Transcriber’s Note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.
* * * * *
PICTURES OF THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE
* * * * *
SOME PRESS NOTICES
“Herr Eugene Richter, the Radical member for Hagen in the German
Imperial Parliament, is, as is well known, a sturdy opponent and acute
critic of Socialism. He has embodied his views on the subject in a
little volume freely adapted from Bebel, which has enjoyed immense
popularity in Germany. It has now been skilfully translated with the
sanction of the author. The volume professes to be a description of
the coming socialistic revolution and its results, as described in the
diary of an ardent Socialist, who gradually becomes disillusioned, and
finally falls a victim to the counter revolution caused by internal
anarchy and foreign invasion.”--_Times._
“Herr Richter’s work fairly states what would be the result of
Socialism if men remain as they are now. It is of course open to his
opponents to say that this is altogether an unwarrantable assumption,
but if, and when it is made, the book must be pronounced as eminently
reasonable. As a matter of fact, there could be no other end to
Socialism than that which he sets forth.”--_Spectator._
“It tells the experiences of an ardent Socialist workman and his family
in Berlin during the great coming revolution, and though it is not
directly applicable to English conditions, English readers will find it
interesting and suggestive.”--_Speaker._
“Socialists will gnash their teeth with exasperation as they
read this book. Cool and almost invincible logic, and a powerful
battery of stinging satire, is turned on to the Socialist in every
page.”--_Daylight._
“Deserves to be read by every working man with a stiver to lose,
as also by many well-meaning busybodies that rank considerably
higher.”--_National Observer._
“This is a book which deserves the widest possible circulation
throughout the length and breadth of the land, for it is a powerful
antidote to an insidious political bane.”--_Broad Arrow._
“This will be a counter-irritant to the Bellamy remedies for Society,
for it depicts the miseries of the socialistic régime and its final
overthrow.”--_Sydney Morning Herald._
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & COMPANY, LTD.
PICTURES OF THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE
(Freely adapted from Bebel)
BY
EUGENE RICHTER
MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN PARLIAMENT
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION BY HENRY WRIGHT
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY T. MACKAY
[Illustration]
CHEAP
EDITION
LONDON
GEORGE ALLEN & COMPANY, LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE, 44 AND 45 RATHBONE PLACE
1912
_All Rights Reserved_
* * * * *
FIRST EDITION, _August 1893_
SECOND EDITION, _February 1894_
CHEAP EDITION, _August 1907_, _May 1912_
INTRODUCTION
It has been suggested by the publishers that the English translation of
Eugene Richter’s clever little satire requires a word of introduction,
on this, its new appearance, in a cheap and popular form. In 1893, the
year of its first issue here, Socialism, though a burning question in
Germany, was not an urgent controversy in this country. Since 1893 many
things have happened, and this must be the excuse for the superfluity
of a preface.
In 1893 Socialism in this country was a subject for academic
discussion. In 1907 it has its representatives and its party in
parliament, and it may soon arrive within the range of practical
politics. This may bring about a great reconstruction of parties.
Eugene Richter was the leader of the Liberal Party in the German
Reichstag. The German elections of 1907 show that the rift between the
Socialist party and the Liberals, of which the satire of Richter is
an earlier indication, has grown more pronounced. The same clearing
of the issues has been going on in France. The republican ministry,
under M. Clemenceau, seems to have broken definitely with M. Jaurès and
his Socialist followers. France, above all others, is the country of
clear thought and accurate expression, and more and more the insistent
logic of systematic discussion has brought out the fact that Liberalism
is the real antithesis to Socialism. The French writers, also, who
have shown themselves the most determined opponents of Socialism and
Collectivism, such as M. M. P. Leroy-Beaulieu, De Molinari, and Yves
Guyot, have been proud to describe themselves as disciples of the
Liberal School of Economists. So it naturally comes that the phrase
_l’ennemi c’est le libéralisme_ is an accepted commonplace in the
mouth of the advocates of Socialism. That this truth will emerge as
the result of sustained and serious controversy, here in England, is
equally certain. It is the confusion of desultory discussion, in
a subject-matter where the details have not been presented to us
by experience or authoritative exposition, that still obscures the
issue. Richter’s meritorious attempt to paint for us a picture of the
Socialist future supplies an omission which the socialists do not
attempt to repair, and his little book may arrest attention and suggest
difficulties in quarters which cannot be reached by more weighty and
philosophical criticism.
