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PRICE ONE PENNY.
JL F L H .A
FOR
S O CIA LISM:
BY
J . L. MAHON.
Delivered in
the course
AMONGST
THE
of a
MINERS
Socialist Campaign
ON
STRIKE
IN
Northumberland, 1877.
“ AS LONG AS OUB CIVILIZATION IS BASED UPON PROPERTY OUR BICHES
WILL LEAVE US SICK, THEBE WILL BE BITTERNESS IN OUB LAUGHTER AND
OUB WINE WILL BURN IN OUB MOUTH.
ONLY THAT GOOD PROFITS WHICH
WE CAN TASTE WITH ALL DOORS OPEN AND WHICH SERVES ALL MEN.”—
Emerson
Published at the “ Commonweal” Office :
13, Farringdon Road, London, E.C
J. Beall, Printer, Stationer, &c., St. Andrew’s Street.
1887.
�“ I ask you to think with me that the worst which can
happen to us is to endure tamely the evils which we see, that
no trouble or turmoil is so bad as that; that the necessary
destruction which reconstruction bears with it must be taken
calmly ; that everywhere—in State, in Church, in the house
hold—we must be resolute to endure no tyranny, accept no
lie, quail before no fear, although they may come before us
disguised as piety, duty, or affection, as useful opportunity and
good nature, as prudence or kindness.”—William Morris.
“ The ivorld in a commercial society belongs to the
capitalists, the share of oiunership which each man pos
sesses being his capital.
In order that wealth may be
produced .... toorkmen and horses must till the
land; the sun must shine and the rain must fall upon the
field, when the seed will sprout and grow; bees must per
form the operation necessary to the fertilization of the
flower, when the fruit will form and swell; birds must
join in the work by destroying the noxious insects which
would otherwise destroy the harvest; and so on. When all
is done some of the agents claim a share of the product;
the men and cattle must be fed; the birds make good their
right to share the wealth which their labour, as much as
that of the men and horses, has produced; and even the
earth demands a part as seed for the next crop. After
all the deductions are made, which the harshness of nature
renders necessary, the balance belongs to the capitalist.
To him it is a matter of indifference what natural agents
are instrumental in the production of his wealth, and the
labour of men does not, in his estimation, differ generically
from that of birds or horses, and is more important only
because the men are the phenomena over xohich he has most
control........................... He groups together all the agents
(including the workmen) that have co-operated in the pro
duction of his wealth as elements of the efficiency of his
capital, and measures the result of all their energies by the
rate of profit he obtains.’'—Communal and Commercial
Economy.—JOHN CARRUTHERS.
�A PLEA FOR SOCIALISM
Fellow- Workmen,
I am sure that an appeal to you for a fair hearing is
unnecessary. Socialism no longer meets with the jeers and
abuse that assailed it, from workmen as well as others, only
a few years ago. Discontent is just now so deep and general
amongst the working-class, and the exponents of Socialism
have worked so hard and enthusiastically in their cause that
a respectful and sympathetic hearing is given them by people
of all kinds all over the country. But, having cast off your
prejudice see also that you put away all misunderstandings.
Socialists are often accused of holding opinions which they
are constantly preaching against, of wishing to bring about
things which they are even now trying to abolish. It is said
they wish to make an equal division of all wealth, bring all
men to one dull level, put every man’s affairs at the mercy of
State officials, make the sober support the drunken and the
industrious work for the thriftless, stamp out individuality,
abolish all incentive to invention, and to bring about these
things by hanging every man with a decent coat on his back.
Everything that malignity, jealousy, and sheer stupidity
could string together has been said against the Socialists.
Well, we don’t grumble. We know the way all great reform
ers since the time of Christ have been received ; kicks and
cuffs, and good chances of crucifiction or hanging in the end.
But we take it all as a compliment to the goodness and
usefulness of our principles.
Ike need for Socialism. The chief cause of the great spread
of Socialism of late is the dissatisfaction felt by all classes
with things as they are and the evident uselessness of all other
proposed remedies. England yearly grows richer, yet her
working-men and women are practically as bad off as ever
''
�A Plea
for
Socialism.
they were. Our power of making goods gets greater every
year, but we have not yet found a way of supplying the wants
of those who make them. Food, clothes, houses and all the
needs of life and happiness are here at our hand in abundance,
at our hand also is the means of making ten times more than
we have, and yet the workers who make these things are living
in wretchedness, squalor, and semi-starvation. Many boast
of the power, fame, and grandeur of the British Empire, but
few notice that in the lowest depths of social life, in the shims
and the back streets, is an ever growing mass of people with
out hope in life, for life to them means a fierce scramble ever
getting fiercer; a miserable subsistence ever getting more
miserable. These people have no respect for Society, for
Society has no respect for them. “ Law and order’' is to them
only a fancy name for the power that keeps them in the mire.
They hate the law and they hate society, and their hatred is
just. They are too many to be ignored, too strong to be
despised, too much wronged to bear good will to those in
power. Their ranks are recruited from the working-class
every year : and some prolonged depression of trade may see
them powerful enough to put Law at defiance ; as indeed they
were during the early months of 1886. Civilization ! Pro
gress ! National Greatness !—mockery and humbug while
those who make the wealth are ever in want and in fear of
want, and those who neither toil nor spin live in luxury.
People feel the evil of all this and they see nothing in the
ordinary proposals to undo it. The Socialists have, as is
generally admitted, brought forward the most consistent and
satisfactory criticism of the present system of society, and
from the same line of thought the real remedy must likewise
come.
Toryism, Liberalism, and Radicalism. Out of all our party
fighting we don’t seem to get much benefit. The working
class are gradually losing faith in the political parties of all
shades. Toryism is a dead horse—not even worth a kiok.
Tliberalism has always meant, and Liberals have always worked
for, the interests of trade and commerce, under the idea, no
doubt, that the welfare of the people could best be served in
that way. But every day makes it plainer that the whole
object of modern commerce is to enslave and cheat the
people. That trade is carried on solely for the profit of the
�Political Parties.
5
capitalists, whose chief aim is to increase profits by decreasing
wages. The Liberals have posed as the friends of the people
on questions of merely political importance. But on any
question affecting the “ rights” of property—such as the
factory acts, or adulteration acts—-some of the best Liberals
were the workmen’s worst enemies. It is now plain to most
workmen that there is nothing to choose between Liberals and
Tories, but that the bitter opposition of both may be expected.
Then what of the Radical party ? But where is it I Wander
ing about after a dozen leaders, chasing fifty fads, but having
no policy to give to the people which will excite their
enthusiasm or better their condition. A more hazy, indefinite,
muddled-up party never existed than the latter day Radicals.
Their chief function has been to blacken the boots of the
Whigs, and except that now and then we hear a little murmur
ing, their function has been well fulfilled. The days of
popularity for the Liberal party are now over. They are on
the high road to perdition ; in going there they will kick the
Tories in front of them, and drag most of the Radicals, as
usual, at their coat tails.
The Socialists spend a good
deal of energy in trying to win over the Radical workmen,
and this energy is well spent. In the Liberal agitations hither
to the Whig Dukes and cotton Lords have given the money
while the Radical workmen have furnished the enthusiasm.
The Socialist cause will gain by detaching these enthusiasts
from the false friends of the people and using their powers
for a better purpose. The reason why I attack Liberalism
and Radicalism more than Toryism is because many people
believe in them, while no one believes in Toryism at all.
The official Tories believe least of all in their own principles,
for when in office they masquerade in Liberal garments—
which shows at once their duplicity and their depraved taste.
In my opinion both political parties are humbugs, and the
only difference between the Liberals and the Tories is that
the Liberals are the most ingenious humbugs of the two.
Labour Representation. Great things were expected if we
got workmen into Parliament but very little has been realized.
There are plenty of rich men in the House of Commons who
are far more outspoken and independent than the Labour
members. We, as workmen, ought to be thoroughly ashamed
of the way we are represented. A few limpid lisping weak-
�6
A Plea
for
Socialism.
lings, who always truckle to the party chiefs, who never yet
distinguished themselves by standing out sturdily for the
interests of labour—who indeed have either forgotten or never
knew what the interests of labour mean. A poor spiritless
lot are they ! The best of them seem to have mistaken their
business. They are grubbing away at “ Employers’ Liability
Acts” as if legislation of that kind would by itself achieve
much for the workers. In the Parliament of 1886 we had
twelve Labour M.P.’s
Our twelve apostles ! At that time
the unemployed were rioting, so keen and widespread was
their distress, all over the country. But our apostles did not
like to disturb the arrangements of the Liberal Government.
Labour was in bad straits : but, for a whole session its
apostles sat sucking their thumbs and said never a word. In
Northumberland during the strike, which began in February,
1887, the suffering and distress was very keen. The men
were trying to resist an attempt to reduce wages which were
already at starvation point. Surely the Labour M.P.’s might
have used their position as members of Parliament to draw
attention to the state of their constituents : had Northumber
land been a county in Ireland, the House of Commons would
have been ringing with the tale of the miners’ wrongs. No
better illustration of the miserable incompetency of the
labour M.P.’s could be brought forward. Had they possessed
the least spark of vigour and sturdiness, the country would
not have been in darkness as to the condition of their con
stituents.
•
■
'
If Labourers are to be sent to
Parliament why make them middle-class men by paying them
from T6 to £10 per week ? A workman in Parliament ought
to get the wages of a London artisan and be enabled to live
in the same standard of comfort. He should go there to work
and not be ashamed of the object of his mission. Instead of
that his first move is to ape the costume and manners of the
cultured drones amongst whom he sits. The whole spirit and
object of mere “Labour representation” is mistaken. The no
tion that having “ labourers” in Parliament will do much good
is a very silly and artificial one. Working-men are no better
than other men, and middle-class men are no worse. It is
some definate principle or ideal that must be taken up by the
working-class before it can achieve anything. The Labour
Representation movement has nothing definate in it. It
�The root
of the difficulty.
7
simply wants to get workmen into Parliament—not to do any
thing in particular, just to loaf about, and look dignified, and
turn lick-spittles to the Liberal party when occasion demands.
This vague, hazy, scatter-brained policy will never do any
service or any credit to the working-class. Representatives
of this kind will be only half supported by workmen and de
spised by upper class politicians. Let us resolve on a definate purpose and push that forward. Use Parliament as a
platform if you will, but educate the people tp a clear under
standing of what your aim and their aim should be. When
you have cleared away some of the ignorance of the people—
and that is the real obstacle to their progress—then a strong
fighting party can be organized and there will be every chance
of winning : at present with no particular object and no en
deavour to find one, with nothing but a muddled-up notion of
doing something, sometime, somehow; failure and ignominy
are certain.
The root of the difficulty. Now, in my opinion the error
of the various political parties I have referred to is that they
skim over the surface of these great problems. They are
afraid or unable to go to the root of the matter and point
out the cause of poverty. It is a paltry superficial kind of
reasoning which tells us that the industrious are well-to-do,
and the idle and thriftless poverty-stricken. I have no wish
to gloss over the failings of working people, or to excuse their
sins on the plea that the rich sin also and more heavily. But
I think there is something mean and hypocritical about those
who continually denounce the faults of the poor while they
leave the rich man’s crimes unassailed. Let us denounce
intemperance, idleness, thriftlessness wherever we may find
*
it; but let us be unsparingly impartial: let neither fame nor
rank save the wrong-doer from the reprobation of his fellows.
The faults of the rich do not excuse the faults of the poor,
but they are often the cause of them. It is luxury that makes
penury necessary. It is waste on one hand that entails
scrimping and starving on the other. It is the legalised lazi
ness amongst the rich that sets the example of loafing and
* It is strange to see how this term, thrift, is misused. Thrift means
making the best use of what you have. It does not mean selfish grabbing of
all you can get, nor a crazy hoarding of things you can never use. Still less
does it mean (as some sentimental moralists would have us believe) cowardly
contentment with less than you are entitled to.
�8
A Plea
for
Socialism.
flunkeyism to the poor. It is because the rich man shirks his
share of the world’s work that the poor man is overworked.
And what is the cause of nine-tenths of the vice and callous
ness of the working-men ? The long, dreary, and depressing
toil they have to endure when in employment; the feverish
anxiety about to-morrow’s food, and the future of their child
ren when in the ranks of the unemployed. To most workmen
life is an uninteresting past, a joyless present, and a hopeless
future. The root of the great social question is that modern
society treats the workmen as machines and the capitalists as
lords of civilization. In a civilized society the capitalist
is master of the land and minerals which no man made ;
of the machinery which includes within it the toil and
skill of countless generations; of the vast stores of wealth
which all (except the capitalists) have helped to accumu
late ; in short all the resources of civilization—which,
without exception, are the produce of work—belong to
one class. The only thing the capitalist, as such, does
is to keep a firm grip of these things and never spend
five shillings without a reasonable certainty of getting
ten, fifteen, or twenty in return. Civilization is a huge
arrangement for heaping up profit, and whatsoever will not
bring profit to the holder of capital is prohibited by the laws
of trade and commerce ; it is stigmatized as a thing that
“won’t pay” (no matter how much good it may do) and
banished from the business of life, and the world is thought
lucky if some philanthropist or faddiBt take it up instead.
Are we Slaves ? The pet delusion of the British working
man is that he is free. How he came by this delusion, and
why he sticks to it, I don’t know. It is interesting to notice
that the British workman’s “patriotism” and fondness for
proclaiming his independence varies with the rate of his
wages and the security of his employment. At £2 per week
he is sure that he is not a slave, and “never, never” will
be ; at £1 he is doubtful about the reality of his freedom ; at
12s. he curses the British Empire and says, wisely, though
not elegantly, that his freedom is a fraud. Now, what is a
slave ? One who is compelled to work for somebody
else.
In this, the real sense, the working-class of every
civilised country are slaves. They work and all the result
goes to the capitalist and upper class ; they get back a few
�The old slavery
and the new.
9
shillings to keep them alive, for that is all their wages
amount to. They are forced to work for the upper class,
while the upper class does nothing for them, and therefore
they are slaves. If the miner produces coal for the money
lord, and the money-lord does nothing for the miner, then
surely the miner is a slave. Every man who lives without
doing useful work is enslaving some other people. It is
work that keeps society going. Every man who eats bread,
lives in a house, or burns coal is using the fruits of labour.
Unless he renders some useful service to the baker, the
builder, or the miner he is stealing from them and making
them his slaves. A civilised society includes two main
classes:—Workers and idlers, producers and thieves, slaves
and slave-owners. The workers do everything for themselves,
and support the other class besides. The upper class do
nothing for themselves, and nothing for any-body else, so they
are thieves and slave drivers. Not that they are individually
conscious of stealing or oppressing, or should be individually
punished for it. But the harm done is the same whether
they are conscious or not. Besides, every sensible man
ought to think of where his dinner comes from, and to reflect
that somebody must have earned it; and that if he did not
earn it he must have stolen it.
The old slavery and the new. It is true that one man
cannot call another his property as he would a horse or a
dog, but does this make any essential difference ? The
reason why men were once owned like cattle was simply
that their labour might be used for their master’s benefit.
Well, if their labour is still taken from them, even without
the institution of private property in human flesh and blood,
the result is the same. The capitalist does not to-day own
the workman, but he owns the means by which only the
workman can live ; and he says to him, “ You cannot labour
without using the land and the capital; these things are
under my control, and I shall only allow you to use them on
condition that you take a bare living out of the produce of
your own labour, and that you hand over to me all the
balance over and above that.” The capitalist manages to
■enforce these terms. Nine-tenths of the modern workmen
are mere slaves, getting enough each pay-day to keep them
in bread till the next. In one respect they are worse off
�10
A Plea
for
Socialism.
than the olden slaves. When the employer has no further
need for their services, he turns them adrift in the streets
to find a crust as best they can; in olden times the slave
owner, out of self-interest, always took care to feed and
clothe his human property. In spite of all our boasting
of freedom the position of the civilised workman may be
summed up thus : He is allowed to earn his own living
only when his labour will also yield a profit to supply the
middle and upper classes with a living for nothing ; he gets
only a small part of what he earns ; he is dependent upon
others for the chance of working at all; and when he cannot
be made an instrument of profit-grinding he is cast amongst
the unemployed, and from thence too often he drifts to the
gaol, the workhouse, or the lunatic asylum.
The Slave Market and the Labour Market.
A closer
examination of the old and the new slavery will show still
stronger points of resemblance. In olden times there was a
slave market, to which men were driven in gangs, goaded on
by the lash of the slave driver. When they got there, they
were sold at auction, like cattle, to the highest bidder. Now
there is a labour market, at which human labour is bought
and sold like other goods. The people have no alternative
but to go and sell their labour, and they go obediently and
docilely, and as long as the system lasts they must do so.
Brute force is discarded, but the force of circumstances work
to the capitalists’ interests instead. The slave driver’s whip
is only to be found in the museum, but the whip of hunger
does the same work, and it bites as cruelly. But what is the
difference when they get to the market ? In olden times
they were put up to auction and knocked down to the highest
bidder ; now they are compelled to compete against each
other and are knocked down to the lowest bidder. From
this competition for employment a strange and horrid light
is thrown on the working of the capitalist system. The
master takes advantage of the men’s misfortunes, and uses
the unemployed to force down the wages of those in work.
In short, slavery is still the basis of our social organisation.
Our chains ud to be ugly black iron ; we saw them and
e
*
abhorred them. Now they are finely polished and painted,
and we think them ornaments and hug them ; but they are
as strong as ever, and when the times of distress come we
�Conquer
the cupboard.
11
feel them gnawing and chafing us. We cannot be free
while able, useful, and willing workmen starve in a land
made wealthy by their own labour. Our freedom is an
elaborate and ingenious hypocrisy while thousands are
denied the chance to earn their bread in their own country;
and while the whole working-class is only allowed to labour
on condition that it will hand over the largest part of the
result to the idle, useless, and vicious upper class.
Conquer the Cupboard. The powei’ lies in the hands of
the moneyed class, because they have the land and the
capital completely in their control. The workers dare not
till the soil of their own country, although thousands of acres
of it are lying waste, unless they can produce a heavy rent
for the landlord as well as a living for themselves. The
factories also are closed and the machinery stopped in many
districts. Here comes the narrow selfishness of the present
system. The men who own the land and capital do not wish
to use it themselves, and indeed could not. They simply
have the power to prevent others from using these things,
and they use that power to extort enormous profits from the
workers. Let us compare society to an ordinary household.
Imagine a family in which the father and several sons were
the bread-winners, and the mother and several daughters
housekeepers. Suppose they have a cupboard in which the
food and other means of life are stored. This cupboard
should be under the care of the housewife. But let us
imagine that a stranger, who has done nothing to help in the
work of the household, forces his way in, fixes a patent
lock to the cupboard, and says to the household, “ In future
this part of the house shall be under my charge. I shall
always be ready to open it when you have anything to
put in, but when you want any supplies I shall dole out
just as much as I think is good for you. While you are
filling the cupboard you shall get enough to keep you, and
enable you to go on working, but no more. When the cup
board is full you must stop working, and eating too, and you
will be known as ‘ tramps ’ and the ‘ unemployed.’ ” Now,
this family might fancy itself free ; it might meet in the
back-parlour and sing paeans in praise of the grand system it
lived under; it might also pass Bills and give each of its
members a vote, or a dozen votes ; but as long as the
�12
A Plea
fok
Socialism.
stranger held the key of that cupboard he would be master
of the situation, and the inmates one and all would be mere
slaves of his. This is a fair simile of what England and
every other civilised land is to-day. The workmen are filling
the cupboard of the country, but the key is held by men who
do none of the labour. While filling it they get a subsistence
wage—seldom more—and when it is filled to overflowing
there is a glut (a trade depression), and the men who filled
the cupboard must go hungry and homeless because it is too
full. Yes, this is why we starve in the midst of abundance,
and the first duty of the working-class is to make good its
claim to the fruits of its labour : it must conquer the cup
board.
The Socialist proposal is to take the land and capital
from the private individuals who now unrighteously own
them, and put them under the control of the community,
and use them for the benefit of the workers. Capital must
be the handmaid of labour, not its master. The resources
of civilization must be used to benefit the people, not to
grind profit out of them, as now. The aim of society must
be to so dispose of the labour and resources of the com
munity as to secure a fair living to all who labour for it.
Socialism is based on the principle that as all society is
maintained by labour, all should do a fair share of it. The
bread we eat, the houses we live in, and the coals we burn
are all produced by labour. If we use these things, we
ought to produce them, or do some useful service to those
who do. If we use these things, and live in idleness, we
are stealing them. All we eat and drink and wear is made
by labour, and if we eat without labouring we are stealing
from some one else who has laboured. We should all do
our fair share of the world’s work ! No man is too good
to toil for his living; no man is so bad that he should be
cheated out of his living when he has toiled for it.
The Defence of Property.
Whenever this doctrine of
Socialism is stated a certain class of people cry out “ Confis
cation !” “ You want to take men’s savings from them !”
“You want the drunken and thrtftless kept at the expense of
the industrious and careful I” All these parrot cries totally
ignore the fact that to-day the thriftless are living on the
�Property
and
Co-operation.
18
industrious, and that the whole string of evils they charge us
with trying to bring about are here already, and we are
trying to abolish them. When we attack the capitalists our
opponents never defend the proper culprit: they bring up
the workman with £100 saved, and try to turn prejudice
against us by alledging that this would be confiscated. But
the difference between a large capitalist and a workman with
a savings bank account is very great and quite clear. The
workman has earned his small capital; the other has not.
Of course the taking of interest is wrong, no matter to what
extent it may be carried. It must, also, be borne in mind
that in dispossessing the landlord and capitalist we are not
taking from them anything that they wish to use. We simply
deprive them of the power of making others work for them.
It is curious to notice how strong the blind greed for property
is in the minds of those who have only a little. It is not the
Baring or the Rothschild who is most bitter against Socialism.
The kind of man who is fiercest in defence of the rights of
property is the small shopkeeper who, perhaps, is £100 in
debt. The silly scramble of modern days has frightfully
narrowed mens’ notions of the real aim and pleasures of life.
If the rich were to-morrow deprived of all the property they
wrongfully hold, and set to work under decent circumstances
for their living, it would be the best thing that ever happened
to them. The true nobility a man can attain is by making
himself useful to his fellows, and this distinction would be
placed within reach of everybody by Socialism.
The Co-operative Movement. 'The easiest line of thought
towards Socialism is by considering what the Co-operative
movement has done. Had anyone suggested thirty years
ago that this movement would accomplish the revolution that
it has in such a space of time, and by such humble agents,
he would have been laughed at as a fool, or jeered at as an
Utopian—just as Socialists are laughed and jeered at now.
But by steady patient work a great change has been brought
about, the petty shopkeeping class has been greatly lessened,
an enormous amount of labour saved, and the process of
distribution greatly simplified. But still the biggest part of
the work has been left untouched. Distributive co-operation
shows the workman the best and wisest way to spend his
wages—once he has got them. Important as this is, the
�14
A Plea
for
Socialism.
question of how to get a just wage, or any wage at all, is still
more important ; but co-operation at present cannot touch
this question. Here Socialism steps in to finish what Co
operation began. Indeed Socialism is but the full and
genuine development of co-operation. We have introdoced
Co-operation to the shop and the store ; now we must extend
it to the mine, the factory, and the farm.
Is it practicable ? Great difficulties lie in the way of
Socialism, and much hard earnest work will be needed to
bring it about. These difficulties are not due to Socialism
being very Utopian, or very incomprehensible. Socialism is
merely the application of common sense and justice to social
order, but justice and common sense are strange and un
known in these days, when veiled fraud and oppression reign
supreme. Socialism would be simpler and easier to work, so
far as the mere industrial arrangements are concerned, than
the present system. Indeed we should try to make
society as simple in its mechanism and our own lives as
unpretentious as may be. The greatest curse of the present
system is its unnecessary complexity of organisation, and the
conflicting interests which Economists pretend are in har
mony. The first step towards Socialism is to make
Socialists ; to get together a great organisation of all who
accept the principle. Different schools of Socialists may
suggest different ways of realising the new society, but
their differing in that respect is a hopeful sign, as it
shows diversity and even some originality of thought. All
Socialists agree that the principles of competition and
monopoly now holding sway should be done away with, and
superseded by a general and thorough-going co-operation.
In fact we want a nation in which there are neither
masters nor servants, but where all are fellow-workers. A
solid combination of the Socialist movement could bring
a tremendous power to bear on the politics of this country.
That power should be used, not so much in bringing to pass
petty measures, as in forcing the hand of the upper class.
The futility of compromise. There is a class of wellintentioned reformers who are puzzling themselves to find
a way of benefiting the poor without interfering with the
rich. It is self-evident that this is a fruitless endeavour.
�The
future of
Socialism.
15
The robbery of the poor by the rich is the first aim of
capitalist production.It may be wrong
for the poor to
rob the rich ; it maynearly be as wrong for the rich to
rob each other; but for the rich to rob the poor is the
most abominable of all systems. There can be no peace
between the two classes. The poor must cast off the
leeches which are draining the life’s blood from them.
The rich are really parasites on the workers. The dis
tinctions of class must be abolished, for they only mean
the right of the rich to rob and the duty of the poor to
submit. But, although no peace can be between them, a
peaceable settlement might be effected. The rich should
be told by the toilers, “ Now, you have lived a long time
at our expense, and we find that it is bad for both of
us—it wearies you with elegant and enforced idleness, and
it burdens us with overwork. We don’t want to hurt you
for your past misdeeds, because for the most part you
were unconscious of the evil you were doing, but you
must do different in future. Those of you who are
entirely useless, and most of you are, so we fear, we will
keep in moderate comfort. We will give work to those
of you who are able and willing to do it (and that is
more than you gave us') ; a training to those who are
willing and not able ; and the gaol or the lunatic asylum
to those who are able and not willing.” These are the
only terms on which this antagonism can be settled. It
is nearly 2,000 years since St. Paul said, “ He that will
not work, neither shall he eatand surely it is time we
put the principle into operation.
The future of the Socialist party. Everything points to the
rapid growth of the Socialist party in this country. It lays
definite principles before the people, and though these, as
they require some independent thought and enthusiasm, may
take some time to win acceptance, they make a deep and
lasting impression where they do take hold. As time goes on
and the difficulty and hardships which the present system im
poses on the workers are more keenly felt, they will find out
how shallow and ineffective is the hand-to-mouth policy of the
ordinary politician. Times are coming when plain honest
words and upright action will be needed to save the country
from the horrors of a revolt of miserable and desperate people.
�16
A Plea
for
Socialism.
That revolution will come upon us, there can be no doubt.
Its shadow is already cast over us. Socialists do not wish to
make or to carrse a revolution: they only wish to point out
that revolution, bred of the misery and inherent injustice of
the present system, is inevitable. If the people are left un
organised and ignorant, revolution may well seem a terror to
all men. But we look to the coming change. We are pre
paring to. meet it with a combined and intelligent people, a
people wise enough to know their rights, strong enough to
enforce them, and disciplined enough to guard them. We
are carrying a message of hope to the poor, of comfort to the
outcast, of joy to the desolate. We bid them lay aside
despair, to take courage, and gather strength, for the time is
at hand when, with enlightenment and determination, they
may end for ever the folly, and crime, and misery in which
their lives are now spent, and realise a noble, fraternal, social
life, with labour, leisure, and liberty for all; a life in which
we shall have
“ Man without a master, and earth without a strife,
And every soul rejoicing in the sweet and bitter of life.”
Single copies of this
address on receipt
sale or distribution
50 copies 3/-; one
THE
pamphlet will be sent to any
of threehalf-pence. Parcels for
at cheaper rates : ioo copies, 5/-;
dozen copies post free 1/-
“COMMONWEAL, ”
Official Journal of the Socialist League.
A thorough-going weekly labour paper : contains a re
view of the labour struggle and Socialist movement
throughout the world; criticism on current political
events; revolutionary poetry; review of books on the
labour question ; and articles on science, art, history,
and political economy in their bearing on labour
questions.
ONE PENNY WEEKLY.
�
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A plea for socialism : delivered in the course of a socialist campaign amongst the miners on strike in Northumberland, 1877
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Mahon, J. L.
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Advertisement for the "Commonweal", the Official Journal of the Socialist League, on end page. Printed by J. Beale, St. Andrew's Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
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1887
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Socialism
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Addresses
Miners
Northumberland
Socialism
Speeches
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335
LLO
PRICE ONE PENNY.
THE
!
I NEW CONSCIENCE,
:
OR
RELIGION OF LABOUR.
j
BY
■
HENRY D. ILLOYD.
Reprinted by permission from the “ North American
Review f and Revised by the Author.
•
EDITION.
THIRD
LONDON :
Published for the New Fellowship, at 34, Great Ormond
Street, W.C.
1893.
No. 6.
Fellowship Series.
��Four hundred years before the workingman of Nazareth
in behalf of the toilers of the world came to deliver his
message of love and a sword, a new conscience stirred
some obscure heart in Greece to speak for liberty for the
labourer.
Plato was dreaming of the elevation of man through
impossible Republics and preposterous stirpiculture, and
had no ear for this new voice. But Aristotle, man of
science, knowing that the humblest of opinions may come
to be the biggest of facts, puts it on record, though
evidently merely as an eccentricity of contemporary
thought. “ There are some,” he says, “ who think that it
is only the fashion of despotic government which makes
one man a slave and another free, and that the tie must be
unjust because it is founded in force.” His was one of the
greatest of minds, but it never divined that in this whisper
of the new conscience of a few nameless Greeks lay the
full diapason of a cry, before which would fall many a wall
of citadeled oppression, built on sand because founded on
force : unjust and therefore unsound. That still small
voice rolls around the world, shaking the oppressor out of
his seat, whether king, priest, man-stealer or monopolist.
To the accompaniment of the guns of Fort Sumter and the
Wilderness it sang the chorus of union and liberty, which
Lincoln in 1861 heard sounding forth from the mystic
chords of the American heart. Those unknown Greeks
were the first Abolitionists. Lincoln signed only a chapter
of the emancipation which they proclaimed, and that not
the last chapter. Ceaseless growth means ceaseless
emancipation. The symphony Lincoln heard plays on.
One by one the cries of imprisoned and imprisoner blend
into the strains of a widening freedom.
�THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
4
It is the fashion of scholars to speak of the Greek
intellect, the Roman will, the Hebrew conscience. The
Hebrew had a conscience, not because he was a Hebrew,
but because he was a man. The same birthright belongs
to the Greek and to all of us. It was the voice of con
science, “ that prophetic sign of my divine monitor,” which
always spoke to Socrates when what he was about to do
would be wrong, and by the same revelation God wrote
the Ten Commandments on the hearts of men before they
were graven on the tables of stone.
Fichte says that the greater the wealth and rank the
greater the vice. Seldom does the new conscience, when
it seeks a teacher to declare to men what is is wrong,
find him in the dignitaries of the church, the state, the
culture that is. The higher the rank, the closer the tie
that binds those to what is, but ought not to be. It is the
tramp, Christ, who has not where to lay his head, the
peasant Luther, the poor mechanic William Lloyd
Garrison, who are free to listen to new truth, and brave
and free to speak the words that lead men out of old
church, and old state, and old industry. The new con
science which warns civilisations to do justice to the
workingmen, has always encountered the opposition of the
mighty ones of earth. If this spirit of love and liberty
stirred in the heart of any Jews of the old dispensation,
their priests, unlike the scientific observer of Athens, let
the fact find no record in their scriptures. Aristotle
declared that no man could be a workingman and lead
a life of virtue. In ancient times, learned, pious,
patriotic, noble, all agreed that the victor who had the
r’ght to kill had the right to command, and that he who
was given his life had no right to demand his liberty.
Lawyers invented the doctrine that the slave could not
buy his freedom, for the money he proffered for it must be
his master’s. The early Christian Church did not so much
disapprove of slavery as of the enslavement of its own
members.1 In the United States religious synods voted
that the slavery agitation should be suppressed by laying
on the table, unread, all petitions, resolutions, and other
papers about it, and Evangelical Alliances forbade young
people to dance, but refused to declare it sinful for a bishop
�5
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
to hold slaves. Boston hissed the fanatic who declared
that the theatre would receive the gospel of anti-slavery
truth earlier than the churches. But in two years slaves
on the stage in “Uncle Tom” shot their hunters amid
loud applause, while the pulpit remained silent or hostile.
As for property, its broadcloth mobs attacked meetings of
women for proclaiming the new freedom, dragged
Garrison. through the streets of Boston to hang him for
maintaining the right of the black workingman to fuller
growth, and its Presidents and Supreme Court Judges ran
with the bloodhounds to catch the fugitive labourer. The
courts then, as now, made many things successful which
they can never make respectable.
When the subject of the extension of slavery in the
territories was before Congress, a Southern member
arose and told how he loved his black “ mammy.” He
had been nursed at her breast with her own black baby.
“ I love that black mammy,” the Southern member
fervently exclaimed, “ and when I go into Nebraska I
want to take her with me.” “ We do not object,” said
Ben Wade, “to your taking your black mammy with you
to Nebraska; but we don’t mean to let you flog her or sell
her when you get there.” Pro-Slavery law and order
easily proved that to buy and sell workingmen in the
market was constitutional, pious, profitable, based on
contract, benign. All that the new conscience equid reply
was : “ Hear the whistling of that lash, that drip
o
*f
blood,
the cries of that mother, the cries of the children ; see
those empty homes, those human faces twisted out of
shape, master’s as well as man’s.”
It was ridiculous, was it not, to meet those judges and
bishops and millionaires and great editors with this talk
about the lash, and blood, and the sacredness of the
persons of working men and working women ? There'
was no argument in it, only sentiment. The gravestones
of Arlington and Gettysburg prove that sentiment can
*
*
force a hearing.
There came a day when the black mammy could not be
sold or flogged, at home or abroad, when families could
* National Cemeteries in which the soldiers killed in the Civil
War are buried.
�6
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
not be torn asunder at the auction block, when the great
brothel was closed where half a million of women were
flogged to prostitution, or worse still, degraded to believe
it honourable, when a professedly Christian nation ceased
to deny, by statute, the Bible to every sixth man and
woman of its population. This was what the new con
science did for the slaves with the help of religion, but
against the opposition of the church ; with the help of
the spirit of justice, but against the opposition of lawyers,
judges and legislatures ; with the help of the true science
of labour, but against the efforts of the economists and
capitalists. After all is over, lawyer, priest, professor,
and money-maker find that they were wrong and con
science right, that the theory that treated men and brothers
as chattels or goods was illegal, unjust, irreligious, un
economical, and wealth-destroying.
For twenty-three hundred years the argument never
reached a higher plane than that attained by the forgotten
Greeks, who held that they were unnatural ties which were
founded on force. This revolt against ties founded on
force finds another echo, in the aspirations and ideals of
those who are to-day seeking for themselves and others
the right to work in secure tenure of employment, to live as
long a life as their neighbours live, to live it as freely and
to rear healthfully and happily children to live after them.
It was the force of battle that overcame the labourer of
the old régime ; it is the force of the market that subdues
the labourer of to-day. The tie between the labourer and
the master is still one of force, although it is not now one
of visible chains. You say, “The labourer is free, he
consents.” Yes, free as the captive was—to work for
what he can get or die. Like him he consents to save his
life, or, more accurately, a part of his life. The Con
gressional Committee, investigating the strike of the
Reading Railroad’s men, asked General Manager Whiting,
as reported by the Associated Press : “ Have you made no
effort to supply the places of the striking miners ? ”
“No, sir.”
“ Why ?”
“ Because we desire and expect our old men to come
�THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
7
“ On your own terms ? ”
“ At the old rates, yes.”
“What force do you rely upon to bring these men
luack ? ”
“Well, sir, their necessities.”
It is not by free will that the workingmen of to-day
■work ten, twelve, or fourteen hours, take competitive
wages, live in poor tenements at high rents, spend their
■days as the mere servants or grooms of machinery, and,
sending out their little boys and girls, and their pregnant
wives to work, sacrifice almost everything that makes
-•family life for you and me so sweet. They do not submit
;by consent to live a life not much above half the average
length of that of the prosperous. Workingmen the world
•over are struggling to free themselves by every means of
strikes, protest, organization, even to the desperation of
physical violence. Singular behaviour, is it not, for men
"who are only doing what they want to do? They are
■kept down by force, by the force of competition instead of
■conquest, by the strategy of the generals of supply and
demand. Once it was the force of the wairior, now it is
the force of the capitalist. It was their weakness and the
■strength of others which formerly made the workingmen
merchandise, and force still keeps them at the mercy of
the markets. But the unresting heart of man is always in
-revolt against ties founded on force.’ Yesterday it de•clared that government is the control of man by man, and
7that the rights of rulers are drawn from the consent of the
..governed. To-day it avows that property is the control of
man by man. That the rights of the ruled are the source
■of the rights of the rulers in property as much as in
.government. That if the common people can be allowed
to vote in government, they can be allowed to vote in that
•other government, property. That if they do not insist
•upon their right to vote upon all affairs of property, they
■will lose their right to vote in matters of government.
'That there is no conscience, new or old, which compels
the many to die undeveloped in order that the few may
Hive misdeveloped.
What stirred the warriors’ heart to spare the captive
instead of killing him was the first beat of a new conscience.
�8
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
When it grew stronger it said: He is more than a com
modity. Grown stronger still, it says to us: His labour is
more than a commodity. The central doctrine of the
slave power was that the labourer was merely merchandise.
The central doctrine of the money power is that labour is
merely merchandise. Society supports the latter, as it did
the former, with the consolidated array of all its institutions
and laws. But both doctrines, and all that is built upon them,
are absolutely destructive not only of the liberties of the
labourer but of the liberties of all. The conscience that said
the labourer shallnot be a commodity though despised of the
builders is now a cornerstone. A new conscience takes its
stand before all our institutions, and says to them: Labour
shall not be a commodity, for the labour is the labourer.
Under the theory of merchantable man the employer
said: My workmen. Under the labour commodity theory
the employer says: My workmen. Neither means mysheep to feed, but my sheep to shear. Congressman
Hutton, of Missouri, says about the Reading strike: “I
am tired of reading about strikes. Capital should be at
liberty to pay whatever it sees fit for labour, and to employ
whom it chooses.” An iron manufacturer lately said: “ If
you employed on a large scale you would soon find that
you ceased to look at your men as men. They are simply
so much ¡producing power.”
If the Captains of Industry can reduce ore to iron only on
these terms of reducing men to units of power, the sooner
the Captains of Industry are discharged, and their places
filled by Brothers of Industry, the better.
Henry Ward Beecher, after the Emancipation of
Slavery, said, amid enthusiastic applause, “We have struck
the shackles from the slave, and made him free and a
citizen. Now he must take care of himself, and work out
his own social and industrial salvation.” “Why? asked
the new conscience, Is he not still your brother ? Because
you have abolished one of the wrongs done him by you,
does that give you the right to maintain the other wrongs t
Are you not still his neighbour? When you work with
him, and divide proceeds into profits and wages, will the
God of Plymouth Church considerately turn his back, so asnot to see whether you love your neighbour as yourself?
�THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
9
The remark of the great pulpit-orator epitomizes the
whole spirit of our civilization towards the labourer.
The ancients bought and sold men; we buy and sell the
heartbeats only. The new theory that though the working
man is not a thing, his labour is a thing, marks but a slight
advance on the old. It means that the labour can be
bought and sold regardless of the man behind it; that the
buyer, the employer, can take any advantage of the seller,
provided he does it under the formulas of supply and
demand; that to buy his life of him cheap and sell it dear
is all we have to do with the labourer; that the only con
science the buyer needs is to observe the rules of the
market; that he can depress or raise prices without moral
responsibility for the backs bent or hearts broken by his
manipulations; that he can take more than he gives,
regardless that the “ goods ” he gets are the lives of workers
who cannot survive if they receive less than they give; that
buyer and seller have a right to deal with each other as if
they were business animals instead of business men. The
labour is the labourer, because the man has to live twentyfour hours in order to be able to work eight or ten. His
heart and head, his thoughts, his wants, his aspirations, all
co-operate to produce the so-called commodity which, at the
sound of the factory bell, is ready to begin the work of the
day. When the man leaves the factory, he but takes the
“ commodity ” away to recuperate his wasted energies for
another day. That which he has left within those walls is
not a thing. It is himself. “ The great fundamental prin
ciple of anti-slavery is that man cannot hold property in
man,” said Garrison, The doctrine that “ labour is a
commodity ” gives man property in man, and is therefore
iniquitous and void. If labour is a commodity, the labourer
is a commodity, and chattel-slavery still exists, freed only
ofall its Biblical and patriarchal restraints, possessed of powers
for abuse more dangerous because indirectly exerted.
If you shall not buy the whole man, you shall not buy or'
sell part of a man. You shall not count into your purses
the ruddy drops, from morn till noon, from noon to dewy
eve, and then say, “ I know not whence they came or how.”
We who “buy” labour, who take the expenditure of
life that labour can part with, and do not return to the
�io
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
labourer that share in the produce of labour which will
permit him to repair his vitality, maintain a family, attend
to his political duties, save enough for sickness and old age,
have enough for such play and rest as will enable him to
live to his allotted span, are, in the words of the Bible,
“ man-stealers.” In our day and civilization such a man
stealer is as bad and wicked as the slave-holder in his.
We who take from any business profits or interest on
capital, while any of our employees are suffering for want
of means for full growth as individuals, or citizens, are
man-stealers, and we as man-stealers are to-day, as of old,
robbing children of their years of joy, men of their prime,
and mothers of their motherhood. It is no excuse for
merchant or manufacturer or mine-owner or railroad cor
poration that the “ system ” permits, even commands, such
wrongs. Mankind and God never separate the sinner and
sin. The sinners will go down with the “system” if they
don’t change it. The money power so contracts with the
working man, working woman, or working child that it gets
the whole of him or her or it, as Wordsworth says, “ health,
body, mind, and soul,”—it gets the whole twenty-four hours
of him, her, or it—and says, “I cannot share with you
enough to let you live at the rate of twenty-four hours a
day for a natural life. I and my system can find others in
the free labour market so wretched that by themselves
they cannot live a week. They are willing to give me out
right ten hours a day if I will but pay them enough to live
at the rate of fourteen hours a day for the few years their
bodies can stand it. As you know our God is a God of
competition, supply and demand, “free” contract. You
must take the wages the other man will take, or yield to
him your “ sacred right to work.” This may seem hard to
you, but you must admit that it is right, for all our good
and brave business men and their college professors will
easily prove to you that you are not a man, but merely a
seller in the market, and your labour is not your life, only
a commodity. When the employer, the nation, the world of
employers sit in comfort, and the employed are massed in
the tenements whence comes the bitter cry of the outcast,
and where poverty, prostitution, intemperance and prema
ture death are chronic, are they on one side any less the
�THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
ii
oppressors, are those on the other side any less the victims
of force, because the fashionable world says, “ Labour is a
commodity?” The incantations of political economists
cannot cure disease. Conscience cares nothing for the fine
phrases of professors, statesmen, lawyers, clergy, employers,
for their theories and philosophy of business. It says,
“ What have you done ? ” What are the results ? Bother
your theories and doctrines of rights ! Show me the facts,
not the formulas ! It looks at Chicago and New York, at
Cain in his palaces and Abel in the slums, at the profits of
one “ brother ” and the wages of the other. It does not
ask what church de you go to on Sunday, nor who were
your professors in political economy. No, it only repeats
the question asked under similar circumstances some thou
sands of years ago, What hast thou done ? Where is thy
brother?
Let us listen while a delegation from the Money-power
remonstrates with the new conscience for its unreasonable
sentiments and ideas. Here they come, one by one, and
range themselves about. First speaks the Merchant
prince :
I have a right to buy where I can buy cheapest.
Conscience.—See these little stunted hollow-eyed girls
coming out of that factory !
Lawyer.—Wages are settled by contract.
Conscience.—Where can I find white-haired working
men ?
Capitalist.—Every man has a right to do what he will
with his own.
Conscience.—-What is the price of a Senatorship to-day?
Statistician.—Never were food, fuel, clothing so cheap.
Conscience.—Little Mary Mitchell works in Waterbury’s
rope works five days a week, from six in the evening till
six in the morning.
Railroad King.—Every man makes his own career. I
was a working man myself twenty years ago, and now I
keep a carriage, a butler, and several judges and legislators
“ in four States,” and—
Conscience.—That tired-looking man is a conductor of a
sleeping-car belonging to a company owned by half-a-dozen
men worth three hundred million dollars, which is not
�12
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
enough for them, so they squeeze a few more dollars a
month out of him by making him on every alternate trip
do twenty-eight and a half hours’ continuous work without
sleep.
Banker.—Our wealth is increasing one billion dollars a
year. We have boards of trades, the best railroads in the
world, packing houses that can kill ten thousand hogs.
