Fundamental Laws of Socialistic Society.
1.--Duty to Work of All Able-bodied Persons.
As soon as society has become the owner of all means of production,
the duty to work of all able-bodied persons, regardless of sex,
becomes a fundamental law of socialized society. Society cannot exist
without labor. It therefore is justified in demanding that all who
seek to satisfy their requirements, should also serve to the best
of their physical and mental abilities in producing the commodities
that are needful to satisfy the requirements of all. The silly
assertion that the Socialists wish to abolish work is an absurdity.
Lazy persons, shirkers of work, are met with in bourgeois society
~only~. Socialism is agreed with the Bible in asserting that “he
who will not work neither shall he eat.” But work shall be useful,
productive activity. The new society will therefore insist that
everyone choose some definite industrial, agricultural, or other
useful activity, whereby he performs a certain amount of labor for
the satisfaction of existing requirements. ~No enjoyment without
labor, without labor no enjoyment.~
Since all are obliged to work, all have the same interest in
having three conditions of labor complied with. Firstly, that the
work-day shall not be too long and that the work shall not require
over-exertion; secondly, that the work shall be varied and as agreeable
as possible; thirdly, that it shall be as productive as possible,
since on this the length of the work-day and the number of obtainable
enjoyments depend. But these three conditions again are determined
by the number and the nature of the means of production and the
workers; they are furthermore determined by the required standard
of living. Socialistic society does not establish itself in order
to lead a proletarian existence, ~but to abolish the proletarian
manner of living of the great majority of people~. It seeks to grant
to everyone the fullest measure of the comforts and joys of life,
and so the question arises: To what extent will the requirements of
society grow?
In order to determine this an administration will be necessary that
comprises all fields of social activity. Here our municipalities
will form an appropriate foundation. If they are too large to permit
of obtaining an insight, they may be divided into districts. As in
primitive society, all members of the communities who are of age,
~regardless of sex~, will participate in the elections and choose
the persons who are to take charge of the administration. At the
head of all local bodies there will be a central administration.
This--let it be noted--will not be a government with ruling powers,
but an executive board of managers. Whether this board of managers
is to be elected by the entire population or by the local boards is
not essential. These questions will not be as important then as they
are now, for election to these offices will not mean greater power
and influence and a higher income. They will be positions of trust
to which the fittest, ~be they men or women~, will be elected, and
they can be recalled or re-elected, as conditions may demand, or as
it may seem desirable to the voters. All offices are temporary. The
persons who hold these positions, therefore, cannot be regarded as
officials. Their function is not a permanent one, nor is a hierarchical
order of advancement provided for. Viewed from this standpoint, it
also becomes a matter of indifference whether there will be any
intermediate bodies between the central administration and the local
administrations, as provincial administrations, etc. If considered
necessary they will be instituted; if not, they will be omitted. All
that will be determined by experience. If progress in the development
of society should make old institutions superfluous, they will be
abolished without any ado and without any conflict, since no one is
personally interested in their maintenance, and new ones will be
instituted instead. ~This thoroughly democratic administration is
very different from the present.~ At the present time--what battles
in the newspapers, what a warfare of tongues in the parliaments,
what piles of documents in the government offices, to accomplish an
insignificant change in the administration or government!
To begin with, the main task will be to determine the existing
forces, the number and kind of means of production, factories,
workshops, means of transportation, area of land, and the previous
productivity. Further it will be necessary to determine the supply
on hand and the number of articles and products required to supply
the demand in a given length of time. As at present the state and
the various municipalities annually determine their budgets, this
will in future be done for the entire social demand, and changes
made necessary by new or increased demands can be fully taken into
consideration. Statistics here become the main factor. They are the
most important auxiliary science in the new society, since they
furnish the standard whereby all social activity may be measured.
Statistics are being used for similar purposes at present on a large
scale. The budgets of nation, state, and municipality are founded
on a great number of statistical investigations that are annually
undertaken by the various branches of administration. Experience of
long duration and a certain stability in current demands simplify
them. Under ~normal~ conditions every manufacturer and every merchant
is also enabled to determine his requirements for the coming quarter
of a year and in what manner he must arrange his production and his
purchases. Unless excessive changes occur he can meet them readily
and without much difficulty.
The experience that the crises are brought on by blind, anarchistic
production; that is to say, because goods are produced without any
knowledge of the stock on hand, the sales, and the demand for the
various articles on the world market, has caused the captains of
industry in various branches--as already stated--to form trusts. The
object of these trusts is to determine prices on the one hand, and on
the other to regulate production. By the producing ability of each
individual concern and by the sales it is likely to make, the amount
of goods to be produced for the coming months is determined. Failure
to comply with these rules is punished by a fine and by proscription.
The manufacturers form these agreements not to benefit, but to harm
the public, and solely for their own advantage. Their purpose is to
use the power of co-operation to insure the greatest advantage for
themselves. By regulating production it becomes possible to exact
the payment of prices that can never be obtained as long as the
individual manufacturers compete with one another. So the manufacturer
enriches himself at the expense of the consumer, who must pay the
fixed price for the article that he needs; and, as the consumer is
injured by the trusts, so also the worker. Regulation of production
by the manufacturers releases a number of workers and employes, and
these, in order to live, must underbid their fellow-workers. Moreover,
the social power of the trust is so great that the labor unions,
too can rarely cope with them. The employers, accordingly, enjoy a
double advantage; they receive higher prices and pay lower wages.
This regulation of production by associations of employers ~is the
opposite of that which will take effect in Socialistic society~.
To-day the interest of the employers is the determining factor; in
the future it will be the interest of the general public. But in
bourgeois society even the best organized trust cannot overlook and
compute all the factors. Competition and speculation on the world
market continue to rage, in spite of the trust, and suddenly it
becomes manifest that the calculation is faulty, and the artificial
structure breaks down.
Like industry, commerce also possesses far-reaching statistics. Every
week the large centers of commerce and seaport towns publish lists
of the supplies on hand of kerosene, cotton, sugar, coffee, wheat,
etc. Sometimes these statistics are not exact, because the owners of
the goods occasionally have a personal interest in preventing the
truth from becoming known. But, taken all in all, these statistics
are pretty reliable and enable those interested to judge the
probable aspect of the market in the near future. But here, too,
speculation enters into consideration that frequently deceives and
upsets all calculations and often makes it impossible to carry on
an honest business. Just as a general regulation of production is
made impossible in bourgeois society by the conflicting interests of
the countless private producers, so the regulation of distribution
is made impossible by the speculative nature of commerce and by the
conflicting interests of the great number of persons engaged in it.
But what has been accomplished so far gives an idea of what can be
accomplished as soon as private interests disappear and the common
interest predominates. An example of this is, for instance, the
harvest statistics compiled annually by various states, that make
it possible to calculate the crops, the amount needful to supply
the domestic demand, and the probable prices.
But in a socialized society conditions will be perfectly orderly, since
the solidarity of society will have been established. Everything is
carried out, according to plans, in an orderly way, and so it will
be easy to determine the amounts required by the various demands.
When some experience has been gained, everything will run smoothly.
When the average demand for meat, bread, shoes, garments, etc., has
been statistically determined, and when the output of the respective
establishments of production is known, ~the average daily amount of
socially necessary labor can be established. It, furthermore, can be
determined whether more establishments of production are needed, or
whether some can be dispensed with as superfluous and can be fitted
out for other purposes.~
Every individual chooses the branch of industry in which he wishes to
be employed. The great number of very different realms of activity
makes it possible to take the most varied wishes into consideration.
If there is an excess of workers in one branch and a lack of workers
in another, it will be the duty of the administration to make the
necessary arrangements and to bring about an equalization. To organize
production and to give opportunity to the various forces to be
employed at the right place, will be the chief task of the elected
administrations. As all perfect themselves in their particular tasks
the wheels run more smoothly. The different branches of industry
and sub-divisions elect their managers, who must control the work.
But these are no slave-drivers, as overseers and foremen are
to-day, but fellow-workers who simply practice the administrative
function entrusted to them, in place of a productive one. It is not
impossible that at a more advanced stage of organization and with
a more perfect education of all its members, these functions will
become alternating and will, in definite rotation, be overtaken by
all persons concerned, ~regardless of sex~.
2.--Harmony of Interests.
