CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY HX21 .wlr 1880"""'' '■''""' *'°'Vim»i'ffliii« 11111*1°'''''''®'" '" "'*''■ history olin 3 1924 030 320 240 DATE pUE m-^ %OJ^^^^^^^ . CAVLOnO PRINT ED INU.SA. PI Cornell University f Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030320240 COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM THEIR HISTORY AND THEORY A SKETCH i S-A^ . ^ ///« * t - «J^C^^ THEODORE r>. "WOOLSEY NEW YORK CHAELES SCRIBNEK'S SONS 743 AND 745 Bboadway 1880 COPTHIGHT BT OHABLES SCBIBNEB'S SONS. 1880. Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Co.* 20X-213 East \zth Stt, NEW YORK. ^ v^ PEEFAOE. The greater part of the work which is now offered to the public, first appeared a few months since, under the form of weekly articles, in the New York Independent. It is now repubUshed with some ad- ditions, which are chiefly appendixes, giving the views of others on certain special points. The object of the work wiU. be sufficiently evident on shght examination. From very early times there has been felt, under several forms of civilization and reHgion, a dissatisfaction with the existing institu- tions of society, which has given birth to the desire of forming communities within the state and pro- tected by it, yet separated from the rest of the peo- ple. Ideals, also, of reformed pohtical societies have been given to the world, which grew out of this same dissatisfaction with the actual order of things. And in the most modem times these Utopias have passed over into plans for a new social system. IV PEEFAOE. which aims at gaining the control over all civilized Btates. We have attempted to sketch the leading features of these smaller communities and Utopias, and of modem socialism, founded on equality and pohtical economy, in the hope of showing the simi- larities and differences of the schemes, devised for carryrug on the work of society without private property. The class of persons for whom we have written, are those who would rehsh neither extensive details touching the communities of the past, which have left no mark on society, nor a long exposition of the economical principles of modern sociahsm. Should this system gain such favor as seriously to threaten the present order of things, we earnestly hope that other essays, more elaborate and comprehensive than the present one, wiU. be written for its confutation. New Haven, December, 1879. TABLE OF OOI^fTENTS. CHAPTER I. DEFimTION AND ESSENCE OF COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. PAGE 1 1-16 II 16-33 CHAPTER II. SMALLER COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES WITHIN THE STATE. I. Buddhist Monks — ^Essenes — Therapeutse, . 24-33 II. The Christian Monastic System, . . . 33-41 III. Anabaptists of Munster, 42-50 IV. The Shakers 50-60 V. Smaller Communities concluded, ... 60 -72 Appendix I. No. 1. Change in the system of the Perfectionists, 73-75 ; No. 2. New matter from Mr. Hinds' American Communists, . . . 73-84 CHAPTER III. COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. L Plato— Sir Thomas More— Campanella, . . 85-95 II. Theories, in France, of Mably and Morelly. The same reduced to Practice in Babceuf's Conspiracy, 96-106 VI TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE III. Theories of Communism — St. Simon and his Followers — Fourier, 106-115 IV. Certain Religious Socialists — Laroux, Cabet, , Louis Blanc, '. 115-125 CHAPTER IV. THE rNTEKNATIONAIi WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION. I. Origin, Organization, Rules, .... 126-136 II. International continued — Number of Mem- bers — Congresses of Geneva, Lausanne, Brussels, Basel, 136-146 III. International concluded — Schism in Switzer- land — Its Members at Paris in 1871 — Mani- festo of the Council at London — Effects of Events at Paris, 146-159 CHAPTER V. SOCIALISM IN GERMANY. I. Leading Features of the Theory of Marx, . 160-171 II. Lassalle and the German Workingraen's Union, 171-181 III. Socialism in Germany since Lassalle, . . 181-193 Appendix. Mr. Mill's Chapters on Socialism, . 193-300 CHAPTER VL SCHAEPPLE'S "quintessence of SOCIALISM." 1 301-314 II 314-326 CHAPTER VII. recent SOCIALISM IN ITS RELATIONS, ETC. I. To the State and to Society, .... 227-338 II. To the Individual and to Religion, . . . 238-249 TABLE OF CONTENTS. VU ~ PAQE III. To Religion (continued), to the Family and Marriage, 250-260 rV. Relations to Society concluded, . . . 260-267 Appendix I. Extract from the Einflusa der Herr- sohenden Ideeu of Eotvos, 267-371 Appendix II. Extract from F. A. Lange's " Arbeit- erfrage," Ed. 3, 371-275 CHAPTER VIII. I. Is the Overthrow of Society in its present Form by Socialism probable ? . . . 376-286 II. Future Prospects of Socialism, .... 287-299 Index, 301-309 COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. CHAPTEE I. DEFINITION AND ESSENCE OP COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. I. In an essay like this it seems to be necessary to define the terms often used sjmonymously, which are employed to denote the subject of the essay itself. There are two such terms which are of constant occurrence, communism and socialism, the first of earlier origin than the other ; besides which two others, of still more modern birth, coUectivism and m,utual^^m, have sprung up in France, and are less current, although the former of them is now often employed in books and public discussions. Cominunism, in its ordinary signification, is a system or form of common life, in which the right of private or family property is abolished by law, mutual consent, or vow. To this community of goods m^ay be added the disappearance of family life, and the substitution" for it of a mode of life 1 2 DEFINITION AND NATURE OF in which, whether the family system is retained or not, the family is no longer the norm according to which the subdivisions of the community, if there are any, are regulated. But while the father's authority in the separate parts of the community is of little or no account, there are rulers of some sort, who must have a considerable degree of power, in order to prevent the system from falling to pieces. A whole state or nation may be conceived of as being parcelled out into a number, of communi- ties, each of which would have its property and its rights of property over against the rest. Yet all the connnunities which have appeared in the world have, so far as I know, been established within states which are not themselves commu- nistic in their institutions ; so that the smaller bodies are protected by greater bodies which have no especial affinities with them, or may even be regarded by them with dislike. Whether a state broken up into communities could long exist may be doubted. So also the theoretic communities which political dreamers have imagined, are either small and simple, or, if complex, are affili- ated, as monastic commxmities also, generally, are, under a law outside of, and above, their own. 2. Sodalisjn was not known as a term synony- mous, or nearly so, with communism until recent times. The first writers who can be discovered to have used it were Frenchmen. COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 3 By its derivation it ought to denote the system of those who would socialize states or subdivisions of states, or, in other words, would organize the people of a nation according to their idea of wliat society ought to be, or, in other words still, would reform society according to a social theory of their own. The theory might or might not cor- respond with the idea or the rule on which a com- munistic society is founded. Socialism is there- fore a broader term than communism. It might embrace systems for a state, and systems for smaller communities which could not be adapted to a state ; it might include community of goods, and other kinds of common participation ; or might even discard them, as far as the derivation of the term is concerned. But in matter of fact, having been coined by those who had communis- tic principles, and in an age when it was desirable to avoid the terms communist and communism, as being somewhat odious, it denotes almost uni- versally a theory or a system into which commu- nity of goods, or better, abolition nearly or quite complete of private property, enters as an essen- tial part ; and again a system which embraces an entire society or state, if not a cluster of contigu- ous states, or even the world. And it is, as thus used, no longer a system, if I may so speak, of disintegration, but one of consolidation, subject- ing all the members of a state, willingly or unwil- lingly, to the control of the state as the head of 4 DEFINITION AND NATURE OF society ; making it in fact the sole proprietor for the most part within the national territory. But although the term thus differs from the term corw- ■ munism, we may be pardoned if, in following other writers' examples, we use the two as sy- nonymous now and then, since they both cover part of the same ground. 3 and 4. The two other terms need only a word or two for their definition. Collectivism,, which is now used by German as well as by French winters, denotes the condition of a com- munity when its affairs, especially its industry, is managed in the collective way, instead of the method of separate, individual effort. It has, from its derivation, some advantages over the vague word socialism, which may include many varieties of associated or imited life. Mutualism (in French, m,utueUsm.e), scarcely used beyond its birth-place, is intended to express the social and political condition constructed on a system of mu- tual and reciprocal relations, implying equality as far as it can be carried out. The commimity of property is thus an inference fi'om what must come to pass if such a conception should be re- alized, rather than involved in the word. It may be worth noticing that the word in itself at its origin had nothing eomnmnistie about it ; and that mutuum, mutuor, in Latin, connected with m,uto, change, exchange, have the sense of a loan, and to horrow. The Eomans, in their laws, social COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 6 life, and politics, were as far from socialism in the modern sense as possible. The natural division of the subject before us is to consider first those smaller communities which were earliest in the order of time, and came into being within and under the state ; — not for the purpose of undermining general society, but to enable a select number of similarly disposed per- sons to lead a life, which they could not easily lead without some separation from their fellow-men. After these may follow those theories for the rectification of existing society, which were never carried out, and perhaps were never intended to be carried out ; but which expressed their authors' views in regard to the best constitution of society within the state. These theories, as time ad- vanced, began to be something more than Uto- pias; they became, in France, revolutionary; they were animated by the spirit of equality and fraternity; and in their successive forms tliey approached nearer to the shape of definite plans and methods, by which the whole of society was not only to be affected, but to be put on an en- tirely new basis. At the same time the condition of the working-class became a subject of promi- nent interest. These French theories, or some of them, had not left the original ideas from which they started, so that they might be put to proof on the small scale in single communities and by way of experiment, as well as on the large 6 DEFINITION AND NATURE OF scale in the state. Such were Fourier's, Cabet's, and Louis Blanc's systems, although they aimed at the universal control of societies. We shall term these, all of them, communistic systems. But, by the help of the later French communists, a new system, or set of systems, arose, which could not be well applied on the small scale within the state, but aimed at controlling the state itself ; and not the state only, but even a set of contiguous states, if not the world. The leading characteristic of this system is, that it is built chiefly on political economy, as understood by the advocates of the system ; while moral no- tions, such as equality of rights and fraternity, are assumed and involved in the plans for carry- ing it out. The main force of the theory lies in abolishing private propei-ty, and giving the con- trol of all industry to the state. It does not re- quire a common life, but caiTies Avliat had been before contemplated — ^the doctrine of common property — into all details. As reconstructing society in this v/ay, it is properly called socialism, whether it appears in the shape of not entirely breaking with present society, like the half-way scheme of Lassalle, or in getting complete con- trol of society, on the scheme of the ablest of those who would overturn society, like the accom- plished, determined veteran, Karl Marx. This system, in the construction of which Germans have been most active, and which seems liltely to COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 7 throw all others into the shade, which threatens to control the working-classes everywhere, and "with fear of change perplexes nionarchs," we shall call sooialisin, without absolutely confining ourselves to this term, inasmuch as imder it the great community — the state — now becomes the only subject of property. It will thus be seen that com'tnunism does not really give up the notion of property either within the state, or over against all persons and communities which are outside of its pale: it also expressly admits the rightfid exist- ence of private property by receiving from pri- vate individuals, and that, in the way of free gift, what before was their o■w^l ; by maintaming suits to defend such property, when once received ; by transactions of bargain and sale with persons beyond their borders, and, in some cases, by re- turning such property to its former owner wlien he leaves a community. jSocicdisrii, on the other hand, while it may admit the state's right of property over against another state, does away with all ownership, on the part of members of the state, of things that do not perish in the using, or of their own labor in creating material V products. Its first and last policy is to prevent) )the acquisition or exclusive use of capital, by any! person or association under the control of the state, j with the exception, perhaps, of articles of luxury) or enjoyment procured by the savings of wages./ 8 DEFINITION AND NATURE OF No savings can give rise to what is properly called capital, or means of production in private hands. Communities have been established on various principles. The individuals that compose them enter voluntarily into association with others; and the societies themselves determine, within certain limits, which are subject to the control of public law, what their rules and the relations of members shall be. Thus the question of the en- tire surrender of property to the community by the entering member would naturally be a car- dinal one, yet, state law might restrain him from so acting. The various questions relating to mar- riage and celibacy, to the employments of the grown-up members, to the forms of social union, to religious worship, if they have any, to the government of the society and the management of its property, are all laid down by general agree- ment at first, and may be altered unless the con- stitutions forbid. The reasons for entering such communities are various. Some of them, being strictly religious and confining membership to one or other of the sexes, would be destroyed in their essence, and probably their property be es- cheated, by departing from this idea. Others may be founded on religious grounds or for social rea- sons, may establish or abolish celibacy, and extin- guish or tolerate existing family relations. The control, again, of the ' officers over the members may be strict or loose. COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 9 Socialism, then, under one definition of it, in its theoretical existence — for it has no actual habita- tion on earth — differs in important respects from communism. It is, at the beginning, a public thing, a constitution for society and for the state at once. It is therefore, when viewed on one side, far more imperious and widesweeping than communism. It is so opposed to the present order of society that it must transform and over- turn, either by the peaceable consent of the mass of men in a state, and by thus getting possession of a state's principal resources (which is entirely incredible), or by revolutionizing society. On the other hand, having got such control, it scarcely has had in view, as yet, so great a change and separa- tion from the society of the present, in some re- spects, as some of the communities, which are pro- tected by s tates, have introduce don the small scale. f GTvetfme control over capital, and it may leave ' marriage, in a measure education, and the choice of religion, free to the people which it has re- organized; — such would pure socialism be ; but the theory may be so modified, either to secure an improve- ment on society as it is, or to provide for an easier transition to an unmixed socialism of the future, that it will be important to take into view such d,epartures in theory from the strict idea of the system, if any such there be. The later French systems of social change, as l" 10 DEFINITION AND NATURE OF ■we already have said, lie between commimism and socialism. They partake of the nature of both. They might be tried as experiments on the small scale and by means of free associations, nnless they should be judged to contain some un- "* * -v. •■' .""'sJawful element. Thus Cabet put his own plan to f,u.., -J ^yvj-tlie proof in the United States. Fourier's plia- ' ' flansteries might be established as experiments to teach the state what attitude it ought to take in regard to them, and something like them has been attempted outside of France. Ateliers, after the - plan of Louis Blanc's organization of labor, were actually tried by one of the French governments. These schemes were intended for the reform of society, and it might be said that a failure in a single case, when society was all on the other side, was no real proof that in other circumstances such plans might not be successful. There may also be men who oppose property and communism at once ; who are called commu- nists with no good will of their own. Such was Pierre Joseph Proudhon, whose well-known motto, borrowed from Brissot de Warville, was; " Lapro- jpriete dest le vol" an expression of principle, by the way, which Brissot gave up before he was ' guillotined. Proudhon's own opinions are known ' from passages in his first memoir on property : we give them in English in Mr. Benjamin E. Tucker's translation, p. 259 : " I ought not to conceal the fact that property COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 11 and commnnism have been considered always the only possible forms of society. This deplorable error has been the life of property. The disad- vantages of communism are so obvious that its critics have never needed to employ much elo- quence to thoroughly disgust men with it. The irreparability of the injustice which it causes, the violence which it does to attractions and repul- sions, the yoke of iron which it fastens on the will, the moral torture to which it subjects the conscience, the debilitating effect which it has iipon society, and, to sum it all up, the pious and stupid uniformity which it enforces upon the free, active, reasoning, unsubmissive personality of man, have shocked common sense and con- demned communism by an irreversible decree." And in another place he indulges himself in a similar strain (p. 261) : " Communism is inequal- ity, but not. as property is. Property is the ex- ploitation of the weak by the strong. Commu- nism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak. In property, inequality of conditions is the result of force, under whatever name it be disguised — physical and mental force ; force of events, chance, fortune ; force of accumulated property, etc. In communism, inequality springs from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence. This dam- aging equation is repellant to the conscience, and causes merit to complain ; for, although it may be the duty of the strong to aid the weak, they 12 DEFINITION AND NATUEE OF prefer to do it out of generosity. They never will endure a comparison. Give them equal op- portunities of labor and equal wages, but never allow their jealousy to be awakened by mutual suspicion of unfaithfulness in the performance of a common task." — This is enough to show that he is no commu- nist, although he holds a doctrine which commu- nists also hold. What his opinions on other cog- nate topics are, this is not the place to set forth. Another view of communism and socialism in~ their resemblances and differences, is said in a public journal to have been lately given by a brilliant lecturer, to which we must take excep- tions. He defines the former of the two to be the doing away with inheritance, the family, nation- ality, religion, and property ; socialism to be the doing away with the first four only. This is clear and distinct — as clear as the doing away with the five points of Calvinism to describe Arminian- ism ; but we are compelled to make objections to the justness of the distinction. And first, as for inheritance, why put it at the beginning, when, if there is no property, there is nothing to inherit. As for the family, as yet no social bodies or asso- ciations, that we know of, which are widespread and ramified, have in modern times dared to at- tack the family. Jager, one of the best writers on socialism, asserts expressly that " modern so- cialism, through those whom it has called upon as COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 13 its representatives, lias never officially expressed itself concerning marriage ; " although he thinks that its principles tend in the direction of loosen- ing the marriage tie. Next, as to nationality, it would be correct to say that some forms of this doctrine are international, while others are na- tional ; but none expect, nor, so far as we are in- formed, seek to do away with the state. On the contrary, the social state would have all the pow- ers now distributed through society in their high- est potence. So of religion, that the principal supporters of socialism are atheists or pantheists is undoubted ; and yet the theory has not hitherto absorbed atheism into its organism. So much is true that it discards altogether any public or state religion, and regards religious faith as a matter of private conviction, to be professed by individ- uals ; that in the main it repels Christian believ- ers from its pale by its godless tendencies ; but yet there have not been wanting in this age Chris- tians who have tried to unite it with their holiest convictions. Finally, as to jprojperty, the doing away of private property is common to both com- munism and socialism, and, in fact, there is no theory of socialism thought of at present, so far as we know, in which questions of property do not occupy the first place and the " expropriation " of the holders of property does not really lie at the foundation of the system or systems. In proof of what we say, we will give here a definition of social- 14 DEFINITION AND NATUEE OF ism, translated as literally as perspicuity will per- mit, from a work of a German political econo- mist of no mean reputation: "The politico- economical quintessence of the socialistic pro- gramme," says he, " the proper aim of the inter- national movement, is as follows : the replacement of privatf^ capita l (that is, of the speculative, pri- vate method of production, which depends only on free competition) by ' collective, capital ' — that is, by a method of production which, upon the basis of the collective property of the sum of all the members of the society in the means of pro- duction, seeks to carry on a unitary (social, ' col- lective') organization of national work." Hei-e he includes in his iirst sentence both what is called tlie socialistic and the international movements, and iinds their end in the substitution of collective for private capital, using the collective property of thg entire community so as to destroy ~all con- curi-ence, and to effect a unitary organization of the work and, therefore, of the production of the Avhole nation^ So that, if Schaeffle understands the movements in which Marx and LassaUe have been so j)rominent, our lecturer, to whom we re- ferred, misunderstands it. Thus the essence of both socialism and commu- nism lies in the abolition of private property, either entirely or to such an extent that the pri- vate person ceases to have any control over it and the state takes his place. This is especially true COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 15 of everything by which human labor is assisted in production — that is, it is true of all machinery and of the soil. And thus all products are cre- ated under the supervision of the state, and pass over, or a portion of them passes over, to individ- ual workuien, as their wages for their work. We add one remark tending to help the under- standing of the subject at this stage of our prog- ress. Men will not stop in a theory wliich they hope to reduce to practice without looking for- ward, and, as it were, prophesj'ing what shall be, when so immense a change as the abandonment of private property shall have passed over the world. But many crude ideas must be mingled in the speculations on such a subject. These speculations ought not to be confounded with the vagaries and chimeras of fervent minds. There never has been (we trust there never will be) any system of society answering in its principles and the vastness of its results to the theories and plans of socialism. This very vastness of the plan stimulates the imagination and makes possibilities seem real to dreamers. But all these must not be imputed to the scheme of society, as the sober- est thinkers of the sect conceive of it. We may show necessary results, we may show probable re- sults in opposing, just as others may do in advo- cating such untried measures. But we must not call it socialism when unpractical dreamers pro- pose something in the way of promoting their 10 DEFINITION AND NATURE OF hopes whieli soberer men of the sect pronounce impossible. If a Uerschenh reviles the wealthy- over his lager, and arouses the passions of the la- borers v7ho spend their money at his counter against the lourgeoisie, another voice comes from thoughtful socialists, vi^ho profess to find the evils of society in the capital accumulated in a few hands, and would therefore make a sweeping rev- olution by abolishing private capital. It is these theorists who are most to be dreaded. II. We have defined communism and socialism to be in their essence the substitution of common, or public, or " collective " property for private pi'op- erty ; that the state or the community is made the proprietor of all or of the principal means of pro- duction and of existing products — including, of com-se, the soil and whatever comes from it — in- stead of the private person or the association of private persons, uniting or separating by free con- sent. The consequences of such a complete over- turn in the relations of individuals to production we cannot yet fitly consider. It is more impor- tant at this stage of our inquiries to try to find out whether, there are not some subdivisions of com- munism, and thus to put oiu'selves on our guard against confounding together, forms of society which differ in important respects. COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 17 1. But, first of all, the definition given above needs to be defended at one point. Admitting its truth, must we not admit also that partnerships in the freest society are a kind of common life, and do they not presuppose a common property 'i The answer is, that some forms of communistic society do resemble some forms of partnerships ; but that thei'e are essential differences between the two. One is, that partnership is a limited form of doing business which a single person, if he liad the capital and ability, could do equally well. There is also nothing political about it. It is a creature of the state, and need not inter- fere with any of the state's powers. But the community, even on a small scale, cannot fail to obstruct the state in its proper office. For in- stance, it may control the- family system, one de- partment of private rights for the protection and free exercise of which states may be said to exist. Another difference is, that partnership is purely volimtary, a creature of law, generally temporary and terminable at will, without any intention, for the most part, of continuing its own existence in- definitely, and with no control of the firm over the conduct of the single partners, except so far as is necessary for prosecuting the business. Still more resemblance does a community of slaves or serfs under a master bear to the com- munities of which we here speak. In the system of serfage the laborers are by law or usage perma- 18 DEFINITION AND NATURE OF nently connected with the soil. They cannot le- gally remove from it, or marry, or dispose of their crops or productions without the land-owner's con- sent. He may even have political rights over them, united with some of the rights he can exer- cise over slaves. The community may be so far isolated that the serf may have no uniting bond to the body politic except through his master. But here the property is alj vested in the master, and can for the most part be alienated by him, or may be taken from him for political offences, In the system of slavery the property of the mas- ter includes the slave and his children, as well as the soil ; and the state, while the system lasts, in- terferes only on the ground of humanity. The Spartan commonwealth had not only a sys- tem of serfage, imder which the state was the ulti- mate proprietor ; but a division of land also to the original members of the body politic in equal por- tions, which at first they could not alienate. Be- sides this, the men had common meals as long as each member of a club could contribute his share of the expenses. There was also great looseness in regard to the marriage relation. But the indi- vidual Spartan became free at length to alienate his lands in his lifetime or by will ; so that before the time of Aristotle vast inequalities existed in the estates, and the whole soil came into the hands of a few proprietors. This was in the end any- thing but communism. COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 19 But, passing on from this point, we come to the more important one of the different forms of communities. Here Ave notice first those early societies which were at an early period developed out of the family and consisted of blood-relatives. These communities were germs of tribes and ex- pansions of the family. "Within them crimes were punished and rights secured in a rude way ; but no right of property as between the members was very definitely settled, while, as far as a simi- lar neigliboring community was concerned, the possessions of the community were defended by force. Land for the purposes of cultivation had no value. Products there were next to none, and still less did division of labor exist. The family was, so to speak, held in solution in the great fam- ily or community. "We cannot afford to go fur- ther into the details of these early institutions, which have been investigated by Bachofen, Mc- Lennan, Lubbock, Morgan, Girard-Teulon, and others. ISTor can we more than mention the later forms which appear in several parts of the world where the lands within a hundred, or other small districts, or at least meadow-lands and forests, have been held in common even until modern times ; and where for a long period the plough- lands were exchanged among the inhabitants from year to year. For communities under these forms Sir Henry S. Maine, Laveleye, and others must be consulted. In these, as well as in the eommuni- 20 DEFINITION AND NATUKE OF ties first mentioned, the starting-point was tlie family. In the first form the necessity of self- I defence must have been the main cause of the I common life in contiguous settlements. In the second, the village communities being a part of a tribe or union, and being nov7 devoted to agri- culture, as well as pasturage, houses and lands ad- joining became personal property ; although there was a time in some races when these were ex- changed from year to year. As soon, then, as houses and lands had a value, private property to a very great extent was recognized all over the world. These early communities teach us little. The second communistic form is that which has arisen within the state, whenever, for various reasons, small bodies of men make a common stock and live a hfe severed from the rest of the society. This is not an unfrequent phenomenon in the history of mankind. The most common cause for their existence has been either the ascetic, or in some way the religious principle, whether it appears in the contemplative life of the Buddhist mendicant order, in the institutions of the Es- senes, and among the various kinds of Christian monks ; or in a more fanatical form, as among the Anabaptists under John of Leyden ; or in as- sociations of dreamers for establishing societies after a certain idea, like Cabet's colony in Texas ; or for industrial purposes, like that of Owen. OOitJECNISJI AND SOCIALISM. 21 Many of these are fiill of interest, and would re- ward study. Some few of them may be noticed hereafter. It is to be observed, however, that all of these may form parts of states, just as towns and villages do, except that they are not separate political Gommimities. There never has been a state con- sisting of such communities, and of such only. The state protects them and their property, and society stands aloof from them, as they stand aloof from society. It is impossible that in such a position they should not receive ideas from the larger community under whose shadow they live. Hence, all conclusions from their conduct and history are subject to some doubt. We may always ask whether such communities have acted out their genuine nature ; whether the world out- side of their pale has not repressed some evil, has not prevented their principles from running to an extreme, and infused some good into them. Sometimes, also, they have lasted so short a time that no sure judgment can be formed concerning what fruit they would bear if time were given them. A third communistic form would be that of a communistic or socialistic state, with all power put into the hands of the upturners of existing sosiety to carry out their principles as they wished. But, unforttmately for mankind in the future, there have been no such communities in 22 DEFINITION AND NATTTEE OF the past. History has no voice to utter concern- ing communistiG states. That awful thing, pri- vate property, has lorded it since a little after the era of the cave-dwellers until now. And just in this consists the power and plausibility of social- ism. They can tell the operative that, if only the theory is made practical, his fortune will be made ; or, as Mr. Most, who has been a member of the German Parliament, tells them, a man will need only to work ten years, from his eighteenth to his twenty-eighth year, to be supported by the socialistic state for the rest of his life. Thus we see that another division can be made for practical uses, between communistic forms luhich heme heen tested hy exjperieiice, and those that exist as mere theories. These latter are of incomparably vaster importance than all the others that have been thought of since the begin- ning of the creation. They have also this pecu- liarity, that, whilst the old experiments proceeded from some philosophical or religious conviction, which adds dignity and worth to them, the new experiments, which amount to an absolute over- throw of all existing political institutions, are ap- plications chiefly of principles of political econ- omy, which, to say the least, are not so certain of success as to justify a complete revolution. But we are anticipating what we might better say by and by. At present we must look at the history and results of the communistic system as COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 23 it has shown itself by actual experiment ; then at the theories and plans for a new order of things, which have not been submitted to trial. Much of this matter we may lightly pass over. It will then be necessary to examine far more fully the schemes which are now agitating the world. 