Conscience.—The sickening stench, the blistered air, the
foul sights of the tenements, and the motherhood and the
childhood choking there !
Conservative.—This is the best government in the world.
America is good enough for me.
Conscience.—Listen to that “ tramp, tramp, tramp” of a
million men out of work.
Philanthropist.—The church is renewing its youth. We
give millions of dollars for hospitals and foreign work and
domestic missions to carry the gospel to the poor of all
nations.
Conscience.—I hear a voice in the Abbey that cries, We
do not want charity; give us work.
Manufacturer.—Without this system of industry the sub
jugation of North America to civilisation would have been
impossible—we could never have shown the world the mag
nificent spectacle of—
Conscience.—There is a little boy standing ten hours a
day up to his ankles in the water in the coal mine !
Coal Monopolist.—I have a statistician who can prove—
he can prove anything—that the working man is a great
deal better off than he ever was, that he makes more than
I do, that small incomes are increasing and large ones
decreasing, and there is no involuntary poverty, and that
the working men could live on twenty-five cents each a day,
and buy up the United States with their savings—and—
Conscience.—How long shall it be cheaper to run over
working men and women at the railroad crossings in the
cities than to put up gates ?
Clergyman.—The poor we are to have with us always.
Conscience.—That sewing woman you see pawning her
shawl has lived this winter with her two children in a
room without fire. Are you wearing one of the shirts she
finished ?
�THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
13
Statesman.—The working man has the ballot and the
newspapers. He is a free citizen.
Conscience.—As the nights grow colder see how the
number of girls on the streets increases!
Now what can a man of affairs, a business man, a reason
able man, one who understands political economy and the
Constitution of the United States and all that do with such
a disputant as this ? The more the pride of America
points to its magnificence, and boasts of its Declaration of
Independence, the more does the new conscience point to
the wrongs and sufferings of these miserable men, women,
and children—and so few of them too !
All extreme cases, you say ? Just so. It was the
possibility of its extreme cases that destroyed slavery. The
possibility of such extreme cases as these demand the
abolition of the system and the philosophy which permits
them.
Upon the false theory that men cease to be brothers
when they buy and sell, upon the theory that employer
and employee are not fellowmen, but merely dealers in a
non-human market, is built up the false society in which we
live. The new industry and finance have put the labour of
mankind under the control of the Money Power, which
declares its right to deal on all sides with men according
to the rules of a prize-ring called Supply and Demand.
Conscienceless and greedy as the old slave power, its
competitive rents give us the slums. Its competitive wages
leave women the choice between suicide of body or
suicide of soul, and tempt men to find in the stimulant
of drink a substitute for the stimulant of food. Professing
the gospel of competition, it imports contract labour, breaks
up trade-unions, employs and disemploys labour in order
to buy cheap of men who have no commodity but them
selves to sell. But when it turns about as seller, it
confronts the buyer with pools, trusts and combinations
denying competition. The revolution of the new industry
and the concentration of wealth have given the Money
Power unlimited means to buy, and the morals which
permit it to buy men as commodities, permit it to buy
everything, even the.things once held too sacred for traffic.
The system that denies the manhood of man in the most
�14
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
sacred function of all, labour, must deny it in all the
relations based on this foundation. The system which
permits the welfare of the labourer to be settled by
competition, the law of the market, the false claim of
property to do what it will with its own, must allow all
welfare to be settled by the same philosophy. If the
Money Power can make life and the means of life mere
commodities, it makes it right to buy life as cheap as
possible, to sell it as dear as possible. It makes it, when
bought, the buyer’s own. Hence the capitalist’s claim of a
right to do as he will with his own is the claim of a right to
do as he will with human lives. Such a system, and it is
exactly ours, has no moral reserves with which to meet the
Money Power when it applies these principles as it is
doing to-day in every direction to the moral ruin of society.
Just this result is being worked out. The Money Power
with its huge fortunes and corporations built up on the
right to treat life as a mere commodity, more and more
treats everything else as a mere commodity—from the
virtue of employees to that of trustees, public and private.
It refuses to respond when called to account. It simply
asserts its right to buy cheap and sell dear, and to do what
it will with its own. Andrew Carnegie, before the Nine
teenth Century Club, dismisses the labour agitation by
saying in eftect, “Since no man in the United States need
be a pauper unless by his own deliberate act, there is no
labour question.” Must American citizens wait to redress
their wrongs until they have been made veritable paupers
by the Steel Rail Trust and its confederate price con
spiracies? That was not the way of the fathers. The
price of tea in the American Colonies was cheaper after the
imposition of the stamp tax than before. Nothing could be
so light as that—a burden of less than nothing. But
Justice Dana, in the presence of a great assemblage of the
angry townspeople of Boston, standing under the Liberty
Tree, administered an oath to Mr. Secretary Oliver that he
had not distributed and would not distribute the cdious
stamps.
The people of Boston did not wait until they had been
made paupers. “ Enslave but one human being,” said
Garrison, “and the liberties of the world are put in peril.”
�THE NEW- CONSCIENCE.
15
Surrender to the Money Power the right to make but one
price, the control of all prices will surely follow. They
who control the prices of a nation control the liberties of
its markets, and those who control the liberties of its
markets will come to control all its other liberties.
The student of the evolution of freedom from Athens
and Calvary to Appommattox and Trafalgar Square, says,
When you see a cause against which all the powers of
law, church, culture, and wealth are united, there is a
cause worth looking into. If there was nothing in it, why
should all these mighty institutions be so disturbed about
it ? And if you find all customs, statutes, learnings, creeds,
logics, bazaars, and currencies against it, look at it still
more searchingly. All these have always at the first been
united against any new conscience, and have always
conspired against it, even to the death. Let those who
are the great because others are small—let those who are
the happy because others are wretched—let those who are
rich because others are poor—listen out of their golden
security for the crier of the new consience. His voice
foretells a new day. If the working men and farmers
have once, twice, thrice recognised and saved great
truths neglected by the powers of the earth, it is quite
possible they may do it again. It is possible they are
doing it now. The ardent, sighing for a cause, bemoaning
that they were born too late for the Anti-Slavery agitation,
have, in to-day’s ferment of the poor and lowly, the
greatest cause of history.
The abolition of chattel
slavery has but cleared the ground. Toynbee Hall in
London, and similar schools elsewhere, have been formed
to carry university culture down to the working men. The
movement is wrong from end to end. It is the universities
that are in need of culture—of the culture of the working
men in hardship, and equality, and sacrifice.
The great New England divine, Lyman Beecher was
very much put out because the fanatic William Lloyd
Garrison would not leave the slavery question to settle
hself. It would do so, Beecher said, in a couple of
centuries. Erasmus deplored, in the case of Luther, that
the great change of the Reformation was not allowed to
work itself out slowly, calmly, and without violence and
�16
THE hEW CONSCIENCE.
disruption. But there has always been one thing that put
God and man into a hurry-injustice.
It is a singular truth that only in poor and primitive
communities is there enough for all. Charles Dickens
could see no beggars in Boston forty years ago. Like the
early England, the early new England was one of great
poverty, but of great independence and equality. “ No
rich man, no poor in it,” said Wendell Phillips, one of the
patricians of modern New England, “ all mingling in the
same society; no poor house, no beggars, opportunities
equal.” Thorold Rogers says, in his Economic Interpre
tation of History, “ The means of life were more abundant
during the Middle Ages than they are under our modern
experience. There was, I am convinced, no extreme
poverty. The essence of life in England during the days
of the Plantagenets and Tudors was, that every one knew
his neighbour, and that every one was his brother’s
keeper. Though there was hardship in this life, the hard
ship was a common lot.” It is only when communities
get rich that there is not enough for all. The indepen
dence and equality of early England and New England
were close to the ideals of Christ. But towns and the
temptations of riches have been too much for the virtue of
the quickest of hand and eye, and they have moved away
into Beacon Street and the West End, and left their
brothers in the tenements and factory towns. But if there
was enough before the steam-engine and the Pool, there is
enough now. Those who control the labour of England,
Old and New, must direct it more evenly to equal
advantage, or they must give way to those who will.
The lot of the people must be settled by the common
people. If railroads and factories cannot be built and
operated without their labour, neither can the proceeds be
divided without their consent and co-operation. If the
common people can be allowed to vote freely in govern
ment, they can be allowed to vote freely in property. It
is not necessary to befuddle the subject with the fogs of
political economy or constitution or legal intricacies. The
simplest elements of justice, freedom, and love, supply the
only profundities needed. The question between the
money-power on one side and the people on the other,
�THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
with the labourers and farmers in the van led by men like
Emerson, Mazzini, and Carlyle, is simply and sharply a.
question of More! more fi>r the People, less for the Power..
If you want to quibble about words, and say that all men
are working men, then the question must be defined as
one between rich working men and poor working men
between working men with luxuries, and working men.
without; those around the parks and those on the farms
those who own the machinery, and those who operate it;
between the working men who monopolise, and those who
are monopolised; between the workmen who get the
privilege of living in shanties as their share of coal-mining
in Pennsylvania, and the working men who get dividends
on five hundred million dollars of coal stock. Bring on all
the statisticians in the world to figure out that the farmers
and working men are better off than they were. Thorold.
Rogers proves it is not true, but if it were, it is beside the
point. They are not getting their share. Never was
there a country, says a popular preacher of Chicago, in
which the rich have done as much as in America for the
poor. But the truth is, never was there a country in
which the poor have done so much for the rich.
The leaders of the revolution of the new industry have
quite mistaken the terms of the contract with society under
which they have been hired to do these great things.
Society hired them to work for society. But the captains
have assumed that all they led in making was to be their
own, and that they could do what they willed with their
own. They still have something to learn.
The Conservative cries out, “You are going to destroy
society.”
Did it destroy society to abolish slavery ?
The Conservative cries out, “ This is revolution ! ”
No, it is the remedy.
The revolution has already occurred. That took place
when the mighty wheels of the new industry whirled the
peasant and his children away from his little homestead,
the artisan away from his cottage loom and his village
shop and non-competitive brotherhood, and herded them
into tenement houses and factories. It was the revolution
which took the husbandmen, labourer, and artisan out of
�18
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
the Golden Age of the 15th century, which preceded the
new industry. Then living was cheap and men were
dear, the working day in field and town was but eight
hours a day. Master and men both belonged to the same
union, no man could compete with another of the same
fraternity, and the employee had the same right to his
place that the employer had.
It is the revolution which has changed all that.
During the last century has come the realisation of the
vision of the ancient Greek poet who foresaw a time when
“ the shuttle would weave and the lyre would play ot
itself."'
That is the revolution.
Time was when judges sent men to jail for forestalling,
•cornering the markets. That was in the “ dark ages.”
Now the money power establishes “ trusts” in everything,
and our judges tell us that the burden of monopoly is “light.”
That is the revolution.
The new industry has broken up the brotherhoods of the
-old industry, and has swung the few strongest and cleverest
of the working men into palaces, and front pews, so far .
■away from their old comrades and fellow workers that, as
one of them said : “ I have no time to remember their
faces, much less their names.”
That is the revolution.
It is the revolution that has capped the new industry with
the high finance, and tied up the people in the paper chains
■of charters, contracts, and stock-exchange securities.
‘“The time is coming,” said the Earl of Derby not long
ago, “ when the people of Europe will repudiate their
national debts, which now take eight hundred million
■dollars a year from them.”
That is the revolution. And the gospel of the revolu
tion is the doctrine that you can do anything with your
-fellow-man provided you do it in the market.
The remedy is in the new conscience, which says simply
that a man shall never be so much of a buyer or seller as
to cease to be a brother, and that labour shall not be made
a market thing.
Before us is the practical question, What is the next
step ? The next step, like the first step, is more liberty
�THE NE W CONSCIENCE.
*9
for the labourer. His emancipation still invokes us. Con
science has freed him from frightful abuses, but frightful
abuses remain. His growth is not yet full and free. Civi
lization groans under the evils of the revolution wrought
by the new industry and its philosophy. The denunciation
by our prophets, the outcries of the farmer and working
men, the attempts to regulate factories, railroads, mines,
tenements, infant-labour are all confessions of the evil,
and confessions of the impotence of the system which pro
duced those ills to remedy them. A gospel of hatred is
rising in classes and masses which hate employers, hates
employees, hates household service, hates household ser
vants, hates foreigners, hates pools, hates trades-unions,
hates the grangers, hates reformers, hates politics. All
these are symptoms of a high fever. But a new mankind
has been conceived and will be born—a winged beauty
out of the earth-measuring worm—which will not know
force, and fraud, and hatred, and will let love, their
natural tie, bind men and nations together. The prac
tical work of to-day is to abolish the cannibals of compe
tition, warriors of supply and demand, tyrants of monopoly,
monsters of the market, devourers of men, women and
children, buyers and sellers of life. The progress of
humanity, says Emerson, consists of recognition of the
truth that every private and separate good is delusion.
Property, capital, and money making as now permitted
are still systems of man hunting. Monopoly is force, and
force is slavery, and slavery must be abolished. A lover
of birds, Maurice Thompson, tells us that as he wanders
through the southern forests he knows afar off when he
as nearing a human habitation by the songs of the birds
near the cabin, which declare to all the world, by a
special tenderness of tone, that they love man and have
made their nest near his. The heart of man is not less than
■the heart ot the bird.
Churches come and go, but there has ever been but one
religion. The only religion has been that which clears off
one by one from the face of the earth-stains that hide
the God imprisoned in the flesh, which breaks down one
by one every barrier which incarnation has put in the way
of the growth of the God within in the likeness of the God
�20
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
without. In the sight of the new conscience wherever man
walks, there is the Holy Land, and it raises the cross of
the new crusade which shall deliver it from the infidels
who deny the divine right of the people that the will of
God shall- be done on earth as in heaven. It insists that
every question between men is a religious question, a
question of moral economy before it becomes one of politi
cal economy, and will make all political, industrial, and
social activities functions of a new Church—a church of
the deed as well as of the creed—a church that will not
only preach Christ, but do Christ—a church where science,
the revelation of what has been, will never be at war with
religion, the revelation of what ought to be—a church
which will make its worshippers share this world as well
as the next world—a church which will recognize no
vested right of property in man except the right to love
and be loved—a church which will declare that the
difference in the death rate between the classes and the
masses is evidence of murder done for money—a church
which will look upon idleness by the side of industry,
wealth by the side of poverty, luxury by the side of want,
health by the side of disease, as impious and profane in
the highest degree, the real sins against the Holy Ghost—a
church which will stop the manufacture of poor houses,
because it will stop the manufacture of poverty—a church
which will not let any man offer charity to those to whom
he refuses justice—a church which will not help the poor,
but will set them to helping themsslves, and will slay the
infidel in the path—a church which will abolish all middle
men in morals, and will make every man doubly guilty
who grinds the face of his fellow by an agent, guilty for
himself and guilty for the agent—a church that will offer
not even the lowliest member of the communion of man
kind crumbs from the table, but a seat at the table and a
full meal three times a day every day—a church that will
consider it more practical to keep its buildings open and
its congregation at work in relays night and day than to
let “brothers" starve and freeze or go astray for want of
sympathy or advice—a church which will persecute the
heretics who give the highest bidder the best pews in the
churches and the best chance in the courts—a church
�THE NE W CONSCIENCE.
zi
which will teach that the life eternal is the life we are
living now—a church which will not let the poor give up
all of this world on the unsecured promise of the rich to
divide the next world—a church that will judge civilization
not by the six million dollar cathedral on Murray Hill,
*
but by the children in the back alleys—a church that will
“dine with the poor and preach to the rich,” until there
are no more poor—a church which says that those who
are to be brothers hereafter must be brothers here—a
church that will know what its members believe only by
what they do—a church which recognizes nothing as love
which does not bear justice as the fruit—a church of law
and order, but the law is for the rich as well as the poor,
and the order is to be peaceful growth for the least of
■these little ones—-a church which will prevent the anarchy
from below by punishing the anarchy from above—a
church which will deny the right of infanticide to the
employer, now denied by society only to the parents—a
church which declares the sacred right to work to mean
that he who works a full day shall live a full day, and that
■employment is a right, not a charity—a church which will
restore reverence to men by giving them leaders in church,
state and business worthy cf reverence—a church which
will make every social wrong a moral wrong, and every
moral wrong a legal wrong—a church which will teach
men to turn the other cheek when they can do it as free
men, not as slaves—a church which will deliver with the
message of peace, the message of a scourge for the money
changers in the temple—a church which will tell the
merchant-prince that between him and his ruined com
petitor, and between him and his employees there is a
moral question greater than the question of markets—a
•church which will abolish the merchant-prince, and the
■factory corporation sooner than let them abolish the child
hood of children—a church which will not let the
•employers profess on the fourth of July that all men are
born equal, and then fatten the rest of the year on the
advantages of organization which they deny to the
■employee—a church in which God will be natural and men
One of the fashionable quarters of New York.
�22
THE NEW CONSCIENCE.
supernatural—a church which will abolish charity and
philantrophy, for these cannot be between brothers, and
need not be where justice is—a church in which no man
will have a right to do with his own what he will, but only
a right to do what is right—a church which will take the
weak and despised out of the earthy Inferno of dirt, and
want, and ignorance, to which they have been condemned
by the oppressor—a church which will keep a hell hot in
this world to punish the oppressors here for every blow
they strike at God through his image, man—a church
which will tell the sinner that repentance fit for heaven
only begins by restitution and reparation on earth—a
church which will teach that brothers must share both the
mess of pottage and the birthright—a church which will
worship God through all his sons made in his image,
through a mediator, Mankind, which, having suffered all
and sinned all, can sympathize with all, and will carry all
the weak and weary ones safe in its bosom—a church
which will realize the vision of Carlyle of a Human
Catholic Church.
Henry D. Lloyd.
�“Fellowship is heaven and lack of fellowship is hell: fellowship is life, and
lack of fellowship is death.”
HE NEW FELLOWSHIP was formed by a few persona
who believed that in order to realise the social ideal of'
Freedom, Equality, and Brotherhood, it was desirable that
those who upheld it should co-operate to give it the fullest pos
sible effect in their relations with one another and with the world.
The movement to secure equal social freedom by political agen
cies should be supplemented by an independent ethical movement
a movement which should keep the fundamental moral issues un ob
scured, help to make clear the springs of political activity, purge
social and family life of its selfishness, and insist upon the claims of'
an ideal of fellowship in the pursuit of a Common Good. It is.
not sufficient to urge the claims of this ideal by word of mouth only;
but it must be recommended by the example of lives lived in obedi
ence to it, and by its embodiment, as far as possible, in all social
institutions and relationships. The more fully and strikingly it finds
expression in these ways, the more certainly will follow those poli
tical changes which are necessary to give all men the chance of
realising it.
Further information respecting the New Fellowship may
be obtained from the Hon, Secretary, J. F. Oakeshott, 8i
Great Ormond Street, W. C.
�The following Publications of the New Fellowship can be
obtained at 34, Great Ormond Street, W. C. :—
SEED-TIME, the Quarterly Organ * .
THE MANIFESTO OF THE NEW
THE ElHICS
?.DAMS
.
3d.
.
FELLOWSHIP. 3d.
OF SOCIAL REFORM.
.
.
THE MORAL
ASPECT OF THE
PROBLEM. By Thomas Davidson
By Maurice
. 2d.
.
ECONOMIC
.
. 2d.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF WILLIAM FREY. By
Professor Beesly ...... 2d.
ON THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. By William
Frey ........ 2d.
THE NEW
LABOUR
CONSCIENCE,
...
OR
RELIGION
.
THE CLASSES AND THE MASSES
"WEALTH AND THE COMMONWEALTH
.
.
OF
.
id.
.id.
id.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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The new conscience, or religion of labour
Description
An account of the resource
Edition: 3rd ed.
Place of publication: London
Collation: 22 p. ; 19 cm.
Series: Fellowship Series
Series number: No. 6
Notes: Publisher's list on back cover. Reprinted with permission from the "North American Review" and revised by the author.
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Lloyd, Henry D.
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New Fellowship
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1893
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G2853
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Labour
Socialism
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (The new conscience, or religion of labour), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Christian
Labour and labouring classes
Labour and Labouring Classes-Great Britain-History
Socialism
Socialism and Christianity
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PRICE SIXPENCE.
THE
WORKING MAN’S
PROGRAMME,
(ARBEITER-PROGRAMM)
An
Address
BY
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
Translated (with an Introduction) by
EDWARD PETERS.
THE
13
and
MODERN
PRESS,
14, PATERNOSTER ROW,
1884.
LONDON,
E.C.
��iii.
NOTE.
.Ferdinand Lassalle was born in the year 1825 at Breslau in
Silesia, where his father carried on the business of a merchant, and
intended that his son should follow the same occupation. But
young Lassalle having early given proof of unusual ability, and
a *“ certain passionate energy of character, ” preferred a more am
bitious career, and having passed with distinction through the
Universities of Breslau and Berlin, devoted himself to the task of
raising the condition of the people. Young, handsome, highly
gifted, and thoroughly trained in the intellectual school of the
highest German thought, he found a ready entrance to the best
society of Berlin, and in Mendelssohn’s house in particular gained
the friendship of Humboldt and other eminent men. The poet
Heine thus writes of him to Varnhagen von Euse—“ My friend
Lassalle, who is the bearer of this letter, is a young man of extra
ordinary ability. To the most thorough scholarship, the widest
knowledge, the greatest penetration I have ever met with, and the
greatest power of expression, he unites an energy of will, and a
prudence in action, which fairly astonish me." He hints at one
defect, however, .with characteristic irony—“He is thoroughly
stamped with the impress of these later times, which ignore the self
denial and modesty about which we of the older generation used,
with more or less hypocrisy, perpetually to prate."
In 1848 Lassalle took a leading part in organising armed resist
ance to the reactionary Government, and when brought to trial, he
undertook his own defence, and admitting the fact, maintained that
he had done no more than his duty, and was acquitted by the jury.
He now devoted himself anew to philosophy and literature. The
first book that he published was entitled “The Philosophy of
Heraclitus the Mystic of Ephesus,” which was considered to be
both, a brilliant and a learned work. His tragedy “Franz von
Sickingen ” contains many passages of brilliant oratory, but was not
found suitable for the stage. His brochure on “ The Italian war
* Wurzbach, Zeitgenossen, to which I am mainly indebted for this sketch of
Lassalle s life.—E.P
�and the task of Prussia," met with a better reception, and soon
reached a second edition. This was followed by 11 Fichte’s Political
Testament,” and a work on Lessing. His “ System of Inherited
Rights ” in two large volumes is said to be a work of great learning
and power, but is not consistent with his later socialistic writings.
Of the latter by far the most important is the treatise on “ Capital
and Labour.” In this he states his object to be, to make the profits
now absorbed by capital, available for the lower class of working
men. The means to this end are to be national workshops, like
those which failed in France, only the part which the State is to
play is to be that of a sleeping partner, namely to provide the
capital, to watch the conduct of the business, and to have the right
of inspecting the books. He held this to be the only way to make
the working class their own employers, and to evade the iron law
which limits the working man’s wages. At the same time he de
clared that ‘ ‘ no social improvement would be worth the trouble of
obtaining it if the working men (which happily is objectively im
possible) were to remain after it what they are now.” Education,
and again education, is the constant refrain of his teaching.
In 1862 he delivered a series of addresses in Berlin which pro
duced a stirring effect on the people, amongst them the Arbeiter
Program™ for which, strange as it may appear to the readers of this
translation, he was punished by a short term of imprisonment. In
the following year the “General Union of the working men of
Germany ” was formed at his instance, of which he was made
President, and thus became the acknowledged leader of the
“ People’s Party.” Bismarck had three interviews with him, and
tried to obtain the help of this party in his struggle with the socalled Party of Progress—but in vain. Equally in vain Lassalle
urged the Chancellor to try the weapon of universal and equal
suffrage against the common enemy the bourgeoisie. Bismarck, it
appeared, had carefully studied Lassalle’s writings, and there can be
little doubt that what are called the Socialistic schemes of the
Chancellor owe their origin, in part at least, to this source. Nor
can we doubt the great influence of Lassalle on German thought in
general. This is the work he had to do in the world, and it may
yet bear fruit in a not very distant future. His further career was
cut off by his untimely death in a duel in 1864.
E. Peters.
�.THE WORKING MAN’S PROGRAMME.
'Gentlemen,
Having been asked to give you a lecture, I thought
that I should best meet your wishes by choosing a theme
which from its very nature must be deeply interesting
to you, and by treating it in the most thoroughly scien
tific manner. I will therefore speak on the special con
nexion that exists between the character of the present
period of history in which we are living and the idea of
the working class. I have said that my treatment of
the subject should be purely scientific.
But scientific treatment consists in nothing else than
complete clearness, and therefore a complete absence of
presuppositions, that is to say, of reasoning founded on
unwarranted assumptions.
On account of this entire absence of presuppositions
with which we have to approach our subject, it will be
necessary at starting to have a clear understanding of
what we mean by a working man, or by the working
class. For on this point we dare not allow ourselves
the benefit of a presupposition, as if this were something
perfectly well known. This is far from being the case.
The language of common life, on the contrary, frequently
attaches different meanings at different times to the
�6
words working man and working class, and we must
therefore at the proper time get a clear understanding
as to the sense in which we intend to use these words.
This however is not the right time. We must on the
contrary begin this lecture with another question.
Namely with the following question. The working
class is only one of the many classes of which the com
munity of citizens consists. Moreover working men
have existed at all times. How is it then possible, and
what meaning can be attached to the statement, that a
special connexion exists between the idea of this speci
fied single class, and the principle of the particular period
of history in which we live ?
In order to understand this, it is requisite, gentlemen,
to throw a glance, at history, at the past, which rightly
Understood, here as always, explains the present and
foreshows the outline of the future. We must make this
retrospect as brief, gentlemen, as possible, for we shall
otherwise run a risk of not reaching at all in the short
time allotted to us the real subject which we have met
to consider. But even in the face of this danger, we must
take some such retrospective view of the past, however
cursory and confined to the most general features, inorder
to understand the meaning of our question and of our
theme.
If then we go back to the Middle Ages, we find that
even at that time the same grades and classes of the
population were in existence, though certainly far less
developed than those of which the community of
citizens consists at the present day. But we find further
that one grade and one element was at that time the
dominating one—namely the landed interest.
�7
It is the landed interest, gentlemen, which in aU
respects bore sway in the Middle Ages, which im
pressed its own specific stamp on all the arrangements
and on the whole life of that time; it is that which must
be proclaimed as the ruling principle of that period.
The reason of this, namely that the landed interest was
the ruling principle of that age, is a very simple one. It
lies—at least this reason may for the present fully satisfy
us—in the domestic and economic constitution of the
Middle Ages ; in the conditions of production at that
period. Trade was at that time very slightly developed,
and industry still less so. The staple of the wealth of
the community consisted to an immensely prepon
derating degree in the produce of agriculture.
Movable possessions were at that time but little
thought of in comparison with possession of the land
and the soil, and you may plainly see to what an extent
this was the case by the law of property, which always
throws a clear light on the economic condition of the
periods in which it was instituted. Thus for instance
the law of property of the Middle Ages, with the object
of preserving family property from generation to gene
ration, and protecting it against dissipation, declares
family property or “ Estate” to be inalienable without
the consent of the heirs. But by this family property
or “ Estate ” is understood by express limitation only
landed property. Chattels (fahrniss), on the contrary, as
movable property was then called, were alienable with
out the consent of the heirs. And, in general, all
personal or movable property was treated by the old
German laws, not as an independent reproductive pro
�8
perty, or in short as capital, but only as the/raZww of the
land and the soil, like the crops which are annually
gathered from it, and it was put on a par with these.
Landed property alone was regularly treated, at that time,
as independent productive property. It was therefore
only in complete accordance with this state of things, and
a simple consequence of it, that the landed interest and
those who had it almost exclusively in their hands, that
is, as you are aware, the nobles and the clergy, formed
the ruling factor of that society in all respects.
To whatever institutions of the middle ages we turn
our eyes, this phenomenon is everywhere apparent in
them.
We will content ourselves with a hasty glance at
some of the most important of those arrangements,
in which the land interest comes forth as the ruling
principle.
First then let us look at the organisation of the public
forces, or the feudal system. You know, gentlemen,
that this was so constituted that the king, princes, and
lords ceded to other lords and knights certain lands for
their use, in consideration of which the recipients were
obliged solemnly to undertake the obligation of service
in the field, that is to say, of supporting their feudal
lords in their wars or quarrels, both in person and with
their dependents.
Let us next look at the organisation of the public
Rights, or the constitution of the realm. In the assembly
of the German States the princely class and the great
landed interest were represented by the Counts of the
Empire and the clergy. The towns only enjoyed a
�9
seat and a vote in that assembly if they had acquired
the privileges of a free town of the Empire.
To proceed, thirdly, to the exemption of tfie great
landed proprietors from taxation.
Now it is a
characteristic and an ever recurring phenomenon,
gentlemen, that every ruling privileged class invariably
seeks to throw the burden of maintaining the existence of
the State on the oppressed classes which have no
property; and they do this openly or covertly, either
directly or indirectly. When Richelieu in the year
1641 demanded six millions of francs from the clergy,
as an extraordinary tax to help the necessities of the
State, the clergy, through the mouth of the Archbishop
of Sens, gave this characteristic answer—“ The ancient
usage of the Church during its vigour was that the
people contributed its goods, the nobility its blood, the
clergy its prayers to the necessities of the State.”
Fourthly, we may mention the contempt with
which every other kind of labour than that which
was occupied with the land was socially regarded. To
engage in industrial undertakings, to gain money
by a trade or profession, was considered disgraceful,
and dishonouring to the two privileged ruling classes,
the nobles and the clergy, for whom it was only deemed
honourable to derive their income from the possession
of land.
These four great and important facts, which determine
the fundamental character of any epoch, are amply
sufficient for our purpose, and show how it was that the
possession of land everywhere fixed its impress on the
period of which we are treating, and formed its ruling
principle.
�IO
So much was this the case that even the movement
of the Peasants War which broke out in Germany in
I524> and spread all over Swabia, Franconia, Alsace,
Westphalia, and other parts of Germany, and was in
appearance thoroughly revolutionary, nevertheless was
essentially dependent on this same principle, was in fact
therefore a reactionary movement, in spite of its revo
lutionary mode of action. You are aware, gentlemen,
that the peasants at that time burnt down the castles
of the nobles, put the nobles themselves to death, made
them run the gauntlet through their spears, which was
the cruel practice in vogue at that time. And not
withstanding, in spite of this external revolutionary
varnish, the movement was essentially and throughout
reactionary.
For the new birth of the relations of the State, the
German freedom, which the peasants wished to establish,
was to consist according to them in this, that the pe
culiar and privileged intermediate position which the
princes had assumed between the Emperor and the
States should be done away with, and that nothing
should be represented in the German Diet, excepting
the free and independent possession of the land,
especially of the land held by the peasant class and by
the knights—neither of which had been hitherto repre
sented—as well as that of the nobles of every degree,
namely of the Knights, Counts and then existing
Princes, without regard to the difference that had for
merly been made between them. The representation
therefore was to be confined to the landed possessions
of the nobles on the one side and those of the peasants
on the other.
�XI
You see at once then, gentlemen, that this plan
ultimately proceeds simply on a perfectly consistent
and more regular carrying out of this principle, which
the epoch just then drawing near its close had taken as
its foundation—I say on a logically consistent, more
complete and regular carrying out of the principle
that the possession of land should be the ruling element,
which alone should entitle any one to a participation
in the management of the State. That any one could
demand such participation on the ground that he was a
man, that he was a reasonable being, without the possession
of any land,—of' that the peasants had not the most
distant idea ! The times were not yet ripe for this, the
thoughts of men not yet become sufficiently revolu
tionary.
Thus, then, this movement of the peasantry, which
proceeded with such revolutionary determination, was
in its essence thoroughly reactionary: that is to say,
instead of resting on a new revolutionary piinciple, if
rested unconsciously on the old established principle of
the period which was at that very time dying out: and it
was precisely for this reason, because it was in fact
reactionary, while it believed itself to be revolutionary,
that the peasant movement was unsuccessful.
In opposition both to the rising of the peasants and
that of the nobles (under Franz von Sickingen), both
of which had in common the principle that participation
in the management of the State should depend, even
more strictly than had hitherto been the case, on the
possession of the land, the sovereign authority of the
Princes, founded on the idea of a State sovereignty
�12.
1I
•
independent of landed possessions, which was making
head at that time, was a relatively justifiable and
revolutionary force. This it was which gave it the
power which led to its victorious development, and to
the suppression both of the movement of the peasants
and that of the nobles.
I have dwelt with some emphasis on this point,,
gentlemen,—first, in order to prove to you the reasona
bleness and the progress of freedom, in the development
of history, and that by an example from which it is by
no means obvious on a superficial survey; secondly,
because historians are far from having recognised this
reactionary character of the rising of the peasants, and
the true cause of its failure which was solely dependent
upon that character, but on the contrary, deceived by
external appearances, hold the peasant war to
have been a truly revolutionary movement.
Thirdly, I have dwelt upon it because this spectacle
is constantly repeating itself in all ages, that men who
do not think clearly—and to this class,, gentlemen,
those who are apparently most learned, and even pro
fessors may belong, and, as the Church of St. Paul
with its sad memorials has shewn us, do extremely often
belong—fall into the extraordinary illusion of holding
that which is only a more consistent and complete
expression of a period of history and an organisation
of society even then passing away, to be a new revolutionary
principle.
Against such men and such courses, which are
revolutionary only in the imagination of these men—for
there will be plenty of them in the future as there
�z3
have been in the past—permit me, gentlemen, to
put you on your guard.
We may be allowed to feel confident on these grounds
that the numerous movements which have been imme
diately, or within a short time, after momentary suc
cesses, suppressed, which we find in history, and which
may fill many well meaning friends of the people who
take a superficial view of things with sad misgivings,
have ever been revolutionary movements only in the
imagination of their promoters.
A truly revolutionary movement, one which is founded
on a really new principle of thought, has never failed, at
least in the long run, as any one who thinks deeply
may, to his comfort, prove to himself from history.
I now resume the thread of my argument.
As the Peasants’ War was revolutionary only in their
imagination, so on the other hand the progress of in
dustry, the productive energy of the towns, the con
stantly developing division of labour, and the wealth of
capital, which came into existence by these means, and
which accumulated exclusively in the hands of the
bourgeoisie (because they were the only class which
engaged in production, and appropriated its advantages
to themselves)—these were the really and truly revolu
tionary forces of that time.
The close of the Middle Ages, and the commence
ment of modern history, is usually dated from the
Reformation, i.e. from the year 1517.
And in fact this is correct, in the sense that in the
two centuries which immediately followed the Reforma
tion, a change was slowly, gradually, and imperceptibly
�taking place, which completely transformed the aspect
of society, and brought about in the heart of it a re
volution, which was only proclaimed, but not really
created by what is called the French Revolution in the
year 1789.
Do you ask in what this revolution consisted ?
Nothing had been changed in the legal position of the
nobles. By law the nobles and the clergy were the two
ruling classes, the Bourgeoisie remained everywhere the
neglected and oppressed class. But if nothing had
been changed de jure, yet de facto the change that had
actually taken place in the relations of these classes
was all the more extraordinary.
Through the creation and accumulation of capital,
that is to say of moveable in opposition to landed
property, in the hands of the Bourgeoisie, the nobles had
sunk into complete insignificance ; nay, often into real
dependence on this Bourgeoisie which had become rich.
Already they were obliged, if they wished to be some
what on a par with them, to abandon all the principles
•of their class, and to begin to make use of the same
means of obtaining money through industry, to which
the Bourgeoisie owed their wealth and therefore their
-actual power.
The Comedies of Moliere, who lived in the time of
Louis XIV., show us as early as that date a highly
interesting phenomenon, the noble of that day despising
the rich citizen, and at the same time playing the para
site at his table.
We see Louis XIV. himself, that proudest of kings,
doffing his hat, and humbling himself in his palace of
�i5
Versailles before the Jew Samuel Bernard, the Roths
child of that day, in order to induce him to grant a
loan.
When Law, the famous Scotch financier, had formed
the trading company or joint-stock enterprise which
had combined for the commercial exploration of the banks
of the Mississippi, Louisiana, the East Indies, &c., the
Regent of France himself was one of the Directors—
a member of a company of merchants! Yes, the
Regent found himself compelled in August 1717, to
issue an edict, in which it was ordained that the
nobles might enter the naval and military service of
this trading company without any degradation to their
dignity! To that pass, then, had the proud and war
like feudal nobility of France arrived, that they could
become the armed commissaries of the industrial com
mercial undertakings of the Bourgeoisie who were
carrying on their trade in every part of the world at
once.
In connexion with this change of opinion, a kind of
materialism had at that time already developed itself, and
a voracious and greedy struggling for money and
property, to which all moral ideas, nay what unhappily
appeals in general still more strongly to the privileged
classes, all class privileges, were prostituted. Under
the same Regent of France, Count Horn, one of the
most distinguished nobles connected with the first
families of France, nay with the Regent himself, was
broken on the wheel as a common highway robber ; and
the Duchess of Orleans, a German Princess, writes in
a letter of the 29th November 1719, that six of the
�i6
most distinguished of the Court ladies had one day
waylaid the aforesaid Law (who at that time was the
most courted and also the busiest man in France, and
whom consequently it was very difficult to lay hold of}
in the court of some building, in order to induce him to
give them some shares in a company he had estab
lished, after which all France was running at that time,
and whose value on the Exchange was six or eight
times as high as the nominal price at which they had
been issued by Law.
The pressure exercised by
these ladies with this object proceeded to a degree
which a regard to decency will not allow me to par
ticularise.
If you ask me again what causes had rendered
possible this development of industry, and of the wealth
of the Bourgeoisie thereby called into existence, I could
not give a complete answer to the question without
largely overstepping the limits of the time allotted
to me. I will therefore only briefly enumerate the most
essential of these causes; namely, the discovery of
America and the enormous impulse thereby exercised
on production ; the discovery of the sea route to the
East Indies by doubling the Cape of Good Hope,
whereas formerly all trade with India and the East was
forced to take the overland route by Suez ; the dis
covery of the magnetic needle and the compass, and
the greater security thus given to all trade by sea, as
well as greater speed and diminution of the cost of
insurance ; the canals and paved roads constructed in
the interior of countries, which, by diminishing the cost
of transport, first made it possible to sell at a distance
�*7
numerous commodities which formerly were not worth
the expense of carriage ; the greater security of the
property of the citizens ; the regular course of justice ;
the invention of gunpowder, and the breaking up of the
feudal power of the nobles by the kings in consequence
of this invention ; the dismissal of the spearmen and
men at arms of the nobles, in consequence of the
destruction of their castles and of their independent
military power, nothing being now left for these de
pendents but to seek admission to the workshops of
that time—all these events helped to drag on the tri
umphal car of the Bourgeoisie!
All these events and many others which could be
enumerated are comprised however in one consequence
—the opening of great outlets, that is of extensive
regions where goods can be sold, and the accompanying
diminution of the cost of production and transport leads
to production in vast quantities, production for the
market of the world, and this in turn creates the
necessity of eheap production, which again can only
be satisfied by an ever-advancing division of labour,
that is by a separation of employment into its simplest
mechanical operations, ever carried further and further,
and thus again calls forth a production on an ever in
creasing scale.
We have thus arrived, gentlemen, at the domain of
reciprocal cause and effect. Each of these facts calls
the other into existence, and the latter again reacts upon
the former, and widens and enlarges its area.
Accordingly you will clearly perceive that, the pro
duction of an article in enormous quantities, its pro-
�i8
Ruction for the market of the world, is, speaking gene
rally, easily accomplished only on the condition that the
cost of the production of this article shall be moderate,
and also the transport of it cheap enough not to raise its
price exorbitantly. For production in vast quantities
requires an enormous sale ; and the extensive sale of
any kind of produce is only rendered possible by its
cheapness, which makes it accessible to a large number
of purchasers. Cheapness of production and transport
therefore cause the production of wares of any kind to
take place on a large scale. But conversely, you will
at once see that it is the production of an article in large
quantities which causes and increases cheapness. A
manufacturer for instance who sells two hundred thou
sand pieces of cotton in the year, is enabled by pur
chasing his raw materials cheaper on so large a scale,,
and also because the profits on his capital and the
expense of his plant and machinery are divided between
so large a number of pieces, he is enabled, I say, within
certain limits, to sell each piece much cheaper than a
manufacturer who only produces five thousand such
pieces every year. The greater cheapness of produc
tion leads therefore to production in larger quantities,
and this leads again to still greater cheapness, which
calls forth again a still larger production, which once
more causes further cheapness, and so on.
Precisely the same thing happens with regard to
the division of labour, which on its side again is the ne
cessary condition of extensive production and of cheap
*
ness, for without it neither cheapness nor production on
an extensive scale would be possible.
�19
The division of labour which separates the process of
production into a great number of very simple and often
purely mechanical operations requiring no exercise of
reason, and which causes separate workmen to be em
ployed for each one of these divided operations, would
be quite impossible without an extensive production of
the articles in question; and is therefore only called into
existence and developed by such extensive demand.
Conversely this separation of labour into such simple
operations and manipulations, leads further (i) to an
ever increasing cheapness, (2) consequently to produc
tion on a greater and more gigantic scale, ever spreading
beyond this and that market till it reaches the whole
market of the world, and (3) by this means, and through
the new divisions which this extension renders possible
in the single operations of labour, to an ever increasing
advance in the division of labour itself.
Through this series of reciprocal operations of cause
and effect, an entire change took place in the work of
the community, and consequently in all the relations of
life of the community itself.
A brief view of the nature of this revolution may be
obtained by reducing it to the following contrasts.
In the earlier part of the Middle Ages, as only a very
small number of costly products could bear the enhanced
price which would have been caused by their transport,
articles were only produced to supply the needs of the
locality in which the producers lived. This implied a
very limited market comprising only their immediate
neighbourhood, the requirements of which were for this
very reason well known, fixed, and uniform. The re
�20
quirements or the demand preceded the offer of the goods,
and formed the well known guide to the amount of goods
offered for sale. Or in other words—the production of
the community was carried on mainly by handicrafts.
For this is the character of business carried on in a
small way or by handicrafts, as distinguished from that
which is carried on in factories or on a large scale, that
either the demand is waited for, before the article is pro
duced ; as for instance the tailor waits for my order be
fore he makes me a coat, the locksmith before he makes
me a lock ; or that at least if many articles are manu
factured beforehand, this production in advance is limited
to the minimum of the requirements of the locality and
its immediate neighbourhood, which are accurately
known by experience. For instance, a tinman makes a
certain number of lamps in advance, which he knows
will be soon absorbed by the requirements of the town.
The characteristic quality, gentlemen, of a community
which produces mainly in this manner, is poverty, or at
least only a moderate degree of prosperity, and on the
other hand a certain stability and fixedness of all re
lations.
But now, through the incessant reciprocal action
which I have described to you, the work of the com
munity, and consequently all the relations of life gra
dually assumed a totally opposite character. This was
in germ the same character which distinguishes the work
of the community to-day, through truly in a very different,
in fact in an immensely- developed degree. In the
'gigantic development which has now been attained this
character may be thus indicated in opposition to the
�earlier one which has been described: whereas formerly
the demand preceded the offer of the merchandise, and
the production of it, and drew this latter in its train, and
determined it, formed its guide and its well known mea
sure, now on the contrary the production, the offer of the
goods precedes the demand, and seeks to force it into
existence. Goods are no longer produced for the locality,
for the ascertained needs of neighbouring markets, but
for the markets of the world. They are produced on
the largest scale and for every part of the world in gene
ral, to supply a need entirely unknown and not to be
measured, and the produce is able to force the demand
for it into being, provided that a single weapon is given
to it, namely cheapness. Cheapness is the weapon of
production, with which on the one hand it conquers the
purchaser, and on the other hand drives all other goods
of the same kind out of the market, which may be like
wise pressed upon the purchaser, so that in fact under
the system offree competition, every producer may hope,
however great the quantity of goods he produces, to
find a market for all these if he is only able by the better
arming of his wares with cheapness to make the wares
of his competitors unable to maintain the contest.
The prevailing character of such a community is vast,
immeasurable wealth, on the other hand a great mobility
of all relations, an almost constant, anxious insecurity
in the position of individuals and a very unequal appor
tionment of the proceeds of production amongst those
who work together to secure them.
You see then, gentlemen, how vast was the change
which the quiet, revolutionary, and undermining activity
�22
of industry, had imperceptibly wrought in the structure
of the community before the end of that century.
