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 Cornell University Library 
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 Communism and socialism in their W 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032595971 
 
COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM 
 
 THEIK HISTORY AND THEORY 
 
 A SKETCH 
 
 THEODORE r>. ■WOOLSEY 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE AND RIVINGTON 
 
 Crown Buildings, i88 Fleet Street 
 
 \_AH rights reserved.\ 
 

 A.ni3iif 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 ' 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 repubhshed 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 slight examination. From very early times there 
 has been felt, under several forms of civilization and 
 religion, a dissatisfaction with the existing institu- 
 tions of society, which has given birth to the desire 
 of foi-ming communities within the state and pro- 
 tected by it, yet separated from the rest of the peo- 
 ple. Ideals, also, of reformed political 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 PEEFACE. 
 
 which aims at gaining the control over all civilized 
 states. "We have attempted to sketch the leading 
 features of these smaller communities and Utopias, 
 and of modem socialism, founded on equality and 
 political economy, in. the hope of showing the simi- 
 larities and differences of the schemes, devised for 
 carrying 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 modem socialism. 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 CONTEIJTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DEFDrrrioN and essence op communism and 
 
 SOCIALISM. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 1-16 
 
 II 16-33 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 SMALLER COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES WITHIN THE STATE. 
 
 I. Buddhist Monks — Essenes — Therapeutas, . 24-33 
 
 II. The Christian Monastip System, . . . 33-41 
 
 III. Anabaptists of Miinster, 43-50 
 
 IV. The Shakers, 50-60 
 
 V. Smaller Communities concluded, ... 60 -73 
 
 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. 
 
 1 Plato— Sir Thomas More— Campanella, . . 85-95 
 H Theories, in France, of Mably and Morelly. 
 The same reduced to Practice in Baboeuf's 
 Conspiracy, 96-108 
 
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 III. Theories of Communism — St. Simon and bis 
 
 Followers— Fourier, 106-115 
 
 IV. Certain Religious Socialists— Laroux, Cabet, 
 
 , Louis Blanc, 115-125 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE INTEENATIONAL WOBKINGMEN'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 Loudon — Effects of 
 Events at Paris, 146-159 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SOCIALISM IN GBEMANY. 
 
 I. Leading Features of the Theory of Marx, . 160-171 
 
 II. Lassalle and the German Workingmen's Union, 171-181 
 
 III. Socialism in Germany since Lassalle, . . 181-193 
 
 Appendix. Mr. Mill's Chapters on Sociali.sm, . 193-200 
 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 
 SCHAEFPLE'S "quintessence of SOCIALISM." 
 
 I. 
 
 201-214 
 
 I. 
 
 214-226 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RECENT SOCIALISM IN ITS KELATIONS, ETC. 
 
 I. To the State and to Society, .... 227-238 
 II. To the Individual and to Religion, . . . 238-249 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 III. To Religion (continued), to the Family and 
 
 Marriage, 250-260 
 
 IV. Relations to Society concluded, . . . 260-267 
 Appendix I. Extract from the Einfluss der Herr- 
 
 Bchenden Ideen of Eotvos, 267-271 
 
 Appendix II. Extract from F. A. Lange's " Arbeit- 
 erfrage," Ed. 3, 271-275 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 I. Is the Overthrow of Society in its present 
 
 Form by Socialism probable ? . . . 276-286 
 II. Future Prospects of Socialism, .... 287-299 
 Index, 301-309 
 
COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 DEFINITION AND ESSENCE OF COMMUNISM AND 
 SOCIALISM. 
 
 I. 
 
 In an essay like this it seems to be necessary to 
 define the terms often used synonymously, 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, 
 coUectivisTn and Tnutualism, have sprung up in 
 France, and are less current, although the former 
 of them is now often employed in books and 
 public discussions. 
 
 Communism,, 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 may be added the disappearance of family 
 life, and the substitution for it of a mode of life 
 1 
 
2 DEFINITION AND NATUKE OF 
 
 in whicli, whether the family system is retained 
 or not, the family is no longer the norm aceordmg 
 to which the subdivisions of the community, if 
 there are any, are regulated. But while the 
 father's authority in the separate pai-ts 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 i-est. Yet 
 all the communities 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 
 whicli political dreamers have imagined, are 
 either small and simple, or, if complex, are affili- 
 ated, as monastic communities also, generally, are, 
 under a law outside of, and above, their own. 
 
 2. Socialism was not known as a term synony- 
 mous, or nearly so, with conmiunism until recent 
 times. The first vso-iters who can be discovered 
 to have used it were Frenchmen. 
 
COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 3 
 
 By its derivation it ouglit to denote the system 
 of tliose who wonld socialize states or subdivisions 
 of states, or, in otHer words, wo nld organ ize the 
 people of a n^ion according to their idea of what 
 society onght to be, or, in other words still, wonld 
 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 derivatioii 
 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 comjnunism, 
 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. Eut 
 although the term thus diflfers fi-om the term eom- 
 ' 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 writers, 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 united life. Mutualism 
 (in French, mutuelisme), 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 communistic about it ; and 
 that mutuum, Tnutaior, in Latin, connected with 
 muto, change, exchange, have the sense of a loan, 
 and to borrow. The Romans, in their laws, social 
 
COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. 5 
 
 life, and politics, were as far from socialism in 
 the modern sense as possible. 
 
 The natural division of the subject before ns 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 they 
 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 NATUKE OF 
 
 scale in the state. Such were Fourier's, Cabet's, 
 and Louis Blanc's systems, although they aimed 
 at tlie universal control of societies. We shall 
 term these, all of them, commvmistic 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 property, and giving the con- 
 trol of all indiistry to the state, ^t does not re- 
 quire a common life, but carries what had been 
 before contemplated — the doctrine of common 
 property-^into all details. As reconstracting 
 society in this way, it is properly called sooidlism, 
 whether it appears in the shape of not entirely 
 breaking with present society, like the lialf-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 likely to 
 
COMMUNISII AKD 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 socialism., without absolutely confining 
 ourselves to this term, inasmuch as under it the 
 great commimity — the state — now becomes the 
 only subject of property. 
 
 It will thus be seen that communism does not 
 really give up the notion of property eitlier 
 within the state, or over against all persons 
 and communities which are outside of its pale : 
 it also expressly admits the rightful exist- 
 ence of private property by receiving from pri- 
 vate individuals, and that, in the way of fi-ee 
 gift, what before was their own ; by maintaining 
 suits to defend such f)roperty, 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 when 
 he leaves a community. SoG-lalism, 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 
 products. Its first and last policy is to prevent 
 the acquisition or exclusive use of capital, by any 
 person or association nnder the control of the state, 
 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 heen established on various 
 principles. The individuals that compose them 
 enter voluntarily into association with others; 
 and the societies themselves determine, witliin 
 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 varioiis questions relating to mai-- 
 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, tlien, 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 states, have introduced on the small scale. 
 Give it the 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 jpure 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 departures in theory from the strict idea of 
 the system, if any such there be. 
 
 The later French systems of social change, as 
 
10 DEFINITION AND NATURE OF 
 
 we already liave said, lie between communism 
 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, 
 unless they should be judged to contain some un- 
 lawful element. Thus Cabet put his own plan to 
 the proof in the United States. Fourier's plia- 
 lansteries 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 comnm- 
 nists with no good will of their own. Such was 
 Pierre Joseph Proudhon, M^hose well-known motto, 
 borrowedfrom Brissot de "Warville, was, " Za_pro- 
 j>riete dest le vol^'' an expression of principle, by 
 the way, which Brissot gave up before he M^as 
 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 communism 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 
 upon 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 meiit to complain ; for, although it may 
 be the duty of the strong to aid the weak, they 
 
12 DEFINITION AND NATUKK OF 
 
 prefer to do it out of generositj'. Tliey 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 perforaaance 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 otlier 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 
 brilHanJ;. lecturer, to which we must take excep- 
 tions, ^lie defines the former of the two to be tlie 
 doing away with inheritance, the family, nation- 
 ality, religion, and property ; socialism to be the 
 doings awa}' M-itli the first four only. 4 This is clear 
 and distinct- — as clear as the doing awkj 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 
 iii/ieritaiice, why put it at the beginning, when, if 
 there is no property, there is nothing to inherit. 
 As for tlie family, as yet no social bodies or asso- 
 ciations, that we know of, which are M'idespread 
 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 
 
00MMLNI8M ANO SOCIALISM. 13 
 
 its representatives, has never oifieially expressed 
 itself concerning marriage ; " altiiough lie thinks 
 that its principles tend in the direction of loosen- 
 ing the marriage tie. IS'ext, as to nationality , it 
 would be correct to say tliat some forms of this 
 doctrine are international, while others are na- 
 tifjiial ; but none exjject, nor, ko far as we are in- 
 formed, seek to do away witli the state. On the 
 contrary, the Kocial state would have all the pow- 
 ers now distributed through society in tlieir liigli- 
 est potence. So of n.lujlov, that the principal 
 supporters of socialism are atheists or pantheists 
 is undoubted ; and yet the theory has not hitherto 
 al)Horbcd atheism into its or<:;aiii8m. Ko much is 
 Iimk; that it dlHcanlw 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- 
 ci-B from its pale by its godless tendencies; but 
 yet there have not been wanting in this age (Jhris- 
 tiauH wlio have tried to unite it with their holiest 
 convictionsx/^l<''inally, as to jirnjjcrti/, the doing 
 away of private property is common to both com- 
 iruitiiHiu and Hociali8m,Tand, in fact, there is no 
 theory of socialisin tlioiight of at present, so far 
 an wo 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- 
 
11 DKfLMTlOX AXD XATTKK OF 
 
 ism, tiaii^ted as literaDj as perspiciuty will per- 
 mit, from a woik of a German political ee<HH>- 
 mist of no mean i^ntafiHiii: "The politico- 
 economical qnintessraice of the soeialistie pro- 
 granuue," says he, " the proper aim of the inter- 
 nationsJ morement, is as follows : the i^placonent 
 of private capital (that is. of the speculative, pri- 
 vate method of production, which depaids oanlj 
 on free competition) bv " c»nes?tive capital' — that 
 is, bj a method of prodnetion wliich, npon ths 
 basis of the colleetiTe propertr of the sum of all 
 flie members of the society in the means of pro- 
 duction, seeks to carry on a nnitary (social. 'col- 
 leetiTe') organization of national woik.~ Here 
 he includes in his iirst ^aatence both what is called 
 the socialistic and the international movements, 
 and finds their end in the substitution of colleetiTe 
 for private capital, using the coDeelive pn^pertr 
 of the satire oomuinnitr so as to destroy all con- 
 currence^ and to eSect a unitary orvanizatioa of 
 the work and, therefor^ of the prodm^ian of the 
 whole nation. So fliat, if Scha^09e understands 
 the movements in which Marx and La^aDe have 
 been so prominent, our lecturer, to whom we re- 
 ferred, misunderstands it. 
 
 Thus the essence of both socialiau and coimim- 
 ni am li ^ in the abolition otjprivate propertv, 
 either entirely or to sneli an extent that the pri- 
 A-ate person ceases to have any control over it and 
 the state takes Ms place. This is espeeiaUv tme 
 
COMMUNISM A^•D SOCIALISM. 15 
 
 of everything by which human labor is assisted ia 
 production — tliat 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 workmen, 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 which they 
 hope to reduce to practice without looking for- 
 ward, and, as it were, prophesying 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 princii^les 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 
 
IC DEFINITION AND NATUKE OF 
 
 hopes wliicli soberer men of the sect pronounce 
 impossible. If a hierschenk reviles the wealthy 
 over his lager, and arouses the passions of the la- 
 borers who spend their money at his counter 
 against the 'bourgeoisie, another voice comes from 
 thoughtful socialists, who 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 injheir essence the_jubstitutio« 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 
 coiu-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 ourselves 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 ? 
 The answer is, that some forms of comnumistic 
 society do resemble some forms of partnerships ; 
 but that there are essential differences between 
 the two. One is, that partnership is a limited 
 form of doing business which a single person, if 
 he had 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 
 voluntary, 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 imder 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 
 
 nentlv connected with the soil. They cannot le- 
 gall}- remove fi-om it, or marry, or dispose of theii- 
 crops or productions without the land-owner's con- 
 sent. He may even have political rights over 
 them, iniited witli some of the rights he can exer- 
 cise over slaves. The community may be so far 
 isolated that the serf may have no imiting bond 
 to the body politic except through his master. 
 But here the property is all 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, under which the state was the ulti- 
 mate proprietor ; but a division of land also to the 
 origmal 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 tune 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. 
 
COilMUNISM 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 neighboring 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. Xor can we more than mention the later 
 forms Avhich 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 
 consxilted. In these, as well as in the communi- 
 
20 DEFINITION AND NATUEE OF 
 
 ties first mentioned, the starting-point was the 
 family. In the first form the necessity of self- 
 defence must have been the main cause of the 
 common life in contiguous settlements. In the 
 second, the village communities being a part of 
 a tribe or union, and being now 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 gi-.eat extent was recognized all over the 
 world. 
 
 These early communities teach us little. TJie 
 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 life 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 tlie 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 imder 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. 
 
COMMUXISM 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 jpoVdical 
 communities. 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 eonclusiojis 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 
 coin?7iunistio or socialistic state, with all power 
 put into the hands of the upturners of existing 
 society to carry out their principles as they 
 wished. But, unfortunately for mankind in the 
 future, there have been no such communities in 
 
22 DEFINITION AND NATTJEE OF 
 
 the past. History has no voice to utter concern- 
 ing communistic 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 
 ivhich have heen tested l)y e:q?erience, and those 
 that exist as mere themnes. These latter are of 
 incomparably vaster importance than all the 
 others that have been thought of since the begin- 
 ning of the creation, Tliey 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 
 
COMMDNISM 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 o£ 
 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 SMALLBB COIIMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 I. 
 
 BUDDHIST MONKS — ESSENES— THE R APEUT^. 
 
 "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, united 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 commimity of monks. 
 If seclusion fi-om the corruptions of the world, with 
 opportunity for contemplation and religious exer- 
 cises, could be united to help derived fi-om 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 purify their souls 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 25 
 
 by contemplation, or were scmred by disappoint- 
 ments, or disgUHted with ordinaiy life, would here 
 find Koiiie solace to^-ctlicr. 
 
 These comumnitie.s began extensively in the 
 f leu union of anchorites, who united by and by, 
 with equal freedom, in associations where rules 
 and promises or vows were found necessary, in 
 order that the common good might bo pi'()tiiot(!(l. 
 As it regarded supplies fur the bodily wants, 
 either soliciting alms from others or industiy 
 within the communities themselves was the origi- 
 nal means by which these needs were met. The 
 demands made on otlntrs inight be very small, 
 for the earliest plan was to live within the n;ir- 
 rowest bounds of human necessities ; and, more- 
 over, an industrious life might seeiri to be incioii- 
 sistent with the great spiritual end which the 
 communities had in view. By and by, in some 
 countries, the life (jf self-denial and of religious 
 contemplation and prayer, nnattainablc by the 
 mass of men, would naturally cause these monks 
 to be revered ; permanent funds would be given 
 t(j 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 fundamental rules 
 were pointed out by reflection on huinan nature 
 and by experience of the evil that is in the world. 
 3 
 
26 SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 There are two very strong desii'es 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 he 
 the extinction of desire, or closer communion 
 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 desire are the principal ones 
 to be held in restraint, or, if possible, extinguish- 
 ed ; these are the main tjTants, 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 pi'iestesses wlio 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 alwaj's required. 
 
 Among these communities a very early order 
 was that of the Buddhist monks, who' were at 
 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, 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 27 
 
 lands, and liouses, given to tliein 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. Rhys 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 Buddliism in the 
 mind of Gautama or Buddha and its success are 
 due 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, ths complete escape from which 
 was the highest good. Such escape could be ef- 
 fected only by killing desire, and this extinction 
 of desire could be effected only by meditation and 
 self-denial. The reward was, that there would be 
 no new birth ; that an end could come to the 
 
28 SMALLER COMMUNITIES 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 
 marriage 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 — 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 29 
 
 M-lien the religion, being overcome in a great 
 struggle with Brahniinisni, 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, was 
 left to its superstitions and its old divinities and 
 spirits to a very 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 i-eligious houses, under su- 
 perintendents, like the abbots of Romanism, and 
 under an infallible head, the Dalai Lama, in 
 vrhom the spirit of Buddha or the Buddhas be- 
 came incarnate. Supreme temporal power was 
 given to him by the Mogul Emperor Kubilai 
 Ivhan, 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 Judea not long before the birth of Christ. 
 
so SMALLlCre OOMMtlNITIICS WITHIN A HTATIO. 
 
 Tlioy are known to um rniin {he. riccininlH wliicli 
 J'liilo tlio .lew, und ,lus('i)lm8 iiiivc. j;ivcn in tlicir 
 works, or Mioir oi'igin, l.licir opinionK, :ni<l 1;li(^ir 
 )-(^l;itioii 1.0 JcwiKli o|)inion iind licii.llicn seisin vvn 
 iiitcTul to Hiiy ni'xl, l,o nothing', (^\(■(■.J)i tliiit iJioy 
 sliow KODK! inilui^ncoH durivcd from the I'c.rKiiui 
 religion, oi' I'ui'KiKni, iind ilial, no (connect ion wliaJ,- 
 v,vvr can lio Ii'iiimmI IxstwcHin iJicin .'uid onr Lord or 
 ]iln ji])osll(!S. Tlioso who cim i'ollow tlu: iiign- 
 niouts of l)r. Lightl'oot in ]u.s (^oninionf.ary on tlio 
 Colossians, will iind Uicrc, tlio most inwlrnctivii t^s- 
 H.'iy on this Hcct \\'hic.li ]ia,K hitheilo l)oon gi\'(;n U> 
 tlio world. 
 
 Tho J'jKsoiics mnnhored, accoi-ding f,o I'hilo, 
 ,'il)ont four thoiinund in all, and jn'ol'd-rcd Id livo 
 in villagcH ratlicr tinin in cities, on accoind, of th(! 
 i;orrnption of tho laltci'. They a,i'c spoken of i)y 
 J-'liny the l']ld(M-, v\lio hay a very ini|)('rl'ccl, knowl- 
 edge oi' them, as d\\(^lling not far fi'oin the 
 western sliore of tho .Dea,d Sea; bnt Ji}i[ia,renfly 
 f,li('so were Hcailei'ed and remol,(! iVoiri one an- 
 fjlhej-. All authoritie.s ugi'(!e, (Jiat they lieid t,o 
 commnnily of goodn and of prodiicln of t,ho in- 
 dniitry (jf each merrdtei' of llie society; hut it 
 would Kceni thai, they had no conimon hond imit- 
 ing tlie Boveral (•ommimitieM log(^lJiei'. A ti'(»i.H- 
 Tn'or \h Kpol<en of Ijy .Jon(!p]inH uh taking ca,re of 
 tho fiiiidH in each Hociely, and a, corrnrKjn head- 
 man was choKeri hy the vole of the meml](.|-H of 
 each. Marriage waB not in nse among lliem, not 
 
SMALLEB COiniUNITIES WITHIN A -STATE. 31 
 
 that tliey looked on it or on inheritance as institu- 
 tions to be abolislied, but because, as Joseplius 
 says, they feared the wanton conduct and un- 
 faithfulness of the female sex. Hence, they re- 
 cruited their connnunities by adopting boys to 
 be trained iip under their rules. There was, 
 however, a portion of the Essenes, the same au- 
 thor says, Avho 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 off succession and descent, which 
 constitute the leading features of life." Bat they 
 subjected the women M-hoM'ere 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, — altliough 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. As 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, thev remind one of the Shaker 
 connnunities in the United States, who, when 
 most prosperous, have not differed greatly in mim- 
 ber from Philo's estimate of the Essenes. 
 
S3 SMALLER COMMUNITIES AVITIIIN A STATE. 
 
 Very similar to the Essenes were the Thera- 
 peutas, 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 mnst 
 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 women who had given np their 
 property and left their kindred for the pnrpos( 
 "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 prayer 
 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 Avith 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 
 
SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 33 
 
 brouglit 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, iirst apart and then to- 
 gether. This lasts imtil sunrise, when they stretch 
 forth their hands, " pray for prosperity, truth, and 
 shai-pness of intellectual vision," and then part. 
 
 These Therupeutce differ from the Essenes in 
 allowing both sexes to live in the same communi- 
 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 xinknown ; but they must have 
 been such as Philo describes them long before 
 Christ began his ministry. 
 
 n. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN MONASTIC SYSTEM. 
 
 The examples thus far given, 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 po- 
 litical or pecuniary object in view. Our next 
 3* 
 
34 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 example is still more remarkable. The monastic 
 system of the ancient clmrcli, both in the East 
 and in the West, is a most important chapter in 
 ecclesiastical history, on account of its tenacity of 
 life and its vast influence for good as well as for 
 evi], and because it could not have grown up in a 
 pure, enlightened Christian church. As in pa- 
 pacy, so here the seemingly good and inno- 
 cent nature of the system lent strength to false 
 principles, which had no necessary connection 
 with 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 communism. What shall we say, 
 then, when it is asserted that the community of 
 goods in the early Christian church at Jerusa- 
 lem, just after the death of Christ, is a sufficient 
 reason for the rise of monachism ? We say, first, 
 that this community was not a dose, but rather a 
 chanijlng comrnuiuty, consisting of families obedi- 
 ent to no law of union, no vow or other tie save 
 the fellowship of the gospel. Again, it was ml- 
 untary. Ko one was obliged to sell his goods to 
 feed the poor ; but, although governed by a sti-ong 
 public feeling, was free to follow what was right. 
 
 'to^ 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES ^\'ITI^N A STATE. 35 
 
 ''While it remained [unsold] was it not thine 
 own ; and wlien it M-as sold, was it not in thine 
 own power '( " is the question of Peter to Ananias. 
 Again, it was local. There is no evidence that it 
 existed beyond Jerusalem. Among the Hebrew 
 Christians, to whom James wrote, there were 
 great inequalities of property. Paul, writing to 
 Timothy, at Ephesus, uses the words " Charge 
 them that are rich among you ; " and the Gentile 
 Christians were well enough off to send their con- 
 tributions-to the poor at Jerusalem. And, finally, 
 it was teiiiporary. 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 
 turned into such general charity as is now called 
 forth by Christian love. Nor was a shujln 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- 
 ows 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 
 
;i() HMAI,l,l';il COMMUNI'I'IICS WI'I'IIIN A HTATl';. 
 
 wliould riirl)i(l iiii:n (<> inaiTy jiiid ('(iinmiiiKl I0 :il)- 
 Hl.niii JVoin iiH:ii,ln(l 'I'iiii. iv. 'i, ;i). And, 1.0 dwell 
 110 ]()ii!i;(!r on tluH poinl., iJic hiiiiki !i,|iiikII(! IIiuIh !in 
 n\)t Hymbol ol' t.lio iirnoti ol' tiuin and v\')r(', in Iho 
 unidn ()1'.( liriKi, Mild (lu! clinrcli. l'"i'oin oik! |>iih- 
 wi,i;'(! only of Uus New 'l\wl,:uiiciil, (MiiU. ,\ix. 12) 
 call w(i inl'(!i' l.liid, a pni'O ninj^lo Id'e in nol, only al- 
 lowable, l)nt eAe.ii praiwtworlliy, I'or Uioko wlio 
 ea,ii lead it, for iJie kiiio'ddiii ol' liea\'eii'H Hake, 
 wliicli we ('(^riaiiily would lie i'ar IVoiii denyiii^i;; 
 and in another ( llev. ,\iv. '1)llieri) Ih ]>ra,iKe (jf ah- 
 noliile puril-y, wliieli, liowev(!r, caiinol; fairly 1)(3 
 pressecj aH leacliiii;;' llie inreriorlly of a inaiTie(| lo 
 li Kin^ie life. Nor is lher(! anywhere ;iuy eiieoiir- 
 a|;,'e,nienl, in tlie ('hrislian Seripl iiroH lo \'owh, 
 and to ahKoeiatioiiK built upon them, vvilhin Iho 
 ehnreh. 
 
 Wo may a<ld tlio remark (hat the formation of 
 eloKo imioiiK, Kliiit out from inlerconi'wj wifli the 
 world, me(!lK with no favor IVdiii the n/iifil, (iiiil, 
 'uihUIiiJUiiih of the New 'l\'Kta,nienl,. '\\w believ- 
 crH were (txpeelcd to asKomble loji^ct lii^r, an breth- 
 ren and iiKtmberH of a common Mai-iler. They 
 M'ere on an e(|iialit;y, and (lierewaH no esotca'ie 
 claHH, no perKoiiH or (^olerii^s of Kiiperior nanctity, 
 who were t,o do the pi'ayinj;' for t heir fcillow < 'liriH- 
 tiaiiM. The thoi|ii;lit, that ('hrint iaiiH lived and 
 acted lik(^ otJi(a- men in outward Ihiii^^is, is well 
 e\pr<!:;Ked in the ejiiKlJe to I )i(i;.';net IIH, belonf^infr 
 to t,hc Kocoiid eeiitiiry. " 'I'Ik! (J]irintianH, neilhei' 
 
BMAI.LKK COMMIINITIKH WITHIN A HTATK. .'J? 
 
 in H|)(:(;cli nor in pliic(; of alxxlc, nor in iiku^ch of 
 life, differ from IJK^ir (rllou-iri(Mi. I''()r nowlicri; 
 <lo tlicj (lwc;ll in cities of tlieir own, noi- niai<e uko 
 of (lifilw-tH ])c.culiur to tlHtniK(^l\'c.s, nor obscirvo a 
 Kin^nlar inoilc oi' life. Tliey marry, like all n]('ri, 
 and I)(!ai- cliiidren ; l)ut tliey do not expo.so their 
 infanis, " etc. 
 
 ( 'liriHlianity, tlicn, was no more tlie nalivc; soil 
 ol' monacliiHm than the Jewish n:Ii;i;ion was tlie 
 ])roj)(w- liirtiiphice of wliat was aHcotic and moiuirt- 
 tii! among the Msi^cncH. The t,i-no orij^-in was in 
 that tendency of th(^ ii^o lovvaidH a solitary and 
 ('ontt;mjilal ivo life, as ])(;ing tlio only life suited 1o 
 tlie attainmiitit of trntli and virtue, which h(^L';an 
 sometime l)erore the ( 'hrislian era, and diffused 
 itself like some epidemie fi'om the I'-ast, with the 
 ii(^ij) of some of tli(! (Jreek phil<jsop]iical systems. 
 We have sliown how the conlem))lativo ainl asco- 
 tie, spirit was spread over I'^)i;ypt in the small eom- 
 nninities of the I'/icrdjicidir. It was in E^':yi)t 
 that riiilo tJK^ .lew gave an alle^^orieal, mystical 
 sense to the historical parts of the Old Titsta- 
 inent. It was ]ier(! tliat the lirst, (Jhrislian aiK^ho- 
 rit-es sought the wildern(^ss, aloof from towns, and 
 gave th(MMsel\(;s nj) to eonl(inplation. Anthony, 
 in the thii'd (•(snt.nry, was the njost (M)ns])iriions 
 e\am|)I(!, and his fame, as a spiritual (liiristian, 
 led ol.lii^r ( 'hi'lslians to settle nc^a-i' liim in orde.r l,o 
 enjoy the l)(Mi(dit of his advice and soi^iety. Jlero 
 we ii»vo the JJuddhist history acted over again, 
 
38 SMAixER coanirsnxES Trrrais a statb. 
 
 for, in the fourth century Pachomins (who had 
 beea in die niilitanr service, and had r.Ji idea of 
 ora:anization, perhaps from his fonuer employ- 
 mentV made an improTemait on the form «xf sc'li- 
 tary life tiien existing. In the place of anchor- 
 ires, liTing near one another, bnt \rith no bond 
 of nnion except their common religions views and 
 ol\iecTs, he devi^d tiie plan of a hody of n.cn 
 forming s common association, snpporting them- 
 selves by common indnstry. undergoing a novi- 
 tiate^ taking vcws, and subjected to an abbot. 
 His s^x-iety of monks on an island in the ^ile is 
 said to have had seven thonsand members before 
 his death ; and in the fifth oaitnry fifty thonsand 
 nxen are s^iid to have been obedient to its ndesL 
 As the cloisters spread, the society was kept np ; 
 Tl;e abbot <rf the original C<enobinm being the 
 head of the Ivdy. and the abbots of flie other 
 houses meeting togi^her in conncal to keep up the 
 oiganization. Cloisters of nnns also were i:is:i- 
 tnted dniing the life of Pachomius ; so that be- 
 fore his death almost all that was diarticreris- 
 tie of Christian monachisiu. couimnnities with 
 branches, or orders, embracing in sepuate places 
 the two sexes, mles. vows — a compact system, in 
 Eliort, of government — had been developexi. 
 
 Of the monastic svsre:n in its distinct orders 
 spread over ti-.e world ; of the vast wealdi which 
 belonged to the religious hor.ses ; of the nse of 
 monasteries in learning education, and the relief 
 
EM\I.Li:a COMMUNITIES WITHIN A 6TATE. 39 
 
 of tlie poor; of the eminent ser\ices of many ab- 
 bots to lutteix; (^f the liglits and slwles of their 
 religious life; of the introduction of tlie begging 
 aiAcl prcaebiiig friars ; of tlie last stroke of worldly 
 wisiloiii in the institution of the oi-der of the 
 Jesuits ; of the services of the monks in main- 
 taining the papal system, — of tliese and other re- 
 sults of monasticism we can say nothing. We 
 confine ourselves to the simple inquiry how the 
 communistic plan of life stood related to the great 
 influences of the orders of monks upon the Chris- 
 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 herinit in his loneliness was exposed 
 to all kinds of vagai-ics 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 coinmu- 
 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 tlie 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 SMALLEK COMMUNITIES ■WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 witli the people, would either, tlirongli his sup- 
 posed sanctity, have undermuied 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 monks in a convent, bj the society which 
 they held with one another, must have prevented 
 many extravagances, must have kept the minds 
 of all in a healthier frame and made them better 
 models to their fellow-men. 
 
 The influence of a common life was, of cora-se, 
 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 carried with him the weight 
 and authority of a body Avhich 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 from 
 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, 
 must have watched over one another. They seem 
 often to have had an interest too intense in the 
 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 frercx^ and on an etjuality in the house- 
 hold. The abbot, prior, or other superior, was 
 something like a father, as, indeed, the abbot's 
 name implies. If wGnltli, literary culture, and 
 even political importance brought degeneracy into 
 many monastcri(;s, 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 amount 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 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITIIIN A STATE. 
 
 ni. 
 
 AMABAPTIST8 OF mOnSTEE. 
 
 In a small community the gOTerning 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 Italj' ; and for the other in those 
 compact settlements where, for some reason or 
 other, tiie perverted religious spirit has for a time 
 gained control. An instaince of such control is 
 offered to us by that chapter of tlie history of 
 the Reformation, which has for its subject the 
 Anabaptists at Mlinster, 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 doctrines, 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 
 
BMALLieU COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 43 
 
 SO called, was obliged to leave his place and found 
 a new one at Alstedt, in Tlmringia, in 15ii-l-. 
 Here he was willing to have infant baptism and 
 other ceremonies retained ; but his unquiet, tu- 
 multuary spirit made him obnoxious to Luther 
 and to the civil ruler, so that he was again afloat. 
 In a sermon here preached before Duke John of 
 Saxony, he called upon the princes to root out the 
 imgodly with force and without mercy. The un- 
 godly, he said, have no right to live, save what 
 the elect will grant them. 
 
 From Alstedt, Miinzer went to place after place 
 in South Germany; but his chief activity was 
 concditrated at Mtthlhausen, then pertaining to 
 Saxony, where the people, driving away the regu- 
 lar ministers, chose him as pastor of the Marien- 
 kirche, in 1525, and at his suggestion revolution- 
 ized the town administration. The Peasant's War 
 had broken out and raged all around Miihlhausen. 
 He joined in the movement, was taken prisoner, 
 and soon suffered death. 
 
 The mysticism and spii-itualism of Miinzer led 
 him to hold to immediate communications from 
 God ; and the written word he made light of in 
 comparison. He thought little of watei- baptism, 
 and is said to have held that infant baptism was 
 not of God ; indeed his followers began to rebap- 
 tize before he did (Gieseler). lie interpreted the 
 Scriptures literally, and, as we have seen, was 
 ready to root out by persecution the "ungodly." 
 
44: SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 The kingdom of God on earth was to be built on 
 equality and community of goods. 
 
 The most relentless persecution arose against 
 the Anabaptists, and in consequence they were 
 scattered abroad in Germany and the JSTether- 
 lands. 
 
 Besides the tenet after which they are called 
 and on which they agreed, the Anabaptists seem 
 to have had no very distinct set of opinions. 
 Some held that the flesh alone sinned ; the spirit 
 at the Fall had not fallen with it. Some believed 
 that Christ redeemed men only by leading them 
 to follow his footsteps ; while some went further, 
 and denied his divinity. Some thought infant 
 baptism useless only ; others thought that it was 
 an abomination. Some regarded military service 
 and the oath to be unlawful ; the former because 
 killing, the latter because swearing was always a 
 sin. Some thought tliat marriage in the spirit 
 alone was valid ; and a furrier, named Glaus Frei, 
 putting away his wife, went about with another 
 woman, whom he called his " only right spiritual 
 sister" (Ranke). All found the government of 
 the church by magistrates and preachers to be in- 
 tolerable. Every man ought to be allowed to 
 preach ; then there would be no divisions. The 
 institutions of the Evangelicals were nothing but 
 a new papacy. They believed, however, that all 
 this was to be done away. The kingdom of God 
 was soon to come. 
 
SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 45 
 
 The commotions at Miinster proceeded first 
 from Rottraaim, a chaplain of the cathedral church 
 there — a man to whom Melanchthon 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. Eottmann and 
 the other ministers were in controversy with the 
 town council ; and Ranke 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 friend of Rottmann's, was chosen burgo- 
 master (Feb. 21st, 1534). 
 
 This success was followed in a few days (Feb. 
 27tli) by a plot of the Anabaptists to drive the 
 other faction out of the city. Armed men appear 
 
46 EMAI-LEE COMMUNITIES WITIIIN 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." Tlien 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 nmsical instruments were 
 destroyed. One of the leaders in this couj) d'etat 
 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 — i. e., imtil 
 Easter of 1534, when he was killed in a sally 
 against the bishop and the princes who were be- 
 sieging Munster. 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 
 
SMALLEli COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 47 
 
 the goods of tlie 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. 
 All together formed a religious, military family. 
 Meat and drink 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 
 joume^Tnan 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 Matthys had 
 baptized him; he had learned something from 
 the writings of Melchior Hoffmann, one of the 
 leaders among the Anabaptists ; he had a toler- 
 able knowledge of the Scriptures. His vivid 
 imagination and imposing form made him popu- 
 
48 SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 lar. He was put into the place of Mattes by 
 liis 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 overseers 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- 
 ple 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. Kottmann, 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 own 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 eineute, which 
 was put down with the loss of some two hundi'ed 
 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 
 
SMALLER COMMDNrriES 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 royal 
 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. He rose 
 from his seat, conceiving him to be a spy, cut his 
 head off, and went back to the Supper. 
 
 The siege of Miinster 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 1535, 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. Kottmann found his death in the affray ; 
 but John of Leyden was taken captive and put to 
 8 
 
50 8MALLEE COMMUNI'nES WITHIN A STA'IK. 
 
 death, after defending his opiuionB on baptism, 
 polygamy, and community of goods by the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 It is perhaps idle to Hitcculate on the probable 
 condition of MUnster if it had been safe from the 
 assaults of cneinies. The probability is that the 
 piincipal leaders would, by the help of their pre- 
 tended prophecies, have turned into iritolerable 
 tjTants, and met with some due punishment from 
 the men of their own faith, when their wicked- 
 ness had become full. As for tlie community of 
 froods iji so considerable a pf^julation, it does not 
 f-oem probable that, with an administration such 
 as that existing at ]\IiJrister, it could have been 
 long maintained, even if the Anabaptists had 
 secured peace with their neighlxjrs. JS'or could 
 the faith in the prophets have long continued. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE SHAKEnS IS THE UNITED feTATES. 
 
 Tlje history of communism receives valuable 
 contributions from experiments that have been 
 njade in the L'nited 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 owner -Jiip of shares in the company. 
 
SMALLES COMMUNITIES WTTHDJ A STATE. 51 
 
 This departnre from the mle of private property, 
 although not an extreme one, ^as attended with 
 disastrous results. A single man did only about 
 a third of a fair dav's ■work, and the svstem of 
 separate proprietorship was introduced after four 
 years of trial. i 
 
 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 accoimt 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 Xew York and 
 Xew England — ^in regard to wliich we borrow the 
 following statistics from Mr. Xordlioffs book on 
 communistic societies in the United States, pub- 
 lished in 1S75. Their property consists of 40.335 
 acres of land in home farms, \vith other real es- 
 tate. The value of tlieir houses and personal 
 property is not given. Tlie population of aU the 
 communities consists of 695. male and 1,1S9 fe- 
 male adults, with 531 young persons under twen- 
 ty-one, of whom 192 are males and 33it females, 
 amounting in all to 2,415 in IS 74. The maxi- 
 mum of population was 5, ('69, a dechne to less 
 than half, for which we are not able to account 
 save on the supposition that there are pennanent 
 
52 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 causes of decay now at work witliin the com- 
 munities. One of them, that at Tyringham, 
 Mass., has lately been disbanded. 
 
 The other communities (except the Oneida and 
 Wallingford settlements of the Perfectionists, 
 which are strictly indigenous, 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 peculiar 
 views, to find a religious and social liberty on this 
 side of the water, which was not possible in their 
 own coimtry ; 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. Noj'es, the founder of the Perfection- 
 ist communities, 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 these eleven settlements 
 have miserably failed, and the average dui'ation 
 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 1843, 
 when the system of this Frenchman began to be 
 preached and reduced to experiment, were in all 
 about thirty-four. All of these have now entirely 
 disappeared, and a large number of them lasted 
 only a few months. We must not beheve, how- 
 ever, that any of that freedom between the sexes 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A BTATK. 53 
 
 was contemplated or allowed in them, which Fou- 
 rier himself would liave 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 Nauvoo, 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 ac- 
 
54 SMALLER COMMUNI'nES WITniN A STA'TO. 
 
 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 tlie woods of Watervliet, near 
 Albany. Shej^reaclied, and was believed to have 
 performed remarkable cures. I'Voin lici- were de- 
 rived the rule of celibacy, and, for jicrKons seek- 
 ing admission into the infant bocicty, the obliga- 
 tion to make an oral confesKion of sin in the pres- 
 ence of an older member of the community. 8he 
 died in 1784, as tbe acknowledged head of the 
 clnirch ; and had afterward nearly eqnal bonora 
 paid to her with the Saviour. I'ndei' the scyjjid 
 succchsor of Ann Lee almo.st all the societies in 
 'Sew York and ]S'ew England wc^ro founded ; and 
 under the third, a woman named Lucy Wright, 
 whose leadership lasted nearly thirty years, those 
 in Ohio and Kentucky. The latter grew uj> dur- 
 ing the remarkable revivals in Kentucky at the 
 beginning of the century, which were attended 
 with involuntary convulsion^ of the body. After 
 IH-ji) the Shakers fonnded no new society. 
 
 Mr. Aordhoff gives the leading doctrines of flie 
 Shakers, which are, aomn of them, .singular enough. 
 Tliey hold that <'>od 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 --pir- 
 its ; and tliat Christ is one of the highest of spir- 
 
SMAXLEE COiEMCJJITIES WrTHIN A STATE. 55 
 
 its, who appeared first in the pei-son of Jesus and 
 afterward in that of Ann Lee. There are four 
 heavens and four hells. Xoah went to the fii-st 
 heaven, and the wicked of his time to the first 
 hell. The second heaven was called Paradise, 
 and contained the pious Jews until the appear- 
 ance of Christ. The third, that into which the 
 Apostle Paul was caught, included all that lived 
 until tlie time of Ann Lee. The fourth is now 
 being filled up, and "is to supersede all the 
 others." 
 
 They hold that the day of judgment, or begin- 
 ning of Christ's kingdom on earth, began with 
 the establishment of their church, and wiU go on 
 until it is brought to its completion. Tlie Pente- 
 costal Church, they think, was the standard and 
 true church, from which the Christians fell away ; 
 but the Shaker community has returned to the" 
 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 they embody 
 in tlieir system except the last, which also they have 
 a hope of receiving. They discard the doctrine 
 of the Trinity, the resurrection of the body, and 
 the Atonement. They wcirship neither Christ 
 nor Ann Lee ; but pay both love and reverence. 
 
 Thev have a behef that a sinless life is within 
 human reach, and that to this "all their members 
 ought to attain." 
 
c>L> s-tf*T.TTrB coionrsrrns wiruix a state. 
 
 In regard to marriage and prv>pertv. rliey do 
 not take the position tiiar tl\e#e are crimes : bnt 
 onlv marks of a lower order of society. The 
 ■ irorld will have a chanee to become pore in s fu- 
 ture state as well as here. 
 
 Thev believe in spiritual commxmieation and 
 p^jjessioii. They themselves have converse-! 
 with spirits — even with those that lived before 
 the Flood. They claim that iiispirtxi gitts have 
 been granted to their ehiurehe*. In the earlier 
 times of the sect they professed to have the gift 
 of tongues. 
 
 The travels of President Pwight make men:: en 
 of this irift of tongnes in s letter of the author 
 written as early as ITv'i' (^Voh III., p. lolV I 
 give his words: "The company at whose worship 
 I was present declared that they conld speak with 
 tonsrties. and that both the words and the tune 
 were inspired. I observed to them that the 
 sounds which they made, and which they called 
 hiugiia^e, conld not be words, because they were 
 not articulated. One of the women replies!: 
 'How dost thee know but tr^at we speak the 
 Hotmatot language i The language of the Hot- 
 matots is said to be made up of such sort of 
 words." " 
 
 Dr. Ihright in the same place gives statements 
 from the work of one Tlionias Pro^vn, once a 
 Quaker, and for a tmie a member of the Society 
 of Shakers, but afterward dismissed from their 
 
8JIALLE1J COMMUNITIES "WITHIN A STATE. 57 
 
 body. This book, publislied 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- 
 fi'aud, 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 gi-ains 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. Dwight 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 gross 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- 
 3* 
 
68 SMALLEK COMMUNITIES WITI-IIN 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 di'aws 
 them to the Shaker settlements takes place at 
 the houses whore 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 receipt 
 of interest. When he enters the body he gives 
 up all claim upon his property forever. If this 
 
SMALLEK COMMUNITIES WITrilN A STATE. 59 
 
 be so, the complaint of Brown, which has been 
 mentioned, is entirely without fuundation. 
 
 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 proiitable 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 particidars 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. 
 NordhofE's volume, one-quarter of which is de- 
 voted to this form of commimistic 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 
 
63 SMALLER COMMUKITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 Pentecostal Chureli ; tlieir speaking with tongues 
 is but a repetition of that recorded in the Book 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 I'esemblance 
 to the Essenes and the Therapeutse : thus, in fill- 
 ing up their numbers by means of adopted chil- 
 dren, they are like the former ; ia their dances, 
 like the latter ; in their being a celibatary imion, 
 like both ; and in the li\-ing 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. 
 
 SMALLER COMM UNITIES CONCLnDED. 
 
 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 foimded by George Rapp, a 
 peasant from Wiirtemberg, who, to escape perse- 
 
SMALLER 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 first, 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 Papp'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. Rapp, who died in 184:7, 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 with himseK 
 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 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 decision which led a number of young persons to 
 leave the society. George Kapp, 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 born 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 hundred and ten elderly persons, 
 besides thirty or forty adopted children — fore- 
 bode their decline, and the community must soon 
 disappear. None 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 ihe conclusion thatj if they would succeed, 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A BTATE. 63 
 
 they innst have a community of goods. "As 
 soon as Ave 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. Nordhoff's inquiry " whether they favored 
 it," the reply was, "that it was, on the whole, un- 
 favorable to commimity 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 family 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, vdthout 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. Nordhoff 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 first 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 trustees. 
 Their religious leader may be of either sex'. They 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 65 
 
 are orthodox Cliristians in most respects ; but re- 
 ject tlie endless pnniRhnicnt of the 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 conmmnities of which a\c have spoken. It 
 differs from some of them in this respect: that 
 when the pei'son admitted leaves the society the 
 property given up by liiin 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), 
 
66 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 aflSrm 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. Xordhoff 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 i-emarks of Noyes," says he (p. 
 293), "which disclose so strange and horrible a 
 view of morals and duty, X need say nothing." 
 And we have said enough. [Comp. Appendix I.] 
 "VVe are now prepared to lay down certain con- 
 clusions touching communal societies as they pre- 
 sent themselves to us in m6dern times. In doing 
 this, we are aware of the danger of hasty, general- 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES ■VVITIilN A STATE. 67 
 
 izations, and, of course, feel tliat 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 place, then, it is shown that, with 
 equally good management, a community offers a 
 somewhat cheaper mode of living than that which 
 families adopt in separate houses. Fourier was 
 not wrong in 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 ecou- 
 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 of family life and commu- 
 nal life is not fitted to make the community sys- 
 tem flourish. The two are different and to an 
 extent hostile principles. The family must draw 
 off the interests of its ..members frgun 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 should we join the society, when 
 we have our own unity to bind us together and a 
 plenty of persons in the world whom we 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 comnumities 
 are separated from the world by their mode of 
 life or principles, the more probable will be their 
 permanence. This is only saying that something 
 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 causes 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. G9 
 
 have now escaped from a strong opposing senti- 
 ment, from ridicule and social ostracism. 
 
 4. Religious reasons for founding communal es- 
 tablishments are more likely to insure success than 
 others. Here 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 oi' 
 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 thein 
 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 Germans, 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 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 enjoyment, as they desire. Why should they 
 wish to change ? Moreover, they are more, ipdi- 
 vidnal and independent than others of an inferior 
 grade. Why should they give up their freedom ? 
 
 We 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 anotlier. 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 sociefe^ ;aro|nd 
 them than to take such a revolutionary steftin 
 life. ™ 
 
 Communities will consist hereafter, t^en, as 
 they have done, chiefly of persons in humSle 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. i,-^"^' ' 
 
 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 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 71 
 
 work, under shrewd supervisors, with abstinence 
 f roii^iurtf ul drinks, must have placed them above 
 the same number of persons arranged in families. 
 If, for instance, a community consisted of five hun- 
 dred persons, a number equal to about that of a 
 hundred families ; it would probably save more at 
 the end of the j-ear 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 foremaiL Yet it piust 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 himdred 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 brute, 
 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 SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 protected by the state, as private families are now, 
 the system would tend to break np 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 iibres of connection 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 volunta/ry basis as cer- 
 tain to fail. 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. Y3 
 
 APPENDrX I No. 1. 
 
 A few weeks before this work went into the 
 press, Mr. J. li. Noyes, the founder of the 
 Oneida and Walliiigford communities, and tlie 
 autlior of the history of American socialism to 
 which we have referred in this work, 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 up the practice of comple; 
 marriage, not as renouncing belief in the prin 
 ciples and prospective finality of that institution j 
 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 will be necessary, 
 first of all, that we should go into a new and earn- 
 est study of the 7th 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 — both legitimate; but 
 the last preferred. 
 
 " What will remain of our communism after 
 these modifications may be defined thns : 
 
 "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 Amana. 
 
 How far this great change has been owing to 
 a feeling within the community, where, as it 
 would seem, the younger 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 
 
SMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITniN A STATE. 75 
 
 that no society can have long continnance in this 
 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 conimuiiity, and 
 an editor, I believe, of the Aineriean Socialist. 
 It contains the results of pei'sonal observations, 
 and as the author is an educated man, having re- 
 ceived the degi-ee of Ph.B., m 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 otiUr a few additions to 
 what we have said respectifc some of these com- 
 munities, and for a short Tiotice 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 yoimg people, oa reaching 
 
76 BMALLER 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 former, though 
 required in such case to conform 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 still 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 fi-om 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 
 
SMALLEK 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 commmiity 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 
 the body by new adherents, and by hired men. 
 Habits have changed since the tunes succeeding 
 the foundation. Then " all the persons and fami- 
 lies in one house did their work together." " Kow 
 each family " (^. e., the inhabitants of one house, 
 as I understand it) " attends to all its affairs, its 
 
78 SMALLEE COMMUNITIES 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, fi-om the time they were 
 three years old, and they were for this purpose 
 placed under superintendents appointed by the 
 community." The older members regi'et 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 supei-intend- 
 ence and common feeling. There are five hundi-ed 
 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. 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. 79 
 
 By marriage, the standing of tlie parties in tlie 
 society suffers for a time. If a man marries out 
 of the society, he is excluded for a whUe, even 
 though his wife might choose to hecome a mem- 
 ber. At table, church, and labor the sexes are 
 separated " (p. 53). 
 
 This community is sincerely religious in the 
 servile 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 carpentei-, and Bar- 
 bara Ileynemaiin, an ignorant servant-girl, who, 
 since 1867, 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 BMALLEE COMMUNITIES •WITHIN A STATE. 
 
 there are meetings on Wednesday, Saturday, and 
 Sunday mornings. Sometimes they all meet in 
 church ; sometimes in 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, that " each village ought to have a large 
 library aiid eating-room, but there is nothing of 
 the kind. They have preserved from the first 
 the utterances of the pa-ophets, and printed them 
 in more than a hundred volumes " (pp. 53, 54). 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. SI 
 
 Mr. Hinds (pp. 152-161) gives an account, 
 clueliy in the language of the founder, of tlie 
 " Brotherhood of the jSTew Life," which lias two 
 principal centres, one at Saleni-on-Ei-ie, in the 
 town of Portland, N. Y., and the other in Foxni- 
 taiu Grove, Santa Eosa, California, \vhere Thomas 
 L. Ilariis, the originator of the plan of life, re- 
 sides, lie 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 otlier 
 places. "The Brotherhood," says Mr. Hinds, 
 " claim to have evokited out of communism, hut 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. 112). Mr. Han-is says : " Personally I am not a 
 communist. I find it impossible to maintain the 
 ordinary relations, much more to miite 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. 112). 
 
 Mr. Han-is 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 natural sexuality. 
 Those whose lives have been less strict at fh-st, 
 
82 SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A. STATE. 
 
 perhaps, may pass through the nionogamic 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 borders 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 mortality " (ibid.). 
 
 " I have considered my family," he adds, " since 
 1861, merely as a school : its methods education- 
 ary, and its form only tentative. My a,im,j)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 survival of the fit- 
 test, the most plastic, the most complex organ- 
 isms — men of a new spirit wrought bodily into 
 new structm-es — the race will take a new depar- 
 
SMALLER COMMUNITIES WITHIN A STATE. S3 
 
 tiire ; that we approacli a new beginning of human 
 days and generations " (p. 147). 
 
 In a letter of an earlier date (18T3), from which 
 Mr. Hinds makes extracts, Mr. Harris is mnch 
 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 working system," etc. " In one sense 
 the Brotherhood are Spiritualists " (p. 149). " In 
 another sense they are socialists " (p. 150). 
 
 After all this theosophieo-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 BMALLEE COMMUNITIES WITHIN A BTA'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. 151). 
 
UUMMU^'ISTIC TilEOKIES AND UTOPIAS. 85 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 I. 
 
 PLATO — SIR THOMAS MORE — CAMPANELLA. 
 
 The communities hitherto noticed had at their 
 foimdation no dh-ect pui-pose of acting upon gen- 
 eral society or upon the state. Their ob j ect, 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 respects, be carried out upon a larger scale 
 and by the state itself ? . In every old, society 
 
80 COiQirXISTIC THEOEIES AXD CTOPIAS. 
 
 there have been and must perhaps always be 
 evils, growing ont of institutions 'a..-, old and as 
 much revered a; the state. There ii. especially 
 in a ;'X:iety which is growing corrupt in conse- 
 quence of its prosperity, and which is advanced 
 enough in reflection to think upon the canses of 
 social evUs, a tendency to search for some cure of 
 these evijs. which lies beyond the reach of indi- 
 vidnals and can only be applied by the higliest 
 aatriority. And it is not strange that inexperi- 
 enced, speculative thinkers, who saw jiow 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, ilen are not jn -t. Tlie 
 city or the state is not a unity, but is split up by 
 fai^tijiiS and strifes of classes. How can such 
 evils be removed save by the state itself, the only 
 power snScierir for the undertaking ' ftnc-h ques- 
 tions would be asked not so much by men of an 
 ordinary stamp as hy tliose who had strong moral 
 sensibilities and a high ideal of the ends aimed at 
 by life in the world. If such meri had a practical 
 spirit and any h'^'pe of success, they wouli beconie 
 reformers. If they were of another sort, they 
 would constrnct T toDias. 
 
 Plato has left in his •' Eepublic " an image of a 
 state which i- intended to set forth the reign of 
 jiuStiee in a c-ommnnf'y. Whether it was to him 
 a mere Utopia, or whether it was something mor^ 
 
0>3I"irN~JTIC THEORIES AXD tTVPIAf, 
 
 t,:le, Trv.i:* ":;;# ;-.-.;,.i.i for ;\::;i":ii:-^ :_> the i:re;ir 
 er. \ •:■! rv lirio&i ;".*:ii.v, as if ther -w-ere to Iv real- 
 Lie! in ;.r. aetusl 5:.i:e. 0:i :.;? ■ rl.er hand, in 1: j 
 " Book of La\rs" there is anoriier R?pnbiio contem- 
 riated — v»::o i:i wMeh the oo.ii:u~irv rti.iri, r.j of so- 
 eierv art to be r rcreotixi and defended ; in wliioii. 
 o:: the exiici::^: bji^is, scviety is to be ::. Je ;is jus:, 
 p.ire. Slid njTrerviui.i!. .iS ";i^-# and ins:i:r.rio:is can 
 make it. Tikir^ ti.e two xrorks :. ceriier. \re 
 ni:ii: either say :i:;i: Plate r^r^ir^led the rictiirt? of 
 a ",is: stare \rhi«di sr'oe^rs ia i.is " Kepubiie " as 
 a ::ier\? iik;st:^i:i:r. ct :::e sa:ue hanno:i: r^s iocion 
 wiiidi can be trseed in ti.e -ust indiritiia. ; or \re 
 iv.is: siy :i;s: he re^rirded kis ir.stirati r.s i:i tiie 
 *" Tier" j'^io ;\s CrS'.rA^'.e i" ;-ie"',.s<e.v~es. .s'li scI't 
 nk.:-.^ inuuoial in tker.:. s:^ ^ov^ ss tkey co:i- 
 diij^i to ti.e AK--i".::i c • -i. to the rjiutr ;i:id ejc- 
 e:r.r:i:'n fr:"'. seikskr.e^ss irs tke O-.^sses et wiitcii 
 Lis " Repkbiie ~ coiisisrs. TiiAt tkis isst expiaiia- 
 
 •-lk»~s,~ wkere ke says tiist t::e tirst or t'es: srste 
 and tke i-est .s^s w^xki b^ fonnd w^here " r.oti_:"_r 
 existai tlMiS is se.caiate and :. : ci ::iL:- :::: ; -v^er^ 
 ^i'cs weie common and ;kkinj" ir.i e- ery:-ik»-g 
 tk,it e-.;*ald I'S r.sei." " Sv.t.. a sT.ire, wiier-ier 
 .r -is :r diildren :-f ir is ini-ibitei it, wor.ii. be a 
 ha.''py abode," B;.: the st^re wlli^:l iie is me^it.: .r 
 et w: .kd t«e next in irs ir.ir.i?rt,k::y, ane tue tirst 
 in a Sc-ooV.ci c_asi. ^e. t—eri. tc- s^me ^lecrte 'w^ 
 
rriJiHt make the trxTjial pLilosoplier responsible, 
 and deseniiiir of Ar'r/ t>;g i^ivere tebnkes. 
 
 J he itat-i. hov-firer. in t]jfe "liepublic" i-; not 
 worked out in all its featnrf-s. The cla^e* &re 
 tliT ^ in liiimb^ — tlie r.er-:. tli fe gnard ^ a nd the 
 •workinymen orar t&^^-: ^Tid'caltlrator; : imsvf::T- 
 iz^^~tnrXu^r'^jycon. tLe <'>'y/ a* ^t>; -^-^s^^ of co-a.rofje 
 and fee>irig. and to d^r^ or the desires. And, 
 ai tLe r^nlar action of each of the^ departments 
 of the gpiritnal heir.;; insures ri;^?.*; condnct or jns- 
 tice. go tLe r:;;;.t action, nnitj. and justice of tie 
 state ii jjreserved hy tlie orders of society, eai^i 
 fvilSUm'^ its parL But Plato, in developing his ' 
 Kuhject. says very little in re^rard to the first and \ 
 the third ela». Hie former would, of conr-e. ij^ ' 
 small : and ite recmite were to be taken from the 
 raoit trusty aiiKmg the gasrdi. Tlie third daas 
 nj5i.-. f'/r augLt tij^t appeal^ own property, li-e in 
 farriijies, and l>e like t?.e iarne 'I'a^s in otier com- 
 monwealth?: arjd if 6..'.'. org t'leir children »OT/se 
 iLould ir.OT coni-p-cnoui ability, tr^ey are to l-e 
 trjirjife:Te/l to tr^e class of try-^ri?. : as also, if tisere 
 are children of the jrii;; -1? who fall below t].e 
 qialities pr per for that elasg, trey are t . V,- 
 *; ."^^?t d'y-.TTi ir,to tLe tLird class, for we iorr.et;ir,e» 
 fij.d, says Plato, that a goldex; fatner l^s an i: ,r. 
 
 Tie 2-;5.rc- tr.emselves, "^Lose esT/ecr'a! ofr:% it 
 is to pr ote^rt *le -ta*e from fore;>r. enemies arsd 
 frora domestic »&diti</:is, are to Lave no houses, 
 
COMMrSISTIC THEORIES AUD 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 i? 
 to be taken by the rulers tliat, when cliildren 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 childi-en, 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 faded to gain his end ; 
 how he would destroy tlie 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 accoimted for by 
 the prevailing Gi-eek 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 tliey had little chance 
 of being accepted may be gathered from the ridi- 
 cule which they met with from the lead in g comic 
 poet of Athens. 
 
 The •• Kepublic " of Plato may have suggested 
 the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, ^vl■itten in Latin, 
 and first published in or earlier tlian the year 
 1516, in the first part of the reign of Henry YIIL 
 and before the author had come into political im- 
 
90 COMMtJNISTIC THEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 portance. It is, perhaps, to be regarded as a mere 
 dream ; for, at the close of the work, it is said by 
 one of the interlocutors : " If, on the first hand, I 
 cannot adhere to all that has been said by Hyth- 
 lodeus [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 
 outside 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. Pm-e deism is the predominant faith ; I 
 but those who deny the being of God or the im- I 
 mortality of the soul are incapacitated for holding I 
 office. This book was printed but a year or so 
 before the first outbreak of the Reformation ; 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 non-prodiicers, to the rich who 
 take from the poor, to the idle who prevent the 
 industrious from prospering. To this the speaker 
 who had discovei-ed Utopia replies, that in all 
 states where individual property exists, where! 
 
COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 91 
 
 everytliing is measured by money, justice can 
 never reign nor secure tlie public prosperity. 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 biu-den of unrest, misery, and 
 sorrow. Palliatives for this evil may be found — 
 such as laws fixing a maximum of possessions in 
 land or money ; but they cannot remove the evil 
 so long as individual property exists. The sole 
 remedy is commimity 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 mamifactures. 
 Every head of a family finds there, without cost, 
 all necessary articles. Meals are taken in com- 
 mon. There are also common hospitals and com- 
 mon nurseries, where motliers may nurse their 
 
92 COMMtJNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 children. Marriage is the law and usage of the 
 land; but the number of children in separate 
 dwellings is equalized, by taking away the excess 
 f jK)ni one family, and placing them in another. 
 
 Money is unknown among the Utopians except 
 as an aid to external intercourse. Nor is travel- 
 ling into the interior allowed, except by permis- 
 sion of the magistrates ; in which case the trav- 
 eler pays for the conveyance and provisions fur- 
 nished to him by laboring wherever he stops. 
 
 The government is simple. Every thirty fami- 
 lies choose a magistrate ; every ten of these divi- 
 sions, a superior magistrate ; and a prince is elected 
 by the inferior magistrates out of four candidates 
 proposed by the people. Every town sends three 
 • deputies to a legislature, invested with legislative 
 powers .and sitting at the capital. The magis- 
 trates have it for their principal office to keep 
 people at work. But would the system encour- 
 age work or idleness ? This iioportant inquiry is 
 proposed in the course of the dialogue, but meets 
 with no sufficient answer. 
 
 I have mentioned some of the details of More's 
 plan, because the socialists of the more modem 
 times have seen the same difficulties, and pro- 
 posed some of the same expedients for their re- 
 moval. The Utopia may be regarded as written 
 long before the era when social changes were 
 called for with a loud voice, yet'as foreseeing the 
 course which such changes would take. 
 
COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 93 
 
 Another ideal reformer, more according to 
 Plato's pattern, Thomas Campanella, flourished 
 about a century after More; his "City of the 
 Sun" having been first published in 1623. 
 This man, a learned philosopher of Italy and a 
 Dominican monk, incurred the jealousy of the 
 Spaniards, and was sentenced, after being put 
 seven times to the rack, to perpetual imprison- 
 ment ; but was liberated after some twenty -si.x 
 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 has had 
 little influence on the minds of men disposed to 
 speculate in that direction. In fact, it has been 
 rescued from oblivion only in comparatively re- 
 cent times. As another has remarked : " The 
 monastery is the type of the social organization 
 which he extols ; the pontifical power and the 
 ecclesiastical hierarchy serve as the basis of the 
 government of his new society." The two main 
 points of his system are community of property 
 and of wives, and a government lodged in the 
 hands of philosophers ; in both of which he fol- 
 lows Plato. In regard to the first, he perceives tlie 
 connection between the abolition of private prop- 
 erty and the abolition of the family, lie says, 
 in a passage which I borrow from another, that 
 " the spirit of property increases among us only 
 because we have each a house, a wife, and children 
 of our own. Thence comes selfishness, for, in 
 
04 COMMUNISTIC TIIKOEIKS AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 ordor to raise a son to lionors and riches and to 
 make liiin heir of a great fortune, we dilapidate 
 the public treasure, if wo caTi control others hy 
 our wealth and power ; oi', if we are feeble, jioor, 
 and of an obscure family, we become avaricious, 
 perfidious, hypoci'ites." And, in carrying out this 
 kind of community, he f(jllo\vs Plato in endeavor- 
 ing to improve the breed of men by measures of 
 govermnent, expressing his astonishment that 
 races of animals should receive attention in this 
 respect, while the race of men is neglected. 
 
 Campanclla carries Ids dread of property even 
 beyond the points above spoken of. IS'o one has 
 a fixed 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 eacli one's needs. 
 As for the amount of these needs, since the in- 
 liabitants all take a vow of frugality and poverty, 
 and it is assumed by C-ampanella that four hours' 
 work daily will be adequate for their supply, they 
 camiot be wry groat. 
 
 Tlie magistrates in this republic are all to bo 
 philosophei's, according to Plato's noted words, in 
 the " Republic," that until kings become philoso- 
 phers, or philoso])her8 become kings, there can be 
 no end of evils in political communities. The su- 
 
COMMUNISTIC TUE0BIK8 AND UTOl'IAS. 95 
 
 prcinc magistrate is the most eminent pliilosoplier 
 in tlie City of the Sun, and has tlie title of tiie 
 Sun, or tl>e great metaphysician. Under hiin 
 three magistrates — answering to the three attri- 
 butes of power, wisdom, and love in the individ- 
 ual man — preside respectively ovor war, over 
 si'ieiHK^, and over industry and the arts. Under 
 tiiese, and chosen by them, tliere is a great body 
 of officers, distinguished for some kind of knowl- 
 edge, and chosen by the great metaphysician and 
 his three miniHters. They are invested with very 
 great executive powers, with whicli the religions 
 authority also, even that of holding auricular con- 
 fession, is united. Thus a thorough despotism, 
 the only government possible in a communistic 
 society, if it can subsist, is established. 
 
 Why lie should want a religious autocrat for 
 his Uto])ia we can explain ; but his union of the 
 two powers, so contrary to (Jatholic doctrine, his 
 doctrine of marriage, so un-Cliristi:ui, and the 
 modicum of freedom provided for his republic, 
 wlien lie suffered so much from despotism him- 
 self, make him a rare specimen in the history of 
 philosophers. 
 
96 COMMUNISTIC THEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 II 
 
 COMMUNISTIC THEOEIES IN FRANCE — MABLT — MORELLT— 
 babceuf's CONSPIKACY. 
 
 The middle of the last century was the time 
 •when socialism, only a dream or the animating 
 spirit of a small, secluded society before, began to 
 proclaim itself to the world as the true and just 
 foundation of communities made up of living 
 men. It was in France that words sought iirst to 
 become deeds ; that inexperience and mere theory 
 ventured on experiments which M'ere of value to 
 the world, but ruinous to those who made them. 
 
 Why France took the lead in the new move- 
 ments of thought which mark the last century, 
 and why these movements ended in the most 
 memorable of revolutions are questions which we 
 must pass by. Here we can only say that bold, 
 inexperienced thought, misgovernment, feebleness 
 of the executive, and great corruption in society 
 came into the field of action together. In bring- 
 ing about the result, theories of society and of 
 personal rights had as much weight in the scale 
 as any other of the concurring causes. 
 
 The socialistic tendencies of this age cannot, I 
 think, be laid principally at Kousseau's door. As 
 I understand his views in the "social contract," 
 the individual in a state of nature makes an abso- 
 lute surrender of what he has and of himself in 
 
COMMUNISTIC THEOEIKS AND UTOPIAS. 97 
 
 order to form the political body. Because all do 
 it alike, complete equality and reciprocity reign 
 in the community. But before the surrender each 
 had his own goods, and thus property was not 
 the creation of the state. Bousseau, then, was no 
 communist in the strictest sense ; but the notion 
 of equality might easily be perverted so as to 
 mean equality of possessions, and the entire sur- 
 render of the individual, with no restrictions on 
 the action of the state, would, of course, involve 
 the possibility of any kind of absolutism ; of one, 
 for instance, under which private property would 
 cease and community of goods be established. 
 And this might easily be the coiirse of a revolu- 
 tion such as that of France in the last century. 
 
