the possibility of its salvation? “This salvation,” says Dietzgen, “was
neither invented nor revealed, it has grown of the accumulated labor
of history. It consists in the wealth of to-day which arose glorious
and dazzling in the light of science, out of human flesh and blood, to
save humanity. This wealth in all its palpable reality, is the solid
foundation of the hope of social-democracy.”
And here lest there should seem to be a plain contradiction between
Dietzgen and Ward, we will go further and see that Dietzgen, like
Ward, does not mean merely those items of wealth which happen to be in
existence in the shape of tangible commodities.
“The wealth of to-day does not consist in the superb mansions,
inhabited by the privileged of society, nor does it consist in their
costly apparel, or in the gold and precious stones of their jewelry,
or in the heaps of goods peeping through the show windows of our great
cities. All that as well as the coin and bullion in the trunks and
safes form but an appendix or, so to speak, the tassels and tufts,
behind which is concealed that great and real wealth--the rock on which
our hope is built.
“What authorizes the people to believe in the salvation from long
ages of torture--nay, not only to believe in, but to see it, and
actively strive for, is the fairy-like productive power, the prodigious
fertility of human labor. In the secrets which have been wrung from
nature; in the magic formulas by which we force her to do our wishes
and to yield her bounties almost without any painful work on our
part; in the constantly increasing improvement of the methods of
production--in this I say consists the wealth which can accomplish what
no redeemer ever could.”
And Dietzgen, like Ward, protests against this great legacy of history,
this vast accumulation of the results of the combined social labor of
a hundred generations, being the sole property of those “who never
achieved anything!”
Dietzgen, like Ward, sees that the great problem which confronts the
race is to break down those intolerable bars which prevent humanity
from entering into its just inheritance.
To this great and culminating task man must bend all the powers of his
mind. Now he has reached the point where the gates of liberty begin
to yield and with one grand, united effort may be thrown wide open so
that all the sons and daughters of men may finish the long centuries of
misery and freely enter in.
To continue this senseless oppression longer would be the summit of
stupidity.
“Consider the frugal needs of our people and at the same time the
fertility of labor, and ask yourselves if mere instinct alone would not
be sufficient to teach us how to supply adequately our needs with the
help of the existing means of production?”
To make these “means of production the property of society” is then the
problem of Ward’s applied sociology and Dietzgen’s social democracy
alike. According to both, this emancipation of the mass of the people
from the last form of slavery is the one consuming task of civilization.
And the psychic factor, the consciously reasoning brain of man is,
according to both, to be more than ever the instrument of “achievement.”
To Dietzgen especially, the time is rotten-ripe for the great change.
“The salvation of humanity is involved in this question. It is so great
and sublime that all other problems which time may bear in its folds
must wait in silence. The whole of old Europe is waiting with bated
breath the fulfilling of the things which are coming.
“Oh, ye short-sighted and narrow-minded, who can not give up the fad
of moderate, slow, organic progress! Do you not perceive that all your
great liberal passions sink to the level of mere trifling, because the
great question of social salvation is on the order of the day? The calm
precedes the tempest. History stands still, because she gathers force
for a great catastrophe.”
THE LEWIS LECTURES.
This book, =Evolution, Social and Organic=, is the first volume of a
series of lectures to which we expect to make notable additions in the
future. We can at this time definitely promise two volumes, which will
be made up from the lectures delivered by Mr. Lewis at the Garrick
Theater during the winter and spring of 1908.
=Ten Blind Leaders of the Blind.= This will in all probability be the
second volume of the Lewis Lectures, and we expect to publish it in May
or June. It will consist of critical studies of the theories of such
reformers, philosophers and moralists as Benjamin Kidd, Henry George,
Dr. Schaeffle, Thomas Carlyle, Auguste Comte and Immanuel Kant.
It must not be imagined that Mr. Lewis in these lectures is merely
attempting to refute these thinkers, nor that he would disparage the
service that each in his time has rendered. On the contrary his aim is
to give the reader as clear a comprehension as possible of what each
of these men has achieved. And he furthermore shows how the outlook
of each was limited by the economic environment from which flowed
the mental atmosphere in which he lived, so that it would have been
unreasonable for us to expect from these writers any other conclusions
than those at which they actually arrived. Understanding these
conditions we can better understand how to meet the arguments of those
still influenced by the outgrown ideas which are perhaps best stated in
the writings of the leaders here considered.
=Socialism and Modern Thought.= This is planned for the third volume of
the series, and will probably be ready in the summer or fall of 1908.
