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Bound 
SEP  8     1904 


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FROMy-rtlE   .  .     .    f  y  ^*      J 

UNITED  STATES  GOVERNMENT 


THROUGH 


THE  ' 

Intemafiooar  Socialist  Review 


A  MONTHLY  JOURNAL 
OF  INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST  THOUGHT 


VOLUME  IV 


JULY,   1903-JUNE,   1904 


CHIOAOO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

1904 


Ks^H-  ^^0  C'^y 


f^^B  1  3  1980 


CONTENTS 


The  Problem  of  Rapid  TraDfiit  in 

Cities   42 

ANDERSON,  ANDREW  M.— 

Attstralian    Labor    and    Socialist     _ 

News     82-844 

The  Class  Struggle  In  Australia . .   304 

The  Elections  In  Australia 526 

Socialism  In  Australia 466 

ATKINSON,  WARRKN— 

Value    and    the    Distribution    of 

Commodities    144 

BRBBU  AUGUST— 

Features  of  the  Electoral  Battle.     65 
BRECKON.   CHARLES  L.— 

For   Clear   Cut    Constitution    and 

Platform    606 

BRBNIIOLTZ,  EDWIN  ARNOLD—  ^ 
Oh.  World's  Oppressed  !  ( Poem) .  108 
The    Socialist:    the    Ideal    Peace     _ 

and  Arbitration  Miin 846 

To  Socialism  (Poem) 217 

BUCK,  RAPHAEL— 

Ascending   Stages  of   Socialism.  .   168 
The    Remuneration    of    Labor    in 
the  Co-operative  Commonwealth     18 
RURROWES,   PETER  B.— 

The  Religion  of  Resistance 367 

CARPENTER,  WII4,IAM— 

The  Farmer  a  Worker 609 

"CENTRIST'* — 

The  Inconsistency  of  Morris 337 

CHASE,  CHARLES  H.— 

ifaterlallsm  and  SoclallHrn 301 

COCHRANE,  D.  U.— 

The  Wage  Slave  (Poem) 80 

COLEMAN,  WILLIAM  MACON— 

Metaphysics  and  Socialism 106 

rOfNVBNTlON  SOCIALIST  PARTY— 
Proceedings  of  the  Convention.  ..   697 

National   Platform 668 

National  Constitution 673 

State  and  Municipal  Program 678 

List  of  Delegates 686 

Resolutions    688 

CURTIS,  THEODORE— 

A  Referendum  on  the  Platform..   610 

CUZNER,  DR.  A.  T.— 

The  Negro  or  the  Race  Problem. .  261 

DAITTON,  WILLIAM  S.— 

An  Official  Working  Program  Sep- 
arate from  Platform. 612 

DEB8t  B.  v.— 

The  Negro  and  His  Nemesis 891 

The  Negro  In  the  Class  Struggle.  257 
Speech  of  Acceptance 692 

DOBBS.  CHARLES— 

The  Farmer  and  the  Negro 618 

A  Review  of  Essentials 129 

DUGAN.  A.  F.— 

Socialism     and     Anarchist    Com- 
mnnlsm 365 


EDGAR,  OSCAR— 

Race  Prejudice 462 

HANFORD,  BENJ.— 

Speech  of  Acceptance 605 

HAYES,  MAX  SL— 

The  Class  Struggle  in  Great  Brit- 
ain       199 

HEBRON,  GEORGE  D.— 

The  Social  Opportunity 577 

Report  International   Delegate. . .  748 
HEYDRICK,  CHARLES— 

Develoik  Press  and  Literature. ...  614 
HITCH,  MARCUS— 

Present  State  of  Corporation  Law  .jI."> 
HOBSON.  S.  G.— 

Present    Aspect    of   Political    So- 
cialism in  England 299 

IDOEHN.  G.  A.— 

The  Trade  Union  Movement 615 

HORTON,  JOSEPH-«- 

The  May  Convention 618 

INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST 
BUREAU— 

The  Klschlnlff  Massacres 40 

JOHNSON.  PBTER^ 

The  Dues  System. 620 

JOHNSON.   WILLIAM- 
HOW  to  Get  the  C<y-op€raiive  Com- 
monwealth   ,. . . .  555 

KATAYAMA,  SEN— 

Japanese  Socialists  nud  the  War.   513 

Socialism  in  Japan 202 

KERR>   CHARLES  H.— 

Comnient    by    the    Translator    of 

Ixibriola   553 

KOTOKU,  D.— 

Japanese  Soclallstb*  and  the  War.  757 
LADOFF,  ISADOR--- 

*>The  American  Farmer" 475 

\/Looking  Forward) 409 

^  The  Japano-Russian   War 740 

LAFARGUB,  PAUL— 

The  Sodaiist  Ideal 286 

LORIA,  ACHILLE— 

The  Economic  Organization  of  So- 
ciety         12 

MAILLY,  WILLIAM— 

Annual    Report   of    the    National 
Secretary  of  the  Socialist  Party  604 

The  National  Organizing  Work. .  226 

Report   of   National   Stecretary. . .   657 

Suggestions  for  Organization....   622 
♦'MARXIST'— 

Tbe    Referendum   Movement   and 
Socialist  Movement  in  America  204 
MBILY,  CLARENCES— 

The  Legal  Fiction  of  Equalltv . . .  218 

Socialism  and  the  Negro  Problem  266 
MOSHBR.  IRA  C— 

Some  Phases  of  Civilization 184 

MUNICIPAL  Socialist  Congress  In 

France ,.  597 


CONTENTS. 


Ill 


MURRAY.  JOHN.  JR.— 

The  Ferri  Criminal 284 

A  Foretaste  of  the  Orient 72 

ORIGO,  SILVIO— 

The  Italian  Sociallflt  Congress.  . .  212 
PETERSON,  ISAAC— 

Labor  Conditions  on  the  Isthmus 

of   Tebaantepec 528 

POOL,  ISAAC  A.— 

Congratulation  (Poem) 408 

PURDY.  CHARLES  F.— 

Equal    Distribution 367 

RICKBR.  A.  W.— 

Farmers  and  Socialism 625 

RILEY.  WILLIAM  HARRISON— 

Wanted,  a  Constitution 215 

SIMONS.  A.  M.— 

Dresden   Conference 268 

Economic  Aspects  of  Chattel  Slav- 

_  ery  In  America 25.  96,  184 

HUqult's    "History    of    American 
Socialism"    , . . .   868 

Russianized  America 886 

Socialism  and  the  Socialist  Move- 
ment          721 

SIMONS.  MAY  WOOD— 

Economic   Interpretation    of   His- 

^  tory    1 

Concentration   of   Wealth    in   the 

United  States 745 

SLOBODIN.  HENRY  L.— 

Times  Bring  Change 627 

LB  SOCIALISTS— 

Congress  of  French   Socialists...   629 
STEDMAN.  SKYMOUR— 

Two  Programs 629 

THOMAS.  AlaBERT— 

History  of  German  Trade  Unions 

415,  480,  580 

THOMAS.  Be  H.—      . 

The  Milwaukee  Election 620 


THOMPSON,  CARL  D.— 

No    OfflcIaL  National    Organisers 

Wanted    eso 

TITUS.  HERMON  F.— 

Election  of  Socialists  Not  Desired 

at   Present 631 

UNTBRMANN.  ERNEST— 
Labriola  on  the  Marxian  Conceo- 

tion  of  History .*7  648 

More  Socialism  in  the  Platform. 
More  Democracy  In  the  Consti- 
tution      634 

PpUtlcal  Problems  In  Germany...     89 
Shall    We    Revise    Our    Program 

Backward  or  Forward 321 

Socialists  in  the  IMusslan  Land- 
tag  Elections 404 

VANDBRVELDE.  liailLlC— 

Marxian    Idealism 449 

VAN  RENSSELAER.  JAMBS  T.— 
Revolutionary  Nature  of  the  So- 
cialist   Movement 34 

VIDNBS.  JACOB— 

Socialism  and  the  Storthing  Elec- 
tions in  Norway 829 

"VORWAERTS*'— 

New   Tactics 19,1 

WANHIOPB.  JOS.— 
An  OiBcial  Guide  for  Candidates 

Needed    638 

WEAVBH»  H.  B.— 

A  Proposed  Platform 639 

WILU  THOMAS  ELMER— 

Convention  Work. . , 640 

WILSHIRE,  GAYLORD— 

A  Short  Platform  Wanted 644 

WINTER,  DR.  LEON— 

Socialism  in  Bohemia 84 

WRIGLBY  6.  WF;ST0N— 

Another  Red  Spot  on  the  Social- 
ist Map   398 


DEPARTMENTS 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABORr— 

Max  S.  Hayes.. 49.  113,  179.  312, 
..376,  433,  502,  565,  651.  708,  767 

EDITORIALS— 

A.  M.  Simons. 

The  Reward  of  Labor. . ., 47 

The  Farmer  and  Wageworker  in 

the  Socialist  Party 109 

The  Ignorance  of  the  Schools 174 

The  Crisis  in  Trade  Unions 288 

Some  Current  Bvents 306 

Trade  Unions  Not  Political  Parties  871 

Circus  Politics 429 

The  Yellow  Kid  in  Politics 496 

Suggestions  for   the  Convention.  556 

The  "National  Convention 649 

The  Work  of  the  Convention 706 

HML0  There  Been  a  Swing  to  the 

Blghtr    765 

SOCIALISM  ABROAD— 

Algeria    64 

Aiventlne  Republic  309 

Australia 489 

Aufftrla    373 

B^glum    438,  561 

Bolhemla    374 


British   Columma  249 

Bulgaria    ' 183- 

Demark 55.  121,  248 

England   249,  310,  374,  712 

Finland    247 

France   120,  500,  561 

Germany    56,  118,  184,  243,  310 

Holland  • 120,  771 

Hungary    ig.'l 

Italy   55 

185,    245.    310,    374,    501,    562.  713 

Japan 120.  376,  501 

Norway    245 

Poland    ...,..., 65 

Portugal    713 

Russia 54,  246.  311,   501,  563 

Servla   247,  488 

Spain    119 

Sweden     438 

Switzerland     439 

BOOK  REVIEWS— 
A.  M.  Simon  a 
A  B  C  of  Socialism;  H.  P.  Mqyer  317 
American    History   and    Its    Geo- 
graphic      eruditions :        Ellen 

Churchill  Semple 507 

Call  of  the  Wild,  The;  Jack  Lon- 
don    315 


IV 


THE  INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 


! 


Capitalist  Fann€i  and  Socialist 
Wagewt>rker;  George  E.  Bige- 
low   60 

Ctoitalivf8  Union  or  Labor 
unions,  Which?  May  Wood 
filmonf 881 

C3ia  Cott  •  U  Sodalisme;  SUtIo 
Origo 448 

Decline  of  British  Industry,  The; 
T.  H.  Bothftein 672 

Die  poBitiTe  kriminallsche  Sehnl* 
In  Italicn;  Enrico  Ferri... ...  672 

Basy  Lesaone  in  Sodalism;  Wil- 
liam H.  Lefflngwell 61 

rarmer'f  Glimpse  Into  Utopia,  A; 
S.  A.  Byrne 448 

Geographic  Influences  in  Ameri- 
can History;  Albert  Perry 
Bri^iam  608 

God  and  My  Neighbor 774 

Heredity  and  Social  Progress; 
Simon  N.  Patten 122 

History  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion ;  C.  L.  James 60 

Inside  History  of  the  Carnegie 
Steel  Company;  James  Howard 
Bridge 660 

Massinl,  the  Prophet  of  the  Re- 
ligion of  Humanity;  Louis  J. 
Rosenberg 380 

Methods  or  Acquiring  National 
Possession  of  our  industries; 
N.  A  Richardson,  .i 817 

Monarch  Billionaire,  Hie;  Morri- 
son L.  Swift 881 

One  Woman,  The ;  Thomas  DIzon, 
Jr 870 

Organisation  and  Control  of  In- 
dustrial Corporations,  The ; 
Frank  Howard  Horaclc 671 

Organised  Labor- John  Mitchell,  .r  606 

Pictures  of  the  Co-opsratiTS  Com- 
monwealth ;  Charles  Llnoola 
Phlfer    60 


Panics ;  John  Mackensle 448 

Place  of  Industries  in  Elementary 

Education ;  Katherine  Elizabeth 

Dopp  • 186 

Political  History  of  Slavery,  A; 

William  Henry  Smith 250 

Political  Ideas  of  Modem  Japan ; 

Karl  TL  Kawakami 816 

Political  Presidents  and  Social- 
ists ;  C^lia  a  Whitehead 448 

Prince  Hagen,  a  Phantasy ;  Upton 

Sinclair  77 7...  134 

Psychology  of  Child  Development, 

The ;  Irving  King < 670 

Pure  Sociology:  Lester  F.  Ward.  60 
Revolutionary  Essays  in  Socialist 

l^th  and  Fancy ;  Peter  B.  Bor- 

rdwes  881 

Sale  of  an  Appetite,  The;   Paul 

Lafargue   442 

Social  Bthlcs :  Granville  Lowther  817 
Socialism  Is  Coming ;  T.  J.  Cramp  448 
Sociallsme    de    Gouvemement    et 

Soclalisme        Revolutionnalre ; 

Charles  Rappoport .i  672 

Bocialism  the  Nation  of  Father 

less  Children ;  David  Goldstein.  715 
Socialism  and  the  Organhted  Labor 

Movement;  May  wood  Simons.  881 
Some     Reasons     Why     Farmers 

Should  Be  Socialists;  William 

C.  Green 448 

Souls  of  Black  Folk,  The;  Pro- 
fessor W.  E.  D.  Du  Bols 316 

Syndicalisme  Anglais  Le ;  F.  Fa^ 

not    817 

Tolstoi  and  His  Message;  Ernest 

Howard   Crosby 880 

Trust  Fbiance;  Bdwin  Sherwood 

Meade 440 

What  to  Do  and  How  to  Do  It; 

Rev.  G.  W.  Woodbey. 60 

Wind  Trust,  The;  John  Snyder..  817 
Yellow  Van,  The ;  Richard  Whlte- 

ing    441 


^ 


ll.Oa  A  YEAR 


10  CE.NTS  A  COPY 


1  ImtUy  Jonrmii  of  himtikKA  ScK^Hst  TliMiglit 

VOL  4.  jtlLY  1,  1903.  '        IfO,  1 

C  CXN  T  E.  NT^ 

Econonric  Ihtcrpr^afion  of  His^ry.  May  Wood  Simons 
Th^  Economic  Organisation  of 

Society  .i... ...v., .....A.M.  Simons 

The  Remtmenitibn  of  I-abor  In  the         . 

.     CcHq)«rativc  Commonwealth •.TJjoi/^Aii^/Bfi^*  ' 
E^oncxnic  Aspects  of  Chattel 

.    Slavery  in.  America .  ........  .A\  M*  Simons 

Revoluttcj^oaiy  Nature  of  the 

Socialist  Movement  ..•..••*  James  T.  Van  Rensselaer 
The  Problem  of  Rajad  Transit 

-ID       Vd^itl^S     -.  •   •  •   •*■*  '^A**^  •••••••«'•  WW  •     ^a 

/Fhe  ^ischtnrfiF  Massacres  ......<.. .  ... 

BI»rOilIAI,  DB^AKTMBNT 
-  Editd-^— The  Reward  «f  Labor. ' 
THE  W0RI4)  OF  LABOR.  .v> .  .Jlf airs'.  HflTKM 

Sooalism:  abroad. 
■  book  reviews. 

PtJMJSHfiRS'  DEPARTMENT. 

PUBLISHED  BY 

CHAKLES  H.    KERR  &   COHPAITT 

INCOIIPOKATU))  Ota  TBB   C<M»nilCATIVK  VLAN 

56    FIFt«AVENUEv  CHICAGO,    0.    S.    A. 

MM 


-^-^ 


il^/- 


"il:  1.  -^^..-r 


The  International  Socialist  Review 

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1^  It  Is  Published  ExclusMy  In  tht  In- 
''^'     tirest  of  Old  Working  Classf  It  Stands 
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and  the  latere^  ol  the  Toilers 

Every  Worldogman  Shdtild  SuSa^si^yi^ 
to  It.— 60  centa  per  year;  25  eentafor 
:  6  2nontlui}>15  cetita  for  ^  mwatha. 

SAMPLE  0OFIE3  FHES I 

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UonsstrietlyoonfkdentiaL^IU ^_ 

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^    .    1 


TMI  INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST    REVIEW 


VOL.  IV.  JULY,  190i  NO.  i. 


Economic  Interpretation  of  History 

TO  arrive  at  truth,  we  must  examine  into  the  facts  un- 
burdened by  preconception.  There  is  no  doubt  con- 
cerning this  in  the  mind  of  any  one.  It  is  quite  evident 
that  in  the  attainment  of  truth,  our  critic,  the  Rev.  Alex- 
ander Kent,  in  the  May  International  Socialist  Review,  him- 
self "carries  weights"  in  the  form!  of  the.,  preconceptions  of  an 
intuitional  philosophy.  After  the  examination  of  certain  facts  to 
arrive  at  a  judgment  on  these  facts  has  been  the  privilege  of  all 
men;  the  present  writer  only  claims  that  privilege. 

I  wish  to  put  over  against  each  other  the  position  at  which  I 
have  arrived,  that  "All  social  institutions  are  the  result  of  growth, 
and  that  the  causes  of  this  growth  are  to  be  sought  not  in  any 
idea,  but  in  the  conditions  of  material  existence"  (which,  although 
credited  as  a  quotation  by  my  critic  to  Marx,  was  in  reality  taken 
in  my  former  article  from  Prof.  Edwin  Seligman's  "Eccxiomic 
Interpretation  of  History"),  and  the  position  from  which  our 
critic  argues,  "Institutions  are  only  expressed  and  embodied 
ideas.  Ideas  invariably  precede,  contemplate  and  effect  the 
changes." 

A  part  of  the  difficulty  lies  in  the  understanding  of  the  terms 
economic  or  materialistic  and  their  opposite,  idealistic.  A  mass  of 
vague  and  ill-digested  opinions  concerning  both  of  these  terms 
is  to  be  found  among  botfi  socialists  and  non-socialists.  Nothing 
is  quite  so  common  as  to  throw  the  word  materialist  at  a  man, 
attempting  to  carry  with  the  word  materialist  the  idea  that  the 
individual  holding  that  belief  is  coarse,  carnal,  with  no  knowledge 
of  the  so-called  higher  life,  and  even  addicted  to  vices. 

There  have  been  two  great  standpoints  from  which  all  study  of 
society  or  history  or  p4iilosophy  has  proceeded,  the  standpoint  of 
idealism  and  that  of  materialism.  The  question  lying  at  the  basis 
of  this  is  the  foundation  question  of  all  philosophy.    It  is  the  ques- 


2  INTERKATIQNAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

tion  as  to  the  priority  of  mind  or  matter.  Is  matter  a  product  of 
mind,  or  mind  itself  the  highest  product  of  matter?  Did  the 
mind  originate  first  and  produce  matter,  or  is  nature  the  source? 
Are  the  ttioughts  we  have  in  our  minds  pictures  of  real  things,  or 
are  these  real  things  the  pictures  of  this  or  that  stage  of  some 
"absolute  idea"? 

Idealism  means  no  more  or  less  than  this,  that  the  believer  in 
it  holds  that  mind  originated  matter;  that  mind  existed  before 
matter,  and  that  the  things  about  us  are  only  conditions  resulting 
from  the  development  of  the  great  idea. 

The  economic  or  materialistic  school  holds  that  mind  is  the 
highest  product  of  matter,  that  our  consciousness  and  thoughts 
are  evidences  of  a  natural  bodily  organ,  the  brain,  and  that  the 
ideas  we  have  are  pnctures  of  the  sensible,  actual  world  around  us. 
This  in  no  way  excludes  the  possibility  of  the  making  of  tenta- 
tive hypotheses  or  the  holding  of  ideals  by  the  believer  in  the  eco- 
nomic view  of  society,  as  it  is  sulfilciently  clear  that  idealism  does 
not  depend  on  that  point  at  all. 

The  theory  of  the  economic  or  materialistic  view  of  society  has 
passed  through  its  own  particular  evolution.  The  materialism  of 
the  time  of  the  French  Revolution  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  purely  mechanical.  This  was  necessarily  true.  There 
could  be  no  conception  of  the  universe  as  a  process.  This  was 
largely  due  to  the  condition  in  which  we  find  science  at  that  time. 
Only  the  "mechanics  of  gravity"  had  reached  any  definite  con- 
clusion. "Chemistry  existed  only  in  a  childish  phlogistic  state, 
biology  lay  in  swaddling  clothes,  all  organisms  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals were  examined  only  in  a  very  casual  manner."  Hence  the 
narrow-mindedness  of  the  French  materialists  was  unavoidable. 
Since  that  time  the  development  of  the  germ  theory,  the  theory 
of  the  conservation  of  energy  and  the  evolutionary  theory  have 
given  materialism  a  basis  in  science. 

Examine  the  position  taken  by  scholars  in  the  field  of  psy- 
chology in  relation  to  the  origin  and  growth  of  ideas  and  their 
mechanisnt.  It  is  maintained  that  the  nerve  organs  and  the  brain 
center  through  and  by  which  thought  is  carried  on  have  arisen 
and  developed  to  meet  the  needs  of  life.  The  whole  centralized 
nervous  system:  has  grown  up  in  the  division  of  labor  in  the 
human  system.  We  are  forced,  then,  to  the  c(»iclusion  that  men- 
tality and  the  very  organs  through  which  it  operates  have  been 
developed  through  material  necessities  and  practical  needs. 

Turn  to  still  another  field.  Lester  F.  Ward  is  a  recognized 
authority  in  Sociology.  In  his  last  book,  called  "Pure  Sociology," 
page  288,  he  says:  "Ample  natural  nourishment  enjoyed  by  a 
whole  people  or  by  a  large  social  class  will  cause  a  healthy  de- 
velopment which  will  ultimately  show  itself  through  mental  and 
physical  superiority.     Thus  far  such  has  been  the  history  of 


EOONOMIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY  3 

mankind,  that  there  has  always  been  a  special  class  that  has  been 
able  to  attain  the  means  thus  fully  to  nourish  the  body.  *  *  * 
Still,  although  slavery  has  been  abolished  and  the  feudal  system 
overthrown,  the  new  industrial  society  is  largely  repeating  the 
pristine  conditions  and  in  the  old  world  especidly,  and  more  and 
more  in  the  new,  class  distinctions  prevail,  and  differences  of  nu- 
trition, of  protection  and  physical  exertion  are  still  keeping  up 
the  distinction  of  a  superior  and  inferior  class.  *  *  *  This  is, 
too,  the  great  truth  that  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  so-called  his- 
torical materialism.  Not  only  does  civilization  rest  upon  a  mate- 
rial basis  in  the  sense  that  it  consists  in  the  utilization  of  the  ma- 
terials and  forces  of  nature,  but  the  efficiency  of  the  human  race 
depends  absolutely  upon  food,  clothing,  shelter,  fuel,  leisure  and 
liberty." 

When  we  come  to  apply  this  idea  to  history  we  find  that  it  at 
once  supplies  what  has  always  been  lacking  hitherto  in  the  his- 
torical interpretation  of  society,  it  gives  continuity  to  history. 
Various  attempts  have  been  made  before  the  materialistic  in- 
terpretation of  history  to  secure  this  continuity. 

One  of  the  first  attempts  of  an  idealistic  character  to  inter- 
pret events  looked  upon  history  as  a  series  of  biographies  of  great 
men.  The  best  instance  of  this  form  of  interpretation  is  to  be 
found  in  Carlyle's  "Hero  Worship."  According  to  this  theory 
of  historical  progress,  society  stagnated  for  several  years  until, 
as  one  writer  has  said,  "some  great  towering  genius  appeared  to 
jerk  it  up  a  few  generations,  where  it  stuck  fast  until  another 
great  man  came  along  to  lift  it  another  notch."  According  to 
this  philosophy,  it  was  George  Washington  and  John  Adams  who 
made  the  American  Revolution,  Alexander  Hamilton  who  gave 
us  the  Constitution,  Thomas  Jefferson  who  created  the  Ameri- 
can spirit  of  democracy,  Abraham'  Lincoln  who  freed  the  slaves. 

Naturally  this  view  of  history  suited  the  ruling  class  from 
which  most  of  the  historians,  as  well  as  most  of  the  great  men, 
came.  It  served  effectually  to  retard  the  discovery  of  the  social 
laws  by  which  alone  society  prc^rresses.  Further,  it  agreed  with 
the  general  catyclysmic  view  of  things  prevailing  at  the  time. 
Objection  is  taken  to  my  position  on  Martin  Luther.  "How 
does  the  writer  know  that  their  words  had  no  effect?  How  does 
she  know  that  they  did  not  help  to  make  the  conditions  right 
and  prepare  the  people  for  the  fuller  and  stronger  message  that 
Luther  brought?"  We  reply,  how  does  our  critic  know,  unless 
it  be  intuitively,  that  Luther's  message  was  either  greatly  stronger 
or  fuller  than  that  of  earlier  priests  ?  In  short,  how  do  we  know 
any  fact  unless  we  study,  as  far  as  in  our  power,  events? 

In  the  article  "Restricted  Interpretation"  in  the  same  num- 
ber of  Ae  International  Soctaust  Review  it  is  pointed  out 
that  I  evidently  fell  m3rself  into  this  "one  man"  theory  in  sa)ring 


4  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

that  Frederick  the  Great  was  the  creator  of  Prussia.  This  is  a 
point  well  taken.  It  was  with  me,  however,  merely  an  unfortu- 
nate rhetorical  expression. 

The  "great  man"  theory,  attempting,  as  it  does,  to  introduce 
"chance"  into  social  progress,  is  untenable.  The  popular  mind, 
invariably  seeking  an  easy  route  to  a  cause,  still  dings  to  it. 
Tlie  discovery  of  the  economic  forces  behind  and  around  these 
so-called  great  men,  without  which  forces  they  could  have  done 
nothing,  has  been  the  result  of  patient  investigation  made  by 
many  and  cannot  be  lightly  thrown  aside. 

In  the  same  article  by  Mr.  Ferris  is  found  this:  "Finally 
we  come  to  Marx.  *  *  *  Here  the  Socialist  shouls 'Eureka! 
Behold,  we  have  at  last  found  it.'  Found  what,  the  Eldorado? 
No,  but  the  cause  world,  the  solitary  omnipotent  cause  of  all 
things."  The  Socialists  are  not  forced  to  the  narrow  position  of 
either  accepting  the  word  of  Marx  without  question  or  finding 
nowhere  else  a  substantiation  of  their  position  when  it  comes 
to  the  economic  interpretation  of  history.  If  the  writer  will  take 
the  trouble  to  read  further  he  will  find  that  the  ablest  men  in  both 
American  and  European  universities,  the  men  who  are  really  pro- 
ducing anything  and  not  rehashing  old  controversies,  are  ap- 
proaching history,  physiolc^y,  education,  psychology  and  soci- 
ology from  exactly  this  standpoint.  This  theory  has  quite  as 
many  supporters  among  non-Marxists  as  Marxists. 

The  following  quotation  is  from  the  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  in 
his  book,  "The  Times  and  Young  Men":  "Tell  me  one  thing 
about  a  people,  viz.,  how  they  get  their  living,  and  I  will  tell  you 
a  hundred  things  about  them. 

"A  tribe  that  lives  by  the  chase  is  savage.  If  a  people  gain 
their  livelihood  directly  from  domestic  animals,  they  must  wan- 
der to  new  regions  as  their  flocks  and  herds  require  new  pastures. 
That  is,  they  are  nomadic,  and  their  food,  their  dress,  their  shel- 
ter, their  government,  their  customs  and  their  laws  are  such  as 
always  belong  to  a  nomadic  civilization.  If  a  people  get  their 
living  by  cultivating  the  ground,  the  tent  of  the  nomad  gives 
place  to  a  permanent  dwelling,  and  the  food,  dress,  form  of  gov- 
ernment, laws  and  customs  of  an  agricultural  civilization  differ- 
ing as  widely  from  those  of  a  nomadic  civilization  as  a  house 
differs  from  a  tent.  If  a  people  are  commercial,  all  their  habits 
and  mode  of  life  are  more  or  less  affected  by  contact  with  the 
strange  peoples  with  whom  they  trade.  Stimulated  by  the  new 
ideas  brought  home  by  their  merchants  and  sailors,  they  are  pro- 
gressive, and  develop  habits  of  mind  and  manners,  arts,  litera- 
ture, virtues  and  vices  as  unlike  those  of  the  plowman  and  shep- 
herd as  are  their  occupations." 

Returning  to  the  article,  "Causes  of  Social  Progress,"  we 
find  this  statement :    "Deficient  as  our  peopie  may  be  in  the  mat- 


ECaNOMIO  INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY  6 

ter  of  ethics,  they  are  much  further  advanced  than  they  are  in 
economics."  This  is  a  purely  ipsi  dixit  statement,  made  without 
any  attempt  at  confirmaticHi.  It  reveals,  however,  again  the  in- 
tuitional standpoint  of  the  writer.  By  those  who  have  made  any- 
thing of  a  study  of  ethics  within  the  last  fifteen  years  the  evolu- 
tionary character  of  ethics  is  fully  recognized.  Evolutionary  ethics 
demonstrates  the  conformity  of  each  system  of  ethics  to  the 
economical  stage  with  which  it  developed  and  existed.  Acts  and 
relations  of  men  viewed  as  right  under  one  social  stage  are 
"wrong"  according  to  the  judgment  of  other  times  and  places. 
No  such  thing  as  universal  ethics  has  ever  been  possible.  "There 
can  be  no  universal  morality  in  the  concrete,"  says  Prof.  Fried- 
rich  Paulsen,  page  19,  in  his  "System  of  Ethics."  Again,  page 
25,  he  says:  "Every  moral  philosophy  is,  therefore,  valid  only 
for  the  sphere  of  civilization  from  which  it  springs,  whether  it 
is  conscious  of  the  fact  or  not." 

From  what  source  have  the  people  obtained  these  superior 
ethical  ideas  with  which  our  critic  credits  them  ?  Innately  ?  But 
the  doctrine  of  "innate  ideas"  is  no  longer  recognized  by  modern 
men  of  science.  Intuitionalism  driven  from  one  point  to  another 
attempted  to  find  its  last  refuge  in  ethics.  Writers  like  Rolph, 
Carnerie,  Stephen,  Heckel  and  Spencer  have  finally  dislodged 
it  from  this  last  position.  Read  in  the  light  of  present  scientific 
works  on  the  subject,  the  above  statement  of  our  critic  seems 
an  absurdity  belonging  to  the  metaphysical  past.  The  ethics 
today  are  such  as  capitalism  has  developed  and  are  fitted  to  the 
present  industrial  system. 

A  little  knowledge  of  American  history  is  sometimes  extreme- 
ly valuable.  Few  indeed  are  the  American  scholars  who  would 
father  the  statement  made  by  Mr.  Kent  that  "The  movement  on 
the  part  of  the  American  people  which  resulted  in  free  Cuba,  and 
in  several  other  things  which  they  did  not  contemplate,  was  un- 
doubtedly due  to  considerations  of  humanity  and  in  no  degree 
prompted  by  the  hope  of  economic  benefits."  Or,  concerning  the 
American  people  in  the  Philippine  Islands :  "Certainly  they  have 
not  been  influenced  by  any  consideration  of  material  profit  real- 
ized in  their  lifetime."  American  scholars,  and  incidentally  any 
man  who  knows  anything  of  American  politics,  knows  that  the 
conditions  existing  in  Cuba  had  existed  for  half  a  century  and  it 
is  also  well  known  that  as  early  as  1858  a  meeting  was  called  at 
Ostend  for  the  purpose  of  seriously  discussing  the  seizing  or 
Cuba  from  Spain  if  Spain  would  not  sell.  The  southern  slave- 
holding  states  favored  seizure,  as  they  desired  to  extend  slave 
territory  and  increase  southern  votes.  The  north  opposed  and 
the  south  did  not  push  it  further,  for  things  were  already  nearing 
a  crisis.  The  matter  was  dropped,  only  to  come  up  again  when 
the  capitalist  interests  of  the  United  States  demanded  Cuba  in 


6  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

extending  trade  and  commerce.  A  sentimentalism  in  the  face 
of  facts  that  would  attempt  to  make  the  movement  of  the  United 
States  on  Cuba  due  to  "humanitarian"  ideas  has  reached  the  limit 
of  the  absurd. 

A  very  slight  examination  into  world  politics  would  have 
shown  our  critic  but  too  plainly  the  economic  interests  that  lie 
behind  the  movement  in  the  Philippines.  Here  is  the  great  coal- 
ing station  for  the  United  States  on  the  route  to  the  far  east  and 
also  it  gives  her  a  foothold  from  which  to  operate  in  case  of  Chi- 
nese complications.  Surely  this  teacher  of  the  people  would  es- 
cape some  ludicrous  errors  if  he  would  familiarize  himself  with 
the  facts  of  present  economic  and  political  life. 

"Economic  laws  and  forces  have  been  at  work  in  all  ages 
and  among  all  peoples,  but  there  has  been  no  uniformity  of 
growth  or  progress  even  among  people  similarly  conditioned  as 
to  soil  and  climate."  We  are  compelled  to  say  that  this  statement 
is  not  true  and  that  the  opposite  is  true.  A  study  of  anthro- 
pology, of  comparative  history  as  well  as  economics,  has  shown 
those  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  look  into  the  matter  that  there 
has  been  a  uniformity  of  growth  and  similarity  of  institutions 
among  people  similarly  conditioned  until  it  has  come  to  be  a 
recognized  law  in  sociology  that  tribes  or  nations  that  have  reached 
the  same  plane  economically  have  a  marked  similarity  in  in- 
stitutions, beliefs,  religion,  morality  and  forms  of  government. 
In  short,  the  larger  part  of  modern  science  now  rests  on  this 
very  fact. 

"Animals  have  the  same  material  conditions,  so  far  as  soil, 
climate  and  environment  generally  are  concerned,  as  man.  Why 
do  they  not  make  the  same  social  progress?  ...  So  far  as 
we  know  their  habits,  customs,  institutions — if  one  may  so  speak 
— are  just  what  they  were  thousands  of  years  ago." 

Here  again  so  far  is  this  statement  from  true  that  its  oppo- 
site is  true.  The  word  environment,  as  used  by  the  majority  of 
writers  on  sociological  subjects,  is  quite  evidently  not  clear  to 
our  critic  when  he  states  that  animals  have  the  same  environ- 
ment as  man.  Material  environment  in  its  generally  accepted 
meaning  signifies  not  alone  soil,  climate  and  so  on  but  as  well  all 
social  institutions,  the  inheritances  of  earlier  civilizations.  Some 
writers  on  economics,  J.  B.  Qark,  for  example,  in  "Phildsophy 
of  Wealth,"  have  recently  made  "material"  environment  to  con- 
sist of  all  these  and  yet  further  of  such  things  as  the  music  of 
the  orchestra  and  the  voice  of  the  speaker.  Moreover,  it  is  quite 
evident  that  our  critic  has  not  benefited  himself  by  a  study  of 
modern  evolutionary  literature,  else  he  would  know  that  "thou- 
sands of  years"  are  but  a  moment's  space  in  the  evolution  of 
species  and  he  would  long  ago  have  known  that  man  himself,  witii 
his  "remarkable"  ideas,"   developed  from  brute  ancestors  and 


ECONOMIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY  7 

that  his  very  intellect  has  been  the  result  of  the  material  neces- 
sities of  life. 

"And  yet  she  took  the  trouble  to  write  this  article  to  help 
people  to  clear  thinking  on  this  subject.  If  clear  thinking  has  no 
relation  to  national  economic  action  one  cannot  but  wonder  to 
what  end  she  put  herself  to  this  trouble."  This  is  quite  a  com- 
mon form  of  convincing  logic  employed  by  those  compelled  to  deal 
with  disagreeable  facts.  The  discovery  of  the  law  of  gravitation 
did  not  immediately  stop  its  operation,  neither  will  the  dis- 
covery of  a  social  law  retard  its  effect  upon  society.  But  per-' 
haps  our  critic  will  not  admit  with  us  that  society  in  its  progress 
is  governed  by  any  law,  but  will  hold  rather  that  it  is  all  a  matter 
of  chance.  The  work  of  any  true  student  of  society  is  to  interpret 
facts  and  if  possible  discover  the  laws  that  govern  social  growth. 
It  does  not  consist,  on  the  other  hand,  in  saying  what  to  his  mind 
these  laws  ought  to  be  or  in  attempting  to  revise  them.  Lester 
F.  Ward,  in  "Pure  Sociology,"  says,  "The  idea  that  sociologists 
think  they  are  engaged  in  'revising  social  laws  is  decidedly  re- 
freshing. So  far  as  I  can  see  they  are  simply  trying  to  under- 
stand them,  just  as  the  physicists  tried  to  understand  physical  laws, 
and  many  of  them  doubtless  have  at  least  a  mental  reservation 
that,  besides  this  knowledge  for  its  own  sake,  some  one  may 
some  day  in  some  way  be  benefited  by  it." 

But  surely  consistency  is  not  a  part  of  our  critic's  mental 
equipment.  After  assimiing  that  institutions  are  only  expressed 
and  embodied  ideas,  what  does  he  mean  in  closing  when  he  says : 
"The  level  of  a  people's  government,  literature,  education  and 
ethical  practice  can  never  rise  much  above  the  level  of  its  indus- 
trial life"? 

The  test  of  any  theory  is  the  extent  to  which  it  explains  the 
facts  of  the  case.  In  how  far  does  the  economic  interpretation  of 
history  explain  social  progress?  It  holds  that  the  driving  forces 
behind  social  movements  and  in  the  building  up  of  social  institu- 
tions are  the  economic  interests  of  contending  social  classes.  Let 
us  see  how  this  thing  works  itself  out.  Men  strive  continuously 
through  inventions  to  improve  the  tools  with  which  they  work 
and  the  manner  of  using  them.  The  chip  stone  became  the  pol- 
ished and  the  polished  stone  gave  way  to  bronze,  and  bronze  to 
iron.  Iron  was  transformed  into  steel,  tempered,  wrought  into 
more  complex  forms  until  the  great  intricate  machine  resulted. 
Man  used  levers,  wheels  and  pulleys  to  increase  and  change  the 
direction  of  his  strength,  then  hitched  domestic  animals  and  finally 
wind  and  water  and  steam  to  these  new  and  complex  tools. 

Every  one  of  these  changes  produced  changes  in  the  carrying 
on  of  the  whole  process  of  production  and  this  in  turn  grouped 
men  in  new  forms,  in  new  arrangements  giving  rise  to  new  social 
institutions.    When  man  had  advanced  to  a  point  where  these  tools 


8  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

became  capable  of  producing  a  surplus  and  the  idea  of  private 
property  in  the  instruments  of  production  and  land  upon  which 
these  rest  arose  social  classes  appeared.  The  great  feudal  an- 
cient property  in  land  is  frequently  ascribed  in  its  origin  to  politi- 
cal causes  through  forcible  seizure,  but  this  explanation  cannot 
be  applied  to  the  rise  of  the  bourgeoise  and  proletarian  classes. 

The  origin  and  progress  of  these  two  great  economic  classes  is 
clearly  seen  to  be  from  economic  causes.  "It  was  .  .  .  clear  that 
in  the  fight  between  the  land  holding  class  and  the  bourgeoisie  no 
less  than  in  that  between  the  bourgeoisie  and  the  proletariat 
economic  interests  were  the  most  important,  and  that  the  political 
force  served  only  as  a  means  of  furthering  these. 

"The  bourgeoisie  and  the  proletariat  both  arose  as  a  result  of 
a  change  in  economic  conditions,  or,  strictly  speaking,  in  methods 
of  production.  The  transition,  first  from  hand  labor,  controlled 
by  the  gilds  to  manufacture  and  thence  from  manufacture  to  the 
greater  industry,  with  steam  and  nlachine  force,  has  developed 
these  two  classes." 

These  conflicting  economic  interests  of  classes  then  are  the 
compelling  forces  behind  the  motives  of  action  of  both  the  masses 
and  their  so-called  "great  men."  They  are  the  historic  causes 
which  transform  themselves  into  motives  of  action. 

From  this  time  on  institutions  are  formed  and  directed  in  the 
interests  of  the  economic  class  which  has  control  of  the  essen- 
tials of  economic  life.  These  institutions  are  always  formulated 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  preserve  all  the  privileges  of  this  ruling 
class ;  the  legal  institutions  will  be  elaborated  to  declare  lawful  and 
inviolate  these  privileges.  The  whole  machinery  of  government 
will  be  used  to  maintain  such  privileges,  while  custom  and  public 
opinion  will  sanctify  and  endorse  them. 

With  the  division  into  economic  classes  a  new  dynamic  to  social 
progress  appears  in  two  forms.  First  the  unrest  of  the  subject 
class.  This  gives  rise  finally  to  a  revolution  in  society  when,  as  it 
frequently  happens,  a  change  in  the  manner  of  production  brings 
a  hitherto  subject  class  into  the  position  of  controlling  society. 
This  was  true  when,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  trading  and  manu- 
facturing classes  rose  to  power.  Changes  in  the  method  of  pro- 
duction made  machinery  and  trading  capable  of  greater  importance 
than  landed  estates;  the  class,  therefore,  that  was  in  possession 
of  these  tools  and  instruments  of  communication  rose  to  social 
domination  and  overthrew  the  old  feudal  nobility. 

This  class  struggle  in  the  second  place  shows  itself  in  the 
constant  attempts  of  the  ruling  class  to  improve  and  perfect  the 
social  institutions  that  stand  for  their  interests.  This  gives  rise 
to  reform  movements.  They  wish  to  improve  civil  service,  abol- 
ish political  corruption  and  boodling,  insure  economy  in  public 
administration  and  in  general  to  improve  the  working  of  the 


ECONOMIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY  0 

social  machinery  which  conserves  their  interests.  Their  action  in 
this  direction  is  continually  affected  by  tfie  necessity  of  making 
concessions  to  a  subject  class,  particularly  if  the  latter  show  signs 
of  rebellion. 

This  whole  theory  of  society  receives  tremendous  support 
from  the  biological  point  of  view.  The  work  of  Wallace,  Darwin, 
Spencer  and  Weissman  and  the  great  army  of  biologists  who  have 
revolutionized  scientific  thought  and  also  practically  revolution- 
ized the  whole  field  of  intellectual  life,  has  shown  that  progress 
in  all  fields  of  life  depends  upon  adjustment  to  the  environment. 
That  form  of  organism,  whether  it  be  plant,  animal,  or  social, 
which  can  best  adjust  the  materials  at  its  disposal  for  the  task 
of  utilizing  its  surroundings  will  survive.  Every  particle  of 
matter  must  be  arranged,  every  organ  created  in  the  manner  which 
will  best  subserve  this  end.  If  an  organ  does  not  help  in  preserva- 
tion it  withers  up  and  disappears. 

One  of  the  corollaries  of  this  law  is  that  progress  means  the 
elimination  of  waste.  Hence  it  is  that  the  moment  a  method  of 
arrangement  of  the  matter  in  any  organism — ^plant,  animal  or 
social — appears  which  is  more  economical  of  energy  than  pre- 
viously existing  ones  it  is  destined  to  supplant  the  wasteful  one. 

This  law  of  economy  or  the  law  of  "least  effort"  is  one  which 
applies  in  every  field  of  growth.  It  insures  the  progress  of  in- 
vention and  the  universal  adoption  of  any  improvement  in  pro- 
ductive methods.  It  also  insures  the  disappearance  of  any  social 
organization  as  soon  as  a  less  wasteful  one  beconles  possible. 
Hence  it  is  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  show  first,  that  the  capital- 
istic society  is  more  wasteful  than  a  co-operative  system;  second, 
that  the  co-operative  system  is  in  accord  with  the  economic  de- 
velopment of  the  present  or  immediate  future  in  order  to  prove 
the  inevitable  evolution  of  capitalism  into  socialism. 

Some  explanation  of  one  or  two  phases  of  the  materialistic 
interpretation  must  be  noticed.  Those  who  have  only  a  crude 
and  naif  knowledge  of  the  theory  often  assume  that  immediately 
on  the  economic  organization  of  society  bein^  changed  every 
social  institution  is  at  once  completely  and  in  every  particular 
changed,  and  this  without  regard  to  what  the  previous  form  of 
the  institution  might  have  been.  The  fact  is  that  each  economic 
stage  has  to  take  all  of  the  institutions  and  social  organs  which 
it  inherited  from  the  previous  stage  and  must  use  this  material  in 
forming  the  new  society.  But  these  institutions  have  many  of 
them  lasted  for  thousands  of  years  and  they  are  anything  but 
tractable  material.  This  phase  of  the  question  corresponds  to 
heredity  in  the  biological  world.  Just  as  many  times  in  the 
biological  world  the  organism  is  so  stable  that  it  cannot  adjust 
Itself  to  the  new  environment,  and  so  perishes,  just  so  in  society  it 
is  easily  possible  that  the  social  institutions  of  any  particular  tribe, 


10  INTERNATIONAL  SOCrALIST  REVIEW 

race  or  nation  might  become  so  fixed  that  they  could  not  conform 
to  a  new  environment  and  the  society  to  which  it  belongs  would 
perish. 

A  little  examination  of  this  phase  of  the  subject  will  show  at 
once  that  it  offers  an  explanation  of  the  so-called  influence  of 
ideas  upon  history.  Once  a  given  economic  environment  has.  de- 
veloped a  certain  psychological  attitude,  that  attitude  is  inherited 
by  the  next  social  stage  and  may  have  a  very  great  influence  in 
determining  the  character  of  that  social  stage.  The  systems  of 
justice,  morality,  etc.,  which  have  arisen  in  previous  social  stages 
undoubtedly  have  a  part  in  determining  social  institutions  today. 
But  how?  They  constitute  the  material  upon  which  present 
economic  environment  must  act  and  they  may  so  resist  that  en- 
vironment as  to  greatly  alter  it,  but  when  we  analyze  this  back  to 
its  ultimate  we  find  that  it  is  not  a  conflict  between  ideas  and  en- 
vironment but  a  conflict  between  a  past  and  a  present  en- 
vironment. This  is,  I  hold,  the  fundamental  point  of  the  whole 
discussion  and  it  is  the  position  I  maintained  in  my  former  article 
when  I  pointed  out  that  no  economic  stage  began  its  worjc  tabula 
rasa. 

In  these  last  paragraphs  I  have  answered  the  criticism  of  Mr. 
Ferris.  He  made  his  entire  argument  turn  on  one  point — ^the  at- 
tempt to  discover  a  single  cause  lying  at  the  basis  of  all  social 
phenomena.  "The  economic  principle  controls  man's  life,"  says 
Prof.  Carl  Buchner,  of  the  University  of  Leispic,  in  his  recent 
sociological  work,  "Industrial  Evolution,"  and  the  whole  volume 
is  an  exposition  of  this  point.  All  the  other  social  forces  are 
but  manifestations  of  this  underlying  economic  force.  Psychology 
and  brain  physiology  have  shown  that  the  brain  of  man,  the  seat 
of  ideas,  is  itself  a  product  of  economic  activity  and  needs.  On 
what  ground  can  Mr.  Ferris'  criticism  stand  ?  Where,  then,  will  he 
find  the  various,  all  apparently  equal  causes  that  produce  social 
progress  ?  Further,  he  is  evidently  unacquainted  with  the  efforts 
of  modem  scientists  who,  in  each  field  of  science,  are  seeking  to 
find  the  one  great  force  back  of  the  class  of  phenomena  with  which 
they  have  to  deal.  Physicists  could  do  little  or  nothing  until  the 
discovery  of  the  law  of  gravitation  lying  at  the  foundation  of 
all  forms  of  motion.  The  simplification  of  so-called  causes  is  the 
endeavor  of  all  science.  Is  it  strange  that  sociology  is  seeking  to 
do  the  same?  Fifty  years  ago  the  dualism  advocated  by  Mr. 
Ferris  was  lame  and  halting,  and  each  discovery  of  science  has 
helped  to  destroy  its  tenability,  while  these  same  discoveries 
have  served  to  increase  the  strength  and  prevalency  of  monistic 
philosophy. 

Finally,  once  the  laws  of  social  evolution  have  been  determined, 
then  ideas  have  another  part,  but  no  more  an  initiative  part  than 
before.    It  is  not  because  of  the  ideas  of  gravitation  that  engineers 


ECONOMIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 


11 


are  able  to  move  great  masses,  but  because  of  the  knowledge 
of  that  law,  whkh  is  a  very  different  thing.  In  the  same  way, 
when  social  laws  are  known,  it  will  be  possible  for  society  to 
select  at  once  those  institutions  which  will  best  fit  it  to  the  environ- 
ment of  the  immediate  future  and  thus  hasten  progress.  Up 
until  the  present  time  we  have  only  been  able  to  find  out  which 
institutions  were  suited  to  a  changed  environment  by  trying  to 
preserve  all  of  thent  and  letting  the  environment  destroy  those 
which  we  were  enable  to  preserve. 

May  Wood  Simons. 


The  Economic  Organization  of  Society 

WHEN  we  carefully  observe  the  social  systems  which  are 
developing  under  our  eyes  in  the  several  countries  of 
both  hemispheres  we  see  that  they  all  present  the  same 
I^enomena ;  in  all  there  is  the  absolute  irrevocable  di- 
vision into  two  distinct  classes,  one  of  which  without  doing  any- 
thing accumulates  enormous  and  ever  increasing  revenues,  while 
the  other,  much  more  numerous,  works  throughout  its  whole  life 
for  a  miserable  wage ;  the  one  lives  without  work,  the  other  works 
without  living — ^at  least  any  human  life.  In  the  presence  of  a 
contrast  so  sorrowful  and  so  striking,  the  problem  presents  itself 
at  once  to  every  reflecting  mind:  is  this  state  of  things  the 
product  of  a  natural  necessity  inseparable  from  the  organic  condi- 
tions of  human  nature,  or  is  it  not  rather  the  result  of  historic 
causes  destined  to  disappear  in  the  later  phases  of  evolution  ? 

A  long  intellectual  pilgrimage  across  the  vast  field  of  economic 
sociology  has  led  me  to  the  conclusion  that  the  truth  is  to  be 
found  in  the  second  answer,  and  that  the  division  of  humanity  irilo 
two  castes,  the  one  composed  of  capitalists,  the  other  of  laborers, 
or,  in  other  words,  the  existence  of  capitalist  property  has  not 
been  the  product  of  inherent  conditions  of  human  nature,  but 
rather  of  powerful  historic  causes  which  ought  necessarily  to 
disappear  in  a  later  period.  The  results  of  my  reseaches  may  be 
summed  up  in  that  which  follows. 

I  explain  the  genesis,  character  and  tendencies  of  capitalist 
property  as  follows: 

While  free  ground  remains  upon  which  any  one  may  undertake 
cultivation  with  his  own  labor,  while  any  man  deprived  of  cafwtal 
may,  if  he  wishes,  establish  himself  on  his  own  account  upon 
unoccupied  ground,  capitalist  property  is  absolutely  impossible  be- 
cause no  laborer  will  submit  to  work  for  a  capitalist  when  he  may 
set  up  on  his  own  personal  account  upon  ground  which  costs  him 
nothing.  It  is  evident  that  under  these  conditions  the  workers  can 
take  possession  of  free  ground,  and  devoting  their  strength  to 
this,  they  will  soon  be  able  to  add  to  their  later  the  capital  they 
have  accumulated. 

If  the  productivity  of  the  earth  is  high  the  producers  of  capital 
are  not  disposed  to  associate  their  labor  because  they  have  no  in- 
terest in  subjecting  their  own  independence  to  the  fetters  which 
association  imposes  in  order  to  increase  a  product  already  very 
abundant  in  itself;  this  is  why  the  natural  economic  form  under 
these  conditions  is  isolated  production ;  at  least  where  the  despotic 
authority  of  the  state  does  not  force  the  producers  to  associate. 

12 


THE  ECONOMIC  ORGANIZATION  OF  SOCIETY  13 

If,  on  the  contrary,  the  productivity  of  the  earth  is  slight,  the  pro- 
ducers have  a  motive  which  will  urge  them  to  associate  their 
labor  in  order  to  increase  the  product.  Consequently,  under  these 
conditions  the  necessary  economic  form  is  that  where  the  associa- 
tion of  the  producers  of  capital  who  work  together  divide  the 
product  into  equal  parts  (pure  association)  or  the  free  association 
where  one  or  more  producers  of  capital  and  one  or  more  simple 
laborers  work  together  and  share  equally  in  the  product  (mixed 
association).  ii(. 

But  under  all  hypotheses  the  division  of  society  into  a  class 
of  non-working  capitalists  and  a  class  of  non-capitalist  workers 
— being  given  free  ground — is  absolutely  impossible,  because  under 
these  conditions  the  reception  of  profit  on  the  part  of  an  idle 
capitalist  is  excluded  by  the  very  nature  of  things.  If,  then,  the 
capitalist  wishes  to  obtain  a  profit  at  any  cost  he  can  do  this  only 
by  yidently  suppressing  the  free  land  to  which  the  worker  owes 
his  strength  and  his  lihirty.  Now,  while  the  population  is  sparse 
and  consequently  the  complete  occupation  of  the  earth  is  im- 
possible, abolition  of  free  ground  may  be  accomplished  only  by  the 
enslavement  of  the  workers.  This  enslavement  takes  at  first 
the  brutal  form  of  chattel  slavery,  then  when  the  decreasing  pro- 
ductivity of  the  soil  ought  to  be  compensated  by  much  greater 
productivity  of  labor  it  is  possible  to  substitute  a  form  of  service 
more  gentle  and  more  favorable  to  effective  labor.  This  is  Why 
the  property  in  man  is  the  first  base,  the  primitive  pedestal  of 
capitalist  property. 

We  find  a  striking  demonstration  of  this  truth  in  a  study  of 
those  coimtries  having  an  abundance  of  free  land,  as,  for  example, 
the  colonial  countries.  All  who  have  studied  the  history  of  these 
enchanting  regions  declare  unhesitatingly  that  they  furnish  a 
brilliant  confirmation  of  our  thought.  They  remind  us  of  the 
raarvdous  tales  of  the  primitive  period  of  the  United  States  during 
which  this  fortunate  country  is  described  as  peopled  with  a  noble 
class  of  independent  workers,  ignorant  even  of  the  possibility  of 
capitalist  property.  They  recall  to  us  the  letters  of  Washington, 
who  speaks  of  the  impossibility  of  the  farmers  obtaining  any 
revenue  whatever  from  their  ground  unless  they  cultivated  it 
themselves  with  their  own  laborers.  They  repeat  certain  of  the 
speeches  of  Parkinson,  Strickland  and  all  the  other  Europeans 
who  traveled  in  America  during  the  eighteenth  century  and  who 
were  astonished  at  this  strange  country  where  money  would  do 
so  little.  They  explained,  then,  at  the  same  time,  the  historic 
necessity  of  slavery  and  servitude  in  modern  colonies  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  in  ancient  Europe  as  the  only  means  of  obtain- 
ing a  profit  during  the  period  of  free  ground,  and  this  explains 
equally  without  difficulty  the  tenacity  with  which  the  owners  de- 
fend a  system  which  produces  so  little  and  is  so  inconvenient  even 


14  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  KBVIBW 

for  the  capitalist  himself.  This  also  explains  why  in  the  Middle 
Ages  that  when  the  serfdom  disappeared  from  manufacturing 
industry,  while  there  were  still  fertile  ground  unoccupied,  there 
developed  a  barbarous  form  of  mixed  association,  the  corporation 
of  workshops — a  corporation  which,  while  dividing  the  product 
in  equal  proportions  between  the  producer  of  capital  (the  patron) 
and  the  simple  worker  (the  journeyman),  especially  excludes 
profits. 

Finally,  it  does  not  astonish  us  if  in  the  Middle  Ages  liberty 
of  men  and  free  earth  engenders  on  the  one  side  persecution  of 
the  laborers,  having  the  special  object  of  extorting  by  violence  the 
profit  which  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  otherwise;  and  on  the 
other  side  laws  against  usury.  Because  the  utter  powerlessness 
of  capital  to  obtain  a  profit  in  industrial  enterprises  rendered  in- 
terest on  capital  inconceivable  and  led  one  naturally  to  look 
upon  it  as  a  result  of  theft  or  fraud. 

But  when,  under  the  influence  of  an  increased  poptdation,  all 
the  ground  capable  of  cultivation  by  labor  alone  was  occupied, 
the  economic  organization  found  itself  suddenly  transformed. 
Then,  in  short,  the  workers  lost  this  option  which  constituted 
their  defense  against  the  usurpations  of  capital;  then  indeed  the 
worker  had  no  other  means  of  living  than  by  selling  his  labor 
power  to  the  capitalist  for  the  wage  which  it  pleased  this  latter 
to  fix;  then  he  was  truly  forced  to  give  up  to  the  capitalist 
the  better  part  of  his  product  or  to  grant  a  profit  to  capital 
from  this  product,  and  it  is  this  which  created  profit,  no  longer 
violent,  but  automatic  and  due  to  the  progressive  appropriation  of 
the  earth,  which  took  from  the  workers  all  option  and  founded 
their  economic  servitude. 

The  occupation  of  the  cultivable  earth  by  labor  alone  is 
never  able  to  absolutely  assure  the  establishment  of  the  capitalistic 
system,  because  there  will  always  remain  a  large  amount  of  un- 
occupied earth  whose  culture,  to  be  sure,  may  not  be  undertaken 
without  capital,  but  which  does  not  require  any  considerable 
amount  of  capital.  Now,  if  the  laborers  are  able  to  accumulate 
this  capital,  they  will  thereby  at  the  same  time  secure,  together 
with  the  possibility  of  transporting  themselves  to  free  earth,  their 
freedom  of  choice,  and  the  abolition  of  all  profit  will  be  the  in- 
evitable result.  The  condition  sine  qua  non  of  the  persistence 
of  the  capitalist  system  is  then  the  reduction  of  labor  to  the 
minimum  which  will  not  permit  the  workers  to  save,  and  it  is 
indespensable  therefore  that  the  capitalist  should  seek  in  all 
possible  ways  to  reduce  the  renumeration  of  the  laborers  to  that 
which  is  absolutely  necessary. 

This  minimum  is  attained  through  various  methods :  the  direct 
reduction  of  wages,  the  depreciation  of  money,  the  employment 
of  more  costly  machines  than  the  laborers  which  they  replace, 


THE   ECONOMIC  ORGANIZATION   OF   SOCIETY  15 

the  expansion  of  unproductive  capital  employed  in  the  affairs  of 
the  stock  exchange  and  the  bank,  in  metallic  money,  in  public 
debts,  a  number  of  useless  intermediaries,  the  creation  of  an  ex- 
cessive population  which  will  compete  with  the  employed  laborers. 

All  these  means  work  inevitably  to  limit  production  and 
consequently  to  diminish  profit.  The  proprietary  dass,  however, 
does  not,  hesitate  to  have  recourse  to  them  because  they  are  the 
necessary  conditions  for  assuring  even  the  continuance  of  profit 
by  preventing  the  raise  of  wages,  which  would  have  for  an  inevi- 
table result  the  cessation  of  capitalist  revenues.  When  finally 
the  later  increase  in  population  renders  possible  the  complete 
occupation  of  the  earth  and  its  exclusive  appropriation  by  the 
capitalistic  class  this  suffices  to  abolish  forever  the  choice  of  the 
workers  and  at  the  same  time  to  insure  the  continuance  of 
revenue  to  the  proprietary  class.  The  capitalist  finds  himself  sud- 
denly free  from  the  necessity  of  having  recourse  to  the  costly 
and  unproductive  form  of  reducing  wages  in  order  to  guarantee 
the  continuance  of  his  revenues;  and  the  capitalist  property  be- 
comes automatic,  that  is  to  say,  it  continues  independent  of  all 
direct  action  of  the  capitalist  against  the  liberties  and  the  remun- 
eration of  the  workers.  In  other  words,  it  is  then  only  necessary 
that  capital  should  not  be  permitted  to  escape  from  the  hands 
of  the  landed  proprietors  in  order  that  a  perpetual  revenue 
should  be  assurred  to  the  class  which  does  not  work  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  class  which  works. 

The  foundation  of  capitalist  property  is  therefore  always  the 
same,  that  is  to  say,  the  suppression  of  free  earth,  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  workers  from  the  occupation  of  the  earth,  an  exclu- 
sion which  is  obtained  by  various  methods  according  to  the  va- 
rious degrtees  of  occupation  and  the  productivity  of  the  soil. 
Indeed,  during  the  period  when  free  earth  exists,  cultivable 
with  labor  alone,  the  production  of  the  free  earth  is  obtained 
only  by  means  of  slavery  or  serfdom,  then  when  the  unoccupied 
earth  is  only  cultivable  by  those  who  possess  capital  they  may 
obtain  a  revenue  by  means  of  the  systematic  reduction  of  wages 
to  a  level  which  will  not  permit  accumulation  by  the  laborers. 
Finally,  when  as  a  result  of  the  increase  of  population  it  is  possi- 
ble to  occupy  all  of  the  earth,  they  may  obtain  this  income  by  the 
simple  appropriation  of  the  ground  on  the  part  of  the  capitalist 
class.  The  passage  from  one  to  the  other  of  these  successive 
forms  of  suppression  of  free  earth  is  accomplished  by  means  of 
an  economic  revolution  which  decomposes  the  social  systlem 
which  has  become  incapable  of  fulfilling  this  function  and  bring- 
ing forth  a  new  form.  But  the  suppression  of  free  earth,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  influences  distribution  so  powerfully,  also  ex- 
ercises two  very  remarkable  opposing  influences  upon  social  pro- 
duction.   In  reality  while  co-ordinating  the  efforts  of  slaves,  serfs 


16  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

and  wage  workers  for  an  lend  determined  by  the  proprietor,  it 
renders  the  association  of  labor  more  close  and  at  the  same  time 
more  efficacious.  But  in  associating  them  through  coercion  it 
confines  production  within  very  many  sensible  although  progress- 
ively decreasing  limits,  thanks  to  the  always  less  restrictive 
methods  of  the  suppression  of  free  earth.  They  give  then  to 
labor  a  productivity  which  is  superior  to  that  which-  it  would 
have  had  if  isolated,  but  inferior  to  that  which  it  would  have 
if  it  were  freely  associated.  This  is  why  it  is  that  when  the  pro- 
ductivity of  the  soil  is  raised  the  free  earth  will  give  rise  to  the 
economic  stage  of  isolated  production  and  the  suppression  of  th*e 
free  earth  is  technically  superior  to  free  earth  and  is  a  factor  of 
progress  and  of  civilization.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  free  earth, 
when  the  productivity  of  the  ground  is  feeble,  determines  the 
spontaneous  association  of  producers,  the  suppression  of  the  free 
earth  is  technically  inferior  and  constitutes  an  obstacle  to  prog- 
ress. Now,  under  the  influences  of  the  increase  of  population 
the  fertility  of  the  last  earth  cultivated,  productivity  decreases  until 
it  attains  the  limit  where  the  free  earth,  if  it  exists,  compels  the 
spontaneous  association  of  workers.  Then  the  suppression  of 
free  earth,  far  from  being  a  factor  in  the  progress  of  production, 
becomes  for  the  first  time  an  obstacle  to  production,  and  the  in- 
creasing exigencies  of  the  ever  more  numerous  population  always 
renders  more  intolerable  this  fettered  economic  form.  At  the 
same  time  the  always  more  restricted  limits  which  it  imposes  on 
production  creates  a  fatal  decrease  in  the  revenue  of  capital  and 
finally  its  necessary  annihilation,  therefore  we  see  the  impossibility 
of  the  persistence  of  production  under  the  control  of  the  capi- 
talist system  and  the  necessity  of  its  dissolution.  This  is  why 
that  society  will  finally  be  compelled,  in  order  to  avoid  the  in- 
creased misery,  to  re-establish  free  earth,  according  to  each  one 
the  right  to  occupy  the  extent  of  earth  which  he  can  cultivate  by 
his  own  labor  upon  the  base  of  free  property  in  land  and  estab- 
lish the  spontaneous  association  of  labor,  thereby  establishing 
the  economic  form  necessary  for  social  equilibrium. 

To  resume.  We  find  ourselves  then  face  to  face  with  two 
social  forms  absolutely  opposed  to  each  other.  On  the  one  side 
there  is  the  mixed  association  which  is  founded  upon  free  earth — 
that  is  to  say,  upon  the  right  accorded  to  each  one  to  occupy 
the  extent  of  earth  which  he  can  cultivate  by  his  own  labor,  and 
which  includes  the  division  of  the  product  in  equal  proportion  be- 
tween the  capitalist  worker  and  the  simple  workers  associated 
with  him — a  social  form  which  excludes  all  class  differences, 
eliminates  privilege  and  in  which  all  usurpation  is  unknown;  on 
the  other  side  there  is  the  capitalist  property,  supported  upon  the 
suppression  of  free  earth  or  upon  the  exclusion  of  the  mass  of 
humanity  from  the  possession  of  the  earth ;  an  exclusion  obtained 


THE  ECONOMIC  ORGANIZATION  OF   SOCIETY  17 

at  first  by  means  of  slavery  and  serfdom  and  then  by  the  reduc- 
tion of  wages  and,  finally,  by  the  exclusive  appropriation  of  the 
ground  on  the  part  of  capital — a,  social  form  which  divides 
the  collective  product  into  two  great  divisions,  the  wages  of 
labor  and  the  revenue  of  property,  and  which  separates  humanity 
into  a  class  of  exploited  and  a  class  of  exploiters. 

The  mixed  association  constitutes  the  highest  form — the  limited 
form  represents  the  last  stage  of  development  of  a  phenomena — 
of  economic  life,  and  that  towards  which  social  evolution  is  un- 
consciously tending.  Capitalist  property,  in  its  progressive  phases, 
represents  the  incomplete  stages  of  levolution — th«  long  and  sor- 
rowful period  of  elaboration  through  which  alone  may  be  obtained 
a  definite  organization  of  human  economy.  The  former  has  a 
normal  and  absolute  value,  the  latter  a  historic  and  transitory 
value.  The  first  has  as  yet  b^en  manifested  only  in  a  fragmentary 
and  sporadic  manner  during  historic  ages  and  at  the  present  it 
appears  only  as  an  indistinct  image  on  the  extreme  horizon  of 
evolution,  but  if  it  is  true  that  all  phenomena  and  all  problems 
ought  to  be  studied  in  this  limited  condition,  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
most  extreme  phase  of  their  evolution,  it  is  self  evident  that  the 
analysis  of  this  highest  form  of  evolution  is  necessary  in  order 
to  appreciate  the  character  of  this  evolution  itself  and  in  order  to 
comprehend  the  nature  of  past  and  present  economic  relations,  and 
in  order  to  trace  to  its  first  cause  their  mysterious  process. 

Now  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  the  limited  economic  form 
which  exdudes  all  usurpation  and  all  conflicts  may  persist  by  its 
own  virtue,  without  recourse  to  special  institutions  to  guarantee 
its  integrity,  but  it  is  equally  easy  to  understand  that  capitalist 
property,  just  because  it  is  founded  upon  the  exclusion  of  laboring 
masses  from  landed  property  and  because  that  it  is  supported  by 
violence  and  crime,  cannot  continue,  on  the  contrary,  and  that 
just  because  of  both  these  things. 

From  the  very  first  it  has  felt  the  need  of  a  series  of  economic 
means  which  assured  the  continuation  of  the  suppression  of  the 
free  earth  upon  which  it  is  founded.  But  the  capitalist  property 
always  has  the  need  if  it  is  to  endure  of  a  series  of  connective 
institutions  which  become  a  guarantee  against  all  resistance  upon 
the  part  of  those  who  are  excluded  from  the  possession  of  the 
earth,  in  order  to  assure  the  acquiescence  of  its  victims  and  pre- 
vent them  front  having  recourse  to  insurrection  or  of  giving  them- 
selves up  to  excesses.  The  most  remarkable  among  these  collective 
institutions  are  morality,  law  and  political  organization.  And 
these  great  phenomena  are  accordingly  an  organic  product  of 
capitalist  property,  or  at  least  they  are  fundamentally  metamor- 
phosed and  adapted  by  it  to  the  end  of  guaranteeing  its  own  ex- 
istence.— Achille  Loria,  in  UEtoile  Socialiste.  Translated  from 
the  French  by  A.  M.  Simons. 


The    Remuireration  of  Labor  in  the    Co-operative 
Commonwealth 

THE  Scx:ialist  movement  is  the  expression  of  the  discon- 
tent of  the  working  class  of  the  world  with  the  present 
capitalistic  order  of  society,  under  which  as  a  result  of 
the  private  ownership  by  the  capitalist  class  of  the  land 
and  the  machinery  of  production,  industry  is  administered  in  the 
interest  and  for  the  private  profit  of  the  members  of  the  capitalist 
class,  while  the  actual  producers  of  the  wealth  of  the  world,  re- 
ceiving but  a  mere  fraction  of  the  fruits  of  their  labor,  must  suf- 
fer the  pangs  of  poverty  and  privation  in  the  midst  of  the  abund- 
ance their  toil  has  created.  Thus,  exploitation,  which  is  the  root 
evil  of  capitalism,  as  it  is  that  which  makes  capitalism  possible, 
is  what  Socialism  aims  to  abolish.  But  if  the  purpose  of  Social- 
ism is  the  abolition  of  exploitation  and  to  make  the  existence  of 
an  exploiting  or  capitalist  class  impossible,  the  problem  arises 
how  to  distribute  among  the  citizens  of  the  Socialist  Republic 
the  product  of  their  joint  labor  so  as  to  give  each  individual  his 
just  share  and  no  one  more  or  less  than  his  just  share.  We  are 
confronted,  by  the  question  as  to  how  the  just  share  of  each  indi- 
vidual in  the  general  labor  product  shall  be  determined  or  meas- 
ured, and  as  to  what  shall  be  deemed  to  constitute  a  just  share. 
Is  there,  then,  any  principle  governing  the  distribution  of  in- 
comes and  the  remuneration  of  labor  under  Socialism  that  is  uni- 
versally accepted  at  the  present  time  by  Socialists  ?  No.  On  the 
contrary.  The  widest  divergence  of  opinion  prevails  among  the 
advocates  of  the  new  social  order  concerning  this  rriost  important 
and  most  practical  question.  Two  main  streams  or  tendencies 
of  thought  upon  this  subject  may,  however,  be  recognized,  and 
these  we  shall  here  consider. 

There  is,  first,  the  view  of  those  who  hold  that  the  remunera- 
tion of  the  individual  laborer  under  Socialism  shall  be  based  upon 
the  average  social  time  required  in  the  production  of  the  par- 
ticular article  upon  which  the  labor  has  been  expended ;  such  re- 
muneration or  labor  credit  to  be  equal  in  purchasing  power  to 
the  price  of  any  article  in  the  production  of  which  an  equal 
amount  of  social  labor  time  has  been  required ;  the  prices  of  com- 
modities to  be  thus  equal  to  the  value  of  the  labor  required  in 
their  production,  as  measured  in  time,  and  the  value  of  labor  to 
be  equal  to  the  prices  of  the  products. 

18 


THS  RBliUNSRATIOK  OF  LABOR.  10 

.  On  the  other  hand,  the  adherents  of  an  influential  and  numer- 
ically important  rival  school,  assert  that  it  is  impossible  under  the 
present  complex  and  interdependent  system  of  industry,  to  dis- 
cover the  exact  share  or  value  of  each  individual's  labor  in  the 
production  of  wealth,  and  that  even  if  this  were  possible  yet  the 
fact  that  the  co-operation  of  the  whole  of  society  and  the  accu- 
mulated experience  of  all  past  society  so  vastly  multiplies  the 
powers  of  the  individual  as  to  dwarf  the  value  of  his  purely  per- 
sonal contribution  of  productive  effort  into  significance,  would 
make  distribution  upon  the  basis  of  the  labor  performed  or  of  the 
alleged  value  of  such  labor  impracticable  as  well  as  unjust;  and 
that,  therefore,  the  only  solution  of  the  problem  of  distribution 
under  Socialism  is  to  be  found  in  the  principle  of  equality  of  in- 
comes ;  every  citizen  to  be  given  the  right  of  equal  participation 
in  the  product  of  the  combined  labor,  and  to  be  expected,  in 
return,  to  give  forth  his  own  best  efforts  in  productive  activity 
for  the  common  weal. 