 If Rousseau cannot be numbered among the 
 communistic writers, strictly so called, two of his 
 contemporaries, Mably and Morelly — the first more 
 a dreamer, the second of a more practical spirit — 
 deserve that title. Eousseau complained that 
 Mably copied him, without shame or stint. But 
 the case seems to be that Mably's principal opin- 
 ions rest rather on Plato than on any modern pre- 
 decessor. It also appears that Mably changed his 
 views in the course of his literary life. In his 
 earlier writings he shows a preference for arbi- 
 trary power. In his later ones, he has changed 
 in most important respects ; in fact, his theory of 
 society has altered. And this was an honest 
 change in his own mind ; for, being of a distin- 
 5 
 
93 COMMUNISTIC THEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 guished family, employed in the government, 
 with good prospects before him, he withdrew 
 from public occupations, to lead thfe life of an 
 author and a scholar. It is noteworthy that he was 
 a brother of Condillac, although very much older. 
 
 In the social theory of Mably, inequality of 
 condition is the great evil in the world. He 
 says : " Since the time that we have been so im- 
 fortunate as to conceive of great landed estates 
 and differences of condition ; avarice, ambition, 
 vanity, envy, jealousy take their place in our 
 hearts, to lacerate us, to invade the government 
 of states and to t^'rannize over them. Establish 
 community of goods, and then nothing is easier 
 than to establish equality of conditions, and on 
 this double foundation to secure the welfare of 
 men." 
 
 He answers the objection that men will not 
 work without a personal motive, by admitting 
 that the desire of property inspires the spirit of 
 and the taste for labor ; but replies that in our 
 corruption we know only the personal motive for 
 industry, and so we conceive that nothing can sup- 
 ply its place. " The toil which is a burden to la- 
 borers would be only a delicious amusement if all 
 men had a share in it." 
 
 Mably read history badly. He appeals to Sparta 
 as happy in a community of goods. But if there 
 ever was in Sparta an equal division of land be- 
 tween the first Doric conquerors, all this had 
 
COMMUNISTIC TIIEOKIES AND UTOriAS. 99 
 
 ceased before Aristotle's time ; and, in fact, the 
 system rested originally and always, on a multi- 
 tude of Helots, who were public slaves, and on a 
 mass of inhabitants below the grade of privileged 
 citizens. 
 
 Mably was a theorist who shrunk back from the 
 practical application of his own theories. The es- 
 tablishment of commimity of goods, and even of 
 equality of fortunes, he dared not advocate. " Tha 
 evil," he says, " is too inveterate for the hope of 
 a cure." And so he advised half measures — agra- 
 rian laws fixing the maximum of lauded estates, 
 and sumptuary laws regulating expenses. Yet, 
 with his great reading and acquaintance with his- 
 tory, he must have well known that sumptuary 
 laws have been always ineffectual against the 
 taste for extravagance and self-indulgence. 
 
 Morelly, whose principal works are a communis- 
 tic poem, called '' The Basiliade " (1753) and " The 
 Code of Nature" (1755), is called by a French 
 writer one of the most ol).=;cure authors of the last 
 centurv. But he knew what he wanted, and had 
 courage to tell it to others. His work seems to 
 have lain unnoticed for some time and was as- 
 cribed to Diderot ; but, when the time was ready 
 for it, it had vastly more effect than all the learn- 
 ing and theory of Mably, who was a nmnber of 
 years after him in his authorship. 
 
 Morelly's power on subsequent opinion consists 
 in his being the first to put dreams or theories 
 
100 COMMUNISTIO THEOIUES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 into a code ; from which shape it seemed easy to 
 fanatical minds to carry it out into action. " His 
 starting-point is that men can be made good or 
 evil by institutions. Private property, or avarice 
 called out by it, is the source of all vice. " Hence, 
 where no property existed there would appear none 
 of its pernicious consequences." He meets the 
 objection that personal interest is a most power- 
 ful motive to human action by asserting that 
 "idleness is produced by arbitrary institutions, 
 which give to some men a permanent state of re- 
 pose, which is called prosperity or fortune, and 
 leave for others labor and hardship. These dis- 
 tinctions have led the former into indolence and 
 effeminacy, and have inspired the others with 
 aversion and disgust toward forced duties." 
 
 His fundamental laws of human society are : 
 First. That nothing in society shall belong sepa- 
 rately or in proprietorship to any one, except 
 those things that are in daily use, either for his 
 wants, his pleasures, or his daily labor. 
 
 Second. That every citizen shall be a public 
 man, sustained, maintained, and employed at the 
 public expense. 
 
 Third. That every citizen, for his part, shall 
 contribute to the benefit of the public, according 
 to his strength, talents, and age. On this princi- 
 ple, his duties shall be adjusted according to dis- 
 tributive laws. The laws divide the people by 
 families, tribes, cities, and provinces. In order 
 
/ 
 
 COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. ICl 
 
 to avoid accumulation, they prohibit all sale and \ 
 exchange ; they require every citizen to till the 
 land between the ages of twenty and twenty -five ; 
 they make marriage imperative as soon as a mar- 
 riageable age is reached, and allow no man to live 
 single until after the age of forty; they provide 
 for a common education of all children, after the 
 age of five, in great public schools ; and require 
 that superiors in the mechanic arts shall give in- 
 struction to those who are under them in morals 
 and a kind of vague deism. 
 
 Rotation in office is the leading feature of Mo- 
 relly's plan of government. Every family in turn 
 gives a head to the tribe of which it is a part ; 
 every tribe, in its turn, appoints the magistrate of 
 the tribe, and so of the cities. The heads of tribes, 
 however, and of the whole state hold their offices 
 for life. 
 
 The penal laws contain the article that who- 
 ever, of whatever rank, shall endeavor to intro- 
 duce "detestable property" shall, after being 
 convicted and judged by the supreme senate, be 
 shut up for life, as a madman and an enemy of 
 humanity, in a cavern built in the place for pub- 
 lic burial. His name shall be left out of the regis- 
 ter of the citizens ; his children and family shall 
 give up his name, and shall be separately incor- 
 porated in other tribes, cities, or provinces. As 
 Alfred Sudre, to whom I have been much in- 
 debted in this paper, remarks : although labor is 
 
102 COMMUNISTIC TIIEOKIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 to become so very agreeable after property ceases 
 to exist, Morelly seems to think that this great 
 enemy will still have some friends left. 
 
 The feeling that all men are eqnal led insensi- 
 Ibly to the feeling that all inequalities must be 
 eradicated out of society. In order to justify' this 
 feeling, property must be shown to be an artifi- 
 cial institution, whicli a righteous state, or even a 
 spoliation of the weaker by the stronger, may 
 abolish. In 17^2, Brissot de Yt'^arville invented 
 the phrase, used afterward by Proudhon, Pro- 
 jpriete c'est le vol, and even justified the temporary 
 unions of the sexes found among races of men 
 nearest to brutes. Twelve years afterward a war 
 against the rich began, and such measures as a 
 maximum of property' and tlie abolition of the 
 right to make a will were agitated. But tlie 
 right of property prevailed, and grew stronger 
 after each new revolution. In 1796 the conspir- 
 acy of the Equals, or, as it is generally called, of 
 BabcEuf, was the final and desperate measure of a 
 portion of those Jacobins who had been stripped 
 by the fall of Kobespierre (in 1794) of political 
 power. It was the last hope of the extreme revo- 
 lutionists, for men were getting tired of agita- 
 tions and wanted rest. 
 
 This conspiracy seems to have been fomented 
 by Jacobins in prison ; and it is said that one of 
 them, who was a believer in Morelly and had his 
 work iu his hands, expounded its doctrines to his 
 
COMMUNISTIC THKORIES AND UTOPIAS. 103 
 
 fellow-prisoner, Baboeuf . When they were set at 
 liberty by an amnesty law, tliei-e was a successful 
 effort made to bring together the society or sect 
 of the Equals ; but it was found that they wei-e 
 not all of one mind. Baboeuf was for thorough 
 measures — for a community of goods and of labor, 
 an equality of conditions and of comforts. Anto- 
 nelli, who had been a member of the Legislative 
 Assembly, was for laws restricting property by a 
 maximum and for other half measures. lie 
 thought that extreme measures would only de- 
 stroy, without rebuilding ; but he iiually yielded 
 to the views and plans of his associates. There 
 was a secret committee of the society of the 
 Equals, as well as an open society. The latter 
 excited the suspicion of the Directory, and an 
 order was given to suspend its sessions in the 
 Pantheon (or Church of St. Genevieve). The 
 order was executed by Bonaparte, then general of 
 the army of the interior, who dispersed the mem- 
 bers and put a seal on the doors of the place of 
 meeting. Next the Equals won over a >body of 
 the police into their measures ; and, when this 
 force was disbanded by the Directory, the Equals 
 established a committee of public safety. The 
 committee was successful in bringing as many as 
 sixty of the party of the mountain into their 
 ranks, and an insurrection was projected. Seven- 
 teen thousand fighting men were calculated upon 
 by the conspirators as at their disposal. But an 
 
104: COMMUNISTIC THE0KIE8 AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 officer of the army whom they had tried to bring 
 into their plots denounced them to the Directory. 
 The leading conspirators were arrested. Baboeuf 
 and Dai the suffered death, and iive others were 
 banished. One of the most ferocious of the sect, 
 Sylvain Marechal, a fanatical atheist, who, accord- 
 ing to Taine, " erected atheism into a compulsory 
 dogma and a superior duty," had written a mani- 
 festo for the occasion, in which he says: "We 
 wish real equality or death. The French Revo- 
 lution is only the precursor of another, much 
 greater, more solemn, and the final one. Let all 
 the arts perish, if need be, provided real equality 
 remains for us." He disclaims the maximum, or 
 agrarian laws, as being the project of some sol- 
 diers without principle, and of bodies of people 
 without reason, and then adds: "We aim at 
 something more sublime and more equitable — 
 the common good, or the community of goods. 
 No more individual property in lands. The 
 land belongs to no person. We demand, we 
 seek the common enjoyment of the fruits of 
 the soil. The fruits are for all the world." 
 
 Buonarotti, an Italian, who belonged to the 
 insurrectional committee above spoken of, pub- 
 lished in 1828, after long years of exile, a project 
 of an economical decree, so called, which reveals 
 the special plans of the Equals for the new organ- 
 ization of France which they had in view. Some \ 
 of the provisions of this project are that all prop- 
 
COMMUNISTIC THEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. 105 
 
 erty of living persons, when they die, is to form 
 a part of the national cbninumity of goods, which 
 all the members of society are to manage. The 
 community gives to all that of which they have 
 need ; but, in the transition state, no one can 
 hold any office who is not a member of the com- 
 munity. Every member under sixty is require^ 
 to work on the land or in some useful art. Th^ 
 citizens everywhere are divided iiito classes, cor 
 responding with the useful arts ; and the work i: 
 each district or commune is performed imder the^ 
 supervision of magistrates elected by the workmen 
 in each class or description of industry. These 
 chiefs of divisions of labor store away such fruits 
 of the soil and of the arts as will bear keeping, and 
 distribute what is laid up in the magazines to the 
 people of the place, according to their necessities. 
 All machines are furnished by the general com- 
 munity; transport is under the direction of the 
 magistrates ; taxes are payable in kind ; no money 
 is to be coined ; and whatever money comes to 
 the national eomnmnity is to be used in foreign 
 trade. The magistrates may transport workmen 
 from one place of work to another, if it is neces- 
 sary, and may impose forced work on the lazy. 
 
 This project is interesting, because, in its lead-' 
 ing features, it anticipates the newest plans of 
 German socialists in a number of important par- 
 ticulars. It did not aim at instantaneous expro- 
 priation, owing, no doubt, to the certain failure 
 
106 coMaiuNisnc theoeies and utopiab. 
 
 of so bold an attempt. The attainment of the 
 same end by abolishing inheritance was judged to 
 be less hazardous. 
 
 The conspiracy of Babceuf was a gi-eat blessing. 
 During the Empire and for a generation after its 
 fall, there was, we believe, no serious attempt to 
 dissolve social order ; but there was imder the 
 Bourbons a communistic or semi- communistic 
 literature arising in France which we cannot 
 wholly pass by, for at length it leavens the multi- 
 tude and threatens th.e foundations of society. 
 
 III. 
 
 THEOEIES, ETC., OF COMMCKISM — ST. SIMON AUD HIS 
 FOLLOWERS — FGCBIES. 
 
 The ways of thinking or schools that arose in 
 France having social questions for their object, in 
 and soon after the first third of the present cen- 
 tury, could not, in the strict sense, be all termed 
 communistic or socialistic. We are not called, 
 therefore, in the discussion of socialism, to con- 
 sider them particularly ; nor can we go into the 
 history of them and do justice to the prominence 
 which some of their authors reached. Isor did 
 they acquire importance, in any great degree, by 
 going beyond the region of theory and imagina- 
 tion into the sober domain of experiment. If in 
 a few cases they did this, the result was a failure. 
 
COIOILNISTIC THHORIICS A.N;) CTaPIAS. 107 
 
 as ill the instances wliere Cabet's speculations and 
 a modified Fourierisni sought a home witliin tlie 
 United States. Yet, as they adopted the princi- 
 ples of earlier communistic writers or gave new 
 directions to communistic thinking, they need 
 here a brief e.xposition. One of the first of these 
 was St. Simonism, or the speculations of St. 
 Simon, modified or corrupted afterward by En- 
 fantin and Bazard. The founder of the school 
 was a member of the noble family to which the 
 duke of the same name, author of important me- 
 moirs published in recent times and a courtier 
 under Louis XIV., belonged. The Count de St. 
 Simon served in our Revolutionary War in the 
 French army, while very young, and ended a life 
 of misfortune and poverty in 1825, a month after 
 the publication of his " Nouveaa Christlanisii )£.'''' 
 In this work he aimed at a new organization of 
 Christianity, which was reduced to fraternity, 
 with very little of its dogma left. " All society," 
 he taught, "ought to labor for the amelioration 
 of the moral and physical existence of the poor- 
 est class. Society ought to organize itself in a 
 way best fitted for reaching this great end." In 
 , regard to the rewards of industrial employments, 
 his motto was: "To each one according to his 
 capacity ; to each capacity according to its work " 
 — which is very far from being a communistic 
 principle. 
 
 The school of St. Simon at the time of the 
 
108 COiLilCNISTIC THEOKIES AKD UTOPIAS. 
 
 July Revolution (in 1830), five years after liis 
 death, was attacked by misrepresentations wliicli 
 they endeavored to refute in a letter addressed to 
 the President of the Chamber of Deputies. The 
 attacks touched three points: the eommimity of 
 goods, the community of women, and connection 
 with democratic societies. These attacks pro- 
 ceeded from Messrs. Maguin and Dupin, impor- 
 tant members of the Chamber. 
 
 In answer, they admit that " the St. Simonists 
 profess doctrines concerning the future of prop- 
 erty and the future of women which are peculiar 
 to them, and are connected with equally peculiar 
 and entirely new views concerning religion, politi- 
 cal power, and freedom ; in short, concerning all 
 the great enigmas which are at present making a 
 stir over all Europe in a violent and extraordinary 
 way. But these ideas of theirs are far different 
 fi'om those which are imputed to them." 
 
 As to community of goods, they declare that 
 to attempt the introduction of this " would be 
 a greater act of violence, a more outrageous in- 
 justice than the unequal division which originally 
 was brought about by the power of arms and by 
 conquest." They could not hold to this: "fur 
 they believe in the natural inequality of men," 
 and think that " such community would violate 
 the first of all moral laws which they are sent to 
 propagate — that in future every one should have 
 his place according to his capacity and be reward- 
 
COMMUNISTIC TIIEOKIES AND UTOPIAS. 109 
 
 ed according to his works." Yet, in conformity 
 with this law, tliey demand " the abolition of all 
 privileges of birth, without exception ; and, hence, 
 the destruction of inheritance, the greatest of all 
 privileges." 
 
 As to the position of woman, they say that 
 "Christianity drew woman out of slavery; but 
 stm condemned her to subjection." The St. Si- 
 monists are come to announce her final freedom, 
 her complete emancipation ; but without, on that 
 account, destroying the lioly law of marriage, 
 which is proclaimed by Christianity. They de- 
 mand, like the Christians, that one man be united 
 to one woman ; but they teach that the woman 
 shall stand on an equality with the husband, and 
 that, according to the grace which God has spe- 
 cially poured on her sex, she be united to him in 
 the triple function of temple, state, and family, 
 so that the social individual, which until now has 
 been the man alone, shall become in future the 
 man and the woman. 
 
 The charge that they are allied with the exist- 
 ing democratic clubs, they deny, so far as to say 
 that, although they have sympathy with these 
 movements, their own work is of another kind — 
 not destructive nor violent, but reformatory, and 
 constructive of a new society in peaceful and re- 
 ligious ways. 
 
 Not long after this defensive letter was pre- 
 sented to the Chamber of Deputies, a schism be- 
 
110 COMMUNISTIC THEOEIKS AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 gan between the two successors of St. Simon — 
 I3azard and Enfantin. Bazard, who had intro- 
 duced the society of Carbonari into France, was 
 interested in the social problems which St. Simon 
 left almost untouched. They all beheved in 
 some kind of equality of men. How can this be 
 united with inequality of property ? Is there 
 any absolute right to property '. To this he gave, 
 if not a new answer, at least one more thorough- 
 ly considered tlian it had been by St. Simon : that 
 acquired property is trul}- such, but transmitted 
 property rests only on positive law. This would 
 lead to the abolition of inheritance. How, then, 
 sliould lapsed inheritances be disposed of by tlie 
 state? He solved the problem by a system of 
 banks, which- formed a sort of magistracy, em- 
 powered to find the persons best qualified to take 
 care, through their lives, of estates thiis revert- 
 ing to tlie public. There would thus be not 
 strictly a comnmnity of goods ; but a distribution 
 by the state, according to the capacity of per- 
 sons to manage what was put into their hands. 
 And so, on the death of each tenant, the turn 
 of some other, well fitted for the work, would 
 come. 
 
 Enfantin, the other leader of the sect, appears 
 to have been a conceited, selfish man ; and . it 
 seems probable that he became imbued with some 
 of the views of Fourier relating to the intercourse 
 of the sexes. But, however this may be, the idea 
 
COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. Ill 
 
 of tlie rehabilitation or reinstatement in its rights 
 of the flesh was unknown to St. Simon or Ba- 
 zard. When Enfantin avowed this as his doc- 
 trine, Bazard left the hall and did not appear 
 there again. He died not long after. Others of 
 the school — Pierre Leroux, for instance — soon fol- 
 lowed ; and, to save it from total destruction, En- 
 fantin removed to a paternal estate in the coun- 
 try. The last blow the school received came 
 from the arrest of Enfantin and three others, one 
 of whom was Michael Chevalier, for a violation 
 of the penal code. They were imprisoned ; and, 
 although the master or father, as they called him, 
 lived many years afterward, he and his work fell 
 into entire oblivion. 
 
 An important writer on the social movement 
 in France, L. Stein, thus sums up what St. Simon, 
 as the leader of a new school of thought, accom- 
 plished : " He first pronounced the separation of 
 the two great classes of industrial society, employ- 
 ers and workmen. He first set forth, although 
 obscurely, social reform as the only real problem 
 of state power. He first put the question con- 
 cerning inheritance, the question on which the 
 entire future of the social form of Europe in the 
 next two generations will depend. And, finally, 
 with St. Simon, society, in its elements, its power, 
 and its contradictions, was for the first time half 
 understood, half dimly conceived of. He is the 
 boundary stone of the modern time in France." 
 
112 COMMUNISTIC TIIEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 St. Simon seems not to have deserved the name 
 of a profound thinker ; yet he and his successors 
 drew to them a number of jowng men who after- 
 ward distinguished themselves in several depart- 
 ments. Biichez, author of " The Parliamentary- 
 History of the Revolution," and of a " Treatise 
 on Politics," and President of the Constituent 
 Assembly in 1830, was one of them. He, with 
 his friend Bolland, left the school when Enfantin 
 began to make his new doctrines known, and he 
 afterward passed over into a modified Catholi- 
 cism. Michael Chevalier was another. Auguste 
 Comte was a third, who retained some of the 
 thoughts of the school in his philosophy. We 
 have already spoken of Pierre Leroux as joining 
 Bazard in the schism which Enfantin occasioned. 
 Another scholar, less known, Olinde Kodriguez, 
 when he broke loose from Enfantin, was accused 
 by him of heresy, and accused him in turn. " I 
 have asserted," said he, " that in the family of St. 
 Simon every child must know who his father is." 
 Enfantin would have it that the woman alone 
 should " be called to decide this serious question." 
 Pie gave to the world several publications con- 
 cerning the schism. 
 
 Fourier may come next, on account of his some- 
 what near relations to St. Simonism ; but to the 
 doctrine of the school, rather than to that of the 
 master. He was destined for trade ; but, losing 
 his property early in his life, filled inferior posi- 
 
cosmrNiSTic theoeies and Utopias. 113 
 
 tions vrith. little success, and died, at the age of 
 sixty-five, in 1S37. He Logan to write early in 
 the century. His principal works are " Theory 
 of the Four Movements " and " Treatise on a 
 Domestic Rural AssuL-iation." In another publi- 
 cation he attacked Owen and St. Simon. 
 
 Fourier, like St. Simon, separated from the 
 communists by not admitting the eipiality of 
 members of his communities. Talent and capi- 
 tal are to receive their rewards, as well as work. 
 A rule of his gives five-twelfths of the product to 
 work, three-twelfths to talent, and four-twelfths to 
 capital. "Work itself is to have a larger dividend 
 acdording as it is repidsive and difficult. He 
 does not even absolutely cut off inheritance, so 
 that a generation of property -holders might con- 
 tinue in his establishments. 
 
 Another of his ideas was to strive to make 
 work agreeable. He would make it so by dis- 
 tributing it according to the inclination of the 
 workman, by allowing him to engage in more 
 than one employment, and by stimulating rival-* 
 ries between persons employed in different occu- 
 pations. The existing opinion is thoroughly 
 wrong, he thinks, in expecting from men moral 
 self-control. In Fourier's system every one may 
 crive free vent to his sensitive or impassioned na- 
 ture ; and the result is a harmony in which the 
 poorest may have more enjoyment than kings. 
 For instance, a friendly ri%^alry between the culti- 
 
114 COMMDNISTIG THKOEIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 vatoi-s of a pear-orchard and an apple-orchard 
 wonld give spice to their employments. 
 
 Fourier would gather a large number of per- 
 sons in a vast building, calculated to hold from 
 1,800 to 2,000 in all. Here should be collected 
 all the means of amusement after work was 
 ended, and all should have liberty to partake of 
 them. The building — called a phalanstery, as the 
 community is eaUed a phalanx — could be con- 
 structed at a cheaper rate than the hovels contain- 
 ing the same number of poor families. This, and 
 the larger amount of work turned off, owing to 
 the pleasure of the occupations, would greatly in- 
 crease enjoyment and would give ample time to 
 amusement. ^Vork would become play while it 
 lasted, and be followed by a new kind of play 
 after the hours of work. The products of the 
 phalanstery and its dividends would show a vast 
 increase of profits over ordinary systems of labor. 
 He professes to think that England could pay off 
 her national debt by henneries and raising of eggs 
 in half a year (Stein, ii., 60(3). 
 
 This is the ridiculous side of the system. Of 
 his fantastic natural philosophy we shall say noth- 
 ing. His moral philosophy consisted in holding 
 that pleasure was the chief good ; that natural 
 desires and passions were to be gratified. It was 
 on this basis that he aimed to make work as in- 
 viting as possible. His opinions respecting chas- 
 tity and conjugal fidelity fell below those of the 
 
COilMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 115 
 
 degenerate portion of St. Simon's scliolars. I 
 shall not be guilty of an exaggeration if I say 
 that they admitted into his system something 
 very much like polyandry and polygamy. 
 
 lY. 
 
 CERTAIH RELIGIOUS SOCIALISTS — CABET — LOTTIS BLANC. 
 
 St. Simonism manifested the feeling that tlie 
 problem of the regeneration of society could not 
 be solved on merely social grounds, and that a 
 foundation of religion would be demanded by 
 many earnest minds. Lamennais was one of 
 these. What led him onward from his first posi- 
 tion of a Catholic preacher of rigliteousness, to 
 that of breaking; ^vith his church and of becoming 
 a sort of tribune of the people, was the spirit of 
 fraternity and sj'mpathy with the lower class. 
 At length, in 1S38, in a book called the " Livre 
 du Peujple" he almost reached community of 
 goods. He there says : " That which begets dis- 
 sensions, hatred, envy, is the insatiable desire of 
 possessing more and always more, when one pos- 
 sesses for himself alone. Providence curses these 
 solitary possessions. They stimulate covetousness 
 without ceasing, and satisfy it never. There is 
 no enjoyment in goods, unless they are divided." 
 And attain : " From the holy maxims of equality, 
 
116 coMsnmiSTic theoeies and utopias, 
 
 liberty, and fraternity, immovably established, the 
 organization of society will emanate." 
 
 Another form, in which this religion of frater- 
 nity appeared, has been called the theosopMc, 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 : " Nothing 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, 1841, 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, 
 
CUMMUMISTIC TUKOKIJiS AND UTOriAS. 117 
 
 who originally belonged to the sect of the St. 
 Siinonists, but witlidrew when Enfautin 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 writing. One of the 
 products was a new but murky 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 resumi 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 COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 society from tlie industrial man, the artist, the 
 scholar." 
 
 Society di\'ides up by its administi-ative power, 
 products and means of labor of all kinds. The 
 foi-mula 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 liis leisure was his " Voyage to Icaria," a Uto- 
 pia after the pattern of Sir Thomas More's, in 
 three parts. The first part des6ribes 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 resw/ne of the 
 doctrine or principles of th§ community. "Wish- 
 ing to carry out his ideas, he crossed the Atlan- 
 tic in 1848, and before his death, at St. Louis, in 
 1S56, had planted his colony. The colony and 
 other subsequent oiishoots have been, on the 
 whole, unsuccessful, and we must believe that he 
 had no gift to conduct such an enterprise. 
 
COMill-NISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 119 
 
 About 18il Cabet published his communistic 
 creed in Paris, from which we extract a few arti- 
 cles, sometimes abridged, but generally in a close 
 translation of the author's words : 
 
 " I believe that nature has intended the earth 
 to be possessed in community and undivided, like 
 the light, heat, and air ; that she has pointed out 
 division only for production and things indispen- 
 sable for the needs of the individual, and that 
 community is the most natural system. 1 believe 
 that property is a purely human invention and in- 
 stitution. I believe that the uistitution can be 
 good and useful only in case the earth were diWd- 
 ed among all men, and each one had an equal 
 share, which, according to its nature, should be 
 inalienable. I believe that the acceptance of the 
 right of property among all nations, in connection 
 with its inequality and alienability, is an error, 
 pei'haps the most disastrous of all errors." "I 
 believe that the evils i-ising from private property 
 must continue whjlst its cause continues, and that, 
 in order to suppress the effect, the right of prop- 
 erty must cease." 
 
 In respect to marriage, his faith is that it is the 
 relation of the sexes most in conformity with the 
 dignity of our nature, and the best calculated to 
 secure individual happiness and order in the com- 
 munity ; that what evils attend on it at present 
 will disappear when equality and community pre- 
 vail : and that aU men not only ought to marry, 
 
120 COMLIUNISTIC THEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 but would incline so to do Trhen the community 
 secured to them, in payment for moderate work, 
 the necessary means of subsistence. So also the 
 present affection between parents and children, 
 however strong it might be, would then produce 
 no single one of those evils which it creates in the 
 present system of inequality. 
 
 Since the national territory belongs, like an un- 
 divided estate, to society, society or its representa- 
 tives ought to take care of it and see to its culti- 
 vation by the citizens, that they should collect the 
 fruits, put in different ateliers all that is necessary 
 for food, clothing, and dwellings, and see to the 
 distribution. Such a kind of cultivation of the 
 soil, he believes, would have for its result the 
 suppression of boundaries between the fields of 
 neighboi's, the cultivatioiLof waste lands, far bet- 
 ter agriculture and economy, together with a dou- 
 ble, triple, or even tenfold amount of production. 
 
 In regard to industry in the community, his be- 
 lief is that society ought to divide and direct 
 work, to place and i-egulate the workshops {ate- 
 liers), and to distribute the workmen. Machines 
 in a communistic system can never be enough 
 multiplied, and human intelligence must find the 
 means to limit the office of the workmen to the 
 mere management of them. Everj^thing possible 
 must be done to make work as easy and pleasant 
 as possible. All kinds of work must be regarded 
 to be alilce honorable. All citizens must be work- 
 
COMMUKISTIO THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 121 
 
 men ; every one must, as far as possible, choose the 
 profession most congenial to him ; and all must 
 work an equal number of hours. "I believe," 
 he says, in closing tliis article of his creed respect- 
 ing industry, " that such a system of industry will 
 be followed by the avoidance of double employ- 
 ments and losses, by great savings, and, at the least, 
 by a tenfold increase of fabrics." He adds, in a 
 subsequent article: "I believe that the opinion 
 which rejects commimisra as a chimera is only a 
 prejudice, and must yield to study and investiga- 
 tion." And, on the important point how this sys- 
 tem is to be introduced, he declares that it must 
 not come in by force. " If a minority, against 
 the will of the great and small proprietors, should 
 seek to abolish the right of property, and to force 
 the present wealthy class to work, this attempt, 
 overthrowing all past usage, all coniidence and all 
 existence, would meet with more hindrances than 
 any social or political revolution has ever had to 
 encounter." The bare resistance presented by 
 sluggishness would be enough to shipwreck the 
 project. Only public opinion, acting through the 
 will of the people, with the consent of all, or at 
 least of the great majority, and through law, can 
 make it an actual institution. And, in case of a 
 popular reform or revolution, a transitional or 
 preparatory political form would be necessary. 
 Only democracy would be adequate to this task 
 of introducing communism through a system by 
 6 
 
122 COMMUNISTIC THEOEIES AIrt) UTOPIAS. 
 
 which inequalities would be gradually lessened 
 and equality increased, thus makiag the road open 
 for full communism. 
 
 Thus Utopia has come down out of the clouds 
 and planted her feet- on terra firma. Friendly 
 argument, peaceful conference can make all her 
 speculations real in reference to the greatest 
 change in society ever contemplated in the world. 
 "VVe cannot but praise M. Cabet for the kindly 
 and humane spirit of his creed ; but benevolence 
 and the regeneration of men, with no forces save 
 nakedly human ones, are hardly enough. He re- 
 minds us of the French dancing-master who tried 
 to teach wild Indians to dance, while neither 
 party knew the dialect of the other. " Messieurs 
 Sauvages," said he, with the politeness of his 
 country, " will you have the goodness to put yoiu"- 
 selves in the first position ? " 
 
 But we turn to a man of another kind, and the 
 last Frenchman whom we shall include in these 
 brief sketches. Louis Blanc, born in 1813, the 
 youngest among the more important socialists 
 of France, and still living, is distinguished by 
 his historical writings ; and was so prominent in 
 his party at the downfall of Louis Philippe, in 
 1848, that he was chosen a member of the Pro- 
 visional Government. lie was, however, com- 
 promised in the disturbances of May, 1848, and, to 
 avoid prosecution, fled to England, where he re- 
 sided many years. Here he. continued and com- 
 
COMMUNISTIC TIIEOEIES AND UTOPIAS. 123 
 
 pleted his great work on the French Revolution, 
 in twelve volumes. He had already written his 
 "History of Ten Years," and his "Organization 
 of Labor," which is the expression of his social or 
 conimuuistic principles. 
 
 His social starting-point is no new one. " It is 
 not the man who is responsible for his wrong- 
 doings, bnt society ; and, hence, a society on a 
 good basis will make the individual man good." 
 The evils of slavery flow from inequality, and 
 that from property. Property, then, is the great 
 scourge of society ; it is the veritable public 
 crime." Government should be considered as the 
 supreme regulator of production, and be invested 
 with power enough to accomplish its task. It 
 should raise money, which should be appropri- 
 ated, without payment of interest, for the creation 
 of social workshops (ateliers) 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 solidaritj'^ among 
 themselves, and, when united with agricultural 
 labor, would consolidate in one the whole indus- 
 try of tlie 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 ateliers 
 would obviously be to render it impossible for 
 private undertakers to compete with the national 
 
124 COMMUNISTIC THEORIES AND UTOPIAS. 
 
 shops. Thus concurrence would cease, and pri- 
 vate work yield first or last to the public or com- 
 munistic system. 
 
 In 1848 tlie system of Louis Blanc was ao 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, 1848, in wliich many of 
 the workmen in these 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. TIae family is, like God, 
 holy and immortal ; inheritance is destined to fol- 
 low the same direction which societies may take 
 in tlieir 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 his organization of labor 
 
COJLMUNISTIC THEOBIKS AND UTOPIAS. 125 
 
 took its place. The great importance of what he 
 did, lay not in the novelty of his suggestions ; 
 but in his bringing the minds of men to a practi- 
 cal point, where the transformation of society 
 could begin, without any preparatory overturning. 
 He had, perhaps, a greater part in preparing the 
 way for the German socialism than any other 
 single Frenchman. 
 
 w 
 
126 THE INTEENATIONAL 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S ASSO- 
 CIATION. 
 
 I. 
 
