MARX AND SOCIALISTIC SOCIAL THOUGHT
Socialism proper had its beginning in the second and third decades of
the nineteenth century. It developed primarily in continental Europe
and in England. Although Plato’s communism and More’s utopianism were
forerunners of socialism, the social unrest in Europe in the early
years of the nineteenth century was the direct causal factor. Socialism
also represented a reaction against the prevailing _laissez faire_
thought regarding the evils of society and the suffering of the poorer
classes.
Socialism began with the concepts and experiments of Saint Simon
and Fourier in France, of Robert Owen in England, and of Rodbertus,
Lassalle, Marx, and Engels in Germany. In France the movement was
carried forward by Proudhon and Blanc; and in England by the Christian
socialists, chiefly Maurice and Kingsley. In Germany, Marx maintained
the position of leadership for many decades, and finally became the
best known exponent of socialist thought in the world.
In his _New Christianity_, Saint Simon, who was referred to in the
preceding chapter, made a unique contribution to social thought. His
thinking was not deep, or systematic, but characterized by ingenuity.
Saint Simon advocated a society in which only useful things are
produced. In this industrial order, men of science will be in control.
Saint Simon was greatly interested in the welfare of the poorest
classes. His _New Christianity_ was essentially a plea that the whole
world devote itself to the improvment of the living conditions of the
very poor. The influence which Saint Simon had upon Comte has already
been mentioned.
Another important socialistic ideal was developed by Fourier
(1772–1837), who worked out a social system in which the _phalange_
is the chief instrument in securing a perfect society. The phalange
is composed of from twenty-four to thirty-two groups of people. Each
group comprises from seven to nine individuals. The unifying bond is
natural attraction, or free elective love and sympathy. The members
of each phalange live communistically in a large commodious structure
called a _phalanstère_. The phalanges were to unite in one large world
federation, with headquarters at Constantinople.
The people work according to their interests, frequently changing
occupations. The products of labor are subdivided; a minimum goes
equally to all, irrespective of any conditioning factors; of the
remainder five-twelfths goes to labor, three-twelfths to special
ability, and four-twelfths to capital. Difficult common labor is paid
the most, on the assumption that he who does pleasant labor receives
pay in mental ways. Every individual should have an opportunity to
become a capitalist; and every woman should be enabled to become
independent economically. These utopian plans of Fourier called for a
sudden and complete transformation of human nature. They underestimated
the force of human selfishness.
Socialistic thought was carried into politics by Louis Blanc
(1811–1882). He declared that no genuine reformation of society could
take place until political machinery was organized democratically.
The democratic state would endow national workshops. These workshops
would be operated by industrial associations composed of workingmen,
who would elect their own officers, regulate their own industries, and
provide for the distribution of the returns from industry. Once started
by the state these industrial associations will expand and increase in
number until the whole nation, and then the world, will be organized in
this way.
Blanc participated in the French Revolution of 1848 and became a member
of the provisional government. His national workshop idea failed
in practice. His enemies were partly responsible for this defeat,
because the essentials of productive work and guarantees of character
which Blanc urged were disregarded. The fact, however, that these two
essentials were considered necessary for the successful development
of national workshops indicates that the system, under average
conditions, might not be a success.
Nearly all the early socialists were evolutionists rather than
revolutionists. They did not advocate class struggle theories. They
developed bourgeois rather than proletariat ideas. An outstanding
exception to these statements is found in the radical attitude of
Babeuf (1760–1797), who was essentially a forerunner of Marxian
socialism and also of the anarchistic philosophy of Proudhon and
Bakunin. Babeuf vigorously proclaimed the sovereignty of the
proletariat, and advocated the abolition of inheritance laws and
of private property. He urged that the property of corporations be
confiscated, and that a communistic state be established.
The well-known principles of justice, liberty, and equality were
utilized by Proudhon (1809–1865), a philosophic anarchist. He would
have the same wages paid to an unskilled workman as to a successful
business or professional man. He predicted that equalization of
opportunity would bring about an equalization of ability.
Proudhon attacked property rights. He declared that property is theft.
In itself property is lifeless, but it nevertheless demands rent,
interest, or profits, or all three. It protects itself behind law, and
in order to guarantee its alleged rights, it calls out the militia,
evicts families, and takes bread from the mouths of little children. It
robs labor of its just returns.[XIV-1]
By unsatisfactory reasoning Proudhon urged the free development of
individuals in society, whereby each individual would learn to govern
himself so well in society that government would no longer be needed.