Although the actors in the Peasants War had not yet
ventured so much as to take up any other idea, than that
of founding the State on the possession of land, although
they had not been able even in thought to free them
selves from the view that the possession of land was
necessarily the element that involved dominion over
the State, and a participation in this possession the
condition of a participation in this dominion, yet
before the end of this century, the quiet, unnoticed, re
volutionary advance of industry had brought it to pass,
that the possession of land had been completely
stripped of its former importance, and in presence of
the development of the new means of production, of the
wealth which this development fostered and daily in
creased, and of the immense influence which it exercised
thereby on the whole population, and on its relations,
as well as upon the nobility itself, which had to a great
extent become poor, had sunk to a subordinate position.
The revolution had therefore already entered into the
vitals of the community, into their actual relations, long
before it broke out in France, and it was only requisite
to bring the change thus wrought to external recognition,
in order to give it a moral sanction.
This, gentlemen, is always the case in all revolutions.
A revolution can never be made; all that can ever be
done is to add external moral recognition to a revolution
which has already entered into the actual relations of a
•community, aud to carry it out accordingly.
To set about to make a revolution is the folly of im
�23
mature minds which have no notion of the laws of
history.
And it is for this reason equally foolish and childish
to attempt to repress a revolution which has once de
veloped itself in the womb of a community, and to
oppose its moral recognition, or to utter against such a
community, or the individuals who assist at its birth,
the reproach that they are revolutionary. If the revolu
tion has already found its way into the community, into
its actual relations, then there is no help for it, it must
come out and take its place in the constitution of the
community.
How this comes about, and how far it had already
happened in the period of which I am speaking, you
will best see by one fact which I will relate to you.
I have already spoken to you of the division of
labour, the development of which consists in separating
all the processes of production, into a series of very
simple and mechanical operations, requiring no exer
cise of reason.
Now as this division is ever advancing further and
further, it is at last discovered that these single opera
tions, as they are so simple and require no exercise of
reason, can be just as well and even better performed by
unreasoning agents ; and accordingly in the year 1775,
that is fourteen years before the French Revolution,
Arkwright invented in England, the first machine, his
famous spinning jenny.
I am not going to say that this machine produced the
French Revolution. The invention preceded it by far
too short a time for this, and besides had not yet been
�24
introduced into France ; but it may truly be said that
it represented in itself, in a material form, the revolution
which had already actually entered into the community,
and was already developed there. This was itself, so
to speak, the revolution which had become a living
force.
The reason of this is very simple. You will have
heard of the formation of the Guilds, through which
production was carried on in the Middle Ages.
I cannot here go into the history of the Guilds of the
Middle Ages, nor trace that of the free competition
which at the time of the French Revolution had every
where taken the place of the Guilds. I can only state
the fact in the form of an asseveration, that the system
of Guilds of the Middle Ages was inseparable from the
other social arrangements of that period. But if time
does not allow me to lay before you clearly the reasons
of this inseparable connection, yet the fact itself admits
of an easy historical proof. The Guilds lasted through
the whole of the Middle Ages, and until the French Revo
lution. Asj-early as the year 1672 their abrogation was
discussed in a German Diet—but in vain, nay, in the year
1614 the Bourgeoisie demanded of the Estates General.,
that is to say the French Parliament, the abolition of
the Guilds which already cramped them in all their
manufactures. This was likewise in vain. Nay further,
thirteen years before the Revolution, in the year 1776,
a reforming minister in France, the famous Turgot, did
abolish Guilds. But the feudal privileged world of the
Middle Ages regarded itself, and it was perfectly right,
in danger of death, if privilege, its principle of life,
�ceased to penetrate every class of society : and so the
king was prevailed upon, six months after the abolition
of the Guilds, to withdraw his edict, and restore them.
In due time came the Revolution, and destroyed in one
day by the storming of the Bastille that for which Ger
many had striven in vain since 1672, and France since
1614, that is for near two centuries,{.0 do away with by legal
means.
You will perceive from this, gentlemen, that how
ever great are the advantages which attend reforms
conducted by legal methods, yet they have on all the
most important occasions, the one great drawback of
an impotence lasting for entire centuries, and on the
other hand, that the revolutionary method, terrible as are
the drawbacks with which it also is accompanied, has in
spite of them the one advantage of attaining speedilv
and energetically a practical result.
Now fix your eyes, gentlemen, with me for a moment
on the fact that the Guilds were inseparably connected
with the whole of the social arrangements of the
Middle Ages, and you will see at once how the first
machine, the spinning jenny which Arkwright invented,
contained already in itself a complete revolutionising
of those social conditions.
For how could production by means of machinery be
possible under the system of Guilds, by which the
number of men and apprentices which a master might
keep was fixed by law in every locality ? Again under
this system of Guilds, the different branches of industry
were marked off from one another in the most exact
manner by law, and each master was only allowed to
�26
undertake one of them, so that for example, for hundreds
of years the tailors who made clothes were engaged
in lawsuits with the tailors who mended them,
the makers of nails, with the locksmiths, in order to fix
the limits which separated their trades. Now under
such a system of Guilds how could production be carried
on by machinery for which it was necessary that
different kinds of labour should be combined in the
hand of one and the same capitalist ?
A stage had thus been reached, at which production
itself, by its steadily advancing development, had
brought into existence instruments of production which
were destined to shatter the whole existing system of
society; instruments of production and methods of
production, which could find no place or room for
development in that system.
In this sense I say that the first machine was already
in itself a Revolution, for it bore in its cogs and wheels,
little as this could be seen from its outward appearance,
the germ of the whole of the new conditions of society,
founded upon free competition, which were to be deve
loped with the vigour and necessity of a living
force.
And in the same way it is possible, gentlemen, unless
I am greatly mistaken, that many phenomena which
are to be seen at the present day, contain in themselves
a new condition of things, which they must of necessity
develope. This is entirely overlooked in judging of
these phenomena from the outside only, so that even
the Goverment passes over them without suspicion,
while prosecuting insignificant agitators, nay even con-
�27
siders them as necessary accompaniments of our culture,
greets them as the flower and outcome of it, and occasion
ally makes speeches recognising and approving them.
After all this discussion, gentlemen, you will now
clearly comprehend the true significance of the famous
pamphlet which was published in 1788 the year before
the French Revolution by the Abbe Sieyes, and which
is summed up in these words, “ What is the third Estate?
Nothing ! What ought it to be ? Everything !”
The Bourgeoisie was called the third Estate in France,
because they formed the third class, in contra-distinction
to the two privileged classes, the nobility and the clergy,
and thus included the whole of the nonprivileged popu
lation.
Sieyes then thus formulated these two questions and
answers. But their true significance, as follows from
what I have already said, might be expressed more
strikingly and correctly as follows—
“ What is the third Estate actually and in fact £
Everything!
But what is it legally or constitutionally? Nothing !
The point is, therefore, to make the legal position of the
third class, identical with its actual position; to obtain
legal sanction and recognition for its actual and existing,
significance,—and this is precisely the work and the sig
nificance of the victorious Revolution which broke out
in France in 1789, and of the transforming influence
which it exercised over the other countries of Europe.
I am not going, gentlemen, to enter upon the history
of the French Revolution. We can now only glance, and
that in the most brief and cursory manner, which is all
�28
that our time will allow, at the most important and
decisive points in the transition from one stage of
society to another.
’ It is necessary here then to ask the question, who
constituted this thirM class, or the Bourgeoisie, who by
means of the French Revolution conquered the privi
leged classes, and obtained the government of the State?
As this class stood over against the legally privileged
classes of the community, so it understood itself at that
time, at the first moment, to be identified with the whole
people, and its interests to be identical with the interests
of the whole of humanity. To this was owing the elevating
and mighty enthusiasm which prevailed at that period.
The rights of man were proclaimed, and it appeared as if
with the freedom and the rule of the third Estate, all
legal privileges had disappeared from the community,
and all differences founded upon them had been
swallowed up and absorbed in the one idea of the
freedom of man.
In the very beginning of the movement, in April 1789,
on the occasion of the elections to the chambers which
were convened by the king on the understanding that
the third class should this time send as many represen
tatives as the nobles and the clergy together, we find a
journal by no means revolutionary in character, writing
as follows—“Who can say whether the despotism of the
Bourgeoisie will not succeed to the pretended aristocracy
of the nobles ?”
But cries of this kind were at that time drowned in
the general enthusiasm.
Nevertheless we must return to that question ; we
�must put the question distinctly.— Were the interest
of the third class truly the interests of the whole
of humanity, or did this third class, the Bourgeoisie,
carry in its bosom yet another, a. fourth class, from which
it desired to separate itself by law, fend so to subject it
to its dominion ?
It is now time, gentlemen, that in order to avoid the
danger of being exposed to gross misinterpretation,
I should explain clearly the meaning of the word Bour
geoisie or upper Bourgeoisie, as the designation of a
political party, and the sense in which I use the word
Bourgeoisie.
In the German language the word Bourgeoisie is
usually translated by the burgher or citizen class. But I
do not use it in this sense; we are all citizens, the working
man, the poor citizen [Kleinburger] the rich citizen
[Grossbiirger] and so forth. The word Bourgeoisie
has on the contrary in the course of history acquired
a very special political significance which I will now imme
diately explain to you.
, The whole burgher or not noble class, when the French
Revolution occurred, divided itself, and still remains
divided, speaking generally, into two subdivisions,
namely in the first place, the class whose members either
entirely or mainly derive their income from their labour,
and who have either no capital, or a very modest one to
assist them in exercising a productive industry for
the support of themselves and their families.
To
this class belong therefore the working men, the lower
grade of citizens, handicraftsmen, and generally speaking
the peasants. The second class consists of those who
�30
dispose of large private property, of a large capital, and by
reason of such a basis of capital, engage in production,
or draw an income in the shape of rents. These may
be called the rich citizens. But a rich citizen, gentlemen,
is for that reason essentially no Bourgeois at all.
If a nobleman seated in his room, finds pleasure in the
contemplation ofhis ancestors, and of his landed property,
no citizen has any thing to say against it. But if this
nobleman desires to make his ancestry or his landed
property the condition of a special rank and privilege in
the State, the condition of the power of directing the
will of the State,—then the indignation of the citizen
is roused against the noble, and he calls him a feudalist.
The same thing exactly takes place with regard to
the difference of property within the citizen class.
That the rich citizen seated in his chamber should
find pleasure in contemplating the great convenience
and advantage which a large private property brings
to its possessor, nothing is more simple, nothing more
natural and legitimate than this.
The working man, and the poor citizen, in a word,
the whole of that class which is without capital,
is fully justified in demanding from the State that
it should direct its aim and all its endeavours towards
the improvement of the sorrowful and needy condition
of the working classes, and to the discovery of the means
by which it may help to raise those by whose hands
all the riches with which our civilization delights to
adorn itself have been produced. To the same hands all
those products owe their existence, without which the
whole community would perish in a single day ; it is.
�31
therefore the duty of the State to help these to a more
ample and assured wage, and so again to the possibility
of a rational education, and through this to an existence
truly worthy of man. Fully as the working classes are
justified in demanding this from the State, and in point
ing out this as its true aim, so on the other hand, the
working man must and will never forget that the right
to all property once lawfully earned is thoroughly
legitimate and unassailable.
But if the rich citizen, not contented with the actual
advantages of large possessions, desires to make the
property of the citizen, or his capital, the condition of
power over the State, and of participating in the
direction of the will of the State and the determination
of its aims, then the rich citizen becomes a bourgeois,
then he makes the fact of possession a legal condition of
political power, then he characterises himself as belong
ing to a new privileged class of the people, which now
desires to impress the overruling stamp of its privilege
on all the arrangements of society, just as the noble did
in the Middle Ages, as we have seen, with the privilege
of the possession of land.
The question then which we have to raise with re
gard to the French Revolution, and the period of his
tory inaugurated by it, is this,—Has the third class
which came into power through the French Revolution,
regarded itself as a Bourgeoisie in this sense, and at
tempted successfully to subject the people to its privi
leged political domination ?
The answer must be sought in the great facts of
history, and this answer is distinctly in the affirmative.
�32
We can only cast a rapid glance at the most import
ant of these facts, which, however, are amply sufficient to
decide the question.
In the very first decree issued in consequence of the
French Revolution, namely, that of the 3rd of Septem
ber 179I (Chapter I. sections 1 and 2), the difference
between active and passive citizens is set forth.
Only
the active citizens are entitled to the franchise, and an
active citizen, according to this decree, is only one who
pays dived taxes to a certain amount, which is afterwards
more precisely stated.
The amount of this taxation was fixed with consider
able moderation ; it was to be only the value of three
days’ work, or if we estimate a days’ work at the value
of 10 silver groschen it would amount to a thaler (three
shillings). But what was far more important was this,
that all who served for wages were declared to be not
active citizens, by which definition the working class
was expressly excluded from the right of election. But
' after all in such questions as these it is not the amount
which is of importance but the principle.
A census was introduced, that is to say a specified
amount of private property was, by means of the franchise—
this first and most important of all political rights—
, made the condition of participation in the direction
of the will of the State, and the determination of its
object.
All those who paid no direct taxes at all, or a less
amount than the above, or who worked for wages, were
excluded from exercising power over the State, and
reduced to an inferior subject class. Private property
�33
or the possession of capital had become the condition of
sovereignty over the State, as nobility or landed property
had been in the Middle Ages.
This principle of the census remains the leading
principle of all the constitutions which resulted from the
French Revolution. The only exception was a short
period during which the French Republic of 1793 lasted,
which perished on account of its own want of definite
ness, and of the entire condition of society at that
time, and on which I cannot enter here more particularly.
Yes, following the rule which is common to all
principles, it was a necessary consequence that the
amount first fixed should soon develope itself into a much
larger one.
In the decree of 1814, 300 francs or 80 thalers, instead
of the former amount of three days labour, was fixed as
the qualification of the franchise by the charter granted
by Louis XVIII. The Revolution of 1830 broke out,
and nevertheless, the law of the 19th of April 1831
enacts that a payment of direct taxes to the amount of
200 francs or about 53 thalers, shall be the qualification
of the franchise.
That which was called, under Louis Phillipe and
Guizot, the “ pays legal,” the country recognised by law,
consisted of 200,000 men. There were no more than ,
200,000 electors in France qualified by the amount of
their private property, and these bore rule over a country
of thirty millions of inhabitants.
We must here observe that it is obviously a matter
of indifference, whether the principle of the census,
the exclusion of those who have no property from the
�34
franchise, is applied by the law in a direct and open, or
in some covert manner. The effect is always the same.
Thus the second French Republic in the year 1850
could not possibly recall openly the universal and direct
right to the suffrage which had been once declared, and
which we shall consider presently in its operation. But
they partially effected their object by excluding from the
franchise, by the law of 31st May, 1850, all citizens who
had not been domiciled for at least three years without
intermission in the same place. For, as workmen in
France are often forced by their circumstances to change
their abode, and to seek for employment in another
commune, they hoped, and with good reason, to exclude
from the suffrage a very considerable number of work
ing men, who would be unable to prove a continuous
residence of three years in the same place.
We have here, then, a Census in a disguised
form.
Much worse, however, do we fare in Prussia since
the passing of the electoral law, which divided electors
into three classes. By this law, according to the cir
cumstances of different localities, three, ten, or thirty
or more electors of the third class who have no property,
exercise only the same voting power as a single large
. capitalist, a rich burgher who belongs to the first
electoral class. Consequently, in point of fact, if the
proportional numbers were on an average, for instance,
as one to ten, nine men in every ten of those who in the
year 1848 possessed the franchise, have lost it through
this electoral law which formed part of the charter of
the year 1849, and now exercise it only in appearance.
�35
But in order to show you how this law now actually
works on an average, it is only necessary to exhibit to
you some figures which are drawn from the official lists
published by the Government.
In the year 1848 we had in consequence of the right
of universal suffrage then introduced, 3,661,993 original
electors.
By the electoral law of 30th May, 1849, with its three
classes, the number of electors was in the first place
reduced to 3,255,703 by depriving of the suffrage all
who had no fixed abode, or who received public alms.
Thus 406,000 men were at once deprived of the fran
chise. This however was the smallest part of the evil.
The remaining 3,255,000 electors were now to be
divided, according to the electoral laws, into three
classes, and according to the official lists prepared by
the direction of the chartered electoral law of
1849—
153,808 men belonged to the 1st class
409,945
,,
,,
2nd class
2,691,950
,,
)t
3rd class
Now let us leave the second class out of view, and
compare only the first and the third, the rich burghers
and those who possessed no property, with one another,
and we find that 153,800 rich men exercised the same
voting power as 2,691,950 who belonged to the class of
workmen, small citizens, and peasants; that is to say,
one rich man exercised the same right of voting as
seventeen who had no property. And now if we take
as our basis the fact, that in the year 1848 universal
suffrage was decreed by the law of the 8th April, so that
�36
at that time 153,800 working men or small citizens were
of equal weight at the elections with 153,800 rich men,
and consequently one man without property was of
equal weight with one rich man, it is clear that now,
when it takes seventeen poor men to counterbalance the
vote of one rich man, sixteen working men and small
citizens out of seventeen have had their legal right of
voting wrested from them.
But even this, gentlemen, bad as it is, is only the
average effect. In practice the matter assumes, in con
sequence of the varying circumstances of different
localities , a very different and far more unfavourable
aspect ; and most unfavourable of all where the ine
qualities of property are the greatest.
Thus the
district of Dusseldorf has 6356 electors of the first
class and 166,300 of the third class ; twenty-six electors
of the third class therefore exercise in that place the
same voting power as one rich man.
To return from this digression to our main line of
argument. We have shown, and have yet to adduce
further proofs, that since the Bourgeoisie attained to
power through the French Revolution, it has made its
own element, private property, the ruling principle of all
the arrangements of society ; that the ■ Bourgeoisie,
behaving precisely as the nobles did in the middle ages
with regard to landed property, now affix the pre
dominant and exclusive impress edits peculiar principle,
private property or capital, the impress of its privilege,
upon all the arrangements of society. The parallel
between the nobility and the Bourgeoisie is in this
respect complete.
�37
In relation to the most important and fundamental
point, the composition of the State, we have already
seen this. As, in the middle ages, the possession of
land was the ruling principle of the representation in
the German Parliament, so now by means of the direct
or the disguised census, the payment of taxes, and
consequently, as this is conditioned by the capital
which a man possesses, the possession of capital, is
ultimately that which determines the right of election
to the Chambers, and consequently the participation in
power over the State.
And so with regard to all the other arrangements in
which I have proved to you that the landed interest
was the ruling principle in the Middle Ages.
I have drawn your attention to the freedom from
taxation of the nobles who then possessed the land ; and
I told you that every dominant privileged class en
deavours to shift the burden of supporting the expenses
tof the State on the oppressed classes who have no
property.
The Bourgeoisie have done precisely the same. It is
true they cannot openly declare that they intend to be
free of taxation. The principle that they express is on
the contrary that every one should pay taxes according
to his income. But they attain to the same result in a
disguised form, at least as far as it goes, by the distinction
between direct and indirect taxes.
Direct taxes, gentlemen, are those which like the
classified income tax, or the class taxes, are raised from
income, and are therefore fixed according to the amount
of the income and capital. Indirect taxes, on the other
D
�38
hand, are those which are imposed on needs of some
kind, for instance on salt, corn, beer, meat, fuel, or on
the need of the protection provided by law, on the cost
of litigation, stamps, &c. These are in most instances
paid by the individual in the price of the article, without
his knowing or observing that he is paying any tax
when he pays for it, or that it is the tax which enhances
the price he pays for the article.
Now you are aware, gentlemen, that one man who is
twenty, fifty, or a hundred times as rich as another, by
no means requires on that account, twenty, fifty, or a
hundred times as much salt, bread or meat, nor drinks
fifty or a hundred times as much beer or wine, nor
requires fifty or a hundred times as much warmth, and
therefore fuel, as a workman or poor citizen.
Hence it follows that all indirect taxes, instead of being
adapted to individuals according to the proportion of
their capital and income, are paid, in far the greater
part, by the poorest and most destitute classes of the
nation. It is true that the Bourgeoisie did not actually
invent indirect taxation; it existed before. But the
Bourgeoisie were the first to develop it in an unprece
dented degree into a system, and laid upon it almost the
whole burden of supplying the necessities of the
State.
In order to show you this, I will glance by way of
example at the revenue of Prussia for the year 1855.
The total amount received by the State in that year
was in round numbers 108,930,000 thalers. From this
-we have to deduct 11,967,000 thalers the proceeds of
the domains and forests, that is to say, income derived
�39
from State property which we need not reckon here.
There remain, therefore, about 97 millions of revenue
from other sources. Of this revenue, according to the
budget, about 26 millions were raised by direct taxation.
But this is not true, and is only made to appear so
because our budget is not constructed on scientific
principles, but is only regulated by the manner in which
the taxes are apparently collected.
Out of these 26
millions, 10 millions of land tax ought to be deducted ;
for though they are certainly taken directly from the
possessor of the land, yet they are again added by him
to the price he demands for his corn; they are there
fore actually paid by the consumer of the corn, and are
really an indirect tax. For the same reason the tax on
trades amounting to 2,900,000 thalers must be de
ducted.
There only remains as revenue really derived from
direct taxation—
2,928,000 thalers from classified income-tax.
7,884,000 ,,
from class taxes.
2,036,000 ,,
from surtax.
Total 12,848,000 thalers.
Thus only 12,800,000 thalers, gentlemen, out of a
revenue of 97 millions really proceed from direct tax
ation. All that is collected beyond this 12,800,000
thalers (for we must not follow the unscientific classifi
cation of the budget which does not reckon the proceeds
of the salt monopoly, amounting to 8,300,000 thalers,
nor 8,849,000 thalers received as a tax on litigation, as
�40
indirect taxes), all this balance I say, with the exception
of a few unimportant items of a special character, is
altogether raised from sources of revenue which are of
the nature of indirect taxes, that is to say they are raised
by indirect taxation.
Indirect taxation is therefore, gentlemen, the institu
tion by which the Bourgeoisie creates the privilege of
freedom from taxation for great capitalists, and lays the
'cost of maintaining the existence of the State on the
poorer classes of the community.
At the same time I beg you to observe, gentlemen,
the remarkable contradiction, and strange justice in
volved in this proceeding of laying the whole burden of
the expenses of the State on the indirect taxes, and so
on the poor people, but making the direct taxes the
criterion and condition of the right to the suffrage, that
is to say of the right to political power; while these
direct taxes contribute only the absurdly small pro
portion of 12 millions to the whole revenue of 108
millions !
Moreover, I told you, gentlemen, while speaking of
the nobles of the Middle Ages, that they held in social
contempt all the activity and industry of the burgher
class.
Precisely the same thing occurs to day. It is true
that every kind of labour is now held in high honour,
and if a rag picker or a nightman became a millionaire,
he might be certain of being received with high honour
into society.
But with what social contempt are they greeted, no
matter in what way or how hard they work, who have
�no private property to back them. This is a fact which
you have no need to learn from my lecture, but which,
unhappily, you can verify often enough by your own
daily experience.
Nay, in many respects the Bourgeoisie carries out
more thoroughly and logically the dominion of its own
peculiar element and privileges, than did the noble in
the Middle Ages with respect to the landed interest.
The education of the people—I speak here of the
education of adults—was in the Middle Ages left in the
hands of the clergy. Since then the newspapers have
undertaken this office. But owing to the caution money
which the journals must deposit, and still more to the
stamp duty which is imposed on the newspapers here,
in France, and in other countries, to start a daily paper
is a very expensive business- that can only be under
taken with the help of a large amount of capital ; so
that by this means the possibility of appealing to the
thought of the people, of enlightening and leading them,
has become a privilege of the possessors of capital.
If this were not the case, gentlemen, you would
possess very different, and much better journals I
It is interesting to see, gentlemen, at what an early
period this attempt of the richer Bourgeoise to make
the press one of the privileges of capital, showed itself,
and in what a naive undisguised form. On the 24th
July, 1789, a few days after the storming of the Bastille,
and therefore soon after the Bourgeoisie had seized upon
political power, the representatives of the Commune of
Paris -issued a decree by which the printers were de
clared to be responsible for the publication of pamphlets
�42
or leaflets written by authors “ sans existence connue."
The freedom of the press which was thus seized upon,
was to be allowed therefore only to writers of known
means of subsistence. Property appears therefore as the
the condition of the freedom of the press, nay in fact of
the morality of a writer I This naivete of the first days
of the rule of the Bourgeois, only expresses in an artless
and open way, what has been attained by the ingenious
contrivance of caution money and stamp duty in our
day.
We must be satisfied gentlemen, with these great and
characteristic facts, which corroborate the view we
have taken of the Middle Ages.
We have now seen, gentlemen, two periods of the
world, each of which is dominated by the ruling idea of
a particular class of the community which impresses its
own principle on all the social arrangements of its
time.
First the idea of nobility, or of the possession of land
which forms the ruling principle of the Middle Ages,
-and permeates all its institutions.
This period closed with the French Revolution,
although you will understand that, especially in Ger
many, where the change was not brought about by the
people, but by very gradual and incomplete reforms
introduced by the Government, numerous and import
ant extensions of that first period of history have
occurred, which even at the present day greatly hamper
the progress of the Bourgeoisie.
We saw in the next place the period of history which
begins at the eighteenth century with the French Revo
�43
lution, which has for its principle large private property,
or capital, and makes this into the privilege which per
vades all the arrangements of society, and is the con
dition of participation in directing the will of the State
and determining its aims.
This period also, little as outward appearances seem
to show it, is virtually already closed.
On the 24th February 1848, the dawn of a new
period of history appeared.
For on that day in France (that country in whose
great struggles the victory or the defeat of freedom
means victory or defeat for the whole human race) a
revolution broke out which called a working man into
the provisional Government, declared that the object of
the State was the improvement of the lot of the working
classes, and proclaimed the universal and direct right
to the suffrage, by which every citizen who had attained
his twenty-first year, without any reference to the
amount of his property, received an equal share in
the government of the State in the direction of its will
and the determination of its aims.
You see, gentlemen, that if the Revolution of 1789
was the Revolution of the Tiers etat, the Third class, it
is now the Fourth class, which in 1789 was still enfolded
within the third class and appeared to be identical with
it, which will now raise its principle to be the domi
nating principle of the community, and cause all its
arrangements to be permeated by it.
But here, in the domination of the fourth class comes
to light this immense difference, that the fourth class
is the last and the outside of all, the disinterested class
�44
of the community, which sets up and can set up no
further exclusive condition, either legal or actual,
neither nobility nor landed possessions nor the posses
sion of capital, which it could make into a new privilege
and force upon the arrangements of society.
We are all working men in so far as we have even
the will to make ourselves useful in any way to the
community.
This Fourth class in whose heart therefore no germ
of a new privilege is contained, is for this very reason
synonomous with the whole human race. Its interest is
in truth the interest of the whole of humanity, its freedom
is the freedom of humanity itself, and its domination is
the domination of all.
Whoever therefore invokes the idea of the working
class as the ruling principle of society, in the sense in
which I have explained it to you, does not put forth a
cry that divides and separates the classes of society.
On the contrary, he utters a cry of reconciliation, & cry
which embraces the whole of the community, a cry for
doing away with all the contradictions in every circle
of society ; a cry of union in which all should join who
do not wish for privileges, and the oppression of the
people by privileged classes ; a cry of love which
having once gone up from the heart of the people, will
for ever remain the true cry of the people, and whose meaning
will make it still a cry of love, even when it sounds
the war cry of the people.
We will now consider the principle of the working
class as the ruling principle of the community only in
three of its relations :—
�45
(1) In re1ation to the formal means of its realisation.
(2) In relation to its moral significance.
(3) In relation to the political conception of the
object of the State, which is inherent in that principle.
We cannot on this occasion enter upon its other
aspects, and even those to which we have referred can
be only very cursorily examined in the short time that
remains to us.
The formal means of carrying out this principle is the
universal and direct suffrage which we have already
discussed. I say universal andtf/m^ suffrage, gentlemen,
not that mere universal suffrage which we had in the
year 1848. The introduction of two degrees in the
electoral act, namely, original electors and electors
simply, is nothing but an ingenious method purposely
introduced with the object of falsifying as far as pos
sible the will of the people by means of the electoral
act.
It is true that even universal and direct suffrage is no
magic wand, gentlemen, which is able to protect you
from temporary mistakes.
We have seen in France two bad elections following
one another, in 1848 and 1849. But universal and
direct suffrage is the only means which in the long run
of itself corrects the mistakes to which its momentary
wrong use may lead. It is that spear which heals the
wounds itself has made. It is impossible in the long
run with universal and direct suffrage that the elected
body should be any other than the exact and true
likeness of the people which has elected it.
The people must therefore at all times regard uni
�46
versal and direct suffrage as its indispensable political
weapon, as the most fundamental and important of its
demands.
I will now glance at the moral significance of the
principle of society which we are considering.
It is possible that the idea of converting the principle
of the lower classes of society into the ruling principle of
the State and the community may appear to be ex
tremely dangerous and immoral, and to threaten the
destruction of morality and education by a “ modern
barbarism.”
And it is no wonder that this idea should be so
regarded at the present day since even public opinion,
gentlemen—I have already indicated by what means,
namely, the newspapers—receives its impressions from
the mint of capital, and from the hands of the privileged
wealthy Bourgeoisie.
Nevertheless this fear is only a prejudice, and it can
be proved on the contrary, that the idea would exhibit
the greatest advance and triumph of morality that the
history of the world has ever recorded.
That view is a prejudice I repeat, and it is simply the
prejudice of the present time which is dominated by
privilege.
At another time, namely, that of the first French
Republic of the year 1793 (of which I have already told
you that I cannot enter into further particulars on this
occasion, but that it was destined to perish by its own
want of definite aims) the opposite prejudice prevailed.
It was then a current dogma that all the upper classes
were immoral and corrupt, and that only the lower
�47
classes were good and moral. In the new declara
tion of the rights of man issued by the French
convention, that powerful constituent assembly of
France, this was actually laid down by a special article,
namely, article nineteen, which runs as follows, “ Toute
institution qui ne suppose le peuple bon, et lemagistrat
corruptible, est vicieuse.” “ Every institution which
does not assume that the people are good and the
magistracy contemptible is vicious.” You see that this
is exactly the opposite to the happy faith now required,
according to which there is no greater sin than to doubt
of the goodwill and the virtue of the Government,
while it is taken for granted that the people are a sort of
tiger and a sink of corruption.
At the time of which we are speaking the opposite
dogma had advanced so far, that almost every one who
had a whole coat on his back was thought to be a bad
man, or at least an object of suspicion ; and virtue,
purity, and patriotic morality were thought to be pos
sessed only by those who had no decent clothes. It was
the period of sansculottism.
This view, gentlemen, is in fact founded on a truth,
but it presents itself in an untrue and perverted form.
Now there is nothing more dangerous than a truth
which presents itself in an untrue perverted form. For
in whatever way we deal with it, we are certain to go
wrong. If we adopt such a truth in its untrue perverted
form, it will lead at certain times to most pernicious
destruction, as was the case with sansculottism. But
if we regard the whole statement as untrue on account
■of its untrue perverted form, then we are much worse.
�For we have rejected a truth, and, in the case before us,
a truth without the recognition of which not a single
sound step in our political life can be taken.
The only course that remains open to us, therefore,,
is to set aside the untrue and perverted form of the
statement, and to bring its true essence into distinct
relief.
The public opinion of the present day is inclined,
as I have said, to declare the whole statement to be
utterly untrue, and mere declamation on the part of
Rousseau and the French Revolution. But even if it
were possible to adopt the course of rejection in the
case of Rousseau and the French Revolution, it is quite
impossible to do so in the case of one of the greatest of
German philosophers, the centenary of whose birth-day
will be celebrated in this town next month : I allude to
the philosopher Fichte, one of the greatest thinkers of
all nations and times.
Even Fichte declares expressly in so many words,
that the higher the rank the greater the moral deteriora
tion, that—these are his very words — “Wickedness in
creases in proportion to the elevation of rank.”
But Fichte did not develope the ultimate ground of
this statement. He adduces, as the ground of this cor
ruption, the selfishness and egoism of the upper classes.
But then the question must immediately arise, whether
selfishness does not also prevail in the lower classes, or
why it should prevail less in these. Nay it must at first
sight appear to be an extraordinary paradox to assert
that less selfishness should prevail in" the lower classes
than in the higher who have a considerable advantage
�49
over them in education and training which are recog
nised as moralising elements.
The following is the true ground of what as I said
appears at first sight to be extraordinary paradox.
In a long period in the past, as we have seen, the
development of the people, which is the life-breath of
history, proceeds by an ever advancing abolition of
the privileges which guarantee to the higher classes their
position as higher and ruling classes. The desire to
maintain this, in other words their personal interest,
brings therefore every member of the higher classes who
has not once for all by a high range of vision elevated
himself above his purely personal existence—and you will
understand, gentlemen, that this can never be more than
a very small number of exceptional characters—into a
position thoroughly hostile in principle to the develop
ment of the people, to the progress of education and
science, to tne advance of culture, to all tne life-oreatn
and victory of historic life.
It is this opposition of the personal interest of the higher
classes to the development of the nation in culture
which evokes the great and necessary immorality of the
higher classes. It is a life, whose daily conditions you
need only represent to yourselves, in order to perceive the
deep inward deterioration to which it must lead. To
be compelled daily to oppose all that is great and good,
to be obliged to grieve at its successes, to rejoice at its
failures, to restrain its further progress, to be obliged
to undo or to execrate the advantages it has already
attained. It is to lead their life as in the country of an
enemy—and this enemy is the moral community of their
�own people, amongst whom they live, and for whom to
strive constitutes all true morality. It is to lead their
lives, I say, as in the country of an enemy; this enemy
is their own people, and the fact that it is regarded and
treated as their enemy must generally at all events be
cunningly concealed, and this hostility must more orless
artfully be covered with a veil.
And to this we must add that either they must do all
this against the voice of their own conscience and intelli
gence, or they must have stifled the voice by habit so
as not to be oppressed by it, or lastly they must have
never known this voice, never known anything different
and better than the religion of their own advantage !
This life, gentlemen, leads therefore necessarily to a
thorough depreciation and contempt of all striving to
realise an ideal, to a compassionate smile at the bare
mention of the great name of the Idea, to a deeply seated
want of sympathy and even antipathy to all that is
beautiful and great, to a complete swallowing up of
every moral element in us, by the one passion of selfish
seeking for our own advantage, and of immoderate desire
for pleasure.
It is this opposition, gentlemen, between personal
interest and the development of the nation in culture,
which the lower classes, happily for them, are
without.
It is unfortunately true that there is always enough
of selfishness in the lower classes, much more than
there should be, but this selfishness of theirs, wherever
it is found, is the fault of single persons, of individuals r
and not the inevitable fault of the class.
�5^
A very reasonable instinct warns the members of the
lower classes, that so long as each of them relates him
self only to himself, and each one thinks only of himself,
he can hope for no important improvement in his.
position.
But the more earnestly and deeply the lower classes
of society strive after the improvement of their condition
as a class, the improvement of the lot of their class, the
more does this personal interest, instead of opposing
the movement of history and thereby being condemned
to that immorality of which we have spoken, assume a
direction which thoroughly accords with the development
of the whole people, with the victory of the idea, with the
advance of culture, with the living principle of history
itself, which is no other than the development of freedom.
Or in other words, as we have already seen, its interest
is the interest of the entire human race.
You are therefore in this happy position, gentlemen,
that instead of its being possible for you to be dead to
the idea, you are on the contrary urged to the deepest
sympathy for it by your own personal interests. You
are in the happy position that the idea which constitutes
your true personal interest, is one with the throbbing
pulse of history, and with the living principle of moral
development. You are able therefore to devote your
selves with personal passion to this historical development,
and to be certain that the more strongly this passion
grows and burns within you in the true sense in which
I have explained it to you, the higher is the moral
position you have attained.
These are the reasons, gentlemen, why the dominion
�52
of the fourth class in the State must produce such an
efflorescence of morality, culture, and science, as has
not yet been witnessed in history.
But there is yet another reason for this, one which is
most intimately connected with all the views I have
explained to you, and forms their keystone.
The fourth estate not only has a different formal
political principle from that of the Bourgeoisie, namelv,
the universal direct franchise, instead of the census of
the Bourgeoisie, and not only has through its position
in life a different relation to moral forces than the higher
classes, but has also—and partly in consequence of these
—quite another and a different conception of the moral
object of the State from that of the Bourgeoisie.
According to the Bourgeoisie, the moral idea of the
State is exclusively this, that the unhindered exercise
by himself of his own faculties should be guaranteed to
each individual.
If we were all equally strong, equally clever, equally
educated, and equally rich, this might be regarded as
a sufficient and a moral idea.
But since we neither are nor can be thus equal, this
idea is not satisfactory, and therefore necessarily leads
in its consequences to deep immorality, for it leads
to this, that the stronger, the cleverer, and the richer
fleece the weaker and pick their pockets.
The moral idea of the State according to the working
class on the contrary is this, that the unhindered and
free activity of individual powers exercised by the indi
vidual is not sufficient, but that something must be added
to this in a morally ordered community—namely,
�53
solidarity of interests, community and reciprocity in
development.
In accordance with this difference, the Bourgeoisie
conceive the moral object of the State to consist
solely and exclusively in the protection of the personal
freedom and the property of the individual.
This is a policeman’s idea, gentlemen, a policeman’s
idea for this reason, because it represents to itself the
State from a point of view of a policeman, whose whole
function consists in preventing robbery and burglary.
Unfortunately this policeman’s idea is not only familiar
to genuine liberals, but is even to be met with not unfrequently among so-called democrats, owing to their
defective imagination. If the Bourgeoisie would express
the logical inference from their idea, they must maintain
that according to it if there were no such thing as
robbers and thieves, the State itself would be entirely
*
superfluous.
Very differently, gentlemen, does the fourth estate
regard the object of the State, for it apprehends it in its
true nature.
History, gentlemen, is a struggle with nature; with
* This idea of the State, which in fact does away with the State,
and changes it into a mere union of egoistic interests, is the idea
of the State as regarded by liberalism, and historically was
produced by it. It forms by the power which it has necessarily
obtained and which stands in direct relation to its superficiality,
the true danger of spiritual and moral decay, the true danger,
which threatens us at this day, of a “modern barbarism.” In
Germany happily it is strongly opposed by the ancient learning
which has once for all become the indestructible foundation of
German thought. From this proceeds the view “that it is neces
sary to enlarge the notion of the State to the fullest extent to which
in my opinion it is possible to enlarge it, that the State should be the
organisation, in which the whole virtue of man should realise itself.”
(Augustus Booth’s address to his University of the 22nd March, 1862.)
�54
the misery, the ignorance, the poverty, the weakness,
and consequent slavery in which we were involved
when the human race came upon the scene in the
beginning of history. The progressive victory over this
weakness—this is the development of freedom which
history displays to us.
In this struggle we should never have made one step
forward, nor shall we ever advance one step more by
acting on the principle of each one for himself, each one
alone.
It is the State whose function it is to carry on this
development of freedom, this development of the human
race until its freedom is attained.
The State is this unity of individuals into a moral
whole, a unity which increases a million-fold the
strength of all the individuals who are comprehended in
it, and multiplies a million times the power which
would be at the disposal of them all as individuals.
The object of the State, therefore, is not only to
protect the personal freedom and property of the indi
vidual with which he is supposed according to the idea
of the Bourgeoisie to have entered the State. On the
contrary, the object of the State is precisely this, to
place the individuals through this union in a position to
attain to such objects, and reach such a stage of existence as
they never could have reached as individuals ; to make
them capable of acquiring an amount of education, power,
and freedom which would have been wholly unattainable
by them as individuals.
Accordingly the object of the State is to bring man
to positive expansion, and progressive development, in
�55
other words, to bring the destiny of man—that is the
culture of which the human race is capable-—into actual
existence ; it is the training and development of the human
race to freedom.
This is the true moral nature of the State, gentlemen,
its true and high mission. So much is this the case,
that from the beginning of time through the very force
of events it has more or less been carried out by the
State without the exercise of will, and unconsciously
even against the will of its leaders.
But the working class, gentlemen, the lower classes
of the community in general, through the helpless con
dition in which its members find themselves placed as
individuals, have always acquired the deep instinct,
that this is and must be the duty of the State, to help
the individual by means of the union of all to such a
development as he would be incapable of attaining as an
individual.
A State therefore which was ruled by the idea of the
working class, would no longer be driven, as all States
have hitherto been, unconsciously and against their
will by the nature of things, and the force of circum
stances, but it would make this moral nature of the
State its mission, with perfect clearness of vision and
complete consciousness. It would complete with un
checked desire and perfect consistency, that which hitherto
has only been wrung in scanty and imperfect frag
ments from wills that were opposed to it, and for this
very reason—though time does, not permit me to explain
in any detail this necessary connection of cause and
effect—it would produce a soaring flight of the human
�56
spirit, a development of an amount of happiness, cul
ture, well-being, and freedom without example in the
history of the world, and in comparison with which, the
most favourable conditions that have existed in former
times would appear but dim shadows of the reality.
This it is, gentlemen, which must be called the work
ing man’s idea of the State, his conception of the
object of the State, which, as you see is just as different
from the bourgeois conception of the object of the
State, as the principle of the working class, of the
claim of all to direct the will of the State, or uni
versal suffrage, is different from the principle held by
the Bourgeoisie, the census.
The series of ideas which I have [explained to you
must be regarded as the idea of the working class. It is
this that I had in view when I spoke to you, at the com
mencement of my lecture, of the connection of the
particular period of history in which we live with the
idea of the working class. It is this period of history
beginning with February, 1848, to which has been
allotted the task of bringing this idea of the State into
actual existence. We may congratulate ourselves,
gentlemen, that we have been born at a time which is
destined to witness this the most glorious work of
history, and that we are permitted to take a part in
accomplishing it.
But on all who belong to the working class the duty
of taking up an entirely new attitude is imposed, if there
is any truth in what I have said.
Nothing is more calculated to impress upon a class
a worthy and moral character, than the consciousness
�57
that it is destined to become a ruling class, that it is
called upon to raise the principle of its class to the
principle of the entire age, to convert its idea into the
leading idea of the whole of society and thus to form
this society by impressing upon it its own char
acter.
The high and world-wide honour of this destiny must
occupy all your thoughts. Neither the load of the
oppressed, nor the idle dissipation of the thoughtless,
nor even the harmless frivolity of the insignificant, are
henceforth becoming to you. You are the rock on which
the Church of the present is to be built.
It is the lofty moral earnestness of this thought which
must with devouring exclusiveness possess your spirits,
fill your minds, and shape |your whole lives, so as to
make them worthy of it, conformable to it, and always
related to it. It is the moral earnestness of this thought
which must never leave you, but must be present to
your heart in your workshops during the hours of labour,
in your leisure hours, during your walks, at your meet
ings, and even when you stretch your limbs to rest
upon your hard couches, it is this thought which must
fill and occupy your minds till they lose themselves in
dreams. The more exclusively you immerse yourselves
in the moral earnestness of this thought, the more
undividedly you give yourselves up to its glowing
fervour, by so much the more, be assured, will you
hasten the time within which our present period of history
will have to fulfil its task, so much the sooner will you
bring about the accomplishment of this task.
If there be only two or three of you, gentlemen, who
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Besant, Annie (continued)—
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Julian Hawthorne, etc., etc. March contains Saturn and the Sabbath of the Jews,
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Life at High Pressure, by W. R. Greg; On Objections to “Literature and
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Is the Church of England Worth Preserving ? by W. E. Gladstone; George Jacob
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Animal Instinct in its relation to the Mind of Man, by the Duke of Argyll, etc.,
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(Papias of Hierapolis), by Prof. Lightfoot, etc., etc. September contains A Dis
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mata ; Ocean Circulation, by Dr. W. B. Carpenter; Rig-ht use of a Surplus, by W.
R. Greg, etc., etc. November contains India, Political and Social, by M. E. Grant
Duff; Religious and Conservative Aspects of Positivism, by Frederic Harrison!;
’Liknesses, or Philosophical Anatomy, by St. George Mivart, etc., etc. The above
seven numbers for 1875 free for 2s. 9d.----- 1876. January contains The Fallacies
■ of Testimony, by W. B. Carpenter; Why have Animals a Nervous System? by H.
■Charlton Bastian; Goethe and Minna Herzlieb, by Andrew Hamilton; Wesleyan
Methodism, by J. L. Davies; Public Education, by Sir John Lubbock, etc., etc.