24: SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. CHAPTER II. SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. I. BUDDHIST MONKS — ESSENES— THERAPBTJT^. "We have already remarked that there is an abundance of materials furnished to us by history, for showing the nature and workings of small societies, tmited in a common life by some one principle or motive. A large number of these societies were formed by persons of the ascetic or contemplative sort, who expected some great good, especially some religious good, from seclu- sion. In the order of time the anchorite or her- mit was earlier than the community of monks. If seclusion from the corruptions of the world, with opportunity for contemplation and I'eligious exer- cises, could be united to help derived from others of a like spirit — the advantages of solitude, and those of a society separated from the unthinking mass of men, would be equally secured; and a certain description of persons who had a natural turn for solitude, or expected to ptirify their souls SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 25 by contemplation, or were sonred by disappoint- ments, or disgusted with ordinary life, would here find some solace together. These communities began extensively in the free union of anchorites, who united by and by, with equal fi-eedom, in associations where rules and promises or vows were found necessary, in order that the common good might be promoted. As it regarded supplies for the bodily wants, either soliciting alms from others or industry within the commimities themselves was the origi- nal means by whicli these needs were met. The demands made on others might be very small, for the earliest plan was to live within the nar- rowest bounds of human necessities ; and, more- over, an industrious life might seem to be incon- sistent with the great spiritual end which the communities had in view. By and by, in some countries, the life of self-denial and of religious contemplation and prayer, unattainable by the mass of men, would naturally cause these monks to be revered ; permanent funds would be given to them, houses would be provided for their shel- ter, and orders would bring together in different parts, where the same religion was professed, great numbers who were governed by the same rule. It is easy to see that the fimdamental rules were pointed out by reflection on human nature and by' experience of the evil that is in the world. 2 26 SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHm A STATE. There are two veiy strong desires in man — that of wealth or the means of self -gratification, and the sexual instinct. Whatever end be proposed in a life remote from the world, whether it be the extinction of desire, or closer comm\uiion with God, or escape from the corruption that is in the world through lust, or a longing for seren- ity and peace of soul, or the realization of an idea of virtue which men in society cannot well reach : these two classes of desii'e are the principal ones to be held in restraint, or, if possible, extinguish- ed ; these are the main tyrants, in a corrupt so- ciety especially, which enslave the soul. Hence the vows or, at least, the rules of chastity and poverty are universal, in all the forms of com- mon life to which we here have reference ; and they were taken even by orders or bodies of priests or priestesses who did not constitute com- munities. The vow of obedience also to a su- perior, elected by the members of the community or in some other way set over them, was generally but not always required. Among these communities a very early order was that of the Buddhist monks, who were at ■v/ first simply the mendicants whom Gautama gath- ered around him in his solitude. These were at the outset to have nothing but their rags, their begging-bowl, a razor, a needle, and a water- strainer ; but ere long, like the monks in Chris- tian convents, they could as a body possess books, SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 27 lands, and houses, given to tliem by private muni- ficence. Houses were almost necessary in the rainy season. The vows they took upon them- selves were poverty and chastity — the latter so strictly guarded that it was held to be unlawful even to touch a woman, however nearly related. Obedience to a superior in the convent or com- munity consisted in conformity rather to the rules of the order than to a superior's bidding. When the vow or the rules are violated, a mem- ber may be expelled from the body, or may have some penance imposed on him upon his confes- sion of his offence. Mr. Khys Davids says that "charges may be brought against a monk for breach of the ordinances laid down in the Pitakas [or sacred books], and must be examined by a chapter ; but no one can change or add to the existing law or claim obedience from any novice." The originating motive for Buddhism in tiie mind of Gautama or Buddha and its success are iue especially to the weight with which transmi- gration pressed on the Indian mind. Successive lives depended for their condition on the sins and virtues of a previous life ; but all life was unreal- ity and illusion, the complete escape from which was the highest good. Such escape could bfe ef- fected only by killing desire, and this extinction of desire could be effected only by meditation and sel£-denial. The reward was, that there would be no new birth; that an end could come to the 28 SMALLER COJniUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. illusive dream of existence. It is strange that anchorites, who only meditated and supplied their most absolutely necessary wants, could spread a religion which embraces more followers than any other. But the explanation, in part, at least, lies first in this doctrine that the new birth might at length come to an end, and that existence in a world full of illusions might give place to nonen- tity; next, in the abolition of caste — in other words, in the breaking away from the fundamen- tal institutions of Brahminism ; then in the mild and benevolent morality of the founders of Bud- dhism. The abolition of caste made it possible, while the religion was in its infancy in India, to admit all men of all castes into its pale ; and the same liberty, together with other causes given above, made its spread possible through surround- ing nations. This spread was due to the mendi- cant order, which was not a caste or a body of priests, but a simple fraternity. Originally, the mendicant order was all of Buddhism that existed. But wide expansion of such a kind of anchorites was impossible, in a world where industry and man-iage are forced on the majority of men by the commands of their nature. The Buddhists had to yield to this. In converting men to their moral maxims and to freedom from caste, they had to allow the existence of a kind of laity, which was not bound by the rules of the mendi- cants. And what was, perhaps, as important^- SlIALLBR COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 2D when the religion, being overcome in a great struggle with Brahmiuism, was driven out of India and spread its doctrine in other countries ; the great mass of the converted population, or that which venerated Buddha, received the moral precepts and fell under control of the monks, Mas left to its superstitions and its old divinities and spirits to a ^-ery considerable extent. This could be done, because the gods themselves were sub- ject to the same laws of existence with men, and because in Buddhism there was no God in our sense of the word, no providence, no prayer, noth- ing but atheism. The mendicants, we have seen, were at an early date allowed to possess houses, and formed close settlements or social unions. In Thibet, after a long struggle, they formed a hierarchy, with wealthy and populous religious houses, under su- perintendents, like the abbots of Eomanism, and under an infallible head, the Dalai Lama, in whom the spirit of Buddha or the Buddhas be- came incarnate. Supreme temporal power was given to him by the Mogul Emperor Kubilai Khan, in the thirteenth century ; but the destinies of this impostor have varied since they fell under the control of the Chinese Government. Another very different set of communities, small at their acme in number, but remarkable on more than one account, are the Essenes, who appeared in Ju4ea not long befqj^ the birth of Christ. so SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. They are known to us from the accounts which Philo the Jew, and Josephus have given in their works. Of their oi'igin, their opinions, and their relation to Jewish opinion and heathen sects we intend to say next to nothing, except that they show some influences derived from the Persian religion, or Parsism, and that no connection what- ever can be traced between them and our Lord or his apostles. Those who can follow the argu- ments of Dr. Lightfoot in his commentary on the Colossians, will find there the most instructive es- say on this sect which has hitherto been given to the world. The Essenes numbered, according to Philo, about four thousand in all, and preferred to live in villages rather than in cities, on account of the corruption of the latter. They are spoken of by Pliny the Elder, who has a very imperfect knowl- edge of them, as dwelling not far from the western shore of the Dead Sea ; but apparently these were scattered and remote from one an- other. All authorities agree that they held to community of goods and of products of the in- dustry of each member of the society ; but it would seem that they had no common bond xmit- ing the several communities together. A treas- urer is spoken of by Josephus as taking care of the funds in each society, and a common head- man was chosen by the vote of the members of each. Marriage was not in use among tli^m, not \smai,leb; communities within a state. 31 that they looked on it or on inheritance as institu- tions to be abolished, but because, as Josephus says, they feared the wanton conduct and un- faithfulness of the female sex. Hence, they re- cruited their communities by adopting boys to be trained np under their rules. There was, however, a portion of the Essenes, the same au- thor says, who differed in no respect from the rest, except that they allowed marriage in their communities, " for the reason that those who do not marry cut oif succession and descent, Avhich constitute the leading features of life." But they subjected the women who were to be married to a long probation, to see whether they were likely to be fruitful. The distinctive peculiarities of the Essenes, as it respects worship, were very great veneration for the Sabbath, abstinence from sacrifices at the temple, — although they sent offerings thither, — and a certain kind of reverence for the sun, which came near to idolatry. They had prophetic per- sons, and, it is said, magic arts among them. They were constant and particular in their ablu- tions. A^ a mild sect, more contemplative than fanatical, not taking pains to propagate their doc- trines, but rather living by themselves, and yet kind to strangers, they remind one of the Shaker communities in the United States, who, when most prosperous, have not differed greatly in num- ber from Philo's estimate of the Essenes. 33 SMALLER COMMUNITIES -WITHIN A STATE. Very similar to the Essenes were the Thera- peiitse, whom Philo the Jew, in his brief essay on the contemplative life, speaks of as being scat- ' tered over all the districts of Egypt. They must have been Jews, who were under the influence of Platonism, and, like Philo himself, to some ex- tent, of Oriental philosophy. He describes a set- tlement on the sea-coast, near Alexandria, as com- posed of men and vi^omen who had given up their property and left their kindred for the purpose "of avoiding unprofitable intercourse with per- sons of characters and habits unlike their own." They live in scattered houses, he says, but near enough to each other for defence against robbers. They spend their time, from the morning praj'er at sunrise until the evening prayer at sunset, in meditation and study of ancient books, oracles of prophets, and the like. Their meals are nothing but bread and salt. They hold no slaves, think- ing slavery to be contrary to nature. In each house is a chapel or sanctuary, where they spend the six days in meditation ; but on the Sabbath they meet in an apartment provided with a low wall running through its length, in order to keep the females from observation. In their solemn feasts the singing of sacred hjonns seems to have been the principal act of worship. Hymns are struck up by one and another, in the choral parts and refrains of which both sexes join. The un- leavened bread, together with salt and hyssop, is SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 33 brought in on a table representing, it would seem, that table where the shew-bread was placed in the temple, of which they partake. After this a sacred vigil is kept, in memory of the passage through the Red Sea. Hymns follow, in which the men and women form choirs, first apart and then to- gether. This lasts untU sunrise, when they stretch forth their hands, " pray for prosperity, truth, and sharpness of intellectual vision," and then part. These The7'apeutcB differ from the Essenes in allowing both sexes to live in the same communis ties, although ■without marriage and in a strictly abstemious and ascetic life. Of industry pursued in their settlements Philo says nothing. They were, doubtless, called forth by much the same causes which gave rise to the Essenes. The time of their origin is unkno'WTi ; but they must have been such as Philo describes them long before Christ began his miaistry. n. THE CHRISTIAN MONASTIC SYSTEM. The examples thus far giv6n, of societies con- structed on the communistic plan within the state, show the power of religious opinions and ideas to bring men into societies separate from the masses of men around them, and to do this with no jjo- litical or pecuniaiy object in view. Our next 34 SMAILEE COMMUXinES WiTHDf A STATE. example is still more remarkable. The monastic fcvstein of the ancient church, both in the Kk-x and in the West, h a most important cliapter in fcccler-iastical lu'storv. on account of its tenacity of life and its vast influence for good as well as for e^-il, and because it could not have grown up in a pure, enlightened Christian church. As in pa- pacy, so here the K-emirij>l}- good and inno- cent nature of the system lent strength to false principles, which had no necessary connection Avith the spirit and principles of the gospel. These false principles took hold of supports which belonged to an age and to its way of thinking, in order to construct institutions which have lasted until this day : and which, although they have reached senile weakness, are still a strong if not a chief power in several decaying churches. A community of goods is an essential feature of all kinds of communisuL What shall we sav, then, when it is asserted that the community of goods in the early Christian church at JeruBa- lem, just after the death of Christ, is a sufficient reason for the rise of monachism i "We say. first, that this community was not a doi^e. but rather a f:Ko:n/j[n/j commanity. consisting of families obedi- ent to no law of union, no vow or other tie save the fellowship of the go -pel. Again, it was vol^ v.rd/j.nj. So one was obliged to sell his g'^*^jds to feed the poor; but, althou^ governed by a strong public feeling, was free to foUow v.-]Lht was ri^'Lt. SMAIiEE COMMTNITLES WITT; IX A STATE. 35 "Willie it remaiiied [unsold] was it not thine own ; and when it was sold, was it not ia tliine own power T" is the question of Peter to Ananias. Again, it was /-'•''. There is no evidence that it existed beyond Jemsalem. Among the Hebrew Christians, to whom James wrote, there were great inequalities of property. Paul, writing to Timothy, at Eph^us, nses the words " Chai^ them that are rich among yon ; " and the Gentile Chi-istians were well enough off to send their con- tributions to the poor at Jerusalem. And, finally, it was U/iiporary. When there was no centre and capital any longer ; when, we may add, there was no longer an immediate expectation of an end of the existing order of things in society — it tamed into snch general charity as is now called forth by Christian love. Xor was a s'ni'jj-e life thought to be essential to the Christian profes- sion. Paul led such a life ; but claimed the right to have a wife, like Peter and other apostles, if he thought it best. His advice to the Christians at Corinth is against seeking husbands for their daughters : yet this advice is dictated, in part, at least, by the " present distress," or the state of the times. In other circumstances he urges that woman should marry, and even that young wid- C'ws should marry again; which, although al- lowed, was not approved even by the heathen Komans. He makes it one of the marks of a de- parture from the faith, that the speakers of lies 36 SMALLER COMJiIUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. should forbid men to marry and command to ab- stam from meats (1 Tim. iv. 2, 3). And, to dwell no longer on this point, the same apostle finds an apt symbol of the union of man and wife in the union of Christ and the church. From one pas- sage only of the l\ew Testament (Matt. xix. 12) can we infer that a pure single life is not only al- lowable, but even praiseworthy, for those who can lead it for the kingdom of heaven's sake, which wo certainly would be far from denying ; and in another (Rev. xiv. 4) there is praise of ab- solute purity, which, however, cannot fairly be pressed as teaching the inferiority of a married to a single life. Nor is there anywhere any encour- agement in the Christian Scriptures to vows, and to associations built upon them, within the church. We may add the remark that the formation of close unions, shut out fi-om intercourse with the world, meets with no favor from the spirit and institutions of the jSTew Testament. The believ- ers were expected to assemble together, as breth- ren and members of a common Master. They were on an equality, and there was no esoteric class, no persons or coteries of superior sanctity, who were to do the praying for their fellow-Chris- tians. The thought, that Christians lived and acted like other men in' outward things, is well expressed in the epistle to Diognetus, belonging to the second century. " The Christians, neither SlIALLEE COMMUNITIES AVITHIN A STATE. 37 in speech nor in place of abode, nor in usages of life, differ from their fellow-men. For nowhere do they dwell in cities of their ovm, nor make use of dialects peculiar to themselves, nor observe a singular mode of life. They marry, like all men, and bear children ; but they do not expose their infants, " etc. Christianity, then, was no more the native soil of monachism than the Jewish religion was the proper birthplace of what was ascetic and monas- tic among the Essenes. The true origin was in that tendency of the age towards a solitary and contemplative life, as being the only life suited to the attainment of truth and virtue, which began some time before the Christian era, and diffused itself like some epidemic fi-om the East, with the help of some of the Greek philosophical systems. We have shown how the contemplative and asce- tic spii-it was spread over Egypt in the small com- munities of the Thempeutm. It was in Egypt that Philo the Jew gave an allegorical, mystical sense to the historical parts of the Old Testa- ment. It was here that the first Christian ancho- rites sought the wilderness, aloof from towns, and gave themselves up to contemplation. Anthony, in the third century, was the most conspicuous example, and his fame, as a spiritual Christian, led other Christians to settle near him in order to enjoy the benefit of his advice and society. Here we have the Buddhist history acted over again. 38 BMA.LL1!R COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. for, in the fourtli century Pacliomius (who had been in the military ser\icc, and had an idea of organization, perhaps from, his former employ- ment), made an improvement on the form of soli- tary life then existing. In the place of anchor- ites, living near one another, but with no bond of union except their common I'oliyious views and objects, he devised the plan of a body of men forming a common association, supporting them- selves by common industry, undergoing a novi- tiate, taking vows, and subjected to an abbot. liis society of monks on an island in the Isfile is said to have had seven thousand members before his death ; and in the fifth centuiy fifty thousand men are said to have been obedient to its rules. As the cloisters spread, the society was kept up ; the abbot of the original Ccenobium being the head of the body, and the abbots of the other houses meeting together in council to keep up the organization. Cloisters of nuns also were insti- tuted during the life of Pachomius ; so that be- fore his 'death almost all that was characteris- tic of Christian monachism, communities with branches, or orders, embracing in separate places the two sexes, rules, vows — a compact system, in short, of government — had been developed. Of the monastic system in its distinct orders spread over the world ; of the vast wealth which belonged to the religious houses ; of the use of monasteries in learning, education, and the relief SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 39 of the poor ; of the eminent services of many ab- bots to letters ; of the lights and shades of their reli^ii5us life; of the introduction of the begging and preaching friars ; of tlie last stroke of worldly wisdom in the institution of the order of the Jesuits; of tlie services of the monks in main- taining the papal system, — of these and other re- sults of monasticisiu we can say nothing. We confine ourselves to the simple inquiry liow the communistic plan of life stood related to the great iniiuences of the orders of monks upon the Christ tian world. If the life of the anchorite had never given way to the conventual life, the type of religion would have become much more distorted than it actually was. The hermit in his loneliness was exposed to all kinds of vagaries of the imagination ; to temptations which he would not have been called to encounter in society ; to spiritual pride and self-righteousness. If, instead of a solitary life, in which industry for self-support and commu- nion with nature might keep his mind in a some- what healthy condition, he should have gone about like a Buddhist mendicant ; the burden of relieving the wants of such a class would have been so great — supposing them to amount to only one or two per cent, of the grown-up male popu- • lation — that it would have reacted for evil on the condition of the regular parish priest. The ven- erable beggar, if he came into frequent contact 40 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. with the people, would either, through his sup- posed sanctity, have undermined the influence of the stated teachers in parishes-, or by his fanati- ~cism, extravagance, and other peculiarities, made- religion contemptible. But, on the other hand, the monies in a convent, by the society which they held with one another, must have prevented many extravagances, must have kept the minds of all in a healthier fi'ame and made them better models to their fellow-men. The influence of a common life was, of course, far greater for good than that of the life of so many hermits. The latter depended for the good they could do on their own uncorrected individual convictions, which were generally colored with fanaticism ; and on the general impression which their austerity and self-restraint made on persons, whose place in the world prevented them from practising the ascetic virtues. But in the con- vent each member cariied with him the weight and authority of a body which was conceived to be learned, holy, and pure. There was, again, among the monks no such separation from man- kind that they could not understand mankind. Many of the ablest men, some of the Popes in the Catholic Church, and even some of the adroit- est negotiators and political managers came fi'om the monastic orders. It may be added that in the cloisters the aged monks of approved life would often be great SMALLER COMMUNITIES "WITHIN A STATE. 41 helps to the novices, and that all, to some extent, mnst have watched over one another. They seem often to have had an interest too intense in tlie prosperity of their own community ; but their re- gard for its reputation was by no means an un- mixed evil. The solitary hermit could feel no such motives, and was as far away from the fam- ily state as possible". In the convents something like family feeling was encouraged. The ordi- nary members were brethren, hence called friars, in French freres, and on an equality in the house- hold. The abbot, prior, or other superior, was something like a father, as, indeed, the abbot's name implies. If wealth, literary culture, and even political importance brought degeneracy into many monasteries, this shows, indeed, that the system had in itself, without a permanent purify- ing power, seeds of decay ; but, with all this, it accomplished a vast amoimt of good, which de- pended greatly on its peculiar social element. "We shall next consider some of the modern communities ; after which a brief view will be taken of what may be called ideal communism, or the communism constructed by philosophers. 42 SJMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIK A STATE. m. ANABAPTISTS OP MUNSTER. In a small commiiiiity the governing princi- ple will be more intense, for the most part, than the controlling idea will be on which a large so- ciety is constructed. If we want to find an exag- geration of the patriotic or the fanatical spirit, we must look for the first in the city states of Greece, or of mediaeval Italy ; and for the other in those compact settlements where, for some reason or other, the perverted religious spirit has for a time gained conti-ol. An instance of such control is offered to us by that chapter of the history of the Reformation, which has for its subject tlie Anabaptists at Miinster, during their short sway over that ill-fated place. A word or two will be of use for connecting this affair with its originat- ing causes. These causes are to be traced back to the mys- tical and enthusiastic doctrmes, together with the revolutionary movements and the denial of the validity of infant baptism, which characterized the early Anabaptists. They may all be reduced to false Spiritualism, Antinomianism, and a re- turn to the Jewish standpoint. Thomas Miinzer, a parish priest at Zwickau, in Saxony, in 1521, and there connected with the Zwickau prophets 8MA.I-I.ICU (JOMMl'NITIIOfl WITHIN A STATE. 43 80 ciilldd, was (ihlif^od to Icuvo liia jdaco and found a riinv una at Alntcdt, in Tliiiriiif^ia, in 1521. Ilori! ho was williiif^ to liuvo inl'iuit baptiHiri and otli(jr cui'cinoniL'H rctuiiiijd ; 1jiit his unquiet, tu- multuary Hpin't niadi! liiiu olmoxious t(j IjUtliur and l.o tliii civil nilor, ho tiiat he was uf^uiii afloat. In a sermon liuro jtniuchud Ijel'on; Duke Jolm of Saxony, lie ciilkd upon the [)rin(;(!H to I'oot out the un^^odly with force and without uHn-c.y. Tlie un- j!;odly, lie wiid, have no right to live, save what till! ele(;t will f^raiit them. From Alstodt, Miinz(;r wont to placi; after place in South (jormariy ; but his (•liiap- tize before he did ((fieselei'). He int(!rpreted tho Scriptures literally, and, as wo have hcmu, was ready to root out by persecution the " ungodly." 4-I- SMAT.T.KU OOMMtTNlTIICS WVrmN A STATIC. Tlio kiiiiV(i(Hii (if Oiul on onrlli wiis li> lio built on t'i|ii;ilil_v Mini I'onnunuity of gomls. Tlio most, ri'lonlli'ss porstH-iilion mimso Hi^'iiinst llu< .\nii,h;i|>(isls, luui in consiviiuMii'i' llu'v wcro scnttoriHl iibi'OM(i in Oi'i'iusiuv .'uul tlu' NctliiM'- liuulrt. Hi>si(los llio t(MU't Mflcr wliioli Ihoy nvo ciilicd and on wliicli tlicy Hixi'cod, llu> Aniil>;i|i1islM sihmu Id li,'i\'i' liMil no xci'v tlisliui't. sol of opinions. Sonio lii'ld (IimI llu' llcsli mIoiu" siiin(>d ; llii> spirit at llio I'ail luui not r.'dlcn with it. Sonin lu'litn'od tliii.t, Christ rodci'iiu'd nion only liy loiidiuj;' llu>iii (,o follow his I'ootsU'iis ; \vhili> soiiit\ wi-nt. rurtluM', and denied Ins diyinily. Some thonght iid'ani, liaplisni nseless only ; olheivs thoni;'ht, that it wiis an ahoniin.'ition. Soin(\ r(>i>\'U'd('d nuliliii'y ser\i('o and llu' o;ilh to lie unlawful; the forniei' b(>eause killiu};!;, Ilu< hitlei' lieciniso s\vi>in'inn' wiis always a sin. Some Ihoufflit, tl\al, mariMiin'i" in the spirit, ,'doiie w'lis yalid ; and a fnrriei', mimed Clans I'Vei, IHillini;' away his wife, \\'enf aliont, with anolhei- woimni, whom he odleil his "only I'ii^'ht sjiiritiial sist(>r" (iviinke). All found the i;'o\'ernmenf (d' the clim'eh liy miij^'istriites and |U'eaehers to he in- tolei'idile. I'ls'ery mini ono'ht to he idlow'(>d to |)fe;ich ; then thei'o would he lu) di\'isious. 'V]\i\ institutions of tlio I']\'!in;!,'eli('a.ls w (>re uolhiuii,' hut; a new jiapaey. They h(>lieyi>(h liowever, lluil !ili this was |,o he done ayvay. 