 "With the progi-ess of the French Revolution 
 some very important changes made their way 
 among the industrial classes, both in France and 
 in other parts of Europe. 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 hourgeoisie, as we shall call them, re- 
 ceived a great stimulus 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 depressed below his 
 rightful position — a feeling which was rendered 
 tlie more bitter by his notion of equality, as im- 
 plying equality of condition, and by the harping 
 
workingmen's association. 127 
 
 of the demagogues on this string. Thus there 
 grew up, almost of necessity, a division in the 
 working-class of the towns between those who 
 formed the standing hourgeoisie and the proleta- 
 riat, as the agitators delighted to call the stand- 
 ing class of operatives ; meaning, by this Roman 
 term for the lowest class in that republic, those 
 who had only hands to work w'th and no laid-up 
 capital. This strife appears in the earlier part 
 of the Kevolution. The Directory, when Ba- 
 boeuf's conspiracy broke out, put it down, as an 
 attack on capital, which might destroy both the 
 republic and the property which was necessary 
 for its mdustrial prosperity. The Directory 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 strong point 
 for agitation everywhere, wherever industry is 
 flourishing; which gives a force to communistic 
 arguments ; which enables popular leaders to con- 
 solidate 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 worthy 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 THE INTEENATIONAL 
 
 There are really no such marked lines as the com- 
 munistic writers have drawn between men in 
 modem society. The holder of a few acres of 
 laud in his own right, the small shopkeeper, the 
 various artisans on a small scale in towns and vil- 
 lages have some resemblances to the ^proletariat 
 and some to the hourgeoisie. Any fundamental 
 change in society would bring no more prosperity 
 to them in a material point of view, or help them 
 more to rise in the social scale. These classes, 
 then, have no motive to welcome revolutions. If 
 there was to be a repartition of all property in 
 equal shares, their shares would be little, if at all, 
 increased. And all the while, in all the countries 
 of Europe and America, education, both general 
 and in the arts of industry, is becoming larger 
 and more open ; so that they may expect that 
 their children will have better chances in life than 
 they had when they were young. Iso-w, these 
 classes or departments of human laborers make 
 up the majority of all who work for their living. 
 It is, then, a minority in most countries that com- 
 poses the discontented*and embittered mass ; it is, 
 in the main, the operatives whom improved ma- 
 chinery brings together in large establiehments, 
 who are able to influence each other to common 
 action, that can be stirred by eloquent socialists. 
 It is these between whom and the capitalists, the 
 employers, the transporters, a running fight sub- 
 sists, with intervals of rest, but with no perma- 
 
129 
 
 nent peace. The fight does no good in the end, 
 for strikes can never establisli 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 
 so the workingmen 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 the most modern commu- 
 nistic, or we will say soolallstic 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 INTEENATIONAL 
 
 one conntry should travel into another. ISTor is 
 it strange that attempts should be made to unite 
 the operatives of all lauds in one great associa- 
 tion. 
 
 In 18i8, 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 184:0 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 
 tlie safest country to live in. Expression of ob- 
 noxious political or social opinions was there com- 
 
wokkingmen'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 
 corn laws, with other wise legislation having the 
 welfare of all classes in view, quieted and in a 
 measure united the nation ; so that the old right 
 of free speech could be safelj^ 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 1864, 
 it had occurred to some persons to found such a 
 union on international principles. As early as 
 1840 a society existed in London for the benefit 
 of German operatives, called the Arhc'derhild- 
 ungsvt'i'em, 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 uniting 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 
 
133 THE INTERNATIONAL 
 
 the hands of the state ; national workshops ; ferti- 
 lizing and tilling the soil on a common prescribed 
 plan ; and gratuitous instruction. A union of 
 communists was then called to meet at Brussels ; 
 but the February Revolution in 1848 brought on a 
 reaction and discouraged 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 Loudon. 
 
 There may have been a reason for an associa- 
 tion embracing all Europe, wliich we have not yet 
 noticed. If the communists could not be organ- 
 ized and ready for action everywhere at once, it 
 would happen that, when the time for the " 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 1863, when the Gov- 
 ernment of France sent ov-er 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 well-known English socialist, 
 "urged the holding of a general workingmen's 
 congress, in order to prevent foreign workmen 
 
woekingmen's association. 133 
 
 from coming into a land where wages were liigli, 
 and causing a decline in them. The French work- 
 men, on their return home, gained the assent of 
 their comrades for the matter, and it was a^i'eed 
 that there should be a meeting at London the 
 ne.xt 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 tlie 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 up 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 
 overthrowing society, it was an end. Marx also 
 made an address 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 woi-king-class 
 should hold in tlieir hands the means of pi-ohic- 
 tion furnished by nature. These things must 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 INTERNATIONAL 
 
 A few words are needed to explain the organi- 
 zation and working power of tlie International, 
 wliich is in the main simple and eiRcient. 
 
 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 yearly, which consists 
 of deputies from the several branches, and deter- 
 mines the time and place of the next congress ; 
 for the assembling of which, after such determi- 
 nation, no special invitation is required. The 
 congress from year to year fixes the seat of the 
 general council and names its members. The 
 council may add new members to its body ; must 
 present a j'early report of its proceedings; and 
 can, in 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 
 
woekingmen'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 1S66 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 live 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 town ; 
 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. 
 
 The 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 under the ban 
 of Europe. 
 
 n. 
 
 THE rUTEKNATIGNAL 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 25,173 
 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 
 
 nients must have prevented many from joining 
 tlie association. In Germany, wliere 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 
 Prassia. But in France, imtil IS 71, it was strong 
 and revolutionary. In Switzerland, where it was 
 free to spread, it embraced, one would think, all 
 the operatives. In 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 declai-e and 
 define their objects, we must give oiir testimony 
 to the ability and the general moderation with 
 
138 THE INTEENAITONAL 
 
 which the reports submitted to congresses, and 
 other declarations of principles, have been pre- 
 pared. The association contains an amoiuit of 
 talent which no one has a right to despise. Part 
 of this talent, as it seems, pertains to "head- 
 woi'kers,^^ or the " va.le^ectviiljproletariat.'" At one 
 of the congresses it was made a question whether 
 any but " h.&n(i-worl-er:s " should be members of 
 the International. The French members, who 
 had had unpleasant experiences with the men of 
 the tongue and pen, opposed their entrance. 
 They urged the danger which there would be in 
 letting advocates and joTirnalists have an influence 
 over the meetings of men of work. But the plan 
 was carried by the English and German mem- 
 bers. 
 
 The first general congress met at Geneva, Sept. 
 3d-8th, 1860. It had been voted to hold a con- 
 gress at Brussels, in 1865 ; but hindrances put in 
 the way of the French socialists, and the unwil- 
 lingness of the Belgian 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 1866, sat at Geneva; but did little 
 that looked toward the goal of the association. 
 They favored counting eight hours' labor as a 
 day's work ; they denounced the labor of women 
 in manufactories, " as a cause of the degenera- 
 tion and demoralization of the human race ; " 
 they rebuked trades' unions for occupying them- 
 
WOEKINGMEN B ASSOCIATION. lo9 
 
 selves with immediate contests, instead of acting 
 against the 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, secretary of the general council. Seventy- 
 one delegates were present. Among the points 
 here discussed was that contained in the question 
 whether "the emancipation of \}siq foiirtli estate 
 (or working-class) might not result in the forma- 
 tion of z, fifth, the situation of which might be 
 more miserable still." The prevailing opinion 
 was that the actual efforts of the workingmeu'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 industiy a neces- 
 sity for all." To obviate this danger, the "prol- 
 etariat " must become convinced that social trans- 
 
140 THE INTEENATIONAI, 
 
 formation 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 imable 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 part 
 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-makers 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 all other workmen, as far as possible. " But 
 
WOnKi:x-GM:iN''s ASSOCIATiO.X. 1-il 
 
 the council-general of the International made out 
 to get Avithin 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 indemniiied 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 coinbina- 
 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 1868 
 and 1869, a discussion sprang up on property, 
 which showed some difference of opinion. De 
 Paepe, of Brussels, in a report, had spoken of 
 
Ii3 THK INTEKXATIOXAL 
 
 "certain measures of general reform" proposed 
 by divers socialists. These were the transforma- 
 tion of national banks into banks of gratuitons 
 credit ; the making of the soil a part of the col- 
 lective property of society ; the abolition of in- 
 heritance ab intestat, ontside 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 individvial. To this De 
 Paepe replied that Tolain wanted canals, roadsj 
 mines to become the collective property of society ; 
 but he himself would extend that idea so far as 
 to include all landed property [property in the 
 soil or resthig on it]. Coullery, of La Chaux de 
 Fonds, avowed himself a partisan of individual 
 property. The s6il, 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. 
 
WOEKlNGMEJ^'s ASSOCIATION. liS 
 
 The congress of Brussels met in September, 
 ISGS, and was largely attended; but its doings 
 show a repetition of the opinions expressed at the 
 previous congresses. On the 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 ouglit to be held as common 
 property, and passed the same resolution respect- 
 ing the soil, mines, quarries, 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 INTEUNATIONAL 
 
 longer, for governments oppress us hy taxes ; we 
 vant no armies any longer, for armies butcher 
 and murder us ; we want no religion any longer, 
 for religions stiile the understanding." 
 
 The congress of Basel met in September, 1869, 
 and numbered eighty members. A connnittee, 
 appointed to consider the question of propertj^, 
 brought the subject before the congress under 
 two lieads. They proposed that it should declare, 
 first, tliat society has the right of abolishing indi- 
 vidual property in the soil and of causing it to 
 belong to the connnunity ; secondly, that it is 
 necessary that the soil should become 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, was also 
 brought forward at Basel, in a proposition to 
 adopt the following resolution : 
 
 "Considering that the right of inheritance, which is an 
 element inseparable from individual 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 
 
1^15 
 
 consequence, tlie right of inheritance is an obstacle, pre- 
 senting the soil and social riches from becoming a part of 
 the collective propertj' ; 
 
 " 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, further, it is an essential element of all kinds of 
 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 entire' accept- 
 ance. One member proposed transitory meas- 
 ures, to make the passage smoother from the pres- 
 ent state of things. Another, in the name of his 
 section, proposed a limitation in respect of de. 
 grees of kindred. If reduced to its minimum, 
 he thought that " individual inheritance was only 
 an element of progress and morality. He 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 agahist it, 
 while 17 abstained from voting. 
 
 At the same congress a report was presented 
 
l'i-6 THE INTERNATIONAL 
 
 by the delegates of the section of Brussels, of 
 which, for want of room, we can only cite the 
 closing words : " One of two things 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 INTEHNATIONAIi CONCLUDED. 
 
 It was determined at Basel that the next con- 
 gress of the International should be held in Sep- 
 tember, 1870, at Paris. But on the IStli 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 
 
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 proceedings of which were of small im- 
 portance. The congress for 1872 was appointed 
 to meet at tlie 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 
 Kussian Kiliilist and a fugitive from his country, 
 who was arrested and condemned to death in the 
 Saxon and Austrian covu-ts and then delivered 
 over to Ilussian 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. Eeligion will be almighty as 
 long as unreason and unrighteousness reign on 
 earth. If we give the earth back what belongs 
 
148 THE IXTEENATIONAL 
 
 to her, 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 theni 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 
 friends : " 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 countries; and, therefore, dis- 
 cards all politics founded on so-called patriotism 
 and on the rivalry of nations." 
 
"vvoekingmen's association. 149 
 
 This atheistic section — which also seems to 
 have been a secret society — had applied for ad- 
 mission in the preceding April hito tlie "Ko- 
 inand," or Swiss federation, aiid was received by 
 a majority of three, 21 voting for and 18 against 
 its admission. Thereupon the non-contents with- 
 drew fi-om the congress, and tlie schism was last- 
 ing. In the general congress at the Hague the 
 question of declaring the " xVlliance," founded by 
 Bakunin, international, was put into the hands of 
 a committee, which proposed the exclusion of the 
 Alliance, and especially that of Bakimin 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 the 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 the general council at London to suspend the 
 sections, and for the next congress to confirm its 
 action. 
 
 The International, 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 things to an 
 extreme, belonging to the clique of which Blan- 
 
150 THE INTEENATIONAL 
 
 qui was the head, and who were also members of 
 the luternationah One of these had presided at 
 tlie congress ; several were members of the gen- 
 eral council at London. They complain that the 
 International Associatit>u had not done its work ; 
 had not enough stinmlated 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 should 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 land, 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 
 in that interest." 
 
 From these words it is plain that the Interna- 
 tional was how brought into extreme perplexity, 
 into difficulties which, were unavoidable and re- 
 sulted from its very coustitution. On the one 
 
WOEKINGMEN S ASSOCIATION. 151 
 
 hand, it had a transitional policy, to encourage 
 the union and comiflon 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 
 propert}', 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 imderstood 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 
 
( t 
 
 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 without 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 must 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 co^nmunistic manifest prepared in 
 1847 by Marx and Engels, two very 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 
 highly moral horror of our hourgeois at the pre- 
 tendedly official [accounts of] the community of 
 wives among the communists. The communists 
 need not introduce community of Avives, 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. Civil mar- 
 riage is in reality the community of wives." As for 
 
WORKINGMEN S ASSOCIATION. 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 naalignity, we cite a passage 
 from a letter of Dupont, a secretary of the gen- 
 eral council of the International at London, writ- 
 ten a day or two after the disaster at Sedan : 
 " Nothing is changed. The power is still in the 
 hands of the hourgeois. In these circumstances, 
 the role of the workmen — or, rather, their duty — 
 is to let this '' i^er/iime hourgeoisie'' make peace 
 with the Prussians, for the shame of the act will 
 never be wiped off from them," etc. " The hoicr- 
 geoisie, who are charmed with their triumph, Mill 
 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 \ip the 
 most infamous financial aristocracy in the whole 
 ■world. This money power pumps the substance 
 of the people. We have declared war against it, 
 and think that we shall gain the victory. We 
 shall first try suffrage; but, if it fails, vre shall' 
 have recourse to more efficacious measures. A 
 little blood-letting is sometimes necessary in des- 
 perate cases." The man perhaps M'as a very mild 
 person ; but the style of the class required him to 
 
154 THE INTERNATIONAL 
 
 say sometlaing sanguinary. He died soon after 
 writing the letter. 
 
 The International suffered to such a degree 
 from its alleged complicity in the horrors of the 
 spring of 1871 that it has not since recovered. 
 The question may be asked, to what degree was it 
 answerable for those crimes ? As far as we can 
 discover, it had little direct blame for them, how- 
 ever much the general council at London miglit 
 tiy to whitewash the villanies of the 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 who ap- 
 proved 'oi the burning of the public buildings in 
 Paris, or of the nmrder of the hostages, that 
 most fiendish of crimes. The question is not an 
 easy one to resolve, nor have we manj^ materials 
 for a satisfactory solution ; but, as far as we can 
 discover, the case stands thus : 
 
 1. The authorities of the International appear 
 to have taken, befoi-e the war, no active part in 
 bringing it on. AYhat individuals may have 
 wished or done, they were not responsible for 
 these horrors. At the congress of the Hague the 
 delegates from Spain, Belgium, and the Federa- 
 tion of the Jura proposed to do away with the 
 general council. They assei-ted that its present 
 power was too great, and that a bureau of statisti- 
 cal correspondence would be enough for the wants 
 of the Association. They added that " the gen- 
 
■woekingmen's association. 155 
 
 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 tlungs in a repressive way. 
 The majority in the congress replied that tl'.e 
 general comicil did not exist for the purpose of 
 hiitiating a revolution. They appeared on the 
 scene only to give help, as in the strike of the 
 bronze-workers at Paris, that in Newcastle, etc. 
 If it had not done enough, the cause lay in its 
 limited power " (from Jjiger). 
 
 2. The Commune of Paris was elected by the 
 revolutionary bodj' in possession of the city, on 
 the 26th of March, 1S71, after the prelhninary 
 peace of Feb. 26tli, 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 ; 
 Yaillant in that of public instruction ; Beslay in 
 
15G THE INTKBNATIONAL 
 
 t])e Bank ; Vesinier in tlie Oficiel [journal of the 
 Commune], who gave for a moment to this un- 
 principled and aimless eineute an appearance of 
 regularity and life : they voted intrepidly against 
 violent measures, against the committee of pub- 
 lie safety. Thej' pursued tlie 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 tlie working-class. If we do nothing 
 for this class, I see no reason for the existence of 
 the Conmmne.' And it was hot imtil this social- 
 ist minority protested, on the 16th of May, against 
 the revolutionary dictatorship of Pyat, EigauJt, 
 and their fellows, and declared that it would no 
 longer sit in the Hotel de Ville, that Rigault 
 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 prop- 
 erly so called (3).' This sad evolution brought 
 into power successively the central committee of 
 
wokkingmen's association. 157 
 
 the national guard, the Comnmne of Paris, and 
 the committee of public safety." * 
 
 It must be added, however, that in Paris the 
 International identified itself with the Commune 
 and the revolution 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 o£ 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 dui-ing 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 Oommnne, pp. 8, 9. By Bourloton et Robert. Paris, 
 .1873. 
 
158 THE IKTEEXATKjXAL 
 
 tliem 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 Blancpii in excliange for Arch- 
 bishop Darboy and a lai-ge imniber 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 
 hint the cause for which it was -written. Two of 
 the courrcil gave up their places on account of it. 
 It gave ground to the French government for 
 the enactment of a law against aU 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 doctiines or letting it have a hall 
 for the pui-poses of meeting, etc. 
 
 The effect of the events at Paris was — whether 
 tlie impression were true or not — to identify the 
 International with bloody insurrections against 
 established oi-der and to keep it under the in- 
 spection of the police in almost every country 
 in Europe. Henceforth it would tend more 
 
workingmen's association. 150 
 
 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 LEADING FEATUEES OF 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 I. 
 
 LEADING FEATURES OP THE THKORT OF MAKX. 
 
 We have already made the remark that there 
 were two changes in the direction which socialism 
 took after the revolutions in 1848. One of them 
 was, that it became more international, and strove 
 to unite the operatives of Europe in a common 
 movement. The other was, that it made the Mold 
 of political economy in a greater degree the battle- 
 groimd for the new order of things. We do not 
 mean to say that this branch of social philosophy 
 had not been ah-eady used as an armory 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 ; 
 but that these changes of direction are more 
 , obvious, 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 1872, we have already' consid-, 
 ered, and have seen that Marx, with other (Jer- 
 mans, had much to do with it. The same emi- 
 
THE THEOEY OF MARX. 161 
 
 nent socialist gave to the theory and claims of 
 socialism the form which at the present time is 
 most current, especially in Germany. It Avill he 
 onr 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 Economj'." 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 1872, 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 readity understood, 
 and is more hke a production of Thomas Aquinas 
 than like an essay of Cairnes or Poscher. 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 Kicardo long since made familiar to the stu- 
 dents of political economy. 
 
162 LEADING FEATURES OF 
 
 The principal lever of Marx against the present 
 form of indnstrv, and of the distiibution of its 
 results, is the doetiine that value — that is, value 
 in exchange — is created by labor alone. !Now 
 this value, as ascertained by exchanges in the 
 market or measiired by some standard, does net 
 actually all go to the laborer, in the shape of 
 ■wages. Perhaps a certain number of yards of 
 cotton cloth, for instance, when sold, actually pay 
 for the wages of laborers and leave a surplus, 
 ■which the employer appropriates. Perhaps six 
 hom-s of labor jhr diem 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 fom- additional hours go i 
 To the employer, and the capitalist from whom 
 the employer borrows money ; or to the employer 
 who also is a capitalist and in\ests his capital in 
 his works, with a view to a future return. The 
 laborer ■n'orks, and brings new ■workmen into the 
 world, who in tm-n do the same. The tendency 
 of wages being toward an amount just snlficient 
 for the maintenance of the labor, there is no hope 
 for the future class of laborers. Xor can compe- 
 tition or concurrence help the matter. A concur- 
 rence of capitalists will tend to reduce wages to 
 the minimum, if other conditions remain as they 
 were before. A concurrence of laborers may i-aise 
 wages above the living point for a ■while ; but 
 
THE THEORY OF MARX. ICS 
 
 these fall again, through the stimxilus which high , 
 wages give to the increase of popnlatidn. A gen- 
 eral fall of profits may lower the price of articles 
 used by laborers ; but 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 will 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 in private 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 hourgeoisie 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 
 carrying on the state system itself. Whether 
 wages under this kind of social order will be really 
 
164 LEADING FEATUEES OF 
 
 greater than they are now ; whetlier 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, iu 
 substance, the same as mediaeval serfdom, when 
 the serf owned no land and worked part oi the 
 time to maintain his master and a part of the 
 time to maintain himself. 
 
 Marx, if yre are not in an en-or, nowhere shows 
 the injustice of private property ; but, rather, as- 
 sumes that it is not an institution of natural law. 
 Xor 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 owner 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 THEORY OF MAEX. 165 
 
 of introducing the socialistic state, which is cer- 
 tainly a matter of very vast importance. But to 
 tills we sli^U 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 " (^. 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, hav^, therefore, the same amount of 
 vahie. 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 is 
 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 FEATUEES OF 
 
 the side of easy or safe work, as though they 
 ought to be subjected to the same measure ; or to 
 give 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 
 clmnsy. 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 %vith the handsome one. In the 
 same way in other cases, supply and demand af- 
 fect all the objects brought into market, on ac- 
 coimt of tlieir plenty or scarcity, or on account of 
 their different capacity to gratify some desire of 
 man. 
 
 But it is far more to our pilrpose 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 requii-es many 
 hands and careful supervision, and which needs 
 knowledge of the money market, of the labor 
 market, of public taste and public demand. Xor 
 is the employer necessary in the present relations 
 only of the laborer and the employer ; but, what- 
 ever be the foi-m of society, he or somebody dis- 
 charging his fimctions will be found necessaiy. 
 Some such man could not be dispensed with in 
 the co-operative industry of workmen. One or 
 
THE THEORY OF MARX. 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 fa;l to need supervisors and 
 agents Avitliout 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 manufactiiring business fail, because they have 
 not the ability or judgment or knowledge that is 
 requisite for success. ISTo 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 
 
16S LEADING FEATURES OF 
 
 that they shall support one another. He, finally, 
 takes all risks upon himself, while the operatives 
 are generally sure of their wages. 
 
 Kow, 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 year's work turns out well 
 — in the proceeds of the articles which he, in fact, 
 has greatly contributed to create ? And will not, 
 for the most 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 subject, 
 and which are disastrous to laborers, although 
 they receive their full amount of wages. 
 
 The measure of i^wnuneration for work is time, 
 according to Marx's system. The differences of 
 influence upon the amount produced by skilled 
 and unskilled, efficient and inefficient work, by a 
 capacity to meet the ends for which a particular 
 industry is set on foot, and by labor little above 
 brute force, are not estimated. AYork is work, 
 and all who worlj. an hour are paid alike. Tlie 
 treatment of the superintendent is in conformity 
 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 
 
TIIK TUEOKY OF MARX. 109 
 
 18 the pivot on whicli ovorytliing turns, lio on}ji;lit 
 in ju«tic(! to bo rowiii'dod for tlio buccoks of tlio 
 vindiMtaking, unioss wo lay it down that tho end 
 ol lal)(>r is to Bupp.urt lil'o, and no one lias a claiiii 
 to anytliinu; nuiro. 
 
 To thJH iiiiirlit bo added, that tlio amount of ro- 
 muiuM-ulion to tho (Mpilallst and rni]iloy('i- is a 
 small portion of tlm wholo product obtuiiR'd by tho 
 joint !ii;'('n(\y of cjipilal and hd)or. Mr. lOdwiird 
 Atkinson, a most coinpctcnt jiu]j;;(^ saya that "in 
 tho lirst division thosi; who do tho actual work of 
 }>roduction, cither of the raw mntoriid or of the 
 Jiniahod art.i(^k% must t!;t'.t niiuity-tivo to niuoty- 
 Bcvon purls, and the owner of ciipi(:d only throo 
 to tivo." And fioni Ihi'sc, thriH; to li\e pnrts 
 taxos and private! oxiumiscs must be (h;i\vn. And 
 Mr. J\Iill, in the chapter on Socialism, recently 
 publisiiod, remarks that tho ronninoration of cu]>i- 
 tai, as sucli, in CJreat liritain, is mousnrcd by tho 
 iiit(u-i!st on the funds, which is about tliico and 
 one-third \wv cent. All above this is to be re- 
 ferred to tho oniployor's waives of 8U[)criutonil- 
 cncc, to various risks, and otluM- causes. 
 
 If there wore any other plan which could brint;; 
 niorc! \va<:;es to operatives and more ]iroaperity to 
 all parts of soc'iety, k^t it be by all nitvins tried at 
 vuw: ynp])ose. that all the [)rolits wcM-e paid o\er 
 to the op(M-ati\'es; would that niili,t;ale any of tho 
 c\'ilB of society '{ IJy no moans. On tho con- 
 trary, all capital would be withdrawn from acti\o 
 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 much 
 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 freedom 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 MARX. 171 
 
 deductions made from it by the new employer — 
 tlie state. Bat this 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 
 fund. Nor 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 
 industiy. It woTild 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, laying 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. 
 
 II. 
 
 PEKDINAND LASSALLE AND TKB GERMAN WOKKINGMEN'S 
 UNION. 
 
 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 pubhe debates as in lay- 
 ing plans for spreading social doctrines. Lassalle 
 
172 FEEDINAND LASSALLE AND THE 
 
 was an ardent and ambitious, as well as a pleasure- 
 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 effoi'ts ; 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 futtire, as if the triumph of his 
 ideas were a great way oif. In political economy 
 he was by no means as strong as Marx ; but in 
 historiqal and juristic science was much his supe- 
 rior. Hb 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 1826, 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, lie betook himself to tlie university, where 
 he pursued philosophy and law. At Berlin, 
 where he intended to settle as a private teacher, 
 he awakened the higliest admiration of "William 
 von Hmnboldt and Boeckh. Heinrich Heine, 
 whom he saw at Paris, in 1845, introduced him 
 to Varnhagen von Ense, in these terms: "He is 
 a 3'oung 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 energj^ 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 1845, witli the 
 Countess of Hatzfeld, a Berlin beauty, forty years 
 old, who was then involved in a suit for divorce 
 agaiast her husband. He took her part as her 
 counsel, and spent the best portion of eight years 
 in carrying 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; 
 but 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 
 
1T4: FERDINAND LASSALLE AND THE 
 
 F. Mehring, in his " Social Democracy," saye— a 
 yearly income of five thousand thalers from the 
 lady. 
 
 Lassalle entered into his relations with the 
 countess in real sympathy ; and he said, a little 
 before his death, in a letter to Huber, that his 
 intervention in her affairs was the fact in his life 
 of which he should ever continue to be proud. 
 But they brought him into a circle which his 
 critics call impure (" unsauber "), and he, there- 
 fore, comes before the world in no faroorahle 
 light. " Is there," asks an eminent German, von 
 Treitschke, " abjectness more vulgar than dema- 
 gogy over 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 
 saviour of the suffering ? Even in France good 
 society would, without mercy, have rejected every 
 one who took part in the elegant gypsy life of the- 
 Ilatzfeld circle. Onty we Germans, with our in- 
 complete social ethics, are more tolerant." 
 
 Until the spring of 1857 Lassalle lived at Diis- 
 seldorf. Here he took part in movements which 
 brought him into connection with Marx, Engels, 
 and other social leaders ; and in the revolutionary 
 year, 1848, was unsiiccessfully accused of inciting 
 the people to armed violence. He was, although 
 not convicted, held imder arrest, and was subse- 
 quently sentenced, for a very trifling offence, to 
 six months' imprisonment. In 1857, having now 
 
GERMAN WORKINGMEn's UNION. 175 
 
 completed the law-suit of the Countess of Hatz- 
 feld, he returned in disguise to Berlin, and ere 
 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 Eights," 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 circiimstances which justified 
 their recognition, but that certain other circum- 
 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 published 
 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 hourgeosie 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 Maj^, 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 
 
GEEMAN WOEKINGMEN's UNION. 177 
 
 five years with almost aiitocratic 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 eifected 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, iie detached 
 the workingmen from the hoiorgeosie, 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 could 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- 
 8* 
 
178 FERDINAND 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 Reichs- 
 tag, through its representatives there, or some- 
 thing, beyond that which was contemplated ia 
 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 arn 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, overstrained, 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 foiuidation of the Union, which was 
 
GERMAN WORKINGMEN's UNION. 179 
 
 celebrated in Illienish Prussia. Hero lie was re- 
 cehod by tlie workiiiijiiion with tumultuous ap- 
 plause. Next he visited several waterinii;-places 
 of Germany and Switzerland. His death was 
 due to his unregulated mind, which gave itself 
 up to pride and passion. He 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, 1SG4. 
 
 No one can scruple to call Lassalle a socialist 
 in the sense of that word which implies a denial 
 of the right (jf private individual pro])erty 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 ])lan8 of immediate 
 change in the institutions of scjciety. 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 abscjhitely socialistic, was the found- 
 ing of productive associations, which differed 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 profits elsewhere 
 made. The managers of the several productive 
 associations in every place were to pay weekly 
 
180 FERDINAND LASSALLE AND THE 
 
 wages to tlie laborers, and would be united 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 numerous 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. He explains it thus : " The 
 iron economical law, which in existing relations, 
 lender 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 are required in a nation, 
 according to the xisages there prevailing, for per- 
 petuating existence and propagating children." 
 There is nothing to complain of in this statement 
 of tlie 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 
 
geemjVit -vvokkingmen's union. ISl 
 
 law " to the relations in society as it now exists, 
 to siipply and demand, and free contract between 
 laborer and employer ? Must it not be called a 
 law of nature, inevitably growing out of the in- 
 citements to the increase of population in the 
 working class ? llicardo's doctrine of wages was 
 founded on the law of population, as interpreted 
 by Malthiis. 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- 
 courage 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 would 
 lean wholly on tlie state. This could he 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. 
 
 III. 
 
 SOCIALISM IN GERMAITY SINCE LASSALLB. 
 
 After Lassalle's death the election of persons 
 of much less importance to the oiSce of presi- 
 dent of the "Workingmen's Union, and the in- 
 
182 SOCIALISM IjST geemant since lassalle. 
 
 trigues of the Countess of Hatzfeld, by whicli 
 the members of the Union were divided into two 
 factions, retarded its progress ; but the choice of 
 Alexander Schweitzer, in 1867, brought back a 
 hope of prosperity. He was from Franltfort, 
 had studied law, and was editor of the Social 
 Democrat, the organ of the Union. Mehring, in 
 his " German Social Democracy," calls him " a 
 voluptuary, full of esprit, 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 within and without its pale. The friends 
 of the International in Germany felt that their 
 time was come to unite all the socialists of that 
 race under one banner. They professed to sus- 
 pect him of being in secret understanding with 
 the government of Prussia; and his political 
 views, favoring the centralization which was ef- 
 fected in 1867, 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 
 abridge the power of its president ; but when 
 Schweitzer persuaded the members to put things 
 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 
 
SOCIAIJSH IN GERMANY SINCE LASSALLE. 183 
 
 of, as one who was seeking, in the interests of the 
 Prussian government, to prevent united action 
 among the workingmen. In a congress sum- 
 moned by tlie International party, and to which 
 the members of tlie Union were invited, after 
 violent disputes, the " Social Democratic Work- 
 ingmen's Party " was founded by Liebknecht and 
 his friends, in August, 1869. 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 trades - unions, and thus to encourage 
 strikes. These differed from 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 1871 Schweitzer failed of being re-elected 
 to the ofBce 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 SOCIALISM IN GEEMANT SINCE LASSALLE. 
 
 1869, seems to have been shrewdly intended to 
 be so indefinite, and to have such a squint 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 
 they were deserting their colors. Some of the 
 principles, which every member of this party 
 binds himself to accept, are "equal rights and 
 equal duties of all, and the doing away of all 
 class supremacy ; " 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 its solu- 
 tion in the democratic state, where alone it is pos- 
 sible. " In view of the fact that the freedom of 
 work is neither a local nor a national, but a social 
 problem, which embraces all lands where modern 
 society exists, the Social Democratic Working- 
 men's Party considers itself, so far as the laws of 
 the [Iforth German] Union allow, to be a branch 
 of the International Workingraen'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 all men twenty years 
 old into the parliament, the diets of the single 
 
SOCIALISM IN GEEMANT SINCE LASSALLE. 185 
 
 states, the provincial and commnnal assemblies, 
 as well as into all other representative bodies. To 
 the representatix'es tluis elected sufficient paj is 
 to be allowed. (2.) Introduction of direct legisla- 
 tion by the people — that is, the right of proposing 
 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 
 the church. (6.) Obligatory mstruction 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 adminis- 
 tration of justice. (8.) Abolition of all laws re- 
 lating to the press, to unions, and coalitions ; the 
 definition of a normal day's work ; limitation of 
 the amount of work done by women ; 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 tlie 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 GERMANY SINCE LASSALLE. 
 
 the 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 retuj'ns of 
 labor as its reward, the laborers thus taking the 
 place of the capitalist. 
 
