The union between Franz and Agnes is suddenly put off indefinitely. The
police have to-day distributed the orders relating to the occupations
of the people, which orders are based partly upon the registration
lately made, and partly upon the plan organised by the Government for
regulating production and consumption.
True, Franz is to remain a compositor, but, unfortunately, he can’t
stay in Berlin, but is sent to Leipsig. Berlin requires now hardly
one-twentieth part of the number of compositors it formerly employed.
None but absolutely reliable Socialists are allowed on the _Onward_.
Now Franz, through some unguarded expressions in Palace Square
over that unfortunate savings bank business, is regarded with some
suspicion. Franz will have it, too, that politics have had something to
do with the assignment of labour; and he says, for instance, that in
Berlin the Younkers have been completely scattered as a party. One had
to go as a paperhanger to Inowrazlaw because there was a scarcity of
paperhangers there, whereas in Berlin there are too many. Franz quite
lost all patience, and said it seemed to him that the old law against
the Socialists, with its expatriation, had come to life again. Well,
we must excuse a little haste in an engaged young man who sees himself
suddenly, and for an indefinite period, cut off from the girl of his
heart.
I tried to offer Franz a little comfort by remarking that in the
very next house a married couple had been separated by the action
of this law. The wife goes to Oppeln in the capacity of nurse, the
husband to Magdeburg as a bookkeeper. This set my wife going, and she
wanted to know how anyone dared to separate husband and wife? It was
infamous, and so on. The good soul entirely forgot that in our new
community marriage is a purely private relationship, as Bebel lucidly
explained in his book on woman. The marriage knot can at any time,
and without the intervention of any official whatever, be tied and
again untied. The Government is hence not at all in a position to know
who is married, and who is not. In the registries of names we find
therefore, as might be logically expected, that all persons are entered
in their Christian names, and the maiden names of their mothers. In a
well-considered organisation of production and consumption, the living
together of married couples is clearly only practicable where the scale
of occupation allows of such an arrangement; not _vice versâ_. It would
never do to make the organisation of labour in any way dependent upon a
private relationship which might be dissolved at any moment.
My wife reminded me that in old times appointments which were not quite
agreeable to their holders had often been annulled, or exchanges made;
we might anyhow make an effort to get Franz exchanged back to Berlin.
It occurred to me that an old friend and colleague whose acquaintance I
had first made when in durance at Ploezensee, under the law against the
Socialists, held now an influential position on the Labour Organisation
Board. But on going there I found this department at the town hall
besieged by hundreds of people who had come on a similar errand, and I
was unable to obtain entrance to the room. Fortunately I encountered
in the corridor another colleague who is on the same Board. I told him
what we had so much at heart, but he advised me to let the grass grow
a little over the part Franz had taken in the tumult in front of the
palace, before applying for his removal back to Berlin.
I further took advantage of this opportunity to complain that although
my choice of the bookbinder’s craft had been confirmed, I was now no
longer a master as formerly, but only a journeyman. But he told me
there was really no help for this. It appears that in consequence of
the system of doing everything on a large scale the demand for small
masters is much less than ever it was before. He went on to say that
in consequence of a big mistake having been discovered in an account,
there would be a vote of credit brought in to appoint 500 controllers;
and he advised me to apply for one of these posts, or to try for a
place as public checker. I mean to follow his advice.
My wife’s wishes have so far been acceded to that her services
as attendant at one of the Children’s Homes are accepted. But,
unfortunately, she is not appointed to the one where our youngest born
will be. They say that, as a matter of principle, mothers can only
receive appointments as nurses and attendants to such homes where their
own children are not inmates. By this means it is intended to prevent
any preference being shown to one’s own children, and any jealousies
which other mothers might feel. This certainly sounds very fair, but
Paula cannot fail to feel the hardships of it. This is always the way
with women, and they are so inclined to put their private wishes before
State reasons.