'I'lio kingdom (d' (Joil was 80011 to eonio. SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 45 The commotions at Miinster proceeded first from Eottmann, a chaplain of the catliedral church there — a man to whom Melanchthoii imputes, per- haps unjustly, the crime of taking off one of the syndics of the place by poison, that he might get possession of his beautiful wife. Rottmann and the other ministers were in controversy with the town council ; and Ranlie thinks that they looked for support to the Anabaptists, who were growing in number among the people, and who found in the city a favorable reception. Near the end of 1533 the town was filled with strangers of this sect from the Netherlands ; and in February of the next year they, ■with their partisans, occupied the market-place, while the council and the peo- ple holding with the council, who were superior in number, took possession of the walls and gates. The result was the victory of their party. It was agreed that liberty of faith should be conceded to every one, so long as the peace was kept and obe- dience rendered to the magistrates. The Ana- baptists now gained the town by success at the election for a new town council, their electors having the majority; and so the whole power was in the hands of this faction, and Knipperdol- ling, a fi'iend of Kottmann's, was chosen burgo- master (Feb. 21st, 1534). This success was followed in a few days (Feb. 27th) by a plot of the Anabaptists to drive the other faction out of the city. Armed men appear 46 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. in the market-place. A prophet cries out : " Away with the children of Esau. The inheritance be- longs to the seed of Jacob." Then the cry ran through the streets : " Out with the ungodly." They seem to have made clean work with the old inhabitants, including, of course, most of the prin- cipal citizens. No member of the other faction was exempted from banishment. All pictures, books, manuscripts, and musical instruments were destroyed. One of the leaders in this coup cPetat was Jan, or John Matthys, a prophet who had come from the Netherlands, and was accompanied by Jan Bockhold, or Bockelson, better known as John of Leyden. Matthys held the first place of authority in the town a few -weeks — /. e., until Easter of 1534, when he was killed in a sally against the bishop and the princes who were be- sieging Miinster. During this interval between the sole occupation of the town by the Anabap- tists and the death of Matthys a new constitution, so to speak, was made. " A religious element," remarks Ranke, " such as in one way or another has appeared in more than one century, was de- veloped here in a narrow circle, but within that circle with entire freedom, and found a vent for itself in the most remarkable phenomena." We will let the distinguished historian speak of the new order of things in his own words : " Among the Anabaptists themselves all was to be common. The measures taken in regard to SMALLEK COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 47 the goods of the banished was soon applied to tlie property of the believers. On pain of death, they were required to deliver up to the chancelry their gold and silver ornaments and ready money (or property) for the common use. The concep- tion of property ceased ; but still every one was obliged to follow his own industry. We have the statutes remaining in which the journeymen shoemakers and the tailors are particularly men- tioned. The latter are required to see that no new style of clothes shall creep in. Every trade was considered as at once a commission and an office. Of all employments the principal, as is readily understood, was the defence of the city. AU together formed a religions, military family. Meat and di'ink were provided at the common cost. At meals the two sexes, ' brothers and sis- ters,' sat apart from one another. They ate in silence while a chapter was read in the Bible." John of Leyden at this time was not thirty years old, and had, in his wandering life as a journeyman tailor, in his trade as a merchant dealing with Lisbon, and also as a beer-seller, seen a good deal of mankind ; nor was he without some literary cultivation. John Matthj's had baptized him; he had learned something fi-om the wi'itings of Melchior Hoffmann, one of the leaders among the Anabaptists ; he had a toler- able Iniowledge of the Scriptures. His vivid imagination and imposing form made him popu- 48 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. lar. He was put into the place of Matthys by his own act, and probably by some kind of elec- tion. For a time he did not reveal his plans. At length he declared that twelve elders must be appointed over the new Israel (as there were twelve persons, one from each tribe, in the old Israel), who should be ovei'seers and judges. Their decisions were to be made known to the congregation through him, and were to be exe- cuted by Knipperdolling. Soon he wanted a new law to be passed that, as in the ancient peo- pie of God, so in the new one, in order to pro- duce a holy seed, every man should be allowed to take more wives than one. Rottmann, who had gone along with the fanatics, accepted this pro- ject also and supported it by his sermons. John of Leyden had private views of his ovm in get- ting this law passed. He was married, but had conceived a passion for the young widow of Mat- thys, for whom the latter had forsaken his wife. Afterward he added new wives, so that his harem amounted to some seventeen. It was this step which led to an eoneute, which was put down with the loss of some two hundred lives. Having advanced thus far, he succeeded in taking one step more. He wished to be king, after the pattern in the Old Testament. A prophet declared that he had learned from God by a revelation that John, as king of a new Israel, was to reign over the whole earth, and to SMALLRE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 49 set up again the throne of David. John himself then confirmed the words by saying that the same revelation had been made to him. The loyal title was conferred on him. He assumed royal state, and took a house for his queen and the other sixteen women. These events must have taken place in the summer and autumn of 1534. In October the Lord's Supper was celebrated in the market- place, at which more than four thousand were present. John served the bread to the men, and his wife, Divara, the widow of Matthys, to the women. At the table John saw a stranger who did not have on a wedding-garment. lie rose from his seat, conceiving him to be a spy, cut his head off, and went back to the Supper. The siege of Mlinster dragged along through this year (1534), and as the place was well pro- vided with necessaries, there was no immediate prospect of its reduction. The Roman King Fer- dinand now decided to lend his aid ; but no suc- cessful attempt to take the place by storm was made until the summer of 1635, although the people within the walls began to feel the extremi- ties of famine. In June two deserters led forces of the enemy over the walls by night, a gate was broken open, and after a desperate contest the city came into the hands of the bishop and princes. Eottmann found his death in the affray ; but John of Leyden was taken captive and put to 3 50 SMALLER COMMUNrriES WITHIN A STATE. death, after defending his opinions on baptism, polygamy, and community of goods by the Scrip- tm-es. It is perhaps idle to speculate on the probable condition of Munster if it had been safe from the assaults of enemies. The probability is that the principal leaders would^ by the help of their pre- tended prophecies, have turned into intolerable tyrants, and met with some due ptmishment from the men of their own faith, when their wicked- ness had become full. As for the community of goods in so considerable a population, it does not seem probable that, with an administration such as that existing at Miinster, it could have been long maintained, even if the Anabaptists had secured peace with their neighbors. Nor could the faith in the prophets have long continued. IV. THE SHAKERS IN THE UNITED STATES. The history of communism receives valuable contributions from experiments that have been made in the United States. Although the first settlers came chiefly from a class in society and a land which held individual property in high hon- or, yet in the early times of the colony in Vir- ginia there was properly no separate ownership of land, but only ownership of shares in the company. SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 51 This departure from the rule of private property', although not an extreme one, was attended with disastrous results. A single man did only about a third of a fair day's work, and the system of. separate proprietorship was introduced after four years of trial. From the time of the first settlements until the age of the Revolution, if there were any commu- nistic societies founded, I have met with no ac- count of them. The first, which has had a- long life, was that of the Shakers, or Shaking Quakers, as they were at first called, on acconiit of their bodily movements in worship. The members of this sect or society left England in 1774, and have prospered ever since. It has now multiplied into settlements — twelve of them in New York and New England — in regard to which we borrow the following statistics frota Mr. Nordhoff's book on communistic societies in the United States, pub- lished in 1875. Their property consists of 49,335 acres of land in home farms, with other real es- tate. The value of their houses and personal property is not given. The population of all the communities consists of 695 male and 1,189 fe- male adults, with 531 young persons under twen- ty-one, of whom 192 are males and 339 females, amounting in all to 2,415 in 1874. The maxi- mum of population was 5,069, a decline to less than half, for which we are not able to account save on the supposition that there are permanent 52 SMALLEE COMMLNITIKS WITHIN A STATE. causes of decay now at work within the com- munities. One of them, that at Tyringliam, Mass., has lately been disbandf^d . The other conimiinities (except the Oneida and Wallingford settleirjcnts of the Perfectionists, which are strictly indij-'cnous, and the Shakers, who are of English origin) are of non-English ex- traction. That is, they originated in movements, either of Germans or of others holding pecidiar views, to find a religions and social liberty on this side of the water, which was not possible in their own country ; or they represent the social opinions of some of the great lights of Europe in that de- partment of philosophy. Of these, eleven belong to what Mr. iVoyos, the founder of the Perfection- ist communificH, in his history of American Social- isms (1870), calls the Owen group, created either personally by Robert Owen or to be traced back to his influence. All of those eleven settlements have miserably failed, and the average duration of eight of the principal ones is about a year and a half. The communities founded in a degree on the "rule" of Fourier, in or after the year 184^^, when the system of this I'renchman began to be preached and reduced to experiment, were in all about thirty-four. All of tlicse have now entirely disayjpeared, and a large number of tliem lasted only a few months. We must not believe, how- ever, that any of that freedom between the sexes SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 53 was contemplated or allowed in them, whicli Fou- rier himself would have permitted without shame. Nor were these settlements properly communistic ; since labor, capital, and skill were all factors in the scheme of the first founder. We may pass them by, therefore ; and have need only to say of the colony founded by Cabet, author of a Utopia called the " Voyage to Icaria," that in 1850 he led a colony to Xauvoo, after the Mormons were driven away ; that in 1856 the leader went to St. Louis, with some of his followers, leaving the rest at the first home of the body ; that these dis- persed ere long, some of them forming a new set- tlement near Coming, in Iowa, which, when Mr. Nordhoff saw it, consisted of only sixty-five mem- bers, in eleven families. These people were chiefly French in extraction, of a nationality which finds it hard to maintain colonies in new conditions of life ; and the founder seems to have been a theo- rist, incompetent to lead the way in a new organi- zation. It ought to be mentioned, however, for his credit, that he required his colonists to marry and live in the family state. From these abortive attempts to establish com- munities in the territory of the United States we turn to others which are more successful. The oldest, the Shakers, were at their origin a society of enthusiasts in humble life, who separated from the Quakers about the middle of the eighteenth century. Ann Lee, one of the members, on ae- 64 SMALLEE COMMUNITIES ^\TniIN A STATE. count of spiritual manifestations believed to have been made to her, became an oracle in the body ; and in 1773 she declared that a revelation from heaven instructed her to go to America. The next year she crossed the sea, with eight others, and settled in the woods of Watervliet, near Albany. She preached, and was believed to have performed remarkable cures. From her were de- rived the rule of celibacy, and, for persons seek- ing admission into the infant society, the obliga- tion to make an oral confession of sin in the pres- ence of an older member of the community. She died in 178i, as the acknowledged head of the church ; and had afterward nearly equal honors paid to her with the Saviour. Under the second successor of Ann Lee almost all the societies in Xew York and Xew England were founded ; and under the third, a woman named Lucy Wright, whose leadership lasted nearly thirty years, those in Ohio and Kentucky. The latter grew up dur- ing the remarkable revivals in Kentucky at the beginning of the century, which were attended with involuntary convulsions of the body. After 18-30 the Shakers founded no new society. Mr. Xordhoff gives the leading doctrines of the Shakers, which are, some of them, singular enough. Tliey hold that God is a dual person, male and fe- male ; that Adam, created in his image, was dual also ; that the same is true of all angels and spir- its ; and that Christ is one of the highest of spir- ssiALLEE cosntrxrriES within a state. 55 its, -wlio appeared first in tlie person of Jesns and afterward in that of Ann Lee. Tliere are four heavens and four hells. Xoah went to the fii-st heaven, and the wicked of his time to the fii-st hell. The second heaven was called Paradise, and contained the pious Jews nntil the appear- ance of Christ. The thii-d, that into which the Apostle Paid was caught, included all that lived nntil the time of Ann Lee. The fourth is now being filled up, and "is to supersede all the others." Tliey hold that the day of judgment, or begin- ning of Christ's kingdom on earth, began with the establishment of their church, and will go on until it is brought to its completion. The Pente- costal Church, they think, was the standard and true elinrch, from which the Christians fell away ; but the Shaker community has returned to tlie true doctrine and practice. Its main principles were common property, celibacy, non-resistance, a separate government [from that of tlie state ?], and power over diseases. All these tliey embody in their system except tlie last, which also they have a hope of receiving. Tliey discard the doctrine of the Ti-inity, the resurrection of the body, and the Atonement. Tliey worship neither Christ nor Ann Lee ; but pay both love and reverence. They have a belief that a suiless life is witliin human reach, and tliat to this " all their membei-s ought to attain." 56 SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. In regard to marriage and property, tliey do not take the position that these are crimes ; but only marks of a lower order of society. The ■ world will have a chance to become pure in a fu- ture state as well as here. They believe in spiritual communication and possession. They themselves have conversed with spirits — even with those that lived before the Flood. They claim that inspired gifts have been granted to their churches. In the earlier times of the sect they professed to have the gift of tongues. The travels of President Dwight make mention of this gift of tongues in a letter of the author written as early as 1799 (Vol. III., p. 161). I give his words : " The company at whose worship I was present declared that they could speak with tongues, and that both the words and the tune were inspired. I observed to tliem that the sounds which they made, and which they called language, could not be words, because they were not articulated. One of the women replied: 'How dost thee know but that we speak the Hotmatot language ? The language of the Hot- matots is said to be made up of such sort of words.' " Dr. Dwight in the same place gives statements from the work of one Thomas Brown, once a Quaker, and for a time a member of the Society of Shakers, but afterward dismissed from their SMALLEK COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 57 iKidy. This book, published in 1798, gives very disparaging accounts of the morality of- Ann Lee and her brother, William Lee, and says of the society that they esteem it lawful to lie, to de- fraud, and quote Scripture falsely, for the good of the church — lawful for the elders, at least, if not for the brethren. Another charge is that they retain the property and refuse to pay for the labor of such as leave them, alleging for it the reason that they will only spend it on their lusts. But these and similar charges against their char- acter eighty years ago must be received with many grains of allowance, if not entirely disbe- lieved ; both because they come from a man who was expelled from the community after living seven years in it ; and because, in later times, no such charges, so far as we know, have been re- newed on good evidence. Dr. D wight himself seeks to do them justice. "Probably," says he, "there never was a sillier enthusiasm than this ; yet, by a singular combina- tion of circumstances, it has become to society the most harmless, and in some respects the most useless, perhaps, of all the mental extravagances of this nature recorded in history. The doctrines are so gi-oss that they never can spread far ; while the industry, manual skill, fair dealing, and or- derly behavior of the brotherhood render them useful members of society." The Shakers (leaving out of sight for the pres- 58 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. ent the children from abroad, who are brought up) consist of two orders : novices, or such as are not full members of the community, and full members. The latter are not easily accessible to strangers in their houses. All communication with travellers and others whose curiosity draws them to the Shaker settlements takes place at the houses where the novices are lodged. When a person wishes to join the body, his first duty is to make a full confession to an elder of the same sex with himself. It would seem that this con- fession is renewed afterward from time to time ; for one of the elders, cited by Mr. Nordhoff, says that it " often takes years for individuals to com- plete this work of thorough confession and re- pentance;" to which he adds that, "upon this, more than upon aught else, depends their success as permanent and happy members." The effect of such a confession, made to God in the presence "of one of his true witnesses," can bring, they justly think, upon the person making the confes- sion, "a more awful sense of his accountability both to God and to man than all his confessions in darkness had ever done." The candidate for membership brings his prop- erty with him, which is held in trust by the com- munity. The use of it goes to the body, and he is maintained, without wages of labor or I'eceipt of interest. When he enters the body he gives up all claim upon his property forever. If this SMALLEIt COMMUNITIES WITrilN A STATE. 59 be so, tlie complaint of Brown, wliich has been mentioned, is entirely without foundation. The community of goods is connected with a common life of great plainness, and of obligation to work under the authorized foreman. The habits of all the Shaker bodies are exceedingly neat and frugal. This, with their industry, di- rected by experience to profitable objects, has made them thriving and even wealthy. Their worship on Sunday consists of singing a hymn, addresses by a male and a female elder, with a kind of shuffling dance, in which all parti- cipate. Sometimes silent prayer is called for by an elder. Sometimes the prayers of the assem- bly are requested by some person in distress of mind. Sometimes a person sets up a whirl or circular dance which continues for a considerable time. Their meetings in their public or family hall are partly religious and partly social. For many particulars of their social life, for their intercourse with spirits, for their family police and the care taken to prevent anything which would cause scandal, we must refer to Mr. Nordhoff's volume, one-quarter of which is de- voted to this form of communistic life. Spring- ing out of the Society of Friends, they have in- herited some of the mystical and spiritual ele- ments of the latter, together with their tendency to quietude and to rationalism. Their community of goods is apparently derived from that of the O SMA.LLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. Pentecostal Church ; their speaking with tongues is but a repetition of that recorded in the Boole of Acts and the First Epistle to the Corinthians — or, rather, a copy of an original about which they know little ; their confession is suggested by the confession recommended in the Epistle of James ; their dances, perhaps, point back to David and Miriam. In some things they bear a resemblance to the Essenes and the Therapeutse : thus, in fill- ing up their numbers by means of adopted chil- dren, they are like the former ; in their dances, like the latter ; in their being a celibatary union, like both ; and in the living of the sexes together, again like the latter. We may add that, like the Therapeutse, they lead a life free from ascertained scandal. In shrewdness, economy, and practical management, they are surpassed by communities on no other basis. V. SMALLEK COMMDNITrES CONCLUDED. In the present article our aim will be to take a brief view of several other of the modern com- munities which have established themselves in the United States, and to lay down some general conclusions respecting this class of societies. The oldest of these was founded by George Rapp, a peasant from Wiirtemberg, who, to escape perse- BMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 61 cution from the clergy, on account of liis un- licensed preaching, led a colony of like-minded persons across the Atlantic, and settled iirst, in 1805, in Butler County, Pennsylvania; then, in 1814, on the Wabash, in Indiana ; and, finally, turning his face eastward again, erected a new village on the Ohio, near Pittsburgh. The first two abodes were called Harmony ; that in Indi- ana he sold to Robert Owen, and named his last dwelling-place Economy. About 1832 there was a split among Rapp's followers,' headed by a worthless adventurer from Germany. The disaf- fected portion withdrew, and planted another col- ony in the neighborhood, which ere long wasted away. Eapp, who died in 1847, was the spirit- ual head, while his son took charge of temporal affairs. After the son's death, the community gave both spiritual and temporal supervision into the old man's hand, who associated Mdth himself in the latter charge two of the society in whom he could trust. Tlie property was regarded as common stock at an early date ; but in 1818 it was made such by a common agreement, with the provision that, if a member died or withdrew from the society, nothing could be claimed on his or his heirs' ac- count as a matter of right. In the early times of the settlement the mem- bers were free to many ; but after a religious re- vival in 1807 they decided to institute celibacy, a 62 SilAiLEE C031MU^^TIES WITHIN A STATE. decision whicli led a number of jonng persons to leave the society. George Eapp, according to Mr. JSTordhoff, neither urged nor opposed this im- portant step, yet " gave it as his opinion that the unmarried is the higher and holier state." This opinion is consonant with another— that God and the first man both had a dual nature, and that, but for the Fall, new beings would have come into the world without being bom of woman. The coming of Christ and a new world they hold to be close at hand. The wicked are to be ultimate- ly redeemed. Like the Shakers, they require of neophytes a full confession of sins to one of the elders. Their principal act of worship is an annual Lord's Supper, in October. The community has been prosperous, and their property, which in 1854 was worth a million of dollars, is now considerably larger. Yet their numbers — one himdred and ten elderly persons, besides thirty or forty adopted children — fore- bode their decline, and the community must soon disappear. Xone of the communities in this country have had a more estimable founder. The Separatists of Zoar, in Tuscarawas, Ohio, like the Eappites, were led by persecutions in Wiirtemberg to emigrate (in 1817) to the United States, and, being aided by Quakers, purchased the land where they now dwell. They soon came to the conclusion that, if they would succeed. SKALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 63 they must have a community of goods. "As soon as we adopted community of goods," said one of the older members to Mr. Nordhoff, " we began to prosper." They are now worth more than a million of dollars; but their number, which was two hundred and fifty in 1819, is now not more than three hundred. They allow the marriage of their members ; but to Mr. JSTordhoff's inquiry " whether they favored it," the reply was, "that it was, on the whole, un- favorable to community life." Their leader, al- though a married man himself, taught that " God did not look with pleasure on marriage, but only tolerated it;" that in the kingdom of heaven " husband, wife, and children will not know each other. There will be no distinction of sex there." The remarkable fact recorded by Mr. Nordhoff, that when children had reached the age of three, they were separated from their parents, and brought up, girls and boys apart, under the care of persons specially appointed for that purpose, shows a feeling that familj"^ life is inconsistent with communal life. This practice, however, was abandoned in 1845. The Zoarites in their creed are orthodox Christians as to the Trinity, the Fall, salvation through Christ, and the authority of the Scrip- tures; but they discard both baptism and the Lord's Supper. A candidate for admission into their community must pass through a probation ; 64 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. and, when received into membership, must, as in other similar societies, place his property under the community's exclusive control. Like the Eappites, at Economy, the Zoarites have declined considerably in numbers during the era of their greatest prosperity. Owing, perhaps, to their principal leaders, they are found to be inferior in intelligence and refinement to the other commu- nities. The Inspirationists emigrated in 1842 from South Germany, to a place near Buffalo, which in 1855 they sold, without loss, and removed by de- grees to a place in Iowa, which they call Amana, a few miles to the west of Iowa City and on the river of the same name. Here they have seven villages, and, when Mr. Kordhoff visited them, they counted 1,450 members and owned 25,000 acres of land. They were united in Germany as a religious body ; but formed their communal sys- tem after reaching the United States. Having a considerable amount of property among them when they left Europe, they seem to have been more prosperous from the fii'st than most of the other German communities. To their commu- nity of goods, adopted, as they think, by inspira- tion, they attribute their ability to hold together. They allow marriage ; bilt regard it as a merito- rious act to remain single. Their temporal af- fairs are managed by thirteen male tmstees. Their religious leader may be of either sex. They SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 65 are orthodox Christians in most respects ; but re- ject the endless punishment of tlie wicked. The Lord's Supper is celebrated whenever the inspired leaders direct. The admission of candidates for membership is on much the same plan as in the other communities of which we have spoken. It differs from some of them in this respect: that M'hen the person admitted leaves the society the property given up by him is returned, although without interest. On the whole, these commu- nists of Amana seem to be as prosperous as any others in the United States. Their bond of union . is the Inspired Guide ; and whenever this part of the system gives way, before increasing intelli- gence, the whole system — which in its spirit is more like an ordinary colony of homogeneous persons than most others — must be expected to fall to pieces. There is yet another communistic system, of which I would fain say nothing, because decency forbids saying much. This is the system of the Perfectionists at Oneida and Wallingford, which bodies consist of people above the average intelli- gence of the Shakers and the German commu- nists in the United States, and have been thus far shrewd and prosperous in their business transac- tions. Of their faith and practice I will give a faint idea in two quotations from the "History of American Socialisms," by Mr. Noyes, their found- er (1876). 6C SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. "Admitting," he says, page 625, "that the community principle of the Day of Pentecost, in its actual operation at that time, extended only to material goods, yet we affirm that there is no in- trinsic difference between property in person and property in things ; and that the same spirit, which abolished exclusiveness in regard to money, would abolish, if circumstances allowed full scope to it, exclusiveness in regard to women and chil- dren." And again, while criticising Fourier, he says (p. 630): " Holiness, free love, association in labor, and immortality constitute the chain of re- demption and must come together in their true order." " It is evident that any attempt to revo- lutionize sexual morality before settlement with God is out of order. Holiness must go before free love" (p. 631). Such opinions are daily acted on and freely avowed. Mr. Kordhoff was permitted to be pres- ent at a Sunday afternoon " criticism," as they call it, which he describes at some length. At the end the head of the community spoke. " Con- cerning the closing remarks of Noyes,"says he (p. 293), "which disclose so strange and horrible a view of morals and duty, I need say nothing." And we have said enough. [Comp. Appendix I.] "We are now prepared to lay down certain con- clusions touching communal societies as they pre- sent themselves to us in modern times. In doing this, we are aware of the danger of hasty general- SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 07 izations, and, of course, feel that they may be drawn into question ; but the history of such in- stitutions has tested them on so many sides that we have some confidence in the justness of our results. 1. In the first pl ace, th en, it is shown that, with 'TequaTly good management, a commimity offers aC /somewhat cheaper mode of living than that which ) ^fam ilies adopt in s eparate houses. Fourier ^aS^ not wrongin claiming that his phalansteries would furnish lodgings for the poor at a smaller price than separate hovels would ; and in all the expen- ses for food and other necessaries a greater econ- omy is possible. But this economy is possible, not only because thirty rooms within four walls are less costly than five houses, each with six rooms of like quality ; or because cooking, wash- ing, heating on the large scale are less expensive than on the small ; but because, and principally because, in the community persons can live as they will, beyond the influence, perceived or un- perceived, of a general social opinion. Simplicity can be aimed at in all the parts of life ; luxuries may be cut off which are accessible outside of the common village and its neighborhood. / 2. Again, the union '•■f family ^if^M^^H ^'^TnTrmJ I aiaLlife_is not fitted to make the community sys- 1 tern flouiish. The two are different and to an( ^-extent hostile principles. The family must draw off the interests of its members from the larger 68 SMALLER COMMUNITIES ■WITHIN A STATE. body which encloses it, and concentrate them on itself. If the family has a share in the common property, that may be a motive for existing fami- lies to remain in it ; but every new family would inquire, "Why shotild we join the society, when we have our own unity to bind us together and a plenty of persons in the world whom -w^e know and love ? " The family implies a sort of privacy and seclusion from the world, without separation ; the community implies separation from the world, and a new unity inconsistent with or controlling the smaller or family union. In some of the communities spoken of above it was found that they began to thrive when they adopted the celi- bate principle. Groups of families, then, united by some communal bond, are not likely to be suc- cessful if such an experiment should be tried. 3. It follows that the more such communities are separated fi-oin the world by their mode of I life or principles, the more probable will be their permanence. This is only saying that srimething^ permanent in its own nature, some common faith especially, if it has drawn them together, will be likely to keep them together. It is true that, if they begin, after the community is established, to speculate and doubt, there will be divisions among them, as there may be other catises of divisions, from cliques and parties. But divisions from the former cause will be less natural than if they held their opinions in the midst of the world ; for they- SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. C9 have now escaped from a strong opposing senti- ment, from ridicule and social ostracism. I 4. Keligious reasons for founding communal es- ? tablishments are more likely to insure success than \ others. Ilere we mean by religious reasons any held in common touching the relations of man to God and to the end of living, whether they in- clude objectionable features or not. If such ob- jectionable features belong to the community, they will naturally act against it, both within and in the opinion of an outside society, which condemns o\ even abhors its creed or practices. And to some extent this must weaken, if it do not soon de- stroy, the settlement. But religion, seriously en- tertained, for which men have sacrificed some- thing, is a very strong bond of union. It ties a small community together and keeps them apart from the rest of the world. It may make them even dread the world. It cannot be an accident that Cabet's and- Robert Owen's societies, with no religion, have had a poor success and a short life ; while ignorant Gennans, as spiritual guides, led colonies adopting a common life into this land, which have had a very far greater amoimt of pros- perity. 5. It would seem that communities consisting of well-educated and cultivated persons have no assurance of success. The motive to undertake a new manner of life is wanting. They lead such a life already, and have such friends and sources of 70 SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITIIKf A STATE. enjoyment, as they desire. "Why should they wirih to change ? Moreover, they are more indi- vidual and independent than others of an inferior grade. Why should they give up their freedom ? AVe can conceive of a group of families, with the highest religious character and cultivation, as being disgusted with the corruptions of the society around them, and as seeking their escape in local separa- tion and in closer union with one another. But, not to dwell on the fact that they could hardly do this without being untrue to religious principle, they would probably feel it easier and safer to withdraw in some degree from the society around them than to take such a revolutionary step in life. Communities will consist hereafter, then, as they have done, cliiefly of persons in humble life ; of those whose minds are uneasy and out of joint ; and of such as have found no place of rest in the general society of the world. 6. As for health and prosperity in their under- takings, communities on the best footing have much to say for themselves. Several that began poor have risen into great prosperity. It may be said, indeed, that lands have been purchased for them in this country which would have cost twenty times as much at home, and that some of them have run backward, almost into bankruptcy ; but, apart from this, the economy of living which we have spoken of and an orderly arrangement of SilALLEK COMMDNITIES VVITHIN A STATE. 71 "work, under shrewd supervisors, with abstinence from hurtful drinks, must have placed them above the same number of persons arranged in families. If, for instance, a communit3' consisted of five him- dred persons, a number equal to about that of a himdred families ; it would probably save more at the end of the year than those families would, sup- posing them engaged in the same industries. And, while a number of these families would be injured or ruined by the vice of the father, the community would be less likely to, be harmed by the miscon- duct of the superintendent and the carelessness of the foreman. Yet it must be taken into consid- eration that the number of active laborers in the community of five hundred would be much great- er than in the one hundred families. But, at all events, it is probable that the savings of an equal amount of hours' work in the community would be greater. And, with equal endeavors on the part of the communities to secure health, these endeavors would be, it is probable, attended with more success. 7. Of course, in the communities, where they are strictly such, the family affections — one essen- tial means by which man rises above the bnite, and religion with all human improvement finds a home in the world — are nearly undeveloped. 8. If we could conceive of a group of commu- nistic societies pervading a country, on the suppo- sition that they were merely voluntary and only 72 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. protected by the state, as private families are now, the system would tend to break up general socie- ty ; and this would happen, even if there were a brotherhood maintained between these communi- ties, as far as could be possible. Society would lose many of those fibres of coimection which run across it now in every direction, and much of the life and enterprise which now exist. As family life would then need to develop itself within and under community life, much of its power would be lost. The interest felt in the affairs of the body politic would probably be in a considerable degree diminished. The nation would be reduced into the smaller component parts, and the general administration of law be made difficult. Wheth- er the national power itself could with success take the place of control and close superintendence over these communities ; whether by a constitution and general laws a state could successfully organize society on a community plan, is an interesting question, which will need our attention when we come to look at the most modern socialism and the socialized state. But we must regard a wide communistic system upon a voluntcmj basis as cer- tain to fail. SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 13 APPENDIX I No. 1. A few weeks before this work went into the press, Mr. J. H. Noyes, the founder of the Oneida and Wallin^ord communities, and tlie author of the history of American socialism to which we have referred in this worlf, proposed to the Oneida community the following articles, which have been adopted as a basis of a new system. " I propose : " 1. That we give vip the practice of complex marriage, not as renouncing belief in the prin ciples and prospective finality of that institution ■ but in deference to the public sentiment which is evidently rising against it. " 2. That we place ourselves not on the plat- form of the Shakers, on the one hand, nor of the world, on the other ; but on Paul's platform, which allows marriage, but prefers celibacy. " To carry out this change, it wiU be necessary, first of all, that we should go into a new and earn- est study of the Tth chapter of 1 Corinthians, in which Paul fully defines his position, and also that of the Lord Jesus Christ, in regard to the sexual relations proper for the church, in the presence of worldly institutions. " If you accept these modifications, the com- munity will consist of two distinct classes — the 4 74: SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. married and the celibates — botli legitimate; but the last preferred. " What will remain of our communism after these modifications may be defined thus : " 1. We shall hold our property and businesses in common, as now. "2. We shall live together in a common house- hold and eat at a common table, as now. " 3. We shall have a common children's depart- ment, as now. " 4. We shall have our daily evening meetings and all of our present means of moral and spirit- ual improvement." Thus the immoral and most objectionable fea- tures of these communities being removed — for it can hardly be questioned that the associated com- munity of Wallingford will concur in the pro- posed changes — they will be placed on the same, or nearly the same, basis with the most religious and successful of the American communities, such as those of Zoar and of Araana. How far this great change has been owing to a feeling within the community, where, as it would seem, the yoimger members have not all been satisfied with the most obnoxious feature of the system ; and how far it has been forced on the members by a very decided opinion outside, which even called on the civil authority to inter- fere in the matter, we cannot positively say. The change is a cheering and hopeful one, as showing SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 75 that no society can liave long continuance in tliis country, however successful in its industrial af- fairs, which is, and is generally held to be, op- posed to social morality. APPENDIX I.