In  regard  to  the  first  of  these  proposals,  namely,  that  the 
remuneration  of  labor  be  based  upon  the  average  time  required 
in  the  production  of  the  given  article  upon  which  the  labor  has 
been  expended,  the  limited  space  at  our  disposal  will  only  permit 
us  to  point  out  as  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  rejection  of  this 
plan,  that  if  we  may  rightly  take  the  quantity  of  labor  expended, 
as  measured  in  time,  as  the  basis  of  its  remuneration,  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  quality  of  the  labor  as  well  as  other  factors  that 
could  be  mentioned  as  influencing  the  manner  and  result  of  such 
labor  should  not  also  be  considered  in  determining  its  remunera- 
tion. If  inequality  of  earnings  is  justified  by  the  difference  in 
the  amount  of  time  which  different  individuals  may  devote  to 
labor,  it  is  also  justified  by  the  difference  in  the  nature  of  the  labor 
which  different  individuals  perform. 

There  remains,  then,  to  be  considered,  that  other  plan  for  the 
distribution  of  the  general  social  product,  according  to  which 
society  will  gfuarantee  to  each  individual  an  equal  share  or  pur- 
chasing power  in  the  entire  consumable  wealth  of  the  nation,  and 
will,  in  return,  require  the  surrender  for  social  use  of  each  indi- 
vidual's labor  power  under  as  nearly  equal  or  equalized  terms  and 
conditions  as  possible. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  main  argument  advanced  in  support  of 
the  principle  of  equality  of  incomes,  is,  that  the  productive  effi- 
ciency of  the  individual  is  due  to  the  co-operation  of  natural  and 
social  forces  and  to  the  inheritance  of  natural  and  social  oppor- 
tunities, both  as  expressing  itself  in  his  environment  and  in  his 
own  physical  organism,  and  that  as  the  individual  is  thus  him- 
self a  product  of  nature  and  society,  while  any  so-called  per- 
sonal superiority  which  he  may  possess,  is  a  superiority  in  per- 
forming the  various  functions  of  life  amid  an  environment  ere- 


20  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

ated  by  nature  and  society,  the  product  of  his  labor  is  not  indi- 
vidual but  social  and  universal,  and  that  it  belongs  to  him  only 
as  conferred  upon  him  by  authority  of  society,  and  by  virtue  of 
his  equal  membership  in  society,  and  that,  hence,  for  society  to 
decree  the  equal  division  among  all  its  members  of  the  social 
industrial  product,  is  not  only  for  it  to  act  strictly  within  its 
right  but  is  the  only  act  consistent  with  right  and  the  only  act 
according  with  logic. 

The  answer  that  must  be  given  to  this  is  that  the  law  which 
has  governed  the  development  of  life  and  the  rise  and  progress 
in  the  scale  of  being  both  of  individuals  and  of  societies ;  the  cos- 
mic law  in  subordination  to  which  and  as  the  outcome  of 
which  the  individual  man  of  today  and  human  soci- 
ety of  today  along  with  all  other  living  beings  and 
all  other  societies  of  living  beings,  have  arisen,  after  countless 
ages  of  stress  and  struggle,  from  out  the  formless  slime  at' the 
bottom  of  the  primeval  sea;  that  law  has  been,  that  "every  indi- 
vidual," whether  living  in  isolation  or  in  association  with  its 
fellows,  "shall  gain  by  whatever  aptitude  it  has  for  fulfilling  the 
conditions  to  its  existence."*  For  society  to  endeavor  to  annul 
this  law,  would  be  to  make  war  against  the  very  conditions  to 
which  it  owes  its  own  existence,  and  to  which  all  the  progress  that 
has  been  hitherto  achieved  has  been  due,  and  it  would  be  to  cut 
away  the  foundations  for  all  future  individual  progress  and  all 
future  racial  development. 

Race  progress  in  the  past  has  been  consequent  upon  the  oper- 
ation of  the  law  that  each  creature  shall  enjoy  the  benefits  accru- 
ing to  it  from  the  possession  of  superior  ability  to  meet  the  con- 
ditions of  its  existence;  for  since  such  benefits  involved  greater 
opportunity  to  perpetuate  its  stock  into  posterity  by  means  of 
descendants,  there  has  been  as  a  result  a  constant  increase  within 
each  species  of  the  proportion  of  its  members  possessing  such 
superior  ability ;  and  it  has  been  this  constant  infusion  in  an  in- 
creasing ratio  into  each  generation  of  every  species  of  the  best 
blood  of  each  preceding  generation,  which  has  been  the  lever  that 
has  raised  life  up  to  its  present  high  state  of  development. 

This  materialistic  conception  of  race  progress,  which  corre- 
sponds to  and  in  a  manner  includes  Marx'  materialistic  concep- 
tion of  history  is  founded  upon  the  solid  rock  of  modern  positive 
science,  and  it  applies  as  well  to  the  human  race  as  to  the  lower 
races,  and  it  applies  as  well  to  the  future,  though  not,  perhaps, 
the  very  remote  future,  as  it  does  to  the  present.  The  Utopian 
ideas  of  a  mathematical  equality  of  incomes  and  of  the  commun- 
istic distribution  of  products,  which  have  come  down  to  us  from 
the  early  Socialists,  originated  at  a  time  when  the  modem  doc- 


*Herbert  Spencer  in  "Data  of  Ethic."    Chap.  XI,  §69. 


THE  KEafUNBBATION  OF  LABOR.  21 

trine  of  evoluticxi  and  the  method  of  evolution  were  unknown. 
The  time  has  come,  however,  when  an  attempt  should  be  made  to 
definitely  aiid  clearly  demonstrate  to  the  world  that,  contrary  to 
the  prevailing  impression,  there  is  nothing  in  the  philosophy  of 
Socialism,  rightly  understood,  inherently  at  variance  with  the 
philosophy  of  evolution,  and  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  princi- 
ples of  evolution  opposed  to  the  essential  truths  of  Socialism.* 

However,  it  is  not  here  contended  that  in  the  distant  future, 
as  a  result  of  the  changes  to  be  wrought  by  evolution  both  in  the 
nature  of  the  race  and  in  its  environment,  the  institutions  that 
would  today  be  found  wholly  impracticable,  might  not  under  the 
far  different  conditions  of  that  period  become  eminently  suitable 
for  the  people  of  that  age,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  most 
deep-rooted  customs  and  institutions  of  the  present  era  might 
not  in  their  turn  then  become  obsolete.  But  Socialism  as  a  move- 
ment of  the  present  day  does  not  come  for  the  purpose  of  bring- 
ing about  the  indiscriminate  overturning  of  all  existing  institu- 
tion. Socialism  is  the  natural  outgrowth  of  an  industrial  devel- 
opment which  has  reached  the  period  of  its  maturity;  an  indus- 
trial development  which  is  marked  by  the  gradually  increasing 
inadequacy  of  the  individualistic  system  of  production  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  society,  and  which  is  bound  to  terminate  in 
the  abolition  of  the  system  of  individualistic  or  private  ownership 
and  administration  of  the  machinery  of  production  and  in  the 
inauguration'of  the  system  of  collective  or  public  ownership  and 
administration.  When  we  shall  but  have  removed  the  incubus  of 
rent,  interest  and  profits  from  off  the  backs  of  the  world's  pro- 
ducers ;  when  the  root  evil  of  the  present  social  economy,  private 
capitalism,  shall  have  been  cut  out  of  our  civilization,  it  will  not 
be  necessary  to  make  any  further  fundamental  changes  in  thcr 
social  organization  to  insure  justice  in  the  distribution  of  wealth, 
nor  will  it  be  required  to  invent  arbitrary  rules  for  the  remunera- 
tion of  labor  to  substitute  for  the  natural  law  governing  wages 
under  freedom. 

The  economic  law  which  today  regulates  wages  in  the 
different  employments  needs  but  to  be  freed  from  its  enforced 
connection  with  the  system  of  class  monopoly  of  the  means  of 
production  to  be  enabled  to  automatically  yet  equitably  determine 
the  remuneration  of  labor  under  more  just  industrial  conditions. 


♦Such  an  attempt  has  recently,  indeed,  been  made  by  Enrico  Ferri 
in  his  book  on  "Socialism  and  Modern  Science."  While  this  work  is  an 
encouraging  sign  of  an  awakening  to  the  need  of  reconciling  the  modern 
view  of  race  progress  and  the  modern  view  of  social  progress — ^thc  doc- 
trine of  Darwin  and  the  doctrine  of  Marx—it  fails  to  touch  the  subject 
in  more  than  a  merely  nominal  manner,  avoiding  the  points  of  greatest 
apparent  conflict  between  these  two  divisions  of  the  new  thought,  and 
the  book,  in  consequence,  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  convincing. 


22  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIOT  REVIEW 

Under  a  regime  of  equality  of  opportunity  to  the  means  of  pro- 
duction and  individual  freedom  in  the  disposition  of  one's  labor 
power,  there  is  a  natural  economic  law  which  if  it  be  made  the 
basis  for  the  regulation  of  the  rates  of  wages  throughout  the 
various  employments,  labor  will  be  as  certain  to  find  its  just 
reward  as  water  is  to  find  its  level.  That  law  is  none  other  than 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  By  raising  wages  in  occupations 
and  places  where  the  supply  of  labor  is  less  than  the  demand 
(as  determined  for  the  demand  for  the  particular  commodities 
produced)  and  by  lowering  wages  where  the  supply  exceeds  the 
demand,  labor  will  be  stimulated  to  flow  towards  the  various 
points  of  production  in  proportion  to  the  demand  for  labor  in 
each  particular  industry  and  in  each  particular  region,  and  its 
remuneration  will  be  governed  by  the  valuation  placed  upon  it  by 
the  laborers  themselves. 

As  the  demand  for  commodities  under  the  Co-operative  Com- 
monwealth will  only  be  limited  by  the  productive  capacity  of 
society,  owing  to  the  prices  of  commodities  being  based  upon  the 
bare  cost  of  production,  the  total  demand  for  labor  will  always 
be  equal  to  the  total  supply,  and  hence,  as  no  one  need  ever  suffer 
for  lack  of  employment,  no  one  need  accept  work  or  remain  at 
work  at  an  unsatisfactory  rate  of  remuneration  if  in  other 
branches  or  conditions  of  employment  labor  requiring  equal  skill 
or  effort  is  paid  more.  Every  individual  being  guaranteed  the 
right  to  labor  at  any  work  he  may  be  capable  of  doing,  no  class 
of  workers  could  maintain  a  monopoly  of  a  more  desirable  em- 
ployment, nor  could  the  rate  of  remuneration  in  any  industry  be 
kept  higher  than  the  general  level  of  wages  for  an  equal  class  of 
work,  owing  to  the  flow  of  labor  that  would  set  in  towards  such 
more  favored  occupation.  The  true  value  of  every  species  of 
labor  will  thus  be  determined  by  the  amount  of  remuneration 
which  it  will  be  necessary  to  offer  in  order  to  attract  or  retain 
a  supply  of  labor  equal  to  the  demand  in  any  stated  employment, 
and  in  every  employment  the  remuneration  paid  to  the  worker 
will  thus  represent  the  true  value  of  his  work. 

The  advantages  of  this  system  of  remunerating  labor  and 
distributing  the  product  of  the  general  industry  under  the  Co-op- 
erative Commonwealth  will  be  readily  apparent  to  the  thoughtful 
reader.  The  objections  most  frequently  urged  against  Socialism 
by  its  honest  opponents  are  really  objections  against  that  "regime 
of  status"  and  the  consequences  of  such  a  regime  which  it  is 
erroneously  believed  to  involve.  When  it  can  be  shown,  however, 
that  Socialism  in  no  way  carries  with  it  the  necessity  for  any 
restriction  upon  the  economic  liberty  of  the  individual,  in  the 
sense  in  which  economic  liberty  on  tfie  part  of  the  wage  earner 
is  now  understood,  and  when  it  can  be  shown  that  the  income  of 
each  individual  worker  under  Socialism  will  correspond  to  his 


THE  REMUNERATION  OF  LABOR.  23 

own  industry  and  productive  efficiency,  and  will  be  determined, 
not  by  arbitrary  decision  of  human  authority  but  by  the  impartial 
justice  of  a  natural  law,  such  objections  must  lose  all  their  force, 
though  not  before. 

There  might  be  some  foundation  for  the  fear  expressed  by 
Herbert  Spencer,  that  Socialism  would  result  in  the  establish- 
ment of  "a  military  despotism  of  the  most  severe  type,"  if  Social- 
ism really  involved  the  adoption  of  industrial  arrangements 
under  which  the  individual  worker  would  have  no  deciding  voice 
in  the  disposition  of  his  own  labor  power  and  no  material  interest 
in  the  results  of  his  labor ;  but  this  fear  becomes  groundless  if  we 
are  permitted  to  assume  that  the  "industrial  army"  of  the  future 
republic  will  be  a  volunteer  army  of  willing  workers,  co-operat- 
ing without  compulsion  in  the  service  of  society  and  receiving 
each  his  reward  according  to  his  deeds. 

No  doubt  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  'as  it  operates  today 
under  a  capitalistic  economy,  works  injury  to  the  interests  of 
the  laboring  classes.  Where  one  class  in  society  owns  all  the 
means  of  production  and  the  remainder  of  the  population  must 
compete  with  one  another  for  the  right  to  labor,  the  tendency  of 
wages  must  necessarily  be  to  fall  to  the  minimum  point  at  which 
life  can  be  supported.  Far  different,  however,  must  it  be  where 
the  machinery  of  production  is  the  common  property  of  the  whole 
people  and  the  entire  product  of  industry  must  be  divided  among 
those  who  produce  it ;  where  the  industrial  mechanism  of  society 
is  operated  for  the  express  purpose  of  providing  the  largest  pro- 
duct at  the  least  cost  to  the  consumers  and  full  employment  at 
the  highest  remuneration  to  the  producers;  where  every  worker 
is  aiforded  the  utmost  opportunity  of  qualifying  himself  for  the 
most  desirable  employments  and  every  employment  is  open  under 
equal  terms  to  every  individual. 

Under  such  conditions  only  the  best  results  must  follow 
from  permitting  the  mutual  competition  of  the  workers  to  regu- 
late the  rate  of  remuneration  in  every  industry,  and  there  can 
be  no  other  method  of  regulating  the  rate  of  remuneration  under 
the  Co-operative  Commonwealth  that  would  be  just  to  all  mem- 
bers of  society  and  that  would  involve  no  arbitrary  interference 
with  and  infringement  upon  the  liberty  and  dignity  of  the  indi- 
vidual. As  the  competition  would  not  be,  as  now,  between  an 
army  of  starving  unemployed,  on  the  one  hand,  and  those  fortu- 
nate enough  to  have  employment,  but  far  otherwise,  would  con-  • 
sist  simply  of  a  flow  of  labor  from  the  occupations  that  at  a  given 
time  appear  less  desirable  to  the  occupations  that  at  the  same  time 
appear  more  desirable,  the  effects  of  this  system  of  adjusting 
wages  according  to  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  would  be  to 
equalize  the  desirability  of  the  various  employments ;  to  reduce 
the  prices  and  stimulate  the  consumption  of  commodities  requir- 


1 


24  INTERNATIONAIi  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

ing  particular  skill  or  talent  in  their  production;  to  raise  the 
standard  of  individual  efficiency  and  ambition;  and  to  increase 
the  general  wealth  and  the  annual  product  of  wealth  of  society. 
Thus,  divested  of  those  paternalistic  and  authoritarian  fea- 
tures which  certain  doctrinaires,  in  their  mad  craving  for  an  arti- 
ficial and  imposed  equality,  would  mischievously  fasten  upon  the 
idea  of  the  Co-operative  Commonwealth,  it  beccwnes  clear  that 
Socialism,  by  no  means  involves  any  curtailment  of  or  imperti- 
nent tampering  with  the  liberty  of  the  individual,  even  in  his 
industrial  relations ;  that  it  does  not  require  the  adoption  of  that 
principle  of  equality  of  incomes,  which  in  the  present  state  of 
human  nature,  would,  indeed,  be  fatal  to  effort  and  destructive 
of  the  conditions  of  organic  progress ;  and  that  it  does  not  neces- 
sitate the  "regeneration  of  the  human  race,"  and  the  consequent 
crushing  out  of  individuality.  On  the  contrary,  in  putting  an 
end  to  the  monopoly  by  the  few  over  the  means  of  emj>loyment 
upon  which  depends  the  very  existence  of  the  many.  Socialism, 
we  thus  see,  would  make  for  a  fuller  and  more  widely  diffused 
liberty  than  has  ever  been  known  before ;  in  basing  income  upon 
labor  and  not  upon  the  exploitation  of  labor,  it  would  stimulate 
efficiency  and  promote  the  rise  of  the  most  worthy ;  and  in  estab- 
lishing equality  of  opportunities  for  all,  it  would  the  more  effect- 
ively insure  the  development  of  the  individuality  of  each.  Social- 
ism, instead  of  being  antagonistic  to  race  progress,  would  pro- 
vide the  only  environment  under  which  true  race  progress  can  be 
effected;  instead  of  dragging  all  down  to  the  same  low  level  it 
would  raise  mankind  to  a  state  of  culture  and  refinement  unparal- 
leled in  history ;  and  instead  of  bringing  in  its  train  disorder  and 
distress  it  would  usher  in  an  era  of  perpetual  peace  and  plenty. 

Raphael  Buck. 


Economic  Aspects  of  Chattel  Slavery  in  America 

WHEN  I  wrote  the  pamphlet,  "Class  Struggles  in  Amer- 
ica/' the  one  great  problem  which  confronted  me  was 
what  to  leive  out.  There  was  one  phase  of  American 
history  which  I  specially  felt  required  further  atten- 
tion, and  that  was  the  subject  of  this  article.  Even  now, 
when  I  come  to  go  over  the  material  which  I  have  accumulated  on 
the  subject,  I  am  forced  to  realize  that  the  space  which  is  at  the 
disposal  of  a  magazine  article  is  ridiculously  inadequate  for  any 
thorough  treatment  of  American  chattel  slavery,  even  in  the  single 
aspects  of  its  relations  to  economic  history.  Since  the  positions 
which  a  true  interpretation  of  the  facts  compels  me  to  take  are  so 
frequently  at  variance  with,  or  directly  opposed  to,  those  which 
are  held  by  a  great  majority  of  our  people,  I  have  made  a  much 
wider  use  of  quotations  than  would  ordinarily  be  desirable.  By 
this  means  each  reader  is  enabled  to  judge  for  himself  as  to  the 
soundness  of  the  position  taken  and  in  how  far  my  interpretation 
of  the  facts  is  correct. 

In  the  early  days  of  colonization  Amierica  was  looked  upon 
simply  as  a  field  for  exploitation  by  the  ruling  capitalist  ^ 
class  of  Europe.  G>mpanies  were  formed  who  expected  to 
realize  fortunes  for  their  organizers  front  the  new  country.  But 
as  pointed  out  by  Achille  Loria,  in  an  article  which  appears 
elsewhere  in  this  issue  of  the  International  Socialist  Review, 
exploitation  in  a  new  country  is  absolutely  impossible  while  free 
land  exists  and  industry  is  in  a  low  degree  of  technical  develop- 
ment. If  the  companies  and  individuals  who  were  planting 
colonies  in  America  were  to  receive  any  surplus  value  chattel 
slavery  was  absolutely  essential,  and  the  first  and  most  natural 
move  was  to  attempt  the  enslavement  of  the  Indian.  Columbus 
was  the  first  one  who  tried  this  and  the  experiment  was  repeated 
over  and  over  again  during  the  next  two  hundred  years  and 
always  with  the  same  result.  The  Indian  would  die  but  he  would 
not  become  a  slave.  It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  account  for  this  from 
the  point  of  view  of  economic  determinism.  There  was  little  dif- 
ference in  the  stage  of  race  development  obtained  by  the  North 
Amterican  Indian  and  that  of  the  African  negro,  yet  the  latter 
made  the  best  slave  the  world  has  ever  known,  while  the  other 
proved  himself  capable  of  resisting  all  attempts  to  enslave  him. 
To  be  sure  there  were  a  few  exceptions  to  the  rule.  The  Indians 
of  Mexico  and  Peru  were  enslaved,  but  as  is  well  known  these 
belonged  to  a  diflferent  social  stage,  if  not  a  different  ethnical 

25 


26  INTERNATIONAIi  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

branch  than  the  other  tribes.  Incidentally,  it  is  a  sort  of  grim 
tribute  to  the  proud  Castilian  that  the  half  breed  Spaniards  could 
always  be  made  to  submit  to  a  master  without  difficulty.* 

There  were  but  two  ways  in  which  America  could  be  opened 
up  to  settlement  and  both  played  an  important  part,  one  by  free 
labor  yielding  no  surplus  but  laying  the  foundations  for  wage 
labor  and  the  other  way  by  chattel  slavery  in  exploiting  some 
industry  where  unintelligent  labor  and  crude  tools  could  produce 
a  surplus  subsistence  for  the  slaves. 

Taking  the  Colonial  period  a  sharply  defined  distinction  in  the 
industrial  organization  of  the  northern  and  southern  colonies 
appears.  Before  proceeding  directly  to  this,  however,  it  is  worth 
while  to  note  that  through  one  of  those  strange  happenings  which 
gives  to  our  imperfect  knowledge  of  causes  an  effect  we  must 
still  call  coincidences,  the  Southern  portion  of  the  United  States 
was  settled  largely  by  the  Cavalier  element  of  England  while 
the  Northern  Colonies  derived  their  main  strength  from  Puritan 
stock.  The  interesting  point  lies  in  the  fact  that  in  Europe  it 
was  just  the  Cavalier  who  represented  the  old  feudal  organization 
of  society,  with  its  servile  system  of  labor,  while  the  Puritan  is 
the  representative  of  the  rapidly  rising  bourgeoisie  which  was  to 
rest  upon  the  status  of  wage  slavery. 

In  the  beginning  all  the  Colonies  held  slaves,  indeed  slavery 
was  retained  in  almost  all  the  Colonies  until  several  years  after 
the  Revolution.  It  gradually,  however,  died  out  as  it  proved 
impracticable,  and  after  it  had  died  out  laws  were  generally 
passed  to  abolish  it.  For  example,  when  Vermont  abolished  slav- 
ery there  were  just  nineteen  slaves  within  her  boundaries. 

The  physical  conditions  which  in  the  early  stages  of  soci- 
ety are  always  prominent  in  determining  the  economic  basis 
of  the  social  structure,  created  a  sharp  division  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  Colonies.  Perhaps  it  is  more  accurate  to 
say  rather  that  it  divided  the  Colonies  into  three  groups:  first, 
the  Northern  or  New  England  Colonies,  mainly  occupied  with 
ship-building,  commerce  and  fishing;  the  Middle  Colonies,  occu- 
pied mainly  with  manufactures  and  small  farming,  and  the 
Southern  Colonies,  confined  almost  exclusively  to  tobacco  and  rice. 
None  of  these  industries,  save  tobacco  and  rice  farming,  afforded 
any  large  surplus  with  crude  tools  and  unskilled  labor,  and  con- 
sequently chattel  slavery  was  practically  impossible.  It  is  notice- 
able,  however,   that   white   servitude  in  ^  the   form   of  indented 

*0n  enslavement  of  the  Indians  sec  "The  Negro  in  Maryland,"  by 
Jeffrey  R.  Brackett,  in  "Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  History  and 
Political  Science,"  extra  Vol.  VI,  pp.  5  to  20  passim;  and  "History  of 
Slavery  in  Virginia,"  by  Jas.  C.  Ballagh,  same  studies,  Vol.  XXIV,  pp. 
35-36  and  4^51;  and  Walterhausen's  "Die  Arbeits-Verfassung  der  Eng- 
lischen  Colonien  in  Nord  Amerika,"  pp.  80-88. 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAVERY  27 

servants  prevailed  in  all  the  Colonies,  and  in  the  thirteen  States 
until  some  time  after  the  Revolution.  As  this  subject  has  been 
thoroughly  treated  elsewhere  I  will  not  attempt  to  go  into  it  here. 

The  following  quotation  from  Lodge's  "Short  History  of 
the  English  Colonies  in  America,"  p.  64,  will  show  how  absolutely 
the  Virginia  social  organization  rested  upon  tobacco:  "The  ex- 
planation of  the  condition  of  trade  and  industry  is  to  be  found  in 
the  absorption  of  the  population  in  the  cultivation  of  tobacco. 
There  has  never  been  a  community,  probably,  in  which  any  one 
great  staple  has  played  such  a  part  as  in  Virginia.  Tobacco 
founded  the  colony  and  gave  it  wealth.  It  was  the  currency  of 
Virginia ;  as  bad  a  one  as  could  be  devised,  and  fluctuating  with 
every  crop ;  yet  it  retained  its  place  as  circulating  medium  despite 
the  most  strenuous  eflforts  to  introduce  specie.  The  clergy  were 
paid  and  taxes  were  levied  by  the  Burgesses  in  tobacco.  Tlie 
whole  prosperity  of  the  colony  rested  upon  it  for  more  than  a 
century,  and  it  was  not  until  the  period  of  the  Revolution  that 
other  crops  began  to  come  in  and  replace  it.  The  fluctuations  in 
tobacco  caused  the  first  conflict  with  England,  brought  on  by  the 
violence  of  the  clergy,  and  paved  the  way  for  resistance.  In  to- 
bacco the  Virginian  estimated  his  income  and  the  value  of  every- 
thing he  possessed,  and  in  its  various  functions  as  well  as  in  its 
method  of  cultivation  it  had  a  strange  effect  upon  the  character 
of  the  people."  .  .  .  Page  65:  "Tobacco  planting  made  slaves 
necessary  and  profitable,  and  fastened  slavery  upon  the  province. 
The  method  of  cultivation,  requiring  intense  labor  and  watching 
for  a  short  period,  and  permitting  complete  idleness  for  the  rest 
of  the  year,  fostered  debts  which  alternated  feverish  exertion  and 
languid  indolence." 

The  subject  of  the  colonial  slave  trade  is  one  which  throws 
a  large  amount  of  light  upon  many  different  phases  of  the  de- 
velopment of  class  interest.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  undoubtedly 
true  as  was  pointed  out  by  David  Christy  in  his  work,  "Ethopia — 
Her  Gloom  and  Glory"  :* 

"The  records  of  history  put  it  beyond  all  question  that  the 
rapid  rise  of  Great  Britain  during  the  eighteenth  century,  which 
secured  to  her  the  superiority  over  other  nations  in  naval  power, 
in  commerce,  and  ultimately  in  manufactures,  was  due  principally 
to  her  having  acquired  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  1713,  the  monop- 
oly of  the  slave  trade.  The  traffic  in  slaves  being  by  the  treaty 
placed  under  the  control  of  England,  her  rivals  were  deprived 


♦Geo.  McHcnry,  "The  Cotton  Trade,"  a  ijro-slavery  book  published 
in  England  in  1863,  p.  2,  says :  "In  fact,  the  African  trade  was  the  founda- 
tion of  the  commercial  wealth  of  England,  that  of  India  being  secondary 
in  date  and  advantage;  and  the  cotton  manufacturing  interest,  the  result 
of  slave  labor,  has  been  of  greater  consequence  than  either."  See  also  pp. 
188-198. 


28  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

of  the  means  of  supplying  slaves  to  their  tropical  possessions,  ex- 
cepting through  her  merchants,  while  she  could  add  to  her  colonies 
any  number  required  by  the  planters." 

In  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  to  which  reference  is  made  above, 
an  agreement  called  the  Asiento  was  signed,  which  gave  the 
Royal  African  Company,  of  which  Queen  Ann  owned  one-quarter 
of  the  stock,  a  monopoly  of  the  slave  trade.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  the  attitude  of  the  colonies  towards  the  slave  trade.  Penn- 
sylvania, New  Jersey  and  Vermont,  with  a  great  show  of  self 
righteousness,  abolished  the  slave  trade  without,  however,  publish- 
ing the  fact  that  they  never  had  had  any  to  abolish.  New  Eng- 
land stood  in  a  very  peculiar  situation  towards  the  slave  traffic. 
It  was  the  New  England  sailors  and  traders  who  were  the  prin- 
cipal carriers  and  traders  in  the  slaves. 

The  New  England  ships  loaded  with  rum  from  local  distilleries 
sailed  to  Africa,  where  they  exchanged  this  for  negroes,  and  then 
sailing  for  the  Southern  ports  of  the  United  States,  they  sold 
the  negroes  for  cash,  and  making  the  short  trip  in  ballast  to  the 
West  Indies  they  bought  shiploads  of  molasses  which,  when 
brought  back  to  New  England,  formed  the  raw  material  for  more 
rum,  and  so  on.  As  Du  Bois,  in  "Suppression  of  the  African 
Slave  Trade  to  the  United  States/'  pp.  28-29,  says :  "This  trade 
formed  a  perfect  circle.  Owners  of  slave-ships  carried  slaves 
to  South  Carolina  and  brought  home  naval  stores  for  their  ship 
building ;  or  to  the  West  Indies  and  brought  home  molasses ;  or 
to  other  colonies  and  brought  home  hogsheads.  The  molasses  was 
made  into  the  highly  prized  New  England  rum  and  shipped  in 
these  hogsheads  to  Africa  for  more  slaves.  Thus  the  rum  distill- 
ing industry  indicates  to  some  extent  the  activity  of  New  England 
in  the  slave  trade.  In  May,  1702,  one  Captain  Freeman  found 
so  many  slavers  fitting  out  that  in  spite  of  the  large  importatictfis 
of  molasses  he  could  get  no  rum  for  two  vessels.  In  Newport 
alone  twenty-two  stills  were  at  one  time  running  continuously; 
and  Massachusetts  annually  distilled  15,000  hogsheads  of  molasses 
into  this  chief  industry.' 

Thus  it  is  that  we  are  not  surprised  to  learn  from  Du  Bois : 
"In  the  line  of  definite  legal  enactments  to  stop  New  England 
citizens  from  carrying  slaves  from  Africa  to  any  place  in  the 
world,  there  were,  before  the  Revolution,  none." 

Again,  he  tells  us  on  page  37 :  "The  system  of  slavery  had,  on 
this  soil  and  amid  these  surroundings,  no  economic  justification 
and  the  small  number  of  negroes  here  furnished  no  political 
arguments  against  them.  The  opposition  to  the  importation  was, 
therefore,  from  the  first  based  solely  on  moral  grounds,  with  some 
social  arguments.  As  to  the  carrying  trade,  however,  the  case 
was  different.  Here,  too,  a  feeble  moral  opposition  was  early 
aroused,  but  it  was  swept  away  by  the  immense  economic  ad- 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CUATIKL  SLAVERY  29 

vantages  of  the  slave  traffic  to  a  thrifty  seafaring  community  of 
traders.    This  trade  no  moral  suasion,  not  even  the  strong  'Lib- 
j  erty'  cry  of  the  Revolution,  was  able  wholly  to  suppress,  until 

the  closing  of  the  West  Indies  and  Southern  markets  cut  off  the 
demand  for  slaves." 

The  Southern  Colonies  from  the  very  first  offered  much  more 
opposition  to  the  slave  trade  than  the  Northern  ones.    The  de- 
i  fenders  of  these  States  have  been  quick  to  seize  upon  this  fact 

!  as  "indicating  a  higher  moral  standard"  on  their  part.     But  a 

I  very  slight  examination  will  show  that  their  opposition  to  the 

I  slave  trade  was  no  more  disinterested  than  the  Northern  friend- 

I  liness.     Some  of  these  States,  particularly  Virginia  and  North 

I  Carolina,  already  had  as  many  slaves  as  could  be  profitably  em- 

!  ployed  with  the  prevailing  stage  of  industry.     They  had  also 

!  entered  upon  the  industry  of  raising  slaves  for  sale  to  more 

I  southern  colonies,  and  to  such  new  plantations  as  might  be  formed 

I  in  their  borders.     Consequently,  they  looked  upon  obstacles  to 

I  the  slave  trade  much  in  the  light  of  protection  to  a  home  industry. 

Another  reason  which  was  frequently  given  in  the  laws  them- 
selves was  the  fear  of  slave  insurrection.  The  black  population 
!  much  outnumbered  the  whites  and  there  had  been  several  cases 

of  such  insurrections. 

Another  and  more  obscure  reason  than  any  of  these,  although 
a  reason  which  is  closely  connected  with  the  first  given,  is  the  fact 
that  at  this  time  the  production  of  cotton  was  still  so  hampered 
by  the  difficulty  of  separating  the  fiber  from  the  seed  as  to  make 
its  production  on  any  large  scale  unprofitable.  Hence  it  was 
that  Virginia  continuously  sought  to  increase  the  tax  upon  im- 
portations of  slaves  and  resisted  the  efforts  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment to  further  the  interests  of  the  slave  traders. 

Virginia  continued  to  increase  the  tax  upon  importations  and 
to  struggle  with  the  British  Government,  which  wished  to  further 
the  monopoly.  Numerous  acts  were  passed  by  the  Virginia  Colo- 
nial Legislature  respecting  slavery,  and  it  is  well  known  that 
Jefferson,  Washington,  Patrick  Henry  and  a  majority  of  the 
Southern  men  of  colonial  times  were  opposed  to  slavery.  >The 
following  quotation  from  a  lecture  delivered  by  St.  George  Tucker, 
professor  of  law  in  the  University  of  William  and  Mary,  and  one 
of  the  judges  of  the  General  Court  of  Virginia,  in  1796,  concern- 
ing the  contest  with  England  on  this  point,  gives  an  idea  of 
Southern  opinion  at  this  time: 

"It  is  easy  to  trace  the  desire  of  the  Legislature  to  put  a 
stop  to  the  further  importation  of  slaves,  and  had  not  this  desire 
been  uniformly  opposed  on  the  part  of  the  Crown,  it  is  highly 
probable  the  event  would  have  taken  effect  at  a  much  earlier 
period  than  it  did.  .  .  .  The  wishes  of  the  people  of  this  colony 
were  not  sufficient  to  counterbalance  the  interest  of  the  English 


30  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  RBIVIEW 

merchants  trading  in  Africa,  and  it  is  probable  that  however  dis- 
posed to  put  a  stop  to  so  infamous  a  traffic  by  law,  we  should 
never  have  been  able  to  effect  it  so  long  as  we  might  have  con- 
tinued dependent  on  the  British  Government,  an  objection  suffir 
cient  in  itself  to  justify  revolution." 

In  a  work  by  George  McHenry,  entitled,  "The  Cotton  Trade,*' 
and  which  was  written  in  1863  to  enlist  sympatliy  in  England  for 
the  Confederate  States,  we  find  the  following  (pp.  198-199)  : 
'The  legislation  of  all  the  Southern  communities,  both  as  colonies 
and  states,  for  more  than  165  years — certainly  commencing  as  far 
back  as  1698 — ^has  been  distinguished  by  constant  efforts  either 
to  embarrass  or  entirely  prohibit  the  African  slave  trade.  Alone 
among  the  nations  of  Christendom,  though  fruitlessly  against  the 
unanimous  policy  of  the  European  governments,  they  struggled 
to  prevent  the  increase  of  slaves  from  Africa  upon  the  American 
continent.  .  .  .  Not  one  of  the  Yankee  states  has  ever  enacted 
laws  prohibiting  that  commerce." 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  Virginia  had  practically  stopped 
the  importation  by  a  tax  of  iioo  per  head,  and  in  1788  it  com- 
pletely prohibited  the  importations.  North  Carolina  also  pro- 
hibited the  importation  in  1786.  South  Carolina  and  Georgia, 
however,  were  largely  engaged  in  rice  farming,  and  this  returned 
great  profits  on  slave  labor.  The  proprietors  of  Georgia,  however, 
had  founded  it  largely  as  a  buffer  colony  between  the  Spanish 
and  English  possessions.  They  felt  that  negroes  would  be  a 
source  of  military  weakness  and  consequently  Oglethorpe  posed 
as  a  great  friend  of  humanity  and  opponent  of  slavery  and  fought 
continuously  to  keep  the  slave  trade  out  of  Georgia.  The  ordinary 
school  histories  generally  accord  him  much  praise  on  this  point, 
but  we  learn  from  John  R.  Spears'  "American  Slave  Trade,"  page 
95,  that  "the  fact  is  that  Oglethorpe  was  deputy  governor  of 
the  Royal  African  Company  .  .  .  which  delivered  many  more 
than  4,800  slaves  into  the  American  colonies  in  the  very  year 
when  Oglethorpe  made  a  speech  on  the  slave  trade  declaring  It  a 
horrible  crime.  He  also  owned  a  plantation  near  Parachucla, 
South  Carolina  .  .  .  worked  by  slaves." 

Finally,  however,  the  interests  of  the  local  planters  prevailed 
and  G^org^a  secured  the  right  to  import  slaves  in  1749.  There 
were  numerous  restrictions  and  a  duty  was  laid  upon  each  slave 
imported.  Btit  Du  Bois  says,  page  8 :  "It  is  probable,  however, 
that  these  restrictions  were  never  enforced  and  that  the  trade 
thus  established  continued  unchecked  until  the  Revolution." 

Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  slave  trade  is  given  by  Du  Bois, 
page  5,  as  follows:  "From  1680  to  1688  the  African  Company 
sent  249  ships  to  Africa,  shipped  there  60,783  negro  slaves  and 
after  losing  14,387  on  the  middle  passage,  delivered  46,396  in 
America.    ...    To  these  figures  must  be  added  the  unregistered 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAVERY  31 

trade  of  Americans  and  foreigners.  It  is  probable  that  about 
25,000  slaves  were  brought  to  America  each  year  between  1698 
and  1707.  The  importation  then  dwindled  but  rose  after  the 
Asiento  (1713)  to  perhaps  30,000.  .  .  .  Bancroft  places  the 
total  slave  population  of  the  continental  colonies  at  59,000  in 
1714,  78,000  in  1727  and  293,000  in  1754.  The  census  of  1790 
showed  697,897  slaves  in  the  United  States."* 

By  the  time  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  America  had  en- 
tered upon  a  new  industrial  era  and  there  were  signs  of  new 
class  lines.  But  in  any  study  of  the  work  of  this  Convention  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  was  in  a  very  slight  degree  a  repre- 
sentative body.  It  was  composed  almost  exclusively  of  representa- 
tives from  the  ruling  classes  of  the  coast  regions,  and  was  practi- 
cally composed  of  the  representatives  of  the  trading,  manufactur- 
ing and  plantation  classes.  This  was  natural,  as  it  was  these  classes 
above  all  others  who  desired  the  strong  central  government  which 
was  hoped  might  come  from  closer  unSon.  Nevertheless,  we 
shall  find,  with  few  exceptions  to  the  rule,  that  the  delegates  to 
the  Convention  lined  up  on  all  matters  that  came  before  them 
according  to  the  material  interests  of  the  ruling  classes  of  the 
colonies  from  which  they  came  and  that  these  interests  were  still 
largely  the  same  as  has  been  indicated  in  the  colonial  study. 
The  New  England  coast  States,  including  New  York,  were  theo- 
retically opposed  to  slavery,  and  their  representatives  occasionally 
did  some  talking  for  effect  in  opposition  to  slavery.  But  when- 
ever they  were  called  upon  to  act  they  were  always  very  generous 
with  favors  to  the  slave  trade  in  which  they  were  quite  closely 
interested.  The  Middle  States,  including  Pennsylvania,  New 
Jersey  and  Delaware,  being  almost  exclusively  devoted  to  diversi- 
fied agriculture  and  small  manufacturing,  were  inclined  to  be 
decidedly  abolitionist.. 

Virginia  and  Maryland  being  largely  engaged  in  the  raising  of 
slaves  for  the  southern  market  were  anxious  to  restrict  the  for- 
eign slave  trade  and  occasionally  talked  abolition.  North  Caro- 
lina was  on  the  border  between  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  both 
geographically  and  politically.  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  were 
completely  given  up  the  idea  of  the  perpetuation  of  slavery  save 
that  even  here  there  was  a  feeling  that  when  talking  for  publica- 


♦John  R,  Spears,  in  "The  American  Slave  Trade,"  sums  up  the  po- 
sition of  the  colonies  as  follows  (pp.  9^-97)  :  "It  may  be  said  generally 
that,  with  the  exception  of  Georgia,  every  colony  did  at  one  time  or  an- 
other impose  taxes  on  imported  negro  slaves,  and  that  in  some  cases  the 
so-called  restraint  amounted  to  prohibition.  But^  with  this  admission  it 
must  be  declared  that  every  such  tax  was  laid  either  through  gfreed,  or 
through  the  idea  that  from  a  business  point  of  view  white  servants  would 
develop  the  country  more  rapidly;  or  through  a  mean  and  degrading  fear 
of  the  blacks,  v  *  *  ♦  The  assertion  that  the  British  forced  the  traffic 
on  unwilling  colonists  in  America  is  a  puling  whine." 


32  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

tion  it  would  be  well  to  admit  the  evil  of  slavery.  For  instance, 
we  find  Abraham  Baldwin,  of  Georgia,  saying  concerning  that 
State  (Elliott's  Debates,  page  459)  :  "If  left  to  herself  she 
may  probably  put  a  stop  to  the  evil."  Gouverneur  Morris  (pages 
391-2)  denounced  slavery  unqualifiedly  in  an  oration  which  after- 
wards became  a  classic  of  the  Abolitionist,  who,  however,  forgot 
to  note  that  a  little  later  on  in  the  convention,  in  return  for  some 
trading  privileges  he  proposed  (page  477)  to  grant  to  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  a  special  guaranteed  per- 
petual right  to  import  slaves.  Indeed  the  only  State  which  voted 
unqualifiedly  for  the  motion  to  insert  the  word  "free"  before 
"inhabitants"  on  the  question  of  representation  was  New  Jersey. 
The  main  debate  took  place  over  the  proposition  to  tax  thef  im- 
portation of  slaves  and  here  the  lines  of  division  were  very  clear. 

It  was  Luther  Martin,  of  Maryland,  who  proposed  the  tax. 
(Page  457.)  John  Dickinson,  of  Delaware  (pages  459-50), 
"Considered  it  inadmissible  on  every  principle  of  honor  and 
safety  that  the  importation  of  slaves  should  be  authorized  to 
the  States  by  the  Constitution."  The  attitude  of  Virginia  is  seen 
by  the  quotation  from  George  Mason,  where  he  declared  (page 
458)  :  "This  infernal  traffic  originated  in  the  avarice  of  British 
merchants.  The  British  Government  constantly  checked  the 
attempts  of  Virginia  to  put  a  stop  to  it.  Maryland  and  Virginia 
had  already  prohibited  the  importation  of  slaves  expressly.  North 
Carolina  had  done  the  same  in  substance." 

Hugh  Williamson,  of  North  Carolina  (pages  466  and  477), 
said  that  "Both  in  opinion  and  practice  he  was  against  slavery, 
but  *  *  ♦  "  and  finally  he  thought  the  United  States  could 
not  be  members  of  the  Union  if  the  clause  should  be  rejected. 
When  we  come  to  the  New  England  States  we  find  New  Hamp- 
shire (page  460)  strenuous  for  the  exclusion.  Of  course  it  may 
have  been  a  mere  incident  that  New  Hampshire,  having  no  sea- 
ports, was  not  able  to  make  any  money  out  of  the  traffic,  but  it  is 
interesting  to  find  Eldridge  Gerry,  of  Massachusetts,  declar- 
ing that  he  "thought  we  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  conduct 
of  slaves  as  to  States,"  while  Nathanial  Gorham,  from  the  same 
State  (page  461),  frankly  stated  what  I  have  been  trying  to  show 
throughout  this  whole  article  that  "he  desired  it  to  be  remembered 
that  the  Eastern  States  had  no  motive  to  union  but  a  commercial 
one." 

Connecticut  was  looking  with  favor  on  this  traffic  and  Roger 
Sherman,  of  that  State  (page  457),  speaking  on  the  proposition 
to  levy  a  tax  on  the  importation  of  the  slaves,  declared  that 
**he  disapproved  of  the  slave  trade ;  yet  as  the  States  were  now 
possessors  of  slaves,  as  the  public  good  did  not  require  it  to  be 
taken  from  them,  and  as  it  was  expedient  to  have  as  few  objectors 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OP  CHATTEL  SLAVERY  33 

as  possible  to  the  proposed  scheme  of  govenunent,  he  thought  it 
best  to  leave  the  matter  as  we  find  it." 

Luther  Martin  declares  that  (page  6i  of  "The  G>nstitution  a 
Pro-slavery  Compact,"  by  Wendell  Phillips) :  "I  found  the  East- 
em  States,  notwithstandmg  their  aversicm  to  slavery,  were  very 
willing  to  indulge  the  Southern  States,  at  least  with  a  temporary 
permit  to  prosecute  the  slave  trade,  provided  the  slave  states 
would,  in  their  turn,  gratify  them  by  laying  no  restriction  on  the 
Navigation  Acts." 

Wilson,  in  his  "Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Trade,"  Vol.  I, 
page  $2,  in  describing  this  agreement,  says :  "Thus  New  Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  stand  on  the  record  as 
parties  to  a  dishonorable  and  humiliating  bargain,  by  which,  for 
a  mere  commercial  consideration — the  removal  of  all  restriction 
on  Congress  to  enact  navigation  laws — ^they  gave  twenty  years  to 
the  African  slave  traffic  unrestricted  by  national  legislation." 

The  principal  bargain  of  the  Convention  was  the  one  on  this 
very  point  of  slavery.  Two  of  the  principal  grievances  which 
the  Colonies  urged  against  Great  Britain  were  its  Navigation 
Laws  and  the  forcing  the  slave  trade  upon  America.  Yet  the 
principal  conditions  of  the  compact  which  finally  united  the  States 
were  the  reciprocal  agreemlent  on  the  part  of  the  Northern  and 
Southern  Colonies  to  permit  the  National  Government  to  enact 
Navigation  Laws  in  the  form  of  a  Protective  Tariff  and  to  permit 
the  importation  of  slaves.  The  bargain  was  openly  made  at  the 
time  and  it  is  easy  to  be  seen  that  the  Northern  Colonies  got  the 
best  of  the  bargain,  as  might  have  been  expected  when  Yankee 
traders  were  pitted  against  Southern  slave  owners.  Insofar  as 
there  was  any  benefit  from  the  slave  trade  directly  it  generally 
went  to  the  Yankee,  while,  as  was  continually  pointed  out  in 
succeeding  years,  the  tariff  was  very  largely  a  tax  imposed  upon 
the  Southern  planter  to  constitute  a  bounty  for  the  Northern 
manufacturers.  A.  M.  Simons. 

(To  be  Continued.) 


The  Revolutionary  Nature  of  the  Socialist 
Movement 

THREE  interesting  epochs  in  the  story  of  the  world  are 
the  English  revolution  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
French  Revolution  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the 
approaching  World  Revolution  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. The  first  saw  the  extinction  of  autocratic  power  among 
Anglo-Saxons ;  the  second  banished  feudalism  from  western  civ- 
ilization; and  the  third  will  see  the  final  overthrow  of  all  auto- 
cratic, aristocratic  and  plutocratic  forms  of  government.  The 
distinctive  mark  of  these  three  epochs  is  their  positive  Revolu- 
tionary nature.  It  was  the  failure  of  many  living  at  the  time  of 
the  two  former  to  recognize  this  that  led  to  much  unnecessary 
war  and  bloodshed.  The  transformation  from  aristocracy  to  lim; 
ited  monarchy  and  pseudo-democracy  could  have  taken  place 
peacefully  had  men  so  willed.  The  passing  from  Capitalism  to 
Socialism  needs  neither  warfare  nor  bloodshed  if  enough  men 
and  women  in  time  can  be  made  to  realize  its  essentially  Revolu- 
tionary character. 

In  the  English  Revolution  Cromwell  hacl  to  face  the  struggle 
between  his  own  faction,  who  wished  to  conquer,  and  the  Pres- 
byterians, who  but  half  wished  to  conquer,  and  who  hated  the 
sectarians  in  their  own  ranks  more  than  the  common  enemy.  The 
aristocratic  leaders  among  the  latter  became  frightened  the  very 
moment  they  saw  plainly  that  the  Revolution  was  going  beyond 
the  objects  of  an  aristocracy,  and  that  it  was  likely  to  do  too 
much  for  the  people. 

Again  Cromwell  would  have  saved  the  king ;  he  would  proba- 
bly have  made  terms  with  him,  and  if  he  could  have  trusted  him, 
set  him  again  upon  his  throne.  But  Charles  the  First  could  not 
see  that  he  was  fallen ;  his  anointed  kingship  was  still  fact-proof. 
He  tried  to  play  off  one  of  the  two  contending  parties  in  the 
nation  against  the  other.  Cromwell  discovered  his  duplicity. 
Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  former's  followers  should  resolve 
"that  it  was  their  duty,  if  ever  the  Lord  brought  them  back  in 
peace,  to  call  Charles  Stuart,  that  man  of  blood,  to  an  account  for 
the  blood  he  has  shed  and  the  mischief  he  had  done  to  his  utmost 
against  the  Lord's  cause  and  people"? 

In  the  French  Revolution  there  were  Mirabeau  and  Lafayette 
on  the  one  hand,  Robespierre  and  Danton  on  the  other;   there 

84 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT  35 

were  the  ^rondists  and  the  Jacobins;  the  Mountain  and  the 
Moderates.    Mirabeau  and  Lafayette  hoped  to  secure  a  modified  ■ 

and  constitutional  monarchy  in  France,  for  the  French  bour- 
geoisie wanted  a  king  to  protect  them  against  the  masses, 
whom  they  had  already  begun  to  fear.  Robespierre  and  Eten- 
ton  wanted  a  republic.  The  Girondists  represented  the  burgher 
classes  and  were  eager  to  establish  a  new  constitution  in  all  its 
parts,  and  especially  were  they  anxious  to  establish  the  legality 
of  lending  money  out  on  interest.  While  the  Jacobins  or  Moun- 
tain, representing  the  suffering  populace,  were  "eager,  defiant, 
weary  of  negotiation,  suspicious  of  treason  at  every  point,  and 
zealously  determined  to  push  the  principles  of  the  Revolution  to 
their  limits." 

In  one  of  those  blunt,  vigorous  letters  ventilating  his  own 
position,  the  king's  positicMi,  and  the  position  of  the  country  at  a 
time  of  rapidly  approaching  financial  disaster,  Turgot,  the  great 
•  pre-revolutionary  economist,  used  these  words  of  startling  presci- 
ence: "Do  not  forget,  sire,  that  it  was  weakness  which  placed 
the  head  of  Charles  I.  on  the  block."  Thus  it  is  curious  how 
again  and  again  the  fate  of  Charles  I.  of  England  is  brought 
wamingly,  prophetically  against  Louis  XVI  of  France,  for  ' 
Louis  equally  distrusted  both  factions.  Like  Charles,  believing 
in  his  anointed  kingship,  he  failed  to  realize  the  Revolutionary 
sentiment  of  the  people  and  the  limit  of  their  demands. 

Beyond  these  social  and  political  revolutions  is  one  far  deeper 
— ^a  revolution  which  is  one  day  to  clothe  itself  in  some  new  form 
of  power  and  is  to  cast  the  world  in  a  different  mould.  This  the 
approaching  World-Revolution  of  the  twentieth  century  is  fore- 
shadowed by  the  Socialist  movement  of  today.  As  men  arc 
brought  to  understand  the  Revolutionary  nature  of  that  move- 
ment we  can  measure  in  extent  the  exact  degree  that  Socialism 
will  come  in  peace  or  in  war. 

To  some  Socialism  is  merely  the  pronouncement  of  a  theory 
of  society ;  to  others  it  is  an  extension  of  public  ownership,  how- 
ever trifling;  again  to  many  it  is  evolutionary  advancement  of 
man  and  has  extended  throughout  the  ages.  It  seems  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  these  definitions  are  the  merest  juggling 
with  words,  for  every  class  struggle  being  a  political  struggle, 
the  Socialist  movement  is  both  economic  and  political  and  em- 
braces the  idea  of  the  0¥mership  of  the  means  of  production 
and  distribution  by  all  the  people  and  the  means  by  which  the 
workers  are  to  attain  that  ownership. 

As  this  is  directly  opposite  to  the  competitive  system,  the  sys- 
tem of  society  under  which  we  are  living  today,  it  brings  us  face 
to  face  with  a  Revolutionary  proposition  so  Revolutionary  as  to 
constitute  a  change  in  human  relations  so  vast  as  to  be  almost 
greater  than  all  Sie  combined  changes  that  have  taken  place  in 


36  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

human  society  since  the  beginning  of  time.  Call  yourselves,  then, 
philanthropists,  reformers,  Fabians,  or  what  you  will,  but  until 
you  fully  realize  the  Revolutionary  nature  of  the  Socialist  move- 
ment, economic  and  political,  do  not  call  yourselves  Socialists, 
for  by  such  perversion  of  the  truth  you  only  deceive  yourselves, 
and  by  so  doing  bring  harm  to  a  great  movement  by  misleading 
others. 

The  point  for  which  I  am  contending  is  this  that  the  Socialist 
movement  of  today  is  divided  into  two  factions,  viz.,  those  who 
hope  to  conquer  and  those  who  only  partially  hope  to  conquer; 
those  who  realize  the  Revolutionary  finality  of  the  movement  and 
those  who  think  that  finality  so  far  away  as  to  be  some  "far  off 
divine  event  toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves."  The 
former  are  the  Revolutionary  Socialists  who  are  prepared  and 
who  are  preparing  for  an  immediate  "consummation  devoutly  to 
be  wished."  The  latter  are  reformers  who  as  yet  are  not  class  con- 
scious and  who  lack  the  power  of  understanding  the  Revolutionary  < 
change  intended,  and  the  means  by  which  that  change  is  to  be 
brought  about.  They  use  terms  without  grasping  the  real  meaning 
and  in  times  of  crisis  they  will  be  found  wanting. 

How  great  is  the  danger  from  this  misunderstanding  of  the 
Revolutionary  position  may  be  clearly  realized  when  we  learn 
that  in  Los  Angeles,  for  instance,  may  be  found  twelve  different 
alleged  brands  of  Socialists.  ,  Let  me  enumerate  these:  (i) 
There  is  the  Socialist  Party,  (2)  the  Socialist  Labor  Party,  (3) 
the  Scientific  or  Revolutionary  Socialist,  (4)  the  Fabian  or  so- 
called  Evolutionary  Socialist,  (5)  the  Christian  Socialist,  (6)  the 
Church  of  the  Inspired  Life  Socialist,  (7)  the  Church  of  the 
New  Era  Socialist,  (8)  the  Divine  Love  Socialist,  (9)  those  in 
the  Republican  Party  professing  Socialism,  (10)  those  in  the 
Democratic  Party  professing  Socialism,  (11)  those  in  the  Pro- 
hibition Party  professing  Socialism,  (12)  those  Socialists  looking 
to  a  Union  Labor  Party  for  salvation. 

If  my  definition  is  correct,  viz.,  that  every  class  struggle  being 
a  political  struggle.  Socialism  is  both  economic  and  political  and 
IS  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  workers  to  secure  the  general  own- 
ership of  all  the  means  of  production  and  distribution,  there  must 
be  some  error  on  the  part  of  two-thirds  of  the  above  in  imagining 
themselves  to  be  Socialists. 

One  may  belong  to  all,  barring  the  three  capitalistic  parties, 
and  still  be  a  Revolutionary  Socialist.  One  can  belong  to  any 
and  not  be  a  Revolutionary  Socialist  at  all,  joining  the  genuine 
Socialist  organization  under  a  misconception.  How  essential  it 
is  then  that  all  true  friends  of  Socialism  should  understand  first 
the  object — and  then  the  method  of  obtaining  that  object — of  the 
Socialist  movement. 

To  quote  from  the  Communist  manifesto:    ''All  previous  his- 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT  3T 

torical  movements  were  movements  of  minorities  or  in  the  interest 
of  niinorities.  The  proletarian  movement  is  the  self-conscious, 
independent  movement  of  the  immense  majority  in  the  interest 
of  the  immense  majority.  The  proletariat  cannot  stir,  cannot 
raise  itself  up  without  the  whole  superincumbent  strata  of  oflScial 
society  being  sprung  into  the  air." 

Mark  you  the  Revolutionary  tendency  here  implied.  How 
by  any  evolutionary  process  can  the  whole  superincumbent  strata 
of  official  society  be  sprung  into  the  air?  How  by  any  means 
short  of  an  intelligent  Revolutionary  Majority  attaining  a  Revo- 
lutionary End  by  means  of  the  ballot  can  this  be  done  ? 

Here,  to  again  quote  Marx  and  Engels :  *'Of  all  classes  that 
stand  face  to  face  with  the  bourgeoisie  today,  the  proletariat  alone 
is  a  really  Revolutionaiy  Qass.  The  other  classes  decay  and 
finally  disappear  in  the  face  of  modem  industry;  the  proletariat 
is  its  special  and  essential  product.  The  lower  middle  class,  the 
sniall  manufacturer,  the  shopkeeper,  the  artisan,  the  peasant,  all 
these  fight  against  the  bourgeoisie,  to  save  from  extinction  their 
existence  as  fractions  of  the  middle  class.  They  are,  therefore, 
not  Revolutionary,  but  conservative.  Nay,  more,  they  are  reac- 
tionary, for  they  try  to  roll  back  the  wheel  of  history.  If  by 
chance  they  are  Revolutionary,  they  are  so  only  in  view  of  their 
impending  transfer  into  the  proletariat ;  they  thus  defend  not  their 
present,  but  their  future  interests;  they  desert  their  own  stand- 
point to  place  themselves  at  that  of  the  proletariat." 

Thus  we  have  a  Revolutionary  Qass,  a  Revolutionary  Propa- 
ganda, and  a  Revolutionary  Party.  A  Revolutionary  Class  exists 
because  economic  evils  have  created  it.  A  Revolutionary  Propa- 
ganda suggests  the  only  possible  remedy  of  existing  conditions. 
A  Revolutionary  Political  Party  is  the  only  method  by  which  a 
Revolutionary  Class  can  apply  a  Revolutionary  Remedy. 

If  my  reasoning  has  been  sound  I  have  demonstrated  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of  a  Revolutionary  political  organization.  With- 
out such  an  organization  there  could  be  no  Socialist  movement. 
Without  a  Socialist  movement  Socialism  might  be  likened  to  that 
condition  to  which  Christians  allude,  half  in  joy  and  half  in  sor- 
row, and  which  we  call  the  millennium.  There  is  nothing  hazy 
about  Socialism  like  that.  What  is  not  real  and  easily  attainable 
has  no  place  in  the  Socialist  propaganda.  Socialism  does  not 
promise  to  create  angels,  but  it  will  bring  about  a  condition  of 
society  in  which  men  and  #omen  may  become  angels  if  they 
so  desire.  To  do  this  many  are  called  but  few  are  chosen.  To 
a  Revolutionary  principle  the  chosen  must  stand  fast  and  with- 
out flinching.  They  must  stand  side  by  side  with  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  their  fellows,  without  regard  to  creed  or  to  color,  in  a 
Revolutionary  Party  through  which  the  working  class  themselves 
are  to  achieve  their  own  emancipation. 


38  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

It  might  be  well  for  us  now  to  question  how  nearly  the  pres- 
ent Socialist  Party  realizes  this  Revolutionary  Ideal.  If  we  do  s|p 
we  shall  find  that  the  party  is  made  up  of  Revolutionists  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  conscious  or  unconscious  reformers  on  the 
other.  The  former  know  they  are  to  conquer,  the  latter  only  par- 
tially realize  the  truth.  The  former,  conversant  with  Revolution- 
ary economics,  can  foresee  a  speedy  dissolution  of  capitalistic 
society  and  a  Revolutionary  finality  for  the  Socialistic  movement. 
The  latter,  familiar  only  with  capitalistic  economics,  look  to 
ethical  development  to  cure  the  gravest  social  and  economic 
abuses  with  which  the  world  has  yet  been  faced.  The  former, 
demand  the  strictest  recognition  of  the  Revolutionary  Ideal,  the 
Revolutionary  Class,  the  Revolutionary  Propaganda  and  the  Rev- 
olutionary Conception  of  a  Socialist  Party.  The  latter  look  to 
what  they  call  progress  rather  than  to  any  strict  recognition  of  this 
Revolutionary  Programme. 

Wendell  Phillips  has  told  us  that  revolutions  are  not  made, 
they  come.  No  Revolutionary  Socialist  imagines  himself  to  be 
the  creator  of  revolution.  He  is  simply  a  forerunner  among  his 
fellows  in  foreseeing  a  social  and  economic  convulsion,  and  in 
foretelling  a  Revolutionary  Remedy.  If  I  am  right  in  believing 
that  the  main  object  of  the  Socialist  political  movement  is  to 
bring  about  a  peaceful  revolution,  what  relation  then  has  progress 
to  Socialism  other  than  teaching  men  to  prepare  for  the  inevit- 
able? 

At  some  length  I  have  attempted  to  demonstrate  that  there  is 
no  Socialism  that  is  not  Revolutionary  Socialism*.  This  I  have 
defined  as  a  Revolutionary  Ideal  to  be  attained  by  a  Revolutionary 
Class,  preaching  a  Revolutionary  Propaganda,  through  the 
agency  of  a  Revolutionary  Party,  and  by  which  the  workers  are 
to  secure  the  general  ownership  of  all  the  means  of  production 
and  distribution  for  all  the  people.  Let  me  ask  you  then  what 
relation  has  progress  to  the  Socialist  movement  other  than  enlarg- 
ing the  number  of  Qass  Conscious,  Revolutionary,  Political,  Sci- 
entific Socialists? 

Hence  the  main  object,  I  might  almost  say  the  sole  object  of 
the  Socialist  Party,  is  the  making  of  Qass  Conscious,  Revolu- 
tionary, Political,  Scientific  Socialists.  The  Socialist  Party  is 
not  merely  spreading  knowledge  as  to  what  Socialism  really  is; 
it  is  in  fact  only  doing  this  in  order  that  men  may  realize  the 
importance  of  the  Revolutionar]^  pcditical  position.  To  luse 
scriptural  phraseology,  the  members  of  the  Socialist  Party  are 
the  salt  of  the  earth.  They  savor  by  their  Revolutionary  dis- 
tinctiveness. "A  little  leaven,"  says  St.  Paul,  "leaveneth  the  whole 
lump."  The  members  of  the  Socialist  Party  are  the  minority 
leaven  making  light  the  whole  majority.  They  are  indifferent  to 
quantity.    Their  one  desire  is  quality.    With  the  pitiful  failure  of 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT  39 

the  Christian  church,  sacrificing  principle  to  wealth  and  numbers 
before  them,  they  desire  only  men  who,  understanding  and  recog- 
nizing the  present  class  struggle  between  an  exploiting  capitalist 
class  on  the  one  hand  and  an  exploited  working  dass  on  the  other, 
are  prepared  to  work  with  a  Revolutionary  Qass,  in  preaching  a 
Revolutionary  Propaganda,  through  a  Revolutionary  Political 
Party  to  attain  a  Revolutionary  End. 

Says  a  former  Socialist  platform :  "We,  therefore,  call  upon 
the  wage-workers  of  the  United  States,  arid  upon  all  other  honest 
citizens,  to  organize  under  our  banner  into  a  class-conscious  body, 
aware  of  its  rights  and  determined  to  conquer  them  by  taking 
possession  of  the  public  powers;  so  that,  held  together  by  an 
indomitable  spirit  of  solidarity,  under  the  most  trying  conditions 
of  the  present  class  struggle,  we  may  put  a  summary  end  to  that 
barbarous  struggle  by  the  abolition  of  classes,  the  restoration  of 
the  land  and  of  all  the  means  of  production,  transportation  and 
distribution  to  the  people  as  a  collective  body,  and  the  substitution 
of  the  Co-operative  Commonwealth  for  the  present  state  of 
planless  production,  industrial  war  and  social  disorder;  a  com- 
monwealth in  which  every  worker  shall  have  the  free  exercise 
and  full  benefit  of  his  faculties,  multiplied  by  all  the  modern  fac- 
tors of  civilization." 

The  only  parallel  to  a  Revolutionary  class  movement  such  as 
this  is  to  be  found  in  the  Trades  Union's  movement  of  the  past  150 
years.  Trades  Unionism  is  the  recognition  of  a  class-conscious 
struggle  in  a  very  limited  economic  sphere.  The  Socialist  move- 
ment is  the  recognition  of  a  class-conscious  struggle  in  an  unlimi- 
ited  political  sphere.  It  is  the  development  of  Trades  Unionism 
into  a  world-wide  movement  of  the  workers  of  all  nations.  It 
differs  from  Trades  Unionism  in  this  that  per  se  it  has  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  anything  short  of  a  Revolutionary  solution 
of  the  labor  or  industrial  problem. 

I  have  purposely  used  some  degree  of  reiteration  to  make  it. 
clear  that  a  Revolutionary  Party  organization  is  an  integral  part 
of  Socialism  just  as  agitation  is  an  integral  part  of  Christianity, 
and  that  a  perfect  understanding  by  its  members  of  the  object, 
method  and  nature  of  such  a  Revolutionary  organization  is  neces- 
sary to  the  development  and  usefulness  of  the  Socialist  Party. 
If  this  is  not  recognized  and  made  a  fundamental  proposition  by 
a  considerable  majority,  if  not  by  all  its  members,  the  party  is 
more  likely  to  become  like  the  "leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and  of 
the  Sadducees,"  and  the  movement  to  utterly  fail  in  the  attain- 
ment of  its  object.  For  just  as  Christianity  is  an  enthusiasm  or 
it  is  nothing,  Socialism  and  the  Socialist  movement  are  nothing 
and  can  produce  only  a  lukewaim  and  hypocritical  expression  of 
social  sympathy  unless  its  supporters  first,  last  and  all  the  time, 
stand  in  solid  phalanx  and  adhere  to  the  fundamental  principle 


40  INTERNATIONAL  S0CIALI3T  BEVI£W 

that  they  constitute  a  Revolutionary  Class,  preaching  a  Revolu- 
ticmary  Propaganda,  through  a  Revolutionary  Political  Party  in 
order  to  attain  a  Revolutionary  End. 

We  have  seen  that  Socialism  and  the  Socialist  movemeni 
being  one  and  the  same  thing  constitute  a  condition,  and  not  a 
theory ;  that  in  other  words  Socialism  is  a  living  fact.  We  have 
seen  that  party  organization  is  as  necessary  to  Socialism  as  the 
shell  is  to  the  acorn,  that  without  it  Socialism  cannot  exist,  nor 
can  men  believe,  nay  we  might  almost  say,  disbelieve  in  its  tenets. 
We  have  seen  that  the  first  and  fundamental  proposition  of 
Socialism  is  that  a  Revolutionary  Qass  is  preaching  a  Revolu- 
tionary Propaganda  through  a  Revolutionary  Party  to  attain  a 
Revolutionary  End.  We  have  seen  that  the  first  object  of  such 
a  Revolutionary  Party  is  to  make  Class-Conscious,  Revolutionary, 
Political,  Scientific  Socialists.  It  is  now  necessary  to  consider 
how  we  can  best  preserve  the  integrity  of  this  fundamental  posi- 
tion. 

Here  we  find  that  the  whole  history  of  the  world  furnishes  iv 
with  a  constant  demonstration  that  the  only  method  of  preserv- 
ing and  propagating  an  original  or  fundamental  truth  in  its  purity 
is  by  delivering  or  applying  it  in  the  most  liberal  way  not  incom- 
patible with  an  uncompromising  attachment  to  its  fullest  mean- 
ing. Once  we  fully  comprehend  a  principle;  once  we  absolutely 
refuse  to  allow  anything  to  stand  between  us  and  the  recognition 
of  that  principle,  it  really  little  matters  what  we  do.  *We  cannot 
consciously  do  anything  in  violation  of  the  principle,  and  hence 
that  which  we  do  cannot  by  any  process  of  human  reasoning  be 
made  to  support  an  opposing  principle. 

Thus  providing  that  the  members  of  the  Socialist  Party  rec- 
ognize  the  fundamental  principle  that  they  constitute  a  Revolu- 
tionary Qass,  preaching  a  Revolutionary  Propaganda,  through  a 
Revolutionary  Party  to  attain  a  Revolutionary  End,  and  that  they 
form  a  Qass-Conscious,  Qear-Cut,  Political,  Scientific  Body, 
fighting  for  Socialism,  it  hardly  matters  what  line  of  action  is 
adopted  in  their  methods  of  work.  In  fact  following  the  argu- 
ment I  have  only  just  laid  down,  their  every  existence  as  an 
organization  depends  on  the  most  liberal  methods  of  work  being 
employed.  For  unless  those  who  understand  and  uphold  the 
fundamental  Revolutionary  Socialist  position  are  prepared  to  act 
on  the  most  liberal  lines  not  incompatible  with  an  uncompromis- 
ing adherence  to  that  principle,  we  shall  actually  jeopardize  the 
continued  existence  of  the  present  Socialist  Party. 

Hence,  just  as  the  repeating  of  a  creed  takes  from  the  words 
any  meaning  at  all,  and  defeats  the  very  object  intended,  so  a 
constant,  tiresome  and  unnecessary  repetition  of  the  fundamental 
proposition  of  Socialism  by  Socialists,  however  true  it  may  be, 
may  take  all  vitality  out  of  a  Socialist  party.     This  seems  to  have 


THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT  41 

happened  in  the  Socialist  Labor  Party.  Thus  only  harm,  and 
little  if  any  good  can  come  from  turning  propaganda  meetings 
into  a  field  for  the  pronouncement  and  re-pronouncement  of  this 
position ;  of  using  business  meetings  of  the  party  as  a  vehicle  for 
the  same  end ;  and  of  using  the  party  press  having  any  consider- 
able circulation  outside  of  the  party  membership  for  die  ventila- 
tion of  private  views  for  or  against  the  same  thing.  Differences 
of  opinion  among  its  members  are  vital  to  the  welfare  of  the 
party,  and  discussion  of  these  differences  among  themselves  are 
educational,  necessary  and  of  great  value  to  the  party  member- 
shii>,  but  only  harm  can  come  from  airing  such  differences  before 
an  Ignorant  world. 

I  am  not  in  favor  of,  nay  I  am  bitterly  opposed  to  adding  mem- 
bers to  the  party  until  every  reasonable  effort  has  been  made  to 
impress  apoa  applicants  the  Revolutionary  position  they  are  en- 
dorsing. The  party  is  only  seeking  trouble  by  any  other  course, 
but  after  mature  consideration  I  venture  the  opinion  that  only 
good  can  ccmie  and  much  bad  feeling  be  eliminated  by  the  strict- 
est recognition  of  tfie  fundamental  Revolutionary  Principle  in  the 
party  organization  on  the  one  hand,  and  b^  the  most  liberal  line 
of  action,  not  in  violation  of  that  principle  m  lines  of  propaganda 
work,  (HI  the  other. 

James  T   Van  Rensselaer. 


The  Problem  of  Rapid  Transit  in  Cities 

NEW  YORK  CITY  has  increased  in  population  37  per 
cent  in  ten  years.  The  causes  that  make  it  to  the  interest 
of  large  numbers  of  people  to  remove  to  the  cities  are 
in  the  nature  of  the  business  system  which  offers  to  them 
a  living  in  the  manufacturing  cities  which  they  do  not  make  on 
the  mortgaged  farms.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  inconvenient 
and  unnatural  congestion  of  the  population  in  cities  is  increased 
by  the  admitted  practice  of  all  transportation  companies  to  "tax 
the  traffic  for  all  it  will  bear."  And  this  further  aggravates  the 
problem  of  street  car  service.  Apparently  our  surface  cars  could 
not  be  run  very  much  faster  through  crowded  streets  without 
great  danger.  This  does  not  apply,  however,  to  the  elevated 
trains.  Perhaps,  on  the  existing  lines  hardly  enough  cars  could 
be  added  to  comfortably  accommodate  the  people  at  all  times. 
That  there  are  engineering  problems  will  be  admitted.  But 
these  engineering  problems  are  created  by  the  present  business 
system.  That  the  people  can  be  comfortably  accommodated  and 
pay  for  such  accommodation  there  is  no  doubt.  The  fact  is  that 
they  are  not. 

Investors  in  the  stocks  of  the  street  railway  companies  will 
admit  that  their  investments  are  governed  by  their  purpose  to 
get  the  largest  possible  profits ;  dividends  on  their  capital.  Their 
profit  is  the  difference  between  the  income  and  the  expenses  of 
the  business.  They  are,  consequently,  interested  in  having  this 
difference  as  large  as  possible ;  and  the  management  that  is  most 
acceptable  to  them  will  be  that  which  can  make  the  expenses  as 
low  as  possible  and  the  income  as  large  as  possible.  That  is  to 
say,  that  the  men  managing  the  street  car  service  are  selected 
for  their  ability  to  supply  the  public  with  the  cheapest  possible 
service  and  charge  them  for  it  the  largest  possible  price.  The 
cost  of  running  crowded  cars  is  probably  very  little  greater  than 
the  cost  of  running  empty  cars,  or  cars  only  comfortably  filled. 
The  motive  for  building  new  lines  can  only  be  the  hope  of  more 
profits.  Whatever  tends  to  reduce  the  crowding  on  cars  tends 
to  reduce  the  profits  per  car  and  the  rate  of  interest  on  stock.  It 
does  not  seem  that  incompetence  in  management  could  make  for 
the  public  as  bad  a  state  of  things  as  this  deliberate  intention  to 
give  them  the  poorest  service  at  the  largest  possible  price. 

