As Bebel says, Socialists are not trying to create a revolutionary crisis. But they have little doubt that the capitalists themselves will precipitate one as soon as Socialism becomes truly menacing, as may happen within a few years in some countries. "The politicians of the ruling class have reached a condition where they are ready to risk everything upon a single throw of the dice," says Kautsky, on the supposition that Socialism is already a real menace in Germany. "They would rather take their chances in a civil war than endure the fear of a revolution," he continues. "The Socialists on the other hand, not only have no reason to follow suit in this policy of desperation, but should rather seek by every means in their power to postpone any such insane uprising [of the capitalists] even if it be recognized as inevitable, to a time when the proletariat will be so powerful as to be able at once to whip the enraged [capitalist] mob, and to restrain it, so that the one paroxysm shall be its last, and the destruction that it brings and the sacrifice it costs shall be as small as possible."[286]

The majority of Socialists have no inclination towards violence of any kind at the present time, whether domestic or foreign, and will avoid it also for all time if they can. But they fear and expect that the present ruling class will undertake violent measures of repression which will inevitably result in a conflict of physical force.

The Civic Federation, of which so many conspicuous Americans have been members (including Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, August Belmont, Seth Low, Nicholas Murray Butler, and other prominent philanthropists, educators, statesmen, publicists, and multimillionaires), had its earliest origin, to the author's personal knowledge, partly in an effort to divert the energies of the working people from Socialism and revolutionary unionism to the conservative trade unionism of the older British type. It was natural that this organization should give more and more of its attention to an organized warfare against the Socialist movement as the latter continued to grow, and this it has done. Its members have attacked the movement from every quarter, accusing it of a tendency to undermine religion, the family, and true patriotism. But the most direct and important accusation it has made has been that the Socialists are working toward revolutionary violence. In its official organ it has quoted Mr. Debs as saying: "When the revolution comes we will be prepared to take possession and assume control of every industry." The quotation is fairly chosen, and represents the Socialist standpoint, but if it is to be thoroughly understood it must be taken in connection with other positions taken by the party. No revolution is contemplated, other than one of the overwhelming majority of the people, nor is any violence expected, other than such that may be instigated by a privileged minority in order to prevent the majority from gaining control of the government and industries of the country.

That the Civic Federation writers also understand that the violence may come from above rather than from below is clearly shown in the context of the article in question. The Federation organ also attacks Mrs. J. G. Phelps Stokes for having said, at Barnard College, that the present government would probably be overturned by the ballot. In answer to this, the Federation's organ said, "Mrs. Stokes is a woman of intelligence and doubtless knows that States are not overturned by ballots." Here is a categorical denial on the part of an organ representing the most powerful privileged element in the country, of the possibility of peaceful political revolution, which can only mean that if a majority desires such a peaceful revolutionary change, the minority now in power will use violence to prevent it. An article by one of the Federation's officials, Ada C. Sweet, in the same number, makes still further disclosures. Among the "fantastic projects and schemes of Socialism," she says, are the demand "that the Constitution be made amendable by a majority vote," and the demand for the abolition of that feature of our government "which makes the Supreme Court the final interpreter and guardian of the federal Constitution." These demands, of course, are becoming common outside of the Socialist Party, and would simply move the United States up to the semi-democratic level of constitutions made during the last half century. Indeed, the judicial precedents that have created an oligarchy of judges in this country, though they have existed for a century, have never been imitated by any country on earth, civilized or uncivilized, with the single exception of Australia. It is these demands, which would not be held even as radical in other countries, which Miss Sweet says cannot be accomplished without violence. If this is so, it means that violence will come from above, and the Socialists would be cowards indeed if they were not ready to resist it.

Miss Sweet contends that "to bring about the first practical experiments" demanded by Socialism "would start such a civil war as the world has never yet seen in all its long history."[287] No doubt the writer, who has held a responsible position with the Civic Federation for years, represents the opinions of her associates. Her prediction may be correct, and if so it would indicate that the people who at present control this country and its government, and who have the power to initiate such a civil war, are determined to do so.

While Socialists have no desire for revolutionary violence, being convinced, as they are, that the present generation will see the majority of the voters of every modern country in their ranks, and Socialists by right in possession of the legal powers of government, they nevertheless have never been blind to the readiness of the plutocratic and militaristic forces in control of governments to proceed to illegal coups d'etat, to destroy all vestiges of democracy, if thought necessary, and to use every form of violence, as soon as they feel that they are beginning to lose their political power. The evidence that this is already the intention is abundant.

There is no one who has recognized more clearly than the recent "Socialistic" Prime Minister of France (Briand) that the ruling classes force the people to fight for every great advance. In the French Socialist Congress of Paris, in 1899, Briand said: "Now I must reply to those of my friends who through an instinctive horror of every kind of violence have been brought to hope that the transformation of society can be the work of evolution alone.... Such certainly are beautiful dreams, but they are only dreams.... In a general way, in every instance, history demonstrates that the people have scarcely obtained anything except what they have been able to take for themselves.... It is not through a fad, and much less through the love of violence, that our party is and must remain revolutionary, but by necessity, one might say by destiny.... In our Congress we have even pointed out forms of revolt, among the first of which are the general strike." In the International Congress at Paris in 1900, Briand again advocated the general strike on the ground that it was "necessary as a pressure on capitalistic society, indispensable for obtaining continued ameliorations of a political and economic kind, and also, under propitious circumstances, for the purposes of social revolution." Nor can there be any doubt as to the revolutionary meaning of Briand when he advocated the general strike. In 1899 he had said, "One can discuss a strike of soldiers, one can even try to make ready for it ... our young military Socialists busy themselves in making the workingman who is going to quit his shop, and the peasant who is going to desert his fields to go into the barracks, understand that there are duties higher than those discipline would like to impose upon them." I have already quoted his recommendation, made on this occasion, that in the case of a social crisis the soldiers might fire, but need not necessarily fire in the direction suggested by the officers. As late as 1903 he took up the defense of Gustave Herve, when the latter was accused of anti-militarism, and said before the court: "I am glad to declare that I am not led here by a chance client, I am not here to-day as an advocate pleading for his clients. I am here in a complete and full community of ideas with friends, for whom it is less important that I should defend their liberty, than that I should explain and justify their thought and their writings."