Labor, organized on a basis of complete freedom and democratic
equality, with one for all and all for one, will call forth a
rivalry and a desire to create that are nowhere met with under the
present industrial system; and this joy of creation will enhance
the productivity of labor.
~Since all work for one another~, they are interested in having all
objects well made and with as little waste of time and strength as
possible, be it to save labor, or to gain time for the manufacture
of new products destined to satisfy higher demands. ~This common
interest will cause all to seek to improve, simplify and hasten
the process of work. The ambition to discover and invent will be
stimulated to the highest degree, and people will endeavour to outdo
each other in new ideas and suggestions.~[212] So the opposite of
what is claimed by the opponents of Socialism will be true. How many
discoverers and inventors perish in bourgeois society! How many
are exploited and cast aside! If intelligence and talent were to
hold the foremost place in bourgeois society, instead of property,
~the greater part of the employers would have to make way for their
workingmen, foremen, mechanics, engineers, chemists, etc.~ These
are the men who, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, have made
the discoveries, inventions, and improvements that are applied by
the man with the full purse. How many thousands of discoverers and
inventors have failed because they could not find a man who would
furnish the money to carry out their discoveries and inventions,
and how many meritorious discoverers and inventors are crushed by
the social misery of daily life, is quite beyond our calculation.
Not the persons endowed with a quick intelligence and a clear brain
are masters of the world, but those endowed with ample means, which
does not imply that a clear brain and a full purse cannot belong to
the same person.
Everyone engaged in practical life knows with how much suspicion the
workingmen regard every improvement, every new invention that is
introduced to-day; and their suspicion is entirely justified. For, as
a rule, not the workers but the employers are the only ones to derive
any advantage from it. The worker must fear that the new machine,
or the improvement, will make him superfluous and turn him out into
the street. Instead of joyfully acclaiming a new invention that is a
credit to humanity and ought to be a boon to him, he curses it. Many
an improvement in the process of production invented by workingmen has
never been introduced. The inventor keeps his invention to himself,
because he fears that it will harm him, instead of benefiting him.
Such are the natural results of conflicting interests.[213]
In Socialistic society the conflict of interests will be removed.
Everyone will develop his abilities to serve himself and will thereby
serve society. At present, satisfaction of personal egotism and
service of society usually are extremes that exclude each other.
In the new society these extremes will not exist. ~Satisfaction of
personal egotism and service of society will be harmonious; they
will coincide.~[214]
The splendid influence of such a status of morals is obvious. The
productivity of labor will rapidly increase. Especially will the
productivity of labor grow, because the dissemination of forces
among hundreds of thousands of tiny manufacturers with imperfect
tools and insufficient means, will cease. It has been previously
shown among how many small, medium-sized and large manufactories
German industry is disseminated. By gathering in all the small and
medium-sized manufactories into manufacture on a large scale in
great establishments that will be furnished with all the most modern
technical improvements, a tremendous waste of effort, time, material
of all kinds (light, heat, etc.), and space will be removed, and
the productivity of labor will be heightened. The difference that
exists between the productivity of small, medium-sized and large
manufactories, may be illustrated by an example from the industrial
census of Massachusetts of 1890. There the factories in ten chief
branches of industry are divided into three classes. Those that
produced less than 40,000 dollars’ worth were placed in the lower
class; those that produced between 40,000 and 150,000 dollars’ worth
in the middle class, and those that produced over 150,000 dollars’
worth, in the upper class. This division presented the following
figures:
========================================================================
Percentage Percentage of
Number of of all Value of entire Value
Establishments Establishments Production of Production
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lower class 2,042 55.2 51,660,617 9.4
Middle class 968 26.2 106,868,635 19.5
Upper class 686 18.6 390,817,300 71.1
----------------------------------------------------------------
3,696 100.-- 549,346,552 100.--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twice the number of small factories, compared to the large and
medium-sized ones, turned out only 9.4 per cent. of the entire
production, while the large factories, which formed only 23 per cent.
of the total number, produced almost 2½ times the quantity of all
the others. But even the large establishments could be organized
much more rationally still, so that the total production might yield
a still far greater quantity.
How much time can be gained by placing production on a rational basis?
That has been shown by interesting calculations made by Th. Hertzka,
in his book on “The Laws of Social Evolution,” published in 1886. He
calculated how much time and labor power would be needful to satisfy
the demands of the population of Austria, which was 22 millions
strong at the time. For this purpose, Hertzka investigated the
productivity of the large establishments in the various lines of
industry and based his calculations on the results. This calculation
includes the farming of 10½ million hectares of cultivated soil and
3 million hectares of pasturage, which should suffice to supply said
population with meat and the products of agriculture. Furthermore,
Hertzka included in his calculation the building of homes, in such
a manner that every family might have their own house, with a space
of 150 square meters, for a period of fifty years. It was found
that, for agriculture, building, the production of flour and sugar,
coal-mining, iron and machine industry, the clothing industry, and
the chemical industry, 615,000 workers would be needed, who would
have to work throughout the year for the present average number of
hours daily. But these ~615,000~ workers formed only ~12.3 per cent.
of the able-bodied population of Austria, not counting the women,
nor the male inhabitants under 16 or over 50~. If the 5 million
men available at the time of the calculation were employed like
the 615,000, each of them would have to work only 36.9 days, about
six weeks annually, to supply the most needful requirements for
22 million human beings. But, if we assume 300 work-days annually,
instead of 37, we find that, under the new organization it would be
necessary to work only ~1⅜ hours daily to supply the most necessary
requirements~.
Hertzka also takes the requirements of luxury of the better situated
classes into consideration and finds that the manufacture of such
articles, to supply the demands of 22 million people, would require
315,000 more workers. According to Hertzka, then, about 1 million
workers, 20 per cent. of the able-bodied male population of Austria,
excluding those under 16 and over 50, would be needed ~to supply the
entire needs of the population~ in sixty days. If we again take the
entire able-bodied male population into consideration, we find that
they would have to perform only about ~2½ hours of work daily~.[215]
This calculation will not surprise anyone who is well acquainted with
existing conditions. If we furthermore assume that, with such a short
work-day, only the sick and the invalids must be excluded, while men
over 50 might still work, and youths under 16 might be active to some
extent, and that the women might also serve in industry, except those
who are engaged in child-rearing, the preparation of food, etc., we
find that the hours of work might be shortened still more, or that
the demands might be greatly increased. Nor will any one deny that
tremendous, incalculable progress may still be made in perfecting the
process of production, a factor that will create further advantages.
On the other hand, many requirements will be satisfied that only a
small minority can satisfy to-day, and, with the higher development
of civilization, new requirements will arise that will also have to
be satisfied. It must be iterated and reiterated: ~The new society
will not elect to lead a proletarian existence. It will demand the
existence of a highly civilized people for all its members from the
first to the last. But it shall not only satisfy all the material
requirements, it shall also grant to all ample opportunity and time
for the study of science and art, and for recreation.~
[212] “The force of rivalry that leads to supreme efforts to win
the praise and admiration of others, has been shown by experience
to be a useful one wherever persons compete with one another, even
in regard to frivolous matters and such matters from which the
public derives no benefit. But a rivalry as to who can best serve
the common welfare, is a sort of competition that Socialists do not
repudiate.”--John Stuart Mill, “Political Economy.” Every society,
every organization of persons having the same aims and a common
cause, also furnishes many examples of a nobler endeavor that leads
to no material success but to a purely ideal one. The persons vieing
with each other are indeed impelled by the ambition of serving the
common cause and of winning recognition. But this sort of ambition is
a virtue since it serves the common good and at the same time gives
satisfaction to the individual. Ambition is harmful only when it is
satisfied at the expense of others or to the detriment of society.
[213] v. Thuenen--“The Isolated State,” says: “The conflicting
interests are the reason why proletarians and possessors are hostile
to one another and will remain unreconciled as long as the discord in
their interests has not been removed. Not only by the wealth of the
employer, but also by invention in manufactory, by the building of
roads and railways, and by the opening of new markets, the national
income may be greatly increased. But in our present social order the
workingman derives no benefit from this increase. His status remains
the same, and _the entire increase in income falls to the share of
the employers, capitalists and landlords_.” This last sentence is
an almost verbal anticipation of a declaration by Gladstone in the
English parliament, in 1884. He said: “This intoxicating growth of
wealth and power (experienced by England during the last twenty
years) has been limited exclusively to the possessing classes;” and
v. Thuenen says: “_in the separation of the worker from his product
the evil lies_.”--Morelly says in his “Principles of Legislation”:
“Property divides us into two classes, the rich and the poor. The
former love their property and do not care to defend the state. The
latter can not love their fatherland for it gives them nothing but
misery. But under Communism every one loves his fatherland for by
it everyone obtains life and happiness.”
