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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f9ab7c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #52984 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52984) diff --git a/old/52984-0.txt b/old/52984-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9f8d395..0000000 --- a/old/52984-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3994 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Right to be Lazy, by Paul Lafargue - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Right to be Lazy - and Other Studies - -Author: Paul Lafargue - -Translator: Charles H. Kerr - -Release Date: September 5, 2016 [EBook #52984] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY *** - - - - -Produced by Turgut Dincer, Christian Boissonnas and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - THE - RIGHT TO BE LAZY - - AND OTHER STUDIES - - BY - PAUL LAFARGUE - - Translated by CHARLES H. KERR - - - CHICAGO - CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY - - - - - Copyright, 1907 - - BY CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY - -[Illustration: Printer's stamp.] - - - - -PREFACE - - -M. Thiers, at a private session of the commission on primary education -of 1849, said: "I wish to make the influence of the clergy all-powerful -because I count upon it to propagate that good philosophy which teaches -man that he is here below to suffer, and not that other philosophy -which on the contrary bids man to enjoy." M. Thiers was stating -the ethics of the capitalist class, whose fierce egoism and narrow -intelligence he incarnated. - -The Bourgeoisie, when it was struggling against the nobility sustained -by the clergy, hoisted the flag of free thought and atheism; but once -triumphant, it changed its tone and manner and today it uses religion -to support its economic and political supremacy. In the fifteenth and -sixteenth centuries, it had joyfully taken up the pagan tradition and -glorified the flesh and its passions, reproved by Christianity; in our -days, gorged with goods and with pleasures, it denies the teachings of -its thinkers like Rabelais and Diderot, and preaches abstinence to the -wage-workers. Capitalist ethics, a pitiful parody on Christian ethics, -strikes with its anathema the flesh of the laborer; its ideal is to -reduce the producer to the smallest number of needs, to suppress his -joys and his passions and to condemn him to play the part of a machine -turning out work without respite and without thanks. - -The revolutionary socialists must take up again the battle fought by -the philosophers and pamphleteers of the bourgeoisie; they must march -up to the assault of the ethics and the social theories of capitalism; -they must demolish in the heads of the class which they call to action -the prejudices sown in them by the ruling class; they must proclaim in -the faces of the hypocrites of all ethical systems that the earth shall -cease to be the vale of tears for the laborer; that in the communist -society of the future, which we shall establish "peaceably if we may, -forcibly if we must," the impulses of men will be given a free rein, -for "all these impulses are by nature good, we have nothing to avoid -but their misuse and their excesses,[1]" and they will not be avoided -except by their mutual counter-balancing, balancing, by the harmonious -development of the human organism, for as Dr. Beddoe says, "It is -only when a race reaches its maximum of physical development, that it -arrives at its highest point of energy and moral vigor.[2]" Such was -also the opinion of the great naturalist Charles Darwin.[3] - -This refutation of the "Right to Work" which I am republishing with -some additional notes appeared in the weekly "Egalité", 1880, second -series. - - P. L. - - _Sainte-Pélagie Prison_, 1883. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Descartes. "Les Passions de l'âme." - -[2] Doctor Beddoe. "Memoirs of the Anthropological Society." - -[3] Charles Darwin. "Descent of Man." - - - - -TABLE OF CONTENTS - - - Page - - THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY— - - I. A Disastrous Dogma 9 - - II. Blessings of Work 14 - - III. The Consequences of Over-Production 30 - - IV. New Songs to New Music 48 - - Appendix 57 - - SOCIALISM AND THE INTELLECTUALS 63 - - THE BANKRUPTCY OF CAPITALISM 105 - - THE WOMAN QUESTION 111 - - THE SOCIALIST IDEAL 139 - - THE RIGHTS OF THE HORSE AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN 157 - - - - -THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY - - Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except - in being lazy. - —Lessing. - - - - -I. - -A DISASTROUS DOGMA. - - -A strange delusion possesses the working classes of the nations where -capitalist civilization holds its sway. This delusion drags in its -train the individual and social woes which for two centuries have -tortured sad humanity. This delusion is the love of work, the furious -passion for work, pushed even to the exhaustion of the vital force -of the individual and his progeny. Instead of opposing this mental -aberration, the priests, the economists and the moralists have cast a -sacred halo over work. Blind and finite men, they have wished to be -wiser than their God; weak and contemptible men, they have presumed -to rehabilitate what their God had cursed. I, who do not profess to be -a Christian, an economist or a moralist, I appeal from their judgement -to that of their God; from the preachings of their religious, economics -or free-thought ethics, to the frightful consequences of work in -capitalist society. - -In capitalist society work is the cause of all intellectual degeneracy, -of all organic deformity. Compare the thorough-bred in Rothschild's -stables, served by a retinue of bipeds, with the heavy brute of the -Norman farms which plows the earth, carts the manure, hauls the crops. -Look at the noble savage whom the missionaries of trade and the traders -of religion have not yet corrupted with Christianity, syphilis and the -dogma of work, and then look at our miserable slaves of machines.[4] - -When, in our civilized Europe, we would find a trace of the native -beauty of man, we must go seek it in the nations where economic -prejudices have not yet uprooted the hatred of work. Spain, which, -alas, is degenerating, may still boast of possessing fewer factories -than we have of prisons and barracks; but the artist rejoices in his -admiration of the hardy Andalusian, brown as his native chestnuts, -straight and flexible as a steel rod; and the heart leaps at hearing -the beggar, superbly draped in his ragged _capa_, parleying on terms -of equality with the duke of Ossuna. For the Spaniard, in whom the -primitive animal has not been atrophied, work is the worst sort of -slavery.[5] The Greeks in their era of greatness had only contempt for -work: their slaves alone were permitted to labor: the free man knew -only exercises for the body and mind. And so it was in this era that -men like Aristotle, Phidias, Aristophanes moved and breathed among the -people; it was the time when a handful of heroes at Marathon crushed -the hordes of Asia, soon to be subdued by Alexander. The philosophers -of antiquity taught contempt for work, that degradation of the free -man, the poets sang of idleness, that gift from the Gods: - -O Melibae Deus nobis haec otia fecit.[6] - -Jesus, in his sermon on the Mount, preached idleness: "Consider the -lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they -spin: and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not -arrayed like one of these." Jehovah the bearded and angry god, gave his -worshipers the supreme example of ideal laziness; after six days of -work, he rests for all eternity. - -On the other hand, what are the races for which work is an organic -necessity? The Auvergnians; the Scotch, those Auvergnians of the -British Isles; the Galicians, those Auvergnians of Spain; the -Pomeranians, those Auvergnians of Germany; the Chinese, those -Auvergnians of Asia. In our society, which are the classes that love -work for work's sake? The peasant proprietors, the little shop-keepers; -the former bent double over their fields, the latter crouched in their -shops, burrow like the mole in his subterranean passage and never stand -up to look at nature leisurely. - -And meanwhile the proletariat, the great class embracing all the -producers of civilized nations, the class which in freeing itself will -free humanity from servile toil and will make of the human animal a -free being,—the proletariat, betraying its instincts, despising its -historic mission, has let itself be perverted by the dogma of work. -Rude and terrible has been its punishment. All its individual and -social woes are born of its passion for work. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[4] European explorers pause in wonder before the physical beauty and -the proud bearing of the men of primitive races, not soiled by what -Paeppig calls "the poisonous breath of civilization." Speaking of -the aborigines of the Oceanic Islands, Lord George Campbell writes: -"There is not a people in the world which strikes one more favorably -at first sight. Their smooth skin of a light copper tint, their hair -golden and curly, their beautiful and happy faces. In a word, their -whole person formed a new and splendid specimen of the 'genus homo'; -their physical appearance gave the impression of a race superior to -ours." The civilized men of ancient Rome, witness Caesar and Tacitus, -regarded with the same admiration the Germans of the communist tribes -which invaded the Roman empire. Following Tacitus, Salvien, the priest -of the fifth century who received the surname of master of the Bishops, -held up the barbarians as an example to civilized Christians: "We are -immodest before the barbarians, who are more chaste than we. Even -more the barbarians are wounded at our lack of modesty; the Goths do -not permit debauchees of their own nation to remain among them; alone -in the midst of them, by the sad privilege of their nationality and -their name, the Romans have the right to be impure. (Pederasty was -then the height of the fashion among both pagans and Christians.) The -oppressed fly to the barbarians to seek for mercy and a shelter." (De -Gubernatione Dei.) The old civilization and the rising Christianity -corrupted the barbarians of the ancient world, as the old Christianity -and the modern capitalist civilization are corrupting the savages of -the new world. - -M. F. LePlay, whose talent for observation must be recognized, even -if we reject his sociological conclusions, tainted with philanthropic -and Christian pharisaism, says in his book "Les Ouvriers Européens" -(1885): "The Propensity of the Bachkirs for laziness (the Bachkirs are -semi-nomadic shepherds of the Asiatic slope of the Ural mountains); -the leisure of nomadic life, the habit of meditation which this -engenders in the best endowed individuals.—all this often gives them a -distinction of manner, a fineness of intelligence and judgement which -is rarely to be observed on the same social level in a more developed -civilization.... The thing most repugnant to them is agricultural -labor: they will do anything rather than accept the trade of a farmer." -Agriculture is in fact the first example of servile labor in the -history of man. According to biblical tradition, the first criminal, -Cain, is a farmer. - -[5] The Spanish proverb says: Descanzar es salud. (Rest is healthful.) - -[6] O Melibaeus! a god has granted us this idleness. Virgil's Bucolics. -(See appendix.) - - - - -II. - -BLESSINGS OF WORK. - - -In 1770 at London, an anonymous pamphlet appeared under the title, -"An Essay on Trade and Commerce". It made some stir in its time. -The author, a great philanthropist, was indignant that "the factory -population of England had taken into its head the fixed idea that in -their quality of Englishmen all the individuals composing it have -by right of birth the privilege of being freer and more independent -than the laborers of any country in Europa. This idea may have its -usefulness for soldiers, since it stimulates their valor, but the -less the factory workers are imbued with it the better for themselves -and the state. Laborers ought never to look on themselves as -independent of their superiors. It is extremely dangerous to encourage -such infatuations in a commercial state like ours, where perhaps -seven-eighths of the population have little or no property. The cure -will not be complete until our industrial laborers are contented to -work six days for the same sum which they now earn in four." Thus, -nearly a century before Guizot, work was openly preached in London as -a curb to the noble passions of man. "The more my people work, the -less vices they will have", wrote Napoleon on May 5th, 1807, from -Osterod. "I am the authority ... and I should be disposed to order -that on Sunday after the hour of service be past, the shops be opened -and the laborers return to their work." To root out laziness and curb -the sentiments of pride and independence which arise from it, the -author of the "Essay on Trade" proposed to imprison the poor in ideal -"work-houses", which should become "houses of terror, where they should -work fourteen hours a day in such fashion that when meal time was -deducted there should remain twelve hours of work full and complete". - -Twelve hours of work a day, that is the ideal of the philanthropists -and moralists of the eighteenth century. How have we outdone this _nec -plus ultra_! Modern factories have become ideal houses of correction in -which the toiling masses are imprisoned, in which they are condemned -to compulsory work for twelve or fourteen hours, not the men only but -also women and children.[7] And to think that the sons of the heroes -of the Terror have allowed themselves to be degraded by the religion -of work, to the point of accepting, since 1848, as a revolutionary -conquest, the law limiting factory labor to twelve hours. They proclaim -as a revolutionary principle the Right to Work. Shame to the French -proletariat! Only slaves would have been capable of such baseness. -A Greek of the heroic times would have required twenty years of -capitalist civilization before he could have conceived such vileness. - -And if the miseries of compulsory work and the tortures of hunger have -descended upon the proletariat more in number than the locusts of the -Bible, it is because the proletariat itself invited them. This work, -which in June 1848 the laborers demanded with arms in their hands, -this they have imposed on their families; they have delivered up to -the barons of industry their wives and children. With their own hands -they have demolished their domestic hearths. With their own hands they -have dried up the milk of their wives. The unhappy women carrying -and nursing their babes have been obliged to go into the mines and -factories to bend their backs and exhaust their nerves. With their own -hands they have broken the life and the vigor of their children. Shame -on the proletarians! Where are those neighborly housewives told of -in our fables and in our old tales, bold and frank of speech, lovers -of Bacchus? Where are those buxom girls, always on the move, always -cooking, always singing, always spreading life, engendering life's joy, -giving painless birth to healthy and vigorous children?... Today we -have factory girls and women, pale drooping flowers, with impoverished -blood, with disordered stomachs, with languid limbs.... They have never -known the pleasure of a healthful passion, nor would they be capable -of telling of it merrily! And the children? Twelve hours of work -for children! O, misery. But not all the Jules Simon of the Academy -of Moral and Political Science, not all the Germinys of jesuitism -could have invented a vice more degrading to the intelligence of the -children, more corrupting of their instincts, more destructive of their -organism than work in the vitiated atmosphere of the capitalist factory. - -Our epoch has been called the century of work. It is in fact the -century of pain, misery and corruption. - -And all the while the philosophers, the bourgeois economists—from -the painfully confused August Comte to the ludicrously clear -Leroy-Beaulieu; the people of bourgeois literature—from the quackishly -romantic Victor Hugo to the artlessly grotesque Paul de Kock,—all have -intoned nauseating songs in honor of the god Progress, the eldest son -of Work. Listen to them and you would think that happiness was soon -to reign over the earth, that its coming was already perceived. They -rummaged in the dust of past centuries to bring back feudal miseries -to serve as a sombre contrast to the delights of the present times. -Have they wearied us, these satisfied people, yesterday pensioners at -the table of the nobility, today pen-valets of the capitalist class -and fatly paid? Have they reckoned us weary of the peasant, such as -La Bruyère described him? Well, here is the brilliant picture of -proletarian delights in the year of capitalist progress 1840, penned by -one of their own men, Dr. Villermé, member of the Institute, the same -who in 1848 was a member of that scientific society (Thiers, Cousin, -Passy, Blanqui, the academician, were in it), which disseminated among -the masses the nonsense of bourgeois economics and ethics. - -It is of manufacturing Alsace that Dr. Villermé speaks,—the Alsace -of Kestner and Dollfus, those flowers of industrial philanthropy and -republicanism. But before the doctor raises up before us his picture of -proletarian miseries, let us listen to an Alsatian manufacturer, Mr. -Th. Mieg, of the house of Dollfus, Mieg & Co., depicting the condition -of the old-time artisan: "At Mulhouse fifty years ago (in 1813, when -modern mechanical industry was just arising) the laborers were all -children of the soil, inhabiting the town and the surrounding villages, -and almost all owning a house and often a little field."[8] It was -the golden age of the laborer. But at that time Alsatian industry did -not deluge the world with its cottons, nor make millionaires out of -its Dollfus and Koechlin. But twenty-five years after, when Villermé -visited Alsace, the modern Minotaur, the capitalist workshop, had -conquered the country; in its insatiable appetite for human labor it -had dragged the workmen from their hearths, the better to wring them -and press out the labor which they contained. It was by thousands -that the workers flocked together at the signal of the steam whistle. -"A great number," says Villermé, "five thousand out of seventeen -thousand, were obliged by high rents to lodge in neighboring villages. -Some of them lived three or four miles from the factory where they -worked.[9] - -"At Mulhouse in Dornach, work began at five o'clock in the morning and -ended at eight o'clock in the evening, summer and winter. It was a -sight to watch them arrive each morning into the city and depart each -evening. Among them were a multitude of women, pale, often walking -bare-footed through the mud, and who for lack of umbrellas when the -rain or snow fell, wore their aprons or skirts turned up over their -heads. There was a still larger number of young children, equally -dirty, equally pale, covered with rags, greasy from the machine oil -which drops on them while they work. They were better protected from -the rain because their clothes shed water; but unlike the women just -mentioned, they did not carry their day's provisions in a basket, but -they carryed in their hands or hid under their clothing as best they -might, the morsel of bread which must serve them as food until time for -them to return home. - -Thus to the strain of an insufferably long day—at least fifteen -hours—is added for these wretches the fatigue of the painful daily -journeys. Consequently they reach home overwhelmed by the need of -sleep, and next day they rise before they are completely rested in -order to reach the factory by the opening time." - -Now, look at the holes in which were packed those who lodge in the -town: "I saw at Mulhouse in Dornach, and the neighboring houses, some -of those miserable lodgings where two families slept each in its corner -on straw thrown on the floor and kept in its place by two planks.... -This wretchedness among the laborers of the cotton industry in the -department of the upper Rhine is so extreme that it produces this sad -result, that while in the families of the manufacturers, merchants, -shop-keepers or factory superintendents, half of the children reach -their twenty-first year, this same half ceases to exist before the -lapse of two years in the families of weavers and cotton spinners." - -Speaking of the labor of the workshop, Villermé adds: "It is not a -work, a task, it is a torture and it is inflicted on children of six -to eight years. It is this long torture day after day which wastes -away the laborers in the cotton spinning factories". And as to the -duration of the work Villermé observes, that the convicts in prisons -work but ten hours, the slaves in the west Indies work but nine hours, -while there existed in France after its Revolution of 1789, which had -proclaimed the pompous Rights of Man "factories where the day was -sixteen hours, out of which the laborers were allowed only an hour and -a half for meals."[10] - -What a miserable abortion of the revolutionary principles of -the bourgeoisie! What woeful gifts from its god Progress! The -philanthropists hail as benefactors of humanity those who having done -nothing to become rich, give work to the poor. Far better were it to -scatter pestilence and to poison the springs than to erect a capitalist -factory in the midst of a rural population. Introduce factory work, -and farewell joy, health and liberty; farewell to all that makes life -beautiful and worth living.[11] - -And the economists go on repeating to the laborers, "Work, to increase -social wealth", and nevertheless an economist, Destutt de Tracy, -answers: "It is in poor nations that people are comfortable, in -rich nations they are ordinarily poor"; and his disciple Cherbuliez -continues: "The laborers themselves in co-operating toward the -accumulation of productive capital contribute to the event which sooner -or later must deprive them of a part of their wages". But deafened and -stupified by their own howlings, the economists answer: "Work, always -work, to create your prosperity", and in the name of Christian meekness -a priest of the Anglican Church, the Rev. Mr. Townshend, intones: Work, -work, night and day. By working you make your poverty increase and your -poverty releases us from imposing work upon you by force of law. The -legal imposition of work "gives too much trouble, requires too much -violence and makes too much noise. Hunger, on the contrary, is not only -a pressure which is peaceful, silent and incessant, but as it is the -most natural motive for work and industry, it also provokes to the -most powerful efforts." Work, work, proletarians, to increase social -wealth and your individual poverty; work, work, in order that becoming -poorer, you may have more reason to work and become miserable. Such is -the inexorable law of capitalist production. - -Because, lending ear to the fallacious words of the economists, the -proletarians have given themselves up body and soul to the vice of -work, they precipitate the whole of society into these industrial -crises of over-production which convulse the social organism. Then -because there is a plethora of merchandise and a dearth of purchasers, -the shops are closed and hunger scourges the working people with its -whip of a thousand lashes. The proletarians, brutalized by the dogma of -work, not understanding that the over-work which they have inflicted -upon themselves during the time of pretended prosperity is the cause of -their present misery, do not run to the granaries of wheat and cry: "We -are hungry, we wish to eat. True we have not a red cent, but beggars as -we are, it is we, nevertheless, who harvested the wheat and gathered -the grapes." They do not besiege the warehouse of Bonnet, or Jujurieux, -the inventor of industrial convents, and cry out: "M. Bonnet, here -are your working women, silk workers, spinners, weavers; they are -shivering pitifully under their patched cotton dresses, yet it is they -who have spun and woven the silk robes of the fashionable women of all -Christendom. The poor creatures working thirteen hours a day, had no -time to think of their toilet. Now, they are out of work and have time -to rustle in the silks they have made. Ever since they lost their milk -teeth they have devoted themselves to your fortune and have lived in -abstinence. Now they are at leisure and wish to enjoy a little of the -fruits of their labor. Come, M. Bonnet, give them your silks, M. Harmel -shall furnish his muslins, M. Pouyer-Quertier his calicos, M. Pinet his -boots for their dear little feet, cold and damp. Clad from top to toe -and gleeful, they will be delightful to look at. Come, no evasions, -you are a friend of humanity, are you not, and a Christian into the -bargain? Put at the disposal of your working girls the fortune they -have built up for you out of their flesh; you want to help business, -get your goods into circulation,—here are consumers ready at hand. -Give them unlimited credit. You are simply compelled to give credit -to merchants whom you do not know from Adam or Eve, who have given -you nothing, not even a glass of water. Your working women will pay -the debt the best they can. If at maturity they let their notes go to -protest, and if they have nothing to attach, you can demand that they -pay you in prayers. They will send you to paradise better than your -black-gowned priests steeped in tobacco." - -Instead of taking advantage of periods of crisis, for a general -distribution of their products and a universal holiday, the laborers, -perishing with hunger, go and beat their heads against the doors of the -workshops. With pale faces, emaciated bodies, pitiful speeches they -assail the manufacturers: "Good M. Chagot, sweet M. Schneider, give us -work, it is not hunger, but the passion for work which torments us". -And these wretches, who have scarcely the strength to stand upright, -sell twelve and fourteen hours of work twice as cheap as when they had -bread on the table. And the philanthropists of industry profit by their -lockouts to manufacture at lower cost. - -If industrial crises follow periods of over-work as inevitably as night -follows day, bringing after them lockouts and poverty without end, -they also lead to inevitable bankruptcy. So long as the manufacturer -has credit he gives free rein to the rage for work. He borrows, and -borrows again, to furnish raw material to his laborers, and goes on -producing without considering that the market is becoming satiated -and that if his goods don't happen to be sold, his notes will still -come due. At his wits' end, he implores the banker, he throws himself -at his feet, offering his blood, his honor. "A little gold will do my -business better", answers the Rothschild. "You have 20,000 pairs of -hose in your warehouse; they are worth 20c. I will take them at 4c." -The banker gets possession of the goods and sells them at 6c or 8c, -and pockets certain frisky dollars which owe nothing to anybody: but -the manufacturer has stepped back for a better leap. At last the crash -comes and the warehouses disgorge. Then so much merchandise is thrown -out of the window that you cannot imagine how it came in by the door. -Hundreds of millions are required to figure the value of the goods that -are destroyed. In the last century they were burned or thrown into the -water.[12] - -But before reaching this decision, the manufacturers travel the world -over in search of markets for the goods which are heaping up. They -force their government to annex Congo, to seize on Tonquin, to batter -down the Chinese Wall with cannon shots to make an outlet for their -cotton goods. In previous centuries it was a duel to the death between -France and England as to which should have the exclusive privilege of -selling to America and the Indies. Thousands of young and vigorous men -reddened the seas with their blood during the colonial wars of the -sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. - -There is a surplus of capital as well as of goods. The financiers no -longer know where to place it. Then they go among the happy nations who -are loafing in the sun smoking cigarettes and they lay down railroads, -erect factories and import the curse of work. And this exportation of -French capital ends one fine morning in diplomatic complications. In -Egypt, for example, France, England and Germany were on the point of -hairpulling to decide which usurers shall be paid first. Or it ends -with wars like that in Mexico where French soldiers are sent to play -the part of constables to collect bad debts.[13] - -These individual and social miseries, however great and innumerable -they may be, however eternal they appear, will vanish like hyenas -and jackals at the approach of the lion, when the proletariat shall -say "I will". But to arrive at the realization of its strength the -proletariat must trample under foot the prejudices of Christian ethics, -economic ethics and free-thought ethics. It must return to its natural -instincts, it must proclaim the Rights of Laziness, a thousand times -more noble and more sacred than the anaemic Rights of Man concocted by -the metaphysical lawyers of the bourgeois revolution. It must accustom -itself to working but three hours a day, reserving the rest of the day -and night for leisure and feasting. - -Thus far my task has been easy; I have had but to describe real evils -well known, alas, by all of us; but to convince the proletariat that -the ethics innoculated into it is wicked, that the unbridled work to -which it has given itself up for the last hundred years is the most -terrible scourge that has ever struck humanity, that work will become -a mere condiment to the pleasures of idleness, a beneficial exercise to -the human organism, a passion useful to the social organism only when -wisely regulated and limited to a maximum of three hours a day; this -is an arduous task beyond my strength. Only communist physiologists, -hygienists and economists could undertake it. In the following pages -I shall merely try to show that given the modern means of production -and their unlimited reproductive power it is necessary to curb the -extravagant passion of the laborers for work and to oblige them to -consume the goods which they produce. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[7] At the first Congress of Charities held at Brussels in 1857 one -of the richest manufacturers of Marquette, near Lille, M. Scrive, to -the plaudits of the members of the congress declared with the noble -satisfaction of a duty performed: "We have introduced certain methods -of diversion for the children. We teach them to sing during their work, -also to count while working. That distracts them and makes them accept -bravely "those twelve hours of labor which are necessary to procure -their means of existence." Twelve hours of labor, and such labor, -imposed on children less than twelve years old! The materialists will -always regret that there is no hell in which to confine these Christian -philanthropic murderers of childhood. - -[8] Speech delivered before the International Society of Practical -Studies in Social Economics, at Paris in May 1863, and published in the -French "Economist" of the same epoch. - -[9] Note that this was before the era of railroads and street cars. -(Translator.) - -[10] L. R. Villermé. Tableau de l'état physique et moral des ouvriers -dans les fabriques de coton, de laine et de soie (1840). It is not -because Dollfus, Koechlin and other Alsatian manufacturers were -republicans, patriots and protestant philanthropists that they treated -their laborers in this way, for Blanqui, the academician, Reybaud, the -prototype of Jerome Paturot, and Jules Simon, have observed the same -amenities for the working class among the very catholic and monarchical -manufacturers of Lille and Lyons. These are capitalist virtues which -harmonize delightfully with all political and religious convictions. - -[11] The Indians of the warlike tribes of Brazil kill their invalids -and old people; they show their affection for them by putting an end -to a life which is no longer enlivened by combats, feasts and dances. -All primitive peoples have given these proofs of affection to their -relatives: the Massagetae of the Caspian Sea (Herodotus), as well as -the Wens of Germany and the Celts of Gaul. In the churches of Sweden -even lately they preserved clubs called family clubs which served to -deliver parents from the sorrows of old age. How degenerate are the -modern proletarians to accept with patience the terrible miseries of -factory labor! - -[12] At the Industrial Congress held in Berlin in Jan. 21, 1879, the -losses in the iron industry of Germany during the last crisis were -estimated at $109,056,000. - -[13] M. Clemenceau's "Justice" said on April 6, 1880, in its financial -department: "We have heard this opinion maintained, that even without -pressure the billions of the war of 1870 would have been equally lost -for France, that is under the form of loans periodically put out to -balance the budgets of foreign countries; this is also our opinion." -The loss of English capital on loans of South American Republics is -estimated at a billion dollars. The French laborers not only produced -the billion dollars paid Bismarck, but they continued to pay interest -on the war indemnity to Ollivier, Girardin, Bazaine and other income -drawers, who brought on the war and the rout. Nevertheless they still -have one shred of consolation: these billions will not bring on a war -of reprisal. - - - - -III. - -THE CONSEQUENCES OF OVER-PRODUCTION. - - -A Greek poet of Cicero's time, Antiparos, thus sang of the invention -of the water-mill (for grinding grain), which was to free the slave -women and bring back the Golden Age: "Spare the arm which turns the -mill, O, millers, and sleep peacefully. Let the cock warn you in vain -that day is breaking. Demeter has imposed upon the nymphs the labor -of the slaves, and behold them leaping merrily over the wheel, and -behold the axle tree, shaken, turning with its spokes and making the -heavy rolling stone revolve. Let us live the life of our fathers, and -let us rejoice in idleness over the gifts that the goddess grants -us." Alas!, the leisure which the pagan poet announced has not come. -The blind, perverse and murderous passion for work transforms the -liberating machine into an instrument for the enslavement of free men. -Its productiveness impoverishes them. - -A good workingwoman makes with her needles only five meshes a minute, -while certain circular knitting machines make 30,000 in the same time. -Every minute of the machine is thus equivalent to a hundred hours of -the workingwomen's labor, or again, every minute of the machine's -labor, gives the workingwomen ten days of rest. What is true for the -knitting industry is more or less true for all industries reconstructed -by modern machinery. But what do we see? In proportion as the machine -is improved and performs man's work with an ever increasing rapidity -and exactness, the laborer, instead of prolonging his former rest -times, redoubles his ardor, as if he wished to rival the machine. O, -absurd and murderous competition! - -That the competition of man and the machine might have free course, -the proletarians have abolished wise laws which limited the labor -of the artisans of the ancient guilds; they have suppressed the -holidays.[14] Because the producers of that time worked but five -days out of seven, are we to believe the stories told by lying -economists, that they lived on nothing but air and fresh water? Not -so, they had leisure to taste the joys of earth, to make love and to -frolic, to banquet joyously in honor of the jovial god of idleness. -Gloomy England, immersed in protestantism, was then called "Merrie -England." Rabelais, Quevedo, Cervantes, and the unknown authors of the -romances make our mouths water with their pictures of those monumental -feasts[15] with which the men of that time regaled themselves between -two battles and two devastations, in which everything "went by the -barrel". Jordaens and the Flemish School have told the story of these -feasts in their delightful pictures. Where, O, where, are the sublime -gargantuan stomachs of those days; where are the sublime brains -encircling all human thought? We have indeed grown puny and degenerate. -Embalmed beef, potatoes, doctored wine and Prussian schnaps, -judiciously combined with compulsory labor have weakened our bodies and -narrowed our minds. And the times when man cramps his stomach and the -machine enlarges its output are the very times when the economists -preach to us the Malthusian theory, the religion of abstinence and the -dogma of work. Really it would be better to pluck out such tongues and -throw them to the dogs. - -Because the working class, with its simple good faith, has allowed -itself to be thus indoctrinated, because with its native impetuosity -it has blindly hurled itself into work and abstinence, the capitalist -class has found itself condemned to laziness and forced enjoyment, to -unproductiveness and over-consumption. But if the over-work of the -laborer bruises his flesh and tortures his nerves, it is also fertile -in griefs for the capitalist. - -The abstinence to which the productive class condemns itself obliges -the capitalists to devote themselves to the over-consumption of the -products turned out so riotously by the laborers. At the beginning -of capitalist production a century or two ago, the capitalist was a -steady man of reasonable and peaceable habits. He contented himself -with one wife or thereabouts. He drank only when he was thirsty and -ate only when he was hungry. He left to the lords and ladies of the -court the noble virtues of debauchery. Today every son of the newly -rich makes it incumbent upon himself to cultivate the disease for which -quicksilver is a specific in order to justify the labors imposed upon -the workmen in quicksilver mines; every capitalist crams himself with -capons stuffed with truffles and with the choicest brands of wine in -order to encourage the breeders of blooded poultry and the growers of -Bordelais. In this occupation the organism rapidly becomes shattered, -the hair falls out, the gums shrink away from the teeth, the body -becomes deformed, the stomach obtrudes abnormally, respiration becomes -difficult, the motions become labored, the joints become stiff, the -fingers knotted. Others, too feeble in body to endure the fatigues of -debauchery, but endowed with the bump of philanthropic discrimination, -dry up their brains over political economy, or juridical philosophy -in elaborating thick soporific books to employ the leisure hours -of compositors and pressmen. The women of fashion live a life of -martyrdom, in trying on and showing off the fairy-like toilets -which the seamstresses die in making. They shift like shuttles from -morning until night from one gown into another. For hours together -they give up their hollow heads to the artists in hair, who at any -cost insist on assuaging their passion for the construction of false -chignons. Bound in their corsets, pinched in their boots, décolletté -to make a coal-miner blush, they whirl around the whole night through -at their charity balls in order to pick up a few cents for poor -people,—sanctified souls! - -To fulfill his double social function of non-producer and -over-consumer, the capitalist was not only obliged to violate his -modest taste, to lose his laborious habits of two centuries ago and to -give himself up to unbounded luxury, spicy indigestibles and syphilitic -debauches, but also to withdraw from productive labor an enormous mass -of men in order to enlist them as his assistants. - -Here are a few figures to prove how colossal is this waste of -productive forces. According to the census of 1861, the population of -England and Wales comprised 20,066,244 persons, 9,776,259 male and -10,289,965 female. If we deduct those too old or too young to work, the -unproductive women, boys and girls, then the "ideological professions", -such as governors, policemen, clergy, magistrates, soldiers, -prostitutes, artists, scientists, etc., next the people exclusively -occupied with eating the labor of others under the form of land-rent, -interest, dividends, etc. ... there remains a total of eight million -individuals of both sexes and of every age, including the capitalists -who function in production, commerce, finance, etc. Out of these eight -millions the figures run: - - Agricultural laborers, including herdsmen, servants - and farmers' daughters living at home 1,098,261 - Factory Workers in cotton, wool, hemp, - linen silk, knitting 642,607 - Mine Workers 565,835 - Metal Workers (blast furnaces, rolling mills, etc.) 396,998 - Domestics 1,208,648 - -"If we add together the textile workers and the miners, we obtain -the figures of 1,208,442; if to the former we add the metal workers, -we have a total of 1,039,605 persons; that is to say, in each case a -number below that of the modern domestic slaves. Behold the magnificent -result of the capitalist exploitation of machines."[16] To this class -of domestics, the size of which indicates the stage attained by -capitalist civilization, must still be added the enormous class of -unfortunates devoted exclusively to satisfying the vain and expensive -tastes of the rich classes: diamond cutters, lace-makers, embroiderers, -binders of luxurious books, seamstresses employed on expensive gowns, -decorators of villas, etc.[17] - -Once settled down into absolute laziness and demoralized by enforced -enjoyment, the capitalist class in spite of the injury involved in -its new kind of life, adapted itself to it. Soon it began to look -upon any change with horror. The sight of the miserable conditions -of life resignedly accepted by the working class and the sight of -the organic degradation engendered by the depraved passion for work -increased its aversion for all compulsory labor and all restrictions -of its pleasures. It is precisely at that time that, without taking -into account the demoralization which the capitalist class had imposed -upon itself as a social duty, the proletarians took it into their -heads to inflict work on the capitalists. Artless as they were, they -took seriously the theories of work proclaimed by the economists and -moralists, and girded up their loins to inflict the practice of these -theories upon the capitalists. The proletariat hoisted the banner, "He -who will not work Neither shall he Eat". Lyons in 1831 rose up for -bullets or work. The federated laborers of March 1871 called their -uprising "The Revolution of Work". To these outbreaks of barbarous fury -destructive of all capitalist joy and laziness, the capitalists had -no other answer than ferocious repression, but they know that if they -have been able to repress these revolutionary explosions, they have -not drowned in the blood of these gigantic massacres the absurd idea -of the proletariat wishing to inflict work upon the idle and reputable -classes, and it is to avert this misfortune that they surround -themselves with guards, policemen, magistrates and jailors, supported -in laborious unproductiveness. There is no more room for illusion as -to the function of modern armies. They are permanently maintained only -to suppress the "enemy within". Thus the forts of Paris and Lyons -have not been built to defend the city against the foreigner, but to -crush it in case of revolt. And if an unanswerable example be called -for, we mention the army of Belgium, that paradise of capitalism. Its -neutrality is guaranteed by the European powers, and nevertheless its -army is one of the strongest in proportion to its population. The -glorious battlefields of the brave Belgian army are the plains of the -Borinage and of Charleroi. It is in the blood of the unarmed miners and -laborers that the Belgian officers temper their swords and win their -epaulets. The nations of Europe have not national armies but mercenary -armies. They protect the capitalists against the popular fury which -would condemn them to ten hours of mining or spinning. Again, while -compressing its own stomach the working class has developed abnormally -the stomach of the capitalist class, condemned to over-consumption. - -For alleviation of its painful labor the capitalist class has withdrawn -from the working class a mass of men far superior to those still -devoted to useful production and has condemned them in their turn to -unproductiveness and over-consumption. But this troop of useless mouths -in spite of its insatiable voracity, does not suffice to consume all -the goods which the laborers, brutalized by the dogma of work, produce -like madmen, without wishing to consume them and without even thinking -whether people will be found to consume them. - -Confronted with this double madness of the laborers killing themselves -with over-production and vegetating in abstinence, the great problem of -capitalist production is no longer to find producers and to multiply -their powers but to discover consumers, to excite their appetites and -create in them fictitious needs. Since the European laborers, shivering -with cold and hunger, refuse to wear the stuffs they weave, to drink -the wines from the vineyards they tend, the poor manufacturers in -their goodness of heart must run to the ends of the earth to find -people to wear the clothes and drink the wines: Europe exports every -year goods amounting to billions of dollars to the four corners of -the earth, to nations that have no need of them.[18] But the explored -continents are no longer vast enough. Virgin countries are needed. -European manufacturers dream night and day of Africa, of a lake in the -Saharan desert, of a railroad to the Soudan. They anxiously follow the -progress of Livingston, Stanley, Du Chaillu; they listen open-mouthed -to the marvelous tales of these brave travelers. What unknown wonders -are contained in the "dark continent"! Fields are sown with elephants' -teeth, rivers of cocoa-nut oil are dotted with gold, millions of -backsides, as bare as the faces of Dufaure and Girardin, are awaiting -cotton goods to teach them decency, and bottles of schnaps and bibles -from which they may learn the virtues of civilization. - -But all to no purpose: the over-fed capitalist, the servant class -greater in numbers than the productive class, the foreign and barbarous -nations, gorged with European goods; nothing, nothing can melt away -the mountains of products heaped up higher and more enormous than the -pyramids of Egypt. The productiveness of European laborers defies all -consumption, all waste. - -The manufacturers have lost their bearings and know not which way to -turn. They can no longer find the raw material to satisfy the lawless -depraved passion of their laborers for work. In our woolen districts -dirty and half rotten rags are raveled out to use in making certain -cloths sold under the name of renaissance, which have about the same -durability as the promises made to voters. At Lyons, instead of leaving -the silk fiber in its natural simplicity and suppleness, it is loaded -down with mineral salts, which while increasing its weight, make it -friable and far from durable. All our products are adulterated to aid -in their sale and shorten their life. Our epoch will be called the -"Age of adulteration" just as the first epochs of humanity received -the names of "The Age of Stone", "The Age of Bronze", from the -character of their production. Certain ignorant people accuse our pious -manufacturers of fraud, while in reality the thought which animates -them is to furnish work to their laborers, who cannot resign themselves -to living with their arms folded. These adulterations, whose sole -motive is a humanitarian sentiment, but which bring splendid profits -to the manufacturers who practice them, if they are disastrous for -the quality of the goods, if they are an inexhaustible source of -waste in human labor, nevertheless prove the ingenuous philanthropy -of the capitalists, and the horrible perversion of the laborers, who -to gratify their vice for work oblige the manufacturers to stifle the -cries of their conscience and to violate even the laws of commercial -honesty. - -And nevertheless, in spite of the over-production of goods, in spite of -the adulterations in manufacturing, the laborers encumber the market -in countless numbers imploring: Work! Work! Their superabundance ought -to compel them to bridle their passion; on the contrary it carries -it to the point of paroxysm. Let a chance for work present itself, -thither they rush; then they demand twelve, fourteen hours to glut -their appetite for work, and the next day they are again thrown out -on the pavement with no more food for their vice. Every year in -all industries lockouts occur with the regularity of the seasons. -Over-work, destructive of the organism, is succeeded by absolute rest -during two or four months, and when work ceases the pittance ceases. -Since the vice of work is diabolically attached to the heart of the -laborers, since its requirements stifle all the other instincts of -nature, since the quantity of work required by society is necessarily -limited by consumption and by the supply of raw materials, why devour -in six months the work of a whole year; why not distribute it uniformly -over the twelve months and force every workingman to content himself -with six or five hours a day throughout the year instead of getting -indigestion from twelve hours during six months? Once assured of their -daily portion of work, the laborers will no longer be jealous of each -other, no longer fight to snatch away work from each other's hands and -bread from each other's mouths, and then, not exhausted in body and -mind, they will begin to practice the virtues of laziness. - -Brutalized by their vice, the laborers have been unable to rise to the -conception of this fact, that to have work for all it is necessary -to apportion it like water on a ship in distress. Meanwhile certain -manufacturers in the name of capitalist exploitation have for a long -time demanded a legal limitation of the work day. Before the commission -of 1860 on professional education, one of the greatest manufacturers of -Alsace, M. Bourcart of Guebwiller, declared: "The day of twelve hours -is excessive and ought to be reduced to eleven, while work ought to -be stopped at two o'clock on Saturday. I advise the adoption of this -measure, although it may appear onerous at first sight. We have tried -it in our industrial establishments for four years and find ourselves -the better for it, while the average production, far from having -diminished, has increased." In his study of machines M. F. Passy quotes -the following letter from a great Belgian manufacturer M. Ottevaere: -"Our machines, although the same as those of the English spinning -mills, do not produce what they ought to produce or what those same -machines would produce in England, although the spinners there work two -hours a day less. We all work two good hours too much. I am convinced -that if we worked only eleven hours instead of thirteen we should have -the same product and we should consequently produce more economically." -Again, M. Leroy Beaulieu affirms that it is a remark of a great Belgian -manufacturer that the weeks in which a holiday falls result in a -product not less than ordinary weeks.[19] - -An aristocratic government has dared to do what a people, duped in -their simplicity by the moralists, never dared. Despising the lofty and -moral industrial considerations of the economists, who like the birds -of ill omen, croaked that to reduce by one hour the work in factories -was to decree the ruin of English industry, the government of England -has forbidden by a law strictly enforced to work more than ten hours a -day, and as before England remains the first industrial nation of the -world.[20] - -The experiment tried on so great a scale is on record; the experience -of certain intelligent capitalists is on record. They prove beyond a -doubt that to strengthen human production it is necessary to reduce -the hours of labor and multiply the pay days and feast days, yet the -French nation is not convinced. But if the miserable reduction of two -hours has increased English production by almost one-third in ten -years, what breathless speed would be given to French production -by a legal limitation of the working day to three hours. Cannot the -laborers understand that by over-working themselves they exhaust -their own strength and that of their progeny, that they are used up -and long before their time come to be incapable of any work at all, -that absorbed and brutalized by this single vice they are no longer -men but pieces of men, that they kill within themselves all beautiful -faculties, to leave nothing alive and flourishing except the furious -madness for work. Like Arcadian parrots, they repeat the lesson of -the economist: "Let us work, let us work to increase the national -wealth.' O, idiots, it is because you work too much that the industrial -equipment develops slowly. Stop braying and listen to an economist, -no other than M. L. Reybaud, whom we were fortunate enough to lose a -few months ago. "It is in general by the conditions of hand-work that -the revolution in methods of labor is regulated. As long as hand-work -furnishes its services at a low price, it is lavished, while efforts -are made to economize it when its services become more costly."[21] - -To force the capitalists to improve their machines of wood and iron -it is necessary to raise wages and diminish the working hours of -the machines of flesh and blood. Do you ask for proofs? They can -be furnished by the hundreds. In spinning, the self-acting mule was -invented and applied at Manchester because the spinners refused to -work such long hours as before. In America the machine is invading all -branches of farm production, from the making of butter to the weeding -of wheat. Why, because the American, free and lazy, would prefer a -thousand deaths to the bovine life of the French peasant. Plowing, so -painful and so crippling to the laborer in our glorious France, is in -the American West an agreeable open-air pastime, which he practices in -a sitting posture, smoking his pipe nonchalantly. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[14] Under the old regime, the laws of the church guaranteed the -laborer ninety rest days, fifty-two Sundays and thirty-eight holidays, -during which he was strictly forbidden to work. This was the great -crime of catholicism, the principal cause of the irreligion of the -industrial and commercial bourgeoisie: under the revolution, when once -it was in the saddle, it abolished the holidays and replaced the week -of seven days by that of ten, in order that the people might no longer -have more than one rest day out of the ten. It emancipated the laborers -from the yoke of the church in order the better to subjugate them under -the yoke of work. - -The hatred against the holidays does not appear until the modern -industrial and commercial bourgeoisie takes definite form, between the -fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Henry IV asked of the pope that they -be reduced. He refused because "one of the current heresies of the -day is regarding feasts" (Letters of Cardinal d'Ossat). But in 1666 -Perefixus, archbishop of Paris, suppressed seventeen of them in his -diocese. protestantism, which was the Christian religion adapted to -the new industrial and commercial needs of the bourgeoisie, was less -solicitous for the people's rest. It dethroned the saints in heaven in -order to abolish their feast days on earth. - -Religious reform and philosophical free thought were but pretexts which -permitted the jesuitical and rapacious bourgeoisie to pilfer the feast -days of the people. - -[15] These gigantic feasts lasted for weeks. Don Rodrigo de Lara wins -his bride by expelling the Moors from old Calatrava, and the Romancero -relates the story: - - Les bodas fueron en Burgos - Las tornabodas en Salas: - En bodas y tornabodas - Pasaron siete semanas - Tantas vienen de las gentes - Que no caben por las plazas - -(The wedding was at Bourges, the infaring at Salas. In the wedding and -the infaring seven weeks were spent. So many people came that the town -could not hold them...). - -The men of these seven-weeks weddings were the heroic soldiers of the -wars of independence. - -[16] Karl Marx's "Capital". - -[17] "The proportion in which the population of the country is employed -as domestics in the service of the wealthy class indicates its progress -in national wealth and civilization." (R. M. Martin, "Ireland Before -and After the Union," 1818). Gambetta, who has denied that there was -a social question ever since he ceased to be the poverty stricken -lawyer of the Café Procope, undoubtedly alluded to this ever-increasing -domestic class when he announced the advent of new social strata. - -[18] Two examples: The English government to satisfy the peasants of -India, who in spite of the periodical famines desolating their country -insist on cultivating poppies instead of rice or wheat, has been -obliged to undertake bloody wars in order to impose upon the Chinese -Government the free entry of Indian opium. The savages of Polynesia, -in spite of the mortality resulting from it are obliged to clothe -themselves in the English fashion in order to consume the products of -the Scotch distilleries and the Manchester cotton mills. - -[19] Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. La Question Ouvrière au XIX siècle, 1872. - -[20] It should be observed that this was written in 1883, since which -time the United States has taken the first rank. The soundness of -Lafargue's reasoning is confirmed by the fact that in this country the -hours of labor in the most important industries are even less than in -England. (Translator.) - -[21] Louis Reybaud. Le coton, son regime, ses problèmes (1863). - - - - -IV. - -NEW SONGS TO NEW MUSIC. - - -We have seen that by diminishing the hours of labor new mechanical -forces will be conquered for social production. Furthermore, by -obliging the laborers to consume their products the army of workers -will be immensely increased. The capitalist class once relieved from -its function of universal consumer will hasten to dismiss its train of -soldiers, magistrates, journalists, procurers, which it has withdrawn -from useful labor to help it in consuming and wasting. Then the labor -market will overflow. Then will be required an iron law to put a limit -on work. It will be impossible to find employment for that swarm of -former unproductives, more numerous than insect parasites, and after -them must be considered all those who provide for their needs and their -vain and expensive tastes. When there are no more lackeys and generals -to decorate, no more free and married prostitutes to be covered with -laces, no more cannons to bore, no more palaces to build, there will -be need of severe laws to compel the working women and workingmen who -have been employed on embroidered laces, iron workings, buildings, to -take the hygienic and calisthenic exercises requisite to re-establish -their health and improve their race. When once we begin to consume -European products at home instead of sending them to the devil, it will -be necessary that the sailors, dock handlers and the draymen sit down -and learn to twirl their thumbs. The happy Polynesians may then love -as they like without fearing the civilized Venus and the sermons of -European moralists. - -And that is not all: In order to find work for all the non-producers -of our present society, in order to leave room for the industrial -equipment to go on developing indefinitely, the working class will -be compelled, like the capitalist class, to do violence to its taste -for abstinence and to develop indefinitely its consuming capacities. -Instead of eating an ounce or two of gristly meat once a day, when it -eats any, it will eat juicy beefsteaks of a pound or two; instead of -drinking moderately of bad wine, it will become more orthodox than the -pope and will drink broad and deep bumpers of Bordeaux and Burgundy -without commercial baptism and will leave water to the beasts. - -The proletarians have taken into their heads to inflict upon the -capitalists ten hours of forge and factory; that is their great -mistake, because of social antagonisms and civil wars. Work ought to be -forbidden and not imposed. The Rothschilds and other capitalists should -be allowed to bring testimony to the fact that throughout their whole -lives they have been perfect vagabonds, and if they swear they wish to -continue to live as perfect vagabonds in spite of the general mania -for work, they should be pensioned and should receive every morning -at the city hall a five-dollar gold piece for their pocket money. -Social discords will vanish. Bond holders and capitalists will be first -to rally to the popular party, once convinced that far from wishing -them harm, its purpose is rather to relieve them of the labor of -over-consumption and waste, with which they have been overwhelmed since -their birth. As for the capitalists who are incapable of proving their -title to the name of vagabond, they will be allowed to follow their -instincts. There are plenty of disgusting occupations in which to place -them. Dufaure might be set at cleaning public closets, Gallifet[22] -might perform surgical operations on diseased horses and hogs. The -members of the amnesty commission might be sent to the stock yards to -pick out the oxen and the sheep to be slaughtered. The senators might -play the part of undertakers and lackeys in funeral processions. As for -the others, occupations could be found for them on a level with their -intelligence. Lorgeril and Broglie could cork champagne bottles, only -they would have to be muzzled as a precaution against intoxication. -Ferry, Freycinet and Tirard might destroy the bugs and vermin in the -departments of state and other public houses. It would, however, be -necessary to put the public funds out of the reach of the capitalists -out of due regard for their acquired habits. - -But vengeance, harsh and prolonged, will be heaped upon the moralists -who have perverted nature, the bigots, the canters, the hypocrites, -"and other such sects of men who disguise themselves like maskers -to deceive the world. For whilst they give the common people to -understand that they are busied about nothing but contemplation and -devotion in fastings and maceration of their sensuality,—and that only -to sustain and aliment the small frailty of their humanity,—it is so -far otherwise that on the contrary, God knows, what cheer they make; -et _Curios simulant, sed Bacchanalia vivunt_.[23] You may read it -in great letters, in the coloring of their red snouts, and gulching -bellies as big as a tun, unless it be when they perfume themselves with -sulphur."[24] On the days of great popular rejoicing, when instead -of swallowing dust as on the 15th of August and 14th of July under -capitalism, the communists and collectivists will eat, drink and dance -to their hearts' content, the members of the Academy, of moral and -political sciences, the priests with long robes and short, of the -economic, catholic, protestant, jewish, positivist and free-thought -church; the propagandists of Malthusianism, and of Christian, -altruistic, independent or dependent ethics, clothed in yellow, shall -be compelled to hold a candle until it burns their fingers, shall -starve in sight of tables loaded with meats, fruits and flowers and -shall agonize with thirst in sight of flowing hogsheads. Four times a -year with the changing seasons they shall be shut up like the knife -grinders' dogs in great wheels and condemned to grind wind for ten -hours. - -The lawyers and legislators shall suffer the same punishment. Under the -regime of idleness, to kill the time, which kills us second by second, -there will be shows and theatrical performances always and always. And -here we have the very work for our bourgeois legislators. We shall -organize them into traveling companies to go to the fairs and villages, -giving legislative exhibitions. The generals in riding boots, their -breasts brilliantly decorated with medals and crosses, shall go through -the streets and courts levying recruits among the good people. Gambetta -and his comrade Cassagnac shall tend door. Cassagnac, in full duelist -costume, rolling his eyes and twisting his mustache, spitting out -burning tow, shall threaten every one with his father's pistol[25] and -sink into a hole as soon as they show him Lullier's portrait. Gambetta -will discourse on foreign politics and on little Greece, who makes a -doctor of him and would set Europe on fire to pilfer Turkey; on great -Russia that stultifies him with the mincemeat she promises to make of -Prussia and who would fain see mischief brewing in the west of Europe -so as to feather her nest in the east and to strangle nihilism at home; -on Mr. Bismark who was good enough to allow him to pronounce himself on -the amnesty ... then uncovering his mountainous belly smeared over with -red and white and blue, the three national colors, he will beat the -tattoo on it, and enumerate the delicate little ortolans, the truffles -and the glasses of Margaux and Y'quem that it has gulped down to -encourage agriculture, and to keep his electors of Belleville in good -spirits. - -In the barracks the entertainment will open with the "Electoral Farce". - -In the presence of the voters with wooden heads and asses' ears, the -bourgeois candidates, dressed as clowns, will dance the dance of -political liberties, wiping themselves fore and aft with their freely -promising electoral programs, and talking with tears in their eyes -of the miseries of the people and with copper in their voices of the -glories of France. Then the heads of the voters will bray solidly in -chorus, hi han! hi han! - -Then will start the great play, "The Theft of the Nation's Goods." - -Capitalist France, an enormous female, hairy-faced and bald-headed, -fat, flabby, puffy and pale, with sunken eyes, sleepy and yawning, -is stretching herself out on a velvet couch. At her feet Industrial -Capitalism, a gigantic organism of iron, with an ape-like mask, is -mechanically devouring men, women and children, whose thrilling and -heart-rending cries fill the air; the bank with a marten's muzzle, -a hyena's body and harpy-hands, is nimbly flipping coins out of his -pocket. Hordes of miserable, emaciated proletarians in rags, escorted -by gendarmes with drawn sabers, pursued by furies lashing them with -whips of hunger, are bringing to the feet of capitalist France heaps -of merchandise, casks of wine, sacks of gold and wheat. Langlois, his -nether garment in one hand, the testament of Proudhon in the other and -the book of the national budget between his teeth, is encamped at the -head of the defenders of national property and is mounting guard. When -the laborers, beaten with gun stocks and pricked with bayonets, have -laid down their burdens, they are driven away and the door is opened -to the manufacturers, merchants and bankers. They hurl themselves pell -mell upon the heap, devouring cotton goods, sacks of wheat, ingots of -gold, emptying casks of wine. When they have devoured all they can, -they sink down, filthy and disgusting objects in their ordure and -vomitings. Then the thunder bursts forth, the earth shakes and opens, -Historic Destiny arises, with her iron foot she crushes the heads of -the capitalists, hiccoughing, staggering, falling, unable to flee. With -her broad hand she overthrows capitalist France, astounded and sweating -with fear. - - * * * * * - -If, uprooting from its heart the vice which dominates it and degrades -its nature, the working class were to arise in its terrible strength, -not to demand the Rights of Man, which are but the rights of capitalist -exploitation, not to demand the Right to Work which is but the right -to misery, but to forge a brazen law forbidding any man to work more -than three hours a day, the earth, the old earth, trembling with -joy would feel a new universe leaping within her. But how should we -ask a proletariat corrupted by capitalist ethics, to take a manly -resolution.... - -Like Christ, the doleful personification of ancient slavery, the men, -the women and the children of the proletariat have been climbing -painfully for a century up the hard Calvary of pain; for a century -compulsory toil has broken their bones, bruised their flesh, tortured -their nerves; for a century hunger has torn their entrails and their -brains. O Laziness, have pity on our long misery! O Laziness, mother of -the arts and noble virtues, be thou the balm of human anguish! - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[22] Gallifet was the general who was directly responsible for the -massacre of thousands of French workingmen at the closing days of the -Paris Commune. - -[23] They simulate Curius but live like Bacchanals. (Juvenal.) - -[24] Rabelais "Pantagruel," Book II. Chapter XXXIV. Translation of -Urquhart and Motteux. - -[25] Paul de Cassagnac, like his father, Granier, was prominent as a -conservative politician, journalist and duelist. - - - - -APPENDIX - - -Our moralists are very modest people. If they invented the dogma of -work, they still have doubts of its efficacy in tranquilizing the -soul, rejoicing the spirit, and maintaining the proper functioning of -the entrails and other organs. They wish to try its workings on the -populace, _in anima vili_, before turning it against the capitalists, -to excuse and authorize whose vices is their peculiar mission. - -But, you, three-for-a-cent philosophers, why thus cudgel your brains to -work out an ethics the practice of which you dare not counsel to your -masters? Your dogma of work, of which you are so proud, do you wish -to see it scoffed at, dishonored? Let us open the history of ancient -peoples and the writings of their philosophers and law givers. "I could -not affirm," says the father of history, Herodotus, "whether the Greeks -derived from the Egyptians the contempt which they have for work, -because I find the same contempt established among the Thracians, the -Cythians, the Persians, the Lydians; in a word, because among most -barbarians, those who learn mechanical arts and even their children are -regarded as the meanest of their citizens. All the Greeks have been -nurtured in this principle, particularly the Lacedaemonians."[26] - -"At Athens the citizens were veritable nobles who had to concern -themselves but with the defense and the administration of the -community, like the savage warriors from whom they descended. Since -they must thus have all their time free to watch over the interests -of the republic, with their mental and bodily strength, they laid all -labor upon the slaves. Likewise at Lacedaemon, even the women were -not allowed to spin or weave that they might not detract from their -nobility."[27] - -The Romans recognized but two noble and free professions, agriculture -and arms. All the citizens by right lived at the expense of the -treasury without being constrained to provide for their living by any -of the sordid arts (thus, they designated the trades), which rightfully -belonged to slaves. The elder Brutus to arouse the people, accused -Tarquin, the tyrant, of the special outrage of having converted free -citizens into artisans and masons.[28] - -The ancient philosophers had their disputes upon the origin of ideas -but they agreed when it came to the abhorrence of work. "Nature," -said Plato in his social utopia, his model republic, "Nature has -made no shoemaker nor smith. Such occupations degrade the people who -exercise them. Vile mercenaries, nameless wretches, who are by their -very condition excluded from political rights. As for the merchants -accustomed to lying and deceiving, they will be allowed in the city -only as a necessary evil. The citizen who shall have degraded himself -by the commerce of the shop shall be prosecuted for this offense. If he -is convicted, he shall be condemned to a year in prison; the punishment -shall be doubled for each repeated offense."[29] - -In his "Economics," Xenophon writes, "The people who give themselves -up to manual labor are never promoted to public offices, and with good -reason. The greater part of them, condemned to be seated the whole day -long, some even to endure the heat of the fire continually, cannot -fail to be changed in body, and it is almost inevitable that the mind -be affected." "What honorable thing can come out of a shop?" asks -Cicero. "What can commerce produce in the way of honor? Everything -called shop is unworthy of an honorable man. Merchants can gain no profit -without lying, and what is more shameful than falsehood? Again, we must -regard as something base and vile the trade of those who sell their -toil and industry, for whoever gives his labor for money sells himself -and puts himself in the rank of slaves."[30] - -Proletarians, brutalized by the dogma of work, listen to the voice of -these philosophers, which has been concealed from you with jealous -care: A citizen who gives his labor for money degrades himself to the -rank of slaves, he commits a crime which deserves years of imprisonment. - -Christian hypocrisy and capitalist utilitarianism had not perverted -these philosophers of the ancient republics. Speaking for free -men, they expressed their thought naively. Plato, Aristotle, those -intellectual giants, beside whom our latter day philosophers are but -pygmies, wish the citizens of their ideal republics to live in the -most complete leisure, for as Xenophon observed, "Work takes all the -time and with it one has no leisure for the republic and his friends." -According to Plutarch, the great claim of Lycurgus, wisest of men, to -the admiration of posterity, was that he had granted leisure to the -citizens of Sparta by forbidding to them any trade whatever. But our -moralists of Christianity and capitalism will answer, "These thinkers -and philosophers praised the institution of slavery." Perfectly true, -but could it have been otherwise, granted the economic and political -conditions of their epoch? War was the normal state of ancient -societies. The free man was obliged to devote his time to discussing -the affairs of state and watching over its defense. The trades were -then too primitive and clumsy for those practicing them to exercise -their birth-right of soldier and citizen; thus the philosophers and -law-givers, if they wished to have warriors and citizens in their -heroic republics, were obliged to tolerate slaves. But do not the -moralists and economists of capitalism praise wage labor, the modern -slavery; and to what men does the capitalist slavery give leisure? -To people like Rothschild, Schneider, and Madame Boucicaut, useless -and harmful slaves of their vices and of their domestic servants. -"The prejudice of slavery dominated the minds of Pythagoras and -Aristotle,"—this has been written disdainfully; and yet Aristotle -foresaw: "that if every tool could by itself execute its proper -function, as the masterpieces of Daedalus moved themselves or as the -tripods of Vulcan set themselves spontaneously at their sacred work; -if for example the shuttles of the weavers did their own weaving, the -foreman of the workshop would have no more need of helpers, nor the -master of slaves." - -Aristotle's dream is our reality. Our machines, with breath of -fire, with limbs of unwearying steel, with fruitfulness, wonderful -inexhaustible, accomplish by themselves with docility their sacred -labor. And nevertheless the genius of the great philosophers of -capitalism remains dominated by the prejudice of the wage system, -worst of slaveries. They do not yet understand that the machine is the -saviour of humanity, the god who shall redeem man from the sordidae -artes and from working for hire, the god who shall give him leisure and -liberty. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[26] Herodotus, Book II. - -[27] Biot. De L'abolition de L'esclavage ancien en Occident, 1840. - -[28] Livy, Book I. - -[29] Plato's "Republic," Book V. - -[30] Cicero's "De Officiis," I, 42. - - - - -SOCIALISM AND THE INTELLECTUALS - -ADDRESS DELIVERED AT PARIS MARCH 23, 1900, AT A MEETING CALLED BY THE -GROUP OF COLLECTIVIST STUDENTS ATTACHED TO THE PARTI OUVRIER FRANÇAIS. - - -Ladies and Gentlemen:—I am happy to deliver this address under the -presidency of Vaillant, because it is a pledge of the close and lasting -union between our two organizations, and because Vaillant is one of the -intellectuals of the socialist party; he is acknowledged to be the most -learned of French socialists and perhaps of European socialists, now -that Marx, Engels and Lavroff are no longer with us. - -The group of collectivist students which has organized this conference, -has been led to choose this subject, because French socialism has just -passed through a crisis which is not exactly one of growth, though -such it has been called, but which has been caused by the arrival -of a certain number of bourgeois intellectuals within the ranks of -the party. It is therefore interesting to examine the situation of -the intellectuals in capitalist society, their historic role since -the revolution of 1789, and the manner in which the bourgeoisie has -kept the promises it made them when it was struggling against the -aristocracy. - -The eighteenth century was the century of reason—everything, religion, -philosophy, science, politics, privileges of classes, of the state, -of municipalities, was submitted to its pitiless criticism. Never -in history has there been such a fermentation of ideas and such a -revolutionary preparation of men's minds. Mirabeau, who himself -played a great role in the ideological agitation, might well say in -the national assembly: "We have no time to think, but happily, we -have a supply of ideas." All that was needed was to realize them. -Capitalism, to reward the intellectuals who had labored with so much -enthusiasm for the coming of its revolution, promised them honors and -favors; intelligence and wisdom, as well as virtue, should be the -sole privileges of the society it was founding upon the ruins of the -old order. Promises cost it little; it announced to all men that it -brought them joy and happiness, with liberty, equality and fraternity, -which, although eternal principles, were now born for the first time. -Its social world was to be so new that even before the Republic was -proclaimed, Camille Desmoulins demanded that they begin a new era which -should date from the taking of the Bastile. - -I need not teach you what application capitalism has made of these -eternal principles which by way of cynical raillery, the Republic -carves on the lintels of her prisons, her penitentiaries, her barracks -and her halls of state.[31] I will only remind you that savage and -barbarous tribes, uncorrupted by civilization, living under the -regime of common property, without inscribing anywhere these eternal -principles, without even formulating them, practice them in a manner -more perfect than ever was dreamed of by the capitalists who discovered -them in 1789. - -It did not take long to determine the value of the promises of -capitalism; the very day it opened its political shop, it commenced -proceedings in bankruptcy. The constituent assembly, which formulated -the Rights of man and of the citizen and proclaimed equality before the -law, discussed and voted, in 1790, an electoral act which established -inequality before the law; no one was to be a voter but the "active -citizen," paying in money a direct tax equal to three days' labor, and -no one was to be eligible to office but the citizen paying a direct -tax of a "silver mark," about 55 francs. "But under the law of the -silver mark," clamored Loustallot, Desmoulins and the intellectualists -without real estate, "Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose 'Social Contract is -the bible of the revolution, would be capable neither of voting nor -of holding office." The electoral law deprived so many citizens of -political rights, that in the municipal elections of 1790, at Paris, -a city which counted about half a million inhabitants, there were but -12,000 voters, Bailly was chosen mayor by 10,000 votes. - -If the eternal principles were not new, it is also true that the -flattering promises made by the intellectuals had already begun to be -realized before the advent of capitalism to power. The church, which -is a theocratic democracy, opens her bosom to all. That they may -enter, all lay aside their titles and privileges, and all can aspire -to the highest positions; popes have risen from the lower ranks of -society. Sixtus Fifth had in his youth tended swine. The church of the -middle ages jealously attracted to herself the thinkers and men of -learning, although she respected the preference of those who wished to -remain laymen, but extended over them her protection and her favors; -she allowed them all boldness of thought, on the single condition of -keeping up the appearance of faith, and never leaving her enclosure -to lavish themselves upon the vulgar. Thus Copernicus might write and -dedicate to the pope his "treatise on the revolutions of the celestial -bodies," in which, contrary to the teaching of the Bible, he proves -that the earth turns around the sun. But Copernicus was a canon at -Frannbourg and he wrote in Latin. When a century later Galileo, who -was not identified with the clergy and who on the contrary sought the -protection of the secular authorities, professed publicly, at Venice -and Florence, the theories of Copernicus, the Vatican stretched out -its terrible hand over him and forced the illustrious old man to deny -his scientific belief. Even after the crisis of protestantism, the -church preserved its liberality toward the scientists who belonged -to it. Mersenne, a monk of the order of the Minimes, one of the -great geometers of the seventeenth century, a precursor and friend -of Descartes, corresponded freely with Hobbes, the father of modern -materialism; the notes of the French edition of "De Cive" contain -fragments of this correspondence. - -The church, in keeping up this liberal conduct, may have been animated -by a disinterested love of pure science, but what chiefly concerned -her was the interest of her dominancy; she wished to monopolize the -intellectuals and science, just as in the old theocratic Egypt the -priests had done to whom the Greek thinkers resorted in search of the -first elements of science and philosophy. - -It would be insulting capitalism to attribute to it a disinterested -love of science, which from its point of view has but one reason for -existence, that of utilizing natural forces to the enhancement of -its wealth. It cares nothing for pure speculation and it is by way -of self-defence that it allows its scientists to devote their mental -energy to theoretic researches instead of exhausting it on practical -applications. This contempt for pure speculation is shown under a -philosophic form in the positivism of Auguste Comte, who embodies so -well the narrowness of the groveling spirit of capitalism. - -But if science apart from its industrial applications does not interest -the bourgeoisie their solicitude for the intellectuals takes on none -of the forms which we saw in that of the church, and nowhere is their -indifference to them better shown than in the relative position of -material property and of intellectual property before the law. - -Material property, whatever its origin, is by capitalist law a thing -eternal; it is forever assured to its possessor; it is handed down from -father to son to the end of the centuries, and no civil or political -power may lay upon it a sacrilegious hand. We have lately seen a -characteristic example of this inviolability of material property. - -The keeper of the signal station at Durban transmitted to the Boers -heliographic dispatches informing them regarding the ships which -entered the harbor, the men, the horses and the munitions of war which -they transported. His treason brought him 125,000 francs, which, like -an intelligent capitalist, he deposited in the bank. The English -military authorities seized the traitor, condemned him and shot him, -but they respected his property so honorably acquired, and his widow -and son are now its legitimate possessors. The law, apart from certain -variations, being the same in all capitalist countries, things go on in -France as in England. No authority could lay hand on the property of -Bazaine, nor make De Lesseps, Cottu and their families disgorge the -millions artfully extracted from the "lambs" on Panama canal stock. - -This legal sanctity of property is a new thing, in France it dates -from the revolution of 1789. The old regime, which had small respect -for this sort of property, authorized the confiscation of the property -of those legally condemned, and the abolition of confiscation is one -of the first reforms demanded in the petitions of Paris and several -provincial cities to the states general. Capitalism, by forbidding the -confiscation of property obtained by fraudulent and infamous means, -proclaims that the source of its fortune is quite as fraudulent and -infamous as that of criminals and traitors. - -Capitalist law has none of these amenities for intellectual property. -Literary and artistic property such as the law protects at all has but -a precarious life, limited to the life of the author and a certain time -after his death—fifty years according to the latest legislation; that -time passed, it lapses into common property; for example, beginning -with March of this year, any publisher has the right to bring out for -his own profit the works of Balzac, the genius of romantic literature. - -Literary property, though a matter of interest to publishers, who -are certainly few in number, brings no benefit to the mass of the -capitalist class, but not so with property in inventions, which is of -prime importance to all the manufacturing and mercantile capitalists. -Consequently over it the law extends no protection. The inventor, if he -wishes to defend his intellectual property against capitalist pirates, -must begin by buying that right, taking out a patent, which he must -renew every year; on the day he misses a payment, his intellectual -property becomes the lawful prey of the robbers of capitalism. Even if -he pays, he can secure that right only for a time; in France, fourteen -years. And during these few years, not long enough generally to get -his invention fully introduced into practical industry, it is he, the -inventor, who at his own expense has to set in motion the machinery of -the law against the capitalist pirates who rob him. - -The trade-mark, which is a capitalistic property that never required -any intellectual effort, is on the contrary indefinitely protected by -law like material property. - -It is with reluctance that the capitalist class has granted the -inventor the right of defending his intellectual property, for by -virtue of its position as the ruling class it regards itself as -entitled to the fruits of intellectual labor as well as of manual -labor; just as the feudal lord asserted his right of possession over -the property of his serfs. The history of the inventors of our century -is the monstrous story of their spoliation by the capitalists; it is a -long and melancholy roll of martyrs. The inventor, by the very fact of -his genius, is condemned with his family to ruin and suffering. - -It is not only inventions requiring long and laborious study, heavy -outlay for their completion and long time for their introduction, that -plunge the inventor into the inferno of poverty; this is equally true -of inventions that are most simple, most immediately applicable and -most fertile in rich results. I will mention but one example: there -lately died at Paris in extreme poverty a man whose invention saves -millions of francs a year to the railroads and mining companies; -he had discovered a way to utilize the mountains of coal dust that -encumbered the neighborhood of wharfs and mines by converting it into -"briquettes," such as are today in common use for fuel. - -The capitalist bourgeoisie, the most revolutionary class that ever -oppressed human societies, cannot increase its wealth without -continuously revolutionizing the means of production, continuously -incorporating into its industrial equipment new applications of -mechanics, chemistry and physics. Its thirst for inventions is so -insatiable that it creates factories for inventions. Certain American -capitalists united in constructing for Edison at Menlo Park the most -wonderful laboratory in the world, and in putting at his disposal -trained scientists, chosen workmen, and the ordinary materials -necessary to make and keep on making inventions which the capitalists -patent, exploit or sell. Edison, who is himself a shrewd business man, -has taken care to secure for himself a part of the benefits brought by -the Menlo Park inventions. - -But not all inventors are able like Edison to dictate terms to the -capitalists who equip invention factories. The Thompson-Houston Company -at Paris and Siemens at London and Berlin,[32] in connection with -their plants for turning out electrical machinery, have laboratories -where ingenious men are kept busy searching out new applications of -electricity. At Frankfort the manufactory of aniline dyes, the largest -in the world, where anti-pyrine, that mineral quinine, was discovered, -keeps on its pay roll more than a hundred chemists to discover new -products of coal-tar. Each discovery is at once patented by the house, -which, by way of encouragement, gives a reward to the inventor. - -We may up to a certain point regard all factories and workshops -as laboratories for inventions, since a considerable number of -improvements in machinery have been devised by workmen in the course -of their work. The inventor having no money to patent and apply his -discovery, the employer takes out the patent in his own name, and in -accordance with the spirit of capitalist justice, it is he who reaps -all the benefit. When the government takes it into its head to rewards -talent, it is the employer who receives the decoration; the inventive -workman, who is not an intellectual, continues to revolve like the -other machines under the black and greasy number which distinguishes -him, and as in this capitalist world he must be content with little, he -consoles himself for his poverty by the reflection that his invention -is bringing wealth and honor to his employer. - -The capitalist class, which to increase its wealth is in pressing need -of inventions, is in even more imperative need of intellectuals to -supervise their application and to direct its industrial machinery. The -capitalists, before they equipped invention factories, had organized -factories to turn out intellectuals. Dollfus, Scherer-Kestner and -other employes of Alsace, the most intelligent, most philanthropic -and consequently the heaviest exploiters in France before the war, -had founded with their spare pennies at Mulhouse, schools of design, -of chemistry and of physics, where the brightest children of their -workmen were instructed gratis, in order that they might always have -at hand and at reasonable figure the intellectual capacities required -for carrying on their industries. Twenty years ago the directors of the -Mulhouse school persuaded the municipal council of Paris to establish -the city school of chemistry and physics. At the beginning, whether -it is still the case I do not know, the pupils were recruited in the -common schools, they received a higher education, gratis, a dinner at -noon at the school, and fifty francs a month to indemnify the parents -for the loss from the fact that their sons were not in the workshop. - -On the platform of the constituent assembly of 1790 the Marquis of -Foucault could declare that to be a laborer it was not necessary to -know how to read and write. The necessities of industrial production -compel the capitalist of today to speak in language altogether -different; his economic interests and not his love of humanity and -of science force him to encourage and to develop both elementary and -higher education. - -But the slave merchants of ancient Rome were, by the same title, -patrons of education. To the more intelligent of their human -merchandise they gave instruction in medicine, philosophy, Greek -literature, music, science, etc. The education of the slave enhanced -his market value. The slave who was an expert cook brought a better -figure than the slave doctor, philosopher or literator. In our days it -is still so; the big capitalists pay their chief cooks better than the -state pays the professors of liberal arts, even though they be members -of the Institute. But contrary to the practice of the Roman slave -merchants, our capitalist class lavishes instruction only in order to -depress the selling price of intellectual capacity. - -Greek mythology tells how Midas had the gift of turning everything -into gold; the capitalist class has a similar property, it transforms -everything that it touches into merchandise; it has done this for -intellectual capacities; chemists, engineers and Latin scholars are -bought like she-asses and guano. - -A voice: "And they buy deputies, too!" - -People who have no tallow nor veal nor socks to sell have their -conscience and their votes; when they are deputies, they are bought. - -When intellectual capacities become merchandise they have to be treated -like other merchandise, and they are. When there are many oysters in -the market the price of oysters goes down, but when the arrivals are -scarce the price goes up. When chemists and engineers are plenty on the -labor market, the price of inventors and of chemists goes down. Now -that the Central School and the School of Physics and Chemistry turn -out yearly upon the pavements of Paris chemists by the dozen, their -price has considerably gone down. Twenty years ago the capitalist paid -a chemist reasonably, he gave him $100 to $120 a month and engaged him -by the year. The employers whose regard for an employee is measured by -what they have to pay him, were full of politeness and consideration -for their chemists who cost so dear. But since they have been abundant, -their price has fallen to $40 and $30 a month; in the north they are -not engaged by the year but for the sugar season, which lasts three or -four months, at the end of which they are discharged with the workmen. -Go and shift for yourself, says the employer. Next fall when the beets -come I know I shall find chemists to superintend making them into -sugar. - -The chemists are not exceptional; you know only too well that in all -branches there is an over-production of intellectuals, and that when -a place is vacant, tens and hundreds offer themselves to fill it; and -it is this pressure which permits the capitalists to lower the price -of the intellectuals and to put it even below the wage of the manual -laborer. - -Poverty is harder for the intellectual than for the workingman; it -bruises him morally and physically. The workingman, enduring hardships -from childhood and knocking about the street and the shops, is -accustomed to enduring the troubles of life; the intellectual, brought -up in a hot-house, has the life bleached out of him by the shadow of -the college walls, his nervous system is over-developed and takes on an -unhealthy impressionability. What the workingman endures thoughtlessly -is to him a painful shock. The intellectual is wounded to the depths -of his moral being by the exigencies of a wage-worker's life. With the -same or even a higher wage the intellectual is in a worse economic -condition than the laborer, for the latter may dress as cheaply as he -likes, but the former, if only not to offend the eye of his employer -and his chiefs with whom he is brought in contact is obliged to dress -expensively and even elegantly. He must save on his food what he has -to spend on his clothing. - -The capitalists have degraded the intellectuals below the economic -level of the manual laborers. This is their reward for having so -magnificently prepared the way for the bourgeois revolution of the -eighteenth century. - -Jaures in his preface to the Socialist History of France says that -"the intellectual bourgeoisie, offended by a brutal and commercial -society and disenchanted with the bourgeois power, is rallying to the -support of socialism." Unfortunately nothing could be less exact. This -transformation of the intellectual faculties into merchandise, which -ought to have filled the intellectuals with wrath and indignation, -leaves them indifferent. Never would the free citizen of the ancient -republics of Athens and Rome have submitted to such degradation. The -free man who sells his work, says Cicero, lowers himself to the rank -of the slaves. Socrates and Plato were indignant against the Sophists -who required pay for their philosophic teaching, for to Socrates and -Plato thought was too noble a thing to be bought and sold like carrots -and shoes. Even the French clergy of 1789 resented as a mortal insult -the proposition to pay a salary for worship. But our intellectuals are -accustoming themselves to such degradation. - -Spurred on by the mercantile passion, they are never better satisfied -with themselves or with society than when they succeed in selling -their intellectual merchandise at a good price; they have even come -to the point of making its selling price the measure of its value. -Zola, who is one of the most distinguished representatives of literary -intellectualism, estimates the artistic value of a novel by the number -of editions sold. To sell their intellectual merchandise has become -in them such an all-absorbing principle that if one speaks to them of -socialism, before they inquire into its theories, they ask whether in -the socialistic society intellectual labor will be paid for and whether -it will be rewarded equally with manual labor. - -Imbeciles! they have eyes but they see not that it is the capitalist -bourgeoisie which establishes that degrading equality: and to increase -its wealth degrades intellectual labor to the point of paying it at a -lower rate than manual labor. - -We should have to put off the triumph of socialism not to the year -2,000 but to the end of the world if we had to wait upon the delicate, -shrinking and impressionable hesitancy of the intellectuals. The -history of the century is at hand to teach us just how much we have a -right to expect from these gentlemen. - -Since 1789 governments of the most diverse and opposed character have -succeeded each other in France; and always, without hesitation, the -intellectuals have hastened to offer their devoted services. I am not -merely speaking of those two-for-a-cent intellectuals who litter up -the newspapers, the parliaments and the economic associations; but I -mean the scientists, the university professors, the members of the -Institute; the higher they raise their heads, the lower they bow the -knee. - -Princes of science, who ought to have conversed on equal terms with -kings and emperors, have marketed their glory to buy offices and favors -from ephemeral ministers. Cuvier, one of the mightiest geniuses of the -modern era, whom the revolution took from the household of a nobleman -to make of him at twenty-five years one of the Museum professors, -Cuvier took the oath of allegiance and served with fidelity the -Republic, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe, the last -of whom created him a peer of France to reward him for his career of -servility. - -To devote one's self to all governments without distinction is not -enough. Pasteur placed his glorious name at the service of the -financiers, who placed him in the administrative council of the Credit -Foncier, side by side with Jules Simon, with dukes and counts, with -senators, deputies and ex-ministers, in order to entrap the "lambs." -When De Lesseps was equipping his colossal swindle of the Panama canal, -he enrolled the intellectuals of the Institute, of the French Academy, -of literature, of the clergy, of all the circles of higher life. - -It is not in the circle of the intellectuals, degraded by centuries -of capitalist oppression, that we must seek examples of civic courage -and moral dignity. They have not even the sense of professional -class-consciousness. At the time of the Dreyfus affair, a certain -minister discharged, as if he had been a mere prison guard, one of the -professors of chemistry in the Polytechnic school who had had the rare -courage to give public expression to his opinion. When in a factory the -employer dismisses a workman in too arbitrary a fashion, his comrades -grumble, and sometimes quit work, even though misery and hunger await -them in the street. - -All his colleagues in the Polytechnic school bowed their heads in -silence; each one crouched in self-regarding fear, and what is still -more characteristic, not a single partisan of Dreyfus in the Society -of the Rights of Man or in the ranks of the press raised a voice to -remind them of the idea of professional solidarity. The intellectuals, -who on all occasions display their transcendental ethics, have still a -long road to travel before they reach the moral plane of the working -class and of the socialist party. - -The scientists have not only sold themselves to the governments -and the financiers; they have also sold science itself to the -capitalist-bourgeoisie. When in the eighteenth century there was -need to prepare the minds of men for the revolution, by sapping the -ideologic foundations of aristocratic society, then science fulfilled -its sublime mission of freedom; it was revolutionary; it furiously -attacked Christianity and the intuitional philosophy. But when the -victorious bourgeoisie decided to base its new power on religion, it -commanded its scientists, its philosophers and its men of letters to -raise up what they had overthrown; they responded to the need with -enthusiasm. They reconstructed what they had demolished; they proved -by scientific, sentimental and romantic argument the existence of God -the father, of Jesus the son and of Mary the virgin mother. I do not -believe history offers a spectacle equal to that presented in the first -years of the nineteenth century by the philosophers, the scientists -and the literary men, who from revolutionaries and materialists -suddenly transformed themselves into reactionaries, intuitionalists and -catholics. - -This backward movement still continues; when Darwin published his -Origin of Species, which took away from God his role of creator in the -organic world, as Franklin had despoiled him of his thunderbolt, we -saw the scientists, big and little, university professors and members -of the Institute, enrolling themselves under the orders of Flourens, -who for his own part had at least his eighty years for an excuse, -that they might demolish the Darwinian theory, which was displeasing -to the government and hurtful to religious beliefs. The intellectuals -exhibited that painful spectacle in the fatherland of Lamark and of -Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, the creators of the evolution theory, which -Darwin completed and made proof against criticism. - -Today, now that the clerical anxiety is somewhat appeased, the -scientists venture to profess the evolution theory, which they never -opposed without a protest from their scientific conscience, but they -turn it against socialism so as to keep in the good graces of the -capitalists. Herbert Spencer, Haeckel and the greatest men in the -school of Darwinism demonstrate that the classification of individuals -into rich and poor, idlers and laborers, capitalists and wage-earners, -is the necessary result of the inevitable laws of nature, instead of -being the fulfillment of the will and the justice of God. Natural -selection, they say, which has differentiated the organs of the human -body, has forever fixed the ranks and the functions of the social body. -They have, through servility, even lost the logical spirit. They are -indignant against Aristotle because he, being unable to conceive of the -abolition of slavery, declared that the slave was marked off by nature; -but they fail to see that they are saying something equally monstrous -when they affirm that natural selection assigns to each one his place -in society. - -Thus it is no longer God or religion which condemn the workers to -wretchedness—it is science. Never was there an intellectual bankruptcy -more fraudulent. - -M. Brunetières, one of those intellectuals who do not feel their -degradation and who joyfully fulfill their servile task, was right when -he proclaimed the failure of science. He does not suspect how colossal -this bankruptcy is. - -Science, the great emancipator, that has tamed the powers of nature, -and might in so doing have freed man from toil to allow him to develop -freely his faculties of mind and body; science, become the slave of -capital, has done nothing but supply means for capitalists to increase -their wealth, and to intensify their exploitation of the working class. -Its most wonderful applications to industrial technique have brought to -the children, the women and the men of the working class nothing but -over-work and misery! - -The middle-class revolutionary party of 1789 cried out in horror and -indignation against the lords, who through the long summer nights -compelled their serfs to beat the ponds near their castles in order -to keep the frogs from croaking. What would they say if they saw what -we see? Improvements in lighting date from the capitalist period. At -the end of the last century Argant and Carcel invented the lamp with -a double current of air, at the beginning of this Chevreul invented -the stearic candle, then gas was discovered, then petroleum, then -the electric light, turning night into day. What benefits have these -scientific improvements in lighting brought to the workers? They have -enabled employers to impose night work upon millions of proletarians, -not in the midsummer nights and in the balmy air of the fields, but -through nights of summer and winter in the poisonous air of the -workshops and factories. The industrial applications of mechanics -and chemistry have transformed the happy and stimulating work of the -artisan into a torture which exhausts and kills the proletarian. - -When science subdued the forces of nature to the service of man, ought -she not to have given leisure to the workers that they might develop -themselves physically and intellectually; ought she not to have changed -the "vale of tears" into a dwelling place of peace and joy? I ask you, -has not science failed in her mission of emancipation? - -The obtuse capitalist himself is conscious of this failure; so he -directs his economists and his other intellectual domestics to prove to -the working class that it has never been so happy and that its lot goes -on improving. - -The economists, considering that to deserve the good graces of -the capitalists it was not enough to falsify economic facts, are -suppressing economic science, which is becoming dangerous for the -domination of capital. Ever since Adam Smith and Ricardo they go on -repeating the same errors regarding value, regarding the productivity -of the predatory and idle capitalist, compiling facts and arranging -statistics which guide the capitalists in their speculations; but they -dare not draw conclusions and build systems with the materials that -they have accumulated. When Ricardo wrote, the phenomena of modern -production were beginning their evolution, their communist tendencies -could not be perceived, one could then study them without taking sides -and could build up a science without fear of wounding the interests -of capital. But now that they have arrived at their full development -and show clearly their communal tendencies, the economists shut their -eyes that they may not see, and they wage war against the principles -established by Ricardo, which after having served as a basis for the -old bourgeois economy, have become the points of departure of the -Marxian economy. To take a whack at the socialist theories and put -themselves at the service of the financiers, like barkers and fakirs of -their bogus goods, are the intellectual functions of the economists. -Latterly the owners of silver mines have enlisted them to sing the -praises of bimetallism, while Cecil Rhodes, Barnato, Beit, Robbers & -Company called them in to boom the Transvaal gold mines. - -The intellectuals of art and literature, like