There can be no question that the opinions expressed by Briand at this time are approximately those of the majority of the European Socialists to-day. Some of the leading spokesmen of the Socialists are no doubt somewhat more cautious of the form of their statements. But the modifications they would make in Briand's statement would be due, not to any objection in principle, but to expediency and the practical limitations of such measures as he advocates in each given case.

The great majority of Socialists feel that a premature revolutionary crisis at the present moment would endanger or postpone the success of a political revolution, peaceful or otherwise, when the time for it is ripe. The position of Kautsky will show how very cautious the most influential are. The movement has become so strong in Germany that it might be supposed that the German Socialists would no longer fear a test of strength. But this is not the case. They feel, on the contrary that every delay is in their favor, as they are making colossal strides in their organization and propaganda, while the political situation is becoming more and more critical.

"Our recruiting ground," says Kautsky, "to-day includes fully three fourths of the population, probably even more; the number of votes that are given to us do not equal one third of all the voters and not one fourth of all those entitled to vote. But the rate of progress increases with a leap when the revolutionary spirit is abroad. It is almost inconceivable with what rapidity the mass of the people reach a clear consciousness of their class interests at such a time. Not alone their courage and their belligerency, but their political interest as well, is spurred on in the highest degree through the consciousness that the hour has at last come for them to burst out of the darkness of night into the glory of the full glare of the sun. Even the laziest become industrious, even the most cowardly become brave, and even the most narrow gains a wider view. In such times a single year will accomplish an education of the masses that would otherwise have required a generation."[288]

Kautsky's conception of the probable struggle of the future shows that, together with the millions of Socialists he represents, he expects the great crisis to develop gradually out of the present-day struggle. He does not expect a precipitate and comparatively brief struggle like the French Revolution, but rather "long-drawn-out civil wars, if one does not necessarily give to these words the idea of actual slaughter and battles."

"We are revolutionists," Kautsky concludes, "and this is not in the sense that a steam engine is a revolutionist. The social transformation for which we are striving can be attained only through a political revolution, by means of the conquest of political power by the fighting proletariat. The only form of the State in which Socialism can be realized is that of a republic, and a thoroughly democratic republic at that.

"The Socialist Party is a revolutionary party, but not a revolution-making party. We know that our goal can be obtained only through a revolution. We also know that it is just as little in our power to create this revolution as it is in the power of our opponents to prevent it."[289]

The influential French Socialist, Guesde, agrees with Kautsky that a peaceful solution is highly improbable, and that the revolution must be one of an overwhelming majority of the people, not artificially created, but brought about by the ruling classes themselves.

Of course a peaceful revolution might be accomplished gradually and by the most orderly means. If, however, these peaceful and legal means are later made illegal, or widely interfered with, if the ballot is qualified or political democracy otherwise thwarted, or if the peaceful acts of labor organizations, with the extension of government ownership, are looked upon as mutiny or treason,—then undoubtedly the working people will regard as enemies those who attempt to legalize such reaction, and will employ all available means to overthrow a "government" of such a kind.

From Marx and Bebel none of the most prominent spokesmen of the international movement have doubted that the capitalists would use such violent and extreme measures as to create a world-wide counter-revolution, and began to make their preparations accordingly. This is why, half a century ago, they passed beyond mere "revolutionary talk," to "revolutionary action." This practical "revolutionary evolution," as he called it, was described by Marx (in resigning from a communist society) in 1851: "We say to the working people, 'You will have to go through ten, fifteen, fifty years of civil wars and wars between nations not only to change existing conditions, but to change yourselves and to make yourselves worthy of political power.'" (My italics.)

"Revolutionary evolution" means that Socialists expect, not a single crisis, but a long-drawn-out series of revolutionary, political, civil, and industrial conflicts. If we substitute for the insurrectionary civil wars of Marx's time, i.e. of the periods of 1848 and 1870, the industrial civil wars to-day, i.e. the more and more widespread and successful, the more and more general, strikes that we have been witnessing since 1900, in countries so widely separated and representative as France, England, Sweden, Portugal, and Russia and Argentine Republic, Marx's view is that of the overwhelming majority of Socialists to-day.[290]

The suppression of such widespread strikes will become especially costly as "State Socialism" brings a larger and larger proportion of the wage earners under its policy of "efficiency wages," so that their incomes will be considerably above the mere subsistence level. A large part of these increased wages can and doubtless will be used against capitalism. Socialists believe that strikes will become more and more extended and protracted, until the capitalists will be forced, sooner or later, either to repressive violence, or to begin to make vital economic or political concessions that will finally insure their unconditional surrender.

Already many non-Socialist observers have firmly grasped the meaning of revolutionary Socialism. As a distinguished American editor recently remarked, "Universal suffrage and universal education mean universal revolution; it may be—pray God it be not—a revolution of brutality and crime."[291] The ruling minority have put down revolutions in the past by "brutality and crime" under the name of martial "law." Socialists have new evidences every day that similar measures will be used against them in the future, from the moment their power becomes formidable.

FOOTNOTES:

[284] Rose Luxemburg, "Social-Reform oder Revolution."

[285] "La Guerre Sociale" (Paris), April 20, 1910.

[286] Kautsky, "The Road to Power," Chapter V.

[287] The organ of the Civic Federation, Nov. 15, 1909.

[288] "The Road to Power," Chapter VI.

[289] "The Road to Power," p. 50.

[290] A leading article of the official weekly of the German Socialist Party on the eve of the elections of 1912 gives the strongest possible evidence that the German Socialists regard the ballot primarily as a means to revolution. The article is written by Franz Mehring, the historian of the German movement, and its leading argument is to be found in the following paragraphs:—

"The more votes the Social-Democracy obtains in these elections, the more difficult it will be for the Reaction to carry out exceptional laws [referring to Bismarck's legislation practically outlawing the Socialists], and the more this miserable weapon will become for them a two-edged sword. Certainly it will come to that [anti-Socialist legislation] in the end, for no one in possession of his five senses believes that, when universal suffrage sends a Social-Democratic majority to the Reichstag, the ruling classes will say with a polite bow: 'Go ahead, Messrs. Workingmen; you have won, now please proceed as you think best.' Sooner or later the possessing classes will begin a desperate game, and it is as necessary for the working classes to be prepared for this event as it would be madness for them to strengthen the position of their enemies by laying down their arms. It can only be to their advantage to gather more numerous fighting forces under their banner, even if by this means they hasten the historical process [the day when anti-Socialist laws will be passed], and indeed precisely because of this.