[214] In weighing the advantages and disadvantages of Communism,
John Stuart Mill says in his “Political Economy”: “No field can be
more favorable to this conception (that public interest and private
interest are identical) than a communistic association. All the
ambition as well as the physical and mental activity, that is at
present directed upon the pursuit of sporadic and selfish interests,
would demand a different sphere of activity, and would find it in
the service of the common good of society.”
[215] In his “False Doctrines,” Eugen Richter ridicules the enormous
shortening of the hours of work predicted by us that would result
if all were obliged to work and if the process of production were
organized in accordance with the highest technical development.
He tries to belittle the productivity of large manufacture and to
enlarge the importance of small manufacture, in order to assert that
it would not be possible to produce the required amount. To make
Socialism seem impossible the upholders of the present “order” must
try to discredit the advantages of their own social system.
3.--Organization of Labor.
In a number of other very essential points the socialistic co-operative
system will differ from the bourgeois individualistic system. The
cheap and poor goods that make up a large portion of bourgeois
production, and necessarily must make up a large portion of it,
because a majority of the customers can afford to purchase only
cheap goods that wear out quickly, will be eliminated. Only the
best will be produced that will last long and will not have to be
renewed as often. The fads and follies of fashion that only favor
extravagance and bad taste will disappear. Doubtless our wearing
apparel will be better suited to its purpose and more tasty than
to-day--for the fashions of the last century, especially those of
the men, have been conspicuous by their bad taste--but new fashions
will no longer be introduced every few months. The present follies
of fashion are caused, on the one hand, by the competition of women
among themselves, and on the other by conceit and ostentation and
the desire to display one’s wealth. Moreover, a great many persons
depend upon these follies of fashion to-day, and it is to their
interest to encourage and stimulate them. Together with the follies
of fashion in dress, the madness of fashion in the style of dwellings
will disappear. Here eccentricity is rampant to-day. Styles that
have required centuries to become evolved among various nations--we
are no longer satisfied with European styles, but turn to those of
the Japanese, Indians, Chinese, etc.--are used up in a few years and
set aside. Persons engaged in mechanical arts hardly know what to do
with all the designs and models. They have barely adapted themselves
to one style, trusting to recover their expenses, when a new style
appears that necessitates further sacrifices of time and money and
of physical and mental forces. In this mad rushing from one fashion
to another and from one style to another the nervousness of our age
is vividly reflected. No one would claim that there is any sense
or reason in this rush and haste, or that it might be regarded as
a healthful state of society.
Socialism will give greater stability to the habits of life. It
will make rest and enjoyment possible and will liberate us from the
present haste and excitement. Nervousness, the scourge of our age,
will disappear.
Work will be made as agreeable as possible. To accomplish this, the
places where production is carried on will be furnished practically
and tastily, every means will be resorted to that danger may be
eliminated, and that evil smells, smoke, etc., and all unpleasant
and harmful factors will be done away with. At first the new society
will produce with the means of production taken over from the old
society. But these are insufficient. The workshops are scattered and
are not properly constructed or furnished, and tools and machinery do
not come up to the demands of the great number of persons employed
and their desire for safety and comfort. To create a great many
large, light, airy, well-equipped workshops becomes an imminent
necessity. The arts and crafts, genius and skill, are immediately
given a vast realm of activity. All branches of machine manufacture
and the manufacture of tools, the building trades and the trades of
interior decoration find ample opportunity for occupation. Whatever
the human mind is able to invent in the way of convenient and
agreeable buildings, appropriate ventilation, lighting and heating,
and technical and mechanical improvements, will be instituted. To
save motor-power, light and heat, as well as time and labor, and
to insure the comfort of the workers, it will become desirable to
concentrate the workshops in definite places. The dwellings will
be separated from the workshops and freed from the unpleasantness
of industrial activity; and the unpleasantness will be diminished
and finally abolished by all sorts of institutions and appliances.
Even the present status of technical knowledge gives us sufficient
means to deprive the dangerous occupations, like mining, the chemical
trades, etc., of their dangers ~entirely~. But these means are not
applied in bourgeois society, because they entail a heavy expense
and because no one is duty bound to do more for the protection of
the workingman than is absolutely necessary. The dangers of mining,
for instance, could be removed by working the mine in a different
manner, by a thorough system of ventilation, by the installation of
electric light, by a considerable shortening of the hours of work,
and by a frequent change of shifts. It does not require special
ingenuity to find safety appliances that will make accidents in the
building trade next to impossible and to make this sort of work
particularly agreeable. For instance, ample contrivances might be
made to shield the workers at large buildings and at all out-of-door
work from the sun and the rain. In socialistic society, which will
control an abundance of labor power, it will also be a simple matter
to have frequent relays of new workers and to concentrate certain
tasks upon definite seasons or definite hours of the day.
The problem of abolishing dust, smoke, grime and unpleasant odors,
can also be solved entirely even to-day by chemistry and mechanics.
But it is not done, or insufficiently done, because the private
employers do not care to meet the heavy expense. The future places
of production, wherever they may be, below the earth or above, will
differ most favorably from the present ones. In private industry
improved appliances are mainly a question of money. If they pay they
will be established. If they do not pay, the health and life of the
workingman are of no concern.[216]
In socialistic society the question of profits will have ceased
to exist. This society will recognize no other consideration ~but
the welfare of its members~. What is to their advantage must be
established. What is likely to harm them must be refrained from. No
one will be compelled to enter into dangerous undertakings. If tasks
are undertaken that entail dangers one may be assured that there
will be many volunteers, all the more so because the undertakings
will not serve destruction but the advancement of civilization.
[216] “Capital,” says the “Quarterly Reviewer,” “flees tumult and
quarrel and is of a timid nature. That is true, but it is not the
whole truth. Capital abhors the absence of profits or very small
profits as nature abhors empty space. With appropriate profits,
capital becomes bold. If ten percent. are insured, it can be applied
everywhere; 20 percent., and it becomes aggressive; 50 percent.,
positively reckless; for 100 percent. it tramples all human laws
under foot; 300 percent., and there is no crime it will not risk even
at the peril of the gallows. If tumult and quarrel bring profit, it
will encourage both.” Karl Marx--Capital.
4.--The Growth of the Productivity of Labor.
A far-reaching appliance of motor-power, and of the most perfect
machines and tools, a detailed division of labor and a skillful
combination of the various forces, will so heighten the productivity
of labor that the necessary quantities of all commodities can be
produced, notwithstanding ~a considerable shortening of the hours
of work~. Increased production will be to the common advantage of
all. ~The share of each individual increases with the productivity
of labor, and the increased productivity of labor again makes it
possible to reduce the time required for the performance of socially
necessary labor.~
Among the motor powers that will be applied, electricity will most
likely hold the foremost place. Bourgeois society everywhere presses
it into service, and the more this is done the better it is for
general progress. The revolutionizing effect of the most powerful of
all natural forces will only ~hasten~ the overthrow of the bourgeois
world and help to usher in Socialism. But only in socialistic society
will the force be generally applied and turned to the best advantage.
Both as a motor-power and as a source of light and heat it will
contribute largely to the improved standard of living of society.
Electricity is distinguished from every other force by the fact that
it exists in nature in abundance. Our streams, high and low tide of
the sea, wind and sunlight will furnish countless horse-powers when
we shall thoroughly understand how to apply them.
“A wealth of energy that by far exceeds all demands is furnished by
those parts of the surface of the earth that are so regularly subjected
to the heat of the sun that it might be applied to regular technical
operations. Perhaps it would not be an exaggerated precaution if a
nation would even now secure a share in such places. The required
areas need not even be very large; a few square miles in Northern
Africa would suffice for the requirements of a country like the German
Empire. By concentrating the heat of the sun a high temperature can
be produced, and thereby everything else--portable mechanical work,
charging of batteries, light and heat, and, by electrolysis, even
fuel.”[217] The man who opens up these vistas is not a dreamer, but
an appointed professor at the Berlin University and president of the
Royal Physical and Technical Institute, a man who ranks high in the
scientific world. At the 79th congress of the British Association in
Winnipeg (during August, 1909), the famous English physicist, Sir S.