the jesters of the old -feudal courts, are the entertainers of the class which pays them. To -satisfy the tastes of the capitalists and beguile their leisure—this -is their sole artistic aim. The men of letters are so well broken to -this servile duty that they do not understand the spirit of Molière, -their great ancestor, all the while that they adore the letter of his -works. Molière is the writer most written about in France; learned -men have devoted themselves to gathering up the scattered fragments -of his erratic and careless youth, to fixing the date and the hour -of the representations of his comedies; if they had unearthed an -authentic piece of excrement from him they would have set it in gold -and would kiss it devotedly, but the spirit of Molière escapes them. -You have read, as I have, many critical analyses of his dramas. Did -you ever find one of them which brought out in clear light the role of -this militant playwright, who more than a century before Beaumarchais -and before revolution, at Versailles, in the very court of the great -monarch, thrust at the nobility of the court and of the provinces, -attacked the church before which Descartes and the rest trembled, -hurled his jests at Aristotle, the unquestioned authority of La -Sorbonne, that secular church; who ridiculed the Pyrrhonism which the -neo-Kantians of our own days oppose to the materialist philosophy of -Marxian socialism, but which then was the weapon of the catholics, of -Pascal, of Huet, the bishop of Avranches, to strike and to overthrow -human reason, with its impudent desire or reaching knowledge by its -own strength. Pitiful, wretched reason, clamored these Kantians before -Kant, you can know nothing without the aid of faith! Molière is unique -in European literature, you must go back to the epoch of glorious -Athens to find his counterpart in Aristophanes. - -If the bourgeois critics timidly and unintelligently mention this side -of Molière, there is another of which their ignorance is complete. -Molière was the man of his class, the champion of the bourgeois class. -Like the socialists who say to the workers, "Break with the liberal -bourgeoisie, which deceives you when it does not slaughter you;" he -cried to the Georges Dandins and to the "bourgeois noblemen," "Avoid -the nobles like pests; they deceive you, mock you and rob you." - -The great capitalist bourgeoisie does not choose to work, either -with its hands or its brain; it chooses merely to drink, to eat, to -practice lewdness and to look dignified in its beastly and cumbersome -luxury; it does not even deign to occupy itself with politics; men like -Rothschild, De Lesseps, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, do not run -for office; they find it more economical to buy the deputies than the -voters, and more convenient to put their clerks into the ministries -than to take part in parliamentary struggles. The big capitalists -interest themselves only in the operations of the stock exchange, which -afford the delights of gambling; they dignify these by the pompous name -of "speculations,"—a word formerly reserved for the highest processes -of philosophical or mathematical thought. The capitalists are getting -themselves replaced in the supervision and management of the great -industrial and commercial enterprises by intellectuals, who carry -them on, and usually are well paid for doing so. These intellectuals -of industry and politics, the privileged portion of the wage class, -imagine that they are an integral part of the capitalist class, while -they are only its servants; on every occasion they take up its defense -against the working class, which finds in them its worst enemies. - -Intellectuals of this description can never be led into socialism; -their interests are too closely bound up with those of the capitalist -class for them to detach themselves and turn against it. But below -these favored few there is a swarming and famishing throng of -intellectuals whose lot grows worse in proportion to the increase of -their numbers. These intellectuals belong to socialism. They ought -to be already in our ranks. Their education ought to have given -them the necessary intelligence to deal with social problems, but it -is this very education which obstructs their hearing and keeps them -away from socialism. They think their education confers on them a -social privilege, that it will permit them to get through the world -by themselves, each making his own way in life by crowding out his -neighbor or standing on the shoulders of everyone else. They imagine -that their poverty is transitory and that they only need a stroke of -good luck to transform them into capitalists. Education, they think, -is the lucky number in the social lottery, and it will bring them -the grand prize. They do not perceive that this ticket given them -by the capitalist class is a fraud, that labor, whether manual or -intellectual, has no other chance than to earn its daily pittance, -that it has nothing to hope for but to be exploited, and that the more -capitalism goes on developing, the more do the chances of an individual -raising himself out of his class go on diminishing. - -And while they build castles in Spain, capital crushes them, as it has -crushed the small merchants and the small manufacturers, who thought -they, too, with free credit and a little luck, might become first-class -capitalists, whose names should be written in the Great Book of the -Public Debt. - -The intellectuals, in all that has to do with the understanding of -the social movement, do not rise above the intellectual level of -those little bourgeois who scoffed so fiercely at the bunglers of -1830 and who, after being ruined and merged in the proletariat, none -the less continue to detest socialism; to such a degree were their -heads perverted by the religion of property. The intellectuals, whose -brains are stuffed with all the prejudices of the bourgeois class, are -inferior to those little bourgeois of 1830 and 1848 who at least were -not afraid of gunpowder; they have not their spirit of combativeness, -they are true imbeciles,—if we restore to this word its original Latin -meaning of unsuited for war. Without resistance they endure rebuffs and -wrongs and they do not think of uniting, of organizing themselves to -defend their interests and give battle to capital on the economic field. - -The intellectual proletariat as we know it is a recent growth, it has -especially developed in the last forty years. When after the amnesty of -the condemned of the Commune, we began again the socialist propaganda, -believing that it would be easy to draw the intellectuals into the -movement we took up our dwelling in their cultured Latin quarter, -Guesde taking up his residence in the Rue de la Pitie, Vaillant in the -Rue Monge and I in the Boulevard de Port Royal. We became acquainted -with hundreds of young men, students of law, of medicines, of the -sciences, but you can count on your fingers those whom we brought into -the socialist camp. Our ideas attracted them one day, but the next day -the wind blew from another quarter and turned their heads. - -An honorable merchant of Bordeaux, a prominent member of the municipal -council, said in the time of the empire to my father, who was disturbed -over my socialism: - -"Friend Lafargue, you must let youth take its course; I was a socialist -when I studied at Paris, I was connected with the secret societies -and I took part in the movement for demanding of Louis Philippe the -pardon of Barbes." The young men of our age turn quickly, let them get -back to their homes and they develop prominent abdomens and become -reactionaries. - -We welcomed joyfully the entrance of Jaures into socialism; we thought -that the new form which he brought to our propaganda would make it -penetrate into circles that we had not been able to touch. He has -in fact made a decided impression on the university circle, and we -owe it in part to him that the nurslings of the Ecole Normale have -ideas regarding the social movement which are a little less absurd -and formless than those with which their learning and intelligence -have hitherto been contented. Lately, joining forces with the radical -politicians who had lost their working-class following, they have -invaded the socialist party. Their souls overflow with the purest -intentions; if their peaceful habits prevent them from throwing -themselves into the conflict, and if their lofty culture forbids them -to take their place in the ranks of the comrades, they nevertheless -condescend to instruct us in ethics, to polish off our ignorance, to -teach us how to think, to offer us such crumbs of science as we may be -able to digest, and to direct us; they modestly offer themselves to us -as leaders and schoolmasters. - -These intellectuals who have spent their youth in the university -that they might become experts on exercises, polishers of phrases, -philosophers or doctors, imagine one can improvise himself into a -master of the socialist theory by attending a single lecture or by the -careless reading of a single pamphlet. Naturalists who had felt the -need of painful research to learn the habits of mollusks or of the -polyps who live in a community on the coral banks, think that they know -enough to regulate human societies, and that by keeping their stand -on the first steps of the ascending ladder of animal life they can -the better discern the human ideal. The philosophers, the moralists, -the historians and the politicians have aims equally lofty; they bring -an abundant supply of ideas and a new method of action to replace the -imperfect theory and tactics which in all capitalist countries have -served to build up socialist parties strong in numbers, unity and -discipline. - -The class struggle is out of fashion, declare these professors of -socialism. Can a line of demarcation be drawn between classes? Do not -the working people have savings bank accounts of $20, $40 and $100, -bringing them 50 cents, $1.50 and $3.00 of interest yearly? Is it not -true that the directors and managers of mines, railroads and financial -houses are wage-workers, having their functions and duties in the -enterprises which they manage for the account of capitalists? The -argument is unanswerable, but by the same token there is no vegetable -kingdom nor animal kingdom because we can not separate them "with -an ax," as it were, for the reason that at their points of contact, -vegetables and animals merge into each other. There is no longer any -day or any night because the sun does not appear on the horizon at the -same moment all over the earth, and because it is day at the antipodes -while it is night here. - -The concentration of capital? A worn-out tune of 1850. The corporations -by their stocks and bonds parcel out property and distribute it among -all the citizens. How blinded we were by our sectarianism when we -thought that this new form of property, essentially capitalistic, -was enabling the financiers to plunge their thieving hands into the -smallest purses, to extract the last pieces of silver. - -The poverty of the working class! But it is diminishing and soon will -disappear through the constant increase of wages, while interest -on money is constantly diminishing; some fine day it will descend -to zero and the bourgeois will be overjoyed to offer their beloved -capital on the altar of socialism. That to-morrow or the day after -the capitalist will be forced to work, is the prediction of Mr. -Waldeck-Rousseau. And there are intellectuals whose condition grows -worse in proportion as capitalism develops, who are stultified by the -utterances of the employers to a point where they affirm that the -position of wage-workers is improving, and there are intellectuals -who assume to possess some knowledge of political economy, who affirm -that interest on money is rapidly diminishing. Could these reformers -of socialism perchance be ignorant that Adam Smith calculated at the -end of the eighteenth century that 3 per cent was the normal interest -of capital running no risk, and that the financiers of our own epoch -consider that it is still around 3 per cent that the interest rate -must fluctuate. If a few years ago this rate seemed to fall below 2½ -per cent, it has risen today above 3 per cent. Capital is merchandise, -like intellectual capacities and carrots; as such it is subject to -the fluctuations of supply and demand. It was then more offered than -demanded, whereas since the development of the industrial plant of -Russia, since the opening of China to European exploitation, etc., the -over-supply of capital has been absorbed and its price rises with its -scarcity. But the intellectuals have too many trifles to think of and -too many harmonious phrases to construct for giving any thought to -economic phenomena. They take for sterling truths all the lies of the -capitalists, and repeat with pious conviction the old litanies of the -orthodox economic church: "There are no classes, wealth is coming to be -distributed more and more equitably, the workers are growing richer and -those living on incomes are growing poorer, and the capitalist society -is the best of all possible societies; these truths shine forth like -suns and none but partisans and mystics can deny them." - -These intellectuals propose to modify the tactics as well as the -theories of the socialist party; they wish to impose upon it a new -method of action. It must no longer strive to conquer the public powers -by a great struggle, legal or revolutionary as need may be, but let -itself be conquered by every ministry of a republican coalition; it is -no longer to oppose the socialist party to all the bourgeois parties; -what is needed is to put it at the service of the liberal party; we -must no longer organize it for the class struggle, but keep it ready -for all the compromises of politicians. And to further the triumph of -the new method of action, they propose to disorganize the socialist -party, to break up its old systems and to demolish the organizations -which for twenty years have labored to give the workers a sense of -their class interests and to group them in a party of economic and -political struggle. - -But the intellectuals will lose their labors; thus far they have only -succeeded in drawing closer the ties uniting the socialists of the -different organizations, and in making themselves ridiculous. - -The intellectuals ought to have been the first of all the various -groups to revolt against capitalist society, in which they occupy -a subordinate position so little in keeping with their hopes and -their talents, but they do not even understand it; they have such a -confused idea of it that Auguste Comte, Renan, and others more or less -distinguished have cherished the dream of reviving for their benefit an -aristocracy copied after the model of the Chinese mandarin system. Such -an idea is a reflection of past ages in their heads, for nothing is -in more absolute opposition with the modern social movement than such -pretensions. The intellectuals in previous states of society formed -a world outside and above that of production, having charge only of -education, of the direction of religious worship, and of the political -administration. - -The mechanic industry of these societies combine in the same producer, -manual labor and intellectual labor; it was for example the same -cabinetmaker who designed and executed the piece of furniture, who -bought its first material and who even undertook its sale. Capitalist -production has divorced two functions which once were indissolubly -united; on the one side it puts the manual workers, who become more -and more servants of the machine, and on the other the intellectual -workers, engineers, chemists, managers, etc. But these two categories -of workers, however different and contrary they may be in their -education and habits, are welded together, to the point that a -capitalist industry can not be carried on without manual laborers any -more than without intellectual wage-workers. - -United in production, united under the yoke of capitalist exploitation, -united they should be also in revolt against the common enemy. The -intellectuals, if they understood their own real interests would come -in crowds to socialism, not through philanthropy, not through pity for -the miseries of the workers, not through affectation and snobbery, -but to save themselves, to assure the future welfare of their wives -and children, to fulfill their duty to their class. They ought to be -ashamed of being left behind in the social battle by their comrades in -the manual category. They have many things to teach them, but they have -still much to learn from them; the workingmen have a practical sense -superior to theirs, and have given proof of an instinctive intuition -of the communist tendencies of modern capitalism which is lacking to -the intellectuals, who have only been able by a conscious mental effort -to arrive at this conception. If only they had understood their own -interests, they would long since have turned against the capitalist -class the education which it has generously distributed in order -better to exploit them; they would have utilized their intellectual -capacities, which are enriching their masters, as so many improved -weapons to fight capitalism and to conquer the freedom of their class, -the wage-working class. - -Capitalist production, which has overthrown the old conditions of life -and of work, has elaborated new forms, which already can be discerned -without supernatural vision, but which to the intellectuals remain -sealed under seven seals. One of the leading lights of intellectualism, -M. Durkheim, in his book, "The Division of Labor," which made some -noise in university circles, can not conceive of society except on -the social pattern of ancient Egypt, each laborer remaining, his life -through, penned up in one single trade. However, unless one is so -unfortunate as to be affected by the hopeless near-sightedness of the -Ecole Normale, one can not help seeing that the machine is suppressing -trades, one after the other, in a way to let only one survive, that -of the machinist, and that when it has finished its revolutionary -work which the socialists will complete by revolutionizing capitalist -society, the producer of the communist society will plow and sow with -the machine today, will spin, will turn wood or polish steel to-morrow, -and will exercise in turn all the trades to the greater profit of his -health and his intelligence. - -The industrial applications of mechanics, chemistry and physics, -which, monopolized by capital, oppress the worker, will, when they -shall be common property, emancipate man from toil and give him leisure -and liberty. - -Mechanical production, which under capitalist direction can only buffet -the worker back and forth from periods of over-work to periods of -enforced idleness, will when developed and regulated by a communist -administration, require from the producer, to provide for the normal -needs of society, only a maximum day of two or three hours in the -workshop, and when this time of necessary social labor is fulfilled he -will be able to enjoy freely the physical and intellectual pleasures of -life. - -The artist then will paint, will sing, will dance, the writer will -write, the musician will compose operas, the philosopher will build -systems, the chemist will analyze substances not to gain money, to -receive a salary, but to deserve applause, to win laurel wreaths, like -the conquerors at the Olympic games, but to satisfy their artistic and -scientific passion; for one does not drink a glass of champagne or kiss -the woman he loves for the benefit of the gallery. The artist and the -scientist may then repeat the enthusiastic words of Kepler, that hero -of science: "The elector of Saxony with all his wealth can not equal -the pleasure I have felt in composing the Mysterium Cosmographicum." - -Will not the intellectuals end by hearing the voice of the socialist -calling them to the rescue, to emancipate science and art from the -capitalist yoke, to liberate thought from the slavery of commercialism? - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[31] Ever since the French Revolution the law has required the words -"Liberté. Egalité. Fraternité." to be placed over the door of every -public building in France.—Translator. - -[32] It is a well-known fact that in the American establishments of -these and similar companies each workman before receiving employment -must sign papers transferring to the corporation the title to all -inventions made by him while in its service.—Translator. - - - - -THE BANKRUPTCY OF CAPITALISM - - -The nineteenth century was the century of capitalism. Capitalism -filled that century to overflowing with its commerce, its industry, -its manners, its fashions, its literature, its art, its science, -its philosophy, its religion, its politics and its civil code, more -universal than the laws imposed by Rome upon the nations of the ancient -world. The capitalist movement, starting from England, the United -States and France, has shaken the foundations of Europe and of the -world. It has forced the old feudal monarchies of Austria and Germany -and the barbaric despotism of Russia to put themselves in line; and in -these last days it has gone into the extreme East, into Japan, where -it has overthrown the feudal system and implanted the industry and the -politics of capitalism. - -Capitalism has taken possession of our planet; its fleets bring -together the continents which oceans had separated; its railroads, -spanning mountains and deserts, furrow the earth; the electric wires, -the nervous system of the globe, bind all nations together, and their -palpitations reverberate in the great centers of population. Now for -the first time there is a contemporary history of the world. Events in -Australia, the Transvaal, China, are known in London, Paris, New York, -at the moment they are brought about, precisely as if they happened in -the outskirts of the city where the news is published. - -Civilized nations live off the products of the whole earth. Egypt, -India, Louisiana, furnish the cotton, Australia the wool, Japan the -silk, China the tea, Brazil the coffee, New Zealand and the United -States the meat and grain. The capitalist carries in his stomach and on -his back the spoils of the universe. - -The study of natural phenomena has undergone an unprecedented, an -unheard-of, development. New sciences, geology, chemistry, physics, -etc., have arisen. The industrial application of the forces of nature -and of the discoveries of science has taken on a still more startling -development; some of the geometrical discoveries of the scientists -of Alexandria, two thousand years old, have for the first time been -utilized. - -The production of machine industry can provide for all demand and more. -The mechanical application of the forces of nature has increased man's -productive forces tenfold, a hundredfold. A few hours' daily labor, -furnished by the able-bodied members of the nation, would produce -enough to satisfy the material and intellectual needs of all. - -But what has come of the colossal and wonderful development of science, -industry and commerce in the nineteenth century? Has it made humanity -stronger, healthier, happier? Has it given leisure to the producers? -Has it brought comfort and contentment to the people? - -Never has work been so prolonged, so exhausting, so injurious to man's -body and so fatal to his intelligence. Never has the industrial labor -which undermines health, shortens life and starves the intellect been -so general, been imposed on such ever-growing masses of laborers. The -men, women and children of the proletariat are bent under the iron yoke -of machine industry. Poverty is their reward when they work, starvation -when they lose their jobs. - -In former stages of society, famine appeared only when the earth -refused her harvests. In capitalist society, famine sits at the hearth -of the working class when granaries and cellars burst with the fruits -of the earth, and when the market is gorged with the products of -industry. - -All the toil, all the production, all the suffering of the working -class has but served to heighten its physical and mental destitution, -to drag it down from poverty into wretchedness. - -Capitalism, controlling the means of production and directing the -social and political life of a century of science and industry, has -become bankrupt. The capitalists have not even proved competent, like -the owners of chattel slaves, to guarantee to their toilers the work to -provide their miserable livelihood; capitalism massacred them when they -dared demand the right to work—a slave's right.[33] - -The capitalist class has also made a failure of itself. It has seized -upon the social wealth to enjoy it, and never was the ruling class more -incapable of enjoyment. The newly rich, those who have built up their -fortunes by accumulating the filchings from labor, live like strangers -in the midst of luxury and artistic treasures, with which they surround -themselves through a foolish vanity, to pay homage to their millions. - -The leading capitalists, the millionaires and billionaires, are -sad specimens of the human race, useless and hurtful. The mark of -degeneracy is upon them. Their sickly offspring are old at birth. Their -organs are sapped with diseases. Exquisite meats and wines load down -their tables, but the stomach refuses to digest them; women expert in -love perfume their couches with youth and beauty, but their senses are -be-numbed. They own palatial dwellings in enchanting sites, and they -have no eyes, no feeling for joyful nature, with its eternal youth -and change. Sated and disgusted with everything, they are followed -everywhere by ennui as by their shadows. They yawn at rising and when -they go to bed; they yawn at their fests and at their orgies. They -began yawning in their mother's womb. - -The pessimism which, in the wake of capitalist property, made its -appearance in ancient Greece six centuries before Jesus Christ, and -which has since formed the foundation of the moral and religious -philosophy of the capitalist class, became the leading characteristic -of the philosophy of the second half of the nineteenth century. The -pessimism of Theognis sprang from the uncertainties and vicissitudes of -life in the Greek cities, torn by the perpetual wars between rich and -poor; the pessimism of the capitalist is the bitter fruit of satiety, -ennui and the impoverishment of the blood. - -The capitalist class is falling into its second childhood; its -decreptitude appears in its literature, now returning to its -starting point. Romantic literature, the literary form proper to the -capitalist class, which started out with the romantic Christianity -of Chateaubriand, is returning to the same point, after passing -through the historical novel and the character novel. (Witness in this -country the immense sale of "Ben Hur" and its imitators.—Translator.) -Capitalism, which in its virile and combative youth in the eighteenth -century had wished to emancipate itself from Christianity, resigns -itself in its old age to practices of the grossest superstition. - -The capitalist class, bankrupt, old, useless and hurtful, has finished -its historic mission; it persists as ruling class only through its -acquired momentum. The proletariat of the twentieth century will -execute the decree of history; will drive it from its position of -social control. Then the stupendous work in science and industry -accomplished by civilized humanity, at the price of such toil and -suffering, will engender peace and happiness; then will this vale of -tears be transformed into an earthly paradise. - - -FOOTNOTE: - -[33] I allude to the Days of June, 1848. The Insurgents demanded the -"Right to Work." - - - - -THE WOMAN QUESTION - - -The bourgeois has thought and still thinks that woman ought to -remain at home and devote her activity to supervising and directing -the housekeeping, caring for her husband, and manufacturing and -nourishing children. Even Xenophon, at the time when the bourgeoisie -was newly born and was taking its shape in ancient society, traced -the main outlines of this ideal of woman. But if through the course -of centuries, this ideal may have appeared reasonable, because it -corresponded to economic conditions which prevailed, it is no longer -anything more than an ideological survival, since these conditions have -ceased to exist. - -The domestication of woman presupposes that she fulfills in the -household certain numerous functions which absorb all her energy; now, -the most important and the most exacting of these domestic labors—the -spinning of wool and linen, the cutting and making up of clothing, -laundry work, baking, etc.,—are carried on by capitalistic industry. -It furthermore presupposes that man by his contribution to the family -capital and his earnings provides for the material needs of the -family; now, among the comfortable bourgeoisie, marriage is as much an -association of capitals[34] as a union of persons and often the capital -contributed by the wife exceeds that of the husband, and in the small -bourgeoisie the gains of the father of the family have fallen so low -that the children,—girls as well as boys,—are compelled to earn their -living in business, railroad offices, banks, teaching, civil service -positions, etc., while it often happens that the young wife continues -to work outside in order to help out the resources of the housekeeping, -when the earnings of the husband do not suffice to cover the expenses. - -The daughters and wives of the small bourgeoisie, as well as those -of the working class, thus enter into competition with their father, -brothers and husband. This economic antagonism, which the bourgeoisie -had prevented from developing by confining the wife to the family -dwelling, is becoming general and is intensified in proportion as -capitalistic production develops; it invades the fields of the liberal -professions—medicine, law, literature, journalism, the sciences, -etc.,—where man had reserved for himself a monopoly, which he imagined -was to be eternal. The laborers, as is always the case, have been the -first to draw the logical consequences of the participation of woman -in social production; they have replaced the ideal of the artisan,—the -wife who is nothing but a housekeeper,—by a new ideal,—woman as a -companion in their economic and political struggles for the raising of -wages and the emancipation of labor. - -The bourgeois has not yet succeeded in understanding that his ideal -is already long since out of date and that it must be remodeled -to correspond to the new conditions of the social environment; -nevertheless since the first half of the nineteenth century the ladies -of the bourgeoisie have begun to protest against their inferior -position in the family, so much the more intolerable in that their -dowry placed them on a footing of equality with the husband; they -rebelled against the domestic slavery and the parsimonious life to -which they were condemned, as well as the deprivation of intellectual -and material enjoyments which was imposed upon them; the bolder ones -went so far as to demand free love and to ally themselves with the -utopian sects which preached the emancipation of woman.[35] The -philosophers and the moralists had the simplicity to believe that they -would stop the woman movement by opposing to it the sacred interest -of the family, which they declared could not survive without the -subjection of woman to the labors of the household, the sewing on -of shirt buttons, the mending of hose, etc., her duty was to devote -herself to these obscure and thankless labors, in order that man -might freely unfold and display his brilliant and superior faculties. -These same philosophers, who lectured the rebellious ladies on the -cult of the family, sang the praises of capitalist industry, which, -by forcing the wife away from the domestic hearth and her child's -cradle to condemn her to the forced labor of the factory, destroys the -working-class family. - -The bourgeois ladies laughed at the sermons, equally imbecile and -ethical, of these solemn philosophers; they kept on their way and -attained the end they set for themselves; like the patrician lady of -ancient Rome and the countess of the eighteenth century, they threw -off the cares of housekeeping and of the nursing of the child upon -mercenaries, that they might devote themselves wholly to the toilet, -that they might be the most luxuriously arrayed dolls in the capitalist -world and in order to make business move. The daughters and wives of -American plutocracy have attained the extreme limits of this sort of -emancipation; they are transforming their fathers and husbands into -accumulators of millions, which they squander madly. Since the toilet -does not exhaust the entire activity of the ladies of capitalism, they -find amusement in breaking the marriage contract in order to assert -their independence and improve the race. The Communist Manifesto -remarks that the innumerable divorce suits in which adultery is alleged -are indisputable proofs of the respect inspired in the bourgeois of -both sexes by the sacred bonds of marriage which the "licentious -socialists" talk of loosening. - -When the daughters and wives of the small bourgeoisie, obliged to -earn their living and to increase the resources of the family, began -to invade the stores, the offices, the civil service and the liberal -professions, the bourgeois were seized with anxiety for their means -of existence already so reduced; feminine competition would reduce -them still further. The intellectuals who took up the defense of the -males, thought it prudent not to start afresh with the ethical sermons -which had miscarried so piteously in the case of the wealthy bourgeois -ladies;—they appealed to science; they demonstrated by reasons which -were irrefutable and loftily scientific that woman cannot emerge from -the occupations of housekeeping without violating the laws of nature -and history. They proved to their complete satisfaction that woman -is an inferior being, incapable of receiving a higher intellectual -education and of furnishing the combination of attention, energy and -agility demanded by the professions in which she was entering into -competition with man. Her brain, less voluminous, less heavy and less -complex than that of man, is a "child's brain." Her less developed -muscles have not the strength for attack and for resistance; the -bones of her forearm, her pelvis, her femur, and in fact all her -osseous, muscular and nervous system do not permit her to undertake -more than the routine of the household. Nature designed her in all her -organization to be the servant of man, just as the odious god of the -Jews and Christians marked out the race of Ham for slavery. - -History contributed its startling confirmation of these ultra -scientific truths; the philosophers and the historians affirmed that -always and everywhere the wife, subordinate to the man, had been -shut up in the house, in the woman's apartments; if such had been her -lot in the past, such was to be her destiny in the future, was the -positive declaration of Auguste Comte, the profoundest of bourgeois -philosophers. Lombroso, the illustrious comedian, went him one better: -he seriously declared that social statistics proclaimed the inferiority -of woman, since the number of female criminals is below that of male -criminals; while buried in these figures, he might have added that the -statistics of insanity demonstrate the same inferiority. Thus we see -that ethics, anatomy, physiology, social statistics and history riveted -forever upon woman the chains of domestic servitude. - - -II. - -Bachofen, Morgan and a crowd of anthropologists have revised the -opinion of the historians and philosophers upon the role played by -woman in the past. They have shown that everywhere the paternal -family, which subordinated woman to man, had been preceded by the -maternal family, which gave the first place to woman. The Greek -language contains the record of her two conditions: while the Spartans, -among whom matriarchal customs persisted, still continued to call -her _despoina_, the mistress of the house, the sovereign, the other -Greeks gave to the wife the name _damar_, the subdued, the vanquished. -The Odyssey, in characterizing Nausicaa, says that she is _parthenos -admes_, the girl not subdued, that is to say, without a husband, -without a master. The modern expression "yoke of marriage" preserves -the ancient idea. - -Hesiod, in opposition to Homer, who tells only of patriarchal customs, -preserves precious recollections of the matriarchal family; he tells -us that when it existed man, even if he were a hundred years old, -lived with his prudent mother,—he was fed in her house like a great -child. (Works and Days, V. 129-130.) It was not the woman who then had -the "child's brain", but the man; everything seems in fact to prove -that her intelligence was the first to develop. This intellectual -superiority caused her to be deified before man in the primitive -religions of Egypt, the Indies, Asia and Greece, and caused the first -inventions of the arts and trades, with the exception of metal working, -to be attributed to goddesses and not to gods. The Muses, originally -three in number, were in Greece, even in preference to Apollo, the -goddesses of poetry, music and the dance. Isis, "mother of corn ears -and lady of bread," and Demeter, lawgiver, had taught the Egyptians and -Greeks the tillage of barley and wheat and made them renounce their -anthropophagic repasts. The woman appeared to the pre-patriarchal man, -like the Germans whom Tacitus knew, as having within herself something -holy and providential, _aliquid sanctum et providum_ (Germania VIII). -Her prudence and foresight gave her this divine character. Must we -conclude that this intellectual superiority, which manifested itself -when the economic environment is rudimentary, is a natural phenomenon? - -But, in any case, it may be asserted that the vitality of woman is -superior to that of man. The life insurance companies of the United -States, England and Holland, which do not base their calculation upon -scientific fairy tales of the intellectuals but upon mortality tables, -pay woman an annuity below that which they give man, because her -probabilities of death are less. Here for example is the annuity paid -for a capital of $1,000 by American and Dutch companies:[36] - - New York. Holland. - Age. Men. Women. Men. Women. - 50 years $ 76.47 $ 69.57 $ 76.80 $ 73.60 - 60 years 97.24 88.03 98.50 93.50 - 70 years 134.31 122.48 142.00 136.70 - 80 years 183.95 168.00 222.70 211.70 - -It may be objected that man, leading a more active life, is more -subject to accidents, diseases, and other causes of death, and that -consequently the prolonged life of woman does not prove the higher -vitality of her organism, but the advantages of a life less subject to -accident. - -The answer to this objection is found in the statistics of the various -nations. There is in no country a perfect equilibrium between the -number of women and that of men; for 1,000 men there are in Belgium -1,005 women, in France 1,014, in England 1,062, in Scotland 1,071 and -in Norway 1,091. Nevertheless in these countries with the feminine -preponderance there is an excess of masculine births: of the whole -of Western Europe for every 1000 girls there are born from 1,040 to -1,060 boys. If, in spite of this excess of masculine births, more -girls survive, it is because the greater mortality of the boys shows -the balance in favor of the girls; and this higher mortality cannot -be explained by the life of man being more subject to accident, since -it is observed at an early age, notably during the first two years. -All the diseases of childhood, with the exception of diphtheria and -whooping cough, are to a perceptible extent more fatal among boys than -among girls; from zero to five years the male sex is particularly -frail; at all ages, except between ten and fifteen years, the male -mortality is in excess of the female. - -The superior vitality of the female sex is also noticeable in -the greater ease with which it builds up its organism. M. Iribe, -superintendent of the sanitarium of Hendaye, to which are sent Parisian -children from three to fourteen years of age, who are afflicted with -anaemia, incipient tuberculosis, scrofula and rickets, reports that at -the time of their dismissal, at the end of six months, the progress in -weight, girth and chest development is incomparably higher in the girls -than in the boys, the increase in weight is double and often more. - -The same statement has been made by other superintendents of -sanitariums. (Bulletin Medical, No. 81, 1903.) - -Woman undeniably possesses a greater vitality than man. M. Gustav -Loisel has made inquiry "as to whether this difference existed in -embryonic life, and what may be its cause?" He has communicated the -results of his inquiries to the Biological Society of Paris, which -published them in its Bulletin of November 6, 1903. - -M. Loisel availed himself of 792 weights and measurements made upon 72 -foetuses at the Maternity Hospital of Paris by C. E. Legou;[37] from -the following weights of the foetuses at three, four, five and six -months he obtains the following figures: - - Males. Females. Differences. - Grammes. Grammes. - Total weight 1908.18 1708.11 200.07 in favor of males - Kidneys 16.87 17.19 2.67 in favor of males - Superrenal glands 5.15 6.43 0.32 in favor of females - Liver 88.35 96.31 1.28 in favor of females - Spleen 2.59 2.38 7.90 in favor of females - Thymus 3.89 3.97 0.21 in favor of males - Heart 10.97 12.60 0.08 in favor of females - Lungs 47.29 44.62 1.63 in favor of females - Brain 236.94 235.17 1.17 in favor of males - -"These figures thus show us," says M. Loisel, "a preponderance already -existing in favor of the females as regards the kidneys, the superrenal -glands, the liver, the thymus and the heart; this predominance is the -more noticeable since the total weight of the body is larger in the -male than in the female." - -If now we take the relation between the total weight and the weight of -the organs which are heaviest in the male, we find that the proportion -is still in favor of the female: - - -PROPORTION OF TOTAL WEIGHT. - - Males. Females. - Spleen 1 to 736 1 to 718 - Lungs 1 to 40 1 to 38 - Brain 1 to 8 1 to 7 - -The organs here examined, brain included, are thus absolutely or -relatively heavier in the female foetus than in the male foetus. - -M. Loisel has also examined into the proportion of the weights of -the different organs to the total weight according to the age of the -foetus. He has prepared a table, from which I take only the figures -concerning the brain: - - Proportion of - AGE TOTAL WEIGHT weight of brain - to total weight. - Males Females Males Females - Grammes Grammes - 3 Months 58.33 65.96 1/6.5 1/7 - 4 Months 167.25 182.58 1/7.3 1/6.6 - 5 Months 336.33 295.00 1/7.6 1/7.5 - 6 Months 732.58 636.00 1/8.3 1/7.3 - -The weight of the male foetus, which is below that of the female -foetus, at three months, when the sex has just been determined, grows -more rapidly and the proportion between the weight is always to the -advantage of the females from the fourth month on. - -"To sum up," says M. Loisel, "all the organs are heavier in the female -foetus than in the male foetus up to about the fourth month. The -predominance then passes over to the male, but only for the lungs -and the organs for sex-union, thus the cardiac muscle always remains -heavier in the female. The organs which are of real service to the -individual during the embryonic life always remain more developed in -the female sex. - -If now we consider that the differences in favor of the females are -especially in the liver, the heart, the superrenal glands and the -kidneys, we shall come to the conclusion that the greater vitality of -the female organisms corresponds to their being better nourished and -better purified."[38] - - -III. - -The superior organization possessed by woman at birth, assuring her -throughout her life a much greater vitality, is probably demanded -by the part she plays in the production of the species, a part -altogether more prolonged and exhausting than that of the man who, -when fertilization is accomplished, has no more to do, while then -the travail of woman begins, to continue during long months, through -pregnancy and after birth. The women of savage tribes suckle their -children for two years and more. It sometimes happens that the male -pays dear for his inutility; after union, the bees kill the males, -and the male spider must hastily take himself off that he may not be -devoured by the larger and stronger female. Among the Sakawas, at -the annual feast of Mylitta Anaitis, they sacrificed at Babylon the -handsome slave who had just united with the priestess who incarnated -the Assyrian goddess. This bloody religious ceremonial must have been a -reproduction of an Amazonian custom. - -The life of savagery and barbarism permits woman to develop her -superiority from birth; each sex there has its special function; it -is the division of labor in embryo. The man, whose muscular system is -more developed, "fights, hunts, fishes and sits down," according to the -Australian native, he regards all the rest as under the jurisdiction -of woman, whose function puts brain activity into play at an earlier -epoch. She has charge of the communal house, which often shelters a -clan of more than one hundred individuals; she prepares clothing from -skins and other raw materials; she charges herself with the cultivation -of the garden, the rearing of domestic animals and the manufacture -of household utensils; she preserves, economizes, cooks, distributes -the provisions, vegetable and animal, which have been gathered during -the course of the year; and like the Valkyries of the Scandinavians -and the Keres of the pre-Homeric Greeks, she accompanies the warrior -on the field battle, aids in the fray, raises him up if he is wounded -and cares for him; her assistance is so appreciated that, according to -Tacitus, the barbarians who under the leadership of Civilis revolted -against Vespasian, were seized with pity for the Roman soldiers because -their wives did not accompany them when they marched to combat. -Plato likewise who, like the chosen ones initiated in the Eleusinian -Mysteries, was more informed regarding ancient customs than is -supposed, makes the women to be present in the battles of the warriors -of his Republic. - -These multiple and diverse functions, which obliged woman to reflect, -to calculate, to think of the morrow and to look ahead at long range, -must necessarily have developed her intellectual faculties; thus the -craniologists say that only a slight difference exists between the -cranial capacity of the two sexes in the negroes, the Australians, -and the red skins, while they find that it goes on increasing among -civilized people. Woman is for the careless and improvident savage, a -providence; she is the prudent and prescient being who presides over -his destinies from birth to death. Man, making his religions with -the events and the intellectual acquisitions of his daily life, was -thus obliged to begin by deifying woman. The pre-Homeric Greeks and -Romans had placed their destinies under the control of goddesses, -the Fates—Moirai, Parcae—whose name signifies in the Latin language -"sparing," "economic," and in the Greek the part which falls to each -one in the distribution of food or of booty. - -If we relieve the rich and poetical Greek mythology of the symbolical, -allegorical and mystical lucubrations with which the philosophers -and the poets of the classical epoch and the Alexandrine period have -overloaded and complicated it, and which the German mythologists, -servilely copied by those of France and England, have carried on to -their own more perfect confusion, it becomes an inestimable storehouse -of prehistoric customs which preserves the memory of the manners -which travelers and anthropologists now observe living again among -the savages and barbarous nations of Africa and the New World. The -mythological legend furnishes us with information of the relative value -of feminine and masculine intelligence among the Greeks, before they -had entered upon the patriarchal period. - -Jupiter, the "father of the gods", as Homer, Hesiod and Aeschylos -call him, after having driven the feminine divinities from Olympus, -enthroned there the patriarchate, which for some generations had -been established upon earth; the religious heaven always reflects -terrestrial manners as the moon reflects the light of the sun. But -Jupiter, who like every barbarian, knew how to use his fists (Iliad -XV. 228), who boasted that he was the strongest of the gods, and who -to dominate the others kept next his throne two servants, Force and -Violence, always ready to obey his orders, was inadequately prepared by -his intellectual qualities to replace woman in the government of the -Olympian family; in order to supply the capacities which were lacking -to him, Hesiod tells us that he married Metis, "the wisest among -mortals and gods." The savage and the barbarian, that he may take into -himself the courage of a fallen enemy, devours his throbbing heart; -Jupiter carried off Metis to assimilate her cunning, her prudence -and her wisdom, for her name in the Greek language has these diverse -meanings; these qualities were considered as belonging to woman. - -But the process of assimilation took some time, if we may judge from -the rascally farce played upon him by Prometheus. The latter killed -and butchered an enormous ox, in one pile he placed the flesh which -he covered with the skin upon which he deposited the entrails; in -another pile he put the bare bones which he adroitly concealed under -heaps of fat. "You have divided the parts very badly," said the father -of gods and men. "Most worthy Jupiter, greatest of living gods, -take the part that your wisdom counsels you to choose," replied the -astute Prometheus. The ruler of the heavens, listening only to his -gluttony, laid both hands upon the heap of fat amid the laughter of -the Olympians; his wrath was terrible when he saw the bare bones. -(Theogony 435 _et seq._) Such a farce would hardly have been played in -the Olympian heaven had it not been that on the earth similar tests had -been required to prove to the Father that his intellectual faculties -did not justify him in taking the place of the Mother in the leadership -of the family and the management of its property. - -The higher position in the family and society, which man conquered -by brute force, while it compelled him to a mental activity to which -he was little accustomed, at the same time put at his disposal -opportunities for reflection and development which constantly -increased. Woman, "subdued," as the Greek expression has it, shut up in -the narrow circle of the family, the leadership of which had been taken -from her, and having little or no contact with the outside world, saw -on the contrary a great reduction of the means of development which -she had enjoyed, and to complete her subjection she was forbidden the -intellectual culture which was given to man. If in spite of these -fetters and these disadvantages, the disastrous effects of which cannot -be exaggerated, the brain of woman continued to evolve, it was because -woman's intelligence profited through the progress realized by the -masculine brain; for one sex transmits to the other the qualities which -it has acquired; thus pullets of certain varieties inherit the spurs -which are highly developed among the cocks, while in other varieties -they transmit to the males their exaggerated crests. "It is fortunate," -says Darwin upon this point, "that the equal transmission of the -characteristics of both sexes has been a general rule in the whole -series of mammals, otherwise, it is probable that man would have become -as superior to woman in intellectual power as the peacock is to the -female in ornamental plumage." (Descent of Man—Sexual Selection, VIII -and XIX.) - -But defects as well as valuable qualities are transmitted from one sex -to the other: if woman has profited by the brain-growth of man, he -has in his turn been retarded in his development by the sluggishness -in the development of woman's brain, produced by the reduction to the -smallest minimum of intellectual activity to which he has condemned -her. The breeders who seek the choicest results are as careful to -have irreproachable females as males; amateur cockfighters attach as -much importance to the selection of the pullets as to the cocks, they -produce only from those which are armed with spurs and which have the -fighting spirit. It may be said that humanity, since it emerged from -communism of the clan to live under the system of private property, has -been developed by the efforts of one sex alone and that its evolution -has been retarded through the obstacles interposed by the other sex. -Man by systematically depriving woman of the means of development, -material and intellectual, has made of her a force retarding human -progress. - -In fact if we study and compare the different periods of savagery -and barbarism, we cannot but observe the continuous and remarkable -progress in human mind, because women and men, exercising freely their -physical and mental faculties, contribute equally to the evolution of -the species; this has been retarded ever since humanity entered into -the period of civilization and private property, because then woman, -constrained and confined in her development, cannot contribute to -it in so effective a way. The senile stagnation in which China has -vegetated for more than a thousand years can only be attributed to -the degradation of woman, which has gone to the point of the cruel -mutilation of her feet that she may be imprisoned the more closely -in the woman's quarters. Europe also suffers from the degradation of -woman, since in spite of the extraordinary material progress of these -last two thousand years and the increasing and no less extraordinary -accumulation of human knowledge, it cannot be maintained that the -brain of the civilized modern exceeds in power and capacity that of -the Greeks of the classic epoch, which extends from the seventh to -the fourth century before the Christian era. It is certain that a -Victor Hugo, a Zola, or any university graduate or doctor has stored -in his brain an abundance of positive and diversified conceptions not -possessed by Aeschylus, Anaxagoras, Protagoras and Aristotle, but that -does not prove that his imagination and his intelligence, or that of -his contemporaries is more rich, more varied and more vast than that of -the generations of Ionia and Attica, who were the artificers of that -incomparable budding and blossoming of science, philosophy, literature -and art at which history marvels and who reveled in that subtle and -paradoxical play of sophistical philosophy, the like of which has not -again been seen. The sophists—Photagoras, Gorgias, Socrates, Plato, -etc., stated, discussed and solved the problems of the spiritualistic -philosophy and many others besides: yet the Hellenes of Asia Minor and -of Greece had emerged from barbarism only a few centuries before. Many -reasons may be cited to explain this arrest in human development, but -the principal one is the subjection of woman. - - -IV. - -Capitalist production, which takes charge of most of the labors to -which woman devoted herself in the gentile house, has levied into its -army of wage-workers in factory, shop, office and schoolroom, the -wives and daughters of the working class and of the small bourgeoisie, -in order to procure cheap labor. Its pressing need of intellectual -capacities has set aside the venerable and venerated axiom of masculine -ethics: "to read, write and count ought to be all of a woman's -knowledge;" it has required that girls like boys be instructed in the -rudiments of the sciences. The first step once taken, they could not -be forbidden to enter the universities. They proved that the feminine -brain, which the intellectuals had declared a "child's brain," was as -capable as the masculine brain of receiving all scientific instruction. -The abstract sciences (mathematics, geometry, mechanics, etc.), the -first whose study had been accessible to woman, were also the first in -which they could give the measure of their intellectual capacities; -they are now attacking the experimental sciences (physiology, physics, -chemistry, applied mechanics, etc.), in America and Europe there arises -a throng of women who are marching on a level with men in spite of the -inferiority of the conditions of development in which they have lived -since their first infancy. - -As Capitalism has not snatched woman from the domestic hearth and -launched her into social production to emancipate her, but to exploit -her more ferociously than man, so it has been careful not to overthrow -the economic, legal, political and moral barriers which had been raised -to seclude her in the marital dwelling. Woman, exploited by capital, -endures the miseries of the free laborer and bears in addition her -chains of the past. Her economic misery is aggravated; instead of being -supported by her father or husband, to whose rule she still submits, -she is obliged to earn her living; and under the pretext that she has -fewer necessities than man, her labor is paid less; and when her -daily toil in the shop, the office or school is ended, her labor in -the household begins. Motherhood, the sacred, the highest of social -functions, becomes in capitalistic society a cause of horrible misery, -economic and physiologic. The social and economic condition of woman is -a danger for the reproduction of the species. - -But this crushing and pitiful condition announces the end of her -servitude, which begins with the establishment of private property and -which can end only with its abolition. Civilized humanity, oppressed -by the mechanical mode of production, turns its face toward a society, -based on common property, in which woman, delivered from the economic, -legal and moral chains which bind her, may develop freely her physical -and intellectual faculties, as in the time of the communism of the -savages. - -The savages, to forbid primitive promiscuity and successfully restrain -the circle of sexual relations, found no other means than to separate -the sexes; there are reasons for believing that the women took the -initiative in this separation, which the specialization of their -functions consolidated and emphasized. This was manifested socially by -religious ceremonials and secret languages peculiar to each set and -even by struggles;[39] and after having taken the character of violent -antagonism, it ended in the brutal subjection of woman, which still -survives although it is progressively attenuated in proportion as the -competition of the two sexes becomes more general and intense upon -the economic field. But the modern antagonism will not end with the -victory of one sex over the other, for it is one of the phenomena of -the struggle of labor against capital, which will find its solution in -the emancipation of the working class in which women as well as men are -incorporated. - -The technique of production which tends to suppress the specialization -of trades and functions and to replace muscular effort by attention -and intellectual skill and which, the more it is perfected, mingles -and confounds man and woman the more in social labor, will prevent the -return of the conditions which in savage and barbarous nations had -maintained the separation of the sexes. Common property will put an end -to the economic antagonism of specialization. - -But if it is possible to catch a glimpse of the end of female servitude -and of the antagonism of the sexes and to conceive for the human -species an era of incomparable bodily and mental progress, brought -about by women and men of a high development in muscle and brain, it is -impossible to foresee the sexual relations of free and equal women and -men who will not be united nor separated by sordid material interests -and by the gross ethics engendered by such interests. But if we may -judge by the present and the past, men, in whom the genetic passion -is more violent and more continuous than in women—the same phenomenon -is observed in the males and females of the whole animal series—will -be obliged to exhibit their physical and intellectual qualities to -win their sweethearts. Sexual selection, which, as Darwin has shown, -fulfilled an important role in the development of the animal species -and which, with rare exceptions, has ceased to play this part in the -Indo-European races for about three thousand years, will again become -one of the most active factors in the perfecting of the human race. - -Motherhood and love will permit women to regain the higher position -which she occupied in primitive societies, the memory of which has been -preserved by the legends and myths of the ancient religions. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[34] The dowry has played an important role in the history of woman: -at the beginning of the patriarchal period the husband buys her from -her father, who has to refund her purchase price if for any cause -whatever he repudiates her and sends her back to her family; later this -purchase price is returned to him and constitutes her dowry, which -her relatives are accustomed to double. From the moment when the wife -enters into her husband's house with a dowry, she ceases to be a slave -whom he may dismiss, sell and kill. The dowry, which in Rome and Athens -became a legal charge upon the property of the husband, was, in case -of her repudiation or divorce, to be restored to her in preference to -any creditor. "No pleasure is derived from the riches which a woman -brings into the household," says a fragment of Euripides, "they only -serve to render divorce difficult." The comic authors ridiculed the -husbands, who in fear of a suit over the dowry, fell into dependence -upon the wife. A character in Plautus says to a husband who is talking -against his wife, "You accepted the money of her dowry, you sold your -authority—imperium." The wealthy Roman matrons carried their insolence -to such a point that they did not trust the management of their dowry -to their husbands, they gave it over to the stewards, who sometimes -fulfilled with them another service, as the evil-speaking Martial -states. - -Adultery on the part of the wife involved a legal divorce and the -restitution of the dowry, but rather than come to this painful -extremity, the husbands preferred to close their eyes to the foibles -of their wives; at Rome and at Athens the law had to strike at them -in order to recall them to their marital dignity; in China a certain -number of bamboo strokes were applied to the soles of their feet. The -penalties not being sufficient to encourage the husbands to repudiate -their adulterous wives, the law, in order to prop up masculine virtue, -permitted those who denounced the infidelity of the wife to retain a -part of the dowry; there were then men who married only in prospect -of the adultery of the wife. The Roman women evaded the law by having -themselves enrolled in the censor's book on the list of prostitutes, -to whom it did not apply. The number of matrons inscribed became so -considerable that the Senate, under Tiberius passed a decree forbidding -"women who had a patrician for a grandfather, husband or father to -traffic in their bodies." (Tacitus, Annals II., 85.) Adultery on the -part of the wife in the patrician society of antiquity, as well as -in the aristocratic society of the eighteenth century, had become so -general that it had so to speak entered into the social customs. It was -looked upon lightly as a corrective and accompaniment of marriage. - -[35] The Saint Simon manifesto of 1830 announced that the religion of -Saint Simon had come "to put an end to that shameful traffic, that -legal prostitution, which under the name of marriage often blesses -the monstrous union of self-surrender and egoism, of light and of -ignorance, of youth and decrepitude." - -[36] The French companies make no differences between the sexes because -they pay very small annuities. La Génerale, the most important one in -France, gives for $1,000 at the age of 50 years an annuity of $64.20; -at 60 years $80.80; at 70 years $118.50; at 80 years $134.70. Thus -it realizes immense profits: its shares which in 1819 were worth 750 -francs each were quoted last January at 31,300 francs. - -[37] E. Legou. "Some Considerations on the Development of the Foetus." -Paris. 1903. The weights and measurements of M. Legou were made for -official use. - -[38] The latest observations upon ants and bees tend to prove that the -fertilized eggs would give birth to females and to workers; and the -nonfertilized to males, which consequently would be born from eggs that -are less complex. - -[39] A. W. Howit, who observed among the Australians a species of -sexual totemism, says that it often happens that the women and men of -one and the same clan fight, when the animal that serves as the totem -for one sex is killed by the other sex. - - - - -THE SOCIALIST IDEAL - - -Our comrades in Germany were discussing some time since the question -whether Socialism is a science. Socialism is not and cannot be a -science for the simple reason that it is a political party and must -disappear when its work is accomplished after the abolition of the -classes which gave birth to it; but the end which it pursues is -scientific. - -Guizot, who had a vague idea of the theory of the class -struggle—himself a product of the Revolution, which was a dramatic -struggle between classes—said with good reason that a class cannot -emancipate itself until it possesses the qualities requisite for taking -the leadership of society; now one of these qualities is to have a -more or less definite conception of the social order which it proposes -to substitute for that which is oppressing it. This conception cannot -but be a social ideal, or, to employ a scientific word, a social -hypothesis; but an hypothesis, as well in the natural sciences as in -social science, may be utopian or scientific. - -Socialism, because it is a political party of the oppressed class, -has therefore an ideal. It groups and organizes the efforts of the -individuals who wish to build on the ruins of capitalist society, based -upon individual property, an ideal or hypothetical society based upon -common property in the means of production. - -Only through the class struggle can modern socialism realize its -social ideal, which possesses the qualities demanded of any hypothesis -that claims a scientific character. The fact of choosing a scientific -goal, and of trying to reach it only through the class struggle, -distinguishes it from the Socialism of 1848, which was pursuing through -the reconciliation of classes a social ideal which could not but be -utopian considering the historic moment in which it was conceived. -Socialism has thus evolved from Utopia into science. Engels has traced -the main lines of this evolution in his memorable pamphlet, "Socialism, -Utopian and Scientific." It is the same with all sciences, which begin -with Utopia to arrive at positive knowledge; this course is imposed by -the very nature of the human mind. - -Man progresses in social life as in intellectual life, only by starting -from the known and traveling toward the unknown, and that unknown must -be represented by the imagination; that imaginary conception of the -unknown, which cannot but be hypothetical, is one of the most powerful -incentives to action, it is the very condition of every forward -step. It is natural that men like Bernstein in Germany and Jaurès in -France should seek to domesticate Socialism and to put it in tow of -liberalism, accusing it of hypnotising its soldiers with an ideal of -the year 3000, which makes them live in the expectation of a Messianic -"catastrophe" and reject the immediate advantages of an understanding -and co-operation with bourgeois parties, and which blinds them to -their shocking errors regarding the concentration of wealth, the -disappearance of small industry and the middle class, the increase of -class antagonisms, the spreading and intensification of the misery of -the working class, etc. These errors may have been plausible hypotheses -before 1848, but since then events have shown their falsity. This -unfortunate ideal prevents them from descending from the revolutionary -heights to accept the responsibilities of power and of setting aside -the cause of labor to devote themselves entirely tongue and pen, to -the rehabilitation of a millionaire leader; it obliges them to oppose -all exterior policies and acts, to vote not a cent nor a soldier for -colonial expeditions, which carry labor, Christianity, syphilis and the -alcoholism of civilization to the barbaric tribes. The neo-methodists -of the ancient and outworn gospel of the brotherhood of classes advise -the socialists to suppress their ideal, or, since it unfortunately -captivates the masses of the people, to speak of it without caring -for it, as Jaurès does, that they may consecrate themselves to -practical necessities, to the vast plans of agricultural and industrial -co-operation, to popular universities, etc. - -The dilettantes of politics, these practical groundlings of -opportunism, nevertheless hold themselves up for transcendent idealists -and march with their eyes fixed upon the stars, because they substitute -for ideas a brilliant orchestra of sonorous words and eternal -principles. - -These bourgeois idealists edge their way in everywhere; after the -Revolution of 1789 they rebuked the scientists for their hypotheses -and their theories; according to them science should have stopped with -the study of facts in themselves without dreaming of uniting them into -a general system. "What is the use of cutting stones without putting -up a building," replied Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, the genial disciple -of Lamarck, who lived to see the extinction of his theory on the -continuity of species, which, only thirty years after his death, was -to take on a new birth with Darwin. They are still reproaching the -physiologists for wasting their time in elaborating hypotheses which -last on an average only three years and which cannot explain what -takes place in a muscle which contracts and in a brain which thinks. -They grumble against the hypotheses of the physicists, who do not know -the real nature of elasticity, of electrical conductivity, or even -what happens when a particle of sugar is dissolved. They would like -to prohibit scientists from any speculation because it is disastrous -and may lead into error. But the latter protest and declare that -imagination is one of the first and most indispensable faculties of -the scientist, and that the hypotheses to which they give birth, even -though they be erroneous and able to survive only three years, are -nevertheless the necessary condition of all scientific progress. - -If the communist ideal were an hypothesis undemonstrable and false it -would still be a propelling force of social progress, but such is not -the case. - -The hypothesis in science, as in the social field, is the more -undemonstrable and susceptible of error in proportion as the data -contributing to its elaboration are less numerous and more uncertain. -Greek science, which had to furnish a conception of the world when the -data regarding the phenomena of nature were of the most rudimentary, -was obliged to resort to hypotheses which for boldness and intuitive -accuracy are marvels of history and of thought; after having admitted, -according to the vulgar opinion, that the earth was flat, and that -the temple of Delphi was situated at its center, they put forth the -hypothesis of its spherical form, then undemonstrable. - -Socialism, which dates from the first years of the nineteenth century, -started, like Greek science, from hypotheses the more erroneous, and -from ideal the more utopian, in that the social world which it proposed -to transform was less known; and at that epoch could not be known for -the excellent reason that it was in course of formation. - -The machine operated by steam was beginning to edge into industry -where the tool, managed by the artisan, was moved by human power, -and in some rare circumstances by animals, wind or waterfalls. The -Socialist thinkers, as Engels observes, were then obliged to draw from -their own brain the social ideal which they could not extract from the -tumultuous economic environment in full course of transformation. -They grasped again, infusing new life into it, the communist ideal -which has slumbered in the mind of man since he emerged from the -communism of primitive society which the poetic Greek mythology calls -the golden age and which has awakened to shine here and there with a -glorious splendor at great epochs of social upheaval. They sought, -then, to establish communism, not because the economic environment -was ready for its introduction, but because men were miserable, -because the laws of justice and equality were violated, because the -precepts of the Christ could not be followed in their purity. The -communistic ideal, not springing from economic reality, was then but -an unconscious reminiscence of a prehistoric past, and came only -from idealistic notions upon a justice, an equality and a gospel law -no less idealistic; it is then idealistic in the second degree, and -consequently utopian. - -The Socialists of the first half of the nineteenth century, who -rekindled the communist ideal, had the rare merit of giving it a -consistency less idealistic. They spoke little of the Christian -religion, of justice and of equality; Robert Owen laid the -responsibilities of social evils upon the family, property and -religion; Charles Fourier criticises the ideas of justice and morality -introduced by the bourgeois Revolution of '89 with incomparable -animation and irony. They did not weep over the misery of the poor, -but left that to Victor Hugo and the charlatans of romanticism. They -preached the social problem from its realistic side, the only side -from which it can be solved. They used their talents to prove that -a social organization of production would succeed in satisfying the -desires of all without reducing the share of any, not even that of the -privileged capitalist class. Meanwhile the recent application of steam -and machinery demanded also a new organization of labor, and this was -the constant concern of the industrial bourgeoisie. The socialists were -thus pursuing the same end as the industrials; bourgeois and socialists -might consequently come to an understanding. We therefore find in the -socialist sects of that epoch industrials, engineers and financiers -who in the second half of the century cast away their sympathy for the -workers and occupied an important place in capitalist society. - -The socialism of that epoch could not under these conditions be -anything else than pacific; instead of entering on the struggle with -the capitalists, the socialists thought only of converting them to -their system of social reform from which they were to be the first to -benefit. They proclaimed the association of capital, intelligence and -labor, the interests of which, according to them, were identical! they -preached a mutual understanding between the employer and the employed, -between the exploiter and the exploited; they know no class struggle; -they condemned strikes and all political agitation, especially if it -were revolutionary; they desired order in the street and harmony in the -workshop. They demanded, finally, nothing more than was desired by the -new industrial bourgeoisie. - -They foresaw that industry, strengthened by the motive power of steam, -machinery and the concentration of the instruments of labor, would have -a colossal producing power, and they had the simplicity to believe that -the capitalists would content themselves with taking only a reasonable -part of the wealth thus created, and would leave to their co-operators, -the manual and intellectual laborers, a portion sufficient to enable -them to live in comfort. This socialism was marvellously agreeable -to capital, since it promised an increase of wealth and advised an -understanding between the laborer and the employer. It recruited -the great majority of its adepts in the educational hotbeds of the -bourgeoisie. It was utopian, therefore it was the socialism of the -intellectuals. - -But precisely because it was utopian, the laborers, in constant -antagonism with their employers on questions of labor and hours, -looked on it with suspicion. They could understand nothing of this -socialism which condemned strikes and political action and which -assumed to harmonize the interests of capital and labor, of the -exploiter and exploited. They kept aloof from the socialists and gave -all their sympathies to the bourgeois republicans, because they were -revolutionary. They joined their secret societies and climbed with them -upon the barricades to make riots and political revolutions. - -Marx and Engels took socialism at the point to which the great utopians -had brought it, but instead of torturing their brains to improvise the -organization of labor and of production, they studied that which was -already created by the very necessities of the new mechanical industry -which had arrived at a degree of development sufficient to permit -its power and its tendency to be apparent. Its productivity was so -enormous, as Fourier and Saint Simon had foreseen, that it was capable -of providing abundantly for the normal needs of all the members of -society. This was the first time in history that such a productive -power had been observed, and it was because capitalist production could -satisfy all needs, and for that reason alone, that it is possible to -reintroduce communism, that is to say the equal participation of all in -social wealth, and the free and complete development of the physical, -intellectual and moral faculties. Communism is no longer a utopia but a -possibility. - -Machinery replaces the individualistic production of the small -industry, by the communistic production of the capitalistic factory, -but property in the means of labor has remained individual, as in the -time of the small industry. There is then a contradiction between the -individualistic mode of possession and the communist mode of production -and this contradiction translates itself into the antagonism between -the laborer and the capitalist employer. The producers, who form the -immense majority of the nation, no longer possess the instruments -of labor, the possession of which is centralized in the idle hands -of a decreasing minority. The social problem imposed by mechanical -production will be solved, as the social problems imposed by preceding -modes of production have been solved, by precipitating the evolution -begun by economic force, by finishing the expropriation of the -individual in the means of production, by giving to the communistic -mode of production the communistic mode of possession which it demands. - -The communism of contemporary socialists no longer proceeds, like that -of former times, from the cerebral lucubrations of gifted thinkers; it -proceeds from economic reality, it is the final goal of the economic -forces which, without attracting the attention of the capitalists and -their intellectuals, have fashioned the communistic mold of a new -society, the coming of which we only have to hasten. Communism, then, -is no longer a utopian hypothesis; it is a scientific ideal. It may be -added that never has the economic structure of any society been better -and more completely analyzed than capitalist society, and that never -was a social ideal conceived with such numerous and positive data as -the communist idea of modern socialism. - -Although it is the economic forces which fashion men at the pleasure -and spur them to action, and although these constitute the mysterious -force determining the great currents of history which the Christians -attribute to God, and the free-thinking bourgeois assign to Progress, -to Civilization, to the Immortal Principles and other similar manitous, -worthy of savage tribes, they are nevertheless the product of human -activity. Man, who created them and brought them into the world, has -thus far let himself be guided by them; yet now that he has understood -their nature and grasped their tendency, he can act upon their -evolution. The socialists who are accused of being stricken by Oriental -fatalism and of relying upon the good pleasure of economic forces to -bring to light the communist society instead of crossing their arms -like the fakirs of official Economics, and of bending the knee before -its fundamental dogma, _laissez faire_, _laissez passer_, propose on -the contrary to subdue them, as the blind forces of nature have been -subdued, and force them to do good to men instead of leaving them to -work misery to the toilers of civilization. They do not wait for their -ideal to fall from heaven as the Christians hope for the grace of -God, and the capitalists for wealth; they prepare, on the contrary, -to realize it, not by appealing to the intelligence of the capitalist -class and to its sentiments of justice and humanity, but by fighting -it, by expropriating it from its political power, which protects its -economic despotism. - -Socialism, because it possesses a social ideal, has in consequence -a criticism of its own. Every class which struggles for its -enfranchisement seeks to realize a social ideal, in complete opposition -with that of the ruling class. The struggle is waged at first in -the ideological world before the physical shock of the revolutionary -battle. It thus begins the criticism of the ideas of the society which -must be revolted against, for "the ideas of the ruling class are the -ideas of society," or these ideas are the intellectual reflection of -its material interests. - -Thus, the wealth of the ruling class is produced by slave labor; -religion, ethics, philosophy and literature agree in authorizing -slavery. The ugly God of the Jews and Christianity strikes with his -curse the progeny of Ham, that it may furnish slaves. Aristotle, the -encyclopedic thinker of Greek philosophy, declares that slaves are -predestined by nature and that no rights exist for them, for there -can be no rights except between equals. Euripides in his tragedies -preaches the doctrine of servile morality; St. Paul, St. Augustine and -the Church teach slaves submission to their earthly masters that they -may deserve the favor of their heavenly master; Christian civilization -introduced slavery into America and maintains it there until economic -phenomena prove that slave labor is a method of exploitation more -costly and less profitable than free labor. - -At the epoch when the Greco-Roman civilization was dissolving, when the -labor of artisans and free workers began to be substituted for slave -labor, pagan religion, philosophy and literature decided to accord them -certain rights. The same Euripides who advised the slave to lose his -personality in that of the master does not wish him to be despised. -"There is nothing shameful in slavery but the name," says the pedagogue -in Ion, "the slave, moreover, is not inferior to the free man when -he has a noble heart." The mysteries of Eleusis and of Orphism, like -Christianity, which continues their work, admit slaves among their -initiated and promise them liberty, equality and happiness after death. - -The dominating class of the Middle Ages being military, the Christian -religion and social ethics condemned lending money at interest, and -covered the lender with infamy; to take interest for money loaned -was then something so ignominious that the Jewish race, obliged to -specialize itself in the trade of money, still bears the shame of it. -But today, now that the Christians have become Jews, and the ruling -class lives on the interest of its capital, the trade of the lender at -interest is the most honorable, the most desirable, the most exclusive. - -The oppressed class, although the ideology of the oppressing class -is imposed upon it, nevertheless elaborates religious, ethical and -political ideas corresponding to its condition of life; vague and -secret at first, they gain in precision and force in proportion as the -oppressed class takes definite form and acquires the consciousness -of its social utility and of its strength; and the hour of its -emancipation is near when its conception of nature and of society -opposes itself openly and boldly to that of the ruling class. - -The economic conditions in which the bourgeois moves and evolves make -of it a class essentially religious. Christianity is its work and will -last as long as this class shall rule society. Seven or eight centuries -before Christ, when the bourgeoisie had its birth in the commercial -and industrial cities of the Mediterranean sea, we may observe the -elaboration of a new religion; the gods of paganism created by warrior -tribes could not be suited to a class consecrated to the production -and sale of merchandise. Mysterious cults (the mysteries of the -Cabiri, of Demeter, of Dionysus, etc.) revive the religious traditions -of the prehistoric matriarchical period; the idea of a soul and its -existence after death revive; the idea of posthumous punishments and -rewards to compensate for acts of social injustice are introduced, -etc. These religious elements, combined with the intellectual data of -Greek philosophy, contribute to form Christianity, the religion, _par -excellence_, of societies which have for their foundation property -belonging to the individual and the class which enrich themselves by -the exploitation of wage labor. For fifteen centuries all the movements -of the bourgeoisie, either for organization, or for self-emancipation, -or for the acquisition of power have been accompanied and complicated -by religious crises; but always Christianity more or less modified -remains the religion of society. The revolutionists of 1789, who in the -ardor of the struggle promised themselves to de-Christianize France, -were eager when the bourgeoisie were victorious to raise again the -altars they had overthrown and to reintroduce the cult that they had -proscribed. - -The economic environment which produces the proletariat relieves -it on the contrary from every idea of sentiment. There is not seen -either in Europe nor in America among the laboring masses of the great -industries any anxiety to elaborate a religion to replace Christianity, -nor any desire to reform it. The economic and political organizations -of the working class are completely uninterested as to any doctrinal -discussion of religious and spiritual dogmas, although they combat the -priests of all cults because they are the lackeys of the capitalist -class. - -The victory of the proletariat will deliver humanity from the nightmare -of religion. The belief in superior beings to explain the natural -world and the social inequality, and to prolong the dominion of the -ruling class, and the belief in the posthumous existence of the soul -to recompense the inequality of fate will have no more justification -once man, who has already grasped the general causes of the phenomena -of nature, shall live in a communist society from whence shall have -disappeared the inequality and the injustice of capitalistic society. - -The militant socialists, following the example of the encyclopedists -of the eighteenth century, have to make a merciless criticism of the -economic, political, historical, philosophical, moral and religious -ideas of the capitalist class in order to prepare in all spheres -of thought the triumph of the new ideology which the proletariat -introduces into the world. - - - - -THE RIGHTS OF THE HORSE AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN - - -Capitalist Civilization has endowed the wage-worker with the -metaphysical Rights of Man, but this is only to rivet him more closely -and more firmly to his economic duty. - -"I make you free," so speak the Rights of Man to the laborer, "free to -earn a wretched living and turn your employer into a millionaire; free -to sell him your liberty for a mouthful of bread. He will imprison you -ten hours or twelve hours in his workshops; he will not let you go till -you are wearied to the marrow of your bones, till you have just enough -strength left to gulp down your soup and sink into a heavy sleep. You -have but one of your rights that you may not sell, and that is the -right to pay taxes." - -Progress and Civilization may be hard on wage-working humanity, but -they have all a mother's tenderness for the animals which stupid bipeds -call "lower." - -Civilization has especially favored the equine race: it would be too -great a task to go through the long list of its benefactions; I will -name but a few, of general notoriety, that I may awaken and inflame the -passionate desires of the workers, now torpid in their misery. - -Horses are divided into distinct classes. The equine aristocracy enjoys -so many and so oppressive privileges, that if the human-faced brutes -which serve them as jockeys, trainers, stable valets and grooms were -not morally degraded to the point of not feeling their shame, they -would have rebelled against their lords and masters, whom they rub -down, groom, brush and comb, also making their beds, cleaning up their -excrements and receiving bites and kicks by way of thanks. - -Aristocratic horses, like capitalists, do not work; and when they -exercise themselves in the fields they look disdainfully, with a -coupon-clipper's contempt, upon the human animals which plow and seed -the lands, mow and rake the meadows, to provide them with oats, clover, -timothy and other succulent plants. - -These four-footed favorites of Civilization command such social -influence that they impose their wills upon the capitalists, their -brothers in privilege; they force the loftiest of them to come with -their beautiful ladies and take tea in the stables, inhaling the acrid -perfumes of their solid and liquid evacuations. And when these lords -consent to parade in public, they require from ten to twenty thousand -men and women to stack themselves up on uncomfortable seats, under the -broiling sun, to admire their exquisitely chiseled forms and their -feats of running and leaping. They respect none of the social dignities -before which the votaries of the Rights of Man bow in reverence. -At Chantilly not long ago one of the favorites for the grand prize -launched a kick at the king of Belgium, because it did not like the -looks of his head. His royal majesty, who adores horses, murmured an -apology and withdrew. - -It is fortunate that these horses, who can count more authentic -ancestors than the houses of Orleans and Hohenzollern, have not been -corrupted by their high social station: had they taken it into their -heads to rival the capitalists in aesthetic pretentions, profligate -luxury and depraved tastes, such as wearing lace and diamonds, and -drinking champagne and Chateau-Margaux, a blacker misery and more -overwhelming drudgery would be impending over the class of wage-workers. - -Thrice happy is it for proletarian humanity that these equine -aristocrats have not taken the fancy of feeding upon human flesh, -like the old Bengal tigers which rove around the villages of India -to carry off women and children; if unhappily the horses had been -man-eaters, the capitalists, who can refuse them nothing, would have -built slaughter-houses for wage-workers, where they could carve out -and dress boy sirloins, woman hams and girl roasts to satisfy their -anthropophagic tastes. - -The proletarian horses, not so well endowed, have to work for their -peck of oats, but the capitalist class, through deference for the -aristocrats of the equine race, concedes to the working horses rights -that are far more solid and real than those inscribed in the "Rights of -Man." - -The first of rights, the right to existence, which no civilized society -will recognize for laborers, is possessed by horses. - -The colt, even before his birth, while still in the fetus state, begins -to enjoy the right to existence; his mother, when her pregnancy has -scarcely begun, is discharged from all work and sent into the country -to fashion the new being in peace and comfort; she remains near him to -suckle him and teach him to choose the delicious grasses of the meadow, -in which he gambols until he is grown. - -The moralists and politicians of the "Rights of Man" think it would -be monstrous to grant such rights to the laborers; I raised a tempest -in the Chamber of Deputies when I asked that women, two months before -and two months after confinement, should have the right and the means -to absent themselves from the factory. My proposition upset the ethics -of civilization and shook the capitalist order. What an abominable -abomination—to demand for babies the rights of colts. - -As for the young proletarians, they can scarcely trot on their little -toes before they are condemned to hard labor in the prisons of -capitalism, while the colts develop freely under kindly Nature; care is -taken that they be completely formed before they are set to work, and -their tasks are proportioned to their strength with a tender care. - -This care on the part of the capitalists follows them all through their -lives. We may still recall the noble indignation of the bourgeois -press when it learned that the omnibus company was using peat and -tannery waste in its stalls as a substitute for straw: to think of the -unhappy horses having such poor litters! The more delicate souls of -the bourgeoisie have in every capitalist country organized societies -for the protection of animals, in order to prove that they can not be -excited by the fate of the small victims of industry. Schopenhauer, the -bourgeois philosopher, in whom was incarnated so perfectly the gross -egoism of the philistine, could not hear the cracking of a whip without -his heart being torn by it. - -This same omnibus company, which works its laborers from fourteen -to sixteen hours a day, requires from its dear horses only five to -seven hours. It has bought green meadows in which they may recuperate -from fatigue or indisposition. Its policy is to expend more for the -entertainment of a quadruped than for paying the wages of a biped. It -has never occurred to any legislator nor to any fanatical advocate of -the "Rights of Man" to reduce the horse's daily pittance in order to -assure him a retreat that would be of service to him only after his -death. - -The Rights of Horses have not been posted up; they are "unwritten -rights," as Socrates called the laws implanted by Nature in the -consciousness of all men. - -The horse has shown his wisdom in contenting himself with these rights, -with no thought of demanding those of the citizen; he has judged that -he would have been as stupid as man if he had sacrificed his mess of -lentils for the metaphysical banquet of Rights to Revolt, to Equality, -to Liberty, and other trivialities which to the proletariat are about -as useful as a cautery on a wooden leg. - -Civilization, though partial to the equine race, has not shown herself -indifferent to the fate of the other animals. Sheep, like canons, -pass their days in pleasant and plentiful idleness; they are fed in -the stable on barley, lucerne, rutabagas and other roots, raised by -wage-workers; shepherds conduct them to feed in fat pastures, and when -the sun parches the plain, they are carried to where they can browse on -the tender grass of the mountains. - -The Church, which has burned her heretics, and regrets that she can not -again bring up her faithful sons in the love of "mutton," represents -Jesus, under the form of a kind shepherd, bearing upon his shoulders a -weary lamb. - -True, the love for the ram and the ewe is in the last analysis only -the love for the leg of mutton and the cutlet, just as the Liberty of -the Rights of Man is nothing but the slavery of the wage-worker, since -our jesuitical Civilization always disguises capitalist exploitation -in eternal principles and bourgeois egoism in noble sentiments; yet at -least the bourgeois tends and fattens the sheep up to the day of the -sacrifice, while he seizes the laborer still warm from the workshop -and lean from toil to send him to the shambels of Tonquin or Madagascar. - -Laborers of all crafts, you who toil so hard to create your poverty -in producing the wealth of the capitalists, arise, arise! Since the -buffoons of parliament unfurl the Rights of Man, do you boldly demand -for yourselves, your wives and your children the Rights of the Horse. - - - - -THE END. - - - - - ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ - │ Transcriber's Note: │ - │ │ - │ Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. │ - │ │ - │ Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant │ - │ form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. │ - │ │ - │ Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. │ - │ │ - │ Footnotes were moved to the end of chapters and numbered in one │ - │ continuous sequence. │ - │ │ - │ Italicized words are surrounded by underline characters, _like │ - │ this_. │ - └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Right to be Lazy, by Paul Lafargue - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY *** - -***** This file should be named 52984-0.txt or 52984-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/9/8/52984/ - -Produced by Turgut Dincer, Christian Boissonnas and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Right to be Lazy - and Other Studies - -Author: Paul Lafargue - -Translator: Charles H. Kerr - -Release Date: September 5, 2016 [EBook #52984] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY *** - - - - -Produced by Turgut Dincer, Christian Boissonnas and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<h1> -THE<br /> -RIGHT TO BE LAZY<br /><br /> -<span class="x-smaller">AND OTHER STUDIES</span></h1> - -<p class="p4 ac">BY<br /> -PAUL LAFARGUE</p> - -<p class="p4 ac">Translated by CHARLES H. KERR</p> - -<p class="p4 ac">CHICAGO<br /> -CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - - -<p class="p4 ac"> -Copyright, 1907<br /> -<br /> -<span class="sc">By Charles H. Kerr & Company</span> -</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ac noindent larger">PREFACE</p> - -<p>M. Thiers, at a private session of the commission -on primary education of 1849, said: "I -wish to make the influence of the clergy all-powerful -because I count upon it to propagate -that good philosophy which teaches man that he -is here below to suffer, and not that other philosophy -which on the contrary bids man to enjoy." -M. Thiers was stating the ethics of the capitalist -class, whose fierce egoism and narrow intelligence -he incarnated.</p> - -<p>The Bourgeoisie, when it was struggling -against the nobility sustained by the clergy, -hoisted the flag of free thought and atheism; but -once triumphant, it changed its tone and manner -and today it uses religion to support its economic -and political supremacy. In the fifteenth and sixteenth -centuries, it had joyfully taken up the -pagan tradition and glorified the flesh and its -passions, reproved by Christianity; in our days, -gorged with goods and with pleasures, it denies -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> -the teachings of its thinkers like Rabelais and -Diderot, and preaches abstinence to the wage-workers. -Capitalist ethics, a pitiful parody on -Christian ethics, strikes with its anathema the -flesh of the laborer; its ideal is to reduce the -producer to the smallest number of needs, to -suppress his joys and his passions and to condemn -him to play the part of a machine turning -out work without respite and without thanks.</p> - -<p>The revolutionary socialists must take up -again the battle fought by the philosophers and -pamphleteers of the bourgeoisie; they must -march up to the assault of the ethics and the -social theories of capitalism; they must demolish -in the heads of the class which they call to action -the prejudices sown in them by the ruling -class; they must proclaim in the faces of the -hypocrites of all ethical systems that the earth -shall cease to be the vale of tears for the laborer; -that in the communist society of the future, -which we shall establish "peaceably if we may, -forcibly if we must," the impulses of men will -be given a free rein, for "all these impulses are -by nature good, we have nothing to avoid but -their misuse and their excesses,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>" and they will -not be avoided except by their mutual counter-balancing, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> -balancing, by the harmonious development of -the human organism, for as Dr. Beddoe says, -"It is only when a race reaches its maximum -of physical development, that it arrives at its -highest point of energy and moral vigor.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>" Such -was also the opinion of the great naturalist -Charles Darwin.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> - -<p>This refutation of the "Right to Work" which -I am republishing with some additional notes appeared -in the weekly "Egalité", 1880, second -series.</p> - -<p class="ar noindent">P. L.</p> - -<p class="noindent"><i>Sainte-Pélagie Prison</i>, 1883.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> -Descartes. "Les Passions de l'âme."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> -Doctor Beddoe. "Memoirs of the Anthropological Society."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> -Charles Darwin. "Descent of Man."</p></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum p4"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ac p4"><span style="font-size:150%;">TABLE OF CONTENTS</span></p> - -<table class="narrow" id="TOC" summary="CONTENTS"> - <tr> - <td class="c1"> </td> - <td class="c2 smaller">Page</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#THE_RIGHT_TO_BE_LAZY">THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY—</a></td> - <td class="c2"></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><span style="margin-left:2em;">I. - <a href="#A_DISASTROUS_DOGMA"> - A Disastrous Dogma</a></span></td> - <td class="c2">9</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><span style="margin-left:2em;">II. - <a href="#BLESSINGS_OF_WORK"> - Blessings of Work</a></span></td> - <td class="c2">14</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><span style="margin-left:2em;">III. - <a href="#THE_CONSEQUENCES_OF_OVER-PRODUCTION"> - The Consequences of Over-Production</a></span></td> - <td class="c2">30</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><span style="margin-left:2em;">IV. - <a href="#NEW_SONGS_TO_NEW_MUSIC"> - New Songs to New Music</a></span></td> - <td class="c2">48</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><span style="margin-left:2em;"><a href="#APPENDIX"> - Appendix</a></span></td> - <td class="c2">57</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#SOCIALISM">SOCIALISM AND THE INTELLECTUALS</a></td> - <td class="c2">63</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#THE_BANKRUPTCY">The BANKRUPTCY OF CAPITALISM</a></td> - <td class="c2">105</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#THE_WOMAN_QUESTION">THE WOMAN QUESTION</a></td> - <td class="c2">111</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#THE_SOCIALIST_IDEAL">THE SOCIALIST IDEAL</a></td> - <td class="c2">139</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1"><a href="#THE_RIGHTS_OF_THE_HORSE_AND_THE_RIGHTS_OF_MAN"> - THE RIGHTS OF THE HORSE AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN</a></td> - <td class="c2">157</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> - - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="THE_RIGHT_TO_BE_LAZY" - id="THE_RIGHT_TO_BE_LAZY">THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY</a></h2> -</div> - -<div class="ac"> - Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and - drinking, except in being lazy.</div> -<div class="ar">—Lessing.</div> - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="A_DISASTROUS_DOGMA" - id="A_DISASTROUS_DOGMA"></a>I.<br /><br /> - A DISASTROUS DOGMA.</h2> -</div> - -<p>A strange delusion possesses the working classes -of the nations where capitalist civilization -holds its sway. This delusion drags in its train -the individual and social woes which for two -centuries have tortured sad humanity. This -delusion is the love of work, the furious passion -for work, pushed even to the exhaustion of the -vital force of the individual and his progeny. -Instead of opposing this mental aberration, the -priests, the economists and the moralists have -cast a sacred halo over work. Blind and finite -men, they have wished to be wiser than their -God; weak and contemptible men, they have -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> -presumed to rehabilitate what their God had -cursed. I, who do not profess to be a Christian, -an economist or a moralist, I appeal from -their judgement to that of their God; from the -preachings of their religious, economics or free-thought -ethics, to the frightful consequences of -work in capitalist society.</p> - -<p>In capitalist society work is the cause of -all intellectual degeneracy, of all organic -deformity. Compare the thorough-bred in -Rothschild's stables, served by a retinue of bipeds, -with the heavy brute of the Norman farms -which plows the earth, carts the manure, hauls -the crops. Look at the noble savage whom the -missionaries of trade and the traders of religion -have not yet corrupted with Christianity, syphilis -and the dogma of work, and then look at our -miserable slaves of machines.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> - -<p>When, in our civilized Europe, we would find -a trace of the native beauty of man, we must -go seek it in the nations where economic prejudices -have not yet uprooted the hatred of work. -Spain, which, alas, is degenerating, may still -boast of possessing fewer factories than we have -of prisons and barracks; but the artist rejoices -in his admiration of the hardy Andalusian, brown -as his native chestnuts, straight and flexible as a -steel rod; and the heart leaps at hearing the beggar, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> -superbly draped in his ragged <i>capa</i>, parleying -on terms of equality with the duke of Ossuna. -For the Spaniard, in whom the primitive animal -has not been atrophied, work is the worst sort -of slavery.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The Greeks in their era of greatness -had only contempt for work: their slaves -alone were permitted to labor: the free man -knew only exercises for the body and mind. -And so it was in this era that men like Aristotle, -Phidias, Aristophanes moved and breathed -among the people; it was the time when a handful -of heroes at Marathon crushed the hordes -of Asia, soon to be subdued by Alexander. The -philosophers of antiquity taught contempt for -work, that degradation of the free man, the poets -sang of idleness, that gift from the Gods:</p> - -<p>O Melibae Deus nobis haec otia fecit. -<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> - -<p>Jesus, in his sermon on the Mount, preached -idleness: "Consider the lilies of the field, how -they grow: they toil not, neither do they -spin: and yet I say unto you that even Solomon -in all his glory was not arrayed like one of -these." Jehovah the bearded and angry god, gave -his worshipers the supreme example of ideal -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> -laziness; after six days of work, he rests for all -eternity.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, what are the races for -which work is an organic necessity? The -Auvergnians; the Scotch, those Auvergnians of -the British Isles; the Galicians, those Auvergnians -of Spain; the Pomeranians, those Auvergnians -of Germany; the Chinese, those Auvergnians -of Asia. In our society, which are the classes -that love work for work's sake? The peasant -proprietors, the little shop-keepers; the former -bent double over their fields, the latter crouched -in their shops, burrow like the mole in his subterranean -passage and never stand up to look at -nature leisurely.</p> - -<p>And meanwhile the proletariat, the great class -embracing all the producers of civilized nations, -the class which in freeing itself will free humanity -from servile toil and will make of the human -animal a free being,—the proletariat, betraying -its instincts, despising its historic mission, has -let itself be perverted by the dogma of work. -Rude and terrible has been its punishment. All -its individual and social woes are born of its -passion for work.