of the selfish, the soul of the evildoer will be filled with noble and +virtuous sentiments such as he had never known before, and the impious +ones who have hitherto denied God will sing His praise." The humble +tailor is assured that the reign of property will be terminated and +the age of humanity begin, and he calls to the workingman, "Forward, +brethren; with the curse of Mammon on our lips, let us await the hour +of our emancipation, when our tears will be transmuted into pearls of +dew, our earth transformed into a paradise, and all of mankind united +into one happy family."<a name="FNanchor_5-1_5" id="FNanchor_5-1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-1_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Nor is the closing cry of his book <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>without +an element of prophecy. He addresses the "mighty ones of this earth," +admonishing them that they may secure the fame of Alexander and +Napoleon by the deeds of emancipation which lie in their power. "But +if you compel us (the proletarians) to undertake the task alone with +our raw material, then it will be accomplished only after weary toil +and pain to us and to you."</p> + +<p>Let us turn to Robert Owen, who was at an early age the most +successful cotton spinner in England. He adapted an old philosophy to +a new humanitarianism. He saw that a "gradual increase in the number +of our paupers has accompanied our increasing wealth."<a name="FNanchor_6-1_6" id="FNanchor_6-1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-1_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> He began the +series of experiments which made his name familiar in England and +America and made him known in history as the greatest experimental +communist. His experiments have failed. But his hopefulness persists. +In his address delivered at the dedication of New Lanark, 1816, he +said that he had found plenty of unhappiness and plenty of misery. +"But from this day a change must take place; a new era must commence; +the human intellect, through the whole extent of the earth, hitherto +enveloped by the grossest ignorance and superstition, must begin to be +released from its state of darkness; nor shall nourishment henceforth +be given to the seeds of disunion and division among men. For the time +has come when the means may be prepared to train all the nations of +the world in that knowledge which shall <i>impel them not only to love +but to be actively kind to each other in the whole of their conduct, +without a single exception</i>."</p> + +<p>Here is an all-inclusive hopefulness. Its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>significance is not +diminished by the fact that it was spoken of his own peculiar remedy +by education and environment.</p> + +<p>This faith and hope runs through all their books like a golden song. +Excepting Marx, he was the great gloomy one. Even those who condemn +modern society with the most scathing adjectives link with their +denunciations the most sanguine sentences of hope.</p> + +<p>The Christian Socialism of Kingsley is filled with optimism. "Look up, +my brother Christians, open your eyes, the hour of a new crusade has +struck."<a name="FNanchor_7-1_7" id="FNanchor_7-1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-1_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The song of the new crusade was sung by Robert Morris:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Come, shoulder to shoulder ere the world grows older!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Help lies in naught but thee and me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hope is before us, the long years that bore us,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bore leaders more than men may be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Let dead hearts tarry and trade and marry,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And trembling nurse their dreams of mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While we, the living, our lives are giving<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To bring the bright new world to birth."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This song of hope is sung to-day by thousands of marching Socialists. +Their bitter experiences in parliaments and in strikes, and all the +warfare of politics and trade, have not blighted their rosy hope. They +are still looking forward to "the bright new world," in which a new +social order shall reign.</p> + +<p>Linked with this optimism is a certain prophetic tone, an elevation of +spirit that lifts some of their books out of the commonplace. The +sincerity of these prophets of Socialism contributes this quality more +than does their originality of mind.</p> + +<p>In their search for happiness the Socialists see a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>great barrier in +their way. The barrier is want, poverty. There are no greater +contrasts, mental and temperamental, than between John Stuart Mill, +the erudite economist and philosopher, and H.G. Wells, the romancer +and sentimental critic of things as they are. Both begin their attacks +upon the social order at the same point—the vulnerable spot, +<i>poverty</i>. Mill places it first in his category of existing evils. He +asks, "What proportion of the population in the most civilized +countries of Europe enjoy, in their own person, anything worth naming +of the benefits of property?" "Suffice it to say that the condition of +numbers in civilized Europe, and even in England and France, is more +wretched than that of most tribes of savages who are known to us."<a name="FNanchor_8-1_8" id="FNanchor_8-1_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-1_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Wells bases his racy criticism in his popular book, <i>New Worlds for +Old</i>, on the facts revealed in the reports of various charity +organizations in Edinburgh, York, and London. To both the exacting +economist and the popular expositor of Socialism, poverty is the +glaring fault of our social system. To Wells poverty is an "atrocious +failure in statesmanship."<a name="FNanchor_9-1_9" id="FNanchor_9-1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-1_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> To Mill it is "<i>pro tanto</i> a failure of +the social arrangement."<a name="FNanchor_10-1_10" id="FNanchor_10-1_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-1_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>These examples are typical. Every school of Socialism finds in poverty +the curse, in private property the cause, of human misery, and in a +readjusted machinery of social production the hope of human +betterment.</p> + +<p>All Socialists, learned and unlearned, agree that poverty is the +stumbling-block in the pathway to better social conditions. They all +agree as to the causes of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>poverty: first, private capitalistic +production; second, competition. It is private capitalistic production +that enables the employer to pocket all the profits; it is competition +that enables him to buy labor in an open market at the lowest possible +price, a price regulated by the necessities of bare existence. To the +Socialist, competition is anarchy, an anarchy that leaves "every man +free to ruin himself so that he may ruin another."<a name="FNanchor_11-1_11" id="FNanchor_11-1_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11-1_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>To do away with private capital and to abolish competition means +bringing about a tremendous change in society. All Socialists +unhesitatingly and with boldness are ready, even eager, to make such a +change. The problem is not insuperable to them.</p> + +<p>The three theories that underlie Socialism permit the hope of the +possibility of a social regeneration. These theories are, first, that +God made the world good, hence all you need to do is to revert to this +pristine goodness and the world is reformed. Second, that society is +what it is through evolution. If this is true then it is only +necessary to control by environment the factors of evolution and the +product will be preordained. Third, that even if man is bad and has +permitted pernicious institutions like private property to exist, he +can remake society by a bold effort, i.e., by revolution, because all +social power is vested in man and he can do as he likes. The ruling +class can impose its social order upon all. When the Socialist becomes +the ruling class his social system will be adopted.</p> + +<p>This great change which the Socialist has in mind means the +substitution of co-operation for competition and the placing of +productive property in the care of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>the state or of society, instead +of letting it remain under the domination of individuals. To abolish +private productive capital by making it public, to establish a +communistic instead of a competitive society, that is the object.</p> + +<p>In the Socialist's new order of society, where poverty will be +unknown, there is to be a common bond. This bond is not possession, +but work. With glowing exultation all the expositors and exhorters of +the proletarian movement dwell upon the blessedness of toil. They +glorify man, not through his inheritance of personality, certainly not +through his possession of things, but through his achievements of +toil.</p> + +<p>When all members of society work at useful occupations, then all the +necessary things can be done in a few hours. Six or four, or some even +say two, hours a day will be sufficient to do all the drudgery and the +essential things in a well-organized human beehive. There is to be +nothing morose or despondent in this toil. It is all to be done to the +melody of good cheer and willingness.</p> + +<p>How is this great change to come about, and what is to be the exact +organization of society under this regime of work and co-operation? +Here unanimity ceases. As a criticism Socialism is unanimous, as a +method it is divided, as a reconstructive process it is hopelessly at +sea.</p> + +<p>At first Socialists were utopians, then they became revolutionists. +This was natural. Socialism was born in an air of revolution—the +political revolutions of the bourgeois, and the infinitely greater +industrial revolution. The tides of change and passion were rocking +the foundations of state and industry. The evils in early +industrialism were abhorrent. Small <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>children and their mothers were +forced into factories, pauperism was thriving, the ugly machine-fed +towns were replacing the quaint and cheerful villages, rulers were +forgetting their duties in their greed for gain, and the state was +persecuting men for their political and economic opinions. Every face +was turned against the preachers of the new order, and they naturally +thought that the change could be brought about only by violence and +revolution. Louis Blanc said "a social revolution ought to be tried:</p> + +<p>"Firstly, because the present social system is too full of iniquity, +misery, and turpitude to exist much longer.</p> + +<p>"Secondly, because there is no one who is not interested, whatever his +position, rank, and fortune, in the inauguration of a new social +system.</p> + +<p>"Thirdly, and lastly, because this revolution, so necessary, is +possible, even easy to accomplish peacefully."<a name="FNanchor_12-1_12" id="FNanchor_12-1_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12-1_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>These are the naïve words of a young man of thirty-seven, the youngest +member of the ill-fated revolutionary government of France in 1848. +Not every one thought that the revolution could be peacefully +accomplished, and, it must be admitted, few seemed to care.</p> + +<p>In their "Communist Manifesto," the most noted of all Socialist +broadsides, Marx and Engels know of no peaceful revolution. They close +with these virile words: "The communists disdain to conceal their +views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained +only by the forcible overthrow of all existing conditions. Let the +ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians +have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>nothing to lose but their chains. They have the world to win. +Workingmen of all countries, unite!"</p> + +<p>These words are often quoted even in these placid days of evolution +that have replaced the red days of violence. The workingmen of all +countries are uniting, as we shall see, not for bloody revolution nor +for the violence of passion, but for the promulgation of peace. To-day +the silent coercion of multitudes is taking the place of the eruptive +methods of the '40's and the '70's.</p> + +<p>As to the ultimate form of organized society, there is nothing but +confusion to be found in the mass of literature that has grown up +around the subject. The earliest writers were cocksure of themselves; +the latest ones bridge over the question with wide-arching +generalities. I have asked many of their leaders to give me some hint +as to what form their Society of To-morrow will take. Every one +dodged. "No one can tell. It will be humanitarian and co-operative."</p> + +<p>If one could be assured of this!</p> + +<p>Finally, all Socialists agree in the instrument of change. It lies at +hand as the greatest co-operative achievement of our race, the state. +It is the common possession of all, and it is the one power that can +lay its hands upon property and compel its obedience. The power of the +state is to be the dynamo of change. This state is naturally to be +democratic. The people shall hold the reins of power in their own +hands.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that every year sees a shifting in the +Socialist's attitude. As he has left the sphere of mere fault-finding +and of dreaming, and has entered politics, entered the labor war +through unions, and the business war through co-operative <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>societies, +he has been compelled to adapt himself to the necessities of things as +they are.</p> + +<p>I have tried briefly to show that Socialism originated as a class +movement, a proletarian movement; that the classes, wage-earner and +capitalist, are the natural outcome of machine production; that +Socialism is one of the natural products of the antagonistic relations +that these two classes at present occupy; that Socialism intends to +eliminate this antagonism by eliminating the private employer. I have +tried to show also that Socialism is a criticism of the present social +order placing the blame for the miseries of society upon the shoulders +of private property and competition; that it is optimistic in spirit, +buoyant in hope; and that its program of reconstruction is confused +and immature.</p> + +<p>Stripped of its glamour, our society is in a neck-to-neck race for +things, for property. Its hideousness has shocked the sensibilities of +dreamers and humanitarians. Our machine industry has produced a +civilization that is ugly. It is natural that the esthetic and +philanthropic members of this society should raise their protest. +Ruskin and Anatole France and Maeterlinck and Carlyle and Robert +Morris and Emerson and Grierson are read with increasing satisfaction. +It is natural that the participants in this death race should utter +their cries of alternate despair and hope. Socialism is the cry of the +toiler. It is not to be ignored. We in America have no conception of +its potency. There are millions of hearts in Europe hanging upon its +precepts for the hope that makes life worth the fight.</p> + +<p>Their Utopia may be only a rainbow, a mirage in the mists on the +horizon. But the energy which it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>has inspired is a reality. It has +organized the largest body of human beings that the world has known. +Its international Socialist movement has but one rival for homogeneity +and zeal, the Church, whose organization at one time embraced all +kingdoms and enlisted the faithful service of princes and paupers.</p> + +<p>It is this reality in its political form which I hope to set forth in +the following pages. We will try to discover what the Socialist +movement is doing in politics, how much of theory has been merged in +political practice, what its everyday parliamentary drudgery is, and, +if possible, to tell in what direction the movement is tending.</p> + +<p>Before we do this it is necessary to state briefly the history of the +underlying theories of the movement.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-1_1" id="Footnote_1-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, +owners of the means of social production, and employers of wage-labor. +By proletariat, the class of modern wage-laborers, who, having no +means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor +power in order to live."—<span class="sc">Frederick Engels</span>, <i>Notes on the +Communist Manifesto</i>, 1888.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-1_2" id="Footnote_2-1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-1_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Sombart</span>, <i>Socialism and the Social +Movement</i>, Introduction, for discussion of the class movement.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-1_3" id="Footnote_3-1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-1_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>The Socialist Movement</i>, p. 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-1_4" id="Footnote_4-1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-1_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The all-embracing character of Socialism was eloquently +phrased by Millerand in 1896: "In its large synthesis Socialism +embraces every manifestation of life, because nothing human is alien +to it, because it alone offers to-day to our hunger for justice and +happiness an ideal, purely human and apart from all dogma." See +<span class="sc">Ensor</span>, <i>Modern Socialism</i>, p. 53.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-1_5" id="Footnote_5-1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-1_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Garantieen der Harmonie und Freiheit</i>, pp. 57-58, +edition of 1845.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-1_6" id="Footnote_6-1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-1_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Letter I, addressed to David Ricardo.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-1_7" id="Footnote_7-1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-1_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Tract No. IV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-1_8" id="Footnote_8-1_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-1_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Socialism</i>, pp. 71-72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-1_9" id="Footnote_9-1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-1_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <span class="sc">Wells</span>, <i>New Worlds for Old</i>, p. 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10-1_10" id="Footnote_10-1_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-1_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <span class="sc">Mill</span>, <i>Socialism</i>, p. 72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11-1_11" id="Footnote_11-1_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11-1_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <span class="sc">Louis Blanc</span>, <i>The Right to Labor</i>, p. 63.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12-1_12" id="Footnote_12-1_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12-1_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Organization of Labor</i>, p. 87, 1847.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h3>THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALISM<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>Socialism began in France, that yeast-pot of civilization. It began +while the Revolution was still filling men's minds with a turbulent +optimism that knew no limit to human "progress."</p> + +<p>Saint-Simon (Count Henri de) may be considered the founder of French +Socialism. He was of noble lineage, born in 1760, and died in 1825. He +took very little part in the French Revolution, but was a soldier in +our Continental army, and always manifested a keen interest in +American affairs. Possessed of an inquiring mind, an ambitious spirit, +and a heart full of sympathy for the oppressed, he devoted himself to +the study of society for the purpose of elaborating a scheme for +universal human betterment.</p> + +<p>Before he began his special studies he amassed a modest fortune in +land speculation. Not that he loved money, he assures us, but because +he wished independence and leisure to do his chosen work. This money +was soon lost, through unfortunate experiments and an unfortunate +marriage, and the most of his days were spent in penury.</p> + +<p>He attracted to himself a number of the most brilliant young men in +France, among them De Lesseps who subsequently carried out one of the +plans of his master, the Suez Canal; and Auguste Comte, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>embodied +in his positivism the philosophical teachings of Saint-Simon.</p> + +<p>Saint-Simon believed that society needed to be entirely reorganized on +a "scientific basis," and that "the whole of society ought to labor +for the amelioration of the moral and physical condition of the +poorest class. Society ought to organize itself in the manner the most +suitable for the attainment of this great end."<a name="FNanchor_1-2_13" id="FNanchor_1-2_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-2_13" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>The two counteracting motives or spirits in society are the spirit of +antagonism and the spirit of association. Hitherto the spirit of +antagonism has prevailed, and misery has resulted. Let the spirit of +association rule, and the evils will vanish.</p> + +<p>Under the rule of antagonism, property has become the possession of +the few, poverty and misery the lot of the many. Both property and +poverty are inherited, therefore the state should abolish all laws of +inheritance, take all property under its dominion, and let society be +the sole proprietor of the instruments of labor and of the fund that +labor creates.</p> + +<p>Through the teachings of Saint-Simon runs a constant stream of +religious fervor. In Christianity he found the moral doctrine that +gave sanction to his social views. He sought the primitive +Christianity, stripped of the dogmas and opinions of the centuries. In +his principal work, <i>Nouveau Christianisme</i> (New Christianity), he +subjects the teachings of Catholicism and Protestantism to ingenious +criticism, and finds in the teachings of Christ the essential moral +elements necessary for a society based on the spirit of association.</p> + +<p>Saint-Simon was a humanitarian rather than a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>systematic thinker. His +analysis of society is ingenious rather than constructive. His +teachings were elaborated by his followers, who organized themselves +into a school called the "Sacred College of the Apostles," with Bazard +and Enfantin as their leaders. They were accused, in the Chamber of +Deputies, of promulgating communism of property and wives. Their +defense, dated October, 1830, and issued as a booklet, is the best +exposition of their views. They said that: "We demand that land, +capital, and all the instruments of labor shall become common +property, and be so managed that each one's portion shall correspond +to his capacity, and his reward to his labors." "Like the early +Christians, we demand that one man should be united to one woman, but +we teach that the wife should be the equal of the husband."</p> + +<p>On the question of marriage, however, the sect split soon after this +defense was written. Enfantin became a defender of free love, and +inaugurated a fantastic sacerdotalism which drove Bazard from the +"Sacred College."<a name="FNanchor_2-2_14" id="FNanchor_2-2_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-2_14" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>The second French social philosopher of the Utopian school was +François Marie Charles Fourier (1772-1837). He was a bourgeois, son of +a draper, and brought as keen an intellect as did his noble +fellow-countryman, Saint-Simon, to the analysis of society, and a much +more practical experience. In his youth he had been employed in +various business <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>enterprises. He recalls, in his works, several +experiences which he never forgot. As a lad, he was reproached for +telling a prospective customer the truth about some goods in his +father's shop. When a young man of twenty-seven he was sent to +Marseilles to superintend the destruction of great cargoes of rice +that had been held for higher prices, during a period of scarcity of +food when thousands of people were suffering from hunger. The rice had +spoiled in the waiting. The event made so profound an impression upon +his mind that he resolved to devote his life to the betterment of an +economic system that allowed such wanton waste.</p> + +<p>To his mind the problem of rebuilding society was practical, not +metaphysical. But underlying his practical solution was a fantastic +cosmogony and psychology. He reduced everything to a mathematical +system, and even computed the number of years the world would spin on +its axis. He believed that God created a good world, and that man has +desecrated it; that the function of the social reformer is to +understand the design of the Creator, and call mankind back to this +original plan, back to the original impulses and passions, and +primitive goodness.</p> + +<p>This could be done only under ideal environment. Such an environment +he proposed to create in huge caravansaries, which he called +phalansteries. Each group, or phalange, was composed of 400 families, +or 1,800 persons, living on a large square of land, where they could +be self-contained and self-sufficient, like the manors in the feudal +days. The phalanstery was built in the middle of the tract, and was +merely a glorified apartment house. Every one chose to do the work he +liked best. Agriculture and manufacture <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>were to be happily blended, +and individual freedom given full sway. Each phalange was designed to +be an ideal democracy, electing its officers and governing itself. The +principle of freedom was to extend even to marriage and the relation +of the sexes.</p> + +<p>It was Fourier's belief that one such phalange once established would +so impress the world with its superiority that society would be glad +to imitate it. Ere long there would be groups of phalanges +co-operating with each other, and ultimately the whole world would be +brought into one vast federation of phalanges, with their chief center +at Constantinople.</p> + +<p>The general plan of this apartment-house utopia lent itself to all +sorts of fantastic details. It gained adherents among the learned, the +eager, and even the rich, and a number of experiments were tried. All +of these have failed, I think, excepting only the community at Guise, +founded by Jean Godin. Here, however, the fantasies have been +eliminated, and the strong controlling force of the founder has made +it prosperous. There is no agriculture connected with the Guise +establishment.</p> + +<p>A number of Fourier colonies, most of them modifications of his +phalanstery idea, were started in the United States. Of thirty-four +such experiments tried in America all have failed. The most famous of +these attempts was Brook Farm.<a name="FNanchor_3-2_15" id="FNanchor_3-2_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-2_15" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>Robert Owen (1771-1858) was the great English utopian. He was the son +of a small trader. Such was his business ability and tenacity of +character that at nineteen years of age he was superintendent of a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>cotton mill that employed 500 hands. His business acumen soon made him +rich, his philanthropic impulses led him to study the conditions of +the people who worked for him. In 1800 he took charge of the mills at +New Lanark. There he had under him as pitiful and miserable a group of +workmen as can be imagined. The factory system made wretchedness the +common lot of the English workingman of this period. The hours of +labor were intolerably long, the homes of the working people +unutterably squalid, women and tiny children worked all day under the +most unwholesome conditions; vice, drunkenness, and ignorance were +everywhere.</p> + +<p>Owen began as a practical philanthropist. He improved the sanitary +conditions of his mills and town, was the first employer to reasonably +shorten the hours of work, founded primary schools, proposed factory +legislation, and founded the co-operative movement that has grown to +great strength in England. He was one of the powerful men of the +island at this period. He had the enthusiastic support of the queen, +of many nobles, of clergy and scholars. But in a great public meeting +in London he went out of his way to denounce the accepted forms of +religion and declare his independence of all creeds, an offense that +the English people never forgive.</p> + +<p>By this time he had perfected his scheme for social reform. He +proposed to establish communities of 1,000 to 1,200 persons on about +1,500 acres of land. They were to live in an enormous building in the +form of a square, each family to have its own apartments, but kitchen +and dining-room to be in common. Every advantage of work, education, +and leisure was planned for the inmates.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>A number of Owenite communities were founded in England and America. +The one at New Harmony, Ind., was the most pretentious, and in it Owen +sank a large portion of his fortune. None of the experiments survived +their founder.<a name="FNanchor_4-2_16" id="FNanchor_4-2_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-2_16" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>The Utopians were all optimists—the source of their optimism was the +social philosophy that prevailed from the French Revolution to the +middle of the last century. It was the philosophy of an unbounded +faith in the goodness of human nature. A good God made a good world, +and made man capable of attaining goodness and harmony in all his +relations. The evil in the world was contrary to God's plan. It was +introduced by the perversity of society. The source of misery is the +lack of knowledge. If humankind knew the right way of living, knew the +original plan of the Creator, then there would be no misery. You must +find this knowledge, this science, and upon it build society. Hence +they are all seeking a "scientific state of society," and call their +system "scientific." From Rousseau to Hegel, the theory prevailed that +evil is collective, good is individual; society is bad, man is pure.</p> + +<p>Cabet expresses it clearly. "God is perfection, infinite, +all-powerful, is justice and goodness. God is our father, and it +follows that all men are brethren and all are equal, as in one +all-embracing family." "It is evident that, to the fathers of the +Church, Christianity was communism. Communism is nothing other than +true Christianity...." "The regnancy of God, through Jesus, is the +regnancy of perfection, of omniscience, of justice, of goodness, of +paternal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>love; and, it follows, of fraternity, equality, and liberty; +of the unity of community interests, that is of communism (of the +general common welfare), in place of the individual."<a name="FNanchor_5-2_17" id="FNanchor_5-2_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-2_17" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>This edenesque logic was dear to Fourier, who left more profound +traces on modern thought than the fantastic Saint-Simonians.<a name="FNanchor_6-2_18" id="FNanchor_6-2_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-2_18" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>Fourier began with God. "On beholding this mechanism (the world and +human society), or even in making an estimate of its properties, it +will be comprehended that God has done well all that He has done."<a name="FNanchor_7-2_19" id="FNanchor_7-2_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-2_19" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +Man has only to find "God's design" in order to find the true basis of +society; and man's system of industrially parceling out the good +things of life among a few favored ones, is the "antipodes of God's +design." The finding of this design is the function of "exact +science"; man, who has stifled the voice of nature, must now +"vindicate the Creator."<a name="FNanchor_8-2_20" id="FNanchor_8-2_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-2_20" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Saint-Simon's whole system rests on this principle: "God has said that +men ought to act toward each other as brethren." This principle will +regulate society, for "in accordance with this principle, which God +has given to men for the rule of their conduct, they ought to organize +society in the manner the most advantageous to the greatest +number."<a name="FNanchor_9-2_21" id="FNanchor_9-2_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-2_21" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>The social philosophers at the end of the eighteenth century did not +believe that this rightness should be brought about by violence. "What +I should desire," <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>says Godwin, "is not by violence to change its +institutions, but by discussion to change its ideas. I have no +concern, if I would study merely the public good, with factions or +intrigue; but simply to promulgate the truth, and to wait the tranquil +progress of conviction. Let us anxiously refrain from violence."<a name="FNanchor_10-2_22" id="FNanchor_10-2_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-2_22" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Owen, who lived a few decades later, came into contact with the +theories of the succeeding school of thought. His utopianism remained, +however, upon the older basis. He taught that the evils of society +were not inherent in the nature of mankind. The natural state of the +world and of man was good. But the evils "are all the necessary +consequences of ignorance." Therefore, by education and environment he +could "accomplish with ease and certainty the Herculean labor of +forming a rational character in man, and that, too, chiefly before the +child commences the ordinary course of education."<a name="FNanchor_11-2_23" id="FNanchor_11-2_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_11-2_23" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>The Utopians are hopefully seeking the universal law which will +re-form society. This was a natural view of things fundamental, to be +taken by men who had witnessed the political emancipation of the Third +Estate and had seen "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" carved over every +public portal in France, and the abstract principles of justice +debated in parliaments. A feeling of naïve simplicity runs through all +their writings. Just as civil liberty, they believed, had come by the +application of an abstract principle of natural law, so social and +economic freedom would come by the application of one universal +abstract principle of human conduct. From this simplicity came a +violent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>reaction, which reached its climax in the anarchy of +Proudhon.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>The Utopian period of Socialism may be said to end, and the +revolutionary era to begin, with the year 1830. The French Revolution +was a bourgeois uprising. But behind it was the grim and resolute +background of the proletarian mass. When the Third Estate achieved its +victory, it proceeded to monopolize the governmental powers to the +exclusion of its lowly allies. From 1830 to 1850 the ferment of +democratic discontent spread over Europe and forced the demands of the +workingman into the foreground. The first outbreak occurred in France, +in 1831, when the workingmen of Lyons, during a period of distressing +financial depression, marched under the banner, "Live working, or die +fighting," demanding bread for their families and work for themselves. +This second chapter of the development of Socialism begins with a red +letter.</p> + +<p>Louis Blanc (1813-82), the first philosopher of the new movement, +struck out boldly for a democratic organization of the government. +This differentiates him from Fourier and Saint-Simon, and links him +with the leading Socialist writers of our day. He published his +<i>Organisation du Travail</i> (Organization of Labor) in 1839. It +immediately gave him an immense popularity with the working classes. +It is a brilliant book, as fascinating in its phrases as it is +forceful in its denunciation of existing society.</p> + +<p>He said that it is vain to talk of improving mankind morally without +improving them materially. This <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>improvement would not come from +above, from the higher classes. It would come from below, from the +working people themselves. Therefore, a prerequisite of social reform +was democracy. The proletarian must possess the power of the state in +order to emancipate himself from the economic bondage that holds him +in its grasp.</p> + +<p>This democratic state should then establish national workshops, or +associations, which he called "social workshops," the capital to be +provided by the state and the state to supervise their operation. He +believed that, once established, they would soon become +self-supporting and self-governing. The men would choose their own +managers, dispose of their own profits, and take care that this +beneficent system would spread to all communities.</p> + +<p>He was careful to explain that "genius should assert its legitimate +empire"—there must be a hierarchy of ability.</p> + +<p>Louis Blanc believed in revolution as the method of social +advancement. He was himself a leader in the abortive revolution of +1848, the revolt of the people against a weak and careless monarch. As +a member of the provisional government, he may be called the first +Socialist to hold cabinet honors. And, like his successors in modern +cabinets, he accomplished very little towards the bringing in of a new +social order. It is true that national workshops were built by the +French government at his suggestion; but not according to his plans. +His enemies saw to it that they served to bring discredit rather than +honor to the system which he had so carefully elaborated.<a name="FNanchor_12-2_24" id="FNanchor_12-2_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_12-2_24" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>Louis Blanc did not entirely free himself of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>earlier utopian +conception that man was created good and innocent. He blames society +for allowing the individual to do evil. But he does take a step toward +the Marxian materialistic conception when he affirms that man was +created with certain endowments of strength and intellect and that +these endowments should be spent in the welfare of society. The empire +of service, not the "empire of tribute," should be the measure of +man's greatness.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of revolt was carried to its logical extreme by Proudhon +(1809-65). He was the son of a cooper and a peasant maid, and he never +forgot that he sprang from the proletariat. He was a precocious lad, +was a theologian, philologist, and linguist before he undertook the +study of political economy. In 1840 he brought out his notable work, +<i>Qu'est-ce que la Propriété?</i> (What Is Property?), a novel question +for that day, to which he gave an amazing answer, "Property is theft," +ergo "property holders are thieves."</p> + +<p>Proudhon was a man with the brain of a savant and the adjectives of a +peasant. His startling phrases, however, are merely spotlights thrown +on a theory of society which he permeated with a genuine good will. He +was puritanic in moral principle, loyal to his friends, and a despiser +of cant and formalism. But his love for paradoxes carried him beyond +the confines of logic.</p> + +<p>Property is theft, he says, because it reaps without sowing and +consumes without producing. What right has a capitalist to charge me +eight per cent.? None. This eight per cent. does not represent +anything of time or labor value put into the article I am buying. It +is therefore robbery. Private property, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>stronghold of the +individualist, is then to be abolished and a universal communism +established? By no means. Communism is as unnatural as property. +Proudhon had only contempt for the phalanstery and national workshop +of his predecessors. They were impossible, artificial, reduced life to +a monotonous dead level, and encouraged immorality. Property is wrong +because it is the exploitation of the weak by the strong; communism is +equally wrong because it is the exploitation of the strong by the +weak. To this ingenious juggler of paradoxes this was by no means a +dilemma. He resorted to a formula that was later amplified into the +most potent argument of Socialism by Marx. Service pays service, one +day's work balances another day's work, time-labor is the just measure +of value. Hour for hour, day for day, this should be the universal +medium of exchange.</p> + +<p>Proudhon was really directing his attacks against rent and profit +rather than against property. He proposed, as a measure of reform, a +national bank where every one could bring the product of his toil and +receive a paper in exchange denoting the time value of his article. +These slips of paper were to be the medium of exchange capable of +purchasing equal time values. This glorified savage barter he even +proposed to the Constituent Assembly, of which he was a member, and +when it was rejected—only two votes were recorded for it—he tried to +establish it upon private foundations. He failed to raise the +necessary capital and his plan failed.</p> + +<p>Proudhon is the father of modern Anarchy. His exaltation of +individualism led him to the suppression of government. Government, he +taught, is merely the dominance of one man over another, a form of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>intolerable oppression. "The highest perfection of society is found in +the union of order and anarchy."</p> + +<p>For his bitter tirades against property he received the scorn of the +bourgeois, for his attacks upon the government he served three years +in prison, and some years later he escaped a second term for a similar +cause by fleeing to Brussels.</p> + +<p>The ultimate outcome of his individualism was equality, which he +achieved in economics by his theory of time-labor and in politics by +his theory of anarchy.</p> + +<p>One cannot escape the conviction that the outcome of all his brilliant +rhetorical legerdemain is man in a cage. Not man originally pure and +good as the utopians would have him, but man wilful, egoistic, capable +of enslaving his fellows, a very different being from the man of mercy +and love crushed by the collective injustice of society. Proudhon +frees this man from his oppressor and his oppressiveness by creating a +condition of equality through the destruction of property and of +government. But in destroying property he retains possessions, and in +establishing anarchy he maintains order. "Free association, +liberty—whose sole function is to maintain equality—in the means of +production, and equivalence in exchanges, is the only possible, the +only just, the only true form of society."</p> + +<p>"The government of man by man (under whatever name it be disguised) is +oppression. Society finds its highest perfection in the union of order +and anarchy."<a name="FNanchor_13-2_25" id="FNanchor_13-2_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_13-2_25" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>Proudhon has had a large influence on modern Socialism. His trenchant +invectives against property and society are widely copied. From his +utterances <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>on government the Syndicalists of France, Italy, and Spain +have drawn their doctrine. The general strike is the child of his +paradoxes. He wrote as the motto for his most influential book, <i>What +Is Property?</i>, "Destruam et aedificabo" (I will destroy and I will +build again). But, while he pointed the way to destruction, he failed +to reveal a new and better order.</p> + +<p>The way to modern Socialism was paved in Germany. The teaching of +Hegel cleared the way for the political unrest that spread over Europe +in the '40's. Hegel was the proclaimer of the social revolution. He +gave sanction to the tenets of destruction. Everything that exists is +worth destroying, may be taken as the primary postulate at which the +Young Hegelians arrived. Truth does not exist merely in a collection +of institutions or dogmatic axioms that could be memorized like the +alphabet; truth is in the process of being, of knowing, it has +developed through the toilsome evolution of the race, it is found only +in experience. Nothing is sacred merely because it exists. Existing +institutions are only the prelude to other and better institutions +that are to follow. This was roughly the formula that the radical +Hegelians blocked out for themselves when they split from the orthodox +conservatives in the '30's.</p> + +<p>In 1843 appeared Feuerbach's <i>Wesen des Christentums</i> (Essence of +Christianity), putting the seal of materialism upon the precepts of +the Young Hegelians.<a name="FNanchor_14-2_26" id="FNanchor_14-2_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_14-2_26" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The God of the utopians was destroyed. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>Things were not created in harmony and beauty and disordered by man. +Things as they are, are the result of evolution, of growth; nothing +was created as it is, and even "Religion is the dream of the human +mind."<a name="FNanchor_15-2_27" id="FNanchor_15-2_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_15-2_27" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>Out of this atmosphere of philosophical, religious, and political +rebellion sprang the prophet of modern Socialism, Karl Marx,<a name="FNanchor_16-2_28" id="FNanchor_16-2_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_16-2_28" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> a man +whose intellectual endowments place him in the first ranks among +Socialists and link his name with other bold intellects of his age who +have forced the current of human thought. There have been many books +written on Marx, and every phase of his theories has been subjected to +academic and popular scrutiny. His treatise, <i>Capital</i>, is the +sacerdotal book of Socialists. It displays a mass of learning, a +diligence of research, and acumen in the marshaling of ideas, and a +completeness of literary expression that insures it a lasting place in +the literature of social philosophy. Whatever may be said of the +narrow dogmatism, of Marx, of his persistence in making the facts fit +his preconceived notions, of his materialistic conception of history, +or of the technical flaws in his political economy, he will always be +quoted as the founder of modern scientific Socialism and the Socialist +historian of the capitalistic régime.</p> + +<p>I must content myself with a bare statement of his theories.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>The economic basis of Marx is his well-known "Theory of Surplus +Value." It was not his theory in the sense that he originated it. +Economists like Adam Smith and especially Ricardo, Socialists like the +Owenites and the Chartists in England, and Proudhon in France, had +enunciated it; and in Germany Rodbertus, a lawyer and scholar of great +learning, had elaborated it in his first book, published in 1842. +Marx, with German thoroughness, developed this theory in all its +ramifications.</p> + +<p>All economic goods, he said, have value. They have a physical value, +and a value given them by the labor expended on them. Labor is the +common factor of economic values. And the common denominator is the +time that is consumed by the labor. Labor-time, therefore, is the +universal measure of value, the common medium that determines values. +But this labor is acquired in the open labor market by the capitalist +at the lowest possible price, a price whose utmost limit is the bare +cost of living. The reward for his labor is called a wage. This wage +does not by any means measure the value of his services. What, then, +becomes of the "surplus value," the value over and above wages? The +capitalist appropriates it. Indeed, the great aim of the capitalist is +to make this surplus value as big as possible. He measures his success +by his profits.</p> + +<p>"Surplus value," or profit, is, then, a species of robbery; it is +ill-gotten gain, withholding from the workman that which by right of +toil is his.</p> + +<p>How did it come about that society was so organized as to permit this +wholesale wrong upon the largest and most defenseless of its classes? +It is in answer to this question that Marx makes his most notable +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>contribution to Socialistic theory. With great skill, and displaying a +comprehensive knowledge of economic history, especially of English +industrial history, he traces the development of modern industrial +society. He follows the evolution of capital from the days of medieval +paternalism through the period of commercial expansion when the +voyages of discovery opened virgin fields of wealth to the trader, +into the period of inventions when the industrial revolution changed +the conditions of all classes and gave a sudden and princely power to +capital, establishing the reign of "capitalistic production."</p> + +<p>Always it was the man with capital who could take advantage of every +new commercial and industrial opportunity, and the man without capital +who was forced to succumb to the stress of new and cruel +circumstances. In every stage of development it has been the constant +aim of the capitalist to increase his profits and of the workingman to +raise his standard of living.</p> + +<p>Marx then declares that, in order to have a capitalist society, two +classes are necessary: a capitalist and a non-capitalist class; a +class that dominates, and one that succumbs. There have always been +these two classes. Originally labor was slave, then it was serf, and +now it is free. But free labor to-day differs from serf-labor and +slave-labor only in that it has a legal right to contract. The +economic results are the same as they always have been: the capitalist +still appropriates the surplus value.</p> + +<p>The method of production, however, is very different in our +capitalistic era from the earlier eras. The industrial system herds +the workmen into factories. Property and labor is no longer +individualistic; it is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>social, it is corporate. Marx calls it "social +production and capitalistic appropriation." Here is the eternal +antagonism between the classes, the large class of laborers and the +small class of the "appropriators" of their common toil.</p> + +<p>These factories, where labor is herded, spring up willy-nilly wherever +there is a capitalist who desires to enter business. They flood the +markets, not by mutual consent or regulation, but by individual +ambitions. Each capitalist is ruled by self-interest; and +self-interest impels him to make as many goods as he can and sell them +at as big a profit as he can. Result, economic anarchy, called +"over-production" or "under-consumption" by the economists. This leads +to panics and all their attendant woes—woes that are further heaped +upon the proletarian by the fact that he must compete with machinery, +which, being more and more perfected, forces him out of the labor +market into the street.</p> + +<p>These crises have the tendency to concentrate industry in fewer and +fewer hands; the weaker capitalist must succumb to the inevitable laws +of struggle and survival. The survivors fatten on the corpses of their +fallen competitors. Thus the factories grow larger and larger, the +number of capitalists fewer and fewer; the number of proletarian +dependents multiplies; the middle class is crushed out of existence; +the rich become richer and fewer, the poor more numerous and poorer.</p> + +<p>In this turmoil of social production, capitalistic appropriation, and +anarchic distribution, there is discernible a reshaping of social +potencies. The proletarian realizes the power of the state and sees +how he may possess himself of that power and thereby <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>gain control of +the economic forces and reshape them to fit the needs of a better +society. This will mean the appropriation of the means of production +and distribution by society. Private capital will vanish; surplus +values will belong to the people who created them; the people will be +master and servant, capitalist and laborer.</p> + +<p>This is the Socialistic stage of society. It will be the result of the +natural evolution of human industry. Its immediate coming will be the +result of a social revolution. This revolution, this social cataclysm, +is written in the nature of things. Man cannot prompt it, he cannot +prevent it. He can only study the trend of things and "alleviate the +birth-pangs" of the new time.</p> + +<p>Of this new time, this society of to-morrow, Marx gives us no glimpse. +His function is not to prophesy, but to analyze. He is the natural +historian of capital. He described the development of economic society +and sought to ascertain its trend. In the first chapter of <i>Capital</i> +he says: "Let us imagine an association of free men, working with +common means of production, and putting forth, consciously, their +individual powers into one social labor power. The product of this +association of laborers is a social product. A portion of this product +serves in turn as a means of further production. It remains social +property. The rest of this product is consumed by the members of the +association as a means of living. It must consequently be distributed +among them. The nature of this distribution will vary according to the +particular nature of the organization of production and the +corresponding grade of historical development of the producers."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>This is the only mention of the future made by Marx. It is a dim and +uncertain ray of light cast upon a vast object.</p> + +<p>The formulæ of this epoch-making study may be summarized as follows:</p> + +<p>1. Labor gives value to all economic goods. The laboring class is the +producing class, but it is deprived of its just share of the products +of its labor by the capitalistic class, which appropriates the +"surplus value."</p> + +<p>2. This is possible because of the capitalistic method of production, +wherein private capital controls the processes of production and +distribution.</p> + +<p>3. This system of private capitalism is the result of a long and +laborious process of evolution, hastened precipitately by the +industrial revolution.</p> + +<p>4. This industrial age is characterized (a) by anarchy in distribution, +(b) private production, (c) the gradual disappearance of the middle +class, (d) the development of a two-class system—capitalist and +producer, (e) the rich growing richer and the poor growing poorer.</p> + +<p>5. This will not always continue. The producers are becoming fewer +each year. Presently they will become so powerful as to be +unendurable. Then society—the people—will appropriate private +capital and all production and distribution will be socialized.</p> + +<p>It is necessary to keep in mind the leading events in the life of this +remarkable man in order to understand the genesis of his theories. +Marx was born in Treves in 1818, of Jewish parentage. His mother was +of Dutch descent, his father was German. When the lad was six years of +age his parents embraced the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>Christian faith. His father was a +lawyer, but his ancestors for over two hundred years had been rabbis. +The home was one of culture, where English and French as well as +German literature and art were discussed by a circle of learned and +congenial friends. Marx studied at the universities of Bonn and +Berlin. He took his doctorate in the law to please his father, but +followed philosophy by natural bent, intending to become a university +professor.</p> + +<p>The turmoil of revolution was in the air and in his blood. There was +no curbing of his fiery temperament into the routine of scholastic +life. In 1842 he joined the staff of the <i>Rhenish Gazette</i> at Cologne, +an organ of extreme radicalism. His drastic editorials prompted the +police to ask him to leave the country, and he went to Paris, where he +met Frederick Engels, who became his firm friend, partner of his +views, and sharer of his labors. The Prussian government demanded his +removal from Paris, and for a time he settled in Brussels. He returned +to Germany to participate in the revolution of 1848, and in 1849 he +was driven to London, where, immune from Prussian persecutions, he +made his home until his death, in 1883.</p> + +<p>In 1842 he married Jennie von Westphalen, a lady of refinement, +courage, and loyalty, whose family was prominent in Prussian politics. +Her brother was at one time a minister in the Prussian cabinet.</p> + +<p>Marx was an exile practically all his life, though he never gave up +his German citizenship. He never forgot this fact. He concluded his +preface to the first volume of <i>Capital</i>, written in 1873, with a +bitter allusion to the "mushroom upstarts of the new, holy Prussian +German Empire." He lived a life of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>heroic fortitude and struggle +against want and disease.</p> + +<p>From his infancy he had been taught to take a world view, an +international view, of human affairs. This gave him an immediate +advantage over all other Socialist writers of that day. At Bonn he was +caught in the current of heterodoxy that was then sweeping through the +universities. This carried him far into the fields of materialism, +whose philosophy of history he adopted and applied to the economic +development of the race. He received not alone his philosophy from the +"Young Hegelians," but his dialectics as well. It gave him a +philosophy of evil which, blending with his bitter personal +experiences, gave a melancholy bent to his reasoning, and revealed to +him the misericordia of class war, the struggle of abject poverty +contending with callous capital in a bloody social revolution.</p> + +<p>There are four points which gave Marx an immense influence over the +Socialistic movement. In the first place, he put the Socialistic +movement on a historical basis; he made it inevitable. Think what this +means, what hope and spirit it inspires in the bosom of the +workingman. But he did more than this: he made the proletarian the +instrument of destiny for the emancipation of the race from economic +thraldom. This was to be accomplished by class war and social +revolution. Marx imparts the zeal of fatalism to his Socialism when he +links it to the necessities of nature. By natural law a bourgeoisie +developed; by natural law it oppresses the proletarian; by natural +law, by the compulsion of inexorable processes, the proletarians alone +can attain their freedom. Capitalism becomes its own grave-digger. +Liebknecht said in his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>Erfurt speech (1891): "The capitalistic state +of the present begets against its will the state of the future."</p> + +<p>In the third place, Marx gave a formula to the Socialist movement. He +defined Socialism in one sentence: "The social ownership of the means +of production and distribution." This was necessary. From among the +vague and incoherent mass of utopian and revolutionary literature he +coined the sentence that could be repeated with gusto and the flavor +of scientific terminology.</p> + +<p>And finally, he refrained from detailing the new society. He laid down +no program except war, he pointed to no utopia except co-operation. +This offended no one and left Socialists of all schools free to +construct their own details.</p> + +<p>The Marxian system was no sooner enunciated than it was shown to be +fallible as an economic generalization; and the passing of several +decades has proved that the tendencies he deemed inevitable are not +taking place. The refutation of his theory of value by the Austrian +economist, Adolph Menger, is by economists considered complete and +final. The materialistic conception of history, which is the soul of +his work, lends itself more to the passion of a virile propaganda than +to a sober interpretation of the facts. Further, the two practical +results that flow from the use of his theory of surplus value and his +materialism—namely, the ever-increasing volume of poverty and the +ever-decreasing number of capitalists—are not borne out by the facts. +The number of capitalists is constantly increasing, in spite of the +development of enormous trusts; the middle class is constantly being +recruited from the lower class; there is no apparent realization <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>of +the two-class system. And finally, the method by revolution is being +more and more discarded by Socialists, as they see that intolerable +conditions are being more and more alleviated, that "man's inhumanity +to man" is a constantly diminishing factor in the bitter struggle for +existence.<a name="FNanchor_17-2_29" id="FNanchor_17-2_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_17-2_29" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-2_13" id="Footnote_1-2_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-2_13"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>New Christianity</i>, p. 38, English edition, 1834.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-2_14" id="Footnote_2-2_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-2_14"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Saint-Simon's principal writings are: <i>Lettres d'un +Habitant de Genève</i>, 1803; <i>L'Organisateur</i>, 1819; <i>Du Système +Industriel</i>, 1821; <i>Catéchisme des Industriels</i>, 1823; <i>Nouveau +Christianisme</i>, 1825. See <span class="sc">A.J. Barth</span>, <i>Saint-Simon and +Saint-Simonism</i>, London, 1871; <span class="sc">Reybaud</span>, <i>Études sur les +Réformateurs Modernes</i>, Paris, 1864; <span class="sc">Janet</span>, <i>Saint-Simon et +le Saint-Simonisme</i>, Paris, 1878. <i>New Christianity</i> was translated +into English by Rev. J.E. Smith, London, 1834.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-2_15" id="Footnote_3-2_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-2_15"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The best popular exposition of Fourierism is <span class="sc">Gatti de +Gammont's</span> <i>Fourier et Son Système</i>. His most eminent commentator +is Victor Considerant, whose <i>Destinée Sociale</i> is the most complete +analysis of Fourier's System.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-2_16" id="Footnote_4-2_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-2_16"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> It is interesting to note that the word "Socialism" first +became current in the meetings of Owen's "Association of All Classes +of All Nations," organized by him in 1835.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-2_17" id="Footnote_5-2_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-2_17"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Le Vrai Christianisme</i>, Chap. XVIII, edition of 1846.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-2_18" id="Footnote_6-2_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-2_18"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> An apt selection from the works of Fourier has been made +by Prof. Charles Gide, prefaced by an illuminating Introduction on the +life and work of Fourier. An English translation by Julia Franklin +appeared in London, 1901.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-2_19" id="Footnote_7-2_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-2_19"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Le Nouveau Monde</i>, Vol. I, p. 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-2_20" id="Footnote_8-2_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-2_20"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Thème de l'Unité Universelle</i>, Vol. II, p. 128.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-2_21" id="Footnote_9-2_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-2_21"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>New Christianity</i>, p. 2, English edition, 1834.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10-2_22" id="Footnote_10-2_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-2_22"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Political Justice</i>, Vol. II, pp. 531, 537.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11-2_23" id="Footnote_11-2_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11-2_23"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Third Essay on a New View of Society</i>, pp. 65, 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12-2_24" id="Footnote_12-2_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12-2_24"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Émile Thomas</span>, <i>History of the National +Workshops</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13-2_25" id="Footnote_13-2_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13-2_25"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>What Is Property?</i> Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14-2_26" id="Footnote_14-2_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14-2_26"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> In 1845 Marx made this note on the work of Feuerbach: +"The point of view of the old materialism is bourgeois society; the +point of view of the new materialism is human society or the unclassed +humanity (vergesellschaftete Menschheit).</p> + +<p class="noin">"Philosophers have only differently <i>interpreted</i> the world, but the +point is to <i>alter</i> the world." See <span class="sc">Frederick Engels</span>, <i>Ludwig +Feuerbach und der Ausgang der Klassischen Deutschen Philosophie</i>, +Stuttgart, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15-2_27" id="Footnote_15-2_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15-2_27"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Essence of Christianity</i>, Preface, p. xiii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16-2_28" id="Footnote_16-2_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16-2_28"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> For a concise statement of the development of Marxian +Socialism out of the German philosophy of that period, see +<span class="sc">Frederick Engels</span>, <i>Die Entwickelung des Sozialismus von der +Utopie zur Wissenschaft</i>, Berlin, 1891. It is the third chapter out of +his <i>Dühring, Umwälzung</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17-2_29" id="Footnote_17-2_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17-2_29"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> For a criticism of the teachings of Marx, see +<span class="sc">Sombart</span>, <i>Socialism and the Social Movement</i>, Chap. IV.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> + +<h3>THE POLITICAL AWAKENING OF SOCIALISM—THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>From the point of view of our inquiry the most significant event in +the history of Socialism is its entrance into politics. This endows +the workingman with a new power and a great power; a power that will +bring him farther on his way toward the goal he seeks than any other +he possesses. Because the modern state is democratic, and the +democratic state bends in the direction of the mass. The revolutions +attempted in the middle of the last century are child's play compared +with the changes that can be wrought when constitutions and courts, +parliaments and administrative systems, become the instruments of a +determined, self-possessed, and united political consciousness.</p> + +<p>Scarcely half a century elapsed between the French utopians and the +time when the proletarians organized actual political parties, and +arrayed themselves against the older orders in the struggle for +political privilege. In the interval, revolution had its brief hour, +and reaction its days of waiting.</p> + +<p>The French Revolution was a necessary preliminary to the proletarian +movement. It was the most powerful instrument for the propagation of +those democratic ideas that were so attractively clothed by Rousseau +and so terribly distorted by the revolutionists. While this revolution +was a bourgeois movement, not a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>proletarian uprising, not a +revolution in the sense that Marx, for instance, uses the word, it +must not be forgotten that the proletarians were in the revolution. +The dark and sullen background of that tragedy was the mass of +unspeakably poor. They were not machine workers whose abjectness came +from factory conditions, like the workmen of England a few decades +later. They were proletarians without a class consciousness, but with +a class grievance; proletarians in the literal sense of the word, +poor, ragged, hungry, wretched.</p> + +<p>Such democracy as was achieved by the revolution was bourgeois. The +powers of monarchy were transferred from the "privileged" classes to +the middle class, who, in turn, became the privileged ones. The day of +middle-class government had come. The class that had financed the +fleets of adventurers to new and unexploited continents, and had +backed the inventions of Arkwright and Hargreaves, were now in power +in politics as well as in commerce and industry. A unity of purpose +between industry and statecraft was thus achieved; new ideals became +dominant. The patriarchal precepts of the feudal manors were +forgotten. The people were no longer children of a great household +with their king at the head. The king, when he was retained, was shorn +of his universal fatherhood, and remained a mere remnant of ermine and +velvet, a royal trader in social distinctions.</p> + +<p>While the old ideal, the feudal ideal, prevailed, governing was the +<i>duty</i> of a class. The newer ideal made governing an incident in the +activities of a class whose dominating impulse was the making of +profits. These ideals are at polar points; one deals with things, the +other with men.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>The change in the form of government was wrought while the people were +talking about the glittering abstractions of equality, liberty, +justice, as if they were commodities to be exchanged in the political +markets. The newer form of government marked an advance on the older. +It represented a step forward in human political experience. A larger +group of citizens was drawn into the widening circle of governmental +activities. It was an inevitable step. The discovery of the New World +and the invention of machinery were making a new earth—an +unattractive earth, but nevertheless a new one. The balance of power +was shifting from hereditary privilege to commercial privilege, and +nations were fulfilling the law of human nature, that the power of the +state reposes in the hands of the dominant class. The dominant class +is actuated by its dominant idea. In the aristocratic class it is +politics, in the middle class it is trade.</p> + +<p>All this inevitably accentuated the proletarian's position in the +state. Under the older régime, as historians of our economic +development have clearly shown, the antagonisms and grievances were +fewer. The trader and the craftsman were overshadowed by the lord and +the bishop. Social, political, and economical values were distributed +by custom and imposed by heredity, rather than by individual effort or +individual capacity. When, therefore, this great change came over +society, a change that would have been unthinkable in the days of +Charlemagne or of Elizabeth,—a change that virtually destroyed the +most powerful of the classes and put human beings onto a basis of +competition rather than of birth, and shifted power from tradition to +effort, and transferred values from prerogatives to gold,—then the +whole class <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>problem changed, and entirely new antagonisms were +created.</p> + +<p>The first movements of the new proletarians were mob movements. +Actuated more by a desire to revenge themselves than to better +themselves, they gather in the dark hours of the night and move +sullenly upon the factories, to destroy their enemies, the machines. +They pillage the buildings and threaten the house of their employer, +whom they consider the agent of their undoing. In France and Germany, +and especially in England, these infuriated workmen try to undo by +violence what has been achieved by invention.</p> + +<p>When their first fury is abated and they see new machinery taking the +place of that which they have destroyed, and new factories built on +the foundations of those they have burned, they see the impotence of +their actions. In England a new movement begins. They try to re-enact +the Elizabethan statute of laborers, to bring back the days of +handicrafts, of journeyman and apprentice. They soon learned that the +old era had vanished, never to return. The workingman possessed +neither the power nor the ingenuity to bring it back. He turned, next, +to possess himself of the machinery of the state.</p> + +<p>Political conditions paved the way. France, after her orgy, had fallen +back into absolutism. Germany and Austria had remained feudal in the +most distasteful sense of the word; the nobility retained their +ancient privileges and forsook their ancient duties. The landlord +class even retained jurisdiction over their tenants. The old industry +had been destroyed by Napoleon's campaigns; the new machine industry +did not establish itself until after the enactment of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>protective +tariffs and the creation "Zollverein," in 1818. This cemented the +bourgeois interests. Manufacturers, traders, and bankers achieved a +homogeneity of interest and ambition which was antagonistic to the +spirit of the <i>junker</i> and the feudalist. The new bourgeoisie wanted +laws favorable to trade expansion. They needed the law-making +machinery to achieve this. By 1840 the upper middle class had become +feverish for political power. They imbibed the doctrines of the +literature of that period which preached a constitutional +republicanism. Hegel gave the weighty sanction of philosophy to the +overthrow of absolute monarchy.</p> + +<p>The great mass of the people were, of course, workingmen, small +traders, and shopkeepers, and the rural peasantry. The small trader +was dependent upon the favors of the ruling class on the one hand, and +of the banker and manufacturer on the other hand. When the interests +of these two clashed he was alarmed, for he could neither remain +neutral nor take sides. The peasants were abject subjects, little +better than serfs. The laboring men, as we shall see presently, were +achieving a mass consciousness.</p> + +<p>In Germany Frederick William, the Romantic, was face to face with +revolution. This was not an economic revolution. It was a political +revolution. It was joined by the communists and the Socialists. Marx +himself, was a leader in the revolt, and one of its most faithful +chroniclers. In 1844 the weavers of Silesia rose in revolt. There was +rioting and bloodshed. This was followed by bread riots in various +parts of Germany. In 1848 the whole country was in the turmoil of +revolution, a revolution led by the upper middle class, but prompted +and fired by the zeal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>of the proletarians, who, in some of the +cities, notably Berlin, became the leading factor in the uprising. +Marx says: "There was then no separate Republican party in Germany. +People were either constitutional monarchists or more or less clearly +defined Socialists or communists."<a name="FNanchor_1-3_30" id="FNanchor_1-3_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-3_30" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>In Austria conditions were even more reactionary than in Germany. +Metternich, the powerful representative of the ancient order of +things, had a haughty contempt for the demands of the constitutional +party. With the hauteur of absolutism he not only retained political +power in the feudal class, but suppressed literature, censored +learning, and rigorously superintended religion. A greater power than +caste and tradition was slowly eating its way into this country, which +had attempted to isolate itself from the rest of the world. This was +the power of machine industry. It brought with it, as in every other +country, a new class, the manufacturers, who, as soon as their +business began to expand, sought favorable laws. This led them into +political activity, which, in turn, brought friction with the +feudalists. Both sides took to the field. The revolution broke in +Vienna, March 13, 1848, seventeen days after the revolutionists had +driven Louis Philippe out of Paris, and five days before the Prussian +king delivered himself into the hands of a Berlin mob.</p> + +<p>It was in France that the revolution assumed its most virulent +character. In Paris the revolution was "carried on between the mass of +the working people on the one hand and all the other classes of the +Parisian population, supported by the army, on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>other."<a name="FNanchor_2-3_31" id="FNanchor_2-3_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-3_31" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> This +Parisian proletarian uprising was the red signal of warning to Germany +and Austria. The bourgeois were now as anxious to rid themselves of +the Socialist contingent as they had been eager for its support when +they began their struggle for political power. Compromises between +feudalists and commercialists were effected, and a sort of +constitutionalism became the basis of the reconstructed governments.</p> + +<p>Of these revolutions Marx says: "In all cases the real fighting body +of the insurgents, that body which first took up arms and gave battle +to the troops, consisted of the working classes of the towns. A +portion of the poorer country population, laborers and petty farmers, +generally joined them after the outbreak of the conflict."<a name="FNanchor_3-3_32" id="FNanchor_3-3_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-3_32" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>They were not merely bourgeois uprisings. The Parisian revolution was +virtually a proletarian rebellion. Here "the proletariat, because it +dictated the Republic to the provisional government, and through the +provisional government to the whole of France, stepped at once forth +as an independent, self-contained party; and it at once arrayed the +entire bourgeoisie of France against itself.... Marche, a workingman, +dictated a decree wherein the newly formed provincial government +pledged itself to secure the position of the workingman through work, +to do away with bourgeois labor, etc. And as they seemed to forget +this promise, a few days later 200,000 workingmen marched upon the +Hôtel de Ville with the battle-cry, 'Organization of labor! Create a +ministry of labor!' and after a prolonged debate the provisional +government named a permanent special commission for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>purpose of +finding the means for bettering the conditions of the working +classes."<a name="FNanchor_4-3_33" id="FNanchor_4-3_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-3_33" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>It is evident that Marx considered the revolutions of 1848-50 as a +compound of proletarian and bourgeois uprisings against <i>feudal</i> +remnants in government. He is not always clear in his own mind as to +the direction of these movements. But we now know that the direction +was toward democracy.</p> + +<p>The French, or Parisian, uprising was more "advanced" than the other +Continental attempts. The Parisians had piled barricades before; they +were experienced in the bloody business.</p> + +<p>They tried again in 1871. This time the workingmen ruled Paris for two +months. It was a bloody, turbulent period. Marx characterized it as +"the glorious workingman's revolution of the 18th of March," and the +Commune "as a lever for uprooting the economical foundations upon +which rests the existence of classes, and therefore of class rule." +Its acts of violence he extolled, its burning of public buildings was +a "self-holocaust." This "workingman's Paris, with its Commune, will +be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society."<a name="FNanchor_5-3_34" id="FNanchor_5-3_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-3_34" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>So the attempt to possess the state by revolution has been tried by +the proletarian. The revolutions were all abortive. The Socialists say +they were ill-timed. Writing in 1895, Frederick Engels, the companion +of Marx, could see these uprisings in a different perspective. He +acknowledged the mistake made by the Socialists in believing that they +could by violence somehow become the deciding factor in the +government, and therefore in the economic arrangement of society. +"History has shown us our error," he says. "Time has made it clear +that the status of economic development on the Continent was far from +ripe for the setting aside of the capitalistic régime."<a name="FNanchor_6-3_35" id="FNanchor_6-3_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-3_35" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>These revolutions were not merely bourgeois, as is so often affirmed. +There was everywhere a large element of Socialistic unrest. They were +revolutions begun in the fever heat of youth—"Young Germany," "Young +Austria," "Young Italy," were moved by "Young Hegelians" and "Young +Communists." They embraced bourgeois tradesmen and proletarian +workingmen, who, in their new-found delirium, thought that with "the +overthrow of the reactionary governments, the kingdom of heaven would +be realized on earth."<a name="FNanchor_7-3_36" id="FNanchor_7-3_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-3_36" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> "They had no idea," continues Kautsky, who +speaks on these questions with authority, "that the overthrow of these +governments would not be the end, but the beginning of revolutions; +that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>the newly won bourgeois freedom would be the battleground for +the great class war between proletarian and bourgeois; that liberty +did not bring social freedom, but social warfare."</p> + +<p>This is to-day the orthodox Socialist view. It believes that these +revolutions taught the proletarians the folly of ill-timed violence; +revealed to them their friends and their enemies; and, above all, gave +them a class consciousness.</p> + +<p>Let us turn, for a moment, to a proletarian movement of a somewhat +different type, the Chartist movement in England. The flame of +revolution that enveloped Europe crossed the Channel to England and +Ireland. But here revolution took a different course. In Ireland it +was the brilliant O'Connell's agitation against the Act of Union; in +England it was the workingman's protest against his exclusion from the +Reform Act of 1832, an act that itself had been born amidst the throes +of mob violence and incipient revolution.</p> + +<p>The Chartist movement was promulgated by the "Workingmen's +Association." It was a workingman's protest. Its organizers were +carpenters, its orators were tailors and blacksmiths and weavers, +surprising themselves and their audiences with their new-found +eloquence, and its writers were cotton spinners. The Reform Bill had +been a bitter disappointment to them. It gave the right of suffrage to +the middle class, but withheld it from the working class. A few +radical members of Parliament met with representatives of the +workingmen and drafted a bill. O'Connell, as he handed the measure to +the secretary of the association, said: "There is your charter"—and +the "People's Charter" it was called. Its "six points" were: Manhood +suffrage, annual Parliaments, election <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>by ballot, abolition of +property qualifications for election of members to Parliament, payment +of members of Parliament, and equitably devised electoral districts. +These are all political demands, all democratic. But economic +conditions pressed them to the foreground. The "Bread Tax" was as much +an issue as the ballot. They demanded the ballot so that they might +remove the tax. "Misery and discontent were its strongest +inspirations," says McCarthy.<a name="FNanchor_8-3_37" id="FNanchor_8-3_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-3_37" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Carlyle saw the inwardness of the movement. "All along for the last +five and twenty years it was curious to note how the internal +discontent of England struggled to find vent for itself through any +orifice; the poor patient, all sick from center to surface, complains +now of this member, now of that: corn laws, currency laws, free trade, +protection, want of free trade: the poor patient, tossing from side to +side seeking a sound side to lie on, finds none."</p> + +<p>One of its own crude and forceful orators said on Kersall Moor to +200,000 turbulent workingmen of Manchester: "Chartism, my friends, is +no mere political movement, where the main point is your getting the +ballot. Chartism is a knife and fork question. The charter means a +good house, good food and drink, prosperity, and short working +hours."<a name="FNanchor_9-3_38" id="FNanchor_9-3_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-3_38" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>The protest of this discontent became the nearest approach to a +revolution England had encountered since Charles I. Monster meetings, +for the first time called "mass meetings," were held in every county, +and evenings, after working hours, enormous parades were organized, +each participant carrying a torch, hence they were called "torchlight +parades." These two spectacular features were soon adopted by American +campaigners. A wild and desperate feeling seized the masses. "You see +yonder factory with its towering chimney," cried one of its orators. +"Every brick in that factory is cemented with the blood of women and +children." And again: "If the rights of the poor are trampled under +foot, then down with the throne, down with aristocracy, down with the +bishops, down with the clergy, burn the churches, down with all rank, +all title, and all dignity."<a name="FNanchor_10-3_39" id="FNanchor_10-3_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-3_39" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>In their great petition to Parliament, signed by several million +people, the agitators said: "The Reform Act has effected a transfer of +power from one domineering faction to another and left the people as +helpless as before." "We demand universal suffrage. The suffrage, to +be exempt from the corruption of the wealthy and the violence of the +powerful, must be secret." The whole movement had all the aspects of a +modern, violent general strike. Its papers, <i>The Poor Man's Guardian</i>, +<i>The Destructive</i>, and others, were full of tirades against wealth and +privilege. When the agitation became an uprising in Wales, there was a +conflict between the Chartists and the police in which a number were +killed and wounded. In the industrial centers, soldiers were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>present +at the meetings, and the outcry against the use of the military was +the same that is heard to-day. A number of the leaders were tried for +sedition, and the courts became the objects of abuse as they are +to-day. It was a labor war for political privilege; a class war for +economic advantages.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION</h4> + +<p>These revolutions were political in that they were a protest against +existing governmental forms. The revolutionary proletarian was found +in all of them. He not only stood under the standard of Daniel Manin +in Venice, when that patriot again proclaimed a republic in the +ancient city, and shared with Mazzini his triumph in Rome, and fought +with Kossuth for the liberty of Hungary; but he formed also the body +of the revolutionary forces in Germany, Austria, and France.</p> + +<p>In all the Continental countries the uprisings were directed against +the arrogance and oppression of monarchism, and against the +recrudescence of feudalistic ideals. In France Louis Philippe had +attempted the part of a petty despot. He restricted the ballot to the +propertied class, balanced his power on too narrow a base, and it +became top-heavy.</p> + +<p>While the workingmen of Germany and Austria were taking up arms under +command of the middle class against the feudal remnants, the +workingmen of France were sacking their capital because of an +attempted revival of monarchic privilege, and the workmen of England +were marching and counter-marching in monster torchlight parades in +protest against middle-class domination.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>The panorama of Europe in these years of turmoil and blood thus +exhibits every degree of revolt against governmental power, from the +absolutism of Prussian Junkerdom and the oppression of the Hungarians +by foreign tyranny, to the dominance of the aristocratic and +middle-class alliance in Great Britain.</p> + +<p>The bread-and-butter question was not wanting in any of these +political uprisings. The unity of life makes their separation a myth. +One is interwoven with the other. The social struggle is political, +the political struggle is social.</p> + +<p>Socialism is not merely an economic movement. It seeks to-day, and +always has sought, the power of the state. The government is the only +available instrument for effecting the change—the revolution—the +Socialists preach, the transfer of productive enterprise from private +to public ownership. "Political power our means, social happiness our +end," was a Chartist motto. That is the duality of Socialism to-day.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-3_30" id="Footnote_1-3_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-3_30"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <span class="sc">Marx</span>, <i>Revolution and Counter-Revolution in +1848</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-3_31" id="Footnote_2-3_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-3_31"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <span class="sc">Marx</span>, <i>Revolution and Counter-Revolution</i>, p. +70.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-3_32" id="Footnote_3-3_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-3_32"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, pp. 123-124.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-3_33" id="Footnote_4-3_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-3_33"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <span class="sc">Marx</span>, <i>Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich</i>, pp. +26-28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-3_34" id="Footnote_5-3_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-3_34"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See the third address issued by the International +Workingmen's Association on the Franco-Prussian war, 1870-71.</p> + +<p class="noin">The Italian Socialists in Milan, June, 1871, closed a rhetorical +address to the Parisian Communards as follows: "To despotism they +responded, We are free.</p> + +<p class="noin">"To the cannon and chassepots of the leagued reactionists they offered +their bared breasts.</p> + +<p class="noin">"They fell, but fell like heroes.</p> + +<p class="noin">"To-day the reaction calls them bandits, places them under the ban of +the human race.</p> + +<p class="noin">"Shall we permit it? No!</p> + +<p class="noin">"Workingmen! At the time when our brothers in Paris are vanquished, +hunted like fallow deer, are falling by hundreds under the blows of +their murderers, let us say to them: Come to us, we are here; our +houses are open to you. We will protect you, until the day of revenge, +a day not far distant.</p> + +<p class="noin">"Workingmen! the principles of the Commune of Paris are ours: we +accept the responsibility of its acts. Long live the Social Republic!"</p> + +<p class="noin">See <span class="sc">Ed. Villetard</span>, <i>History of the International</i>, p. 342. +This sentiment was also expressed in London and other centers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-3_35" id="Footnote_6-3_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-3_35"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Introduction to <i>Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich</i>, p. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-3_36" id="Footnote_7-3_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-3_36"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <span class="sc">Kautsky</span>, <i>Leben Friedrich Engels</i>, p. 14, +Berlin, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-3_37" id="Footnote_8-3_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-3_37"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>The Epoch of Reform</i>, p. 190.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-3_38" id="Footnote_9-3_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-3_38"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <span class="sc">Engels</span>, <i>Condition of the Working Classes in +1844</i>, p. 230. Engels, who came to England at this time and was +employed in Manchester in his father's business, and was therefore in +the heart of the movement, says that Chartism was, after the Anti-Corn +Law League had been formed, "purely a workingman's cause." It was "the +struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie." "The demands +hitherto made by him (the laborer), the ten-hours' bill, protection of +the worker against the capitalist, good wages, a guaranteed position, +repeal of the new poor law—all of these things belong to Chartism +quite as essentially as the 'Six Points.'"—<i>Supra cit.</i>, pp. 229, +234, 235.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10-3_39" id="Footnote_10-3_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-3_39"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <span class="sc">R.G. Grummage</span>, <i>History of the Chartist +Movement</i>, 1837-54, p. 59, Newcastle, 1894.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> + +<h3>THE POLITICAL AWAKENING OF SOCIALISM—THE INTERNATIONAL<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>With 1848 vanished, more or less rapidly, the revolutions of the old +school. "The street fight and barricade, which up to 1848 was +decisive, now grew antiquated," says Engels.<a name="FNanchor_1-4_40" id="FNanchor_1-4_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-4_40" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> A new species of +plotting and propaganda began. The exiled agitators and revolutionists +met, naturally, in their cities of refuge for the discussion of their +common grievances. They complained that "the proletarian has no +fatherland," and internationalism became their patriotism.</p> + +<p>In Paris a few of the ostracized Socialists, in 1836, founded "The +League of the Just," a communistic secret society.<a name="FNanchor_2-4_41" id="FNanchor_2-4_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-4_41" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The group were +compelled to leave Paris because they were implicated in a riot, and +when some of them met in London they invited other refugees to join +them. Among them was Marx, and his presence soon bore fruit. Their +motto, "All men are brethren," was singularly paradoxical when +contrasted with their methods of sinister conspiracy. Marx, with his +superior intellect, at once began to reshape their ideas, a +reorganization was effected called "The Communist League," and Marx +and Engels were delegated to write a statement of principles for the +League. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>That statement, written in 1847, they called "The Communist +Manifesto."</p> + +<p>The "Manifesto" is the most influential of all Socialist documents. It +is at once a firebrand and a formulary. Its formulæ are the well-known +Marxian principles; its energy is the youthful vigor and zeal of +ardent revolutionists. Nearly all the generalizations of <i>Capital</i> are +found in the "Manifesto." This is important, for it gave the sanction +of a social theory to the Socialist movement. Hitherto there had been +only utopian generalizations and keen denunciations of the existing +order. It was of the greatest importance that early in the development +of the movement it was given an economic theory expressed in such +lucid terms, with the gusto of youth, and in the terminology of +science, that it remains to-day the best synopsis of Marx's +"Scientific Socialism."</p> + +<p>As a piece of campaign literature it is unexcelled. Combined with its +clearness of statement, its economic reasoning, its terrific +arraignment of modern industrial society, there is a lofty zeal and +power that placed it in the front rank of propagandist literature.</p> + +<p>Engels, the surviving partner of the Marxian movement, wrote in the +preface of the edition of 1888:</p> + +<p>"The 'Manifesto' being our joint production, I consider myself bound to +say that the fundamental proposition which forms its nucleus belongs to +Marx." That proposition embraced the materialistic theory of social +evolution, that "the whole history of mankind has been a history of +class struggles ... in which nowadays a stage has been reached where +the exploited and oppressed classes—the proletariat—cannot attain +their emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling +classes—the bourgeoisie—without <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>at the same time and once for all +emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class +distinctions, and class struggles."</p> + +<p>This liberation was, of course, to be accomplished by revolution. The +"Manifesto" closes with these spirited and oft-quoted words:</p> + +<p>"The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly +declare that their ends can be obtained only by the forcible overthrow +of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling class tremble at a +communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their +chains, they have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite."</p> + +<p>This was the language and the spirit of the times. The "Manifesto" was +published only a few days before the February revolution of 1848. For +a moment the ruling class did tremble; but the ill-timed uprisings +were promptly suppressed and the days of reaction set in.</p> + +<p>Soon the workingmen of different countries were busy with the +stupendous development of industry which followed in the wake of the +wars and revolutions that had harassed the Continent for over fifty +years. The revival of industry brought a renewal of international +trade. This was followed by a wider exchange of views and greater +international intimacy. In 1862 the first International Exposition was +held.</p> + +<p>Before we proceed with the development of the "Old International," as +it is now called, let us notice three points about the "Manifesto." +First, it was not called the "Socialist Manifesto," although adopted +by Socialists the world over. Engels, in his preface of 1888, tells us +why. "When it was written we could not have called it a Socialist +Manifesto. By <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>Socialist, in 1847, were understood, on the one hand, +the adherents of the various Utopian systems; Owenites in England, +Fourierists in France, both of them already reduced to the position of +mere sects, and gradually dying out; on the other hand, the most +multifarious social quacks who, by all manner of tinkering, professed +to redress, without any danger to capital and profit, all sorts of +social grievances; in both cases men outside the working-class +movement, and looking rather to the 'educated' classes for support. +Whatever portion of the working class had become convinced of the +insufficiency of mere political revolutions, and had proclaimed the +necessity of a total social change, that portion then called itself +communist. It was a crude, rough-hewn, purely instinctive sort of +communism; still it touched the cardinal point and was powerful enough +amongst the working class to produce the utopian communism in France +of Cabet, and in Germany of Weitling. This Socialism was, in 1847, a +middle-class movement; communism a working-class movement. Socialism +was, on the Continent at least, 'respectable'; communism was the very +opposite."</p> + +<p>It would be interesting to know how Engels would define Socialism +to-day.</p> + +<p>Second, it is important for us to know that the "Manifesto" recognized +the necessity of using the government as the instrument for achieving +the new society. "The immediate aim of the communists," it recites, +"is the conquest of political power by the proletariat"; to "labor +everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of +all countries."</p> + +<p>The governmental organization of the communists' state was to be +democratic.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>Thirdly, a provisional program of such a politico-socio-democratic +party is suggested in the "Manifesto." Its principal points are:</p> + +<div class="block1"><p>"1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents +of land to public purposes.</p> + +<p>"2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.</p> + +<p>"3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.</p> + +<p>"4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.</p> + +<p>"5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means +of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.</p> + +<p>"6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport +in the hands of the state.</p> + +<p>"7. Extension of factories and the instruments of production +owned by the state: the bringing into cultivation of waste +lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance +with a common plan.</p> + +<p>"8. Equal liability of all labor. Establishment of industrial +armies, especially for agriculture.</p> + +<p>"9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; +gradual abolition between town and country, by a more equable +distribution of population over the country.</p> + +<p>"10. Free education for all children in public schools, +combination of education with industrial production," <i>etc.</i></p></div> + +<p>Though the "Manifesto" was written in 1848, neither Marx, who lived +until 1882, nor Engels, who died in 1895, made any alteration in it, +on the ground that it had become "a historical document which we have +no longer any right to alter."<a name="FNanchor_3-4_42" id="FNanchor_3-4_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-4_42" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>"However much the state of things may have altered during the last +twenty-five years, the general <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>principles laid down in this manifesto +are, on the whole, as correct to-day as ever."<a name="FNanchor_4-4_43" id="FNanchor_4-4_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-4_43" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>On one very important point, however, they could not refrain from +further comment. The revolutionary language in the original draft +would be radically mollified if written at the time of the joint +preface in 1872. The example of the Paris Commune was disheartening. +It demonstrated that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the +ready-made state machinery and wield it for its own purposes."<a name="FNanchor_5-4_44" id="FNanchor_5-4_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-4_44" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>These, then, were the principles of the international movement of +which the "Manifesto" was the supreme expression. When labor had +revived from its first stupor, after the hard blows it received in the +years of revolution, the "Manifesto" was translated into several +Continental languages. With the revival of internationalism, it has +been translated into every language of the industrial world, and I am +told a Japanese and a Turkish edition have been issued. This is a +gauge of the spread of international Socialism.</p> + +<p>In 1862 a number of French workingmen, visiting the International +Exhibition in London, were entertained by the Socialist exiles, and +the question of reviving an international movement was discussed. Two +years later, in St. Martin's Hall, London, workingmen from various +countries organized a meeting and selected Mazzini, the Italian +patriot, to draw up a constitution. But the South European view of +class war was out of accord with the German and French views, and +Mazzini's proposals were rejected. Marx <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>then undertook the writing of +the address. He succeeded remarkably well in avoiding the giving of +offense to the four different elements present, namely, the trade +unionists of England, who, being Englishmen, were averse to +revolutions; the followers of Proudhon in France, who were then +establishing free co-operative societies; the followers of Lassalle in +Germany and Louis Blanc in France, who glorified state aid in +co-operation; and the less easily satisfied contingent of Mazzini from +Spain and Italy.</p> + +<p>Marx's diplomacy and his international vocabulary stood him in good +stead. He began the "Address" by a clever rhetorical parallelism. +Gladstone, whose splendor then filled the political heavens, had just +delivered a great speech in which he had gloried in the wonderful +increase in Britain's trade and wealth. Marx contrasted this growth in +riches with the misery and poverty and wretchedness of the English +working classes. Gladstone's small army of rich bourgeois were +adroitly compared with Marx's large army of miserably poor. The growth +of wealth, he said, brought no amelioration to the needy. But in this +picture of gloom were two points of hope: first, the ten-hour working +day had been achieved through great struggles, and it showed what the +proletarian can do if he persists in fighting for his rights. Second, +Marx alluded to the co-operative achievements of France and Germany as +a proof that the laboring man could organize and carry on great +industries without the intervention of capitalists. With these two +elements of hope before them, the laborers should be of good cheer. +Marx admonished them that they had <i>numbers</i> on their side, and all +that is necessary for complete victory is organization. In closing he +repeats <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>the battle-cry of '48: "Workingmen of all lands, unite!"</p> + +<p>The "statutes," or by-laws<a name="FNanchor_6-4_45" id="FNanchor_6-4_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-4_45" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> were also drawn by Marx. The preamble is +a second "Manifesto," in which he reiterates the necessity for +international co-operation among workingmen, and concludes: "The First +International Labor Congress declares that the International +Workingmen'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 fellowmen, 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 +duties without rights."</p> + +<p>The "Address" and the "Statutes" were adopted by the association at +its first congress, held in Geneva in September, 1866, where sixty +delegates represented the new movement. With the vicissitudes of +Marx's International we are not especially concerned here. It met +annually in various cities until 1873, when its last meeting was held +at Geneva.</p> + +<p>Marx had successfully avoided offense to the various elements in his +masterly address and preamble. But the organization contained +irreconcilable elements more or less jealous of one another. The two +extremes were the Anarchists, led by the Russian Bakunin, and the +English labor unions. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>Anarchists believed in overthrowing +everything, the English laborists abhorred violence. Between these two +extremes stood Marx's doctrine of evolutionary revolution, as +distasteful to the English as it was despised by the Anarchists.</p> + +<p>When the congress met at The Hague, in September, 1872, Marx was one +of the sixty-five delegates. He had hitherto held himself aloof from +the meetings. But here even his magnetic presence could not prevent +the breach with Bakunin.<a name="FNanchor_7-4_46" id="FNanchor_7-4_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-4_46" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> There were stormy scenes. The Anarchists +were expelled, and the seat of the general council was transferred to +New York, where it could die an unobserved death.</p> + +<p>Before the final adjournment a meeting was held in Amsterdam. Here +Marx delivered a powerful speech characterized by all the arts of +expression of which he was master. He compared these humble "assizes +of labor" with the royal conferences of "kings and potentates" who in +centuries past had been wont to meet at The Hague "to discuss the +interests of their dynasties." He admitted that in England, the United +States, and maybe in Holland, "the workmen might attain their goal by +peaceful means. But in most European countries force must be the lever +of revolution, and to force they must appeal when the time comes."</p> + +<p>These were his last personal words to his International, the +crystallization of his lifelong endeavor to lead the workingmen's +cause. There was one more meeting at Geneva, in 1873; then it +perished.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>Bakunin's following, renamed the International Alliance of Social +Democracy, meanwhile went the way of all violent revolutionists. They +took part in the uprisings in Spain in 1873; the rebellion was +promptly suppressed, and the alliance came to an end.</p> + +<p>During its brief existence the International was the red bogey-man of +European courts. The most violent and bloodthirsty ambitions were +ascribed to it. Such conservative and careful newspapers as the London +<i>Times</i> indulged in the most extreme editorials and news items about +the sinister organization that was soon to "bathe the thrones of +Europe in blood" and "despoil property of its rights" and "human +society of its blessings."</p> + +<p>In the light of history, these fears appear ridiculous. The poor, +struggling organization that could summon scarcely one hundred members +to an international convention was powerful only in the possession of +an idea, the conviction of international solidarity. Its plotting +handful of Anarchists were a great hindrance to it, and the events of +the Commune put the stamp of veracity on the dire things the public +press had foretold of its ambitions.</p> + +<p>The programs discussed at the various meetings are of more importance +to us because they reveal whatever was practical in Marx's +organization. For the second meeting, 1866, the following outline was +sent out by the general council from London. It was unquestionably +prepared by Marx himself.</p> + +<div class="block1"><p>"1. Organization of the International Association; its ends; its +means of action.</p> + +<p>"2. Workingmen's societies—their past, present, and future: +stoppage, strikes—means of remedying them; primary and +professional instruction.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>"3. Work of women and children in factories, from a moral and +sanitary point of view.</p> + +<p>"4. Reduction of working hours—its end, bearing, and moral +consequences; obligation of labor for all.</p> + +<p>"5. Association—its principle, its application; co-operation as +distinguished from association proper.</p> + +<p>"6. Relation of capital and labor; foreign competition; +commercial treaties.</p> + +<p>"7. Direct and indirect taxes.</p> + +<p>"8. International institutions—mutual credit, paper money, +weights, measures, coins, and language.</p> + +<p>"9. Necessity of abolishing the Russian influence in Europe by +the application of the principle of the right of the people to +govern themselves; and the reconstitution of Poland upon a +democratic and social basis.</p> + +<p>"10. Standing armies and their relation to production.</p> + +<p>"11. Religious ideas—their influence upon the social, +political, and intellectual movements.</p> + +<p>"12. Establishment of a society for mutual help; aid, moral and +material, given to the orphans of the association."</p></div> + +<p>This reads more like the agenda of a sophomore debating society than +the outline of work for an international congress of workingmen. The +discussions of the congress were desultory, quite impractical, and +often tinged with the factional spirit that ultimately ruptured the +association. At its first meeting the discussion of the eight-hour +day, the limitation of work for women and children, and the +establishing of better free schools took a modern turn. But the French +delegates brought forward a proposal to confine the membership in the +association to "hand workers." This was to get rid of Marx and Engels, +who were "brain workers." Socialism was evidently no more clearly +defined then than it is to-day.</p> + +<p>Occasionally practical subjects were debated, as the acquiring by the +state of all the means of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>transportation, of mines, forests, and +land. But their time was largely taken up in the discussion of general +principles, such as "Labor must have its full rights and entire +rewards." Or they resolved, as at Brussels in 1868, that producers +could gain control of machines and factories only through an +indefinite extension of co-operative societies and a system of mutual +credit; or, as at Basle the following year, that society had a right +to abolish private property in land.</p> + +<p>It is apparent to any one who reads the reports of their meetings that +very little practical advance had been made since the "Manifesto." +Socialism was still in the vapor of speculation. It had absorbed some +practical aspects from the English unions. These were at first +interested in the International, and at their national conference in +Sheffield, 1868, they even urged the local unions to join it. This +interest waned rapidly as they saw the Continental contingent veer +towards the Commune.</p> + +<p>However, the beginnings of a new movement, a "new Socialism," were +distinctly seen in the questions that the English element introduced: +the length of the working day, factory legislation, work of women and +children. These had been the subject of rigid governmental inquiry. +Marx was thoroughly familiar with these parliamentary findings. They +are no small part of the fortifications he built around his theory of +social development. But his German training inclined him to the +Continental, not the Anglo-Saxon, view of social progress and of +politics.</p> + +<p>The "Old International," then, was an attempt to spread Marxian +doctrines into all lands. As such an attempt it is noteworthy. The +Marxian <i>modus</i>, however, did not fit the world. Some Socialist +writers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>attribute its failure to the fact that the time was not ripe +for Marx's methods. The time will never be ripe for the Marxian +method. Marx tried to move everything from one center. He was a German +dogmatist. His council was a centralized autocracy, issuing mandates +like a general to an army. This is an impossible method of +international organization. The center must be supported by the +periphery, not the periphery by the center. There could be no +proletarian internationalism until there was an organized proletarian +nationalism.</p> + +<p>Its conceptions of its detailed duties were even cruder than its +machinery. The discussions were a blending of pedantic declamation and +phosphoric denunciation. Its programs were a mixture of English +trade-union realities and Continental vagaries. Such a movement had +neither wings nor legs.</p> + +<p>But it had an influence, nevertheless, and a very important one. It +was the means of bringing the new generation of leaders together, the +men who were to make Socialism a practical political force. Even the +fact that an international laboring men's society could meet was +important. It realized the central idea of Marx, that the labor +problem is international. That is the important point. Human +solidarity is not ethnic, but inter-ethnic. The "Old International" +was a faltering step toward that solidarity of humanity that has been +advanced so rapidly by inventions, by international arbitrations, by +treaties of commerce, and every other movement that makes +international hostilities every year more difficult.</p> + +<p>On Socialism the "International" had at least one beneficial effect. +It cleared its atmosphere of the anarchistic thunder clouds and +prepared the way for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>the present more practical movement. This was +largely due to the influence of the English trade unions. They were +not inclined toward philosophical dissertations like the Germans, nor +brilliant speculative vagaries like the French. Their stolid forms +were always on the earth. That Marx was anxious for their support is +apparent, and he drove them out of the movement by his indiscreet +utterances on the Parisian Commune of 1871.</p> + +<p>The "Old International" was a revival of the "Society of the Just," +tempered with English trade-unionism and tinged with Anarchism; it was +also a connecting link between the old and the new Socialism.</p> + +<p>The characteristics of the "New Socialism" cropped out at the first +meeting of the "New International," as it is called. In the first +place, the co-operative movement and the trade-union movement were +both amply represented at the Paris meetings, where the "New +International" was formed in 1889. This is indicative of the new +direction that the economic phase of Socialism has since taken. In the +second place, the Socialist congress split into two parties, +ostensibly over the question of the credentials of certain delegates, +but really over the question that divides Socialists in all countries +to-day: Shall Socialists co-operate with other political parties or +remain isolated? The Marxian dogmatists believed in isolation; the +opportunists or Possibilists believed in co-operating with other +parties. There were two congresses. The Marxian congress had 221 +French delegates and about 175 from other countries. The Possibilist +convention was composed of 91 foreign and 521 French delegates. It was +virtually a labor union convention, for over 225 unions were +represented. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>is of great significance that these two meetings, +which divided on a question of political policy, discussed virtually +the same questions. They were against war, believed in collectivism, +demanded international labor legislation, the eight-hour day, the "day +of rest," etc.<a name="FNanchor_8-4_47" id="FNanchor_8-4_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-4_47" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Liebknecht, the distinguished German Socialist, who was one of the +chairmen of the Marxian convention, wrote in his preface to the German +edition of the <i>Proceedings</i> that the Paris meeting began a new era, +"and indicated a break with the past." He told the delegates at the +convention, "the Old International lives in us to-day." There was a +continuity of proletarian ambition. In this respect the old movement +was resurrected in the new. But in every other respect the old +movement was dead. The abstractions about property and the rights of +individuals did not interest the new generation. They were more +concerned with wages than wage theories, and in the purchasing power +of their wages than in a theory of values. Even the spirit of the +class consciousness had changed. Marx's organization was the source of +the old; national consciousness was the source of the new. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>The +present internationalism is the result of nationalism. The delegates +at Paris were representatives; they represented nationalities. One of +the rules of the Marxian congress was that votes should be counted "by +the head," unless a delegation from any country should unanimously +demand "voting by nationalities."</p> + +<p>In the twenty years that had elapsed since Bakunin and his +conspiracy-loving following had disrupted the "Old International" by +their preaching of violence against nationalism, labor had increased +with the rapid strides of the increasing industry and commerce of the +world. This labor had organized itself into unions and all manner of +co-operative and protective associations. It had done this by natural +compulsion from within, not by a superimposed force from without. They +had thereby found their national homogeneity, and were ready to go +forward into a great and universal international homogeneity.</p> + +<p>The International Workingmen's Association now embraces the labor +movement of all the leading countries of the world. At the last +congress, held in Copenhagen, 1910, reports were received from the +following organizations: the British Labor Party, the Fabian Society, +the Social Democratic Federation of England, the Social Democratic +Party of Germany, the Social Democratic Labor Party of Austria, the +Commission of Trade Unions of Austria, the Social Democratic Labor +Party of Bohemia, the Social Democratic Party of Hungary, the +Socialist Party of France, the Socialist Party of Italy, the +Revolutionary Socialist Party of Russia, the Social Democratic Party +of Lettland, the Social Democratic Party of Finland, the Socialist +Party of Norway, the Social Democratic Labor Party of Sweden, the +Danish Social Democracy, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>Social Democratic Party of Holland, the +Belgian Labor Party, the Socialist Labor Party of the United States, +the Social Democratic Party of Servia, and the Bulgarian Laborers' +Social Democratic Party.<a name="FNanchor_9-4_48" id="FNanchor_9-4_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-4_48" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> These names indicate the threefold nature +of the modern movement. It is a labor movement, it is democratic, and +it is Socialistic. And the list of countries shows that it is +international.</p> + +<p>At Brussels a permanent International Socialist Bureau is maintained, +with a permanent secretary, who is in constant touch with the movement +in all countries.</p> + +<p>There are two directions in which this remarkable co-operation of +millions of workingmen of all lands may have a practical effect on +international affairs.</p> + +<p>In the first place, there is an effort being made to internationalize +labor unions. In Europe this has been done, to some extent, among the +transportation workers. They have an international committee of their +own, and keep each other informed of labor conditions and movements. +The great railway strike in England, in the summer of 1911, was +planned on the Continent, as well as in London and Liverpool, and +there was a sympathetic restlessness with the strikers in various +countries adjacent to the Channel that threatened to break out in +violence. During the post-office strike in France the strikers +attempted to persuade English and Belgian railway employees to refuse +to handle French mail. The Syndicalists confidently look forward to +the day when an international labor organization will be able to +compel a universal general strike.</p> + +<p>In the second place, the new international <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>organization will have a +far-reaching influence on militarism. This is due to two causes: +first, the recruit himself is filled with the discontent of the +Socialist before he dons the uniform. In France, Germany, Belgium, +Austria, and other countries the anti-military virus has been long at +work. But more potent than this is the feeling of international +solidarity that binds these recruits into a brotherhood of labor who +are unwilling to fight each other for purposes that do not appeal to +the Socialist heart. Warfare, to the laboring man, is merely one phase +of the exploitation of the poor for the benefit of the capitalist, and +patriotism an excuse to hide the real purposes of war. At St. Quentin, +in 1911, the French Socialists denounced the war in Morocco as an +exploitation of human lives for the purposes of capitalistic gain. The +German Social Democracy has always opposed the colonial policy of the +chancellors on the same ground, and the Belgian Labor Party has been +the severest censor of the Belgian Congo campaigns.</p> + +<p>During the summer of 1911 the Morocco incident threatened a war +between France and Germany, with England involved, and the other great +powers more than interested. In August and September the situation +became so acute that England and Germany were popularly said to have +been "within two weeks of war." A profound sense of danger and an +intense restlessness possessed the people. During this period of +excitement the French Socialists held anti-war demonstrations. The +German Social Democrats met in their annual convention at Jena and +passed a resolution condemning the German Morocco policy, and Herr +Bebel made a notable speech, detailing the horrors of war with grim +exactness, and arraigning a civilization <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>that would resort to the +"monstrous miseries" of war for gaining a few acres of land. This +speech was quoted at length by the great European dailies, and made a +deep impression upon the people. In England the leaders of the Labor +Party admonished the government that, while they were patriots and +believed in national solidarity, the English workingman would never +cease to consider the German and the French workingman as a +fellow-laborer and brother. The International Socialist Bureau met in +Zurich to discuss the situation and to consider how the organizations +of labor might make their protests against war most effective.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to measure the influence of such an international +protest against the powers of governments and of armies. That the +protest was made, that it was sincere, rational and free from the +hyperbola of passion, is the significant fact. Forty years ago such +action on the part of labor would have been ridiculed. To-day it is +respected.</p> + +<p>Disarmament, when it comes, will be due to the influences exerted by +the recruit rather than to the benevolent impulses of governments and +commanders.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-4_40" id="Footnote_1-4_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-4_40"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Introduction to <i>Klassenkämpfe</i>, p. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-4_41" id="Footnote_2-4_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-4_41"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Engels</span>, Introduction to <span class="sc">Marx's</span> +<i>Enthüllungen über den Kommunisten Process zu Köln</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-4_42" id="Footnote_3-4_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-4_42"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Joint-preface of edition of 1872.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-4_43" id="Footnote_4-4_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-4_43"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-4_44" id="Footnote_5-4_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-4_44"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See "Address of the General Council of the Workingmen's +Association on the Civil War in France."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-4_45" id="Footnote_6-4_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-4_45"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Many of the original documents, and extensive excerpts +from others are given in <span class="sc">Dr. Eugen Jäger's</span> <i>Der Moderne +Socialismus</i>, Berlin, 1873, and in <span class="sc">Dr. R. Meyer's</span> <i>Der +Emancipations-Kampf des Vierten Standes</i>, 2nd edition, Vol. I, Berlin, +1882. Both of these works give a fairly detailed account of the +development of the International and of its annual meetings.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-4_46" id="Footnote_7-4_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-4_46"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See <i>Ein Complot gegen die International Arbeiter +Association</i>, a compilation of documents and descriptions of Bakunin's +organization. The work was first issued in French and translated into +German by S. Koksky.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-4_47" id="Footnote_8-4_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-4_47"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The Possibilists declared for an eight-hour day; a day of +rest each week; abolition of night work; abolition of work for women +and children; special protection for children 14-18 years of age; +workshop inspectors elected by the workmen; equal wages for foreign +and domestic labor; a fixed minimum wage; compulsory education; repeal +of the laws against the International.</p> + +<p class="noin">The Marxian program included: an eight-hour day; children under 14 +years forbidden to work, and work confined to six hours a day for +youth 14-18 years of age, except in certain cases; prohibition of work +for women dangerous to their health; 36 hours of continuous rest each +week; abolition of "payment in kind"; abolition of employment bureaus; +inspectors of workshops to be selected by workmen; equal pay for both +sexes; absolute liberty of association.</p> + +<p class="noin">For the first meeting of the "New International," see <span class="sc">Weil</span>, +<i>Histoire Internationale de France</i>, pp. 262 et seq.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-4_48" id="Footnote_9-4_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-4_48"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See Appendix, p. 340. for list of countries that maintain +Socialist organizations and the political strength of same.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> + +<h3>THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF FRANCE<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>The Commune abruptly put an end to Socialism in France. The caldron +boiled over and put out the fire. Thiers, in his last official message +as president, claimed that Socialism, living and thriving in Germany, +was absolutely dead in France. It was, however, to be revived in a +newer and more vital form.</p> + +<p>The exiled communards, in England and elsewhere, came in contact with +Marxianism, and in 1880, when a general amnesty was declared, they +brought to Paris a new and virile propaganda. The leader of the new +Marxian movement was Jules Guesde, a tireless zealot, burning with the +fire that kindles enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>The "affaire Boulanger" absorbed attention at this time, and Guesde, +in his newspapers, <i>La Révolution Française</i> and <i>Égalité</i>, supported +the Republic. But he was also insisting upon "Le minimum d'état et la +maximum de liberté" (a minimum of government and a maximum of +liberty). This may be taken as the political maxim of the Socialists +at that time, although it leads them into the embarrassing anomaly of +using their own slave as their master.</p> + +<p>Meantime a political labor party had arisen. In Paris, in 1878, a +workingman became a candidate for the municipal council, and he headed +his program with the words "<i>Parti Ouvrier</i>"—Labor Party. This is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>the first time the words were used with a political significance.<a name="FNanchor_1-5_49" id="FNanchor_1-5_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-5_49" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +It was a small beginning, his votes were few, and the newspaper that +espoused the workingman's cause, <i>Le Prolétaire</i>, was constantly on +the verge of bankruptcy for want of proletarian support. In other +cities the political labor movement began, and in 1879 a labor +conference was held in Marseilles.</p> + +<p>The two movements, labor and Socialist, drew together in 1880 at a +general conference of workingmen at Havre. Here there were three +groups which found it impossible to coalesce: the Anarchists, under +Blanqui, formed the "Parti Socialiste Révolutionnaire"—the +Revolutionary Socialist Party; the co-operativists, calling themselves +the Republican Socialist Alliance, included the opportunist element of +the Socialists; and the Guesdists, who were in the majority, organized +the "Parti Ouvrier Français"—the French Labor Party—and adopted a +Marxian program.</p> + +<p>The Guesdists entered the campaign with characteristic zeal. They +polled only 15,000 votes in Paris and 25,000 in the Departments for +their municipal tickets, and 50,000 in the entire country for their +legislative ticket.</p> + +<p>From the first the Socialists in France have been rent by petty +factions. We will hastily review these constantly shifting groups +before proceeding to the larger inquiry.</p> + +<p>In 1882 the Guesdists split, and Brousse formed the "Fédération des +Travailleurs Socialistes de France"—the Federation of Socialist +Workingmen of France. In 1885 Malon formed a group for the study of +the social problems, "Société d'Économie <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>Sociale"—Society of Social +Economics—which rapidly developed into the important group of +Independent Socialists—"Parti Socialiste Indépendent." The labor +movement was stimulated by the act of 1884, and in 1886 the +"Fédération des Syndicats"—Federation of Labor Unions—was organized +at Lyons, and in 1887 the Paris Labor Exchange—"Bourse du +Travail"—was opened.</p> + +<p>In 1882 Allemane seceded from the Broussists to found a faction of his +own, the Revolutionary Socialist Labor Party of France—"Parti Ouvrier +Socialiste Révolutionnaire Français." In 1893 the first confederation +of the labor exchanges (bourses) was held, and the first conspicuous +victory at the polls achieved.</p> + +<p>In 1899 an effort was made to unify the warring factions, and a +committee representing every shade of Socialistic faith was appointed. +It was called the General Committee—"Comité Général Socialiste." +Within the year the Guesdists withdrew on account of the rigorous +quelling of the strike riots by the government at Châlons-sur-Saône. +In 1901 the Blanquists withdrew and, coalescing with the Guesdists, +formed the Socialist Party of France—"Parti Socialiste de France." +This movement was soon followed by the uniting of the Jaurèsites and +the Independents, who called themselves the French Socialist +Party—"Parti Socialiste Français."</p> + +<p>After the expulsion of Millerand, the two parties united in 1905 at +Rouen. This unity was achieved at the suggestion of the International +Congress held at Amsterdam, 1904. The "United Party" is officially +known as the French Section of the International Workingmen's +Association—"Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>The United Party, after its years of ridiculous factionalism, is the +most compact and disciplined group in the Chamber of Deputies, and +this in spite of the fact that the Guesdists and Jaurèsites have not +forgotten their ancient differences. The French people are not +amenable to discipline and party rigor as are the Germans and the +Anglo-Saxons. At the last election (1910) the United Party elected 76 +deputies in a chamber of 590 members.</p> + +<p>There are to-day two other groups that are more or less Socialistic +but are not in "the Party." The Independent Socialists, numbering +thirty-four members in the Chamber, are men who, either because of +their intellectualism or because of their political ambitions, have a +repugnance to hard and fast organization. This group includes a number +of college professors and journalists; also Briand, Viviani, and +Millerand, former ministers. They are not committed to any definite +political program, take a leading part in all social reform measures, +and are accused by the "united ones" of using the name Socialist +merely as a bait for votes.</p> + +<p>The other group is the Socialist-Radical Party, numbering about 250 +members in the Chamber. In most countries their radicalism would be +called Socialism. But in France they are only the connecting link +between Socialists and liberal Republicans.<a name="FNanchor_2-5_50" id="FNanchor_2-5_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-5_50" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<br /> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>The "social questions" were slow in entering parliament. In 1876 a +Bonapartist deputy, known for his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>charities, interpolated the +government, asking what inquiries were being made toward securing the +moral and material betterment of "the greatest number," and amidst the +cheers of his followers the Prime Minister replied that the +government's duty was comprehended in securing to the country +"liberty, security, and education." This was the old idea of the +functions of government. The new social movement had not yet gathered +momentum.</p> + +<p>With the development of the workingman's political party, interest and +sympathy for his problems suddenly increased. In 1880 the Republicans +adopted a resolution in favor of freedom of association. At this time +labor unions were illegal. In 1881 the government removed the +restrictions that had been placed on the press. In the following year +it extended the primary schools into every commune, and Gambetta did +everything in his power to promulgate what he termed "an alliance of +the proletariat and the bourgeois." Social science, he said, was the +solvent of social ills. The Socialists, however, believed that +politics, not "social science," was the solvent.</p> + +<p>It was not until 1884, while Waldeck-Rousseau was Minister of the +Interior, that labor was given the legal right to organize. +Immediately unions—called <i>syndicats</i> by the French—sprang up +everywhere. Article 3 of the act declared that these unions had for +their exclusive object "the study and the promulgation of their +interests, economic, industrial, commercial, and agricultural." They +were not given the liberal legal powers that English and American +unions have.</p> + +<p>The social movement now invaded French politics in full battle array. +A government commission was intrusted with the study of the +co-operative <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>movement. In 1885 several deputies, calling themselves +Socialists, began to interpellate the ministry on the labor questions. +The government brought in two proposals, one pertaining to communal +and industrial organizations, the other to the arbitration of +industrial disputes. Both were tabled.</p> + +<p>In 1887 a man appeared in the Chamber ready to debate the social +questions with the keenest and the ablest. This was Jean Jaurès, a +professor of philosophy, whose profound knowledge and superb oratory +immediately commanded attention. He was joined by another new deputy, +M. Millerand, scarcely less proficient in debate, and even more +extreme in his convictions. Both were considered members of the +radical party. But they soon formed the nucleus of a new group, the +Independent Socialists, that grew rapidly in influence and power.</p> + +<p>The social question was forced on the public from yet another +direction. The Anarchists, who had been expelled from the Havre +conference, remained passive until the organization of trade unions. +They then began to promulgate the doctrine of the general strike. The +unionists began not only to compel their employers to accede to their +demands, but to coerce workingmen to join the unions. It was during +this agitation that the government established an elaborate system of +labor exchanges—"Bourse du Travail."</p> + +<p>From the labor unions the doctrine of the general strike was +insinuated into Socialist circles. In 1890 it was proposed as a +practical measure for enforcing the demand for an eight-hour day among +the miners. In 1892 the Departmental Congress of Workingmen at Tours +passed a resolution favoring the general strike, and it was discussed +a few days later in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>general convention of the unions, at the +suggestion of Aristide Briand, a Socialist who was destined to play an +important rôle in the development of the theory and practice of +general strikes.</p> + +<p>The government could no longer dodge the social question. Millerand +announced his conversion to Socialism and became the leader of a small +parliamentary coterie who pressed the issue daily. In a signed +statement to the unions they said: "The Republic has given the ballot +into your hand, now give the Republic your instructions."<a name="FNanchor_3-5_51" id="FNanchor_3-5_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-5_51" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The +parliamentary <i>entente</i> of the liberal Socialists with the Radical +Left dates from this time. The campaign spread with surprising fervor. +Labor unions and parliamentary Socialists joined their forces. In 1893 +they elected forty Socialists to the Chamber of Deputies. Among them +were Jaurès, who now espoused the cause of the Socialist opportunists; +Millerand, conspicuous as leader of the independent group; Guesde, the +vehement Marxian; and Vaillant, a communard and Socialist of the older +type.</p> + +<p>Now began the actual parliamentary Socialism in France. Jaurès, in +introducing the group—they were scarcely a party—to the Chamber, +affirmed their allegiance to the Republic and their devotion to the +cause of humanity. The misery of the people had awakened, he said, +after right of association had been granted. Labor had, through +strikes, gained certain minor improvements. It was now prepared to +conquer public authority. But so much of their time was spent in +quarreling with each other, and debating whether they should vote with +the Radicals, that very little substantial work was accomplished by +the Socialists.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>Finally, encouraged by their unusual success in the municipal +elections of 1896, the leaders of the various factions met at +Saint-Mandé to celebrate their victory. They were tiring of their +quarrels and were ready to unite. At least they agreed that each group +could name its own candidate for the first ballot; on the second +ballot they should all support the Socialist who polled the most votes +on the first ballot.<a name="FNanchor_4-5_52" id="FNanchor_4-5_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-5_52" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>But who is a Socialist? Here for the first time a political definition +was attempted. Millerand, a Parisian lawyer who, we have seen, made +his political début with Jaurès, as a member of the Radical Left, +attempted the answer. It was made in the presence of Guesde, Vaillant, +and Jaurès, and many local leaders from various parts of France. So, +for the moment and for the occasion of rejoicing, there was a united +Socialism. And it gave assent, with varying enthusiasm, to the general +definition and program outlined by Millerand. He defined the ground to +be covered as follows:</p> + +<p>"Is not the Socialistic idea completely summed up in the earnest +desire to secure for every being in the bosom of society the +unimpaired development of his personality? That implies two necessary +conditions of which one is a factor of the other: first, individual +appropriation of things necessary for the security and development of +the individual, i.e., property; secondly, liberty, which is only a +sounding and hollow word if it is not based on and safeguarded by +property."</p> + +<p>He then accepted <i>in toto</i> the Marxian theory that capitalistic +society bears within itself the enginery <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>of its own doom. "Men do not +and will not set up collectivism; it is setting itself up daily; it +is, if I may be allowed the phrase, being secreted by the capitalistic +régime. Here I seem to have my finger on the characteristic feature of +the Socialist program. In my view, whoever does not admit the +necessary and progressive replacement of capitalistic property by +social property is not a Socialist."</p> + +<p>Millerand was not satisfied with merely including banking, railroads, +and mining in the list of "socialized" property. He believed that as +industries become "ripe" they should be taken over by the state, and +cites sugar refining as an example of a monopoly that is +"incontestably ripe." Millerand also laid great stress on municipal +activities, and hastened to guarantee to the small property owner his +modest possessions. All this taking over by the state was to be done +gradually. "No Socialist ever dreamed of transforming the capitalistic +régime instantaneously by magic wand." The method of this gradual +absorption by the state must be constitutional. "We appeal only to +universal suffrage. To realize the immediate reforms capable of +relieving the lot of the working class, and thus fitting it to win its +own freedom, and to begin, as conditioned by the nature of things, the +socialization of the means of production, it is necessary and +sufficient for the Socialist party to endeavor to capture the +government through universal suffrage."<a name="FNanchor_5-5_53" id="FNanchor_5-5_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-5_53" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>This mild formulary, which places the "socialized society" far into +the dim future, was accepted as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>long as it was rhetorical. But when +Millerand himself became a member of the cabinet in the +Waldeck-Rousseau coalition, and began to translate his words into +deeds, a rupture followed.</p> + +<p>In the meantime occurred the Dreyfus affair, which shifted all the +political forces of the Republic. At first the Guesdists remained +indifferent, while Jaurès, with great energy, threw himself into the +contest in behalf of Dreyfus. But when the affair took an +anti-Republican turn and democracy was threatened, then all the +Socialists united, with no lack of energy and zeal, in the defense of +the Republic. On June 13, 1898, Millerand was spokesman in the Chamber +of Deputies for the Socialist group, which now held the balance of +power. With threats of violence against the Republic in the air, he +assured the deputies that his comrades were united for "the honor, the +splendor, and the safety of the Fatherland" (l'honneur, la grandeur, +et la sécurité de la Patrie). And this was part of the price of their +adhesion: old-age pensions, a fixed eight-hour day, factory +legislation protecting the life and health of the workman, military +service reduced to two years, and an income tax. The Radical Left +adopted this "minimum program" of the Socialists, and the famous +"Bloc" was formed. Jaurès was made vice-president of the Chamber and +soon proved himself master of the coalition. Now for the first time in +history the Socialists were in political power, and what occurred is +of the greatest interest to us.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>And now for the first time a Socialist becomes a cabinet member. In +1899 Waldeck-Rousseau <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>appointed Millerand Minister of Commerce, to the +consternation of the Conservatives and the division of the Socialists. +Jaurès congratulated his colleague on his courage in assuming +responsibility. But while the Independents were jubilant over the +elevation of one of their number, the Guesdists and Blanquists withdrew +from the "Bloc." They issued a manifesto setting forth their reasons. +They did not wish further alliances with a "pretended Socialist." They +were tired of "compromises and deviations," which for too long a time +had been forced on them as "a substitute for the class war, for +revolution, and the socialism of the militant proletariat."<a name="FNanchor_6-5_54" id="FNanchor_6-5_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-5_54" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>To them the war of the classes forbade their entrance into a bourgeois +ministry; and the conquest of political power did not imply +collaboration with a government whose duty it was to defend property. +Jaurès proposed to put the question up to the party congress, and in +1899 at Paris a bilateral compromise resolution was adopted. Guesde, +however, restless and dissatisfied, compelled the congress to vote +first upon the question, "Does the war of the classes permit the +entrance of a Socialist into a bourgeois government?" The answer was +818 "no," 634 "yes." Jaurès' compromise was then adopted, 1,140 to +240.<a name="FNanchor_7-5_55" id="FNanchor_7-5_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-5_55" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The international congress held in Paris, September, 1900, adopted +Kautsky's resolution declaring that the acceptance of office by a +single Socialist in a bourgeois government "could not be deemed the +normal commencement of the conquest for political <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>power, but only an +expedient called forth by transitory and exceptional conditions."</p> + +<p>At the Bordeaux congress, April, 1903, the whole time was given over +to this perplexing question. The congress was composed largely of +friends of Millerand and Jaurès. By this time the Socialist minister +had had three years' experience in the cabinet. The Waldeck-Rousseau +premiership had given way to Combes, who was also dependent upon the +Socialists for his power.</p> + +<p>Millerand had especially offended the Socialists by voting against his +party on three separate occasions: first, on a resolution abolishing +state support for public worship; second, on a resolution to prosecute +certain anti-militarists for publishing a book that tended to destroy +military discipline; and, third, on a resolution asking the Minister +of Foreign Affairs to invite proposals for international disarmament. +He had further offended the Socialists by officially receiving the +Czar on his visit to Paris.</p> + +<p>The debate, then, was disciplinary rather than doctrinal. But it was +political discipline, evidence therefore that a party consciousness of +some sort had been achieved. This meeting is significant because it +tried to fix definite limits for Socialistic action and committed +Jaurès to the narrowing, not to the expanding, policy of the party.</p> + +<p>M. Sarrante expressed the Millerand idea when he told the delegates +that they were to judge "an entire policy," the policy of "democratic +Socialism, which gains ground daily on the revolutionary Socialism, a +policy which Citizen Millerand did not start, which he has merely +developed and defined, and which forces itself upon us more and more +in our republican <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>country." The test of Socialism, he said, was just +this "contact of theory with facts."</p> + +<p>Jaurès found himself in logical difficulty when he endeavored to +reconcile both sides for the sake of party unity. He said that +Sarrante was wrong "when he thinks it enough to lay down the principle +of democracy in order to resolve, in a sort of automatic fashion, the +antagonisms of society.... The enthronement of political democracy and +universal suffrage by no means suppresses the profound antagonism of +classes.... Sarrante errs in positing democracy without noting that it +is modified, adulterated, thwarted by the antagonism of classes and +the economic preponderance of one class. Just as Guesde errs in +positing the class war apart from democracy."</p> + +<p>To Jaurès the problem was to "penetrate" this democracy with the ideas +of Socialism until the "proletarian and Socialistic state has replaced +the oligarchic and bourgeois state." This can be brought about, he +said, by "a policy which consists in at once collaborating with all +democrats, yet vigorously distinguishing one's self from them."</p> + +<p>Jaurès acknowledged the awkwardness of this policy, which required a +superhuman legerdemain never yet accomplished by any party in the +history of politics.</p> + +<p>Guesde's motion to oust Millerand from the party was lost. And a +compromise offered by Jaurès censuring him for his votes, but +permitting him to remain in the party fold, was adopted by 109 to 89 +votes, fifteen delegates abstaining from voting. This was a very close +margin, and in spite of Millerand's promise that he would in the +future be more careful of his party allegiance he was expelled the +following <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>year from the Federation of the Seine. The stumbling-block +was removed.<a name="FNanchor_8-5_56" id="FNanchor_8-5_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-5_56" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>More important than the party discipline is the question of the +economic measures attempted by Millerand. In general he followed the +outlines laid down in his Saint-Mandé program.<a name="FNanchor_9-5_57" id="FNanchor_9-5_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-5_57" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> His experience +carried him farther away from the Guesdists every year until he +repudiated the class war and adhered to social solidarity; substituted +the method by evolution for the method by revolution, still espoused +by Guesde; and placed the national interests upon as high a plane of +duty as the international and the personal. His program of labor +legislation was comprehensive, and he succeeded in getting some of it +passed into law. These were his leading proposals:</p> + +<p>1. Regulating the hours of labor and creating a normal working day of +ten hours. He began the reduction at eleven hours, reducing it to ten +and a half, and then to ten within three years. In the public works of +his own department he reduced the working day at once to eight hours.</p> + +<p>2. In public contracts he introduced clauses favorable to workingmen. +These clauses embraced the number of hours in a normal work day, the +minimum wage for every class of workmen, prohibition of piece-work, +guarantee of no work on Sunday, and the per cent. of foreign workmen +allowed on the job. He arranged that the workingmen should unite with +the employer in fixing the wages and the hours of labor before the +contract was signed. In these contracts, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>furthermore, the state +reserved the right to indemnify the workmen out of the funds due to +the contractor.</p> + +<p>3. An accident insurance law.</p> + +<p>4. The abolition of private employment agencies, with their many +abuses, and replacing them with communal labor bureaus free to all. +The voluntary federations of the trade unions were put on a similar +footing with the communal labor exchanges, and were encouraged to +co-operate with them. Millerand took great care to perfect the +organization of trade unions. He introduced amendments to the old law +of 1884, giving greater scope and elasticity to the unions, granting +them greater corporate powers, and making the dismissal of a workman +because he belonged to a union ground for a civil suit for damages. He +began a movement to secure the co-operation between the unions and the +state workshop inspectors. There had been a great deal of abuse in the +operation of the inspection laws by the employers. An attempt was now +made to define strictly the rights and duties of the inspectors.</p> + +<p>5. His pet scheme was the establishing of labor councils (conseils du +travail). On these councils labor and employer were to have equal +representation. The duty of the councils embraced the adjudication of +all disputes arising between employer and employee, suggesting +improvements, and keeping vigilance over all local labor conditions. +In 1891 a supreme labor council had been established. To this +Millerand added lay and official members and greatly increased its +efficiency. He tried to make it a central vigilance bureau, keeping in +close touch with local conditions all over the land.</p> + +<p>6. He elaborated a plan for regulating industrial <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>disputes. This was +to be effected by a permanent organization in each establishment +employing more than fifty men, a sort of committee of grievance to +which all matters of dispute might be referred. In case of failure to +settle their difficulties an appeal to the local labor council was +provided. By this democratic representative machinery Millerand hoped +to solve the labor problem.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that Millerand's plan was an attempt, by law, to +project the working class, not into politics but into the capitalist +class. He would do this by compelling the employer to share the +responsibility of ownership with his employees. This would mark the +beginning of a revolution very different from the revolution +ordinarily preached by propagandists, because this revolution would +substitute class peace in place of our present incessant economic +class war.</p> + +<p>The Socialists made it plain that Millerand's procedure was not +Socialism. When Millerand was first asked to take a cabinet portfolio +his friend Jaurès told him to accept. When he had perfected his +practical procedure, and the bulk of the proletarians evinced their +disappointment and chagrin that the elevation of a Socialist had not +brought utopia, Jaurès gradually slipped away from his former alliance +and finally left the reformist group.</p> + +<p>Jaurès also had his day of power. The Dreyfus affair presented the +issue in tangible form—the old traditions, religious, political, +social, against the new ideas of society, property, and government. It +was the heroic period of modern French Socialism. Red and black flags +were borne by enthusiastic multitudes through the streets of Paris. +The "<i>Université <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>Populaire</i>" was inaugurated by students for the +purpose of instructing the common people in the issues that were at +stake. The flame of eager anticipation spread over the Republic.</p> + +<p>As master of the "Bloc" in the Chamber, Jaurès became the first real +head in the first French democracy. Two great reforms were undertaken: +the disestablishment of the Church, carrying with it the +secularization of education and the reorganization of the army. The +old Royalist families had continued to send their sons into the army +and navy. Many of the officers were suspected of royalist sympathies. +An elaborate system of espionage was instituted, and the suspects +weeded out. The last vestige of the old monarchy has now disappeared +from French officialdom. France has a bourgeois army, a bourgeois +school system, a bourgeois bureaucracy, thanks to the power of the +proletarian Socialists led by Jaurès in the days of the Republic's +danger.</p> + +<p>Jaurès remained orthodox; Millerand became heretic. The Millerand +episode left a deep impression on the public mind. The first Socialist +minister shaped not only a program but an entire policy. In 1906, when +a new cabinet was formed, Millerand declined a portfolio, but two +other Socialists accepted cabinet honors; Viviani, a well-known +Parisian lawyer, held the newly created ministry of labor and social +prevision (prévoyance sociale), and Aristide Briand became Minister of +Public Instruction and Worship, and later Minister of Justice.</p> + +<p>The public regarded the elevation of two Socialists to the cabinet as +a matter of course. Millerand's activity had taken the fear out of +their hearts. Even the Marxian Socialists failed to notice the event. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>They had written into their party by-laws that no Socialist could +accept office, so the new ministers, by their own acts, ceased to be +"Socialists."</p> + +<p>Clémenceau, the new Premier, ushered in the next period of social +adventure by a brilliant debate in the Chamber with Jaurès in which +the philosophical basis of individualism was reviewed with great skill +and some of the social questions discussed.<a name="FNanchor_10-5_58" id="FNanchor_10-5_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-5_58" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Jaurès claimed for the Socialists a dominant share in the great +victory won by the friends of the Republic during the Dreyfus turmoil, +and made much of the multitudes of workingmen to whom the Republic was +now under great obligation. These workingmen, the proletariat, were +the force now to be dealt with. "If you really wish society to evolve, +if you wish it really to be transformed, there is the force you must +deal with, and that you must neither repress nor rebuff." The +parliamentary experience of Socialism Jaurès passed over lightly; it +added nothing new, he thought, to the theory or the arguments of the +Socialists.</p> + +<p>His opponent, however, in a single sentence laid bare the weakness of +the Socialist's logic: "The truth is that it is necessary to +distinguish between two different elements of the social organization, +between the man and the system." Clémenceau read the Socialists' +program upon which they had won their victory. It embraced: the +eight-hour day, giving state employees the right to form unions, +sickness and unemployment insurance; a progressive income tax; ballot +reform (scrutin de liste) and proportional representation, and +"restoration to the nation of the monopolies in which capital has its +strongest fortress."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>"What a terribly bourgeois program!" exclaimed Clémenceau. "M. Jaurès, +after expounding his program, challenged me to produce my own. I had +very great difficulty in restraining the temptation to reply: 'You +know my program very well. You have it in your pocket. You stole it +from me.'"</p> + +<p>This debate was significant, not in what was said, but in the fact +that it was possible to enlist the Prime Minister, the cleverest of +French statesmen, and Jaurès, the greatest of French orators, in a +discussion of Socialism from the tribune of the Chamber of Deputies. +The whole country listened. During this brilliant tilt Clémenceau +taunted Jaurès that his Socialism was impractical, a dream. "You are a +visionary, I am a realist; you have dreams, I have facts." Jaurès +replied with great fervor that he would prove to the people of France +that Socialism is not impracticable and that within a year he would +produce a plan for the new social order. The "Unified" Socialist +Party, built up largely on Jaurès' abandonment of his former colleague +and his earlier liberal convictions, may be considered a part of the +fulfilment of this promise. The other part, the plans and +specifications for the new society, is not yet before the world. Its +introduction, properly its prelude, is the volume published by Jaurès +in 1911, <i>L'Armée Nouvelle</i>, containing suggestions for reorganizing +the state defense along lines of voluntary militia and cadets.<a name="FNanchor_11-5_59" id="FNanchor_11-5_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_11-5_59" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span><br /> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>Clémenceau's régime was destined to test the Socialist policy in a new +direction. The law of 1884 gave state employees the right to form +associations, but not to federate or organize <i>syndicats</i>. A great +many organizations were formed, especially among the postal employees +and teachers. They were mutual benefit societies, "friendly" +associations, and the government recognized them to the extent of +discussing their grievances and questions of mutual interest with +them.</p> + +<p>Among the workmen in the navy yards and the national match, tobacco, +and porcelain works similar organizations existed. The Syndicalists +would not let the matter rest there. They demanded that these +organizations become members of the C.G.T. (General Confederation of +Workingmen). The government objected because that would give the men +the right to strike, a dangerous anomaly giving to the state's +servants the right to make government nugatory. This extreme doctrine +found ready advocates in the Chamber among the Socialists.</p> + +<p>In March, 1909, the post-office clerks and telegraph operators went +out on strike. The government promptly discharged thirty-eight of the +ringleaders and arrested eight of the strikers in Paris on the charge +of resisting the police. In the course of a few days over 800 out of +15,000 employees were discharged. Soldiers were introduced into the +service, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>and with the help of local chambers of commerce and other +civic bodies the postal service was renewed. The strikers were then +willing to make terms. They stipulated that the dismissed employees be +reinstated and that M. Simyan, the Under-Secretary of Posts and +Telegraphs, be dismissed. The first request was conceded, the second +was denied. The ostensible cause of the strike had been the attitude +of the under-secretary; the men asserted that he was arbitrary and had +imposed petty political exactions upon them. The government refused to +allow the men to dictate its affairs, the under-secretary remained, +and the men went back to work.</p> + +<p>The Socialists censured the government for not being considerate with +the men, and placed the entire blame upon the ministry for refusing +the national employees a right to organize as other workmen. To this +Simyan replied: "We are in the presence of an organized revolutionary +agitation ... this is blackmail by strike." The Minister of Public +Works said: "Over our heads these officials have revolted against you +and against the entire nation. These are serious hours when the +government needs perfect facilities of communication with its +ambassadors and consuls [the Balkan question was in the pot], and in +such hours a strike is an attack upon the national sovereignty. In +these circumstances I cannot re-enter into negotiations with the +general postal association. If I did so that would mean +abdication."<a name="FNanchor_12-5_60" id="FNanchor_12-5_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_12-5_60" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> The Socialist deputies voted against the government's +resolution "not to tolerate strikes of functionaries."</p> + +<p>The general strike committee was not discharged when the men returned +to work. When it became <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>evident that the government did not intend to +ask the under-secretary for his resignation the post-office employees +organized a trade union, unauthorized by law. The government refused +to meet representatives of this union, on the ground that state +employees had organized for one purpose only, namely, to have the +right to strike, and the government would not concede that right.</p> + +<p>On May 12 a second general post-office strike was called. The +government immediately dismissed over two hundred of the strikers. The +Socialists in the Chamber began a demonstration against the +government. One of their number started the "Internationale," the +Socialist war-song. After the first blush of indignation had passed, +the whole Chamber sprang to its feet, there were shouts of protest, a +Republican started the Marseillaise, and the two revolutionary hymns, +bourgeois and proletarian, were blended for the first time in a +parliamentary chamber.</p> + +<p>Now the general confederation of labor (C.G.T.) took charge of the +strike, and soon plots began to be carried out in various parts of the +country. There were indications of violence everywhere. The general +committee of the C.G.T. declared a general strike. The situation +threatened to become serious, but the soldiers distributed over the +affected territory had a tranquilizing effect. Men in other trades +were reluctant to follow the orders of the committee. A few electric +workers succeeded in cutting some wires in Paris, leaving the city in +darkness a few hours. There were desultory acts of <i>sabotage</i>, but +there was more terror than enthusiasm, and in two days the general +strike was over.<a name="FNanchor_13-5_61" id="FNanchor_13-5_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_13-5_61" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>Here was an attempt to place the 800,000 French state employees into +the revolutionary current of the C.G.T. The real question at issue was +this: Is striking an act of mutiny? Barthou, a member of the ministry, +said in the Chamber of Deputies that "the more solemnly you denounce +the strike as a crime against the state, the greater the victory of +the Syndicalists." The Syndicalist journal, <i>Le Voix du Peuple</i>, the +day after the first strike was settled proclaimed "the victory which +our comrades of the postal proletariat have won over their employer +the state." This, they said, showed that the state conceded the main +contention of Syndicalism—that it is not different from a private +employer. And the Syndicalists gloried in the fact that the +government, instead of treating the strikers as mutineers, parleyed +with them and reinstated them.</p> + +<p>Clémenceau brought in a bill designed to relieve the situation by +fixing the status of the state employees. The men were to be given the +right of association for "professional" purposes only,—i.e., for +improving their efficiency,—but were absolutely prohibited from +striking and from joining other unions. A comprehensive civil-service +reform was embodied in the bill, aimed to prevent the men from +becoming victims of political abuse.</p> + +<p>Before the bill could be thoroughly considered the Clémenceau ministry +fell and a new Prime Minister was called to the helm. This was none +other than Aristide Briand, the first Socialist Prime Minister in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>European history. His former comrades had long before this disowned +him, and he was soon to participate in events that would forever +alienate them. He had been a furious Socialist, an anti-militarist, +and defender of the general strike. In the Socialist congress at +Paris, 1899, he said: "The general strike has the seductive advantage +that it is nothing but the practice of an intangible right. It is a +revolution which arises within the law. The workingman refuses to +carry the yoke of misery any farther and begins the revolution in the +field of his legal rights. The illegality must begin with the +capitalist class, if it allows itself to be provoked into destroying a +right which they themselves have professed to be holy." At the same +meeting he expressed himself on the soldiery as follows: "If the +command to fire is given, if the officers are stubborn enough to try +to force the soldiers against their will, then the guns might be +fired, but perhaps not in the direction the officers thought." Briand +repeated these sentiments at the Amsterdam congress in 1903.</p> + +<p>This was the man whom destiny had chosen to lead the French government +against the organized revolt of government employees.</p> + +<p>On assuming the premiership he announced his program:</p> + +<p>1. Parliamentary and electoral reform, he said, were of the first +necessity, but he deemed it best to experiment with the new methods of +balloting locally before adopting a national system of reform.</p> + +<p>2. A graduated income tax.</p> + +<p>3. Fixing the legal status of state servants.</p> + +<p>4. Old-age pension.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>October 10, 1910, the men employed on the Northern Railway went out on +strike. Before they did so they had a conference with the Prime +Minister and the Minister of Public Works, Millerand, requesting that +they try to arrange a meeting between the men and the officials of the +railway. The ministry offered its services to the railway directors, +but they refused to meet the strikers, although Briand had volunteered +to preside at such a meeting. The Prime Minister told the men firmly +that the government could not tolerate a suspension of railway +service, that it would exert its authority to prevent it, and that it +relied on the common sense and patriotism of the men to prevent it.</p> + +<p>However, the strike spread to other lines, including the state +railway. The men's demands were three: 1. A minimum wage of five +francs a day. 2. A revision of the railway pension act making the +pensions retroactive. 3. A weekly day of rest—the men had been +excluded from the "rest day" act when it was passed.</p> + +<p>Briand at once characterized the strike as political in motive and +revolutionary in character. In his mind the strike ceased to be merely +a question of the right to strike, but was a criminal outbreak, an act +of rebellion planned by a few revolutionary leaders and submitted to +by the rank and file without their even voting on the question. He was +greatly incensed at the sudden calling out of the men after the +government had received their representatives, and especially since +the railway companies had granted their request for a minimum wage and +had taken under advisement the other demands of the men.</p> + +<p>Five of the ringleaders were promptly arrested under dramatic +circumstances. They were attending <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>a meeting in the office of +<i>L'Humanité</i>,<a name="FNanchor_14-5_62" id="FNanchor_14-5_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_14-5_62" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> attended by Jaurès and Vaillant and other leaders of +the party. They were arrested under color of Sections 17 and 18 of the +law of 1845 dealing with railway traffic.<a name="FNanchor_15-5_63" id="FNanchor_15-5_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_15-5_63" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>This law proved a powerful factor in checking the strike. Arrests were +made far and near. The energetic Prime Minister did not wait for acts +of violence; he anticipated them. Briand called out the reserves +(militia), and nearly all of the strikers were compelled to put on the +uniform. If they refused they were guilty of a serious offense; if +they obeyed they could no longer strike.</p> + +<p>The railways were run as in times of war, under military rigor. In +spite of these precautions acts of violence occurred, and <i>sabotage</i> +was reported from various railway centers.<a name="FNanchor_16-5_64" id="FNanchor_16-5_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_16-5_64" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>In one week the soldiery, under the determined minister, had done its +work. The strike was over. The government refused to reinstate about +2,000 men employed on the state railway.</p> + +<p>The strike committee issued a manifesto excusing the failure of the +strike, assuming the full responsibility for calling it, and affirming +that the government had "lowered itself to the level of the most +barbarous employer."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>The strike was hastily conceived, never had the sympathy of the +public, and the destruction of property was deplored even by the labor +unions, which, when it was all over, passed resolutions condemning +<i>sabotage</i>. The leaders of the Syndicalists, the plotters of the +strike, no doubt believed that the time was opportune. The Prime +Minister and two of his cabinet, Viviani and Millerand, were +Socialists, and a third member, Barthou, was a Radical who had as a +private member of the Chamber, a short time before his appointment to +the cabinet, vigorously defended the railway men's "right to strike." +But official responsibility had its usual effect.<a name="FNanchor_17-5_65" id="FNanchor_17-5_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_17-5_65" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>Now began a series of dramatic events in the Chamber. The united +Socialists maintained that the men had a legal right to strike and +that the government had denied to French citizens their legal +privileges. Briand replied (October 25) that the strike had nothing to +do with the labor problem. The government, had been confronted with +"an enterprise designed to ruin the country, an anarchistic movement +with civil war for its aim, and violence and organized destruction for +its method"; and he had treated it as a rebellion, not as a strike. +The government, he said, had evidence of a well-laid plot for +<i>sabotage</i>; and the Syndicalist idea of liberty he characterized as a +"hideous figure of license."</p> + +<p>Millerand (October 27) characterized the strike as a "criminal +enterprise," and the <i>saboteurs</i> as "criminals" guilty of "a +revolutionary mobilization with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>political object." For the +Socialists Bouveri, a miner, replied. He defended bomb-throwing and +<i>sabotage</i>; asked the Minister of War if, in case of invasion by a +foreign foe, he would not blow up the bridges; and said the strikers +were engaged in a social war and had the same excuse for destroying +property.</p> + +<p>The climax of the debate came October 29, when Briand, turning to the +Socialists, said: "I am going to tell you something that will make you +jump (que vous faire bondir). If the government had not found in the +law that which enabled it to remain master of the frontiers of France +and master of its railways, which are the indispensable instruments of +the national defense; if, in a word, the government had found it +necessary to resort to illegality, it would have done so."</p> + +<p>No words can describe the disorder of the scene that followed this +challenge. Cries of "Dictator!" "Resign!" were mingled with catcalls +and hisses. Finally Jaurès was heard in bitter rebuke of his former +comrade. Viviani answered Jaurès; they had fought together the battles +of the workingman and would do so still "if Socialism had not adopted +the methods of <i>sabotage</i>, of anti-patriotism, and of anarchy."</p> + +<p>A few weeks later Briand and his cabinet resigned, although sustained +by a majority of the Chamber. But President Fallières immediately +requested the dauntless Prime Minister to form a new cabinet. In his +new program he included measures that would greatly strengthen the +arms of the government in times of strikes, punishing <i>sabotage</i> by +heavy fines and penalties, penalizing the public railway servant for +striking, and contemplating an elaborate system of conciliation boards +patterned after Millerand's plan.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>These rigorous suggestions increased the flame of hatred against him, +and his life was threatened. Nothing daunted, he proceeded in his +warfare against the C.G.T., which he denounced as a handful of +plotters exercising a wicked tyranny over Socialists and workingmen. +Finally, February 27, 1911, he resigned, refusing to hold office by +the sufferance of the reactionary Right. The Socialists voted with +their enemies to dethrone their first Premier, whom they considered a +traitor to the course.<a name="FNanchor_18-5_66" id="FNanchor_18-5_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_18-5_66" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>So ended one of the most significant episodes of modern political +history. Every government, especially every democratic government, +will within the next few decades be compelled to meet the railway +problem and the question of the relation of the government to its +state servants.</p> + +<p>Two important details in the Briand affair are of especial interest.</p> + +<p>First, the Prime Minister's attempt to project the authority of the +state into the contract relations of the railway employees and the +companies. Instead of hostility, Briand's plan might well have +deserved the support of the Socialists. For he was expanding the +functions of the state, was enlisting the power of society in behalf +of a contract that is of universal interest.</p> + +<p>Secondly, Briand's bill making it unlawful for a railway servant to +strike was quite as revolutionary as the C.G.T.'s contention that the +state had no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>right to interfere. Here, too, Briand was the Socialist +and the Socialists were the individualists; the one recognized the +paramount interests of society, the other saw only the interests of +the individual worker. Put to this test, French Socialism failed as +signally in theory as the violence, <i>sabotage</i>, and insubordination of +the C.G.T. failed in practice.<a name="FNanchor_19-5_67" id="FNanchor_19-5_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_19-5_67" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<br /> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>Who were these revolutionary labor leaders, this small handful of +plotters to whom Briand constantly alluded?<a name="FNanchor_20-5_68" id="FNanchor_20-5_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_20-5_68" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> In order to understand +the Socialist movement in any country, both politically and +industrially, it is necessary to understand the organization of labor. +Socialism began as a class movement, and in every country it is +endeavoring to capture the labor organizations.<a name="FNanchor_21-5_69" id="FNanchor_21-5_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-5_69" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>In no two countries are the relations quite the same. In the United +States the unions have traditionally kept out of politics altogether. +In Great Britain they refused to be busied with politics until a few +years ago, when the Labor Party was organized. Since then a number of +union men have identified themselves rather loosely with Socialism. In +Germany there is the closest co-operation between the party and the +unions, but not any organic unity. In Belgium the political and +economic organizations are virtually merged.</p> + +<p>In France the most interesting development has taken place. From the +Revolution until 1864 no labor organizations were allowed. The +National Assembly abolished all the trade guilds and corporations. The +<i>Loi le Chappelier</i> forbade unions of workers and of masters, and the +<i>Code Napoléon</i> imposed a penalty of imprisonment on those engaging in +unlawful combinations. In 1864 the criminal laws were revised, and +unions of twenty members were allowed. The law of 1884 left the way +untrammeled for their development.<a name="FNanchor_22-5_70" id="FNanchor_22-5_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_22-5_70" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>Within a few years unions were formed everywhere.<a name="FNanchor_23-5_71" id="FNanchor_23-5_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_23-5_71" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> In 1886 the +Guesdists organized the National Federation of Trade Unions, a +Socialist body of workers subordinated to the Workingman's Party. Soon +thereafter the Municipal Socialists, the Broussists, founded the Paris +Labor Exchange, built a large clubhouse for if, and succeeded in +getting an appropriation of 20,000 francs a year from the city for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>its maintenance. Within ten years about fifty of these exchanges were +formed in as many cities, and about seventy per cent. of the union +members belonged to them. The object of these exchanges was +educational and benevolent. But they were soon made the hotbeds of +Socialistic politics. In 1892 they were all federated in the +Federation of Labor Exchanges (Fédération du Bourse du Travail).</p> + +<p>In 1895 Guesde's political adjunct, the National Federation of Trade +Unions, became extinct. The Blanquists then organized a new +federation, the notorious General Confederation of Labor +(Confédération Générale du Travail), commonly called the C.G.T. These +two bodies were bitter rivals, after the French fashion, until, in +1902, they amalgamated, retaining the name C.G.T.<a name="FNanchor_24-5_72" id="FNanchor_24-5_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_24-5_72" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> The organization +is dual, retaining the benevolent activities of the local exchanges +and the trade activities of the local unions. These activities are +federated into national councils. The union of these councils forms +the central governing body of C.G.T. The organization allows a great +deal of local autonomy, but the central control is none the less +effective. In 1907 the C.G.T. claimed 350,000 members, in 1911 it +reported 600,000.