— No. 2. In 1878 appeared a small work, entitled "American Communists," by "William Alfred Hinds, a member of the Oneida community, and an editor, I believe, of the American Socialist. It contains tlie results of personal observations, and as the author is an educated man, having re- ceived the degree of Ph.B., in the Sheffield School of Yale College (1870), and writes candidly, his work deserves confidence. I have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy from the intelligent, fair- minded author. "We have room for only a few additions to what we have said respecting some of these com- munities, and for a short notice of one of them not mentioned before. 1. The Harmonists of Economy, Beaver Co., Pa., are still flourishing in a high degree, as to their business affairs, but are dwindling in their numbers. " The thousand members are reduced to one hundred, and of these but few are under sixty" (p. 7). "The young people, on reaching 76 SMALLEK COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. maturity, are allowed to decide between becoming full members of the society (provided of course tbey are of suitable character), or going outside, or remaining and working for wages ; and more pre- fer the latter alternative than the foi-mer, though required in such case to confoiin to the customs of the society, even in respect to celibacy ; but the greater number prefer a life of complete in- dependence, with all its drawbacks, to the re- straints of communism." (pp, 19-20). It seems possible that this community must be- come extinct in the course of a generation, or change its constitution in some important re- spects. 2. The Zoarites, or Separatists of Zoar, Tusca- rawas County, Ohio, are stiU wealthy and pros- perous ; they own 7,200 acres of land, with vari- ous mills and other property, all of which they estimate to be worth $731,000. Their number is now reduced from five hundred to two hundred and fifty, although marriage is freely allowed, and generally exists among them. This diminution comes from the unwillingness of the young peo- ple to live in the community, and seems to show that marriage in a highly flourishing community cannot keep up its numbers. " There are one hundred and seventy-five persons who subsist on wages paid by the community." To the inquiry what the effect, on the body, was of employ- ing so many hirelings, they answered : " Very SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 77 injurious. They tempt our people into bad habits. We commenced hiring about 1834, after the cholera had swept off about one-third of our old members." Few of the older members quit the community, but new members frequently leave, and many of the young folks leave as they become of age " (pp. 28-31). The Zoarites are orthodox Christians, averse to all ceremony in worship, and under a constitu- tion which provides sufficiently for their welfare. Why, then, do they not thrive more in respect to their numbers ? The reasons seem to be, first, that the community feeling is not sufficiently strong ; as is shown by the fact that the children leave the society more or less, and that new members, in- stead of signing the covenant and becoming mem- bers in full, with a right to vote and be elected trustees or into the standing committee, choose to stay in the lower class, where, if dissatisfied, they may withdraw with their property paid back to them. In short, the outside world is too little separated from the community to induce novices and the young to enter into a full and final union ; and the spirit of the outside world is brought into tte body by new adherents, and by hired men. Habits have changed since the times succeeding the foundation. Then " all the persons and fami- lies in one house did their work together." " Xow each family " (^. e., the inhabitants of one house, as I xmderstand it) " attends to all its affairs, its 78 SMALLEE COMMDNITIES WITHIN A STATE. cooking, washing, etc., separately." This again re- veals a tendency towards family life, rather than towards community life. Again, "for fifteen years after the Zoarites began to marry (p. 32), it was a rule that children should be taken care of by the society, from the time they were three years old, and they were for this pui-pose placed imder superintendents appointed by the community." The older members regret this, which is evidently a movement towards family life (pp. 31, 32, 33). The Amana community of Inspirationists was found by Mr. Hinds to be in a very flourishing condition, both as it respects numbers and wealth ; their members being 1,600, their lands amounting to from 25,000 to 30,000 acres, and their manu- facturing industries being quite prosperous. They live, as we have seen, in seven villages situated in Iowa Co., Iowa, which are near enough one to an- other to preserve the entire unity of superintend- ence and common feeling. There are five hundred children under sixteen years of age, and more than two hundred aged persons, in the villages. "Marriage is tolerated, but it is deemed best to remain single, as St. Paul advises. Formerly marriage was looked on with a more unfriendly eye than at present ; but a young man now may not marry until he is twenty -four, and he must wait a year after he has announced his intention, before he can lead his betrothed to the altar. SJIALLEE COMMUNITIES ■\VITIIIN A STATE. 79 By maiTiage, the standing of tlie parties in the society suffers for a time. If a man marries out of the society, he is excluded for a while, even though his wife might choose to become a mem- ber. At table, church, and labor the sexes are separated " (p. 53). This community is sincerely religious in the seiTile way of following the letter of the Scrip- tures. Thus they believe in the prophetic inspi- ration which has fallen on two members of the community, Christian Metz, a carpenter, and Bar- bara Heynemann, an ignorant servant-girl, who, since 1S07, has had the prophetic office alone, and is consulted by the trustees in important affairs. It was by inspiration, they say, that they were led to adopt community of goods after their emigra- tion to this continent. The most interesting question for our object, is. What has been the cause of the prosperity of these people ? Several causes may be alleged as hav- ing combined to produce this effect. One is that the community is separated by its German origin and adherence to the German language from the outside world. Another is that the new mem- bers seem to be supplied chiefly from within or by accessions of persons, few at a time, from Ger- many. Another is the strict religiousness and practical morality of members. " There is some religious expression before and after every meal ; there is a meeting for prayer every evening; 80 SMALLEB COMMUNITIES -WITHIN A STATE. there are meetings on "Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. Sometimes they all meet in church ; sometimes ia smaller apartments and in order. For the members are divided into three classes: the first including the elders and the most earnest and spiritual ; the second, those who have made considerable progress in conforming to the highest standard ; and the third, the chil- dren, new members, back-sliders, and others" (p. 53). But besides these reasons, we incline to think that the sombreness and want of intellec- tual life of the community must be attractive chiefly to those who have no great interest in the movements of the outside world. Mr. Hinds thinks that they fail to realize the blessings which belong to communism, by not suf- ficiently concentrating their dwellings and labor. Every village ought to have, he thinks, a few large houses, where a single kitchen and dining- room would save labor and expense ; so also to have a common butter and cheese factory, in- stead of each eating-house making these products of the dairy by hand, as well as a common laun- dry with the requisite apparatus. Yet the build- ing of a common laundry is in contemplation. He adds, tliat " each village ought to have a large library and eating-room, but there is nothing of the kind. They have preserved from the first the utterances of the prophets, and printed them in more than a hmidred volumes " (pp. 53, 54). SMALLKK COMMUNITIES "WITHIN A STATE. 81 Mr. Hinds (pp. 152-161) gives an account, chiefly in the language of the founder, of the " Brotherhood of the Xew Life," which has two principal centres, one at Salem-on-Erie, in the town of Portland, N. Y., and the other in Foun- tain Grove, Santa Eosa, California, where Thomas L. Harris, the originator of the plan of life, re- sides. He was a Universalist preacher, then a Spiritualist " and a leader of Christian against in- fidel Spiritualism," then one of the leaders of the Mountain Cave Community, a spiritualistic soci- ety ; and has led and acted in several other places. " The Brotherhood," says Mr. Hinds, " claim to have evoVuted out of communism, but at one time held their property in common, and still carry it on together, and possess many other com- munistic features, both in theory and in practice" (p. 142). Mr. Harris says : " Personally I am not a communist. I find it impossible to maintain the ordinary relations, much more to unite in close association communistically with my nearest friends. My home is practically an hermitage : the evolution of my faculties has led me into strict natural celibacy " (p. 142). Mr. Harris again says: "I find no difficulty in the solution of the painful and perplexing problem of the sexes. Monogamists who enter into union with me, rise, by changes of life, into a desire for the death of natm-al sexuality. Those whose lives have been less strict at first. 82 SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. perhaps, may pass tlirough the monogamic rela- tion, though not always; but the end is the same. Still I do not believe that sexlessness characterizes man in his higher and final evolu- tion" (p. 146). And again he says: "Among my people, as they enter into the peculiar evolution that consti- tutes the new life, two things decrease : the propa- gation of the species, and physical death. One young- pair in our bordei's have had three chil- dren, I am sorry to say ; but, with this exception, the births in seventeen years have been but two ; and of these, the younger is almost a young man. We think that generation must cease till the sons and daughters of God are prepared for the higher generation by evolution into structural bi-sexual completeness above the plane of sin, of disease, or of natural inoi-tality " (ibid.). " I have considered my family," he adds, " since 1861, merely as a school : its methods education- ary, and its form only tentative. My aim, ])er se, has been neither to organize close nor far apart association, but to prepare myself and the inmates of my house for a new era of human evolution, which we have considered to be at hand, and which, in individual cases, we think has now begun. We think that, by the survi^'al of the fit- test, the most plastic, the most complex organ- isms — men of a new spirit wrought bodily into new structures — the race will take a new depar- SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. S3 ture ; that we approach a new beginning of human days and generations " (p. 147). In a letter of an earlier date (1873), from which Mr. Hinds makes extracts, Mr. Harris is much more on the Christian foundation. "The one object of the Brotherhood," says he, " is the real- ization of the noble Christian ideal in social ser- vice. It is simply an effort to demonstrate that the ethical creed of the Gospel is susceptible of service as a worlcing system," etc. "In one sense the Brotherhood are Spiritualists " (p. 149). " In another sense they are socialists " (p. 150). After all this theosophico-Darwinian stuff, we fail to find out anything tangible and practical respecting this brotherhood's aims and doctrines. As for the family at Salem-on^Erie, which is ex- ceedingly reticent and unwilling to gratify curios- ity (See Hinds, p. 151), we learn (p. 149) that " their hotel and store were closed, their railway restaurant was burnt, and neither their vine-cul- ture nor other business in a very flourishing con- dition. Some of the estate had been sold, and the impression was that they would gladly dis- pose of more." Part of the family had fol- lowed their leader to California, and others, it was thought, would follow. The family at Foun- tain Grove numbers at present about twenty per- sons (p. 151). They have adopted the notion, entertained by some of the other communities, that "the crea- 84 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STA'IK. tive Logos"— God manifest in the flesh — is not male merely or female merely, but the two-in- one (Harris in Hinds, p. 147). They have re- cently published two pamphlets, entitled, ''The Lord, the Two-in-One," and "Hymns of the Two- in-One"(p. 161). Ooil.MUmSTIC TIIEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. 85 CHAPTEE III. COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. I. PLATO — SIB THOMAS MOKE — CAMPANBLLA. The commuiiities hitherto noticed had at their foundation no dii-ect purpose of acting upon gen- eral society or upon the state. Their obj eet, rather, was to keep away from their members the influ- ences of the outside world as far as possible, and in all liberty to develop their own social and re- ligious views. To society, as at the time consti- tuted, they entertained no such hatred as the most modem socialists feel. They thought only that they had reached a better form of -society, yet one which it would not be possible for all men to adopt ; one that all men would not willingly adopt. Their plans thus ended in a great degree with themselves and with separation from the rest of mankind. But might not principles similar to theirs, in some respec.ts, be carried out upon a larger scale and by the state itself? In every old society 86 COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. there have been and must perhaps always be evils, growing out of institutions as old and as much revered as the state. There is, especially in a sooiety which is growing corrupt in conse- quence of its prosperit}^, and which is advanced enough in reilection to think upon the causes of social evils, a tendency to search for some cure of these evils, which lies beyond the reach of indi- viduals and can only be applied by the highest authority. And it is not strange that inexperi- enced, speculative thinkers, who saw how much evil arose from private property, from family life, from the unrestricted action of the individual, should seek for a cure of such evil in a complete transformation of society. Men are not just. The city or the state is not a unity, but is split up by factions and strifes of classes. How can such evils be removed save by the state itself, the only power sufficient for the undertaking ? Such ques- tions would be asked .not so much by men of an ordinary stamp as by those who had strong moral sensibilities and a high ideal of the ends aimed at by life in the world. If such men had a practical spirit and any hope of success, they would become reformers. If they were of another sort, they would construct Utopias. Plato has left in his " Kepublic " an image of a state which is intended to set forth the reign of justice in a comnmnity. Whether it was to him a mere Utopia, or whether it was something more, COMilUNISTlC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 87 has been long made a question. His scholar, Aris- totle, treats his means for attaining to the great end of political justice, as if they were to be real- ized in an actual state. On the other hand, in his " Book of Laws " there is another republic contem- plated — one in which the ordinary relations of so- ciety are to be protected and defended ; in which, on the existing basis, society is to be made as just, pure, and reverential, as laws and institutions can make it. Taking the two works together, we must either say that Plato regarded the picture of a just state which appears in his " Republic " as a mere illustration of the same harmonious action which can be traced in the just individual ; or we must say that he regarded his institutions in tlie " Eepublic " as desirable in themselves, and saw nothing immoral in them, so long as they con- duced to the common good, to the unity and ex- emption from selfishness in the classes of which his "Republic" consists. That this last explana- tion is the true one appears from a passage in the " Laws," where he says that the first or best state and the best laws would be f oimd where " nothing existed that is separate and not common ; where wives were common and children and everything that could be used." "Such a state, whether gods or children of gods inhabited it, would be a happy abode." But the state which he is treating of would be next in its immortality, and the first in a second class. So, then, to some degree we 88 COMMUNISTIC THKOEIES AND UTOPIAS. must make the genial philosoplier responsible, and deserving of Aristotle's severe rebukes. The state, however, in the "Republic" is not worked out in all its features. The classes are three in number — the rulers, the guards, and the workingmen or artificers and cultivators ; answer- ing to the reason, the soxil as the seat of courage and feeling, and to desire or the desires. And, as the regular action of each of these departments of the spiritual being insures right conduct or jus- tice, so the right action, unity, and justice of the state is preserved by the orders of society, each fulfilling its part. But Plato, in developing his subject, says very little in regard to the first and the third class. The former would, of course, be small ; and its recruits were to be taken from the most trusty among the guards. The third class may, for aught that appears, own property, live in families, and be like the same class in other com- monwealths; and if among their children some should show conspicuous ability, they are to be transferred to the class of guards ; as also, if there are childi-en of the guards who fall below the qualities proper for that class, they are to be I thrust down into the third class, for we sorhetiraes find, says Plato, that a golden father has an iron son. The guards themselves, whose especial office it is to protect the state from foreign enemies and from domestic seditions, are to have no houses, COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 89 nor lands, nor anything which they can call their own. The women who are selected to continue the race of the guards are to be wives of no one in particular, but of the whole class ; and care is to be taken by the rulers that, when children are born to this or that woman, no one of the guards shall be able to say. This child is mine. All the children belong to all ; and thus separate and ex- clusive relations to wives and children, the causes of disunion in a state, are to be obliterated. The criticisms of Aristotle on this kind of polity show not only how Plato failed to gain his end ; how he would destroy the state by removing dif- ferences; and how that in which the greatest numbers share receives the least care from each ; but also how abhorrent this scheme was to the Greek mind. That such changes in society could be seriously proposed is to be accounted for by the prevailing Greek view, that the state had nearly unrestricted power ; that it was the sover- eign, which held the fortunes and destinies of the citizens in its hands. That they had little chance of being accepted may be gathered from the ridi- cule which they met with from the leading comic poet of Athens. The " Eepublic " of Plato may have suggested the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, written in Latin, and first published in or earlier than the year 1516, in the first part of the reign of Henry VIII. and before the author had come into political im- 90 COMMUNISTIC THEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. portance. It is, perhaps, to be regarded as a mere dream ; for, at the close of the work, it is said hy one of the interlocutors : " If, on the first hand, I cannot adhere to all that has been said by Hyth- lodens [the discoverer of the Island of Utopia] ; on the other, I readily confess that there are among the Utopians many things which I could wish to see established in our cities. I wish this more than I hope for it." The name Utopia, also, meaning no place, seems to point at something oiitside of the real world, to the imaginary seat of an imaginary republic. Some of his sentiments were either mere fancies or were belied by his conduct afterward. Thus all religions are equally tolerated and equally bound to tolerate one an- other. Pure deism is the predominant faith ; but those who deny the being of God or the im- mortality of the soul are incapacitated for holding office. This book was printed but a year or so before the fii-st outbreak of the Eeformation ; yet its author, when he became chancellor, fourteen years afterward, consented to measures of severity against the Protestants. The Utopia opens with a sad account of the social state of England, which is attributable to the number of uon-producers, to the rich who take from the poor, to the idle who prevent the industrious from prospering. To this the speaker who had discovered Utopia rep lies, thatfin all" states where individual property exists; M'here COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 91 everything is measured by money, justice can \ never reig:n nor secu re tjiepnblic^jmospedtY^J In order to establish a just balance in human affairs, property must be abolished. As long as this right of property lasts, the largest and best class can only bear the burden of unrest, misery, and sorrow. Palliatives for this evil may bo found — such as laws fixing a maximum of possessions in land or money : but they cannot remove the evil so long as indi\idual property exists. The sole remedy is community of goods, such as prevails in Utopia. In this island, separated from the main-land by an artificial channel, there is a capital, with fifty-four other towns, all built on the same plan and calculated for 6,000 families, with many large farm-houses scattered through the country, and able, each, to accommodate at least forty persons. All the inhabitants must work on the farm or in some branch of industry ; and, as no one can be idle, a day's work consisting of six hours will suf- fice for all the wants of the island. Then the rest of the day may be devoted to study in the public colleges, and the evening to recreation. In the island markets for provisions are estab- lished, and public magazines for manufactures. Every head of a family finds there, without cost, all necessary articles. Meals are taken in com- mon. There are also connnon hospitals and com- mon nurseries, where mothers may nurse their 93 camxcsmnc thcukuw aso vraruis. daldren. MatiK^ k llie Isnr and naa^ (^ die land; but die number of dnldren in Minnie dwdOSngs b eqpsdiaed, bf fddng asa^ tibe exees i^om fine famflr, amd jdadng ibem in anodier. Jfon^ is unknown amnig flie TTtn^ans eaeeyt ^ an aid to extonal intexeontsa. ^or is tiarcl- ^agiato Ae intaior allowed, es£^ bf pomw- aon 'gMjli» e poweiz and atting at die ea^itaL Tbe mag^ tisies bave it for di^ pinepol cffiee to beep peo;^ at wvriL But w«ald die sjrsieni eneovr- age woik or idlanes I Tbs in^ortant inqnij is proposed in die eomse of tbe dialogne^ but meets vidi no soffident answer. I bave mentioned ame of die detaik of Mneb ^an, beeaiKe die aofnlfets of die mote modexn times bave seen die same diSeohies^ and pn»- posed stiaie«^ €he same expedients for tbeir le- mocaL Tbe \Itapat waf be legvded as written laog befosB die oa wbcn soaal dbai^es w«xe eaDed £or witb a kod voiee^ jdt as &teaeeii^ tbe eomse vbidi saA ri M m e m would fake. OOMSirSBTIC THKOEIES ASD UTOPIAS. 93 Another ideal reformer, more according to Plato"? pattern, Thomas Campanella. flourished abont a century after More: his "City of the Stm" having been first published in 1&23. This man, a learned pliiios-jjiier of Italy and a Dominican monk, incurred the jeaionsy of the Spaniards, and was seiiteu.:-t-i. after being put seven times to the rack, to perpetual imprison- ment: Lat was liberated after some twenty-six years of confinement, and spent the end of his life in France. There is little in his communis- tic scheme that is worthy of notice, and it Las had little influence on the minds of men disposed to Epeeulate in that direction. In fact, it has been rescued from oblivion only in oomparativelj re- cent times. As another has remarked: "The monastery is tLe type of the s-xial organization which he extols : the pontifical power and the ecclesiastical hierarchy serve as the basis of the government of his new s-x-iety." The two main points of his system are community of property and •'•f wires, and a government lodged in tne hands of piiUos-i-pliers : in both of which he fol- lows Plato. In r^ard to the first, he p •ereei^es : ;ie connection between the abolition of private prop- erty and the abolition of the family. He says, in a passage which I borrow from another, that " the spirit of property increases among tis only l»r:aiise we have each a house, a wife, and children of our own. Thence comes selfislmess, for, in 94 COMMUNISTrO TriEORIES AND UTOPIAS. order to raise a son to lionors and riches and to make him heir of a great fortune, we dilapidate the public treasure, if we can control others by our -wealth and power ; or, if we are feeble, poor, and of an obscure family, wo become axaricious, perfidious, hypocrites." And, in carrying out this kind of community, he ftjllows Plato in endeavor- ing to improve the breed of men by measures of government, expressing his astonishment that races of animals should receive attention in this respect, while tlie race of men is neglected. Campanella carries his dread of propei'ty even beyond the points above spoken of. Ko one has a tixed abode. Every six months the magistrates determine the district or circle, the house and chamber, which each one is to occupy ; apparent- ly, lest there should be any local attachments, any home feeling. All the mechanic arts are common to both sexes. All products are distributed by the magistrates in proportion to each one's needs. As for the amount of these needs, since the in- habitants all take a vow of frugality and poverty, and it is assumed by Campanella that four hours' work daily will be adequate for their supply, they cannot be very great. The magistrates in this republic are all to be philosophers, according to Plato's noted words, in the " Republic," that imtil kings become philoso- phers, or philosophers become kings, there can be no end of evils in political counnunities. The su- nOMMUNIHTIO TIIK0IUK8 AND UTOPIAS. 95 promo. iiifif»;iHlrii1(! is tho most eminent pliilosophor ill I Ik; C'\\.y of tlio Sun, and has the lillc! ot tlio iSiiii, or tiio gr(vd, iiiol.iipliyHician. Under liitri tlii'oe iriiif^iHtniteB — answerinji; to tlio tlireo attri- Iiutc8 of power, wiHilom, and love in tiie individ- ual niiui prcHido r(*]i(^of ivc.ly ovor war, over scioniM^, and ovor industry and tlie iut.H. Under tlioK(?, and olioKCMi by tiioin, tlicro irt a ^roat body of oIlicn-H, di.st,inffuiHlied I'or Koine kind of knowl- i^dfi;o, and ciioHen by the groat nieta]iiiysi(;ian and liis tliHio iniiuHf.orH. Tliod ; that natnrid desu"es and pasdons wei-e to be gi'atilfied. It was on this basis that he aimed to make work as in- viting as posdble. His opinions respecting chas- tity and conjugal fidelity fell below tliose of tlxe OOitMnSISTIC THEORIES AXD nWPIAS. 115 degenerate portion of St. Siuion'f scholar?. I jhall not be gnilty of au exajrireration if I say that tliey admitted into his system somethiug very much like polyandry and polyg-amy. rr. CERTAIX RELIGIOUS SOCIAI IJTi — CABET — rOTTTS BLAJTC. St. Simonism manifested tlie feeling that tlie problem of tlie regeneration or society could not be s>;'!ved on merely s^xial grounds, and that a foimdation of religion would be demanded bv many earnest minds. Lamemiais ^vas one of the^e. TTliat led him onward from his tirst posi- tion of a Catholic preacher of riglueoiisness, to that of breaking with his church and of beeoniinir a sort of tribune of the people, was the spirit of fraternity and sympathy with the lower class. At lengrli. in l^^"-. in a book called the •■ LU-re da I\'!p'^." he almost reached commimity of goods. He there s;iys : •• Tliat which beirets dis- se;isions. hatred, envy, is the insatiahie desire of possessiniT more and always more, when one pos- sesses for himself alone. Providence curses these solitary ix'ssessions. They stimulate eovetousuess without ceasing, and satisfy it never. There is no enjoyment in goods, unless they are divided." And airain : " From the holy maxims of equality, 116 COIIMUNISTIC THEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. liberty, and fraternity, immovably «stablislied, the organization of society will emanate." Another form, in which this religion of frater- nity appeared, has been called the tJieosophic, and it showed itself in the minds of religious dreamers, who were half Christians, with a governing spirit of demagogy. The Abbe Constant was one of these. He says that " God is everything and everything is God, and that a grain of sand is God," perhaps having no definitely pantheistic meaning in this. He says again : " 2s othing on the earth belongs to this or that man. All be- longs to God. That is to say, to all." Here, too, he may have no definite notion of what he is saying ; but when he says, the comnmnity will be the perfect society, he means what communists mean. This man is said by Stein to have taught that in a good time coming marriage would cease ; that a man and woman should unite without re- serve, and the birth of a child should constitute the marriage ; and, since God is love, if love did not last in such marriage, it came forthwith to an end. Another such man is one Esquiros, who wrote the "People's Gospel" and the "People's Gospel Defended," in 1840, 184:1, and says that " the community is altogether in the spirit of Christianity, and that the doctrine of Christ is the enemy of most governments, as they are at pres- ent constituted." We pass from these to another religious writer. COMMUNISTIC THEOKIES AND LTOPIAS. 117 who originally belonged to the sect of the St. Simonists, but withdrew when Eiif antin revealed his licentious doctrines. Pierre Leroux, one of the most learned men of his time, estimable and pure, after this breach with his friends, gave him- self up to learning and wi-iting. One of the products was a new but mmky and fantastic reli- gious philosophy. Another was a social system in which equality was the foundation. He seems to have condemned property ; yet he stopped, like his teacher, St. Simon, short of the strictest systems of communism. Two of his scholars have given a resume of his social principles, from which I will cite a few pas- sages. " Each and all have a right to property. Property is the natural right of every one to use a determinate thing in the way which the law points out. " Society, the collective centre, is the field and place of labor of each man ; from society each one borrows the science he applies, the instruments he employs, the materials he transforms. It is so- ciety, in fact, which furnishes him with all his means of production. In every fact of produc- tion, the social centre, as a whole, has a concern, under the title of detaining in its possession the instruments of labor and the primary materials, under the title of suggester of thoughts and mo- tives, and under that of dividing up products and means of work. Labor is demanded by 118 coMMnjinsTic theoeies and Utopias. society from tlie industrial man, the artist, the scholar." Society divides up by its administrative power, products and means of labor of all kinds. The formula of rewarding the various labors is to each according to his capacities, to his labor, to his needs. In this scheme everything is communistic ex- cept the plan of rewarding the laborers, which is borrowed from St. Simon. We come next to a more pronounced commu- nist, Etienne Cabet, who was by profession an advocate, and in politics was, at the time of the Bourbon restoration, a very decided radical. In 1834, being compromised in a revolt, he went as an exile to England, and there employed his lei- sure in studying social problems. One of the fruits of his leisure was his " Voj^age to Icaria," a Uto- pia after the pattern of Sir Thomas More's, in three parts. The first part describes and sets forth a nation in the communistic condition ; the second part is designed to show how such a com- munity can proceed from the actual state of a na- tion ; while the third contains a resume of the doctrine or principles of the community. Wish- ing to carry out his ideas, he crossed the Atlan- tic in 184:8, and before his death, at St. Louis, in 1856, had planted his colony. The colony and other subsequent offshoots have been, on the whole, unsuccessful, and we must believe that he had no gift to conduct such an enterprise. 00MMUNI8TI0 TIIHORIHH AND UTOPIAS. lilt Al)iiiit IS II (!;ilM't, pnliliwlKMl liis communistic (^■('(m1 ill rariw, (Vdin vvliicli wis cxlriicl, a few arti- cles, sdincl.iiixj.s ;iliriii;j;(!il, but u;(.,ii(ji-;i,|ly iu a close (r:insl;iliiiii dl' tJie aiillior's words: " I hclicn'c, tli.'it ii,'il,nr(! li:iM iiilmiilod the earth to lid |idHSdssd(l ill (•diniiuiiiily iiiid undivided, like the li;^ht, licid, and air; lliul, kIic Iiiik |){jinted dut, division only I'di- jirddnclidii and tliin}i;s indisjKin- Kalild I'dr the ndci#reuce. So also rue present altection between paveius and cbiidreii, however srroiiir it miglit be. wonld then pixidnce no siiiirie one of rhose evils which it creates in ilie present svstem of inequajiry. Since the national territory be\>nirs, like an nn- divided estate, to society, society or its repieser.ta- tives ought to take cju^ of it and see to its culti- vation by the citizens, that thev should collect the fruits, put in different ; creed ; but benevolence and the regeneration of men, with no force-, save nakedly human ones, are hardly enougli, lie re- rrjj'nds us of the I'rench daricing-rnaHter who tried to teach wild Tridkn-, to dance, while ncif.her party knew the dialf;ct of the other. " .Me-.