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> -European explorers pause in wonder before the -physical beauty and the proud bearing of the men of -primitive races, not soiled by what Paeppig calls "the -poisonous breath of civilization." Speaking of the aborigines -of the Oceanic Islands, Lord George Campbell -writes: "There is not a people in the world which -strikes one more favorably at first sight. Their -smooth skin of a light copper tint, their hair golden -and curly, their beautiful and happy faces. In a word, -their whole person formed a new and splendid specimen -of the 'genus homo'; their physical appearance -gave the impression of a race superior to ours." The -civilized men of ancient Rome, witness Caesar and -Tacitus, regarded with the same admiration the Germans -of the communist tribes which invaded the Roman -empire. Following Tacitus, Salvien, the priest of -the fifth century who received the surname of master -of the Bishops, held up the barbarians as an example -to civilized Christians: "We are immodest before the -barbarians, who are more chaste than we. Even more -the barbarians are wounded at our lack of modesty; -the Goths do not permit debauchees of their own nation -to remain among them; alone in the midst of -them, by the sad privilege of their nationality and -their name, the Romans have the right to be impure. -(Pederasty was then the height of the fashion among -both pagans and Christians.) The oppressed fly to the -barbarians to seek for mercy and a shelter." (De -Gubernatione Dei.) The old civilization and the rising -Christianity corrupted the barbarians of the ancient -world, as the old Christianity and the modern capitalist -civilization are corrupting the savages of the new -world. -</p> -<p> -M. F. LePlay, whose talent for observation must be -recognized, even if we reject his sociological conclusions, -tainted with philanthropic and Christian pharisaism, -says in his book "Les Ouvriers Européens" -(1885): "The Propensity of the Bachkirs for laziness -(the Bachkirs are semi-nomadic shepherds of the Asiatic -slope of the Ural mountains); the leisure of nomadic -life, the habit of meditation which this engenders -in the best endowed individuals—all this often gives -them a distinction of manner, a fineness of intelligence -and judgement which is rarely to be observed on the -same social level in a more developed civilization.... -The thing most repugnant to them is agricultural -labor: they will do anything rather than accept the -trade of a farmer." Agriculture is in fact the first example -of servile labor in the history of man. According -to biblical tradition, the first criminal, Cain, is a -farmer.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"> -<span class="label">[5]</span></a> The Spanish proverb says: Descanzar es salud. -(Rest is healthful.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> -O Melibaeus! a god has granted us this idleness. -Virgil's Bucolics. (See appendix.)</p></div> -</div> - -<p class="p4"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="BLESSINGS_OF_WORK" - id="BLESSINGS_OF_WORK"></a>II.<br /><br /> - BLESSINGS OF WORK.</h2> -</div> - -<p>In 1770 at London, an anonymous pamphlet -appeared under the title, "An Essay on Trade -and Commerce". It made some stir in its time. -The author, a great philanthropist, was indignant -that "the factory population of England had -taken into its head the fixed idea that in their -quality of Englishmen all the individuals composing -it have by right of birth the privilege of -being freer and more independent than the laborers -of any country in Europa. This idea may -have its usefulness for soldiers, since it stimulates -their valor, but the less the factory workers -are imbued with it the better for themselves and -the state. Laborers ought never to look on -themselves as independent of their superiors. -It is extremely dangerous to encourage such infatuations -in a commercial state like ours, where -perhaps seven-eighths of the population have little -or no property. The cure will not be complete -until our industrial laborers are contented to -work six days for the same sum which they now -earn in four." Thus, nearly a century before -Guizot, work was openly preached in London as -a curb to the noble passions of man. "The more -my people work, the less vices they will have", -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> -wrote Napoleon on May 5th, 1807, from Osterod. -"I am the authority ... and I should be disposed -to order that on Sunday after the hour of service -be past, the shops be opened and the laborers -return to their work." To root out laziness and -curb the sentiments of pride and independence -which arise from it, the author of the "Essay -on Trade" proposed to imprison the poor in -ideal "work-houses", which should become -"houses of terror, where they should work fourteen -hours a day in such fashion that when meal -time was deducted there should remain twelve -hours of work full and complete".</p> - -<p>Twelve hours of work a day, that is the ideal -of the philanthropists and moralists of the eighteenth -century. How have we outdone this <i>nec -plus ultra</i>! Modern factories have become ideal -houses of correction in which the toiling masses -are imprisoned, in which they are condemned -to compulsory work for twelve or fourteen hours, -not the men only but also women and children. -<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> -And to think that the sons of the heroes of the -Terror have allowed themselves to be degraded -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> -by the religion of work, to the point of accepting, -since 1848, as a revolutionary conquest, the -law limiting factory labor to twelve hours. They -proclaim as a revolutionary principle the Right -to Work. Shame to the French proletariat! -Only slaves would have been capable of such -baseness. A Greek of the heroic times would -have required twenty years of capitalist civilization -before he could have conceived such vileness.</p> - -<p>And if the miseries of compulsory work and -the tortures of hunger have descended upon -the proletariat more in number than the locusts -of the Bible, it is because the proletariat itself -invited them. This work, which in June 1848 -the laborers demanded with arms in their hands, -this they have imposed on their families; they -have delivered up to the barons of industry their -wives and children. With their own hands they -have demolished their domestic hearths. With -their own hands they have dried up the milk of -their wives. The unhappy women carrying and -nursing their babes have been obliged to go into -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> -the mines and factories to bend their backs and -exhaust their nerves. With their own hands -they have broken the life and the vigor of their -children. Shame on the proletarians! Where -are those neighborly housewives told of in our -fables and in our old tales, bold and frank of -speech, lovers of Bacchus? Where are those -buxom girls, always on the move, always cooking, -always singing, always spreading life, engendering -life's joy, giving painless birth to -healthy and vigorous children?... Today we -have factory girls and women, pale drooping -flowers, with impoverished blood, with disordered -stomachs, with languid limbs.... They -have never known the pleasure of a healthful -passion, nor would they be capable of telling -of it merrily! And the children? Twelve hours -of work for children! O, misery. But not all -the Jules Simon of the Academy of Moral and -Political Science, not all the Germinys of jesuitism, -could have invented a vice more degrading -to the intelligence of the children, more corrupting -of their instincts, more destructive of -their organism than work in the vitiated atmosphere -of the capitalist factory.</p> - -<p>Our epoch has been called the century of -work. It is in fact the century of pain, misery -and corruption.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> - -<p>And all the while the philosophers, the bourgeois -economists—from the painfully confused -August Comte to the ludicrously clear Leroy-Beaulieu; -the people of bourgeois literature—from -the quackishly romantic Victor Hugo to -the artlessly grotesque Paul de Kock,—all have -intoned nauseating songs in honor of the god -Progress, the eldest son of Work. Listen to -them and you would think that happiness was -soon to reign over the earth, that its coming -was already perceived. They rummaged in the -dust of past centuries to bring back feudal miseries -to serve as a sombre contrast to the delights -of the present times. Have they wearied us, -these satisfied people, yesterday pensioners at the -table of the nobility, today pen-valets of the -capitalist class and fatly paid? Have they reckoned -us weary of the peasant, such as La Bruyère -described him? Well, here is the brilliant picture -of proletarian delights in the year of capitalist -progress 1840, penned by one of their own -men, Dr. Villermé, member of the Institute, the -same who in 1848 was a member of that scientific -society (Thiers, Cousin, Passy, Blanqui, the -academician, were in it), which disseminated -among the masses the nonsense of bourgeois -economics and ethics.</p> - -<p>It is of manufacturing Alsace that Dr. Villermé -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> -speaks,—the Alsace of Kestner and Dollfus, -those flowers of industrial philanthropy and -republicanism. But before the doctor raises up -before us his picture of proletarian miseries, let -us listen to an Alsatian manufacturer, Mr. Th. -Mieg, of the house of Dollfus, Mieg & Co., -depicting the condition of the old-time artisan: -"At Mulhouse fifty years ago (in 1813, when -modern mechanical industry was just arising) -the laborers were all children of the soil, inhabiting -the town and the surrounding villages, -and almost all owning a house and often a little -field."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> It was the golden age of the laborer. -But at that time Alsatian industry did not deluge -the world with its cottons, nor make millionaires -out of its Dollfus and Koechlin. But twenty-five -years after, when Villermé visited Alsace, the -modern Minotaur, the capitalist workshop, had -conquered the country; in its insatiable appetite -for human labor it had dragged the workmen -from their hearths, the better to wring them and -press out the labor which they contained. It -was by thousands that the workers flocked together -at the signal of the steam whistle. "A -great number," says Villermé, "five thousand -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> -out of seventeen thousand, were obliged by high -rents to lodge in neighboring villages. Some -of them lived three or four miles from the factory -where they worked.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> - -<p>"At Mulhouse in Dornach, work began at five -o'clock in the morning and ended at eight o'clock -in the evening, summer and winter. It was a -sight to watch them arrive each morning into -the city and depart each evening. Among them -were a multitude of women, pale, often walking -bare-footed through the mud, and who for -lack of umbrellas when the rain or snow fell, -wore their aprons or skirts turned up over their -heads. There was a still larger number of -young children, equally dirty, equally pale, -covered with rags, greasy from the machine oil -which drops on them while they work. They -were better protected from the rain because -their clothes shed water; but unlike the women -just mentioned, they did not carry their day's -provisions in a basket, but they carried in their -hands or hid under their clothing as best they -might, the morsel of bread which must serve -them as food until time for them to return -home.</p> - -<p>Thus to the strain of an insufferably long -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> -day—at least fifteen hours—is added for these -wretches the fatigue of the painful daily journeys. -Consequently they reach home overwhelmed -by the need of sleep, and next day they -rise before they are completely rested in order -to reach the factory by the opening time."</p> - -<p>Now, look at the holes in which were packed -those who lodge in the town: "I saw at Mulhouse -in Dornach, and the neighboring houses, -some of those miserable lodgings where two -families slept each in its corner on straw thrown -on the floor and kept in its place by two planks.... -This wretchedness among the laborers of -the cotton industry in the department of the upper -Rhine is so extreme that it produces this -sad result, that while in the families of the -manufacturers, merchants, shop-keepers or -factory superintendents, half of the children -reach their twenty-first year, this same half -ceases to exist before the lapse of two years in -the families of weavers and cotton spinners."</p> - -<p>Speaking of the labor of the workshop, Villermé -adds: "It is not a work, a task, it is -a torture and it is inflicted on children of six -to eight years. It is this long torture day after -day which wastes away the laborers in the cotton -spinning factories". And as to the duration -of the work Villermé observes, that the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> -convicts in prisons work but ten hours, the -slaves in the west Indies work but nine hours, -while there existed in France after its Revolution -of 1789, which had proclaimed the pompous -Rights of Man "factories where the day was -sixteen hours, out of which the laborers were -allowed only an hour and a half for meals." -<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> - -<p>What a miserable abortion of the revolutionary -principles of the bourgeoisie! What woeful -gifts from its god Progress! The philanthropists -hail as benefactors of humanity those who -having done nothing to become rich, give work -to the poor. Far better were it to scatter pestilence -and to poison the springs than to erect a -capitalist factory in the midst of a rural population. -Introduce factory work, and farewell joy, -health and liberty; farewell to all that makes -life beautiful and worth living.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> - -<p>And the economists go on repeating to the -laborers, "Work, to increase social wealth", and -nevertheless an economist, Destutt de Tracy, -answers: "It is in poor nations that people are -comfortable, in rich nations they are ordinarily -poor"; and his disciple Cherbuliez continues: -"The laborers themselves in co-operating toward -the accumulation of productive capital contribute -to the event which sooner or later must -deprive them of a part of their wages". But -deafened and stupified by their own howlings, -the economists answer: "Work, always work, to -create your prosperity", and in the name of -Christian meekness a priest of the Anglican -Church, the Rev. Mr. Townshend, intones: -Work, work, night and day. By working you -make your poverty increase and your poverty -releases us from imposing work upon you by -force of law. The legal imposition of work -"gives too much trouble, requires too much -violence and makes too much noise. Hunger, -on the contrary, is not only a pressure which is -peaceful, silent and incessant, but as it is the -most natural motive for work and industry, it -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> -also provokes to the most powerful efforts." -Work, work, proletarians, to increase social -wealth and your individual poverty; work, work, -in order that becoming poorer, you may have -more reason to work and become miserable. -Such is the inexorable law of capitalist production.</p> - -<p>Because, lending ear to the fallacious words -of the economists, the proletarians have given -themselves up body and soul to the vice of work, -they precipitate the whole of society into these -industrial crises of over-production which convulse -the social organism. Then because there -is a plethora of merchandise and a dearth of purchasers, -the shops are closed and hunger scourges -the working people with its whip of a -thousand lashes. The proletarians, brutalized by -the dogma of work, not understanding that the -over-work which they have inflicted upon themselves -during the time of pretended prosperity -is the cause of their present misery, do not run -to the granaries of wheat and cry: "We are -hungry, we wish to eat. True we have not a red -cent, but beggars as we are, it is we, nevertheless, -who harvested the wheat and gathered the -grapes." They do not besiege the warehouse -of Bonnet, or Jujurieux, the inventor of industrial -convents, and cry out: "M. Bonnet, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> -here are your working women, silk workers, -spinners, weavers; they are shivering pitifully -under their patched cotton dresses, yet it is -they who have spun and woven the silk robes of -the fashionable women of all Christendom. The -poor creatures working thirteen hours a day, -had no time to think of their toilet. Now, they -are out of work and have time to rustle in the -silks they have made. Ever since they lost -their milk teeth they have devoted themselves -to your fortune and have lived in abstinence. -Now they are at leisure and wish to enjoy a -little of the fruits of their labor. Come, M. -Bonnet, give them your silks, M. Harmel shall -furnish his muslins, M. Pouyer-Quertier his -calicos, M. Pinet his boots for their dear little -feet, cold and damp. Clad from top to toe and -gleeful, they will be delightful to look at. Come, -no evasions, you are a friend of humanity, are -you not, and a Christian into the bargain? Put -at the disposal of your working girls the fortune -they have built up for you out of their flesh; you -want to help business, get your goods into circulation,—here -are consumers ready at hand. Give -them unlimited credit. You are simply compelled -to give credit to merchants whom you do -not know from Adam or Eve, who have given -you nothing, not even a glass of water. Your -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> -working women will pay the debt the best they -can. If at maturity they let their notes go to -protest, and if they have nothing to attach, you -can demand that they pay you in prayers. They -will send you to paradise better than your black-gowned -priests steeped in tobacco."</p> - -<p>Instead of taking advantage of periods of -crisis, for a general distribution of their products -and a universal holiday, the laborers, perishing -with hunger, go and beat their heads against -the doors of the workshops. With pale faces, -emaciated bodies, pitiful speeches they assail the -manufacturers: "Good M. Chagot, sweet M. -Schneider, give us work, it is not hunger, but -the passion for work which torments us". And -these wretches, who have scarcely the strength -to stand upright, sell twelve and fourteen hours -of work twice as cheap as when they had bread -on the table. And the philanthropists of industry -profit by their lockouts to manufacture at -lower cost.</p> - -<p>If industrial crises follow periods of over-work -as inevitably as night follows day, bringing -after them lockouts and poverty without end, -they also lead to inevitable bankruptcy. So -long as the manufacturer has credit he gives -free rein to the rage for work. He borrows, -and borrows again, to furnish raw material to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> -his laborers, and goes on producing without -considering that the market is becoming satiated -and that if his goods don't happen to be sold, -his notes will still come due. At his wits' end, -he implores the banker, he throws himself at -his feet, offering his blood, his honor. "A little -gold will do my business better", answers the -Rothschild. "You have 20,000 pairs of hose -in your warehouse; they are worth 20c. I will -take them at 4c." The banker gets possession -of the goods and sells them at 6c or 8c, and -pockets certain frisky dollars which owe nothing -to anybody: but the manufacturer has stepped -back for a better leap. At last the crash comes -and the warehouses disgorge. Then so much -merchandise is thrown out of the window that -you cannot imagine how it came in by the door. -Hundreds of millions are required to figure the -value of the goods that are destroyed. In the -last century they were burned or thrown into -the water.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> - -<p>But before reaching this decision, the manufacturers -travel the world over in search of -markets for the goods which are heaping up. -They force their government to annex Congo, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> -to seize on Tonquin, to batter down the Chinese -Wall with cannon shots to make an outlet for -their cotton goods. In previous centuries it was -a duel to the death between France and England -as to which should have the exclusive privilege -of selling to America and the Indies. -Thousands of young and vigorous men reddened -the seas with their blood during the colonial -wars of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth -centuries.</p> - -<p>There is a surplus of capital as well as of -goods. The financiers no longer know where -to place it. Then they go among the happy -nations who are loafing in the sun smoking -cigarettes and they lay down railroads, erect -factories and import the curse of work. And -this exportation of French capital ends one fine -morning in diplomatic complications. In Egypt, -for example, France, England and Germany -were on the point of hairpulling to decide which -usurers shall be paid first. Or it ends with wars -like that in Mexico where French soldiers are -sent to play the part of constables to collect bad -debts.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> - -<p>These individual and social miseries, however -great and innumerable they may be, however -eternal they appear, will vanish like hyenas and -jackals at the approach of the lion, when the -proletariat shall say "I will". But to arrive at -the realization of its strength the proletariat must -trample under foot the prejudices of Christian -ethics, economic ethics and free-thought ethics. -It must return to its natural instincts, it must -proclaim the Rights of Laziness, a thousand -times more noble and more sacred than the -anaemic Rights of Man concocted by the metaphysical -lawyers of the bourgeois revolution. -It must accustom itself to working but three -hours a day, reserving the rest of the day and -night for leisure and feasting.</p> - -<p>Thus far my task has been easy; I have had -but to describe real evils well known, alas, by -all of us; but to convince the proletariat that -the ethics innoculated into it is wicked, that the -unbridled work to which it has given itself up -for the last hundred years is the most terrible -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> -scourge that has ever struck humanity, that work -will become a mere condiment to the pleasures -of idleness, a beneficial exercise to the human -organism, a passion useful to the social organism -only when wisely regulated and limited to -a maximum of three hours a day; this is an -arduous task beyond my strength. Only communist -physiologists, hygienists and economists -could undertake it. In the following pages I -shall merely try to show that given the modern -means of production and their unlimited reproductive -power it is necessary to curb the extravagant -passion of the laborers for work and -to oblige them to consume the goods which they -produce.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> -At the first Congress of Charities held at Brussels -in 1857 one of the richest manufacturers of Marquette, -near Lille, M. Scrive, to the plaudits of the members -of the congress declared with the noble satisfaction -of a duty performed: "We have introduced certain -methods of diversion for the children. We teach them -to sing during their work, also to count while working. -That distracts them and makes them accept -bravely "those twelve hours of labor which are necessary -to procure their means of existence." Twelve -hours of labor, and such labor, imposed on children -less than twelve years old! The materialists will always -regret that there is no hell in which to confine -these Christian philanthropic murderers of childhood.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> -Speech delivered before the International Society -of Practical Studies in Social Economics, at Paris in -May 1863, and published in the French "Economist" -of the same epoch.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> -Note that this was before the era of railroads and -street cars. (Translator.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> -L. R. Villermé. "Tableau de l'état physique et -moral des ouvriers dans les fabriques de coton, de -laine et de soie" (1840). It is not because Dollfus, -Koechlin and other Alsatian manufacturers were republicans, -patriots and protestant philanthropists that -they treated their laborers in this way, for Blanqui, -the academician, Reybaud, the prototype of Jerome -Paturot, and Jules Simon, have observed the same -amenities for the working class among the very -catholic and monarchical manufacturers of Lille and -Lyons. These are capitalist virtues which harmonize -delightfully with all political and religious convictions.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> -The Indians of the warlike tribes of Brazil kill -their invalids and old people; they show their affection -for them by putting an end to a life which is no -longer enlivened by combats, feasts and dances. All -primitive peoples have given these proofs of affection -to their relatives: the Massagetae of the Caspian Sea -(Herodotus), as well as the Wens of Germany and the -Celts of Gaul. In the churches of Sweden even lately -they preserved clubs called family clubs which served -to deliver parents from the sorrows of old age. How -degenerate are the modern proletarians to accept with -patience the terrible miseries of factory labor!</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> -At the Industrial Congress held in Berlin in Jan. -21, 1879, the losses in the iron industry of Germany -during the last crisis were estimated at $109,056,000.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> -M. Clemenceau's "Justice" said on April 6, 1880, -in its financial department: "We have heard this opinion -maintained, that even without pressure the billions -of the war of 1870 would have been equally lost -for France, that is under the form of loans periodically -put out to balance the budgets of foreign countries; -this is also our opinion." The loss of English -capital on loans of South American Republics is estimated -at a billion dollars. The French laborers not -only produced the billion dollars paid Bismarck, but -they continued to pay interest on the war indemnity -to Ollivier, Girardin, Bazaine and other income drawers, -who brought on the war and the rout. Nevertheless -they still have one shred of consolation: these -billions will not bring on a war of reprisal.</p></div></div> - - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="THE_CONSEQUENCES_OF_OVER-PRODUCTION" - id="THE_CONSEQUENCES_OF_OVER-PRODUCTION"></a> - III.<br /><br />THE CONSEQUENCES OF OVER-PRODUCTION.</h2> -</div> - -<p>A Greek poet of Cicero's time, Antiparos, thus -sang of the invention of the water-mill (for -grinding grain), which was to free the slave -women and bring back the Golden Age: "Spare -the arm which turns the mill, O, millers, and -sleep peacefully. Let the cock warn you in vain -that day is breaking. Demeter has imposed upon -the nymphs the labor of the slaves, and behold -them leaping merrily over the wheel, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> -behold the axle tree, shaken, turning with its -spokes and making the heavy rolling stone revolve. -Let us live the life of our fathers, and -let us rejoice in idleness over the gifts that the -goddess grants us." Alas!, the leisure which the -pagan poet announced has not come. The blind, -perverse and murderous passion for work transforms -the liberating machine into an instrument -for the enslavement of free men. Its productiveness -impoverishes them.</p> - -<p>A good workingwoman makes with her needles -only five meshes a minute, while certain -circular knitting machines make 30,000 in the -same time. Every minute of the machine is -thus equivalent to a hundred hours of the workingwomen's -labor, or again, every minute of the -machine's labor, gives the workingwomen ten -days of rest. What is true for the knitting industry -is more or less true for all industries -reconstructed by modern machinery. But what -do we see? In proportion as the machine is -improved and performs man's work with an ever -increasing rapidity and exactness, the laborer, -instead of prolonging his former rest times, -redoubles his ardor, as if he wished to rival the -machine. O, absurd and murderous competition!</p> - -<p>That the competition of man and the machine -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> -might have free course, the proletarians have -abolished wise laws which limited the labor of -the artisans of the ancient guilds; they have -suppressed the holidays.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Because the producers -of that time worked but five days out of -seven, are we to believe the stories told by lying -economists, that they lived on nothing but air -and fresh water? Not so, they had leisure to -taste the joys of earth, to make love and to -frolic, to banquet joyously in honor of the jovial -god of idleness. Gloomy England, immersed -in protestantism, was then called "Merrie England." -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> -Rabelais, Quevedo, Cervantes, and the -unknown authors of the romances make -our mouths water with their pictures of those -monumental feasts<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> with which the men of that -time regaled themselves between two battles and -two devastations, in which everything "went by -the barrel". Jordaens and the Flemish School -have told the story of these feasts in their delightful -pictures. Where, O, where, are the -sublime gargantuan stomachs of those days; -where are the sublime brains encircling all human -thought? We have indeed grown puny and degenerate. -Embalmed beef, potatoes, doctored -wine and Prussian schnaps, judiciously combined -with compulsory labor have weakened our -bodies and narrowed our minds. And the times -when man cramps his stomach and the machine -enlarges its output are the very times when the -economists preach to us the Malthusian theory, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> -the religion of abstinence and the dogma of -work. Really it would be better to pluck out -such tongues and throw them to the dogs.</p> - -<p>Because the working class, with its simple -good faith, has allowed itself to be thus indoctrinated, -because with its native impetuosity it -has blindly hurled itself into work and abstinence, -the capitalist class has found itself condemned -to laziness and forced enjoyment, to -unproductiveness and over-consumption. But if -the over-work of the laborer bruises his flesh -and tortures his nerves, it is also fertile in griefs -for the capitalist.</p> - -<p>The abstinence to which the productive class -condemns itself obliges the capitalists to devote -themselves to the over-consumption of the products -turned out so riotously by the laborers. -At the beginning of capitalist production a century -or two ago, the capitalist was a steady man -of reasonable and peaceable habits. He contented -himself with one wife or thereabouts. He -drank only when he was thirsty and ate only -when he was hungry. He left to the lords and -ladies of the court the noble virtues of debauchery. -Today every son of the newly rich makes -it incumbent upon himself to cultivate the disease -for which quicksilver is a specific in order -to justify the labors imposed upon the workmen -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> -in quicksilver mines; every capitalist crams himself -with capons stuffed with truffles and with -the choicest brands of wine in order to encourage -the breeders of blooded poultry and the -growers of Bordelais. In this occupation the -organism rapidly becomes shattered, the hair -falls out, the gums shrink away from the teeth, -the body becomes deformed, the stomach obtrudes -abnormally, respiration becomes difficult, -the motions become labored, the joints become -stiff, the fingers knotted. Others, too feeble in -body to endure the fatigues of debauchery, but -endowed with the bump of philanthropic discrimination, -dry up their brains over political -economy, or juridical philosophy in elaborating -thick soporific books to employ the leisure hours -of compositors and pressmen. The women of -fashion live a life of martyrdom, in trying on -and showing off the fairy-like toilets which the -seamstresses die in making. They shift like shuttles -from morning until night from one gown into -another. For hours together they give up their -hollow heads to the artists in hair, who at any -cost insist on assuaging their passion for the -construction of false chignons. Bound in their -corsets, pinched in their boots, décolletté to -make a coal-miner blush, they whirl around the -whole night through at their charity balls in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> -order to pick up a few cents for poor people,—sanctified -souls!</p> - -<p>To fulfill his double social function of non-producer -and over-consumer, the capitalist was -not only obliged to violate his modest taste, to -lose his laborious habits of two centuries ago and -to give himself up to unbounded luxury, spicy -indigestibles and syphilitic debauches, but also to -withdraw from productive labor an enormous -mass of men in order to enlist them as his assistants.</p> - -<p>Here are a few figures to prove how colossal -is this waste of productive forces. According -to the census of 1861, the population of England -and Wales comprised 20,066,244 persons, -9,776,259 male and 10,289,965 female. If we -deduct those too old or too young to work, the -unproductive women, boys and girls, then the -"ideological professions", such as governors, -policemen, clergy, magistrates, soldiers, prostitutes, -artists, scientists, etc., next the people -exclusively occupied with eating the labor of -others under the form of land-rent, interest, -dividends, etc. ... there remains a total of eight -million individuals of both sexes and of every -age, including the capitalists who function in -production, commerce, finance, etc. Out of -these eight millions the figures run:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> - -<table class="narrow" id="WORKERS" summary="English laborers."> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Agricultural laborers, including herdsmen, servants and farmers' - daughters living at home</td> - <td class="c2">1,098,261</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Factory Workers in cotton, wool, hemp, linen silk, knitting</td> - <td class="c2">642,607</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Mine Workers</td> - <td class="c2">565,835</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Metal Workers (blast furnaces, rolling mills, etc.)</td> - <td class="c2">396,998</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Domestics</td> - <td class="c2">1,208,648</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>"If we add together the textile workers and -the miners, we obtain the figures of 1,208,442; -if to the former we add the metal workers, we -have a total of 1,039,605 persons; that is to -say, in each case a number below that of the -modern domestic slaves. Behold the magnificent -result of the capitalist exploitation of machines." -<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> -To this class of domestics, the size of which -indicates the stage attained by capitalist civilization, -must still be added the enormous class of -unfortunates devoted exclusively to satisfying -the vain and expensive tastes of the rich classes: -diamond cutters, lace-makers, embroiderers, -binders of luxurious books, seamstresses employed -on expensive gowns, decorators of villas, -etc.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> - -<p>Once settled down into absolute laziness and -demoralized by enforced enjoyment, the capitalist -class in spite of the injury involved in its new -kind of life, adapted itself to it. Soon it began -to look upon any change with horror. The -sight of the miserable conditions of life resignedly -accepted by the working class and the sight -of the organic degradation engendered by the -depraved passion for work increased its aversion -for all compulsory labor and all restrictions of -its pleasures. It is precisely at that time that, -without taking into account the demoralization -which the capitalist class had imposed upon itself -as a social duty, the proletarians took it -into their heads to inflict work on the capitalists. -Artless as they were, they took seriously -the theories of work proclaimed by the economists -and moralists, and girded up their loins to -inflict the practice of these theories upon the -capitalists. The proletariat hoisted the banner, -"He who will not work Neither shall he Eat". -Lyons in 1831 rose up for bullets or work. The -federated laborers of March 1871 called their -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> -uprising "The Revolution of Work". To these -outbreaks of barbarous fury destructive of all -capitalist joy and laziness, the capitalists had no -other answer than ferocious repression, but they -know that if they have been able to repress these -revolutionary explosions, they have not drowned -in the blood of these gigantic massacres the absurd -idea of the proletariat wishing to inflict -work upon the idle and reputable classes, and -it is to avert this misfortune that they surround -themselves with guards, policemen, magistrates -and jailors, supported in laborious unproductiveness. -There is no more room for illusion as to -the function of modern armies. They are permanently -maintained only to suppress the "enemy -within". Thus the forts of Paris and Lyons -have not been built to defend the city against -the foreigner, but to crush it in case of revolt. -And if an unanswerable example be called for, -we mention the army of Belgium, that paradise -of capitalism. Its neutrality is guaranteed by -the European powers, and nevertheless its army -is one of the strongest in proportion to its population. -The glorious battlefields of the brave Belgian -army are the plains of the Borinage and of -Charleroi. It is in the blood of the unarmed -miners and laborers that the Belgian officers -temper their swords and win their epaulets. The -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> -nations of Europe have not national armies but -mercenary armies. They protect the capitalists -against the popular fury which would condemn -them to ten hours of mining or spinning. Again, -while compressing its own stomach the working -class has developed abnormally the stomach of -the capitalist class, condemned to over-consumption.</p> - -<p>For alleviation of its painful labor the capitalist -class has withdrawn from the working class -a mass of men far superior to those still devoted -to useful production and has condemned them in -their turn to unproductiveness and over-consumption. -But this troop of useless mouths in -spite of its insatiable voracity, does not suffice -to consume all the goods which the laborers, -brutalized by the dogma of work, produce like -madmen, without wishing to consume them and -without even thinking whether people will be -found to consume them.</p> - -<p>Confronted with this double madness of the -laborers killing themselves with over-production -and vegetating in abstinence, the great -problem of capitalist production is no longer to -find producers and to multiply their powers but -to discover consumers, to excite their appetites -and create in them fictitious needs. Since the -European laborers, shivering with cold and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> -hunger, refuse to wear the stuffs they weave, to -drink the wines from the vineyards they tend, -the poor manufacturers in their goodness of -heart must run to the ends of the earth to find -people to wear the clothes and drink the wines: -Europe exports every year goods amounting to -billions of dollars to the four corners of the -earth, to nations that have no need of them. -<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> -But the explored continents are no longer vast -enough. Virgin countries are needed. European -manufacturers dream night and day of Africa, -of a lake in the Saharan desert, of a railroad to -the Soudan. They anxiously follow the progress -of Livingston, Stanley, Du Chaillu; they -listen open-mouthed to the marvelous tales of -these brave travelers. What unknown wonders -are contained in the "dark continent"! Fields -are sown with elephants' teeth, rivers of cocoa-nut -oil are dotted with gold, millions of backsides, -as bare as the faces of Dufaure and Girardin, -are awaiting cotton goods to teach them decency, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> -and bottles of schnaps and bibles from -which they may learn the virtues of civilization.</p> - -<p>But all to no purpose: the over-fed capitalist, -the servant class greater in numbers than the -productive class, the foreign and barbarous nations, -gorged with European goods; nothing, -nothing can melt away the mountains of products -heaped up higher and more enormous than the -pyramids of Egypt. The productiveness of -European laborers defies all consumption, all -waste.</p> - -<p>The manufacturers have lost their bearings -and know not which way to turn. They can no -longer find the raw material to satisfy the lawless -depraved passion of their laborers for work. -In our woolen districts dirty and half rotten -rags are raveled out to use in making certain -cloths sold under the name of renaissance, which -have about the same durability as the promises -made to voters. At Lyons, instead of leaving -the silk fiber in its natural simplicity and suppleness, -it is loaded down with mineral salts, which -while increasing its weight, make it friable and -far from durable. All our products are adulterated -to aid in their sale and shorten their life. -Our epoch will be called the "Age of adulteration" -just as the first epochs of humanity received -the names of "The Age of Stone", "The -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> -Age of Bronze", from the character of their -production. Certain ignorant people accuse our -pious manufacturers of fraud, while in reality -the thought which animates them is to furnish -work to their laborers, who cannot resign themselves -to living with their arms folded. These -adulterations, whose sole motive is a humanitarian -sentiment, but which bring splendid profits -to the manufacturers who practice them, if they -are disastrous for the quality of the goods, if -they are an inexhaustible source of waste in -human labor, nevertheless prove the ingenuous -philanthropy of the capitalists, and the horrible -perversion of the laborers, who to gratify their -vice for work oblige the manufacturers to stifle -the cries of their conscience and to violate even -the laws of commercial honesty.</p> - -<p>And nevertheless, in spite of the over-production -of goods, in spite of the adulterations in -manufacturing, the laborers encumber the market -in countless numbers imploring: Work! Work! -Their superabundance ought to compel them to -bridle their passion; on the contrary it carries -it to the point of paroxysm. Let a chance for -work present itself, thither they rush; then they -demand twelve, fourteen hours to glut their -appetite for work, and the next day they are -again thrown out on the pavement with no more -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> -food for their vice. Every year in all industries -lockouts occur with the regularity of the seasons. -Over-work, destructive of the organism, -is succeeded by absolute rest during two or four -months, and when work ceases the pittance ceases. -Since the vice of work is diabolically attached -to the heart of the laborers, since its -requirements stifle all the other instincts of nature, -since the quantity of work required by -society is necessarily limited by consumption and -by the supply of raw materials, why devour in -six months the work of a whole year; why not -distribute it uniformly over the twelve months -and force every workingman to content himself -with six or five hours a day throughout the year -instead of getting indigestion from twelve hours -during six months? Once assured of their daily -portion of work, the laborers will no longer be -jealous of each other, no longer fight to snatch -away work from each other's hands and bread -from each other's mouths, and then, not exhausted -in body and mind, they will begin to -practice the virtues of laziness.</p> - -<p>Brutalized by their vice, the laborers have -been unable to rise to the conception of this fact, -that to have work for all it is necessary to apportion -it like water on a ship in distress. Meanwhile -certain manufacturers in the name of capitalist -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> -exploitation have for a long time demanded -a legal limitation of the work day. Before -the commission of 1860 on professional education, -one of the greatest manufacturers of -Alsace, M. Bourcart of Guebwiller, declared: -"The day of twelve hours is excessive and ought -to be reduced to eleven, while work ought to be -stopped at two o'clock on Saturday. I advise -the adoption of this measure, although it may -appear onerous at first sight. We have tried it -in our industrial establishments for four years -and find ourselves the better for it, while the -average production, far from having diminished, -has increased." In his study of machines M. F. -Passy quotes the following letter from a great -Belgian manufacturer M. Ottevaere: "Our machines, -although the same as those of the English -spinning mills, do not produce what they ought -to produce or what those same machines would -produce in England, although the spinners there -work two hours a day less. We all work two -good hours too much. I am convinced that if -we worked only eleven hours instead of thirteen -we should have the same product and we should -consequently produce more economically." -Again, M. Leroy Beaulieu affirms that it is a -remark of a great Belgian manufacturer that the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> -weeks in which a holiday falls result in a product -not less than ordinary weeks.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> - -<p>An aristocratic government has dared to do -what a people, duped in their simplicity by the -moralists, never dared. Despising the lofty and -moral industrial considerations of the economists, -who like the birds of ill omen, croaked that to -reduce by one hour the work in factories was to -decree the ruin of English industry, the government -of England has forbidden by a law strictly -enforced to work more than ten hours a day, -and as before England remains the first industrial -nation of the world.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> - -<p>The experiment tried on so great a scale is on -record; the experience of certain intelligent capitalists -is on record. They prove beyond a doubt -that to strengthen human production it is necessary -to reduce the hours of labor and multiply -the pay days and feast days, yet the French nation -is not convinced. But if the miserable reduction -of two hours has increased English production -by almost one-third in ten years, what -breathless speed would be given to French production -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> -by a legal limitation of the working day -to three hours. Cannot the laborers understand -that by over-working themselves they exhaust -their own strength and that of their progeny, -that they are used up and long before their time -come to be incapable of any work at all, that absorbed -and brutalized by this single vice they are -no longer men but pieces of men, that they kill -within themselves all beautiful faculties, to leave -nothing alive and flourishing except the furious -madness for work? Like Arcadian parrots, they -repeat the lesson of the economist: "Let us work, -let us work to increase the national wealth." O, -idiots, it is because you work too much that the -industrial equipment develops slowly. Stop braying -and listen to an economist, no other than M. -L. Reybaud, whom we were fortunate enough to -lose a few months ago. "It is in general by the -conditions of hand-work that the revolution in -methods of labor is regulated. As long as hand-work -furnishes its services at a low price, it is -lavished, while efforts are made to economize it -when its services become more costly."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> - -<p>To force the capitalists to improve their machines -of wood and iron it is necessary to raise -wages and diminish the working hours of the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> -machines of flesh and blood. Do you ask for -proofs? They can be furnished by the hundreds. -In spinning, the self-acting mule was invented -and applied at Manchester because the spinners -refused to work such long hours as before. In -America the machine is invading all branches of -farm production, from the making of butter to -the weeding of wheat. Why, because the American, -free and lazy, would prefer a thousand -deaths to the bovine life of the French peasant. -Plowing, so painful and so crippling to the -laborer in our glorious France, is in the American -West an agreeable open-air pastime, which -he practices in a sitting posture, smoking his -pipe nonchalantly.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> -Under the old regime, the laws of the church guaranteed -the laborer ninety rest days, fifty-two Sundays -and thirty-eight holidays, during which he was strictly -forbidden to work. This was the great crime of -catholicism, the principal cause of the irreligion of -the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie: under the -revolution, when once it was in the saddle, it abolished -the holidays and replaced the week of seven -days by that of ten, in order that the people might -no longer have more than one rest day out of the -ten. It emancipated the laborers from the yoke of -the church in order the better to subjugate them under -the yoke of work. -</p> -<p> -The hatred against the holidays does not appear -until the modern industrial and commercial bourgeoisie -takes definite form, between the fifteenth and -sixteenth centuries. Henry IV asked of the pope that -they be reduced. He refused because "one of the current -heresies of the day is regarding feasts" (Letters -of Cardinal d'Ossat). But in 1666 Perefixus, archbishop -of Paris, suppressed seventeen of them in his diocese. -protestantism, which was the Christian religion adapted -to the new industrial and commercial needs of the -bourgeoisie, was less solicitous for the people's rest. -It dethroned the saints in heaven in order to abolish -their feast days on earth. -</p> -<p> -Religious reform and philosophical free thought -were but pretexts which permitted the jesuitical and -rapacious bourgeoisie to pilfer the feast days of the -people.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> -These gigantic feasts lasted for weeks. Don Rodrigo -de Lara wins his bride by expelling the Moors -from old Calatrava, and the Romancero relates the -story: -</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> - <div class="poetry"> - <div class="verse2">Las bodas fueron en Burgos</div> - <div class="verse2">Las tornabodas en Salas:</div> - <div class="verse2">En bodas y tornabodas</div> - <div class="verse2">Pasaron siete semanas</div> - <div class="verse2">Tantas vienen de las gentes</div> - <div class="verse">Que no caben por las plazas</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p> -(The wedding was at Bourges, the infaring at Salas. -In the wedding and the infaring seven weeks were -spent. So many people came that the town could not -hold them...). -</p> -<p> -The men of these seven-weeks weddings were the -heroic soldiers of the wars of independence.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> -Karl Marx's "Capital".</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> -"The proportion in which the population of the -country is employed as domestics in the service of the -wealthy class indicates its progress in national wealth -and civilization." (R. M. Martin, "Ireland Before and -After the Union," 1818). Gambetta, who has denied -that there was a social question ever since he ceased -to be the poverty stricken lawyer of the Café Procope, -undoubtedly alluded to this ever-increasing domestic -class when he announced the advent of new social -strata.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> -Two examples: The English government to satisfy -the peasants of India, who in spite of the periodical -famines desolating their country insist on cultivating -poppies instead of rice or wheat, has been obliged -to undertake bloody wars in order to impose upon the -Chinese Government the free entry of Indian opium. -The savages of Polynesia, in spite of the mortality -resulting from it are obliged to clothe themselves -in the English fashion in order to consume the products -of the Scotch distilleries and the Manchester cotton -mills.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> -Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. La Question Ouvrière au -XIX siècle, 1872.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> -It should be observed that this was written in -1883, since which time the United States has taken the -first rank. The soundness of Lafargue's reasoning is -confirmed by the fact that in this country the hours -of labor in the most important industries are even -less than in England. (Translator.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> -Louis Reybaud. Le coton, son regime, ses problèmes -(1863).