</p> + +<p>This body of workmen is known for its violence. Within its ranks has +spread the doctrine known as revolutionary Syndicalism, a resurrection +of the spirit of Proudhonism in the body of labor unionism. Briefly +stated, it is class war in its most violent form <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>without the aid of +parliaments and politics; with the enginery of the general strike, and +the spirit of universal upheaval and anarchy. It is the most effective +outbreak of Anarchism since the days of Bakunin.</p> + +<p>The intellectual revival of the doctrine of violence may be dated from +the appearance of Georges Sorel's book, <i>The Socialist Future of Trade +Unions</i>, in 1897, and the culmination of the tide in his volume +<i>Reflections upon Violence</i>, in 1908.</p> + +<p>For a movement so young Syndicalism has had a peculiarly expansive +literature, written by professors and journalists of the bourgeois +class, who live on respectable streets, receive you in comfortable +drawing-rooms, and from their upholstered ease display a fine zeal for +the oppressed proletariat.<a name="FNanchor_25-5_73" id="FNanchor_25-5_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_25-5_73" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>It is not easy to classify Syndicalism, for it refuses to be called +Anarchism, repudiates the leadership of Socialism, and scorns to be +merely trade-unionism. The following are its principal characteristics:</p> + +<p>1. It is disheartened with Socialism because, it says, Socialists have +lost their ideals in the race for political power. Law-making is +useless, because no laws can emancipate the workingmen. It therefore +despises governments and abjures parliaments. But its ideals are +Socialistic; it believes "in reorganizing society on a communistic +basis, so that, with a minimum of productive effort, the maximum of +well-being will be obtained."<a name="FNanchor_26-5_74" id="FNanchor_26-5_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_26-5_74" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>2. But repudiating governments and parliaments, they say, does not +make them Anarchists. Syndicalists believe in local or communal +government. Their state is a glorified trade union whose activities +are confined to economic functions, their nation is a collection of +federated communal trade societies. When I went among them they were +especially solicitous that they should not be regarded as "mere +Anarchists."</p> + +<p>3. Syndicalism is not trade-unionism pure and simple, because its +method is violence and its ideal the industrial unit, not the trade or +craft unit. The weapon of Syndicalism is the general strike. A +circular issued by the executive committee in 1898 defined the general +strike as "the cessation of work, which would place the country in the +rigor of death, whose terrible and incalculable consequences would +force the government to capitulate at once. If it refused, the +proletariat, in revolt from one end of France to the other, would be +able to compel it." Sorel says that "revolutionary Syndicalism +nourishes in the masses the desire to strike, and it can thrive only +in places where great strikes, occupied with acts of violence, have +taken place."<a name="FNanchor_27-5_75" id="FNanchor_27-5_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_27-5_75" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> The strike committee of the C.G.T. in 1899 +proclaimed the general strike as "the only practical method through +which the working class can fully liberate itself from the +capitalistic and governmental yoke." The general strike includes the +boycott, <i>sabotage</i>, and all kindred forms of violence.<a name="FNanchor_28-5_76" id="FNanchor_28-5_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_28-5_76" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>4. Syndicalism revives the old revolutionary methods of conspiracy, of +a dominant minority swinging <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>the masses into line; "a conscious +minority, which, through its example, sets the masses in motion and +drives them on."<a name="FNanchor_29-5_77" id="FNanchor_29-5_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_29-5_77" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> There are plots, underground manœuvers, and +sudden outbursts. An air of mystery pervades their spectacular +uprisings. In order to accomplish their purpose there must be a +solidarity of labor. But this unity is the result of the energy of the +"conscious few," not of the assertive many.</p> + +<p>5. Finally, Syndicalism proclaims that democracy is a "fraud" +perpetrated upon the workingmen by the property-owning bourgeois; +representative government and majority rule is to them merely a polite +form of tyranny, and patriotism a farce. Potaud says: "Patriotism can +only be explained by the fact that all patriots without distinction +own a part of the social property, and nothing is more absurd than a +patriot without a patrimony."</p> + +<p>"We workingmen will have none of these little fatherlands! Our country +is the international world!" cried Yvetot to the post-office strikers +in Paris.</p> + +<p>They regard the soldiers with enmity. At the national congress at +Amiens, 1906, they resolved that the "anti-military and anti-patriotic +propaganda should be promulgated with the greatest zeal and +audacity."<a name="FNanchor_30-5_78" id="FNanchor_30-5_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_30-5_78" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p>Syndicalism is the extreme pessimism of the laboring class. It reached +its height about 1907-1908. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>Portions of France were terrorized, more +by its extravagant language than by its overt acts. There was no limit +to their superlatives. "Rip up the bourgeois!" "Turn your rifles on +your officers!" "Cut buttonholes in the skins of the bourgeois!" were +familiar battle-cries. There was so much talk about putting vitriol +into coffee, ground glass into bread, pulling the fire-plug out of +engines, that finally language came to mean nothing.</p> + +<p>The "new commune" thought it was coming into reality with the +post-office and railway strikes. We have seen how these outbreaks were +met by a Radical government. Since then their ardor has cooled, and +their adjectives grown flabby. They are now devoting themselves to +organization.</p> + +<p>Anti-militarism does not mean merely opposition to standing armies. +All Socialists are opposed to the maintenance of armaments. +Anti-militarism is opposition to all force used by the state to assert +its sovereignty. This includes the police and constabulary as well as +the army, and courts and parliaments as well as the navy. Since +soldiers and policemen are servants of the state, and since the state +is the expression of nationalism, the anti-militarist concludes that +his supreme enemy is the nation, the master of the soldier. +Anti-militarism is the forerunner of anti-patriotism.</p> + +<p>In 1906 this doctrine was so rampant that, on May Day, an uprising was +feared in Paris. A prophet had arisen, proclaiming the most extreme +doctrines of anti-patriotism. This was Gustave Hervé, a teacher of +history from Auxerre. He had spoken the suitable word, and became +famous overnight: "The French flag arose from dirt!"; and to the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>peasantry he shouted, "Plant your country's flag in the barnyard +dung-heaps!" He came to Paris and started a daily paper, <i>La Guerre +Sociale</i>. Syndicalists and Socialists flocked to his standard, and +even Jaurès was compelled to acknowledge his influence.<a name="FNanchor_31-5_79" id="FNanchor_31-5_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_31-5_79" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>Hervé has a simple remedy for militarism: "The way to stop war is to +refuse to fight." He exhorts his fellow-Socialists to join the army, +but fire on their commanders, not on their comrades. He was arrested +several times for these utterances and the overt acts that they +aroused. Some years ago a Parisian workingman was arrested for an +offense against public morals. He protested his innocence and, when +released, in revenge killed a policeman. He was promptly executed. +Hervé used the occasion for an onslaught upon the government in his +paper. He said: "If the working class would display one-tenth of the +energy that this workman displayed, the social revolution would not be +long in coming." For his imprudence he was imprisoned for a term of +four years.<a name="FNanchor_32-5_80" id="FNanchor_32-5_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_32-5_80" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>His influence is waning, but the words he and his +following have planted in the hearts of the conscripts may bear some +strange fruit.<a name="FNanchor_33-5_81" id="FNanchor_33-5_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_33-5_81" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<br /> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>While the French Socialists have been prolific in the developing of +factions and theories, they have been slow at achieving practical +results. As early as 1887 they acquired considerable power in Paris. +They contented themselves with establishing a labor exchange and +extending a few municipal charities.</p> + +<p>The local program, as outlined at Lyons, included: the feeding of +school children; an eight-hour day and a fixed minimum wage for +municipal employees; the abolition of the "<i>octroi</i>"; sanitary +regulations for workshops and factories; abolition of private +employment bureaus; establishment of homes for the aged; maternity +hospitals; free medical attendance for the poor; free public baths; +sanitaria for children of workmen; free legal advice for workingmen; +pensions for municipal employees; and the publication of a municipal +bulletin giving record of all the votes cast by the councilors.<a name="FNanchor_34-5_82" id="FNanchor_34-5_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_34-5_82" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>In 1892 a number of important cities were won by the Socialists, and +in September of that year the first convention of Socialist municipal +councilors was held at Saint-Ouen. The discussions were filled with +revolutionary phraseology. In a few years the ideas of violence were +discarded for more practical issues. In 1895, when the municipal +convention met at Paris, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>the time was largely given over to the +question of organizing the municipal public service, public hygiene, +etc.</p> + +<p>In Lille the Socialists began their administration of local affairs by +raising the budget from 740,000 francs in 1897 to 1,019,000 francs in +1899. Free industrial education was established for the working +people; a municipal theater was opened; school children were fed and +clothed; and an attempt was made to regulate the length of the working +day and fix a minimum wage for municipal employees. At Dijon the +feeding and clothing of school children was regulated by the amount of +wages earned by the parents. Free medical aid was provided, and a +drug-store was induced to sell medicines to the poor at reduced cost. +The local labor exchange was voted an appropriation from public funds.</p> + +<p>These illustrations show the general trend of municipal Socialism in +France. The results are not numerous. But the French Socialists +justify their meager practical results by pointing to the centralized +system of administration which enables the prefect and other +administrative officers to veto many of the acts of the municipal +councils. The first thing that the Socialists attempted to do in their +towns was the readjustment of the finances for the benefit of the +working classes. Their acts were vetoed on the ground that they were +<i>ultra vires</i>. The attempt to fix a minimum wage for municipal +employees met the same fate. Then the municipalities petitioned the +central government for greater financial autonomy. This was denied. In +Roubaix the opening of a municipal drug-store was disallowed by the +prefect on the ground that the corporations act does not grant that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>power to municipalities. Municipal bakeries met the same fate. During +the last few years, however, the rigor of the central administration +has relaxed and the towns are allowed greater liberty in municipal +affairs.</p> + +<p>Under the circumstances it is perhaps little wonder that French +municipal Socialism is a poor housekeeper. You look in vain for the +high ideals of the Socialist evangelist. If you visit the towns where +Socialism abounds you will be told that the Socialists have spent more +money on the poor than their predecessors. You will find better +nurseries for the babies of the working mothers, meals and stockings +doled out to school children of the poor, here and there a physician +or a lawyer retained by the town to render free service to the working +people. On inquiry you will find that the soldiers are drawing +increased pensions, the widows and orphans of the workingmen are +especially provided for, and that bread is delivered to the needy at +the door so they need not go ask for it, need not be beggars.</p> + +<p>You are impressed that these proletarian town governments are trying +to destroy poverty. Their ideal is noble, but some of their efforts +are very crude.</p> + +<p>The French Socialists are not by any means a unit on the municipal +question. In 1911 it was the principal question discussed at their +national convention at Saint-Quentin. Professor Millhaud of the +University of Geneva, in a very clear and able speech, pointed out the +merits of municipalization, citing the ownership of street railways, +gas, waterworks, garbage plants, and other public utilities of +European and American cities. He included municipal drug-stores, the +feeding and clothing of school children, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>establishing of +playgrounds, and many other municipal activities familiar to American +practice, in his local Socialistic program.</p> + +<p>His exposition met with the approval of the Jaurès faction. But the +Guesdists were not satisfied. "Who would benefit by cheap municipal +gas?" cried a delegate from the rear of the hall. "The rich man, for +he needs a great deal of gas to light up his big house. But what +laboring man needs gas? When has he time to read? In the evening he is +too tired, and he gives no receptions." Guesde maintained with great +vehemence that municipal ownership and state ownership are not +Socialism; they may be a step toward Socialism, but often result in +substituting the tyranny of the state for the tyranny of the private +employer.</p> + +<p>The convention adopted a municipal program after a prolonged +discussion that brought out clearly the fact that the Guesdists are +not devoted to state or municipal ownership as a principle, but only +as a means to a greater end.</p> + +<p>During the last few years a very important movement has been taking +place among the peasantry of southern France. Under the leadership of +Compère-Morel, a gardener and member of the Chamber of Deputies, +Socialism is spreading rapidly among these small and independent +landowners. There are several million of these thrifty peasants in +France, and their acquisition to Socialism will mean, not only a great +increase in political power, but a modification of their theory of +property. The Socialists are luring the small land-holder by telling +him that they are with him in his fight against the large estates. +They assure the peasant that they have no designs upon his small +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>holdings. It is the <i>great</i> property, not merely property, that is the +object of their hostility.<a name="FNanchor_35-5_83" id="FNanchor_35-5_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_35-5_83" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>There are other evidences that French Socialism is mellowing. Most of +its leaders are bourgeois. Of the seventy-six united Socialists in the +present Chamber, only thirty are workingmen, or trade-union officials; +eight are professors in the University or secondary schools; seven are +journalists; seven are barristers; seven are farmers; six are +physicians; three are school teachers; and two are engineers. This +does not suggest class war.</p> + +<p>Socialism is a power in French politics. An observer who moves among +the middle class wonders how much of a power it is in French life. The +Radical Party would be considered Socialistic in England or the United +States; half of it calls itself Socialist-Radical. It rules the +Republic from the Chamber of Deputies. Everywhere you hear the people +talking about collectivism, the nationalization of railways, of mines, +of vineyards, of docks, and ultimately of wheat-fields and +market-gardens.</p> + +<p>But the French are a nation of small farmers and shopkeepers who cling +to their property while they argue and vote for their radicalism and +Socialism. This is the duality of their temperament; they love +possessions and they love philosophical speculation. They keep their +fields and their little shops, and speculate about the new to-morrow. +They vote and debate with imaginative fervor; they pay taxes with +stolid commonplace silence. In measuring the strength of French +Socialism it is necessary to keep this in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>mind. Not that the +Frenchman does not take Socialism seriously. He takes it as seriously +as he takes monarchism or republicanism, and much more seriously than +he takes religion. There is only one thing he takes more +seriously—his property.</p> + +<p>That is why the Socialists number among their adherents all classes +and all conditions of men, from Anatole France, most fastidious of +literary aristocrats, to gaunt and hungry proletarians who infest the +cellars and garrets of ancient Paris.</p> + +<p>The French are, after all, the greatest of realists. They speculate in +dreams and delicate theories; but they never lose their grip on their +little farms and their little shops and the gold bonds of Russia.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-5_49" id="Footnote_1-5_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-5_49"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <span class="sc">Georges Weil</span>, <i>Histoire du Mouvement Socialiste +en France</i>, Paris, 1904, p. 220.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-5_50" id="Footnote_2-5_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-5_50"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Other groups—the word party is hardly applicable in the +French Chamber of Deputies—are the reactionary Right; the republican +Conservatives, or Center; the Radical Left, or Liberals.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-5_51" id="Footnote_3-5_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-5_51"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <span class="sc">Weil</span>, <i>supra cit.</i>, p. 276.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-5_52" id="Footnote_4-5_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-5_52"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> In France, when any one candidate for the Chamber of +Deputies fails to receive a majority of the votes cast, a second +ballot is taken, for the two receiving the highest number of votes</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-5_53" id="Footnote_5-5_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-5_53"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Quoted by <span class="sc">Ensor</span>, <i>Modern Socialism</i>, pp. 48-55. +See also a collection of Millerand's speeches, <i>Le Socialisme +Réformiste Français</i>, Paris, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-5_54" id="Footnote_6-5_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-5_54"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See "Manifeste 14 Juillet," 1899.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-5_55" id="Footnote_7-5_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-5_55"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See <i>V<sup>me</sup> Congrès Général des Organisations Socialistes +Français tenu à Paris du 3 au 8 Décembre. Compte-rendu sténographique +officiel</i>, 1900, p. 154 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-5_56" id="Footnote_8-5_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-5_56"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> A partial report of the debate of the Bordeaux congress +is given in <span class="sc">Ensor's</span> <i>Modern Socialism</i>, pp. 163-184.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-5_57" id="Footnote_9-5_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-5_57"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See <span class="sc">A. Lavy</span>, <i>L'Œuvre de Millerand</i>, Paris, +1902, a sympathetic account of his work; contains also extracts from +his speeches and state papers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10-5_58" id="Footnote_10-5_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-5_58"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> See the <i>Contemporary Review</i>, August, 1906, for a brief +abstract of this debate.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11-5_59" id="Footnote_11-5_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11-5_59"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> One of the first laws passed with the aid of the +Socialist vote was the "day of rest" law, commanding one day of the +week as a day of rest. It met the obstinate opposition of the +Conservatives. The operation of the law is of interest, and +instructive. The workmen naturally rejoiced over this increased +leisure. The employers, on the other hand, found themselves paying +wages for hours in which no service was rendered. They lowered the +wages; the workmen resisted. Finally the law was so amended as +virtually to annul its effect, in certain trades. The Socialists +became irritated to the verge of breaking their <i>entente</i> with the +Radicals.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12-5_60" id="Footnote_12-5_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12-5_60"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Proceedings Chamber of Deputies, March 19, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13-5_61" id="Footnote_13-5_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13-5_61"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> During this agitation the teachers of the public +schools, who had formed a great number of associations, joined in the +demand of the Syndicalists. One of their number who had signed a +vitriolic circular was dismissed by M. Briand, the Minister of +Education, and for a time a strike of schoolmasters was threatened, +but it did not materialize.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14-5_62" id="Footnote_14-5_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14-5_62"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>L'Humanité</i> is the leading Socialist daily of Paris. +Briand had written editorials for it in his "red" days.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15-5_63" id="Footnote_15-5_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15-5_63"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> These sections declare that the employment, or abetting +or instigating the employment, of any means of stopping or impeding +railway traffic is a crime; and if it has been planned at a seditious +meeting, the instigators are as liable to punishment as the authors of +the crime, even if they did not intend to provoke the destruction of +railway property. The penalties imposed are very severe.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16-5_64" id="Footnote_16-5_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16-5_64"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Placards displayed the bitterness of the men. "For our +vengeance Briand will suffice" was read on the walls under flaming +posters that quoted fiery sentences from Briand's earlier speeches.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17-5_65" id="Footnote_17-5_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17-5_65"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Viviani, Minister of Justice, resigned soon after the +close of the strike. He did not agree with Briand in his efforts to +pass a law making all railway strikes illegal. He said as long as +railways were private property men had the right to strike, but not to +destroy property.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18-5_66" id="Footnote_18-5_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18-5_66"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Before his resignation, the old-age pension bill had +passed the Senate and thus became a law. The Socialists supported the +bill; but Guesde voted against it in spite of his party's +instructions, because labor was charged with contributing to the fund. +The syndicalists were also violently opposed to it because they +believe the amount of the pension is too small.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19-5_67" id="Footnote_19-5_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19-5_67"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> When in January, 1912, M. Poincaré was appointed Prime +Minister, he promptly invited Briand into his cabinet as +vice-president and Millerand as Minister of War.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20-5_68" id="Footnote_20-5_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20-5_68"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The co-operative movement is spreading gradually +throughout France. There are two kinds of societies—the Socialist and +the independent. In 1896 there were 202 co-operative productive +societies. In 1907 there were 362. The following figures show the +increase in the number of co-operative stores: 1902—1,641; +1903—1,683; 1906—1,994; 1907—2,166.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21-5_69" id="Footnote_21-5_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-5_69"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> The following table, compiled from the reports of the +Minister of Labor, shows the growth of the labor-union movement:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="40%" summary="the growth of the labor-union movement"> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp" width="20%">Year</td> + <td class="tdl" width="20%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" width="20%">Number of Unions</td> + <td class="tdl" width="20%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" width="20%">Number of Members</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1885</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">221</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">— —</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1886</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">280</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">— —</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1887</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">501</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">— —</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1888</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">725</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">— —</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1889</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">821</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">— —</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1890</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">1,006</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">139,692</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1891</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">1,250</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">205,152</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1892</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">1,589</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">288,770</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1893</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">1,926</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">402,125</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1894</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">2,178</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">403,430</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1895</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">2,163</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">419,781</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1896</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">2,243</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">422,777</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1898</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">2,324</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">437,739</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1899</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">2,361</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">419,761</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1900</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">2,685</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">491,647</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1901</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">3,287</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">588,832</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1902</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">3,679</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">614,173</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1903</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">3,934</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">643,757</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1904</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">4,227</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">715,576</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1905</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">4,625</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">781,344</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1906</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">4,857</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">836,134</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1907</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">5,322</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">896,012</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">1908</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdrp">5,524</td> + <td> </td> + <td class="tdc">957,102</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div><br /></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22-5_70" id="Footnote_22-5_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22-5_70"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> See <i>Journal of Political Economy</i>, March, 1909, for a +comprehensive article on French labor unions by <span class="sc">O.D. +Skelton</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23-5_71" id="Footnote_23-5_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23-5_71"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> From the beginning there were two kinds of unions, named +after the color of their membership cards. The "yellows" are those +pursuing a policy of peace, and the "reds" are the militants.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24-5_72" id="Footnote_24-5_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24-5_72"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The following figures show the increase of strikes since +the organization of the C.G.T.:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="55%" summary="Increase of strikes"> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp" width="25%">Years</td> + <td class="tdc" width="25%">Average Number<br /> of Strikes</td> + <td class="tdc" width="25%">Average Number<br /> of Strikers</td> + <td class="tdc" width="25%">Average Number<br /> of Days Idle</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1890-1898</td> + <td class="tdc">379</td> + <td class="tdc"> 71,961</td> + <td class="tdc">1,163,478</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1899-1907</td> + <td class="tdc">855</td> + <td class="tdc">214,660</td> + <td class="tdc">3,992,976</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> +<br /></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_25-5_73" id="Footnote_25-5_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25-5_73"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> The doctrines of Syndicalism may be found in the +writings of Georges Sorel. Also in the following: <span class="sc">Pouget</span>, +<i>Les Bases du Syndicalisme</i>; <span class="sc">Griffuelhs</span>, <i>L'Action +Syndicaliste</i>, and <i>Syndicalisme et Socialisme</i>; <span class="sc">Pouget</span>, <i>La +Parti du Travail</i>; <span class="sc">Potaud</span> and <span class="sc">Pouget</span>, <i>Comment nous +ferons la Révolution</i>; <span class="sc">Paul Louis</span>, <i>Syndicalisme contre +l'État</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_26-5_74" id="Footnote_26-5_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26-5_74"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <span class="sc">Pouget</span>, <i>The Basis of Trade Unionism</i>, a +pamphlet issued in 1908.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_27-5_75" id="Footnote_27-5_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27-5_75"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Réflexions sur la Violence.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_28-5_76" id="Footnote_28-5_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28-5_76"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Yvetot</span>, <i>A B C du Syndicalisme</i>, Chap. V. +This pamphlet is issued by the C.G.T.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_29-5_77" id="Footnote_29-5_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29-5_77"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Statement of Strike Committee C.G.T., 1899.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_30-5_78" id="Footnote_30-5_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30-5_78"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> "In every state, the army is for the property owner; in +every European conflict, the working class is duped and sacrificed for +the benefit of the governing class, the bourgeoisie, and the +parasites. Therefore the XVth Congress approves and extols every +action the anti-military and anti-patriotic propaganda, even though it +only compromises the situation of all classes and all political +parties." See <span class="sc">Yvetot</span>, <i>A B C du Syndicalisme</i>, p. 84.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_31-5_79" id="Footnote_31-5_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31-5_79"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Hervé has written a history of France that has had +considerable vogue as a text-book in the public schools. He begins +with the significant year 1789; glorifies the violence, and praises +the Socialistic manifestations and the heroism of the revolutionists, +that have made the past century one of turmoil and perpetual +commotion. This book is a sample of the reading given into the hands +of the children of the Republic. I was told, upon careful inquiry, +that a large number of the primary and secondary school teachers are +Socialists. Thiers, before he became President, while still a +functionary of monarchy, objected to the establishment of government +schools in every village, because, he said, he did not want "a red +priest of Socialism in every town." To-day he would find these "red +priests" everywhere. They have even organized <i>syndicats</i> and joined +the C.G.T.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_32-5_80" id="Footnote_32-5_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32-5_80"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> When I called upon him in the Prison Santé he told me +that he was as sincerely opposed to military measures as ever; but +that it would be a long time before the people would regard all +mankind, rather than a single ethnic group, as the object of their +patriotism. Pointing to the grim walls of his prison, he said, "Vive +la République! Vive la Liberté!"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_33-5_81" id="Footnote_33-5_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33-5_81"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Syndicalism and anti-militarism have spread to Spain and +Italy. But they have not found favor among the phlegmatic +North-European countries.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_34-5_82" id="Footnote_34-5_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34-5_82"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Stehelin</span>, <i>Essais de Socialisme Municipal</i>, +1901.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_35-5_83" id="Footnote_35-5_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35-5_83"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> See <i>Les Paysans et le Socialisme</i>, a speech delivered +by Compère-Morel, in the Chamber of Deputies, December 6, 1909. Also +published in pamphlet form by the Socialist Party.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<h3>THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>In Belgium the physical, political, and economic environment is suited +to a symmetrical development of Socialism. It is a small country, "at +the meeting-point of the three great European civilizations," +Vandervelde, the leader of the Belgian Socialists, has pointed out. +And his boast is true that the Belgian Socialists have absorbed the +leading characteristics of the social movement in each of these +countries. "From England Belgian Socialists have learned self-help, +and have copied their free and independent organizations, principally +in the form of co-operative societies. From Germany they have adopted +the political tactics and the fundamental doctrines which were +expressed for the first time in the 'Communist Manifesto.' From France +they have taken their idealistic tendencies, and the integral +conception of Socialism, considered as an extension of the +revolutionary philosophy and as a new religion, an extension and a +realization of Christianity."</p> + +<p>This threefold growth would have been impossible if the environment +had not been favorable. The Belgian population is congested into +industrial towns that are thickly strewn over the country, like the +suburbs of one vast manufacturing community. These working people have +always been miserably housed and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>poorly fed. In 1903-05 a public +inquiry into housing conditions was instituted in Brussels. In the +most congested portions of the city, 564 households, comprising 2,224 +persons, lived in one-room tenements. The houses were in miserable +condition.</p> + +<p>The commission appointed after the riots of 1886 describes conditions +that are little better than those that prevailed in England in 1830. +Even as late as 1902, out of 750,000 working men and women one-tenth +only worked less than ten hours a day; the rest worked from ten to +twelve hours. One-fourth of these working people had a wage of 2 +francs (40 cents) a day, another fourth had 2 to 3 francs (40 to 60 +cents) a day, and the upper section only 3.50 to 4.50 francs (70 cents +to 90 cents) a day. The government inquiry in 1896 disclosed the +following rate of wages:</p> + +<p class="noin" style="margin-left: 10%;"> + 170,000 persons received less than 2 fr. (40c.) a day.<br /> + 172,000 persons received less than 2-3 fr. (40-60c.) a day.<br /> + 160,000 persons received less than 3-4 fr. (60-80c.) a day.<br /> + 102,000 persons received more than 4 fr. (80c.) a day.<a name="FNanchor_1-6_84" id="FNanchor_1-6_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-6_84" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>In the low countries where agriculture is the leading occupation, +conditions are no better. The peasant is poor; the conditions of +tenancy hard, though recent legislation has modified them somewhat in +the tenant's favor; and the holdings small. Agricultural wages are +very low. The men in the Flemish district receive an average of 1.63 +francs (33 cents) a day, without board, or about .90 francs (18 cents) +with board. The women receive 1.06 francs (21 cents) without board and +.64 francs (12½ cents) with board.<a name="FNanchor_2-6_85" id="FNanchor_2-6_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-6_85" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>Here, then, is a population of industrial and peasant workers who are +barely able to make a living, who have little time and less +opportunity for education and general development. The percentage of +illiteracy is very great; and is equaled only by the most backward +countries of southern Europe. In 1902, out of every 1,000 militiamen, +101 were entirely illiterate; in France, 46; in England, 37; in +Holland, 23; in Switzerland, 20; in Denmark, .08; in Germany, .07. In +1909 Rowntree estimated the illiteracy in the four largest Belgian +cities to be 11.75 per cent.; in the Flemish communes, 34.69 per +cent.; and in the Walloon communes (excepting Liège), 17.34 per cent.</p> + +<p>Outward circumstances have not been wanting to arouse this teeming +population into violent discontent. The government for years paid no +heed to their misery, and the Church, which is very powerful in +Belgium, was content to distribute charity and consolation, and to +admonish the employer to patriarchal care for his men.</p> + +<p>The national status of the country is guaranteed by the powers; there +is no fear of invasion and no need for the intolerable military +burdens that weigh down the great countries of Europe. There have been +no international complications. This little country, with its clusters +of thriving towns, its mines, farms, and seaports, could settle down +contentedly to its daily tasks like a large family.</p> + +<p>The great manufacturers and industrial leaders took even less interest +in the welfare of the working people than the state or the Church. No +one seemed to care how the worker fared, and when he himself learned +to care the first reactions were violent.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>We will limit ourselves, in this inquiry, to the political development +of the labor movement.</p> + +<p>Belgium is a constitutional monarchy. The Constitution, provides for a +parliament composed of the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives, +both elected by the people, the Representatives by direct, the +Senators by indirect, elections. The King has the veto power and the +power to prorogue parliament. A general election follows prorogation, +in which the whole membership of Senate and House are elected. The +communes are governed by elective communal councils.</p> + +<p>From the establishment of the constitution, in 1831, there have been +two leading political parties—the Clerical or Catholic, and the +Liberal. The Clerical Party has been not merely conservative, it has +been reactionary. It clings not only to monarchic prerogatives, but to +ecclesiastical supremacy. This medieval policy it imposed upon school +and government and Church. The party has until very recently been in +the majority. It is strongest in the low counties, among the +agricultural Flemings. When the activity of the Socialists and +Radicals forced the question upon the country, a "left" wing of the +party began to interest itself in the laboring man, through the +traditional methods of the Church, rather than by means of state +interference.</p> + +<p>The Liberal Party is a protest, not only against the predominant +influence of the Church in political affairs, but also against the +financial policies of the Conservatives. The Liberals early espoused +the cause of free schools, modified tariffs, greater local autonomy, +and liberal election laws.</p> + +<p>The election laws confined the electorate to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>few property-holders +and professional men of the country. In 1890, out of 1,800,000 male +citizens, 133,000 were qualified electors.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>These were the conditions that prevailed when the Socialists quite +suddenly appeared on the scene. There had been a Socialist propaganda +for years in Belgium. Brussels was a city of refuge to many fleeing +revolutionists of 1848. In 1857 a labor union was organized among the +spinners and weavers of Ghent. The same year Colin published his book, +<i>What Is Social Science?</i> This volume prepared the way for the +remarkable collectivist movement, which was stimulated into modern +activity by Anselee, a workingman of Ghent and organizer of the +Vooruit Co-operative Society. Cæsar de Paepe, a disciple of Colin and +a man of remarkable intellectual endowments, tried to bring unity to +the Belgian movement. But the factionalism was not cast aside until +1885, when the Belgian Labor Party (Parti Ouvrier Belge) was +organized.</p> + +<p>Now Socialists of all factions were drawn together. But, unlike +Socialists in other countries, they did not expend their energies on +political action. The Belgian labor movement had a threefold +origin—the co-operative movement of Colin, the labor-union movement, +and the Socialistic or political movement of de Paepe. These three +activities, united in the Labor Party, have continued to develop, +until they are a model for Socialists in all countries.</p> + +<p>The organization of the party is simple. The various organizations are +federated into large groups, e.g., <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>the co-operative group, each with +a separate organization. The provinces and communes have their local +committees for each separate activity. Over the entire party sits a +general council (conseil général). An executive committee of nine is +chosen from this council, and this committee has practical control of +the party. The annual convention is the supreme authority. It elects +the general council and decides, in democratic fashion, all important +questions of policy and activity. Every constituent organization, such +as the co-operative societies, etc., contributes from its funds to the +support of the party. The party is therefore a federation of many +societies with various activities, not a vast group of individual +voters, as the German Social Democracy. Its solidarity is not +individual, but federal.</p> + +<p>The organization of the Labor Party proved a stimulus to all the +constituent societies. From 1885 to 1895 over 400 co-operative +societies were formed, and within a few years 7,000 mutual aid +societies were organized. The membership of the labor unions increased +from less than 50,000 in 1880 to 62,350 in 1889, and nearly 150,000 in +1905.</p> + +<p>The Socialist movement had now achieved solidarity, and was prepared +to enter into a conflict for power. Its issues were two: universal +suffrage and free secular education. The second was necessarily +included in the first; for without parliamentary power it would be +impossible to secure liberal educational laws, and without a liberal +franchise it would be impossible to get parliamentary power. All their +political energies were therefore devoted to the reform of the +election laws.</p> + +<p>It is in this activity that the Belgian movement forms <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>for our +purpose one of the most instructive chapters of European Socialism. +Here is a proletarian horde deprived of participation in government in +a constitutional monarchy, struggling toward political recognition. It +is armed with all the weapons of militant Socialism: a revolutionary +tradition; a national history rich in mob violence, street brawls, and +conflicts with police and soldiers; possessed of a well-organized +party, a class solidarity, and capable and courageous leaders who are +willing to go, and do go, to the extreme of the general strike and +violence in order to achieve their goal.</p> + +<p>In short, here we have the Socialist political ideal working itself +from theory into reality through class struggle. But there is the +usual important modification of the Marxian conditions; viz., the +liberal bourgeois prove a potent ally to the Socialists in the press +and on the floor of the Chamber of Representatives. While the +Socialists were surging in vehement earnestness around the Parliament +House, the Liberals were as earnestly pleading their cause within.</p> + +<p>The definite fight for universal suffrage began a few years before the +organization of the Labor Party. In 1866 a group of workingmen issued +an appeal to their fellows to begin the battle for the ballot. In 1879 +the Socialists issued a manifesto which stated the case as follows: +"'All powers are derived from the nation; all Belgians are equal +before the law,' says the Constitution of 1831.</p> + +<p>"In reality all powers are derived from a small number of privileged +ones, and all the Belgians are divided into two classes—those who are +rich and have rights, and those who are poor and have burdens.</p> + +<p>"We wish to see this inequality vanish, at least <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>before the +ballot-box. For the most numerous class of society ought to be +represented in the Chamber of Representatives, because the people +whose daily bread depends upon the prosperity of the country should +have the power to participate in public affairs.</p> + +<p>"Constitutions are not immutable, and what was solemnly promulgated on +one occasion may, without revolution, be altered on another."<a name="FNanchor_3-6_86" id="FNanchor_3-6_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-6_86" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>The proclamation then proceeded to call a meeting at Brussels for the +following January (1880). At this meeting it was decided to circulate +a monster petition asking Parliament to pass a liberal election law +and to organize a demonstration to be held in Brussels the following +summer. In this, the first of a long series of demonstrations, about +6,000 persons from various parts of the kingdom paraded the streets of +the capital. There was a clash with the police, and a number of +arrests were made. From 1881 to 1885 the Liberals tried to persuade +the Clericals to agree upon a constitutional revision; and the +Socialists brought to bear upon them all the pressure of the streets. +But the Clericals were firm. Then the Socialists tried another +manœuver. They issued a manifesto "to the people of Belgium," +complaining of the dominion of the Church over education, the dominion +of a few families over the nation, and the failure of the government +to grant liberty to the people. "The hour has come for all citizens to +rally under the republican flag."</p> + +<p>Instead of a republican uprising, something more significant and +potent occurred; the Labor Party was organized, welding together all +the forces of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>discontent and unifying their demands into a protest so +strong that the government was finally compelled to yield. Not, +however, until it had exhausted almost every resource of resistance.</p> + +<p>The party was organized just in the crux of time. A financial crisis +was beginning to increase the hardships of the industrial classes. The +unrest was intensified by an ingenious piece of propagandist +literature, a <i>Workingman's Catechism</i> (<i>Catechism du Peuple</i>), +written by a workingman. Two hundred thousand copies in French and +60,000 in Flemish were scattered among the discontented people. Its +influence was wonderful. A few questions will indicate the power that +lay behind its simple questions and answers.</p> + +<div class="block2"><p class="noin"><i>Question.</i> "Who are you?"<br /> + +<i>Answer.</i> "I am a slave."<br /> + +<i>Q.</i> "Are you not a man?"<br /> + +<i>A.</i> "From the point of view of humanity I am a man, but in +relation to society I am a slave."<br /> + +<i>Q.</i> "What is the 25th article of the Constitution?"<br /> + +<i>A.</i> "The 25th article of the Constitution says: 'All power is +derived from the nation.'"<br /> + +<i>Q.</i> "Is this true?"<br /> + +<i>A.</i> "It is a falsehood."<br /> + +<i>Q.</i> "Why?"<br /> + +<i>A.</i> "Because the nation is composed of 5,720,807 inhabitants, +about 6,000,000, and of this 6,000,000 only 117,000 are +consulted in the making of laws."</p></div> + +<p>And so through every grievance, social, economic, and political. Every +workman learned his catechism. Those who could not read gathered in +groups around their more fortunate comrades and listened to the +effective questions and answers.</p> + +<p>By the beginning of 1886 the little land was a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>seething caldron of +political and economic unrest. The strike movement began at Liège and +soon spread to Charleroi and other industrial centers. There was +enough destruction of property and clashing with police and soldiery +to create a panic in the country. In Brussels business was at a +standstill for days. The Socialist Party, in a circular issued to the +people, said: "The country is visited by a terrible crisis. The +disinherited classes are suffering. Strikes are multiplying, riots are +provoked by the misery. The constantly decreasing wages are spreading +consternation everywhere."</p> + +<p>The disorder aroused a number of Anarchists in Brussels. They posted +anonymous placards inciting the people to violence. The Socialists +repudiated the Anarchists, and one of their orators said: "Do not let +yourselves be carried away by violence; that will only benefit your +adversaries."</p> + +<p>A mass demonstration was planned, but the mayor of Brussels prohibited +it. The Labor Party, however, were allowed to hold their annual +convention and to march under their red flag, the government merely +requesting that the demonstrants refrain from shouting, "Vive la +République!" Thirty thousand laboring men joined in the demonstration. +The Liberals and Radicals refused to take part in it because they +claimed it was only a workingman's movement, and the Anarchists +refused because "elections lead to nothing." This demonstration was so +serious and imposing that it made a deep impression upon the people, +and was not without effect upon the government.</p> + +<p>The crisis finally passed over. A great many rioters were imprisoned +in spite of the popular clamor for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>universal amnesty. The general +strike brought no immediate advantage to the workmen.</p> + +<p>The next few years the Socialists devoted to organization. They were +determined not to enter upon extended strikes again without thorough +preparation. In the meantime the Liberal Party split. The Radicals, or +Progressists, at their first congress in 1877 declared themselves in +favor of the separation of Church and state, military reform, +compulsory education, social and electoral reform. They were, however, +not yet prepared to commit themselves to universal suffrage. They +favored rather an educational test for voters. This, however, they +abandoned in 1890, and virtually placed themselves upon the Socialist +platform.</p> + +<p>On August 10, 1890, another great demonstration in favor of universal +suffrage took place in Brussels. Over 40,000 men joined in the parade. +The Progressists did not take part in the marching, but they were +stationed along the route to cheer the men in line. Before they +dispersed, all the participants united in taking a solemn oath that +they would not give up the fight "until the Belgian people, through +universal suffrage, should regain their fatherland." This is the +famous "Oath of August 10."</p> + +<p>After this demonstration the Progressists joined with the Socialists +in a conference for discussing ways and means for securing universal +suffrage.<a name="FNanchor_4-6_87" id="FNanchor_4-6_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-6_87" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> This conference is notable because it drew Radicals, +Progressists, and Socialists into a united campaign for suffrage +reform. The conference resolved to organize <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>demonstrations in every +corner of the kingdom and to memorialize Parliament. This was to be a +final peaceful appeal. If it remained unheeded a general strike would +follow. The bourgeois Progressists assented to this ultimatum.</p> + +<p>A few days before the Socialist-Progressist conference met, a clerical +social congress had convened at Liège. The agitation of the Labor +Party had at last aroused the Conservatives. The resolutions of this +conference were pervaded by the traditional apostolic paternalistic +spirit of the Church. It demanded social reform, amelioration of harsh +conditions, state arbitration, industrial insurance; but it set its +face against universal suffrage. On the wings of an awakened +conservatism it tried to ride the whirlwind of Socialism.</p> + +<p>But no halfway measures would now placate the agitators. The great +mass of Belgian workmen were aroused, and nothing but the ballot would +satisfy them.</p> + +<p>A propaganda was begun in the army. The enlistment laws were favorable +to the rich, who could purchase freedom from military service. The +poor conscripts were especially susceptible to the Socialist +propaganda.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1890 at the Labor Party's annual convention it was +suggested that, inasmuch as the parliament of the Few had not heeded +the wishes of the nation, a parliament of the People should be called, +to be composed of as many members as the existing parliament, but +chosen by universal suffrage. Even a program was proposed for this +fancied parliament.</p> + +<p>By this time the petitions prepared by the suffrage congress were +ready. In every arrondissement there <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>were demonstrations. In Brussels +8,000 men marched to the city hall and handed the mayor their petition +protesting against the privileged election laws and demanding +universal suffrage. From every village in the kingdom protests were +brought to the government demanding universal suffrage.</p> + +<p>Finally on November 27, 1890, a Liberal member in the Chamber of +Representatives proposed a change in the Constitution enlarging the +electoral franchise. He explained the injustice of the limited +franchise, dwelt on the dangers of strikes and riots, and said that he +believed the Belgian workmen as capable of exercising the rights of +citizenship as those of neighboring countries. All parties agreed to +discuss the amendment. The debate held popular excitement in abeyance. +But as it became more and more evident that nothing would be done the +workingman became restive. Early in 1892 riots broke out in various +cities. The situation became acute. Socialists and Radicals organized +a popular referendum on the question. It was not an official +referendum, and its results were not binding. But it was an effective +method of propaganda, and in many of the communes the councils gave it +their sanction, thereby lending it the color of legality.</p> + +<p>Five propositions were submitted to the voters: (1) manhood suffrage +at twenty-one years; (2) manhood suffrage at twenty-five years; (3) +exclusion of illiterates and persons in receipt of public or private +charity; (4) household suffrage and mental capacity defined by law; +(5) the exclusion of all who have not passed an elementary educational +standard. As a rule the Clericals refused to participate in the +referendum.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>In Brussels, out of 72,465 entitled to vote only 38,217 voted, with +the following results: manhood suffrage at twenty-one years, 29,949; +manhood suffrage at twenty-five years, 5,253; all other propositions +together, 3,015. In Huy, out of 3,513 voters only 1,800 voted, and +1,700 of these were in favor of universal suffrage. In Antwerp, where +Liberals and Clericals are about evenly divided, only forty-three per +cent. of the electors voted, and of 18,701 votes cast, 15,704 were for +universal suffrage.</p> + +<p>This referendum, and all the demonstrations, had very little effect +upon parliament. The deputies were in favor of revision, but could not +agree upon a plan. The Radicals were in favor of universal suffrage, +the Clericals unalterably opposed to it, and the Liberals only +sympathetic towards it.</p> + +<p>Finally, in April, all the proposals were voted down by the Chamber of +Representatives. The Socialists immediately ordered a general strike.</p> + +<p>It began in the coal mines of Hainault, spread to the weavers and +spinners of Ghent, to the glass and iron works of the Walloon +districts, to the printers and pressmen of Brussels, and to the docks +at Antwerp. Two hundred thousand men stopped work in the course of a +few days. While the mills and mines were idle the police and soldiers +were busy. Six men were killed at Joliment, six killed and twelve +wounded at Mons. In Brussels the mob pried up the paving-stones for +weapons; the city guards patrolled the city, meetings were forbidden, +the streets were cleared of people, and the mayor was wounded in a +mêlée. A band of "communists" threw a barricade across Rue des +Eperonniers, the last of the barricades. The troops made short work of +it. Scores of arrests were made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>in the various cities and the +offenders received sentences varying from six years' imprisonment to a +fine of fifty francs.</p> + +<p>In the height of the excitement the Chamber of Representatives +convened and agreed upon a franchise amendment. Immediately the +general council of the Labor Party met and declared the strike off. It +sent out this pronouncement: "The Labor Party through its general +council records the insertion of manhood suffrage in the Constitution. +It declares that this first victory of the party has been won under +pressure of a general strike. It is resolved to persist in the work of +propaganda until it has won universal political equality and has +suppressed the plural voting privilege."</p> + +<p>The new electoral law (1893) was a compromise suggested by Professor +Albert Nyssens of the University of Louvain. It recognized the three +principal demands of the three parliamentary factions: universal +suffrage of the Radicals, property qualifications of the Clericals, +and educational qualifications of the Liberals. Universal suffrage was +granted to all male citizens twenty-five years of age. But this was +modified in favor of property and education by the granting of +additional votes. One additional vote was give (1) to every voter +thirty-five years of age who was the head of a family and paid a +direct tax of 5 francs (one dollar); (2) to every owner of real +property valued at 2,000 francs ($400.00), or who had an annual income +of 200 francs ($40.00) derived from investments in the Belgian public +funds. Two additional votes were given to the holders of diplomas from +the higher schools, to those who were or had been in public office, +and to those who practised a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>profession for which a higher education +was necessary. No one was allowed more than three votes.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be said of this fancy franchise, it is at least +ingenious. It satisfied the first popular hunger after the ballot. The +workmen could vote. The conditions imposed for the casting of two +votes seem very liberal and the majority of American voters could +qualify under them. But in Belgium, the land of low wages and +congested populations, they were real barricades. Nearly two-thirds of +the voters failed to reach even this low standard.</p> + +<p>Voting made compulsory. Election was by <i>scrutin de liste</i>.<a name="FNanchor_5-6_88" id="FNanchor_5-6_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-6_88" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<br /> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>Under these conditions the Socialists went into battle. There were +1,370,687 electors; 855,628 with one vote 293,678 with two votes, +223,380 with three votes. The Socialists polled 346,000 votes, the +Clericals 927,000, the Liberals 530,000. The new parliament was +composed as follows: Chamber of Representatives—Clericals, 104; +Liberals, 19; Socialists, 29; Senate—Clericals 71; Liberals, 21; +Socialists, 2.<a name="FNanchor_6-6_89" id="FNanchor_6-6_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-6_89" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>From the first the Socialists in Belgium have not been reluctant in +making election arrangements with other parties. In this their first +election they united with the Progressists. In Brussels on the second +ballot they proposed terms to the Liberals, which were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>refused. The +Socialists, however, instructed their followers to vote against the +Clericals in every instance. Wherever there were no Radical or +Socialists lists they supported the Liberals.<a name="FNanchor_7-6_90" id="FNanchor_7-6_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-6_90" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The same widespread alarm that the first Socialist parliamentary +accessions aroused everywhere, was caused by these twenty-nine Belgian +Socialist representatives, especially as some of their number were +promoted from prison to parliament, and one striker was given his +liberty for the time being so that he could attend the session. +Vandervelde allayed popular apprehension when he announced the program +of his party, which combined with the usual labor legislation the +demand for the state purchase of coal mines, state monopoly of the +liquor business, and communal election reforms. The proposals of the +Belgian Socialists in parliament have invariably been practical, not +revolutionary or visionary. One of the first bills introduced by them +provided for the reduction of the stamp tax and the tax on the +transfer of property and leases. This tax was extremely high, nearly +seven per cent., and worked a peculiar hardship on the small tenant. +The bill failed of passage. But the government was so impressed by the +facts presented in debate that it brought in a law reducing the tax on +transfers for all small estates.</p> + +<p>It is by this indirect method, by their presence in the Chamber, and +by their powers in debate that the Belgian Socialists have achieved +many practical <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>reforms. They have not the hauteur and aloofness of +the German Social Democrat, nor the fiery passion for idealistic +propaganda of the French; they are more sensible than either. Since +their entrance into parliament a Secretary of Labor has been added to +the cabinet, and every department of labor legislation has felt their +influence. The delegation is in constant touch with the party in the +various districts. An old-age pension act has been passed, great +reductions have been made in military expenditure, the conscript laws +have been modified, and the Socialists led in the opposition to the +Belgian policy in the Congo.</p> + +<p>Their two main contentions have been over the educational laws and the +electoral laws. A school law was passed by the Clericals in 1895. It +was regarded as reactionary by the Socialists, and stormy scenes +accompanied its enactment. Its provisions are still the source of +constant agitation among Socialists and Liberals. They protest +especially against the teaching of religion in the communal schools. +It is true that any parent may have his child excused from attending +such instruction for reasons of conscience on written application to +the proper authorities. But they insist that this subjects the +objecting parent to harsh treatment in Clerical communities.<a name="FNanchor_8-6_91" id="FNanchor_8-6_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-6_91" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>The provincial and communal election laws were less favorable to the +Socialists than the national law. In 1895 the government brought in a +new local <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>election bill which fixed the voting age at thirty, +required three years' residence in a commune, and strengthened the +plural voting system by giving a fourth vote to the large +land-holders. The Socialists and Radicals united in contesting 507 of +the communes (about one-fourth of the whole number). They won a +majority in eighty and a considerable minority in 180 of these +communal councils. Necessity had cemented the alliance of Radicals and +Socialists. The Radicals were now called "<i>Chèvre-choutiers</i>" because +they tried to carry the goat and the cabbage, Liberals and Socialists, +across the stream in the same boat.</p> + +<p>In 1899 the government brought in its new election bill in which it +proposed to concede to the demand for proportional representation. But +only the large constituencies were to be included in the change, +leaving the smaller districts, mostly in the Flemish section, to the +Clerical majorities that prevailed there. The measure was unpopular. +The people organized protests against it in every city in the land. In +Brussels a mob gathered in front of the Chamber of Deputies. +Paving-stones were ripped up and hurled through the windows, and there +was charging and counter-charging between police and populace. Inside +the Chamber the scene was not less tumultuous. The Socialists tried to +prevent business by mob tactics. Desk-lids were banged, there was +shouting and singing, one deputy had provided himself with a horn. The +government was compelled to adjourn the session. All that night (June +28) there was rioting in Brussels. When the Chamber met the following +day the wild scenes were re-enacted, when a Clerical deputy moved that +any member causing a disturbance be expelled. In the debate that +followed the government declared itself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>willing to adjourn and study +the various proposals of the opposition. This cooled the crowd waiting +outside the Chamber, and at Vandervelde's suggestion the mob quietly +dispersed.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the mayors of Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, and Liège +waited on the King and told him they would no longer be responsible +for the maintenance of order in their cities if the minister did not +withdraw the obnoxious electoral bill. The Liberals now joined the +Socialists and Radicals in their processions in every town, singing +their war-songs and carrying placards and banners of protest.</p> + +<p>All this had its effect on the government. A committee representing +all the groups in the Chamber was appointed to consider all the +proposals that had been introduced. Vandervelde, in supporting the +committee, said that he "spoke for the country that had so effectively +demonstrated its power and achieved a victory." Soon after this the +reactionary ministry fell, and the new government brought in a bill +providing uniform proportional representation for all the districts. +This bill was promptly enacted into law.</p> + +<p>The first general election under this law resulted as follows:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="first general election results"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="25%">Total vote cast</td> + <td class="tdr" width="30%">2,105,270</td> + <td class="tdr" width="45%"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Socialists</td> + <td class="tdr">467,326</td> + <td class="tdl">electing 32 deputies.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Clericals</td> + <td class="tdr">995,056</td> + <td class="tdl">electing 85 deputies.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Liberals</td> + <td class="tdr">449,521</td> + <td class="tdl">electing 31 deputies.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Radicals</td> + <td class="tdr">47,783</td> + <td class="tdl">electing 3 deputies.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Christian Democrats</td> + <td class="tdr">55,737</td> + <td class="tdl">electing 1 deputies.</td> + </tr> +</table> +<br /></div> + +<p>The Clerical majority was cut from seventy to eighteen and at last the +Liberal elements were hopeful of gaining the government and effecting +universal suffrage "pure and simple."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>We have now seen how popular agitation wrested, first, a law +permitting plural voting; second, a law permitting proportional +representation, from an unwilling government. The contest for +universal suffrage "pure and simple" has continued to the present day. +In 1901 the Labor Party at its congress at Liège decided to renew the +agitation in favor of universal suffrage, "even to the extent of the +general strike, and agitation in the streets, and not to cease until +after the conquest of political equality." Vandervelde introduced a +bill into the Chamber providing for "one man, one vote," and it was +defeated by a vote of 92 to 43. Immediately Vandervelde and the +Radical leader proposed a revision of the Constitution. The debate on +this motion continued until the spring of 1902. All the old spirit of +unrest and violence broke out anew. To the violence of protesting mobs +was added the coercive force of the general strike. Three hundred +thousand men stopped work and began demonstrating. Troops were called +out to guard the government buildings in Brussels and to hold the +crowds at bay in the provinces. In Louvain eight strikers were killed +by the soldiers, and in other localities there was bloodshed and +destruction of property.</p> + +<p>Finally the Chamber of Representatives voted to close the debate and +dismiss the question entirely for the session. The strike was declared +off and quiet restored.</p> + +<p>In the elections the following May the Socialists lost three seats. +This had its effect. A meeting of the party was called and it was +decided not to resort to further violence. A delegate from Charleroi, +the seat of the most tumultuous element in the party, expressed regret +that the Labor Party had compromised <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>with the bourgeois parties in +calling off the strike. Vandervelde defended the action of the council +on the ground that the continuance of the strike threatened internal +dissensions because of the misery of the strikers and the violence of +the government.</p> + +<p>The party organ, <i>Le Peuple</i>, said on June 5, 1902: "We are no longer +in 1848. The days of barricades have gone by. The narrow little +streets of former years have expanded into wide avenues. The soldiers +are armed with Albinis and Mausers. Even if all the people were armed +it would only be necessary to plant a few cannon at strategic places +in the city to put down an insurrection in spite of the greatest +heroism of the insurgents."<a name="FNanchor_9-6_92" id="FNanchor_9-6_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-6_92" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>Van Overbergh, in his history of the strike, says: "The period of +romantic Socialism in Belgium is past; the days of realism have +commenced."<a name="FNanchor_10-6_93" id="FNanchor_10-6_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-6_93" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> And Bertrand, the historian, adds the reason: "Its [the +general strike's] effect was to keep down the vote. Even in the +elections of 1904 and 1906 the vote has remained quite stationary."<a name="FNanchor_11-6_94" id="FNanchor_11-6_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_11-6_94" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>Whether this means the apotheosis of the general strike in Belgium +will depend no doubt upon circumstances, it is significant that the +words were uttered, and still more significant that political +coalition has taken the place of industrial warfare. The Liberals and +Radicals now plan with the Socialists. They no longer stand aside and +let the Socialists march, but they join step with them and carry +banners.</p> + +<p>The greatest of all Belgian demonstrations for universal suffrage and +free schools took place in August, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>1911. In spite of the extreme +heat, nearly 200,000 Radicals, Liberals, and Socialists gathered in +the capital, "not so much to impress the government," a Socialist +leader said to me, "but to impress the people that we are in earnest, +and then to prepare for the coming elections."</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>It must not be inferred from this rapid survey of its warfare for +political privilege that Belgian Socialism has forgotten the +co-operative movement and all the various activities that were blended +in the making of the Labor Party. Belgian Socialism is primarily +economic. This makes it unique. It has succeeded in becoming economic, +in building dairies and bake-shops, in running dry-goods stores and +grocery stores and butcher shops, in the present dispensation; and it +has succeeded in doing so by accommodating itself to the present +conditions. It adopts the eight-hour day when it can, but it is not +averse to ten hours when necessary. It pays its employees the highest +wage it can, but it recognizes talent and ability like the bourgeois +shopkeeper across the street. It has insurance funds that draw +interest at the same rate that is paid by bourgeois banks, and it has +no scruples about putting the latest approved machinery into its +workshops and bakeries.</p> + +<p>In all this, their activities have remained Socialistic. They compete +with the bourgeois, but co-operate among themselves. The profits of +their activities go to the members of their societies and to the +party. Their competition has brought ruin to the door of many a +shopkeeper who finds his customers flocking to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>their own shop. +Government commissions have inquired into the movement at the nervous +requests of merchants and tradesmen, but only to find every +co-operative enterprise carefully conducted and thriving.</p> + +<p>The Belgian Socialist leaders all emphasize the importance of this +unity of economic and political activity, and the priority of the +economic over the political. It has been a splendid stimulant for the +Belgian workman. It has aroused him out of the lethargy that has been +his greatest enemy for years. It has taught him to work with others, +the value of mass movement, the futility of separateness. It has +schooled him, not only in reading and arithmetic, in the night classes +established everywhere; but in business, in weights and measures; in +percentage, in profit and loss; and most of all, in the real hardships +that meet tradespeople and commercial men everywhere in their endeavor +to get on. Workingmen often think that a business man is a necromancer +juggling profits out of other people's necessities. The Belgian +co-operativist has found out that trading is a commonplace and tedious +task which requires constant alertness and is merely the drudgery of +detail. This experience has taught him, moreover, the futility of laws +and the utility of effort. In Belgium I was impressed most of all by +the nonchalance, almost contempt, that the workman displays toward +mere legislation. "Why should I toy with words when I have this?" And +he points proudly to his co-operative store.</p> + +<p>The Belgian workman has been taught through his co-operative +experience the value of patient toil and frugality. Slowly he has +built up these institutions out of his own savings. When he thought +his scant wages were barely enough for bread, he discovered means +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>somehow to pay his dues in the "Mutualité." As an instance of his +thrift, he saves every year a little fund which is used by the family +for an annual holiday, usually a short excursion to a neighboring +place of interest. Every member of the family contributes to this +fund, and, no matter how poor, they look forward to their yearly +holiday.</p> + +<p>The Belgian Socialist has also been successful in another field. While +in other countries the Socialists have tried usually in vain to lure +the peasant and small farmer, the Belgians have made constant progress +in this direction. The agrarian movement began with the organizing of +the Labor Party.<a name="FNanchor_12-6_95" id="FNanchor_12-6_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_12-6_95" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>Vandervelde and Hector Dennis, a Professor of Economics in the +University at Brussels, have been constant in their zeal for the +agrarian interests. Again, the lure is not Socialism in the abstract, +nor the gospel of discontent. It is practical, business co-operation. +Dairies, stores, markets are proving powerful propagandists, even in +the Catholic lowlands. Dr. Steffens-Frauenweiler quotes from a +conservative newspaper: "From different sides we have heard the remark +that Socialism would never penetrate into the country. In +contradiction to this opinion we must observe that those who express +this view, and presume to laugh away the Socialistic movement among +the peasants and farmers, are either not well informed or are +submitting themselves to illusions. Only a serious attempt to fight +Socialism through positive reforms will prove a lasting check upon the +ambitions of Socialists."<a name="FNanchor_13-6_96" id="FNanchor_13-6_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_13-6_96" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>In Belgium the general strike has been used as an aid in the warfare +for political power. We have seen how the first strike was premature, +the second effective, and the third proved a boomerang in its reaction +upon the Labor Party.</p> + +<p>Vandervelde distinguishes between the general strike as a means toward +social revolution, and the general strike as a political weapon used +for securing a <i>definite</i> object.<a name="FNanchor_14-6_97" id="FNanchor_14-6_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_14-6_97" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> He says: "The revolutionary +general strike is itself the revolution. The reformist general strike, +on the contrary, is the attempt of the proletariat to secure partial +concessions from the government without questioning the existence of +the government, and especially the administration that represents the +government." To effect this, it is not essential that all the workmen +go out, but only enough to interrupt "the normal course of business, +even if the majority of the workers remain at work."<a name="FNanchor_15-6_98" id="FNanchor_15-6_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_15-6_98" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>The political general strike has its example, then, in the Belgian +movement for the electoral franchise. Whether it would succeed in +wresting other political privileges from the state, is conjecture; +that it would not succeed except under the most favorable conditions, +is certain.</p> + +<p>The Belgian movement has displayed great absorptive powers and +facility of adaptation. It has absorbed all the labor activities of +the Radical and Socialist workmen. It has adapted itself to the +necessities of the hour, giving up the daydreams of intangible things. +In all this, it has displayed a saneness, in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>spite of its +revolutionary traditions and anarchistic blood.<a name="FNanchor_16-6_99" id="FNanchor_16-6_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_16-6_99" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> It has the most +"modern" program of the European Socialist parties, and the most +worldly efficiency.</p> + +<p>In visiting one of the large workingmen's clubhouses found in the +cities, the visitor is impressed with the beehive qualities of the +Belgian movement. At the "Maison du Peuple" in Brussels—that was +built by these underpaid workmen at a cost of 1,000,000 francs—you +find activity everywhere. The savings-bank department is swarming with +women and children, come to conduct the business of the family. The +café, the headquarters of the party, the offices of the co-operative +societies, all are busy. In the evening there are debates, gymnasium +contests, moving-picture shows, classes for instruction in the +elementary branches, in art, and literature.<a name="FNanchor_17-6_100" id="FNanchor_17-6_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_17-6_100" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> A temperance +movement, started by the workmen some years ago, has attained a great +deal of influence. Placards are on the walls of the clubhouses, +setting forth the evils of the drink habit.</p> + +<p>Or you visit a co-operative bakery or butcher-shop or grocery store, +and the same spirit of diligence, thrift, and reasonableness is there. +And you are quite <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>convinced that here is Socialism approximating +somewhere near its ultimate form. If the Belgian Labor Party should +secure control of the government to-morrow it would be more competent +to assume the actual obligations of power than would the Socialists in +any other European country. For they have not built a structure in +mid-air, with merely an underpinning of more or less indifferent +theories.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-6_84" id="Footnote_1-6_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-6_84"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>L'Enquête Gouvernementale</i>, Vol. XVIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-6_85" id="Footnote_2-6_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-6_85"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>L'Annuaire Statistique.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-6_86" id="Footnote_3-6_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-6_86"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <span class="sc">Bertrand</span>, <i>Histoire de la Démocratie et du +Socialisme en Belgique depuis 1830</i>, Vol II, p. 331.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-6_87" id="Footnote_4-6_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-6_87"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> This conference sent the following telegram to the King: +"You have asked what is the watchword of the country; the watchword is +universal suffrage."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-6_88" id="Footnote_5-6_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-6_88"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The candidates are arranged in groups or "lists," and the +voter votes the list as well as for the individual names on the list. +Any 100 electors may prepare such a list. The successful candidate +must receive a majority. This often necessitates a second ballot +between the two receiving the highest number of votes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-6_89" id="Footnote_6-6_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-6_89"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <span class="sc">Bertrand</span>, <i>Histoire</i>, Vol. II, p. 552.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-6_90" id="Footnote_7-6_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-6_90"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> One of the significant incidents of this election was the +contest against Frère Orban, for thirty years a parliamentary leader +and one of the greatest politicians of his day. His seat was contested +by an obscure workingman, and the distinguished parliamentarian was +compelled to submit to the ordeal of a second ballot.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-6_91" id="Footnote_8-6_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-6_91"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The Clerical forces are gradually retreating before the +repeated onslaughts of Liberals and Socialists. But the loyalty to the +Church remains undiminished. On May 17, 1901, a Clerical deputy +remarked in the Chamber that he would like to see the temporal power +of the pope restored. The Socialists immediately started an uproar +which ended in their singing their "Marseillaise" and the adjournment +of the sitting.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-6_92" id="Footnote_9-6_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-6_92"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <span class="sc">Bertrand</span>, <i>Histoire</i>, II, p. 590.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10-6_93" id="Footnote_10-6_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-6_93"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>La Grève Générale Belge d'Avril</i>, 1902, Brussels, +1902.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11-6_94" id="Footnote_11-6_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11-6_94"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Histoire</i>, II, p. 592.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12-6_95" id="Footnote_12-6_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12-6_95"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Dr. Steffens-Frauenweiler</span>, <i>Der +Agrar-Sozialismus in Belge</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13-6_96" id="Footnote_13-6_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13-6_96"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 37.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14-6_97" id="Footnote_14-6_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14-6_97"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> See an article by <span class="sc">E. Vandervelde</span>, "<i>Der General +Streik</i>," in <i>Archiv für Sozial-wissenschaft und Sozial-Politik</i>, +Tübingen, May, 1908. The same article was published, same date, in +<i>Revue du Mois</i>, Paris.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15-6_98" id="Footnote_15-6_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15-6_98"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Supra cit.</i>, p. 541.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16-6_99" id="Footnote_16-6_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16-6_99"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Bakunin had a large following in Belgium during the days +of the "Old International," and Anarchists have never entirely ceased +their activities in the large cities.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17-6_100" id="Footnote_17-6_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17-6_100"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> On the walls of the "Maison du Peuple" you will find +noble paintings. Here labored Constantine Meunier, the sculptor, on +his notable "Monument au Travail." Three remarkable sections of this +monument, "La Mine," "L'Industrie," "La Glèbe," can be seen in the +Gallery of Modern Art, in Brussels. There are evidences everywhere of +the art interest of these alert working people. One of them, with +sincere indignation, pointed out to me the large pile of stone that +surmounts the heights of the city, the Palace of Justice, completed in +1883, and said its "bourgeois Babylonian hideousness is the high-water +mark of bourgeois taste in art and bourgeois power in politics."</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<h3>THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>It is the constant complaint of the German Democrats that there is no +Liberal Party in Germany. The wars that repeatedly devastated the +country during past centuries drove property owners to seek the +protection of a strong, centralized government. This habit has +survived the centuries. Whenever the middle classes show signs of +breaking away from the conservatism of the "Regierung," the Prince +always finds a way of bringing them back. The Period of +Revolution—1850—ended in a compromise that ignored the workingmen +and virtually left absolutism on the throne. When the new era dawned, +and Bismarck, like a young giant, shaped the highways of empire, he +used the Liberals so adroitly that, when his national legerdemain was +accomplished, they were a broken and impotent faction, lost in the +conservative reaction of the hour.</p> + +<p>Universal suffrage for the Reichstag elections was written into the +Constitution of the new empire, not because the Chancellor and his +Prince loved democracy, but because the smaller states insisted upon +this safeguard against Prussian omnipotence.</p> + +<p>Democracy and Liberalism have never been strong enough to break the +fetters of national habit; and nearly all the democracy, certainly all +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>workingman's democracy, in Germany to-day is found in the Social +Democratic Party.</p> + +<p>In order to understand the development of Social Democracy in Germany, +it is necessary to bear in mind the bureaucratic, autocratic, +paternalistic character of the German government.<a name="FNanchor_1-7_101" id="FNanchor_1-7_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-7_101" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>It is the German governmental policy to do everything for the welfare +of its citizens that can be done; and, in return, it expects the +people to let the government alone. The medieval conception of class +responsibility survives. It is the attitude of a self-righteous parent +toward ignorant and wilful children. The government assumes the right, +and possesses the power, to regulate every phase of the citizen's +life, in domestic, industrial, educational, moral, and political +affairs. It is a regal survival of the theory that government is +omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.</p> + +<p>Germany is a made-to-order country that clings to medieval +conservatism in government; a country that is thoroughly modern in +industry and distinctly middle-age in caste; where the workingman has +always been treated with patronizing condescension and his political +acts watched with jealousy; and where he has, against great odds, +determined to work out his own salvation. Surrounded by preordained +and rigid conditions, he has perfected an organization that is the +most remarkable example of proletarian achievement found anywhere in +history. To the development and description of this organization we +will now address ourselves.</p> + +<p>German Social Democracy, while Marxian in theory, owes its active +existence to Ferdinand Lassalle, one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>of those brilliant and daring +geniuses who flash, in an hour of adventure, across the prosaic days +of history.<a name="FNanchor_2-7_102" id="FNanchor_2-7_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-7_102" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> He was pronounced a <i>Wunderkind</i> by William von +Humboldt; dashed his way through university routine; attracted the +friendship of poets, philosophers, and politicians; was lionized by +society; became a revolutionist in 1848, and was, at the age of +twenty-three, indicted for inciting a mob of Düsseldorf workingmen to +acts of violence. He defended himself in a brilliant speech which +launched him fully into the campaign of the workingman.<a name="FNanchor_3-7_103" id="FNanchor_3-7_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-7_103" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>Early in his career he volunteered to defend the cause of the Countess +Hatzfeldt, whose unfaithful husband was squandering his estates and +suffering her to live in want. Lassalle fought the case through +thirty-six courts for nine years, and won an ample fortune for the +countess, who became the main financial support of Lassalle's +campaigns.</p> + +<p>After his first arrest, Lassalle was kept under vigilance by the +government. But finally, through the interposition of distinguished +friends, he was allowed to return to Berlin. There, in 1862, he +delivered a series of addresses that soon brought him into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>conflict +with the police. His defense in the court was published later under +the title, <i>Science and the Workingman</i>. This he followed with a +letter, <i>Might and Right</i>,<a name="FNanchor_4-7_104" id="FNanchor_4-7_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-7_104" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> sent broadcast over the land.</p> + +<p>In these two publications he succinctly enunciated his theory of +democracy: "With Democracy alone dwells right, and in Democracy alone +will might be found. No person in the Prussian state to-day has the +right to speak of 'rights,' except the Democracy, the old and true +Democracy. For Democracy alone has constantly clung to the right, and +has never lowered herself by compromising with might."<a name="FNanchor_5-7_105" id="FNanchor_5-7_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-7_105" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>In the political turmoil of that period, when new forces were +awakening to their power and feudalism, conservatism, Cobdenism, and +democracy were all contending for supremacy, there were three +predominating currents of thought. The first was naturally the feudal, +the absolutist that would put down by the police power, and failing in +that by the soldiery, every attempt at changing the organization of +the government. This was embodied in the reactionary, or Conservative +Party, which held then, as it still does, the high places in army and +government. Bismarck was its leader. It had ample nationalist aims, +and was called the "Great German Party" ("Gross Deutschland"); Austria +was included in its ambitions, and monarchic supremacy was the token +of its power. It comprised the landowners, the nobles, and the +agrarians.</p> + +<p>The second tendency was commercial, bourgeois. It found expression in +the National Liberal Party, which was liberal in name only. It was the +"Small <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>German" ("Klein Deutschland") Party, preferring the ascendency +of Prussia. It comprised the enterprising traders, manufacturers, and +bankers, and was strongest in the cities. It was attached to monarchy, +cared little for military or political glory, except as it affected +trade and taxes.</p> + +<p>The third tendency had nothing in common with the other two. It was +the revolt of the proletarians, led by men of great ability. It was +the democratic movement. It abhorred both the idea of feudal +prerogative in government, as expressed by king and noble, and the +vulgar trade patriotism, as expressed by the National Liberals, the +bourgeoisie. It took its inspiration from France and its example from +England. From France came the political platitudes of equality and +liberty with which we are familiar in America; from England, the +example of strongly organized trade unions. In Germany these two +movements, economic and political, were blended into one.</p> + +<p>Not that the workingman's movement was a unity. Schultze-Delitsch, the +founder of the German co-operative movement, contended that labor +should keep out of politics and devote itself to economic activities +alone. Rodbertus, the distinguished economist, who was potent in +shaping economic and political thought in Germany, wrote Lassalle, +when he was entreated to join the brilliant agitator's propaganda, +that he could "tolerate no political agitation which would excite the +working classes against the existing executive power."<a name="FNanchor_6-7_106" id="FNanchor_6-7_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-7_106" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>There was no unity in the theories of the workingman's movement. The +first organizations, the "Workingmen's Associations," were founded +soon after 1848, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>as soon as the laws gave a limited right of +association to the working class. The government looked with suspicion +on every political act of labor, and especially upon organizations for +political purposes. The ban of the law was put upon those +organizations in July, 1854, and the right of public meeting was +greatly restricted; police autonomy increased, giving them arbitrary +power to stop meetings; and the right of free press was virtually +denied. Democracy became a movement of silent intrigue and occasional +rough outbreak.</p> + +<p>At this juncture a new political party was organized, to absorb what +was "legal" in the democratic workingman's movement and what was truly +liberal in the National Liberal Party. The new party was called +Progressist ("Fortschrittler"). It was a German party, devoted to the +Manchester doctrine: Free commerce, free trade, free press, free +speech; freedom of expression in every phase of human activity. It was +<i>laissez-faire</i> to the uttermost plunged into the reactionary mass of +German politics. The economic issue became freedom of contract +<i>versus</i> feudal status; the political issue, freedom of ballot +<i>versus</i> hereditary prerogative.</p> + +<p>The new party began to appeal for the workingman's support. Their lure +of free speech and freedom of organization was not without effect. The +older workingmen, who were not familiar with the teachings of Marx and +Engels, and who had not even read Weitling's communistic +idealizations, were brought, in some numbers, into the new party.</p> + +<p>The younger and more radical element in the workingmen's clubs were +restless. In 1862 some of them had visited the International +Exposition in London <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>and had talked with Marx. The fire of the +"International" was kindled. A movement for calling a national +workingman's convention was started among these radicals. The +Progressists tried to check the agitation, saying that every effort +should be directed toward establishing a new Constitution. But it was +in vain. In Leipsic a group of radicals seceded from the Workingman's +Union (Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein), and formed a new organization, which +they called "Vorwärts" (Progress). These now invited Lassalle to +address them on his views of the labor situation.</p> + +<p>The movement was opportune, and Lassalle's answer is the basic +document of present-day Social Democracy.<a name="FNanchor_7-7_107" id="FNanchor_7-7_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-7_107" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>There is no salvation for the workingman except through "political +freedom," he says. This freedom demands laws, and to secure laws +united action is essential. They must be powerful enough to get laws +to their liking. This power they will not get by being an appendix to +the Progressists, for they are dominated by a trade doctrine, not by +altruistic ideals for the oppressed.</p> + +<p>With a clearness that has not been excelled, he showed the dependence +of economic upon political power and influence. His economic program +was none other than Louis Blanc's state-subsidized workshops. It made +no great impression and soon faded away. But his bold plan of a +workingman's party fighting fiercely for democracy, and for the +betterment of the "normal conditions of the entire <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>working classes," +has been developed to surprising perfection.</p> + +<p>The state, he says, must be the instrument of their power, not the +object of their striving. They are in politics, not as politicians, +but as proletarians. "The state is nothing but the great organization, +the all-embracing association of the working classes." No "sustaining +and helping hand" will be their guide. Political supremacy is the +"only way out of the desert." And how win the state? There is only one +way: through universal suffrage, democracy. "Universal suffrage is not +only your political but also your social foundation principle, the +condition precedent of all social help. It is the only means for +bettering the material conditions of the working classes."</p> + +<p>Cut loose from Rodbertus economically, and from the Progressists +politically, Lassalle was invited to take the leadership of the new +movement, which from the start was political rather than economic. He +aimed to organize the German workingmen into a great national party, +so powerful that it could control governments, make laws, and demand +obedience. But it was slow work, and to the fiery spirit of Lassalle +its snail's pace was exasperating. It provoked him into violence of +speech which led him everywhere into the courts and into constant +altercations with the Crown's solicitors.</p> + +<p>His powerful personality and unusually active mind made a profound +impression everywhere. At the last conference of his association which +he attended he claimed the Bishop of Mayence and the King of Prussia +as converts. The Bishop, Baron von Ketteler, was indeed turning toward +Socialism, but not Lassalle's political Socialism. He was the founder +of that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>Christian Socialism which has made the Catholic Church in +South Germany and the Rhineland a potent factor in the labor movement. +The King, whose conversion Lassalle boldly announced, had only +received a delegation of Silesian weavers who laid their grievances +before him and were promised the royal sympathy.</p> + +<p>However, Lassalle and Bismarck had formed a general liking for each +other, and the great minister received from the brilliant agitator +many suggestions which he later embodied in his state insurance laws. +Both Bismarck and Lassalle believed in the power of the state for the +amelioration of social conditions. They met several times at the +Chancellor's solicitation, and Bismarck disclosed their conversations +to the Reichstag, on the insistence of Bebel, when the insurance bills +were under discussion. The Chancellor expressed his admiration for the +virility of the Socialist's mind and said he believed Lassalle +perfectly sincere in his purpose.<a name="FNanchor_8-7_108" id="FNanchor_8-7_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-7_108" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Lassalle did not live to see his General Workingmen's Association +("Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeitsverein") attain political power. He was +killed in a duel over a love affair August 31, 1864. His brilliant +campaign for democracy had resulted in a petty organization of 4,610 +members.</p> + +<p>Lassalle's influence is increasing every year. His death-day is +celebrated by the German Socialists (Lassalle Feier). The present-day +German movement is Lassallian rather than Marxian.<a name="FNanchor_9-7_109" id="FNanchor_9-7_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-7_109" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>In a letter to Rodbertus, February, 1864, Lassalle says that he aimed +to show the workingman "how identical the economic and the political +forces are. Every separation of them is an abstraction, and I believe +that uniting the two is the principal potency which I can give to the +cause."</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>The little handful was soon rent by internal strife and threatened +with utter extinction, both by police aggression and by Marxian +competition. The year Lassalle died the International Workingman's +Association was organized and agitation began in Germany under the +leadership of William Liebknecht, a friend and disciple of Marx. +Liebknecht was the scholar of the early Social Democratic group. He +possessed a university education, was a revolutionist in 1848, a +fugitive in Switzerland and England until 1862. His foreign sojourn +did not mellow his natural dogmatism; on the contrary, his long +intercourse with Marx in London hardened his orthodoxy. He was a +powerful polemist. However, alone he could not have organized a +national movement. He did not possess the personal traits that lure. +He made a notable convert when he won August Bebel, a Saxon +woodturner, to his cause. "I was Saul and became Paul," Bebel said to +me. The words are not inapt: his power is Pauline. Lie has been +persecuted and imprisoned, has written speeches and epistles, has +made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>many missionary journeys, and kept constantly in intimate touch +with every local phase of his propaganda. His imprisonments have +undermined his health, but they have not diminished his mental vigor; +and more than once the Iron Chancellor winced under his ferocious +assaults.</p> + +<p>Liebknecht and Bebel were more advanced than the Workingmen's +Association, which now had fallen under the leadership of Schweitzer, +an able but dissolute disciple of Lassalle. The two organizations +fought each other as rivals. The international wing, under Liebknecht +and Bebel, in 1869, organized the Democratic Workingmen's Party at +Eisenach, and were called "Eisenachers." Their program is of great +importance. It stated that the first object of the new party was the +attaining of the free state (Freier Volkstaat). This state Liebknecht +explained at his trial in 1872: "The idea of a free state is +interpreted by a majority of our party to mean a republic; but does +this necessarily imply that it is to be forcibly introduced? No one +has expressed an opinion as to how it is to be introduced. Let a +majority of the people be won for our opinions, and the state is of +our opinions, for the people are the state. A state without a king is +conceivable, but not a state without a people. The government is the +servant of the people."</p> + +<p>This free state, the program continues, can be won only by political +freedom, and political freedom is the forerunner of economic freedom. +Demand is therefore made for universal, equal, direct suffrage, with +secret ballot, for all men twenty years of age, in both parliamentary +and municipal elections. Other leading demands were: direct +legislation; the abolition <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>of all privileges, whether of birth, +wealth, or religion; the establishment of militia in place of standing +armies; the separation of Church and state; the secularizing of +education; the extension of free schools and compulsory education; +reform of the courts and extension of the jury system; abolition of +all laws restricting freedom of speech, of press, and of association; +the establishment of a normal workday; the restriction of female, and +abolition of child, labor; the abolition of indirect taxes; the +establishment of an income and inheritance tax; the extension of state +credit for co-operative enterprises.</p> + +<p>This program sounds very modern and moderate. But its expositors were +not restrained to moderation, and when the congress met at Dresden in +1871 it adopted a resolution extolling the French Commune. A great +deal of popular sympathy was lost through this action.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Lassalle party was slowly gaining ground. In 1875 the +two parties united at Gotha. There were 9,000 members in the +Liebknecht party and 15,000 members in the Lassalle party. Here was +adopted the first program of the united German Social Democracy. Its +economics are thoroughly Marxian in theory and are only slightly +tinged by the teachings of Lassalle and Schultze-Delitsch in practice. +Labor, it affirmed, was the source of all wealth and was held under +duress by the capitalistic class. Its only emancipation could come +from the social ownership of the means of production. The way to this +goal could be found through productive copartnership with state aid. +The political part of the program embraced the demands made at +Eisenach.</p> + +<p>With its unity, a new vigor took possession of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>party. Its +organization was perfected; 145 agitators were in the field; its +twenty-three newspapers had over 100,000 subscribers. This meant +increased police vigilance. All the leaders served terms in prison, +newspapers were suppressed, organizations dissolved, houses searched, +agitators ordered to leave the country. The government did everything +in its power to suppress the movement. Every act of oppression +popularized the Democracy among the proletarians. The blood of the +martyrs bore the usual harvest.</p> + +<p>The new empire had been launched amidst the greatest enthusiasm, +shared by every one except the discontented workingmen who had so +stoutly fought for entire political freedom. The new imperial +parliament was thrown open to them because Bismarck had found it +necessary to include universal suffrage in the constitution of the +Reichstag. In 1871 the Socialists elected two members, and the feudal +lords beheld the novel sight of workingmen sitting with them in the +imperial Diet. The voting strength of the party was 124,665. This was +increased to 351,952 in 1874, when nine members were elected. In 1877 +the party cast 493,288 votes, electing twelve members. This was cause +for alarm. The party had now reached fifth place in point of votes +among the fourteen parties or factions that contended for power in +Germany, and eighth place in point of members elected. But in point of +agitation, of perfervid speech and pointed interpellation, it ranked +easily first. Its delegation in 1877 included Bebel and Liebknecht, +now out of jail, and Most, afterwards the notorious Anarchist in +America, and Hasselman and Bracke, who were not modest in the +expression of their opinions. These representatives of democracy let +no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>occasion pass to embarrass the government with peppery questions.</p> + +<p>Bismarck was slowly evolving a scheme for checking the Socialist +growth and satisfying the demands of labor for better conditions. Both +revolved around the pivot of patriarchal omnipotence. The suppression +was to be accomplished by force; the gratification, by paternal rigor.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>He addressed himself first to repression. He entreated the governments +of Europe in 1871 to unite in stamping out Socialism, but he received +no encouragement. In 1872 Spain, exasperated by the revolutionary +outbreaks, addressed a circular to the Powers, asking their +co-operation to check the growth of the revolutionary element. +Bismarck was ready. But Lord Granville, for England, said the +traditions of his country were favorable to an unrestricted right of +residence for foreigners as long as they violated no law of their +host. This ended the international attempt. Next (in 1874) Bismarck +attempted to tighten the gag on the press, but the Reichstag refused +to sanction his proposals. Then he fell back on existing legislation +and with great vigor enforced the statutes against revolutionary +activity. The police were given wide latitude in interpreting these +laws.</p> + +<p>Several acts of wanton violence now occurred which brought about a +sudden change of temper in the people. On May 11, 1878, while driving +in Unter den Linden, Emperor William was shot at by a young man. The +Emperor was not struck by the bullets, but the shots <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>were none the +less effective in rousing public indignation. Popular condemnation was +turned against the Social Democrats because photographs of Liebknecht +and Bebel were found on the person of the intended assassin. Two days +later Bismarck introduced the anti-Socialist laws. They were debated +in the Reichstag, while Most was being tried for libeling the clergy. +But the Reichstag was not ready to go to the lengths of the +Chancellor's desire, and by a vote of 251 to 57 rejected his bill. +Here the matter would have rested had not a second attempt been made +on the life of the aged Emperor. This occurred on June 2, and this +time the Emperor was seriously wounded.</p> + +<p>Naturally the indignation of the nation was thoroughly aroused. In the +midst of the excitement, a general election was held, and Bismarck +won. His own peculiar Conservatives increased their delegation from 40 +to 59, the Free Conservatives from 38 to 57; the National Liberals +reduced their number from 128 to 99, the Liberals from 13 to 10, the +Progressists from 35 to 26. The Socialists retained nine seats, losing +three; their vote fell from 493,288 to 437,158.</p> + +<p>Immediately a repressive law was introduced. It was called "a law +against the publicly dangerous activities of the Social Democracy" +(Gesetz gegen die gemein-gefährlichen Bestrebungen der +Sozial-Demokratie).<a name="FNanchor_10-7_110" id="FNanchor_10-7_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-7_110" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Bismarck prefaced his law with a very clever prologue (Begründung). In +simple language he arraigned the Social Democracy as being, first, +anti-social, because it aims at the modern system of production, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>does so, not through "humanitarian motives," but through revolution; +second, as anti-patriotic, because it makes "the most odious attacks" +on the German Empire. "The law of preservation therefore compels the +state and society to oppose the Social Democratic movement with +decision.... True, thought cannot be repressed by external compulsion; +the movements of minds can only be overcome in intellectual combat. +But when movements take wrong pathways and threaten destruction, the +means for their growth can and should be taken away by legal means. +The Socialist agitation, as carried on for years, is a continual +appeal to violence and to the passions of the multitudes, for the +purpose of subverting the social order. The state <i>can</i> check such a +movement by depriving Social Democracy of its principal means of +propaganda, and by destroying its organization; and it <i>must</i> do so +unless it is willing to surrender its existence, and unless the +conviction is to spread amongst the people that either the state is +impossible or the aims of Social Democracy are justifiable.<a name="FNanchor_11-7_111" id="FNanchor_11-7_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_11-7_111" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>The law was passed against the vehement protest of the Socialists. +They disclaimed any connection with the dastardly attempts on the life +of the aged Emperor. Bebel, in an impressive speech, declared that +while Socialists do "wish to abolish the present form of private +property in the factors of production, labor, and land," they had +never been guilty of destroying a penny's worth of property. Nor did +they aim to do so. It was the system of private ownership of great +properties, that enabled a few to oppress the many, that they were +fighting. And here they were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>in good company: Rodbertus, Rosher, +Wagner, Schaeffle, Brentano, Schmoller, and a host of other scholars +and economists, Bebel affirmed, were Socialistic in their tendencies.</p> + +<p>Bismarck was unyielding. He said he would welcome any real effort to +alleviate harsh conditions. But the Socialists were a party of +destruction and were enemies to mankind.</p> + +<p>The leader of the Progressists said, "I fear Social Democracy more +under this law than without it." The vote of 221 to 149 in favor of +the law showed the grim Chancellor's sway over the assembly.</p> + +<p>The law made clean work of it. It forbade all organizations which +promulgated views controvening the existing social and political +order. It prohibited the collecting of money for campaign purposes; +put the ban on meetings, processions, and demonstrations; on +publications of all kinds, confiscating the existing stock of +prohibited books; and created a status akin to martial law by endowing +the police authorities with the power of declaring a locality in a +"minor state of siege," and exercising arbitrary authority for one +year.</p> + +<p>A commission was appointed by the Chancellor to carry out these +inquisitions, and the war between Socialistic democracy and medieval +autocracy was on. Its events are instructive to every government; its +sequel a warning to all nations.<a name="FNanchor_12-7_112" id="FNanchor_12-7_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_12-7_112" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>The government organized its commission; the Socialists met at Hamburg +to consider the situation. They determined to perfect their +organization, to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>promulgate a secret propaganda, and to use the +tribune in the Reichstag as the one open pulpit whence they could +proclaim their wrongs.</p> + +<p>The government promptly declared Berlin in a "minor state of siege." +In the course of a few months about fifty agitators were expelled, +bales of literature confiscated, organizations dissolved, meetings +dismissed, gatherings prohibited, and the Socialist agitation pushed +into cellars and back rooms.</p> + +<p>But there was one tribune which the Chancellor could not close—the +Reichstag tribune. Here Bebel and Liebknecht talked to the nation, and +their speeches were given circulation through the records of debate. +Prince Bismarck, in his extremity, tried to muzzle the Socialist +members and expunge their words from the records; but the members of +the Reichstag refused this extreme measure. Then Bismarck asked +permission to imprison Hasselman and expel Fritzche from Berlin. These +two deputies had been especially vituperative in their attacks upon +the law. The Chancellor claimed that the famous Section 28 of the +anti-Socialist law authorizing the minor state of siege extended to +members of the Reichstag. But the House, under the vehement leadership +of Professor Gneist, the distinguished constitutional lawyer, refused +to sanction this dangerous measure on the ground that the thirty-first +article of the federal Constitution exempted members of the Reichstag +from arrest.</p> + +<p>Bismarck soon had another plan for ridding himself of the Socialist +nettles in the Reichstag. He introduced a bill creating a +parliamentary court chosen by the House, who should have the power to +punish any member guilty of parliamentary indiscretion. The bill also +empowered the House to prevent the publication <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>of any of its +proceedings if it desired. The Reichstag also refused to sanction this +measure.</p> + +<p>The assassination of Czar Alexander of Russia in March, 1881, gave +Bismarck the opportunity to renew his efforts to quell Socialism and +Anarchism by international concert. He asked Russia to take the +initiative, and a conference was called at Brussels to which all the +leading states were invited. Germany and Austria eagerly accepted, +France made her participation dependent on England's action, and +England refused to participate. Bismarck next tried to form an Eastern +league, but Austria failed him and he had to content himself with an +extradition treaty with Russia.</p> + +<p>Bismarck now fell back on his Socialist law. He enforced it with +vigor, extending the minor state of siege to Altona, Leipsic, Hamburg, +and Harburg. His commission reported yearly. Its words were not +reassuring. In 1882 it said: "The situation of the Social Democratic +movement in Germany and other civilized countries is unfortunately not +such as to encourage the hope that it is being suppressed or +weakened." The Minister of the Interior said to the Reichstag: "It is +beyond doubt that it has not been possible by means of the law of +October, 1878, to wipe Social Democracy from the face of the earth, or +even to strike it to the center."<a name="FNanchor_13-7_113" id="FNanchor_13-7_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_13-7_113" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The duration of the law had been fixed at two years. At the end of +each term it was renewed, each time with diminishing majorities. +Meanwhile the rigor of the law was not diminished. The minor state of +siege was extended to other centers, including Stettin and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>Offenbach. +Meetings were suppressed everywhere, and dismissed often for the most +trivial reasons. The police were given the widest powers and exercised +them in the narrowest spirit.<a name="FNanchor_14-7_114" id="FNanchor_14-7_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_14-7_114" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> "A hateful system of persecution, +espionage, and aggravation was established, and its victims were the +classes most susceptible to disaffection."<a name="FNanchor_15-7_115" id="FNanchor_15-7_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_15-7_115" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>On the unique <i>index expurgatorius</i> of the government were over a +thousand titles, including the works of the high priests of the party, +the poetry of Herwegh, the romances of Von Schweitzer, the photographs +of the favorite Socialist saints, over eighty newspapers and sixty +foreign journals. Bales of interdicted literature were smuggled in +from Switzerland to feed the morose and disaffected mind of the German +workingman.</p> + +<p>I can find no record of how many arrests were made. Bebel reported to +the party convention in 1890 that 1,400 publications of all kinds had +been interdicted and that 1,500 persons had been imprisoned, serving +an aggregate of over one thousand years.<a name="FNanchor_16-7_116" id="FNanchor_16-7_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_16-7_116" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Every trial was a +scattering of the seeds, and every imprisoned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>or exiled comrade +became a hero. The awkwardness of the government was matched against +the adroitness of the propagandists. A good deal of terror was spread +among the people, stories of sudden uprisings and bloody revolutions +were told. Even the National Liberals lost their heads at times. But +Bebel was always superbly cool. This woodturner developed into one of +the ablest political generals of his time.</p> + +<p>Persecuted and pressed into underground channels of activity the party +persisted in growing. In 1880 it rid itself of the violent +revolutionary faction led by Most and Hasselman.</p> + +<p>In the elections of 1881 the Socialists gained three deputies, but +their popular vote was reduced over 125,000. In the next election, +1884, they won twenty-four seats and polled 549,990 votes; two out of +six seats in Berlin were won, and one-tenth of the voters in the land +were rallied under the red flag. The police were alarmed and the law +was enforced with renewed energy.</p> + +<p>With this powerful backing Liebknecht asked the repeal of the +"Explosives Act." A violent debate took place. Liebknecht said: "I +will tell you this: we do not appeal to you for sympathy. The result +is all the same to us, for we shall win one way or another. Do your +worst, for it will be only to our advantage, and the more madly you +carry on the sooner you will come to an end. The pitcher goes to the +well until it breaks."<a name="FNanchor_17-7_117" id="FNanchor_17-7_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_17-7_117" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>Bebel roused all the fury of Bismarck when he warned him that if +Russian methods were imported there would be murder. In July of this +year (1886) <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>at Freiburg occurred the memorable trial of nine +Socialist leaders, including Bebel, Dietz, Von Vollmar, Auer, Frohme, +and Viereck, charged with participating in an illegal organization. +All were sentenced to imprisonment for terms varying from six to nine +months.</p> + +<p>Preceding the election of 1887 the Reichstag had been dissolved on the +army bill. The patriotic issue, always effective, was made the +universal appeal by the government. In spite of this the Social +Democrats polled 763,128 votes, a gain of 213,128. Saxony had +succeeded in holding down the vote to 150,000; but in Prussia the +result was startling; in Berlin forty per cent. of the voters were +Social Democrats. With all their voting strength the party elected +only eleven members to the Reichstag. With proportional representation +they would have elected forty. The Bismarck Conservatives returned +forty-one members with fewer votes than the Socialists.</p> + +<p>Finally in 1890 came the end of this farce. It was also the end of the +chancellorship of Bismarck. His old Emperor had died, and a young and +daring hand was at the helm. Bismarck proposed to embody the +anti-Socialist laws permanently in the penal code. This might have +passed; but he also proposed to exile offenders, not merely from the +territory under minor siege, but from the Fatherland. This +expatriation the Assembly would not brook and the Reichstag was +prorogued.</p> + +<p>The Socialists left parliament with eleven members, they returned with +thirty-five; they left with 760,000 mandates, they returned with +1,500,000, more votes than any other party could claim, and on a +proportional basis eighty-five seats would have been theirs. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>Bebel +was justified in saying in the Reichstag, "The Chancellor thought he +had us, but we have him."</p> + +<p>When midnight sounded on the last day of the existence of the +oppressive law, great throngs of workingmen gathered in the streets of +the larger cities, to sing their Marseillaise, cheer their victory, +and wave their red flag. Now they could breathe again.</p> + +<p>For the first time in thirteen years they met in national convention +on German soil. The veteran Liebknecht, recounting their hardships and +sacrifices, raised his voice in jubilant phrase: "Our opponents did +not spare us, and we, too proud and too strong to prove cowardly, +struck blow for blow, and so we have conquered the odious law."<a name="FNanchor_18-7_118" id="FNanchor_18-7_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_18-7_118" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<br /> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>During the enforcement of the anti-Socialist law Bismarck began the +second part of his policy. He would repress with one hand, with the +other he would placate. In 1883 he introduced his sickness insurance +bill, followed in 1884-85 by his accident insurance, and in 1889 by +his old-age pension act.<a name="FNanchor_19-7_119" id="FNanchor_19-7_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_19-7_119" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>It is not unnatural that these measures were opposed by the Social +Democrats. They had no love for the Chancellor. The Dresden congress +decided to "reject state Socialism unconditionally so long as it is +inaugurated by Prince Bismarck and is designed to support the +government system." Bismarck "had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>sown too much wind not to reap a +whirlwind."<a name="FNanchor_20-7_120" id="FNanchor_20-7_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_20-7_120" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> He had planted hatred in the hearts of the workingmen; +he could not hope to reap respect and affection.</p> + +<p>Bismarck believed that Socialism existed because the laboring man was +not sufficiently interested in the state. He had no property, and was +not enlightened enough to appreciate the intangible benefits of +sovereignty. In 1880 German trade had reached a low ebb. Agriculture +had fallen into decay. German peasants and workingmen were emigrating +to America by the tens of thousands. Bismarck promulgated his +industrial insurance, first, to placate the workingman; second, to +restore prosperity to German industry.</p> + +<p>As a result of his policy Germany is to-day the most "socialized" +state in Europe. Here a workingman may begin life attended by a +physician paid by the state; he is christened by a state clergyman; he +is taught the rudiments of learning and his handicraft by the state. +He begins work under the watchful eye of a state inspector, who sees +that the safeguards to health and limb are strictly observed. He is +drafted by the state into the army, and returns from the rigor of this +discipline to his work. The state gives him license to marry, +registers his place of residence, follows him from place to place, and +registers the birth of his children. If he falls ill, his suffering is +assuaged by the knowledge that his wife and children are cared for and +that his expenses will be paid during illness; and he may spend his +convalescent days in a luxurious state hospital. If he falls victim to +an accident the dread of worklessness is removed by the ample +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>insurance commanded by the state even if his injury permanently +incapacitates him. If he should unfortunately become that most pitiful +of all men, the man out of work, the state and the city will do all in +their power to find employment for him. If he wanders from town to +town in search of work the city has its shelter (Herberge) to welcome +him; if he wishes to move to another part of his town the municipal +bureau will be glad to help him find a suitable house, or may even +loan him money for building a house of his own. If he is in difficulty +the city places a lawyer at his disposal. If he is in a dispute with +his employer the government provides a court of arbitration. If he is +sued or wishes to sue his employer, he does so in the workingmen's +court (Gewerbe Gericht). If he wishes recreation, there is the city +garden; if he wishes entertainment let him go to the public concert; +if he wishes to improve his mind there are libraries and free +lectures. And if by rare chance, through the grace of the state's +strict sanitary regulations and by thrift and care, he reaches the age +of seventy, he will find the closing days of his long life eased by a +pension, small, very small, to be sure, but yet enough to make him +more welcome to the relatives or friends who are charged with +administering to his wants.<a name="FNanchor_21-7_121" id="FNanchor_21-7_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-7_121" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-7_101" id="Footnote_1-7_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-7_101"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> For a comprehensive description of the German government, +see <span class="sc">Dawson</span>, <i>Germany and the Germans</i>, Vol. I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-7_102" id="Footnote_2-7_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-7_102"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Liebknecht said, in the Breslau congress of the +Social-Democratic party: "Lassalle is the man in whom the modern +organized German labor movement had its +origin."—"Sozial-Demokratische Partei-Tag," <i>Protokoll</i>, 1895, p. +66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-7_103" id="Footnote_3-7_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-7_103"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> For sketch of Lassalle and his work see <span class="sc">Kirkup</span>, +<i>History of Socialism</i>, pp. 72 et seq.; <span class="sc">Ely</span>, <i>French and +German Socialism of Modern Times</i>, p. 189; <span class="sc">Rae</span>, <i>Contemporary +Socialism</i>, pp. 93 ff. For an extended account, see <span class="sc">Dawson</span>, +<i>German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle</i>, London, 1888. <span class="sc">Georg +Brandes</span>, <i>Ferdinand Lassalle</i>, originally in Danish, has been +translated into German, 1877, and into English, 1911. Also see +<span class="sc">Franz Mehring</span>. <i>Die Deutsche Sozial-Demokratie: Ihre +Geschichte und ihre Lehre</i>; <span class="sc">Bernhard Becker</span>, <i>Geschichte der +Arbeiter Agitation Ferdinand Lassalles</i>, Brunswick, 1874: this volume +contains a good detailed account of Lassalle's work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-7_104" id="Footnote_4-7_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-7_104"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Published in Zürich, 1863: <i>Macht und Recht</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-7_105" id="Footnote_5-7_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-7_105"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Macht und Recht</i>, p. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-7_106" id="Footnote_6-7_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-7_106"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Letter dated April 22, 1863.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-7_107" id="Footnote_7-7_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-7_107"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> "Öffentliches Antwort-schreiben an das Zentral Committee +zur Berufung eines Allgemeinen Deutschen Arbeiter Congress zu +Leipzig," first published in Zurich, 1863.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-7_108" id="Footnote_8-7_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-7_108"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> In the Reichstag, September 16, 1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-7_109" id="Footnote_9-7_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-7_109"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> When Bernstein collected Lassalle's works he wrote a +sketch of the agitator's life as a preface. A number of years later, +1904, he published his second sketch, <i>Ferdinand Lassalle and His +Significance to the Working Classes</i>, in which he shifted his position +and assumed a Lassallian tone. This change of mind is typical of the +Social Democratic movement toward the Lassallian idea.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10-7_110" id="Footnote_10-7_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-7_110"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The law is reprinted in <span class="sc">Mehring</span>, <i>Die Deutsche +Sozial-Demokratie</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11-7_111" id="Footnote_11-7_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11-7_111"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Dawson</span>, <i>German Socialism and Ferdinand +Lassalle</i>, pp. 251 ff., for a discussion of this law.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12-7_112" id="Footnote_12-7_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12-7_112"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> A good description of the working of this law is found +in <span class="sc">Dawson</span>, <i>Germany and the Germans</i>, Vol. II, Chap. XXXVII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13-7_113" id="Footnote_13-7_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13-7_113"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> December 14, 1882.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14-7_114" id="Footnote_14-7_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14-7_114"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> "At a large Berlin meeting a speaker innocently used the +word commune (parish), whereupon the police officer in control, +thinking only of the Paris Commune, at once dismissed the assembly, +and a thousand persons had to disperse into the streets disappointed +and embittered.... 'Militarism is a terrible mistake,' said a speaker +at an election meeting, which legally should have been beyond police +power, and at these words, further proceedings were forbidden and +several persons were arrested. The Socialist deputy Bebel, in +addressing some workingmen on economical questions, said that 'In the +textile industry it happens that while the wife is working at the +loom, the husband sits at home and cooks dinner,' and the meeting was +dismissed immediately."—<span class="sc">Dawson</span>, <i>Germany and the Germans</i>, +Vol. II, pp. 190-1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15-7_115" id="Footnote_15-7_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15-7_115"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <span class="sc">Dawson</span>, <i>supra cit.</i>, p. 192.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16-7_116" id="Footnote_16-7_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16-7_116"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>Protokoll des Partei-Tages</i>, 1890, p. 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17-7_117" id="Footnote_17-7_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17-7_117"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Reichstag debates, April 2, 1886.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18-7_118" id="Footnote_18-7_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18-7_118"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Protokoll des Partei-Tages</i>, 1890, pp. 11-12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19-7_119" id="Footnote_19-7_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19-7_119"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> For discussion of German industrial insurance, see +<span class="sc">W.H. Dawson</span>, <i>Bismarck and State Socialism</i>, also <span class="sc">J. +Ellis Barker</span>, <i>Modern Germany</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20-7_120" id="Footnote_20-7_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20-7_120"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <span class="sc">R. Meyer</span>, <i>Der Emancipations-Kampf des Vierten +Standes</i>, p. 475.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21-7_121" id="Footnote_21-7_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-7_121"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> See Appendix for table showing cost of industrial +insurance.</p> + +<p class="noin">In Germany the state owns railways, canals, river transportation, +harbors, telephones, telegraph, and parcels post. Banks, insurance, +savings banks, and pawnshops are conducted by the state. +Municipalities are landlords of vast estates, they are capitalists +owning street cars, gas plants, electric light plants, theaters, +markets, warehouses. They have hospitals for the sick, shelters for +the homeless, soup-houses for the hungry, asylums for the weak and +unfortunate, nurseries for the babies, homes for the aged, and +cemeteries for the dead.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3> + +<h3>GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND LABOR UNIONS<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>Before we proceed to describe the present organization of the Social +Democratic Party it will be necessary to say a few words about the +organization of labor in Germany.<a name="FNanchor_1-8_122" id="FNanchor_1-8_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-8_122" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> There are four kinds of labor +unions: the Social Democrat or free unions, the Hirsch-Duncker or +radical unions, the Christian or Roman Catholic unions, and the +Independent unions. All except the last group have special political +significance; and only the Independents confine themselves purely to +economic activity. The Socialist unions are called "Reds," the +Independents "Yellow," the Christians "Black."</p> + +<p>The Hirsch-Duncker unions were the first in the field. They were +organized in 1868 by Dr. Hirsch and Herr Franz Duncker, for the +purpose of winning the labor vote for the Progressists. Dr. Hirsch +went to England for his model, but the political bias he imparted to +the unions was very un-English. They have grown less political and +more neutral in every aspect, probably because political radicalism +has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>dwindled, and because they contain a great many of the most +skilled of German workmen, the machinists. They are a sort of +aristocracy of labor, prefer peace to war, and hesitate long before +striking.</p> + +<p>The Christian unions are strongest in the Rhine valley and the +Westphalian mining districts. They are the offspring of Bishop +Kettler's workingmen's associations, organized to keep the laborer in +harmony with the Roman Catholic Church. They have undergone a great +deal of change since the days of the distinguished bishop, and are now +modeled after strict trade-union principles. They retain their +connection with the Church and the Center Party (the Roman Catholic +group in the Reichstag). For some years there has been a restlessness +among these unions. The more militant members are protesting against +the influence of the clergy in union affairs, and demand that laborers +lead labor.</p> + +<p>The "Yellow" unions stand in bad repute among the others. They are for +peace at any price. Their membership is largely composed of the +engineering trades; and they are usually under contract not to strike, +but settle their differences by arbitration. The employing firms +contribute liberally to their union funds.</p> + +<p>By far the largest unions are the Social Democratic or "Free" unions. +They embrace over eighty per cent. of all organized labor. Their +growth has been very rapid during the last twenty years. In 1890, when +the Socialist law was lifted, they numbered a little over 250,000; in +1910 they numbered nearly 2,000,000.</p> + +<p>As organizations, the Social Democratic unions possess all the +perfection of detail and painstaking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>craftsmanship for which the +Germans are justly celebrated.<a name="FNanchor_2-8_123" id="FNanchor_2-8_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-8_123" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Not the minutest detail is omitted; +everything is done to contribute to the solidarity of the working +classes. The theory of the German labor movement is, that physical +environment is the first desideratum. A well-housed, well-groomed, +well-fed workman is a better fighter than a hungry, ragged man; and it +is for fighting that the unions exist. The bed-rock of the German +workingman's theory is the maxim: "First, be a good craftsman, and all +other things will be added unto you."</p> + +<p>These unions strive to do everything within their power to make, +first, a good workman; second, a comfortable workman. This naturally, +without artificial stimulants, brings the solidarity, the class +patriotism, which is the source of the zeal and energy of these great +fighting machines. In all of the larger towns they own clubhouses +(Gewerkschaftshäuser), which are the centers of incessant activity. +They contain assembly halls, restaurants, committee rooms, and +lodgings for journeymen and apprentices (Wander-bursche) seeking work. +There are night classes, public lectures, educational excursions, and +circulating libraries. In Berlin the workingmen have organized a +theater.<a name="FNanchor_3-8_124" id="FNanchor_3-8_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-8_124" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>The workingman has a genuine sympathy for his union. It enlists his +loyalty as much as his country enlists his patriotism. He finds social +and intellectual intercourse, sympathy and responsiveness in his +union. He saves from his frugal wages to support the union and to +swell the funds in its war-chest. He is never allowed to forget that +he is first a workingman, and owes his primary duties to his family +and his union.<a name="FNanchor_4-8_125" id="FNanchor_4-8_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-8_125" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>This vast and perfect organization of labor has a complete +understanding with the Social Democratic party, but it is not an +integral part of the party. When the unions began to revive, after the +repeal of the anti-Socialist law, there was a short and severe +struggle between the party and the unions for control. The victory of +the unions for complete autonomy was decisive. Since then good feeling +and harmony have prevailed. The governing committees of the two bodies +meet for consultation, the powerful press of the party fights the +union's battles, and often party headquarters are in the union's +clubhouse. They are virtually two independent branches of the same +movement.</p> + +<p>In the national triennial convention of the Social Democratic unions +at Hamburg, 1908, a speaker said: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>"We can say with truth that to-day +there are no differences of a fundamental nature between the two great +branches [the Social Democratic unions and the Social Democratic +Party] of the labor movement."<a name="FNanchor_5-8_126" id="FNanchor_5-8_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-8_126" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>Bebel has said of the relation between the unions and the party: +"Every workingman should belong to the union, and should be a party +man; not merely as a laboring man, but as a class-conscious +(Classenbewustsein) laboring man; as a member of a governmental and a +social organization which treats and maltreats him as a laboring +man."<a name="FNanchor_6-8_127" id="FNanchor_6-8_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-8_127" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> This is the class spirit of Socialism, carried into practical +effect.</p> + +<p>In Germany, then, the vast bulk of organized labor is co-operating +voluntarily with the Social Democratic Party.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>And what is the present organization of the Social Democratic Party? +It is the most perfect party machine in the world. It is organized +with the most scrupulous regard for details and oiled with the +exuberance of a class spirit that is emerging from its narrowness and +is finding room for its expanding powers in the practical affairs of +national and municipal life. The only approach to it is the faultless, +silently moving, highly polished mechanism devised by the English +gentry to control the political destinies of the British Empire. Our +American parties are crude compared with the noiseless efficacy of +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>English machine, or the remorseless yet enthusiastic and entirely +effective operation of the German Social Democracy.</p> + +<p>Every detail of the workingman's life is embraced in this remarkable +political organization. Every village and commune has its party +vigilance committee. A juvenile department brings up the youth in the +principles of the Social Democracy. The party press includes +seventy-six daily papers, some of them brilliantly edited, a humorous +weekly, and several monthly magazines. This press co-operates with the +trade journals. Some of these—notably the masons' journal and the +ironworkers' journal—have a vast circulation, numbering many hundred +thousand subscribers.</p> + +<p>The party propaganda is stupendous. In 1910 over 14,000 meetings were +held, and over 33,000,000 circulars and 2,800,000 brochures were +distributed. Every workingman, every voter, was personally solicited +during the campaign just closed (January, 1912). Committees and +sub-committees were everywhere in this national beehive of workers. +Women and children were enlisted in the work.</p> + +<p>The national party is controlled by an executive committee, elected by +the national convention, who govern its many activities with the +gravity of a college faculty, the astuteness of a lawyer, and the +frugality of a tradesman. They issue annual reports, as full of +statistics and involved analyses as a government report. And they have +no patience for party stars who are ambitious to move in the orbit of +their own individual greatness.</p> + +<p>Because the keynote of the party is solidarity, which is a synonym for +discipline, "We have no factions, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>we are one. Personally any Social +Democrat may believe as he pleases and do as he pleases. But when it +comes to political activity, we insist that he act with the party." +These are the words in which one of the younger leaders of the party +explained their unity to me.</p> + +<p>In 1890, when the Bavarian rebels were under discussion in the +national congress, Bebel told the delegates that "a fighting party +such as our Social Democracy can only achieve its aims when every +member observes the strictest discipline."<a name="FNanchor_7-8_128" id="FNanchor_7-8_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-8_128" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>Evidences of party discipline are not lacking. The Prussian +temperament is rough, dogmatic, implacable; the South German is +mellow, yielding, kind. The two temperaments often clash. The one +loves individual action; the other, military unity. The southern +Socialist votes for his local budgets in town council and diet, and he +receives the chastisement of the northern disciplinarian with mellow +good-nature. But solidarity there is, whatever the price; and a +class-consciousness, a brotherhood: they call each other +"Comrades."<a name="FNanchor_8-8_129" id="FNanchor_8-8_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-8_129" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>The membership of the party includes all those who pay party dues and +will oblige themselves to party fealty, to do any drudgery demanded of +them.<a name="FNanchor_9-8_130" id="FNanchor_9-8_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-8_130" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> In six parliamentary districts the membership equals thirty +per cent. of the Social Democratic vote cast; in twenty-four other +districts there is a membership of over 10,000 per district.<a name="FNanchor_10-8_131" id="FNanchor_10-8_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-8_131" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> It is +difficult to say what <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>proportion of the members of the union are +members of the party. The vast bulk of the party members are laboring +men, and no doubt the majority of them are members of the union.</p> + +<p>In the last imperial elections (January, 1912) this party cast +4,250,000 votes, almost one-fourth of the entire federal electorate, +and elected 110 members to the Reichstag, over one-fourth of the +entire membership.<a name="FNanchor_11-8_132" id="FNanchor_11-8_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_11-8_132" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> In nineteen state legislatures the Social +Democrats have 186 members, in 396 city councils 1,813 members, and in +2,009 communal councils 5,720 members.<a name="FNanchor_12-8_133" id="FNanchor_12-8_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_12-8_133" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>The supreme authority of the party is the annual national convention, +called "congress." Here detailed reports are made by the various +committees; and the parliamentary delegation make an elaborate +statement, detailing every official act of the group in the Reichstag. +Everything is discussed by everybody; the speeches made by the members +in the Reichstag, the opinions of the party editors in their daily +editorials, the party finances, everything is freely criticised. The +most insignificant member has the same privilege of criticism as the +party czars; and the criticism often becomes naïvely personal. No +doubt the party patriotism is largely fed by this frank, fearless, +aboveboard airing of grievances, this freedom from "boss rule." Every +one has his opportunity, and this robs the plotter and backbiter of +his venom.</p> + +<p>Having listened to the faultfinder, they vote; and having voted, they +rarely relent. When a decision is reached, the members are expected to +abide by it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>faithfully and cheerfully. They make short work of +traitors.<a name="FNanchor_13-8_134" id="FNanchor_13-8_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_13-8_134" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>Every year a detailed report on the imperial budget is read, showing +how the money is spent on armaments, on police, on courts, and every +other department of the empire; and how the money is raised. The +convention resolves itself into a school of public finance. This +analysis is sent broadcast, as a campaign document. So yearly a report +is read of the number of arrests made and the fines and penalties +ensuing, on account of <i>lèse-majesté</i> and other laws infringing upon +the liberty of the press and of speech. Also, every year the central +committee report, in great detail, every party activity in every +corner of the empire. A well-knit hegemony of party interest is +created. The mass is willing to listen to the individual, to bend to +the needs of the smallest commune.</p> + +<p>Throughout their frank discussions and involved debates there runs a +certain polysyllabic flavor that is characteristically German. They +often choose, a year in advance, some important national question, +such as the tariff, mining laws, the agrarian situation, and discuss +it in great detail, more like an academy of universal knowledge than a +political party. The learned blend their involved phraseology and +store of facts with the refreshing frankness and ignorance of the +unlearned.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>We will now return to the present activities of this party that was +born in revolution and nurtured by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>persecution. In order to +understand this activity, it is necessary to review the present +attitude of the government toward democracy and Socialism. The repeal +of the anti-Socialist law could not suddenly alter the spirit of +opposition. It merely changed the outward aspect of the opposition.</p> + +<p>The government indicates in many ways its distrust of Social +Democrats. No member of the party has ever been invited by the +government to a place of public honor and responsibility. Indeed, to +be a Social Democrat effectively closes the door against promotion in +civil life.<a name="FNanchor_14-8_135" id="FNanchor_14-8_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_14-8_135" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> This silent hostility is not confined to political +offices and the civil service; it extends into the professions. Judges +and public physicians, pastors in the state church, teachers in the +public schools, professors in the great universities are included in +the ban. A pastor may be a "Christian Socialist," a professor may +nourish his "Socialism of the chair," and a judge or a government +engineer may be inclined toward far-reaching social experiment. But +with Social Democracy they must have absolutely nothing to do.<a name="FNanchor_15-8_136" id="FNanchor_15-8_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_15-8_136" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>The government's attitude is based on the theory that the Social +Democrats are enemies of the monarchy, and are designing to overthrow +it and declare a republic the moment they get into power. The Kaiser, +on several public occasions, has expressed his distrust and +disapproval for this vast multitude of his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>subjects. A number of +years ago he is reported to have said that "the Social Democrats are a +band of persons who are unworthy of their fatherland" ("Eine Bande von +Menschen die ihres Vaterlands nicht würdig sind"). And more recently: +"The Social Democrats are a crowd of upstarts without a fatherland" +("Vaterlandslose Gesellen"). The Kaiser joined in the public rejoicing +over the check that had apparently been administered to the growth of +the Social Democracy by the elections of 1907, and in a speech +delivered to a throng of citizens gathered for jubilation in the +palace yard in Berlin, he said that the "Socialists have been ridden +down" ("niedergeritten"), a military figure of speech.</p> + +<p>Retaliation is not unnatural. The pictures of the Hohenzollerns and +the high functionaries of state and army do not adorn the walls of the +homes of the Social Democrats. There are seen the portraits of Marx +and Lassalle, Liebknecht and Bebel. The members of the party never +join in a public display of confidence in the government. They +exercise a petty tyranny over their neighbors. Instances are told of +shopkeepers who were compelled to yield to the boycott instituted +against them because they voted against the Social Democrats, and of +workmen coerced into joining the union.</p> + +<p>This feeling of bitterness is most clearly marked in Prussia. In +southern Germany a feeling of good will and co-operation is becoming +more marked every year. The King of Bavaria is not afraid to shake +hands with Von Vollmar. Some years ago a Bavarian railway employee was +elected to the Diet on the Social Democratic ticket, and his employer, +the state, gave him leave of absence to attend to his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>legislative +duties. In Baden the leader of the Social Democratic Party called at +the palace to present the felicitations of his comrades to the royal +family on the occasion of the birth of an heir.</p> + +<p>The principal immediate issue of the Social Democrats in Germany is +electoral reform. None of the states or provinces are on a genuinely +democratic electoral basis. In Saxony a new electoral law was passed +in 1909 which typifies the spirit of the entire country.<a name="FNanchor_16-8_137" id="FNanchor_16-8_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_16-8_137" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> The +electorate is divided into four classes according to their income. The +result of the first election under this law in the city of Leipsic was +as follows: There were 172,800 votes cast by 79,928 voters.</p> + +<p class="noin" style="margin-left: 10%;"> +32,576 voters in the one-vote class cast 32,576 votes<br /> +20,323 voters in the two-vote class cast 40,646 votes<br /> + 8,538 voters in the three-vote class cast 25,614 votes<br /> +18,491 voters in the four-vote class cast 73,964 votes</p> + +<p>There are ninety-one members in the Saxon Diet. The law provided that +only forty-three of these should be elected from the cities. The three +leading cities of Saxony, Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipsic, are strongholds +of Social Democracy, while the country districts are Conservative. The +Social Democrats feel that the property qualifications and the +distribution of the districts impose an unfair handicap against them. +In spite of these obstacles they elected so many deputies that they +were offered the vice-presidency of the Chamber of Deputies. The +offer, however, was conditioned upon their attending the annual +reception given by the King to the representatives. They had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>hitherto +refused to attend these royal functions and were not willing to +surrender for the sake of office.<a name="FNanchor_17-8_138" id="FNanchor_17-8_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_17-8_138" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>The ancient free cities—Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck—have election laws +as ancient and antiquated as their charters. In Lübeck a large +majority of the legislative body is elected by electors having an +income of over 2,000 marks a year. In Hamburg the nobles, higher +officials, etc., elect 40 representatives, the householders elect 40, +the large landholders elect 8, those citizens having an income of over +2,500 marks a year elect 48, those who have an income from 1,200 to +2,500 marks a year elect 24, those who have an income of less than +1,200 marks have no vote. In Bremen the various groups or kinds of +property are represented in the law-making body. Property, not the +person, is represented.</p> + +<p>Prussia is the special grievance of the Social Democrats. Here the +three-class system of voting prevails. The taxpayers are divided into +three classes, according to the amount of taxes paid, each class +paying one-third of the taxes. Each class chooses one-third of the +electors who name the members of the Prussian Diet. By this +arrangement the large property class virtually controls the +elections.<a name="FNanchor_18-8_139" id="FNanchor_18-8_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_18-8_139" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> By this system the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>Social Democratic representation is +held down to 6 in a membership of 420. In 1909 the party polled +23 <span class="fakesc">9/10</span> per cent. of the entire Prussian vote. Here again the +districts are so arranged that the majority of the members are elected +from the Conservative rural districts, while the cities, which are +strongholds of Social Democracy, must content themselves with a +minority, although nearly 60 per cent. of the population of Prussia is +urban. These examples are sufficient to indicate the general nature of +franchise legislation in Germany.<a name="FNanchor_19-8_140" id="FNanchor_19-8_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_19-8_140" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> For the past several years +universal suffrage demonstrations have been held throughout the +empire. The general strike has not been used as a method of political +coercion. It is doubtful whether the German temperament is adapted to +that kind of warfare. Mass-meetings, however, and street +demonstrations are the favorite means of the propaganda. Sometimes +there are conflicts with the police, but these are diminishing in +number every year. The government has not diminished its vigilance, +and its jealous eyes are never averted from these demonstrations.<a name="FNanchor_20-8_141" id="FNanchor_20-8_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_20-8_141" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>An incident occurred in March, 1910, which illustrates the temper of +the people and the government. A gigantic demonstration was announced, +to be held in Treptow Park, Berlin. The Police-president forbade the +meeting and had every street leading to the park carefully guarded. +One hundred and fifty thousand demonstrants met in the Thiergarten, in +the very heart of the city, and so secretly had the word been given, +so quietly was it executed, and so orderly was this vast throng of +workingman, that the police knew nothing of it until the meeting was +well under way. Permission for the Treptow meeting was not again +refused.</p> + +<p>The immediate issue, then, of the German Social Democracy is universal +suffrage. Lassalle's cry is more piercing to-day than when that +brilliant and erratic agitator uttered it: "Democracy, the universal +ballot, is the laboring man's hope." The name of the party is +significant. The accent has shifted from the first to the second part +of the compound—from the Marxian to the Lassallian word.</p> + +<p>The German Social Democrats have never had a Millerand or a Briand or +a John Burns; their participation in imperial and provincial affairs +has been strictly limited to parliamentary criticism. Even in local +government, in the communes and cities, they have been allowed only a +small share in actual constructive work. But in spite of these facts +the party has undergone a most remarkable change of creed and tone.</p> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span><br /> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>We will concern ourselves only with the most significant changes. +These follow two general lines: (1) the attitude of the party towards +legislation and practical parliamentary participation; (2) the +internal changes in the party. We will follow these changes through +the official reports of the annual party conventions.</p> + +<p>First we will briefly see what change has taken place in their +attitude toward parliamentary activity. The Social Democrats began as +revolutionists and violent anti-parliamentarians. They entered +parliament, not to make laws, but to make trouble. In 1890 they +changed their name from the Socialist Labor Party to the Social +Democratic Party; and when some of the older members thought that this +was a compromise with their enemies, one of the leaders replied that +"a Socialist party must <i>eo ipse</i> be a democratic party."<a name="FNanchor_21-8_142" id="FNanchor_21-8_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-8_142" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> In 1890 +Liebknecht said: "Formerly we had an entirely different tactic. +Tactics and principles are two different things. In 1869 in a speech +in Berlin I condemned parliamentary activity. That was then. Political +conditions were entirely different."<a name="FNanchor_22-8_143" id="FNanchor_22-8_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_22-8_143" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> Gradually tactics and +principles have coalesced until their line of cleavage is obscured.</p> + +<p>The earlier reports of the parliamentary delegation are tinged with +apology—they are in parliament as protestors, as propagandists, not +as legislators. They seem to say: "Fellow-partisans, excuse us for +being in the Reichstag. We don't believe in the bourgeois <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>law-making +devices. But since we are here, we purpose to do what we can for the +cause. We will not betray you, nor the glorious Socialistic state of +society that we are all working for."</p> + +<p>From the first, Social Democrats have voted against the imperial +budget, have opposed all tariffs, indirect taxes, extension of the +police power, increase in naval and military expenditure, and colonial +exploitation. They took no part at first in law-making, held +themselves disdainfully aloof from practical parliamentary efforts, +and especially avoided every appearance of coalition with other +parties.</p> + +<p>But gradually a change came over them. In 1895 they nominated one of +their number for secretary of the Reichstag.<a name="FNanchor_23-8_144" id="FNanchor_23-8_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_23-8_144" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<p>Gingerly they dipped their fingers into the pottage of reality. Soon +they began to introduce bills. In 1901 they proposed a measure that +increased the allowance of the private soldier. Their bill became a +law. In the next national convention, when they were called to task +for their worldliness, they excused themselves by saying that ninety +per cent. of the private soldiers were proletarians and their parents +were too poor to supply them with the money necessary for army +sundries, and the allowance of the state had been inadequate. This was +therefore a law that actually benefited the poor.</p> + +<p>In 1906 and 1908 they were compelled to face the practical question of +an inheritance tax. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>delegation supported the measure, after +prolonged deliberation over what action to take. This action +precipitated a heated discussion in the party congress; the veterans +feared the party was surrendering its principles. They were assured by +Bebel that the vote was orthodox.<a name="FNanchor_24-8_145" id="FNanchor_24-8_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_24-8_145" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>In 1906 the party instructed its delegation to introduce bills for +redistricting the empire for Reichstag elections; to reduce the +legislative period from five to three years; to revise the laws +relating to sailors and provide for better inspection of ships and +shipping. These instructions mark a revolution in German Social +Democracy, a change that can best be illustrated by the shift in its +attitude on state insurance. In 1892 the party resolved: "So-called +state Socialism, in so far as it concerns itself with bettering the +conditions of the working people, is a system of half-reforms whose +origin is in the fear of Social Democracy. It aims, through all kinds +of palliatives and little concessions, to estrange the working people +from Social Democracy and to cripple the party.</p> + +<p>"The Social Democracy have never disdained to ask for such +governmental regulations, or, if proposed by the opposition, to +approve of those measures which could better the conditions of labor +under the present industrial system. But Social Democrats view such +regulations as only little payments on account, which in nowise +confuse the Social Democracy in its striving for a new organization of +society."<a name="FNanchor_25-8_146" id="FNanchor_25-8_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_25-8_146" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>They are now not above collecting even small sums on account. In 1910 +their convention declares that state insurance is "the object of +constant agitation. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>For what we have thus far secured by no means +approaches what the laborer demands."<a name="FNanchor_26-8_147" id="FNanchor_26-8_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_26-8_147" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p>The committee on parliamentary action reported, a few years ago, that +"no opportunity was lost for entering the lists in behalf of political +and cultural progress. In the discussion of all bills and other +business matters, the members of the delegation took an active part in +committee as well as in <i>plenum</i>."<a name="FNanchor_27-8_148" id="FNanchor_27-8_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_27-8_148" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> There is no longer half-abashed +juvenile reluctance at legislative participation. The reports boast of +the work done by the party in behalf of the workingman, the peasant, +small tradesman, small farmer, and humbler government employees. +Eleven bills were introduced by the delegation in 1909-10, relating to +factory and mine inspection, amending the state insurance laws, the +tariff laws, the redistricting of the empire for Reichstag +elections—i.e., all pertaining to labor, politics, and finance. +Twenty resolutions were moved by the delegation, and many +interpellations called.</p> + +<p>Interpellation, however, is not very satisfactory in a government +where the ministry is not responsible to parliament. In 1909 the +Social Democrats introduced a bill to make the Chancellor and his +cabinet responsible to the Reichstag. Ledebour, who made the leading +speech for the Social Democrats, gave a clear exposition of his +party's contention. He wanted a government "wherein the people, in the +final analysis, decided the fate of the government. For, in such a +government, only those men come into power who represent a program, +represent conviction and character; not any one who has succeeded, for +the moment, in pleasing the fancy and becoming the favorite <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>of the +determining kamarilla." If the election should turn on this issue, +"whether there shall be a perpetuation of the sham-constitutional, +junker bureaucracy, or the establishing of a democratic parliamentary +authority," the parliamentary party would win. "The will of the people +should be the highest law."<a name="FNanchor_28-8_149" id="FNanchor_28-8_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_28-8_149" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>In January, 1912, this party of isolation entered the Reichstag as the +strongest group: 110 members acknowledge the leadership of Bebel. By +co-operating with the Radicals and National Liberals, the progressive +elements had a majority over the Conservative and Clerical +reactionaries for the first time in the history of the empire. Here +Bebel consented to become a candidate for president of the Chamber. He +received 175 votes; the candidate of the Conservatives, Dr. Spahn, +leader of the Clerical Center, received 196. Enough National Liberals +had wavered to throw the balance in favor of Conservatism. A Socialist +was elected first vice-president, and a National Liberal second +vice-president. The President-elect refused to act with a Socialist +vice-president and resigned. The Radical member from Berlin, Herr +Kaempf, was then elected President.<a name="FNanchor_29-8_150" id="FNanchor_29-8_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_29-8_150" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> Thereupon the National Liberal +second vice-president also resigned, and a Radical was chosen in his +stead. The Social Democrats and the Radicals were made responsible for +the leadership of the new Reichstag.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>It is customary for the President and the vice-president of the +Chamber to announce to the Kaiser when the Reichstag is organized and +ready for business. The Kaiser let it be known that he did not care to +receive the Radical officers. The Socialist first vice-president +refused to join in the proposed official visit. The Prussian temper is +slow to change.</p> + +<p>These illustrations clearly indicate the trend of Social Democratic +legislative and political policy. It is the universal story—ambition +brings power, power brings responsibility, responsibility sobers the +senses.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>The second development that we are to trace relates to the program, or +platform, of the party. The official program has not undergone any +change, but the interpretation, the spirit, has mellowed. The Erfurter +program of 1891 is still their party pledge. The program is in two +parts; the first an elaborate exposition of Marxian economics, the +second a series of practical demands differing only slightly from the +Gotha program.</p> + +<p>Only one speech was made in the national convention on the adoption of +this bifurcated platform, that attempted to link Marxian theory to +Lassallian realism. This speech was made by Liebknecht, friend of +Marx, who elaborately explained his friend's theory of value, doctrine +of class war and social evolution. The program was adopted <i>en bloc</i>. +The chairman ignored a few protesting "noes" when the vote was called, +and declared it unanimously adopted. These few voices of protest soon +swelled to considerable volume. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>Within one year after the repeal of +the Socialist law the party had entered upon the difficult task of +being both critic and parliamentarian, constructive and destructive, +under rigid military discipline.</p> + +<p>To the few protesters at Erfurt, it seemed as though the party had +entered the lifeboat, manned the oars, and neglected to untie the +painter.</p> + +<p>When the elections of 1897 recorded a severe setback for the party the +progressives were told to keep the eyes of faith on the "ultimate +goal" of Socialism. One of the réformistes replied: "The whole idea of +an ultimate goal is distasteful to me. There is no ultimate goal; for +beyond your ultimate goal is another world of striving."<a name="FNanchor_30-8_151" id="FNanchor_30-8_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_30-8_151" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> And +another critic said: "Nothing wears threadbare so rapidly by constant +use as words of faith. Constantly spoken or heard, they become +stereotyped into phrases, and the inspired prophet creates the same +offensive impression as a priest who has nothing else to offer but +words." The interest of the workingman "finds its expression in the +practicalness of the second part of the Erfurter program, and the +wholly practical work of the party."<a name="FNanchor_31-8_152" id="FNanchor_31-8_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_31-8_152" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> It was at this time that +Edward Bernstein, friend and literary heir of Engel, published a +series of critical papers in the party journal, <i>Die Neue Zeit</i>, +attacking especially the catastrophic and revolutionary postulates and +saying "the movement is everything, the goal is nothing." Kautsky, the +dogmatist of the party, replied to these articles and a feverish +discussion followed in all the party press.<a name="FNanchor_32-8_153" id="FNanchor_32-8_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_32-8_153" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>In the party conventions of 1898 and 1899 this controversy was waged +with considerable energy. Von Vollmar made merry over Kautsky's +"inquisition" and called the debate "a noisy cackling over nothing." +The mass of the party, he said, did not trouble their heads about +theories, but plodded along unmindful of hairsplitting.<a name="FNanchor_33-8_154" id="FNanchor_33-8_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_33-8_154" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Bebel made +a herculean effort to reconcile both elements. To the revisionists he +said, "We are in a constant state of intellectual moulting,"<a name="FNanchor_34-8_155" id="FNanchor_34-8_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_34-8_155" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> to +the orthodox he said, "We remain what we have always been."<a name="FNanchor_35-8_156" id="FNanchor_35-8_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_35-8_156" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>It was at Dresden, 1903, that the revisionist tempest reached its +height in the party teapot. The Germans' love for polysyllabic +phrase-making, for which Jaurès taunted them at the Amsterdam +congress, was here given full play. Von Vollmar repeated that nobody +except a few dull theorists read Kautsky's or Bernstein's views; the +mass of voters cared for practical results, and "revisionists and +anti-revisionists are nothing but a bugbear."<a name="FNanchor_36-8_157" id="FNanchor_36-8_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_36-8_157" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>Here the matter rested until the elections of 1907 opened the eyes of +the party high priests. They gained only 248,249 votes and lost +one-half of their seats in the Reichstag. A number of the leading +Socialists promptly began to attack the dogmas of the party program as +illusions and pitfalls. The class war, the revolutionary method, the +theory of an ever-increasing proletariat and decreasing bourgeoisie +were attacked as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>unscientific, and illusory. "The Erfurt program +recites a vagary, it repels the intellect, it must be changed;" that +was the opinion of the advanced thinkers of the party.</p> + +<p>No party congresses, no priestly pronunciamentos have been able to +check the spread of revolt. As long as Kautsky and Bebel live the +program will probably not be re-phrased. But even Kautsky is mellowing +under the ripeness of years and circumstances; and Bebel, shrewd +politician, knows the campaigning value of appearing at the same time +orthodox and progressive.<a name="FNanchor_37-8_158" id="FNanchor_37-8_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_37-8_158" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>To-day one hears very little of Marx and a great deal of legislation. +The last election, with its brilliant victory for Social Democracy, +was not won on the general issues of the Erfurter program but on the +particular issue of the arrogance of the bureaucracy, and ballot +reform. A large mass of voters cast their ballots for Social +Democratic candidates as a protest against existing governmental +conditions, not as an affirmation of their assent to the Marxian +dogmas. The truth is, Marx is a tradition, democracy is an issue.<a name="FNanchor_38-8_159" id="FNanchor_38-8_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_38-8_159" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>Another indication of the notable changes that have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>come over Social +Democracy is seen in the Socialists' relation to other parties. Here +their dogmatic aloofness is the most tenacious. During the years of +their bitter persecution by the government they found their excuse in +an isolation that was forced upon them. Von Vollmar told his +colleagues, immediately after the repeal of the anti-Socialist law, +that the South Germans were ready to co-operate with every one who +would be willing to give them an inch. In reply to this Bebel +introduced a resolution affirming that "the primary necessity of +attaining political power" could not be "the work of a moment," but +was attained only by gradual growth. During the period of growth the +Social Democrats should not work for mere "concessions from the ruling +classes," but "have only the ultimate and complete aim of the party in +mind." The Bebelian theory linked the ultimate goal with ultimate +power, both to be attained by waiting until the flood tide.</p> + +<p>This question became practical when the Social Democratic members of +the provincial legislatures voted with other parties for the state +budget. The national party claimed authority over the local party, a +claim which was resented by the Bavarians and other South German +delegations.<a name="FNanchor_39-8_160" id="FNanchor_39-8_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_39-8_160" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>In 1894 the South Germans were chastised by a vote of 164 to 64 for +voting for their state budget. They <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>were rebuked again in 1901 and in +1908. In the latter year Bebel told them "three times is enough," +indicating that there would be a split in the party if they insisted +on voting for their local budgets. The South Germans defended their +action by saying that they had always agitated for more pay for state +employees, and that they were willing to vote the funds that would +make this possible. A new champion appeared for the réformistes—Dr. +Frank of Mannheim, a brilliant speaker who is called by his following +a "second Lassalle." He made a withering attack on the Marxian school, +but Bebel's censure was carried by 256 to 119.