"La Salle used to say to his followers in confidential talks: 'When I speak of universal suffrage you must always understand that I mean revolution.' And the Party has always conceived of universal suffrage as a means of revolutionary recruiting" (Die Neue Zeit, December 16, 1911).

[291] From a press interview with Mr. Henry Watterson in 1909; verified by a private letter to the author.



CHAPTER IX

THE TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM

The Socialist policy requires so complete a reversal of the policy of collectivist capitalism, that no government has taken any steps whatever in that direction. No governments and no political parties, except the Socialists, have any such steps under discussion, and finally, no governments or capitalist parties are sufficiently alarmed or confused by the menace of Socialism to be hurried or driven into a policy which would carry them a stage nearer to the very thing they are most anxious to avoid.

If we are moving towards Socialism it is due to entirely different causes: to the numerical increase, and the improved education and organization of the non-capitalist classes, to their training in the Socialist parties and labor unions for the definite purpose of turning the capitalists (as such) out of industry and government, to the experience they have gained in political and economic struggles against overwhelmingly superior forces, to the fact that the enemy, though he can prevent them at present from gaining even a partial control over industry or government, or from seizing any strategic point of the first importance, is utterly unable to crush them, notwithstanding his greater and greater efforts to do so, and cannot prevent them from gaining on him constantly in numbers and superiority of organization.

If we are advancing towards Socialism, it is not because the non-capitalist classes, when compared with the capitalists, are gradually gaining a greater share of wealth or more power in society. It is because they are gradually gaining that capacity for organized political and economic action which, though useless except for defensive purposes to-day, will enable them to take possession of industry and government when their organization has become stronger than that of the capitalists.

The overwhelming majority of Socialists and labor unionists are occupied either with purely defensive measures or with preparations for aggressive action in the future. This does not mean that no economic or political reforms of benefit or importance can be expected until the Socialists have conquered capitalism or forced it to recognize their power; I have shown that, on the contrary, a colossal program of such reforms is either impending or in actual process of execution. It means only that for every advance allotted to labor, a greater advance will be gained by the capitalist class which is promoting these reforms, that their most important effect is to increase the relative power of the capitalists.

The first governmental step towards Socialism will have been taken when the Socialist organizations are able to say: During this administration the position of the non-capitalist classes has improved faster than that of the capitalists. But even such a governmental step towards Socialism does not mean that Socialism is being installed. It may be followed by a step in the opposite direction. No advance can be permanently held until the organizations of non-capitalists have become superior to or at least as powerful as those of the capitalists. An actual step in Socialism, moreover, as distinct from such an insecure political step towards Socialism, depends in no degree upon the action of non-Socialist governments (and still less on local Socialist administrations subject to higher non-Socialist control) unless such governments are already practically vanquished, and so forced to obey Socialist orders. An actual installment of Socialism awaits, first, a certain development of Socialist parties and labor unions, and second, on these organizations securing control of a sovereign and independent government (if there be any such), or of a group of industries that dominates it. And if the governments of the various capitalistic countries are as interdependent as they seem, a number of them will have to be captured before the possession of any is secure.

The essential problem before the Socialists under State capitalism, with every reform now under serious discussion already in force, will be fundamentally the same as it is under the private capitalism of to-day. The capitalists will be even more powerful than they are, the relative position of the non-capitalists in government and industry still more inferior than it now is. However, with better health, more means, greater leisure, superior education, with a better organized and more easily comprehended social system, with the enemy more united and more clearly defined, Socialists believe that the conditions for the successful solution of this problem will be far more favorable.

The evolution of industry and government under capitalism sets the problems and furnishes the conditions necessary for the solution, but the solution, if it comes at all, must come from the Socialists themselves. I have shown what the Socialists are doing to-day to gain supreme control over governments. What do they expect to do when they have obtained that power? I have given little attention to the steps they will probably take at that time because the question belongs to the future, and has not yet been practically confronted. It is impossible to tell how any body of men will answer any question until it is before them and they know their answer must be at once translated into acts. Yet a few concrete statements as to what Socialists expect and intend for the future—especially in those matters where there is practical unanimity among them, may be justified, and may help to define their present aims. There are certain matters where Socialists have as yet had no opportunity to show their position in acts, and yet where their present activities, supported by their statements, indicate what their course will be.

First, how do Socialists expect to proceed during the transitional period, when they have won supreme power, but have not yet had time to put any of their more far-reaching principles into execution? The first of these transitional problems is: What shall be done with those particular forms of private property or privilege which stand in the way of an economic democracy? How far shall existing vested rights be compensated?

"And as for taking such property from the owners," asks Mr. H. G. Wells, "why shouldn't we? The world has not only in the past taken slaves from their owners, with no compensation or with meager compensation; but in the history of mankind, dark as it is, there are innumerable cases of slave owners resigning their inhuman rights.... There are, no doubt, a number of dull, base, rich people who hate and dread Socialism for purely selfish reasons; but it is quite possible to be a property owner and yet be anxious to see Socialism come into its own.... Though I deny the right to compensation, I do not deny its probable advisability. So far as the question of method goes it is quite conceivable that we may partially compensate the property owners and make all sorts of mitigating arrangements to avoid cruelty to them in our attempt to end the wider cruelties of to-day."[292]

Socialists are, of course, quite determined that either the vested interests of all persons dependent on small unearned incomes and unable otherwise to earn their living shall be protected, or that they shall be equally well provided for by other means. No practical Socialist has ever proposed, during this transitional period, to interfere in any way either with savings bank accounts or with life insurance policies on a reasonable scale, or with widows and orphans who are using incomes from very small pieces of property for identical purposes.