It will be a direct supplement to this present volume, =Evolution,
Social and Organic=, which explains the scientific basis on which
socialism rests. The second volume, as we have shown, is taken up with
an examination of rival theories. The third volume will restate the
principles of socialism and show how they are applied to the pressing
problems of today. A lecture on “The Economic Interpretation of
History” will show how Marx’s historical method throws a search-light
on the darkest places in which sociological students have hitherto
groped. One on “The Positive School of Criminology” will tell how the
socialist scholars of Italy have revolutionized the once hopeless
science of crimes and punishments, and have established certain very
definite and very fruitful propositions, showing all the while that
crime must last while capitalism lasts. In “The Latest Word of Science
and Philosophy--Monism,” Mr. Lewis will show how the clearest thinkers
in the modern socialist movement have arrived at a conception of the
universe that is broad enough to take in all reality, and to show the
relation of the facts of mind to the facts of matter. We have room to
mention here but one more lecture, and that shall be “The Inevitability
of the Triumph of Socialism.”
Each of these volumes will be uniform with the present one; advance
orders are solicited. The price, postage included, will be fifty cents
each.
=The Art of Lecturing.= Mr. Lewis had persistently been urged to teach
a class in the art of lecturing, but the many demands on his time made
this quite out of the question, and as the best way to satisfy his
friends, he wrote a series of brief articles for the Chicago Daily
Socialist, each article containing some practical suggestions for young
socialist speakers, each suggestion the direct fruit of the author’s
personal experience. These articles at once attracted wide attention,
and long before they had all appeared, there was an unmistakable demand
for their publication in book form. That is why this book is issued.
There is nothing else quite so helpful for the young man or woman who
expects to lecture on the socialist platform. And many others who have
no thought of lecturing will enjoy reading the book, because it brings
the reader into such close touch with the personality of a man worth
knowing. Paper, 25c, postpaid.
=The Standard Socialist Series.= This volume is a fair sample of the
twenty-five socialist books already published in this library. In
their selection, the object of the publishers has been in so far as
possible to include all the greatest works by European and American
socialists that could possibly be brought within the limits of a
fifty-cent volume. Of course the series includes the =Communist
Manifesto,= by Marx and Engels. This, by the way, is published in
two editions, in one of which is also printed Liebknecht’s work on
socialist tactics entitled =No Compromise=, while the other includes a
version of the Manifesto in Esperanto, the new international language,
as well as the English version. The Standard Socialist Series also
includes Marx’s =Revolution and Counter-Revolution=, and three of
the most important works of Frederick Engels, =Socialism: Utopian
and Scientific=, =The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the
State=, and =Feuerbach: The Roots of the Socialist Philosophy=. As for
living socialist writers, France is represented in this library by
Lafargue’s =Social and Philosophical Studies= and =The Right to Be Lazy
and Other Studies=, Germany by Kautsky’s =The Social Revolution= and
=Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History=, Italy by Ferri’s
=The Positive School of Criminology=, Russia by Plechanoff’s =Anarchism
and Socialism=, Belgium by Vandervelde’s =Collectivism and Industrial
Evolution=, England by Blatchford’s =Britain for the British=, and
America by the writings of Isador Ladoff, Roberts Rives LaMonte, A. M.
Simons, John Spargo, Ernest Untermann, John M. Work and others. Full
descriptions of all these books, together with an account of our other
books at higher and lower prices and suggestions as to the choice of
books, together with some interesting propaganda matter, will be found
in the current issue of the Socialist Book Bulletin, mailed free to any
one requesting it.
=How to Get Books at Cost.= This Bulletin also explains our
co-operative plan for supplying books at cost. The publishing house
which issues this volume is not owned by any capitalist. It is owned
by 1,900 socialist working people, each of whom has subscribed ten
dollars to help publish more socialist books. No dividends are paid;
the advantage to the stockholder is that instead of paying fifty
cents for a book like this one he pays twenty-five cents if he calls
at our office for it, or thirty cents if it is mailed to him. More
stockholders are needed to provide the capital for publishing more
books, and readers of this book are urged to co-operate with us to the
extent of buying a share at ten dollars. We do not care to sell more
than one share to one subscriber, but any one having more than ten
dollars to invest can get four per cent interest on it and have the
money returned to him at any time on thirty days’ notice. These terms
are better than are offered by Chicago banks, and the lender has the
satisfaction of knowing that his money is used for the interests of the
working class and not against them.
Charles H. Kerr & Company (Co-operative)
264 Kinzie Street, Chicago
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
quotation marks repaired.
Inconsistent hyphenation has not been changed.
On nine pages, there was extra space between paragraphs, but these
appeared to be the way the printer setup the text, rather than content
breaks intended by the author, so they have been ignored in this eBook.
The last six pages summarize other volumes in the Series of which
this book is a part. Those pages originally were numbered 1-6 but are
numbered here as 201-206.
Page 19: “Vasca Da Gama” was printed that way.
End of Project Gutenberg's Evolution Social and Organic, by Arthur M. Lewis