</p> + +<p>Finally at Magdeburg, 1910, the budget question reached its climax. +Bebel boasted that his policy of negation had wrought great changes in +Germany. "I say it without boasting, in the whole world there is no +Social Democracy that has accomplished as much positive good as the +German Social Democracy."<a name="FNanchor_40-8_161" id="FNanchor_40-8_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_40-8_161" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> He claimed the insurance laws, factory +laws, and the repeal of special and oppressive legislation as the +fruits of his policy. Bebel then warned the Badensians that this is +the last time they will be forgiven; one other offense, and they will +be put out of the party.</p> + +<p>Dr. Frank made an elaborate reply. He said that there was a working +agreement between the Social Democrats and Liberals whereby they +co-operated against the Conservatives. In the state legislature they +had a "bloc" with the Liberals and had elected a vice-president and +secretary and important chairmanships by means of this coalition. They +had, moreover, reformed the public school system, secured factory +legislation, and had secured direct elections in all towns <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>of 4,000 +or over. The réformistes' principles are so clearly stated in this +speech that I quote several paragraphs:</p> + +<p>"I tell you, comrades, if you think that under all the circumstances +you can win only small concessions; with such a message of +hopelessness you will not conquer the world, not even the smallest +election district. [<i>Great commotion and disturbance.</i>] But what would +be the meaning of this admission that small concessions can be +secured? In tearing down a building dramatic effects are possible. But +the erection of a building is accomplished only by an accumulation of +small concessions. Behold the labor unions, that are so often spoken +of, how they struggle for months, how they suffer hunger for months, +in order to win a concession of a few pennies. Often one can see that +a small concession contains enormous future possibilities, and in +twenty or thirty years will become a vital force in the shaping of the +society that is to come."</p> + +<p>"Nor will I examine the question whether in parliamentary activity +only small concessions can be won. Is it not possible, through +parliamentary action, to take high tariffs and business speculations +from the necks of the workingmen? Is it not possible to modify police +administration, and the legislative conditions that profane Prussia +to-day? Are these conditions necessary concomitants of the modern +class-state (Klassenstaat)? Is it not possible to create out of +Prussia and Germany a modern state, where our workingmen, even as +their brethren in Western Europe, can fight their great battles upon +the field of democratic equality and citizenship? If you wish to view +all that as 'small concessions' you are at liberty to do so. I view it +as a tremendous revolution, if it succeeds, to secure, through <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>such a +struggle, liberty for the Prussian working class."<a name="FNanchor_41-8_162" id="FNanchor_41-8_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_41-8_162" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>The censure was carried, the Baden delegation left the hall during the +voting. On the following day it returned to declare its loyalty to the +party, but with the proviso that they would by no means promise how +they would vote on their state budget in the future.</p> + +<p>Events are shaping themselves rapidly in Germany. Ministerial +responsibility cannot much longer be denied. The elections of 1912 +should serve as a plain portent to the reactionaries. That Bebel is +willing to be a candidate for President of the Reichstag is a +significant concession; that the Radicals and many National Liberals +are willing to vote for him, would have been deemed impossible ten +years ago.</p> + +<p>Such conditions as prevail between the government and the Radicals and +Social Democrats cannot long continue. The break with the past must +come, sooner or later. The pressure of Radical and Democratic votes +will become so powerful, that not even the strong traditions of the +empire can wholly withstand it.</p> + +<p>In May, 1911, I visited the Reichstag on an eventful occasion. The +Social Democrats had voted with the government for a new Constitution +for Alsace-Lorraine containing universal manhood suffrage. Herr Bebel +was jubilant. He said: "It marks a new epoch. We have voted with the +government. Not that we have capitulated. But the government have come +to our convictions, they have granted universal suffrage to Alsace, +now they cannot long deny that right to Prussia and the other +states."<a name="FNanchor_42-8_163" id="FNanchor_42-8_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_42-8_163" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>We have now seen that politically a great change has come over the +German Socialists; that they are participating in legislation, and are +especially solicitous about all acts that pertain to labor and +political liberty; that they are gradually moving toward co-operation +with other parties; that they are gradually sloughing off the +inflexible Marxian armor, and are assuming the pliable dress of +modernism.</p> + +<p>All this is to be expected of a party that began as a vigorous, +narrow, autocratic party of revolution and protest, and is emerging +from its hard experiences, a self-styled "cultural party" ("Kultur +Partei"). Dr. Südekum, editor of Communal Praxis, in his report of the +parliamentary group, in 1907, wrote: "We have in the Reichstag two +kinds of duties; first, the propaganda of our ideas and program; +second, practical work, i.e., to enhance, not alone the interests of +the working class, but the entire complex, so-called cultural +interests. The problems that the Social Democratic party as a +'cultural party' has to solve, which are assigned to it as the +representative of cultural progress in every realm of human activity, +must increase in the same proportion that the bourgeois parties allow +themselves to be captured by the government and neglect these +problems."<a name="FNanchor_43-8_164" id="FNanchor_43-8_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_43-8_164" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p>It is a far cry from "class war" to "human cultural activities." Such +an expansion of purpose requires a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>greatly enlarged electorate. The +majority of the workingmen are already in the party, where will the +increase come from?</p> + +<p>There are two directions in which the party can hope to gain new +recruits—the small farmer and the small tradesman. The small farmer +is peculiarly hard to reach. He is well guarded—the Church on the one +side, the landlord and <i>junker</i> on the other. To step in and steal his +heart is a very difficult task. The work is pushed steadily, with +tenacity, but results are slow in coming.</p> + +<p>Among the tradespeople and business men, there is more rapid progress, +especially in southern Germany. In Munich a great many tradespeople +vote for Von Vollmar.<a name="FNanchor_44-8_165" id="FNanchor_44-8_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_44-8_165" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<p>Primarily it will always be a workingman's party. Its soul is the +labor movement. Its political aim is democracy, and its hope is the +power of sheer preponderance of numbers. What it will do when it has +that power is a speculation that does not lure the prosaic Teutonic +mind. "We will find plenty to do," one of them said, "when we have the +government. We have plenty to do now, that we haven't the government." +This is wisdom learned of France.</p> + +<p>This means that the party have given up their "splendid +isolation"—what Von Vollmar called their "policy of sterility and +despair"<a name="FNanchor_45-8_166" id="FNanchor_45-8_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_45-8_166" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>—a policy which they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>acknowledged by words long after +they had abandoned it in fact. They abandoned it the moment they +championed labor legislation, and sought the sanitation of cities and +the opening of parks, in their municipal councils.</p> + +<p>The pressure of things as they are has been too powerful for even the +German Social Democracy, with its dogmatic temper and strength of +millions. Revolution has, even here, been replaced by a slow and +orderly development.</p> + +<p>The rapidity with which the medieval empire will be democratized will +depend upon the formation of a genuine liberal party that will enlist +those citizens who are inclined toward modernism but cannot be enticed +into the Social Democratic or Radical parties. When such a party is +formed, and an alliance made with the Social Democrats, then the +transformations will be rapid.<a name="FNanchor_46-8_167" id="FNanchor_46-8_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_46-8_167" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> Among the most significant +accessions to the Social Democracy are many professional men: lawyers, +physicians, engineers, etc. This augurs a change in party spirit and +method. Dr. Frank of Mannheim told me that he considered the extent to +which the party could lure the intellectual element the measure of the +party greatness and power.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>A word should be added upon the attitude of the Social Democrats +toward militarism. The standing army and the increasing navy of +Germany are a heavy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>tax upon the people. The Germans for centuries +have been military in ambition, soldiers by instinct.</p> + +<p>The Social Democrats, in common with all Socialists, are opposed to +war. But the German is a patriot. In the International Congress at +Stuttgart, the French and Russian delegations imposed an extreme +anti-military resolution upon the Socialists, against the protest of +the Germans. Bebel called their anti-patriotic utterances "silly +word-juggling."<a name="FNanchor_47-8_168" id="FNanchor_47-8_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_47-8_168" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>The Berlin congress, 1892, adopted the following resolution, in view +of the added military burdens proposed by the Reichstag: "The +prevailing military system, not being able to guarantee the country +against foreign invasion, is a continual threat to international peace +and serves the capitalistic class-government, whose aim is the +industrial exploitation and suppression of the working classes, as an +instrument of oppression against the masses.</p> + +<p>"The party convention therefore demands, in consonance with the +program of the Social Democratic platform, the establishment of a +system of defense based upon a general militia, trained and armed. The +congress declares that the Social Democratic members of the Reichstag +are in complete accord with the party and with the politically +organized working classes of Germany, when they vote against every +measure of the government aimed at perpetuating the present military +system."<a name="FNanchor_48-8_169" id="FNanchor_48-8_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_48-8_169" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>During a debate in the Reichstag in 1907, Bebel declared, in the +defense of the Fatherland, <i>if it were invaded</i>, even he in his old +age would "shoulder a musket." He demanded military drill for youths +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>as a preliminary to the shortening of military service in the standing +army; if this were not done the defense of the country would be +weakened whenever the service shall be reduced to one year.</p> + +<p>The Chancellor had on this occasion introduced a bill making all +military service uniformly two years, and abolishing the privileges +that had been granted to a few favored classes.</p> + +<p>For this action they were severely criticised in the next party +convention. Bebel replied: "I said, <i>if the Fatherland really must be +defended</i>, then we will defend it. Because it is our Fatherland. It is +the land in which we live, whose language we speak, whose culture we +possess. Because we wish to make this, our Fatherland, more beautiful +and more complete than any other land on earth. We defend it, +therefore, not for you but against you."<a name="FNanchor_49-8_170" id="FNanchor_49-8_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_49-8_170" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> This patriotic +declamation was received with "tremendous applause."</p> + +<p>Von Vollmar, himself a soldier of distinction, said, in the Bavarian +Diet, a few years ago:</p> + +<p>"If the necessity should arise for the protection of the realm against +foreign invasion, then it will become evident that the Social +Democrats love their Fatherland no less than do their neighbors; that +they will as gladly and heroically offer themselves to its defense. On +the other hand, if the foolish notion should ever arise to use the +army for the support of a warring class prerogative, for the defense +of indefeasible demands, and for the crushing of those just ambitions +which are the product of our times, and a necessary concomitant of our +economic and political development,—then we are of the firm +conviction that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>the day will come when the army will remember that it +sprang from the people, and that its own interests are those of the +masses."</p> + +<p>This makes their position very clear.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>VII</h4> + +<p>The party that for years held itself in disdainful aloofness, was so +defiant of co-operation, in the national parliament, is ductile, +neighborly, and eager to help in the municipal and communal councils. +It has a communal program of practical details, and no small part of +the splendid progress in municipal administration in Germany is due to +the Social Democrats. Everywhere you hear praise from officials and +from political rivals for the careful work of the Social Democratic +members of municipal bodies.</p> + +<p>Owing to the unfavorable election laws, the Social Democrats do not +elect a large number of members to local councils. In no important +city do they preponderate. If universal manhood suffrage were enacted, +they would control the majority of the local legislative bodies. As it +is, they are an active minority, and guard jealously the interests of +the working classes.</p> + +<p>Munich may be taken as the type of city in which the Social Democrats +are active.<a name="FNanchor_50-8_171" id="FNanchor_50-8_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_50-8_171" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<p>In 1907 there were 130,000 qualified electors for the Reichstag +election in Munich, in 1905 there were only 31,252 qualified electors +for the municipal elections. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>This shows the restrictive influence of +property qualifications for local elections.</p> + +<p>In a city council of 60 members, the Social Democrats elected only 9. +And of 20 elected members of the chamber of magistrates they elected +only 3.</p> + +<p>This minority is an active committee of scrutiny. It carefully and +minutely scrutinizes all the acts of the municipal authorities, +especially pertaining to labor, to contracts for public work, and to +the conditions of city employees. They vote consistently in favor of +the enlargement of municipal powers; e.g., the extension of parks, of +street-car lines, the building of larger markets. For a number of +years the Social Democrats of Munich have urged the utilizing of the +water power of the Isar, which rushes through the city. And the +municipality is now utilizing some of this power.</p> + +<p>The Social Democrats also favor every facility for the extension of +the art and culture for which Munich is justly celebrated. They take +no narrow, provincial views of such questions, and set an example that +might with profit be followed by parties who claim for themselves the +prerogative of culture. They are constantly working for better public +educational facilities, and are especially hostile to the +encroachments of the Church upon the domain of public education.</p> + +<p>They are in favor of increased public expenditures; opposed to all +indirect taxes, especially those that tend to raise the price of food.</p> + +<p>Their special grievance is the property qualification required for +voting. They say that a law which allows only one-fifteenth of the +citizens (30,000 out of over 500,000) a right to vote is "shameful," +and they are bending every effort to change the law.</p> + +<p>What is true in Munich is true in other cities: <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>democratic election +laws are denied them. But they are active everywhere, and do not +despise the doing of small details, doing them well and with zest. It +is obvious that Socialism in Germany cannot be put to a constructive +test until the election laws are democratized and the higher +administrative offices are opened to them. That will bring the real +test of this colossal movement.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<br /> + +<p>We may sum it all up by saying that Social Democracy in Germany is +first of all a struggle for democracy. The accent is on the second +part of the compound. It is, secondly, a struggle for the +self-betterment of the working classes; and it is, thirdly, a protest +against certain conditions that the present organization of society +imposes upon mankind.</p> + +<p>An American sojourning among the German people must be impressed with +the painstaking organization of the empire. Every detail of life is +carefully ordered to avoid waste and to secure efficiency, even at the +cost of individual initiative. This military empire, of infinite +discipline, is now undergoing a political metamorphosis. The force +that is bringing about the change is being generated at the bottom of +the social strata, not at the top. This signifies that a change is +sure to come.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-8_122" id="Footnote_1-8_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-8_122"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Meyer</span>, <i>Emancipations-Kampf des Vierten +Standes</i>, Chap. V; also <span class="sc">J. Schmoele</span>, <i>Die +Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften in Deutschland, seit dem Erlasse +des Sozialistischen Gesetzes</i>, Jena, 1896, et seq.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-8_123" id="Footnote_2-8_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-8_123"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The following table compiled from <i>Statistisches +Jahrbuch</i> shows their growth in recent years:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="40%" summary="growth in recent years"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="40%">Year</td> + <td class="tdrp2" width="30%">Members</td> + <td class="tdc" width="30%"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1902</td> + <td class="tdrp2">733,206</td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1903</td> + <td class="tdrp2">887,698</td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1904</td> + <td class="tdrp2">1,052,108</td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1905</td> + <td class="tdrp2">1,344,803</td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1906</td> + <td class="tdrp2">1,689,709</td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1907</td> + <td class="tdrp2">1,865,506</td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1908</td> + <td class="tdrp2">1,831,731</td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1909</td> + <td class="tdrp2">1,892,568</td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p class="noin">In 1909 their income was 50,529,114 marks, their expenditure +46,264,031 marks. See Appendix, p. 295, for membership of all the +unions.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-8_124" id="Footnote_3-8_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-8_124"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> When I visited the Berlin <i>Gewerkschaftshaus</i>, a model +three-room dwelling—living room, kitchen, and bedroom—had been +furnished and decorated in simple, durable, and artistic fashion. This +exhibit was thronged with workingmen, their wives and daughters.</p> + +<p class="noin">Some years ago it was discovered that the youth of the working people +were reading cheap and unworthy literature. The Central Committee of +the Unions now issues cheap editions of the choicest literature for +children and young people.</p> + +<p class="noin">These two incidents show the vigilance of the unions, in looking after +all the wants of their people.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-8_125" id="Footnote_4-8_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-8_125"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The number of strikes in recent years are given as +follows: 1902, 1,106; 1903, 1,444; 1904, 1,990; 1905, 2,657; 1906, +3,626; 1907, 2,512; 1908, 1,524.—From <i>Statistisches Jahrbuch für das +Deutsche Reich</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-8_126" id="Footnote_5-8_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-8_126"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Protokoll: Sozial-Demokratische Partei-Tag</i>, 1908, p. +14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-8_127" id="Footnote_6-8_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-8_127"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See Bebel, <i>Gewerksbewegung und Politische Parteien</i>: +Preface.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-8_128" id="Footnote_7-8_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-8_128"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See <i>Protokoll des Partei-Tages</i>, 1890, pp. 156-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-8_129" id="Footnote_8-8_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-8_129"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> "<i>Genossen</i>": the word really means "brethren."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-8_130" id="Footnote_9-8_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-8_130"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Party membership has grown as follows: 1906, 384,527; +1907, 530,466; 1908, 587,336; 1909, 633,309; 1910, 720,038; 1911, +836,562.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10-8_131" id="Footnote_10-8_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-8_131"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Bericht des Partei-Vorstandes</i>, 1909-10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11-8_132" id="Footnote_11-8_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11-8_132"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See Appendix, p. 296, for complete election returns.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12-8_133" id="Footnote_12-8_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12-8_133"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Bericht des Partei-Vorstandes</i>, 1909-10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13-8_134" id="Footnote_13-8_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13-8_134"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In 1891-2 the "Berliner Opposition" threatened a revolt. +They were given every opportunity of explaining their grievances, were +told what to do, and, disobeying, were promptly shown the door.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14-8_135" id="Footnote_14-8_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14-8_135"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> "It has been truthfully said that in Germany a Social +Democrat cannot even become a night-watchman."—<span class="sc">Prof. Bernhard +Harms</span> (University of Kiel), <i>Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine +Bedeutung für die Sozial-Demokratie</i>, 1909, p. 103.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15-8_136" id="Footnote_15-8_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15-8_136"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> "Do you enjoy freedom from political interference?" I +asked a high official in the civil service. "Absolutely. We think as +we please, talk as we please, and do as we please. But we must let the +Social Democrats alone."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16-8_137" id="Footnote_16-8_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16-8_137"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See Appendix, p. 293, for synopsis of this law.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17-8_138" id="Footnote_17-8_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17-8_138"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The vote for the Saxon legislature at this time was as +follows:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="growth in recent years"> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp" width="50%">Party</td> + <td class="tdrp2" width="25%">Voters</td> + <td class="tdrp2" width="25%">Votes</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Social Democrats</td> + <td class="tdrp">341,396</td> + <td class="tdrp">492,522</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Conservatives</td> + <td class="tdrp">103,517</td> + <td class="tdrp">281,804</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">National Liberal</td> + <td class="tdrp">125,157</td> + <td class="tdrp">236,541</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Independents (Freisinnige)</td> + <td class="tdrp">41,857</td> + <td class="tdrp">100,804</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Anti-Semites</td> + <td class="tdrp">20,248</td> + <td class="tdrp">55,502</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p class="noin">The Social Democrats included over one-half of the voters, cast about +one-third of the votes, and elected only one-fourth of the members.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18-8_139" id="Footnote_18-8_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18-8_139"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Some curious instances of inequality appear in the +cities. In Berlin in one precinct one man paid one-third of the taxes +and consequently possessed one-third of the legislative influence in +that precinct. In another precinct the president of a large bank paid +one-third of the taxes, and two of his associates paid another third. +These three men named the member of the Diet from that precinct.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19-8_140" id="Footnote_19-8_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19-8_140"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> For the struggle for ballot reform in Bavaria, see <i>Der +Kampf um die Wahlreform in Bayern</i>, issued in 1905 by the Bavarian +Social Democratic Party Executive Committee.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20-8_141" id="Footnote_20-8_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20-8_141"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> February 13, 1910, was set aside as a day for suffrage +demonstration throughout the empire. In Berlin alone forty-two +meetings were announced. These provoked the following edict: "Notice! +The 'right to the streets' is hereby proclaimed. The streets serve +primarily for traffic. Resistance to state authority will be met by +the force of arms. I warn the curious. Berlin, February 13, 1910. +Police-president, <span class="sc">Von Iagow</span>." The Social Democratic papers +called attention to the fact that these notices were printed on the +same forms that the Police-president often used to announce that the +streets would be closed to all traffic on account of military +parades.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21-8_142" id="Footnote_21-8_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-8_142"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1890, pp. 119-120.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22-8_143" id="Footnote_22-8_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22-8_143"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1890, pp. 96-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23-8_144" id="Footnote_23-8_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23-8_144"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> There are eight secretaries elected. They are +distributed, by custom, among the parties, according to their voting +strength. The Social Democrats had always refrained from taking part +in any of the elections; now they enter the lists, abstaining from +voting for any candidate except their own—who, in turn, received no +other votes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24-8_145" id="Footnote_24-8_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24-8_145"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Bebel was not present in the Reichstag at the time this +vote was taken, but he told the convention that, had he been present, +he should have supported the Tax Bill. <i>Protokoll</i>, 1908, p. 364.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_25-8_146" id="Footnote_25-8_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25-8_146"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1892, p. 173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_26-8_147" id="Footnote_26-8_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26-8_147"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1910, p. 469.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_27-8_148" id="Footnote_27-8_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27-8_148"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1910, p. 95.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_28-8_149" id="Footnote_28-8_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28-8_149"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Reichstag Debates, December 2, 1908.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_29-8_150" id="Footnote_29-8_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29-8_150"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> In the election of January, 1912, the Social Democrats +carried every district in Berlin excepting the one in which the +Kaiser's palace is situated. Here a spirited contest took place. A +second ballot was made necessary between the Radicals and Social +Democrats, and the Conservatives, throwing all their forces on to the +Radical side, succeeded in keeping this last stronghold from their +enemies. But Herr Kaempf's majority was only 6 votes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_30-8_151" id="Footnote_30-8_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30-8_151"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1898, p. 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_31-8_152" id="Footnote_31-8_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31-8_152"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Supra cit.</i>, p. 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_32-8_153" id="Footnote_32-8_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32-8_153"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> This controversy is known as the "revisionist movement." +The revisionists' position is set forth in Bernstein's book, <i>Die +Voraussetzung des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozial-Demokratie</i>. +The Marxian position is set forth in Kautsky's reply, <i>Bernstein und +die Sozial-Demokratie</i>. An English edition of Bernstein's book has +been published in the Labor Party series in London.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_33-8_154" id="Footnote_33-8_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33-8_154"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1899.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_34-8_155" id="Footnote_34-8_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34-8_155"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Supra cit.</i>, p. 94.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_35-8_156" id="Footnote_35-8_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35-8_156"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Supra cit.</i>, p. 127.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_36-8_157" id="Footnote_36-8_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36-8_157"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1903, pp. 321-45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_37-8_158" id="Footnote_37-8_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37-8_158"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> In the congress of 1907 Bebel tried to dispel the gloom +by a long and optimistic speech in which he declared that their +success was not to be measured by the number of seats they won, but by +the number of voters. He closed by saying, "We are the coming ones, +ours is the future in spite of all things and +everything."—<i>Protokoll</i>, 1907, p. 323.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_38-8_159" id="Footnote_38-8_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38-8_159"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> One of the veteran party leaders answered my question as +to the present-day influence of Marx as follows: "The bulk of our +party have never read Marx. It takes a well-trained mind to understand +him. Conditions have entirely changed since his day, and we are busy +with questions of which Marx never dreamed and of which he could not +foretell. He laid the philosophical basis for our party, but our party +is practical, not philosophical."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_39-8_160" id="Footnote_39-8_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39-8_160"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> In 1900 Bebel proposed the necessity of a working +coalition with other parties in Prussia to gain electoral reform. He +said: "We cannot stand alone. We must attempt to go hand in hand with +certain elements in the bourgeois parties—without, however, +endangering our identity." But the party was not willing to go as far +as the veteran, and a resolution was adopted limiting such +co-operation strictly to Prussia and giving the central committee full +power to veto the acts any electoral district might take in this +direction.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_40-8_161" id="Footnote_40-8_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40-8_161"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1910, p. 249.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_41-8_162" id="Footnote_41-8_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41-8_162"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1910, p. 272.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_42-8_163" id="Footnote_42-8_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42-8_163"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> In November, 1911, Berlin's new city hall was dedicated. +The members of the city council were invited to be present. The Social +Democrats cast a large majority of all the votes in Berlin. But the +Social Democrats refused to attend the ceremonies. The program, as +published, called for a "Hoch!" to the Kaiser, and the Social +Democrats never joined in public approval of the government. +<i>Vorwärts</i>, the leading Social Democratic daily, said that Social +Democrats have nothing to do with such a display of "Byzantinism." "If +any one thought it necessary to shout 'Hoch!' he could shout 'Hoch!' +to the working population of Berlin."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_43-8_164" id="Footnote_43-8_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43-8_164"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1907, pp. 227-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_44-8_165" id="Footnote_44-8_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44-8_165"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Amongst the business people of Mannheim, Munich, and +other cities in Baden, Bavaria, and Hesse, there are many who support +the Social Democratic candidates, because, they say, there is no +genuinely liberal party. It should, however, be borne in mind that the +Social Democrats of these southern districts are liberal and +progressive, not the unbending, orthodox variety of Prussia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_45-8_166" id="Footnote_45-8_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45-8_166"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <span class="sc">Von Vollmar</span>, <i>Über die Aufgaben der Deutschen +Social-Demokratie</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_46-8_167" id="Footnote_46-8_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46-8_167"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> The <i>Hansa Bund</i> (Hanseatic League), organized a few +years ago, may be the nucleus of such a party. It is composed of +smaller manufacturers and business men opposed to tariffs and the +trusts, and in favor of a more liberal government.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_47-8_168" id="Footnote_47-8_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47-8_168"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, Social Democratic Party, 1907, p. 228.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_48-8_169" id="Footnote_48-8_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48-8_169"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1892, p. 132.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_49-8_170" id="Footnote_49-8_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49-8_170"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Protokoll</i>, 1907, p. 255.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_50-8_171" id="Footnote_50-8_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50-8_171"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> See <i>Die Sozial-Demokratie im Münchener Rathaus</i>, issued +by the Bavarian party executive committee, 1908. Also <i>Die +Sozial-Demokratie im Bayerischen Landtag, 1888-1905</i>, 3 vols., issued +by the Party Press in Munich; and <span class="sc">E. Auer</span>, <i>Arbeiterpolitik +im Bayerischen Landtag</i>.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3> + +<h3>THE ENGLISH LABOR PARTY<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>We come now to the land of the industrial revolution—that colossal +upheaval which changed the face of society, as the vast continental +uplifts of past geological epochs changed the face of the earth. And +just as the continents were centuries in settling themselves to their +new conditions, so human society is now slowly adjusting itself to the +conditions wrought by this violent change. One of the evidences of +this gradual readjustment is Socialism. For to Socialism machine +industry is a condition precedent. In this sense England has produced +modern Socialism.</p> + +<p>There is no blacker picture than the England of 1780 to 1840, and no +drearier contrast than the quaint villages and their household +industries of the earlier period and the "spreading of the hideous +town," after Arkwright and Hargreaves and Watt. These inhuman +conditions are faithfully and dispassionately revealed in the reports +of the various Royal Commissions of Inquiry: statistical mines where +Marx and Engels found abundant material for their philosophy of gloom. +And from these dull and depressing government folios Charles Kingsley +drew his indignant invectives, and Carlyle his trenchant indictments +against a society that would imprison its eight-year-old <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>children, +its mothers, and its grandmothers in dingy factories fourteen hours a +day for the sake of profits, and then release them at night only to +find lodgings in the most miserable hovels and rickety tenements. It +is almost surprising to one familiar with the details of this gruesome +record that a social revolution did not follow immediately in the wake +of the industrial revolution.</p> + +<p>There were riots at first, and machines were smashed. But the hand of +the worker was impotent against the arm of steel. The workman soon +resigned himself to his fate and his misery. The poor laws did not +help, they only multiplied the burdens upon the state without taking +the load from the poor. The laborer was too helpless to help himself, +and the state and society were apathetic. The rapid expansion of +industry found an ample outlet in the growing commerce to every corner +of the world. England was making money. She was gradually shifting +control from the traditional landowner to the new factory owner. The +landed gentry had inherited a fine sense of patriarchal +responsibility. The factory owner had no traditions. He was a parvenu. +His interests were machinery and ships, not politics and humanity. He +acquiesced in the poor laws as the easiest way out of a miserable +mess; he let private charity take its feeble and intermittent course, +paying his rates and giving his donations with self-satisfied +sanctity.</p> + +<p>All this time labor was abundant. The markets of the world were hungry +for the goods of English mills. Then came suddenly the Chartist +Movement.<a name="FNanchor_1-9_172" id="FNanchor_1-9_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-9_172" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The flame of discontent spread and a revolution seemed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>impending. This first great outbreak of English labor was a political +movement, fed by economic causes. The repeal of the corn laws and the +passage of the factory acts modified economic conditions and mollified +labor for the time. The repeal of the corn laws brought cheaper food; +the factory acts brought better conditions of labor.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile individualism was evolving an economic creed. The Manchester +doctrine was the logical outcome of England's insular position and her +driving individualistic manufactures. But it was <i>laissez-faire</i> in +industrialism, not in unionism. The laboring men were now beginning to +organize, and Cobden himself proposed the act that made unionism +ineffective as a political force. However, indirectly, free trade +stimulated labor, because it brought great prosperity, made work +abundant, and employers sanguine. Unions now rapidly multiplied, but +they were local, isolated. Their federation into a great national body +came later.</p> + +<p>Socialism, or unionism, or any other general movement cannot develop +in England with the rapidity and enthusiasm that is shown for +"movements" on the Continent. The traditions of the English people are +constitutional. Socialism can thrive among them only if it is +"constitutional," and the Fabians are to-day talking about +"constitutional Socialism" with judicial solemnity. All the training +of the English people is contrary to the theory of progress through +violence. They have had few revolutions accompanied by bloodshed, they +have had a great many accompanied by prayers and Parliamentary +oratory—"constitutional" methods. They have, moreover, a real +reverence for property. The poor who have none are taught to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>respect +the rich who have. The Church, the common law, the statute law, the +customs, all the sources of tradition and habit, have emphasized the +sanctity of property. Only within the last few decades, as will be +seen presently, has a radical change, a veritable revolution, come +over the people in this respect.</p> + +<p>The British temperament is not given to nerves. This stolid, +phlegmatic, self-contained individualist has no inflammable material +in his heart. Ruskin failed to arouse him, he wove too much artistry +into his appeal; and Carlyle could not move him, his epigrams were too +rhapsodical. Such temperaments are not given to rapid propagandism. +And finally, the Englishman is too practical to be a utopist. He +concerns himself with the duties of to-day rather than the vagaries of +to-morrow. Utopianism made no impression on him. Owen, the great +Utopian, was a Welshman. The Celt has imagination. Nor do intricate +theories or involved philosophies touch the mind of the Briton. The +splendor that enraptures the Frenchman, the abstruse reasoning that +delights the German, are alike boredom to this practical inventor of +machinery and builder of ships.</p> + +<p>In spite of these characteristics there is no country in Europe where +there is more agitation about Socialism than there is in England +to-day. It is discussed everywhere. Almost the entire time of +Parliament during the past few years has been taken up with more or +less "Socialistic" legislation. The public mind is steeped in it.</p> + +<p>There is more actually being done in England toward the +"socialization" of property, and the state, than in any other European +country. And less being said about the theory of value, the class +war, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>capitalistic production, proletariat and bourgeois, and the +other Continental pet phrases of Socialism.</p> + +<p>Marx, who lived among the English for many years, but whose heart was +never with them, would not call this rapid social movement +Socialistic, because it does not avowedly "aim" at "socializing +capitalistic production." The doings of the English are certainly not +accomplished in the spirit of his orthodoxy. But the current toward +state control, toward pure democracy, land nationalization, +nationalization of railways and mines, has set in with the swiftness +of a mill-race and is grinding grist with an amazing rapidity.</p> + +<p>As I write these words, London and the whole country are wrought up +over Lloyd George's Insurance Bill and the projected ballot reform +bill. Meetings everywhere, fervid Parliamentary debate, the papers +filled with letters from everybody; every organization, debating +society, and board of directors of great industries passing +resolutions. Even the Labor Party is divided over the paternalistic +measure that aims to bring relief to the sick and disabled working man +and woman. Amidst all this discussion, noise, and party zeal is +discerned the drift of the nation toward a new and unexpected goal.</p> + +<p>Nowhere is it so difficult to define a Socialist, or to mark +boundaries to the movement. But why mark shore-lines? The flood is on. +I will here take the position that whatever extends the functions of +the state (community) over property, or into activities formerly left +to individuals or to the home, is an indication of the Socialistic +trend. Old-fashioned Socialists like Keir Hardie are constantly +warning the people that what is now going on in England is only social +reform, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>not Socialism. The Fabians, on the other hand, are exerting +every effort to add to the swiftness of the present movement.</p> + +<p>To a student of democracy things now passing into law, and events now +shaping into history, in England, are of peculiar significance. Such +events, transpiring in a country so long abandoned to a rampant +individualism, are portents of a newer time. They are signals of +approaching changes to America, to us who have inherited the common +law, the governmental traditions, the democratic ideals of liberty, if +not the substantial stolidity of temperament and self-complacent +egoism of the Briton.</p> + +<p>All parties, Socialists and Conservatives, will admit this: that all +this turmoil, these rapidly succeeding general elections, these public +discussions, these new laws, indicate that a new social ideal is being +formed. That in itself is worthy of consideration. For the ideal will +shape the destiny.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>Present-day Socialism in England seems to have risen to sudden +magnitude from vacuity, to have permeated this cautious island over +night. For over a generation all Socialism had disappeared from view. +The elaborate schemes of Owen, the altruistic propaganda under the +gentle Kingsley and his noble companion Maurice, the artistic revolt +against the ugliness of commercialism led by Ruskin, who even shared +the toil of the breakers of stones to prove his sincerity—all these +movements seem suddenly to have disappeared from the face of the +island, like a glacial <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>current dropping suddenly, without warning, +into the depths of the Moulin.</p> + +<p>England was given over to a highly prosperous industrialism. The +Manchester doctrine was enthroned. Commercialism and a glittering +pseudo-humanitarian internationalism found expression in the +alternating victories of the astute Disraeli and the grandiloquent +Gladstone.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile poverty and misery infested the underplaces of the land, a +poverty and misery that was appalling. Every protester was proudly +pointed to the repeal of the corn laws, the revision of the poor laws, +the reform act of 1832, and the factory acts.</p> + +<p>When Sir Henry Vane had ascended the scaffold which his sacrifice made +historic, he said: "The people of England have long been asleep; when +they awake they will be hungry." When the England of to-day awoke it +was to a greater hunger than the politically starved Roundhead or +Cavalier ever endured.</p> + +<p>It is no figure of speech to speak of hungry England. Its brilliant +industrialism has always had a drab background of want. Chiozza Money +says of the present position of labor: "The aggregate income of the +44,500,000 people in the United Kingdom in 1908-9 was approximately +£1,844,000,000; 1,400,000 persons took £634,000,000; 4,100,000 persons +took £275,000,000; 39,000,000 persons took £935,000,000."<a name="FNanchor_2-9_173" id="FNanchor_2-9_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-9_173" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> And he +sums up the condition as follows: "The position of the manual workers +in relation to the general wealth of the country has not improved. +They formed, with those dependent upon them, the greater part of the +nation in 1867, and they enjoyed but about forty per <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>cent. of the +national income, according to the careful estimate of Dudley Baxter. +To-day, with their army of dependents, they still form the greater +part of the nation, although not quite so great a part, and, according +to the best information available, they take less than forty per cent. +of the entire income of the nation." Although during this time the +national income had increased much faster than the rate of population, +"the Board of Trade, after a careful examination of the question of +unemployment in 1904, arrived at the general conclusion that 'the +average level of employment during the last 4 years has been almost +exactly the same as the average of the preceding 40 years.'"<a name="FNanchor_3-9_174" id="FNanchor_3-9_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-9_174" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>While the general level of wage-earners has been maintained, and while +wealth has greatly increased, the poverty of the kingdom has shown +little tendency to diminish. "As for pauperism, it is difficult to +congratulate ourselves upon improvement since 1867, when we remember +that in England and Wales alone 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 persons are in +receipt of relief in the course of a single year. This means <i>one +person in every 20</i> has recourse to the poor-law guardians during a +single year."</p> + +<p>"If our national income had but increased at the same rate as our +population since 1867, it would in 1908 have amounted to but about +£1,200,000,000. As we have seen, it is now about £1,840,000,000. Yet +the Error in Distribution remains so great, that, while the total +population in 1867 was 30,000,000, we have to-day a nation of +30,000,000 poor people in our rich country, and many millions of these +are living under conditions of degrading poverty. Of those above the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>line of primary poverty, millions are tied down by the conditions of +their labor to live in surroundings which preclude the proper +enjoyment of life or the proper raising of children."<a name="FNanchor_4-9_175" id="FNanchor_4-9_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-9_175" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>An event occurred in 1889 that aroused public opinion on the question +of labor conditions. The dockers along the great wharves in London +went out on strike, and forced public attention upon the misery of +these most wretched of British workmen,<a name="FNanchor_5-9_176" id="FNanchor_5-9_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-9_176" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> whose wages were so low +that they could not buy bread for their families and their employment +was so irregular that they were idle half of the time. John Burns came +into prominence first during this strike. He raised over $200,000 by +public appeals to support the strikers. General sympathy was with the +men; and the arbitrators to whom their grievances were submitted +awarded most of their demands.</p> + +<p>The effect of this strike was far-reaching. All over the kingdom +unskilled labor was roused to its power, and a new era in labor +organization began.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>In no country has the labor-union movement achieved a greater degree +of organization than in England.<a name="FNanchor_6-9_177" id="FNanchor_6-9_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-9_177" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The movement has been economic, +turning to politics only in recent years; it concerned itself with +wages and conditions of labor, not with party programs and +Parliamentary candidates.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>The characteristic feature of English trade-unionism is collective +bargaining, long since introduced into America, but unknown in most +European countries. The English unions also organized insurance +societies called "Friendly Societies."<a name="FNanchor_7-9_178" id="FNanchor_7-9_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-9_178" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>For many years the laws regulating labor unions had been liberally +construed by the courts, and the unions had done very much as they +pleased. Two decisions have been rendered during the last decade that +threatened the unions' existence both as a political and economic +force.</p> + +<p>In 1900 the Taff Vale Railway Company brought suit against the +Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, charging the men with +conspiring to induce the workmen to break their contracts with the +company. The court enjoined the union from picketing and from +interfering with the men in their contractual relations with the +employing company, and assessed the damages at $100,000 against the +offending union. The House of Lords, sitting in final appeal, affirmed +the judgment of the trial court. This virtually meant the stopping of +strikes, for strikes without pickets and vigilance would usually be +unavailing. It also meant financial bankruptcy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>A second far-reaching decision was made by the House of Lords in +December, 1909, when the "Osborne Judgment" was affirmed, granting to +one Osborne, a member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, +an injunction restraining the union from making a levy on its members, +and from using any of its funds for the purpose of maintaining any of +its members, or any other person, in Parliament. The unions had taken +it for granted that they had the legal right to contribute out of +their funds to political campaigns, and to pay the labor members of +Parliament a salary out of the union treasury.<a name="FNanchor_8-9_179" id="FNanchor_8-9_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-9_179" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> The court held such +payments were illegal, on the ground that they were <i>ultra vires</i>. The +charter of the unions did not sanction it.<a name="FNanchor_9-9_180" id="FNanchor_9-9_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-9_180" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>The English workman has not only had the trade union for a training +school in practical affairs, but the co-operative movement began here; +and here it flourishes, not as widely spread among the poorer workmen +as in Belgium, but among the better-paid workers it is very popular.</p> + +<p>It is singular that the only practical result left of Owen's +stupendous plans was the little co-operative shop, opened in 1844 at +Rochdale, with a capital of $140 and a gross weekly income of $10. +Owen did not start this shop, but a handful of his followers were the +promoters of the tiny enterprise. The co-operative union to-day +embraces wholesale, retail, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>productive, and special societies, with +nearly 3,000,000 members, increasing at the rate of 70,000 a year, and +doing $550,000,000 worth of business annually.</p> + +<p>There is also a rapidly growing co-partnership movement, especially in +the building of "garden suburbs" and tenements. In 1903 there were two +such companies, with $200,000 worth of property. In 1909 they had +increased to 15 associations, with over $3,085,000 worth of property. +The membership is not confined to workingmen, but they form the +bulk.<a name="FNanchor_10-9_181" id="FNanchor_10-9_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_10-9_181" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>From the beginning of the modern labor movement we see that the +British workmen have shown a strong tendency to organize. Their +organizations included at first only the skilled workers. There was a +gulf between the trained worker and the unskilled worker. The latter, +forming the substratum of poverty, were too abject for organizing.</p> + +<p>These two great bodies of workers, skilled and unskilled, have been +gradually brought together and their interests united. The Taff Vale +and Osborne judgments have forced them into politics. The unskilled +have been given the benefit of the experience of the skilled, and a +fair degree of homogeneity and group ambition has been reached.</p> + +<p>To enter politics a new form of organization was necessary. We will +see how one was prepared for them.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>We will now turn to the Socialist organizations. They are more +numerous than in the other countries <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>we have studied, and more varied +in color. But not any of them are as strong as the French or German +organizations.</p> + +<p>In 1880 William Morris and H.M. Hyndman, a personal friend of Marx, +organized the "Democratic Federation." For a few years it was the only +Socialist organization. It split on the question of revolution. Morris +and his friends, many of them inclined toward Anarchy, founded the +"Socialist League." This league has long since vanished. Hyndman and +his followers renamed their society the "Social Democratic +Federation." It still persists, under the name Social Democratic Party +(popularly "S.D.P."), and remains the only organized trace of +militant, reactionary Marxianism in England. For a long time it +refrained from politics, advocated violence, and was the faithful +imitator of the Guesdist party in France. These are doctrines and +methods that repel the English mind, and the Federation never has been +strong. It has a weekly paper, <i>Justice</i>, and a monthly paper, <i>The +Social Democrat</i>; claims one member in Parliament, elected however by +the Labor Party, and (in 1907) 124 members of various local governing +bodies. Its aged leader, Hyndman, clings tenaciously to the dogmas of +Marx, and all the changes that have come over the Socialist movement +during the last decades have not altered his views or methods.<a name="FNanchor_11-9_182" id="FNanchor_11-9_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_11-9_182" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The +Federation's affiliations and sympathy have been with the +International rather than the British movement, and until a few years +ago it monopolized British representation on the International +Executive Committee.</p> + +<p>Soon after Morris left the Federation a new and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>novel Socialist +society was formed in London. Two Americans gave the impulse that +started the movement—Henry George, through his works on Single Tax, +and Thomas Davidson of New York, a gentle dreamer of the New +To-morrow. Henry George's books had been read by a group of young men +in London, and when Dr. Davidson went there to lecture he found these +young men ready to listen to his utopian generalizations. Soon these +men organized the Fabian Society. They were not sure of their ground, +and took for their motto: "For the right moment you must wait as +Fabius did when warring against Hannibal, though many censured his +delays; but when the time comes you must strike hard, as Fabius did, +or your waiting will be in vain and fruitless."</p> + +<p>A number of brilliant young men soon joined the Fabians, and their +"tracts" have become famous. Among their members they include Sidney +Webb, the sociologist; George Bernard Shaw, the playwright and cynic; +Chiozza Money, statistician and member of Parliament; Rev. R.J. +Campbell of the City Temple; Rev. Stewart Headlam, leader in the +Church Socialist Movement; and a horde of others, famous in letters, +the professions, and the arts.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to estimate the influence of this unique group of +personages, and it is very easy to underestimate it. From the first +they committed themselves to the policy of "permeation," instead of +aggressive propaganda. They would transform the world by intellectual +osmosis. They have, thus, not only contributed by far the most +brilliant literature to modern Socialism, but have touched some of the +inner springs of political and social power. Prime ministers and +borough councilmen, poor-law guardians and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>chancellors of the +exchequer, have been influenced by the propulsion of their ideas. But +it has all been done so noiselessly and so well disguised, that to the +Social Democratic Federation the Fabians are "mere academicians," and +to the Independent Labor Party they are forerunners of "tyrannical +bureaucracy."</p> + +<p>Eleven Fabians are in Parliament, and they are not silent onlookers. +For years the Fabians have dominated the London County Council. Its +brilliant "missionaries" attract large audiences, and "Fabian Essays" +have passed through many editions. Each member of this society is the +creator of his own dogma. The Marxian formulas, especially the theory +of surplus value, are not reverenced by them.</p> + +<p>England is the only country in Europe where there is a strong Church +Socialist Movement. In 1889 the Christian Social Union was formed by +members of the Church of England. It is not a Socialist organization, +but it has enlisted a wide practical interest in the labor movement. +It was the outgrowth of the Pan-Anglican Congress, which met at +Lambeth in 1888. At this conference a committee on Socialism made a +noteworthy report, recommending the bringing together of capital and +labor through the agency of co-operation and association.<a name="FNanchor_12-9_183" id="FNanchor_12-9_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_12-9_183" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>In 1906 "The Church Socialist League" was organized. "It seeks to +convert the christened people of England to Socialism. Its members are +committed to the definite economic Socialism of accredited Socialist +bodies. The League is growing rapidly. Branches are springing up all +over the country. Its members have addressed thousands of meetings on +behalf of both Socialist and labor candidates at Parliamentary and +principal elections.... The members of the League are Socialists. They +seek to establish a commonwealth in which the people shall own the +land and industrial capital collectively and administer the same +collectively."<a name="FNanchor_13-9_184" id="FNanchor_13-9_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_13-9_184" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The influence of the Church Socialist League and the Fabians has +spread to the universities, especially to Oxford and Cambridge. A +number of distinguished professors are active Socialists.</p> + +<p>The movement thus gained ground more rapidly among the intellectuals +than among the workingmen. It was not until 1893 that a Socialist +Labor Party was organized. The Social Democratic Federation was too +dogmatic, hard, and bitter to draw the English laboring man; the +Fabians and the Church Socialists were avowedly not partisan. In 1893 +a group of labor delegates met at Bradford and, under the leadership +of Keir Hardie, organized the Independent Labor Party (I.L.P.). This +definite step had been preceded by many local political organizations +among <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>labor unionists. The necessity for political activity had been +felt in many places. The Bradford convention was merely the coalescing +of many local movements. The I.L.P. is a Socialist body, but it is not +dogmatically, not obnoxiously so. It forms, rather, a connecting link +between Socialism and labor unions.</p> + +<p>It entered politics at once, but with discouraging results. Its 29 +candidates polled only 63,000 votes; only 5 were elected. A closer +alliance with the labor unions was necessary. This was accomplished +when the unions, in 1899, appointed a Labor Representative Committee, +whose duty it was, as the name implies, to increase labor's +representation in Parliament.<a name="FNanchor_14-9_185" id="FNanchor_14-9_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_14-9_185" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> This committee had first to +determine its relation to the other political parties. The Liberals +and Conservatives among the laborites were outvoted, and the committee +determined upon a new course. Representatives from the Socialist +bodies—the I.L.P., S.D.F., and Fabians—were asked to join the unions +in an alliance that should use its united strength in electing members +to Parliament. All agreed, but the S.D.F. soon withdrew.</p> + +<p>In 1906 the name of the committee was changed to the Labor Party. It +is founded upon the broadest basis of co-operation, so that neither +Socialist, no matter how radical, nor non-Socialist should find it +impossible to work with the party. Its constitution defines this +coalition: "The Labor Party is a federation consisting of Trade +Unions, Trade Councils, Socialist Societies, and Local Labor Parties." +"Co-operative Societies are also eligible," as are "national +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>organizations of women accepting the basis of this constitution and +the policy of the party."</p> + +<p>The object of the party is "to secure the election of candidates to +Parliament and to organize and maintain a Labor Party with its own +whips and policy."</p> + +<p>Party rigor is carefully prescribed: "Candidates and members must +accept this constitution and agree to abide by the decisions of the +Parliamentary party in carrying out the aims of this constitution; +appear before their constituents under the title of labor candidates; +abstain strictly from identifying themselves with or promoting the +interests of any Parliamentary party not affiliated, or its +candidates; and they must not oppose any candidate recognized by the +national executive of the party." "Before a candidate can be regarded +as adopted for a constituency, his candidature must be sanctioned by +the national executive."</p> + +<p>The party, thus centrally controlled, is well organized in every part +of the kingdom. It maintains a fund for paying the election expenses +of its members.<a name="FNanchor_15-9_186" id="FNanchor_15-9_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_15-9_186" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> The Osborne judgment has been a serious setback to +the party, especially in local elections. The payment of members was +voted in 1911 by Parliament as a partial remedy, and the government +has promised a reform election bill that will impose the burden of all +necessary election expenses upon the state.</p> + +<p>The party membership has grown from 375,000 in 1900 to nearly +1,500,000 in 1912. Such leading members of the party as J. Ramsay +MacDonald, Keir Hardie, Philip Snowden, and over one-half of the +Parliamentary group, are Socialists. The party refused to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>commit +itself to Socialistic principles until 1907, when it declared itself +in favor of the following resolution: "The socialization of the means +of production, distribution, and exchange to be controlled in a +democratic state in the interests of the entire community, and the +complete emancipation of labor from the domination of capitalism and +landlordism, with the establishment of social and economic equality +between the sexes."<a name="FNanchor_16-9_187" id="FNanchor_16-9_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_16-9_187" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>In 1908 the party had 26 members in county councils, 262 in town +councils, 168 in urban district councils, 27 in rural district +councils, 124 in parish councils, 145 on poor-law boards, 23 on school +boards. There are (1910) about 1,500 labor men and Socialist members +on the various local governing bodies in Great Britain.<a name="FNanchor_17-9_188" id="FNanchor_17-9_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_17-9_188" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span><br /> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>We see, then, that Socialism and trades-unionism in England coalesced. +But a more important confluence of political ideals was soon to occur.</p> + +<p>The elections of 1906 indicated to the people of England that a new +force had entered the domain of political power, which had so long +been assigned to the gentry and men of wealth. A careful observer of +political events, and a member of Parliament, described the results as +follows: "When the present House of Commons (1907) was completed in +January last, and it was discerned that 50 labor members had been +elected, a cry of wonder went up from press and public. People wrote +and spoke as if these 50 members were the forerunners of a political +and social revolution; as if the old party divisions were completely +worn out, and as if power were about to pass to a new political party +that would represent the masses as opposed to the classes. These fears +or hopes were reflected in the House of Commons itself. During the +early months of the session the Labor Party received from all quarters +of the House an amount of deference that would have been described as +sycophantic if it had been directed towards an aristocratic instead of +towards a democratic group."<a name="FNanchor_18-9_189" id="FNanchor_18-9_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_18-9_189" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> The tidal wave of reaction following +the Boer war had swept the Liberal Party into power, and had given +fifty seats to the Labor Party. The effect was nothing short of +revolutionary.</p> + +<p>Disraeli, in his <i>Sibyl</i>, spoke of "two nations," two Englands, the +England of the gentry and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>England of the working classes. The +elections since the Boer war have given this "other England" its +chance. The gentry, the Whigs and Tories, will never again fight their +political jousts with the "other England" looking contentedly on. This +"mass mind of organized labor" has become the "new controlling force +in progressive politics."<a name="FNanchor_19-9_190" id="FNanchor_19-9_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_19-9_190" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>The "transformed England" began to see evidences of the change. The +first bill brought in by the Labor Party provided for the feeding of +school children, from the homes of the poor, out of public funds. "The +business in life of my colleagues and myself is to impress upon this +House the importance of the poverty problem," said the spokesman of +the Labor Party in an important debate.<a name="FNanchor_20-9_191" id="FNanchor_20-9_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_20-9_191" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>England had awakened hungry.</p> + +<p>Now occurred the most significant political event in the history of +modern England. The Liberal Party took over the immediate program of +the Labor Party. This is significant because it swept England away +from her industrial moorings of individualistic <i>laissez-faire</i>, and +extended the functions of the state into activities that had hitherto +been left to individual initiative. A complete revolution had taken +place since Cobden's day. The state acknowledged new social and +economic obligations. In the Parliamentary struggle that followed +hereditary prerogative in property was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>undermined and hereditary +prerogative in government virtually destroyed, and the principles of +democracy enormously extended.<a name="FNanchor_21-9_192" id="FNanchor_21-9_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_21-9_192" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>In England the question of co-operation between Socialists and other +parties has been more important than in any other European country: +because in a democratic parliament concessions are always made to +large portions of the electorate by the parties in power, and because +the practical temperamental qualities of the British discard the +fine-drawn distinctions between groups and sub-groups that are so +assiduously maintained in France and Germany.</p> + +<p>In the Amsterdam Congress of The International the question was +discussed whether Socialists should act with other parties. Jaurès and +his <i>bloc</i> were the occasion of the debate. Kautsky said that in times +of national crises like war it might be necessary for Socialists to +co-operate with the government to insure national safety. No such +extraordinary standard has ever existed among practical Englishmen, +who usually know what they want, and are not particular about the +means of getting it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>William Morris, uncompromising dogmatist, inveighed against the Whigs +in 1886 as "the Harlequins of Reaction." Democracy was his ideal of +government, and he was not entirely averse to political action on the +part of Socialists. "To capture Parliament, and turn it into a popular +but constitutional assembly, is, I must conclude, the aspiration of +the genuine democrats wherever they may be found."</p> + +<p>But he was wary of compromise. "Some democrats take up actual pieces +of Socialism, the nationalization of land, or of railways, or +cumulative taxation of incomes, or limiting the right of inheritance, +or new patent laws, or the restriction by law of the day's labor.... +All this I admit and say is a hopeful sign, and yet once again I say +there is a snare in it.... A snake lies lurking in the grass." "Those +who think they can deal with our present system in this piecemeal way +very much underrate the strength of the tremendous organization under +which we live, and which appoints to each of us his place, and, if we +do not choose to fit it, grinds us down until we do."<a name="FNanchor_22-9_193" id="FNanchor_22-9_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_22-9_193" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>Morris' advice, "Beware the Whigs," was uttered at a time when the +leader of that party, Gladstone, was beginning to see that the chief +event of the century would be the merging of the social question with +politics. The "piecemeal" method that Morris decried became the actual +method of Parliamentary activity as soon as a new party, a third +party, arose and drew its inspiration from the working classes.</p> + +<p>Such a party was anticipated. Lord Rosebery said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>in 1894: "I am +certain there is a party in this country, unnamed as yet, that is +disconnected with any existing political organization—a party that is +inclined to say, 'A plague on both your houses, a plague on all your +politics, a plague on all your unending discussions that yield so +little fruit.'"<a name="FNanchor_23-9_194" id="FNanchor_23-9_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_23-9_194" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> And the same year John (now Lord) Morley +prophesied: "Now I dare say the time may come, it may come sooner than +some think, when the Liberal Party will be transformed or superseded +by some new party."<a name="FNanchor_24-9_195" id="FNanchor_24-9_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_24-9_195" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> And Professor Dicey, over a decade ago, spoke +of the waning orthodoxy of Liberalism and its rapid merging into +Socialism.</p> + +<p>The "piecemeal" party of Morris, the "transformed" party of Morley, +the radicalized party of Dicey, is the Liberal Party of to-day. The +"unnamed" party of Rosebery is the Labor Party, which not only says, +"A plague upon all your discussions," but, "A plague upon all your +fine-spun theories of class war—it's results we want."</p> + +<p>Before detailing some of the significant acts of this new democratic +coalition, it should be added that the motive of the Liberal Party has +not been unmixed with politics. The Labor Party possesses not only the +30 or 40 votes in the House of Commons; there are hundreds of +thousands of labor votes outside. This background of silent, vigilant +voters forms the greatest force of the Labor Party. Many Liberal +members hold their seats by its favor.</p> + +<p>There are in both the great parties men with strong sympathies for the +labor ideal. In fact, a number of Socialists are sitting with the +Liberals. There is no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>clear demarcation. It is only a difference of +the degree of infusion.</p> + +<p>The Labor Party has had a strong influence upon the House of Commons. +For many years the "Government" has ruled quite arbitrarily. When +there are only two parties this is possible. But when an influential +third party appears on the scene, government by the "front benchers" +must be moderated.<a name="FNanchor_25-9_196" id="FNanchor_25-9_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_25-9_196" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>The "cross benchers" have wrested a good deal of power from the +leaders. This is necessary in a democracy which is kept alive only by +contact with the people. There is more government by the Commons, and +less government by the ministry. This <i>entente</i> can degenerate into +Parliamentary tyranny if it wishes. It can demand the clôture, as well +as open the valves of useless debate. But an arbitrary act +unsanctioned by the cross benchers would be likely to bring +destruction upon the government that perpetrated it.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>A review of the Acts of Parliament since the Liberal-Labor coalition +and a perusal of the debates are convincing proof of the character of +the new legislation and the opinions that prompt it. We must confine +ourselves to a few types of this legislation, enough to show the +actual changes now in process.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>The first bill introduced by the Labor Party, and enacted into law, +authorized the providing of meals for poor children in the schools. It +does not make this compulsory, but under its sanction in 1909 over +$670,000 were spent in providing over 16,000,000 meals. Nearly half of +these were in London.<a name="FNanchor_26-9_197" id="FNanchor_26-9_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_26-9_197" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> This law is especially assailed by the +anti-Socialists. They claim its administration has been too lenient, +not discriminating between the needy and those capable of self-help. +It is only the entering wedge of Socialism, they say; it is only a +step from feeding the child to clothing him, and from feeding and +clothing the child to caring for the parent. They recall that Sidney +Webb has often said that if the city furnishes water free to its +citizens it should be able to furnish milk as well.</p> + +<p>The second bill introduced by the Labor Party was the Trades Dispute +Act. This was framed to annul the Taff Vale decision, making the +unions immune from suits for tortious acts and providing an elaborate +system of arbitrating labor disputes. The provisions of this act were +tested by two railway crises. In 1907 the railway employees threatened +to go out on strike. Lloyd George, then president of the Board of +Trade, averted the strike by enlisting all the power of the government +in persuading the companies and the men to agree to a scheme of +arbitration. This was to last a stipulated term of years, but before +the time had elapsed the men actually struck (1911), and for a week +the country was in a panic. Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the +Exchequer, again used all the power of the government to bring peace, +and a commission was appointed to investigate the grievances of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>men, who had agreed to abide by its decision. In this way the +government has become the most active force in settling labor +disputes—a subject that was formerly left to the two parties of the +labor contract.</p> + +<p>A Workman's Compensation Act and an Old-Age Pension Act soon followed. +The latter provides a pension for all workmen who are 70 years old. +Unlike the German act, the government provides all the funds. In 1909 +the Labor Exchange Act empowered the Board of Trade to establish labor +exchanges. These have been established in every city. At first there +was some friction with the unions because "blacklegs" were assigned to +places. But since union men have been invited to sit on the local +governing committees, things are running smoother.</p> + +<p>There are three laws which show the trend of the changing relation of +the state to property.</p> + +<p>The Development Act of 1909 provides for the appointment of five +commissioners, upon whose recommendation the Treasury advances money +to any governmental department or public authority or university or +association of persons for the purpose of aiding agriculture and rural +industries of all sorts; the reclamation of drainage lands and of +forests; the general improvement of rural transportation, including +the building of "light railways"; the construction and improvement of +harbors; the improvement of inland navigation, including the building +of canals; and the development and improvement of fisheries. This law +endows the government with the necessary authority for the absorption +of virtually all the internal means of communication except the trunk +railways, and extends the paternal arm of the government over +agriculture <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>and the fisheries and subsidiary industries.<a name="FNanchor_27-9_198" id="FNanchor_27-9_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_27-9_198" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> The +first report of the commission, 1910-11, indicates that work under +this law has begun in earnest. A comprehensive plan of regeneration, +embracing the entire kingdom and based on adequate surveys, is +outlined. One of the interesting features of the plan is the proposal +to do as much of the work as possible by direct labor rather than by +competitive bidding. The commission wants to make sure "that the funds +shall not go into the pockets of private individuals."<a name="FNanchor_28-9_199" id="FNanchor_28-9_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_28-9_199" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> Under an +enthusiastic commission there will be practically no limit to the +influence of this law.</p> + +<p>Two other acts are closely allied with this scheme: the Small Holdings +Act of 1908, and the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909. The Small +Holdings Act gives authority to county councils to "provide small +holdings for persons who desire to buy or lease and will themselves +cultivate the holdings." This provision is extended to borough, urban, +district, and parish councils. These authorities may purchase such +lands "whether situate within or without their county."</p> + +<p>The Town Planning Act gives cities and towns the power to purchase +land and allot it, to tear down undesirable buildings, to co-operate +with any workingman's association for improving and erecting +dwellings, and to buy the necessary land for making improvements of +all kinds. John Burns, who stood sponsor for this bill, explained that +it gave complete authority to local governing bodies "to make a city +healthful and a city beautiful."</p> + +<p>Following the British habit, work has very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>cautiously begun under +these acts. Up to December, 1910, about 28,000 acres were purchased or +leased under the allotment act, and sublet to 100,498 individual +tenants. "Town planning" has progressed rapidly, and the regeneration +of the British slums, the most dismal in the world, may be not far +distant.<a name="FNanchor_29-9_200" id="FNanchor_29-9_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_29-9_200" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>Under the Small Holdings Act there were, up to December, 1910, nearly +31,000 applicants, asking for over 500,000 acres. Only one-fifth of +this amount was acquired, for 7,000 holders. Thirty per cent. of the +applicants are agricultural laborers, and the majority of the others +are drawn from the rural population who have some small business or +trade in the villages and wish a plot of land for a garden. This +"often makes the difference between a bare subsistence and comparative +prosperity."<a name="FNanchor_30-9_201" id="FNanchor_30-9_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_30-9_201" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p>These laws show the drift of the current. The question of the +nationalization of railways has been the subject of Parliamentary +inquiry, and the great railway strike of 1911 emphasized the matter +profoundly. The state in 1911 completed the taking over of all the +telephone lines; it conducts an extensive postal savings bank and a +parcels post.</p> + +<p>In local affairs some British cities are models of municipal +enterprise. Even London, that amorphous mass of human misery and +opulence, is changing its aspect. Since the granting of municipal home +rule it has built a vast system of street railways, cleaned out acres +of slums, opened breathing spaces, built tenements, and in many other +ways displayed evidences of an awakening civic consciousness.</p> + +<p>Three other pieces of legislation must be described <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>more in detail, +because they are more revolutionary, far-reaching, and democratic than +anything attempted by the British nation since the days of the Reform +Bill.</p> + +<p>First is the famous "Budget" of Lloyd George. When this virile +Welshman became Chancellor of the Exchequer he cast his budget in the +mold of his social theories. He said: "Personally, I look on the +Budget as a part only of a comprehensive scheme of fiscal and social +reform: the setting up of a great insurance scheme for the unemployed +and for the sick and infirm, and the creation, through the development +bill, of the machinery for the regeneration of rural life."<a name="FNanchor_31-9_202" id="FNanchor_31-9_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_31-9_202" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>The land system of England is feudal. Tenure still legally exists. +There still clings the flavor of social and political distinction to +fee simple. This the landowners have fortified against all the changes +that industrialism has wrought. There has been no general land +appraisement since the Pilgrims landed at the new Plymouth. The "land +monopoly" successfully resisted every attack until the famous budget +of 1908. Chiozza Money quotes John Bateman's analysis of the "New +Domesday Book," fixing the ownership of land in England and Wales as +follows:<a name="FNanchor_32-9_203" id="FNanchor_32-9_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_32-9_203" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>In 1883, in the United Kingdom, there was a total area of 77,000,000 +acres; of this 40,426,000 acres were owned by 2,500 persons. "While +the total income of the nation is £1,840,000,000, the landowners take +£106,000,000 as land rent."<a name="FNanchor_33-9_204" id="FNanchor_33-9_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_33-9_204" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> England is a great industrial and +commercial nation living on leased land.</p> + +<p>The development of the industrial towns has enormously multiplied the +value of some of these vast estates.<a name="FNanchor_34-9_205" id="FNanchor_34-9_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_34-9_205" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>The new budget proposed, first, to tax the land values; not a +fictitious sum, or the value of the land with improvements, but the +site value—the increment value with which the land is endowed because +of its favorable location. Second, to this was added a 10 per cent. +reversion duty. Third, a tax was levied on undeveloped land held for +speculative purposes. And, fourth, a 5 per cent. tax on mineral rights +was assessed on the owners of the land that contained the mines.</p> + +<p>These proposals raised a storm. They aimed at the traditional +stronghold of English aristocracy. The budget passed the House of +Commons by a large majority; the Lords rejected it. The government +promptly prorogued Parliament and went before the people. And what was +at first only an attack upon hereditary rights in land became an +attack also upon hereditary rights in politics. The House of Lords +became an issue as well as the budget. After a fiery <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>and furious +campaign, in which Socialists and Laborites joined Radicals and +Liberals, the budget won by a safe majority.<a name="FNanchor_35-9_206" id="FNanchor_35-9_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_35-9_206" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> The Lords passed the +measure. But this resistance cost them dear. One of the first +prerogatives established by the House of Commons was the right to +control the purse-strings of the kingdom. Custom has given the +sanction of constitutionality to this prerogative. And the Lords, in +first denying and then delaying the budget, laid themselves open to +the charge of "hereditary arrogance" and "unconstitutionalism."</p> + +<p>After the passage of the budget there followed six months of +conference between the two front benches, to find a basis of reform +for the House of Lords upon which all could unite. When it became +evident that this was impossible, the government again prorogued +Parliament and went to the people for a mandate on the question of +"reforming the Lords." The Liberals and their allies were, for a third +time, returned to power, and in February, 1911, the Prime Minister, +Mr. Asquith, introduced his "Parliament Bill," taking from the House +of Lords the power to amend a money bill so as to change its +character. If any other bill passed by the Commons is rejected by the +Lords, the Commons can pass it over their veto; and if this is done in +three consecutive sessions of the same Parliament—provided two years +elapse between the introduction of the bill and its third rejection by +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>Lords—it becomes a law. The law is intended as a preliminary +measure. The preamble states that it is the intention of the +government to provide for a second chamber "constituted on a popular +instead of hereditary basis." The bill was so amended by the Lords as +to change its character and returned to the Commons. The Prime +Minister then informed the leaders of the opposition that the King, +"upon the advice of his ministers," had consented to create enough +peers to insure the passage of the bill in its original form. Rather +than have their house encumbered by 400 new peers, the Lords gave a +reluctant consent to the measure that virtually destroyed the +bicameral system in England.</p> + +<p>This profound constitutional change, that practically makes England a +representative democracy pure and simple, was unaccompanied by any of +those popular and spectacular demonstrations one naturally expects to +see on such occasions. The debate in both houses rarely touched the +pinnacle of excitement, its fervor was partisan rather than +patriotic.<a name="FNanchor_36-9_207" id="FNanchor_36-9_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_36-9_207" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>In 1832, when the hereditary peers stood in the way of the Reform +Bill, which had passed the Commons by only one majority, the populace +rose <i>en masse</i>, surged through the streets of the capital, and +threatened the King and his Iron Duke,—whose statue now adorns every +available square in the city,—and made it known that their wishes +must be respected. To-day the people, secure in the knowledge of their +supremacy, scarcely notice the efforts of the opposition, in its +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>attempts to bolster the falling walls of hereditary prerogative in +representative government. So far has England assumed the air of +democracy.</p> + +<p>The third piece of legislation, to which allusion has been made, +indicates the direction that this democracy is taking. It is the +Insurance Bill, also introduced by Lloyd George, and passed in +December, 1911. It insures the working population against "sickness +and breakdown." It is planned to follow up the law with insurance +against non-employment. The law is of especial interest to Americans, +because it adapts the principle of the German system to the +Anglo-Saxon's traditional aversion to state bureaucracy. It commands a +compulsory contribution from employer and employee, supplemented by +state grants. These funds are not administered by the state, but by +"Friendly Societies" (insurance orders organized by the unions) and +other benevolent organizations of workingmen now in existence. These +are democratic, voluntary organizations. Where no such organizations +exist, the post-office administers the fund.</p> + +<p>The keynote of this law is the prevention of invalidity. Its details +are largely based upon the reports of the Royal Poor Law +Commissioners, 1905-9. The commission made two voluminous reports; +Mrs. Sidney Webb, a member of the commission, prepared the minority +report.<a name="FNanchor_37-9_208" id="FNanchor_37-9_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_37-9_208" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>The Labor Party, in all of these measures, voted with the Liberals. +The Insurance Bill was denounced by the most radical Laborites on the +ground that labor was charged with contributing to the fund, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>that +the bill was inadequate. But the majority of the delegation voted for +the measure.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>VII</h4> + +<p>Enough has now been said to indicate the changes in economic and +social legislation that are being brought about in England by the +coalition of Socialists and Liberals.<a name="FNanchor_38-9_209" id="FNanchor_38-9_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_38-9_209" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> The causes for this change +cannot be laid to Socialism alone. Socialism is an effect quite as +much as a cause; it is the result of industrial conditions, as well as +the prompter of changes. The permeation of the working classes with +the principles of state aid; the spread of discontent; the lure of +better days; all deepened and emphasized by the poverty of the Island, +are the sources of this Social Democratic current. This has led, +first, to the unification of the several Socialist groups; secondly, +to the coalescing of labor union and Socialist ambitions into the +Labor Party; thirdly, to an effective co-operation between the Labor +Party and the Liberal-Radicals.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>Sagacious Socialists saw this trend long ago. In 1888 Sidney Webb +appealed to the Liberals to espouse the cause of labor. He pointed out +the inevitable, and it has happened.<a name="FNanchor_39-9_210" id="FNanchor_39-9_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_39-9_210" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>Two questions naturally arise: First, how far will this movement +toward Social Democracy go? Second, how long will the Labor Party hold +together and prompt the action of the Liberals and Radicals in social +legislation?</p> + +<p>The first question is not merely conjectural. The Reform Bill now +(1912) prepared by the government will destroy the last vestige of +property qualifications for voting. It will destroy plural voting, +which now allows a freeholder to vote in every district where he holds +land. In some districts the absentee voters hold the balance of +power.<a name="FNanchor_40-9_211" id="FNanchor_40-9_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_40-9_211" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> Votes for women are also promised. This increased +electorate will not be conservative in its convictions. Along with +this will come the abolishing of the custom that compels candidates to +bear the election expenses; the payment of members of Parliament has +already begun; the lure of office is no longer a will-o'-the-wisp to +the poor with ambition.</p> + +<p>The new Liberalism is, then, devoted first of all to real democracy, +in which the King's prerogatives retain their sickly place. As to the +functions of the state, it will "probably retain its distinction from +Socialism in taking for its chief test of policy the freedom of the +individual citizen rather than the strength of the state, though the +antagonism of the two standpoints <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>may tend to disappear in the light +of progressive experience."<a name="FNanchor_41-9_212" id="FNanchor_41-9_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_41-9_212" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>As to property, it will probably continue to make unearned increments +and incomes bear the burden of social reform; create a business +democracy for running the public utilities, leaving more or less +unhampered the fields of legitimate industrial opportunity. "Property +is not an absolute right of the individual owner which the state is +bound to maintain at his behest. On the contrary, the state on its +side is justified in examining the rights which he may claim, and +criticising them; seeing it is by the force of the state and at its +expense that all such rights are maintained."<a name="FNanchor_42-9_213" id="FNanchor_42-9_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_42-9_213" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> This, the +well-considered opinion of a well-known scholar, may be properly taken +as the gauge of present-day English Radical sentiment on the +inviolability of property rights.</p> + +<p>As to the second question: How long will the coalition hang together? +the Socialists are now (1912) showing signs of restiveness. The old +question, that has rent all Socialists in all countries, and always +will, because Socialism is a wide-spreading and vague generalization, +has arisen among these practical Englishmen. In the convention of the +I.L.P., 1910, there was a prolonged discussion on the policy of the +party in its relation to other parties. "The Labor Party should stand +for labor, not for Liberalism," was the complaint. Keir Hardie +suggested that they were not in Parliament to keep governments in +office or to turn them out, but "to organize the working classes into +a great independent political power, to fight for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>coming of +Socialism."<a name="FNanchor_43-9_214" id="FNanchor_43-9_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_43-9_214" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> A resolution objecting to members of the party +"appearing on platforms alongside Liberal and Tory capitalists and +landlords," was defeated by a large majority.<a name="FNanchor_44-9_215" id="FNanchor_44-9_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_44-9_215" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<p>In the House of Commons clashes are not infrequent between the +Laborites and the Liberals. Annually the labor members move an +amendment to the Address of the Crown, asking for a bill "to establish +the right to work by placing upon the state the responsibility of +directly providing employment or maintenance for the genuinely +unemployed."<a name="FNanchor_45-9_216" id="FNanchor_45-9_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_45-9_216" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> John Burns opposed their amendment in 1911, in a +brilliant and vehement speech, not so much because the government was +opposed to the principle, but for the political reason that the +government was not ready to bring in a bill of its own, which should +be a part of its comprehensive system of social reform.<a name="FNanchor_46-9_217" id="FNanchor_46-9_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_46-9_217" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> + +<p>The great strike of transportation workers, in the summer of 1911, +widened the breach between Laborites and Liberals, and between the +extreme and moderate Socialists. This strike spread from the dockers +of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>Liverpool to London, from the dockers to the railway workers, and +then to the teamsters and drivers of the larger cities, until a +general tie-up of transportation was threatened. It came very near +being a model general strike. Its violence was met with a call for the +troops. The labor members in Parliament protested earnestly against +the use of soldiers. But the government was prompt and firm in its +suppression of disorder. A bitter debate took place between the +government and the labor leaders.<a name="FNanchor_47-9_218" id="FNanchor_47-9_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_47-9_218" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>How much of this give and take must be attributed to the play of +politics, it is impossible to declare. But this great strike clearly +revealed the difference between violent Socialism and moderate +radicalism. The one is willing to effect revolutions through law and +order, the other to effect them through violence and disruption.</p> + +<p>The moderate Socialists seem willing to take a middle course between +these extremes. The following quotation from a speech delivered by +Ramsay MacDonald, leader of the Labor Party, at a convention of the +I.L.P., clearly illustrates the moderate view:</p> + +<p>"We can cut off kings' heads after a few battles, we can change a +monarchy into a republic, we can deprive <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>people of their titles, and +we can make similar superficial alterations by force; but nobody who +understands the power of habit and of custom in human conduct, who +appreciates the fact that by far and away the greater amount of an +action is begun, controlled, and specified by the system of social +interrelationship in which we live, move, and have our being; and +still more, nobody who understands the delicate and intricate +complexity of production and exchange which keeps modern society +going, will dream for a single moment of changing it by any act of +violence. As soon as that act is committed, every vital force in +society will tend to re-establish the relationship which we have been +trying to end, and what is more, these vital forces will conquer us in +the form of a violent reaction, a counter revolution. When we cut off +a newt's tail, a newt's tail will grow on again.</p> + +<p>"I want the" I.L.P.'s action "to be determined by our numbers, our +relative strength, the state of public opinion, the character of the +question before the country. I appeal to it that it take into account +all the facts and circumstances, and not, for the sake of satisfying +its soul and sentiment, go gaily on, listening to the enunciation of +policies and cheering phrases which obviously do not take into account +some of the most important and at the same time most difficult +problems which representation in Parliament presents to it."<a name="FNanchor_48-9_219" id="FNanchor_48-9_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_48-9_219" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> In +another place MacDonald has detailed the steps in the progress of +Parliamentary Socialism. He begins with "palliatives," such as factory +inspection, old-age pensions, feeding of school children; next, the +state engages in constructive legislation, "municipalization <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>and +nationalization in every shape and form, from milk supplies to +telephones," and finally insists on the taxing of unearned increment +and a general redistribution of the burdens of the state.<a name="FNanchor_49-9_220" id="FNanchor_49-9_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_49-9_220" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p>Not all the members of the I.L.P. are agreed upon this moderate +statement. Keir Hardie and his immediate followers still cling to the +"larger hope" of a socialized society, to which commonplace +legislation is only a crude preliminary.</p> + +<p>Bernard Shaw has confessed the orthodoxy of the new Social Democracy. +"Nobody now considers Socialism as a destructive insurrection ending, +if successful, in millennial absurdities," and of the budget he said: +"If not a surrender of the capitalist citadel, it is at all events +letting down the drawbridge."<a name="FNanchor_50-9_221" id="FNanchor_50-9_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_50-9_221" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> The public utterances of the Radical +leaders are often less restrained than those of the Socialists,<a name="FNanchor_51-9_222" id="FNanchor_51-9_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_51-9_222" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> so +that it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the difference.</p> + +<p>Professor Hobhouse, in his analysis of the difference between +Liberal-Radicalism and Socialism, says: "I venture to conclude that +the differences between a true and consistent public-spirited +liberalism and a rational collectivism, ought, with a genuine effort +at mutual understanding, to disappear. The two parties are called on +to make common cause against the growing power of wealth, which, by +its control of the press and of the means of political organization, +is more and more a menace to the healthy working of popular +government."<a name="FNanchor_52-9_223" id="FNanchor_52-9_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_52-9_223" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> + +<p>And Brougham Villiers stated, a year before the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>Liberals gained +control of the government, that the hope of the country lay in an +"alliance, won by persistent, intelligent helpfulness on the part of +the Liberals, with the alienated artisans, for the betterment of the +conditions of the poorest, so as to give at once hope and life and +better leisure for thought."<a name="FNanchor_53-9_224" id="FNanchor_53-9_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_53-9_224" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p>So we see Socialism and Liberalism united in accomplishing changes in +legislation and ancient institutions—changes that are revolutionary +in character and will be far-reaching in results. It is not the red +revolutionary Socialism of Marx; it is the practical British Socialism +of amelioration. "This practical, constitutional, evolutionary +Socialism," a chronicler of the Fabians calls it.<a name="FNanchor_54-9_225" id="FNanchor_54-9_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_54-9_225" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> It would have to +be practical to appeal to the British voter, constitutional to lure +the British statesman, and evolutionary to satisfy the British +philosopher.</p> + +<p>In the troublous days of 1888-90 there were a great many young +Socialists who believed the social revolution was waiting around the +next corner and would soon sweep over London in gory reality. Many of +these young men are sober Fabians now, or staid Conservatives or +Liberals. To-day they think they were mistaken. They were not. There +was a revolution around the next corner. It has already captured the +high places. Society, government, is rapidly encroaching upon private +property through the powers of taxation, of police supervision, and +all manner of constitutional instrumentalities. Ownership, even in +land, is now only an incident, the rights of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>community are in the +ascendant. Democracy has conquered hereditary privilege. And the +revolution is still advancing. England is showing the world that "The +way to make Socialism safe is to make democracy real."<a name="FNanchor_55-9_226" id="FNanchor_55-9_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_55-9_226" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-9_172" id="Footnote_1-9_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-9_172"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See <i>supra</i>, p. 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-9_173" id="Footnote_2-9_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-9_173"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Chiozza Money</span>, <i>Riches and Poverty</i>, first +page, edition 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-9_174" id="Footnote_3-9_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-9_174"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 337.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-9_175" id="Footnote_4-9_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-9_175"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, pp. 337-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-9_176" id="Footnote_5-9_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-9_176"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See <span class="sc">V. Nash</span> and <span class="sc">H.L. Smith</span>, <i>The Story +of the Dockers' Strike</i>, London, 1890.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-9_177" id="Footnote_6-9_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-9_177"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Sidney</span> and <span class="sc">Beatrice Webb</span>, <i>History +of Trades Unionism</i>, London, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-9_178" id="Footnote_7-9_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-9_178"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> There are about 650,000 members in those unions that pay +out-of-work benefits. The following table gives some conception of the +magnitude of the out-of-work problem in England. It shows the sums +expended by the unions for out-of-work relief:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="40%" summary="out-of-work relief"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="30%">Year</td> + <td class="tdrp2" width="30%">Amount</td> + <td width="40%"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1898</td> + <td class="tdrp2">£234,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1899</td> + <td class="tdrp2">185,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1900</td> + <td class="tdrp2">261,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1901</td> + <td class="tdrp2">325,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1902</td> + <td class="tdrp2">429,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1903</td> + <td class="tdrp2">516,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1904</td> + <td class="tdrp2">655,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1905</td> + <td class="tdrp2">523,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1906</td> + <td class="tdrp2">424,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1907</td> + <td class="tdrp2">466,000</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p class="noin">Out of a body of 15,000,000 workmen, Chiozza Money estimates that +500,000 are always out of work. <i>Opus cit.</i>, p. 122.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-9_179" id="Footnote_8-9_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-9_179"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Members of Parliament received no pay until 1911, when +the Radical-Liberal government passed a law giving each member a +salary of $2,000 a year.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-9_180" id="Footnote_9-9_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-9_180"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> A discussion of this case from the Fabian point of view +is found in the Preface to <span class="sc">Webb's</span> <i>History of Trades +Unionism</i>, edition of 1911. The labor unions and the Labor Party have +issued pamphlets on these two decisions. The legal points are fully +discussed in the official reports of the cases.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10-9_181" id="Footnote_10-9_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10-9_181"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> There are 15,000,000 working men and women in Great +Britain; 3,000,000 belong to co-operative enterprises, 2,500,000 to +trade unions.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11-9_182" id="Footnote_11-9_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11-9_182"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See <span class="sc">H.M. Hyndman</span>, <i>Autobiography</i>, London, +1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12-9_183" id="Footnote_12-9_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12-9_183"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Dr. Wescott, Bishop of Durham, was the founder of the +Christian Social Union. His pamphlet, <i>Socialism</i>, is a real +contribution to the literature on the Church and its relation to +labor. The present attitude of the Union may be gleaned from the +following quotation taken from the letter written by Dr. Gore, Bishop +of Birmingham, to his diocese, on the occasion of his transfer to the +bishopric of Oxford. The letter was written during the railway and +dockers' strike, in September, 1911: "There is a profound sense of +unrest and dissatisfaction among workers recently. I cannot but +believe that this profound discontent is justified, though some +particular exhibitions of it are not. As Christians we are not +justified in tolerating the conditions of life and labor under which +the vast mass of our population is living. We have no right to say +that these conditions are not remediable. Preventable lack of +equipment for life among young, and later the insecurity of employment +and inadequacy of remuneration, and consequent destitution and +semi-destitution among so many people, ought to inspire in all +Christians a determination to reform our industrial system."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13-9_184" id="Footnote_13-9_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13-9_184"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> From <i>Statement of Principles of the League</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14-9_185" id="Footnote_14-9_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14-9_185"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Even at this time the conservatism of the unions was +hard to break. The vote to take this step was 546,000 to 434,000 in +favor of appointing the committee.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15-9_186" id="Footnote_15-9_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15-9_186"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Election expenses are borne by the candidates, not by +the state. They frequently are over $3,000, and it obviously is +impossible for a workingman to conduct such a campaign at his own +expense.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16-9_187" id="Footnote_16-9_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16-9_187"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Proceedings of Labor Party, Annual Congress, 1907.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17-9_188" id="Footnote_17-9_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17-9_188"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See <i>Socialists in Great Britain</i>, a compilation +published by the London <i>Times</i>, p. 24.</p> + +<p class="noin">The following table shows the membership of the Labor Party since its +formation in 1900, from the annual report of the party executive, +1911:</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Growth of Labor Party membership"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc"> </td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Trade Unions</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties</td> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">Socialist Societies</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" width="14%"> </td> + <td class="tdc" width="14%">No.</td> + <td class="tdc" width="14%">Membership</td> + <td class="tdc" width="16%">No.</td> + <td class="tdc" width="12%">No.</td> + <td class="tdc" width="13%">Membership</td> + <td class="tdc" width="17%">Total</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1900-1</td> + <td class="tdc"> 41</td> + <td class="tdrp">353,070</td> + <td class="tdc"> 7</td> + <td class="tdc">3</td> + <td class="tdrp">22,861</td> + <td class="tdrp2">375,931</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1901-2</td> + <td class="tdc"> 65</td> + <td class="tdrp">455,450</td> + <td class="tdc"> 21</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">13,861</td> + <td class="tdrp2">469,311</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1902-3</td> + <td class="tdc">127</td> + <td class="tdrp">847,315</td> + <td class="tdc"> 49</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">13,835</td> + <td class="tdrp2">861,150</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1903-4</td> + <td class="tdc">165</td> + <td class="tdrp">956,025</td> + <td class="tdc"> 76</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">13,775</td> + <td class="tdrp2">969,800</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1904-5</td> + <td class="tdc">158</td> + <td class="tdrp">885,270</td> + <td class="tdc"> 73</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">14,730</td> + <td class="tdrp2">900,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1905-6</td> + <td class="tdc">158</td> + <td class="tdrp">904,496</td> + <td class="tdc"> 73</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">16,784</td> + <td class="tdrp2">921,280</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1906-7</td> + <td class="tdc">176</td> + <td class="tdrp">975,182</td> + <td class="tdc"> 83</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">20,885</td> + <td class="tdr">998,338<span class="fnanchor">[1]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1907</td> + <td class="tdc">181</td> + <td class="tdrp">1,049,673</td> + <td class="tdc"> 92</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">22,267</td> + <td class="tdr">1,072,413<span class="fnanchor">[2]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1908</td> + <td class="tdc">176</td> + <td class="tdrp">1,127,035</td> + <td class="tdc">133</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">27,465</td> + <td class="tdr">1,158,565<span class="fnanchor">[3]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1909</td> + <td class="tdc">172</td> + <td class="tdrp">1,450,648</td> + <td class="tdc">155</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">30,982</td> + <td class="tdr">1,486,308<span class="fnanchor">[4]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1910</td> + <td class="tdc">137</td> + <td class="tdrp">1,306,473</td> + <td class="tdc">125</td> + <td class="tdc">2</td> + <td class="tdrp">31,377</td> + <td class="tdr">1,342,610<span class="fnanchor">[5]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" colspan="7" style="padding-top: .75em;"><span class="fnanchor">[1]</span> This total includes 2,271 Co-operators. <span class="fnanchor">[2]</span> Includes 472 +Co-operators. <span class="fnanchor">[3]</span> Includes 565 Co-operators, and 3,500 members of the +Women's Labor League. <span class="fnanchor">[4]</span> Includes 678 Co-operators, and 4,000 members +of the Women's Labor League. <span class="fnanchor">[5]</span> Includes 760 Co-operators, and 4,000 +members of the Women's Labor League.</td> + </tr> +</table> +<br /></div> + +<p class="noin">The decrease in membership during the last year is ascribed to the +Osborne judgment.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18-9_189" id="Footnote_18-9_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18-9_189"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <span class="sc">Harold Cox</span>, <i>Socialism in the House of +Commons</i>, p. 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19-9_190" id="Footnote_19-9_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19-9_190"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> See <span class="sc">J.A. Hobson</span>, <i>The Crisis of Liberalism</i>, +for a discussion of the new party alignments.</p> + +<p class="noin"><span class="sc">Émile Boutmy</span>, philosophical critic of the English, says that +England, "transformed in all outward seeming, ... has just begun a new +history." See his <i>The English People: A Study in Their Political +Psychology</i>, London, 1904, for a keen analysis of English political +proclivities.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20-9_191" id="Footnote_20-9_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20-9_191"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Parliamentary Debates</i>, 5th series, vol. 21, p. 649. +Speech by G. Lansbury.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21-9_192" id="Footnote_21-9_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21-9_192"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> The new Liberal government invited John Burns into the +cabinet. He is the first workingman in English history to occupy a +cabinet position. The more restless Socialists are inclined to call +him a Liberal because responsibility has taught him caution. But he +still persists that he is a Socialist. He is a Fabian, and boasts of +the three times that he was imprisoned for participating in labor +agitations. About twenty years before his elevation he said in the Old +Bailey, where he had been arraigned for "sedition and conspiracy" in +conducting a strike: "I may tell you, my lord, that I went to work in +a factory at the early age of ten years and toiled there until five +months ago, when I left my workshop to stand as Parliamentary +candidate for the western division of Nottingham."</p> + +<p class="noin">It must be kept in mind that many of the Conservatives are committed +to social legislation. They are not, however, in favor of the +indefinite expansion of democracy, and are opposed to the adult +suffrage bill as proposed by the Liberals.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22-9_193" id="Footnote_22-9_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22-9_193"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <span class="sc">William Morris</span>, <i>Signs of Change</i>, p. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23-9_194" id="Footnote_23-9_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23-9_194"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Speech delivered in St. James' Hall, March 21, 1894.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24-9_195" id="Footnote_24-9_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24-9_195"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Speech delivered at Newcastle, May 21, 1894.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_25-9_196" id="Footnote_25-9_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25-9_196"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> In the British House of Commons the ministry and the +opposition leaders sit in the front benches on opposite sides of the +House facing each other. A "front bencher" always commands a hearing, +owing to his high position in the party. The members of the party sit +behind their leaders and are called "back benchers." The minor groups, +the Labor Party and the Irish Party, sit in the cross benches at the +lower end of the chamber and are called "cross benchers."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_26-9_197" id="Footnote_26-9_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26-9_197"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> See <i>Annual Report Board of Education</i>, 1909-1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_27-9_198" id="Footnote_27-9_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27-9_198"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Keir Hardie, the dean of the Socialist group in +Parliament, fathered this law. Sidney Webb, the distinguished Fabian, +was made a member of the commission.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_28-9_199" id="Footnote_28-9_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28-9_199"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> See First Annual Report of the Commission.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_29-9_200" id="Footnote_29-9_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29-9_200"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> See <i>Annual Report Home Office</i>, 1909-1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_30-9_201" id="Footnote_30-9_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30-9_201"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_31-9_202" id="Footnote_31-9_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31-9_202"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> The money for these things he proposed to raise by +taxes, and especially by a tax on land values.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_32-9_203" id="Footnote_32-9_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32-9_203"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <span class="sc">Chiozza Money</span>, <i>Riches and Poverty</i>, p. 82.</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="Land Ownership"> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2" width="33%">No. of Owners</td> + <td class="tdlp" width="34%">Class of Owners</td> + <td class="tdrp" width="33%">Acres owned</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2">400</td> + <td class="tdlp">Peers and peeresses</td> + <td class="tdrp2">5,729,927</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2">1,288</td> + <td class="tdlp">Great landowners</td> + <td class="tdrp2">8,497,699</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2">2,529</td> + <td class="tdlp">Squires†</td> + <td class="tdrp2">4,319,271</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2">9,589</td> + <td class="tdlp">Greater yeomen†</td> + <td class="tdrp2">4,782,627</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2">24,412</td> + <td class="tdlp">Lesser yeomen†</td> + <td class="tdrp2">4,144,272</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2">217,049</td> + <td class="tdlp">Small proprietors</td> + <td class="tdrp2">3,931,806</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2">703,289</td> + <td class="tdlp">Cottagers</td> + <td class="tdrp2">151,148</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2">14,459</td> + <td class="tdlp">Public bodies</td> + <td class="tdrp2">1,443,548</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2 bb"> </td> + <td class="tdlp">Waste lands</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bb">1,524,624</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp2 bt">973,015</td> + <td class="tdlp"> </td> + <td class="tdrp2 bt">34,524,922</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp" colspan="3">† This classification is purely arbitrary.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> +<br /></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_33-9_204" id="Footnote_33-9_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33-9_204"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, p. 91.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_34-9_205" id="Footnote_34-9_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34-9_205"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> The leaseholder is burdened with "rack-rent" and +"premiums"; when the lease expires the improvements revert to the +landlord. There has been, for years, a well-organized Single-Tax +movement in England that points to the evils of this land system as +conclusive proof of the validity of Henry George's theory.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_35-9_206" id="Footnote_35-9_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35-9_206"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> One of the choruses popular with the great throngs that +paraded the streets in that eager campaign is full of significance. It +was sung to the tune of "Marching through Georgia."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The land, the land, 'twas God who gave the land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The land, the land, the ground on which we stand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why should we be beggars, with the ballot in our hand?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">God gave the land to the people."<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_36-9_207" id="Footnote_36-9_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36-9_207"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> During the debate on the second reading in the House of +Commons, the writer one day counted twenty members on the benches, and +a labor member called the attention of the Speaker to the fact that +"in this hour of constitutional crisis only twenty brave men are found +willing to defend the prerogatives of the realm!"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_37-9_208" id="Footnote_37-9_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37-9_208"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Some of the Fabians, nevertheless, fought the bill, and +their champion, Bernard Shaw, called Lloyd George's effort "The +premature attempt of a sentimental amateur."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_38-9_209" id="Footnote_38-9_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38-9_209"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> In 1909 the Labor Party claimed credit for the following +measures passed during the Parliamentary session of that year:</p> + +<p class="noin">"(1) The grant of an additional £200,000 ($1,000,000) for the +unemployed, and the extraction of a promise that, if it was +insufficient, 'more would be forthcoming.'</p> + +<p class="noin">"(2) The passing of the Trades Boards Bill—the first effective step +against 'sweating.'</p> + +<p class="noin">"(3) The smashing of the bill authorizing the amalgamation of three +great railways.</p> + +<p class="noin">"(4) A discussion, protest, and vote against the visit of Bloody +Nicholas, the Tsar. The Labor Party's amendments secured 70 +supporters, whilst only 187 members of the British Parliament were +dirty enough to support the Tsar's visit.</p> + +<p class="noin">"(5) The introduction of the Shop Hours Bill and the extortion of a +promise that it shall be adopted by the government and passed."—From +a campaign pamphlet, <i>The Labor Party in Parliament</i>, p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_39-9_210" id="Footnote_39-9_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39-9_210"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> See <i>Wanted—A Program: An Appeal to the Liberal Party</i>. +<span class="sc">S. Webb</span>, London, 1888.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_40-9_211" id="Footnote_40-9_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40-9_211"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> See article by <span class="sc">Professor Hobhouse</span>, on +"Democracy in England," <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, February, 1912.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_41-9_212" id="Footnote_41-9_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41-9_212"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <span class="sc">J.A. Hobson</span>, <i>The Crisis of Liberalism</i>, p. +93.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_42-9_213" id="Footnote_42-9_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42-9_213"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <span class="sc">L.T. Hobhouse</span>, <i>Democracy and Reaction</i>, p. +230.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_43-9_214" id="Footnote_43-9_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43-9_214"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> See "Report Eighteenth Annual Conference, I.L.P.," 1910, +p. 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_44-9_215" id="Footnote_44-9_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44-9_215"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Supra cit.</i>, p. 71.</p> + +<p class="noin">Some of the I.L.P. members are Continental in their views. The +president of the party used these words in his address, 1910: "All +this jiggery-pokery of party government played like a game for +ascendency and power is no use to us" (<i>supra cit.</i>, p. 35). The +discipline of the Labor Party was unable to keep half a dozen of its +ablest debaters from fighting the Insurance Bill. The reversion of the +radical Socialist element to the I.L.P. is by some observers +considered not unlikely. Then the liberal or <i>réformiste</i> element will +become either a faction of the Liberal-Radical party or melt entirely +away as the Chartists did in 1844.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_45-9_216" id="Footnote_45-9_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45-9_216"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> This was the language used in the amendment moved in +January, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_46-9_217" id="Footnote_46-9_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46-9_217"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> See <i>Parliamentary Debates</i>, 5th series, vol. 21, +February 10, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_47-9_218" id="Footnote_47-9_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47-9_218"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> The Socialist workmen always resent the activity of the +police and soldiers during strikes. In 1888 F. Engels wrote to an +American friend: "The police brutalities in Trafalgar Square have done +wonders in helping to widen the gap between the workingmen Radicals +and the middle-class Liberals and Radicals." (See <i>Briefe und Auszüge +aus Briefen von Fr. Engels u. A.</i>, Stuttgart, 1906.)</p> + +<p class="noin">One of the incidents of the debate over the railway strike in the +House of Commons was a clash between Lloyd George, the Liberal leader, +and Keir Hardie, the Socialist. Keir Hardie had made inflammatory +speeches to striking workmen, and for this the Chancellor of the +Exchequer gave him a terrific and unmerciful flaying. (See +<i>Parliamentary Debates</i>, 5th series, vol. 29, Aug. 22, 1911.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_48-9_219" id="Footnote_48-9_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48-9_219"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <span class="sc">J. Ramsay MacDonald</span>: speech delivered at +Edinburgh, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_49-9_220" id="Footnote_49-9_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49-9_220"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> See <span class="sc">J. Ramsay MacDonald</span>, <i>The Socialist +Movement</i>, pp. 150-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_50-9_221" id="Footnote_50-9_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50-9_221"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <span class="sc">G.B. Shaw</span>, Preface to "Fabian Tracts."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_51-9_222" id="Footnote_51-9_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51-9_222"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> See <span class="sc">Lloyd George's</span> famous "Limehouse Speech."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_52-9_223" id="Footnote_52-9_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52-9_223"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <span class="sc">L.T. Hobhouse</span>, <i>Democracy and Reaction</i>, p. +237.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_53-9_224" id="Footnote_53-9_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53-9_224"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <span class="sc">Brougham Villiers</span>, <i>The Opportunity of +Liberalism</i>, Preface.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_54-9_225" id="Footnote_54-9_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54-9_225"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> See article by Secretary <span class="sc">Pease</span>, of the Fabians, +on the Fabian Society, <i>T.P.'s Magazine</i>, February, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_55-9_226" id="Footnote_55-9_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55-9_226"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <span class="sc">J.A. Hobson</span>, <i>The Crisis of Liberalism</i>, p. +156.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> + +<h3>CONCLUSION<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>We have now concluded our survey of the political activities of +Socialism in the four countries that present the most characteristic +features of this movement of the working classes. It is peculiarly +difficult to draw general conclusions from the study of a movement so +protean. Democracy is young; Socialism is in its early infancy.</p> + +<p>Is there a rational trend in Socialism? Or is it only a passing whim +of the masses? Is it a crude theory, an earnest protest, a powerful +propaganda? Or is it a current of human conviction so strong, so +deep-flowing that it will be resistless?</p> + +<p>It is futile to deny the power of the Socialist movement. The greatest +proof of its virility is its ability to break away from Marxian dogma +and from the fantasies of the utopists, and acknowledge mundane ways +and means. In spite of this earthiness, it still has its fanciful +abstractions. Some of its prophets are still glibly proclaiming a new +order,—as if society were artificial, like a house, and could be torn +down piecemeal or by dynamite, and then rebuilt to suit the vagaries +of a new owner.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, a portion of the Socialists are learning that +society is a living thing that can be shaped only by training, like +the mind of a child. Socialism, as a whole, is metamorphosing. Some of +its vicious eccentricities, like the ravings against religion <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>and the +espousal of free love, have already vanished. It is learning that +institutions are the product of ages, not of movements, and cannot be +changed at the fancy of every new and disgruntled social prophet.</p> + +<p>The best school for Socialism has been the school of parliamentary +activity. Here the hot-blooded protesters become sober artisans of +statecraft. We have seen how the early utopian ideas, with their +edenesque theory of the guilelessness of man, were abruptly exchanged +for the theory of violence, based on the materialistic conception of +the universe and of man. Neither the soft humanities of the utopists +nor the blood and thunder of revolution overturned the existing state. +But when the workingmen appeared in parliaments, then things began to +change.</p> + +<p>In every country where the Socialists have entered parliament, they +appeared suddenly, in considerable numbers. So in France, Germany, +England, Belgium, Austria. And they always produced a flutter, often a +scare, among the conservatives. They were an untried force. Their +preachings of violence and their antagonism to property made them an +unknown quantity, to be feared, and not to be lightly handled—a bomb +of political dynamite that might explode any moment and scatter the +product of ages into fragments!</p> + +<p>But no explosion came. And one more example of the persistence of +human nature was added to the long annals of history.</p> + +<p>In every country the parliamentary experience has been the same: the +liberal and radical element, attracted by the legislative demands of +the labor party, coalesced, for specific issues, with the Socialists, +and a new era of economic and social legislation was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>ushered in. Even +in Germany, with its unmodern conditions in government, all the powers +of feudal autocracy failed to crush the rising forces of the new +political consciousness.</p> + +<p>In France and England we have seen Socialists take their places in the +cabinet, to the chagrin of that portion of the Socialists who still +regard social classes as natural enemies, and consider social +co-operation among all the elements of society impossible.</p> + +<p>In brief, Socialism has entered politics and has become mundane. You +need a microscope to tell a Socialist from a Socialist-Radical in +France, and a Laborite from a Radical-Liberal in England. Briand and +Millerand may be voted out of the Socialist Party, and John Burns may +be spurned by the I.L.P. But these men are teaching a double lesson: +first, that there are no new ways to human betterment; second, that +the old way is worth traveling, because it does lead to happier and +easier conditions of toil. Socialists the world over will soon be +compelled to realize that the political force which shrinks from the +responsibility of daily political drudgery will never be a permanent +factor in life. A political party that is afraid to assume the +obligations of government for fear that it will lose its ideal, is too +fragile for this world.</p> + +<p>The Socialist Party wherever it exists is a labor party, with a labor +program that is based on conditions which need to be remedied. Their +practical demands as a rule are of such a nature that all of society +would benefit by their enactment into law. The mystery has all gone +out of the movement. It is not necromancy, it is plain parliamentary +humdrum which you see. The threatened witchery is all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>words; the +doing is intensely human, of the earth earthy.</p> + +<p>The Socialist movement tends toward the latest phase of democracy, +which is social democracy; the democracy that has ceased to toy with +Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, and the other tinsel abstractions +of the bourgeois revolutions; the democracy that sees poverty and +suffering increase as wealth and ease increase. It is the democracy of +the human heart, that cares for the babe in the slums, the lad in the +factory, the mother at the cradle, and the father in his old age. +Against all these helpless ones society has sinned. And it is to a +universal, sincere, social penance that the new democracy calls the +rich, the powerful, and the comfortable.</p> + +<p>Socialism is merging rapidly into this new democracy. In doing so it +is abandoning its two great illusions. The first illusion is that the +interests of the worker are somehow different from the interests of +the rest of the community. Class war has been a resonant battle-cry, +and has served its purpose. It is folly for any class to magnify its +needs above those of the rest of society. Civilization and culture +embrace the artisan and the artist, the poor and the powerful. Any +class interest that clashes with the welfare of society as a whole +cannot survive. Socialism is abandoning the tyranny of class war, is +being mellowed by class co-operation. Socialists are now claiming that +their interests are the interests of society. The social complexion of +the party in the countries of its greatest advancement is an +indication of this. Many of the party leaders are of middle-class +origin. Some of them are rich. You call at their homes and servants +open the door and receive your card on a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>silver tray. Multitudes of +lawyers, physicians, journalists, and professors are in the movement. +Dr. Frank of Mannheim, the leader of the Badensian Socialists, said to +me that the degree to which Socialism can gain the support of the +intellectual element is the measure of success of the movement. All +this indicates that Socialism is breaking the bonds of self-limited +class egoism. The peasant landowner, the small shopkeeper, the +intellectualist, and occasionally a man or two of wealth and high +social position are being drawn into this new democracy.</p> + +<p>The question is now being seriously asked: Can there be a social +co-operation? Must there always be industrial war? Von Vollmar, +Millerand, Vandervelde, MacDonald proclaim the possibility of rational +co-operation. MacDonald says: "The defense for democracy which is far +and away the weightiest is that progress must spring, not from the +generosity or enlightenment of a class, but from the common +intelligence." "It must be pointed out that the labor legislation now +being asked for is very much more than a sequel to that passed under +the influence of Lord Shaftesbury. This differs from that as the +working of the moral conscience differs from the motives of the first +brute man who shaped his conduct under a contract of mutual defense +with a friendly neighbor. To use the arm of the law to abolish crying +evils, to put an end to an ever-present injustice, is one thing; to +use that arm to promote justice and to keep open the road to moral +advancement, to bring down from their throne in the ideal into a place +in the world certain conceptions of distributive justice, is quite +another thing. And yet this latter is now being attempted, and was +certain to be attempted as soon as democracy came <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>into power. When +society is enfranchised, the social question becomes the political +question."<a name="FNanchor_1-10_227" id="FNanchor_1-10_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-10_227" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>"The state is not the interest of a class, but the organ of +society."<a name="FNanchor_2-10_228" id="FNanchor_2-10_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-10_228" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> There can be no broader foundation for political action +than this. All progress springs from the "common intelligence" to +which every one contributes his quota.</p> + +<p>The second great illusion of Socialism is the social revolution. No +one except a few extremists any longer thinks of the revolution by +blood. Engels, the friend of Marx, shows that everywhere violence is +giving way to political methods. "Even in the Romance countries we see +the old tactics revised. Everywhere the German example of using the +ballots is being followed. Even in France the Socialists see more and +more that no lasting victory is to be theirs unless they win +beforehand the great masses of the people. The slow work of propaganda +and parliamentary activity is here also recognized as the next step in +party development."<a name="FNanchor_3-10_229" id="FNanchor_3-10_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_3-10_229" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Engels shows how Socialists have entered the +parliaments of Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Bulgaria, Roumania, as well as +the parliaments of the great powers. And he indicates that the +revolution of the Socialist must come as a revolution by +majorities—which is democracy.</p> + +<p>Engels still believed that violence would follow the accession of +democratic power. If he had lived another decade he would have +discarded this last remnant of the theory of violence. In Germany the +bourgeois are more frightened over the legal than over <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>the illegal +acts of the Socialist. They fear the results of elections more than +rebellion. Violence they can suppress with a bayonet, but laws—they +must be obeyed.</p> + +<p>This is true in every country. The power of the ballot is infinitely +greater than the power of the bullet, provided it is followed up with +common sense and energy.</p> + +<p>The theory of violence, then, has almost disappeared. The Syndicalist, +in his reversion to anarchy, attempts to revive the forsaken theory. +He does this by a general strike. But the general strike is not to be +confused with the social revolution. The general strike, wherever it +has been tried as an economic forcing valve, has failed. But whenever +it has been used as a political uprising, demanding political rights, +it has been more or less successful. In Belgium we have seen how it +brought results. In Sweden a few years ago there was a general strike +that not only shut every factory, but stopped the street cars and all +transportation lines, closed the gas-works, and even the newspapers +were suspended. It was a powerful political protest, but the number of +striking workmen did not equal the non-strikers.</p> + +<p>In Italy in 1904 a general strike was called to protest against the +arbitrary attitude of the government toward the labor movement. In +some of the cities all work ceased, even the gondoliers of Venice +joined the strikers. In Russia in 1904-5 the transportation lines and +post and telegraph lines were tied up while the workingmen +demonstrated for their political liberty.</p> + +<p>The violence of Socialism to-day is political; the violence of trade +unionism is economic. As the democratic consciousness spreads, there +may be such a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>coalescing of interests that violence will cease. But a +human society without warfare and contention is still a tax upon the +imagination. Strikes are increasing in number and bitterness and all +the arbitrations and devices of democracies seem helpless in the +turmoil of economic strife.</p> + +<p>I am not unmindful that behind all this parliamentary activity there +is the dim background of hope in the hearts of many Socialists that +somehow the wage system will vanish, that competition will cease, that +the primary activities of production and distribution will be assumed +by society, and that economic extremes will become impossible. In a +people of fitful temper and ebullient spirit the doctrine of +overturning remains a constant menace. Socialism in Spain and Italy +wears a scarlet coat, in Germany a drab, and in England a black. The +danger to civilization lurks, not in the survival of the doctrines of +the older Socialism, but in the temper of the people who espouse them.</p> + +<p>The Socialist movement has accomplished three notable things. First, +it has spread democracy. The bourgeois revolutions established +democracy; Socialism extends it. We have seen how in Belgium it +compelled the governing powers to give labor the ballot; how in +Germany, hard set and dogmatic, it is shaping events that will surely +lead to ministerial responsibility and to universal suffrage; and how +in England it is resulting in universal manhood suffrage and probably +"votes for women." Socialism is spreading the obligations of +government upon all shoulders. It is not, however, democratizing the +machinery of administration. In France the centralized autocracy of +Napoleon's empire remains almost untouched. In <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>England the ancient +traditions of administration are slow to change. In Germany the civil +service will be the last barrier to give way.</p> + +<p>Secondly, Socialism has forced the labor question upon the lawmakers. +This is a great achievement. The neglected and forgotten portions of +the human family are now the objects of state solicitude. The record +of this revolution is written in the statute books. Turn the leaves of +the table of contents of a modern parliamentary journal, and compare +it with the same work of thirty years ago. Almost the entire time is +now taken up with questions that may be called humanitarian rather +than financial or political. Grave ministers of state make long +speeches on the death-rate of babies in the cities, on the cost of +living in factory towns, on the causes of that most heartbreaking of +modern woes, non-employment. Budgets are now concerned with the +feeding of school children as well as the building of warships, and +with the training of boys as well as the drilling of soldiers.</p> + +<p>Nowhere has this radical change taken place without a labor party. The +laboring man forced the issue. He bent kings and cabinets and +parliaments to his demands. The time was ripe, society had reached +that stage of its development when it was ready to take up these +questions. But it did not do so of its own free will. When labor +parties sprang like magic into puissance, a decade ago, the social +conscience was ready to hear their plea. Bismarck foresaw their +demands. But he was too obsessed of feudalism to realize their +motives. Therefore his state socialism failed to silence the +Socialists. The workman had his heart in the cause, not merely his +tongue.</p> + +<p>And the third great achievement is the natural <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>result of the other +two. When democracy is potent enough to force its demands on +parliament, then the power of the state is ready to fulfil its +demands. So we find in every country where Social Democracy has gained +a foothold a constant increase of the functions of the state. What +shall the state do? That is now the great question. One hundred years +ago it was, What sort of a state shall we have? That is answered: a +democratic state; at least, a state democratic in spirit. The state is +no longer merely judge, soldier, lawmaker, and governor. It is +physician, forester, bookkeeper, schoolmaster, undertaker, and a +thousand other things. Society has grown complex, and the state, which +is only another name for society, has developed a surprising +precocity.</p> + +<p>We have seen that in England especially the trend of legislation is to +deprive the individual, one by one, of those prerogatives which gave +him dominion over property. A man owning land in the city of London, +for instance, has not the liberty to build as he likes or what he +likes. He must build as the state permits him, and the exactions are +manifold. He can be compelled to build a certain distance from the +street,—that is, the city demands a strip of his land for common use. +He can build only a certain height,—the community wants the sunlight. +If his older buildings are dilapidated, the city tears them down. If +the streets through his allotment are too narrow, the city widens +them. In short, he may have title in fee simple, but the community has +a title superior. Even his income from this parcel of land is not all +his own. The state now takes a goodly slice in taxes. If he is +inclined to resent this, and does not improve his property, the state +taxes him on the unearned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>increment, and if he refuses to submit to +this "socialism," the constable seizes the whole parcel, and he can +have what is left after the community has satisfied its demands.</p> + +<p>The taxes that he pays are distributed over a vast variety of +activities. They go to feed school children, to pension aged workmen, +to send inspectors into the factories, to keep up hospitals, as well +as to light and pave the streets and pay policemen. Other taxes that +he pays on other forms of property go to the improvement of +agriculture, to the payment of boards of arbitration, and so on. In +short, ownership is becoming more and more only an incident; it is not +merely a badge of ease, but a symbol of social responsibility.</p> + +<p>The burden of the law is shifting from property to persons, from +protecting things to protecting humanity. This change from the Roman +law is almost revolutionary. Even Blackstone, our halfway-mark in the +evolution of the common law, is busy with postulates protecting +property.</p> + +<p>Where is this encroachment of the state on private "rights" going to +end? There are some things which the state (society) can do better +than the individual; like the marshaling of an army or conducting a +post-office, and things that are done to counteract the selfishness of +individuals, like factory inspection. But there are other things which +society cannot do; things that depend on individual effort, like art, +literature, and invention. The two fields of state and individual +activity merge into each other. Each nation marks its own +distinctions. But this is certain: <i>in a democracy the state will do +the things which the people want it to do</i>. And in a Social Democracy +these things are numerous.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>Social Democracy strikes a balance between individual duty and +collective energy. It brings the power of government (collective +power), not to the few who are rich, therefore ignoring oligarchy; nor +to the few who are clever, thereby ignoring tyranny; nor to the few +who are well-born, thus discarding aristocracy; but it brings all the +power of the government to all the people. It attempts to coalesce the +cleverness of the tyrant, the experience of the aristocrat, the wealth +of the industrial nabob, and the aggregate momentum of the mass, into +a humanitarian power. It attempts to use the gifts of all for the +benefit of all.</p> + +<p>Social Democracy is the resultant of two forces meeting from opposite +directions: the forces of industrialism, and Socialism, of +collectivism and individualism. No one can draw the exact direction of +this resultant. It attempts to avoid the tyranny and selfishness of +the few, and the tyranny and greed of the many.</p> + +<p>Our study of the operation of governments under the sway of Social +Democracy has shown the sort of legislation that is demanded. It is +not necessary to repeat here the details of these laws. But it is +necessary to bear in mind that there are two industrial questions +which have absolutely refused to bend to the power of government: the +question of the length of the workday and the question of wages. The +vast majority of strikes are due to differences over these two +questions. The eight-hour day and the minimum wage have been +successful only in a limited government service.<a name="FNanchor_4-10_230" id="FNanchor_4-10_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_4-10_230" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Nor has any +machinery set up by governments to avoid industrial collisions between +workmen and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>employers been successful in avoiding differences over +hours and wages. The elaborate system of Germany, for instance, is +nothing more than the good will of the state offered to the warring +industrial elements in the interests of peace. The questions of hours +and wages are so fundamental that they embrace the right of private +property. Any power that divests an individual of the right to dispose +of his time or substance by contract virtually deprives him of the +right of ownership.</p> + +<p>The limits to the possibilities of Social Democracy are the limits of +private ownership. This brings us at once to the verge of the eternal +question of government—the finding of a just ratio between individual +and collective responsibility: a ratio that varies with varying +nationalities, and that will vary with the passing years. Each +generation in every land will have to fix the limitations for itself.</p> + +<p>The new Social Democracy has acquired certain characteristics which +will help us in determining the trend of its movements. In the first +place it is an educated Social Democracy. The taunt of ignorance +applied to the old Socialism of passion cannot be applied to the new +Socialism of practice. The nations of Europe no longer debate the +suitability of universal education. That question happily was settled +for the United States with the landing of the Pilgrims. It took one +hundred years for Europe to understand the Ordinance of 1787, that +"schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." Not +all of the European nations have touched the heights of this ideal, +but Social Democracy is struggling towards it, and schools, more or +less efficient, are open to the workmen's children. This education is +extended to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>adults by the press and by self-imposed studies. The +eagerness with which men and women flock to lectures and night classes +is a great omen. In Paris the <i>École Socialiste</i> and <i>Université +Populaire</i>, in Germany and Belgium the night classes in the labor +union clubhouses, the debates and the lecture courses, are evidences +of intellectual eagerness.</p> + +<p>In the second place it is a drilled democracy. It is organized into +vast co-operative societies and trade unions. Here it learns the +lesson of constant watchfulness over details. This training in the +infinite little things of business is a good sedative. Socialists +bargain and sell and learn the lessons of competition; do banking and +learn discount; engage in manufacture and learn the problem of the +employer.</p> + +<p>They are, moreover, drilled in parliaments, in city and county +councils, in communal offices. They learn the advantages of give and +take, are skilled in compromise, and feel the friction of opposition.</p> + +<p>All this has wrought a wonderful change in Socialism. To a Belgian +co-operativist running a butcher-shop, the eight-hour day is a +practical problem; and to a Bavarian member of a city council the +question of opening communal dwellings ceases to be only a subject for +debate. Nothing has brought these people to earth so suddenly as the +infusion of earthly experience into their blood. And this transfusion +has given them life. It has rid them of their many adjectives and +given them a few verbs. It has robbed them in large measure of their +mob spirit.<a name="FNanchor_5-10_231" id="FNanchor_5-10_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_5-10_231" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Every year the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>arbitrary governments of Europe are +finding police coercion more and more unnecessary. The Socialist crowd +is growing orderly, is achieving that self-control which alone +entitles a people to self-government.</p> + +<p>It is not unnatural that this movement has made leaders. Of these, +Herr August Bebel is the most remarkable example. This woodturner, +turned party autocrat and statesman, is a never-ending wonder to the +German aristocracy. His speeches are read as eagerly as those of the +Chancellor, and his opinions are quoted as widely as the Kaiser's. +When in 1911 he made his great speech on the Morocco Question in the +Social Democratic Convention, it was reported by the column in all of +the great Continental and English dailies. Bebel is an example of what +the open door of opportunity will do, and he had to force the door +himself. A few years ago, in a moment of reminiscent confidence, he +confessed that he used to cherish as an ideal the time when he could, +for once, have all the bread and butter he could eat. In America we +are accustomed to this rising into power of obscure and untried men. +But in Europe it is rare. European Social Democracy is an expression +of the desire on the part of the people for the open highways of +opportunity.</p> + +<p>In the third place, Social Democracy is self-conscious. I have not +used the word class-conscious, because it is more than the +consciousness of an economic group. History is replete with instances +that reveal the irresistible power generated by mass consciousness. +This <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>is the psychology of nationalism. The dynamo that generates the +mysterious voltage of patriotism, of tribal loyalty, is the heart. +Socialism has replaced tribal and national ideals and welded its +devotees into a self-conscious international unity. Whatever danger +there may be in Socialism is the danger of the zealot. The ideal may +be impracticable and discarded, but the devotion to it may be blind +and destructive.</p> + +<p>As a rule, Socialist leaders and writers maintain that this drawing +together of Socialism and democracy is only transitory, and that +beyond this lies the promised land of social production. Jaurès has +explained this clearly: "Democracy, under the impetus given it by +organized labor, is evolving irresistibly toward Socialism, and +Socialism toward a form of property which will deliver man from his +exploitation by man, and bring to an end the régime of class +government. The Radicals flatter themselves that they can put a stop +to this movement by promising the working classes some reforms, and by +proclaiming themselves the guardians of private property. They hope to +hold a large part of the proletariat in check by a few reforming laws +expressing a sentiment of social solidarity, and by their policy of +defending private property to rouse the conservative forces, the petty +bourgeoisie, the middle classes, and the small peasant proprietors to +oppose Socialism."<a name="FNanchor_6-10_232" id="FNanchor_6-10_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_6-10_232" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>So we see that in spite of their experiences Socialists still draw a +clear distinction between their Socialism and democracy. The Socialist +is willing to ignore the experiences of the past twenty years in his +ecstasy of vision. He claims that whatever has been done is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>mere +reform. He affects to belittle it, the Marxian scorns it. To the +Socialist, democracy is only the halfway house on the road to the +economic paradise. He has his gaze fixed on the New Jerusalem of +"co-operative production" and "distributive justice." Whether this New +City, with its streets paved with the gold of altruism and its gates +garnished with the pearls of good will and benevolence, will be +brought from the fleecy clouds of ecstatic imagination to our sordid +earth remains a question of speculation to that vast body of sincere +and practical citizens who have not scaled the heights of the +Socialistic Patmos.</p> + +<p>European Socialism has been transplanted to America. But its growth +until quite recently has been very slow, and confined largely to +immigrants. There is no political spur to hasten the movement. Here +democracy has been achieved. The universal ballot, free speech, free +press, free association are accomplished. Many of the economic +policies espoused by the Social Democratic parties of Europe are +written into the platforms of our political parties. There will be no +independent labor party of any strength until the old parties have +aroused the distrust of the great body of laboring men, and until the +labor unions cut loose from their traditional aloofness and enter +politics. How socialistic such a party will be must depend upon the +circumstances attending its organization. The two third-party +movements which have flourished since the Civil War, the Greenback +movement of the '70's and the Populist movement of the '90's, were +virtually "class" parties, restricted to the agricultural population +of the Middle and Far West; and both of them feared Socialism as much +as they hated capitalism. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>Neither of these parties outlived a decade. +Economic prosperity abruptly ended both.<a name="FNanchor_7-10_233" id="FNanchor_7-10_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_7-10_233" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The stress of political exclusiveness and the harsh hand of government +will not produce a reactionary movement among the workingmen of +America. But economic circumstances may do so. We are still a young +country full of the hope of youth. The ranks of every walk of life are +filled with those who have worked their way to success from humble +origin. Most of our famous men struggled with poverty in their youth. +Their lives are constantly held up to the children of the nation as +examples of American pluck, enterprise, and opportunity. A nation that +lures its clerks toward proprietorship and its artisans toward +independence offers barren soil for the doctrines of discontent. We +have no stereotyped poverty in the European sense. Our farmers own +their acreage, and many of the urban poor are able to buy a cottage in +the outskirts of the city.</p> + +<p>But there are signs that these conditions are undergoing profound +changes. Unlimited competition has led to limitless consolidation of +industries, and the financial destinies of the Republic repose in the +hands of comparatively few men. So much of the Marxian proposition is +fulfilled, at the moment, in America. This concentrated wealth has not +been unmindful of politics. Governmental power and money power are +closely identified in the public mind. Our cities are overflowing with +a new population from the excitable portions of southern Europe, a +population that is proletarian in every sense of the word. Panics +follow one another in rapid succession. The uneasiness <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>of business is +fed by the turmoil of politics. Unrest is everywhere. Labor and +business are engaged in constant struggles that affect all members of +society. The cost of living has increased alarmingly in the last ten +years. We are becoming rapidly a manufacturing nation; the balance of +power is shifting from the farm to the city.<a name="FNanchor_8-10_234" id="FNanchor_8-10_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_8-10_234" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>European Socialists are taking a keen interest in American affairs. +Bebel said to me: "You are getting ready for the appropriation of the +great productive enterprises and the railways. Your trusts make the +problem easy." John Burns prophesied that violence and bloodshed alone +would check us in our mad career for wealth. Jaurès asked how long it +would take before our poverty would be worse than that of Europe. At a +distance they see us plunging headlong into a Socialist régime.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>Professor Brentano of Munich knows us better. He said to me, +"Conservation will be your Socialism."<a name="FNanchor_9-10_235" id="FNanchor_9-10_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_9-10_235" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> If the fundamental +principles of conservation can be embodied in constitutional laws, +then there will be an almost indefinite extension of the power of the +state over industry. It will embrace mines, forests, irrigated +deserts; it will extend to the sources of all water supply and water +power; the means of transportation may ultimately be included. So that +without radical legal and institutional changes it will be possible +for many of the sources of our raw materials to be placed under +governmental surveillance, leaving the processes of manufacture and +exchange in the hands of private individuals.</p> + +<p>There are at present many indications that this will be our general +process of "socialization." The people appear to want it; and in a +democracy the will of the people must prevail.</p> + +<p>Before we have advanced far along the new road of conservation we will +find it necessary to reconstruct our whole system of administration. +The haphazard of politics must be foreign to public business. +Everywhere in Europe, especially in Germany and England, the people, +including the Socialists, appear satisfied with the efficiency of +their administrative machinery. Who would intrust the running of a +railroad to our Federal or State governments?</p> + +<p>We have reached the extreme of rampant <i>laissez-faire</i>. Our youthful +vigor and material wealth have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>kept us buoyant. Politically we will +become more radical, economically less individualistic, in the next +cycle of our development. There is no magic that saves a people except +the magic of opportunity. In a democracy especially it is necessary to +constantly purge society by free-moving currents of talent and virtue. +This replenishing stream has its sources in the sturdy, healthy +workers of the nation. The movement is from the depths upward. It is +the supreme function of the state to keep these sources unclogged.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-10_227" id="Footnote_1-10_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-10_227"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <span class="sc">J. Ramsay MacDonald</span>, <i>Ethical Democracy</i>, pp. +61-71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-10_228" id="Footnote_2-10_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-10_228"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <span class="sc">J. Ramsay MacDonald</span>, <i>Socialism and Government</i>, +Vol. II, p. 117.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3-10_229" id="Footnote_3-10_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3-10_229"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <span class="sc">Frederick Engels'</span> Introduction to <span class="sc">Marx'</span> +<i>Klassenkampf</i>, pp. 16-17, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4-10_230" id="Footnote_4-10_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4-10_230"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The coal strike in England in March, 1912, brought the +question of a legalized minimum wage before the people.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5-10_231" id="Footnote_5-10_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5-10_231"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> On November 28, 1905, a vast army of working men and +women, estimated at 300,000 by the anti-Socialist papers, marched +under the red flag through the streets of Vienna as a protest against +the existing franchise laws. They were given the right of way and +walked in silence through the streets of the capital. Their +orderliness was more impressive than their vast numbers. It was an +object-lesson that the government did not forget.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6-10_232" id="Footnote_6-10_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6-10_232"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <span class="sc">Jean Jaurès</span>, <i>Studies in Socialism</i>, Eng. ed., +p. 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7-10_233" id="Footnote_7-10_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7-10_233"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> What the so-called Progressive Party will accomplish, in +this direction, remains to be seen.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8-10_234" id="Footnote_8-10_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8-10_234"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The Socialist vote in the United States is as follows:</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 15%;"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="30%" summary="The Socialist vote in the United States"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="33%">1892</td> + <td class="tdr" width="33%">21,164</td> + <td class="tdr" width="34%"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1896</td> + <td class="tdr">36,274</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1900</td> + <td class="tdr">87,814</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1904</td> + <td class="tdr">402,283</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1908</td> + <td class="tdr">402,464</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1910</td> + <td class="tdr">607,674</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1911</td> + <td class="tdr">1,500,000</td> + <td class="tdl">(estimated)</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p class="noin">The vast increase shown in 1911 was made in municipal and other local +elections. On January 1, 1912, 377 villages, towns, and cities in 36 +States had some Socialist officers. Several important cities have been +under Socialist rule, notably Milwaukee and Schenectady, where the +Socialists captured the entire city machinery. In 1912 the Socialists +lost control of Milwaukee, although their vote increased 3,000. Their +overthrow was accomplished by the coalescing of the old parties into a +Citizens' Party, a line-up between radicalism and conservatism that +will probably become the rule in American local politics.</p> + +<p class="noin">The party is organized along the lines of the German Social Democracy. +Its membership has grown as follows:</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 15%;"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="35%" summary="The Socialist vote in the United States"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="50%">1903</td> + <td class="tdl" width="50%">15,975</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1904</td> + <td class="tdl">20,764</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1905</td> + <td class="tdl">23,327</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1906</td> + <td class="tdl">26,784</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1907</td> + <td class="tdl">29,270</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1908</td> + <td class="tdl">41,751</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1909</td> + <td class="tdl">41,479</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1910</td> + <td class="tdl">48,011</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1911</td> + <td class="tdl">84,716</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">1912 (May)</td> + <td class="tdl">142,000</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> +<br /></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9-10_235" id="Footnote_9-10_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9-10_235"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> In this statement, Professor Brentano re-enforces the +opinions of the American economist to whose teachings and writings the +"progressive" movement in American economics and politics, and +especially the movement for conservation of natural resources, must be +traced. For many years Professor Richard T. Ely has been pointing the +way to this conservative "socialization" of our natural wealth.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span><br /> + +<h2>APPENDIX</h2> + +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>I. BIBLIOGRAPHY</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The following list of the principal works consulted in the preparation +of this volume may serve also as a bibliography on the subject. There +are very few American books in the list, because the object of this +volume is to summarize the European situation.</p> + +<p>For the spirit of the movement the student must consult the +contemporary literature of Socialism—the newspapers, magazines, and +pamphlets, and the campaign documents that flow in a constant stream +from the Socialist press. These are, of course, too numerous and too +fluctuating in character to be catalogued. Lists of these publications +can be secured at the following addresses:</p> + +<p>The Fabian Society, 3 Clements Inn, Strand, London, W.C.</p> + +<p>The Labor Party, 28 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, S.W.</p> + +<p>The Independent Labor Party, 23 Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London, E.C.</p> + +<p>German Social Democracy, Verlags-Buchhandlung <i>Vorwärts</i>, 68 +Lindenstrasse, Berlin, S.W.</p> + +<p>Belgian Labor Party, <i>Le Peuple</i>, 33-35 rue de Sable, Brussels.</p> + +<p>French Socialist Party, <i>La Parti Socialiste</i>, 16 rue de la Corderie, +Paris.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>GENERAL WORKS: THE FOUNDERS OF SOCIALISM</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><span class="sc">Blanc, Louis</span>: <i>Socialism.</i> An English edition was +published in 1848.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Organization of Labor.</i> English edition in 1848.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Booth</span>: <i>Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Cabet, Étienne</span>: <i>Le Vrai Christianisme</i>, 1846.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Feuerbach, Friedrich</span>: <i>Die Religion der Zukunft</i>, 1843-5.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Essence of Christianity.</i> An English translation, 1881, in +the "English and Foreign Philosophical Library."</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Fourier, F.C.M.</span>: <i>Œuvres Complètes.</i> 6 vols. 1841-5.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Gammond, Gatti de</span>: Fourier and His System, 1842.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Gide, Charles</span>: <i>Selections from Fourier.</i> An English +translation by Julien Franklin, 1901.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Godwin, William</span>: <i>An Inquiry Concerning Political +Justice</i>, 1796.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Kingsley</span>: <i>Cheap Clothes and Nasty</i>, 1851.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Morrell, J.R.</span>: <i>Life of Fourier</i>, 1849.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Morris, William</span>: <i>Works of</i>; <i>Chants for Socialists</i>, +1885.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Owen, Robert</span>: <i>An Address</i>, etc., 1813.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Addresses</i>, etc., 1816.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>An Explanation of the Distress</i>, etc., 1823.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Book of the New Moral World</i>, etc., 1836.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Proudhon, Pierre Joseph</span>: The Works of. English +translation by Tucker, American edition, 1876.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Saint-Simon</span>: <i>New Christianity.</i> An English translation +by Rev. J.E. Smith. 1834.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Weil, G.</span>: <i>L'École Saint-Simonisme—son Histoire</i>, etc., +1896.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Weitling, William</span>: <i>Garantieen der Harmonie und +Freiheit</i>, 1845.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>GENERAL WORKS: MODERN DISCUSSION</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><span class="sc">Bebel, A.</span>: <i>Woman, in the Past, Present, and Future.</i> An +English translation appeared in London in 1890.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Bernstein, Edward</span>: <i>Responsibility and Solidarity in the +Labor Struggle</i>, 1900.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Brooks, J.G.</span>: <i>The Social Unrest</i>, 1903.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Ely, R.T.</span>: <i>French and German Socialism</i>, 1883.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Ensor, R.C.K.</span>: <i>Modern Socialism.</i> A useful collection of +Socialist documents, speeches, programs, etc.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Graham, W.</span>: <i>Socialism New and Old</i>, 1890.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Guthrie, W.B.</span>: <i>Socialism Before the French Revolution</i>, +1907.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Guyot, Y.</span>: <i>The Tyranny of Socialism</i>, 1894.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Jaurès, J.</span>: <i>Studies in Socialism</i>, 1906.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Kautsky, K.</span>: <i>The Social Revolution.</i> An English +translation by J.B. Askew. The best Continental view of modern +Marxianism, and the most widely read.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Kelly, Edmond</span>: <i>Twentieth Century Socialism</i>, 1910. The +most noteworthy of recent American contributions to Socialist +thought.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Kirkup</span>: <i>A History of Socialism</i>, 1909. A concise and +authoritative narrative.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Koigen, D.</span>: <i>Die Kultur-ausschauung des Sozialismus</i>, +1903.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Levy, J.H.</span>: <i>The Outcome of Individualism</i>, 1890.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">MacDonald, J.R.</span>: <i>Socialism and Society</i>, 1905. MacDonald +is not only the leader of the British Labor Party, but his +writings comprise a comprehensive exposition of the views of +labor democracy.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Character and Democracy</i>, 1906.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Socialism</i>, 1907.