March contains Modem Materialism, by the Rev. James Martineau; Irrigation
Works and the Permanent Settlement in India, by J. Dacosta; Bishop Butler,
by Matthew Arnold ; Eternal Perdition and Universalism from a Roman Catholic
�15
Point of View Religion of Positivism, by Mark Pattison, etc., etc. April contains
Russian Idylls, by W. R. S. Ralston; The Bases of Morals, by James Hanton;
Homerology, by W. E. Gladstone ; John H. Newman: a Psychological Study, by
the Rev. John Hunt; Jellyfish Theory of Language, by the Rev. A. H. Sayce, etc.,
etc. May contains Humanity, by Frederic Harrison ; Strauss : a Chapter in the
History of Modem Religious Thought, by the Rev. A. M. Fairbairn; Religious
Teaching in Elementary Schools, by Francis Peek, etc., etc. June contains Th°
Courses of Religious Thought, by W. E. Gladstone ; Persia, by Arthur Arnold ;
Evolution and the Religion of the Future, by Anna Swanwick ; Elementary Edu
cation, by Sir John Lubbock, etc., etc. July contains- Turkey, by Arthur Arnold •
Christian Evidences, by Richard H. Hutton; Homerology, by W. E. Gladstone •
The Pulse of Europe, by M. E. Grant Duff; The Restitution of all Things, by
Andrew Jukes, etc., etc. September contains Automatism and Evolution, by Dr.
Charles Elam; Capital Punishment in England, by Francis W. Rowsell; Church
manship of John Wesley, by James Rigg, D.D., etc., etc. October contains Imper
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the Eastern Question, by Geo. Potter and Geo. Howell, etc., etc. November contains
Philosophy without Assumptions, by Cardinal Manning ; The Prophetic Element
in the Gospels, by W. R. Greg; Russian Policy in Turkestan, by W. E. Glad
stone; A Psychological Parallel, by Matthew Arnold, etc., etc. The above
nine numbers for 1876 free for 4s.----- 1877. February contains: Evolution and
the Vegetable Kingdom, by W. Carruthers, F.R.S. ; Problems of Social
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Eastern Question, by Edward A. Freeman; Henrietta Maria; The Roman
Catholics and the Puritans, by Peter Bayne; Transcendentalism in England
New England, and India, by H. Holbeach, etc., etc. March contains ■ Pro
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Language, by E. A. Freeman ; Spinoza : the man and the philosopher, by Arthur
Bolles Lee ; Prussia in the Nineteenth Century, by Prof. J. S. Blackie; Reason
able Faith, by a London Merchant, etc. April contains: Spinoza : 1677—1877 by
Ernest Renan; Metaphysical Study, by Prof. Bain ; The Germ Theory and Spon
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Upheaval m Scotland, by William Wallace; Drifting Light Waves, by R. A.
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Edward Dowden; French Chateaux of the Renaissance, by Mrs. Mark Pattison
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Unions, Apprentices and Technical Education, by George Howell; Oxygen in the
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November contains : The Resurrection of Christ a new revelation, by Canon West
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Smith. The above eight numbers of 1877 free for 2s. 9d.
1878. January contains •
Dog Poison m Man, by Dr. Acland; J. S. Mill’s Philosophy Tested, by Professor
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by Frances Power Cobbe; China, England, and Opium, by Justice Fry etc etc’
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Facts of Indian Progress, by Monier Williams; Determinism and Moral
Freedom, by Paul Janet; Scottish Influence on English Theological Thought by
J- Vaughan; Are the Working Classes Improvident? by George HowellFuture Punishment Eternal Hope, by F. W. Farrar, etc., etc. July contains?
The Position and Influence of Women in Ancient Greece, by Dr. DonaldsonRoman Metempsychosis: a sequel to the discussion on future punishment bv
Francis Peek; Future of Judaism, by Rev. W. H. Fremantle; A curious article
«l,.a
„rl!S punday Evening, etc., etc. August contains: Max Muller on
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�16
City, by Walter H. James; Evolution and. Pantheism, by R. St. J. Tyrwhitt, ;
Professor Blackie on the Scot, etc., etc. September contains : Progress of Indian
Religious Thought, by Professor Monier Williams; Selling the Soul, by R. H.
Horne; Life of Jesus and Modem Criticism, by Professor B. Weiss; The Suu’s
Corona and his spots, by R. A. Proctor; Memoir of Charles Sumner; Super
natural in Nature, etc., etc. The above six numbers for 1878 free for 2s. 6d.---1879. February contains : A. K. Wallace on New Guinea and its Inhabitants;
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L. Blackley; Contemporary Life and Thought in Russia, byT. S., St. Petersburg;
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miracles and to evolution, by J. LI. Davies ; New Planets near the Sun, by R. A.
Proctor; Women in Ancient Athens (Aspasia and Sappho), by James Donaldson ;
Confession : its Scientific and Medical Aspects, by George Cowell; New Religious
Movement in France, by Josephine E. Butler, etc., etc. April contains: Car
nivorous Plants, by Ellice Hopkins; Over-production, by Prof. W. S. Aldis; Bad
Trade and its cause, by Stephen Williamson and R. H. Patterson ; Disenclosure of
the "‘Anglican Paddock”, by J. R. Prettyman, etc., etc. May contains: The
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.Time contains : Conspiracies in Russia, by Karl Blind; Barbarisms of Civilisation,
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the Week, by R. A. Proctor; The New Bulgaria, by an Eastern Statesman, etc.,
etc. July contains: Benjamin Franklin, by Thomas Hughes; The Last Jewish
Revolt by Ernest Renan; Why is Pain a Mystery 1 by J. Burney Yeo ; "What are
Living Beings ’ by Prof. St. George Mivart; Chloral and other narcotics, by Dr.
B W Richardson, etc., etc. August contains : Religious Condition of Germany,
by Friedrich von Schulte; Cheap Justice, by Henry Crompton ; Indian Religious
Thought by Monier Williams; Progress of Education m England, by F. Peek;
Conspiracies in Russia, by Karl Blind, etc., etc. September contains : The First
Sin as Recorded in the Bible and in Ancient Oriental Tradition, by Francois
Lenormant; Political and Intellectual Life in Greece, by N. Kasasis; Animals and
T>i<m+= hv Prof. St. Geore-e Mivart; The Future of China, by Sir Walter H.
�17
etc., etc. August contains: International Morality, by the Rev. J. U. Davies;
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September contains: Unity of Nature, by the Duke of Argyll; Future of Canada,
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The working man's programme (arbeiter-programm)
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Lassalle, Ferdinand
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 59, [1] p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Stamp on p. 59: South Place Chapel Finsbury, Lending Library.
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The Modern Press
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1884
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Socialism
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Addresses
Political Manifesto
Socialism
Speeches
Working Classes
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Price One Penny.
THE
J. THEODORE L’AUTON.
w
London :
THE MODERN
PRESS, 13, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1887.
�;•I'
�THE NATIONALISATION OF SOCIETY.
POVERTY.
HERE is in the nature of every man a desire tor happiness, enjoyment, and
pleasure ; a horror of pain and oppression. The physical constitution of
man has craving instincts ; the intellectual part of him has also its desires.
These desires must be satisfied; they cannot be oppressed. All oppression
of a man’s lawful instincts means misery and death for him. The instincts
of human nature are like dormant volcanoes, ready to burst forth when the opportunity
offers. The passions of human nature may lie calmly beneath the surface, but when
they break forth, they break forth with rage: men have in the course of the world's
history risen against their fellow men, and like savage hyaenas have made them their
food. A man will slay his fellow man for the slightest angry word or look.
The lowest and meanest man will strive to avenge an insult; but why should he bear
so meekly the monster of Poverty ? Poverty is the crime which outrages all a man’s
instincts and feelings. What is it which condemns you to live in hovels unfit for
brutes ; to eat the food of swine ; to wear out your life, health, strength, and beauty in
a desperate inhuman struggle for your existence ? Poverty. What is it which robs
you of education, crushes your natural intelligence, and destroys the distinguishing
mark of your superiority ? Poverty. What is it that changes a man from contentment
tQ sedition ; from sobriety to debauchery, from humanity to brutality? Poverty.
What is that it makes men criminals, society a barbarism, and hands down to posterity
as an heirloom, deformed, stupid progenies ? Poverty.
Poverty is the worst crime in the world. The greatest criminal is not shunned as the
poor man. If you are poor, the rich man will not sit beside you, will not eat with you,
will not speak with you; but will sneer at you. While you are delving for a mere crumb
to eat, he is enjoying himself at your expense. While you are passed by as an insig
nificant object he is honoured. Who is he, this rich man ? The man who has taken
advantage of your stupidity and mean opinion of yourself.
Are we rich enough ? Do you think there are no men poor except those who
ask for a crumb of bread for God’s sake ? Poverty means the inability to satisfy your
lawful instincts; if you cannot satisfy your lawful instincts with ^10,000 a-year, you
are poor. But nothing can be more barbarous than our idea of civilisation. If you
can by a self-denial that eats out your very heart; by the economy of a miser, appear
well before the eyes of men, then those that cannot practise your self-denial or your
economy will deem you rich and blessed. Are we free from Poverty, when by a struggle
that wears out our lives we can barely manage to cover our bodies and keep our blood
circulating? In the present social condition of the world, the majority will consider
themselves happy if they can find these two necessaries. Must we then rest satisfied
with these ? Is there no grander civilisation for us ; no more blessedness than a life and
death struggle ? I for one do net believe it; I see in reality no cruel Destiny com
manding it to be so. All things have a cause ; and there is a cause for Poverty. There
is Poverty, universal, degrading, damnable Poverty; men have a life and death
Straggle for existence ; but who is responsible for such a state of things ? Are we not
�4
41
ourselves responsible? The remedy is before us ; we need only apply it. There is no
Tyrant-God ruling over us. Is not the world ours ? The earth will grow us corn and
cotton if we only sow ; will give us food, clothing, light, and heat. Where lies the
fault ? Is it not ours ? The life of mankind is not a life of blessedness at present; we
must make it a life of blessedness. Not the bare necessaries of existence should be the
ultimatum of our desires ; but the abundance that will make life worth living. Let us
try. If in the nature of things such an acquisition be impossible ; if it be decreed by
the immutable laws of the universe that Poverty must exist, then I say with Carlyle,
“ So scandalous a beggarly universe deserves nothing but annihilation,”
WHY WE ARE POOR.
1
How can a man become rich ? What is it that will make a man rich ? You would
say if a shoemaker was making 1,000 pairs of shoes in a day instead of two pairs, that he
was on the road to wealth. Precisely so. If a shoemaker, who by making two pairs
of shoes in a day struggled through life, then he certainly has a better chance of a more
human existence when he can make 1,000 pairs in a day. So also a farmer who rears
1,000 head of cattle has a better chance of being richer than if he only reared ten head
of cattle. For i,ooo pairs of shoes are worth more than two pairs; and i,ooo cows are
worth more than ten cows. The first condition of wealth therefore is;—A man must
have a large amount of saleable commodity of some kind. The greater the amount the
richer he will be.
But though that is the first condition, it is not sufficient. What would be the use of
you making i,ooo pairs of shoes per day if competition with other shoemakers forced you
to sell at a trifling profit; or if people were so poor that they could not buy your shoes.
So then it is not enough that you have a great amount of saleable commodity ; another
condition is necessary. Other persons must have commodities to give you in exchange
for your shoes. What would be the use of you making i.ooo pairs of shoes per day if you
could not exchange them for other commodities necessary for your daily wants ? Tobe
wealthy, or in other words, to have all your wants satisfied, implies two conditions,
viz., you must by your labour produce a great amount; secondly, others must also pro
duce an equivalent amount. The most illiterate workman knows that these two condi
tions are implied in a good day’s wages. If you are a shoemaker, you know that the
more work you do in the day, and the greater the demand for shoes, the greater will be
your wages for that day. So also with every other occupation. The more you produce,
therefore the richer you will be; provided there be a demand for the produce of your
labour. If a shoemaker can make two of pairs shoes in a day, he will be twice as rich if he
can make 4 pairs in a day ; he will be fifty times as rich if he can make 100 pairs in the
day; provided that the condition of demand is co-existing. The question, therefore,
“ How can we become richer ? ” is reduced to this one, “ How can we increase the
produce of labour, and at the same time maintain an equivalent demand for that
produce? ”
HOW INCREASE THE PRODUCE OF LABOUR.
'T
.IP,
Do you imagine that a shoemaker or tailor, who works before his fire plying his awl
or his needle, will ever become richer by that means ? Never. He may by working late
and early add a little to his income ; but that little would be totally insignificant. Take
your ordinary shoemaker or tailor, and you will say that in order to live a life worthy of
being called Life, they should be at least twenty times as rich as they are. They must
consequently produce twenty times as much as they are producing inorder to be twenty
times as rich. Men can never become richer till the produce of their labour increases.
How then can the produce of labour be increased ? Evidently men cannot be left to
themselves, to -work when and how they wish. The shoemaker cannot be left to ply his
aw’l at his own leisure, “ far from the busy haunts of men.” The greatest result in
labour is got from combination or co-operation. A man who by his own aid can make
ten pins in a day, will in a factory make 1,000 in the same amount of time. It is the
combination of all sorts of skill working in union that has enabled men to become
millionaires. We say, therefore, that the only means of increasing the produce of man s
labour is the combination of all the individual workers into factories adapted for their
several employments. Machinery is the great increaser of the labour of man. Brain
and muscle power is valued a thousandfold when applied to machinery. The shoe
maker who expends his energy in finishing off a shoe, can finish 100 shoes with the same
amount of energy when it directs the forces of Nature. The highest result of individual
labour is obtained, therefore, by co-operation and scientific machinery.
�5
HOW MAINTAIN A DEMAND FOR THE PRODUCE OF LABOUR.
A shoemaker may make 1,000 pairs of shoes in the day by the aid of machinery : even
the enormous produce of our factories may increase a hundred-fold ; but what advan
tage would all that be if competition forced down the prices to an irreducible minimum;
or if the poverty of would-be buyers was the cause of the goods lying on hand unsold ?
In order that any advantage may arise from increased production, there must be a
demand for that increase; that is, these two phenomena, Competition and Poverty,
must cease to exist. Competition which forces a man to sell at the lowest possible rate,
and Poverty which condemns the produce of a man’s labour to rot on shelves, are
the two evils which would render an increase of produce on the part of a portion of the
community of no appreciable utility. As we stated before, the only two conditions of
wealth are: ist. increased produce on the part of workers; 2nd. a universal demand
for that produce. To increase the produce of your labour, with a co-existing co
ordinate demand means to increase your wealth; the same conditions carried to an
indefinite degree means indefinite wealth. We have shown how the produce of labour
can be increassd ; we have now to show how a demand for that produce can be main
tained.
The two evils which prevent a universal demand for the produce of labour are poverty
and competition. Let us deal first with poverty. We mean that if a certain portion of
a community work, and produce a certain amount of commodities, and the other
portion, for whom part of these commodities are intended, do not work and produce,
and consequently have nothing to give in exchange for their wants, these commodities
so produced will have to lie unsold. The poverty therefore of those who do not work
is a direct reason why there is no demand for commodities produced ; it nullifies the
labour of those who have produced ; it leaves the producer in the same position as if
he had not produced at all.
It is evident, therefore, that all must work ; there must be no exceptions. There is
no use in one-half of a population working and producing, and leaving the produce to
rot because the other half who have not worked are not able to buy. Labour must be
compulsory. The more labourers, the more wealth. If the poverty of a portion of a
community be the direct cause of the poverty of the other portion, no matter how much
the other portion may produce, then, the only remedy is to remove the poverty by
compelling all to work. No other remedy is possible, Not only must all be compelled
to work, all must be compelled to work in such a manner as to obtain the maximum
result from their labour : the more work the more wealth.
But though actual poverty may be removed by compelling all to work, and a demand
in general created for saleable commodities, still the evil of competition would remain.
Certain branches of industry would compete with other branches of the same industry ;
and while such a condition would exist increased production would only have the effect
of increasing the evil. Competition, therefore, must cease to exist. How. can com
petition be made to cease ? There is only one way : there must be equilibrium ot
occupations, that is, the various industries must be so balanced, that the amount pro
duced in any one industry must not be a surplus of what there is a demand for. If the
produce of any one industry were more abundant than there was a demand for, then
there would be depression or stagnation in that industry. We do not mean, as
some political economists mean who cry out that there is overproduction, that
industries in general should be restricted ; we mean only that industries should not
be allow to overgrow themselves. That does not mean that men should be kept half
idle; if men are not wanted in one industry, there are plenty of other industries for
them.
Hence we conceive that with every man working so that he may have something to
to give in exchange for his wants; with every man, aided by science, producing the
greatest possible amount so that he may have the greatest possible amount to give in
exchange for his unlimited wants ; with equilibrium of occupations, so that no particular
industry would produce more than the population naturally demanded, we conceive
that poverty would be unknown; that the present barbarism and savagery of our
civilisation would disappear ; and society would have more of the elements of perfection.
NO-CAUSES AND FALSE REMEDIES.
I. Ov.er-Population.—Since the dawn of political economy as a science, " over
population ” has been adduced as one among the causes of poverty. That " over-popu
lation ” is essentially a source of poverty is self-evident, if we attach any meaning at all
to the word. If the population of the British Isles were such that in town and country,
�6
moorland and upland, a man could just rind elbow room, then indeed you would say we
were over-populated ; and should try to find elbowroom in some other part of the globe
But we have not arrived at such straitened circumstances as that yet; we are in fact a
considerable distance from that. It is one thing to say over-population is an evil • it is
another to say the British Isles are over-populated. What part of the habitable’globe
was ever yet over-populated ?
We maintain that “ over-population ” is not the cause of either of the two great evils
which we have pointed out as the causes of poverty. We maintain there is no such
phenomenon in the British Isles as " over-population.” That there are multitudes who
can get no employment is no reason for saying there are too many people here. These
multitudes could get employment if labour were properly organised.
Evidently a large population does not diminish the productiveness of labour. Neither
does the fact that there are multitudes without employment prove that there can be no
work here for them ; and that they should go elsewhere to find employment. That
would be the case if the work of a country were identical with the work of miners, who
having a limited quantity of work to do, must necessarily have it finished at some time.
When the mine is worked out, they must go to some other mine. But the work of a
nation is not identical with that. The manufacturer will never be in want of materials
for labour. He can dig down 4,000 miles without injuring his neighbour. To illustrate
further Suppose a settlement of 1,000 persons had formed a society among themselves,
and by judicious apportioning of occupations, had formed themselves into a miniature
nation, in which each man found ample demand for the product of his labour, why could
not 1,000, or 10,000 more settle down there too, provided they adopted and maintained
the same internal.organisation as the first thousand. Where everyone found demand for
the product of his labour, there would be no cry of ‘‘over-population.” But if that
internal organisation were destroyed, and occupations lost their commercial equilibrium,
then, necessarily there would be a loss of employment for some. Suppose a few thousand
missionaries were to go to Africa to evangelise the Hottentots, there would probably be
a cry from some after a time that there. was" over-population " in the Hottentot terri
tory. But [let these few thousand missionaries betake themselves to the making of
drums, wooden pipes, spears, or whatever may be in demand, and the “ over-popula
tion ” would disappear. It is not “ over-population ” that causes want of employment;
it is want of employment that causes “ over-population.” It is the want of equilibrium
or organisation in the occupations of life that condemns men to walk about idle, when
they earnestly desire to work. The existing poverty will not be alleviated by diminish
ing the population. As long as'the various industries remain unorganised, as long as
some are permitted to live in voluntary pauperism and beggary, as long as one industry
is permitted to compete with another, to reduce the value of labour to its lowest value,
so long, with ‘‘overpopulation,” or a sparse population, poverty will exist.
II. Landlordism.—No greater despotism or diabolical wrong than our present
system of landlordism could exist on the surface of the earth. It has been the cause of
misery and death to millions through all the centuries of its existence. It has given a
few a monopoly over the soil of this earth, which was made for the human race; and
thereby has consigned the happiness and lives of the many to the caprice or selfish
tyranny of the few. Men have been forced by landlordism to life-long slavery, not for
their own benefit, but for the benefit of others.
Humane men, therefore, seeing the evils of the accursed system, have cried out for
the destruction of landlordism. Such a cry cannot and will not be vain. Landlordism,
or private property in land, is unjust, and must be swept away. But though landlordism
has restricted the spirit of progress in man, and prevented the development of natural
wealth; it . must be remembered that its abolition would be only half a remedy.
Abolished it must be; but its abolition will not alone suffice as a foundation for
national prosperity. There are many who believe that if private property in land were
abolished, we would then be on the road to wealth and happiness. But land nationali
sation would only be a means towards the first condition of wealth, viz., increased pro
duction. It would not accomplish the second condition, viz., equilibrium of occupa
tions. Were the land owned by the State, we would then have co-operation in labour,
aided by scientific machinery, as the suitable means of getting the greatest produce
from the land, We would then expect increased production from the land. But with
out equilibrium of occupations there would be the same life and death struggle as now.
Were the land possessed by the State there would be increased production ; but what
would that avail if competition forced down the prices of that produce to a low degree.
Land must be nationalised, as the first condition towards increased production ; it must
be followed by equilibrium of occupations.
If State ownership be not of itself the whole remedy, how much less the ownership
�called “ Peasant Proprietary,’’ You will not abolish the evils of landlordism by creating
an army of landlords. You will not destroy a great evil, says Henry George, by
chopping it up into small pieces. To talk of “ peasant proprietary ” bringing any appre
ciable happiness to the cultivators of the soil is to talk nonsense. It is said existing
rents are too high. But suppose all the rent of the United Kingdom were abolished,
what perceptible benefit would it be to any individual in the United Kingdom? The
rental of the land of the “ United Kingdom ” is about ^67,000,000. Wererent abolished,
it would be equivalent to a donation of less than £2 for every one of the population.
“ Well, you say that itself would be something.” Yes, indeed; it would procure for
each a suit of clothes, or some trifling playtoy. It may be said that present high rents
are the cause of great poverty ; but you will not introduce an era of blessedness or
tolerable prosperity by merely reducing them, or even abolishing them. In our present
social condition a few pounds is a matter almost of Life or Death for many ; but if the
life of'man is to be anything beyond the damnable inane anarchy of to-day, a few
pounds will be a matter ®f indifference.
The present cultivators of the soil may desire to have the land sub-divided and allotted
to them, to take their stand on it, and call it their own ; but there are more people in
the British Isles besides the cultivators of the soil. To-day the majority when they rise
in the morning cannot point to any spot of earth, and say, “ Here can I rest unsubjected
to the caprice of any one man to drive me forth a wanderer.” Were land allotted even
in minute sub-divisions to individuals the same could not be said. The entire abolition
of private property is necessary for the first condition of wealth. To sub-divide land
would be a means of preventing co-operation, and far from introducing wealth, would
probably be not a means towards a greater increase of production than we have at pre
sent. But whether there would be increased or decreased production would not be a
matter of much moment as long as our present anarchy of labour existed.
The worst evils of humanity are associated with landlordism. These evils will not
be abolished by instituting the system of landlordism on a small scale, or on any scale
of it. The improvidence, recklessness, and poverty have been a necessary outcome of
the system; and the effects will not be removed till the cause is removed.
III. Overproduction.—-Many remarkable cries have been raised since the creation
of the world, but this cry of “ Overproduction ” seems to be the most remarkable. I
do not. see how any man of common intelligence would say there was such a thing as
overproduction. “You have produced too much,” they say; “the supply is greater
than the demand.” Well, I can only say with Carlyle “ That is a novelty in this in
temperate earth, with its nine hundred millions of bare backs ! ” Good heavens ! what
shall we say of the audacity of the man who stands up and declares too much has been
produced. “ The supply is greater than the demand.” Indeed ! And will you tell me
at what time since the creation of Adam was there a greater demand for all the com
modities which this world can supply ? Millions of bare backs, shoeless feet, hatless
heads, and empty stomachs ; and still the cry is “ there is too much produced.” We
who are workers call God to witness that we cannot lay our hands upon one-twentieth
of what we demand. A supply to satisfy us may be existing on the earth, but gods and
demons forbid us to touch it.
There are millions of commodities hanging up in the shops, and no one buys them.
Very true. But if people came and bought as fast as you could take them down, you
would not say then that there was “overproduction.” People say there is overpro
duction when commodities cannot be sold. But why cannot they be sold ? Evidently
because those who would buy them have no money. And now the ultimate question,
why the would-be buyers have no money, is the very question.we are trying to solve,
and certainly will not be solved by saying that overproduction is the cause of poverty
and no demand; when the fact is that there was never in the world’s history a time
when workers required more if they could only obtain it. There are millions of com
modities, I say, hanging up in shops and we cannot obtain them. We have no means
of obtaining them. Give us the means of obtaining them and then there will not be
overproduction. Grant us the means of producing more, and then we will have more to
give in exchange for all these commodities rotting on shelves.
Increased production on the part of every one is the first condition of wealth ; what
absurdity then to say there is overproduction. For such a ravenous, covetous animal
as man there could never be such a thing as overproduction.
And you would remedy what you call overproduction by compelling workers to cease
their producing for some time until we all get naked and hungry, and then, you say
there will be a universal demand for all kinds of commodities. But if I cannot
obtain one-hundreth of what I want now, how will I obtain all what I want by ceasing
to produce ? The evil lies not with overproduction ; it lies in the fact that there is not
universal production—equilibrating production on each individual’s part.
�8
. IV. 1. REE I rade.—What does Free Trade mean ? It means free and unrestricted
importation of goods. Free Trade has been condemned as the cause of poverty and
depression of trade. The various industries of the “ United Kingdom ’• have had to
compete with foreign produce. Such competition has had the effect of decreasing
prices here, and creating overflowing markets. On such grounds has Free Trade been
condemned.
But suppose we returned to either partial or complete prohibition, how would the
two great evils of deficient production, and anarchy of occupations be remedied ? To
institute protection or prohibition either partially or wholly would be useless unless the
industries were organised. The two essential remedies of increased production on the
part of all and equilibrium of occupations, must be instituted first; all other remedies
will be merely subsidiary.
Absolute Free Trade has its evils just as landlordism has its evils. But the abolition of
,fee Jrade or landlordism would be of themselves only half remedies. No one can ration
ally deny that absolute Free Trade may ruin a country. Were the sole industry of the
United Kingdom orange-growing, and had it to compete with Spain, it is evident our
orange-growmg would be useless. The natural advantages of one country may render
some of its industries capable of destroying similar industries in other less favoured
countries. Absolute Free Trade has not the advantages claimed for it. Its advocates
point to the extension of our industries as a result of Free Trade. They point also to
cheapened prices and say it has brought luxuries within the reach o’f all. But if prices
of commodities have been cheapened, labour has also been cheapened, and consequently
its good effects have been counteracted. As to the extension of industries, they have
been forced into existence by pressure of competition. Absolute Free Trade cannot
continue. It would be antagonistic to the equilibrium of occupations. We will retain
what is lawful of tree Trade; we will abolish what is detrimental. We must have free
what we cannot produce; we must prohibit what we can produce in abundance.
V. Non-Co-Operation.—There are some who say the poverty of the people can be
remedied by co-operation among the people themselves. No one will deny that co
operation is the only means of getting the highest production from labour ; but it must
be remembered that there are two conditions for wealth and prosperity, viz :—-Increased
production and equilibrium of occupations. With co-operation, increased production
would come, but not equilibrium of occupations. Competition would still be in exist
ence, and would be at a higher rate than now. The fact that there is not general co
operation at present does not account for the universal poverty ; for with co-operation,
the competition of the various trades would tend towards their destruction.
. V?' Capitalism.—The Socialists of to-day cry out for the abolition of capitalists.
Capitalists have tyrannised over the workers; have given them wages barely able to
sustain life ; these have been the evils of capitalism. But capitalism is not universal;
and yet poverty is universal. Were the existing system of capitalism swept away, and
the operatives themselves formed into co-operative communities, by each one contri
buting a share of capital, I say even that would be no safeguard against competition
and consequent depression. Co-operative societies have flourished ; but that has been
because of their limited number : if the whole British Isles were formed into co-opera
tive communities there would still be competition. Co-operation truly means increased
production, and consequently increase of wealth ; but it in nowise means just distribution
of wealth. With co-operative communities alone men may work as long and laboriously
as now, and still reap very little benefits of it.
VII. Intemperance, Improvidence, Want of Education.—It is said the evils of intem
perance and improvidence have kept portions of the masses in a condition bordering on
absolute starvation. The amount we spend in intoxicating drinks yearly in the British
Isles is /126,000,000. It is about ^3 per head of the population. Do you believe that
by rooting out intemperance, and thereby saving to everyone that ^3, you will per
ceptibly increase the welfare of the people ? Three pounds granted to each individual
in the year is only a matter of a plain loaf or a sweet one occasionally. We claim for
every individual a life embracing all the advantages which modem civilisation can
bestow. Do we possess that now; or are we in any slight degree approaching it ?
Intemperance must be destroyed as one cf the many evils of life ; but its destruction
must be accompanied by intelligent scientific organisation of mankind. The one will
not suffice without the other.
The want of technical education among our industrial classes has been assigned as
one of the causes of our chronic poverty. We are said to be far behind some of the
Continental countries. Truly. Germany was the first European country to recognise
the advantage of technical training ; and, as a consequence, she has made more progress
than any other country in manufacturing. But at the same time there are two techni-
�9
callj' trained men in Germany for every one that can find employment suited to his
training. All these so-called remedies are useless without equilibrium of occupations.
You may train workmen to the highest degree in their profession but unless the number
trained in each profession be regulated by the demand for them you will have com
petition among the members of these professions, and consequent low wages. Educa
tion alone therefore is no remedy.
HOW APPLY THE REMEDY.
Who is to apply the remedy? Who is to compel the unwilling to work; locate
isolated workers into co-operation; and determine the equilibrium of occupations ?
Evidently such work is the work of a government.
At first sight there may appear difficulties in the way of applying the remedy. But
why should there be a difficulty in applying a remedy if that remedy be proved to be
for the benefit of the people. The first duty of the government would be to divide the
population into industrial communities, so that each community may be capable of
being centres for factories. The next duty would be to determine approximately the
amount of every saleable commodity for which there would be a demand in every com
munity. Let us suppose one of these industrial divisions to consist of 10,000 persons.
We can determine approximately the number of shoes for these 10,000 persons to be
50,000 pairs in the year ; the number of hats 40,000; the number of loaves of bread
30,000. per week. That being determined for such a community, we see that if one
shoemaker could make 1,000 pairs of shoes in a year, then 50 shoemakers would be re
quired for such a community. More shoemakers than 50 in that community would be
an injury to each other. So if one hatter could make 1,000 hats in a year, then 40
hatters would be required for the same community. And if one baker could bake
3,000 loaves in a week, then 10 bakers would be required.
But you say, " What would the remaining 9,900 persons be doing?” Have we not
wants enough to keep these 9,900 employed, even supposing an occupation to be allotted
to each man. There are about 12,000 different occupations in the British Isles ; every
man needs a little of the service of each. Given the amount required to be produced ;
and also the amount each person is capable of producing, it is only a problem of arith
metic to find how many workers are required in each occupation, so as to create an
equilibrium of supply and demand. The population of the British Isles is about
35,000,000 ; the amount of every commodity utilised in daily use by such a population
can be determined. The number to be employed in each occupation can be determined.
We look forward to the development of science, and the means of shortening human
labour, or, at least, the means of getting the greatest possible produce from a man’s
labour, as the principal means of increasing the welfare of man. You may object :
In case machinery and science should be so developed, that comparatively few would be
able by working all day to supply all the necessaries required by the population, multi
tudes would have no occupation; for the very reason, you say, that machinery, and all
means of high production, would tend, as it has tended in the past, to throw persons out
of employment. Granting that such a high rate of production may arise, and that
comparatively few could supply multitudes, it would not follow, that equilibrium of
occupations would be destroyed. If comparatively few, working ten hours a day could
supply ten times their own number, then by reducing the time of labour down to one
hour a day, both suppliers and supplied would have their share of work. The approxi
mate amount of commodities of every description required for the population being
determined ; the numbers to be employed in each occupation, based on the resources
of scientific research being determined ; the next duty of the State would be to organise
the factories already existing, and to institute others in localities naturally adapted to
such factories.
In order that the State may institute and organise factories to the best advantage,
it will be necessary for the State to be the owner of all lands and buildings. Land
must therefore be nationalised. Society must be nationalised. Private individuals
could not be left in possession of either buildings or land ; because the tenants would
have to pay rent to the owners ; and the payment of rent or interest to any private indi
vidual is another name for tyranny and robbery. The State must become the owner of
all lands, railways, ships, buildings, and all means of distribution and exchange. Com
pensation must be given for all these. How much compensation should be given ; or
whether any should be given for land, are debatable questions; but those who are
desirous that our present system of anarchy and poverty should cease, will not dispute
about reasonable compensation. Following, however, computations already made, the
land value of the United Kingdom has been estimated at £,2,000,000,000 ; the railways
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♦
�12
world, what then can be said in its favour ? Poverty has existed now for some hundreds
and thousands of years ; but that is no proof that it is impossible to remove it.
Poverty has existed for centuries, not because of any laws of the Creator, but because
of the laws of men—because of Might against Right. The day has now come when the
few shall not trample the many ; when Might and Right shall be on the same side. A
nobler life than the present is possible for every man; I have shown it to be possible.
No laws of God or the Devil prevent it being possible ; it is man himself that renders it
impossible.
The human race want organisation of labour, equilibrium of occupations. The era
that introduces that, will be a blessed one. Then the time, money, and energy a man
will expend will not be spent in vain ; he will gain some reward for his labour. If his
ambition be reasonable he will have the satisfaction of seeing it gratified. The inhuman
feline scramble for wealth will then cease. The evil deeds which men commit in order
to attain ends they cannot attain by fair means will no longer be necessary. Men will
not then be afraid to live; self-destruction will not be necessary to end the miseries
which are the companions of poverty.
Men too will become more human; more God-like; less brutal: less demon-like.
Incessant drudgery, which deforms the body and leaves no opportunity for intellectual
culture or enjoyment will vanish into the past. Society then will deserve the name.
Each human being brought into this world will be deemed a blessing, not a curse. A
bright era of intelligence will take the place of stupidity and ignorance. Men will
realise that we cannot live without society ; that the more intelligent a man is, the
better for his neighbour. “ It is as reala loss," says Emerson, “ that others should be
low, as that we should be low; for we must have society."
WHO IS TO APPLY THE REMEDY ?
Here let us ask the question : How is it that although schemes for the welfare of
mankind have been propounded, have been demonstrated to be for the good of the
people, have been fought for, still they are unaccomplished ? The masses through all
ages have wished to be emancipated from their slavery ; there have been brave men
through all ages who have struggled for their redemption ; yet their redemption has
not been realised. How comes it ? Well, the reasons are clear. The people of a
country are compelled to be subject to the laws of the country. The laws for the
masses of mankind have through centuries been made by the few who have made them
in their own interest. From the dawn of history the few who have managed to get
possession of the wealth and power have made laws to degrade others in order to elevate
themselves. The laws were not made to benefit the people, because those who made
the laws did not represent the people.
But you say we have changed all that now; the lawmakers now represent the people—
at least the people give them the opportunity of making laws. Perfectly true. But
though the masses have the power of electing persons to represent them in national
assemblies, of what use is that if the people who are to decide for or against Reform are
so ignorant concerning social evils and social remedies that they are unable to knowtbe
merits or demerits of the remedies proposed. One-half of the people of a country are
generally opposed in their opinions on social questions to the other half. Not till the
majority of the people are freed from hallucinations ; not till they come to understand
thoroughly the real causes of human poverty, and the futility of the so-called remedies
of to-day, can you expect any more blessed era than the one we live in. The people
must be educated. Till that is accomplished, nothing is accomplished. It is folly to
suppose that because people are taught to read, they will read, or will be capable of
seeking out for themselves a solution t® the problem of human misery. It is true the
masses are able to read: it is in nowise true that they are able to think. For the
thousand men says Ruskin, who can read and speak, you will find one who can think.
The masses are ignorant and indifferent. If there is to be a nobler life for them their
ignorance and indifference must vanish. "Why are the masses," says Emerson,
" from the dawn of history down, food for knives and powder "? The heirloom of the
masses from the dawn of history down, has been poverty and misery ; and they have
grown so accustomed to it that they take it for granted that poverty must exist in the
world. They have no hope beyond the present. Their only desire is to obtain sufficient
to keep them alive. We can account for such a low standard of human progress ; for
anyone who looks around him, and sees the cruel wrongs and sufferings that men endure
without uttering a word of complaint, will also see that poverty and misery are looked
upon as a thing which must necessarily be, and for which there is no remedy.
When the ignorance of the people will pass away, their indifference will pass away.
They must be educated : in that lies the hope of better things. They must be taught
�13
that there is a remedy for poverty, They must be made to know what that remedy is.
Alas ! what a world of labour lies open there before all earnest men.
One of the many reasons which have kept, and are still keeping nations in a state of
slavery, has been the absence of organised union. They who fight for nobler aims
must fight in unison. And not a union of sentiments alone will win the battle ; but
steady, wise co-operation. Can you point to any nation where the people as a whole
are acting in real unison for their common good ? No. The masses condemned to toil
for mere subsistence, either in the dingy lanes of crowded cities, or on the lone wastes
of mountain land, have no time or energy to think of remedies for social evils even if they
would. Do I then expect from these downtrodden masses the commencement of a new
era? No; but I look forward to those select few to whom the favour of Nature and
Human Destiny have given souls capable of feeling for the degradation of their fellow
men, and clear-sighted intelligence to see wherein lies the cause of our miseries. I look
forward to those noble and courageous few who have endured the worst hardships of
life, have triumphed over them, and are determined to lead a nobler existence or die.
I look not to the things called “ Governments ” for the advancement of a nation, but to
the nation itself. “What intellect,” says Carlyle, “can regulate the affairs of these
millions of labouring men ? No one—great and greatest intellect can do it. What
can ? Only these millions of ordinary intellects, once awakened into action ; these well
presided over may do it.” By each individual getting a clear idea of what he is to do,
and what must be done—only by that means can a nation prosper.
But how can the people be educated ? Let us learn from the past. Men have
laboured in the past, and have written books to point out to mankind a pathway from
their slavery, but their efforts have been vain ; they have passed away unknown to the
working millions. Even to-day movements are on foot for the regeneration of the
human race ; but the nature of these movements are known only to those immediately
connected with them. It is not sufficient to scatter noble opinions broadcast; there are
barren soils for them to fall on. It is in the real contact of mind with mind that the
dormant intelligence rouses itself into action. Men come together in the market place
to buy and sell the scanty produce of each others' labour; but they must also come
together in order to elevate human existence.
Looking forward earnestly to the advent of a more human existence, and asking
myself the grounds of my hope, I again appeal to those noble few in whom the spirit of
Right and Justice must make itself known against oppression and injustice. Ye
courageous Few! my hope rests upon you. Organize! organize! organize your fellow
men. They are ignorant, and know not the way ; you must point it out to them. The poor
two-footed slave far away on his mountain patch knows nothing of you or of your thoughts
till you speak. Hide not, I say, the light that has been given you. Gather together
your fellow-men in the thoroughfares and there teach them that a nobler life than a life
of slavery is possible for every man. The doctrines which have caught men’s hearts,
and which they have followed for centuries, were so preached. Teach them there is a
remedy for all the miseries of our present existence ; that they themselves are to apply
it. Is there a man who shall dare to say we are well enough ? For the base, worthless,
indifferent you must have pity. You may have enemies, as all noble men have had
since the creation of the world. But fear not; the spirit of a nobler existence is abroad,
and the time of man’s redemption is at hand. The institutions of the past have failed
to bring social happiness to mankind. They must change. There are some who cannot
foresee the good a change may bring them ; but fear they may lose by it. These will be
your enemies. But venture forward ; you shall have the many millions on your side.
You may make sacrifices, but you should remember that there is but one life given you,
and no chance for you for evermore after that. The tomb shall close over you, and
your chance of leading a noble life and of causing others to lead it shall have passed
away for ever.
Is life worth living at present ? “ Life is an ecstasy” says Emerson; but alas how
few there are who can say likewise. Is it worth living a life of monotonous drudgery ?
There is no form of life worth living at the present moment if it be not in combatting
with all the energy that is in you against the tyrannical wrongs, the insane bedlam delu
sions of our age. No Demon-God is ruling over and condemning you to misery and
scorn. If we are in misery it is because of our own unwisdom. Then why are we
unwise ? If the life of man can be elevated why not attempt it ? This beautiful earth
was made for us, and shall we be condemned to drag out our existence in some obscure
corner without any chance of beholding the fairest portions of it? The wonders of
creation and the knowledge and secrets gained by generations are unknown to the mass
of men : they are born and they die as the lower animals. Let us then urge forward,
fearing not for the cause that has Justice and the masses of men on its side, heeding not
�M
the opposition of those who foolishly fear a change, and be determined that we mus;
have a better life, or die nobly struggling for it. Let us not fear: we shall not be alone
the whole civilized world has risen against tyranny, oppression, and slavery. When all
men shall know each others efforts, and shall be bound together in one common brother
hood, to demand freedom it shall not be denied them.
SUMMARY.
Chap. I.—The feelings of man are easily aroused; he will rise up in resentment
against an angry look er word. But why not arise with noble indignation and with
earnest endeavour strive to throw off the yoke of poverty that outrages all the dearest
instincts of man ?
Chap. II.—Why are we poor ? We are poor because, first, we do not produce enough :
second, the demand for the products of labour is not co-ordinate with production itself.
Chap. III.—How, then, can we increase the produce of labour ? By co-operation ; bv
the establishment of factories; by the highest adaptation of scientific machinery ; by
compulsory labour.
Chap. IV—How maintain a co-ordinate demand for the produce of labour? By
establishing equilibrium of occupation ; by having as many workers in an occupation
and no more than the wants of the community necessitate.
Chap. V.—What are the false remedies for our universal poverty? Diminution of
population, destruction of landlordism, restriction of production, protection, co-opera
tion, abolition of capitalism, education, temperance, providence.
To diminish population by emigration or other means, and still leave occupations
disorganised, will not cause any decrease in the universal poverty.
The United
Kingdom seems to be over-populated because the workers are not organised. In a
community either populous or otherwise, without equilibrium or organisation of occupa
tions, the great monster of Competition will exist. So with the other false remedies,
which are no remedies because such phenomena as over-population, over-production,
intemperance, improvidence are the effects of poverty and the disorganisation of
occupations ; while the abolition of landlordism, free trade, and capitalism would be
only half-remedies.
HOW APPLY THE REMEDY.
Chap. VI.—The State would (ist) determine approximately the amount of every saleable
commodity necessary for the population. (2nd) It should determine the number of workers
to be employed in each industry, so as to produce the amount required, and no more.
(3rd) The occupations so organised should be carried on co-operatively, totally under
State supervision, compulsorily. The State must be the owner of all lands, conveyances,
means of transit, of distribution and exchange. Everything tending to destroy equi
librium of occupations should be prohibited.
OBJECTIONS.
Chap. VII.—Is not our production as high as we could expect ? Does not competition
bring cheap articles within the reach of all ? How is it possible for the State to buy up such
immense property as the land, railways, ships, buildings ? At the high rate of produc
tion proposed, would not some industries in a short time produce so much that there
would be no further use for them ? Would not increased habits of industry, thrift, and
temperance remove poverty ?
ADVANTAGES OF THE REMEDY.
Chap. VIII.—Life would cease to be an inanity and a warfare. To become rich it would
not be necessary for one to prey on another. A man’s ambition would be realised.
Inhuman strife and dark deeds would be unknown.
Man will become more god
like, less demon-like.
WHO IS TO APPLY THE REMEDY ?
Chap, IX.—The people must apply the remedy, The people must be educated, must be
made to understand there is a remedy for poverty ; that they themselves are to apply the
remedy. They must be taught that poverty is the worst crime in the world ; that they
are many, their oppressors few. They must know that henceforth their watchwords
must be “ Union ! ” “ Organisation ' ” You whom nature has gifted with a love of.
justice and nobleness, be you in the vanguard, and in social circle or public thorough
fare, by word and action, proclaim the doctrine of man's social redemption !
�OBJECT.
The Establishment of a Free Condition of Society based on the prin
ciple of Political Equality, with Equal Social Rights for all and the
complete Emancipation of Labour.
PROGRAMME.
1. All Officers or Administrators to be elected by Equal Direct Adult
Suffrage, and to be paid by the Community._
2. Legislation by the People, in such wise that no project of Law
shall become legally binding till accepted by the Majority of the People.
3. The Abolition of a Standing Army, and the Establishment of a
National Citizen Force; the People to decide on Peace or War.
4. All Education, higher no less than elementary, to be Free, Com
pulsory, Secular, and Industrial for all alike.
5. The Administration of Justice to be Free and Gratuitous for all
Members of Society.
6. The Land with all the Mines, Railways and other Means of Tran
sit, to be declared and treated as Collective or Common Property.
7. Ireland and all other parts of the Empire to have Legislative
Independence.