It  will  be  urged  that  the  income  does  not  permit  the  neces- 

42 


THE  PROHLEM  OF  BAPID  TRANSIT  IK  CITIES  43 

sary  changes.  The  low  rate  of  interest  on  stock  will  be  cited 
to  prove  this.  It  is  perfectly  well  known  that  the  rate  of  interest 
on  face  value  of  any  stock  has  no  meaning  whatever  to  show  the 
rate  of  profit  on  investment,  unless  the  capital  actually  involved 
in  the  business  is  known.  Not  even  the  market  price  of  the  stock 
is  any  guide  in  determining  this,  for  this  market  price  is  in  pro- 
portion to  the  anticipated  dividends  on  it,  and  bears  no  relation 
to  either  previous  investment  or  the  capital  actually  involved  in 
the  business.  The  practice  of  watering  stock  is  a  perfectly  com- 
monplace method  of  concealing  large  profits  and  diverting  atten- 
tion from  the  extortion  by  which  they  are  accumulated.  If  the 
profit  for  every  $ioo  actually  involved  in  the  business  is  ^5,  the 
actual  rate  of  interest  is  25  per  cent.  If  on  this  stock  of  a  face 
value  of  $500  is  sold,  there  would  be  $5  profit  for  every  hundred 
of  it,  and  the  rate  of  interest  declared  would  be  5  per  cent.  Where 
no  dividend  on  stock  is  declared  at  all,  it  will  be  found  that  profits 
are  devoted  to  payment  of  interest  on  bonds,  which  differ  not 
from  the  stocks,  except  in  that  interest  is  guaranteed  at  fixed  rate. 
There  are  people  in  every  community  who  hover  between  the 
hope  of  profit  by  the  present  business  system  and  the  fear  of  being 
crushed  by  it  into  the  great  mass  of  the  working  class.  The  foun- 
dation of  this  business  system  is  the  control  of  the  land,  machinery 
and  organization  necessary  for  production  and  trade  by  the  few 
that  they  may  enjoy  the  products  of  the  labor  of  the  many.  Labor 
power  is  purchased  at  the  lowest  possible  price  in  the  market,  the 
price  of  his  subsistence,  and  consumed  as  quickly  and  thoroughly 
as  possible  in  making  profits,  a  surplus  over  and  above  its  wages. 
This  consumption  of  human  life  in  unwilling,  unpaid  service  for 
the  profit  of  a  few,  is  the  only  essential  condition  of  slavery. 
These  people,  while  as  a  class  the  most  intelligent  in  the  com- 
munity, have  always  been  too  dull  to  see  this,  however  clearly 
shown.  There  is  nothing  in  their  exalted  religious  beliefs  that  is 
offended  by  it.  They  have  no  moral  sense  that  revolts  against  it. 
But,  when  hopes  of  profits  are  overbalanced  by  immediate  losses 
and  inconvenience  by  this  business  system,  when  the  large  com- 
binations of  capital,  the  trusts,  practice  successfully  on  them  that 
which  they  do  not  succeed  in  practicing  on  others,  they  are  marvel- 
ously  enlightened ;  whereas,  no  power  of  logic  or  eloquence  could 
before  convince  them  of  the  iniquity  of  this  business  system. 
Planks  appear  in  the  platforms  of  that  political  party  which  is 
most  devoted  to  the  interest  of  this  class  calling  for  the  national 
ownership  of  coal  mines  and  railroads,  and  for  the  municipal 
ownership  of  public  utilities.  The  business  of  purchasing  labor 
power  at  the  lowest  market  price  and  consuming  it  to  pay  interest 
on  bonds  rather  than  stocks,  is  to  be  transferred  to  the  state.  This 
is  a  state  capitalism,  commonly  called  state  socialism  or  public 
ownership. 


44  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIAUOT  REVIBSW 

This  change  must  extend  the  opportunities  for  political  cor- 
ruption as  it  extends  the  power  of  public  officers  to  control  of  in- 
dustries, and  without  affecting  the  causes  'of  political  corruption. 
We  do  not  want  municipal  ownership  of  anything  until  we  first 
secure  public  ownership  of  the  municipality.  Corruption  of  public 
officers  is  common  in  all  states  of  society  in  which  the  wealth 
produced  by  the  people  is  accumulated  through  various  prtxesses, 
always  legal,  of  course,  by  others  controlling  the  industries  of  the 
people.  There  is  no  substantial  difference  in  their  appropriation 
of  profit  interest  and  rent  as  the  holders  of  bonds  rather  than  of 
stocks.  Such  a  wealth  owning  class  always  has  profits  to  make 
out  of  the  people  and  are  certain  to  use  all  means  in  their  power 
to  control  public  affairs  in  their  own  interest  against  the  interest 
of  the  people.  How  can  purity  in  public  affairs  be  sustained  on 
a  business  system  that  is  founded  on  stealing?  The  moral  and 
material  effects  are  not  changed  by  the  fact  that  it  is  not  com- 
monly called  by  that  name.  How  can  a  political  republic  be 
sustained  in  industrial  despotism? 

The  costs  of  running  a  successful  business  are  always  a  part 
of  the  income,  the  profit  being  the  other  part.  If  this' profit  is 
abolished  and  the  price  to  the  public  is  made  the  cost  of  the  service, 
or  product,  the  price  must  be  less.  If  not,  the  incompetence  or 
dishonesty  of  the  management,  is  proven,  conditions  being  the 
same.  It  is  only  fair  to  admit  that  the  dishonesty  of  capitalist 
politicians  is  no  worse  than  their  incompetency  in  such  affairs. 
However,  the  Fourteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor  on  Water,  Gas  and  Electric  Light  Plants 
shows  that  municipally  controlled  plants  do  supply  the  public  at 
lower  rates.  If  it  did  not,  nothing  would  be  established  against 
the  contentions  of  Socialists,  as  these  plants  are,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  burdened  with  bonded  indebtedness,  and  the  interest 
on  these  city  bonds  is  charged  to  the  cost  of  production.  But  if 
it  is  pointed  out,  for  instance,  that  the  cost  of  running  the  Gov- 
enrment  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing  is  so  great  that  pri- 
vate capitalists  can  contract  to  do  the  work  for  less  and  yet  make 
a  profit,  this  only  illustrates  that  the  private  capitalist,  impelled 
by  his  selfish  interest,  is  far  more  successful  in  wringing  out  un- 
paid labor  from  employees  than  is  the  capitalist  politician,  im- 
pelled by  his  zeal  for  the  public  economy.  This  fact  is  not  ques- 
tioned. As  a  system  for  getting  labor  unpaid,  this  present  one 
can  hardly  be  improved  by  transferring  its  management  to  th^ 
state. 

If  the  public  do  not  like  to  be  herded  like  cattle  into  the  cars, 
why  do  they  persist  in  offering  honor  and  great  rewards  to  men 
who  do  this  most  successfully?  But  what  solution  is  proposed  to 
the  problem  of  rapid  transit  in  cities?  It  seems  safe  to  say  that 
the  service  will  not  be  run  for  the  benefit  of  the  public  until  it 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  RAPID  TRANSIT  IN  CITIES  46 

comes  ccMnpIetely  into  the  control  of  the  public.  Arc  we  going  to 
leave  the  negotiation  of  this  transfer  for  us  to  agents  and  friends 
of  the  present  owners  of  the  street  railways?  And  is  it  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  representatives  of  the  people  will  be  generally 
true  to  their  trust  left  to  shift  for  themselves  against  the  capitalist 
interests  they  antagonize,  and  while  the  means  of  corruption  is  in 
the  hands  of  these  capitalists,  having  great  incentives  to  use  it? 
As  for  the  work  people,  whatever  the  changes  in  fares  or  wages 
or  prices,  they  may  expect  no  more  than  the  bare  price  of  a  living 
while  their  insufficient  opportunities  of  employment  are  limited 
by  the  chances  of  profit  for  those  who  command  the  means  of  em- 
ployment. W.  A. 


The  Kischiniff  Massacres 

To  the  Laborers  of  All  Countries : 

THE  press  has  brought  news  of  the  massacres  of  Kischi- 
neff.  For  two  days  robbery,  murder  and  abominable 
atrocities  were  committed  without  the  Russian  authority 
or  its  legal  agents,  so  prompt  at  intervention  when  it 
comes  to  an  uprising  of  workingmen,  or  students,  or  when  it  is  a 
question  of  confiscating  the  liberties  of  the  people  of  Finland,  do- 
ing anything  whatever  to  protect  these  unhappy  people,  whose 
only  crime  is  that  they  are  Jews. 

No  one  familiar  with  the  proceedings  of  the  government  of 
Nicholas  II.  can  fail  to  see  in  these  unhappy  events  an  attempt  at 
intimidation  and  at  the  same  time  a  vengeance  against  the  Jews 
for  the  revolutionary  action  of  the  Jewish  proletariat  in  Russia. 

Russian  absolutism  seeks  to  stir  up  race  and  religious  hatred  to 
appease  the  general  discontent  and  to  obtain  a  pretext  for  drown- 
ing in  blood  a  population  which,  struggling  for  its  own  liberty, 
threatens'  the  existence  of  the  government. 

We  appeal  to  all  laborers  and  to  all  honorable  people  against 
this  odious  policy. 

Deeply  moved  at  the  thought  of  the  victims  who  have  fallen 
under  the  blows  of  the  agents  of  the  Czar,  stirred  with  rebellion  at 
the  thought  of  these  execrable  acts,  we  address  to  the  civilized 
world  one  last  appeal  in  the  hope  of  preventing  the  renewal  of 
these  outrages. 

We  also  would  give  warning  of  new  scenes  of  slaughter  which 
are  impending.  In  Southern  Russia;  in  Poland  and  in  Lithuania, 
regions  where  the  Jewish  population  is  very  dense,  it  is  feared  that 
the  events  of  KischinefF  will  be  reproduced. 

WORKINGMEN !  if  governments  will  neither  speak  nor  act, 
do  you  speak  and  act  I  If  there  remain  in  governments  no  more 
pity,  nor  human  sentiments,  make  your  protest  heard  and  express 
your  indignation ! 

WORKINGMEN !  Your  silence  would  be  a  crime,  for  it  is 
not 'against  a  race  or  a  religion  that  Czarism  is  directing  its  blows, 
it  is  above  all  against  a  class  I  This  government  is  aiming  at  the 
extermination  of  the  class-conscious  proletariat! 

Speak,  agitate  for  yourself !  Let  your  voices  rise  to  denounce 
these  crimes  against  humanity.  Let  your  memory  preserve  the 
martyrs  of  the  people.  International  Socialist  Bureau, 

V,  Serwy,  Secretary. 

46 


The  Reward  of  Labor 

We  publish  in  this  number  an  article  by  Comrade  Raphael  Buck  on  the 
subject  of  the  ''Remuneration  of  Labor  in  the  Co-operative  Common- 
wealth/' which  deals  with  what  the  opponents  of  Socialism,  and  evidently 
many  Socialists,  consider  a  very  important,  if  not  a  pressing,  problem. 
Because  of  the  importance  with  which  this  problem  is  usually  considered 
and  because  of  the  fact  that  the  writer  has  summed  up  the  prevailing 
idea  of  the  problem  in  very  good  form,  we  are  very  glad  to  give  it  space. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  our  opinion  that  the  problem  which  he  postulates 
is  really  unimportant  and  that  the  solution  which  he  offers  is  by  no  means 
a  probable  one. 

He  states  that  there  are  two  ideas  concerning  the  method  of  remunera- 
tion, one  of  payment  according  to  labor  time,  and  the  other  of  perfect 
equality.  We  would  at  once  say  that  there  was  another  solution,  and  one 
much  more  important  than  either  of  these,  and  that  is  the  one  which  will 
find  the  principal  reward  for  labor  in  the  labor  itself.  The  idea  of  the 
painfulness  of  labor  is  something  which  is  inseparaUy  connected  with 
exploitation  and  which  does  not  nece*ssarily  belong  to  any  system  where 
exploitation  is  unknown.  At  the  present  time  we  exert  our  strength,  both 
physical  and  intellectual,  to  do  something  we  do  not  like  in  order  to  get 
the  opportunity  to  exert  that  strength  upon  something  which  we  do  like. 
But  modem  psychology,  physiology  and  pedagogy  all  agree  that  nothing 
is  more  pleasurable  to  the  normal  individual  than  some  constructive  occu- 
pation. Hence  it  is  that  all  schemes  relating  to  future  society  which  aims 
to  find  "its  incentive  to  labor"  in  some  form  of  financial  reward,  aside 
from  the  labor  itself,  are  laboring  under  the  influence  of  the  Zeitgeist  of 
capitalism. 

The  only  way  by  which  we  can  determine  the  form  of  future  institu- 
tions is  by  studying  present  tendencies.  The  tendencies  on  this  point  are 
along  two  lines,  one  of  which,  so  hampered  by  the  environment  of 
present  society  as  to  be  ordinarily  unnoticed,  is  the  tendency  represented 
in  the  Arts  and  Crafts  movement  to  make  labor  so  pleasurable  as  to  con- 
stitute its  own  reward. 

The  second  tendency,  which  is  almost  equally  hampered,  is  the  one 
which  tends  to  furnish  universal  basic  necessities  equally  and  without 
cost  to  all.  We  see  this  last  tendency  in  the  furnishing  of  water  and 
public  lighting,  care  of  the  streets,  etc.,  in  our  great  cities.  There  is  no 
doubt  but  what  this  line  of  development  would  be  greatly  accelerated  by  a 
co-operative  organization  of  society.    Not  only  transportation  and  the  use 

41 


48  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

of  the  instruments  of  communication  would  be  furnished  absolutely  free» 
but  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  such  a  society  would  find  it 
advisable  to  furnish  a  certain  amount  of  the  fundamental  necessities  of 
food,  clothing  and  shelter  without:  limit  or  cost  to  each  individual.  Once 
that  the  race  was  lifted  above  the  swinish  level  of  our  present  society  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  such  gratuitous  distribution  would  be  ac- 
companied with  much  less  waste  and  much  greater  economy  than  would  be 
true  if  any  attempt  at  the  keeping  of  individual  accounts  was  made. 

Another  error  which  runs  through  the  article,  and  which  is  closely 
related  to  the  other  two,  is  the  exaggerated  importance  and  false  idea 
of  the  struggle  for  survival.  Kropotkin's  "Mutual  Aid"  has  so  thor- 
oughly exploded  this  old  crude  idea,  which  in  reality  was  never  held 
either  by  Darwin,  to  whom  it  is  ordinarily  imputed,  or  to  any  of  the  really 
great  expounders  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  with  the  possible  excep- 
tion of  Huxley,  that  it  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  discuss  it  further  here. 
The  struggle  for  survival  does  not  by  any  means  necessarily  have  to  take 
place  on  a  purely  physical  basis,  or  rather  the  struggle  may  express  itself 
on  a  physical  basis  when  it  takes  place  in  the  intellectual  world.  Space 
is  too  limited  here  for  me  to  go  further  into  this  idea,  had  I  even  the  bio- 
logical knowledge  which  is  necessary  to  do  so. 

The  problem  of  the  incentive  to  labor  is  purely  a  psychological  one  and 
turns  entirely  upon  the  question  of  what  are  the  motives  of  human  action? 
At  the  prescent  time  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  main  motive  which 
drives  men  to  work  is  fear  of  want  and  desire  to  gratify  certain  pleas- 
urable emotions.  It  is  certain  that  under  co-operative  ownership  an4 
operation  of  industry  hunger  as  a  driving  force  will  no  longer  exist 
Once,  however,  that  each  person  is  guaranteed  an  existence  with  reason- 
ably short  hours  of  labor,  the  overwhelming  importance  as  to  attractive- 
ness will  be  placed  upon  the  character  of  the  work  itself.  Slightly  short- 
ening the  hours,  as  Bellamy  suggests,  would  be  ridiculous  if  the  work  was 
made  pleasurable  instead  of  painful.  Indeed,  it  is  highly  probable  that 
Bellamy  is  largely  responsible  for  this  wholly  wrong  point  of  view,  and 
he  was  so  considered  by  William  Morris,  who  must  always  be  considered 
the  main  exponent  of  the  correct  position. 

The  incentive  to  labor  under  Socialism  must  be  found,  not  in  some 
external  force  which  will  drive  the  laborer  to  his  work,  but  in  the  inherent 
attractiveness  of  the  work  itself.  The  social  energies  will  necessarily  be 
concentrated  on  the  problem  of  removing  the  disagreeable  features  from 
toil.  Any  one  who  knows  something  of  the  spirit  of  craftsmanship  as  it 
has  already  existed  at  different  times  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  who 
is  in  any  degree  familiar  with  modem  psychology,  will  at  once  admit  that 
this  problem  is  really  so  slight  as  to  be  insignificant.  William  Morris  has 
well  satirized  it  in  his  ''N^ws  from  Nowhere,"  where  he  has  the  people 
going  about  quarreling  good-naturedly  with  one  another  over  who  shall 
have  a  chance  to  do  the  work. 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


The  big  strikes  in  New  York,  Chicago,  Pittsburg,  Denver  and  Omaha 
are  pretty  conclusive  proof  that  employers  are  organizing  all  along  the 
line  and  that  Mr.  David  M.  Parry,  and  not  Senator  M.  A.  Hanna,  ex- 
presses the  real  sentiments  of  the  employing  class.  In  New  York  the  half- 
billion  dollar  combine  that  locked  out  over  one  hundred  thousand  men 
succeeded  in  splitting  the  building  crafts  and  is  using  one  faction  to 
beat  the  brains  out  of  the  other  and  abolish  sympathy  strikes  by  forcing 
contracts  with  individual  unions.  In  Chicago  the  employers'  combines  are 
also  playing  the  game  of  separating  the  organized  workers  by  securing 
contracts  abolishing  the  sympathy  strike  and  forcing  unionists  to  work 
with  and  support  scabs,  while  the  arbitration  schemes  have  in  nearly  every 
case  proven  disappointments  to  the  unions.  In  Denver,  where  the  bosses 
started  to  smash  the  unions,  a  settlement  was  made  that  all  unionists 
were  to  go  back  to  work  without  discrimination  and  troubles  arbitrated. 
Now  it  is  reported  that  the  capitalists  are  deliberately  violating  their 
agreements  and  a  farce  is  being  made  of  arbitration.  In  other  cities, 
including  many  small  places,  the'  unions  are  confronted  by  employers' 
combines  that  display  an  autocratic  and  tyrannical  spirit,  violate  agree- 
ments if  they  see  fit,  and  arbitrate  only  when  they  are  forced  to  do  so. 
The  effect  of  all  these  bitter  strikes  and  lockouts  is  that  the  workers  are 
being  taught  there  is  a  class  struggle  despite  the  maudlin  twaddle  of 
the  Hannaites  about  "harmonizing"  labor  and  capital  and  that  Parryism 
is  not  accepted  by  the  employers.  Hanna  may  fool  all  of  the  people  some 
of  the  time,  some  people  all  the  time,  but  he  won't  fool  all  the  people 
all  the  time.  In  fact,  Hanna  stock  has  begun  to  decline,  and  if  it  is  given 
a  chance  on  the  so-called  labor  market  much  longer  it  will  go  to  zero. 

The  National  Gvic  Federation  has  established  a  monthly,  and  the  last 
issue  contains  a  symposium  on  the  question  of  incorporation  of  trade 
unions,  being  thci  views  of  prominent  men  among  the  laboring  people,  the 
capitalists  and  ''the  public"  The  Review  summarizes  the  article  as  fol- 
lows: ''The  symposium  as  a  whole  seems  to  indicate  that  the  customary 
arguments  for  and  against  incorporation  of  trade  unions  are  invalid,  since 
they  turn  on  the  responsibility  of  unions  for  unlawful  acts.  Incorpora- 
tion would  not  increase  nor  decrease  their  responsibility  in  this  respect. 
Both  the  treasury  of  the  union  and  the  prc^erty  of  the  union  and  the 
property  of  the  members  are  liable  in  damage  on  account  of  such  acts, 
whether  the  union  is  incorporated  or  unincorporated."  It  is  well  for  the 
unions  to  take  cognizance  of  the  foregoing  statement,  coming,  as  it  does, 
from  an  organ  that  is  published  for  the  purpose  of  educating  them  into 
the  belief  that  the  Interests  of  capitalism  and  labor  are  identical.  The 
"unlawful  acts"  of  unions  constitute  striking,  picketing,  boycotting  and  diso- 

49 


50  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

beying  injunctions,  and,  if  the  organizations  and  members  can  be  sued 
on  account  of  such  acts,  it  looks  as  though  labor  will  be  compelled  to 
vote.  Striking,  boycotting  and  picketing  at  the  ballot-box  is  not  yet 
unlawful. 

There  is  little  or  no  change  in  the  struggle  between  the  industrialists 
and  autonomists  for  mastery.  The  action  of  the  machinists  in  changing 
from  craft  autonomy  to  the  industrialist  side  and  claiming  jurisdiction 
over  all  workers  in  machine  shops  has  caused  much  comment  in  trade  union 
circles.  The  crafts  menaced  by  the  machinists  are  making  vigorous  re- 
sistance, and  demands  are  being  made  that  the  I.  A.  of  M.  be  expelled 
from  the  A.  F.  of  L.  for  alleged  violation  of  laws  and  charter  rights, 
they  will  be  plucked  to  pieces  by  the  larger  organizations.  The  carpenters- 
There  are  several  unions  in  the  metal  working  trades  that  are  fearful  that 
woodworkers'  controversy  is  no  nearer  settlement,  nor  is  the  fight  between 
the  brewery  workers  and  engineers  and  firemen,  or  the  troubles  between 
some  of  the  minor  organizations.  If  the  tailors  vote  favorably  at  their 
referendum  to  claim  jurisdiction  over  the  special  order  workers,  who  are 
now  largely  controlled  by  the  garment  workers,  it  will  mean  a  brand 
new  fight  and  one  that  will  be  bitterly  waged.  Most  of  the  time  of  the 
A.  F.  of  L.  executive  board  at  the  recent  Toronto  session  was  given  up  to 
the  consideration  of  jurisdiction  claims  without  much  of  importance  hav- 
ing been  accomplished.  Most  of  the  grievances  will  be  carried  into  the 
Boston  convention  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  and  it  is  quite  likely  that  some 
decided  stand  will  be  taken  in  favor  of  either  broad  industrialism  or  the 
old,  narrow  autonomy  principle,  as  the  organizations  interested  are  be-  ^ 
coming  tired  of  the  present  uncertainty  where  they  are  unable  to  depend 
upon  closely  affiliated  bodies  in  case  of  trouble  with  the  organized  em- 
ployers. 

Damage  suits  against  unionists  for  engaging  in  strikes,  picketing,  boy- 
cotting, etc.,  are  coming  thick  and  fast.  Following  the  successftd  suit 
in  Rutland,  Vt.,  where  the  machinists  were  assessed  $2,500,  and  the  cases 
in  Dayton  and  Waterbury,  Conn.,  the  bo<^binders  of  Chicago  are  sued 
for  $30,000,  the  metal  polishers,  brassworkers  and  electrical  workers  in 
the  same  city  for  $30,000,  the  garment  workers  in  Racine,  Wis.,  for  $10,000, 
and  union  girls  that  struck  against  the  Kellogg  Switchboard  &  Supply 
Company  in  Chicago  for  a  total  of  $42,000.  National  officers  and  official 
journals  are  becoming  quite  disturbed  at  this  new  turn  of  affairs,  and 
except  in  a  few  instances  there  is  a  distinct  impression  taking  root  that 
political  action  nuist  be  taken  to  meet  the  new  danger.  Those  who  oppose 
political  action  offer  no  remedy  for  the  evil,  but  content  themselves  with 
denunciation  and  claims  that  damage  suits  are  unfair,  unjust,  etc.  If  the 
pessimists  would  agitate  the  proposition  of  placing  class-conscious  labor 
men  in  legislatures  and  on  the  bench  they  would  be  doing  something  prac- 
tical to  meet  the  attacks  of  capital. 

The  National  Association  of  Manufacturers  is  going  to  establish  a  strike 
insurance  company,  and  it  is  ^confidently  asserted  that  fully  $ioo,ooo/X)0 
will  be  behind  the  venture.  Some  of  the  prominent  Wall  Street  capitalists 
are  said  to  be  willing  to  support  such  a  company.  The  subject  was  gen- 
erally discussed  in  the  New  Orleans  convention  of  the  N.  A.  of  M.,  and 
it  is  claimed  that  a  strike  insurance  company  is  no  more  impracticable  than 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR  61 

a  tornado  or  accident  or  marine  disaster  insurance  company,  and  that 
there  is  about  the  same  facility  for  determining  the  risks.  The  plan  is  for 
the  employer  or  policy  holder  to  receive  a  payment  of  the  amount  of 
profit  he  would  have  made  had  his  plant  not  been  suspended  by  the  strike. 
He  is  to  be  paid  every  day  that  the  suspension  of  business  lasts.  This 
will  be  following  a  system  on  a  large  and  general  scale  that  is  already  in 
operation  in  some  trades.  Trade  unionists  who  imagine  that  Mr.  Parry 
and  his  colleagues  have  merely  organized  to  give  pink  teas  or  chowder 
parties  will  find  that  they  are  sadly  misinformed.  Mr.  Parry  and  his 
fellow  employers  have  combined  for  the  purpose  of  harmonizing  capital 
and  labor,  and  they  are  going  after  labor  with  a  club  and  will  beat  harmony 
into  it.  While  Hanna  and  his  crowd  are  getting  a  lot  more  advertising 
in  the  newspapers  than  the  Parryites,  still  the  latter  are  doing  things  that 
will  have  an  important  bearing  on  the  history  of  organized  labor,  and  trade 
unionists  who  have  not  been  harmonized  will  do  well  to  bear  that  fact 
in  mind. 

The  American  Labor  Union  has  concluded  its  national  convention,  but 
to  the  disappointment  of  many  active  trade  unionists  took  no  action  look- 
ing toward  combining  with  the  A.  F.  of  L.  The  A.  L.  U.  has  enjoyed 
great  growth  during  the  past  year.  The  membership  has  increased  from 
18,000  direct  and  70,000  affiliated  members  in  1892  to  70,000  direct  and  200,- 
000  affiliated  members  in  1903.  The  Western  Federation  of  Miners,  in 
session  in  Denver  at  the  same  time,  also  showed  splendid  progress,  and 
now  has  75,000  members  and  $3,000,000  in  the  treasury,  and  is  financially 
perhaps  the  strongest  union  in  the  country.  Both  organizations  reaffirmed 
their  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  Socialism.  The  International  'Association 
of  Machinists,  in  their  Milwaukee  convention,  also  adopted  a  resolution  in 
favor  of  political  action  along  class-conscious  lines  for  collective  owner- 
ship. The  Ladies'  Garment  Workers'  International  Union,  in  Qeveland, 
declared  in  favor  of  Socialism  and  the  Socialist  party,  while  the  Interna- 
tional Printing  Pressmen's  Union,  in  Cincinnati,  declared  in  favor  of  put- 
ting up  a  candidate  for  president  from  the  ranks  of  the  workers.  The  Min- 
nesota State  Federation  of  Labor  endorsed  Socialism  and  referred  the  is- 
sue to  a  referendum  of  affiliated  locals.  In  the  Iowa  State  Federation  a 
Socialist  resolution  was  defeated,  but  it  is  claimed  that  a  majority  of  the 
delegates  were  Socialists  and  merely  hesitated  to  commit  the  organization 
to  that  principle  as  a  matter  of  policy.  Altogether  satisfactory  progress  is 
being  made. 

One  of  the  incidents  during  the  past  month  which  created  considerable 
comment  was  the  action  of  John  C.  Havemeyer,  of  sugar  trust  fame,  in 
challenging  the  trade  unions  to  publicly  answer  sixteen  questions  that  he 
propounded,  Havemeyer  agreeing  to  hire  the  opera  house  in  Yonkers  to 
give  the  labor  representatives  the  opportunity  to  reply.  While  Have- 
meyer's  attack  was  loudly  applauded  by  the  capitalist  press  from  one  end 
of  the  country  to  the  other,  the  papers  made  no  mention  of  the  fact  that 
the  sugar  king's  bluff  was  quickly  accepted,  and  Ben  Hanford,  the  well- 
known  printer  and  Socialist  orator,  was  invited  to  make  the  principal 
address.  Hanford  literally  flayed  Havemeyer  and  forced  the  latter  to 
defend  himself  by  a  hypocritical  endorsement  of  "good"  unions  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  wicked  Socialistic  organization  that  aim  to  divorce 
the  patriotic  trust  magnates  from  their  class  privileges.  The  incident  goes 
to  show  that  the  shrewd  plutocrats,  when  driven  into  a  comer  by  the  logic 


62  INTEKNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

of  the  Socialists,  will  aim  to  save  their  bacon  by  appealing  for  sympathy 
from  non-socialist  union  people.  This  is  the  game  that  is  being  played 
at  present  by  the  National  Economic  League  and  various  national  organi- 
zations of  capitalists  which  are  bribing  a  few  renegades  to  sow  seeds 
of  discord  in  the  trade  union  movement  by  singling  out  Socialism  as  an 
object  of  attack.  These  creatures,  of  course,  do  not  attack  Republicans 
or  Democrats  or  their  political  principles,  proving  that  they  are  the  paid 
hirelings  of  those  who  thrive  and  wax  fat  through  the  operation  of  the 
profit-mongering  system.  Union  men  and  women  will  do  well  to  consider, 
when  they  read  attacks  on  Socialism  in  the  labor  press  or  daily  news- 
papers, that  there  are  combinations  of  millionaires  that  pay  liberally  for 
such  stuff  that  is  meant  to  divide  the  workers  and  enable  the  capitalistic 
labor  skinners  to  continue  to  exploit  the  toilers  and  enjoy  prosperity  at 
labor's  expense. 

Quite  naturally  the  American  Socialists  are  greatly  enthused  and  en- 
couraged by  the  tremendous  gains  of  their  comrades  in  Germany  and 
Denmark.  And  on  this  side  of  the  water  the  movement  is  going  forward 
at  an  accelerated  pace.  State  conventions  of  the  Socialist  party  are  being 
held  and  tickets  nominated  for  the  fall  elections  and  the  campaign  is  get- 
ting in  full  swing.  The  national  office  has  half  a  dozen  speakers  and 
organizers  in  the  field,  while  the  various  state  organizations  are  also  send- 
ing out  men  to  build  up  the  party,  and  local  speakers  and  organizers 
everywhere  are  reported  as  displaying  unusual  activity.  Ntearly  every  week 
a  new  party  paper  enters  the  field  and  the  number  of  trade  union  papers 
that  are  endorsing  the  principles  of  Socialism  and  aiding  the  Socialist 
party  is  becoming  legion.  Hardly  a  national  or  state  convention  is  held 
by  trade  unionists  nowadays  that  the  subject  of  Socialism  is  not  dis- 
cussed and  in  some  cases  endorsed.  The  sporadic  labor  party  movement 
that  for  a  time  threatened  to  stem  the  tide  has  had  no  appreciable  effect 
and  seems  to  be  disappearing.  In  some  localities  of  the  extreme  West  it 
is  reported  that  local  labor  parties  have  gone  over  to  the  Socialist  party 
in  a  body  or  intend  to  do  so.  Another  danger  that  threatened  for  a  time 
was  that  of  sectionalism,  which  has  always  been  a  source  of  amusement  to 
Socialists  when  they  contemplated  the  rows  in  the  capitalist  parties  that 
were  traceable  to  this  cause.  But  this  narrow  and  absurd  "issue"  has  about 
run  its  course.  In  the  near  future  the  national  office  intends  to  send  rep- 
resentative Eastern  men  into  the  West  and  Western  men  into  the  East 
to  bring  the  different  sections  of  the  country  into  closer  touch  with  each 
other,  and  quite  likely  this  fool  question  will  receive  its  quietus  for  all 
time  to  come.  Just  as  the  growing  child  is  afflicted  with  the  mumps  and 
measles,  so  a  new  political  movement  is  bound  to  be  more  or  less  annoyed 
by  these  petty  disagreements,  and,  while  they  may  appear  unfortunate,  at 
the  same  time  they  are  a  sure  indication  that  the  movement  is  very  much 
alive  and  really  moving. 

No  sooner  are  the  window  glass  workers  displaced  by  a  machine  when 
another  branch  of  the  trade  is  hard  hit.  After  many  months  of  ceaseless 
experimenting,  Ball  Bros.,  of  Muncie,  Ind.,  have  completed  an  automatic 
machine  which,  it  is  claimed,  will  soon  be  the  means  of  throwing  every 
white  liner  glass  presser  in  the  country  out  of  employment.  The  machine 
is  an  automatic  cutter  and  presser,  and  does  away  entirely  with  the  presser 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR  63 

and  leaves  but  one  man  to  operate  the  entire  machine.  About  one  hun- 
dred men  will  be  thrown  out  of  work  in  Ball  Bros/  plant,  and  four  other 
concerns  have  already  applied  for  the  new  device.  Boys  will  run  the  new 
machines.  An  experiment  that  may  also  revolutionize  the  iron  and  steel 
industry  of  the  country  and  displace  thousands  of  miners  and  metal  work- 
ers was  successful  in  the  plant  of  the  Valley  Iron  Company,  in  St.  Paul. 
Titanic  ore,  of  which  there  are  billions  of  tons  in  Northern  Minnesota, 
was  smelted  in  an  ordinary  cupola  and  turned  out  pig  iron,  which  polished 
up  like  steel,  and  which,  according  to  those  interested  in  the  experiment, 
is  better  than  the  finest  Bessemer  steel.  It  is  thought  that  if  the  new  dis- 
covery is  entirely  successful  many  ore  mines  will  be  abandoned  and  mil- 
lions of  dollars  will  be  saved  to  the  mill  barons.  The  machinery  prob- 
lem—the question  of  cheaper  production — is  bound  to  become  a  greater 
issue  to  sldlled  mechanics  as  well  as  so-called  common  laborers  each  year. 

In  addition  to  shutting  its  mills  in  Connecticut,  the  cotton  duck  trust  has 
closed  its  Phoenix,  Laurel,  Franklin vi lie  and  Mount  Pleasant  mills  in 
Maryland  and  will  turn  out  all  its  products  in  its  Alabama  and  South 
Carolina  mills,  where  it  can  produce  cheaper  because  it  can  use  child  labor.. 
The  trust  controls  practically  all  the  cotton  duck  plants  in  the  country. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Southern  legislatures,  controlled  by  the  "working- 
men's  friends,"  the  Democratic  party,  regularly  defeat  the  child  labor  bills 
or  pass  them  in  such  loose  form  that  they  can  be  declared  unconstitutional 
by  the  courts  without  shedding  a  hair.  And  yet  that  old  Bourbon  party 
pretends  to  be  opposed  to  trusts  and  is  begging  for  the  labor  vote  this 
year,  next  year,  and  all  other  years. 

The  readers  of  the  Review  will  remember  that  several  months  ago  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  amendment  to  the  immigration  law  that  was  being 
considered  by  Congress  and  that  it  had  the  full  endorsement  of  Mr.  Frank 
P.  Sargent,  immigration  commissioner  and  ex-chief  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Firemen.  The  amendment,  which  was  passed  by  Congress, 
reads  that  skilled  labor  may  be  imported  if  like  kind  unemployed  cannot 
be  found  in  this  country.  Now  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  Taylor 
rules  "that  under  this  clause  the  only  necessary  preliminary  to  the  impor- 
tation of  contract  labor  in  any  particular  trade  is  a  showing  beyond  reason- 
able doubt  that  there  is  a  scarcity  of  such  labor  in  this  country."  Mr.  Tay- 
lor's ruling  opens  the  door  to  the  importation  of  foreign  lace  workers.- 
Next  thing  perhaps  some  plumber  boss  or  building  contractor  can  step  up 
and  say  there  are  no  skilled  men  to  be  had  and  import  foreign  laborers. 
There  would  be  no  cause  to  complain  of  the  importation  of  workers  if 
Morgan,  Rockefeller  &  Co.  did  not  have  the  country's  natural  opportunities 
largely  monopolized  and  refuse  to  allow  labor  access  to  the  same  without 
paying  tribute.  If  there  were  no  profits  to  pay  to  idlers— if  there  were  no 
millions  to  be  piled  up  for  plutocrats— North  America  could  support  a 
billion  population,  and  every  new  laborer  would  mean  the  further  enrich- 
ment of  the  commonwealth,  just  as  was  the  case  in  the  early  days  before 
monopoly  reared  its  ugly  head.  But  to-day  every  new  shipload  of  workers 
means  more  competition  for  jobs,  and  where  an  industrial  depression  sets 
in  the  struggle  becomes  so  fierce  that  wages  naturally  drop  to  the  starva- 
tion level.  It  is  a  pity  that  workingmen  allow  officeholders  to  play  fast 
and  loose  with  questions  that  have  such  vital  effect  upon  their  welfare 
and  endorse  their  every  act  with  their  ballots. 


SOCIALISM  ABROAD 


Russia 

All  the  world  has  been  startled  by  the  massacres  of  Kischineff,  but  very 
few  of  the  capitalist  papers  have  dared  to  tell  the  truth,  that  this  was  sim- 
ply one  more  move  on  the  part  of  the  policy  of  violent  suppression  of 
Socialism  by  the  Russian  government  The  Iskra  (the  Spark),  the  organ 
of  the  Russian  Social  Democrats,  published  in  London,  has  a  long  account 
of  the  event,  which  it  sums  up  by  saying: 

"The  government  of  Nicholas  the  Foolish  plays  its  last  card:  It  tries 
to  stifle  the  fast  ripeiiing  consciousness  of  the  Russian,  proletariat  by  poi- 
soning it  with  the  venom  of  racial  hatred  and  religious  fanaticism.  The 
Russian  government,  through  its  criminal  action  in  the  KisheneflF  disorders, 
virtually  says  to  us  Social  Democrats:  'You  wish  to  waken  the  people, 
you  strive  to  make  it  the  mightiest  factor  of  Russia's  future  historical 
development.  Very  well.  You  may  arouse  the  masses,  but  know  that 
their  awakening  will  not  be  pleasant  to  you;  remember  that  the  masses 
are  like  a  bloodthirsty  wild  beast,  and  when  that  beast  is  released  from 
its  chains  it  mercilessly  mangles  all  who  stirround  it,  making  no  difference 
between  friend  or  foe,  the  right  or  the  wrong.  You  say  to  the  masses: 
"Workingmen  of  all  countries,  unite!"  But  racial  hatred  will  arise  in 
their  midst  and  the  Russian  workingman  will  begin  to  fight  his  own  com- 
rade provided  he  is  of  another  race  or  creed.  You  wish  to  rouse  the 
masses.  Look  at  its  bloody  deeds  and  acknowledge  the  foolhardiness  of 
your  scheme.' " 

Meantime  the  word  comes  of  more  and  more  Socialist  activity  through- 
out Russia.  The  following  item  taken  from  the  Volkszeitung  of  Vienna 
is  but  one  of  many  which  gives  a  picture  of  what  is  going  on  throughout 
the  Russian  empire.  Speaking  of  the  proposed  demonstrations  of  the 
workers  at  Rostow  it  says :  "In  the  evening  a  batallion  of  infantry  and  a 
division  of  Cossacks  stood  ready  to  maintain  order.  The  leaders  of  the 
Social  Democratic  party  sought  to  agitate  among  the  people,  but  without 
result.    Many  wounded  were  carried  away." 

These  few  lines  from  capitalistic  sources  contain  a  picture  of  something 
of  the  sufferings  by  the  Socialist  comrades  in  the  Russian  empire. 


Algeria 


Constantly  the  propaganda  of  Socialism  and  organization  of  the  workers 
extend  to  new  fields.  Le  Petit  Repuhlique  tells  of  the  growth  of  the  move- 
ment in  Algeria.     In  1889  the  Socialists  first  entered  into  the  electoral 

U 


I 


•  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW  55 

struggle  in  that  country  and  two  papers  were  established,  which,  however, 
only  lived  a  short  time.  In  1899  Edmond  Claris  again  took  up  the  work 
of  organization,  and  in  October,  1900,  a  Socialist  party  was  organized  and 
active  propaganda  was  carried  on,  and  on  the  i8th  of  March,  1901,  more 
than  200  Socialists  celebrated  the  anniversary  of  the  Commune.  Later  a 
congress  was  held  at  Mustapha,  where  twenty-two  local  organizations  were 
represented.  In  the  legislative  elections  of  1902  the  party  supported  M. 
Cdin,  and  on  the  8th  of  February  of  the  same  year  the  first  number  of 
Le  Socialiste  Algeriene  appeared,  which  quickly  attained  a  circulation  of 

7,200. 

Poland 

The  following  facts  are  taken  from  an  article  by  S.  Karski  in  Justice, 
There  was  no  strongly  organized  party  in  Poland  until  1893,  when  several 
different  Socialist  groups  united  into  one  Polish  Socialist  Party.  As  there 
is  in  Russian  Poland  neither  freedom  of  speech  nor  of  press,  the  prop- 
aganda Is  necessarily  secret.  The  literature  circulated  in  Polanl  from 
abroad  proved  insufficient  to  meet  the  needs  and  a  secret  paper  Robotnik 
(Worker)  was  started  in  1894.  In  the  last  nine  years  fifty  issues  of  this 
paper  have  appeared.  By  the  same  press  Gomik  (Miner)  is  published 
for  the  workers  of  the  mining  district.  A  clandestine  journal  in  Yiddish., 
a  monthly  quarterly  and  scientific  paper,  a  Yiddish  quarterly  and  a 
Lithuanian  paper  are  among  the  other  publications  issued  by  the  Polish  So- 
cialists. The  following  statistics  give  some  idea  of  the  "social  cost"  of 
working  for  Socialism  in*^ Poland: 

In  the  year  1895,  42  comrades  were  committed  for  ten  years  of  hard 
labor,  13H  years  of  prison,  77  years  of  exile  to  Siberia,  41  years  of 
Northern  Russia,  13  years  of  exile  from  Poland. 

In  the  year  1896,  lii  comrades  for  48  years  of  hard  labor,  15  years  of 
prison,  132  years  of  exile  to  Siberia,  29  years  of  Northern  Russia,  194 
years  of  common  exile. 

In  the  year  1897,  54  comrades  for  seven  years  of  prison,  87  years  of 
exile  to  Siberia,  18  years  of  Northern  Russia,  66  years  of  common  exile. 

In  the  year  1900,  9  comrades  were  condemned  to  death,  which  sentence 
afterwards  was  commuted  to  hard  labor  in  Siberia,  each  individual  from 
10  to  20  y^ars.  In  that  year  about  200  comrades  have  been  condemned  to 
various  terms  of  prison  and  exile  to  Siberia  and  Russia. 

From  among  the  prisoners  but  few  were  able  to  escape  from,  or  on  the 
way  to,  Siberia.  To  this  small  knot  of  lucky  individuals  belong  two  out  of 
four  persons  arrested  in  connection  with  the  clandestine  press  of  Robotnik. 

Italy 

The  Czar  recently  declared  his  intention  to  visit  Italy  and  the 
Italian  Socialists  notified  the  government  that  in  case  he  did  so  he  would 
be  hissed  in  the  streets,  and  that  in  general  they  would  prepare  a  hostile 
demonstration  for  him.  Under  these  conditions  the  Czar  concluded  to 
postpone  his  visit. 

Denmark 

The  recent  universal  elections  for  the  Lower  House  of  the  Danish 
Parliament  resulted  in  the  election  of  sixteen  Socialist  members.     The 


56  SOCIALISM   ABROAD 

finance  minister,  Hage,  was  defeated  by  Socialist  Schmidt.  The  new  Cham- 
ber is  composed  of  74  members  of  the  Left,  16  Social  Democrats,  12  mem- 
bers of  the  Right  and  11  Moderate  Liberals. 

Germany 

The  returns  from  Germany  are  still  too  incomplete  for  us  to  write  them 
up  at  any  length.  In  our  next  number  we  shall  g^ive  a  full  account  of  the 
election,  the  method  of  organization  of  the  German  Social  I>emocracyf 
methods  of  campaigning  and  comparative  results.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
latest  information  shows  that  the  vote  is  about  3,008^000,  with  81  members 
of  the  Reichstag. 

Thirty  Years'  Growth. 

The  following  table  shows  the  progress  of  the  Social  Democratic  Party 
in  the  eleven  Reichstag  elections,  beginning  in  1871 : 

Year.  Popular  Vote,       Members, 

1871 I24»655  2 

1874 35 1,952  9 

1877    493,288  12 

1878 437,158  9 

1881  311,961  12 

1884 549,990  24 

1887  •  763,128  II 

1890  1,427,298  35 

1893 1,876,738  44 

1898 2,113,073  56 

1903 3,008,000  81 


Pure  Sociology.  By  Lester  F.  Ward.  The  MacmiUan  Co.  Qoth, 
Quarto,  607  pp.    $4- 

Whatever  any  one  may  think  of  the  conclusions  of  this  book,  there  is 
no  denying  the  fact  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  fundamental  studies  of 
social  facts  and  forces  that  has  ever  been  published.  The  author 
defines  Pure  Sociology  as  ''a  treatment  of  the  phenomena  and  laws  of 
society  as  it  is,  an  explanation  of  the  processes  by  which  social  phenomena 
take  place,  a  search  for  the  antecedent  conditions  by  which  the  observed 
facts  have  been  brought  into  existence,  and  an  aetiological  diagnosis  that 
shall  reach  back  as  far  as  the  state  of  human  knowledge  will  permit  into 
the  psychologic,  biologic  and  cosmic  causes  of  the  existing  social  state 
of  man.  But  it  must  be  a  pure  diagnosis,  and  all  therapeutic  treatment 
is  rigidly  excluded.  All  ethical  considerations,  in  however  wide  a  sense 
that  expression  may  be  understood,  must  be  ignored  for  the  time  being, 
and  attention  concentrated  upon  the  effort  to  determine  what  actually  is. 
Pure  sociology  has  no  concern  with  what  society  ought  to  be,  or  with 
any  social  ideals.  It  confines  itself  strictly  with  the  present  and  the  past, 
allowing  the  future  to  take  care  of  itself.  It  totally  ignores  the  purpose 
of  the  science,  and  aims  at  truth  wholly  for  its  own  sake."  The  "sub- 
ject matter"  of  sociology  is  "human  achievement;  it  is  not  what  men  are, 
but  what  they  do ;  it  is  not  the  structure,  but  the  functions."  Achievement 
in  turn  he  defines  as  the  transformation  of  the  environment,  and  points 
out  that  this  is  peculiar  to  man. 

The  study  of  the  materials  of  human  society  will  include  a  study  of 
forces.  He  finds  that  achievement  only  results  from  added  increments. 
"Achievement  does  not  consist  in  wealth.  Wealth  is  fleeting  and  ephe- 
meral. Achievement  is  permanent  and  eternal.  And  now  mark  the  para- 
dox. Wealth,  the  transient,  is  material;  achievement,  the  enduring,  is 
immaterial.  The  products  of  achievement  are  not  material  things  at  all. 
As  said  before,  they  are  not  ends  but  means.  They  are  methods,  ways, 
principles,  devices,  arts,  systems,  institutions.  In  a  word,  they  are  inven- 
tions" Again  he  points  out,  on  page  34:  "It  must  be  clear  from  all 
that  has  been  said  that  the  essential  characteristic  of  all  achievement  is 
some  form  of  knowledge.  But  knowledge,  unlike  capacity,  cannot  be 
transmitted  through  heredity.  The  germ-plasm  can  only  carry  the  ances- 
tral strains  of  parents  to  their  offspring  and  descendants,  and  whether 
'acquired  characters'  can  be  thus  transmitted  or  not,  it  is  certain  that 
acquired  knowledge  is  a  'character*  that  does  not  descend  in  that  way. 
The  process  by  which  achievement  is  handed  down  may  be  aptly  called 
social  heredity.  This  social  heredity  is  the  same  thing  that  I  have  other- 
wise denominated  social  development  in  which  there  has  been  no  break  in 

M 


58  BOOK   REVIEWS 

the  transmission  of  achievement.  We  thus  have  the  continuity  of  the 
social  germ-plasm,  which  is  as  good  an  analogy  as  the  organicists  have 
discovered.  The  social  germ-plasm  is  that  Promethean  fire  which  has 
been  passed  on  from  age  to  age,  warming  the  world  into  life  with  its 
glow,  and  lighting  it  with  its  flame  through  all  the  long  night  of  the 
past  into  the  daybreak  of  the  present."  In  this  desire  to  contribute  to 
the  social  germ-plasm  he  finds  one  of  the  greatest  incentives  to  exertion. 
"Thus  far  only  a  few  have  contributed  to  this  stream,  but  the  percentage 
is  probably  increasing,  and  might  under  improved  social  conditions  be 
greatly  increased,  and  the  time  may  come  when  all  may  at  least  aspire  to 
the  honor  of  laying  some  small  oflfering  on  the  altar  of  civilization.  As 
the  ages  go  by  and  history  records  the  results  of  human  action  it  becomes 
clear  to  larger  numbers  that  this  is  the  true  goal  of  life,  and  larger  numbers 
seek  it.  It  is  seen  that  only  those  who  have  achieved  are  remembered, 
that  the  memory  of  such  grows  brighter  instead  of  dimmer  with  time,  and 
that  these  names  are  likely  to  be  kept  fresh  in  the  minds  of  men  forever. 
Achievement,  therefore,  comes  to  constitute  a  form  of  immortality  and  has 
exceedingly  attractive  sides.  This  hope  of  immortality  has  doubtless 
formed  one  of  the  important  motives  in  all  ages,  but  as  the  hope  of  a 
personal  immortality  wanes  under  the  glare  of  scientific  truth,  especially 
of  biological  truth,  there  is  likely  to  be  a  still  stronger  tendency  in  this 
direction." 

In  the  discussion  of  methodology  he  declares  that  "It  is  the  function  of 
methodology  in  social  science  to  classify  social  phenomena  in  such  a  man- 
ner that  the  groups  may  be  brought  under  uniform  laws  ani  treated  by 
exact  methods.  Sociology  then  becomes  an  exact  science.  In  doing  this, 
too,  it  will  be  found  that  we  have  passed  from  chaos  to  cosmos.  Human 
history  presents  a  chaos.  The  only  science  that  can  convert  the  milky 
way  of  history  into  a  definite  social  universe  is  sociology,  and  this  can 
only  be  done  by  the  use  of  an  appropriate  method,  by  using  the  data  fur- 
nished by  all  the  special  social  sciences,  including  the  great  scientific 
trunks  of  psychology,  biology  and  cosmology,  and  generalizing  and  co- 
ordihating  the  facts  and  groups  of  facts  until  unity  is  attained."  He  fol- 
lows this  idea  into  almost  too  great  detail,  and  one  sometimes  wonders 
if  it  is  really  necessary  to  trace  everything  back  through  all  its  biological 
history  to  the  original  homogenity. 

Sociology  cannot  be  a  science  unless  it  has  its  own  peculiar  field  of 
facts  and  forces,  and  it  is  the  description  of  these  which  constitutes  the 
greater  portion  of  this  book.  He  decides  that  *'the  social  forces  are 
psychic,  and  hence  sociology  must  have  a  psychologic  basis.  He  finds  that 
this  basis  arises  from  the  development  of  feeling.  The  organism  pursues 
feeling  without  regard  to  results.  But  the  basis  of  selection  orders  matter 
so  that  only  those  feelings  remain  enjoyable  which  contribute  to  the  forma- 
tion of  advantageous  functions.  Once  that  feeling  had  reached  this  point, 
it  gave  birth  to  interest.  The  creature  was  then  interested  in  gratifying 
those  feelings  which  performed  functions  valuable  to  the  race.  From  this 
time  on  interest  became  the  great  dynamic  feature  of  social  evolution.  The 
author  traces  the  biologic  origin  of  all  social  forces  and  formulates  a 
scientific  classification  of  all  sociological  material  which  cannot  fail  to 
be  of  great  value  to  future  workers  in  this  field  even  though  it  may  in 
time  be  subjected  to  great  alterations.  In  tracing  the  orig^in  of  human 
institutions  he  shows  that  the  first  great  essential  in  race  evolution  was 
social  assimilation,  from  which  there  resulted  a  definite  social  body  suffi- 


INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIKW  59 

ciently  large  to  partially  control  environment.  This  took  place  long  before 
historic  times.  Then  followed  a  differentiation  during  which  various  races 
developed. 

Once  races  had  been  developed  and  had  spread  over  a  large  portion  of 
the  earth  they  soon  came  in  contact  with  one  another,  and  then  began 
the  process  of  social  integration.  The  first  step  in  this  was  a  struggle  of 
races,  followed  by  conquest  and  subjection,  after  which  there  followed 
caste  and  a  gradual  mitigation  of  this  condition,  leaving  a  state  of  great 
individual,  social  and  political  inequality,  to  be  succeeded  by  purely  mili- 
tary subjection  with  the  forms  of  law  and  idea  of  legal  right;  then  the 
state,  under  which  arose  a  more  or  less  homogeneous  people,  which  in 
turn  soon  gave  birth  to  the  sentiment  of  patriotism  and  led  to  the  forma- 
tion of  nations,  that  being  the  condition  in  which  societies  of  to-day 
are  found. 

In  his  discussion  of  social  dynamics  he  treats  more  elaborately  of  the 
forms  of  social  change.  Part  III  of  the  book  "Telesis"  discusses  the 
various  forms  of  social  control  which  can  be  used  to  secure  a  purposeful 
evolution.  This  portion  of  the  book  also  is  filled  with  a  mass  of  valuable 
thoughts  and  facts  most  suggestive  to  social  students. 

His  discussion  of  the  evolution  of  the  social  relations  of  the  sexes  is 
extremely  striking  and  interesting.  From  biological  analogy  he  shows 
that  the  female  represents  the  stable  racial  element  in  society  and  that 
the  transition  to  male  domination  in  selection  represented  a  great  evolu- 
tional change  which  resulted  in  the  apparent  superiority  of  man  at  the 
present  time.  He  also  expresses  the  opinion  that  with  the  disappearance 
of  the  economic  domination  of  man  a  new  stage  will  probably  arise  in 
which  neither  sex  will  occupy  this  controlling  position,  but  where  the 
selection  will  be  mutual. 

He  seems  to  a  large  degree  to  accept  the  materialistic  interpretation  of 
history  and  the  socialist  philosophy  of  institutions,  but  owing  to  the  nar- 
rowness with  which  he  confines  himself  to  the  purely  descriptive  field 
there  is  little  bearing  upon  what  are  commonly  called  practical  problems. 

The  work  is  one  of  those  great  fundamental  things  which  must  be  read 
again  and  again  and  which,  once  mastered,  will  constitute  a  starting  point 
for  countless  lines  of  thought. 

History  of  the  French  Revolution.  C.  L.  James.  Published  by  Abe 
Isaak  Jr.    Cloth,  343  pp.    $1. 

We  have  had  histories  of  the  French  Revolution  from  almost  every 
point  of  view,  but  this  is  the  only  one  which  seems  to  definitely  proceed 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  mob.  Since  the  mob,  however,  was  really 
one  of  the  most  important  parties,  if  not  the  most  important  one,  con- 
cerned, there  is  much  excuse  for  this  point  of  view. 

The  work  opens  with  a  very  good  summary  of  the  conditions  which 
led  up  to  the  French  Revolution,  and  in  the  discussion  of  events  it  offers 
very  little  that  is  new.  It  seems  to  have  the  one  defect  which  is  perhaps 
inseparable  from  almost  all  histories  of  the  French  Revolution,  that  of 
being  overwhelmed  by  the  vast  number  of  details. 

The  author  tells  us  that  shortly  after  the  fall  of  the  Bastile  "France, 
having  reached  the  climax  of  anarchy,  was  rapidly  settling  down  to  peace 
and  quietness.  An  unprecedented  spirit  of  harmony  and  tranquillity, 
normal   fruits  of  complete  anarchy,  prevailed  on  the  whole   for  many 


60  BOOK  REVIEWS 

months."  Again,  he  states  that  "from  the  spring  of  1790  to  autumn  of 
1791  France  was  as  near  as  any  great  nation  ever  has  been  to  having  no 
government  at  all.  Nor  was  it  very  different  between  September,  1792,  and 
March,  1793.  There  was,  indeed,  a  king  who  exercised  some  power  from 
September,  1791,  to  August,  1792,  and  a  legislature.  But  these  co- 
ordinating branches  blocked  each  other's  wheels  so  effectually  that  an- 
archy on  the  whole  continued." 

For  these  particular  periods  the  author  has,  as  naturally  might  be 
expected,  the  greatest  praise.  For  the  most  of  the  leaders  of  the  Revo- 
lution he  has  only  the  greatest  denunciation.  Only  for  Marat,  for  Con- 
dorcet,  and  Danton,  whom  he  designates  as  "the  best  champion  of  free- 
dom which  the  crisis  of  his  time  produced,"  does  he  have  any  praise.  In 
his  summary  he  declares  "That  such  another  revolution  impends  will  be 
doubted  by  no  one  who  has  studied  history  in  the  light  of  evolution." 
However,  he  offers  no  evidence  other  than  this  bare  assertion  of  the 
coming  of  such  social  change.  Although  he  seems  to  be  full  of  praise 
for  the  epoch  as  a  whole,  nevertheless  one  is  by  no  means  satisfied  that 
he  has  proven  the  desirability  of  that  method  of  social  development. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  work  is  a  fairly  good  summary  of  the  history 
of  the  period  discussed,  and  seems  to  be  as  nearly  impartial  as  a  work 
written  from  such  a  plainly  biased  point  of  view  could  be. 

When  one  comes  to  examine  his  bibliography  he  is  struck  rather  with 
the  things  omitted  than  those  included.  He  seems  never  to  have  heard 
of  the  writings  of  Belfort  Bax,  whose  work  on  Marat  should  certainly 
not  be  ignored  by  any  one  writing  on  this  subject,  and  especially  one 
who  claims  to  represent  proletarian  interests.  Still  more  remarkable  is  the 
fact  that  he  does  not  include  any  of  the  works  of  Morse  Stephens,  while 
he  does  include  many  things  whose  connection  with  the  subject  it  is 
rather  hard  to  see. 

As  usual,  there  have  been  a  large  number  of  propaganda  pamphlets 
received  during  the  \nonth.  Comrade  Bigelow's  pamphlet  on  "The  Capi- 
talist Farmer  and  the  Socialist  Wageworker,"  while  not  really  advancing 
anything  new,  yet  says  what  it  has  to  say  in  clear,  simple  English  that 
will  make  it  of  great  value  in  the  particular  field  for  which  it  is  intended. 
Price,  10  cents. 

Another  pamphlet  which,  while  it  is  not  without  intrinsic  value  as  a 
statement  of  socialism,  is  more  noticeable  because  of  its  authorship.  It  is 
"What  to  Do  and  How  to  Do  It,  or  Socialism  vs.  Capitalism,"  by  Rev. 
G.  W.  Woodbey,  "Negro  Socialist  Orator."  "This  little  book  is  dedicated 
to  that  class  of  citizens  who  desire  to  know  what  the  Socialists  want  to  do 
and  how  they  propose  to  do  it.  By  one  who  was  once  a  chattel  slave,  freed 
by  the  proclamation  of  Lincoln,  and  now  wishes  to  be  free  from  the 
slavery  of  capitalism." 

This  book  is  for  sale  by  the  author,  709  Twelfth  street,  San  Diego,  Cal. 
Price,  10  cents. 

Charles  Lincoln  Phifer  sends  out  from  the  press  of  The  Coming  Nation 
a  little  booklet  which  he  calls  "Pictures  of  the  Co-operative  Common- 
wealth," which  contains  considerable  of  interest  on  this  ever  fascinating 

bject,  and  probably  his  guesses  are  as  good  as  those  of  anyone  else. 


INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW  61 

It  is  written  in  striking,  catchy  style  and  will  undoubtedly  prove  of  value 
in  propaganda  work. 

Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.  issue  another  number  of  their  Pocket  Library 
entitled  "Easy  Lessons  in  Socialism,"  by  William  H.  Leffingwell,  which 
adds  one  more  to  the  list  of  good  elementary  works  to  be  handed  to 
the  beginner.  The  form  of  the  work,  by  which  a  series  of  propositions  are 
explained  in  a  series  of  lessons  with  very  simple  language,  makes  it  some- 
thing different  and  more  valuable  than  most  of  the  works  along  this  line. 
Price,  5  cents. 

The  New  Time,  of  Spokane,  Wash.,  publishes  a  neat  little  lo-cent  pam- 
phlet by  John  Mackenzie  on  "Panics,"  which  sets  forth  the  Marxian  ex- 
planation of  these  industrial  disturbances  in  a  clear  and  interesting  form. 


PUBLISHERS'   DEPARTMENT 


New  Numbers  of  the  Pocket  Library 

Most  readers  of  the  International  Socialist  Review  are  already  familiar 
with  the  Pocket  Library  of  Socialism  issued  by  our  co-operative  publishing 
house.  This  series  was  started  in  the  spring  of  1899  with  two  booklets, 
''Woman  and  the  Social  Problem,"  by  May  Wood  Simons,  and  "The  evolu- 
tion of  the  Qass  Struggle,"  by  William  H.  Noyes,  both  of  which  have 
subsequently  been  rewritten  and  have  passed  through  a  number  of  edi- 
tions. The  series  now  consists  of  thirty-eight  numbers,  including  two 
new  issues  that  have  been  brought  out  within  the  last  few  weeks.  One  of 
these.  No.  37,  is  entitled  "The  Kingdom  of  God  and  Socialism,"  and  is 
by  Rev.  Robert  M.  Webster,  of  Los  Angeles.  It  was  originally  delivered 
as  a  sermon  and  it  seemed  to  the  Los  Angeles  comrades  so  effective  as 
propaganda  among  religious  people  that  they  placed  an  advance  order  for 
10,000  copies  to  be  used  for  propaganda  work  in  and  around  Los  Angeles. 
The  author  has  made  a  careful  study  of  all  passages  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment where  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  mentioned,  and  holds  that  in  each 
case  the  text  points  to  a  regenerated  social  order  such  as  the  Socialist 
Party  is  endeavoring  to  establish. 

The  other  new  issue,  No.  38,  is  entitled  "Easy  Lessons  in  Socialism," 
and  is  by  William  H.  Leffingwell,  of  Chicago.  The  ground  covered  in  this 
booklet  is  familiar  to  Socialists  but  the  treatment  of  the  subject  can  be 
commended  as  specially  suited  to  new  beginners.  We  know  of  nothing 
else  so  well  adapted  to  putting  into  the  hands  of  wage  workers  as  a 
means  of  interesting  them  in  Socialism. 

The  booklets  in  this  series  are  all  uniform  in  style,  each  containing  32 
pages  with  a  red  transparent  parchment  cover.  They  are  just  the  size  to 
slip  into  an  ordinary  business  envelope,  and  they  are  light  enough  so 
that  one  can  be  mailed  along  with  a  letter  of  ordinary  weight  without 
requiring  more  than  a  two-cent  stamp.  The  price,  including  postage,  is 
5  cents  for  a  single  copy;  six  for  25  cents;  fourteen  for  50  cents;  thirty 
for  $1,  or  the  full  set  of  thirty-eight  for  $1.25.  Stockholders  in  our  co- 
operative company  can  obtain  them  at  $1  a  hundred,  or  2  cents  each, 
in  smaller  lots,  postage  included. 

An  Unexpected  Help 

As  most  readers  of  the  International  Socialist  Review  already  know, 
the  publishing  house  of  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company  is  owned,  controlled 
and  supported,  not  by  any  capitalist  or  group  of  capitalists  but  by  six  hun- 


INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW  63 

drcd  Socialists,  most  of  them  owning  each  a  single  share  of  stock.  The 
increase  in  our  line  of  Socialist  books  from  half  a  dozen  titles  in  1899  to  a 
hundred  in  1903  is  due  not  to  the  help  of  a  capitalist  but  to  the  co-opera- 
tion of  laborers.  There  is  nevertheless  no  reason  why  the  money  of  a 
wealtfiy  sympathizer  should  not  be  used  effectively  to  hasten  the  circula- 
tion of  the  literature  of  socialism  faster  than  would  have  been  possible 
with  the  means  already  at  our  disposal,  and  the  comrades  in  charge  of  the 
office  of  the  co-operative  company  were  therefore  encouraged  at  re- 
ceiving not  long  ago  a  letter  from  James  W.  Lee  suggesting  that  he  would 
be  glad  to  pay  for  distributing  a  quantity  of  Socialist  literature  free  by 
mail  to  as  many  towns  and  cities  of  the  United  States  as  the  sum  he  was 
willing  to  expend  on  the  experiment  would  admit.  In  answer  to  this  letter 
we  wrote  him  suggesting  that  to  give  away  Socialist  literature  broadcast 
might  result  in  wasting  it  on  those  who  would  destroy  it  without  readmg. 
We  suggested  the  plan  of  offering  Socialist  books  to  such  newspapers  as 
would  agree  in  return  to  publish  an  advertisement,  offering  to  send  the 
booklet  "What  to  Read  on  Socialism"  to  any  one  asking  for  it.  Com- 
rade Lee  accepted  this  suggestion  as  an  improvement  upon  his  original 
idea  and  he  has  already  contributed  $800,  which  is  being  expended  in  this 
distribution  of  literature  to  editors. 

If  any  reader  of  the  Review  is  acquainted  with  a  non-Socialist  editor 
who  would  like  to  read  some  of  the  standard  Socialist  books  and  would 
give  advertising  in  return  for  them,  we  shall  be  glad  to  be  advised  of  it. 

Another  Way  to  Help  Socialism 

A  letter  lately  received  from  a  Socialist  comra4e  contains  a  suggestion 
whicK  may  prove  so  valuable  that  we  take  the  liberty  of  reprinting  it : 

"I  would  like  to  know  something  about  how  to  put  things  in  such 
shape  that  some  money  will  go  to  the  cause  of  International  Socialism  in 
case  I  should  suddenly  meet  death.  ...  I  don't  propose  to  give  an3rthing 
as  long  as  I  am  needing  it,  but  I  would  like  to  know  how  it  could  be  left 
so  it  would  be  sure  to  go  to  such  a  cause.  I  don't  know  just  what  course 
to  pursue  to  be  safe  in  leaving  it;  don't  know  that  it  can  be  so  unless 
delivered  beforehand." 

The  situation  of  this  comrade  is  no  doubt  similar  to  that  of  many 
other  Socialists,  well  along  in  years,  who  are  unable  to  dispense  with  the 
income  they  derive  from  what  little  property  they  possess,  but  who  would 
be  glad  to  have  that  property  used  after  their  death  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Socialist  movement,  if  they  could  be  sure  that  the  matter  could  be  ar- 
ranged without  the  danger  of  litigation. 

There  is  an  easy  and  simple  method  of  arranging  such  a  transaction 
which  is  made  possible  by  the  fact  that  the  co-operative  publishing  com- 
pany which  publishes  the  International  Socialist  Review  is  organized  as  a 
regular  corporation  and  is  on  a  basis  where  the  sales  of  books  pay  the 
ordinary  expenses  of  running  the  business.  This  company  is  thus  in  a 
position  where  it  can  make  a  contract  to  receive  from  any  comrade  what- 
ever amount  of  money  he  may  see  fit  to  turn  over  to  it  and  pay  to  him. 
during  his  lifetime,  in  monthly  or  quarterly  installments,  an  income  equal 
to  from  six  to  eight  per  cent  per  year  on  the  capital  received,  the  amount 
of  the  percentage  depending  on  his  age  at  the  time  of  making  the  trans- 
fer. 


X 


64  THE  PUBLISHERS'  DEPARTMIBNT 

By  making  such  an  arrangement  the  comrade  investing  the  money  can 
obtain  from  it  while  he  lives  an  income  equal  to  or  somewhat  ^eater 
than  what  he  would  draw  from  an  ordinary  commercial  investment  We 
arc  in  a  position  to  give  satisfactory  security  for  the  carrying  out  of  such 
contracts,  so  that  there  need  be  no  hesitation  on  the  ground  of  risk. 

The  control  of  the-company  is  in  a  board  of  directors  elected  annually  by 
vote  of  the  stockholders,  and  a  majority  of  the  stock  is  already  held  by 
over  600  Socialists,  holding  each  a  single  share,  so  that  the  present  board 
of  directors  can  retain  control  only  so  long  as  they  continue  to  satisfy  the 
stockholders  that  the  resources  of  the  company  are  being  used  to  the  best 
of  their  ability  to  promote  the  cause  of  International  Socialism;  while 
in  the  event  of  the  death  or  disability  of  the  board  of  directors  their  places 
would  be  filled  by  men  possessing  the  confidence  of  the  Socialists  of  the 
United  States  No  other  publishing  house  is  so  completely  under  the 
control  of  the  Socialist  party.  The  number  of  stockholders  is  increasing 
at  the  rate  of  about  twenty-five  a  month,  and  the  present  organization  is 
merely  a  nucleus  arotmd  which  an  immense  publishing  house  controlled 
collectively  by  the  Socialists  of  America  is  almost  certain  to  grow  up. 

Socialist  Party  Organization  Fund       '^ 

In  the  May  number  of  the  International  Socialist  Review,  page  702, 
wc  announced  the  gift  from  William  English  Walling  of  twenty-five 
shares  of  stock  in  our  co-<^erative  publishing  company,  to  be  sold  for 
the  benefit  of  the  organization  fund  of  the  Socialist  Party  of  America. 
In  response  to  this  offer  John  Kerrigan,  of  Dallas,  Texas ;  K  B.  Amdahl, 
of  Ullman,  Minnesota,  and  David  Phillips,  of  Pony,  Montana,  have 
each  sent  ten  dollars  an4  received  a  certificate  for  a  share  of  stock,  while 
the  full  amount  of  thirty  dollars  has  been  forwarded  by  us  to  William 
Mailly  for  the  organization  fund.  Twenty-two  more  shares  are  still  to 
be  obtained  oh  the  same  terms.  We  gladly  repeat  what  has  been  said 
before,  that  the  prompt  raising  of  this  organization  fund  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  the  cause  of  Socialism  and  we  trust  that  other  Socialists 
will  follow  the  example  of  those  whose  names  are  here  given. 

Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company^  Publishers, 
58  Fifth  Avenue,  Chicago. 


4,078    FRIZES 

TOTAL,  $11,523 

lMrt9  V0diS9*tod  UriiM  JJm»nm  TwuuMa  AiiloaoliU«»  fl,400   Uprifhi  Or»ii4  PImos,  f600  Mch 
ITpHgkt  OfAifeA  PiajM,  fSSO  Pfauio  Plajrtr,  f875 

xypewHter  -  Lurge  Gotnttbta  PIkoiiiiciraphs 

.  Iaxs^  BKpttialT«  Oam^rM  IM]iA»r  «iiA  Tea  S«M-    '    BleyUe«;  Oold  Hf  Atehas 

TWO  LARQC  rRUIT  PAHMS 

Thoosamls  of  other  V aluable  Presents 

eVERYONE  CUARANT^^D  A  PRIZE 

W*bftT*m»Att7  dMvttoted  maay  ralaabie  vriaes  to  workers  Ukd  will  send  »  Ust  of  srlma  and  ntmee 
of  WlUMn  to  aU  wisweHoB  Chis  •drertiaemttt. 

We  want  our  trtend»to  lielp  Us  reach  c«trcal«tlon  of  900,000  ooptee  a  month.  We  nroQoee  to  par  ererr 
worker  fOril  for  tbB  work.  Soma  win  reooi ▼•  bonanxao.  Think  what  yoa  can  do  with  th»  11.400  Katomobile 
laetnrUic  ttaRMftli  tha  country.  The  planoa»  ylaoo  players  and  sslf-playlng  organs  will  add  greatly  to  the 
tnlersBtof  pnbUemeettngtforthe  enJoymM&t  of  the  home,  and  mind  you,  every  worker  is  guararUMd  a 
Iss*  Do  visa  want  more  than  this? 

The  jnice  of  WQahlro's  llaga|lne  Is  now  one  doUer  a  year— cannot  bernrodnoed  for  less.   We  fell  yearly 


sidMorlp 


9  cents  each.   Sell  the  cards  at  a  profit  if  yon  can,  ^ttt  §01  tlWm*    Our 


maawrine  can  be  sold  to  many  who  will  not  bay  other  Socialist  literature  and  now  Is  the  time  for  workers 
to  ^ms*'  fcr  all  ihey  are  worth ;  the  r««nlt  will  count  hearUy  in  the  coming  presidential  campa**^ 

The  Bfisse  wlu.be  gtren  to  those  selhne  the  largest  number  of  yearly  snbsoriptlon  cards  or  s 
the  lamest  nnmlier  of  yearly  sabscrlpttons  before  December  1st,  1908.  Get  busy  «nd  get  a  pdse. 