</p></div></div> - - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="NEW_SONGS_TO_NEW_MUSIC" - id="NEW_SONGS_TO_NEW_MUSIC"></a>IV.<br /><br /> - NEW SONGS TO NEW MUSIC.</h2> -</div> - -<p>We have seen that by diminishing the hours -of labor new mechanical forces will be conquered -for social production. Furthermore, by obliging -the laborers to consume their products the army -of workers will be immensely increased. The capitalist -class once relieved from its function of universal -consumer will hasten to dismiss its train -of soldiers, magistrates, journalists, procurers, -which it has withdrawn from useful labor to help -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> -it in consuming and wasting. Then the labor -market will overflow. Then will be required an -iron law to put a limit on work. It will be impossible -to find employment for that swarm of -former unproductives, more numerous than insect -parasites, and after them must be considered -all those who provide for their needs and their -vain and expensive tastes. When there are no -more lackeys and generals to decorate, no more -free and married prostitutes to be covered with -laces, no more cannons to bore, no more palaces -to build, there will be need of severe laws to compel -the working women and workingmen who -have been employed on embroidered laces, iron -workings, buildings, to take the hygienic and -calisthenic exercises requisite to re-establish their -health and improve their race. When once we -begin to consume European products at home -instead of sending them to the devil, it will be -necessary that the sailors, dock handlers and the -draymen sit down and learn to twirl their thumbs. -The happy Polynesians may then love as they -like without fearing the civilized Venus and the -sermons of European moralists.</p> - -<p>And that is not all: In order to find work for -all the non-producers of our present society, in -order to leave room for the industrial equipment -to go on developing indefinitely, the working -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> -class will be compelled, like the capitalist class, -to do violence to its taste for abstinence and to -develop indefinitely its consuming capacities. -Instead of eating an ounce or two of gristly meat -once a day, when it eats any, it will eat juicy -beefsteaks of a pound or two; instead of drinking -moderately of bad wine, it will become more -orthodox than the pope and will drink broad and -deep bumpers of Bordeaux and Burgundy without -commercial baptism and will leave water to -the beasts.</p> - -<p>The proletarians have taken into their heads -to inflict upon the capitalists ten hours of forge -and factory; that is their great mistake, because -of social antagonisms and civil wars. Work -ought to be forbidden and not imposed. The -Rothschilds and other capitalists should be allowed -to bring testimony to the fact that throughout -their whole lives they have been perfect vagabonds, -and if they swear they wish to continue -to live as perfect vagabonds in spite of the general -mania for work, they should be pensioned -and should receive every morning at the city hall -a five-dollar gold piece for their pocket money. -Social discords will vanish. Bond holders and -capitalists will be first to rally to the popular -party, once convinced that far from wishing them -harm, its purpose is rather to relieve them of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> -the labor of over-consumption and waste, with -which they have been overwhelmed since their -birth. As for the capitalists who are incapable -of proving their title to the name of vagabond, -they will be allowed to follow their instincts. -There are plenty of disgusting occupations in -which to place them. Dufaure might be set at -cleaning public closets, Gallifet<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> might perform -surgical operations on diseased horses and hogs. -The members of the amnesty commission might -be sent to the stock yards to pick out the oxen -and the sheep to be slaughtered. The senators -might play the part of undertakers and lackeys -in funeral processions. As for the others, occupations -could be found for them on a level with -their intelligence. Lorgeril and Broglie could -cork champagne bottles, only they would have -to be muzzled as a precaution against intoxication. -Ferry, Freycinet and Tirard might destroy -the bugs and vermin in the departments of state -and other public houses. It would, however, be -necessary to put the public funds out of the reach -of the capitalists out of due regard for their acquired -habits.</p> - -<p>But vengeance, harsh and prolonged, will be -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> -heaped upon the moralists who have perverted -nature, the bigots, the canters, the hypocrites, -"and other such sects of men who disguise themselves -like maskers to deceive the world. For -whilst they give the common people to understand -that they are busied about nothing but contemplation -and devotion in fastings and maceration -of their sensuality,—and that only to sustain -and aliment the small frailty of their humanity,—it -is so far otherwise that on the contrary, -God knows, what cheer they make; et -<i>Curios simulant, sed Bacchanalia vivunt</i>. -<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> You -may read it in great letters, in the coloring of -their red snouts, and gulching bellies as big as a -tun, unless it be when they perfume themselves -with sulphur."<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> On the days of great popular -rejoicing, when instead of swallowing dust as on -the 15th of August and 14th of July under capitalism, -the communists and collectivists will eat, -drink and dance to their hearts' content, the -members of the Academy, of moral and political -sciences, the priests with long robes and short, -of the economic, catholic, protestant, jewish, positivist -and free-thought church; the propagandists -of Malthusianism, and of Christian, altruistic, -independent or dependent ethics, clothed in yellow, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> -shall be compelled to hold a candle until it -burns their fingers, shall starve in sight of tables -loaded with meats, fruits and flowers and shall -agonize with thirst in sight of flowing hogsheads. -Four times a year with the changing seasons -they shall be shut up like the knife grinders' dogs -in great wheels and condemned to grind wind -for ten hours.</p> - -<p>The lawyers and legislators shall suffer the -same punishment. Under the regime of idleness, -to kill the time, which kills us second by second, -there will be shows and theatrical performances -always and always. And here we have the very -work for our bourgeois legislators. We shall organize -them into traveling companies to go to -the fairs and villages, giving legislative exhibitions. -The generals in riding boots, their breasts -brilliantly decorated with medals and crosses, -shall go through the streets and courts levying -recruits among the good people. Gambetta and -his comrade Cassagnac shall tend door. Cassagnac, -in full duelist costume, rolling his eyes -and twisting his mustache, spitting out burning -tow, shall threaten every one with his father's -pistol<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> -and sink into a hole as soon as they show -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> -him Lullier's portrait. Gambetta will discourse -on foreign politics and on little Greece, who -makes a doctor of him and would set Europe on -fire to pilfer Turkey; on great Russia that stultifies -him with the mincemeat she promises to make -of Prussia and who would fain see mischief brewing -in the west of Europe so as to feather her -nest in the east and to strangle nihilism at home; -on Mr. Bismark who was good enough to allow -him to pronounce himself on the amnesty ... -then uncovering his mountainous belly smeared -over with red and white and blue, the three national -colors, he will beat the tattoo on it, and -enumerate the delicate little ortolans, the truffles -and the glasses of Margaux and Y'quem that it -has gulped down to encourage agriculture, and -to keep his electors of Belleville in good spirits.</p> - -<p>In the barracks the entertainment will open -with the "Electoral Farce".</p> - -<p>In the presence of the voters with wooden -heads and asses' ears, the bourgeois candidates, -dressed as clowns, will dance the dance of political -liberties, wiping themselves fore and aft -with their freely promising electoral programs, -and talking with tears in their eyes of the miseries -of the people and with copper in their voices -of the glories of France. Then the heads of the -voters will bray solidly in chorus, hi han! hi han!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> - -<p>Then will start the great play, "The Theft of -the Nation's Goods."</p> - -<p>Capitalist France, an enormous female, hairy-faced -and bald-headed, fat, flabby, puffy and pale, -with sunken eyes, sleepy and yawning, is stretching -herself out on a velvet couch. At her feet -Industrial Capitalism, a gigantic organism of -iron, with an ape-like mask, is mechanically devouring -men, women and children, whose thrilling -and heart-rending cries fill the air; the bank -with a marten's muzzle, a hyena's body and harpy-hands, -is nimbly flipping coins out of his -pocket. Hordes of miserable, emaciated proletarians -in rags, escorted by gendarmes with -drawn sabers, pursued by furies lashing them -with whips of hunger, are bringing to the feet -of capitalist France heaps of merchandise, casks -of wine, sacks of gold and wheat. Langlois, his -nether garment in one hand, the testament of -Proudhon in the other and the book of the national -budget between his teeth, is encamped at -the head of the defenders of national property -and is mounting guard. When the laborers, -beaten with gun stocks and pricked with bayonets, -have laid down their burdens, they are -driven away and the door is opened to the manufacturers, -merchants and bankers. They hurl -themselves pell mell upon the heap, devouring -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> -cotton goods, sacks of wheat, ingots of gold, -emptying casks of wine. When they have devoured -all they can, they sink down, filthy and -disgusting objects in their ordure and vomitings. -Then the thunder bursts forth, the earth shakes -and opens, Historic Destiny arises, with her iron -foot she crushes the heads of the capitalists, hiccoughing, -staggering, falling, unable to flee. -With her broad hand she overthrows capitalist -France, astounded and sweating with fear.</p> - -<hr class="sect" /> - -<p>If, uprooting from its heart the vice which -dominates it and degrades its nature, the working -class were to arise in its terrible strength, -not to demand the Rights of Man, which are but -the rights of capitalist exploitation, not to demand -the Right to Work which is but the right -to misery, but to forge a brazen law forbidding -any man to work more than three hours a day, -the earth, the old earth, trembling with joy would -feel a new universe leaping within her. But how -should we ask a proletariat corrupted by capitalist -ethics, to take a manly resolution....</p> - -<p>Like Christ, the doleful personification of ancient -slavery, the men, the women and the children -of the proletariat have been climbing painfully -for a century up the hard Calvary of pain; -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> -for a century compulsory toil has broken their -bones, bruised their flesh, tortured their nerves; -for a century hunger has torn their entrails and -their brains. O Laziness, have pity on our long -misery! O Laziness, mother of the arts and noble -virtues, be thou the balm of human anguish!</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> -Gallifet was the general who was directly responsible -for the massacre of thousands of French workingmen -at the closing days of the Paris Commune.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> -They simulate Curius but live like Bacchanals. -(Juvenal.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> -Rabelais "Pantagruel," Book II. Chapter XXXIV. -Translation of Urquhart and Motteux.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> -Paul de Cassagnac, like his father, Granier, was -prominent as a conservative politician, journalist and -duelist.</p></div></div> - - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX">APPENDIX</a></h2> -</div> - -<p>Our moralists are very modest people. If they -invented the dogma of work, they still have -doubts of its efficacy in tranquilizing the soul, -rejoicing the spirit, and maintaining the proper -functioning of the entrails and other organs. -They wish to try its workings on the populace, -<i>in anima vili</i>, before turning it against the capitalists, -to excuse and authorize whose vices is -their peculiar mission.</p> - -<p>But, you, three-for-a-cent philosophers, why -thus cudgel your brains to work out an ethics -the practice of which you dare not counsel to -your masters? Your dogma of work, of which -you are so proud, do you wish to see it scoffed -at, dishonored? Let us open the history of ancient -peoples and the writings of their philosophers -and law givers. "I could not affirm," says -the father of history, Herodotus, "whether the -Greeks derived from the Egyptians the contempt -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> -which they have for work, because I find the -same contempt established among the Thracians, -the Cythians, the Persians, the Lydians; in a -word, because among most barbarians, those who -learn mechanical arts and even their children are -regarded as the meanest of their citizens. All -the Greeks have been nurtured in this principle, -particularly the Lacedaemonians."<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> - -<p>"At Athens the citizens were veritable nobles -who had to concern themselves but with the defense -and the administration of the community, -like the savage warriors from whom they descended. -Since they must thus have all their time -free to watch over the interests of the republic, -with their mental and bodily strength, they laid -all labor upon the slaves. Likewise at Lacedaemon, -even the women were not allowed to spin -or weave that they might not detract from their -nobility."<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<p>The Romans recognized but two noble and -free professions, agriculture and arms. All the -citizens by right lived at the expense of the treasury -without being constrained to provide for their -living by any of the sordid arts (thus, they designated -the trades), which rightfully belonged -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> -to slaves. The elder Brutus to arouse the people, -accused Tarquin, the tyrant, of the special -outrage of having converted free citizens into -artisans and masons.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> - -<p>The ancient philosophers had their disputes -upon the origin of ideas but they agreed when -it came to the abhorrence of work. "Nature," -said Plato in his social utopia, his model republic, -"Nature has made no shoemaker nor smith. Such -occupations degrade the people who exercise -them. Vile mercenaries, nameless wretches, who -are by their very condition excluded from political -rights. As for the merchants accustomed -to lying and deceiving, they will be allowed in -the city only as a necessary evil. The citizen -who shall have degraded himself by the commerce -of the shop shall be prosecuted for this -offense. If he is convicted, he shall be condemned -to a year in prison; the punishment shall -be doubled for each repeated offense."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> - -<p>In his "Economics," Xenophon writes, "The -people who give themselves up to manual labor -are never promoted to public offices, and with -good reason. The greater part of them, condemned -to be seated the whole day long, some -even to endure the heat of the fire continually, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> -cannot fail to be changed in body, and it is almost -inevitable that the mind be affected." "What -honorable thing can come out of a shop?" asks -Cicero. "What can commerce produce in the -way of honor? Everything called shop is unworthy - of an honorable man. Merchants can gain -no profit without lying, and what is more shameful -than falsehood? Again, we must regard as -something base and vile the trade of those who -sell their toil and industry, for whoever gives his -labor for money sells himself and puts himself -in the rank of slaves."<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> - -<p>Proletarians, brutalized by the dogma of work, -listen to the voice of these philosophers, which -has been concealed from you with jealous care: -A citizen who gives his labor for money degrades -himself to the rank of slaves, he commits a crime -which deserves years of imprisonment.</p> - -<p>Christian hypocrisy and capitalist utilitarianism -had not perverted these philosophers of the -ancient republics. Speaking for free men, they -expressed their thought naively. Plato, Aristotle, -those intellectual giants, beside whom our -latter day philosophers are but pygmies, wish the -citizens of their ideal republics to live in the most -complete leisure, for as Xenophon observed, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> -"Work takes all the time and with it one has -no leisure for the republic and his friends." According -to Plutarch, the great claim of Lycurgus, -wisest of men, to the admiration of posterity, was -that he had granted leisure to the citizens of -Sparta by forbidding to them any trade whatever. -But our moralists of Christianity and capitalism -will answer, "These thinkers and philosophers -praised the institution of slavery." Perfectly -true, but could it have been otherwise, granted -the economic and political conditions of their -epoch? War was the normal state of ancient societies. -The free man was obliged to devote his -time to discussing the affairs of state and watching -over its defense. The trades were then too -primitive and clumsy for those practicing them -to exercise their birth-right of soldier and citizen; -thus the philosophers and law-givers, if -they wished to have warriors and citizens in their -heroic republics, were obliged to tolerate slaves. -But do not the moralists and economists of capitalism -praise wage labor, the modern slavery; -and to what men does the capitalist slavery give -leisure? To people like Rothschild, Schneider, -and Madame Boucicaut, useless and harmful -slaves of their vices and of their domestic servants. -"The prejudice of slavery dominated the -minds of Pythagoras and Aristotle,"—this has -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> -been written disdainfully; and yet Aristotle foresaw: -"that if every tool could by itself execute its -proper function, as the masterpieces of Daedalus -moved themselves or as the tripods of Vulcan set -themselves spontaneously at their sacred work; if -for example the shuttles of the weavers did their -own weaving, the foreman of the workshop -would have no more need of helpers, nor the -master of slaves."</p> - -<p>Aristotle's dream is our reality. Our machines, -with breath of fire, with limbs of unwearying -steel, with fruitfulness, wonderful inexhaustible, -accomplish by themselves with docility their -sacred labor. And nevertheless the genius of the -great philosophers of capitalism remains dominated -by the prejudice of the wage system, worst -of slaveries. They do not yet understand that -the machine is the saviour of humanity, the god -who shall redeem man from the sordidae artes -and from working for hire, the god who shall -give him leisure and liberty.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Herodotus, Book II.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> -Biot. De L'abolition de L'esclavage ancien en Occident, -1840.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Livy, Book I.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> -Plato's "Republic," Book V.</p></div> - - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> -Cicero's "De Officiis," I, 42.</p></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum p4"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="SOCIALISM" id="SOCIALISM">SOCIALISM - AND THE INTELLECTUALS</a></h2> -</div> - -<p><span class="sc">Address delivered at Paris March 23, 1900, -at a meeting called by the Group of Collectivist -Students attached to the Parti -Ouvrier Français.</span></p> - - -<p>Ladies and Gentlemen:—I am happy to deliver -this address under the presidency of Vaillant, -because it is a pledge of the close and lasting -union between our two organizations, and because -Vaillant is one of the intellectuals of the -socialist party; he is acknowledged to be the -most learned of French socialists and perhaps -of European socialists, now that Marx, Engels -and Lavroff are no longer with us.</p> - -<p>The group of collectivist students which has -organized this conference, has been led to choose -this subject, because French socialism has just -passed through a crisis which is not exactly one -of growth, though such it has been called, but -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> -which has been caused by the arrival of a certain -number of bourgeois intellectuals within the -ranks of the party. It is therefore interesting -to examine the situation of the intellectuals in -capitalist society, their historic role since the -revolution of 1789, and the manner in which the -bourgeoisie has kept the promises it made them -when it was struggling against the aristocracy.</p> - -<p>The eighteenth century was the century of -reason—everything, religion, philosophy, science, -politics, privileges of classes, of the state, of -municipalities, was submitted to its pitiless criticism. -Never in history has there been such a -fermentation of ideas and such a revolutionary -preparation of men's minds. Mirabeau, who -himself played a great role in the ideological -agitation, might well say in the national assembly: -"We have no time to think, but happily, -we have a supply of ideas." All that was needed -was to realize them. Capitalism, to reward the -intellectuals who had labored with so much enthusiasm -for the coming of its revolution, promised -them honors and favors; intelligence and -wisdom, as well as virtue, should be the sole -privileges of the society it was founding upon -the ruins of the old order. Promises cost it -little; it announced to all men that it brought -them joy and happiness, with liberty, equality -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> -and fraternity, which, although eternal principles, -were now born for the first time. Its social -world was to be so new that even before the -Republic was proclaimed, Camille Desmoulins -demanded that they begin a new era which -should date from the taking of the Bastile.</p> - -<p>I need not teach you what application capitalism -has made of these eternal principles which -by way of cynical raillery, the Republic carves -on the lintels of her prisons, her penitentiaries, -her barracks and her halls of state.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> I will -only remind you that savage and barbarous -tribes, uncorrupted by civilization, living under -the regime of common property, without inscribing -anywhere these eternal principles, without -even formulating them, practice them in a manner -more perfect than ever was dreamed of by -the capitalists who discovered them in 1789.</p> - -<p>It did not take long to determine the value of -the promises of capitalism; the very day it -opened its political shop, it commenced proceedings -in bankruptcy. The constituent assembly, -which formulated the Rights of man and of the -citizen and proclaimed equality before the law, -discussed and voted, in 1790, an electoral act -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> -which established inequality before the law; no -one was to be a voter but the "active citizen," -paying in money a direct tax equal to three -days' labor, and no one was to be eligible to -office but the citizen paying a direct tax of a -"silver mark," about 55 francs. "But under the -law of the silver mark," clamored Loustallot, -Desmoulins and the intellectualists without real -estate, "Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose 'Social -Contract' is the bible of the revolution, would -be capable neither of voting nor of holding -office." The electoral law deprived so many -citizens of political rights, that in the municipal -elections of 1790, at Paris, a city which counted -about half a million inhabitants, there were but -12,000 voters, Bailly was chosen mayor by 10,000 -votes.</p> - -<p>If the eternal principles were not new, it is -also true that the flattering promises made by -the intellectuals had already begun to be realized -before the advent of capitalism to power. -The church, which is a theocratic democracy, -opens her bosom to all. That they may enter, -all lay aside their titles and privileges, and all -can aspire to the highest positions; popes have -risen from the lower ranks of society. Sixtus -Fifth had in his youth tended swine. The -church of the middle ages jealously attracted to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> -herself the thinkers and men of learning, although -she respected the preference of those -who wished to remain laymen, but extended -over them her protection and her favors; she -allowed them all boldness of thought, on the -single condition of keeping up the appearance -of faith, and never leaving her enclosure to lavish -themselves upon the vulgar. Thus Copernicus -might write and dedicate to the pope his -"treatise on the revolutions of the celestial -bodies," in which, contrary to the teaching of -the Bible, he proves that the earth turns around -the sun. But Copernicus was a canon at Frannbourg -and he wrote in Latin. When a century -later Galileo, who was not identified with the -clergy and who on the contrary sought the protection -of the secular authorities, professed -publicly, at Venice and Florence, the theories -of Copernicus, the Vatican stretched out its -terrible hand over him and forced the illustrious -old man to deny his scientific belief. Even -after the crisis of protestantism, the church preserved -its liberality toward the scientists who -belonged to it. Mersenne, a monk of the order -of the Minimes, one of the great geometers of -the seventeenth century, a precursor and friend -of Descartes, corresponded freely with Hobbes, -the father of modern materialism; the notes of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> -the French edition of "De Cive" contain fragments -of this correspondence.</p> - -<p>The church, in keeping up this liberal conduct, -may have been animated by a disinterested love -of pure science, but what chiefly concerned her -was the interest of her dominancy; she wished -to monopolize the intellectuals and science, just -as in the old theocratic Egypt the priests had -done to whom the Greek thinkers resorted in -search of the first elements of science and philosophy.</p> - -<p>It would be insulting capitalism to attribute -to it a disinterested love of science, which from -its point of view has but one reason for existence, -that of utilizing natural forces to the enhancement -of its wealth. It cares nothing for -pure speculation and it is by way of self-defence -that it allows its scientists to devote their mental -energy to theoretic researches instead of exhausting -it on practical applications. This contempt -for pure speculation is shown under a -philosophic form in the positivism of Auguste -Comte, who embodies so well the narrowness of -the groveling spirit of capitalism.</p> - -<p>But if science apart from its industrial applications -does not interest the bourgeoisie their -solicitude for the intellectuals takes on none of -the forms which we saw in that of the church, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> -and nowhere is their indifference to them better -shown than in the relative position of material -property and of intellectual property before the -law.</p> - -<p>Material property, whatever its origin, is by -capitalist law a thing eternal; it is forever assured -to its possessor; it is handed down from -father to son to the end of the centuries, and no -civil or political power may lay upon it a sacrilegious -hand. We have lately seen a characteristic -example of this inviolability of material -property.</p> - -<p>The keeper of the signal station at Durban -transmitted to the Boers heliographic dispatches -informing them regarding the ships which entered -the harbor, the men, the horses and the -munitions of war which they transported. His -treason brought him 125,000 francs, which, like -an intelligent capitalist, he deposited in the bank. -The English military authorities seized the -traitor, condemned him and shot him, but they -respected his property so honorably acquired, -and his widow and son are now its legitimate possessors. -The law, apart from certain variations, -being the same in all capitalist countries, things -go on in France as in England. No authority -could lay hand on the property of Bazaine, nor -make De Lesseps, Cottu and their families disgorge -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> -the millions artfully extracted from the -"lambs" on Panama canal stock.</p> - -<p>This legal sanctity of property is a new thing, -in France it dates from the revolution of 1789. -The old regime, which had small respect for -this sort of property, authorized the confiscation -of the property of those legally condemned, and -the abolition of confiscation is one of the first -reforms demanded in the petitions of Paris and -several provincial cities to the states general. -Capitalism, by forbidding the confiscation of -property obtained by fraudulent and infamous -means, proclaims that the source of its fortune -is quite as fraudulent and infamous as that of -criminals and traitors.</p> - -<p>Capitalist law has none of these amenities for -intellectual property. Literary and artistic property -such as the law protects at all has but a -precarious life, limited to the life of the author -and a certain time after his death—fifty years -according to the latest legislation; that time -passed, it lapses into common property; for example, -beginning with March of this year, any -publisher has the right to bring out for his own -profit the works of Balzac, the genius of romantic -literature.</p> - -<p>Literary property, though a matter of interest -to publishers, who are certainly few in number, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> -brings no benefit to the mass of the capitalist -class, but not so with property in inventions, -which is of prime importance to all the manufacturing -and mercantile capitalists. Consequently -over it the law extends no protection. The -inventor, if he wishes to defend his intellectual -property against capitalist pirates, must begin -by buying that right, taking out a patent, which -he must renew every year; on the day he misses -a payment, his intellectual property becomes the -lawful prey of the robbers of capitalism. Even -if he pays, he can secure that right only for a -time; in France, fourteen years. And during -these few years, not long enough generally to -get his invention fully introduced into practical -industry, it is he, the inventor, who at his own -expense has to set in motion the machinery of -the law against the capitalist pirates who rob -him.</p> - -<p>The trade-mark, which is a capitalistic property -that never required any intellectual effort, -is on the contrary indefinitely protected by law -like material property.</p> - -<p>It is with reluctance that the capitalist class -has granted the inventor the right of defending -his intellectual property, for by virtue of its position -as the ruling class it regards itself as entitled -to the fruits of intellectual labor as well -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> -as of manual labor; just as the feudal lord asserted -his right of possession over the property -of his serfs. The history of the inventors of our -century is the monstrous story of their spoliation -by the capitalists; it is a long and melancholy -roll of martyrs. The inventor, by the very fact -of his genius, is condemned with his family to -ruin and suffering.</p> - -<p>It is not only inventions requiring long and -laborious study, heavy outlay for their completion -and long time for their introduction, that -plunge the inventor into the inferno of poverty; -this is equally true of inventions that are most -simple, most immediately applicable and most -fertile in rich results. I will mention but one example: -there lately died at Paris in extreme poverty -a man whose invention saves millions of -francs a year to the railroads and mining companies; -he had discovered a way to utilize the -mountains of coal dust that encumbered the -neighborhood of wharfs and mines by converting -it into "briquettes," such as are today in common -use for fuel.</p> - -<p>The capitalist bourgeoisie, the most revolutionary -class that ever oppressed human societies, -cannot increase its wealth without continuously -revolutionizing the means of production, -continuously incorporating into its industrial -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> -equipment new applications of mechanics, chemistry -and physics. Its thirst for inventions is so -insatiable that it creates factories for inventions. -Certain American capitalists united in constructing -for Edison at Menlo Park the most wonderful -laboratory in the world, and in putting at -his disposal trained scientists, chosen workmen, -and the ordinary materials necessary to make and -keep on making inventions which the capitalists -patent, exploit or sell. Edison, who is himself -a shrewd business man, has taken care to secure -for himself a part of the benefits brought by the -Menlo Park inventions.</p> - -<p>But not all inventors are able like Edison to -dictate terms to the capitalists who equip invention -factories. The Thompson-Houston Company -at Paris and Siemens at London and Berlin, -<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> -in connection with their plants for turning -out electrical machinery, have laboratories where -ingenious men are kept busy searching out new -applications of electricity. At Frankfort the manufactory -of aniline dyes, the largest in the world, -where anti-pyrine, that mineral quinine, was discovered, -keeps on its pay roll more than a hundred -chemists to discover new products of coal-tar. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> -Each discovery is at once patented by the -house, which, by way of encouragement, gives -a reward to the inventor.</p> - -<p>We may up to a certain point regard all factories -and workshops as laboratories for inventions, -since a considerable number of improvements -in machinery have been devised by workmen -in the course of their work. The inventor -having no money to patent and apply his discovery, -the employer takes out the patent in his own -name, and in accordance with the spirit of capitalist -justice, it is he who reaps all the benefit. -When the government takes it into its head to -rewards talent, it is the employer who receives -the decoration; the inventive workman, who is -not an intellectual, continues to revolve like the -other machines under the black and greasy number -which distinguishes him, and as in this capitalist -world he must be content with little, he -consoles himself for his poverty by the reflection -that his invention is bringing wealth and honor -to his employer.</p> - -<p>The capitalist class, which to increase its -wealth is in pressing need of inventions, is in -even more imperative need of intellectuals to -supervise their application and to direct its industrial -machinery. The capitalists, before they -equipped invention factories, had organized factories -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> -to turn out intellectuals. Dollfus, Scherer-Kestner -and other employes of Alsace, the most -intelligent, most philanthropic and consequently -the heaviest exploiters in France before the war, -had founded with their spare pennies at Mulhouse, -schools of design, of chemistry and of -physics, where the brightest children of their -workmen were instructed gratis, in order that -they might always have at hand and at reasonable -figure the intellectual capacities required -for carrying on their industries. Twenty years -ago the directors of the Mulhouse school persuaded -the municipal council of Paris to establish -the city school of chemistry and physics. At the -beginning, whether it is still the case I do not -know, the pupils were recruited in the common -schools, they received a higher education, gratis, -a dinner at noon at the school, and fifty francs a -month to indemnify the parents for the loss from -the fact that their sons were not in the workshop.</p> - -<p>On the platform of the constituent assembly -of 1790 the Marquis of Foucault could declare -that to be a laborer it was not necessary to know -how to read and write. The necessities of industrial -production compel the capitalist of today -to speak in language altogether different; -his economic interests and not his love of humanity -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> -and of science force him to encourage -and to develop both elementary and higher education.</p> - -<p>But the slave merchants of ancient Rome -were, by the same title, patrons of education. -To the more intelligent of their human merchandise -they gave instruction in medicine, philosophy, -Greek literature, music, science, etc. The -education of the slave enhanced his market -value. The slave who was an expert cook -brought a better figure than the slave doctor, -philosopher or literator. In our days it is still -so; the big capitalists pay their chief cooks better -than the state pays the professors of liberal -arts, even though they be members of the Institute. -But contrary to the practice of the Roman -slave merchants, our capitalist class lavishes instruction -only in order to depress the selling -price of intellectual capacity.</p> - -<p>Greek mythology tells how Midas had the gift -of turning everything into gold; the capitalist -class has a similar property, it transforms everything -that it touches into merchandise; it has -done this for intellectual capacities; chemists, -engineers and Latin scholars are bought like she-asses -and guano.</p> - -<p>A voice: "And they buy deputies, too!"</p> - -<p>People who have no tallow nor veal nor socks -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> -to sell have their conscience and their votes; -when they are deputies, they are bought.</p> - -<p>When intellectual capacities become merchandise -they have to be treated like other merchandise, -and they are. When there are many oysters -in the market the price of oysters goes down, -but when the arrivals are scarce the price goes -up. When chemists and engineers are plenty on -the labor market, the price of inventors and of -chemists goes down. Now that the Central -School and the School of Physics and Chemistry -turn out yearly upon the pavements of Paris -chemists by the dozen, their price has considerably -gone down. Twenty years ago the capitalist -paid a chemist reasonably, he gave him $100 -to $120 a month and engaged him by the year. -The employers whose regard for an employee is -measured by what they have to pay him, were -full of politeness and consideration for their -chemists who cost so dear. But since they have -been abundant, their price has fallen to $40 and -$30 a month; in the north they are not engaged -by the year but for the sugar season, which lasts -three or four months, at the end of which they -are discharged with the workmen. Go and shift -for yourself, says the employer. Next fall when -the beets come I know I shall find chemists to -superintend making them into sugar.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> - -<p>The chemists are not exceptional; you know -only too well that in all branches there is an -over-production of intellectuals, and that when a -place is vacant, tens and hundreds offer themselves -to fill it; and it is this pressure which permits -the capitalists to lower the price of the intellectuals -and to put it even below the wage of -the manual laborer.</p> - -<p>Poverty is harder for the intellectual than for -the workingman; it bruises him morally and -physically. The workingman, enduring hardships -from childhood and knocking about the -street and the shops, is accustomed to enduring -the troubles of life; the intellectual, brought up -in a hot-house, has the life bleached out of him -by the shadow of the college walls, his nervous -system is over-developed and takes on an unhealthy -impressionability. What the workingman -endures thoughtlessly is to him a painful -shock. The intellectual is wounded to the depths -of his moral being by the exigencies of a wage-worker's -life. With the same or even a higher -wage the intellectual is in a worse economic condition -than the laborer, for the latter may dress -as cheaply as he likes, but the former, if only not -to offend the eye of his employer and his chiefs -with whom he is brought in contact is obliged to -dress expensively and even elegantly. He must -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> -save on his food what he has to spend on his -clothing.</p> - -<p>The capitalists have degraded the intellectuals -below the economic level of the manual laborers. -This is their reward for having so magnificently -prepared the way for the bourgeois revolution of -the eighteenth century.</p> - -<p>Jaures in his preface to the Socialist History -of France says that "the intellectual bourgeoisie, -offended by a brutal and commercial society and -disenchanted with the bourgeois power, is rallying -to the support of socialism." Unfortunately -nothing could be less exact. This transformation -of the intellectual faculties into merchandise, -which ought to have filled the intellectuals -with wrath and indignation, leaves them indifferent. -Never would the free citizen of the ancient -republics of Athens and Rome have submitted -to such degradation. The free man who -sells his work, says Cicero, lowers himself to the -rank of the slaves. Socrates and Plato were indignant -against the Sophists who required pay -for their philosophic teaching, for to Socrates -and Plato thought was too noble a thing to be -bought and sold like carrots and shoes. Even -the French clergy of 1789 resented as a mortal -insult the proposition to pay a salary for worship. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> -But our intellectuals are accustoming -themselves to such degradation.</p> - -<p>Spurred on by the mercantile passion, they are -never better satisfied with themselves or with society -than when they succeed in selling their intellectual -merchandise at a good price; they have -even come to the point of making its selling price -the measure of its value. Zola, who is one of -the most distinguished representatives of literary -intellectualism, estimates the artistic value of a -novel by the number of editions sold. To sell -their intellectual merchandise has become in -them such an all-absorbing principle that if one -speaks to them of socialism, before they inquire -into its theories, they ask whether in the socialistic -society intellectual labor will be paid for -and whether it will be rewarded equally with -manual labor.</p> - -<p>Imbeciles! they have eyes but they see not that -it is the capitalist bourgeoisie which establishes -that degrading equality: and to increase its -wealth degrades intellectual labor to the point of -paying it at a lower rate than manual labor.</p> - -<p>We should have to put off the triumph of socialism -not to the year 2,000 but to the end of -the world if we had to wait upon the delicate, -shrinking and impressionable hesitancy of the intellectuals. -The history of the century is at hand -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> -to teach us just how much we have a right to expect -from these gentlemen.</p> - -<p>Since 1789 governments of the most diverse -and opposed character have succeeded each other -in France; and always, without hesitation, the -intellectuals have hastened to offer their devoted -services. I am not merely speaking of those two-for-a-cent -intellectuals who litter up the newspapers, -the parliaments and the economic associations; -but I mean the scientists, the university -professors, the members of the Institute; the -higher they raise their heads, the lower they bow -the knee.</p> - -<p>Princes of science, who ought to have conversed -on equal terms with kings and emperors, -have marketed their glory to buy offices and -favors from ephemeral ministers. Cuvier, one -of the mightiest geniuses of the modern era, -whom the revolution took from the household -of a nobleman to make of him at twenty-five -years one of the Museum professors, Cuvier took -the oath of allegiance and served with fidelity the -Republic, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Charles X -and Louis Philippe, the last of whom created -him a peer of France to reward him for his -career of servility.</p> - -<p>To devote one's self to all governments without -distinction is not enough. Pasteur placed -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> -his glorious name at the service of the financiers, -who placed him in the administrative council of -the Credit Foncier, side by side with Jules -Simon, with dukes and counts, with senators, -deputies and ex-ministers, in order to entrap the -"lambs." When De Lesseps was equipping his -colossal swindle of the Panama canal, he enrolled -the intellectuals of the Institute, of the French -Academy, of literature, of the clergy, of all the -circles of higher life.</p> - -<p>It is not in the circle of the intellectuals, degraded -by centuries of capitalist oppression, that -we must seek examples of civic courage and -moral dignity. They have not even the sense of -professional class-consciousness. At the time -of the Dreyfus affair, a certain minister discharged, -as if he had been a mere prison guard, -one of the professors of chemistry in the Polytechnic -school who had had the rare courage to -give public expression to his opinion. When in -a factory the employer dismisses a workman in -too arbitrary a fashion, his comrades grumble, -and sometimes quit work, even though misery -and hunger await them in the street.</p> - -<p>All his colleagues in the Polytechnic school -bowed their heads in silence; each one crouched -in self-regarding fear, and what is still more -characteristic, not a single partisan of Dreyfus -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> -in the Society of the Rights of Man or in the -ranks of the press raised a voice to remind them -of the idea of professional solidarity. The intellectuals, -who on all occasions display their -transcendental ethics, have still a long road to -travel before they reach the moral plane of the -working class and of the socialist party.</p> - -<p>The scientists have not only sold themselves to -the governments and the financiers; they have -also sold science itself to the capitalist-bourgeoisie. -When in the eighteenth century there -was need to prepare the minds of men for the -revolution, by sapping the ideologic foundations -of aristocratic society, then science fulfilled its -sublime mission of freedom; it was revolutionary; -it furiously attacked Christianity and the -intuitional philosophy. But when the victorious -bourgeoisie decided to base its new power on religion, -it commanded its scientists, its philosophers -and its men of letters to raise up what -they had overthrown; they responded to the need -with enthusiasm. They reconstructed what they -had demolished; they proved by scientific, sentimental -and romantic argument the existence of -God the father, of Jesus the son and of Mary the -virgin mother. I do not believe history offers -a spectacle equal to that presented in the first -years of the nineteenth century by the philosophers, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> -the scientists and the literary men, who -from revolutionaries and materialists suddenly -transformed themselves into reactionaries, intuitionalists -and catholics.</p> - -<p>This backward movement still continues; when -Darwin published his Origin of Species, which -took away from God his role of creator in the -organic world, as Franklin had despoiled him of -his thunderbolt, we saw the scientists, big and -little, university professors and members of the -Institute, enrolling themselves under the orders -of Flourens, who for his own part had at least -his eighty years for an excuse, that they might -demolish the Darwinian theory, which was displeasing -to the government and hurtful to religious -beliefs. The intellectuals exhibited that -painful spectacle in the fatherland of Lamark -and of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, the creators of -the evolution theory, which Darwin completed -and made proof against criticism.</p> - -<p>Today, now that the clerical anxiety is somewhat -appeased, the scientists venture to profess -the evolution theory, which they never opposed -without a protest from their scientific conscience, -but they turn it against socialism so as to keep -in the good graces of the capitalists. Herbert -Spencer, Haeckel and the greatest men in the -school of Darwinism demonstrate that the classification -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> -of individuals into rich and poor, idlers -and laborers, capitalists and wage-earners, is the -necessary result of the inevitable laws of nature, -instead of being the fulfillment of the will and -the justice of God. Natural selection, they say, -which has differentiated the organs of the human -body, has forever fixed the ranks and the -functions of the social body. They have, through -servility, even lost the logical spirit. They are -indignant against Aristotle because he, being unable -to conceive of the abolition of slavery, declared -that the slave was marked off by nature; -but they fail to see that they are saying something -equally monstrous when they affirm that -natural selection assigns to each one his place in -society.</p> - -<p>Thus it is no longer God or religion which -condemn the workers to wretchedness—it is science. -Never was there an intellectual bankruptcy -more fraudulent.</p> - -<p>M. Brunetières, one of those intellectuals who -do not feel their degradation and who joyfully -fulfill their servile task, was right when he proclaimed -the failure of science. He does not suspect -how colossal this bankruptcy is.</p> - -<p>Science, the great emancipator, that has tamed -the powers of nature, and might in so doing have -freed man from toil to allow him to develop freely -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> -his faculties of mind and body; science, become -the slave of capital, has done nothing but -supply means for capitalists to increase their -wealth, and to intensify their exploitation of the -working class. Its most wonderful applications -to industrial technique have brought to the children, -the women and the men of the working -class nothing but over-work and misery!</p> - -<p>The middle-class revolutionary party of 1789 -cried out in horror and indignation against the -lords, who through the long summer nights compelled -their serfs to beat the ponds near their -castles in order to keep the frogs from croaking. -What would they say if they saw what we -see? Improvements in lighting date from the -capitalist period. At the end of the last century -Argant and Carcel invented the lamp with a -double current of air, at the beginning of this -Chevreul invented the stearic candle, then gas -was discovered, then petroleum, then the electric -light, turning night into day. What benefits -have these scientific improvements in lighting -brought to the workers? They have enabled employers -to impose night work upon millions of -proletarians, not in the midsummer nights and -in the balmy air of the fields, but through nights -of summer and winter in the poisonous air of the -workshops and factories. The industrial applications -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> -of mechanics and chemistry have transformed -the happy and stimulating work of the -artisan into a torture which exhausts and kills -the proletarian.</p> - -<p>When science subdued the forces of nature to -the service of man, ought she not to have given -leisure to the workers that they might develop -themselves physically and intellectually; ought -she not to have changed the "vale of tears" into -a dwelling place of peace and joy? I ask you, -has not science failed in her mission of emancipation?</p> - -<p>The obtuse capitalist himself is conscious of -this failure; so he directs his economists and his -other intellectual domestics to prove to the working -class that it has never been so happy and -that its lot goes on improving.</p> - -<p>The economists, considering that to deserve -the good graces of the capitalists it was not -enough to falsify economic facts, are suppressing -economic science, which is becoming dangerous -for the domination of capital. Ever since Adam -Smith and Ricardo they go on repeating the -same errors regarding value, regarding the productivity -of the predatory and idle capitalist, -compiling facts and arranging statistics which -guide the capitalists in their speculations; but -they dare not draw conclusions and build systems -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> -with the materials that they have accumulated. -When Ricardo wrote, the phenomena of modern -production were beginning their evolution, their -communist tendencies could not be perceived, -one could then study them without taking sides -and could build up a science without fear of -wounding the interests of capital. But now that -they have arrived at their full development and -show clearly their communal tendencies, the economists -shut their eyes that they may not see, -and they wage war against the principles established -by Ricardo, which after having served -as a basis for the old bourgeois economy, have -become the points of departure of the Marxian -economy. To take a whack at the socialist theories -and put themselves at the service of the -financiers, like barkers and fakirs of their bogus -goods, are the intellectual functions of the economists. -Latterly the owners of silver mines have -enlisted them to sing the praises of bimetallism, -while Cecil Rhodes, Barnato, Beit, Robbers & -Company called them in to boom the Transvaal -gold mines.