In these days of social and political introspection, mankind, if not
governed, is largely influenced by ideals, and ideals are provided for
us by the Liberal and by the Socialist parties. Conservatism, which,
after all, is the habitual attitude of the English nation, seems to
hold the balance, and stands for no special ideal, but rather for the
practical experience which notes that reformers’ dreams are not always
fulfilled, and that it is salutary, in the first instance at any rate,
to look askance at things which are new.
The ideal of the Liberal leads him to look for a regeneration of our
social economy through a fuller development of the economic competence
of the individual. This is the fundamental conception of the Liberal
creed, of which a somewhat imperfect expression (so, at least, it is
now said by those who have been taught by events), under the title
of the Manchester school or the school of _laissez-faire_, exercised
so wide an influence during the greater part of last century. The
instructed Liberal will now admit that complete individual freedom,
the goal of the earlier visionaries, though a thing to be sought and
desired, is not a thing to be obtained _per saltum_ by a society which
has behind it a long record of subjection--through periods of customary
communism, serfdom, militarism, and the personal incompetencies of
character which these entail. Progress he regards as the gradual
disentanglement and emancipation of the race from these influences. The
mere fact that we have reached a point when the generous conceptions
of Socialism have been accepted as welcome aspirations of our social
conscience is, to the liberal philosopher, proof of the advance and
improvement of human character, under a system in which the desire
of personal freedom has been the chief formative and disentangling
influence. Society, he will argue, is merely the environment within
which, through the discipline of the ages, human individuality is
seeking to learn the rule which will give it the opportunity of
attaining its fullest expression. To the enthusiast for liberty--the
true Liberal--the valuable thing is the free experience of the
individual and the discipline which that teaches.
The Socialist, on the other hand, asks us to see a vision of progress
in which correct social conduct appears to be habitual and almost
automatic--a rule of life so firmly established that it can be cut
loose from the personal responsibility and self-discipline which is its
origin, and subjected to the autocratically inspired discipline that
emanates from that fortuitous centre of authority which men call the
State. The social liability thus undertaken for a subject population,
the rate at which it is contracted, and the extent to which it may
grow, is not under any control of the State, but must ever be the
direct result of individual action prompted by individual motives. If
the pressure of personal responsibility and self-discipline is removed,
can excesses of unsocial conduct be controlled, can the risks of life
be met, by a substitution of collective for personal calculation,
contrivance, and effort? The Socialist is sanguine that he can give a
satisfactory answer to such questionings.
Happily there is no problem so weighty, so profound, or so important,
that its discussion cannot be relieved by a touch of humour. Herr
Richter’s humour, his translator remarks, is Teutonic. This means,
we apprehend, that the mock-heroic vein in which his narrative is
couched is admirably preserved throughout. This, indeed, is its great
artistic merit. We all recognise the magnanimity and generosity of
our Socialist friends. Some of them, even in the private relations of
life, may be as admirable as their sentiments, and it is an irrelevant
waste of time to dispute their public spirit and virtue. There is,
however, no authoritative exposition of the Socialist programme; and
this, after all, and not the magnanimity of its doctrine, is the
subject on which we require information. If we declare our difficulty
in accepting as practicable the abolition of money and the substitution
of a labour-note currency, as required by Marx, we are reminded,
fairly enough, that Marx’s views have been demolished by his disciple,
Edward Bernstein, a new leader of German Socialism, and that they are
rejected by English Fabians. The policy of Fabians, German and English,
is essentially a hand-to-mouth policy. It is hostile to the private
employment of capital, but it has put forward no comprehensive plan for
carrying its views into effect. It is, moreover, pertinently objected
by the more logical or anarchical Socialists (the section represented
by such writers as Prince Krapotkine in his recently published
_Conquest of Bread_) that, by an extension of municipal trading, all
that is compassed is the substitution of the rule of the political boss
for the rule of the private capitalist, a plan which merely shifts
the centre from which the tyranny of the enforced subordination of
industry emanates. The Liberal controversialist, therefore, who wishes
to criticise in detail the proposals of his opponents, is placed in a
difficulty. He admits the imperfections of existing society; he accepts
the laudatory estimate which the Socialists give of their own motives,
but owing to lack of authoritative exposition, he is driven to work out
for himself the details of the Socialist policy.