As to the compensation of the wealthier classes, this becomes entirely a secondary question, a matter of pure expediency. The great British scientist and Socialist, Alfred Russell Wallace, and the moderate Socialist, Professor Anton Menger of Vienna, propose almost identical plans of compromise with the wealthy classes,—compromises which would perhaps result in a saving to a Socialist government and might therefore be advisable, aside from any sentimental question of protecting or abolishing vested "rights." Professor Wallace, objects to "continuing any payments of interests beyond the lives of the present receivers and their direct heirs [now living], who may have been brought up to expect such inheritance." For if we were to compensate any others, Wallace points out that we would be "actually robbing the present generation to the enrichment and supposed advantage of certain unborn individuals, who in most instances, as we now know, are much more likely to be injured than benefited."[293] Professor Menger proposes that, in exchange for property taken by the government from owners of large fortunes, there should be allotted to them, and their descendants now living, a modest annuity "sufficient to satisfy their legitimate needs," as being more reasonable than Wallace's plan of such an income as they were "brought up to expect."[294] But in the long run the difference between the two methods would be immaterial—and the one chosen would doubtless depend on the social or anti-social attitude assumed by the wealthy. In either case there would be no unearned incomes in any generation not yet born. On the other hand, it is perfectly possible that a Socialist Party which had seized the reins of political power might, through motives of caution and self-protection, use greater severity against those of the capitalists whom they thought had played an unfair part in the welfare against the installation of the new government. It is scarcely to be doubted, for instance, that those capitalists who tried to embroil us in foreign wars in order to prevent the establishment of social democracy would probably be exiled and their property confiscated. Certainly these measures would be employed against all such persons as had counseled or participated in the suspension of civil government or other violent measures.

But where will the money come from even for the payment of such limited compensation as the Socialists decide upon? Assuming that the stocks and bonds of the railways and other large businesses were paid for at the cost of reproduction, or, let us say, at 50 per cent their present market value, a vast amount would still be required. The Socialist answer to this question is very brightly given by America's most popular and influential Socialist organ, the Appeal to Reason. It reminds us that the Socialists, once having the reins of political power, will then be the possessors of all the credit of the government.

"How much money," asks the Appeal, "did Morgan need in order to buy up all the independent steel companies for the steel trust?" And it answers: "Not a penny. Rather than needing money, he issued stock in the new concern in payment for the old independent mills, and after all was done proceeded to almost double his stock! In other words, instead of needing money, he acquired a vast sum in the transaction. One who is familiar with the way the railroads have been built and the vast fortunes erected understands that there was almost no investment. It all came through a series of tricks. Those tricks, as honest in the reversal as when the capitalist played them, can be reversed. Hardly a corporation but has forfeited its charter. With the charter cancelled stocks would tumble and the water would speedily go. Socialists are not fools that they should merely fall into the hands of men who think that they can unload on them in such a manner as to saddle a perpetual debt on the people. If the steel trust, after organizing and buying up smaller concerns, could still issue vast series of stocks and bonds, why could not the Socialists issue all the money they needed to accomplish the same things? And would not the money based on lands and mills be as good security as the money we now have based on nothing under the sun but inflated railroad and trust stocks [securities]?"

Undoubtedly some such method will be followed—with those essential industries that will not already have become collective property under capitalism.

In so far as "State Socialism" or collectivist capitalism will have paved the way, by extensive government ownership, the problem of confiscation or compensation becomes much simplified. Kautsky has very ably summarized the prevailing Socialist plan for dealing with it at this point:—

"As soon as all capitalist wealth had taken the form of (government) bonds, it would be possible to raise a progressive income, property and inheritance tax, to a height which until then was impossible.

"It is one of our demands at the present time that such a tax shall be substituted for all others, especially for the indirect tax.

"But even if we had to-day the power to carry through such a measure with the support of the other parties, which is plainly impossible, because no bourgeois party would go so far, we would at once find ourselves in the presence of great difficulties.

"It is a well-known fact that the higher the tax the greater the efforts at tax dodging.

"But when a condition exists where any concealment of income and property is impossible, even then we would not be in a position to force the income and property tax as high as we wish, because the capitalists, if the tax on their income or property pressed them too closely, would simply leave the State.

"Above a certain measure such taxes cannot rise to-day even if we had the political power.

"The situation is completely changed, however, when capitalist property takes the form of public debts.

"The property to-day that is so hard to find then lies in broad day-light.

"It would then only be necessary to declare that all bonds must be public, and it would be known exactly what was the value of every property and every capitalist income.

"The tax would then be raised as high as desired without the possibility of tax frauds.

"It would then also be impossible to escape taxation by emigration, for the tax could simply be taken from the interest before it was paid out. [A similar tax exists in France to-day.]

"If necessary it might be put so high as to be equivalent, or nearly so, to a confiscation of the great properties.

"It might be well to ask what is the advantage of this round-about way of confiscation over that of taking the direct road?

"The difference between the two methods is not so trifling as at first appears.

"Direct confiscation of all capitalists would strike all, the small and the great, those utterly useless to labor, in the same manner.

"It is difficult, often impossible, in this method to separate the large possession from the small, when these are united in the form of money capital in the same undertaking.

"Direct confiscation would complete this quickly, often at one stroke, while confiscation through taxation permits the disappearance of capitalists' property through a long-drawn-out process, proceeding in the exact degree in which the new order is established and its benevolent influence made perceptible.

"Confiscation in this way loses its harshness and becomes more acceptable and less painful.

"The more peaceable the conquest of political power by the proletariat, and the more firmly organized and enlightened it is, the more we can expect that the primitive forms of confiscation will be softened." (My italics.)[295]

Nor are any of the more influential Socialists anxious to make a clean sweep of private enterprise in industry. It is only the more important and fundamental industries, those which underlie all the processes of manufacturing, or furnish the sheer necessities of the people, that must necessarily be directly controlled by a Socialist society. "It may be granted," says Kautsky, "that small establishments will have a definite position in the future in many branches of industry that produce directly for human consumption, for machines manufacture essentially only products in bulk, while many purchasers desire that their personal taste shall be considered. It is easily possible that under a proletarian regime the number of small businesses may increase as the well-being of the masses increases." Of such industries Kautsky says that they can produce for private customers or even for the open market. As to-day, he insists, so also in the future, it will be open to the working people to employ themselves either in public or private industry.

"A seamstress, for example," he says, "can occupy herself for a time in a national factory, and at another time make dresses for private customers at home, then again she can sew for another customer in her own house, and finally she may, with a few comrades, unite in a cooeperative for the manufacture of clothing for sale.