8. The Production of Wealth to be regulated by Society in the com
mon interest of all its Members.
9. The Means of Production, Distribution and Exchange to be
declared and treated as Collective or Common Property.
As measures called for to palliate the evils of our existing society the
Social-Democratic Federation urges for immediate adoption
The Compulsory Construction of healthy artizan’s and agricultura
labourers’ dwellings in proportion to the population, such dwellings to
be let at rents to cover the cost of construction and maintenance alone.
Free Compulsory Education for all classes, together with the provision
of at least one wholesome meal a day in each school.
Eight Hours or less to be the normal working day in all trades.
Cumulative Taxation upon all incomes above a fixed minimum not
exceeding ^300 a year.
State Appropriation of Railways, with or without compensation.
The establishment of National Banks, which shall absorb all private
institutions that derive a profit from operations in money or credit.
Rapid Extinction of the National Debt.
Nationalisation of the Land, and organisation cf agricultural and
industrial armies under State control on Co-operative principles.
As means for the peaceable attainment of these objects the SocialDemocratic Federation advocates :
Adult Suffrage. Annual Parliaments. Proportional Represen
Payment of Members ; and Official Expenses of Election
out of the Rates.
Abolition of the House of Lords and all
Hereditary Authorities.
Disestablishment and Disendowment
of all State Churches.
tation.
Membership of Branches of the Federation is open to all who agree
with its objects, and subscribe One Penny per week.
Those ready to form Branches should communicate with the
Secretary, Social-Democratic Federation, Bridge House, Blackfriars, E.G.
�Socialism and Soldiering ;
with some comments on the
Army Enlistment Fraud. By George Bateman (Late 23rd Regi
ment), with Portrait. With an introduction by H. H. Champion
(Late Royal Artillery). Price One Penny.
The Working Man’s Programme
(Arbeiter Pro-
gramm). By Ferdinand Lassalle. Translated from the German
by Edward Peters. Crown 8-vo., paper cover, price 6d.
The Robbery of the Poor.
Demy 8-vo., paper cover, price 6d.
By W. H. P. Campbell.
The Appeal to the Young.
By
Prince
Peter
Kropotkin. Translated from the French by H. M. Hyndman and
reprinted from Justice. Royal 8-vo., 16-pp. Price one penny.
The most eloquent and noble appeal to the generous emotions ever penned bv a
scientific man. Its author has just suffered five years' imprisonment at the hands of the
French Republic for advocating the cause of the workers
Wage-Labour and Capital.
From the German of
Karl Marx translated by J. L. Joynes and reprinted from Justice.
New and cheaper edition, Royal 8-vo., price id.
By Edward Carpenter.—Social
Progress and Indi
The Man with the Red Flag:
B eing John Burns’
vidual Effort ; Desirable Mansions ; and Co-operative Production.
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I ’Ik
14
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April gth, 1886. (From the Verbatim Notes of the official short
hand reporter.) With Portrait. Price threepence.
The Socialist Catechism.
with additions from Justice.
By J. L. Joynes. Reprinted
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(in
reply to Mr. Herbert Spencer’s article on “ The Coming Slavery.”)
New Edition, with portrait. 16 pp. Royal 8-vo., price one penny.
The Emigration Fraud Exposed.
By
What an Eight Hours Bill Means.
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H.
M.
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mission from the Nineteenth
for February, 1885. Crown 8-vo.,
price one penny.
(Amalgamated Engineers). New edition with portrait.
Thousand. Price one penny.
Socialism and the Worker.
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A.
Sixth
Sorge.
Price id.
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The Chicago Riots and the Class War in the
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Price one penny.
International Trade Union Congress,
t
August, 1886. Report by Adolphe Smith.
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held at Paris,
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�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The nationalisation of society
Creator
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L'Auton, J. Theodore
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 14, [2] p. ; 27 cm.
Notes: Publisher's list and information on the Social-Democratic Programme on unnumbered pages at the end.
Publisher
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The Modern Press
Date
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1887
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G4980
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Socialism
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Text
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English
Nationalisation
Socialism
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Text
Price One Penny.
NOW SUFFFRING FIVE YEARS* IMPRISONMENT UNDER
THE
FRENCH REPUBLIC FOR ADVOCATING THE
CAUSE OF THE PEOPLE.
Translated by H. M. Hyndman. Reprinted from “TO-DAY" (Monthly 3d.).
1885.
Published at The Modern Press, 13, Paternoster Row, E.C.
T T is to the young that I wish to address myself to-day. Let the
-L old—I mean of course the old in heart and mind—lay the
pamphlet down therefore without tiring their eyes in reading what
will tell them nothing.
I assume that you are about eighteen or twenty years of age ;
that you have finished your apprenticeship or your studies; that
you are just entering on life. I take it for granted that you have a
mind free from the superstition which your teachers have sought to
force upon you ; that you don’t fear the devil and that you do not go
to hear parsons and ministers rant. More, that you are not one of
the fops, sad products of a society in decay, who display their
well-cut trousers and their monkey faces in the park and who even
at their early age have only an insatiable longing for pleasure at
any price. ... I assume on the contrary that you have a
warm heart and for this reason I talk to you.
A first question, I know, occurs to you—you have often asked
yourself—“ What am I going to be ? ” In fact when a man is
young he understands that after having studied a trade or a science
for several years—at the cost of society, mark—he has not done
this in order that he should make use of his acquirements as instru
ments of plunder for his own gain, and he must be depraved
indeed and utterly cankered by vice, who has not dreamed that one
day he would apply his intelligence, his abilities, his knowledge to
help on the enfranchisement of those who to-day grovel in misery
and in ignorance.
You are one of those who has had such a vision, are you not ?
Very well, let us see what you must do to make your dream a
reality.
I do not know in what rank you were born. Perhaps, favoured
�2
by fortune, you have turned your attention to the study of science;
you are to be a doctor, a barrister, a man of letters, or a scientific
man ; a wide field opens up before you ; you enter upon life with
extensive knowledge, with a trained intelligence ; or, on the other
hand, you are, perhaps, only an honest artisan whose knowledge
of science is limited by the little that you have learnt at school;
but you have had the advantage of learning at first hand what
a life of exhausting toil is the lot of the worker of our time.
I stop at the first supposition, to return afterwards to the second ",
I assume then that you have received a scientific education. Let
us suppose that you intend to be a—doctor.
To-morrow a man in corduroys will come to fetch you to see a
sick woman. He will lead you into one of those alleys where the
opposite neighbours can almost shake hands over the heads of the
passers-by ; you ascend into a foul atmosphere by the flickering
light of a little ill-trimmed lamp ; you climb two, three, four, five
flights of filthy stairs and in a dark, cold room you find the sick
woman, lying on a pallet covered with dirty rags. Pale, livid
children, shivering under their scanty garments, gaze at you with
their big eyes wide open. The husband has worked all his life
twelve or thirteen hours a-day at no matter what; now he has
been out of work for three months. To be out of employ is not
rare in his trade; it happens every year, periodically; but,
formerly, when he was out of work his wife went out as a char
woman—perhaps to wash your shirts—at the rate of fifteen-pence
a-day ; but now she has been bedridden for two months and misery
glares upon the family in all its squalid hideousness.
What will you prescribe for the sick woman, doctor ? you who
have seen at a glance that the cause of her illness is general
anaemia, want of good food, lack of fresh air ? Say a good beef
steak every day ? a little exercise in the country ? a dry and wellventilated bed-room ? What irony ! If she could have afforded
it this would have all have been done long since without waiting
for your advice I
If you have a good heart, a frank address, an honest face, the
family will tell you many things. They will tell you that the woman
on the other side of the partition, who coughs a cough which tears
your heart, is a poor ironer; that a flight of stairs lower down
all the children have the fever ; that the washerwoman who occu
pies the ground floor will not live to see the spring, and that in the
house next door things are still worse.
What will you say to all these sick people ? Recommend them
generous diet, change of air, less exhausting toil. . . . You
only wish you could, but you daren’t, and you go out heartbroken
with a curse on your lips.
The next day, as you still brood over the fate of the dwellers in
this dog-hutch, your partner tells you that yesterday a footman
came to fetch him, this time in a carriage. It was for the owner of
a fine house, for a lady worn out with sleepless nights, who devotes
all her life to dressing, visits, balls, and squabbles with a stupid
husband. Your friend has prescribed for her a less preposterous
habit of life, a less heating diet, walks in the fresh air, an even
temperament and, in order to make up in some measure for the
want of useful work, a little gymnastic exercise in her bedroom.
�3
The one is dying because she has never had enough food nor
enough rest in her whole life ; the other pines because she has never
known what work is since she was born.
If you are one of those miserable natures who adapt themselves
to anything, who at the sight of the most revolting spectacles
console themselves with a gentle sigh and a glass of sherry, then
you will gradually become used to these contrasts and the nature
of the beast favouring your endeavours, your sole idea will be to
lift yourself into the ranks of the pleasure-seekers, so that you may
never again find yourself among the wretched. But if you are a
Man, if every sentiment is translated in your case into an action of
the will, if, in you, the beast has not crushed the intelligent being,
then you will return home one day saying to yourself, “ No, it is
unjust; this must not go on so any longer. It is not enough to
cure diseases, we must prevent them. A little good living and
intellectual development would score off our lists half the patients
and half the diseases. Throw physic to the dogs! Air, good diet,
less crushing toil,—that is how we must begin. Without this, the
whole profession of a doctor is nothing but trickery and humbug.”
That very day you will understand Socialism. You will wish
to know it thoroughly and if altruism is not a word devoid of
significance for you, if you apply to the study of the social question
the rigid induction of the natural philosopher you will end by
finding yourself in our ranks, and you will work, as we work, to
bring about the Social Revolution.
But perhaps you will say, “ Mere practical business may go to
the devil! I will devote myself to pure science ; I will be an
astronomer, a physiologist, a chemist. Such work a 5 that always
bears fruit, if only for future generations.”
Let us first try to understand what you seek in devoting your
self to science. Is it only the pleasure—doubtless immense—
which we derive from the study of nature and the exercise of our
intellectual faculties ? In that case I ask you in what respect does
the philosopher, who pursues science in order that he may pass his
life pleasantly to himself, differ from that drunkard there, who only
seeks for the immediate gratification that gin affords him ? The
philosopher has, past all question, chosen his enjoyment more
wisely, since it affords him a pleasure far deeper and more lasting
than that of the toper. But that is all! Both one and the other
have the same selfish end in view, personal gratification.
But no, you have no wish to lead this selfish life. By working
at science you mean to work for humanity, and that is the idea
which will guide you in your investigations.
A charming illusion ! Which of us has not hugged it for a
moment when giving himself up for the first time to science ?
But then, if you are really thinking about humanity, if you look
to the good of mankind in your studies, a formidable objection rises
before you ; for, however little you may have of the critical spirit,
you must at once note that in dur society of to-day science is only
an appendage to luxury which serves to render life pleasanter for
the few, but remains absolutely inaccessible to the bulk of mankind.
�4
Now more than a century has passed since science laid down
sound propositions as to the origin of the universe, but how many
have mastered them or possess the really scientific spirit of
criticism ? A few thousands at the outside, who are lost in the
midst of hundreds of millions still steeped in prejudices and super
stitions worthy of savages, who are consequently ever ready to serve
as puppets for religious impostors.
Or, to go a step further, let us glance at what science has done
to establish rational foundations for physical and moral health.
Science tells us how we ought to live in order to preserve the health
q£ our own bodies, how to maintain in good conditions of existence
the crowded masses of our population. But does not all the vast
amount of work done in these two directions remain a dead letter
in our books ? We know it does. And why ?—Because science
to-day exists only for a handful of privileged persons, because
social inequality which divides society into two classes—the wage
slaves and the grabbers of capital—renders all its teachings as to
the conditions of a rational existence only the bitterest irony to
nine-tenths of mankind.
I could give plenty more examples, but I stop short : only go
outside Faust’s closet, whose windows, darkened by dust, scarce let
the light of heaven glimmer on its shelves full of books, look round,
and at each step you will find fresh proof in support of this view.
It is now no longer a question of accumulating scientific truths
and discoveries. We need above everything to spread the truths
already mastered by science, to make them part of our daily life,
to render them common property. We have to order things so
that all, so that the mass of mankind, may be capable of understand
ing and applying them ; we have to make science no longer a luxury
but the foundation of every man’s life. This is what justice demands.
I go farther: I say that the interests of science itself lie m the
same direction. Science only makes real progress when a new
truth finds a soil already prepared to receive it. The theory of the
mechanical origin of heat, though enunciated in the last century in
the same terms that Hirn and Clausius formulate it to-day, re
mained for eighty years buried in the Academical Records until
such time as knowledge of physics had spread widely enough to
create a public capable of accepting it. Three generations had to
go by before the ideas of Erasmus Darwin on the variation ot
species could be favourably received from his grandson, and that
they should be admitted by academical philosophers, not without
pressure from public opinion even then. The philosopher, like the
poet or artist, is always the product of the society m which he
moves and teaches.
...
,
,
But, if you are imbued with these ideas, you will understand
that it is above all important to bring about a radical change in
this state of affairs, which to-day condemns the philosopher to be
crammed with scientific truths, and almost the whole of the rest of
human beings to remain what they were five, ten centuries ago,
that is to say in the state of slaves and machines, incapable ot
mastering established truths. And the day when you are imbued
with wide, deep, humane and profoundly scientific trutn, tha ay
you will lose your taste for pure science. You will set to work to
�5
find out the means to effect this transformation, and if you bring to
your investigations the impartiality which has guided you in your
Scientific researches you will of necessity adopt the cause of
Socialism ; you will make an end of sophisms and you will come
amongst us ; weary of working to procure pleasures for this small
group, which already has such a large share of them, you will place
your information and your devotion at the service of the oppressed.
And be sure that then the feeling of duty accomplished, and of
a real accord established between your sentiments and your
actions, you will find powers in yourself of whose existence you
»ever even dreamed. When, too, one day—it is not far distant in
any case, saving the presence of our professors—when one day, I
say, the change for which you are working shall have been brought
about, then, deriving new forces from collective scientific work, and
from the powerful help of armies of labourers who will come to
place their energies at its service, science will take a new bound
forward, in comparison with which the slow progress of to-day will
appear the simple exercises of tyros.
Then you will enjoy science ; that pleasure will be a pleasure for
all.
If you have finished reading law and are about to be called to
the Bar, perhaps you too have some illusions as to your future
activity—I assume that you are one of the nobler spirits, that you
know what altruism means. Perhaps you think “ To devote my
life to an unceasing and vigorous struggle against all injustice ! To
apply my whole faculties to bringing about the triumph of law, the
public expression of supreme justice—can any career be nobler? ”
and you begin the real work of life confident in yourself and in the
profession you have chosen.
Very well: let us turn to any page of the Law Reports and see
what actual life will tell you.
Here we have a rich landowner; he demands the eviction of a
cottier tenant who has not paid his rent. From the legal point of
view the case is beyond dispute ; since the poor farmer can’t pay,
out he must go. But if we look into the facts we shall learn some
thing like this. The landlord has squandered his rents persistently
in rollicking pleasure; the tenant has worked hard all day and
■every day. The landlord has done nothing to improve his estate,
nevertheless its value has trebled in fifty years owing to the rise in
price of land due to the construction of a railway, to the making of
new highroads, to the draining of a marsh, to the enclosure and
cultivation of waste lands; but the tenant who has contributed
largely towards this increase has ruined himself; he fell into the
hands of usurers and, head over ears in debt, he can no longer pay
the landlord. The law, always on the side of property, is quite
clear : the landlord is in the right. But you, whose feeling of
justice has not yet been stifled by legal fictions, what will you do ?
Will you contend that the farmer ought to be turned out upon the
high road ?—for that is what the law ordains—or will you urge that
the landlord should pay back to the farmer the whole of the increase
of value in his property which is due to the farmer’s labour ?—this
is what equity decrees. Which side will you take ? for the law and
against justice ? or for justice and against the law?
�W"
6
Or when workmen have gone out on strike against a master
without notice, which side will you take then ? The side of the
law, that is to say the part of the master who, taking advantage of
a period of crisis, has made outrageous profits ? or against the law,
but on the side of the workers who received during the whole time
only 2s. a day as wages, and saw their wives and children fade
away before their eyes? Will you stand up for that piece of
chicanery which consists in affirming “ freedom of contract ” ? Or
will you uphold equity, according to which a contract entered into
between a man who has dined well and the man who sells his
labour for bare subsistence, between the strong and the weak, is
not a contract.
Take another case. Here in London a man was loitering near
a butcher’s shop. He stole a beefsteak and ran off with it.
Arrested and questioned, it turns out that he is an artisan out of
work, and that he and his family have had nothing to eat for four
days. The butcher is asked to let the man off, but he is all for the
triumph of justice ! He prosecutes, and the man is sentenced to
six months’ imprisonment. Blind Themis so wills it! Does not
your conscience revolt against the law and against society when
you hear similar judgments pronounced every day ?
Or again, will you call for the enforcement of the law against this
man who, badly brought up and ill-used from his childhood, has
arrived at man’s estate without having heard one sympathetic word,
and completes his career by murdering his neighbour in order to
rob him of a shilling ? Will you demand his execution, or—worse
still—that he should be imprisoned for twenty years, when you know
very well that he is rather a madman than a criminal, and, in any
case, that his crime is the fault of our entire society ?
Will you claim that these weavers should be thrown into prison
who in a moment of desperation have set fire to a mill ? That this
man who shot at a crowned murderer should be imprisoned for
life ? That these insurgents should be shot down who plant the
flag of the future on the barricades ?—no, a thousand times no !
If you reason instead of repeating what is taught you; if you
analyse the law and strip off those cloudy fictions with which it
has been draped in order to conceal its real origin, which is the
right of the stronger, and its substance, which has ever been the
consecration of all the tyrannies handed down to mankind through
its long and bloody history; when you have comprehended this,
your contempt for the law will be profound indeed. You will
understand that to remain the servant of the written law is to place
yourself every day in opposition to the law of conscience, and to
make a bargain on the wrong side ; and since this struggle cannot
go on for ever you will either silence your conscience and become
a scoundrel, or you will break with tradition, and you will work
with us for the utter destruction of all this injustice, economical,
social, and political.
But then you will be a Socialist, you will be a Revolutionist.
. And you, young engineer, you who dream of improving the lot
of the workers by the application of science to industry,—what a
sad disappointment, what terrible disillusions await you ! You
devote the youthful energy of your mind to working out the scheme
�7
of a railway which, running along the brink of precipices anti
burrowing into the very heart of mountains of granite, will bind,
together two countries which nature has separated. But, once at
work, you see whole regiments of workers decimated by privations
and sickness in this dark tunnel, you see others of them returning
home carrying with them may be a few pence and the undoubted
seeds of consumption, you see human corpses—the results of
a grovelling greed—as landmarks along each yard of your road, and,
when the railway is finished, you see lastly that it becomes the
highway for the artillery of an invading army. . . .
You have given up the prime of your youth to perfect an in
vention which will facilitate production, and, after many experi
ments, many sleepless nights, you are at length master of this
valuable discovery. You make use of it and the result surpasses
your expectations. Ten, twenty thousand men are thrown
out upon the streets ! Those who remain, most of them children,
will be reduced to mere machines I Three, four, ten masters will
make their fortunes and will drink deep on the strength of it. . . .
Is this your dream ?
. , ,
,
.u <Finally, you study recent industrial advances and you see that
the sempstress has gained nothing, absolutely nothing, by the in
vention of the sewing machine; that the labourer m the bt.
Gothard tunnel dies of ankylostoma, notwithstanding diamond
drills • that the mason and the day labourer are out of work just
as before at the foot of the Giffard lifts—and, if you discuss social
problems with the same independence of spirit which has guided
you in your mechanical investigations, you necessarily come to the
conclusion that under the domination of private property and
wage-slavery, every new invention, far from increasing the well
being of the worker, only makes his slavery heavier, his labour
more degrading, the periods of slack work more frequent, the crisis
sharper, and that the man who already has every conceivable
pleasure for himself is the only one who profits by it.
.
What will you do when you have once come to this conclusion .
—either you will begin by silencing your conscience by sophisms ;
then one fine day you will bid farewell to the honest dreams of
your youth and you will try to obtain, for yourself, what commands
pleasure and enjoyment—you will then go over into the camp of
the exploiters. Or if you have a tender heart, you will say to
yourself
“ No, this is not the time for inventions. Let us work
first to transform the domain of production ; when private property
is put an end to, then each new advance in industry will be made
for the benefit of all mankind ; and this mass of workers, mere
machines as they are to-day, will then become thinking beings who
apply to industry their intelligence, strengthened by study and
skilled in manual labour, and thus mechanical progress will take
a bound forward which will carry out in fifty years what nowa
days we cannot even dream of.
And what shall I say to the schoolmaster—not to the man who
looks upon his profession as a wearisome business, but to him who
when surrounded by a joyous band of young pickles feels exhilarated
by their cheery looks, and in the midst of their happy laughter,and
who tries to plant in their little heads those ideas of humanity
which he cherished himself when he was young.
�8
Often I see that you are sad and I know what it is that makes
you knit your brows. This very day, your favourite pupil, who is
not very well up in Latin it is true, but who has none the less an
excellent heart, recited the story of William Tell with so much
vigour! his eyes sparkled, he seemed to wish to stab all tyrants
there and then ; he gave with such fire the passionate lines of
Schiller:—
Before the slave when he breaks his chain,
Before the free man tremble not.
But when he returned home, his mother, his father, his uncle,
sharply rebuked him for want of respect to the minister or the
rural policeman ; they held forth to him by the hour on “ prudence,
respect for authority, submission to his betters ”, till he put Schiller
aside in order to read “ Self-Help.”
And then only yesterday you were told that your best pupils have
all turned out badly ; the one does nothing but dream of becoming
an officer ; another in league with his master robs the workers of
their slender wages ; and you, who had such hopes of these young
people, you now brood over the sad contrast between your ideal
and life as it is.
You still brood over it ! then I foresee that in two years at the
outside, after having suffered disappointment after disappointment,
you will lay your favourite authors on the shelf, and you will end
by saying that Tell was no doubt a very honest fellow, but after all
a trifle cracked, that poetry is a first-rate thing for the fireside,
especially when a man has been teaching the rule-of-three all day
long, but still poets are always in the clouds and their views have
nothing to do with the life of to-day, nor with the next visit of the
Inspector of Schools. . . .
Or, on the other hand, the dreams of your youth will become the
firm convictions of your mature age. You will wish to have wide,
human education for all, in school and out of school; and, seeing
that this is impossible in existing conditions, you will attack
the very foundations of bourgeois society. Then, discharged,
as you will be by the Education Department, you will leave
your school and come among us and be of us; you will tell men of
riper years but of smaller attainments than yourself, how enticing
knowledge is, what mankind ought to be, nay what we could be.
You will come and work with Socialists for the complete trans
formation of the existing system, will strive side by side with us to
attain true equality, real fraternity, never-ending liberty for the
world.
Lastly you, young artist, sculptor, painter, poet, musician, do
you not observe that the sacred fire which inspired your prede
cessors is wanting in the men of to-day ? that art is commonplace
and mediocrity reigns supreme ?
Could it be otherwise ? The delight of having re-discovered the
ancient world, of having bathed afresh in the springs of nature
which created the master-pieces of the Renaissance no longer
exists for the art of our time ; the revolutionary ideal has left it
cold until now, and, failing an ideal, our art fancies that it has
found one in realism when it painfully photographs in colours the
dewdrop on the leaf of a plan# imitates the muscles in the leg of a
�9
eow, or describes minutely in prose and in verse the suffocating
filth of a sewer, the boudoir of a whore of high degree.
“ But, if this is so, what is to be done ? ” you say.—If, I reply,
the sacred fire that you say you possess is nothi ng better than a
smoking wick, then you will go on doing as you have done, and
your art will speedily degenerate into the trade of decorator of
tradesmen’s shops, of a purveyor of libretti to third-rate operettas
and tales for Christmas Annuals—most of you are already running
down that grade with a fine head of steam on.
....
But, if your heart really beats in unison with that of humanity,
if like a true poet you have an ear for Life, then, gazing out upon this
sea of sorrow whose tide sweeps up around you, face to face with
these people dying of hunger, in the presence of these corpses piled
up in the mines, and these mutilated bodies lying in heaps on the
barricades, looking on these long lines of exiles who are going to
bury themselves in the snows of Siberia and in the marshes of
tropical islands, in full view of this desperate battle which is
being fought, amid the cries of pain from the conquered and the
orgies of the victors, of heroism in conflict with cowardice, of
noble determination and contemptible cunning—you cannot re
main neutral: you will come and take the side of the oppressed
because you know that the beautiful, the sublime, the spirit of life
itself are on the side of those who fight for light, for humanity, for
justice!
You stop me at last!
“ What the devil!” you say. “ But if abstract science is a luxury
and the practice of medicine mere chicane ; if law spells injustice
and mechanical invention is but a means of robbery; if the school,
at variance with the wisdom of the practical man,” is sure to be
overcome, and art without the revolutionary idea can only de
generate, what remains for me to do ?”
Well, I will tell you.
A vast and most enthralling task ; a work in which your actions
will be in complete harmony with your conscience, an undertaking
capable of rousing the noblest and most vigorous natures.
What work ?—I will now tell you.
It rests with you either to palter continually with your con
science, and in the end to say one fine day “ Perish humanity,
provided I can have plenty of pleasures and enjoy them to the full,
so long as the people are foolish enough to let me.” Or, once
more the inevitable alternative, to take part with the Socialists
and work with them for the complete transformation of society.
Such is the irrefragable consequence of the analysis we have gone
through. That is the logical conclusion which every intelligent
man must perforce arrive at, provided that he reasons honestly
about what passes around him, and discards the sophisms which
his bourgeois education and the interested views of those about
him whisper in his ear.
This conclusion once arrived at, the question, “ What is to be
done ?” is naturally put.
The answer is easy.
Leave this environment in which you are placed and where it is
the fashion to say that the people are nothing but a lot of brutes,
Come among these people—and the answer will come of itself.
�IO
You will see that everywhere, in England as well as in France,
in Germany as well as in Italy, in Russia as well as in the United
States, everywhere where there is a privileged and an oppressed
class, there is a tremendous work going on in the midst of the
working-class, whose object is to break down for ever the slavery
enforced by the capitalist feudality and to lay the foundation of a.
society established on the basis of justice and equality. It is
no longer enough for the man of the people to-day to pour forth
his complaints in one of these songs whose melody breaks your
heart, such as were sung by the serfs of the eighteenth century
and are still sung by the Slav peasant; he labours with his
fellow-toilers for his enfranchisement, with the knowledge of
what he is doing and against every obstacle put in his way.
His thoughts are constantly exercised in considering what
should be done in order that life, instead of being a curse for threefourths of mankind, may be a real enjoyment for all. He takes up
the hardest problems of sociology and tries to solve them by his
good sense, his spirit of observation, his hard experience. In order
to come to an understanding with others as miserable as himself,
he seeks to form groups, to organise. He forms societies, main
tained with difficulty by small contributions ; he tries to make
terms with his fellows beyond the frontier, and he prepares the
day when wars between peoples shall be impossible far better than
the frothy philanthropists who now potter with the fad of universal
peace. In order to know what his brothers are doing, to have a
closer connection with them, to elaborate his ideas and pass them
round, he maintains—but at the price of what privations, what
ceaseless efforts!—his working press. At length when the hour
has come he rises, and reddening the pavements and the barricades
with his blood, he bounds forward to conquer those liberties which
the rich and powerful will afterwards know how to corrupt and to
turn against him again.
What an unending series of efforts ! what an incessant struggle !
What a toil perpetually begun afresh; sometimes to fill up the
gaps occasioned by desertion—the result of weariness, corruption,
prosecutions ; sometimes to rally the broken forces decimated by
fusillades and cold-blooded butchery I at another time to recom
mence the studies sternly broken off by wholesale slaughter.
The newspapers are set on foot by men who have been obliged
to force from society scraps of knowledge by depriving themselves
of sleep and food ; the agitation is kept up by halfpence deducted
from the amount needed to get the barest necessaries of life ; and
all this under the constant dread of seeing his family reduced to
the most fearful misery, as soon as the master learns that “ his
workman, his slave, is tainted with Socialism.”
This is what you will see if you go among the people._
And in this endless struggle how often has not the toiler vainly
asked, as he stumbled under the weight of his burden :
“ Where,
TAUGHT AT
then,
are these
OUR EXPENSE ?
young
THESE
CLOTHED WHILE THEY STUDIED ?
people
who have
YOUTHS WHOM
WE
FED
been
AND
WHERE ARE THOSE FOR WHOM,
�II
OUR
BENT
BACKS
DOUBLE
BENEATH
BURDENS
OUR
OUR
AND
BELLIES EMPTY, WE HAVE BUILT THESE HOUSES, THESE COLLEGES,
THESE LECTURE-ROOMS, THESE MUSEUMS ?
FOR
WHOSE
BENEFIT
PRINTED THESE
read
?
Where
POSSESS
ITSELF IS
THE
WITH
WE,
FINE
are
OUR
BOOKS, MOST
they,
SCIENCE
NOT WORTH
OF
these
WORN
FACES, HAVE
WE CANNOT
OF WHICH
professors
MANKIND, AND
A RARE
WHERE ARE THE MEN
PALE,
WHOM
FOR
MEN WHO ARE EVER SPEAKING IN PRAISE OF LIBERTY,
THINK TO CHAMPION OUR
BENEATH THEIR FEET ?
FREEDOM, TRAMPLED AS
WHERE
THE
WHOLE
WITH TEARS
FIND
GANG
IN
OF
THEIR
THEMSELVES
HYPOCRITES WHO
EYES BUT WHO
AMONG
US
HELPING
ARE THE
AND
NEVER
IT IS EACH DAY
ARE THEY, THESE
POETS, THESE PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS?
to
HUMANITY
WHERE
CATERPILLAR ?
EVEN
claim
who
WRITERS AND
WHERE IN A WORD IS
SPEAK
OF
NEVER, BY
US
IN
THE
PEOPLE
ANY
CHANCE,
OUR
LABORIOUS
WORK ?”
Where are they, indeed ?
Why, some are taking their ease with the most cowardly in
difference; others, the majority, despise the “dirty mob,” and are
ready to pounce upon them if they dare touch one of their
privileges.
Now and then, it is true, a young man comes among us who*
dreams of drums and barricades, and seeks sensational scenes;
but he deserts the cause of the people as soon as he perceives that
the road to the barricade is long, that the work is heavy, and that
the crowns of laurel to be won in this campaign are inter
mingled with thorns. Generally these are ambitious schemers out
of work, who having failed in their first efforts, try in this way to
cajole people out of their votes, but who a little later will be the
first to denounce them, when the people wish to apply the
principles which they themselves have professed ; perhaps will
even be ready to turn artillery and Gatlings upon them if they dare
to move before they, the heads of the movement, give the signal.
Add mean insult, haughty contempt, cowardly calumny from
the great majority, and you know what the people may expect
now-a-days from most of the youth of the upper and middle classes
in the way of help towards the social evolution.
But then you ask, “ What shall we do ? ” When there is every
thing to be done I When a whole army of young people would
find plenty to employ the entire vigour of their youthful energy, the
full force of their intelligence and their talents to help the people
in the vast enterprise they have undertaken 1
What shall we do ? Listen.
You lovers of pure science, if you are imbued with the principles
of Socialism, if you have understood the real meaning of the revo
lution which is even now knocking at the door, don’t you see that
all science has to be recast in order to place it in harmony with the
new principles; that it is your business to accomplish in this field
�12
;,
a revolution far greater than that which was accomplisnea m every
branch of science during the eighteenth century ? Don’t you under
stand that history—which to-day is an old wife’s tale about great
kings, great statesinen and great parliaments—that history itself
has to be written from the point of view of the people, from the
point of view of work done by the masses in the long evolutions of
mankind ? That social economy—which to-day is merely the
sanctification of capitalist robbery—has to be worked out afresh as
well in its fundamental principles as in its innumerable applica
tions ? That anthropology, sociology, ethics must be completely
recast, and that the very natural sciences themselves, regarded
from another point of view, must undergo a profound modification,
alike in regard to the conception of natural phenomena and with
respect to the method of exposition.
Very well, then. Set to work I Place your abilities at the com
mand of the good cause. Especially help us with your clear logic
to combat prejudice and to lay by your synthesis the foundations
of a better organisation ; yet more, teach us to apply in our daily
arguments the fearlessness of true scientific investigation, and show
us, as your predecessors did, how men dare sacrifice even life itself
for the triumph of the truth.
You, doctors, who have learnt Socialism by a bitter experience,
never weary of telling us to-day, to-morrow, in season and out of
season, that humanity itself hurries onward to decay if men remain
in the present conditions of existence and of work ; that all your
medicaments must be powerless against disease while the majority
of mankind vegetate in conditions absolutely contrary to those
which science tells us are healthful; that it is the causes of disease
which must be uprooted, and what is necessary to remove them.
Come with your scalpel and dissect for us with an unerring
hand this society of ours hastening to putrefaction. Tell us what
a rational existence should and might be. Insist, as true surgeons,
that a gangrenous limb must be amputated when it may poison the
whole body.
You, who have worked at the application of science to industry,
come and tell us frankly what has been the outcome of your dis
coveries. Convince those who dare not march boldly towards the
future, what new inventions the knowledge we have already acquired
carries in its womb, what industry could do under better conditions,
what man might easily produce if he produced always with a view
to enhance his own production.
You poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, if you understand your
true mission and the very interests of art itseli, come with us.
Place your pen, your pencil, your chisel, your ideas at the service
of the revolution. Figure forth to us, in your eloquent style or
your impressive pictures, the heroic struggles of the people against
their oppressors ; fire the hearts of our youth with that glorious
revolutionary enthusiasm which inflamed the souls of our ancestors ;
tell women what a noble career is that of a husband who devotes
his life to the great cause of social emancipation. Show the people
how hideous is their actual life, and place our hand on the causes
of its ugliness; tell us what a rational life would be if it did not
encounter at every step the follies and the ignominies of our pre
sent social order.
�J3
Lastly, all of you who possess knowledge, talent, capacity,
industry, if you have a spark of sympathy in your nature, come,
you and your companions, come and place your services at the
disposal of those who most need them. And remember, if you do
come, that you come not as masters, but as comrades in the
struggle ; that you come not to govern but to gain strength for
yourselves in a new life which sweeps upwards to the conquest of
the future; that you come less to teach than to grasp the aspira
tions of the many : to divine them, to give them shape, and then to
work, without rest and without haste, with all the fire of youth and
all the judgment of age, to realise them in actual life—then and
then only will you lead a complete, a noble, a rational existence.
Then you will see that your every effort on this path bears with it
fruit in abundance, and this sublime harmony once established
between your actions and the dictates of your conscience, will give
you powers which you never dreamt lay dormant in yourselves.
The never-ceasing struggle for truth, justice, and equality
among the people, whose gratitude you will earn—what nobler
career can the youth of all nations desire than this ?
It has taken me long to show you of the well-to-do classes that
in view of the dilemma which life presents to you, you will be
forced, if courageous and sincere, to come and work side by side
with Socialists, and champion in their ranks the cause of the social
revolution. And yet how simple this truth is after all I But when
one is speaking to those who have suffered from the effects of
bourgeois surroundings, how many sophisms must be combated !
how many prejudices overcome ! how many interested objections
pushed aside 1
It is easy to be brief to-day in addressing you, the youth of the
people. The very pressure of events impels you to become Social
ists, however little you may have the courage to reason and to act.
To rise from the ranks of the working people, and not devote
oneself to bringing about the triumph of Socialism, is to miscon
ceive the real interests at stake, to give up the cause and the true
historic mission.
Do you remember the time, when still a mere lad, you went
down one winter’s day to play in your dark court ? The cold
nipped your shoulders through your thm clothes, and the mud
worked into your worn-out shoes. Even then when you saw
chubby children richly clad pass in the distance, looking at you
with an air of contempt—you knew right well that these imps,
dressed up to the nines, were not the equals of yourself and your
comrades, either in intelligence, common sense, or energy. But,
later, when you were forced to shut yourself up in a filthy
factory from five or six o’clock in the morning, to remain twelve
hours on end close to a whirling machine, and, a machine yourself,
forced to follow day after day for whole years in succession its
movements with their relentless throbbing—during all this time
they, the others, were going quietly to be taught at fine schools, at
academies, at the universities. And now these same children, less
intelligent, but better taught than you, and become your masters,
are enjoying all the pleasures of life, and all the advantages of
civilisation—and you ? What sort of lot awaits you ?
�T4
You return to little, dark, damp lodgings where five or six
human beings pig together within a few square feet; where your
mother, sick of life, aged by care rather than in years, offers you
dry bread and potatoes as your only food, washed down by a
blackish fluid called, in irony, tea ; and to distract your thoughts
you have ever the same never-ending question, “ How shall I be
able to pay the baker to-morrow, and the landlord the day after ? ”
What! must you drag cn the same weary existence as your
father and mother for thirty or forty years ? Must you toil your
life long to procure for others all the pleasures of well-being, of
knowledge, of art, and keep for yourself only the eternal anxiety
as to whether you can get a bit of bread ? Will you for ever give
up all that makes life so beautiful, to devote yourself to providing
every luxury for a handful of idlers ? Will you wear yourself out
with toil and have in return only trouble, if not misery, when hard
times—the fearful hard times—come upon you ? Is this what you
long for in life ?
Perhaps you will give up ? Seeing no way out of your con
dition whatever, maybe you say to yourself, “ Whole generations
have undergone the same lot, and I, who can alter nothing in the
matter, I must submit also ! Let us work on then and endeavour
to live as well as we can ! ”
Very well. In that case life itself will take pains to enlighten
you.
One day a crisis comes, one of those crises which are no longer
mere passing phenomena, as they were a while ago, but a crisis
which destroys a whole industry, which plunges thousands of
workers into misery, which crushes whole families. You struggle
like the rest against the calamity. But you will soon see how your
wife, your child, your friend, little by little succumb to privations,
fade away under your very eyes, and for sheer want of food, for
lack of care and medical assistance, they end their days on the
pauper’s stretcher, while the life of the rich sweeps past in joyous
crowds through the streets of the great city gleaming in the sun
light—utterly careless and indifferent to the dying cries of those
who perish.
Then you will understand how utterly revolting this society is ;
you will reflect upon the causes of this crisis, and your examina
tion will go to the very depths of this abomination which puts
millions of human beings at the mercy of the brutal greed of a
handful of useless triflers ; then you will understand that Socialists
are right when they say that our present society can be, that it
must be, reorganised from top to bottom.
To pass from general crises to your particular case, one day when
your master tries by a new reduction of wages to squeeze out of
you a few more sous in order to increase his fortune still further,
you will protest; but he will haughtily answer, “ Go and eat grass,
if you will not work at the price I offer.” Then you will under
stand that your master not only tries to shear you like a sheep, but
that he looks upon you as an inferior kind of animal altogether;
that not content with holding you in his relentless grip by means
of the wage-system, he is further anxious to make you a slave in
every respect. Then you will either bow down before him, you
�IC
will give up the feeling of human dignity, and you will end by
suffering every possible humiliation. Or the blood will rush to
your head, you will shudder at the hideous slope on which you are
slipping down, you will retort, and, turned out workless on the
street, you will understand how right Socialists are when they say
“ Revolt 1 rise against this economical slavery, for that is the
cause of all slavery.” Then you will come and take your place in
the ranks of the Socialists, and you will work with them, for the
complete destruction of all slavery,—economical, social and
political.
Some day again you will learn the story of that charming young
girl whose brisk gait, frank manners, and cheerful conversation •
you so lovingly admired. After having struggled for years and
years against misery, she left her native village for the metropolis.
There she knew right well that the struggle for existence must be
hard, but she hoped at least to be able to gain her living honestly.
Well, now you know what has been her fate. Courted by the son
of some capitalist she allowed herself to be enticed by his fine
words, she gave herself up to him with all the passion of youth,
only to see herself abandoned with a baby in her arms. Ever
courageous she never ceased to struggle on ; but she broke down
in this unequal strife against cold and hunger, and she ended her
days in one of the hospitals, no one knows which........................................
What will you do ? Once more there are two courses open to
you. Either you will push aside the whole unpleasant reminiscence
with some stupid phrase :—“ She wasn’t the first and won’t be
the last,” you will say; perhaps, some evening, you will be heard in
a public room, in company with other beasts like yourself, out
raging the young girl’s memory by some dirty stories ; or, on the
other hand, your remembrance of the past will touch your heart;
you will try to meet the wretched seducer to denounce him to his
face ; you will reflect upon the causes of these events which recur
every day, and you will comprehend that they will never cease, so
long as society is divided into two camps, on one side the wretched
and on the other the lazy—the jugglers with fine phrases and
bestial lusts. You will understand that it is high time to bridge
over this gulf of separation, and you will rush to place yourself
among the Socialists.
And you, woman of the people, has this tale left you cold and
unmoved ? While caressing the pretty head of that child who
nestles close to you, do you never think about the lot that awaits
him, if the present social conditions are not changed ? Do you
never reflect on the future awaiting your young sister, and all your
own children ? Do you wish that your sons, they too, should
vegetate as your father vegetated, with no other care than how to
get his daily bread, with no other pleasure than that of the gin
palace ? Do you want your husband, your lads, to be ever at the
mercy of the first comer who has inherited from his father a capital
to exploit them with ? Are you anxious that they should always
remain slaves of a master, food for powder, mere dung wherewith
to manure the pasture-lands of the rich expropriator ?
Nay, never ; a thousand times no ! I know right well that your
blood has boiled when you have heard that your husbands after
4C
�16 '
they entered on a strike, full of fire and determination, have ended
by accepting, hat in hand, the conditions dictated by the bloated
bourgeois in a tone of haughty contempt! I know that you have
admired those Spanish women who in a popular rising presented
their breasts to the bayonets of the soldiery in the front ranks ot
the insurrectionists ! I am certain that you mention with rever
ence the name of the woman who lodged a bullet in the chest of
that ruffianly official who dared to outrage a Socialist prisoner in
his cell. And I am confident that your heart beat faster when you
read how the women of the people in Paris gathered under a rain
of shells to encourage “ their men ” to heroic action.
All this, I say, I have no doubt about, and that is why I cannot
question that you also, you will end by joining those who work for
the conquest of the future.
Every one of you then, honest young folks, men and women,
peasants, labourers, artisans and soldiers, you will understand
what are your rights and you will come along with us ; you will
come in order to work with your brethren in the preparation of
that Revolution which sweeping away every vestige of slavery,
tearing the fetters asunder, breaking with the old worn-out traditions
and opening to all mankind a new and wider scope of joyous ex
istence, shall at length establish true Liberty, real Equality, un
grudging Fraternity throughout human society; work with all%
work for all—the full enjoyment of the fruits of their labour, the
complete development of all their faculties ; a rational, human and
happy life !
Don’t let anyone tell us that we—but a small band—are too
weak to attain unto the magnificent end at which we aim.
Count and see how many of us there are who suffer this in
justice.
We peasants who work for others and who mumble the straw
while our master eats the wheat, we by ourselves are millions of
men ; so numerous are we that we alone form the mass of the
people.
We workers who weave silks and velvets in order that we may
be clothed in rags, we, too, are a great multitude ; and when the
clang of the factories permits us a moment’s repose, we overflow
the streets and squares like the sea in a spring tide.
We soldiers who are driven along to the word of command, or
by blows, we who receive the bullets for which our officers get
crosses and pensions, we, too, poor fools who have hitherto known
no better than to shoot our brothers, why we have only to make a
right-about-face towards these plumed and decorated personages
who are so good as to command us, to see a ghastly pallor over
spread their faces.
Ay, all of us together, we who suffer and are insulted daily, we
are a multitude whom no man can number, we are the ocean that
can embrace and swallow up all else.
When we have but the will to do it, that very moment will
Justice be done: that very instant the tyrants of the earth shall
bite the dust.
Catalogue of Publications of the Modern Press sent on receipt of stamped
envelope.
�
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Title
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An appeal to the young
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Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich [1842-1921]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 23 cm.
Series number: no. 6
Notes: Stamp on title page: 'South Place Chapel Finsbury, Lending Library'. Reprinted from 'To-Day'. At the time of publication the author was serving "five years' imprisonment under the French Republic for advocating the cause of the people" [Title page].
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The Modern Press
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1885
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G4969
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Socialism
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Hyndman, H. M. (Henry Mayers) (tr)
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Peter Kropotkin
Socialism
Young people
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Text
Price One Penny.
23rd Thousand.
II
Reprinted with additions from “JUSTICE,”
BY J. L. JOYNES.
1885.
Published at The Modern Press, 13, Paternoster Row, E.C.
I.—DIVISION OF TOIL.