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Socialism and Government</i>, 1909.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Mill, J.S.</span>: <i>Socialism</i>, 1891. A collection of essays, +etc., from the writings of John Stuart Mill touching on +Socialism.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Rae, J.</span>: <i>Contemporary Socialism</i>, 1908. A standard work.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Richter</span>: <i>Pictures of the Socialist Future</i>, 1893.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Schaeffle</span>: <i>The Impossibility of Social-Democracy</i>, 1892.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>The Quintessence of Socialism</i>, 1898. Probably the most +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>authoritative and concise refutation of the Socialist dogmas.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Sombart, Werner</span>: <i>Socialism and the Social Movement</i>, +1909. Widely read, both in the original and in the English +translation. Contains an interesting critique of Marxianism.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Spencer, Herbert</span>: <i>The Coming Slavery</i>, 1884. A reprint +from <i>The Contemporary Review</i>.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Stoddard, Jane</span>: <i>The New Socialism</i>, 1909. A convenient +compilation.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Tugan-Baranovsky, M.I.</span>: <i>Modern Socialism</i>, 1910. A +systematic and scholarly résumé of the doctrines of Socialism.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Warschauer, O.</span>: <i>Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte des +Sozialismus</i>, 1909.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Wells, H.G.</span>: <i>New Worlds for Old</i>, 1909. One of the most +popular expositions of Socialism.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>MARX AND ENGELS</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><span class="sc">Aveling, E.B.</span>: <i>The Student's Marx.</i> A handy +compilation. 1902.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Boehm-Bawerk</span>: <i>Karl Marx and the Close of His System.</i> An +English translation was made in 1898.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Engels, Friedrich</span>: <i>Die Entwickelung des Socialismus von +der Utopie zur Wissenschaft</i>, 1891.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Socialism—Utopian and Scientific</i>, 1892.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>L. Feuerbach und der Ausgang der Klassischen Deutschen +Philosophie</i>, 1903.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Briefe und Auszüge von Briefen</i>, 1906.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Friedrich Engels, Sein Leben, Sein Wirken und Seine +Schriften</i>, 1895.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Marx</span> and <span class="sc">Engels</span>: <i>The Communist Manifesto.</i> +There have been many editions; that of 1888 is probably the +widest known for its historical Introduction.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Marx, Karl</span>: <i>The Poverty of Philosophy.</i> An answer to +Proudhon's <i>La Philosophie de la Misère</i>. An English +translation was made by H. Quelch, 1900.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Enthüllungen über den Kommunisten Process zu Köln</i>, 1875. +Engels' Preface gives an account of the origin of the "Society +of the Just."</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich, 1848-50.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany in 1848.</i> An +English translation appeared in 1896.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Capital</i>, 1896.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>The International Workingmen's Association.</i> Two addresses +on the Franco-Prussian War, 1870.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>The international Workingmen's Association—The Civil War in +France.</i> An address to the General Council of the +International, 1871.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>THE INTERNATIONAL</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><span class="sc">Dave, V.</span>: <i>Michel Bakunin et Karl Marx</i>, 1900.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Engels, F.</span>: <i>The International Workingmen's Association</i>, +1891.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Froebel, J.</span>: <i>Ein Lebenslauf</i>—for an account of Marx vs. +Bakunin.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Guillaume, J.</span>: <i>L'Internationale: Documents et +Souvenirs</i>, 1905.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Jaeckh, Gustav</span>: <i>L'Internationale.</i> An English +translation was published in 1904.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Jaeger, E.</span>: <i>Karl Marx und die Internationale Arbeiter +Association</i>, 1873.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Maurice, C.E.</span>: <i>Revolutionary Movements of 1848-9</i>, 1887.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Testut, O.</span>: <i>L'Internationale—son origine, son but, son +principes, son organisation</i>, etc. Third edition, 1871. A +German edition translated by Paul Frohberg, Leipsic, 1872.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Le Livre Bleu de l'Internationale</i>, 1871.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Villetard</span>: <i>History of the International.</i> Translated by +Susan M. Day, New Haven, 1874.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>Ein Complot gegen die Internationale Arbeiter Association</i>, 1874, +gives a careful version of the Marxian side of the Bakunin +controversy.</p> + +<p class="hang">"International Workingmen's Association"—"<i>Procès-verbaux, +Congrès à Lausanne</i>," 1867.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>Troisième Congrès de l'Association Internationale des +Travailleurs</i>, Brussels, 1868.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>Manifeste aux Travailleurs des Campagnes.</i> Paris, 1870.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>Manifeste addressé à toutes les associations ouvrières</i>, etc. +Paris, 1874.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>International Arbeiter Association Protokoll.</i> A German edition +of the Proceedings of the Paris Congress, 1890, with a +valuable Introduction by W. Liebknecht.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>FRANCE</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><span class="sc">Jaeger, Eugen</span>: <i>Geschichte der Socialen Bewegung und des +Socialismus in Frankreich</i>, 1890.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Jaurès, Jean</span>: <i>L'Armée Nouvelle—L'Organisation +Socialiste de la France</i>, 1911. The initial installment of the +long-promised account of the Socialist state.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Lavy, A.</span>: <i>L'Œuvre de Millerand</i>, 1902. An +appreciative history of Millerand's work. Contains many +documents, speeches, etc.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Peixotto, J.</span>: <i>The French Revolution and Modern +Socialism</i>, 1901.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Von Stein, Lorenz</span>: <i>Der Sozialismus und Communismus des +Heutigen Frankreichs</i>, 1848.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Weil, Georges</span>: <i>Histoire du Mouvement Socialiste en +France</i>, 1904.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>BELGIUM</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><span class="sc">Bertrand, Louis</span>: <i>Histoire de la Démocratie et +Socialisme en Belgique depuis 1830</i>, 1906. Introduction by +Vandervelde.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Histoire de la Coopération en Belgique</i>, 1902.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Bertrand, Louis</span>, et al.: <i>75 Années de Domination +Bourgeois</i>, 1905.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Destrée</span> et <span class="sc">Vandervelde</span>: <i>Le Socialisme en +Belgique.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Langerock, H.</span>: <i>Le Socialisme Agraire</i>, 1895.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Steffens-Frauweiler, H. von</span>: <i>Der Agrar Sozialismus in +Belgien</i>, Munich, 1893.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Vandervelde, Émile</span>: <i>Histoire de la Coopération en +Belgique</i>, 1902.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Essais sur la Question Agraire en Belgique</i>, 1902.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— Article on the General Strike in <i>Archiv für Sozial +Wissenschaft</i>, May, 1908.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>GERMANY</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><span class="sc">Bebel, August</span>: <i>Die Social-Demokratie im Deutschen +Reichstag.</i> A series of brochures detailing the activity of +the Social Democrats—1871-1893. Of course from a partisan +point of view.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Aus Meinem Leben</i>, 1910. An intimate recital of the +development of Social Democracy in Germany.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Bernstein, Edward</span>: <i>Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine +Bedeutung für die Arbeiter Klasse</i>, 1904.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Brandes, Georg</span>: <i>Ferdinand Lassalle: Ein Literarisches +Charakter-Bild.</i> Berlin, 1877. An English translation was +published in 1911. This is a brilliant biography.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Dawson, W.H.</span>: <i>German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle</i>, +1888.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Bismarck and State Socialism</i>, 1890.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>The German Workman</i>, 1906.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>The Evolution of Modern Germany</i>, 1908.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Eisner, K.</span>: <i>Liebknecht—Sein Leben und Wirken</i>, 1900. A +brief sketch of the veteran Social Democrat.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Frank, Dr. Ludwig</span>: <i>Die Bürgerlichen Parteien des +Deutschen Reichstags</i>, 1911. A Socialist's account of the rise +of German political parties.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Harms, B.</span>: <i>Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine Bedeutung für +die Deutsche Sozial-Demokratie</i>, 1909.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Sozialismus und die Sozial-Demokratie in Deutschland.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Hooper, E.G.</span>: <i>The German State Insurance System</i>, 1908.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Kampfmeyer, P.</span>: <i>Geschichte der Modernen Polizei im +Zusammenhang mit der Allgemeinen Kulturbewegung</i>, 1897. A +Socialist's recital of the use of police.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Geschichte der Modernen Gesellschafts-klassen in +Deutschland</i>, 1896. From a Socialist standpoint.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Kohut, A.</span>: <i>Ferdinand Lassalle—Sein Leben und Wirken</i>, +1889.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Lassalle, Ferdinand</span>: <i>Offenes Antwortschreiben an das +Central-Comité zur Berufung eines Allgemeinen Deutschen +Arbeiter Congress zu Leipzig</i>, 1863.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Die Wissenschaft und die Arbeiter</i>, 1863.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Macht und Recht</i>, 1863. A complete edition of Lassalle's +works was published in 1899, under the title "Gesamte Werke +Ferdinand Lassalles."</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Lowe, C.</span>: <i>Prince Bismarck: An Historical Biography</i>, +1885. A sympathetic description of Bismarck's attempt to solve +the social problem.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Mehring, F.</span>: <i>Die Deutsche Sozial-Demokratie—Ihre +Geschichte und Ihre Lehre</i>, 1879. Third edition. A compact +narrative.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Meyer, R.</span>: <i>Emancipationskampf des Vierten Standes</i>, +1882.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Naumann, Friedrich</span>: <i>Die Politischen Parteien</i>, 1911. +History of German political parties. A Radical account.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Schmoele, J.</span>: <i>Die Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften in +Deutschland seit dem Erlasse des Sozialisten Gesetzes</i>, 1896, +etc.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>Sozial-Demokratische Partei-Tag-Protokoll.</i> Annual reports of the +party conventions.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>Documente des Sozialismus.</i> An annual publication edited by +Bernstein.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>ENGLAND</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><span class="sc">Arnold-Foster, H.</span>: <i>English Socialism of To-day</i>, 1908.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Barker, J.E.</span>: <i>British Socialism</i>, 1908. A collection of +quotations.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Bibby, F.</span>: <i>Trades Unionism and Socialism</i>, 1907.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Blatchford, R.</span>: <i>Merrie England</i>, 1895.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Churchill, Winston</span>: <i>Liberalism and the Social Problem</i>, +1909.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Engels, F.</span>: <i>The Condition of the Working Classes in +England in 1844</i>, 1892.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Fay, C.R.</span>: <i>Co-operation at Home and Abroad</i>, 1908.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Gammage, R.G.</span>: <i>History of the Chartist Movement</i>, 1894.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Hardie, Keir</span>: <i>From Serfdom, to Socialism</i>, 1907.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Hobhouse, L.T.</span>: <i>The Labor Movement</i>, 1898.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Liberalism</i>, 1911.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Democracy and Reaction</i>, 1904.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Hobson, J.A.</span>: <i>The Crisis in Liberalism</i>, 1909.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Holyoake</span>: <i>History of Cooperation</i>, 1906.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Knott, Y.</span>: <i>Conservative Socialism</i>, 1909.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Lecky, W.E.H.</span>: <i>Democracy and Liberty</i>, 1899.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">MacDonald, J.R.</span>: <i>The People in Power</i>, 1900.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Socialism To-day</i>, 1909.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Masterman, C.F.G.</span>: <i>The Condition of England</i>, 1909.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">McCarthy, J.</span>: <i>The Epoch of Reform</i>, 1882. For Chartism +and the reform movements of the nineteenth century democracy.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Money, Chiozza</span>: <i>Riches and Poverty</i>, 1911.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Nicholson, J.S.</span>: <i>History, Progress and Ideals of +Socialism.</i> A criticism of the Socialist viewpoint.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Noel, Conrad</span>: <i>The Labor Party.</i> A criticism of the +attitude of Liberals and Conservatives toward the social +problems. From the Labor Party viewpoint.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Snowden, P.</span>: <i>The Socialist Budget</i>, 1907.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Towler, W.G.</span>: <i>Municipal Socialism.</i> The anti-Socialist +viewpoint.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>The Times</i>: <i>The Socialist Movement in Great Britain</i>, 1909. A +reprint of a series of carefully prepared articles in <i>The +Times.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Villiers, B.</span>: <i>The Opportunity of Liberalism</i>, 1904.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>The Socialist Movement in England</i>, 1908.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Webb, S.</span>: <i>Wanted—A Program: An Appeal to the Liberal +Party</i>, 1888.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>Socialism in England</i>, 1890.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="sc">Webb, B.</span> and S.: <i>Industrial Democracy</i>, 1902.</p> + +<p class="hang">—— <i>The History of Trade Unionism</i>, 1911.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>II. FRANCE</h3> +<br /> + +<h4>1. NOTE ON THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT</h4> + +<p>Yves Guyot, the distinguished French publicist, told the writer that +there was only one compact, disciplined political party in France, the +United Socialists. Other than the Socialists, there is no +well-organized group in the Chamber of Deputies. The Right, Center, +and Left coalesce almost insensibly into each other. Party platforms +and party loyalty are replaced by a political individualism that to an +American politician would seem like political anarchy.</p> + +<p>The Chamber of Deputies is supreme—the ministry stands or falls upon +its majority's behest. This gives to the deputy a peculiar personal +power. He is only loosely affiliated with his group, is a powerful +factor in the government of the Republic, and is directly dependent +upon his constituents for his tenure in office. The result is a +personal, rather then a party, system of politics.</p> + +<p>This remarkably decentralized system of representative governance is +counterbalanced by a highly efficient and completely centralized +system of administration, which is based on civil service, and +outlives all the mutations of ministries and shifting of deputies. The +ministry, naturally, has theoretical control over the administrative +officials. During the campaign for reorganizing the army and navy, and +the disestablishment of the Church, under the Radical-Socialist +<i>bloc</i>, a few years ago, General André, acting for the ministry, +resorted to a comprehensive system of espionage to ferret out the +undesirable officers. Every commune has its official scrutinizer, who +reports the doings of the employees to the government.</p> + +<p>This, in turn, has created a clientilism. The deputy is needed by the +ministry, the deputy needs the votes of his constituency, the local +officials need the good will of the deputy. The result is a fawning +favoritism that has taken the place of party servitude as we know it +in America.</p> + +<p>The Socialists have precipitated a serious problem in this relation of +the government employee to the state: Can the state employees form a +union? There are nearly 1,000,000 state employees. This includes not +only all the functionaries, but all the workmen in the match +factories, the mint, the national porcelain factory and tobacco +plants, and the navy yards. In 1885 and again in 1902 the Court of +Cassation decided that "the right of forming a union (<i>syndicat</i>) is +confined to those who, whether as employers or as workmen or employed, +are engaged in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span><i>industry, agriculture, or commerce</i>, to the exclusion +of all other persons and all other occupations."</p> + +<p>The government has, however, countenanced some infringements. A few +syndicates of municipal and departmental employees are allowed; but +they are mostly workmen, not strictly functionaries. There are several +syndicates of elementary school teachers. But they have not been +allowed to federate their unions. At Lyons the teachers formed a union +and, according to law, filed their rules and regulations with the +proper official, who turned them over to the Minister of Justice, and +after a cabinet consultation it was decided that the union was +illegal, but would be ignored. They then joined the local <i>Bourse du +Travail</i> (federation of labor), and Briand, then Minister of +Education, vetoed their action. Then a number of branches in the +public service, including post-office and customs-house employees, +teachers, etc., united in forming a committee "<i>pour la défense du +droit syndical des salaries de l'état, des départements et du +commerce</i>." This "Committee of Defense" petitioned Clémenceau on the +right to organize, and intimated that the great and only difference +between the state and the private employer is that the former adds +political to economic oppression. This is pure Syndicalism. Under the +individual political jugglery that takes the place of the party system +in France, the problem is not made any the easier.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>2. PROGRAM OF THE LIBERAL WING OF THE FRENCH SOCIALISTS,<br /> ADOPTED AT +TOURS, 1902, UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF JAURÈS</h4> + +<br /> + +<h4><i>I.—Declaration of Principles</i></h4> + +<p>Socialism proceeds simultaneously from the movement of democracy and +from the new forms of production. In history, from the very morrow of +the French Revolution, the proletarians perceived that the Declaration +of the Rights of Man would remain an illusion unless society +transformed ownership.</p> + +<p>How, indeed, could freedom, ownership, security, be guaranteed to all, +in a society where millions of workers have no property but their +muscles, and are obliged, in order to live, to sell their power of +work to the propertied minority?</p> + +<p>To extend, therefore, to every citizen the guarantees inscribed in the +Declaration of Rights, our great Babeuf demanded ownership in common, +as a guarantee of welfare in common. Communism was for the boldest +proletarians the supreme expression of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>Between the political régime, the outcome of the revolutionary +movement, and the economic régime of society, there is an intolerable +contradiction.</p> + +<p>In the political order democracy is realized: all citizens share +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>equally, at least by right, in the sovereignty; universal suffrage is +communism in political power.</p> + +<p>In the economic order, on the other hand, a minority is sovereign. It +is the oligarchy of capital which possesses, directs, administers, and +exploits.</p> + +<p>Proletarians are acknowledged fit as citizens to manage the milliards +of the national and communal budgets; as laborers, in the workshop, +they are only a passive multitude, which has no share in the direction +of enterprises, and they endure the domination of a class which makes +them pay dearly for a tutelage whose utility ceases and whose +prolongation is arbitrary.</p> + +<p>The irresistible tendency of the proletarians, therefore, is to +transfer into the economic order the democracy partially realized in +the political order. Just as all the citizens have and handle in +common, democratically, the political power, so they must have and +handle in common the economic power, the means of production.</p> + +<p>They must themselves appoint the heads of work in the workshops, as +they appoint the heads of government in the city, and reserve for +those who work, for the community, the whole product of work.</p> + +<p>This tendency of political democracy to enlarge itself into social +democracy has been strengthened and defined by the whole economic +evolution.</p> + +<p>In proportion as the capitalistic régime developed its effects, the +proletariat became conscious of the irreducible opposition between its +essential interests and the interests of the class dominant in +society, and to the bourgeois form of democracy it opposed more and +more the complete and thorough communistic democracy.</p> + +<p>All hope of universalizing ownership and independence by multiplying +small autonomous producers has disappeared. The great industry is more +and more the rule in modern production.</p> + +<p>By the enlargement of the world's markets, by the growing facility of +transport, by the division of labor, by the increasing application of +machinery, by the concentration of capitals, immense concentrated +production is gradually ruining or subordinating the small or middling +producers.</p> + +<p>Even where the number of small craftsmen, small traders, small peasant +proprietors, does not diminish, their relative importance in the +totality of production grows less unceasingly. They fall under the +sway of the great capitalists.</p> + +<p>Even the peasant proprietors, who seem to have retained a little +independence, are more and more exposed to the crushing forces of the +universal market, which capitalism directs without their concurrence +and against their interests.</p> + +<p>For the sale of their wheat, wine, beetroot, and milk, they are more +and more at the mercy of great middlemen or great industries of +milling, distilling, and sugar-refining, which dominate and despoil +peasant labor.</p> + +<p>The industrial proletarians, having lost nearly all chance of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>individually rising to be employers, and being thus doomed to eternal +dependence, are further subject to incessant crises of unemployment +and misery, let loose by the unregulated competition of the great +capitalist forces.</p> + +<p>The immense progress of production and wealth, largely usurped by +parasitic classes, has not led to an equivalent progress in well-being +and security for the workers, the proletarians. Whole categories of +wage-earners are abruptly thrown into extreme misery by the constant +introduction of new mechanisms and by the abrupt movements and +transformations of industry.</p> + +<p>Capitalism itself admits the disorder of the present régime of +production, since it tries to regulate it for its gain by capitalistic +syndicates, by trusts.</p> + +<p>Even if it succeeded in actually disciplining all the forces of +production, it would only do so while consummating the domination and +the monopoly of capital.</p> + +<p>There is only one way of assuring the continued order and progress of +production, the freedom of every individual, and the growing +well-being of the workers; it is to transfer to the collectivity, to +the social community, the ownership of the capitalistic means of +production.</p> + +<p>The proletariat, daily more numerous, ever better prepared for +combined action by the great industry itself, understands that in +collectiveness or communism lie the necessary means of salvation for +it.</p> + +<p>As an oppressed and exploited class, it opposes all the forces of +oppression and exploitation, the whole system of ownership, which +debases it to be a mere instrument. It does not expect its +emancipation from the good will of rulers or the spontaneous +generosity of the propertied classes, but from the continual and +methodical pressure which it exerts upon the privileged class and the +government.</p> + +<p>It sets before itself as its final aim, not a partial amelioration, +but the total transformation of society. And since it acknowledges no +right as belonging to capitalistic ownership, it feels bound to it by +no contract. It is determined to fight it, thoroughly, and to the end; +and it is in this sense that the proletariat, even while using the +legal means which democracy puts into its hands, is and must remain a +revolutionary class.</p> + +<p>Already by winning universal suffrage, by winning and exercising the +right of combining to strike and of forming trade-unions, by the first +laws regulating labor and causing society to insure its members, the +proletariat has begun to react against the fatal effects of +capitalism; it will continue this great and unceasing effort, but it +will only end the struggle when all capitalist property has been +reabsorbed by the community, and when the antagonism of classes has +been ended by the disappearance of the classes themselves, reconciled, +or rather made one, in common production and common ownership.</p> + +<p>How will be accomplished the supreme transformation of the capitalist +régime into the collectivist or communist? The human <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>mind cannot +determine beforehand the mode in which history will be accomplished.</p> + +<p>The democratic and bourgeois revolution, which originated in the great +movement of France in 1789, has come about in different countries in +the most different ways. The old feudal system has yielded in one case +to force, in another to peaceful and slow evolution. The revolutionary +bourgeoisie has at one place and time proceeded to brutal +expropriation without compensation, at another to the buying out of +feudal servitudes.</p> + +<p>No one can know in what way the capitalist servitude will be +abolished. The essential thing is that the proletariat should be +always ready for the most vigorous and effective action. It would be +dangerous to dismiss the possibility of revolutionary events +occasioned either by the resistance or by the criminal aggression of +the privileged class.</p> + +<p>It would be fatal, trusting in the one word revolution, to neglect the +great forces which the conscious, organized proletariat can employ +within democracy.</p> + +<p>These legal means, often won by revolution, represent an accumulation +of revolutionary force, a revolutionary capital, of which it would be +madness not to take advantage.</p> + +<p>Too often the workers neglect to profit by the means of action which +democracy and the Republic put into their hands. They do not demand +from trade-unionist action, co-operative action, or universal +suffrage, all that those forms of action can give.</p> + +<p>No formula, no machinery, can enable the working-class to dispense +with the constant effort of organization and education.</p> + +<p>The idea of the general strike, of general strikes, is invincibly +suggested to proletarians by the growing magnitude of working-class +organization. They do not desire violence, which is very often the +result of an insufficient organization and a rudimentary education of +the proletariat; but they would make a great mistake if they did not +employ the powerful means of action, which co-ordinates working-class +forces to subserve the great interests of the workers or of society; +they must group and organize themselves to be in a position to make +the privileged class more and more emphatically aware of the gulf +which may suddenly be cleft open in the economic life of societies by +the abrupt stoppage of the worn-out and interminably exploited +workers. They can thereby snatch from the selfishness of the +privileged class great reforms interesting the working-class in +general, and hasten the complete transformation of an unjust society. +But the formula of the general strike, like the partial strike, like +political action, is only valuable through the progress of the +education, the thought, and the will of the working-class.</p> + +<p>The Socialist party defends the Republic as a necessary means of +liberation and education. Socialism is essentially republican. It +might be even said to be the Republic itself, since it is the +extension of the Republic to the régime of property and labor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>The Socialist party needs, to organize the new world, free minds, +emancipated from superstitions and prejudices. It asks for and +guarantees every human being, every individual, absolute freedom of +thinking, and writing, and affirming their beliefs. Over against all +religions, dogmas, and churches, as well as over against the class +conception of the bourgeoisie, it sets the unlimited right of free +thought, the scientific conception of the universe, and a system of +public education based exclusively on science and reason.</p> + +<p>Thus accustomed to free thought and reflection, citizens will be +protected against the sophistries of the capitalistic and clerical +reaction. The small craftsmen, small traders, and small peasant +proprietors will cease to think that it is Socialism which wishes to +expropriate them. The Socialist party will hasten the hour when these +small peasant proprietors, ruined by the underselling of their +produce, riddled with mortgage debts, and always liable to judicial +expropriation, will eventually understand the advantages of +generalized and systematized association, and will claim themselves, +as a benefit, the socialization of their plots of land.</p> + +<p>But it would be useless to prepare inside each nation an organization +of justice and peace, if the relations of the nations to one another +remained exposed to every enterprise of force, every suggestion of +capitalist greed.</p> + +<p>The Socialist party desires peace among nations; it condemns every +policy of aggression and war, whether continental or colonial. It +constantly keeps on the order of the day for civilized countries +simultaneous disarmament. While waiting for the day of definite peace +among nations, it combats the militarist spirit by doing its utmost to +approximate the system of permanent armies to that of national +militias. It wishes to protect the territory and the independence of +the nation against any surprise; but every offensive policy and +offensive weapon is utterly condemned by it.</p> + +<p>The close understanding of the workers, of the proletarians of every +country, is necessary as well to beat back the forces of aggression +and war as to prepare by a concerted action the general triumph of +Socialism. The international agreement of the militant proletarians of +every country will prepare the triumph of a free humanity, where the +differences of classes will have disappeared, and the difference of +nations, instead of being a principle of strife and hatred, will be a +principle of brotherly emulation in the universal progress of mankind.</p> + +<p>It is in this sense and for these reasons that the Socialist party has +formulated in its congresses the rule and aim of its +action—international understanding of the workers; political and +economic organization of the proletariat as a class party for the +conquest of government and the socialization of the means of production +and exchange; that is to say, the transformation of capitalist society +into a collectivist or communist society.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span><i>II.—Program of Reforms</i></h4> + +<p>The Socialist party, rejecting the policy of all or nothing, has a +program of reforms whose realization it pursues forthwith.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">(1) <i>Democratization of Public Authorities</i></p> + +<p>1. Universal direct suffrage, without distinction of sex, in every +election.</p> + +<p>2. Reduction of time of residence. Votes to be cast for lists, with +proportional representation, in every election.</p> + +<p>3. Legislative measures to secure the freedom and secrecy of the vote.</p> + +<p>4. Popular right of initiative and referendum.</p> + +<p>5. Abolition of the Senate and Presidency of the Republic. The powers +at present belonging to the President of the Republic and the Cabinet +to devolve on an executive council appointed by the Parliament.</p> + +<p>6. Legal regulation of the legislator's mandate, to be revocable by +the vote of any absolute majority of his constituents on the register.</p> + +<p>7. Admission of women to all public functions.</p> + +<p>8. Absolute freedom of the press, and of assembly guaranteed only by +the common law. Abrogation of all exceptional laws on the press. +Freedom of civil associations.</p> + +<p>9. Full administrative autonomy of the departments and communes, under +no reservations but that of the laws guaranteeing the republican, +democratic, and secular character of the State.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">(2) <i>Complete Secularization of the State</i></p> + +<p>1. Separation of the Churches and the State; abolition of the Budget +of Public Worship; freedom of public worship; prohibition of the +political and collective action of the Churches against the civil laws +and republican liberties.</p> + +<p>2. Abolition of the congregations; nationalization of the property in +mortmain, of every kind, belonging to them, and appropriation of it +for works of social insurance and solidarity; in the interval, all +industrial, agricultural, and commercial undertakings are to be +forbidden to the congregations.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">(3) <i>Democratic and Humane Organization of Justice</i></p> + +<p>1. Substitution for all the present courts, whether civil or criminal, +of courts composed of a jury taken from the electoral register and +judges elected under guarantees of competence; the jury to be formed +by drawing lots from lists drawn up by universal suffrage.</p> + +<p>2. Justice to be without fee. Transformation of ministerial <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>offices +into public functions. Abolition of the monopoly of the bar.</p> + +<p>3. Examination from opposite sides at every stage and on every point.</p> + +<p>4. Substitution for the vindictive character of the present +punishments, of a system for the safe keeping and the amelioration of +convicts.</p> + +<p>5. Abolition of the death penalty.</p> + +<p>6. Abolition of the military and naval courts.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">(4) <i>Constitution of the Family in conformity with Individual Rights</i></p> + +<p>1. Abrogation of every law establishing the civil inferiority of women +and natural or adulterine children.</p> + +<p>2. Most liberal legislation on divorce. A law sanctioning inquiry into +paternity.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">(5) <i>Civic and Technical Education</i></p> + +<p>1. Education to be free of charge at every stage.</p> + +<p>2. Maintenance of the children in elementary schools at the expense of +the public bodies.</p> + +<p>3. For secondary and higher education, the community to pay for those +of the children who on examination are pronounced fit usefully to +continue their studies.</p> + +<p>4. Creation of a popular higher education.</p> + +<p>5. State monopoly of education at the three stages; as a means towards +this, all members of the regular and secular clergy to be forbidden to +open and teach in a school.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">(6) <i>General recasting of the System of Taxation upon Principles of +Social Solidarity</i></p> + +<p>1. Abolition of every tax on articles of consumption which are primary +necessaries, and of the four direct contributions;<a name="FNanchor_1-A3_236" id="FNanchor_1-A3_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-A3_236" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> accessorily, +relief from taxation of all small plots of land and small professional +businesses.<a name="FNanchor_2-A3_237" id="FNanchor_2-A3_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-A3_237" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>2. Progressive income-tax, levied on each person's income as a whole, +in all cases where it exceeds 3,000 francs (£120).</p> + +<p>3. Progressive tax on inheritances, the scale of progression being +calculated with reference both to the amount of the inheritance and +the degree of remoteness of the relationship.</p> + +<p>4. The State to be empowered to seek a part of the revenue which it +requires from certain monopolies.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>(7) <i>Legal Protection and Regulation of Labor in Industry, Commerce, +and Agriculture</i></p> + +<p>1. One day's rest per week, or prohibition of employers to exact work +more than six days in seven.</p> + +<p>2. Limitation of the working-day to eight hours; as a means towards +this, vote of every regulation diminishing the length of the +working-day.</p> + +<p>3. Prohibition of the employment of children under fourteen; half-time +system for young persons, productive labor being combined with +instruction and education.</p> + +<p>4. Prohibition of night-work for women and young persons. Prohibition +of night-work for adult workers of all categories and in all +industries where night-work is not absolutely necessary.</p> + +<p>5. Legislation to protect home-workers.</p> + +<p>6. Prohibition of piece-work and of truck. Legal recognition of +blacklisting.</p> + +<p>7. Scales of rates forming a minimum wage to be fixed by agreement +between municipalities and the working-class corporations of industry, +commerce, and agriculture.</p> + +<p>8. Employers to be forbidden to make deductions from wages, as fines +or otherwise. Workers to assist in framing special rules for +workshops.</p> + +<p>9. Inspection of workshops, mills, factories, mines, yards, public +services, shops, etc., shall be carried out with reference to the +conditions of work, hygiene, and safety, by inspectors elected by the +workmen's unions, in concurrence with the State inspectors.</p> + +<p>10. Extension of the industrial arbitration courts to all wage-workers +of industry, commerce, and agriculture.</p> + +<p>11. Convict labor to be treated as a State monopoly; the charge for +all work done shall be the wage normally paid to trade-unionist +workers.</p> + +<p>12. Women to be forbidden by law to work for six weeks before +confinement and for six weeks after.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">(8) <i>Social Insurance against all Natural and Economic Risks</i></p> + +<p>1. Organization by the nation of a system of social insurance, +applying to the whole mass of industrial, commercial, and agricultural +workers, against the risks of sickness, accident, disability, old age, +and unemployment.</p> + +<p>2. The insurance funds to be found without drawing on wages; as a +means towards this, limitation of the contribution drawn from the +wage-workers to a third of the total contribution, the two other +thirds to be provided by the State and the employers.</p> + +<p>3. The law on workmen's accidents to be improved and applied without +distinction or nationality.</p> + +<p>4. The workers to take part in the control and administration of the +insurance system.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>(9) <i>Extension of the Domain and Public Services, Industrial and +Agricultural, of State, Department, and Commune</i></p> + +<p>1. Nationalization of railways, mines, the Bank of France, insurance, +the sugar refineries and sugar factories, the distilleries, and the +great milling establishments.</p> + +<p>2. Organization of public employment registries for the workers, with +the assistance of the Bourses du Travail and the workmen's +organizations: and abolition of the private registries.</p> + +<p>3. State organization of agricultural banks.</p> + +<p>4. Grants to rural communes to assist them to purchase agricultural +machinery collectively, to acquire communal domains, worked under the +control of the communes by unions of rural laborers, and to establish +depôts and entrepôts.</p> + +<p>5. Organization of communal services for lighting, water, common +transport, construction, and public management of cheap dwellings.</p> + +<p>6. Democratic administration of the public services, national and +communal; organizations of workers to take part in their +administration and control; all wage-earners in all public services to +have the right of forming trade-unions.</p> + +<p>7. National and communal service of public health, and strengthening +of the laws which protect it—those on unhealthy dwellings, etc.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">(10) <i>Policy of International Peace and Adaptation of the Military +Organization to the Defense of the Country</i></p> + +<p>1. Substitution of a militia for the standing Army, and adoption of +every measure, such as reductions of military service, leading up to +it.</p> + +<p>2. Remodeling and mitigation of the military penal code; abolition of +disciplinary corps, and prohibition of the prolongation of military +service by way of penalty.</p> + +<p>3. Renunciation of all offensive war, no matter what its pretext.</p> + +<p>4. Renunciation of every alliance not aimed exclusively at the +maintenance of peace.</p> + +<p>5. Renunciation of Colonial military expeditions; and in the present +Colonies or Protectorates, withdrawn from the influence of +missionaries and the military régime, development of institutions to +protect the natives.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>3. BASIS OF THE UNITED SOCIALIST PARTY OF FRANCE</h4> + +<p class="cen"><i>Adopted January 13, 1905</i></p> + +<p>The representatives of the various Socialistic organizations of +France: the revolutionary Socialist Labor Party, the Socialist <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>Party +of France, the French Socialist Party, the independent federations of +Bouches-du-Rhône, of Bretagne, of Hérault, of the Somme, and of +l'Yonne, commanded by their respective parties and federations to form +a union upon the basis indicated by the International Congress of +Amsterdam, declare that the action of a unified party should be based +upon the principles established by the International Congress, +especially those held in France in 1900 and Amsterdam in 1904.</p> + +<p>The divergence of views and the various interpretations of the tactics +of the Socialists which have prevailed up to the present moment have +been due to circumstances peculiar to France and to the absence of a +general party organization.</p> + +<p>The delegates declare their common desire to form a party based upon +the class war which, at the same time, will utilize to its profit the +struggles of the laboring classes and unite their action with that of +a political party organized for the defense of the rights of the +proletariat, whose interests will always rest in a party fundamentally +and irreconcilably opposed to all the bourgeois classes and to the +state which is their instrument.</p> + +<p>Therefore the delegates declare that their respective organizations +are prepared to collaborate immediately in this work of the +unification of all the Socialistic forces in France, upon the +following basis, unanimously adopted:</p> + +<p>1. The Socialist Party is a class party which has for its aim the +socialization of the means of production and exchange, that is to say, +to transform the present capitalistic society into a collective or +communistic society by means of the political and economic +organization of the proletariat. By its aims, by its ideals, by the +power which it employs, the Socialist Party, always seeking to realize +the immediate reforms demanded by the working class, is not a party of +reforms, but a party of class war and revolution.</p> + +<p>2. The members of Parliament elected by the party form a unique group +opposed to all the factions of the bourgeois parties. The Socialist +group in Parliament must refuse to sustain all of those means which +assure the domination of the bourgeoisie in government and their +maintenance in power: must therefore refuse to vote for military +appropriations, appropriations for colonial conquest, secret funds, +and the budget.</p> + +<p>Even in the most exceptional circumstances the Socialist members must +not pledge the party without its consent.</p> + +<p>In Parliament the Socialist group must consecrate itself to defending +and extending the political liberties and rights of the working +classes and to the realization of those reforms which ameliorate the +conditions of life in the struggle for existence of the working class.</p> + +<p>The deputies should always hold themselves at the disposition of the +party, giving themselves to the general propaganda, the organization +of the proletariat, and constantly working toward the ultimate goal of +Socialism.</p> + +<p>3. Every member of the legislature individually, as well as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>each +militant Socialist, is subject to the control of his federation; all +of the officials in all of the groups are subject to the central +organization. In every case the national congress has the final +jurisdiction over all party matters.</p> + +<p>4. There shall be complete freedom of discussion in the press +concerning questions of principle and policy, but the conduct of all +the Socialist publications must be strictly in accord with the +decisions of the national congress as interpreted by the executive +committee of the party. Journals which are or may become the property +of the party, either of the national party or of the federations, will +naturally be placed under the management of authorities permanently +established for that purpose by the party or the federations. Journals +which are not the property of the party, but proclaim themselves as +Socialistic, must conform strictly to the resolutions of the congress +as interpreted by the proper party authorities, and they should insert +all the official communications of the party and party notices, as +they may be requested to do. The central committee of the party may +remind such journals of the policies of the party, and if they are +recalcitrant may propose to the congress that all intercourse between +them and the party be broken.</p> + +<p>5. Members of Parliament shall not be appointed members of the central +committee, but they shall be represented on the central committee by a +committee equal to one-tenth of the number of delegates, and in no +case shall their representation be less than five. The Federation +shall not appoint as delegates to the Central Committee "<i>militants</i>" +who reside within the limits of the Federation.</p> + +<p>6. The party will take measures for insuring, on the part of the +officials, respect for the mandates of the party, and will fix the +amount of their assessment.</p> + +<p>7. A congress charged with the definite organization of the party will +be convened as soon as possible upon the basis of proportional +representation fixed, first upon the number of members paying dues, +and second upon the number of votes cast in the general elections of +1902.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>III. GERMANY</h3> + +<h4>1. POLITICAL PARTIES IN GERMANY</h4> + +<p>There are a great many "fractions" in German politics. But, following +the Continental custom, they are all grouped into three divisions, the +Left or Radical, Right or Conservative, and the Center. In Germany the +Center is the Catholic or Clerical Party. The leading groups are as +follows:</p> + +<p>1. <i>Conservative.</i>—The "German Conservatives" are the old tories; the +"Free Conservatives" profess, but rarely show, a tendency toward +liberal ideas, although they have, at intervals, opposed ministerial +measures. The Conservatives are for the Government (Regierung) first, +last, and all the time. They were a powerful factor under Bismarck and +docile in his hands. Since his day they have suffered many defeats +because of their reactionary policy. But the group still is the +Kaiser's party, the stronghold of modern medievalism, opposed to +radical reforms, and adhering to "the grace of God" policy of +monarchism. Economically they are <i>junker</i> and "big business." The +anti-Socialist laws were the expression of their ideas as to Socialism +and the way to quench it.</p> + +<p>2. <i>National Liberal.</i>—This party is not liberal, in the sense that +England or America knows liberalism. It is really only a less +conservative party than the extreme Right, although it began as the +brilliant Progressist Party of the early '60's. It was triumphant in +the Prussian Diet until Bismarck shattered it on his war policy. In +the first Reichstag it had 116 members, nearly one-third of the whole. +But Bismarck needed it, got it, and left it quite as conservative as +he wished. It voted for the anti-Socialist laws and for state +insurance.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Progressive</i> (<i>Freisinnige</i>, literally, "free-minded").—This +faction is a cession from the old Progressist Party of which Lassalle +was a member for a few months. They are Radicals of a very moderate +type, and are opposed to the junker bureaucracy. There are two +wings—the People's Party (<i>Freisinnige Volkspartei</i>) and the +Progressive Union (<i>Freisinnige Vereinigung</i>). It is a constitutional +party, and has counted in its ranks such eminent scholars as Professor +Virchow and Professor Theodor Mommsen. They are in favor of +ministerial responsibility, are free traders of the Manchester type, +opposed to state intervention and state insurance, but favor factory +inspection, sanitation, and other social legislation. They are in +favor of freedom in religion, trade, and education, and espouse ballot +reform. They have a well-organized party, but do not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>seem effective +in winning elections. They share, to some degree, with the Social +Democrats the prejudice of the religious folk against free-thinking +and religious latitudinarianism. It is the middle-class party of +protest against bureaucracy.</p> + +<p>4. The <i>Center</i>, or Catholic Party, is a homogeneous, isolated, +well-disciplined, inflexible group, dominated by loyalty to their +religion. Whenever they have co-operated with the government it has +been in return for favors shown. The ranks of this party were closed +by the <i>Culturkampf</i>, which resulted in the expulsion of the Jesuit +orders and the separation of the elementary schools from the Church. +The party is reactionary in politics and economics.</p> + +<p>5. <i>Anti-Semitic.</i>—The name discloses the ideals of a party inspired +by dread and hatred of an element that comprises less than 1.5 per +cent. of the population, and whose political disabilities were not all +removed until 1850 in Prussia and 1869 in Mecklenburg. This party was +formed in 1880, largely through the agitation of the Court Chaplain, +Pastor Stöcker, whose diatribes were peculiarly effective in Berlin, +where some very disgraceful scenes were enacted by members of this +party.</p> + +<p>6. <i>Independent groups</i> are formed by the various nationalities that +are under subjection to German dominance. These are the Danish, +Hannoverian, Alsace-Lorraine, and Polish groups. They usually are +grouped with the Center.</p> + +<p>7. There are also a number of independent members in the Reichstag. +They adhere loosely to the larger groups, but as a rule merit the name +given them—<i>Wilden</i>, "wild ones."</p> + +<p>The accompanying table (p. 297) shows the distribution of seats in the +Reichstag, for the past thirty years.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>2. SOME MODERN GERMAN ELECTION LAWS</h4> + +<p class="cen"><i>Analysis of the New Election Law of Saxony</i></p> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><i>A.</i> One vote—every male 25 years of age.</p> + +<p class="hang"><i>B.</i> Two votes, every male, as follows:</p> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang">1. Those who have an annual income of over 1,600 marks +($400).</p> + +<p class="hang">2. Those who hold public office or a permanent private +position with an annual income of over 1,400 marks ($350).</p> + +<p class="hang">3. Those who are eligible to vote for Landskulturrat +(Agricultural Board) or Gewerbskammer (Chamber of +Commerce) and from their business have an income of over +1,400 marks. (This includes merchants, landowners, and +manufacturers.)</p> + +<p class="hang">4. Those who are owners or beneficiaries of property in the +kingdom from which they have an income of 1,250 marks +($312.50) a year, and upon which at least 100 tax units +are assessed.</p> + +<p class="hang"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>5. Those who own, or are beneficiaries of, land in the +kingdom, to the extent of at least 2 hectares, devoted to +agriculture, or forestry, or horticulture, or more than +one-half hectare devoted to gardening or wine culture.</p> + +<p class="hang">6. Those who have conducted such professional studies as +entitle them to the one-year volunteer military service.</p></div> + +<p class="hang"><i>C.</i> The following have three votes:</p> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang">1. Those who have an income of over 2,200 marks ($550).</p> + +<p class="hang">2. Those in division B, 2 and 3, who have an income from +office or position of over 1,900 marks ($475).</p> + +<p class="hang">3. Those who are not in private or public service and have a +professional income of over 1,900 marks. (This includes +lawyers, physicians, artists, engineers, publicists, +authors, professors.)</p> + +<p class="hang">4. Those in B, 4, whose income is over 1,600 marks ($400).</p> + +<p class="hang">5. Those in B, 5, with 4 hectares devoted to agriculture, +etc., and 1 hectare to gardening or wine culture.</p></div> + +<p class="hang"><i>D.</i> The following have four votes:</p> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang">1. Those who have an income of 2,800 marks ($700).</p> + +<p class="hang">2. Those in B, 2 and 3, or in C, 3, with an income over 2,500 +marks ($625).</p> + +<p class="hang">3. Those in B, 4, with an annual income of over 2,200 marks +($550).</p> + +<p class="hang">4. Those in B, 5, with 8 hectares devoted to agriculture or 2 +hectares devoted to gardening or wine culture.</p></div> + +<p class="hang"><i>E.</i> Voters over 50 years old have an extra vote (Alters-stimme), +but no voter is allowed over four votes.</p> +</div> + +<p>Sachsen-Altenburg, in 1908-9, modified its election laws as follows: +The legislature is composed of 9 representatives elected by the +cities; 12 by the rural districts; 7 by the highest taxpayers; one +each by the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Agriculture, the Craft +guilds (Handwerks-kammer), and the Labor Council (Arbeiter-kammer). +The vigorous protest of the Social Democrats did not avail against the +passage of this law.</p> + +<p>Saxe-Weimar recently modified its election law as follows: All +citizens of communes were given the right to vote. The great feudal +estates (165 persons in 1909) elect 5 representatives to the Diet; the +rest of the highest taxpayers, i.e., those who have a taxable income +of over 3,000 marks, elect 5. The University of Jena elects 1 member, +the Chamber of Commerce 1, the Handwerks-kammer (Craft Guilds) 1, +Landwirthschaftkammer (Agricultural Board) 1, the Arbeitskammer (Labor +Council) 1. There are 38 members in the Diet: the remaining 23 are +elected at large.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>3. STATISTICAL TABLES</h4> + +<h4>STATE INSURANCE IN GERMANY</h4> + +<p class="cen"><i>Industrial Insurance in Germany, 1908.</i></p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="60%" summary="Insurance totals"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="25%">Sick benefits:</td> + <td class="tdl" width="25%">Number insured</td> + <td class="tdr" width="25%">13,189,599</td> + <td class="tdl" width="25%"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Men</td> + <td class="tdr">9,880,541</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Women</td> + <td class="tdr">3,309,058</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Income</td> + <td class="tdr">365,994,000</td> + <td class="tdl">marks</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Outlay</td> + <td class="tdr">331,049,900</td> + <td class="tdl">marks</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Accident Insurance:</td> + <td class="tdl">Number insured</td> + <td class="tdr">23,674,000</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Men</td> + <td class="tdr">14,795,400</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Women</td> + <td class="tdr">8,878,600</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Income</td> + <td class="tdr">207,550,500</td> + <td class="tdl">marks</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Outlay</td> + <td class="tdr">157,884,700</td> + <td class="tdl">marks</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Old-Age Pensions:</td> + <td class="tdl">Number insured</td> + <td class="tdr">15,226,000</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Men</td> + <td class="tdr">10,554,000</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Women</td> + <td class="tdr">4,672,000</td> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Income</td> + <td class="tdr">285,882,000</td> + <td class="tdl">marks</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdl">Outlay</td> + <td class="tdr">181,476,800</td> + <td class="tdl">marks</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>From 1885 to 1908 a total of 9,791,376,100 marks ($2,447,844,025) was +paid out in industrial insurance. (Compiled from <i>Statistisches +Jahrbuch des Deutschen Reiches</i>.)</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>LABOR UNIONS IN GERMANY</h4> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="Labor Unions in Germany"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc bt2rb" ><i>Name of Union</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" colspan="2"><i> Membership</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" colspan="2"><i>No. of Unions</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2b" colspan="2"><i>Amount in Treasury—Marks</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc btrb" width="16%"> </td> + <td class="tdcball" width="14%">1908</td> + <td class="tdcball" width="14%">1909</td> + <td class="tdcball" width="14%">1908</td> + <td class="tdcball" width="14%">1909</td> + <td class="tdcball" width="14%">1908</td> + <td class="tdc bltb" width="14%">1909</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlbtr">Social Democratic</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bltr">1,831,731</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bltr">1,892,568</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bltr">11,024</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bltr">11,725</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bltr">40,839,791</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl bt">43,743,793</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Hirsh-Duncker</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">105,633</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">108,028</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">2,095</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">2,102</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">4,210,413</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">4,372,495</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Christian</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">264,519</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">280,061</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">3,212</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">3,856</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">4,513,409</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">5,365,338</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Patriotic</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">16,507</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">9,957</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">69</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">91</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">57,786</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">24,858</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">"Yellow"</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">47,532</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">53,849</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">79</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">85</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">386,305</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">437,602</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br bb2">Independent*</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr bb2">615,873</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr bb2">654,240</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr bb2"> </td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr bb2"> </td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr bb2">1,357,802</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl bb2">1,655,325</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp" colspan="7" style="padding: .5em;">* This is a nondescript group of local organizations, containing (1909) + 56,183 Poles, as well as the organization of railwaymen, telegraph + operators, postal employees, all in the government service, and + organized as friendly societies rather than as fighting bodies. + Government employees are not supposed to participate in "Unionism." + Compiled from <i>Statistisches Jahrbuch des Deutschen Reiches</i>.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>TABLE SHOWING VOTE CAST IN REICHSTAG ELECTIONS SINCE THE FOUNDING OF +THE EMPIRE*</h4> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" style="font-size: 85%;" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Reichstag Elections Votes"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl bt2r" width="15.5%">Election Year</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1871</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1874</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1877</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1878</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1881</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1884</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1887</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1890</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1893</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1898</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1903</td> + <td class="tdc blt2r" width="6.5%">1907</td> + <td class="tdc blt2" width="6.5%">1912</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Population of Empire</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">40,997,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">42,004,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">43,610,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">44,129,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">45,428,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">46,336,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">47,630,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">49,241,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">50,757,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">54,406,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">58,629,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">61,983,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">65,407,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Number of voters</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">7,656,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">8,523,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">8,943,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">9,128,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">9,090,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">9,383,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">9,770,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">10,146,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">10,628,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">11,441,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">12,531,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">13,353,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">14,442,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Number who voted</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">3,885,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">5,190,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">5,401,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">5,761,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">5,098,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">5,663,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">7,541,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">7,229,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">7,674,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">7,753,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">9,496,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">11,304,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">12,207,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl brb">Per cent. of vote cast</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">51.0</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">61.2</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">60.6</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">63.3</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">56.3</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">60.6</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">77.5</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">71.6</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">72.2</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">68.1</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">75.8</td> + <td class="tdrvb blrb">84.7</td> + <td class="tdrvb blb">84.5</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl btr">Conservative</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">549,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">360,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">526,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">749,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">831,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">861,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">1,147,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">895,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">1,038,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">859,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">935,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bltr">1,099,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blt">1,126,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Imperial Conservative</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">346,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">376,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">427,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">786,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">379,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">388,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">736,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">482,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">438,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">344,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">333,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">494,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">383,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Anti-Semites</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">12,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">48,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">264,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">284,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">249,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">261,000</td> + <td class="tdc bl">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Other Conservative Groups</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">66,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">250,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">250,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">230,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">272,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">424,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Center</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">724,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,446,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,341,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,328,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,183,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,282,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,516,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,342,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,469,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,455,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,866,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">2,159,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">1,991,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Guelphs</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">73,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">72,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">86,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">107,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">87,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">96,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">113,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">113,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">106,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">109,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">101,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">94,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">91,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Danes</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">21,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">20,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">17,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">16,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">14,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">14,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">12,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">14,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">14,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">15,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">15,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">15,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">17,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Poles</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">176,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">209,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">216,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">216,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">201,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">203,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">220,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">247,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">230,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">252,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">354,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">458,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">448,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Alsatians</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">190,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">149,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">130,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">147,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">166,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">234,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">101,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">115,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">107,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">127,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">107,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">157,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">National Liberal</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,171,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,499,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,470,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,331,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">747,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">997,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,678,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,179,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">997,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">984,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,338,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,696,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl">1,723,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Other Liberal groups</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">281,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">98,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">89,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">69,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">429,000</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdcvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">258,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">235,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">285,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">435,000</td> + <td class="tdr bl" rowspan="3"> + <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="bracket" width="100%"> + <tr> + <td width="10%" class="btrb"> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </td> + <td width="90%" style="text-align: right;">1,506,000</td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Progressist or Radical</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">361,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">469,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">403,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">388,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">649,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">997,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">973,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">1,160,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">666,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">558,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">538,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">744,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">People's Party</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">50,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">39,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">49,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">69,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">108,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">96,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">89,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">148,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">167,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">109,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">92,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr">139,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br bb2">Social Democrats</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">124,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">352,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">493,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">437,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">312,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">550,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">763,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">1,427,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">1,787,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">2,107,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">3,011,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb blr bb2">3,259,000</td> + <td class="tdrvb bl bb2">4,250,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp" colspan="14" style="padding-top: .5em;">* In round numbers. From Kürschner's <i>Deutscher Reichstag</i>, p. 24.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>PARTY REPRESENTATION IN THE REICHSTAG</h4> + +<p class="cen sc">The Years are those of General Elections—Excepting 1911</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Party Representation in the Reichstag" style="font-size: 90%;"> + <tr> + <td style="border-top: solid 2px black;"> </td> + <td class="tdl bt2rb" colspan="2"><i>Party or Faction.</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1881</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1884</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1887</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1890</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1893</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1898</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1900</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1903</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1906</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1907</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb">1911</td> + <td class="tdc blt2b">1912</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl" width="5%" rowspan="6"> + <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="bracket" width="100%"> + <tr> + <td width="90%" style="text-align: left;font-size: 75%;">RIGHT</td> + <td width="10%" class="bltb"> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /></td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> + <td class="tdlp5 btr" colspan="2">Conservatives</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">50</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">76</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">80</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">72</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">67</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">53</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">51</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">52</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">52</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">58</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="6%">59</td> + <td class="tdrp blt" width="6%">43</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 br" colspan="2">German or Imperial Conservatives</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">27</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">28</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">41</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">20</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">28</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">22</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">20</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">19</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">22</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">22</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">25</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">14</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 br" colspan="2">"Wild" Conservatives</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">5</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">4</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">6</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">4</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 br" colspan="2">Anti-Semites</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">5</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">16</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">14</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">13</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">11</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">14</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">20</td> + <td class="tdr br" style="padding-left: .5em;" rowspan="2"> + <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="bracket" width="100%"> + <tr> + <td width="10%" class="btrb"> <br /> </td> + <td width="90%" class="tdr">29</td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> + <td class="tdrp bl" rowspan="2">13</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 br" colspan="2">League of Landowners</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">5</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">4</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">3</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">4</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">7</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 brb" colspan="2">Bavarian Land League</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">4</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">5</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">3</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">3</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">3</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blb">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlt" width="5%" rowspan="6"> + <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="bracket" width="100%"> + <tr> + <td width="90%" style="text-align: left;font-size: 75%;">CENTER</td> + <td width="10%" class="bltb"> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /></td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> + <td class="tdlp5 btr" colspan="2">Center</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">98</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">99</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">98</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">106</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">96</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">102</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">102</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">100</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">100</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">104</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr">103</td> + <td class="tdrp blt">90</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 br" colspan="2">Poles</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">18</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">16</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">13</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">16</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">19</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">15</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">14</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">16</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">16</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">20</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">20</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">18</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 br" colspan="2">Guelphs</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">11</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">4</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">11</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">9</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">3</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">5</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 br" colspan="2">Alsatians</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">15</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">15</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">15</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">8</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">8</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">9</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 br" colspan="2">Danes</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 brb" colspan="2">"Wild" Clericals</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">2</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">1</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blb">1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlt" rowspan="5"> + <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="bracket" width="100%"> + <tr> + <td width="90%" style="text-align: left;font-size: 75%;">LEFT</td> + <td width="10%" class="bltb"> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /></td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> + <td class="tdlp5 btr" colspan="2">National Liberals</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">45</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">51</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">98</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">41</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">53</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">48</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">53</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">50</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">51</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">54</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bltr">51</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blt"> 45</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5" width="18%">United Progressives (Radicals)</td> + <td class="tdlt brb" width="5%" rowspan="4"> + <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="bracket" width="100%"> + <tr> + <td width="10%" class="btrb"> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /></td> + <td width="90%" style="text-align: center;font-size: 80%;">Radicals</td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> + <td class="tdrpvb bl">47</td> + <td class="tdr br" rowspan="2" style="padding-left: .5em;"> + <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="bracket" width="100%"> + <tr> + <td width="10%" class="btrb"> <br /> <br /></td> + <td width="90%" class="tdr">64</td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> + <td class="tdrp blr" style="vertical-align: middle;" rowspan="2">32</td> + <td class="tdr bl" rowspan="2" style="padding-left: .5em;"> + <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="bracket" width="100%"> + <tr> + <td width="90%" class="tdr">64</td> + <td width="10%" class="bltb"> <br /> <br /></td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> + <td class="tdrpvb br">14</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">13</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">15</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">9</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bl">14</td> + <td class="tdr br" rowspan="2" style="padding-left: .5em;"> + <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="bracket" width="100%"> + <tr> + <td width="10%" class="btrb"> <br /> <br /></td> + <td width="90%" class="tdr">49</td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> + <td class="tdrpvb bl" rowspan="2" style="vertical-align: middle;">42</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5">Other Progressive groups (Radicals)</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bl">59</td> + <td class="tdrpvb br">23</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">29</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">28</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">21</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">20</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bl">28</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5">People's Party</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">8</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">11</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">8</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">6</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">6</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrpvb bl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp5 bb">"Wild" Liberals</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">3</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">3</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">3</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">5</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">1</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">3</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">3</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">2</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">—</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">4</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blrb">4</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blb">2</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdrp bb"> </td> + <td class="tdlp5 btrb" colspan="2">Social Democrats*</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">12</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">24</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">11</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">35</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">44</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">56</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">58</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">81</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">79</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">43</td> + <td class="tdrp ball">53</td> + <td class="tdrp bltb">110</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp bt" colspan="15" style="padding-top: .5em;">* They form the extreme Radical Left.<br /> + (These groups are those given in Kürchner's <i>Deutscher Reichstag</i>, p. 398.) + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>4. PROGRAM OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY</h4> + +<p class="cen"><i>Adopted at Erfurt, 1891</i></p> + +<p>The economic development of bourgeois society leads by natural +necessity to the downfall of the small industry, whose foundation is +formed by the worker's private ownership of his means of production. +It separates the worker from his means of production, and converts him +into a propertyless proletarian, while the means of production become +the monopoly of a relatively small number of capitalists and large +landowners.</p> + +<p>Hand-in-hand with this monopolization of the means of production goes +the displacement of the dispersed small industries by colossal great +industries, the development of the tool into the machine, and a +gigantic growth in the productivity of human labor. But all the +advantages of this transformation are monopolized by capitalists and +large landowners. For the proletariat and the declining intermediate +classes—petty bourgoisie and peasants—it means a growing +augmentation of the insecurity of their existence, of misery, +oppression, enslavement, debasement, and exploitation.</p> + +<p>Ever greater grows the number of proletarians, ever more enormous the +army of surplus workers, ever sharper the opposition between +exploiters and exploited, ever bitterer the class-war between +bourgeoisie and proletariat, which divides modern society into two +hostile camps, and is the common hall-mark of all industrial +countries.</p> + +<p>The gulf between the propertied and the propertyless is further +widened through the crises, founded in the essence of the capitalistic +method of production, which constantly become more comprehensive and +more devastating, which elevate general insecurity to the normal +condition of society, and which prove that the powers of production of +contemporary society have grown beyond measure, and that private +ownership of the means of production has become incompatible with +their application to their objects and their full development.</p> + +<p>Private ownership of the means of production, which was formerly the +means of securing to the producer the ownership of his product, has +to-day become the means of expropriating peasants, manual workers, and +small traders, and enabling the non-workers—capitalists and large +landowners—to own the product of the workers. Only the transformation +of capitalistic private ownership of the means of production—the +soil, mines, raw materials, tools, machines, and means of +transport—into social ownership and the transformation of production +of goods for sale into Socialistic production managed for and through +society, can bring it about, that the great industry and the steadily +growing productive capacity of social labor shall for the hitherto +exploited classes be changed from a source of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>misery and oppression +to a source of the highest welfare and of all-round harmonious +perfection.</p> + +<p>This social transformation means the emancipation not only of the +proletariat, but of the whole human race which suffers under the +conditions of to-day. But it can only be the work of the +working-class, because all the other classes, in spite of mutually +conflicting interests, take their stand on the basis of private +ownership of the means of production, and have as their common object +the preservation of the principles of contemporary society.</p> + +<p>The battle of the working-class against capitalistic exploitation is +necessarily a political battle. The working-class cannot carry on its +economic battles or develop its economic organization without +political rights. It cannot effect the passing of the means of +production into the ownership of the community without acquiring +political power.</p> + +<p>To shape this battle of the working-class into a conscious and united +effort, and to show it its naturally necessary end, is the object of +the Social Democratic Party.</p> + +<p>The interests of the working-class are the same in all lands with +capitalistic methods of production. With the expansion of +world-transport and production for the world-market the state of the +workers in any one country becomes constantly more dependent on the +state of the workers in other countries. The emancipation of the +working-class is thus a task in which the workers of all civilized +countries are concerned in a like degree. Conscious of this, the +Social Democratic Party of Germany feels and declares itself <i>one</i> +with the class-conscious workers of all other lands.</p> + +<p>The Social Democratic Party of Germany fights thus not for new +class-privileges and exceptional rights, but for the abolition of +class-domination and of the classes themselves, and for the equal +rights and equal obligations of all, without distinction of sex and +parentage. Setting out from these views, it combats in contemporary +society not merely the exploitation and oppression of the +wage-workers, but every kind of exploitation and oppression, whether +directed against a class, a party, a sex, or a race.</p> + +<p>Setting out from these principles the Social Democratic Party of +Germany demands immediately—</p> + +<p>1. Universal equal direct suffrage and franchise, with direct ballot, +for all members of the Empire over twenty years of age, without +distinction of sex, for all elections and acts of voting. Proportional +representation; and until this is introduced, re-division of the +constituencies by law according to the numbers of population. A new +Legislature every two years. Fixing of elections and acts of voting +for a legal holiday. Indemnity for the elected representatives. +Removal of every curtailment of political rights except in case of +tutelage.</p> + +<p>2. Direct legislation by the people by means of the initiative and +referendum. Self-determination and self-government of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>people in +empire, state, province, and commune. Authorities to be elected by the +people; to be responsible and bound. Taxes to be voted annually.</p> + +<p>3. Education of all to be capable of bearing arms. Armed nation +instead of standing army. Decision of war and peace by the +representatives of the people. Settlement of all international +disputes by the method of arbitration.</p> + +<p>4. Abolition of all laws which curtail or suppress the free expression +of opinion and the right of association and assembly.</p> + +<p>5. Abolition of all laws which are prejudicial to women in their +relations to men in public or private law.</p> + +<p>6. Declaration that religion is a private matter. Abolition of all +contributions from public funds to ecclesiastical and religious +objects. Ecclesiastical and religious communities are to be treated as +private associations, which manage their affairs quite independently.</p> + +<p>7. Secularization of education. Compulsory attendance of public +primary schools. No charges to be made for instruction, school +requisites, and maintenance, in the public primary schools; nor in the +higher educational institutions for those students, male and female, +who in virtue of their capacities are considered fit for further +training.</p> + +<p>8. No charge to be made for the administration of the law, or for +legal assistance. Judgment by popularly elected judges. Appeal in +criminal cases. Indemnification of innocent persons prosecuted, +arrested, or condemned. Abolition of the death-penalty.</p> + +<p>9. No charges to be made for medical attendance, including midwifery +and medicine. No charges to be made for death certificates.</p> + +<p>10. Graduated taxes on income and property, to meet all public +expenses as far as these are to be covered by taxation. Obligatory +self-assessment. A tax on inheritance, graduated according to the size +of the inheritance and the degree of kinship. Abolition of all +indirect taxes, customs, and other politico-economic measures which +sacrifice the interests of the whole community to the interests of a +favored minority.</p> + +<p>For the protection of the working-class the Social Democratic Party of +Germany demands immediately—</p> + +<p>1. An effective national and international legislation for the +protection of workmen on the following basis:</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Fixing of a normal working-day with a maximum of eight hours.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Prohibition of industrial work for children under fourteen +years.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Prohibition of night-work, except for such branches of industry +as, in accordance with their nature, require night-work, for technical +reasons, or reasons of public welfare.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) An uninterrupted rest of at least thirty-six hours in every week +for every worker.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) Prohibition of the truck system.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>2. Inspection of all industrial businesses, investigation and +regulation of labor relations in town and country by an Imperial +Department of Labor, district labor departments, and chambers of +labor. Thorough industrial hygiene.</p> + +<p>3. Legal equalization of agricultural laborers and domestic servants +with industrial workers; removal of the special regulations affecting +servants.</p> + +<p>4. Assurance of the right of combination.</p> + +<p>5. Workmen's insurance to be taken over bodily by the Empire; and the +workers to have an influential share in its administration.</p> + +<p>6. Separation of the Churches and the State.</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Suppression of the grant for public worship.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Philosophic or religious associations to be civil persons at +law.</p> + +<p>7. Revision of sections in the Civil Code concerning marriage and the +paternal authority.</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Civil equality of the sexes, and of children, whether natural or +legitimate.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Revision of the divorce laws, maintaining the husband's +liability to support the wife or the children.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Inquiry into paternity to be legalized.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Protective measures in favor of children materially or morally +abandoned.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>5. COMMUNAL PROGRAM OF THE BAVARIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY</h4> + +<p>Inasmuch as our communes are hindered in the fulfilment of their +economic and political duties by reactionary laws, we demand:</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen sc">A.—Of the State:</p> + +<p>1. A change of the municipal code, granting genuine local autonomy. A +single representative chamber, a four-year term of office, one-half +retiring every two years. Universal adult suffrage, secret ballot, the +franchise not to be denied to those receiving public aid.</p> + +<p>2. Radical tax reform, through the establishing of a uniform, +progressive income and property tax, collected by the communes; local +taxes to be assessed upon increment value; and prohibition of all +taxes upon the necessaries of life.</p> + +<p>3. A common-school law providing universal public education free from +all religious bias, compulsory up to fourteen years of age. Obligatory +secondary schools, the inclusion of social and political economy in +their curricula; the defraying of expenses of pupils by the state. +Substitution of professional supervision of schools for clerical +supervision.</p> + +<p>4. Enactment of a domiciliary law, in place of the present <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>inadequate +laws, providing for all the necessary sanitary and socio-political +demands. Extending the municipalities' right of condemnation to the +extent that towns may erect houses and schools, open streets, and make +all necessary public improvements demanded by the public welfare.</p> + +<p>5. Passage of a sanitary code. Regulation of sanitation in the public +interests. Free medical attendance at births. Public nurseries.</p> + +<p>6. The administration of public charities by the local authorities.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen sc">B.—<span class="sc">Of the Commune We Demand</span>:</p> + +<p>1. Abolishing all taxes upon the rights of citizenship and of +residence. Granting of full franchise rights after one year's +residence.</p> + +<p>2. Elections to be held on a holiday or on Sunday.</p> + +<p>3. Pensions for communal employees.</p> + +<p>4. The cost of local administration to be borne by local property or +from additions to the direct state taxes. Abolishing of all indirect +taxes. Denial of all public aid to the Church.</p> + +<p>5. All public services to be conducted by the commune; these to be +considered as public conveniences and necessities, and not to serve a +mere pecuniary interest, but to be run as the public welfare demands. +Rational development of existing water-power, means of communication, +etc.</p> + +<p>6. Stipulating, in every contract for municipal work, the wages to be +paid, and other conditions of labor, such arrangements to be made with +the labor organizations; the right to organize into unions not to be +denied to laborers and municipal employees and officers. Abolishing of +strike clause in contracts for public works. Prohibition, of the +sub-contractor system. Securing wages of workmen by bonds. Forbidding +municipal officers participating in any business that will bring them +into contract relations with the municipality.</p> + +<p>7. Development of a public school system which shall be non-sectarian +and free to all. Restricting the number of pupils in the classes as +far as practical. Furnishing free meals and clothing to needy school +children; such service not to be counted as public charity. +Establishing continuation schools for both sexes, and schools for +backward children. Establishing of public reading-rooms and free +public libraries.</p> + +<p>8. The advancement of public housing plans. The purchasing of large +land areas by the municipality, to prevent speculation in building +lots. Simplification of the procedure in examination of building +plans, and the granting of building permits. Simplifying the +regulations pertaining to the building of cottages and small +residences. Municipal aid in the building of workingmen's homes. +Providing cheaper homes in municipal houses and tenements. Providing +loans of public moneys to building associations and agricultural +associations. Leasing of land by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>municipality. Municipal +inspection of dwellings and of all buildings, the municipality to keep +close scrutiny on all real estate developments. Establishment of a +public bureau of homes, where information and aid can be secured, and +where proper statistics can be gathered concerning building +conditions.</p> + +<p>9. Providing for cheap and wholesome food through the regulation and +supervision of its importation and inspection.</p> + +<p>10. Extension of sanitation. Conducting hospitals according to modern +medical science. Establishing municipal lying-in hospitals. Free +burials.</p> + +<p>11. Public care for the poor and orphans. The bettering of the +economic condition of women. The granting of aid out of public funds. +Public inspection and control of all orphanages, hospitals for +children, and nurseries.</p> + +<p>12. The establishment of public labor bureaus, which are to act as +employment agencies, information bureaus, gather labor statistics, and +supervise the sociological activities of the municipality.</p> + +<p>Providing work for those in need of employment, on the public works of +the commune. Provision for the support of those out of work in +co-operation, with the labor unions' efforts in the same direction. +The extension of municipal factory inspection and labor laws, as far +as the general laws permit. Appointment of laborers as building +inspectors. The development of the industrial and commercial courts. +Sunday as a day of rest.</p> + +<p>13. Liberal wages to be paid workmen employed on public works. Fixing +a minimum wage in accordance with the rules of the labor unions; +formation of public loan and credit system; eight-hour day. Insuring +public employees against sickness, accident, and old age. Making +provision for widows and orphans of public employees. Right to +organize not to be denied all municipal employees and officials. +Recognition of the unions. Annual vacation, on full pay, to every +municipal employee and official. Municipal employees to be given their +wages during their attendance on military manœuvers, and the +payment of the difference between their wages and their sick-benefits +in case of illness.</p> + +<p>14. Formation of a union of communes or towns, when isolated +municipalities find themselves impotent in securing these demands.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>6. ELECTION ADDRESS (WAHLRUF) OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS<br /> +FOR THE REICHSTAG ELECTIONS OF 1912</h4> + +<p>On the 12th of January, 1912, the general election for the Reichstag +takes place. Rarely have the voters been called upon to participate in +a more consequential election. This election will determine whether, +in the succeeding years, the policy of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>oppression and plundering +shall be carried still farther, or whether the German people shall +finally achieve their rights.</p> + +<p>In the Reichstag elections of 1907 the voters were deceived by the +government and the so-called national parties: many millions of voters +allowed themselves to be deluded. The Reichstag of the "National" +<i>bloc</i> from Heydebrand down to Weimar and Nauman has made nugatory the +laws pertaining to the rights of coalition; has restricted the use of +the non-Germanic languages in public meetings; has virtually robbed +the youth of the right of coalition, and has favored every measure for +the increase of the army, navy, and colonial exploitation.</p> + +<p>The result of their reactionaryism is an enormous increase of the +burdens of taxation. In spite of the fact that in 1906 over +200,000,000 marks increase was voted, in stamp tax, tobacco tax, etc., +in spite of the sacred promise of the government, through its official +organ, that no new taxes were being contemplated, the government has, +through its "financial reforms," increased our burden over five +hundred millions.</p> + +<p>Liberals and Conservatives were unanimous in declaring that +four-fifths of this enormous sum should be raised through an increase +in indirect taxes, the greater part of which is collected from +laborers, clerks, shopkeepers, artisans, and farmers. Inasmuch as the +parties to the Bülow-<i>bloc</i> could not agree upon the distribution of +the property tax and the excise tax, the <i>bloc</i> was dissolved and a +new coalition appeared—an alliance between the holy ones and the +knights (Block der Ritter und der Heiligen). This new <i>bloc</i> rescued +the distiller from the obligations of an excise tax, defeated the +inheritance tax, which would have fallen upon the wealthy, and placed +upon the shoulders of the working people a tax of hundreds of +millions, which is paid through the consumption of beer, whiskey, +tobacco, cigars, coffee, tea—yea, even of matches. This +Conservative-Clerical <i>bloc</i> further showed its contempt for the +working people in the way it amended the state insurance laws. It +robbed the workingman of his rights and denied to mothers and their +babes necessary protection and adequate care.</p> + +<p>In this manner the gullibility of the voters who were responsible for +the Hottentot elections of 1907 was revenged. Since that date every +by-election for the Reichstag, as well as for the provincial +legislatures and municipal councils, has shown remarkable gains in the +Social Democratic vote. The reactionaries were consequently +frightened, and now they resort to the usual election trick of +diverting the attention of the voters from internal affairs to +international conditions, and appeal to them under the guise of +nationalism.</p> + +<p>The Morocco incident gave welcome opportunity for this ruse. At home +and abroad the capitalistic war interests and the nationalistic +jingoes stirred the animosities of the peoples. They drove their +dangerous play so far that even the Chancellor found himself forced to +reprimand his <i>junker</i> colleagues for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>using their patriotism for +partisan purposes. But the attempt to bolster up the interests of the +reactionary parties with our international complications continues in +spite of this.</p> + +<p>Voters, be on your guard! Remember that on election day you have in +your hand the power to choose between peace or war.</p> + +<p>The outcome of this election is no less important in its bearing upon +internal affairs.</p> + +<p>Count Bülow declared, before the election of 1907, "the fewer the +Social Democrats, the greater the social reforms." The opposite is +true. The last few years conclusively demonstrate this. The +socio-political mills have rattled, but they have produced very little +flour.</p> + +<p>In order to capture their votes for the "national" candidates, the +state employees and officials were promised an increase in their pay. +To the high-salaried officials the new Reichstag doled out the +increase with spades, to the poorly paid humble employees with spoons. +And this increase in pay was counterbalanced by an increase in taxes +and the rising cost of living.</p> + +<p>To the people the government refused to give any aid, in spite of +their repeated requests for some relief against the constantly +increasing prices of the necessities of life. And, while the +Chancellor profoundly maintained that the press exaggerated the actual +conditions of the rise in prices, the so-called saviors of the middle +class—the Center, the Conservatives, the anti-Semites and their +following—rejected every proposal of the Social Democrats for +relieving the situation, and actually laid the blame for the rise in +prices upon their own middle-class tradesmen and manufacturers.</p> + +<p><i>New taxes, high cost of living, denial of justice, increasing danger +of war</i>—that is what the Reichstag of 1907, which was ushered in with +such high-sounding "national" tom-toms, has brought you. And the day +of reckoning is at hand. Voters of Germany, elect a different +majority! The stronger you make the Social Democratic representation +in the Reichstag, the firmer you anchor the world's peace and your +country's welfare!</p> + +<p>The Social Democracy seeks the conquest of political power, which is +now in the hands of the property classes, and is mis-used by them to +the detriment of the masses. They denounce us as "revolutionists." +Foolish phraseology! The bourgeois-capitalistic society is no more +eternal than have been the earlier forms of the state and preceding +social orders. The present order will be replaced by a higher order, +the Socialistic order, for which the Social Democracy is constantly +striving. Then the solidarity of all peoples will be accomplished and +life will be made more humane for all. The pathway to this new social +order is being paved by our capitalistic development, which contains +all the germs of the New Order within itself.</p> + +<p>For us the duty is prescribed to use every means at hand for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>the +amelioration of existing evils, and to create conditions that will +raise the standard of living of the masses.</p> + +<p>Therefore we demand:</p> + +<p>1. The democratizing of the state in all of its activities. An open +pathway to opportunity. A chance for every one to develop his +aptitudes. Special privileges to none. The right person in the right +place.</p> + +<p>2. Universal, direct, equal, secret ballot for all persons twenty +years of age without distinction of sex, and for all representative +legislative bodies. Referendum for setting aside the present unjust +election district apportionment and its attendant electoral abuses.</p> + +<p>3. A parliamentary government. Responsible ministry. Establishment of +a department for the control of foreign affairs. Giving the people's +representatives in the Reichstag the power to declare war or maintain +peace. Consent of the Reichstag to all state appropriations.</p> + +<p>4. Organization of the national defense along democratic lines. +Militia service for all able-bodied men. Reducing service in the +standing army to the lowest terms consistent with safety. Training +youth in the use of arms. Abolition of the privilege of one-year +volunteer service. Abolition of all unnecessary expense for uniforms +in army and navy.</p> + +<p>5. Abolition of "class-justice" and of administrative injustice. +Reform of the penal code, along lines of modern culture and +jurisprudence. Abolition of all privileges pertaining to the +administration of justice.</p> + +<p>6. Security to all workingmen, employees, and officials in their right +to combine, to meet, and to organize.</p> + +<p>7. Establishment of a national Department of Labor, officials of this +Department to be elected by the interests represented upon the basis +of universal and equal suffrage. Extension of factory inspection by +the participation of workingmen and workingwomen in the same. +Legalized universal eight-hour day, shortening the hours of labor in +industries that are detrimental to health.</p> + +<p>8. Reform of industrial insurance, exemption of farm laborers and +domestic servants from contributing to insurance funds. Direct +election of representatives in the administration of the insurance +funds; enlarging the representation of labor on the board of +directors; increasing the amounts paid workingmen; lowering age for +old-age pensions from 70 to 65 years; aid to expectant mothers; and +free medical attendance.</p> + +<p>9. Complete religious freedom. Separation of Church and State, and of +school and Church. No support of any kind, from public funds, for +religious purposes.</p> + +<p>10. Universal, free schools as the basis of all education. Free +text-books. Freedom for art and science.</p> + +<p>11. Diminution and ultimate abolition of all indirect taxes, and +abolition of all taxes on the necessities of life. Abolition of duties +on foodstuffs. Limiting the restrictions upon the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>importation of +cattle, fowl, and meat to the necessary sanitary measures. Reduction +in the tariff, especially in those schedules which encourage the +development of syndicates and pools, thereby enabling products of +German manufacture to be sold cheaper abroad than at home.</p> + +<p>12. The support of all measures that tend to develop commerce and +trade. Abolition of tax on railway tickets. A stamp tax on bills of +lading.</p> + +<p>13. A graduated income, property, and inheritance tax; inasmuch as +this is the most effective way of dampening the ardor of the rich for +a constantly increasing army and navy.</p> + +<p>14. Internal improvements and colonization; the transformation of +great estates into communal holdings, thereby making possible a +greater food supply and a corresponding lowering of prices. The +establishment of public farms and agricultural schools. The +reclamation of swamp-lands, moors, and dunes. The cessation of foreign +colonization now done for the purpose of exploiting foreign peoples +for the sake of gain.</p> + +<p>Voters of Germany! New naval and military appropriations await you; +these will increase the burdens of your taxes by hundreds of millions. +As on former occasions, so now the ruling class will attempt to roll +these heavy burdens upon the shoulders of the humble, and thereby +increase the burden of existence of the family.</p> + +<p>Therefore, let the women, upon whom the burden of the household +primarily rests, and who are to-day without political rights, take +active part in this work of emancipation and join themselves with +determination to our cause, which is also their cause.</p> + +<p>Voters of Germany! If you are in accord with these principles, then +give your votes on the 12th of January to the Social Democratic Party. +Help prepare the foundations for a new and better state whose motto +shall be:</p> + +<p>Death to Want and Idleness! Work, Bread, and Justice for all!</p> + +<p>Let your battle-cry on election day resound: Long live the Social +Democracy!</p> + +<p class="right sc">Executive Committee of the Social Democratic<br /> +Representation in the Reichstag.</p> +<br /> +<p><span class="sc">Berlin</span>, December 5, 1911.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-A3_236" id="Footnote_1-A3_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-A3_236"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Personal tax; tax on movables; tax on land; door and +window tax.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-A3_237" id="Footnote_2-A3_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-A3_237"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> A license to trade is required for many businesses in +France.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>IV. BELGIUM</h3> + +<h4>POLITICAL UNIONISM IN BELGIUM</h4> +<br /> + +<p>The Catholic Church essayed to organize in Belgium a "Christian +Socialist" movement, patterned after Bishop Kettler's movement in the +Rhine provinces. The movement was called "Fédération des Sociétés +Ouvriers Catholiques" and grew to considerable power. The federation +soon, however, developed democratic tendencies that separated it from +the Clerical Party, and the Abbé Daens, their first deputy in the +Chamber of Representatives, provoked the hostility of the +ecclesiastical authorities and was deprived of his clerical +prerogatives.</p> + +<p>The Catholic labor unions, which did not join in this democratic +movement, have in the last few years developed some strength, and have +now about 20,000 members.</p> + +<p>The Progressists or Radicals have from the first been favorable to +labor and have in their ranks many workmen from the industries "de +luxe," such as bronze workers, jewelers, art craftsmen, etc.</p> + +<p>The Liberals have a trades-union organization which does not flourish. +It has about 2,000 members. The Liberals have, however, together with +the Progressists, some influence over the independent unions, with +their 32,000 members.</p> + +<p>The Socialist labor unions are the largest and most powerful. Their +average yearly membership in the years 1885-90 was 40,234; in 1899 it +was 61,451; in 1909 it had increased to 103,451.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>STATISTICAL TABLES</h4> + +<p class="cen sc">Table Showing the Development of Co-operative Societies in +Belgium</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="Co-operative Societies in Belgium"> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp bt2rb" width="12%"><i>Year</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="12%"><i>No. of Societies</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="13%"><i>Sales—Francs</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="13%"><i>Profits—Francs</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="12%"><i>No. of Members</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="12%"><i>No. of Employees</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="13%"><i>Value of Realty Francs</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2b" width="13%"><i>Paid-up Capital Francs</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp btr">1904</td> + <td class="tdc bltr">168</td> + <td class="tdc bltr">26,936,873</td> + <td class="tdc bltr">3,140,210</td> + <td class="tdc bltr">103,349</td> + <td class="tdc bltr">1785</td> + <td class="tdc bltr">10,302,059</td> + <td class="tdc blt">1,146,651</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1905</td> + <td class="tdc blr">161</td> + <td class="tdc blr">28,174,563</td> + <td class="tdc blr">3,035,941</td> + <td class="tdc blr">119,581</td> + <td class="tdc blr">1752</td> + <td class="tdc blr">12,091,300</td> + <td class="tdc bl">1,655,061</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1906</td> + <td class="tdc blr">162</td> + <td class="tdc blr">33,569,359</td> + <td class="tdc blr">3,493,586</td> + <td class="tdc blr">126,993</td> + <td class="tdc blr">1809</td> + <td class="tdc blr">12,844,976</td> + <td class="tdc bl">1,694,878</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1907</td> + <td class="tdc blr">166</td> + <td class="tdc blr">39,103,673</td> + <td class="tdc blr">3,843,568</td> + <td class="tdc blr">134,694</td> + <td class="tdc blr">2093</td> + <td class="tdc blr">14,280,955</td> + <td class="tdc bl">1,940,175</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1908</td> + <td class="tdc blr">175</td> + <td class="tdc blr">40,655,359</td> + <td class="tdc blr">3,855,444</td> + <td class="tdc blr">140,730</td> + <td class="tdc blr">2128</td> + <td class="tdc blr">14,837,114</td> + <td class="tdc bl">1,942,266</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp brb2">1909</td> + <td class="tdc blrb2">199</td> + <td class="tdc blrb2">43,288,867</td> + <td class="tdc blrb2">4,678,559</td> + <td class="tdc blrb2">148,042</td> + <td class="tdc blrb2">2223</td> + <td class="tdc blrb2">15,850,158</td> + <td class="tdc blb2">1,893,616</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen sc">Table Showing the Growth of the Wholesale Co-operative Movement in<br /> +Belgium from the Date of Its Beginning in 1901<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="30%" summary="Wholesale Co-operative Movement in Belgium"> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp bt2rb" width="45%"><i>Year</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2b" width="55%"><i>Amount of Business Done—Francs</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp btr">1901</td> + <td class="tdc blt"> 760,356</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1902</td> + <td class="tdc bl">1,211,439</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1903</td> + <td class="tdc bl">1,485,573</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1904</td> + <td class="tdc bl">1,608,475</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1905</td> + <td class="tdc bl">2,219,842</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1906</td> + <td class="tdc bl">2,416,372</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1907</td> + <td class="tdc bl">2,796,196</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1908</td> + <td class="tdc bl">2,995,615</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">1909</td> + <td class="tdc bl">3,221,849</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp brb2">1910</td> + <td class="tdc blb2">4,489,996</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h4>PROGRAM OF THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY</h4> + +<p class="cen"><i>Adopted at Brussels in 1893</i></p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen sc">Declaration of Principles</p> + +<p>1. The constituents of wealth in general, and in particular the means +of production, are either natural agencies or the fruit of the +labor—manual and mental—of previous generations besides the present; +consequently they must be considered the common heritage of mankind.</p> + +<p>2. The right of individuals or groups to enjoy this heritage can be +based only on social utility, and aimed only at securing for every +human being the greatest possible sum of freedom and well-being.</p> + +<p>3. The realization of this ideal is incompatible with the maintenance +of the capitalistic régime, which divides society into two necessarily +antagonistic classes—the one able to enjoy property without working, +the other obliged to relinquish a part of its product to the +possessing class.</p> + +<p>4. The workers can only expect their complete emancipation from the +suppression of classes and a radical transformation of existing +society.</p> + +<p>This transformation will be in favor, not only of the proletariat, but +of mankind as a whole; nevertheless, as it is contrary to the +immediate interests of the possessing class, the emancipation of the +workers will be essentially the work of the workers themselves.</p> + +<p>5. In economic matters their aim must be to secure the free use, +without charge, of all the means of production. This result can only +be attained, in a society where collective labor is more and more +replacing individual labor, by the collective appropriation of natural +agencies and the instruments of labor.</p> + +<p>6. The transformation of the capitalistic régime into a collectivist +régime must necessarily be accompanied by correlative transformations—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>(<i>a</i>) In <i>morals</i>, by the development of altruistic feelings and the +practice of solidarity.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) In <i>politics</i>, by the transformation of the State into a +business management (<i>administration des choses</i>).</p> + +<p>7. Socialism must, therefore, pursue simultaneously the economic, +moral, and political emancipation of the proletariat. Nevertheless, +the economic point of view must be paramount, for the concentration of +capital in the hands of a single class forms the basis of all the +other forms of its domination.</p> + +<p>To realize its principles the Labor Party declares—</p> + +<p>(1) That it considers itself as the representative, not only of the +working-class, but of all the oppressed, without distinction of +nationality, worship, race, or sex.</p> + +<p>(2) That the Socialists of all countries must make common cause (<i>être +solidaires</i>), the emancipation of the workers being not a national, +but an international work.</p> + +<p>(3) That in their struggle against the capitalist class the workers +must fight by every means in their power, and particularly by +political action, by the development of free associations, and by the +ceaseless propagation of Socialistic principles.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen sc">I.—Political Program</p> + +<p>1. <i>Electoral reform.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Universal suffrage without distinction of sex for all ranks +(age-limit, twenty-one; residence, six months).</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Proportional representation.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Election expenses to be charged on the public authorities.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Payment of elected persons.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) Elected persons to be bound by pledges, according to law.</p> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) Electorates to have the right of unseating elected persons.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Decentralization of political power.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Suppression of the Senate.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Creation of Legislative Councils, representing the different +functions of society (industry, commerce, agriculture, education, +etc.); such Councils to be autonomous, within the limits of their +competence and excepting the veto of Parliament; such Councils to be +federated, for the study and defense of their common interests.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Communal autonomy.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Mayors to be appointed by the electorate.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Small communes to be fused or federated.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Creation of elected committees corresponding to the different +branches of communal administration.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Direct legislation.</i></p> + +<p>Right of popular initiative and referendum in legislative, provincial, +and communal matters.</p> + +<p>5. <i>Reform of education.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Primary, all-round, free, secular, compulsory instruction <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>at +the expense of the State. Maintenance of children attending the +schools by the public authorities. Intermediate and higher instruction +to be free, secular, and at the expense of the State.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Administration of the schools by the public authorities, under +the control of School Committees elected by universal suffrage of both +sexes, with representatives of the teaching staff and the State.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Assimilation of communal teachers to the State's educational +officials.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Creation of a Superior Council of Education, elected by the +School Committees, who are to organize the inspection and control of +free schools and of official schools.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) Organization of trade education, and obligation of all children +to learn manual work.</p> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) Autonomy of the State Universities, and legal recognition of the +Free Universities. University Extension to be organized at the expense +of the public authorities.</p> + +<p>6. <i>Separation of the Churches and the State.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Suppression of the grant for public worship.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Philosophic or religious associations to be civil persons at +law.</p> + +<p>7. <i>Revision of Sections in the Civil Code concerning marriage and the +paternal authority.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Civil equality of the sexes, and of children, whether natural or +legitimate.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Revision of the divorce laws, maintaining the husband's +liability to support the wife or the children.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Inquiry into paternity to be legalized.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Protective measures in favor of children materially or morally +abandoned.</p> + +<p>8. <i>Extension of liberties.</i></p> + +<p>Suppression of measures restricting any of the liberties.</p> + +<p>9. <i>Judicial reform.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Application of the elective principle to all jurisdictions. +Reduction of the number of magistrates.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Justice without fees; State-payment of advocates and officials +of the Courts.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Magisterial examination in penal cases to be public. Persons +prosecuted to be medically examined. Victims of judicial errors to be +indemnified.</p> + +<p>10. <i>Suppression of armies.</i></p> + +<p>Provisionally; organization of a national militia.</p> + +<p>11. <i>Suppression of hereditary offices, and establishment of a +Republic.</i></p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen sc">II.—Economic Program</p> + + +<p class="cen">A.—<i>General Measures</i></p> + +<p>1. <i>Organization of statistics.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Creation of a Ministry of Labor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>(<i>b</i>) Pecuniary aid from the public authorities for the organization +of labor secretariates by workmen and employers.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Legal recognition of associations, especially—</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Legal recognition of trade-unions.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Reform of the law on friendly societies and co-operative +societies and subsidy from the public authorities.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Repression of infringements of the right of combination.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Legal regulation of the contract of employment.</i></p> + +<p>Extension of laws protecting labor to all industries, and especially +to agriculture, shipping, and fishing. Fixing of a minimum wage and +maximum of hours of labor for workers, industrial or agricultural, +employed by the State, the Communes, the Provinces, or the contractors +for public works.</p> + +<p>Intervention of workers, and especially of workers' unions, in the +framing of rules. Suppression of fines. Suppression of savings-banks +and benefit clubs in workshops. Fixing of a maximum of 6,000 francs +for public servants and managers.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Transformation of public charity into a general insurance of all +citizens—</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) against unemployment;</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) against disablement (sickness, accident, old age);</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) against death (widows and orphans).</p> + +<p>5. <i>Reorganization of public finances.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Abolition of indirect taxes, especially taxes on food and +customs tariffs.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Monopoly of alcohol and tobacco.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Progressive income-tax. Taxes on legacies and gifts between the +living (excepting gifts to works of public utility).</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Suppression of intestate succession, except in the direct line +and within limits to be determined by law.</p> + +<p>6. <i>Progressive extension of public property.</i></p> + +<p>The State to take over the National Bank. Social organization of +loans, at interest to cover costs only, to individuals and to +associations of workers.</p> + +<p>i. <i>Industrial property.</i></p> + +<div class="block4"><p>Abolition, on grounds of public utility, of private ownership +in mines, quarries, the subsoil generally, and of the great +means of production and transport.</p></div> + +<p>ii. <i>Agricultural property.</i></p> + +<div class="block4"><p>(<i>a</i>) Nationalization of forests.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Reconstruction or development of common lands.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Progressive taking over of the land by the State or the +communes.</p></div> + +<p>7. <i>Autonomy of public services.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Administration of the public services by special autonomous +commissions, under the control of the State.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Creation of committees elected by the workmen and employees of +the public services to debate with the central administration the +conditions of the remuneration and organization of labor.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>B.—<i>Particular Measures for Industrial Workers</i></p> + +<p>1. <i>Abolition of all laws restricting the right of combination.</i></p> + +<p>2. <i>Regulation of industrial labor.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Prohibition of employment of children under fourteen.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Half-time system between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Prohibition of employment of women in all industries where it is +incompatible with morals or health.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Reduction of working-day to a maximum of eight hours for adults +of both sexes, and minimum wage.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) Prohibition of night-work for all categories of workers and in +all industries, where this mode of working is not absolutely +necessary.</p> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) One day's rest per week, so far as possible on Sunday.</p> + +<p>(<i>g</i>) Responsibility of employers in case of accidents, and +appointment of doctors to attend persons wounded.</p> + +<p>(<i>h</i>) Workmen's memorandum-books and certificates to be abolished, and +their use prohibited.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Inspection of work.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Employment of paid medical authorities, in the interests of +labor hygiene.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Appointment of inspectors by the Councils of Industry and Labor.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Reorganization of the Industrial Tribunals</i> (Conseils de +Prud'hommes) <i>and the Councils of Industry and Labor</i>.</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Working women to have votes and be eligible.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Submission to the Courts to be compulsory.</p> + +<p>5. <i>Regulation of work in prisons and convents.</i></p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen">C.—<i>Particular Measures for Agricultural Workers</i></p> + +<p>1. <i>Reorganization of the Agricultural Courts.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Nomination of delegates in equal numbers by the landowners, +farmers, and laborers.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Intervention of the Chambers in individual or collective +disputes between landowners, farmers, and agricultural workers.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Fixing of a minimum wage by the public authorities on the +proposition of the Agricultural Courts.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Regulation of contracts to pay farm-rents.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Fixing of the rate of farm-rents by Committees of Arbitration or +by the reformed Agricultural Courts.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Compensation to the outgoing farmer for enhanced value of +property.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Participation of landowners, to a wider extent than that fixed +by the Civil Code, in losses incurred by farmers.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Suppression of the landowner's privilege.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Insurance by the provinces, and reinsurance by the State, against +epizootic diseases, diseases of plants, hail, floods, and other +agricultural risks.</i></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>4. <i>Organization by the public authorities of a free agricultural +education.</i></p> + +<p>Creation or development of experimental fields, model farms, +agricultural laboratories.</p> + +<p>5. <i>Purchase by the communes of agricultural implements to be at the +disposal of their inhabitants.</i></p> + +<p>Assignment of common lands to groups of laborers engaging not to +employ wage labor.</p> + +<p>6. <i>Organization of a free medical service in the country.</i></p> + +<p>7. <i>Reform of the Game Laws.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Suppression of gun licenses.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Suppression of game preserves.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Right of cultivators to destroy all the year round animals which +injure crops.</p> + +<p>8. <i>Intervention of public authorities in the creation of agricultural +co-operative societies—</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) For buying seed and manure.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) For making butter.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) For the purchase and use in common of agricultural machines.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) For the sale of produce.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) For the working of land by groups.</p> + +<p>9. <i>Organization of agricultural credit.</i></p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen sc">III.—Communal Program</p> + +<p>1. <i>Educational reforms.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Free scientific instruction for children up to fourteen. Special +courses for older children and adults.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Organization of education in trades and industries, in +co-operation with workmen's organizations.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Maintenance of children; except where the public authorities +intervene to do so.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Institution of school refreshment-rooms. Periodical distribution +of boots and clothing.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) Orphanages. Establishments for children abandoned or cruelly +ill-treated.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Judicial reforms.</i></p> + +<p>Office for consultations free of charge in cases coming before the +law-courts, the industrial courts, etc.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Regulation of work.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Minimum wage and maximum working-day to be made a clause in +contracts for communal works.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Intervention of trade associations in the fixing of rates of +wages, and general regulation of industry. The Echevin of Public Works +to supervise the execution of these clauses in contracts.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Appointment by the workmen's associations of inspectors to +supervise the clauses in contracts.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Rigorous application of the principle of tenders open to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>all, +for all services which, during a transition-period, are not managed +directly.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) Permission to trade-unions to tender, and abolition of +security-deposit.</p> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) Creation of <i>Bourses du Travail</i>, or at least offices for the +demand and supply of employment, whose administration shall be +entrusted to trade-unions or labor associations.</p> + +<p>(<i>g</i>) Fixing of a minimum wage for the workmen and employees of a +commune.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Public charity.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Admission of workmen to the administration of the councils of +hospitals and of public charity.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Transformation of public charity and the hospitals into a system +of insurance against old age. Organization of a medical service and +drug supply. Establishment of public free baths and wash-houses.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Establishment of refuges for the aged and disabled. +Night-shelter and food-distribution for workmen wandering in search of +work.</p> + +<p>5. <i>Complete neutrality of all communal services from the +philosophical point of view.</i></p> + +<p>6. <i>Finance.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Saving to be effected on present cost of administration. Maximum +allowance of 6,000 francs for mayors and other officials. Costs of +entertainment for mayors who must incur certain private expenses.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Income tax.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Special tax on sites not built over and houses not let.</p> + +<p>7. <i>Public services.</i></p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) The commune, or a federation of communes composing one +agglomeration, is to work the means of transport—tramways, omnibuses, +cabs, district railways, etc.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) The commune, or federation of communes, is to work directly the +services of general interest at present conceded to +companies—lighting, water-supply, markets, highways, heating, +security, health.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Compulsory insurance of the inhabitants against fire; except +where the State intervenes to do so.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) Construction of cheap dwellings by the commune, the hospices, +and the charity offices.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>V. ENGLAND</h3> + +<h4>GROWTH OF SOCIALISTIC SENTIMENT IN ENGLAND</h4> +<br /> + +<p>In 1885 the Earl of Wemyss made a speech in the House of Lords +deploring the advancement of state interference in business and giving +a résumé of the Acts of Parliament that showed how "Socialism" invaded +St. Stephens from 1870 to 1885.</p> + +<p>His speech is interesting, not because it voices the +ultra-Conservative's apprehensions but because the Earl had really +discovered the legal basis of the new Social Democratic advance, which +had come unheralded. The Earl reviewed the bills that Parliament had +sanctioned, which dealt with state "interference." Twelve bills +referred to lands and houses. "All of these measures assume the right +of the state to regulate the management of, or to confiscate real +property"—steps in the direction of substituting "land +nationalization" for individual ownership. Five laws dealt with +corporations, "confiscating property of water companies," etc.; nine +dealt with ships: "all of them assertions by the Board of Trade of its +right to regulate private enterprise and individual management in the +mercantile marine;" six with mines, "prompting a fallacious confidence +in government inspection;" six with railways, "all encroachments upon +self-government of private enterprise in railways—successive steps in +the direction of state railways." Nine had to do with manufactures and +trades, "invasions by the state of the self-government of the various +interests of the country, and curtailment of the freedom of contract +between employers and employed." "The Pawnbrokers' Act of 1872 was the +thin edge of the wedge for reducing the business of the 'poor man's +banks' to a state monopoly." Twenty laws dealt with liquor, "all +attempts on the part of the state to regulate the dealings and habits +of buyers and sellers of alcoholic drinks." Sixteen dealt with +dwellings of the working class, "all embodying the principle that it +is the duty of the state to provide dwellings, private gardens, and +other conveniences for the working classes, and assume its right to +appropriate land for these purposes." There were nine education acts, +"all based on the assumption that it is the duty of the state to act +<i>in loco parentis</i>." Four laws dealt with recreation, "whereby the +state, having educated the people in common school rooms, proceeds to +provide them with common reading-rooms, and afterwards turns them out +at stated times into the streets for common holidays."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>Of local government and improvement acts, there were passed "a vast +mass of local legislation ... containing interferences in every +conceivable particular with liberty and property."</p> + +<p>The Earl quotes Lord Palmerston as saying in 1865, "Tenant right is +landlord wrong," and Lord Sherbrooke, in 1866, "Happily there is an +oasis upon which all men, without distinction of party, can take +common stand, and that is the good ground of political economy." And +the noble lord concludes by predicting, "The general social results of +such Socialistic legislation may be summed up in 'dynamite,' +'detectives,' and 'general demoralization.'"<a name="FNanchor_1-A5_238" id="FNanchor_1-A5_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-A5_238" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>In 1887 the Earl again turned his guns upon the radical advance, but +only seven peers were on the benches to listen. In 1890 he made a +third résumé under a more liberal patronage of listeners; this time +the factory laws and inspection measures came in for his especial +criticism. He said: "Now, my lords, what is the character of all this +legislation? It is to substitute state help for self help, to regulate +and control men in their dealings with one another with regard to land +or anything else. The state now forbids contracts, breaks contracts, +makes contracts. The whole tendency is to substitute the state or the +municipality for the free action of the individual."<a name="FNanchor_2-A5_239" id="FNanchor_2-A5_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_2-A5_239" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<br /> + +<h4>AN EARLY POLITICAL BROADSIDE BY THE MARXIANS.</h4> + +<p>The earlier attitude of the Marxian Socialists of London toward +participating in elections is shown in the following broadside, dated +July, 1895:</p> + +<p>"We, revolutionary Social Democrats, disdain to conceal our +principles. We proclaim the class war. We hold that the lot of the +worker cannot to any appreciable extent be improved except by a +complete overthrow of this present capitalist system of society. The +time for social tinkering has gone past. Government statistics show +that the number of unemployed is slowly but surely increasing, and +that the decreases in wages greatly preponderate over the increases, +and everything points to the fact that the condition of your class is +getting worse and worse.</p> + +<p>"Refuse once for all to allow your backs to be made the stepping +stones to obtain that power which they (the politicians) know only too +well how to use against you.</p> + +<p>"Scoff at their patronizing airs and claim your rights like men. +Refuse to give them that which they want, i.e., your vote. Give them +no opportunity of saying that they are <i>your</i> representatives. Refuse +to be a party to the fraud of present-day politics, and</p> + +<p class="cen sc">"Abstain from Voting."</p> + +<br /> + +<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>THRIFT INSTITUTIONS IN ENGLAND FOR SAVINGS, INSURANCE, ETC., 1907</h4> + +<p class="cen">(<span class="sc">From Chiozza Money</span>—"<span class="sc">Riches and Poverty</span>," p. 56)</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="Thrift Institutions in England for Savings, Insurance, Etc., 1907"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc bt2rb" width="56%"><i>Name of Institution</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="22%"><i>Number of Members</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2b" width="22%"><i>Funds—£</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl btrb">Building Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bltrb">623,047</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bltb">73,289,229</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Ordinary Friendly Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">3,418,869</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">19,346,567</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Friendly Societies having branches</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">2,710,437</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">25,610,365</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Collecting Friendly Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">9,010,574</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">9,946,447</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Benevolent Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">29,716</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">337,393</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Workingmen's Clubs</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">272,847</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">381,463</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Specially Authorized Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">70,980</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">532,717</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Specially Authorized Loan Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">141,850</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">897,784</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Medical Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">313,755</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">65,513</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Cattle Insurance Settlers</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">4,029</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">8,570</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Shop Clubs</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">12,207</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">1,349</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp brb">Total</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blrb">15,983,264</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blb">57,128,168</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl btr">Co-operative Societies, industry and trade</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bltr">2,461,028</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blt">53,788,917</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Business Co-operative Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">108,550</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">984,680</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Land Co-operative Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">18,631</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">1,619,716</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp brb">Total</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blrb">2,588,209</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blb">56,393,313</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl btr">Trade Unions</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bltr">1,973,560</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blt">6,424,176</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Workmen's Compensation Schemes</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">99,371</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">164,560</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Friends of Labor Loan Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blr">33,576</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bl">260,905</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp brb">Grand Total of Registered Provident Societies</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blrb">21,301,027</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blb">193,660,351</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl btr">Railway Savings Banks</td> + <td class="tdrp15vb bltr">64,126*</td> + <td class="tdrpvb blt">5,865,351@</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Trustee Savings Banks</td> + <td class="tdrp15vb blr">1,780,214*</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bl">61,729,588@</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl br">Post Office Savings Banks</td> + <td class="tdrp15vb blr">10,692,555*</td> + <td class="tdrpvb bl">178,033,974@</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp brb">Bank Total</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blrb">12,536,895</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb blb">245,628,634</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp btrb">Grand Total</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bltrb">33,837,922</td> + <td class="tdrp2vb bltb">439,388,985</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl btrb"> </td> + <td class="tdc bltrb">* Depositions</td> + <td class="tdc bltb">@ Deposits</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl bt" colspan="3" style="padding-left: .5em; padding-top: .5em;">In this table allowance must be made for those belonging to more + than one society, and, of course, not all the depositors or + members are workingmen, especially in the savings banks and + building-societies.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h4>CONSTITUTION AND STANDING ORDERS OF THE INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY OF +ENGLAND</h4> + +<p class="cen sc">Standing Orders (1911)</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Contributions</i></p> + +<p>Affiliation Fees and Parliamentary Fund Contributions must be paid by +December 31st each year.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span><i>Annual Conference</i></p> + +<p>1. The Annual Conference shall meet during the month of January.</p> + +<p>2. Affiliated Societies may send one delegate for every thousand or +part of a thousand members paid for.</p> + +<p>3. Affiliated Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties may send one +delegate if their affiliation fee has been 15s., and two delegates if +the fee has been 30s.</p> + +<p>4. Persons eligible as delegates must be paying bona fide members or +paid permanent officials of the organizations sending them.</p> + +<p>5. A fee of 5s. per delegate will be charged.</p> + +<p>6. The National Executive will ballot for the places to be allotted to +the delegates.</p> + +<p>7. Voting at the Conference shall be by show of hands, but on a +division being challenged, delegates shall vote by cards, which shall +be issued on the basis of one card for each thousand members, or +fraction of a thousand, paid for by the Society represented.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Conference Agenda</i></p> + +<p>1. Resolutions for the Agenda and Amendments to the Constitution must +be sent in by November 1st each year.</p> + +<p>2. Amendments to Resolutions must be sent in by December 15th each +year.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen"><i>Nominations for National Executive and Secretaryship</i></p> + +<p>1. Nominations for the National Executive and the Secretaryship must +be sent in by December 15th.</p> + +<p>2. No member of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union +Congress or of the Management Committee of the General Federation of +Trade Unions is eligible for nomination to the National Executive.</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen sc">Constitution</p> + +<p class="cen">(As revised under the authority of the Newport Conference, 1910)</p> + +<h5>ORGANIZATION</h5> + +<p>I. <i>Affiliation.</i></p> + +<p>1. The Labor Party is a Federation consisting of Trade Unions, Trades +Councils, Socialist Societies, and Local Labor Parties.</p> + +<p>2. A Local Labor Party in any constituency is eligible for +affiliation, provided it accepts the Constitution and policy of the +Party, and that there is no affiliated Trades Council covering the +constituency, or that, if there be such Council, it has been consulted +in the first instance.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>3. Co-operative Societies are also eligible.</p> + +<p>4. A National Organization of Women, accepting the basis of this +Constitution, and the policy of the Party, and formed for the purpose +of assisting the Party, shall be eligible for affiliation as though it +were a Trades Council.</p> + +<p>II. <i>Object.</i></p> + +<p>To secure the election of Candidates to Parliament and organize and +maintain a Parliamentary Labor Party, with its own whips and policy.</p> + +<p>III. <i>Candidates and Members.</i></p> + +<p>1. Candidates and Members must accept this Constitution; agree to +abide by the decisions of the Parliamentary Party in carrying out the +aims of this Constitution; appear before their constituencies under +the title of Labor Candidates only; abstain strictly from identifying +themselves with or promoting the interests of any Parliamentary Party +not affiliated, or its Candidates; and they must not oppose any +Candidate recognized by the National Executive of the Party.</p> + +<p>2. Candidates must undertake to join the Parliamentary Labor Party, if +elected.</p> + +<p>IV. <i>Candidatures.</i></p> + +<p>1. A Candidate must be promoted by an affiliated Society which makes +itself responsible for his election expenses.</p> + +<p>2. A Candidate must be selected for a constituency by a regularly +convened Labor Party Conference in the constituency. [The Hull +Conference accepted the following as the interpretation of what a +"Regularly Convened Labor Party Conference" is:—All branches of +affiliated organizations within a constituency or divided borough +covered by a proposal to run a Labor Candidate must be invited to send +delegates to the Conference, and the local organization responsible +for calling the Conference may, if it thinks fit, invite +representatives from branches of organizations not affiliated but +eligible for affiliation.]</p> + +<p>3. Before a Candidate can be regarded as adopted for a constituency, +his candidature must be sanctioned by the National Executive; and +where at the time of a by-election no Candidate has been so +sanctioned, the National Executive shall have power to withhold its +sanction.</p> + +<p>V. <i>The National Executive.</i></p> + +<p>The National Executive shall consist of fifteen members, eleven +representing the Trade Unions, one the Trades Councils, Women's +Organizations, and Local Labor Parties, and three the Socialist +Societies, and shall be elected by ballot at the Annual Conference by +their respective sections.</p> + +<p>VI. <i>Duties of the National Executive.</i></p> + +<p>The National Executive Committee shall</p> + +<p>1. Appoint a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Treasurer, and shall +transact the general business of the Party;</p> + +<p>2. Issue a list of its Candidates from time to time, and recommend +them for the support of the electors;</p> + +<p>3. Report to the affiliated organization concerned any Labor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>Member, +Candidate, or Chief Official who opposes a Candidate of the Party, or +who acts contrary to the spirit of the Constitution;</p> + +<p>4. And its members shall strictly abstain from identifying themselves +with or promoting the interests of any Parliamentary Party not +affiliated, or its Candidates.</p> + +<p>VII. <i>The Secretary.</i></p> + +<p>The Secretary shall be elected by the Annual Conference, and shall be +under the direction of the National Executive.</p> + +<p>VIII. <i>Affiliation Fees and Delegates.</i></p> + +<p>1. Trade Unions and Socialist Societies shall pay 15s. per annum for +every thousand members or fraction thereof, and may send to the Annual +Conference one delegate for each thousand members.</p> + +<p>2. Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties with 5,000 members or under +shall be affiliated on an annual payment of 15s.; similar +organizations with a membership of over 5,000 shall pay £1 10s., the +former Councils to be entitled to send one delegate with one vote to +the Annual Conference, the latter to be entitled to send two delegates +and have two votes.</p> + +<p>3. In addition to these payments a delegate's fee to the Annual +Conference may be charged.</p> + +<p>IX. <i>Annual Conference.</i></p> + +<p>The National Executive shall convene a Conference of its affiliated +Societies in the month of January each year.</p> + +<p>Notice of resolutions for the Conference and all amendments to the +Constitution shall be sent to the Secretary by November 1st, and shall +be forthwith forwarded to all affiliated organizations.</p> + +<p>Notice of amendments and nominations for Secretary and National +Executive shall be sent to the Secretary by December 15th, and shall +be printed on the Agenda.</p> + +<p>X. <i>Voting at Annual Conference.</i></p> + +<p>There shall be issued to affiliated Societies represented at the +Annual Conference voting cards as follows:</p> + +<p>1. Trade Unions and Socialist Societies shall receive one voting card +for each thousand members, or fraction thereof paid for.</p> + +<p>2. Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties shall receive one card for +each delegate they are entitled to send.</p> + +<p>Any delegate may claim to have a vote taken by card.</p> + +<br /> + +<h5>PARLIAMENTARY FUND</h5> + +<p>I. <i>Object.</i></p> + +<p>To assist in paying the election expenses of Candidates adopted in +accordance with this Constitution, in maintaining them when elected; +and to provide the salary and expenses of a National Party Agent.</p> + +<p>II. <i>Amount of Contribution.</i></p> + +<p>1. Affiliated Societies, except Trades Councils, and Local Labor +Parties shall pay a contribution to this fund at the rate of 2d. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>per +member per annum, not later than the last day of each financial year.</p> + +<p>2. On all matters affecting the financial side of the Parliamentary +Fund only contributing Societies shall be allowed to vote at the +Annual Conference.</p> + +<p>III. <i>Trustees.</i></p> + +<p>The National Executive of the Party shall, from its number, select +three to act as Trustees, any two of whom, with the Secretary, shall +sign checks.</p> + +<p>IV. <i>Expenditure.</i></p> + +<p>1. <i>Maintenance.</i>—All Members elected under this Constitution shall +be paid from the Fund equal sums not to exceed £200 per annum, +provided that this payment shall only be made to Members whose +Candidatures have been promoted by one or more Societies which have +contributed to this Fund; provided further that no payment from this +Fund shall be made to a Member or Candidate of any Society which has +not contributed to this Fund for one year, and that any Society over +three months in arrears shall forfeit all claim to the Fund on behalf +of its Members or Candidates, for twelve months from the date of +payment.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Returning Officers' Expenses.</i>—Twenty-five per cent. of the +Returning Officers' net expenses shall be paid to the Candidates, +subject to the provisions of the preceding clause, so long as the +total sum so expended does not exceed twenty-five per cent. of the +Fund.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Administration.</i>—Five per cent. of the Annual Income of the Fund +shall be transferred to the General Funds of the Party, to pay for +administrative expenses of the Fund.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>THE INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY: CONSTITUTION AND RULES, 1910-1911</h4> + +<h5>NAME</h5> + +<p><i>The Independent Labor Party.</i></p> + +<h5>MEMBERSHIP</h5> + +<p>Open to all Socialists who indorse the principles and policy of the +Party, are not members of either the Liberal or Conservative Party, +and whose application for membership is accepted by a Branch.</p> + +<p>Any member expelled from membership of a Branch of the I.L.P. shall +not be eligible for membership of any other branch without having +first submitted his or her case for adjudication of the N.A.C.</p> + +<h5>OBJECT</h5> + +<p>The Object of the Party is to establish the Socialist State, when land +and capital will be held by the community and used <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>for the well-being +of the community, and when the exchange of commodities will be +organized also by the community, so as to secure the highest possible +standard of life for the individual. In giving effect to this object +it shall work as part of the International Socialist Movement.</p> + +<h5>METHOD</h5> + +<p>The Party, to secure its objects, adopts—</p> + +<p>1. <i>Educational Methods</i>, including the publication of Socialist +literature, the holding of meetings, etc.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Political Methods</i>, including the election of its members to local +and national administrative and legislative bodies.</p> + + +<p class="cen sc">Program</p> + +<p>The true object of industry being the production of the requirements +of life, the responsibility should rest with the community +collectively, therefore:—</p> + +<p>The land being the storehouse of all the necessaries of life should be +declared and treated as public property.</p> + +<p>The capital necessary for the industrial operations should be owned +and used collectively.</p> + +<p>Work, and wealth resulting therefrom, should be equitably distributed +over the population.</p> + +<p>As a means to this end, we demand the enactment of the following +measures:—</p> + +<p>1. A maximum of 48 hours' working week, with the retention of all +existing holidays, and Labor Day, May 1st, secured by law.</p> + +<p>2. The provision of work to all capable adult applicants at recognized +Trade Union rates, with a statutory minimum of 6d. per hour.</p> + +<p>In order to remuneratively employ the applicants, Parish, District, +Borough, and County Councils to be invested with powers to:—</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) Organize and undertake such industries as they may consider +desirable.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) Compulsorily acquire land; purchase, erect, or manufacture +buildings, stock, or other articles for carrying on such industries.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) Levy rates on the rental values of the district, and borrow +money on the security of such rates for any of the above purposes.</p> + +<p>3. State pension for every person over 50 years of age, and adequate +provision for all widows, orphans, sick and disabled workers.</p> + +<p>4. Free, secular, moral, primary, secondary, and university education, +with free maintenance while at school or university.</p> + +<p>5. The raising of the age of child labor, with a view to its ultimate +extinction.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>6. Municipalization and public control of the Drink Traffic.</p> + +<p>7. Municipalization and public control of all hospitals and +infirmaries.</p> + +<p>8. Abolition of indirect taxation and the gradual transference of all +public burdens on to unearned incomes with a view to their ultimate +extinction.</p> + +<p>The Independent Labor Party is in favor of adult suffrage, with full +political rights and privileges for women, and the immediate extension +of the franchise to women on the same terms as granted to men; also +triennial Parliaments and second ballot.</p> + + +<p class="cen sc">Organization</p> + +<h5>I.—OFFICERS</h5> + +<p>1. Chairman and Treasurer.</p> + +<p>2. A <i>National Administrative Council.</i>—To be composed of fourteen +representatives, in addition to the two officers.</p> + +<p>3. No member shall occupy the office of Chairman of the Party for a +longer consecutive period than three years, and he shall not be +eligible for re-election for the same office for at least twelve +months after he has vacated the chair.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Election of N.A.C.</i>—Four members of the N.A.C. shall be elected +by ballot at the Annual Conference, and ten by the votes of members in +ten divisional areas.</p> + +<p>5. <i>Duties of N.A.C.</i>—</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) To meet at least three times a year to transact business +relative to the Party.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) To exercise a determining voice in the selection of +Parliamentary candidates, and, where no branch exists, to choose such +candidates when necessary.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) To raise and disburse funds for General and By-Elections, and +for other objects of the Party.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) To deal with such matters of local dispute between branches and +members which may be referred to its decision by the parties +interested.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) To appoint General Secretary and Officials, and exercise a +supervising control over their work.</p> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) To engage organizers and lecturers when convenient, either +permanently or for varying periods, at proper wages, and to direct and +superintend their work.</p> + +<p>(<i>g</i>) To present to the Annual Conference a report on the previous +year's work and progress of the Party.</p> + +<p>(<i>h</i>) To appoint when necessary sub-committees to deal with special +branches of its work, and to appoint a committee to deal with each +Conference Agenda. Such Committee to revise and classify the +resolutions sent in by branches and to place resolutions dealing with +important matters on the Agenda.</p> + +<p>(<i>i</i>) It shall not initiate any new departure or policy between +Conferences without first obtaining the sanction of the majority of +the branches.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>(<i>k</i>) Matters arising between Conferences not provided for by the +Constitution, shall be dealt with by the N.A.C.</p> + +<p>(<i>l</i>) A full report of all the meetings of the N.A.C. as held shall be +forwarded to each branch.</p> + +<p>6. <i>Auditor.</i>—A Chartered or Incorporated Accountant shall be +employed to audit the accounts of the Party.</p> + +<h5>II.—BRANCHES</h5> + +<p>1. <i>Branch.</i>—An Association which indorses the objects and policy of +the Party, and affiliates in the prescribed manner.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Local Autonomy.</i>—Subject to the general constitution of the +Party, each Branch shall be perfectly autonomous.</p> + +<h5>III.—FINANCES</h5> + +<p>1. Branches shall pay one penny per member per month to the N.A.C.</p> + +<p>2. The N.A.C. may strike off the list of branches any branch which is +more than 6 months in arrears with its payments.</p> + +<p>3. The N.A.C. may receive donations or subscriptions to the funds of +the Party. It shall not receive moneys which are contributed upon +terms which interfere in any way with its freedom of action as to +their disbursement.</p> + +<p>4. The financial year of the Party shall begin on March 1st, and end +on the last day of February next succeeding.</p> + +<h5>IV.—ANNUAL CONFERENCE</h5> + +<p>1. The <i>Annual Conference</i> is the ultimate authority of the Party, to +which all final appeals shall be made.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Date.</i>—It shall be held at Easter.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Special Conferences.</i>—A Special Conference shall always be called +prior to a General Election, for the purpose of determining the policy +of the Party during the election. Other Special Conferences may be +called by two-thirds of the whole of the members of the N.A.C, or by +one-third of the branches of the Party.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Conference Fee.</i>—A Conference Fee per delegate (the amount to be +fixed by the N.A.C.) shall be paid by all branches desiring +representation, on or before the last day of February in each year.</p> + +<p>5. No branch shall be represented which was not in existence on the +December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Annual Conference.</p> + +<p>6. Branches of the Party may send one delegate to Conference for each +fifty members, or part thereof. Branches may appoint one delegate to +represent their full voting strength. Should there be two or more +branches which are unable separately to send delegates to Conference, +they may jointly do so.</p> + +<p>7. Delegates must have been members of the branch they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>represent from +December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Conference.</p> + +<p>8. Notices respecting resolutions shall be posted to branches not +later than January 3d. Resolutions for the Agenda, and nominations for +officers and N.A.C. shall be in the hands of the General Secretary +eight weeks before the date of the Annual Conference, and issued to +the branches a fortnight later. Amendments to resolutions on the +Agenda and additional nominations may be sent to the Secretary four +weeks before Conference, and they shall be arranged on the final +Agenda, which shall be issued to branches two weeks before Conference. +A balance sheet shall be issued to branches two weeks before the +Conference, showing the receipts and expenditure of the Party for the +year, also the number of branches affiliated and the amount each +branch has paid in affiliation fees during the year.</p> + +<p>9. The Chairman of the Party for the preceding year shall preside over +the Conference.</p> + +<p>10. <i>Conference Officials.</i>—The first business of the Conference +shall be the appointment of tellers. It shall next elect a Standing +Orders Committee, with power to examine the credentials of delegates, +and to deal with special business which may be delegated to it by the +Conference.</p> + +<p>11. In case any vacancy occurs on the N.A.C. between Conferences, the +unsuccessful candidate receiving the largest number of votes at the +preceding election shall fill the vacancy. Vacancies in the list of +officers shall be filled up by the vote of the branches.</p> + +<p>12. The principle of the second ballot shall be observed in all +elections.</p> + +<p>13. The Conference shall choose in which Divisional Area the next +Conference shall be held.</p> + +<h5>V.—PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES</h5> + +<p>1. The N.A.C. shall keep a list of members of the Party from which +candidates may be selected by branches.</p> + +<p>2. Any Branch at any time may nominate any eligible member of the +Party to be placed upon that list.</p> + +<p>3. The N.A.C. itself may place names on the list.</p> + +<p>4. No person shall be placed upon this list unless he has been a +member of the Party for at least twelve months.</p> + +<p>5. Branches desiring to place a candidate in their constituencies must +in the first instance communicate with the N.A.C., and have the +candidate selected at a properly convened conference of +representatives of the local branches of all societies affiliated with +the Labor Party, so that the candidate may be chosen in accordance +with the constitution of the Labor Party. The N.A.C. shall have power +to suspend this clause where local or other circumstances appear to +justify such a course.</p> + +<p>6. Before the N.A.C. sanctions any candidature it shall be entitled to +secure guarantees of adequate local financial support.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>7. No Branch shall take any action which affects prejudicially the +position or prospects of a Parliamentary candidate, who has received +the credentials of the Labor Party, without first laying the case +before the N.A.C.</p> + +<p>8. Each candidate must undertake that he will run his election in +accordance with the principles and policy of the Party, and that if +elected he will support the Party on all questions coming within the +scope of the principles of the I.L.P.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> +<br /> + +<p><i>The Constitution shall not be altered or amended except every third +year, unless upon the requisition of two-thirds of the N.A.C. or +one-third of the branches of the Party, when the proposed alterations +or amendments shall be considered at the following +Conference.</i>—Resolution, Edinburgh, 1909.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>BASIS OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY</h4> + +<p>The Fabian Society consists of Socialists.</p> + +<p>It therefore aims at the re-organization of society by the +emancipation of land and industrial capital from individual and class +ownership, and the vesting of them in the community for the general +benefit. In this way only can the natural and acquired advantages of +the country be equitably shared by the whole people.</p> + +<p>The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property +in land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of +rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as +for the advantages of superior soils and sites.</p> + +<p>The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the +administration of such industrial capital as can conveniently be +managed socially. For, owing to the monopoly of the means of +production in the past, industrial inventions and the transformation +of surplus income into capital have mainly enriched the proprietary +class, the worker being now dependent on that class for leave to earn +a living.</p> + +<p>If these measures be carried out, without compensation (though not +without such relief to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to the +community), rent and interest will be added to the reward of labor, +the idle class now living on the labor of others will necessarily +disappear, and practical equality of opportunity will be maintained by +the spontaneous action of economic forces with much less interference +with personal liberty than the present system entails.</p> + +<p>For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the +spread of Socialist opinions, and the social and political changes +consequent thereon. It seeks to promote these by the general +dissemination of knowledge as to the relation between the individual +and society in its economic, ethical, and political aspects.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>The following questions are addressed to Parliamentary candidates by +the Fabians:</p> + +<p>Will you press at the first opportunity for the following reforms:—</p> + + +<p class="cen">I.—<i>A Labor Program</i></p> + +<p>1. The extension of the Workmen's Compensation Act to seamen, and to +all other classes of wage earners?</p> + +<p>2. Compulsory arbitration, as in New Zealand, to prevent strikes and +lockouts?</p> + +<p>3. A statutory minimum wage, as in Victoria, especially for sweated +trades?</p> + +<p>4. The fixing of "an eight-hours' day" as the maximum for all public +servants; and the abolition, wherever possible, of overtime?</p> + +<p>5. An Eight-Hours' Bill, without an option clause, for miners; and, +for railway servants, a forty-eight-hours' week?</p> + +<p>6. The drastic amendment of the Factory Acts, to secure (<i>a</i>) a safe +and healthy work-place for every worker, (<i>b</i>) the prevention of +overwork for all women and young persons, (<i>c</i>) the abolition of all +wage-labor by children under 14, (<i>d</i>) compulsory technical +instruction by extension of the half-time arrangements to all workers +under 18?