"The most manifold forms of property in the means of production—national, municipal, cooeperatives of consumption and production and private industry can exist beside each other in a Socialist society—the most diverse forms of industrial organization, bureaucratic, trades union, cooeperative and individual; the most diverse forms of remunerative labor, fixed wages, time wages, piece wages, profit sharing in the economies in raw material, machinery, etc., profit sharing in the results of intensive labor; the most diverse forms of distribution of products, like contract by purchase from the warehouses of the State, from municipalities, from cooeperatives of production, from producers themselves, etc., etc. The same manifold character of economic mechanism that exists to-day is possible in a Socialistic society. Only the hunting and the hunted, the struggling and the resisting, the annihilating and being annihilated of the present competitive struggle are excluded, and therewith the contrast between exploiter and exploited." (Italics mine.)[296]

Equally important, or more important, than private cooeperative industries in the Socialist State, it is expected, will be the increase of private organizations of other kinds, especially in the fields of publications, education, etc., by what Kautsky calls free associations, which will serve art and science and public life and advance production in these spheres in the most diverse ways, or undertake it directly, as the associations which to-day bring out plays, publish newspapers, purchase artistic works, publish writings, fit out scientific expeditions. He expects such private organizations to play an even more important role than the government, for "it is their destiny to enter into the place now occupied by capital and individual production and to organize and to lead mankind as a social being."[297] (Italics mine.)

"The utmost restriction of private property under Socialism," Mrs. Gilman says, "leaves us still every article of personal use and pleasure. One may still 'own' land by paying the government for it as now; with such taxation, however, as would make it very expensive to own too much! One may own one's house and all that is in it: one's clothes and tools and decorations; one's horses, carriages and automobiles; one's flying machines—presently. All 'personal property' remains in our personal hands.

"But no man or group of men could own the country's coal and decide how much the public can have, and what we must pay for it. Private holding of public property would be abolished."[298]

It can never be too often repeated or too strongly emphasized that, with some unfortunate exceptions, from the time of Marx to the present, Socialists have opposed not private property, but capitalism. It is the domination of society by the capitalists, i.e. "capitalism" or the capitalist system, that is to be done away with.

"The distinguishing feature of Communism," wrote Marx, using this word instead of Socialism, "is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of capitalist property. But modern capitalist property is the final and most complete expression of that system of producing and appropriating products that is based on class antagonism, on the expropriation of the many by the few."[299]

In seeking the better organization of industry and leaving the most perfect freedom to individuals and to private organizations, what the Socialists are really aiming at is really to restrict the government to a government of things rather than to a government of men; and this phrase is in common use among them. It is sought not to increase the power of higher officials over government employees and citizens, but, on the contrary, to limit their powers to the necessities of industry itself, and to leave the most perfect and complete freedom to the individual in every other sphere, as well as in industry, so far as the physical conditions themselves allow. There is no doubt, for instance, that whole departments of restrictive legislation directed against individual liberty would at once be repealed by any Socialist government (though not by a government of so-called "State Socialists").

Perhaps the idea is best expressed by the Belgian Socialist, Vandervelde:—

"The capitalist State has as an end the government of men; it needs centralized power, ministers ready to employ force, functionaries blindly obeying the least sign. Enlarge its domain [i.e. institute 'State Socialism.'—W.] and you will create a vast barracks, you will institute a republic of scoundrels.

"The Socialist State, on the contrary, will have for its end an administration of things; it will need a decentralized organization, practical men of science, industrial forces over which spontaneity and initiative will be required above every other quality."[300]

Surely such a State does not resemble in any way the paternalistic, bureaucratic capitalism or "State Socialism" towards which we are at present tending.

"It is quite as possible," says Mr. Spargo, "for a government to exploit the workers in the interests of a privileged class as it is for private individuals, or quasi-private corporations, to do so. Germany with her State-owned railroads, or Austria-Hungary and Russia with their great government monopolies, are not more Socialistic, but less so than the United States, where these things are owned by individuals or corporations. The United States is nearer Socialism for the reason that its political institutions have developed farther towards pure democracy than those of the other countries named.... The real motif of Socialism is not merely to change the form of industrial organization and ownership, but to eliminate exploitation.... Every abuse of capitalism calls forth a fresh installment of legislation restrictive of personal liberty, with an army of prying officials. Legislators keep busy making laws, judges keep busy interpreting and enforcing them, and a swarm of petty officials are kept busy attending to this intricate machine of popular government. In sober truth, it must be said that capitalism has created, and could not exist without, the very bureaucracy it charges Socialism with attempting to foist upon the nation."[301]

The Socialists are as far from proposing anything resembling a system of mechanical and absolute equality as they are from attacking personal or industrial liberty. Ninety-nine and one half per cent of the product of the men of the different social classes, says Edward Bellamy, "is due in every case to advantages afforded by modern civilization."[302] So that if one man is twice as capable as another, it merely raises the proportion of the product due to his personal efforts from one half of one per cent to one per cent. International Socialism realizes with Bellamy that the product is social in far greater proportion than is at present recognized, but it does not deny that there are cases in which the contribution of the individual is more important even than everything that can be attributed to his social advantages. It does not propose, therefore, to level incomes. It is true that this communist principle of Bellamy's has a wide practical application both in the Socialist scheme of things and in present-day society, as, for example, in free schools and parks, and in the "State Socialist" program. But the extension of such communism, the distribution of services to the general public without charge, is due to-day, not to any acceptance of the general principle, but to the fact that it is inconvenient or impossible to attempt to distribute the cost of many services among individuals in proportion as they take advantage of them.

Kautsky expresses the prevailing Socialist view when he says that the principle of equality, if distinguished from mere artificial leveling, will play a certain role in a Socialist society. Without any definite legislation in that direction the natural economic forces of such a society will tend to raise low wages, and at the same time, by the increase of competition for higher positions, to lower somewhat the highest salaries. For if Socialists are opposed to any kind of artificial equality or leveling, they are still more opposed to artificial inequality, and all the initial advantages that arise out of the possession of wealth or privileges in education will be done away with.[303]

On the supposition that Socialism proposes a communistic leveling of income, it has been stated very often by Socialists that it would be necessary to abolish wages, but there is no authority for this either from Karl Marx or from any of his most prominent successors. It is "wage slavery" or "the wage system" that is to be abolished. In his letter on the Gotha Program written in 1875 Marx said that there will be applied to wages "the principle which at present governs the exchange or merchandise to that degree in which identical values are being exchanged"; that is to say, supply and demand, when it operates freely, will give us a standard also in a Socialist system. There will be no starvation wages, no inflated salaries, no "rent" of educational advantages, no unearned income and no monopoly prices, but automatically adjustable prices and wages will continue. In 1896 Jules Guesde, perhaps the best known disciple of Marx in France, expressed nearly the same idea in the Chamber of Deputies—"The play of supply and demand," he said, "will have sufficed to determine without any arbitrary or violent act, that problem of distribution which had seemed insoluble to you before."