Thompson, said: “The day is not too far distant when our life will
be revolutionized by applying the rays of the sun. Man will liberate
himself from his dependence upon coal-and-water power, and all large
cities will be surrounded by immense apparatus, real sunbeam traps,
into which the heat of the sun will be gathered, and the obtained
energy will be stored away in tremendous reservoirs. It is the force
of the sun, stored away in coal, in waterfalls, in nourishment, that
performs all the world’s work. How great is this tribute of force
that the sun pours down upon us becomes evident when we consider the
fact that the warmth received by the earth when the sun is high and
the sky is clear, according to the researches of Langley, equals an
energy of 7000 horse-powers per acre. Although our engineers have
not yet found the way to apply this gigantic source of power, I do
not doubt that they will ultimately succeed in finding it. When the
supply of coal in the bowels of the earth has been exhausted, when
the water-powers will no longer suffice to meet our requirements,
then we will obtain from this source all the energy needed to
complete the work of the world. Then the centers of industry will
be removed to the glowing deserts of Sahara, and the value of the
land will be measured by how well it is suited to the erection of
the great ‘sunbeam traps.’”[218] According to this, our anxiety that
we might at some time lack fuel, is removed. The inventions of the
accumulators would make it possible to store a large quantity of
force away for future use at any time and place; so that, besides
the power furnished by sun and tide, the power furnished by the wind
and by mountain torrents, which can be obtained only periodically,
might be stored and applied. So there may finally be no human task
for which motor power cannot be supplied if necessary. Only by the
assistance of electricity has it become possible to employ water-power
on a large scale. According to T. Koehn, eight European states have
the following supply of water-power at their disposal.
Per 1000
Horse-powers inhabitants
Great Britain 963,000 23.1
Germany 1,425,900 24.5
Switzerland 1,500,000 138
Italy 5,500,000 150
France 5,857,000 169
Austria and Hungary 6,460,000 454.5
Sweden 6,750,000 1290
Norway 7,500,000 3409
Of the German states, Baden and Bavaria control the largest amount
of water-power. Baden alone can obtain 200,000 horse-powers at the
Upper Rhine. Bavaria has at its disposal 300,000 horse-powers that
have so far not been applied, besides 100,000 that are applied.
Professor Rehbock estimates that the theoretical energy of the entire
amount of water flowing upon the surface of the earth amounts to eight
thousand million horse-powers. If only the sixteenth part of this
could be efficiently applied, 500 millions of permanently serviceable
horse-powers could still be won, an amount of energy ten times as
great as the energy obtained by the mining of coal during the year
1907, approximately calculated at 1000 million tons. Although such
calculations are of a purely theoretical character at present, they
still show what achievements we may anticipate in the future from
the use of “white coal.” The Niagara Falls alone, which flow from
lakes covering an area of 231,880 kilometers--about 43 per cent.
of the entire area of Germany--might furnish more water-power than
exists in England, Germany and Switzerland combined.[219] According
to another calculation quoted in an official report, the United
States have water-power at their disposal of no less than twenty
million horse-powers, which represent an equivalent of three hundred
million tons of coal annually.[220] The mills that will be driven by
means of this white or “green” coal, with the force of the gushing
mountain streams and waterfalls, will have no smokestacks and no
fire.
Electricity will also make it possible to more than double the speed
of our railroads. At the beginning of the nineties of the last
century, Mr. Meems, in Baltimore, declared it to be possible to
construct an electric car that would make 300 kilometers an hour, and
Professor Elihu Thomson, in Lynn, believed that electric motors could
be constructed that would make it possible to cover 260 kilometers
in an hour. These expectations have nearly been realized. The
trial-rides made on the military railway Berlin-Zossen, during 1901
and 1902, showed the possibility of speed up to 150 kilometers an
hour. During experiments made in 1903, the Siemens car attained a
speed of 201 kilometers, and that of the General Electric Company,
208 kilometers. In the succeeding years steam locomotives have also
attained a speed of 150 kilometers an hour, and more. The present
aim is to attain 200 kilometers per hour. Already, August Sherl
has entered the arena with his new project of rapid transit, which
relegates the existing railway lines to freight service and proposes
to connect the large cities by monorail train service, with a speed
of 200 kilometers.[221]
The question of transforming railroad service from steam into
electricity is a current topic in England, Austria, Italy, and
America. Between New York and Philadelphia an electric train is to
run at a speed of 200 kilometers an hour.
The speed of ocean vessels will increase in the same manner. Here the
determining factor is the steam turbine.[222] “It holds the foremost
place in technical interest at present. It seems destined to displace
the piston. While most engineers still regarded the steam turbine
as a task of the future, it had become a present-day problem that
attracted the attention of the entire world of technics by its success.
It remained for electrotechnics, with its rapidly running machinery
to create a large field for the practical application of this new
power engine. The by far greatest number of all steam-turbines in
use to-day serves to drive dynamos.”[223] The turbine has especially
proved its superiority over the piston in navigation. The English
steamship “Lusitania,” which is equipped with steam-turbines, during
August, 1909, made the journey from Ireland to New York in 4 days
11 hours and 42 minutes,[224] with an average speed of 25.85 knots
an hour. The steamship “America,” constructed in 1863, the fastest
vessel at the time, made 12.5 knots an hour.[225] The day is not
distant when the problem of electric propellers for large vessels
will be satisfactorily solved. They are already in use with smaller
vessels. Simplicity, safety, good self-regulation, and absence of
shaking make the steam-turbine the ideal power for the creation of
electric energy on board. Electricity will eventually be generally
applied to both railway and steamship service.
By electricity the technics of moving loads has also been
revolutionized. “Steam-power, having made it possible to construct
lifting-engines with natural force, electric transmission of power
led to a complete revolution in the construction of lifting-machines
by giving these machines freedom of motion and constant readiness
for use.” Electric power has, among other things, led to a complete
transformation in the construction of the cranes. “With its massive
curved beak of rolled iron, resting upon a heavy foundation of
stone-masonry, with slow motions and the hissing noise of the
puffed-out steam, the steam-crane conveys the impression of resembling
a gigantic, prehistoric monster. When it has grasped a load it
exhibits a tremendous power for lifting, but it needs the assistance
of human beings, who, by means of chains, fasten the weights to its
hook. Owing to its clumsiness and slow motions it is serviceable
only for the lifting of very heavy loads, but not where quick action
is needed. Even externally the modern electric crane presents an
entirely different aspect. We behold graceful steel trellis-work
stretched above the hall, and from this is stretched out a slender
pair of tongs, which is movable in all directions. The whole mechanism
is controlled by a single man. By means of a gentle pressure on the
levers, he directs the electric currents and drives the slender steel
limbs of the crane to rapid action. Unaided, they grasp the glowing
steel and whirl it through the air, while no other noise is heard
but the low buzzing of the electro-motors.”[226] Without the aid of
these machines the steadily increasing transportation of masses of
goods would not be possible. By a comparison of the wharf-crane at
Pola and that at Kiel, the development, in regard to the increase of
lifting-power from the middle to the end of the nineteenth century,
may be judged. The lifting-power of the former was 60 tons, that
of the latter, 200 tons. The manufacture of Bessemer steel only is
possible when rapidly working lifting-machines are at hand, for
otherwise the tremendous quantities of liquid steel that are produced
in a short time could not be transported in the casting-moulds. In
the iron-works of Krupp, in Essen alone, 608 cranes are in action,
having an aggregate lifting-power of 6513 tons, equal to a freight
train of 650 cars. The low cost of freight, which is a condition of
present-day international commerce, would not be possible, could not
the capital invested in vessels be put to such intense use by the
rapid process of unloading. The equipping of a vessel with electric
cranes led to a reduction in the annual cost of traffic from 23,000
to 13,000 marks, almost by one-half. And this comparison takes into
consideration only the progress of a single decade.
The technics of navigation and transportation present new achievements
almost daily along all lines. The problem of aerial navigation,
which seemed insoluble but two decades ago, is practically solved.
At present the dirigible balloons and flying machines do not serve
the easier and cheaper transportation of the masses, but only sport
and military purposes. But later on they will enhance the productive
forces of society. Great progress has also been made by wireless
telegraphy; its industrial value grows each day. In a few years,
accordingly, traffic will be placed on a new basis.