Q. Why is it necessary that any work should be done in the world ? A. Because men
require food, clothing, and shelter; and these cannot be obtained without work.
Q. Is the work which must be done in order to produce these necessaries either very
hard or very long ? A. It is neither the one nor the other. After all the necessary work
has been done, there is ample opportunity for the enjoyment of leisure and the produc
tion of beautiful things.
Q. Then why do immense numbers of men spend their whole lives in doing work
which gives them no pleasure, while the enjoyment of leisure is an impossibility for
them ? A. Because there is smother large class of men who keep all the available leisure
and pleasure for themselves.
Q. How may these two sets of persons be roughly distinguished? A. As employers
and employed; idlers and workers ; privileged and plundered ; or, more simply still, asrich and poor.
Q. Cannot the poor provide the rich witn rood, clothing, and shelter, and yet have
enough time for leisure even after they have done this ? A. Certainly; but the rich are
not content with exacting simple necesswies from the poor.
Q, What more do they compel them to contribute ? A. Luxuries; and there is no
end to the amount of labour which ma« be wasted in the painful production of useless
things.
Q. Why do the poor consent to produce by their labour all these necessary and un
necessary things for persons who d» nothing for them in return ? A. Simply because
they cannot help themselves.
Q. But how does it happen that <ney are in this helpless position ? A. It is due to
the fact that society is at present organised solely in the interests of the rich.
Q. Why cannot the poor organise society on a system which will prevent their being
robbed of their own productions’ A Because the existing organisation itself keeps them
ignorant of its own causes, and «xmsequently powerless to resist its effects,
Q. What is the first step towards a better state of things ? A. The education of the
poor to understand how it is that their own excessive work enables the rich to live in
idleness upon its fruits.
Q. What is the most hopeful sign that they are ready for enlightenment on this point ?
A. Discontent with the disagreeable and degrading conditions of their own lives.
Q. What is the first principle to which they may appeal for relief from these condi
tions? A. The principle of justice, since it is manifestly unfair that those who do all
the work should obtain the smallest share of the good things which it produces.
Q. What is the alternative to the present unequal distribution of work and good
things? A. That all should be obliged to do their fair share of the work, and to content
themselves with a fair share of the good things.
Q. Are those who insist upon the practical enforcement of this principle Conservatives
or Radicals ? A. They are neither, since they are necessarily opposed to all political
parties.
Q. What then are they called ? A. From the fact that they wish to displace the pre
sent system of competition for the bare means of subsistence, where each man is for
himself, and to establish in its stead the principle of associated work and common enjoy
ment, where each is for all and all for each, they are called Socialists
�'•'AxW^v.xW
IL—THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM.
•
Q, What is wealth ? A. Everything that supplies the wants of man, and ministers in
any way to his comfort and enjoyment.
Q, Whence is wealth derived? A. From labour usefully employed upon natural
objects.
Q. Give instances of labour usefully employed? A. Ploughing, sowing, spinning
weaving, etc., etc.
Q. Give instances of useless employment of labour? A. Digging a pit for the pur
pose of filling it up again, making a road that leads nowhere, supporting people in abso
lute idleness by presenting them with food and clothing for doing nothing, etc., etc.
Q. What do we mean when we say that an article has value ? A. That it is useful or
agreeable to human beings.
Q. When is an article said to have an “ exchange value” in addition to its usefulness
or “ use value ” ? A. When it embodies a certain amount of generally useful labour.
Q. Are the two sorts of value ever identical ? A. They cannot be compared at all.
Q. Explain by an instance what you mean by this? A. The hunger of a starving
man who enters a baker’s shop does not affect the exchange-value of a loaf, which is
measured by the amount of labour which has been expended in making and baking it.
Q. What is its use-value to him ? J. Its use-value is infinitely great, as it is a ques
tion of life and death with him to obtain it.
Q. What is its use-value to another man? A. Its use-value is nothing at all to a
turtle-fed aiderman, sick already with excessive eating, but its exchange-value remains
the same in all cases.
Q. Is there no exception to this rule? A. If the baker has a monopoly of baking, and
no other loaves are anywhere obtainable, he can charge a much higher price than the
amount of his expended labour entitles him to demand.
Q. Is this often done ? A. Every monopolist does it, as a matter of course.
Q. Who are the chief monopolists ? A. There are two great classes. The landlord s
monopolise the land, and the capitalists the machinery.
Q. What is capital ? A. Capital is the result of past labour devoted to present pro
duction,—machinery and factories for example.
Q. How does the landlord secure his profit ? A. By extorting from the labourer a
share of all that he produces, under threat of excluding him from the land.
Q. How does the capitalist act? A. He extorts from those labourers who are ex
cluded from the land a share of all that they produce, under threat of withholding
from them the implements of production, and thus refusing to let them work at all.
Q. On what terms does the capitalist allow the labourers to work ? A. The capitalist
agrees to return to them as wages about a quarter of what they have produced by their
work, keeping the remaining three quarters for himself and his class.
Q. What is this system called ? A. The capitalist system.
Q. What is it that regulates the amount returned to the labourer ? A. The amount
that is necessary to keep him and his family alive.
Q. Why does the capitalist care to keep him alive ? A. Because capital without
labour is helpless.
Q. How is this amount settled ? A. By competition among the labourers, and the
higgling of the labour market.
Q. Is it invariable? A. It varies with all the variations of trade and locality, and the
different degrees of skill of the different labourers, but it constantly tends to a bare
subsistence for the mass of the labourers.
Q. By what name is this law known ? A. The iron law of wages.
Q. How can it be proved ? A. By reckoning up the amount of food and clothing
consumed by those who produce them.
Q Is there any independent testimony to its truth ? A. The witness of all doctors
who have studied the subject.
Q. What evidence do they give upon it ? A. They declare that diseases arising from
insufficient nourishment are constantly present throughout the labouring classes, and
that “ the poor are permanently afflicted with one disease—starvation."
Q. What remedy for this do Socialists propose ? A. Simply that the labouring
classes should become their own employers.
Q. What effect would this have? A. The classes who live in idleness on the fruits
of the labour of other people would be improved off the face of the earth, every one
being obliged to take his share of honest work.
Q. On what compulsion ? A. The alternative of starvation would stare them in the
�face, as soon as the labourers ceased to supply them gratis with food, clothing, shelter,
and luxuries.
Q. Are not the “upper classes” useful as organisers of labour? A. Those who
organise labour are always worthy of their hire, though the hire may be fixed too high
at present; but it is only the absolutely idle, and those whose work, however hard it may
be, consists in perfecting and organising the arrangements for plundering the labourers
of their reward, who are simply the enemies of the workers.
Q. Are shareholders in companies, for instance, useful in organising labour ? A. As
a rule they employ others to organise labour, and the work done by the company would
go on just as well if the shareholders disappeared.
Ill—SURPLUS VALUE.
Q. In whose interest is present production carried on? A. In that of the employing
classes.
Q. Explain this. A. The labourers produce the machinery, which the employers
take away from them as soon as it is made. The labourers are then employed to work it,
in order to produce profit for their masters at a faster rate.
Q. What interest have the labourers in the continuance of capitalism, that is, the
capitalist system ? A. Manifestly none.
Q. Is capital, therefore, useless? A. Certainly not. The way in which it is used i»
attacked by Socialists, not the thing itself.
Q. How is it possible that it should be used in the labourer’s interest? A. Only by
means of a democratic State, acting in the interest of the producers.
Q. In what way would the State effect this? A. By taking into its own hands all the
land and capital, or “ means of production,” which are now used as monopolies for
the benefit of the possessing class.
Q. Is there any precedent for this? A. As the State has already taken over the
Post Office and the Telegraphs, so it might take over the Railways, Shipping, Mines,
Factories, and all other industries.
Q. Is the Post Office worked on Socialist principles ? A. Certainly not. There is no
pretence that the interests of its labourers, the postmen, are considered at all.
Q. What principle regulates their employment? A. That which regulates the em
ployment of all other labourers, competition, reducing their wages to the lowest
possible point, except in the case of the higher officials, who are paid much more than
would willingly be accepted by equally capable men,
Q. Cannot the workers combine together by co-operation to defeat this principle of
competition ? A. Co-operative societies cannot defeat this principle, unless the whole
body of workers are included in one society, and that is simply Socialism
Q. Why cannot different societies defeat competition? A. Because they are com
pelled to compete against each other, to exploit those labourers who are not members
of their body, and to be exploited by others in their turn.
Q. What do you mean by the word “ exploit " ? A. To exploit is to get more than
one gives in a bargain.
Q. To what extent is the exploitation of the labourers commonly carried? A. The
employers give them a bare subsistence, and take from them all the rest of the fruits of
their labour.
Q. What is the difference between the two called ? A. Surplus-value.
Q. What proportion expresses its amount ? A. The proportion between the two or
three hours of necessary labour, and the ordinary ten, twelve, or more hours’ work.
Q. W’hat do you mean by necessary labour? A. That which would feed and clothe
and keep in comfort the nation if all took their part in performing it.
Q. Is any individual employer responsible for the exploitation of the labourers?
A. No, the blame applies to the whole class. Individual employers may be ruined, but
the employing class continue to appropriate the surplus-value.
Q. How do you account for this ? A. Because competition is as keen among the
capitalists as among the labourers.
Q. How does it act with them ? A. It determines the division of the spoil, different
sets of people struggling to get a share in the surplus-value.
Q. How does this competition above affect the labourers below ? A. It does not affect
them at all. It is assumed that the plunder is to be shared among the “ upper classes,’
and the only question is in what proportion this shall be done.
Q. How do. the upper classes label this plunder? A. By many names, such as rent
�4
brokerage, fees, profits, wages of superintendence, reward of abstinence, insurance
against risk, but above all, interest on capital.
Q. Are all these deducted from the labourers’ earnings ? A. There is no other fund
from which they could possibly come.
Q. Is surplus-value paid for at all ? A. By no means. It is the produce of unpaid
labour, and is simply taken for nothing, just as a thief accumulates his stolen goods,
Q. Does not the progress of civilisation decrease the amount of the surplus-value ? A.
On the contrary it largely increases it.
Q. How is this? A. Improvements in agriculture, method, and machinery, which
civilisation renders possible, multiply manifold the productiveness of the labourer’s toil;
but competition among the labourers prevents them from reaping the benefit.
Q. Does not competition among capitalists in the same way lower the rate of interest ?
A. Certainly it does, but the rate of interest has nothing whatever to do with the rate
of exploitation or of surplus-value.
Q. What is interest ? A. Interest is a fine, paid by the private organiser of labour
out of the surplus-value which his labourers supply, to the idle person from whom he
borrows his capital.
Q. What is the tendency of the two rates of interest and surplus-value ? A. The rate
of interest falls, while the rate of surplus value rises.
Q. Why is this ? A. Because with the storing up of the increased surplus-value by
the capitalist, or in other words, with the accumulation of capital, the competition among
capitalists who are anxious to lend on interest becomes keener, and each individual is
obliged to be content with less.
Q. Does not this lessening of the rate of interest benefit the labourer ? A. No; since
it is only due to the multiplication of those who share in his surplus-value, the result
being the same as it would be if he were allowed to pay a penny to six people instead of
sixpence to one.
Q. How do the capitalists adjust their own conflicting claims ? A. It is a question of
division of spoil among plunderers. If the surplus-value is high, there is more to divide
among the capitalists, but if the capitalists are numerous there is so much less for each
individual among them.
Q. Explain this by an example A. Take the case of Belgium. The labourers are
there exploited to the uttermost, there being no "factory laws” to restrain the greed of
the employer, but since capital is plentiful, the surplus-value is shared among many
capitalists, and the rate of interest is low.
IV.—METHODS OF EXTORTION.
Q. What did you mean by saying that capital without labour is helpless ?. A. The
most ingenious machinery can do nothing but rust or rot unless it is kept going by
labourers.
Q. Why do not the labourers decline to work the machinery for the capitalist?
A. Because they have no other means of making their livelihood.
Q. How could this be remedied ? The State could compete with the capitalist by
providing employment for the labourers, and paying them the full value of their pro
ductions.
Q. What would be the effect of this upon the private capitalist ? A. His power would
be gone at once, since no labourers would work for him, except on such terms as would
leave him no surplus-value whatever.
Q. Is not the existence of capital in private hands an evil? A. Yes, certainly; but
capital, as such, would cease to exist.
Q. Is not wealth in private hands an evil ? A. Large accumulations of wealth by
individuals are an evil, but the evil is different in kind, for they could no longer be used
to carry out the capitalist system.
Q. Why not? A. Because the capitalist system presupposes the existence of two
factors, and is unworkable and impossible without them.
Q. What are these two factors ? A. First, private property in accumulated wealth ;
and, secondly, the presence of property-less labourers in the market who are forced to
sell their services at cost price.
Q. What do you mean by cost price? A. The wages which will give them a bare
subsistence and enable them to work on the morrow, this being the cost of the daily
reproduction of the force or power to labour which constitutes their sole property.
Q. Could not the capitalists obtain labourers by offering them the full value of their
�5
productions ? A. Possibly, but since the only object of the capitalist system is to
produce for profit, they would cease to wish to employ them when the source of interest
and profit was cut off.
Q. But supposing, in spite of their previous principles, they still wished to employ
them, what would be the result ? A. The labourers would have nothing to complain of
in this case; but the result would be that private capital would gradually dwindle away,
since it would not be replaced by surplus-value, and the capitalist could not compete
with the State on equal terms.
Q | What has hitherto prevented the workers from combining for the overthrow of the
capitalist system ? A. Ignorance and disorganisation.
Q. What has left them in ignorance ? A. The system itself, by compelling them to
spend all their lives upon monotonous toil, and leaving them no time for education
Q. What account have they been given of the system which oppresses them ? A. The
priest has explained that the perpetual presence of the poor is necessitated by a law of
God ; the economist has proved its necessity by a law of Nature; and between them
they have succeeded in convincing the labourers of the hopelessness of any opposition to
the capitalist system.
Q. How is it that the labourers cannot see for themselves that they are legally robbed ?
A. Because the present method of extracting their surplus value is one of fraud rather
than of force, and has grown up gradually.
Q. Has this not always been the case? A. Certainly not. Under the slave-owning
system there was no fraud involved, but only force.
Q. What similarity is there between the slave-owning and the capitalist system ? A.
The parallel is complete, with the single exception that force was used in place of fraud.
Q. Explain this. A. The slave-owner received the produce of the slave’s toil, and re
turned to him part of it in the shape of food, clothing, and shelter. The capitalist takes
the whole produce of the labourer’s toil, and returns to him such proportion of it as will
provide him with necessaries.
Q. What constitutes the chief difference between capitalism and slave-owning? A.
The fact that the capitalist goes through the form of bargaining with the labourer as ic
the amount of the portion of the produce that shall be returned to him.
Q. What is this farce called ? A. Freedom of contract.
Q. In what sense is it free? A. In this sense—that the labourer is free to take what
is offered or nothing.
Q. Has he anything to fall back upon? A. He has absolutely nothing in countries
where the tyranny of capitalism is untempered by any form of Socialism.
Q. What is the case in England? A. Humanity has revolted against the reign of
the capitalist, and provided the workhouse as a last resource for the labourer, taxing the
capitalist for its support.
Q. How has the capitalist turned this piece of Socialism to his own ends? A. By
rendering the workhouse so unpleasant to the poor that starvation is often thought pre
ferable ; and by insisting that no useful work done in the workhouse shall be brought
into his market, where its presence would disturb his calculations, and impair his profits.
Q. Why does he allow it to exist at all ? A. Because he knows that its existence may
stave off for a time the Revolution which he dreads.
Q. What do you mean by the Revolution ? A. The complete change in the conditions
of society which will abolish all unjust privileges, distinctions of rank, or difference
between wage-payers and wage-earners, and will render the workers their own employers.
Q. What other method of appropriating surplus-value has prevailed besides those of
slavery and capitalism ? A. In purely agricultural countries, as for instance in Ireland
and South-Eastern Europe, different types of landlordism have been quite as effectual.
Q. Does landlordism represent the forcible or the fraudulent method? A. Force is
its chief element, since it labels the surplus-value ‘ rents,' and uses all the resources of
civilisation in the shape of police and soldiery to enforce their payment by the people,
but the element of fraud is present, since the labourer is told that he is free to give up
his holding if he does not wish to pay rent.
Q. Mention a special type of landlordism ? A. The system called corvee.
Q. How does this work? A. The labourer is allowed to work on his own land for a
certain number of days, and to keep for himself all the produce of his toil during
that time, on the condition that he spends all his remaining time upon the land which
belongs to the landlord, who appropriates its fruits.
Q. How does this differ from the capitalist method of appropriation ? A. Chiefly in the
fact that the labourer knows exactly when he is working for his own benefit, and whe t
for that of the landlord ; while under the capitalist system there it no line of distinction
and neither he nor anyone else can tell precisely the exact length of time during whic.i
he gives away his labour gratis, although it is clear that his first two or three hours are
for himself, and the remaining seven or eight for some one else.
�—
0
—
Q. Can you show this to be the case ? A. As the producers only get from one-fourth
to one-third of the total produce, the remainder of their work obviously goes to benefit
the non-producers.
V—MACHINES AND THEIR USE.
Q. What is the use of machinery ? A. Labour-saving machinery is used, as its name
indicates, to reduce the cost of production.
Q. What do you mean by the cost of production ? A. The amount of human labour
necessary to produce useful things.
Q. How ought this reduction of the necessary hours of labour to affect the labouring
class ? A. It ought to benefit them in every way, by increasing their wealth as well as
their opportunities of leisure.
Q. Has it done so ? A. Certainly not.
Q. Why not ? A. Because the capitalist class has appropriated to itself nearly all the
benefit.
Q. What, then, has been the result ? A. The available surplus-value has largely
increased, and the idle classes have become more numerous and more idle.
Q. Support your opinion by that of an economist? A. “It is questionable,” says
John Stuart Mill, " if all the improvements in machinery have lightened the day’s toil
of a single man.”
Q. In what aspect of the case is this correct ? A. In respect of the whole labouring
class as a body.
Q. What is the effect upon individuals of the introduction of a labour-saving machine ?'
A. It lightens the day’s toil to a certain number of labourers most effectually, by taking
away their employment altogether, and throwing them helpless on the streets.
Q. Is such a lamentable event frequent ? A. It is a matter of every-day occurrence.
Q. What is the result to their employer ? A. He “ saves their labour ” in the senseof getting the same work done by the machine without having to pay their wages.
Q. Is this a permanent advantage to him individually ? A. As long as he has a mono
poly of the machine, it is a great advantage to him, but other capitalists soon introduce
it also, and compel him to share the spoil with them.
Q. In what way is this result obtained ? A. By comp dtion. The owners of the
machines try to undersell each other, with a view to keeizug the production in their
own hands.
Q. How far does competition beat down prices? A. Until the normal level of capitalist
profits is reached, below which they all decline to go.
Q. What inference do the economists draw from the result of competition? A. That
the whole nation shares equally in the advantage of the machine, since prices are every
where reduced.
Q. What fallacy underlies this argument ? A. The same fallacy which vitiates every
argument of the economists, and that is the assumption that the labourers have no right
to complain so long as the employers are content with taking only the normal rate of
profits as their share of the surplus-value.
Q. What other consideration is omitted by the economists ? A. The fact that society
is divided into two classes of idlers and workers. They assume again that the workers
have no right to complain, so long as they seem to obtain an equal share with the idlers
in the advantage gained by the saving of their own toil.
Q. How do they seem to share this advantage ? A. By the reduction in cost of articles
which they buy.
Q. Is not cheapness of production a benefit to the workers ? A. It is only an apparent,
not a real benefit.
Q. How could it be rendered real? A. It would be real if all who consumed were
also workers. As it is, the working-class get all the disadvantage of the low wages, and
of the adulteration, which has been described as a form of competition.
Q. What makes the reduction of cost appear advantageous to the wage-earners ?
A. The fact that their wages are paid in money.
Q. How is this ? A. The money-price of all articles has risen enormously during the
last three centuries owing to the increased abundance of gold. The money wages have
risen also, but not in anything like the same proportion.
Q. What has prevented them from rising in the same proportion ? A. The cheapening
of the labour-cost of the necessaries of life, which has thus been rendered an empty boon
to the wage-earners.
�7
Q. Give an instance of the misapirehension of these facts* A. The regular boast of
the Free-Traders, recently reiterated by John Bright, is that the Liberals have given
the labourers two loaves whereas the Tories wished them to be content with only one.
Q. What is this boast based upon ? A. The undeniable fact that bread is cheaper in
England under Free Trade than under Protection.
Q, Then how can you tell that the labourer does not get twice as much bread as
he would otherwise enjoy ? A. Simply because it has been proved again and again on
the highest authority that the labourers as a body at present obtain so bare a subsistence
that it does not suffice to keep them in health; therefore they could not at any time have
lived on half the amount.
Q. What would be the effect if bread became twice as dear ? A. Wages would neces
sarily rise. A Wiltshire farm labourer could not maintain his family on half their pre
sent food; and though capital cares nothing about individuals, it takes good care that
the labourers shall not starve in a body.
Q. What, then, is the general result of the cheapness which is caused by the introduc
tion of labour-saving machinery? A. The advantage of the cheapening of luxuries is
obviously reaped directly by the idlers, since the workers cannot afford to purchase
them. In the case of necessaries the advantage seems at first sight to be shared between
idlers and workers; but ultimately the idlers secure the whole advantage, because
money-wages are proportioned to what money will buy, and the iron law keeps them
down to the price of a bare subsistence.
Q. Do the labourers suffer any direct disadvantage from machinery? A. Certainly
they do. Numbers of them are thrown out of employment at each fresh invention; their
position is rendered ‘precarious in the extreme; and there is a constant tendency to
replaced skilled labour by unskilled, and men by women.
Q. If this is so, would not the workers be wise to destroy the machinery ? A. To
destroy what they have themselves produced, merely because it is at present stolen
from them, would be absurd.
Q. What course should they pursue ? A. Organise their ranks; demand restitution
of their property; keep it under their control; and work it for their own benefit.
.
4
VI.—DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH.
«
Q. Is it the case that the prices of articles would be raised if the community were
organised on Socialist principles? A. Not necessarily, nor in most cases; but in some
this would certainly be the result.
Q. On what principle? A. The principle governing the price of all ordinary things
would be that the worker should receive the full value of his labour.
Q. Would not this always raise the price of his production? A. No, it would only
ensure its being paid to him instead of to an idler.
Q. Explain this? A. In many cases the full labour-value of an article is paid by the
consumer, although the producer gets only his bare subsistence, all the surplus-value
being intercepted by the numerous unnecessary middlemen.
Q. Why is this not always the case? A. Because the employer of labour, instead of
always dividing the surplus-value among middlemen, often competes with his neighbours
by offering a share of it to the consumer.
Q. How can he do this ? A. Simply by selling his goods below their full labour-value.
Q. Give an instance of this? A. A notorious example of this occurs in the match-box
trade, for although several middlemen secure their share of the surplus-value of the
match-box makers, they are still sold to the public at a lower price than their full labour
value, the buyer thus becoming a partner in the employer’s theft by receiving a share of
his stolen goods.
Q. Who are the middlemen who intercept and share the surplus-value produced by
the labourer ? A. The unnecessary agents and distributors, the holders of stocks, bonds,
and shares of every description, and all those who are supported by the wealth-producers
either in idleness or in useless labour, of which latter class of persons flunkeys are a
conspicuous example.
Q. Do not the rich support their own flunkeys, and maintain in comfort those who
produce luxuries for them ? A. Certainly not. These people are maintained entirely
by the workers, though the maintenance is passed through the hands of the rich, who
therefore imagine that they produce it.
Q. Is not expenditure for luxuries “good for trade," and so beneficial to the workers ?
A. It is only good for the trade of the producers of luxuries by exactly the amount
which it withdraws from the producers of useful things.
�.'•WSSf^'vNvi-
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.... ...WTM'
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Q. Would not the money employed upon luxuries otherwise be idle? A. By no
means. The rich are not in the habit of keeping their riches in a stocking, and the
bankers are compelled to keep all the money lent them in full use, or they would them
selves be ruined.
Q. What then is the result of spending money upon luxuries? A. The destruction
of a certain amount of wealth and the absolute waste of the labour spent in repro
ducing it.
Q. Does not the expenditure of a wealthy man in keeping up a large household
benefit the poor ? A. Decidedly not.
Q. What then is the result of spending money in maintaining flunkeys ? A. The
utter waste of all the food and clothing they consume.
Q. Would not they in any case consume food and clothing ? A. Certainly : but they
would repay the waste by producing useful things themselves.
Q. How does all this work affect the labourers ? A. It compels them to produce
more food and clothing than would otherwise be necessary, or else to consume less of it
themselves.
Q. How is this ? A. Because the food which the flunkeys eat cannot be also eaten
by the labourers; while the labourers are obliged to produce it, since somebody must
do this, and it is perfectly evident that the flunkeys do not.
Q. Does not this apply to all the idle classes ? A. Certainly. We have only to ask
where the food which they eat and the clothes which they wear, come from, and we see
that they are produced by somebody else without any return being made for them by
the idlers. That is to say, they represent unpaid labour, or in other words surplus
value.
Q. Then if one man is living in idleness, what is the inevitable result ? A. That
another man is producing what he consumes; or that several are each doing more than
their fair share of work to make up for his deficiency.
Q. How would Socialism deal with this question of work? A. It would compel every
one to do his share of the necessary work of the world.
Q. Under what penalty ? A. Under penalty of starvation, since those who refused to
work would get nothing to eat.
Q. What would happen to the old and infirm and the children? A. They would be,
as they are in any society, a perfectly just charge upon the able-bodied workers, in
creasing the necessary work of the world by the amount which must be devoted to their
maintenance and education.
Q. Would the workers then receive the full value of their toil ? A. Deductions from
it for such purposes as those just mentioned are, of course, inevitable, and must be
made under every form of society, as well as certain other deductions for other measures
of public utility.
Q. What deductions can be prevented by Socialism ? A. Nothing could be subtracted
from the labourers’ reward for the purpose of maintaining in idleness any persons
whatever who are capable of work, nor for the aggrandisement of private individuals,
nor for the furthering of objects of no public utility merely to satisfy individual caprice.
YII—THEORIES OF PROFIT.
Q. What is the use of money ? A. It facilitates the exchange of articles, especially
those of unequal value.
Q. How is this effected? A. If A produces wheat, and B cloth, money serves as a
convenient measure of the labour-value of each. A exchanges his wheat for money,
and buys cloth with that. B exchanges his cloth for money and buys wheat with that.
Q. Are they both enriched by the bargain ? A. Not in the matter of exchange-value,
since wheat which has cost a day’s labour exchanges for cloth which has cost the same,
but in the matter of use-value they are both enriched, since each gets what he wants,
anil gives what he does not want.
Q. Is this always the case? A. Always, in the ordinary exchange between producers
who are working for their own benefit, and exchange goods for money, and that money
for other goods.
Q. Can a profit be made out of money transactions altogether apart from the exchange
©f goods ? A. Yes, by gambling either on the race-course or on the stock-exchange,
but in this case one gambler's gain is another’s loss.
Q. Whaf other form of exchange now prevails? A. That of those who, not being
workers, produce no goods, but yet have command of money.
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9
~
Q. How do they use it ? A. They exchange their money for goods, and those goods
back again into money.
Q. Then what is the use of the process if they only get money at the end, when they
had money at the beginning ? A. Because at the second exchange they get more money
than they gave at the first.
Q. How has this fact been explained by economists? A. By the mere statement
that the money-monger either gave less money than the goods were worth at the first
exchange, or got more than they were worth at the second.
Q. What consideration did they omit in this theory ? A. The fact that these same
money-mongers are in the market both as buyers and sellers, and that without a miracle
they cannot all gain on both transactions, but must lose in selling precisely the amount
they gain in buying.
Q. What other inadequate explanation has been put forward ? A. The theory that
in buying machinery they buy something which has the power of adding an extra exchange-value to the goods upon which it is employed.
Q. What made this theory seem plausible? A. The fact that with a machine the
labourer can produce goods much faster than without it.
Q. Does not this add exchange-value to his productions? A. Not unless he has a
monopoly of the machine, and can thus fear no competition except that of hand-labour;
otherwise the ex change-value of his goods sinks in proportion to the increased rapidity
of their production.
Q. Explain this. A. If he can make two yards of cloth in the time which he formerly
devoted to one, and all other weavers can do the same, the price or exchange-value of
two yards sinks to the former price of one; though, of course, the use-value of two is
always greater than that of one.
Q. Are not monopolies frequent ? A. No individual capitalist can keep a monopoly
for any great length of time, as all inventions become common property at last, and,
although it is true that the capitalists as a body have a monopoly of machinery as against
the workers, which adds a fictitious value to machine-made goods, and will continue to
do so until the workers take control of the machinery, yet this extra value is too small
to account for a tithe of the profits of the money-mongers.
Q. What is the one thing needful, which they must be able to buy in the market, in
order to make these profits ? A. Something whichjshall itself have the power of creating
exchange-value largely in excess of its own cost, in order that at the end of the transac
tion they may have secured more money than they have expended.
Q, What is to be bought in the market having this power ? A. There is only one
thing with this power, and that is the labourer himself, who offers his labour-force on
the market.
Q. On what terms does he offer it ? A. Competition compels him to be content with
its cost price.
Q. What is this ? A. Subsistence wages, that is, enough to keep himself and his
family from starvation.
Q. What does this represent in labour? A. The value produced by his labour
expendedBsefully for two or three hours every day.
Q. Is he, then, at leisure after two or three hours’ work? A. By no means. The
bargain between him and the capitalist requires him to give ten hours or more of work
for the cost price of two or three.
Q. Why does he make such an unequal bargain ? A. Because, in spite of all so-called
freedom of contract, he has no other choice.
Q. Has the capitalist no conscience? A. Individuals cannot alter the system, even if
they would ; and the capitalist is now often represented by a company, which, if it had
a conscience, could not pay its five per cent.
Q. After the labourer has produced the price of his own wages, what does he go on to
do ? A. To produce exchange-value, for which he is not paid at all, for the benefit of
the capitalist.
Q. What is the value produced by this unpaid labour called? A. Surplus value, as
we said before.
, Q. What does the capitalist do with the surplus value? A. He keeps as much as
he can for himself under the name of profits of his business.
Q. Why does he not keep it all ? A. Because out of it he has to pay landlords, other
capitalists from whom he has borrowed capital, bankers and brokers who have effected
these loans for him, middlemen who sell his wares to the public, and finally the public,
in order to induce them to buy from him instead of from rival manufacturers.
Q. How does he justify this appropriation of surplus-value by his class ? A. He tries
to persuade himself that capital has the power of breeding and producing interest by as
natural a process as the reproduction of animals.
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Q. Can he find any dupes to believe in so absurd a theory ? A. He instils a genuine
belief into himself and others that this is really the case.
Q. What is the inference from this? A. That the labourer ought to be grateful to the
capitalist for furnishing him with employment.
Q. For what have the labourers really to thank the capitalist? A. For defrauding
them of three-quarters of the fruits of their toil, and rendering leisure, education, and
natural enjoyment almost impossible for them to attain.
H
VIII.—INADEQUATE OBJECTIONS.
Fi
l
n
Q. What kind of objectors do Socialists mostly meet with ? A. Those who from
interested motives prefer the present anarchy to the proposed organisation of labour,
and those who consider Socialists as a set of well-meaning persons busied about an
impracticable scheme.
Q. What objection do they chiefly urge against Socialism? A. That Socialists, if
poor, are interested schemers for the overthrow of an excellent society, in order that,
being themselves idle and destitute, they may be able to seize upon the wealth accumu
lated by more industrious people.
Q. What have they to say against Socialists of wealth and industry ? A. That they must
obviously be insincere in their Socialism, or they would at once give away all their
capital, instead of denouncing what they themselves possess.
Q. How should Socialist working men meet the charge? A. With contempt. The
idea that people who are treated with injustice have no right to demand justice because
they would be gainers by its enforcement, is too absurd to require refutation.
Q. How should wealthy Socialists reply? A. They should point out that, so long as
the capitalist system remains, it is impossible to evade the responsibility of wealth by
merely transferring it to other persons.
Q. Explain this by an instance ? A. In a capitalist society the mere purchasing of an
article in the market involves the exploitation of the labourers who produced it; and
this is not in any way remedied or atoned for by giving away the article afterwards to
somebody else.
Q. How does this illustrate the case ? A. The owner of capital cannot prevent it from
exploiting the labourers by giving it away. It cannot be used as Socialism enjoins
except under an organised system of Socialism.
Q. Can the wealthy Socialist do nothing to frustrate the capitalist system? A. He
can mitigate the severity of competition in all his personal relations. Beyond that he
can do nothing except use his wealth in helping on the Socialist cause.
Q. How may Socialists reply to the taunt that their scheme is impracticable ? A. By
quoting the opinion of J. S. Mill that the difficulties of Socialism are greatly over-rated;
and they should declare that, so far from being an impracticable Utopian scheme, it is
the necessary and inevitable result of the historical evolution of society.
Q. How can they prove this ? A, They can point to the fact that production is becom
ing more and mere socialised every day.
Q. Explain this? A. Production, which was once carried on by individuals working
separately for themselves, is now organised by companies and joint-stock concerns, by
massing large numbers of producers together, and uniting their efforts for a common end.
Q. For what end? A. -For the profits of the shareholders of the company.
Q. How could the State take advantage of this? A. By taking into its own hands
the organisation which the capitalists have prepared for it, and using it for the benefit
of the producers alone.
Q. Would not the capitalists start fresh companies in opposition to those managed by
the State ? A. They could no more compete with the State than they can now with the
Post Office; and they would be equally helpless in the case of the Railways and all the
great industries.
Q. Would it not be easier for the capitalists to compete with the State in the case of
smaller concerns ? A. It would in any case be impossible for them to get labourers, since
the State would be paying the labourers the full value of their labour, and they would
therefore decline to work for the capitalists.
Q. Would the expropriated capitalists be entitled to compensation? A. As a matter
of principle it is unjust to compensate the holders of stolen goods out of the pockets of
those who have suffered the theft; but it might be expedient to grant some compensation
in the shape of annuities.
Q. What is the tendency of the evolution of society? A. It tends always towards
�11
more complex organisation, and to a greater interdependence of all men upon each other;
each individual becoming more and more helpless by himself, but more and more power
ful as part of a mightier society.
Q. Is it true that individuality would be crushed by Socialism ? J. On the contrary,
it is crushed by the present state of society, and would then alone be fairly developed.
Q. What does J. S. Mill say on this point? A “The restraints of Communism
would be freedom in comparison with the present condition of the majority of the human
race. The generality of labourers in this and most other countries have as little choice
of occupation or freedom of locomotion, are practically as dependent on fixed rules and
on the will of others, as they could be in any system short of actual slavery.”
Q. What does Mr. Fawcett say on the same subject ? A. That there is no choice of
work or possibility of change for the factory hand ; and that the boy who is brought up
to the plough must remain at the plough-tail to the end of his days.
Q. What other objection has been urged against Socialism ? A. That it will take away
all the incentives to exertion, and induce universal idleness in consequence.
Q. Is this the case? A. On the contrary, it will apply the strongest incentive to all
alike, for all must work if they wish to eat, while at present large classes are exempted
by the accident of birth from the necessity of working at all.
Q. Name another common objection. A. That Socialism will destroy culture and
refinement by compelling the leisured classes who have a monopoly of them to do some
honest work.
Q. Is this the case ? A. On the contrary, it will bring the opportunity of culture and
refinement to all by putting an end to the wearisome labour that continues all day long;
while the leisured class will learn by experience that work is a necessity for perfect
culture.
Q. What other objection is often .urged ? A. That State management would give rise
to jobbery and corruption.
Q. How may this be answered? A. By pointing to the present State organisation
either of the police or the Post Office, in neither of which are jobbery and corruption
conspicuous features.
Q. Would not the State be in a different postion as regards the people ? A. At present
it is the people's master, but under any democratic scheme of Socialism it would become
their servant, and merely be charged with carrying out their will.
Q. Name another objection to the practicability of Socialism? A. The cuckoo cry
that “if you make all men equal to-day, they will all be unequal to-morrow, because of
their different natural capabilities.”
Q. What equality do Socialists aim at ? A. Equality of opportunities, not of natural
powers.
Q. What is the Socialist view of the duties of those who are especially gifted by
nature ? A. That they owe a larger return to the community than those who are less
naturally gifted.
Q. What is the capitalist view of their rights and duties ? A. That they are indepen
dent of all duties, and have the right of taxing the community, which supports them,
for luxuries and waste to the full extent of their individual caprice.
Q, In accordance with this view, what method do capitalists take in dealing with
them ? A. Capitalists arrange that persons of extra industry and talent shall have every
opportunity of enslaving their less fortunate neighbours, thus adding an inequality of
conditions to the natural inequality of talent.
Q. What is the Socialist method ? A. Socialists insist that the talented as well as the
cunning shall be restrained by the organisation of society from appropriating the surplus
value created by their less fortunate neighbours.
IX—GLUTS AND THEIR RESULTS.
Q. To what is the periodical depression of trade, with its accompanying distress among
the labourers, due ? A. To the fact that individual capitalists are striving to enrich
themselves alone, instead of co-operating to supply the needs of the community.
Q. Explain this? A. During a period of activity, when prices are high and the markets
for goods are not over-stocked, a great competition goes on among capitalists, who wish
to take advantage of the high prices and produce more quickly the goods which can
command them.
Q. What is the effect of this competition ? A. All the available labourers are employed;
all the machinery is set going ; and no effort is spared by the manufacturers to produoe
the utmost quantity of the goods which are in demand on the market.
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Q. What is the inevitable result ? A. A glut is shortly created of these goods. Far
more than were wanted have been made. All the store-houses are full, and no more
purchasers are to be found.
Q. What is the next step in the process ? A. The capitalists soon get tired of heaping
up what they cannot sell, and wish to stop production.
Q. How can they manage this ? A. They turn off all their extra hands, and propose
such a reduction of wages that the rest agree to strike rather than accept it.
Q. With what result ? A. Production is stopped for a time, and the capitalists are not
obliged to pay wages, or else agree to pay only for half time until the glut has gradually
disappeared, as the goods are absorbed by the public.
Q. What follows? A. A fresh demand arises. The workers are all employed again,
and the glut recurs with the utmost regularity.
Q. Is there any necessity for this periodical distress ? A. Not the smallest,
Q .What is it that vitiates the whole system of production at present? A. The pre
vailing idea that goods are not to be produced for the sake of their usefulness, but for
the sake of making a profit for capitalists and giving employment to labourers.
Q. What definite evil is the result of this idea ? A. Adulteration and fraud of everv
description; cheap and nasty wares driving expensive and sound goods out of the market
Q Who are the greatest sufferers from all this ? A. The workers themselves.
Q. In what way? A. Being the least able to protect themselves against adulteration
and fraud, they are cheated to a fearful extent in all that they buy ; and are the first to
suffer from a glut in the market.
Q. How is this ? A. Because they are first compelled to produce more food and
Ciothing than can possibly be sold at a profit, and then are deprived of the means of
buying what they have themselves produced, although they are in urgent need both of
food and clothing, because the capitalists throw them out of work as soon as their work
ceases to pay its percentage.
Q. What advice is given to the labourer by well-meaning reformers who do not under
stand the labour question ? A. To be sober and thrifty.
Q. Is this advice sound? A. As addressed to the individual struggling against his
neighbours under the capitalist system, it is excellent.
Q How can it benefit the individual? A. It may enable him to “ rise ” into the capitalist
class; that is, to exchange his position in the ranks of the oppressed for one in those of
the oppressors.
Q. What is the Socialist criticism of this advice? A. That as a panacea for the
wrongs of the system, or as a cure for the sufferings of the labourers as a class, it is
inadequate , because a general improvement in intelligence, thrift, and sobriety, if
shared by the whole class of labourers, merely supplies the capitalist class with a better
instrument for the production of surplus-value.
Q. What is the result of improvement in the ability of the workers in the present
system? A. The same result as an improvement in machinery, namely, that goods are
more rapidly produced by the workers, and accumulated by the capitalists ; so that the
periodical glut, with its accompanying crisis, depression, and distress, is more quickly
achieved than before.
Q. Is there any possibility of an incidental advantage to the labourers? A. Only in
this respect: the labourer is a two-edged tool in the hands of the capitalist; and when it
becomes sharper and more efficient for his work, it becomes also more likely to cut the
hand that uses it.
Q. Explain what you mean by this ? A. A general improvement among the labourers
in intelligence and sobriety will probably be followed by improved organisation, with a
view to expropriating the classes that confiscate the fruits of their labour.
Q. Is this the end at which so-called “ social reformers ” aim ? A. By no means; but
they seem incapable of understanding either the inefficacy in one way, or the efficacy in
another, of their well-meant advice to the labourers as a class.
Q. What advice do the Malthusians give to the labourer ? A, To limit his family, as
they think that overpopulation is the cause of the distress.
Q. Is this the case I A. It has never been so in England.
Q. How can this be proved ? A. By the fact that the amount of wealth produced
which might be exchanged for food for the workers, if the capitalist system did not pre
vent it, has always increased faster than the number of producers.
Q. Why is this? A. Because the labour of those who are working in concert is far
more efficient than that of isolated workers, and machinery vastly enhances this
efficiency.
Q. What is the element of truth in the Malthusian theory? A. It is perfectly true
that a limited space of land cannot support an unlimited number of people, but as even
England, to say nothing of the world, has not reached that limit to population, it has at
present no bearing on the case.
�*3
Q. What is the element of truth as regards families? A. It is perfectly true that
in the present capitalist system the man who has no children at all is in a better
pecuniary position than the man with a large family, since, just as in actual warfare,
children in the modern competitive battle-field are an encumbrance, where every man
has to fight for his living, and maintain his family as best he may.
Q. How does the standpoint of the Malthusians differ from that of the Socialists’
A. The former accept the basis of the capitalist society, namely, the existence of two
distinct classes of wage-payers and wage-earners, and merely advise the workers to
attempt to secure a larger wage.
Q. How do Socialists regard this advice ? A. They consider that the discussion as to
whether the workers shall enjoy one-half or one-third of the wealth which they have
produced is comparatively unimportant, and they continue to urge the rightful claim of
the workers to the full value of their own productions.
Q. How soon is this claim likely to be attended to ? A. As soon as ever the majority
of the workers really understand their own position, and consequently become convinced
of the advantages of Socialism.
Q. How can the capitalists be converted to the same view? A. Appeals to justice
may make isolated conversions of individual capitalists, but nothing short of a display
of organised force will enable the idlers as a body to perceive the advantage of taking
their due share in the necessary work of society under a just system of Socialism.
X—REVOLUTION.
Q. On what ground do capitalists defend the principle of competition ? A. On the
eround that it brings into play a man’s best qualities.
Q. Does it effect this? A. This is occasionally its result; but it also brings out his
worst qualities, by stimulating him to struggle with his fellows for the relative improve
ment of his own position rather than for the absolute advancement of the interests of all.
Q. Why does this happen? A. Because in ordinary competition one man’s gain is
another’s loss.
Q. What is the theory of the Survival of the Fittest? A. That the class of persons
who are most fitted to live and propagate their race in the conditions with which it is
surrounded, is certain to survive the rest.
Q. Are the existing social conditions favourable to the survival of those persons whose
character renders them most valuable to society ? A. On the contrary, they favour the
survival of the most valueless.
Q. What is the final result of such conditions and surroundings as the filth, foul airand squalor of a town rookery ? A. The crushing out of those who are least able to
adapt themselves to these surroundings; and the consequent survival of those who are
most fit for filth, but least for decent social life.
Q. Does the law of the Survival of the Fittest affect men in the same way as it affects
the lower animals? A. No; because it is possible for men to alter their surroundings,
while other animals must simply adapt themselves to them, whatever they may be.
Q. What is the Revolution for which Socialists strive? A. A Revolution in the
methods of the distribution of wealth corresponding to that which has already taken
place in the means of its production.
Q. What change has already taken place ? A . Wealth is now almost entirely pro
duced by the associated effort of great numbers of men working in concert, instead of by
individual effort as in former times; while individuals still possess command of its
distribution, and use their power in their own interests.
Q. How are forms of government changed so as to re-adjust them to the economical
changes in the forms of production which have been silently evolving in the body of
society ? A. By means of Revolutions.
Q. Give an instance of this ? A. The French Revolution of 1789.
Q. Did that Revolution fail to attain its objects ? A. Certainly not; but its objects
were not those at which Socialists aim.
Q. What were its objects ? A. The political expression of the fact that feudalism was
demolished, and the reign of capitalism established on its ruins
Q. What do you mean by this? A. The overthrow of the political supremacy of
the landed aristocracy, and the establishment of a bourgeois plutocracy; that is, putting
the political power into the hands of the merchants and money-lords of the middle
class.
