5. Special Study on Socialism.

a. Extracts from St. Simon. (French Socialist of Revolution ary period.)

"Sire," he writes to the king, "the fundamental principles of society require men to regard each other as brothers, and to work together. . . for their common welfare."

"Religion ought to direct society towards the great end of ameliorating, as rapidly as possible, the condition of the most numerous and least wealthy class."

"Do not forget this! Remember that to do grand things we must have enthusiasm. . . . All my life resolves itself into one great thought, to secure for all mankind the most unfettered development of their faculties."

"What is competition as far as the laborer is concerned? It is work put up at auction. An employer wants a man. Three men present themselves. . . . One demands sixty cents a day because he has a wife and children to maintain; another has a wife but no children, and will take fifty cents. A third, who has neither, is satisfied with forty. . . . What becomes of the other two?... Who then is so blind as not to see that under the empire of unlimited competition wages must reach their lowest ebb?..."

...

St. Simon proposes coöperation, the motto of which is to be: Every one to work according to his capacity and to receive the means of enjoyment according to his requirements. . . ." "The day will come when it will be recognized that he who has received from God more strength and intelligence owes more to his fellow-men in proportion."

The program of the St. Simonists, appearing on the first page of their organ, the "Globe," on the 31st of Jan., 1831, reads thus:

"All social institutions must have for their end the moral,

intellectual, and physical improvement of the largest and poorest class."

"All privileges of birth without exception are abolished."

"To every one according to his capacity, to every capacity according to work done."

b. From Karl Marx (German; author of " Capital," the leading Socialist work on political economy; founder of theory of Social Democracy).

...

Capital is the most terrible scourge of humanity; it fattens on the misery of the poor, the degradation of the worker, and the brutalizing toil of his wife and children: just as capital grows, so grows also pauperism . . . the revolting cruelties of our factory system, the squalor of great cities, and the presence of deep poverty seated hard by the gates of enormous wealth." "Our objects can only be attained by a violent subversion of the social order."

"We must appeal to force to establish the rule of the laborers."

c. From Lassalle (German; founder of Social Democratic party).

"Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; God help me; Amen! Even if it lead to my moral death. . . I cannot act otherwise. An agitation of laborers exists; they must have theoretical knowledge, they must have a watchword given them. They shall have it, even if it cost the head."

"The alliance of science and the laborers, these two opposite poles of society, when once they shall have met and embraced each other, will crush all the impediments of culture within their brazen arms. This is the object for which I am determined to spend my life so long as there is any breath in

...

"Let others be happy! In natures like mine it is enough to go on struggling, . . . to waste away one's own heart, and yet to appear smiling while death is gnawing away at one's inmost soul."

d. From the Program of the International (a society of working-men of all countries, founded in 1864).1

"In consideration that the emancipation of the laboring classes must be accomplished by the laboring classes, that the battle for the emancipation of the laboring classes does not signify a battle for class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties and the abolition of class-rule;

"That the economic dependence of the laboring man upon the monopolist of the implements of work [land, machinery, buildings, capital]... forms the basis of every kind of servitude, social misery, of spiritual degradation, of political dependence;

"That the emancipation of labor is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem which embraces all countries in which modern society exists, and whose solution depends upon the . . . coöperation of the most advanced lands;

*

"In consideration of all these circumstances, the First International Labor Congress declares that the International Workingmen's Association ... recognizes truth, right, and morality as the basis of their conduct towards one another and their fellow-men, without respect to color, creed, or nationality. This congress regards it as the duty of man to demand the rights of a man and a citizen, not only for himself, but for every one who does his duty. No rights without duties; no duties without rights."

e. From the Program of the Socialist Laborer Party in Germany.

"1. Labor is the source of all wealth and all culture, and, as in general, productive labor is only possible through society, to society, that is, to all its members, belongs the aggregate product of labor, with the universal duty of labor according to equal rights to each according to his reasonable wants.

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'In the present society the means of labor [land, machinery,

1 For this extract, I am indebted to Richard S. Ely's Look on "French and German Socialism," a clear and admirable work.

buildings, capital] are a monopoly of the capitalist class; the hereby conditioned dependence of the laborer class is the cause of misery and slavery in all their forms.

"The liberation of labor requires the conversion of the means of labor into common property of society, and the regulation by the community of the aggregate labor, with a spending for the common benefit and an equitable distribution of the product of labor.

"The liberation of labor must be the work of the laborer class, in opposition to which all other classes are only a reac tionary mass.

"2. Starting from these principles, the Socialist Laborer Party of Germany strives with all legal means after the free state and the Socialist society, the destruction of the law of wages through the abolition of the system of labor for wages, the abolition of plunder in every shape, the removal of every social and political inequality.

"(1) The Socialist Laborer Party of Germany, though working within the national framework, is conscious of the international character of the laborer movement, and determined to fulfil all duties which the same imposes on the laborers, in order to make the brotherhood of all men a reality.

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(2) The Socialist Laborer Party of Germany demands, in order to pave the way for the solution of the social question, the establishment of Socialist producing associations, with state help, under the domestic control of the laboring people. The producing associations are to be called into life for manufactures and agriculture, to such an extent that out of them the Socialist organization of the aggregate labor may arise.

"The Socialist Laborer Party of Germany demands as the principles of the state:

"1. Universal, equal, direct right of election and voting, the giving of the vote being secret and obligatory for all persons belonging to the state, from their twentieth year, for all elections and votings in state or parish. The day of election or voting must be a Sunday or holiday.

2. Direct legislation by the people. Decision on war and peace by the people.

66 3. Universal bearing of arms. people instead of the standing army.

Defense by arming of the

"4. Abolition of all exceptional laws, particularly the laws as to the press, as to associations, and as to assemblies. Especially all laws which limit the free expression of opinion, free thinking, and investigation.

5. The decision of law-suits by the people. The free administration of justice.

6. Universal and equal education of the people by the state. Universal school attendance. Free instruction in all educational institutions. Religion to be declared a private

matter.

"The Socialist Laborer Party demands under the present society:

"1. The utmost possible extension of political rights and liberties in the direction of the above demands. ...

3. Unrestricted liberty to combine.

"4. A fixed labor-day corresponding to the requirements of society. The prohibition of Sunday labor.

"5. The prohibition of children's labor and of the labor of women that is injurious to health or morality.

6. Laws protecting the lives and health of laborers. Sanitary control of laborers' dwellings. The superintendence of mines, factories, workshops, and domestic manufactures by officials elected by the laborers. An effectual law making employers responsible for injuries to their workmen.

"7. The regulation of prison labor.

"8. Complete independence of administration of all funds for the relief or maintenance of laborers."

STUDY ON 5.

What feeling and what qualities of character displayed in a, b, c? What principle of action is asserted? Make a list of the aims of the socialists. What modern institutions and theories are threatened by