Mining, too, is in a state of transformation at present that still
seemed inconceivable ten years ago. Electricity has been introduced
and has revolutionized the machines, the pumps, and the winding-engines.
Marvelous are the prospects revealed by the former French minister
of public instruction, Professor Berthelot (died March 18, 1907),
in an address on the future significance of chemistry, delivered
at a banquet of the syndicate of manufacturers of chemicals. In
this address, Mr. Berthelot depicted the possible achievements of
chemistry in the year 2000, and, though his description contains
some humorous exaggerations, it also contains much that is true,
of which the following is a brief synopsis. Mr. Berthelot gave a
resumé of what chemistry had accomplished in a few decades and
enumerated, among other things: The manufacture of sulphuric acid,
of soda, bleaching and dyeing, beet-sugar, therapeutic alcaloids,
gas, gilding and silvering, etc. Then came electro-chemistry, which
completely transformed metallurgy, the chemistry of explosives, which
provided mining and warfare with new engines, and the marvels of
organic chemistry in the manufacture of colors, perfumes, therapeutic
and antiseptic remedies, etc. But all this, said the lecturer, was
only a beginning. Far greater problems would soon be solved. In the
year 2000, agriculture and peasants would have ceased to exist, as
chemistry would have made cultivation of the soil superfluous. There
would be no coal-mines and, accordingly, no miners’ strikes. Fuel
would be replaced by chemical and physical processes. Tariff and
warfare would be abolished; aerial navigation, employing chemicals
as a means of locomotion would have done away with these antiquated
institutions. The problem of industry consists in finding sources
of power that are inexhaustible and can be renewed with the least
possible amount of labor. Until now we have generated steam by
the chemical energy of burned coal. But the coal is difficult to
obtain, and the supply is diminishing daily. It becomes necessary
to utilize the heat of the sun and the heat inside the earth. There
is good reason to hope that both these sources will find unlimited
application. Thereby the source of all heat and of all industry
would be made accessible. If water-power were also applied, all
imaginable machines might be run on the earth. This source of power
would barely diminish in centuries. By means of the warmth of the
earth many chemical problems might be solved, among others the
chemical production of food. Theoretically this problem is already
solved. The synthesis of fats and oils is long since known, sugar
and the hydrates of carbon are known also, and the synthesis of
the nitrogen-compounds will soon become known. The problem of food
is a purely chemical one. As soon as the necessary cheap power
could be obtained, by means of carbon from carbonic acid, oxygen
and hydrogen from water, and nitrogen from the atmosphere, food of
all kinds would be produced. What had heretofore been done by the
~plants~ would henceforth be done by ~industry~, and the products of
industry would be more perfect than those of nature. The time would
come when every one would carry a box of chemicals in his pocket
from which he would satisfy his need of nourishment in albumen, fat
and hydrates of carbon, regardless of time and seasons, of rain and
drought, of frost, hail and destructive insects. This would lead to
a transformation that was as yet beyond our conception. Orchards,
vineyards and pastures would disappear. Man would become more gentle
and humane, because he would no longer live upon the murder and
destruction of living beings. Then the difference between fertile
and unfertile regions would also disappear, and perhaps the ~deserts
would become the favorite resorts~ of man, since they are healthier
than the damp and marshy plains where agriculture is carried on at
present. Then art and all the beauties of human life would attain their
fullest development. The earth would no longer be disfigured by the
geometrical figures drawn on its surface by agriculture, but would
become a garden in which grass, flowers, shrubs and forests might be
grown at will; all humanity would dwell in plenty, in a golden age.
But man would not fall a victim to laziness and corruption. Work is
needful to happiness, and man would work as ever, since he worked
for his ~own~ welfare, for the development of his mental, moral and
æsthetic possibilities.
The reader may accept as true from this address of Berthelot whatever
he chooses. The fact remains that future development will lead to
a tremendous improvement in the quantity, quality and variety of
products, and that the comforts of life of coming generations will
increase to a degree that we can barely conceive to-day.
Professor Elihu Thomson agrees with Werner Siemens, who declared
at the convention of scientists in Berlin, in 1887, that it would
become possible by means of electricity to ~transform the elements
directly into food~. Werner Siemens held the opinion that it might
be possible, at a remote time, to produce artificially a hydrate of
carbon, as grape-sugar or starch, whereby the possibility would be
given “to make bread of stones.” The chemist, Dr. H. Meyer, declared
that it would be possible to make ligneous fibre a source of human
nourishment. In the meantime (1890), Emil Fisher has actually produced
grape-sugar artificially, and has thereby made a discovery that
Werner Siemens considered possible only “at a remote time.” Since
then chemistry has made still further progress. Indigo, vanilla and
camphor have been artificially produced. In 1906, W. Loeb succeeded
in achieving the assimilation of carbonic acid, outside of the plant
up to the production of sugar by means of electric tension. In 1907
Emil Fisher obtained one of the most complicated synthetic bodies
that is closely related to natural protein. In 1908 Willstatter and
Benz produced pure chlorophyl and proved it to be a compound of
magnesium. Thereby the main problem of organic chemistry--to obtain
albumen--may find its solution in a future not too far distant.
[217] “The Energy of Labor and Appliance of the Electric Current”
by Fr. Kohlrausch. Leipsic, 1900.
[218] As early as 1864, Augustin Mouchot made an attempt to make the
heat of the sun serve industrial purposes directly and constructed
a sun-machine that was improved by Pifré. The largest sun-machine
(heliomotor) is in California and serves as an apparatus for pumping.
The water in the well is pumped up at the rate of 11,000 litres a
minute.
[219] T. Koehn--Some Large European Water-Power Plants and Their
Economic Significance.
[220] Supply and Distribution of Cotton. Washington, 1908.
[221] In 1908, the Prussian department of public works decided to
transform the steam-railways Leipsic-Bitterfeld, Magdeburg and
Leipsic, Halle into electric railways.
[222] While the old steam-engine turns the driving-wheels in a
round-about way (by the transmission of the motion of the piston
rods), the steam-turbine produces a direct rotary motion, like the
wind turns the wind-mill.
[223] C. Matchoss--The Evolution of the Steam-Engine.
[224] During September, 1910, the Mauretania broke this record by
hour and one minute.--Tr.
[225] During the fifties of the last century, the sailing vessels
took about six weeks to reach New York. The steamers crossed in two
weeks. During the nineties, the voyage was made in a week, and now it
is made in 5½ days. As a result of this progress, the two continents
are brought nearer to each other now than Berlin and Vienna were a
century ago.
[226] O. Kammerer--The Technics of Moving Loads, Formerly and at
the Present Time. Berlin, 1907.
5.--Removal of the Contrast between Mental and Manual Work.
A need, deeply rooted in human nature, is the desire for freedom of
choice and for the opportunity of a variation of occupations. Just
as the best food becomes disgusting if the same thing is constantly
placed before us, so an occupation repeated daily in treadmill
fashion weakens and dulls. Man performs his task mechanically and
does what he must do, but without enthusiasm or joy. A number of
talents and abilities are innate in every human being that need but
to be awakened in order to find expression and produce favorable
results. Only thereby man becomes a perfect human being. Socialistic
society will offer ample opportunity for the satisfaction of this
desire for variation. The immense increase in productive forces,
combined with a simplified process of work, will not only make it
possible to limit the hours of work considerably, it will also make
it easy ~to master a number of varied accomplishments~.
The old system of apprenticeship has already been abandoned. It
still exists, and is possible only among undeveloped and antiquated
forms of production, as represented by small manufactures. But as
these will completely disappear in the new society, all forms and
institutions peculiar to them will disappear also. New ones will take
their place. Even at present it can be seen in any factory how few
workingmen have learned and practice a definite trade. The workingmen
employed in some line of production or other may have learned the most
varied trades. Usually a short time is sufficient for them to gain
experience in one detail of the process of production, and to this one
detail they are tied down then, according to the prevailing system
of exploitation, for long hours, without the slightest variation,
and without any regard for their personal tastes and inclinations.
At the machine they become machines.[227] This state of affairs,
too, will be removed by the new social order. There will be ample
time to practice manual skill and to develop the mechanical arts.