Too 


rtMofisori 
r  do'unt  want  more. 


>  Is  guarwiUfd  aprtse. 


JSreryone 


Poor  eardalovn^  ten  osxds  for  a  Aver  and  ten  cards  Imores  a  prize. 
How  many?  TonriBOTet   WbenlnMewTorkseeme. 


H.  Caylord  Wtlshlre,  125  East  23rd  St.,  New  York 


^nar» 


Oiits«  Stmirslaefn 
Amarffai  Is  a  new  book 
by  A.  M.  Simons  a^ply- 
ingjthc  Socialist  phSoso- 
phy  to  the  Ustocy  of  the . 
Uidted  States.  Price  10c. 

Spsblsnm  BvttoBs, 
4c  each,.  aOc  a  doxen, 
postpaid.  Booklet,  « 
pages,  ^'Wbae  to  rsftd  on 


SoehtiMn,^*  free  on  reauest.  CHARLES  H. 
KJBUR  *  CO.,  W  Fifth  Avenue,  Chicago. 


SOGIMJST  TRIUMPN  M  ttRMAir 

At  the  r«c«itO«t«iaa  elvettons  th«  Soeklista  hav*  won  airiciory- 
too  Botebl*  to  1m  eooc«»l«d  by  the  e«pitalist  p«p«r«of  lh«  Unit«d 
StaUt.  Th«y  th«r«for«  clAim  that  soeiftlism  in  Qcranaj  is  •one* 
thing  different  from  tocialism  in  Aiii«rics;  that  it  ii  Si*r»lf  « 
d«aioerfttie  rafArm  moTtmcnt.  That  thl«  is  false  will  b««Mn  by 
reading  THS  SOCIAL  BEVOLUTION,  by  Karl  Kaotsl^.  the  lead- 
ing to«talict  writer  of  Oerraany.  TnniLated  by  A.  H.  and  ll*y 
Wood  Simona.  Cloth.  189  pa^ea,  SO  eente,  poetpaid.  Mention  this 

Kper  and  we  will  include  without  extra  charge  a  eopy  of  the 
■■valet  ■aslftsto  and  a  laU  nambex  of  the  Intewatl— si 
8Mlali*tK«Tlew.    19^  Address 
CHABLBft  R..«KkR  A  COXPAJfT,   B«  Tmk  A«S.,  eB1CACWi> 


Mn  MHegott  SoQialisi 

mho  has  nerer  reat^he  Comttiiuilet  BtftiilfeSt<i^ 
and  Soctallsm  Utotrtaa  apd  BelaatUlo  is  a  food ' 
deal  like  an  aUeged  Christian  who  has  nerer  read  the 
ffOBpets.  His  %itenti<nis  may  be  ali  ri«rht,  but  the 
ehanees  are  thatibedees  not  now  what  he  is  talkingr 
abeat.  W»  uksll  these  two  grrtat  books  In  paper  oo ver 
for  t«9K  cents  each.  Vor  tl  we  wlH  otatl  the  two  books 
la  sobstantlal  eloth  Mndtn^  and  will  also  send  the 
iJitani^tlQiial  Socialist  BeTlew  one  year  to 
any  one  who  has  never  been  a  sobaeriber.  Addr«&s 
CBASiaSK  KSn* €OaPAn«  ttrwife  Ave.,  CBICAOO. 

Marf  S.  BatdwiA  Bm'  1213,  Chii&to,  III. 


Cod's  Children 

-     A  Modern  AXImgiorr 

THIS  new  book  by  Jakbs  Allmajc  will 
delisrht  every  socialist  reader  and  will 
jar  the  non-socialist  reader  into  doinr 
some  thinking  for  himself.  It  is  by  all  odds 
the  dexFerest  socialist  novel  ever  published 
in  America.  Read  it  and  laugh  over  it,  then 
tend  it  and  see  the  ccmverts  it  will  make. 
There  is  no  socialist  label  on  it  (only  a  union 
label),  and  you  can  get  a  man  to  read  it  who 
would  turn  up  his  nose  at  anything  marked 
socialist.  Extra  cloth  binding,  handsomely 
printed  In  large  type— 

Wlfkr  Centos;  Fo«tp»id 

CHJUUCS  H.  KSES  A  COMPAITT,  P•bUshfri^ 
M  Fifth  Avente,  ChlcafO*  ^ 


V 


:#.'->:?  *:_.i.»^   !..'''-. 


that  means  something,  is  what  you  watch     / 
r  wanters  want.      Here   tt  is,  • 

Your  desire  is  to  procure  the  very  best  value  for  the  money  you  wish 
to  invest  in  a  watch;^  looks  simple>  but  it  itn%  k*s  a  hard  projpfosition  and  you 
know  it*  I  have  bieen.  working  on  this  .question  12  years  and  jfound  the 
answer  at  last.     Part  of  it  follows,  the  test  by  mail  00  afipli- 

Ca«e  No»^  is  a  Silvtr}iio»  3f^  ounce*  patent  tfust 
proof,  stein*  screw  beseel,  solid  back. 
Nothing  better  at  any  price. 

iCase  No.  150  to  a  Dueiier,    ao  year,    gold  filled,  i 

'       screw  back  and  liezeii  engraved  or  plain,  j 

open  face. 

Case  No.  6S  is  i|  14K,  35  year,  Pahy*s,  lutnttng. 
Finely  liand  engraved,  solid  gold  bow. 
All  le  sbce.  , 


Note  these  pfkes  sfij  ffipveniefitf.    Pfkaareioreemptete  watdu 

CaseNo.  2  Case J7o.  150  Can^ No.  66 

Taafftard^VeritaasrRaUway  Special,  23  J..      32.50  34.50  41JD0 

B.  W.  Rajmosd,  1»X  «*  Crescent  St,  21: J. .      22.00  25.00  ^.50 

R8.  Bartlet  er  e.MLWhe«ler,  17J .13.00  16.00  20.60 

SlgiasrCdoiam^lTj,  edjosted; ILOO  14.00  19.Q0 

Bgia,  WalfiMfli  orHasipaen,  UJ.........        8.60  11.50  17.00 

Any  of  the  abore  lent  ptepaid  to  yoor  addrejut  on  receipt  of  price,  or  sent 
C  O.  p.  ynih  privilege  of  examti^ation  before  you  pay  a  cent.  Kememl)et  I  ^piiinmtee 
everything  I  send  ont  to  be  exactly  as  represented.  No  shoddy  goods.  i«ooo  Watch 
bargains  in  my  catalog,  besides  Jewelry  of  all  Jkinds.    A  postal  will  bring  it. 

You  have  heard  of 

A.  B.  CONKLIN 

Stddist  Watch  tHstritmtef 
81  South  Clark  Street,     -     ChicMo*  Ifi. 


I  Repair  Wmtcbes  Sight  When  ia  CbicMgo  Set  Me 


1 


Socialist  Rg view 

A  MoDthly  Jotnrnal  of  Intematiooal  Socialist  Thought 
Ooi.  TU*  Hnmh  190).  no,  1. 

CONTE,NTS 

PEATUBES  or  THE  ELECTOEAL  BATTLE ?^«^wt  Bcheh       -  ,  _ 

A  roretast*  of  tlio  Orient John  MurroTf,  Jr^    \ 

The  W&gQ  Slave.    Poem P.  F,  CoflAra?itf* 

AABtr&UftB  Lubor  and  Socialist  News ^^ j^Antlrcio  M.  Aj\d^rsonr  -  , 

Socialism  in  Bohemia ^*  Dr*  Leon  Winttr*      ~^ 

f  oUticU  Ptoblemfi  in  Germany < .>  .Ernest  Untermunn, 

Economic  Aspects  of  Chattel  Slavery  (continued}. ,  J.  M.  Simons, 

Uetaphyiticfl  and  Socialism WiUiam  Macon  Coltmam, 

Obt  World's  Oppressed!    Foem< Edvciit  AmoM  BrenhoHi, 

DEPABTMENTft 
EdUorlal^FaTmer  ejid  Wageworker  in  the  SociaHst  Party.  «  ^ 

The  World  of  I*abor* 

Sociftllfim  AhToad.  ■      ^  _  ,      '-         "     ■        »     -_ 

Book  EeviowB,  -',^  -       **  ^     ^ 

^§3   PUBLISHED   BY   ^^Sj  ^^^ 

CHARLES  H.    EERR   &    COMPANY 

^^^iaiINCOIiPOKAT£.D    ON    THE    CO'0?ERATtVC    PLAN  S^S^S 

56    FIFTH    AVENUE,    CHICAGO,    U.    S.    A. 

^__^_  _   _   _  i"~^T~T 7 ~ ' ^ ' 

OQ0ytlCltt«  1903,  bf  Cbartes  H.  Kerr  li  Company 


The  International  Socialist  Review 

DEVOTEIX  to  THE  STUPY  km>  DISCUSSION  OF  JHE  PR^LEHS  WCBXm 
TO   THE   GROWTH  OF   THE  OnERRATIOirAL   SQOAUST  WVEKEHT 

EWTED  BY  A*  !!•  5IH0HS  ■   ' 


FORER»  CQRRESKHSPESTS: 
EKGLANI>— H.  M.  Hywdman,  Wameb  Crank/Samukl  HoMoir,  - 

H.  QU8LCH,  J.  KXIB  H AKDIBj'  J.  'R  McI)OKAM>.     FRA WB^PAUI.  !' 

Lafaboue,  jKJiv  Jaubeb,  Jsan  Longukt.      BELGinH*-£iauE 

VAKDfjBVBLDXy'HJCKBI  LAFOVTAINB^  EHILX  YlKCK,  HMB.  LaLLA' 
VAHI)BBVBI.Di.  .  DEOTCARK-^I^R.  GU8TAV  Bakq,     GEBMANT— 

:    KABii  KAtmsicr.    ITAIrY— 1>b.  AiiBssAHD^o  Sobiavi,  Pb<«.  £N' 
Bioo  Fbbbx.    SWEDEN— Aktost  AKOn^o:^    JAPAN— T-Mubal^ 

ContrUbfotioBS  are  splieitednpon  til  phasM  of  Sooiallst  thoDghW  ao^  «li^  profcldisB  of  modern 
sodal^rganisaUon.    Ko  altorauoDa  are  made  in  neoepied  Biai»i8ori|it,  but  t&e  rijBbt  of  eaitoriaT 

Stmmant  is  always  taaoTved.   The  abaa&oe  of  snch  oommen^  howeTer,  m  to  be  in  no  wax  ^f^' 
raed  BB  editorial  endorsement  of  the  poeitionB  in  any  published  communicatiDn.    Ko  i 


manusoript  fdU  be  letnrned  unless  accompanied  bjr  stamps  for  return  poetase. 

kn. 

no 

, . , .  jayablein  adTani}e,posta«._  _ 

union.  Editorial  oommunica^ons  shoula  be  addreesed  to  A.  M. 


This  magadne  is  eopf  rif^ted-for  the  protacUon  of  onr  contributor^/   Other  papers  are  wel* 
dpme  to  copy  from  our  editorial  departments  nrovided  credit  is  giTen .    Perm^ission  will 
Tj —  i._  -ijproduee  con(ributed..artielea,  pEOYtded  the  authi 
iMcdptiDn  price  is  $1.00  per  year,  payable  in  advi 


I  always  be 


fiventorej 
Thesur 
the,        ■ 
Chi»igo; 


edit  is  given .    Permission  ^ 
;horTai0teno<JHection.  ~ 

adTanoe,  postage  me  to  any  address  within. 

^ .^ addressed  to  A.  BtetniOitt,  86  FIfttiATennei 

Qommunicntions  to  Chabi«e8  H.  Xsbb  A  CoMPiurr,^  FUUi  Aventke,  Chieairo. 


FIFTT    CENTS    A    TEAR 


Original!     Interesttagt     MIspensaMet 

ThU  t»  the  V'erdiot  of  alt  who  rand  th^ 

AMErRlC/\M 

LABOR    UMIOM 

JOURNAL- 

FaMUh«d  yfffMlw  by  th»  Ana^rican  I.abor  XJai»tt 

A  big,  briifht,  handdome,  Labot^dodalist  weekly  oaper.  Bight  pages  of 
sensible,  soiehdila.  onsa  conacioua  diaenssion  of  the  great  questi«>o9  of 
Tital  int^est  to  the  working  eUsa^ 


SUBSCKIHE   NOW1 


AMERICAN  LABOR  UNION  JOURNAL  Box  mi,  Btttte.  Hontaiu 
PIFTTCENTSA    YEAR 


..wO 


THi  INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST  REVIEW 


VOL.  IV. 


AUGUST,  1903. 


NO.  3. 


Features  of  the  Electoral  Battle 

THE  battle  of  the  ballots  is  past.  The  25th  of  June  brought 
what  the  i6th  promised.  The  fear  of  the  gigantic  growth 
of  the  social  democracy  has  united  all  the  ^urgeois  par- 
ties, with  a  few  honorable  exceptions,  into  a  solid  pha- 
lanx against  us  in  order  to  save  what  was  left  to  be  saved. 

In  1898  we  wcm  24  out  of  96  seats  at  the  second  election ;  in 
1903  we  won  only  25  out  of  119.* 

This  is  an  advance  backwards  which  the  coalition  of  the  bour- 
geois parties  made  against  us. 

Illusionists  hoped  that  the  capitalist  parties  of  the  left  would 
sacrifice  everything  in  the  second  election  in  order  to  secure  as 
strong  a  left  wing  as  possible  in  the  reichstag,  even  if  this  could 
only  be  secured  through  a  strengthening  of  the  social  democracy 
which  had  so  painfully  curtailed  liberalism  in  the  first  election. 
But  they  forget  that  we  were  dealing  with  a  bourgeoisie  which 
had  been  lashed  into  terror,  and  which  would  rather  throw  itself 
head  over  heels  into  the  arms  of  the  reactionaries  and  surrender 
everything  for  which  it  had  previously  stood. 

This  is  not  the  first  time  that  German  liberalism  has  abandoned 
its  principles.  Its  history  is  the  history  of  its  defeats  which  it 
has  always  owed  to  its  indecision,  lack  of  leadership  and  coward- 
ice, which  have  sentenced  it  to  play  that  sorrowful  role  by  which 
it  is  distinguished  from  the  liberalism  of  the  other  states  of 
western  Europe.  But  even  if  this  is  not  the  first  time  that  it  has 
surrendered,  it  has  never  done  so  before  in  such  a  bare-faced, 
absolutely  shameless  manner  as  at  this  time. 

If  there  were  still  those  in  our  own  ranks  who  had  built  their 
hopes  upon  this  liberalism  and  looked  upon  it  as  still  capable 
of  life  and  creative  action,  the  2Sth  of  June  should  have  thor- 


•lAter  adTlc€8  tncreftse  this  to  26. 


66  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

oughly  cured  them,  even  if  the  i6th  of  June  and  its  results  had 
not  already  completed  the  cure. 

In  the  beginning  it  appeared  as  if  the  campaign  would  pass 
without  great  interest  being  aroused.  But  in  just  tiie  degree  that 
the  Social  Democracy  threw  itself  with  all  its  energy  into  the 
battle  and  pushed  aggressively  forward  did  the  picture  change. 

Week  by  week  the  electoral  battle  became  warmer  until  finally 
the  bourgeois  parties  took  up  a  platform  after  they  had  so  long, 
like  helpless  children,  beseeched  the  government  in  vain. 

This  programme  was  not  formulated  by  the  imperial  govern- 
ment, it  developed  spontaneously  out  of  the  battle  and  suited  all 
who  were  bourgeois  inclined  from  Eugen  Richter  to  Von  Nor- 
mann  and  Kardorff.  This  programme  was  simply  "Fight  the 
Social  Democracy  1"  This  phrase  was  presently  on  all  tongues 
and  pens  and  a  campaign  of  slander  began  such  as  we  have 
scarcely  ever  experienced. 

In  all  the  campaigns  that  have  taken  place  during  six  and 
thirty  years  for  the  North  German  and  German  Reichstag,  the 
problems  of  the  incoming  Reichstag  have  never  played  so  subordi- 
nate a  role  as  in  the  campaign  just  past.  The  only  point  which 
was  generally  discussed  in  the  opposing  speeches  and  leaflets 
was  the  formation  of  commercial  treaties.  As  to  the  new  military 
and  naval  policy,  new  colonial  and  taxation  measures,  foreign 
and  internal  policy,  the  great  majority  of  the  bourgeois  candidates 
had  nothing  to  say.  These  candidates  were  chosen  without  the 
great  majority  of  the  voters  knowing  what  position  they  took 
in  regard  to  these  questions,  so  there  cannot  fail  to  be  great  dis- 
appointments. On  the  other  hand,  from  the  very  first  day  in 
which  the  bourgeois  parties  went  into  the  campaign  the  battle 
against  the  Social  Democracy  was  as  violent  as  if  the  founding 
of  the  future  State  was  immediately  at  hand,  and  as  if  they  were 
called  upon,  cost  what  it  might,  to  save  themselves  from  it. 

This  phase  of  the  struggle  corresponds  thoroughly  to  the 
situation  in  which  the  bourgeois  parties  found  themselves.  They 
are  without  ideals  and  weary  of  opposition.  They  no  longer 
have  any  program,  and  never  can  have.  But  one  must  have 
a  goal  if  he  is  to  draw  the  masses  to  him  and  not  be  left  defense- 
less. So  it  was  that  they  clung  to  that  upon  which  they  had 
always  depended  for  success  with  the  unintelligent  masses  who 
follow,  sheeplike,  and  above  all  with  the  great  mass  of  Philistines. 
The  cry  was  also  raised  to  rally  against  a  violent  "uprising,"  and 
to  make  sure  of  the  effectiveness  of  this  alarm  the  memorandum 
books  of  such  holy  priests  as  Schuster,  Eugen  Richter,  Lorenz 
and  Burger  were  searched  and  lies  and  slanders  drawn  therefrom 
until,  as  the  saying  goes,  the  "rafters  bent  and  the  good  tailors' 
and  shoemakers'  hair  began  to  stand  on  end." 


FEATURES  OF  THE  ELECTORAL  BATTLE         67 

They  declared  the  Social  Democracy  to  be  fatherlandless  and 
treasonable,  that  it  destroyed  marriage  and  the  family,  would 
overthrow  the  throne  and  rob  the  people  of  their  holy  religion — 
something  that  sounded  especially  good  when  it  appeared  in  the 
National  Liberal  leaflets — it  would  destroy  property,  overthrow 
the  middle  class  and  the  handworkers,  in  short,  that  it  would  not 
leave  one  stone  upon  another  of  the  present  state  or  order  of 
society.  So  against  this  whoever  can  must  help.  And  many 
helped  who  had  nothing  to  lose  but  their  poverty  and  their  debts. 

But  even  this  was  not  enough.  Actual  or  alleged  quotations 
which  had  been  torn  from  their  connection  were  sent  out  against 
one  party  member  after  another;  the  party  was  denounced  as 
the  enemy  of  labor  because  it  was  alleged  that  its  representatives 
voted  against  all  social  reform  laws,  and  was  branded  as  an  over- 
thrower  because  its  representatives  refused  to  indorse  the  budget. 
In  short,  everything  that  could  be  done  was  done  to  picture  the 
Social  Democracy  as  a  moral  and  political  monster.  After  listen- 
ing to  all  this  the  question  might  well  have  arisen  if  such  a  party 
could  even  receive  a  thousand  votes  and  elect  one  of  its  repre- 
sentatives? But  the  result?  The  opposite  from  that  which  our 
opponents  hoped  occurred;  56  representatives  and  over  three 
million  votes  at  the  first  throw !  A  more  overwhelming  victory 
for  Social  Democracy  and  annihilating  defeat  of  its  opponents 
was  not  possible. 

The  same  game  was  repeated  even  with  greater  violence  at 
the  second  election.  That  we  obtained  only  25  seats  out  of  119 
at  the  second  election,  however,  was  not  the  result  of  this  manner 
of  fighting,  but  the  result  of  the  despairing  coalition  of  all  our 
opponents. 

Frankfurter  Zeitung,  Freisinnige  Zeitung  and  tutti  quanti 
lamented:  The  Social  Democracy  owed  their  victory  only  to 
the  circumstance  that  they  stuck  their  own  programme  in  their 
pocket  and  sought  to  catch  votes  with  the  liberal  democratic 
programme.  I  do  not  know  if  any  such  thing  was  done  in  the 
campaign.  I  have  not  noticed  anything  of  the  kind;  but  even 
if  it  was  done,  our  opponents  saw  to  it  that  the  Social  Democratic 
candidate  appeared  in  the  most  horrible  and  frightful  form  pos- 
sible, and  still  such  a  result?  Wherefore  did  not  the  bourgeois 
parties  with  whose  programme  the  Social  Democratic  party,  it  is 
claimed,  went  fishing,  secure  at  least  one  representative  in  the 
main  election?  It  will  be  rather  difficult  for  the  knights  of 
Liberalism  to  answer  this. 

This  is  simply  a  repetition  of  the  old  allegation  that  we  hear 
so  loud  after  every  election  and  always  with  the  accompanying 
result  that  the  parties  with  whose  programme  it  is  alleged  we 
fought  become  ever  weaker  and  we  ever  stronger.     Our  oppo- 


08  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  KEVIEW 

nents  fail  to  grasp  the  true  causes  of  their  downfall.  These  are 
the  increasing  proletarization  of  the  masses  and  the  ever  sharper 
class  antagonisms  arising  therfefrom.  There  is  the  growing  dis- 
content in  ever-widening  circles  with  the  dominating  economic 
and  political  condition,  the  military  and  naval  policy,  and  a  com- 
parison of  all  the  beautiful  phrases  with  the  sorrowful  reality. 
And  it  is  the  Social  Democracy  which  makes  itself  the  mouth- 
piece of  all  these  aspirations  of  the  discontented  and  which 
binds  all  these  elements  firmer  and  firmer  to  itself. 

But  then  it  is  only  the  "transients"  which,  according  to  our 
opponents,  make  Social  Democracy  so  large.  But  it  is  not  simply 
that  the  number  of  these  "transients"  is  ever  larger;  they  remain 
permanently  with  the  party,  and  from  the  "transients"  of  to-day 
come  the  good  party  members  of  to-morrow. 

NotwiSistanding  all  this  we  have  to  reckon  with  our  losses. 
But  losses  have  never  been  lacking  with  us  at  any  election,  some- 
times large  and  sometimes  small.  That  we  should  hold  all  of 
the  58  districts  which  we  possessed  during  the  last  legislative 
period  no  thinking  person  could  expect.  Among  these  58  dis- 
tricts there  were  a  number  which  we  had  conquered  for  the  first 
time  only  by  the  narrowest  majorities.  They  were  more  or  less 
accidental  victories.  I  am  only  surprised  that  such  losses  were 
not  more  numerous.  That  Offenbach  and  Hanau,  which  from 
their  economic  structure  should  be  considered  as  securely  in  the 
possession  of  the  party,  were  among  such  districts  is  to  be 
regretted.  But  we  may  console  ourselves  with  the  reflection 
that  the  enemy  have  conquered  for  the  last  time,  and  when  we 
compare  the  defeats  of  our  opponents  and  our  own  many  vic- 
tories we  can  endure  our  losses  without  sorrow.  We  cannot 
continuously  maintain  a  district  exposed  to  the  assault  of  the 
enemies,  if  the  natural  conditions  for  Social  Democracy  are 
lacking  there,  i,  e.,  the  necessary  industrial  development  and  the 
class  antagonism  proceeding  therefrom.  Where  these  are  lacking 
any  victory  must  always  be  looked  upon  as  one  of  ephemeral 
value.  And  districts  which  we  secure  only  through  the  mo- 
mentary allegiance  of  certain  classes  we  can  also  lose  again. 

Our  permanent  victory  rests  upon  the  fact  that  capitalist 
development  creates  the  essential  conditions  therefor.  This  is 
proven  by  the  large  and  growing  number  of  electoral  districts 
which  we  conquered  at  once  in  the  main  election  or  in  which 
we  lacked  so  very  few  votes  for  victory,  that  we  can  surely 
conquer  them  the  next  time  without  the  help  of  outsiders. 

If  the  numerous  victories  and  the  great  number  of  votes 
which  came  to  the  Social  Democrats  was  the  main  characteristic 
of  the  last  election,  the  development  which  the  different  bourgeois 
parties  went  through  deserves  some  consideration. 


FEATURES  OF  TSE  ELECTQRAL  BATTLE         69 

The  annihilating  overthrow  which  the  leader  of  the  agrarian 
league  received  at  the  first  election  and  which  the  secondary 
election  completed  is  especially  gratifying.  Hahn,  Roesicke, 
Oertel,  Schrempf,  Lucke  are  no  more.  Their  role  is  played  out. 
These  defeats  show  that  the  struggle  with  the  agrarian  forces 
was  not  without  result,  and  that  the  effect  of  the  agrarian  agita- 
tion was  destroyed  when  we  exposed  its  weakness  on  the  decisive 
field  of  battle.  _ 

No  less  gratifying  than  the  overthrow  of  the  leader  of  the 
agrarian  league  was  the  overthrow  of  the  National  liberal  leader, 
Bassermann,  who  acted  as  assistant  to  the  tariff  makers  of  the 
last  session  and  who  did  midwife  service  for  the  infamous  meas- 
ures of  Groeber  and  Von  Kardorff  in  the  last  session  of  the 
Reichstag.  Nemesis  has  done  her  work  quickly  with  Herr 
Bassermann.  Along  with  him  fell  Vice  President  Biising,  whose 
followers  in  the  second  election  helped  the  representative  of  the 
Mecklenburg  Junkers  into  the  saddle  in  opposition  to  our  party 
comrade,  Grothe.  Herr  Hasse,  the  head  of  the  Pan-Germans, 
whose  electoral  district  in  Leipsic  had  belonged  to  him  for  six 
and  thirty  years,  was  now  given  over  to  our  Comrade  Mottler, 
"the  red  postmaster."  In  addition  we  find  that  in  this,  as  in 
previous  Reichstags,  the  great  majority  of  the  National  electorals 
who  were  chosen  in  the  second  election  are  once  more  the  slaves 
of  the  agrarians. 

The  tower  of  the  Centre  also  shows  breaks.  It  is  standing 
upon  shattered  foundations.  The  election  in  the  industrial  dis- 
tricts of  the  Rhineland  and  Westphalia,  the  losses  to  us  in  Mainz 
and  Reichenbach-Neurode  are  for  the  Centre  a  mene  tekel.  Its 
two-faced  and  wavering  policy  is  recognized  by  its  followers 
among  the  laborers  and  they  are  leaving  its  ranks  in  swarms  to 
enter  the  Social  Democracy.  The  fighting  methods  of  the  Centre 
against  the  Social  Democracy  were  especialy  violent  and  dis- 
reputable in  this  campaign.  It  feels  the  enemy  at  its  throat.  But 
even  the  wildest  lies  and  slanders  cannot  continuously  find  believ- 
ers, even  among  the  voters  of  the  Centre.  We  have  placed  our 
feet  firmly  upon  the  territory  of  the  Centre  and  push  further  on. 
The  Social  Democracy  is  accomplishing  what  no  other  party  was 
able  to  do.  It  will  finally  be  the  victor  in  the  battle  witfi  the 
Centre. 

Anti-Semitism  also,  this  most  senseless  of  all  party  organiza- 
tions, has  seen  its  possessions  melt  away  fully  one-fourth.  If  it 
disappeared  completely  from  the  picture  no  one  would  shed  any 
tears. 

The  National  Social  party  presents  a  peculiar  picture,  since 
this  party  was  called  into  life  particularly  to  draw  the  laborers 
away  from  Social  Democracy  and  to  attract  them  to  the  "social 


70  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

Imperialism"  and  inspire  them  with  enthusiasm  for  army,  fleet 
and  imperial  politics.  Herr  Naumann,  the  founder  of  this  party, 
has  n^ver  comprehended  that  a  "social  Imperialism"  is  a  con- 
tradition  in  itself  and  that  armies,  fleets  and  imperial  politics 
can  only  be  maintained  at  the  cost  of  the  laborer.  Therefore  he 
with  his  party  have  gone  down.  To  be  sure,  they  have  succeeded 
with  great  effort  in  electing  Herr  von  Gerlach  in  the  second  elec- 
tion. But  the  head  of  the  party,  Herr  Naumann,  in  spite  of  the 
unspeakable  efforts  which  he  and  his  friends  made,  is  now  outside 
the  Reichstag,  and  he  is  himself  singing  the  swan  song  of  the 
party  which  he  founded. 

Herr  Naumann  complains  that  the  "stronger  brother"  of  the 
National  Socialism,  the  Social  Democracy,  has  strangled  his 
party.  What  the  outlook  is  for  this  weak  "brother"  of  the  Social 
Democracy  is  shown  for  the  second  time  in  the  Jena  electoral 
district.  Five  years  ago  the  National  Social  party  helped  Herr 
Bassermann  to  victory,  and  this  time  they  did  the  same  for  his 
successor.  Herr  Bassermann  would  have  been  cleverer  had  he 
this  time  also  stood  as  a  candidate  in  Jena  instead  of  in  Karlsruhe, 
where  he  would  have  been  certain  of  victory  with  National  Social 
help. 

That  things  would  happen  in  the  Jena  electoral  district  once 
more  as  they  have  happened  was  evident.  When  Herr  Da- 
maschke,  the  candidate  of  the  National  Socials  in  Jena,  was  asked 
before  the  main  election  if  he  would  eventually  support  the  Social 
Democratic  candidate,  he  replied  that  the  Social  Democracy  was 
the  last  party  for  which  in  the  second  election  he  would  vote. 
This  same  I>amaschke  told  the  farmers  in  the  Jena  electoral  dis- 
trict, '*If  you  wish  to  have  your  last  cow  taken  out  of  the  stable, 
then  vote!  for  Social  Democracy." 

This  is  the  way  "National  Socialism"  showed  up  in  the  light 
of  the  reichstag  election. 

It  is  not  the  least  gain  that  we  have  received  from  tlie  last 
Reichstag  election  that  we  got  rid  of  a  whole  mass  of  illusions. 
Here  Social  Democracy,  there  bourgeoisie !  will  hereafter  be  the 
battle  cry. 

The  new  Reichstag  shows,  so  far  as  the  bourgeois  parties  are 
concerned,  not  simply  a  quantitative  but  much  more  a  qualitative 
loss.  Barth,  Schrader,  Broemel,  Bassermann,  Busing,  Oertel  will 
not  be  easily  replaced  by  new  strength.  This  is  but  an  illustration 
on  this  point  of  the  downfall  of  the  bourgeois  world.  Yes,  the 
evening  of  their  day  draws  nigh. 

There,  downfall;  with  us,  the  upward  growth  I  The  result 
of  the  election  is  the  most  striking  vote  of  confidence  that  the 
present  tactics  and  method  of  fighting  of  the  Social  Democracy 
could  have  received.     The  voters  have  expressed  their  opinion 


FEATURES  OF  THE  ELECTORAL  BATTLE         71 

of  the  tactics  and  manner  of  fighting  adopted  by  our  opponents. 
All  the  accusations,  all  the  calumnies  that  the  whole  bourgeoisie 
has  so  vehemently  heaped  upon  us  in  a  manner  never  before 
attempted  have  been  splintered  upon  the  Social  Democracy  like 
glass  on  gp-anite. 

This  should  be  to  us  a  lesson  and  a  guide  in  the  coming  battle. 

As  Social  Democracy  has  until  now  grown  in  all  situations 
and  conquered  all  opponents,  so  it  will  and  should  do  in  the 
future. 

In  the  name  of  the  class-conscious  proletariat  and  all  those 
idealists  who  with  us  strive  for  the  progress  of  humanity  in 
every  sphere,  "Forward! T— August  Behel  in  Neue  Zeit  Trans- 
lated by  A.  M.  Simons. 


A  Foretaste  of  the  Orient 

HE  who  may  not  agree  with  the  conclusions  arrived  at  in 
the  telling  of  this  bit  of  California's  histwy,  should  at 
least  value  the  facts  narrated — for  they  are  surely  preg- 
nant with  meaning  to  those  who  study  the  history  of 
the  labor  world. 

The  town  of  Oxnard  is  in  Ventura  county,  about  sixty  miles 
north  of  Los  Angeles,  and  was  founded  by  the  American  Beet 
Sugar  Company,  in  which  Henry  T.  Oxnard  is  the  central  figure. 
On  the  evening  of  March  24,  of  the  present  year,  the  Associated 
Press  dispatches  announced  that  there  was  "riot"  in  Oxnard — 
that  the  Japanese  and  Mexican  unions  were  terrorizing  the  town, 
shooting  and  killing  peaceable  non-union  men,  whose  only  desire 
was  to  exercise  the  right  of  American  citizens  and  work  for  any 
wage  they  chose.  Being  within  a  few  hours'  ride  of  the  place, 
the  next  morning's  train  carried  me  to  the  gates  of  the  sugar  fac- 
tory. My  only  companions  on  the  car  were  a  parcel  of  drummers, 
who  were  quite  naturally  anxious  to  know  just  how  peaceful  a 
state  the  town  might  now  be  in.  To  this  end  anyone  who  might 
know,  and  especially  the  conductor,  was  cross-questioned  in  a 
most  thorough  manner : 

"How  many  men  were  killed — could  the  sheriflf  control  the 
situation — ^was  it  safe  for  a  traveling  man  to  go  about  his  busi- 
ness on  the  streets?"  were  some  of  the  queries  that  received  ap- 
parently confusing  replies. 

"Yes,  there  was  a  man  killed  and  four  others  wounded — ^all 
union  men — and  the  town  is  now  quiet." 

"How's  that,"  said  a  salesman  for  a  wholesale  hardware  firm, 
"union  men  start  a  riot  and  only  union  men  shot?  Something 
queer  about  that!  I  know  a  house  that  shipped  revolvers  here 
last  week — who  bought  'em,  that's  what  I'd  like  to  know. 
Couldn't  have  been  the  unions  if  all  the  dead  men  are  on  ^he 
other  side," — which  was  without  doubt  a  common  sense  condu- 
sion  from  a  purely  business  point  of  view. 

Certainly  the  town  seemed  quiet,  as  I  walked  up  from  the 
station,  the  only  noticeable  thing  being  a  little  squad  of  Japanese 
union  pickets  that  met  the  train  and  were  easily  recognized  by 
their  white  buttons  labeled  "J.  M.  L.  A."  (Japanese-Mexican  La- 
bor Association)  over  the  insignia  of  a  rising  sun  and  clasped 
hands.  Oxnard  was  full  of  those  white  buttons — and  when  the 
first  thousand  of  them  had  been  distributed,  and  no  more  obtain- 
able, hundreds  of  beet  thinners  put  red  buttons  in  their  button- 
holes to  show  that  they  were  union  men. 

72 


A  FORETASTE  OF  THE  ORIENT  73 

On  the  presentation  of  my  blue  card,  I  was  warmly  welcomed 
at  headquarters  by  J.  M.  Lizarraras  and  Y.  Yamagachi,  secretaries 
of  the  Mexican  and  Japanese  unions.  They  had  a  plain  tale  to 
tell,  and  one  which  I  found  was  fully  borne  out  by  facts  known 
to  all  the  towns  folk — for  even  the  petty  merchants,  strange  to 
say,  freely  acknowledged  that  the  men  had  been  bullied,  swindled 
and  shot  down,  without  reason  or  provocation. 

The  Beet  Sugar  Company  had  fostered  the  organization  of  a 
scab  contracting  company — known  as  the  Western  Agricultural 
Contracting  Company — ^whose  double  purpose  was  to  reduce  the 
price  of  thinning  beets  from  five  to  as  low  as  four  and  a  quarter 
dollars  an  acre,  and  at  the  same  time  undermine  and  destroy  the 
unions.  Not  content  with  the  lowering  of  wages,  they  also  forced 
the  men  to  accept  store  orders  instead. of  cash  payments,  with  its 
usual  accompaniment  of  extortionate  prices  for  the  merchandise 
sold.  These  tricks,  of  course,  are  as  old  as  the  hills,  and  conse- 
quently when  the  men  rebelled  there  was  a  great  surprise  among 
the  labor  skinners,  who  had  no  idea  that  Japanese  and  Mexicans 
would  ever  have  wit  enough  to  unite  for  mutual  protection,  or 
that  if  they  did  temporarily  unite,  their  organization  could  possiblv 
last  for  any  length  of  time,  with  the  obstacles  of  different  tongues, 
temperaments  and  social  environments  to  bring  speedy  wreck 
to  such  a  union.  But  the  men  did  organize,  did  hang  together — 
in  spite  of  the  rain  of  bullets  which  were  poured  down  upon 
them — and  finally  whipped  ,Oxnard's  beet  sugar  company,  with  its 
backing  of  millions. 

To  Socialists  it  is. needless  to  point  out  that  to  whip  a  capitalist 
to-day  means  nothing  more  than  that  you  must  fight  him  again 
to-morrow,  but  the  significance  of  this  particular  skirmish,  in  the 
great  class  war,  lies  in  the  fact  that  workers  from  the  Occident 
and  Orient,  strangers  in  tongues,  manners  and  customs,  gathered 
together  in  a  little  western  village,  should  so  clearly  see  their  class 
interest  rise  above  all  racial. feelings  of  distrust. 

Almost  as  soon  as  the  union  was  formed.  Major  DrifFel,  man- 
ager of  the  Oxnard  sugar  factory,  asked  that  a  committee  confer 
with  him.  It  was  done,  and  the  following  significant  sample  of 
conversation  which  took  place  was  opened  by  the  major  with  this 
question : 

"I  want  to  know  the  object  of  your  organization?" 

"The  object,*'  said  Secreary  Lizarraras,  "is  to  keep  the  old 
prices.  The  Western  Agricultural  Contracting  Company  cut 
prices  to  control  the  business  and  we  could  not  compete." 

"You  have  a  perfect  right  to  do  so,"  replied  the  Major,  'Ijut 
I  have  heard  that  you  have  a  scale  of  prices  which  is  detrimental 
to  the  interests  of  the  farmers,  and  the  interests  of  the  farmers 
are  our  interests,  because  if  you  raise  the  price  of  labor  to  the 
farmers  and  they  see  they  cannot  raise  beets  at  a  profit,  we  will 


74  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

have  to  take  steps  to  drive  you  out  of  the  country  and  secure  help 
from  the  outside — even  if  we  have  to  spend  $100,000  in  doing 
it," 

With  this  ultimatum  the  union's  committee  retired,  and  the 
war  commenced  in  earnest.  Secretary  Yamagachi  was  arrested 
for  holding  an  orderly  street  meeting  and  forced  to  furnish  five 
hundred  dollars  bail — ^which  he  did,  and  was  promptly  acquitted 
by  the  jury  that  tried  him.  Two  more  Japanese  were  arrested 
for  "disturbing  the  peace" — ^their  offense  being  a  successful  per- 
suasion of  some  thirty  of  their  fellow  countrymen  to  leave  the 
compan/s  ranch  and  join  the  union.  Failing  in  their  attempts 
to  break  up  the  union  by  "legal"  nieans,  the  union-smashers  tried 
more  forceful  methods.  Armed  guards — drummed  tip  from 
among  the  rifraf  of  the  saloons — were  stationed  over  the  few 
non-union  men  that  were  still  at  work  in  the  fields,  and  those  who 
desired  to  quit  the  ranches,  where  they  were  "pfotected,"  were 
not  allowed  to  take  their  blankets,  and,  moreover,  their  pay  was 
held  up.  Farmers  sent  orders  into  town  for  rounds  of  buckshot- 
cartridges,  hoping  with  threats  and  intimidation  to  drive  the  men 
to  their  bidding.  From  the  scab  contracting  company's  head- 
quarters came  rumors  of  the  purchase  of  arnis  and  ammunition 
in  large  quantitties — and  these  were  not  false  rumors,  as  the 
events  that  followed  amply  proved. 

On  Monday  afternoon,  of  March  24,  the  employers  played 
their  last  card  and  the  crisis  came.  A  farmer  by  the  name  of  Ar- 
nold— ^notorious  as  a  union  hater — ^was  deputized  a  constable,  and, 
arming  himself  with  two  revolvers  and  considerable  whisky,  set 
about  escorting  a  small  number  of  scabs  from  the  company's 
boarding  house  to  a  nearby  farm.  A  crowd  of  union  men  col- 
lected around  the  outgoing  wagon,  and,  without  show  of  force 
or  violence,  tried  to  persuade  the  scabs  to  join  the  tmion.  The 
last  scab  to  leave  the  boarding  house  for  the  wagon  came  out 
armed  with  a  shotgun  and  revolver  and  the  trouble  commenced. 
The  crowd  tried  to  disarm  him  as  he  made  his  way  through  the 
press,  and  while  a  tussle  for  the  possession  of  the  shotgun  was 
in  progress.  Deputy  Constable  Arnold  stepped  up  bdiind  a  union 
man  and  shot  him  in  the  neck.  This  was  the  signal  for  a  rain 
of  bullets  that  poured  down  upon  the  crowd  of  unarmed  union 
men  from  the  doors  and  windows  of  the  scab  boarding  house. 
Death  followed  the  volley— one  man  being  killed  and  four 
wounded. 

All  honor  to  the  martydom  of  Louis  Vasquez ! — the  first  man 
to  lay  down  his  life  for  his  mates  in  the  town  of  Oxnard. 

The  unarmed  union  men  were  horrified  but  not  frightened. 
They  pursued  and  captured  the  fleeing  Arnold,  and,  after  dis- 
arming him,  handed  him  over  to  the  police.  Sheriff  McMartin 
himself  told  me  that  if  it  were  not  for  the  protection  afforded  bv 


A  FORETASTE  OF  THE  ORIENT  75 

the  union  leaders,  Arnold  would  have  been  hung  on  the  spot. 
In  twenty  minutes  the  whole  affair  was  over.  No  arrests  were 
made,  because  none  but  "strike  breakers"  were  guilty  of  assault, 
and  the  next  day  the  daily  press  all  over  the  country  broke  out 
with  scare  heads  telling  of  the  "Riot  in  Oxnard." 

Proof  of  the  complicity  of  the  town  and  county  officials  was 
quick  to  follow.  The  place  of  holding  the  inquest  was  twice 
changed  from  one  town  to  another — ^making  the  summoning  of 
witnesses  a  most  difficult  feat — and  the  dead  man's  body  hurried- 
ly given  to  the  unions  on  two  hours  notice  in  such  a  decayed  con- 
dition that  immediate  burial  was  necessary,  thereby  attempting 
to  prevent  the  public  demonstration  of  a  big  funeral.  But  in  spite 
of  this  most  vile  scheme,  nearly  a  thousand  men  escorted  the  body 
to  its  grave.  Japanese  and  Mexicans,  side  by  side,  dumb  through 
lack  of  a  common  speech,  yet  eloquent  in  expressions  of  frater- 
nity, marched  with  uncovered  heads  through  the  streets  of  Ox- 
nard.  On  the  hearse  was  a  strange  symbol  to  Western  eyes,  a 
huge  lotus  flower — an  offering  from  the  Japanese  union. 

From  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  the  officials  of  the  county 
acted  as  one  man  in  their  attempts  to  suppress  public  investiga- 
tion, the  final  proof  of  which  culminated  in  the  act  of  the  dis- 
trict attorney,  Selby,  who  refused  to  hold  a  preliminary  exami- 
nation of  Deputy  Constable  Arnold,  although  nearly  a  dozen  wit- 
nesses testified,  at  the  inquest,  that  Arnold  shot  an  unresisting 
union  man  in  the  neck  and  precipitated  the  killing. 

The  worth  of  the  Japanese  and  Mexicans  as  labor  organizers 
was  now  put  to  proof.  At  the  Japanese  headquarters  there  was 
system  like  that  of  a  railroad  office  or  an  army  in  the  field.  They 
had  a  well-trained  corps  of  officers — secretaries,  interpreters, 
captains  of  squads,  messengers,  and  most  complete  system'  of 
information.  A  map  of  the  valley  hung  on  the  wall,  with  the  lo- 
cation of  the  different  camps  of  beet  thinners  plainly  marked. 
Yards  upon  yards  of  brown  paper  placards  were  constantly  be- 
ing tacked  up,  giving  in  picturesque  Japanese  lettering  the  latest 
bulletins,  directions  or  orders.  Meetings  of  the  executive  com- 
mittees from  the  two  unions  were  constantly  being  held  for  agree- 
ment as  to  mutual  action.  I  was  intensely  interested  at  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  got  over  the  difficulties  of  language  at  the  con- 
ferences. The  joint  committees  would  gather  around  a  long 
table — at  opposite  ends  sat  the  respective  presidents,  secretaries 
and  interpreters — and  first  the  question  to  be  discussed  would  be 
started  in  English,  then  each  nationality  in  turn  would  listen  to 
an  explanation  of  the  affair  in  its  own  language  and  come  to  the 
conclusion;  then  the  results  would  be  again  stated  in  English 
and  the  final  agreement  recorded  by  the  secretaries.  Respect  for 
order  was  a  marked  feature  of  these  meetings,  each  nationalitv 
keeping  politely  silent  while  the  other  had  the  matter  before  it 


76  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

for  discussion  and  decision.  The  innate  Courtesy,  which  is  al- 
ways found  in  Spanish  blood,  was  fully  equaled  by  the  decorum 
of  the  Japanese. 

Seeing  that  there  was  no  law  for  their  personal  protection 
in  Oxnard,  the  unions  organized  a  patrol  to  cover  the  town. 
Squads  of  little  Japanese  and  Mexicans  relieved  each  other  all 
through  the  night  and  day,  for  no  man  knew  what  the  next  mur- 
derous action  of  the  strike  breakers  might  be.  On  every  hand 
troubles  began  to  multiply.  Many  nitn  were  without  a  cent  of 
money,  and  the  unions  opened  a  restaurant  where  those  who  were 
broke  could  get  their  meals.  Funeral  expenses,  care  of  the 
wounded,  and  assistance  to  men  who  had  families,  were  met  by 
collecting  the  few  dollars  left  in  the  pockets  of  the  union  men. 
To  all  of  which  the  Japanese,  being  the  richest,  were  the  largest 
'  contributors. 

A  few  days  after  the  shooting,  the  unions  published  the  fol- 
lowing : 

'^STATEMENT  TO  THE  PUBLIC. 

"Owing  to  the  many  false  statements  printed  in  the  Los  Ati- 
geles  Times  and  other  daily  papers  about  our  organization  and 
the  murderous  assault  made  upon  the  union  men  last  Monday 
afternoon,  we  ask  that  the  following  statement  of  facts  be  pub- 
lished in  justice  to  the  thirteen  hundred  men  whom  the  Japanese- 
Mexican  Labor  Association  represents : 

"In  the  first  place,  we  assert,  and  are  ready  to  prove,  that  on 
Monday  afternoon,  and  at  all  times  during  the  shooting,  the  un- 
ion men  were  unarmed,  while  the  non-union  men,  sent  out  by  the 
Western  Agricultural  Contract  Company,  were  prepared  for  a 
bloody  fight  with  arms  purchased,  in  many  cases,  recently  from 
hardware  stores  in  this  town.  As  a*proof  of  the  fact  that  the 
union  men  were  not  guilty  of  the  murderous  violence,  we  point  to 
the  fact  that  the  authorities  have  not  arrested  a  single  union  man 
— ^the  only  man  actually  put  under  bonds,  or  arrested,  being  Dep- 
uty Constable  Charles  Arnold. 

"Our  union  has  always  been  law  abiding,  ai^d  has  in  its  ranks 
at  least  nine-tenths  of  all  the  beet  thinners  in  this  section — ^who 
have  not  asked  for  a  raise  in  wages,  but  only  that  the  wages  be 
not  lowered,  as  was  demanded  by  the  beet  growers.  Many  of 
us  have  families,  were  born  in  this  country,  and  are  lawfully  seek- 
ing to  protect  the  only  property  that  we  have— our  labor.  It  is 
just  as  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  valley  that  we  get  a  de- 
cent living  wage,  as  it  is  that  the  machines  in  the  great  sugar 
factory  be  properly  oiled — if  the  machines  stop,  the  wealth  of  the 
vallep  stops,  and  likewise  if  the  laborers  are  not  given  decent 
wage,  they  too,  must  stop  work,  and  the  whole  people  of  the  coun- 
try will  stop  with  them. 


A  FORETASTE  OF. THE  ORIENT  77 

"We  assert  that  if  the  poHcc  authorities  had  done  their  duty 
many  arrests  would  have  been  made  among  the  occupants  of  the 
company's  house  from  which  the  volleys  of  bullets  came.  In 
view  of  the  fact  that  many  disorderly  men  have  lately  been  in- 
duced to  come  to  Qxnard  by  the  Western  Agricultural  Contract 
Company,  and  that  they  took  part  in  the  assaults  of  Monday  after- 
noon^  we  demand  that  the  police  do  not  longer  neglect  their  duty, 
but  arrest  those  persons  who  plainly  participated  in  the  fatal 
shooting. 

(Signed)  J.  M.  Lizarraras, 

Secretary  of  the  Mexican  branch  of  the  Japanese-Mexican  Pro- 
tective Association. 

Y.  Yamagachi, 
Secretary  of  the  Japanese  branch  of  the  Japanese-Mexican  Pro- 
tective Association." 

Frightened  at  the  turn  things  had  now  taken,  Major  Driffel, 
of  the  Beet  Sugar  Company,  asked  for  a  joint  meeting  of  com- 
mittees from  the  unions,  the  farmers  and  the  company.  The  first 
day's  conference  came  to  nothing,  but  at  the  second  meeting  the 
employers  realized  that  they  were  facing  a  labor  trust  that  had 
cornered  all  the  available  labor  power  in  the  valley,  and  so  the 
men's  scale  of  prices  was  agreed  to,  with  an  additional  pledge 
that  all  the  idle  union  men  would  be  immediately  employed. 

Twice,  after  this,  the  company  tried  to  import  a  carload  of 
scabs  from  Los  Angeles — even  going  so  far  as  to  lock  the  last 
shipment  in  its  car  and  receive  them  at  the  station  with  armed 
guards — ^but  each  time  the  new  men  joined  the  union  as  soon  as 
they  reached  Oxnard — the  last  lot  escaping  from  the  car  win- 
dows. 

At  this  juncture,  the  Los  Angeles  County  Council  of  Labor 
passed  resolutions  favoring  the  organization  of  all  Asiatics  now 
in  California.  This  was  done  upon  the  recommendation  of  Com- 
rade F.  C.  Wheeler,  organizer  for  the  A.  F.  of  L.  in  Southern 
California,  who  had  visited  Qxnard,  organized  the  two  unions, 
and  was  much  impressed  by  their  fighting  qualities. 

So  far  everything  was  well  with  the  beet  thinners,  the  com- 
pany whipped  in  the  first  battle  of  the  local  class-war  and  the  field 
hands  unionized.  But  a  most  unexpected  and  disheartening  blow 
capped  the  climax  of  their  struggles — sl  blow  from'  behind.  Sam- 
uel Gompers,  while  granting  the  Mexicans  all  rights  and  privil- 
eges, refused  to  grant  the  Japanese  union  a  charter,  and  in  his 
letter  to  Secretary  Lizarraras  made  the  following  remarkable 
statement : 

"It  is  further  understood  that  in  issuing  this  charter  to  your 
union,  it  will  under  no  circumstance  accept  membership  of  any 
Chinese  or  Japanese.    The  laws  of  our  country  prohibit  Chinese 


78  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

workmen  or  laborers  from  entering  the  United  States,  and  prop- 
ositions for  the  extension  of  the  exclusion  laws  to  the  Japanese 
have  been  made  on  several  occasions." 

In  making  such  an  extraordinary  ruling,  President  Gompers 
has  violated  the  expressed  principles  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  which 
states  that  race,  color,  religion  or  nationality,  shall  be  no  bar  to 
fellowship  in  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 

California,  alone,  contains  over  forty  thousand  Japanese  who, 
if  unorganized,  will  be  a  continuous  menace  to  union  men. 

"Better  go  to  hell  with  your  family  than  to  heaven  by  your- 
self," said  the  speaker  whose  stirring  words  decided  the  Mexican 
union  to  send  back  its  charter  to  President  Gompers,  along  with 
the  following  letter : 

"OxNARD,  Cal.,  June  8,  1903. 
"Mr.  Samuel  Gompers,  Pres.  American    Federation    of    Labor, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

"DlEAR  Sir:  Your  letter  of  May  13,  in  which  you  say:  The 
admission  with  us  of  the  Japanese  Sugar  Beet  &  Farm  Laborers 
into  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  connot  be  considered,' 
is  received. 

"We  beg  to  say  in  reply  that  our  Japanese  brothers,  here, 
were  the  first  to  recognize  the  importance  of  co-operating  and 
uniting  in  demanding  a  fair  wage  scale. 

"They  are  composed  mostly  of  men  without  families,  unlike 
the  Mexicans  in  this  respect. 

"They  were  not  only  just  with  us,  but  they  were  generous. 
When  one  of  our  men  was  murdered  by  hired  assassins  of  the 
oppressors  of  labor,  they  gave  expression  of  their  sympathy  in  a 
very  substantial  form. 

"In  the  past  we  have  counciled,  fought  and  lived  on  very  short 
rations  with  our  Japanese  brothers,  and  toiled  with  them  in  the 
fields,  and  they  have  been  uniformly  kind  and  considerate.  We 
would  be  false  to  them  and  to  ourselves  and  to  the  cause  of  Un- 
ionism if  we,  now,  accepted  privileges  for  ourselves  which  are  not 
accorded  to  them.  We  are  going  to  stand  by  men  who  stood 
by  us  in  the  long,  hard  fight  which  ended  in  a  victory  over  the 
enemy.  We  therefore  respectfully  petition  the  A.  F.  of  L.  to 
grant  us  a  charter  under  which  we  can  unite  all  the  Sugar  Beet 
&  Field  Laborers  of  Oxnard,  without  regard  to  their  color  or 
race.  We  will  refuse  any  other  kind  of  charter,  except  one  which 
will  wipe  out  race  prejudices  and  recognize  our  fellow  workers 
as  being  as  good  as  ourselves. 

"I  am  ordered  by  the  Mexican  union  to  write  this  letter  to  you 
and  they  fully  approve  its  words. 

J.  M.  LlZARRARAS^ 

Sec'y  S.  B.  &  F.  L.  Union,  Oxnard." 


A  FORETASTE  OF  THE  ORIENT  79 

The  Japanese  are  publishing  two  papers  in  San  Francisco,  and 
another  will  be  printed  in  Los  Angeles  by  Mr.  Shibuya  as  soon 
as  the  expected  type  arrives  from  Japan,  so  it  can  be  easily  seen 
how  important  their  members  would  be  to  organized  labor  in  the 
West.  To  Socialists  they  are  particularly  attractive,  as  the  Jap- 
anese have  proven  themselves  to  be  apt  students  of  the  interna- 
tional working-class  movement  that  believes  in  a  common  owner- 
ship of  the  means  of  production  and  distribution.  Their  leaders 
in  California — I  speak  of  those  whom  I  have  met  and  talked  with 
— one  and  all  regard  Socialism  to  be  the  logical  conclusion  of  the 
trades  union  movement.  The  opposition  of  their  entrance  into  the 
A.  F.  of  L.  can  only  be  temporary,  as  the  unions  of  Southern  Cali- 
fornia are  practically  unanimous  in  their  favor,  and  I  hear  that, 
since  the  writing  of  Gompers'  letters,  the  National  executive  is 
reconsidering  its  action. 

But  the  interesting  phase  to  the  student,  in  all  this,  is  the 
evidence  offered  by  the  Oxnard  episode  to  the  effect  that  labor, 
like  capital,  knows  neither  race  prejudice  nor  national  tradition 
when  the  class  struggle  is  on.  Even  the  Chinese  in  Oxnard — 
there  were  very  few  of  them — aligned  themselves  with  the  un- 
ions, for  they,  too,  wished  to  better  their  material  conditions — 
a  desire,  international,  within  the  breast  of  man. 

I  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion,  forced  on  me  by  my  contact 
with  the  Japanese  and  Mexicans  in  California — where  they  have 
of  their  own  volition  been  organizing — that  a  social  revolution 
is  as  possible  among  these  people  as  any  in  the  world,  providing 
their  immediate  environment  is  the  same.  In  fact,  there  is  his- 
tory making  in  China,  to-day,  that  must  lead  a  sound  Marxian  to 
feel  no  surprise  if  the  cwiquest  of  private  capital  may  not  be  first 
accomplished  in  Cathay. 

John  Murray,  Jr. 


The  Wage  Slave 

ONLY  a  child  of  the  tenement, 
Palid  and  weak,  with  slight  form  bent. 
Suffering  from  hunger  and  cold ; 
Hurrying,  along  with  the  bustling  throng- 
She  doth  to  the  wage-slave  band  belong, 
And  only  ten  years  old. 

Only  a  child  of  the  tenement, 
Body  with  pain  and  hunger  rent, 

Bound  by  the  curse  of  gold 
To  toil  all  day  that  another  may  feast, 
To  toil  all  day  for  a  cruel  beast, 

To  be  in  luxury  lolled. 

Only  a  child  of  the  tenement. 

With  never  a  moment  of  sweet  contejit 

To  ease  her  life  of  toil ; 
No  song  escapes  her  lips  at  mom — 
In  brooding  silence  her  heart  forlorn 

Has  naught  despair  to  foil. 

Only  a  child  of  the  tenement. 
Sick  at  heart  and  soul  most  spent. 

Works  on  with  choking  breath ; 
Works  on  all  day  amid  whirring  wheels. 
And  ever  at  her  aching  heart  feels 

The  icy  hand  of  death. 

Only  a  child  of  the  tenement, 
Marred  by  the  hand  of  man  and  sent 

Forth  beneath  the  cruel  rod ; 
Its  pure  soul  marred  because  of  love  withheld, 
And  on  darkening  wings  at  last  impelled 

Onward  to  me.et  its  God. 

Only  a  child  of  the  tenement. 
Crushed  'neath  a  cruel  beam  and  sent 

Forth,  alone,  to  meet  its  God ; 
But  blood  is  cheap  and  bread  is  dear. 
Another  child  with  face  sad  and  drear. 

Bows  low  beneath  the  rod. 

80 


-i 


THB  WAGE  SLAVE  81 

Only  a  child  of  the  tenement — 

To  greed  and  pleasure  our  minds  are  lent, 

And  think  not  what  made  her  so— x 
The  child  of  want,  and  sorrow,  and  pain, 
With  never  a  ray  of  sunlight  lain, 

Along  the  way  which  she  must  go. 

Only  a  child  of  the  tenement. 

Yet  shaped  by  the  hand  of  God  and  meant 

To  bear  His  form  divine. 
O,  men,  if  men  ye  be,  and  wring 
Not  from  the  tyrant  Greed  his  baleful  sting, 

Then  his  sin  is  also  thine. 

D.  U,  Cochrane. 


Australian  Labor  and  Socialist  News 

THE  engine  drivers  and  firemen  of  Victoria  came  out  on 
strike  on  May  8.    A  long  series  of  petty  tyrannies  and 
flagrant  injustices  have  been  the  real  cause  of  the  trou- 
ble.   The  minister  for  railways  has  earned  for  himself 
the  unenviable  title  of  Bully  Bent. 

The  civil  service  in  Victoria  have  recently  been  granted  spe- 
cial parliamentary  representation;  the  railway  employes  were 
given  the  privilege  of  electing  one  whole  member  themselves.  The 
railway  employes  resented  this  as  an  interference  with  the  secrecv 
of  the  ballot,  and  smarting  under  Bent's  bullying  ways,  decided 
to  affiliate  with  the  other  Victorian  unions.  The  government  de- 
manded their  withdrawal  from  the  affiliated  body  of  unions — ^the 
Trades  Hall.  Some  of  the  railway  workers  complied  with  this 
demand,  but  the  engine  drivers  and  firemen,  with  several  other 
unions,  refused  to  withdraw.  The  government  again  issued  an 
ultimatum,  again  demanding  their  withdrawal  befofe  May  12. 
The  engine  drivers  and  firemen  decided  to  anticipate  them,  and 
accordingly  the  strike  commenced  on  May  8.  Double  pay,  pro- 
motion and  all  manner  of  inducements  were  offered  by  the  rail- 
way department,  but  out  of  a  union  numbering  between  1,300 
and  1,400  all  came  out  but  15. 

On  the  9th  of  May  only  two  trains  were  run  in  Victoria  and 
the  commercial  world  was  completely  paralyzed.  Factories  had  to 
slacken  hands  and  the  business  of  the  community  generally  was 
thrown  into  disorder.  The  strike  was  hailed  with  approval  in 
labor  circles  throughout  Australia,  and  it  was  thought  we  were 
on  the  eve  of  a  labor  revival.  The  Victorian  government,  at 
their  wit's  end,  summoned  parliament  and  introduced  a  bill  for 
the  suppression  of  the  strike.  All  strikers  were  liable  to  a  fine 
of  £100  or  twelve  months  imprisonment,  the  distributing  of 
monies,  holding  monies  for  strikers,  persuading  persons  not  to 
scab,  holding  meetings,  sympathizing  with  strike,  etc.,  were 
breaches  of  the  act.  Scabs  meanwhile  were  being  brought  from 
all  parts  of  Australia,  but  still  the  Victorian  train  service  was  in 
a  state  of  chaos.  All  Australia  regarded  the  strike  as  being  al- 
most won,  for  it  was  felt  that  the  Victorian  government  would 
not  have  the  courage  to  enforce  the  bill  when  passed,  and  it  was 
known  that  the  men  were  as  firm  as  ever.  On  the  isth  of  May 
the  strike  was  declared  off,  to  the  amazement  of  both  sympathizers 
and  men.  The  secretary  and  president  of  the  union  had  declared 
the  strike  off  without  consulting  the  men  or  even  the  strike  execu- 
tive !    These  two  officials  betrayed  their  trust,  and  their  action 


AUSTRALIAN  LABOR  AND  SOCLAUST  NEWS  83 

should  be  another  warning  to  the  workers  not  to  give  too  much 
power  to  their  leaders. 

This  strike  has  caused  great  anxiety  to  the  state  Socialists. 
They  do  not  want  anything  else  "nationalized"  under  Bent.  They 
are  joining  with  other  labor  reformers  in  urging  the  claims  of 
conciliation  and  arbitration.  Although  some  of  these  people  will 
tell  you  that  our  government  and  courts  are  conducted  in  the 
interests  of  one  class,  they  seem  to  think  that  the  arbitration  court 
will  be  different.  In  New  Zealand,  the  home  of  compulsory  ar- 
bitration, dissatisfaction  with  the  decisions  of  the  Board  of  Con- 
ciliation is  growing.  Already  in  New  South  Wales,  where  this 
method  of  settling  disputes  has  not  been  in  vogue  twelve  months, 
the  Newcastle  coal  miners  have  petitioned  for  an  amendment  in 
the  act.  In  Western  Australia  the  Arbitration  and  Conciliation 
Act  is  being  administered  in  such  ^  way  that  every  union  which 
registers  under  it  must  be  limited  to  one  trade.  The  working  of 
the  act  there  is  resolving  the  federated  unions  into  disunited, 
petty  and  isolated  ones. 

Some  kindly-disposed  syndicate,  having  an  eye  to  the  work- 
ers' interests,  or  to  their  pockets,  propose  the  establishment  of  a 
labor  daily  in  Sydney.  It  is  proposed  that  the  unions  should  pro- 
cure 50,000  subscribers  in  return  for  which  they  have  power  to 
appoint  three  directors  to  control  the  policy  of  the  paper,  but  these 
directors  are  to  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  business 
management.  The  names  of  the  promoters  of  this  scheme  have 
not  been  disclosed.  They  should  know,  however,  that  if  50,000 
unionists  put  their  heads  together  they  can  run  a  paper  without 
the  aid  of  the  benevolent  syndicate. 

Andrew  M.  Anderson. 


> 


B 


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7  *, 


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^-'-'"^./-Vf-Vj 


■"Tier  f 


SOCIALISM  IN  BOHEMIA.  85 

columns  of  this  review  to  inform  its  readers  of  what  is  happening 
in  Bdiemia. 

We  have  in  Austria  a  central  party  which  holds  its  congress 
every  two  years  to  control  the  action  of  the  parliamentary  group 
and  to  decide  questions  of  programme  and  tactics.  All  administra- 
tive questions  and  all  other  questions  which  do  not  touch  upon  the 
programme  and  tactics  of  the  central  party  are  left  to  the  national 
congresses.  Our  national  parties  are  not  divided  according  to 
territory  but  they  are  arranged  on  an  ethnological  basis. 

The  Bohemian  Socialist  party  held  its  fifth  congress,  on  the 
1st,  2d  and  3d  of  November,  1902.  Next  year  will  be  the  twenty- 
fifth  anniversary  of  the  first  congress  of  the  Bohemian  Socialist 
party.  It  was  a  secret  congress  in  a  tavern  near  Prague,  where 
met  the  principal  militant  Socialists  from  all  corners  of 
Bohemia  and  Moravia — while  trying  to  evade  the  attention  of  the 
police — ^to  come  to  an  agreement  on  the  principles  of  the  pro- 
gramme and  the  means  of  propaganda. 

Today  more  than  200  delegates  from  Bohemia,  Moravia  and 
Lower  Austria  assemble  in  the  great  hall  of  a  building  which  be- 
longs to  the  printers'  union.  The  Bohemian  Socialist  party  is 
composed  of  local  organizations.  They  have  representatives  which 
hold  district  meetings.  The  delegates  from  the  districts  form  the 
national  representation  of  the  party. 

In  1901  the  party  counted  338  local  organizations  in  32  dis- 
tricfs;  but  there  are  also  Socialists  and  Socialist  organizations 
in  SS9  cities  and  villages  where  the  party  is  not  yet  organi-'-'' 
Today,  in  ipoij  it  includes  68  political  organizations,  417  labor 
unions,  397  educational  associations,  60  mutual  aid  associations 
and  29  gymnastic  and  athletic  associations,  a  total  of  48,777  mem- 
bers. In  1901  the  party  arranged  for  12,734  meetings.  It  is 
thus  seen  that  neither  the  Austro-Hungarian  empire,  nor  in  Bo- 
hemia, nor  in  the  municipality,  can  Socialism  be  treated  as  a 
negligible  quantity. 

To  make  action  possible  wherever  necessary  the  party  natur- 
ally has  need  of  money.  Its  finances  thus  far  have  been  well 
regulated.  Every  member  is  obliged  to  pay  to  the  party  each 
month  about  two-fifths  of  a  cent  through  his  local  organization. 
The  resources  of  the  party  are  not  large,  but  they  are  something, 
and  that  is  an  important  advantage. 

In  its  propaganda  the  party  has  found  one  very  special  obsta- 
cle, namely,  the  educational  associations.  In  the  time  of  the  per- 
secution of  Socialism  in  Austria  the  Socialists  could  not  organize 
in  any  other  form  than  educational  associations.  At  one  time  and 
another  the  members  of  these  associations  started  sick  benefit 
funds,  etc.  They  are  now  tied  to  these  funds,  and  when  it  is 
desired  to  establish  a  labor  union  the  same  objection  is  always 
heard :    "We  already  have  our  association.    We  have  no  need  of 


86  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

another  new  one.     We  cannot  lie  members  of  two  associations 
because  we  cannot  afford  to  pay  dues  to  two  groups." 

The  Federation  of  Unions  has  made  great  efforts  to  trans- 
form the  educational  associations  into  groups  adhering  to  the  cen- 
tral organization.  It  had,  however,  no  success.  It  then  invoked 
the  aid  of  the  Socialist  party. 

The  fifth  congress,  which  was  held  at  Prague,  November  i,  2 
and  3,  1902,  decided  that  the  educational  associations  were  an  out- 
grown form  which  cannot  exist  in  the  present  state  of  the  working 
class  organization,  consequently  it  recommends  its  members  to 
transform  the  educational  associations  into  labor  unions. 

The  party  also  has  occasion  to  see  the  importance  of  the  youn- 
ger workingmen  in  the  political  movement.  The  young  men  fur- 
nished two  or  three  years  ago  the  framework  for  the  new  national 
.  labor  party.  The  need  is  now  recognized  of  filHng  the  minds  of 
the  youth  with  Socialist  ideas  and  carrying  on  an  active  propa- 
ganda in  their  ranks  to  bring  them  into  Socialism.  The  party  hp<: 
recognized  the  gymnastic  associations  as  a  very  useful  means  for 
arriving  at  this  end.  It  accordingly  advises  the  young  to  take 
part  in  them. 

By  the  side  of  the  associations  exists  the  Socialist  press,  the 
great  propagandist  of  Socialist  ideas.  It  fights  its  numerous  ene- 
mies ;  it  defends  the  citizen  against  the  government  and  its  office 
holders,  the  workingman  against  the  employer  and  his  assistants. 

The  Socialist  press  in  Austria,  and  especially  the  Bohemian 
press,  is,  as  in  Germany,  the  property  of  the  party;  the  central 
journal  Pravo  Lidu  (People's  Rights)  at  Prague,  and  the  monthly 
review  Akadentie  belong  entirely  to  the  party.  The  other  Bohe- 
mian daily  journal,  Delnicke  Listy  (Worker's  Gazette),  at  Vienna 
— the  only  daily  journal  in  Europe  appearing  in  Bohemian  outside 
of  Bohemia  and  Moravia — and  some  other  newspapers  are  the 
property  of  the  national  organizations,  while  all  the  others  belong 
to  the  organizations  of  the  electoral  districts.  The  union  papers 
are  edited  by  their  respective  unions. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  executive  committee  at  the 
congress,  the  situation  of  the  Bohemian  Socialist  press  is  as  fol- 
lows :  The  political  press  has  two  daily  journals  and  twelve  other 
organs  (including  a  paper  for  agitation  among  women  and  an- 
other for  agitation  among  the  young)  ;  the  union  press  has  eigh- 
teen organs.  Besides  this  the  party  possesses  a  monthly  review, 
a  weekly  anti-clerical  paper,  a  humorous  paper  and  a  monthly  lit- 
erary paper. 

The  press  committee  distributes  each  year  a  great  number  of 
pamphlets,  but  it  also  publishes  important  works  for  the  Socialist 
movement. 

The  Socialist  press  cannot  develop  in  Austria  as  in  other  coun- 
tries, because  with  us  the  peddling  of  papers  is  forbidden.    More- 


SOCIALISM  IN  BOHEMIA.  87 

over,  the  entire  press  is  under  the  power  of  the  procurator  general, 
whotan  confiscate  anything  he  chooses  without  any  responsibihty. 
This  means  that  it  is  especially  the  Socialist  press  which  feels 
this  arbitrary  power  of  the  procurator  general.  But  we  now  have 
a  government  with  a  president  who  would  like  people  to  believe 
that  he  is  a  man  of  modern  ideas.  This  is  united  in  him  with  a 
rare  skill  at  promising  every  one  something  agreeable.  Seeing  that 
he  can  buy  over  all  other  political  parties  by  promises,  he  thinks 
he  may  be  able  to  gain  over  the  Socialists  also  if  he  promises 
them  to  introduce  a  bill  for  a  new  law  regarding  the  press.  So 
he  introduces  it.  But  this  so-called  new  law  is  but  a  poor  copy  of 
the  German  newspaper  law  of  1874.  The  Germans  desire  to 
repeal  it,  but  it  is  still  good  enough  for  the  Austrians. 

This  proposed  law,  it  is  true,  limits  at  some  points  the  omnipo- 
tence of  the  procurator  general  in  the  matter  of  confiscation,  but 
it  maintains  confiscation  in  principle.  It  also  maintains  the  prohi- 
bition of  peddling  papers,  although  the  president  of  the  council 
himself — the  author  of  the  project — was  obliged  to  recognize  in 
open  chamber  that  this  prohibition  was  an  absolute  anomaly,  that 
it  is  in  direct  contradiction  of  the  ideas  and  most  primary  demands 
of  our  time. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  congress  could  not  but  give 
voice  to  the  fact  that  this  newspaper  law  was  not  agreeable  from 
this  point  of  view  and  consequently  it  was  not  acceptable  to  the 
Socialists.  The  Socialist  party  demands  universal  suffrage,  and 
pensions  for  disease  and  old  age.  The  fifth  congress  renewed 
these  demands  briefly  and  passed  on  to  a  very  important  point, 
to  a  discussion  regarding  the  action  of  the  Socialists  in  the  mu- 
nicipalities. 