</p> - -<p>The intellectuals of art and literature, like the -jesters of the old feudal courts, are the entertainers -of the class which pays them. To satisfy -the tastes of the capitalists and beguile their -leisure—this is their sole artistic aim. The men -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> -of letters are so well broken to this servile duty -that they do not understand the spirit of Molière, -their great ancestor, all the while that they adore -the letter of his works. Molière is the writer -most written about in France; learned men have -devoted themselves to gathering up the scattered -fragments of his erratic and careless youth, to -fixing the date and the hour of the representations -of his comedies; if they had unearthed an -authentic piece of excrement from him they -would have set it in gold and would kiss it devotedly, -but the spirit of Molière escapes them. -You have read, as I have, many critical analyses -of his dramas. Did you ever find one of them -which brought out in clear light the role of this -militant playwright, who more than a century -before Beaumarchais and before revolution, at -Versailles, in the very court of the great monarch, -thrust at the nobility of the court and of -the provinces, attacked the church before which -Descartes and the rest trembled, hurled his jests -at Aristotle, the unquestioned authority of La -Sorbonne, that secular church; who ridiculed -the Pyrrhonism which the neo-Kantians of our -own days oppose to the materialist philosophy of -Marxian socialism, but which then was the -weapon of the catholics, of Pascal, of Huet, the -bishop of Avranches, to strike and to overthrow -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> -human reason, with its impudent desire of reaching -knowledge by its own strength. Pitiful, -wretched reason, clamored these Kantians before -Kant, you can know nothing without the -aid of faith! Molière is unique in European literature, -you must go back to the epoch of glorious -Athens to find his counterpart in Aristophanes.</p> - -<p>If the bourgeois critics timidly and unintelligently -mention this side of Molière, there is another -of which their ignorance is complete. Molière -was the man of his class, the champion of -the bourgeois class. Like the socialists who say -to the workers, "Break with the liberal bourgeoisie, -which deceives you when it does not -slaughter you;" he cried to the Georges Dandins -and to the "bourgeois noblemen," "Avoid the -nobles like pests; they deceive you, mock you -and rob you."</p> - -<p>The great capitalist bourgeoisie does not -choose to work, either with its hands or its brain; -it chooses merely to drink, to eat, to practice -lewdness and to look dignified in its beastly and -cumbersome luxury; it does not even deign to -occupy itself with politics; men like Rothschild, -De Lesseps, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, -do not run for office; they find it more economical -to buy the deputies than the voters, and more -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> -convenient to put their clerks into the ministries -than to take part in parliamentary struggles. The -big capitalists interest themselves only in the -operations of the stock exchange, which afford -the delights of gambling; they dignify these by -the pompous name of "speculations,"—a word -formerly reserved for the highest processes of -philosophical or mathematical thought. The capitalists -are getting themselves replaced in the -supervision and management of the great industrial -and commercial enterprises by intellectuals, -who carry them on, and usually are well paid for -doing so. These intellectuals of industry and -politics, the privileged portion of the wage class, -imagine that they are an integral part of the -capitalist class, while they are only its servants; -on every occasion they take up its defense -against the working class, which finds in them -its worst enemies.</p> - -<p>Intellectuals of this description can never be -led into socialism; their interests are too closely -bound up with those of the capitalist class for -them to detach themselves and turn against it. -But below these favored few there is a swarming -and famishing throng of intellectuals whose -lot grows worse in proportion to the increase of -their numbers. These intellectuals belong to socialism. -They ought to be already in our ranks. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> -Their education ought to have given them the -necessary intelligence to deal with social problems, -but it is this very education which obstructs -their hearing and keeps them away from -socialism. They think their education confers -on them a social privilege, that it will permit -them to get through the world by themselves, -each making his own way in life by crowding -out his neighbor or standing on the shoulders -of everyone else. They imagine that their poverty -is transitory and that they only need a stroke -of good luck to transform them into capitalists. -Education, they think, is the lucky number in the -social lottery, and it will bring them the grand -prize. They do not perceive that this ticket -given them by the capitalist class is a fraud, that -labor, whether manual or intellectual, has no -other chance than to earn its daily pittance, that -it has nothing to hope for but to be exploited, -and that the more capitalism goes on developing, -the more do the chances of an individual raising -himself out of his class go on diminishing.</p> - -<p>And while they build castles in Spain, capital -crushes them, as it has crushed the small merchants -and the small manufacturers, who -thought they, too, with free credit and a little -luck, might become first-class capitalists, whose -names should be written in the Great Book of -the Public Debt.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> - -<p>The intellectuals, in all that has to do with -the understanding of the social movement, do -not rise above the intellectual level of those little -bourgeois who scoffed so fiercely at the bunglers -of 1830 and who, after being ruined and merged -in the proletariat, none the less continue to detest -socialism; to such a degree were their heads -perverted by the religion of property. The intellectuals, -whose brains are stuffed with all the -prejudices of the bourgeois class, are inferior to -those little bourgeois of 1830 and 1848 who at -least were not afraid of gunpowder; they have -not their spirit of combativeness, they are true -imbeciles,—if we restore to this word its original -Latin meaning of unsuited for war. Without -resistance they endure rebuffs and wrongs -and they do not think of uniting, of organizing -themselves to defend their interests and give battle -to capital on the economic field.</p> - -<p>The intellectual proletariat as we know it is a -recent growth, it has especially developed in the -last forty years. When after the amnesty of -the condemned of the Commune, we began again -the socialist propaganda, believing that it would -be easy to draw the intellectuals into the movement -we took up our dwelling in their cultured -Latin quarter, Guesde taking up his residence in -the Rue de la Pitie, Vaillant in the Rue Monge -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> -and I in the Boulevard de Port Royal. We became -acquainted with hundreds of young men, -students of law, of medicines, of the sciences, -but you can count on your fingers those whom -we brought into the socialist camp. Our ideas attracted -them one day, but the next day the wind -blew from another quarter and turned their -heads.</p> - -<p>An honorable merchant of Bordeaux, a prominent -member of the municipal council, said in -the time of the empire to my father, who was -disturbed over my socialism:</p> - -<p>"Friend Lafargue, you must let youth take its -course; I was a socialist when I studied at Paris, -I was connected with the secret societies and I -took part in the movement for demanding of -Louis Philippe the pardon of Barbes." The -young men of our age turn quickly, let them get -back to their homes and they develop prominent -abdomens and become reactionaries.</p> - -<p>We welcomed joyfully the entrance of Jaures -into socialism; we thought that the new form -which he brought to our propaganda would -make it penetrate into circles that we had not -been able to touch. He has in fact made a decided -impression on the university circle, and we -owe it in part to him that the nurslings of the -Ecole Normale have ideas regarding the social -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> -movement which are a little less absurd and -formless than those with which their learning -and intelligence have hitherto been contented. -Lately, joining forces with the radical politicians -who had lost their working-class following, they -have invaded the socialist party. Their souls -overflow with the purest intentions; if their -peaceful habits prevent them from throwing -themselves into the conflict, and if their lofty -culture forbids them to take their place in the -ranks of the comrades, they nevertheless condescend -to instruct us in ethics, to polish off our -ignorance, to teach us how to think, to offer us -such crumbs of science as we may be able to digest, -and to direct us; they modestly offer themselves -to us as leaders and schoolmasters.</p> - -<p>These intellectuals who have spent their youth -in the university that they might become experts -on exercises, polishers of phrases, philosophers -or doctors, imagine one can improvise himself into -a master of the socialist theory by attending a -single lecture or by the careless reading of a single -pamphlet. Naturalists who had felt the need -of painful research to learn the habits of mollusks -or of the polyps who live in a community -on the coral banks, think that they know enough -to regulate human societies, and that by keeping -their stand on the first steps of the ascending -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> -ladder of animal life they can the better discern -the human ideal. The philosophers, the moralists, -the historians and the politicians have aims -equally lofty; they bring an abundant supply of -ideas and a new method of action to replace the -imperfect theory and tactics which in all capitalist -countries have served to build up socialist -parties strong in numbers, unity and discipline.</p> - -<p>The class struggle is out of fashion, declare -these professors of socialism. Can a line of demarcation -be drawn between classes? Do not -the working people have savings bank accounts -of $20, $40 and $100, bringing them 50 cents, -$1.50 and $3.00 of interest yearly? Is it not true -that the directors and managers of mines, railroads -and financial houses are wage-workers, -having their functions and duties in the enterprises -which they manage for the account of capitalists? -The argument is unanswerable, but by -the same token there is no vegetable kingdom -nor animal kingdom because we can not separate -them "with an ax," as it were, for the reason -that at their points of contact, vegetables and -animals merge into each other. There is no -longer any day or any night because the sun -does not appear on the horizon at the same moment -all over the earth, and because it is day at -the antipodes while it is night here.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> - -<p>The concentration of capital? A worn-out -tune of 1850. The corporations by their stocks -and bonds parcel out property and distribute it -among all the citizens. How blinded we were -by our sectarianism when we thought that this -new form of property, essentially capitalistic, -was enabling the financiers to plunge their thieving -hands into the smallest purses, to extract the -last pieces of silver.</p> - -<p>The poverty of the working class! But it is -diminishing and soon will disappear through the -constant increase of wages, while interest on -money is constantly diminishing; some fine day -it will descend to zero and the bourgeois will be -overjoyed to offer their beloved capital on the -altar of socialism. That to-morrow or the day -after the capitalist will be forced to work, is the -prediction of Mr. Waldeck-Rousseau. And -there are intellectuals whose condition grows -worse in proportion as capitalism develops, who -are stultified by the utterances of the employers -to a point where they affirm that the position of -wage-workers is improving, and there are intellectuals -who assume to possess some knowledge -of political economy, who affirm that interest on -money is rapidly diminishing. Could these reformers -of socialism perchance be ignorant that -Adam Smith calculated at the end of the eighteenth -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> -century that 3 per cent was the normal -interest of capital running no risk, and that the -financiers of our own epoch consider that it is -still around 3 per cent that the interest rate -must fluctuate. If a few years ago this rate -seemed to fall below 2½ per cent, it has risen today -above 3 per cent. Capital is merchandise, -like intellectual capacities and carrots; as such -it is subject to the fluctuations of supply and demand. -It was then more offered than demanded, -whereas since the development of the industrial -plant of Russia, since the opening of China to -European exploitation, etc., the over-supply of -capital has been absorbed and its price rises with -its scarcity. But the intellectuals have too many -trifles to think of and too many harmonious -phrases to construct for giving any thought to -economic phenomena. They take for sterling -truths all the lies of the capitalists, and repeat -with pious conviction the old litanies of the orthodox -economic church: "There are no classes, -wealth is coming to be distributed more and -more equitably, the workers are growing richer -and those living on incomes are growing poorer, -and the capitalist society is the best of all possible -societies; these truths shine forth like suns -and none but partisans and mystics can deny -them."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> - -<p>These intellectuals propose to modify the -tactics as well as the theories of the socialist -party; they wish to impose upon it a new method -of action. It must no longer strive to conquer -the public powers by a great struggle, legal or -revolutionary as need may be, but let itself be -conquered by every ministry of a republican coalition; -it is no longer to oppose the socialist -party to all the bourgeois parties; what is needed -is to put it at the service of the liberal party; we -must no longer organize it for the class struggle, -but keep it ready for all the compromises of -politicians. And to further the triumph of the -new method of action, they propose to disorganize -the socialist party, to break up its old systems -and to demolish the organizations which for -twenty years have labored to give the workers a -sense of their class interests and to group them -in a party of economic and political struggle.</p> - -<p>But the intellectuals will lose their labors; -thus far they have only succeeded in drawing -closer the ties uniting the socialists of the different -organizations, and in making themselves -ridiculous.</p> - -<p>The intellectuals ought to have been the first -of all the various groups to revolt against capitalist -society, in which they occupy a subordinate -position so little in keeping with their hopes -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> -and their talents, but they do not even understand -it; they have such a confused idea of it -that Auguste Comte, Renan, and others more or -less distinguished have cherished the dream of -reviving for their benefit an aristocracy copied -after the model of the Chinese mandarin system. -Such an idea is a reflection of past ages in their -heads, for nothing is in more absolute opposition -with the modern social movement than such pretensions. -The intellectuals in previous states of -society formed a world outside and above that of -production, having charge only of education, of -the direction of religious worship, and of the -political administration.</p> - -<p>The mechanic industry of these societies combine -in the same producer, manual labor and intellectual -labor; it was for example the same -cabinetmaker who designed and executed the -piece of furniture, who bought its first material -and who even undertook its sale. Capitalist production -has divorced two functions which once -were indissolubly united; on the one side it puts -the manual workers, who become more and more -servants of the machine, and on the other the -intellectual workers, engineers, chemists, managers, -etc. But these two categories of workers, -however different and contrary they may be in -their education and habits, are welded together, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> -to the point that a capitalist industry can not be -carried on without manual laborers any more -than without intellectual wage-workers.</p> - -<p>United in production, united under the yoke of -capitalist exploitation, united they should be also -in revolt against the common enemy. The intellectuals, -if they understood their own real interests -would come in crowds to socialism, not -through philanthropy, not through pity for the -miseries of the workers, not through affectation -and snobbery, but to save themselves, to assure -the future welfare of their wives and children, -to fulfill their duty to their class. They ought -to be ashamed of being left behind in the social -battle by their comrades in the manual category. -They have many things to teach them, but they -have still much to learn from them; the workingmen -have a practical sense superior to theirs, -and have given proof of an instinctive intuition -of the communist tendencies of modern capitalism -which is lacking to the intellectuals, who -have only been able by a conscious mental effort -to arrive at this conception. If only they had -understood their own interests, they would long -since have turned against the capitalist class the -education which it has generously distributed in -order better to exploit them; they would have -utilized their intellectual capacities, which are -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> -enriching their masters, as so many improved -weapons to fight capitalism and to conquer the -freedom of their class, the wage-working class.</p> - -<p>Capitalist production, which has overthrown -the old conditions of life and of work, has elaborated -new forms, which already can be discerned -without supernatural vision, but which to -the intellectuals remain sealed under seven seals. -One of the leading lights of intellectualism, M. -Durkheim, in his book, "The Division of Labor," -which made some noise in university circles, can -not conceive of society except on the social pattern -of ancient Egypt, each laborer remaining, -his life through, penned up in one single trade. -However, unless one is so unfortunate as to be -affected by the hopeless near-sightedness of the -Ecole Normale, one can not help seeing that the -machine is suppressing trades, one after the -other, in a way to let only one survive, that of -the machinist, and that when it has finished its -revolutionary work which the socialists will complete -by revolutionizing capitalist society, the -producer of the communist society will plow and -sow with the machine today, will spin, will turn -wood or polish steel to-morrow, and will exercise -in turn all the trades to the greater profit of his -health and his intelligence.</p> - -<p>The industrial applications of mechanics, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> -chemistry and physics, which, monopolized by -capital, oppress the worker, will, when they shall -be common property, emancipate man from toil -and give him leisure and liberty.</p> - -<p>Mechanical production, which under capitalist -direction can only buffet the worker back and -forth from periods of over-work to periods of -enforced idleness, will when developed and regulated -by a communist administration, require -from the producer, to provide for the normal -needs of society, only a maximum day of two or -three hours in the workshop, and when this time -of necessary social labor is fulfilled he will be -able to enjoy freely the physical and intellectual -pleasures of life.</p> - -<p>The artist then will paint, will sing, will dance, -the writer will write, the musician will compose -operas, the philosopher will build systems, the -chemist will analyze substances not to gain -money, to receive a salary, but to deserve applause, -to win laurel wreaths, like the conquerors -at the Olympic games, but to satisfy their artistic -and scientific passion; for one does not -drink a glass of champagne or kiss the woman -he loves for the benefit of the gallery. The artist -and the scientist may then repeat the enthusiastic -words of Kepler, that hero of science: "The -elector of Saxony with all his wealth can not -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> -equal the pleasure I have felt in composing the -Mysterium Cosmographicum."</p> - -<p>Will not the intellectuals end by hearing the -voice of the socialist calling them to the rescue, -to emancipate science and art from the capitalist -yoke, to liberate thought from the slavery of -commercialism?</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> -Ever since the French Revolution the law has -required the words "Liberté. Egalité. Fraternité." to -be placed over the door of every public building in -France.—Translator.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> -It is a well-known fact that in the American -establishments of these and similar companies each -workman before receiving employment must sign papers -transferring to the corporation the title to all -inventions made by him while in its service.—Translator.</p></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum p4"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="THE_BANKRUPTCY" id="THE_BANKRUPTCY"> - THE BANKRUPTCY OF CAPITALISM</a></h2> -</div> - -<p>The nineteenth century was the century of -capitalism. Capitalism filled that century to -overflowing with its commerce, its industry, its -manners, its fashions, its literature, its art, its -science, its philosophy, its religion, its politics -and its civil code, more universal than the laws -imposed by Rome upon the nations of the ancient -world. The capitalist movement, starting from -England, the United States and France, has -shaken the foundations of Europe and of the -world. It has forced the old feudal monarchies -of Austria and Germany and the barbaric despotism -of Russia to put themselves in line; and in -these last days it has gone into the extreme East, -into Japan, where it has overthrown the feudal -system and implanted the industry and the politics -of capitalism.</p> - -<p>Capitalism has taken possession of our planet; -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> -its fleets bring together the continents which -oceans had separated; its railroads, spanning -mountains and deserts, furrow the earth; the -electric wires, the nervous system of the globe, -bind all nations together, and their palpitations -reverberate in the great centers of population. -Now for the first time there is a contemporary -history of the world. Events in Australia, the -Transvaal, China, are known in London, Paris, -New York, at the moment they are brought -about, precisely as if they happened in the outskirts -of the city where the news is published.</p> - -<p>Civilized nations live off the products of the -whole earth. Egypt, India, Louisiana, furnish -the cotton, Australia the wool, Japan the silk, -China the tea, Brazil the coffee, New Zealand -and the United States the meat and grain. The -capitalist carries in his stomach and on his back -the spoils of the universe.</p> - -<p>The study of natural phenomena has undergone -an unprecedented, an unheard-of, development. -New sciences, geology, chemistry, physics, -etc., have arisen. The industrial application of -the forces of nature and of the discoveries of -science has taken on a still more startling development; -some of the geometrical discoveries of -the scientists of Alexandria, two thousand years -old, have for the first time been utilized.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> - -<p>The production of machine industry can provide -for all demand and more. The mechanical -application of the forces of nature has increased -man's productive forces tenfold, a hundredfold. -A few hours' daily labor, furnished by the able-bodied -members of the nation, would produce -enough to satisfy the material and intellectual -needs of all.</p> - -<p>But what has come of the colossal and wonderful -development of science, industry and -commerce in the nineteenth century? Has it -made humanity stronger, healthier, happier? Has -it given leisure to the producers? Has it brought -comfort and contentment to the people?</p> - -<p>Never has work been so prolonged, so exhausting, -so injurious to man's body and so fatal -to his intelligence. Never has the industrial labor -which undermines health, shortens life and -starves the intellect been so general, been imposed -on such ever-growing masses of laborers. -The men, women and children of the proletariat -are bent under the iron yoke of machine industry. -Poverty is their reward when they work, -starvation when they lose their jobs.</p> - -<p>In former stages of society, famine appeared -only when the earth refused her harvests. In -capitalist society, famine sits at the hearth of the -working class when granaries and cellars burst -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> -with the fruits of the earth, and when the market -is gorged with the products of industry.</p> - -<p>All the toil, all the production, all the suffering -of the working class has but served to -heighten its physical and mental destitution, to -drag it down from poverty into wretchedness.</p> - -<p>Capitalism, controlling the means of production -and directing the social and political life of -a century of science and industry, has become -bankrupt. The capitalists have not even proved -competent, like the owners of chattel slaves, to -guarantee to their toilers the work to provide -their miserable livelihood; capitalism massacred -them when they dared demand the right to work—a -slave's right.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> - -<p>The capitalist class has also made a failure of -itself. It has seized upon the social wealth to -enjoy it, and never was the ruling class more incapable -of enjoyment. The newly rich, those -who have built up their fortunes by accumulating -the filchings from labor, live like strangers -in the midst of luxury and artistic treasures, with -which they surround themselves through a foolish -vanity, to pay homage to their millions.</p> - -<p>The leading capitalists, the millionaires and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> -billionaires, are sad specimens of the human race, -useless and hurtful. The mark of degeneracy -is upon them. Their sickly offspring are old at -birth. Their organs are sapped with diseases. -Exquisite meats and wines load down their tables, -but the stomach refuses to digest them; -women expert in love perfume their couches -with youth and beauty, but their senses are be-numbed. -They own palatial dwellings in enchanting -sites, and they have no eyes, no feeling -for joyful nature, with its eternal youth and -change. Sated and disgusted with everything, -they are followed everywhere by ennui as by -their shadows. They yawn at rising and when -they go to bed; they yawn at their fests and at -their orgies. They began yawning in their -mother's womb.</p> - -<p>The pessimism which, in the wake of capitalist -property, made its appearance in ancient -Greece six centuries before Jesus Christ, and -which has since formed the foundation of the -moral and religious philosophy of the capitalist -class, became the leading characteristic of the -philosophy of the second half of the nineteenth -century. The pessimism of Theognis sprang -from the uncertainties and vicissitudes of life in -the Greek cities, torn by the perpetual wars between -rich and poor; the pessimism of the capitalist -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> -is the bitter fruit of satiety, ennui and the -impoverishment of the blood.</p> - -<p>The capitalist class is falling into its second -childhood; its decreptitude appears in its literature, -now returning to its starting point. Romantic -literature, the literary form proper to the -capitalist class, which started out with the romantic -Christianity of Chateaubriand, is returning -to the same point, after passing through the -historical novel and the character novel. (Witness -in this country the immense sale of "Ben -Hur" and its imitators.—Translator.) Capitalism, -which in its virile and combative youth in -the eighteenth century had wished to emancipate -itself from Christianity, resigns itself in its old -age to practices of the grossest superstition.</p> - -<p>The capitalist class, bankrupt, old, useless and -hurtful, has finished its historic mission; it persists -as ruling class only through its acquired -momentum. The proletariat of the twentieth -century will execute the decree of history; will -drive it from its position of social control. Then -the stupendous work in science and industry accomplished -by civilized humanity, at the price of -such toil and suffering, will engender peace and -happiness; then will this vale of tears be transformed -into an earthly paradise.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> -I allude to the Days of June, 1848. The Insurgents -demanded the "Right to Work."</p></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum p4"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="THE_WOMAN_QUESTION" id="THE_WOMAN_QUESTION"> - THE WOMAN QUESTION</a></h2> -</div> - -<p>The bourgeois has thought and still thinks that -woman ought to remain at home and devote her -activity to supervising and directing the housekeeping, -caring for her husband, and manufacturing -and nourishing children. Even Xenophon, -at the time when the bourgeoisie was newly -born and was taking its shape in ancient society, -traced the main outlines of this ideal of woman. -But if through the course of centuries, this ideal -may have appeared reasonable, because it corresponded -to economic conditions which prevailed, -it is no longer anything more than an -ideological survival, since these conditions have -ceased to exist.</p> - -<p>The domestication of woman presupposes that -she fulfills in the household certain numerous -functions which absorb all her energy; now, the -most important and the most exacting of these -domestic labors—the spinning of wool and linen, -the cutting and making up of clothing, laundry -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> -work, baking, etc.,—are carried on by capitalistic -industry. It furthermore presupposes that man -by his contribution to the family capital and his -earnings provides for the material needs of the -family; now, among the comfortable bourgeoisie, -marriage is as much an association of capitals -<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> as -a union of persons and often the capital contributed -by the wife exceeds that of the husband, and -in the small bourgeoisie the gains of the father -of the family have fallen so low that the children,—girls -as well as boys,—are compelled to earn -their living in business, railroad offices, banks, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> -teaching, civil service positions, etc., while it -often happens that the young wife continues to -work outside in order to help out the resources -of the housekeeping, when the earnings of the -husband do not suffice to cover the expenses.</p> - -<p>The daughters and wives of the small bourgeoisie, -as well as those of the working class, -thus enter into competition with their father, -brothers and husband. This economic antagonism, -which the bourgeoisie had prevented from -developing by confining the wife to the family -dwelling, is becoming general and is intensified -in proportion as capitalistic production develops; -it invades the fields of the liberal professions—medicine, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> -law, literature, journalism, the sciences, -etc.,—where man had reserved for himself -a monopoly, which he imagined was to be -eternal. The laborers, as is always the case, -have been the first to draw the logical consequences -of the participation of woman in social -production; they have replaced the ideal of the -artisan,—the wife who is nothing but a housekeeper,—by -a new ideal,—woman as a companion -in their economic and political struggles for -the raising of wages and the emancipation of -labor.</p> - -<p>The bourgeois has not yet succeeded in understanding -that his ideal is already long since out -of date and that it must be remodeled to correspond -to the new conditions of the social environment; -nevertheless since the first half of the nineteenth -century the ladies of the bourgeoisie have -begun to protest against their inferior position -in the family, so much the more intolerable in -that their dowry placed them on a footing of -equality with the husband; they rebelled against -the domestic slavery and the parsimonious life -to which they were condemned, as well as the deprivation -of intellectual and material enjoyments -which was imposed upon them; the bolder ones -went so far as to demand free love and to ally -themselves with the utopian sects which preached -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> -the emancipation of woman.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> The philosophers -and the moralists had the simplicity to believe -that they would stop the woman movement by -opposing to it the sacred interest of the family, -which they declared could not survive without -the subjection of woman to the labors of the -household, the sewing on of shirt buttons, the -mending of hose, etc., her duty was to devote -herself to these obscure and thankless labors, in -order that man might freely unfold and display -his brilliant and superior faculties. These same -philosophers, who lectured the rebellious ladies -on the cult of the family, sang the praises of -capitalist industry, which, by forcing the wife -away from the domestic hearth and her child's -cradle to condemn her to the forced labor of the -factory, destroys the working-class family.</p> - -<p>The bourgeois ladies laughed at the sermons, -equally imbecile and ethical, of these solemn philosophers; -they kept on their way and attained -the end they set for themselves; like the patrician -lady of ancient Rome and the countess of -the eighteenth century, they threw off the cares -of housekeeping and of the nursing of the child -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> -upon mercenaries, that they might devote themselves -wholly to the toilet, that they might be -the most luxuriously arrayed dolls in the capitalist -world and in order to make business move. -The daughters and wives of American plutocracy -have attained the extreme limits of this sort of -emancipation; they are transforming their fathers -and husbands into accumulators of millions, -which they squander madly. Since the toilet does -not exhaust the entire activity of the ladies of -capitalism, they find amusement in breaking the -marriage contract in order to assert their independence -and improve the race. The Communist -Manifesto remarks that the innumerable divorce -suits in which adultery is alleged are indisputable -proofs of the respect inspired in the bourgeois -of both sexes by the sacred bonds of marriage -which the "licentious socialists" talk of loosening.</p> - -<p>When the daughters and wives of the small -bourgeoisie, obliged to earn their living and to -increase the resources of the family, began to -invade the stores, the offices, the civil service and -the liberal professions, the bourgeois were seized -with anxiety for their means of existence already -so reduced; feminine competition would reduce -them still further. The intellectuals who took -up the defense of the males, thought it prudent -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> -not to start afresh with the ethical sermons which -had miscarried so piteously in the case of the -wealthy bourgeois ladies;—they appealed to science; -they demonstrated by reasons which were -irrefutable and loftily scientific that woman cannot -emerge from the occupations of housekeeping -without violating the laws of nature and history. -They proved to their complete satisfaction -that woman is an inferior being, incapable of receiving -a higher intellectual education and of -furnishing the combination of attention, energy -and agility demanded by the professions in which -she was entering into competition with man. Her -brain, less voluminous, less heavy and less complex -than that of man, is a "child's brain." Her -less developed muscles have not the strength for -attack and for resistance; the bones of her forearm, -her pelvis, her femur, and in fact all her -osseous, muscular and nervous system do not -permit her to undertake more than the routine -of the household. Nature designed her in all -her organization to be the servant of man, just -as the odious god of the Jews and Christians -marked out the race of Ham for slavery.</p> - -<p>History contributed its startling confirmation -of these ultra scientific truths; the philosophers -and the historians affirmed that always and -everywhere the wife, subordinate to the man, had -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> -been shut up in the house, in the woman's apartments; -if such had been her lot in the past, -such was to be her destiny in the future, -was the positive declaration of Auguste -Comte, the profoundest of bourgeois philosophers. -Lombroso, the illustrious comedian, -went him one better: he seriously declared that -social statistics proclaimed the inferiority of -woman, since the number of female criminals is -below that of male criminals; while buried in -these figures, he might have added that the statistics -of insanity demonstrate the same inferiority. -Thus we see that ethics, anatomy, physiology, -social statistics and history riveted forever -upon woman the chains of domestic servitude.</p> - - -<h3>II.</h3> - -<p>Bachofen, Morgan and a crowd of anthropologists -have revised the opinion of the historians and -philosophers upon the role played by woman in -the past. They have shown that everywhere the -paternal family, which subordinated woman to -man, had been preceded by the maternal family, -which gave the first place to woman. The Greek -language contains the record of her two conditions: -while the Spartans, among whom matriarchal -customs persisted, still continued to call -her <i>despoina</i>, the mistress of the house, the sovereign, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> -the other Greeks gave to the wife the -name <i>damar</i>, the subdued, the vanquished. The -Odyssey, in characterizing Nausicaa, says that -she is <i>parthenos admes</i>, the girl not subdued, that -is to say, without a husband, without a master. -The modern expression "yoke of marriage" preserves -the ancient idea.</p> - -<p>Hesiod, in opposition to Homer, who tells only -of patriarchal customs, preserves precious recollections -of the matriarchal family; he tells us -that when it existed man, even if he were a hundred -years old, lived with his prudent mother,—he -was fed in her house like a great child. -(Works and Days, V. 129-130.) It was not the -woman who then had the "child's brain", but the -man; everything seems in fact to prove that her -intelligence was the first to develop. This intellectual -superiority caused her to be deified before -man in the primitive religions of Egypt, the Indies, -Asia and Greece, and caused the first inventions -of the arts and trades, with the exception -of metal working, to be attributed to goddesses -and not to gods. The Muses, originally three in -number, were in Greece, even in preference to -Apollo, the goddesses of poetry, music and the -dance. Isis, "mother of corn ears and lady of -bread," and Demeter, lawgiver, had taught the -Egyptians and Greeks the tillage of barley and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> -wheat and made them renounce their anthropophagic -repasts. The woman appeared to the pre-patriarchal -man, like the Germans whom Tacitus -knew, as having within herself something -holy and providential, <i>aliquid sanctum et providum</i> -(Germania VIII). Her prudence and foresight -gave her this divine character. Must we -conclude that this intellectual superiority, which -manifested itself when the economic environment -is rudimentary, is a natural phenomenon?</p> - -<p>But, in any case, it may be asserted that the -vitality of woman is superior to that of man. The -life insurance companies of the United States, -England and Holland, which do not base their -calculation upon scientific fairy tales of the intellectuals -but upon mortality tables, pay woman -an annuity below that which they give man, because -her probabilities of death are less. Here -for example is the annuity paid for a capital of -$1,000 by American and Dutch companies:<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> - -<table class="narrow" id="ANNUITIES" summary="Annuities paid for a capital of $1,000."> - <tr> - <th></th> - <th colspan="2">New York.</th> - <th colspan="2">Holland.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <th>Age.</th> - <th>Men.</th> - <th>Women.</th> - <th>Men.</th> - <th>Women.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">50 years</td> - <td class="c2">$ 76.47</td> - <td class="c2">$ 69.57</td> - <td class="c2">$ 76.80</td> - <td class="c2">$ 73.60</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">60 years</td> - <td class="c2">97.24</td> - <td class="c2">88.03</td> - <td class="c2">98.50</td> - <td class="c2">93.50</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">70 years</td> - <td class="c2">134.31</td> - <td class="c2">122.48</td> - <td class="c2">142.00</td> - <td class="c2">136.70</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">80 years</td> - <td class="c2">183.95</td> - <td class="c2">168.00</td> - <td class="c2">222.70</td> - <td class="c2">211.70</td> - </tr> -</table> - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> - -<p>It may be objected that man, leading a more -active life, is more subject to accidents, diseases, -and other causes of death, and that consequently -the prolonged life of woman does not prove the -higher vitality of her organism, but the advantages -of a life less subject to accident.</p> - -<p>The answer to this objection is found in the -statistics of the various nations. There is in no -country a perfect equilibrium between the number -of women and that of men; for 1,000 men -there are in Belgium 1,005 women, in France -1,014, in England 1,062, in Scotland 1,071 and -in Norway 1,091. Nevertheless in these countries -with the feminine preponderance there is -an excess of masculine births: of the whole of -Western Europe for every 1000 girls there are -born from 1,040 to 1,060 boys. If, in spite of this -excess of masculine births, more girls survive, it -is because the greater mortality of the boys shows -the balance in favor of the girls; and this higher -mortality cannot be explained by the life of man -being more subject to accident, since it is observed -at an early age, notably during the first -two years. All the diseases of childhood, with -the exception of diphtheria and whooping cough, -are to a perceptible extent more fatal among boys -than among girls; from zero to five years the -male sex is particularly frail; at all ages, except -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> -between ten and fifteen years, the male mortality -is in excess of the female.</p> - -<p>The superior vitality of the female sex is also -noticeable in the greater ease with which it builds -up its organism. M. Iribe, superintendent of the -sanitarium of Hendaye, to which are sent Parisian -children from three to fourteen years of age, -who are afflicted with anaemia, incipient tuberculosis, -scrofula and rickets, reports that at the -time of their dismissal, at the end of six months, -the progress in weight, girth and chest development -is incomparably higher in the girls than in -the boys, the increase in weight is double and -often more.</p> - -<p>The same statement has been made by other -superintendents of sanitariums. (Bulletin Medical, -No. 81, 1903.)</p> - -<p>Woman undeniably possesses a greater vitality -than man. M. Gustav Loisel has made inquiry -"as to whether this difference existed in embryonic -life, and what may be its cause?" He has -communicated the results of his inquiries to the -Biological Society of Paris, which published them -in its Bulletin of November 6, 1903.</p> - -<p>M. Loisel availed himself of 792 weights and -measurements made upon 72 foetuses at the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> -Maternity Hospital of Paris by C. E. Legou; -<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> -from the following weights of the foetuses at -three, four, five and six months he obtains the -following figures:</p> - -<table class="narrow" id="WEIGHTS" summary="Weights of foetuses."> - <tr> - <th colspan="5"> Males. - Females. Differences.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <th></th> - <th colspan="2">Grammes.</th> - <th>Grammes.</th> - <th></th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Total weight</td> - <td class="c2">1908.18</td> - <td class="c2">1708.11</td> - <td class="c2">200.07</td> - <td class="c1">in favor of males</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Kidneys</td> - <td class="c2">16.87</td> - <td class="c2">17.19</td> - <td class="c2">2.67</td> - <td class="c1">in favor of males</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Superrenal glands</td> - <td class="c2">5.15</td> - <td class="c2">6.43</td> - <td class="c2">0.32</td> - <td class="c1">in favor of females</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Liver</td> - <td class="c2">88.35</td> - <td class="c2">96.31</td> - <td class="c2">1.28</td> - <td class="c1">in favor of females</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Spleen</td> - <td class="c2">2.59</td> - <td class="c2">2.38</td> - <td class="c2">7.90</td> - <td class="c1">in favor of females</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Thymus</td> - <td class="c2">3.89</td> - <td class="c2">3.97</td> - <td class="c2">0.21</td> - <td class="c1">in favor of males</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Heart</td> - <td class="c2">10.97</td> - <td class="c2">12.60</td> - <td class="c2">0.08</td> - <td class="c1">in favor of females</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Lungs</td> - <td class="c2">47.29</td> - <td class="c2">44.62</td> - <td class="c2">1.63</td> - <td class="c1">in favor of females</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Brain</td> - <td class="c2">236.94</td> - <td class="c2">235.17</td> - <td class="c2">1.17</td> - <td class="c1">in favor of males</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>"These figures thus show us," says M. Loisel, -"a preponderance already existing in favor of the -females as regards the kidneys, the superrenal -glands, the liver, the thymus and the heart; this -predominance is the more noticeable since the -total weight of the body is larger in the male than -in the female."</p> - -<p>If now we take the relation between the total -weight and the weight of the organs which are -heaviest in the male, we find that the proportion -is still in favor of the female:</p> - - -<p class="ac">PROPORTION OF TOTAL WEIGHT.</p> - -<table class="narrow" id="WEIGHTS_PROPORTIONS_1" summary="Weights proportions."> - <tr> - <th></th> - <th>Males.</th> - <th>Females.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Spleen</td> - <td class="c2-1">1 to 736</td> - <td class="c2-1">1 to 718</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Lungs</td> - <td class="c2-1">1 to 40</td> - <td class="c2-1">1 to 38</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">Brain</td> - <td class="c2-1">1 to 8</td> - <td class="c2-1">1 to 7</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> - -<p>The organs here examined, brain included, are -thus absolutely or relatively heavier in the female -foetus than in the male foetus.</p> - -<p>M. Loisel has also examined into the proportion -of the weights of the different organs to the -total weight according to the age of the foetus. -He has prepared a table, from which I take only -the figures concerning the brain:</p> - -<table class="narrow" id="WEIGHTS_PROPORTIONS_2" summary="Weights proportions."> - <tr> - <th>AGE</th> - <th colspan="2">TOTAL WEIGHT</th> - <th colspan="2" style="padding-top:1em">PROPORTION OF WEIGHT<br />OF BRAIN - TO TOTAL WEIGHT.</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <th></th> - <th>Males<br />Grammes</th> - <th>Females<br />Grammes</th> - <th style="padding-top:1em">Males</th> - <th style="padding-top:1em">Females</th> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">3 Months</td> - <td class="c2">58.33</td> - <td class="c2">65.96</td> - <td class="c2">1/6.5</td> - <td class="c2">1/7</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">4 Months</td> - <td class="c2">167.25</td> - <td class="c2">182.58</td> - <td class="c2">1/7.3</td> - <td class="c2">1/6.6</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">5 Months</td> - <td class="c2">336.33</td> - <td class="c2">295.00</td> - <td class="c2">1/7.6</td> - <td class="c2">1/7.5</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="c1">6 Months</td> - <td class="c2">732.58</td> - <td class="c2">636.00</td> - <td class="c2">1/8.3</td> - <td class="c2">1/7.3</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>The weight of the male foetus, which is below -that of the female foetus, at three months, when -the sex has just been determined, grows more -rapidly and the proportion between the weight -is always to the advantage of the females from -the fourth month on.</p> - -<p>"To sum up," says M. Loisel, "all the organs -are heavier in the female foetus than in the male -foetus up to about the fourth month. The predominance -then passes over to the male, but only -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> -for the lungs and the organs for sex-union, thus -the cardiac muscle always remains heavier in the -female. The organs which are of real service to -the individual during the embryonic life always -remain more developed in the female sex.</p> - -<p>If now we consider that the differences in -favor of the females are especially in the liver, -the heart, the superrenal glands and the kidneys, -we shall come to the conclusion that the greater -vitality of the female organisms corresponds to -their being better nourished and better purified." -<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a> -<a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> - - -<h3>III.</h3> - -<p>The superior organization possessed by woman -at birth, assuring her throughout her life a much -greater vitality, is probably demanded by the part -she plays in the production of the species, a part -altogether more prolonged and exhausting than -that of the man who, when fertilization is accomplished, -has no more to do, while then the -travail of woman begins, to continue during -long months, through pregnancy and after birth. -The women of savage tribes suckle their children -for two years and more. It sometimes happens -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> -that the male pays dear for his inutility; after -union, the bees kill the males, and the male spider -must hastily take himself off that he may not be -devoured by the larger and stronger female. -Among the Sakawas, at the annual feast of Mylitta -Anaitis, they sacrificed at Babylon the handsome -slave who had just united with the priestess -who incarnated the Assyrian goddess. This -bloody religious ceremonial must have been a reproduction -of an Amazonian custom.</p> - -<p>The life of savagery and barbarism permits -woman to develop her superiority from birth; -each sex there has its special function; it is the -division of labor in embryo. The man, whose -muscular system is more developed, "fights, -hunts, fishes and sits down," according to the -Australian native, he regards all the rest as under -the jurisdiction of woman, whose function -puts brain activity into play at an earlier epoch. -She has charge of the communal house, which -often shelters a clan of more than one hundred -individuals; she prepares clothing from skins and -other raw materials; she charges herself with the -cultivation of the garden, the rearing of domestic -animals and the manufacture of household utensils; -she preserves, economizes, cooks, distributes -the provisions, vegetable and animal, which have -been gathered during the course of the year; and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> -like the Valkyries of the Scandinavians and the -Keres of the pre-Homeric Greeks, she accompanies -the warrior on the field battle, aids in -the fray, raises him up if he is wounded and -cares for him; her assistance is so appreciated -that, according to Tacitus, the barbarians who -under the leadership of Civilis revolted against -Vespasian, were seized with pity for the Roman -soldiers because their wives did not accompany -them when they marched to combat. Plato likewise -who, like the chosen ones initiated in the -Eleusinian Mysteries, was more informed regarding -ancient customs than is supposed, makes -the women to be present in the battles of the -warriors of his Republic.