</p> + +<p>7. The direct employment of labor by all public authorities whenever +possible; and, whenever it is not possible, employment only of fair +houses, prohibition of sub-contracting, and payment of trade-union +rates of wages?</p> + +<p>8. The amendment of the Merchant Shipping Acts so as (<i>a</i>) to secure +healthy sleeping and living accommodation, (<i>b</i>) to protect the seaman +against withholding of his wages or return passage, (<i>c</i>) to insure +him against loss by shipwreck?</p> + + +<p class="cen">II.—<i>A Democratic Budget</i></p> + +<p>9. The further taxation of unearned incomes by means of a graduated +and differentiated income-tax?</p> + +<p>10. The abolition of all duties on tea, cocoa, coffee, currants, and +other dried fruits?</p> + +<p>11. An increase of the scale of graduation of the death duties, so as +to fall more heavily on large inheritances?</p> + +<p>12. The appropriation of the unearned increment by the taxation and +rating of ground values?</p> + +<p>13. The nationalization of mining rents and royalties?</p> + +<p>14. Transfer of the railways to the State under the Act of 1844?</p> + + +<p class="cen">III.—<i>Social Reform in Town and Country</i></p> + +<p>15. The extension of full powers to parish, town, and county councils +for the collective organization of the (<i>a</i>) water, (<i>b</i>) gas and +(<i>c</i>) electric lighting supplies, (<i>d</i>) hydraulic power, (<i>e</i>) +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>tramways and light railways, (<i>f</i>) public slaughter-houses, (<i>g</i>) +pawnshops, (<i>h</i>) sale of milk, (<i>i</i>) bread, (<i>j</i>) coal, and such other +public services as may be desired by the inhabitants?</p> + +<p>16. Reform of the drink traffic by (<i>a</i>) reduction of the number of +licenses to a proper ratio to the population of each locality, (<i>b</i>) +transfer to public purposes of the special value of licenses, created +by the existing monopoly, by means of high license or a license rate, +(<i>c</i>) grant of power to local authorities to carry on municipal public +houses, directly or on the Gothenburg system?</p> + +<p>17. Amendment of the Housing of the Working Classes Act by (<i>a</i>) +extension of period of loans to one hundred years, treatment of land +as an asset, and removal of statutory limitation of borrowing powers +for housing, (<i>b</i>) removal of restrictions on rural district councils +in adopting Part III. of the Act, (<i>c</i>) grant of power to parish +councils to adopt Part III. of the Act, (<i>d</i>) power to all local +authorities to buy land compulsorily under the allotments clauses of +the Local Government Act, 1894, or in any other effective manner?</p> + +<p>18. The grant of power to all local bodies to retain the free-hold of +any land that may come into their possession, without obligation to +sell, or to use for particular purposes?</p> + +<p>19. The relief of the existing taxpayer by (<i>a</i>) imposing, for local +purposes, a municipal death duty on local real estate, collected in +the same way as the existing death duties, (<i>b</i>) collecting rates from +the owners of empty houses and vacant land, (<i>c</i>) power to assess land +and houses at four per cent. on the capital value, (<i>d</i>) securing +special contributions by way of "betterment" from the owners of +property benefited by public improvements?</p> + +<p>20. The further equalization of the rates in London?</p> + +<p>21. The compulsory provision by every local authority of adequate +hospital accommodation for all diseases and accidents?</p> + + +<p class="cen">IV.—<i>The Children and the Poor</i></p> + +<p>22. The prohibition of the industrial or wage-earning employment of +children during school terms prior to the age of 14?</p> + +<p>23. The provision of meals, out of public funds, for necessitous +children in public elementary schools?</p> + +<p>24. The training of teachers under public control and free from +sectarian influences?</p> + +<p>25. The creation of a complete system of public secondary education +genuinely available to the children of the poor?</p> + +<p>26. State pensions for the support of the aged or chronically infirm?</p> + + +<p class="cen">V.—<i>Democratic Political Machinery</i></p> + +<p>27. An amendment of the registration laws, with the aim of giving +every adult man a vote, and no one more than one vote?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span>28. A redistribution of seats in accordance with population?</p> + +<p>29. The grant of the franchise to women on the same terms as to men?</p> + +<p>30. The admission of women to seats in the House of Commons and on +borough and county councils?</p> + +<p>31. The second ballot at Parliamentary and other elections?</p> + +<p>32. The payment of all members of Parliament and of Parliamentary +election expenses, out of public funds?</p> + +<p>33. Triennial Parliaments?</p> + +<p>34. All Parliamentary elections to be held on the same day?</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>THE PROGRAM OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION, 1906</h4> + +<h5>OBJECT</h5> + +<p>The Socialization of the Means of Production, Distribution, and +Exchange, to be controlled by a Democratic State in the interests of +the entire community, and the complete Emancipation of Labor from the +Domination of Capitalism and Landlordism, with the establishment of +Social and Economic Equality between the Sexes.</p> + +<p>The economic development of modern society is characterized by the +more or less complete domination of the capitalistic mode of +production over all branches of human labor.</p> + +<p>The capitalistic mode of production, because it has the creation of +profit for its sole object, therefore favors the larger capital, and +is based upon the divorcement of the majority of the people from the +instruments of production and the concentration of these instruments +in the hands of a minority. Society is thus divided into two opposite +classes: one, the capitalists and their sleeping partners, the +landlords and loanmongers, holding in their hands the means of +production, distribution, and exchange, and being, therefore, able to +command the labor of others; the other, the working-class, the +wage-earners, the proletariat, possessing nothing but their +labor-power, and being consequently forced by necessity to work for +the former.</p> + +<p>The social division thus produced becomes wider and deeper with every +new advance in the application of labor-saving machinery. It is most +clearly recognizable, however, in the times of industrial and +commercial crises, when, in consequence of the present chaotic +conditions of carrying on national and international industry, +production periodically comes to a standstill, and a number of the few +remaining independent producers are thrown into the ranks of the +proletariat. Thus, while on one hand there is incessantly going on an +accumulation of capital, wealth, and power into a steadily diminishing +number of hands, there is, on the other hand, a constantly growing +insecurity of livelihood for the mass of wage-earners, an increasing +disparity between human wants and the opportunity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>of acquiring the +means for their satisfaction, and a steady physical and mental +deterioration among the more poverty-stricken of the population.</p> + +<p>But the more this social division widens, the stronger grows the +revolt—more conscious abroad than here—of the proletariat against +the capitalist system of society in which this division and all that +accompanies it have originated, and find such fruitful soil. The +capitalist mode of production, by massing the workers in large +factories, and creating an interdependence, not only between various +trades and branches of industries, but even national industries, +prepares the ground and furnishes material for a universal class war. +That class war may at first—as in this country—be directed against +the abuses of the system, and not against the system itself; but +sooner or later the workers must come to recognize that nothing short +of the expropriation of the capitalist class, the ownership by the +community of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, can +put an end to their abject economic condition; and then the class war +will become conscious instead of unconscious on the part of the +working-classes, and they will have for their ultimate object the +overthrow of the capitalist system. At the same time, since the +capitalist class holds and uses the power of the State to safeguard +its position and beat off any attack, the class war must assume a +political character, and become a struggle on the part of the workers +for the possession of the political machinery.</p> + +<p>It is this struggle for the conquest of the political power of the +State, in order to effect a social transformation, which International +Social Democracy carries on in the name and on behalf of the +working-class. Social Democracy, therefore, is the only possible +political party of the proletariat. The Social Democratic Federation +is a part of this International Social Democracy. It, therefore, takes +its stand on the above principles, and believes—</p> + +<p>1. That the emancipation of the working-class can only be achieved +through the socialization of the means of production, distribution, +and exchange, and their subsequent control by the organized community +in the interests of the whole people.</p> + +<p>2. That, as the proletariat is the last class to achieve freedom, its +emancipation will mean the emancipation of the whole of mankind, +without distinction of race, nationality, creed, or sex.</p> + +<p>3. That this emancipation can only be the work of the working-class +itself, organized nationally and internationally into a distinct +political party, consciously striving after the realization of its +ideals; and, finally,</p> + +<p>4. That, in order to insure greater material and moral facilities for +the working-class to organize itself and to carry on the class war, +the following reforms must immediately be carried through:—</p> + + +<p class="cen sc">Immediate Reforms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span></p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Political</i></p> + +<p>Abolition of the Monarchy.</p> + +<p>Democratization of the Governmental machinery, viz., abolition of the +House of Lords, payment of members of legislative and administrative +bodies, payment of official expenses of elections out of the public +funds, adult suffrage, proportional representation, triennial +parliaments, second ballot, initiative and referendum. Foreigners to +be granted rights of citizenship after two years' residence in the +country, without any fees. Canvassing to be made illegal. All +elections to take place on one day, such day to be made a legal +holiday, and all premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating +liquors to be closed.</p> + +<p>Legislation by the people in such wise that no legislative proposal +shall become law until ratified by the majority of the people.</p> + +<p>Legislative and administrative independence for all parts of the +Empire.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Financial and Fiscal</i></p> + +<p>Repudiation of the National Debt.</p> + +<p>Abolition of all indirect taxation and the institution of a cumulative +tax on all incomes and inheritance exceeding £300.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Administrative</i></p> + +<p>Extension of the principle of local self-government.</p> + +<p>Systematization and co-ordination of the local administrative bodies.</p> + +<p>Election of all administrators and administrative bodies by equal +direct adult suffrage.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Educational</i></p> + +<p>Elementary education to be free, secular, industrial, and compulsory +for all classes. The age of obligatory school attendance to be raised +to 16.</p> + +<p>Unification and systematization of intermediate and higher education, +both general and technical, and all such education to be free.</p> + +<p>State maintenance for all attending State schools.</p> + +<p>Abolition of school rates; the cost of education in all State schools +to be borne by the National Exchequer.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Public Monopolies and Services</i></p> + +<p>Nationalization of the land and the organization of labor in +agriculture and industry under public ownership and control on +co-operative principles.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span>Nationalization of the trusts.</p> + +<p>Nationalization of railways, docks, and canals, and all great means of +transit.</p> + +<p>Public ownership and control of gas, electric light, and water +supplies, as well as of tramway, omnibus, and other locomotive +services.</p> + +<p>Public ownership and control of the food and coal supply.</p> + +<p>The establishment of State and municipal banks and pawnshops and +public restaurants.</p> + +<p>Public ownership and control of the lifeboat service.</p> + +<p>Public ownership and control of hospitals, dispensaries, cemeteries, +and crematoria.</p> + +<p>Public ownership and control of the drink traffic.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Labor</i></p> + +<p>A legislative eight-hour working-day, or 48 hours per week, to be the +maximum for all trades and industries. Imprisonment to be indicted on +employers for any infringement of the law.</p> + +<p>Absolute freedom of combination for all workers, with legal guarantee +against any action, private or public, which tends to curtail or +infringe it.</p> + +<p>No child to be employed in any trade or occupation until 16 years of +age, and imprisonment to be inflicted on employers, parents, and +guardians who infringe this law.</p> + +<p>Public provision of useful work at not less than trade-union rates of +wages for the unemployed.</p> + +<p>Free State insurance against sickness and accident, and free and +adequate State pensions or provision for aged and disabled workers. +Public assistance not to entail any forfeiture of political rights.</p> + +<p>The legislative enactment of a minimum wage of 30s. for all workers. +Equal pay for both sexes for the performance of equal work.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Social</i></p> + +<p>Abolition of the present workhouse system, and reformed administration +of the Poor Law on a basis of national co-operation.</p> + +<p>Compulsory construction by public bodies of healthy dwellings for the +people; such dwellings to be let at rents to cover the cost of +construction and maintenance alone, and not to cover the cost of the +land.</p> + +<p>The administration of justice and legal advice to be free to all; +justice to be administered by judges chosen by the people; appeal in +criminal cases; compensation for those innocently accused, condemned, +and imprisoned; abolition of imprisonment for contempt of court in +relation to non-payment of debt in the case of workers earning less +than £2 per week; abolition of capital punishment.</p> + +<p class="cen"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span><i>Miscellaneous</i></p> + +<p>The disestablishment and disendowment of all State churches.</p> + +<p>The abolition of standing armies, and the establishment of national +citizen forces. The people to decide on peace and war.</p> + +<p>The establishment of international courts of arbitration.</p> + +<p>The abolition of courts-martial; all offenses against discipline to be +transferred to the jurisdiction of civil courts.</p> + +<br /> + +<h4>THE LABOR PARTY: SESSION OF PARLIAMENT, 1911-1912</h4> + +<p>[At the beginning of every session of Parliament, the Labor Party +members agree on a program of procedure to which they adhere for that +session. They stick to the bills, in the order chosen, until they are +either passed or defeated. The following is the list for 1911.]</p> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang">Bills to be balloted for in order named:</p> + +<p class="noin" style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> +1. Trade Union Amendment Bill.<br /> +2. Unemployed Workmen Bill.<br /> +3. Education (Administrative Provisions) Bill.<br /> +4. Electoral Reform Bill.<br /> +5. Eight-Hour Day Bill.<br /> +6. Bill to Provide against Eviction of Workmen during Trade Disputes.<br /> +7. Railway Nationalization Bill.</p> + +<p class="hang">Motions to be balloted for in order named:</p> + +<p class="noin" style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> +1. Militarism and Foreign Policy: (on lines of Resolution passed +by the Special Conference at Leicester).<br /> +2. Defect in Sheriffs' Courts Bill (Scotland) relating to power of +Eviction during Trade Disputes.<br /> +3. General 30s. Minimum Wage.</p> + +<p class="hang">Other Motions from which selection may be made after the three +foregoing subjects have been dealt with:</p> + +<p class="noin" style="margin-left: 1.5em;"> +Saturday to Monday Stop.<br /> +Eviction of Workmen during Trade Disputes.<br /> +Extension of Particulars Clause to Docks, etc.<br /> +Nationalization of Hospitals.<br /> +Adult Suffrage.<br /> +Commission of Inquiry into Older Universities.<br /> +Workmen's Compensation Amendment.<br /> +Atmosphere and Dust in Textile Factories.<br /> +System of Fines in Textile and Other Trades.<br /> +Inclusion of Clerks in Factory Acts.<br /> +Eight-Hour Day.<br /> +Electoral Reform.<br /> +Inquiry into Industrial Assurance.<br /> +Poor Law Reform.<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +Truck.<br /> +Railway and Mining Accidents.<br /> +Labor Exchanges Administration.<br /> +Labor Ministry.<br /> +Veto Conference.<br /> +Day Training Classes.<br /> +School Clinics.<br /> +Indian Factory Laws.<br /> +Hours in Bakehouses.<br /> +House-letting in Scotland.</p> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h4>FABIAN ELECTION ADDRESS</h4> + +<p>[The following is an election broadside issued for the municipal +election of London, soon after the establishment of municipal home +rule for the metropolis, by the organization of the London County +Council. It discloses the practical nature of the earlier Fabian +political activities.]</p> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang"><span class="sc">County Council Election: Address of Mr. Sidney Webb, LL.B. +(London University), (Progressive and Labor Candidate)</span></p></div> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="padding-right: 2%;">Central Committee Rooms,</span><br /> +484, New Cross Road, S.E.</p> + +<p class="noin sc">Electors of Deptford,</p> + +<p>On the nomination of a Joint Committee of Delegates of the Liberal and +Radical Association, the Women's Liberal Association, the Working +Men's Clubs, and leading Trade Unionists and Social Reformers in +Deptford, I come forward as a Candidate for the County Council +Election. I shall seek to lift the contest above any narrow partisan +lines, and I ask for the support of all who are interested in the +well-being of the people.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>The Point at Issue</i></p> + +<p>For much is at stake for London at this Election. Notwithstanding the +creation of the County Council, the ratepayers of the Metropolis are +still deprived of the ordinary powers of municipal self-government. +They have to bear needlessly heavy burdens for a very defective +management of their public affairs. The result is seen in the poverty, +the misery, and the intemperance that disgrace our city. A really +Progressive County Council can do much (as the present Council has +shown), both immediately to benefit the people of London, and also to +win for them genuine self-government. Do you wish your County Council +to attempt nothing more for London than the old Metropolitan Board of +Works? This is, in effect, the Reactionary, or so-called "Moderate," +program. Or shall we make our County <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span>Council a mighty instrument of +the people's will for the social regeneration of this great city, and +the "Government of London by London for London?" That is what I stand +for.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Relief of the Taxpayer</i></p> + +<p>But the crushing burden of the occupier's rates must be reduced, not +increased. Even with the strictest economy the administration of a +growing city must be a heavy burden. The County Council should have +power to tax the ground landlord, who now pays no rates at all +directly. Moreover, the rates must be equalized throughout London. Why +should the Deptford ratepayer have to pay nearly two shillings in the +pound more than the inhabitant of St. George's, Hanover Square? And we +must get at the unearned increment for the benefit of the people of +London, who create it.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>A Labor Program</i></p> + +<p>I am in favor of Trade Union wages and an eight-hours day for all +persons employed by the Council. I am dead against sub-contracting, +and would like to see the Council itself the direct employer of all +labor.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Municipalization</i></p> + +<p>At present London pays an utterly unnecessary annual tribute, because, +unlike other towns, it leaves its water supply, its gas-works, its +tramways, its markets, and its docks in the hands of private +speculators. I am in favor of replacing private by Democratic public +ownership and management, as soon and as far as safely possible. It is +especially urgent to secure public control of the water supply, the +tramways, and the docks. Moreover, London ought to manage its own +police, and all its open spaces.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>The Condition of the Poor</i></p> + +<p>But the main object of all our endeavors must be to raise the standard +of life of our poorer fellow-citizens, now crushed by the competitive +struggle. As one of the most urgent social reforms, especially in the +interests of Temperance, I urge the better housing of the people; the +provision, by the Council itself, of improved dwellings and common +lodging-houses of the best possible types, and a strict enforcement of +the sanitary laws against the owners of slum property.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Local Questions</i></p> + +<p>I believe in local attention to local grievances, and I should deem it +my duty, if elected, to look closely after Deptford <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>interests, +especially with regard to the need for more open spaces, and the early +completion of the new Thames tunnel.</p> + +<p>A more detailed account of my views may be found in my book, "The +London Programme," and other writings. I am a Londoner born and bred, +and have made London questions the chief study of my life. I have had +thirteen years' administrative experience in a Government office, a +position which I have resigned in order to give my whole time to +London's service. With regard to my general opinions, it will be +enough to say that I have long been an active member of the Fabian +Society, and of the Executive Committee of the London Liberal and +Radical Union.</p> + +<p class="right sc">Sidney Webb.</p> + +<p>4, Park Village East, Regent's Park, N.W.</p> + +<p>The following meetings have already been arranged. Others will be +announced shortly.</p> + +<p class="noin" style="padding-left: 2em;"> +February 11.—Lecture Hall, High Street, at 8 <span class="fakesc">P.M.</span><br /> +February 25.—Lecture Hall High Street, at 8 <span class="fakesc">P.M.</span><br /> +March 3.—New Cross Hall, Lewisham High Road, at 8 <span class="fakesc">P.M.</span></p> + +<br /> + +<h4>FABIAN ELECTION DODGER</h4> + +<p>[The Fabians and other Socialists broke into London municipal politics +under the name "Progressives." The following is one of their earliest +election dodgers.]</p> + +<p class="cen sc">County Council Election</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Saturday, March 5, 1892</i></p> + +<p class="cen">Part of the<br /> +<span style="font-size: 80%;">PROGRAM OF THE PROGRESSIVES</span></p> + +<p><i>Rates.</i>—Reduce the Occupiers' Rates one-half, by charging that +portion upon the great Landlords, whose ground values are increased by +every improvement, and are now untaxed; and by a Municipal Death Duty.</p> + +<p><i>Gas and Water.</i>—Reduce the cost and improve the quality and quantity +by new sources of supply, if the present Companies will not come to +terms favorable to the Taxpayer.</p> + +<p><i>City Companies.</i>—Apply their whole Income of, say £500,000 (on leave +obtained from the new Parliament), for the benefit of London. The +Royal Commission of 1884 stated that this income is virtually Public +Property. About £300,000 is now squandered each year among the members +and their friends.</p> + +<p><i>Homes for the Poor.</i>—The Poor can all be comfortably housed, as in +the Municipal Dwellings of Glasgow and Liverpool, without extra cost +to the Taxpayer, and the "Doss-houses" abolished.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span><i>Cheap Food.</i>—By doing away with the Market Monopolies of the City +Corporation and other private owners, Food can be lowered in price. +Good food, especially fish, is now often destroyed or sold for manure +to keep up the price.</p> + +<p><i>Poor Man's Vote.</i>—One-third of your Votes are lost. The Registration +Laws must be thoroughly altered.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-A5_238" id="Footnote_1-A5_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-A5_238"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Debates, House of Lords, July, 31, 1885. The speech was +privately printed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2-A5_239" id="Footnote_2-A5_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2-A5_239"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Debates, May 19, 1890. This speech was also given private +circulation.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>VI. GENERAL</h3> +<br /> + +<h4>1. ORIGIN OF THE WORD "COLLECTIVISM"</h4> + +<p>"This word, invented by Colins, came into common use toward the end of +the Empire. Bakunin used it in the congress at Berne in 1868, to +oppose it to the communistic régime of Cabet. An economist in 1869 +designated, under this name, the system under which production will be +confined to communes or parishes. The Socialists who opposed +authority, disciples of Bakunin, used the word for a long time to +designate their doctrine. The section of Locle was one of the first to +employ it. But by and by, about 1878, the Marxists, partisans of the +proletarian reign, used the word 'collectivism' to distinguish their +'scientific Socialism,' of which term they were fond, from the +communistic utopias of the older school, which they discovered. And +they gave to Bakunins the name Anarchists. These accepted the name, +taking care to write it with a hyphen, <i>an-archie</i>, as their master +Proudhon had done. They soon dropped the hyphen and accepted the word +anarchy as a declaration of war against all things as they are."<a name="FNanchor_1-A6_240" id="FNanchor_1-A6_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_1-A6_240" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<br /> + +<h4>2. TABLE SHOWING RESULTS OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS</h4> + +<p class="cen sc"><b>(Compiled from Report of Secretary of the International, +1910)</b></p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="50%" summary="Results of Parliamentary Elections"> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp bt2rb" width="40%"><i>Country</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="15%"><i>No. Socialist Votes</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="15%"><i>Total No. Seats in Parliament</i></td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" width="15%"><i>No. Seats Held by Socialists</i></td> + <td class="tdc bt2b blt2b" width="15%"><i>Per cent. of Socialists Seats</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp btr">Great Britain (1910)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bltr">505,690</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bltr">670</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bltr">40</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blt">5.97</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Germany (1912)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">4,250,000</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">397</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">110</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">38.81</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Luxemburg (1909)</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">48</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">20.8</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Austria (1907)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">1,041,948</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">516</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">88</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">17.06</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">France (1910)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">1,106,047</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">584</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">76</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">13.01</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Italy (1909)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">338,885</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">508</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">42</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">8.26</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Spain (1910)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">40,000</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">404</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">0.25</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Russia</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">442</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">17</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">3.82</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Finland (1910)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">316,951</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">200</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">86</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">43.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Norway (1907)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">90,000</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">123</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">11</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">8.94</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Sweden (1909)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">75,000</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">165</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">36</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">21.81</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Denmark (1910)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">98,721</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">114</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">24</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">21.06</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp2 br">Holland (1909)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">82,494</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">100</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">7.00</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Belgium (1910)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">483,241</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">166</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">35</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">21.08</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Switzerland (1908)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">100,000</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">170</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">7</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">4.11</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Turkey (1908)</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">196</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">6</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">3.06</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Servia (1908)</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">3,056</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">160</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blr">1</td> + <td class="tdrp2 bl">0.62</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp brb2">U.S.A. (1910)</td> + <td class="tdc blrb2">—</td> + <td class="tdc blrb2">—</td> + <td class="tdrp2 blrb2">1</td> + <td class="tdc blb2">—</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> + +<p class="cen sc"><b>In 1910 the Socialists Held the Following Number of Local +Officers, According to the Report of the International Secretary</b><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span></p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="40%" summary="Local Officers"> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp bt2" width="30%">Great Britain</td> + <td class="tdrp bt2r" width="20%">1126</td> + <td class="tdlp blt2" width="30%">Finland</td> + <td class="tdrp bt2" width="20%">351</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">Germany</td> + <td class="tdrp br">7729</td> + <td class="tdlp bl">Norway</td> + <td class="tdrp">873</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">Austria-Bohemia</td> + <td class="tdrp br">2896</td> + <td class="tdlp bl">Sweden</td> + <td class="tdrp">125</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">Hungary</td> + <td class="tdrp br">96</td> + <td class="tdlp bl">Denmark</td> + <td class="tdrp">1000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp">France</td> + <td class="tdrp br">3800</td> + <td class="tdlp bl">Belgium</td> + <td class="tdrp">850</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp bb2">Bulgaria</td> + <td class="tdrp br bb2">7</td> + <td class="tdlp bl bb2">Servia</td> + <td class="tdrp bb2">22</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h4>3. TABLE SHOWING THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY, IN VARIOUS +COUNTRIES</h4> + +<p class="cen sc"><b>(Compiled from Reports of the Secretary of the International, +1909-10)</b></p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="60%" summary="Membership of the Socialist Party"> + <tr> + <td class="tdl bt2rb"> </td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" colspan="2">1907</td> + <td class="tdc blt2rb" colspan="2">1908</td> + <td class="tdc blt2b" colspan="2">1909</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc btrb"><i>Country</i></td> + <td class="tdc bltrb"><i>Local Groups</i></td> + <td class="tdc bltrb"><i>Members</i></td> + <td class="tdc bltrb"><i>Local Groups</i></td> + <td class="tdc bltrb"><i>Members</i></td> + <td class="tdc bltrb"><i>Local Groups</i></td> + <td class="tdc bltb"><i>Members</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp btr" width="28%">Great Britain, L.P.</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="12%">275</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="12%">1,072,412</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="12%">307</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="12%">1,152,786</td> + <td class="tdrp bltr" width="12%">318</td> + <td class="tdrp blt" width="12%">1,481,368</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp bl">(4,000)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Great Britain, J.L.P.</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">600</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">35,000</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">765</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">50,000</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">900</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">60,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Great Britain, S.D.F.</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">202</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">14,500</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">250</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">16,000</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">17,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Great Britain, Fabians</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1,207</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">27</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2,015</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">39</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">2,462</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Germany</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2704</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">530,466</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">3120</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">587,336</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">3281</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">633,309</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr">(10,943)</td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr">(29,458)</td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp bl">(62,259)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Austria</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">126,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Bohemia</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdc blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2462</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">156,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp bl">(6,000)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Hungary</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">130,000</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">102,054</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">769</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">85,266</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">France</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">48,237</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">49,328</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2500</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">51,692</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Italy</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">43,000</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">30,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Russia*</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">8</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">16,000</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">8</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">5,000</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">8</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">3,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Spain</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Poland-Prussian</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">10</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">400</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">40</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">1,500</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Poland-Russian</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">22,700</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp bl"> 3,500</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Finland</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1156</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">80,328</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">1127</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">71,266</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">—</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr">(18,873)</td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr">(16,826)</td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp bl"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Norway</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">499</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">23,000</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">602</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">27,500</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">637</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">26,500</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr">(1,800)</td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp blr">(2,000)</td> + <td class="tdrp blr"> </td> + <td class="tdrp bl">(2,500)</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Sweden</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">296</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">112,693</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">338</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">60,183</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Denmark</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">360</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">47,000</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Holland</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">167</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">7,471</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">176</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">8,411</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">211</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">9,289</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Belgium</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">803</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">161,239</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">183,997</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">906</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">185,318</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Switzerland</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">23</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">21,132</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Servia</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">615</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">—</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">1,950</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp br">Bulgaria</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">71</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2,658</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">80</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">2,886</td> + <td class="tdrp blr">109</td> + <td class="tdrp bl">4,287</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp brb2">U.S.A.</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb2">1900</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb2">26,784</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb2">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb2">—</td> + <td class="tdrp blrb2">3200</td> + <td class="tdrp bl bb2">53,375</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlp" colspan="7" style="padding-top: .5em;">* Province of Lettland.<br /> + Figures in parenthesis indicate number of women members.</td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> + +<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span>4. AMERICAN SOCIALIST PARTY PLATFORM</h4> + +<p>[Adopted by National Convention May, 1908, and by Membership +Referendum August 8th, 1908. Amended by Referendum September 7th, +1909.]</p> + + +<p class="cen sc">Principles</p> + +<p>Human life depends upon food, clothing, and shelter. Only with these +assured are freedom, culture, and higher human development possible. +To produce food, clothing, or shelter, land and machinery are needed. +Land alone does not satisfy human needs. Human labor creates machinery +and applies it to the land for the production of raw materials and +food. Whoever has control of land and machinery controls human labor, +and with it human life and liberty.</p> + +<p>To-day the machinery and the land used for industrial purposes are +owned by a rapidly decreasing minority. So long as machinery is simple +and easily handled by one man, its owner cannot dominate the sources +of life of others. But when machinery becomes more complex and +expensive, and requires for its effective operation the organized +effort of many workers, its influence reaches over wide circles of +life. The owners of such machinery become the dominant class.</p> + +<p>In proportion as the number of such machine owners compared to all +other classes decreases, their power in the nation and in the world +increases. They bring ever larger masses of working people under their +control, reducing them to the point where muscle and brain are their +only productive property. Millions of formerly self-employing workers +thus become the helpless wage slaves of the industrial masters.</p> + +<p>As the economic power of the ruling class grows it becomes less useful +in the life of the nation. All the useful work of the nation falls +upon the shoulders of the class whose only property is its manual and +mental labor power—the wage worker—or of the class who have but +little land and little effective machinery outside of their labor +power—the small traders and small farmers. The ruling minority is +steadily becoming useless and parasitic.</p> + +<p>A bitter struggle over the division of the products of labor is waged +between the exploiting propertied classes on the one hand and the +exploited propertyless class on the other. In this struggle the +wage-working class cannot expect adequate relief from any reform of +the present order at the hands of the dominant class.</p> + +<p>The wage workers are therefore the most determined and irreconcilable +antagonists of the ruling class. They suffer most from the curse of +class rule. The fact that a few capitalists are permitted to control +all the country's industrial resources and social tools for their +individual profit, and to make the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>production of the necessaries of +life the object of competitive private enterprise and speculation is +at the bottom of all the social evils of our time.</p> + +<p>In spite of the organization of trusts, pools, and combinations, the +capitalists are powerless to regulate production for social ends. +Industries are largely conducted in a planless manner. Through periods +of feverish activity the strength and health of the workers are +mercilessly used up, and during periods of enforced idleness the +workers are frequently reduced to starvation.</p> + +<p>The climaxes of this system of production are the regularly recurring +industrial depressions and crises which paralyze the nation every +fifteen or twenty years.</p> + +<p>The capitalist class, in its mad race for profits, is bound to exploit +the workers to the very limit of their endurance and to sacrifice +their physical, moral, and mental welfare to its own insatiable greed. +Capitalism keeps the masses of workingmen in poverty, destitution, +physical exhaustion, and ignorance. It drags their wives from their +homes to the mill and factory. It snatches their children from the +playgrounds and schools and grinds their slender bodies and unformed +minds into cold dollars. It disfigures, maims, and kills hundreds of +thousands of workingmen annually in mines, on railroads, and in +factories. It drives millions of workers into the ranks of the +unemployed and forces large numbers of them into beggary, vagrancy, +and all forms of crime and vice.</p> + +<p>To maintain their rule over their fellow-men, the capitalists must +keep in their pay all organs of the public powers, public mind, and +public conscience. They control the dominant parties and, through +them, the elected public officials. They select the executives, bribe +the legislatures, and corrupt the courts of justice. They own and +censor the press. They dominate the educational institutions. They own +the nation politically and intellectually just as they own it +industrially.</p> + +<p>The struggle between wage workers and capitalists grows ever fiercer, +and has now become the only vital issue before the American people. +The wage-working class, therefore, has the most direct interest in +abolishing the capitalist system. But in abolishing the present +system, the workingmen will free not only their own class, but also +all other classes of modern society. The small farmer, who is to-day +exploited by large capital more indirectly but not less effectively +than is the wage laborer; the small manufacturer and trader, who is +engaged in a desperate and losing struggle for economic independence +in the face of the all-conquering power of concentrated capital; and +even the capitalist himself, who is the slave of his wealth rather +than its master. The struggle of the working class against the +capitalist class, while it is a class struggle, is thus at the same +time a struggle for the abolition of all classes and class privileges.</p> + +<p>The private ownership of the land and means of production used for +exploitation, is the rock upon which class rule is built; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>political +government is its indispensable instrument. The wage-workers cannot be +freed from exploitation without conquering the political power and +substituting collective for private ownership of the land and means of +production used for exploitation.</p> + +<p>The basis for such transformation is rapidly developing within present +capitalist society. The factory system, with its complex machinery and +minute division of labor, is rapidly destroying all vestiges of +individual production in manufacture. Modern production is already +very largely a collective and social process. The great trusts and +monopolies which have sprung up in recent years have organized the +work and management of the principal industries on a national scale, +and have fitted them for collective use and operation.</p> + +<p>There can be no absolute private title to land. All private titles, +whether called fee simple or otherwise, are and must be subordinate to +the public title. The Socialist Party strives to prevent land from +being used for the purpose of exploitation and speculation. It demands +the collective possession, control, or management of land to whatever +extent may be necessary to attain that end. It is not opposed to the +occupation and possession of land by those using it in a useful and +bona fide manner without exploitation.</p> + +<p>The Socialist Party is primarily an economic and political movement. +It is not concerned with matters of religious belief.</p> + +<p>In the struggle for freedom the interests of all modern workers are +identical. The struggle is not only national but international. It +embraces the world and will be carried to ultimate victory by the +united workers of the world.</p> + +<p>To unite the workers of the nation and their allies and sympathizers +of all other classes to this end, is the mission of the Socialist +Party. In this battle for freedom the Socialist Party does not strive +to substitute working class rule for capitalist class rule, but by +working class victory, to free all humanity from class rule and to +realize the international brotherhood of man.</p> + + +<p class="cen sc">Program</p> + +<p>As measures calculated to strengthen the working class in its fight +for the realization of this ultimate aim, and to increase its power of +resistance against capitalist oppression, we advocate and pledge +ourselves and our elected officers to the following program:</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>General Demands</i></p> + +<p>1. The immediate government relief for the unemployed workers by +building schools, by reforesting of cut-over and waste lands, by +reclamation of arid tracts, and the building of canals, and by +extending all other useful public works. All persons employed on such +works shall be employed directly by the government under an eight-hour +work-day and at the prevailing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span>union wages. The government shall also +loan money to states and municipalities without interest for the +purpose of carrying on public works. It shall contribute to the funds +of labor organizations for the purpose of assisting their unemployed +members, and shall take such other measures within its power as will +lessen the widespread misery of the workers caused by the misrule of +the capitalist class.</p> + +<p>2. The collective ownership of railroads, telegraphs, telephones, +steamboat lines, and all other means of social transportation and +communication.</p> + +<p>3. The collective ownership of all industries which are organized on a +national scale and in which competition has virtually ceased to exist.</p> + +<p>4. The extension of the public domain to include mines, quarries, oil +wells, forests, and water power.</p> + +<p>5. The scientific reforestation of timber lands, and the reclamation +of swamp lands. The land so reforested or reclaimed to be permanently +retained as a part of the public domain.</p> + +<p>6. The absolute freedom of press, speech, and assemblage.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Industrial Demands</i></p> + +<p>7. The improvement of the industrial condition of the workers.</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) By shortening the workday in keeping with the increased +productiveness of machinery.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) By securing to every worker a rest period of not less than a day +and a half in each week.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) By securing a more effective inspection of workshops and +factories.</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) By forbidding the employment of children under sixteen years of +age.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) By forbidding the interstate transportation of the products of +child labor, of convict labor, and of all uninspected factories.</p> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) By abolishing official charity and substituting in its place +compulsory insurance against unemployment, illness, accidents, +invalidism, old age, and death.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>Political Demands</i></p> + +<p>8. The extension of inheritance taxes, graduated in proportion to the +amount of the bequests and to the nearness of kin.</p> + +<p>9. A graduated income tax.</p> + +<p>10. Unrestricted and equal suffrage for men and women, and we pledge +ourselves to engage in an active campaign in that direction.</p> + +<p>11. The initiative and referendum, proportional representation, and +the right of recall.</p> + +<p>12. The abolition of the senate.</p> + +<p>13. The abolition of the power usurped by the supreme court of the +United States to pass upon the constitutionality of legislation +enacted by Congress. National laws to be repealed or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>abrogated only +by act of Congress or by a referendum of the whole people.</p> + +<p>14. That the Constitution be made amendable by majority vote.</p> + +<p>15. The enactment of further measures for general education and for +the conservation of health. The bureau of education to be made a +department. The creation of a department of public health.</p> + +<p>16. The separation of the present bureau of labor from the department +of commerce and labor, and the establishment of a department of labor.</p> + +<p>17. That all judges be elected by the people for short terms, and that +the power to issue injunctions shall be curbed by immediate +legislation.</p> + +<p>18. The free administration of justice.</p> + +<p>Such measures of relief as we may be able to force from capitalism are +but a preparation of the workers to seize the whole power of +government, in order that they may thereby lay hold of the whole +system of industry and thus come to their rightful inheritance.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<br /> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1-A6_240" id="Footnote_1-A6_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1-A6_240"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <span class="sc">Georges Weil</span>, <i>Histoire du Mouvement Social en +France</i>, p. 208.</p></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span><br /> +<a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>INDEX</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="block5"> +<ul><li>Allemane, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li>American Socialist Party platform, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> + +<li>Amsterdam Congress, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li>Anarchy, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + +<li>Anselee, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li>Anti-militarism, in France, <a href="#Page_110">110-112</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Belgium, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li> + <li>in Germany, <a href="#Page_201">201-202</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Anti-Socialist Law (German), <a href="#Page_160">160-167</a></li> + +<li>Asquith, Premier, and the Parliament Bill, <a href="#Page_238">238-240</a></li> + +<li>Austria, revolution in, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Bakunin, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li> + +<li>Barthou, on French post-office strike, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>on railway strike, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Bebel, August, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>on Anti-Socialist Law, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li> + <li>arrest of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li> + <li>candidate for President of Reichstag, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li> + <li>on defeat of Socialism, 1907, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li> + <li>on inheritance tax, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> + <li>as a party leader, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> + <li>on new Alsatian Constitution, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li> + <li>on militarism, <a href="#Page_202">202-203</a>;</li> + <li>on participation in legislation, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</li> + <li>on party discipline, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</li> + <li>on Socialism in United States, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Belgium, <a href="#Page_118">118-145</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>government of, <a href="#Page_121">121-122</a>;</li> + <li>co-operative movement in, <a href="#Page_140">140-145</a>;</li> + <li>agrarian movement in, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> + <li>nature of Belgian Socialism, <a href="#Page_143">143-144</a>;</li> + <li>labor organizations in, <a href="#Page_122">122-125</a>;</li> + <li>Labor Party in Parliament, <a href="#Page_133">133-135</a>;</li> + <li>political parties in, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li> + <li>poverty and illiteracy in, <a href="#Page_118">118-120</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Bernstein, Ed., <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li> + +<li>Bibliography, <a href="#Page_273">273-279</a></li> + +<li>Bismarck and Lassalle, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>and Reichstag suffrage, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li> + <li>and repression of Socialism, <a href="#Page_159">159-161</a>;</li> + <li>Anti-Socialist Law, <a href="#Page_160">160-168</a>;</li> + <li>and State Insurance, <a href="#Page_168">168-169</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Blanc, Louis, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26-28</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Lassalle adopts plan of, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Bourgeoisie, defined, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> + +<li>Bourse du Travail, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>federation of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li> + <li>organization of, <a href="#Page_105">105-106</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Brentano, Prof., on Socialism in U.S., <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li> + +<li>Briand, Aristide, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>became Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</li> + <li>program of legislation, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> + <li>and the railway strike, <a href="#Page_99">99-104</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Brousse, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li>Brussels, city of refuge, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>demonstrations in, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139-140</a>;</li> + <li>Maison du Peuple of, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Burns, John, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in cabinet, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</li> + <li>on right to work, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</li> + <li>on Socialism in U.S., <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li> + </ul> +<br /></li> + + +<li>Cabet, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + +<li>Carlyle, on Chartist movement, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> + +<li>"C.G.T." <i>See</i> Syndicalists and Syndicalism</li> + +<li>Chartist movement, <a href="#Page_51">51-54</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span></li> + +<li>Christian Socialism, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221-222</a></li> + +<li>Christian Social Union, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> + +<li>Church Socialist League, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li> + +<li>Class basis of Socialism, <a href="#Page_1">1-6</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>. + <ul class="nest"> + <li><i>See also</i> Marx</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Class interests, illusion of, <a href="#Page_253">253-254</a></li> + +<li>Class War, Guesdists on the, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> + +<li>Class War and Syndicalists, <a href="#Page_106">106-107</a></li> + +<li>Clémenceau, debate with Jaurès, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>on post-office strike, <a href="#Page_96">96-97</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Clerical Party in Belgium, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Germany, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li> + <li><i>See also</i> political parties</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Colin, co-operative movement started by, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li>"Collectivism," origin of word, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li> + +<li>Communal Program of Bavarian Socialists, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>of Belgian Socialists, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Communist League, the, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> + +<li>Communist Manifesto, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56-61</a></li> + +<li>Compère-Morel, <a href="#Page_115">115-116</a></li> + +<li>Competition and the Socialist theory, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> + +<li>Co-operation, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Belgium, <i>see</i> Belgium;</li> + <li>in England, <a href="#Page_217">217-218</a>; + <ul class="nest2"> + <li><i>see also</i> England;</li> + </ul> + </li> + <li>statistics of, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> + </ul> +<br /></li> + + +<li>Davidson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> + +<li>Democracy and Socialism, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>spread of, by Socialists, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Democratic revolutions, <a href="#Page_26">26-55</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Germany, <a href="#Page_146">146-148</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Dennis, Prof. Hector, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li>Development Act (Eng.), <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li>Dicey, Prof., on the Liberal and Socialist parties, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li> + +<li>Dockers' strike, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + +<li>Dreyfus affair, <a href="#Page_84">84-90</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Eisenach Program, <a href="#Page_157">157-158</a></li> + +<li>Election laws, German, <a href="#Page_293">293-294</a></li> + +<li>Electoral reform. <i>See</i> Saxony, Prussia, "Free Cities," Chartist Movement</li> + +<li>Ely, Prof. R.T., conservation in U.S., <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li> + +<li>Emperor William's life attempted, <a href="#Page_159">159-160</a></li> + +<li>Engels, Frederick, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56-61</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>on English police, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> + <li>on changes in revolutionary ideals, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>England, growth of Socialism in, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>thrift institutions in, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</li> + <li>Socialism in, <a href="#Page_207">207-249</a>;</li> + <li>character of Socialism in, <a href="#Page_211">211-212</a>.</li> + <li><i>See also</i> Chartist movement; Engels; Industrial Revolution; Insurance Bill; Labor Party; Labor Exchange Act; Land System; Liberal Party; Lords, House of</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>English, characteristics of the, <a href="#Page_209">209-211</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>income of the, <a href="#Page_213">213-214</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Erfurt Program, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>dissatisfaction with, <a href="#Page_192">192-194</a></li> + </ul> +<br /></li> + + +<li>Fabian Society, origin, <a href="#Page_220">220-221</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>famous members, <a href="#Page_220">220-221</a>;</li> + <li>attitude toward constitutionalism, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>;</li> + <li>basis of, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>;</li> + <li>an election address of, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;</li> + <li>an election dodger of, <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Feudalism, class ideals of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Germany, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Feuerbach, <a href="#Page_31">31-32</a></li> + +<li>Fourier, <a href="#Page_19">19-22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> + +<li>France, Revolution of 1848, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>commune of 1871, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> + <li>Socialist Party of, <a href="#Page_75">75-117</a>;</li> + <li>factions in Socialist Party, <a href="#Page_76">76-78</a>;</li> + <li>"United Socialists," <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> + <li>Socialist Radicals, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> + <li>the "Bloc," <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li> + <li>labor unions in, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></li> + <li>post-office strike in, <a href="#Page_94">94-97</a>;</li> + <li>railway strike in, <a href="#Page_98">98-99</a>;</li> + <li>local Socialism in, <a href="#Page_112">112-113</a>;</li> + <li>government of, <a href="#Page_280">280-281</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>France, Anatole, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li>Frank, Dr., on the Baden budget, <a href="#Page_196">196-198</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>on the intellectual classes and Socialism, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>"Free Cities," election laws in, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li> + +<li>French Revolution, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Gambetta, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> + +<li>General strike, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Belgium, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>George, Henry, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> + +<li>George, Lloyd, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>budget of, <a href="#Page_236">236-238</a>;</li> + <li>Insurance Bill of, <a href="#Page_240">240-241</a>;</li> + <li>flays Keir Hardie, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Germany, Social Democracy in, <a href="#Page_146">146-170</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>revolution in, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li> + <li>character of government in, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> + <li>the new Empire, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li> + <li>most "socialized" country, <a href="#Page_169">169-190</a>;</li> + <li>labor unions in, <a href="#Page_171">171-175</a>;</li> + <li>party representation in Reichstag, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</li> + <li>vote of all parties in, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li> + <li>political parties in, <a href="#Page_292">292-293</a>.</li> + <li><i>See also</i> "Free Cities;" Suffrage; Progressists; Labor Organizations; Liberal Party</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Gneist, Prof., and Anti-Socialist law, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> + +<li>Godin, J., <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> + +<li>Godwin, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> + +<li>Guesde, Jules, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li>Guise, community at, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Hardie, Keir, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, + <ul class="nest"> + <li>and Development Act, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> + <li>on using military during strike, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> + <li>on goal of Socialism, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Hasselman, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>expelled from Social Democratic Party, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Hegel, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + +<li>Hegelians, Young, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + +<li>Hervé, Gustave, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> + +<li>Hobhouse, Prof., <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li> + +<li>Hyndman, H.M., <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>I.L.P., organization of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>on Liberal coalition, <a href="#Page_243">243-244</a>;</li> + <li>attitude on Insurance Bill, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</li> + <li>constitution and by-laws, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Industrial revolution, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>change in social ideals, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> + <li>violence of first days, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> + <li>in England, <a href="#Page_207">207-209</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Insurance Bill (Eng.), <a href="#Page_240">240-241</a></li> + +<li>International, the, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>"Old International," <a href="#Page_56">56-69</a>;</li> + <li>"New International," <a href="#Page_69">69-74</a>;</li> + <li>Amsterdam Congress of, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>International Socialist Bureau, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li> + +<li>International Socialist Statistics, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> + +<li>International Workingmen's Association, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Jaurès, Jean, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>leader of "Bloc," <a href="#Page_90">90-91</a>;</li> + <li>debate with Clémenceau, <a href="#Page_92">92-93</a>;</li> + <li>in Amsterdam Congress, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li> + <li>on difference between Socialism and Democracy, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;</li> + <li>on Socialism in U.S., <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li> + </ul> +<br /></li> + + +<li>Kaiser, the, and German Social Democrats, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> + +<li>Kautsky, K., <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>on Revisionism, <a href="#Page_192">192-193</a>;</li> + <li>on Amsterdam Congress, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Kingsley, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Labor Exchange Act (England), <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li>Labor Organization in France, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Germany, <a href="#Page_150">150-151</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171-175</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Labor Party, English, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223-225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227-232</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Program of, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Labor Party, the first, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Belgium, <i>see</i> Belgium;</li> + <li>Program of, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Labor Questions and Socialism, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + +<li>Labor unions in Belgium, political activity of, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>. + <ul class="nest"> + <li><i>See also</i> Belgium</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Labor unions in England. <i>See</i> Trades Unions</li> + +<li>Labor unions in France. <i>See</i> Bourse du Travail, and Syndicats</li> + +<li>Labor unions in Germany, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>. + <ul class="nest"> + <li><i>See also</i> Germany</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Land system of England, <a href="#Page_236">236-237</a></li> + +<li>Lassalle, <a href="#Page_147">147-155</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Leipzig address, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li> + <li>General Workingman's Association, <a href="#Page_152">152-154</a>;</li> + <li>influence on German Social Democracy, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>League of the Just, <a href="#Page_56">56-57</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> + +<li>Ledebour, on ministerial responsibility, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li>Legislation, advocated by Socialists, in Germany, <i>see</i> Social Democratic Party; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in England, <a href="#Page_231">231-241</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Liberal Party, in Germany, <a href="#Page_146">146-148</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in England, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230-231</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242-245</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Liebknecht, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Reichstag, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li> + <li>arrested, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li> + <li>on party tactics, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li> + <li>on Erfurt Program, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>London, progress in, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> + +<li>Lords, House of, an issue, <a href="#Page_237">237-239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>MacDonald, J. Ramsay, on I.L.P., <a href="#Page_245">245-247</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>on Democracy, <a href="#Page_254">254-255</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Mazzini, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li> + +<li>McCarthy, Justin, on Chartism, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> + +<li>Marx, Karl, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>theories of <a href="#Page_32">32-36</a>;</li> + <li>formulæ of, "capital," <a href="#Page_37">37-38</a>;</li> + <li>influence on Socialist movement, <a href="#Page_39">39-40</a>;</li> + <li>criticism of, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> + <li>theory of Revolution, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</li> + <li>on German revolution, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</li> + <li>on the Commune, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li> + <li>the Communist Manifesto, <a href="#Page_56">56-61</a>;</li> + <li>"address" and "statutes" of the "Old International," <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li> + <li>at The Hague, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li> + <li>present influence in Germany, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Marxian influence in the International, <a href="#Page_69">69-71</a></li> + +<li>Marxians and the Possibilists, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + +<li>Marxians in England, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li> + +<li>Maurice, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li> + +<li>Menger, Adolph, critique of Marxianism, <a href="#Page_40">40-41</a></li> + +<li>Mill, John Stuart, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> + +<li>Millerand, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>at St. Mandé, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li> + <li>Program of, <a href="#Page_88">88-90</a>;</li> + <li>expelled from Socialist Party, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</li> + <li>on railway strike, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li> + <li>on ideals of Socialism, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Militarism, and the International, <a href="#Page_72">72-74</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>and the Syndicalists, <a href="#Page_108">108-109</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Money, Chiozza, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li> + +<li>Morley, Lord, on new Liberalism, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li> + +<li>Morris, Wm., <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>on Whigs, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Most, Herr, in Reichstag, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>expelled from Socialist Party, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Munich, Socialist activity in, <a href="#Page_204">204-206</a></li> + +<li>Municipal Socialism in France, <a href="#Page_112">112-115</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Germany, <a href="#Page_204">204-206</a></li> + </ul> +<br /></li> + + +<li>Old Age Pensions, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span></li> + +<li>Osborne Judgment, the, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> + +<li>Owen, Robert, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21-23</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Rochdale, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + </ul> +<br /></li> + + +<li>Paepe, Cæsar de, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li>Paris, Commune. <i>See</i> Commune. First meeting of "New International," <a href="#Page_69">69-71</a></li> + +<li>Parliament Bill, <a href="#Page_238">238-240</a></li> + +<li>Peasantry, French, <a href="#Page_115">115-116</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>Belgian, <a href="#Page_142">142-143</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Possibilists, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li> + +<li>Poverty and Socialism, <a href="#Page_10">10-11</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in England, <a href="#Page_213">213-215</a>;</li> + <li>in Belgium, <i>see</i> Belgium</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Progressists, in Belgium, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Germany, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Proudhon, <a href="#Page_28">28-31</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li> + +<li>Proudhonism in England, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li>Prussia, election laws, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Réformistes, in France, <i>see</i> Millerand, Briand; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>in Germany, <a href="#Page_192">192-193</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Revisionist controversy in Germany, <a href="#Page_192">192-193</a></li> + +<li>Revolution, social, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>modern idea, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Revolutionary era, <a href="#Page_26">26-55</a></li> + +<li>Rodbertus, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> + +<li>Rosebery, Lord, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + +<li>Rousseau, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + +<li>Ruskin, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Sabotage, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> + +<li>Sachsen-Altenburg, election law, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li> + +<li>Saint-Simon, <a href="#Page_17">17-19</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + +<li>Saxe-Weimar, election law, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li> + +<li>Saxony, new election law, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> + +<li>Schultze-Delitsch, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> + +<li>Shaw, G.B., <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li> + +<li>Simiyan, on French post-office strike, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li>Small Holdings Act, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> + +<li>Social Democratic Federation, (English), <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> + +<li>Social Democratic Party (German), <a href="#Page_175">175-190</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>discipline, <a href="#Page_177">177-179</a>;</li> + <li>attitude of government towards, <a href="#Page_179">179-181</a>;</li> + <li>change in temper, <a href="#Page_186">186-204</a>;</li> + <li>attitude towards legislation, <a href="#Page_186">186-191</a>;</li> + <li>first bill in Reichstag, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li> + <li>attitude on state insurance, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> + <li>present temper, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</li> + <li>program of, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>;</li> + <li>attitude towards other parties, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li> + <li>election address of, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Socialism, ideals of, <a href="#Page_6">6-10</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>theories, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> + <li>development of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> + <li>political awakening of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</li> + <li>modern conception of revolution, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li> + <li>what is, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li> + <li>changes in, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> + <li>illusions of, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</li> + <li>in different countries, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> + <li>limits of, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li> + <li>characteristics of present, <a href="#Page_262">262-266</a>;</li> + <li>in Parliaments, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> + <li>what it has accomplished, <a href="#Page_257">257-260</a>;</li> + <li>nature of its demands, <a href="#Page_261">261-262</a>;</li> + <li>difference between Socialism and Democracy, <a href="#Page_265">265-266</a>;</li> + <li>when the word was first used, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Socialist officers, list of, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> + +<li>Socialist Party, membership of, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> + +<li>Socialist vote in leading countries, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li> + +<li>Sorel, Georges, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> + +<li>South Germany budget controversy, <a href="#Page_159">159-199</a></li> + +<li>State, increased functions of, <a href="#Page_259">259-260</a></li> + +<li>State Insurance, opposed by Socialists, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>attitude of present-day Socialists, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li> + <li>in Germany, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li> + <li>statistics, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li> + <li><i>see also</i> Bismarck</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Südekum, Dr., on nature of Social Democratic Party, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li> + +<li>Suffrage, struggle for, in Belgium, <a href="#Page_124">124-133</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> + <ul class="nest"> + <li>electoral laws of Belgium, <a href="#Page_132">132-136</a>;</li> + <li>struggle for, in Germany, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182-185</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Syndicalism, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107-110</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96-98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99-102</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105-106</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Taff Vale decision, <a href="#Page_216">216-217</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li>Thiers, President, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> + +<li>Town Planning Act, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> + +<li>Trades Disputes Act, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li>Trades Unions, English, and the International, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>characteristics, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</li> + <li>and Socialism, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</li> + <li>and Syndicalism, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>Transportation strike, England, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>United Socialist Party of France, Basis of Union, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>; + <ul class="nest"> + <li>U.S., Socialism in, <a href="#Page_266">266-270</a>;</li> + <li>Socialist vote in, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li> + <li>platform of Socialists in U.S., <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> + </ul> +<br /></li> + + +<li>Vaillant, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> + +<li>Vandervelde, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> + +<li>Villiers, Brougham, <a href="#Page_247">247-248</a></li> + +<li>Viviani, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> + +<li>Von Kettler, Baron, Bishop of Mayence, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li> + +<li>Von Vollmar, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Waldeck-Rousseau, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> + +<li>Webb, Sidney, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> + +<li>Weitling, Wm., <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li>Wells, H.C., <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> + +<li>Wescott, Dr., Bishop of Durham, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> + +<li>Workingmen's Association of Lassalle, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> + +<li>Workingmen's Compensation Act (England), <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br /><br /></li> + + +<li>Yvetot on Syndicalism, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="block5"> +<h4>MEN VS. THE MAN</h4> + +<p class="cen">$1.35 net, by mail $1.43</p> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang">This series of actual letters between <span class="sc">Mr. Robert Rives La +Monte</span>, Editor of "The Call," and <span class="sc">Mr. Henry Louis +Mencken</span> of the "Baltimore Sun," furnishes a highly +interesting contribution to the discussion of Socialism and +Individualism, and constitutes a timely book of wide appeal.</p></div> + +<div class="block1"><p>"The pros and cons of Socialism are herein very clearly set +forth. Clear and comprehensive. To be strongly recommended. A +splendid exposition of the strength and weaknesses of a movement +which is rapidly assuming gigantic proportions in the scheme of +things social."—<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang">By <span class="sc">J. Ramsay Macdonald</span>, Chairman of the British Labor +Party. 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A very useful +book."—<i>San Francisco Chronicle.</i></p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>THE FATE OF ICIODORUM</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang">By <span class="sc">David Starr Jordan</span>, President of Stanford +University. 90 cents net, by mail $1.00.</p> + +<p>The story of a city made rich by taxation.</p></div> + +<div class="block1"><p>"After reading this book, no man who wishes to get at the +fundamental theory of protection can plead ignorance."—<i>New +York Evening Post.</i></p></div> + +<h4>HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</h4> +<p class="cen"><span class="fakesc">PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</span></p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h3>NEW BOOKS ON THE LIVING ISSUES BY LIVING MEN AND WOMEN</h3> + +<h2>The Home University Library</h2> + +<p class="cen">Cloth Bound 50c per volume net; by mail 56c.</p> + +<h4><i>Points about THE HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY</i></h4> + +<p>Every volume is absolutely new, and specially written for the Library. +There are no reprints.</p> + +<p>Every volume is sold separately. 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These books tell +whatever is most important and interesting about their subjects.</p> + +<p>Each volume is complete and independent; but the series has been +carefully planned as a whole to form a comprehensive library of modern +knowledge covering the chief subjects in History and Geography, +Literature and Art, Science, Social Science, Philosophy, and Religion. +An order for any volume will insure receiving announcements of future +issues.</p> + +<p class="cen"><i>SOME COMMENTS ON THE SERIES AS A WHOLE:</i></p> + +<div class="block3"><p>"Excellent."—<i>The Outlook.</i> "Exceedingly worth while."—<i>The +Nation.</i></p> + +<p>"The excellence of these books."—<i>The Dial.</i></p> + +<p>"So large a proportion with marked individuality."—<i>New York +Sun.</i></p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>VOLUMES ON HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY NOW READY</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p><b>Rome</b> By <span class="sc">W. Warde Fowler</span>.</p> + +<p><b>The History of England</b> By <span class="sc">A.F. Pollard</span>.</p> + +<p><b>The Opening Up of Africa</b> By <span class="sc">H.H. Johnston</span>.</p> + +<p><b>The Civilization of China</b> By <span class="sc">H.A. Giles</span>.</p> + +<p><b>History of Our Time (1885-1911)</b> By <span class="sc">G.P. Gooch</span>.</p> + +<p><b>The Colonial Period</b> By <span class="sc">Chas. M. Andrews</span>.</p> + +<p><b>Reconstruction & Union (1865-1912)</b> By <b>L.P. Haworth</b>.</p> + +<p><b>The Civil War</b> By <span class="sc">F.L. Paxson</span>.</p> + +<p><b>The Dawn of History</b> By <span class="sc">J.L. Myres</span>.</p> + +<p><b>Peoples and Problems of India</b> By <span class="sc">T.W. Holderness</span>.</p> + +<p><b>Canada</b> By <span class="sc">A.G. Bradley</span>.</p> + +<p><b>The French Revolution</b> By <span class="sc">Hilaire Belloc</span>.</p> + +<p><b>A Short History of War & Peace</b> By <span class="sc">G.H. Perris</span>.</p> + +<p><b>The Irish Nationality</b> By <span class="sc">Alice S. Green</span>.</p> + +<p><b>The Papacy & Modern Times</b> By <span class="sc">W. Barry</span>.</p> + +<p><b>Medieval Europe</b> By <span class="sc">H.W.C. Davis</span>.</p> + +<p><b>Warfare in Britain</b> By <span class="sc">Hilaire Belloc</span>.</p> + +<p><b>Modern Geography</b> By <span class="sc">Marian I. Newbigin</span>.</p> + +<p><b>Polar Exploration</b> By <span class="sc">W.S. Bruce</span>.</p> + +<p><b>Master Mariners</b> By <span class="sc">John R. Spears</span>.</p></div> + +<h4>HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</h4> +<p class="cen"><span class="fakesc">34 WEST 33RD ST. NEW YORK</span></p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>American Public Problems</h2> + +<p class="cen">EDITED BY</p> + +<h3>RALPH CURTIS RINGWALT</h3> + +<h4>IMMIGRATION: And Its Effects Upon the United States</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang">By PRESCOTT F. HALL, A.B., LL.B., Secretary of the Immigration +Restriction League. 393 pp. $1.50 net. By mail, $1.65.</p></div> + +<div class="block1"><p>"Should prove interesting to everyone. Very readable, forceful +and convincing. Mr. Hall considers every possible phase of this +great question and does it in a masterly way that shows not only +that he thoroughly understands it, but that he is deeply +interested in it and has studied everything bearing upon +it."—<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p> + +<p>"A readable work containing a vast amount of valuable +information. Especially to be commended is the discussion of the +racial effects. As a trustworthy general guide it should prove a +godsend."—<i>N.Y. Evening Post.</i></p> + +<p>"Earnest and unprejudiced.... Cannot fail to be of great +assistance in clarifying and setting on a solid foundation the +ideas of people who are now becoming convinced that the problems +of immigration in the nation and the municipality will soon +reach a more acute stage than ever before."—<i>Philadelphia +Press.</i></p> + +<p>"An auspicious omen of the worth of Messrs. Henry Holt and +Company's recently announced series on American Public +Problems.... Mr. Hall has been in close touch with the +immigration movement and he writes with a grasp and a fullness +of information which must commend his work to every reader.... A +handbook ... to which one may turn conveniently for information +for which he would otherwise be obliged to search through many a +dusty document."—<i>The World To-day.</i></p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>THE ELECTION OF SENATORS</h4> + +<div class="block3"><p>By Professor GEORGE H. HAYNES, Author of "Representation in +State Legislatures." 300 pp. $1.50 net. 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Prof. Haynes is qualified for a historical +and analytical treatise on the subject of the Senate."—<i>N.Y. +Evening Sun.</i></p> + +<p>"Well worth reading, and unique because it is devoted wholly to +the election of senators and to the deliberations of the +Senate."—<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p> + +<p>"Able and dispassionate, and ought to be widely read."—<i>New +York Commercial.</i></p> + +<p>"Of considerable popular as well as historical +interest."—<i>Dial.</i></p></div> + +<h4>HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</h4> +<p class="cen"><span class="sc">29 West 23d Street New York</span></p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>LEADING AMERICANS</h2> + +<div class="block3"><p class="hang">Edited by <span class="sc">W.P. Trent</span>, and generally confined to those +no longer living. Large 12mo. With portraits. Each $1.75, by +mail $1.90.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>R.M. JOHNSTON'S LEADING AMERICAN SOLDIERS</h4> + +<p class="cen">By the Author of "Napoleon," etc.</p> + +<p>Washington, Greene, Taylor, Scott, Andrew Jackson, Grant, Sherman, +Sheridan, McClellan, Meade, Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson, Joseph E. +Johnston.</p> + +<div class="block1"><p>"Very interesting ... much sound originality of treatment, and +the style is very clear."—<i>Springfield Republican.</i></p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>JOHN ERSKINE'S LEADING AMERICAN NOVELISTS</h4> + +<p>Charles Brockden Brown, Cooper, Simms, Hawthorne, Mrs. Stowe, and Bret +Harte.</p> + +<div class="block1"><p>"He makes his study of these novelists all the more striking +because of their contrasts of style and their varied purpose.... +Well worth any amount of time we may care to spend upon +them."—<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>W.M. PAYNE'S LEADING AMERICAN ESSAYISTS</h4> + +<p>A General Introduction dealing with essay writing in America, and +biographies of Irving, Emerson, Thoreau, and George William Curtis.</p> + +<div class="block1"><p>"It is necessary to know only the name of the author of this +work to be assured of its literary excellence."—<i>Literary +Digest.</i></p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE</h4> + +<p class="cen">Edited by President <span class="sc">David Starr Jordan</span>.</p> + +<div class="block1"><p><span class="sc">Count Rumford</span> and <span class="sc">Josiah Willard Gibbs</span>, by +E.E. Slosson; <span class="sc">Alexander Wilson</span> and <span class="sc">Audubon</span>, by +Witmer Stone; <span class="sc">Silliman</span>, by Daniel C. Gilman; <span class="sc">Joseph +Henry</span>, by Simon Newcomb; <span class="sc">Louis Agassiz</span> and +<span class="sc">Spencer Fullerton Baird</span>, by Charles F. Holder; +<span class="sc">Jeffries Wyman</span>, by B.G. Wilder; <span class="sc">Asa Gray</span>, by +John M. Coulter; <span class="sc">James Dwight Dana</span>, by William North +Rice; <span class="sc">Marsh</span>, by Geo. Bird Grinnell; <span class="sc">Edward Drinker +Cope</span>, by Marcus Benjamin; <span class="sc">Simon Newcomb</span>, by Marcus +Benjamin; <span class="sc">George Brown Goode</span>, by D.S. Jordan; <span class="sc">Henry +Augustus Rowland</span>, by Ira Remsen; <span class="sc">William Keith +Brooks</span>, by E.A. Andrews.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>GEORGE ILES'S LEADING AMERICAN INVENTORS</h4> + +<div class="block1"><p>By the author of "Inventors at Work," etc. <span class="sc">Colonel John +Stevens</span> (screw-propeller, etc.); his son, <span class="sc">Robert</span> +(T-rail, etc.); <span class="sc">Fulton</span>; <span class="sc">Ericsson</span>; +<span class="sc">Whitney</span>; <span class="sc">Blanchard</span> (lathe); +<span class="sc">McCormick</span>; <span class="sc">Howe</span>; <span class="sc">Goodyear</span>; +<span class="sc">Morse</span>; <span class="sc">Tilghman</span> (paper from wood and sand +blast); <span class="sc">Sholes</span> (type-writer); and <span class="sc">Mergenthaler</span> +(linotype).</p> + +<p><span class="sc">Other Volumes</span> covering <span class="sc">Lawyers</span>, +<span class="sc">Poets</span>, <span class="sc">Statesmen</span>, <span class="sc">Editors</span>, +<span class="sc">Explorers</span>, etc., arranged for. Leaflet on application.</p></div> + +<br /> + +<h4>HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY</h4> +<p class="cen"><span class="fakesc">PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</span></p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p> +<br /> +Page 32: (FN 14) Deutscher replaced with Deutschen<br /> +Page 32: (FN 16) Dürung replaced with Dühring<br /> +Page 103: "will within the next few decades he compelled" replaced with "will within the next few decades be compelled"<br /> +Page 147: beaureaucratic replaced with bureaucratic<br /> +Page 171: (FN 1) "Die Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften in Deutschland, seit dem Erlasse des Sozialistischen Gesets" replaced with "Die Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften in Deutschland, seit dem Erlasse des Sozialistischen Gesetzes"<br /> +Page 194: compaigning replaced with campaigning<br /> +Page 255: (FN 3) Classenkampf replaced with Klassenkampf<br /> +Page 267: fullfilled replaced with fulfilled<br /> +Page 274: Schæffle replaced with Schaeffle<br /> +Page 276: Jaegèr replaced with Jaeger<br /> +Page 295: (table note) sevice replaced with service<br /> +Page 347: Broussé replaced with Brousse<br /> + +<p class="noin">The reader should note that on page 216, in referring to +damages assessed (in England) at $100,000, one assumes +£ is meant rather than $, yet the image does have $.</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Socialism and Democracy in Europe, by +Samuel P. 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Orth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Socialism and Democracy in Europe + +Author: Samuel P. Orth + +Release Date: March 13, 2011 [EBook #35572] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE *** + + + + +Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | + | been preserved. Bold text is represented =like so=. | + | Superscripted text is represented like^{so}. + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | + | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + SOCIALISM AND + DEMOCRACY IN + EUROPE + + By + + SAMUEL P. ORTH, PH.D. + + _Author of "Five American Politicians" "Centralization of + Administration in Ohio," etc._ + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK + HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + 1913 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1913 + BY + HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + + Published January, 1913 + + THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS + RAHWAY, N.J. + + + + +PREFACE + + +It is becoming more and more evident that democracy has served only +the first years of its apprenticeship. Political problems have served +only to introduce popular government. The economic problems now +rushing upon us will bring the real test of democracy. + +The workingman has taken an advanced place in the struggle for the +democratization of industry. He has done so, first, through the +organization of labor unions; secondly, through the development of +political parties--labor parties. The blend of politics and economics +which he affects is loosely called Socialism. The term is as +indefinite in meaning as it is potent in influence. It has spread its +unctuous doctrines over every industrial land, and its representatives +sit in every important parliament, including our Congress. + +Such a movement requires careful consideration from every point of +view. + +It is the object of this volume to trace briefly the growth of the +movement in four leading European countries, and to attempt to +determine the relation of economic and political Socialism to +democracy--a question of peculiar interest to the friends of the +American Republic at this time. + +In preparing this volume, the author has made extended visits to the +countries studied. He has tried to catch the spirit of the movement by +personal contact with the Socialist leaders and their antagonists, +and by many interviews with laboring men, the rank and file in every +country visited. + +Everywhere he was received with the greatest cordiality, and he wishes +here to express his appreciation of these many kindnesses. + +He wishes especially to acknowledge his obligations to the following +gentlemen: Mr. Graham Wallas of the University of London; Mr. W.G. +Towler of the London Municipal Society; Mr. John Hobson of London, and +Mr. J.S. Middleton, assistant secretary of the Labor Party; to Dr. +Robert Herz and Prof. Charles Gide of the University of Paris; Dr. +Albert Thomas and M. Adolphe Landry of the Chamber of Deputies; M. +Jean Longuet, editor of _L'Humanite_; to Dr. Franz Oppenheimer of the +University of Berlin; Dr. Suedekum of the Reichstag; Dr. Hilferding, +editor of _Vorwaerts_; Prof. T.H. Norton, American Consul at Chemnitz; +M. Camille Huysmans, secretary of the "International," Brussels; as +well as to many American friends for providing letters of introduction +which opened many useful and congenial doorways. + + S.P.O. + January, 1913. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. WHY DOES SOCIALISM EXIST? 1 + + II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALISM 17 + + III. The Political Awakening of Socialism--The Period + of Revolution 42 + + IV. THE POLITICAL AWAKENING OF SOCIALISM--THE + INTERNATIONAL 56 + + V. THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF FRANCE 75 + + VI. THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY 118 + + VII. THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 146 + + VIII. GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND LABOR UNIONS 171 + + IX. THE ENGLISH LABOR PARTY 207 + + X. CONCLUSION 250 + + APPENDIX 273 + + INDEX 347 + + + + +SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTION--WHY DOES SOCIALISM EXIST? + + +The answer to this question will bring us nearer to the core of the +social movement than any attempted definition. The French Socialist +program begins with the assertion, "Socialism is a question of class." +Class distinction is the generator of Socialism. + +The ordinary social triptych--upper, middle, and lower classes--will +not suffice us in our inquiry. We must distinguish between the +functions of the classes. The upper class is a remnant of the feudal +days, of the manorial times, when land-holding brought with it social +distinction and political prerogative. In this sense we have no upper +class in America. The middle class is composed of the business and +professional element, and the lower class of the wage-earning element. + +There are two words, as yet quite unfamiliar to American readers, +which are met with constantly in European works on Socialism and are +heard on every hand in political discussions--_proletariat_ and +_bourgeois_. The proletariat are the wage-earning class, the poor, +the underlings. The bourgeois[1] are roughly the middle class. The +French divide them into _petits_ bourgeois and _grands_ bourgeois. +Werner Sombart divides them into lower middle class, the manual +laborers who represent the guild system, and bourgeoisie, the +representatives of the capitalistic system.[2] + +It will thus be seen that these divisions have a historical basis. The +upper class reflect the days of feudalism, of governmental prerogative +and aristocracy. The middle class are the representatives of the guild +and mercantile systems, when hand labor and later business acumen +brought power and wealth to the craftsman and adventurer. The lower +class are the homologues of the slaves, the serfs, the toilers, whose +reward has constantly been measured by the standard of bare existence. +Socialism arises consciously out of the efforts of this class to win +for itself a share of the powers of the other classes. It is necessary +to understand that while this class distinction is historic in origin +it is essentially economic in fact. It is not "social"; a middle-class +millionaire may be congenial to the social circles of the high-born. +It is not political; a workingman may vote with any party he chooses. +He may ally himself with the conservative Center as he sometimes does +in Germany, or with the Liberal Party as he sometimes does in England, +or with either of the old parties as he does in the United States. On +the other hand, a bourgeois may be a Socialist and vote with the +proletarians. Indeed, many of the Socialist leaders belong to the +well-to-do middle class. + +This class distinction, then, is economic. It is a distinction of +function, the function of the capitalist and the function of the +wage-earner. Let us go one step further; it is a distinction in +property. The possessor of private wealth can become a capitalist by +investing his money in productive enterprise. He then becomes the +employer of labor. There are all grades of capitalists, from the +master wagon-maker who works by the side of his one or two workmen, to +the "captain" of a vast industry that gives employment to thousands of +men and turns out a wagon a minute. + +The institution of private property is the basis of Socialism because +it is the basis of capitalistic production. It places in one man's +hands the power of owning raw material, machinery, land, factory, and +finished product; and the power of hiring men to operate the +machinery, and to convert the raw material into marketable wares. As +long as this power was limited to hand industry the proletarian +movement was abortive. When the industrial revolution linked the +ingenuity of man to the power of nature it so multiplied the potency +of the possessor that the proletarian movement by stress of +circumstances became a great factor in industrial life. + +While the possession either of wealth or family tradition was always +the basis of class distinction, the industrial revolution brought with +it the enormously multiplied power of capital and the glorification of +riches. The proletarians multiplied rapidly in number, and all the +evils of sharp class distinction were heightened. In all lands where +capitalistic production spread, the two classes grew farther apart, +the distinction between possessor and wage-earner increased. + +It is not the mere possession of wealth, however, which forms the +animus of the Socialist movement. It is probably not even the abuse of +this wealth, although this is a large factor in the problem. It is the +psychological effect of the capitalist system that is the real +enginery of Socialism. It is the class feeling, the consciousness of +the workingman that he is contributing muscle and blood and sweat to +the perfection of an article whose possession he does not share. This +feeling is aroused by the contrasts of life that the worker constantly +sees around him. He feels that his own life energy has contributed to +the magnificent equipages and the palatial luxuries of his employer. +He compares his own lot and that of his family with the lot of the +capitalist. This feeling of envy is not blunted by the kaleidoscopic +suddenness with which changes of fortune can take place in America +to-day. By some stroke of luck or piece of ingenious planning, a +receiver of wages to-day may be the giver of wages to-morrow. + +Nor does the spread of education and intelligence dull the contrasts. +It greatly heightens them. The workman can now begin to analyze the +conditions under which he lives. He ponders over the distinctions that +are actual and contrasts them with his imagined utopia. To him the +differences between employer and employee are not natural. He does not +attribute them to any fault or shortcoming or inferiority of his own, +nor of his master, but to a flaw in the organization of society. The +social order is wrong. + +The workingman has become the critic. Here you have the heart of +Socialism. Whatever form its outward aspect may take, at heart it is a +rebellion against things as they are. And whatever may be the +syllogisms of its logic, or the formularies of its philosophy, they +all begin with a grievance, that things as they are are wrong; and +they all end in a hope for a better society of to-morrow where the +inequalities shall somehow be made right. + +In his struggle toward a new economic ideal, the proletarian has +achieved a class homogeneity and self-consciousness. The individuality +that is denied him in industry he has sought and found among his own +brethren. In the great factory he loses even his name and becomes +number so-and-so. In his union and in his party he asserts his +individuality with a grim and impressive stubbornness. The gravitation +of common ideals and common protests draws these forgotten particles +of industrialism into a massed consciousness that is to-day one of the +world's great potencies. The very fact that we call this body of +workers "the masses" is significant. We speak of them as a geologist +speaks of his "basement complex." We recognize unconsciously that they +form the foundation of our economic life. + +The class struggle, then, is between two clearly defined and +self-conscious elements in modern industrial life that are the natural +product of our machine industry. On the one hand is the business man +pursuing with fevered energy the profits that are the goal of his +activity; on the other hand are the workingmen who, more and more +sullen in their discontent, are clamoring louder each year for a +greater share of the wealth they believe their toil creates. + +There is some reason to believe that this class basis of Socialism is +vanishing. In England J. Ramsay MacDonald denies its significance.[3] +Revisionists and progressive Socialists, who are throwing aside the +Marxian dogmas, are also preaching the universality of the Socialist +conception. However, the economic factor based on class functions +remains the essence of the social movement.[4] + +What are the ideals of Socialism? They are not merely economic or +social, they embrace all life. After one has taken the pains to read +the more important mass of Socialist literature, books, pamphlets, and +some current newspapers and magazines, and has listened to their +orators and talked with their leaders, confusion still remains in the +mind. The movement is so all-embracing that it has no clearly defined +limits. The Socialists are feeling their way from protest into +practice. Their heads are in the clouds; of this you are certain as +you proceed through their books and listen to their speeches. But are +their feet upon the earth? + +For a literature of protest against "suffering, misery, and +injustice," as Owen calls it, there is a wonderful buoyancy and hope +in their words. It is one of the secrets of its power that Socialism +is not the energy of despair. It is the demand for the right to live +fully, joyfully, and in comfort. The Socialists demand ozone in their +air, nutrition in their food, heartiness in their laughter, ease in +their homes, and their days must have hours of relaxation. + +The awakening aspirations of the proletarian were expressed by one of +their own number, William Weitling, a tailor of Magdeburg. He +afterwards migrated to America and became one of our first Socialist +agitators. His book is called _Garantieen der Harmonie und Freiheit_ +(Guaranties of Harmony and Liberty). The book is illogical, full of +contradictions, and all of the errors of a child's reasoning. But it +remains the workingman's classic philippic, one of the most trenchant +recitals of social wrongs, because it blends, with the illogical +terminology of sentimentalism, the assurance of hope. "Property," he +says, "is the root of all evil." Gold is the symbol of this world of +wrongs. "We have become as accustomed to our coppers as the devil to +his hell." When the rule of gold shall cease, then "the teardrops +which are the tokens of true brotherliness will return to the dry eyes +of the selfish, the soul of the evildoer will be filled with noble and +virtuous sentiments such as he had never known before, and the impious +ones who have hitherto denied God will sing His praise." The humble +tailor is assured that the reign of property will be terminated and +the age of humanity begin, and he calls to the workingman, "Forward, +brethren; with the curse of Mammon on our lips, let us await the hour +of our emancipation, when our tears will be transmuted into pearls of +dew, our earth transformed into a paradise, and all of mankind united +into one happy family."[5] Nor is the closing cry of his book without +an element of prophecy. He addresses the "mighty ones of this earth," +admonishing them that they may secure the fame of Alexander and +Napoleon by the deeds of emancipation which lie in their power. "But +if you compel us (the proletarians) to undertake the task alone with +our raw material, then it will be accomplished only after weary toil +and pain to us and to you." + +Let us turn to Robert Owen, who was at an early age the most +successful cotton spinner in England. He adapted an old philosophy to +a new humanitarianism. He saw that a "gradual increase in the number +of our paupers has accompanied our increasing wealth."[6] He began the +series of experiments which made his name familiar in England and +America and made him known in history as the greatest experimental +communist. His experiments have failed. But his hopefulness persists. +In his address delivered at the dedication of New Lanark, 1816, he +said that he had found plenty of unhappiness and plenty of misery. +"But from this day a change must take place; a new era must commence; +the human intellect, through the whole extent of the earth, hitherto +enveloped by the grossest ignorance and superstition, must begin to be +released from its state of darkness; nor shall nourishment henceforth +be given to the seeds of disunion and division among men. For the time +has come when the means may be prepared to train all the nations of +the world in that knowledge which shall _impel them not only to love +but to be actively kind to each other in the whole of their conduct, +without a single exception_." + +Here is an all-inclusive hopefulness. Its significance is not +diminished by the fact that it was spoken of his own peculiar remedy +by education and environment. + +This faith and hope runs through all their books like a golden song. +Excepting Marx, he was the great gloomy one. Even those who condemn +modern society with the most scathing adjectives link with their +denunciations the most sanguine sentences of hope. + +The Christian Socialism of Kingsley is filled with optimism. "Look up, +my brother Christians, open your eyes, the hour of a new crusade has +struck."[7] + +The song of the new crusade was sung by Robert Morris: + + "Come, shoulder to shoulder ere the world grows older! + Help lies in naught but thee and me; + Hope is before us, the long years that bore us, + Bore leaders more than men may be. + + "Let dead hearts tarry and trade and marry, + And trembling nurse their dreams of mirth, + While we, the living, our lives are giving + To bring the bright new world to birth." + +This song of hope is sung to-day by thousands of marching Socialists. +Their bitter experiences in parliaments and in strikes, and all the +warfare of politics and trade, have not blighted their rosy hope. They +are still looking forward to "the bright new world," in which a new +social order shall reign. + +Linked with this optimism is a certain prophetic tone, an elevation of +spirit that lifts some of their books out of the commonplace. The +sincerity of these prophets of Socialism contributes this quality more +than does their originality of mind. + +In their search for happiness the Socialists see a great barrier in +their way. The barrier is want, poverty. There are no greater +contrasts, mental and temperamental, than between John Stuart Mill, +the erudite economist and philosopher, and H.G. Wells, the romancer +and sentimental critic of things as they are. Both begin their attacks +upon the social order at the same point--the vulnerable spot, +_poverty_. Mill places it first in his category of existing evils. He +asks, "What proportion of the population in the most civilized +countries of Europe enjoy, in their own person, anything worth naming +of the benefits of property?" "Suffice it to say that the condition of +numbers in civilized Europe, and even in England and France, is more +wretched than that of most tribes of savages who are known to us."[8] + +Wells bases his racy criticism in his popular book, _New Worlds for +Old_, on the facts revealed in the reports of various charity +organizations in Edinburgh, York, and London. To both the exacting +economist and the popular expositor of Socialism, poverty is the +glaring fault of our social system. To Wells poverty is an "atrocious +failure in statesmanship."[9] To Mill it is "_pro tanto_ a failure of +the social arrangement."[10] + +These examples are typical. Every school of Socialism finds in poverty +the curse, in private property the cause, of human misery, and in a +readjusted machinery of social production the hope of human +betterment. + +All Socialists, learned and unlearned, agree that poverty is the +stumbling-block in the pathway to better social conditions. They all +agree as to the causes of poverty: first, private capitalistic +production; second, competition. It is private capitalistic production +that enables the employer to pocket all the profits; it is competition +that enables him to buy labor in an open market at the lowest possible +price, a price regulated by the necessities of bare existence. To the +Socialist, competition is anarchy, an anarchy that leaves "every man +free to ruin himself so that he may ruin another."[11] + +To do away with private capital and to abolish competition means +bringing about a tremendous change in society. All Socialists +unhesitatingly and with boldness are ready, even eager, to make such a +change. The problem is not insuperable to them. + +The three theories that underlie Socialism permit the hope of the +possibility of a social regeneration. These theories are, first, that +God made the world good, hence all you need to do is to revert to this +pristine goodness and the world is reformed. Second, that society is +what it is through evolution. If this is true then it is only +necessary to control by environment the factors of evolution and the +product will be preordained. Third, that even if man is bad and has +permitted pernicious institutions like private property to exist, he +can remake society by a bold effort, i.e., by revolution, because all +social power is vested in man and he can do as he likes. The ruling +class can impose its social order upon all. When the Socialist becomes +the ruling class his social system will be adopted. + +This great change which the Socialist has in mind means the +substitution of co-operation for competition and the placing of +productive property in the care of the state or of society, instead +of letting it remain under the domination of individuals. To abolish +private productive capital by making it public, to establish a +communistic instead of a competitive society, that is the object. + +In the Socialist's new order of society, where poverty will be +unknown, there is to be a common bond. This bond is not possession, +but work. With glowing exultation all the expositors and exhorters of +the proletarian movement dwell upon the blessedness of toil. They +glorify man, not through his inheritance of personality, certainly not +through his possession of things, but through his achievements of +toil. + +When all members of society work at useful occupations, then all the +necessary things can be done in a few hours. Six or four, or some even +say two, hours a day will be sufficient to do all the drudgery and the +essential things in a well-organized human beehive. There is to be +nothing morose or despondent in this toil. It is all to be done to the +melody of good cheer and willingness. + +How is this great change to come about, and what is to be the exact +organization of society under this regime of work and co-operation? +Here unanimity ceases. As a criticism Socialism is unanimous, as a +method it is divided, as a reconstructive process it is hopelessly at +sea. + +At first Socialists were utopians, then they became revolutionists. +This was natural. Socialism was born in an air of revolution--the +political revolutions of the bourgeois, and the infinitely greater +industrial revolution. The tides of change and passion were rocking +the foundations of state and industry. The evils in early +industrialism were abhorrent. Small children and their mothers were +forced into factories, pauperism was thriving, the ugly machine-fed +towns were replacing the quaint and cheerful villages, rulers were +forgetting their duties in their greed for gain, and the state was +persecuting men for their political and economic opinions. Every face +was turned against the preachers of the new order, and they naturally +thought that the change could be brought about only by violence and +revolution. Louis Blanc said "a social revolution ought to be tried: + +"Firstly, because the present social system is too full of iniquity, +misery, and turpitude to exist much longer. + +"Secondly, because there is no one who is not interested, whatever his +position, rank, and fortune, in the inauguration of a new social +system. + +"Thirdly, and lastly, because this revolution, so necessary, is +possible, even easy to accomplish peacefully."[12] + +These are the naive words of a young man of thirty-seven, the youngest +member of the ill-fated revolutionary government of France in 1848. +Not every one thought that the revolution could be peacefully +accomplished, and, it must be admitted, few seemed to care. + +In their "Communist Manifesto," the most noted of all Socialist +broadsides, Marx and Engels know of no peaceful revolution. They close +with these virile words: "The communists disdain to conceal their +views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained +only by the forcible overthrow of all existing conditions. Let the +ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians +have nothing to lose but their chains. They have the world to win. +Workingmen of all countries, unite!" + +These words are often quoted even in these placid days of evolution +that have replaced the red days of violence. The workingmen of all +countries are uniting, as we shall see, not for bloody revolution nor +for the violence of passion, but for the promulgation of peace. To-day +the silent coercion of multitudes is taking the place of the eruptive +methods of the '40's and the '70's. + +As to the ultimate form of organized society, there is nothing but +confusion to be found in the mass of literature that has grown up +around the subject. The earliest writers were cocksure of themselves; +the latest ones bridge over the question with wide-arching +generalities. I have asked many of their leaders to give me some hint +as to what form their Society of To-morrow will take. Every one +dodged. "No one can tell. It will be humanitarian and co-operative." + +If one could be assured of this! + +Finally, all Socialists agree in the instrument of change. It lies at +hand as the greatest co-operative achievement of our race, the state. +It is the common possession of all, and it is the one power that can +lay its hands upon property and compel its obedience. The power of the +state is to be the dynamo of change. This state is naturally to be +democratic. The people shall hold the reins of power in their own +hands. + +It must be remembered that every year sees a shifting in the +Socialist's attitude. As he has left the sphere of mere fault-finding +and of dreaming, and has entered politics, entered the labor war +through unions, and the business war through co-operative societies, +he has been compelled to adapt himself to the necessities of things as +they are. + +I have tried briefly to show that Socialism originated as a class +movement, a proletarian movement; that the classes, wage-earner and +capitalist, are the natural outcome of machine production; that +Socialism is one of the natural products of the antagonistic relations +that these two classes at present occupy; that Socialism intends to +eliminate this antagonism by eliminating the private employer. I have +tried to show also that Socialism is a criticism of the present social +order placing the blame for the miseries of society upon the shoulders +of private property and competition; that it is optimistic in spirit, +buoyant in hope; and that its program of reconstruction is confused +and immature. + +Stripped of its glamour, our society is in a neck-to-neck race for +things, for property. Its hideousness has shocked the sensibilities of +dreamers and humanitarians. Our machine industry has produced a +civilization that is ugly. It is natural that the esthetic and +philanthropic members of this society should raise their protest. +Ruskin and Anatole France and Maeterlinck and Carlyle and Robert +Morris and Emerson and Grierson are read with increasing satisfaction. +It is natural that the participants in this death race should utter +their cries of alternate despair and hope. Socialism is the cry of the +toiler. It is not to be ignored. We in America have no conception of +its potency. There are millions of hearts in Europe hanging upon its +precepts for the hope that makes life worth the fight. + +Their Utopia may be only a rainbow, a mirage in the mists on the +horizon. But the energy which it has inspired is a reality. It has +organized the largest body of human beings that the world has known. +Its international Socialist movement has but one rival for homogeneity +and zeal, the Church, whose organization at one time embraced all +kingdoms and enlisted the faithful service of princes and paupers. + +It is this reality in its political form which I hope to set forth in +the following pages. We will try to discover what the Socialist +movement is doing in politics, how much of theory has been merged in +political practice, what its everyday parliamentary drudgery is, and, +if possible, to tell in what direction the movement is tending. + +Before we do this it is necessary to state briefly the history of the +underlying theories of the movement. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners +of the means of social production, and employers of wage-labor. By +proletariat, the class of modern wage-laborers, who, having no means +of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power +in order to live."--FREDERICK ENGELS, _Notes on the Communist +Manifesto_, 1888. + +[2] See SOMBART, _Socialism and the Social Movement_, Introduction, +for discussion of the class movement. + +[3] _The Socialist Movement_, p. 147. + +[4] The all-embracing character of Socialism was eloquently phrased by +Millerand in 1896: "In its large synthesis Socialism embraces every +manifestation of life, because nothing human is alien to it, because +it alone offers to-day to our hunger for justice and happiness an +ideal, purely human and apart from all dogma." See ENSOR, _Modern +Socialism_, p. 53. + +[5] _Garantieen der Harmonie und Freiheit_, pp. 57-58, edition of +1845. + +[6] Letter I, addressed to David Ricardo. + +[7] Tract No. IV. + +[8] _Socialism_, pp. 71-72. + +[9] WELLS, _New Worlds for Old_, p. 36. + +[10] MILL, _Socialism_, p. 72. + +[11] LOUIS BLANC, _The Right to Labor_, p. 63. + +[12] _Organization of Labor_, p. 87, 1847. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALISM + + +I + +Socialism began in France, that yeast-pot of civilization. It began +while the Revolution was still filling men's minds with a turbulent +optimism that knew no limit to human "progress." + +Saint-Simon (Count Henri de) may be considered the founder of French +Socialism. He was of noble lineage, born in 1760, and died in 1825. He +took very little part in the French Revolution, but was a soldier in +our Continental army, and always manifested a keen interest in +American affairs. Possessed of an inquiring mind, an ambitious spirit, +and a heart full of sympathy for the oppressed, he devoted himself to +the study of society for the purpose of elaborating a scheme for +universal human betterment. + +Before he began his special studies he amassed a modest fortune in +land speculation. Not that he loved money, he assures us, but because +he wished independence and leisure to do his chosen work. This money +was soon lost, through unfortunate experiments and an unfortunate +marriage, and the most of his days were spent in penury. + +He attracted to himself a number of the most brilliant young men in +France, among them De Lesseps who subsequently carried out one of the +plans of his master, the Suez Canal; and Auguste Comte, who embodied +in his positivism the philosophical teachings of Saint-Simon. + +Saint-Simon believed that society needed to be entirely reorganized on +a "scientific basis," and that "the whole of society ought to labor +for the amelioration of the moral and physical condition of the +poorest class. Society ought to organize itself in the manner the most +suitable for the attainment of this great end."[1] + +The two counteracting motives or spirits in society are the spirit of +antagonism and the spirit of association. Hitherto the spirit of +antagonism has prevailed, and misery has resulted. Let the spirit of +association rule, and the evils will vanish. + +Under the rule of antagonism, property has become the possession of +the few, poverty and misery the lot of the many. Both property and +poverty are inherited, therefore the state should abolish all laws of +inheritance, take all property under its dominion, and let society be +the sole proprietor of the instruments of labor and of the fund that +labor creates. + +Through the teachings of Saint-Simon runs a constant stream of +religious fervor. In Christianity he found the moral doctrine that +gave sanction to his social views. He sought the primitive +Christianity, stripped of the dogmas and opinions of the centuries. In +his principal work, _Nouveau Christianisme_ (New Christianity), he +subjects the teachings of Catholicism and Protestantism to ingenious +criticism, and finds in the teachings of Christ the essential moral +elements necessary for a society based on the spirit of association. + +Saint-Simon was a humanitarian rather than a systematic thinker. His +analysis of society is ingenious rather than constructive. His +teachings were elaborated by his followers, who organized themselves +into a school called the "Sacred College of the Apostles," with Bazard +and Enfantin as their leaders. They were accused, in the Chamber of +Deputies, of promulgating communism of property and wives. Their +defense, dated October, 1830, and issued as a booklet, is the best +exposition of their views. They said that: "We demand that land, +capital, and all the instruments of labor shall become common +property, and be so managed that each one's portion shall correspond +to his capacity, and his reward to his labors." "Like the early +Christians, we demand that one man should be united to one woman, but +we teach that the wife should be the equal of the husband." + +On the question of marriage, however, the sect split soon after this +defense was written. Enfantin became a defender of free love, and +inaugurated a fantastic sacerdotalism which drove Bazard from the +"Sacred College."[2] + +The second French social philosopher of the Utopian school was +Francois Marie Charles Fourier (1772-1837). He was a bourgeois, son of +a draper, and brought as keen an intellect as did his noble +fellow-countryman, Saint-Simon, to the analysis of society, and a much +more practical experience. In his youth he had been employed in +various business enterprises. He recalls, in his works, several +experiences which he never forgot. As a lad, he was reproached for +telling a prospective customer the truth about some goods in his +father's shop. When a young man of twenty-seven he was sent to +Marseilles to superintend the destruction of great cargoes of rice +that had been held for higher prices, during a period of scarcity of +food when thousands of people were suffering from hunger. The rice had +spoiled in the waiting. The event made so profound an impression upon +his mind that he resolved to devote his life to the betterment of an +economic system that allowed such wanton waste. + +To his mind the problem of rebuilding society was practical, not +metaphysical. But underlying his practical solution was a fantastic +cosmogony and psychology. He reduced everything to a mathematical +system, and even computed the number of years the world would spin on +its axis. He believed that God created a good world, and that man has +desecrated it; that the function of the social reformer is to +understand the design of the Creator, and call mankind back to this +original plan, back to the original impulses and passions, and +primitive goodness. + +This could be done only under ideal environment. Such an environment +he proposed to create in huge caravansaries, which he called +phalansteries. Each group, or phalange, was composed of 400 families, +or 1,800 persons, living on a large square of land, where they could +be self-contained and self-sufficient, like the manors in the feudal +days. The phalanstery was built in the middle of the tract, and was +merely a glorified apartment house. Every one chose to do the work he +liked best. Agriculture and manufacture were to be happily blended, +and individual freedom given full sway. Each phalange was designed to +be an ideal democracy, electing its officers and governing itself. The +principle of freedom was to extend even to marriage and the relation +of the sexes. + +It was Fourier's belief that one such phalange once established would +so impress the world with its superiority that society would be glad +to imitate it. Ere long there would be groups of phalanges +co-operating with each other, and ultimately the whole world would be +brought into one vast federation of phalanges, with their chief center +at Constantinople. + +The general plan of this apartment-house utopia lent itself to all +sorts of fantastic details. It gained adherents among the learned, the +eager, and even the rich, and a number of experiments were tried. All +of these have failed, I think, excepting only the community at Guise, +founded by Jean Godin. Here, however, the fantasies have been +eliminated, and the strong controlling force of the founder has made +it prosperous. There is no agriculture connected with the Guise +establishment. + +A number of Fourier colonies, most of them modifications of his +phalanstery idea, were started in the United States. Of thirty-four +such experiments tried in America all have failed. The most famous of +these attempts was Brook Farm.[3] + +Robert Owen (1771-1858) was the great English utopian. He was the son +of a small trader. Such was his business ability and tenacity of +character that at nineteen years of age he was superintendent of a +cotton mill that employed 500 hands. His business acumen soon made him +rich, his philanthropic impulses led him to study the conditions of +the people who worked for him. In 1800 he took charge of the mills at +New Lanark. There he had under him as pitiful and miserable a group of +workmen as can be imagined. The factory system made wretchedness the +common lot of the English workingman of this period. The hours of +labor were intolerably long, the homes of the working people +unutterably squalid, women and tiny children worked all day under the +most unwholesome conditions; vice, drunkenness, and ignorance were +everywhere. + +Owen began as a practical philanthropist. He improved the sanitary +conditions of his mills and town, was the first employer to reasonably +shorten the hours of work, founded primary schools, proposed factory +legislation, and founded the co-operative movement that has grown to +great strength in England. He was one of the powerful men of the +island at this period. He had the enthusiastic support of the queen, +of many nobles, of clergy and scholars. But in a great public meeting +in London he went out of his way to denounce the accepted forms of +religion and declare his independence of all creeds, an offense that +the English people never forgive. + +By this time he had perfected his scheme for social reform. He +proposed to establish communities of 1,000 to 1,200 persons on about +1,500 acres of land. They were to live in an enormous building in the +form of a square, each family to have its own apartments, but kitchen +and dining-room to be in common. Every advantage of work, education, +and leisure was planned for the inmates. + +A number of Owenite communities were founded in England and America. +The one at New Harmony, Ind., was the most pretentious, and in it Owen +sank a large portion of his fortune. None of the experiments survived +their founder.[4] + +The Utopians were all optimists--the source of their optimism was the +social philosophy that prevailed from the French Revolution to the +middle of the last century. It was the philosophy of an unbounded +faith in the goodness of human nature. A good God made a good world, +and made man capable of attaining goodness and harmony in all his +relations. The evil in the world was contrary to God's plan. It was +introduced by the perversity of society. The source of misery is the +lack of knowledge. If humankind knew the right way of living, knew the +original plan of the Creator, then there would be no misery. You must +find this knowledge, this science, and upon it build society. Hence +they are all seeking a "scientific state of society," and call their +system "scientific." From Rousseau to Hegel, the theory prevailed that +evil is collective, good is individual; society is bad, man is pure. + +Cabet expresses it clearly. "God is perfection, infinite, +all-powerful, is justice and goodness. God is our father, and it +follows that all men are brethren and all are equal, as in one +all-embracing family." "It is evident that, to the fathers of the +Church, Christianity was communism. Communism is nothing other than +true Christianity...." "The regnancy of God, through Jesus, is the +regnancy of perfection, of omniscience, of justice, of goodness, of +paternal love; and, it follows, of fraternity, equality, and liberty; +of the unity of community interests, that is of communism (of the +general common welfare), in place of the individual."[5] + +This edenesque logic was dear to Fourier, who left more profound +traces on modern thought than the fantastic Saint-Simonians.[6] + +Fourier began with God. "On beholding this mechanism (the world and +human society), or even in making an estimate of its properties, it +will be comprehended that God has done well all that He has done."[7] +Man has only to find "God's design" in order to find the true basis of +society; and man's system of industrially parceling out the good +things of life among a few favored ones, is the "antipodes of God's +design." The finding of this design is the function of "exact +science"; man, who has stifled the voice of nature, must now +"vindicate the Creator."[8] + +Saint-Simon's whole system rests on this principle: "God has said that +men ought to act toward each other as brethren." This principle will +regulate society, for "in accordance with this principle, which God +has given to men for the rule of their conduct, they ought to organize +society in the manner the most advantageous to the greatest +number."[9] + +The social philosophers at the end of the eighteenth century did not +believe that this rightness should be brought about by violence. "What +I should desire," says Godwin, "is not by violence to change its +institutions, but by discussion to change its ideas. I have no +concern, if I would study merely the public good, with factions or +intrigue; but simply to promulgate the truth, and to wait the tranquil +progress of conviction. Let us anxiously refrain from violence."[10] + +Owen, who lived a few decades later, came into contact with the +theories of the succeeding school of thought. His utopianism remained, +however, upon the older basis. He taught that the evils of society +were not inherent in the nature of mankind. The natural state of the +world and of man was good. But the evils "are all the necessary +consequences of ignorance." Therefore, by education and environment he +could "accomplish with ease and certainty the Herculean labor of +forming a rational character in man, and that, too, chiefly before the +child commences the ordinary course of education."[11] + +The Utopians are hopefully seeking the universal law which will +re-form society. This was a natural view of things fundamental, to be +taken by men who had witnessed the political emancipation of the Third +Estate and had seen "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" carved over every +public portal in France, and the abstract principles of justice +debated in parliaments. A feeling of naive simplicity runs through all +their writings. Just as civil liberty, they believed, had come by the +application of an abstract principle of natural law, so social and +economic freedom would come by the application of one universal +abstract principle of human conduct. From this simplicity came a +violent reaction, which reached its climax in the anarchy of +Proudhon. + + +II + +The Utopian period of Socialism may be said to end, and the +revolutionary era to begin, with the year 1830. The French Revolution +was a bourgeois uprising. But behind it was the grim and resolute +background of the proletarian mass. When the Third Estate achieved its +victory, it proceeded to monopolize the governmental powers to the +exclusion of its lowly allies. From 1830 to 1850 the ferment of +democratic discontent spread over Europe and forced the demands of the +workingman into the foreground. The first outbreak occurred in France, +in 1831, when the workingmen of Lyons, during a period of distressing +financial depression, marched under the banner, "Live working, or die +fighting," demanding bread for their families and work for themselves. +This second chapter of the development of Socialism begins with a red +letter. + +Louis Blanc (1813-82), the first philosopher of the new movement, +struck out boldly for a democratic organization of the government. +This differentiates him from Fourier and Saint-Simon, and links him +with the leading Socialist writers of our day. He published his +_Organisation du Travail_ (Organization of Labor) in 1839. It +immediately gave him an immense popularity with the working classes. +It is a brilliant book, as fascinating in its phrases as it is +forceful in its denunciation of existing society. + +He said that it is vain to talk of improving mankind morally without +improving them materially. This improvement would not come from +above, from the higher classes. It would come from below, from the +working people themselves. Therefore, a prerequisite of social reform +was democracy. The proletarian must possess the power of the state in +order to emancipate himself from the economic bondage that holds him +in its grasp. + +This democratic state should then establish national workshops, or +associations, which he called "social workshops," the capital to be +provided by the state and the state to supervise their operation. He +believed that, once established, they would soon become +self-supporting and self-governing. The men would choose their own +managers, dispose of their own profits, and take care that this +beneficent system would spread to all communities. + +He was careful to explain that "genius should assert its legitimate +empire"--there must be a hierarchy of ability. + +Louis Blanc believed in revolution as the method of social +advancement. He was himself a leader in the abortive revolution of +1848, the revolt of the people against a weak and careless monarch. As +a member of the provisional government, he may be called the first +Socialist to hold cabinet honors. And, like his successors in modern +cabinets, he accomplished very little towards the bringing in of a new +social order. It is true that national workshops were built by the +French government at his suggestion; but not according to his plans. +His enemies saw to it that they served to bring discredit rather than +honor to the system which he had so carefully elaborated.[12] + +Louis Blanc did not entirely free himself of the earlier utopian +conception that man was created good and innocent. He blames society +for allowing the individual to do evil. But he does take a step toward +the Marxian materialistic conception when he affirms that man was +created with certain endowments of strength and intellect and that +these endowments should be spent in the welfare of society. The empire +of service, not the "empire of tribute," should be the measure of +man's greatness. + +The doctrine of revolt was carried to its logical extreme by Proudhon +(1809-65). He was the son of a cooper and a peasant maid, and he never +forgot that he sprang from the proletariat. He was a precocious lad, +was a theologian, philologist, and linguist before he undertook the +study of political economy. In 1840 he brought out his notable work, +_Qu'est-ce que la Propriete?_ (What Is Property?), a novel question +for that day, to which he gave an amazing answer, "Property is theft," +ergo "property holders are thieves." + +Proudhon was a man with the brain of a savant and the adjectives of a +peasant. His startling phrases, however, are merely spotlights thrown +on a theory of society which he permeated with a genuine good will. He +was puritanic in moral principle, loyal to his friends, and a despiser +of cant and formalism. But his love for paradoxes carried him beyond +the confines of logic. + +Property is theft, he says, because it reaps without sowing and +consumes without producing. What right has a capitalist to charge me +eight per cent.? None. This eight per cent. does not represent +anything of time or labor value put into the article I am buying. It +is therefore robbery. Private property, the stronghold of the +individualist, is then to be abolished and a universal communism +established? By no means. Communism is as unnatural as property. +Proudhon had only contempt for the phalanstery and national workshop +of his predecessors. They were impossible, artificial, reduced life to +a monotonous dead level, and encouraged immorality. Property is wrong +because it is the exploitation of the weak by the strong; communism is +equally wrong because it is the exploitation of the strong by the +weak. To this ingenious juggler of paradoxes this was by no means a +dilemma. He resorted to a formula that was later amplified into the +most potent argument of Socialism by Marx. Service pays service, one +day's work balances another day's work, time-labor is the just measure +of value. Hour for hour, day for day, this should be the universal +medium of exchange. + +Proudhon was really directing his attacks against rent and profit +rather than against property. He proposed, as a measure of reform, a +national bank where every one could bring the product of his toil and +receive a paper in exchange denoting the time value of his article. +These slips of paper were to be the medium of exchange capable of +purchasing equal time values. This glorified savage barter he even +proposed to the Constituent Assembly, of which he was a member, and +when it was rejected--only two votes were recorded for it--he tried to +establish it upon private foundations. He failed to raise the +necessary capital and his plan failed. + +Proudhon is the father of modern Anarchy. His exaltation of +individualism led him to the suppression of government. Government, he +taught, is merely the dominance of one man over another, a form of +intolerable oppression. "The highest perfection of society is found in +the union of order and anarchy." + +For his bitter tirades against property he received the scorn of the +bourgeois, for his attacks upon the government he served three years +in prison, and some years later he escaped a second term for a similar +cause by fleeing to Brussels. + +The ultimate outcome of his individualism was equality, which he +achieved in economics by his theory of time-labor and in politics by +his theory of anarchy. + +One cannot escape the conviction that the outcome of all his brilliant +rhetorical legerdemain is man in a cage. Not man originally pure and +good as the utopians would have him, but man wilful, egoistic, capable +of enslaving his fellows, a very different being from the man of mercy +and love crushed by the collective injustice of society. Proudhon +frees this man from his oppressor and his oppressiveness by creating a +condition of equality through the destruction of property and of +government. But in destroying property he retains possessions, and in +establishing anarchy he maintains order. "Free association, +liberty--whose sole function is to maintain equality--in the means of +production, and equivalence in exchanges, is the only possible, the +only just, the only true form of society." + +"The government of man by man (under whatever name it be disguised) is +oppression. Society finds its highest perfection in the union of order +and anarchy."[13] + +Proudhon has had a large influence on modern Socialism. His trenchant +invectives against property and society are widely copied. From his +utterances on government the Syndicalists of France, Italy, and Spain +have drawn their doctrine. The general strike is the child of his +paradoxes. He wrote as the motto for his most influential book, _What +Is Property?_, "Destruam et aedificabo" (I will destroy and I will +build again). But, while he pointed the way to destruction, he failed +to reveal a new and better order. + +The way to modern Socialism was paved in Germany. The teaching of +Hegel cleared the way for the political unrest that spread over Europe +in the '40's. Hegel was the proclaimer of the social revolution. He +gave sanction to the tenets of destruction. Everything that exists is +worth destroying, may be taken as the primary postulate at which the +Young Hegelians arrived. Truth does not exist merely in a collection +of institutions or dogmatic axioms that could be memorized like the +alphabet; truth is in the process of being, of knowing, it has +developed through the toilsome evolution of the race, it is found only +in experience. Nothing is sacred merely because it exists. Existing +institutions are only the prelude to other and better institutions +that are to follow. This was roughly the formula that the radical +Hegelians blocked out for themselves when they split from the orthodox +conservatives in the '30's. + +In 1843 appeared Feuerbach's _Wesen des Christentums_ (Essence of +Christianity), putting the seal of materialism upon the precepts of +the Young Hegelians.[14] The God of the utopians was destroyed. +Things were not created in harmony and beauty and disordered by man. +Things as they are, are the result of evolution, of growth; nothing +was created as it is, and even "Religion is the dream of the human +mind."[15] + +Out of this atmosphere of philosophical, religious, and political +rebellion sprang the prophet of modern Socialism, Karl Marx,[16] a man +whose intellectual endowments place him in the first ranks among +Socialists and link his name with other bold intellects of his age who +have forced the current of human thought. There have been many books +written on Marx, and every phase of his theories has been subjected to +academic and popular scrutiny. His treatise, _Capital_, is the +sacerdotal book of Socialists. It displays a mass of learning, a +diligence of research, and acumen in the marshaling of ideas, and a +completeness of literary expression that insures it a lasting place in +the literature of social philosophy. Whatever may be said of the +narrow dogmatism, of Marx, of his persistence in making the facts fit +his preconceived notions, of his materialistic conception of history, +or of the technical flaws in his political economy, he will always be +quoted as the founder of modern scientific Socialism and the Socialist +historian of the capitalistic regime. + +I must content myself with a bare statement of his theories. + +The economic basis of Marx is his well-known "Theory of Surplus +Value." It was not his theory in the sense that he originated it. +Economists like Adam Smith and especially Ricardo, Socialists like the +Owenites and the Chartists in England, and Proudhon in France, had +enunciated it; and in Germany Rodbertus, a lawyer and scholar of great +learning, had elaborated it in his first book, published in 1842. +Marx, with German thoroughness, developed this theory in all its +ramifications. + +All economic goods, he said, have value. They have a physical value, +and a value given them by the labor expended on them. Labor is the +common factor of economic values. And the common denominator is the +time that is consumed by the labor. Labor-time, therefore, is the +universal measure of value, the common medium that determines values. +But this labor is acquired in the open labor market by the capitalist +at the lowest possible price, a price whose utmost limit is the bare +cost of living. The reward for his labor is called a wage. This wage +does not by any means measure the value of his services. What, then, +becomes of the "surplus value," the value over and above wages? The +capitalist appropriates it. Indeed, the great aim of the capitalist is +to make this surplus value as big as possible. He measures his success +by his profits. + +"Surplus value," or profit, is, then, a species of robbery; it is +ill-gotten gain, withholding from the workman that which by right of +toil is his. + +How did it come about that society was so organized as to permit this +wholesale wrong upon the largest and most defenseless of its classes? +It is in answer to this question that Marx makes his most notable +contribution to Socialistic theory. With great skill, and displaying a +comprehensive knowledge of economic history, especially of English +industrial history, he traces the development of modern industrial +society. He follows the evolution of capital from the days of medieval +paternalism through the period of commercial expansion when the +voyages of discovery opened virgin fields of wealth to the trader, +into the period of inventions when the industrial revolution changed +the conditions of all classes and gave a sudden and princely power to +capital, establishing the reign of "capitalistic production." + +Always it was the man with capital who could take advantage of every +new commercial and industrial opportunity, and the man without capital +who was forced to succumb to the stress of new and cruel +circumstances. In every stage of development it has been the constant +aim of the capitalist to increase his profits and of the workingman to +raise his standard of living. + +Marx then declares that, in order to have a capitalist society, two +classes are necessary: a capitalist and a non-capitalist class; a +class that dominates, and one that succumbs. There have always been +these two classes. Originally labor was slave, then it was serf, and +now it is free. But free labor to-day differs from serf-labor and +slave-labor only in that it has a legal right to contract. The +economic results are the same as they always have been: the capitalist +still appropriates the surplus value. + +The method of production, however, is very different in our +capitalistic era from the earlier eras. The industrial system herds +the workmen into factories. Property and labor is no longer +individualistic; it is social, it is corporate. Marx calls it "social +production and capitalistic appropriation." Here is the eternal +antagonism between the classes, the large class of laborers and the +small class of the "appropriators" of their common toil. + +These factories, where labor is herded, spring up willy-nilly wherever +there is a capitalist who desires to enter business. They flood the +markets, not by mutual consent or regulation, but by individual +ambitions. Each capitalist is ruled by self-interest; and +self-interest impels him to make as many goods as he can and sell them +at as big a profit as he can. Result, economic anarchy, called +"over-production" or "under-consumption" by the economists. This leads +to panics and all their attendant woes--woes that are further heaped +upon the proletarian by the fact that he must compete with machinery, +which, being more and more perfected, forces him out of the labor +market into the street. + +These crises have the tendency to concentrate industry in fewer and +fewer hands; the weaker capitalist must succumb to the inevitable laws +of struggle and survival. The survivors fatten on the corpses of their +fallen competitors. Thus the factories grow larger and larger, the +number of capitalists fewer and fewer; the number of proletarian +dependents multiplies; the middle class is crushed out of existence; +the rich become richer and fewer, the poor more numerous and poorer. + +In this turmoil of social production, capitalistic appropriation, and +anarchic distribution, there is discernible a reshaping of social +potencies. The proletarian realizes the power of the state and sees +how he may possess himself of that power and thereby gain control of +the economic forces and reshape them to fit the needs of a better +society. This will mean the appropriation of the means of production +and distribution by society. Private capital will vanish; surplus +values will belong to the people who created them; the people will be +master and servant, capitalist and laborer. + +This is the Socialistic stage of society. It will be the result of the +natural evolution of human industry. Its immediate coming will be the +result of a social revolution. This revolution, this social cataclysm, +is written in the nature of things. Man cannot prompt it, he cannot +prevent it. He can only study the trend of things and "alleviate the +birth-pangs" of the new time. + +Of this new time, this society of to-morrow, Marx gives us no glimpse. +His function is not to prophesy, but to analyze. He is the natural +historian of capital. He described the development of economic society +and sought to ascertain its trend. In the first chapter of _Capital_ +he says: "Let us imagine an association of free men, working with +common means of production, and putting forth, consciously, their +individual powers into one social labor power. The product of this +association of laborers is a social product. A portion of this product +serves in turn as a means of further production. It remains social +property. The rest of this product is consumed by the members of the +association as a means of living. It must consequently be distributed +among them. The nature of this distribution will vary according to the +particular nature of the organization of production and the +corresponding grade of historical development of the producers." + +This is the only mention of the future made by Marx. It is a dim and +uncertain ray of light cast upon a vast object. + +The formulae of this epoch-making study may be summarized as follows: + +1. Labor gives value to all economic goods. The laboring class is the +producing class, but it is deprived of its just share of the products +of its labor by the capitalistic class, which appropriates the +"surplus value." + +2. This is possible because of the capitalistic method of production, +wherein private capital controls the processes of production and +distribution. + +3. This system of private capitalism is the result of a long and +laborious process of evolution, hastened precipitately by the +industrial revolution. + +4. This industrial age is characterized (a) by anarchy in distribution, +(b) private production, (c) the gradual disappearance of the middle +class, (d) the development of a two-class system--capitalist and +producer, (e) the rich growing richer and the poor growing poorer. + +5. This will not always continue. The producers are becoming fewer +each year. Presently they will become so powerful as to be +unendurable. Then society--the people--will appropriate private +capital and all production and distribution will be socialized. + +It is necessary to keep in mind the leading events in the life of this +remarkable man in order to understand the genesis of his theories. +Marx was born in Treves in 1818, of Jewish parentage. His mother was +of Dutch descent, his father was German. When the lad was six years of +age his parents embraced the Christian faith. His father was a +lawyer, but his ancestors for over two hundred years had been rabbis. +The home was one of culture, where English and French as well as +German literature and art were discussed by a circle of learned and +congenial friends. Marx studied at the universities of Bonn and +Berlin. He took his doctorate in the law to please his father, but +followed philosophy by natural bent, intending to become a university +professor. + +The turmoil of revolution was in the air and in his blood. There was +no curbing of his fiery temperament into the routine of scholastic +life. In 1842 he joined the staff of the _Rhenish Gazette_ at Cologne, +an organ of extreme radicalism. His drastic editorials prompted the +police to ask him to leave the country, and he went to Paris, where he +met Frederick Engels, who became his firm friend, partner of his +views, and sharer of his labors. The Prussian government demanded his +removal from Paris, and for a time he settled in Brussels. He returned +to Germany to participate in the revolution of 1848, and in 1849 he +was driven to London, where, immune from Prussian persecutions, he +made his home until his death, in 1883. + +In 1842 he married Jennie von Westphalen, a lady of refinement, +courage, and loyalty, whose family was prominent in Prussian politics. +Her brother was at one time a minister in the Prussian cabinet. + +Marx was an exile practically all his life, though he never gave up +his German citizenship. He never forgot this fact. He concluded his +preface to the first volume of _Capital_, written in 1873, with a +bitter allusion to the "mushroom upstarts of the new, holy Prussian +German Empire." He lived a life of heroic fortitude and struggle +against want and disease. + +From his infancy he had been taught to take a world view, an +international view, of human affairs. This gave him an immediate +advantage over all other Socialist writers of that day. At Bonn he was +caught in the current of heterodoxy that was then sweeping through the +universities. This carried him far into the fields of materialism, +whose philosophy of history he adopted and applied to the economic +development of the race. He received not alone his philosophy from the +"Young Hegelians," but his dialectics as well. It gave him a +philosophy of evil which, blending with his bitter personal +experiences, gave a melancholy bent to his reasoning, and revealed to +him the misericordia of class war, the struggle of abject poverty +contending with callous capital in a bloody social revolution. + +There are four points which gave Marx an immense influence over the +Socialistic movement. In the first place, he put the Socialistic +movement on a historical basis; he made it inevitable. Think what this +means, what hope and spirit it inspires in the bosom of the +workingman. But he did more than this: he made the proletarian the +instrument of destiny for the emancipation of the race from economic +thraldom. This was to be accomplished by class war and social +revolution. Marx imparts the zeal of fatalism to his Socialism when he +links it to the necessities of nature. By natural law a bourgeoisie +developed; by natural law it oppresses the proletarian; by natural +law, by the compulsion of inexorable processes, the proletarians alone +can attain their freedom. Capitalism becomes its own grave-digger. +Liebknecht said in his Erfurt speech (1891): "The capitalistic state +of the present begets against its will the state of the future." + +In the third place, Marx gave a formula to the Socialist movement. He +defined Socialism in one sentence: "The social ownership of the means +of production and distribution." This was necessary. From among the +vague and incoherent mass of utopian and revolutionary literature he +coined the sentence that could be repeated with gusto and the flavor +of scientific terminology. + +And finally, he refrained from detailing the new society. He laid down +no program except war, he pointed to no utopia except co-operation. +This offended no one and left Socialists of all schools free to +construct their own details. + +The Marxian system was no sooner enunciated than it was shown to be +fallible as an economic generalization; and the passing of several +decades has proved that the tendencies he deemed inevitable are not +taking place. The refutation of his theory of value by the Austrian +economist, Adolph Menger, is by economists considered complete and +final. The materialistic conception of history, which is the soul of +his work, lends itself more to the passion of a virile propaganda than +to a sober interpretation of the facts. Further, the two practical +results that flow from the use of his theory of surplus value and his +materialism--namely, the ever-increasing volume of poverty and the +ever-decreasing number of capitalists--are not borne out by the facts. +The number of capitalists is constantly increasing, in spite of the +development of enormous trusts; the middle class is constantly being +recruited from the lower class; there is no apparent realization of +the two-class system. And finally, the method by revolution is being +more and more discarded by Socialists, as they see that intolerable +conditions are being more and more alleviated, that "man's inhumanity +to man" is a constantly diminishing factor in the bitter struggle for +existence.[17] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _New Christianity_, p. 38, English edition, 1834. + +[2] Saint-Simon's principal writings are: _Lettres d'un Habitant de +Geneve_, 1803; _L'Organisateur_, 1819; _Du Systeme Industriel_, 1821; +_Catechisme des Industriels_, 1823; _Nouveau Christianisme_, 1825. See +A.J. BARTH, _Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism_, London, 1871; REYBAUD, +_Etudes sur les Reformateurs Modernes_, Paris, 1864; JANET, +_Saint-Simon et le Saint-Simonisme_, Paris, 1878. _New Christianity_ +was translated into English by Rev. J.E. Smith, London, 1834. + +[3] The best popular exposition of Fourierism is GATTI DE GAMMONT'S +_Fourier et Son Systeme_. His most eminent commentator is Victor +Considerant, whose _Destinee Sociale_ is the most complete analysis of +Fourier's System. + +[4] It is interesting to note that the word "Socialism" first became +current in the meetings of Owen's "Association of All Classes of All +Nations," organized by him in 1835. + +[5] _Le Vrai Christianisme_, Chap. XVIII, edition of 1846. + +[6] An apt selection from the works of Fourier has been made by Prof. +Charles Gide, prefaced by an illuminating Introduction on the life and +work of Fourier. An English translation by Julia Franklin appeared in +London, 1901. + +[7] _Le Nouveau Monde_, Vol. I, p. 26. + +[8] _Theme de l'Unite Universelle_, Vol. II, p. 128. + +[9] _New Christianity_, p. 2, English edition, 1834. + +[10] _Political Justice_, Vol. II, pp. 531, 537. + +[11] _Third Essay on a New View of Society_, pp. 65, 82. + +[12] See EMILE THOMAS, _History of the National Workshops_. + +[13] _What Is Property?_ Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 286. + +[14] In 1845 Marx made this note on the work of Feuerbach: "The point +of view of the old materialism is bourgeois society; the point of view +of the new materialism is human society or the unclassed humanity +(vergesellschaftete Menschheit). + +"Philosophers have only differently _interpreted_ the world, but the +point is to _alter_ the world." See FREDERICK ENGELS, _Ludwig +Feuerbach und der Ausgang der Klassischen Deutschen Philosophie_, +Stuttgart, 1903. + +[15] _Essence of Christianity_, Preface, p. xiii. + +[16] For a concise statement of the development of Marxian Socialism +out of the German philosophy of that period, see FREDERICK ENGELS, +_Die Entwickelung des Sozialismus von der Utopie zur Wissenschaft_, +Berlin, 1891. It is the third chapter out of his _Duehring, Umwaelzung_. + +[17] For a criticism of the teachings of Marx, see SOMBART, _Socialism +and the Social Movement_, Chap. IV. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE POLITICAL AWAKENING OF SOCIALISM--THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION + + +From the point of view of our inquiry the most significant event in +the history of Socialism is its entrance into politics. This endows +the workingman with a new power and a great power; a power that will +bring him farther on his way toward the goal he seeks than any other +he possesses. Because the modern state is democratic, and the +democratic state bends in the direction of the mass. The revolutions +attempted in the middle of the last century are child's play compared +with the changes that can be wrought when constitutions and courts, +parliaments and administrative systems, become the instruments of a +determined, self-possessed, and united political consciousness. + +Scarcely half a century elapsed between the French utopians and the +time when the proletarians organized actual political parties, and +arrayed themselves against the older orders in the struggle for +political privilege. In the interval, revolution had its brief hour, +and reaction its days of waiting. + +The French Revolution was a necessary preliminary to the proletarian +movement. It was the most powerful instrument for the propagation of +those democratic ideas that were so attractively clothed by Rousseau +and so terribly distorted by the revolutionists. While this revolution +was a bourgeois movement, not a proletarian uprising, not a +revolution in the sense that Marx, for instance, uses the word, it +must not be forgotten that the proletarians were in the revolution. +The dark and sullen background of that tragedy was the mass of +unspeakably poor. They were not machine workers whose abjectness came +from factory conditions, like the workmen of England a few decades +later. They were proletarians without a class consciousness, but with +a class grievance; proletarians in the literal sense of the word, +poor, ragged, hungry, wretched. + +Such democracy as was achieved by the revolution was bourgeois. The +powers of monarchy were transferred from the "privileged" classes to +the middle class, who, in turn, became the privileged ones. The day of +middle-class government had come. The class that had financed the +fleets of adventurers to new and unexploited continents, and had +backed the inventions of Arkwright and Hargreaves, were now in power +in politics as well as in commerce and industry. A unity of purpose +between industry and statecraft was thus achieved; new ideals became +dominant. The patriarchal precepts of the feudal manors were +forgotten. The people were no longer children of a great household +with their king at the head. The king, when he was retained, was shorn +of his universal fatherhood, and remained a mere remnant of ermine and +velvet, a royal trader in social distinctions. + +While the old ideal, the feudal ideal, prevailed, governing was the +_duty_ of a class. The newer ideal made governing an incident in the +activities of a class whose dominating impulse was the making of +profits. These ideals are at polar points; one deals with things, the +other with men. + +The change in the form of government was wrought while the people were +talking about the glittering abstractions of equality, liberty, +justice, as if they were commodities to be exchanged in the political +markets. The newer form of government marked an advance on the older. +It represented a step forward in human political experience. A larger +group of citizens was drawn into the widening circle of governmental +activities. It was an inevitable step. The discovery of the New World +and the invention of machinery were making a new earth--an +unattractive earth, but nevertheless a new one. The balance of power +was shifting from hereditary privilege to commercial privilege, and +nations were fulfilling the law of human nature, that the power of the +state reposes in the hands of the dominant class. The dominant class +is actuated by its dominant idea. In the aristocratic class it is +politics, in the middle class it is trade. + +All this inevitably accentuated the proletarian's position in the +state. Under the older regime, as historians of our economic +development have clearly shown, the antagonisms and grievances were +fewer. The trader and the craftsman were overshadowed by the lord and +the bishop. Social, political, and economical values were distributed +by custom and imposed by heredity, rather than by individual effort or +individual capacity. When, therefore, this great change came over +society, a change that would have been unthinkable in the days of +Charlemagne or of Elizabeth,--a change that virtually destroyed the +most powerful of the classes and put human beings onto a basis of +competition rather than of birth, and shifted power from tradition to +effort, and transferred values from prerogatives to gold,--then the +whole class problem changed, and entirely new antagonisms were +created. + +The first movements of the new proletarians were mob movements. +Actuated more by a desire to revenge themselves than to better +themselves, they gather in the dark hours of the night and move +sullenly upon the factories, to destroy their enemies, the machines. +They pillage the buildings and threaten the house of their employer, +whom they consider the agent of their undoing. In France and Germany, +and especially in England, these infuriated workmen try to undo by +violence what has been achieved by invention. + +When their first fury is abated and they see new machinery taking the +place of that which they have destroyed, and new factories built on +the foundations of those they have burned, they see the impotence of +their actions. In England a new movement begins. They try to re-enact +the Elizabethan statute of laborers, to bring back the days of +handicrafts, of journeyman and apprentice. They soon learned that the +old era had vanished, never to return. The workingman possessed +neither the power nor the ingenuity to bring it back. He turned, next, +to possess himself of the machinery of the state. + +Political conditions paved the way. France, after her orgy, had fallen +back into absolutism. Germany and Austria had remained feudal in the +most distasteful sense of the word; the nobility retained their +ancient privileges and forsook their ancient duties. The landlord +class even retained jurisdiction over their tenants. The old industry +had been destroyed by Napoleon's campaigns; the new machine industry +did not establish itself until after the enactment of protective +tariffs and the creation "Zollverein," in 1818. This cemented the +bourgeois interests. Manufacturers, traders, and bankers achieved a +homogeneity of interest and ambition which was antagonistic to the +spirit of the _junker_ and the feudalist. The new bourgeoisie wanted +laws favorable to trade expansion. They needed the law-making +machinery to achieve this. By 1840 the upper middle class had become +feverish for political power. They imbibed the doctrines of the +literature of that period which preached a constitutional +republicanism. Hegel gave the weighty sanction of philosophy to the +overthrow of absolute monarchy. + +The great mass of the people were, of course, workingmen, small +traders, and shopkeepers, and the rural peasantry. The small trader +was dependent upon the favors of the ruling class on the one hand, and +of the banker and manufacturer on the other hand. When the interests +of these two clashed he was alarmed, for he could neither remain +neutral nor take sides. The peasants were abject subjects, little +better than serfs. The laboring men, as we shall see presently, were +achieving a mass consciousness. + +In Germany Frederick William, the Romantic, was face to face with +revolution. This was not an economic revolution. It was a political +revolution. It was joined by the communists and the Socialists. Marx +himself, was a leader in the revolt, and one of its most faithful +chroniclers. In 1844 the weavers of Silesia rose in revolt. There was +rioting and bloodshed. This was followed by bread riots in various +parts of Germany. In 1848 the whole country was in the turmoil of +revolution, a revolution led by the upper middle class, but prompted +and fired by the zeal of the proletarians, who, in some of the +cities, notably Berlin, became the leading factor in the uprising. +Marx says: "There was then no separate Republican party in Germany. +People were either constitutional monarchists or more or less clearly +defined Socialists or communists."[1] + +In Austria conditions were even more reactionary than in Germany. +Metternich, the powerful representative of the ancient order of +things, had a haughty contempt for the demands of the constitutional +party. With the hauteur of absolutism he not only retained political +power in the feudal class, but suppressed literature, censored +learning, and rigorously superintended religion. A greater power than +caste and tradition was slowly eating its way into this country, which +had attempted to isolate itself from the rest of the world. This was +the power of machine industry. It brought with it, as in every other +country, a new class, the manufacturers, who, as soon as their +business began to expand, sought favorable laws. This led them into +political activity, which, in turn, brought friction with the +feudalists. Both sides took to the field. The revolution broke in +Vienna, March 13, 1848, seventeen days after the revolutionists had +driven Louis Philippe out of Paris, and five days before the Prussian +king delivered himself into the hands of a Berlin mob. + +It was in France that the revolution assumed its most virulent +character. In Paris the revolution was "carried on between the mass of +the working people on the one hand and all the other classes of the +Parisian population, supported by the army, on the other."[2] This +Parisian proletarian uprising was the red signal of warning to Germany +and Austria. The bourgeois were now as anxious to rid themselves of +the Socialist contingent as they had been eager for its support when +they began their struggle for political power. Compromises between +feudalists and commercialists were effected, and a sort of +constitutionalism became the basis of the reconstructed governments. + +Of these revolutions Marx says: "In all cases the real fighting body +of the insurgents, that body which first took up arms and gave battle +to the troops, consisted of the working classes of the towns. A +portion of the poorer country population, laborers and petty farmers, +generally joined them after the outbreak of the conflict."[3] + +They were not merely bourgeois uprisings. The Parisian revolution was +virtually a proletarian rebellion. Here "the proletariat, because it +dictated the Republic to the provisional government, and through the +provisional government to the whole of France, stepped at once forth +as an independent, self-contained party; and it at once arrayed the +entire bourgeoisie of France against itself.... Marche, a workingman, +dictated a decree wherein the newly formed provincial government +pledged itself to secure the position of the workingman through work, +to do away with bourgeois labor, etc. And as they seemed to forget +this promise, a few days later 200,000 workingmen marched upon the +Hotel de Ville with the battle-cry, 'Organization of labor! Create a +ministry of labor!' and after a prolonged debate the provisional +government named a permanent special commission for the purpose of +finding the means for bettering the conditions of the working +classes."[4] + +It is evident that Marx considered the revolutions of 1848-50 as a +compound of proletarian and bourgeois uprisings against _feudal_ +remnants in government. He is not always clear in his own mind as to +the direction of these movements. But we now know that the direction +was toward democracy. + +The French, or Parisian, uprising was more "advanced" than the other +Continental attempts. The Parisians had piled barricades before; they +were experienced in the bloody business. + +They tried again in 1871. This time the workingmen ruled Paris for two +months. It was a bloody, turbulent period. Marx characterized it as +"the glorious workingman's revolution of the 18th of March," and the +Commune "as a lever for uprooting the economical foundations upon +which rests the existence of classes, and therefore of class rule." +Its acts of violence he extolled, its burning of public buildings was +a "self-holocaust." This "workingman's Paris, with its Commune, will +be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society."[5] + +So the attempt to possess the state by revolution has been tried by +the proletarian. The revolutions were all abortive. The Socialists say +they were ill-timed. Writing in 1895, Frederick Engels, the companion +of Marx, could see these uprisings in a different perspective. He +acknowledged the mistake made by the Socialists in believing that they +could by violence somehow become the deciding factor in the +government, and therefore in the economic arrangement of society. +"History has shown us our error," he says. "Time has made it clear +that the status of economic development on the Continent was far from +ripe for the setting aside of the capitalistic regime."[6] + +These revolutions were not merely bourgeois, as is so often affirmed. +There was everywhere a large element of Socialistic unrest. They were +revolutions begun in the fever heat of youth--"Young Germany," "Young +Austria," "Young Italy," were moved by "Young Hegelians" and "Young +Communists." They embraced bourgeois tradesmen and proletarian +workingmen, who, in their new-found delirium, thought that with "the +overthrow of the reactionary governments, the kingdom of heaven would +be realized on earth."[7] "They had no idea," continues Kautsky, who +speaks on these questions with authority, "that the overthrow of these +governments would not be the end, but the beginning of revolutions; +that the newly won bourgeois freedom would be the battleground for +the great class war between proletarian and bourgeois; that liberty +did not bring social freedom, but social warfare." + +This is to-day the orthodox Socialist view. It believes that these +revolutions taught the proletarians the folly of ill-timed violence; +revealed to them their friends and their enemies; and, above all, gave +them a class consciousness. + +Let us turn, for a moment, to a proletarian movement of a somewhat +different type, the Chartist movement in England. The flame of +revolution that enveloped Europe crossed the Channel to England and +Ireland. But here revolution took a different course. In Ireland it +was the brilliant O'Connell's agitation against the Act of Union; in +England it was the workingman's protest against his exclusion from the +Reform Act of 1832, an act that itself had been born amidst the throes +of mob violence and incipient revolution. + +The Chartist movement was promulgated by the "Workingmen's +Association." It was a workingman's protest. Its organizers were +carpenters, its orators were tailors and blacksmiths and weavers, +surprising themselves and their audiences with their new-found +eloquence, and its writers were cotton spinners. The Reform Bill had +been a bitter disappointment to them. It gave the right of suffrage to +the middle class, but withheld it from the working class. A few +radical members of Parliament met with representatives of the +workingmen and drafted a bill. O'Connell, as he handed the measure to +the secretary of the association, said: "There is your charter"--and +the "People's Charter" it was called. Its "six points" were: Manhood +suffrage, annual Parliaments, election by ballot, abolition of +property qualifications for election of members to Parliament, payment +of members of Parliament, and equitably devised electoral districts. +These are all political demands, all democratic. But economic +conditions pressed them to the foreground. The "Bread Tax" was as much +an issue as the ballot. They demanded the ballot so that they might +remove the tax. "Misery and discontent were its strongest +inspirations," says McCarthy.