This theory is Proudhon’s concept of anarchy. In this doctrine Proudhon
neglects to provide an adequate dynamic or to foresee the ultimate
complexity of human relations.
In England, Robert Owen (1771–1858) became a founder of socialism. As
a factory manager, Owen developed social ideas. Living in an age of
long hours, woman and child labor of the worst forms, and deplorable
housing conditions, Owen deserves the credit of inaugurating a
twentieth century program of welfare work. It was Owen’s theory that
the workingman is so subject to his environment that even his character
is determined for him. Owen attempted in theory and practice to
prevent the impingement of the economic environment upon the workers.
He believed in self-governing organizations of labor. He inaugurated
the co-operative movement as a means of securing industrial justice
and of giving the workingman a chance at the free development of his
personality.
Owen objected to Malthus’ doctrine of population on the ground that it
failed to consider the marvelous increase in the means of subsistence
which might come from the application of inventive genius to the
sources of the food supply. He also protested against the Malthusian
argument for the restriction of population, because this argument did
not give due weight to the unjust distribution of wealth and to the
enslaving social organization to which labor is subject.
Owen’s experiments, particularly at New Harmony, Indiana, demonstrated
that a communistic organization of society in itself cannot save
society. The strength of Owen’s social thought lay in its accentuation
of the need for providing labor with opportunities of industrial
initiative and co-operation.
During the middle of the nineteenth century in England, the Christian
socialists flourished. The founders of this movement were Frederick
Maurice and Charles Kingsley. These men were clergymen who became
greatly interested in the welfare of the working classes. They made
clear the evils of the prevailing economic order, the formality of the
Manchester school of economics, and proposed to apply the principles of
Christianity to the economic system of the day. They opposed economic
competition. For this method they urged the substitution of the ethical
and spiritual principles of co-operation and love in industrial
relationships--for both employer and employee in all their dealings
with each other. Their socialism is essentially a vigorous application
of Christian love to every-day relationships.
The influence of Christian socialism strengthened the experiment
of the Rochdale weavers who in 1844 had organized a consumers’
co-operative society. The concept of consumers’ co-operation received
its original impetus from the thought and practice of Robert Owen,
achieved a measurable degree of concreteness under the efforts of the
Rochdale weavers, and through Maurice and Kingsley won the assistance
of Christianity.
In Germany, Rodbertus, Lassalle, Marx and Engels molded the thinking of
socialists about the nature of human society. Rodbertus (1805–1875),
the son of a university professor, was a quiet, deep thinker about
social processes. According to his analysis of social development,
three stages may be pointed out. The first was marked by slavery, or
by private property in human beings. The second state is an indirect
form of the first, namely, one of private property in land and capital.
Through this type of ownership the economically fortunate or shrewd
are able to exercise widespread power over the unfortunate and the
uneducated. In the third state, toward which society is trending,
the concept of service will rule, and private property as a dominant
concept will be compelled to take a thoroughly subordinate place in
human activities. The ultimate goal, according to Rodbertus, is a world
communist society, with land and capital as national property, and with
labor rewarded according to its productiveness.[XIV-2]
Rodbertus denied the validity of the wages fund theory and argued
that wages are not paid by capital; it is that part of the productive
earnings of labor which labor receives. His fundamental thesis is
that labor is the source and measure of all value. He advocated an
evolutionary procedure whereby the state should pass legislation that
would guarantee just returns to labor. This form of state socialism is
to be gradually developed, until a scientific socialism is reached with
its emphasis upon a government of labor, for labor, and by labor.
The founder of Social Democracy in Germany, Ferdinand Lassalle
(1825–1864), wrote two significant treatises, the _Bastiat-Schulze_
and the _Working Men’s Programme_. Lassalle believed that natural
conditions are productive of misery and vice, and that it is the
chief business of the state to extricate men from this thraldom. The
state should provide means for lifting the laboring man to a level of
industrial freedom.
Lassalle objected to the theory known as the iron law of wages. He
protested against the smallness of the share of his earnings which the
laborer really receives. He advocated the establishment of productive
associations wherein labor might perform the double function of
workman and capitalist. In order that these productive associations
might be started, the state should advance funds. After the productive
associations have secured momentum they will continue by virtue of
their own strength. Ultimately, industry will be conducted exclusively
through productive associations; both industrial and social democracy
will finally rule in political life. Lassalle became the founder of
the Social Democratic party in Germany. Lassalle boldly denounced the
reactionary classes that were in political power in his time and led
the workers in a movement to overthrow the existing social order.[XIV-3]
The name of Karl Marx (1818–1883) is supreme on the list of socialists.