Here again we see that Socialism, in its aversion to all artificial systems and every restriction of personal liberty is far more akin to the individualism of Herbert Spencer than it is to the "State Socialism" of Plato. Socialists expect their children to be far wiser and more fortunate than themselves, and do not intend to attempt to decide anything for them that can well be left undecided. They intend only that these children shall have the freedom and power necessary to direct society as they think best. The few principles I have mentioned are perhaps the most important of those they believe to be the irreducible minimum needed to insure this result.

FOOTNOTES:

[292] H. G. Wells, "This Misery of Boots," pp. 29-32.

[293] Alfred Russell Wallace, "The Railways and the Nation," the Arena, January, 1907.

[294] Anton Menger, "L'Etat Socialiste" (Paris, 1904), p. 348.

[295] Karl Kautsky, "The Social Revolution," pp. 121-123.

[296] Karl Kautsky, "The Social Revolution," pp. 165-167.

[297] Karl Kautsky, "The Social Revolution," p. 179.

[298] Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the Forerunner (1910).

[299] The Communist Manifesto.

[300] Emile Vandervelde, "Collectivism," p. 126.

[301] John Spargo, "Socialism."

[302] Edward Bellamy, "Equality," p. 89.

[303] Karl Kautsky, "Das Erfurter Programm," pp. 161-162.



INDEX

Abbot, Lyman, 33, 36, 97, 283, 284.

AGRICULTURE, 7, 85, 96, 300-323.

America, see United States.

American Federation of Labor, see United States Labor Unions.

Amsterdam, see International Congresses.

Andre, 381.

Appeal to Reason, The, 321, 430.

Asquith, Herbert, 153, 362.

Augagneur, 132, 134, 398.

Australasia, the Labour Parties of, 85, 86, 92-94, 128, 146, 151, 168, 174.

Australasia, "States Socialism" in: the labor policy, 53, 86; agrarian and land policy, 85, 88, 89; government ownership, 84, 85, 89-91.

Austria, the Socialist Party of, 239, 247, 252, 259, 347.

Baden, 256-264.

Baker, Ray Stannard, 32.

Barnes, George, 164, 165.

Bauer, Otto, 239, 247.

Bebel, August: on reformism, 117, 123, 126, 130, 131; on revolutionary politics, 232; on the revolutionary trend, 251, 252, 254, 255, 258-264; on the class struggle, 281; on the agricultural problem, 301; on the general strike, 390, 391; on revolution, 416, 418, 419.

Belgium, the Socialist Party of, 139, 141, 146, 252.

Bellamy, Edward, 435.

Belloc, Hilaire, 160, 161, 163.

Berger, Victor: and the "State Socialist" labor policy, 63; on reformism, 126, 211; as leader of Milwaukee Socialists, 178, 189, 195, 202-207; on revolutionary politics, 240-242; on the agricultural and land question, 317, 318; on political revolution, 418.

Bernstein, Edward, 1, 99, 179, 180, 240, 285, 286, 331.

Bismarck, 43, 403, 404.

Bissolati, 140-144.

Bland, Hubert, 161.

Bohn, Frank, 373-375.

Boston Herald, The, 379.

Boudin, Louis, 180.

Bowling, Peter, 69, 70.

Brandeis, Louis, 60.

Briand, Aristide, 126, 132-134, 137, 388, 394-398, 421, 422.

Bridgeport Socialist, The, 193.

Brisbane, Arthur, 33-35, see also New York Journal.

Brooks, John Graham, x.

Brousse, Paul, 135.

Bryan, William Jennings, 30, 180, 341.

Burns, John, 251, 357.

Butler, Nicholas Murray, 392.

Call, New York, The, 198, 272, 399.

Canada, compulsory arbitration in, 78-80.

Canada, the Socialist Party of, 288.

Carnegie, Andrew, 63, 97, 151, 152.

CATHOLIC CHURCH, 87, 258.

Chesterton, G. K., 160.

Churchill, Winston: and the Social reform program, 2, 4-7, 9, 11, 12; and the politics of state capitalism, 42; and the state capitalist labor policy, 50, 54, 55, 57-59; and compulsory arbitration, 82; and the Labor Party, 151, 152; and the class struggle, 280, 298; and labor unions, 348, 360, 361, 363.

Civic Federation, The, 343, 344, 419-421.

Clark, Professor John Bates, 124, 236, 237.

Clark, Victor S., 66, 69, 79, 80, 90.

CLASS STRUGGLE, THE, 33-36, 135-136, 245-247, 276-287, 297-299, 347; see also REVOLUTION.

Collier's Weekly, xi, 199, 397.

Compere-Morel, 201, 309, 315.

Davenport, Daniel, 68.

Debs, Eugene V.: on "State Socialism," 83; on reformism, 175-177, 191; on labor unions, 335, 343-345; on syndicalism, 366, 372, 375; on revolution, 401.

DEMOCRATIC REFORMS, 31-45, 148-150, 155, 184, 217-230, 378, 379.

Denmark, 259, 260.

De Toqueville, Alexander, 130.

Devine, Edward, 61.

Dreher, W. C., 94, 269.

Duchez, Louis, 332, 369.

EDUCATION, see PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Eliot, Charles W., 51, 79, 80, 100-105.

Elm, von, 391.

Engels, Friedrich, 112-115, 231-233.

Fabian Society, see Great Britain.

Ferri, Enrico, 132.

Fischer, Richard, 263.

Fisher, Irving, 53.

Fisher, Premier, 85.

Flexner, Abraham, 52.

France, labor unions in, 366, 377-384, 388, 394-398, 412, 414.