[8] + +Carlyle saw the inwardness of the movement. "All along for the last +five and twenty years it was curious to note how the internal +discontent of England struggled to find vent for itself through any +orifice; the poor patient, all sick from center to surface, complains +now of this member, now of that: corn laws, currency laws, free trade, +protection, want of free trade: the poor patient, tossing from side to +side seeking a sound side to lie on, finds none." + +One of its own crude and forceful orators said on Kersall Moor to +200,000 turbulent workingmen of Manchester: "Chartism, my friends, is +no mere political movement, where the main point is your getting the +ballot. Chartism is a knife and fork question. The charter means a +good house, good food and drink, prosperity, and short working +hours."[9] + +The protest of this discontent became the nearest approach to a +revolution England had encountered since Charles I. Monster meetings, +for the first time called "mass meetings," were held in every county, +and evenings, after working hours, enormous parades were organized, +each participant carrying a torch, hence they were called "torchlight +parades." These two spectacular features were soon adopted by American +campaigners. A wild and desperate feeling seized the masses. "You see +yonder factory with its towering chimney," cried one of its orators. +"Every brick in that factory is cemented with the blood of women and +children." And again: "If the rights of the poor are trampled under +foot, then down with the throne, down with aristocracy, down with the +bishops, down with the clergy, burn the churches, down with all rank, +all title, and all dignity."[10] + +In their great petition to Parliament, signed by several million +people, the agitators said: "The Reform Act has effected a transfer of +power from one domineering faction to another and left the people as +helpless as before." "We demand universal suffrage. The suffrage, to +be exempt from the corruption of the wealthy and the violence of the +powerful, must be secret." The whole movement had all the aspects of a +modern, violent general strike. Its papers, _The Poor Man's Guardian_, +_The Destructive_, and others, were full of tirades against wealth and +privilege. When the agitation became an uprising in Wales, there was a +conflict between the Chartists and the police in which a number were +killed and wounded. In the industrial centers, soldiers were present +at the meetings, and the outcry against the use of the military was +the same that is heard to-day. A number of the leaders were tried for +sedition, and the courts became the objects of abuse as they are +to-day. It was a labor war for political privilege; a class war for +economic advantages. + + +SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION + +These revolutions were political in that they were a protest against +existing governmental forms. The revolutionary proletarian was found +in all of them. He not only stood under the standard of Daniel Manin +in Venice, when that patriot again proclaimed a republic in the +ancient city, and shared with Mazzini his triumph in Rome, and fought +with Kossuth for the liberty of Hungary; but he formed also the body +of the revolutionary forces in Germany, Austria, and France. + +In all the Continental countries the uprisings were directed against +the arrogance and oppression of monarchism, and against the +recrudescence of feudalistic ideals. In France Louis Philippe had +attempted the part of a petty despot. He restricted the ballot to the +propertied class, balanced his power on too narrow a base, and it +became top-heavy. + +While the workingmen of Germany and Austria were taking up arms under +command of the middle class against the feudal remnants, the +workingmen of France were sacking their capital because of an +attempted revival of monarchic privilege, and the workmen of England +were marching and counter-marching in monster torchlight parades in +protest against middle-class domination. + +The panorama of Europe in these years of turmoil and blood thus +exhibits every degree of revolt against governmental power, from the +absolutism of Prussian Junkerdom and the oppression of the Hungarians +by foreign tyranny, to the dominance of the aristocratic and +middle-class alliance in Great Britain. + +The bread-and-butter question was not wanting in any of these +political uprisings. The unity of life makes their separation a myth. +One is interwoven with the other. The social struggle is political, +the political struggle is social. + +Socialism is not merely an economic movement. It seeks to-day, and +always has sought, the power of the state. The government is the only +available instrument for effecting the change--the revolution--the +Socialists preach, the transfer of productive enterprise from private +to public ownership. "Political power our means, social happiness our +end," was a Chartist motto. That is the duality of Socialism to-day. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] MARX, _Revolution and Counter-Revolution in 1848_. + +[2] MARX, _Revolution and Counter-Revolution_, p. 70. + +[3] _Op. cit._, pp. 123-124. + +[4] MARX, _Die Klassenkaempfe in Frankreich_, pp. 26-28. + +[5] See the third address issued by the International Workingmen's +Association on the Franco-Prussian war, 1870-71. + +The Italian Socialists in Milan, June, 1871, closed a rhetorical +address to the Parisian Communards as follows: "To despotism they +responded, We are free. + +"To the cannon and chassepots of the leagued reactionists they offered +their bared breasts. + +"They fell, but fell like heroes. + +"To-day the reaction calls them bandits, places them under the ban of +the human race. + +"Shall we permit it? No! + +"Workingmen! At the time when our brothers in Paris are vanquished, +hunted like fallow deer, are falling by hundreds under the blows of +their murderers, let us say to them: Come to us, we are here; our +houses are open to you. We will protect you, until the day of revenge, +a day not far distant. + +"Workingmen! the principles of the Commune of Paris are ours: we +accept the responsibility of its acts. Long live the Social Republic!" + +See ED. VILLETARD, _History of the International_, p. 342. This +sentiment was also expressed in London and other centers. + +[6] Introduction to _Die Klassenkaempfe in Frankreich_, p. 8. + +[7] KAUTSKY, _Leben Friedrich Engels_, p. 14, Berlin, 1895. + +[8] _The Epoch of Reform_, p. 190. + +[9] ENGELS, _Condition of the Working Classes in 1844_, p. 230. +Engels, who came to England at this time and was employed in +Manchester in his father's business, and was therefore in the heart of +the movement, says that Chartism was, after the Anti-Corn Law League +had been formed, "purely a workingman's cause." It was "the struggle +of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie." "The demands hitherto +made by him (the laborer), the ten-hours' bill, protection of the +worker against the capitalist, good wages, a guaranteed position, +repeal of the new poor law--all of these things belong to Chartism +quite as essentially as the 'Six Points.'"--_Supra cit._, pp. 229, +234, 235. + +[10] R.G. GRUMMAGE, _History of the Chartist Movement_, 1837-54, p. +59, Newcastle, 1894. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE POLITICAL AWAKENING OF SOCIALISM--THE INTERNATIONAL + + +With 1848 vanished, more or less rapidly, the revolutions of the old +school. "The street fight and barricade, which up to 1848 was +decisive, now grew antiquated," says Engels.[1] A new species of +plotting and propaganda began. The exiled agitators and revolutionists +met, naturally, in their cities of refuge for the discussion of their +common grievances. They complained that "the proletarian has no +fatherland," and internationalism became their patriotism. + +In Paris a few of the ostracized Socialists, in 1836, founded "The +League of the Just," a communistic secret society.[2] The group were +compelled to leave Paris because they were implicated in a riot, and +when some of them met in London they invited other refugees to join +them. Among them was Marx, and his presence soon bore fruit. Their +motto, "All men are brethren," was singularly paradoxical when +contrasted with their methods of sinister conspiracy. Marx, with his +superior intellect, at once began to reshape their ideas, a +reorganization was effected called "The Communist League," and Marx +and Engels were delegated to write a statement of principles for the +League. That statement, written in 1847, they called "The Communist +Manifesto." + +The "Manifesto" is the most influential of all Socialist documents. It +is at once a firebrand and a formulary. Its formulae are the well-known +Marxian principles; its energy is the youthful vigor and zeal of +ardent revolutionists. Nearly all the generalizations of _Capital_ are +found in the "Manifesto." This is important, for it gave the sanction +of a social theory to the Socialist movement. Hitherto there had been +only utopian generalizations and keen denunciations of the existing +order. It was of the greatest importance that early in the development +of the movement it was given an economic theory expressed in such +lucid terms, with the gusto of youth, and in the terminology of +science, that it remains to-day the best synopsis of Marx's +"Scientific Socialism." + +As a piece of campaign literature it is unexcelled. Combined with its +clearness of statement, its economic reasoning, its terrific +arraignment of modern industrial society, there is a lofty zeal and +power that placed it in the front rank of propagandist literature. + +Engels, the surviving partner of the Marxian movement, wrote in the +preface of the edition of 1888: + +"The 'Manifesto' being our joint production, I consider myself bound to +say that the fundamental proposition which forms its nucleus belongs to +Marx." That proposition embraced the materialistic theory of social +evolution, that "the whole history of mankind has been a history of +class struggles ... in which nowadays a stage has been reached where +the exploited and oppressed classes--the proletariat--cannot attain +their emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling +classes--the bourgeoisie--without at the same time and once for all +emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class +distinctions, and class struggles." + +This liberation was, of course, to be accomplished by revolution. The +"Manifesto" closes with these spirited and oft-quoted words: + +"The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly +declare that their ends can be obtained only by the forcible overthrow +of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling class tremble at a +communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their +chains, they have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite." + +This was the language and the spirit of the times. The "Manifesto" was +published only a few days before the February revolution of 1848. For +a moment the ruling class did tremble; but the ill-timed uprisings +were promptly suppressed and the days of reaction set in. + +Soon the workingmen of different countries were busy with the +stupendous development of industry which followed in the wake of the +wars and revolutions that had harassed the Continent for over fifty +years. The revival of industry brought a renewal of international +trade. This was followed by a wider exchange of views and greater +international intimacy. In 1862 the first International Exposition was +held. + +Before we proceed with the development of the "Old International," as +it is now called, let us notice three points about the "Manifesto." +First, it was not called the "Socialist Manifesto," although adopted +by Socialists the world over. Engels, in his preface of 1888, tells us +why. "When it was written we could not have called it a Socialist +Manifesto. By Socialist, in 1847, were understood, on the one hand, +the adherents of the various Utopian systems; Owenites in England, +Fourierists in France, both of them already reduced to the position of +mere sects, and gradually dying out; on the other hand, the most +multifarious social quacks who, by all manner of tinkering, professed +to redress, without any danger to capital and profit, all sorts of +social grievances; in both cases men outside the working-class +movement, and looking rather to the 'educated' classes for support. +Whatever portion of the working class had become convinced of the +insufficiency of mere political revolutions, and had proclaimed the +necessity of a total social change, that portion then called itself +communist. It was a crude, rough-hewn, purely instinctive sort of +communism; still it touched the cardinal point and was powerful enough +amongst the working class to produce the utopian communism in France +of Cabet, and in Germany of Weitling. This Socialism was, in 1847, a +middle-class movement; communism a working-class movement. Socialism +was, on the Continent at least, 'respectable'; communism was the very +opposite." + +It would be interesting to know how Engels would define Socialism +to-day. + +Second, it is important for us to know that the "Manifesto" recognized +the necessity of using the government as the instrument for achieving +the new society. "The immediate aim of the communists," it recites, +"is the conquest of political power by the proletariat"; to "labor +everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of +all countries." + +The governmental organization of the communists' state was to be +democratic. + +Thirdly, a provisional program of such a politico-socio-democratic +party is suggested in the "Manifesto." Its principal points are: + + "1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents + of land to public purposes. + + "2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. + + "3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. + + "4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. + + "5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means + of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. + + "6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport + in the hands of the state. + + "7. Extension of factories and the instruments of production + owned by the state: the bringing into cultivation of waste + lands, and the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance + with a common plan. + + "8. Equal liability of all labor. Establishment of industrial + armies, especially for agriculture. + + "9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; + gradual abolition between town and country, by a more equable + distribution of population over the country. + + "10. Free education for all children in public schools, + combination of education with industrial production," _etc._ + +Though the "Manifesto" was written in 1848, neither Marx, who lived +until 1882, nor Engels, who died in 1895, made any alteration in it, +on the ground that it had become "a historical document which we have +no longer any right to alter."[3] + +"However much the state of things may have altered during the last +twenty-five years, the general principles laid down in this manifesto +are, on the whole, as correct to-day as ever."[4] + +On one very important point, however, they could not refrain from +further comment. The revolutionary language in the original draft +would be radically mollified if written at the time of the joint +preface in 1872. The example of the Paris Commune was disheartening. +It demonstrated that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the +ready-made state machinery and wield it for its own purposes."[5] + +These, then, were the principles of the international movement of +which the "Manifesto" was the supreme expression. When labor had +revived from its first stupor, after the hard blows it received in the +years of revolution, the "Manifesto" was translated into several +Continental languages. With the revival of internationalism, it has +been translated into every language of the industrial world, and I am +told a Japanese and a Turkish edition have been issued. This is a +gauge of the spread of international Socialism. + +In 1862 a number of French workingmen, visiting the International +Exhibition in London, were entertained by the Socialist exiles, and +the question of reviving an international movement was discussed. Two +years later, in St. Martin's Hall, London, workingmen from various +countries organized a meeting and selected Mazzini, the Italian +patriot, to draw up a constitution. But the South European view of +class war was out of accord with the German and French views, and +Mazzini's proposals were rejected. Marx then undertook the writing of +the address. He succeeded remarkably well in avoiding the giving of +offense to the four different elements present, namely, the trade +unionists of England, who, being Englishmen, were averse to +revolutions; the followers of Proudhon in France, who were then +establishing free co-operative societies; the followers of Lassalle in +Germany and Louis Blanc in France, who glorified state aid in +co-operation; and the less easily satisfied contingent of Mazzini from +Spain and Italy. + +Marx's diplomacy and his international vocabulary stood him in good +stead. He began the "Address" by a clever rhetorical parallelism. +Gladstone, whose splendor then filled the political heavens, had just +delivered a great speech in which he had gloried in the wonderful +increase in Britain's trade and wealth. Marx contrasted this growth in +riches with the misery and poverty and wretchedness of the English +working classes. Gladstone's small army of rich bourgeois were +adroitly compared with Marx's large army of miserably poor. The growth +of wealth, he said, brought no amelioration to the needy. But in this +picture of gloom were two points of hope: first, the ten-hour working +day had been achieved through great struggles, and it showed what the +proletarian can do if he persists in fighting for his rights. Second, +Marx alluded to the co-operative achievements of France and Germany as +a proof that the laboring man could organize and carry on great +industries without the intervention of capitalists. With these two +elements of hope before them, the laborers should be of good cheer. +Marx admonished them that they had _numbers_ on their side, and all +that is necessary for complete victory is organization. In closing he +repeats the battle-cry of '48: "Workingmen of all lands, unite!" + +The "statutes," or by-laws[6] were also drawn by Marx. The preamble is +a second "Manifesto," in which he reiterates the necessity for +international co-operation among workingmen, and concludes: "The First +International Labor Congress declares that the International +Workingmen'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 fellowmen, 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 +duties without rights." + +The "Address" and the "Statutes" were adopted by the association at +its first congress, held in Geneva in September, 1866, where sixty +delegates represented the new movement. With the vicissitudes of +Marx's International we are not especially concerned here. It met +annually in various cities until 1873, when its last meeting was held +at Geneva. + +Marx had successfully avoided offense to the various elements in his +masterly address and preamble. But the organization contained +irreconcilable elements more or less jealous of one another. The two +extremes were the Anarchists, led by the Russian Bakunin, and the +English labor unions. The Anarchists believed in overthrowing +everything, the English laborists abhorred violence. Between these two +extremes stood Marx's doctrine of evolutionary revolution, as +distasteful to the English as it was despised by the Anarchists. + +When the congress met at The Hague, in September, 1872, Marx was one +of the sixty-five delegates. He had hitherto held himself aloof from +the meetings. But here even his magnetic presence could not prevent +the breach with Bakunin.[7] There were stormy scenes. The Anarchists +were expelled, and the seat of the general council was transferred to +New York, where it could die an unobserved death. + +Before the final adjournment a meeting was held in Amsterdam. Here +Marx delivered a powerful speech characterized by all the arts of +expression of which he was master. He compared these humble "assizes +of labor" with the royal conferences of "kings and potentates" who in +centuries past had been wont to meet at The Hague "to discuss the +interests of their dynasties." He admitted that in England, the United +States, and maybe in Holland, "the workmen might attain their goal by +peaceful means. But in most European countries force must be the lever +of revolution, and to force they must appeal when the time comes." + +These were his last personal words to his International, the +crystallization of his lifelong endeavor to lead the workingmen's +cause. There was one more meeting at Geneva, in 1873; then it +perished. + +Bakunin's following, renamed the International Alliance of Social +Democracy, meanwhile went the way of all violent revolutionists. They +took part in the uprisings in Spain in 1873; the rebellion was +promptly suppressed, and the alliance came to an end. + +During its brief existence the International was the red bogey-man of +European courts. The most violent and bloodthirsty ambitions were +ascribed to it. Such conservative and careful newspapers as the London +_Times_ indulged in the most extreme editorials and news items about +the sinister organization that was soon to "bathe the thrones of +Europe in blood" and "despoil property of its rights" and "human +society of its blessings." + +In the light of history, these fears appear ridiculous. The poor, +struggling organization that could summon scarcely one hundred members +to an international convention was powerful only in the possession of +an idea, the conviction of international solidarity. Its plotting +handful of Anarchists were a great hindrance to it, and the events of +the Commune put the stamp of veracity on the dire things the public +press had foretold of its ambitions. + +The programs discussed at the various meetings are of more importance +to us because they reveal whatever was practical in Marx's +organization. For the second meeting, 1866, the following outline was +sent out by the general council from London. It was unquestionably +prepared by Marx himself. + + "1. Organization of the International Association; its ends; its + means of action. + + "2. Workingmen's societies--their past, present, and future: + stoppage, strikes--means of remedying them; primary and + professional instruction. + + "3. Work of women and children in factories, from a moral and + sanitary point of view. + + "4. Reduction of working hours--its end, bearing, and moral + consequences; obligation of labor for all. + + "5. Association--its principle, its application; co-operation as + distinguished from association proper. + + "6. Relation of capital and labor; foreign competition; + commercial treaties. + + "7. Direct and indirect taxes. + + "8. International institutions--mutual credit, paper money, + weights, measures, coins, and language. + + "9. Necessity of abolishing the Russian influence in Europe by + the application of the principle of the right of the people to + govern themselves; and the reconstitution of Poland upon a + democratic and social basis. + + "10. Standing armies and their relation to production. + + "11. Religious ideas--their influence upon the social, + political, and intellectual movements. + + "12. Establishment of a society for mutual help; aid, moral and + material, given to the orphans of the association." + +This reads more like the agenda of a sophomore debating society than +the outline of work for an international congress of workingmen. The +discussions of the congress were desultory, quite impractical, and +often tinged with the factional spirit that ultimately ruptured the +association. At its first meeting the discussion of the eight-hour +day, the limitation of work for women and children, and the +establishing of better free schools took a modern turn. But the French +delegates brought forward a proposal to confine the membership in the +association to "hand workers." This was to get rid of Marx and Engels, +who were "brain workers." Socialism was evidently no more clearly +defined then than it is to-day. + +Occasionally practical subjects were debated, as the acquiring by the +state of all the means of transportation, of mines, forests, and +land. But their time was largely taken up in the discussion of general +principles, such as "Labor must have its full rights and entire +rewards." Or they resolved, as at Brussels in 1868, that producers +could gain control of machines and factories only through an +indefinite extension of co-operative societies and a system of mutual +credit; or, as at Basle the following year, that society had a right +to abolish private property in land. + +It is apparent to any one who reads the reports of their meetings that +very little practical advance had been made since the "Manifesto." +Socialism was still in the vapor of speculation. It had absorbed some +practical aspects from the English unions. These were at first +interested in the International, and at their national conference in +Sheffield, 1868, they even urged the local unions to join it. This +interest waned rapidly as they saw the Continental contingent veer +towards the Commune. + +However, the beginnings of a new movement, a "new Socialism," were +distinctly seen in the questions that the English element introduced: +the length of the working day, factory legislation, work of women and +children. These had been the subject of rigid governmental inquiry. +Marx was thoroughly familiar with these parliamentary findings. They +are no small part of the fortifications he built around his theory of +social development. But his German training inclined him to the +Continental, not the Anglo-Saxon, view of social progress and of +politics. + +The "Old International," then, was an attempt to spread Marxian +doctrines into all lands. As such an attempt it is noteworthy. The +Marxian _modus_, however, did not fit the world. Some Socialist +writers attribute its failure to the fact that the time was not ripe +for Marx's methods. The time will never be ripe for the Marxian +method. Marx tried to move everything from one center. He was a German +dogmatist. His council was a centralized autocracy, issuing mandates +like a general to an army. This is an impossible method of +international organization. The center must be supported by the +periphery, not the periphery by the center. There could be no +proletarian internationalism until there was an organized proletarian +nationalism. + +Its conceptions of its detailed duties were even cruder than its +machinery. The discussions were a blending of pedantic declamation and +phosphoric denunciation. Its programs were a mixture of English +trade-union realities and Continental vagaries. Such a movement had +neither wings nor legs. + +But it had an influence, nevertheless, and a very important one. It +was the means of bringing the new generation of leaders together, the +men who were to make Socialism a practical political force. Even the +fact that an international laboring men's society could meet was +important. It realized the central idea of Marx, that the labor +problem is international. That is the important point. Human +solidarity is not ethnic, but inter-ethnic. The "Old International" +was a faltering step toward that solidarity of humanity that has been +advanced so rapidly by inventions, by international arbitrations, by +treaties of commerce, and every other movement that makes +international hostilities every year more difficult. + +On Socialism the "International" had at least one beneficial effect. +It cleared its atmosphere of the anarchistic thunder clouds and +prepared the way for the present more practical movement. This was +largely due to the influence of the English trade unions. They were +not inclined toward philosophical dissertations like the Germans, nor +brilliant speculative vagaries like the French. Their stolid forms +were always on the earth. That Marx was anxious for their support is +apparent, and he drove them out of the movement by his indiscreet +utterances on the Parisian Commune of 1871. + +The "Old International" was a revival of the "Society of the Just," +tempered with English trade-unionism and tinged with Anarchism; it was +also a connecting link between the old and the new Socialism. + +The characteristics of the "New Socialism" cropped out at the first +meeting of the "New International," as it is called. In the first +place, the co-operative movement and the trade-union movement were +both amply represented at the Paris meetings, where the "New +International" was formed in 1889. This is indicative of the new +direction that the economic phase of Socialism has since taken. In the +second place, the Socialist congress split into two parties, +ostensibly over the question of the credentials of certain delegates, +but really over the question that divides Socialists in all countries +to-day: Shall Socialists co-operate with other political parties or +remain isolated? The Marxian dogmatists believed in isolation; the +opportunists or Possibilists believed in co-operating with other +parties. There were two congresses. The Marxian congress had 221 +French delegates and about 175 from other countries. The Possibilist +convention was composed of 91 foreign and 521 French delegates. It was +virtually a labor union convention, for over 225 unions were +represented. It is of great significance that these two meetings, +which divided on a question of political policy, discussed virtually +the same questions. They were against war, believed in collectivism, +demanded international labor legislation, the eight-hour day, the "day +of rest," etc.[8] + +Liebknecht, the distinguished German Socialist, who was one of the +chairmen of the Marxian convention, wrote in his preface to the German +edition of the _Proceedings_ that the Paris meeting began a new era, +"and indicated a break with the past." He told the delegates at the +convention, "the Old International lives in us to-day." There was a +continuity of proletarian ambition. In this respect the old movement +was resurrected in the new. But in every other respect the old +movement was dead. The abstractions about property and the rights of +individuals did not interest the new generation. They were more +concerned with wages than wage theories, and in the purchasing power +of their wages than in a theory of values. Even the spirit of the +class consciousness had changed. Marx's organization was the source of +the old; national consciousness was the source of the new. The +present internationalism is the result of nationalism. The delegates +at Paris were representatives; they represented nationalities. One of +the rules of the Marxian congress was that votes should be counted "by +the head," unless a delegation from any country should unanimously +demand "voting by nationalities." + +In the twenty years that had elapsed since Bakunin and his +conspiracy-loving following had disrupted the "Old International" by +their preaching of violence against nationalism, labor had increased +with the rapid strides of the increasing industry and commerce of the +world. This labor had organized itself into unions and all manner of +co-operative and protective associations. It had done this by natural +compulsion from within, not by a superimposed force from without. They +had thereby found their national homogeneity, and were ready to go +forward into a great and universal international homogeneity. + +The International Workingmen's Association now embraces the labor +movement of all the leading countries of the world. At the last +congress, held in Copenhagen, 1910, reports were received from the +following organizations: the British Labor Party, the Fabian Society, +the Social Democratic Federation of England, the Social Democratic +Party of Germany, the Social Democratic Labor Party of Austria, the +Commission of Trade Unions of Austria, the Social Democratic Labor +Party of Bohemia, the Social Democratic Party of Hungary, the +Socialist Party of France, the Socialist Party of Italy, the +Revolutionary Socialist Party of Russia, the Social Democratic Party +of Lettland, the Social Democratic Party of Finland, the Socialist +Party of Norway, the Social Democratic Labor Party of Sweden, the +Danish Social Democracy, the Social Democratic Party of Holland, the +Belgian Labor Party, the Socialist Labor Party of the United States, +the Social Democratic Party of Servia, and the Bulgarian Laborers' +Social Democratic Party.[9] These names indicate the threefold nature +of the modern movement. It is a labor movement, it is democratic, and +it is Socialistic. And the list of countries shows that it is +international. + +At Brussels a permanent International Socialist Bureau is maintained, +with a permanent secretary, who is in constant touch with the movement +in all countries. + +There are two directions in which this remarkable co-operation of +millions of workingmen of all lands may have a practical effect on +international affairs. + +In the first place, there is an effort being made to internationalize +labor unions. In Europe this has been done, to some extent, among the +transportation workers. They have an international committee of their +own, and keep each other informed of labor conditions and movements. +The great railway strike in England, in the summer of 1911, was +planned on the Continent, as well as in London and Liverpool, and +there was a sympathetic restlessness with the strikers in various +countries adjacent to the Channel that threatened to break out in +violence. During the post-office strike in France the strikers +attempted to persuade English and Belgian railway employees to refuse +to handle French mail. The Syndicalists confidently look forward to +the day when an international labor organization will be able to +compel a universal general strike. + +In the second place, the new international organization will have a +far-reaching influence on militarism. This is due to two causes: +first, the recruit himself is filled with the discontent of the +Socialist before he dons the uniform. In France, Germany, Belgium, +Austria, and other countries the anti-military virus has been long at +work. But more potent than this is the feeling of international +solidarity that binds these recruits into a brotherhood of labor who +are unwilling to fight each other for purposes that do not appeal to +the Socialist heart. Warfare, to the laboring man, is merely one phase +of the exploitation of the poor for the benefit of the capitalist, and +patriotism an excuse to hide the real purposes of war. At St. Quentin, +in 1911, the French Socialists denounced the war in Morocco as an +exploitation of human lives for the purposes of capitalistic gain. The +German Social Democracy has always opposed the colonial policy of the +chancellors on the same ground, and the Belgian Labor Party has been +the severest censor of the Belgian Congo campaigns. + +During the summer of 1911 the Morocco incident threatened a war +between France and Germany, with England involved, and the other great +powers more than interested. In August and September the situation +became so acute that England and Germany were popularly said to have +been "within two weeks of war." A profound sense of danger and an +intense restlessness possessed the people. During this period of +excitement the French Socialists held anti-war demonstrations. The +German Social Democrats met in their annual convention at Jena and +passed a resolution condemning the German Morocco policy, and Herr +Bebel made a notable speech, detailing the horrors of war with grim +exactness, and arraigning a civilization that would resort to the +"monstrous miseries" of war for gaining a few acres of land. This +speech was quoted at length by the great European dailies, and made a +deep impression upon the people. In England the leaders of the Labor +Party admonished the government that, while they were patriots and +believed in national solidarity, the English workingman would never +cease to consider the German and the French workingman as a +fellow-laborer and brother. The International Socialist Bureau met in +Zurich to discuss the situation and to consider how the organizations +of labor might make their protests against war most effective. + +It is difficult to measure the influence of such an international +protest against the powers of governments and of armies. That the +protest was made, that it was sincere, rational and free from the +hyperbola of passion, is the significant fact. Forty years ago such +action on the part of labor would have been ridiculed. To-day it is +respected. + +Disarmament, when it comes, will be due to the influences exerted by +the recruit rather than to the benevolent impulses of governments and +commanders. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Introduction to _Klassenkaempfe_, p. 13. + +[2] See ENGELS, Introduction to MARX'S _Enthuellungen ueber den +Kommunisten Process zu Koeln_. + +[3] Joint-preface of edition of 1872. + +[4] _Ibid._ + +[5] See "Address of the General Council of the Workingmen's +Association on the Civil War in France." + +[6] Many of the original documents, and extensive excerpts from others +are given in DR. EUGEN JAeGER'S _Der Moderne Socialismus_, Berlin, +1873, and in DR. R. MEYER'S _Der Emancipations-Kampf des Vierten +Standes_, 2nd edition, Vol. I, Berlin, 1882. Both of these works give +a fairly detailed account of the development of the International and +of its annual meetings. + +[7] See _Ein Complot gegen die International Arbeiter Association_, a +compilation of documents and descriptions of Bakunin's organization. +The work was first issued in French and translated into German by S. +Koksky. + +[8] The Possibilists declared for an eight-hour day; a day of rest +each week; abolition of night work; abolition of work for women and +children; special protection for children 14-18 years of age; workshop +inspectors elected by the workmen; equal wages for foreign and +domestic labor; a fixed minimum wage; compulsory education; repeal of +the laws against the International. + +The Marxian program included: an eight-hour day; children under 14 +years forbidden to work, and work confined to six hours a day for +youth 14-18 years of age, except in certain cases; prohibition of work +for women dangerous to their health; 36 hours of continuous rest each +week; abolition of "payment in kind"; abolition of employment bureaus; +inspectors of workshops to be selected by workmen; equal pay for both +sexes; absolute liberty of association. + +For the first meeting of the "New International," see WEIL, _Histoire +Internationale de France_, pp. 262 et seq. + +[9] See Appendix, p. 340. for list of countries that maintain +Socialist organizations and the political strength of same. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF FRANCE + + +I + +The Commune abruptly put an end to Socialism in France. The caldron +boiled over and put out the fire. Thiers, in his last official message +as president, claimed that Socialism, living and thriving in Germany, +was absolutely dead in France. It was, however, to be revived in a +newer and more vital form. + +The exiled communards, in England and elsewhere, came in contact with +Marxianism, and in 1880, when a general amnesty was declared, they +brought to Paris a new and virile propaganda. The leader of the new +Marxian movement was Jules Guesde, a tireless zealot, burning with the +fire that kindles enthusiasm. + +The "affaire Boulanger" absorbed attention at this time, and Guesde, +in his newspapers, _La Revolution Francaise_ and _Egalite_, supported +the Republic. But he was also insisting upon "Le minimum d'etat et la +maximum de liberte" (a minimum of government and a maximum of +liberty). This may be taken as the political maxim of the Socialists +at that time, although it leads them into the embarrassing anomaly of +using their own slave as their master. + +Meantime a political labor party had arisen. In Paris, in 1878, a +workingman became a candidate for the municipal council, and he headed +his program with the words "_Parti Ouvrier_"--Labor Party. This is +the first time the words were used with a political significance.[1] +It was a small beginning, his votes were few, and the newspaper that +espoused the workingman's cause, _Le Proletaire_, was constantly on +the verge of bankruptcy for want of proletarian support. In other +cities the political labor movement began, and in 1879 a labor +conference was held in Marseilles. + +The two movements, labor and Socialist, drew together in 1880 at a +general conference of workingmen at Havre. Here there were three +groups which found it impossible to coalesce: the Anarchists, under +Blanqui, formed the "Parti Socialiste Revolutionnaire"--the +Revolutionary Socialist Party; the co-operativists, calling themselves +the Republican Socialist Alliance, included the opportunist element of +the Socialists; and the Guesdists, who were in the majority, organized +the "Parti Ouvrier Francais"--the French Labor Party--and adopted a +Marxian program. + +The Guesdists entered the campaign with characteristic zeal. They +polled only 15,000 votes in Paris and 25,000 in the Departments for +their municipal tickets, and 50,000 in the entire country for their +legislative ticket. + +From the first the Socialists in France have been rent by petty +factions. We will hastily review these constantly shifting groups +before proceeding to the larger inquiry. + +In 1882 the Guesdists split, and Brousse formed the "Federation des +Travailleurs Socialistes de France"--the Federation of Socialist +Workingmen of France. In 1885 Malon formed a group for the study of +the social problems, "Societe d'Economie Sociale"--Society of Social +Economics--which rapidly developed into the important group of +Independent Socialists--"Parti Socialiste Independent." The labor +movement was stimulated by the act of 1884, and in 1886 the +"Federation des Syndicats"--Federation of Labor Unions--was organized +at Lyons, and in 1887 the Paris Labor Exchange--"Bourse du +Travail"--was opened. + +In 1882 Allemane seceded from the Broussists to found a faction of his +own, the Revolutionary Socialist Labor Party of France--"Parti Ouvrier +Socialiste Revolutionnaire Francais." In 1893 the first confederation +of the labor exchanges (bourses) was held, and the first conspicuous +victory at the polls achieved. + +In 1899 an effort was made to unify the warring factions, and a +committee representing every shade of Socialistic faith was appointed. +It was called the General Committee--"Comite General Socialiste." +Within the year the Guesdists withdrew on account of the rigorous +quelling of the strike riots by the government at Chalons-sur-Saone. +In 1901 the Blanquists withdrew and, coalescing with the Guesdists, +formed the Socialist Party of France--"Parti Socialiste de France." +This movement was soon followed by the uniting of the Jauresites and +the Independents, who called themselves the French Socialist +Party--"Parti Socialiste Francais." + +After the expulsion of Millerand, the two parties united in 1905 at +Rouen. This unity was achieved at the suggestion of the International +Congress held at Amsterdam, 1904. The "United Party" is officially +known as the French Section of the International Workingmen's +Association--"Section Francaise de l'Internationale Ouvriere." + +The United Party, after its years of ridiculous factionalism, is the +most compact and disciplined group in the Chamber of Deputies, and +this in spite of the fact that the Guesdists and Jauresites have not +forgotten their ancient differences. The French people are not +amenable to discipline and party rigor as are the Germans and the +Anglo-Saxons. At the last election (1910) the United Party elected 76 +deputies in a chamber of 590 members. + +There are to-day two other groups that are more or less Socialistic +but are not in "the Party." The Independent Socialists, numbering +thirty-four members in the Chamber, are men who, either because of +their intellectualism or because of their political ambitions, have a +repugnance to hard and fast organization. This group includes a number +of college professors and journalists; also Briand, Viviani, and +Millerand, former ministers. They are not committed to any definite +political program, take a leading part in all social reform measures, +and are accused by the "united ones" of using the name Socialist +merely as a bait for votes. + +The other group is the Socialist-Radical Party, numbering about 250 +members in the Chamber. In most countries their radicalism would be +called Socialism. But in France they are only the connecting link +between Socialists and liberal Republicans.[2] + + +II + +The "social questions" were slow in entering parliament. In 1876 a +Bonapartist deputy, known for his charities, interpolated the +government, asking what inquiries were being made toward securing the +moral and material betterment of "the greatest number," and amidst the +cheers of his followers the Prime Minister replied that the +government's duty was comprehended in securing to the country +"liberty, security, and education." This was the old idea of the +functions of government. The new social movement had not yet gathered +momentum. + +With the development of the workingman's political party, interest and +sympathy for his problems suddenly increased. In 1880 the Republicans +adopted a resolution in favor of freedom of association. At this time +labor unions were illegal. In 1881 the government removed the +restrictions that had been placed on the press. In the following year +it extended the primary schools into every commune, and Gambetta did +everything in his power to promulgate what he termed "an alliance of +the proletariat and the bourgeois." Social science, he said, was the +solvent of social ills. The Socialists, however, believed that +politics, not "social science," was the solvent. + +It was not until 1884, while Waldeck-Rousseau was Minister of the +Interior, that labor was given the legal right to organize. +Immediately unions--called _syndicats_ by the French--sprang up +everywhere. Article 3 of the act declared that these unions had for +their exclusive object "the study and the promulgation of their +interests, economic, industrial, commercial, and agricultural." They +were not given the liberal legal powers that English and American +unions have. + +The social movement now invaded French politics in full battle array. +A government commission was intrusted with the study of the +co-operative movement. In 1885 several deputies, calling themselves +Socialists, began to interpellate the ministry on the labor questions. +The government brought in two proposals, one pertaining to communal +and industrial organizations, the other to the arbitration of +industrial disputes. Both were tabled. + +In 1887 a man appeared in the Chamber ready to debate the social +questions with the keenest and the ablest. This was Jean Jaures, a +professor of philosophy, whose profound knowledge and superb oratory +immediately commanded attention. He was joined by another new deputy, +M. Millerand, scarcely less proficient in debate, and even more +extreme in his convictions. Both were considered members of the +radical party. But they soon formed the nucleus of a new group, the +Independent Socialists, that grew rapidly in influence and power. + +The social question was forced on the public from yet another +direction. The Anarchists, who had been expelled from the Havre +conference, remained passive until the organization of trade unions. +They then began to promulgate the doctrine of the general strike. The +unionists began not only to compel their employers to accede to their +demands, but to coerce workingmen to join the unions. It was during +this agitation that the government established an elaborate system of +labor exchanges--"Bourse du Travail." + +From the labor unions the doctrine of the general strike was +insinuated into Socialist circles. In 1890 it was proposed as a +practical measure for enforcing the demand for an eight-hour day among +the miners. In 1892 the Departmental Congress of Workingmen at Tours +passed a resolution favoring the general strike, and it was discussed +a few days later in a general convention of the unions, at the +suggestion of Aristide Briand, a Socialist who was destined to play an +important role in the development of the theory and practice of +general strikes. + +The government could no longer dodge the social question. Millerand +announced his conversion to Socialism and became the leader of a small +parliamentary coterie who pressed the issue daily. In a signed +statement to the unions they said: "The Republic has given the ballot +into your hand, now give the Republic your instructions."[3] The +parliamentary _entente_ of the liberal Socialists with the Radical +Left dates from this time. The campaign spread with surprising fervor. +Labor unions and parliamentary Socialists joined their forces. In 1893 +they elected forty Socialists to the Chamber of Deputies. Among them +were Jaures, who now espoused the cause of the Socialist opportunists; +Millerand, conspicuous as leader of the independent group; Guesde, the +vehement Marxian; and Vaillant, a communard and Socialist of the older +type. + +Now began the actual parliamentary Socialism in France. Jaures, in +introducing the group--they were scarcely a party--to the Chamber, +affirmed their allegiance to the Republic and their devotion to the +cause of humanity. The misery of the people had awakened, he said, +after right of association had been granted. Labor had, through +strikes, gained certain minor improvements. It was now prepared to +conquer public authority. But so much of their time was spent in +quarreling with each other, and debating whether they should vote with +the Radicals, that very little substantial work was accomplished by +the Socialists. + +Finally, encouraged by their unusual success in the municipal +elections of 1896, the leaders of the various factions met at +Saint-Mande to celebrate their victory. They were tiring of their +quarrels and were ready to unite. At least they agreed that each group +could name its own candidate for the first ballot; on the second +ballot they should all support the Socialist who polled the most votes +on the first ballot.[4] + +But who is a Socialist? Here for the first time a political definition +was attempted. Millerand, a Parisian lawyer who, we have seen, made +his political debut with Jaures, as a member of the Radical Left, +attempted the answer. It was made in the presence of Guesde, Vaillant, +and Jaures, and many local leaders from various parts of France. So, +for the moment and for the occasion of rejoicing, there was a united +Socialism. And it gave assent, with varying enthusiasm, to the general +definition and program outlined by Millerand. He defined the ground to +be covered as follows: + +"Is not the Socialistic idea completely summed up in the earnest +desire to secure for every being in the bosom of society the +unimpaired development of his personality? That implies two necessary +conditions of which one is a factor of the other: first, individual +appropriation of things necessary for the security and development of +the individual, i.e., property; secondly, liberty, which is only a +sounding and hollow word if it is not based on and safeguarded by +property." + +He then accepted _in toto_ the Marxian theory that capitalistic +society bears within itself the enginery of its own doom. "Men do not +and will not set up collectivism; it is setting itself up daily; it +is, if I may be allowed the phrase, being secreted by the capitalistic +regime. Here I seem to have my finger on the characteristic feature of +the Socialist program. In my view, whoever does not admit the +necessary and progressive replacement of capitalistic property by +social property is not a Socialist." + +Millerand was not satisfied with merely including banking, railroads, +and mining in the list of "socialized" property. He believed that as +industries become "ripe" they should be taken over by the state, and +cites sugar refining as an example of a monopoly that is +"incontestably ripe." Millerand also laid great stress on municipal +activities, and hastened to guarantee to the small property owner his +modest possessions. All this taking over by the state was to be done +gradually. "No Socialist ever dreamed of transforming the capitalistic +regime instantaneously by magic wand." The method of this gradual +absorption by the state must be constitutional. "We appeal only to +universal suffrage. To realize the immediate reforms capable of +relieving the lot of the working class, and thus fitting it to win its +own freedom, and to begin, as conditioned by the nature of things, the +socialization of the means of production, it is necessary and +sufficient for the Socialist party to endeavor to capture the +government through universal suffrage."[5] + +This mild formulary, which places the "socialized society" far into +the dim future, was accepted as long as it was rhetorical. But when +Millerand himself became a member of the cabinet in the +Waldeck-Rousseau coalition, and began to translate his words into +deeds, a rupture followed. + +In the meantime occurred the Dreyfus affair, which shifted all the +political forces of the Republic. At first the Guesdists remained +indifferent, while Jaures, with great energy, threw himself into the +contest in behalf of Dreyfus. But when the affair took an +anti-Republican turn and democracy was threatened, then all the +Socialists united, with no lack of energy and zeal, in the defense of +the Republic. On June 13, 1898, Millerand was spokesman in the Chamber +of Deputies for the Socialist group, which now held the balance of +power. With threats of violence against the Republic in the air, he +assured the deputies that his comrades were united for "the honor, the +splendor, and the safety of the Fatherland" (l'honneur, la grandeur, +et la securite de la Patrie). And this was part of the price of their +adhesion: old-age pensions, a fixed eight-hour day, factory +legislation protecting the life and health of the workman, military +service reduced to two years, and an income tax. The Radical Left +adopted this "minimum program" of the Socialists, and the famous +"Bloc" was formed. Jaures was made vice-president of the Chamber and +soon proved himself master of the coalition. Now for the first time in +history the Socialists were in political power, and what occurred is +of the greatest interest to us. + + +III + +And now for the first time a Socialist becomes a cabinet member. In +1899 Waldeck-Rousseau appointed Millerand Minister of Commerce, to the +consternation of the Conservatives and the division of the Socialists. +Jaures congratulated his colleague on his courage in assuming +responsibility. But while the Independents were jubilant over the +elevation of one of their number, the Guesdists and Blanquists withdrew +from the "Bloc." They issued a manifesto setting forth their reasons. +They did not wish further alliances with a "pretended Socialist." They +were tired of "compromises and deviations," which for too long a time +had been forced on them as "a substitute for the class war, for +revolution, and the socialism of the militant proletariat."[6] + +To them the war of the classes forbade their entrance into a bourgeois +ministry; and the conquest of political power did not imply +collaboration with a government whose duty it was to defend property. +Jaures proposed to put the question up to the party congress, and in +1899 at Paris a bilateral compromise resolution was adopted. Guesde, +however, restless and dissatisfied, compelled the congress to vote +first upon the question, "Does the war of the classes permit the +entrance of a Socialist into a bourgeois government?" The answer was +818 "no," 634 "yes." Jaures' compromise was then adopted, 1,140 to +240.[7] + +The international congress held in Paris, September, 1900, adopted +Kautsky's resolution declaring that the acceptance of office by a +single Socialist in a bourgeois government "could not be deemed the +normal commencement of the conquest for political power, but only an +expedient called forth by transitory and exceptional conditions." + +At the Bordeaux congress, April, 1903, the whole time was given over +to this perplexing question. The congress was composed largely of +friends of Millerand and Jaures. By this time the Socialist minister +had had three years' experience in the cabinet. The Waldeck-Rousseau +premiership had given way to Combes, who was also dependent upon the +Socialists for his power. + +Millerand had especially offended the Socialists by voting against his +party on three separate occasions: first, on a resolution abolishing +state support for public worship; second, on a resolution to prosecute +certain anti-militarists for publishing a book that tended to destroy +military discipline; and, third, on a resolution asking the Minister +of Foreign Affairs to invite proposals for international disarmament. +He had further offended the Socialists by officially receiving the +Czar on his visit to Paris. + +The debate, then, was disciplinary rather than doctrinal. But it was +political discipline, evidence therefore that a party consciousness of +some sort had been achieved. This meeting is significant because it +tried to fix definite limits for Socialistic action and committed +Jaures to the narrowing, not to the expanding, policy of the party. + +M. Sarrante expressed the Millerand idea when he told the delegates +that they were to judge "an entire policy," the policy of "democratic +Socialism, which gains ground daily on the revolutionary Socialism, a +policy which Citizen Millerand did not start, which he has merely +developed and defined, and which forces itself upon us more and more +in our republican country." The test of Socialism, he said, was just +this "contact of theory with facts." + +Jaures found himself in logical difficulty when he endeavored to +reconcile both sides for the sake of party unity. He said that +Sarrante was wrong "when he thinks it enough to lay down the principle +of democracy in order to resolve, in a sort of automatic fashion, the +antagonisms of society.... The enthronement of political democracy and +universal suffrage by no means suppresses the profound antagonism of +classes.... Sarrante errs in positing democracy without noting that it +is modified, adulterated, thwarted by the antagonism of classes and +the economic preponderance of one class. Just as Guesde errs in +positing the class war apart from democracy." + +To Jaures the problem was to "penetrate" this democracy with the ideas +of Socialism until the "proletarian and Socialistic state has replaced +the oligarchic and bourgeois state." This can be brought about, he +said, by "a policy which consists in at once collaborating with all +democrats, yet vigorously distinguishing one's self from them." + +Jaures acknowledged the awkwardness of this policy, which required a +superhuman legerdemain never yet accomplished by any party in the +history of politics. + +Guesde's motion to oust Millerand from the party was lost. And a +compromise offered by Jaures censuring him for his votes, but +permitting him to remain in the party fold, was adopted by 109 to 89 +votes, fifteen delegates abstaining from voting. This was a very close +margin, and in spite of Millerand's promise that he would in the +future be more careful of his party allegiance he was expelled the +following year from the Federation of the Seine. The stumbling-block +was removed.[8] + +More important than the party discipline is the question of the +economic measures attempted by Millerand. In general he followed the +outlines laid down in his Saint-Mande program.[9] His experience +carried him farther away from the Guesdists every year until he +repudiated the class war and adhered to social solidarity; substituted +the method by evolution for the method by revolution, still espoused +by Guesde; and placed the national interests upon as high a plane of +duty as the international and the personal. His program of labor +legislation was comprehensive, and he succeeded in getting some of it +passed into law. These were his leading proposals: + +1. Regulating the hours of labor and creating a normal working day of +ten hours. He began the reduction at eleven hours, reducing it to ten +and a half, and then to ten within three years. In the public works of +his own department he reduced the working day at once to eight hours. + +2. In public contracts he introduced clauses favorable to workingmen. +These clauses embraced the number of hours in a normal work day, the +minimum wage for every class of workmen, prohibition of piece-work, +guarantee of no work on Sunday, and the per cent. of foreign workmen +allowed on the job. He arranged that the workingmen should unite with +the employer in fixing the wages and the hours of labor before the +contract was signed. In these contracts, furthermore, the state +reserved the right to indemnify the workmen out of the funds due to +the contractor. + +3. An accident insurance law. + +4. The abolition of private employment agencies, with their many +abuses, and replacing them with communal labor bureaus free to all. +The voluntary federations of the trade unions were put on a similar +footing with the communal labor exchanges, and were encouraged to +co-operate with them. Millerand took great care to perfect the +organization of trade unions. He introduced amendments to the old law +of 1884, giving greater scope and elasticity to the unions, granting +them greater corporate powers, and making the dismissal of a workman +because he belonged to a union ground for a civil suit for damages. He +began a movement to secure the co-operation between the unions and the +state workshop inspectors. There had been a great deal of abuse in the +operation of the inspection laws by the employers. An attempt was now +made to define strictly the rights and duties of the inspectors. + +5. His pet scheme was the establishing of labor councils (conseils du +travail). On these councils labor and employer were to have equal +representation. The duty of the councils embraced the adjudication of +all disputes arising between employer and employee, suggesting +improvements, and keeping vigilance over all local labor conditions. +In 1891 a supreme labor council had been established. To this +Millerand added lay and official members and greatly increased its +efficiency. He tried to make it a central vigilance bureau, keeping in +close touch with local conditions all over the land. + +6. He elaborated a plan for regulating industrial disputes. This was +to be effected by a permanent organization in each establishment +employing more than fifty men, a sort of committee of grievance to +which all matters of dispute might be referred. In case of failure to +settle their difficulties an appeal to the local labor council was +provided. By this democratic representative machinery Millerand hoped +to solve the labor problem. + +It will be seen that Millerand's plan was an attempt, by law, to +project the working class, not into politics but into the capitalist +class. He would do this by compelling the employer to share the +responsibility of ownership with his employees. This would mark the +beginning of a revolution very different from the revolution +ordinarily preached by propagandists, because this revolution would +substitute class peace in place of our present incessant economic +class war. + +The Socialists made it plain that Millerand's procedure was not +Socialism. When Millerand was first asked to take a cabinet portfolio +his friend Jaures told him to accept. When he had perfected his +practical procedure, and the bulk of the proletarians evinced their +disappointment and chagrin that the elevation of a Socialist had not +brought utopia, Jaures gradually slipped away from his former alliance +and finally left the reformist group. + +Jaures also had his day of power. The Dreyfus affair presented the +issue in tangible form--the old traditions, religious, political, +social, against the new ideas of society, property, and government. It +was the heroic period of modern French Socialism. Red and black flags +were borne by enthusiastic multitudes through the streets of Paris. +The "_Universite Populaire_" was inaugurated by students for the +purpose of instructing the common people in the issues that were at +stake. The flame of eager anticipation spread over the Republic. + +As master of the "Bloc" in the Chamber, Jaures became the first real +head in the first French democracy. Two great reforms were undertaken: +the disestablishment of the Church, carrying with it the +secularization of education and the reorganization of the army. The +old Royalist families had continued to send their sons into the army +and navy. Many of the officers were suspected of royalist sympathies. +An elaborate system of espionage was instituted, and the suspects +weeded out. The last vestige of the old monarchy has now disappeared +from French officialdom. France has a bourgeois army, a bourgeois +school system, a bourgeois bureaucracy, thanks to the power of the +proletarian Socialists led by Jaures in the days of the Republic's +danger. + +Jaures remained orthodox; Millerand became heretic. The Millerand +episode left a deep impression on the public mind. The first Socialist +minister shaped not only a program but an entire policy. In 1906, when +a new cabinet was formed, Millerand declined a portfolio, but two +other Socialists accepted cabinet honors; Viviani, a well-known +Parisian lawyer, held the newly created ministry of labor and social +prevision (prevoyance sociale), and Aristide Briand became Minister of +Public Instruction and Worship, and later Minister of Justice. + +The public regarded the elevation of two Socialists to the cabinet as +a matter of course. Millerand's activity had taken the fear out of +their hearts. Even the Marxian Socialists failed to notice the event. +They had written into their party by-laws that no Socialist could +accept office, so the new ministers, by their own acts, ceased to be +"Socialists." + +Clemenceau, the new Premier, ushered in the next period of social +adventure by a brilliant debate in the Chamber with Jaures in which +the philosophical basis of individualism was reviewed with great skill +and some of the social questions discussed.[10] + +Jaures claimed for the Socialists a dominant share in the great +victory won by the friends of the Republic during the Dreyfus turmoil, +and made much of the multitudes of workingmen to whom the Republic was +now under great obligation. These workingmen, the proletariat, were +the force now to be dealt with. "If you really wish society to evolve, +if you wish it really to be transformed, there is the force you must +deal with, and that you must neither repress nor rebuff." The +parliamentary experience of Socialism Jaures passed over lightly; it +added nothing new, he thought, to the theory or the arguments of the +Socialists. + +His opponent, however, in a single sentence laid bare the weakness of +the Socialist's logic: "The truth is that it is necessary to +distinguish between two different elements of the social organization, +between the man and the system." Clemenceau read the Socialists' +program upon which they had won their victory. It embraced: the +eight-hour day, giving state employees the right to form unions, +sickness and unemployment insurance; a progressive income tax; ballot +reform (scrutin de liste) and proportional representation, and +"restoration to the nation of the monopolies in which capital has its +strongest fortress." + +"What a terribly bourgeois program!" exclaimed Clemenceau. "M. Jaures, +after expounding his program, challenged me to produce my own. I had +very great difficulty in restraining the temptation to reply: 'You +know my program very well. You have it in your pocket. You stole it +from me.'" + +This debate was significant, not in what was said, but in the fact +that it was possible to enlist the Prime Minister, the cleverest of +French statesmen, and Jaures, the greatest of French orators, in a +discussion of Socialism from the tribune of the Chamber of Deputies. +The whole country listened. During this brilliant tilt Clemenceau +taunted Jaures that his Socialism was impractical, a dream. "You are a +visionary, I am a realist; you have dreams, I have facts." Jaures +replied with great fervor that he would prove to the people of France +that Socialism is not impracticable and that within a year he would +produce a plan for the new social order. The "Unified" Socialist +Party, built up largely on Jaures' abandonment of his former colleague +and his earlier liberal convictions, may be considered a part of the +fulfilment of this promise. The other part, the plans and +specifications for the new society, is not yet before the world. Its +introduction, properly its prelude, is the volume published by Jaures +in 1911, _L'Armee Nouvelle_, containing suggestions for reorganizing +the state defense along lines of voluntary militia and cadets.[11] + + +IV + +Clemenceau's regime was destined to test the Socialist policy in a new +direction. The law of 1884 gave state employees the right to form +associations, but not to federate or organize _syndicats_. A great +many organizations were formed, especially among the postal employees +and teachers. They were mutual benefit societies, "friendly" +associations, and the government recognized them to the extent of +discussing their grievances and questions of mutual interest with +them. + +Among the workmen in the navy yards and the national match, tobacco, +and porcelain works similar organizations existed. The Syndicalists +would not let the matter rest there. They demanded that these +organizations become members of the C.G.T. (General Confederation of +Workingmen). The government objected because that would give the men +the right to strike, a dangerous anomaly giving to the state's +servants the right to make government nugatory. This extreme doctrine +found ready advocates in the Chamber among the Socialists. + +In March, 1909, the post-office clerks and telegraph operators went +out on strike. The government promptly discharged thirty-eight of the +ringleaders and arrested eight of the strikers in Paris on the charge +of resisting the police. In the course of a few days over 800 out of +15,000 employees were discharged. Soldiers were introduced into the +service, and with the help of local chambers of commerce and other +civic bodies the postal service was renewed. The strikers were then +willing to make terms. They stipulated that the dismissed employees be +reinstated and that M. Simyan, the Under-Secretary of Posts and +Telegraphs, be dismissed. The first request was conceded, the second +was denied. The ostensible cause of the strike had been the attitude +of the under-secretary; the men asserted that he was arbitrary and had +imposed petty political exactions upon them. The government refused to +allow the men to dictate its affairs, the under-secretary remained, +and the men went back to work. + +The Socialists censured the government for not being considerate with +the men, and placed the entire blame upon the ministry for refusing +the national employees a right to organize as other workmen. To this +Simyan replied: "We are in the presence of an organized revolutionary +agitation ... this is blackmail by strike." The Minister of Public +Works said: "Over our heads these officials have revolted against you +and against the entire nation. These are serious hours when the +government needs perfect facilities of communication with its +ambassadors and consuls [the Balkan question was in the pot], and in +such hours a strike is an attack upon the national sovereignty. In +these circumstances I cannot re-enter into negotiations with the +general postal association. If I did so that would mean +abdication."[12] The Socialist deputies voted against the government's +resolution "not to tolerate strikes of functionaries." + +The general strike committee was not discharged when the men returned +to work. When it became evident that the government did not intend to +ask the under-secretary for his resignation the post-office employees +organized a trade union, unauthorized by law. The government refused +to meet representatives of this union, on the ground that state +employees had organized for one purpose only, namely, to have the +right to strike, and the government would not concede that right. + +On May 12 a second general post-office strike was called. The +government immediately dismissed over two hundred of the strikers. The +Socialists in the Chamber began a demonstration against the +government. One of their number started the "Internationale," the +Socialist war-song. After the first blush of indignation had passed, +the whole Chamber sprang to its feet, there were shouts of protest, a +Republican started the Marseillaise, and the two revolutionary hymns, +bourgeois and proletarian, were blended for the first time in a +parliamentary chamber. + +Now the general confederation of labor (C.G.T.) took charge of the +strike, and soon plots began to be carried out in various parts of the +country. There were indications of violence everywhere. The general +committee of the C.G.T. declared a general strike. The situation +threatened to become serious, but the soldiers distributed over the +affected territory had a tranquilizing effect. Men in other trades +were reluctant to follow the orders of the committee. A few electric +workers succeeded in cutting some wires in Paris, leaving the city in +darkness a few hours. There were desultory acts of _sabotage_, but +there was more terror than enthusiasm, and in two days the general +strike was over.[13] + +Here was an attempt to place the 800,000 French state employees into +the revolutionary current of the C.G.T. The real question at issue was +this: Is striking an act of mutiny? Barthou, a member of the ministry, +said in the Chamber of Deputies that "the more solemnly you denounce +the strike as a crime against the state, the greater the victory of +the Syndicalists." The Syndicalist journal, _Le Voix du Peuple_, the +day after the first strike was settled proclaimed "the victory which +our comrades of the postal proletariat have won over their employer +the state." This, they said, showed that the state conceded the main +contention of Syndicalism--that it is not different from a private +employer. And the Syndicalists gloried in the fact that the +government, instead of treating the strikers as mutineers, parleyed +with them and reinstated them. + +Clemenceau brought in a bill designed to relieve the situation by +fixing the status of the state employees. The men were to be given the +right of association for "professional" purposes only,--i.e., for +improving their efficiency,--but were absolutely prohibited from +striking and from joining other unions. A comprehensive civil-service +reform was embodied in the bill, aimed to prevent the men from +becoming victims of political abuse. + +Before the bill could be thoroughly considered the Clemenceau ministry +fell and a new Prime Minister was called to the helm. This was none +other than Aristide Briand, the first Socialist Prime Minister in +European history. His former comrades had long before this disowned +him, and he was soon to participate in events that would forever +alienate them. He had been a furious Socialist, an anti-militarist, +and defender of the general strike. In the Socialist congress at +Paris, 1899, he said: "The general strike has the seductive advantage +that it is nothing but the practice of an intangible right. It is a +revolution which arises within the law. The workingman refuses to +carry the yoke of misery any farther and begins the revolution in the +field of his legal rights. The illegality must begin with the +capitalist class, if it allows itself to be provoked into destroying a +right which they themselves have professed to be holy." At the same +meeting he expressed himself on the soldiery as follows: "If the +command to fire is given, if the officers are stubborn enough to try +to force the soldiers against their will, then the guns might be +fired, but perhaps not in the direction the officers thought." Briand +repeated these sentiments at the Amsterdam congress in 1903. + +This was the man whom destiny had chosen to lead the French government +against the organized revolt of government employees. + +On assuming the premiership he announced his program: + +1. Parliamentary and electoral reform, he said, were of the first +necessity, but he deemed it best to experiment with the new methods of +balloting locally before adopting a national system of reform. + +2. A graduated income tax. + +3. Fixing the legal status of state servants. + +4. Old-age pension. + +October 10, 1910, the men employed on the Northern Railway went out on +strike. Before they did so they had a conference with the Prime +Minister and the Minister of Public Works, Millerand, requesting that +they try to arrange a meeting between the men and the officials of the +railway. The ministry offered its services to the railway directors, +but they refused to meet the strikers, although Briand had volunteered +to preside at such a meeting. The Prime Minister told the men firmly +that the government could not tolerate a suspension of railway +service, that it would exert its authority to prevent it, and that it +relied on the common sense and patriotism of the men to prevent it. + +However, the strike spread to other lines, including the state +railway. The men's demands were three: 1. A minimum wage of five +francs a day. 2. A revision of the railway pension act making the +pensions retroactive. 3. A weekly day of rest--the men had been +excluded from the "rest day" act when it was passed. + +Briand at once characterized the strike as political in motive and +revolutionary in character. In his mind the strike ceased to be merely +a question of the right to strike, but was a criminal outbreak, an act +of rebellion planned by a few revolutionary leaders and submitted to +by the rank and file without their even voting on the question. He was +greatly incensed at the sudden calling out of the men after the +government had received their representatives, and especially since +the railway companies had granted their request for a minimum wage and +had taken under advisement the other demands of the men. + +Five of the ringleaders were promptly arrested under dramatic +circumstances. They were attending a meeting in the office of +_L'Humanite_,[14] attended by Jaures and Vaillant and other leaders of +the party. They were arrested under color of Sections 17 and 18 of the +law of 1845 dealing with railway traffic.[15] + +This law proved a powerful factor in checking the strike. Arrests were +made far and near. The energetic Prime Minister did not wait for acts +of violence; he anticipated them. Briand called out the reserves +(militia), and nearly all of the strikers were compelled to put on the +uniform. If they refused they were guilty of a serious offense; if +they obeyed they could no longer strike. + +The railways were run as in times of war, under military rigor. In +spite of these precautions acts of violence occurred, and _sabotage_ +was reported from various railway centers.[16] + +In one week the soldiery, under the determined minister, had done its +work. The strike was over. The government refused to reinstate about +2,000 men employed on the state railway. + +The strike committee issued a manifesto excusing the failure of the +strike, assuming the full responsibility for calling it, and affirming +that the government had "lowered itself to the level of the most +barbarous employer." + +The strike was hastily conceived, never had the sympathy of the +public, and the destruction of property was deplored even by the labor +unions, which, when it was all over, passed resolutions condemning +_sabotage_. The leaders of the Syndicalists, the plotters of the +strike, no doubt believed that the time was opportune. The Prime +Minister and two of his cabinet, Viviani and Millerand, were +Socialists, and a third member, Barthou, was a Radical who had as a +private member of the Chamber, a short time before his appointment to +the cabinet, vigorously defended the railway men's "right to strike." +But official responsibility had its usual effect.[17] + +Now began a series of dramatic events in the Chamber. The united +Socialists maintained that the men had a legal right to strike and +that the government had denied to French citizens their legal +privileges. Briand replied (October 25) that the strike had nothing to +do with the labor problem. The government, had been confronted with +"an enterprise designed to ruin the country, an anarchistic movement +with civil war for its aim, and violence and organized destruction for +its method"; and he had treated it as a rebellion, not as a strike. +The government, he said, had evidence of a well-laid plot for +_sabotage_; and the Syndicalist idea of liberty he characterized as a +"hideous figure of license." + +Millerand (October 27) characterized the strike as a "criminal +enterprise," and the _saboteurs_ as "criminals" guilty of "a +revolutionary mobilization with a political object." For the +Socialists Bouveri, a miner, replied. He defended bomb-throwing and +_sabotage_; asked the Minister of War if, in case of invasion by a +foreign foe, he would not blow up the bridges; and said the strikers +were engaged in a social war and had the same excuse for destroying +property. + +The climax of the debate came October 29, when Briand, turning to the +Socialists, said: "I am going to tell you something that will make you +jump (que vous faire bondir). If the government had not found in the +law that which enabled it to remain master of the frontiers of France +and master of its railways, which are the indispensable instruments of +the national defense; if, in a word, the government had found it +necessary to resort to illegality, it would have done so." + +No words can describe the disorder of the scene that followed this +challenge. Cries of "Dictator!" "Resign!" were mingled with catcalls +and hisses. Finally Jaures was heard in bitter rebuke of his former +comrade. Viviani answered Jaures; they had fought together the battles +of the workingman and would do so still "if Socialism had not adopted +the methods of _sabotage_, of anti-patriotism, and of anarchy." + +A few weeks later Briand and his cabinet resigned, although sustained +by a majority of the Chamber. But President Fallieres immediately +requested the dauntless Prime Minister to form a new cabinet. In his +new program he included measures that would greatly strengthen the +arms of the government in times of strikes, punishing _sabotage_ by +heavy fines and penalties, penalizing the public railway servant for +striking, and contemplating an elaborate system of conciliation boards +patterned after Millerand's plan. + +These rigorous suggestions increased the flame of hatred against him, +and his life was threatened. Nothing daunted, he proceeded in his +warfare against the C.G.T., which he denounced as a handful of +plotters exercising a wicked tyranny over Socialists and workingmen. +Finally, February 27, 1911, he resigned, refusing to hold office by +the sufferance of the reactionary Right. The Socialists voted with +their enemies to dethrone their first Premier, whom they considered a +traitor to the course.[18] + +So ended one of the most significant episodes of modern political +history. Every government, especially every democratic government, +will within the next few decades be compelled to meet the railway +problem and the question of the relation of the government to its +state servants. + +Two important details in the Briand affair are of especial interest. + +First, the Prime Minister's attempt to project the authority of the +state into the contract relations of the railway employees and the +companies. Instead of hostility, Briand's plan might well have +deserved the support of the Socialists. For he was expanding the +functions of the state, was enlisting the power of society in behalf +of a contract that is of universal interest. + +Secondly, Briand's bill making it unlawful for a railway servant to +strike was quite as revolutionary as the C.G.T.'s contention that the +state had no right to interfere. Here, too, Briand was the Socialist +and the Socialists were the individualists; the one recognized the +paramount interests of society, the other saw only the interests of +the individual worker. Put to this test, French Socialism failed as +signally in theory as the violence, _sabotage_, and insubordination of +the C.G.T. failed in practice.[19] + + +V + +Who were these revolutionary labor leaders, this small handful of +plotters to whom Briand constantly alluded?[20] In order to understand +the Socialist movement in any country, both politically and +industrially, it is necessary to understand the organization of labor. +Socialism began as a class movement, and in every country it is +endeavoring to capture the labor organizations.[21] + +In no two countries are the relations quite the same. In the United +States the unions have traditionally kept out of politics altogether. +In Great Britain they refused to be busied with politics until a few +years ago, when the Labor Party was organized. Since then a number of +union men have identified themselves rather loosely with Socialism. In +Germany there is the closest co-operation between the party and the +unions, but not any organic unity. In Belgium the political and +economic organizations are virtually merged. + +In France the most interesting development has taken place. From the +Revolution until 1864 no labor organizations were allowed. The +National Assembly abolished all the trade guilds and corporations. The +_Loi le Chappelier_ forbade unions of workers and of masters, and the +_Code Napoleon_ imposed a penalty of imprisonment on those engaging in +unlawful combinations. In 1864 the criminal laws were revised, and +unions of twenty members were allowed. The law of 1884 left the way +untrammeled for their development.[22] + +Within a few years unions were formed everywhere.[23] In 1886 the +Guesdists organized the National Federation of Trade Unions, a +Socialist body of workers subordinated to the Workingman's Party. Soon +thereafter the Municipal Socialists, the Broussists, founded the Paris +Labor Exchange, built a large clubhouse for if, and succeeded in +getting an appropriation of 20,000 francs a year from the city for +its maintenance. Within ten years about fifty of these exchanges were +formed in as many cities, and about seventy per cent. of the union +members belonged to them. The object of these exchanges was +educational and benevolent. But they were soon made the hotbeds of +Socialistic politics. In 1892 they were all federated in the +Federation of Labor Exchanges (Federation du Bourse du Travail). + +In 1895 Guesde's political adjunct, the National Federation of Trade +Unions, became extinct. The Blanquists then organized a new +federation, the notorious General Confederation of Labor +(Confederation Generale du Travail), commonly called the C.G.T. These +two bodies were bitter rivals, after the French fashion, until, in +1902, they amalgamated, retaining the name C.G.T.[24] The organization +is dual, retaining the benevolent activities of the local exchanges +and the trade activities of the local unions. These activities are +federated into national councils. The union of these councils forms +the central governing body of C.G.T. The organization allows a great +deal of local autonomy, but the central control is none the less +effective. In 1907 the C.G.T. claimed 350,000 members, in 1911 it +reported 600,000. + +This body of workmen is known for its violence. Within its ranks has +spread the doctrine known as revolutionary Syndicalism, a resurrection +of the spirit of Proudhonism in the body of labor unionism. Briefly +stated, it is class war in its most violent form without the aid of +parliaments and politics; with the enginery of the general strike, and +the spirit of universal upheaval and anarchy. It is the most effective +outbreak of Anarchism since the days of Bakunin. + +The intellectual revival of the doctrine of violence may be dated from +the appearance of Georges Sorel's book, _The Socialist Future of Trade +Unions_, in 1897, and the culmination of the tide in his volume +_Reflections upon Violence_, in 1908. + +For a movement so young Syndicalism has had a peculiarly expansive +literature, written by professors and journalists of the bourgeois +class, who live on respectable streets, receive you in comfortable +drawing-rooms, and from their upholstered ease display a fine zeal for +the oppressed proletariat.[25] + +It is not easy to classify Syndicalism, for it refuses to be called +Anarchism, repudiates the leadership of Socialism, and scorns to be +merely trade-unionism. The following are its principal characteristics: + +1. It is disheartened with Socialism because, it says, Socialists have +lost their ideals in the race for political power. Law-making is +useless, because no laws can emancipate the workingmen. It therefore +despises governments and abjures parliaments. But its ideals are +Socialistic; it believes "in reorganizing society on a communistic +basis, so that, with a minimum of productive effort, the maximum of +well-being will be obtained."[26] + +2. But repudiating governments and parliaments, they say, does not +make them Anarchists. Syndicalists believe in local or communal +government. Their state is a glorified trade union whose activities +are confined to economic functions, their nation is a collection of +federated communal trade societies. When I went among them they were +especially solicitous that they should not be regarded as "mere +Anarchists." + +3. Syndicalism is not trade-unionism pure and simple, because its +method is violence and its ideal the industrial unit, not the trade or +craft unit. The weapon of Syndicalism is the general strike. A +circular issued by the executive committee in 1898 defined the general +strike as "the cessation of work, which would place the country in the +rigor of death, whose terrible and incalculable consequences would +force the government to capitulate at once. If it refused, the +proletariat, in revolt from one end of France to the other, would be +able to compel it." Sorel says that "revolutionary Syndicalism +nourishes in the masses the desire to strike, and it can thrive only +in places where great strikes, occupied with acts of violence, have +taken place."[27] The strike committee of the C.G.T. in 1899 +proclaimed the general strike as "the only practical method through +which the working class can fully liberate itself from the +capitalistic and governmental yoke." The general strike includes the +boycott, _sabotage_, and all kindred forms of violence.[28] + +4. Syndicalism revives the old revolutionary methods of conspiracy, of +a dominant minority swinging the masses into line; "a conscious +minority, which, through its example, sets the masses in motion and +drives them on."[29] There are plots, underground manoeuvers, and +sudden outbursts. An air of mystery pervades their spectacular +uprisings. In order to accomplish their purpose there must be a +solidarity of labor. But this unity is the result of the energy of the +"conscious few," not of the assertive many. + +5. Finally, Syndicalism proclaims that democracy is a "fraud" +perpetrated upon the workingmen by the property-owning bourgeois; +representative government and majority rule is to them merely a polite +form of tyranny, and patriotism a farce. Potaud says: "Patriotism can +only be explained by the fact that all patriots without distinction +own a part of the social property, and nothing is more absurd than a +patriot without a patrimony." + +"We workingmen will have none of these little fatherlands! Our country +is the international world!" cried Yvetot to the post-office strikers +in Paris. + +They regard the soldiers with enmity. At the national congress at +Amiens, 1906, they resolved that the "anti-military and anti-patriotic +propaganda should be promulgated with the greatest zeal and +audacity."[30] + +Syndicalism is the extreme pessimism of the laboring class. It reached +its height about 1907-1908. Portions of France were terrorized, more +by its extravagant language than by its overt acts. There was no limit +to their superlatives. "Rip up the bourgeois!" "Turn your rifles on +your officers!" "Cut buttonholes in the skins of the bourgeois!" were +familiar battle-cries. There was so much talk about putting vitriol +into coffee, ground glass into bread, pulling the fire-plug out of +engines, that finally language came to mean nothing. + +The "new commune" thought it was coming into reality with the +post-office and railway strikes. We have seen how these outbreaks were +met by a Radical government. Since then their ardor has cooled, and +their adjectives grown flabby. They are now devoting themselves to +organization. + +Anti-militarism does not mean merely opposition to standing armies. +All Socialists are opposed to the maintenance of armaments. +Anti-militarism is opposition to all force used by the state to assert +its sovereignty. This includes the police and constabulary as well as +the army, and courts and parliaments as well as the navy. Since +soldiers and policemen are servants of the state, and since the state +is the expression of nationalism, the anti-militarist concludes that +his supreme enemy is the nation, the master of the soldier. +Anti-militarism is the forerunner of anti-patriotism. + +In 1906 this doctrine was so rampant that, on May Day, an uprising was +feared in Paris. A prophet had arisen, proclaiming the most extreme +doctrines of anti-patriotism. This was Gustave Herve, a teacher of +history from Auxerre. He had spoken the suitable word, and became +famous overnight: "The French flag arose from dirt!"; and to the +peasantry he shouted, "Plant your country's flag in the barnyard +dung-heaps!" He came to Paris and started a daily paper, _La Guerre +Sociale_. Syndicalists and Socialists flocked to his standard, and +even Jaures was compelled to acknowledge his influence.[31] + +Herve has a simple remedy for militarism: "The way to stop war is to +refuse to fight." He exhorts his fellow-Socialists to join the army, +but fire on their commanders, not on their comrades. He was arrested +several times for these utterances and the overt acts that they +aroused. Some years ago a Parisian workingman was arrested for an +offense against public morals. He protested his innocence and, when +released, in revenge killed a policeman. He was promptly executed. +Herve used the occasion for an onslaught upon the government in his +paper. He said: "If the working class would display one-tenth of the +energy that this workman displayed, the social revolution would not be +long in coming." For his imprudence he was imprisoned for a term of +four years.[32] His influence is waning, but the words he and his +following have planted in the hearts of the conscripts may bear some +strange fruit.[33] + + +VI + +While the French Socialists have been prolific in the developing of +factions and theories, they have been slow at achieving practical +results. As early as 1887 they acquired considerable power in Paris. +They contented themselves with establishing a labor exchange and +extending a few municipal charities. + +The local program, as outlined at Lyons, included: the feeding of +school children; an eight-hour day and a fixed minimum wage for +municipal employees; the abolition of the "_octroi_"; sanitary +regulations for workshops and factories; abolition of private +employment bureaus; establishment of homes for the aged; maternity +hospitals; free medical attendance for the poor; free public baths; +sanitaria for children of workmen; free legal advice for workingmen; +pensions for municipal employees; and the publication of a municipal +bulletin giving record of all the votes cast by the councilors.[34] + +In 1892 a number of important cities were won by the Socialists, and +in September of that year the first convention of Socialist municipal +councilors was held at Saint-Ouen. The discussions were filled with +revolutionary phraseology. In a few years the ideas of violence were +discarded for more practical issues. In 1895, when the municipal +convention met at Paris, the time was largely given over to the +question of organizing the municipal public service, public hygiene, +etc. + +In Lille the Socialists began their administration of local affairs by +raising the budget from 740,000 francs in 1897 to 1,019,000 francs in +1899. Free industrial education was established for the working +people; a municipal theater was opened; school children were fed and +clothed; and an attempt was made to regulate the length of the working +day and fix a minimum wage for municipal employees. At Dijon the +feeding and clothing of school children was regulated by the amount of +wages earned by the parents. Free medical aid was provided, and a +drug-store was induced to sell medicines to the poor at reduced cost. +The local labor exchange was voted an appropriation from public funds. + +These illustrations show the general trend of municipal Socialism in +France. The results are not numerous. But the French Socialists +justify their meager practical results by pointing to the centralized +system of administration which enables the prefect and other +administrative officers to veto many of the acts of the municipal +councils. The first thing that the Socialists attempted to do in their +towns was the readjustment of the finances for the benefit of the +working classes. Their acts were vetoed on the ground that they were +_ultra vires_. The attempt to fix a minimum wage for municipal +employees met the same fate. Then the municipalities petitioned the +central government for greater financial autonomy. This was denied. In +Roubaix the opening of a municipal drug-store was disallowed by the +prefect on the ground that the corporations act does not grant that +power to municipalities. Municipal bakeries met the same fate. During +the last few years, however, the rigor of the central administration +has relaxed and the towns are allowed greater liberty in municipal +affairs. + +Under the circumstances it is perhaps little wonder that French +municipal Socialism is a poor housekeeper. You look in vain for the +high ideals of the Socialist evangelist. If you visit the towns where +Socialism abounds you will be told that the Socialists have spent more +money on the poor than their predecessors. You will find better +nurseries for the babies of the working mothers, meals and stockings +doled out to school children of the poor, here and there a physician +or a lawyer retained by the town to render free service to the working +people. On inquiry you will find that the soldiers are drawing +increased pensions, the widows and orphans of the workingmen are +especially provided for, and that bread is delivered to the needy at +the door so they need not go ask for it, need not be beggars. + +You are impressed that these proletarian town governments are trying +to destroy poverty. Their ideal is noble, but some of their efforts +are very crude. + +The French Socialists are not by any means a unit on the municipal +question. In 1911 it was the principal question discussed at their +national convention at Saint-Quentin. Professor Millhaud of the +University of Geneva, in a very clear and able speech, pointed out the +merits of municipalization, citing the ownership of street railways, +gas, waterworks, garbage plants, and other public utilities of +European and American cities. He included municipal drug-stores, the +feeding and clothing of school children, the establishing of +playgrounds, and many other municipal activities familiar to American +practice, in his local Socialistic program. + +His exposition met with the approval of the Jaures faction. But the +Guesdists were not satisfied. "Who would benefit by cheap municipal +gas?" cried a delegate from the rear of the hall. "The rich man, for +he needs a great deal of gas to light up his big house. But what +laboring man needs gas? When has he time to read? In the evening he is +too tired, and he gives no receptions." Guesde maintained with great +vehemence that municipal ownership and state ownership are not +Socialism; they may be a step toward Socialism, but often result in +substituting the tyranny of the state for the tyranny of the private +employer. + +The convention adopted a municipal program after a prolonged +discussion that brought out clearly the fact that the Guesdists are +not devoted to state or municipal ownership as a principle, but only +as a means to a greater end. + +During the last few years a very important movement has been taking +place among the peasantry of southern France. Under the leadership of +Compere-Morel, a gardener and member of the Chamber of Deputies, +Socialism is spreading rapidly among these small and independent +landowners. There are several million of these thrifty peasants in +France, and their acquisition to Socialism will mean, not only a great +increase in political power, but a modification of their theory of +property. The Socialists are luring the small land-holder by telling +him that they are with him in his fight against the large estates. +They assure the peasant that they have no designs upon his small +holdings. It is the _great_ property, not merely property, that is the +object of their hostility.[35] + +There are other evidences that French Socialism is mellowing. Most of +its leaders are bourgeois. Of the seventy-six united Socialists in the +present Chamber, only thirty are workingmen, or trade-union officials; +eight are professors in the University or secondary schools; seven are +journalists; seven are barristers; seven are farmers; six are +physicians; three are school teachers; and two are engineers. This +does not suggest class war. + +Socialism is a power in French politics. An observer who moves among +the middle class wonders how much of a power it is in French life. The +Radical Party would be considered Socialistic in England or the United +States; half of it calls itself Socialist-Radical. It rules the +Republic from the Chamber of Deputies. Everywhere you hear the people +talking about collectivism, the nationalization of railways, of mines, +of vineyards, of docks, and ultimately of wheat-fields and +market-gardens. + +But the French are a nation of small farmers and shopkeepers who cling +to their property while they argue and vote for their radicalism and +Socialism. This is the duality of their temperament; they love +possessions and they love philosophical speculation. They keep their +fields and their little shops, and speculate about the new to-morrow. +They vote and debate with imaginative fervor; they pay taxes with +stolid commonplace silence. In measuring the strength of French +Socialism it is necessary to keep this in mind. Not that the +Frenchman does not take Socialism seriously. He takes it as seriously +as he takes monarchism or republicanism, and much more seriously than +he takes religion. There is only one thing he takes more +seriously--his property. + +That is why the Socialists number among their adherents all classes +and all conditions of men, from Anatole France, most fastidious of +literary aristocrats, to gaunt and hungry proletarians who infest the +cellars and garrets of ancient Paris. + +The French are, after all, the greatest of realists. They speculate in +dreams and delicate theories; but they never lose their grip on their +little farms and their little shops and the gold bonds of Russia. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] GEORGES WEIL, _Histoire du Mouvement Socialiste en France_, Paris, +1904, p. 220. + +[2] Other groups--the word party is hardly applicable in the French +Chamber of Deputies--are the reactionary Right; the republican +Conservatives, or Center; the Radical Left, or Liberals. + +[3] WEIL, _supra cit._, p. 276. + +[4] In France, when any one candidate for the Chamber of Deputies +fails to receive a majority of the votes cast, a second ballot is +taken, for the two receiving the highest number of votes + +[5] Quoted by ENSOR, _Modern Socialism_, pp. 48-55. See also a +collection of Millerand's speeches, _Le Socialisme Reformiste +Francais_, Paris, 1903. + +[6] See "Manifeste 14 Juillet," 1899. + +[7] See _V^{me} Congres General des Organisations Socialistes Francais +tenu a Paris du 3 au 8 Decembre. Compte-rendu stenographique +officiel_, 1900, p. 154 ff. + +[8] A partial report of the debate of the Bordeaux congress is given +in ENSOR'S _Modern Socialism_, pp. 163-184. + +[9] See A. LAVY, _L'Oeuvre de Millerand_, Paris, 1902, a sympathetic +account of his work; contains also extracts from his speeches and +state papers. + +[10] See the _Contemporary Review_, August, 1906, for a brief abstract +of this debate. + +[11] One of the first laws passed with the aid of the Socialist vote +was the "day of rest" law, commanding one day of the week as a day of +rest. It met the obstinate opposition of the Conservatives. The +operation of the law is of interest, and instructive. The workmen +naturally rejoiced over this increased leisure. The employers, on the +other hand, found themselves paying wages for hours in which no +service was rendered. They lowered the wages; the workmen resisted. +Finally the law was so amended as virtually to annul its effect, in +certain trades. The Socialists became irritated to the verge of +breaking their _entente_ with the Radicals. + +[12] Proceedings Chamber of Deputies, March 19, 1909. + +[13] During this agitation the teachers of the public schools, who had +formed a great number of associations, joined in the demand of the +Syndicalists. One of their number who had signed a vitriolic circular +was dismissed by M. Briand, the Minister of Education, and for a time +a strike of schoolmasters was threatened, but it did not materialize. + +[14] _L'Humanite_ is the leading Socialist daily of Paris. Briand had +written editorials for it in his "red" days. + +[15] These sections declare that the employment, or abetting or +instigating the employment, of any means of stopping or impeding +railway traffic is a crime; and if it has been planned at a seditious +meeting, the instigators are as liable to punishment as the authors of +the crime, even if they did not intend to provoke the destruction of +railway property. The penalties imposed are very severe. + +[16] Placards displayed the bitterness of the men. "For our vengeance +Briand will suffice" was read on the walls under flaming posters that +quoted fiery sentences from Briand's earlier speeches. + +[17] Viviani, Minister of Justice, resigned soon after the close of +the strike. He did not agree with Briand in his efforts to pass a law +making all railway strikes illegal. He said as long as railways were +private property men had the right to strike, but not to destroy +property. + +[18] Before his resignation, the old-age pension bill had passed the +Senate and thus became a law. The Socialists supported the bill; but +Guesde voted against it in spite of his party's instructions, because +labor was charged with contributing to the fund. The syndicalists were +also violently opposed to it because they believe the amount of the +pension is too small. + +[19] When in January, 1912, M. Poincare was appointed Prime Minister, +he promptly invited Briand into his cabinet as vice-president and +Millerand as Minister of War. + +[20] The co-operative movement is spreading gradually throughout +France. There are two kinds of societies--the Socialist and the +independent. In 1896 there were 202 co-operative productive societies. +In 1907 there were 362. The following figures show the increase in the +number of co-operative stores: 1902--1,641; 1903--1,683; 1906--1,994; +1907--2,166. + +[21] The following table, compiled from the reports of the Minister of +Labor, shows the growth of the labor-union movement: + + Year Number of Number of + Unions Members + 1885 221 ... + 1886 280 ... + 1887 501 ... + 1888 725 ... + 1889 821 ... + 1890 1,006 139,692 + 1891 1,250 205,152 + 1892 1,589 288,770 + 1893 1,926 402,125 + 1894 2,178 403,430 + 1895 2,163 419,781 + 1896 2,243 422,777 + 1898 2,324 437,739 + 1899 2,361 419,761 + 1900 2,685 491,647 + 1901 3,287 588,832 + 1902 3,679 614,173 + 1903 3,934 643,757 + 1904 4,227 715,576 + 1905 4,625 781,344 + 1906 4,857 836,134 + 1907 5,322 896,012 + 1908 5,524 957,102 + + +[22] See _Journal of Political Economy_, March, 1909, for a +comprehensive article on French labor unions by O.D. SKELTON. + +[23] From the beginning there were two kinds of unions, named after +the color of their membership cards. The "yellows" are those pursuing +a policy of peace, and the "reds" are the militants. + +[24] The following figures show the increase of strikes since the +organization of the C.G.T.: + + Years Average Average + Number Number Average Number + of Strikes of Strikers of Days Idle + 1890-1898 379 71,961 1,163,478 + 1899-1907 855 214,660 3,992,976 + + +[25] The doctrines of Syndicalism may be found in the writings of +Georges Sorel. Also in the following: POUGET, _Les Bases du +Syndicalisme_; GRIFFUELHS, _L'Action Syndicaliste_, and _Syndicalisme +et Socialisme_; POUGET, _La Parti du Travail_; POTAUD and POUGET, +_Comment nous ferons la Revolution_; PAUL LOUIS, _Syndicalisme contre +l'Etat_. + +[26] POUGET, _The Basis of Trade Unionism_, a pamphlet issued in 1908. + +[27] _Reflexions sur la Violence._ + +[28] See YVETOT, _A B C du Syndicalisme_, Chap. V. This pamphlet is +issued by the C.G.T. + +[29] Statement of Strike Committee C.G.T., 1899. + +[30] "In every state, the army is for the property owner; in every +European conflict, the working class is duped and sacrificed for the +benefit of the governing class, the bourgeoisie, and the parasites. +Therefore the XVth Congress approves and extols every action the +anti-military and anti-patriotic propaganda, even though it only +compromises the situation of all classes and all political parties." +See YVETOT, _A B C du Syndicalisme_, p. 84. + +[31] Herve has written a history of France that has had considerable +vogue as a text-book in the public schools. He begins with the +significant year 1789; glorifies the violence, and praises the +Socialistic manifestations and the heroism of the revolutionists, that +have made the past century one of turmoil and perpetual commotion. +This book is a sample of the reading given into the hands of the +children of the Republic. I was told, upon careful inquiry, that a +large number of the primary and secondary school teachers are +Socialists. Thiers, before he became President, while still a +functionary of monarchy, objected to the establishment of government +schools in every village, because, he said, he did not want "a red +priest of Socialism in every town." To-day he would find these "red +priests" everywhere. They have even organized _syndicats_ and joined +the C.G.T. + +[32] When I called upon him in the Prison Sante he told me that he was +as sincerely opposed to military measures as ever; but that it would +be a long time before the people would regard all mankind, rather than +a single ethnic group, as the object of their patriotism. Pointing to +the grim walls of his prison, he said, "Vive la Republique! Vive la +Liberte!" + +[33] Syndicalism and anti-militarism have spread to Spain and Italy. +But they have not found favor among the phlegmatic North-European +countries. + +[34] See STEHELIN, _Essais de Socialisme Municipal_, 1901. + +[35] See _Les Paysans et le Socialisme_, a speech delivered by +Compere-Morel, in the Chamber of Deputies, December 6, 1909. Also +published in pamphlet form by the Socialist Party. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY + + +I + +In Belgium the physical, political, and economic environment is suited +to a symmetrical development of Socialism. It is a small country, "at +the meeting-point of the three great European civilizations," +Vandervelde, the leader of the Belgian Socialists, has pointed out. +And his boast is true that the Belgian Socialists have absorbed the +leading characteristics of the social movement in each of these +countries. "From England Belgian Socialists have learned self-help, +and have copied their free and independent organizations, principally +in the form of co-operative societies. From Germany they have adopted +the political tactics and the fundamental doctrines which were +expressed for the first time in the 'Communist Manifesto.' From France +they have taken their idealistic tendencies, and the integral +conception of Socialism, considered as an extension of the +revolutionary philosophy and as a new religion, an extension and a +realization of Christianity." + +This threefold growth would have been impossible if the environment +had not been favorable. The Belgian population is congested into +industrial towns that are thickly strewn over the country, like the +suburbs of one vast manufacturing community. These working people have +always been miserably housed and poorly fed. In 1903-05 a public +inquiry into housing conditions was instituted in Brussels. In the +most congested portions of the city, 564 households, comprising 2,224 +persons, lived in one-room tenements. The houses were in miserable +condition. + +The commission appointed after the riots of 1886 describes conditions +that are little better than those that prevailed in England in 1830. +Even as late as 1902, out of 750,000 working men and women one-tenth +only worked less than ten hours a day; the rest worked from ten to +twelve hours. One-fourth of these working people had a wage of 2 +francs (40 cents) a day, another fourth had 2 to 3 francs (40 to 60 +cents) a day, and the upper section only 3.50 to 4.50 francs (70 cents +to 90 cents) a day. The government inquiry in 1896 disclosed the +following rate of wages: + + 170,000 persons received less than 2 fr. (40c.) a day. + 172,000 persons received less than 2-3 fr. (40-60c.) a day. + 160,000 persons received less than 3-4 fr. (60-80c.) a day. + 102,000 persons received more than 4 fr. (80c.) a day.[1] + +In the low countries where agriculture is the leading occupation, +conditions are no better. The peasant is poor; the conditions of +tenancy hard, though recent legislation has modified them somewhat in +the tenant's favor; and the holdings small. Agricultural wages are +very low. The men in the Flemish district receive an average of 1.63 +francs (33 cents) a day, without board, or about .90 francs (18 cents) +with board. The women receive 1.06 francs (21 cents) without board and +.64 francs (12-1/2 cents) with board.[2] + +Here, then, is a population of industrial and peasant workers who are +barely able to make a living, who have little time and less +opportunity for education and general development. The percentage of +illiteracy is very great; and is equaled only by the most backward +countries of southern Europe. In 1902, out of every 1,000 militiamen, +101 were entirely illiterate; in France, 46; in England, 37; in +Holland, 23; in Switzerland, 20; in Denmark, .08; in Germany, .07. In +1909 Rowntree estimated the illiteracy in the four largest Belgian +cities to be 11.75 per cent.; in the Flemish communes, 34.69 per +cent.; and in the Walloon communes (excepting Liege), 17.34 per cent. + +Outward circumstances have not been wanting to arouse this teeming +population into violent discontent. The government for years paid no +heed to their misery, and the Church, which is very powerful in +Belgium, was content to distribute charity and consolation, and to +admonish the employer to patriarchal care for his men. + +The national status of the country is guaranteed by the powers; there +is no fear of invasion and no need for the intolerable military +burdens that weigh down the great countries of Europe. There have been +no international complications. This little country, with its clusters +of thriving towns, its mines, farms, and seaports, could settle down +contentedly to its daily tasks like a large family. + +The great manufacturers and industrial leaders took even less interest +in the welfare of the working people than the state or the Church. No +one seemed to care how the worker fared, and when he himself learned +to care the first reactions were violent. + +We will limit ourselves, in this inquiry, to the political development +of the labor movement. + +Belgium is a constitutional monarchy. The Constitution, provides for a +parliament composed of the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives, +both elected by the people, the Representatives by direct, the +Senators by indirect, elections. The King has the veto power and the +power to prorogue parliament. A general election follows prorogation, +in which the whole membership of Senate and House are elected. The +communes are governed by elective communal councils. + +From the establishment of the constitution, in 1831, there have been +two leading political parties--the Clerical or Catholic, and the +Liberal. The Clerical Party has been not merely conservative, it has +been reactionary. It clings not only to monarchic prerogatives, but to +ecclesiastical supremacy. This medieval policy it imposed upon school +and government and Church. The party has until very recently been in +the majority. It is strongest in the low counties, among the +agricultural Flemings. When the activity of the Socialists and +Radicals forced the question upon the country, a "left" wing of the +party began to interest itself in the laboring man, through the +traditional methods of the Church, rather than by means of state +interference. + +The Liberal Party is a protest, not only against the predominant +influence of the Church in political affairs, but also against the +financial policies of the Conservatives. The Liberals early espoused +the cause of free schools, modified tariffs, greater local autonomy, +and liberal election laws. + +The election laws confined the electorate to the few property-holders +and professional men of the country. In 1890, out of 1,800,000 male +citizens, 133,000 were qualified electors. + + +II + +These were the conditions that prevailed when the Socialists quite +suddenly appeared on the scene. There had been a Socialist propaganda +for years in Belgium. Brussels was a city of refuge to many fleeing +revolutionists of 1848. In 1857 a labor union was organized among the +spinners and weavers of Ghent. The same year Colin published his book, +_What Is Social Science?_ This volume prepared the way for the +remarkable collectivist movement, which was stimulated into modern +activity by Anselee, a workingman of Ghent and organizer of the +Vooruit Co-operative Society. Caesar de Paepe, a disciple of Colin and +a man of remarkable intellectual endowments, tried to bring unity to +the Belgian movement. But the factionalism was not cast aside until +1885, when the Belgian Labor Party (Parti Ouvrier Belge) was +organized. + +Now Socialists of all factions were drawn together. But, unlike +Socialists in other countries, they did not expend their energies on +political action. The Belgian labor movement had a threefold +origin--the co-operative movement of Colin, the labor-union movement, +and the Socialistic or political movement of de Paepe. These three +activities, united in the Labor Party, have continued to develop, +until they are a model for Socialists in all countries. + +The organization of the party is simple. The various organizations are +federated into large groups, e.g., the co-operative group, each with +a separate organization. The provinces and communes have their local +committees for each separate activity. Over the entire party sits a +general council (conseil general). An executive committee of nine is +chosen from this council, and this committee has practical control of +the party. The annual convention is the supreme authority. It elects +the general council and decides, in democratic fashion, all important +questions of policy and activity. Every constituent organization, such +as the co-operative societies, etc., contributes from its funds to the +support of the party. The party is therefore a federation of many +societies with various activities, not a vast group of individual +voters, as the German Social Democracy. Its solidarity is not +individual, but federal. + +The organization of the Labor Party proved a stimulus to all the +constituent societies. From 1885 to 1895 over 400 co-operative +societies were formed, and within a few years 7,000 mutual aid +societies were organized. The membership of the labor unions increased +from less than 50,000 in 1880 to 62,350 in 1889, and nearly 150,000 in +1905. + +The Socialist movement had now achieved solidarity, and was prepared +to enter into a conflict for power. Its issues were two: universal +suffrage and free secular education. The second was necessarily +included in the first; for without parliamentary power it would be +impossible to secure liberal educational laws, and without a liberal +franchise it would be impossible to get parliamentary power. All their +political energies were therefore devoted to the reform of the +election laws. + +It is in this activity that the Belgian movement forms for our +purpose one of the most instructive chapters of European Socialism. +Here is a proletarian horde deprived of participation in government in +a constitutional monarchy, struggling toward political recognition. It +is armed with all the weapons of militant Socialism: a revolutionary +tradition; a national history rich in mob violence, street brawls, and +conflicts with police and soldiers; possessed of a well-organized +party, a class solidarity, and capable and courageous leaders who are +willing to go, and do go, to the extreme of the general strike and +violence in order to achieve their goal. + +In short, here we have the Socialist political ideal working itself +from theory into reality through class struggle. But there is the +usual important modification of the Marxian conditions; viz., the +liberal bourgeois prove a potent ally to the Socialists in the press +and on the floor of the Chamber of Representatives. While the +Socialists were surging in vehement earnestness around the Parliament +House, the Liberals were as earnestly pleading their cause within. + +The definite fight for universal suffrage began a few years before the +organization of the Labor Party. In 1866 a group of workingmen issued +an appeal to their fellows to begin the battle for the ballot. In 1879 +the Socialists issued a manifesto which stated the case as follows: +"'All powers are derived from the nation; all Belgians are equal +before the law,' says the Constitution of 1831. + +"In reality all powers are derived from a small number of privileged +ones, and all the Belgians are divided into two classes--those who are +rich and have rights, and those who are poor and have burdens. + +"We wish to see this inequality vanish, at least before the +ballot-box. For the most numerous class of society ought to be +represented in the Chamber of Representatives, because the people +whose daily bread depends upon the prosperity of the country should +have the power to participate in public affairs. + +"Constitutions are not immutable, and what was solemnly promulgated on +one occasion may, without revolution, be altered on another."[3] + +The proclamation then proceeded to call a meeting at Brussels for the +following January (1880). At this meeting it was decided to circulate +a monster petition asking Parliament to pass a liberal election law +and to organize a demonstration to be held in Brussels the following +summer. In this, the first of a long series of demonstrations, about +6,000 persons from various parts of the kingdom paraded the streets of +the capital. There was a clash with the police, and a number of +arrests were made. From 1881 to 1885 the Liberals tried to persuade +the Clericals to agree upon a constitutional revision; and the +Socialists brought to bear upon them all the pressure of the streets. +But the Clericals were firm. Then the Socialists tried another +manoeuver. They issued a manifesto "to the people of Belgium," +complaining of the dominion of the Church over education, the dominion +of a few families over the nation, and the failure of the government +to grant liberty to the people. "The hour has come for all citizens to +rally under the republican flag." + +Instead of a republican uprising, something more significant and +potent occurred; the Labor Party was organized, welding together all +the forces of discontent and unifying their demands into a protest so +strong that the government was finally compelled to yield. Not, +however, until it had exhausted almost every resource of resistance. + +The party was organized just in the crux of time. A financial crisis +was beginning to increase the hardships of the industrial classes. The +unrest was intensified by an ingenious piece of propagandist +literature, a _Workingman's Catechism_ (_Catechism du Peuple_), +written by a workingman. Two hundred thousand copies in French and +60,000 in Flemish were scattered among the discontented people. Its +influence was wonderful. A few questions will indicate the power that +lay behind its simple questions and answers. + + _Question._ "Who are you?" + + _Answer._ "I am a slave." + + _Q._ "Are you not a man?" + + _A._ "From the point of view of humanity I am a man, but in + relation to society I am a slave." + + _Q._ "What is the 25th article of the Constitution?" + + _A._ "The 25th article of the Constitution says: 'All power is + derived from the nation.'" + + _Q._ "Is this true?" + + _A._ "It is a falsehood." + + _Q._ "Why?" + + _A._ "Because the nation is composed of 5,720,807 inhabitants, + about 6,000,000, and of this 6,000,000 only 117,000 are + consulted in the making of laws." + +And so through every grievance, social, economic, and political. Every +workman learned his catechism. Those who could not read gathered in +groups around their more fortunate comrades and listened to the +effective questions and answers. + +By the beginning of 1886 the little land was a seething caldron of +political and economic unrest. The strike movement began at Liege and +soon spread to Charleroi and other industrial centers. There was +enough destruction of property and clashing with police and soldiery +to create a panic in the country. In Brussels business was at a +standstill for days. The Socialist Party, in a circular issued to the +people, said: "The country is visited by a terrible crisis. The +disinherited classes are suffering. Strikes are multiplying, riots are +provoked by the misery. The constantly decreasing wages are spreading +consternation everywhere." + +The disorder aroused a number of Anarchists in Brussels. They posted +anonymous placards inciting the people to violence. The Socialists +repudiated the Anarchists, and one of their orators said: "Do not let +yourselves be carried away by violence; that will only benefit your +adversaries." + +A mass demonstration was planned, but the mayor of Brussels prohibited +it. The Labor Party, however, were allowed to hold their annual +convention and to march under their red flag, the government merely +requesting that the demonstrants refrain from shouting, "Vive la +Republique!" Thirty thousand laboring men joined in the demonstration. +The Liberals and Radicals refused to take part in it because they +claimed it was only a workingman's movement, and the Anarchists +refused because "elections lead to nothing." This demonstration was so +serious and imposing that it made a deep impression upon the people, +and was not without effect upon the government. + +The crisis finally passed over. A great many rioters were imprisoned +in spite of the popular clamor for universal amnesty. The general +strike brought no immediate advantage to the workmen. + +The next few years the Socialists devoted to organization. They were +determined not to enter upon extended strikes again without thorough +preparation. In the meantime the Liberal Party split. The Radicals, or +Progressists, at their first congress in 1877 declared themselves in +favor of the separation of Church and state, military reform, +compulsory education, social and electoral reform. They were, however, +not yet prepared to commit themselves to universal suffrage. They +favored rather an educational test for voters. This, however, they +abandoned in 1890, and virtually placed themselves upon the Socialist +platform. + +On August 10, 1890, another great demonstration in favor of universal +suffrage took place in Brussels. Over 40,000 men joined in the parade. +The Progressists did not take part in the marching, but they were +stationed along the route to cheer the men in line. Before they +dispersed, all the participants united in taking a solemn oath that +they would not give up the fight "until the Belgian people, through +universal suffrage, should regain their fatherland." This is the +famous "Oath of August 10." + +After this demonstration the Progressists joined with the Socialists +in a conference for discussing ways and means for securing universal +suffrage.[4] This conference is notable because it drew Radicals, +Progressists, and Socialists into a united campaign for suffrage +reform. The conference resolved to organize demonstrations in every +corner of the kingdom and to memorialize Parliament. This was to be a +final peaceful appeal. If it remained unheeded a general strike would +follow. The bourgeois Progressists assented to this ultimatum. + +A few days before the Socialist-Progressist conference met, a clerical +social congress had convened at Liege. The agitation of the Labor +Party had at last aroused the Conservatives. The resolutions of this +conference were pervaded by the traditional apostolic paternalistic +spirit of the Church. It demanded social reform, amelioration of harsh +conditions, state arbitration, industrial insurance; but it set its +face against universal suffrage. On the wings of an awakened +conservatism it tried to ride the whirlwind of Socialism. + +But no halfway measures would now placate the agitators. The great +mass of Belgian workmen were aroused, and nothing but the ballot would +satisfy them. + +A propaganda was begun in the army. The enlistment laws were favorable +to the rich, who could purchase freedom from military service. The +poor conscripts were especially susceptible to the Socialist +propaganda. + +In the autumn of 1890 at the Labor Party's annual convention it was +suggested that, inasmuch as the parliament of the Few had not heeded +the wishes of the nation, a parliament of the People should be called, +to be composed of as many members as the existing parliament, but +chosen by universal suffrage. Even a program was proposed for this +fancied parliament. + +By this time the petitions prepared by the suffrage congress were +ready. In every arrondissement there were demonstrations. In Brussels +8,000 men marched to the city hall and handed the mayor their petition +protesting against the privileged election laws and demanding +universal suffrage. From every village in the kingdom protests were +brought to the government demanding universal suffrage. + +Finally on November 27, 1890, a Liberal member in the Chamber of +Representatives proposed a change in the Constitution enlarging the +electoral franchise. He explained the injustice of the limited +franchise, dwelt on the dangers of strikes and riots, and said that he +believed the Belgian workmen as capable of exercising the rights of +citizenship as those of neighboring countries. All parties agreed to +discuss the amendment. The debate held popular excitement in abeyance. +But as it became more and more evident that nothing would be done the +workingman became restive. Early in 1892 riots broke out in various +cities. The situation became acute. Socialists and Radicals organized +a popular referendum on the question. It was not an official +referendum, and its results were not binding. But it was an effective +method of propaganda, and in many of the communes the councils gave it +their sanction, thereby lending it the color of legality. + +Five propositions were submitted to the voters: (1) manhood suffrage +at twenty-one years; (2) manhood suffrage at twenty-five years; (3) +exclusion of illiterates and persons in receipt of public or private +charity; (4) household suffrage and mental capacity defined by law; +(5) the exclusion of all who have not passed an elementary educational +standard. As a rule the Clericals refused to participate in the +referendum. + +In Brussels, out of 72,465 entitled to vote only 38,217 voted, with +the following results: manhood suffrage at twenty-one years, 29,949; +manhood suffrage at twenty-five years, 5,253; all other propositions +together, 3,015. In Huy, out of 3,513 voters only 1,800 voted, and +1,700 of these were in favor of universal suffrage. In Antwerp, where +Liberals and Clericals are about evenly divided, only forty-three per +cent. of the electors voted, and of 18,701 votes cast, 15,704 were for +universal suffrage. + +This referendum, and all the demonstrations, had very little effect +upon parliament. The deputies were in favor of revision, but could not +agree upon a plan. The Radicals were in favor of universal suffrage, +the Clericals unalterably opposed to it, and the Liberals only +sympathetic towards it. + +Finally, in April, all the proposals were voted down by the Chamber of +Representatives. The Socialists immediately ordered a general strike. + +It began in the coal mines of Hainault, spread to the weavers and +spinners of Ghent, to the glass and iron works of the Walloon +districts, to the printers and pressmen of Brussels, and to the docks +at Antwerp. Two hundred thousand men stopped work in the course of a +few days. While the mills and mines were idle the police and soldiers +were busy. Six men were killed at Joliment, six killed and twelve +wounded at Mons. In Brussels the mob pried up the paving-stones for +weapons; the city guards patrolled the city, meetings were forbidden, +the streets were cleared of people, and the mayor was wounded in a +melee. A band of "communists" threw a barricade across Rue des +Eperonniers, the last of the barricades. The troops made short work of +it. Scores of arrests were made in the various cities and the +offenders received sentences varying from six years' imprisonment to a +fine of fifty francs. + +In the height of the excitement the Chamber of Representatives +convened and agreed upon a franchise amendment. Immediately the +general council of the Labor Party met and declared the strike off. It +sent out this pronouncement: "The Labor Party through its general +council records the insertion of manhood suffrage in the Constitution. +It declares that this first victory of the party has been won under +pressure of a general strike. It is resolved to persist in the work of +propaganda until it has won universal political equality and has +suppressed the plural voting privilege." + +The new electoral law (1893) was a compromise suggested by Professor +Albert Nyssens of the University of Louvain. It recognized the three +principal demands of the three parliamentary factions: universal +suffrage of the Radicals, property qualifications of the Clericals, +and educational qualifications of the Liberals. Universal suffrage was +granted to all male citizens twenty-five years of age. But this was +modified in favor of property and education by the granting of +additional votes. One additional vote was give (1) to every voter +thirty-five years of age who was the head of a family and paid a +direct tax of 5 francs (one dollar); (2) to every owner of real +property valued at 2,000 francs ($400.00), or who had an annual income +of 200 francs ($40.00) derived from investments in the Belgian public +funds. Two additional votes were given to the holders of diplomas from +the higher schools, to those who were or had been in public office, +and to those who practised a profession for which a higher education +was necessary. No one was allowed more than three votes. + +Whatever may be said of this fancy franchise, it is at least +ingenious. It satisfied the first popular hunger after the ballot. The +workmen could vote. The conditions imposed for the casting of two +votes seem very liberal and the majority of American voters could +qualify under them. But in Belgium, the land of low wages and +congested populations, they were real barricades. Nearly two-thirds of +the voters failed to reach even this low standard. + +Voting made compulsory. Election was by _scrutin de liste_.[5] + + +III + +Under these conditions the Socialists went into battle. There were +1,370,687 electors; 855,628 with one vote 293,678 with two votes, +223,380 with three votes. The Socialists polled 346,000 votes, the +Clericals 927,000, the Liberals 530,000. The new parliament was +composed as follows: Chamber of Representatives--Clericals, 104; +Liberals, 19; Socialists, 29; Senate--Clericals 71; Liberals, 21; +Socialists, 2.[6] + +From the first the Socialists in Belgium have not been reluctant in +making election arrangements with other parties. In this their first +election they united with the Progressists. In Brussels on the second +ballot they proposed terms to the Liberals, which were refused. The +Socialists, however, instructed their followers to vote against the +Clericals in every instance. Wherever there were no Radical or +Socialists lists they supported the Liberals.[7] + +The same widespread alarm that the first Socialist parliamentary +accessions aroused everywhere, was caused by these twenty-nine Belgian +Socialist representatives, especially as some of their number were +promoted from prison to parliament, and one striker was given his +liberty for the time being so that he could attend the session. +Vandervelde allayed popular apprehension when he announced the program +of his party, which combined with the usual labor legislation the +demand for the state purchase of coal mines, state monopoly of the +liquor business, and communal election reforms. The proposals of the +Belgian Socialists in parliament have invariably been practical, not +revolutionary or visionary. One of the first bills introduced by them +provided for the reduction of the stamp tax and the tax on the +transfer of property and leases. This tax was extremely high, nearly +seven per cent., and worked a peculiar hardship on the small tenant. +The bill failed of passage. But the government was so impressed by the +facts presented in debate that it brought in a law reducing the tax on +transfers for all small estates. + +It is by this indirect method, by their presence in the Chamber, and +by their powers in debate that the Belgian Socialists have achieved +many practical reforms. They have not the hauteur and aloofness of +the German Social Democrat, nor the fiery passion for idealistic +propaganda of the French; they are more sensible than either. Since +their entrance into parliament a Secretary of Labor has been added to +the cabinet, and every department of labor legislation has felt their +influence. The delegation is in constant touch with the party in the +various districts. An old-age pension act has been passed, great +reductions have been made in military expenditure, the conscript laws +have been modified, and the Socialists led in the opposition to the +Belgian policy in the Congo. + +Their two main contentions have been over the educational laws and the +electoral laws. A school law was passed by the Clericals in 1895. It +was regarded as reactionary by the Socialists, and stormy scenes +accompanied its enactment. Its provisions are still the source of +constant agitation among Socialists and Liberals. They protest +especially against the teaching of religion in the communal schools. +It is true that any parent may have his child excused from attending +such instruction for reasons of conscience on written application to +the proper authorities. But they insist that this subjects the +objecting parent to harsh treatment in Clerical communities.[8] + +The provincial and communal election laws were less favorable to the +Socialists than the national law. In 1895 the government brought in a +new local election bill which fixed the voting age at thirty, +required three years' residence in a commune, and strengthened the +plural voting system by giving a fourth vote to the large +land-holders. The Socialists and Radicals united in contesting 507 of +the communes (about one-fourth of the whole number). They won a +majority in eighty and a considerable minority in 180 of these +communal councils. Necessity had cemented the alliance of Radicals and +Socialists. The Radicals were now called "_Chevre-choutiers_" because +they tried to carry the goat and the cabbage, Liberals and Socialists, +across the stream in the same boat. + +In 1899 the government brought in its new election bill in which it +proposed to concede to the demand for proportional representation. But +only the large constituencies were to be included in the change, +leaving the smaller districts, mostly in the Flemish section, to the +Clerical majorities that prevailed there. The measure was unpopular. +The people organized protests against it in every city in the land. In +Brussels a mob gathered in front of the Chamber of Deputies. +Paving-stones were ripped up and hurled through the windows, and there +was charging and counter-charging between police and populace. Inside +the Chamber the scene was not less tumultuous. The Socialists tried to +prevent business by mob tactics. Desk-lids were banged, there was +shouting and singing, one deputy had provided himself with a horn. The +government was compelled to adjourn the session. All that night (June +28) there was rioting in Brussels. When the Chamber met the following +day the wild scenes were re-enacted, when a Clerical deputy moved that +any member causing a disturbance be expelled. In the debate that +followed the government declared itself willing to adjourn and study +the various proposals of the opposition. This cooled the crowd waiting +outside the Chamber, and at Vandervelde's suggestion the mob quietly +dispersed. + +In the meantime the mayors of Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, and Liege +waited on the King and told him they would no longer be responsible +for the maintenance of order in their cities if the minister did not +withdraw the obnoxious electoral bill. The Liberals now joined the +Socialists and Radicals in their processions in every town, singing +their war-songs and carrying placards and banners of protest. + +All this had its effect on the government. A committee representing +all the groups in the Chamber was appointed to consider all the +proposals that had been introduced. Vandervelde, in supporting the +committee, said that he "spoke for the country that had so effectively +demonstrated its power and achieved a victory." Soon after this the +reactionary ministry fell, and the new government brought in a bill +providing uniform proportional representation for all the districts. +This bill was promptly enacted into law. + +The first general election under this law resulted as follows: + + Total vote cast 2,105,270 + Socialists 467,326, electing 32 deputies. + Clericals 995,056 " 85 " + Liberals 449,521 " 31 " + Radicals 47,783 " 3 " + Christian Democrats 55,737 " 1 " + +The Clerical majority was cut from seventy to eighteen and at last the +Liberal elements were hopeful of gaining the government and effecting +universal suffrage "pure and simple." + +We have now seen how popular agitation wrested, first, a law +permitting plural voting; second, a law permitting proportional +representation, from an unwilling government. The contest for +universal suffrage "pure and simple" has continued to the present day. +In 1901 the Labor Party at its congress at Liege decided to renew the +agitation in favor of universal suffrage, "even to the extent of the +general strike, and agitation in the streets, and not to cease until +after the conquest of political equality." Vandervelde introduced a +bill into the Chamber providing for "one man, one vote," and it was +defeated by a vote of 92 to 43. Immediately Vandervelde and the +Radical leader proposed a revision of the Constitution. The debate on +this motion continued until the spring of 1902. All the old spirit of +unrest and violence broke out anew. To the violence of protesting mobs +was added the coercive force of the general strike. Three hundred +thousand men stopped work and began demonstrating. Troops were called +out to guard the government buildings in Brussels and to hold the +crowds at bay in the provinces. In Louvain eight strikers were killed +by the soldiers, and in other localities there was bloodshed and +destruction of property. + +Finally the Chamber of Representatives voted to close the debate and +dismiss the question entirely for the session. The strike was declared +off and quiet restored. + +In the elections the following May the Socialists lost three seats. +This had its effect. A meeting of the party was called and it was +decided not to resort to further violence. A delegate from Charleroi, +the seat of the most tumultuous element in the party, expressed regret +that the Labor Party had compromised with the bourgeois parties in +calling off the strike. Vandervelde defended the action of the council +on the ground that the continuance of the strike threatened internal +dissensions because of the misery of the strikers and the violence of +the government. + +The party organ, _Le Peuple_, said on June 5, 1902: "We are no longer +in 1848. The days of barricades have gone by. The narrow little +streets of former years have expanded into wide avenues. The soldiers +are armed with Albinis and Mausers. Even if all the people were armed +it would only be necessary to plant a few cannon at strategic places +in the city to put down an insurrection in spite of the greatest +heroism of the insurgents."[9] + +Van Overbergh, in his history of the strike, says: "The period of +romantic Socialism in Belgium is past; the days of realism have +commenced."[10] And Bertrand, the historian, adds the reason: "Its [the +general strike's] effect was to keep down the vote. Even in the +elections of 1904 and 1906 the vote has remained quite stationary."[11] + +Whether this means the apotheosis of the general strike in Belgium +will depend no doubt upon circumstances, it is significant that the +words were uttered, and still more significant that political +coalition has taken the place of industrial warfare. The Liberals and +Radicals now plan with the Socialists. They no longer stand aside and +let the Socialists march, but they join step with them and carry +banners. + +The greatest of all Belgian demonstrations for universal suffrage and +free schools took place in August, 1911. In spite of the extreme +heat, nearly 200,000 Radicals, Liberals, and Socialists gathered in +the capital, "not so much to impress the government," a Socialist +leader said to me, "but to impress the people that we are in earnest, +and then to prepare for the coming elections." + + +IV + +It must not be inferred from this rapid survey of its warfare for +political privilege that Belgian Socialism has forgotten the +co-operative movement and all the various activities that were blended +in the making of the Labor Party. Belgian Socialism is primarily +economic. This makes it unique. It has succeeded in becoming economic, +in building dairies and bake-shops, in running dry-goods stores and +grocery stores and butcher shops, in the present dispensation; and it +has succeeded in doing so by accommodating itself to the present +conditions. It adopts the eight-hour day when it can, but it is not +averse to ten hours when necessary. It pays its employees the highest +wage it can, but it recognizes talent and ability like the bourgeois +shopkeeper across the street. It has insurance funds that draw +interest at the same rate that is paid by bourgeois banks, and it has +no scruples about putting the latest approved machinery into its +workshops and bakeries. + +In all this, their activities have remained Socialistic. They compete +with the bourgeois, but co-operate among themselves. The profits of +their activities go to the members of their societies and to the +party. Their competition has brought ruin to the door of many a +shopkeeper who finds his customers flocking to their own shop. +Government commissions have inquired into the movement at the nervous +requests of merchants and tradesmen, but only to find every +co-operative enterprise carefully conducted and thriving. + +The Belgian Socialist leaders all emphasize the importance of this +unity of economic and political activity, and the priority of the +economic over the political. It has been a splendid stimulant for the +Belgian workman. It has aroused him out of the lethargy that has been +his greatest enemy for years. It has taught him to work with others, +the value of mass movement, the futility of separateness. It has +schooled him, not only in reading and arithmetic, in the night classes +established everywhere; but in business, in weights and measures; in +percentage, in profit and loss; and most of all, in the real hardships +that meet tradespeople and commercial men everywhere in their endeavor +to get on. Workingmen often think that a business man is a necromancer +juggling profits out of other people's necessities. The Belgian +co-operativist has found out that trading is a commonplace and tedious +task which requires constant alertness and is merely the drudgery of +detail. This experience has taught him, moreover, the futility of laws +and the utility of effort. In Belgium I was impressed most of all by +the nonchalance, almost contempt, that the workman displays toward +mere legislation. "Why should I toy with words when I have this?" And +he points proudly to his co-operative store. + +The Belgian workman has been taught through his co-operative +experience the value of patient toil and frugality. Slowly he has +built up these institutions out of his own savings. When he thought +his scant wages were barely enough for bread, he discovered means +somehow to pay his dues in the "Mutualite." As an instance of his +thrift, he saves every year a little fund which is used by the family +for an annual holiday, usually a short excursion to a neighboring +place of interest. Every member of the family contributes to this +fund, and, no matter how poor, they look forward to their yearly +holiday. + +The Belgian Socialist has also been successful in another field. While +in other countries the Socialists have tried usually in vain to lure +the peasant and small farmer, the Belgians have made constant progress +in this direction. The agrarian movement began with the organizing of +the Labor Party.[12] + +Vandervelde and Hector Dennis, a Professor of Economics in the +University at Brussels, have been constant in their zeal for the +agrarian interests. Again, the lure is not Socialism in the abstract, +nor the gospel of discontent. It is practical, business co-operation. +Dairies, stores, markets are proving powerful propagandists, even in +the Catholic lowlands. Dr. Steffens-Frauenweiler quotes from a +conservative newspaper: "From different sides we have heard the remark +that Socialism would never penetrate into the country. In +contradiction to this opinion we must observe that those who express +this view, and presume to laugh away the Socialistic movement among +the peasants and farmers, are either not well informed or are +submitting themselves to illusions. Only a serious attempt to fight +Socialism through positive reforms will prove a lasting check upon the +ambitions of Socialists."[13] + +In Belgium the general strike has been used as an aid in the warfare +for political power. We have seen how the first strike was premature, +the second effective, and the third proved a boomerang in its reaction +upon the Labor Party. + +Vandervelde distinguishes between the general strike as a means toward +social revolution, and the general strike as a political weapon used +for securing a _definite_ object.[14] He says: "The revolutionary +general strike is itself the revolution. The reformist general strike, +on the contrary, is the attempt of the proletariat to secure partial +concessions from the government without questioning the existence of +the government, and especially the administration that represents the +government." To effect this, it is not essential that all the workmen +go out, but only enough to interrupt "the normal course of business, +even if the majority of the workers remain at work."[15] + +The political general strike has its example, then, in the Belgian +movement for the electoral franchise. Whether it would succeed in +wresting other political privileges from the state, is conjecture; +that it would not succeed except under the most favorable conditions, +is certain. + +The Belgian movement has displayed great absorptive powers and +facility of adaptation. It has absorbed all the labor activities of +the Radical and Socialist workmen. It has adapted itself to the +necessities of the hour, giving up the daydreams of intangible things. +In all this, it has displayed a saneness, in spite of its +revolutionary traditions and anarchistic blood.[16] It has the most +"modern" program of the European Socialist parties, and the most +worldly efficiency. + +In visiting one of the large workingmen's clubhouses found in the +cities, the visitor is impressed with the beehive qualities of the +Belgian movement. At the "Maison du Peuple" in Brussels--that was +built by these underpaid workmen at a cost of 1,000,000 francs--you +find activity everywhere. The savings-bank department is swarming with +women and children, come to conduct the business of the family. The +cafe, the headquarters of the party, the offices of the co-operative +societies, all are busy. In the evening there are debates, gymnasium +contests, moving-picture shows, classes for instruction in the +elementary branches, in art, and literature.[17] A temperance +movement, started by the workmen some years ago, has attained a great +deal of influence. Placards are on the walls of the clubhouses, +setting forth the evils of the drink habit. + +Or you visit a co-operative bakery or butcher-shop or grocery store, +and the same spirit of diligence, thrift, and reasonableness is there. +And you are quite convinced that here is Socialism approximating +somewhere near its ultimate form. If the Belgian Labor Party should +secure control of the government to-morrow it would be more competent +to assume the actual obligations of power than would the Socialists in +any other European country. For they have not built a structure in +mid-air, with merely an underpinning of more or less indifferent +theories. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _L'Enquete Gouvernementale_, Vol. XVIII. + +[2] _L'Annuaire Statistique._ + +[3] BERTRAND, _Histoire de la Democratie et du Socialisme en Belgique +depuis 1830_, Vol II, p. 331. + +[4] This conference sent the following telegram to the King: "You have +asked what is the watchword of the country; the watchword is universal +suffrage." + +[5] The candidates are arranged in groups or "lists," and the voter +votes the list as well as for the individual names on the list. Any +100 electors may prepare such a list. The successful candidate must +receive a majority. This often necessitates a second ballot between +the two receiving the highest number of votes. + +[6] BERTRAND, _Histoire_, Vol. II, p. 552. + +[7] One of the significant incidents of this election was the contest +against Frere Orban, for thirty years a parliamentary leader and one +of the greatest politicians of his day. His seat was contested by an +obscure workingman, and the distinguished parliamentarian was +compelled to submit to the ordeal of a second ballot. + +[8] The Clerical forces are gradually retreating before the repeated +onslaughts of Liberals and Socialists. But the loyalty to the Church +remains undiminished. On May 17, 1901, a Clerical deputy remarked in +the Chamber that he would like to see the temporal power of the pope +restored. The Socialists immediately started an uproar which ended in +their singing their "Marseillaise" and the adjournment of the sitting. + +[9] BERTRAND, _Histoire_, II, p. 590. + +[10] _La Greve Generale Belge d'Avril_, 1902, Brussels, 1902. + +[11] _Histoire_, II, p. 592. + +[12] See DR. STEFFENS-FRAUENWEILER, _Der Agrar-Sozialismus in Belge_. + +[13] _Op. cit._, p. 37. + +[14] See an article by E. VANDERVELDE, "_Der General Streik_," in +_Archiv fuer Sozial-wissenschaft und Sozial-Politik_, Tuebingen, May, +1908. The same article was published, same date, in _Revue du Mois_, +Paris. + +[15] _Supra cit._, p. 541. + +[16] Bakunin had a large following in Belgium during the days of the +"Old International," and Anarchists have never entirely ceased their +activities in the large cities. + +[17] On the walls of the "Maison du Peuple" you will find noble +paintings. Here labored Constantine Meunier, the sculptor, on his +notable "Monument au Travail." Three remarkable sections of this +monument, "La Mine," "L'Industrie," "La Glebe," can be seen in the +Gallery of Modern Art, in Brussels. There are evidences everywhere of +the art interest of these alert working people. One of them, with +sincere indignation, pointed out to me the large pile of stone that +surmounts the heights of the city, the Palace of Justice, completed in +1883, and said its "bourgeois Babylonian hideousness is the high-water +mark of bourgeois taste in art and bourgeois power in politics." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY + + +I + +It is the constant complaint of the German Democrats that there is no +Liberal Party in Germany. The wars that repeatedly devastated the +country during past centuries drove property owners to seek the +protection of a strong, centralized government. This habit has +survived the centuries. Whenever the middle classes show signs of +breaking away from the conservatism of the "Regierung," the Prince +always finds a way of bringing them back. The Period of +Revolution--1850--ended in a compromise that ignored the workingmen +and virtually left absolutism on the throne. When the new era dawned, +and Bismarck, like a young giant, shaped the highways of empire, he +used the Liberals so adroitly that, when his national legerdemain was +accomplished, they were a broken and impotent faction, lost in the +conservative reaction of the hour. + +Universal suffrage for the Reichstag elections was written into the +Constitution of the new empire, not because the Chancellor and his +Prince loved democracy, but because the smaller states insisted upon +this safeguard against Prussian omnipotence. + +Democracy and Liberalism have never been strong enough to break the +fetters of national habit; and nearly all the democracy, certainly all +the workingman's democracy, in Germany to-day is found in the Social +Democratic Party. + +In order to understand the development of Social Democracy in Germany, +it is necessary to bear in mind the bureaucratic, autocratic, +paternalistic character of the German government.[1] + +It is the German governmental policy to do everything for the welfare +of its citizens that can be done; and, in return, it expects the +people to let the government alone. The medieval conception of class +responsibility survives. It is the attitude of a self-righteous parent +toward ignorant and wilful children. The government assumes the right, +and possesses the power, to regulate every phase of the citizen's +life, in domestic, industrial, educational, moral, and political +affairs. It is a regal survival of the theory that government is +omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. + +Germany is a made-to-order country that clings to medieval +conservatism in government; a country that is thoroughly modern in +industry and distinctly middle-age in caste; where the workingman has +always been treated with patronizing condescension and his political +acts watched with jealousy; and where he has, against great odds, +determined to work out his own salvation. Surrounded by preordained +and rigid conditions, he has perfected an organization that is the +most remarkable example of proletarian achievement found anywhere in +history. To the development and description of this organization we +will now address ourselves. + +German Social Democracy, while Marxian in theory, owes its active +existence to Ferdinand Lassalle, one of those brilliant and daring +geniuses who flash, in an hour of adventure, across the prosaic days +of history.[2] He was pronounced a _Wunderkind_ by William von +Humboldt; dashed his way through university routine; attracted the +friendship of poets, philosophers, and politicians; was lionized by +society; became a revolutionist in 1848, and was, at the age of +twenty-three, indicted for inciting a mob of Duesseldorf workingmen to +acts of violence. He defended himself in a brilliant speech which +launched him fully into the campaign of the workingman.[3] + +Early in his career he volunteered to defend the cause of the Countess +Hatzfeldt, whose unfaithful husband was squandering his estates and +suffering her to live in want. Lassalle fought the case through +thirty-six courts for nine years, and won an ample fortune for the +countess, who became the main financial support of Lassalle's +campaigns. + +After his first arrest, Lassalle was kept under vigilance by the +government. But finally, through the interposition of distinguished +friends, he was allowed to return to Berlin. There, in 1862, he +delivered a series of addresses that soon brought him into conflict +with the police. His defense in the court was published later under +the title, _Science and the Workingman_. This he followed with a +letter, _Might and Right_,[4] sent broadcast over the land. + +In these two publications he succinctly enunciated his theory of +democracy: "With Democracy alone dwells right, and in Democracy alone +will might be found. No person in the Prussian state to-day has the +right to speak of 'rights,' except the Democracy, the old and true +Democracy. For Democracy alone has constantly clung to the right, and +has never lowered herself by compromising with might."[5] + +In the political turmoil of that period, when new forces were +awakening to their power and feudalism, conservatism, Cobdenism, and +democracy were all contending for supremacy, there were three +predominating currents of thought. The first was naturally the feudal, +the absolutist that would put down by the police power, and failing in +that by the soldiery, every attempt at changing the organization of +the government. This was embodied in the reactionary, or Conservative +Party, which held then, as it still does, the high places in army and +government. Bismarck was its leader. It had ample nationalist aims, +and was called the "Great German Party" ("Gross Deutschland"); Austria +was included in its ambitions, and monarchic supremacy was the token +of its power. It comprised the landowners, the nobles, and the +agrarians. + +The second tendency was commercial, bourgeois. It found expression in +the National Liberal Party, which was liberal in name only. It was the +"Small German" ("Klein Deutschland") Party, preferring the ascendency +of Prussia. It comprised the enterprising traders, manufacturers, and +bankers, and was strongest in the cities. It was attached to monarchy, +cared little for military or political glory, except as it affected +trade and taxes. + +The third tendency had nothing in common with the other two. It was +the revolt of the proletarians, led by men of great ability. It was +the democratic movement. It abhorred both the idea of feudal +prerogative in government, as expressed by king and noble, and the +vulgar trade patriotism, as expressed by the National Liberals, the +bourgeoisie. It took its inspiration from France and its example from +England. From France came the political platitudes of equality and +liberty with which we are familiar in America; from England, the +example of strongly organized trade unions. In Germany these two +movements, economic and political, were blended into one. + +Not that the workingman's movement was a unity. Schultze-Delitsch, the +founder of the German co-operative movement, contended that labor +should keep out of politics and devote itself to economic activities +alone. Rodbertus, the distinguished economist, who was potent in +shaping economic and political thought in Germany, wrote Lassalle, +when he was entreated to join the brilliant agitator's propaganda, +that he could "tolerate no political agitation which would excite the +working classes against the existing executive power."[6] + +There was no unity in the theories of the workingman's movement. The +first organizations, the "Workingmen's Associations," were founded +soon after 1848, as soon as the laws gave a limited right of +association to the working class. The government looked with suspicion +on every political act of labor, and especially upon organizations for +political purposes. The ban of the law was put upon those +organizations in July, 1854, and the right of public meeting was +greatly restricted; police autonomy increased, giving them arbitrary +power to stop meetings; and the right of free press was virtually +denied. Democracy became a movement of silent intrigue and occasional +rough outbreak. + +At this juncture a new political party was organized, to absorb what +was "legal" in the democratic workingman's movement and what was truly +liberal in the National Liberal Party. The new party was called +Progressist ("Fortschrittler"). It was a German party, devoted to the +Manchester doctrine: Free commerce, free trade, free press, free +speech; freedom of expression in every phase of human activity. It was +_laissez-faire_ to the uttermost plunged into the reactionary mass of +German politics. The economic issue became freedom of contract +_versus_ feudal status; the political issue, freedom of ballot +_versus_ hereditary prerogative. + +The new party began to appeal for the workingman's support. Their lure +of free speech and freedom of organization was not without effect. The +older workingmen, who were not familiar with the teachings of Marx and +Engels, and who had not even read Weitling's communistic +idealizations, were brought, in some numbers, into the new party. + +The younger and more radical element in the workingmen's clubs were +restless. In 1862 some of them had visited the International +Exposition in London and had talked with Marx. The fire of the +"International" was kindled. A movement for calling a national +workingman's convention was started among these radicals. The +Progressists tried to check the agitation, saying that every effort +should be directed toward establishing a new Constitution. But it was +in vain. In Leipsic a group of radicals seceded from the Workingman's +Union (Arbeiter Bildungs-Verein), and formed a new organization, which +they called "Vorwaerts" (Progress). These now invited Lassalle to +address them on his views of the labor situation. + +The movement was opportune, and Lassalle's answer is the basic +document of present-day Social Democracy.[7] + +There is no salvation for the workingman except through "political +freedom," he says. This freedom demands laws, and to secure laws +united action is essential. They must be powerful enough to get laws +to their liking. This power they will not get by being an appendix to +the Progressists, for they are dominated by a trade doctrine, not by +altruistic ideals for the oppressed. + +With a clearness that has not been excelled, he showed the dependence +of economic upon political power and influence. His economic program +was none other than Louis Blanc's state-subsidized workshops. It made +no great impression and soon faded away. But his bold plan of a +workingman's party fighting fiercely for democracy, and for the +betterment of the "normal conditions of the entire working classes," +has been developed to surprising perfection. + +The state, he says, must be the instrument of their power, not the +object of their striving. They are in politics, not as politicians, +but as proletarians. "The state is nothing but the great organization, +the all-embracing association of the working classes." No "sustaining +and helping hand" will be their guide. Political supremacy is the +"only way out of the desert." And how win the state? There is only one +way: through universal suffrage, democracy. "Universal suffrage is not +only your political but also your social foundation principle, the +condition precedent of all social help. It is the only means for +bettering the material conditions of the working classes." + +Cut loose from Rodbertus economically, and from the Progressists +politically, Lassalle was invited to take the leadership of the new +movement, which from the start was political rather than economic. He +aimed to organize the German workingmen into a great national party, +so powerful that it could control governments, make laws, and demand +obedience. But it was slow work, and to the fiery spirit of Lassalle +its snail's pace was exasperating. It provoked him into violence of +speech which led him everywhere into the courts and into constant +altercations with the Crown's solicitors. + +His powerful personality and unusually active mind made a profound +impression everywhere. At the last conference of his association which +he attended he claimed the Bishop of Mayence and the King of Prussia +as converts. The Bishop, Baron von Ketteler, was indeed turning toward +Socialism, but not Lassalle's political Socialism. He was the founder +of that Christian Socialism which has made the Catholic Church in +South Germany and the Rhineland a potent factor in the labor movement. +The King, whose conversion Lassalle boldly announced, had only +received a delegation of Silesian weavers who laid their grievances +before him and were promised the royal sympathy. + +However, Lassalle and Bismarck had formed a general liking for each +other, and the great minister received from the brilliant agitator +many suggestions which he later embodied in his state insurance laws. +Both Bismarck and Lassalle believed in the power of the state for the +amelioration of social conditions. They met several times at the +Chancellor's solicitation, and Bismarck disclosed their conversations +to the Reichstag, on the insistence of Bebel, when the insurance bills +were under discussion. The Chancellor expressed his admiration for the +virility of the Socialist's mind and said he believed Lassalle +perfectly sincere in his purpose.[8] + +Lassalle did not live to see his General Workingmen's Association +("Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeitsverein") attain political power. He was +killed in a duel over a love affair August 31, 1864. His brilliant +campaign for democracy had resulted in a petty organization of 4,610 +members. + +Lassalle's influence is increasing every year. His death-day is +celebrated by the German Socialists (Lassalle Feier). The present-day +German movement is Lassallian rather than Marxian.[9] + +In a letter to Rodbertus, February, 1864, Lassalle says that he aimed +to show the workingman "how identical the economic and the political +forces are. Every separation of them is an abstraction, and I believe +that uniting the two is the principal potency which I can give to the +cause." + + +II + +The little handful was soon rent by internal strife and threatened +with utter extinction, both by police aggression and by Marxian +competition. The year Lassalle died the International Workingman's +Association was organized and agitation began in Germany under the +leadership of William Liebknecht, a friend and disciple of Marx. +Liebknecht was the scholar of the early Social Democratic group. He +possessed a university education, was a revolutionist in 1848, a +fugitive in Switzerland and England until 1862. His foreign sojourn +did not mellow his natural dogmatism; on the contrary, his long +intercourse with Marx in London hardened his orthodoxy. He was a +powerful polemist. However, alone he could not have organized a +national movement. He did not possess the personal traits that lure. +He made a notable convert when he won August Bebel, a Saxon +woodturner, to his cause. "I was Saul and became Paul," Bebel said to +me. The words are not inapt: his power is Pauline. Lie has been +persecuted and imprisoned, has written speeches and epistles, has +made many missionary journeys, and kept constantly in intimate touch +with every local phase of his propaganda. His imprisonments have +undermined his health, but they have not diminished his mental vigor; +and more than once the Iron Chancellor winced under his ferocious +assaults. + +Liebknecht and Bebel were more advanced than the Workingmen's +Association, which now had fallen under the leadership of Schweitzer, +an able but dissolute disciple of Lassalle. The two organizations +fought each other as rivals. The international wing, under Liebknecht +and Bebel, in 1869, organized the Democratic Workingmen's Party at +Eisenach, and were called "Eisenachers." Their program is of great +importance. It stated that the first object of the new party was the +attaining of the free state (Freier Volkstaat). This state Liebknecht +explained at his trial in 1872: "The idea of a free state is +interpreted by a majority of our party to mean a republic; but does +this necessarily imply that it is to be forcibly introduced? No one +has expressed an opinion as to how it is to be introduced. Let a +majority of the people be won for our opinions, and the state is of +our opinions, for the people are the state. A state without a king is +conceivable, but not a state without a people. The government is the +servant of the people." + +This free state, the program continues, can be won only by political +freedom, and political freedom is the forerunner of economic freedom. +Demand is therefore made for universal, equal, direct suffrage, with +secret ballot, for all men twenty years of age, in both parliamentary +and municipal elections. Other leading demands were: direct +legislation; the abolition of all privileges, whether of birth, +wealth, or religion; the establishment of militia in place of standing +armies; the separation of Church and state; the secularizing of +education; the extension of free schools and compulsory education; +reform of the courts and extension of the jury system; abolition of +all laws restricting freedom of speech, of press, and of association; +the establishment of a normal workday; the restriction of female, and +abolition of child, labor; the abolition of indirect taxes; the +establishment of an income and inheritance tax; the extension of state +credit for co-operative enterprises. + +This program sounds very modern and moderate. But its expositors were +not restrained to moderation, and when the congress met at Dresden in +1871 it adopted a resolution extolling the French Commune. A great +deal of popular sympathy was lost through this action. + +Meanwhile the Lassalle party was slowly gaining ground. In 1875 the +two parties united at Gotha. There were 9,000 members in the +Liebknecht party and 15,000 members in the Lassalle party. Here was +adopted the first program of the united German Social Democracy. Its +economics are thoroughly Marxian in theory and are only slightly +tinged by the teachings of Lassalle and Schultze-Delitsch in practice. +Labor, it affirmed, was the source of all wealth and was held under +duress by the capitalistic class. Its only emancipation could come +from the social ownership of the means of production. The way to this +goal could be found through productive copartnership with state aid. +The political part of the program embraced the demands made at +Eisenach. + +With its unity, a new vigor took possession of the party. Its +organization was perfected; 145 agitators were in the field; its +twenty-three newspapers had over 100,000 subscribers. This meant +increased police vigilance. All the leaders served terms in prison, +newspapers were suppressed, organizations dissolved, houses searched, +agitators ordered to leave the country. The government did everything +in its power to suppress the movement. Every act of oppression +popularized the Democracy among the proletarians. The blood of the +martyrs bore the usual harvest. + +The new empire had been launched amidst the greatest enthusiasm, +shared by every one except the discontented workingmen who had so +stoutly fought for entire political freedom. The new imperial +parliament was thrown open to them because Bismarck had found it +necessary to include universal suffrage in the constitution of the +Reichstag. In 1871 the Socialists elected two members, and the feudal +lords beheld the novel sight of workingmen sitting with them in the +imperial Diet. The voting strength of the party was 124,665. This was +increased to 351,952 in 1874, when nine members were elected. In 1877 +the party cast 493,288 votes, electing twelve members. This was cause +for alarm. The party had now reached fifth place in point of votes +among the fourteen parties or factions that contended for power in +Germany, and eighth place in point of members elected. But in point of +agitation, of perfervid speech and pointed interpellation, it ranked +easily first. Its delegation in 1877 included Bebel and Liebknecht, +now out of jail, and Most, afterwards the notorious Anarchist in +America, and Hasselman and Bracke, who were not modest in the +expression of their opinions. These representatives of democracy let +no occasion pass to embarrass the government with peppery questions. + +Bismarck was slowly evolving a scheme for checking the Socialist +growth and satisfying the demands of labor for better conditions. Both +revolved around the pivot of patriarchal omnipotence. The suppression +was to be accomplished by force; the gratification, by paternal rigor. + + +III + +He addressed himself first to repression. He entreated the governments +of Europe in 1871 to unite in stamping out Socialism, but he received +no encouragement. In 1872 Spain, exasperated by the revolutionary +outbreaks, addressed a circular to the Powers, asking their +co-operation to check the growth of the revolutionary element. +Bismarck was ready. But Lord Granville, for England, said the +traditions of his country were favorable to an unrestricted right of +residence for foreigners as long as they violated no law of their +host. This ended the international attempt. Next (in 1874) Bismarck +attempted to tighten the gag on the press, but the Reichstag refused +to sanction his proposals. Then he fell back on existing legislation +and with great vigor enforced the statutes against revolutionary +activity. The police were given wide latitude in interpreting these +laws. + +Several acts of wanton violence now occurred which brought about a +sudden change of temper in the people. On May 11, 1878, while driving +in Unter den Linden, Emperor William was shot at by a young man. The +Emperor was not struck by the bullets, but the shots were none the +less effective in rousing public indignation. Popular condemnation was +turned against the Social Democrats because photographs of Liebknecht +and Bebel were found on the person of the intended assassin. Two days +later Bismarck introduced the anti-Socialist laws. They were debated +in the Reichstag, while Most was being tried for libeling the clergy. +But the Reichstag was not ready to go to the lengths of the +Chancellor's desire, and by a vote of 251 to 57 rejected his bill. +Here the matter would have rested had not a second attempt been made +on the life of the aged Emperor. This occurred on June 2, and this +time the Emperor was seriously wounded. + +Naturally the indignation of the nation was thoroughly aroused. In the +midst of the excitement, a general election was held, and Bismarck +won. His own peculiar Conservatives increased their delegation from 40 +to 59, the Free Conservatives from 38 to 57; the National Liberals +reduced their number from 128 to 99, the Liberals from 13 to 10, the +Progressists from 35 to 26. The Socialists retained nine seats, losing +three; their vote fell from 493,288 to 437,158. + +Immediately a repressive law was introduced. It was called "a law +against the publicly dangerous activities of the Social Democracy" +(Gesetz gegen die gemein-gefaehrlichen Bestrebungen der +Sozial-Demokratie).[10] + +Bismarck prefaced his law with a very clever prologue (Begruendung). In +simple language he arraigned the Social Democracy as being, first, +anti-social, because it aims at the modern system of production, and +does so, not through "humanitarian motives," but through revolution; +second, as anti-patriotic, because it makes "the most odious attacks" +on the German Empire. "The law of preservation therefore compels the +state and society to oppose the Social Democratic movement with +decision.... True, thought cannot be repressed by external compulsion; +the movements of minds can only be overcome in intellectual combat. +But when movements take wrong pathways and threaten destruction, the +means for their growth can and should be taken away by legal means. +The Socialist agitation, as carried on for years, is a continual +appeal to violence and to the passions of the multitudes, for the +purpose of subverting the social order. The state _can_ check such a +movement by depriving Social Democracy of its principal means of +propaganda, and by destroying its organization; and it _must_ do so +unless it is willing to surrender its existence, and unless the +conviction is to spread amongst the people that either the state is +impossible or the aims of Social Democracy are justifiable.[11] + +The law was passed against the vehement protest of the Socialists. +They disclaimed any connection with the dastardly attempts on the life +of the aged Emperor. Bebel, in an impressive speech, declared that +while Socialists do "wish to abolish the present form of private +property in the factors of production, labor, and land," they had +never been guilty of destroying a penny's worth of property. Nor did +they aim to do so. It was the system of private ownership of great +properties, that enabled a few to oppress the many, that they were +fighting. And here they were in good company: Rodbertus, Rosher, +Wagner, Schaeffle, Brentano, Schmoller, and a host of other scholars +and economists, Bebel affirmed, were Socialistic in their tendencies. + +Bismarck was unyielding. He said he would welcome any real effort to +alleviate harsh conditions. But the Socialists were a party of +destruction and were enemies to mankind. + +The leader of the Progressists said, "I fear Social Democracy more +under this law than without it." The vote of 221 to 149 in favor of +the law showed the grim Chancellor's sway over the assembly. + +The law made clean work of it. It forbade all organizations which +promulgated views controvening the existing social and political +order. It prohibited the collecting of money for campaign purposes; +put the ban on meetings, processions, and demonstrations; on +publications of all kinds, confiscating the existing stock of +prohibited books; and created a status akin to martial law by endowing +the police authorities with the power of declaring a locality in a +"minor state of siege," and exercising arbitrary authority for one +year. + +A commission was appointed by the Chancellor to carry out these +inquisitions, and the war between Socialistic democracy and medieval +autocracy was on. Its events are instructive to every government; its +sequel a warning to all nations.[12] + +The government organized its commission; the Socialists met at Hamburg +to consider the situation. They determined to perfect their +organization, to promulgate a secret propaganda, and to use the +tribune in the Reichstag as the one open pulpit whence they could +proclaim their wrongs. + +The government promptly declared Berlin in a "minor state of siege." +In the course of a few months about fifty agitators were expelled, +bales of literature confiscated, organizations dissolved, meetings +dismissed, gatherings prohibited, and the Socialist agitation pushed +into cellars and back rooms. + +But there was one tribune which the Chancellor could not close--the +Reichstag tribune. Here Bebel and Liebknecht talked to the nation, and +their speeches were given circulation through the records of debate. +Prince Bismarck, in his extremity, tried to muzzle the Socialist +members and expunge their words from the records; but the members of +the Reichstag refused this extreme measure. Then Bismarck asked +permission to imprison Hasselman and expel Fritzche from Berlin. These +two deputies had been especially vituperative in their attacks upon +the law. The Chancellor claimed that the famous Section 28 of the +anti-Socialist law authorizing the minor state of siege extended to +members of the Reichstag. But the House, under the vehement leadership +of Professor Gneist, the distinguished constitutional lawyer, refused +to sanction this dangerous measure on the ground that the thirty-first +article of the federal Constitution exempted members of the Reichstag +from arrest. + +Bismarck soon had another plan for ridding himself of the Socialist +nettles in the Reichstag. He introduced a bill creating a +parliamentary court chosen by the House, who should have the power to +punish any member guilty of parliamentary indiscretion. The bill also +empowered the House to prevent the publication of any of its +proceedings if it desired. The Reichstag also refused to sanction this +measure. + +The assassination of Czar Alexander of Russia in March, 1881, gave +Bismarck the opportunity to renew his efforts to quell Socialism and +Anarchism by international concert. He asked Russia to take the +initiative, and a conference was called at Brussels to which all the +leading states were invited. Germany and Austria eagerly accepted, +France made her participation dependent on England's action, and +England refused to participate. Bismarck next tried to form an Eastern +league, but Austria failed him and he had to content himself with an +extradition treaty with Russia. + +Bismarck now fell back on his Socialist law. He enforced it with +vigor, extending the minor state of siege to Altona, Leipsic, Hamburg, +and Harburg. His commission reported yearly. Its words were not +reassuring. In 1882 it said: "The situation of the Social Democratic +movement in Germany and other civilized countries is unfortunately not +such as to encourage the hope that it is being suppressed or +weakened." The Minister of the Interior said to the Reichstag: "It is +beyond doubt that it has not been possible by means of the law of +October, 1878, to wipe Social Democracy from the face of the earth, or +even to strike it to the center."