^ieurs Sauvag^" said he, with the politeness of his country, " will you have tlie goodnese to put your- selves in the first position '; " But we turn to a man of another kind, and the k-.t Frenf;hman whom we shall include iri these brief sketches. J.ouis Blanc, l^om in 1-.1.3, the younge-t among the more important socialists of France, and still living, is distinguished l>y hi^ historical writings; and was s^j prominent in his party at tlic downfall of Louis Fhilij/pe, in I'i+S, tliat he was chosen a member of the Fro- visional C/o/crnment. ile was, however, corn- prorni-sed in the disturbances of .Ma , IS-tS, and, to avoid prosecution, fled to Englanrj, where he re- si iyl many years. Here he continued and com- coinirxisTic theories and ctopias. 123 pleted his great work on the French Ee volution. in twelve voUimes. He had already written his "History of Ten Years," and his "Organization of Labor," which is the expression of his social or coniMianistic principles. His social starting-point is no new one. "It is not the man who is responsible for his wrons:- doiiigj. bnt society : and, hence, a society on a good basis will make the iniividiial man good." The evils of 5la\"ery flow from inequality, and that from property. Property, then, is the great scourge of siociety; it is the veritable pnbhc crime." Govermuent slio.ild be considered as the supreme regulator of prijduction. and be invested with power enough to accompUsh its task. It sliould raise money, which should be appropri- ated, without payment of interest, for the creation of social workshops {akVe/'s) in the most important branches of national industry. In these work- shops the operatives should choose their own overseers, and there should be the same wages for all. They should form a solidarity among themselves, and, when united with agricultural labor, would consolidate in one the whole indus- try of the country. The enormous sums neces- sary for this organization of labor could in part be derived from the abolition of collateral inheri- tances. The efFect of thus aiding the aid'ars would obviously be to render it impossible for private undertakers to compere with the national 124: CO1IM0NISTIC THE0EIE3 AND UTOPIAS. shops. Thus concurrence would cease, and pri- vate work yield first or last to the public or com- munistic system. In ISiS the system of Louis Blanc was so far put to the test that public ateliers were opened, and in Paris 150,000 workmen were employed in them, at a daily expense of §50,000. National ruin was near if the system should continue. The workmen were also a dangerous element in the population. The emeute of May, and that of June in the same year, ISiS, in which many of the workmen in tliese national ateliers took part, furnished a pretext for putting an end to the ex- periment. Louis Blanc did not seek to interfere with the family. But, while he says that the family is a natural fact, which on any hypothesis cannot be destroyed, he adds that inheritance has a conven- tional character, with which the progress of soci- ety can do away. " The family comes from God ; inheritance from men. The family is, like God, holy and immortal ; inheritance is destined to fol- low the same direction which societies may take in their transformation." When Louis Blanc encounters the objections made to the destruction of the social system, it is by the reply that it would be only a transitory condition, through which the world would pass to something better. He did not say much on com- munity of goods; but Iris organization of labor COMMrNISTIC THEOEIF.S AXD riOPIAS. 125 took its place. The great importance of what he did, lay not in the novelty of his snggestions ; hut in his bringing the minds of men to a practi- cal poinr, where tlie transformation of society could begin, witliout anv preparatory overtui-niug. He h;\d, perhaps, a greater part in preparing the way for the German socialism than any other single Frenchman. 126 THE DfTEESATIOirAL CHAPTER IV. THE DTTEKN'ATIONAIi WORKDTGHEJTS ASSO- CIATION. "With the progress of the French Eevolntion some very important changes made their way among the indnstrial classes, both in France and in other parts of Enrope. In France the peasant- ry, or serfs of the feudal times, became to a large extent proprietors of small farms, and now con- stitute the largest class of independent workmen in the nation. In the towns the industry of the citizens, or hourg'ioWiA, as we shall call them, re- ceived a great stimnlos from the new freedom ; while the greater use and cost of machinery ren- dered it increasingly difficult for the operative to emerge from^ his condition into that of an em- ployer or undertaker. Meanwhile, the feeling of equality, stimulated by the Revolution, made the operative feel that he was depre^ed below his rightful position — a feeling which was rendered the more bitter by his notion of equality, as im- ph-ing equality of condition, and by the harping •WOKKINGJIEX'S ASSOCIATION. 1'27 of the demagognes on this string. Thns there grew up, aknost of necessity, a division in the ■working-class of the towns between those who formed the standing hourgeoUie and the proleta- riat, as the agitatoi-s delighted to call the stand- ing class of operatives : meaning, by this Homan term for the lowest class in that republic, those who had only hands to work with and no laid-up capital. This strife appears in the earlier part of the Revolution. The Directory, when Ba- bcBiif s con-piracy broke out, put it down, as an attack on capital, which might destroy both the republic and the property which was necessary for its industrial prosperity. The Dheetory tri- umphed; but the' alienation between labor and capital was not cured and is not in the process of being cured. It is this strife, or feeling that they have separate interests from the hourgeoisie and the capitalists, which now forms the sti'ong point for agitation everywhere, wherever industry is flourishing:: which g^ves a force to communistic arguments ; which enables popular leaders to con- soHdate them into a class ; which in some coun- tries clouds the prospect for the future, affects politics in a way unknown, a century ago, and perplexes the most adroit of statesmen. It is worthv of remark how this strife of classes has widened the breach between the classes in the minds of the parties interested, and, to some ex- tent, in the minds also of thinking persons. 128 THB ISTEKHrATIOHAI. Theone are reall j no sadi muked lines as tbe omor mnnisfic writers ha^e drawn between men in modem aiciety. The holder of a few acres of land in Iiis own right, tiie small shopkeeper, the varions artisans on a small scale in towns and Til- lage have some r^emblane^ to die jmdetmiai and some to the bowyeoisie. Any fondamental diange in sociefy wonld bring no mpre proqperitjp to them in a material poiat of view, or help tiliem more to rise in the social scal^ These da^e^ then, have no motiTe to welcome reTolutions. If there was to be a repartition of all propertf in eqnal shar^ their shares woidd be little, if at all, increased. And all the while, in all tiie countries of Europe and America, education, both general and in tiie arts of indnsbry, is becoming larger and more open; so that tiiey may expect tiiat fiieir childrraa will have better chances in life than they had whrai they were yonng. Xow, th^se das^ or departments of hnman laborers make np tlie majority of all who work for their Kving, It is, then, a minority in most conntri^ that com- pose tlie discontented and embittered mass ; it is, in the main, the operatives whom improved ma- chinery brings together in laige establishments, who are able to infln^ace each other to common action, that can be stirr^ by eloquent sodalists; It is the^ between whom and the capitalist the employers, the transporters, a running fight sul>- ^Easts, with intervals of rest, but wifli no penna- woekingmen's association. 129 nent peace. The fight does no good in the end, for strikes can never establish liealthy relations between employer and employed. The methods . of getting rid of employers and capitalists only mitigate the evil to a slight extent. The state, as at present constituted, cannot do anything effec- tual to promote peace between the parties, except. by such temporary expedients as arbitration ; and 60 the workiiigmen take the matter into their own hands and form associations for themselves. These associations and the prominence given to questions of political economy may be said to be the characteristics of tlie most modern commu- nisUa, or we will say so'ilalistl'; movements. And another peculiarity of the more modern times is the spread of socialism itself through European countries and even in both Americas. The history of this spread of socialistic opin- ions by association it is not easy to give ; nor would it be edifying, unless we could trace some of the particulars more minutely than it is in our power to do with our materials and within our limits. As it is a characteristic of the age to be international ; as clubs and associations have be- come far more common since the Revolutionary period began ; as the operatives who have intelli- gence and education are far more numerous than formerly, and the circulation of knowledge by the system of post-offices is greatly facilitated ; it is not strange that plans and views prevailing in 6» 130 THE INTERNATIONAL one country shonld travel into another. Nor is it strange that attempts should be made to unite the operatives of all lands in one great associa- tion. In 1848, when Louis Philippe lost his throne, there was apprehension from the communists in Paris ; and one motive to support the new Empire was the need of a strong conservative government for the continuance of social order. The same dread was inspired by the other revolutions which in quick succession followed that in France. The socialists themselves were becoming international. Thus we find Karl Marx floating as a pronounced socialist in the decade beginning with 1840 be- tween France and Germany; banished from France in 1844, and taking refuge in Belgium ; banished from Belgium, and returning to his na- tive land; editing a journal in Cologne in 1848, which was suppressed by the political authorities in 1849 ; thence fleeing to Paris, and ere long to London, where he has ever since resided. The outbreaks of '48 revealed a danger to existing in- stitutions which in part proceeded from the com- munistic leaven ; and, accordingly, the police of the Continental states increased in its preventive, as well as in its detective vigilance against the secret foes of order. A number of persons im- bued with socialistic principles found England the safest country to live in. Expression of ob- noxious political or social opinions was there com- woekingmen's association. 131 paratively free; there chartism had been sup- pressed and secret clubs had never been the fash- ion ; there the reform bill and a change in the com laws, with other wise legislation having the welfare of all classes in view, quieted and in a measm-e united the nation ; so that the old right of free speech could be Baf el^^ granted to persons, few of whom were natives, since they were too insignificant to be noticed, although holding opin- ions, in the estimation of Englishmen, the most pernicious. Before the formation of the " International "Workingmen's Association," at London, in 18G4, it had occurred to some persons to found such a union on international principles. As early as 1810 a society existed in London for the benefit of German operatives, called the ArieUerhild- ungsverein, which counted Englishmen, French- men, Swedes, Poles, and Hungarians among its members, and had some connection with work- ingmen's societies on the Continent. It is said by Jager, in his " Socialismus," that a woman of Geneva conceived the idea, in 1849, of imiting all associations of operatives into one great whole. And a little before this a manifesto " of the com- munist party," in which Marx had a leading hand, called on the proletariats of all lands to unite. This manifesto demanded the abolition of private property in the soil ; centralization of credit in a state bank ; union of the means of intercourse in 132 THE INTEEXATIONAL the hands of the state ; national workshops ; ferti- lizing and tilling the soil on a common prescribed plan ; and gratnitous instruction. A union of communists was then called to meet at Brussels ; but the February Revolution in ISIS brought on a reaction and discourasred further movements. Sev- eral Germans who were active in this project appear again in the International — as Marx, Engels, Lieb- knecht ; the latter of whom spoke of it afterward as designed to have its headquarters at London. There mav have been a reasun for an associa- tion embracing all Em-ope, wliicli we have not yet noticed. K the communists could not be organ- ized and ready for action everywhere at once, it would happen that, when the time for tlie " eman- cipation of workingmen " should arrive, one na- tion would bear the brunt of the revolt, and the others be ready to afford it assistance. Or, if the existing form of society could be overthrown in one land, in others the government could be fore- warned and forearmed. Tlie immediate impulse to the formation of the International was given in 1862, when the Gov- ernment of France sent over to London a num- ber of skilled workmen to gather up what infor- mation they could respecting the progress of the arts from the exposition of that year. And again, in 1863, Odger, a weIl-kno^vn English socialist, "urged the holding of a general workingmen's congress, in order to prevent foreign workmen 133 from coming into a land where wages were liigli, and causing a decline in tlietn. The French work- men, on their return home, gained the assent of their comrades for the matter, and it was agreed that there should be a meeting at London the next year " (Jager). A meeting took place, accordingly, on the 28th of September, at which the veteran conspirator, Mazzini, made an address, although having little in common with the object for which the meet- ing was convened. His goal was a political one. He was for a strong central power, which should begin a movement ; while the essence of the In- ternational movement was a federal association, a combination of movements in part already begun, with the social end in view of raising the opera- tives lip over against the employers and capital- ists. To "them political power was a means; and to Mazzini, who seems to have had no thought of ovarthrowing society, it was an end. Mar.x^ also made an addi'ess and proposed a series of statutes. In his address there was little of agitation, and the plan of the association was not unfolded at large ; but he pointed toward a system in wliicli wages should disappear, and the working-class should hold in their hands tlie means of produc- tion furnished by nature. These things innst be- come the property of the state, which could be effected only when the power of the state passed over into socialistic hands. 134 THE IXTEEXATIOXAl A few words are needed to explain the organi- zation and working power of the International, which is in the main simple and efficient. The general statutes state that the association is founded to serve as a centre of union and of systematical co-operation between the working- men's societies in various lands, which have the common aim of the protection, advancement, and entire emancipation of the working-class. A general congress assembles jearly, which consists of deputies from the several branches, and deter- mines the time and place of the next c.ngress ; for the assembling of which, after such determi- nation, no special invitation is required. Tlie conoT-ess from vear to vear fixes the seat of the general council and names its members. The council may add new members to its body : must present a yearly report of its proceedings; and can, ia pressing cases, call a new congress before its regular time for sitting. The council consists of workingmen of the countries represented in the associations, and fills the* places necessary for carrying on business out of the members of its own body. It serves as the medium of communi- cation between the various national and local groups of the association ; '■ so that the workmen of a land may remain constantly informed of the movements of their class in all other lands ; that an investigation into the social condition of the various lands of Europe may take place at the woeeingmen's association. 135 same time and under common guidance; that questions of general interest, started by one society, may be taken up by all others ; and that, should immediate practical steps be necessary — as, for instance, in international disputes — the united associations may take action at the same time and in a uniform way." Among the rules for the proceedings of the In- ternational, which were enacted at various times from 1866 onward, we mention the following: Every association, section, or group sends one member to the congress, whose expenses his con- stituency is expected to defray. Where the num- ber of members exceeds five hundred, for every additional five hundred a new member may be sent. In countries where the law prohibits branch associations of the International, deputies may be admitted to the congresses for the purposes of debate on questions of principle only. A contri- bution of one penny, or ten centimes, is required from all sections and associations connected with the International. The plan, if fully matured, of the associations would be in the ascending order, groups and sections in a city or to^vn ; federations or unions in a place or territory where the different sections can unite together ; and the General International Workingmen's Association crowning all. As this has a general council of fifty members, with London for its seat ; so each federation is expected to have a central com- 136 THE INTERNATIONAL mittee or council, and each section has its own particular statutes. Each federation has power to admit or suspend local sections, and must make report of its doings every three months. The federations are expected to hold congresses stated- ly, and the smaller unions to have their own par- ticular meetings. Tlie next subject which will call for our atten- tion will be the spread of the International ; after which we shall consider its action and his- tory, especially as revealed by its general con- gresses, until 1872, when it fell vinder the ban of Europe. II. THE INTERNATIONAL CONTINUED. The details in regard to the spread of this workingmen's association, as it respects the num- ber of its members and its ramifications, would be unprofitable and could not be relied upon with entire confidence. Thus we find that the num- ber of English members was stated by Dupont, the secretary of the general council, to be 25,lY3 in 1S6G ; and by Applegarth, one of the mem- bers of the same council, to be 95,000 ; while 10,000 is accepted as a more correct estimate by Jager, the historian of socialism. In some coun- tries, again, the restrictions imposed by govern- 137 ments must have prevented many from joining the association. In Germany, where it had any foothold, its progress was impeded until 1869 by the Workingmen's Union, an earlier society, founded by Lassalle ; and the laws prevented branches of foreign associations fi-om existing in Prussia. But in France, until 1871, it was strong and revolutionary. In Switzerland, where it was free to spread, it embraced, one would think, all the operatives. Li Belgium also it had an exten- sive membership, while in Holland few cared any- thing about it. In Austria there seem to have been no capable leaders who could unite a party together, and the German Workingmen's Union had already preoccupied this field. "When, in 1869, the Social Democratic Workingmen's Party was founded, at Eisenach, nearly 100,000 Aus- trian operatives were represented by delegates, of which number 59,000 belonged to Vienna and 25,000 to Bohemia. In Spain it had many ad- herents — according to some, 100,000 ; according to others, 40,000. It crossed over the Atlantic, and established itself by the side of associations already existing in the United States, which had private relations toward capitalists, rather than the revolution of society, in view. In speaking of what the International and its subordinate branches have done to declare and define their objects, we must give otn- testimony to the ability and the general moderation with 138 THE IXTXENATIOXAL wliich the reports suhmitted to congresses, and otLer declarations of principles, have been pre- pared. The association contains an amount of talent which no one has a right to despise. Part of this talent, as it seems, pertains to "head- '(j:orl:erH, " or the ' "' vn.ie\\.G(:taslj/roletariat. " At one of the congresses it was made a question whether anj but " hsin.A-v.'orhirs "' should be members of the IntemationaL The French members, who had had unpleasant experiences with the men of the tongue and pen, opposed their entrance. Thev urged the danger which there would be in letting advocates and joumali-ts have an influence over the meetings of raen of work. But the plan was carried by the English and German mem- bers. The first general congress met at Geneva, Sept. 3d-8th, ISGfJ. It had been voted to hold a con- gress at Bms.-eJs, in 1805 ; but hindrances put in the way of the French socialists, and the xmwil- lingness of the Eel^dan government to allow a meeting within its borders, caused it to be post- poned until the next year. The congress of the next year, or l^J'A), sat at Geneva; but did little tl^at looked toward the goal of the associatioiL They favored counting ei;i'ht hours' labor as a day's work; they denounced the labor of women in manufac-tories, "as a cause of the degenera- tion and demoralization of the human race;" they rebuked trades' unions for- occupying them- woekingmen's association. 139 selves with immediate contests, instead of acting against tlie system of capital itself : they favored co-operative labor, but thought that it ought to be generalized and not have a special form given to it ; they proposed a confederation of all the workingmen's banks, with the view of ultimately uniting them in a central establishment, under the association; they unanimously condemned permanent or standing armies, and approved of the general armament of the people and their in- struction in the handling of arms." The next congress met at Lausanne, in Septem- ber, 1867, under the presidency of Eugene Du- pont, secretaiy of the general council. Seventy- one delegates were present. Among the points here discussed was that contained in the question whether " the emancipation of the fourth estate (or working-class) might not result in the forma- tion of a, fifth, the situation of which might be more miserable stUl." The prevailing opinion was that the actual efforts of the workingmen's associations, if they preserved their existing form, might have this effect ; but that this danger " would disappear in proportion as the develop- ment of modern industry should render produc- tion on a small scale impossible. Modern pro- duction on a great scale fuses together individual efforts and renders co-operative industry a neces- sity for all." To ol)viate this danger, the "prol- etariat " must become convinced that social ti-ans- 140 TOE INTERNATIONAL } fonnation can operate only by means acting on the whole of society, etc. On the subject of education, embraced in another question for discussion, the congress de- clares " that it concedes to the state no other right than that of taking the place of a father of a family when he is unable to fulfil his duty. At all events, all religious instruction ought to be re- moved from the programme." In the report on the definition of the pai-t which the state has to act we find the following views expressed : " The efforts of nations ought to tend to make the state the holder of the means of transport and of circulation, in order to anni- hilate the powerful monopoly of the great com- panies, which, by submitting the working-class to their arbitrary rules, attack at once both the dig- nity of man and the liberty of the individual." At the same congress a report was read which is interesting, as showing the state of war be- tween the International and the capitalists. The master basket-makei-s of London gave notice to their men that they must dissolve their associa- tion within three days and agree to take lower wages, or be locked out of the shops. The work- men declined to accept of the terms, and the em- ployers, aware of what their decision would be, had sent for Belgian workmen to take their place. They had arrived, and were kept from all contact from aU other workmen, as far as possible. " But 141 the council-general of the International made out to get within' the ' cordon sanitalre,^ and by a stratagem made themselves known to the Belgian workmen. On the morrow the workmen, having comprehended what was their duty, returned to Belgium, having been indemnified for their lost time by the basket-makers' society at London." Another detachment of laborers from the same country was in the same way persuaded to go home. The leaders of the International cared nothing for strikes, in themselves considered ; but re- garded them as desirable means of bringing about the good time when private capital should cease to be. The strikes would unite the opera- tives by close ties, as common sufferers and as hav- ing common enemies. They would turn the eyes of the operatives toward the International, thus increasing its strength and importance. They would make capital more odious and open labor- ers' eyes to the advantages of universal combina- tion. When the end should be gained and the state should become the only capitalist, strikes would become impossible. The workmen who should strike then might as well hang themselves outright. At the congresses of Brussels and Bale, in 1808 and 1869, a discussion sprang up on property, which showed some difference of opinion. De Paepe, of Brussels, in a report, had spoken of 142 THE INTERNATIONAL "certain measures of general reform" proposed by divers socialists. These were the transforma- tion of national banks into banks of gratuitous credit ; the making of the soil a part of the col- lective property of society ; the abolition of in- heritance ah intestat, outside of certain degrees of relationship ; and the laying of a tax on succes- sion in the direct line. Citizen Tolain, speaking on the subject of making the soil collective prop- erty, admitted that certain kinds of property ought to become collective ; other kinds, by their nature, ought to remain individual. To this De Paepe replied, that Tolain wanted canals, roads; mines to become the collective property of society ; but he himself would extend that idea so far as to include all landed property [pi-operty in the soil or resting on it]. Coullery, of La Cliaux de Fonds, avowed himself a partisan of individual property. The soil, he said, was an instrument of labor. It ought -to belong to the laborer by the same title with every other utensil. If you make the soil collective property, why not extend your theory to all instruments of labor? This would be logical, but would be absurd. We refer to this difference of opinion as show- ing that the extreme theorists had not yet got complete ascendency. And yet they alone com- prehended where the theory must carry them. If persons like Coullery had had their way, the whole scheme would have been an abortion. ■woekinomen's association. 143 The congress of Brussels met in September, 1S6S, and was largely attended; but its doings show a repetition of the opinions expressed at the previous congresses. On tlie question of strikes the congress decided that, in the actual struggle between labor and capital, they were legitimate and necessary ; and recommended that, in each federation, there should be a council of arbitra- tion, to decide on their seasonableness and justify- ing causes in future. On a question touching machines, among other things the council de- clared that machines, like all other instruments of labor, should belong to the laborers ; but that this end could be reached only by co-operative associations and a system of mutual credit, and that at present there is room for intervening in the introduction of machines into the workshops, so far that they should not be introduced without certain guarantees and compensations to the la- borer. On a question relating to property, the congress decided that the ways of communica- tion and forests ought to be held as common property, and passed the same resolution respect- ing the soil, mines, quai-ries, coal-pits, and rail- roads. Dupont, general secretary of the International and one of the vice-presidents at this congress, in a speech at the close of the proceedings, said : " "What we wish to overthrow is, not the tyrant, but tyranny. We want no governments any 144 THE IXTE1«ATI0XAL longer, for governments oppress us bv taxes ; Tve want no armies any lunger, for armies butclier and murder us ; we want no religion anv longer, for religions stitie the understanding." Tlie congress of Basel met in September, 1S69, and numbered eiglity members. A committee, appointed to consider tlie question of property, bi-onght tbe subject befoi*e tlie congress under two heads. They proposed that it should declare; — fii-st, that society has tlie right of abolishing indi- \ Tidual property in tlie soil and of causing it to belouff to the community- : secondly, that it is necessary that the soil should i»ecome collective,^ property. After debate, in which some con- tended that individual property was the source of all social miseries and inequalities, and that, " as having its origin in violence and usurpation, it ought to disappear, and give way to landed prop- erty, regulated by communes organized as federa- tions," only four stood up for individual property. The first proposition was carried by 54 to 4, and the second by 53 to 4. The subject of inheritance, which had not been discussed at any previous congress, Mas also brought forwai'd at Basel, in a proposition to adopt the following resolution : " Considering that the right of iuheritanoe, which is an element inseparable from individnal property, tends to alien- ate property in the soil and social riches, to the benefit of some and to the detriment of the greater number ; that, by "wokkingmen's association. 145 consequence, tlie right of inheritance is an obstacle, pre- ■venting the soil and social riches from becoming a part of the collective property ; " That, on the other hand, the right of inheritance, how- ever restricted in its operation, constitutes a privilege, the greater or less importance of which does not destroy its in- iquity in point of right, and which is a standing menace to social right ; ,' "That, farther, it is an essential element of all kinds cf inequality, because it prevents individuals from having the same means of development, both moral and material ; " Considering, finally, that the congress has pronounced in favor of the collectivity of landed property, and that this declaration would be illogical if it was not corroborated by that which now follows ; " The congress recognizes the principle that the right of inheritance ought to be completely and radically abolished, and that this abolition is one of the most indispensable con- ditions of the emancipation of labor." This report did not meet with entiro accept- ance. One member proposed transitory meas- ures, to make the passage smootlier from the pres- ent state of things. Another, in the name of his section, proposed a limitation in respect of de. grees of kindred. H reduced to its minimum, he thought that " individual inheritance was only an element of progress and morality. Pie did not believe in its efficacy as a means of social liquidation." When the vote was taken on this proposition, 32 delegates were in favor of it, 23 against it, while 17 abstained from voting. At tlie same congress a report was presented l'-l-6 THE INTEENATIONAL by the delegates of the section of Brussels, of which, for want of room, we can only cite the closing words : " One of two thi:igs must be true. Either the socialists who demand the abolition of inheritance confine themselves to this single re- form — and in that case we claim that they none the less retain the distinction of capitalists and laborers, consequently '■parasitism'' for the one and pauperism for the others — or they demand besides that the soil become collective property ; that the capitalists' deductions from the laborers' wages be done away with; that instruments of labor be put in the hands of the laborers as their possession ; that integral instruction be given to all ; and, in that case, we claim that the abolition of inheritance is, to say the least, useless and superfluous." We shall finish what we have to say of the In- ternational in the next article. III. THE INTERNATIONAL CONCLUDED. It was determined at Basel that the next con- gress of the International should be held in Sep- tember, lyTU, at Paris. But on the 15th of July of that year war was declared by France against Prussia, and no congress was held, either at Paris or elsewhere, although an effort was made to ■woekingme:^ s association. 147 have one convened at Mainz. The next year, in consequence, no doubt, of the bad odor in which the International then was, a congress was not summoned ; but a private conference met at Lon- don, the proceedmgs of which were of small im- portance. The congress for 1872 was appointed to meet at the Hague, in Holland ; the reason for meeting there being that " the existing persecu- tions of the International by the governments both in France and in Germany do not allow the calling of the congress either to Paris or to Mainz." In the course of this year a new section of the International was formed at Geneva, by a very remarkable man, Michael Bakunin by name, a Eussian Nihilist and a fugitive from his country, who was arrested and condemned to death in the Saxon and Austrian courts and then delivered over to liussian authorities. Sent to Siberia, he escaped, and reappeared in Western Europe, where he figures as the most extreme of radicals. In a speech, made at ' the third session of the Congress of Berne, he declared, that religion was not simply a disorder of the brain ; but was also a passionate and perpetual protestation of the entire nature of man and of the infinite riches of the human heart against the narrowness and the misery of reality. Beligion will be almighty as long as unreason and unrighteousness reign on earth. If we give the earth back what belongs 14:8 THE INTEENATIONAL to hei-, that is happiness and fraternity religion will have no longer a reason for its existence. Bakunin did not like communism, because " it concentrated all the powers of society in and transferred them to the state ; because it neces- sarily leads to the centralization of property in the state, while he desired the abolition of the state altogether." At the formation above referred to of the Al- liance of the Socialist Democracy, the following programme was adopted by Bakunin and his fi-iends: "The alliance declares itself atheistic. It desires the abolition of worship ; the substitu- tion of science for faith and of human justice for divine justice ; the abolition of marriage, so far as it is a political, religious, judicial, and civil institution." To this it adds some of the com- monplaces of the social system — as the abolition of inheritance and the conversion of every kind of property into collective property, for the pur- pose of being utilized by rural and indus- trial associations. It recognizes the fact that all existing states and bodies invested with authority must disappear in the universal union of free as- sociations; and declares that the social question cannot find its definitive and real solution except on the basis of the universal and international solidarity of all qountries ; and, therefore, dis- cards all politics founded on so-called patriotism and on the rivalry of -nations." woekingmen's association. 