 In the Eeichstag, or Parliament of the ISTorth 
 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. 1S7 
 
 ment of Prussia, also, by its persecution, first of 
 members of the Workingmen's Union and then 
 of the Workingmen's Party, brought them nearer 
 to one another. Their differences, after tlie 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, 
 by 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 Gerittany, 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 GEKMANY 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 tlie 
 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 LASSAI.LE. 1S9 
 
 Then it is added, for the purpose of pleasing 
 Lassalle'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 [manufacturing] 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 Socialdeinocratie," 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 (1877) 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 LASSALLB. 
 
 decidedly different views respecting the meaning 
 and comprehensiveness of the party programme." 
 The very beginning of the progi'amme seems to 
 be altogether illogical and inconsequent. " "Work 
 is the source of all riches and culture. Work, 
 having a general value, is only possible ia and 
 through society. Therefore, the sum total of 
 work belongs to society — that is, to all its mem- 
 bers." Such are the fundaniental propositions. 
 But is it not possible to conceive of an individual 
 in 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 interpreted 
 on no other supposition. In the first Reichstag 
 after the formation of the German Empire there 
 were but two socialist members. In the second 
 (1874) there were nine, for whom 339,738 votes 
 were cast. Von Treitschke estimates that the 
 whole strength of the party or factions, counting 
 ]nen, and youths too young to vote, may have 
 '■ then been about a million. The vote of 1877, 
 when a new parliament . was chosen, arnoimted, 
 according to Mr. Bancroft Davis (in his correspon- 
 
SOCIALISM IN GEEilANY SINCE LASSALLE. 191 
 
 dence with the Department of State) to from six 
 to eight himdred thousand. Eecent evidences 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 employment 
 of the "Workingmen's Party. The other fact is 
 their activity in spreading their doctrine 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 that a number of profes- 
 
192 SOCIALISM m GERMANY SINCE LASSALLE. 
 
 sors in the universities wlio lecture on political 
 economy — although they have not joined its ranks, 
 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, Sclieel, Schinol- 
 ler, Adolf Wagner ; in a narrower sense, Rodber- 
 tus, Schaeffle, F. A. Lange, and Diihring. " This 
 scientific socialism," he adds, " distinguishes itself 
 by an uncommon nmnber 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 written 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. Li 1869 he formed a design 
 of writing a book on the great social question, 
 which was now showing the hold it was taking 
 on the minds of philosophers and workingmen in 
 various ways, especially by the progress of the 
 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 " usury " 
 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 suflJciently 
 explained in the text of this work. The great 
 evils, of which socialists complain, are poverty, 
 9 
 
194 MILL ON SOCIALISM. 
 
 "little connected with individual deserts," and 
 competition. To competition of laborers, low 
 wages are due ; to competition among producers, 
 ruin and bankruptcy. Both these evils tend to in- 
 crease with the increase of population ; and none 
 are benefited but landholdei-s, capitalists, and re- 
 ceivers of fixed money incomes. _ Wealth enables 
 its owners to imdersell all other producers, and to 
 engross the labor of a country, subjecting the 
 workmen to such terms of payment for labor as 
 the employers offer. Mr. Mill fortifies his asser- 
 tions regarding the attacks of the socialists on the 
 existing order of things by extensive quotations 
 from Victor Considerant, the Fourierite, Robert 
 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 ordinary wages 
 of labor, estimated either in money or in articles 
 of consumption, are declining; while in many 
 they are, upon the whole, on the 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 are 
 becoming superseded by others." 
 
 The socialists, especially M. Louis Blanc, Mr. 
 
AULL ON SOCIALISM. 195 
 
 Mill goes on to say, seem to have fallen into the 
 error, which Malthus at first committed, "of 
 supposing that, because population has a greater 
 power of increase than subsistence, its pressure 
 upon suhsisteiKie iinist he always growing more 
 severed'' " 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 civilization 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- 
 lio-hteiied socialists have an imperfect and one- 
 sided notion of the workings of covipetition. 
 " 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 with 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 OS SOCIALISM. 
 
 eral average. And, particularly, if it teeps down 
 the price of articles on which wages are expend- 
 ed, this 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 irnaginarj". 
 Xo " important branch of induttry or 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 ?] Great joint-stock companies can keep up 
 prices, and " son)e 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 from the wholesale merchants. 
 
 Another misapprehension of socialists relates 
 
MILL ON SOCIALISSI. 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 would 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 insui"ance 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 recur. The remain- 
 der is properly the remuneration of his skill and 
 industry — the wages of his labor of superinten- 
 dence." 
 
 " The present system," Mi-. Mill continues, " is 
 not, as many socialists believe, hiuTying 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 J!II.L OS SOCIALISM. 
 
 sliould succeed), and the management of tlie 
 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 recklessness of other people's sufferings, 
 which Kobespierre and St. Just scarcely caaae up 
 to." Yet "it has great elements of popularity 
 which the more cautious form of socialism lias 
 not, because what it professes to do it promises to 
 do quicldy." 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- 
 taiy communities, like those which have been 
 considered in our second chapter, and as the veiy 
 contrast to, and separation fi-om the outside 
 world, which such societies present, may be a 
 
MILL ON SOCIALISM. 199 
 
 motive of some power, his remarks do not fully 
 apply to this kind of communities. Kor, 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 workingmen.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 alil^e, 
 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 would 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 OS SOCIALISM. 
 
 ference against tlie possibility that communistic 
 production is capable, at some future time, of be- 
 ing the form of society best adapted to the Tirants 
 and circmnstances of mankind." " The various 
 schemes for managing the productive resources 
 of the country by piiblic, 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 elite 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." [K they should 
 turn out to establish their claims by and by, the 
 utilitarian school of philosophers would find no 
 difficulty iu sacrificing the institution of prop- 
 erty to the new Leviathan.] 
 
SCHAEFFLk's " QUINTESSENCE OF SOCIALISM." 201 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 bchabfflk's " qdintesbbncb of socialism." 
 
 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 impression that he is 
 not decidedly averse to the movement whicli he 
 describes. In the preface to his second edition 
 he expresses the opinion that " the wealthy and 
 cultivatec^lasses 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 tlie restless, feverish strug- 
 gles and uncertain issues of modem industrial ac- 
 quisitiveness "families of wealth are not sure 
 whether they may not, jn the next or in the third 
 generation, themselves sink to the proletarian 
 condition. They especially are threatened in 
 9* 
 
202 bchaeffle's " quintessence of socialism." 
 
 their estates and family life by the existing state 
 of things." 
 
 Sounding thus a note of alarm, as if he would 
 open the eyes 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 organization 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 fixed 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- 
 
SCIIAEFFLe's " QUINTESSENCli; 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 would 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 departui-e this the 
 widest possible from the present system of pri- 
 vate work and private capital. "The reader," 
 says Mr. Schaeflie, "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 witli tlie 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 tlie 
 people into a proletarian multitude and a few 
 over-grown millionaires, before the masses, espe- 
 cially the country 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 lilte 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 difHculties. But, on the 
 other hand, if society is to be overturned from its 
 foundations, men will insist on seeing that utter 
 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, 
 tliey must know more than that certain philoso- 
 phers or partisans think that all will go right in 
 the future. 
 
Although the sociahsts forbear to go into par- 
 ticxUars which do not flow out of their original 
 and essential idea, thej claun that time is work- 
 ing with them in their movements. The days 
 when the workman was the proprietor of his ma- 
 chines and prodiicts, the days of home-work and 
 cotton-looms, have given way to vast engines and 
 vast manufactories ; but the laborers, crowded in 
 enormoiis 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 service, is not ap- 
 proved of by the leaders of the j)roletar{af / 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 effectivel}^, 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 sghaeffle's " quintessence of socialism." 
 
 wlien tliis 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 surplus value. 
 Mr. Schaeffie takes pains to show that, when this 
 agitation readies even the charge of theft made 
 against capital itself, it is not intended to apply 
 to individual undertakers or capitalists, but to the 
 system, I 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 difiiculty of the transition to 
 th^ 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 
 
■ QUINTESSENCE OF SCCIALISM." 207 
 
 of destntction of tlie middle class will at length 
 be complete, and that the continxiance 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 ' hotinjeois^ 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 
 
208 sohaeffle's " quintessence of socialism." 
 
 large, would necessarily be set aside and tenni- 
 nate at once as capital, and ere long as property ; for 
 2}crpetual rents, paid even in tlie shape of orders 
 for means of enjoyment, would by no means, on 
 groimds of principle, be granted by the socialis- 
 tic state." We apprehend, however, that things 
 would not come to such a pass as is here contem- 
 plated. In the Ji/rst place, the property of the 
 upper class, if they were imwilling to give up 
 their rights and should try the fortunes of war 
 unsuccessfully, would be confiscated at the end of 
 the struggle. In 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, transportation, 
 and furnishing 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 
 
SCIIAEFFLe's " QUINTESSENCE OF SOCIALISM." 209 
 
 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 supplies scarcely a square foot 
 of liberty, scarcely an inch of domestic comfort 
 and an agreeable home." 
 
 Our author, however, maintains that collective 
 production can have its statistics of recurring in- 
 dividual and family wants, and can provide for 
 these wants as effectively 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 requisi- 
 tions may not meet with due attention. " If so- 
 cialism were to do away with this power of 
 satisfying personal wants, it would deserve to be 
 looked on as the deadly foe of all freedom, 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 scitaeffle's " quintessence of socialism." 
 
 be parted with for all the advantages of social 
 reform. The fii'st 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 they 
 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 imder 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 will it be essen- 
 tial that every kind of production 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 physician or the artist, would be 
 another. In such cases concurrence or competir 
 
sciiaefflk's "quintessence ov socialism." 211 
 
 tion, the great bngbear of socialism, might be en- 
 dured ; and the service would be remnnerated 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 tliere 
 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 SCIIAEFFLe'S " quintessence of SOCIALiSM." 
 
 ism will ever be in a condition to make nse 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 
 imtil now by no means the decided point, on 
 which, in the long run, everything depends ; 
 from 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 th^ 
 
schaeffle's " quintessknok 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, tune, etc., it will be wholly incapable of 
 solving its own problem of production by collec- 
 tive capital iu 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 op socialism" concluded. 
 
 The principle of socialism opposes the continu- 
 ance of private property not only as it respects 
 the direct means of production, but also as to 
 everything from which gains are indirectly ac- 
 quired. Thus it wages war against all forms of 
 private credit, against tlie 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 laud. 
 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 o^'raer 
 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 will have abundant se- 
 curity in its hands for 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, unless 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 greenhacks, 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 commimity. 
 
 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- 
 
•216 SCHAEFFLe's '' QriSTESSlIXCE 
 
 petition is of all operations the most abliori-ed by 
 socialism. There can be -within its pale no buy- 
 ing up of any product for the purpose of selling 
 again. Everytliing (unless in some employments, 
 products needed for the family), must go to tlie 
 storehouse, and from tlience, by " social means 
 of transportation," wherever else it is wanted. 
 How could the competition of dealei-s begin to ex- 
 ist in such a system, and how coidd any dealer 
 compete with the agents of the state ? Thus the 
 sale of wares in the open market, together witli 
 ti'ade, the profits of trade, the market, and the 
 exchange, must cease altogether. 
 
 The difference between tlie present order of 
 things in an economical respect and the socialistic 
 order is nowhere wider than just here. "The 
 tliree main problems, at present, to be solved in 
 the market (or the speculation mai'ket, as Scliaeffle 
 calls it) are tliese : to determine tlie amount of 
 things needed, to determine the quantity and 
 quality of productions that can be procured to 
 satisfy men's needs, and to keep up continually a 
 value in exchange which will preserve tlie equili- 
 brimu between production and consumption. But 
 in the socialistic state the functionaries who would 
 have to do with sales would ascertain the amounts 
 needed, would distribute tlie national work accord- 
 ingly among the different classes of people doing 
 business, and the pei-sons concerned in production, 
 transportation, and storage ; and would assign to 
 
217 
 
 the products a value according to the mass of 
 socially necessary work-time spent upon them." 
 What contrast could be greater ? 
 
 With this revolution another would go in com- 
 pany. The coiTuption of the press in affau-s of 
 business, its willingness to lend itself to private 
 speculation, would cease when private competi- 
 tion ceased ; and the whole system of costly and 
 luxurious advertisements, as well as the enormous 
 expense for the rent of elegant shops, would no 
 longer be of any use. 
 
 A metallic currency would disappear from the 
 socialistic state, as readily and as soon as private 
 capital and its operations should disappear. It 
 would not be needed between the members of 
 such a community any more than between the 
 members of a family. In balances of trade with 
 foreign countries it would be of use ; but not in 
 settling balances within the state itself. That 
 gold and silver would play no great part in such 
 a state is plain from the consideration of their 
 leading functions. As measures of value they 
 are superseded by the average value of labor, es- 
 timated by the whole sum of social products. As 
 a circulating medium they would be superseded 
 by tickets or certificates of actual labor in the 
 past, which would be effective and current, as long 
 as anything was in the government-stores, sub- 
 ject to the calls of the people. 
 
 This species of time-money will also suffice for 
 10 
 
218 schaeffle's " quintessence 
 
 the expenses of the public, as well as for the sat- 
 isfaction of personal wants. The socialistic state, 
 it must be remembered, like every other state, has 
 nothing to pay its own expenses with. It must 
 draw all its supplies from its own working people. 
 Of course, if public expenses (for the state, the 
 commune, the schools, etc.) needed one-third of 
 the value of the hours of work, the certificates for 
 these hours must be good to the workingman or 
 other holder for two-thirds of their worth. The 
 state would need to dispose of its third of prod- 
 ucts remaining in the storehouses as it best 
 might. That at times, as in famine or sudden 
 war, a state which cannot readily borrow monej', 
 as a socialistic state could not, must be brought 
 into serious straits is quite evident. 
 
 At this point Mr. Schaeffle notices two difficul- 
 ties, one of which has met us before. This is the 
 theoretical and fundamental point of detennining 
 the value of commodities by the cost of work 
 alone, without taking demand into consideration. 
 The other is a practical difficulty — whether the 
 socialistic state could ever master the enormous 
 book-keeping necessary for its purposes, and 
 could bring unlike kinds of work into just rela- 
 tions by a standard of equal lengths of working 
 time. He gives no confident answer to these 
 questions of his own. " In itself considered," he 
 remarks, " to make use of the factor of utility in 
 estimating social values is not a thing inconceiva- 
 
OF SOCIALISM " CONCLUDED. 219 
 
 ble, "Wliere all production goes forward on one 
 plan, it will soon be perceived when and where a 
 particular production exceeds or falls below the 
 public demand. In tlie existing form of industry 
 this is known by prices in the market. Produc- 
 tion is diminished, and individuals seek employ- 
 ment elsewhere. This law of industry, now act- 
 ing where capital and private property are found, 
 must enter into the social system. The present 
 error of socialists, in making value [i. <?., value 
 in exchange] the only factor in estimating costs, 
 must be given np in regard to the appraisal 
 of work and in regard to the appraisal of prod- 
 ucts. When the value in use [as discovered by 
 means of changes in demand] sinks, both must 
 suffer abatements ; when it rises, both must have 
 advances made in them. Without this introduc- 
 tion of value in use into social estimates — that is, 
 without imitating the present market in all its 
 processes of settling value in exchange — it would 
 be impossible, by any control of the system of 
 work in a country, to bring the demand for com- 
 modities into harmony, as it respects quantity and 
 quality, with the supply of work and of goods. 
 Three things depend on the right adjustment of 
 the theory of value in exchange. First, this pos- 
 sibility of preserving a balance in such a vast mass 
 of work, production, and wants ; secoiul, the con- 
 cession of the necessary individual freedom of 
 work and of consmnptiou ; and, third, a general 
 
220 
 
 stimulus, given, according to economical laws, to 
 individuals in proportion to their working power 
 or efficiency." 
 
 ■ Unless socialism, our author concludes, is able 
 to unite to its own unquestioned specific advan- 
 tages all the good sides of the existing freedom 
 of work and of economy, it can have no outlook 
 for the future, nor any fair claim that it is able 
 to make its theory a reality. It must remain a 
 Utopia. — We add that, after such warnings from 
 political economists who have no leanings against 
 socialism, to put it to the test by experiment on 
 the vast scale of a great nation like Germany, 
 until impartial experts should be fully satisfied, 
 would be madness. It is a pity, if it is ever to 
 be tried, that it could not first have a colony of 
 socialists for its subject. It ought to be, for the 
 safety of the rest of the world, an experimentum 
 in corpore vili. 
 
 The last stage in which we shall accompany 
 Mr. Schaeffle is implied in the questions which he 
 undertakes to answer: "What shape would in- 
 come eventually take in a social state, and how 
 would it be used in the consumption and the for- 
 mation of private property ? " 
 
 It is unnecessary to remind our readers that the 
 entire income of individuals in the social state 
 must come from work (excepting those cases where 
 former capitalists receive annuities of " means of 
 enjoyment" — ^not of money— from tlie govern- 
 
CONCLUDED. 221 
 
 ment). The income of tlie state itself is drawn, 
 in the same way, as a imiform deduction from 
 that which is due to the citizens — that is, to the 
 workers. Whatever the state had fixed upon a-s 
 necessary to meet the public wants, and pay the 
 public servants, that amount could be directly 
 drawn from the store of products, which are all 
 under the charge of "public officers. This ease 
 and simplicity of taxation (or of getting a public 
 income) has not been set forth, as it deserves to 
 be, in the socialistic writers. 
 
 As for the possible uses of private income, it 
 may be spent or saved by the owner, or be trans- 
 ferred to others on condition of reimbursement, 
 or given away to a third person. 1. The use of 
 his income — that is, of his certificates of work — 
 would be uncontrolled in the social state, just as 
 in states of the existing form ; the only restric- 
 tion being what any state would impose, that 
 it must not be spent for uses prejudicial to the 
 welfare of the commimity. 
 
 2. To the title of savings and the formation of 
 private property Mr. Schaeffle devotes quite a long 
 discussion. The substance of what he says is 
 this : While no property producing other prop- 
 erty can be allowed by the social state to remain 
 in private hands; property in means of enjoy- 
 ment — such as articles of food, clothing, furni- 
 ture, books, works of art — may be not only ac- 
 quired, but transmitted by inheritance [and would 
 
222 scnAEFFLE's "quintessence 
 
 naturally remain nntaxed]. Socialists resent the 
 cliarge of periodic division of private savings 
 among the members of society, as -well they 
 might ; for if such a usage were introduced there 
 ^^•ould soon be nothing to divide. In regard to 
 inheritance, it is true that hot-heads have wished 
 to abolish it altogether ; but as long as capital, 
 especially in the instruments of production, is 
 taken out of the possibility of such transmission 
 by belonging exclusively to the state or conunu- 
 nity, the sphere of the right of transmitting 
 property would be so narrow that its exercise 
 would produce no essential inequality, or other 
 disturbance of the system. Moreover, if allowed, 
 it might serve as a stinuilus to a larger number of 
 hours' woi'k. The leading socialists, therefore, 
 find at this point no inconsistency with their gen- 
 eral scheme. 
 
 "Whether socialism is favorable to family life, 
 and to wedlock in its form of indissoluble mono- 
 gamy, is an important point which our author 
 does not wholly pass over. Some socialists have 
 had low and loose views on these all-important in- 
 stitutions ; but the system does not necessarily call 
 for a kind of community life which is opposed 
 to the highest development of the family. — The 
 relations of the system in itself considered, of the 
 society cherished by it, of its influence on ideals of 
 morality and virtue, lie outside of the present dis- 
 cussion, and must be considered in another place. 
 
OF socialism" conolpded. 223 
 
 3. Less consistent with the nature of socialism 
 does it appear that it should look with favor upon 
 a loan to others of what a person has saved from 
 the fruit of his toil. To do this in the way of a 
 note drawing interest does, indeed, seem alto- 
 gether opposed to the pui-pose for which capital 
 had been abolished ; but to do it on promise 
 of a future return, or to accompany such a loan 
 with some kind of pledge or insurance, might 
 well be permitted. So, also, "the concentra- 
 tion of larger amounts for private purposes — 
 such as travel, study, common efforts — would by 
 no means be opposed to the principles of social- 
 ism." 
 
 i. The possibility and liberty of free gifts to 
 relatives, to some third person, or to a society of 
 persons, would not be forbidden by the nature 
 of the social state. If the sums thus collected 
 formed no fund, properly speaking, from which 
 interest could be derived, there would be no re- 
 striction imposed by the social state on their col- 
 lection or distribution. Thus all the purposes 
 of humanity, benevolence, and religion, of art 
 and science, would meet with no public opposi- 
 tion. 
 
 " One point needs to be touched upon by itself. 
 Socialism, as it is apparent, is through and through 
 irreligious and hostile to tlie Church. Socialists 
 pronounce the Church to be a police institution in 
 the hands of capital, and that it cheats the prole- 
 
224 sohaeffle's "quintessence 
 
 tarian ' by bills of exchange on Heaven.' It de- 
 serves to perish." 
 
 Hatred to religion, however, is denied by Mr. 
 Schaeffle to be essential to the system and nature 
 of socialism. It is true that no endowed church 
 could exist under its shadow ; hut stock institutions 
 might be maintained as could be supported by 
 voluntary contributions,- and were not connected 
 with worldly interests and classes opposed to so- 
 cialism. Even direct support of the Church by 
 public authority, out of the national income [that 
 is, by deductions drawn from the cost of work], 
 would be, at all events, possible, although not very 
 probable. And this voluntary method might be 
 resorted to for various institutions outside of the 
 state's agency, for the promotion of social, religi- 
 ous, scientific, technological, political, and social- 
 istic efforts. 
 
 Thus, if socialism confines itself to its true prin- 
 ciples — that of realizing the system of collective 
 production — it can come into opposition to no such 
 free movements of unions of individuals as have 
 been mentioned. " Objections to all- this proceed 
 from the folly and frivolity of single socialists, 
 not from the principle of the system. They liave 
 no support from the politico-economical principle 
 which has more and more become the central 
 point of socialism ; and which will, in all proba- 
 bility, form the pivot on which the principal social 
 contest will turn. The destruction of the ' high- 
 
OF so"cialibm" concluded. 225 
 
 est and most ideal blessings of civilization ' wonld 
 certainly attach itself to a wild revolutionary en- 
 deavor to make socialism a reality ; but such de- 
 struction need not be the result of a development, 
 in which the question at issue between the third 
 and fourth classes of society is strictly limited to 
 its scientific essence, and in which further prog- 
 ress is made to adhere to the path of specific 
 reform." 
 
 "We close our consideration of this able, and in 
 the main impartial, work with two remarks. The 
 first is that, when the author, in the latter part of 
 his work, shows socialism to be more expansible 
 as a plan of industrial society than many lia\ e 
 thought, his gain in this is rather scientific than 
 practical. All that he says may be true ; but of 
 what great importance is it, so long as the system 
 itself is so narrow and restrictive ? It is as if one 
 should seek to show that a man with two fingers 
 can do every sort of thing which another man can 
 do with five. True, he can, one may say; but 
 can he do as much and do it as well ? Will not 
 society be lame and crippled under socialism, 
 after all ? 
 
 The other remark is that a socialistic state may 
 be very ingeniously constructed and neatly ar- 
 ranged ; it may excite the admiration of able 
 political economists ; but, after all, the theory of 
 political economy is one thing — the living and act- 
 ing state — the moral entity to which all the valua- 
 10* 
 
220 '• QUINTESSENCE OF SOCIALISM " CONCLUDED. 
 
 ble treasures of the individual man and of society 
 are counnitted, is another. To tliis higher ques- 
 tion — to the relations between this socialistic state 
 and the most important human interests — we will 
 now bespeak our readers' attention. 
 
EECENT IJELATIONS OF SOCIALISM. 227 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 RECENT BOCIALISM IN ITS RELATIONS TO THE STATE AND 
 TO SOCIETY. 
 
 "VVe seem to have now reached some definite 
 ideas in regard to the plans and aims of German 
 socialism, which, in its politico-economical stage, 
 is commanding the attention of thinkers in all 
 civilized countries. Its programme is now hon- 
 estly avowed, and its theory is ready, as far as 
 the opinions of tlie party are concerned, to be re- 
 duced to practice. If the hopes of the most san- 
 guine members of the party were in any respect 
 prophetic, it would be successful without long 
 conflict. The feeling seems to be that the upper 
 classes will be dismayed and be ready for a com- 
 promise, when they see the forces of the fourth 
 class, or proletariat, arrayed against them. We 
 are the people, the latter naturally say. We 
 have served out our time in military training ; 
 and those who conquered France by superior dis- 
 cipline have a great advantage to start with in a 
 domestic contest. 
 
228 EECEXT SOCIALISM IN ITS EELATIOKS 
 
 But in sucli a thorough change of society as 
 socialism contemplates there is no room for com- 
 promise. The plan is to take away all- the means 
 of production — all land, machinery, manufacto- 
 ries, all means of transport — from private per- 
 sons, and transfer property in them to the state ; 
 to abolish all private trade, credit, business rela- 
 tions, and the medium of circulation, without 
 which these could not go on ; so that there is not 
 a work in life, not an employment or pursuit, that 
 would not be put on a whollj' new basis. What 
 room for compromise is there here ? There never 
 was a revolution in history, since history told the 
 story of the world, so complete as this. jSTations 
 have passed imder the sway of conquerors; but 
 an age or two brought back the rights of property 
 and free management of their affairs to multi- 
 tudes of the conquered. Nations have been de- 
 ported to distant settlements ; but multitudes 
 throve in the land of exile, or their descendants 
 were restored to their properties in the old home. 
 Is it conceivable that, with all the personal evils 
 which stand at the very door of such a change 
 in view, multitudes would succumb and compro- 
 mise rather than risk their lives for an essential 
 good and a sacred right, as they regard it, of 
 themselves and their posterity ? 
 
 As the issue in such a conflict is uncertain, so 
 the form which the state, constructed on the ruins 
 of private property would assume, would be un- 
 
TO THE STATE AND TO SOCIETY. 229 
 
 certain, except so far as the industrial changes 
 should require some special conformation of the 
 government. We have, then, a problem to solve, 
 when the social state is to be considered, which 
 has to take some uncertain factors into account. 
 But we have more right to speculate on this point 
 than socialists themselves have ; for our specula- 
 tions can do little harm if they prove false, while 
 theirs, if thej prove false, may involve themselves 
 and their countries in remediless ruin. 
 
 Properly speaking, we need to look at two 
 points — the governments under which the social- 
 ists hope to carry out their industrial theory, and 
 the form of state polity which the theory itself 
 seems to render necessary. As for the inclina- 
 tions and opinions of the socialists and commu- 
 nists, there is no question that, as a body, from 
 the commencement of the French Revolution, 
 both in France and elsewhere, they have leaned 
 toward the principle of equality as the main 
 foundation of a well-regulated state. But equal- 
 ity is a broad term, and the question at once 
 arises how much must it include ? Liberty and 
 equality stand side by side in all the declarations 
 of French political Utopias. But it is evident 
 that, if personal liberty has the breadth of rights 
 which is conceded to it even in some arbitrary 
 governments, equality of condition and inequality 
 of situation, or of amount of worldly advantages, 
 may be found together ; so that a conflict must 
 
230 EECENT SOCIALISM IN ITS GELATIONS 
 
 necessarily arise between tlie two, wliicli cannot 
 easily be adjusted. Equality of condition, the 
 absence of all ranks and orders, secured by con- 
 stitutions, would be accepted by all socialists as a 
 sine qua non, before the working class can be 
 raised above the disadvantages which encounter 
 them in modern society ; but inequality of situa- 
 tion, some power by which the free action of an 
 individual may enable him to rise above a general 
 level, is clung to, in existing society, far more te- 
 naciously than the proper democratic principle of 
 equality in political rights and the sameness of 
 condition throughout societj'. 
 
 The feeling of equality, then, is not confined to 
 the equal diffusion of political rights ; but it ex- 
 tends to material advantages. It is the feeling of 
 one competitor toward another — the same feeling 
 which has led and may again lead to the lot, as 
 preventing a man of more influence and ability 
 from gaining an office by his ability. The world 
 is not full enough and never will be full enough, 
 of material goods to satisfy all ; and if the strug- 
 gle for them were not checked by the social sj-s- 
 tem, one would secure for himself more than 
 another, if the state did not interpose. It is not 
 to be denied that evils attend on the present sys- 
 tem of unlimited power to gain wealth ; but the 
 point which we now make is that, in seeking to 
 prevent these evils, the social theories find it 
 necessary to restrict the freedom of individuals, 
 
TO THE STATE AND TO SOCIETY. 231 
 
 especially the power of rising by enterprise, 
 soundness of judgment, unbounded energy, and 
 other qualities, which not only aid the individual 
 in his advancement, but contribute to the im- 
 provement of general society. 
 
 When the individual is confined by law and 
 public institutions in his sphere of operations, 
 society loses a great part of its force ; and the 
 state must acquire an equal or greater amount of 
 force, or all the hopes of a comnmnity will be ship- 
 wrecked. Thus, if private capital is to cease, the 
 state must have the new function of general busi- 
 ness director, or there will soon be no state at all. 
 Is it not perfectly evident that the state must be- 
 come exceedingly strong to undertake such new 
 duties, in addition to many of its old ones? And 
 may we not argue with certainty, from the checks 
 which society, as it now is, puts on the occasional 
 violence and arbitrary power of the state, that, 
 when society is stripped of its force in opinion 
 and in action, a vast increase of independence, 
 even a despotical sway must be gained by the 
 state from this source also ? 
 
 The state, then, under socialism must become 
 strong and uncontrollable, not only because new 
 offices are committed to it, but also because these 
 offices are taken away from society and from its 
 individual members, who now will no longer be 
 able to oppose, or correct, or enlighten the state 
 in favor of the interests of general society. What 
 
232 EBCENT BOCIALISM IN ITS EELATIONS 
 
 the form of the state in its socialistic era would be 
 is of little importance. The essential characteris- 
 tic is that it must become all but unlimited ; and 
 our readers are well aware that all unlimited gov- 
 ernments are more like one another, whether 
 they be called monarchies or oligarchies or dem- 
 ocracies, than they are each like to a limited gov- 
 ernment of their own name. We can hardly 
 question that genuine socialists would prefer that 
 constitution which was best for their purposes. 
 If it were an unlimited monarchy, provided no 
 ranks or orders were allowed to exist, it could 
 pass with the greatest ease into an unlimited 
 democracy and mce versa. [See Appendix I., 
 end of this chapter.] 
 
 There is no doubt that during the period of 
 strife with other parties the socialists will contend 
 for universal suffrage, and that their agitators 
 will maintain democratic principles ; but, as one 
 of their friends asserts, when they have reached 
 their goal, they may find the general vote no 
 longer essentially required. Their public mani- 
 festoes, however, such as the programmes of Eisen- 
 ach and Gotha, breathe the democratic spirit in 
 ll an extreme. "What can be more so than the de- 
 I mands made at Gotha of direct legislation, and 
 of decision concerning war and peace by the peo- 
 ple? But the leaders, doubtless, have much 
 wiser opinions of their own. Schaeffle says 
 (" Quintessenz,." p. 29) that " the general right to 
 
TO THE STATE AND TO SOCIETY. 233 
 
 vote would not be absolutely necessary for social- 
 ism after it had reached its goal." 
 
 A strong government would be especially need- 
 ed in the period of transition and the beginnings 
 of the new state ; for then old memories would 
 not have died out, the power of combination 
 would not have entirely ceased, and the difficul- 
 ties that might attend the working of the new 
 machine would encourage its enemies. 
 
 But let us see how the destruction of private 
 property in the means of production and the es- 
 tablishment of the socialistic state would affect 
 individuals and their rights. First of all, we 
 mention the right of lyroperti). This, we have 
 seen, is swept wholly away, except so far as ter- 
 minable annuities, "payable in means of enjoy- 
 ment," may be granted to such rich men as do 
 not oppose the change of order, and so far as 
 workingmen may lay up their savings for the 
 future pleasures (not the future profits) of them- 
 selves and their heirs. This is as far as Schaeffle 
 can go, with a seeming desire to bring socialism 
 into a nearer likeness to existing polities. And, 
 furthermore, there is in such a state no power be- 
 longing to the individual to rise above his exist- 
 ing condition. In fact, the author already quoted 
 is at pains to show the social party that freedom 
 of movement of laborers is necessary to act as a 
 balance to changes in demand which must come 
 upon their industrial republic. Biit, according to 
 
234: EEOENT SOCIALISM IN ITS EELATI0N8 
 
 the programme, the workers are fixed in situa- 
 tion, glehcB ascrijjti, and removable by the state, 
 as far as we can see, from one place and work- 
 shop to another, as the Eoman coloni or serfs 
 were fixed, and only removable by the proprietor. 
 Is not this the beginning of a new order of serf- 
 dom, as the government ofiicials of the workshops 
 and storehouses might well become a new class of 
 feudal lords ? It is impossible, if these conditions 
 of society should be lasting, that some new rela- 
 tions of a political and social kind should not gain 
 a foothold in the new order of society. 
 
 How far the workingmen would have self- 
 government in prosecuting their employrnents we 
 are unable to conjecture. In the ateliers of the 
 French socialists to some extent the operati^■es 
 could elect their own headmen and supervisors ; 
 but we can hardly conceive of this as practicable 
 in a vast system imder government control. If, 
 in great operations at present, the employer or 
 undertaker has great responsibility thrown upon 
 him as it respects styles and fashions of goods, 
 changes of machineiy, estimation of amount of 
 demand, and other particulars; it would seem 
 that the leading managers of manufactories in the 
 social state ought to be invested with an equal 
 share of responsibility, imless the system, should 
 fail utterly. 
 
 There is one form of lobar, and that of prime 
 importance, about which we have seen but few 
 
TO THE STATE AND TO SOCIETr. 235 
 
 opinions expressed. We refer to agriculture. 
 Plere the analogy of manufacturing industry 
 readily suggests itself, and farming on a great 
 scale, placed in the hands of an association of 
 laborers, is one of the forms most naturally 
 thought of. The association pays the state a 
 rent ; or the system is managed exactly as a 
 manufactory woiild be, the laborers receiving 
 tickets for their hours' work, the cost of this 
 labor being estimated after long calculation, and 
 the tickets entitling the holder to draw from the 
 storehouses whatever he may desire, according to 
 the amoimt of his claims. But it is obvious that, 
 as men will till separate pieces of ground and 
 must use in part their own products for daily 
 consumption, the difficulties attending exact equal- 
 ity of distribution will be great. As this class of 
 workingmen in some countries quite outnumbers 
 all others, the problem is not only difficult, but 
 of vast importance. It would seem that their 
 liberty of moving from one place to another 
 would naturally be more restricted than that of 
 manufacturing workmen. , [See Appendix II., 
 end of chapter.] 
 