France, the Socialist Party of: reformism in, 135-139, 200, 240, 244, 247, 274; on the land and agricultural question, 309, 315-318; on labor unions (see France, labor unions); the revolution, 390, 414, 417, 418, 421, 422, 424.

Frank, 257, 259, 262.

Frankfurter Zeitung, 256.

Garment Workers, United, 190, 350.

Gary, Judge, 16, 29.

Gaynor, William J., 195, 283.

George, Henry, 13, 14, 97, 320, 323.

Germany, "labor unions" in, 68, 336, 346, 347, 352, 384, 385.

Germany, the Socialist Party of: position on reformism in, 125, 128, 217-235, 245-247; its revolutionary trend, 248-270; position on class struggle, 280, 284, 285, 288-291, 327-331; the agricultural question in, 300-304, 307, 309, 312, 317, 318; the revolution in, 389-391, 403, 404, 407, 414, 419, 423, 424.

Germany, "State Socialism" in, 2, 4, 43, 51, 52, 55-57, 94-96; see also Bismarck.

Ghent, W. J., 205, 210.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 433.

Gompers, Samuel, 121, 336-338, 341-343, 345-347, 349.

GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP, 4, 14, 16, 17, 24, 85, 90, 111, 112, 126, 146-147, 207-209, 233-234.

Grayson, Victor, 122.

Great Britain, labor unions: compulsory arbitration, 68; attitude to class struggle, 341, 348; the new unionism, 354, 355-366, 371, 372.

Great Britain, the Labour and Socialist parties of (see also MacDonald, Shaw, Wells, Webb, Hardie, etc.): The Labour Party, 1, 44, 123, 146-151, 164-168, 173, 174; The Fabian Society, 2, 47, 62, 149, 152-157, 159-164, 410-412; The Social-Democratic Party, 123; The Independent Labour Party, 146, 147, 151-153, 164-167, 240; The Socialist Party, 167, 168.

Great Britain, "State Socialism" in: the Social reform program, 1-12; the politics of the New Capitalism, 42-45; the labor policy, 47-51, 53-59, 61, 62; compulsory arbitration, 80-83; the school question, 104; "State Socialism" and the Socialists, 122, 123, 146, 147, 153.

Guerard, 381.

Guesde, Jules, 131, 137, 250, 318, 424, 436.

Hadley, President, 51.

Hanford, Benjamin, 211.

Hard, William, 60.

Hardie, James Keir, 146, 147, 164, 165.

Harlan, Justice, 202.

Hartshorn, Vernon, 355.

Haywood, William, 366, 371-376.

Hearst, William Randolph, 33, 215.

Herron, George D., 238, 335.

Herve, Gustave, 138, 295, 372, 375, 382, 417, 418, 422.

Hillquit, Morris, 210, 213.

Hobson, John A., 50, 99, 150, 157, 158.

Holmes, George K., 97.

Howe, Frederick C., 15.

Hoxie, Professor Robert F., 175.

Hughes, Jessie Wallace, 41, 68, 176, 339, 390.

Hungary, 152, 163, 336, 345.

Independent, The, x, 124.

INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM, 354-386.

International Socialist Congresses: Paris (1900), 139, 248, 249; Amsterdam (1904), 137-139, 248-251; Stuttgart (1907), 406.

International Socialist Review, The, 372.

Italy, the labor unions of, 376.

Italy, the Socialist Party of, 140-145, 398.

Jaures, Jean: on reformism, 132-139, 141, 144, 146; on revolutionary politics, 242, 244; on the revolutionary trend, 249-251; on the general strike, 389, 390.

Justice, 123, 167.

Kautsky, Karl: on the first step towards Socialism, 111, 112; on reformism, 153; on reform by menace of revolution, 217-227; on revolutionary politics, 233-236, 244-247; on the revolutionary trend, 248, 249, 253, 264-268, 273, 274; on the class struggle, 290, 291, 296, 297, 299; on the land and agricultural question, 300-304, 307, 312, 317, 318; on the working class, 327-330; on labor unions, 346; on syndicalism, 384-385; on political revolution, 416, 419, 423, 424; on the transition to Socialism, 431-433, 435.

Kelly, Edmond, 63, 128, 357.

Kirkpatrick, George R., 408-410.

LABOR LEGISLATION, 46-96, 137, 339.

LABOR UNIONS, 66-84, 334-400.

Labour Party, see Great Britain and Australasia.

Labriola, Arturo, 376.

Lafargue, Paul, 232, 247, 318.

La Follette, Robert M., 25, 26, 68, 179, 180, 182, 187, 277, 341, 393.

La Follette's Weekly, 1, 23, 188.

Lagardelle, Herbert, 376-382, 417.

LAND QUESTION, 3-6, 87-89, 92, 93, 96, 113, 234, 300-323.

La Salle, Ferdinand, 248, 425.

Ledebour, 254, 255.

Legien, Karl, 342, 347.

Le Rossignol and Stewart, 70-75, 89, 91.

Liebknecht, Karl, 258, 403, 404, 408.

Liebknecht, Wilhelm, ix, 117, 125, 236, 248, 250, 288, 289, 327.

Lincoln, 278.

Lloyd George, David: and the social reform program, 2, 7-11; and the politics of State Capitalism, 42-44; and the State capitalist labor policy, 48, 49, 56, 62; and compulsory arbitration, 80; and the Labor Party, 151; and labor unions, 360, 386.

London, Jack, 410.

Louis, Paul, 225, 382, 383.

Lunn, George R., 198.

Luxemburg, Rosa, 416.

McCarthy, Mayor, 190, 332.

McClure's Magazine, 24, 98.

MacDonald, J. R.: on the reformist policy, 1, 123, 273; as spokesman for the Labor Party, 146-152, 164-167; on syndicalism, 360, 365, 386.

Machinists, 349.

Maxwell, Superintendent, 105.

Mann, Tom, 357-359, 364, 365, 370-372.

Martin, John, 235.

Marx, Karl: Socialism viewed as a movement, ix, x; on "State Socialism," 111-115; on Socialist political policy, 117, 118, 130, 212, 213, 231, 260; on agriculture, 303; on revolution, 424; on Socialist labor union policy, 352, 356; on the policy of a Socialist government, 433, 436; on the class struggle, 279, 284-285, 327, 332.