149 This atheistic section — which also seems to have been a secret society — had applied for ad- mission in the preceding April into tlie " Re- mand," or Swiss federation, and was received by a majority of three, 21 voting for and 18 against its admission. Thereupon the non-contents with- drew from the congress, and the schism was last- ing. In the general congress at the Hague tlie question of declaring the " Alliance," founded by Bakunin, international, was put into the liands of a committee, which proposed the exclusion of tlie Alliance, and especially that of Bakunin and another member, from the General Association, on the ground of their having formed a secret society. This report was accepted ; but the per- sons concerned declared that they would not obey the vote.- At a congress of the Swiss federation, held tlie same year, at St. Imier, in Bern, it was unanimously resolved by the sections represented to reject the resolutions passed at the Hague. There could be no other course after this than for tlie general council at London to suspend the sections, and for the next congress to confirm its action. The Internationa], just after the close of its session at the Hague, lost some other members by their voluntary abandonment of a connection with the Association. These were members of the Commune at Paris who carried tilings to an extreme, belonging to the clique of which Blan- 159 THE INTEENATIONAL qui was the head, and who were also members of tlie International. One of these had presided at the congress ; several were members of the gen- eral comicil at London. They complain that the International Association had not done its work ; had not enough stimulated the political activity of the proletariat. It ought to be not a league of co-operative unions, nor a society for support- ing strikes. It shoxdd be, rather, the interna- tional vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat. In withdrawing from the International, however, they give the assurance that they will not with- draw from action. "We have but one object: the reorganization of the workingmen's party in the shape best fitted for striking a blow, in France as well as in any other laud, and under the ban- ner of social revolution. In France it is abso- lutely necessary to keep the plans of the social- istic revolutionary party strictly separate from those of the International. There the future of the revolution lies in the hands of the proletariat of the towns, which singly and alone has a revo- lutionary spirit. Above all things must every contact with the hourgeoisie be avoided ; at no cost should a compromise be made with parties m that interest." From these words it is plain that the Interna- tional was now brought into extreme perplexity, into difficulties which were unavoidable and re- sulted from its very constitution. On the one WOEKINGMEN S ASSOCIATION. 151 hand, it had a transitional policy, to encourage the union and common feeling of the laboring class by encouraging strikes and trades-unions and every method of joint action, save war. War it did not seek, at least as an immediate ob- ject, and the protests were loud against the Franco-German war, when it was in prospect. On the other hand, it avowedly kept one object in view, the overturning of society in its present shape, and a reconstruction in which all classes but one should disappear. Every man who had property, however invested, within the country, looked forward to the triumph of socialism as the ruin of himself and his family. Every state and all interested in upholding the state or in maintain- ing individual rights, as they are understood in civilized communities, interpreted a socialistic state as an overturn begun by civil war, and sure to involve the destruction of every existing thing except a state and operatives paid by that state. Was it strange, now, that many on both sides honestly believed that the new millennium could not come in without force ; although the Interna- tional held out hopes that suffrage, opposing the interests of capital and a conviction of the un- avoidableness of a change, would make the upper classes, when the time should come, willing to yield without fighting ? This, also, we think, was a necessary result of the agitations attendant on the existence of such 152 THE INTEENATIONAL organizations as the International, that the pas- sions of the ignorant and unreflecting were of necessity excited beyond the limits of reason. • Socialism could not live and thrive vsrithont agita- tion. To foster and increase the agitation, the line between the operative and the employer must be widened and rendered more precise ; the feeling of wrong iimst be intensified. The capi- talist must be looked on as a thief. I venture to say that no equal intolerance, between parties in politics or in religion on the large scale, can be shown in any crisis of change or strife. The leaders in the socialistic movement — able men, who ought to have their own tempers at com- mand — show a malignant spirit that a man con- scious of a good cause should be ashamed of. Thus, in the communistic manifest prepared in 1847 by Marx and Engels, two veiy able men whose equals would take a foremost place in any party, do not scruple to write as follows : " For the rest, nothing is more laughable than the liighly moral horror of our hourgeois at the pre- tendedly ofiicial [accounts of] the community of wives among the communists. The communists need not introduce community of wives, for it has almost always existed. Our hourgeois, not content with having the wives and daughters of ihe proletariat at their disposal, find a chief pleas- ure in seducing each other's wives. Ci\'il mar- riage is in reality the community of wives." As for WOEKINGMKN'8 ASSOCIAnON. 153 these words we only ask, how a man could be be- lieved in any statement afterward, who would send forth stuff into the world. But, to turn to another form of this malignity, we cite a passage from a letter of Dupont, a secretary of tlie gen- eral council of the International at London, Mrit- ten a day or two after the disaster at Sedan : " Xothing is changed. The power is still in the hands of the hour.jeois. In these circumstances, tlie role of the workmen — or, rather, their duty — is to let tliis ' verinine hourgeoisie ' make peace with the Prussians, for the shame of the act will never be wiped off from them," etc. " The hour- geoisie, who are charmed with their tiiumph, will not at once perceive the progress of our Associa- tion, and for the day of real war the operatives will be ready." And, to give one sample more, one Sylvis, then president of the "National Labor Union of the United States," writes from Philadelphia, in May, 1869, as follows : " Our last war has had for its result to build up the most infamous financial aristocracy in the whole world. This money power pumps the substance of the people. "VVe have declared war against it, and think that we shall gain the victory. "We shall first try suffrage ; but, if it fails, we shall have recourse to more efficacious measures. A little blood-letting is sometimes necessary in des- perate cases." The man perhaps was a very mild person ; but the style of the class required him to 154 THE IXTEKXATIOXAL saj soinetMn^ sangninary. He died soon after ■writiiig the letter, ffl/'l <"/■-* " ■ ) The International suffered to such a decree from its dllejetl omplicitv in the horrors of the spring of 1^71 tliat it iiiis not since recovered- The qneition mav l>e a.sked, to what degree wa.= it answerable for those criiiiei ' A- far ai we can discover, it had little direct hlame for them, Low- ever much tlie general conneil at London might try to whitewash the viUanies of tiie insurgents, and to blacken the deeds of the government's army: and the members of it at Paris, as far as we can discover, were not among those wlio ap- proved of the bumiEg of the public buildings in Paris, or of tLe murder of the hostages, that most fiendish of crimes. The question is r.ot an easy one to resolve, nor have we manv materials for a -atisfactory solution ; but, as far as we can discover, the case stands thus : 1. The authorities of the International appear to have taken, before the war, no active part in bringing it on. ^WTiat individuals may have wi-hed or done, they were not resfw:>nsih>Ie for these horrors. At the congi-ess of the Hajrue the delesates from Spain, Belgium, and the Federa- tion of the Jura proposed to do away with the general council. Tliey asserted that its present power was t>:. great, and that a bureau of statisti- cal correspondence would be enough for the vratits of the Association. Thev added th^t •• the sen- woekingmen's associatiox. loo eral council would never lead men to the barri- cades. They had thus far neither instigated an insurrection nor organized one ; but, on the con- trary, taken hold of things in a repressive way. The majority in the congress replied that the general comicil did not exist for the purpose of initiating a revolution. They appeared on the scene only to give help, as in the strike vi the bronze-workers at Paris, that in Newcastle, etc. If it had not done enough, the cause lay in its limited power " (from Jiiger). 2. The Commune of Paris was ejected by the revolutionarj'^ body in possession of the city, on the 26th of ilarch, 1S71, after the preliminary peace of Feb. 26th, made by the legislative body at Versailles with the Prussians. The Commune consisted normally of eighty representatives of the quarters of the " arrondissements "' of the city. To this body belonged a large number of socialists, but a minority of the members of the International. These last, however, seem to have been the most moderate, the most able, of the representatives in the Commune. A French , authority says that " in the brief history of the Commune the members of the International played the most serious and the least violent role. They furnished the Commune with men of ad- ministration and theory — such as Theisz at the posts ; Frankel in the department of industry ; VaiUant in that of public instruction ; Beslay in 156 THE' INTERNATIONAL the Bank ; Vesinier in the Officiel [journal of tlie Commune], who gave for a moment to this un- principled and aimless emeute an appearance of regularity and life : they voted intrepidly against violent measures, against the committee of pub- lic safety. They pursued the object which the socialists had in view throughout. 'We ought not to forget,' said Frankel, in the session of May 12th, ' that the revolution has been made exclu- sively by the working-class. If we do nothing for this class, I see no reason for the existence of the Commune.' And it was not until this social- ist minority protested, on the 16th of May, against the revolutionary dictatorship of Pyat, Kigault, and their fellows, and declared that it would no longer sit in the Hotel de Ville, that Kigault and Urbain dared, the day after, to propose and have put to vote the law concerning the host- ages." May I add another important citation from the same source ? " There were in the revolt of 1871 three distinct phases : it was called forth and exe- cuted by the republican element (1) with no other programme than maintenance of the republic ; was then made use of and organized by the so- cialistic element (2), which brought to it the con- siderable support of the International ; it then fell rapidly into the hands of revolutionists proj)- erly so called (3). This sad evolution brought into power successively the central committee of woekingmen's association. 157 tlie national guard, the Commune of Paris, and the committee of pnbhc safety." * It must be added, hoM-ever, tliat in Paris the International identiiied itself with the Commune and the rev^olution against the Assembly at Ver- sailles. One of its best members, Tolain, who, in fact, was one of the founders of the Associa- tion, had been chosen a member of the French Assembly and took his seat. The federation or section to which he belonged passed a vote, after the establishment of the Commune, that he should resign his place in the national legislature and adhere to the Commune, or lose his status in the International, thus making opposition to the actual organization of the French state a condi- tion of membership in that body. 3. After the murder of the hostages, the de- struction of public buildings, and the attempted burning of the city, the general council at Lon- don published a manifesto " to all the members of the Association in Europe and the United States." Their object is to put the best face possible on the transactions during the capture of Paris, and to lay the blame on the soldiers of the gov- ernment and on M. Thiers. "In war, they say, fire is an entirely righteous weapon. Buildings occupied by an enemy are bombarded only to set * La Commnne, pp. 8, 9. By Bourloton et Robert. Paris, 1872. 158 THIS INTEENATIONAL them on fire. The Commune used fire, in the strictest sense of the word, as a means of de- fence." The putting to death of the hostages was the fault of the government at Yersailles, who refused to give up Blanqui in exchange for Arch- bishop Darboy and a large number of clerical and other persons. A strange operation this, to seize upon a large number of innocent men within the town, peaceable persons who had no connection with the enemy outside, and make them hostages for a single man taken in war. We have no space to dwell on this manifesto further, except to say that by its malignant spirit and useless palliation of crimes on which man- kind look with horror, it made them its own. It hurt the cause for which it was written. Two of the coiincil gave up their places on account of it. It gave ground to the French government for the enactment of a law against all who should be- come members of the International "Working- men's Association, or any other society with simi- lar doctrines, or who should aid and co-operate in spreading its doctrines or letting it have a hall for the purposes of meeting, etc. The effect of the events at Paris was — whether the impression were true or not — to identify the International with bloody insurrections against established order and to keep it under the in- spection of the police in almost every country in Europe. Henceforth it would tend more woekingmen's association. 159 and more to become a secret society, and, there- fore, would have less efficiency, would dwin- dle away, would lose principle, and become des- perate. 160 LEADIXG FEATCKES OF CHAPTEE Y. L LEADrSGr FEATTTBES OF THE THEORY OF AfAUT "We liave alreadv made the remark that there ■wei-e two changes in the direction which socialism took after the revohitions in ISiS. One of them was, that it became more international, and sti-ove to unite the operatives of Era-ope in a common movement. The other was. that it made the field of political economy in a greater degi-ee the battle- ground for the new order of things. "VTe do not mean to say that this branch of social philosophy had not been already used as an annorj- of wea- pons against the existing relations of capital and labor; or that the socialists of all countries had previously been entirely isolated in their action ; bnt that these changes of direction are more , ob^-ions, and played a more important part after the period indicated than before. The Interna- tional movement in its first and most active period, down to IS 72, we have already consid-. ered, and have seen that Marx, witli other Ger- mans, had much to do with it. The same emi- THE THEOEY OF MAEX. 161 nent socialist gave to the theory and claims of socialism the form which at the present time is most cm-rent, especially in Gernia.iy. It will be our endeavor to give the leading features of his economic theory, so far as they are necessary for the understanding of the present standpoint of the leading socialists and of their party. In 1859 Marx gave to the world a small work, entitled "For the Criticism of Political Econ- omy;" and in 1867 an enlargement and continua- tion of the same, under the title of " Capital : a Critique on Political Econom3^" The first vol- ume, which is all that has appeared, and which contains only Book First, "The Process of the Production of Capital," appeared first in 1867, and again in 1873, somewhat enlarged, so as to form a volume of 822 pages. The work, written in the dialect of the Hegelian philosophy, with a terminology of its own, is not readily understood, and is more like a production of Thomas Aquinas than like an essay of Cairnes or Eoscher. In the preface to the first edition Marx complains that Lassalle, in his work attacking Schulze-Delitzsch, is guilty of seriously misunderstanding it. I must endeavor, with the help of others, to present the simplest outline that I can of the most fundamen- tal points in Marx's work, which rest on no newly discovered truths, but on such as Adam Smith and Ricardo long since made familiar to the stu- dents of political economy. 1£2 LEADING FEATHEES OF *^ Tlie principal lever of Marx against the present v^ form of industry, and of the distribution of its results, is the doctrine that value — that is, value in exchange — is created by labor alone> Xow this value, as ascertained by exchanges in the market or measvu-ed by some standard, does net actually all go to the laborer, in the shape of -^ages. Perhaps a certain number of yai-ds of cotton cloth, for instance, when sold, actually pay for the wages of laborers and leave a surplus, which the employer appropriates. Perhaps six hours of labor jper d^xm might enable the laborer to create products enough to support himself and to rear up an average family ; but at present he has to work ten hours for his subsistence. Where do the results of the four additional hours go ? To the employer, and the capitalist from whom the employer borrows money ; or to the employer \i\o also is a capitalist and invests his capital in his works, with a view to a future return. The laborer works, and brings new workmen into the worid, who in turn do the same. The tendency of wages being toward an amount just suiBcient for the maintenance of the labor, there is no hope for the futm-e class of laborers. Xor can compe- tition or concurrence help the matter. A concur- rence of capitalists will tend to reduce wages to the minimmn, if other conditions remain as they were before. A concurrence of laborers may raise wages above the living point for a while; bnt THE THEORY OF MARX. 1(53 these fall again, throngli the stimulus which high "wages give to the increase of popiilation. A gen- eral fall of profits may lower the price of articles used by laborers ; biit the effect of this is not to add in the end to the laborer's share. He can live at less expense, it is true, but he will need and wUl get lower wages. Thus the system of labor and capital is a system of robbery. The capitalist is an "expropriator" who must be "ex- propriated," as Marx expresses it. A just system can never exist as long as wages are determined by free contract between laborers and employers ; that is, as long as the means of carrying on pro- duction are ia pri\'ate hands. The only cure for the evils of the present industrial system is the destruction of private property — so far, at least, as it is used in production ; and the substitution of the state, or of bodies or districts controlled by the state, for the private owner of the means of production. Instead of a number of classes in society, especially instead of a hourgeolsie and a proletariat, there must be but one class, which works directly or indirectly for the state, and re- ceives as wages what the state decides to give to them. The state, it is taken for granted, will give in return for hours of labor as much as can be afforded, consistently with the interests of future labor and with the expenses necessary for cariying on the state system itself. Wliether wages under this kind of social order will be really 1G4 LEADING FEATtTEES OF greater than they are now ; whether the amount of comforts and of enjoyments will be increased — these questions we may consider hereafter. We now content ourselves with remarking that the laborer has and can have no effective choice in regard to employment, or amount of wages, or place of abode, if the state is to be the great em- ployer and capitalist. His work must be forced work ; and there must be a return to what is, in substance, the same as mediaeval serfdom, when the serf owned no land and worked part of the time to maintain his master and a part of the time to maintain himself. Marx, if we are not in an error, nowhere shows the injustice of private property ; but, rather, as- smnes that it is not an institution of natural law. Nor does he expound the steps by which the " ex- propriator is to be expropriated " — a maxim which would seem to denote restitution of property to its natural owner, and hence, the right of the state to be the supreme ovraer of all property. When this is assumed, the only way of getting rid of the evils of the present social plan is a wholesale confiscation of private property, or the abolition of the right of inheritance, which would even- tually bring about the same result ; or confiscation, not taking effect all at once, so as to pauperize the property -holder, but making him some compensa- tion for a term of years. We have not found any declarations of Marx as to the practical way . THE THEOET OF MAEX. 165 of introducing the socialistic state, which is cer- tainly a matter of very vast importance. 13 ut to this we shall recur in the sequel. We had intended to give our readers some idea of the system of Marx and an explanation of his new and most ingeniously contrived technical terms ; but the attempt within our limits -would be hopeless, and we should reach nothing really original. We shall confine our remarks to the fundamental principle that whatever is exchanged is work put into products. " It is only the quan- tum of socially necessary work," says he, "or the work-time socially necessary for the production of a value in use, which determines its amount of value " (i. e., of its value in exchange). " Wares in which equally great quantities of work are con- tained, or which can be produced in the same work-time, have, therefore, the same amount of value. The value of a ware has the same propor- tion to the value of another ware, as the time necessary for the production of the one has to the time necessary for the production of the other." It is, indeed, true that the same amount of labor incorporated in two " wares " or articles will give them equal value in exchange, so far as the factor of labor comes into the estimate ; but it i.^ not true that the amount of labor is the only source of value. It is impossible to count hours' work in different employments as having the same value ; or to put difficult or dangerous work by 1G6 LEADING FEATURES OF the side of easy or safe work, as though they ought to be subjected to the same measure ; or to gi\e equal rewards to intellectual and artistic work and to that performed by the common operative. Then, again, taste displayed in a pro- duction of labor will give it a preference over one where the pattern or mode of execution is clumsy. The same labor may be spent on an ugly calico as on a pretty one ; but in no state of society — not even in a socialistic republic — will the ugly one exchange with other commodities on equal terms Avith the handsome one. In the same way in other cases, supply and demand af- fect all the objects brought into market, on ac- count of their plenty or scarcity, or on account of their different capacity to gratify some desire of man. But it is far more to our purpose to remark that the employer is a vital factor in all work which requires time for its completion, which is conducted on a large scale, which requires many hands and careful supervision, and which needs knowledge of the money market, of the labor market, of public taste and public demand. Nor is the employer necessary in the present relations only of the laborer and the employer ; but, what- ever be the form of society, he or somebody dis- charging his functions will be found necessary. Some such man could not be dispensed with in the co-operative industry of workmen. One or THE THEORY OF MABX. 167 more of their number would be required to do those duties which are necessary in order to suc- cessful production. And so, if the state shall ever take the place of all other employers and capitalists, it will not fail to need supervisors and agents without number, in procuring, for instance, raw material, in keeping up instruments of pro- duction, in paying laborers for their hours' toil, in deciding what will best suit the market, in keep- ing accounts, in providing for sales. The importance of the employer is also shown by the fact, common enough, that many who start a manufacturing business fail, because they have not the ability or judgment or knowledge that is requisite for success. No skill or industry of the operatives themselves can render the employer useless, and it is on his ability or want of ability that everything depends. If he is not a capital- ist, he must, also, provide funds by borrowing from some capitalist for the raw material and for the wages, which are paid before the products are finished and ready for sale. He must establish connections with men who can sell the products ; he must be able to judge what products it is most advantageous to manufacture ; he must thus cal- culate well the future probabilities as to quantity and kind of products ; his taste and judgment, to a great extent, makes products salable ; — he must, in short, be a far-seeing man, with a general's ability to dispose of all the parts of his army, so 168 LEADCTG FEATTEES OF that they shall support one another. He, finally, take? all risks npon himself, while the operatives are generally sure of their wages. ]S'ow, the question is : Can or should the man on whom so much depends be thrown out of cal- culation and treated as of no account ? Is it not for the interests of all that he should have a con- siderable share — if the years work turns out well — ^in the proceeds of the articles which he, in fact, has greatly contributed to create ' And will not, for the ino-t part, his profits go to the benefit of labor, and by accumulation of profits, cheapen the prices of all commodities, and in the end benefit the entire community, laborers and others ( This is but a balance against the risks and losses to which employers and capitalists are STibjec-t, and which are disastrous to laborers, although they receive their full amount of wages. The measure of remuneration for work is time, according to Marx's system. The differences of influence npon the amount produced by skilled and unskilled, efiicient and inefficient work, by a capacity to meet the ends for which a particular industry is set on foot, and by labor little above bmte force, are not estimated. AVork is work, and all who work an hour are paid alike. Tlie treatment of the superintendent i~ in confoi-mity with this kind of equalization. If he is fit for the business, his management alone meets the ends of united industry in a special form. But if he THE THEOEy OF MARX. 169 is the pivot on whieli everything tnms, he ought in justice to be rewarded for the success of the undertaking, unless we lay it down that the end of labor is to support life, and no one has a claim to anything more. To this might be added, that the amount of re- muneration to the capitalist and employer is a small portion of the whole product obtained by the joint agency of capital and labor. Mr. Edward Atkinson, a most competent judge, says that " in the first division those who do the actual work of production, either of the raw material or of the finished article, must get ninety-five to ninety- seven parts, and the owner of capital only three to five." And from these three to five parts taxes and private expenses must be dra\vn. And Mr. MiU, in the chapter on Sociahsm, recently published, remarks that the remuneration of capi- tal, as such, in Great Britain, is measured by the interest on the funds, which is about thi-ee and one-third per cent. All above this is to be re- ferred to the employer's wages of superintend- ence, to various risks, and other causes. If there were any other plan which could bring more wages to operatives and more prosperity to all parts of society, let it be by all means tried at once. Suppose that all the profits were paid over to the operatives ; would that mitigate any of the evUs of society? By no means. On the con- trary, all capital would be withdrawn from active 8 170 LEADING FEATUEES OF use, for no employers would work and undergo risks for nothing. We come, then, to the conclusion that work' has no just claim to the entire results of produc- tion. How much of those results shall it appro- priate ? Does justice or the good of society de- mand that it shall have an amount which may be equal to the supply of the laborers' necessities ; or ought it to be more, ought it to be very niuch more ? Prof. Cairnes says that he is " unaware of any rule of justice applicable to the problem of distributing the produce of industry," and that " any attempt to give effect to what are considered the dictates of justice which should involve, as a means toward that end, a disturbance of the fun- damental assumptions on which economic reason- ing is based — especially those of the right of pri- vate property and the fi-eedom of individual in- dustry — would, in [his] opinion, putting all other than material considerations aside, be inevitably followed by the destruction or indefinite curtail- ment of the fund itself from which the remunera- tion of all classes is derived." Some of the workingmen in Germany, who have been led to embrace socialistic views, seem to expect that in the new socialistic world of the future all the returns from labor will go to the laborer ; for instance, that a year's production of cotton cloth, consisting of fifty million yards, at ten cents the yard, or $5,000,000, would have no THE THEORY OF MAEX. 171 deductions made from it by the new employer — ■ the state. Bat tliis is as far as possible from the truth, unless the state can provide raw material, machinery, and buildings, and do all the work which an employer now does, from some other f imd. Kor is this all ; for the state must provide for its own proper expenses as a political body, besides those incurred in its capacity of an em- ployer, out of the avails of the workingman's industry. It would be possible, indeed, to pay all alike for work-time, to put the employer or supervisor and the most unskilled workmen on the same level, 4a yiitg out of the account capacity and the importance of operations. Whether in practice this would work well or ill, there can be but one opinion. n. FEKDINAIID LASSALLK AND THE GEBMAN WOKKINGMEN'S TINION. Maex and Lassalle were the two leaders in the German socialistic movement ; but the former became a cosmopolite in his principles, while the other was a German to the end of his career. They differed widely in their characteristics. Marx is cold and bitter. He is more of a philos- opher than of an orator; he has not figured so much in congresses and public debates as in lay- ing plans for spreading social doctrines. Lassalle Le^ f 172 FEEDINAND LASSALLE AND THE was an ardent and ambitious, as well as a pleasnre- loving man ; was fond of admiration, and knew how to draw to himself the warm sympathies of the people. Marx went as far as the principles and logic of his socialism could carry him. Las- salle went half way in his socialistic efforts ; lay- ing down principles which in the hands of others might overturn society, but aiming in his own efforts at no direct results, and planting the seeds of thought in the future, as if the triumph of his ideas were a great way off. In political economy he was by no means as strong as Marx ; but in historical and juristic science was much his supe- rior. He was, indeed, a man of splendid endow- ments, and only needed self-control to make one of the most eminent jurists or scholars of his native land. But he was driven by contrary forces, so that he fell short of what he could have accomplished in any one direction; and his end disclosed his weakness. A man who is at once a scholar, an orator, and a man of pleasure, cannot do much that will last. Yet his high endow- ments, his almost sovereign position at the head of his party, and his qualities which gave him power over common men, made him the idol of one party among the German socialists, while he was undervalued and disliked by the other. Lassalle was born in Breslau, in 1825, the son of a rich Jewish merchant, who destined him for the same employment ; but, preferring a life of GERMAN WOEKINGMEn's UNION. 173 stndy, he betook himself to the university, where he pursued philosophy and law. At Berlin, where he intended to settle as a private teacher, he awakened the highest admiration of William von Hmnboldt and Boeckh. lieinrich Heine, whom he saw at Paris, in 1845, introduced him to Varnhagen von Ense, in these terras : "He is a young man of the most distinguished endow- ments, with the most thorough learning, the most extensive knowledge, the greatest acuteness that have ever come under my notice. To the richest power of expression he unites an energy of will and a skill in action which astonish me." To this he adds that " Lassalle is a genuine son of the modern time, which will have nothing to do with self-restraint and discretion." Lassalle's life was diverted from its original purpose by an acquaintance, in 1815, with the Countess of Hatzfeld, a Berlin beauty, forty years old, who was then involved in a suit for divorce against her husband. He took her part as her coimsel, and spent the best portion of eight years in caiTying the case to a successful issue. In 1846 he managed to get possession of a casket containing documents important for his client, and was tried for moral complicity in a theft; biit was acquitted, on the ground that the theft was not foreseen by him but originated among the servants of the countess. This suit led to lasting intimacy between the parties. He received — as IT-i FEEDIXAXD LASSALLE AND THE F. Mehring, in his " Social Democracy,'" says — a yearly income of five thousand thalers from the lady. LassaUe entered into his relations with the countess in real sympathy ; and he said, a little before his death, in a letter to Iluber, that his interyention in her affairs was the fact in his life of which he should ever continue to be proud. But they brought him into a cu-cle which his Clitics call impure ('" unsavher "), and he, there- fore, comes before the world in no favordble light. " Is there," asks an eminent German, yon Treitschke, "abjeetness more yulgar than dema- gogy oyer truffles and champagne ; than the ca- rousing and unchaste life of an adventurer, which was led by this man who played the part of the saWour of the suffering? Eyen in France good society would, without mercy, haye rejected every one who took part in the elegant gj'psy life of the Hatzfeld circle. Only we Germans, with our in- complete social ethics, are more tolerant." UntU the spring of 1857 LassaUe lived at Diis- seldorf . Here he took part in movements which brought him into connection with Marx, Engels, and other social leaders ; and ia the revolutionary year, ISiS, was unsuccessfully accused of inciting the people to armed violence. He was, although not convicted, held under arrest, and was subse- quently sentenced, for a very trifling offence, to six months' imprisonment. In 1857, having now GERMAN WOKKINGMEn's UNION. 