Agnes is no longer to be a milliner, but has got an appointment as
a seamstress. There will be no great demand for fine head-gear, or
gew-gaws of any kind now. From all I hear the new scheme of supply aims
solely at the production of all articles _en masse_. Hence it follows,
as a matter of course, that there will be but a very limited demand
for skilled labour, taste, and what more or less approaches to art in
trade. But it is all the same to Agnes, and she says she doesn’t care
what they do with her so long as she can’t share her lot with Franz.
They forget, as I told them, that even Providence itself could not
serve all alike to their full content. “Then they should have left each
one to look after himself,” interrupted Franz; “we could never have
been so badly off under the old system.”
In order to pacify them somewhat, I read to them out of the _Onward_ a
statement in tabular form dealing with the selections of trades people
had made, and with the labour assignments to them. A greater number of
persons had registered themselves as gamekeepers than there are hares
within forty miles’ circumference of Berlin. From the number of entries
made the Government would have no difficulty in posting a hall-porter
at every single door in Berlin: every tree could have its forester,
every horse its groom. There are a great many more nurse-girls than
kitchen-maids registered; more coachmen than ostlers. The number of
young women who have put their names down as waitresses and public
singers is very considerable, but this superabundance is balanced by
the paucity of those who desire to become sick-nurses. There is no lack
of salesmen and saleswomen. The same remark applies to inspectors,
managers, foremen, and similar positions; there is even no scarcity of
acrobats. The entries for the more arduous labours of the pavior, the
stoker, the smelter are more sparse. Those who have manifested a desire
to become cleansers of sewers are, numerically, not a strong body.
Under these circumstances, what has the Government to do in order to
bring their scheme for organising production and consumption into
some sort of harmony with the entries made by the people? Should
Government attempt a settlement by fixing a lower rate of wages for
those branches which showed any over-crowding, and a higher rate for
those labours which were not so coveted? This would be a subversion of
the fundamental principles of Socialism. Every kind of labour which
is useful to the community (Bebel always taught) must appear of equal
value in the eyes of the community. The receipt of unequal wages would
soon tend to favour inequalities in the style of living; or it would
enable the better paid ones to effect savings. By this latter means,
and indirectly, in the course of time a capitalist class would grow
up, and thus the whole socialistic system of production be thrown
into disorder. Government had under its consideration the suggestion
to effect a settlement of the difficulty by fixing working-days by
varying lengths. The objection to this was that some violence must then
inevitably be done to the natural and necessary dependence of various
occupations upon each other. That matter of supply and demand, which
played such a prominent part under the old reign of capital, is not to
be suffered under any circumstances to come up again.
Government reserves to itself the right to direct criminals to do the
more disagreeable kinds of work. It has furthermore adopted the counsel
which Bebel used to give, _viz._, that of allowing more variety of work
to the same individual. Perhaps in the course of time we may see the
same workmen, during different hours of the same day, engaged in the
most diverse and manifold occupations.
For the present no other plan seemed feasible than that of a lottery.
The entries for each trade were set apart by themselves, and from
these entries the appointments required for each branch of trade by
the Government organisation scheme were settled by a simple drawing of
lots. Those who drew blanks in the first lottery cast lots again and
again until they got a trade; and in this way the vacancies were filled
up in these branches of labour for which there had been a scarcity
of applicants. I understand that a kind of labour they do not at all
relish has, in this way, fallen to the lot of a good many people.
Franz says there always have been horse-raffles and dog-raffles and
all kinds of raffles, but this is the first time that man-raffles have
taken place. He says that even at the very beginning the Government are
so at their wits’ end that they have to resort to a toss-up.
“But can’t you see,” I said to him, “that for the future all things are
to be arranged on an entirely new and different basis? For the present
we are still feeling the after effects of the old system of exploiting,
and of the dominion of capital. Once let the spirit of Socialism be
fully awakened, and enjoy universal sway, and you will find that the
most arduous, disagreeable, and dangerous labours will be the very ones
which will draw the greatest numbers of volunteers; and the reason
is quite obvious. These volunteers will be sustained by the lofty
consciousness that their labours are for the good of the public at
large, and they will no longer have the reflection that they minister
to the vile lust of gain of unprincipled plunderers.”
But I could not get the young people to see things in this light.