The  movement  which  carried  the  first  Socialists  into  the  mu- 
nicipal councils  is  a  recent  thing.  We  may  state  that  this  move- 
ment has  not  grown  in  any  remarkable  fashion  except  in  the  first 
elections  in  the  fifth  class.  This  is  a  class  with  universal  suffrage, 
co-ordinate  with  the  class  of  great  agrarian  proprietors,  the  class 
of  the  chambers  of  commerce,  the  class  of  the  cities,  the  class  of 
the  provinces.  The  agitation  which  had  taken  place  at  the  time 
of  this  election  diffused  Socialist  ideas  even  into  the  most  remote 
villages.  The  people  instinctively  regard  Socialism  as  the  voice 
of  the  oppressed,  as  the  voice  of  the  opposition.  We  have 
many  examples  of  the  opposition  in  the  country  towns  presenting: 
itself  from  that  time  on  under  the  title  of  the  Socialist  party.  The 
party  is  thus  represented  in  178  municipal  councils  by  526  munic- 
ipal cotmcilmen. 

These  are  found  either  in  the  workingmen's  villages  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  industrial  cities  or  in  their  more  immediate 
neighborhood,  especially  in  the  coal  fields,  or  in  the  little  pio- 
vincial  towns,  or  again  in  the  villages,  where  the  struggle  has 


88  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  ItEVIEW 

long  existed  between  the  large  and  the  small  agrarian  proprietors. 
There  still  exists  in  Bohemia  a  vestige  of  the  ancient  community 
of  property.  The  communal  property  belonged  before  1864  to  a 
certain  number  of  proprietors  who  could  use  it  as  their  own.  But 
the  law  for  the  organization  of  townships  could  not  preserve  that 
right  of  the  proprietors.  It  limited  it  in  this  way:  The  old 
proprietors  can  use  this  property  only  according  to  the  needs  of 
their  households.  It  results  from  this  that  these  proprietors  often 
go  further  than  the  law  allows,  for  they  always  regard  the  public 
property  as  their  property,  and  forbid  the  small  proprietors  to 
use  it.  The  latter  now  wish  either  to  preserve  the  public  prop- 
erty for  the  township  and  defend  it  against  the  ancient  proprietors 
or  to  take  a  share  in  the  robbery  committed. 

This  opposition  has  need  of  a  banner  which  permits  the  con- 
centration of  all  the  elements  dissatisfied  with  the  situation  in 
the  township.    This  banner  is  now  Socialism. 

It  should  therefore  be  no  cause  for  astonishment  that  many 
of  the  municipal  councilmen  elected  under  the  title  of  "Socialists" 
do  not  always  act  according  to  the  programme  of  the  Socialist 
party.  The  Bohemian  Socialist  party  has  for  three  years  had  its 
municipal  programme,  but  most  of  the  Socialist  municipal  coun- 
cilmen have  not  had  time  to  read  it  or  study  it. 

The  Socialist  workingmen  elected  in  the  villages  are  not 
independent.  They  depend  upon  the  employer,  who  is  also  nearly 
always  a  member  of  the  municipal  council,  and  he  throws  the 
municipal  councilmen  who  are  workingmen  out  on  the  street  if 
they  wish  to  do  anything  he  does  not  accept. 

The  result  of  the  action  of  the  Socialists  in  the  townships  is 
not  satisfactory.  The  fifth  congress  recognizes  that  it  is  necessarv 
to  impose  upon  the  municipal  councilmen  who  belong  to  the 
Socialist  party  a  strong  control  on  the  part  of  the  local  organiza- 
tions of  the  districts.  The  congress  recommended  to  the  organi- 
zations to  aid  the  municipal  councilmen  by  their  advice  and  to  in- 
terfere always  if  they  see  that  the  action  of  the  municipal  council, 
especially  the  action  of  the  Socialist  members,  does  not  correspond 
to  the  programme  of  the  party.  The  executive  committee  has 
been  invited  to  convoke  from  time  to  time  congresses  of  municinal 
councilmen.  The  party  press  must  accord  more  attention  to 
municipal  Socialism  than  it  has  done  up  to  this  time. 

That  is  the  most  important  resolution  that  the  fifth  congress 
took.  The  circumstances  of  Bohemia  oblige  us  to  be  attentive  to 
this  opposition  movement  in  the  township.  Well  directed  it  will 
enable  us  to  diffuse  our  ideas  and  to  increase  the  thances  of  the 
Socialistic  party  in  future  electoral  campaigns. 
Dr.  Leon  Winter,  in  UHumamte  Nouvelle,  translated  by  Charles 

H,  Kerr. 


Political  Problems  in  Germany 

EVEN  the  mentally  most  inert  Philistine  and  the  most 
brainless  minister  of  state  will  now  certainly  stir  from 
his  stupor  and  anxiously  inquire,  What  next?"  writes 
Comrade  Kautsky  in  a  recent  issue  of  the  Neue  Zeit. 
"He  must  realize  that  things  can  no  longer  continue  as  hereto- 
fore, that  the  so-called  'fight  with  the  weapons  of  the  mind' 
against  Socialism  is  a  total  failure.  This  fight  has  never  been 
much  more  than  a  string  of  misquotations  for  the  purpose  of 
proving  that  the  strongest  party  in  Germany  is  composed  of  a 
lot  of  idiots,  scoundrels  and  vandals.  Ajtid  it  is  the  sum  total 
of  the  intellectual  amm^inition  which  the  bourgeoisie  used  against 
us  during  the  recent  campaign." 

But  a  thorough  bourgeois  never  learns  anything.  Says  th« 
Neue  Zeit  editorially  in  its  issue  of  July  4:  "One  would  think 
that  those  diminutive  fractions  of  the  bourgeois  left  would  be- 
think themselves  a  little  after  the  crushing  defeat  which  they 
have  suflFered.  During  the  first  few  days  after  the  catastrophe, 
they  indeed  made  some  desultory  remarks  that  might  have  caused 
some  unusually  confiding  mind  to  harbor  the  expectation  tliat 
they  would  repent  in  sack  and  ashes.  But  this  mood  passed  oflf 
rapidly,  and  to-day  they  are  once  more  masters  of  the  situation. 
It  is  not  the  Berliner  Tageblatt,  not  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung, 
nor  any  of  the  other  charming  members  of  that  newspaper  fam- 
ily, that  have  received  a  shameful  drubbing  in  the  elections,  but 
rather— the  Social  Democracy  is  once  more  on  the  eve  of  its 
internal  dissolution,  or  it  is  in  the  moulting  stage  toward  liberal 
radicalism,  or — well,  in  short,  it  is  really  the  Socialist  party  that 
has  lost  the  electoral  battle,  and  we  should  be  thankful  to  at  last 
follow  the  wise  counsels  of  those  honest  papers." 

According  to  the  capitalist  press,  the  Socialist  party  is  once 
more  on  the  verge  of  disruption,  because — ^lo  *  and  behold ! — 
Comrade  Edward  Bernstein  has  stirred  up  a  little  storm  in  a 
teacup  about  non-essentials  by  an  article  in  the  Socialistische 
Monatshefte,  in  which  he  warms  up  the  old  contention  that  the 
Socialist  party  should  assert  its  right  to  the  vice-presidency  in 
the  Reichstag.  Of  course,  for  Bernstein  and  his  opportunist 
friends  this  matter  is  by  no  means  unessential,  but  of  the  gravest 
diplomatic  consequences.  Our  great  revolutionist  friend  in- 
flates this  vice-presidential  bubble  into  a  mighty  balloon  which 
will  carry  the  Socialist  party,  in  his  opinion,  from  a  position  of 
cold  and  uns3anpathetic  criticism  to  one  of  fruitful  and  effective 


90  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

political  activity.  He  declares  that  no  principle  will  be  violated 
by  accepting  the  representative  duties  of  this  position  together 
with  the  parliamentary  duties,  because  "a  visit  to  the  emperor 
is  a  formality  pure  and  simple"  which  does  not  in  the  least  touch 
any  of  our  fundamental  principles.  It  is  "purely  an  acknowl- 
edgement of  the  present  political  status,  by  which  we  do  not  in 
the  least  signify  our  adherence  to  the  principles  of  monarchy." 
Moreover,  "the  imperial  constitution,  more  than  any  other,  stands 
in  its  origin  and  stipulations  next  to  the  principles  of  a  republic." 
The  constitution  does  not  recognize  the  traditional  rights  of 
monarchs,  because  "it  does  not  recognize  an  emperor  of  Ger- 
many, or  an  emperor  of  the  Germans,  but  only  a  German  emper- 
or." In  some  parts  of  Germany  the  Socialist  representatives  are 
compelled  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  "that  is  a  much 
more  serious  matter  than  a  simple  visit  to  the  emperor.  A  So- 
cialist does  not  sacrifice  his  principles  by  making  a  visit,  once  or 
twice  in  the  year,  to  the  executive  head  of  the  state,  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  elected  representative  authority,  under  the  provi- 
sions of  the  constitution." 

The  capitalist  press  takes  this  very  minor  matter  as  seriously 
as  does  Bernstein  himself.  The  Nationalliberale  Korrespondens 
declares  that  it  does  not  wish  to  give  rise  to  "the  erroneous  idea 
that  only  a  certain  part  of  the  liberals  is  liberal  enough  to  fully 
recognize  the  claim  of  the  Socialists  to  the  position  of  vice  presi- 
dent. This  is  in  no  way  the  case.  Especially  in  the  national  lib- 
eral party  there  is  no  desire  to  deny  a  claim  that  follows  per  se 
from  the  proportional  strength  of  the  various  parties  in  the  Reichs- 
tag." But  the  NationaUZeitung,  liberal  radical  organ,  is  not  so 
willing  to  accede  to  the  claims  of  the  Socialists.  If  the  Socialists 
should  nominate  Comrade  Singer  for  this  position,  it  would  be  "a 
matter  of  course  that  all  parties  of  the  right  should  refuse  to  sanc- 
tion the  choice,  because  "Singer,  after  being  ordered  to  leave 
the  session  by  authority  of  the  rules  of  order,  did  not  comply  but 
•violated  these  rules."  In  reality.  Vice  President  von  Stolberg 
ordered  Comrade  Singer  out  of  the  house  by  a  flagrant  breach  of 
the  rules,  and  the  "liberal  radical"  organ  champions  this  reaction- 
ary despotism.  The  conservative  organs  take  it  for  granted  that 
no  Socialist  can  ever  occupy  the  seat  of  vice  president,  because 
we  are  opponents  of  monarchy  and  would  not  rise  to  join  in  the 
customary  homage  to  the  emperor.  The  organs  of  the  center 
party  are  divided.  The  Centrums-Korrespondenz  and  the  Koelner 
Volks-Zeitung  recall  the  fact  that  once  upon  a  time  the  center 
party  was  treated  by  the  parties  of  the  right  like  Cinderella,  but 
hedges  on  the  question  of  the  personalities  to  be  nominated  by  the 
Socialists.  And  the  Germania,  after  repeating  the  old  lie  that  "the 
Social  Democracy  proclaims  atheism,"  continues :     "I-et  us  wait 


POLrnOAL  PKOBLEMS  IN  GERldANY  91 

and  see  what  the  begrinning  of  the  reichstag  session  will  bring  in 
the  matter  of  the  vice  presidency.  If  the  majority  of  the  Reichstag 
should  oflfer  the  Socialists  that  position,  they  will  hardly  be  so 
'inhuman'  and  impolite  as  to  refuse  it.  But  if  Mr.  Paul  Singer 
should  be  nominated  by  them,  then  the  majority  of  the  Reichstag 
will  no  doubt  refuse  to  accept  him"  on  the  specious  ground  men- 
tioned above.  Besides,  the  clerical  organ  complains  that  "that  no 
Socialist  will  accept  the  duties  of  representation  connected  with 
the  vice  presidency,  or  call  for  a  'Hoch'  for  the  emperor,  as  re- 
quired by  the  majority  of  the  Reichstag  and  by  the  loyalty  for  the 
monarch." 

Vorwaerts  replies  that  *We  are  quite  satisfied,  if  the  center 
fraction  will  violate  our  good  right  by  hypocritical  interpreta- 
tions. We  are  fully  alive  to  the  difficulties  growing  out  of  an 
acceptance  of  the  vice  presidency  by  a  Socialist.  And  we  offer 
no  objection  if  the  majority  of  the  Reichstag  will  open  the  new 
session  by  a  violation  of  justice,  which  will  brand  them  as  a 
reactionary  mass  opposed  to  the  Socialist  Party,  a  party  repre- 
senting three  million  working  class  votes." 

Comrade  Singer  is  much  surprised  at  the  stand  taken  by 
Bernstein.  ''It  is  queer,"  he  says,  "that  the  result  of  the  elections, 
which  opens  up  a  great  perspective  for  the  future  power  of  the 
party,  should  give  Comrside  Bernstein  no  other  concern  than  the 
discussion  of  such  a  minor  and  unessential  question.  Power  and 
influence  are  not  vested  in  the  vice  presidency,  but  in  the  Reichs- 
tag. So  far  as  urging  a  determined  claim  on  the  vice  presidency 
is  concerned,  Bernstein  is  once  again  making  an  assault  on  an 
open  door.  There  is  no  difference  of  opinion  about  that  in  the 
party.  Speaking  for  myself,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  shall  insist 
on  our  claim,  just  as  we  did  in  1898.  It  is  also  a  matter  of 
course  that  a  Socialist  vice  president  fulfills  all  the  duties  pre- 
scribed by  the  rules  of  business.  We  have  so  declared  in  the 
convention  of  seniors  in  1898,  when  we  made  our  claim  to  the 
vice  presidency.  But  it  was  then  sought  to  saddle  certain  social 
duties  on  us  which  are  not  provided  for  by  the  order  of  business. 
And  when  we  declined  to  attend  the  imperial  court  our  just  claims 
were  denied. 

"I  can  see  no  reason  for  abandoning  our  standpoint,  so  much 
less  as  the  vice  presidency  has  not  by  far  the  importance  attributed 
to  it  by  Bernstein.  *  *  *  Of  course,  it  would  do  us  no  harm 
to  have  a  Socialist  vice  president.  But  neither  can  I  see  what 
great  differences  it  would  make  for  us  whether  one  of  us  could 
ring  the  presidential  bell  or  not.  I  deny  that  there  is  any  occa- 
sion for  the  party  to  covet  that  position  at  any  cost.  *  *  *  j 
lack  the  understanding  for  the  necessity  of  opening  up,  without 
need,  and  immediately  after  a  glorious  campaign,  such  questions 


92  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

as  will  give  renewed  countenance  to  the  widespread  legend 
of  the  fundamental  differences  of  opinion  among  the  Social- 
ists.   *    *    *     » 

The  Leipziger  Volksseitung,  the  organ  of  the  Leipsic  Social- 
ists, thinks  that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  enter  into  the  sophisms 
of  Bernstein  at  the  present  moment.  But  the  Volksfreund  of 
Karlsruhe  is  very  angry  at  the  insinuation  that  Bernstein's  argu- 
ment is  based  on  sophisms  and  announces  that  there  will  be  a 
great  revisionist  campaign  in  the  near  future.  The  Neue  Zeit 
points  out  that  "The  priority  for  this  idea  of  Bernstein's  belongs 
to  the  Berliner  Ta'geblatt  Bernstein  has  aroused  a  great  enthusi- 
asm in  the  radical  press  by  mentioning  the  idea  that  the  Socialist 
fraction  of  the  Reichstag  should  translate  the  valiant  and  heroic 
battle  of  three  millions  into  a  courteous  bow  before  the  monarchic 
principle.  The  capitalist  paper  suggested  the  idea  immediately 
after  the  main  election.  But  however  much  it  is  otherwise 
inclined  to  demand  credit,  it  has  not  insisted  on  its  prior  claims 
in  this  instance,  but  prefers  to  regard  as  the  mightily  rushing 
spring  of  Socialism  that  which  is  in  reality  only  the  sluggish  flow 
of  muddy  water  from  its  own  pipes.  It  is  jubilant  over  the  im- 
pending admission  of  the  Socialists  at  court,  because  Comrade 
Bernstein  recommends  that  the  new  representatives  of  the  party, 
at  the  command  of  the  bourgeois  majority,  should  stoop  to  an 
action  which  is  repugnant  to  their  political  principles." 

Bernstein's  assertion  that  the  German  constitution  is  almost 
democratic  elicits  the  following  from  the  Neue  Zeit:  "We  con- 
fess that  we  rubbed  our  eyes  when  we  read  that,  for  we  thought 
we  were  dreaming.  The  origin  of  the  German  constitution  is 
sufficiently  known,  and  no  one  ever  thought  of  denying  that  there 
was  no  constitution  in  Germany  that  had  been  made  to  such  an 
extent  without  the  people  and  its  representatives,  and  so  entirely 
by  monarchs  and  princes,  as  the  imperial  constitution."  The 
Neue  Zeit  strongly  suspects  that  Bernstein  does,  not  know  the 
literature  dealing  with  the  origin  of  this  constitution,  especially 
since  he  attributes  such  a  high  diplomatic  value  to  the  distinction 
between  an  emperor  of  Germany,  an  emperor  of  the  Germans  and 
a  German  emperor.  The  Neue  Zeit  then  quotes  from  a  work  of 
Professor  Lorenz,  how  the  Genfian  emperor  was  the  creation  of 
the  meanest  intrigues  of  the  German  princes  during  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war.  "When  all  these  contemptible  intrigues  began  to 
blossom  out  in  their  sins,  Bismarck  asked  one  of  his  conspirators 
what  was  the  Latin  word  for  sausage.  When  he  was  told  that 
it  was  'farcimentum*  he  joked  about  those  fine  diplcmiatic  dis- 
tinction now  mentioned  by  Comrade  Bernstein:  'Nescio  quid 
tnihi  magis  farcitnentum  esse( — I  don't  know  what  would  be 
more  sausage  to  me — in  other  words,  all  kaisers  look  alike  to  me." 


POLITICAL  PROBLEMS  IN  GERMANY  93 

The  Neue  Zeit  concludes  by  saying:  *'I£  those  (capitalist) 
papers  rejoice  at  Comrade  Bernstein's  proposition  as  if  somebody 
had  fried  an  extra  sausage  for  them,  then  the  party  should,  in 
our  opinion,  close  the  books  for  once  and  all  in  this  matter  of 
eternally  revising  our  most  elementary  principles,  by  repeating 
the  words  of  Bismarck:  Nescio  quid  mihi  magis  farcimentum 
esset.  We  can  really  aflFord  to  do  that  after  the  i6th  of  June, 
and  it  would  not  be  the  least  gratifying  result  of  that  glorious 
day." 

While  Bernstein,  with  characteristic  opportunist  smallness,  is 
wasting  time  and  paper  on  a  bagatelle,  Kautsky  publishes  an 
exhaustive  and  deep  analysis  of  the  new  situation  created  by  the 
result  of  the  elections  and  the  probable  course  to  be  followed  by 
the  government  against  the  Socialists.  He  shows  that  the  gov- 
ernment has  two  ways  to  oppose  us :  Either  by  weakening  the 
proletariat  through  a  corruption  of  its  leaders.  This  method 
is  hopeless  in  Germany.  It  is  also  futile  to  hope  for  success  by 
trying  the  tactics  of  the  English  bourgeoisie  against  the  trade 
unions.  The  German  trade  unions  have  a  generation  of  class 
conscious  political  action  behind  them,  and  the  German  bour- 
geoisie is  not  as  strong  as  the  English.  The  other  method  is 
brutal  suppression  of  political  rights  under  the  leadership  of  the 
army  officers,  the  representatives  of  the  aristocrats.  Kautsky 
thinks  that  the  growth  of  the  Socialist  movement  will  increase 
this  tendency  toward  violent  methods,  but  that  the  reaction  of 
to-day  is  not  as  strong  as  it  was  in  the  years  following  1848.  'Then 
it  followed  in  the  ^ake  of  the  violent  suppression  of  the  revolu- 
tionary classes  and  countries ;  today  it  grows  with  the  continuous 
increase  of  the  revolutionary  masses.  Then  it  drew  its  strength 
from  the  complete  helplessness  of  the  masses  against  the  gov- 
ernment ;  to-day  it  is  accompanied  by  a  growing  rebellion  against 
the  ruling  regime.  Then  it  was  mainly  supported  by  a  strong 
government,  behind  which  stood  a  small  but  aggressive  caste  of 
nobles;  today  the  government  as  a  reactionary  factor  is  far 
outdone  by  the  reactionary  parties,  and  these  are  not  produced 
by  one  class,  but  by  various  classes  with  different  interests  and 
methods  of  warfare.  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  unite  them  all 
under  one  leadership,  and  it  is  impossible  to  keep  them  per- 
manently together  for  united  action."  *  *  *  'fhig  dissolu- 
tion of  the  reactionary  elements  is  furthermore  offset  by  the 
fact  that  with  the  decline  of  liberalism  the  revolutionary  Social- 
ists become  more  and  more  a  political  necessity.  "Liberalism 
is  dead,  and  a  strong  Socialist  Party  alone  offers  the  possibility 
to  protect  the  German  nation  against  brainless  experiments  and 
to  do  justice  to  the  most  elementary  needs  of  the  economic  and 
intellectual  development." 


94  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

From  these  premises  Kautsky  concludes  that  "a  regime  of 
great  political  and  economic  reforms  is  excluded  by  the  present 
situation.  But  neither  is  a  regime  of  permanent  restriction  and 
violent  suppression  of  the  proletarian  movement  probable, 
although  it  is  more  likely  to  be  tried  than  an  era  of  reform.  How- 
ever, if  it  should  come  to  such  a  regime  of  the  'strong  man/  and 
he  should  succeed  in  stifling  some  of  the  signs  of  life  of  the 
Socialist  Party  for  a  short  time,  it  could  only  be  a  regime  so 
absolutely  out  of  harmony  with  the  requirements  of  modern 
life,  so  narrow  and  stupid,  that  it  would  soon  bring  Germany 
to  the  verge  of  ruin  and  face  to  face  with  a  catastrophe,  which 
would  result  in  a  much  greater  victory  of  the  Socialist  Party  and 
in  the  conquest  of  the  political  power  by  the  proletariat." 

The  probable  policy,  according  to  Kautsky,  will  be  one  of 
inconsistency,  vacillating  between  concession  and  violent  repres- 
sion. To  those  who  would  derive  from  such  inconsistency  the 
hope  that  the  government  might  try  to  seek  a  modus  vivendi 
with  the  Socialists,  if  they  would  accept  the  tactics  of  state  Social- 
ism, Kautsky  answers:  "This  is  a  conception  which  looks  very 
•clever,  but  is  in  reality  extremely  foolish,  because  it  neglects  the 
economic  basis  of  things.  It  emanates  from  the  premise  that  the 
governments  derive  their  powers  from  within  themselves,  as  if 
they  were  not  dependent  on  the  ruling  classes."    • 

It  follows  from  the  foregoing  that  the  work  of  the  Socialist 
representatives  will  largely  deal  with  the  problems  mapped  out 
by  the  so-called  immediate  demands.  Vorwaerts  of  July  4 
declares  that  the  Socialists  will  more  than  ever  demand  a  fulfill- 
ment of  its  social  duties  from  the  government.  They  must  try 
to  obtain  the  legal  eight-hour  day,  combat  female  and  child  labor, 
provide  for  greater  protection  of  the  employes  of  house  industries, 
and  meet  the  problems  of  factory  inspection  and  workingmen's 
insurance.  The  problem  of  the  unemployed  and  of  providing 
for  widows  and  orphans  of  the  working  class  should  also  be 
solved  in  the  next  Reichstag. 

But  whether  the  Socialists  will  succeed  in  obtaining  these 
demands  or  not,  Vorwaerts  is  certain  that  the  German  working 
class  will  not  permit  the  ruling  classes  any  longer  to  rest  in  sloth 
and  idleness.  "The  working  men  will  press  the  spur  of  critique 
into  the  flanks  of  the  class  state,  until  it  starts  ahead — ^toward 
the  final  goal.  Socialism" 

Ernest  Untermann. 


Economic  Aspects  of  Chattel  Slavery 

{Continued  from  last  issue.) 

AT  the  formation  of  the  union  the  rice  pf  Georgia  and 
South  Carolina  and  the  tobacco  of  Virginia  were  almost 
the  only  crops  which  demanded  slave  labor  for  their 
cultivation.  These  two  crops  were  much  too  limited 
in  importance  to  constitute  the  basis  of  a  wide-spread  indus- 
trial organization,  such  as  that  to  which  chattel  slavery  later  gave 
rise. 

It  was  a  revolution  in  the  field  of  manufacture,  that,  finally 
reacting  upon  agriculture,  fastened  chattel  slavery  upon  the 
Southern  States  of  America.  The  inventions  of  Hargreave  and 
Arkwright  mightily  increased  the  demand  for  cotton.  But  the 
raising  of  cotton  was  restricted  by  the  difficulty  of  separating  the 
cotton  fibre  from  the  seed.  On  this  point  I  quote  from  Census 
Bulletin  of  1900,  No.  206  (page  10)  :  "Prior  to  the  invention  of 
the  cotton  gin  by  Eli  Whitney  in  1794,  the  separation  of  the  seed 
from  the  lint  had  to  be  done  by  hand,  a  task  being  four  pounds  of 
lint  cotton  per  week  for  each  head  of  the  family,  working  at  night 
in  addition  to  the  usual  field  work.  Thus  it  would  take  one  person 
two  years  to  turn  out  the  quantity  of  cotton  contained  in  one  aver- 
age standard  bale.  One  machine  will  gin  from  three  to  fifteen 
500-pound  bales  per  day,  dependent  upon  its  power  and  saw  ca- 
pacity. While  several  machines  had  been  invented  for  the  seed- 
ing of  cotton,  it  was  reserved  for  Eli  Whitney  to  inaugurate,  by 
his  invention,  the  era  which  was  to  perfect  the  industry  of  'cot- 
ton ginning'"  and  revolutionize  the  culture  and  commerce  of  the 
.  staple." 

And  also  on  page  11 :  "Possibly  no  invention  ever  caused  so 
rapid  a  development  of  the  industry  with  which  it  was  associated 
as  that  brought  through  the  saw  cotton  gin.  In  1793  the  expor- 
tation of  cotton  from  the  United  States  was  487,500  pounds,  or 
975  bales  of  an  average  weight  of  500  pounds.  In  1794,  the  year 
in  which  the  Whitney  gin  was  patented,  the  number  of  pounds  of 
cotton  exported  from  the  United  States  was  1,600,000,  equivalent 
to  3,200  bales  of  a  soo-pound  standard." 

In  "Eighty  Years'  Progress  of  the  United  States"  an  article 
by  Prof.  C.  F.  McCay,  of  Columbia  College,  South  Carolina, 
Page  1 13-14,  says:  "The  introduction  of  WTiitney's  gin  acted 
like  magic  on  the  planting  of  cotton.  In  eight  years,  from  1792 
to  1800,  the  exports  of  the  United  States  increased  more  than  a 
hundred-fold.     The  value  rose  from  $30,000  to  $3,000,000,  and 

95 


96  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

the  amount  from  138,000  pounds  to  18^000,000.  The  whole  of  this 
was  wanted  in  England,  and  the  rapid  increase  in  the  demand 
there  that  followed  the  general  introduction  of  Arkwright's  inven- 
tions prevented  any  decline  in  price.  The  population  of  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  where  all  of  the  cotton  was  raised,  was  only 
507,000  in  1800;  so  that  the  amount  was  $6  to  each  individual, 
including  young  and  old.  ...  In  the  next  ten  years,  from 
1801  to  1810,  the  production  increased  more  than  five-fold,  from 
18,000,000  to  93,000,000  of  pounds,  and  the  value  from  $3,000,- 
000  to  $15,000,000.  As  the  population  had  only  increased  30  per 
cent  in  these  ten  years,  and  as  the  expense  of  cotton  and  rice 
had  risen  from  94,000  to  119,000  tierces,  the  great  change  was 
in  the  transfer  of  labor  from  tobacco  to  cotton.  The  exports  of 
cotton  and  rice  in  1810  were  more  than  $30  to  each  person,  white 
and  black,  young  and  old,  male  and  female;  an  amount  which 
sufiiciently  indicates  that  nearly  the  whole  available  labor  was 
devoted  to  these  two  staples."* 

So  it  was  that  within  a  short  time  cotton  had  risen  to  be  a 
dominant  element  in  the  industrial  life  of  the  South,  and  indeed 
almost  of  the  United  States  and  we  find  the  cryjof  King  Cotton 
being  taken  up  by  the  defenders  of  the  Southern  system.  In  a 
book  which  was  extensively  circulated  as  constituting  a  sort  of 
official  statement  of  the  slaveholders'  position  entitled  "Cotton  is 
King"  by  "An  American,"  we  have  this  summed  up  as  follows, 
page  98:  "Nearly  all  the  cotton  consumed  in  the  Christian 
world  is  the  product  of  the  slave  labor  of  the  United  States.  It 
is  this  monopoly  that  has  given  slavery  its  commercial  value ;  and 
while  this  monopoly  is  retained  the  institution  will  continue  to  ex- 
tend itself "  wherever  it  can  find  room  to  spread."  This  same 
author  sums  up  the  facts  as  to  the  industrial  position  of  slave  labor 
and  the  crops  which  were  its  necessary  base  as  follows  (Page 
54) :  "Slave  labor  has  seldom  been  made  profitable  where  it  has 
been  wholly  employed  in  grazing  and  grain  growing;  but  it  be- 
comes remunerative  in  proportion  as  the  planters  can  devote  their 
attention  to  cotton,  sugar,  rice,  or  tobacco.  To  render  southern 
slavery  profitable  in  the  highest  degree  therefore,  the  slaves  must 
be  employed  upon  some  one  of  these  articles  and  be  sustained 
by  a  supply  of  food  and  draught  animals  from  Northern  agri- 
cultural States." 

Soon,  however,  it  began  to  be  apparent  that  the  bargain  of 
the  Constitution  could  not  remain  a  permanent  one.  The  two 
forms  of  the  organization  of  industry  gave  rise  to  the  two  diver- 
gent social  systems,  and  consequently  to  two  ruling  social  classes 
with  oppoSing  interests.  It  was  inevitable  that  both  of  these 
should  struggle  for  control  of  the  government.     Both  of  them 

•See  Tbomas   P.   Kettel   "Bonthern   Wealth   and  Northern   Profits."  pp, 
20-24. 


ECX)NOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAVERY  97 

were  compelled  to  grow  or  die,  and  it  was  in  the  struggle  for  the 
control  of  new  territory  that  the  contest  became  of  greatest  im- 
portance. This  conflict  had  really  begun  to  make  its  appearance 
before  the  Revolution.  Horace  Greeley,  in  his  "History  of  the 
Struggle  for  Slavery  Extension  or  Restriction  in  the  United 
States,"  page  5,  tells  us  that  "When  North  Carolina  and  Georgia 
ceded  their  western  lands,  they  especially  provided  that  slavery 
should  not  be  interfered  with  in  any  States  that  might  be  made 
from  this  territory."  The  Ordinance  of  1787,  however,  which  was 
formulated  by  Jefferson,  and  provided  for  the  organization  of 
the  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio  river,  contained  the  section 
which  has  become  so  famous  forbidding  "slavery  or  involuntary 
servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  whereof  the  party 
shall  have  been  duly  convicted." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  vote  on  this  Ordinance  (Bancroft's 
History  of  Constitution  of  United  States,  Vol.  i,  p.  115)  :  "The 
great  statute  forbidding  slavery  to  cross  the  river  Ohio  was  passed 
by  the  vote  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  Vir- 
ginia, Delaware,  New  Jersey,  New  York  and  Massachusetts,  all 
the  States  that  were  then  present  in  Congress.  .  .  .  Everyone 
said  'Aye'  excepting  Abraham  Yates,  of  New  York." 

Woodrow  Wilson,  in  his  "History  of  American  People,"  Vol. 
4,  pp.  101-102,  covers  this  point  so  thoroughly  that  I  can  do  no 
better  than  to  quote  him  entire :  "The  chief  choice  always  to  be 
made  at  every  stage  of  the  unhalting  westward  movement  was 
the  choice  concerning  slavery;  the  choice  which  had  been  de- 
bated very  temperately  at  first  when  the  great  Ordinance  for  the 
government  of  the  Northwest  Territory  was  adopted  in  the  days 
of  the  Confederation,  but  which  had  struck  many  a  spark  of 
passion  out  when  handled  again  at  the  admission  of  Missouri 
into  the  Union,  and  which  seemed  every  time  it  was  touched 
more  dangerous  and  disturbing  than  before.  Now  it  seemed  to 
lie  everywhere  at  the  front  of  affairs — not  the  question  of  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  but  the  question  of  its  territorial  extension. 
*  *  *  Slavery  within  the  States  which  were  already  members 
of  the  Union  was  an  institution  with  which  the  Federal  govern- 
ment could  have  nothing  to  do,  which  no  opinion  even  could  touch 
or  alter,  save  the  opinion  of  the  States  concerned ;  a  question  of 
domestic  law  in  respect  of  which  the  choice  of  each  little  com- 
monwealth was  sovereign  and  final  Had  the  full  roster  of  the 
States  been  made  up,  agitators  in  Congress  would  have  found 
themselves  obliged  to  confine  their  attacks  to  the  slave  trade  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  and  the  commerce  in  slaves  between  the 
States.  But  the  full  roster  of  the  States  was  not  made  up;  all 
the  great  Louisiana  purchase  remained  to  be  filled  with  them; 
and  with  the  making  of  every  community  there  must  come  again 


98  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIAliIST  REVIEW 

this  question  of  the  freedom  of  labor  or  the  extension  of  slavery. 
The  fateful  choice  was  always  making  and  to  be  made." 

So  it  was  that  there  were  continually  attempts  on  the  part  of 
the  slave  States  to  reconsider  the  decision  which  they  had  made 
during  the  confederation  with  regard  to  the  exclusion  of  slaves 
from  the  Northwest  Territory.  The  full  history  of  these  efforts 
is  to  be  found  in  Wilson's  "Rise  and  Fall  of  Slave  Power  in 
America,"  Vol.  i,  pp.  32-33,  and  in  the  work  by  Greeley,  to  which 
reference  is  made  above,  page  6,  et  seq.  The  following  quota- 
tion from  the  latter  work  concerning  one  of  these  efforts  is  par- 
ticularly interesting,  because  of  the  light  which  it  throws  on  the 
attitude  of  one  who  was  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation  of  later  years.  This  incident  took  place  March 
2,  1803  •  "J^h^^  Randolph  was  chairman  of  a  committee  having 
consideration  of  a  proposal  to  suspend  the  slavery  section  of  the 
Ordinance  of  1787,  which  reported  unanimously  as  follows:  'The 
rapid  population  of  the  State  of  Ohio  sufficiently  evinces  in  the 
opinion  of  your  committee  that  the  growth  of  slaves  is  not  ne- 
cessary to  promote  the  growth  and  settlement  of  colonies  in  that 
great  region.  That  this  labor — demonstrably  the  dearest  of  any — 
can  only  be  employed  in  the  cultivation  of  products  more  valuable 
than  any  known  to  that  quarter  of  the  United  States;  that  the 
Committee  deem  it  highly  dangerous  and  inexpedient  to  impair 
a  provision  wisely  calculated  to  promote  the  happiness  and  pros- 
perity of  the  northwestern  country,  and  to  give  strength  and  se- 
curity to  that  extensive  frontier.  In  the  salutary  operation  of 
this  sagacious  and  benevolent  restraint,  it  is  believed  that  the  in- 
habitant of  Indiana  will  at  no  very  distant  day  find  ample  re- 
muneration for  a  temporary  privation  of  labor  and  emigration." 

One  of  the  most  aggravating  things  about  the  chattel  slavery 
movement  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Northern  capitalist  was 
the  way  in  which  it  used  the  central  government  to  obtain  new 
territory.  It  bought  up  Florida  from  Spain  and  fomented 
and  carried  to  a  successful  conclusion  an  aggressive  war  with 
Mexico,  lobbied  through  the  Gadsden  purchase,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  released  without  a  struggle  territory  along  the  Northern 
boundary  which  would  have  been  closed  to  slaves  had  it  been  ac- 
quired. 

Meantime  the  two  forms  of  society  were  growing  further  and 
further  apart.  The  North  was  becoming  more  and  more  of  a 
manufacturing  country.  It  was  the  age  of  machinery.  (Wood- 
row  Wilson,  "A  History  of  the  American  People,"  p.  132)  :  '*A 
great  tide  of  immigration,  moreover,  began  to  pour  in,  such  as  the 
country  had  never  seen  before.  Until  1842  there  had  never  been 
so  many  as. a  hundred  thousand  immigrants  in  a  single  year; 
but  in  1845  there  were  two  hundred  and  fourteen  thousand,  and 
by  1849  there  were  two  hundred  and  ninety-seven  thousand  com- 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAVERY  99 

ing  in  within  a  twelvemonth,  the  tide  rising  steadily  from  year 
to  year.  These  were  years  of  deep  distress  over  sea.  1846  and 
1847  were  the  years  of  terrible  famine  in  Ireland;  1848  saw  Eu- 
ropean States  shaken  once  again  by  revolution.  Not  only  men 
out  of  Ireland,  looking  for  a  land  where  there  was  food,  but  men 
also  out  of  the  old  monarchies  of  the  Continent,  looking  for  a 
land  where  there  was  liberty — men  of  wholly  foreign  speech  and 
habit,  seeking  a  free  place  for  a  new  life,  bent  upon  their  own 
betterment,  and  thinking  little  of  aught  that  did  not  touch  .their 
own  fortunes — came  crowding  endlessly  in.  They  did  not  go  into 
the  South,  where  labor  was  not  free,  for  they  were  laborers.  They 
crowded  rather,  into  the  cities  of  the  North,  or  pushed  on  to  the 
virgin  West." 

Another  point  on  which  the  interects  of  the  ruling  class  of  the 
two  sections  were  antagonistic  was  on  the  question  of  the  tariff. 
This  point  is  so  thoroughly  covered,  and  that  from  the  material- 
ist point  of  view  by  the  writers  of  the  time,  that  I  can  do  no  bet- 
ter than  to  quote  their  words : 

"The  close  proximity  of  the  provision  and  cotton  growine 
districts  of  the  United  States  gave  its  planters  advantages  over  all 
other  portions  of  the  world.  But  they  could  not  monopolize  the 
market,  unless  they  could  obtain  a  cheap  supply  of  food  and  cloth- 
ing for  their  negroes  and  raise  their  cotton  at  such  reduced  prices 
as  to  undersell  their  rivals.  A  manufacturing  population,  with  its 
mechanical  coadjutors,  in  the  midst  of  the  provision  growers,  on  a 
scale  such  as  the  protective  policy  contemplated,  it  was  conceived, 
would  create  a  permanent  market  for  their  products  and  enhance 
the  price,  whereas,  if  their  manufacturing  could  be  prevented, 
and  a  system  of  free  trade  adopted,  the  South  would  constitute  the 
principal  provision  market  of  the  country,  and  the  fertile  lands 
of  the  North  supply  the  cheap  food  demanded  for  its  slaves.  As 
the  tariff  policy,  in  the  outset,  contemplated  the  encouragement 
of  iron,  hemp,  whisky,  and  the  establishment  of  woolen  manufac- 
tures principally,  the  South  found  its  interests  but  slightly  identi- 
fied with  the  system. 

"If  they  (the  Southern  planters)  could  establish  free  trade, 
it  would  insure  thfc  American  market  to  foreign  manufacturers, 
secure  the  foreign  markets  for  their  leading  staple,  repress  home 
manufactures,  force  a  large  number  of  the  Northern  men  into 
agriculture,  multiply  the  growth  and  diminish  the  price  of  pro- 
visions, feed  and  clothe  their  slaves  at  lower  rates,  produce  their 
cotton  for  a  third  or  fourth  of  former  prices,  and  rival  all  other 
countries  in  its  cultivation,  monopolize  the  trade  in  the  article 
throughout  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  build  up  a  commerce  and  a 
navy  that  would  make  us  the  rulers  of  the  seas."* 

•From  "Cotton  is  King"  by  "An  American." 


100  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

On  pages  80-81  he  continues  as  follows:  "They  under- 
stood the  protective  policy  as  contemplating  the  support  of 
our  country  with  home-manufactured  articles  to  the  exclusion  of 
those  of  foreign  countries.  This  would  confine  the  planters  in  the 
sale  of  this  cotton,  mainly  to  the  American  market,  and  leave  them 
in  the  power  of  monied  corporations,  which,  possessing  the  abil- 
ity, might  control  the  prices  of  their  staple,  to  the  irreparable  in- 
jury of  the  South.  With  slave  labor  they  could  not  become  manu- 
facturers, and  must,  therefore,  remain  at  the  mercy  of  the  North, 
both  as  to  food  and  clothing,  unless  the  European  markets  should 
be  retained*-  Out  of  this  conviction  grew  the  war  upon  corpora- 
tions; the  hostility  to  the  employment  of  foreign  capital  in  de- 
veloping the  mineral,  agricultural  and  manufacturing  resources 
of  the  country;  the  efforts  to  destroy  the  bonds  and  the  credit 
system;  the  attempts  to  reduce  the  currency  to  gold  and  silver; 
the  system  of  collecting  the  public  revenues  in  coin;  the  with- 
drawal of  public  moneys  from  all  banks,  as  a  basis  of  paper  cir- 
culation ;  and  the  sleepless  vigilance  of  the  South,  in  resisting  all 
systems  of  internal  improvements  by  the  general  government.  Its 
statesmen  foresaw  thlit  a  paper  currency  would  keep  up  the  price 
of  Northern  products  100  or  200  per  cent  above  the  specie  stand- 
ard; that  the  combination  of  capitalists,  whether  engaged  in 
manufacturing  wool,  cotton,  or  iron,  would  draw  off  labor  from 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  cause  large  bodies  of  the  producers 
to  become  consumers,  and  that  roads  and  canals,  connecting  the 
West  with  the  East,  were  effectual  means  of  bringing  the  agri- 
cultural and  manufacturing  classes  into  closer  proximity,  to  the 
serious  limitation  of  the  foreign  commerce  of  the  country,  the 
checking  of  the  growth  of  the  navy  and  the  manifest  injury  of  the 
planters." 

(Page  83)  :  'The  vote  of  the  West  during  the  struggle  was 
of  the  first  importance,  as  it  possessed  the  balance  of  power,  and 
could  turn  the  scale  at  will.  It  was  not  left  without  inducements 
to  co-operate  with  the  South,  in  its  measures  for  extending  slav- 
ery that  it  might  create  a  market  among  the  planters  for  its  prod- 
ucts." 

This  struggle  soon  extended  into  a  contest  to  obtain  the  votes 
of  the  Western  States,  and  both  parties  began  to  appeal  to  the 
interests  of  the  small  farmer  class  of  the  Middle  West.  The 
chattel  slave  owner  pointed  out  to  the  farmer  of  the  West  that 
the  slave  economy  demanded  the  purchase  of  muTes,  corn,  cattle 
and  hay  which  was  raised  in  that  section.  So  long  as  the 
main  avenues  of  communication  between  this  territory  and  the 
outside  world  consisted  of  the  Mississippi  river  and  its  tributaries 
this  argument  was  of  great  strength.  The  South  always  sought 
lo  keep  the  Mississippi  rjver  open,  while  over  and  over  again  the 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAVERY  101 

New  England  states  showed  apathy,  not  to  say  hostility,  to  the 
improvement  of  Mississippi  navigation. 

The  Southern  position  is  thus  stated  by  S.  S.  Marshall  in  "The 
Real  Issue,  Union  or  Disunion,"  published  in  1856,  where  he 
claims  that  the  New  England  states  have  always  opposed  the  West 
and  says  they  fought  to  open  the  Mississippi  to  trade. 

"Not  because  it  was  a  slave  territory,  but  distinctly  on  the 
ground  that  if  the  people  of  the  West  were  allowed  a  free  access 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  the  immigration  thereby  induced  would 
cripple  the  commerce  of  New  England.  *  *  *  But  the  gaT- 
lant  South  came  to  our  rescue  and  with  Jefferson  at  their  head, 
Louisiana  was  acquired,  the  fetters  struck  off  from  western 
commerce  and  a  career  of  prosperity  opened  up  to  us  unexampled 
in  the  history  of  the  world." 

The  Northern  capitalists  appealed  to  the  Western  farnier  on 
the  ground  that  the  establishment  of  manufactures  would  furnish 
a  market  for  the  raw  material  which  he  could  produce.  Very  soon 
the  political  party  of  the  North  began  to  stand  for  internal  im- 
provements in  addition  to  a  protective  tariff.  They  sought  thereby 
to  bring  the  Western  farmer,  trader  and  producer  of  raw  material 
in  general  in  closer  connection  with  their  manufactures. 

This  question  of  the  social  effects  of  routes  of  communication 
with  the  Northwest  was  summed  up  as  follows  by  an  .anonymous 
observer  in  a  work  entitled  "The  Effect  of  Secession  upon  the 
Commercial  Relations  toward  the  United  States,"  which  was 
printed  in  London  in  1861 : 

(Pp.  37  et  seq)  :  "A  few  years  ago  the  only  method  of  get- 
ting the  produce  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  Western  states  to 
market  was  to  float  it  by  its  own  gravity  down  the  Mississippi 
*  *  *  The  consumers  of  this  product  lay  to  the  northeast, 
rendering  necessary  a  circuit  of  some  7,000  miles  to  reach  dis- 
tricts separated  only  by  as  many  hundred.  The  people  of  New 
York,  consequently,  set  to  work  to  open  another  outlet  for  the 
great  valley,  in  effect  to  turn  its  great  river  into  their  magnificent 
harbor."  (Then  describes  how  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Virginia, 
Indiana  and  Illinois  constructed  canals  leading  in  the  same  direc- 
tion.) "These  works,  which  at  the  time  they  were  commenced 
were  regarded  as  superior  to  all  other  modes  of  transportation  of 
property,  as  well  as  persons,  led  to  a  great  change  in  the  direction 
of  western  produce.  Instead  of  being  sent,  every  pound  of  it, 
down  the  Mississippi,  as  formerly,  increasing  quantities  were 
turned  into  the  new  routes. 

"But  canals  could  be  constructed  only  in  a  few  localities.  A 
new  and  more  efficient  agency,  the  greatest  achievement  of  mod- 
em times,  the  railroad,  came  into  play.  Practicable  everywhere, 
they  were  commenced  in  every  part  of  the  country  and  in  the 
decade  just  closed  more  than  10,000  miles  have  been  constructed 


102  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

in  the  Northwestern  states  alone.  *  *  *  The  cost  of  the  works 
constructed  to  change  the  direction  of  the  commerce  of  the  Missis- 
sippi cannot  be  less  than  $500,000,000,  or  about  one-half  the  cost 
of  all  the  railroads  and  canals  of  the  United  States. 

"The  results  accomplished  have  been  as  vast  as  the  means 
employed,  forty-nine-fiftieths  of  all  the  produce  of  the  free  states 
of  the  West  are  turned  over  the  new  channels  leading  directly  to 
^the  districts  of  consumption.  The  importance  of  the  Mississippi 
river  and  its  outlets  as  channels  of  commerce  has  been  reduced 
in  an  equal  degree." 

As  the  slavery  contest  progressed  it  brought  out  many  inter- 
esting points  in  the  way  of  comparison  between  wage  labor  and 
chattel  slavery.  Both  parties  of  course  declared  that  they  were 
waging  the  struggle  for  the  benefit  of  the  subject  classes.  To  be 
sure,  the  chattel  slavery  owner  was  a  little  more  frank  than  the 
bourgeois  buyer  of  wage  labor  and  admitted  that  he  was  seekincr 
his  own  interest.  Yet,  as  we  shall  see  later,  he  took  good  care  to 
persuade  the  non-slave  holding  white  population  that  the  interests 
of  "the  South"  were  bound  up  in  slave  holding.  The  Northern 
abolitionists  continually  told  stories  of  the  horrors  of  Southern 
slavery,  which  stories  reached  their  climax  in  "Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin."  While  there  is  no  doubt  that  everythmg  described  in 
this  book  might  be  found  in  the  South,  and  I  have  not  the  slight- 
est desire  to  minimize  the  damnable  character  of  chattel  slavery, 
yet  the  fact  is  that  nearly  everything  if  describes,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  blood  hounds  and  rawhides,  applies  also  to  wage 
slavery. 

The  Southern  chattel  slave  owners  were  quick  to  see  this  point, 
even  though  they  did  not  dare  to  press  it  too  closely  lest  it  might 
endanger  the  entire  system  of  exploitation.  One  of  the  favorite 
arguments  made  by  the  defenders  of  chattel  slavery  was  to  point 
to  the  large  number  of  paupers  which  were  to  be  found  throughout 
the  Northern  states  as  a  proof  of  the  inferior  condition  of  the 
wage-worker.  Osgood  Mussey,  of  Cincinnati,  made  the  inost 
naive  reply  to  this  allegation  in  a  pamphlet  published  in  1849: 
"The  native  paupers  of  the  Western  states  come  mostly  from  this 
class,  the  laboring  class,  represented  in  the  South  by  slaves. 
There  is  one  saving  clause  at  the  latter  end  of  the  slave  compact — 
that  the  master  upon  appropriating  the  whole  active  life  of  the 
slave  must  support  him  in  his  old  age.     Is  not  this  pauperism? 

*  *     *     Like  this  compact  between  the  master  and  slave-labor 

*  *  *  so  is  the  maxim  which  governs  the  relation  of  society 
and  the  poor  within  the  free  states — that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
wealth  of  the  state  to  provide  for  the  comfort  of  all,  who,  through 
disability,  cannot  provide  themselves.  In  these  states  it  is  more 
economical  to  the  public,  and  more  comfortable  to  the  recipients. 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAVERY  103 

to  collect  them  into  houses,  especially  during  the  severity  of  the . 
winters." 

We  have  already  noted  the  fact  that  even  Wendell  Phillips  at 
this  time  argues  for  wage  labor  because  the  children  of  wage  work- 
ers can  be  put  to  work  earlier  than  those  of  slaves,  and  over  and 
over  again  the  superior  productive  power  of  wage  labor  is  repeated. 
One  of  these  arguments,  because  of  the  fact  that  it  is  the 
voice  of  an  organization  and  that  of  a  sect  which  has  long  been 
noted  for  its  philanthropic  motives,  sets  forth  this  position  with 
considerable  elaborateness.  The  quotation  is  taken  from  the 
report  of  a  committee  appointed  at  a  meeting  held  in  Friend's 
Hall,  Philadelphia,  in  1839: 

"We  think  the  mere  maintenance  is  here  overrated,  perhaps, 
and  the  estimate  of  50  freeman  as  equal  to  300  slaves  may  be 
considered  as  an  underrate  of  slave  labor.  The  average  cost  of  a 
slave  is  not  less  than  $500,  the  interest  of  which  is  $30.  The 
average  serviceable  period  of  a  slave's  life  does  not  exceed  21 
years,  counting  from  his  maturity ;  his  annual  depreciation,  there- 
fore, is  $24  yearly.  His  clothing  can  scarcely  be  less  than  $16 
a  year.  The  incidental  expenses  of  medical  attendance,  average 
overseership  and  loss  of  time  by  sickness,  running  away,  etc., 
may  be  put  at  $16  more,  which  together  makes  an  annual  amount 
of  $58.  What  the  slave  consumes  and  what  he  wastes  by  omis- 
sion and  commission  will  keep  a  free  laborer,  and  the  wages  of 
the  latter  will  not  rate  over  $85  in  the  South.  But  the  slave  does, 
on  an  average,  only  three-fourths  the  labor  of  a  freeman  at  most, 
leaving  a  balance  against  each  slave  of  $21.50  per  annum.  To 
this  must  be  added  the  slave's  keeping  when  past  labor,  the  pro- . 
gressive  impoverishment  of  the  land  under  slavery,  and  the  manv 
vexations  that  accompany  the  system,  independent  of  its  moral 
evils." 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  striking  illustrations  of  this  point 
is  in  a  quotation  given  by  Helper  in  his  "Impending  Crisis,"  p. 
363.  He  is  quoting  from  the  testimony  of  a  West  India  planter : 
"In  1834  I  came  into  possession  of  257  slaves,  under  the  laws  of 
England,  which  required  the  owner  to  feed,  clothe  and  furnish 
thent  with  medical  attendance.  With  this  number  I  cultivated 
my  sugar  plantation  until  the  Emancipation  Act  of  August  i, 
1838,  when  they  all  became  free.  I  now  hire  a  portion  of  those 
slaves,  the  best  and  cheapest,  of  course,  as  you  hire  men  in  the 
United  States.  The  average  number  which  I  employ  is  100,  with 
which  I  cultivate  more  land  at  a  cheaper  rate  and  make  more 
produce  than  I  did  with  257  slaves.  With  my  slaves  I  made  from 
100  to  180  tons  of  sugar  yearly.  With  100  free  negroes  I  think  T 
do  badly  if  I  do  not  annually  produce  250  tons." 

Helper  himself  also  goes  into  capitalistic  ecstasies  over  the 
possibility  of  employment  of  white  women  and  children  under 


104  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

wage  slavery  (p.  300) :  "We  want  to  see  more  plowing  or  hoeing 
or  raking  or  grain  binding  by  white  women  in  the  Southern 
states;  employment  in  cotton  mills  and  other  factories  would  h^ 
far  more  profitable  and  congenial  to  them,  and  this  they  shall 
have  within  a  short  period  after  slavery  shall  have  been  abolished." 
On  the  next  page  he  quotes  from  Cassius  M.  Qay,  of  Kentucky, 
as  follows  (p.  301)  :  "In  the  extreme  South,  at  New  Orleans, 
the  laboring  men — ^the  stevedores,  the  hackmen  on  the  levee, 
where  the  heat  is  intensified  by  the  proximity  of  the  red  brick 
buildings — are  all  white  men,  and  they  are  in  the  full  enjoyment 
of  health.  But  how  about  cotton?  I  am  informed  by  a  friend 
of  mine — himself  a  slave-holder,  and  therefore  good  authority — 
that  in  northwestern  Texas,  among  the  German  settlements,  who, 
true  to  their  national  instincts,  will  not  employ  the  labor  of  a 
slave,  they  produce  more  cotton  to  the  acre,  and  of  better  quality, 
and  selling  at  prices  from  a  cent  to  a  cent  and  a  half  a  pound 
higher  than  that  produced  by  slave  labor." 

And  he  quotes  from  Dr.  Cartwright,  of  New  Orleans,  as  fol- 
lows :  "Here  in  New  Orleans  the  larger  part  of  the  drudgery — 
work  requiring  exposure  to  the  sun,  as  railroad  making,  street 
paving,  day  driving,  ditching  and  building — is  performed  by  white 
people." 

As  the  price  of  slaves  grew  higher  in  the  South  the  care  which 
the  master  took  of  them  undoubtedly  became  greater.  Kettel  tells 
us  in  his  "Southern  Wealth  and  Northern  Profits":  "At  the 
North,  a  horse  of  $30  value  has  bestowed  upon  him  a  certain 
degree  of  care  because  of  even  that  value;  but  when  the  price 
of  the  animal  rises  to  five  and  ten  thousand  dollars,  the  care  he 
receives  becomes  princely.  *  *  *  Up  to  1808,  the  New  Eng- 
land trader  would  sell  slaves  in  the  South  at  £30  ($135)  each. 
At  a  succession  sale  in  W.  Baton  Rouge,  a  few  days  since,  the 
following  enormous  prices  were  paid  for  common  field  hands: 
One  female  negro  and  four  young,  $5 ,650;  one  male,  $4,400;  do  do, 
$3,475;  do  do,  $3,400;  do  do,  $3,305;  do  do,  $3,200.  In  Salina, 
AJa.,  a  hand  24  years  old  brought  $2,245,  ^  female  $3,205,  an- 
other hand,  $2,050.  These  prices  do  not  indicate  merely  that  the 
hand  is  worth  so  much  more  because  his  services  to  human- 
ity (I!)  have  risen  in  that  proportion^  but  they  indicate  that  he 
has  so  much  greater  hold  upon  the  consideration  of  his  master. 
That  not  only  his  material  well-being  will  be  better  cared  for, 
but  all  cruelty,  moral  and  physical,  that  might  aflfect  his  health  or 
diminish  his  usefulness,  will  be  more  strictly  prohibited ;  that  the 
powers  of  overseers  will  be  restrained ;  that  his  moral  culture  as 
conducive  to  his  physical  usefulness  will  be  cared  for,  and  the 
path  thus  laid  open  to  his  highest  mental  and  material  develop- 
ment." 

This  same  author  tells  us  on  p.  loi  that  "A  considerable  num- 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OP  CHATTEL  SLAVERY  105 

bcr  of  alien  laborers  have  of  late  years  been  employed  South  in 
the  winter  in  drainage  and  such  employments,  as  careful  masters 
think  too  unhealthy  for  valuable  blacks." 

The  following  quotations  taken  from  "An  Inquiry  Into  the 
Conditions  and  Prospects  of  the  African  Race  in  the  United 
States"  by  "An  American/'  published  in  1839,  will  illustrate  the 
attitude  taken  by  some  writers  at  this  time.  He  says,  on  page 
98,  "as  soon  as  the  demand  for  manufacturing  laborers  shall  be 
exhausted  by  the  supply,  competition  will  reduce  the  wages  to  a 
bare  subsistence,  and  then  the  employer  will  control  the  laborer 
almost  without  responsibility." 

But  it  remains  for  one  James  Shannon,  in  a  pamphlet  on 
"Domestic  Slavery,"  printed  in  1855,  to  set  forth  a  harmony  of 
interest  doctrine  in  relation  to  chattel  slavery  that  might  well 
excite  the  admiration  of  Mark  Hanna  and  the  Civic  Federation 
(p.  15)  :  "The  relation  of  master  and  slave  is  merely  that  of 
debtor  and  creditor  extended ;  namely,  to  services  for  life.  *  *  * 
(p.  16)  This  relation  (chattel  slavery),  too,  when  properly  con- 
templated is  much  more  independent,  dignified  and  endearing  than 
that  of  hireling.  There  is  an  identity  of  interest,  and  there  fre- 
quently is  and  always  should  be  one  of  sympathy  between  master 
and  slave ;  but  no  such  identity  exists  between  master  and  hireling. 
*  *  *  It  must  not  be  forgotten  or  overlooked  that  the  rela- 
tions of  master  and  slave  are  correlative  and  the  duties  of  these 
relations  reciprocal.  Both  legally  and  morally,  the  master  as  truly 
belongs  to  the  slave  for  the  performance  of  a  master's  duties  as 
the  slave  belongs  to  the  master  for  the  performance  (when  able) 
of  a  slave's  duties.  In  this  respect  each  may  with  equal  propriety 
be  said  to  own  the  other.  Hence,  in  decrepitude  from  sickness 
or  old  age,  the  slave  can  say,  "I  have  all  things  and  abound.  I 
own  a  master,  whose  sole  estate  and  whose  own  personal  energies 
are  pledged  for  my  support."  The  slave  is,  therefore,  independ- 
ent and  happy.  Not  so  the  poor  hireling  who  is  wholly  dependent 
on  his  daily  labor  for  his  daily  bread.  In  sickness  or  old  age,  and 
often  at  other  times,  his  only  prospect  is  starvation,  or  the  re- 
pulsive charity  of  a  selfish  and  often  heartless  world. 

"In  the  very  nature  of  things,  then,  no  such  identity  of  interest 
or  sympathy  of  feeling  can  possibly  exist  between  the  master  and 
the  hired  servant,  as  we  have  seen  to  exist  between  the  master 
and  slave.  On  the  contrary,  the  relation  of  master  and  hired 
servant  is  purely  mercenary,  and  the  interest  of  the  two  parties 
antagonistic,  rather  than  identical.  Each  is  impelled  continually 
by  sdfishness  to  obtain  the  greatest  possible  amount  whether  of 
service  or  of  hire,  for  the  least  possible  equivalent." 

A.  M.  Simons. 
(To  be  continued.) 


Metaphysics  and  Socialism 

I  sources  from  which  all  phhe  article  in  the  July  number  of 
critics.  It  is  quite  true,  as  y  Wood  Simons  replies  to  her 
the  Review  in  which  Ma  she  says,  that  there  are  two  great 
HAVE  read  with  interest  tilosophy  proceeds — ^idealism  and 
materialism.  But  it  appears  to  my  mind  that  it  makes  no  dif- 
ference, so  far  as  socialism  is  concerned,  whether  we  derive  our 
philosophy  of  first  principles  from  the  one  or  from  the  other. 

The  idealist  says  that  the  Absolute  Spirit  is  striving  to  ex- 
press itself  outwardly  through  humanity  in  positive  laws  and  in- 
stitutions which  shall  make  the  ideas  of  truth  and  justice  tangi- 
ble realities;  and  that  wicked  men  are  trying  to  crush  back  the 
Spirit  and  prevent  it  from  coming  into  light  and  life.  Can  any- 
one desire  a  better  metaphysical  ground  for  socialism  than  this  ? 

The  materialist,  on  the  other  hand,  takes  his  departure  from 
physical  law,  and  sees  in  society  and  government,  as  actually  ex- 
isting, an  organization  which,  to  secure  the  well  being  of  the  few, 
dooms  the  great  mass  of  mankind  to  a  mutilated  existence  of  ig- 
norance, want  and  misery.  And  this  basis  of  Socialism  is  quite 
as  firm*  as  that  of  the  idealist. 

Both  idealist  and  materialist  recognize  the  essential  and  basic 
truth  that  the  human  individual,  in  virtue  of  being  bom  into 
the  world,  and  without  any  further  ground  of  claim,  is  entitled 
to  the  enjo3mient  of  all  the  means  necessary  for  the  full  devel- 
opment and  perfection  of  his  nature,  physical,  intellectual  and 
moral.  And  I  apprehend  that  it  is  not  a  matter  of  any  moment 
whether  we  say  with  the  idealist  that  this  is  a  divine  right,  or 
with  the  materialist  that  the  right  accrues  under  the  natural  law. 

It  is  worthy  of  mention  in  this  connection  that,  in  their  great 
revolution,  the  French  people,  while  openly  professing  the  most 
thorough-going  materialism,  and  boasting  of  it,  manifested  in 
their  action  a  sublime  idealism  never  before  witnessed  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world. 

There  is,  then,  not  the  least  occasion  for  a  quarrel  among  So- 
cialists over  the  question  of  idealism  and  materialism.  Plato  was 
an  idealist  of  the  purest  type.  He  believed,  however,  that  to 
bring  idealism  to  the  people,  economic  conditions  must  first  be 
remodeled  so  as  to  conform  to  justice,  and  he  constructed  a  State 
in  which  these  conditions  would  conform  to  this  idea.  His  State 
is  very  far  from  what  the  twentieth  century  demands,  but  the 
principle  of  its  construction  stands  like  a  rock.  And  it  is  not 
unworthy  of  notice  that  the  first  rough  draft  of  the  cooperative 

108 


METAPHYSICS  AND  SOCIALISM  107 

commonwealth  came  from  the  hands  of  Plato,  the  father  of  ideal- 
ism in  our  western  world. 

In  fact,  Socialism  and  idealism  have  no  point  of  contact.  The 
region  of  the  idealist  is  the  supersensible — ^the  noufnenal,  as  Kant 
calls  it.  This  region  is  confined  to  the  consciousness  of  the  in- 
dividual, and  in  this  region  the  individual  has  no  manner  of  re- 
lation to  other  members  of  society,  and  hence,  in  this  respect, 
he  is  outside  the  sphere  of  society.  There  is  no  earthly  reason 
why  idealist  and  materialist  cannot  fight  side  by  side  with  equal 
zeal  and  enthusiasm  in  the  great  world-battle  which  is  now  on 
between  humanity  on  the  one  side  and  the  powers  of  darkness  in 
high  places  on  the  other. 

I  heartily  agree  with  the  writer  of  the  article  above  referred 
to,  that:  "Few  indeed  are  the  American  scholars  who  would 
father  the  statement,"  made  by  her  critic,  that  the  freedom  of 
Cuba  and  the  acquisition  of  the  Philippines  was  "in  no  degree 
prompted  by  the  hope  of  economic  benefits." 

William  Macon  Coleman. 
Washington,  D.  C 


Oh,  World's  Oppressedl 

O       WORLD'S  oppressed  of  every  name, 
Sustaining  scorn,  starvation,  shame! 
^  Calling  and  calling :  assuming  control. 
J  Hark,  to  the  summons  saluting  your  soul ! 
Sending  you  forth  to  the  quest  of  the  world — 
Sending,  that  tyranny  down  may  be  hurled. 

O,  world's  oppressed  of  every  name — 
Mere  pawns  where  monarchs  play  the  game ! 

Hark,  how  the  masters  are  laughing  at  you — 

Laughing,  that  loafing  and  feasting,  the  few 

Live  on  your  labor  and  lull  you  with  lies — 

Promising  plenty :  suppressing  your  cries. 

O,  world's  oppressed  of  every  name, 

For  all  your  ills,  assume  the  blame ! 
True,  there  are  chains — ^and  your  children  are  slaves ! 
True,  you  have  title  to  nothing  but  graves ! 
False — as  their  threats  of  a  bottomless  pit — 
False,  that  enduring  you  need  here  to  sit. 

O,  world's  oppressed  of  every  name. 

Arise,  arise,  with  souls  aflame! 
See,  there  are  centuries  yet  for  the  race ! 
See,  there  is  dawning  the  day  of  your  grace ! 
Dawning — ^and  daring  to  deeds  of  the  free — 
What  shall  the  verdict  of  centuries  be? 

O,  world's  oppressed  of  every  name. 

Behold !  to  you  this  message  came : 
Ask,  and  the  world  shall  be  given  to  you; 
Seek,  and  the  world  shall  surrender  the  clue; 
Knock,  and  the  nobles  of  earth  shall  obey. 
KNOCK :  oh,  the  knocking  that  heralds  your  day ! 

Edwin  Arnold  Brenholts. 


EDITORIAL 


The  Farmer  and  Wageworker  in  the  Socialist  Party 

A  rather  warm  controversy  is  just  now  going  on  as  to  the  functions 
which  these  two  divisions  of  the  producing  classes  are  to  play  in  the 
Socialist  Party.  In  some  respects  it  is  largely  a  tempest  in  a  tea  pot  and 
there  is  some  reason  to  think  that  some  of  its  features,  at  least,  have  been 
exaggerated  because  of  its  value  to  a  few  individuals. 

Some  rather  ridiculous  propositions  have  been  put  forward  in  relation 
to  the  immediate  and  future  material  interests  of  the  farmer.  It  has  been 
stated  that  the  immediate  interest  of  the  farmer  lies  in  the  perpetuity  of 
private  property  while  the  wageworker  is  immediately  interested  in  its 
abolition.  Another  assertion  which  is  coupled  with  this  is  that  everybody 
follows  their  immediate  interests.  Whatever  may  be  true  of  the  first  state- 
ment the  second  is  certainly  ridiculously  untrue  and, at  complete  variance 
with  the  Socialist  philosophy  and  partictdarly  with  the  Marxian  wing  of 
Socialism  and  the  doctrine  of  the  class  struggle.  It  is  just  because  Social- 
ists see  that  men  can  be  made  to  sink  their  immediate  personal  and  individ- 
ual interests  in  their  class  interests  that  class-conscious  action  of  the  work- 
ers is  possible.  The  momentary  individual  interest  of  the  wageworker  is 
the  prosperity  of  his  employer  and  the  increase  of  the  rate  of  production, 
since  only  under  such  conditions  is  there  a  possibility,  though  to  be  sure 
by  no  means  a  certainty,  of  better  wages.  This  is  the  grain  of  truth  in 
the  "identity  of  interest"  argimicnt  so  glibly  repeated  by  the  labor  fakir. 

But  the  interest  of  the  wageworker  as  a  class  lies  in  the  abolition  of 
the  employing  class  and  with  it  the  entire  wage  system.  Hence  it  is  that 
we  ask  the  individual  to  forego  his  immediate  interest  as  an  individual 
which  might  probably  be  better  furthered  by  fawning  on  his  employer, 
working  overtime,  and,  in  general,  merging  himself  in  the  interests  of  his 
master,  and  instead  to  throw  himself,  with  his  class,  into  an  effort  to  bet- 
ter the  condition  of  all  and  ultimately  abolish  wage  slavery. 

When  we  turn  to  the  farmer  it  is  evident  at  once  that  the  questions  of 
immediate,  individual  and  class  interests  are  by  no  means  as  simple  as 
with  the  wageworker.  His  exploitation  and  his  social  relations  are  much 
more  complex.  This  is  only  one  of  man^  reasons  why  it  will  be  difficult 
to  win  him  for  Socialism,  and  incidentally  is  a  reason  why  there  is  never 
the  remotest  danger  of  his  capturing  the  Socialist  Party.  His  immediate 
individual  interest  consists  in  securing  larger  crops  and  higher  prices,  a 
matter  which  is  to  a  large  extent  beyond  his  immediate  control.  Some 
comrades  have  claimed  that  his  immediate  interests  lie  in  the  reduction 
of  railroad  freights  and  the  decentralization  of  trustified  industry.  A  very 
slight  knowledge  of  economics,  especially  of  Socialist  economists,  would 

109 


no  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

have  shown  that  these  will  afford  the  farmer  no  relief  whatever.  The  com- 
petition between  farmers  with  the  vast  extent  of  still  uncultivated  land,  and 
the  almost  limitless  possibility  of  increasing  the  productivity  of  that  now 
cultivated  makes  it  certain  that  the  farmer  would  never  receive  any  benefit 
from  any  change  in  railroad  rates.  Just  how  decentralization  of  industry 
would  help  him  no  one  has,  as  yet,  attempted  to  explain.  That  he  has  been 
fooled  into  believing  he  was  interested  in  such  measures  is  of  no  more  im- 
portance than  the  fact  that  a  majority  of  the  workers  believed  that  their 
interests  were  bound  up  in  a  full  dinner  pail  or  free  silver  at  the  last  presi- 
dential election. 

In  considering  the  question  of  the  farmer  there  are  one  or  two  facts 
which  might  as  well  be  admitted.  In  the  first  place  it  is  high  time  that 
Socialists  who  make  any  pretence  to  scientific  accuracy,  or  even  to  the 
possession  of  common  sense,  should  recognize  the  fact  of  the  permanence 
of  the  small  farm  oWner.  We  may  juggle  with  figures  and  dream  and  the- 
orize as  much  as  we  will,  but  the  fact  remains  that  neither  concentration, 
nor  tenantry,  nor  mortgages  have  as  yet  shown  any  sign  of  encroaching  on 
the  number  of  small  farm  owners.  On  the  contrary,  such  owners  have 
increased  in  numbers  continuously  and  increased  most  rapidly  where  agri- 
culture is  most  highly  developed.  The  confusion  on  this  point  grows  from 
the  fact  that  with  the  immense  number  of  new  farms  that  are  being  added 
to  the  total  number  of  farms,  a  large  percentage  are  mortgaged  or  operated 
by  tenants.  But  of  the  old  farms  there  has  as  yet  been  no  evidence  of 
any  decrease  as  to  those  owned  and  this  is  the  whole  point  under  discus- 
sion. 

Now,  the  number  of  these  small  farm  owners  is  sufficient  when  com- 
bined with  those  who  are  directly  interested,  both  individually  and  as  a 
class,  in  the  capitalist  method  of  exploitation  to  perpetuate  that  system — 
IF  the  interests  of  the  farmers  demand  perpetuity,  and  political  action  is 
capable  of  checking  economic  development.  These  are  two  very  large  "ifs," 
however.  Some  comrades  accept  this  philosophy  which  is  largely  that  held 
by  the  opportunist  school  in  Europe,  without,  however,  being  logical 
enough  to  accept  the  opportunist  programme  which  such  a  philosophy 
demands. 