Marx was born in Germany of Jewish parents, and educated at the
universities of Bonn and Berlin. He became a journalist, but the paper
which he edited was considered too liberal and was suppressed. Marx
went to Paris in 1842, where he continued editorial work. At this
time he was influenced by French socialism and its leader, Proudhon.
In 1845, he was expelled from Paris at the request of the Prussian
government. He went to Brussels. In the meantime a deep friendship with
Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) had been established.
In 1847, Marx and Engels issued the Communist Manifesto.[XIV-4] This
radical document was circulated widely and became extensively accepted
by social revolutionists. Its doctrines were:
1. Abolition of property in lands; rents to be used for public purposes.
2. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
3. Progressive income tax.
4. Nationalization of the means of transportation and commerce.
5. Extension of productive enterprises by the state.
6. Compulsory labor.
7. Free education; no child labor.
8. Elimination of the distrust between town and country.
Marx returned to Germany and established the _Neue Rheinische Zeitung_
in Cologne in 1848. Engels served as editor. Because of revolutionary
activity, Marx was forced to leave Germany in 1849. He went to Paris
and then to London, where he became a newspaper correspondent and where
he lived until his death in 1883.
In 1859, the _Kritik der politischen Oekonomie_ was published. It
contains the essential principles of Marx’s system of thought. In 1864,
Marx found the opportunity for which he had long been seeking, namely,
to organize the workers of the world into one large association. On
September 28, in St. Martin’s Hall, Marx in the presence of a vast
concourse of people, he initiated the “International Workingmen’s
Association.” The fundamental idea was to organize the societies of
workingmen which have a common purpose, namely, the emancipation of the
working classes, into a world or international union for co-operative
purposes. The International proposes that governments shall put the
interests of the working classes to the forefront of national concern,
and subordinate the present attention they give to war, diplomacy, and
national jealousies.
In 1869, Marx, aided by Karl Liebknecht (1826–1900), Engels and others,
organized in Germany the Social Democratic Labor Party. The movement
which Lassalle had started became united with the Marxian movement,
and in 1875 the German Social Democracy presented a united front to
capitalism. Marx, Engels, Liebknecht, and Bebel are its best-known
leaders. Bismarck was forced to acknowledge its power, and condescended
to inaugurate a system of social insurance in order to appease its rank
and file.
In 1867, 1885, and 1895, the three volumes of _Das Kapital_ appeared,
in chronological order.[XIV-5] By this work, _Capital_, Marx is known
throughout the world. The style is laborious; the analyses are minute
and in places difficult to follow. The method is historical. Marx
analyzes social evolution. He traces the rise of capitalism from its
humble beginnings to its autocratic fruition. In this development the
instruments of capital showed a tendency to congregate in a decreasing
number of hands. By this token it will be seen that the number of the
propertyless ever increases. Likewise, their influence decreases. In
this way, the proletariat is developed, a product of capitalism.
A definite class, the capitalist, acquires increasing industrial,
political, and social power. The proletariat suffer increasing misery.
They own nothing except their ability to labor. They are forced to
throw this human quality on the commercial market and sell it to the
highest bidder. But capitalism increases the number of the proletariat.
This tendency, together with the increase in population, creates a
superabundance of labor. Laborers are forced to compete in the labor
market. The laborers who will sell their labor for the least wages will
be employed. Capitalism thus forces wages to a mere subsistence level,
with the result that the misery and suffering of the proletariat are
greatly augmented. In this way the laborer is crushed by the operation
of the iron law of wages.
By the operation of the iron law, the capitalist is enabled to
appropriate to himself an increasing amount of the earnings of labor.
This appropriated amount is called the surplus value. Marx developed at
length the concept of surplus value. Capitalism exploits the laborer by
taking possession of as large a proportion of the earnings of labor as
it can obtain--through its might and its shrewdness.
The growth of capitalism, also, causes a class consciousness to develop
among the members of the proletariat. This class consciousness is
increasing. It produces labor organizations; these organizations are
acquiring vast power. The struggles between them and the capitalistic
classes go on. The two groups have little in common. By force of
numbers the proletariat are bound finally to win, and to overthrow the
capitalistic classes which are now in power. They will seize the means
of production and manage them for the good of all.