Large, splendidly equipped polytechnical schools will make it easy
for both young and old to learn an occupation. Chemical and physical
laboratories, in keeping with the standards of these sciences, will
be erected, and capable teachers will be on hand. Only then will
people fully recognize what a wealth of talent and ability has
been suppressed or wrongly developed by the capitalistic system of
production.[228]
Not only will it be possible to satisfy the desire for variation, it
must be regarded as ~the purpose of society~ to satisfy this desire,
since ~the harmonious development of man depends upon it~.
The professional types that we meet with in present-day society--be
these types the product of a definite, one-sided occupation or of
laziness--will gradually disappear. There are exceedingly few persons
to-day who possess the possibility of a variety of occupations. Rarely
one finds persons so favored by special circumstances, that they can
escape the monotony of their daily task and can, after the performance
of physical work, recuperate by mental work. On the other hand, we
sometimes find mental workers who devote part of their time to some
manual work, gardening and the like. The beneficial effects of an
occupation founded on a variation of mental and physical work are
obvious. Such occupation is ~the only one adapted to natural needs~.
It is taken for granted, of course, that every occupation must be
practiced with moderation and according to individual strength.
In his book on “The Significance of Science and Art,” Count Leo
Tolstoi condemns the hypercritical and unnatural character that
art and science have assumed as a result of our unnatural social
conditions. He roundly condemns the fact that present-day society
holds physical labor in contempt and advises a return to natural
conditions. He asserts that every human being who wishes to live
naturally and to enjoy life should spend his day--firstly, at physical
work in agriculture; secondly, at some manual trade; thirdly,
at some mental occupation, and fourthly, in intellectual social
intercourse. No human being should perform more than eight hours of
physical work. Tolstoi himself lived up to this ideal and claimed
that he has only become truly human since he adopted this mode of
life. But Tolstoi overlooks that what is possible for him, the man of
independent means, is not possible for the vast majority of people
under present-day conditions. A man or woman who must work ten or
twelve hours daily, and sometimes longer, to make a bare living,
and who has grown up in ignorance, cannot adopt Tolstoi’s mode of
life. Neither can all those adopt it who are in the midst of the
struggle for existence and must conform with its requirements; and
of the few who might live in this manner, many would not wish to. It
is one of the illusions in which Tolstoi indulges, to believe that
exhortations and examples might transform societies. The experience
made by Tolstoi, in regard to his mode of life, proves it to be a
rational one. But to make this mode of life general, different social
conditions, a new society, will be needed.
~The coming society will establish such conditions. It will produce
countless scientists and artists, but all of these will devote a
part of the day to physical labor, and the remainder of the day they
will devote to their studies, their arts and to social intercourse,
according to their tastes and wishes.~[229]
The present contrast between mental and manual work, a contrast that
is intensified by the ruling classes, who are anxious to secure their
mental superiority also, will, accordingly, have to be removed.
[227] “The great mass of workingmen in England, as in most of the other
countries, have so little free choice in regard to their occupation
and place of residence, they depend so absolutely upon fixed rules
and the will of others, as could be possible under any system with
the exception of real slavery.” John Stuart Mill--Political Economy.
[228] A French workingman, who has returned home from San Francisco,
writes: “I would have never believed that I would be able to
practice all the trades that I have practiced in California. I had
been firmly convinced that I was good for nothing except printing.
But in the midst of these adventurers who change their trade more
readily than their shirt, I did as the others. Since mining was not
sufficiently remunerative, I left and moved into the city. Here I
successively became typographer, slater, plumber, etc. As a result
of this experience of being fit for all tasks, I feel less of a
mollusc and more of a human being.” Karl Marx--Capital. Vol. I.
[229] What people may achieve under favorable conditions of development
is shown, for example, by the life of _Leonardo da Vinci_. He was a
splendid artist, a famous sculpturer, an able architect and engineer,
a military engineer, a musician and an extemporizer. _Benvenuto
Cellini_ was a famous goldsmith, an excellent modeller, a recognized
military engineer, a good soldier and a capable musician. _Abraham
Lincoln_ was a wood-cutter, a farmer, a boatsman, a clerk and a
lawyer, before he became president of the United States. It may be
said without exaggeration that most people are engaged in occupations
that are _not_ suited to their abilities because their career has
been shaped, not by choice, but by the force of circumstances. Many
a poor professor might make a very competent shoemaker, and many a
good shoemaker might become a good professor also.
6.--Increase of Consumption.
The above enumerated facts prove that panics, crises, and unemployment
will be impossible in future society. Crises arise because capitalistic
production, incited by the desire for profit, and without any reliable
means of estimating the true demand, leads to over-production and to
over-stocking of the market. Under capitalism the products assume
the character of goods that their owners indeavor to exchange, and
the consumption of goods depends upon the consumer’s ~purchasing
ability~. But this purchasing ability is very limited among a vast
majority of the population who are not paid the full value of their
labor and whose services are not wanted if their employers cannot
squeeze profits out of them. ~Purchasing ability and the ability to
consume are two entirely different matters in bourgeois society.~ Many
millions are in need of new clothes, shoes, furniture, linens and
articles of food, but they have no money, and so their needs, their
ability to consume, remains unsatisfied. The market is over-stocked,
but the masses are hungry; they wish to work, but cannot find anyone
willing to purchase their labor-power, because the employers can
derive no profits from employing them. Perish, become a vagabond, a
criminal, I, the capitalist, cannot help it, because I cannot use
goods that I cannot sell at a profit. In his position the capitalist
is entirely justified in taking this attitude.
In the new society this contradiction will be removed. The new
society will not produce “goods” to be “bought” and “sold,” ~it will
produce commodities for consumption, not for any other purpose~. The
ability to consume will not be limited by the purchasing ability of
each individual, but by ~the common ability to produce~. If there is
sufficient labor-power and sufficient means of production, ~every~
want can be satisfied. The social ability to consume knows no bounds
except ~the satisfaction of the consumers~.
If there will be no “goods” in the new society there will ultimately
be no money, either. Money appears to be the counterpart of goods,
but is goods itself. Yet, at the same time, money is the social
equivalent, the standard of value for all other goods. But the new
society will not produce goods, it will produce commodities whose
manufacture will require a certain measure of social working-time.
The average time required to produce a given commodity is the only
standard by which it will be measured for social consumption. Ten
minutes of social working-time at one commodity equal ten minutes
of social working-time at another commodity, no more and no less.
Society will not wish to “earn,” it will merely wish to bring about
the exchange of commodities of the same quality and of the same value
among its members, and eventually it will not even be necessary to
determine the value. Society will simply produce what it needs. If
it should become evident, for instance, that three hours of work
daily are necessary to produce all the required products, three hours
will be the fixed time.[230] If the means of production should be
improved to such extent that the supply can be furnished by two hours
of work, it will be two hours. If, on the other hand, the demands
should grow and the increased productivity of the process of work
would not suffice to satisfy these demands, the working-time would
be lengthened.
It can easily be calculated how much social labor will be necessary
for the manufacture of each product.[231] Thereby the relation of
this portion of work to the entire working-time can be calculated.
Any kind of certificate, a printed piece of paper, gold or tin, enables
the holder to exchange same for various kinds of commodities.[232]
If he finds that his wants are less than what he receives for his
services, he can work less, accordingly. If he wishes to give away
what he does not use, nobody will prevent him from so doing. If he
~voluntarily~ chooses to work for another, so that the other one may
idle, or if he wishes to divide his share of the social products,
no one will restrain him. But no one can compel him to work for
another person’s advantage, no one can deprive him of a part of the
share he is entitled to for his services. Everyone will be able to
satisfy all desires and requirements possible of fulfillment, but not
at the expense of others. He receives from society the equivalent
of what he produces, no more and no less, and remains free from
exploitation.
[230] It must be noted again and again that production will be
organized according to the highest scale of technical development
and that _all_ will be engaged in it, so that, under favorable
circumstances, a working-day of three hours may still prove too long.
Owen, who was a large manufacturer and was therefore competent to
judge, estimated--in the early part of the nineteenth century--that
a working-day of two hours would be sufficient.