This Herr Richter has done in an admirable manner. A very complete
verisimilitude is sustained throughout his story, and the humour
never degenerates into farce. He is as serious as was Defoe in his
description of Robinson Crusoe, and if the reality of the picture is
less convincing, that is due, not to the unskilfulness of the author,
but to the incongruous and unthinkable nature of the Socialist theory,
when attempt is made to reduce it to practical details.
On one other point the attention of the reader should dwell. Those
controversialists, who, so to speak, argue with their feet on the
solid earth, are under a disadvantage, as compared with their aerial
and cloud-encompassed opponents, in that they accept the society of
to-day as necessarily the father of the society of to-morrow. They
recognise the defects and inequalities of the existing system, but
the best remedy they can offer is admittedly a gradual and imperfect
one. On the other hand, the Socialist is not fettered by any need to
refer to defects which may arise in his Utopia. Experience has never
had an opportunity of testing its principles in the concrete, and it
is difficult to criticise a fabric which is still in the womb of the
future. The Socialist future is recommended to us as a land of milk
and honey, but how is human kind to be driven to and shepherded in
these pastures? “When I am King,” said honest Jack Cade, “there shall
be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will apparel
them in one livery, that they may agree like brothers, and worship me,
their lord.” In the modern instance, this lordship of Jack Cade, the
political “boss,” is kept studiously in the background, but the point
is all important; for without discipline and regulation, and force at
the back of it, and of the most rigid and exacting kind, the machinery
of Socialism will not work at all. We are weary of accounts of the
equity and beneficence of the Socialist State, but complete silence
is observed as to its darker possibilities and to the infraction of
our liberties which it necessarily implies. This is a legitimate point
for criticism, and Herr Richter has worked it out hypothetically--the
only way in which it is possible for us to do so--and with grave and
laborious industry.
The time indeed has come for a serious joining of these issues. The
philosopher, the critic, the economist, and the humourist are all
under obligation to throw what light they can on the subject-matter of
this controversy. Herr Richter’s ingenious picture of the Socialist
Utopia is a valuable contribution to the elucidation of the problem of
what would happen if human nature and mortal affairs were all totally
different from what they at present are. If the inquiry seems to end in
a _reductio ad absurdum_, it is not our author’s fault.
T. MACKAY.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION v
I. CELEBRATION-DAY 1
II. THE NEW LAWS 4
III. DISCONTENTED PEOPLE 6
IV. THE CHOICE OF TRADES 8
V. A PARLIAMENTARY SITTING 11
VI. ASSIGNMENT OF WORK 16
VII. NEWS FROM THE PROVINCES 22
VIII. THE LAST DAY TOGETHER 26
IX. THE GREAT MIGRATION 30
X. THE NEW CURRENCY 34
XI. THE NEW DWELLINGS 37
XII. THE NEW STATE COOKSHOPS 42
XIII. A VEXING INCIDENT 47
XIV. A MINISTERIAL CRISIS 49
XV. EMIGRATION 51
XVI. RETIREMENT OF THE CHANCELLOR 54
XVII. IN AND ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS 56
XVIII. FAMILY MATTERS 60
XIX. RECREATIONS OF THE PEOPLE 64
XX. DISAGREEABLE EXPERIENCES 68
XXI. FLIGHT 72
XXII. ANOTHER NEW CHANCELLOR 76
XXIII. FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS 78
XXIV. THE ELECTION STIR 82
XXV. SAD NEWS 88
XXVI. THE RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS 90
XXVII. A LARGE DEFICIT 93
XXVIII. DOMESTIC AFFAIRS 97
XXIX. A STORMY PARLIAMENTARY SITTING 100
XXX. THREATENED STRIKE 119
XXXI. MENACING DIPLOMATIC NOTES 121
XXXII. GREAT STRIKE AND SIMULTANEOUS OUTBREAK
OF WAR 124
XXXIII. THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION BEGINS 126
XXXIV. DISHEARTENING NEWS 129
XXXV. THE LAST CHAPTER 131
* * * * *
PICTURES OF THE SOCIALISTIC FUTURE.