Maurenbrecher, 246, 263, 264.

Mehring, Franz, 425.

Menger, Anton, 196, 232, 429.

Mill, John Stuart, 129.

Millerand, 122, 126, 132-134, 137, 248, 249, 393.

Milwaukee, 126, 176, 178-196; see also Berger and Thompson.

Milwaukee Journal, The, 183, 184, 196.

Miners, Western Federation of, 366-368.

Mine Workers, United, 349-351, 367.

Mitchell, John, 97, 336-338, 342-345, 357.

Modigliani, 142, 143.

Moody, John, 21.

Morgan, J. P., 18, 47.

Morley, Lord, 154.

Moyer, 368.

MUNICIPALIZATION, see "MUNICIPAL SOCIALISM" and GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP.

"MUNICIPAL SOCIALISM," 161-163, 175, 176, 182-184, 188-201.

Musatti, 144.

NATIONALIZATION, see GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP.

New Age, The, 1, 159, 160, 163.

New Yorker Volkszeitung, 189, 195, 331.

New York Evening Journal, The, 33-35, 183.

New York Evening Post, The, 198.

New York Times, The, 195.

New York World, The, 183, 184.

New Zealand, 168; see also Australasia.

Niel, 381.

Oklahoma, 319, 320.

Outlook, The, 202, 392, 397.

Owen, Senator, 202.

Panama Canal, 16, 17, 20.

Pannekoek, 292, 293.

Paris, see International Congresses.

Patten, Simon, 50, 51.

Pelloutier, 377.

Perkins, George W., 18, 47.

Philadelphia North American, The, 347.

Podrecca, 144.

Post, Louis F., 13, 14.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 99-105.

Quelch, 167.

Quessel, 264.

Rappaport, 133, 201, 216.

Reeves, William Pember, 70.

REVOLUTION, 231-247, 387-425; see also CLASS STRUGGLE.

Rigola, 142.

Rockefeller, John D., 19, 63.

Roland-Holst, Henriette, 389-391.

Roosevelt, Theodore: on the social reform program, 1; and on the economics of the New Capitalism, 16, 18, 29-31; on the politics of the New Capitalism, 36, 40; on the "State Socialist" labor policy, 59, 63; and compulsory arbitration, 79, 80, 82, 83; on the class struggle, 281-284, 287; on commission on Country Life, 309, 320; on labor unions, 368, 373; on government employees, 392, 396.

Root, Elihu, 18.

Rosebery, Lord, 10.

Ross, Edward A., 14, 36.

Russell, Charles Edward: on compulsory arbitration, 76-78; on the Labour Parties, 169-173; on reformism, 177, 178; on "State Socialism," 208-210.

Russia, 390, 414.

Saturday Evening Post, The, 97, 200.

Seidel, Mayor, 192, 193, 196.

Shaw, George Bernard: on the social reform program, 2; on the "State Socialist" labor policy, 47; on Socialism and democracy, 154, 155; on social classes, 325-327; on militarism, 410-412.

Shibley, George, 341.

Simons, A. M., 119, 120, 310, 316-318, 322.

Singer, Paul, 255.

Sladden, Tom, 294, 332.

Snowden, Philip, 146, 152, 153, 164-166.

Sombart, Werner, 243.

Spargo, John, 213, 434.

Steffens, Lincoln, 19, 20.

Stokes, Mrs. J. G. Phelps, 420.

Stokes, J. G. Phelps, 183, 184.

Stuttgart, see International Congresses.

Survey, The, 64.

Sweet, Ada C., 420, 421.

Taft, William H., 16, 68, 79, 81, 98, 393.

TAXATION, 8, 12, 96, 114; see also LAND QUESTION, MUNICIPAL SOCIALISM, and GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP.

Temps (Paris), 132.

Thompson, Carl D., 122, 192, 193, 196.

Thorne, Will, 365.

Tillet, Ben., 356, 359, 365.

Tolstoi, 358, 401, 402.

TRADE UNIONS, see LABOR UNIONS.

Turati, 122, 140-145, 146.

UNEARNED INCREMENT, see LAND QUESTION.

United States, labor unions in: on compulsory arbitration, 81; attitude to politics, 335-341; attitude to class struggle, 341-347; attitude to Socialist Party, 348-352; and "industrial unionism," 355-358, 366-375.

United States, the Socialist Party of: "State Socialism" in, 62, 83; reformism in, 122, 123, 126, 175-209, 210-216, 238-242; on social classes, 288, 298, 331-335; on agricultural and land questions, 304-306, 309-323; on labor unions, see United States, labor unions in; the revolution in, 399, 401, 405, 408-410, 418-420.

United States, "States Socialism" in: the social reform program, 13-31; the politics of the New Capitalism, 16-31; The Politics of the New Capitalism, 32-42; the labor policy, 47, 48, 50-53, 59-65; compulsory arbitration, 67-69, 80-84; equal "opportunity," 97-99; the school question, 99-106; "State Socialism" and the Socialist, 206-209.

Untermeyer, Samuel, 29.

Vaillant, Edouard, 138, 139.

Vandervelde, Emile: on reformism, 139, 141, 146; on agriculture, 301, 303, 317; on the working class, 331; on the policy of a Socialist government, 434.

Viviani, 133, 134, 398.

Voice of Labour (Auckland, New Zealand), 168.

Vorwaerts (Berlin), 10.

Walker, John, 350.

Wallace, Alfred Russell, 429.

Ward, Sir Joseph, 54.

Waterson, Henry, 425.

Webb, George H., 47.

Webb, Sidney: on the social reform program, 2, 3; on the "State Socialist" and labor policy, 61; on Socialism and individualism, 153-155, 159, 164.

Wells, H. G.: "Is Socialism a movement or an idea?" xi; on the social reform program, 3; on the "State Socialist" labor policy, 62; on British Socialism, 155-157, 159; on social classes, 296, 325; on the transition, 428.

Western Clarion, The (Vancouver), 332.

White, William Allen, 32.

Wilde, Oscar, 325.

Wilson, Stitt, 271.

Wilson, W. B., 67.

Wilson, Woodrow, 26-29, 31, 36, 40, 68, 283.

The Worker (Brisbane, Australia), 128.

Yvetot, 414.

Printed in the United States of America.

THE END