[13] + +The duration of the law had been fixed at two years. At the end of +each term it was renewed, each time with diminishing majorities. +Meanwhile the rigor of the law was not diminished. The minor state of +siege was extended to other centers, including Stettin and Offenbach. +Meetings were suppressed everywhere, and dismissed often for the most +trivial reasons. The police were given the widest powers and exercised +them in the narrowest spirit.[14] "A hateful system of persecution, +espionage, and aggravation was established, and its victims were the +classes most susceptible to disaffection."[15] + +On the unique _index expurgatorius_ of the government were over a +thousand titles, including the works of the high priests of the party, +the poetry of Herwegh, the romances of Von Schweitzer, the photographs +of the favorite Socialist saints, over eighty newspapers and sixty +foreign journals. Bales of interdicted literature were smuggled in +from Switzerland to feed the morose and disaffected mind of the German +workingman. + +I can find no record of how many arrests were made. Bebel reported to +the party convention in 1890 that 1,400 publications of all kinds had +been interdicted and that 1,500 persons had been imprisoned, serving +an aggregate of over one thousand years.[16] Every trial was a +scattering of the seeds, and every imprisoned or exiled comrade +became a hero. The awkwardness of the government was matched against +the adroitness of the propagandists. A good deal of terror was spread +among the people, stories of sudden uprisings and bloody revolutions +were told. Even the National Liberals lost their heads at times. But +Bebel was always superbly cool. This woodturner developed into one of +the ablest political generals of his time. + +Persecuted and pressed into underground channels of activity the party +persisted in growing. In 1880 it rid itself of the violent +revolutionary faction led by Most and Hasselman. + +In the elections of 1881 the Socialists gained three deputies, but +their popular vote was reduced over 125,000. In the next election, +1884, they won twenty-four seats and polled 549,990 votes; two out of +six seats in Berlin were won, and one-tenth of the voters in the land +were rallied under the red flag. The police were alarmed and the law +was enforced with renewed energy. + +With this powerful backing Liebknecht asked the repeal of the +"Explosives Act." A violent debate took place. Liebknecht said: "I +will tell you this: we do not appeal to you for sympathy. The result +is all the same to us, for we shall win one way or another. Do your +worst, for it will be only to our advantage, and the more madly you +carry on the sooner you will come to an end. The pitcher goes to the +well until it breaks."[17] + +Bebel roused all the fury of Bismarck when he warned him that if +Russian methods were imported there would be murder. In July of this +year (1886) at Freiburg occurred the memorable trial of nine +Socialist leaders, including Bebel, Dietz, Von Vollmar, Auer, Frohme, +and Viereck, charged with participating in an illegal organization. +All were sentenced to imprisonment for terms varying from six to nine +months. + +Preceding the election of 1887 the Reichstag had been dissolved on the +army bill. The patriotic issue, always effective, was made the +universal appeal by the government. In spite of this the Social +Democrats polled 763,128 votes, a gain of 213,128. Saxony had +succeeded in holding down the vote to 150,000; but in Prussia the +result was startling; in Berlin forty per cent. of the voters were +Social Democrats. With all their voting strength the party elected +only eleven members to the Reichstag. With proportional representation +they would have elected forty. The Bismarck Conservatives returned +forty-one members with fewer votes than the Socialists. + +Finally in 1890 came the end of this farce. It was also the end of the +chancellorship of Bismarck. His old Emperor had died, and a young and +daring hand was at the helm. Bismarck proposed to embody the +anti-Socialist laws permanently in the penal code. This might have +passed; but he also proposed to exile offenders, not merely from the +territory under minor siege, but from the Fatherland. This +expatriation the Assembly would not brook and the Reichstag was +prorogued. + +The Socialists left parliament with eleven members, they returned with +thirty-five; they left with 760,000 mandates, they returned with +1,500,000, more votes than any other party could claim, and on a +proportional basis eighty-five seats would have been theirs. Bebel +was justified in saying in the Reichstag, "The Chancellor thought he +had us, but we have him." + +When midnight sounded on the last day of the existence of the +oppressive law, great throngs of workingmen gathered in the streets of +the larger cities, to sing their Marseillaise, cheer their victory, +and wave their red flag. Now they could breathe again. + +For the first time in thirteen years they met in national convention +on German soil. The veteran Liebknecht, recounting their hardships and +sacrifices, raised his voice in jubilant phrase: "Our opponents did +not spare us, and we, too proud and too strong to prove cowardly, +struck blow for blow, and so we have conquered the odious law."[18] + + +IV + +During the enforcement of the anti-Socialist law Bismarck began the +second part of his policy. He would repress with one hand, with the +other he would placate. In 1883 he introduced his sickness insurance +bill, followed in 1884-85 by his accident insurance, and in 1889 by +his old-age pension act.[19] + +It is not unnatural that these measures were opposed by the Social +Democrats. They had no love for the Chancellor. The Dresden congress +decided to "reject state Socialism unconditionally so long as it is +inaugurated by Prince Bismarck and is designed to support the +government system." Bismarck "had sown too much wind not to reap a +whirlwind."[20] He had planted hatred in the hearts of the workingmen; +he could not hope to reap respect and affection. + +Bismarck believed that Socialism existed because the laboring man was +not sufficiently interested in the state. He had no property, and was +not enlightened enough to appreciate the intangible benefits of +sovereignty. In 1880 German trade had reached a low ebb. Agriculture +had fallen into decay. German peasants and workingmen were emigrating +to America by the tens of thousands. Bismarck promulgated his +industrial insurance, first, to placate the workingman; second, to +restore prosperity to German industry. + +As a result of his policy Germany is to-day the most "socialized" +state in Europe. Here a workingman may begin life attended by a +physician paid by the state; he is christened by a state clergyman; he +is taught the rudiments of learning and his handicraft by the state. +He begins work under the watchful eye of a state inspector, who sees +that the safeguards to health and limb are strictly observed. He is +drafted by the state into the army, and returns from the rigor of this +discipline to his work. The state gives him license to marry, +registers his place of residence, follows him from place to place, and +registers the birth of his children. If he falls ill, his suffering is +assuaged by the knowledge that his wife and children are cared for and +that his expenses will be paid during illness; and he may spend his +convalescent days in a luxurious state hospital. If he falls victim to +an accident the dread of worklessness is removed by the ample +insurance commanded by the state even if his injury permanently +incapacitates him. If he should unfortunately become that most pitiful +of all men, the man out of work, the state and the city will do all in +their power to find employment for him. If he wanders from town to +town in search of work the city has its shelter (Herberge) to welcome +him; if he wishes to move to another part of his town the municipal +bureau will be glad to help him find a suitable house, or may even +loan him money for building a house of his own. If he is in difficulty +the city places a lawyer at his disposal. If he is in a dispute with +his employer the government provides a court of arbitration. If he is +sued or wishes to sue his employer, he does so in the workingmen's +court (Gewerbe Gericht). If he wishes recreation, there is the city +garden; if he wishes entertainment let him go to the public concert; +if he wishes to improve his mind there are libraries and free +lectures. And if by rare chance, through the grace of the state's +strict sanitary regulations and by thrift and care, he reaches the age +of seventy, he will find the closing days of his long life eased by a +pension, small, very small, to be sure, but yet enough to make him +more welcome to the relatives or friends who are charged with +administering to his wants.[21] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] For a comprehensive description of the German government, see +DAWSON, _Germany and the Germans_, Vol. I. + +[2] Liebknecht said, in the Breslau congress of the Social-Democratic +party: "Lassalle is the man in whom the modern organized German labor +movement had its origin."--"Sozial-Demokratische Partei-Tag," +_Protokoll_, 1895, p. 66. + +[3] For sketch of Lassalle and his work see KIRKUP, _History of +Socialism_, pp. 72 et seq.; ELY, _French and German Socialism of Modern +Times_, p. 189; RAE, _Contemporary Socialism_, pp. 93 ff. For an +extended account, see DAWSON, _German Socialism and Ferdinand +Lassalle_, London, 1888. GEORG BRANDES, _Ferdinand Lassalle_, +originally in Danish, has been translated into German, 1877, and into +English, 1911. Also see FRANZ MEHRING. _Die Deutsche Sozial-Demokratie: +Ihre Geschichte und ihre Lehre_; BERNHARD BECKER, _Geschichte der +Arbeiter Agitation Ferdinand Lassalles_, Brunswick, 1874: this volume +contains a good detailed account of Lassalle's work. + +[4] Published in Zuerich, 1863: _Macht und Recht_. + +[5] _Macht und Recht_, p. 13. + +[6] Letter dated April 22, 1863. + +[7] "Oeffentliches Antwort-schreiben an das Zentral Committee zur +Berufung eines Allgemeinen Deutschen Arbeiter Congress zu Leipzig," +first published in Zurich, 1863. + +[8] In the Reichstag, September 16, 1878. + +[9] When Bernstein collected Lassalle's works he wrote a sketch of the +agitator's life as a preface. A number of years later, 1904, he +published his second sketch, _Ferdinand Lassalle and His Significance +to the Working Classes_, in which he shifted his position and assumed +a Lassallian tone. This change of mind is typical of the Social +Democratic movement toward the Lassallian idea. + +[10] The law is reprinted in MEHRING, _Die Deutsche +Sozial-Demokratie_. + +[11] See DAWSON, _German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle_, pp. 251 +ff., for a discussion of this law. + +[12] A good description of the working of this law is found in DAWSON, +_Germany and the Germans_, Vol. II, Chap. XXXVII. + +[13] December 14, 1882. + +[14] "At a large Berlin meeting a speaker innocently used the word +commune (parish), whereupon the police officer in control, thinking +only of the Paris Commune, at once dismissed the assembly, and a +thousand persons had to disperse into the streets disappointed and +embittered.... 'Militarism is a terrible mistake,' said a speaker at +an election meeting, which legally should have been beyond police +power, and at these words, further proceedings were forbidden and +several persons were arrested. The Socialist deputy Bebel, in +addressing some workingmen on economical questions, said that 'In the +textile industry it happens that while the wife is working at the +loom, the husband sits at home and cooks dinner,' and the meeting was +dismissed immediately."--DAWSON, _Germany and the Germans_, Vol. II, +pp. 190-1. + +[15] DAWSON, _supra cit._, p. 192. + +[16] _Protokoll des Partei-Tages_, 1890, p. 30. + +[17] Reichstag debates, April 2, 1886. + +[18] _Protokoll des Partei-Tages_, 1890, pp. 11-12. + +[19] For discussion of German industrial insurance, see W.H. DAWSON, +_Bismarck and State Socialism_, also J. ELLIS BARKER, _Modern +Germany_. + +[20] R. MEYER, _Der Emancipations-Kampf des Vierten Standes_, p. 475. + +[21] See Appendix for table showing cost of industrial insurance. + +In Germany the state owns railways, canals, river transportation, +harbors, telephones, telegraph, and parcels post. Banks, insurance, +savings banks, and pawnshops are conducted by the state. +Municipalities are landlords of vast estates, they are capitalists +owning street cars, gas plants, electric light plants, theaters, +markets, warehouses. They have hospitals for the sick, shelters for +the homeless, soup-houses for the hungry, asylums for the weak and +unfortunate, nurseries for the babies, homes for the aged, and +cemeteries for the dead. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND LABOR UNIONS + + +I + +Before we proceed to describe the present organization of the Social +Democratic Party it will be necessary to say a few words about the +organization of labor in Germany.[1] There are four kinds of labor +unions: the Social Democrat or free unions, the Hirsch-Duncker or +radical unions, the Christian or Roman Catholic unions, and the +Independent unions. All except the last group have special political +significance; and only the Independents confine themselves purely to +economic activity. The Socialist unions are called "Reds," the +Independents "Yellow," the Christians "Black." + +The Hirsch-Duncker unions were the first in the field. They were +organized in 1868 by Dr. Hirsch and Herr Franz Duncker, for the +purpose of winning the labor vote for the Progressists. Dr. Hirsch +went to England for his model, but the political bias he imparted to +the unions was very un-English. They have grown less political and +more neutral in every aspect, probably because political radicalism +has dwindled, and because they contain a great many of the most +skilled of German workmen, the machinists. They are a sort of +aristocracy of labor, prefer peace to war, and hesitate long before +striking. + +The Christian unions are strongest in the Rhine valley and the +Westphalian mining districts. They are the offspring of Bishop +Kettler's workingmen's associations, organized to keep the laborer in +harmony with the Roman Catholic Church. They have undergone a great +deal of change since the days of the distinguished bishop, and are now +modeled after strict trade-union principles. They retain their +connection with the Church and the Center Party (the Roman Catholic +group in the Reichstag). For some years there has been a restlessness +among these unions. The more militant members are protesting against +the influence of the clergy in union affairs, and demand that laborers +lead labor. + +The "Yellow" unions stand in bad repute among the others. They are for +peace at any price. Their membership is largely composed of the +engineering trades; and they are usually under contract not to strike, +but settle their differences by arbitration. The employing firms +contribute liberally to their union funds. + +By far the largest unions are the Social Democratic or "Free" unions. +They embrace over eighty per cent. of all organized labor. Their +growth has been very rapid during the last twenty years. In 1890, when +the Socialist law was lifted, they numbered a little over 250,000; in +1910 they numbered nearly 2,000,000. + +As organizations, the Social Democratic unions possess all the +perfection of detail and painstaking craftsmanship for which the +Germans are justly celebrated.[2] Not the minutest detail is omitted; +everything is done to contribute to the solidarity of the working +classes. The theory of the German labor movement is, that physical +environment is the first desideratum. A well-housed, well-groomed, +well-fed workman is a better fighter than a hungry, ragged man; and it +is for fighting that the unions exist. The bed-rock of the German +workingman's theory is the maxim: "First, be a good craftsman, and all +other things will be added unto you." + +These unions strive to do everything within their power to make, +first, a good workman; second, a comfortable workman. This naturally, +without artificial stimulants, brings the solidarity, the class +patriotism, which is the source of the zeal and energy of these great +fighting machines. In all of the larger towns they own clubhouses +(Gewerkschaftshaeuser), which are the centers of incessant activity. +They contain assembly halls, restaurants, committee rooms, and +lodgings for journeymen and apprentices (Wander-bursche) seeking work. +There are night classes, public lectures, educational excursions, and +circulating libraries. In Berlin the workingmen have organized a +theater.[3] + +The workingman has a genuine sympathy for his union. It enlists his +loyalty as much as his country enlists his patriotism. He finds social +and intellectual intercourse, sympathy and responsiveness in his +union. He saves from his frugal wages to support the union and to +swell the funds in its war-chest. He is never allowed to forget that +he is first a workingman, and owes his primary duties to his family +and his union.[4] + +This vast and perfect organization of labor has a complete +understanding with the Social Democratic party, but it is not an +integral part of the party. When the unions began to revive, after the +repeal of the anti-Socialist law, there was a short and severe +struggle between the party and the unions for control. The victory of +the unions for complete autonomy was decisive. Since then good feeling +and harmony have prevailed. The governing committees of the two bodies +meet for consultation, the powerful press of the party fights the +union's battles, and often party headquarters are in the union's +clubhouse. They are virtually two independent branches of the same +movement. + +In the national triennial convention of the Social Democratic unions +at Hamburg, 1908, a speaker said: "We can say with truth that to-day +there are no differences of a fundamental nature between the two great +branches [the Social Democratic unions and the Social Democratic +Party] of the labor movement."[5] + +Bebel has said of the relation between the unions and the party: +"Every workingman should belong to the union, and should be a party +man; not merely as a laboring man, but as a class-conscious +(Classenbewustsein) laboring man; as a member of a governmental and a +social organization which treats and maltreats him as a laboring +man."[6] This is the class spirit of Socialism, carried into practical +effect. + +In Germany, then, the vast bulk of organized labor is co-operating +voluntarily with the Social Democratic Party. + + +II + +And what is the present organization of the Social Democratic Party? +It is the most perfect party machine in the world. It is organized +with the most scrupulous regard for details and oiled with the +exuberance of a class spirit that is emerging from its narrowness and +is finding room for its expanding powers in the practical affairs of +national and municipal life. The only approach to it is the faultless, +silently moving, highly polished mechanism devised by the English +gentry to control the political destinies of the British Empire. Our +American parties are crude compared with the noiseless efficacy of +the English machine, or the remorseless yet enthusiastic and entirely +effective operation of the German Social Democracy. + +Every detail of the workingman's life is embraced in this remarkable +political organization. Every village and commune has its party +vigilance committee. A juvenile department brings up the youth in the +principles of the Social Democracy. The party press includes +seventy-six daily papers, some of them brilliantly edited, a humorous +weekly, and several monthly magazines. This press co-operates with the +trade journals. Some of these--notably the masons' journal and the +ironworkers' journal--have a vast circulation, numbering many hundred +thousand subscribers. + +The party propaganda is stupendous. In 1910 over 14,000 meetings were +held, and over 33,000,000 circulars and 2,800,000 brochures were +distributed. Every workingman, every voter, was personally solicited +during the campaign just closed (January, 1912). Committees and +sub-committees were everywhere in this national beehive of workers. +Women and children were enlisted in the work. + +The national party is controlled by an executive committee, elected by +the national convention, who govern its many activities with the +gravity of a college faculty, the astuteness of a lawyer, and the +frugality of a tradesman. They issue annual reports, as full of +statistics and involved analyses as a government report. And they have +no patience for party stars who are ambitious to move in the orbit of +their own individual greatness. + +Because the keynote of the party is solidarity, which is a synonym for +discipline, "We have no factions, we are one. Personally any Social +Democrat may believe as he pleases and do as he pleases. But when it +comes to political activity, we insist that he act with the party." +These are the words in which one of the younger leaders of the party +explained their unity to me. + +In 1890, when the Bavarian rebels were under discussion in the +national congress, Bebel told the delegates that "a fighting party +such as our Social Democracy can only achieve its aims when every +member observes the strictest discipline."[7] + +Evidences of party discipline are not lacking. The Prussian +temperament is rough, dogmatic, implacable; the South German is +mellow, yielding, kind. The two temperaments often clash. The one +loves individual action; the other, military unity. The southern +Socialist votes for his local budgets in town council and diet, and he +receives the chastisement of the northern disciplinarian with mellow +good-nature. But solidarity there is, whatever the price; and a +class-consciousness, a brotherhood: they call each other +"Comrades."[8] + +The membership of the party includes all those who pay party dues and +will oblige themselves to party fealty, to do any drudgery demanded of +them.[9] In six parliamentary districts the membership equals thirty +per cent. of the Social Democratic vote cast; in twenty-four other +districts there is a membership of over 10,000 per district.[10] It is +difficult to say what proportion of the members of the union are +members of the party. The vast bulk of the party members are laboring +men, and no doubt the majority of them are members of the union. + +In the last imperial elections (January, 1912) this party cast +4,250,000 votes, almost one-fourth of the entire federal electorate, +and elected 110 members to the Reichstag, over one-fourth of the +entire membership.[11] In nineteen state legislatures the Social +Democrats have 186 members, in 396 city councils 1,813 members, and in +2,009 communal councils 5,720 members.[12] + +The supreme authority of the party is the annual national convention, +called "congress." Here detailed reports are made by the various +committees; and the parliamentary delegation make an elaborate +statement, detailing every official act of the group in the Reichstag. +Everything is discussed by everybody; the speeches made by the members +in the Reichstag, the opinions of the party editors in their daily +editorials, the party finances, everything is freely criticised. The +most insignificant member has the same privilege of criticism as the +party czars; and the criticism often becomes naively personal. No +doubt the party patriotism is largely fed by this frank, fearless, +aboveboard airing of grievances, this freedom from "boss rule." Every +one has his opportunity, and this robs the plotter and backbiter of +his venom. + +Having listened to the faultfinder, they vote; and having voted, they +rarely relent. When a decision is reached, the members are expected to +abide by it faithfully and cheerfully. They make short work of +traitors.[13] + +Every year a detailed report on the imperial budget is read, showing +how the money is spent on armaments, on police, on courts, and every +other department of the empire; and how the money is raised. The +convention resolves itself into a school of public finance. This +analysis is sent broadcast, as a campaign document. So yearly a report +is read of the number of arrests made and the fines and penalties +ensuing, on account of _lese-majeste_ and other laws infringing upon +the liberty of the press and of speech. Also, every year the central +committee report, in great detail, every party activity in every +corner of the empire. A well-knit hegemony of party interest is +created. The mass is willing to listen to the individual, to bend to +the needs of the smallest commune. + +Throughout their frank discussions and involved debates there runs a +certain polysyllabic flavor that is characteristically German. They +often choose, a year in advance, some important national question, +such as the tariff, mining laws, the agrarian situation, and discuss +it in great detail, more like an academy of universal knowledge than a +political party. The learned blend their involved phraseology and +store of facts with the refreshing frankness and ignorance of the +unlearned. + + +III + +We will now return to the present activities of this party that was +born in revolution and nurtured by persecution. In order to +understand this activity, it is necessary to review the present +attitude of the government toward democracy and Socialism. The repeal +of the anti-Socialist law could not suddenly alter the spirit of +opposition. It merely changed the outward aspect of the opposition. + +The government indicates in many ways its distrust of Social +Democrats. No member of the party has ever been invited by the +government to a place of public honor and responsibility. Indeed, to +be a Social Democrat effectively closes the door against promotion in +civil life.[14] This silent hostility is not confined to political +offices and the civil service; it extends into the professions. Judges +and public physicians, pastors in the state church, teachers in the +public schools, professors in the great universities are included in +the ban. A pastor may be a "Christian Socialist," a professor may +nourish his "Socialism of the chair," and a judge or a government +engineer may be inclined toward far-reaching social experiment. But +with Social Democracy they must have absolutely nothing to do.[15] + +The government's attitude is based on the theory that the Social +Democrats are enemies of the monarchy, and are designing to overthrow +it and declare a republic the moment they get into power. The Kaiser, +on several public occasions, has expressed his distrust and +disapproval for this vast multitude of his subjects. A number of +years ago he is reported to have said that "the Social Democrats are a +band of persons who are unworthy of their fatherland" ("Eine Bande von +Menschen die ihres Vaterlands nicht wuerdig sind"). And more recently: +"The Social Democrats are a crowd of upstarts without a fatherland" +("Vaterlandslose Gesellen"). The Kaiser joined in the public rejoicing +over the check that had apparently been administered to the growth of +the Social Democracy by the elections of 1907, and in a speech +delivered to a throng of citizens gathered for jubilation in the +palace yard in Berlin, he said that the "Socialists have been ridden +down" ("niedergeritten"), a military figure of speech. + +Retaliation is not unnatural. The pictures of the Hohenzollerns and +the high functionaries of state and army do not adorn the walls of the +homes of the Social Democrats. There are seen the portraits of Marx +and Lassalle, Liebknecht and Bebel. The members of the party never +join in a public display of confidence in the government. They +exercise a petty tyranny over their neighbors. Instances are told of +shopkeepers who were compelled to yield to the boycott instituted +against them because they voted against the Social Democrats, and of +workmen coerced into joining the union. + +This feeling of bitterness is most clearly marked in Prussia. In +southern Germany a feeling of good will and co-operation is becoming +more marked every year. The King of Bavaria is not afraid to shake +hands with Von Vollmar. Some years ago a Bavarian railway employee was +elected to the Diet on the Social Democratic ticket, and his employer, +the state, gave him leave of absence to attend to his legislative +duties. In Baden the leader of the Social Democratic Party called at +the palace to present the felicitations of his comrades to the royal +family on the occasion of the birth of an heir. + +The principal immediate issue of the Social Democrats in Germany is +electoral reform. None of the states or provinces are on a genuinely +democratic electoral basis. In Saxony a new electoral law was passed +in 1909 which typifies the spirit of the entire country.[16] The +electorate is divided into four classes according to their income. The +result of the first election under this law in the city of Leipsic was +as follows: There were 172,800 votes cast by 79,928 voters. + + 32,576 voters in the one-vote class cast 32,576 votes + 20,323 " " " two- " " " 40,646 " + 8,538 " " " three- " " " 25,614 " + 18,491 " " " four- " " " 73,964 " + +There are ninety-one members in the Saxon Diet. The law provided that +only forty-three of these should be elected from the cities. The three +leading cities of Saxony, Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipsic, are strongholds +of Social Democracy, while the country districts are Conservative. The +Social Democrats feel that the property qualifications and the +distribution of the districts impose an unfair handicap against them. +In spite of these obstacles they elected so many deputies that they +were offered the vice-presidency of the Chamber of Deputies. The +offer, however, was conditioned upon their attending the annual +reception given by the King to the representatives. They had hitherto +refused to attend these royal functions and were not willing to +surrender for the sake of office.[17] + +The ancient free cities--Hamburg, Bremen, Luebeck--have election laws +as ancient and antiquated as their charters. In Luebeck a large +majority of the legislative body is elected by electors having an +income of over 2,000 marks a year. In Hamburg the nobles, higher +officials, etc., elect 40 representatives, the householders elect 40, +the large landholders elect 8, those citizens having an income of over +2,500 marks a year elect 48, those who have an income from 1,200 to +2,500 marks a year elect 24, those who have an income of less than +1,200 marks have no vote. In Bremen the various groups or kinds of +property are represented in the law-making body. Property, not the +person, is represented. + +Prussia is the special grievance of the Social Democrats. Here the +three-class system of voting prevails. The taxpayers are divided into +three classes, according to the amount of taxes paid, each class +paying one-third of the taxes. Each class chooses one-third of the +electors who name the members of the Prussian Diet. By this +arrangement the large property class virtually controls the +elections.[18] By this system the Social Democratic representation is +held down to 6 in a membership of 420. In 1909 the party polled +23-9/10 per cent. of the entire Prussian vote. Here again the +districts are so arranged that the majority of the members are elected +from the Conservative rural districts, while the cities, which are +strongholds of Social Democracy, must content themselves with a +minority, although nearly 60 per cent. of the population of Prussia is +urban. These examples are sufficient to indicate the general nature of +franchise legislation in Germany.[19] For the past several years +universal suffrage demonstrations have been held throughout the +empire. The general strike has not been used as a method of political +coercion. It is doubtful whether the German temperament is adapted to +that kind of warfare. Mass-meetings, however, and street +demonstrations are the favorite means of the propaganda. Sometimes +there are conflicts with the police, but these are diminishing in +number every year. The government has not diminished its vigilance, +and its jealous eyes are never averted from these demonstrations.[20] + +An incident occurred in March, 1910, which illustrates the temper of +the people and the government. A gigantic demonstration was announced, +to be held in Treptow Park, Berlin. The Police-president forbade the +meeting and had every street leading to the park carefully guarded. +One hundred and fifty thousand demonstrants met in the Thiergarten, in +the very heart of the city, and so secretly had the word been given, +so quietly was it executed, and so orderly was this vast throng of +workingman, that the police knew nothing of it until the meeting was +well under way. Permission for the Treptow meeting was not again +refused. + +The immediate issue, then, of the German Social Democracy is universal +suffrage. Lassalle's cry is more piercing to-day than when that +brilliant and erratic agitator uttered it: "Democracy, the universal +ballot, is the laboring man's hope." The name of the party is +significant. The accent has shifted from the first to the second part +of the compound--from the Marxian to the Lassallian word. + +The German Social Democrats have never had a Millerand or a Briand or +a John Burns; their participation in imperial and provincial affairs +has been strictly limited to parliamentary criticism. Even in local +government, in the communes and cities, they have been allowed only a +small share in actual constructive work. But in spite of these facts +the party has undergone a most remarkable change of creed and tone. + + +IV + +We will concern ourselves only with the most significant changes. +These follow two general lines: (1) the attitude of the party towards +legislation and practical parliamentary participation; (2) the +internal changes in the party. We will follow these changes through +the official reports of the annual party conventions. + +First we will briefly see what change has taken place in their +attitude toward parliamentary activity. The Social Democrats began as +revolutionists and violent anti-parliamentarians. They entered +parliament, not to make laws, but to make trouble. In 1890 they +changed their name from the Socialist Labor Party to the Social +Democratic Party; and when some of the older members thought that this +was a compromise with their enemies, one of the leaders replied that +"a Socialist party must _eo ipse_ be a democratic party."[21] In 1890 +Liebknecht said: "Formerly we had an entirely different tactic. +Tactics and principles are two different things. In 1869 in a speech +in Berlin I condemned parliamentary activity. That was then. Political +conditions were entirely different."[22] Gradually tactics and +principles have coalesced until their line of cleavage is obscured. + +The earlier reports of the parliamentary delegation are tinged with +apology--they are in parliament as protestors, as propagandists, not +as legislators. They seem to say: "Fellow-partisans, excuse us for +being in the Reichstag. We don't believe in the bourgeois law-making +devices. But since we are here, we purpose to do what we can for the +cause. We will not betray you, nor the glorious Socialistic state of +society that we are all working for." + +From the first, Social Democrats have voted against the imperial +budget, have opposed all tariffs, indirect taxes, extension of the +police power, increase in naval and military expenditure, and colonial +exploitation. They took no part at first in law-making, held +themselves disdainfully aloof from practical parliamentary efforts, +and especially avoided every appearance of coalition with other +parties. + +But gradually a change came over them. In 1895 they nominated one of +their number for secretary of the Reichstag.[23] + +Gingerly they dipped their fingers into the pottage of reality. Soon +they began to introduce bills. In 1901 they proposed a measure that +increased the allowance of the private soldier. Their bill became a +law. In the next national convention, when they were called to task +for their worldliness, they excused themselves by saying that ninety +per cent. of the private soldiers were proletarians and their parents +were too poor to supply them with the money necessary for army +sundries, and the allowance of the state had been inadequate. This was +therefore a law that actually benefited the poor. + +In 1906 and 1908 they were compelled to face the practical question of +an inheritance tax. The delegation supported the measure, after +prolonged deliberation over what action to take. This action +precipitated a heated discussion in the party congress; the veterans +feared the party was surrendering its principles. They were assured by +Bebel that the vote was orthodox.[24] + +In 1906 the party instructed its delegation to introduce bills for +redistricting the empire for Reichstag elections; to reduce the +legislative period from five to three years; to revise the laws +relating to sailors and provide for better inspection of ships and +shipping. These instructions mark a revolution in German Social +Democracy, a change that can best be illustrated by the shift in its +attitude on state insurance. In 1892 the party resolved: "So-called +state Socialism, in so far as it concerns itself with bettering the +conditions of the working people, is a system of half-reforms whose +origin is in the fear of Social Democracy. It aims, through all kinds +of palliatives and little concessions, to estrange the working people +from Social Democracy and to cripple the party. + +"The Social Democracy have never disdained to ask for such +governmental regulations, or, if proposed by the opposition, to +approve of those measures which could better the conditions of labor +under the present industrial system. But Social Democrats view such +regulations as only little payments on account, which in nowise +confuse the Social Democracy in its striving for a new organization of +society."[25] + +They are now not above collecting even small sums on account. In 1910 +their convention declares that state insurance is "the object of +constant agitation. For what we have thus far secured by no means +approaches what the laborer demands."[26] + +The committee on parliamentary action reported, a few years ago, that +"no opportunity was lost for entering the lists in behalf of political +and cultural progress. In the discussion of all bills and other +business matters, the members of the delegation took an active part in +committee as well as in _plenum_."[27] There is no longer half-abashed +juvenile reluctance at legislative participation. The reports boast of +the work done by the party in behalf of the workingman, the peasant, +small tradesman, small farmer, and humbler government employees. +Eleven bills were introduced by the delegation in 1909-10, relating to +factory and mine inspection, amending the state insurance laws, the +tariff laws, the redistricting of the empire for Reichstag +elections--i.e., all pertaining to labor, politics, and finance. +Twenty resolutions were moved by the delegation, and many +interpellations called. + +Interpellation, however, is not very satisfactory in a government +where the ministry is not responsible to parliament. In 1909 the +Social Democrats introduced a bill to make the Chancellor and his +cabinet responsible to the Reichstag. Ledebour, who made the leading +speech for the Social Democrats, gave a clear exposition of his +party's contention. He wanted a government "wherein the people, in the +final analysis, decided the fate of the government. For, in such a +government, only those men come into power who represent a program, +represent conviction and character; not any one who has succeeded, for +the moment, in pleasing the fancy and becoming the favorite of the +determining kamarilla." If the election should turn on this issue, +"whether there shall be a perpetuation of the sham-constitutional, +junker bureaucracy, or the establishing of a democratic parliamentary +authority," the parliamentary party would win. "The will of the people +should be the highest law."[28] + +In January, 1912, this party of isolation entered the Reichstag as the +strongest group: 110 members acknowledge the leadership of Bebel. By +co-operating with the Radicals and National Liberals, the progressive +elements had a majority over the Conservative and Clerical +reactionaries for the first time in the history of the empire. Here +Bebel consented to become a candidate for president of the Chamber. He +received 175 votes; the candidate of the Conservatives, Dr. Spahn, +leader of the Clerical Center, received 196. Enough National Liberals +had wavered to throw the balance in favor of Conservatism. A Socialist +was elected first vice-president, and a National Liberal second +vice-president. The President-elect refused to act with a Socialist +vice-president and resigned. The Radical member from Berlin, Herr +Kaempf, was then elected President.[29] Thereupon the National Liberal +second vice-president also resigned, and a Radical was chosen in his +stead. The Social Democrats and the Radicals were made responsible for +the leadership of the new Reichstag. + +It is customary for the President and the vice-president of the +Chamber to announce to the Kaiser when the Reichstag is organized and +ready for business. The Kaiser let it be known that he did not care to +receive the Radical officers. The Socialist first vice-president +refused to join in the proposed official visit. The Prussian temper is +slow to change. + +These illustrations clearly indicate the trend of Social Democratic +legislative and political policy. It is the universal story--ambition +brings power, power brings responsibility, responsibility sobers the +senses. + + +V + +The second development that we are to trace relates to the program, or +platform, of the party. The official program has not undergone any +change, but the interpretation, the spirit, has mellowed. The Erfurter +program of 1891 is still their party pledge. The program is in two +parts; the first an elaborate exposition of Marxian economics, the +second a series of practical demands differing only slightly from the +Gotha program. + +Only one speech was made in the national convention on the adoption of +this bifurcated platform, that attempted to link Marxian theory to +Lassallian realism. This speech was made by Liebknecht, friend of +Marx, who elaborately explained his friend's theory of value, doctrine +of class war and social evolution. The program was adopted _en bloc_. +The chairman ignored a few protesting "noes" when the vote was called, +and declared it unanimously adopted. These few voices of protest soon +swelled to considerable volume. Within one year after the repeal of +the Socialist law the party had entered upon the difficult task of +being both critic and parliamentarian, constructive and destructive, +under rigid military discipline. + +To the few protesters at Erfurt, it seemed as though the party had +entered the lifeboat, manned the oars, and neglected to untie the +painter. + +When the elections of 1897 recorded a severe setback for the party the +progressives were told to keep the eyes of faith on the "ultimate +goal" of Socialism. One of the reformistes replied: "The whole idea of +an ultimate goal is distasteful to me. There is no ultimate goal; for +beyond your ultimate goal is another world of striving."[30] And +another critic said: "Nothing wears threadbare so rapidly by constant +use as words of faith. Constantly spoken or heard, they become +stereotyped into phrases, and the inspired prophet creates the same +offensive impression as a priest who has nothing else to offer but +words." The interest of the workingman "finds its expression in the +practicalness of the second part of the Erfurter program, and the +wholly practical work of the party."[31] It was at this time that +Edward Bernstein, friend and literary heir of Engel, published a +series of critical papers in the party journal, _Die Neue Zeit_, +attacking especially the catastrophic and revolutionary postulates and +saying "the movement is everything, the goal is nothing." Kautsky, the +dogmatist of the party, replied to these articles and a feverish +discussion followed in all the party press.[32] + +In the party conventions of 1898 and 1899 this controversy was waged +with considerable energy. Von Vollmar made merry over Kautsky's +"inquisition" and called the debate "a noisy cackling over nothing." +The mass of the party, he said, did not trouble their heads about +theories, but plodded along unmindful of hairsplitting.[33] Bebel made +a herculean effort to reconcile both elements. To the revisionists he +said, "We are in a constant state of intellectual moulting,"[34] to +the orthodox he said, "We remain what we have always been."[35] + +It was at Dresden, 1903, that the revisionist tempest reached its +height in the party teapot. The Germans' love for polysyllabic +phrase-making, for which Jaures taunted them at the Amsterdam +congress, was here given full play. Von Vollmar repeated that nobody +except a few dull theorists read Kautsky's or Bernstein's views; the +mass of voters cared for practical results, and "revisionists and +anti-revisionists are nothing but a bugbear."[36] + +Here the matter rested until the elections of 1907 opened the eyes of +the party high priests. They gained only 248,249 votes and lost +one-half of their seats in the Reichstag. A number of the leading +Socialists promptly began to attack the dogmas of the party program as +illusions and pitfalls. The class war, the revolutionary method, the +theory of an ever-increasing proletariat and decreasing bourgeoisie +were attacked as unscientific, and illusory. "The Erfurt program +recites a vagary, it repels the intellect, it must be changed;" that +was the opinion of the advanced thinkers of the party. + +No party congresses, no priestly pronunciamentos have been able to +check the spread of revolt. As long as Kautsky and Bebel live the +program will probably not be re-phrased. But even Kautsky is mellowing +under the ripeness of years and circumstances; and Bebel, shrewd +politician, knows the campaigning value of appearing at the same time +orthodox and progressive.[37] + +To-day one hears very little of Marx and a great deal of legislation. +The last election, with its brilliant victory for Social Democracy, +was not won on the general issues of the Erfurter program but on the +particular issue of the arrogance of the bureaucracy, and ballot +reform. A large mass of voters cast their ballots for Social +Democratic candidates as a protest against existing governmental +conditions, not as an affirmation of their assent to the Marxian +dogmas. The truth is, Marx is a tradition, democracy is an issue.[38] + +Another indication of the notable changes that have come over Social +Democracy is seen in the Socialists' relation to other parties. Here +their dogmatic aloofness is the most tenacious. During the years of +their bitter persecution by the government they found their excuse in +an isolation that was forced upon them. Von Vollmar told his +colleagues, immediately after the repeal of the anti-Socialist law, +that the South Germans were ready to co-operate with every one who +would be willing to give them an inch. In reply to this Bebel +introduced a resolution affirming that "the primary necessity of +attaining political power" could not be "the work of a moment," but +was attained only by gradual growth. During the period of growth the +Social Democrats should not work for mere "concessions from the ruling +classes," but "have only the ultimate and complete aim of the party in +mind." The Bebelian theory linked the ultimate goal with ultimate +power, both to be attained by waiting until the flood tide. + +This question became practical when the Social Democratic members of +the provincial legislatures voted with other parties for the state +budget. The national party claimed authority over the local party, a +claim which was resented by the Bavarians and other South German +delegations.[39] + +In 1894 the South Germans were chastised by a vote of 164 to 64 for +voting for their state budget. They were rebuked again in 1901 and in +1908. In the latter year Bebel told them "three times is enough," +indicating that there would be a split in the party if they insisted +on voting for their local budgets. The South Germans defended their +action by saying that they had always agitated for more pay for state +employees, and that they were willing to vote the funds that would +make this possible. A new champion appeared for the reformistes--Dr. +Frank of Mannheim, a brilliant speaker who is called by his following +a "second Lassalle." He made a withering attack on the Marxian school, +but Bebel's censure was carried by 256 to 119. + +Finally at Magdeburg, 1910, the budget question reached its climax. +Bebel boasted that his policy of negation had wrought great changes in +Germany. "I say it without boasting, in the whole world there is no +Social Democracy that has accomplished as much positive good as the +German Social Democracy."[40] He claimed the insurance laws, factory +laws, and the repeal of special and oppressive legislation as the +fruits of his policy. Bebel then warned the Badensians that this is +the last time they will be forgiven; one other offense, and they will +be put out of the party. + +Dr. Frank made an elaborate reply. He said that there was a working +agreement between the Social Democrats and Liberals whereby they +co-operated against the Conservatives. In the state legislature they +had a "bloc" with the Liberals and had elected a vice-president and +secretary and important chairmanships by means of this coalition. They +had, moreover, reformed the public school system, secured factory +legislation, and had secured direct elections in all towns of 4,000 +or over. The reformistes' principles are so clearly stated in this +speech that I quote several paragraphs: + +"I tell you, comrades, if you think that under all the circumstances +you can win only small concessions; with such a message of +hopelessness you will not conquer the world, not even the smallest +election district. [_Great commotion and disturbance._] But what would +be the meaning of this admission that small concessions can be +secured? In tearing down a building dramatic effects are possible. But +the erection of a building is accomplished only by an accumulation of +small concessions. Behold the labor unions, that are so often spoken +of, how they struggle for months, how they suffer hunger for months, +in order to win a concession of a few pennies. Often one can see that +a small concession contains enormous future possibilities, and in +twenty or thirty years will become a vital force in the shaping of the +society that is to come." + +"Nor will I examine the question whether in parliamentary activity +only small concessions can be won. Is it not possible, through +parliamentary action, to take high tariffs and business speculations +from the necks of the workingmen? Is it not possible to modify police +administration, and the legislative conditions that profane Prussia +to-day? Are these conditions necessary concomitants of the modern +class-state (Klassenstaat)? Is it not possible to create out of +Prussia and Germany a modern state, where our workingmen, even as +their brethren in Western Europe, can fight their great battles upon +the field of democratic equality and citizenship? If you wish to view +all that as 'small concessions' you are at liberty to do so. I view it +as a tremendous revolution, if it succeeds, to secure, through such a +struggle, liberty for the Prussian working class."[41] + +The censure was carried, the Baden delegation left the hall during the +voting. On the following day it returned to declare its loyalty to the +party, but with the proviso that they would by no means promise how +they would vote on their state budget in the future. + +Events are shaping themselves rapidly in Germany. Ministerial +responsibility cannot much longer be denied. The elections of 1912 +should serve as a plain portent to the reactionaries. That Bebel is +willing to be a candidate for President of the Reichstag is a +significant concession; that the Radicals and many National Liberals +are willing to vote for him, would have been deemed impossible ten +years ago. + +Such conditions as prevail between the government and the Radicals and +Social Democrats cannot long continue. The break with the past must +come, sooner or later. The pressure of Radical and Democratic votes +will become so powerful, that not even the strong traditions of the +empire can wholly withstand it. + +In May, 1911, I visited the Reichstag on an eventful occasion. The +Social Democrats had voted with the government for a new Constitution +for Alsace-Lorraine containing universal manhood suffrage. Herr Bebel +was jubilant. He said: "It marks a new epoch. We have voted with the +government. Not that we have capitulated. But the government have come +to our convictions, they have granted universal suffrage to Alsace, +now they cannot long deny that right to Prussia and the other +states."[42] + +We have now seen that politically a great change has come over the +German Socialists; that they are participating in legislation, and are +especially solicitous about all acts that pertain to labor and +political liberty; that they are gradually moving toward co-operation +with other parties; that they are gradually sloughing off the +inflexible Marxian armor, and are assuming the pliable dress of +modernism. + +All this is to be expected of a party that began as a vigorous, +narrow, autocratic party of revolution and protest, and is emerging +from its hard experiences, a self-styled "cultural party" ("Kultur +Partei"). Dr. Suedekum, editor of Communal Praxis, in his report of the +parliamentary group, in 1907, wrote: "We have in the Reichstag two +kinds of duties; first, the propaganda of our ideas and program; +second, practical work, i.e., to enhance, not alone the interests of +the working class, but the entire complex, so-called cultural +interests. The problems that the Social Democratic party as a +'cultural party' has to solve, which are assigned to it as the +representative of cultural progress in every realm of human activity, +must increase in the same proportion that the bourgeois parties allow +themselves to be captured by the government and neglect these +problems."[43] + +It is a far cry from "class war" to "human cultural activities." Such +an expansion of purpose requires a greatly enlarged electorate. The +majority of the workingmen are already in the party, where will the +increase come from? + +There are two directions in which the party can hope to gain new +recruits--the small farmer and the small tradesman. The small farmer +is peculiarly hard to reach. He is well guarded--the Church on the one +side, the landlord and _junker_ on the other. To step in and steal his +heart is a very difficult task. The work is pushed steadily, with +tenacity, but results are slow in coming. + +Among the tradespeople and business men, there is more rapid progress, +especially in southern Germany. In Munich a great many tradespeople +vote for Von Vollmar.[44] + +Primarily it will always be a workingman's party. Its soul is the +labor movement. Its political aim is democracy, and its hope is the +power of sheer preponderance of numbers. What it will do when it has +that power is a speculation that does not lure the prosaic Teutonic +mind. "We will find plenty to do," one of them said, "when we have the +government. We have plenty to do now, that we haven't the government." +This is wisdom learned of France. + +This means that the party have given up their "splendid +isolation"--what Von Vollmar called their "policy of sterility and +despair"[45]--a policy which they acknowledged by words long after +they had abandoned it in fact. They abandoned it the moment they +championed labor legislation, and sought the sanitation of cities and +the opening of parks, in their municipal councils. + +The pressure of things as they are has been too powerful for even the +German Social Democracy, with its dogmatic temper and strength of +millions. Revolution has, even here, been replaced by a slow and +orderly development. + +The rapidity with which the medieval empire will be democratized will +depend upon the formation of a genuine liberal party that will enlist +those citizens who are inclined toward modernism but cannot be enticed +into the Social Democratic or Radical parties. When such a party is +formed, and an alliance made with the Social Democrats, then the +transformations will be rapid.[46] Among the most significant +accessions to the Social Democracy are many professional men: lawyers, +physicians, engineers, etc. This augurs a change in party spirit and +method. Dr. Frank of Mannheim told me that he considered the extent to +which the party could lure the intellectual element the measure of the +party greatness and power. + + +VI + +A word should be added upon the attitude of the Social Democrats +toward militarism. The standing army and the increasing navy of +Germany are a heavy tax upon the people. The Germans for centuries +have been military in ambition, soldiers by instinct. + +The Social Democrats, in common with all Socialists, are opposed to +war. But the German is a patriot. In the International Congress at +Stuttgart, the French and Russian delegations imposed an extreme +anti-military resolution upon the Socialists, against the protest of +the Germans. Bebel called their anti-patriotic utterances "silly +word-juggling."[47] + +The Berlin congress, 1892, adopted the following resolution, in view +of the added military burdens proposed by the Reichstag: "The +prevailing military system, not being able to guarantee the country +against foreign invasion, is a continual threat to international peace +and serves the capitalistic class-government, whose aim is the +industrial exploitation and suppression of the working classes, as an +instrument of oppression against the masses. + +"The party convention therefore demands, in consonance with the +program of the Social Democratic platform, the establishment of a +system of defense based upon a general militia, trained and armed. The +congress declares that the Social Democratic members of the Reichstag +are in complete accord with the party and with the politically +organized working classes of Germany, when they vote against every +measure of the government aimed at perpetuating the present military +system."[48] + +During a debate in the Reichstag in 1907, Bebel declared, in the +defense of the Fatherland, _if it were invaded_, even he in his old +age would "shoulder a musket." He demanded military drill for youths +as a preliminary to the shortening of military service in the standing +army; if this were not done the defense of the country would be +weakened whenever the service shall be reduced to one year. + +The Chancellor had on this occasion introduced a bill making all +military service uniformly two years, and abolishing the privileges +that had been granted to a few favored classes. + +For this action they were severely criticised in the next party +convention. Bebel replied: "I said, _if the Fatherland really must be +defended_, then we will defend it. Because it is our Fatherland. It is +the land in which we live, whose language we speak, whose culture we +possess. Because we wish to make this, our Fatherland, more beautiful +and more complete than any other land on earth. We defend it, +therefore, not for you but against you."[49] This patriotic +declamation was received with "tremendous applause." + +Von Vollmar, himself a soldier of distinction, said, in the Bavarian +Diet, a few years ago: + +"If the necessity should arise for the protection of the realm against +foreign invasion, then it will become evident that the Social +Democrats love their Fatherland no less than do their neighbors; that +they will as gladly and heroically offer themselves to its defense. On +the other hand, if the foolish notion should ever arise to use the +army for the support of a warring class prerogative, for the defense +of indefeasible demands, and for the crushing of those just ambitions +which are the product of our times, and a necessary concomitant of our +economic and political development,--then we are of the firm +conviction that the day will come when the army will remember that it +sprang from the people, and that its own interests are those of the +masses." + +This makes their position very clear. + + +VII + +The party that for years held itself in disdainful aloofness, was so +defiant of co-operation, in the national parliament, is ductile, +neighborly, and eager to help in the municipal and communal councils. +It has a communal program of practical details, and no small part of +the splendid progress in municipal administration in Germany is due to +the Social Democrats. Everywhere you hear praise from officials and +from political rivals for the careful work of the Social Democratic +members of municipal bodies. + +Owing to the unfavorable election laws, the Social Democrats do not +elect a large number of members to local councils. In no important +city do they preponderate. If universal manhood suffrage were enacted, +they would control the majority of the local legislative bodies. As it +is, they are an active minority, and guard jealously the interests of +the working classes. + +Munich may be taken as the type of city in which the Social Democrats +are active.[50] + +In 1907 there were 130,000 qualified electors for the Reichstag +election in Munich, in 1905 there were only 31,252 qualified electors +for the municipal elections. This shows the restrictive influence of +property qualifications for local elections. + +In a city council of 60 members, the Social Democrats elected only 9. +And of 20 elected members of the chamber of magistrates they elected +only 3. + +This minority is an active committee of scrutiny. It carefully and +minutely scrutinizes all the acts of the municipal authorities, +especially pertaining to labor, to contracts for public work, and to +the conditions of city employees. They vote consistently in favor of +the enlargement of municipal powers; e.g., the extension of parks, of +street-car lines, the building of larger markets. For a number of +years the Social Democrats of Munich have urged the utilizing of the +water power of the Isar, which rushes through the city. And the +municipality is now utilizing some of this power. + +The Social Democrats also favor every facility for the extension of +the art and culture for which Munich is justly celebrated. They take +no narrow, provincial views of such questions, and set an example that +might with profit be followed by parties who claim for themselves the +prerogative of culture. They are constantly working for better public +educational facilities, and are especially hostile to the +encroachments of the Church upon the domain of public education. + +They are in favor of increased public expenditures; opposed to all +indirect taxes, especially those that tend to raise the price of food. + +Their special grievance is the property qualification required for +voting. They say that a law which allows only one-fifteenth of the +citizens (30,000 out of over 500,000) a right to vote is "shameful," +and they are bending every effort to change the law. + +What is true in Munich is true in other cities: democratic election +laws are denied them. But they are active everywhere, and do not +despise the doing of small details, doing them well and with zest. It +is obvious that Socialism in Germany cannot be put to a constructive +test until the election laws are democratized and the higher +administrative offices are opened to them. That will bring the real +test of this colossal movement. + + * * * * * + +We may sum it all up by saying that Social Democracy in Germany is +first of all a struggle for democracy. The accent is on the second +part of the compound. It is, secondly, a struggle for the +self-betterment of the working classes; and it is, thirdly, a protest +against certain conditions that the present organization of society +imposes upon mankind. + +An American sojourning among the German people must be impressed with +the painstaking organization of the empire. Every detail of life is +carefully ordered to avoid waste and to secure efficiency, even at the +cost of individual initiative. This military empire, of infinite +discipline, is now undergoing a political metamorphosis. The force +that is bringing about the change is being generated at the bottom of +the social strata, not at the top. This signifies that a change is +sure to come. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See MEYER, _Emancipations-Kampf des Vierten Standes_, Chap. V; +also J. SCHMOELE, _Die Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften in +Deutschland, seit dem Erlasse des Sozialistischen Gesetzes_, Jena, +1896, et seq. + +[2] The following table compiled from _Statistisches Jahrbuch_ shows +their growth in recent years: + + Year Members + 1902 733,206 + 1903 887,698 + 1904 1,052,108 + 1905 1,344,803 + 1906 1,689,709 + 1907 1,865,506 + 1908 1,831,731 + 1909 1,892,568 + +In 1909 their income was 50,529,114 marks, their expenditure +46,264,031 marks. See Appendix, p. 295, for membership of all the +unions. + +[3] When I visited the Berlin _Gewerkschaftshaus_, a model three-room +dwelling--living room, kitchen, and bedroom--had been furnished and +decorated in simple, durable, and artistic fashion. This exhibit was +thronged with workingmen, their wives and daughters. + +Some years ago it was discovered that the youth of the working people +were reading cheap and unworthy literature. The Central Committee of +the Unions now issues cheap editions of the choicest literature for +children and young people. + +These two incidents show the vigilance of the unions, in looking after +all the wants of their people. + +[4] The number of strikes in recent years are given as follows: 1902, +1,106; 1903, 1,444; 1904, 1,990; 1905, 2,657; 1906, 3,626; 1907, +2,512; 1908, 1,524.--From _Statistisches Jahrbuch fuer das Deutsche +Reich_. + +[5] _Protokoll: Sozial-Demokratische Partei-Tag_, 1908, p. 14. + +[6] See Bebel, _Gewerksbewegung und Politische Parteien_: Preface. + +[7] See _Protokoll des Partei-Tages_, 1890, pp. 156-7. + +[8] "_Genossen_": the word really means "brethren." + +[9] Party membership has grown as follows: 1906, 384,527; 1907, +530,466; 1908, 587,336; 1909, 633,309; 1910, 720,038; 1911, 836,562. + +[10] _Bericht des Partei-Vorstandes_, 1909-10. + +[11] See Appendix, p. 296, for complete election returns. + +[12] _Bericht des Partei-Vorstandes_, 1909-10. + +[13] In 1891-2 the "Berliner Opposition" threatened a revolt. They +were given every opportunity of explaining their grievances, were told +what to do, and, disobeying, were promptly shown the door. + +[14] "It has been truthfully said that in Germany a Social Democrat +cannot even become a night-watchman."--PROF. BERNHARD HARMS +(University of Kiel), _Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine Bedeutung fuer die +Sozial-Demokratie_, 1909, p. 103. + +[15] "Do you enjoy freedom from political interference?" I asked a +high official in the civil service. "Absolutely. We think as we +please, talk as we please, and do as we please. But we must let the +Social Democrats alone." + +[16] See Appendix, p. 293, for synopsis of this law. + +[17] The vote for the Saxon legislature at this time was as follows: + + Party Voters Votes + Social Democrats 341,396 492,522 + Conservatives 103,517 281,804 + National Liberal 125,157 236,541 + Independents (Freisinnige) 41,857 100,804 + Anti-Semites 20,248 55,502 + +The Social Democrats included over one-half of the voters, cast about +one-third of the votes, and elected only one-fourth of the members. + +[18] Some curious instances of inequality appear in the cities. In +Berlin in one precinct one man paid one-third of the taxes and +consequently possessed one-third of the legislative influence in that +precinct. In another precinct the president of a large bank paid +one-third of the taxes, and two of his associates paid another third. +These three men named the member of the Diet from that precinct. + +[19] For the struggle for ballot reform in Bavaria, see _Der Kampf um +die Wahlreform in Bayern_, issued in 1905 by the Bavarian Social +Democratic Party Executive Committee. + +[20] February 13, 1910, was set aside as a day for suffrage +demonstration throughout the empire. In Berlin alone forty-two +meetings were announced. These provoked the following edict: "Notice! +The 'right to the streets' is hereby proclaimed. The streets serve +primarily for traffic. Resistance to state authority will be met by +the force of arms. I warn the curious. Berlin, February 13, 1910. +Police-president, VON IAGOW." The Social Democratic papers called +attention to the fact that these notices were printed on the same +forms that the Police-president often used to announce that the +streets would be closed to all traffic on account of military parades. + +[21] _Protokoll_, 1890, pp. 119-120. + +[22] _Protokoll_, 1890, pp. 96-7. + +[23] There are eight secretaries elected. They are distributed, by +custom, among the parties, according to their voting strength. The +Social Democrats had always refrained from taking part in any of the +elections; now they enter the lists, abstaining from voting for any +candidate except their own--who, in turn, received no other votes. + +[24] Bebel was not present in the Reichstag at the time this vote was +taken, but he told the convention that, had he been present, he should +have supported the Tax Bill. _Protokoll_, 1908, p. 364. + +[25] _Protokoll_, 1892, p. 173. + +[26] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 469. + +[27] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 95. + +[28] Reichstag Debates, December 2, 1908. + +[29] In the election of January, 1912, the Social Democrats carried +every district in Berlin excepting the one in which the Kaiser's +palace is situated. Here a spirited contest took place. A second +ballot was made necessary between the Radicals and Social Democrats, +and the Conservatives, throwing all their forces on to the Radical +side, succeeded in keeping this last stronghold from their enemies. +But Herr Kaempf's majority was only 6 votes. + +[30] _Protokoll_, 1898, p. 89. + +[31] _Supra cit._, p. 90. + +[32] This controversy is known as the "revisionist movement." The +revisionists' position is set forth in Bernstein's book, _Die +Voraussetzung des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozial-Demokratie_. +The Marxian position is set forth in Kautsky's reply, _Bernstein und +die Sozial-Demokratie_. An English edition of Bernstein's book has +been published in the Labor Party series in London. + +[33] _Protokoll_, 1899. + +[34] _Supra cit._, p. 94. + +[35] _Supra cit._, p. 127. + +[36] _Protokoll_, 1903, pp. 321-45. + +[37] In the congress of 1907 Bebel tried to dispel the gloom by a long +and optimistic speech in which he declared that their success was not +to be measured by the number of seats they won, but by the number of +voters. He closed by saying, "We are the coming ones, ours is the +future in spite of all things and everything."--_Protokoll_, 1907, p. +323. + +[38] One of the veteran party leaders answered my question as to the +present-day influence of Marx as follows: "The bulk of our party have +never read Marx. It takes a well-trained mind to understand him. +Conditions have entirely changed since his day, and we are busy with +questions of which Marx never dreamed and of which he could not +foretell. He laid the philosophical basis for our party, but our party +is practical, not philosophical." + +[39] In 1900 Bebel proposed the necessity of a working coalition with +other parties in Prussia to gain electoral reform. He said: "We cannot +stand alone. We must attempt to go hand in hand with certain elements +in the bourgeois parties--without, however, endangering our identity." +But the party was not willing to go as far as the veteran, and a +resolution was adopted limiting such co-operation strictly to Prussia +and giving the central committee full power to veto the acts any +electoral district might take in this direction. + +[40] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 249. + +[41] _Protokoll_, 1910, p. 272. + +[42] In November, 1911, Berlin's new city hall was dedicated. The +members of the city council were invited to be present. The Social +Democrats cast a large majority of all the votes in Berlin. But the +Social Democrats refused to attend the ceremonies. The program, as +published, called for a "Hoch!" to the Kaiser, and the Social +Democrats never joined in public approval of the government. +_Vorwaerts_, the leading Social Democratic daily, said that Social +Democrats have nothing to do with such a display of "Byzantinism." "If +any one thought it necessary to shout 'Hoch!' he could shout 'Hoch!' +to the working population of Berlin." + +[43] _Protokoll_, 1907, pp. 227-8. + +[44] Amongst the business people of Mannheim, Munich, and other cities +in Baden, Bavaria, and Hesse, there are many who support the Social +Democratic candidates, because, they say, there is no genuinely +liberal party. It should, however, be borne in mind that the Social +Democrats of these southern districts are liberal and progressive, not +the unbending, orthodox variety of Prussia. + +[45] VON VOLLMAR, _Ueber die Aufgaben der Deutschen Social-Demokratie_. + +[46] The _Hansa Bund_ (Hanseatic League), organized a few years ago, +may be the nucleus of such a party. It is composed of smaller +manufacturers and business men opposed to tariffs and the trusts, and +in favor of a more liberal government. + +[47] _Protokoll_, Social Democratic Party, 1907, p. 228. + +[48] _Protokoll_, 1892, p. 132. + +[49] _Protokoll_, 1907, p. 255. + +[50] See _Die Sozial-Demokratie im Muenchener Rathaus_, issued by the +Bavarian party executive committee, 1908. Also _Die Sozial-Demokratie +im Bayerischen Landtag, 1888-1905_, 3 vols., issued by the Party Press +in Munich; and E. AUER, _Arbeiterpolitik im Bayerischen Landtag_. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE ENGLISH LABOR PARTY + + +I + +We come now to the land of the industrial revolution--that colossal +upheaval which changed the face of society, as the vast continental +uplifts of past geological epochs changed the face of the earth. And +just as the continents were centuries in settling themselves to their +new conditions, so human society is now slowly adjusting itself to the +conditions wrought by this violent change. One of the evidences of +this gradual readjustment is Socialism. For to Socialism machine +industry is a condition precedent. In this sense England has produced +modern Socialism. + +There is no blacker picture than the England of 1780 to 1840, and no +drearier contrast than the quaint villages and their household +industries of the earlier period and the "spreading of the hideous +town," after Arkwright and Hargreaves and Watt. These inhuman +conditions are faithfully and dispassionately revealed in the reports +of the various Royal Commissions of Inquiry: statistical mines where +Marx and Engels found abundant material for their philosophy of gloom. +And from these dull and depressing government folios Charles Kingsley +drew his indignant invectives, and Carlyle his trenchant indictments +against a society that would imprison its eight-year-old children, +its mothers, and its grandmothers in dingy factories fourteen hours a +day for the sake of profits, and then release them at night only to +find lodgings in the most miserable hovels and rickety tenements. It +is almost surprising to one familiar with the details of this gruesome +record that a social revolution did not follow immediately in the wake +of the industrial revolution. + +There were riots at first, and machines were smashed. But the hand of +the worker was impotent against the arm of steel. The workman soon +resigned himself to his fate and his misery. The poor laws did not +help, they only multiplied the burdens upon the state without taking +the load from the poor. The laborer was too helpless to help himself, +and the state and society were apathetic. The rapid expansion of +industry found an ample outlet in the growing commerce to every corner +of the world. England was making money. She was gradually shifting +control from the traditional landowner to the new factory owner. The +landed gentry had inherited a fine sense of patriarchal +responsibility. The factory owner had no traditions. He was a parvenu. +His interests were machinery and ships, not politics and humanity. He +acquiesced in the poor laws as the easiest way out of a miserable +mess; he let private charity take its feeble and intermittent course, +paying his rates and giving his donations with self-satisfied +sanctity. + +All this time labor was abundant. The markets of the world were hungry +for the goods of English mills. Then came suddenly the Chartist +Movement.[1] The flame of discontent spread and a revolution seemed +impending. This first great outbreak of English labor was a political +movement, fed by economic causes. The repeal of the corn laws and the +passage of the factory acts modified economic conditions and mollified +labor for the time. The repeal of the corn laws brought cheaper food; +the factory acts brought better conditions of labor. + +Meanwhile individualism was evolving an economic creed. The Manchester +doctrine was the logical outcome of England's insular position and her +driving individualistic manufactures. But it was _laissez-faire_ in +industrialism, not in unionism. The laboring men were now beginning to +organize, and Cobden himself proposed the act that made unionism +ineffective as a political force. However, indirectly, free trade +stimulated labor, because it brought great prosperity, made work +abundant, and employers sanguine. Unions now rapidly multiplied, but +they were local, isolated. Their federation into a great national body +came later. + +Socialism, or unionism, or any other general movement cannot develop +in England with the rapidity and enthusiasm that is shown for +"movements" on the Continent. The traditions of the English people are +constitutional. Socialism can thrive among them only if it is +"constitutional," and the Fabians are to-day talking about +"constitutional Socialism" with judicial solemnity. All the training +of the English people is contrary to the theory of progress through +violence. They have had few revolutions accompanied by bloodshed, they +have had a great many accompanied by prayers and Parliamentary +oratory--"constitutional" methods. They have, moreover, a real +reverence for property. The poor who have none are taught to respect +the rich who have. The Church, the common law, the statute law, the +customs, all the sources of tradition and habit, have emphasized the +sanctity of property. Only within the last few decades, as will be +seen presently, has a radical change, a veritable revolution, come +over the people in this respect. + +The British temperament is not given to nerves. This stolid, +phlegmatic, self-contained individualist has no inflammable material +in his heart. Ruskin failed to arouse him, he wove too much artistry +into his appeal; and Carlyle could not move him, his epigrams were too +rhapsodical. Such temperaments are not given to rapid propagandism. +And finally, the Englishman is too practical to be a utopist. He +concerns himself with the duties of to-day rather than the vagaries of +to-morrow. Utopianism made no impression on him. Owen, the great +Utopian, was a Welshman. The Celt has imagination. Nor do intricate +theories or involved philosophies touch the mind of the Briton. The +splendor that enraptures the Frenchman, the abstruse reasoning that +delights the German, are alike boredom to this practical inventor of +machinery and builder of ships. + +In spite of these characteristics there is no country in Europe where +there is more agitation about Socialism than there is in England +to-day. It is discussed everywhere. Almost the entire time of +Parliament during the past few years has been taken up with more or +less "Socialistic" legislation. The public mind is steeped in it. + +There is more actually being done in England toward the +"socialization" of property, and the state, than in any other European +country. And less being said about the theory of value, the class +war, capitalistic production, proletariat and bourgeois, and the +other Continental pet phrases of Socialism. + +Marx, who lived among the English for many years, but whose heart was +never with them, would not call this rapid social movement +Socialistic, because it does not avowedly "aim" at "socializing +capitalistic production." The doings of the English are certainly not +accomplished in the spirit of his orthodoxy. But the current toward +state control, toward pure democracy, land nationalization, +nationalization of railways and mines, has set in with the swiftness +of a mill-race and is grinding grist with an amazing rapidity. + +As I write these words, London and the whole country are wrought up +over Lloyd George's Insurance Bill and the projected ballot reform +bill. Meetings everywhere, fervid Parliamentary debate, the papers +filled with letters from everybody; every organization, debating +society, and board of directors of great industries passing +resolutions. Even the Labor Party is divided over the paternalistic +measure that aims to bring relief to the sick and disabled working man +and woman. Amidst all this discussion, noise, and party zeal is +discerned the drift of the nation toward a new and unexpected goal. + +Nowhere is it so difficult to define a Socialist, or to mark +boundaries to the movement. But why mark shore-lines? The flood is on. +I will here take the position that whatever extends the functions of +the state (community) over property, or into activities formerly left +to individuals or to the home, is an indication of the Socialistic +trend. Old-fashioned Socialists like Keir Hardie are constantly +warning the people that what is now going on in England is only social +reform, not Socialism. The Fabians, on the other hand, are exerting +every effort to add to the swiftness of the present movement. + +To a student of democracy things now passing into law, and events now +shaping into history, in England, are of peculiar significance. Such +events, transpiring in a country so long abandoned to a rampant +individualism, are portents of a newer time. They are signals of +approaching changes to America, to us who have inherited the common +law, the governmental traditions, the democratic ideals of liberty, if +not the substantial stolidity of temperament and self-complacent +egoism of the Briton. + +All parties, Socialists and Conservatives, will admit this: that all +this turmoil, these rapidly succeeding general elections, these public +discussions, these new laws, indicate that a new social ideal is being +formed. That in itself is worthy of consideration. For the ideal will +shape the destiny. + + +II + +Present-day Socialism in England seems to have risen to sudden +magnitude from vacuity, to have permeated this cautious island over +night. For over a generation all Socialism had disappeared from view. +The elaborate schemes of Owen, the altruistic propaganda under the +gentle Kingsley and his noble companion Maurice, the artistic revolt +against the ugliness of commercialism led by Ruskin, who even shared +the toil of the breakers of stones to prove his sincerity--all these +movements seem suddenly to have disappeared from the face of the +island, like a glacial current dropping suddenly, without warning, +into the depths of the Moulin. + +England was given over to a highly prosperous industrialism. The +Manchester doctrine was enthroned. Commercialism and a glittering +pseudo-humanitarian internationalism found expression in the +alternating victories of the astute Disraeli and the grandiloquent +Gladstone. + +Meanwhile poverty and misery infested the underplaces of the land, a +poverty and misery that was appalling. Every protester was proudly +pointed to the repeal of the corn laws, the revision of the poor laws, +the reform act of 1832, and the factory acts. + +When Sir Henry Vane had ascended the scaffold which his sacrifice made +historic, he said: "The people of England have long been asleep; when +they awake they will be hungry." When the England of to-day awoke it +was to a greater hunger than the politically starved Roundhead or +Cavalier ever endured. + +It is no figure of speech to speak of hungry England. Its brilliant +industrialism has always had a drab background of want. Chiozza Money +says of the present position of labor: "The aggregate income of the +44,500,000 people in the United Kingdom in 1908-9 was approximately +L1,844,000,000; 1,400,000 persons took L634,000,000; 4,100,000 persons +took L275,000,000; 39,000,000 persons took L935,000,000."[2] And he +sums up the condition as follows: "The position of the manual workers +in relation to the general wealth of the country has not improved. +They formed, with those dependent upon them, the greater part of the +nation in 1867, and they enjoyed but about forty per cent. of the +national income, according to the careful estimate of Dudley Baxter. +To-day, with their army of dependents, they still form the greater +part of the nation, although not quite so great a part, and, according +to the best information available, they take less than forty per cent. +of the entire income of the nation." Although during this time the +national income had increased much faster than the rate of population, +"the Board of Trade, after a careful examination of the question of +unemployment in 1904, arrived at the general conclusion that 'the +average level of employment during the last 4 years has been almost +exactly the same as the average of the preceding 40 years.'"[3] + +While the general level of wage-earners has been maintained, and while +wealth has greatly increased, the poverty of the kingdom has shown +little tendency to diminish. "As for pauperism, it is difficult to +congratulate ourselves upon improvement since 1867, when we remember +that in England and Wales alone 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 persons are in +receipt of relief in the course of a single year. This means _one +person in every 20_ has recourse to the poor-law guardians during a +single year." + +"If our national income had but increased at the same rate as our +population since 1867, it would in 1908 have amounted to but about +L1,200,000,000. As we have seen, it is now about L1,840,000,000. Yet +the Error in Distribution remains so great, that, while the total +population in 1867 was 30,000,000, we have to-day a nation of +30,000,000 poor people in our rich country, and many millions of these +are living under conditions of degrading poverty. Of those above the +line of primary poverty, millions are tied down by the conditions of +their labor to live in surroundings which preclude the proper +enjoyment of life or the proper raising of children."[4] + +An event occurred in 1889 that aroused public opinion on the question +of labor conditions. The dockers along the great wharves in London +went out on strike, and forced public attention upon the misery of +these most wretched of British workmen,[5] whose wages were so low +that they could not buy bread for their families and their employment +was so irregular that they were idle half of the time. John Burns came +into prominence first during this strike. He raised over $200,000 by +public appeals to support the strikers. General sympathy was with the +men; and the arbitrators to whom their grievances were submitted +awarded most of their demands. + +The effect of this strike was far-reaching. All over the kingdom +unskilled labor was roused to its power, and a new era in labor +organization began. + + +III + +In no country has the labor-union movement achieved a greater degree +of organization than in England.[6] The movement has been economic, +turning to politics only in recent years; it concerned itself with +wages and conditions of labor, not with party programs and +Parliamentary candidates. + +The characteristic feature of English trade-unionism is collective +bargaining, long since introduced into America, but unknown in most +European countries. The English unions also organized insurance +societies called "Friendly Societies."[7] + +For many years the laws regulating labor unions had been liberally +construed by the courts, and the unions had done very much as they +pleased. Two decisions have been rendered during the last decade that +threatened the unions' existence both as a political and economic +force. + +In 1900 the Taff Vale Railway Company brought suit against the +Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, charging the men with +conspiring to induce the workmen to break their contracts with the +company. The court enjoined the union from picketing and from +interfering with the men in their contractual relations with the +employing company, and assessed the damages at $100,000 against the +offending union. The House of Lords, sitting in final appeal, affirmed +the judgment of the trial court. This virtually meant the stopping of +strikes, for strikes without pickets and vigilance would usually be +unavailing. It also meant financial bankruptcy. + +A second far-reaching decision was made by the House of Lords in +December, 1909, when the "Osborne Judgment" was affirmed, granting to +one Osborne, a member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, +an injunction restraining the union from making a levy on its members, +and from using any of its funds for the purpose of maintaining any of +its members, or any other person, in Parliament. The unions had taken +it for granted that they had the legal right to contribute out of +their funds to political campaigns, and to pay the labor members of +Parliament a salary out of the union treasury.[8] The court held such +payments were illegal, on the ground that they were _ultra vires_. The +charter of the unions did not sanction it.[9] + +The English workman has not only had the trade union for a training +school in practical affairs, but the co-operative movement began here; +and here it flourishes, not as widely spread among the poorer workmen +as in Belgium, but among the better-paid workers it is very popular. + +It is singular that the only practical result left of Owen's +stupendous plans was the little co-operative shop, opened in 1844 at +Rochdale, with a capital of $140 and a gross weekly income of $10. +Owen did not start this shop, but a handful of his followers were the +promoters of the tiny enterprise. The co-operative union to-day +embraces wholesale, retail, productive, and special societies, with +nearly 3,000,000 members, increasing at the rate of 70,000 a year, and +doing $550,000,000 worth of business annually. + +There is also a rapidly growing co-partnership movement, especially in +the building of "garden suburbs" and tenements. In 1903 there were two +such companies, with $200,000 worth of property. In 1909 they had +increased to 15 associations, with over $3,085,000 worth of property. +The membership is not confined to workingmen, but they form the +bulk.[10] + +From the beginning of the modern labor movement we see that the +British workmen have shown a strong tendency to organize. Their +organizations included at first only the skilled workers. There was a +gulf between the trained worker and the unskilled worker. The latter, +forming the substratum of poverty, were too abject for organizing. + +These two great bodies of workers, skilled and unskilled, have been +gradually brought together and their interests united. The Taff Vale +and Osborne judgments have forced them into politics. The unskilled +have been given the benefit of the experience of the skilled, and a +fair degree of homogeneity and group ambition has been reached. + +To enter politics a new form of organization was necessary. We will +see how one was prepared for them. + + +IV + +We will now turn to the Socialist organizations. They are more +numerous than in the other countries we have studied, and more varied +in color. But not any of them are as strong as the French or German +organizations. + +In 1880 William Morris and H.M. Hyndman, a personal friend of Marx, +organized the "Democratic Federation." For a few years it was the only +Socialist organization. It split on the question of revolution. Morris +and his friends, many of them inclined toward Anarchy, founded the +"Socialist League." This league has long since vanished. Hyndman and +his followers renamed their society the "Social Democratic +Federation." It still persists, under the name Social Democratic Party +(popularly "S.D.P."), and remains the only organized trace of +militant, reactionary Marxianism in England. For a long time it +refrained from politics, advocated violence, and was the faithful +imitator of the Guesdist party in France. These are doctrines and +methods that repel the English mind, and the Federation never has been +strong. It has a weekly paper, _Justice_, and a monthly paper, _The +Social Democrat_; claims one member in Parliament, elected however by +the Labor Party, and (in 1907) 124 members of various local governing +bodies. Its aged leader, Hyndman, clings tenaciously to the dogmas of +Marx, and all the changes that have come over the Socialist movement +during the last decades have not altered his views or methods.[11] The +Federation's affiliations and sympathy have been with the +International rather than the British movement, and until a few years +ago it monopolized British representation on the International +Executive Committee. + +Soon after Morris left the Federation a new and novel Socialist +society was formed in London. Two Americans gave the impulse that +started the movement--Henry George, through his works on Single Tax, +and Thomas Davidson of New York, a gentle dreamer of the New +To-morrow. Henry George's books had been read by a group of young men +in London, and when Dr. Davidson went there to lecture he found these +young men ready to listen to his utopian generalizations. Soon these +men organized the Fabian Society. They were not sure of their ground, +and took for their motto: "For the right moment you must wait as +Fabius did when warring against Hannibal, though many censured his +delays; but when the time comes you must strike hard, as Fabius did, +or your waiting will be in vain and fruitless." + +A number of brilliant young men soon joined the Fabians, and their +"tracts" have become famous. Among their members they include Sidney +Webb, the sociologist; George Bernard Shaw, the playwright and cynic; +Chiozza Money, statistician and member of Parliament; Rev. R.J. +Campbell of the City Temple; Rev. Stewart Headlam, leader in the +Church Socialist Movement; and a horde of others, famous in letters, +the professions, and the arts. + +It is difficult to estimate the influence of this unique group of +personages, and it is very easy to underestimate it. From the first +they committed themselves to the policy of "permeation," instead of +aggressive propaganda. They would transform the world by intellectual +osmosis. They have, thus, not only contributed by far the most +brilliant literature to modern Socialism, but have touched some of the +inner springs of political and social power. Prime ministers and +borough councilmen, poor-law guardians and chancellors of the +exchequer, have been influenced by the propulsion of their ideas. But +it has all been done so noiselessly and so well disguised, that to the +Social Democratic Federation the Fabians are "mere academicians," and +to the Independent Labor Party they are forerunners of "tyrannical +bureaucracy." + +Eleven Fabians are in Parliament, and they are not silent onlookers. +For years the Fabians have dominated the London County Council. Its +brilliant "missionaries" attract large audiences, and "Fabian Essays" +have passed through many editions. Each member of this society is the +creator of his own dogma. The Marxian formulas, especially the theory +of surplus value, are not reverenced by them. + +England is the only country in Europe where there is a strong Church +Socialist Movement. In 1889 the Christian Social Union was formed by +members of the Church of England. It is not a Socialist organization, +but it has enlisted a wide practical interest in the labor movement. +It was the outgrowth of the Pan-Anglican Congress, which met at +Lambeth in 1888. At this conference a committee on Socialism made a +noteworthy report, recommending the bringing together of capital and +labor through the agency of co-operation and association.[12] + +In 1906 "The Church Socialist League" was organized. "It seeks to +convert the christened people of England to Socialism. Its members are +committed to the definite economic Socialism of accredited Socialist +bodies. The League is growing rapidly. Branches are springing up all +over the country. Its members have addressed thousands of meetings on +behalf of both Socialist and labor candidates at Parliamentary and +principal elections.... The members of the League are Socialists. They +seek to establish a commonwealth in which the people shall own the +land and industrial capital collectively and administer the same +collectively."[13] + +The influence of the Church Socialist League and the Fabians has +spread to the universities, especially to Oxford and Cambridge. A +number of distinguished professors are active Socialists. + +The movement thus gained ground more rapidly among the intellectuals +than among the workingmen. It was not until 1893 that a Socialist +Labor Party was organized. The Social Democratic Federation was too +dogmatic, hard, and bitter to draw the English laboring man; the +Fabians and the Church Socialists were avowedly not partisan. In 1893 +a group of labor delegates met at Bradford and, under the leadership +of Keir Hardie, organized the Independent Labor Party (I.L.P.). This +definite step had been preceded by many local political organizations +among labor unionists. The necessity for political activity had been +felt in many places. The Bradford convention was merely the coalescing +of many local movements. The I.L.P. is a Socialist body, but it is not +dogmatically, not obnoxiously so. It forms, rather, a connecting link +between Socialism and labor unions. + +It entered politics at once, but with discouraging results. Its 29 +candidates polled only 63,000 votes; only 5 were elected. A closer +alliance with the labor unions was necessary. This was accomplished +when the unions, in 1899, appointed a Labor Representative Committee, +whose duty it was, as the name implies, to increase labor's +representation in Parliament.[14] This committee had first to +determine its relation to the other political parties. The Liberals +and Conservatives among the laborites were outvoted, and the committee +determined upon a new course. Representatives from the Socialist +bodies--the I.L.P., S.D.F., and Fabians--were asked to join the unions +in an alliance that should use its united strength in electing members +to Parliament. All agreed, but the S.D.F. soon withdrew. + +In 1906 the name of the committee was changed to the Labor Party. It +is founded upon the broadest basis of co-operation, so that neither +Socialist, no matter how radical, nor non-Socialist should find it +impossible to work with the party. Its constitution defines this +coalition: "The Labor Party is a federation consisting of Trade +Unions, Trade Councils, Socialist Societies, and Local Labor Parties." +"Co-operative Societies are also eligible," as are "national +organizations of women accepting the basis of this constitution and +the policy of the party." + +The object of the party is "to secure the election of candidates to +Parliament and to organize and maintain a Labor Party with its own +whips and policy." + +Party rigor is carefully prescribed: "Candidates and members must +accept this constitution and agree to abide by the decisions of the +Parliamentary party in carrying out the aims of this constitution; +appear before their constituents under the title of labor candidates; +abstain strictly from identifying themselves with or promoting the +interests of any Parliamentary party not affiliated, or its +candidates; and they must not oppose any candidate recognized by the +national executive of the party." "Before a candidate can be regarded +as adopted for a constituency, his candidature must be sanctioned by +the national executive." + +The party, thus centrally controlled, is well organized in every part +of the kingdom. It maintains a fund for paying the election expenses +of its members.[15] The Osborne judgment has been a serious setback to +the party, especially in local elections. The payment of members was +voted in 1911 by Parliament as a partial remedy, and the government +has promised a reform election bill that will impose the burden of all +necessary election expenses upon the state. + +The party membership has grown from 375,000 in 1900 to nearly +1,500,000 in 1912. Such leading members of the party as J. Ramsay +MacDonald, Keir Hardie, Philip Snowden, and over one-half of the +Parliamentary group, are Socialists. The party refused to commit +itself to Socialistic principles until 1907, when it declared itself +in favor of the following resolution: "The socialization of the means +of production, distribution, and exchange to be controlled in a +democratic state in the interests of the entire community, and the +complete emancipation of labor from the domination of capitalism and +landlordism, with the establishment of social and economic equality +between the sexes."[16] + +In 1908 the party had 26 members in county councils, 262 in town +councils, 168 in urban district councils, 27 in rural district +councils, 124 in parish councils, 145 on poor-law boards, 23 on school +boards. There are (1910) about 1,500 labor men and Socialist members +on the various local governing bodies in Great Britain.[17] + + +V + +We see, then, that Socialism and trades-unionism in England coalesced. +But a more important confluence of political ideals was soon to occur. + +The elections of 1906 indicated to the people of England that a new +force had entered the domain of political power, which had so long +been assigned to the gentry and men of wealth. A careful observer of +political events, and a member of Parliament, described the results as +follows: "When the present House of Commons (1907) was completed in +January last, and it was discerned that 50 labor members had been +elected, a cry of wonder went up from press and public. People wrote +and spoke as if these 50 members were the forerunners of a political +and social revolution; as if the old party divisions were completely +worn out, and as if power were about to pass to a new political party +that would represent the masses as opposed to the classes. These fears +or hopes were reflected in the House of Commons itself. During the +early months of the session the Labor Party received from all quarters +of the House an amount of deference that would have been described as +sycophantic if it had been directed towards an aristocratic instead of +towards a democratic group."[18] The tidal wave of reaction following +the Boer war had swept the Liberal Party into power, and had given +fifty seats to the Labor Party. The effect was nothing short of +revolutionary. + +Disraeli, in his _Sibyl_, spoke of "two nations," two Englands, the +England of the gentry and the England of the working classes. The +elections since the Boer war have given this "other England" its +chance. The gentry, the Whigs and Tories, will never again fight their +political jousts with the "other England" looking contentedly on. This +"mass mind of organized labor" has become the "new controlling force +in progressive politics."[19] + +The "transformed England" began to see evidences of the change. The +first bill brought in by the Labor Party provided for the feeding of +school children, from the homes of the poor, out of public funds. "The +business in life of my colleagues and myself is to impress upon this +House the importance of the poverty problem," said the spokesman of +the Labor Party in an important debate.[20] + +England had awakened hungry. + +Now occurred the most significant political event in the history of +modern England. The Liberal Party took over the immediate program of +the Labor Party. This is significant because it swept England away +from her industrial moorings of individualistic _laissez-faire_, and +extended the functions of the state into activities that had hitherto +been left to individual initiative. A complete revolution had taken +place since Cobden's day. The state acknowledged new social and +economic obligations. In the Parliamentary struggle that followed +hereditary prerogative in property was undermined and hereditary +prerogative in government virtually destroyed, and the principles of +democracy enormously extended.[21] + +In England the question of co-operation between Socialists and other +parties has been more important than in any other European country: +because in a democratic parliament concessions are always made to +large portions of the electorate by the parties in power, and because +the practical temperamental qualities of the British discard the +fine-drawn distinctions between groups and sub-groups that are so +assiduously maintained in France and Germany. + +In the Amsterdam Congress of The International the question was +discussed whether Socialists should act with other parties. Jaures and +his _bloc_ were the occasion of the debate. Kautsky said that in times +of national crises like war it might be necessary for Socialists to +co-operate with the government to insure national safety. No such +extraordinary standard has ever existed among practical Englishmen, +who usually know what they want, and are not particular about the +means of getting it. + +William Morris, uncompromising dogmatist, inveighed against the Whigs +in 1886 as "the Harlequins of Reaction." Democracy was his ideal of +government, and he was not entirely averse to political action on the +part of Socialists. "To capture Parliament, and turn it into a popular +but constitutional assembly, is, I must conclude, the aspiration of +the genuine democrats wherever they may be found." + +But he was wary of compromise. "Some democrats take up actual pieces +of Socialism, the nationalization of land, or of railways, or +cumulative taxation of incomes, or limiting the right of inheritance, +or new patent laws, or the restriction by law of the day's labor.... +All this I admit and say is a hopeful sign, and yet once again I say +there is a snare in it.... A snake lies lurking in the grass." "Those +who think they can deal with our present system in this piecemeal way +very much underrate the strength of the tremendous organization under +which we live, and which appoints to each of us his place, and, if we +do not choose to fit it, grinds us down until we do."[22] + +Morris' advice, "Beware the Whigs," was uttered at a time when the +leader of that party, Gladstone, was beginning to see that the chief +event of the century would be the merging of the social question with +politics. The "piecemeal" method that Morris decried became the actual +method of Parliamentary activity as soon as a new party, a third +party, arose and drew its inspiration from the working classes. + +Such a party was anticipated. Lord Rosebery said in 1894: "I am +certain there is a party in this country, unnamed as yet, that is +disconnected with any existing political organization--a party that is +inclined to say, 'A plague on both your houses, a plague on all your +politics, a plague on all your unending discussions that yield so +little fruit.'"[23] And the same year John (now Lord) Morley +prophesied: "Now I dare say the time may come, it may come sooner than +some think, when the Liberal Party will be transformed or superseded +by some new party."[24] And Professor Dicey, over a decade ago, spoke +of the waning orthodoxy of Liberalism and its rapid merging into +Socialism. + +The "piecemeal" party of Morris, the "transformed" party of Morley, +the radicalized party of Dicey, is the Liberal Party of to-day. The +"unnamed" party of Rosebery is the Labor Party, which not only says, +"A plague upon all your discussions," but, "A plague upon all your +fine-spun theories of class war--it's results we want." + +Before detailing some of the significant acts of this new democratic +coalition, it should be added that the motive of the Liberal Party has +not been unmixed with politics. The Labor Party possesses not only the +30 or 40 votes in the House of Commons; there are hundreds of +thousands of labor votes outside. This background of silent, vigilant +voters forms the greatest force of the Labor Party. Many Liberal +members hold their seats by its favor. + +There are in both the great parties men with strong sympathies for the +labor ideal. In fact, a number of Socialists are sitting with the +Liberals. There is no clear demarcation. It is only a difference of +the degree of infusion. + +The Labor Party has had a strong influence upon the House of Commons. +For many years the "Government" has ruled quite arbitrarily. When +there are only two parties this is possible. But when an influential +third party appears on the scene, government by the "front benchers" +must be moderated.[25] + +The "cross benchers" have wrested a good deal of power from the +leaders. This is necessary in a democracy which is kept alive only by +contact with the people. There is more government by the Commons, and +less government by the ministry. This _entente_ can degenerate into +Parliamentary tyranny if it wishes. It can demand the cloture, as well +as open the valves of useless debate. But an arbitrary act +unsanctioned by the cross benchers would be likely to bring +destruction upon the government that perpetrated it. + + +VI + +A review of the Acts of Parliament since the Liberal-Labor coalition +and a perusal of the debates are convincing proof of the character of +the new legislation and the opinions that prompt it. We must confine +ourselves to a few types of this legislation, enough to show the +actual changes now in process. + +The first bill introduced by the Labor Party, and enacted into law, +authorized the providing of meals for poor children in the schools. It +does not make this compulsory, but under its sanction in 1909 over +$670,000 were spent in providing over 16,000,000 meals. Nearly half of +these were in London.[26] This law is especially assailed by the +anti-Socialists. They claim its administration has been too lenient, +not discriminating between the needy and those capable of self-help. +It is only the entering wedge of Socialism, they say; it is only a +step from feeding the child to clothing him, and from feeding and +clothing the child to caring for the parent. They recall that Sidney +Webb has often said that if the city furnishes water free to its +citizens it should be able to furnish milk as well. + +The second bill introduced by the Labor Party was the Trades Dispute +Act. This was framed to annul the Taff Vale decision, making the +unions immune from suits for tortious acts and providing an elaborate +system of arbitrating labor disputes. The provisions of this act were +tested by two railway crises. In 1907 the railway employees threatened +to go out on strike. Lloyd George, then president of the Board of +Trade, averted the strike by enlisting all the power of the government +in persuading the companies and the men to agree to a scheme of +arbitration. This was to last a stipulated term of years, but before +the time had elapsed the men actually struck (1911), and for a week +the country was in a panic. Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the +Exchequer, again used all the power of the government to bring peace, +and a commission was appointed to investigate the grievances of the +men, who had agreed to abide by its decision. In this way the +government has become the most active force in settling labor +disputes--a subject that was formerly left to the two parties of the +labor contract. + +A Workman's Compensation Act and an Old-Age Pension Act soon followed. +The latter provides a pension for all workmen who are 70 years old. +Unlike the German act, the government provides all the funds. In 1909 +the Labor Exchange Act empowered the Board of Trade to establish labor +exchanges. These have been established in every city. At first there +was some friction with the unions because "blacklegs" were assigned to +places. But since union men have been invited to sit on the local +governing committees, things are running smoother. + +There are three laws which show the trend of the changing relation of +the state to property. + +The Development Act of 1909 provides for the appointment of five +commissioners, upon whose recommendation the Treasury advances money +to any governmental department or public authority or university or +association of persons for the purpose of aiding agriculture and rural +industries of all sorts; the reclamation of drainage lands and of +forests; the general improvement of rural transportation, including +the building of "light railways"; the construction and improvement of +harbors; the improvement of inland navigation, including the building +of canals; and the development and improvement of fisheries. This law +endows the government with the necessary authority for the absorption +of virtually all the internal means of communication except the trunk +railways, and extends the paternal arm of the government over +agriculture and the fisheries and subsidiary industries.[27] The +first report of the commission, 1910-11, indicates that work under +this law has begun in earnest. A comprehensive plan of regeneration, +embracing the entire kingdom and based on adequate surveys, is +outlined. One of the interesting features of the plan is the proposal +to do as much of the work as possible by direct labor rather than by +competitive bidding. The commission wants to make sure "that the funds +shall not go into the pockets of private individuals."[28] Under an +enthusiastic commission there will be practically no limit to the +influence of this law. + +Two other acts are closely allied with this scheme: the Small Holdings +Act of 1908, and the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909. The Small +Holdings Act gives authority to county councils to "provide small +holdings for persons who desire to buy or lease and will themselves +cultivate the holdings." This provision is extended to borough, urban, +district, and parish councils. These authorities may purchase such +lands "whether situate within or without their county." + +The Town Planning Act gives cities and towns the power to purchase +land and allot it, to tear down undesirable buildings, to co-operate +with any workingman's association for improving and erecting +dwellings, and to buy the necessary land for making improvements of +all kinds. John Burns, who stood sponsor for this bill, explained that +it gave complete authority to local governing bodies "to make a city +healthful and a city beautiful." + +Following the British habit, work has very cautiously begun under +these acts. Up to December, 1910, about 28,000 acres were purchased or +leased under the allotment act, and sublet to 100,498 individual +tenants. "Town planning" has progressed rapidly, and the regeneration +of the British slums, the most dismal in the world, may be not far +distant.[29] + +Under the Small Holdings Act there were, up to December, 1910, nearly +31,000 applicants, asking for over 500,000 acres. Only one-fifth of +this amount was acquired, for 7,000 holders. Thirty per cent. of the +applicants are agricultural laborers, and the majority of the others +are drawn from the rural population who have some small business or +trade in the villages and wish a plot of land for a garden. This +"often makes the difference between a bare subsistence and comparative +prosperity."[30] + +These laws show the drift of the current. The question of the +nationalization of railways has been the subject of Parliamentary +inquiry, and the great railway strike of 1911 emphasized the matter +profoundly. The state in 1911 completed the taking over of all the +telephone lines; it conducts an extensive postal savings bank and a +parcels post. + +In local affairs some British cities are models of municipal +enterprise. Even London, that amorphous mass of human misery and +opulence, is changing its aspect. Since the granting of municipal home +rule it has built a vast system of street railways, cleaned out acres +of slums, opened breathing spaces, built tenements, and in many other +ways displayed evidences of an awakening civic consciousness. + +Three other pieces of legislation must be described more in detail, +because they are more revolutionary, far-reaching, and democratic than +anything attempted by the British nation since the days of the Reform +Bill. + +First is the famous "Budget" of Lloyd George. When this virile +Welshman became Chancellor of the Exchequer he cast his budget in the +mold of his social theories. He said: "Personally, I look on the +Budget as a part only of a comprehensive scheme of fiscal and social +reform: the setting up of a great insurance scheme for the unemployed +and for the sick and infirm, and the creation, through the development +bill, of the machinery for the regeneration of rural life."[31] + +The land system of England is feudal. Tenure still legally exists. +There still clings the flavor of social and political distinction to +fee simple. This the landowners have fortified against all the changes +that industrialism has wrought. There has been no general land +appraisement since the Pilgrims landed at the new Plymouth. The "land +monopoly" successfully resisted every attack until the famous budget +of 1908. Chiozza Money quotes John Bateman's analysis of the "New +Domesday Book," fixing the ownership of land in England and Wales as +follows:[32] + +In 1883, in the United Kingdom, there was a total area of 77,000,000 +acres; of this 40,426,000 acres were owned by 2,500 persons. "While +the total income of the nation is L1,840,000,000, the landowners take +L106,000,000 as land rent."[33] England is a great industrial and +commercial nation living on leased land. + +The development of the industrial towns has enormously multiplied the +value of some of these vast estates.[34] + +The new budget proposed, first, to tax the land values; not a +fictitious sum, or the value of the land with improvements, but the +site value--the increment value with which the land is endowed because +of its favorable location. Second, to this was added a 10 per cent. +reversion duty. Third, a tax was levied on undeveloped land held for +speculative purposes. And, fourth, a 5 per cent. tax on mineral rights +was assessed on the owners of the land that contained the mines. + +These proposals raised a storm. They aimed at the traditional +stronghold of English aristocracy. The budget passed the House of +Commons by a large majority; the Lords rejected it. The government +promptly prorogued Parliament and went before the people. And what was +at first only an attack upon hereditary rights in land became an +attack also upon hereditary rights in politics. The House of Lords +became an issue as well as the budget. After a fiery and furious +campaign, in which Socialists and Laborites joined Radicals and +Liberals, the budget won by a safe majority.[35] The Lords passed the +measure. But this resistance cost them dear. One of the first +prerogatives established by the House of Commons was the right to +control the purse-strings of the kingdom. Custom has given the +sanction of constitutionality to this prerogative. And the Lords, in +first denying and then delaying the budget, laid themselves open to +the charge of "hereditary arrogance" and "unconstitutionalism." + +After the passage of the budget there followed six months of +conference between the two front benches, to find a basis of reform +for the House of Lords upon which all could unite. When it became +evident that this was impossible, the government again prorogued +Parliament and went to the people for a mandate on the question of +"reforming the Lords." The Liberals and their allies were, for a third +time, returned to power, and in February, 1911, the Prime Minister, +Mr. Asquith, introduced his "Parliament Bill," taking from the House +of Lords the power to amend a money bill so as to change its +character. If any other bill passed by the Commons is rejected by the +Lords, the Commons can pass it over their veto; and if this is done in +three consecutive sessions of the same Parliament--provided two years +elapse between the introduction of the bill and its third rejection by +the Lords--it becomes a law. The law is intended as a preliminary +measure. The preamble states that it is the intention of the +government to provide for a second chamber "constituted on a popular +instead of hereditary basis." The bill was so amended by the Lords as +to change its character and returned to the Commons. The Prime +Minister then informed the leaders of the opposition that the King, +"upon the advice of his ministers," had consented to create enough +peers to insure the passage of the bill in its original form. Rather +than have their house encumbered by 400 new peers, the Lords gave a +reluctant consent to the measure that virtually destroyed the +bicameral system in England. + +This profound constitutional change, that practically makes England a +representative democracy pure and simple, was unaccompanied by any of +those popular and spectacular demonstrations one naturally expects to +see on such occasions. The debate in both houses rarely touched the +pinnacle of excitement, its fervor was partisan rather than +patriotic.[36] + +In 1832, when the hereditary peers stood in the way of the Reform +Bill, which had passed the Commons by only one majority, the populace +rose _en masse_, surged through the streets of the capital, and +threatened the King and his Iron Duke,--whose statue now adorns every +available square in the city,--and made it known that their wishes +must be respected. To-day the people, secure in the knowledge of their +supremacy, scarcely notice the efforts of the opposition, in its +attempts to bolster the falling walls of hereditary prerogative in +representative government. So far has England assumed the air of +democracy. + +The third piece of legislation, to which allusion has been made, +indicates the direction that this democracy is taking. It is the +Insurance Bill, also introduced by Lloyd George, and passed in +December, 1911. It insures the working population against "sickness +and breakdown." It is planned to follow up the law with insurance +against non-employment. The law is of especial interest to Americans, +because it adapts the principle of the German system to the +Anglo-Saxon's traditional aversion to state bureaucracy. It commands a +compulsory contribution from employer and employee, supplemented by +state grants. These funds are not administered by the state, but by +"Friendly Societies" (insurance orders organized by the unions) and +other benevolent organizations of workingmen now in existence. These +are democratic, voluntary organizations. Where no such organizations +exist, the post-office administers the fund. + +The keynote of this law is the prevention of invalidity. Its details +are largely based upon the reports of the Royal Poor Law +Commissioners, 1905-9. The commission made two voluminous reports; +Mrs. Sidney Webb, a member of the commission, prepared the minority +report.[37] + +The Labor Party, in all of these measures, voted with the Liberals. +The Insurance Bill was denounced by the most radical Laborites on the +ground that labor was charged with contributing to the fund, and that +the bill was inadequate. But the majority of the delegation voted for +the measure. + + +VII + +Enough has now been said to indicate the changes in economic and +social legislation that are being brought about in England by the +coalition of Socialists and Liberals.[38] The causes for this change +cannot be laid to Socialism alone. Socialism is an effect quite as +much as a cause; it is the result of industrial conditions, as well as +the prompter of changes. The permeation of the working classes with +the principles of state aid; the spread of discontent; the lure of +better days; all deepened and emphasized by the poverty of the Island, +are the sources of this Social Democratic current. This has led, +first, to the unification of the several Socialist groups; secondly, +to the coalescing of labor union and Socialist ambitions into the +Labor Party; thirdly, to an effective co-operation between the Labor +Party and the Liberal-Radicals. + +Sagacious Socialists saw this trend long ago. In 1888 Sidney Webb +appealed to the Liberals to espouse the cause of labor. He pointed out +the inevitable, and it has happened.[39] + +Two questions naturally arise: First, how far will this movement +toward Social Democracy go? Second, how long will the Labor Party hold +together and prompt the action of the Liberals and Radicals in social +legislation? + +The first question is not merely conjectural. The Reform Bill now +(1912) prepared by the government will destroy the last vestige of +property qualifications for voting. It will destroy plural voting, +which now allows a freeholder to vote in every district where he holds +land. In some districts the absentee voters hold the balance of +power.[40] Votes for women are also promised. This increased +electorate will not be conservative in its convictions. Along with +this will come the abolishing of the custom that compels candidates to +bear the election expenses; the payment of members of Parliament has +already begun; the lure of office is no longer a will-o'-the-wisp to +the poor with ambition. + +The new Liberalism is, then, devoted first of all to real democracy, +in which the King's prerogatives retain their sickly place. As to the +functions of the state, it will "probably retain its distinction from +Socialism in taking for its chief test of policy the freedom of the +individual citizen rather than the strength of the state, though the +antagonism of the two standpoints may tend to disappear in the light +of progressive experience."[41] + +As to property, it will probably continue to make unearned increments +and incomes bear the burden of social reform; create a business +democracy for running the public utilities, leaving more or less +unhampered the fields of legitimate industrial opportunity. "Property +is not an absolute right of the individual owner which the state is +bound to maintain at his behest. On the contrary, the state on its +side is justified in examining the rights which he may claim, and +criticising them; seeing it is by the force of the state and at its +expense that all such rights are maintained."[42] This, the +well-considered opinion of a well-known scholar, may be properly taken +as the gauge of present-day English Radical sentiment on the +inviolability of property rights. + +As to the second question: How long will the coalition hang together? +the Socialists are now (1912) showing signs of restiveness. The old +question, that has rent all Socialists in all countries, and always +will, because Socialism is a wide-spreading and vague generalization, +has arisen among these practical Englishmen. In the convention of the +I.L.P., 1910, there was a prolonged discussion on the policy of the +party in its relation to other parties. "The Labor Party should stand +for labor, not for Liberalism," was the complaint. Keir Hardie +suggested that they were not in Parliament to keep governments in +office or to turn them out, but "to organize the working classes into +a great independent political power, to fight for the coming of +Socialism."[43] A resolution objecting to members of the party +"appearing on platforms alongside Liberal and Tory capitalists and +landlords," was defeated by a large majority.[44] + +In the House of Commons clashes are not infrequent between the +Laborites and the Liberals. Annually the labor members move an +amendment to the Address of the Crown, asking for a bill "to establish +the right to work by placing upon the state the responsibility of +directly providing employment or maintenance for the genuinely +unemployed."[45] John Burns opposed their amendment in 1911, in a +brilliant and vehement speech, not so much because the government was +opposed to the principle, but for the political reason that the +government was not ready to bring in a bill of its own, which should +be a part of its comprehensive system of social reform.[46] + +The great strike of transportation workers, in the summer of 1911, +widened the breach between Laborites and Liberals, and between the +extreme and moderate Socialists. This strike spread from the dockers +of Liverpool to London, from the dockers to the railway workers, and +then to the teamsters and drivers of the larger cities, until a +general tie-up of transportation was threatened. It came very near +being a model general strike. Its violence was met with a call for the +troops. The labor members in Parliament protested earnestly against +the use of soldiers. But the government was prompt and firm in its +suppression of disorder. A bitter debate took place between the +government and the labor leaders.[47] + +How much of this give and take must be attributed to the play of +politics, it is impossible to declare. But this great strike clearly +revealed the difference between violent Socialism and moderate +radicalism. The one is willing to effect revolutions through law and +order, the other to effect them through violence and disruption. + +The moderate Socialists seem willing to take a middle course between +these extremes. The following quotation from a speech delivered by +Ramsay MacDonald, leader of the Labor Party, at a convention of the +I.L.P., clearly illustrates the moderate view: + +"We can cut off kings' heads after a few battles, we can change a +monarchy into a republic, we can deprive people of their titles, and +we can make similar superficial alterations by force; but nobody who +understands the power of habit and of custom in human conduct, who +appreciates the fact that by far and away the greater amount of an +action is begun, controlled, and specified by the system of social +interrelationship in which we live, move, and have our being; and +still more, nobody who understands the delicate and intricate +complexity of production and exchange which keeps modern society +going, will dream for a single moment of changing it by any act of +violence. As soon as that act is committed, every vital force in +society will tend to re-establish the relationship which we have been +trying to end, and what is more, these vital forces will conquer us in +the form of a violent reaction, a counter revolution. When we cut off +a newt's tail, a newt's tail will grow on again. + +"I want the" I.L.P.'s action "to be determined by our numbers, our +relative strength, the state of public opinion, the character of the +question before the country. I appeal to it that it take into account +all the facts and circumstances, and not, for the sake of satisfying +its soul and sentiment, go gaily on, listening to the enunciation of +policies and cheering phrases which obviously do not take into account +some of the most important and at the same time most difficult +problems which representation in Parliament presents to it."[48] In +another place MacDonald has detailed the steps in the progress of +Parliamentary Socialism. He begins with "palliatives," such as factory +inspection, old-age pensions, feeding of school children; next, the +state engages in constructive legislation, "municipalization and +nationalization in every shape and form, from milk supplies to +telephones," and finally insists on the taxing of unearned increment +and a general redistribution of the burdens of the state.[49] + +Not all the members of the I.L.P. are agreed upon this moderate +statement. Keir Hardie and his immediate followers still cling to the +"larger hope" of a socialized society, to which commonplace +legislation is only a crude preliminary. + +Bernard Shaw has confessed the orthodoxy of the new Social Democracy. +"Nobody now considers Socialism as a destructive insurrection ending, +if successful, in millennial absurdities," and of the budget he said: +"If not a surrender of the capitalist citadel, it is at all events +letting down the drawbridge."[50] The public utterances of the Radical +leaders are often less restrained than those of the Socialists,[51] so +that it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the difference. + +Professor Hobhouse, in his analysis of the difference between +Liberal-Radicalism and Socialism, says: "I venture to conclude that +the differences between a true and consistent public-spirited +liberalism and a rational collectivism, ought, with a genuine effort +at mutual understanding, to disappear. The two parties are called on +to make common cause against the growing power of wealth, which, by +its control of the press and of the means of political organization, +is more and more a menace to the healthy working of popular +government."[52] + +And Brougham Villiers stated, a year before the Liberals gained +control of the government, that the hope of the country lay in an +"alliance, won by persistent, intelligent helpfulness on the part of +the Liberals, with the alienated artisans, for the betterment of the +conditions of the poorest, so as to give at once hope and life and +better leisure for thought."[53] + +So we see Socialism and Liberalism united in accomplishing changes in +legislation and ancient institutions--changes that are revolutionary +in character and will be far-reaching in results. It is not the red +revolutionary Socialism of Marx; it is the practical British Socialism +of amelioration. "This practical, constitutional, evolutionary +Socialism," a chronicler of the Fabians calls it.[54] It would have to +be practical to appeal to the British voter, constitutional to lure +the British statesman, and evolutionary to satisfy the British +philosopher. + +In the troublous days of 1888-90 there were a great many young +Socialists who believed the social revolution was waiting around the +next corner and would soon sweep over London in gory reality. Many of +these young men are sober Fabians now, or staid Conservatives or +Liberals. To-day they think they were mistaken. They were not. There +was a revolution around the next corner. It has already captured the +high places. Society, government, is rapidly encroaching upon private +property through the powers of taxation, of police supervision, and +all manner of constitutional instrumentalities. Ownership, even in +land, is now only an incident, the rights of the community are in the +ascendant. Democracy has conquered hereditary privilege. And the +revolution is still advancing. England is showing the world that "The +way to make Socialism safe is to make democracy real."[55] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See _supra_, p. 51. + +[2] See CHIOZZA MONEY, _Riches and Poverty_, first page, edition 1911. + +[3] _Op. cit._, p. 337. + +[4] _Op. cit._, pp. 337-8. + +[5] See V. NASH and H.L. SMITH, _The Story of the Dockers' Strike_, +London, 1890. + +[6] See SIDNEY and BEATRICE WEBB, _History of Trades Unionism_, +London, 1911. + +[7] There are about 650,000 members in those unions that pay +out-of-work benefits. The following table gives some conception of the +magnitude of the out-of-work problem in England. It shows the sums +expended by the unions for out-of-work relief: + + Year Amount + 1898 L234,000 + 1899 185,000 + 1900 261,000 + 1901 325,000 + 1902 429,000 + 1903 516,000 + 1904 655,000 + 1905 523,000 + 1906 424,000 + 1907 466,000 + +Out of a body of 15,000,000 workmen, Chiozza Money estimates that +500,000 are always out of work. _Opus cit._, p. 122. + +[8] Members of Parliament received no pay until 1911, when the +Radical-Liberal government passed a law giving each member a salary of +$2,000 a year. + +[9] A discussion of this case from the Fabian point of view is found +in the Preface to WEBB'S _History of Trades Unionism_, edition of +1911. The labor unions and the Labor Party have issued pamphlets on +these two decisions. The legal points are fully discussed in the +official reports of the cases. + +[10] There are 15,000,000 working men and women in Great Britain; +3,000,000 belong to co-operative enterprises, 2,500,000 to trade +unions. + +[11] See H.M. HYNDMAN, _Autobiography_, London, 1911. + +[12] Dr. Wescott, Bishop of Durham, was the founder of the Christian +Social Union. His pamphlet, _Socialism_, is a real contribution to the +literature on the Church and its relation to labor. The present +attitude of the Union may be gleaned from the following quotation +taken from the letter written by Dr. Gore, Bishop of Birmingham, to +his diocese, on the occasion of his transfer to the bishopric of +Oxford. The letter was written during the railway and dockers' strike, +in September, 1911: "There is a profound sense of unrest and +dissatisfaction among workers recently. I cannot but believe that this +profound discontent is justified, though some particular exhibitions +of it are not. As Christians we are not justified in tolerating the +conditions of life and labor under which the vast mass of our +population is living. We have no right to say that these conditions +are not remediable. Preventable lack of equipment for life among +young, and later the insecurity of employment and inadequacy of +remuneration, and consequent destitution and semi-destitution among so +many people, ought to inspire in all Christians a determination to +reform our industrial system." + +[13] From _Statement of Principles of the League_. + +[14] Even at this time the conservatism of the unions was hard to +break. The vote to take this step was 546,000 to 434,000 in favor of +appointing the committee. + +[15] Election expenses are borne by the candidates, not by the state. +They frequently are over $3,000, and it obviously is impossible for a +workingman to conduct such a campaign at his own expense. + +[16] Proceedings of Labor Party, Annual Congress, 1907. + +[17] See _Socialists in Great Britain_, a compilation published by the +London _Times_, p. 24. + +The following table shows the membership of the Labor Party since its +formation in 1900, from the annual report of the party executive, +1911: + + Trades Councils + and Local Labor + Trade Unions Parties Socialist Societies + No. Membership No. No. Membership Total + 1900-1 41 353,070 7 3 22,861 375,931 + 1901-2 65 455,450 21 2 13,861 469,311 + 1902-3 127 847,315 49 2 13,835 861,150 + 1903-4 165 956,025 76 2 13,775 969,800 + 1904-5 158 885,270 73 2 14,730 900,000 + 1905-6 158 904,496 73 2 16,784 921,280 + 1906-7 176 975,182 83 2 20,885 998,338{1} + 1907 181 1,049,673 92 2 22,267 1,072,413{2} + 1908 176 1,127,035 133 2 27,465 1,158,565{3} + 1909 172 1,450,648 155 2 30,982 1,486,308{4} + 1910 137 1,306,473 125 2 31,377 1,342,610{5} + +{1} This total includes 2,271 Co-operators. {2} Includes 472 +Co-operators. {3} Includes 565 Co-operators, and 3,500 members of the +Women's Labor League. {4} Includes 678 Co-operators, and 4,000 members +of the Women's Labor League. {5} Includes 760 Co-operators, and 4,000 +members of the Women's Labor League. + +The decrease in membership during the last year is ascribed to the +Osborne judgment. + +[18] HAROLD COX, _Socialism in the House of Commons_, p. 1. + +[19] See J.A. HOBSON, _The Crisis of Liberalism_, for a discussion of +the new party alignments. + +EMILE BOUTMY, philosophical critic of the English, says that England, +"transformed in all outward seeming, ... has just begun a new +history." See his _The English People: A Study in Their Political +Psychology_, London, 1904, for a keen analysis of English political +proclivities. + +[20] _Parliamentary Debates_, 5th series, vol. 21, p. 649. Speech by +G. Lansbury. + +[21] The new Liberal government invited John Burns into the cabinet. +He is the first workingman in English history to occupy a cabinet +position. The more restless Socialists are inclined to call him a +Liberal because responsibility has taught him caution. But he still +persists that he is a Socialist. He is a Fabian, and boasts of the +three times that he was imprisoned for participating in labor +agitations. About twenty years before his elevation he said in the Old +Bailey, where he had been arraigned for "sedition and conspiracy" in +conducting a strike: "I may tell you, my lord, that I went to work in +a factory at the early age of ten years and toiled there until five +months ago, when I left my workshop to stand as Parliamentary +candidate for the western division of Nottingham." + +It must be kept in mind that many of the Conservatives are committed +to social legislation. They are not, however, in favor of the +indefinite expansion of democracy, and are opposed to the adult +suffrage bill as proposed by the Liberals. + +[22] WILLIAM MORRIS, _Signs of Change_, p. 4. + +[23] Speech delivered in St. James' Hall, March 21, 1894. + +[24] Speech delivered at Newcastle, May 21, 1894. + +[25] In the British House of Commons the ministry and the opposition +leaders sit in the front benches on opposite sides of the House facing +each other. A "front bencher" always commands a hearing, owing to his +high position in the party. The members of the party sit behind their +leaders and are called "back benchers." The minor groups, the Labor +Party and the Irish Party, sit in the cross benches at the lower end +of the chamber and are called "cross benchers." + +[26] See _Annual Report Board of Education_, 1909-1910. + +[27] Keir Hardie, the dean of the Socialist group in Parliament, +fathered this law. Sidney Webb, the distinguished Fabian, was made a +member of the commission. + +[28] See First Annual Report of the Commission. + +[29] See _Annual Report Home Office_, 1909-1910. + +[30] _Ibid._ + +[31] The money for these things he proposed to raise by taxes, and +especially by a tax on land values. + +[32] CHIOZZA MONEY, _Riches and Poverty_, p. 82. + + No. of Owners Class of Owners Acres owned + 400 Peers and peeresses 5,729,927 + 1,288 Great landowners 8,497,699 + 2,529 Squires{1} 4,319,271 + 9,589 Greater yeomen{1} 4,782,627 + 24,412 Lesser yeomen{1} 4,144,272 + 217,049 Small proprietors 3,931,806 + 703,289 Cottagers 151,148 + 14,459 Public bodies 1,443,548 + Waste lands 1,524,624 + ------- --------- + 973,015 34,524,922 + +{1} This classification is purely arbitrary. + +[33] _Op. cit._, p. 91. + +[34] The leaseholder is burdened with "rack-rent" and "premiums"; when +the lease expires the improvements revert to the landlord. There has +been, for years, a well-organized Single-Tax movement in England that +points to the evils of this land system as conclusive proof of the +validity of Henry George's theory. + +[35] One of the choruses popular with the great throngs that paraded +the streets in that eager campaign is full of significance. It was +sung to the tune of "Marching through Georgia." + + "The land, the land, 'twas God who gave the land; + The land, the land, the ground on which we stand; + Why should we be beggars, with the ballot in our hand? + God gave the land to the people." + + +[36] During the debate on the second reading in the House of Commons, +the writer one day counted twenty members on the benches, and a labor +member called the attention of the Speaker to the fact that "in this +hour of constitutional crisis only twenty brave men are found willing +to defend the prerogatives of the realm!" + +[37] Some of the Fabians, nevertheless, fought the bill, and their +champion, Bernard Shaw, called Lloyd George's effort "The premature +attempt of a sentimental amateur." + +[38] In 1909 the Labor Party claimed credit for the following measures +passed during the Parliamentary session of that year: + +"(1) The grant of an additional L200,000 ($1,000,000) for the +unemployed, and the extraction of a promise that, if it was +insufficient, 'more would be forthcoming.' + +"(2) The passing of the Trades Boards Bill--the first effective step +against 'sweating.' + +"(3) The smashing of the bill authorizing the amalgamation of three +great railways. + +"(4) A discussion, protest, and vote against the visit of Bloody +Nicholas, the Tsar. The Labor Party's amendments secured 70 +supporters, whilst only 187 members of the British Parliament were +dirty enough to support the Tsar's visit. + +"(5) The introduction of the Shop Hours Bill and the extortion of a +promise that it shall be adopted by the government and passed."--From +a campaign pamphlet, _The Labor Party in Parliament_, p. 20. + +[39] See _Wanted--A Program: An Appeal to the Liberal Party_. S. WEBB, +London, 1888. + +[40] See article by PROFESSOR HOBHOUSE, on "Democracy in England," +_Atlantic Monthly_, February, 1912. + +[41] J.A. HOBSON, _The Crisis of Liberalism_, p. 93. + +[42] L.T. HOBHOUSE, _Democracy and Reaction_, p. 230. + +[43] See "Report Eighteenth Annual Conference, I.L.P.," 1910, p. 59. + +[44] _Supra cit._, p. 71. + +Some of the I.L.P. members are Continental in their views. The +president of the party used these words in his address, 1910: "All +this jiggery-pokery of party government played like a game for +ascendency and power is no use to us" (_supra cit._, p. 35). The +discipline of the Labor Party was unable to keep half a dozen of its +ablest debaters from fighting the Insurance Bill. The reversion of the +radical Socialist element to the I.L.P. is by some observers +considered not unlikely. Then the liberal or _reformiste_ element will +become either a faction of the Liberal-Radical party or melt entirely +away as the Chartists did in 1844. + +[45] This was the language used in the amendment moved in January, +1911. + +[46] See _Parliamentary Debates_, 5th series, vol. 21, February 10, +1911. + +[47] The Socialist workmen always resent the activity of the police +and soldiers during strikes. In 1888 F. Engels wrote to an American +friend: "The police brutalities in Trafalgar Square have done wonders +in helping to widen the gap between the workingmen Radicals and the +middle-class Liberals and Radicals." (See _Briefe und Auszuege aus +Briefen von Fr. Engels u. A._, Stuttgart, 1906.) + +One of the incidents of the debate over the railway strike in the +House of Commons was a clash between Lloyd George, the Liberal leader, +and Keir Hardie, the Socialist. Keir Hardie had made inflammatory +speeches to striking workmen, and for this the Chancellor of the +Exchequer gave him a terrific and unmerciful flaying. (See +_Parliamentary Debates_, 5th series, vol. 29, Aug. 22, 1911.) + +[48] J. RAMSAY MACDONALD: speech delivered at Edinburgh, 1909. + +[49] See J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, _The Socialist Movement_, pp. 150-7. + +[50] G.B. SHAW, Preface to "Fabian Tracts." + +[51] See LLOYD GEORGE'S famous "Limehouse Speech." + +[52] L.T. HOBHOUSE, _Democracy and Reaction_, p. 237. + +[53] BROUGHAM VILLIERS, _The Opportunity of Liberalism_, Preface. + +[54] See article by Secretary PEASE, of the Fabians, on the Fabian +Society, _T.P.'s Magazine_, February, 1911. + +[55] J.A. HOBSON, _The Crisis of Liberalism_, p. 156. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +CONCLUSION + + +We have now concluded our survey of the political activities of +Socialism in the four countries that present the most characteristic +features of this movement of the working classes. It is peculiarly +difficult to draw general conclusions from the study of a movement so +protean. Democracy is young; Socialism is in its early infancy. + +Is there a rational trend in Socialism? Or is it only a passing whim +of the masses? Is it a crude theory, an earnest protest, a powerful +propaganda? Or is it a current of human conviction so strong, so +deep-flowing that it will be resistless? + +It is futile to deny the power of the Socialist movement. The greatest +proof of its virility is its ability to break away from Marxian dogma +and from the fantasies of the utopists, and acknowledge mundane ways +and means. In spite of this earthiness, it still has its fanciful +abstractions. Some of its prophets are still glibly proclaiming a new +order,--as if society were artificial, like a house, and could be torn +down piecemeal or by dynamite, and then rebuilt to suit the vagaries +of a new owner. + +On the other hand, a portion of the Socialists are learning that +society is a living thing that can be shaped only by training, like +the mind of a child. Socialism, as a whole, is metamorphosing. Some of +its vicious eccentricities, like the ravings against religion and the +espousal of free love, have already vanished. It is learning that +institutions are the product of ages, not of movements, and cannot be +changed at the fancy of every new and disgruntled social prophet. + +The best school for Socialism has been the school of parliamentary +activity. Here the hot-blooded protesters become sober artisans of +statecraft. We have seen how the early utopian ideas, with their +edenesque theory of the guilelessness of man, were abruptly exchanged +for the theory of violence, based on the materialistic conception of +the universe and of man. Neither the soft humanities of the utopists +nor the blood and thunder of revolution overturned the existing state. +But when the workingmen appeared in parliaments, then things began to +change. + +In every country where the Socialists have entered parliament, they +appeared suddenly, in considerable numbers. So in France, Germany, +England, Belgium, Austria. And they always produced a flutter, often a +scare, among the conservatives. They were an untried force. Their +preachings of violence and their antagonism to property made them an +unknown quantity, to be feared, and not to be lightly handled--a bomb +of political dynamite that might explode any moment and scatter the +product of ages into fragments! + +But no explosion came. And one more example of the persistence of +human nature was added to the long annals of history. + +In every country the parliamentary experience has been the same: the +liberal and radical element, attracted by the legislative demands of +the labor party, coalesced, for specific issues, with the Socialists, +and a new era of economic and social legislation was ushered in. Even +in Germany, with its unmodern conditions in government, all the powers +of feudal autocracy failed to crush the rising forces of the new +political consciousness. + +In France and England we have seen Socialists take their places in the +cabinet, to the chagrin of that portion of the Socialists who still +regard social classes as natural enemies, and consider social +co-operation among all the elements of society impossible. + +In brief, Socialism has entered politics and has become mundane. You +need a microscope to tell a Socialist from a Socialist-Radical in +France, and a Laborite from a Radical-Liberal in England. Briand and +Millerand may be voted out of the Socialist Party, and John Burns may +be spurned by the I.L.P. But these men are teaching a double lesson: +first, that there are no new ways to human betterment; second, that +the old way is worth traveling, because it does lead to happier and +easier conditions of toil. Socialists the world over will soon be +compelled to realize that the political force which shrinks from the +responsibility of daily political drudgery will never be a permanent +factor in life. A political party that is afraid to assume the +obligations of government for fear that it will lose its ideal, is too +fragile for this world. + +The Socialist Party wherever it exists is a labor party, with a labor +program that is based on conditions which need to be remedied. Their +practical demands as a rule are of such a nature that all of society +would benefit by their enactment into law. The mystery has all gone +out of the movement. It is not necromancy, it is plain parliamentary +humdrum which you see. The threatened witchery is all words; the +doing is intensely human, of the earth earthy. + +The Socialist movement tends toward the latest phase of democracy, +which is social democracy; the democracy that has ceased to toy with +Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, and the other tinsel abstractions +of the bourgeois revolutions; the democracy that sees poverty and +suffering increase as wealth and ease increase. It is the democracy of +the human heart, that cares for the babe in the slums, the lad in the +factory, the mother at the cradle, and the father in his old age. +Against all these helpless ones society has sinned. And it is to a +universal, sincere, social penance that the new democracy calls the +rich, the powerful, and the comfortable. + +Socialism is merging rapidly into this new democracy. In doing so it +is abandoning its two great illusions. The first illusion is that the +interests of the worker are somehow different from the interests of +the rest of the community. Class war has been a resonant battle-cry, +and has served its purpose. It is folly for any class to magnify its +needs above those of the rest of society. Civilization and culture +embrace the artisan and the artist, the poor and the powerful. Any +class interest that clashes with the welfare of society as a whole +cannot survive. Socialism is abandoning the tyranny of class war, is +being mellowed by class co-operation. Socialists are now claiming that +their interests are the interests of society. The social complexion of +the party in the countries of its greatest advancement is an +indication of this. Many of the party leaders are of middle-class +origin. Some of them are rich. You call at their homes and servants +open the door and receive your card on a silver tray. Multitudes of +lawyers, physicians, journalists, and professors are in the movement. +Dr. Frank of Mannheim, the leader of the Badensian Socialists, said to +me that the degree to which Socialism can gain the support of the +intellectual element is the measure of success of the movement. All +this indicates that Socialism is breaking the bonds of self-limited +class egoism. The peasant landowner, the small shopkeeper, the +intellectualist, and occasionally a man or two of wealth and high +social position are being drawn into this new democracy. + +The question is now being seriously asked: Can there be a social +co-operation? Must there always be industrial war? Von Vollmar, +Millerand, Vandervelde, MacDonald proclaim the possibility of rational +co-operation. MacDonald says: "The defense for democracy which is far +and away the weightiest is that progress must spring, not from the +generosity or enlightenment of a class, but from the common +intelligence." "It must be pointed out that the labor legislation now +being asked for is very much more than a sequel to that passed under +the influence of Lord Shaftesbury. This differs from that as the +working of the moral conscience differs from the motives of the first +brute man who shaped his conduct under a contract of mutual defense +with a friendly neighbor. To use the arm of the law to abolish crying +evils, to put an end to an ever-present injustice, is one thing; to +use that arm to promote justice and to keep open the road to moral +advancement, to bring down from their throne in the ideal into a place +in the world certain conceptions of distributive justice, is quite +another thing. And yet this latter is now being attempted, and was +certain to be attempted as soon as democracy came into power. When +society is enfranchised, the social question becomes the political +question."[1] + +"The state is not the interest of a class, but the organ of +society."[2] There can be no broader foundation for political action +than this. All progress springs from the "common intelligence" to +which every one contributes his quota. + +The second great illusion of Socialism is the social revolution. No +one except a few extremists any longer thinks of the revolution by +blood. Engels, the friend of Marx, shows that everywhere violence is +giving way to political methods. "Even in the Romance countries we see +the old tactics revised. Everywhere the German example of using the +ballots is being followed. Even in France the Socialists see more and +more that no lasting victory is to be theirs unless they win +beforehand the great masses of the people. The slow work of propaganda +and parliamentary activity is here also recognized as the next step in +party development."[3] Engels shows how Socialists have entered the +parliaments of Belgium, Italy, Denmark, Bulgaria, Roumania, as well as +the parliaments of the great powers. And he indicates that the +revolution of the Socialist must come as a revolution by +majorities--which is democracy. + +Engels still believed that violence would follow the accession of +democratic power. If he had lived another decade he would have +discarded this last remnant of the theory of violence. In Germany the +bourgeois are more frightened over the legal than over the illegal +acts of the Socialist. They fear the results of elections more than +rebellion. Violence they can suppress with a bayonet, but laws--they +must be obeyed. + +This is true in every country. The power of the ballot is infinitely +greater than the power of the bullet, provided it is followed up with +common sense and energy. + +The theory of violence, then, has almost disappeared. The Syndicalist, +in his reversion to anarchy, attempts to revive the forsaken theory. +He does this by a general strike. But the general strike is not to be +confused with the social revolution. The general strike, wherever it +has been tried as an economic forcing valve, has failed. But whenever +it has been used as a political uprising, demanding political rights, +it has been more or less successful. In Belgium we have seen how it +brought results. In Sweden a few years ago there was a general strike +that not only shut every factory, but stopped the street cars and all +transportation lines, closed the gas-works, and even the newspapers +were suspended. It was a powerful political protest, but the number of +striking workmen did not equal the non-strikers. + +In Italy in 1904 a general strike was called to protest against the +arbitrary attitude of the government toward the labor movement. In +some of the cities all work ceased, even the gondoliers of Venice +joined the strikers. In Russia in 1904-5 the transportation lines and +post and telegraph lines were tied up while the workingmen +demonstrated for their political liberty. + +The violence of Socialism to-day is political; the violence of trade +unionism is economic. As the democratic consciousness spreads, there +may be such a coalescing of interests that violence will cease. But a +human society without warfare and contention is still a tax upon the +imagination. Strikes are increasing in number and bitterness and all +the arbitrations and devices of democracies seem helpless in the +turmoil of economic strife. + +I am not unmindful that behind all this parliamentary activity there +is the dim background of hope in the hearts of many Socialists that +somehow the wage system will vanish, that competition will cease, that +the primary activities of production and distribution will be assumed +by society, and that economic extremes will become impossible. In a +people of fitful temper and ebullient spirit the doctrine of +overturning remains a constant menace. Socialism in Spain and Italy +wears a scarlet coat, in Germany a drab, and in England a black. The +danger to civilization lurks, not in the survival of the doctrines of +the older Socialism, but in the temper of the people who espouse them. + +The Socialist movement has accomplished three notable things. First, +it has spread democracy. The bourgeois revolutions established +democracy; Socialism extends it. We have seen how in Belgium it +compelled the governing powers to give labor the ballot; how in +Germany, hard set and dogmatic, it is shaping events that will surely +lead to ministerial responsibility and to universal suffrage; and how +in England it is resulting in universal manhood suffrage and probably +"votes for women." Socialism is spreading the obligations of +government upon all shoulders. It is not, however, democratizing the +machinery of administration. In France the centralized autocracy of +Napoleon's empire remains almost untouched. In England the ancient +traditions of administration are slow to change. In Germany the civil +service will be the last barrier to give way. + +Secondly, Socialism has forced the labor question upon the lawmakers. +This is a great achievement. The neglected and forgotten portions of +the human family are now the objects of state solicitude. The record +of this revolution is written in the statute books. Turn the leaves of +the table of contents of a modern parliamentary journal, and compare +it with the same work of thirty years ago. Almost the entire time is +now taken up with questions that may be called humanitarian rather +than financial or political. Grave ministers of state make long +speeches on the death-rate of babies in the cities, on the cost of +living in factory towns, on the causes of that most heartbreaking of +modern woes, non-employment. Budgets are now concerned with the +feeding of school children as well as the building of warships, and +with the training of boys as well as the drilling of soldiers. + +Nowhere has this radical change taken place without a labor party. The +laboring man forced the issue. He bent kings and cabinets and +parliaments to his demands. The time was ripe, society had reached +that stage of its development when it was ready to take up these +questions. But it did not do so of its own free will. When labor +parties sprang like magic into puissance, a decade ago, the social +conscience was ready to hear their plea. Bismarck foresaw their +demands. But he was too obsessed of feudalism to realize their +motives. Therefore his state socialism failed to silence the +Socialists. The workman had his heart in the cause, not merely his +tongue. + +And the third great achievement is the natural result of the other +two. When democracy is potent enough to force its demands on +parliament, then the power of the state is ready to fulfil its +demands. So we find in every country where Social Democracy has gained +a foothold a constant increase of the functions of the state. What +shall the state do? That is now the great question. One hundred years +ago it was, What sort of a state shall we have? That is answered: a +democratic state; at least, a state democratic in spirit. The state is +no longer merely judge, soldier, lawmaker, and governor. It is +physician, forester, bookkeeper, schoolmaster, undertaker, and a +thousand other things. Society has grown complex, and the state, which +is only another name for society, has developed a surprising +precocity. + +We have seen that in England especially the trend of legislation is to +deprive the individual, one by one, of those prerogatives which gave +him dominion over property. A man owning land in the city of London, +for instance, has not the liberty to build as he likes or what he +likes. He must build as the state permits him, and the exactions are +manifold. He can be compelled to build a certain distance from the +street,--that is, the city demands a strip of his land for common use. +He can build only a certain height,--the community wants the sunlight. +If his older buildings are dilapidated, the city tears them down. If +the streets through his allotment are too narrow, the city widens +them. In short, he may have title in fee simple, but the community has +a title superior. Even his income from this parcel of land is not all +his own. The state now takes a goodly slice in taxes. If he is +inclined to resent this, and does not improve his property, the state +taxes him on the unearned increment, and if he refuses to submit to +this "socialism," the constable seizes the whole parcel, and he can +have what is left after the community has satisfied its demands. + +The taxes that he pays are distributed over a vast variety of +activities. They go to feed school children, to pension aged workmen, +to send inspectors into the factories, to keep up hospitals, as well +as to light and pave the streets and pay policemen. Other taxes that +he pays on other forms of property go to the improvement of +agriculture, to the payment of boards of arbitration, and so on. In +short, ownership is becoming more and more only an incident; it is not +merely a badge of ease, but a symbol of social responsibility. + +The burden of the law is shifting from property to persons, from +protecting things to protecting humanity. This change from the Roman +law is almost revolutionary. Even Blackstone, our halfway-mark in the +evolution of the common law, is busy with postulates protecting +property. + +Where is this encroachment of the state on private "rights" going to +end? There are some things which the state (society) can do better +than the individual; like the marshaling of an army or conducting a +post-office, and things that are done to counteract the selfishness of +individuals, like factory inspection. But there are other things which +society cannot do; things that depend on individual effort, like art, +literature, and invention. The two fields of state and individual +activity merge into each other. Each nation marks its own +distinctions. But this is certain: _in a democracy the state will do +the things which the people want it to do_. And in a Social Democracy +these things are numerous. + +Social Democracy strikes a balance between individual duty and +collective energy. It brings the power of government (collective +power), not to the few who are rich, therefore ignoring oligarchy; nor +to the few who are clever, thereby ignoring tyranny; nor to the few +who are well-born, thus discarding aristocracy; but it brings all the +power of the government to all the people. It attempts to coalesce the +cleverness of the tyrant, the experience of the aristocrat, the wealth +of the industrial nabob, and the aggregate momentum of the mass, into +a humanitarian power. It attempts to use the gifts of all for the +benefit of all. + +Social Democracy is the resultant of two forces meeting from opposite +directions: the forces of industrialism, and Socialism, of +collectivism and individualism. No one can draw the exact direction of +this resultant. It attempts to avoid the tyranny and selfishness of +the few, and the tyranny and greed of the many. + +Our study of the operation of governments under the sway of Social +Democracy has shown the sort of legislation that is demanded. It is +not necessary to repeat here the details of these laws. But it is +necessary to bear in mind that there are two industrial questions +which have absolutely refused to bend to the power of government: the +question of the length of the workday and the question of wages. The +vast majority of strikes are due to differences over these two +questions. The eight-hour day and the minimum wage have been +successful only in a limited government service.[4] Nor has any +machinery set up by governments to avoid industrial collisions between +workmen and employers been successful in avoiding differences over +hours and wages. The elaborate system of Germany, for instance, is +nothing more than the good will of the state offered to the warring +industrial elements in the interests of peace. The questions of hours +and wages are so fundamental that they embrace the right of private +property. Any power that divests an individual of the right to dispose +of his time or substance by contract virtually deprives him of the +right of ownership. + +The limits to the possibilities of Social Democracy are the limits of +private ownership. This brings us at once to the verge of the eternal +question of government--the finding of a just ratio between individual +and collective responsibility: a ratio that varies with varying +nationalities, and that will vary with the passing years. Each +generation in every land will have to fix the limitations for itself. + +The new Social Democracy has acquired certain characteristics which +will help us in determining the trend of its movements. In the first +place it is an educated Social Democracy. The taunt of ignorance +applied to the old Socialism of passion cannot be applied to the new +Socialism of practice. The nations of Europe no longer debate the +suitability of universal education. That question happily was settled +for the United States with the landing of the Pilgrims. It took one +hundred years for Europe to understand the Ordinance of 1787, that +"schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." Not +all of the European nations have touched the heights of this ideal, +but Social Democracy is struggling towards it, and schools, more or +less efficient, are open to the workmen's children. This education is +extended to adults by the press and by self-imposed studies. The +eagerness with which men and women flock to lectures and night classes +is a great omen. In Paris the _Ecole Socialiste_ and _Universite +Populaire_, in Germany and Belgium the night classes in the labor +union clubhouses, the debates and the lecture courses, are evidences +of intellectual eagerness. + +In the second place it is a drilled democracy. It is organized into +vast co-operative societies and trade unions. Here it learns the +lesson of constant watchfulness over details. This training in the +infinite little things of business is a good sedative. Socialists +bargain and sell and learn the lessons of competition; do banking and +learn discount; engage in manufacture and learn the problem of the +employer. + +They are, moreover, drilled in parliaments, in city and county +councils, in communal offices. They learn the advantages of give and +take, are skilled in compromise, and feel the friction of opposition. + +All this has wrought a wonderful change in Socialism. To a Belgian +co-operativist running a butcher-shop, the eight-hour day is a +practical problem; and to a Bavarian member of a city council the +question of opening communal dwellings ceases to be only a subject for +debate. Nothing has brought these people to earth so suddenly as the +infusion of earthly experience into their blood. And this transfusion +has given them life. It has rid them of their many adjectives and +given them a few verbs. It has robbed them in large measure of their +mob spirit.[5] Every year the arbitrary governments of Europe are +finding police coercion more and more unnecessary. The Socialist crowd +is growing orderly, is achieving that self-control which alone +entitles a people to self-government. + +It is not unnatural that this movement has made leaders. Of these, +Herr August Bebel is the most remarkable example. This woodturner, +turned party autocrat and statesman, is a never-ending wonder to the +German aristocracy. His speeches are read as eagerly as those of the +Chancellor, and his opinions are quoted as widely as the Kaiser's. +When in 1911 he made his great speech on the Morocco Question in the +Social Democratic Convention, it was reported by the column in all of +the great Continental and English dailies. Bebel is an example of what +the open door of opportunity will do, and he had to force the door +himself. A few years ago, in a moment of reminiscent confidence, he +confessed that he used to cherish as an ideal the time when he could, +for once, have all the bread and butter he could eat. In America we +are accustomed to this rising into power of obscure and untried men. +But in Europe it is rare. European Social Democracy is an expression +of the desire on the part of the people for the open highways of +opportunity. + +In the third place, Social Democracy is self-conscious. I have not +used the word class-conscious, because it is more than the +consciousness of an economic group. History is replete with instances +that reveal the irresistible power generated by mass consciousness. +This is the psychology of nationalism. The dynamo that generates the +mysterious voltage of patriotism, of tribal loyalty, is the heart. +Socialism has replaced tribal and national ideals and welded its +devotees into a self-conscious international unity. Whatever danger +there may be in Socialism is the danger of the zealot. The ideal may +be impracticable and discarded, but the devotion to it may be blind +and destructive. + +As a rule, Socialist leaders and writers maintain that this drawing +together of Socialism and democracy is only transitory, and that +beyond this lies the promised land of social production. Jaures has +explained this clearly: "Democracy, under the impetus given it by +organized labor, is evolving irresistibly toward Socialism, and +Socialism toward a form of property which will deliver man from his +exploitation by man, and bring to an end the regime of class +government. The Radicals flatter themselves that they can put a stop +to this movement by promising the working classes some reforms, and by +proclaiming themselves the guardians of private property. They hope to +hold a large part of the proletariat in check by a few reforming laws +expressing a sentiment of social solidarity, and by their policy of +defending private property to rouse the conservative forces, the petty +bourgeoisie, the middle classes, and the small peasant proprietors to +oppose Socialism."[6] + +So we see that in spite of their experiences Socialists still draw a +clear distinction between their Socialism and democracy. The Socialist +is willing to ignore the experiences of the past twenty years in his +ecstasy of vision. He claims that whatever has been done is mere +reform. He affects to belittle it, the Marxian scorns it. To the +Socialist, democracy is only the halfway house on the road to the +economic paradise. He has his gaze fixed on the New Jerusalem of +"co-operative production" and "distributive justice." Whether this New +City, with its streets paved with the gold of altruism and its gates +garnished with the pearls of good will and benevolence, will be +brought from the fleecy clouds of ecstatic imagination to our sordid +earth remains a question of speculation to that vast body of sincere +and practical citizens who have not scaled the heights of the +Socialistic Patmos. + +European Socialism has been transplanted to America. But its growth +until quite recently has been very slow, and confined largely to +immigrants. There is no political spur to hasten the movement. Here +democracy has been achieved. The universal ballot, free speech, free +press, free association are accomplished. Many of the economic +policies espoused by the Social Democratic parties of Europe are +written into the platforms of our political parties. There will be no +independent labor party of any strength until the old parties have +aroused the distrust of the great body of laboring men, and until the +labor unions cut loose from their traditional aloofness and enter +politics. How socialistic such a party will be must depend upon the +circumstances attending its organization. The two third-party +movements which have flourished since the Civil War, the Greenback +movement of the '70's and the Populist movement of the '90's, were +virtually "class" parties, restricted to the agricultural population +of the Middle and Far West; and both of them feared Socialism as much +as they hated capitalism. Neither of these parties outlived a decade. +Economic prosperity abruptly ended both.[7] + +The stress of political exclusiveness and the harsh hand of government +will not produce a reactionary movement among the workingmen of +America. But economic circumstances may do so. We are still a young +country full of the hope of youth. The ranks of every walk of life are +filled with those who have worked their way to success from humble +origin. Most of our famous men struggled with poverty in their youth. +Their lives are constantly held up to the children of the nation as +examples of American pluck, enterprise, and opportunity. A nation that +lures its clerks toward proprietorship and its artisans toward +independence offers barren soil for the doctrines of discontent. We +have no stereotyped poverty in the European sense. Our farmers own +their acreage, and many of the urban poor are able to buy a cottage in +the outskirts of the city. + +But there are signs that these conditions are undergoing profound +changes. Unlimited competition has led to limitless consolidation of +industries, and the financial destinies of the Republic repose in the +hands of comparatively few men. So much of the Marxian proposition is +fulfilled, at the moment, in America. This concentrated wealth has not +been unmindful of politics. Governmental power and money power are +closely identified in the public mind. Our cities are overflowing with +a new population from the excitable portions of southern Europe, a +population that is proletarian in every sense of the word. Panics +follow one another in rapid succession. The uneasiness of business is +fed by the turmoil of politics. Unrest is everywhere. Labor and +business are engaged in constant struggles that affect all members of +society. The cost of living has increased alarmingly in the last ten +years. We are becoming rapidly a manufacturing nation; the balance of +power is shifting from the farm to the city.[8] + +European Socialists are taking a keen interest in American affairs. +Bebel said to me: "You are getting ready for the appropriation of the +great productive enterprises and the railways. Your trusts make the +problem easy." John Burns prophesied that violence and bloodshed alone +would check us in our mad career for wealth. Jaures asked how long it +would take before our poverty would be worse than that of Europe. At a +distance they see us plunging headlong into a Socialist regime. + +Professor Brentano of Munich knows us better. He said to me, +"Conservation will be your Socialism."[9] If the fundamental +principles of conservation can be embodied in constitutional laws, +then there will be an almost indefinite extension of the power of the +state over industry. It will embrace mines, forests, irrigated +deserts; it will extend to the sources of all water supply and water +power; the means of transportation may ultimately be included. So that +without radical legal and institutional changes it will be possible +for many of the sources of our raw materials to be placed under +governmental surveillance, leaving the processes of manufacture and +exchange in the hands of private individuals. + +There are at present many indications that this will be our general +process of "socialization." The people appear to want it; and in a +democracy the will of the people must prevail. + +Before we have advanced far along the new road of conservation we will +find it necessary to reconstruct our whole system of administration. +The haphazard of politics must be foreign to public business. +Everywhere in Europe, especially in Germany and England, the people, +including the Socialists, appear satisfied with the efficiency of +their administrative machinery. Who would intrust the running of a +railroad to our Federal or State governments? + +We have reached the extreme of rampant _laissez-faire_. Our youthful +vigor and material wealth have kept us buoyant. Politically we will +become more radical, economically less individualistic, in the next +cycle of our development. There is no magic that saves a people except +the magic of opportunity. In a democracy especially it is necessary to +constantly purge society by free-moving currents of talent and virtue. +This replenishing stream has its sources in the sturdy, healthy +workers of the nation. The movement is from the depths upward. It is +the supreme function of the state to keep these sources unclogged. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, _Ethical Democracy_, pp. 61-71. + +[2] J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, _Socialism and Government_, Vol. II, p. 117. + +[3] FREDERICK ENGELS' Introduction to MARX' _Klassenkampf_, pp. 16-17, +1895. + +[4] The coal strike in England in March, 1912, brought the question of +a legalized minimum wage before the people. + +[5] On November 28, 1905, a vast army of working men and women, +estimated at 300,000 by the anti-Socialist papers, marched under the +red flag through the streets of Vienna as a protest against the +existing franchise laws. They were given the right of way and walked +in silence through the streets of the capital. Their orderliness was +more impressive than their vast numbers. It was an object-lesson that +the government did not forget. + +[6] JEAN JAURES, _Studies in Socialism_, Eng. ed., p. 25. + +[7] What the so-called Progressive Party will accomplish, in this +direction, remains to be seen. + +[8] The Socialist vote in the United States is as follows: + + 1892 21,164 + 1896 36,274 + 1900 87,814 + 1904 402,283 + 1908 402,464 + 1910 607,674 + 1911 1,500,000 (estimated) + +The vast increase shown in 1911 was made in municipal and other local +elections. On January 1, 1912, 377 villages, towns, and cities in 36 +States had some Socialist officers. Several important cities have been +under Socialist rule, notably Milwaukee and Schenectady, where the +Socialists captured the entire city machinery. In 1912 the Socialists +lost control of Milwaukee, although their vote increased 3,000. Their +overthrow was accomplished by the coalescing of the old parties into a +Citizens' Party, a line-up between radicalism and conservatism that +will probably become the rule in American local politics. + +The party is organized along the lines of the German Social Democracy. +Its membership has grown as follows: + + 1903 15,975 + 1904 20,764 + 1905 23,327 + 1906 26,784 + 1907 29,270 + 1908 41,751 + 1909 41,479 + 1910 48,011 + 1911 84,716 + 1912 (May) 142,000 + + +[9] In this statement, Professor Brentano re-enforces the opinions of +the American economist to whose teachings and writings the +"progressive" movement in American economics and politics, and +especially the movement for conservation of natural resources, must be +traced. For many years Professor Richard T. Ely has been pointing the +way to this conservative "socialization" of our natural wealth. + + + + +APPENDIX + + + + +I. BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +The following list of the principal works consulted in the preparation +of this volume may serve also as a bibliography on the subject. There +are very few American books in the list, because the object of this +volume is to summarize the European situation. + +For the spirit of the movement the student must consult the +contemporary literature of Socialism--the newspapers, magazines, and +pamphlets, and the campaign documents that flow in a constant stream +from the Socialist press. These are, of course, too numerous and too +fluctuating in character to be catalogued. Lists of these publications +can be secured at the following addresses: + +The Fabian Society, 3 Clements Inn, Strand, London, W.C. + +The Labor Party, 28 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, S.W. + +The Independent Labor Party, 23 Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London, E.C. + +German Social Democracy, Verlags-Buchhandlung _Vorwaerts_, 68 +Lindenstrasse, Berlin, S.W. + +Belgian Labor Party, _Le Peuple_, 33-35 rue de Sable, Brussels. + +French Socialist Party, _La Parti Socialiste_, 16 rue de la Corderie, +Paris. + + +GENERAL WORKS: THE FOUNDERS OF SOCIALISM + + BLANC, LOUIS: _Socialism._ An English edition was published in + 1848. + + ---- _Organization of Labor._ English edition in 1848. + + BOOTH: _Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism._ + + CABET, ETIENNE: _Le Vrai Christianisme_, 1846. + + FEUERBACH, FRIEDRICH: _Die Religion der Zukunft_, 1843-5. + + ---- _Essence of Christianity._ An English translation, 1881, in + the "English and Foreign Philosophical Library." + + FOURIER, F.C.M.: _Oeuvres Completes._ 6 vols. 1841-5. + + GAMMOND, GATTI DE: Fourier and His System, 1842. + + GIDE, CHARLES: _Selections from Fourier._ An English translation + by Julien Franklin, 1901. + + GODWIN, WILLIAM: _An Inquiry Concerning Political Justice_, 1796. + + KINGSLEY: _Cheap Clothes and Nasty_, 1851. + + MORRELL, J.R.: _Life of Fourier_, 1849. + + MORRIS, WILLIAM: _Works of_; _Chants for Socialists_, 1885. + + OWEN, ROBERT: _An Address_, etc., 1813. + + ---- _Addresses_, etc., 1816. + + ---- _An Explanation of the Distress_, etc., 1823. + + ---- _Book of the New Moral World_, etc., 1836. + + PROUDHON, PIERRE JOSEPH: The Works of. English translation by + Tucker, American edition, 1876. + + SAINT-SIMON: _New Christianity._ An English translation by Rev. + J.E. Smith. 1834. + + WEIL, G.: _L'Ecole Saint-Simonisme--son Histoire_, etc., 1896. + + WEITLING, WILLIAM: _Garantieen der Harmonie und Freiheit_, 1845. + + +GENERAL WORKS: MODERN DISCUSSION + + BEBEL, A.: _Woman, in the Past, Present, and Future._ An English + translation appeared in London in 1890. + + BERNSTEIN, EDWARD: _Responsibility and Solidarity in the Labor + Struggle_, 1900. + + BROOKS, J.G.: _The Social Unrest_, 1903. + + ELY, R.T.: _French and German Socialism_, 1883. + + ENSOR, R.C.K.: _Modern Socialism._ A useful collection of + Socialist documents, speeches, programs, etc. + + GRAHAM, W.: _Socialism New and Old_, 1890. + + GUTHRIE, W.B.: _Socialism Before the French Revolution_, 1907. + + GUYOT, Y.: _The Tyranny of Socialism_, 1894. + + JAURES, J.: _Studies in Socialism_, 1906. + + KAUTSKY, K.: _The Social Revolution._ An English translation by + J.B. Askew. The best Continental view of modern Marxianism, + and the most widely read. + + KELLY, EDMOND: _Twentieth Century Socialism_, 1910. The most + noteworthy of recent American contributions to Socialist + thought. + + KIRKUP: _A History of Socialism_, 1909. A concise and + authoritative narrative. + + KOIGEN, D.: _Die Kultur-ausschauung des Sozialismus_, 1903. + + LEVY, J.H.: _The Outcome of Individualism_, 1890. + + MACDONALD, J.R.: _Socialism and Society_, 1905. MacDonald is not + only the leader of the British Labor Party, but his writings + comprise a comprehensive exposition of the views of labor + democracy. + + ---- _Character and Democracy_, 1906. + + ---- _Socialism_, 1907. + + ---- _Socialism and Government_, 1909. + + MILL, J.S.: _Socialism_, 1891. A collection of essays, etc., from + the writings of John Stuart Mill touching on Socialism. + + RAE, J.: _Contemporary Socialism_, 1908. A standard work. + + RICHTER: _Pictures of the Socialist Future_, 1893. + + SCHAEFFLE: _The Impossibility of Social-Democracy_, 1892. + + ---- _The Quintessence of Socialism_, 1898. Probably the most + authoritative and concise refutation of the Socialist dogmas. + + SOMBART, WERNER: _Socialism and the Social Movement_, 1909. Widely + read, both in the original and in the English translation. + Contains an interesting critique of Marxianism. + + SPENCER, HERBERT: _The Coming Slavery_, 1884. A reprint from _The + Contemporary Review_. + + STODDARD, JANE: _The New Socialism_, 1909. A convenient + compilation. + + TUGAN-BARANOVSKY, M.I.: _Modern Socialism_, 1910. A systematic and + scholarly resume of the doctrines of Socialism. + + WARSCHAUER, O.: _Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte des Sozialismus_, + 1909. + + WELLS, H.G.: _New Worlds for Old_, 1909. One of the most popular + expositions of Socialism. + + +MARX AND ENGELS + + AVELING, E.B.: _The Student's Marx._ A handy compilation. 