 The intercourse of a socialistic country with 
 foreign parts wonld wholly fall under the state's 
 control and direction. Such intercourse would 
 be necessary for procuring raw materials which 
 could not be cultivated at home, and articles of 
 luxury from tropical countries. The commerce 
 
236 BECENT SOCIALISM IN ITS EELATIONS 
 
 could not be of great amount, and miglit be left 
 in the hands of some maritime nation. 
 
 The finaiices of the social state have already- 
 been noticed. They would be managed in the 
 simplest manner possible, as far as the original 
 levy should go ; for they are nothing but first- 
 fruits of the productions of the people. "When 
 thus gathered, the state could dispose of them as 
 it pleased — at home or in foreign parts — in ex- 
 changing its receipts with military or civil work, 
 paying officers, supporting public charities. We 
 can easily see that it would need at no time to be 
 at a loss for funds, for in any emergency it could 
 put its hand into the depositories of certificates of 
 labor, and take the wages of a day or a month to 
 itself all over the country. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that these 
 taxes would, of course, be a very small aliquot 
 part of the entire product. As the state would 
 play the part of the employer-capitalist and. of 
 the government too, it would need to expend 
 money in both characters ; as, indeed, we have 
 already had occasion to remark. It might then 
 be found that the bitter complaints against capi- 
 talists for "robbing" laborers related to nothing 
 which the state would not do as readily. And in 
 an exigency, when war, or famine, or internal re- 
 volt, should fall upon the social state, it would be 
 less able to provide for the sudden call than states 
 are now. To borrow money at home would be 
 
TO THE STATE AND TO SOCIETY. 237 
 
 out of the question ; to borrow it abroad would be 
 exceedingly diificult. 
 
 The capacity of such a state to engage in de- 
 fensive war would be extremely limited ; and in 
 offensive war it would be a still weaker assailant. 
 On the other hand, the motives for attacking it 
 would be small, since the change in its polity 
 would withdraw it from most of its former inter- 
 course with foreign states, and it would live 
 within itself. Internal dissensions might be fre- 
 quent and chronic, as long as old local feuds con- 
 tinued, for it would have no strong army pre- 
 pared to repress local outbreaks. 
 
 How far could such a state secure the regards 
 of its inhabitants, and would patriotism be a 
 strong sentiment among them ? We can hardly 
 bring ourselves in thought into the feelings of 
 such communities ; but one cannot help believing 
 that the ties which bind many nations to their 
 countries, even when they are misgoverned, would 
 be all gone. Centuries would flow away before 
 they could have any history. They would live 
 in comparative separation from the rest of the 
 world. What progress they could have it is not 
 easy to imagine. Their institutions would have 
 become industrial, rather than political. The en- 
 nobling influences of political and historical life 
 would have all passed away. 
 
 We add that the rich diversity found in the so- 
 cial life of the peasantry would wholly cease under 
 
238 THE INDIVIDUAL AND EELIGION 
 
 the reign of socialism. Every civilized state in 
 its present form presents the spectacle of innu- 
 merable differences in employments, of men se- 
 lecting tlieir professions — the same family hav- 
 ing representatives in several departments even 
 among scientific men, artists, men of letters, in 
 the learned professions, adorning and ennobling 
 society. There is, in fact, an activity, and for the 
 most part, a hopefulness in existing society which 
 adds greatly to the enjoyment of life. But all 
 this depends on the freedom of the individual 
 to choose his career, and the power to choose 
 greatly depends on the accumulation of property 
 and the cultivation of mind and taste. In a so- 
 cialistic state all this woiild be lost. The whole 
 mass of living beings would be devoted to work 
 under state agents. Can anything be conceived 
 of more monotonous than the uniformity of such 
 a system, not to speak of its incapacity to answer 
 to the higher wants of man and to his privilege 
 of shaping his life for himself ? 
 
 II. 
 
 THE INDIVIDUAL AND RELIGION IN THE SOCIALISTIC 
 
 STATE. 
 
 If the remarks we have now made have any jus- 
 tice in them, they show that the socialistic state 
 would increase in power by taking away power 
 
IN THE SOCIALISTIC STATE. i'o9 
 
 from individuals, and from volmitary communi- 
 ties of whatever kind. The number of persons 
 freely using their own exertions for their own 
 support would dwindle down almost to zero. 
 Associations united together by any tie except 
 that of common work would be almost unknown. 
 Especially would the state, as the director of 
 nearly all work, so impress its power on society, in 
 its various communities, that opposition to the 
 will of the state would be feeble ; and, if not 
 fear, at least a want of interest in political affairs 
 would, as it seems, pervade the whole nation 
 
 There would be little of enterprise or of public 
 spirit in the people of a state under such a con- 
 stitution. The possibility of rising in the world 
 is taken away by the form of society, because 
 there is only one class of people besides the 
 agents and supervisors, and these are appointed 
 by the government or by the communities. A 
 very great stimulus, in states where capital exists, 
 is imparted by the form of society to all classes, 
 especially to the humbler part of the small proprie- 
 tors. The shoemaker or carpenter in such a coun- 
 try as the United States, the man who has one or 
 two joui-neymen on his working-benches, is in the 
 best position to rear an honest and frugal family. 
 He knows the value of knowledge ; he is a free 
 man, able to judge and act in the affairs of his 
 township and his state ; he values education for 
 his children, if he had not had its advantages 
 
2i0 THE INDIVIDUAL AND EELIGION 
 
 himself. These are the persons who have an in- 
 dividuality of their own ; who are cultivated 
 by domestic life ; who are not in a hurry nor 
 discontented with their place in the world, hut 
 feel that the world is a good place for them 
 and theirs to live in ; who want no help from the 
 government, but rather to be left alone with their 
 rights and their opportunities. There is a vast 
 number of such persons, in a land like the United 
 States, scattered over the farms and in the towns 
 and villages, who have a stimulus, perhaps with- 
 out knowing it, from our form of society ; and 
 this spirit of enterprise they transmit to their 
 children. But in the socialistic institutions I see 
 nothing calculated to inspire hope or to elevate 
 the workingman. His condition is unalterable, 
 except that by working two or three hom-s longer, 
 if the state will consent, he may receive two or 
 three more certificates of houi-s' work, which he 
 may use as he will. 
 
 In such a state, again, the circulation of knowl- 
 edge will have obstacles put in its way ; not by 
 direct power, indeed, but by the nature of the in- 
 stitutions. Every modern programme, it is true, 
 of the workingmen's parties of every name, de- 
 mands gratuitous, compulsory education for all 
 children, and the opening of technological and 
 other scientific schools over the land. Without 
 doubt, they are sincere in this, for the agitators, 
 having the boundless possibilities of the future 
 
IN THE SOCIALISTIC STATE. 241 
 
 in their hands, can weave out of them many glo- 
 rious visions. But let us look at the spread of 
 knowledge in a socialistic state. In whose hands 
 would it be ? The state might undertake such an 
 office ; but who supposes that it would be done 
 well ? The state might produce as many yards 
 of cloth or barrels of flour as were needed, and 
 of as good quality, it may be, as capitalists could ; 
 but neither state nor capitalist could make good 
 books to order, and they would be sure to be bad 
 if the state forced them into the places of educa- 
 tion. It wants freedom of thought, independ- 
 ence, a creative impulse to make good books in 
 all departments but pure science ; and the state 
 would not be likely to let books be printed at its 
 expense, the principles of which, in government 
 or in political economy, opposed its own. 
 
 As for large printing-houses, established by as- 
 sociations, they would scarcely be allowed in a 
 state built on the exclusion of aU private capital 
 from its borders ; and the newspaper press would 
 exist, if it existed at all, under great disadvan- 
 tages. If sustained, it would derive its support 
 from tickets of work, the circulation of the land. 
 Its machinery and buildings would belong to the 
 state, or to some association dependent on it ; and 
 it could be crushed with no difficulty if it became 
 obnoxious. 
 
 In such a state, again, there would be little of in- 
 tdligent public opmioii. The nature of the state 
 11 
 
242 THE INDIVIDUAL AND EELIGION 
 
 would prevent all free spontaneous movement. 
 We have already seen that the mobility of work- 
 ingmen themselves — their freedom to remove 
 elsewhere and seek other work — would meet with 
 obstacles. The parts of the general society would 
 be poorly united together by the intercourse of 
 friends, travellers, and business. Indeed, society 
 would become somewhat like the old caste sys- 
 tems, with the upper castes left out. 
 
 Whether the state would tolerate new opinions, 
 and concede to advocates of private property the 
 same right of attacking social institutions which 
 socialists now have of attacking the present in- 
 stitutions of society, may well be doubted ; for 
 the moment the political economy on which the 
 state was built began to be questioned, that mo- 
 ment the state itself would be in danger. No 
 sufficient reason against a change of polity would 
 exist unless it were found in that science. That, 
 therefore, is the industrial, political, social basis 
 of the whole order of things. 
 
 But we have gone, perhaps, into greater details 
 than were called for respecting institutions which 
 may never be realized, or, if set on foot, might 
 move in an oblique direction, under some force 
 of the ancient order of things which could not 
 be neutralized. We will now pass on to another 
 inquiry, the relation of communism and social- 
 ism to religion. Here two points demand our 
 consideration : the first, the attitude and feeling 
 
IN THE SOCIALISTIO STATU 243 
 
 of commimists in the past toward revealed reli- 
 gion and its institutions ; and the other, the in- 
 quiry whether socialism in its nature 7?iusi take a 
 certain position toward religion, or whether it 
 may be or become hostile, neutral, or fi-iendly, as 
 historical or social causes may determine. 
 
 The earlier communists — Plato and his fol- 
 lowers in Christian times, who conceived of 
 small commonwealths as the places where their 
 theories were to be tried — cannot be called ene- 
 mies to religion ; although they show the essen- 
 tial defect that marks most philosophic Utopias — 
 the want of a full conviction that there is a de- 
 feet in human nature, which nothing but religion, 
 becoming a force within the soul, can cure. 
 Plato was far from irreligion and insensibility to 
 rehgious ideas, as is shown by the charm his best 
 speculations have had for religious minds, both 
 among the Christian Fathers and in later times. 
 But most of the communists within the pale of 
 Christendom, who have shown some sympathy 
 with Christian ideas, have rejected Christian 
 facts, and held simply to the sentiment of love or 
 a somewhat exalted fraternity. Out of this prin- 
 ciple in France was developed Religious Commu- 
 nism. This fraternity was its seed-corn; for, as 
 another has said, in spite of the Revolution and 
 its fearful irreligiousness, the old faith had struck 
 too deep roots in many hearts, and even in whole 
 circles, to be entirely banished out of its home. 
 
24i TFIK INDIVIDUAL AIJD EELIGION 
 
 Of Lamennais's influence in propagating a form 
 of doctrine into which some Christian thoughts 
 infused themselves, and which, for all that, was 
 communistic and anti-Christian, we have spoken 
 in another place. Others followed in his steps, 
 with a wider departure from the true spirit of 
 the ISTew Testament. And in the School of St. 
 Simon, as well as among those who, like Leroux, 
 were at first scholars of that school, religious ideas 
 strayed about, as if trying to find a home from 
 which they had been banished. Leroux himself 
 had the same theosophic tendency, without a 
 faith in Christ. As another says, he held that 
 " Christianity at its first appearance was a great 
 step forward, and comprised truths until then 
 perceived by the highest intellects only ; but that 
 Christianity — such, at least, as it was understood 
 to be during the Middle Ages — has exhausted all 
 its juices. It has produced all that it could pro- 
 duce for the advancement of humanity. Since 
 the Keformation, for four centuries, it has ceased 
 to p]-eside over the movement of ideas in Europe. 
 To-day it is dead, and nothing of it remains but 
 its carcass. It pertains to philosophy to take .its 
 place and to construct a new religion. The ele- 
 ments of this philosophical religion should be 
 found in the past period of humanity. All that 
 is to be done is to collect, bring together, and 
 formulate them." (A. Sudre.) 
 
 A large part of the thinkers of France, and 
 
IN THE SOCIALISTIC STATE. 245 
 
 nearly all of those who leaned toward commu- 
 nism had discarded Christianity ; but, far worse 
 than this, the great mass of the workmen in 
 Paris and other towns of France were leavened 
 with imbelief in God and Christ. A very strik- 
 ing passage from one of the writings of Leroux, 
 entitled "Three Discourses to Philosophers, to 
 Politicians, and to Artists," Paris, 1831, so power- 
 fully represents the state of religious belief among 
 the workingmen at that time, that, although the 
 extract is of some length, I cannot resist the 
 temptation of quoting it ; 
 
 Since there are no longer on the earth any but material 
 things— material goods, gold, or a dung-heap — every man 
 that breathes has the right to say to you: "Give me my 
 share of this gold, or this dung- heap." 
 
 "The partition is made,'' answers to him the spectre of 
 society, as we have it to-day. 
 
 "I find it made badly," replies the man, in his turn. 
 
 " But you were well content with it heretofore," says 
 the spectre. 
 
 "Heretofore," answers the man, "there was a God in 
 heaven, a paradise to gain, a hell to fear. There was also 
 on earth a society. I had my part in that society ; for, if I 
 was a subject, X had, at least, a subject's right— the right to 
 obey without being abased. My master did not command 
 me in the name of his selfishness ; his power over me as- 
 cended back to God, who permitted inequality on the earth. 
 We had the same morals, the same religion. In the name 
 of these morals and this religion, to serve was to obey God, 
 and to pay my protector on earth with devotion. Then, if I 
 was inferior in the lay society, I was the equal of all in that 
 spiritual society which thej call the church. There _ in- 
 
246 THE INDIVIDUAL AND EKLIGION 
 
 equality did not at all reign ; there all men were brothers. 
 I had my part in this church, under the title of child of 
 God and fellow-heir with Christ. And this church, more- 
 over, was but the vestibule and the image of the real church, 
 of the celestial church, toward which my gaze and my hopes 
 turned. I had my part in the promised Paradise, and in 
 view of that Paradise the earth faded away from my sight. 
 The soldiers of the church on earth were at my service to 
 direct me and aid me to gain the celestial church. I had 
 prayer ; I had the sacraments ; I had repentance and the 
 pardon of my God. I have lost all that. I have no Para- 
 dise to hope for more ; there is no longer any church ; you 
 have taught me that Christ was an impostor. I do not know 
 whether there is a God ; but I know that they who make 
 the law scarcely believe there is — or pretend to believe, 
 which is much worse. You have reduced everything to gold 
 and a dung-heap. I want my part of this gold and this 
 dung-heap." 
 
 Thus, because the earth is an empty temple, 
 and Christ has left his throne, there is nothing 
 of value save vt^hat the man of toil can clutch and 
 handle. The material world alone survives the 
 ruins of faith, and is all the more precious. So 
 the social leaders teach, so the followers believe, 
 that the good time coming is to be a relief of 
 materiar inequalities and discomforts, with some 
 elevation of the taste and intelligence of the prol- 
 etariat; but expect nothing from the power of 
 religion. I must believe that, in Germany, they 
 have lapsed from the Bible and the faith of Lu- 
 ther to as great an extent as the French have for- 
 saken the faith of Pascal and St. Louis. 
 
IN THE SOCIALISTIC STATE. 247 
 
 But let us appeal to witnesses drawn indis- 
 criminately from socialists of various shades. 
 The sentiments of Dupont, secretary of the In- 
 ternational, and of Bakimin, we have already had 
 occasion to cite. We place first in order a pas- 
 sage from one of the writings of Marx: "The 
 evident proof of the radicalism of the German 
 theory, and thus of its radical energy, is its start- 
 ing-point from the decisive, positive abolition of 
 religion. The critique of religion ends with the 
 doctrine that man is the highest being for men ; 
 and thus with the categorical imperative of over- 
 throwing all relations in which man is a degraded, 
 enslaved, forsaken, contemptible being; relations 
 which one cannot better describe than by the ex- 
 clamation of a Frenchman, on occasion of a pro- 
 jected dog-tax: 'Poor dogs! they are going to 
 treat you like men.' " Again, Boruttau, who has 
 been, I believe, editor of the Yolksstaat, said of 
 socialism, in 1871, that " it is a new view of the 
 world, which, in the department of religion, ex- 
 presses itself as atheism ; in that of politics, as 
 republicanism; in that of economy, as commu- 
 nism." The same man had expressed himself, a 
 little before, as follows : " The hope of a satisfy- 
 ing success of the socialistic revolution is a vision- 
 ary Utopia, as long as we neglect to root out the 
 superstition in a God, by a general and thorough 
 enlightenment of the people. As none but social- 
 ists are in a condition or are inclined to do this. 
 
2-iS THE INDIVIDUAL AND EELIGION 
 
 it is our duty to carry this work through with 
 zeal and devotion ; and no man else is worthy of 
 the name of socialist save he who, himself an 
 atheist, devotes his exertions with all zeal to the 
 spread of atheism." This is plain enough ; but 
 not plainer than the words of the Vorhote, a 
 Swiss paper, uttered about the same time — " that 
 he who seeks to bring science and religious faith 
 into harmony, the function of his brain must 
 already have been sadly brought into dishar- 
 mony." (From Jager.) 
 
 Let these citations suffice to show — what, in- 
 deed, no one can doubt — that socialism, to repeat 
 Schaeffle's already cited words, "the socialism of 
 to-day, is through and through irreligious and hos- 
 tile to the church." But a further inquiry sug- 
 gests itself. Is this so because socialism is essen- 
 tially irreligious ; or does it owe this quality not 
 to its own doctrine, but to the men who first pro- 
 fessed and propagated it? Has it made the 
 workingmen atheists ; or were they atheists or, at 
 least, impregnated with the virus of atheism 
 already ? "We close this paper with a very brief 
 answer to one or two of these questions, reserving 
 the consideration of the essential relation of so- 
 cialism to religion for the next article. 
 
 First, then, the old German faith had begun to 
 give way, within the church or churches them- 
 selves, some time before socialistic principles were 
 thought of. The decay of religious life, the de- 
 
IN THE SOCIALISTIC STATE. 24-9 
 
 cay of religious faith, pi-oceeding from the efforts 
 of the early rationalists to take as much of the 
 supernatural as was possible from the Scriptures 
 — these causes acted in the church, and in the 
 minds of its teachers and preachers, rmtil many 
 from among the people began to think that the 
 church was only the police of the state, set up to 
 keep the lower classes in order. 
 
 Again, the freethiuking which showed itself 
 so mighty a destructive agent in France spread in 
 Germany to a considerable extent, until the war 
 of liberation caused a reaction. Then Germany 
 began to teach philosophy to the rest of Europe ; 
 but philosophy, in the shape given to it by Hegel, 
 became pantheistic, and, when it went down 
 among the people, atheistic. To this source the 
 departure of the nation from the faith of the 
 Scriptures must be ascribed. So, then, the work- 
 ing-class was not so much to blame for their athe- 
 ism as were those who had the intelligence of the 
 country in their possession. Nor was it unnatu- 
 ral for the working-class to think that the rulers 
 and the upper class considered religion as the tie 
 to hold the country together and the restraining 
 force to keep them quiet, without putting faith 
 in it themselves. So thinking, the working-class 
 could not but become disbelieving, and despise 
 the upper class for its hypocrisy. 
 11* 
 
250 EELATIONS OF SOCIALISM TO EELIGION, 
 
 III. 
 
 RELATIONS OF SOCIALISM TO RELIGION, TO THE FAMILY, 
 AND TO MABBIAGB. 
 
 We deferred until the beginning of this sec- 
 tion the question whether the hostile attitude of 
 very many socialists to religion is a necessary or 
 an accidental one ; whether a theory which would 
 abolish private property, the free satisfaction of 
 individual wants, and nearly all the personal value 
 of the individual in the community, has sympa- 
 thies with a religious life in the soul, such as the 
 Scriptures set forth ; whether the existing want 
 of faith, so deep-seated in this party, is likely to 
 be as permanent as social principles themselves, 
 or may give way to better convictions ,and conso- 
 lations, when the evils in the present religious 
 order of things shall have passed away. 
 
 Here we readily admit that in some forms of 
 smaller communistic societies there has been sin- 
 cere religion, although not only private property, 
 but man'iage also and a considerable amount of 
 personal freedom, have been saciificed for the 
 imagined benefit of those institutions. But these 
 are societies voluntary at the entrance, and gen- 
 erally allowing members to release themselves 
 from their connection and take with them their 
 property. There is also a certain degree of pres- 
 
TO THE FAMILY, AND TO MAKEIAGE. 251 
 
 sure from the outside world, which helps them to 
 be true to their convictions, and their life is fi-ee 
 from many temptations. The communities as 
 such hold property, buy and sell ; and the indi- 
 vidual members feel nearly the same kind of 
 ownership in the common property which is felt 
 by the shareholders of a railroad. The people 
 in a social state are to such a degree unlike them 
 in most particulars that you cannot argue with 
 safety from the one to the other. 
 
 There is nothing in the nature of the state it- 
 self which socialists propose to foimd, fcom which 
 a good omen can be drawn in favor of the cultiva- 
 tion of moral and spiritual truth. The leaders in 
 Germany are Hegelians, and, as such, must be 
 fatalists, so far as to recognize no personal power 
 separate from and outside of the world. Hence, 
 they lean toward absolute power in all things. 
 The state, says Ahrens, " has an absolute power 
 [ia their eyes] ; it absorbs everything. It has 
 the right to regulate everything — morality, the 
 arts, religion, the sciences ; the -individuals have 
 no rights but by its leave. The pantheism of 
 Hegel concentrates itself here in political panthe- 
 ism. The state, the present god, is the sovereign 
 invested with absolute rights. This apotheosis of 
 the state can have the sympathies of political 
 absolutists, to whatever camp, monarchic or demo- 
 cratic, they belong ; but it is profoundly in an- 
 tipathy to political liberty. In fine, the whole 
 
253 EELA.TIONS OF SOCIALISM TO RELIGION, 
 
 pliilosopliical conception of Hegel, with wliicli liis 
 theory of rights and of the state is intimately 
 allied, is rejected by conscience and reason. The 
 idea of a God-progress, who develops himself 
 across the world, in order to arrive at a clearer 
 and clearer consciousness of himself, is a mon- 
 strous application of anthropomoi-phism, which 
 transfers to God that which is found in finite and 
 perfectible creatures. It is not the idea of God, 
 of the infinitely and eternally perfect being, who 
 is the sole foundation of the moral and religious 
 sentiments of man." (Seventh edition, oi " Droit 
 JVaturel," vol. i., p. 75.) 
 
 From such a source few gleams of a light from 
 Heaven could penetrate into the social state. 
 Still fewer could come from an infidelity or athe- 
 ism that has diffused itself among the working- 
 men, and which would not be averse to the reign 
 of almost absolute will in the state, if it carried 
 out the will of the masses. But now 'let us sup- 
 pose the state established. Is there anything in 
 an absolute state, whether called by the name of 
 aristocracy or democracy, that is favorable to the 
 growth of religion ? If it should be entirely indif- 
 ferent in regard to these interests, leaving them, 
 as it naturally would, wholly to parents, shutting 
 them out of schools, and making religion volun- 
 tary in the strictest sense ; religious faith would 
 have a poor chance, with such a start, with society 
 against it, and with the state perfectly indiffe::ent. 
 
AND TO MAEEIAGE. 253 
 
 There is, indeed, nothing that we in the United 
 States can find fault with in the declarations of 
 the programme of Eisenach (1869) demanding sepa- 
 ration of the Church from the state and of the 
 school from the Church ; or in the demand of the 
 programme of Gotha (1875), that religion be de- 
 clared a private matter. Xor could we altogether 
 dissent from those at the Congress of Brussels 
 (1868), who insisted " on the necessity of an ob- 
 ligatory and integral instruction — that is to saj'', 
 one comprising both scientific instruction, sepa- 
 rated from every religious idea, and professional 
 instruction." But, as there would be no religi- 
 ous education in the public schools and none of 
 any account in the largest part of the families ; 
 as religion at the start of the new state would bo 
 prostrate, with no ministers, perhaps without 
 churches; as it must depend for its support on 
 what workingmen could contribute from their 
 certificates of daily work, miaus what the govern- 
 ment would need for its own uses, or on mis- 
 sionaries from lands where capital was still in 
 private hands (who would be not very welcome 
 agents), the prospects of any common worship, or 
 of any enterprise among the few believers in Chris- 
 tianity, or of any hope of better things, as far as 
 human eyes can discover, would be exceedingly 
 small. 
 
 We will now consider somewhat together the 
 relations of the socialistic state to marriage and 
 
254 EELATIONS OF SOOIAMSM TO EELIGION, 
 
 the family. Here we come to a part of our sub- 
 ject where the socialists complain that they have 
 been misimderstood, and even maligned, by the 
 friends of existing order. The Germans forget 
 that the opinions of Enfantin and of Fomier 
 must have made a deep impression, and that it is 
 excusable sometimes to charge on a whole body 
 what only a part of it felt and thought. Count 
 Gasparin, perhaps, in his " JJEnemie de la Fa- 
 mille^'' is liable to this imputation. If Fourier 
 gives us one kind of communistic system, Cabet 
 gives us another. His doctrine looks toward a se- 
 vere monogamy, and the amiable man's heart was 
 evidently open to the pleasures of the family-circle. 
 He honestly believes that " the inclination be- 
 tween parents and children, be it as lively as pos- 
 sible, will produce in a society organized on a 
 plan of equality and community no one of the 
 evils which, in the present system of inequality, 
 it brings forth." 
 
 "VVlien, again, we draw a lihe between the small 
 communistic societies and the socialistic state, it 
 can be readily seen that the former must put the 
 family in the background, while the other need 
 not have this effect. Of this we have already 
 spoken, and will only repeat the remark that the 
 community, if small, supplies the place of the 
 family ; while in the social state there is no such 
 cause hostile to the family's just place and influ- 
 ence ; since the commimities here are for Indus- 
 
TO THE FAMILY, AND TO MAEEIAGE. 255 
 
 trious purposes only, and nothing more than as- 
 semblages of workingmen, each for the most part 
 having his own home there. Thus the privacies 
 of the family, its separate loves and enjoyments 
 and secrets, may there flourish, if no other causes 
 besides the nature of the state prevent. 
 
 The question, however, will natm-ally be asked 
 whether the abolition of inheritance will not act 
 disastrously upon the interests of the family. As 
 the socialistic state is built upon the destruction 
 of family property, none can be transmitted, ex- 
 cept those savings which take the form of mere 
 personal enjoyments and can at the best be very 
 small in amount. Whatever motives, therefore, 
 drawn from the hope of leaving an inheritance to 
 a wife and children, act upon men in society as it 
 now is, to promote thrift and heighten family 
 affections, nearly all these will be lost, when so- 
 ciety shall suffer the changes which the socialists 
 threaten. The wife of the workingman must 
 look forward to a life of struggle for children 
 yet helpless, or of greater discomfort and poverty. 
 It is not, indeed, likely that the state would neg- 
 lect the care of its -helpless ones, for the aboli- 
 tion of inheritance would create an imperative 
 demand for its aid. But, however, that may be, 
 the prospect that a life of work would at its end 
 leave a family helpless, would tend, by a sort of 
 law of society, to make marriage less desirable 
 than it is now and less sacred. If, added to this, 
 
256 EELATIONS OF SOCIALISM TO EELIGION, 
 
 religion should lose its hold, if materialism should 
 prevail as the spirit of the commuiiitj, as, with- 
 o.it the coTmteraction of spiritual causes, it must, 
 the society might become fearfully loose in its 
 morals ; worse than any similar collections of 
 persons now ; worse than ignorant Africans on 
 Southern plantations, because now a sentiment 
 from outside does act on every class of men to 
 some extent, even down to the lowest. 
 
 We cannot doubt that the abolition of direct 
 inheritance would, cut off one of the strongest 
 and least exceptionable motives which now silmu- 
 late industry, economy, and the domestic virtues. 
 With this, of course, we include the claim of the 
 wife to a portion of the husband's estate, which 
 now law may enforce against his last \'\"ill. If the 
 unity of the family is a natural union, and if the 
 permanence of the feeling of unity is a vast good 
 to society for at least two generations ; the hope, 
 on the part of the father, when he dies, that he 
 can benefit his family by his labors and savings, 
 must act on his whole life, and aid in forming 
 the best civic habits and virtues. Fix a maxi- 
 mum of landed property if you please, but do 
 not attack the transmission of property, on which 
 so much of tlte morality -and welfare of the state 
 depends. 
 
 With regard to the sanctity of the marriage tie 
 and to its dissolution by divorce, the feelings of a 
 community will hold a due proportion to those 
 
TO THE FAMILY, AND TO IIAEEIAGE. 257 
 
 ■which they hold in respect to the family and to 
 the state of marriage. Jiiger, in his " Socialis- 
 mus,'' remarks that the possession of land and 
 soil in common, if it arises out of materialism, 
 leads also to community of wives, as being 
 another expression of materialistic communism. 
 This, however, is a tendency, but not a necessity. 
 In an assembly of the German Workingmen's 
 Union at Berlin, Hasenclever (one of Lassalle's 
 friends and a member of the Reichstag) said 
 that " when the spoliation (of the working class 
 by the capitalists) should cease, then first prosti- 
 tution would cease, and the woman be given back 
 to her calling — to the education of children. The 
 woman question would then be taken by the de- 
 veloped socialistic or, more correctly speaking, 
 communistic state imder its 0A\'n control; for 'in 
 this state, where the community bears the obliga- 
 tion of educating and maintaining the children, 
 where no private capital subsists, but all instru- 
 ments of production are common property, the 
 woman needs no longer, out of respect to her chil- 
 dren, to be legally chained to one man. The 
 bond between the sexes will be simply a moral 
 one ; and then such a bond, if the characters did 
 not harmonize, could be dissolved." Jager (who 
 appears to have given the sense of the words of 
 Hasenclever, rather than the words themselves), 
 then continues : " These words approach already 
 pretty near to community of wives ; but another 
 
258 RELATIONS OF SOCIALISM TO EELIGION, 
 
 orator, Jorissen, expressed more openly the re- 
 moval of all barriers, in saying that a maiden 
 who disposed freely of her love was no prostitute 
 — she was the free wife of the future. In the 
 state of the futui-e only love should direct the 
 unions of the sexes. Between the married wife 
 and the so-called prostitute there was only a 
 quantitative difference. The children would ne- 
 cessarily belong to the state, and the state pro- 
 vide for both. These views did not exactly meet 
 with full approbation ; but they met with no op- 
 position based on principle." 
 
 But it is not quite fair to argue from the ex- 
 pressions of unprincipled leaders of the socialis- 
 tic parties in Germany what will be the feelings 
 and the conduct of the rank and file when they 
 get into the promised land. It is but just to say, 
 that now, while they are under private employers 
 and capitalists, they are careful to save women 
 and children from overwork, and to put them 
 under full protection of the law. Among the 
 demands of the Gotha programme, "within so- 
 ciety as it now exists," we find prohibition of 
 work on Sunday, prohibition of children's work, 
 and of all female work prejudicial to health and 
 morality, with other regulations relating to the 
 health of dwellings. They are, indeed, by no 
 means the first that have moved in this direction. 
 The English laws for the protection of women 
 and children and for regulating the greed of 
 
AND TO MAEEIAGE. 259 
 
 mamifacturers in various ways — sucli as the re- 
 striction of the hours of work and a system of 
 sanitary rules — may now be said to form a code, 
 with supervisors appointed to carry out its pro- 
 visions. The evils of manufacturing industry 
 are in the same way calling, in later years, for 
 similar legislation in the United States. Tlius 
 the law of compulsory schooling in some States 
 imposes a penalty on manufacturers who employ 
 children for such a length of time as would inter- 
 fere with school-hours, and prevents parents from 
 making money out of their children at the ex- 
 pense of their education. The humanity which 
 is shown in programmes of socialistic parties did 
 not, then, dawn upon the world with their forma- 
 tion ; but in those countries where capital is 
 strongest and labor comparatively most depend- 
 ent, there the spirit of humanity, kindled by 
 Christian faith, has been at work to oppose the 
 spirit of selfishness, and to put down all the evils 
 of society which arise from covetous disregard of 
 rights, from parental neglect, from the feeling 
 that material prosperity is the greatest of national 
 interests. The socialists had better wait until this 
 humanity of " capitalistic " countries gives up its 
 voluntary efforts and its humane legislation. 
 That will be a strong argument in favor of a new 
 order of things. 
 
 In a socialistic state there might be education 
 for all, reaching up into scientific truth ; there 
 
2C0 EELATIONS TO SOCIETY CONCLUDED. 
 
 might be public festivities and amusements ; there 
 might be a severe police against disorder and vice ; 
 but I cannot see how the great institutions, which 
 date from the earliest times of the world and ap- 
 pear everywhere in communities raised above sav- 
 age life, can be secured from decay or how their 
 place can be supplied. 
 
 IV. 
 
 EELATIONS TO 60CIETT CONCLUDBD. 
 