175 completed the law-suit of the Countess of Hatz- feld, he returned in disguise to Berlin, and ero long obtained leave, through Wm. von Humboldt, to remain in that city. In the same year he pub- lished a work, which he had written some time before, entitled " The Philosophy of lleraclitus the Obscure, of Ephesus," of which Ueberweg says that " it is the most thorough monograph on the subject, but that the author is at times too much given to Hegelianizing." In the ensuing years appeared his rhetorical drama, entitled " Francis of Sickingen," " The Italian "War and the Task of Prussia " (1859), " Fichte's Political Legacy" (1860), with "The Philosophy of Fichte and the Meaning of the Spirit of the German People " (1862). These last-mentioned works were written to propagate his idea of a centralized Ger- man democracy. In 1861 he published his " Sys- tem of Acquired Rights," in two volumes, the object of which was to show that certain rights of vast importance — such as property and inheri- tance — are really historical, and not jural ; that is, that they arose in circumstances which justified their recognition, but that certain other circ^^m- stances might require their abolition. The sec- ond volume is occupied with the question of in- heritance. This is a very learned attack on the present constitution of society, and an argument to prove that a social state may have a right to exist. In this work he already caught up the 176 FEEDINAND LASSALLE AND THE doctrine of Marx, first announced in his " Critique of Political Economy " (1859), that the value of work acquired in production must wholly belong to the workman. A little after the publication of this work Las- salle delivered a lecture, which was piiblished under the title of " The Workingmen's Pro- gramme," on the special connection of the pres- ent period of history with the idea of the labor- ing class. The object of this was to show the rise and growth of the classes that lay outside of feudalism, from the feudal times until the pres- ent. The political condition and importance in society of these classes has been growing until now. First the hout'geosie and the men of capi- tal emerged from the insignificance they had in the feudal ages. Then the laboring class, res- cued from serfdom, began to claim power and the reform of social evils. We are at this point of a progress which must of necessity go onward by revolution or reform. In May, 1863, Lassalle founded the German "Workingmen's Union," which was somewhat more than a year older than the International. Its object confined it to the States of the German Confederation, and it arose " out of the conviction that only by general, equal, and direct suffrage a satisfactory representation of the social interests of the German operative class can be brought about," etc. Lassalle was to preside over this Union for GERMAN WOEKINGMEN's UNION. 177 five years with almost autocratic power — sub- ject, indeed, to a committee or council, but to one scattered over Germany, which could seldom be brought together. This post he filled with an energy and a consumption of vital force that few, if any, agitators have equalled. His writings from this period until his death were devoted to social questions. His speeches and addresses were nu- merous. The working class heard him gladly. He effected a separation between the socialists of his party and those persons who looked for relief to the plans suggested by the Progressive Party, as it was called ; or, in other words, he detached the workingmen from the hourgeosie, or third estate. But his success was by no means as great as he hoped for. The vital power of the move- ment was concentrated in the head, and conld not be sufficiently diffused through the members. The International continually asked, in its num- berless meetings, local and general : " What shall we do ? " They had definite aims ; but Lassalle's organization did little more than convoke men to listen to a powerful and eloquent chief. His po- sition, again, which confined the Union to Ger- many, making it simply national, was a false one. As another remarks, socialism, as such, is univer- sal ; and, if it is the true remedy for social evils, it ought to be proclaimed everywhere. The Union, again, by means of personal rivalries, was brought into a false relation toward the Interna- 178 FEEDINAND LASSALLE AND THE tional. They could not unite and they could not both thrive in Germany. Finally, when univer- sal suffrage was introduced into the North Ger- man Confederation, in 1867, the main object for which the Union was founded was accomplished ; for its objects, or the objects of the party repre- sented by it, could be either attained in the Keichs- tag, through its representatives there, or some- thing, beyond that which was contemplated in the existing organization, must be sought for. It is not strange, then, that the small fruits of his agitation were extremely disheartening to Lassalle. His discouragement appears strikingly in an extract from a letter written in the last year of his life : "New supplies of money I cannot get ; and just as little can I let the Union go to the ground as long as hope beckons to me in the political heaven. ... I am deadly weary ; and, strong as my constitution is, it trembles to the very marrow. My excitement is so great that I can no longer sleep by night, I roll about until five o'clock, and arise with headache, ut- terly exhausted. I am overworked, overst^ued, over- wearied to a fearful degree. The mad effort to complete the ' Bastiat-Schulze ' [one of his latest works against Mr. Schulze von Delitzsch, leader of the Progressive Party], be- sides everything else, in three months, the deep and painful discovery of my delusion, the gnawing internal vexation with which the indifference and apathy of the working class, taken as a whole, fills me, are together too much even for me." In the summer of 1864 he attended the festi- val of the foimdation of the Union, which was GEEMAN WOEKINGMEN's UNION. 179 celebrated in Rhenish Prussia. Here he was re- ceived by the workingmen with tumultuous ap- plause. Next he visited several watering-places of Germany and Switzerland. His death was due to his unregulated mind, which gave itself up to pride and passion. Pie had become enam- ored of a young lady in Munich, who rejected his addresses, preferring another man. Lassalle chal- lenged his rival, and was shot dead by him, Au- gust 31, 1864. No one can scruple to call Lassalle a socialist in the sense of that word which implies a denial of the right of private individual property and a desire to make the working class the only order in the state. But he did not express his views very clearly, and had no plans of immediate change in the institutions of society. His policy was to agitate ; to set the minds of the laboring class at work in preparation for a mild and peace- ful overturning in the future. One of his plans, which is not absolutely socialistic, was the found- ing of productive associations, which diffei-ed from Louis Blanc's workshops mainly in this, — that they were not got up by the state, but by unions of operatives, on the credit of the state. There was also an insurance union embraced in the pro- ject, for the purpose of making up local losses of the associations by the help of proiits elsewhere made. The managers of the several productive associations in every place were to pay weekly ISO FERDINAND LASSALLE AND TUE wages to the laborers, and would be ;inited to- gether in one vast union. That this plan was practicable and could be extremely lucrative "could be denied," he says, "only by the igno- rance to which it is unknown that both in Eng- land and in France numeroiis workingmen's as- sociations subsist, which depend entirely on the efforts of the isolated • laborers who belong to them, and yet have reached a high degree of pros- perity." We believe that this device is altogether discarded by the most advanced socialists. Lassalle made more of the " iron law " of wages in his agitations than of any other single doctrine of political economy. lie explains it thus : " The iron economical law, which in existing relations, under the control of supply and demand for work, determines the wages of work, is this : that the average wages always continue reduced to the means of living which ai-e required in a nation, according to the usages there prevailing, for per- petuating existence and propagating children.." There is nothing to complain of in this statement of the law, except first that wages are generally above the sum necessary for supporting and sup- plying labor — that is, are above the minimum ; and that more has been paid on the average is shown by strikes and savings-banks, by the great contri- butions to trades-unions, and the vast sums spent for useless or hurtful drinks. But, again, is he not in a great error when he imputes this " iron GERMAN WOEKINGMEn's UNION. ISl. law " to the relations in society as it now exists, to supply and demand, and free contract between laborer and employer ? Must it not be called a law of nature, inevitably growing out of tlie in- citements to the increase of popidation in the working class ? j^llicardo's doctrine of wages was founded on the law of population, as interpreted by Malthus. As far as we can see, it might just as much affect a society where the government was the sole employer and capitalist, as it affects a society where free contract and wages paid by the employer are in vogue. A high remuneration paid by the state to all its laborers — that is, to the whole population of the social state — ^would en- coiu-age population just as high wages do now. And there is this advantage on the side of present usage, that now the laborer feels some responsi- bility for rearing a family ; but then he woidd lean wholly on the state. This could be prevent- ed only by the despotical act, on the state's part, of making marriage a crime, if contracted with- out the state's license, or by preventing it in some other way. in. BOCIALISM IN GERMANy SINCE LASSALLB. After Lassalle's death the election of persons of much less importance to the oifice of presi- dent of the Workingmen's Union, and the in- 1S2 SOaALISil IS GEB3lASr STSCE LAS5ALLE. trignes of the Countess of Hatzfeld, Ly which the members of the Union were divided iuto two factions, retarded its progress ; but the choice of Alexander Schweitzer, iu 1S67, brought back a hope of prosperity. He was from Frankfort, had studied law, and was editor of the Social Jjemocrat, the organ of the Union, ilehring, in liis" German Social Demcxracy." calls him " a Toluptuary, full of e-n/i-'d, who was too prudent and of too strong a character to waste himself wholly in sensual pleasure."' He had, during his five years of official connection with the Union, enemies withiu and without its pale. The friends of the International iu Germany felt that their time was come to unite all the socialists of that race under one banner. They professed to sus-_ pact him of being in secret understanding with tlie government of Pmssia : and his political views, favoring the centralization which was ef- fected in 1^07. were diametrically opposite to those of German Internationalists, such as Lieb- knecht and BebeL This faction first managed to alter the constitution of the Union, so as to cAr'nljii the power of its president : but when Schweitzer persuaded the members to put thincrs in their old place again, and effected a junction with the Hatzfeld faction, a new organization, outside of the Union and antagonistic to it, was felt to be necessary. At a general assembly Lieb- knecht declared that Schweitzer must be got rid SOOIAIJSil IN GERMANY SINCE LASSALLE. 183 of, as one who was seeking, in the interests of the Prussian government, to prevent united action aruong the workingmen. In a congress sum- moned by the International party, and to which the members of the Union were invited, after violent disputes, the " Social Democratic AVork- ingmen's Party " was founded by Liebknecht and his friends, in August, 1S69. In the other organi- zation Schweitzer held his own for several years. One of his plans was to build up a general sys- tem of ti-ades - unions, and thus to encourage strikes. These differed fi-om Lassalle's produc- tive associations in this, that they could act un- der the existing conditions of industry. Strikes were not promoted as directly favoring socialistic changes, which they could not effect ; but as cal- culated to awaken the class feeling of operatives, and as helping to do away with some of the exist- ing grievances. But strikes met with encourage- ment also from the Party of Progress, which had no social leanings and considered private capital necessary, yet on humane principles strove to meliorate the condition of the working class. In 1S71 Schweitzer failed of being re-elected to the office of president of the Union, and was succeeded by a man named Hasenclever. Its prosperity after this depended much on its jour- nal, the new Social Democrat. The programme of the Social Democratic Workingmen's Party, constituted at Eisenach, in 184 60CLAXISM IN GEEMANT SINCE LASSALLE. 1S69, seems to have been shrewdly intended to be so indefinite, and to have such a sqnint toward the two opposing parties, that it could succeed in detaching numbers of adherents of Lassalle from their old faith without their being aware that the J we're deserting their colors. Some of the principles, which every member of tliis party binds himself to accept, are "equal rights and equal duties of all, and the doing away of all class snpremae^)' ; " the getting rid of the present method of production (by means of wages), and the securing, by means of associated work, to each laborer of the fuU returns of his labor. On the ground that the social question cannot be separated from the political, they aim at iti solu- tion in the democratic state, where alone it is pos- sible. " In view of the fact that tlie freedom of work is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, which embraces all lands where modem society exists, the Social Democratic TVorking- men's Party considers itself, so far as the laws of the [Xorth German] Union allow, to be a branch of the International "Workingmen's Association, to the plans and efforts of which it gives its adhe- sion." The immediate demands to be put forward in the •■ agitation " carried on by the party are such as these: (1.) The universal, equal, direct, and secret right to election of aU men twenty years old into the parliament, the diets of the single SOCIALISM IN GERMANY SINCE LASSALLE. 185 states, the provincial and communal assemblies, as well as into all other representative bodies. To the representatives thus elected sufficient paj^ is to be allowed. (2.) Introduction of direct legisla- tion by the people — that is, the right of proposiiij.' laws and of rejecting laws passed by legislatures. (3.) Abolition of all privileges of rank, birth, and confession. (4-.) The institution of a militia, in- stead of the standing army. (5.) Separation of the church from the state, and of the school from tlie church. (6.) Obligatory instruction in com- mon schools, and gratuitous instruction in all pub- lic institutions for polite education. (7.) Inde- pendence of courts, introduction of juries, of courts composed of experts, of public and oral judicial proceedings, and of gratuitous admiais- tration of justice. (8.) Abolition of all laws re- lating to the press, to unions, and coalitions ; the -definition of a normal day's woi-k ; limitation of the amount of work done by wc mien ; and pro- hibition of the work of children. (9.) Aboli- tion of all indirect taxes, and introduction of a single direct, progressive income tax and inlieri- tance tax. (10.) Help from the state to associa- tions (of laborers), and the state's credit for free productive associations under democratic guaran- tees. This last demand was, without doubt, inserted to please the followers of Lassalle, and could not have been acceptable to the Internationalists of 186 SOCIALISM IN GEEMANT SINCE LASSALLB. tlie party. Many of the others are reasonable and just. That under Ko. 9 throws the burden of taxation on the rich, and could be used for the pur- pose of taxing inheritances to such a degree that they would fall to the state. The International was approved of to suit the views of the majority in the party ; but it was not altogether safe to de- clare the new association a branch of it, and hence the qualifying clause, " as far as the laws of the Union allow." An unqualified connection might become dangerous. The social nucleus of the whole programme lies in the declaration that the party strives to abolish the present method of pro- duction, and to secure to the workmen the full returns or yield of their labor. If this means, as it seems to mean, that the entire gross product ought to go to the laborer, it would be as absurd and impossible when the government should be- come the sole capitalist as it would be now. They can hardly intend to say that industry ought to be co-operative, and to keep the entire returns of labor as its reward, the laborers thus taking the place of the capitalist. In the Reichstag, or Parliament of the North German Confederation, and, after 1871, in that of United Germany, the two socialistic parties were represented by a few of their leading mem- bers. By having common enemies to contend with, they were led to overlook their less impor- tant differences and to live in peace. The govern- SOCIALISM IN GERMANY SINCE LASSALLE. 187 ment of Prussia, also, by its persecution, first of members of the "Workiiigmen's Union and tlien of tlie Workingmen's Party, brought them nearer to one another. Their differences, after the pas- sage of the Eisenach programme, were more owing to differences of organization than to dif- ferences of opinion. At length a plan of union was agreed upon by the principal men of the two associations, and accepted at Gotha, in May, 1875, hy the representatives there present. These repre- sented 15,000 paying members of the Lassalleans, or Workingmen's Union, and 9,000 of the others ; which shows that the former, after all their dis- asters, following the death of Lassalle, were still the more numerous organization in Germany. The acceptance of the Gotha programme virtual- ly extinguished the older party. Lassalle was de- feated, and the principles of the International were now to be predominant in Germany, not- withstanding its decline in the rest of Europe after the events of 1871 in Paris. The programme of Gotha differs from that of Eisenach not by introducing any new principle, but by being somewhat more positive and ex- plicit. It begins with declaring that "work is the source of all wealth and all culture ; and that, as work which is generally useful is only possible by means of society, the entire product of work belongs to society, that is, to all its members,— with an obligation to work common to all accord- 188 SOCIALISM IN GERMANY SINCE LASSALLE. ing to equal right, — to every one according to his reasonable wants." " In the society of the present the instruments of work are a monopoly of the class of capitalists, The dependence of the working class, which is due to this, is the cause of misery and servitude in all its forms." "The liberation of work requires that the means of production be converted into the com- mon property of society, and that there be an associational regulation of the sum total of work, with application of its results to the general use and a just distribution of its returns." " The liberation of work must be effected by the working class, which, over against all other classes, are only a reactionary mass." " Proceeding from these principles, the Social- istic Workingmen's Party of Germany, by all legal means, strives for the free state and the socialistic society ; for the breaking in pieces of the iron law of wages, by doing away with the system of working for wages ; by putting an end to making gain out of others ; by the removal of all social and political inequality." " The Socialistic Workingmen's Party of Ger- many, although directly acting within national limits, is aware of the international character of the workingmen's movement, and is resolved to fulfil all the duties thus laid on workingmen, in order to make the brotherhood of all men a reality." SOCIALISM IN GERMANY SINCE LASSALLE. 189 Then it is added, for the purpose of pleasing Xassalle's followers, that, "in order to pave the way to a solution of the social question," the party " demands the setting up of socialistic pro- ductive associations, to be assisted by the states and under the democratic control of the working people." These associations are to be called into life for [manufactm-ing] industry and for agricul- ture to such an extent that out of them the social- istic organization of the sum total of work may arise. The programme then sets forth certain points as foundations of the state, and makes certain demands for reform within the existing order of the state, which are not materially different from those of the Eisenach programme. The first paragraph of the declaration made at Gotha is open to more than one objection. Meh- ring, in his " Deutsche Socialdemocratie," criti- cises the expression, " to every one according to his reasonable wants." What does this vague phrase mean, and who is to be judge in the case ? So of righteous division of the proceeds of labor he says that this is what every society which has life in it regards as its duty. He adds that " an authentic interpretation of the canon of the party was represented as to be expected," which, how- ever, until now (IS 77) has not seen the light. " After a careful study of their literature, one can only say that the leaders of the movement have 190 SOCIALISM IN GEEMANY SINCE LASSALLE. decidedly different views respecting the meaning and comprehensiveness of the party programme." The very beginning of the programme seems to be altogetlier illogical and inconsequent. " Work is the source of all riches and culture. Work, having a general value, is onlj' possible in and through society. Therefore, the sum total of work belongs to society — that is, to all its mem- bers." Such are the fundamental propositions. But is it not possible to conceive of an individual iu a society making something that everybody else will be glad to have — a chair, for instance — without its belonging to society ? If so, does not the proposition beg the question that there is no such thing as private property ? Even before the meeting at Gotha, where these articles were accepted, the socialistic movement began to make steady progress. At least, the increase of votes given to the candidates of this party for seats in the Reichstag can be intei-preted on no other supposition. In the iirst Reichstag after the formation of the Gennan Empire there were but two socialist members. In the second (ISTi) there were nine, for whom 339,738 votes were cast. Yon Treitschke estimates that the whole strength of the party or factions, counting men, and youths too young to vote, may have ' then been about a million. The vote of 1877, when a new parliament was chosen, amounted, according to Mr. Bancroft Davis (in his correspon- SOCIALISM IN GERMANY SINCE LASSALLE. 101 donee M'ith the Department of State) to from six to eight hundred thousand. Recent ex'idences of political fanaticism, leading to the greatest crimes, may retard this progress for a time ; but it does not yet seem to have reached the highest flood tide. It is, however, quite probable that many vote for representatives of socialism who know little about its principles, either out of hatred to Prussia or for some other extraneous cause. The party at present has no concentrated strength; but consists chiefly of a large number of minor- ities and of a few masses which control their elec- tion districts. The zeal of the German socialists "in their cause is shown by two facts: one of which is that more than a hundred and fifty agitators — trained and schooled, and either drawing a full or partial salary for their services or working out of love to the cause, — can be said to be in the emplojnnent of the Workingmen's Party. The other fact is their activity in spreading their doctruie through the press. The central organ has 12,000 sub- scribers. Besides this, they have forty-one polit- ical sheets, one literary paper with a socialistic tone, and fourteen organs of trades - unions. Twenty-eight are printed by presses which social- ists have founded, of which fourteen exist at present (Mehring). Another sign of the growth of the Social Dem- ocratic Party is the fact tliat a number of profes- 192 SOCIALISM IN GEEMANT SINCE LASSALLE. sors in the universities who lecture on political economy — although they have not joined its ranlcs, and in some instances, at least, reject its leading doctrines — give to it in a certain sense the hand of fellowship. They go by the name of Katheder- socialisten (or socialists in the professor's chair), and have formed a union at Eisenach for "social politics." Among them are names well known to students in their science. Mehring (in his "Social Democracy") includes among them, as belonging to a school with leanings toward social- ism in the widest sense, Brentano, Scheel, Schmol- ler, Adolf Wagner ; in a narrower sense, Kodber- tus, Schaeffle, iF. A. Lange, and Dtihring. " This scientific socialism," he adds, " distinguishes itself by an uncommon number of interesting charac- ters ; but this advantage has a reverse side, in an entire want of agreement both as to their criti- cism of the present order of society and as to their positive demands. They have not made any lasting impression on the workingmen's move- ment. But it is scientific socialism which to-day fills all patriotic hearts with anxiety." One of these learned men has MTitten a little work, entitled the " Quintessence of Socialism," of which I propose to speak in the next chapter. MILL ON SOCIALISM. 193 APPENDIX on Mr. J. S. Mill's chapters on socialism, writ- ten in 1869, and published in the present year, 1879, in the Fortnightly Review. When Mr. Mill wrote the chapter on property, in his Political Economy, of which two sections are devoted to Communism and to St. Simon- ism and Fourierism, the problems touching labor and capital had only begun to be politically and socially important. In 1869 he formed a design of writing a book on the great social question, which was now showing the hold it was taldng on, the minds of philosophers and workingmen in various ways, 'especially by the progress of tlie International. Of this book only four chapters in their " first rough drafts " seem to have been com- posed. I give a very brief sketch of them here, the present work having already been written when they were first printed. Mr. MiU, after noticing the demands of work- ingmen in Great Britain, such as that wages should not depend on free contract, that " usm-y " should be abolished, and that land should not be private property, passes on to speak very briefly of the position taken by the same class on the Continent — a position which has been sufficiently explained in the text of this work. The great evils, of which socialists complain, are poverty, 194 MILL ON SOCIALISM. "little conneoted ■with, individual deserts," and competition. To competition of laborers, low ■wages are due ; to competition among producers, min and bankrnptCT. Botli these evils tend to in- crease ■with the increase of population : and none are benefited but landholders, capitalists, and re- ceivers of fixed money incomes. Wealth enables its owuei-s to undei-sell all other producers, and to engi-oss tlie labor of a coimtrv, subjecting the M-orkmen to such terms of pajment for labor as the employers offer. Mr. Mill fortifies his asser- tions regai-ding the attacks of the socialists on the existing oi-der of things by extensive quotations from Victor Considerant, the Fourierite, Eobert Owen, and Louis Blanc. He next examines the socialist objections to the present order of society ; one of which is that wages are low, and tend to fall still more. This assertion, he says. " is in opposition to all accurate information and to many notorious facts. It has yet to be proved that there is any country of the civilized world, where the ordinai-y wages of labor, estimated either in money or in ai-ticles of consumption, ai"e declining: while in many they are, upon tlie whole, on tlie increase — an in- crease which is becoming not slower but more rapid. The exceptions are temporary and con- fined to certain branches of industry which ai-e becoming superseded by others." The socialists, especially M. Louis Blanc, Mr. MILL ON SOCIALISM. 195 Mill goes on to say, seem to have fallen into tlie error, which Mai thus at first committed, "of supposing that, because population has a greater power of increase than subsistence, its jpressure iijpon subsistence must he always growing more severe.''^ " The tendency to over-population is a fact which communism, as well as the existing order of society, would have to deal with." "Experi- ence shows that in the existing state of society the pressure of population on subsistence, which is the principal cause of low wages, though a great, is not an increasing evil." And the prog- ress of ci\dlization has a tendency to diminish it by a more rapid increase of the means of em- ploying labor, by opening new countries to labor- ers, and by improving the intelligence and pru- dence of a people. It is, however, of course an open question what form of society has the great- est power of dealing successfully with the pres- sure of population on subsistence. Mr. Mill next remarks that even the most en- lightened socialists have an ivvperfect and one- sided notion of tlie worhiivjs of competition. " They forget that it is the cause of high as well as of low prices and values ; " the buyers of labor and of commodities compete mth one another, as well as the sellers. "When it is perfectly free on both sides, its tendency is to equalize, not to raise or lower, the prices of articles ; to level inequali- ties of remuneration, and to reduce all to a gen- 196 MILL OX SOCIALISM. eral average. And, particularly, if it keeps down the price of articles on v.-liich wages are expend- ed, tills is to the great advantage of those who depend on wages [when they are considered sim- ply as consumers]. Mr. Louis Blanc, and other socialists, affirm that low prices produced by competition are delusive, as leading to higher prices than before, and finally to the command of the market by the richest competitor. But the commonest experience, says Mr. Mill, shows that this state of things is wholly imaginary. Xo "important branch of industry ^r commerce, formerly divided among many, has become, or shows any tendency to become, the monopoly of a few." [But do not many smaller branches show it, and might not a combination of the strongest in important branches break down the rest 1<] Great joint-stock companies can keep up prices, and " some businesses pass out of the hands of smaller producers into fewer large ones ; but when they do this, prices are lowered by the sav- ing of cost." Competition, however, if a security for lower prices, is by no means a security for quality. On this point socialists have made out the existence of a great and growing evil. This evil Mr. Mill thinks to be capable of cure by laws against frauds of adulteration, and by cooperative pur- chase fi-om the wholesale merchants. Another misapprehension of socialists relates MILL ON SOCIALISM. 197 to the share of the product taken by others be- sides those who are directly engaged in the labor of production. " As long as a man derives an in- come from his capital, he has not the option of withholding it from the use of others." This in- come from capital is measured by interest, and in- terest apart from risk is in England about three and a third per cent. If a man were " to give up the whole of this to his laborers, who already share among them the whole of his capital, as it is annually reproduced, the addition to their weekly wages wouid be inconsiderable. Of what he obtains beyond three per cent " [Mr. Mill takes off one-third of one per cent, for risk], "a great part is insurance against the manifold losses to which he is exposed, and cannot be safely applied to his own use, but requires to be kept in reserve to cover those losses, when they recui*. The remain- der is properly the remuneration of his skill and industry — the wages of his labor of superinten- dence." " The present system," Mr. Mill continues, " is not, as many socialists believe, hurrying us into a state of general indigence and slavery ; on the contrary, the general tendency is toward the slow diminution " of existing evils. The author next passes on to the subject of the difficulties of socialism, making the natural dis- tinction between small communistic societies (distributed over an entire country, if the system 198 MILL ON SOCIALISM. should succeed), and the management of the whole productive industry of a state by the gen- eral government. The second (which is now the only plan of socializing society that is advocated) has, he thinks, all the difficulties which attend on the first and many more. The first has the ad- vantage that it can be brought into operation by degrees. The second, which must resort to force if necessary, requires in those who would support it both " a serene confidence in their own wisdom and a recldessness of other people's sufferings, which Robespierre and St. Just scarcely came up to." Yet "it has great elements of popularity which the more cautious form of socialism has not, because what it professes to do it promises to do quickly." Mr. Mill next considers the motives to exertion which would naturally exist in both these forms of socialistic life, and comes to the conclusion that they have no advantage, as far as the general body is concerned, while as respects the managing heads it is placed at a considerable disadvantage. [It is implied in this conclusion that the manager is chosen by the community, that he receives no especial remuneration above others, and that all work has the. same wages. As these conditions need not exist in small, volun- tary communities, like those which have been considered in our second chapter, and as the very contrast to, and separation from the outside world, which such societies present, may be a MILL ON SOCIALISM. 