[231] “The amount of social labor represented by a given product
need not be determined in a round-about way; daily experience will
show directly how much on an average will be required. Society
will be able to calculate how many hours of work are represented
by a steam-engine, a hectolitre of wheat of the last harvest, or a
hundred square yards of cloth of a certain quality. Society will
accordingly not think of expressing the quantities of work contained
in the products--that will then be directly known--in the relative,
fluctuating, uncertain manner of a third product, inevitable at
present, instead of expressing them by their natural, adequate,
absolute measure-time. It will be necessary to arrange the plan of
production in accordance with the means of production, including
labor-power. The usefulness of the various commodities, balanced
with one another and with the amount of work necessary for their
production will ultimately determine the plan. Everything will be
adjusted in a very simple way without the intercession of the famous
‘value’.” Fr. Engels--Mr. Eugen Duehring’s Transformation of Science.
[232] Mr. Eugen Richter in his “False Doctrines” is so amazed by the
fact that in socialistic society the use of money will be dropped (it
will not be abolished outright but will simply become superfluous
because the products of labor will no longer have the character of
goods), that he devotes a special chapter to this incident. The thing
that especially puzzles him is that it will be immaterial whether
the working certificate will be a printed piece of paper, gold or
tin. He says: “With gold the demon of the present world order would
enter the socialistic state again” (Mr. Richter obstinately overlooks
that eventually there will be only a socialistic society, not a
socialistic “state,” for a great deal of his argumentation would
then loose ground), “for gold has independent value as a metal and
can easily be hoarded, and so the possession of pieces of gold would
make it possible to accumulate values to escape the duty to work
and even to loan out money on interest.”--One must consider one’s
readers very stupid to place such bosh before them. Mr. Richter who
cannot free himself from the conception of capital, cannot see that
where there is no capital, no goods, there can be no money, and that
where there is neither capital nor money there can be no interest.
We should like to know how a member of socialistic society could
“hoard” his golden working certificate or could even loan it on
interest, when all the others also own what the one offers and--_on
which he lives_.
7.--Equal Duty to Work for All.
“But how will you discriminate between thrifty and lazy, intelligent
and stupid persons?” That is one of the questions most frequently
asked by our opponents, and the answer we give them puzzles them
greatly. But these wise questioners never stop to think that, among
our hierarchy of officials, the distinction between thrifty and lazy,
intelligent and stupid persons is not made, but that the length of
service usually determines the salary and promotion. Teachers and
professors--many of whom are the most naïve questioners--have their
salaries determined by the position they fill, not by the value of
their services. In many cases officials, military men and scientists,
are not promoted according to their abilities, but according to
rank, relationship, friendship, and the favor of women. That wealth
is not measured either by intelligence and thrift, may be seen by
the three-class-electoral-system of Prussia. We find saloon-keepers,
bakers and butchers, many of whom are not able to speak grammatically,
enrolled in the first class, while men of intelligence and science,
the highest officials of the state and the nation, are enrolled
in the second or third class. There will be no difference between
thrifty and lazy, intelligent and stupid persons, because that which
we understand by these terms will have disappeared. Society, for
instance, calls some people “lazy” because they have been thrown out
of employment, have been driven to a life of vagabondage, and have
finally become real vagabonds. We also apply this term to people who
are the victims of a bad education. But whoever should venture to call
lazy the man of means who spends his time in idleness and debauchery
would commit an insult, for the rich idler is a “respectable” man.
Now what aspect will matters assume in the new society? All will
develop under similar conditions of life, and everyone will perform
the task assigned to him by ability and inclination. Therefore
the differences in achievements will be slight.[233] The social
atmosphere that will incite each to excel the others will help
to level the distinctions. If a person should realize that he is
unable to accomplish in one line of work what others accomplish,
he will choose some other line better suited to his strength and
his abilities. Everyone who has worked together with a great many
persons knows that people who were inefficient at one task have proved
very efficient when given another. By what right can anyone ask for
privileges? If some person is so incapacitated by nature that it
is quite impossible for him to accomplish what others accomplish,
~society cannot punish him for the shortcomings of nature~. On the
other hand, if some one has been endowed by nature with abilities
that elevate him above the others, ~society need not reward him
for that which is not his personal merit~. It must, furthermore,
be remembered that in Socialistic society all will have the same
opportunities for education, so that all can develop their knowledge
and ability in accordance with their talents and inclinations. As
a result, knowledge and ability will be far more developed than in
bourgeois society. It will be ~more evenly distributed~ and yet
~more varied~.
When Goethe, during a journey along the Rhine, studied the Cathedral
of Cologne, he discovered, by perusal of the architectural deeds that
the architects of old had paid all their workingmen alike by time;
they did so because they desired good workmanship conscientiously
carried out. To bourgeois society this seems an anomaly. Bourgeois
society has introduced the piece-work system, by means of which
the workingmen compel one another to overwork and make it all the
easier for the employer to under-pay and to resort to a frequent
reduction in wages. What is true of material productivity is equally
true of the mental. Man is the product of time and circumstances.
If Goethe had been born in the fourth instead of in the eighteenth
century, under equally favorable circumstances, instead of becoming
a great poet and scientist he would probably have become a great
~father of the Church~ who might have outshone St. Augustine.
Again, if Goethe had not come into the world as the son of a rich
patrician of Frankfort, but as the son of a poor shoemaker, he would
hardly have become minister to the Grand-duke of Weimar, but would
have lived and died a respectable master-shoemaker. Goethe himself
recognized of what great advantage it was to him to have been born
in a materially and socially favorable position which helped him
to attain his development; he thus expresses himself in “Wilhelm
Meister.” If Napoleon I. had been born ten years later he would
never have become Emperor of France. Without the war of 1870 to
1871, Gambetta would never have become what he has been. If a gifted
child of intelligent parents should be placed among savages it would
become a savage. ~Men are what society has made them.~ Ideas are
not the product of higher inspiration sprung from the brains of a
single individual, but they are a product, created in the brains of
the individual by the social life and activity amidst which he lives
and by the spirit of his age. Aristotle could not have the ideas
of Darwin, and Darwin had to reason differently from Aristotle. We
all reason as the spirit of our age--that is, our environment and
its phenomena--compels us to reason. That explains what has been
frequently observed, that different people sometimes follow the same
line of reasoning ~simultaneously~; that the same inventions and
discoveries are made at the same time at places situated far apart.
That also explains that an idea expressed fifty years ago may have
found the world indifferent, but the same idea expressed fifty years
later, may agitate the whole world. In 1415 Emperor Sigismund could
dare to break the promise given Huss and to have him burned at the
stake in Constance. In 1521, Charles V., although a far greater
fanatic, had to permit Luther to go in peace from the diet at Worms.
Ideas are the product of social co-operation, of social life. What is
true in regard to society in general, is especially true in regard
to the various social classes that compose society at any given
epoch of history. Because every class has its peculiar interests, it
also has its peculiar ideas and views. These conflicting ideas and
interests have led to the class struggles that filled the annals of
history and have attained their culmination in the class extremes
and class struggles of the present day. The feelings, thoughts and
actions of a person are, therefore, determined not only by the ~age~
in which he lives, but also by the ~class~ to which he belongs.
Without modern society no modern ideas could exist. This is clear to
everyone. In the new society--let it be remembered--the means that
each individual will employ for his education and development will
be ~the property of society~. Society cannot feel obliged to reward
particularly what it alone has made possible, its own product.
So much in regard to the qualification of physical and mental labor.
From this the further conclusion may be drawn, that no distinction
will be made between higher and lower grades of work; as, for
instance, at present mechanics consider themselves superior to
day-laborers who perform work on the roads, etc. Society will have
only such work performed as is socially useful, and so every kind
of work will be of equal social value. Should it not be possible
to perform some kinds of dirty and disagreeable work by means of
mechanical or chemical devices--which will undoubtedly be the case,
to judge by the present rate of progress--and should there be no
volunteers, it will be the duty of each worker to perform his share
of such work when his turn comes. No false pride and no irrational
disdain of useful labor will be recognized. These exist only in our
state of drones, where idleness is considered enviable, and where
those workers are the most despised whose tasks are the hardest
and most unpleasant ones, and often the most needful to society.
To-day the most disagreeable tasks are the ones most poorly paid.