Q. What change in the forms of production had rendered this inevitable? A The
�fact that the possession of agricultural land had ceased to be the chief means to the
attainment of wealth.
Q. What, then, had taken its place ? A. The possession of capital and the use of
machinery.
Q. In what sense was that Revolution a selfish struggle? A. After the displacement
of the upper by the middle-class in political and social supremacy, the latter established
its own pow’er irrespectively of the rights of any other class.
Q. Is not the struggle which precedes and heralds the Social Revolution one of selfish
class interests in the same way ? A. By no means; Socialists do not aim at the
supremacy of a class or section of the community at the expense of other sections.
Q. Do they not wish the workers to control the State ? A. Certainly they do.
Q. Is not this the supremacy of a class? A. No, for they insist that every ablebodied person of sound mind should do a fair share of necessary wcrk. When all are
workers, the workers will be no longer a class, but a nation.
Q. What, then will become of the class-selfishnes of the workers ? A. Selfishness will
then become public spirit, when the motives which formerly led men to work for the
interests and advancement of themselves alone, operate for the benefit of the whole
human race with which their class has become identified.
THE
OBJECT.
The Establishment of a Free Condition of Society based on the prin
ciple of Political Equality, with Equal Social Rights for all and the
complete Emancipation of Labour.
PROGRAMME.
1. All Officers or Administrators to be elected by Equal Direct Adult
Suffrage, and to be paid by the Community.
2. Legislation by the People, in such wise that no project of Law
shall become legally binding till accepted by the Majority of the People.
3. The Abolition of a Standing Army, and the Establishment of a
National Citizen Force; the People to decide on Peace or War.
4. All Education, higher no less than elementary, to be Free, Com
pulsory, Secular, and Industrial for all alike.
5. The Administration of Justice to be Free and Gratuitous for all
Members of Society.
6. The Land with all the Mines, Railways and other Means of Tran
sit, to be declared and treated as Collective or Common Property.
7. Ireland and all other parts of the Empire to have Legislative
Independence.
8. The Production of Wealth to be regulated by Society in the com
mon interest of all its Members.
g. The Means of Production, Distribution and Exchange to be
declared and treated as Collective or Common Property.
As measures called for to palliate the evils of our existing society the
Social-Democratic Federation urges for immediate adoption :—
The Compulsory Construction of healthy artizan’s and agricultural
labourers’ dwellings in proportion to the population, such dwellings to
be let at rents to cover the cost of construction and maintenance alone.
Free Compulsory Education for all classes, together with the provision
of at least one wholesome meal a day in each school.
�Eight Hours or less to be the normal working day in all trades.
Cumulative Taxation upon all incomes above a fixed minimum not
exceeding /"300 a year.
State Appropriation of Railways, with or without compensation.
The establishment of National Banks, which shall absorb all private
institutions that derive a profit from operations in money or credit.
Rapid Extinction of the National Debt.
Nationalisation of the Land, and organisation cf agricultural and
industrial armies under State control on Co-operative principles.
As means for the peaceable attainment of these objects the SocialDemocratic Federation advocates :
Adult Suffrage. Annual Parliaments. Proportional Represen
tation.
Payment of Members ; and Official Expenses of Election
out of the Rates.
Abolition of the House of Lords and all
Hereditary Authorities. Disestablishment and Disendowment
of all State Churches.
Membership of Branches of the Federation is open to all who agree
with its objects, and subscribe One Penny per week.
Those ready to form Branches should communicate with the
Secretary, Social-Democratic Federation, Bridge House, Blackfriars. E. C.
All who are interested, in Socialism
should, read.
THE FOLLOWING PUBLICATIONS OF
THE MODERN PRESS, 13, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.
Which will be sent post free at the published prices on receipt of
an order amounting to one shilling or more.
(The Publications of the Modern Press can be obtained from W. L.
Rosenberg, 261, East Tenth Street, New York City.)
Socialism made Plain.
The social and political
manifesto of the Social-Democratic Federation issued in June 1883 ;
with “The Unemployed,” a Manifesto issued after the “ Riots in
the West End” on 8th February, 1886. Sixty-first thousand.
Crown 8-vo., paper cover, price id.
“ JUSTICE,” the Organ of the Social Democracy. Every
Saturday, one penny.
Socialist Rhymes
from Justice.
By J. L. Joynes.
Reprinted chiefly
Demy 8-vo., price id.
Summary of the Principles of Socialism.
By
H. M. Hyndman and William Morris. Second edition, 64-pp.
crown 8-vo., in wrapper designed by Wm. Morris, price 4d.
This gives an account of the growth of capitalist production, and concludes with a
statement of the demands of English Socialists for the immediate future.
Herbert Spencer on Socialism. By Frank Fairman.
16-pp. crown 8-vo., price id.
�'x'\x\'cw\xye^A>:
I
Socialism and Soldiering*; with some comments on the
Army Enlistment Fraud. By George Bateman (Late 23rd Regi
ment), with Portrait. With an introduction by H. H. Champion
(Late Royal Artillery). Price One Penny.
The Working Man’s Programme (Arbeiter Programm). By Ferdinand Lassalle. Translated from the German
by Edward Peters. Crown 8-vo., paper cover, price 6d.
The Robbery of the Poor.
By W. H. P. Campbell.
Demy 8-vo., paper cover, price 6d.
The Appeal to the Young.
By Prince Peter
Kropotkin. Translated from the French by H. M. Hyndman and
reprinted from Justice. Royal 8-vo., 16-pp. Price one penny.
The most eloquent and noble appeal to the generous emotions ever penned by a
scientific man. Its author has just suffered five years’ imprisonment at the hands of the
French Republic for advocating the cause of the workers
Wage-Labour and Capital. From the German of
Karl Marx translated by J. L. Joynes and reprinted from Justice.
New and cheaper edition, Royal 8-vo., price id.
By Edward Carpenter —Social Progress and Indi
vidual Effort; Desirable Mansions; and Co-operative Production.
One penny each.
The Man with the Red Flag: Being John Burns’
Speech at the Old Bailey, when tried-for Seditious Conspiracy, on
April gth, 1886. (From the Verbatim Notes of the official short
hand reporter.) With Portrait. Price threepence.
The Socialist Catechism. By J. L. Joynes. Reprinted
with additions from Justice.
Demy 8-vo., price id. 20th thousand.
Socialism and Slavery. By H. M. Hyndman.
(In
The Emigration Fraud Exposed.
By H.
M.
What an Eight Hours Bill Means.
By T. Mann
reply to Mr. Herbert Spencer’s article on “ The Coming Slavery.”)
New Edition, with portrait. 16 pp. Royal 8-vo., price one penny.
Hyndman. With a Portrait of the Author. Reprinted by per
mission from the Nineteenth Century for February, 1885. Crown 8-vo.,
price one penny.
(Amalgamated Engineers). New edition with portrait.
Thousand. Price one penny.
Socialism and the Worker.
By F.
A.
Sixth
Sorge.
Price id.
An explanation in the simplest language of tne main idea of Socialism.
The Chicago Riots and the Class War in the
United States. By H. M. Hyndman. Reprinted
from Time, June, 1886.
Price one penny.
International Trade Union Congress, held at Paris,
August, 1886. Report by Adolphe Smith.
Price Three-Halfpence.
24-pp., Royal 8-vo.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The socialist catechism
Creator
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Joynes, J. L. (James Leigh) [-1893.]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 4, [2] p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: Reprinted with additions from: Justice. 23rd thousand edition. Publisher's list on unnumbered page at the end. Information on the Social-Democratic Federation, p. 14.
Publisher
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The Modern Press
Date
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1885
Identifier
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G4976
Subject
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Socialism
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (A defence of atheism: being a lecture delivered in Mercantile Hall, Boston, April 10, 1861), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Capitalism
Socialism
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Text
����������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
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Title
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Land lessons for town folk
Creator
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Jameson, William
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 12 p. ; 22 cm.
Series title: Clarion Pamphlet
Series number: No. 9
Notes: The cover states "Clarion" Pamphlet - No, 9; half title page reads "Pioneer" Pamphlets - No, 1. (1) "Why should London grow?" (2) "Guardian angels." (3) "Cockneyfied socialism." Date of publication from KVK (OCLC, WorldCat). Publisher's series list inside back cover. William Jameson was Hon. Sec. of the Land Nationalisation Society.
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"Clarion" Newspaper Company, Limited
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[1896]
Identifier
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G5776
Subject
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London
Land reform
Socialism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Land lessons for town folk), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Land Reform-Great Britain
London
Population Increase
Socialism
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PDF Text
Text
£6^
THE
SOCIAL QUESTION.
y
'
•
•
A SPEECH DELIVERED BY
Deputy
JOHANN JACOBY,
TO HIS CONSTITUENTS OF THE SECOND ARRONDISSEMENT
OF BERLIN, ON THE 20th JANUARY, 1870
■“ Men shall not be masters and servants, for all are born to liberty.”
Abraham Lincoln.
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.
1870.
��OmL QUES TIO N.
T
Dear Fellow Citizens and Friends,
The mandate you have confided to me expires with the close of
the present session of Parliament. I am happy that this meeting
of my constituents gives me an opportunity of thanking you
once more for the confidence you have so faithfully and truthfully
continued to place in me at a time when political convictions are
vacillating in the extreme.
The last time I addressed you from this tribune, I essayed to
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been realised, without the aid of the gods, in the most natural
manner in the world, namely, by insight into the laws and by em
ployment of the forces of nature; that which appeared formerly
impossible to the wisest of the Greeks, is realised daily under
our eyes. But how has this miracle come about ? How has this
happy result been brought to pass, which Aristotle anticipated, of
such a state of things ?
Experience teaches us that by the grand mechanical discoveries
which have been made in our time, national riches have imEneasurably increased, but that the unfortunate and painful lot
of the laborious classes has been at best but ameliorated.
’
�ERRATA.
Page 1, last line, for “ laborious,” read labouring.
Page 5, line 14 from bottom, for “ restoring,” read restricting.
Page 7, line 20 from top, after “ credit,” put a comma.
Page 7, line 3 from bottom, for “ gem,” read germ,.
Page 8, line 22 from bottom, for “ only,” read on.
Page 10, line 14 from top, for “ these,” read other.
Page 12, line 10 from top, after “ does,” put ratf.
Page 12, line 2 from top, for “verum,” read rerum. Same page
line 2 from bottom, for K law ” read labour.
Page 16, line 13 from bottom, after the word “ majority,” insert
—of mankind as wage-labourers.
�TH E
S 0 C I A L QUESTION.
Dear Fellow Citizens and Friends,
The mandate you have confided to me expires with the close of
the present session of Parliament. I am happy that this meeting
of my constituents gives me an opportunity of thanking you
once more for the confidence you have so faithfully and truthfully
continued to place in me at a time when political convictions are
vacillating in the extreme.
The last time I addressed you from this tribune, I essayed to
explain to you the end which the radical German party had in
view, and above all, its position with regard to the working men’s
agitation; permit me to-day to take as the subject of my deli
beration, this working men’s movement itself, or, as it is
ordinarily termed, the social question. The political and social
conditions of a country being intimately allied, every elector has
a right to demand a declaration of social as well as political faith
from his deputy. I shall endeavour to answer this question with
entire frankness. Aristotle, one of the greatest thinkers of
humanity, divides mankind into two classes—free men and men
born for slavery. He pretends that the Greeks, thanks to their
independent character, were called to dominate over other nations,
whilst the barbarian races were destined either to be governed or
for slavery. He sees a social necessity in this institution—he
considers it as an essential and indispensable basis of the State
and of society; for supposing that free citizens should find them
selves under the necessity of providing by their labour for the
needs of life, whence could arise the desire to form their intellect,
and the leisure to occupy themselves with affairs of State ? And
yet, gentlemen, we find in Aristotle a remarkable passage con
cerning the possibility of a state of society without slavery. If
there were animated instruments (automatons) he says, capable
of rendering us those services now performed by slaves; if each
of these instruments, comprehending or even acting in advance
of the wish of man, could execute the labour confided to him
after the manner of the Statutes of Daedalus and the tables of
Hephaestus, which, according to Homer, entered of their own
accord into the chambers of the gods; if the shuttles could
weave alone, and guitars could perform melodies without musi
cians, then weavers would have no need of workmen, nor masters
of slaves.
But you all know that this wonder has in great part already
been realised, without the aid of the gods, in the most natural
manner in the world, namely, by insight into the laws and by em
ployment of the forces of nature; that which appeared formerly
impossible to the wisest of the Greeks, is realised daily under
our eyes. But how has this miracle come about ? How has this
Bappy result been brought to pass, which Aristotle anticipated, of
such a state of things ?
Experience teaches us that by the grand mechanical discoveries
which have been made in our time, national riches have immeasurably increased, but that the unfortunate and painful lot
of the laborious classes has been at best but ameliorated.
�4
Permit me now, in conformity with, enlarged experience, fur
ther to develop the dream of Aristotle. Let us suppose that in
some distant future of the human race, the entire soil of the
globe shall have passed into a state of private property, and that
man, by the progress of science, shall have acquired the mastery
of nature, that the inventions of mechanism shall have attained
such a state of perfection, that machines shall be constructed,
and shall practise by means of other machines, so that all phy
sical labour shall have become superfluous, . or that at least its
necessity shall have been reduced to a minimum. What would
be the result of such a state of things ?.
It will then naturally happen that in virtue of the force of
attraction, which the greater capital exercises upon the lesser,, a
relatively small number of rich persons will find themselves in
the possession of all the machines and all the means of labour;
it is to this small number alone to whom the common revenues of
the country will accrue, as well as all the wealth which is neces
sary for the wants and the pleasures of life, and that from a
point of view now admitted as just.
But what would happen under such circumstances—and granted
the complete depreciation of labour—what would become of the
disinherited mass of the working proletariat, if the charity of
the possessors of capital did not come to their rescue ?
What other resource would remain open to these unfortunate
people, but the alternative of dying of hunger, or modifying
in their own favour the existing relationships of society and
of property, either by force or by fraud ?
It will be said that this is a vain phantom, proposed to frighten
us, and that a similar state of society will never be realised,
either in the present or in the future. I admit this—not how
ever, because the thing in itself is impossible—but because it is
impossible that intelligent men will allow matters to reach such
a point. But can we hide from ourselves the fact that existing
social life, based as it is upon the domination of capital, and upon
the system of wages, tends to such a direction, that unless
obstructed, it would lead us nearer every day towards a state like
that we have just described ? Must we not acknowledge, that
even at the present time, the distribution of the common revenues
of the country is made in such a manner that, at least, a part
of the working proletariat is exposed to the distress we have
depicted.
In such a condition of things, it is the incumbent duty of every
honest and thoughtful man, to put to himself the following
question:—
How can we modify the present relations of society and
property, so as to realise a more equitable distribution of the
common revenue, and to obviate the distress of the working
classes, which daily assumes more extended proportions ?
In examining more closely the problem, the solution of which
we seek, there are two principal features which characterise the
economic relationships of the existing order of society, and which
�5
distinguish it from those of the past—the system of wages and great
^collective industry.
In the past, the social labours were executed in a great measure
by slaves or serfs; since the great French Revolution, there have
no longer existed seignorial rights of man over man.
By right, that is to say legally, every workman is free and dis
poses of himself, but in the fact, he is anything but independent.
Deprived of the necessary means and conditions of labour, with
out any other property but the faculty of labour, he sees himself
[under the necessity of working in the service of another foi'
|c wages,” and for wages which scarcely suffice for the bare
maintenance of life. If he finds no demand for the sole mer
chandise he has to dispose of, that is to say, for his labour, he
falls with those depending on him into extreme misery. Not
withstanding this painful and precarious situation, a labourer
■could with difficulty be found, who would return to the ancient
social state; what he wants is an existence worthy of a man, and
he knows that it is in liberty alone that he can attain it.
As the French Revolution declared the labourer free as regards
his person, it also delivered property from the fetters of the
middle ages; without regard to primitive obligations and destina
tions, it gave him who was then in possession the absolute right
to dispose of his property.
This liberation of property, the employment of steam which
soon followed, and the general introduction of machinery into
workshops, introduced great and weighty changes into economic
End social relations. Trades and small commerce were more or
less driven into the background: commerce upon a large scale,
End great industry, that is to say, production by capital, took
their place. Nevertheless, painful as became the situation of the
poorer workman and of the small dealer by this change, the
Advantages of great collective industry are too important with
regard to the development of civilisation for society ever to forego
them. A return to small commerce and to small trade is for the
future as impossible as a return to statute labour.
In consequence, we must confine our question to the following
■Propositions:—
How can we, without restoring the liberty of labour, and
without prejudicing the progress obtained by industry (on a large
scale), realise a more equitable distribution of the common
revenue, and one more suited to the interest of all ?
The answer for us at least cannot be a doubtful one; there is
■but one means which can lead us to this end : The abolition of the
wage-system and the substitution in its place of co-operative labour.
Whoever can read the signs of the times, will not deny that
this is the thought, which more or less consciously is at the
bottom of all working men’s movements in every country of
Europe. Just as slavery and serfdom, which were also formerly
held to be necessary social institutions, have everywhere given
way to the wage-system, so impends to-day a revolution of the
same kind, and not less important; namely, the transition of the
�wage-system to labour, and labour free and equal in the right of
association. It is needful so to act, that this revolution be effected
in the most peaceful manner, which cannot happen except by
the unanimous concurrence of all the social forces interested in it.
The question which now occupies us should therefore be thus
stated:—
What must (1st) the workman, (2nd) the manufacturer—the
possessor of capital, (3rd) the State do, to advance the transition
already commenced towards production by association, and to
conduct it to a good issue in the interests of the community ?
We see that, to answer this question, we have nothing to do but
review the facts which are occurring before us, a certain proof
that we find ourselves at present in the midst of a social change.
(1.) With regard to the workman himself, it is needful, above
all, that he should have a clear idea of his position, and that
he should learn to know and to respect the noblei’ side of human
nature that is within him.
We have already said that, in general, the wages of the labourer
suffice only for the miserable support of himself and of his
family. If any one doubts this pitiful condition of wages, we
would refer him to the testimony rendered some time back by a
Commission of the Customs to Parliament, in a report upon the
estimate of the wages of workmen; it is written in striking terms.
“ We cannot allow the assertion that there is a sensible differ
ence between the wages of the workman and the means necessary
for his bare maintenance to pass unnoticed. The amount of
wages is precisely the point around which the whole of the social
question practically moves. Workmen affirm the insufficiency of
wages, the employers do not contest this in principle, but they
declare the amount of wages to be a fixed link in the chain of
economic phenomena, and that under the control of the market
in which they find themselves, they cannot arbitrarily change it
without breaking the whole chain. As long as this contest is not
decided, and we fear that it may be eternal (sic), we must rest
ourselves as being the sole point of any real solid foundation
upon the opinion that the two terms, ‘wages’ and ‘means of
indispensable existence,’ generally compensate each other.” “ The
indestructible chain of economic phenomena!” Really one could
scarcely find a more striking expression ! Doubtless, the lords of
capital and the dispensers of labour will not be impeded in the
accumulation of capital upon capital; but very heavily does this
“ chain of economic phenomena ” weigh upon the working classes.
And yet here again the saying of the poet confirms itself—
“ There dwells a spirit of good even in that which is evil! ”
The dominant industrial system whilst necessitating the
assemblage of large masses of labourers in the same locality,
furnishes at the same time the first step for doing away with the
evil it engenders. As man learns from a glass the knowledge of
the features of his own face, so the salaried workman attains to a
complete acquaintance of his situation only by perceiving his own
�7
•condition reflected m the common misery of his companions in
suffering. In common with his equally ill-favoured and equally
oppressed companions, by constant intercourse and exchange of
ideas with his equals, by the mutual co-operation of reciprocal
assistance and of defence against the common danger, there is
developed by degrees among the workmen a bond of brotherhood,
which supports individuals, educates them, and urges the whole
body to struggle for their social rights. It is a singular occur
rence that it should be production by capital that itself assembles
and disciplines the forces destined to put an end to the domination
of capital and of the classes which represent it.
It is from these great industrial agglomerations that the work
ing men’s movement has arisen, which for this last ten years has
spread itself from England to France, to Belgium, to Germany,
to Switzerland, and has acquired by the foundation of the International Association a precise form and a positive power. On all
sides we find societies taking root, whose object is the amelioration
-of the material condition of the working classes; societies of
bartizans and of labourers, associations for instruction, for assist
ance, for consumption, for advances, and for credit unions for
manufacture and production. It is to be foreseen, that under the
pressure of prevailing financial and economical relationships,
all these institutions proceeding from the workman alone, and
founded upon the principle of “ self-help,” will prove insufficient
in the face of the common wants. But their services will have
been considerable in aiding the intellectual and moral development of the working class and in starting a serious reform in the
condition of labour. The true meaning of the inappreciable value
of these associations consists in that, irrespectively of their spe
cific end, they form a school for the members of the Association,
and render them capable of managing their own affairs as well as
of co-operating efficaciously with others. By education, by pro
gress in the knowledge of affairs, and by the development of a
friendly lien among the workmen, they prepare them insensibly
to pass from the wage-system now in vigour to the system of
production by association, which is that of the future.
It was the spirit of association which elevated the laborious
citizen class, in the middle ages, to such a high degree of civiliza
tion, of well being, of power, and of importance. The awakening
of this spirit of association, will lead us in our own days to
■results, similar, yet more fruitful, not for a single state, but
for the entire human society.
The labour question, as we understand it, is not a question of
mere bread and money ; it is a question of justice, of civilization,
and of humanity. Our pretended saviours of the State and
Society, “ the glorious conquests of politics by blood and iron,”
will long, like a superannuated legend, have fallen into the profoundest oblivion, when it will be accorded as a merit to our time
to have awakened and fostered the spirit of association, the gem
■of human virtue and greatness. By this means, our epoch will
have laid the foundations of a new social life founded upon the
�8
principles of equality and fraternity. The creation of the mosh
insignificant working man’s association, will be to the future his
torian of civilization of more importance than the sanguinary
day of Sadowa 1
Let us proceed now to the second question.
(2.) What ought the manufacturer, the enterprising possessor!
of capital, to do ?
All we ask of him is simply to consider in each workman, “ the
man; ” we ask of him to recognise, and to treat the hired man
he employs as a being who has exactly the same rights as him
self—in one word, as his equal.
Every medal, it is said, has two sides; in this saying there is a
good deal of populai' good sense; the most difficult problems of
science and of life find therein a satisfactory solution. Just as
the medal, man also has two sides: the one peculiar to
him as an individual; the other general, stamping him as
a member of a great community. In fact, these two sides are
inseparable and without a defined limit, for it is but in their
entirety, and in their unity that they constitute man; but it is
nevertheless possible that one of these two sides, temporarily or
lastingly, may manifest itself in excess, and thus exercise a decisive
influence upon our thoughts and upon our actions.
Let us suppose, for example, that it is the more particular or
individual side, which allows itself to be felt and becomes pre
ponderate in the conscience of a man. First of all, there will
result a more exaggerated appreciation of personality, a deeper
sentiment of his personal value and a greater confidence in self.
“Aid yourself! man is his own architect.” This is one man’s
motto, the rule of his thought and his actions. If he preserves at
the same time his sentiment on the other side, that is only the
general side of his existence, if he does not lose sight of the
entirety, which binds him to his equals, he will say, that his own
isolated forces will not suffice to procure for himself a life worthy
of a man; that man can only live and prosper in the society of
his fellow creatures, and that a fraternal co-operation with others
is his interest if well understood.
Reverence for others, the sentiment of community and the
spirit of fraternity, will constitute the necessary counterpoise to
his egotism and self-confidence. But the case is quite different
when this personal egotism develops itself to excess. Even
then he will doubtless not overlook the insufficiency of his
isolated individual power, for the consciousness of the general
and universal side can never be completely stifled, but it is th J
consequences which he therefrom deduces, which are quite
different; he will consider other men not as beings who are his
equals, not as members of a great whole to which he himself
belongs, and in which they have all equal rights with himself, butas members subordinated to his individual self, as simple instru
ments, destined to the satisfaction of his own wants and desires.
It is thus that the personal feeling, so laudable in itself, degene
rates into egotism—confidence in self into arrogance. Cupidity*
�9
pride, ambition, will decide him to make of his neighbour a
servant of his will, and of that which he deems his own interest.
What we have just said of each, man in particular is true also
of man in the abstract; the same forces which act upon the
mind of the individual, act also upon the life of peoples, and
upon the history of the human race.
Domination of man over man, right of the stronger, exploitation of the weaker, these are the characteristic features, which,
distinguished alike the history of antiquity and that of the middle
ages. Is it otherwise at the present time ?
Does not social ordei’ even to-day, notwithstanding our boasted:
progress, repose upon the same principle of human servitude ?
Has the present epoch, in truth, a right to contemplate with,
pride and satisfaction its present state in contrast to the social,
relations of pagan antiquity, and the Christianized middle ages ?
With a frankness which cannot well be surpassed, a statesman
of the nineteenth century, Count Joseph de Maistre, thus ex
presses himself. “ The human race has been created for the
benefit of a few. It is the business of the clergy, of the nobility,
and of the high functionaries of state, to teach the people thatwhich is good or bad, true or false, in the moral and intellectual
world. The rest of mankind have no right to reason on such
subjects, and must suffer all things without a murmur.”
If the style is somewhat highly-coloured, the portrait is taken
from nature. As long as the leaders of the people “ shall make
war without consulting the people; as long as ecclesiastics shall
unite in council or] in synod to give judgment under the auspices
of the Holy G-host, upon the false science of man,” we shall have
no right to give a denial to de Maistre. His error consists alone
in approving a similar state of things, and of supposing that such
a state can and ought to last for ever.
Allow me to cite another testimony. From this double view
the truth will be elicited.
Robert Owen, the founder of the co-operative system in Eng
land, meets one day in the house of a Frankfort banker, therenowned statesman, Frederick von Gentz. Owen expounded his
socialistic system and displayed its excellence; if union could,
but replace disunion all men would have a sufficiency. “ That is
very possible 1 ” replied von Gentz, “but we by no means wish that
the masses should become at ease and independent of us, all
government would then be impossible.”
This, gentlemen, is in two words the social question of the
present time ! For Owen the enigma of the solution is, “union.”
Gentz indicates the source of the evil which opposes this
solution, “ the spirit of domination among the privileged classes.”
Aristotle, you will remember, also divided mankind into two
classes: the one destined by nature to dominion, the other
to servitude; but this difference was to be attributed to nation
ality, and it was the character of the Greek or the barbarian,,
which was the basis of his distinction. De Maistre and Gentz,
Hon the contrary, established a distinction in the same race,
�10
between a limited aristocracy called to power and well being,
and the rest of the masses condemned to be governed and to
suffer want.
If we consider the relationships of the Church, the State, or
of society in general, everywhere, we cannot conceal from our
selves the fact, that the domination of classes and the system of
tutelage, such as it existed in the middle ages, are to be found.
The only difference between the present and the past is that,
thanks to the reform in Germany and the revolution in France,
these convictions penetrate daily into lower and lower strata of
society, and this state of things cannot last long.
It is now understood that man is not born to be governed,
lorded over, condemned, and despoiled by his fellow-men; it
is now exacted in fact, from the State and society, that these
doctrines be seriously applied.
There was a time, and the oldest among you may remember it,
when he who placed a doubt upon the right of absolute rule
was declared a “ rebel.” In the same manner is treated in the
present day, whosoever dares to shatter the chain of economic
relations. Endeavour to attack the privileges of the well-to-do
classes, the abuses of power of the great capitalists, the dominant
system of credit; or only to talk of a more equitable distribution of
material rights, in a certain sphere, you will be at once condemned
as an enemy of all social order, as a heretic towards society and as
a communist. But do not let this impede us from frankly and
openly recognising this truth—that all individual property,
material no less than intellectual, is at the same time the com
mon good of society. Just as man, so has the property of man
also its particular side, which makes it the property of the in
dividual, and its general and universal side, upon which the
community have positive claims. That the State and the com
mune levy rates and taxes upon the fortune of each in di vidua,!,
that the law should limit the disposal of property in each, is
legitimate in the eyes of all.
But we demand, has not the proprietor other duties besides
those which the law of the State prescribes, and when necessary
imposes ? Has he not duties towards society, as he has towards
his family, the community, and the Church ?
Is the sum total of what each man possesses in goods, real or
personal, the product of his own activity ? Is he not indebted
for the greater part of it to the co-operation of others, to the
common and social labour of his predecessors and his contem
poraries ? As the individual cannot attain property without the
assistance and succour of others, so neither can he enjoy its
fruits without the assistance and succour of others. It is only in
society that property can have any value, it is only in society that
man can enjoy his property. The moral duty of every proprietor is
therefore to make such a use of his property, as shall profit not
himself alone, but also the community at large, and especially
that part of it less liberally endowed than himself.
“ Riches are the wealth of all, when it is a man of worth who
possesses them.”
�11
The remarkable working-men’s movement of the last forty
years has produced excellent results in this respect. It has
awakened in the workman a sense of his social rights, and in the
well-to-do classes a sense of social duty. We willingly acknow
ledge this; there are manufacturers to whom the workman is not
a machine to be bought, like any other merchandise, at the lowest
possible cost, in order to make the greatest profit, and then to be
got rid of.
In England, France, and with us also in Germany, there are
manufacturers, enterprises, commercial men, and great landed
proprietors who make it a duty to ameliorate the hard lot of the
workmen they employ, by raising their wages and reducing their
hours of labour, by organising savings’ banks, benefit societies
for succour and for old age, by procuring healthy habitations
for their workmen, and, at a small cost, asylums, hospitals,
schools, &c. We designate in particular the system known
under the name of participation in benefits (industrial partner
ship), by which the workman, besides his wages, obtains a share
in the profits arising from his labour. In England alone,
more than 10,000 workmen find themselves in this position with
regard to the manufacturers, and the two parties have reason
to be contented with the result.
But let us not forget that here again, all depends more or less
upon the good will of the employer, and that under the most
favourable supposition, only isolated workmen or groups of workmen find their condition ameliorated. However profitable these
efforts may be as a means of education and preparation, they
are not less insufficient as a remedy for the social evil arising
from the system of wages, than the efforts made by the workmen
themselves. To obtain this remedy another power is needed,
that shall act in a general manner and upon all points.
And this leads us to our third question:—
(3.) What is to be done by the State to obtain a peaceable
solution of the labour question ?
The new Constitution of the Canton of Zurich, of the date of
“the 18th April, 1369, gives us the following answer:—■
“ Art. 23. The State promotes and facilitates the development
of Association founded upon the efforts of individuals (self-help).
It decrees by the agency of legislation all the necessary measures
for the protection of the workman.
“Art. 24. It institutes a Cantonal Bank, with the object of
developing a general system of credit.”
The primary drawing up of this project was yet more precise :
it ran as follows :—
“Art. 23. It is the duty of the State to protect and to further
the well-being of the working classes, as well as the free develop:ment of Associations.”
Art. 24. As above.
Protect and further—these two expressions clearly and precisely
denote the end of the great Association termed the State.
But what are we to understand from this direct protection and
furtherance by the State ?
�12
The despot also terms himself the protector of the people, and
war is extolled as a means for advancing civilization. Vera verum
vocabula amisimus. “ The real sense of words has been lost to us.”
It is all the more necessary to explain the sense attached to these.
The protection of the State means to us, the duty incumbent
upon each community constituted into a State to procure for each
individual, in the free development and manifestation of his
faculties, a sufficient protection, in so far as it shall not militate
against the liberty of others.
Protection alone, however, does constitute the entire duty of
the State; notwithstanding, that certain politicians limit it tothis, the mutual advancement of the members of the State must
necessarily be added.
“ By the advancement by the State ” we understand, the duty
of the community to interfere by every means in its power wherethe providence of the individual will not suffice to ‘procure him an
existence worthy of a man.
As the protection of the State answers to the principle o£
“ liberty,” and the advancement by the State to that of “ frater
nity,” it results that protection and advancement become at the
same time, and according to their respective needs, the lot of
each, and that thus the principle of equality is satisfied.
You see, gentlemen, that the social doctrine I have put forward
is the same as that which I summarised, upon a previous occasion,,
in the following formula:—
Each for all—this is the duty of man.
All for each—this is the right of man.
But what, some one will ask, if protection and advancement by
the State is to be equally the lot of each, why is the working class
specified in the Zurich Constitution ?
The working class—is it to be a privileged one on the part of theState, and favoured at the expense of the others ? This objection;
is a specious one at first sight, but it will not sustain a closer
examination.
Let us recollect, first of all, that the equality of all consists in
that each is protected and supported according to his wants, and
who can deny that in our time, it is exactly the wage-receiving
class who have need of protection and support ?
Moreover, allowance being made for the most pressing needs,,
another circumstance here presents itself, which for the present,
as well as for the impending future, imposes the duty upon theState of having especial regard to the situation of the working
classes, in order to hasten the advent of the justice which
equalises and reconciles.
Consider only the origin of what is ordinarily termed “ capi
tal,” and you will at once understand what I mean.
However different may be the ideas formed of capital, all theworld agrees in considering it as an economised labour, accumu
lated and destined for productive purposes. But who, we ask,
has furnished this law ? Is it those who possess the capital ?
Do the manufacturer, the merchant, and the great proprietor owe
�13
pffeir capital, this accumulated labour, to their own activity and
to that of their ancestors ?
On the other hand, is the want of capital, the poverty of the
labourer, and the proletarian, merely the consequence of his own
faults and of those of his ancestors ? No one will dare aver this ?
If, therefore, the actual inequality in fortunes is not alone the
result of the economic system of those who possess, and of the
anti-economic system of those who do not possess, to what other
cause must we attribute this inequality?
How does it happen that, day by day, capital accumulates in
the hands of a small minority, whilst tbe majority of the wages
scarcely suffice, notwithstanding the labour, for the needs of the
masses ?
It is evident that one must seek the solution in the iniquitous
redistribution of the return of labour in respect of the labour
provided.
Listen to what one of the most celebrated political economists
of England says upon this question—
“ The produce of labour,” says Stuart Mill, “ is redistributed
.at the present time in an almost inverse ratio to the labour sup
plied: the greatest return falls to the lot of those who never
work: after these, to those whose work is only nominal, and thus
in a descending scale, wages are reduced in proportion as the
labour becomes more onerous and more disagreeable, until at last
that which is the most fatiguing and pernicious to the body can
.scarcely secure with certainty the acquisition of the immediate
necessities of existence.”
We will not inquire by what concatenation of historical events
the labourer has been by degrees deprived of the means of labour,
and how the disproportion which exists between wages and labour
has been brought about. The question before us is the following:—
What has the State done to obtain a more equitable distri
bution of the products of labour ?
Has it ever tried either by laws or by other institutions to pro
tect the labourei’ against the preponderance of capital and to
place a limit to the social inequality which daily increases ?
If we examine the history of all States, we shall find that up to the
latest times, nothing or nearly nothing has been done in this respect.
The nobility, the clergy, or the higher civic class have exercised
for centuries, one after the other, or at the same time, an almost
exclusive influence upon public affairs; they have never hesitated
to employ the power and resources of the State which ought to
be the inheritance of all for themselves and for their particular
interests. Legislation itself, far from producing equality in com
petition and in economic relationships, has contributed by con
ceding privileges on the one side, and by limiting liberty on the
other, to enlarge the social gulf between those who possess and
those who do not.
How can we then be astonished that working men, having at
last attained the consciousness of their rights and of their
strength, exact from the State that it shall take into particular
�14
consideration their interests so long neglected? If the Con
stitution of Zurich accords to the labourers alone the protection
and assistance of the State, it is not a violation of the principle?
of equality. It is not a question here, as some timid minds fear,
to maintain the needy workman at the expense of the well-to-do
citizens; much less is it a question to create, by a lasting
assistance on the part of the State, a kind of labour feudality |
the legislator was only desirous to recognise in a frank and loyal
manner, that a duty was incumbent upon the State to make
amends for the past, to efface the injustices committed, and to
remedy the social evil it has contributed to produce. It is merely
a question how to realise what we have called the demands of an
equalising and reconciling justice.
The Constitution of Zurich does not content itself, it is true, by
proclaiming in general terms the duties and obligations of the
State; it indicates at the same time, in clear terms, the means by
which we can come to the aid of the working class.
“ The State must favour and facilitate the development of
association founded upon personal effort.”
The final end of this development is the cessation of the wage
by the insensible transition of the wage-system to that of free
labour through the means of association.
Let us now survey, one after the other, the exigencies which are
imposed upon the State, that is to say, on the body of the citizens.
In the first place, is the absolute liberty of manifesting one’s
opinion and the unlimited right of meeting and association. We
must renounce all limitation or, according to the usual term,
regiementation (organisation) of liberty.
Hence the equal right of each to participate in political life,
whence results universal and direct suffrage, and, as a necessary
consequence, the direct and universal participation of the people
in legislation and in administration.
We ask, moreover, gratuitous instruction in public institutions
which should be independent of the Church, and the establish
ment of a popular militia in the stead of permanent armies. We
combine these two propositions, the one with the other, for the
instruction and the military training of the people find them
selves in mutual relationship; to make war, above all, money
is needed, and capable soldiers, and both are obtainable by
means of good schools. The wealth of a country depends upon
the productive labour of its inhabitants, and labour is the more
productive, in so far as the labourer is able to calculate the pro
duct of his own activity, that is to say in proportion to his
intelligence. And as the labourer, so also does the soldier by means
of education become more able to perform his task, which is to
defend his country. With us, and with the majority of European
countries, nearly half the revenues of the State are expended in
preparations for war, whilst insignificant sums are awarded to
educational instruction. Reverse this order of things, and the
public income will be increased tenfold, without the respective
value of things diminishing.
�15
A minister of instruction, who understands his business, is at
once the best minister of war and of finance.
For the working classes in particular, and that having in view
the general interest, we ask—
Seduction of the hours of labour, and a fixation of the day’s
work.
The paid labourer (or receiver of wages) must also have time
and the leisure to form his mind and watch the affairs of the
State. The congress of the English Working Men’s Associa
tion, which was held in the month of August last year, at Bir
mingham, advises a period of eight hours as a common measure
for all trades and expresses the conviction that by this means,
will be fortified the physical and intellectual energy of the work
man, and we shall thereby further morals, and diminish the
number of the UnemployedProhibition of the employment of children in manufactories,
and an equal rate of wages, both for women as well as for men, are
necessary steps to prevent the diminution of wages, and to
the decline of the rising generation.
Furthermore, we desire the abolition of indirect contributions,
and the establishment of a tax progressive and proportional to
the fortune of the individuaL
Every tax upon consumption, is a tax upon the strength of
the labourer, and consequently, an impediment to the production
of wealth, and a prejudice to the well-being of the people.
Finally, reform of the system of credit, and the furtherance of
associations, both industrial and agricultural, by the means of
the institution of credit, or by the protection of the State.
It is necessary to lay open the road to credit to the work
man. What the State has done hitherto, and to such an extent
directly and indirectly for the support and protection of capital,
it must now effect, and that in its own interest, for the advance
ment of the working classes and working men’s association.
Nothing is so advantageous to the community as justice in all
thin gs.
These are the first conditions of the reform of labour. Work
men have been advised, perhaps with good intentions, to keep
themselves aloof from all politics, and to concentrate all their
attention on their economic interest, as if we could separate
economic and political interests, as we cleave wood with a hatchet.
W'hoever has followed the course of our considerations will not
doubt, I hope, that it is just the working classes whose interest
it mogt imports to modify public relationships on the side of
liberty’ The assistance of the State, no less than that of the
individual, is necessary to secure to each workman the complete
and intact product of his labour, that is to say, the possibility of
an existence worthy of a human being. The State alone can
come to the workman’s aid, and the free State alone will do it 1
Let us now briefly summarise what we have said:—
The wage-system answers now as little to the exigencies of
'ngficc and humanity, as slavery and serfdom in former times.
�16
Just as it was with slavery and serfdom, the wage-system was
formerly a progress by which society has derived incontestable
^advantages.
. The social question of our times consists therefore in the aboli
tion of the wage-system, without prejudice to the advantages
resulting from the common labour of great collective industry.
There is for this but one means, the system of free labour by
association—the co-operative system. The present time is a
transition period from the wage-system (system of production
by means of capital) to the system of labour by association.
In order that this transition may be effected in a peaceful
manner, it is requisite that the workmen, employers, and the
State act in common.
It is the duty of workmen to unite, in ordei* to resist the
oppression of capital and to raise themselves by education to
moral and material independence.
It is the duty of the employer to engage himself in the cause
•of the workman’s well-being in a philanthropic spirit, and espe
cially to accord to him a share of the profits of labour.
Finally, the' State, by the protection of association, by fixing
the hours of labour, and by giving gratuitous instruction, ought
■to further the efforts of workmen towards civilization. Upon
the State devolves, at the same time, the duty of protecting the
system of production by association on a large scale, of a reform
in the system of banks of credit, and of the institution of State
Credit ?
As such help can only be expected from a free State, it is clear
that the workmen and their friends must, before all, procure for
themselves political liberty.
Political liberty, social liberty, liberty of the citizen, without
sacrificing the majority, this is the problem of our era.
The conquests of the blood and iron policy, the din of arms,
which has reverberated in our day, the struggles and the combats
which occur for the sake of dominion and power, for fortune and
for advancement—these are but ripples on the surface of the
stream of time; in the hidden depths, slowly but steadily
advances the science of nature and of mind, and with this
science, the consciousness of the independence of man — the
world-moving idea of the Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity of ali.
Years and years may pass away, and still that saying of the Scrip/ture will be fulfilled—that joyful message which the electric-wire
brought as a first greeting from free America to Europe encum
bered with arms : “ Peace on earth and good will towards men.”
THE END.
Printed by Austin & Co., 17, Johnson’s Court, Fleet Street, E.C.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The social question: a speech delivered by Deputy John Jacoby, to his constituents of the second arrondissement of Berlin, on the 20th January, 1870
Creator
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Jacoby, Johann [1805-1877.]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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Printed by Austin & Co. for private circulation
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1870
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G5243
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The social question: a speech delivered by Deputy John Jacoby, to his constituents of the second arrondissement of Berlin, on the 20th January, 1870), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
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Labour Movement
Socialism
Conway Tracts
Equality
Labour Movement
Political reform
Social Policy
Socialism
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Text
NatiONALSECULa
THE
Dope of Hu; ggntitrfr
BY
COLONEL R. G. INGERSOLL
“ SOCIALISM seems to be one of the worst possible forms of slavery.
Nothing in my judgment would so utterly paralyse all the forces, all
the splendid ambitions and aspirations that now tend to the civilisa
tion of man. In ordinary systems of slavery there are some
masters—a few are supposed to be free; but in a Socialistic state
all would be slaves."—Page 14.
PRICE ONE PENNY.
LONDON:
R. FOLDER, 28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C.
1887
�I
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i
I
�NEW PARTY is struggling for recognition—a party
with leaders who are not politicians, with followers
who are not seekers after place. Some of those who1
suffer and some of those who sympathise have combined.
Those who feel that they are oppressed are organised for
the purpose of redressing their wrongs. The workers for
wages, and the seekers for work, have uttered a protest.
This party is an instrumentality for the accomplishment of
certain things that are very near and very dear to the hearts
of many millions.
The object to be attained is a fairer division of profits'be
tween employers and employed. There is a feeling that in
some way the workers should not want—that the indus
trious should not be the indigent. There is a hope that'
men and women and children are not forever to be the
victims of ignorance and want—that the tenement-house is
not always to be the home of the poor, nor the gutter the
nursery of their babes.
As yet, the methods for the accomplishment of these .aims
have not been agreed upon. Many theories have been ad
vanced, and none has been adopted. The question is so
vast, so complex, touching human interests in so many
ways, that no one has yet been great enough to furnish a
solution, or, if anyone has furnished a solution, no one else
has been wise enough to understand it.
The hope of the future is that this question will finally
be understood. It must not be discussed in anger. If A
broad and comprehensive view is to be taken, there is
no place for hatred or for prejudice. Capital is not td
blame. Labor is not to blame. Both have been caught
in the net of circumstances. The rich are as generous'
as the poor would be if they should change places. Men
acquire through the noblest and the tenderest instincts.
They work and save not only for themselves, but for1
their wives and for their children.
There is but little'
confidence in the charity of the world. The prudent man',
in his youth makes preparation for his age. The loving
father, having struggled himself, hopes to save his childrefi1
from drudgery and toil.