199 motive of some power, liis remarks do not f nlly apply to this kind of communities. Nor, again, do they necessarily apply to socialistic states, where the central power might, and probably would, ap- point all the managers and agents engaged in pro- duction and distribution. These would thus be government officers, naturally under the supervi- sion of higher authorities, and able to supervise the workingnien.J The motives, however, under communism, as Mr. Mill urges, in doing honest and efficient work, would be no stronger than those which now act on laborers ; and the principle of paying all workers and kinds of work alike, which seems to be necessary in socialistic produc- tion, may be in part superseded under the pres- ent form of industry [as by piece-work, by dis- missing, or rewarding, on a lower scale, the lazy or incompetent, by special rewards, like that of admitting the faithful or skilful to a share of the profits]. Another just criticism of the author is, that as private life in communistic associations would be brought in a most unexampled degree under the dominion of public authority, there woidd be less scope for the development of individual character and individual preferences, than has hitherto ex- isted among the full citizens of any state, belong- ing to the progressive branches of the human family. Yet Mr. Mill does " not seek to draw any in- 200 MILL ON SOCIALISM. ference against the possibility that communistic prodnetion is capable, at some futm-e time, of be- ing the form of society best adapted to the wants and circumstances of mankind." " The various schemes for managing the productive resom-ces of the country by public, instead of private agency have a case for trial, and some of them may eventually establish their claims to prefer- ence over the existing order of things ; but they are at present workable only by the elUe of man- kind, and have yet to prove their power of train- ing mankind at large to the state of improve- ment which they presuppose." [If they should turn out to establish their claims by and by, the utilitarian school of philosophers would find no difficulty in sacrificing the institution of prop- erty to the new Leviathan.] BCHAEFFLe's " QUINTESSENCE OF SOCIAUSil." 201 CHAPTER YI. I. SCHABFFLE'S "QUTNTESSENCB op SOCIAIISM." This short work of 69 pages aims to give a condensed account of what modern, especially German, socialism is in its leading principles, and of its consequences in a politico-economical re- spect. The author, who is an able and leading political economist of Southwestern Germany, shows a dispassionate, impartial spirit; although one cannot help getting the injpression that he is not decidedly averse to tlie movement which he describes. In the preface to his second edition he expresses the opinion that " the wealthy and cultivated classes are, at least, as much interested in the thorough improvement of the politico-eco- nomical organization of society as the proleta- rians are ; " and that in the restless, feverish strug- gles and uncertain issues of modem industrial ac- quisitiveness "families of wealth are not sure wliether they may not, in the next or in the third generation, themselves sink to the proletarian condition. They especially are threatened in 9* 202 sohaeffle's " quintessence of socialism." tlieir estates and family life by tlie existing state of things." Sounding thus a note of alarm, as if he would open the ejes of all to a new order of society in prospect, or, at least, possible, he asks, as his first question, what socialism is, and defines it as the substitution of "collective" capital for private capital ; that is, of the collective property of the community in the means of production. The col- lective oi'ganization of national work would set aside all concurrence, all competition, by putting the production and the distribution of all pro- ducts under official direction, either immediately or indirectly under the control of the state. For this end the sum of the needed supplies of every product must be fijsed by a current official estimate of the required necessaries, made by authorities having to do with the production and disposal of commodities ; and such data must lie at the foundation of the social plan of industry, The occasional deficiencies or excesses of objects produced, as compared with the wants or de- mands of every period, would need to be periodi- cally balanced by means of supplies laid up in public storehouses. It is plain that some such starting-point is ne- cessary in the system. But it is not equally plain that to meet wants in this way would be as effi- cient as the present plan, that of acting through the energy of individual persons and through pri- " QUINTESSENCE OF SOCIALISM." 203 vate, separate capital. Those who are familiar with Whately's beautiful discussion, — in which the supplies of the wants of London, through a series of public officers, are compared with similar sup- plies through private dealers, each having his own beat and being familiar with its necessities, — • will doubt whether free individual interest would not do the work which it does now, better than combined and, to a degree, enforced work. So that, unless the evils of the present system at some other point do not greatly overbalance its benefits, we must start with the impression that German socialism woidd from the first have a load greater than it could carry. On this plan in all operations of business, and, indeed, in all operations, the state, and the state alone, produces whatever is produced, and pro- vides, in the system of production, for a supply of whatever is consumed. A departure this the widest possible from the present system of pri- vate work and private capital. "The reader," says Mr. Schaeffle, "who has never concerned himself particularly with this revolutionary plan of organization, will scarcely comprehend it. I We ourselves have spent years in getting to the bottom of it. And yet this plan has already a party on its side, which, owing to its hot zeal, its enthu- siasm and a faith that removes mountains, to its compact organization and international diffusion, takes the lead of many other great parties, con- 204 SCHAEFFLE's " QUINTESSENCE OF SOCIALISM." stantly gains proselytes, and looks with the assur- ance of victory toward the future." " It is, in- deed, true that the leaders among the German socialists are perfectly aware that the agitation for the new collective order of things is in its be- ginnings ; that the present system of production must root out small proprietors, and well-nigh complete the plutocratic process of separating the people into a proletarian multitude and a few over-grown millionaires, before the masses, espe- cially the coimtry population and the small citi- zens, will or can assent to the piinciple of 'col- lectivism.' At such an early stage of the prog- ress of a movement reserve in making known a positive programme is not at all striking. All prudent leaders of parties have, at a like stage of their agitation, done the same." This caution, we may remark, is obviously necessary, for a detailed plan might contain par- ticulars which would make its execution impossi- ble or vastly enhance its difficulties. But, on the other hand, if society is to be overturned from its foundations, men will insist on seeing that ntter ruin does not stare them in the face ; that a new order of things is practicable ; that it involves far fewer evils than those which cling to the so- ciety of the present. To form such judgments, they must know more than that certain philoso- phers or partisans think that all will go right in the future. ' QUIXTESSKNCE OF SOCIALISM." 203 Althongli the socialists forbear to go into par- ticulars which do not flow out of their original and essential idea, they claim that time is work- ing with them in their movements. The days when the workman was the proprietor of his ma- chines and products, the days of liome-work and cotton-looms, have given way to vast engines and vast manufactories ; but the laborers, crowded in enormous establishments, are schooled and con- centrated as a politico-social force. And so, al- though the state's concentration of work, by the mechanism of general military sei-vice, is not ap- proved of by the leaders of ihe proletariat ; it is not looked upon as an obstacle in their way. The army serves as a school, which in the long run is far from being dangerous to socialism, which drills its soldiers of the future, while it makes the nations hostile on financial accounts to their rulers. Everything that measures off the masses as a separate whole, that includes in itself a public union of individual forces on a vast scale, has a close resemblance, in one respect, at least, to socialism. Thus bayonets and centralization are not safe reliances for existing social order,' since socialism may be forced to use them, and can use them most effectivelj'^, for its own politi- cal purposes. " The Alpha and Omega of socialism is the transmutation of private competing capital into united collective capital." In regard to the time 20G schaeffle's " quintessence of socialism." wlien this great change will be effected the leaders of the socialists entertain no sanguine hopes. The means used in the hope of effecting it are obvious enough. Some of them, such as the spread of productive associations, are not in reality con- formed to the social theory, but find their object in bringing the operatives together. Others are methods of agitation, derived from the theories of Marx in regard to capital and sui-plus value. Mr. Schaeffle takes pains to show that, when this agitation reaches even the charge of theft made against capital itself, it is not intended to apply to individual undertakers or capitalists, but to the system J while the private owner of a manufac- tory, for instance, may be admitted to be a very estimable citizen. This is no doubt true ; but is it not true, also, that the agitators have purposely excited a hostility in the minds of the working- class against the employers? And so, if ever socialism should venture on its last step, that step will be the more sure to be a violent one, the fur- ther the social demagogues depart from the spirit of conciliation and sober argument. Socialists do not regard as doubtful the final conversion of private into collective capital, "nor does the uncommon difficulty of the transition to the new order of things give them much anxiety. For they reckon on the vast multitude of the ' ex- propriated,' as contrasted with the few ' expro- priators ; ' on the considerations that the process SOIIAEFFLE's " QUINTESSENCE OF SCCIALISM." 207 of destruction of the middle class will at length be complete, and that the continnance of private production by the help of workingmen, thorough- ly discontented and devoid of all faith in author- ity, must at length cease." The questions of right on the part of the capi- talist, and of compensation when he shall have come to the end of his power of private produc- tion, are next considered. The socialists say something like this: "The ^hmorgeols^ may have a right to that which he has earned under the present system of production, and we can let him have a compensation for his private capital, just as he paid off the feudal rights." " Social- ism is not disinclined to grant damages to the present class of private owners of property, if they good-naturedly allow themselves to be ex- propriated ; but the kind of expropriation must be such as will be consistent with the principles of the social state." They could not receive the rents of former property ; but might be paid " in means of enjoyment" even to the full money value of their possessions. " It is easily con- ceived," says our author, " that in this method of compensation the gigantic capital of the Roths- childs and their compeers, even when the fullest payment should be made to them, could pass over into a stifling abundance of means of enjoy- ment. Such vast possessions could continue with them only for a time. Private capital, however 203 schaeffle's " quintessence of socialism." large, would necessarily be set aside and termi- nate at once as capital, and ere long as property ; for 2.>crj>etual rents, paid even in the shape of orders for means of enjoyment, -would by no means, on gromids "of principle, be granted by the socialis- tic state." "We apprehend, ho\Yever, that tilings would not come to such a pass as is here contem- plated. In the first ji)Iaee, the property of the upper class, if they were miwilling to give iip their rights and should try the fortunes of war unsuccessfully, Avould be confiscated at the end of the struggle. I?i the second place, if the new state should agree to a compensation at all ade- quate to the claims, it would not be paid. The notion of a satisfaction or even of partial amends seems well-nigh chimerical, especially at the point of time when a new government, wholly inex- perienced, would be at the beginning of a wholly new experiment in the history of the world. The social state being conceived of as estab- lished, and having all production, ti'ansportation, and fm-nishing of supplies in its hands ; it would seem plain that not much choice would be left to private persons, in reference to articles they would wish to use, and to the satisfaction of their desires. The state makes, brings, and offers at its storehouse, in exchange for certificates of hours' work, everything which is placed within, the reach of individuals, and has no competitor in these functions. Will human beings, who are all of them agents of the state or workmen of the state, be content with such a bill of fare for life as the state sees fit to set before them ; and is not such a scheme of society a destruction of a very large part of individual liberty ? ' Schaeffle admits the force of this objection, and adds that " socialism itself has done its best to repel men from itself " at this very point. Many of its ad- herents " have promised to the proletariat a half royal collective luxury of public feasts, of enjoy- ments from art and the like ; but have left over to private housekeeping and the personal free- dom of procuring siipplies scarcely a square foot of liberty, scarcely an inch of domestic comfort and an agreeable home." Our author, however, maintains that collective prod^iction can have its statistics of recurring in- dividual and family wants, and can provide for these wants as eifectively as is now done in the open market under the sway of demand and sup- ply. He sees no reason why, on the system of social production, individual wants and j-equisi- tions may not meet with due attention. " If so- cialism were to do away M'ith this power of satisfying personal wants, it would deserve to be looked on as the deadly foe of all fi-eedom, of all civilization, of all material and intellectual well- being. The one 'practical principle of all freedom — ^to be able to spend one's own incomes according to his pleasure — would alone be too valuable to , " 210 SCHAEFFI-E'b " QUINTESSENCE OF SOCIALISM.' be parted with for all the advantages of social reform. The first understanding with socialism must be made on this very ground." We thank our author for these expressions of his opinions. The programme of living is made by the socialist not for the really free, but for those whom tliey agitate. Those who have been used to better things and to free choices of their own are not taken into account. If production and the supply of wants through a nation can be put into the hands of the state, it is easier still to conceive of the means of commu- nication as being managed by the state alone. To a great extent the post, the telegraph, and the railroad are under public control already, in ad- vance of the socialistic state, and no essentially new arrangements would need to be made in this department of work. In respect to production, the principal depart- ment of work, Schaeffle remarks that a stop needs not to be put, all at once, to private operations. One branch after another can be converted into the new form of industry. Nor wiU it be essen- tial that every kind of pi-oduction should ever be required to conform rigorously to the theory. Production for one's own support, without sale to others, would be one of these exceptions. Pro- duction which consists in personal services, like that of the pliysician or the artist, would be anotlier. In such cases concurrence or competi- SCHAEFFLe's " QUINTES3ENCK OF SOCIALISM." 211 tion, the great bugbear of socialism, might be en- dured ; and tlie service would be remunerated by the tickets of work obtained by the workman for his labor and handed over to his personal helper. Those personal services, however, which need a considerable capital, would be regarded as public offices and be paid publicly, whether offices of the state, the commune, or the school. A radical consideration in all production is the cost ; and here the socialists claim that in their system, where every one is interested in the effi- ciency of every other, costs will be likely to be less, and, therefore, the dividend to each work- man greater, than in the present system of woi-k and wages. Our author doubts whether socialis- tic labor will, of course, have this advantage ; but expresses no very positive opinion. To us it appears as if an unknown quantity enters into the question. Everything depends on the influ- ence of the new conditions of work and on the new causes in general acting upon the character of the workmen themselves. Will they be made manly, self-relying, conscientious, and provident, or the opposite of all this ? And within the states where capital and competition prevail, are there not possible and feasible means of raising up the working classes into something better than their present condition? The principal question, however, is a broader one. As Schaeffle states it, it is whether social- 212 schaeffle's " quintessence of socialism." ism will ever be in a condition to make use of tliat great psychological truth, in conformity with which, under the present laws of industry, pri- vate interest is made serviceable to production, — whether on its own ground, it can ever rival the system of private capital in this respect. " "We hold this question to be the decisive, although until now by no means the decided point, on which, in the long run, everything depends ; fi-om which the victory or defeat of socialism, the reform or destruction of civilization, is to proceed, as far as causes can act which are within the province of political economy." In considering this important point, which has less to do with the nature than with the working power of socialism, the author makes the just re- mark that it is not enough, in a million of pro- ducers, for any one of them to know that his fi- nal earnings depend on the fact that the others are as industrious as he. This fails to arouse the necessary self-control. It does not extinguish laziness and prevent the embezzlement of time due to all the rest. Socialism is bound to make every single laborer as strongly interested in the result, on his own private and separate account, as he is in the present system of labor. "Whether it can succeed in this respect or not, no one is authorized to assert. The question stands at the door of a scientific discussion. But this, as the author thinks, can be asserted, that at present the schaeffle's "quintessence of socialism." 213 programme of the socialists lacks practical clear- ness of thought touching the necessity of organ- ized concurrence in work. " And yet there is no doubt that, if the competition of the present form of industry should fall away, there would be need of emulation in work to take its place." But how, we ask, could this exist when every- thing goes by the rule of the average worth of labor ? Our author accompanies these criticisms with another which shows that he as yet differs from the socialists, as it respects the theory of work, on a most important point. As long, says he, as the social theory takes into account, in determin- ing the value of articles, only the social costs, leaving out of sight the value in use, as affected by place, time, etc., it will be wholly incapable of solving its own problem of production by collec- tive capital in any method which political econ- omy can accept. So long as in this sphere it does not furnish something different and more positive, it can have no outlook for the future. Otherwise in proposing to give up, in favor of a more righteous process of distributing the results of labor (the shady sides of which cannot yet be found out by experience), a form of production which, with its many shady sides, contains, to a tolerable extent, many-sided securities, such as political economy demands — in such a proposal it can bring nothing to a practical issue, and, if 214 schaeffle's "quintessence determined to carry its theory through by force, it will have but temporary success. There remain a number of very important re- sults of the socialist form of industry and capi- tal, of which we will speak in the next section of our work. II. schaeffle's " quintessence of socialism" concluded. The principle of socialism opposes the continu- ance of private property not only as it i*espects the direct means of production, but also as to everything from which gains are indirectly ac- quired. Thus it wage3 war against all forms of private credit, against the whole system of loans, against leasing, renting, and hiring. Leases must come to an end, unless the state should undertake that business, because it has become, by the triumph of socialism, the sole proprietor of land. Houses and places of business cannot be hired, rented, or sold ; for they have all become public property, over which the state alone has control. Ground-rents must lapse, because the old owner of the house or soil is either paid off or expropri- ated. The state must, like manufacturers now, make advances to the workingmen during the process of work ; but it wiU have abundant se- curity in its hands foi' such current prepayments. 215 The state, if it wished to borrow on its own cred- it, would need to go into some foreign market ; and for its ordinary expenses would of necessity- appropriate a part of the productions, in the crea- tion of which it had a share. Credit between pri- vate persons, all the operations of domestic or of foreign exchange, all investments waiting for a favorable change in the market, all speculation, would cease and be forgotten. Still further, as private capital, employed in trade and commerce, is impossible under the institutions of socialism, all trade, imless on the lowest scale conceivable, must come to an end, and with it all metallic currency. The circulation of the social state will be not greenbacks, issued on the credit of the government — for socialism, with all its wrong views, has no such dishonesty in it as that would imply — but certificates of work, representing labor actually accomplished by the workingmen — that is, by the community. "We turn our attention first to trade and com- merce. In society, as it is now, the whole office of exchanging products falls to individuals, who act, each for himself, and who intend to remuner- ate themselves out of their transactions. Their success depends on individual skill and enterprise ; and the consumer is protected against high prices by their competition. In the social state the pas- sage of commodities from the producer to the con- sumer must put on an entirely new form. Com- iil(> HCIIAlCli'Ifl.lc's "lilllN'I'lOHHlCNdlC pclilioii in of nil «l' iiblioiTod by WK'iMlimii. 'riiciro cuii bo witliiii il.H jwilo no buy- inn' lip (if iiii.y pniducl fur iJio piir])()si) of selling !i.i;':iiii. I'lvi^rylliinji; (uri](WH in wtin^^ cniploynKwilH, ))ro(Ju<'t,n n(!(Hl(sl for tlio fnniily), iiinKi, ^n io l-lio Hl.on^honwv and from tlicnco, by "Hociiil nuitinH of l,i':ins]ioi'l:il,ion," wlu'.riivoi' clfiO it, is wanfcd. How could the coinpc^lit.ion of dijaksrH i)c'^in to ox- iwl, in MH'\\ a syKloin, and liow (u>idd any doak^r winipot,!! with 111!', a^c^nts of tbo ntalc, ? 'J'biiH llio sale of waroH in tlu; upon niiirkcl, ton'cllKir wit.li ti'iidi), tbo ])i'olltH of ti-ail(!, the niarkd, and tiio oxc^biingd, inuMt ccaKc all-o^(dli(M-. ^J'lio (liflorcinco bciwcdii llu! prowint oi'ditr of tbings in an economical rcKpoct, and the Hoc^ialiniic order i.s nowbcro wider than just licro. "'i'lio tbree main i)roblublica7t, **The editor and politician will find it a convenient companion. Its appendix containt a most useful list of the principal treaties since the "Reformation." — N'e'ji York Evening Post. THE RELIGION OF THE PRESENT AND FUTURE. One volumo, crown 8vo, cloth, $2.00, The thousands of graduates of Yale College, as well as the very large number who aix only in a genera! way fainiliar with the deserved reputation of President Woolsey, will welcome this volume, which is a selection from the diacoarses which President Woolsej has delivered in Yale Cnlleqje Chapel during the last twenty-five years. For the direct application of truth, severe logical simplicity, that eloquence which sprin2;s from unaffected earnestness and single-hearted sincerity of desire to convince the understanding, and persuade the hear .s of those to whom they were addressed, these sermons are preeminent ESSAYS ON DIVORCE AND DIVORCE LEGISLATION. WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE UNITED STATES. One volume, 12nio. Price, $1,75. The Essays here brought together originally appeared in th« Nam En^lattder^ where tfiey attracted wide attention from the exactness and thoroughness with which they discjsi the legal aspect of this great question, as well as from the sound discrimination displayed in die examination of itii social aspects. •^* The ahave hooks for sale by all booksellers^ or luill be sent^ post or exfr*M ik^rgcs jtaid^ upon receipt 0/ the price by the publishers^ CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 743 AND 745 Broadway, New York. "A book aboandlng In matter of solid Interest."— iiw«&« Spectator, B^f (lotprnnipnt of ^U}. ^^m%. By JULE S SIMON, Translated front the French, Two vols. 8vOi • • $4.50. The importance of this book among the materials for the history of tha lime is at once self-evident, and can hardly be exaggerated. Simon's part in (he most intense action of the period he describes, his intimate relations with Thiers himself, and his jiosition in the Republican party of France, unite to give a worth to his narrative such as could hardly attach to that oi any other eye-witness of these events. Such records, by men writing oi matters in the very crisis of their own activity, generally have to wait for the future historian to put them into their lasting form, and give them their greatest interest as parts of the whole story. But the most remarkable fea- ture of M. Simon's book is that it does not need this treatment, and is not so much a personal memoir — a contribution to history — as a completed pic- ture of the period. There is a justice of proportion and truth of historical perspective about it that is very unusual in the work of one recording the politics of his own day. Parts are not unduly magnified because they were subjects of the author's special personal observation and interest ; but the relative weight of different events is as carefully given as though by a philo- sophical looker-on rather than an actor. There is a strong probability that a century hence the book will still be looked upon as among the first authorities, in impartiality and full appreciation of the time it treats. Simon's pen-pictures of contemporaries — even of adversaries — are very striking, in the fact that they are generally just without losing any of their vigor. They are as interesting from another point of view — if not as " ruthless "—as those of the great German chancellor, whose comments on Ihe characters of those engaged in the same scenes are often supplemented lay these sketches. The future historian of the last ten years can hardly complain that he lacks knowledge of their leading men, when he has at hand this history and Dr. Busch's memoirs of Prince Bismarck. From the ** London Spectator" '* The special interest connected with these volumes is to be found in striking and vivid notices scattered throngh them of points which only one intimately connected with the transactions under review could have known. With the single exception of M. BarthS- lemy St. Hilaire, no person was so closely associated with M. Thiers during the course of his administration as Jules Simon. * * * * The various chapters are devoted to so hany episodes — many of them stirring episodes — that are told with striking force. OI iourse the spirit of the narrative is strongly biased, but it cannot be said that M. Jules Simon writes with want of candour. * * * * The histor^r of the constant and patient struggle of M. Thiers against turbulent and factious combinations, though not unfre- quently attended by sallies on his own part of seeming impatience and querulousncES. is narrated in graphic chapters. Two especially must command attention — those in which M. Simon tells the tale of the Commune and of the negotiations wliich M. Thiers carried on with so much skill and pertinacity for the liberation of France from the invader at a term earlier than that fixed by the original treaty." •j,* The above hook for sale by all booksellers^ or will be sent, prepaid^ upon netift 1^ price, by CHARLES- SCRIBNER'S SONS, Pubushers, 743 AND 74S Broadway, New Yokk. A NEW WORK BY PRESIDENT WOOLSEY. ■JPoIifiral ^ripnrp; OR, THE STATE THEORETICALLY AND PRAGTIOALLY CONSIDERED. IN THREE PARTS: I. The Doctrine of Rights as the Foundation of a Just State. II. The Theory of the State. HI. Practical Politics. By THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, Lately President of Yale College. |j two Tolumes royal octavo, of nearly 600 pages each. Handsome cloth, extra Price per vol., ^3.50. IMPORTANT WORKS By THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, D.D., LL.D., EX-PRESIDENT OF YAl.E COLLISGE. INTERNATIONAL LAW. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAl LAW. Designed as an Aid in Teaching and in Historical Studies* Fifth edition rewritten and enlarged. Cloth, $2.50. "Though elementary in its character, it is still thorough and comprehensive, and presents a complete outline of that grand system of ethical jurisprudence which holds, ai It were, in one community the nations of Christendom." — Neiv York Examiner. " He has admirably succeeded. The want was that of a compendium treatise, intended not for lawyers nor for those having the profession of law in view, but for young men who are cultivating themselves by the study of historical and political science." — Si, Louis Republican. *The editor and politician will find it a convenient companion. Its appendix containt a most useful list of the principal treaties since the Reformation." — Nevj York Evening Post. THE RELIGION OF THE PRESENT AND FUTURE. One volumo, crown 8vo, cloth, $2.00, The thousands oF graduates of Yale College, as well as the very large number who ar^ only in a general way fainiliar with the deserved reputation of President Woolsey, will welcome this volume, which is a selection from the discourses which President Woolsej has delivered in Yale College Chapel during the last twenty-five years. For the direcl application of truth, severe logical simplicity, that eloquence which springs from unaffected earnestne-^a and single-hearted sincerity of desire to convince the understanding, antJ persuade the hear s of those to whom they were addressed, these sermons are preiiminent ESSAYS ON DIVORCE AND DIVORCE LEGISLATION. WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE UNITED STATES. One volume, ISmo. Price, $1.75. The Essays here brought together originally appeared in th« Notv Eftg-lander, wherw tfiey attracted wide atfccntion from the exactness and thoroughness with which they discnsf the legal aspect of this great question, as well as from the sound discrimination displayed in tlie examination of its social aspects. •»• The above hooks for sah by all booksellers, or mill be sent, post or exfreu tkirgestaid, upon receipt of the price by the publishers, CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 743 AND 745 Broadway, New Vokx. "A book aboandinir la matter of solid Interest." — London Sfectator. ^IJp (lotiprnnipnf of W. W(m%. By JULE S SIMON, Translated front the French, Two vols. 8vo, $4,50. The importance of this book among the materials for the history of tha lime is at once self-evident, and can hardly be exaggerated. Simon's part in the most intense action of the period he describes, his intimate relations witli Thiers himself, and his j)osition in the Republican party of France, unite to give a worth to his narrative such as could hardly attach to that oi any other eye-witness of these events. Such records, by men writing of matters in the very crisis of their own activity, generally have to wait for the future historian to put them into their lasting form, and give them their greatest interest as parts of the whole story. But the most remarkable fea- ture of M. Simon's book is that it does not need this treatment, and is not so much a personal memoir — a contribution to history — as a completed pic- ture of the period. There is a justice of proportion and truth of historical perspective about it that is very unusual in the work of one recording the politics of his own day. Parts are not unduly magnified because they were subjects of the author's special personal observation and interest ; but the relative weight of different events is as carefully given as though by a philo- sophical looker-on rather than an actor. There is a strong probability that a century hence the book will still be looked upon as among the first authorities, in impartiality and full appreciation of the time it treats. Simon's pen-pictures of contemporaries — even of adversaries — are very striking, in the fact that they are generally just without losing any of their vigor. They are as interesting from another point of view- — if not as '■' ruthless "—as those of the great German chancellor, whose comments on ihe characters of those engaged in the same scenes are often supplemented by these sketches. The future historian of the last ten years can hardly complain that he lacks knowledge of their leading men, when he has at hand this history and Dr. Busch's memoirs of Prince Bismarck. From ike " Loudon Spectator."** •• The special interest connected with these volumes is to be found in striking and vivid notices scattered through them of points which only one intimately connected with the transactions under review could have known. With the single exception of M. BarthS- !emy St. Hilaire, no person was so closely associated with M. Thiers during the course of his administration as Jules Simon. * * * * xhe various chapters are devoted to so hany episodes — many of them stirring episodes — that are told with striking force. Of iourse the spirit of the narrative is strongly biased, but it cannot be said that M. Jules Simon writes with want of candour. * * * * jhe history of the constant and patient struggle of M. I'hiers against turbulent and factious combinations, though not uniVe- quently attended by sallies on his own part of seeming impatience and querulousncss, is narrated in graphic chapters. Two especially must command attention — those in which M. Simon tells the tale of the Commune and of the negotiations wliich M. Thiers carried on with so much skill and pertinacity for the liberation of France from the invader at a term earlier than that fixed by the original treaty." •** The above hook for sale by all booksellers^ or 7vill be sent, prepaid, upon r^ctipt f(f Price^ by CHARLES- SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 743 AND 745 Broadway, New Yokk.