Standing  as  we  do  on  the  materialistic  interpretation  of  history  and  the 
doctrine  of  the  class  struggle  as  fundamental  principles  of  our  social  phil- 
osophy, we  do  not  believe  that  the  opportunist  or  the  Utopian  impossibilist 
position  is  a  scientific  one;  that  is  to  say,  one  which  is  in  accord  with 
facts. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  the  principles  of  scientific  Socialism  certain 
things  seem  evident  to  us.  In  the  first  place,  the  wage  earners  will  always 
be  the  dominant  element  in  any  Socialist  movement,  or  in  any  movement 
which  has  for  its  object  the  overthrow  of  capitalism.  This  will  be  not 
because  of  any  silly  rules  as  to  membership  which  would  raise  occupation 
distinctions  within  the  Socialist  party  and  which  are  absolutely  at  variance 
with  the  whole  international  Socialist  position  and  indicate  a  cowardly 
fear  of  elements  which  we  do  not  feel  able  to  meet  in  other  ways.  Wage 
workers  will  dominate  in  any  such  revolutionary  movement  because  they 
are  the  distinctive  product  of  capitalism  and  because  their  concentration  in 
factories  for  work  and  in  cities  for  dwelling  makes  possible  the  class-con- 
sciousness which  cannot  arise  in  more  isolated  groups  of  producers,  and 
also  because  of  the  fact  that  they  represent  the  more  energetic  and  rebellious 


THE  FARMER  IN  THE  SOCIALIST  PARTY.  Ill 

portion  of  our  present  society.  The  migration  from  the  country  to  the 
city  is  always  of  these  elements,  leaving  the  more  conservative  and  less 
energetic  behind.  It  will  be  recognized  at  once  that  the  Western  States 
present  an  exception  to  this  latter  proposition,  although  not  to  the  others. 
The  class  struggle  which  Socialism  recognizes  is  one  between  the  exploiters 
and  the  exploited,  the  producers  and  the  pai^asites.  Since  the  wagework- 
ing  proletariat  constitutes  the  great  essential  dominating  portion  of  the 
producing  exploited  class  they  must  always  constitute  the  dominating  ele- 
ment in  the  Socialist  movement  But  this  does  not  mean  that  we  are  not 
to  welcome  to  our  ranks  any  one  who  is  willing  to  accept  the  Socialist 
position  and  throw  in  his  destinies  on  the  side  of  the  producing  exploited 
class  in  this  class  struggle.  The  way  to  keep  our  movement  clear  from 
capitalist  influence  is  not  to  exclude  certain  members  of  the  exploited  class 
but  to  insist  that  all  who  come  in  accept  the  fact  of  the  class  struggle  and 
its  logical  outcome.  This,  too,  will  be  mainly  secured  not  by  any  artificial 
restrictions  on  membership  or  any  childish  catechism  or  system  of  train- 
ing, but  by  the  widest  freedom  of  discussion  and  dissemination  of  Social- 
ist literature. 

Unfortunately  there  are  some  very  deplorable  features  of  this  present 
contest  which,  although  superficial,  tend  to  complicate  it.  It  appears  to 
us  as  if  some  individuals  had  taken  advantage  of  the  quarrel  to  enroll  them- 
selves as  leaders  upon  one  side  or  the  other  and  to  exaggerate  the  impor- 
tance of  the  elements  which  they  claim  to  represent.  One  phase  of  this  has 
a  specially  familiar  ring  to  those  who  went  through  the  old  fight  within 
the  Socialist  Labor  Party.  It  was  the  main  stock  in  trade  of  the  little 
politicians  who  clung  with  De  Leon  that  they  were  the  only  clear-cut, 
class-conscious,  etc.,  fellows.  By  constant  reiteration  they  really  succeeded 
in  making  some  people  believe  that  what  they  said  was  true,  and  that  all 
who  opposed  them  were  muddled  and  confused.  The  same  effort  is  being 
made  at  the  present  time  by  the  same  class  within  the  Socialist  Party.  A 
little  body  of  men,  almost  exclusively  professional  agitators,  editors  and 
party  officials,  are  shrieking  and  screaming  about  the  great  danger  to  the 
wage  working  movement.  They  are  continually  shouting  about  the  need  of 
clear  economics,  but  unfortunately  are  themselves,  in  many  cases,  most 
ridiculously  ignorant  and  confused.  We  have  not  the  least  hesitation  in  say- 
ing that  we  could  find  in  the  publication  of  this  division  and  in  the  speeches 
which  its  members  have  made  more  examples  of  ignorance  of  primary 
Socialist  truths  and  confusion  as  to  Socialist  doctrines  than  has  appeared 
in  almost  any  of  the  papers  against  which  they  are  railing. 

There  is  this  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  comrades  who  are  supposed  to 
represent  the  farmer  element,  or  the  "new"  element,  or  the  "western" 
element,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  that  they  at  least  have  shown  sonie  will- 
ingness to  learn,  while  their  opponents  seem  to  look  upon  themselves  as 
having  become  endowed  with  the  cloak  of  infallibility. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  but  what  the  Socialist  Party  has  the 
greatest  need  of  this  class  of  small  politicians  and  professional  agitators. 
They  are  men  who  are  generally  willing  to  do  much  very  necessary  and 
rather  disagreeable  work  for  the  sake  of  the  little  brief  authority  which 
they  receive,  but  they  are,  of  all  men,  the  most  unsafe  from  which  to  take 
counsel  as  to  tactics.  They  are  always  afraid  that  their  little  machine  will 
be  upset.  They  instinctively  realize  their  own  smallness  and  are  fright- 
ened lest  the  party  grow  too  large  for  them  to  control.    They  constantly 


112  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIKW 

lend  themselves  to  intrigues  and  ring  rule,  and  this  with  the  very  best  of 
motives.  Very  few  of  them  are  now,  or  have  been  for  some  time  past, 
wageworkers.  While  under  ordinary  circumstances  it  would  be  disreputa- 
ble to  raise  this  point,  yet  it  cannot  but  be  suggested  when  such  a  hue 
and  cry  is  being  raised  about  maintaining  the  control  of  the  party  by  wage- 
workers.  Furthermore,  the  attempted  revival  of  the  brag  and  bluster  which 
we  have  so  long  asscyriated  with  De  Leonism  is  disgusting.  This  blowing 
about  having  whipped  everything  in  sight  by  people  whose  marvelous 
abilities  as  gladiators  has  not  been  so  pronounced  as  to  justify  any  over- 
whelming admiration  for  their  prowess,  does  not  carry  conviction.  Too 
frequently  wc  have. witnessed  the  ignominious  defeat  of  Socialist  Labor 
Party  men  who  had  been  filled  with  the  sort  of  courage  that  proceeds  from 
New  York,  and  who  had  started  out  to  annihilate  some  poor  "kangaroo" 
in  order  to  have  the  glory  of  writing  it  up  for  **The  People." 

At  the  same  time  we  feel  that  there  is  undoubtedly  some  cause  for 
complaint  concerning  some  features  of  the  Western  movement.  We  feci 
that  the  attempt  which  has  been  made  by  some  comrades  to  build  up  organ- 
izations alongside  of  the  Socialist  Party  is  something  to  be  deprecated.  It 
also  tends  to  the  creation  of  cliques  and  rings  and  to  the  creation  of  a 
"holier  than  thou"  spirit  which  has  no  place  in  the  Socialist  movement. 
The  place  for  the  person  who  wishes  to  work  for  Socialism,  and  especially 
for  the  Socialist  Party,  is  within  the  organization,  and  once  within  the 
organization,  it  is  his  duty  to  work  in  accord  with  it.  This  does  not  mean 
that  he  does  not  have  the  right  to  criticise  it  as  severely  as  he  wishes  and 
to  work  for  its  alteration.  But  nothing  is  gained  by  encouraging  outside 
organizations,  or  co-operating  with  elements  outside  the  party,  even  if,  in 
some  cases,  these  elements  may  appear  to  him  to  be  more  nearly  right  than 
the  party  membership. 

Just  in  closing  it  would  be  more  convincing  if  some  of  the  men  who  are 
raising  so  much  of  a  fuss  would  give  a  few  definite  examples  of  the  terri- 
ble tendency  toward  compromise  which  they  claim  exists.  Who  has  pro- 
posed fusion,  or  the  adoption  of  any  tactics  tainted  with  capitalism?  It 
will  not  do  to  simply  say  that  certain  persons  do  not  preach  scientific  social- 
ist economics,  because  the  writings  and  speeches  of  some  of  the  accusers 
speak  too  eloquently  of  their  inability  to  recognize  such  teachings  if  they 
heard  them.  Let  us  have  something  definite  as  to  issues,  and  less  of  per- 
sonalities and  abstractions.  Let  us  have  less  bluff,  bluster,  bragga- 
docio and  "buzz-saw"  and  more  facts.  We  will  assure  them  that  the 
very  moment  that  they  point  out  any  tendency  within  the  Socialist  Party 
to  deviate  from  the  position  of  clear-cut,  class-conscious  revolutionary 
Socialism  (and  these  words  are  something  more  to  us  than  canting  phrases 
with  which  to  conjure  the  ignorant)  they  will  find  us  fighting  as  vigorously 
as  any  one  against  such  tendencies.  But  we  do  not  believe  in  this  attempt 
to  maintain  a  machine  and  scare  ofT  all  criticism  by  throwing  up  a  mass 
of  mud  and  indulging  in  wholesale  abuse. 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


"Hell's  broke  loose  in  Texas!"  is  the  somewhat  startling  saying  that 
has  become  more  or  less  popularized  in  the  Southwest,  and  it  expresses  the 
present  situation  correctly  so  far  as  organized  labor  is  concerned.  Readers 
of  the  Review  will  recall  that  mention  was  made  in  this  department  several 
months  ago  that  the  Texas  legislature  had  enacted  an  anti-trust  law  under 
the  provisions  of  which  trade  unions  could  be  attacked  in  the  courts.  The 
Texas  unionists  attempted  to  have  the  law  changed,  but  were  unsuccessful, 
and  the  attorney-general  wrote,  to  President  Gompers,  of  the  A.  F.  of  L., 
in  reply  to  an  inquiry,  that  ihere  was  no  cause  for  alarm,  as  the  law  would 
not  be  enforced  against  the  unions.  But  what  is  the  result?  Were  the 
criminal  trusts  proceeded  against?  Not  a  single  capitalistic  combine  was 
driven  from  the  state.  On  the  contrary,  Attorney-General  Bell,  who  pos- 
sesses a  treacherous  memory,  and  District  Attorney  Bee  have  begun  pro- 
ceedings against  the  Electrical  Workers*  Union  of  San  Antonio  for  $6,000 
damages  for  boycotting,  and  for  an  additional  $50  a  day  for  every  day  that 
the  boycott  is  continued,  and  the  anti-trust  law  is  the  weapon  that  is  being 
used  against  the  unionists.  These  Bourbon  hypocrites  never  intended  to 
smash  the  trusts.  If  the  truth  were  known  it  would  probably  demonstrate 
the  fact  that  the  anti-trust  law  was  enacted  for  blackmailing  purposes,  to 
furnish  boodle  for  corrupt  politicians.  The  unions,  having  no  boodle  to 
feed  the  hungry  grafters,  will  be  bled  in  another  way.  In  addition  to  this 
case,  as  well  as  the  damage  suits  reported  in  the  last  couple  of  numbers  of 
the  Review,  several  more  can  be  mentioned.  There  seems  to  be  a  regular 
craze  in  Chicago  to  mulct  the  tmions.  Another  suit  has  been  commenced 
in  that  city  and  the  sheet  metal  workers  are  in  this  one.  An  independent 
contractor  charges  that  the  bosses'  association  and  the  union  conspired 
to  drive  him  out  of  business,  and  he  wants  both  sides  to  soothe  his  wounded 
feelings  with  $100,000.  Still  another  case  has  been  begun  by  the  Bourbon 
bosses  in  Richmond,  Va.,  who  want  $10,000  from  the  stone  masons  for 
refusing  to  work  on  boycotted  material.  So  the  new  scheme  to  disrupt 
unions  and  confiscate  their  treasuries  is  spreading  to  every  section  of  the 
country,  and  Democratic  and  Republican  politicians  are  doing  nothing  to 
hamper  Democratic  and  Republican  capitalists  from  injuring  organized 
labor.  All  the  same,  the  rank  and  file  are  rapidly  learning  that  there  is  a 
class  struggle,  and  they  will  strike  back  at  the  polls  through  the  Socialist 
party,  no  matter  what  the  views  of  a  few  back-number  leaders,  so-called, 
may  be. 

It  is  well  that  the  Socialist  Party  has  taken  a  firm  stand  on  the  so- 
called  negro  question,  and  that  Eugene  V.  Debs,  G.  A.  Hoehn,  A.  M. 
Simons  and  other  writers  and  speakers  have  delivered  some  sledge-hammer 
blows  through  the  Review  and  other  party  publications  along  this  line. 

118 


Ill  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

There  is  no  doubt  that  a  surreptitious  attempt  is  being  made  to  make  an 
"issue"  out  of  the  unfortunate  race  hatred  that  is  being  engendered  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country,  just  as  the  politicians  have  played  the  l^orth 
against  the  South  and  the  Protestants  against  the  Catholics  in  the  past  to 
obscure  the  economic  problems  that  pressed  for  solution.  Tariff,  imperial- 
ism and  finance  are  dead  issues,  and  the  bosses  are  aiming  to  stave  off  a 
discussion  of  the  dangerous  trust  question  by  arraying  the  black  and  white 
laboring  people  against  each  other.  This  view  is  clearly  substantiated  by 
the  action  at  Yale,  the  institution  presided  over  by  the  scab-loving  Hadley, 
where  the  Townsend  prize  was  awarded  in  the  law  school  to  .George  Will- 
iam Crawford,  a  young  colored  man  of  Birmingham,  Ala.  His  address  was 
entitled  "Trades  Unionism  and  Patriotism,"  and  the  portion  that  won  the 
ecomiums  of  plutocracy  and  quite  likely  the  prize  was  clothed  in  these 
words:  "The  vicious  syllogism  that  labor  creates  wealth  and  wealth  be- 
longs to  those  who  create  it  and  doctrines  which  flow  from  it  have  been 
universally  adopted  by  the  workingmen  and  the  trades  union  as  the  means 
by  which  they  hope  to  regain  their  loss.  The  union  reduces  all  to  a  com- 
mon level ;  makes  worthy  support  unworthy ;  prevents  honest  citizens  from 
serving  their  country;  disregards  rights  of  individuals  and, of  the  com- 
munity, and  finally  stands  for  lawlessness  and  disorder.  No  completer  in- 
dictment could  be  made  against  the  patriotism  of  trades  unionism  than 
proof  of  these  facts.  And  for  this  proof  we  have  but  to  turn  to  the  events 
of  a  single  year.  Let  organized  labor  seek  vindication  in  the  forum  of  rea- 
son; let  it  seek  redress  by  just  and  lawful  means,  remembering  that  it 
always  has  that  ultimate  court  of  appeal — the  conscience  of  a  great  people, 
a  great  country  of  equity,  where  legal  forms  and  fictions  avail  not  against 
justice."  Without  attempting  to  reply  to  the  peculiar  philosophy  contained 
in  the  foregoing,  which  can  be  riddled  by  any  novice  in  social  science,  there 
is  reason  to  suspicion  that  the  Yale  plutocrats  passed  the  prize  to  Crawford 
for  two  reasons:  First,  to  give  public  expression  of  their  contempt  for 
labor,  and,  secondly,  with  the  expectation  that  it  would  intensify  the  hatred 
of  one  race  against  the  other.  But  these  conspirators  will  find  that  their 
transparent  schemes  will  be  perforated.  The  Socialists  and  trade  imion 
spokesmen  are  as  keen  as  they;  and  capitalism's  new  "issue"  will  be  bat- 
tered into  smithereens  by  the  class-conscious  workers  of  America. 

There  is  a  well-founded  belief  that,  despite  the  "prosperity"  bluster  of 
editorial  writers,  the  big  capitalists  are  preparing  for  another  period  of  in- 
dustrial depression.  Western  newspapers  have  been  printing  stories  in 
their  news  columns  that  large  speculators  and  trusts  are  now  preparing  to 
force  a  panic  to  cause  a  depression  that  will  throw  many  industries  into 
idleness,  and  thus,  while  they  gobble  up  the  stocks  at  a  low  price,  will  also 
break  up  the  labor  unions,  the  latter  being  the  principal  object  of  the  move. 
They  hope  to  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone.  Henry  Qews,  "Divine"  Baer, 
Senator  Hanna,  the  New  York  Board  of  Trade  and  a  whole  brood  of  daily 
papers,  headed  by  the  New  York  Sun,  have  been  telling  us  for  some  time 
that  unless  organized  labor  ceases  to  make  "unreasonable  demands,"  that 
discourage  investment  and  cut  down  profits,  "capital  is  likely  to  take  a  holi- 
day." Whether  an  industrial  panic  comes  this  year  or  next,  and  whether 
the  conspirators  succeed  in  putting  a  stop  to  the  unprecedented  work  of 
organizing  unions,  the  fact  remains  that  the  big  capitalistic  sponge  which 
has  been  inflated  by  the  formation  of  trusts  is  being  squeezed,  and  hun- 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR  ;;:  115 

dreds  and  thousands  of  small-fry,  get-rich-quick  capitalists,  who  invested 
the  pennies  that  they  fleeced  from  labor  for  wind  and  water,  are  being  beau* 
tifuUy  shorn.  They  purchased  common  stock  and  the  market  has  been 
hammered  down  to  a  point  that  means  a  billion-dollar  loss  for  the  little 
fellows,  who  are  now  enabled  to  frame  thei;'  certificates  and  hang  them  in 
the  cellar  and  dream  of  the  days  when  they  were  trust  magnates  (?).  Old 
Russell  Sage  declares  that  Rockefeller  and  Morgan  "do  not  make  money 
out  of  each  other."  They  add  to  their  pile  no  matter  what  the  condition 
of  the  market  is.  As  unionists  we  are  wasting  no  sympathy  on  the  bank- 
rupts and  weaklings.  What's  bothering  us  is,  are  our  dear  old  employers, 
the  manufacturers  and  merchants,  mixed  up  in  the  financial  legerdemain 
on  Wall  street,  and  are  they  likely  to  have  their  working  capital  confiscated 
by  the  big  fellows?  If  so,  they  may  try  to  cover  their  losses  by  beating 
down  wages  or  close  their  shops  and  throw  labor  out  of  work.  Th^t  would 
mean  a  slacking  of  union  activity.  These  are  some  of  the  fruits  of  the 
capitalistic  system  wherein  many  workingmen  believe  they  cannot  live  with- 
out a  master,  like  the  negro  slaves  once  did. 

Despite  all  obstacles  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  is  making  tre- 
mendous progress,  and  probably  by  the  time  the  Boston  convention  assem- 
bles the  organization  will  have  in  excess  of  2,000,000  members.  At  the 
present  time  the  A.  F.  of  "L.  has  1,050  commissioned  organizers  in  the 
field,  and  from  the  reports  being  received  all  of  them  are  being  kept  busy. 
ITjere  were  2,542  organizations  affiliated  with  the  Federation  on  May  i,  and 
107  of  that  number  are  national  and  international  unions,  with  from  ten  to 
1,500  local  unions  each.  It  shows  the  immense  growth  of  the  trades  union 
movement  in  this  country,  and  it  is  not  stretching  the  situation  a  particle 
by  estimating  that,  counting  the  unattached  nationals,  the  railway  brother- 
hoods and  the  Western  unionists,  there  are  fully  2,500,000  organized  men 
and  women  in  the  country. 

Mayor  Sullivan,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  who  was  elected  by  a  local  Union 
Labor  party,  is  in  hot  water.  Mr.  Sullivan  is  quoted  as  saying  that  the 
"walking  delegate"  should  be  abolished,  because  he  is  entrusted  with  too 
much  power ;  because  he  is  tempted  to  abuse  the  trust  put  in  him,  and  his 
interest  is  in  fomenting  trouble  and  not  in  preventing  it,  and  because  he  is 
too  expensive.  This  is  precisely  the  position  that  is  taken  by  the  bosses' 
combines,  and  the  mayor  is  being  denounced  in  strong  terms  by  union 
people  in  his  neighborhood.  Trades  unions  have  as  much  right  to  employ 
a  business  agent  as  a  corporation  has  to  hire  a  manager,  and  Mayor  Sulli- 
van's statement  shows  that  the  working  people  of  Hartford  were  buncoed 
when  they  elected  him,  as  he  seems  to  be  a  workingman  with  a  capitalist 
mind. 

When  all  else  failed  the  Philadelphia  striking  textile  workers  attempted 
to  get  the  "best  citizens,"  who  recently  held  a  Kishineff  protest  meeting, 
to  call  another  meeting  to  denounce  the  textile  manufacturers,  but  the  first 
citizens  refuse  to  "indignate."  Then  the  workers  sent  for  Debs,  for  which 
they  were  roundly  scolded  by  the  leader  of  the  employers'  combine,  one 
Al^ander  Crow,  beneficiary  of  a  protective  tariff.  Republican  boss,  mill 
owner  and  child  slave  driver.  The  textile  workers,  mostly  women  and  chil- 
dren, have  made  a  magnificent  fight  for  a  54-hour  week  and  humane  treat- 
ment, and  they  were  ably  assisted  by  Mother  Jones,  John  Spargo,  Isaac 


116  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

Cowen,  Edward  Moore,  Mahlon  Barnes,  Caroline  Pemberton  and  other 
well-known  Socialists  who  collected  funds  for  them  and  encouraged  them 
by  making  speeches  at  their  mass  meetings.  Mother  Jones  also  aroused 
considerable  interest  by  marching  a  small  army  of  strikers  to  New  York 
and  the  seashore.    Speeches  were  made  and  funds  collected  along  the  route. 

The  strike  insurance  scheme  of  the  National  Association  of  Manufac- 
turers is  assuming  tangible  shape.  In  accordance  with  the  resolution 
adopted  at  the  New  Orleans  convention  of  that  body  recently,  the  execu- 
tive committee  held  a  session  in  Indianapolis  and  formulated  a  plan  to 
create  a  fund  of  $1,500,000  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  members  who 
resist  the  "tyranny"  of  organized  labor.  The  proposition  is  to  be  submit- 
ted to  a  vote  of  the  membership  and  if  it  is  approved  work  will  be  com- 
menced to  accumulate  the  fund.  In  order  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the 
public  it  is  specifically  mentioned  that  employers  who  declare  lockouts  wiU 
not  secure  aid  from  the  N.  A.  M.,  but  care  was  taken  to  say  nothing  about 
actions  of  bosses  who  force  lockouts  by  making  conditions  unbearable  for 
employes  and  who  are  thus  compelled  to  go  on  strike.  It  is  also  reported 
that  the  name  and  by-laws  of  the  Parry  organization  will  be  changed  to 
National  Association  of  Manufacturers  and  Employers  in  order  that  all 
classes  of  capitalists  can  be  admitted.  A  convention  of  employers'  associa- 
tions that  are  independent  of  the  N.  A.  of  M.  is  to  be  held  in  Chicago  for 
the  purpose  of  perfecting  a  federation  along  the  lines  of  the  A.  F.  of  L., 
and  it  is  probable  that  the  N.  A.  of  M.  will  form  the  nucleus  of  the  new 
body.  The  latter  association  has  riding  delegates  in  the  field  forming  local 
branches,  and  from  the  Pacific  coast  and  the  Southwest,  as  well  as  the 
East  and  Middle  West,  come  reports  almost  daily  of  new  associations  that 
are  being  perfected  by  the  capitalists  to  combat  "the  evils  in  trade  unions." 
Hardly  a  national  convention  is  held  by  employers  already  organized  .that 
is  not  visited  by  Parry  in  person  or  one  of  his  satellites  to  gain  its  affilia- 
tion, and  a  string  of  daily  newspapers  from  New  York  to  Los  Angeles  and 
New  Orleans  boom  the  capitalistic  organizations  early  and  late.  The  aux- 
iliaries of  the  employers'  associations,  the  "independent"  or  "non-union" 
unions  are  also  being  encouraged  and  assisted  in  the  industrial  centers,  and 
a  convention  is  to  be  held  to  form  a  national  organization.  While  many 
otficials  of  trade  unions  may  consider  it  good  policy  to  ridicule  the  forma- 
tion of  these  bosses'  combines,  they  may  as  well  make  up  their  minds  that 
such  tactics  will  not  check  their  growth  and  expansion  one  iota.  The 
employers'  associations  are  here  to  remain,  and  the  best  manner  in  which 
to  deal  with  them  is  to  put  forth  renewed  efforts  to  organize  the  workers 
into  unions  and  into  the  Socialist  Party  as  well  in  order  that  we  may  meet 
them  upon  an  equal  footing.  If  they  have  economic  power,  we  must  have 
the  same;  if  they  have  political  power,  we  must  have  the  same.  They 
have  such  power  and  it  is  in  order  for  us  to  keep  busy  and  vote  as  we 
organize  and  strike,  for  labor. 

The  anthracite  miners  complain  that  they  were  buncoed  because  of  the 
award  of  Dr.  Charles  P.  Neill,  the  statistical  commissioner,  who  was  ap- 
pointed by  Judge  Gray  to  compile  data  regarding  coal  prices.  The  strike 
commission  had  decided  that  when  the  average  price  of  coal  in  Nfew  York 
shall  go  above  $4.50  a  ton  the  miners  shall  receive  i  per  cent  increase  in 
wages  for  each  full  5  cents  advance.    The  miners  knowing  that  the  coal 


THE  WORU)  OF  LABOR  117 

companies  were  adding  lo  cents  per  month  to  the  price  of  coal  beginning 
with  May,  argued  that  an  advance  of  20  cents  per  ton  entitled  them  to 
a  4  per  cent  increase  in  wages.  But  along  came  Dr.  Neill,  and,  by  some 
clever  now-you-see-it-and-now-you-don't  averaging,  showed  the  miners 
that  instead  of  the  4  per  cent  advance  the  miners  were  anticipating  they  . 
would  only  get  i  per  cent.  And  then  "Divine  Rights"  Baer  and  his  brother 
barons  laughed  again.  They  had  a  second  spasm  of  hilarity  when  they 
passed  a  financial  statement  among  themselves  on  the  first  of  June.  It 
will  be  recalled  that  last  November  the  Reading  road  reported  a  deficit  of 
nearly  $2,000,000  for  the  period  of  July,  August,  September  and  October, 
the  strike  months,  and  compared  to  the  same  period  the  year  previous  the 
loss  was  $3,500,000.  At  the  end  of  May  this  year  the  Reading  reports  a 
surplus  of  over  four  and  a  quarter  millions.  In  other  words,  the  Bacr 
crowd  is  over  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars  ahead  of  the  game,  and 
from  now  on  will  be  in  clover  because  the  profits,  on  account  of  the  high 
price  of  coal,  will  be  grreater  than  before  the  strike.  But  the  "divine"  gen- 
tlemen are  not  yet  satiated.  Baer  is  quoted  as  saying  that  the  coal  com- 
bine will  accumulate  a  surplus  of  10,000,000  tons  of  anthracite  and  store 
the  same  in  anticipation  of  another  strike.  Prices  will  also  be  maintained 
despite  "the  law  of  supply  and  demand."  The  people  like  to  pay  the  freight, 
and  quite  likely  after  the  Presidential  ele<;tion  next  year  the  miners  will  be 
given  another  battle  by  Bro.  Capital.  Of  course,  so  long  as  the  miners  and 
the  great  majority  of  other  workers  believe  that  the  mines  and  railways 
belong  to  a  privileged  few,  the  rest  of  us  will  have  to  stand  it.  But  the 
issue.  Shall  the  people  own  the  trusts  or  shall  the  trusts  own  the  people? 
is  here  just  the  same  and  must  and  will  be  fought  out. 

It  would  require  many  pages  of  the  Review  to  relate  in  detail  the  extra- 
ordinary activity  and  rapid  growth  of  the  Socialist  Party.  The  immense 
victory  in  Germany  seems  to  have  electrified  the  whole  United  States,  and 
organizers  and  speakers  are  busy  in  every  state.  The  party  press  and 
friendly  trade  union  papers  are  also  doing  great  work  and  report  the  prog- 
ress that  is  being  made  from  week  to  week  very  faithfully.  Probably  the 
statement  of  National  Committeeman  Berger,  of  Wisconsin,  covers  the  sit- 
uation in  a  few  words.  Mr.  Berger  attended  the  last  meeting  of  the  local 
quorum  in  Omaha,  and  reports  that  during  the  last  quarter  (April,  May, 
June)  the  Socialist  -Party  membership  increased  by  six  thousand,  and  he 
prophesies  that  if  this  rate  of  gain  is  kept  up  the  Socialists  in  this  coun- 
try will  outnumber  those  in  Germany  before  four  years. 


1 


SOCIALISM  ABROAD 


Germany 

The  articles  which  appear  elsewhere  in  this  number  cover  the  various 
phases  of  the  German  election  so  thoroughly  that  there  is  need  of  little 
more  in  this  department.  The  official  return  as  published  in  Vorwaerts 
gives  a  total  vote  in  the  empire  of  3,008,377,  against  a  previous  vote  of 
2,107,076.  The  vote  in  various  provinces  compared  with  the  previous  elec- 
tion is  given  as  follows : 

Province.  1903.  Previous  Election. 

Prussia - 1,647,603  1,141,958 

Bavaria   212,506  138,218 

Saxony  441,764  299,190 

Wurtemburg 99743  62452 

Baden 72,300  50,325 

Hesse  68,834  48,942 

Alsace  Loraine 68,267  5i.990 

Owing  to  the  outrageous  gerrymandering  this  great  preponderance  of 
Social  Democratic  strength  is  not  shown  in  the  Reichstag.  Nevertheless 
there  have  been  great  changes  in  the  interest  of  the  Social  Democracy  in 
spite  of  this  gerrymandering. 

As  to  the  probable  effects  of  the  election  there  is  considerable  disagree- 
ment. One  phase  of  this  is  discussed  by  Comrade  Untermann  in  this  num- 
ber. The  question  of  what  the  Emperor  will  do  is  one  which  is  arousing 
considerable  interest.  Many  of  the  conservative  papers  urge  the  abolition 
of  universal  suffrage  and  some  even  go  so  far  as  to  demand  a  coup  d'etat 
and  the  establishment  of  a  military  autocracy. 

Definitely      Previous        Gain 
Elected      Strength,      or  Loss. 

Conservative  53  52  +1 

Deutsche  Reichspartei  19  20  — i 

Antisemiten   9  12  —  3 

Centrum  loi  106  — 5 

Nationalliberale  52  53  —  i 

Freisinnige  Volfspartei 21  28  —  7 

Freisinnige  Vereinigung 9  15  —  6 

Deutsche  Volfspartei   6  7  —  i 

Social  demokraten   81  58  +23 

Bund  der  Landwirte 2  6  —  4 

Bahrischer  Bauembund 5  S  ^ 

Polen  16  14  +2 

Melsen  5  3  +2 

Elsasser 9  10  —  i 

Miscellaneous  9  8  +1 

118 


SOCIALISM  ABROAD.  119 

The  last  returns  given  by  Vorwaerts  as  to  the  principal  other  parties  are 
as  follows:  Center,  1,455,100;  National  Liberal,  1,290,000;  Conservative, 
920,000.  These  figures  are  not  official  and  probably  contain  considerable 
errors. 

The  last  quarterly  report  on  the  Socialist  press  gives  51  dailies  in  addi- 
tion to  Vorwaerts,  one  scientific  weekly;  Die  Nieu  Zeit;  nine  papers  ap- 
pearing three  times,  and  three  papers  appearing  twice  a  week ;  six  weeklies, 
two  semi-monthlies  and  two  monthlies.  In  addition,  there  are  two  comic 
papers,  and  two  illustrated  papers  dealing  more  with  general  literature. 
The  same  report  shows  that  there  are  65  periodicals  issued  by  the  unions 
affiliated  with  the  Socialists. 

The  Spanish  Elections 

Spain  is  not  yet  ripe  iov.  an  important  socialist  movement.  In  the  first 
place  the  economic  development  is  wanting.  There  are  a  few  large  cities 
of  modem  industry  where  there  is  something  of  a  movement.  The  labor- 
ers in  the  country,  the  mines  and  the  harbors  are  almost  all  illiterate  and  the 
educated  industrial  laborers  are  too  remote  from  the  mass  of  wretched 
proletarians,  so  that  the  elements  for  realizing  a  class-conscious  labor  move- 
ment are  lacking. 

Poverty  excites  revolutionary  currents  among  this  population,  but  the 
complete  absence  of  class-consciousness  turns  these  revolutionary  ideas  into 
a  sort  of  anarchism  decidedly  brutal  and  not  at  all  practical,  which  can 
only  serve  to  make  the  ruling  class  feel  the  need  of  a  more  and  more  tyran- 
nical government  and  prevent  it  from  establishing  social  reforms  which  the 
quasi-revolutionary  working  class  would  have  none  of. 

Nevertheless  the  Social  Democrats  in  certain  cities  exercise  more  or 
less  influence.  At  Madrid,  Bilboa  and  some  other  places  their  influence  is 
stronger  than  that  of  the  anarchists  over  the  working  class,  but  at  Barce- 
lona, and  still  more  in  some  other  large  cities  the  contrary  seems  true.  To 
concern  itself  with  politics  the  working  class  has  need  of  a  certain  degree 
of  consciousness  and  a  certain  need  of  development  which  is  lacking  to  the 
Spanish  proletariat.  It  is  partty  owing  to  these  circumstances  that  Spanish 
Social  Democracy  plays  no  great  role  as  yet  in  the  politics  of  the  country ; 
but  there  are  other  reasons  still.  The  republican  movement  in  Spain  has 
made  great  progress  during  these  last  years.  That  is  the  result  of  the  war 
with  America.  In  Spain  the  monarchy  and  the  church  are  one  and  the 
same.  The  king  is  called  his  Catholic  Majesty;  the  clergy  reigns  as  a 
master. 

After  the  war  there  arrived  from  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  especially  the 
Philippines,  an  army  of  monks  and  nuns  who  distributed  themselves  all 
over  Spain  and  set  immediately  to  work.  They  have  millions  of  money 
at  their  disposal.  The  religious  congregations  are  established  on  a  large 
scale  industrially.  This  capitalist  power  of  the  clergy,  disastrous  for  the 
people,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  anti-clerical  sentiments  of  the  young  bour- 
geoisie along  with  the  revolutionary  spirit  of  the  working  class  on  the 
other  side,  have  given  a  new  strength  to  the  republican  current.  It  is 
worth  observation  that  according  to  the  law  there  can  be  no  convents  in 
Spain.  Indeed  in  1841  a  law  was  established  suppressing  the  convents,  but 
that  does  not  prevent  the  fact  that  at  present  forty-one  orders  may  be 
counted,  including  about  60,000  monks  and  nuns. 


120  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  RE\r[EW 

The  legislative  party  in  Spain  is  composed,  first,  of  a  senate,  containing 
360  members;  half  of  these  are  appointed  for  life  by  the  king;  second,  of 
the  cortes  (chamber  of  deputies)  formed  of  443  deputies  elected  by  univer- 
sal suffrage.  Since  1890  every  man  25  years  and  upwards  has  the  right  to 
vote  for  the  Cortes.  The  deputies  have  no  salary.  But  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  election  tickets  have  to  be  filled  in  by  hand  and  that  no  one  in  the 
country  knows  how  to  read  or  write,  it  follows  that  it  is  the  alcade  ap- 
pointed by  the  government  who  is  the  geenral  elector  for  the  whole  village. 
Now  the  alcade  thinks  as  does  the  curate.  In  Spain  the  elections  never 
have  any  other  result  than  that  desired  by  the  government,  which  pre- 
scribes to  the  alcades  what  they  have  to  do,  and  they  lead  the  rural  popu- 
lations. In  the  cities  where  the  republican  movement  exists  this  is  becom- 
ing less  and  less  true. 

The  results  of  the  elections  should  not  be  judged  by  the  number  of  seats 
obtained  by  the  government ;  this  signifies  nothing.  We  must  consider  the 
centers  of  national  life  where  men  are  united,  have  some  education  and 
live  under  the  influence  of  modem  civilization. 

At  Madrid  the  republicans  obtained  six  seats  out  of  eight ;  the  monarch- 
ists had  only  12,000  votes.  At  Barcelona  the  republicans  obtained  35,000, 
the  liberalists  10,000,  and  the  Carlists  6,000.  At  Gerone  and  Saragossa 
the  republicans  were  elected;  at  Corunna  and  Cadiz  they  also  took  part 
in  the  elections. 

The  socialists  have  registered  few  votes;  we  have  explained  the  rea- 
sons for  this,  and  the  fact  is  of  no  great  importance.  The  working  class 
must,  before  it  can  acquire  class-consciousness,  first  overcome  reaction,  and 
to  that  end  it  is  first  necessary  to  overthrow  the  monarchy.  The  growth 
of  the  republican  movement  is  a  good  sign  for  Spain. — L'Avenir  Social, 

France 

The  Central  Council  of  the  Parti  Ouvrier  Francais  has  just  issued  its 
report  preliminary  to  the  congress  which  will  meet  on  the  27th  and  29th 
of  September.  This  shows  that  in  the  last  three  months  three  new  fed- 
erations have  been  formed  and  the  weekly  central  organ  Le  Socialiste  has 
shown  a  financial  surplus  for  the  last  nine  months.  The  report  shows  that 
the  Jauresist  faction  is  in  process  of  dissolution,  that  a  number  of  bodies 
affiliated  with  it  are  protesting  against  the  policy  of  its  representatives  and 
are  preparing  to  leave  the  organization. 

Holland 

General  municipal  elections  were  held  on  the  loth  of  July.  For  the 
first  time  there  was  a  general  coalition  of  all  of  the  capitalist  parties 
against  the  socialists.  This  was  especially  true  in  Amsterdam  where  the 
campaign  cry  was  "Down  with  the  Social  Democracy."  As  a  result  all 
of  the  Social  Democratic  candidates  were  defeated  although  the  vote  was 
raised  from  5.680  to  7.493.  . 

Japan 

Some  items  from  the  latest  number  of  the  Socialist  of  Japan  which  has 
just  come  to  hand  show  the  difficulties  which  are  confronted  by  the  work- 
ers for  socialism  in  that  country.  Because  this  paper  published  a  poem 
entitled  "International  Liberty,"  which  was  taken  from  the  Cleveland  Citi- 


SOCIALISM  ABROAD.  121 

sen  of  June  17th,  the  paper  was  at  once  confiscated  and  Comrade  Katayama 
indicted.  Under  these  conditions  the  following  items  which  are  taken  from 
the  same  number  gain  a  double  interest : 

"The  freedom  of  press  and  speech  is  guaranteed  by  the'  Imperial  con- 
stitution to  all  the  citizens  of  Japan,  but  now-a-days  both  are  hindered  by 
that  obnoxious  police  regulation  and  the  press  law.  Every  labor  meeting 
is  interfered  by  the  policemen  present;  and  the  press  is  so  severely  cen- 
sured, and  even  common  expressions  pertaining  to  labor  organization  and 
strike  are  instantly  stopped  by  the  police  now  for  the  laboring  classes  and 
their  leaders.  Socialist  meetings  are  so  much  troubled  by  constant  stop- 
pages and  in  some  cases  a  dissolution  of  the  meeting." 

"Socialist  agitation  will  be  started  by  Messrs.  Nishikawa,  Matsuzaki  and 
Katayama  leaving  the  city  for  Kobe  on  the  fifth,  provided  that  the  verdict 
in  the  case  referred  to  will  not  be  the  imprisonment  of  the  last  named 
member.    In  that  case,  of  course,  two  of  them  will  constitute  the  party." 

Denmark 

On  June  i6th,  the  same  day  on  which  the  great  socialist  victories  were 
won  in  Germany,  an  almost  equally  great  advance  was  made  in  Denmark. 
This  is  especially  worthy  of  note  because  of  the  fact  that  for  the  first  time 
all  alliances  with  the  Liberals  were  rejected  and  the  socialist  party  stood 
entirely  independent.  It  was  feared  by  many  that  the  taking  of  this  step 
would  mean  at  least  a  temporary  loss  of  many  votes.  The  fact  that  the 
contrary  was  the  result  is  stratifying  from  every  point  of  view. 

In  the  last  parliament  there  were  14  Social  Democrats.  Thirteen  of 
our  14  districts  we  carried  again  on  June  16,  losing  only  that  of  Lungby. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  carried  three  new  districts — ^the  Seventh,  of  Copen- 
hagen, Valby,  and  the  first  of  Odensee.  In  the  Seventh  Copenhagen  district 
our  comrade,  C.  A.  Smidt,  defeated  the  reactionary  Finance  Minister  Hage. 
We  now  hold  eight  of  the  13  districts  of  the  national  capital,  besides  one 
in  Friedrichberg,  one  in  Odensee,  and  those  of  Valby,  Helsingor,  Aalborg, 
Aarhus  North,  Aarhus  South  and  Horsens.  The  new  lagthing  is  composed 
of  r6  Social  Democrats,  74  Left  Reformists,  11  of  the  Moderate  Left  and 
12  of  the  Right 

In  the  election  of  1872  our  party  enetered  the  field  for  the  first  time, 
polling  268  votes.  In  1876  this  was  increased  to  1,076.  In  1881  it  rose  to 
1,689.  Then  began  a  more  rapid  and  progressive  increase,  as  indicated  in 
the  following  table,  which  shows  also  the  number  of  districts  in  which  we 
had  candidates  at  each  election : 

Year.  Districts.  Vote. 

1884 3  6,806 

1887  4  8,408 

1890  10  17,232 

1892  15  20,094 

1895 17  24,508 

1898  23  31,872 

1901   30  42,972 

1903  55  55,479 

The  total  vote  by  parties  this  year  is  as  follows:  Reformists,  118,957; 
Social  Democrats,  55,479;  Right  (Conservative),  50,559;  Moderates,  20,613. 
We  have  thus  about  23  per  cent  of  the  popular  vote  and  rank  as  the  sec- 
ond party. 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


Heredity  and  Social  Progress.    Simon  N.  Patten.    New  York :    The  Mac- 
millan  Company.    214  pp.    Qoth,  $1.25. 

Professor  Patten  sets  before  himself  the  answering  of  the  following 
definite  questions : 

"How  is  the  social  surplus  of  an  epoch  transformed  into  permanent 
conditions  and  mental  traits?" 

'*Does  progress  start  from  a  deficit,  or  from  a  surplus?" 
"Does  genius  come  by  additions,  or  by  differentiation?" 
"Does  education  improve  natural  or  acquired  characters?" 
"Does  reform  come  by  strengthening  the  strong,  or  by  helping  the 
weak?" 

He  agrees  with  Professor  Lester  F.  Ward  that  the  surplus  can  only  be 
secured  by  transformation  into  permanent  conditions,  or  into  mental 
traits.  He  closely  follows  biological  analogies  and  takes  great  pains  to 
test  the  laws  of  development  which  he  uses  by  applying  them  in  various 
fields.  He  decides  against  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characteristics  by 
the  individuals  and  points  out  that  such  characteristics  are  largely  handed 
down  through  customs,  habits  and  local  traditions  which  make  it  easier 
for  each  suceeding  generation  to  acquire  the  desired  character.  On  this 
point  he  makes  use  of  John  Fiske's  theory  of  the  desirability  of  a  long 
childhood  by  showing  that  this  gives  opportunity  for  the  attainment  of 
socially  desirable  acquired  characteristics.  He  shows  that  once  a  surplus 
energy  has  expressed  itself  in  some  desirable  addition  to  character  that 
there  will  be  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  possessor  to  move  into  locali- 
ties more  favorable  to  this  characteristic.  Or  as  he  says:  "Personal  cn- 
'vironments  do  not  make  the  qualities  of  those  who  live  in  them.  But 
people  seek  these  environments  because  they  have  the  characteristics 
necessary  to  their  utilization." 

He  has  much  very  suggestive  discussion  of  psychological  problems  and 
especially  in  relation  to  physiological  states  and  the"  effect  of  these  states 
on  the  physical  structure  of  their  possessor.  This,  however,  is  so  ex- 
tremely condensed  that  any  attempt  to  summarize  it  would  simply  give  a 
misleading  idea.  Many  of  his  positions  seem  to  lack  proof  and  are  so 
daring  as  to  cause  doubt  as  to  their  correctness.  Nevertheless  it  is  gratify- 
ing to  find  a  man  who  dares  to  push  his  ideas  to  their  logical  conclusions, 
even  if  the  conclusions  be  somewhat  doubtful,  and  at  the  least  the  treat- 
ment is  extremely  stimulating  and  suggestive. 

In  his  later  chapters  he  applies  his  theories 'to  education  and  reform 
and  comes  to  this  conclusion :  "Education  cannot  improve  on  natural 
characters.  Progress  is  the  development  of  the  strong,  not  where  they 
are  strong,  but  where  they  are  weak.  The  strength  of  the  strong  character 
is  the  result  of  a  natural  differentiation  with  which  men  have  little  to  do, 

122 


BOOK  REVIEWS.  123 

but  the  strength  of  weak  characters  is  in  their  hands.  Men  can  level  up 
their  weaknesses  until  their  whole  character  is  strong." 

In  the  social  field  the  application  of  the  same  principles  leads  to  anal- 
agous  conclusions: 

"Progress  then  is  not  the  making  of  the  strong,  but  that  protection  of 
the  weak  by  which  differentiation  becomes  possible.  A  forward  move- 
ment can  care  for  itself  if  the  initial  conditions  are  favorable,  and  human 
efforts  are  of  little  avail  in  augmenting  or  in  changing  the  direction  of 
these  forces.  With  the  aid  of  their  strong  characters  men  may  move 
forward  as  far  as  the  initial  economic  forces  take  them.  But  these  forces 
will  not  aid  men  on  their  weak  sides,  because  natural  changes  make  indi- 
vidual weaknesses  feebler  instead  of  stronger.  The  series  of  steps  making 
for  progress,  although  almost  complete,  lacks  enough  elements  to  block 
progress,  when  no  efforts  are  made  to  strengthen  the  dwarfed  characters 
in  men.  And  strengthening  the  weak  is  not  a  final  process,  but  one 
which  must  be  repeated  by  each  generation  with  ever  increasing  care. 
The  strength  of  the  strong  is  natural,  that  of  the  weak  is  acquired.  The 
differentiation  of  powers  is  the  outcome  of  natural  processes;  the  move- 
ment towards  equality  must  be  nurtured.  The  exploitation  of  the  weak 
by  the  strong  and  the  dwarfing  of  feeble  characters  by  the  strong  are 
natural  results  of  the  pressure  exerted  by  the  strong.  A  check  to  progress 
here  arises  for  which  there  is  no  natural  remedy.  When,  therefore,  nations 
wish  to  progress,  it  is  these  tendencies  which  nullify  their  efforts. 

"A  backward  race  or  class  need  not  be  radically  altered  to  fit  it  for 
civilization.  Most  of  the  changes  come  of  themselves  if  the  initial  evils 
are  removed.  Give  the  class  or  the  dwarfed  character  a  surplus,  and 
spontaneous  changes  will  reorganize  society.  The  initial  step  in  progress 
is  protection,  and  a  flow  of  income  from  the  strong  to  the  weak. 

"An  illustration  is  furnished  by  the  changes  in  the  immigrants  to 
America.  A  few  generations  make  them  completely  American  not  because 
the  conscious  educational  process  has  had  sufficient  power  to  do  it,  but 
because  a  few  initial  changes  start  a  chain  of  natural  causes  which 
strengthen  the  strong  individuals  of  the  new  classes  and  force  their  trans- 
formation into  Americans.  Two  things  are  necessary  for  this;  the  pres- 
ence of  a  growth-creating  surplus  and  the  existence  of  common  emotions, 
so  that  men's  qualities  may  be  uniformly  pruned,  and  may  also  grow 
anew  in  the  same  directions.  The  emotions  of  a  race  are  not  a  natural 
inheritance  due  to  gfrowth,  but  are  a  part  of  the  social  environment  of 
its  members,  and  act  alike  on  all  individuals  under  the  stress  of  the  emo- 
tions. Regeneration  results  wherever  the  surplus  permits  growth  and 
places  the  person  in  proper  contact  with  his  environment.  Society,  there- 
fore, may  expect  these  emotional  changes  to  act  upon  every  class  which 
has  gained  the  surplus  on  which  growth  and  regeneration  depend.  It 
must  guard,  not  these  natural  results  of  every  forward  movement,  but 
the  acquired  characters  which  become  weaker  with  progress,  and  require 
an  increasing  surplus  in  order  to  preserve  the  natural  equality  of  classes 
and  of  related  parts. 

"The  development  of  a  lower  race — let  us  say  the  negroes  in  America — 
does  not  necessitate  remaking  the  negro  by  an  artificial  process.  Set  free 
the  series  of  natural  changes,  and  the  final  results  will  take  care  of  them- 
selves. A  surplus  includes  regeneration  and  new  emotions,  forces  which 
will  act  and  react  until  the  whole  class  has  been  brought  up  to  the  level 


POCKET  LIBRARY  OF  SOCIALISM. 

1.  Woman  and  the  Social  Problem.    By  May  Wood  Simons. 

^  The  Evolution  of  the  Class  Struggle.    By  Wm.  H.  Noyes. 

3.  rmprudent  Marriages.    By  Robert  Blatchford. 

4.  Packlngtown.    By  A.  M.  Simons. 

5.  Reallsmi  In  Literature  and  Art    By  Clarence  8.  Darrow. 

6.  Single  Tax  vs.  Socialism.    By  A.  M.  Simons. 

7.  Wage-Labor  and  Capital.    By  Karl  Marx. 

8.  The  Man  Under  the  Machine.    By  A.  M.  Simons. 

9.  The  Mission  of  the  Working  Class.    By  Rev.  Charles  H.  ValL 

10.  Morals  and  Socialism.    By  Charles  ^.  Kerr. 

11.  Socialist  Songs.    By  William  Morris  and  Others. 

12.  After  Capitalismp  What?    By  Key.  William  T.  Brown. 

13.  Rational  Prohibition.    By  Walter  L.  Tonng. 
14k  Socialism  and  Farmers.    By  A.  M.  Simons. 

15.  How  I  Acquired  My  Millions.    By  W.  A.  Corey. 

16.  Socialists  in    French    Municipalities.    A  compilation  from   official  re- 

ports.* 

17.  Socialism  and  Trade  Unionism.    By  Daniel  Lynch  and  Max  S.  Hayes. 

18.  Plutocracy  or  Nationalism,  Which?    By  Edward  Bellamy. 

19.  The  Real  Religion  of  To-day.    By  Rev.  William  T.  Brown. 

20.  Why  I  Am  a  Socialist    By  Prof.  Qeorge  D.  Herron. 

21.  The  Trust  Question.    By  Rey.  Charles  H.  VaiL 

22.  How  to  Work  for  Socialism.    By  Walter  Thomas  Mills. 

23.  The  Axe  at  the  Root    By  Rev.  William  T.  Brown. 

24.  What  the  Socialists  Would  Do  If  They  Won  in  This  City.    By  A.  M. 

Simons. 

25.  The  Folly  of  Being  "Good."    By  Charles  H.  Kerr. 

26.  Intemperance  and  Poverty.    By  T.  Twining. 

27.  The  Relation  of  Religion  to  Social  Ethics.    By  ReT.  William  T.  Brown. 

28.  Socialism  and  the  Home.    By  May  Walden  Kerr. 

29.  Trusts  and  imperialism.    By  H.  Gaylord  Wllshire. 

3a  A  Sketch  of  Social  Evolution.    By  H.  W.  Boyd  Mackay. 

31.  Socialism  vs.  Anarchy.    By  A.  M.  Simons. 

32.  Industrial  Democracy.    By  J.  W.  Kelley. 

33.  The  Socialist  Party— Platform,  Constitution,  etc. 

34b    The  Pride  of  Intellect    By  Franklin  H.  Wentworth. 

35.  The  Philosophy  of  Socialism.    By  A.  M.  Simons. 

36.  An  Appeal  to  the  Young.    By  Peter  Kropotkin;  translated  by  H.  M. 

Hyndman. 

37.  The  Kingdom  of  God  and  Socialism.    By  Rev.  Robert  M.  Webster. 

38.  Easy  Lessons  In  Socialism.    By  Will^m  H.  LefflngwelL. 

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MADDEN   LIBRARY. 

1.  What  Is  a  Scab?    By  A.  M.  Simons. 

ti  The  Class  Struggle.    By  A.  M.  Simons. 

8.  Open  Letter  from  a  Catholic  to  Pope  Leo  XIII.    By  W.  L  Brownl 

4.  Why  a  ''Worklngman"  Should  Be  a  Socialist    By  H.  Gaylord  ll^shlre. 

5.  Let's  All  Get  Rich.    By  J.  T.  McDlU. 

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56   FIFTH    AVENUE,    CHICAGO/U,    S.    A. 


1 


The  International  Socialist  Review 

lAVOTED  TO  THE  STUDY  AND  DISCUSSRm  OF  THE  PROBUDiS  IRODEinr 
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FIFTY    OEHTS    A    TEAR 


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Z\    AIEIICIJrU»«Dl«>RjKHJKIULB«xI067»Botte,lMtm 
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Origiiial !     Interesting  I     Indispensable ! 

Thta  im  thm  Tordlot  of  all  who  r^nd  the  ' 

AMBRICAM 
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A  big.  bright,  ^ndsom^  Labor4kMialist  weekly  paper.    Bight  pages  of 
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vital  intmst  to  the  working  elass. 

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THI  INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST  REVIEW 


VOL.  IV. 


SEPTEMBER,  1903. 


-NO.  4. 


^S£ 


TT 

Review  of  Essenti^^ 


SEP  14 -.^^3 


"S}i)idt^! 


\'\S' 


THE  zeal  of  the  new  convert  is  proverbial — his^eiT^rgyrfiis 
interest  in  novel  surroundings,  his  impatience  for  results, 
his  final  realization  and  philosophical  acceptance  of  the 
fact  that  "Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day,"  and  then  if  he  is 
made  of  the  right  stuff,  his  grim  determination  to  settle  down 
for  a  long,  hard  fight.  There  are  few  of  the  tried  workers  in  the 
Socialist  movement  who  have  not  passed  along  this  road.  In  the 
enthusiasm  following  their  discovery  of  what  they  considered  a 
panacea  for  the  ills  of  society  they  have  plunged  into  propaganda 
and  proclaimed  in  a  mighty  voice  the  glad  new  tidings.  They 
have  expected  all  those  who  love  their  kind  to  pause  entranced  at 
the  sweetness  of  the  new  song.  They  have  expected  the  oppres- 
sors of  the  poor  to  stand  at  first  appalled  when  their  infamy  was 
proclaimed  in  the  market  place  and  then  flee  in  confusion  and 
dismay  into  the  darkness  of  oblivion.  Then,  slowly,  the  light 
begins  to  break  in  upon  the  new  convert.  He  learns  the  bitter  les- 
son that  the  world  has  no  particular  interest  in  abstract  justice, 
that  the  electorate  doesn't  generally  vote  "yes"  or  "no"  on  the 
simple  right  or  wrong  of  a  given  policy.  This  lesson  learned,  the 
convert,  if  he  is  persistent,  begins  to  re-examine  his  ground — 
his  Socialist  philosophy — and  discovers  some  of  the  meaning  of 
"economic  determinism,"  realizes  that  it  is  a  mighty  hard  proposi- 
tion to  hurry  evolution.  Once  these  things  are  realized  the  So- 
cialist movement  has  a  valuable  worker,  a  veteran  whb,  while  not 
despising  the  advantage  of  the  moment,  knows  it  is  more  impor- 
tant to  emerge  victorious  from  the  war  than  to  win  an  isolated 
battle. 

There  is  another  type  of  Socialist  recruit  almost  equally  famil- 
iar^ This  is  the  "reform"  politician  who  has  expended  time  and 
energy,   voice   and   money,   in    pushing  the  movements   whose 

129 


130  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIBW 

bleaching  bones  strew  the  political  battlefield.  He  has  been  able 
to  arouse  great  enthusiasm;  he  has  swept  certain  sections  like  a 
prairie  fire ;  he  has  won  victories  and  captured  public  powers,  only 
to  see  his  fond  hope  for  humanity  go  glimmering.  Undismayed 
and  with  beautiful  courage  he  has  sought  the  reason  for  his  fail- 
ure, determined,  when  it  was  found,  to  push  on  again.  He  has 
decided  his  weakness  was  in  a  mistaken  apprehension  of  the  exact 
cause  of  economic,  political  and  social  evils.  He  has  said  it  was 
this,  that  or  the  other,  only  to  fail,  and  now  he  has  embraced  with 
enthusiasm  the  Socialist  position— or  at  least  that  part  of  it  which 
indicts  the  wages  systemi  as  the  basic  cause  of  poverty  in  the  midst 
of  plenty,  serfdom  in  a  ''sweet  land  of  liberty."  Apprehending 
so  much  the  reformer  buckles  6n  his  harness  again  and  sallies 
forth,  determined  to  "whoop  'em  up"  and  "set  ^e  woods  afire" 
with  his  new  battle  cry.  He  is  an  experienced  politician,  familiar 
with  the  most  approved  methods  of  generating  enthusiasm,  he 
expects  to  work  up  "the  people,"  go  lickety  split  to  Washington 
and  usher  in  the  Co-operative  Commonwealth  with  a  "hip,  hip,  | 

hurrah."  i 

The  reform  politician — (no  reproach  in  the  word  "politi- 
cian," for  he  is  a  good  fellow) — ^hasn't  had  opportunity  yet  to 
fail  on  his  new  tack,  but  the  old  Socialist — the  believer  in  evolu- 
tion and  economic  determinism — ^knows  that  failure  is  as  sure  as 
death.  And  the  old  Socialist,  even  if  he  makes  himself  disliked 
by  saving  it,  must  utter  his  warning  cry  and  proclaim  the  necessity 
for  adherence  to  the  classical  Socialist  position — a  position  taken 
after  a  critical  study  of  all  history  by  master  minds,  a  position 
which  has  proved  impregnable  through  fifty  years  of  bitterest  as- 
sault. 

As  eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty,  so  is  a  clear  com- 
prehension of  the  essentials  of  Socialist  philosophy  an  absolute 
necessity  in  the  minds  of  the  governing  power  in  the  Socialist 
party — the  majority  of  the  membership.  It  is  only  by  a  knowledge 
of  wlmt  it  is  fighting  for,  a  knowledge  of  the  historic  means  by 
which  social  changes  are  effected,  that  the  party  can  achieve  its 
great  mission,  avoiding  the  pitfalls  of  in  alluring  opportunism 
and  the  traps  set  by  a  crafty,  resourceful  and  unscrupulous  enemy. 
With  a  rapidly  swelling  party  membership  it  becomes  a  matter  of 
vital  importance  that  the  recruits  understand  the  conditions  of 
the  fight  they  are  to  wage.  A  sane  conservatism  must  see  to  it 
that  neither  the  new  convert  impatient  for  results,  nor  the  reform 
politician,  with  an  unassimilated  knowledge  of  Socialist  essentials, 
is  allowed  to  dominate  party  councils  or  direct  party  activities. 
This  must  be  done  from  motives  of  common  prudence  and  with 
absolutely  no  reflection  upon  the  honesty  or  capacity  of  the  friends 
who  come  bringing  to  us  rich  gifts  of  mind  and  heart. 


\ 


A   BEYIEW   OF    ESSENTIALS  131 

All  our  civilization  has  not  been  able  to  eradicate  that  human 
credulity  which  is  always  looking  for  the  miracle,  that  impatience 
which  chafes  under  th^  slow  operation  of  natural  laws.  We  see 
the  trait  in  the  faith  curist,  who,  disdaining  the  accumulated 
knowledge  of  the  centuries  regarding  the  treatment  of  disease, 
jumps  with  avidity  at  a  theory  according  to  which  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  say  Presto!  and  that  which  was  is  not.  There  are  other 
amiable  "new  thought"  people  to  whom  the  process  of  ratiocination 
is  too  slow  and  who  spend  long  hours  prayerfully  contemplating 
the  ends  of  their  noses  in  order  that  they  may  cultivate  a  power 
higher  than  mind  and  reach  conclusions  independent  of  the  syllo- 
gism. But  in  spite  of  these  amiable  people  the  world  is  not  yet 
ready  to  cut  loose  from  logical,  scientific  methods  and  substitute 
for  law,  ascertained  by  painful  investigation,  a  supematuralism 
whose  sacred  word  is  abracadabra. 

The  type  of  mind  which  these  credulous  supernaturalists  ex- 
emplify is  restive  under  the  restraint  of  cautious  science,  but  its 
impatience  cannot  make  us  forget  that  according  to  our  scientific 
Socialism  social  changes  are  accomplished  in  a  certain  way. 

We  believe  that  the  "history  of  mankind  has  been  a  history 
of  class  struggles"  and  that  men  as  a  rule  have  fought  on  one 
side  or  the  otilier  to  serve  their  immediate  material  interests.  Anv 
other  than  the  economic  interpretation  of  history  is  as  archaic  and 
useless  as  the  theory  of  special  creation  and  it  must  necessarily  be 
the  key  to  our  interpretation  of  contemporary  events  and  the 
basis  of  our  party  organization.  Never  before  were  the  great 
classes  in  conflict  so  clearly  defined  and  never  before  was  the  ne- 
cessity so  urgent  for  a  strict  adherence  to  the  class  struggle  plan 
of  campaign.  It  is  not  mere  dogmatism  to  assert  and  insist  upon 
this.  It  is  only  a  recognition  of  scientifically  ascertained  facts — 
facts  which  cannot  be  safely  ignored  or  declaimed  away  by  advo- 
cates of  an  invertebrate  philosophy  of  universal  brotherhood.  Of 
course  we  all  concede  the  essential  unity  of  the  human  race  and 
the  desirability  of  harmony  in  social  relations,  but  as  "fine  words 
butter  no  parsnips,"  so  do  platitudes  about  fraternity  fail  to  ad- 
vance the  day  of  peace  on  earth.  Humankind  is  arrayed  in  hostile 
camps,  and  if  we  want  peace  we've  got  to  fight  for  it — the  class 
struggle  must  be  waged  to  its  logical  conclusion  before  the  final 
emancipation  of  '^society  at  large  from  all  exploitation,  oppression, 
class  distinctions  and  class  struggles." 

As  hard  and  as  cold  as  these  facts  may  be — and  science  is 
never  alluring  to  the  sentimental  temperament — they  are  not  in- 
consistent with  a  liberal  and  enlightened  propaganda.  They  have 
never  and  need  not  in  the  future  keep  from  us  individuals,  who,, 
though  their  immediate  material  interests  are  with  the  capitalist 
class,  are  yet  able  to  judge  the  trend  of  events  and  desire  to  fight 


X 


y 

• 


/132  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW 

for  the  cause  which  means  a  larger  liberty,  comfort  and  happiness 
for  the  race.  History  is  irradiated  by  the  example  of  men  who 
have  battled,  and  suffered  if  necessary,  for  the  abstract  ideal 
of  justice.  The  Socialist  movement  today  owes  much  to  these 
men  of  education  and  ideals,  but  their  usefulness  is  largely  due 
to  the  promptness  with  which  they  apprehend  the  fact  of  the  class 
struggle  and  the  faithfulness  with  which  tiiey  adhere  to  their  per- 
ception of  scientific  truth. 

It  would  be  idle  to  deny  that  there  are  differences  in  the 
Socialist  movement  today  as  to  the  wisdom  of  certain  features  of 
organization  and  methods  of  propaganda.  It  is  unfortunate,  of 
course,  that  these  differences  should  bring  from  the  adherent  of 
this  or  that  idea  vigorous  statement  and  heated  retort,  but  most 
of  us  philosophically  recognize  that  we  can't  have  perfection,  even 
in  debates  between  Socialists,  in  this  sadly  imperfect  world  of 
ours.  However,  we  can  insist  that  every  proposition  advanced 
for  the  good  of  the  movement  be  judged  according  to  its  harmony 
with  our  fundamental  principles  and  demand  of  all  more  than  a 
mere  lip  recognition  of  the  essentially  proletarian  character  of  our 
movement.  The  cry  for  "American  methods  for  an  American 
movement"  is  all  right  in  so  far  as  it  takes  into  account  our 
peculiar  political  conditions,  but  there  can  no  more  be  a  distinctive 
"American  Socialism"  than  there  can  be  an  "American  mathe- 
matics." American  human  nature  is  just  like  European  human 
nature  and  the  law  of  economic  determinism  rules  in  the  United 
States  just  as  surely  as  it  rules  in  the  countries  of  the  old  world. 
So  the  conclusion  is  irresistible  that  when  the  cry  for  "American 
methods  for  an  American  movement"  is  not  merely  an  expression 
of  the  restiveness  of  the  impatient  recruit  it  is  either  disingenuous 
or  the  evidence  of  a  chauvinism  absurd  in  the  light  of  our  boasted 
internationalism. 

One  sometimes  hears  the  sneer  that  some  Socialists  are  "afraid 
the  movement  will  get  too  big,"  and  there  are  proposals  that  the 
so-called  "military  character"  of  the  movement  be  abandoned.  Of 
course  no  one  fears  bigness  when  bigness  means  solidity,  but  we 
may  well  fear  and  fight  against  the  bigness  which  represents  mere 
hot  air  which  will  vanish  at  the  prick  of  a  pin.  The  so-called 
"military  character"  of  the  movement,  in  so  far  as  that  means  a 
pledged  and  dues-paying  membership,  is  our  tower  of  strength, 
and  proposals  that  the  party  "simply  pledge  to  everybody,  and  to 
everybody  alike,  the  collective  ownership  and  democratic  manage- 
ment of  industry"  is  the  crass  Utopianism  of  a  sanguine  camp- 
meeting  exhorter  who  imagines  the  movement  can  be  adequately 
supported  by  inviting  the  brethren  to  step  up  to  the  contribution 
box.  We  must  have  organization,  and  a  well  disciplined  organi- 
zation at  that.    We  can't  achieve  or  eat  the  fruit  of  victory  with 


A   BEVIBW    OP    ESSBNTIAM  .     133 

a  mob.  The  Socialist  party  organization,  in  giving  to  every  mem- 
ber a  voice  in  the  discussion  and  settlement  of  questions  of  policy, 
cultivates  individual  initiative  and  that  capacity  for  self-govern- 
ment which  is  showing  many  signs  of  atrophy  under  the  so-called 
representative,  but  rather  machine,  system.  A  membership  thus 
actively  participating  in  party  affairs  is  the  strongest  bulwark 
against  the  ever  threatening  political  vampires— rthe  tricksters, 
bosses  and  grafters — seeking  a  new  and  vigorous  body  whose 
blood  they  may  suck.  It  has  proved  its  efficiency  by  standing  fast 
in  many  a  storm  that  threatened  to  destroy  the  party  and  there  is 
no  evidence  of  its  incapacity  to  settle  right  present  and  future 
problems.  There  have  always  been  well  intenti6ned  men  who  have 
thought  they  could  do  better  for  the  people  than  the  people  could 
do  for  themselves,  but  that  is  the  theory  of  benevolent  despotism — 
of  theocracy,  not  democracy — and  we  want  none  of  it  We  shall 
have — we  already  have — honest,  astute,  and  masterful  men  whose 
influence  will  intensify  the  effectiveness  of  our  efforts,  but  it  is 
a  delusion  to  think  that  we  are  sheep  without  a  shepherd,  a  help- 
less mass  waiting  for  some  Moses  to  lead  us  out  of  the  wilderness. 
The  working  class  must  emancipate  itself,  and  while  it  welcomes 
the  assistance  of  all  those  *'in  sympathy  with  it,"  the  Socialists 
at  least  entertain  no  delusions  and  must  prepare  for  the  work  ahead 
as  prudent,  practical  men.  Charles  Dobbs. 


Some  Phases  of  Civilization 

IN  AN  article  written  by  Frederick  Harrison,  originally  pub- 
lished in  The  Fortnightly  Review,  for  April,  1882,  entitled 
''A  Few  Words  about  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  I  find  the 
following: 
"In  one  of  those  delightful  tales  of  Voltaire,  which  nobody 
reads  now,  I  remember  ho\i^  the  King  of  Babylcm  cured  of  exces- 
sive self-esteem  a  great  satrap  called  Irax.  The  moment  he  awoke 
in  the  morning  the  master  of  the  royal  music  entered  the  favor- 
ite's chamber  with  a  full  chorus  and  orchestra,  and  performed  in 
his  honor  a  cantata  which  lasted  two  hours;  and  every  third 
minute  there  was  a  refrain  to  this  effect : 

"  'Que  son  merite  est  extreme ! 

Que  de  graces !  que  de  grandeur ! 
Ah  I  combien  Monseigneur 

Doit  etre  content  de  lui-meme !' 

The  cantata  over,  a  royal  chamberlain  advanced  and  pro- 
nounced a  harangue  that  lasted  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  in 
which  he  extolled  him  for  possessing  all  the  good  qualities  which 
he  had  not.  At  dinner,  which  lasted  three  hours,  the  same  cere- 
monial was  continued.  If  he  opened  his  mouth  to  speak,  the  first 
chamberlain  said:  'Hark!  we  shall  hear  wisdom T  And  before 
he  had  uttered  four  words,  the  second  chamberlain  said :  'What 
wisdom  do  we  hear!'  Then  the  third  and  the  fourth  chamber- 
Iain  broke  into  shouts  of  laughter  over  the  good  things  which 
Irax  had  saicj,  or  rather  ought  to  have  said ;  and  after  dinner  the 
same  cantata  was  again  sung  in  his  honor.  On  the  first  day  Irax 
was  delighted ;  the  second  he  found  less  pleasant ;  on  the  third  he 
was  bored ;  on  the  fourth  he  said  he  could  bear  it  no  longer ;  and 
on  the  fifth  he  was  cured. 

"I  sometimes  think  this  (the  nineteenth)  century,  with  its 
material  progress  and  its  mechanical  inventions,  its  steam  and 
electricity,  gas,  and  patents,  is  being  treated  by  the  press,  and  its 
other  public  admirers,  much  as  the  chamberlains  in  Zadig  treated 
the  satrap.  The  century  is  hardly  awake  of  a  morning  before 
thousands  of  newspapers,  speeches,  lectures  and  essays  appear  at 
its  bedside,  or  its  breakfast  table,  repeating  as  in  chorus : 

'Que  son  m&ite  est  extreme! 
Que  de  graces  1  que  de  grandeur  V 

"Surely  no  century  in  all  human  history  was  ever  so  much 

134 


SOMB  PHASES  OF  CIVILIZATIOK  135 

praised  to  its  face  for  its  wonderful  achievements,  its  wealth  and 
its  power,  its  unparalleled  ingenuity  and  its  miraculous  capacity 
for  making  itself  comfortable  and  generally  enjoying  life.  Brit- 
ish associations,  and  all  sorts  of  associations,  economic,  scientific 
and  mechanical,  are  perpetually  executing  cantatas  in  honor  of 
the  age  of  progress,  cantatas  which  (alas)  last  much  longer  than 
three  hours.  The  gentlemen  who  perform  wonderful  unsavory 
feats  in  crowded  lecture  halls,  always  remind  us  that  'Never 
was  such  a  time  as  this  nineteenth  century !'  Public  men  laying: 
the  first  stone  of  institutes,  museums,  or  amusing  the  Royal 
Academy  after  dinner,  great  inventors,  who  have  reaped  fortunes 
and  titles,  raise  up  their  hands  and  bless  us  in  the  benignity  of 
affluent  old  age.  I  often  think  of  Lord  Sherbrook,  in  his  new 
robes  and  coronet,  as  the  first  chamberlain,  bowing  and  crying  out, 
'What  a  noble  age  is  thisl'  The  journals  perform  the  part  of 
orchestra,  banging  big  drums  and  blowing  trumpets — ^penny  trum- 
pets, two-penny,  three-penny  or  six-penny  trumpets — and  the 
speaJcers  before  or  after  dinner,  and  the  gentlemen  who  read 
papers  in  the  sections  perform  the  part  of  chorus,  singing  in 
unison : 

'Ah  I  combien  Monseigneur 
Doit  etre  content  de  lui-meme  I' 

"As  a  mere  mite  in  this  magnificent  epoch,  I  ask  myself.  What 
have  I  done,  and  many  plain  people  around  me,  who  have  no  me- 
chanical genius  at  all,  what  have  we  done  to  deserve  this  perpetual 
cataract  of  congratulation  ?  All  that  I  can  think  of  is  the  assur- 
ance that  Figaro  gives  the  count,  'our  lordship  gave  ourselves  the 
trouble  to  be  bom  in  it !' 

"It  is  worth  a  few  minutes'  thought  to  ask  what  is  the  exact 
effect  upon  civilisation,  in  the  widest  and  highest  sense  of  that 
term,  of  this  marvelous  multiplication  of  mechanical  appliances  of 
life?  This  is  a  very  wide  question,  and  takes  us  to  the  roots  of 
many  matters,  social,  economic,  political,  moral,  and  even  re- 
ligious. Is  the  universal  use  of  a  mechanical  process  per  se  a 
great  gain  to  civilization,  an  unmixed  gain — ^a  gain  without  dan- 
gers or  drawback?  Is  an  age  which  abounds  in  countless  inven- 
tions thereby  alone  placed  head  and  shoulders  above  all  the  ages 
since  historical  times  began  ?  And  this  brings  us  to  the  point  that 
the  answer  to  the  qujestion  largely  depends  on  what  we  mean  by 
civilization.  We  need  not  attempt  to  define  civilization.  Before 
any  one  can  fully  show  the  meaning  of  civilization,  he  must  see 
in  a  very  clear  way  what  is  his  own  ideal  of  a  high,  social,  moral 
and  religious  life,  and  this  is  not  the  place  to  enter  on  any  such 
solemn,  not  to  say  tremendous,  topic. 