The reason for this is that we have a great many workers who have
been maintained at a low level of civilization, whom the constant
revolution in the process of production has cast out into the
street, as a reserve force, and who, in order to live, must perform
the lowest kinds of work, at wages that even make the introduction
of machinery for such work “unprofitable.” The crushing of stone,
for instance, is notoriously one of the most disagreeable and most
poorly paid employments. It would be a simple matter to have this
crushing of stones done by machinery, as is generally being done
in the United States. But in Germany there is such an abundance of
cheap labor, that the introduction of the stone-crusher would not
“pay.”[234] Street-cleaning, the cleaning of sewers, collecting ashes
and garbage, work in shafts and caissons, etc., might, even at the
present time, with the aid of proper machinery, be performed in such
a manner that most of the unpleasantness connected with them for the
laborers, would disappear. But, as a matter of fact, a workingman who
cleans sewers, to guard human beings against the dangers of germs
of disease, is a very useful member of society, while a professor
who teaches falsified history in the interest of the ruling classes,
or a theologian who seeks to mystify the minds by the teaching of
supernatural doctrines, are very harmful individuals.
A great many of our present-day scientists and scholars represent a
guild that is employed and paid to defend and vindicate the dominance
of the ruling classes, by means of the authority of science, to let
this dominance appear just and necessary, and to maintain existing
prejudices. In truth, this guild, to a great extent, poisons the
minds, and performs work hostile to the advancement of civilization,
in the interest of the bourgeoisie and its clients.[235] A social
condition that will henceforth make the existence of such elements
of society impossible, will perform a liberating deed.
On the other hand, true science is often connected with very
disagreeable and revolting work. For instance, when a physician
dissects a corpse in a state of decomposition, or operates upon a
purulent part of the body, or when a chemist examines fæces. These
tasks are often more revolting than the most disagreeable work
performed by unskilled laborers. Yet no one will admit that this is
so. The difference is that the performance of the one work requires
profound study, while the other work can be performed by anyone
without previous preparation. This accounts for the great difference
in their estimation. But in future society, where, by means of equal
opportunities of education for all, the distinctions of educated
and uneducated will disappear, the distinction between skilled and
unskilled labor will disappear also. This is all the more so because
the possibilities of technical development are unlimited, and
much that is manual work to-day will be performed by machines and
mechanical processes. We need but consider the present development
of our mechanical arts; for instance, engraving, wood-cutting, etc.
As the most disagreeable tests often are the most useful ones, so
our conceptions, in regard to pleasant and unpleasant work, like
many other conceptions in the bourgeois world, are superficial and
founded entirely on outward appearances.
[233] “All normal well developed human beings are born _with
approximately the same degree of intelligence, but education, laws
and circumstances make them differ from one another_. Individual
interest, properly understood, is identical with the common or
public interest.” Helvetius--Man and His Education. In regard to
the _great_ majority of men, Helvetius is right; what does differ
are the talents for various occupations.
[234] “If one had to choose between Communism with all its chances
and the present social order with all its suffering and injustice; if
it were a necessary result of private property that the products of
labor should be divided as we see them to-day, almost in a reverse
ratio to the work performed--_that the largest shares fall to those
who have never worked at all, the next largest to those whose work is
almost nominal, and so on along the line, the remuneration becoming
smaller as the work becomes more difficult and disagreeable, until
at last the most wearing and exhausting labor cannot even be certain
of earning the most needful means of existence; if, we say, the
alternative would be: this or Communism, all scruples in regard
to Communism, both great and small, would be like chaff in the
scales_.”--John Stuart Mill--Political Economy. Mill has honestly
tried to “reform” bourgeois society and to “make it listen to reason;”
of course, in vain; and thus like every rational human being capable
of recognizing the true nature of conditions, he finally became a
Socialist. He did not dare to confess to this during his life-time,
but caused his autobiography, containing his socialistic confession
of faith, to be published after his death. His position was similar
to Darwin’s, who did not wish to be regarded as an atheist during
his life-time. Bourgeois society drives thousands to such hypocrisy.
The bourgeoisie feigns loyalty, piety and submission to authority,
because their rule depends upon the recognition of these virtues by
the masses, but inwardly they jeer at them.
[235] “Learning often serves ignorance as much as progress.”
Buckle--“History of English Civilization.”
8.--Abolition of Trade.--Transformation of Traffic.
As soon as the new society will have placed production on the basis
sketched above, it will--as we have already noted--cease to produce
“goods,” and will only produce commodities to supply the social
demand. As a result of this, trade will also cease to exist, as trade
is needful and possible only in an organization of society founded on
the production of goods. By the abolition of trade a great army of
persons of both sexes will be mobilized for productive activity. This
great army becomes one of producers; it brings forth commodities and
enables society to increase its demands, or makes possible a still
further reduction of the hours of work. To-day these persons live
more or less like parasites on the products of the toil of others.
Still they often work very hard and are burdened with cares, without
earning enough to supply their wants. In the new society commercial
men, agents, jobbers, etc., will be superfluous. In place of the
dozens, hundreds and thousands of stores of all kinds that we find
in every municipality to-day, according to its size, there will be
large municipal store-houses, elegant bazaars, entire exhibitions,
that will require a comparatively small number of persons for their
administration. The entire bustle of trade will be transformed into
a centralized, purely administrative activity. The discharge of its
duties will be simple and will become still more simplified by the
centralization of all social institutions. Traffic will experience
a similar transformation.
Telegraph and telephone lines, railroads, mail service, river and
ocean vessels, street-cars, automobile cars and trucks, air-ships
and flying machines, and whatever all the institutions and vehicles
serving traffic and communication may be called, will have become
~social~ property. In Germany many of these institutions, like the
mail, the telegraph, the telephone system, and most railroads, have
already been made state institutions; their transformation into
public property is a mere matter of form. Here private interests
can no longer be injured. If the state continues to operate in
the present direction, so much the better. But these state-owned
institutions are ~not~ socialistic institutions, as is erroneously
assumed. These institutions are exploited by the state, according to
the same capitalistic principles as if they were privately owned.
Neither the officials nor the workingmen are particularly benefited
by them. The state does not treat them differently from a private
employer. When, for instance, in the bureaus of the national navy and
the railroad administration orders are issued not to employ workingmen
who are over forty years of age, that is a measure which proves the
class character of the state as a state of exploiters, and is bound
to rouse the indignation of the workers. Such and similar measures
resorted to by the state in its capacity of employer, are much worse
than when resorted to by private employers. The latter is always a
small employer compared to the state, and the employment that he
refuses may be granted by another. But the state, monopolizing certain
branches of employment, may, by such maxims, with one blow drive
thousands into poverty. These are not socialistic but capitalistic
actions, and Socialists have every reason to protest against the
assumption that the present state-owned institutions are socialistic
in character and may be regarded as a realization of socialistic
aims.
As large, centralized institutions will replace the millions of
private dealers, and agents of all kinds, so the entire system of
transportation will also assume a different aspect. The millions
of small shipments that are sent out daily to an equal number of
owners, and entail a great waste of work, time and material, will be
absorbed by shipments on a large scale, sent out to the municipal
store-houses and the large centers of manufacture. Here, too, work
will become greatly simplified. As it is much simpler to ship raw
material to a factory employing 1000 workingmen than to ship it to
hundreds of scattered small factories, so the centers of production
and distribution for entire municipalities, or for parts of same,
will mean a considerable saving. This will be to the advantage of
society, but also to the advantage of each individual, for public
interest and personal interest will then be identical. The aspect
of our places of production, of our means of transportation, and
especially also of our residences, will thereby become entirely
changed. They will obtain a much more cheerful aspect. We will be
freed, to a great extent, from the nerve-racking noise, speed and
confusion of our large cities, with their thousands of vehicles of
all kinds. The building of streets, street-cleaning, the manner
of living, the intercourse of people with one another--all will
experience a great transformation. It will then be possible to
carry out hygienic measures easily, which to-day can be carried out
only at a great expense and insufficiently, and often only in the
residential quarters of the wealthy classes.
Under such conditions traffic and transportation must attain their
highest development. Perhaps aerial navigation will be the favorite
means of transportation then. The means of transportation are the
veins that conduct the exchange of products--the circulation--through
the entire body social, and are therefore particularly adapted to
the dissemination of an ~equal standard~ of comfort and culture. To
provide for the extension and ramification of the most perfect means
of transportation to the remotest portions of the provinces will
become a ~necessity to the public welfare~. Here the new society
will set tasks for itself that by far exceed those of present-day
society. This highly perfected system of communication will also
decentralize the masses of humanity that at present congest our large
cities and centers of industry, and will scatter them broadcast over
the land. This will not only be of the greatest benefit to public
health, it will also have a decisive influence on the material and
intellectual progress of civilization.