Marx did not outline an utopia. He described the historical evolution
of society as he saw it, and he participated in plans for the
organization of all laborers for their common good. Inasmuch as Marx
advocated compulsory labor, the laboring class under Marxian socialism
would include all people. Marx advocated an equal distribution of
wealth, not in the sense of the popular misconception of that term, but
in the sense that the earnings from the industry shall be distributed
to the workers in proportion to their achievements.
In Russia, Marxian socialism in 1918 came into power. The Bolsheviki
represent the radical wing of the Marxian followers. They established
essentially a dictatorship of the proletariat, substituting it for the
dictatorship of capitalists which existed under the reign of the czars.
Bolshevism substitutes occupation for geographic area as a basis of
representative government. This program is deficient and sociologically
untenable, because occupational groups do not encompass all phases of
human personality. A government based on occupational group needs is
representative of only a portion of the elements of human life. When
seventy-five per cent of the people are illiterate, as has been the
case in Russia, no form of government whether democratic or not can be
other than a dictatorship.
Revolutionary socialism coincides, in part, with syndicalism, a
movement which developed in France and England. Syndicalism is a
radical form of trade unionism. It declares that workingmen cannot
hope for genuine betterment through politics. They must organize and
inaugurate a general strike. This universal strike will paralyze the
present régime and render it helpless. As a result the workers will
come into power. In the meantime, the workers must keep up a running
warfare with capitalists and the government which supports capitalism.
Sabotage is a common concept among syndicalists. It implies a program
of destroying machinery, hindering the production of economic goods,
and creating inefficiency in capitalistic industry. In both England
and the United States, syndicalism has appeared. In the United States,
the Industrial Workers of the World, or I. W. W., confess to doctrines
similar to those which have been espoused in Europe under the name of
syndicalism. The philosophic exponent of syndicalism has been George
Sorel.
Revolutionary socialism has been paralleled in certain ways by
anarchism. These teachings first acquired force through the writings
of Proudhon. Another leading anarchist was the Russian nobleman and
military officer, Michael Bakunin (1814–1876). Although of aristocratic
birth, Bakunin became furious when he observed the human misery among
the masses which Russian autocracy was producing. He became an
agitator. He was confined in dungeons and exiled to Siberia. He escaped
from Siberia, and by way of California went to England and then to
Switzerland. His chief work is _God and the State_. Vital, vigorous,
magnetic, fearless--these are the adjectives which describe the
personality of Bakunin.
Bakunin scorned rank, birth, and fortune. He attacked external
authority of all kinds. He denied the validity of concepts such as
“God” and the “state”; they are parts of systems which enslave the free
will of man. Classes must be abolished and the masses of individuals
freed from all enslaving institutions, such as marriage, the church,
the state.
In a related way Prince Kropotkin (1842–1921) developed anarchistic
principles. Peter A. Kropotkin was of aristocratic Russian birth and
a person of mild, courteous manners. His father was a serf owner; the
son could not bear to see the sufferings which the serfs underwent.
He threw away the privileges of rank and became a defender of the
oppressed. He attempted to correlate the theories of anarchism
with those of mutual aid, and fought socialism with the concept of
centralized control on the ground that it would destroy individual
liberty.[XIV-6] In Chapter XXII, Kropotkin’s theory of mutual aid will
be analyzed.
Anarchism and socialism make similar attacks upon the evils of
capitalism. Both are determined to overthrow capitalism. Both believe
in revolt. They part ways when they advocate a constructive program for
the new order which shall follow the violent overthrow of capitalism.
Unlike socialism, anarchism holds that all government is an evil and
that industry can go on without organization. It advocates a free
communism.
One of the essentials in the Communist Manifesto was the appropriation
of rents for public purposes. Starting from a viewpoint distinctly
different from that of Karl Marx, Henry George (1839–1897) became the
founder of single tax propaganda. In early manhood Henry George came
to San Francisco and established a struggling newspaper. At once he
found himself practically overwhelmed by the brutal competition of the
metropolitan press and telegraphic news service. George was crushed by
monopoly. It was this defeat which gave him a new idea--an idea that
was to command the attention of the world.