1902. + + BOEHM-BAWERK: _Karl Marx and the Close of His System._ An English + translation was made in 1898. + + ENGELS, FRIEDRICH: _Die Entwickelung des Socialismus von der + Utopie zur Wissenschaft_, 1891. + + ---- _Socialism--Utopian and Scientific_, 1892. + + ---- _L. Feuerbach und der Ausgang der Klassischen Deutschen + Philosophie_, 1903. + + ---- _Briefe und Auszuege von Briefen_, 1906. + + ---- _Friedrich Engels, Sein Leben, Sein Wirken und Seine + Schriften_, 1895. + + MARX and ENGELS: _The Communist Manifesto._ There have been many + editions; that of 1888 is probably the widest known for its + historical Introduction. + + MARX, KARL: _The Poverty of Philosophy._ An answer to Proudhon's + _La Philosophie de la Misere_. An English translation was made + by H. Quelch, 1900. + + ---- _Enthuellungen ueber den Kommunisten Process zu Koeln_, 1875. + Engels' Preface gives an account of the origin of the "Society + of the Just." + + ---- _Die Klassenkaempfe in Frankreich, 1848-50._ + + ---- _Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany in 1848._ An + English translation appeared in 1896. + + ---- _Capital_, 1896. + + ---- _The International Workingmen's Association._ Two addresses + on the Franco-Prussian War, 1870. + + ---- _The international Workingmen's Association--The Civil War in + France._ An address to the General Council of the + International, 1871. + + +THE INTERNATIONAL + + DAVE, V.: _Michel Bakunin et Karl Marx_, 1900. + + ENGELS, F.: _The International Workingmen's Association_, 1891. + + FROEBEL, J.: _Ein Lebenslauf_--for an account of Marx vs. Bakunin. + + GUILLAUME, J.: _L'Internationale: Documents et Souvenirs_, 1905. + + JAECKH, GUSTAV: _L'Internationale._ An English translation was + published in 1904. + + JAEGER, E.: _Karl Marx und die Internationale Arbeiter + Association_, 1873. + + MAURICE, C.E.: _Revolutionary Movements of 1848-9_, 1887. + + TESTUT, O.: _L'Internationale--son origine, son but, son + principes, son organisation_, etc. Third edition, 1871. A + German edition translated by Paul Frohberg, Leipsic, 1872. + + ---- _Le Livre Bleu de l'Internationale_, 1871. + + VILLETARD: _History of the International._ Translated by Susan M. + Day, New Haven, 1874. + + _Ein Complot gegen die Internationale Arbeiter Association_, 1874, + gives a careful version of the Marxian side of the Bakunin + controversy. + + "International Workingmen's Association"--"_Proces-verbaux, + Congres a Lausanne_," 1867. + + _Troisieme Congres de l'Association Internationale des + Travailleurs_, Brussels, 1868. + + _Manifeste aux Travailleurs des Campagnes._ Paris, 1870. + + _Manifeste addresse a toutes les associations ouvrieres_, etc. + Paris, 1874. + + _International Arbeiter Association Protokoll._ A German edition + of the Proceedings of the Paris Congress, 1890, with a + valuable Introduction by W. Liebknecht. + + +FRANCE + + JAEGER, EUGEN: _Geschichte der Socialen Bewegung und des + Socialismus in Frankreich_, 1890. + + JAURES, JEAN: _L'Armee Nouvelle--L'Organisation Socialiste de la + France_, 1911. The initial installment of the long-promised + account of the Socialist state. + + LAVY, A.: _L'Oeuvre de Millerand_, 1902. An appreciative history + of Millerand's work. Contains many documents, speeches, etc. + + PEIXOTTO, J.: _The French Revolution and Modern Socialism_, 1901. + + VON STEIN, LORENZ: _Der Sozialismus und Communismus des Heutigen + Frankreichs_, 1848. + + WEIL, GEORGES: _Histoire du Mouvement Socialiste en France_, 1904. + + +BELGIUM + + BERTRAND, LOUIS: _Histoire de la Democratie et Socialisme en + Belgique depuis 1830_, 1906. Introduction by Vandervelde. + + ---- _Histoire de la Cooperation en Belgique_, 1902. + + BERTRAND, LOUIS, et al.: _75 Annees de Domination Bourgeois_, + 1905. + + DESTREE et VANDERVELDE: _Le Socialisme en Belgique._ + + LANGEROCK, H.: _Le Socialisme Agraire_, 1895. + + STEFFENS-FRAUWEILER, H. VON: _Der Agrar Sozialismus in Belgien_, + Munich, 1893. + + VANDERVELDE, EMILE: _Histoire de la Cooperation en Belgique_, + 1902. + + ---- _Essais sur la Question Agraire en Belgique_, 1902. + + ---- Article on the General Strike in _Archiv fuer Sozial + Wissenschaft_, May, 1908. + + +GERMANY + + BEBEL, AUGUST: _Die Social-Demokratie im Deutschen Reichstag._ A + series of brochures detailing the activity of the Social + Democrats--1871-1893. Of course from a partisan point of + view. + + ---- _Aus Meinem Leben_, 1910. An intimate recital of the + development of Social Democracy in Germany. + + BERNSTEIN, EDWARD: _Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine Bedeutung fuer die + Arbeiter Klasse_, 1904. + + BRANDES, GEORG: _Ferdinand Lassalle: Ein Literarisches + Charakter-Bild._ Berlin, 1877. An English translation was + published in 1911. This is a brilliant biography. + + DAWSON, W.H.: _German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle_, 1888. + + ---- _Bismarck and State Socialism_, 1890. + + ---- _The German Workman_, 1906. + + ---- _The Evolution of Modern Germany_, 1908. + + EISNER, K.: _Liebknecht--Sein Leben und Wirken_, 1900. A brief + sketch of the veteran Social Democrat. + + FRANK, DR. LUDWIG: _Die Buergerlichen Parteien des Deutschen + Reichstags_, 1911. A Socialist's account of the rise of German + political parties. + + HARMS, B.: _Ferdinand Lassalle und Seine Bedeutung fuer die + Deutsche Sozial-Demokratie_, 1909. + + ---- _Sozialismus und die Sozial-Demokratie in Deutschland._ + + HOOPER, E.G.: _The German State Insurance System_, 1908. + + KAMPFMEYER, P.: _Geschichte der Modernen Polizei im Zusammenhang + mit der Allgemeinen Kulturbewegung_, 1897. A Socialist's + recital of the use of police. + + ---- _Geschichte der Modernen Gesellschafts-klassen in + Deutschland_, 1896. From a Socialist standpoint. + + KOHUT, A.: _Ferdinand Lassalle--Sein Leben und Wirken_, 1889. + + LASSALLE, FERDINAND: _Offenes Antwortschreiben an das + Central-Comite zur Berufung eines Allgemeinen Deutschen + Arbeiter Congress zu Leipzig_, 1863. + + ---- _Die Wissenschaft und die Arbeiter_, 1863. + + ---- _Macht und Recht_, 1863. A complete edition of Lassalle's + works was published in 1899, under the title "Gesamte Werke + Ferdinand Lassalles." + + LOWE, C.: _Prince Bismarck: An Historical Biography_, 1885. A + sympathetic description of Bismarck's attempt to solve the + social problem. + + MEHRING, F.: _Die Deutsche Sozial-Demokratie--Ihre Geschichte und + Ihre Lehre_, 1879. Third edition. A compact narrative. + + MEYER, R.: _Emancipationskampf des Vierten Standes_, 1882. + + NAUMANN, FRIEDRICH: _Die Politischen Parteien_, 1911. History of + German political parties. A Radical account. + + SCHMOELE, J.: _Die Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften in + Deutschland seit dem Erlasse des Sozialisten Gesetzes_, 1896, + etc. + + _Sozial-Demokratische Partei-Tag-Protokoll._ Annual reports of the + party conventions. + + _Documente des Sozialismus._ An annual publication edited by + Bernstein. + + +ENGLAND + + ARNOLD-FOSTER, H.: _English Socialism of To-day_, 1908. + + BARKER, J.E.: _British Socialism_, 1908. A collection of + quotations. + + BIBBY, F.: _Trades Unionism and Socialism_, 1907. + + BLATCHFORD, R.: _Merrie England_, 1895. + + CHURCHILL, WINSTON: _Liberalism and the Social Problem_, 1909. + + ENGELS, F.: _The Condition of the Working Classes in England in + 1844_, 1892. + + FAY, C.R.: _Co-operation at Home and Abroad_, 1908. + + GAMMAGE, R.G.: _History of the Chartist Movement_, 1894. + + HARDIE, KEIR: _From Serfdom, to Socialism_, 1907. + + HOBHOUSE, L.T.: _The Labor Movement_, 1898. + + ---- _Liberalism_, 1911. + + ---- _Democracy and Reaction_, 1904. + + HOBSON, J.A.: _The Crisis in Liberalism_, 1909. + + HOLYOAKE: _History of Cooperation_, 1906. + + KNOTT, Y.: _Conservative Socialism_, 1909. + + LECKY, W.E.H.: _Democracy and Liberty_, 1899. + + MACDONALD, J.R.: _The People in Power_, 1900. + + ---- _Socialism To-day_, 1909. + + MASTERMAN, C.F.G.: _The Condition of England_, 1909. + + MCCARTHY, J.: _The Epoch of Reform_, 1882. For Chartism and the + reform movements of the nineteenth century democracy. + + MONEY, CHIOZZA: _Riches and Poverty_, 1911. + + NICHOLSON, J.S.: _History, Progress and Ideals of Socialism._ A + criticism of the Socialist viewpoint. + + NOEL, CONRAD: _The Labor Party._ A criticism of the attitude of + Liberals and Conservatives toward the social problems. From + the Labor Party viewpoint. + + SNOWDEN, P.: _The Socialist Budget_, 1907. + + TOWLER, W.G.: _Municipal Socialism._ The anti-Socialist viewpoint. + + _The Times_: _The Socialist Movement in Great Britain_, 1909. A + reprint of a series of carefully prepared articles in _The + Times._ + + VILLIERS, B.: _The Opportunity of Liberalism_, 1904. + + ---- _The Socialist Movement in England_, 1908. + + WEBB, S.: _Wanted--A Program: An Appeal to the Liberal Party_, + 1888. + + ---- _Socialism in England_, 1890. + + WEBB, B. and S.: _Industrial Democracy_, 1902. + + ---- _The History of Trade Unionism_, 1911. + + + + +II. FRANCE + + +1. NOTE ON THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT + +Yves Guyot, the distinguished French publicist, told the writer that +there was only one compact, disciplined political party in France, the +United Socialists. Other than the Socialists, there is no +well-organized group in the Chamber of Deputies. The Right, Center, +and Left coalesce almost insensibly into each other. Party platforms +and party loyalty are replaced by a political individualism that to an +American politician would seem like political anarchy. + +The Chamber of Deputies is supreme--the ministry stands or falls upon +its majority's behest. This gives to the deputy a peculiar personal +power. He is only loosely affiliated with his group, is a powerful +factor in the government of the Republic, and is directly dependent +upon his constituents for his tenure in office. The result is a +personal, rather then a party, system of politics. + +This remarkably decentralized system of representative governance is +counterbalanced by a highly efficient and completely centralized +system of administration, which is based on civil service, and +outlives all the mutations of ministries and shifting of deputies. The +ministry, naturally, has theoretical control over the administrative +officials. During the campaign for reorganizing the army and navy, and +the disestablishment of the Church, under the Radical-Socialist +_bloc_, a few years ago, General Andre, acting for the ministry, +resorted to a comprehensive system of espionage to ferret out the +undesirable officers. Every commune has its official scrutinizer, who +reports the doings of the employees to the government. + +This, in turn, has created a clientilism. The deputy is needed by the +ministry, the deputy needs the votes of his constituency, the local +officials need the good will of the deputy. The result is a fawning +favoritism that has taken the place of party servitude as we know it +in America. + +The Socialists have precipitated a serious problem in this relation of +the government employee to the state: Can the state employees form a +union? There are nearly 1,000,000 state employees. This includes not +only all the functionaries, but all the workmen in the match +factories, the mint, the national porcelain factory and tobacco +plants, and the navy yards. In 1885 and again in 1902 the Court of +Cassation decided that "the right of forming a union (_syndicat_) is +confined to those who, whether as employers or as workmen or employed, +are engaged in _industry, agriculture, or commerce_, to the exclusion +of all other persons and all other occupations." + +The government has, however, countenanced some infringements. A few +syndicates of municipal and departmental employees are allowed; but +they are mostly workmen, not strictly functionaries. There are several +syndicates of elementary school teachers. But they have not been +allowed to federate their unions. At Lyons the teachers formed a union +and, according to law, filed their rules and regulations with the +proper official, who turned them over to the Minister of Justice, and +after a cabinet consultation it was decided that the union was +illegal, but would be ignored. They then joined the local _Bourse du +Travail_ (federation of labor), and Briand, then Minister of +Education, vetoed their action. Then a number of branches in the +public service, including post-office and customs-house employees, +teachers, etc., united in forming a committee "_pour la defense du +droit syndical des salaries de l'etat, des departements et du +commerce_." This "Committee of Defense" petitioned Clemenceau on the +right to organize, and intimated that the great and only difference +between the state and the private employer is that the former adds +political to economic oppression. This is pure Syndicalism. Under the +individual political jugglery that takes the place of the party system +in France, the problem is not made any the easier. + + +2. PROGRAM OF THE LIBERAL WING OF THE FRENCH SOCIALISTS, ADOPTED AT +TOURS, 1902, UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF JAURES + + +_I.--Declaration of Principles_ + +Socialism proceeds simultaneously from the movement of democracy and +from the new forms of production. In history, from the very morrow of +the French Revolution, the proletarians perceived that the Declaration +of the Rights of Man would remain an illusion unless society +transformed ownership. + +How, indeed, could freedom, ownership, security, be guaranteed to all, +in a society where millions of workers have no property but their +muscles, and are obliged, in order to live, to sell their power of +work to the propertied minority? + +To extend, therefore, to every citizen the guarantees inscribed in the +Declaration of Rights, our great Babeuf demanded ownership in common, +as a guarantee of welfare in common. Communism was for the boldest +proletarians the supreme expression of the Revolution. + +Between the political regime, the outcome of the revolutionary +movement, and the economic regime of society, there is an intolerable +contradiction. + +In the political order democracy is realized: all citizens share +equally, at least by right, in the sovereignty; universal suffrage is +communism in political power. + +In the economic order, on the other hand, a minority is sovereign. It +is the oligarchy of capital which possesses, directs, administers, and +exploits. + +Proletarians are acknowledged fit as citizens to manage the milliards +of the national and communal budgets; as laborers, in the workshop, +they are only a passive multitude, which has no share in the direction +of enterprises, and they endure the domination of a class which makes +them pay dearly for a tutelage whose utility ceases and whose +prolongation is arbitrary. + +The irresistible tendency of the proletarians, therefore, is to +transfer into the economic order the democracy partially realized in +the political order. Just as all the citizens have and handle in +common, democratically, the political power, so they must have and +handle in common the economic power, the means of production. + +They must themselves appoint the heads of work in the workshops, as +they appoint the heads of government in the city, and reserve for +those who work, for the community, the whole product of work. + +This tendency of political democracy to enlarge itself into social +democracy has been strengthened and defined by the whole economic +evolution. + +In proportion as the capitalistic regime developed its effects, the +proletariat became conscious of the irreducible opposition between its +essential interests and the interests of the class dominant in +society, and to the bourgeois form of democracy it opposed more and +more the complete and thorough communistic democracy. + +All hope of universalizing ownership and independence by multiplying +small autonomous producers has disappeared. The great industry is more +and more the rule in modern production. + +By the enlargement of the world's markets, by the growing facility of +transport, by the division of labor, by the increasing application of +machinery, by the concentration of capitals, immense concentrated +production is gradually ruining or subordinating the small or middling +producers. + +Even where the number of small craftsmen, small traders, small peasant +proprietors, does not diminish, their relative importance in the +totality of production grows less unceasingly. They fall under the +sway of the great capitalists. + +Even the peasant proprietors, who seem to have retained a little +independence, are more and more exposed to the crushing forces of the +universal market, which capitalism directs without their concurrence +and against their interests. + +For the sale of their wheat, wine, beetroot, and milk, they are more +and more at the mercy of great middlemen or great industries of +milling, distilling, and sugar-refining, which dominate and despoil +peasant labor. + +The industrial proletarians, having lost nearly all chance of +individually rising to be employers, and being thus doomed to eternal +dependence, are further subject to incessant crises of unemployment +and misery, let loose by the unregulated competition of the great +capitalist forces. + +The immense progress of production and wealth, largely usurped by +parasitic classes, has not led to an equivalent progress in well-being +and security for the workers, the proletarians. Whole categories of +wage-earners are abruptly thrown into extreme misery by the constant +introduction of new mechanisms and by the abrupt movements and +transformations of industry. + +Capitalism itself admits the disorder of the present regime of +production, since it tries to regulate it for its gain by capitalistic +syndicates, by trusts. + +Even if it succeeded in actually disciplining all the forces of +production, it would only do so while consummating the domination and +the monopoly of capital. + +There is only one way of assuring the continued order and progress of +production, the freedom of every individual, and the growing +well-being of the workers; it is to transfer to the collectivity, to +the social community, the ownership of the capitalistic means of +production. + +The proletariat, daily more numerous, ever better prepared for +combined action by the great industry itself, understands that in +collectiveness or communism lie the necessary means of salvation for +it. + +As an oppressed and exploited class, it opposes all the forces of +oppression and exploitation, the whole system of ownership, which +debases it to be a mere instrument. It does not expect its +emancipation from the good will of rulers or the spontaneous +generosity of the propertied classes, but from the continual and +methodical pressure which it exerts upon the privileged class and the +government. + +It sets before itself as its final aim, not a partial amelioration, +but the total transformation of society. And since it acknowledges no +right as belonging to capitalistic ownership, it feels bound to it by +no contract. It is determined to fight it, thoroughly, and to the end; +and it is in this sense that the proletariat, even while using the +legal means which democracy puts into its hands, is and must remain a +revolutionary class. + +Already by winning universal suffrage, by winning and exercising the +right of combining to strike and of forming trade-unions, by the first +laws regulating labor and causing society to insure its members, the +proletariat has begun to react against the fatal effects of +capitalism; it will continue this great and unceasing effort, but it +will only end the struggle when all capitalist property has been +reabsorbed by the community, and when the antagonism of classes has +been ended by the disappearance of the classes themselves, reconciled, +or rather made one, in common production and common ownership. + +How will be accomplished the supreme transformation of the capitalist +regime into the collectivist or communist? The human mind cannot +determine beforehand the mode in which history will be accomplished. + +The democratic and bourgeois revolution, which originated in the great +movement of France in 1789, has come about in different countries in +the most different ways. The old feudal system has yielded in one case +to force, in another to peaceful and slow evolution. The revolutionary +bourgeoisie has at one place and time proceeded to brutal +expropriation without compensation, at another to the buying out of +feudal servitudes. + +No one can know in what way the capitalist servitude will be +abolished. The essential thing is that the proletariat should be +always ready for the most vigorous and effective action. It would be +dangerous to dismiss the possibility of revolutionary events +occasioned either by the resistance or by the criminal aggression of +the privileged class. + +It would be fatal, trusting in the one word revolution, to neglect the +great forces which the conscious, organized proletariat can employ +within democracy. + +These legal means, often won by revolution, represent an accumulation +of revolutionary force, a revolutionary capital, of which it would be +madness not to take advantage. + +Too often the workers neglect to profit by the means of action which +democracy and the Republic put into their hands. They do not demand +from trade-unionist action, co-operative action, or universal +suffrage, all that those forms of action can give. + +No formula, no machinery, can enable the working-class to dispense +with the constant effort of organization and education. + +The idea of the general strike, of general strikes, is invincibly +suggested to proletarians by the growing magnitude of working-class +organization. They do not desire violence, which is very often the +result of an insufficient organization and a rudimentary education of +the proletariat; but they would make a great mistake if they did not +employ the powerful means of action, which co-ordinates working-class +forces to subserve the great interests of the workers or of society; +they must group and organize themselves to be in a position to make +the privileged class more and more emphatically aware of the gulf +which may suddenly be cleft open in the economic life of societies by +the abrupt stoppage of the worn-out and interminably exploited +workers. They can thereby snatch from the selfishness of the +privileged class great reforms interesting the working-class in +general, and hasten the complete transformation of an unjust society. +But the formula of the general strike, like the partial strike, like +political action, is only valuable through the progress of the +education, the thought, and the will of the working-class. + +The Socialist party defends the Republic as a necessary means of +liberation and education. Socialism is essentially republican. It +might be even said to be the Republic itself, since it is the +extension of the Republic to the regime of property and labor. + +The Socialist party needs, to organize the new world, free minds, +emancipated from superstitions and prejudices. It asks for and +guarantees every human being, every individual, absolute freedom of +thinking, and writing, and affirming their beliefs. Over against all +religions, dogmas, and churches, as well as over against the class +conception of the bourgeoisie, it sets the unlimited right of free +thought, the scientific conception of the universe, and a system of +public education based exclusively on science and reason. + +Thus accustomed to free thought and reflection, citizens will be +protected against the sophistries of the capitalistic and clerical +reaction. The small craftsmen, small traders, and small peasant +proprietors will cease to think that it is Socialism which wishes to +expropriate them. The Socialist party will hasten the hour when these +small peasant proprietors, ruined by the underselling of their +produce, riddled with mortgage debts, and always liable to judicial +expropriation, will eventually understand the advantages of +generalized and systematized association, and will claim themselves, +as a benefit, the socialization of their plots of land. + +But it would be useless to prepare inside each nation an organization +of justice and peace, if the relations of the nations to one another +remained exposed to every enterprise of force, every suggestion of +capitalist greed. + +The Socialist party desires peace among nations; it condemns every +policy of aggression and war, whether continental or colonial. It +constantly keeps on the order of the day for civilized countries +simultaneous disarmament. While waiting for the day of definite peace +among nations, it combats the militarist spirit by doing its utmost to +approximate the system of permanent armies to that of national +militias. It wishes to protect the territory and the independence of +the nation against any surprise; but every offensive policy and +offensive weapon is utterly condemned by it. + +The close understanding of the workers, of the proletarians of every +country, is necessary as well to beat back the forces of aggression +and war as to prepare by a concerted action the general triumph of +Socialism. The international agreement of the militant proletarians of +every country will prepare the triumph of a free humanity, where the +differences of classes will have disappeared, and the difference of +nations, instead of being a principle of strife and hatred, will be a +principle of brotherly emulation in the universal progress of mankind. + +It is in this sense and for these reasons that the Socialist party has +formulated in its congresses the rule and aim of its +action--international understanding of the workers; political and +economic organization of the proletariat as a class party for the +conquest of government and the socialization of the means of production +and exchange; that is to say, the transformation of capitalist society +into a collectivist or communist society. + + +_II.--Program of Reforms_ + +The Socialist party, rejecting the policy of all or nothing, has a +program of reforms whose realization it pursues forthwith. + + +(1) _Democratization of Public Authorities_ + +1. Universal direct suffrage, without distinction of sex, in every +election. + +2. Reduction of time of residence. Votes to be cast for lists, with +proportional representation, in every election. + +3. Legislative measures to secure the freedom and secrecy of the vote. + +4. Popular right of initiative and referendum. + +5. Abolition of the Senate and Presidency of the Republic. The powers +at present belonging to the President of the Republic and the Cabinet +to devolve on an executive council appointed by the Parliament. + +6. Legal regulation of the legislator's mandate, to be revocable by +the vote of any absolute majority of his constituents on the register. + +7. Admission of women to all public functions. + +8. Absolute freedom of the press, and of assembly guaranteed only by +the common law. Abrogation of all exceptional laws on the press. +Freedom of civil associations. + +9. Full administrative autonomy of the departments and communes, under +no reservations but that of the laws guaranteeing the republican, +democratic, and secular character of the State. + + +(2) _Complete Secularization of the State_ + +1. Separation of the Churches and the State; abolition of the Budget +of Public Worship; freedom of public worship; prohibition of the +political and collective action of the Churches against the civil laws +and republican liberties. + +2. Abolition of the congregations; nationalization of the property in +mortmain, of every kind, belonging to them, and appropriation of it +for works of social insurance and solidarity; in the interval, all +industrial, agricultural, and commercial undertakings are to be +forbidden to the congregations. + + +(3) _Democratic and Humane Organization of Justice_ + +1. Substitution for all the present courts, whether civil or criminal, +of courts composed of a jury taken from the electoral register and +judges elected under guarantees of competence; the jury to be formed +by drawing lots from lists drawn up by universal suffrage. + +2. Justice to be without fee. Transformation of ministerial offices +into public functions. Abolition of the monopoly of the bar. + +3. Examination from opposite sides at every stage and on every point. + +4. Substitution for the vindictive character of the present +punishments, of a system for the safe keeping and the amelioration of +convicts. + +5. Abolition of the death penalty. + +6. Abolition of the military and naval courts. + + +(4) _Constitution of the Family in conformity with Individual Rights_ + +1. Abrogation of every law establishing the civil inferiority of women +and natural or adulterine children. + +2. Most liberal legislation on divorce. A law sanctioning inquiry into +paternity. + + +(5) _Civic and Technical Education_ + +1. Education to be free of charge at every stage. + +2. Maintenance of the children in elementary schools at the expense of +the public bodies. + +3. For secondary and higher education, the community to pay for those +of the children who on examination are pronounced fit usefully to +continue their studies. + +4. Creation of a popular higher education. + +5. State monopoly of education at the three stages; as a means towards +this, all members of the regular and secular clergy to be forbidden to +open and teach in a school. + + +(6) _General recasting of the System of Taxation upon Principles of +Social Solidarity_ + +1. Abolition of every tax on articles of consumption which are primary +necessaries, and of the four direct contributions;[1] accessorily, +relief from taxation of all small plots of land and small professional +businesses.[2] + +2. Progressive income-tax, levied on each person's income as a whole, +in all cases where it exceeds 3,000 francs (L120). + +3. Progressive tax on inheritances, the scale of progression being +calculated with reference both to the amount of the inheritance and +the degree of remoteness of the relationship. + +4. The State to be empowered to seek a part of the revenue which it +requires from certain monopolies. + + +(7) _Legal Protection and Regulation of Labor in Industry, Commerce, +and Agriculture_ + +1. One day's rest per week, or prohibition of employers to exact work +more than six days in seven. + +2. Limitation of the working-day to eight hours; as a means towards +this, vote of every regulation diminishing the length of the +working-day. + +3. Prohibition of the employment of children under fourteen; half-time +system for young persons, productive labor being combined with +instruction and education. + +4. Prohibition of night-work for women and young persons. Prohibition +of night-work for adult workers of all categories and in all +industries where night-work is not absolutely necessary. + +5. Legislation to protect home-workers. + +6. Prohibition of piece-work and of truck. Legal recognition of +blacklisting. + +7. Scales of rates forming a minimum wage to be fixed by agreement +between municipalities and the working-class corporations of industry, +commerce, and agriculture. + +8. Employers to be forbidden to make deductions from wages, as fines +or otherwise. Workers to assist in framing special rules for +workshops. + +9. Inspection of workshops, mills, factories, mines, yards, public +services, shops, etc., shall be carried out with reference to the +conditions of work, hygiene, and safety, by inspectors elected by the +workmen's unions, in concurrence with the State inspectors. + +10. Extension of the industrial arbitration courts to all wage-workers +of industry, commerce, and agriculture. + +11. Convict labor to be treated as a State monopoly; the charge for +all work done shall be the wage normally paid to trade-unionist +workers. + +12. Women to be forbidden by law to work for six weeks before +confinement and for six weeks after. + + +(8) _Social Insurance against all Natural and Economic Risks_ + +1. Organization by the nation of a system of social insurance, +applying to the whole mass of industrial, commercial, and agricultural +workers, against the risks of sickness, accident, disability, old age, +and unemployment. + +2. The insurance funds to be found without drawing on wages; as a +means towards this, limitation of the contribution drawn from the +wage-workers to a third of the total contribution, the two other +thirds to be provided by the State and the employers. + +3. The law on workmen's accidents to be improved and applied without +distinction or nationality. + +4. The workers to take part in the control and administration of the +insurance system. + + +(9) _Extension of the Domain and Public Services, Industrial and +Agricultural, of State, Department, and Commune_ + +1. Nationalization of railways, mines, the Bank of France, insurance, +the sugar refineries and sugar factories, the distilleries, and the +great milling establishments. + +2. Organization of public employment registries for the workers, with +the assistance of the Bourses du Travail and the workmen's +organizations: and abolition of the private registries. + +3. State organization of agricultural banks. + +4. Grants to rural communes to assist them to purchase agricultural +machinery collectively, to acquire communal domains, worked under the +control of the communes by unions of rural laborers, and to establish +depots and entrepots. + +5. Organization of communal services for lighting, water, common +transport, construction, and public management of cheap dwellings. + +6. Democratic administration of the public services, national and +communal; organizations of workers to take part in their +administration and control; all wage-earners in all public services to +have the right of forming trade-unions. + +7. National and communal service of public health, and strengthening +of the laws which protect it--those on unhealthy dwellings, etc. + + +(10) _Policy of International Peace and Adaptation of the Military +Organization to the Defense of the Country_ + +1. Substitution of a militia for the standing Army, and adoption of +every measure, such as reductions of military service, leading up to +it. + +2. Remodeling and mitigation of the military penal code; abolition of +disciplinary corps, and prohibition of the prolongation of military +service by way of penalty. + +3. Renunciation of all offensive war, no matter what its pretext. + +4. Renunciation of every alliance not aimed exclusively at the +maintenance of peace. + +5. Renunciation of Colonial military expeditions; and in the present +Colonies or Protectorates, withdrawn from the influence of +missionaries and the military regime, development of institutions to +protect the natives. + + +3. BASIS OF THE UNITED SOCIALIST PARTY OF FRANCE + +_Adopted January 13, 1905_ + +The representatives of the various Socialistic organizations of +France: the revolutionary Socialist Labor Party, the Socialist Party +of France, the French Socialist Party, the independent federations of +Bouches-du-Rhone, of Bretagne, of Herault, of the Somme, and of +l'Yonne, commanded by their respective parties and federations to form +a union upon the basis indicated by the International Congress of +Amsterdam, declare that the action of a unified party should be based +upon the principles established by the International Congress, +especially those held in France in 1900 and Amsterdam in 1904. + +The divergence of views and the various interpretations of the tactics +of the Socialists which have prevailed up to the present moment have +been due to circumstances peculiar to France and to the absence of a +general party organization. + +The delegates declare their common desire to form a party based upon +the class war which, at the same time, will utilize to its profit the +struggles of the laboring classes and unite their action with that of +a political party organized for the defense of the rights of the +proletariat, whose interests will always rest in a party fundamentally +and irreconcilably opposed to all the bourgeois classes and to the +state which is their instrument. + +Therefore the delegates declare that their respective organizations +are prepared to collaborate immediately in this work of the +unification of all the Socialistic forces in France, upon the +following basis, unanimously adopted: + +1. The Socialist Party is a class party which has for its aim the +socialization of the means of production and exchange, that is to say, +to transform the present capitalistic society into a collective or +communistic society by means of the political and economic +organization of the proletariat. By its aims, by its ideals, by the +power which it employs, the Socialist Party, always seeking to realize +the immediate reforms demanded by the working class, is not a party of +reforms, but a party of class war and revolution. + +2. The members of Parliament elected by the party form a unique group +opposed to all the factions of the bourgeois parties. The Socialist +group in Parliament must refuse to sustain all of those means which +assure the domination of the bourgeoisie in government and their +maintenance in power: must therefore refuse to vote for military +appropriations, appropriations for colonial conquest, secret funds, +and the budget. + +Even in the most exceptional circumstances the Socialist members must +not pledge the party without its consent. + +In Parliament the Socialist group must consecrate itself to defending +and extending the political liberties and rights of the working +classes and to the realization of those reforms which ameliorate the +conditions of life in the struggle for existence of the working class. + +The deputies should always hold themselves at the disposition of the +party, giving themselves to the general propaganda, the organization +of the proletariat, and constantly working toward the ultimate goal of +Socialism. + +3. Every member of the legislature individually, as well as each +militant Socialist, is subject to the control of his federation; all +of the officials in all of the groups are subject to the central +organization. In every case the national congress has the final +jurisdiction over all party matters. + +4. There shall be complete freedom of discussion in the press +concerning questions of principle and policy, but the conduct of all +the Socialist publications must be strictly in accord with the +decisions of the national congress as interpreted by the executive +committee of the party. Journals which are or may become the property +of the party, either of the national party or of the federations, will +naturally be placed under the management of authorities permanently +established for that purpose by the party or the federations. Journals +which are not the property of the party, but proclaim themselves as +Socialistic, must conform strictly to the resolutions of the congress +as interpreted by the proper party authorities, and they should insert +all the official communications of the party and party notices, as +they may be requested to do. The central committee of the party may +remind such journals of the policies of the party, and if they are +recalcitrant may propose to the congress that all intercourse between +them and the party be broken. + +5. Members of Parliament shall not be appointed members of the central +committee, but they shall be represented on the central committee by a +committee equal to one-tenth of the number of delegates, and in no +case shall their representation be less than five. The Federation +shall not appoint as delegates to the Central Committee "_militants_" +who reside within the limits of the Federation. + +6. The party will take measures for insuring, on the part of the +officials, respect for the mandates of the party, and will fix the +amount of their assessment. + +7. A congress charged with the definite organization of the party will +be convened as soon as possible upon the basis of proportional +representation fixed, first upon the number of members paying dues, +and second upon the number of votes cast in the general elections of +1902. + + + + +III. GERMANY + +1. POLITICAL PARTIES IN GERMANY + +There are a great many "fractions" in German politics. But, following +the Continental custom, they are all grouped into three divisions, the +Left or Radical, Right or Conservative, and the Center. In Germany the +Center is the Catholic or Clerical Party. The leading groups are as +follows: + +1. _Conservative._--The "German Conservatives" are the old tories; the +"Free Conservatives" profess, but rarely show, a tendency toward +liberal ideas, although they have, at intervals, opposed ministerial +measures. The Conservatives are for the Government (Regierung) first, +last, and all the time. They were a powerful factor under Bismarck and +docile in his hands. Since his day they have suffered many defeats +because of their reactionary policy. But the group still is the +Kaiser's party, the stronghold of modern medievalism, opposed to +radical reforms, and adhering to "the grace of God" policy of +monarchism. Economically they are _junker_ and "big business." The +anti-Socialist laws were the expression of their ideas as to Socialism +and the way to quench it. + +2. _National Liberal._--This party is not liberal, in the sense that +England or America knows liberalism. It is really only a less +conservative party than the extreme Right, although it began as the +brilliant Progressist Party of the early '60's. It was triumphant in +the Prussian Diet until Bismarck shattered it on his war policy. In +the first Reichstag it had 116 members, nearly one-third of the whole. +But Bismarck needed it, got it, and left it quite as conservative as +he wished. It voted for the anti-Socialist laws and for state +insurance. + +3. _Progressive_ (_Freisinnige_, literally, "free-minded").--This +faction is a cession from the old Progressist Party of which Lassalle +was a member for a few months. They are Radicals of a very moderate +type, and are opposed to the junker bureaucracy. There are two +wings--the People's Party (_Freisinnige Volkspartei_) and the +Progressive Union (_Freisinnige Vereinigung_). It is a constitutional +party, and has counted in its ranks such eminent scholars as Professor +Virchow and Professor Theodor Mommsen. They are in favor of +ministerial responsibility, are free traders of the Manchester type, +opposed to state intervention and state insurance, but favor factory +inspection, sanitation, and other social legislation. They are in +favor of freedom in religion, trade, and education, and espouse ballot +reform. They have a well-organized party, but do not seem effective +in winning elections. They share, to some degree, with the Social +Democrats the prejudice of the religious folk against free-thinking +and religious latitudinarianism. It is the middle-class party of +protest against bureaucracy. + +4. The _Center_, or Catholic Party, is a homogeneous, isolated, +well-disciplined, inflexible group, dominated by loyalty to their +religion. Whenever they have co-operated with the government it has +been in return for favors shown. The ranks of this party were closed +by the _Culturkampf_, which resulted in the expulsion of the Jesuit +orders and the separation of the elementary schools from the Church. +The party is reactionary in politics and economics. + +5. _Anti-Semitic._--The name discloses the ideals of a party inspired +by dread and hatred of an element that comprises less than 1.5 per +cent. of the population, and whose political disabilities were not all +removed until 1850 in Prussia and 1869 in Mecklenburg. This party was +formed in 1880, largely through the agitation of the Court Chaplain, +Pastor Stoecker, whose diatribes were peculiarly effective in Berlin, +where some very disgraceful scenes were enacted by members of this +party. + +6. _Independent groups_ are formed by the various nationalities that +are under subjection to German dominance. These are the Danish, +Hannoverian, Alsace-Lorraine, and Polish groups. They usually are +grouped with the Center. + +7. There are also a number of independent members in the Reichstag. +They adhere loosely to the larger groups, but as a rule merit the name +given them--_Wilden_, "wild ones." + +The accompanying table (p. 297) shows the distribution of seats in the +Reichstag, for the past thirty years. + + +2. SOME MODERN GERMAN ELECTION LAWS + +_Analysis of the New Election Law of Saxony_ + + _A._ One vote--every male 25 years of age. + + _B._ Two votes, every male, as follows: + + 1. Those who have an annual income of over 1,600 marks + ($400). + + 2. Those who hold public office or a permanent private + position with an annual income of over 1,400 marks ($350). + + 3. Those who are eligible to vote for Landskulturrat + (Agricultural Board) or Gewerbskammer (Chamber of + Commerce) and from their business have an income of over + 1,400 marks. (This includes merchants, landowners, and + manufacturers.) + + 4. Those who are owners or beneficiaries of property in the + kingdom from which they have an income of 1,250 marks + ($312.50) a year, and upon which at least 100 tax units + are assessed. + + 5. Those who own, or are beneficiaries of, land in the + kingdom, to the extent of at least 2 hectares, devoted to + agriculture, or forestry, or horticulture, or more than + one-half hectare devoted to gardening or wine culture. + + 6. Those who have conducted such professional studies as + entitle them to the one-year volunteer military service. + + _C._ The following have three votes: + + 1. Those who have an income of over 2,200 marks ($550). + + 2. Those in division B, 2 and 3, who have an income from + office or position of over 1,900 marks ($475). + + 3. Those who are not in private or public service and have a + professional income of over 1,900 marks. (This includes + lawyers, physicians, artists, engineers, publicists, + authors, professors.) + + 4. Those in B, 4, whose income is over 1,600 marks ($400). + + 5. Those in B, 5, with 4 hectares devoted to agriculture, + etc., and 1 hectare to gardening or wine culture. + + _D._ The following have four votes: + + 1. Those who have an income of 2,800 marks ($700). + + 2. Those in B, 2 and 3, or in C, 3, with an income over 2,500 + marks ($625). + + 3. Those in B, 4, with an annual income of over 2,200 marks + ($550). + + 4. Those in B, 5, with 8 hectares devoted to agriculture or 2 + hectares devoted to gardening or wine culture. + + _E._ Voters over 50 years old have an extra vote (Alters-stimme), + but no voter is allowed over four votes. + +Sachsen-Altenburg, in 1908-9, modified its election laws as follows: +The legislature is composed of 9 representatives elected by the +cities; 12 by the rural districts; 7 by the highest taxpayers; one +each by the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Agriculture, the Craft +guilds (Handwerks-kammer), and the Labor Council (Arbeiter-kammer). +The vigorous protest of the Social Democrats did not avail against the +passage of this law. + +Saxe-Weimar recently modified its election law as follows: All +citizens of communes were given the right to vote. The great feudal +estates (165 persons in 1909) elect 5 representatives to the Diet; the +rest of the highest taxpayers, i.e., those who have a taxable income +of over 3,000 marks, elect 5. The University of Jena elects 1 member, +the Chamber of Commerce 1, the Handwerks-kammer (Craft Guilds) 1, +Landwirthschaftkammer (Agricultural Board) 1, the Arbeitskammer (Labor +Council) 1. There are 38 members in the Diet: the remaining 23 are +elected at large. + + +3. STATISTICAL TABLES + +STATE INSURANCE IN GERMANY + + _Industrial Insurance in Germany, 1908._ + + Sick benefits: Number insured 13,189,599 + Men 9,880,541 + Women 3,309,058 + Income 365,994,000 marks + Outlay 331,049,900 " + Accident Insurance: Number insured 23,674,000 + Men 14,795,400 + Women 8,878,600 + Income 207,550,500 marks + Outlay 157,884,700 " + Old-Age Pensions: Number insured 15,226,000 + Men 10,554,000 + Women 4,672,000 + Income 285,882,000 marks + Outlay 181,476,800 " + +From 1885 to 1908 a total of 9,791,376,100 marks ($2,447,844,025) was +paid out in industrial insurance. (Compiled from _Statistisches +Jahrbuch des Deutschen Reiches_.) + + +LABOR UNIONS IN GERMANY + + =================+===================+=============+====================== + _Name of Union_ | _Membership_ | _No. of | _Amount in + | | Unions_ | Treasury--Marks_ + -----------------+---------+---------+------+------+----------+----------- + | 1908 | 1909 | 1908 | 1909 | 1908 | 1909 + +---------+---------+------+------+----------+----------- + Social Democratic|1,831,731|1,892,568|11,024|11,725|40,839,791|43,743,793 + Hirsh-Duncker | 105,633| 108,028| 2,095| 2,102| 4,210,413| 4,372,495 + Christian | 264,519| 280,061| 3,212| 3,856| 4,513,409| 5,365,338 + Patriotic | 16,507| 9,957| 69| 91| 57,786| 24,858 + "Yellow" | 47,532| 53,849| 79| 85| 386,305| 437,602 + Independent* | 615,873| 654,240| | | 1,357,802| 1,655,325 + -----------------+---------+---------+------+------+----------+----------- + * This is a nondescript group of local organizations, containing (1909) + 56,183 Poles, as well as the organization of railwaymen, telegraph + operators, postal employees, all in the government service, and + organized as friendly societies rather than as fighting bodies. + Government employees are not supposed to participate in "Unionism." + Compiled from _Statistisches Jahrbuch des Deutschen Reiches_. + + +TABLE SHOWING VOTE CAST IN REICHSTAG ELECTIONS SINCE THE FOUNDING OF +THE EMPIRE* + + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + Election Year | 1871 | 1874 | 1877 | 1878 | + Population of Empire |40,997,000|42,004,000|43,610,000|44,129,000| + Number of voters | 7,656,000| 8,523,000| 8,943,000| 9,128,000| + Number who voted | 3,885,000| 5,190,000| 5,401,000| 5,761,000| + Per cent. of vote cast | 51.0 | 61.2 | 60.6 | 63.3 | + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + Conservative | 549,000| 360,000| 526,000| 749,000| + Imperial Conservative | 346,000| 376,000| 427,000| 786,000| + Anti-Semites | ... | ... | ... | ... | + Other Conservative Groups| ... | ... | ... | ... | + Center | 724,000| 1,446,000| 1,341,000| 1,328,000| + Guelphs | 73,000| 72,000| 86,000| 107,000| + Danes | 21,000| 20,000| 17,000| 16,000| + Poles | 176,000| 209,000| 216,000| 216,000| + Alsatians | ... | 190,000| 149,000| 130,000| + National Liberal | 1,171,000| 1,499,000| 1,470,000| 1,331,000| + Other Liberal groups | 281,000| 98,000| 89,000| 69,000| + Progressist or Radical | 361,000| 469,000| 403,000| 388,000| + People's Party | 50,000| 39,000| 49,000| 69,000| + Social Democrats | 124,000| 352,000| 493,000| 437,000| + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + Election Year | 1881 | 1884 | 1887 | 1890 | + Population of Empire |45,428,000|46,336,000|47,630,000|49,241,000| + Number of voters | 9,090,000| 9,383,000| 9,770,000|10,146,000| + Number who voted | 5,098,000| 5,663,000| 7,541,000| 7,229,000| + Per cent. of vote cast | 56.3 | 60.6 | 77.5 | 71.6 | + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + Conservative | 831,000| 861,000| 1,147,000| 895,000| + Imperial Conservative | 379,000| 388,000| 736,000| 482,000| + Anti-Semites | ... | ... | 12,000| 48,000| + Other Conservative Groups| ... | ... | ... | 66,000| + Center | 1,183,000| 1,282,000| 1,516,000| 1,342,000| + Guelphs | 87,000| 96,000| 113,000| 113,000| + Danes | 14,000| 14,000| 12,000| 14,000| + Poles | 201,000| 203,000| 220,000| 247,000| + Alsatians | 147,000| 166,000| 234,000| 101,000| + National Liberal | 747,000| 997,000| 1,678,000| 1,179,000| + Other Liberal groups | 429,000| ... | ... | ... | + Progressist or Radical | 649,000| 997,000| 973,000| 1,160,000| + People's Party | 108,000| 96,000| 89,000| 148,000| + Social Democrats | 312,000| 550,000| 763,000| 1,427,000| + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+==========+ + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+ + Election Year | 1893 | 1898 | 1903 | + Population of Empire |50,757,000|54,406,000|58,629,000| + Number of voters |10,628,000|11,441,000|12,531,000| + Number who voted | 7,674,000| 7,753,000| 9,496,000| + Per cent. of vote cast | 72.2 | 68.1 | 75.8 | + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+ + Conservative | 1,038,000| 859,000| 935,000| + Imperial Conservative | 438,000| 344,000| 333,000| + Anti-Semites | 264,000| 284,000| 249,000| + Other Conservative Groups| 250,000| 250,000| 230,000| + Center | 1,469,000| 1,455,000| 1,866,000| + Guelphs | 106,000| 109,000| 101,000| + Danes | 14,000| 15,000| 15,000| + Poles | 230,000| 252,000| 354,000| + Alsatians | 115,000| 107,000| 127,000| + National Liberal | 997,000| 984,000| 1,338,000| + Other Liberal groups | 258,000| 235,000| 285,000| + Progressist or Radical | 666,000| 558,000| 538,000| + People's Party | 167,000| 109,000| 92,000| + Social Democrats | 1,787,000| 2,107,000| 3,011,000| + ==========================+==========+==========+==========+ + ==========================+==========+=========== + Election Year | 1907 | 1912 + Population of Empire |61,983,000|65,407,000 + Number of voters |13,353,000|14,442,000 + Number who voted |11,304,000|12,207,000 + Per cent. of vote cast | 84.7 | 84.5 + ==========================+==========+=========== + Conservative | 1,099,000| 1,126,000 + Imperial Conservative | 494,000| 383,000 + Anti-Semites | 261,000| ... + Other Conservative Groups| 272,000| 424,000 + Center | 2,159,000| 1,991,000 + Guelphs | 94,000| 91,000 + Danes | 15,000| 17,000 + Poles | 458,000| 448,000 + Alsatians | 107,000| 157,000 + National Liberal | 1,696,000| 1,723,000 + Other Liberal groups | 435,000} + Progressist or Radical | 744,000} 1,506,000 + People's Party | 139,000} + Social Democrats | 3,259,000| 4,250,000 + ==========================+==========+=========== + + * In round numbers. From Kuerschner's _Deutscher Reichstag_, p. 24. + + +PARTY REPRESENTATION IN THE REICHSTAG + +THE YEARS ARE THOSE OF GENERAL ELECTIONS--EXCEPTING 1911 + + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + _Party or Faction._ | 1881 | 1884 | 1887 | 1890 | 1893 | 1898 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + RIGHT + Conservatives | 50 | 76 | 80 | 72 | 67 | 53 | + German or Imperial | | | | | | | + Conservatives | 27 | 28 | 41 | 20 | 28 | 22 | + "Wild" Conservatives | 1 | 2 | -- | 1 | 5 | 4 | + Anti-Semites | -- | -- | 1 | 5 | 16 | 14 | + League of Landowners | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 5 | + Bavarian Land League | -- | -- | -- | -- | 4 | 5 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + CENTER + Center | 98 | 99 | 98 | 106 | 96 | 102 | + Poles | 18 | 16 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 15 | + Guelphs | 10 | 11 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 9 | + Alsatians | 15 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 8 | 10 | + Danes | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | + "Wild" Clericals | 2 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + LEFT + National Liberals | 45 | 51 | 98 | 41 | 53 | 48 | + RADICALS + United Progressives | 47 } | | { 14 | 13 | + (Radicals) | } 64 | 32 | 64 { | | + Other Progressive | } | | { | | + groups (Radicals) | 59 } | | { 23 | 29 | + People's Party | 8 | 7 | -- | 10 | 11 | 8 | + "Wild" Liberals | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + Social Democrats* | 12 | 24 | 11 | 35 | 44 | 56 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + _Party or Faction._ | 1900 | 1903 | 1906 | 1907 | 1911 | 1912 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + RIGHT | + Conservatives | 51 | 52 | 52 | 58 | 59 | 43 | + German or Imperial | | | | | | | + Conservatives | 20 | 19 | 22 | 22 | 25 | 14 | + "Wild" Conservatives | 7 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | + Anti-Semites | 13 | 11 | 14 | 20 } 29 | 13 | + League of Landowners | 4 | 3 | 4 | 7 } | | + Bavarian Land League | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | -- | 2 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + CENTER | + Center | 102 | 100 | 100 | 104 | 103 | 90 | + Poles | 14 | 16 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 18 | + Guelphs | 7 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | + Alsatians | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 9 | + Danes | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | + "Wild" Clericals | 1 | -- | 1 | -- | -- | 1 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + LEFT | + National Liberals | 53 | 50 | 51 | 54 | 51 | 45 | + RADICALS | + United Progressives | 15 | 9 | 10 | 14 } | | + (Radicals) | | | | } | | + Other Progressive | | | | } 49 | 42 | + groups (Radicals) | 28 | 21 | 20 | 28 } | | + People's Party | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 } | | + "Wild" Liberals | 3 | 2 | -- | 4 | 4 | 2 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + Social Democrats* | 58 | 81 | 79 | 43 | 53 | 110 | + --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+ + + * They form the extreme Radical Left. + + (These groups are those given in Kuerchner's _Deutscher Reichstag_, + p. 398.) + + +4. PROGRAM OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY + +_Adopted at Erfurt, 1891_ + +The economic development of bourgeois society leads by natural +necessity to the downfall of the small industry, whose foundation is +formed by the worker's private ownership of his means of production. +It separates the worker from his means of production, and converts him +into a propertyless proletarian, while the means of production become +the monopoly of a relatively small number of capitalists and large +landowners. + +Hand-in-hand with this monopolization of the means of production goes +the displacement of the dispersed small industries by colossal great +industries, the development of the tool into the machine, and a +gigantic growth in the productivity of human labor. But all the +advantages of this transformation are monopolized by capitalists and +large landowners. For the proletariat and the declining intermediate +classes--petty bourgoisie and peasants--it means a growing +augmentation of the insecurity of their existence, of misery, +oppression, enslavement, debasement, and exploitation. + +Ever greater grows the number of proletarians, ever more enormous the +army of surplus workers, ever sharper the opposition between +exploiters and exploited, ever bitterer the class-war between +bourgeoisie and proletariat, which divides modern society into two +hostile camps, and is the common hall-mark of all industrial +countries. + +The gulf between the propertied and the propertyless is further +widened through the crises, founded in the essence of the capitalistic +method of production, which constantly become more comprehensive and +more devastating, which elevate general insecurity to the normal +condition of society, and which prove that the powers of production of +contemporary society have grown beyond measure, and that private +ownership of the means of production has become incompatible with +their application to their objects and their full development. + +Private ownership of the means of production, which was formerly the +means of securing to the producer the ownership of his product, has +to-day become the means of expropriating peasants, manual workers, and +small traders, and enabling the non-workers--capitalists and large +landowners--to own the product of the workers. Only the transformation +of capitalistic private ownership of the means of production--the +soil, mines, raw materials, tools, machines, and means of +transport--into social ownership and the transformation of production +of goods for sale into Socialistic production managed for and through +society, can bring it about, that the great industry and the steadily +growing productive capacity of social labor shall for the hitherto +exploited classes be changed from a source of misery and oppression +to a source of the highest welfare and of all-round harmonious +perfection. + +This social transformation means the emancipation not only of the +proletariat, but of the whole human race which suffers under the +conditions of to-day. But it can only be the work of the +working-class, because all the other classes, in spite of mutually +conflicting interests, take their stand on the basis of private +ownership of the means of production, and have as their common object +the preservation of the principles of contemporary society. + +The battle of the working-class against capitalistic exploitation is +necessarily a political battle. The working-class cannot carry on its +economic battles or develop its economic organization without +political rights. It cannot effect the passing of the means of +production into the ownership of the community without acquiring +political power. + +To shape this battle of the working-class into a conscious and united +effort, and to show it its naturally necessary end, is the object of +the Social Democratic Party. + +The interests of the working-class are the same in all lands with +capitalistic methods of production. With the expansion of +world-transport and production for the world-market the state of the +workers in any one country becomes constantly more dependent on the +state of the workers in other countries. The emancipation of the +working-class is thus a task in which the workers of all civilized +countries are concerned in a like degree. Conscious of this, the +Social Democratic Party of Germany feels and declares itself _one_ +with the class-conscious workers of all other lands. + +The Social Democratic Party of Germany fights thus not for new +class-privileges and exceptional rights, but for the abolition of +class-domination and of the classes themselves, and for the equal +rights and equal obligations of all, without distinction of sex and +parentage. Setting out from these views, it combats in contemporary +society not merely the exploitation and oppression of the +wage-workers, but every kind of exploitation and oppression, whether +directed against a class, a party, a sex, or a race. + +Setting out from these principles the Social Democratic Party of +Germany demands immediately-- + +1. Universal equal direct suffrage and franchise, with direct ballot, +for all members of the Empire over twenty years of age, without +distinction of sex, for all elections and acts of voting. Proportional +representation; and until this is introduced, re-division of the +constituencies by law according to the numbers of population. A new +Legislature every two years. Fixing of elections and acts of voting +for a legal holiday. Indemnity for the elected representatives. +Removal of every curtailment of political rights except in case of +tutelage. + +2. Direct legislation by the people by means of the initiative and +referendum. Self-determination and self-government of the people in +empire, state, province, and commune. Authorities to be elected by the +people; to be responsible and bound. Taxes to be voted annually. + +3. Education of all to be capable of bearing arms. Armed nation +instead of standing army. Decision of war and peace by the +representatives of the people. Settlement of all international +disputes by the method of arbitration. + +4. Abolition of all laws which curtail or suppress the free expression +of opinion and the right of association and assembly. + +5. Abolition of all laws which are prejudicial to women in their +relations to men in public or private law. + +6. Declaration that religion is a private matter. Abolition of all +contributions from public funds to ecclesiastical and religious +objects. Ecclesiastical and religious communities are to be treated as +private associations, which manage their affairs quite independently. + +7. Secularization of education. Compulsory attendance of public +primary schools. No charges to be made for instruction, school +requisites, and maintenance, in the public primary schools; nor in the +higher educational institutions for those students, male and female, +who in virtue of their capacities are considered fit for further +training. + +8. No charge to be made for the administration of the law, or for +legal assistance. Judgment by popularly elected judges. Appeal in +criminal cases. Indemnification of innocent persons prosecuted, +arrested, or condemned. Abolition of the death-penalty. + +9. No charges to be made for medical attendance, including midwifery +and medicine. No charges to be made for death certificates. + +10. Graduated taxes on income and property, to meet all public +expenses as far as these are to be covered by taxation. Obligatory +self-assessment. A tax on inheritance, graduated according to the size +of the inheritance and the degree of kinship. Abolition of all +indirect taxes, customs, and other politico-economic measures which +sacrifice the interests of the whole community to the interests of a +favored minority. + +For the protection of the working-class the Social Democratic Party of +Germany demands immediately-- + +1. An effective national and international legislation for the +protection of workmen on the following basis: + +(_a_) Fixing of a normal working-day with a maximum of eight hours. + +(_b_) Prohibition of industrial work for children under fourteen +years. + +(_c_) Prohibition of night-work, except for such branches of industry +as, in accordance with their nature, require night-work, for technical +reasons, or reasons of public welfare. + +(_d_) An uninterrupted rest of at least thirty-six hours in every week +for every worker. + +(_e_) Prohibition of the truck system. + +2. Inspection of all industrial businesses, investigation and +regulation of labor relations in town and country by an Imperial +Department of Labor, district labor departments, and chambers of +labor. Thorough industrial hygiene. + +3. Legal equalization of agricultural laborers and domestic servants +with industrial workers; removal of the special regulations affecting +servants. + +4. Assurance of the right of combination. + +5. Workmen's insurance to be taken over bodily by the Empire; and the +workers to have an influential share in its administration. + +6. Separation of the Churches and the State. + +(_a_) Suppression of the grant for public worship. + +(_b_) Philosophic or religious associations to be civil persons at +law. + +7. Revision of sections in the Civil Code concerning marriage and the +paternal authority. + +(_a_) Civil equality of the sexes, and of children, whether natural or +legitimate. + +(_b_) Revision of the divorce laws, maintaining the husband's +liability to support the wife or the children. + +(_c_) Inquiry into paternity to be legalized. + +(_d_) Protective measures in favor of children materially or morally +abandoned. + + +5. COMMUNAL PROGRAM OF THE BAVARIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY + +Inasmuch as our communes are hindered in the fulfilment of their +economic and political duties by reactionary laws, we demand: + + +A.--OF THE STATE: + +1. A change of the municipal code, granting genuine local autonomy. A +single representative chamber, a four-year term of office, one-half +retiring every two years. Universal adult suffrage, secret ballot, the +franchise not to be denied to those receiving public aid. + +2. Radical tax reform, through the establishing of a uniform, +progressive income and property tax, collected by the communes; local +taxes to be assessed upon increment value; and prohibition of all +taxes upon the necessaries of life. + +3. A common-school law providing universal public education free from +all religious bias, compulsory up to fourteen years of age. Obligatory +secondary schools, the inclusion of social and political economy in +their curricula; the defraying of expenses of pupils by the state. +Substitution of professional supervision of schools for clerical +supervision. + +4. Enactment of a domiciliary law, in place of the present inadequate +laws, providing for all the necessary sanitary and socio-political +demands. Extending the municipalities' right of condemnation to the +extent that towns may erect houses and schools, open streets, and make +all necessary public improvements demanded by the public welfare. + +5. Passage of a sanitary code. Regulation of sanitation in the public +interests. Free medical attendance at births. Public nurseries. + +6. The administration of public charities by the local authorities. + + +B.--OF THE COMMUNE WE DEMAND: + +1. Abolishing all taxes upon the rights of citizenship and of +residence. Granting of full franchise rights after one year's +residence. + +2. Elections to be held on a holiday or on Sunday. + +3. Pensions for communal employees. + +4. The cost of local administration to be borne by local property or +from additions to the direct state taxes. Abolishing of all indirect +taxes. Denial of all public aid to the Church. + +5. All public services to be conducted by the commune; these to be +considered as public conveniences and necessities, and not to serve a +mere pecuniary interest, but to be run as the public welfare demands. +Rational development of existing water-power, means of communication, +etc. + +6. Stipulating, in every contract for municipal work, the wages to be +paid, and other conditions of labor, such arrangements to be made with +the labor organizations; the right to organize into unions not to be +denied to laborers and municipal employees and officers. Abolishing of +strike clause in contracts for public works. Prohibition, of the +sub-contractor system. Securing wages of workmen by bonds. Forbidding +municipal officers participating in any business that will bring them +into contract relations with the municipality. + +7. Development of a public school system which shall be non-sectarian +and free to all. Restricting the number of pupils in the classes as +far as practical. Furnishing free meals and clothing to needy school +children; such service not to be counted as public charity. +Establishing continuation schools for both sexes, and schools for +backward children. Establishing of public reading-rooms and free +public libraries. + +8. The advancement of public housing plans. The purchasing of large +land areas by the municipality, to prevent speculation in building +lots. Simplification of the procedure in examination of building +plans, and the granting of building permits. Simplifying the +regulations pertaining to the building of cottages and small +residences. Municipal aid in the building of workingmen's homes. +Providing cheaper homes in municipal houses and tenements. Providing +loans of public moneys to building associations and agricultural +associations. Leasing of land by the municipality. Municipal +inspection of dwellings and of all buildings, the municipality to keep +close scrutiny on all real estate developments. Establishment of a +public bureau of homes, where information and aid can be secured, and +where proper statistics can be gathered concerning building +conditions. + +9. Providing for cheap and wholesome food through the regulation and +supervision of its importation and inspection. + +10. Extension of sanitation. Conducting hospitals according to modern +medical science. Establishing municipal lying-in hospitals. Free +burials. + +11. Public care for the poor and orphans. The bettering of the +economic condition of women. The granting of aid out of public funds. +Public inspection and control of all orphanages, hospitals for +children, and nurseries. + +12. The establishment of public labor bureaus, which are to act as +employment agencies, information bureaus, gather labor statistics, and +supervise the sociological activities of the municipality. + +Providing work for those in need of employment, on the public works of +the commune. Provision for the support of those out of work in +co-operation, with the labor unions' efforts in the same direction. +The extension of municipal factory inspection and labor laws, as far +as the general laws permit. Appointment of laborers as building +inspectors. The development of the industrial and commercial courts. +Sunday as a day of rest. + +13. Liberal wages to be paid workmen employed on public works. Fixing +a minimum wage in accordance with the rules of the labor unions; +formation of public loan and credit system; eight-hour day. Insuring +public employees against sickness, accident, and old age. Making +provision for widows and orphans of public employees. Right to +organize not to be denied all municipal employees and officials. +Recognition of the unions. Annual vacation, on full pay, to every +municipal employee and official. Municipal employees to be given their +wages during their attendance on military manoeuvers, and the payment +of the difference between their wages and their sick-benefits in case +of illness. + +14. Formation of a union of communes or towns, when isolated +municipalities find themselves impotent in securing these demands. + + +6. ELECTION ADDRESS (WAHLRUF) OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS FOR THE +REICHSTAG ELECTIONS OF 1912 + +On the 12th of January, 1912, the general election for the Reichstag +takes place. Rarely have the voters been called upon to participate in +a more consequential election. This election will determine whether, +in the succeeding years, the policy of oppression and plundering +shall be carried still farther, or whether the German people shall +finally achieve their rights. + +In the Reichstag elections of 1907 the voters were deceived by the +government and the so-called national parties: many millions of voters +allowed themselves to be deluded. The Reichstag of the "National" +_bloc_ from Heydebrand down to Weimar and Nauman has made nugatory the +laws pertaining to the rights of coalition; has restricted the use of +the non-Germanic languages in public meetings; has virtually robbed +the youth of the right of coalition, and has favored every measure for +the increase of the army, navy, and colonial exploitation. + +The result of their reactionaryism is an enormous increase of the +burdens of taxation. In spite of the fact that in 1906 over +200,000,000 marks increase was voted, in stamp tax, tobacco tax, etc., +in spite of the sacred promise of the government, through its official +organ, that no new taxes were being contemplated, the government has, +through its "financial reforms," increased our burden over five +hundred millions. + +Liberals and Conservatives were unanimous in declaring that +four-fifths of this enormous sum should be raised through an increase +in indirect taxes, the greater part of which is collected from +laborers, clerks, shopkeepers, artisans, and farmers. Inasmuch as the +parties to the Buelow-_bloc_ could not agree upon the distribution of +the property tax and the excise tax, the _bloc_ was dissolved and a +new coalition appeared--an alliance between the holy ones and the +knights (Block der Ritter und der Heiligen). This new _bloc_ rescued +the distiller from the obligations of an excise tax, defeated the +inheritance tax, which would have fallen upon the wealthy, and placed +upon the shoulders of the working people a tax of hundreds of +millions, which is paid through the consumption of beer, whiskey, +tobacco, cigars, coffee, tea--yea, even of matches. This +Conservative-Clerical _bloc_ further showed its contempt for the +working people in the way it amended the state insurance laws. It +robbed the workingman of his rights and denied to mothers and their +babes necessary protection and adequate care. + +In this manner the gullibility of the voters who were responsible for +the Hottentot elections of 1907 was revenged. Since that date every +by-election for the Reichstag, as well as for the provincial +legislatures and municipal councils, has shown remarkable gains in the +Social Democratic vote. The reactionaries were consequently +frightened, and now they resort to the usual election trick of +diverting the attention of the voters from internal affairs to +international conditions, and appeal to them under the guise of +nationalism. + +The Morocco incident gave welcome opportunity for this ruse. At home +and abroad the capitalistic war interests and the nationalistic +jingoes stirred the animosities of the peoples. They drove their +dangerous play so far that even the Chancellor found himself forced to +reprimand his _junker_ colleagues for using their patriotism for +partisan purposes. But the attempt to bolster up the interests of the +reactionary parties with our international complications continues in +spite of this. + +Voters, be on your guard! Remember that on election day you have in +your hand the power to choose between peace or war. + +The outcome of this election is no less important in its bearing upon +internal affairs. + +Count Buelow declared, before the election of 1907, "the fewer the +Social Democrats, the greater the social reforms." The opposite is +true. The last few years conclusively demonstrate this. The +socio-political mills have rattled, but they have produced very little +flour. + +In order to capture their votes for the "national" candidates, the +state employees and officials were promised an increase in their pay. +To the high-salaried officials the new Reichstag doled out the +increase with spades, to the poorly paid humble employees with spoons. +And this increase in pay was counterbalanced by an increase in taxes +and the rising cost of living. + +To the people the government refused to give any aid, in spite of +their repeated requests for some relief against the constantly +increasing prices of the necessities of life. And, while the +Chancellor profoundly maintained that the press exaggerated the actual +conditions of the rise in prices, the so-called saviors of the middle +class--the Center, the Conservatives, the anti-Semites and their +following--rejected every proposal of the Social Democrats for +relieving the situation, and actually laid the blame for the rise in +prices upon their own middle-class tradesmen and manufacturers. + +_New taxes, high cost of living, denial of justice, increasing danger +of war_--that is what the Reichstag of 1907, which was ushered in with +such high-sounding "national" tom-toms, has brought you. And the day +of reckoning is at hand. Voters of Germany, elect a different +majority! The stronger you make the Social Democratic representation +in the Reichstag, the firmer you anchor the world's peace and your +country's welfare! + +The Social Democracy seeks the conquest of political power, which is +now in the hands of the property classes, and is mis-used by them to +the detriment of the masses. They denounce us as "revolutionists." +Foolish phraseology! The bourgeois-capitalistic society is no more +eternal than have been the earlier forms of the state and preceding +social orders. The present order will be replaced by a higher order, +the Socialistic order, for which the Social Democracy is constantly +striving. Then the solidarity of all peoples will be accomplished and +life will be made more humane for all. The pathway to this new social +order is being paved by our capitalistic development, which contains +all the germs of the New Order within itself. + +For us the duty is prescribed to use every means at hand for the +amelioration of existing evils, and to create conditions that will +raise the standard of living of the masses. + +Therefore we demand: + +1. The democratizing of the state in all of its activities. An open +pathway to opportunity. A chance for every one to develop his +aptitudes. Special privileges to none. The right person in the right +place. + +2. Universal, direct, equal, secret ballot for all persons twenty +years of age without distinction of sex, and for all representative +legislative bodies. Referendum for setting aside the present unjust +election district apportionment and its attendant electoral abuses. + +3. A parliamentary government. Responsible ministry. Establishment of +a department for the control of foreign affairs. Giving the people's +representatives in the Reichstag the power to declare war or maintain +peace. Consent of the Reichstag to all state appropriations. + +4. Organization of the national defense along democratic lines. +Militia service for all able-bodied men. Reducing service in the +standing army to the lowest terms consistent with safety. Training +youth in the use of arms. Abolition of the privilege of one-year +volunteer service. Abolition of all unnecessary expense for uniforms +in army and navy. + +5. Abolition of "class-justice" and of administrative injustice. +Reform of the penal code, along lines of modern culture and +jurisprudence. Abolition of all privileges pertaining to the +administration of justice. + +6. Security to all workingmen, employees, and officials in their right +to combine, to meet, and to organize. + +7. Establishment of a national Department of Labor, officials of this +Department to be elected by the interests represented upon the basis +of universal and equal suffrage. Extension of factory inspection by +the participation of workingmen and workingwomen in the same. +Legalized universal eight-hour day, shortening the hours of labor in +industries that are detrimental to health. + +8. Reform of industrial insurance, exemption of farm laborers and +domestic servants from contributing to insurance funds. Direct +election of representatives in the administration of the insurance +funds; enlarging the representation of labor on the board of +directors; increasing the amounts paid workingmen; lowering age for +old-age pensions from 70 to 65 years; aid to expectant mothers; and +free medical attendance. + +9. Complete religious freedom. Separation of Church and State, and of +school and Church. No support of any kind, from public funds, for +religious purposes. + +10. Universal, free schools as the basis of all education. Free +text-books. Freedom for art and science. + +11. Diminution and ultimate abolition of all indirect taxes, and +abolition of all taxes on the necessities of life. Abolition of duties +on foodstuffs. Limiting the restrictions upon the importation of +cattle, fowl, and meat to the necessary sanitary measures. Reduction +in the tariff, especially in those schedules which encourage the +development of syndicates and pools, thereby enabling products of +German manufacture to be sold cheaper abroad than at home. + +12. The support of all measures that tend to develop commerce and +trade. Abolition of tax on railway tickets. A stamp tax on bills of +lading. + +13. A graduated income, property, and inheritance tax; inasmuch as +this is the most effective way of dampening the ardor of the rich for +a constantly increasing army and navy. + +14. Internal improvements and colonization; the transformation of +great estates into communal holdings, thereby making possible a +greater food supply and a corresponding lowering of prices. The +establishment of public farms and agricultural schools. The +reclamation of swamp-lands, moors, and dunes. The cessation of foreign +colonization now done for the purpose of exploiting foreign peoples +for the sake of gain. + +Voters of Germany! New naval and military appropriations await you; +these will increase the burdens of your taxes by hundreds of millions. +As on former occasions, so now the ruling class will attempt to roll +these heavy burdens upon the shoulders of the humble, and thereby +increase the burden of existence of the family. + +Therefore, let the women, upon whom the burden of the household +primarily rests, and who are to-day without political rights, take +active part in this work of emancipation and join themselves with +determination to our cause, which is also their cause. + +Voters of Germany! If you are in accord with these principles, then +give your votes on the 12th of January to the Social Democratic Party. +Help prepare the foundations for a new and better state whose motto +shall be: + +Death to Want and Idleness! Work, Bread, and Justice for all! + +Let your battle-cry on election day resound: Long live the Social +Democracy! + + EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC + REPRESENTATION IN THE REICHSTAG. + + BERLIN, December 5, 1911. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Personal tax; tax on movables; tax on land; door and window tax. + +[2] A license to trade is required for many businesses in France. + + + + +IV. BELGIUM + +POLITICAL UNIONISM IN BELGIUM + + +The Catholic Church essayed to organize in Belgium a "Christian +Socialist" movement, patterned after Bishop Kettler's movement in the +Rhine provinces. The movement was called "Federation des Societes +Ouvriers Catholiques" and grew to considerable power. The federation +soon, however, developed democratic tendencies that separated it from +the Clerical Party, and the Abbe Daens, their first deputy in the +Chamber of Representatives, provoked the hostility of the +ecclesiastical authorities and was deprived of his clerical +prerogatives. + +The Catholic labor unions, which did not join in this democratic +movement, have in the last few years developed some strength, and have +now about 20,000 members. + +The Progressists or Radicals have from the first been favorable to +labor and have in their ranks many workmen from the industries "de +luxe," such as bronze workers, jewelers, art craftsmen, etc. + +The Liberals have a trades-union organization which does not flourish. +It has about 2,000 members. The Liberals have, however, together with +the Progressists, some influence over the independent unions, with +their 32,000 members. + +The Socialist labor unions are the largest and most powerful. Their +average yearly membership in the years 1885-90 was 40,234; in 1899 it +was 61,451; in 1909 it had increased to 103,451. + + +STATISTICAL TABLES + +TABLE SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN BELGIUM + + =======+===========+============+===========+=========+ + | | | | | + | _No. of | _Sales-- | _Profits--| _No. of | + _Year_ | Societies_| Francs_ | Francs_ | Members_| + -------+-----------+------------+-----------+---------+ + 1904 | 168 | 26,936,873 | 3,140,210 | 103,349 | + 1905 | 161 | 28,174,563 | 3,035,941 | 119,581 | + 1906 | 162 | 33,569,359 | 3,493,586 | 126,993 | + 1907 | 166 | 39,103,673 | 3,843,568 | 134,694 | + 1908 | 175 | 40,655,359 | 3,855,444 | 140,730 | + 1909 | 199 | 43,288,867 | 4,678,559 | 148,042 | +---------+-----------+------------+-----------+---------+ + =======+===========+============+============ + | _No. | _Value of | _Paid-up + | of | Realty | Capital + _Year_ | Employees_| Francs_ | Francs_ + -------+-----------+------------+------------ + 1904 | 1785 | 10,302,059 | 1,146,651 + 1905 | 1752 | 12,091,300 | 1,655,061 + 1906 | 1809 | 12,844,976 | 1,694,878 + 1907 | 2093 | 14,280,955 | 1,940,175 + 1908 | 2128 | 14,837,114 | 1,942,266 + 1909 | 2223 | 15,850,158 | 1,893,616 +---------+-----------+------------+------------ + +TABLE SHOWING THE GROWTH OF THE WHOLESALE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN +BELGIUM FROM THE DATE OF ITS BEGINNING IN 1901 + + ========+===================== + | _Amount of Business + _Year_ | Done--Francs_ + --------+--------------------- + 1901 | 760,356 + 1902 | 1,211,439 + 1903 | 1,485,573 + 1904 | 1,608,475 + 1905 | 2,219,842 + 1906 | 2,416,372 + 1907 | 2,796,196 + 1908 | 2,995,615 + 1909 | 3,221,849 + 1910 | 4,489,996 + --------+--------------------- + + +PROGRAM OF THE BELGIAN LABOR PARTY + +_Adopted at Brussels in 1893_ + + +DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES + +1. The constituents of wealth in general, and in particular the means +of production, are either natural agencies or the fruit of the +labor--manual and mental--of previous generations besides the present; +consequently they must be considered the common heritage of mankind. + +2. The right of individuals or groups to enjoy this heritage can be +based only on social utility, and aimed only at securing for every +human being the greatest possible sum of freedom and well-being. + +3. The realization of this ideal is incompatible with the maintenance +of the capitalistic regime, which divides society into two necessarily +antagonistic classes--the one able to enjoy property without working, +the other obliged to relinquish a part of its product to the +possessing class. + +4. The workers can only expect their complete emancipation from the +suppression of classes and a radical transformation of existing +society. + +This transformation will be in favor, not only of the proletariat, but +of mankind as a whole; nevertheless, as it is contrary to the +immediate interests of the possessing class, the emancipation of the +workers will be essentially the work of the workers themselves. + +5. In economic matters their aim must be to secure the free use, +without charge, of all the means of production. This result can only +be attained, in a society where collective labor is more and more +replacing individual labor, by the collective appropriation of natural +agencies and the instruments of labor. + +6. The transformation of the capitalistic regime into a collectivist +regime must necessarily be accompanied by correlative transformations-- + +(_a_) In _morals_, by the development of altruistic feelings and the +practice of solidarity. + +(_b_) In _politics_, by the transformation of the State into a +business management (_administration des choses_). + +7. Socialism must, therefore, pursue simultaneously the economic, +moral, and political emancipation of the proletariat. Nevertheless, +the economic point of view must be paramount, for the concentration of +capital in the hands of a single class forms the basis of all the +other forms of its domination. + +To realize its principles the Labor Party declares-- + +(1) That it considers itself as the representative, not only of the +working-class, but of all the oppressed, without distinction of +nationality, worship, race, or sex. + +(2) That the Socialists of all countries must make common cause (_etre +solidaires_), the emancipation of the workers being not a national, +but an international work. + +(3) That in their struggle against the capitalist class the workers +must fight by every means in their power, and particularly by +political action, by the development of free associations, and by the +ceaseless propagation of Socialistic principles. + + +I.--POLITICAL PROGRAM + +1. _Electoral reform._ + +(_a_) Universal suffrage without distinction of sex for all ranks +(age-limit, twenty-one; residence, six months). + +(_b_) Proportional representation. + +(_c_) Election expenses to be charged on the public authorities. + +(_d_) Payment of elected persons. + +(_e_) Elected persons to be bound by pledges, according to law. + +(_f_) Electorates to have the right of unseating elected persons. + +2. _Decentralization of political power._ + +(_a_) Suppression of the Senate. + +(_b_) Creation of Legislative Councils, representing the different +functions of society (industry, commerce, agriculture, education, +etc.); such Councils to be autonomous, within the limits of their +competence and excepting the veto of Parliament; such Councils to be +federated, for the study and defense of their common interests. + +3. _Communal autonomy._ + +(_a_) Mayors to be appointed by the electorate. + +(_b_) Small communes to be fused or federated. + +(_c_) Creation of elected committees corresponding to the different +branches of communal administration. + +4. _Direct legislation._ + +Right of popular initiative and referendum in legislative, provincial, +and communal matters. + +5. _Reform of education._ + +(_a_) Primary, all-round, free, secular, compulsory instruction at +the expense of the State. Maintenance of children attending the +schools by the public authorities. Intermediate and higher instruction +to be free, secular, and at the expense of the State. + +(_b_) Administration of the schools by the public authorities, under +the control of School Committees elected by universal suffrage of both +sexes, with representatives of the teaching staff and the State. + +(_c_) Assimilation of communal teachers to the State's educational +officials. + +(_d_) Creation of a Superior Council of Education, elected by the +School Committees, who are to organize the inspection and control of +free schools and of official schools. + +(_e_) Organization of trade education, and obligation of all children +to learn manual work. + +(_f_) Autonomy of the State Universities, and legal recognition of the +Free Universities. University Extension to be organized at the expense +of the public authorities. + +6. _Separation of the Churches and the State._ + +(_a_) Suppression of the grant for public worship. + +(_b_) Philosophic or religious associations to be civil persons at +law. + +7. _Revision of Sections in the Civil Code concerning marriage and the +paternal authority._ + +(_a_) Civil equality of the sexes, and of children, whether natural or +legitimate. + +(_b_) Revision of the divorce laws, maintaining the husband's +liability to support the wife or the children. + +(_c_) Inquiry into paternity to be legalized. + +(_d_) Protective measures in favor of children materially or morally +abandoned. + +8. _Extension of liberties._ + +Suppression of measures restricting any of the liberties. + +9. _Judicial reform._ + +(_a_) Application of the elective principle to all jurisdictions. +Reduction of the number of magistrates. + +(_b_) Justice without fees; State-payment of advocates and officials +of the Courts. + +(_c_) Magisterial examination in penal cases to be public. Persons +prosecuted to be medically examined. Victims of judicial errors to be +indemnified. + +10. _Suppression of armies._ + +Provisionally; organization of a national militia. + +11. _Suppression of hereditary offices, and establishment of a +Republic._ + + +II.--ECONOMIC PROGRAM + + +A.--_General Measures_ + +1. _Organization of statistics._ + +(_a_) Creation of a Ministry of Labor. + +(_b_) Pecuniary aid from the public authorities for the organization +of labor secretariates by workmen and employers. + +2. _Legal recognition of associations, especially--_ + +(_a_) Legal recognition of trade-unions. + +(_b_) Reform of the law on friendly societies and co-operative +societies and subsidy from the public authorities. + +(_c_) Repression of infringements of the right of combination. + +3. _Legal regulation of the contract of employment._ + +Extension of laws protecting labor to all industries, and especially +to agriculture, shipping, and fishing. Fixing of a minimum wage and +maximum of hours of labor for workers, industrial or agricultural, +employed by the State, the Communes, the Provinces, or the contractors +for public works. + +Intervention of workers, and especially of workers' unions, in the +framing of rules. Suppression of fines. Suppression of savings-banks +and benefit clubs in workshops. Fixing of a maximum of 6,000 francs +for public servants and managers. + +4. _Transformation of public charity into a general insurance of all +citizens--_ + +(_a_) against unemployment; + +(_b_) against disablement (sickness, accident, old age); + +(_c_) against death (widows and orphans). + +5. _Reorganization of public finances._ + +(_a_) Abolition of indirect taxes, especially taxes on food and +customs tariffs. + +(_b_) Monopoly of alcohol and tobacco. + +(_c_) Progressive income-tax. Taxes on legacies and gifts between the +living (excepting gifts to works of public utility). + +(_d_) Suppression of intestate succession, except in the direct line +and within limits to be determined by law. + +6. _Progressive extension of public property._ + +The State to take over the National Bank. Social organization of +loans, at interest to cover costs only, to individuals and to +associations of workers. + +i. _Industrial property._ + + Abolition, on grounds of public utility, of private ownership + in mines, quarries, the subsoil generally, and of the great + means of production and transport. + +ii. _Agricultural property._ + + (_a_) Nationalization of forests. + + (_b_) Reconstruction or development of common lands. + + (_c_) Progressive taking over of the land by the State or the + communes. + +7. _Autonomy of public services._ + +(_a_) Administration of the public services by special autonomous +commissions, under the control of the State. + +(_b_) Creation of committees elected by the workmen and employees of +the public services to debate with the central administration the +conditions of the remuneration and organization of labor. + + +B.--_Particular Measures for Industrial Workers_ + +1. _Abolition of all laws restricting the right of combination._ + +2. _Regulation of industrial labor._ + +(_a_) Prohibition of employment of children under fourteen. + +(_b_) Half-time system between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. + +(_c_) Prohibition of employment of women in all industries where it is +incompatible with morals or health. + +(_d_) Reduction of working-day to a maximum of eight hours for adults +of both sexes, and minimum wage. + +(_e_) Prohibition of night-work for all categories of workers and in +all industries, where this mode of working is not absolutely +necessary. + +(_f_) One day's rest per week, so far as possible on Sunday. + +(_g_) Responsibility of employers in case of accidents, and +appointment of doctors to attend persons wounded. + +(_h_) Workmen's memorandum-books and certificates to be abolished, and +their use prohibited. + +3. _Inspection of work._ + +(_a_) Employment of paid medical authorities, in the interests of +labor hygiene. + +(_b_) Appointment of inspectors by the Councils of Industry and Labor. + +4. _Reorganization of the Industrial Tribunals_ (Conseils de +Prud'hommes) _and the Councils of Industry and Labor_. + +(_a_) Working women to have votes and be eligible. + +(_b_) Submission to the Courts to be compulsory. + +5. _Regulation of work in prisons and convents._ + + +C.--_Particular Measures for Agricultural Workers_ + +1. _Reorganization of the Agricultural Courts._ + +(_a_) Nomination of delegates in equal numbers by the landowners, +farmers, and laborers. + +(_b_) Intervention of the Chambers in individual or collective +disputes between landowners, farmers, and agricultural workers. + +(_c_) Fixing of a minimum wage by the public authorities on the +proposition of the Agricultural Courts. + +2. _Regulation of contracts to pay farm-rents._ + +(_a_) Fixing of the rate of farm-rents by Committees of Arbitration or +by the reformed Agricultural Courts. + +(_b_) Compensation to the outgoing farmer for enhanced value of +property. + +(_c_) Participation of landowners, to a wider extent than that fixed +by the Civil Code, in losses incurred by farmers. + +(_d_) Suppression of the landowner's privilege. + +3. _Insurance by the provinces, and reinsurance by the State, against +epizootic diseases, diseases of plants, hail, floods, and other +agricultural risks._ + +4. _Organization by the public authorities of a free agricultural +education._ + +Creation or development of experimental fields, model farms, +agricultural laboratories. + +5. _Purchase by the communes of agricultural implements to be at the +disposal of their inhabitants._ + +Assignment of common lands to groups of laborers engaging not to +employ wage labor. + +6. _Organization of a free medical service in the country._ + +7. _Reform of the Game Laws._ + +(_a_) Suppression of gun licenses. + +(_b_) Suppression of game preserves. + +(_c_) Right of cultivators to destroy all the year round animals which +injure crops. + +8. _Intervention of public authorities in the creation of agricultural +co-operative societies--_ + +(_a_) For buying seed and manure. + +(_b_) For making butter. + +(_c_) For the purchase and use in common of agricultural machines. + +(_d_) For the sale of produce. + +(_e_) For the working of land by groups. + +9. _Organization of agricultural credit._ + + +III.--COMMUNAL PROGRAM + +1. _Educational reforms._ + +(_a_) Free scientific instruction for children up to fourteen. Special +courses for older children and adults. + +(_b_) Organization of education in trades and industries, in +co-operation with workmen's organizations. + +(_c_) Maintenance of children; except where the public authorities +intervene to do so. + +(_d_) Institution of school refreshment-rooms. Periodical distribution +of boots and clothing. + +(_e_) Orphanages. Establishments for children abandoned or cruelly +ill-treated. + +2. _Judicial reforms._ + +Office for consultations free of charge in cases coming before the +law-courts, the industrial courts, etc. + +3. _Regulation of work._ + +(_a_) Minimum wage and maximum working-day to be made a clause in +contracts for communal works. + +(_b_) Intervention of trade associations in the fixing of rates of +wages, and general regulation of industry. The Echevin of Public Works +to supervise the execution of these clauses in contracts. + +(_c_) Appointment by the workmen's associations of inspectors to +supervise the clauses in contracts. + +(_d_) Rigorous application of the principle of tenders open to all, +for all services which, during a transition-period, are not managed +directly. + +(_e_) Permission to trade-unions to tender, and abolition of +security-deposit. + +(_f_) Creation of _Bourses du Travail_, or at least offices for the +demand and supply of employment, whose administration shall be +entrusted to trade-unions or labor associations. + +(_g_) Fixing of a minimum wage for the workmen and employees of a +commune. + +4. _Public charity._ + +(_a_) Admission of workmen to the administration of the councils of +hospitals and of public charity. + +(_b_) Transformation of public charity and the hospitals into a system +of insurance against old age. Organization of a medical service and +drug supply. Establishment of public free baths and wash-houses. + +(_c_) Establishment of refuges for the aged and disabled. +Night-shelter and food-distribution for workmen wandering in search of +work. + +5. _Complete neutrality of all communal services from the +philosophical point of view._ + +6. _Finance._ + +(_a_) Saving to be effected on present cost of administration. Maximum +allowance of 6,000 francs for mayors and other officials. Costs of +entertainment for mayors who must incur certain private expenses. + +(_b_) Income tax. + +(_c_) Special tax on sites not built over and houses not let. + +7. _Public services._ + +(_a_) The commune, or a federation of communes composing one +agglomeration, is to work the means of transport--tramways, omnibuses, +cabs, district railways, etc. + +(_b_) The commune, or federation of communes, is to work directly the +services of general interest at present conceded to companies--lighting, +water-supply, markets, highways, heating, security, health. + +(_c_) Compulsory insurance of the inhabitants against fire; except +where the State intervenes to do so. + +(_d_) Construction of cheap dwellings by the commune, the hospices, +and the charity offices. + + + + +V. ENGLAND + +GROWTH OF SOCIALISTIC SENTIMENT IN ENGLAND + + +In 1885 the Earl of Wemyss made a speech in the House of Lords +deploring the advancement of state interference in business and giving +a resume of the Acts of Parliament that showed how "Socialism" invaded +St. Stephens from 1870 to 1885. + +His speech is interesting, not because it voices the +ultra-Conservative's apprehensions but because the Earl had really +discovered the legal basis of the new Social Democratic advance, which +had come unheralded. The Earl reviewed the bills that Parliament had +sanctioned, which dealt with state "interference." Twelve bills +referred to lands and houses. "All of these measures assume the right +of the state to regulate the management of, or to confiscate real +property"--steps in the direction of substituting "land +nationalization" for individual ownership. Five laws dealt with +corporations, "confiscating property of water companies," etc.; nine +dealt with ships: "all of them assertions by the Board of Trade of its +right to regulate private enterprise and individual management in the +mercantile marine;" six with mines, "prompting a fallacious confidence +in government inspection;" six with railways, "all encroachments upon +self-government of private enterprise in railways--successive steps in +the direction of state railways." Nine had to do with manufactures and +trades, "invasions by the state of the self-government of the various +interests of the country, and curtailment of the freedom of contract +between employers and employed." "The Pawnbrokers' Act of 1872 was the +thin edge of the wedge for reducing the business of the 'poor man's +banks' to a state monopoly." Twenty laws dealt with liquor, "all +attempts on the part of the state to regulate the dealings and habits +of buyers and sellers of alcoholic drinks." Sixteen dealt with +dwellings of the working class, "all embodying the principle that it +is the duty of the state to provide dwellings, private gardens, and +other conveniences for the working classes, and assume its right to +appropriate land for these purposes." There were nine education acts, +"all based on the assumption that it is the duty of the state to act +_in loco parentis_." Four laws dealt with recreation, "whereby the +state, having educated the people in common school rooms, proceeds to +provide them with common reading-rooms, and afterwards turns them out +at stated times into the streets for common holidays." + +Of local government and improvement acts, there were passed "a vast +mass of local legislation ... containing interferences in every +conceivable particular with liberty and property." + +The Earl quotes Lord Palmerston as saying in 1865, "Tenant right is +landlord wrong," and Lord Sherbrooke, in 1866, "Happily there is an +oasis upon which all men, without distinction of party, can take +common stand, and that is the good ground of political economy." And +the noble lord concludes by predicting, "The general social results of +such Socialistic legislation may be summed up in 'dynamite,' +'detectives,' and 'general demoralization.'"[1] + +In 1887 the Earl again turned his guns upon the radical advance, but +only seven peers were on the benches to listen. In 1890 he made a +third resume under a more liberal patronage of listeners; this time +the factory laws and inspection measures came in for his especial +criticism. He said: "Now, my lords, what is the character of all this +legislation? It is to substitute state help for self help, to regulate +and control men in their dealings with one another with regard to land +or anything else. The state now forbids contracts, breaks contracts, +makes contracts. The whole tendency is to substitute the state or the +municipality for the free action of the individual."[2] + + +AN EARLY POLITICAL BROADSIDE BY THE MARXIANS. + +The earlier attitude of the Marxian Socialists of London toward +participating in elections is shown in the following broadside, dated +July, 1895: + +"We, revolutionary Social Democrats, disdain to conceal our +principles. We proclaim the class war. We hold that the lot of the +worker cannot to any appreciable extent be improved except by a +complete overthrow of this present capitalist system of society. The +time for social tinkering has gone past. Government statistics show +that the number of unemployed is slowly but surely increasing, and +that the decreases in wages greatly preponderate over the increases, +and everything points to the fact that the condition of your class is +getting worse and worse. + +"Refuse once for all to allow your backs to be made the stepping +stones to obtain that power which they (the politicians) know only too +well how to use against you. + +"Scoff at their patronizing airs and claim your rights like men. +Refuse to give them that which they want, i.e., your vote. Give them +no opportunity of saying that they are _your_ representatives. Refuse +to be a party to the fraud of present-day politics, and + + "ABSTAIN FROM VOTING." + + +THRIFT INSTITUTIONS IN ENGLAND FOR SAVINGS, INSURANCE, ETC., 1907 + +(FROM CHIOZZA MONEY--"RICHES AND POVERTY," p. 56) + + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + _Name of Institution_ | _Number of | _Funds_--L + | Members_ | + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Building Societies | 623,047 | 73,289,229 + ========================================+==============+============== + Ordinary Friendly Societies | 3,418,869 | 19,346,567 + Friendly Societies having branches | 2,710,437 | 25,610,365 + Collecting Friendly Societies | 9,010,574 | 9,946,447 + Benevolent Societies | 29,716 | 337,393 + Workingmen's Clubs | 272,847 | 381,463 + Specially Authorized Societies | 70,980 | 532,717 + Specially Authorized Loan Societies | 141,850 | 897,784 + Medical Societies | 313,755 | 65,513 + Cattle Insurance Settlers | 4,029 | 8,570 + Shop Clubs | 12,207 | 1,349 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Total | 15,983,264 | 57,128,168 + ========================================+==============+============== + Co-operative Societies, industry and | | + trade | 2,461,028 | 53,788,917 + Business Co-operative Societies | 108,550 | 984,680 + Land Co-operative Societies | 18,631 | 1,619,716 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Total | 2,588,209 | 56,393,313 + ========================================+==============+============== + Trade Unions | 1,973,560 | 6,424,176 + Workmen's Compensation Schemes | 99,371 | 164,560 + Friends of Labor Loan Societies | 33,576 | 260,905 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Grand Total of Registered Provident | | + Societies | 21,301,027 | 193,660,351 + ========================================+==============+============== + Railway Savings Banks | 64,126* | 5,865,351@ + Trustee Savings Banks | 1,780,214* | 61,729,588@ + Post Office Savings Banks | 10,692,555* | 178,033,974@ + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Bank Total | 12,536,895 | 245,628,634 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + Grand Total | 33,837,922 | 439,388,985 + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + | * Depositions| @ Deposits + ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- + + In this table allowance must be made for those belonging to more + than one society, and, of course, not all the depositors or + members are workingmen, especially in the savings banks and + building-societies. + + +CONSTITUTION AND STANDING ORDERS OF THE INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY OF +ENGLAND + +STANDING ORDERS (1911) + + +_Contributions_ + +Affiliation Fees and Parliamentary Fund Contributions must be paid by +December 31st each year. + + +_Annual Conference_ + +1. The Annual Conference shall meet during the month of January. + +2. Affiliated Societies may send one delegate for every thousand or +part of a thousand members paid for. + +3. Affiliated Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties may send one +delegate if their affiliation fee has been 15s., and two delegates if +the fee has been 30s. + +4. Persons eligible as delegates must be paying bona fide members or +paid permanent officials of the organizations sending them. + +5. A fee of 5s. per delegate will be charged. + +6. The National Executive will ballot for the places to be allotted to +the delegates. + +7. Voting at the Conference shall be by show of hands, but on a +division being challenged, delegates shall vote by cards, which shall +be issued on the basis of one card for each thousand members, or +fraction of a thousand, paid for by the Society represented. + + +_Conference Agenda_ + +1. Resolutions for the Agenda and Amendments to the Constitution must +be sent in by November 1st each year. + +2. Amendments to Resolutions must be sent in by December 15th each +year. + + +_Nominations for National Executive and Secretaryship_ + +1. Nominations for the National Executive and the Secretaryship must +be sent in by December 15th. + +2. No member of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union +Congress or of the Management Committee of the General Federation of +Trade Unions is eligible for nomination to the National Executive. + + +CONSTITUTION + +(As revised under the authority of the Newport Conference, 1910) + +ORGANIZATION + +I. _Affiliation._ + +1. The Labor Party is a Federation consisting of Trade Unions, Trades +Councils, Socialist Societies, and Local Labor Parties. + +2. A Local Labor Party in any constituency is eligible for +affiliation, provided it accepts the Constitution and policy of the +Party, and that there is no affiliated Trades Council covering the +constituency, or that, if there be such Council, it has been consulted +in the first instance. + +3. Co-operative Societies are also eligible. + +4. A National Organization of Women, accepting the basis of this +Constitution, and the policy of the Party, and formed for the purpose +of assisting the Party, shall be eligible for affiliation as though it +were a Trades Council. + +II. _Object._ + +To secure the election of Candidates to Parliament and organize and +maintain a Parliamentary Labor Party, with its own whips and policy. + +III. _Candidates and Members._ + +1. Candidates and Members must accept this Constitution; agree to +abide by the decisions of the Parliamentary Party in carrying out the +aims of this Constitution; appear before their constituencies under +the title of Labor Candidates only; abstain strictly from identifying +themselves with or promoting the interests of any Parliamentary Party +not affiliated, or its Candidates; and they must not oppose any +Candidate recognized by the National Executive of the Party. + +2. Candidates must undertake to join the Parliamentary Labor Party, if +elected. + +IV. _Candidatures._ + +1. A Candidate must be promoted by an affiliated Society which makes +itself responsible for his election expenses. + +2. A Candidate must be selected for a constituency by a regularly +convened Labor Party Conference in the constituency. [The Hull +Conference accepted the following as the interpretation of what a +"Regularly Convened Labor Party Conference" is:--All branches of +affiliated organizations within a constituency or divided borough +covered by a proposal to run a Labor Candidate must be invited to send +delegates to the Conference, and the local organization responsible +for calling the Conference may, if it thinks fit, invite +representatives from branches of organizations not affiliated but +eligible for affiliation.] + +3. Before a Candidate can be regarded as adopted for a constituency, +his candidature must be sanctioned by the National Executive; and +where at the time of a by-election no Candidate has been so +sanctioned, the National Executive shall have power to withhold its +sanction. + +V. _The National Executive._ + +The National Executive shall consist of fifteen members, eleven +representing the Trade Unions, one the Trades Councils, Women's +Organizations, and Local Labor Parties, and three the Socialist +Societies, and shall be elected by ballot at the Annual Conference by +their respective sections. + +VI. _Duties of the National Executive._ + +The National Executive Committee shall + +1. Appoint a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Treasurer, and shall +transact the general business of the Party; + +2. Issue a list of its Candidates from time to time, and recommend +them for the support of the electors; + +3. Report to the affiliated organization concerned any Labor Member, +Candidate, or Chief Official who opposes a Candidate of the Party, or +who acts contrary to the spirit of the Constitution; + +4. And its members shall strictly abstain from identifying themselves +with or promoting the interests of any Parliamentary Party not +affiliated, or its Candidates. + +VII. _The Secretary._ + +The Secretary shall be elected by the Annual Conference, and shall be +under the direction of the National Executive. + +VIII. _Affiliation Fees and Delegates._ + +1. Trade Unions and Socialist Societies shall pay 15s. per annum for +every thousand members or fraction thereof, and may send to the Annual +Conference one delegate for each thousand members. + +2. Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties with 5,000 members or under +shall be affiliated on an annual payment of 15s.; similar +organizations with a membership of over 5,000 shall pay L1 10s., the +former Councils to be entitled to send one delegate with one vote to +the Annual Conference, the latter to be entitled to send two delegates +and have two votes. + +3. In addition to these payments a delegate's fee to the Annual +Conference may be charged. + +IX. _Annual Conference._ + +The National Executive shall convene a Conference of its affiliated +Societies in the month of January each year. + +Notice of resolutions for the Conference and all amendments to the +Constitution shall be sent to the Secretary by November 1st, and shall +be forthwith forwarded to all affiliated organizations. + +Notice of amendments and nominations for Secretary and National +Executive shall be sent to the Secretary by December 15th, and shall +be printed on the Agenda. + +X. _Voting at Annual Conference._ + +There shall be issued to affiliated Societies represented at the +Annual Conference voting cards as follows: + +1. Trade Unions and Socialist Societies shall receive one voting card +for each thousand members, or fraction thereof paid for. + +2. Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties shall receive one card for +each delegate they are entitled to send. + +Any delegate may claim to have a vote taken by card. + +PARLIAMENTARY FUND + +I. _Object._ + +To assist in paying the election expenses of Candidates adopted in +accordance with this Constitution, in maintaining them when elected; +and to provide the salary and expenses of a National Party Agent. + +II. _Amount of Contribution._ + +1. Affiliated Societies, except Trades Councils, and Local Labor +Parties shall pay a contribution to this fund at the rate of 2d. per +member per annum, not later than the last day of each financial year. + +2. On all matters affecting the financial side of the Parliamentary +Fund only contributing Societies shall be allowed to vote at the +Annual Conference. + +III. _Trustees._ + +The National Executive of the Party shall, from its number, select +three to act as Trustees, any two of whom, with the Secretary, shall +sign checks. + +IV. _Expenditure._ + +1. _Maintenance._--All Members elected under this Constitution shall +be paid from the Fund equal sums not to exceed L200 per annum, +provided that this payment shall only be made to Members whose +Candidatures have been promoted by one or more Societies which have +contributed to this Fund; provided further that no payment from this +Fund shall be made to a Member or Candidate of any Society which has +not contributed to this Fund for one year, and that any Society over +three months in arrears shall forfeit all claim to the Fund on behalf +of its Members or Candidates, for twelve months from the date of +payment. + +2. _Returning Officers' Expenses._--Twenty-five per cent. of the +Returning Officers' net expenses shall be paid to the Candidates, +subject to the provisions of the preceding clause, so long as the +total sum so expended does not exceed twenty-five per cent. of the +Fund. + +3. _Administration._--Five per cent. of the Annual Income of the Fund +shall be transferred to the General Funds of the Party, to pay for +administrative expenses of the Fund. + + +THE INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY: CONSTITUTION AND RULES, 1910-1911 + +NAME + +_The Independent Labor Party._ + +MEMBERSHIP + +Open to all Socialists who indorse the principles and policy of the +Party, are not members of either the Liberal or Conservative Party, +and whose application for membership is accepted by a Branch. + +Any member expelled from membership of a Branch of the I.L.P. shall +not be eligible for membership of any other branch without having +first submitted his or her case for adjudication of the N.A.C. + +OBJECT + +The Object of the Party is to establish the Socialist State, when land +and capital will be held by the community and used for the well-being +of the community, and when the exchange of commodities will be +organized also by the community, so as to secure the highest possible +standard of life for the individual. In giving effect to this object +it shall work as part of the International Socialist Movement. + +METHOD + +The Party, to secure its objects, adopts-- + +1. _Educational Methods_, including the publication of Socialist +literature, the holding of meetings, etc. + +2. _Political Methods_, including the election of its members to local +and national administrative and legislative bodies. + + +PROGRAM + +The true object of industry being the production of the requirements +of life, the responsibility should rest with the community +collectively, therefore:-- + +The land being the storehouse of all the necessaries of life should be +declared and treated as public property. + +The capital necessary for the industrial operations should be owned +and used collectively. + +Work, and wealth resulting therefrom, should be equitably distributed +over the population. + +As a means to this end, we demand the enactment of the following +measures:-- + +1. A maximum of 48 hours' working week, with the retention of all +existing holidays, and Labor Day, May 1st, secured by law. + +2. The provision of work to all capable adult applicants at recognized +Trade Union rates, with a statutory minimum of 6d. per hour. + +In order to remuneratively employ the applicants, Parish, District, +Borough, and County Councils to be invested with powers to:-- + +(_a_) Organize and undertake such industries as they may consider +desirable. + +(_b_) Compulsorily acquire land; purchase, erect, or manufacture +buildings, stock, or other articles for carrying on such industries. + +(_c_) Levy rates on the rental values of the district, and borrow +money on the security of such rates for any of the above purposes. + +3. State pension for every person over 50 years of age, and adequate +provision for all widows, orphans, sick and disabled workers. + +4. Free, secular, moral, primary, secondary, and university education, +with free maintenance while at school or university. + +5. The raising of the age of child labor, with a view to its ultimate +extinction. + +6. Municipalization and public control of the Drink Traffic. + +7. Municipalization and public control of all hospitals and +infirmaries. + +8. Abolition of indirect taxation and the gradual transference of all +public burdens on to unearned incomes with a view to their ultimate +extinction. + +The Independent Labor Party is in favor of adult suffrage, with full +political rights and privileges for women, and the immediate extension +of the franchise to women on the same terms as granted to men; also +triennial Parliaments and second ballot. + + +ORGANIZATION + +I.--OFFICERS + +1. Chairman and Treasurer. + +2. A _National Administrative Council._--To be composed of fourteen +representatives, in addition to the two officers. + +3. No member shall occupy the office of Chairman of the Party for a +longer consecutive period than three years, and he shall not be +eligible for re-election for the same office for at least twelve +months after he has vacated the chair. + +4. _Election of N.A.C._--Four members of the N.A.C. shall be elected +by ballot at the Annual Conference, and ten by the votes of members in +ten divisional areas. + +5. _Duties of N.A.C._-- + +(_a_) To meet at least three times a year to transact business +relative to the Party. + +(_b_) To exercise a determining voice in the selection of +Parliamentary candidates, and, where no branch exists, to choose such +candidates when necessary. + +(_c_) To raise and disburse funds for General and By-Elections, and +for other objects of the Party. + +(_d_) To deal with such matters of local dispute between branches and +members which may be referred to its decision by the parties +interested. + +(_e_) To appoint General Secretary and Officials, and exercise a +supervising control over their work. + +(_f_) To engage organizers and lecturers when convenient, either +permanently or for varying periods, at proper wages, and to direct and +superintend their work. + +(_g_) To present to the Annual Conference a report on the previous +year's work and progress of the Party. + +(_h_) To appoint when necessary sub-committees to deal with special +branches of its work, and to appoint a committee to deal with each +Conference Agenda. Such Committee to revise and classify the +resolutions sent in by branches and to place resolutions dealing with +important matters on the Agenda. + +(_i_) It shall not initiate any new departure or policy between +Conferences without first obtaining the sanction of the majority of +the branches. + +(_k_) Matters arising between Conferences not provided for by the +Constitution, shall be dealt with by the N.A.C. + +(_l_) A full report of all the meetings of the N.A.C. as held shall be +forwarded to each branch. + +6. _Auditor._--A Chartered or Incorporated Accountant shall be +employed to audit the accounts of the Party. + +II.--BRANCHES + +1. _Branch._--An Association which indorses the objects and policy of +the Party, and affiliates in the prescribed manner. + +2. _Local Autonomy._--Subject to the general constitution of the +Party, each Branch shall be perfectly autonomous. + +III.--FINANCES + +1. Branches shall pay one penny per member per month to the N.A.C. + +2. The N.A.C. may strike off the list of branches any branch which is +more than 6 months in arrears with its payments. + +3. The N.A.C. may receive donations or subscriptions to the funds of +the Party. It shall not receive moneys which are contributed upon +terms which interfere in any way with its freedom of action as to +their disbursement. + +4. The financial year of the Party shall begin on March 1st, and end +on the last day of February next succeeding. + +IV.--ANNUAL CONFERENCE + +1. The _Annual Conference_ is the ultimate authority of the Party, to +which all final appeals shall be made. + +2. _Date._--It shall be held at Easter. + +3. _Special Conferences._--A Special Conference shall always be called +prior to a General Election, for the purpose of determining the policy +of the Party during the election. Other Special Conferences may be +called by two-thirds of the whole of the members of the N.A.C, or by +one-third of the branches of the Party. + +4. _Conference Fee._--A Conference Fee per delegate (the amount to be +fixed by the N.A.C.) shall be paid by all branches desiring +representation, on or before the last day of February in each year. + +5. No branch shall be represented which was not in existence on the +December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Annual Conference. + +6. Branches of the Party may send one delegate to Conference for each +fifty members, or part thereof. Branches may appoint one delegate to +represent their full voting strength. Should there be two or more +branches which are unable separately to send delegates to Conference, +they may jointly do so. + +7. Delegates must have been members of the branch they represent from +December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Conference. + +8. Notices respecting resolutions shall be posted to branches not +later than January 3d. Resolutions for the Agenda, and nominations for +officers and N.A.C. shall be in the hands of the General Secretary +eight weeks before the date of the Annual Conference, and issued to +the branches a fortnight later. Amendments to resolutions on the +Agenda and additional nominations may be sent to the Secretary four +weeks before Conference, and they shall be arranged on the final +Agenda, which shall be issued to branches two weeks before Conference. +A balance sheet shall be issued to branches two weeks before the +Conference, showing the receipts and expenditure of the Party for the +year, also the number of branches affiliated and the amount each +branch has paid in affiliation fees during the year. + +9. The Chairman of the Party for the preceding year shall preside over +the Conference. + +10. _Conference Officials._--The first business of the Conference +shall be the appointment of tellers. It shall next elect a Standing +Orders Committee, with power to examine the credentials of delegates, +and to deal with special business which may be delegated to it by the +Conference. + +11. In case any vacancy occurs on the N.A.C. between Conferences, the +unsuccessful candidate receiving the largest number of votes at the +preceding election shall fill the vacancy. Vacancies in the list of +officers shall be filled up by the vote of the branches. + +12. The principle of the second ballot shall be observed in all +elections. + +13. The Conference shall choose in which Divisional Area the next +Conference shall be held. + +V.--PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES + +1. The N.A.C. shall keep a list of members of the Party from which +candidates may be selected by branches. + +2. Any Branch at any time may nominate any eligible member of the +Party to be placed upon that list. + +3. The N.A.C. itself may place names on the list. + +4. No person shall be placed upon this list unless he has been a +member of the Party for at least twelve months. + +5. Branches desiring to place a candidate in their constituencies must +in the first instance communicate with the N.A.C., and have the +candidate selected at a properly convened conference of +representatives of the local branches of all societies affiliated with +the Labor Party, so that the candidate may be chosen in accordance +with the constitution of the Labor Party. The N.A.C. shall have power +to suspend this clause where local or other circumstances appear to +justify such a course. + +6. Before the N.A.C. sanctions any candidature it shall be entitled to +secure guarantees of adequate local financial support. + +7. No Branch shall take any action which affects prejudicially the +position or prospects of a Parliamentary candidate, who has received +the credentials of the Labor Party, without first laying the case +before the N.A.C. + +8. Each candidate must undertake that he will run his election in +accordance with the principles and policy of the Party, and that if +elected he will support the Party on all questions coming within the +scope of the principles of the I.L.P. + + * * * * * + +_The Constitution shall not be altered or amended except every third +year, unless upon the requisition of two-thirds of the N.A.C. or +one-third of the branches of the Party, when the proposed alterations +or amendments shall be considered at the following +Conference._--Resolution, Edinburgh, 1909. + + +BASIS OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY + +The Fabian Society consists of Socialists. + +It therefore aims at the re-organization of society by the +emancipation of land and industrial capital from individual and class +ownership, and the vesting of them in the community for the general +benefit. In this way only can the natural and acquired advantages of +the country be equitably shared by the whole people. + +The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property +in land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of +rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as +for the advantages of superior soils and sites. + +The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the +administration of such industrial capital as can conveniently be +managed socially. For, owing to the monopoly of the means of +production in the past, industrial inventions and the transformation +of surplus income into capital have mainly enriched the proprietary +class, the worker being now dependent on that class for leave to earn +a living. + +If these measures be carried out, without compensation (though not +without such relief to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to the +community), rent and interest will be added to the reward of labor, +the idle class now living on the labor of others will necessarily +disappear, and practical equality of opportunity will be maintained by +the spontaneous action of economic forces with much less interference +with personal liberty than the present system entails. + +For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the +spread of Socialist opinions, and the social and political changes +consequent thereon. It seeks to promote these by the general +dissemination of knowledge as to the relation between the individual +and society in its economic, ethical, and political aspects. + +The following questions are addressed to Parliamentary candidates by +the Fabians: + +Will you press at the first opportunity for the following reforms:-- + + +I.--_A Labor Program_ + +1. The extension of the Workmen's Compensation Act to seamen, and to +all other classes of wage earners? + +2. Compulsory arbitration, as in New Zealand, to prevent strikes and +lockouts? + +3. A statutory minimum wage, as in Victoria, especially for sweated +trades? + +4. The fixing of "an eight-hours' day" as the maximum for all public +servants; and the abolition, wherever possible, of overtime? + +5. An Eight-Hours' Bill, without an option clause, for miners; and, +for railway servants, a forty-eight-hours' week? + +6. The drastic amendment of the Factory Acts, to secure (_a_) a safe +and healthy work-place for every worker, (_b_) the prevention of +overwork for all women and young persons, (_c_) the abolition of all +wage-labor by children under 14, (_d_) compulsory technical +instruction by extension of the half-time arrangements to all workers +under 18? + +7. The direct employment of labor by all public authorities whenever +possible; and, whenever it is not possible, employment only of fair +houses, prohibition of sub-contracting, and payment of trade-union +rates of wages? + +8. The amendment of the Merchant Shipping Acts so as (_a_) to secure +healthy sleeping and living accommodation, (_b_) to protect the seaman +against withholding of his wages or return passage, (_c_) to insure +him against loss by shipwreck? + + +II.--_A Democratic Budget_ + +9. The further taxation of unearned incomes by means of a graduated +and differentiated income-tax? + +10. The abolition of all duties on tea, cocoa, coffee, currants, and +other dried fruits? + +11. An increase of the scale of graduation of the death duties, so as +to fall more heavily on large inheritances? + +12. The appropriation of the unearned increment by the taxation and +rating of ground values? + +13. The nationalization of mining rents and royalties? + +14. Transfer of the railways to the State under the Act of 1844? + + +III.--_Social Reform in Town and Country_ + +15. The extension of full powers to parish, town, and county councils +for the collective organization of the (_a_) water, (_b_) gas and +(_c_) electric lighting supplies, (_d_) hydraulic power, (_e_) +tramways and light railways, (_f_) public slaughter-houses, (_g_) +pawnshops, (_h_) sale of milk, (_i_) bread, (_j_) coal, and such other +public services as may be desired by the inhabitants? + +16. Reform of the drink traffic by (_a_) reduction of the number of +licenses to a proper ratio to the population of each locality, (_b_) +transfer to public purposes of the special value of licenses, created +by the existing monopoly, by means of high license or a license rate, +(_c_) grant of power to local authorities to carry on municipal public +houses, directly or on the Gothenburg system? + +17. Amendment of the Housing of the Working Classes Act by (_a_) +extension of period of loans to one hundred years, treatment of land +as an asset, and removal of statutory limitation of borrowing powers +for housing, (_b_) removal of restrictions on rural district councils +in adopting Part III. of the Act, (_c_) grant of power to parish +councils to adopt Part III. of the Act, (_d_) power to all local +authorities to buy land compulsorily under the allotments clauses of +the Local Government Act, 1894, or in any other effective manner? + +18. The grant of power to all local bodies to retain the free-hold of +any land that may come into their possession, without obligation to +sell, or to use for particular purposes? + +19. The relief of the existing taxpayer by (_a_) imposing, for local +purposes, a municipal death duty on local real estate, collected in +the same way as the existing death duties, (_b_) collecting rates from +the owners of empty houses and vacant land, (_c_) power to assess land +and houses at four per cent. on the capital value, (_d_) securing +special contributions by way of "betterment" from the owners of +property benefited by public improvements? + +20. The further equalization of the rates in London? + +21. The compulsory provision by every local authority of adequate +hospital accommodation for all diseases and accidents? + + +IV.--_The Children and the Poor_ + +22. The prohibition of the industrial or wage-earning employment of +children during school terms prior to the age of 14? + +23. The provision of meals, out of public funds, for necessitous +children in public elementary schools? + +24. The training of teachers under public control and free from +sectarian influences? + +25. The creation of a complete system of public secondary education +genuinely available to the children of the poor? + +26. State pensions for the support of the aged or chronically infirm? + + +V.--_Democratic Political Machinery_ + +27. An amendment of the registration laws, with the aim of giving +every adult man a vote, and no one more than one vote? + +28. A redistribution of seats in accordance with population? + +29. The grant of the franchise to women on the same terms as to men? + +30. The admission of women to seats in the House of Commons and on +borough and county councils? + +31. The second ballot at Parliamentary and other elections? + +32. The payment of all members of Parliament and of Parliamentary +election expenses, out of public funds? + +33. Triennial Parliaments? + +34. All Parliamentary elections to be held on the same day? + + +THE PROGRAM OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION, 1906 + +OBJECT + +The Socialization of the Means of Production, Distribution, and +Exchange, to be controlled by a Democratic State in the interests of +the entire community, and the complete Emancipation of Labor from the +Domination of Capitalism and Landlordism, with the establishment of +Social and Economic Equality between the Sexes. + +The economic development of modern society is characterized by the +more or less complete domination of the capitalistic mode of +production over all branches of human labor. + +The capitalistic mode of production, because it has the creation of +profit for its sole object, therefore favors the larger capital, and +is based upon the divorcement of the majority of the people from the +instruments of production and the concentration of these instruments +in the hands of a minority. Society is thus divided into two opposite +classes: one, the capitalists and their sleeping partners, the +landlords and loanmongers, holding in their hands the means of +production, distribution, and exchange, and being, therefore, able to +command the labor of others; the other, the working-class, the +wage-earners, the proletariat, possessing nothing but their +labor-power, and being consequently forced by necessity to work for +the former. + +The social division thus produced becomes wider and deeper with every +new advance in the application of labor-saving machinery. It is most +clearly recognizable, however, in the times of industrial and +commercial crises, when, in consequence of the present chaotic +conditions of carrying on national and international industry, +production periodically comes to a standstill, and a number of the few +remaining independent producers are thrown into the ranks of the +proletariat. Thus, while on one hand there is incessantly going on an +accumulation of capital, wealth, and power into a steadily diminishing +number of hands, there is, on the other hand, a constantly growing +insecurity of livelihood for the mass of wage-earners, an increasing +disparity between human wants and the opportunity of acquiring the +means for their satisfaction, and a steady physical and mental +deterioration among the more poverty-stricken of the population. + +But the more this social division widens, the stronger grows the +revolt--more conscious abroad than here--of the proletariat against +the capitalist system of society in which this division and all that +accompanies it have originated, and find such fruitful soil. The +capitalist mode of production, by massing the workers in large +factories, and creating an interdependence, not only between various +trades and branches of industries, but even national industries, +prepares the ground and furnishes material for a universal class war. +That class war may at first--as in this country--be directed against +the abuses of the system, and not against the system itself; but +sooner or later the workers must come to recognize that nothing short +of the expropriation of the capitalist class, the ownership by the +community of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, can +put an end to their abject economic condition; and then the class war +will become conscious instead of unconscious on the part of the +working-classes, and they will have for their ultimate object the +overthrow of the capitalist system. At the same time, since the +capitalist class holds and uses the power of the State to safeguard +its position and beat off any attack, the class war must assume a +political character, and become a struggle on the part of the workers +for the possession of the political machinery. + +It is this struggle for the conquest of the political power of the +State, in order to effect a social transformation, which International +Social Democracy carries on in the name and on behalf of the +working-class. Social Democracy, therefore, is the only possible +political party of the proletariat. The Social Democratic Federation +is a part of this International Social Democracy. It, therefore, takes +its stand on the above principles, and believes-- + +1. That the emancipation of the working-class can only be achieved +through the socialization of the means of production, distribution, +and exchange, and their subsequent control by the organized community +in the interests of the whole people. + +2. That, as the proletariat is the last class to achieve freedom, its +emancipation will mean the emancipation of the whole of mankind, +without distinction of race, nationality, creed, or sex. + +3. That this emancipation can only be the work of the working-class +itself, organized nationally and internationally into a distinct +political party, consciously striving after the realization of its +ideals; and, finally, + +4. That, in order to insure greater material and moral facilities for +the working-class to organize itself and to carry on the class war, +the following reforms must immediately be carried through:-- + + +IMMEDIATE REFORMS + +_Political_ + +Abolition of the Monarchy. + +Democratization of the Governmental machinery, viz., abolition of the +House of Lords, payment of members of legislative and administrative +bodies, payment of official expenses of elections out of the public +funds, adult suffrage, proportional representation, triennial +parliaments, second ballot, initiative and referendum. Foreigners to +be granted rights of citizenship after two years' residence in the +country, without any fees. Canvassing to be made illegal. All +elections to take place on one day, such day to be made a legal +holiday, and all premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating +liquors to be closed. + +Legislation by the people in such wise that no legislative proposal +shall become law until ratified by the majority of the people. + +Legislative and administrative independence for all parts of the +Empire. + +_Financial and Fiscal_ + +Repudiation of the National Debt. + +Abolition of all indirect taxation and the institution of a cumulative +tax on all incomes and inheritance exceeding L300. + +_Administrative_ + +Extension of the principle of local self-government. + +Systematization and co-ordination of the local administrative bodies. + +Election of all administrators and administrative bodies by equal +direct adult suffrage. + +_Educational_ + +Elementary education to be free, secular, industrial, and compulsory +for all classes. The age of obligatory school attendance to be raised +to 16. + +Unification and systematization of intermediate and higher education, +both general and technical, and all such education to be free. + +State maintenance for all attending State schools. + +Abolition of school rates; the cost of education in all State schools +to be borne by the National Exchequer. + +_Public Monopolies and Services_ + +Nationalization of the land and the organization of labor in +agriculture and industry under public ownership and control on +co-operative principles. + +Nationalization of the trusts. + +Nationalization of railways, docks, and canals, and all great means of +transit. + +Public ownership and control of gas, electric light, and water +supplies, as well as of tramway, omnibus, and other locomotive +services. + +Public ownership and control of the food and coal supply. + +The establishment of State and municipal banks and pawnshops and +public restaurants. + +Public ownership and control of the lifeboat service. + +Public ownership and control of hospitals, dispensaries, cemeteries, +and crematoria. + +Public ownership and control of the drink traffic. + +_Labor_ + +A legislative eight-hour working-day, or 48 hours per week, to be the +maximum for all trades and industries. Imprisonment to be indicted on +employers for any infringement of the law. + +Absolute freedom of combination for all workers, with legal guarantee +against any action, private or public, which tends to curtail or +infringe it. + +No child to be employed in any trade or occupation until 16 years of +age, and imprisonment to be inflicted on employers, parents, and +guardians who infringe this law. + +Public provision of useful work at not less than trade-union rates of +wages for the unemployed. + +Free State insurance against sickness and accident, and free and +adequate State pensions or provision for aged and disabled workers. +Public assistance not to entail any forfeiture of political rights. + +The legislative enactment of a minimum wage of 30s. for all workers. +Equal pay for both sexes for the performance of equal work. + +_Social_ + +Abolition of the present workhouse system, and reformed administration +of the Poor Law on a basis of national co-operation. + +Compulsory construction by public bodies of healthy dwellings for the +people; such dwellings to be let at rents to cover the cost of +construction and maintenance alone, and not to cover the cost of the +land. + +The administration of justice and legal advice to be free to all; +justice to be administered by judges chosen by the people; appeal in +criminal cases; compensation for those innocently accused, condemned, +and imprisoned; abolition of imprisonment for contempt of court in +relation to non-payment of debt in the case of workers earning less +than L2 per week; abolition of capital punishment. + +_Miscellaneous_ + +The disestablishment and disendowment of all State churches. + +The abolition of standing armies, and the establishment of national +citizen forces. The people to decide on peace and war. + +The establishment of international courts of arbitration. + +The abolition of courts-martial; all offenses against discipline to be +transferred to the jurisdiction of civil courts. + + +THE LABOR PARTY: SESSION OF PARLIAMENT, 1911-1912 + +[At the beginning of every session of Parliament, the Labor Party +members agree on a program of procedure to which they adhere for that +session. They stick to the bills, in the order chosen, until they are +either passed or defeated. The following is the list for 1911.] + +Bills to be balloted for in order named: + + 1. Trade Union Amendment Bill. + 2. Unemployed Workmen Bill. + 3. Education (Administrative Provisions) Bill. + 4. Electoral Reform Bill. + 5. Eight-Hour Day Bill. + 6. Bill to Provide against Eviction of Workmen during Trade + Disputes. + 7. Railway Nationalization Bill. + +Motions to be balloted for in order named: + + 1. Militarism and Foreign Policy: (on lines of Resolution passed + by the Special Conference at Leicester). + 2. Defect in Sheriffs' Courts Bill (Scotland) relating to power of + Eviction during Trade Disputes. + 3. General 30s. Minimum Wage. + + Other Motions from which selection may be made after the three + foregoing subjects have been dealt with: + + Saturday to Monday Stop. + Eviction of Workmen during Trade Disputes. + Extension of Particulars Clause to Docks, etc. + Nationalization of Hospitals. + Adult Suffrage. + Commission of Inquiry into Older Universities. + Workmen's Compensation Amendment. + Atmosphere and Dust in Textile Factories. + System of Fines in Textile and Other Trades. + Inclusion of Clerks in Factory Acts. + Eight-Hour Day. + Electoral Reform. + Inquiry into Industrial Assurance. + Poor Law Reform. + Truck. + Railway and Mining Accidents. + Labor Exchanges Administration. + Labor Ministry. + Veto Conference. + Day Training Classes. + School Clinics. + Indian Factory Laws. + Hours in Bakehouses. + House-letting in Scotland. + + +FABIAN ELECTION ADDRESS + +[The following is an election broadside issued for the municipal +election of London, soon after the establishment of municipal home +rule for the metropolis, by the organization of the London County +Council. It discloses the practical nature of the earlier Fabian +political activities.] + + COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTION: ADDRESS OF MR. SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B. + (LONDON UNIVERSITY), (PROGRESSIVE AND LABOR CANDIDATE) + + Central Committee Rooms, + 484, New Cross Road, S.E. + +ELECTORS OF DEPTFORD, + +On the nomination of a Joint Committee of Delegates of the Liberal and +Radical Association, the Women's Liberal Association, the Working +Men's Clubs, and leading Trade Unionists and Social Reformers in +Deptford, I come forward as a Candidate for the County Council +Election. I shall seek to lift the contest above any narrow partisan +lines, and I ask for the support of all who are interested in the +well-being of the people. + +_The Point at Issue_ + +For much is at stake for London at this Election. Notwithstanding the +creation of the County Council, the ratepayers of the Metropolis are +still deprived of the ordinary powers of municipal self-government. +They have to bear needlessly heavy burdens for a very defective +management of their public affairs. The result is seen in the poverty, +the misery, and the intemperance that disgrace our city. A really +Progressive County Council can do much (as the present Council has +shown), both immediately to benefit the people of London, and also to +win for them genuine self-government. Do you wish your County Council +to attempt nothing more for London than the old Metropolitan Board of +Works? This is, in effect, the Reactionary, or so-called "Moderate," +program. Or shall we make our County Council a mighty instrument of +the people's will for the social regeneration of this great city, and +the "Government of London by London for London?" That is what I stand +for. + +_Relief of the Taxpayer_ + +But the crushing burden of the occupier's rates must be reduced, not +increased. Even with the strictest economy the administration of a +growing city must be a heavy burden. The County Council should have +power to tax the ground landlord, who now pays no rates at all +directly. Moreover, the rates must be equalized throughout London. Why +should the Deptford ratepayer have to pay nearly two shillings in the +pound more than the inhabitant of St. George's, Hanover Square? And we +must get at the unearned increment for the benefit of the people of +London, who create it. + +_A Labor Program_ + +I am in favor of Trade Union wages and an eight-hours day for all +persons employed by the Council. I am dead against sub-contracting, +and would like to see the Council itself the direct employer of all +labor. + +_Municipalization_ + +At present London pays an utterly unnecessary annual tribute, because, +unlike other towns, it leaves its water supply, its gas-works, its +tramways, its markets, and its docks in the hands of private +speculators. I am in favor of replacing private by Democratic public +ownership and management, as soon and as far as safely possible. It is +especially urgent to secure public control of the water supply, the +tramways, and the docks. Moreover, London ought to manage its own +police, and all its open spaces. + +_The Condition of the Poor_ + +But the main object of all our endeavors must be to raise the standard +of life of our poorer fellow-citizens, now crushed by the competitive +struggle. As one of the most urgent social reforms, especially in the +interests of Temperance, I urge the better housing of the people; the +provision, by the Council itself, of improved dwellings and common +lodging-houses of the best possible types, and a strict enforcement of +the sanitary laws against the owners of slum property. + +_Local Questions_ + +I believe in local attention to local grievances, and I should deem it +my duty, if elected, to look closely after Deptford interests, +especially with regard to the need for more open spaces, and the early +completion of the new Thames tunnel. + +A more detailed account of my views may be found in my book, "The +London Programme," and other writings. I am a Londoner born and bred, +and have made London questions the chief study of my life. I have had +thirteen years' administrative experience in a Government office, a +position which I have resigned in order to give my whole time to +London's service. With regard to my general opinions, it will be +enough to say that I have long been an active member of the Fabian +Society, and of the Executive Committee of the London Liberal and +Radical Union. + + SIDNEY WEBB. + + 4, Park Village East, Regent's Park, N.W. + +The following meetings have already been arranged. Others will be +announced shortly. + + February 11.--Lecture Hall, High Street, at 8 P.M. + February 25.--Lecture Hall High Street, at 8 P.M. + March 3.--New Cross Hall, Lewisham High Road, at 8 P.M. + + +FABIAN ELECTION DODGER + +[The Fabians and other Socialists broke into London municipal politics +under the name "Progressives." The following is one of their earliest +election dodgers.] + +COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTION + +_Saturday, March 5, 1892_ + +Part of the + +PROGRAM OF THE PROGRESSIVES + +_Rates._--Reduce the Occupiers' Rates one-half, by charging that +portion upon the great Landlords, whose ground values are increased by +every improvement, and are now untaxed; and by a Municipal Death Duty. + +_Gas and Water._--Reduce the cost and improve the quality and quantity +by new sources of supply, if the present Companies will not come to +terms favorable to the Taxpayer. + +_City Companies._--Apply their whole Income of, say L500,000 (on leave +obtained from the new Parliament), for the benefit of London. The +Royal Commission of 1884 stated that this income is virtually Public +Property. About L300,000 is now squandered each year among the members +and their friends. + +_Homes for the Poor._--The Poor can all be comfortably housed, as in +the Municipal Dwellings of Glasgow and Liverpool, without extra cost +to the Taxpayer, and the "Doss-houses" abolished. + +_Cheap Food._--By doing away with the Market Monopolies of the City +Corporation and other private owners, Food can be lowered in price. +Good food, especially fish, is now often destroyed or sold for manure +to keep up the price. + +_Poor Man's Vote._--One-third of your Votes are lost. The Registration +Laws must be thoroughly altered. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Debates, House of Lords, July, 31, 1885. The speech was privately +printed. + +[2] Debates, May 19, 1890. This speech was also given private +circulation. + + + + +VI. GENERAL + + +1. ORIGIN OF THE WORD "COLLECTIVISM" + +"This word, invented by Colins, came into common use toward the end of +the Empire. Bakunin used it in the congress at Berne in 1868, to +oppose it to the communistic regime of Cabet. An economist in 1869 +designated, under this name, the system under which production will be +confined to communes or parishes. The Socialists who opposed +authority, disciples of Bakunin, used the word for a long time to +designate their doctrine. The section of Locle was one of the first to +employ it. But by and by, about 1878, the Marxists, partisans of the +proletarian reign, used the word 'collectivism' to distinguish their +'scientific Socialism,' of which term they were fond, from the +communistic utopias of the older school, which they discovered. And +they gave to Bakunins the name Anarchists. These accepted the name, +taking care to write it with a hyphen, _an-archie_, as their master +Proudhon had done. They soon dropped the hyphen and accepted the word +anarchy as a declaration of war against all things as they are."[1] + + +2. TABLE SHOWING RESULTS OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS + +(COMPILED FROM REPORT OF SECRETARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL, 1910) + + ====================+===========+===========+===========+============== + | _No. | _Total No.|_No. Seats |_Per cent. of + _Country_ | Socialist | Seats in |Held by |Socialists + | Votes_ |Parliament_|Socialists_| Seats_ + --------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------- + Great Britain (1910)| 505,690 | 670 | 40 | 5.97 + Germany (1912) | 4,250,000 | 397 | 110 | 38.81 + Luxemburg (1909) | | 48 | 10 | 20.8 + Austria (1907) | 1,041,948 | 516 | 88 | 17.06 + France (1910) | 1,106,047 | 584 | 76 | 13.01 + Italy (1909) | 338,885 | 508 | 42 | 8.26 + Spain (1910) | 40,000 | 404 | 1 | 0.25 + Russia | | 442 | 17 | 3.82 + Finland (1910) | 316,951 | 200 | 86 | 43.00 + Norway (1907) | 90,000 | 123 | 11 | 8.94 + Sweden (1909) | 75,000 | 165 | 36 | 21.81 + Denmark (1910) | 98,721 | 114 | 24 | 21.06 + Holland (1909) | 82,494 | 100 | 7 | 7.00 + Belgium (1910) | 483,241 | 166 | 35 | 21.08 + Switzerland (1908) | 100,000 | 170 | 7 | 4.11 + Turkey (1908) | | 196 | 6 | 3.06 + Servia (1908) | 3,056 | 160 | 1 | 0.62 + U.S.A. (1910) | | | 1 | + --------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------- + +IN 1910 THE SOCIALISTS HELD THE FOLLOWING NUMBER OF LOCAL OFFICERS, +ACCORDING TO THE REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY + + ============================+============================ + Great Britain 1126 | Finland 351 + Germany 7729 | Norway 873 + Austria-Bohemia 2896 | Sweden 125 + Hungary 96 | Denmark 1000 + France 3800 | Belgium 850 + Bulgaria 7 | Servia 22 + ----------------------------+---------------------------- + + +3. TABLE SHOWING THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY, IN VARIOUS +COUNTRIES + +(COMPILED FROM REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL, 1909-10) + + =========================+===================+=================== + | 1907 | 1908 + -------------------------+-------+-----------+-------+----------- + |_Local | |_Local | + _Country_ |Groups_| _Members_ |Groups_| _Members_ + -------------------------+-------+-----------+-------+----------- + Great Britain, L.P. | 275 | 1,072,412 | 307 | 1,152,786 + | | | | + Great Britain, J.L.P. | 600 | 35,000 | 765 | 50,000 + Great Britain, S.D.F. | 202 | 14,500 | 250 | 16,000 + Great Britain, Fabians | 10 | 1,207 | 27 | 2,015 + Germany | 2704 | 530,466 | 3120 | 587,336 + | | (10,943)| | (29,458) + Austria | | | | + Bohemia | | | | + | | | | + Hungary | | 130,000 | | 102,054 + France | | 48,237 | | 49,328 + Italy | | | | 43,000 + Russia* | 8 | 16,000 | 8 | 5,000 + Spain | | | | + Poland-Prussian | | | 10 | 400 + Poland-Russian | | 22,700 | | + Finland | 1156 | 80,328 | 1127 | 71,266 + | | (18,873)| | (16,826) + Norway | 499 | 23,000 | 602 | 27,500 + | | (1,800)| | (2,000) + Sweden | | | 296 | 112,693 + Denmark | | | | + Holland | 167 | 7,471 | 176 | 8,411 + Belgium | 803 | 161,239 | | 183,997 + Switzerland | | | | + Servia | | 615 | | + Bulgaria | 71 | 2,658 | 80 | 2,886 + U.S.A. | 1900 | 26,784 | | + -------------------------+-------+-----------+-------+----------- + =========================+==================== + | 1909 + -------------------------+-------+------------ + |_Local | + _Country_ |Groups_| _Members_ + -------------------------+-------+------------ + Great Britain, L.P. | 318 | 1,481,368 + | | (4,000) + Great Britain, J.L.P. | 900 | 60,000 + Great Britain, S.D.F. | | 17,000 + Great Britain, Fabians | 39 | 2,462 + Germany | 3281 | 633,309 + | | (62,259) + Austria | | 126,000 + Bohemia | 2462 | 156,000 + | | (6,000) + Hungary | 769 | 85,266 + France | 2500 | 51,692 + Italy | | 30,000 + Russia* | 8 | 3,000 + Spain | | + Poland-Prussian | 40 | 1,500 + Poland-Russian | | 3,500 + Finland | | + | | + Norway | 637 | 26,500 + | | (2,500) + Sweden | 338 | 60,183 + Denmark | 360 | 47,000 + Holland | 211 | 9,289 + Belgium | 906 | 185,318 + Switzerland | 23 | 21,132 + Servia | | 1,950 + Bulgaria | 109 | 4,287 + U.S.A. | 3200 | 53,375 + -------------------------+-------+----------- + + * Province of Lettland. + + Figures in parenthesis indicate number of women members. + + +4. AMERICAN SOCIALIST PARTY PLATFORM + +[Adopted by National Convention May, 1908, and by Membership +Referendum August 8th, 1908. Amended by Referendum September 7th, +1909.] + + +PRINCIPLES + +Human life depends upon food, clothing, and shelter. Only with these +assured are freedom, culture, and higher human development possible. +To produce food, clothing, or shelter, land and machinery are needed. +Land alone does not satisfy human needs. Human labor creates machinery +and applies it to the land for the production of raw materials and +food. Whoever has control of land and machinery controls human labor, +and with it human life and liberty. + +To-day the machinery and the land used for industrial purposes are +owned by a rapidly decreasing minority. So long as machinery is simple +and easily handled by one man, its owner cannot dominate the sources +of life of others. But when machinery becomes more complex and +expensive, and requires for its effective operation the organized +effort of many workers, its influence reaches over wide circles of +life. The owners of such machinery become the dominant class. + +In proportion as the number of such machine owners compared to all +other classes decreases, their power in the nation and in the world +increases. They bring ever larger masses of working people under their +control, reducing them to the point where muscle and brain are their +only productive property. Millions of formerly self-employing workers +thus become the helpless wage slaves of the industrial masters. + +As the economic power of the ruling class grows it becomes less useful +in the life of the nation. All the useful work of the nation falls +upon the shoulders of the class whose only property is its manual and +mental labor power--the wage worker--or of the class who have but +little land and little effective machinery outside of their labor +power--the small traders and small farmers. The ruling minority is +steadily becoming useless and parasitic. + +A bitter struggle over the division of the products of labor is waged +between the exploiting propertied classes on the one hand and the +exploited propertyless class on the other. In this struggle the +wage-working class cannot expect adequate relief from any reform of +the present order at the hands of the dominant class. + +The wage workers are therefore the most determined and irreconcilable +antagonists of the ruling class. They suffer most from the curse of +class rule. The fact that a few capitalists are permitted to control +all the country's industrial resources and social tools for their +individual profit, and to make the production of the necessaries of +life the object of competitive private enterprise and speculation is +at the bottom of all the social evils of our time. + +In spite of the organization of trusts, pools, and combinations, the +capitalists are powerless to regulate production for social ends. +Industries are largely conducted in a planless manner. Through periods +of feverish activity the strength and health of the workers are +mercilessly used up, and during periods of enforced idleness the +workers are frequently reduced to starvation. + +The climaxes of this system of production are the regularly recurring +industrial depressions and crises which paralyze the nation every +fifteen or twenty years. + +The capitalist class, in its mad race for profits, is bound to exploit +the workers to the very limit of their endurance and to sacrifice +their physical, moral, and mental welfare to its own insatiable greed. +Capitalism keeps the masses of workingmen in poverty, destitution, +physical exhaustion, and ignorance. It drags their wives from their +homes to the mill and factory. It snatches their children from the +playgrounds and schools and grinds their slender bodies and unformed +minds into cold dollars. It disfigures, maims, and kills hundreds of +thousands of workingmen annually in mines, on railroads, and in +factories. It drives millions of workers into the ranks of the +unemployed and forces large numbers of them into beggary, vagrancy, +and all forms of crime and vice. + +To maintain their rule over their fellow-men, the capitalists must +keep in their pay all organs of the public powers, public mind, and +public conscience. They control the dominant parties and, through +them, the elected public officials. They select the executives, bribe +the legislatures, and corrupt the courts of justice. They own and +censor the press. They dominate the educational institutions. They own +the nation politically and intellectually just as they own it +industrially. + +The struggle between wage workers and capitalists grows ever fiercer, +and has now become the only vital issue before the American people. +The wage-working class, therefore, has the most direct interest in +abolishing the capitalist system. But in abolishing the present +system, the workingmen will free not only their own class, but also +all other classes of modern society. The small farmer, who is to-day +exploited by large capital more indirectly but not less effectively +than is the wage laborer; the small manufacturer and trader, who is +engaged in a desperate and losing struggle for economic independence +in the face of the all-conquering power of concentrated capital; and +even the capitalist himself, who is the slave of his wealth rather +than its master. The struggle of the working class against the +capitalist class, while it is a class struggle, is thus at the same +time a struggle for the abolition of all classes and class privileges. + +The private ownership of the land and means of production used for +exploitation, is the rock upon which class rule is built; political +government is its indispensable instrument. The wage-workers cannot be +freed from exploitation without conquering the political power and +substituting collective for private ownership of the land and means of +production used for exploitation. + +The basis for such transformation is rapidly developing within present +capitalist society. The factory system, with its complex machinery and +minute division of labor, is rapidly destroying all vestiges of +individual production in manufacture. Modern production is already +very largely a collective and social process. The great trusts and +monopolies which have sprung up in recent years have organized the +work and management of the principal industries on a national scale, +and have fitted them for collective use and operation. + +There can be no absolute private title to land. All private titles, +whether called fee simple or otherwise, are and must be subordinate to +the public title. The Socialist Party strives to prevent land from +being used for the purpose of exploitation and speculation. It demands +the collective possession, control, or management of land to whatever +extent may be necessary to attain that end. It is not opposed to the +occupation and possession of land by those using it in a useful and +bona fide manner without exploitation. + +The Socialist Party is primarily an economic and political movement. +It is not concerned with matters of religious belief. + +In the struggle for freedom the interests of all modern workers are +identical. The struggle is not only national but international. It +embraces the world and will be carried to ultimate victory by the +united workers of the world. + +To unite the workers of the nation and their allies and sympathizers +of all other classes to this end, is the mission of the Socialist +Party. In this battle for freedom the Socialist Party does not strive +to substitute working class rule for capitalist class rule, but by +working class victory, to free all humanity from class rule and to +realize the international brotherhood of man. + + +PROGRAM + +As measures calculated to strengthen the working class in its fight +for the realization of this ultimate aim, and to increase its power of +resistance against capitalist oppression, we advocate and pledge +ourselves and our elected officers to the following program: + +_General Demands_ + +1. The immediate government relief for the unemployed workers by +building schools, by reforesting of cut-over and waste lands, by +reclamation of arid tracts, and the building of canals, and by +extending all other useful public works. All persons employed on such +works shall be employed directly by the government under an eight-hour +work-day and at the prevailing union wages. The government shall also +loan money to states and municipalities without interest for the +purpose of carrying on public works. It shall contribute to the funds +of labor organizations for the purpose of assisting their unemployed +members, and shall take such other measures within its power as will +lessen the widespread misery of the workers caused by the misrule of +the capitalist class. + +2. The collective ownership of railroads, telegraphs, telephones, +steamboat lines, and all other means of social transportation and +communication. + +3. The collective ownership of all industries which are organized on a +national scale and in which competition has virtually ceased to exist. + +4. The extension of the public domain to include mines, quarries, oil +wells, forests, and water power. + +5. The scientific reforestation of timber lands, and the reclamation +of swamp lands. The land so reforested or reclaimed to be permanently +retained as a part of the public domain. + +6. The absolute freedom of press, speech, and assemblage. + +_Industrial Demands_ + +7. The improvement of the industrial condition of the workers. + +(_a_) By shortening the workday in keeping with the increased +productiveness of machinery. + +(_b_) By securing to every worker a rest period of not less than a day +and a half in each week. + +(_c_) By securing a more effective inspection of workshops and +factories. + +(_d_) By forbidding the employment of children under sixteen years of +age. + +(_e_) By forbidding the interstate transportation of the products of +child labor, of convict labor, and of all uninspected factories. + +(_f_) By abolishing official charity and substituting in its place +compulsory insurance against unemployment, illness, accidents, +invalidism, old age, and death. + +_Political Demands_ + +8. The extension of inheritance taxes, graduated in proportion to the +amount of the bequests and to the nearness of kin. + +9. A graduated income tax. + +10. Unrestricted and equal suffrage for men and women, and we pledge +ourselves to engage in an active campaign in that direction. + +11. The initiative and referendum, proportional representation, and +the right of recall. + +12. The abolition of the senate. + +13. The abolition of the power usurped by the supreme court of the +United States to pass upon the constitutionality of legislation +enacted by Congress. National laws to be repealed or abrogated only +by act of Congress or by a referendum of the whole people. + +14. That the Constitution be made amendable by majority vote. + +15. The enactment of further measures for general education and for +the conservation of health. The bureau of education to be made a +department. The creation of a department of public health. + +16. The separation of the present bureau of labor from the department +of commerce and labor, and the establishment of a department of labor. + +17. That all judges be elected by the people for short terms, and that +the power to issue injunctions shall be curbed by immediate +legislation. + +18. The free administration of justice. + +Such measures of relief as we may be able to force from capitalism are +but a preparation of the workers to seize the whole power of +government, in order that they may thereby lay hold of the whole +system of industry and thus come to their rightful inheritance. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] GEORGES WEIL, _Histoire du Mouvement Social en France_, p. 208. + + + + +INDEX + + +Allemane, 77 + +American Socialist Party platform, 341 + +Amsterdam Congress, 228 + +Anarchy, 29, 65, 127 + +Anselee, 122 + +Anti-militarism, in France, 110-112; + in Belgium, 129; + in Germany, 201-202 + +Anti-Socialist Law (German), 160-167 + +Asquith, Premier, and the Parliament Bill, 238-240 + +Austria, revolution in, 47 + + +Bakunin, 65, 71 + +Barthou, on French post-office strike, 97; + on railway strike, 101 + +Bebel, August, 155, 158; + on Anti-Socialist Law, 161, 162, 163, 165, 166; + arrest of, 167; + candidate for President of Reichstag, 190; + on defeat of Socialism, 1907, 194; + on inheritance tax, 188; + as a party leader, 264; + on new Alsatian Constitution, 198; + on militarism, 202-203; + on participation in legislation, 188, 189; + on party discipline, 177, 193, 195, 196; + on Socialism in United States, 268 + +Belgium, 118-145; + government of, 121-122; + co-operative movement in, 140-145; + agrarian movement in, 142; + nature of Belgian Socialism, 143-144; + labor organizations in, 122-125; + Labor Party in Parliament, 133-135; + political parties in, 121; + poverty and illiteracy in, 118-120, 125, 128 + +Bernstein, Ed., 192 + +Bibliography, 273-279 + +Bismarck and Lassalle, 154; + and Reichstag suffrage, 158; + and repression of Socialism, 159-161; + Anti-Socialist Law, 160-168; + and State Insurance, 168-169 + +Blanc, Louis, 13, 26-28, 62; + Lassalle adopts plan of, 152 + +Bourgeoisie, defined, 2 + +Bourse du Travail, 77, 80; + federation of, 77; + organization of, 105-106 + +Brentano, Prof., on Socialism in U.S., 269 + +Briand, Aristide, 78, 81, 91, 97; + became Prime Minister, 97; + program of legislation, 98; + and the railway strike, 99-104 + +Brousse, 76, 105 + +Brussels, city of refuge, 122; + demonstrations in, 127, 128, 139-140; + Maison du Peuple of, 144 + +Burns, John, 215; + in cabinet, 228, 234; + on right to work, 244; + on Socialism in U.S., 268 + + +Cabet, 23 + +Carlyle, on Chartist movement, 52 + +"C.G.T." _See_ Syndicalists and Syndicalism + +Chartist movement, 51-54, 208 + +Christian Socialism, 9, 221-222 + +Christian Social Union, 221 + +Church Socialist League, 222 + +Class basis of Socialism, 1-6, 15, 35. + _See also_ Marx + +Class interests, illusion of, 253-254 + +Class War, Guesdists on the, 85 + +Class War and Syndicalists, 106-107 + +Clemenceau, debate with Jaures, 92, 94; + on post-office strike, 96-97 + +Clerical Party in Belgium, 129, 134, 135, 136, 308; + in Germany, 200. + _See also_ political parties + +Colin, co-operative movement started by, 122 + +"Collectivism," origin of word, 339 + +Communal Program of Bavarian Socialists, 301; + of Belgian Socialists, 314 + +Communist League, the, 56 + +Communist Manifesto, 13, 56-61 + +Compere-Morel, 115-116 + +Competition and the Socialist theory, 11, 35 + +Co-operation, 11; + in Belgium, _see_ Belgium; + in England, 217-218; + _see also_ England; + statistics of, 308, 309 + + +Davidson, Thomas, 220 + +Democracy and Socialism, 42, 43; + spread of, by Socialists, 257 + +Democratic revolutions, 26-55; + in Germany, 146-148 + +Dennis, Prof. Hector, 142 + +Development Act (Eng.), 233 + +Dicey, Prof., on the Liberal and Socialist parties, 230 + +Dockers' strike, 215 + +Dreyfus affair, 84-90 + + +Eisenach Program, 157-158 + +Election laws, German, 293-294 + +Electoral reform. _See_ Saxony, Prussia, "Free Cities," Chartist Movement + +Ely, Prof. R.T., conservation in U.S., 269 + +Emperor William's life attempted, 159-160 + +Engels, Frederick, 50, 52, 56-61; + on English police, 245; + on changes in revolutionary ideals, 255 + +England, growth of Socialism in, 315; + thrift institutions in, 318; + Socialism in, 207-249; + character of Socialism in, 211-212. + _See also_ Chartist movement; Engels; Industrial Revolution; + Insurance Bill; Labor Party; Labor Exchange Act; Land System; + Liberal Party; Lords, House of + +English, characteristics of the, 209-211; + income of the, 213-214 + +Erfurt Program, 191; + dissatisfaction with, 192-194 + + +Fabian Society, origin, 220-221; + famous members, 220-221; + attitude toward constitutionalism, 248; + basis of, 327; + an election address of, 335; + an election dodger of, 337 + +Feudalism, class ideals of, 43, 44, 45; + in Germany, 147 + +Feuerbach, 31-32 + +Fourier, 19-22, 24 + +France, Revolution of 1848, 47; + commune of 1871, 49, 61; + Socialist Party of, 75-117; + factions in Socialist Party, 76-78; + "United Socialists," 77, 78; + Socialist Radicals, 78; + the "Bloc," 84, 85; + labor unions in, 77; + post-office strike in, 94-97; + railway strike in, 98-99; + local Socialism in, 112-113; + government of, 280-281 + +France, Anatole, 117 + +Frank, Dr., on the Baden budget, 196-198; + on the intellectual classes and Socialism, 254 + +"Free Cities," election laws in, 183 + +French Revolution, 42 + + +Gambetta, 79 + +General strike, 256; + in Belgium, 126, 131, 138, 143 + +George, Henry, 220 + +George, Lloyd, 232; + budget of, 236-238; + Insurance Bill of, 240-241; + flays Keir Hardie, 245 + +Germany, Social Democracy in, 146-170; + revolution in, 46; + character of government in, 147; + the new Empire, 158; + most "socialized" country, 169-190; + labor unions in, 171-175; + party representation in Reichstag, 297; + vote of all parties in, 296; + political parties in, 292-293. + _See also_ "Free Cities;" Suffrage; Progressists; Labor + Organizations; Liberal Party + +Gneist, Prof., and Anti-Socialist law, 162 + +Godin, J., 21 + +Godwin, 24 + +Guesde, Jules, 75, 76, 81, 85, 87, 105, 106 + +Guise, community at, 21 + + +Hardie, Keir, 222, + and Development Act, 234, 243; + on using military during strike, 245; + on goal of Socialism, 247 + +Hasselman, 158; + expelled from Social Democratic Party, 166 + +Hegel, 23, 31 + +Hegelians, Young, 31, 50 + +Herve, Gustave, 110, 112 + +Hobhouse, Prof., 247 + +Hyndman, H.M., 219 + + +I.L.P., organization of, 222, 243; + on Liberal coalition, 243-244; + attitude on Insurance Bill, 244; + constitution and by-laws, 322 + +Industrial revolution, 43; + change in social ideals, 44, 45; + violence of first days, 45; + in England, 207-209 + +Insurance Bill (Eng.), 240-241 + +International, the, 56; + "Old International," 56-69; + "New International," 69-74; + Amsterdam Congress of, 228 + +International Socialist Bureau, 72, 74 + +International Socialist Statistics, 339, 340 + +International Workingmen's Association, 71 + + +Jaures, Jean, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 87, 100; + leader of "Bloc," 90-91; + debate with Clemenceau, 92-93; + in Amsterdam Congress, 228; + on difference between Socialism and Democracy, 265; + on Socialism in U.S., 268 + + +Kaiser, the, and German Social Democrats, 180, 181 + +Kautsky, K., 50, 85; + on Revisionism, 192-193; + on Amsterdam Congress, 228 + +Kingsley, 212 + + +Labor Exchange Act (England), 233 + +Labor Organization in France, 104; + in Germany, 150-151, 171-175 + +Labor Party, English, 74, 274, 223-225, 226, 227-232, 228, 231, 241, 242; + Program of, 318, 334 + +Labor Party, the first, 75; + in Belgium, _see_ Belgium; + Program of, 309 + +Labor Questions and Socialism, 258 + +Labor unions in Belgium, political activity of, 308. + _See also_ Belgium + +Labor unions in England. _See_ Trades Unions + +Labor unions in France. _See_ Bourse du Travail, and Syndicats + +Labor unions in Germany, 295. + _See also_ Germany + +Land system of England, 236-237 + +Lassalle, 147-155, 185; + Leipzig address, 152; + General Workingman's Association, 152-154; + influence on German Social Democracy, 154 + +League of the Just, 56-57, 69 + +Ledebour, on ministerial responsibility, 189 + +Legislation, advocated by Socialists, in Germany, _see_ Social + Democratic Party; + in England, 231-241 + +Liberal Party, in Germany, 146-148, 150, 151; + in England, 226, 227, 228, 230-231, 242-245 + +Liebknecht, 70, 155, 156, 157, 158, 163; + in Reichstag, 166; + arrested, 167; + on party tactics, 186; + on Erfurt Program, 191 + +London, progress in, 235 + +Lords, House of, an issue, 237-239, 240 + + +MacDonald, J. Ramsay, on I.L.P., 245-247; + on Democracy, 254-255 + +Mazzini, 54, 61, 62 + +McCarthy, Justin, on Chartism, 52 + +Marx, Karl, 9, 32, 38, 39; + theories of 32-36; + formulae of, "capital," 37-38; + influence on Socialist movement, 39-40; + criticism of, 40, 41; + theory of Revolution, 43; + on German revolution, 47, 48, 49; + on the Commune, 49, 69; + the Communist Manifesto, 56-61; + "address" and "statutes" of the "Old International," 62, 63, 67, 68; + at The Hague, 64; + present influence in Germany, 194 + +Marxian influence in the International, 69-71 + +Marxians and the Possibilists, 85, 91 + +Marxians in England, 219, 317 + +Maurice, 212 + +Menger, Adolph, critique of Marxianism, 40-41 + +Mill, John Stuart, 10 + +Millerand, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 91; + at St. Mande, 82; + Program of, 88-90; + expelled from Socialist Party, 87; + on railway strike, 101, 102; + on ideals of Socialism, 6. + +Militarism, and the International, 72-74; + and the Syndicalists, 108-109 + +Money, Chiozza, 213, 214, 215, 236 + +Morley, Lord, on new Liberalism, 230 + +Morris, Wm., 9, 219; + on Whigs, 229 + +Most, Herr, in Reichstag, 158; + expelled from Socialist Party, 166 + +Munich, Socialist activity in, 204-206 + +Municipal Socialism in France, 112-115; + in Germany, 204-206 + + +Old Age Pensions, 101 + +Osborne Judgment, the, 217 + +Owen, Robert, 6, 8, 21-23, 25; + Rochdale, 27 + + +Paepe, Caesar de, 122 + +Paris, Commune. _See_ Commune. First meeting of "New International," 69-71 + +Parliament Bill, 238-240 + +Peasantry, French, 115-116; + Belgian, 142-143 + +Possibilists, 70 + +Poverty and Socialism, 10-11; + in England, 213-215; + in Belgium, _see_ Belgium + +Progressists, in Belgium, 128, 129; + in Germany, 151, 162, 190 + +Proudhon, 28-31, 62 + +Proudhonism in England, 106 + +Prussia, election laws, 183 + + +Reformistes, in France, _see_ Millerand, Briand; + in Germany, 192-193 + +Revisionist controversy in Germany, 192-193 + +Revolution, social, 12, 13, 255, 256; + modern idea, 53 + +Revolutionary era, 26-55 + +Rodbertus, 150, 153, 155 + +Rosebery, Lord, 229 + +Rousseau, 42 + +Ruskin, 212 + + +Sabotage, 96, 100, 101, 102, 104, 108 + +Sachsen-Altenburg, election law, 294 + +Saint-Simon, 17-19, 23 + +Saxe-Weimar, election law, 294 + +Saxony, new election law, 182, 293 + +Schultze-Delitsch, 150 + +Shaw, G.B., 220, 240, 247 + +Simiyan, on French post-office strike, 95 + +Small Holdings Act, 234, 235 + +Social Democratic Federation, (English), 219, 220, 317, 330 + +Social Democratic Party (German), 175-190; + discipline, 177-179; + attitude of government towards, 179-181; + change in temper, 186-204; + attitude towards legislation, 186-191; + first bill in Reichstag, 187; + attitude on state insurance, 188; + present temper, 191; + program of, 191, 198, 199, 297; + attitude towards other parties, 194, 199; + election address of, 303 + +Socialism, ideals of, 6-10; + theories, 11; + development of, 17; + political awakening of, 42; + modern conception of revolution, 51; + what is, 62, 63; + changes in, 250; + illusions of, 253; + in different countries, 257; + limits of, 262; + characteristics of present, 262-266; + in Parliaments, 251; + what it has accomplished, 257-260; + nature of its demands, 261-262; + difference between Socialism and Democracy, 265-266; + when the word was first used, 23 + +Socialist officers, list of, 340 + +Socialist Party, membership of, 340 + +Socialist vote in leading countries, 339 + +Sorel, Georges, 107 + +South Germany budget controversy, 159-199 + +State, increased functions of, 259-260 + +State Insurance, opposed by Socialists, 167; + attitude of present-day Socialists, 188; + in Germany, 169, 170; + statistics, 295; + _see also_ Bismarck + +Suedekum, Dr., on nature of Social Democratic Party, 199 + +Suffrage, struggle for, in Belgium, 124-133; + electoral laws of Belgium, 132-136; + struggle for, in Germany, 146, 182-185 + +Syndicalism, 94, 107-110, 96-98, 99-102, 105-106, 256 + + +Taff Vale decision, 216-217, 232 + +Thiers, President, 75 + +Town Planning Act, 234, 235 + +Trades Disputes Act, 232 + +Trades Unions, English, and the International, 62, 67, 69; + characteristics, 215, 216, 217, 218; + and Socialism, 69, 72; + and Syndicalism, 108 + +Transportation strike, England, 244, 245 + + +United Socialist Party of France, Basis of Union, 289; + U.S., Socialism in, 266-270; + Socialist vote in, 268; + platform of Socialists in U.S., 341 + + +Vaillant, 81, 82, 100 + +Vandervelde, 118, 134, 137, 138, 142, 143 + +Villiers, Brougham, 247-248 + +Viviani, 78, 91, 101 + +Von Kettler, Baron, Bishop of Mayence, 153, 172 + +Von Vollmar, 181, 193, 195, 200, 203, 204 + + +Waldeck-Rousseau, 79, 84, 85 + +Webb, Sidney, 220, 221, 234, 242 + +Weitling, Wm., 7 + +Wells, H.C., 10 + +Wescott, Dr., Bishop of Durham, 221 + +Workingmen's Association of Lassalle, 154, 156, 157, 158 + +Workingmen's Compensation Act (England), 233 + + +Yvetot on Syndicalism, 108, 109 + + + + +MEN VS. 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Leaflet on application. + + + HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 32: (FN 14) Deutscher replaced with Deutschen | + | Page 32: (FN 16) Duerung replaced with Duehring | + | Page 103: "will within the next few decades he compelled" | + | replaced with | + | "will within the next few decades be compelled" | + | Page 147: beaureaucratic replaced with bureaucratic | + | Page 171: (FN 1) "Die Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften | + | in Deutschland, seit dem Erlasse des | + | Sozialistischen Gesets" replaced with | + | "Die Sozial-Demokratische Gewerkschaften | + | in Deutschland, seit dem Erlasse des | + | Sozialistischen Gesetzes" | + | Page 194: compaigning replaced with campaigning | + | Page 255: (FN 3) Classenkampf replaced with Klassenkampf | + | Page 267: fullfilled replaced with fulfilled | + | Page 274: Schaeffle replaced with Schaeffle | + | Page 276: Jaeger replaced with Jaeger | + | Page 295: (table note) sevice replaced with service | + | Page 347: Brousse replaced with Brousse | + | | + | The reader should note that on page 216, in referring to | + | damages assessed (in England) at $100,000, one assumes | + | L is meant rather than $, yet the image does have $. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Socialism and Democracy in Europe, by +Samuel P. 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