CHAPTER I. CELEBRATION DAY.
The red flag of international Socialism waves from the palace and from
all the public buildings of Berlin. If our immortal Bebel could but
have lived to see this! He always used to tell the bourgeoisie that
“the catastrophe was almost at their very doors.” Friedrich Engels had
fixed 1898 as the year of the ultimate triumph of socialistic ideas.
Well, it did not come quite so soon, but it has not taken much longer.
This, however, is immaterial. The main thing is the fact that all
our long years of toil and battling for the righteous cause of the
people are now crowned with success. The old rotten regime, with
its ascendency of capital, and its system of plundering the working
classes, has crumbled to pieces. And for the benefit of my children,
and children’s children, I intend to set down, in a humble way, some
little account of the beginning of this new reign of brotherhood and
universal philanthropy. I, too, have not been altogether without
some small share in this new birth of mankind. All, both in time and
money, that I have been able for a generation past to snatch from
the practice of my craft as an honest bookbinder, and all that my
family could spare, I have devoted to the furtherance of our aims. I
am also indebted to the literature of Socialism, and to my connection
with political clubs, for my mental culture and my soundness on all
socialistic points. My wife and children are in full accord with me.
Our beloved Bebel’s book on women has long been the highest gospel to
my better half, Paula.
The birthday of the new socialistic order happened to be our silver
wedding-day; and now, behold, to-day’s celebration day has added fresh
happiness to us as a family. My son, Franz, has become engaged to Agnes
Müller. The two have long known each other, and the strong attachment
is mutual. So in all the elevation of mind, inspired by this great day,
we have knit up this new bond of affection. They are both somewhat
young yet, but they are, nevertheless, both good hands at their trades.
He is a compositor, she a milliner. So there is ground to hope it
will turn out a good match. They intend to marry as soon as the new
regulations in respect of work, arrangements of dwellings, and so on,
shall have reached completion.
After dinner we all took a stroll _unter den Linden_. My stars! what a
crowd there was! And what endless rejoicing! Not one single discordant
tone to mar the harmony of the great celebration day. The police
is disbanded, the people themselves maintaining order in the most
exemplary manner.
In the palace gardens, in the square in front, and all around the
palace, vast crowds were gathered, which showed unmistakable unanimity
and steadfastness of aim. The new Government was assembled in the
palace. Colleagues, chosen from amongst the foremost leaders of the
Socialist party, have provisionally taken over the reins of Government.
The Socialist members of the town council form, for the present,
the corporation. Whenever, from time to time, one of our new rulers
chanced to show himself at one of the windows, or on a balcony, the
uncontrollable ecstasy of the people would break out afresh, showing
itself in frantic waving of hats and handkerchiefs, and in singing the
workmen’s Marseillaise.
In the evening there was a grand illumination. The statues of the old
kings and marshals, decorated with red flags, looked strange enough
in the red glare of so much bengal fire. The days of these statues
are, however, numbered, and they will shortly have to give place to
statues of bygone heroes of Socialism. It has already been determined,
I hear, to remove the statues of the two Humboldts from the front
of the university, and to place there in their stead those of Marx
and Ferdinand Lassalle. The statue of Frederic the Great, _unter den
Linden_, is to be replaced by that of our immortal Liebknecht.
Upon our return home we kept up, in our cosy family circle, this double
celebration till a late hour. My wife’s father, who hitherto has not
made much account of Socialism, was with us on the occasion, and was
very sympathetic and cheery.
We are full of hope that we shall now soon vacate our humble dwelling,
three storeys high, and exchange it for something better. Well, well,
the old place, after all, has witnessed many a quiet joy of ours, no
lack of trouble and sorrow, and plenty of honest endeavour as well.