 We have thus far briefly considered some of 
 those results of socialism in its last and most 
 practicable form, which flow from its despotical 
 nature, or the union of social and political power 
 in its political theory. We have also looked at 
 it in its probable effects on the individual, on re- 
 ligion and the family. We have found, if I am 
 not deceived, that it takes away fi-om the indi- 
 vidual some of the strongest motives which exist 
 in civilized communities as they are now consti- 
 tuted ; that the father of a family could not rise 
 above his condition or have any hope of rising, 
 or of benefiting his family after his death, except 
 to an extremely limited extent, by the results of 
 his industry. We have seen that though the 
 latest form of socialisrri is by no means hostile to 
 the family, the conditions of a society under its 
 control would by no means be favorable to the 
 
EELATIONS TO SOCIETT CONCLUDED. 261 
 
 health and warmth of family life. We have seen, 
 also, that socialism, material and earthly in its 
 spirit, dependent on ii-religious men for its prog- 
 ress, supported by the voluntary contributions of 
 the poor, would find it hard to keep its ground in 
 the world. 
 
 We now proceed to consider a few points rela- 
 ting to public order, morality, and iatelligence, so 
 far as the form or spii-it of socialism must affect 
 them. And, first, as it regards security and quiet, 
 it would have the same advantages over the present 
 order of things which despotical states have over 
 those where the individual has wide rights, and 
 is little under control. The vast mass of persons 
 would be confined, practically, to their abodes. 
 There would be no tramps, no pviblic beggars, and 
 no sti'angers conung to steal, or do what is nearly 
 as bad ; for how could the former travel without 
 tickets of work, or the latter pursue their trade, 
 when there was nothing to steal. In fact, the 
 eighth commandment would be far easier to keep 
 than in society as it now is. The sixth com- 
 mandment, too, might almost lie on the shelf ; 
 for if now a large part of the crimes of violence 
 originate in desires for the property of others, 
 they would be greatly diminished, when property 
 should cease to be in private hands, or be in such 
 a shape that it would be hard to seize or take 
 away. Then a number of crimes, such as forgery, 
 embezzlement, counterfeiting — all crimes in fact 
 
262 EELATIONS TO SOCIETY CONCLUDED. 
 
 against property, and many of those which injure 
 the person, would be much limited in their sphere 
 of operation. 
 
 And, owing to the same causes, the complaints 
 of man against man, which are now brought be- 
 fore the courts, would greatly decrease in number. 
 Where the state did all the busiaess, there woiild 
 be no private breaches of contracts ; where inher- 
 itance was unknown, or nearly so, there would be 
 no probate of wills or quarrels growing out of 
 wills. Where the state did all the business of 
 transportation, there could be no common carriers 
 besides. And if an end were put to all these 
 things, society evidently would return to a state of 
 things in which law^yers, judges, and voluminous 
 statutes would not be necessary. How far this 
 simplification of life would be an indirect disad- 
 vantage by cutting off some of those causes on 
 whicli the spice, variety, and spirit of life depends, 
 I will not stop to inquire ; but the direct good ia 
 several respects would be apparent. 
 
 Yet it is not at all certain how far the commu- 
 nities in the social state would be orderly or 
 moral. Here several things are to be considered. 
 What effect on morality wiU a state of things be 
 likely to have, where there is no public opinion 
 of a higher class, which now has, if no other, an 
 imperceptible influence. Or must a higher class 
 crush down an inferior, so that its tastes become 
 the worse because it feels itself to be below opin- 
 
EELATI0N8 TO SOCIETY CONCLUDED. 263 
 
 ion ? It may be reasonably apprebended tbat if the 
 workingmen of socialism should be able to sup- 
 port themselves — say by six hours' labor — their 
 leisure would be a snare ; that beer or whiskey, 
 quarrels and violence, with other kinds of vice, 
 such as gambling, would be more rife than they 
 are now. A despotical government, however, 
 would find it not difficult to keep these things 
 under control. 
 
 Another and a worse form of immorality, the 
 crime of unchastity, would, one may fairly sup- 
 pose, be peculiarly prevalent under socialistic in- 
 stitutions. For, as we have seen, the abolition 
 of inheritance must deduct something from the 
 importance attached to the family, and the low 
 materialistic views with which socialism starts, 
 must deduct something more ; nor can one dis- 
 cern anything in its institutions which is fitted to 
 counteract these unhappy tendencies. Divorce, 
 too, it is probable, would be granted on insufficient 
 grounds, and marriage become an affair of con- 
 venience. A lower depth would be reached in re- 
 gard to the domestic relations than that to which 
 society in Christian lands has hitherto fallen, 
 unless the social state should contend, as for its 
 existence, against these adverse influences. 
 
 As a matter of course, the support of the poor, 
 or more generally, of all who are incapable of 
 labor, would fall upon the state. At present, 
 property does this work by taxes and bequests. 
 
2Gi EELATIONS TO SOCIETY CONCLTTDED. 
 
 and whatever Christian states and Christian soci- 
 ety have failed to do, they cannot be blamed for 
 indifference to the needs of the helpless and for 
 want of humanity. In the social state voluntary 
 contributions of the living, and bequests from the 
 dead would be in great measure cut off ; and tlse 
 deductions from the products of' work would ' be 
 greater burdens, it is pi-obable, than any now fall- 
 ing on the humbler classes of those who live by 
 labor.- Yet, it would seem to be feasible, if the 
 state should use the proceeds of some of the " ex- 
 propriated " lands imder its control for the purpose 
 of providing for the helpless and destitute. liow 
 the numbers of this class would compare with 
 those in existing states, is not a problem to be 
 easily solved. Some of the caiises of distress, 
 such as war, over-trading, and over-taxing, would 
 be less ; but general famines could not be met nor 
 prevented as easily as now, when private trade can 
 carry with ease the surplus food of one land to 
 another which is suffering ; while a social govern- 
 ment could neither borrow money in a foreign 
 land, nor send surplus manufactures there as easily 
 as now. On the whole, the problems of poverty 
 and bad harvests do not look as if they could be 
 more easily solved than they are at present. 
 
 The education of the people, which states of 
 the old type have so much neglected, or even 
 dreaded and opposed, has been advocated in all 
 sorts of social programmes. We have spoken of 
 
RELATIONS TO SOCIETY CONCLUDED. 265 
 
 the position which the International took on this 
 point, and of the resolutions favoring compul- 
 soiy education passed at Eisenach and Gotha 
 (1869 and 1875), as well as insisting on gratuitous 
 instruction in higher schools. Without question 
 these expressions represent the earnest feeling of 
 the sociahsts. Eut can the conditions of the state, 
 or the current opinions of society always favor 
 even a high grade of popular education? In 
 states as they now are, the tendency is toward 
 universal education : every class, even the hum- 
 blest, in a large part of the United States, finds 
 in it a source of hope and of advancement for 
 the children of the class ; and more than a few 
 who have founded their own fortune, like Packer 
 and Cornell, have established places of higher 
 education for the benefit of posterity. Such 
 benefactors, of course, will be wanting in social 
 states, where no considerable properties can be 
 acciunulated ; nor will the wages of laborers be 
 sure to sufl&ce for the payment of their children's 
 schooling. Taxes, therefore, or deductions from 
 tickets of work, will have to be levied upon all, 
 and the iaterest of all will be to make education 
 in common schools as cheap as possible. It may 
 thus be imperfect, for the training necessary to be- 
 come a teacher takes time, which must be paid for 
 before the teacher begins his work. As for high- 
 er education, the demand for it will be less than 
 now for several reasons. First, several of the 
 
266 KBLATIONS TO SOCIETY CONCLUDED. 
 
 learned professions will be eliminated out of so- 
 ciety, particularly lawyers and trained" ministers, 
 and with them the few who now have no business 
 for life before them. There remain then chiefly 
 physicians, who will be likely to be government 
 employes, and all the many agents with various 
 duties whom the government would want. Some 
 of these would need a finished education in phy- 
 sical science ; others would get along with one far 
 less complete. But in regard to learning, espe- 
 cially of that kind which spends its force in disci- 
 pline of the mind and in cultivation, Eesthetical 
 or intellectual, it is not easy to -see what feeling 
 there will be of the want of it, or what due es- 
 timate of its virtue, or ability to remunerate it to 
 such an extent that it can have a healthful exist- 
 ence. 'Nov will the loss to learning be small when 
 the upper classes, so-caUed, shall have to be wiped 
 out of society; when those highly-trained per-, 
 sons who, in the state life of the present, give 
 the tone and the standard to a nation, start 
 thoughts which pervade society and bear fruit for 
 all time; who keep up the feeling in a nation, 
 that there is something better than material good 
 things, and that cultivation of soul and mind is 
 better than iitilized results of knowledge. The 
 presence of an opulent class in a country is much 
 more for the good of those below them, than for 
 their own, particularly in this matter of educa- 
 tion ; for if, as often happens, the rich have not the 
 
EEMAEKS OF BAEON J. EOTVOS. 267 
 
 energy or self-confidence to go forward in a course 
 of hard thinking or of striving toward some ideal 
 goal, they awaken others who would have slum- 
 bered amid empty hopes. 
 
 Can, then, a higher education or a high value 
 put on common education — we may add, can £es- 
 thetical cultivation and skill — be natural growths 
 of a society which gives up private property, which 
 cuts off the principal demands for a learned class 
 and the means of encouraging art and science ? 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 In reference to the communist or social state 
 we append, at the close of this Chapter, re- 
 marks of Baron J. Eotvos in his "Einfluss der 
 herrschenden Ideen des 19 Jahrhundert auf deni 
 Staat," vol. i., ch. 11, p. 276 et seq., translated 
 from his ovsm German translation, 1854. 
 
 " I find the dislike with which in modern times 
 communism and socialism have been attacked, 
 very easy to be understood. Even the greatness 
 of the danger which threatens our entire social 
 order through these doctrines, explains the vio- 
 lence with which they are attacked. Yet men 
 make a great mistake when they think that the 
 dangers threatening us from this source can be 
 warded off by the unmeasured accusations, or 
 
268 KEMAEKS OF BAEON J. EOTVOS. 
 
 wholly false assertions which are brought forward 
 against socialism. Of all the charges thus laid to 
 the account of socialism, there are none which 
 were not once made against Christianity also." 
 
 Pie then proceeds to illustrate what he has said 
 by the charges brought in the early centuries 
 against Christianity, denies that there is an an- 
 alogy between it and socialism, admits that the 
 latter can make its doctrine suit the wants of men 
 in society, and shows that it has controlled at 
 least one large state, that of Peru under the 
 Incas. Then he proceeds as follows (p. 183) : 
 
 " But all this shows not that communism is 
 altogether impossible, but only that it cannot 
 subsist without absolutism ; and it would be doing 
 injustice to the communists to suppose that they 
 themselves have not seen into this necessary con- 
 sequence of their system. Kot only have promi- 
 nent teachers in the communistic school, but even 
 those who have employed themselves in framing 
 constitutions for Utopias, for the purpose of 
 making a higher order of things possible among 
 men, have acknowledged that an authority with 
 all power vested in it, was, for this end, indispen- 
 sable. That this power, according to the commu- 
 nistic theory, must be conferred by the free choice 
 of the community, makes no essential diiference in 
 practice ; since the right of choice, where no 
 other franchise is left to the people, can be only 
 of short duration ; and communistic France, for 
 
EEMARKS OF BAEON J. EOTVOS. 269 
 
 example, would renonnce it with the same frivo- 
 lous readiness with which republican France 
 elected Xapoleon consul for ten years, then for 
 life, and at last chose him emperor. The right 
 of free choice, moreover, rests on the right of 
 free concurrence, and nothing can be said against 
 this which cannot be maintained against that. 
 How then, in a system, the highest, or rather only 
 aim of which is the establishment of equality, 
 and an organization in which universal peace is to 
 be secured by the exclusion of everything which 
 produces any kind of rivalry, — how under such 
 conditions can the principle of free suffrage, which 
 is in such open contradiction to two ends to be 
 secured [equality and non-competition], be long 
 maintained ? 
 
 That which is essential in communism is not at 
 all those single schemes, against which men take 
 the field with great outlay of wisdom and learn- 
 ing. As Cabet, in his communistic profession of 
 faith, expresses himself for the continuance of 
 the family, whilst others hold the family to be 
 inconsistent with the system of entire equality 
 and the right of all to every enjoyment, so 
 among the doctrines of communism hardly one is 
 to be found concerning which the most important 
 differences do not exist. The essentials of com- 
 munism, in which all who adhere to it agree, con- 
 sist rather in this — that complete equality is the 
 end and object of the state, and the imconditional 
 
270 EEMAKKS OF BARON J. EOTVQS. 
 
 subjection of the individual under the state is as- 
 sumed to be the means to this end. As, now, 
 such complete subjection of the individual under 
 the state's power is only then possible, when des- 
 potic power is conceded to the state, and as there 
 is the closest possible approach to this principle 
 of universal equality, when only a single person 
 is an exception to this [rule of equality] ; it fol- 
 lows that despotism is not only not in contradic- 
 tion to the principles of communism, but also that 
 it is the necessary form of it, and is that form in 
 which its principles can be most completely ap- 
 plied. 
 
 " Not the victory of communistic principles is 
 impossible, but it is only impossible that these 
 principles can be . realized by any other means 
 than a completely despotical power. The victory 
 of communism must, therefore, at the same time, 
 be the victory of despotism." 
 
 Similar views to these of Eotvos may be found 
 in other writers. We may be allowed to add here, 
 as showing the vast increase of the state's power, 
 if it should usurp the most important functions 
 of society, that the exercise of force founded 
 on the judgments of the state must constantly 
 occur. Thus, there must be something like an 
 equilibrium kept up between different kinds of 
 work ; work in the field must furnish adequate 
 supplies for contemporaneous work in the man- 
 ufactory and in other departments of life as 
 
VIEWS OF F. A. LAIIGE. 5i71 
 
 well as for itself. This equilibrium can be main- 
 tained only by restricting production, in some de- 
 partment where it would be an arbitrary and per- 
 haps cruel act, or, if there was an absolute over- 
 production, by sending the sm-plus abroad. The 
 question in every case, which is now settled by 
 private persons, would belong to the state, and, 
 as far as we can see, would involve the state in a 
 most complicated set of adjustments. It might be 
 necessary, if the amount of labor was too great 
 in one branch, to transfer laborers to another 
 branch, whether they could or wished to take the 
 new labor on themselves or not. And to every 
 grumbler, the answer would be, " You have an un- 
 divided ten-millionth right in the state, and have 
 got to work. The state must judge for you how 
 and where, and how long you must work." 
 
 APPENDIX II. to Chapter VII. (see page 335). 
 
 F. A. Lange, having been charged by von 
 Sybel with being decidedly in favor of doing 
 away with private property in land, replies as 
 follows (Arbeiterfrage, ed. 3, note 8 to ch. vii., 
 p. 403) : 
 
 "I am in no way an unconditional adherent of 
 community in land, but only an unconditional 
 opponent of the prejudices prevailing in the coun- 
 try against this social thought. I regard commu- 
 
272 VIEWS OF F. A. LANGB. 
 
 nity in land as the right plan only in those parts 
 where, on account of the inordinate extent of the 
 latifundia, no private ownership of land exists 
 as a thoroiTgh-going factor of social life, and de- 
 termines the opinions and habits of the people — 
 this above all in England. Yet even here I 
 leave the possibility open of aiming at a satisfac- 
 tory social reform, on the opposite plan of divid- 
 ing the soil into small parcels, and of conveying 
 it to small land-owners. In those countries, how- 
 ever, where small landed properties are found 
 to a sufficient extent — such as France, Switzerland, 
 and West Germany — it seems to me that commu- 
 iiity in the soil, properly speaking, even on ac- 
 count of the deep-rooted inclination of the people 
 toward ownership of land, can have no chance of 
 success. In such lands social progress is rather 
 to be sought for, partly in free, cooperative, com- 
 mon industry of neighbors, partly in the reform 
 of the credit-system. Under all circumstances, 
 however, I am of the opinion that in all places 
 where the true nature of private property in the 
 soil is destroyed, and the right of property has 
 become a bare means of levying tribute on foreign 
 work, as it is especially in our large towns, it is 
 very foolish to allow one's self to be seared away, 
 by vague conceptions of the saeredness {unantast- 
 larkeit) of the foundations of our society, from 
 measures which properly, on unprejudiced reflec- 
 tion, must be acknowledged as the only right and 
 
VIEWS OF F. A. LANGE. 273 
 
 thorough ones. A law for the expropriation of 
 property in towns, or, perhaps, still better, for the 
 expropriation of ground-lots, within a girdle around 
 the town which is not yet built upon, I would 
 rather have passed to-day than to-morrow ; and 
 should be sure that this small step toward com- 
 munity in the soil must needs be accompanied with 
 the most beneficial consequences, if carried out 
 from the beginning onward, in a somewhat rea- 
 sonable way, and without any compulsion in ma- 
 king transfers." 
 
 He then proceeds to say that the " plan of turn- 
 ing the present landholders into leaseholders of 
 public domains, has one of its most essential 
 points left wholly in the dark — that is, the eventual 
 termination of the lease [Ivundigimg der Pacht]. 
 "Without doubt the day after issuing such a uni- 
 versal law of expropriation, the proprietors would 
 at once, and in a body, find themselves in the con- 
 dition of lessees of their own soil ; and for this 
 great change a payment of equitable damages 
 would be held out in prospect — which, indeed, in 
 the case of a violent revolution, might be forgot- 
 ten ; yet the intention would not at all be in this 
 transfer of property to stop with a lease-system. 
 The plan would rather be that the state should 
 now, according to the measure of what necessity 
 required, and of economical practicability, give 
 the land on lease to those who would themselves 
 cultivate it, and especially in the way of associated 
 13* 
 
274 VIEWS OF F. A. LANGB. 
 
 or cooperative work. A law, however, by virtue 
 of which in Germany the latifundia (only not 
 all at one blow) should be expropriated and given 
 to rural workingmen on lease, I should unhesi- 
 tatingly regard as a good one, although here the 
 difficulties in carrying out would be greater than 
 in the case of the towns." 
 
 Such are the views of a political economist who 
 has decidedly social leanings, but does not be- 
 long to the party of the socialists. He would 
 make property in land within, or near towns, 
 public, which was fit or hkely to be used in build- 
 ing houses intended for rent ; and he would pass 
 on from the expedient of converting landholders 
 into leaseholders under the state, to the ultimate 
 method of having the leases of such a sort that 
 the land should be cultivated by cooperative in- 
 dustry. But latifundia (and how much land 
 would be needed to constitute a latifundium he 
 does not say) he would have taken from their 
 proprietors. 
 
 The plan of the author, taken as a whole, to be 
 applied in Germany and England, but not prac- 
 ticable in France and Switzerland, labors exceed- 
 ingly. It is necessary that all houses and lots in 
 cities, as well as houses for rent, if any, should 
 belong to the state. It is necessary too, as it 
 seems to the writer, that socialism must be uni- 
 versal, or must be the source of universal confu- 
 sion. Yet the safety of the state and of private 
 
VIEWS OF F. A. LANGE. 275 
 
 property seems to demand that large landed es- 
 tates must be somehow or other broken up, and 
 the nmnber of persons owning the soil be greatly 
 'increased in those countries where now the land- 
 lords are comparatively few ; and that as speedily 
 as economic rules will allow. And this ought 
 to be made permanent. 
 
276 IS THE OVEETHEOW OF THE PEESENT 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 I. 
 
 IS THE OTEBTHEOW OF THE PRESENT FORM OF SOCIETY 
 BY SOCIALISM PROBABLE ? 
 
 Is socialism a mere Utopia, or can it be real- 
 ized in the world — if not by persuading men of 
 its truth, yet, in the last resort, by revolutionary 
 violence ? Can it get the power of the state into 
 its hands in the United States ; or may we treat 
 its boasts on European soil as mere bluster, and 
 much more so when they talk of victories for its 
 cause on our side of the Atlantic? Or, if there 
 is no real danger, is there revealed in this agita- 
 tion a social disease which calls for a cure ? And 
 if so, what cure can be applied? To the first of 
 these questions I intend to devote what remains, 
 according to my plan, to be said upon the subject 
 of socialism ; yet not without the hope of being 
 able to suggest a few thoughts relating to a cure 
 of the disease in society of which this is a symp- 
 tom. 
 
 If we go to the bottom of things, the strength 
 of socialism — that which takes hold of the great 
 
FOEM OF SOCIETY BY SOCIALISM PEOBABLE ? 277 
 
 mass of the party — is not argument ; bnt the de- 
 mand for equality, which has been called forth in 
 modern times by new views of political rights 
 and by the concession of rights to those who had 
 either no rights, or incomplete ones before. The 
 new views led to the new demands ; and these 
 seemed so just, or it was felt to be so necessary 
 to comply with them, that one privilege after 
 another was broken down ; political equality was 
 carried out extensively; and civil rights were 
 made the same, or nearly the same for all. But 
 the feeling of inequality was met by a fact as old 
 as fi-eedom — inequality of condition. Some mem- 
 bers of society, whatever may have been the cause 
 — whether it were birth, or education, or superior 
 abihties, or better judgment, or what men call 
 happy accidents — gained wealth or comforts 
 which were beyond the reach of others ; and this 
 more advantageous position was made permanent 
 by laws and usages on which society was con- 
 ceived to rest, such as free individual movement 
 in matters of business, the security of property 
 and its transmission by inheritance. Moreover, 
 the progress of improvements in the great depart- 
 ments of labor demanded a concentration of capi- 
 tal, which made it harder than before for a man 
 without capital to rise above the level assigned 
 to him by birth. Thus equality of rights was 
 practically counteracted, or made worth but little 
 for great numbers ia society by the consequences 
 
278 IS THE OVEETHEOW OF THE PEESENT 
 
 of freedom. Equality of rights was met by in- 
 equality of condition, which seemed to be grow- 
 ing more marked and striking, as business, in 
 order to be managed with the more success, re- 
 quired larger capital. Thus society seemed to 
 have a disease fastened upon it as bad as that 
 which infested it before the new equality of 
 rights began ; and those who indulged in politi- 
 cal speculations, out of sympathy or of dissatisfac- 
 tion with the present, looked for a remedy. The 
 evils of the social system, they said — its poverty, 
 its caste-like proletariat, its plutocracy, all grow- 
 ing and growing by a kind of law — are due to un- 
 restricted private enterprise. The remedy must 
 be found in transferring all capital to the state. 
 This train of thought, when unfolded to men who 
 wanted something better for themselves, and ac- 
 companied by plausible theories of a new condi- 
 tion of industry under the control of the state 
 alone, is socialism. 
 
 It deserves to be remarked that the feeling of 
 equality worked in another channel also. In the 
 older times, when there were few general work- 
 shops, and men worked in their own abodes, or 
 when workshops were small and this craving for 
 equality did not press upon the laborers' minds, 
 the master and the workmen got along very weU 
 together ; but now, when great workshops and 
 great capital are needed, the employer is a mag- 
 nate, quite above the former position of his office 
 
FOEM OF SOCIETY BY SOCIALISM PROBABLE ? 279 
 
 relatively to his workmen. This makes the dis- 
 tance between the two the greater, and the new 
 feeling of equality makes it seem to be the great- 
 er. Men submit to power which comes from 
 above or is impersonal ; but they chafe under the 
 personal power of a man on the same political 
 level with themselves. Hence, they would sub- 
 mit to the state's direction, if it took all industry 
 into its hands, rather than to an undertaker or 
 employer who is their equal in civil and political 
 society. 
 
 From these sources come the advantages which 
 the socialists have in carrying out the plans of 
 their parties. From these sources I say, and from 
 baseless promises and theories of rights touching 
 the returns of labor, which the workingmen 
 rather believe than understand. The working- 
 man thinks that he can lose nothing, if Bebel or 
 Liebknecht is no prophet. He can gain some- 
 thing if what they say is true. The world, in any 
 case, needs him. But there is another and a very 
 considerable portion of society which knows that 
 the success of socialism is the ruin of themselves 
 and their families. How are they to be placated 
 or put asleep ? ISTot, certainly, by those violent 
 denunciations against the ^'■'bourgeoisie" which 
 many socialists use, with the effect only of irri- 
 tating that class and of alienating one class from 
 another. But for this policy, the " bourgeoisie " 
 might underrate the resources and the proba- 
 
280 IS THE OVEETHEOW OF THE PEESENT 
 
 biyty of success of tlie social movement; but 
 now they are gradually taught that it means noth- 
 ing less than their ruin, their extinction as a class, 
 their having their property taken from them, and 
 their reduction to the order of state workmen. 
 
 ISTothing, in fact, hut persuasion or violent revo- 
 lution can lead holders of property in a country, 
 however small it be, to acquiesce in so com- 
 plete an overturning of society, and downfall of 
 themselves, as the most modem socialism con- 
 templates. Let us look at this alternative, and 
 especially at the probable success of the social 
 doctrine. 
 
 One very important article of this new faith 
 is that a law of nature — if so it can be called — is 
 working on its side. The present is the age of 
 complicated machinery, superseding the instru- 
 ments which formerly a single man could own, 
 and of vast amounts of capital in individual hands. 
 But the change from the plan of small and do- 
 mestic industry to the present wholesale industry 
 is only a stage in the progress. As the house- 
 wife working at her loom in odd hours has given 
 way to the tenants of mammoth manufactories, 
 so the smaU and less powerful of these manufac- 
 tories must give way to the more powerful. The 
 larger the scale of these operations, the fewer 
 must be the employers. And the same is true of 
 capitalists. They, too, must dwindle in number 
 while they swell in size. Then they become an 
 
FOEM OF SOCIETY BY SOCIAJLISM PROBABLE? 281 
 
 easier prey to those whom the system has made 
 serfs, but to whom constitutions give liberty. 
 
 I have touched on this before ; but I toucli on it 
 now again to s&y, first, that, if any sucli law, fa- 
 tal and inevitable, is at work, its progress must be 
 measured not by years, but by centuries. The so- 
 cialists have done existing order a favor by call- 
 ing to it the attention of men. There is time to 
 decide whether it is an essential evil, which noth- 
 ing but violent surgical methods can cm-e, or one 
 which society, once convinced of its existence and 
 growth, can remove without destroying itseUi. If, 
 even in this covmtry, unfettered freedom can bring 
 about a state of things in which a few great mer- 
 chants, manufacturers, ship-o^vners, transporters, 
 and money-lenders shall absorb the capital of the 
 country, it will then be the time to rectify the 
 evU, if it can be done, by appropriate legislation. 
 Meanwhile, we will live in hope of something less 
 radical than the destruction of society in order 
 to destroy the evils growing out of private capi- 
 tal. 
 
 And, again, I doubt very much whether the 
 socialists can persuade men that the additional 
 value, conferred by the labor of operatives on 
 materials put into their hands, wholly belongs to 
 them, so that they are plundered by their employ- 
 ers, when they are paid on the present system. 
 Nor will men, I imagine, be made to see that the 
 state can compensate in a way, or to an amount, 
 
282 IS THE OVEETHEOW OF THE PRESENT 
 
 unlike which is current in the present day. For 
 both state and employer pay for all the instru- 
 ments of production and the material to be 
 worked up ; both make advances to the laborer 
 before the product comes into market ; both, in 
 reality, pay their own expenses, by sale of the 
 manufactured articles; only, if the goods sell at 
 a loss, the employer bears the loss, in the one case, 
 while, in the other, the state throws the loss on the 
 whole number of the laborers in the country. And, 
 after all this, the state, having nothing wherewith 
 to pay its expenses save the products of labor, 
 takes a part, it may be a considerable part, of 
 these products (*. e., as we have seen, of the tick- 
 ets of time representing them), for its expenses 
 and those of its numberless agents. Which of 
 these processes is best for the laborer, and gives 
 him the greater share of the proceeds it may be 
 reasonably doubted. 
 
 Xor is it so evident that labor done for the 
 state will be more effective and hearty than that 
 done for a private employer, when the system 
 seems to be built on the amount of average labor 
 or the number of hours' work as the divisor, and 
 on the gross amoimt of products as the dividend. 
 As we have had occasion to remark already, this 
 is a cardinal point. The private employer has 
 the remedy in his hands ; but in the socialistic 
 state the workmen may all be paralyzed by the 
 system, and there may be found to be such a want 
 
FORM, OF SOCIETY BY SOCIALISM PROBABLE? 28 J 
 
 of motive as to lower the amount of products 
 much below what it ought to be. If this should 
 be the case, it would be fatal to the whole theory 
 of social work. Until the socialists can show that 
 it is not, men whom they wish to convert to their 
 theory wiU hesitate long before they admit it. 
 
 Yet again, if the socialists should adhere so 
 rigidly to their present scheme of work, which is 
 the foundation of the entire system, as to pay no 
 regard to the demand for specific articles, but 
 only to the amount of labor incorporated in them, 
 and should faU to provide for the mobility of la- 
 borers, they would not persuade men that their 
 system could be stable and prosperous. Unless it 
 can accommodate itseK to the changing fashions 
 and wants of the community, as the present sys- 
 tem of industry does with the quickness of a so- 
 cial barometer — if we may so express ourselves — 
 many wiU believe that it must collapse. Other 
 states may suffer terrible disasters, and recover 
 from them by means of private enterprise ; but 
 the social state commits itself to one line of ac- 
 tion, from which it cannot deviate and on which 
 there is no going back. At least, this would be 
 an apprehension which would make many slow in 
 consenting to its exclusive control. 
 
 But, after all, political economy and the inter- 
 ests of work by no means make up the whole of 
 life. There will be multitudes who may have 
 very little Imowledge on such points, who yet will 
 
284 IS THE OVEETHEOW OF THE PRESENT 
 
 ask how socialism will affect tlie individual, the 
 family, the government, morals, religion, and all 
 spiritual and moral forces, about which the social- 
 ists seem to care little. Unless these can be satis- 
 fied that the character of the people to which 
 they belong — taking that term in its widest ex- 
 tent — will not be deteriorated by social institu- 
 tions, they will not readily join in pulling down 
 existing ones, which, with all their defects, en- 
 courage much that is noble in life and manners. 
 
 And in this feeling many socialists will join ; 
 for the breach with all the thoughts and habits 
 of ancient society will be so entire, there will be 
 such a divorce from history and the past, that 
 many, to whom the question of work is not the 
 all-absorbing one, will be unable to bring them- 
 selves to participate in the social revolution, or 
 even to wish it success. 
 
 It seems certain, then, that the change in society 
 must be effected, if effected at all, by violence. If 
 the socialists should not wish to appeal to violent 
 measures, such an appeal would come from the 
 partisans of existing society. The advantage in 
 such an appeal would at first be gi'eatly in favor 
 of established order; for, as the socialists have 
 always shown the conviction that their question 
 is not national, but universal, so the anti-socialists, 
 of all political shades and national antipathies, will, 
 as a matter of course, join their forces, for it is a 
 question of self-preservation. Tua res agitur, 
 
FOKM OF SOCIETY BY SOCIALISM PROBABLE ? 285 
 
 paries cum proximus ardet. The spirit of in- 
 ternationalism would then pervade all nations ; for 
 not onlj changes in government, but a wholesale 
 destruction of property, would be involved in the 
 struggle. IS'or could there be any compromise, 
 unless social principles on the part of the enemies 
 of present society were abandoned — that is, unless 
 the struggle came to be one for the mere rule of 
 society and for spoUs. The socialists could accept 
 of no such issue or they would meet with certain 
 ruin ; for their principles are their only strength. 
 Now, in such a contest, it is not at all likely that 
 the outbreak would be simultaneous everywhere in 
 a circle of nations. It is not even likely that so- 
 ciahsm would be so strong in all of them as to 
 feel itself everywhere equal to the measures of vio- 
 lence which would be necessary. There would be, 
 then, an advantage on the side of existing order. 
 Government and property, where they were strong, 
 could aid the forces of society where the sociahsts 
 were strong. The separate states in Europe, for 
 instance, so often opposed in war to one another, 
 would then be united against the foes of existing 
 order. Could the result be doubtful ? Property 
 and capital would be on one side, and a large prol- 
 etarian mass on the other, without supplies or 
 credit ; able to do vast mischief, without question, 
 but not able to gain their end ; — no nearer to the 
 time when all men with hands would be either 
 the agents or the workingmen of the state. 
 
2S6 OVEETHBOW 01" SOOrETT BY SOCIALISM. 
 
 The socialistic party is, perhaps, encouraged by 
 the seeming apathy of a large part of society in 
 regard to their ultimate plans. But they can 
 hardly believe that all who are not against them 
 are for them. It takes a long time for many per- 
 sons to conceive that any body of men really de- 
 sire and are douig their best to bring about the 
 greatest of changes — ^not to reform nor to trans- 
 form, but to overthrow and build up again on a 
 new foundation. To others the project eeeuui an 
 idle, Utopian scheme, from which sober men, 
 who are attraxjted by some of its features, will in 
 the end withdraw. To others still it may seem 
 that a party, the basis of which is political econ- 
 omy, has too narrow and uncertain a foundation 
 for any success at first or stability afterward ; al- 
 though they ought to be aware that political econ- 
 omy is putting questions which make differences 
 between parties, and between nations ; and has 
 almost reached the place occupied heretofore by 
 doctrines of personal liberty and of the nature of 
 government. But, if the social movement makes 
 much further progress, these persons -^rill see 
 that they must form an opinion on the great 
 point at issue, and it cannot reasonably be doubted 
 which side they wiU take. 
 