</p> - -<p>These multiple and diverse functions, which -obliged woman to reflect, to calculate, to think -of the morrow and to look ahead at long range, -must necessarily have developed her intellectual -faculties; thus the craniologists say that only a -slight difference exists between the cranial capacity -of the two sexes in the negroes, the Australians, -and the red skins, while they find that it -goes on increasing among civilized people. Woman -is for the careless and improvident savage, -a providence; she is the prudent and prescient -being who presides over his destinies from birth -to death. Man, making his religions with the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> -events and the intellectual acquisitions of his -daily life, was thus obliged to begin by deifying -woman. The pre-Homeric Greeks and Romans -had placed their destinies under the control of -goddesses, the Fates—Moirai, Parcae—whose -name signifies in the Latin language "sparing," -"economic," and in the Greek the part which -falls to each one in the distribution of food or -of booty.</p> - -<p>If we relieve the rich and poetical Greek mythology -of the symbolical, allegorical and mystical -lucubrations with which the philosophers and -the poets of the classical epoch and the Alexandrine -period have overloaded and complicated it, -and which the German mythologists, servilely -copied by those of France and England, have -carried on to their own more perfect confusion, -it becomes an inestimable storehouse of prehistoric -customs which preserves the memory of -the manners which travelers and anthropologists -now observe living again among the savages and -barbarous nations of Africa and the New World. -The mythological legend furnishes us with information -of the relative value of feminine and -masculine intelligence among the Greeks, before -they had entered upon the patriarchal period.</p> - -<p>Jupiter, the "father of the gods", as Homer, -Hesiod and Aeschylos call him, after having -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> -driven the feminine divinities from Olympus, enthroned -there the patriarchate, which for some -generations had been established upon earth; the -religious heaven always reflects terrestrial manners -as the moon reflects the light of the sun. -But Jupiter, who like every barbarian, knew -how to use his fists (Iliad XV. 228), who boasted -that he was the strongest of the gods, and who -to dominate the others kept next his throne two -servants, Force and Violence, always ready to -obey his orders, was inadequately prepared by -his intellectual qualities to replace woman in the -government of the Olympian family; in order -to supply the capacities which were lacking to -him, Hesiod tells us that he married Metis, "the -wisest among mortals and gods." The savage -and the barbarian, that he may take into himself -the courage of a fallen enemy, devours his throbbing -heart; Jupiter carried off Metis to assimilate -her cunning, her prudence and her wisdom, for -her name in the Greek language has these diverse -meanings; these qualities were considered as belonging -to woman.</p> - -<p>But the process of assimilation took some time, -if we may judge from the rascally farce played -upon him by Prometheus. The latter killed and -butchered an enormous ox, in one pile he placed -the flesh which he covered with the skin upon -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> -which he deposited the entrails; in another pile -he put the bare bones which he adroitly concealed -under heaps of fat. "You have divided -the parts very badly," said the father of gods -and men. "Most worthy Jupiter, greatest of living -gods, take the part that your wisdom counsels -you to choose," replied the astute Prometheus. -The ruler of the heavens, listening only -to his gluttony, laid both hands upon the heap -of fat amid the laughter of the Olympians; his -wrath was terrible when he saw the bare bones. -(Theogony 435 <i>et seq.</i>) Such a farce would -hardly have been played in the Olympian heaven -had it not been that on the earth similar tests -had been required to prove to the Father that -his intellectual faculties did not justify him in -taking the place of the Mother in the leadership -of the family and the management of its -property.</p> - -<p>The higher position in the family and society, -which man conquered by brute force, while it -compelled him to a mental activity to which he -was little accustomed, at the same time put at -his disposal opportunities for reflection and development -which constantly increased. Woman, -"subdued," as the Greek expression has it, shut -up in the narrow circle of the family, the leadership -of which had been taken from her, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> -having little or no contact with the outside world, -saw on the contrary a great reduction of the -means of development which she had enjoyed, -and to complete her subjection she was forbidden -the intellectual culture which was given to -man. If in spite of these fetters and these disadvantages, -the disastrous effects of which cannot -be exaggerated, the brain of woman continued -to evolve, it was because woman's intelligence -profited through the progress realized by -the masculine brain; for one sex transmits to -the other the qualities which it has acquired; -thus pullets of certain varieties inherit the spurs -which are highly developed among the cocks, -while in other varieties they transmit to the males -their exaggerated crests. "It is fortunate," says -Darwin upon this point, "that the equal transmission -of the characteristics of both sexes has -been a general rule in the whole series of mammals, -otherwise, it is probable that man would -have become as superior to woman in intellectual -power as the peacock is to the female in ornamental -plumage." (Descent of Man—Sexual -Selection, VIII and XIX.)</p> - -<p>But defects as well as valuable qualities are -transmitted from one sex to the other: if woman -has profited by the brain-growth of man, he has -in his turn been retarded in his development by -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> -the sluggishness in the development of woman's -brain, produced by the reduction to the smallest -minimum of intellectual activity to which he -has condemned her. The breeders who seek the -choicest results are as careful to have irreproachable -females as males; amateur cockfighters attach -as much importance to the selection of the -pullets as to the cocks, they produce only from -those which are armed with spurs and which -have the fighting spirit. It may be said that humanity, -since it emerged from communism of -the clan to live under the system of private property, -has been developed by the efforts of one -sex alone and that its evolution has been retarded -through the obstacles interposed by the other -sex. Man by systematically depriving woman of -the means of development, material and intellectual, -has made of her a force retarding human -progress.</p> - -<p>In fact if we study and compare the different -periods of savagery and barbarism, we cannot -but observe the continuous and remarkable progress -in human mind, because women and men, -exercising freely their physical and mental faculties, -contribute equally to the evolution of the -species; this has been retarded ever since humanity -entered into the period of civilization and -private property, because then woman, constrained -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> -and confined in her development, cannot contribute -to it in so effective a way. The senile -stagnation in which China has vegetated for -more than a thousand years can only be attributed -to the degradation of woman, which has -gone to the point of the cruel mutilation of her -feet that she may be imprisoned the more closely -in the woman's quarters. Europe also suffers -from the degradation of woman, since in spite -of the extraordinary material progress of these -last two thousand years and the increasing and -no less extraordinary accumulation of human -knowledge, it cannot be maintained that the brain -of the civilized modern exceeds in power and -capacity that of the Greeks of the classic epoch, -which extends from the seventh to the fourth -century before the Christian era. It is certain -that a Victor Hugo, a Zola, or any university -graduate or doctor has stored in his brain an -abundance of positive and diversified conceptions -not possessed by Aeschylus, Anaxagoras, Protagoras -and Aristotle, but that does not prove that -his imagination and his intelligence, or that of -his contemporaries is more rich, more varied and -more vast than that of the generations of Ionia -and Attica, who were the artificers of that incomparable -budding and blossoming of science, philosophy, -literature and art at which history marvels -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> -and who reveled in that subtle and paradoxical -play of sophistical philosophy, the like of -which has not again been seen. The sophists—Photagoras, -Gorgias, Socrates, Plato, etc., stated, -discussed and solved the problems of the spiritualistic -philosophy and many others besides: yet -the Hellenes of Asia Minor and of Greece had -emerged from barbarism only a few centuries -before. Many reasons may be cited to explain -this arrest in human development, but the principal -one is the subjection of woman.</p> - - -<h3>IV.</h3> - -<p>Capitalist production, which takes charge of -most of the labors to which woman devoted herself -in the gentile house, has levied into its army -of wage-workers in factory, shop, office and -schoolroom, the wives and daughters of the -working class and of the small bourgeoisie, in -order to procure cheap labor. Its pressing need -of intellectual capacities has set aside the venerable -and venerated axiom of masculine ethics: -"to read, write and count ought to be all of a -woman's knowledge;" it has required that girls -like boys be instructed in the rudiments of the -sciences. The first step once taken, they could -not be forbidden to enter the universities. They -proved that the feminine brain, which the intellectuals -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> -had declared a "child's brain," was as -capable as the masculine brain of receiving all -scientific instruction. The abstract sciences -(mathematics, geometry, mechanics, etc.), the -first whose study had been accessible to woman, -were also the first in which they could give the -measure of their intellectual capacities; they are -now attacking the experimental sciences (physiology, -physics, chemistry, applied mechanics, -etc.), in America and Europe there arises a -throng of women who are marching on a level -with men in spite of the inferiority of the conditions -of development in which they have lived -since their first infancy.</p> - -<p>As Capitalism has not snatched woman from -the domestic hearth and launched her into social -production to emancipate her, but to exploit -her more ferociously than man, so it has been -careful not to overthrow the economic, legal, -political and moral barriers which had been -raised to seclude her in the marital dwelling. -Woman, exploited by capital, endures the miseries -of the free laborer and bears in addition her -chains of the past. Her economic misery is aggravated; -instead of being supported by her -father or husband, to whose rule she still submits, -she is obliged to earn her living; and under -the pretext that she has fewer necessities than -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> -man, her labor is paid less; and when her daily -toil in the shop, the office or school is ended, her -labor in the household begins. Motherhood, the -sacred, the highest of social functions, becomes -in capitalistic society a cause of horrible misery, -economic and physiologic. The social and economic -condition of woman is a danger for the -reproduction of the species.</p> - -<p>But this crushing and pitiful condition announces -the end of her servitude, which begins -with the establishment of private property and -which can end only with its abolition. Civilized -humanity, oppressed by the mechanical mode of -production, turns its face toward a society, based -on common property, in which woman, delivered -from the economic, legal and moral chains which -bind her, may develop freely her physical and intellectual -faculties, as in the time of the communism -of the savages.</p> - -<p>The savages, to forbid primitive promiscuity -and successfully restrain the circle of sexual relations, -found no other means than to separate -the sexes; there are reasons for believing that -the women took the initiative in this separation, -which the specialization of their functions consolidated -and emphasized. This was manifested -socially by religious ceremonials and secret languages -peculiar to each set and even by struggles; -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> -<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"> -</a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> -and after having taken the character of -violent antagonism, it ended in the brutal subjection -of woman, which still survives although it is -progressively attenuated in proportion as the -competition of the two sexes becomes more general -and intense upon the economic field. But -the modern antagonism will not end with the -victory of one sex over the other, for it is one of -the phenomena of the struggle of labor against -capital, which will find its solution in the emancipation -of the working class in which women as -well as men are incorporated.</p> - -<p>The technique of production which tends to -suppress the specialization of trades and functions -and to replace muscular effort by attention -and intellectual skill and which, the more it is -perfected, mingles and confounds man and woman -the more in social labor, will prevent the -return of the conditions which in savage and -barbarous nations had maintained the separation -of the sexes. Common property will put an end -to the economic antagonism of specialization.</p> - -<p>But if it is possible to catch a glimpse of the -end of female servitude and of the antagonism -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> -of the sexes and to conceive for the human species -an era of incomparable bodily and mental -progress, brought about by women and men of -a high development in muscle and brain, it is impossible -to foresee the sexual relations of free -and equal women and men who will not be united -nor separated by sordid material interests and by -the gross ethics engendered by such interests. -But if we may judge by the present and the past, -men, in whom the genetic passion is more violent -and more continuous than in women—the same -phenomenon is observed in the males and females -of the whole animal series—will be obliged to -exhibit their physical and intellectual qualities to -win their sweethearts. Sexual selection, which, -as Darwin has shown, fulfilled an important role -in the development of the animal species and -which, with rare exceptions, has ceased to play -this part in the Indo-European races for about -three thousand years, will again become one of -the most active factors in the perfecting of the -human race.</p> - -<p>Motherhood and love will permit women to -regain the higher position which she occupied in -primitive societies, the memory of which has been -preserved by the legends and myths of the ancient -religions.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> -The dowry has played an important role in the -history of woman: at the beginning of the patriarchal -period the husband buys her from her father, who -has to refund her purchase price if for any cause -whatever he repudiates her and sends her back to her -family; later this purchase price is returned to him -and constitutes her dowry, which her relatives are -accustomed to double. From the moment when the -wife enters into her husband's house with a dowry, -she ceases to be a slave whom he may dismiss, sell -and kill. The dowry, which in Rome and Athens became -a legal charge upon the property of the husband, was, -in case of her repudiation or divorce, to be restored to -her in preference to any creditor. "No pleasure is -derived from the riches which a woman brings into the -household," says a fragment of Euripides, "they only -serve to render divorce difficult." The comic authors -ridiculed the husbands, who in fear of a suit over the -dowry, fell into dependence upon the wife. A character -in Plautus says to a husband who is talking against -his wife, "You accepted the money of her dowry, you -sold your authority—imperium." The wealthy Roman -matrons carried their insolence to such a point that -they did not trust the management of their dowry to -their husbands, they gave it over to the stewards, who -sometimes fulfilled with them another service, as the -evil-speaking Martial states. -</p> -<p> -Adultery on the part of the wife involved a legal -divorce and the restitution of the dowry, but rather -than come to this painful extremity, the husbands -preferred to close their eyes to the foibles of their -wives; at Rome and at Athens the law had to strike -at them in order to recall them to their marital dignity; -in China a certain number of bamboo strokes -were applied to the soles of their feet. The penalties -not being sufficient to encourage the husbands to repudiate -their adulterous wives, the law, in order to prop -up masculine virtue, permitted those who denounced -the infidelity of the wife to retain a part of the dowry; -there were then men who married only in prospect of -the adultery of the wife. The Roman women evaded -the law by having themselves enrolled in the censor's -book on the list of prostitutes, to whom it did not -apply. The number of matrons inscribed became so -considerable that the Senate, under Tiberius passed a -decree forbidding "women who had a patrician for a -grandfather, husband or father to traffic in their -bodies." (Tacitus, Annals II., 85.) Adultery on the -part of the wife in the patrician society of antiquity, -as well as in the aristocratic society of the eighteenth -century, had become so general that it had so to speak -entered into the social customs. It was looked upon -lightly as a corrective and accompaniment of marriage.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> -The Saint Simon manifesto of 1830 announced that -the religion of Saint Simon had come "to put an end -to that shameful traffic, that legal prostitution, which -under the name of marriage often blesses the monstrous -union of self-surrender and egoism, of light and -of ignorance, of youth and decrepitude."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> -The French companies make no differences between -the sexes because they pay very small annuities. -La Génerale, the most important one in France, -gives for $1,000 at the age of 50 years an annuity of -$64.20; at 60 years $80.80; at 70 years $118.50; at 80 -years $134.70. Thus it realizes immense profits: its -shares which in 1819 were worth 750 francs each were -quoted last January at 31,300 francs.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> -E. Legou. "Some Considerations on the Development -of the Foetus." Paris. 1903. The weights and -measurements of M. Legou were made for official use.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> -The latest observations upon ants and bees tend -to prove that the fertilized eggs would give birth to -females and to workers; and the nonfertilized to -males, which consequently would be born from eggs -that are less complex.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="noindent"><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a> -<a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> -A. W. Howit, who observed among the Australians -a species of sexual totemism, says that it often -happens that the women and men of one and the same -clan fight, when the animal that serves as the totem -for one sex is killed by the other sex.</p></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="THE_SOCIALIST_IDEAL" id="THE_SOCIALIST_IDEAL"> - THE SOCIALIST IDEAL</a></h2> -</div> - -<p>Our comrades in Germany were discussing -some time since the question whether Socialism -is a science. Socialism is not and cannot be a -science for the simple reason that it is a political -party and must disappear when its work is accomplished -after the abolition of the classes which -gave birth to it; but the end which it pursues is -scientific.</p> - -<p>Guizot, who had a vague idea of the theory of -the class struggle—himself a product of the Revolution, -which was a dramatic struggle between -classes—said with good reason that a class cannot -emancipate itself until it possesses the qualities -requisite for taking the leadership of society; -now one of these qualities is to have a more or -less definite conception of the social order which -it proposes to substitute for that which is oppressing -it. This conception cannot but be a social -ideal, or, to employ a scientific word, a social -hypothesis; but an hypothesis, as well in the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> -natural sciences as in social science, may be utopian -or scientific.</p> - -<p>Socialism, because it is a political party of the -oppressed class, has therefore an ideal. It groups -and organizes the efforts of the individuals who -wish to build on the ruins of capitalist society, -based upon individual property, an ideal or hypothetical -society based upon common property in -the means of production.</p> - -<p>Only through the class struggle can modern -socialism realize its social ideal, which possesses -the qualities demanded of any hypothesis that -claims a scientific character. The fact of choosing -a scientific goal, and of trying to reach it only -through the class struggle, distinguishes it from -the Socialism of 1848, which was pursuing -through the reconciliation of classes a social ideal -which could not but be utopian considering the -historic moment in which it was conceived. -Socialism has thus evolved from Utopia into science. -Engels has traced the main lines of this -evolution in his memorable pamphlet, "Socialism, -Utopian and Scientific." It is the same with all -sciences, which begin with Utopia to arrive at -positive knowledge; this course is imposed by the -very nature of the human mind.</p> - -<p>Man progresses in social life as in intellectual -life, only by starting from the known and traveling -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> -toward the unknown, and that unknown must -be represented by the imagination; that imaginary -conception of the unknown, which cannot -but be hypothetical, is one of the most powerful -incentives to action, it is the very condition of -every forward step. It is natural that men like -Bernstein in Germany and Jaurès in France -should seek to domesticate Socialism and to put -it in tow of liberalism, accusing it of hypnotising -its soldiers with an ideal of the year 3000, -which makes them live in the expectation of a -Messianic "catastrophe" and reject the immediate -advantages of an understanding and co-operation -with bourgeois parties, and which -blinds them to their shocking errors regarding the -concentration of wealth, the disappearance of -small industry and the middle class, the increase -of class antagonisms, the spreading and intensification -of the misery of the working class, etc. -These errors may have been plausible hypotheses -before 1848, but since then events have shown -their falsity. This unfortunate ideal prevents -them from descending from the revolutionary -heights to accept the responsibilities of power -and of setting aside the cause of labor to devote -themselves entirely tongue and pen, to the rehabilitation -of a millionaire leader; it obliges -them to oppose all exterior policies and acts, to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> -vote not a cent nor a soldier for colonial expeditions, -which carry labor, Christianity, syphilis -and the alcoholism of civilization to the barbaric -tribes. The neo-methodists of the ancient and -outworn gospel of the brotherhood of classes -advise the socialists to suppress their ideal, or, -since it unfortunately captivates the masses of -the people, to speak of it without caring for it, -as Jaurès does, that they may consecrate themselves -to practical necessities, to the vast plans -of agricultural and industrial co-operation, to -popular universities, etc.</p> - -<p>The dilettantes of politics, these practical -groundlings of opportunism, nevertheless hold -themselves up for transcendent idealists and -march with their eyes fixed upon the stars, because -they substitute for ideas a brilliant orchestra -of sonorous words and eternal principles.</p> - -<p>These bourgeois idealists edge their way in -everywhere; after the Revolution of 1789 they -rebuked the scientists for their hypotheses and -their theories; according to them science should -have stopped with the study of facts in themselves -without dreaming of uniting them into a -general system. "What is the use of cutting -stones without putting up a building," replied -Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, the genial disciple of -Lamarck, who lived to see the extinction of his -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> -theory on the continuity of species, which, only -thirty years after his death, was to take on a -new birth with Darwin. They are still reproaching -the physiologists for wasting their time in -elaborating hypotheses which last on an average -only three years and which cannot explain -what takes place in a muscle which contracts -and in a brain which thinks. They grumble -against the hypotheses of the physicists, who do -not know the real nature of elasticity, of electrical -conductivity, or even what happens when -a particle of sugar is dissolved. They would like -to prohibit scientists from any speculation because -it is disastrous and may lead into error. -But the latter protest and declare that imagination -is one of the first and most indispensable -faculties of the scientist, and that the hypotheses -to which they give birth, even though they be -erroneous and able to survive only three years, -are nevertheless the necessary condition of all -scientific progress.</p> - -<p>If the communist ideal were an hypothesis -undemonstrable and false it would still be a propelling -force of social progress, but such is not -the case.</p> - -<p>The hypothesis in science, as in the social -field, is the more undemonstrable and susceptible -of error in proportion as the data contributing -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> -to its elaboration are less numerous and more -uncertain. Greek science, which had to furnish -a conception of the world when the data regarding -the phenomena of nature were of the most -rudimentary, was obliged to resort to hypotheses -which for boldness and intuitive accuracy are -marvels of history and of thought; after having -admitted, according to the vulgar opinion, that -the earth was flat, and that the temple of Delphi -was situated at its center, they put forth the -hypothesis of its spherical form, then undemonstrable.</p> - -<p>Socialism, which dates from the first years -of the nineteenth century, started, like Greek -science, from hypotheses the more erroneous, -and from ideal the more utopian, in that the social -world which it proposed to transform was -less known; and at that epoch could not be -known for the excellent reason that it was in -course of formation.</p> - -<p>The machine operated by steam was beginning -to edge into industry where the tool, managed -by the artisan, was moved by human power, and -in some rare circumstances by animals, wind or -waterfalls. The Socialist thinkers, as Engels -observes, were then obliged to draw from their -own brain the social ideal which they could not -extract from the tumultuous economic environment -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> -in full course of transformation. They -grasped again, infusing new life into it, the communist -ideal which has slumbered in the mind -of man since he emerged from the communism -of primitive society which the poetic Greek mythology -calls the golden age and which has awakened -to shine here and there with a glorious -splendor at great epochs of social upheaval. -They sought, then, to establish communism, not -because the economic environment was ready for -its introduction, but because men were miserable, -because the laws of justice and equality -were violated, because the precepts of the Christ -could not be followed in their purity. The communistic -ideal, not springing from economic -reality, was then but an unconscious reminiscence -of a prehistoric past, and came only from idealistic -notions upon a justice, an equality and a -gospel law no less idealistic; it is then idealistic -in the second degree, and consequently utopian.</p> - -<p>The Socialists of the first half of the nineteenth -century, who rekindled the communist -ideal, had the rare merit of giving it a consistency -less idealistic. They spoke little of the -Christian religion, of justice and of equality; -Robert Owen laid the responsibilities of social -evils upon the family, property and religion; -Charles Fourier criticises the ideas of justice and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> -morality introduced by the bourgeois Revolution -of '89 with incomparable animation and irony. -They did not weep over the misery of the poor, -but left that to Victor Hugo and the charlatans -of romanticism. They preached the social problem -from its realistic side, the only side from -which it can be solved. They used their talents -to prove that a social organization of production -would succeed in satisfying the desires of all -without reducing the share of any, not even that -of the privileged capitalist class. Meanwhile the -recent application of steam and machinery demanded -also a new organization of labor, and -this was the constant concern of the industrial -bourgeoisie. The socialists were thus pursuing -the same end as the industrials; bourgeois and -socialists might consequently come to an understanding. -We therefore find in the socialist sects -of that epoch industrials, engineers and financiers -who in the second half of the century cast -away their sympathy for the workers and occupied -an important place in capitalist society.</p> - -<p>The socialism of that epoch could not under -these conditions be anything else than pacific; -instead of entering on the struggle with the -capitalists, the socialists thought only of converting -them to their system of social reform -from which they were to be the first to benefit. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> -They proclaimed the association of capital, intelligence -and labor, the interests of which, according -to them, were identical! they preached -a mutual understanding between the employer -and the employed, between the exploiter and the -exploited; they know no class struggle; they -condemned strikes and all political agitation, -especially if it were revolutionary; they desired -order in the street and harmony in the workshop. -They demanded, finally, nothing more -than was desired by the new industrial bourgeoisie.</p> - -<p>They foresaw that industry, strengthened by -the motive power of steam, machinery and the -concentration of the instruments of labor, would -have a colossal producing power, and they had -the simplicity to believe that the capitalists would -content themselves with taking only a reasonable -part of the wealth thus created, and would leave -to their co-operators, the manual and intellectual -laborers, a portion sufficient to enable them to -live in comfort. This socialism was marvellously -agreeable to capital, since it promised an increase -of wealth and advised an understanding -between the laborer and the employer. It recruited -the great majority of its adepts in the -educational hotbeds of the bourgeoisie. It was -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> -utopian, therefore it was the socialism of the -intellectuals.</p> - -<p>But precisely because it was utopian, the laborers, -in constant antagonism with their employers -on questions of labor and hours, looked -on it with suspicion. They could understand nothing -of this socialism which condemned strikes -and political action and which assumed to harmonize -the interests of capital and labor, of the -exploiter and exploited. They kept aloof from -the socialists and gave all their sympathies to -the bourgeois republicans, because they were -revolutionary. They joined their secret societies -and climbed with them upon the barricades to -make riots and political revolutions.</p> - -<p>Marx and Engels took socialism at the point -to which the great utopians had brought it, but -instead of torturing their brains to improvise -the organization of labor and of production, they -studied that which was already created by the -very necessities of the new mechanical industry -which had arrived at a degree of development -sufficient to permit its power and its tendency -to be apparent. Its productivity was so enormous, -as Fourier and Saint Simon had foreseen, -that it was capable of providing abundantly for -the normal needs of all the members of society. -This was the first time in history that such a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> -productive power had been observed, and it was -because capitalist production could satisfy all -needs, and for that reason alone, that it is possible -to reintroduce communism, that is to say -the equal participation of all in social wealth, -and the free and complete development of the -physical, intellectual and moral faculties. Communism -is no longer a utopia but a possibility.</p> - -<p>Machinery replaces the individualistic production -of the small industry, by the communistic -production of the capitalistic factory, but property -in the means of labor has remained individual, -as in the time of the small industry. There -is then a contradiction between the individualistic -mode of possession and the communist mode -of production and this contradiction translates -itself into the antagonism between the laborer -and the capitalist employer. The producers, who -form the immense majority of the nation, no -longer possess the instruments of labor, the possession -of which is centralized in the idle hands -of a decreasing minority. The social problem -imposed by mechanical production will be solved, -as the social problems imposed by preceding -modes of production have been solved, by precipitating -the evolution begun by economic force, -by finishing the expropriation of the individual -in the means of production, by giving to the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> -communistic mode of production the communistic -mode of possession which it demands.</p> - -<p>The communism of contemporary socialists no -longer proceeds, like that of former times, from -the cerebral lucubrations of gifted thinkers; it -proceeds from economic reality, it is the final -goal of the economic forces which, without attracting -the attention of the capitalists and their -intellectuals, have fashioned the communistic -mold of a new society, the coming of which we -only have to hasten. Communism, then, is no -longer a utopian hypothesis; it is a scientific -ideal. It may be added that never has the economic -structure of any society been better and -more completely analyzed than capitalist society, -and that never was a social ideal conceived with -such numerous and positive data as the communist -idea of modern socialism.</p> - -<p>Although it is the economic forces which fashion -men at the pleasure and spur them to action, -and although these constitute the mysterious -force determining the great currents of history -which the Christians attribute to God, and -the free-thinking bourgeois assign to Progress, -to Civilization, to the Immortal Principles and -other similar manitous, worthy of savage tribes, -they are nevertheless the product of human activity. -Man, who created them and brought them -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> -into the world, has thus far let himself be guided -by them; yet now that he has understood their -nature and grasped their tendency, he can act -upon their evolution. The socialists who are accused -of being stricken by Oriental fatalism and -of relying upon the good pleasure of economic -forces to bring to light the communist society -instead of crossing their arms like the fakirs of -official Economics, and of bending the knee before -its fundamental dogma, <i>laissez faire</i>, <i>laissez -passer</i>, propose on the contrary to subdue them, -as the blind forces of nature have been subdued, -and force them to do good to men instead of -leaving them to work misery to the toilers of -civilization. They do not wait for their ideal -to fall from heaven as the Christians hope for -the grace of God, and the capitalists for wealth; -they prepare, on the contrary, to realize it, not -by appealing to the intelligence of the capitalist -class and to its sentiments of justice and humanity, -but by fighting it, by expropriating it -from its political power, which protects its economic -despotism.</p> - -<p>Socialism, because it possesses a social ideal, -has in consequence a criticism of its own. Every -class which struggles for its enfranchisement -seeks to realize a social ideal, in complete opposition -with that of the ruling class. The struggle -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> -is waged at first in the ideological world before -the physical shock of the revolutionary battle. -It thus begins the criticism of the ideas of -the society which must be revolted against, for -"the ideas of the ruling class are the ideas of -society," or these ideas are the intellectual reflection -of its material interests.</p> - -<p>Thus, the wealth of the ruling class is produced -by slave labor; religion, ethics, philosophy -and literature agree in authorizing slavery. The -ugly God of the Jews and Christianity strikes -with his curse the progeny of Ham, that it may -furnish slaves. Aristotle, the encyclopedic thinker -of Greek philosophy, declares that slaves are -predestined by nature and that no rights exist -for them, for there can be no rights except between -equals. Euripides in his tragedies preaches -the doctrine of servile morality; St. Paul, St. -Augustine and the Church teach slaves submission -to their earthly masters that they may deserve -the favor of their heavenly master; Christian -civilization introduced slavery into America -and maintains it there until economic phenomena -prove that slave labor is a method of exploitation -more costly and less profitable than free -labor.</p> - -<p>At the epoch when the Greco-Roman civilization -was dissolving, when the labor of artisans -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> -and free workers began to be substituted for -slave labor, pagan religion, philosophy and literature -decided to accord them certain rights. -The same Euripides who advised the slave to -lose his personality in that of the master does -not wish him to be despised. "There is nothing -shameful in slavery but the name," says the pedagogue -in Ion, "the slave, moreover, is not inferior -to the free man when he has a noble -heart." The mysteries of Eleusis and of Orphism, -like Christianity, which continues their -work, admit slaves among their initiated and -promise them liberty, equality and happiness -after death.</p> - -<p>The dominating class of the Middle Ages being -military, the Christian religion and social -ethics condemned lending money at interest, and -covered the lender with infamy; to take interest -for money loaned was then something so ignominious -that the Jewish race, obliged to specialize -itself in the trade of money, still bears the shame -of it. But today, now that the Christians have -become Jews, and the ruling class lives on the -interest of its capital, the trade of the lender -at interest is the most honorable, the most desirable, -the most exclusive.</p> - -<p>The oppressed class, although the ideology of -the oppressing class is imposed upon it, nevertheless -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> -elaborates religious, ethical and political -ideas corresponding to its condition of life; -vague and secret at first, they gain in precision -and force in proportion as the oppressed class -takes definite form and acquires the consciousness -of its social utility and of its strength; and -the hour of its emancipation is near when its -conception of nature and of society opposes itself -openly and boldly to that of the ruling class.</p> - -<p>The economic conditions in which the bourgeois -moves and evolves make of it a class essentially -religious. Christianity is its work and -will last as long as this class shall rule society. -Seven or eight centuries before Christ, when -the bourgeoisie had its birth in the commercial -and industrial cities of the Mediterranean sea, -we may observe the elaboration of a new religion; -the gods of paganism created by warrior -tribes could not be suited to a class consecrated -to the production and sale of merchandise. Mysterious -cults (the mysteries of the Cabiri, of -Demeter, of Dionysus, etc.) revive the religious -traditions of the prehistoric matriarchical -period; the idea of a soul and its existence after -death revive; the idea of posthumous punishments -and rewards to compensate for acts of social -injustice are introduced, etc. These religious -elements, combined with the intellectual data of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> -Greek philosophy, contribute to form Christianity, -the religion, <i>par excellence</i>, of societies which -have for their foundation property belonging to -the individual and the class which enrich themselves -by the exploitation of wage labor. For -fifteen centuries all the movements of the bourgeoisie, -either for organization, or for self-emancipation, -or for the acquisition of power have -been accompanied and complicated by religious -crises; but always Christianity more or less modified -remains the religion of society. The revolutionists -of 1789, who in the ardor of the struggle -promised themselves to de-Christianize France, -were eager when the bourgeoisie were victorious -to raise again the altars they had overthrown and -to reintroduce the cult that they had proscribed.</p> - -<p>The economic environment which produces -the proletariat relieves it on the contrary from -every idea of sentiment. There is not seen either -in Europe nor in America among the laboring -masses of the great industries any anxiety to -elaborate a religion to replace Christianity, nor -any desire to reform it. The economic and political -organizations of the working class are completely -uninterested as to any doctrinal discussion -of religious and spiritual dogmas, although -they combat the priests of all cults because they -are the lackeys of the capitalist class.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> - -<p>The victory of the proletariat will deliver humanity -from the nightmare of religion. The belief -in superior beings to explain the natural -world and the social inequality, and to prolong -the dominion of the ruling class, and the belief -in the posthumous existence of the soul to recompense -the inequality of fate will have no -more justification once man, who has already -grasped the general causes of the phenomena of -nature, shall live in a communist society from -whence shall have disappeared the inequality and -the injustice of capitalistic society.</p> - -<p>The militant socialists, following the example -of the encyclopedists of the eighteenth century, -have to make a merciless criticism of the economic, -political, historical, philosophical, moral -and religious ideas of the capitalist class in order -to prepare in all spheres of thought the triumph -of the new ideology which the proletariat introduces -into the world.</p> - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> - -<div class="chapter p4"> -<h2 class="no-break"><a name="THE_RIGHTS_OF_THE_HORSE_AND_THE_RIGHTS_OF_MAN" - id="THE_RIGHTS_OF_THE_HORSE_AND_THE_RIGHTS_OF_MAN"> - THE RIGHTS OF THE HORSE AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN</a></h2> -</div> - -<p>Capitalist Civilization has endowed the wage-worker -with the metaphysical Rights of Man, -but this is only to rivet him more closely and -more firmly to his economic duty.</p> - -<p>"I make you free," so speak the Rights of Man -to the laborer, "free to earn a wretched living -and turn your employer into a millionaire; free -to sell him your liberty for a mouthful of bread. -He will imprison you ten hours or twelve hours -in his workshops; he will not let you go till you -are wearied to the marrow of your bones, till -you have just enough strength left to gulp down -your soup and sink into a heavy sleep. You have -but one of your rights that you may not sell, -and that is the right to pay taxes."</p> - -<p>Progress and Civilization may be hard on -wage-working humanity, but they have all a -mother's tenderness for the animals which stupid -bipeds call "lower."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> - -<p>Civilization has especially favored the equine -race: it would be too great a task to go through -the long list of its benefactions; I will name but -a few, of general notoriety, that I may awaken -and inflame the passionate desires of the workers, -now torpid in their misery.</p> - -<p>Horses are divided into distinct classes. The -equine aristocracy enjoys so many and so oppressive -privileges, that if the human-faced -brutes which serve them as jockeys, trainers, -stable valets and grooms were not morally degraded -to the point of not feeling their shame, -they would have rebelled against their lords and -masters, whom they rub down, groom, brush -and comb, also making their beds, cleaning up -their excrements and receiving bites and kicks -by way of thanks.</p> - -<p>Aristocratic horses, like capitalists, do not -work; and when they exercise themselves in the -fields they look disdainfully, with a coupon-clipper's -contempt, upon the human animals -which plow and seed the lands, mow and rake -the meadows, to provide them with oats, clover, -timothy and other succulent plants.</p> - -<p>These four-footed favorites of Civilization -command such social influence that they impose -their wills upon the capitalists, their brothers in -privilege; they force the loftiest of them to come -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> -with their beautiful ladies and take tea in the -stables, inhaling the acrid perfumes of their -solid and liquid evacuations. And when these -lords consent to parade in public, they require -from ten to twenty thousand men and women to -stack themselves up on uncomfortable seats, under -the broiling sun, to admire their exquisitely -chiseled forms and their feats of running and -leaping. They respect none of the social dignities -before which the votaries of the Rights of Man -bow in reverence. At Chantilly not long ago one -of the favorites for the grand prize launched a -kick at the king of Belgium, because it did not -like the looks of his head. His royal majesty, -who adores horses, murmured an apology and -withdrew.</p> - -<p>It is fortunate that these horses, who can count -more authentic ancestors than the houses of Orleans -and Hohenzollern, have not been corrupted -by their high social station: had they taken it -into their heads to rival the capitalists in aesthetic -pretentions, profligate luxury and depraved -tastes, such as wearing lace and diamonds, and -drinking champagne and Chateau-Margaux, a -blacker misery and more overwhelming drudgery -would be impending over the class of wage-workers.</p> - -<p>Thrice happy is it for proletarian humanity -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> -that these equine aristocrats have not taken the -fancy of feeding upon human flesh, like the old -Bengal tigers which rove around the villages of -India to carry off women and children; if unhappily -the horses had been man-eaters, the capitalists, -who can refuse them nothing, would have -built slaughter-houses for wage-workers, where -they could carve out and dress boy sirloins, woman -hams and girl roasts to satisfy their anthropophagic -tastes.</p> - -<p>The proletarian horses, not so well endowed, -have to work for their peck of oats, but the capitalist -class, through deference for the aristocrats -of the equine race, concedes to the working -horses rights that are far more solid and real -than those inscribed in the "Rights of Man."</p> - -<p>The first of rights, the right to existence, -which no civilized society will recognize for laborers, -is possessed by horses.</p> - -<p>The colt, even before his birth, while still in -the fetus state, begins to enjoy the right to existence; -his mother, when her pregnancy has -scarcely begun, is discharged from all work and -sent into the country to fashion the new being -in peace and comfort; she remains near him to -suckle him and teach him to choose the delicious -grasses of the meadow, in which he gambols until -he is grown.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> - -<p>The moralists and politicians of the "Rights of -Man" think it would be monstrous to grant -such rights to the laborers; I raised a tempest -in the Chamber of Deputies when I asked that -women, two months before and two months after -confinement, should have the right and the means -to absent themselves from the factory. My proposition -upset the ethics of civilization and shook -the capitalist order. What an abominable abomination—to -demand for babies the rights of colts.</p> - -<p>As for the young proletarians, they can scarcely -trot on their little toes before they are condemned -to hard labor in the prisons of capitalism, -while the colts develop freely under kindly -Nature; care is taken that they be completely -formed before they are set to work, and their -tasks are proportioned to their strength with a -tender care.</p> - -<p>This care on the part of the capitalists follows -them all through their lives. We may still recall -the noble indignation of the bourgeois press -when it learned that the omnibus company was -using peat and tannery waste in its stalls as a -substitute for straw: to think of the unhappy -horses having such poor litters! The more delicate -souls of the bourgeoisie have in every capitalist -country organized societies for the protection -of animals, in order to prove that they can -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> -not be excited by the fate of the small victims -of industry. Schopenhauer, the bourgeois philosopher, -in whom was incarnated so perfectly the -gross egoism of the philistine, could not hear -the cracking of a whip without his heart being -torn by it.</p> - -<p>This same omnibus company, which works its -laborers from fourteen to sixteen hours a day, -requires from its dear horses only five to seven -hours. It has bought green meadows in which -they may recuperate from fatigue or indisposition. -Its policy is to expend more for the entertainment -of a quadruped than for paying the -wages of a biped. It has never occurred to any -legislator nor to any fanatical advocate of the -"Rights of Man" to reduce the horse's daily pittance -in order to assure him a retreat that would -be of service to him only after his death.</p> - -<p>The Rights of Horses have not been posted -up; they are "unwritten rights," as Socrates -called the laws implanted by Nature in the consciousness -of all men.</p> - -<p>The horse has shown his wisdom in contenting -himself with these rights, with no thought -of demanding those of the citizen; he has judged -that he would have been as stupid as man if he -had sacrificed his mess of lentils for the metaphysical -banquet of Rights to Revolt, to Equality, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> -to Liberty, and other trivialities which to -the proletariat are about as useful as a cautery -on a wooden leg.</p> - -<p>Civilization, though partial to the equine race, -has not shown herself indifferent to the fate of -the other animals. Sheep, like canons, pass their -days in pleasant and plentiful idleness; they are -fed in the stable on barley, lucerne, rutabagas -and other roots, raised by wage-workers; shepherds -conduct them to feed in fat pastures, and -when the sun parches the plain, they are carried -to where they can browse on the tender grass -of the mountains.</p> - -<p>The Church, which has burned her heretics, -and regrets that she can not again bring up her -faithful sons in the love of "mutton," represents -Jesus, under the form of a kind shepherd, bearing -upon his shoulders a weary lamb.</p> - -<p>True, the love for the ram and the ewe is in -the last analysis only the love for the leg of mutton -and the cutlet, just as the Liberty of the -Rights of Man is nothing but the slavery of the -wage-worker, since our jesuitical Civilization always -disguises capitalist exploitation in eternal -principles and bourgeois egoism in noble sentiments; -yet at least the bourgeois tends and fattens -the sheep up to the day of the sacrifice, -while he seizes the laborer still warm from the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> -workshop and lean from toil to send him to the -shambels of Tonquin or Madagascar.</p> - -<p>Laborers of all crafts, you who toil so hard -to create your poverty in producing the wealth -of the capitalists, arise, arise! Since the buffoons -of parliament unfurl the Rights of Man, -do you boldly demand for yourselves, your wives -and your children the Rights of the Horse.</p> - - -<p class="ac p2 x-larger">THE END.</p> - -<div class="transnote"> - -<h2>Transcriber's Note:</h2> - -<ul> - <li>Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.</li> - <li>Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant form was found - in this book; otherwise they were not changed.</li> - <li>Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.</li> - <li>Footnotes were moved to the end of chapters and numbered in one - continuous sequence.</li> -</ul> -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Right to be Lazy, by Paul Lafargue - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT TO BE LAZY *** - -***** This file should be named 52984-h.htm or 52984-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/9/8/52984/ - -Produced by Turgut Dincer, Christian Boissonnas and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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