"Let  us  hail  the  triumphs  of  steam,  and  electricity,  and  gas, 
and  iron ;  the  railways  and  the  conmierce ;  the  industry,  the  appli- 


136  INTEKKTATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

ances,  and  conveniences  of  our  age.  They  are  all  destined  to  do 
good  service  to  humanity.  But  still  it  is  worth  asking  if  the 
good  they  do  is  qidte  so  vast,  quite  so  unmixed,  quite  so  immedi- 
ate as  the  chamberlains  and  chorus  make  out  in  their  perpetual 
cantata  to  the  nineteenth  century. 

"Let  us  note  some  of  the  mechanical  glories  of  the  last  hun- 
dred years,  as  they  are  so  often  rehearsed.  For  four  thousand 
years  we  know,  and  probably  forty  thousand  years,  man  has  trav- 
eled over  the  land  as  fast  as  his  own  legs,  or  men's  legs,  or  horses' 
legs  could  carry  him,  but  no  faster ;  over  sea  as  fast  as  sails  and 
oars  could  carry  him.  Now  he  goes  by  steam  over  both  at  least 
at  three  times  the  pace.  In  previous  ages,  possibly  for  twenty- 
centuries,  about  a  hundred  miles  a  day  was  the  outside  limit  of 
any  long  continuous  journey.  Now  we  can  go  four  thousand 
miles  by  sea  in  fourteen  days,  and  by  land  in  five  days.  It  used 
to  occupy  as  many  weeks,  or  sometimes  months.  We  have  now 
instantaneous  communication  with  all  parts  of  the  globe.  The 
whole  surface  of  our  planet  has  only  been  known  about  a  hundred 
years,  and  till  our  own  day  to  get  news  from  all  parts  of  it 
to  one  given  spot  would  certainly  have  required  a  year.  The 
president  of  the  United  States  delivers  his  message,  and  within 
three  hours  newspapers  in  all  parts  of  the  world  have  printed  it 
word  for  word.  For  twenty  thousand  years  every  fabric  in  use 
has  been  twisted  into  thread  by  human  fingers,  and  woven  into 
stuflf  by  human  hands.  Machines  and  steam  engines  now  make 
ten  thousand  shirts  in  the  time  that  was  formerly  occupied  by 
making  one.  For  twenty  thousand  years  man  has  got  no  better 
light  fian  what  was  given  by  pitch,  tallow  or  oil.  He  now  has 
gas  and  electricity,  each  light  of  which  is  equal  to  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  candles.  Where  there  used  to  be  a  few  hundred 
books  there  are  now  one  hundred  thousand;  and  the  London 
newspapers  of  a  single  year  consume,  I  dare  say,  more  type  and 
paper  than  the  printing  of  the  whole  world  produced  from  the 
days  of  Gutemberg  to  the  French  Revolution. 

"The  Victorian  age  had  a  thousand  times  the  resources  of  any 
other  age.  Permit  me  to  ask.  Does  it  use  them  to  a  thousand 
times  better  purpose?  I  am  no  detractor  of  our  own  age.  *  *  * 
We  all  feel,  in  spite  of  a  want  of  beauty,  of  rest,  of  completeness, 
which  sits  heavy  on  our  souls  and  frets  the  thoughtful  spirit — 
we  all  feel  a-tiptoe  with  hope  and  confidence.     *     *     * 

"Civilization  is  a  very  elastic,  impalpable,  indefinable  thing. 
But  where  are  we  to  turn  to  find  the  tremendous  relative  superi- 
ority of  1882  over  1782,  or  1682,  or  1582?  We  may  hunt  up  and 
down,  and  we  shall  only  find  this:  Population  doubling  itself 
almost  with  every  generation — cities  swelling  year  by  year  by 
millions  of  inhabitants  and  square  miles  of  area — wealth  cotmted 
by  billions,  power  to  go  anywhere,  or  learn  anything,  or  order 


SOME  PHASES  OF  CIVILIZATIOjr  137 

anything,  counted  in  seconds  of  time — miraculous  means  of  loco- 
motion, of  transportation,  of  copying  anything,  of  detecting  th^ 
billionth  part  of  a  grain  or  a  hair's  breadth,  of  seeing  millions 
of  billions  of  miles  into  space  and  finding  more  stars,  billions  of 
letters  carried  every  year  by  the  post,  billions  of  men  and  women 
whirled  everywhere  in  hardly  any  time  at  all;  a  sort  of  patent 
fairy-Peribanou's  fan  which  we  can  open  and  flutter,  and  straight- 
way find  everything  and  anything  the  planet  contains  for  about 
half  a  crown;  night  turned  into  day;  roads  cut  through  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  and  canals  across  continents ;  every  wish  fbr 
any  material  thing  gratified  in  mere  conjuror's  fashion,  by  the 
turning  a  handle  or  adjusting  a  pipe — an  enchanted  world,  where 
everything  does  what  we  tell  it  in  perfectly  inexplicable  ways, 
as  if  some  good  Prospero  were  waving  his  hand,  and  electricitv 
were  the  willing  Ariel — that  is  what  we  have — and  yet,  is  this 
civilizationf  Db  our  philosophy,  our  science,  our  art,  our  man- 
ners, our  happiness,  our  morality,  overtop  the  philosophy,  the 
science,  the  art,  the  manners,  the  happiness,  the  morality  of  our 
grandfathers  as  greatly  as  those  of  cultivated  Europeans  differed 
from  those  of  savages?  We  are  as  much  superior  in  material 
.  appliances  to  the  men  of  Milton's  day  and  Newton's  day  as  thev 
were  to  Afghans  or  Zulus.  Are  we  equally  superior  >in  cultiva- 
tion of  brain  and  character  to  the  contemporaries  of  Milton  and 
Newton?    *    *    * 

"Why  is  it  that  we  don't  get  any  farther?  Because  we  know 
that  Shakespeare  got  to  the  root  of  the  matter  of  tragedy  quite 
as  deep  as  Mr.  Irving.  No  one  can  call  Pope  or  Addison,  Vol- 
taire or  Montesquieu,  wanting  in  culture.  No  one  can  deny  that 
Milton  had  a  fine  style  and  a  fine  taste ;  no  one  can  say  that  John- 
son, Congreve,  Dryden,  Pope,  Fielding,  Reynolds  and  Charles 
James  Fox  passed  narrow,  stunted,  dull  lives.  And  yet  the  tools, 
the  appliances,  the  conveniences  of  these  men's  lives  were,  in 
comparison  with  ours,  as  the  tools,  appliances  and  conveniences 
of  the  ancient  Britons  or  the  South  Sea  islanders  were  to  theirs. 
Why,  then,  with  all  this  arsenal  of  appliances,  do  we  not  do  more  ? 
Can  it  be  that  we  are  overwhelmed  with  our  appliances,  bewild- 
ered by  our  resources,  puzzled  with  our  mass  of  materials,  by 
the  mere  opportunities  we  have  of  going  everywhere,  seeing 
everything,  and  doing  anything? 

"When  we  multiply  the  appliances  of  human  life,  we  do  not 
multiply  the  years  of  life,  nor  the  days  in  the  year,  nor  the  hours 
in  the  day.  Nor  do  we  multiply  the  powers  of  thought,  or  of 
endurance ;  much  less  do  we  multiply  self-restraint,  unselfishness, 
and  a  good  heart.  What  we  really  multiply  are  our  difficulties 
and  doubts.  Millions  of  new  books  hardly  help  us  when  we  can 
neither  read  nor  remember  a  tithe  of  what  we  have.    Billions  of 


138  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

new  facts  rather  confuse  men  who  do  not  know  what  to  do  with 
the  old  facts.  Culture,  thought,  art,  ease,  and  grace  of  manner, 
a  healthy  society,  and  a  higher  standard  of  life,  have  often  been 
found  without  any  of  our  modem  resources  in  a  state  of  very 
simple  material  equipment. 

"Steam  and  factories,  telegraphs,  posts,  railways,  gas,  coal 
and  iron,  suddenly  discharged  from  a  country  as  if  by  a  deluge, 
have  their  own  evils  that  they  bring  in  their  train.  To  cover 
whole  countries  with  squalid  buildings,  to  pile  up  one  hundred 
thousand  factory  chimneys,  vomiting  soot,  to  fill  the  air  with 
poisonous  vapors  till  every  leaf  within  ten  miles  is  withered,  to 
choke  up  rivers  with  putrid  refuse,  to  turn  tracts  as  big  and  once 
as  lovely  as  the  New' Forest  into  arid,  noisome  wastes;  cinder- 
heaps,  cesspools,  coal-dust,  and  rubbish — rubbish,  coaldust,  cess 
pools  and  cinder-heaps,  and  overhead  by  day  and  by  night  a 
murky  pall  of  smoke — ^all  this  is  not  an  heroic  achievement,  if  this 
Black  Country  is  only  to  serve  as  a  prison  yard  for  the  men, 
women  and  children  who  dwell  there. 

"To  bury  Middlesex  and  Surrey  under  miles  of  flimsy  houses, 
crowd  into  them  millions  and  millions  of  overworked,  underfed, 
halftaught  and  often  squalid  men  and  women ;  to  turn  the  silver 
Thames  into  the  biggest  sewer  recorded  in  history ;  to  leave  us  all 
to  drink  the  sewerage  water ;  to  breathe  the  carbonized  air ;  to  be 
closed  up  in  a  labyrinth  of  dull,  sooty,  unwholesome  streets;  to 
leave  hundreds  and  thousands  confined  there,  with  gin,  and  bad 
air,  and  hard  work,  and  low  wages,  breeding  contagious  diseases 
and  sinking  into  despair  of  soul  and  feebler  condition  of  body ;  and 
then  to  sing  paeans  and  shout,  because  the  ground  shakes  and  the 
air  is  shrill  with  the  roar  of  infinite  engines  and  machines,  because 
the  black  streets  are  lit  up  with  garish  gas-lamps,  and  more 
garish  electric  lamps,  and  the  postoffke  carries  billions  of  let-- 
ters,  and  the  railways  every  day  carry  one  hundred  thousand  per- 
sons in  and  out  of  the  huge  factory,  we  call  the  greatest  metropolis 
of  the  civilized  world — this  is  surely  not  the  last  word  of  civiliza- 
tion. 

"Something  like  a  million  of  paupers  are  kept  year  by  year 
from  absolute  starvation  by  doles ;  at  least  another  million  of  poor 
people  are  on  the  border-line,  fluttering  between  starvation  and 
health,  between  pauperism  and  independence;  not  one,  but  two, 
or  three,  or  four  millions  of  people  in  these  islands  are  struggling 
on  the  minimum  pittance  of  human  comforts  and  the  maximum  of 
human  labor;  something  like  twenty  millions  are  raised  each  year 
by  taxation  of  intoxicating  liquors;  something  like  one  hundred 
thousand  deaths  each  year  of  diseases  distinctly  preventable  bv 
care  and  suflScient  food  and  sanitary  precautions  and  due  self- 
restraint  ;  infants  dying  off  from  want  of  good  nursing  like  flies ; 


SOME  PHASES  OF  CIVILIZATION  189 

families  herded  together  like  swine,  eating,  drinking,  sleeping, 
fighting,  dying  in  tjie  same  close  and  foul  den ;  the  kicking  to 
death  of  wives,  the  strangling  of  babies,  the  drunkenness,  the 
starvation,  the  mendacity,  the  prostitution,  the  thieving,  the  cheat- 
ing, the  pollution  of  our  vast  cities  in  masses,  waves  of  misery 
and  vice,  chaos  and  neglect — all  this  counted,  not  here  and  there 
in  spots  and  sores  (as  such  things  in  human  society  always  will 
be),  but  in  areas  larger  than  the  entire  London  of  Elizabeth, 
masses  of  population  equal  to  the  entire  English  people  of  her 
age.  I  will  sum  it  up  in  words  not  my  own,  but  written  the 
other  day  by  one  of  our  best  and  most  acute  living  teachers,  who 
says :  'Our  present  type  of  society  is  in  many  respects  one  of  the 
most  horrible  that  has  ever  existed  in  the  world's  history — ^bound- 
less luxury  and  self-indulgence  at  the  one  end  of  the  scale,  and 
at  the  other  a  condition  of  life  as  cruel  as  that  of  a  Roman  slave, 
and  more  degraded  than  that  of  a  South  Sea  islander/  Such  is 
another  refrain  to  the  cantata  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  its 
magnificent  achievements  in  industry,  science  and  art. 

"What  is  the  good  of  carrying  millions  of  people  through  t'h'^. 
bowels  of  the  earth,  and  at  fifty  miles  an  hour,  if  millions  of 
working  people  are  forced  to  live  in  dreary,  black  suburbs,  miles 
and  miles  away  from  all  the  freshness  of  the  country,  and  away 
miles  and  miles  even  from  the  life  and  intelligence  of  cities? 
What  is  the  good  of  ships  like  moving  towns,  that  cross  the  Atlan- 
tic in  a  week,  and  are  as  gorgeous  within  as  palaces,  if  they  sweeo 
millions  of  our  poor  who  find  nothing  but  starvation  at  home? 
What  is  the  use  of  electric  lamps,  and  telephones  and  telegraphs, 
newspapers  by  millions,  letters  by  billions,  if  seamstresses  stitch- 
ing their  fingers  to  the  bone  can  hardly  earn  fourpence  by  makin^r 
a  shirt,  and  many  a  man  and  woman  is  glad  of  a  shilling  for 
twelve  hours'  work?  What  do  we  all  gain  if  in  covering  our 
land  with  factories  and  steam  engines  we  are  covering  it  also 
with  want  and  wretchedness?  And  if  we  can  make  a  shirt  for  a 
penny  and  a  coat  for  sixpence,  and  bring  bread  from  eyery  market 
on  the  planet,  what  do  we  gain  if  they  who  make  the  coat  and 
the  shirt  lead  the  lives  of  galley  slaves,  and  eat  their  bread  in  tears 
and  despair,  disease  and  filth. 

'  "We  are  all  m  the  habit  of  measuring  success  by  products, 
whilst  the  point  is,  how  are  the  products  consumed,  and  by  whom, 
and  what  sort  of  lives  are  passed  by  the  producers?  So  far  as 
mechanical  improvements  pour  more  wealth  into  the  lap  of  the 
wealthy,  more  luxury  into  the  lives  of  the  luxurious,  and  give  a 
fresh  turn  to  the  screw  which  presses  on  the  lives  of  the  poor; 
so  far  as  our  inventions  double  and  treble  the  power  of  the  rich, 
and  double  and  treble  the  helplessness  of  the  poor,  giving  to  him 
that  hath,  and  taking  away  from  him  that  hath  not  even  that 


140  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

which  he  has — so  far  these  great  material  appliances  of  life  di- 
rectly tend  to  lower  civilization,  retard  it,  distort,  and  deprave  it. 
And  they  do  this,  so  far  as  we  spend  most  of  our  time  in  extend- 
ing and  enjoying  these  appliances,  and  very  Httle  time  in  prepar- 
ing for  the  new  conditions  of  life  they  impose  upon  us,  and  in 
remedying  the  horrors  that  they  bring  in  their  train. 

"Socially,  morally  and  intellectually  speaking,  an  era  of  extra- 
ordinary changes  is  an  age  that  has  cast  on  it  quite  exceptional 
duties.  A  child  might  as  well  play  with  a  steam  engine  or  an 
electric  machine  as  we  could  prudently  accept  our  material  tri- 
umphs with  a  mere  'rest  and  be  thankful/  To  decry  steam  and 
electricity,  inventions  and  products,  is  hardly  more  foolish,  than 
to  deny  the  price  which  civilization  itself  has  to  pay  for  the  use 
of  them.  There  are  forces  at  work  now,  forces  more  unwearied 
than  steam,  and  brighter  than  the  electric  arc,  to  rehmnanize  the 
dehumanized  members  of  society;  to  assert  the  old  immutable 
truths;  to  appeal  to  the  old  indestructible  instinct;  to  recall  beauty; 
farces  yearning  for  rest,  grace,  and  harmony;  rallying  all  that 
is  organic  in  man's  nature,  and  proclaiming  the  value  of  spiritual 
life  over  material  life.  But  there  never  was  a  century  in  human 
history  when  these  forces  had  a  field  so  vast  before  them,  or 
issues  so  momentous  on  their  failure  or  success.  There  never  was 
an  age  when  the  need  was  so  urgent  for  synthetic  habits  of 
thought,  systematic  education,  and  a  common  moral  and  religious 
faith. 

"There  is  much  to  show  that  our  better  genius  is  awakened  to 
the  task.  Stupefied  with  smoke,  and  stunned  with  steam  whistles, 
there  was  a  moment  when  the  century  listened  with  equanimity 
to  the  vulgarest  of  flatterers.  But  if  machinery  were  really  the 
last  word,  we  should  be  rushing  violently  down  a  steep  place,  like 
the  herd  of  swine." 

A  few  words  from  R.  Heber  Newton,  from  the  Arena,  Jan- 
uary, 1902: 

"Labor  strikes  have  tended  to  end,  as  in  Homestead,  in  the 
revolver  and  the  bomb. 

"Manufacturers  have  not  hesitated  to  dispense  with  the  arm 
of  the  law  and  to  hire  the  condottiere  of  our  modern  civilization, 
the  Pinkerton  police. 

"Railroads  have  ignored  laws  for  the  protection  of  life  among 
their  employes. 

"Corporate  wealth  has  high-handedly  bade  defiance  to  law, 
crushed  recklessly  all  competition  by  thoroughly  anarchistic  meth- 
ods, and  not  stopped  short  of  corrupting  legislatures. 

"Out  on  Long  Island  life  is  daily  endangered  by  a  high- 
handed defiance  of  the  laws  regulating  the  speed  of  vehicles  on 


SOME  PHASES  OP  CIVILIZATION  141 

the  part  of  rich  men,  whose  automobiles  terrorize  horses  and 
drivers  alike. 

"While  such  practical  anarchism  prevails,  we  must  not  won- 
der at  anarchistic  assassinations.  While  lawlessness  is  found 
everywhere,  and  ordinary  life  is  held  so  lightly,  we  must  expect 
lawless  disregard  of  exceptional  lives." 

Had  this  article  been  written  later  he  might  have  included  the 
beef  combine,  to  monopolize  meats — one  of  the  necessities  of 
life — ^and  the  "divinely  appointed'*  coal  combine,  to  manipulate 
and  control  another  necessity,  and  demonstrate  to  the  millions  of 
humanity  that  it  holds  inexorably  in  its  hands  the  right,  "divine 
right,"  to  freeze  us. 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  one  other  writer,  Theodore  D.  Wol- 
sey,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  ex-president  of  Yale  College,  and  author  of 
"Political  Science;"  "Introduction  to  the  Study  of  International 
law;"  "Communism  and  Socialism." 

In  the  last  named  work,  written  in  1879,  about  three  years 
prior  to  the  article  of  Mr.  Harrison,  above  quoted  from,  how  like 
a  prophet  he  speaks  when  he  says :  "If,  however,  that  to  which 
we  have  referred  already  more  than  once  should  be  found  to  be 
a  law  of  social  progress — ^that  the  free  use  of  private  property 
must  end  in  making  a  few  capitalists  of  enormous  wealth  and  a 
vast  proportion  of  laborers  dependent  upon  them;  and  if  there 
could  be  no  choice  between  this  disease  of  free  society  and  the 
swallowing  up  of  all  property  by  the  state — then,  we  admit,  it 
would  be  hard  to  choose  between  the  two  evils.  Nothing  would 
lead  the  mass  of  men  to  embrace  Socialism  sooner  than  the  con- 
viction that  this  enormous  accumulation  of  capital  in  a  few  hands 
was  to  be  not  only  an  evil  in  fact,  if  not  prevented,  but  a  necessary 
evil,  beyond  prevention.  We  have  no  desire  to  see  a  return  to 
the  time  of  the  'latifundia/  or  broad  farms,  which,  as  Riny  and 
Elder  said,  were  the  ruin  of  Italy.  If  such  a  tendency  should 
manifest  itself,  it  would  run  through  all  the  forms  of  property. 
A  Stewart  or  a  Qaflin  would  root  out  smaller  tradespeople.  Hold- 
ers of  small  farms  would  sink  into  tenants.  The  buildings  of  a 
city  would  belong  to  a  few  owners.  Small  manufacturers  would 
have  to  take  pay  from  mammoths  of  their  own  kind  or  be  ruined. 
Then  would  the  words  of  the  prophet  be  fulfilled:  *Woe  unto 
them  that  join  house  to  house,  that  lay  field  to  field,  till  there 
be  no  place  that  they  may  be  placed  alone  in  the  earth.'  For  if  it 
went  to  an  extreme  in  a  free  country,  the  'expropriated'  could  not 
endure  it.  They  would  go  to  some  other  country,  and  leave  these 
proprietors  alone  in  the  land,  or  would  drive  them  away.  A  rev- 
olution, slozv  or  rapid,  would  certainly  briug  about  a  new  order 
of  things/' 

Now  for  over  twenty  years   (since  the  above  was  written) 


142  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

we  have  been  waiting  for  this  promised  improvement,  we  have 
been  hoping  against  hope,  and  what  do  we  see?  Any  of  the 
promised  restraints  by  legal  enactments;  any  amelioration  of  the 
condition  of  the  wage-earning  people? 

Is  it  not  rather  that  there  are  more  millionaires,  more  gigantic 
combines,  and  more  lawlessness  among  this  class;  that  every 
legislative  body,  national,  state  and  municipal,  has  its  powerful 
lobby  that  usually  gets  all  that  it  asks  for  for  its  friends?  Is  it 
not  that  it  becomes  a  little  harder  for  the  laborer — either  mental 
or  physical — to  "make  both  ends  meet,-"  that  employment  is  be- 
coming a  little  more  uncertain?  Is  it  not  that  the  once  great 
middle  class  is  being  swept  from  among  men  and  is  dropping 
into  the  class  of  wage-earners — no  man  now,  of  moderate  means, 
can  invest  his  funds  in  any  legitimate  business  and  pay  expenses 
in  competition  with  the  trusts,  even  if  they  let  him  alone.  Is  it 
not  that  the  army  of  employed,  those  that  would  willingly  work, 
is  becoming  daily  larger ;  that  the  cost  of  living  is  advancing  at  a 
rapid  rate,  far  in  advance  of  the  pittance  of  advance  in  wages, 
where  any  advance  is  conceded?  Is  it  not  that  food  stuff,  as  it 
advances  in  price,  deteriorates  in  quality  until  it  is  often  actuallv 
dangerous  to  take  into  a  human  stomach? 

Verily  the  time  prophesied  by  the  good  doctor  has  arrived 
when  "we  must  go  to  some  other  country,  *  *  *  or  drive 
them  away." 

The  "divine"  coal  combine,  through  their  Christ,  sugfgests 
that  the  federal  government  should  give  an  island  to  the  Social- 
ists where  they  could  go  and  invent  Socialistic  schemes.  This  is 
magnanimous,  to  say  the  least,  and  worthy  of  the  brain  that 
evolved  it.  But,  let  us  ask,  v^here  is  this  island?  The  Socialists 
are  already  numbered  by  the  millions;  are  casting  votes  by  the 
millions  all  over  the  world ;  there  is  no  island  on  this  earth  large 
enough  to  contain  one-tenth  part  of  us.  Would  it  not  be  more 
expeditious  and  more  economical  for  the  federal  government  to 
give  an  island  to  the  capitalists  where  they  could  go  and  exploit 
themselves  and  cease  exploiting  labor?  A  very  small  island 
would  contain  them  all. 

There  being  so  many  Socialists  in  all  countries  that  they  can- 
not "go  to  some  other  country,"  then  the  only  ready  remedy  sug- 
gested by  DIr.  Wolsey  is  to  "drive  them  away."  But  we  will  be 
more  magnanimous  than  he — we  will  let  them  remain  where  thev 
are.  We  are  not  asking  for  the  gift  of  islands  that  are  already 
ours ;  we  are  asking  that  the  government  take  over  some  of  the 
property  that  belongs  to  it,  to  all  the  people,  now  controlled  by 
trusts  and  combines,  and  use  it  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  people 
to  whom  it  belongs,  instead  of  for  the  benefit  of  the  few  and  the 
oppression  of  the  many.     Our  motto  is  a  government  "of  the 


SOME  PHASES  OF  CIVILIZATION  143 

people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,"  instead  of  a  govern- 
ment "of  the  people,  by  the  rascals,  for  the  rich." 

"I  affirm  it  is  my  conviction  that  class  laws,  placing  capital 
above  labor,  are  more  dangerous  to  the  public  at  this  hour  than 
chattel  slavery  in  the  days  of  its  haughtiest  supremacy.    Labor  is 
prior  to  and  above  capital,sjid  DESERVES  A  MUCH  HIGHER 
I  CONSIDiERATIONr— Abraham  Lincoln. 

I  "The  trusts  of  today  are  the  revival  in  industrial  life  of  ex- 

actly the  same  spirit  that  created  absolutism  in  states.    Formerb' 
men  aimed  at  administrative  absolutism;  now  the  trust  leaders' 
i  object  is  the  attainment  of  financial  absolutism. 

"It  is  as  pernicious  in  its  latter  day  as  in  its  former  aspect,  and 
it  is  as  vital  to  the  interests  of  humanity  and  progress  that  finan- 
cial absolutism  SHOULD  BE  DESTROYED  as  it  was  that  ab- 
solutism among  rulers  should  be  ABOLISHED. 

"The  whole  history  of  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  has  been 
the  history  of  a  steady,  tenacious  fight  against  absolutism  in  the 
state,  a  fight  which  has  been  entirely  successful.  Financial  abso- 
lutism must  be  fought,  and,  in  my  opinion,  the  influences  thai 
will  fight  and  overcome  it  will  be  that  same  Anglo-Saxon  civilvsa- 
tion  which  has  CRUSHED  ABSOLUTISM  IN  OTHER 
FORMS."— 5en;aw*w  Kidd. 

The  haughty,  dictatorial  conduct  of  the  "divine"  combine  in 
the  late  coal  strike  to  the  governor  of  the  state  of  New  York,  to 
ihe  president  of  the  United  States,  to  the  commission  appointed 
to  hear  and  arbitrate,  tells  us  only  too  plainly  the  position  of  com- 
bined capital  today.  It  is  not  only  imperialistic,  but  assumes  the 
position  of  absolutism.  "The  earth  is  mifte,"  and  "if  you  do  not 
like  me  and  my  ways^  all  you  have  to  do  is  simply  to  'get  off  the 
earth:" 

The  "revolution"  predicted  by  Dr.  Wolsey  is  now  here  and 
certainly  will  "bring  about  a  new  order  of  things." 

When  Socialism  prevails,  and  there  is  no  other  adequate  rem- 
edy, we  will  have  "changed  cars  for  Paradise,"  at  least  for  an 
earthly  paradise.  Ira  C.  Mosher. 


Value  and  the  Distribution  of  Commoditicg 

That  which  determines  how  much  of  other  commodities  can 
bi  gotten  for  a  certain  quantity  of  a  given  commodity  in  a  free 
market  unaffected  by  monopoly  or  force  or  fraud  is  its  value. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  better  the  commodity  the  greater  its 
value  and  the  greater  its  quantity  the  greater  its  value.  That 
is  to  say  in  general  of  a  quantity  of  a  commodity  compared  with 
another  quantity  of  the  same  that  its  value  is  greater  if  its  use- 
fulness is  greater,  and  vice  versa.  It  is  accordingly  easy  and 
natural  to  draw  the  false  conclusion  that  the  value  of  an  article 
depends  upon  its  usefulness  and  is  determined  by  the  people's  desire 
for  it.  A  thing  must  be  useful  in  order  to  be  valuable ;  but  nothing 
is  valuable  merely  because  it  is  useful.  A  thing  more  particularly 
and  generally  useful  than  water  can  hardly  be  mentioned.  Yet 
water  is  without  value  where  no  one  has  to  work  to  get  it.  It 
may  be  remarked  just  here  that  it  requires  more  labor  to  make  a 
good  article,  a  good  crop  of  corn  for  instance,  than  to  make  a 
poor  one.  It  requires  more  labor  to  make  more  of  a  commodity. 
If  it  did  not,  if  a  good  crop  could  be  made  without  more  labor 
than  the  poor  crop,  the  poor  crop  would  not  be  made  at  all.  It  is 
sure,  therefore,  if  some  of  a  commodity  is  better  than  another  lot 
of  the  same,  more  labor  is  generally  consumed  to  make  it.  The 
advance  in  value  of  one  over  the  other  has  been  preceded  by  an 
advance  in  the  labor  usually  consumed.  If  comparison  be  pos- 
sible, how  much  more  useful  is  bread  than  gold,  yet  how  much 
less  valuable,  because  the  labor  of  production  of  the  latter  is 
greater.  If  one  picks  up  luckily  a  nugget  of  gold,  his  labor  does 
not  fix  the  average  expended  for  our  supply  of  gold. 

Anything  usually  made  for  sale  is  a  commodity ;  but  it  is  im- 
possible to  compare  the  values  of  these  things  on  the  basis  of 
their  relative  usefulness  and  people's  desire  for  them.  It  is  as 
irrational  to  try  to  measure  the  usefulness  of  iron  with  the  use- 
fulness of  bread  or  of  gold  as  to  attempt  to  measure  distance  in 
pounds  -or  temperature  in  feet.    They  are  no  more  comparable. 

Corn  is  not  sold  for  com  or  beef  for  beef  or  gold  for  gold. 
Commodities  are  sold  for  others  not  for  the  same  generally.  On 
what  do  the  quantity  of  other  commodities  which  can  be  gotten 
for  a  certain  quantity  of  a  given  commodity  depend  in  a  free 
market?  In  other  words,  what  is  value?  Where  it  is  shown 
that  no  constant  consistent  relation  can  be  between  two  things, 
the  one  cannot  depend  upon  the  other.  One  article  is  not  worth 
more  than  another  because  it  weighs  more  or  because  its  volume 

lU 


VALUJC    AND    THE    DISTRIBUTION    OP    COMMODITIES    145 

is  greater.  It  can  readily  be  shown  by  an  indefinite  number  of 
instances  that  the  values  of  commodities  do  not  vary  according 
to  their  relative  weight,  size,  color,  or  any  other  physical  proper- 
ties. There  can  be  no  relation  whatever  between  the  values  of 
ccMnmodities  and  their  physical  properties.  Therefore  there  is  no 
dependence  one  upon  the  other.  Of  all  these  properties  combined 
the  usefulness  is  made  up.  The  value  often  does  increase  through 
scarcity,  whereas  the  usefulness  is  less.  Value  falls  where  the  use- 
fulness has  increased  in  many  instance.  A  certain  amount  of 
labor  will  make  now  35  times  as  many  watches,  22  times  as  much 
wheat,  4,000  times  as  many  screw  posts,  1 1 1  times  as  many  pairs 
of  hose  as  it  would  without  improved  machinery  fifty  or  sixty 
years  ago.  The  products  are  better  than  the  old.  They  are  not 
accordingly  more  valuable.  While  a  few  would  be  sufficient,  a 
multitude  of  illustrations  could  be  found  to  show  that  there  is  no 
law  of  dependence  of  value  upon  usefulness  and  the  desire  for 
th^m.  All  commodities  are  alike  the  products  of  human  labor. 
They  are  not  exchanged  in  relative  quantities  according  to  their 
physical  properties.  We  cannot  compare  their  relative  usefulness 
or  people's  desire  for  them.  But  we  can  measure  the-  amount  of 
human  labor  which  society  must  expend  to  provide  them;  and 
there  is  a  perfectly  obvious  and  constant  relation  between  the 
value  of  commodities  and  the  labor  of  their  production.  The 
greater  the  labor  of  production  of  the  commodity  the  greater  its 
value,  and  the  less  the  labor  the  less  its  value.  The  quantities  of 
other  commodities  which  can  be  gotten  for  a  certain  quantity  of  a 
particular  commodity  vary  directly  in  a  free  market  with  the  aver- 
age amount  of  useful  labor  necessary  to  provide  this  commodity. 
This  is  the  law  of  gravitation  of  commodities. 

Averages  are  such  elastic  quantities  and  the  average  labor  of 
society  so  particularly  uncertain  of  close  measurement,  it  is  ob- 
jected that  such  a  basis  as  the  above  conclusion  is  dangerous  for 
far  reaching  and  important  deductions.  The  conception  of  value 
presupposes  the  existence  of  a  community  or  of  a  society.  Where 
there  is  not  the  exchange  of  goods  there  is  no  such  thing  conceiv- 
able as  value.  Where  there  is  the  exchange  of  goods  we  have 
at  least  the  beginnings  of  a  community.  Society  values  its  supply 
of  iron  as  much  more  or  as  much  less  than  its  supply  of  wheat 
as  the  labor  of  making  its  iron  is  more  or  less  than  the  labor 
necessary  to  make  society's  supply  of  wheat.  If  society  is  obliged 
to  expend  twice  as  much  labor  to  produce  its  supply  of  wheat  as 
to  produce  its  supply  of  iron,  one  billionth  part  of  its  wheat  sup- 
ply, suppose  twenty  bushels,  would  be  valued  twice  as  much  as 
one  billionth  part  of  its  supply  of  iron,  say  one  ton.  The  value 
of  cc^nmodities  is  seen  to  be  society's  labor  to  produce  them. 

For  the  measurement  of  length  we  take  something  having 


^ 


146  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW 

length.  And  so  for  the  measurement  of  value  we  take  some- 
thing having  value,  a  commodity,  and  compare  others  with  it 
An)rthing  with  which  society  is  supplied  by  human  eflfort  may 
be  made  the  standard,  money.  Some  of  the  diings  used  have  been 
very  curious,  cattle,  beads,  tobacco,  slaves.  Most  convenient,  be- 
cause of  the  great  amount  of  consumed  htunan  labor  carried  in 
the  small  bulk,  are  the  precious  metals.  It  is  found  convenient 
to  have  the  money  metal  made  into  pieces  of  regular  weight  with 
the  denomination  stamped  thereon — coin.  So  the  human  labor 
usually  consumed  in  producing  a  few  pennyweight  of  gold  is  made 
the  standard  for  measuring  the  labor  in  other  commodities.  That 
commodity  which  is  sou^t  everywhere  in  exchange  for  other 
commodities  and  generally  accepted  as  a  universal  equivalent  of 
value  is  money.  It  is  exceedingly  undesirable  to  have  a  changing 
standard  for  measurement,  as  it  would  be  exceedingly  inconven- 
ient to  use  a  foot  rule  that  varied  in  length,  sometimes  more  and 
sometimes  less  than  one  foot.  The  use  of  a  commodity  as  stand- 
ard of  value  has  therefore  its  disadvantages,  since  all  commodities 
fluctuate  in  value  with  the  changes  in  the  labor  of  their  produc- 
tion. Moreover,  any  commodity  can  be  cornered,  gaining  thereby 
a  temporary  fictitious  value.  Government  credit  makes  it  possi- 
ble to  circulate  stamped  paper  in  place  of  this  money  commodity, 
while  the  public  are  confident  of  its  exchange  for  the  precious 
metal  or  other  commodities.  The  basis  of  government  credit  is 
its  power  to  tax  the  nation's  industries.  The  standard  of  value 
might  more  reasonably  be  the  average  labor  of  a  day  than  the  av- 
erage labor  consumed  in  a  certain  weight  of  gold.  The  labor  cer- 
tificates, money,  of  an  industrial  democracy  controlling  the  in- 
dustries of  the  people  would  be  less  liable  to  depreciation  than 
the  negotiable  paper  now  in  circulation  from  our  banks  and  other 
financial  institutions  and  from  the  govemmient  itself. 

That  value  is  labor  is  not  inconsistent  with  its  being  offered 
in  any  of  its  multitudinous  forms,  generally  in  money  as  the  means 
of  payment,  for  things  which  in  the  nature  of  them  could  not  in- 
volve the  consumption  of  society's  labor  for  their  production. 
Things  which  may  be  offered  directly  or  indirectly  as  an  induce- 
ment to  labor  come  to  possess  a  value  as  great  as  the  labor  they 
can  induce. 

Change  in  the  demand  for  or  the  supply  of  a  commodity  so 
invariably  precedes  the  fluctuation  in  its  price  and  is  so  noticeable 
that  it  is  rightly  considered  to  be  the  immediate  cause  of  the 
change  in  price  and  falsely  understood  to  determine  the  value. 
Value  is  determined  by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  it  is  said. 
We  have  no  controversy  with  these  people,  but  let  us  ask  them 
what  determines  the  supply  and  demand.  When  the  price  for 
the  time  being  is  constant,  supply  and  demand  just  bakuice  each 


VALUE    AND    THE    DISTRIBUTION    OF    COMMODITIES    147 

Other.  One  nullifies  the  effect  of  the  other.  What  causes  them  to 
just  balance  at  this  price? 

People  are  moved  by  an  infinite  variety  of  motives.  The  mo- 
tive for  work  is  to*  get  the  necessities  first,  and  then  the  luxuries 
and  refinements  of  life,  and  the  gratification  of  that  infinite  variety 
of  human  desires  which  the  labor  of  society  can  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, wholly  or  in  part,  gratify.  In  a  community  making  com- 
modities men  don't  make  shoes  to  wear  themselves.  They  make 
goods  for  the  consumption  of  others,  because  it  seems  to  each  that 
his  effort  expended  in  this  way  will  better  gain  the  object  of  his 
desires  than  in  any  other  that  he  can  command.  In  a  better  indus- 
trial order  men  may  find  the  motive  for  their  work  more  largely 
in  the  love  of  it.  From  the  same  motives  that  individuals  seek 
the  greatest  results  for  their  labor,  society  buys  in  the  cheapest 
market. 

It  frequently  happens  that  change  in  the  conditions  of  pro- 
duction so  increase  the  labor  necessary  to  turn  out  a  certain 
quantity  of  product  that  the  same  labor  cannot  turn  out  nearly  so 
much  as  before.  The  supply  is  short.  Some  who  have  expected 
to  buy  as  usual  at  the  old  price,  must  go  without  or  give  more 
that  they  who  sell  may  prefer  to  sell  them.  The  value  is  advanced 
by  the  action  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  with  the  increase 
of  the  labor  necessary.  Or  through  an  opposite  change  in  the 
conditions  of  production,  better  crop  conditions  perhaps,  or  im- 
proved machinery,  a  certain  amount  of  labor  produces  more  prod- 
uct than  before.  The  supply  is  now  greater  than  the  usual  de- 
mand at  the  old  price.  Some  must  sell  for  less  to  sell  at  all.  The 
commodity  will  be  consumed  where  it  would  not  have  been  con- 
sumed at  the  old  price.  The  value  falls  through  the  action  of  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand  with  the  decrease  in  the  necessary 
labor  of  production.  The  price  becomes  constant  again  when  ad- 
justed so  that  supply  and  demand  balance  each  other.  The  change 
in  value  is  according  to  the  change  in  the  labor  necessary;  for 
this  balance  of  supply  against  demand  cannot  continue  if  a  given 
amotmt  of  labor  expended  in  this  kind  of  production  or  service 
gets  much  better  or  much  worse  pay  and  conditions  of  life,  than 
the  same  effort  expended  in  other  employments.  The  entrance  of 
the  capitalist  into  the  process  complicates  it  without  changing  the 
result.  He  is  at  least  as  jealous  of  his  profits  as  the  laborer  is  of 
his  wages,  and  can  transfer  his  investment  almost  as  readily  as 
the  worker  can  change  his  job. 

Quite  reasonably  should  we  expect  in  the  chaotic  conditions  of 
the  perpetual  financial  war  now  prevailing,  where  no  intelligence 
whatever  can  be  devoted  to  the  distribution  of  the  productive  labor 
of  society,  according  to  the  various  needs  of  society,  that  with  one 
kind  of  goods  the  market  will  be  flooded  while  the  supply  of  an- 


]48  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW 

Other  commodity  is  so  far  short  of  the  demand  that  some  people 
will  prefer  to  pay  much  more  than  the  price  due  to  the  labor  neces- 
sary in  its  production,  rather  than  be  inconvenienced  by  the  lack 
of  it. 

Let  us  suppose  that  a  premium  is  difered  on  the  production 
of  a  commodity  above  the  normal  value  because  of  an  increase  in 
demand  which  occurs  without  increase  in  the  labor  of  production. 
The  conditions  of  production  of  practically  all  commodities  per- 
mit the  processes  to  be  hastened  to  meet  unusual  demand  by  the 
application  of  unusual  labor.  But  the  remuneration  offered  must 
be  at  least  as  great  as  the  usual  labor  which  must  be  consumed. 
It  is  not  now  a  matter  of  making  corn  or  iron  or  paper  or  some 
other  commodity  under  the  ordinary  processes  of  production,  but 
of  forcing  production  in  some  places  where  conditions  make  this 
possible  by  the  application  of  unusual  labor.  The  price  of  the  com- 
modity now  increases  by  the  action  of  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand, just  as  much  as  the  labor  necessary  to  get  the  results  re- 
quired. 

There  also  occurs  from  time  to  time  a  reduction  of  the  de- 
mand for  a  commodity  below  the  supply  without  change  in  the 
labor  of  its  production.  Other  things  have  been  found  to  better 
fulfill  its  purpose  perhaps ;  or  its  purpose  has  ceased  to  be.  A  part 
of  the  labor  of  production  has  been  useless  labor,  wasted  labor, 
creating  no  value  therefpre,  though  necessary  to  produce  so  much 
more  of  the  product  than  can  be  used.  As  before,  the  value  of 
the  aggregate  product  will  be  the  amount  of  average  useful  hu- 
man labor  necessarily  consumed  in  it,  something  less  than  the 
labor  actually  consumed. 

It  seems  that  there  is  a  simple  law  of  dependence  of  the  value 
of  a  commodity  upon  the  average  useful  labor  alone  consumed  in 
its  production,  and  that  such  constant  dependence  upon  anything 
else  alone  cannot  be  shown  to  be.  It  is  suggested  that  value  is  a 
dependent,  variable  function  of  several  independent  variables ;  the 
law  of  its  dependence  is  not  yet  suggested,  much  less  demonstated. 
Special  causes  may  present  peculiar  problems.  A  great  many 
forces  in  a  community  may  interfere  to  create  unusual  complexi- 
ties, as  the  passing  wind  or  a  falling  body  disturbs  the  surface  of 
the  lake  to  its  utmost  limits.  But  it  will  be  found  at  last  that 
according  to  the  general  law,  after  force  or  fraud,  or  even  a  pro- 
longed monopoly  have  spent  themselves,  the  prices  of  commodities 
seek  the  level  of  the  labor  of  their  production  as  surely  and  i>ersist- 
ently  as  water  runs  down  hill.  Value  is  abstract  and  distinct  en- 
tirely from  those  concrete  things  useful  to  human  wants  in  which 
it  is  embodied,  and  which  constitute  wealth. 

The  manipulation  of  value  for  the  getting  of  more  value  with- 
out useful  labor  on  the  part  of  those  who  profit  is  common.    In- 


VALUE    AND    THE    DISTRIBUTION    OP    COMMODITIES    149 

deed  the  consumption  of  human  life  in  unpaid  labor  to  create 
profits,  interest,  and  rent  is  the  basis  of  our  business  system. 
Those  who  successfully  manage  the  accepted  and  legal  processes 
by  which  this  eminently  respectable  purpose  is  accomplished  are 
the  men  whom  we  all  delight  to  honor.  They  are  not  to  be  held 
responsible  for  a  business  system  they  did  not  design,  and  which 
they  cannot  change ;  but  their  willingness  to  profit  by  it  and  defend 
it  is  seen.  To  the  value  so  manipulated  only  the  term  capital 
properly  applies.  Capital  is  value  manipulated  in  one  form  or  an- 
other according  as  in  one  or  the  other  it  is  expected  most  rapidly 
to  be  increased  beyond  the  useful  labor  its  owners  add  to  it. 
^'Value,  therefore,  now  becomes  value  in  process,  money  in  pro- 
cess, and,  as  such,  capital.  It  comes  out  of  circulation,  enters  into  it 
again,  preserves  and  multiplies  itself  within  its  circuit,  comes  back 
out  of  it  with  expanded  bulk,  and  begins  the  same  round  ever 
afresh.  M — M',  money  which  begets  money,  such  is  the  descrip- 
tion of  capital  from  the  mouths  of  its  first  interpreters,  the  mer- 
cantilists (middle  of  p.  82  of  Capital).  Its  common  processes  have 
attained  the  standing  of  orthodoxy. 

The  power  to  labor  being  commonly  for  sale,  has  become  a 
commodity.  As  a  commodity  its  value  is  determined  like  the 
value  of  all  commodities  by  the  average  labor  necessary  to  pro- 
duce such  quantity  and  quality  of  it^  The  value  of  labor  power  is 
the  labor  of  its  production,  the  labor  of  producing  and  sustaining 
in  working  order  a  human  being,  that  is  the  labor  of  production  of 
the  things  he  consumes.  The  opportunities  of  employment  are 
limited  by  the  chances  of  profit  and  the  owners  of  the  means  of 
employment.  The  chances  of  profit  are  limited  by  the  possibility 
of  selling  the  products  of  industry  at  a  price  greater  than  paid  for 
their  production,  and  consequently  greater  than  the  producers  can 
pay  for  their  own  product.  The  sale  of  the  product  is  therefore 
dependent  upon  an  expanding  market  ever  beyond  the  field  of 
present  capitalist  production.  But  physical  limits  have  very  near- 
ly been  reached ;  and  the  nations  which  are  now  a  foreign  market 
for  our  goods  very  rapidly  become  themselves  manufacturers  com- 
peting fiercely  for  the  smaller  foreign  market  remaining.  Com- 
petition among  workers  for  the  inadequate  opportunities  of  em- 
ployment reduces  the  wage  of  labor  to  the  price  of  its  subsistence. 
The  labor  power  of  the  man  applied  to  the  means  of  production 
will  create  more  wealth  than  sufficient  to  sustain  his  own  life.  If 
the  labor  power  purchased  at  the  price  of  his  subsistence  could 
not  create  a  surplus  above  what  the  laborer  must  consume,  no 
wealth  could  be  accumulated.  The  estimate  made  by  the  capitalist 
class  in  the  last  United  States  Census  shows  that  in  1900  by  the 
labor  of  the  wage  workers  a  value  twice  as  great  as  their  wages 
was  added  to  the  raw  materials  of  the  products  of  American  manu- 


150  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW 

facturers,  after  paying  all  miscellaneous  and  other  expenses  be- 
sides. (P.  982  of  Manufactures,  Part  II,  12th  Census  of  the 
United  States.)  But  in  order  to  invest  a  portion  of  his  capital  in 
the  labor  power  which  is  the  source  of  his  dividends,  the  capitalist 
must  invest  a  larger  and  ever  larger  part  of  his  capital  in  the 
means  of  production  which  are  not  the  source  of  his  dividends. 
The  machinery  that  saves  more  labor  is  more  complex  and  more 
expensive^  and  in  it  more  capital  is  tied  up.  .  It  works  up  more 
raw  material,  with  which  it  must  be  supplied,  and  in  this  more  cap- 
ital is  involved.  The  capital  invested  per  employe  in  American 
manufactures  in  1850  was  $557,  in  1900  it  was  $1,721  (see  above 
reference).  Each  wage  worker  must  produce  the  interest  on  three 
times  as  much  capital  as  fifty  years  ago.  The  part  of  his  working 
day  consumed  in  unpaid  labor  for  the  creation  of  profits  over  and 
above  his  wages  must  be  increased,  and  the  part  paid  for  in  his 
wages  must  by  all  possible  means  be  reduced.  We  should  expect 
accordingly  what  all  available  evidence  converges  to  a  focus  upon 
proving.  We  are  triumphantly  told  that  the  average  wage  of  the 
American  employe  has  increased  ^7  per  cent  since  i&h..  It  is 
of  no  consequence  that  the  productivity  of  his  labor  has  multiplied, 
according  to  these  gentlemen,  ten  or  twenty  times,  and  that  against 
the  resistance  of  the  greatest  monopolies  the  prices  of  his  products 
have  been  but  slightly  reduced.  Eighty-four  cents  will  buy  now 
what  one  dollar  was  required  to  pay  for  of  the  necessities  of  life 
when  methods  of  production  were  crude ;  so  that  the  average  wage 
will  purchase  now  almost  twice  as  much.  But  the  wage  of  the 
working  class  can  now  buy  a  smaller  part  of  their  product  than 
ever  before. 

Since  the  illogical  and  unrighteous  distribution  of  wealth  pro- 
duced in  the  present  industrial  system  is  its  most  intolerable  wrong, 
the  determination  of  the  pay  of  the  worker  and  the  distribution  of 
commodities  in  whatever  business  system  this  one  is  immediately 
to  develop  can  be  a  matter  of  no  small  concern,  and  will  be  its  first 
problem.  As  a  business  proposition,  socialism  guarantees  to  every 
worker  the  full  product  of  his  toil.  Our  principal  objection  to 
the  present  system  is  that  some  are  enriched  by  the  unpaid  labor 
of  others.  Many  people  are  confirmed  in  the  belief  that  socialism 
involves  equal  pay  to  all  workers  in  a  co-operative  state,  A  great 
many  do  not  distinguish  between  socialism  and  communism.  The 
motto  of  communism  is,  "From  each  according  to  his  ability,  to 
each  according  to  his  need."  That  this  should  be  the  fundamental 
principle  of  a  business  system  immediately  to  replace  the  present 
one  is  obviously  impossible,  whatever  the  development  of  the  in- 
dustrial order  may  be  beyond  industrial  democracy.  It  must  be 
equally  impossible  to  maintain  a  business  system  in  which  every 
worker  receives  the  same  pay  for  whatever  service.    This  would 


VALUE    AND    THE    DISTRIBUTION    OF    COMMODITIES    151 

antagonize  the  very  purpose  of  the  socialist  movement.  It  has 
never  been  proposed  and  would  be  impossible  to  restrict  the  de- 
sire to  do  useful  work  for  which  unlimited  opportunities  are  af- 
forded by  nature.  It  is  moreover  true  that  the  labor  of  various 
persons  is  not  equally  productive,  nor  could  it  be  made  so  except 
in  special  conditions  and  to  an  approximate  degree.  All  cannot 
receive  the  same  pay,  therefore,  unless  some  are  rewarded  by  the 
unpaid  labor  of  others. 

Very  few  commodities  are  the  product  of  the  labor  of  one  or 
a  few  workers.  The  making  of  a  watch,  for  instance,  involves 
eight  hundred  operations.  Whose,  therefore,  shall  the  product 
be.**  While  it  is  plainly  impossible  to  divide  the  product  into  the 
shares  that  belong  to  each  worker,  it  is  equally  plain  that  the  part 
of  the  work  done  by  each  can  be  estimated  as  to  its  time,  its  in- 
tensity, and  its  skill.  And  every  worker  shall  be  paid  accordingly 
if  each  receives  the  full  product  of  his  labor ;  that  is,  if  industrial 
democracy  secures  to  every  useful  worker  a  share  of  the  whole 
product  of  labor,  the  same  as  his  share  of  labor.  It  is  not  his 
own  product  tjiat  the  worker  desires,  but  the  products  of  other 
workers  in  place  of  his  own.  The  fact  that  some  particular  work- 
man in  taking  a  day  to  make  a  certain  thing  consumes  three  times 
as  much  as  the  usual  time,  does  not  entitle  him  to  the  product  of 
a  day's  labor  three  times  as  productive  as  his  own,  though  he  is 
entitled  to  his  own  product  after  the  raw  material  is  paid  for.  Nor 
would  the  fact  that  the  skill  of  another  man  enables  him  to  get 
in  one  hour  the  results  of  three  hours  average  labor  rightly  de- 
prive him  of  three  times  as  much  for  his  labor. 

Here  we  are  at  once  involved  unavoidably  in  the  exchange*  of 
commodities,  and  must  consider  the  law  governing,  the  law  of 
gravitation  of  commodities.  This  law  rules  the  middle  or  the  dark 
ages  of  finance  now  passing  "as  an  over-riding  law  of  nature," 
notwithstanding  the  ignorance  and  defiance  of  its  industrial  lords. 
How  accurately  and  how  absolutely  is  shown  in  "Capital,  A  Criti- 
cal Analysis  of  Capitalist  Production,*'  by  Carl  Marx.  The  de- 
sire of  men  to  get  the  greatest  results  possible  for  the  effort  ex- 
pended is  natural)  and  legitimate  and  enduring.  The  resulting 
economic  law  is  equally  enduring  and  strong  enough  to  govern 
the  past  and  present  industrial  systems  not  only  without  their  rec- 
ognition, but  against  the  utmost  resistance  of  their  greatest  finan- 
cial institutions  and  the  governments.  If  we  are  considering 
what  may  be  the  industrial  system  which  may  be  expected  to  de- 
velop out  of  the  existing  industrial  feudalism,  rather  than  in  spec- 
ulations on  the  distant  future,  it  must  be  concluded  that  economic 
law  will  rule  as  surely  the  immediate  future  as  the  immeasurable 
past.  So  are  the  prices  of  goods  adjusted  to  accord  at  least  approx- 
imately with  the  labor  of  their  production.    If  the  reward  for  ef- 


W: 


£:; 


K> 


A 


«:r  152  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BEVIEW 

fort  in  a  certain  kind  of  employment  were  better  than  for  the  same 
^t  effort  in  other  lines,  labor  would  be  attracted  to  that  employment. 

1^^  The  fact  that  an  excessive  number  sought  work  therein  would 

^1.  be  the  best  possible  evidence  that  the  advantages  of  such  employ- 

^^  ment  are  excessive.     Victe  versa,  there  could  be  no  better  proof 

j£'.<  that  the  conditions  and  remuneration  of  a  certain  class  of  work 

%''}^  were  relatively  poor,  and  that  injustice  was  being  done  than  that 

y;'!\  the  number  seeking  employment  therein  was  insufficient  to  meet 

the  requirements  of  the  work.  There  must  be  readjustment  ac- 
cordingly. Mistaken  attempts  to  fix  arbitrarily  prices  and  the 
wages  of  various  kinds  of  labor  would  be  overwhelmed,  even  if 
these  mistakes  were  enforced  by  the  greatest  of  all  monopolies, 
the  machinery  of  the  state,  organized  society.  That  the  equaliz- 
y  .  ing  of  the  attractiveness  of  the  various  employments  and  the  ap- 

g^  proximate  equalizing  of  pay  would  gradually  result  in  industrial 

democracy  "in  order  to  attract  or  retain  a  supply  of  labor  equal 
to  the  depiand  in  any  stated  employment,"  is  a  happy  condition 
that  must  grow  out  of  equality  of  opportunity  to  all. 

New  York,  July  26,  1903.  Warren  Atkinson. 


K^ 


Ascending  Stages  of  Socialism 

The  central  idea  running  through  that  conception  of  the  uni- 
verse which  the  discoveries  and  generalizations  of  modern  science 
have  imposed  upon  the  cultivated  thought  of  the  present  day  is 
that  of  evolutioui  We  now  know  that  nothing  in  the  universe  is 
fixed  or  stationary.  All  things  are  in  a  state  of  flux  and  constant 
change,  and  have  arrived  at  their  present  state  by  a  long-con- 
tinued process  of  development.  The  solid  earth  under  our  feet 
was  once  a  gaseous  mist,  and  at  this  viry  moment  is  rushing  rest- 
lessly and  with  unthinkable  velocity  toward  the  unchartered  wastes 
of  boundless  space.  The  so-called  "eternal  hills"  have  many  a 
time  reared  their  towering  summits  to  the  skies  only  to  be  washed 
down  again  and  again  into  the  abysmal  depths  of  tlie  sea.  The 
teeming  and  varied  life  upon  the  globe  has  risen  from  humble  be- 
ginnings, and  passed  through  many  mutations  of  form  and  for- 
tune, ere  reaching,  after  the  strain  and  strife  of  the  ages,  its  pres- 
ent perfection  and  beauty  of  adaptation ;  and  proud  man  himself 
must  see  in  the  Pithecanthropus  Erectus,  or  extinct  Ape-Man  of 
Malaysia,  the  link  of  kinship  that  binds  him  to  the  rest  of  the 
animal  kingdom. 

Now  the  development  of  the  human  race  from  animality,  and 
through  savagery  to  civilization,  has  only  been  possible  with  the 
slow  and  concurrent  development  of  its  physical,  intellectual  and 
social  powers,  or  faculties,  and  these  powers  or  faculties  must 
continue  to  grow  and  expand  as  man  rises  to  a  higher  scale  of  life 
and  a  higher  civilization.  At  every  stage  of  human  culture  there 
must  be  an  adaptation  between  the  powers  of  the  individual  and 
the  requirements  of  the  social  environment,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  hurry  on  the  development  of  social  forms  and  institutions  ahead 
of  the  development  that  is  taking  place  in  the  powers  of  the  in- 
dividuals composing  society.  The  goal  of  evolution  is  in  that  form 
of  economic  life  in  which  there  shall  be  a  complete  harmony  of 
interests  between  the  individual  and  society,  and  between  each  in- 
dividual and  every  other  individual ;  a  harmony  of  interests  which 
shall  permit  and  make  possible  the  full  and  unrestricted  gratifica- 
tion of  every  man's  desires  without  such  gratification  diminishing 
the  opportunities  for  the  gratification  of  any  other  man's  desires, 
and  in  which  none  shall  have  desires  which  it  shall  not  be  possi- 
ble out  of  the  social  abundance  to  thus  fully  and  completely  grati- 
fy ;  but  the  organic  and  industrial  changes  which  are  required  to 
enable  men  to  attain  this  most  perfect  state  are  too  profound  for 
us  to  rightly  imagine  that  it  can  be  brought  about  as  rapidly  as 

158 


154  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

paper  constitutions  can  be  amended,  or  as  ideolc^cal  conceptions 
can  be  nominally  accepted  as  the  political  faiths  of  majorities. 

The  nature  of  man  as  he  exists  today  in  the  regions  subject 
to  the  conditions  of  modern  civilization,  is  the  result  of  the  com- 
promise between  the  egotistic  passions  inherited  from  and  indis- 
pensable in  that  long  period  of  the  earlier  evolution  of  life  during 
which  the  maintainance  of  the  species  «and  the  progress  of  being 
could  only  be  achieved  by  universal  conflict  and  unmitigated  in- 
dividuialism,  and  the  altruistic  feelings  generated  in  that  later  form 
of  evolution  under  which  fitness  of  life  comes  to  mean  fitness  for 
social  life,  and  under  which  conflict  tends  to  give  way  to  concord, 
competition  to  co-operation,  and  individualism  to  Socialism.  While 
the  individual  is  thus,  at  the  present  time,  at  about  the  middle 
point  in  the  development  of  his  moral  nature  between  the  c<Midi- 
tions  appropriate  to  the  isolated  and  warring  life  of  the  past,  and 
the  conditions  essential  to  the  highest  form  of  social  and  co-opera- 
tive life,  the  changes  that  in  the  course  of  a  century  have  revolu- 
tionized industry  have  suddenly  brought  us  face  to  face  with  prob- 
lems the  solving  of  which  requires  an  equal  revolution  in  govern- 
ment and  society  and  an  equal  revolution  in  the  mutual  relations 
of  the  individuals  composing  society. 

The  economic  development  has  now  reached  the  point  where 
the  old  individualistic  struggle  for  existence  by  the  process  of 
competitive  production  and  the  private  ownership  by  the  user  of 
the  means  of  production  has  become  impossible.  Competition  is 
no  longer  the  state  of  stable  equilibrium  in  the  economic  life  of 
society.  The  scale  of  production  has  grown  and  grown  until  it 
has  become  national  and  international  in  its  magnitude,  excluding 
ever  more  the  possibility  of  a  real  rivalry  of  establishments,  and 
the  function  of  ownership  of  the  now  vastly  enlarged  and  costlier 
machinery  of  production  has  become  divorced,  and  necessarily  so, 
from  the  labor  of  operating  it,  while  being  concentrated  under  the 
monopolistic  control  of  a  small  non-producing  class.  The  just 
and  the  unjust,  the  wise  and  the  foolish,  the  industrious  and  the 
lazy,  have  thus  alike  fallen  a  prey  to  the  exploitation  of  the  few 
"  who  now  own  all  the  means  of  life  and  labor,  and  upon  whom 
society  is  dependent  for  the  maintenance  of  its  existence. 

Clearly,  such  a  state  of  affairs,  so  detrimental  to  the  interests 
of  an  increasing  majority,  so  destructive  of  the  conditions  of  so- 
cial welfare,  cannot  continue  forever.  The  producers  of  the  world 
will  not  indefinitely  continue  to  permit  the  major  portion  of  the 
fruits  of  their  labor  to  be  appropriated  by  a  parasitic  class  own- 
ing the  earth  by  divine  right. 

But  a  return  to  primitive  individualistic  production  is  now 
impossible.  By  an  irrevocable  edict  of  progress,  production  has 
now  become  a  social  function  and  must  remain  so.    It  is  only  the 


ASOENDINQ    STAGES    OF    SOCIALISM  1S5 

private  control  of  production  as  a  source  of  unearned  profit  and 
the  private  appropriation  by  the  non-producers  of  the  profits  of  the 
social  labor  that  must  be  eliminated ;  and  this  means  the  substitu- 
tition  of  social  control  and  social  ownership  for  private  control 
and  private  ownership.  It  means  that  Socialism  is  the  only  alter- 
native to  plutocratic  individualism. 

Here  let  us  stop  for  a  moment  to  see  just  what  is  meant  by 
the  word  Socialism. 

Socialism  is  a  generic  term.  There  are  many  kinds  of  Social- 
ists and  many  conceptions  of  what  Socialism  properly  is.  Much 
confusion  is  hence  caused  since  the  advocates  of  any  particular 
form  of  Socialism  usually  represent  it  and  often  succeed  in  having 
outsiders  accept  it  as  the  real  and  only  true  Socialism.  Neglect- 
ing, however,  the  narrow  construction  which  fanatics,  whether 
calling  themselves  Socialists  or  Individualists,  would  put  upon  the 
,  word,  we  will  here  define  Socialism  as  being  any  order  of  society 
or  doctrine  favoring  any  order  of  society,  under  which  the  pre- 
vailing mode  of  production  is  by  public  agency. 

Now  when  we  study  the  works  of  the  different  writers,  from 
Plato  and  Sir  Thomas  More  to  Bakounine  and  William  Morris, 
who  classed  themselves  or  who  would  by  the  above  definition  be 
correctly  classed  as  Socialists,  we  find  that  the  essential  difference 
in  the  teachings  of  these  various  writers  consists  in  the  different 
degrees  of  coitfidence  which  they  placed  in  the  individual,  and  the 
amount  of  external  control  over  the  actions  of  the  individual  which 
they  believed  to  be  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  order  and 
the  continuance  of  their  system. 

We  find  that,  in  general,  the  earlier  writers  favored  rigid  su- 
pervisicMi  and  restraint,  both  in  the  field  of  production  and  of 
consumption,  over  the  economic  activities  of  the  individual,  and 
as  a  corollary  thereto  they  also  favored  the  existence  of  a  sepa- 
rate supervising  and  regulating  class  not  responsible  to  the  masses 
of  the  people  and  whose  members  were  to  be  recruited  either  by 
birth  within  the  ranks  of  the  regulating  dass,  or  by  merit,  or 
else  by  seniority ;  this  autocratic  system  having  been,  indeed,  actu- 
ally realized  in  the  Empire  of  Peru ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  mod- 
em school  tends  to  the  opposite  view  as  to  individual  liberty,  par- 
ticularly in  the  domain  of  consumption,  and  to  the  most  unquali- 
fied democracy  in  government  and  administration. 

Of  course,  it  is  out  of  the  question  to  suppose  that  modern 
Socialists,  simply  out  of  respect  for  the  opinion  of  theorists  of 
another  age,  would  consent  to  relinquish  any  part  of  the  political 
progress  that  has  already  been  achieved  by  the  race  under  capi- 
talism. We  need  not,  therefore,  here  further  discuss  those  social 
proposals  of  writers  of  past  generations  which  the  advancing 
thought  and  changed  conditions  of  the  world  have  left  so  far 


156  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIEW 

behind.  There  is  no  danger  of  modem  Socialism  going  deliber- 
ately backward  in  the  path  of  political  progress  upon  acquiring 
possession  of  the  powers  of  government.  The  indications  point 
rather  to  the  danger  of  its  going  too  rashly  forward,  with  the 
use  of  the  perfected  political  machinery,  towards  atempting  to 
realize  an  economic  idealism  in  the  distribution  of  the  product  of 
the  social  labor  for  which  humanity  is  as  yet  far  from  being  ripe. 
It  is  in  the  formulae  of  distribution  or  consumption  of  the  various 
schools  of  modern  Socialism  that  there  is  to  be  found  food  for 
thoughtful  consideration  at  the  present  day. 

If  we  keep  clearly  in  mind  the  great  truth  of  evolutionary 
philosophy,  that  the  present  organic  and  moral  development  of 
the  race  represents  but  a  passing  phase  of  its  history,  we  must  see 
that  it  is  impossible  to  formulate  a  scheme  of  wealth  distribution 
which  shall  be  exactly  suitable  to  mankind  in  its  present  state  of 
organic  and  organically  moral  progress  and  which  shall  at  the 
same  time  be  equally  applicable  to  any  and  all  future  stages  of 
advancement.  The  normal  form  of  distribution  prevailing  in  any 
society  must  correspond  to  the  particular  stage  of  progress  to- 
wards social  perfection  attained  by  its  units.  Any  attempt  to 
institute  a  higher  and  more  idealistic  form  of  distribution  in  a 
society  than  is  warranted  by  the  state  of  moral  and  organic  devel- 
opment of  its  members  must  result  in  retrogression  instead  of 
progress;  for  where  the  individuals  in  a  community  would  not 
voluntarily,  and  as  part  of  their  ordinary  private  conduct,  regu- 
larly and  habitually  practice  such  self-restraint  in  the  satisfaction 
of  their  various  desires,  both  egoistic  and  philoprogenitive,  as 
would  maintain  the  equilibrium  between  the  collective  resources 
and  the  demands  upon  them,  it  would  be  necessary  for  the  com- 
munity, ip  its  coervice  capacity,  to  decide,  by  means  of  enact- 
ments having  the  force  of  law,  what  each  individual's  consump- 
tion should  be.  Thus  the  formula:  "To  each  according  to  his 
needs,"  if  that,  for  example,  should  be  the  principle  of  distribu- 
tion adopted,  would  come  to  mean:  "To  each  according  to  his 
needs  as  determined  by  others,"  and  would  involve  the  most 
odious  and  far-reaching  tyranny  in  its  practical  application. 

But  Socialism,  as  we  have  seen  by  our  definition,  is  not  com- 
mitted to  any  particular  scheme  of  distribution.  Socialism  has  to 
do,  properly,  only  with  the  general  mode  of  production.  Each 
generation  of  the  people  of  the  future  will  have  to  settle  by  itself 
this  question  of  distribution,  whether  it  settle  it  right  or  wrong. 

However,  even  though  we  are  living  in  an  age  when  the  cause 
of  Socialism  has  yet  to  be  won,  and  indeed,  for  that  very  reason, 
it  is  incumbent  upon  us  and  in  no  way  presumptuous,  to  endeavor 
by  the  method  of  scientific  reasoning  and  with  the  light  cast 
upon  the  subject  by  the  philosophy  of  evolution,  to  solve,  at  least 


ASCENDING   STAGES    OF    SOCIALISM  157 

to  our  own  satisfaction,  this  problem  of  distribution  under  Social- 
ism and  to  trace  the  changes  in  the  form  of  distribution  that  must 
follow  the  rise  of  man  as  an  individual  to  that  higher  organic 
life  vouchsafed  by  the  teachings  of  modern  science. 

We  have  seen  that  the  fundamental  difference  between  the 
various  schools  of  Socialists  consists  in  the  degree  of  confidence 
they  put  in  the  individual  and  in  the  resulting  more  or  less  liberal 
measures  they  advocate  as  to  the  mode  of  distribution  between 
the  citizens  of  the  Socialist  Republic  of  the  product  of  the  com- 
mon labor.  We  have  also  seen  that  according  to  the  teachings  of 
evolutionary  philosophy,  human  nature  is  not  unalterable,  but  is 
on  the  contrary  undergoing  a  process  of  constant  change,  moving 
ever  onward  to  a  higher  and  higher  stage  of  intellectual  and 
moral  development  and  tending  ever  to  approach  the  state  of 
perfect  adaptation  to  the  conditions  of  existence  that  must  prevail 
under  the  most  advanced  and  ideal  social  order.  If  this  be  so, 
then  a  mode  of  distribution  and  of  the  regulation  of  the  social 
labor  which  would  be  wholly  inapplicable  for  men  as  npw  con- 
stituted and  as  they  will  doubtless  be  constituted  for  a  long  time 
to  come,  might  be  perfectly  appropriate  for  men  of  a  more  ad- 
vanced type  and  at  some  future  period  of  the  world's  develop- 
ment. The  proposals  of  the  idealists  must,  therefore,  be  con- 
demned, not  as  being  absolutely  wrong,  but  as  being  wrong  rela- 
tively to  the  time  and  the  period  of  history  in  which  they  are 
now  advocated.  Viewed  in  this  light,  it  becomes  important  to 
examine,  even  at  some  detail,  these  various  proposals  concerning 
the  mode  of  distribution  under  Socialism,  since  the  proposals 
foreshadow  actual  future  stages  of  the  economic  development. 

First,  then,  let  us  turn  our  attention  to  that  most  popular  and 
least  Utopian  of  these  idealistic  proposals ;  the  proposal,  namely, 
which  would  require  that  every  individual  in  an  industrial  de- 
mocracy shall  receive  an  equal  income  from  the  community  and 
shall  in  return  be  expected  or  compelled  to  give  the  utmost  that  he 
is  capable  of  giving  in  effort  for  the  common  weal,  at  least  within 
the  regular  hours  of  labor. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  such  a  system  of  social  economy, 
if  we  exclude  the  compulsory  feature  in  the  regulation  of  the 
individual's  labor  which  it  necessarily  involves,  represents  a  higher 
and  more  generous  social  idea  than  where  the  formula  of  distribu- 
tion would  be:  To  each  according  to  his  deeds.  It  must  also 
be  conceded  that  the  spirit  of  solidarity  and  brotherhood  which 
such  a  system  must  promote,  must  itself  be  conducive,  to  that 
extent,  to  more  intense  and  more  effective  economic  effort.  Not- 
withstanding all  this,  however,  the  objections  against  this  system 
of  distribution  of  incomes  are,  as  we  shall  see,  too  grave  to  permit 


16?  INTERNATIONAL  SOCTATiTST  BEVIEW 

US  to  accept  it  as  the  form  of  distribution  adapted  for  men  as 
now  constituted. 

The  rise  of  man  in  the  scale  of  being  as  a  member  of  organic 
creation  may  under  one  of  its  aspects  be  regarded  as  consisting 
of  a  growth  or  progressive  increase  in  the  amount  of  vital  energy 
available  to  each  individual,  and  the  amount  of  energy  available  to 
each  individual  is  dependent  upon  the  biological  law  of  use  and 
disuse.  It  is  by  the  exercise  or  use  of  any  faculty  that  its  power 
increases  and  it  is  by  the  putting  forth  of  due  effort  or  energy  in 
the  exercise  of  the  various  faculties  that  the  total  sum  of  energy 
or  power  of  effort  increases.  But  the  amount  of  effort  that  must 
be  put  forth  in  the  exercise  of  the  faculties  in  order  to  increase 
their  power,  the  amount  of  labor,  physical  or  mental,  that  must 
be  performed,  in  order  as  with  sufficient  nutrition,  to  permanently 
increase  the  sum  of  physiological  and  psychological  energy  at  the 
disposal  of  the  individual,  is  such  as  requires  a  painful  and  long 
continued  overcoming  of  natural  inertia.  This  overcoming  of 
natural  inertia  is,  however,  indispensable  to  the  organic  progress 
of  the  race  and  the  maintenance  of  a  high  and  ever  advancing 
civilization.  As  there  is  a  difference  in  the  amount  of  energy  that 
can  with  the  same  relative  effort  be  put  forth  by  different  individ- 
uals, and  as  there  is  a  consequent  difference  in  the  relative  value 
of  their  labor,  physical  or  mental,  the  stimulus  of  reward  in  the 
product,  or  in  the  value  of  the  product,  is  essential  to  induce  the 
maximum  social  product,  the  maximum  social  efficiency,  and  the 
maximum  social  and  individual  progress. 