As George walked the streets of New York City he puzzled over the
existence of indescribable destitution and suffering in the shadow
of the princely rich with their ostentatious luxuries.[XIV-7] Why in
a land blessed with generous natural resources should there be such
poverty? Although discovery has followed discovery and invention has
followed invention, neither has lessened the toil of those who most
need respite. With material progress poverty takes on a larger aspect.
Material progress may be likened to an immense wedge which is being
forced, not underneath society, but through society. “Those who are
above the point of separation are elevated, but those who are below are
crushed down.”[XIV-8] George set himself the task of finding out why
poverty is associated with progress.
This cause George found in the land situation. As land increases
in value, poverty increases. The price of land is an index of the
disparity in the economic conditions of the people at the extremes of
the social scale. Land is more valuable in New York City than in San
Francisco, and there is more squalor and misery in New York City than
in San Francisco. Land is more valuable in London than in New York
City, and likewise there is more squalor and destitution in London than
in New York City.
When increasing numbers of people live in a limited area under a system
of private property in land, rents are raised and land values go up.
The cost of living mounts, wages are kept to a minimum, overcongestion
of population ensues; and again, rents and land values are increased.
Upon what does title to land rest? Where did it originate? In force.
But has the first comer at a banquet the right to turn back all the
chairs, and claim that none of the other guests shall partake of the
food that has been provided? Does the first passenger who enters a
railroad car thereby possess the right to keep out all other persons,
or admit them only upon payment to him of sums of money? “We arrive
and we depart, guests at a banquet continually spread, spectators
and participants in an entertainment where there is room for all who
come.”[XIV-10] These illustrations are pertinent to the unjust elements
in the present economic order.
As a result of private property in land, the owner possesses power over
the tenant, a power which is tantamount to a system of slavery. There
is nothing strange, therefore, in the poverty phenomena of the world.
The Creator has not placed in the world the taint of injustice. The
fact that amid our highest civilization men faint and die with want,
is not because of the niggardliness of nature or the injustice of the
Creator, but is due to the injustice of man.[XIV-11] Since the owner of
land receives wealth without labor to an increasing degree, so there is
an increasing robbery of earnings of those who labor.
George attacked Malthusianism, and pointed out the deficiencies in the
proposed remedies for poverty, such as greater economy in government,
diffusion of knowledge, and improved habits of industry. He then
proceeded to give his own and well known solution, namely, making land
common property through a system of taxation of land values alone.
Since land, not labor, is the source of all wealth, it is just and
necessary to make land common property.
The weakness of Henry George’s argument lies in his single panacea
for securing justice. He over-emphasized the importance of one line
of procedure. He neglects other important factors, such as a selfish
human nature. He rendered, however, a splendid service in showing
the weaknesses in the system of private property in land. In this
connection he has been unequaled in his contribution to social thought.
In this discussion of the contributions of socialism to social thought,
many types or expressions of socialism have not been presented. The
educational propaganda of the Fabian socialists in England should be
mentioned as being very effective. Although small in number this group
of intellectuals, the best known being Sidney and Beatrice Webb, have
exerted a constructive and practical influence upon social thought.
Socialism has assumed various phases. (1) It originated in utopianism
and in a loose, broad type of communism. (2) It then took the form
of associationism, urging the organization of groups of associated
individuals, such as phalanges. As utopianism was in part the
expression of a poetic imagination, so associationism represented a
bourgeois philosophy. (3) In the next place socialism assumed political
aspirations, and advocated a governmental program whereby the existing
governments shall gradually extend their power until they exercise
control over rent-producing land and interest-producing capital. (4)
State socialism, however, was supplanted in many minds by ideas of
more radical procedure. Marxian socialism holds that a class conflict
is inevitable and that the workers must overthrow the capitalists,
together with the governments which they control. (5) To the other
radical extreme is philosophic anarchism, with its emphasis upon
the abolition of all existing governments and the establishment of
individual autonomy.
Socialism has made several contributions to social thought. (1) It has
called the attention of civilized mankind, and particularly of the
economically wealthy classes, to the needs of the weaker classes. It
has introduced humanitarian concepts into the minds of the socially
unthinking educated classes. (2) It has jolted many economic autocrats
from their thrones of power. It has thrown the spot light of publicity
upon the selfish and wicked ostentation of the hereditary leisure
classes. (3) It has held social theory to a more practical course
and to developing more immediate social solutions than it otherwise
would have achieved. (4) It has developed a power equal to that held
by individualism. It has helped to demonstrate the dualistic nature
of social evolution, that is, that there are two poles to human life
rather than one.