FUTLEE PEOSPECTS OF bOCIALISM. 2ST 
 
 PXTTUllE PROSPECTS OP SOCIALISIL 
 
 Manufacturing industry on a large scale, by 
 gathering many workingmen together, aids their 
 united action and gives rise to a general opinion 
 which is often tyrannical and overlooks the rights 
 of others. As workingmen are brought into 
 close contact with one another and to a degree are 
 separated from their fellow-men, they are com- 
 pacted into a class which stands over against capi- 
 talists and over against the general community. 
 The ease with which they can be acted on by re- 
 formers and agitators gives them a false sense of 
 their ^elati^'e importance ; and, owing to the facil- 
 ity of their concerted action, wliile other classes 
 caunot readily unite, they throw other classes into 
 the background. Socialistic influences have had 
 little effect hitherto on those tillers of the soil 
 who are not owners of land — such as farm-labor- 
 ers and tenants of small farms, a numerous class 
 in some countries where, greatly to the detriment 
 of society, land is owned in large masses. If the 
 agitation now so rife in parts of Europe should 
 have the effect of subdividing the large estates 
 and of converting tenants into proprietors, it 
 would be a blessing for all time. At present 
 many of this class might be led to sympathize 
 
288 FUTtTEB PEOSPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 
 
 with socialism, if they could be reached by its 
 emissaries. But, for a time, they would only count 
 on its rolls ; they would have little weight. 
 
 Over against the workingmen are placed by the 
 socialists the hourgeoisie, or third class, which 
 consists of all who have property, whether in- 
 vested in their business, or kept as a provision for 
 their own and their families' support. This class 
 touches the proletarian class, which has only 
 daily work for its dependence. Yet even this 
 distinction from others of the hourgeoisie often 
 disappears, as in the case of a man who lives by 
 manual labor, deposits his surplus earnings in a 
 savings-bank, and at length is able to buy a house 
 or land. Some of its members, again, may envy 
 others who have superior wealth, and on this side 
 may be open to socialistic influences ; yet many 
 others know well that the interests of all ■with 
 whom they do business are closely linked to- 
 gether. They are well aware that no industrious 
 class, which does not live on social vice and is 
 permanent, can be otherwise than helpful to the 
 other classes of society ; and so their maxim is, if 
 they are prudent and temperate : " Live and let 
 live." 
 
 " The nature of the modern state presses to- 
 ward the obliteration of class distinctions." So 
 says an eminent German, Heinrich von Treitsch- 
 ke. This is true, because legislative power is 
 not confined to the upper classes or their repre- 
 
FUTURE PE0SPE0T8 OF SOCIALISM. 2S9 
 
 sentatives ; because education riuis wider through 
 and further down the stratification of society 
 than formerly ; because the noble class, where it 
 remains, has become relatively weaker ; and be- 
 cause there are examples of states with no politi- 
 cal gradations and where social differences are not 
 aided by law. 
 
 The socialistic agitation strives to keep up the 
 feeling of class distinctions. Logically, and by 
 way of definition, we may say that one who has 
 nothing laid up and works with his hands belongs 
 to one class ; and a man who owns his tools of 
 trade and has direct connection with those who 
 want his products, belongs to another. A man 
 who cuts kindling wood with a sawing-machine, 
 and is the owner of a horse and wagon, has capi- 
 tal and works also ; he must, therefore, be ranked 
 vsdth the " bourgeoisie " — with capitalists, for in- 
 stance, who own instruments of production, and 
 do not generally work with their hands. It is 
 striking that no word has been coined in English 
 or in German to represent this word and the other 
 French -^ovA, jyroletariat. Does not this show 
 that there was no real use for their existence, until 
 the socialists began to draw a wide line of separa- 
 tion between these two conditions of society 'i 
 
 The question may now be put : " What is and 
 must be the feeling of this class toward the pro- 
 ject of a socialistic state, when they begin to com- 
 prehend its nature and meaning ? " 
 13 
 
290 FUTTJEE PEOSPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 
 
 1. The essential characteristic of this portion of 
 the commnnity is that they own property which 
 is the means of production ; and we cannot sepa- 
 rate from them their helpers, of various names — 
 journeymen, apprentices, clerks, porters, domestic 
 servants, all the officials of public corporations, 
 and the like — who, if they are not proprietors, 
 may become such, and who know the value of 
 property as an institution of society. Men may 
 talk as they please about the evils of individual- 
 ism and of a society founded on the selfish prin- 
 ciple ; but after all there are two poles of human 
 nature and society, which are both necessary : — 
 that the human being should feel himself to be a 
 separate entity, and that he should belong to a 
 body as one of its members. Neither the varie- 
 ties of human character, nor independence and 
 enterprise, nor any of the higher practical virtues 
 of our nature could exist without giving free 
 scope to individuality ; that is, to freedom. The 
 family furnishes a sphere for the exercise of both 
 principles, and thus harmonizes the two tenden- 
 cies of man. Socialism fetters individuality, and 
 restricts the free choice of a career and the pro- 
 curement of objects for gratifying the tastes and 
 desires. This it does by almost destroying pri- 
 vate property. It will not be strange, therefore, 
 if all who have property, Bmall or great in amount, 
 shall stoutly oppose socialism, as being opposed to 
 the free development of personality. 
 
FUTURE PEOSPEOTS OF SOCIALISM. 291 
 
 This feeling is as strong in the poor man who 
 lias property, as in the rich. A man may be satis- 
 fied with a small amount of property; but tliat 
 ainoimt is precious. A benevolent man may value 
 the privilege of acquiring property by means 
 which he has chosen ; thougli he gives it away as 
 fast as he makes it. The feeling is in all men. 
 
 The feeling, however, seems to be pai-ticularly 
 strong in. owners of land. The connection of a 
 farmer with his farm is more a love than a ra- 
 tional estimate. It is like our love for our coun- 
 try, founded on numberless events in the past 
 which may now be forgotten. If everything 
 which we own gives us a gratification as being 
 ours, the ownership of the soil adds also to our 
 feeling of importance. There is a portion of the 
 earth's sm'face where we have exclusive control, 
 which we may forbid any one to enter upon, as 
 we may shut the rest of the world out of our 
 houses. 
 
 ITow can any one expect that a free cultivator, 
 who determines for himself what he shall raise, 
 what shall be wood-land, what shall be pasture- 
 land, who pleases himself by planting and plan- 
 ning for years to come — can any one expect that 
 such a man will willingly surrender his acres to 
 the state, leaving it to the state thenceforth to di- 
 rect how they are to be manured and tilled and 
 what part of the crop shall be his ? The most 
 accepted kind of socialistic cultivation of land 
 
292 FUTUEE PE0SPECT3 OF SOCIALISM. 
 
 is by means of associations under state agents. 
 Is it credible that an owner of a farm -wonld will- 
 ingly surrender it to the state and work for the 
 state, getting his tickets of hours' labor and hav- 
 ing nothing to do with the choice of crops or the 
 method of cultivation; takhig, indeed, what his 
 wants require for the day or week, but reckoning 
 for everything as a fiduciary or a serf I To lue, 
 at least, it is incredible. He would regard it as a 
 sinking down into serfdom. 
 
 2s^or is it more probable that a man thus dispos- 
 sessed would be satisfied, at least m this coimtry, 
 with arguments adduced to show that he has no 
 title, in justice, to his fields. "If the state ever 
 had a title," he would say, " that title was con- 
 veyed to those fi'om whom I derived it, and mo- 
 tives were held out to them to take the lands of- 
 fered for sale ; the land offered and received was 
 meant to be transferred in perpetuity ; constitu- 
 tions and laws have confii-med the transferred land, 
 wliich has now become mine, as much as the state 
 can make it mine. The United States have parted 
 by gift, or at a small price, with many millions of 
 acres to settlers ; and would be boimd, i£ a state of 
 the Union were disposed to seize on the lands of 
 its citizens, to resist and put down such attempts ; 
 for the lands were either sold by the general gov- 
 ernment before the state existed, or the right to 
 them was retained, or it was parted with to the 
 new states and conveyed by them to settlers. In 
 
FUTUEE PEOSPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 293 
 
 any case, the property, the state's power of sell- 
 ing over again, or of taking back, or of restrict- 
 ing sales by settlers, was parted with forever ; 
 and if such power should be usurped by the state 
 the courts of the Union might be authorized to 
 interfere. Indeed, such attempts by one of the 
 states, imbued with socialistic principles, might 
 provoke other states, if lands of their citizens were 
 invaded and ' expropriated,' to complain and to 
 resent the wrong. Until, therefore," he would say, 
 " the Federal Constitution and that of each and 
 every state shall be altered so as to conform to the 
 socialistic model, 1 may be quite sure of having 
 powerful protectors against public as well as pri- 
 vate invaders of my rights. K the United States 
 attempted to do this, the state would resist ; if a 
 state attempted it, the United States would bring 
 the MTong before its tribunals. And, possibly, 
 another of the states would endeavor to redress 
 the wrong done to one of its own citizens." 
 
 In countries with a less complicated form of 
 government it might be easier, as far as the op- 
 position from the classes interested in preserving 
 the existing order of things could be counted on, 
 to carry out the programme of destroying the indi- 
 vidual right of property, especially of landed prop- 
 erty ; but everywhere attempts to " socialize " all 
 institntions will be met by determined resistance. 
 
 2. And that this resistance would in many 
 countries be effectual ; that socialism, if it should 
 
294 FUTUEE PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 
 
 attempt violent revolution, would be put down, is 
 made probable by the strength and resources of 
 the conservative part of society — that is, of those 
 who can be united in preserving and defending 
 private property. We may, I believe, lay it down 
 that the a.gricultural class in all countries which 
 raise their own food must constitute full one-half 
 of the population. In France, some years since, 
 when the population was estimated to be about 
 thirty-seven millions, the holders of lands amount- 
 ed to 6,000,000, who, with their families, would 
 make up considerably more than half of the in- 
 habitants. This, indeed, includes owners of houses 
 in towiis, as well as in the country, together with 
 a number of tenants ; but the small landholders 
 are the largest class in the country. In the 
 United States, according to the last census of 
 1870, the number of males in all occupations was 
 j ust over twelve millions and a haK. Of these 
 nearly six millions belonged to the agricultural 
 class and 2,707,421 were engaged in manufactur- 
 ing and mining industry. Under the head of the 
 professional and personal class 2,684,793 were 
 counted, and under that of trade, commerce, and 
 transportation 1,191,238. A part of this last de- 
 scription of persons might join in socialistic move- 
 ments, and a few of those pertaining to the other 
 classes ; but we should probably go far beyond the 
 truth if we admitted that one-third of the people 
 might be won over to the socialistic side. 
 
FUTUEE PEOSPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 295 
 
 In the Scandinavian countries, and in Russia, 
 since the abolition of serfdom, the part of the 
 population which could be affected by socialistic 
 movements must be small. The same is true of 
 Southwestern Germany, although to a less extent. 
 
 In Great Britain the showing is not so favor- 
 able for the stability and order of existing society. 
 In the Financial Eeform Ahnanac for 18Y9, the 
 number of persons in the professional classes is 
 stated to be about six hundred and eighty -four 
 thousand ; in the commercial classes, 816,000 ; 
 in the agricultural classes 1,657,000 ; in the in- 
 dustrial, 6,140,000, including persons engaged in 
 manufacturing employments, shopkeeping, etc., of 
 whom 1,770,000 are women ; and in the domestic 
 classes 5,905,000, of whom all but 244,728 are 
 females, who are principally household servants. 
 From these data we may with some confidence, if 
 not ^vith certainty, infer that operatives in manu- 
 facturing employments, greatly outnimiber agri- 
 cultural workers ; and it is probable that the lat- 
 ter could not be relied upon in a contest between 
 capital and labor. The number of small land- 
 owners is far less than in. France or the United 
 States, in proportion to the acreage of the king- 
 dom. Yet the aids ia preventing social disor- 
 ganization — such as colonization and the readi- 
 ness with which the governing classes have for 
 a long time met the wants and the demands of 
 the people — must not be left out of account. The 
 
296 FUTURE PEOSPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 
 
 temper of the nation is not decidedly aristo- 
 cratic, and classes have not had that embittered 
 spirit toward each other which shows itself in 
 portions of the Continent ; so that the principles 
 of rank socialism, notwithstanding or, rather, on 
 account of the freedom of speech and the press, 
 have taken little hold of Great Britain. 
 
 3. It seems to the writer, also, that the social- 
 ists undervalue the means and power of combina- 
 tion of the classes which are naturally opposed to 
 them, as much as the thinking men of these 
 classes undervalue the force of the arguments for 
 a social change, and the hold which socialistic ar- 
 guments have already gained, and are likely to 
 gain in the future over the minds of the working 
 classes. The towns, the arenas of the new agita- 
 tion, feel their strength unduly and despise the 
 country, where ideas move slowly because men 
 live apart. But this is a grievous error. H they 
 cannot get the country people to act on their side 
 — to give up their farms and houses and domes- 
 tic animals to the state, and receive daily work 
 for daily wages as the state's laborers — their cause 
 is lost. And that they cannot have this art of 
 persuasion everything seems to show. If they 
 thinli that because the workingmen are with them 
 they can conquer the country, they will be griev- 
 ously deceived. The cultivator of the soil can do 
 without the manufacturing laborers more easily 
 than these without them. 
 
rUTUEE PEOSPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 297 
 
 If, liowever, that to which we have referred al- 
 ready more than once should be found to bo a law 
 of social pr^)gn.'ss — that the free use of private 
 property must end in making a few capitalists of 
 enormous wealth and a \'ast population of labor- 
 ers dependent on them ; and if there could be no 
 choice but between this disease of free society 
 and the swallowing up of all property by the state 
 — then, we admit, it would be hard to choose be- 
 tween the two evils. Nothing would lead the 
 mass of men to embrace socialism sooner than 
 the conviction that this enormous accumulation 
 of capital in a few hands was to be not only an 
 evil in fact, if not prevented, but a ru-'vassary evil, 
 beyond prevention. AVe have no desire to see a 
 return of tlic time of the '■'■laiifandut" or broad 
 farms, wliich, as Pliny the Elder said, were the 
 ruin of Italy. If such a tendency should mani- 
 fest itself, it would run through all the forms of 
 property. A Stewart or a Claflin would root out 
 smaller tradespeople. Holders of small farms 
 would sink into tenants. The buildings of a city 
 would belong to a few owners. Small manufac- 
 turers would have to take pay from mammoths of 
 their own kind or be ruined. Then would the 
 words of the prophet be fulfilled : " Woe unto 
 them that join house to house, that lay field to 
 field, till there be no place that they may be 
 placed alone in the earth." For, if this went to 
 an extreme in a free country, the " expropriated " 
 13* 
 
208 FUrCBE I"I;0=T'ECTS OF 80CIALI.51I. 
 
 could not endure it. Tliey would go to some 
 other countT}", and leave these proprietors alone 
 in the land, or would drive thern away. A revo- 
 lution, klow or rapid, would certainly bring about 
 a new order of things. 
 
 But the danger of convulsions, or even of an 
 overthrow of existing .s^^ciety, does not arise from 
 any inevitable law, involving the loss of iadivid- 
 ual freedom, or imj)airing the strength of the 
 family principle. The legislation of Englaiid 
 withia the present century — defending the weak 
 against the strong, protecting the health of opera- 
 tives, guarding women and children against over- 
 work, providiiig for tiie reference of di-putes be- 
 tween employer and workman to arbitrators, al- 
 lowing miions and combinations between the 
 workmen for carrying out their plans, giving 
 them a larger interest and right in political af- 
 fairs — shows what an enlightened nation can do 
 when social evils become alarming. And if the 
 difficulties attending the free sale of landed prop- 
 erties in small parcels could be removed, there 
 can scarcely be a doubt that a land-ownintf pea.s- 
 antry would be another stron2' force on the side 
 of the stability of public institutions. But our 
 fears do not proceed from any belief that govern- 
 ments on the exi;tiijfr fi^inndations of individual 
 freedom cannot go on reforminjr, while yet they 
 remain true to tlie principle of individual free- 
 dom. These fears arise from the influence, now 
 
FCTUEE TKOSPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 299 
 
 manifest, of a low sort of unprincipled or fanatical 
 demagogues ; from the insobriety of workingmen ; 
 from the decay of religious faith, and the sure 
 i weakness of moral principle and the instability 
 of social habits without this great regulator. Our 
 hopes point (ia the United fe^tates at least), to the 
 conditions and tendencies of society ; to the con- 
 tinual parcelling of estates among heirs : to the 
 opening to all classes, by the facilities of educa- 
 tion, of all positions and employments. ^\nd when 
 we think of the materialistic and even atheistic 
 dogmas, which hide the face of God from so 
 many of the poor, we are consoled by the faith 
 that the religion of Christ can never die, that it 
 can revive a nation at its lowest ebb of prosper- 
 ity. Tlie present centmy, more than any age be- 
 fore, has tested the jiower of Christianity to 
 propagate itself tiirough all the races of man- 
 kind. Even now it is showing its humane coun- 
 tenance to the gloomy and rancorous commimists 
 of France, like a new friend, having nothing to 
 do with state polity, but only with reforming the 
 inner man, and in fact coming from aljroad. If 
 this friend of man can work in its o-\vn legitimate 
 wav, the peace of society will be restored, and 
 whatever opposes the best interests of any por- 
 tion of society must come to an end. 
 
II^DEX. 
 
 Ahrens, 251. 
 
 Amana, communities at. See Inspirationists. 
 
 American communities, 50-84. See Shakers ; Rapp ; Har- 
 mony ; Zoarites ; Amana In.spirationista ; Perfection- 
 ists ; Oneida; Wallingford; Brotherhood of Common 
 Life. 
 
 Anabaptists of Miinster, 42-50; fanaticism of the sect at 
 first, 42 ; opinions, 43 ; Thomas Miinzer, 4,3 ; Rottmann 
 at Munster, 45 ; Anabaptists get possession of the city, 
 46 ; Matthys and John of Leyden, 47, 48 ; the latter be- 
 comes king, 49; new constitution of the city, 47, 48; 
 siege of it, and destruction of the leaders, 49, 50. 
 
 Antonelli, concerned in Baboeuf's conspiracy, 10.3. 
 
 Aristotle, his criticism on Plato's republic, 87, 89. 
 
 Atkinson, Edward, on the share of the product going to the 
 owner of capital, 169. 
 
 Baboeuf, his conspiracy in 1796, 102-105. 
 
 Bakunin, a Russian Nihilist, his adventures, 147 ; his opin- 
 ions, ibid. ; forms an atheistic section in the Interna- 
 tional, 149 ; expelled with the section, on the ground 
 of forming a secret society, ibid. 
 
 Hazard, a scholar of St. Simon, 107; breaks with Enfantin, 
 111. 
 
302 INDEX. 
 
 Blano, Louis, Ms career and writings, 123, 123 ; the ateliers, 
 133 ; a losing experiment, 134 ; he defends the family, 
 but not inheritance, ibid. ; his importance in the prog- 
 ress of socialism, 135. 
 
 Boruttau, his atheism, 247. 
 
 Brissot de Warville, 10, 103. 
 
 Brotherhood of the New Life, 81-84. 
 
 Brown, Thomas, his charges against the Shakers, 56, 57. 
 
 Buchez, a disciple of St. Simon, 112. 
 
 Buddhist mendicant order, 26-39. 
 
 Buonarotti, concerned in Baboeuf's conspiracy, 104 ; pub- 
 lished the plan in 1838, ibid. 
 
 Cabet, Etienne, his career, 118 ; his " Voyage to Icaria," 
 ibid. ; Ms colony in the United States, ibid. ; unsuccess- 
 ful, and why, ibid., 69 ; his opinions, especially his com- 
 munistic creed, 119-122 ; humane and averse to force, 
 131. 
 
 Caimes, Prof., cited, 170. 
 
 Campanella, his life, 98 ; his " City of the Sun," 93-95 ; his 
 chief magistrate a religious autocrat, 95 ; loose as to 
 marriage, ibid. 
 
 Collectivism, definition, 4 ; a French term, used also by 
 Germans, ibid. 
 
 Commune in Paris, 1870, 154-158. 
 
 Communism defined, 1, 2, 7 ; other definitions, 13. 
 
 Communities in the United States, conclusions concerning 
 them, 07-73. 
 
 Community of goods in the early Christian church, 34-37 ; 
 voluntary, local, temporary, ibid. 
 
 Constant, the Abbe, his communistic ideas, 116. 
 
 Dalai Lama, in Thibet, 29. 
 
 Davis, Mr. J. Bancroft, on the socialistic voters in Germany, 
 
 190. 
 Diognetus, epistle to, cited, 86. 
 
iNDiox. 30;j 
 
 Dupont, K, Secretary of the International, 189, U3, ir.;!. 
 Dwight, Dr., on the Shakers, 50, 07. 
 
 Eiminaoh, programme of the social Democratic Working- 
 mon'H Purty there (in 18(19), 183-180. 
 
 Enfantin, u, diaciplo of St. Simon, lUU; his idea of mar- 
 riage, 110-111. 
 
 Egypt, homo of the Tberapoutaj, ;i3 ; and of the earliest 
 monks, ^17. 
 
 Eotviis, Baron J., on the essential despotism of socialism, 
 3(i7-271. 
 
 Equality, inlluenoe of the feeling of, for socialism, 377-379. 
 
 Eiiujilf, c'otiKpiracy of the, lo3. Comp. Babocut. 
 
 KbiiuIios, a religious oominuiiiat mentioned, 110. 
 
 Esseucs, 39-IU ; time of first appoaranco, 30; authorities 
 for, ;30 ; Dr. Lightfoot on, ibid. ; number of, in Judea, 
 ibid. ; doctrines and (iracticos of, ibid. 
 
 Pourier, his principal works, 113 ; not fully a communist in 
 principle, ibid. ; sou]j;ht to make work agreeable, ibid. ; 
 his phalanxes and phalansteries, 114 ; his fantastic no- 
 tions, ibid. ; immoral views, 115. 
 
 Gotha, union there of the Workingmen's Union, and Work- 
 ingmen's Party, 187 ; a virtual extinction of the former, 
 ibid.; programnii! of Gotha (1875), 187-190. 
 
 Harmonist community, 01 , 75, 70. See Rapp. 
 
 Harris, T. L., founder of Brotherhood of New Life, his 
 
 views, 81-8^!. 
 Hasenolever, a social democrat, on marriage, 257. 
 Hatzfelil, CountOHS of, 17:!; relations to LaKsalle, 17:!, 171; 
 
 head of a branch of the Social Democratic Party after 
 
 his death, 183. 
 Hinds, on American communism, 71-84. 
 
304 INDEX. 
 
 Inheritance, discussions on, at Congress of Basel, 144-146 ; 
 L. Blanc's opinion as to, 134; relations to the family, 
 255, 256. 
 
 Inspiratiouist communities, 64, 65, 78-80. Comp. Amana. 
 
 International, or International Workingmen's Society, 126- 
 158; its forerunners and preparations, 126-Kj3; founded 
 at London in 1864, 133, 134 ; principal founders, 183, 
 133 ; Mazzini, 133 ; rules, 134, 135 ; spread, 136, 137 ; 
 others, besides workingmen, members, 138 ; congresses 
 at Geneva, 138, 139 ; Lausanne, 139-141 ; Brussels, 143, 
 144; Basel, 144-146; schism in Switzerland, see Baku- 
 nin ; Franco-Prussian war delays congresses, 146 ; con- 
 gress at the Hague, 149, 150; difficulties of the Inter- 
 national, 150-153 ; bitterness of the leading members, 
 152, 153 ; it had no direct part in the horrors of 1871 
 at Paris, 155, 156 ; yet the general committee excused 
 them, 157, 158 ; was injured in its influence by the 
 events at Paris, 158, 159. 
 
 Jager, his "Moderne Sooialismus " of ten cited and much 
 
 used, 10, 133, 248, 257, etc. 
 John of Ley den, or Jan Bockelson. See Anabaptists, 44r-50. 
 Jorissen, a social democrat, on marriage, 258. 
 Josephus on the Essenes, 30. 
 
 Lamennais, his communistic ideas, 115. 
 
 Land, problems concerning, in a socialistic state, 335. 
 Comp. Lange. 
 
 Lange, P. A., extract from his " Arbeiterfriige " on the aboli- 
 tion of private property in land, 371-375. 
 
 Lassalle, life and character of, 171, 172; great abilities of, 
 and works, 173-175 ; relations to Countess of Hatzfeld, 
 173, 174 ; his " Workingmen's Programme," 176 ; founds 
 the German Workingmen's Union, 176 ; his vast exer- 
 tions, 177, 178; death, 179 ; to what extent a socialist, 
 179, 180; his "iron law" of wages, 180; examined, 
 181 ; his productive associations, 179. 
 
INDEX. ^^ 305 
 
 Lee, Anne, foundress of the Shakers, 53-55. 
 
 Leroux, Pierre, separated from Eufantin, 112; his theoso- 
 phism, 117 ; Ms opinions, as stated by two of his schol- 
 ars, 117, 118; on the decay of faith in France, 24o, 240. 
 
 Liebisnecht, an early communist, 132 ; founder, with Eebel, 
 of the Social Democratic Workingmen's Party. 18o. 
 
 Lightfoot, Dr., now Bishop, on the Bfesenes, referred to, :;0. 
 
 Mably, foUowed Plato, 97 ; changed his views, ibid. ; stopped 
 halfway in his communism, 97, 98 ; mistake as to Spar- 
 ta, ibid. 
 Marechal, a ferocious member' of the ''Equals," 104. 
 Marriage, in Plato's republic, 89 ; in Enf antin' s scheme, 110; 
 Cabet and L. Blanc defend it, 119, 124 ; German social- 
 ists not loose on this point, in their theory, 254 ; their 
 system tends to weaken the relation, 2-)0-358. 
 Alarx, Karl, a socialist in early life, 130 ; a fugitive on ac- 
 count of his opinions, ibid. ; finally, a kind of exUe in 
 London, ibid. ; principal founder of the International, 
 133; a Hegelian in his philosophy, 161; his work on 
 " Capital," ibid. ; obscurity of his views, ibid. ; takes for 
 granted the injustice of private property, 1G4 ; his lead- 
 ing doctrine, that all increased value of material be- 
 longs to the laborer examined, 1G5-171 ; his atheism, 
 247. 
 Mazzini, present at the first meeting of the International, 
 133 ; had not much in common with the socialists, ibid. 
 Mehring, his " Social Democracy" cited, 174, 189, 191, 192, 
 
 and elsewhere. 
 Mi ll, J. S., on the remuneration of capital, 169 ; his chap- 
 ters on socialism, a summary of, controverts the doc- 
 trine that the pressure of population on subsistence must 
 always be growing more severe, 195 ; denies that wages 
 are low and tend to fall, 194 ; thinks that the socialist 
 notion of the workings of competition is imperfect, 195, 
 196 ; taxes them with misapprehension aa to the share 
 of the product taken by capital, 197 ; speaks of the diffi- 
 
306 INDEX. 
 
 oulties of sooialism, 198, 199 ; admits the possibUity of its 
 
 being the best form of society at some future day, 300. 
 More, Sir T., his Utopia, 89-93. 
 Morelly, his " Code of Nature," 99 ; long unnoticed, ibid. ; to 
 
 what his influence has been due, 100 ; his fundamental 
 
 laws of society, 100, 101. 
 Most, J. , his faith in the productiveness of labor in a social 
 
 state, 22. 
 Monastic orders, 37-41 ; monk and hermit compared, 40. 
 Miinster, Anabaptists of. See Anabaptists. 
 Munzer, Thomas, 43, 43. 
 Mutualism, from the French, 1 ; sense of the word, 4. 
 
 Nordhoif, Charles, his work on the communistic societies 
 
 of the United States often cited, 53-66. 
 Noyes, J. H. , founder of the communities of Perfectionists, 
 
 his " History of American Socialisms " cited, 53, 65, 66 ; 
 
 his essential modification of his system in 1879, 73, 74. 
 
 Oneida Community. See Perfectionists ; Noyes. 
 Owen, R., 53, 61 ; failure of his communities in the United 
 States, ibid. ; causes of the failure, 69. 
 
 Pachomius, in Egypt, devises a union of Anchorites, 38. 
 
 Perfectionists, of Oneida and Wallingford, their opinions and 
 practices, 65, 66 ; modifications in their practice in 1879, 
 73, 74. 
 
 Philo the Jew, on the Essenes, 31 ; on the Therapeutsa, 33, 33. 
 
 Plato, his republic, 85-89 ; was it an " idea" ? 87. 
 
 Pliuy the Elder, on the Essenes, 30. 
 
 Property, individual or private, opposed by all communists, 
 1, 3 ; communities within the state have to acknowl- 
 edge tbe right of, 3 ; how socialists would get rid of 
 property, 36, Comp. Schaeffle. 
 
 Proudhon, not strictly a communist, 10, 11 ; cited, to show 
 this, ibid. 
 
INDEX. 307 
 
 Banke, cited as to the Anabaptists of Munster, 44-50. 
 Bapp, George, founder of the Community of Harmony, 
 
 61. 
 Religion under socialism, its prospects, 243-253. 
 Bhys-Davids, his Buddhism cited, 27, and used, 28, 29. 
 Bottmann, at Mdnster, helped on the Anabaptist movement, 
 
 45, 49. 
 Bousseau not strictly a communist, 97. 
 
 St. Simon, his life. 107 ; opinions, ibid. ; vieiva of his follow- 
 ers, 108, 109; schism among his followers, 111; L. 
 Stein's estimate of, ibid. ; had a number of noteworthy 
 disciples, 118. 
 
 Schaeffle, his ' ' Quintessence of Socialism " reviewed at 
 length and briefly examined, 201-226 ; his deflnitiou, 
 14; general plan, 201-304; they think time is working 
 with them, 205 ; question of right, 237 ; compensation 
 to capitalists, 207, 208 ; great promises to workingmen, 
 209; costs, question of, in social production, 211, 212; 
 value in use disregarded by them, 213 ; wide sweep of 
 the social plan, 214-218; difficulties of socialism, 318- 
 220 ; private income under socialistic organization, 220- 
 228; rehgion, marriage, etc., 223-235. 
 
 Schweitzer, Alexander, head of Lassalle's Workingmen' s 
 Union (from 1867 to 1871), 182, 183; intrigues against 
 him by Liebknecht and others, ibid. ; failed of reelec- 
 tion, ibid. 
 
 Separatists. See Zoar. 
 
 Shakers, 50-60 ; founder of the, 53 ; opinions of, 54-57 ; 
 discipline of, 58-60; resemblances to some ancient com- 
 munities, 50 ; numbers, 51 ; declining, 52. 
 
 Socialism, definition of, 2 ; how it differs from communism, 
 7, 9 ; definition of, by a lecturer, 13 ; by Schaeffle, 14 ; 
 the term used as synonymous for communism, 4 ; so- 
 cialism, in the modern idea of it, makes the state the only 
 capitalist ; has never been realized, 33 ; MoreUy's social- 
 istic state, 99-101 ; the Equals and their plan, 104, 105 ; 
 
308 INDEX. 
 
 Fourier not strictly a socialist, 113 ; Cabet was such, 
 118-123 ; L. Blanc prepared the way for German social- 
 ism, 135 ; the International, socialistic. See Internation- 
 al. Differences in the International in regard to private 
 property, 144-146. Marx, the scientific organ of eooial- 
 ism, 161 (see Marx) ; how far Lassalle was a socialist, 
 179 (see Lassalle) ; strict socialism triumphing since his 
 death, 183-190 ; its power in Germany, at the polls, by 
 the press, 190, 191 ; professors in the universities giving 
 it a, partial support, 193; the social state necessarily 
 despotic, 329-231 ; yet at first must be democratic in 
 form, 332, 333 ; its relations to the land, 334, 335 ; itFi 
 intercourse, 335; its finances, 236; its taxes, ibid.; 
 weakness in war, 237 ; amount of patriotism in, 337 ; 
 of hopefulness and enterprise in, 238, 239 ; circulation 
 of knowledge in, 341 ; literature and public opinion in, 
 341, 243; relations of, to religion, 243-353; to mar- 
 riage, 354-359 ; to some now existing evils, 260-303 ; to 
 humanity, 363, 364; to education, 264-337. A social 
 state necessarily despotic, 367-2 ?1; see Ejtvjs. The 
 question of Ihe overturn of existing society by social- 
 ism considered, 376-286 ; opposition to it to be expected 
 from smaller proprietors, 288 ; from small landholders, 
 391. 
 
 Sparta, had some communistic elements in its early insti- 
 tutions, 18 ; but these ceased befqre Aristotle's time, 
 93, 99. 
 
 State, the socialistic, its probable form, etc. See Socialism. 
 
 Stein, L. , his social movements in France of ten cited, as, 111, 
 114. 
 
 Sudre, A., his prize essay on communism and socialism cited, 
 101, 244 ; and elsewhere. 
 
 TherapeutEB, the, 33, 33. 
 
 Tolain, a founder of the International, expelled for accept- 
 ing a place in the French Assembly (1870), 157 ; hia 
 opinions on expropriating land, 143. 
 
INDEX. o09 
 
 Treitschke, von H. , his ' ' Sooialismus u . s. Gonner " cited, 
 174 ; his estimate of the socialists in Germany, 190. 
 
 Utopia, meanings of the word, 90. Sir T. More's work so 
 called, 89-93. 
 
 Workingmen's Union, founded by Lassalle, 176-178 ; its des- 
 tinies after his death, 183, 183. 
 
 Workingmen's Party, the Social Democratic, founded at 
 Eisenach (1869), 18-3 ; really a branch of the Interna- 
 tional, 184. See Eisenach ; Gotha. 
 
 Zoar, or the Separatists, 63-64, 76-78.