�( 4 )
In every country there are classes—that is to say, the
spirit of caste, and this spirit will exist until the world is
truly civilised. Persons in most communities are judged
not as individuals, but as members of a class. Nothing is
more natural, and nothing more heartless. These lines
that divide hearts on account of clothes or titles are grow
ing more and more indistinct, and the philanthropists, the
lovers of the human race, believe that the time is coming
when they will be obliterated. We may do away with
kings and peasants, and yet there may still be the rich and
the poor, the intelligent and foolish, the beautiful and
deformed, the industrious and idle, and, it may be, the
honest and vicious. These classifications are in the nature
of things. They are produced for the most part by forces
that are now beyond the control of man—but the old rule,
that men are disreputable in the proportion that they are
useful, will certainly be reversed. The idle lord was always
held to be the superior of the industrious peasant, the
devourer better than the producer, and the waster superior
to the worker.
While in this country we have no titles of nobility, we
have the rich and the poor—no princes, no peasants, but
millionaires and mendicants. The individuals composing
these classes are continually changing. The rich of to-day
may be the poor of to-morrow, and the children of the poor
may take their places. In this country the children of the
poor are educated substantially in the same schools with
those of the rich. All read the same papers, many of the
same books, and all for many years hear the same questions
discussed. They are continually being educated, not only
at schools, but by the press, by political campaigns, by
perpetual discussions on public questions, and the result is
that those who are rich in gold are often poor in thought,
and many who have not whereon to lay their heads have
within those heads a part of the intellectual wealth of the
world.
Years ago the men of wealth were forced to contribute
toward the education of the children of the poor. The
support of schools by general taxation was defended on the
ground that it was a means of providing for the public
welfare, of perpetuating the institutions of a free country
by making better men and women. This policy has been
pursued until at last the school-house is larger than the
church, and the common people through education have
become uncommon. They now know how little is really
�( 5 )
known by what are called the upper classes—how little
after all is understood by kings, presidents, legislators, and
men of culture. They are capable not only of understand
ing a few questions, but they have acquired the art of
discussing those that no one understands. With the facility
of politicians they can hide behind phrases, make barricades
of statistics, and chevaux-de-frise of inferences and asser
tions. They understand the sophistries of those who have
governed.
In some respects these common people are the superiors
of the so-called aristocracy. While the educated have been
turning their attention to the classics, to the dead languages,
and the dead ideas and mistakes that they contain—while
they have been giving their attention to ceramics, artistic
decorations, and compulsory prayers, the common people
have been compelled to learn the practical things—to be
come acquainted with facts—by doing the work of the
world. The professor of a college is no longer a match for
a master mechanic. The master mechanic not only under
stands principles, but their application. He knows things
as they are. He has come in contact with the actual, with
realities. He knows something of the adaptation of means
to ends, and this is the highest and most valuable form of
education. The men who make locomotives, who construct
the vast engines that propel ships, necessarily know more
than those who have spent their lives in conjugating Greek
verbs, looking for Hebrew roots, and discussing the origin
and destiny of the universe.
Intelligence increases wants. By education the necessities
of the people become increased. The old wages will not
supply the new wants. Man longs for a harmony between
the thought within and the things without. When the soul
lives in a palace, the body is not satisfied with rags and
patches. The glaring inequalities among men, the differ
ences in condition, the suffering and the poverty, have
appealed to the good and great of every age, and there has
been in the brain of the philanthropist a dream—a hope, a
prophecy, of a better day.
It was believed that tyranny was the foundation and
cause of the differences between men—that the rich were
all robbers and the poor all victims, and that if a society
or government could be founded on equal rights and privi
leges, the inequalities would disappear, that all would have
food and clothes and reasonable work and reasonable leisure,
and that content’wonld be found by every hearth.
�( 6 )
There was a reliance on nature—an idea that men had
interfered with the harmonious action of great principles
v^hich, if left to themselves, would work out universal well
being for the human race. Others imagined that the in
equalities between men were necessary—that they were
part of a divine plan, and that all would be adjusted in
some other world—that the poor here would be the rich
there, and the rich here might be in torture there. Heaven
became the reward of the poor, of the slave, and hell theif
revenge.
When our government was established, it was declared
that all men are endowed by their creator with certain in
alienable rights, among which were life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. It was then believed that if all men
had an equal opportunity, if they were allowed to make
and execute their own laws, to levy their own taxes, the
frightful inequalities seen in the despotisms and monarchies
of the Old World would entirely disappear. This was the
dream of 1776. The founders of the government knew how
kings, and princes, and dukes, and lords, and barons had
lived upon the labor of the peasants.
They knew the
history of those ages of want and crime, of luxury and
suffering. But in spite of our Declaration, in spite of our
Constitution, in spite of universal suffrage, the inequalities
still exist. We have the kings and princes, the lords and
peasants, in fact, if not in name. Monopolists, corporations,
capitalists, workers for wages, have taken their places, and
we are forced to admit that even universal suffrage cannot
clothe and feed the world.
For thousands of years men have been talking and writing
about the great law of supply and demand—and insisting
that in some way this mysterious law has governed and will
continue to govern the activities of the human race. It is
admitted that this law is merciless—that when the demand
fails, the producer, the laborer, must suffer, must perish—
that the law feels neither pity nor malice—it simply acts,
regardless of consequences. Under this law, capital will
employ the cheapest. The single man can work for less
than the married. Wife and children are luxuries not to
be enjoyed under this law. The ignorant have fewer wants
than the educated, and for this reason can afford to work
for less. The great law will give employment to the single
and to the ignorant in preference to the married and in
telligent. The great law has nothing to do with food or
clothes, with filth or crime. It cares nothing for homes,
�( 7 )
for penitentiaries or asylums. It simply acts—and some
men triumph, some succeed, some fail, and some perish.
Others insist that the curse of the world is monopoly.*
And yet, as long as some men are stronger than others, a$'
lofag as some are more intelligent than others, they must be,
to the extent of such advantages, monopolists. Every matt
Of genius is a monopolist.
We are told that the great remedy against monopoly—
that is to say, against extortion—is free and unrestricted
competition. But, after all, the history of this world showia
that the brutalities of competition are equalled only by
those of monopoly. The successful competitor becomes a
monopolist, and if competitors fail to destroy each other^
the instinct of self-preservation suggests a combination. In
other words, competition is a struggle between two or more
persons or corporations for the purpose of determining
which shall have the uninterrupted privilege of extortion.
In this country the people have had the greatest reliance
on competition. If a railway company charged too much, a
rival road was built. As a matter of fact, we are indebted,
for half the railroads of the United States to the extortions
of the other half, and the same may truthfully be said of
telegraph lines. As a rule, while the exactions of monopoly
constructed new roads and new lines, competition has either
destroyed the weaker, or produced the pool which is a means
of keeping both monopolies alive, or of producing a new
monopoly with greater needs, supplied by methods more
heartless than the old. When a rival road is built, the
people support the rival because the fares and freights are
somewhat less. Then the old and richer monopoly inaugu
rates war, and the people, glorying in the benefits of com
petition, are absurd enough to support the old. In a little
while the new company, unable to maintain the contest,
left by the people at the mercy of the stronger, goes to the
wall, and the triumphant monopoly proceeds to make the
intelligent people pay not Only the old price, but enough in
addition to make up for the expenses of the contest.
Is there any remedy for this? None, except With the
people themselves. When the people become intelligent
enough to support the rival at a reasonable price; when
they know enough to allow both roads to live ; when they
are intelligent enough to recognise a friend and to stand by
that friend as against a known enemy, this question will be
at least on the edge of solution.
�( 8 )
So far as I know, this course has never been pursued
except in one instance, and that is in the present war be
tween the Gould and Mackey cables. The Gould system
had been charging from sixty to eighty cents a word, and
the Mackey system charged forty. Then the old monopoly
tried to induce the rival to put the prices back to sixty.
The rival refused, and thereupon the Gould combination
dropped to twelve and a half, for the purpose of destroying
the rival. The Mackey cable fixed the tariff at twenty-five
cents, saying to its customers, “ You are intelligent enough
to understand what this war means. If our cables are
defeated, the Gould system will go back not only to the old
price, but will add enough to reimburse itself for the cost of
destroying us. If you really wish for competition, if you
desire a reasonable service at a reasonable rate, you will
support us.” Fortunately, an exceedingly intelligent class
of people does business by the cables. They are merchants,
bankers, and brokers, dealing with large amounts, with
intricate, complicated, and international questions. Of
necessity they are used to thinking for themselves. They
are not dazzled into blindness by the glare of the present.
They see the future. They are not duped by the sunshine
of a moment or the promise of an hour. They see beyond
the horizon of a penny saved. These people had intelli
gence enough to say, “ The rival who stands between us
and extortion is our friend, and our friend shall not be
allowed to die.”
Does not this tend to show that people must depend upon
themselves, and that some questions can be settled by the
intelligence of those who buy, of those who use, and that
customers are not entirely helpless ?
Another thing should not be forgotten, and that is this:
there is the same war between monopolies that there is
between individuals, and the monopolies for many years
have been trying to destroy each other. They have uncon
sciously been working for the extinction of monopolies.
These monopolies differ as individuals do. You find among
them the rich and the poor, the lucky and the unfortunate,
millionaires and tramps. The great monopolies have been
devouring the little ones.
Only a few years ago the railways in this country were
controlled by local directors and local managers. The
people along the lines were interested in the stock. As a
consequence, whenever any legislation was threatened hos
tile to the interests of these railways, they had local friends
�( 9 )
who used their influence with legislators, governors, and
juries. During this time they were protected, but when
the hard times came many of these companies were unable
to pay their interest. They suddenly became Socialists.
They cried out against their prosperous rivals. They felt
like joining the Knights of Labor. They began to talk
about rights and wrongs. But in spite of their cries, they
have passed into the hands of the richer roads—they were
seized by the great monopolies. Now the important rail
ways are owned by persons living in large cities or in foreign
countries. They have no local friends, and when the time
comes, and it may come, for the general government to say
how much these companies shall charge for passengers and
freights, they will have no local friends. It may be that
the great mass of the people will then be on the other side.
So that after all the great corporations have been busy
settling the question against themselves.
Possibly a majority of the American people believe to-day
that in some way all these questions between capital and
labor can be settled by constitutions, laws, and judicial de
cisions. Most people imagine that a statute is a sovereign
specific for any evil. But while the theory has all been one
way, the actual experience has been the other—just as the
free-traders have all the arguments and the protectionists
most of the facts.
The truth is, as Mr. Buckle says, that for five hundred
years all real advance in legislation has been made by re
pealing laws. Of one thing we must be satisfied, and that
is, that real monopolies have never been controlled by law,
but the fact that such monopolies exist is a demonstration
that the law has been controlled. In our country, legis
lators are for the most part controlled by those who, by
their wealth and influence, elect them. The few in reality
cast the votes of the many, and the few influence the ones
voted for by the many. Special interests, being active, se
cure special legislation, and the object of special legislation
is to create a kind of monopoly—that is to say, to get some
advantage. Chiefs, barons, priests and kings ruled, robbed,
destroyed and duped; and their places have been taken by
corporations, monopolists and politicians. The large fish
still live on the little ones, and the fine theories have as yet
failed to change the condition of mankind.
Law in this country is effective only when it is the re
corded will of a majority. When the zealous few get con
trol of the legislature, and the laws are passed to prevent
�( 10 )
Sabbath-breaking or wine-drinking, they succeed only in
putting their opinions and provincial prejudices in legal
phrase. There was a time when men worked from fourteen
to sixteen hours a day. These hours have not been les
sened, they have not been shortened by law. The law has
followed and recorded, but the law is not a leader and not
a prophet. It appears to be impossible to fix wages—just
as impossible as to fix the values of all manufactured
things, including the works of art. The field is too great,
the problem too complicated, for the human mind to grasp.
To fix the value of labor is to fix all values—labor being
the foundation of all values. The value of labor cannot be
fixed unless we understand the relation that all things bear
to each other and to man. If labor were a legal tender—if
a judgment for so many dollars could be discharged by so
many days of labor—and the law was that twelve hours of
work should be reckoned as one day, then the law could
change the hours to ten or eight, and the judgments could
be paid in the shortened days. But it is easy to see that in
all contracts made after the passage of such a law, the diff
erence in hours would be taken into consideration.
We must remember that law is not a creative force. It
produces nothing. It raises neither corn nor wine. The
legitimate object of law is to protect the weak, to prevent
violence and fraud, and to enforce honest contracts, to the
end that each person may be free to do as he desires, pro
viding only that he does not interfere with the rights of
others.
Our fathers tried to make people religious by law.
They failed. Thousands are now trying to make people
temperate in the .same manner. Such efforts always have
been, and probably always will be, failures. People who
believe that an infinite God gave to the Hebrews a perfect
code of laws, must admit that even this code failed to civil
ise the inhabitants of Palestine.
It seems impossible to make people just, or charitable, or
industrious, or agreeable, or successful, by law, any more
than you cam make them physically perfect or mentally
sound. Of course, we admit that good people intend to
make good laws, and that good laws, faithfully and honestly
executed, tend to the preservation of human rights and to
the elevation of the race ; but the enactment of a law not
in accordance with a sentiment already existing in the
minds and hearts of the people—the very people who are
depended upon to enforce this law—is not a help, but a
hindrance.
A real law is but the expression in an authori-
�(11)
ttitive and accurate form of the judgment and desire of the
majority. As we become intelligent and kind, this intelli
gence and kindness find expression in law.
But how is it possible to fix the wages of every man ? To
fix wages is to fix prices, and a government, to do this in
telligently, would necessarily require the wisdom generally
attributed to an infinite being. It would have to supervise
and fix the conditions of every exchange of commodities and
the value of every conceivable thing. Many things can be
accomplished by law. Employers may be held responsible
for injuries to the employed. The mines can be ventilated.
Children can be rescued from the deformities of toil, burdens
taken from the backs of wives and mothers, houses made
wholesome, food healthful—that is to say, the weak can be
protected from the strong, the honest from the vicious,
honest contracts can be enforced, and many rights protected.
The men who have simply strength, muscle, endurance,
compete not only with other men of strength, but with the
inventions of genius. What would doctors say if physicians
of iron could be invented with curious cogs and wheels, so
that when a certain button was touched the proper pre
scription would be written ? How would lawyers feel if a
lawyer could be invented in such a way that questions of
law, being put into a kind of hopper and a crank being
turned, decisions of the highest court could be prophesied
without failure ? And how would the ministers feel if some
body should invent a clergyman of wood that would to all
intents and purposes answer the purpose ?
Invention has filled the world with the competitors not
only of laborers, but of mechanics—mechanics of the highest
skill. To-day the ordinary laborer is for the most part a
cog in a wheel. He works for the tireless—he feeds the in
satiable. When the monster stops, the man is out of em
ployment, out of bread. He has not saved anything. The
machine that he fed was not feeding him, was not working
for him—the invention was not for his benefit. The other
d'ay I heard a man say that it was almost impossible for
thousands of good mechanics to get employment, and that
in his judgment the government ought to furnish work for
the people. A few minutes after, I heard another say that
he was selling a patent for cutting out clothes, that one of
his machines could do the work of twenty tailors, and that
only the week before he had sold two to a great house in
New York, and that over forty cutters had been discharged.
�( 12 )
On every side men are being discharged and machines are
being invented to take their places. When the great factory
shuts down, the workers who inhabited it and gave it life,
as thoughts do the brain, go away, and it stands there Eke
an empty skull. A few workmen, by the force of habit,
gather about the closed doors and broken windows, and talk
about distress, the price of food, and the coming winter.
They are convinced that they have not had their share of
what their labor created.
They feel certain that the
machines inside were not their friends. They look at the
mansion of the employer and think of the places where
they live. They have saved nothing—nothing but them
selves. The employer seems to have enough. Even when
employers fail, when they become bankrupt, they are far
better off than the laborers ever were. Their worst is better
than the toilers’ best.
The capitalist comes forward with his specific. He tells
the working man that he must be economical—and yet,
under the present system, economy would only lessen wages.
Under the great law of supply and demand every saving,
frugal, self-denying working man is unconsciously doing what
little he can to reduce the compensation of himself and his
fellows. The slaves who did not wish to run away helped
fasten chains on those who did. So the saving mechanic is
a certificate that wages are high enough. Does the great
law demand that every worker live on the least possible
amount of bread ? Is it his fate to work one day, that he
may get enough food to be able to work another ? Is that
to be his only hope—that and death ?
Capital has always claimed and still claims the right to
combine. Manufacturers meet and determine upon prices,
even in spite of the great law of supply and demand. Have
the laborers the same right to consult and combine ? The
rich meet in the bank, the club-house, or parlor. Working
men, when they combine, gather in the street. All the or
ganised forces of society are against them. Capital has the
army and the navy, the legislative, the judicial and the ex
ecutive departments. When the rich combine, it is for the
purpose of “ exchanging ideas.” When the poor combine,
it is a “ conspiracy.” If they act in concert, if they really
do something, it is a “ mob.” If they defend themselves, it
is “ treason.” How is it that the rich control the depart
ments of government ? In this country the political power
is equally divided among the men. There are certainly more
poor than there are rich. Why should the rich control ?
�(13)
Why should not the laborers combine for the purpose of
controlling the executive, legislative and judicial depart
ments ? Will they ever find how powerful they are?
In every country there is a satisfied class—too satisfied
to care. They are like the angels in heaven who are never
disturbed by the miseries of earth. They are too happy to
be generous. This satisfied class asks no questions, and
answers none. They believe the world is as it should be.
All reformers are simply disturbers of the peace. When they
talk low they should not be listened to ; when they talk loud
they should be suppressed.
The truth is to-day what it always has been—what it al
ways will be—those who feel are the only ones who think.
A cry comes from the oppressed, from the hungry, from the
down-trodden, from the unfortunate, from men who despair
and from women who weep. There are times when mendi
cants become revolutionists—when a rag becomes a banner,
under which the noblest and bravest battle for the right.
How are we to settle the unequal contest between men
and machines ? Will the machine finally go into partner
ship with the laborer? Can these forces of nature be
controlled for the benefit of her suffering children ? Will
extravagance keep pace with ingenuity ? Will the workers
become intelligent enough and strong enough to be the
owners of the machines ? Will these giants, these Titans,
shorten or lengthen the hours of labor? Will they give
leisure to the industrious, or will they make the rich richer,
and the poor poorer ?
Is man involved in the “ general scheme of things ” ? Is
there no pity, no mercy? Can man become intelligent
enough to be generous, to be just; or does the same law or
fact control him that controls the animal and vegetable
world ? The great oak steals the sunlight from the smaller
trees. The strong animals devour the weak—everything
eating something else—everything at the mercy of beak, and
claw, and hoof, and tooth—of hand and club, of brain and
greed—inequality, injustice everywhere.
The poor horse standing in the street with his dray, over
worked, over-whipped, and under-fed, when he sees other
horses groomed to mirrors, glittering with gold and silver,
scorning with proud feet the very earth, probably indulges
in the usual Socialistic reflections; and this same horse,
worn out and old, deserted by his master, turned into the
dusty road, leans his head on the topmost rail, looks at
donkeys in a field of clover, and feels like a Nihilist.
�QU)
In the days of savagery the strong devoured the weak—
actually ate their flesh. In spite of all the laws that man
has made, in spite of all advance in science, literature, and
art, the strong, the cunning, the heartless still live on the
weak, the unfortunate, and foolish. True, they do not eat
their flesh, they do not drink their blood, but they live on
their labor, on their self-denial, their weariness, and want.
The poor man who deforms himself by toil, who labors for
wife and child, through all his anxious, barren, wasted life
—who goes to the grave without ever' having had one luxury
—has been the food of others. He has been devoured by
his fellow-men. The poor woman living in the bare and
lonely room, cheerless and fireless, sewing night and day to
keep starvation from a child, is slowly being eaten by her
fellow-men. When I take into consideration the agony of
civilised life—the number of failures, the poverty, the
anxiety, the tears, the withered hopes, the bitter realities,
the hunger, the crime, the humiliation, the shame—I am
almost forced to say that cannibalism, after all, is the most
merciful form in which man has ever lived upon his fellow
man.
Some of the best and purest of our race have advocated
what is known as Socialism. They have not only taught,
but, what is much more to the purpose, have believed, that
a nation should be a family ; that the government should
take care of all its children; that it should provide work,
and food, and clothes, and education for all, and that it
should divide the results of all labor equitably with all.
Seeing the inequalities among men, knowing of the desti
tution and crime, these men were willing to sacrifice, not
only their own liberties, but the liberties of all.
Socialism seems to be one of the worst possible forms of
slavery. Nothing in my judgment would so utterly paralyse
all the forces, all the splendid ambitions and aspirations
that now tend to the civilisation of man. In ordinary
systems of slavery there are some masters, a few are
supposed to be free ; but in a Socialistic state all would be
slaves.
If the government is to provide work, it must decide for
the worker what he must do. It must say who shall chisel
statues, who shall paint pictures, who shall compose music,
and who shall practise the professions. Is any government,
or can any government be, capable of intelligently perform
ing these countless duties? It must not only control work,
it must not only decide what each shall do, but it must
�( 15 )
|F
control expenses, because expenses bear a direct relation to
products. Therefore the government must decide what the
worker shall eat and wherewithal he shall be clothed; the
kind of house in which he shall live ; the manner in which
it shall be furnished, and, if the government furnishes the
work, it must decide on the days or the hours of leisure.
More than this, it must fix values; it must decide -not only
who shall sell, but who shall buy, and the price that must
be paid--and it must fix this value not simply upon the
labor, but on everything that can be produced, that can be
exchanged or sold.
Is it possible to conceive of a despotism beyond this?
The present condition of the world is bad enough, with its
poverty and ignorance, but it is far better than it could by
any possibility be under any government like the one de
scribed ./ There would be less hunger of the body, but not
of the mind. Each man would simply be a citizen of a large
penitentiary, and, as in every well-regulated prison, some
body would decide what each should do. The inmates of a
prison retire early ; they rise with the sun ; they have somer,
thing to eat; they are not dissipated ; they have clothes ;
they attend divine service : they have but little to say about
their neighbors ; they do not suffer from cold ; their habits
are excellent, and yet no one envies their condition. Socialism
destroys the family. The children belong to the state. Cer
tain officers take the places of parents. Individuality is lost.
The human race cannot afford to exchange its liberty for
any possible comfort. You remember the old fable of the
fat dog that met the lean wolf in the forest. The wolf,
astonished to see so prosperous an animal, inquired of the
dog where he got his food, and the dog told him that there
was a man who took care of him, gave him his breakfast,
his dinner, and his supper with the utmost regularity, and
that he had all that he could eat and very little to do.
The wolf said, “ Do you think this man would treat me as
he does you ? ” The dog replied, “ Yes ; come along with
me.” So they jogged on together toward the dog’s home.
On the way the wolf happened to notice that some hair
was worn off the dog’s neck, and he said, “ How did the
hair become worn ? ” “ That is,” said the dog, “ the mark
of the collar—my master ties me at night.” “ Oh,” said
the wolf, “are you chained? Are you deprived of vour
liberty ? I believe I will go back. I prefer hunger.
It is impossible for any man with a. good heart to be
satisfied with this world as it now is. No one can truly
enjoy even what he earns—what he knows to be his own—
�16
knowing that millions of his fellow-men are in misery and
want. When we think of the famished we feel that it is
almost heartless to eat. To meet the ragged and shivering
makes one almost ashamed to be well-dressed and warm—
one feels as though his heart was as cold as their bodies.
In a world filled with millions and millions of acres of
land waiting to be tilled, where one man can raise the food
for hundreds, millions are on the edge of famine. Who can
comprehend the stupidity at the bottom of this truth ?
Is there to be no change ? Are “ the law of supply and
demand,” invention and science, monopoly and competition,
capital and legislation, always to be the enemies of those
who toil ? Will the workers always be ignorant enough and
stupid enough to give their earnings for the useless ? Will
they support millions of soldiers to kill the sons of other
working-men? Will they always build temples for ghosts
and phantoms, and live in huts and dens themselves ? Will
they forever allow parasites with crowns, and vampires with
mitres, to live upon their blood ? Will they remain the slaves
of the beggars they support ? How long will they be con
trolled by friends who seek favors, and by reformers who
want office ? Will they always prefer famine in the city to a
feast in the fields ? Will they ever feel and know that they
have no right to bring children into the world that they cannot
support ? Will they use their intelligence for themselves,
or for others ? Will they become wise enough to know that
they cannot obtain their own liberty by destroying that of
others? Will they finally see that every man has a right
to choose his trade, his profession, his employment, and has
the right to work when, and for whom, and for what he will?
Will they finally say that the man who has had equal pri
vileges with all others has no right to complain, or will they
follow the example that has been set by their oppressors ?
Will they learn that force, to succeed, must have a thought
behind it, and that anything done, in order that it may en
dure, must rest upon the corner-stone of justice ?
Will they, at the command of priests, forever extinguish
the spark that sheds a little light in every brain ? Will
they ever recognise the fact that labor, above all things, is
honorable—that it is the foundation of virtue ? Will they
understand that beggars cannot be generous, and that every
healthy man must earn the right to live ? Will honest men
stop taking off their hats to successful fraud ? Will industry,
in the presence of crowned idleness, forever fall upon its
knees, and will the lips unstained by lies forever kiss the
robed impostor’s hand ?
��
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The hope of the future
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
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Place of publication: London
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R. Forder
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1887
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Socialism
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Capitalism
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Socialism
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Text
WORK AND WEALTH
ESSAY
AN
ON THE
OF
ECONOMICS
SOCIALISM,
BY
J. K. INGALLS.
ONE
PENNY.
LONDON:
INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY,
*
r
35, NEWINGTON GREEN ROAD, N.
1887.
��WORK AND WEALTH.4
<Ti HAVE chosen the above terms in preference to Labour and
W Capital, because they convey more exact ideas. Thè word
labour carries with it the impression of compulsory, or servile
toil. Capital is a word which economists themselves cannot satis
factorily define, and to which they apply only an arbitrary meaning.
The things signified by work and wealth are subject to no equivocal
interpretation, are understood by all, and stand to each other in the
relation of a natural sequence.
Speaking from the standpoint of the trader, from which political
economists mainly speak, Adam Smith lays down this fundamental
proposition : “ It was not by gold or silver, but by labour, that all
the wealth of the world was originally purchased.” For him the
term labour was appropriate, because, in his time, a large proportion
of the world’s work was performed by bondmen or by hirelings,
even more the mere dependents of the legal possessors of the world’s
wealth than are the workers of to-day.
Starting from this comprehensive, but exact, proposition that work
is the only source from which wealth can be produced or purchased
as an axiom, the opposite of which is simply unthinkable, let us
direct our attention to an inquiry into the manner in which wealth
to appearance is transferred so often in exchange for no equivalent
in labour. Even the trader may be interested in the attempt to
account for the fact that wealth, at first purchasable only by work,
comes to be possessed mainly by those who do no work.
The thing which a man has produced by his work, and which is an
object of desire to himself and others, can be transferred in several
different ways. The natural or simplistic methods are: (r) Force,
involving robbery, theft, and, in an advanced stage, cheating, over
reaching, and advantage-taking of every description ; (2) Gift, involving partial and invidious bestowments, as well as noble gene
rosities ; (3) Hazard, involving all kinds of gaming, and, in the
progress of society, all speculative ventures.
* This paper originally appeared in the Ameiican “ Radical Review.”
*
�4
v
i
The rational method, and one which is arrived at only by culture
and the recognition of social obligations, is mutual exchange.
With the earlier method^ as they have existed in the past, we need
have no quarrel. They were the only ones possible under the con
dition of social and moral development then obtaining. Robbery is
the main element of organic and animated life. The carnivorous
animals all support life by drawing it from orders less powerful or
aggressive than themselves, and even the herbivorous sustain life by
devouring vegetable life. Man destroys the lives of the creatures
beneath him that he may eat their flesh and robe himself with their
furs and skins.. He robs the sheep of its fleece, the silk-worm of its
web that he may clothe himself. That he pursues a similar course
with his fellow is not to be wondered at. Only a conception of the
brotherhood of man and the real dignity of work can win him from
his tendency to devour the substance of the weak and simple who
fall into his hands, instead of producing wealth for himself.
The rude man, who has spent hours in the forest gathering fagots,
but lies down at night without a fire, while another enjoys the genial
warmth those same fagots yield while burning, may have transferred
their possession in several different ways. He may, with a certain
degree of equity, have exchanged them, for different products which
the other had worked to obtain ; he may have engaged in some
game of chance, and lost them wholly ; or he may have been met
by a stronger man, while returning laden, and deprived of his fagots
by force. Or, he already may have been reduced to a bond-slave,
his life having bten spared in war on condition of his submission to
a life of slavery; and thus have given his captor the perpetual
ability to purchase wealth with his and his childrens’ toil.
From the mental state which results from such motives as sway
the successful warrior and slave-holder, to that of the enlightened
moralist and economist who discovers that, if another has created
wealth which he himself desires, the true thing to do is to create
something which the other will equally desire, that so the transfers
may be mutually agreeable and beneficial, is a distance which
requires ages of toil and struggle to overcome.
It may be urged that in the capture and management of slaves,
who would not willingly work if left to themselves, a certain necessary
work was performed, and a larger production of wealth obtained.
If we were to admit this as regards the past, it would serve as no justi
fication for the continuance of slavery ; but it should also be con
sidered that the robber class, until taught by the toil of the indus
trious that labour will produce or purchase wealth, never seeks to
subject the toilers to slavery. Besides, all experience shows that
•••
�5
slavery, so far from promoting industry, begets a general repugnance
to work on the part of both slave and slave owner : thus the thing
urged in its justification is seen to have been caused mainly by
itself.
It was not till after centuries of advancement that civilized nations
began to discourage chattel slavery. Its entire abolition in our
country is a recent event. But by its abolition we have by no
means reached any thing like an equitable system of exchange. We
still have class legislation, protecting the vast accumalations of
wealth and ownership of land in unlimited quantities, just as incom
patible with justice as the older tyranny.
To be able to purchase wealth with others’ labour, it is not at all
necessary to own their bodies. The strong assumed “ property in ■
man ” and “ property in the soil ” at the same time. Now, since the
soil is absolutely essential to the application of labour to productive
uses, he who has an exclusive claim to it can labour under any
tribute he pleases, or deny it opportunity to employ itself or be
employed at all. Since ownership in man has been abolished,
private ownership of land is the chief basis, the great fulcrum, of alt
devices for purchasing wealth by the work of others.
By the workers themselves this power is little understood, because
it affects them indirectly. They come in immediate contact with
their employers, and questions of raising or lowering wages, lengthen
ing or shortening hours, attract their attention and divert it from
more fundamental questions. They hardly reflect that their em
ployers are also subject to the competitive struggle, and are often
broken down by the operation of the same law which shortens the
rations, and renders more and more precarious the employment, on
which the labourer depends.
The indifference of the working-men to this question of the land,
and their failure to obtain even enough of it to enable them to rear
homes for themselves and families, has a curious, as well as sad,
result. Quite twenty-five per cent, of the earnings of labourers,
clerks, and mechanics who do not own a home of their own, goes
to the landlords for rent. In many instances, this is for structures
which have been paid for a hundred times over, and are not worth in
their material the labour of pulling down and carrying away. It is
true that a portion of this rent comes back in payment of repairs,
taxes, etc., but still leaving a large percentage for which labour
receives no return whatever, and may almost be said to yield
voluntarily, thus permitting others, to that extent, to purchase wealth
with their unrequited toil.
Had our Government established a system of easy access to the
*
�6
soil through nationalization of the land or a judicious limitation to
private ownership, the questions arising between employer and em
ployed would have a ready solution. On the recurrence of a de
pression in business, general or special, the parties feeling themselves
crowded would betake themselves to the cultivation of the soil, or
some self-employment; or at least enough would do so to relieve the
overstocked labour market, thus increasing the demand for the
things which had been over-produced.
Out of our semi-feudal land system grow also many of the giant
evils which afflict our commerce and finance. The man who has no
land must hire it or pay for its use, before he can apply his labours
in cultivation, however willing and capable he may be. This basic
necessity of borrowing is the foundation of all other borrowing ;
paying for the use of land is the basis of all rent and usury and
speculative profit of every description. Distressed by unnatural dis-'“*^* possession and deprivation, people are in no condition to resist the
temptation to borrow anything which promises relief, and to pledge
themselves to pay therefor impossible rates of interest. The poor
man, to free himself from present deprivation, borrows the means to
do a little business • the man of considerable means borrows that he
may do more business; and for the result, we have most of the real
estate and much of the personal property of both in the hands of
the money-lender through foreclosures. A large proportion of all
transfers of real estate, especially for the last three years, has been
through foreclosures, and to avoid foreclosures.
An annual half-billion does not cover the amount which goes into
or through the hands of corporations in the form of interest in this
country, not to mention the enormous rentals, private speculative
profits, etc.
The industrious man, who purchases by his work any desired
wealth, gets only one-half, or less, himself,—the other half going to
the usurer, landlord, or profit-monger. These are enabled to pur
chase, or get recognized possession of, this other half through
unlimited control of land, and the system of usance and annuities
growing up from that basis.
It may be said with too much truth that working-men get now
more than they wisely use; but it is still truer that, in proportion as
their share in what they have produced is diminished, they become
more and more indifferent to saving, and more and more shiftless
and unreliable.
It is not the purpose of this paper to attempt to point out what
is right and equitable between employer and employed under our
system of wages. W-hen any considerable portion of mankind
�7
desires equity and mutualism in industry and division, there will be
no difficulty in arriving at exact conclusions. My object will be
more than realized, if I draw attention to these things as they
actually exist, and to the positive relation which work and wealth
sustain to each other, the truth in regard to which can only be
ascertained by careful analysis.
Into all production of wealth only two factors enter: (i) the raw
material—the soil or its spontaneous productions; (2) human effort.
However complex or extended, in the last analysis only these two
elements are found. It is not the carbon and nitrogen, the salts and
gases, of which our food and clothing are composed, which we pro
duce as wealth, but that specific form and aptitude for use which our
work has wrought or effected.
According to that ingenious political economist, Bastiat, even
when we purchase things with money or by barter, we do not
exchange things, but forms of service. The inference, however,
which he draws from this truthful proposition—that, therefore, any
one in possession of wealth to whatever amount must necessarily
have rendered an equivalent service for that wealth (either by him
self, or through an ancestor or donor)—is so monstrous as to be
accepted only by specialists in 11 exact science.” On the contrary,
we find mutuality of service nowhere recognized as at all requisite in
the business transactions of the world. We might as well look for
it under the chattel system, where men and women are bought and
sold, and where labour does not have to be purchased with equiva
lent service, but can be enforced by the lash. Adam Smith says :
“ It is impossible for one to become excessively rich without making
many others correspondingly poor.” This is a result which could
not possibly arise from any mutual exchange of services, or from any
honest transfers of equivalents, any more than we can have an
equation with one side plus and the other minus. Hence it follows
that, where inordinate wealth exists, it has been purchased by the
labour of others than the possessors, and through transfers by force,
fraud or hazard.
To produce or have wealth at all, human effort must be put forth.
Even the spontaneous productions of Nature cannot constitute
wealth, until taken out of their natural state. The savage who has
fagots and game in store for a week has wealth, as compared with
him who has to gather a daily supply. Application and frugality
seem the only requisites for its acquirement. By a wise division of
labour and special adaptation of functions, the wealth of the world
has been vastly increased; but we must not let the complexity of
work and diversity of employments confuse our ideas in regard to
�8
*
the main question,—namely, the source of wealth, and the equity or
iniquity of the present method of distribution.
As society advanced from the simply savage state, the search,
capture, and transportation of natural wealth was followed by various
handicrafts which added value thereto. It was work, nothing less
and nothing more, of hand and brain which formed social wealth
from the resources of Nature. In all these elaborate transforma
tions, we can discover no other earthly agency, nor indeed make any
material distinction in the essential character of these varied services.
One and all are necessary to each other. By no logic can we decide
that one service is more important than another, except in the utility
of its product.
If one has discovered, another secured, and a third transported
the prize to the place where it is needed for consumption, we can
decide no otherwise than that the pay of each should be propor
tioned to the time employed in labour and the useful result accom
plished. Even the labour necessary to divide and distribute it comes
in justly for a share.
So far all must be plain in regard to the facts involved in our
question. It seems to me the principles must also be clear. But
it will be answered that still the distinctions in life and the inequali
ties of distribution of which we complain have been transmitted to
us from previously existing conditions, and result from the operations
of forces that can be traced back through every form of civilization.
This is, however, very far from proving that they exist in accordance
with elementary principles or any rational interpretation of law.
Really it comes to this,—whether we will continue the essential
injustice, while dropping the barbaric methods of the savage, or
attempt a truly scientific solution of the problem of work and wealth.
In the discovery, procurance, and manipulation of natural produc
tions, I have indicated all the steps in the production of wealth.
Services in the preservation or conservation of wealth are equally
entitled to consideration, but cannot be yielded a superior claim.
With our inequitable division, and the disorganized methods of dis
tribution which it begets, the number of traders becomes sadly
disproportioned to the number of actual producers ; and since those
despoiled are chiefly those who perform the most useful labour, the
smart and shrewd seek the more indirect methods of obtaining
wealth. And just here the principle of competition, which political
economists seem to think ought to reconcile the wealth producers to
starvation, does not work with facility, for no one can do a business
at a loss, and hence society has to support numbers to do the work
which one might do.
�9
I may, in this connection, refer to the instrumentality of money
or currency, serviceable in moving crops and the work of distribu
tion generally. Its importance, however, is ’ mainly due to the want
of mutualism in our distributive system and of equity in our methods
of exchange.
A charge for the time-use of this instrument, in defiance of the
sentiments of all moralists from Moses and Cato to Ruskin and
Palmer, has been enforced by our laws, because labour was at the
mercy of the few who hold the soil, and because operations could
be made to pay dividends out of the wealth purchased by the labour
of the poor arid simple. Chattel slavery enabled the planter to pay
interest. ‘Land monopoly enables the capitalist to assume that there
is a usufruct ’to wealth. In return, usury has been the great lever by
which millions of homes have been alienated, and gone to swell the
domain of avarice and love of lordly domination.
As war was the parent of slavery, by which whole families, tribes,
and nations were reduced to bondage,—made “ hewers of wood and
drawers of water” to the victors,—so it has been employed to
enslave labour by the creation of immense national debts, the mere
interest of which is an onerous tax upon the worker. Hazard has
also played as large, if not so conspicuous, a part as war in reducing
labour to the condition of dependence and distress. The liberty of
self, wife, and children, in barbaric times, was often staked. And
when this was not done, borrowing to prolong play was practised, as
to-day in Turkey and in some Christian and even republican
countries, upon conditions and at rates which can have no termina
tion but in life-long bondage or peonage. To relieve present dis
tress, or deluded by the hope of acquiring the ability to live by
others’ labour, many people to-day, who would despise the mere
gambler, fall into a similar fatuity, and wake from it only to find
themselves slaves to the power they expected to use to lay others*
labour under contribution.
I am not urging sympathy for these dupes. I am only pointing
out some of the causes, still in operation, which have resulted in
making the few the actual masters of labour, and given them the
ability to purchase wealth without work of their own. In our country
and time we do not enforce gambling debts as they do in Turkey ;
but we do enforce contracts to pay interest, often just as oppressive,
and only outwardly less barbarous and inhuman.
In.thus tracing the. working of these crude methods, we find that
the productive labour of our time has its .inheritance, through the
wage system, serfdom, and slavery, from primitive subjection to
force; or through speculative trade, from the hazard which ruined
�ro
the victim without permanently benefiting the winner. It is not
important to our purpose to inquire whether the plunderers or
plundered are more to blame, or the greater sufferers. This is plain;
with the land in the hands of the hereditary or speculative lord, the
labourer has no resources for self-employment, however fit or unfit
he may be.
The working-man can obtain independence now only by the
possession of exceptional powers, or by special good fortune, and
then only through schemes and operations which raise one at the
expense of many.
The inheritance of the property class consists of a transmission of
power attained by forceful conquest, or by the varied forms of hazard,
fraud, and corruption. With their wealth they inherit generally the
tendency to take advantage of the necessities of others, and to apply
new methods of overreaching when the spirit of progress will no
longer tolerate the old ones.
1 do not make this application to individuals, but only to those
given to the shrewd use of wealth; well I know that many parvenus
far outdo, in management, those who inherit wealth.
In this country we have changed some things to suit republican
prejudices. For instance, our land is no longer entailed in a family.
Yet it is all falling into the hands of a class; and although the great
fortunes sometimes change to other hands, they are controlled by
those with still greater, and their attitude and relation to industry
remain the same. Of the large fortunes now enjoyed in New York
and New England, many had their foundations laid by successful
privateers and slave traders ; and by other methods no less dis
cordant with principles of natural justice.
The immense fortunes made by two well-known citizens in the
generation now past are quite exceptional, and yet they well illustrate
the present divorced relation between work and wealth. In a certain
sense, both were industrious workers. Each has said of himself that,
when he worked in the ordinary way, his income was trifling. It
was only after lon^ struggle, in which many worthy men went to the
wall, that their fortunes began to accumulate with great rapidity.
Both were greatly indebted to our civil war, which reduced whole
populations to poverty, left the nation three billions in debt, and
sacrificed a million lives. It is also worthy of note that a great
banker at our nat onal capital was made rich by privileges granted
him to trade during the Mexican war. When it is said in justifica
tion of these men that they did not go outside the acknowledged
rules of I usiness. it is admitting that our systems of trade, finance,
etc., are essentially the same as in barbarous ages whose forms we
have discarded.
�11
Another great estate, also recently left in the city of New York
was mainly inherited, being now in the possession of the third gene
ration. In mentioning these instances I disclaim any purpose of
judging the men. They were what inheritance and environment
made them. My only purpose is to show the irrational and fatal
policy which places in the hands of any men, however good or great,
the power to purchase, ad libitum, wealth with other people’s work.
I am quite well aware that for many years to come this remonstrance
will remain measurably unheeded. The workers are so depressed
with hardship, or so readily elated with the prospect of success in
some exceptional field, that they are quite unwilling to look away
from prospects of temporary relief to the consideration of broad
questions of reform, even if they were less idiotically joined to party,
labelled republican or democratic, by leaders who form a mutual
ring, whichever party attains power, and conspire to make the
plunder of public funds and public trusts a fine art.
But from the operation upon the public mind of works like those
of Spencer, Mill, Lewes, and Ruskin, much is to be hoped. Our
own country, also, has the names of men, not unknown to fame,
who are deeply impressed with the importance of this vital social
and ethical problem. Its development promises to take form like
this :
First, As a civil right,—freedom of access to the soil and oppor
tunity of self-employment;
Second, As a principle of law,—the partnership of all concerned
in the production of wealth requiring division of labour;
Third, As a matter of commercial ethics,—equivalents of service
in all exchanges.
In connection with these developments in the intellectual and
ethical field, it occurs to me that there is a probability, at least, of
a movement which shall greatly hasten the downfall of our barbarous
system of division, and the approach of the era when work shall be
the only recognized title to wealth. Within the present century,
men like Robert Owen, Peter Cooper, Gerrit Smith, and many
others who could be mentioned, have shown, with more or less
success, that it is “nobl-e to live for others,” and that personal
interests may be subordinated to social aims. It seems to me no
dream of romance to indulge the faith that, at a time near at hand,
a class of true men and women will arise and form an order, which
will abstain from preying on the results of others’ toil. These social
knights-errant will scorn to rely on the efforts of others for their
support, or to apply to their own use, in any way, that for which
another has wrought. They will no more consider the necessity or
�12
weakness of their toiling fellow a reason why they should overreach
and plunder him, than would the model knight of the days of
chivalry have considered that the weakness and defenceless state of
a persecuted woman was a reason why he should outrage rather than
protect her. These will organize industries on an equitable basis,
promote emigration to districts where the exactions of landlords are
less intolerable, and turn the current of many now questionable,
though well-intended, charities into channels of self-employment and
self-help. It is not too much to hope that they will be able ulti
mately to change the application of the vast amount of labour and
wealth now expended in “ plans of salvation ” to save the souls of
men in a future world, into a broadly beneficent measures of indus
trial organization and social renovation, and thus render possible the
coming of the “ kingdom of heaven upon the earth,” under the
equitable rule of which it<£ shall be given to every one according to
his work.”
PUBLICATION LIST.
P. J. PROUDHON : A Biographical Sketch, with Portrait.
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�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Work and wealth: an essay on the economics of socialism
Creator
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Ingalls, J.K.
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 12 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: Stamp on front flyleaf: South Place Chapel Finsbury, Lending Library. "This paper originally appeared in the American 'Radical Review'". Publisher's list on numbered page at the end.
Publisher
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International Publishing Company
Date
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1887
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G4968
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Economics
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Work and wealth: an essay on the economics of socialism), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Economics
Socialism