The  formula  of  distribution  for  the  existing  type  of  humanity, 
therefore,  must  be :  To  each  according  to  his  deeds.  To  be  car- 
ried away  by  sentimental  considerations  and  institute  the  system 
of  equality  of  remuneration  immediately  or  even  within  a  few 
generations  after  the  establishment  of  the  Co-operative  Common- 
wealth, would  be  fatal  to  the  highest  interests  of  human  advance- 
ment and  so  diminish  the  total  product  of  labor  and  the  amount  to 
be  divided  among  each  that  all  would  lose.  The  more  capable 
and  productive  individuals  would  not,  on  the  average,  exert  them- 
selves to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  when  the  fruits  of  their  ef- 
forts would  be  shared  in  alike  by  the  slothful  and  incompetent, 
and  the  latter,  on  their  part,  would  also  fail  to  labor  as  diligently 
as  they  might  otherwise  do,  if  all  could  partake  equally  and  irre- 
spective of  one's  personal  merit  or  industry  in  the  output  of  the 
wealth  of  a  continent.  In  proportion  to  the  diminution  of  the 
per  capita  income  would  the  dissatisfaction  with  the  system  in- 
crease and  the  increasing  dissatisfaction  with  the  system  would 
still  further  reduce  the  total  social  product  and  the  total  per  capita 
income.  Finally,  if  despite  the  manifest  disadvantages  of  the 
system  to  the  great  majority  of  the  population,  the  latter  still 


r 


ASCENDING   STAGES    OF   SOCIALISM  159 

continued  to  give  it  their  political  support,  as  capitalism  is  now,  for 
example,  supported  by  its  victims,  the  per  capita  income  would  be- 
come too  small  to  provide  the  adequate  physical  and  mental  energy 
to  the  individual  to  enable  him  to  labor  so  as  to  maintain  produc- 
tion even  at  the  point  required  to  supply  the  bare  necessities  of  life, 
and  there  would  be  at  last  result  a  breakdown  that  would  compel 
the  abandonment  of  the  system. 

Fr<Mn  another  point  of  view  we  may  also  see  that  the  arbitrary 
equalization  of  incomes  of  the  individuals  in  a  society,  and  irre- 
spective as  it  necessarily  must  be  of  their  individual  merit,  is 
contrary  to  the  intentions  of  nature  and  must  in  the  end  become 
impracticable. 

That  fecundity  of  life  which  covers  the  earth  from  Pole  to 
Pole  and  frcwn  the  highest  mountain  summits  to  the  uttermost 
depths  of  sea  with  animal  and  vegetable  organisms,  in  the  human 
race  likewise  stimulates  multiplication  to  the  point  where  over  any 
given  area  and  at  any  given  point  in  the  development  of  the  arts 
of  production  and  of  the  institutions  governing  the  distribution 
of  wealth,  population  could  not  further  increase  without  reducing 
the  standard  of  living  prevailing  at  the  time  by  unduly  raising 
the  ratio  of  population  to  the  natural  resources  and  to  the  availa- 
ble supply  of  die  means  of  subsistence. 

Now  where  the  incomes  of  the  masses  of  the  people  depend 
upon  each  man's  personal  efforts  or  are  directly  proportionate 
to  the  value  of  their  labor,  taken  individually,  then  where  under 
the  particular  conditions  as  regards  the  productivity  of  labor,  the 
natural  resources  of  the  country,  the  ratio  in  which  the  producers 
as  a  class  share  in  the  wealth  they  produce,  etc.,  population  reaches 
the  point  where  any  further  increase  would  involve  a  fall  in  the 
average  income  and  in  the  average  standard  of  living  of  the 
masses  of  the  people;  there  come  into  play  certain  forces  and 
motives  which  act  upon  the  individual  so  as  to  wholly  or  partly 
restrain  such  further  increase.  Each  individual  being  obliged  out 
of  his  own  earnings,  which  are  proportionate  to  his  exertions,  to 
provide  for  his  own  needs  and  for  the  needs  of  his  family,  if  he 
have  any,  there  results  a  tendency  to  restrain  the  average  size  of 
families  and  to  raise  the  average  age  of  marriage,  and  3ie  fall  in 
the  birth  rate  which  thereby  ensues  tends  to  maintain  population 
at  an  equilibrium  with  the  natural  resources  and  with  tiie  desired 
standard  of  living. 

Far  different,  however,  must  it  be,  where  each  individual  is 
guaranteed  an  equal  income  with  every  other  individual  arid 
irrespective  of  his  own  condition  in  labor  and  effort  towards  the 
production  of  wealth,  and  where,  as  a  corollary  thereto,  each  indi- 
vidual is  also  absolved  from  the  task  of  providing  at  his  own  ex- 
pense for  the  support  of  his  offspring,  however  numerous  these 


160  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW 

may  be,  but  has  the  cost  of  their  maintenance  and  education  paid 
for  by  the  community.  Lacking,  as  he  must  then,  the  motive 
which  alone  can  restrain  him  from  such  satisfaction  of  his  sexual 
and  philoprogenitive  instincts,  as  must  in  the  natural  course  of 
things  involve  a  rapid  and  progressive  increase  of  population  so 
long  as  the  physical  conditions  permit ;  the  income  of  each  indi- 
vidual and  the  standard  of  living  must,  after  a  certain  degree  of 
populousness  has  been  reached,  begin  to  decline  and  to  fall  ever 
lower  and  lower  until  it  has  reached  a  bare  existence  level,  and 
then,  the  motive  for  the  restraint  and  overcoming  of  these  in- 
stincts being  still  absent,  the  continuing  births  must  bring  about 
a  state  of  overpopulation  in  which  the  scarcity  and  inadequacies 
of  the  necessities  of  life  must  result  in  so  increasing  the  death 
rate  as  to  bring  it  to  an  equality  with  the  birth  rate,  and  thereby, 
at  last,  establish  an  equilibrium,  but  an  equilibrium  based  upon 
universal  poverty,  starvation,  and  misery. 

It  is  often  assumed,  indeed,  by  Socialists  of  the  "more  ad- 
vanced" or  Utopian  school,  that  by  the  biolc^cal  law  of  animal 
fertility,  according  to  which,  the  higher  the  scale  of  life  the  lower 
is  the  power  of  reproduction,  we  are  justified  in  asserting  that 
under  the  intellectually  and  spirtually  stimulating  environment 
of  the  Co-operative  Commonwealth,  the  greater  cultivation  and 
development  of  men's  higher  faculties  will  so  diminish  the  power 
of  the  lower  instincts  as  to  reduce  the  birthrate  to  a  point  where, 
while  it  will  ensure  the  perpetuation  of  the  race,  it  will  no  longer 
have  a  tendency  even  under  a  regime  of  economic  irresponsibility 
in  the  relation  of  parents  to  offspring  to  cause  overpopulation. 
This  assumption  is,  however,  as  we  must  see,  unwarranted.  The 
fertility  of  a  race  is  a  function  of  its  physical  organism,  and  the 
physical  organism  and  the  innate  power  of  the  physical  organism 
of  any  race  or  species  can  be  perceptibly  modified  only  in  the  long 
course  of  centuries  or  even  of  geologic  epochs. 

We  are  thus  obliged  to  admit,  that  for  many  generations  after 
the  overthrow  of  capitalism  and  the  establishment  in  its  place 
of  the  system  of  collective  ownership  of  the  means  of  production 
and  collective  administration  of  industry,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
leave  untouched  those  basic  principles  regulating  the  relation 
between  the  individual  and  his  product  and  between  the  individual 
and  his  progeny  in  accordance  with  which  evolution  has  hitherto 
proceeded.  To  fit  men  for  a  higher  life  in  the  illimitable  future 
which  we  know  is  ahead  of  us,  the  race  must  continue  for  an 
indefinite  time  to  come  under  the  dominion  of  that  law  of  progress 
according  to  which  each  individual  must  be  responsible  in  his  own 
person  for  the  results  of  his  own  actions,  and  according  to  which 
as  parent  he  must  be  responsible  for  the  maintenance  and  educa- 
tion of  his  offspring. 


ASCENDING    STAGES    OF    SOCIALISM  161 

That  social  poKty,  then,  which  while  it  would  secure  to  every 
individual  equality  of  opportunity  to  the  use  of  the  means  of  pro- 
duction, would  also  ensure  to  each  individual  producer  neither 
more  nor  less  than  the  full  value  of  his  individual  product,  and 
which  out  of  that  product  would  oblige  every  individual  to  pro- 
vide not  only  for  all  his  own  needs  but  also  for  all  the  just  needs 
of  his  natural  dependents,  represents  the  first  stage  of  Socialism 
through  which  the  race  must  pass  in  its  ascending  journey  toward 
the  Perfect  Commonwealth. 

When,  however,  in  the  course  of  the  further  evolution  of  the 

race,  man  will  at  last  have  risen  to  the  duties  and  responsibilities 

of  the  co-operative  life ;  when,  after  the  discipline  of  the  ages,  the 

individual  will  have  been  molded  to  the  requirements  of  the 

future  society;  and  when  the  old  egoism,  the  old  indolence,  the 

old  intellectual  apathy  and  vacuity,  the  old  savage  passions  and 

brutish  appetites,  will  have  disappeared  and  made  way  for  new 

aims  and  desires,  for  new  habits  and  feelings ;  when,  in  short,  a 

new  race  will  have  arisen  fitted  for  equality,  equality  will  come. 

'*      The  second  stage  of  Socialism,  however,  the  stage  of  equality, 

equality,  that  is,  in  the  sense  of  equality  of  incomes,  as  depicted, 

4^  for  example,  in  Bellamy's  works,  is  apparently  not  destined  to  be 

i  of  very  long  duration.    The  superior  attractiveness  and  superior 

leconomic  advantages  under  conditions  of  high  productivity  of 

■labor  and  high  organic  and  moral  development  of  the  individual 

■of  that  still  more  advanced  state  of  society  in  which  there  will 

§be  neither  money  nor  price,  neither  buying  nor  selling,  will  cause 

the  Communistic  principle  of  social  economy  to  be  adopted  within 

a  comparatively  short  period  after  the  abandonment  of  the  system 

of  payment  by  results  or  payment  according  to  the  value  of  one's 

labor.    There  are  practically  no  arguments  against  Communism 

which  may  not  be  urged  with  almost  eaual  force  against  the 

system  of  equality  of  remuneration,  and  when  the  race  will  have 

become  fitted  by  reason  of  its  moral  and  physical  adaptation  to 

the  conditions  of  a  higher  civilization  and  bv  reason  of  the  procr- 

ress  in  production  to  successfully  apply  the  latter  principle  in  its 

economic  relations,  it  will  not  be  long  before  it  will  be  ready  to 

enter  into  the  next  highest  stage  of  social  development  which  we 

are  bound  to  recc^fnize  must  be  Communiism. 

Communism  represents  a  higher  civilization  than  mere  Collec- 
tivism docs.  Communism  represents  a  higher  faith  in  the  indi- 
vidual. Under  Communism  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  be  per- 
petually carrying  about  documentary  evidence,  whether  in  the 
form  of  money  or  other  credit  tokens,  of  the  right  to  partake  of 
the  means  of  existence.  The  purely  economic  advantaees  of  this 
system,  and  considering  merely  the  saving  it  would  effect  in  the 
vast  amount  of  labor  now  required  in  the  collecting,  receiving, 


162  INTBENATIONAL  SOOIAUST  EEVIEW 

exchanging,  etc.,  of  money  and  other  representatives  of  value  arc 
considerable.  In  some  industries  or  forms  of  service  from  one- 
third  to  one-half  or  more  of  the  cost  of  operation  represents  the 
labor  of  collecting  the  charges  from  the  consumers  or  patrons ;  as, 
for  example,  in  the  case  of  street  car  transportation,  privately 
operated  bridges,  turnpikes,  etc.  Even  now  we  are  compelled  to 
acknowledge  the  utter  wastefulness  and  impracticability,  in  many 
cases,  of  the  direct  payment  system,  by  leaving  our  streets,  public 
parks,  and  various  other  public  utilities,  free  to  all  who  would  use 
them ;  and  as  time  goes  by  the  tendency  to  convert  purchasable 
values  into  free  and  inalienable  utilities  will  become  more  and 
more  marked. 

As  fast  as  the  private  man  will  prove  himself  worthy  of 
public  trust;  as  fast  as  the  public  interest  will  be  increasingly 
recognised  as  the  individuars  highest  private  interest :  as  fast  as 
the  instincts  will  become  enlisted  in  the  service  of  altruism,  will  it 
become  safe  to  devote  the  wealth  and  the  resources  of  the  whole 
of  society  to  the  free  satisfaction  of  the  needs  and  desires  of  each 
individual.  There  will  be  no  necessity  for  restraining  consump- 
tion by  limitations  of  purchasing  power  when  there  will  be  abund- 
ance for  all,  and  there  will  be  no  incentive  to  extravagance  in 
consumption  when  there  will  be  no  honor  in  ostentatious  display. 

But  freedom  merely  in  consumption  does  not  represent  the 
final  and  highest  stage  of  social  and  economic  evolution.  Evolu- 
tion cannot  be  said  to  have  reached  its  limit  until  the  adaptation  of 
the  individual  to  the  social  environment  has  become  so  complete 
that  pleasure  is  found  in  the  due  performance  of  all  the  activities 
necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  society.  To  this  haooy  outcome 
of  the  evolutionary  process  we  may,  however,  with  full  faith  look 
forward.  But  when  men  will  have  come  to  perform  all  the  need- 
ful labor  of  the  world  for  the  pleasure  of  the  work;  when  the 
productivity  of  their  labor,  multiplied  by  now  undreamt  of  inven- 
tions and  unsuspected  natural  forces,  will  have  become  so  great 
as  to  provide  for  their  utmost  needs ;  and  when  their  moral  devel- 
opment will  have  come  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  disputes  as 
well  about  the  distribution  of  the  product  as  about  the  distribution 
of  the  work,  there  will  be  no  longer  need  of  external  regrulation : 
there  will  be  no  longer  need  of  the  rule  of  man  by  man ;  there  will 
be  no  lonc^er  need  of  the  State. 

Anarchist-Communism  is  thus  the  best  and  highest  stage  of 
political  and  economic  progress.  But  how  unscientific  it  is  to 
advocate  in  the  present  period  of  the  world's  development  a 
theory  of  society  which  only  after  a  transformation  amounting  to 
a  revolution  in  the  very  nature  of  the  race,  a  transformation  that 
would  tinder  the  most  favorable  conditions  require  thousands  of 


ASOBNDING   STAGES   OF   SOCIALISM  163 

years  for  its  consummation  could  scarcely  then  begin  to  be  prac- 
ticable. 

The  trpe  radical  is  not  he  who  would  force  the  world  into 
exi)eriments  which  like  that  of  the  young  frog  that  as  related  in 
the  fable  desired  to  expand  to  the  size  of  an  ox,  could  end  only 
in  disaster;  but  rather  it  is  the  man  who,  recognizing  the  limita- 
tions of  our  nature  and  recc^^izing  also  the  possibilities  of  its 
development,  would  help  to  so  order  things  that  an  environment 
would  be  created  that  would  tend  to  the  greatest  happiness  of  the 
greatest  number  in  the  present  while  hastening  the  world's  prog- 
ress towards  the  more  perfect  society  of  the  future. 

Raphael  Buck. 


Economic  Aspects  of  Chattel  Slavery 

(Continued.) 

The  greater  cheapness  of  the  wage  slave  made  itself  most  ap- 
parent in  the  border  states  and  consequently  these  states  began  to 
show  a  steady  decline  in  the  number  of  chattel  slaves.  As  a 
result  of  this  there  arose  a  sharp  division  between  two  classes  of 
slave  states.  Virginia,  Maryland  and  North  Carolina  became 
known  as  the  slave  breeding  states,  while  Georgia,  Mississippi 
and  Louisiana  were  the  slave  using  states.  This  was  accompanied 
by  a  shifting  of  the  cotton  industry  to  the  southwest,  or  rather 
the  shifting  of  this  industry  was  a  primary  cause  of  the  change 
in  the  center  of  the  system  of  chattel  slavery.  Another  reason  for 
the  rapid  increase  of  slaves  in  Louisiana  was  the  growth  of  the 
cane  sugar  industry.  The  following  table  showing  the  increase 
in  the  fifteen  years  preceding  1850  gives  an  idea  of  this  move- 
ment. It  1^  taken  from  James  F.  W.  Johnson's  "Notes  on  North 
America,"  published  in  1851,  Vol.  2,  p.  363: 

"In  Louisiana  there  were  of  sugar  estates  and  of  slaves  em- 
ployed in  the  cultivation  of  sugar  in 

With   Horsepower.  Steam  Power.  Total.  Slaves. 

1844   671  480  762  63,000 

1849   671  865  1,536  126,000 

This  same  author  points  out  the  results  of  this  system  in  a 
most  vivid  manner  (pp.  354  and  355).  "One  of  the  most  melan- 
choly results  of  the  system  of  slavery  in  Virginia,  especially  since 
slavery  ceased  to  be  profitable  within  the  state  itself,  is  the  atten- 
tion which  proprietors  have  been  induced  to  pay  to  the  breeding 
and  rearing  of  slaves  and  to  Ae  regular  sale  of  the  human  pro- 
duce to  the  southern  states,  as  a  means  of  adding  to  their  ordinary 
farming  profits — ^as  a  branch  in  fact  of  common  rural  industry. 
One  of  the  representatives  to  congress  from  Virginia  in  a  pamph- 
let on  the  slavery  question  recently  published  says :  'Virginia  has 
a  slave  population  of  nearly  half  a  million,  whose  value  is  chiefly 
dependent  on  southern  demand."' 

The  author  then  makes  calculations  to  show  that  it  is  much 
more  profitable  to  raise  slaves  for  sale  than  for  use.  "The  num- 
ber of  slaves  in  Virginia  is  diminishing.  In  1830  it  was  470,000, 
while  in  1840  it  was  only  450,000,  and  it  is  probably  less  now. 
The  number  sold,  therefore,  exceeds  in  a  small  degree  (by  2,000 
a  year)  the  natural  increase.  Now  the  annual  increase  of  the 
whole  slave  population  is  about  3  per  cent,  which  upon  450,000 
is  13,500.    And  if  only  1,500  slaves  a  year  be  sold  beyond  this 

164 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAVEBY  163 

natural  increase,  about  15,000  will  every  year  go  south  to  the 
slave  markets  from  the  state  of  Virginia.  As  these  will  generally 
be  sold  in  the  prime  of  life,  they  may  be  reckoned  worth  at  least 
$300  a  head,  which  for  the  15,000  gives  $4,500,000  as  the  price 
received  for  human  stock  exported  every  year  from  Virginia. 

But  Virginia  produces  yearly  50,000,000  pounds  of  tobacco, 
and  2,500,000  pounds  of  cotton,  the  value  of  which,  at  an  average, 
of  8i  cents  a  pound,  is  $4,375,000.  That  is  to  say,  the  slave  rear- 
ing husbandry  brings  in  more  money  yearly  to  Virginia  than  all 
its  tobacco  and  cotton  do.  It  is  surprising,  then,  that  the  Vir- 
ginians, both  individually  and  as  a  state,  should  be  anxious  to  en- 
large and  keep  up  the  southern  demand."'*' 

As  the  struggle  between  the  two  systems  of  exploitation  grew 
sharper  there  arose  a  great  amount  of  Uterature  to  show  the  eco- 
nomic superiority  of  wage  slavery.  One  book  which  treated  this 
subject  most  exhaustively  was  Hinton  Rowan  Helper's  "The  Im- 
pending Crisis."  This  book  was  written  by  a  resident  of  the 
western  portion  of  North  Carolina,  and  right  here  it  is  worth 
while  to  note  the  fact  that  in  the  mountain  regions  of  West  Vir- 
ginia and  North  Carolina  and  northern  Georgia  and  Alabama 
there  was  a  system  of  small  farming  and  minor  manufactures 
very  similar  to  that  existing  throughout  the  northern  states.  As 
we  might  almost  know  without  examinati<^,  this  was  a  strong 
anti-slavery  locality.  It  was  from  this  region  that  Helper  came. 
His  book  consists  of  a  marvelous  wealth  of  facts  intended  to  show 
the  economic  disadvantage  of  chattel  slavery.  He  shows  how 
utterly  deficient  the  south  was  in  comparison  with  the  north  in 
manufactures,  enterprise,  education  and  material  wealth  of  all 
sorts.  He  points  out  how  the  commerce  of  the  south  declined 
as  that  of  the  north  grew ;  how  the  great  cities  of  the  south  stood 
still  while  those  of  the  north  advanced  by  leaps  and  bounds ;  how 
immigration  came  into  the  north  while  it  shunned  the  south ;  how 
land  on  southern  plantations  was  impoverished  and  taxable  prop- 
erty continually  grew  less  and  less  in  value  while  the  reverse 
was  true  in  the  north. 

This  book  had  a  most  remarkable  circulation  in  the  years  im- 
mediately preceding  the  war,  and  probably  if  the  truth  as  to  the 
real  factors  which  made  public  opinion  could  be  determined,  it 
had  far  more  to  do  with  bringing  on  the  Civil  War  than  did 
"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  At  one  time  a  committee  of  northern 
capitalists  raised  sufficient  funds  to  circulate  100,000  copies  of  a 

•McHenry,  ''The  Cotton  Trade,*'  pages  212-13,  denies  that  Virginia 
was  a  "slave-breeding"  state  and  instances  a  law  passed  in  1812  hy 
the  Virginia  legislature  forbidding  the  exportation  of  slaves.  See  also 
Wilson,  °'Eise  and  FaU  of  the  Slave  Power  in  America,'*  Vol.  I,  pages 
100-101,  and  especiaUy  Wm.  Henry  Smith's  "Poetical  History  of  Slav- 
ery," VoL  I,  pages  2-5,  where  the  whole  subject  is  treated. 


I 
166  INTBENATIONAL  SOCIAUST  BEVIEW 

synopsis  of  it.  When  it  is  remembered  that  it  is  a  book  o£  over 
400  pages  some  idea  is  gained  of  how  important  it  was  considered 
by  the  ruling  classes  of  the  North  at  that  time.  Copies  of  it  are 
still  generally  to  be  found  in  most  second  hand  stores,  and  I 
would  urge  every  Socialist  to  buy  a  copy  and  read  it,  as  it  will 
prove  an  eye-opener  to  most  people,  especially  if  they  have  gained 
their  ideas  of  American  history  from  popular  text  books. 

He  addresses  his  book  to  the  poor  whites  of  the  south  and 
this  calls  attention  to  a  class  which  is  ordinarily  overlooked.  He 
makes  the  following  classification  of  slave  holders  in  1850  which 
is  of  so  great  interest  of  showing  how  few  men  there  were  who 
really  owned  more  than  five  slaves,  at  a  time  when  one  would 
naturally  think  from  a  reading  of  Southern  literature  that  every 
white  person  in  the  South  was  a  plantation  owner. 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  THE  SLAVE  HOLDERS — 185O. 

Holders  of        i  slave    . . .' 68,820 

Holders  of        i  and  under        5    105,683 

Holders  of        5  and  under      10    80,765 

Holders  of      10  and  under      20    S4>595 

Holders  of      20  and  under      50 29,733 

Holders  of      50  and  under     100 6,196 

Holders  of    100  and  under    200    1^79 

Holders  of    200  and  under    300   187 

Holders  of    300  and  under    500    56 

Holders  of    500  and  under  1,000    9 

Holders  of  1,000  and  over    2 

Aggregate  number  of  slave  holders  in  the  United 
States  347i52S 

He  points  out  that  even  this  table  is  inaccurate  in  that  it  in- 
cludes slave  hirers  and  some  duplications  and  he  computes  that 
the  actual  number  of  slave  holders  in  1850  amounted  to  475,525. 
Ingle,  in  his  "Southern  Sidelights,^'  p.  263,  states  that  this  ntun- 
ber  remained  practically  constant  until  i860.  As  there  was  a 
total  white  population  in  the  slave  states  of  6,184,477  in  1850,  it 
at  once  becomes  apparent  that  the  slaveholding  class,  like  all 
ruling  classes,  was  really  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  whole. 

(korge  Weston  wrote  a  book  in  1856  which  he  calls  'The 
Poor  Whites  of  the  South,"  in  which  he  claims  that  their  whole 
degraded  position  was  due  to  slavery.  His  remarks  as  to  the 
unimportant  place  which  they  played  in  determining  public 
opinion,  etc.,  are  extremely  interesting: 

"The  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the  South,  being  not  less 
than  seven-tenths  of  the  whole  number  of  whites,  would  seem 
to  be  entitled  to  some  inquiry  into  their  actual  condition,  and 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAVEEY  167 

especially  as  they  have  no  real  political  weight  or  consideration  in 
the  country  and  little  opportunity  to  speak  for  themselves.  I 
have  been  for  twenty  years  a  reader  of  Southern  newspapers  and 
a  hearer  of  congressional  debates,  but  in  all  that  time  I  do  not 
recollect  ever  to  have  seen  or  heard  these  non-slaveholding  whites 
referred  to  by  Southern  gentlemen  as  constituting  any  part  of 
what  they  call  'the  South/  " 

This  appeal  to  the  poor  whites  of  the  South  by  the  Northern 
anti-slavery  politicians  was  not  so  disinterested  and  ingenuous  as 
it  appeared  on  the  surface.  William  H.  Smith,  in  his  "Political 
History  of  Slavery"  (Vol.  I,  p.  76),  says  concerning  a  pamphlet 
issued  by  Saknon  P.  Chase  and  nominally  appealing  to  the  non- 
slaveholding  Southern  whites:  '^'The  chief  purpose  Mr.  Chase 
had  in  view  in  addressing  the  non-slaveholders  was  to  influence 
the  political  action  of  the  intelligent  working  classes  of  the  North, 
by  bringing  into  sharp  contrast  the  two  systems  of  social  order." 

Here  indeed  was  a  delicate  point  for  the  Northern  capitalist. 
The  problem  which  confronted  him  was  how  to  rouse  the  Northern 
wage  worker  to  the  fighting  point  against  the  South  and  chattel 
slavery  without  at  the  same  time  opening  his  eyes  to  the  fact  of 
wage  slavery.  It  was  necessary  to  find  an  "issue"  which  did  not 
involve  this  dangerous  point  and  yet  on  which  the  North  and  South 
would  be  divided.  This  was  finally  found  in  the  cry  of  "Save  the 
Union."  Few  people  would  learn  from  the  text-books  on  Ameri- 
can history  used  in  our  schools  that  the  abolitionists  were  the 
most  rabid  disunionists,  or  that  New  England  states  had  ever 
threatened  to  secede.  The  "Hartford  Convention"  of  the  war  of 
1812  is  an  example  of  the  second  point,  while  countless  quotations 
from  the  abolition  sources  can  be  found  to  prove  the  first.  Wen- 
dell Phillips  was  particularly  violent  in  his  advocacy  of  a  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Union.  In  1856  he  delivered  a  speech  entitled  "The 
Constitution  a  Pro-Slavery  Compact,"  in  the  introduction  to 
which  he  said:  "To  continue  this  disastrous  alliance  longer  is 
madness.  The  trial  of  fifty  years  only  proves  that  it  is  impossible 
for  free  and  slave  states  to  unite  on  any  terms,  without  all  be- 
coming partners  in  the  guilt,  and  responsible  for  the  sin  of  slavery. 
We  dare  not  prolong  the  experiment,  and  with  double  earnestness 
we  repeat  our  demand  upon  every  honest  man  to  join  us  in  the 
outcry  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society — '*NO  UNION 
WITH  SLAVEHOLDERS."* 

Even  in  January,  i860,  after  South  Carolina  had  already  se- 
ceded, Phillips  delivered  a  speech  in  Music  Hall,  Boston,  with  a 
mob  howling  at  the  doors,  in  the  course  of  which  he  said :  "  The 
Lord  reign^ ;  let  the  earth  rejoice.'  The  'Covenant  of  death'  is 
annulled;  the  'agreement  with  heir  is  broken  to  pieces.    The  chain 

^Capitals  in  origiiial  report  circulated  by  the  society. 


168  INTiiENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EfiVlBW 

which  has  held  the  slave  system  since  1787  is  parted.  Thirty 
years  ago  NcMthem  abolitionists  announced  their  purpose  to  sedc 
the  dissolution  of  the  American  Union.  Who  dreamed  that  suc- 
cess would  come  so  soon?" 

Two  years  later,  however,  he  had  changed  his  position  and  in 
a  letter  to  the  New  York  Tribune  of  August  16,  1862,  he  states 
that  "From  1843  to  1861  I  was  a  disuniomst  »  *  ♦  Sumpte!" 
changed  the  whole  question.  After  that  peace  and  justice  both 
forbade  disunion." 

The  reasoh,  for  the  fanaticism  of  the  North  on  the  question  of 
the  Union  is  at  once  apparent  to  any  one  with  a  knowledge  of 
modem  capitalism.  In  the  strife  for  world  markets  the  govern- 
ment would  be  ^  prominent  factor  and  the  capitalists  desired  that 
this  government  should  be  as  strong,  extensive  and  centralized  as 
possible. 

There  was  still  another  reason  which  was  seen  by  some  ob- 
servers at  that  time  and  should  at  once  occur  to  the  Socialist 
student.  Capitalism  constantly  demands  new  fields  for  exploita- 
tion in  order  to  dispose  of  the  surplus  product  which  it  takes  from 
the  laborers.  For  this  purpose  it  has  need  of  some  territory  with 
a  lower,  economic  organization  than  itself.  This  is  the  motive 
which  impels  the  seeking  of  colonies.  Kettel,  in  "Southern 
Wealth  and  Northern  Profits/'  saw  this  point  very  clearly  and 
thus  states  it  (pp.  19  and  42)  :  "We  have  seen  that  England,  in 
the  course  of  her  colonial  system,  had,  by  furnishing  goods  and 
slaves,  and  enjoying  the  carrying  trade  of  her  dependencies,  ac- 
quired a  vast  capital,  while  the  colonies  that  produced  that  wealth 
had  accumulated  nothing;  they  had,  in  fact,  become  poorer.  *  ♦ 
The  New  England  states  from  the  first  were  mostly  engaged  in 
navigation  and  manufactures.  It  was  there  that  capital  first  ac- 
cumulated from  application  to  those  employments.  Agriculture 
spread  in  two  directions,  viz.,  across  the  mountains  to  the  west 
and  southwest  from  the  South  Atlantic  states.  These  two  agri- 
cultural branches  divided  naturally  into  free  and  slave  labor,  and 
both  sections  held  the  same  position  to  New  England  as  aU  the 
colonies  had  before  held  to  the  mother  country.  The  manufactur- 
ing and  navigating  states,  as  a  matter  of  course,  accumulated  the 
wealth  which  the  other  sections  produced." 

Moreover,  the  capitalist  class  of  the  North  had  already  learned 
how  valuable  the  national  government  was  to  them  in  the  enact- 
ment of  tariff  laws,  the  creation  of  internal  improvements,  the 
granting  of  land  to  railroads,  etc.  Edward  A.  Pollard,  in  "The 
Lost  Cause,"  p.  52,  thus  describes  the  attitude  of  the  North  on 
this  matter:  "In  the  North  there  was  never  any  lack  of  rhetorical 
fervor  for  the  Union ;  its  praises  were  sounded  in  every  note  of 
tumid  literature,  and  it  was  familiarly  entitled  'the  glorious.'    But 


BCX)NOMI0  ASPECTS  OP  CHATTEL  SIiAVEBY  169 

the  North  worshiped  the  Union  in  a  very  low  commercial  sense ; 
it  was  a  source  of  boundless  profits ;  and  it  had  been  used  for 
years  as  a  means  of  sectional  aggrandizement/' 

There  is  one  phase  of  the  evolution  of  the  last  two  decades 
preceding  the  Civil  War  to  which  I  have  never  seen  any  reference 
in  any  books  reviewing  this  period  with  a  single  exception,  to 
which  reference  will  be  made  later.'  Yet  it  is  one  which  could  not 
have  helped  but  add  to  the  antagonism  between  the  ruling  classes. 
There  was  quite  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  Southern  slave  own- 
ers to  enter  the  field  of  manufacturing.  At  the  time  this  move- 
ment was  attracting  considerable  attention.  Among  the  numerous 
books  which  were  written  to  reply  to  Helper's  "Impending  Crisis" 
was  one  by  Thomas  P.  Kettell,  which  he  entitled  "Southern 
Wealth  and  Northern  Profits,"  the  meaning  of  this  title  being, 
of  course,  that  the  South  was  the  real  wealth-creating  section  of 
the  country,  while  the  North  simply  traded  upon  and  exploited  this 
wealth.  He  instances  many  figures  (p.  53  et  seq.)  to  show  that 
manufacturing  was  increasing  in  a  much  more  rapid  rate  in  the 
south  man  in  tiie  north  during  the  period  from  1840  to  1850.  From 
the  census  of  i860  we  discover  tihat  this  movement  did  not  con- 
tinue with  quite  the  same  rapidity  that  he  expected,  although  there 
was  a  steady  growth  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods,  boots 
and  shoes  and  a  few  other  branches. 

The  increase  in  the  value  of  the  production  of  cotton  goods 
from  1850  to  i860  being  43  per  cent,  the  total  value  of  the  pro- 
duction for  i860  amounting  to  $8,145,067.  In  regard  to  boots  and 
shoes  the  census  of  i860  sa3rs :  "In  the  southern  states  there  was 
an  increase  equivalent  to  89.9  per  cent,  the  aggregate  value  being 
$3»973»3i3-"  Kettell  states  the  hopes  of  the  southern  slave  owner 
in  this  direction  as  follows: 

'*What  we  do  find  in  these  figures  is,  that  the  south  having 
become  possessed  of  capital,  is  prosecuting  manufactures  at  a  rate 
which  will  soon  make  a  Tiome  market*  for  its  raw  materials  and 
place  it  foremost  in  the  ranks  of  exporters  of  goods.  The  figures 
show  that  it  is  fast  supplanting  northern  imported  goods  within  its 
own  industry.  It  will  not,  like  the  north,  however,  have  provin- 
cial markets  to  supply,  but  having  all  within  its  own  border,  will 
actually  diminish  its  purchases  from  the  north.  It  will  have  for- 
eign markets  for  its  surplus.  The  countries  of  South  America 
and  Asia  will  be  open  to  it,  and  if  it  there  encounters  British  and 
New  England  competitors  it  will  have  the  advantage  of  having 
unprotected  developed  its  manufactures  in  the  face  of  the  competi- 
tion of  New  England  goods  in  the  home  market,  and  therefore 
become  able  to  meet  these  goods  in  any  market.  If  in  a  few  years 
it  does  not  become  a  seller  of  cotton  goods  to  the  north  on  a  large 
scale,  as  it  already  is  on  a  small  scale,  since  Georgia  and  Alabama 


170  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW 

cottons  are  favorites  in  New  York,  it  will  take  none  of  them. 
The  north  will,  however,  still  require  food  and  materials  and  the 
scale  of  dependence  may  vibrate/' 

In  many  of  these  plants  the  negro  slaves  were  being  used. 
This  whole  movement  is  quite  thoroughly  described  in  Ingle's 
"Southern  Sidelights,"  pp.  75-93.  Here  we  find  such  papers  as 
the  Dry  Goods  Economist  began  to  speak  ''fearfully  of  southern 
competition  in  cotton  weaving."  An  English  observer,  whom  we 
have  previously  quoted,  Mr.  James  F.  W.  Johnson,  says  on  this 
point,  p.  364:  "There  is  another  aspect  of  this  question  which 
awakens  gloomy  apprehensions  as  to  the  future  of  the  American 
slave.  The  introduction  of  the  cotton  manufacture  into  the  slave 
states — Virginia,  Kentucky,  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Tennessee  and  Mississippi — in  which  there  are  some  hundreds  of 
factories,  consuming  already  from  300,000  to  400,000  bales  of 
cotton  a  year,  has  brought  a  new  use  of  his  slaves  within  the  reach 
of  the  southern  planters.  The  same  power  which  compels  them 
to  toil  in  gangs  under  a  burning  sun  will  constrain  them  to  waste 
life  in  the  factories,  if  it  can  be  done  profitably  to  the  master. 
The  great  difficulty  of  the  manufacturers  in  the  New  England 
states  is  the  question  of  labor — ^the  scarcity  of  work-people,  the 
high  wages  they  demand,  and  the  delicacy  required  to  manage 
them.  In  the  south  these  difficulties  vanish.  Slave  labor  is  easily 
obtained  and  the  slave  obeys  as  mechanically  as  the  machine  he 
superintends.  A  great  and  rapid  extension  of  the  factory  system 
is  therefore  looked  for  in  the  south  and  many  predict  that  the 
manufacturers  of  the  eastern  states  will  sink  before  them." 

Just  how  far  this  movement  would  have  progressed  under 
slavery  is  now  of  course  impossible  to  tell.  It  is  noteworthy. 
However,  that  in  the  years  just  prior  to  the  Civil  War  a  large 
number  of  "conventions"  were  held  throughout  the  south  where 
the  need  of  offering  encouragement  to  manufactures  was  the  prin- 
cipal subject  of  discussion. 

A  phase  of  the  subject  upon  which  emphasis  was  not  laid  at 
the  time,  but  which  undoubtedly  had  its  weight,  is  set  forth  in  a 
decidedly  remarkable  preface  to  a  translation  of  De  Cassagfnac's 
"History  of  the  Working  and  Burgher  Qasses."  This  preface  is 
written  by  Benjamin  E.  Green  and  is  dated  1871.  He  declares 
that  the  entire  object  of  the  Civil  War  was  to  "divorce  southern 
capital  from  labor."  He  claims  that  the  northern  capitalists 
realized  the  coming  of  a  struggle  between  them  and  their  wagre 
workers  and  were  determined  that  the  southern  capitalists  should 
not  enjoy  the  privilege  of  an  undisturbed  industry.  He  claims  that 
"The  advocates  of  low  wages  learned  that  abolition  would  pro- 
duce pauperism,  that  pauperism  would  increase  competition  in  the 
struggle  for  bread;  that  increased    competition    would    reduce 


ECONOMIC  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAVERY  171 

wages,  with  cheaper  food  and  coarser  clothing  and.  fewer  of  the 
necessaries  of  life  to  the  laborers.  *  *  *  The  great  party  that 
elected  Mr.  Lincoln  made  war  upon  and  subjugated  the  south  and 
abolished  slavery  that  free  labor  might  be  made  cheaper  than 
slave  labor;  which  simply  means  a  reduction  of  the  wages  of  free 
labor  below  the  cost  of  feeding  and  clothing  the  negVo  and  taking 
care  of  him  in  sickness  and  infirmities  of  age." 

He  gathers  together  a  host  of  quotations  from  the  speeches  of 
Northern  men  before  the  war  which  seemed  to  bear  out  this  in- 
terpretation. He  sums  the  whole  matter  up  in  the  following  most 
striking  statement : 

"The  real  conflict  was,  not  between  free  and  slave  labor,  but 
it  was  between  the  capital  that  hired  free  labor  and  the  capital  that 
owned  slave  labor.  The  interests  of  the  former  required  a  system 
of  legislation  that  would  put  down  wages  and  put  up  the  cost  of 
living.  The  interests  of  the  latter  require  a  diametrically  opposite 
S)rstem.  Wages  went  into,  and  the  cost  of  living  came  out  of,  the 
pockets  of  the  capital  that  owned  slave  labor.  Wages  came  out 
of,  and  the  cost  of  living  went  into,  the  pockets  of  the  capital  that 
hired  free  labor.  Mr.  Seward  and  Mn  Chase  were  not  long  in 
discovering  that  herein  consisted  the  philosophv  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
celebrated  aphorism.  The  Democracy  of  the  North  are  the  natu- 
ral allies  of  the  Republicans  of  the  South.'  They  were  not  slow  to 
see  that,  while  the  interests  and  inclination  of  the  capital  that 
hired  free  labor  called  for  a  system  of  taxation  imposing  heavy 
burdens  on  the  laboring  classes,  the  interest  and  inclination  of  the 
capital  that  owned  slave  labor  required  a  system  of  light  taxes, 
high  wages,  fair  prices  for  the  products  of  labor,  and  cheap  liv- 
mg. 

This  IS,  of  course,  the  exact  reverse  of  the  idea  which  has  been 
carefully  inculcated  in  the  schools  and  organs  of  "public  opinion" 
in  the  North.  Here  we  have  always  been  taught  to  believe  that 
''In  essence  it  was  from  beginning  to  end  a  struggle  by  free  labor 
at  the  North  to  free  labor  at  the  South."* 

As  the  struggle  went  on  the  power  of  the  North  grew  ever 
greater;  railroads  were  flung  through  to  the  West  to  draw  the 
allegiance  of  the  Western  farmer  from  Southern  slave  holder. 
The  Abolitionists  rung  the  changes  on  the  word  "free"  to  fire  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  laboring  masses  of  the  North.  The  efforts 
of  the  South  to  extend  its  territory  involved  the  annexation 
of  Texas,  the  Gadsden  Purchase  and  the  organization  of  fili- 
bustering expeditions  against  Cuba  and  Central  America.  The 
mighty  flood  of  immigration  which  was  pouring  into  the  North 

*A  Political  History  of  Slavery,  by  William  HeDry  Smith.  Introduc- 
tion by  Wbitelaw  Rdd,  p.  XI. 


172  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

was  furnishing  it  with  a  body  of  voters  who  would  soon  deliver 
the  government  into  the  hands  of  their  master,  the  capitalists. 

This  movement  of  extension  I  must  pass  over  with  far  less 
attention  than  it  deserves,  as  I  hope  to  treat  the  whole  subject  of 
territorial  extension  in  a  later  article.  For  the  same  reason  I  am 
compelled  to  omit  all  consideration  of  the  part  which  the  great 
frontier  element  played  in  this  struggle,  notwithstanding  that  these 
two  points  are  perhaps  as  important  as.  any  belonging  to  the  sub- 
ject. 

Indeed,  it  was  the  Frontier  that  finally  turned  the  scale  and 
Lincoln,  who  became  the  foremost  figure  in  the  whole  conflict, 
was,  as  I  have  frequently  said,  a  child  of  the  Frontier. 

Once  that  Lincoln  was  in  power  and  the  government  in  the 
hands  of  Northern  capitalists  there  was  absolutely  no  hope  for  the 
Southern  slaveholder  save  in  secession,  and  this  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  the  Republican  party  at  that  time  was  distinctly 
opposed  to  any  abolition  movement.  But  a  ruling  class  which 
belongs  to  a  social  system  already  outgrown  must,  if  it  is  to  live, 
have  complete  and  practically  undisputed  control  of  the  machinery 
of  government  within  which  it  exists.  This  was  the  case  with 
the  Southern  slaveholders  until  the  election  of  Lincoln. 

Indeed  this  fact  of  the  slaveholding  domination  of  the  central- 
government  was  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  complaint  by 
Northern  writers  and  speakers.  The  presidency,  speakership  of 
the  house,  cabinet  and  federal  offices  had  all  been  controlled  by  the 
slave  power  for  the  greater  portion  of  the  time  since  tihe  formation 
of  the  government.* 

During  all  this  time  the  ruling  class  of  the  North  was  the 
clerical,  capitalistic,  trading  and  commercial  class  of  New  Eng- 
land. Owing  to  its  peculiar  character  this  ruling  class  lacked  the 
flexibility  and  forms  of  Democracy  which  are  the  especial  char- 
acteristics of  a  purely  bourgeois  ruling  class.  We  see  a  some- 
what similar  phenomenon  in  the  South  at  the  present  time.  The 
old  slave-holding  aristocracy  could  never  have  produced  a 
"Pitchfork"  Tillman.  It  was  only  when  competitive  capitalism 
invaded  the  South  that  such  as  he  appeared.  In  the  same  way 
it  was  really  the  highly  competitive  capitalism  of  the  West  ^hat 
produced  the  party  that  was  really  capable  of  wresting  supre- 
macy from  the  chattel  slave-owners.  The  Republican  party  arose 
from  the  frontier  but  was  quickly  accepted  by  the  manufacturing 
capitalists  of  the  East  as  expressing  their  position. 

With  the  struggle  of  these  two  forces  for  supremacy,  the  Civil 


'Helper's  "The  Impending  Cri^''  pp.  307-318  gires  a  complete 
table  of  the  offices  held  by  the  North  and  the  South  since  the  establish- 
ment of  the  goTemment.    The  facts  in  the  text  are  taken  from  there. 


£(X>NOMIG  ASPECTS  OF  CHATTEL  SLAYEBY  178 

War,  Emancipation  and  reomstruction  I  must  be  content  with 
short  notice*  It  should  now  be  evident  to  everyone  that  it  is 
the  rankest  nonsense  to  talk  about  the  Civil  War  being  waged 
to  abolish  negro  chattel  slaveiy.  Lincohi  repeatedly  declared 
such  was  not  its  object  Even  after  secession  had  begun  and  the 
War  was  almost  upon  the  country,  with  Lincoln  elected  President, 
the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  of  the  North  offered  to 
adopt  a  constitutional  amendment  forever  securing  the  perma- 
nency of  slavery  in  the  South.* 

When  Fremont  freed  the  slaves  who  came  to  his  army  during 
the  early  stages  of  the  war,  his  action  was  promptly  disavowed 
by  the  genenil  government  Some  of  the  generals  even  went 
so  far  as  to  return  slaves  to  their  masters  and  even  to  permit 
the  latter  to  come  within  the  Union  lines  and  search  for  runaway 
slaves.  Finally  it  was  only  as  a  war  measure  that  emancipation 
was  declared,  and  in  no  sense  as  an  expression  of  any  ''moral 
sentiment'  of  the  North. 

The  struggle  from  first  to  last  was  simply  a  contest  between 
two  classes  of  exploiters  as  to  which  should  have  the  use  of  the 
general  government  for  their  purposes.  That  finally  the  North 
was  only  able  to  win  by  abolishing  the  particular  method  of  ex- 
ploitation in  vogue  in  the  South  was  largely  an  accident  due  to 
the  fortimes  of  war. 

I  have  had  no  time  to  treat  save  indirectly  what  is  generally 
considered  the  most  important  phase  of  this  whole  subject — ^the 
contrasting  forms  of  social  organization  which  sprang  from  these 
two  different  forms  of  exploitation.  This  has  already  been  done 
so  many  times  that  I  think  all  my  readers  will  know  where  to  turn 
for  anything  they  may  wish  to  know  in  relation  to  it. 

There  is  just  one  observation  that  I  wish  to  make  in  reply 
to  an  alleged  argument  that  is  often  offered  in  connection  with  the 
Civil  War  and  its  relation  to  the  present  effort  of  the  wage-slaves 
to  free  themselves.  It  is  said  that  it  was  not  the  negroes  who 
freed  themselves  and  therefore  the  Socialist  position  that  "he  who 
would  be  free,  himself  must  strike  the  blow"  is  false.  To  this 
I  would  reply  that  the  Civil  War  "freed"  nobody,  and  least  of 
all  the  negro.  It  was  simply  a  squabble  between  exploiters  for 
control  of  one  of  the  instruments  of  exploitation — ^the  general 
government.  In  the  same  way  the  illustrations  and  comparisons 
which  are  so  often  used  by  some  Socialists  in  relation  to  the 
"freeing  of  the  negroes"  are  essentially  meaningless,  since  the 
groimds  for  comparison  do  not  exist  A.  M.  Simons. 

•See  Smith's  "PoUtical  History  of  Slavery,"  Vol.  L,  pp.  331  to 
348  paatim. 


The  Is^norance  of  the  Schools. 


The  surprising  ignorance  of  Socialism  which  prevails  in  scholastic 
circles  is  an  ever  recurring  evidence  of  the  existence  of  class-divisions 
and  the  dominance  of  capitalist  class  interests.  A  visit  to  the  class 
rooms  of  Sociology  and  Economics  in  almost  any  great  universityy  would 
find  much  time  given  to  the  theories  of  society  held  by  the  Physiocrats 
and  Mercantilists,  and  to  theories  of  rent,  interest,  wages  and  profits 
long  since  forgotten  outside  purely  scholastic  circles.  These  long  dead 
and  gone  and  often  admittedly  false  theories  are  studied  from  the  dusty 
writings  of  their  originators  with  greatest  care  against  error  and  misun- 
derstanding. 

Now  however  crazy  may  be  the  philosophy  of  Socialism,  it  is  older 
than  many  of  these  theories  and  has  gained  in  importance  ever  since  its 
first  promulgation,  and  is  now  the  working  philosophy  of  a  body  of  some- 
thing over  thirty  million  people,  scattered  throughout  the  civilized 
world,  and  with  a  tremendous  influence  on  all  fields  of  thought  and 
action.  Yet  of  this  philosophy  we  find  our  universities  most  hopelessly 
and  childishly  ignorant.  The  majority  of  university  curriculums  fail  to 
mention  it  at  all.  In  a  large  and  ever  increasing  minority  some  sort  of 
teaching  is  ostensibly  offered  on  the  subject.  In  a  great  many  cases 
(including  some  of  our  ''best"  universities)  there  is  a  course  with 
some  such  title  as  "Social  Beforms."  The  catalogue  goes  on  to  tell  us 
that  this  course  embraces  a  study  of  ''Single  Tax,  Socialism,  Eight- 
Hour  Legislation,  Organized  Charity,  and  other  schemes  of  social  ame- 
lioration." If  there  be  any  among  our  readers  who  have  received  a 
college  education  at  such  an  institution  and  have  been  thereby  rendered 
incapable  of  realizing  the  ridiculousness  of  such  a  statement  we  would, 
simply  say  that  a  corresponding  ignorance  appUed  to  the  biological 
department  would  include  the  theory  of  evolution  in  a  course  on  "Hog 
Baising." 

In  perhaps  a  dozen  of  the  really  best  institutions  'a  course  is  offered 
treating  exclusively  of  Socialism.  Even  then  the  text-book  is  all  too 
frequently  Professor  Somebody-or-Other's  "treatise,"  or  "history"  or 

174 


BDITOBIAI/.  176 

"imposBibility"  of  SooiaLism.  As  a  result  the  students  come  away  worse 
than  completely  ignorant  of  Socialism,  for  ignorance  at  the  worst  implies 
an  intellectual  cavity  to  be  filled,  while  their  craniums  are  crammed  with 
worthless  rubbish. 

In  still  fewer  institutions  the  students  are  actually  brought  in  contact 
with  at  least  some  of  the  writings  of  socialists.  Even  here,  however,  the 
students  are  kept  from  any  knowledge  of  the  real  vital  portions  of  the 
socialist  philosophy.  Not  that  any  conscions  attempt  is  made  to  deceive. 
It  is  simply  a  ease  of  the  ''blind  leading  the  blind"  and  both  wallowing 
in  the  ditch  of  ignorance. 

Such  classes  are  generally  assigned  portions  of  ''Capital,"  and  this 
work,  especially  when  attacked  in  this  piece-meal  manner  with  ignorant 
instructors,  is  absolutely  unintelligible  to  the  average  college  under- 
graduate. This  may  seem  strange  to  those  of  our  readers  who  can  call 
to  mind  workingmen,  absolute  strangers  to  college  walls,  who  have 
nevertheless  mastered  Marx's  great  work. 

The  workingman,  however,  sees  in  "Capital"  but  an  accurate  and 
carefully  expressed  analysis  of  his  own  life,  experiences  and  closest 
iifteresta.  The  average  university  student,  even  though  he  should  occa- 
sionaUy  be  the  son  of  a  workingman,  has  had  his  mind  so  thoroughly 
impressed  by  the  capita^st  class-consciousness  of  the  preparatory  schools 
that  he  can  gain  access  to  the  by  no  means  simple  propositions  of  Marx 
only  across  the  broad  chasm  of  divergent  class  psychologies. 

All  this  would  still  be  true  even  if  Marx  were  fairly  presented.  But 
Marxism  is  a  broad,  comprehensive  social  philosophy,  and  not  a  series  of 
formulas.  Yet  in  all  the  university  courses  of  Socialism  concerning 
which  we  have  been  able  to  get  any  information,  but  two  aspects  of 
the  Marxian  philosophy  have  been  presented,  and  these  in  a  distorted 
form.  Marx  is  presented  as  the  formulator  of  a  crude  "labor  value 
theory"  and  as  the  foreteller  of  a  "co-operative  commonwealth,"  and 
in  both  cases  these  are  set  forth  in  a  Utopian  manner,  as  foreign  as 
possible  to  the  whole  spirit  of  Marxian  thought.  Yery  little,  if  any- 
thing, is  said  about  the  materialistic  interpretation  of  history,  while  the 
whole  heart  and  soul  of  Socialism,  the  doctrine  of  social  progress  through 
class  struggles  is  seldom  even  noticed. 

And  the  strange  thing  in  this  connection  is  that  these  are  just  the 
phases  of  Socialist  thought  which  are  easiest  to  understand  and  which 
have  been  set  forth  in  language  that  constitutes  a  model  of  clearness 
and  logical  form.  In  the  scope  of  a  small  pamphlet,  "The  Communist 
Manifeffto,"  written  by  the  two  greatest  of  Socialist  writers,  indorsed 
by  hundreds  of  Socialist  organizations,  circulated  during  a  half  century 
by  millions  of  copies  in  almost  every  known  language,  these  funda- 
mental principles  of  Socialism  are  set  forth  in  words  no  one  can  well 
misunderstand.  Surely  even  if  such  a  pamphlet  were  filled  with  the 
veriest  nonsense  it  would  still  merit  attention  because  of  its  vast  circu- 
lation and  influence. 


176  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEYIEW 

Yet  a  few  yean  ago  while  we  were  lecturing  before  the  Political 
Economy  Club  of  the  Univeroity  of  Chicago  we  held  np  a  copy  of  this 
book  before  the  over  one  hundred  students  present,  nearly  all  of  whom 
claimed  to  have  studied  Socialism  more  or  less  during  their  college 
course,  and  less  than  half  a  dozen  had  ever  seen  or  heard  of  the  work, 
and  not  one  had  read  it.  A  less  public  but  almost  equally  far-reaching 
inquiry  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin  exposed  an  equal  ignorance,  while 
conversation  with  Harvard  students  of  a  few  years  ago  would  indicate 
a  similar  condition  there. 

Another  instance  which  shows  how  widespread  ignorance  of  this 
work  is  in  educated  circles,  was  furnished  by  Mr.  Ghent,  the  author  of 
''A  Benevolent  Feudalism.''  He  recently  published  a  sort  of  roast  of 
his  reviewers  in  which  he  makes  merry  over  what  he  evidently  considers 
to  be  two  contradictory  statements  appearing  in  the  editorial  notice  of 
his  book  in  this  Beview,  to  the  effect  that  while  most  of  his  ideas 
were  taken  from  the  Communist  Manifesto,  it  was  written  largely  from 
the  small  capitalist  standpoint.  A  slight  familiarity  with  the  Manifesto 
would  have  shown  him  that  his  idea  of  capitalist  class  rule  (which  is 
all  his  "benevolent  feudalism"  really  means)  is  there  clearly  set  forfh, 
without,  to  be  sure,  the  fantastic  terminology  in  which  he  has  clothed  it, 
and  which,  however  clever  it  may  be  as  a  literary  artifice,  can  scarcely 
be  said  to  add  to  scientific  accuracy  of  statement.  At  the  same  time 
he  uses  this  idea  in  just  the  manner  that  would  app^  to  the  little 
capitalist  hoping  to  become  an  "industrial  baron.''  Even  more,  if 
Mr.  Ghent  will  read  further  he  will  find  that  the  Communist  Manifesto 
describes  just  that  sort  of  literature  and  tells  what  part  it  really  plays 
in  social  evolution.  It  is  worthy  of  note  as  illustrating  this  same  point 
that  according  to  the  aforesaid  "roast"  by  Mr.  Ghent  none  of  the 
capitalist  reviewers  recognized  the  lack  of  originality  in  his  book, 
while  all  the  Socialist  papers  discovered  this  at  once. 

Still  another  example  is  furnished  by  the  fact  that  not  one  of  the 
hundreds  of  volumes  written  to  refute,  expose  or  explain  away  Socialism 
have  ever  clearly  attacked  the  position  set  forth  in  the  Manifesto. 
This  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  these  are  the  positions  most  clearly 
stated,  easily-  understood,  and  most  frequently  repeated  in  all  Socialist 
literature^  while  the  labor  value  theory  and  the  ideas  of  a  future  Socialist 
state  are  much  less  accessible  to  the  casual  reader. 

We  will  venture  to  set  forth  in  a  series  of  postulates  these  funda- 
mental principles,  which  are  thus  universally  ignored,  in  the  hope  that 
if  this  comes  across  the  vision  of  some  scholastic  observer  he  need  no 
longer  be  compelled  to  plead  ignorance  on  these  points. 

!•  Social  institutions  are  determined  by  the  methods  of  producing 
and  distributing  economic  goods. 

2.  Each  economic  system  briags  into  the  position  of  social  rulership 
the  possessors  of  the  economic  essentials  of  that  system. 

8.    Improvements  in  the  methods  of  production  constantly  make  new 


EDITORIAL.  177 

things  essential  eeonomieally  and  thus  create  a  new  class  of  social  rulers 
who  secure  their  domination  only  after  a  struggle  with  the  previons 
ruling  dassL    This  is  the  method  of  social  progress. 

4.  The  present  iQrstem  has  placed  the  6wners  of  capital  in  posses- 
sion of  social  control  and  they  are  using  that  control  to  advance  their 
own  interests. 

5.  Improyements  in  the  method  of  production  have  qow  reached  a 
stage  where  the  capitalist  class  is  less  essential  to  social  progress  than 
the  laboring  class  and  hence  the  latter  is  struggling  to  displace  the 
former  with  the  certainty  of  victory. 

6.  The  social  system  corresponding  to  laboring  class  domination  of 
the  economic  system  of  today  and  of  the  probable  future  will  hare  as 
its  distinctive  feature  common  ownership  of  the  instruments  for  the 
production  and  distribution  of  wealth. 

These  are  a  series  of  simple  assertions^  easily  understood  and  with 
no  equivocation,  yet  we  believe  that  ninety  per  cent  of  the  literature 
of  Socialism  consists  of  elaborations  and  proofs  of  these.  While  many 
Socialists  would  disagree  with  the  form  in  which  they  are  stated  and 
they  h^ve  probably  been  much  better  stated  elsewhere,  especially  in 
the  Manifesto  itself,  yet  few  Socialists  but  would  agree  that  they  con- 
tain the  essentials  of  the  Socialist  philosophy.  Still  one  might  search 
the  hundreds  and  thousands  of  volumes  that  have  been  written  by  the 
opponents  and  critics  of  Socialism  in  vain  to  find  any  reference  to  them. 

They  are  much  more  easily  understood  than  the  labor  value  theory  or 
any  fantastic  theories  of  a  future  society.  Why  do  not  the  scholastic 
critics  of  Socialism  ^'expose  their  fallacy''  if  they  are  fallacious f  If 
they  do  not  do  so  are  not  Socialists  justified  in  their  belief  that  it  is 
because  those  propositions  are  irrefutable  f 

It  wquld  be  easy  to  go  on  and  show  from  the  writings  of  such  men 
as  Simon  N.  Patten,  Lester  F.  Ward,  Franklin  Oiddings  and  other  of 
the  foremost  professorial  exponents  of  economics  and  sociology,  how 
they  repeat  as  original,  ideas  long  ago  elaborated  by  Socialists,  or  how 
they  ascribe  to  Socialists  positions  absolutely  foreign  to  the  whole 
Socialist  philosophy. 

Yet  in  closing  we  would  wish  to  warn  against  the  very  justifiable 
contempt  which  most  Socialists  have  for  the  writings  of  such  men.  It 
is  true  they  are  hopelessly  ignorant  of  Socialism  and  no  Socialist  would 
take  seriously  anything  they  might  say  on  that  subject,  yet  they  have 
often  gathered  quantities  of  material  of  greatest  value  to  a  knowledge 
of  Socialism,  and  of  much  assistance  in  Socialist  propaganda.  At  times 
also  they  have  arrived  at  positions  held  by  Socialists,  or  that  help  to 
support  the  Socialist  position  without  themselves  being  aware  of  the 
fact. 

liarx's  Capital  probably  contains  more  references  to  non-Socialist 
economic  literature  than  any  work  ever  published,  and  the  book  could 
never  have  been  written  without  a  knowledge  of  that  literature.    Yet 


178 


INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST   REVIEW 


it.'  ■ 


fe 


I 


poor  and  barren  as  most  of  the  eeonomic  literature  of  the  scholastic 
world  of  today  is^  it  is  much  superior  to  that  so  carefully  studied  by 
Marx  and  it  is  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  Socialists  to  ignore  it.  Indeed 
it  would  be  almost  as  easy  to  write  on  the  ignorance  of  capitalist 
economies  by  Socialists  as  of  the  ignorance  of  Socialism  by  capitalist 
economists.    Perhaps  that  may  make  the  text  of  another  editoriaL 


We  publish  elsewhere  an  article  by  Comrade  Buck  on  ''Ascending 
Stages  of  Socialism,"  to  much  of  which  we  wish  to  express  our  dissent, 
notwithstanding  its  many  excellent  features.  We  do  not  believe  that  a 
particle  of  evidence  has  ever  been  produced  to  show  that  increase  of  popu- 
lation bears  any  direct  ratio  whatever  to  the  economic  well-being  of  the 
individual.  It  also  seems  to  us  that  the  Utopian  definition  which*  is 
given  of  Socialism  is  so  wholly  out  of  agreement  with  the  one  which 
Socialists  have  come  to  accept  that  it  is  apt  to  merely  mislead  instead  of 
explain.  Neither  do  we  think  that  it  tends  to  clearness  of  thought  to 
revive  that  other  Utopian  idea  which  our  opponents  so  often  ascribe  to 
usy  that  Socialism  supposes  the  conscious  "adoption"  of  any  detailed 
"principle  of  distribution."  It  seems  to  us  that  such  an  idea  is  dis- 
tinctly at  war  with  the  whole  tendency  of  modern  evolutionary  thought, 
of  whose  application  in  social  lines  Comrade  Buck  has  given  us  so  many 
valuable  examples. 


k-'  , 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


Two  important  mattera  were  acted  upon  by  the  eonyention  of  the  Inter- 
national Typogn^hical  Union — one  relating  to  the  purely  economic  straggle 
and  the  other  to  the  advanced  political  cdde.  The  TjpogrKpbical  Union, 
which  is  the  oldest  of  the  national  organizations^  was  the  first  to  give  con- 
ciliation and  arbitration  a  fair  and  general  triaL  But  it  looks  as  though 
the  experiment  has  proven  a  failure — at  least  that  impression  is  growing 
among  the  printers.  The  reasons  are  plain.  The  employers  demand  their 
own  way  in  everything.  For  instance:  In  Seattle  and  Spokane,  Wash., 
where  the  test  cases  took  place  that  led  to  the  rupture  between  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union  and  the  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association 
upon  the  arbitration  question  the  bosses  started  out  as  though  it  was  a 
preconceived  plan  to  make  a  farce  of  conciliation  and  arbitration.  In 
Seattle  the  Union  had  made  a  request  for  an  increase  in  wages  and  reduc- 
tion in  hours,  claiming  that  living  rates  had  advanced,  which  was  just  cause 
for  higher  wages,  and  that  they  had  increased  the  output,  which  was  a  goocT 
reason  why  hours  of  labor  could  be  reduced.  Without  attempting  to  con- 
trovert the  facts  presented  the  employers  filed  a  counter  proposition,  de- 
manding a  reduction  in  wages  and  increase  of  hours  of  labor.  Furthermore, 
they  even  had  the  audacity  to  ask  that  certain  laws  that  had  been  adopted 
by  40,000  printers  in  a  national  referendum  be  made  the  subject  of  arbitra- 
tion in  their  local  contest.  The  Seattle  Union  requested  that  the  questions 
go  to  the  national  commission,  composed  of  President  Lynch,  of  the  Union, 
and  President  DriscoU,  of  the  publishers.  This  the  local  bosses  refused, 
whereupon  the  Union  took  the  bull  by  the  horns  and  enforced  its  new  scale.  - 
Previous  to  this  occurrence  the  printers  of  Spokane  asked  for  an  increase 
of  wages.  A  monopolist  controls  the  three  newspapers,  as  well  as  "public 
opinion"  largely  in  that  city.  The  proposition  went  to  an  arbitration 
bioard  composed  of  representatives  of  tl^  printers,  the  newspapers  and  ''the 
pubHc''  A  preacher  was  the  spokesman  for  "the  public."  Mr.  Preacher 
was  informed  that  he  was  expected  to  find  for  the  newspapers,  and  he  did 
as  he  was  told.  The  printers'  representative  was  even  told  that  they  did 
not  need  his  signature  to  the  agreement  (  f ),  and  when  the  jug-handled  con- 
tract was  promulgated  the  workers  refused  to  swallow  it  and  went  on  strike, 
and  then  a  loud  howl  went  up  that  the  International  Typographical  Union  had 
"violated  every  principle  of  arbitration!"  In  New  York  dty  the  news- 
paper printers  also  put  in  a  request  for  hiffher  wages  or  a  reduction  of 
hours;  they  also  proved  that  living  rates  had  increased  and  that  their  out- 
put was  greater  than  ever.  Here  also  a  preacher  (a  bishop,  by  the  way) 
was  chosen  as  the  third  arbitrator.  This  gentleman,  after  considering  the 
testimony,  was  forced  to  admit  that  prices  of  necessity  had  advanced  and 
that  the  workers  had  increased  their  output,  but,  he  argued,  "the  public" 
should  have  the  benefits,  as  the  printers  were  receiving  "fair  wages"  and 
the  employers  "fair  profits."  In  Minneapolis  the  employers  also  suc- 
ceeded, by  the  aid  of  a  politician,  in  securing  advantages  over  the  workers. 

179 


180  INTBBNATIONAL  BOCIALIST  BEVIEW 

Taking  their  eae  from  their  fellow  publishers  in  the  aforementioned  cities^ 
the  newspaper  proprietors  of  Denver  have  met  the  demands  of  the  printers 
for  higher  wages  with  a  counter  demand  for  a  reduction  of  wages  and 
lengthening  of  hours  of  labor.  It  is  international  law  that  newspaper 
printers  work  but  eight  hours  a  daj^  but  that  makes  no  difference  to  the 
Denver  botaes.  They  insist  that  the  law  should  be  repealed  and  the  men 
should  work  nine  hours.  No  doubt  the  publishers  in  other  cities  will  pur- 
sue the  same  tactics  in  the  future. 

This  is  the  situation  that  confronted  the  International  Typographical 
Union  convention  which  met  in  Washington.  President  DriscoU,  of  the 
Newspaper  Publishers'  Association,  was  present  and  received  a  hearing. 
In  a  carefully  prepared  statement,  which  was  sent  over  the  Associated  Press 
wires  verbatim,  he  attempted  to  i^ow  that  the  International  Typographical 
XJnioni  through  its  <Kncers  and  local  Unions,  had  violated  the  principles 
of  arbitration.  But  after  hearing  the  testimony  of  the  national  officers 
and  local  Unions,  which  was  cut  and  garbled  to  suit  the  "molders  of  public 
opinion,"  the  delegates  by  unanimous  vote  endorsed  the  position  of  their 
representatives  and  refused  to  recede  an  inch.  It  was  freely  declared 
that  the  employers  violated  every  principle  of  justice  and  decency,  and  that 
if  they  desirea  to  destroy  conciliation  and  arbitration  agreement  and  were 
looking  for  fight  they  would  be  accommodated.  The  whole  question  is  now 
up  to  the  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association,  which  seems  to  have  become 
''paralysed,"  and  it  is  for  them  to  say  whether  it  shall  be  peace  or  war. 

Another  matter  of  fem&tBl  interest  was  the  IntematlonfJ  Typographical 
Union  convention's  action  on  the  advanced  political  proposition.  By  a  par- 
liamentary trick  sprung  at  a  late  hour  during  the  night  session  preceding  the 
day  of  adjournment  an  endorsement  of  the  principle  of  collective  owner- 
ship was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  two  to  one^  but  the  following  morning, 
when  a  resolution  came  up  for  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  consider 
the  question  of  taxation  and  its  relation  to  wages,  an  amendment  was  at- 
tached thereto  to  instruct  the  committee  to  investigate  and  report  upon  the 
advisability  of  nationalizing  trusts  and  monopolies.  This  amendment,  after 
some  sharp  and  fast  debate,  was  carried  l^  70  to  18.  While  the  majority 
of  delegates  were  unquestionably  non-Sodalists,  still  there  was  a  strong 
sentiment  in  the  convention  in  favor  of  taking  advanced  ground.  As  one 
of  the  national  officers  put  it:  ''The  bulk  of  our  members  know  little  about 
Socialism,  but  I  believe  the  printers  ought  to  be  tolerant  enough  to  give 
this  great  and  growing  principle  an  unprejudiced  hearing,  and  if  they  find 
that  it  contains  the  merit  that  its  advocates  claim  we  will  be  the  first  to 
acknowledge  it."  There  were  vague  rumors  during  the  early  part  of  the 
convention  that  my  action  in  the  New  Orleans  convention  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  in  advocating  Socialism  contrary  to  the  "muzzle" 
resolution  adopted  at  the  Cincinnati  session  a  year  ago,  would  be  condemned, 
that  I  would  be  impeached,  etc,  but  there  was  no  basis  for  such  yams 
other  than  the  ineffectual  attempts  of  a  few  political  skates  and  office- 
seekers  who  hung  about  the  convention  to  create  trouble^  especially  for  the 
Socialists.  The  action  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  delegation  as  a 
whole  was  unanimously  endorsed. 

•      •      • 

New  York. — ^America's  metropolis  is  in  bad  shape  from  the  labor  stand- 
point, especially  in  the  building  trades.  The  attempt  of  the  contractors 
to  abolish  the  sjrmpathy  strike  and  minimize  the  power  of  the  business  agents 
of  the  unions  has  largely  succeeded.  Over  a  hundred  thousand  men  were 
locked  out  early  in  the  season,  and  they  were  informed  that  just  as  soon 
as  their  unions  signed  agreements  that  had  been  prepared  by  and  were  satis- 
factory to  the  employers  they  might  return  to  work.  At  first  only  a  few  of 
the  smaller  unions  signed,  then  gradually  some  of  the  larger  ones  broke  away. 


THE  WOBLD  OF  LABOB.  181 

and  at  this  writiiig  only  the  bridge  and  Btructural  iron  woikera  are  standing 
out.  This  ia  an  important  organization^  and  nnder  ordinary  dreomstanees 
eonid  keep  the  bml<ung  trades  tied  up  to  a  large  extent,  but  the  capitalists 
are  playing  a  tmmp  card  by  forming  an  opposition  union  composed  of  a 
heterogeneous  mob  of  professional  scabs,  ex-members,  non-union  men  and 
some  who  had  formerly  worked  at  the  trade,  but  went  into  other  occupa- 
tions, and  Anally  a  sprinkling  of  skilled  men  who  became  disgusted  with  the 
Parks  method  of  conducting  affairs.  Parks,  one  of  the  union's  business 
agents,  is  now  on  trial  for  blackmailing  contractors,  and  some  damaging 
testimony  is  being  brought  out.  It  is  alleged  that  he  has  become  rich  and 
fives  like  a  prince,  owing  to  his  ability  as  a  grafter.  Then,  again,  the  expose 
in  the  Stonecutters'  Union,  an  officer  of  which  has  been  sent  to  the  peni* 
tentiary  for  stealing  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  rumors  of  crookedness  in 
other  organizations,  have  greatly  discouraged  the  honest  rank  and  file,  while 
some  of  the  deplorable  jurisdiction  fights  and  internal  dissensions  have  also 
tended  to  weaken  organized  labor  and  arouse  the  suspicion  of  the  great 
mass  of  workers  who  are  not  in  unions.  There  will  have  to  be  a  general 
shake-up  and  weeding  out  in  the  unions  of  New  York,  and  that  very  soon, 
if  the  labor  movement  of  this  city  is  to  go  forward.  Furthermore,  since  the 
employers  have  combined  and  are  daily  strengthening  thdr  associations,  and, 
of  course,  are  unanimously  backed  up  by  the  daily  press  (except  the  VolkB' 
eeitung,  the  Socialist  party  daily),  the  workingmen  of  New  Toric  are  begin- 
ning to  discover  that  it  is  necessary  to  secure  control  of  the  city 's  polincal 
machinery  and  use  it  for  their  betterment  instead  of  being  mere  voting 
cattle  for  Tammany  Hall  and  the  Piatt  machine.  Many  of  the  active 
workers  in  all  trades  are  joining  tiie  Socialist  t>arty  or  reading  Sodaliat 
literature,  and  a  prominent  member  of  the  party,  who  is  usually  earefnl  and 
conservative  in  making  estimates,  predicted  that  the  Socialist  party  would 
poll  fully  40,000  votes  this  fall,  or  double  the  number  of  a  year  ago. 

The  thoughtful  workingmen  of  New  York  are  awakening  not  only  be- 
cause their  organizations  are  being  attacked  by  employers '  combines,  or  be- 
cause of  the  brutality  of  the  police  and  courts  during  strikes,  or  for  the 
reason  that  some  of  the  eorruptionists  in  their  own  ranks  have  been  feather- 
ing their  own  nests  while  howling  to  the  honest  rank  and  file  to  keep  clean 
labor  politics  out  of  union  affairs,  but  on  account  of  a  wider  spread  of  in- 
teDigence  and  a  desire  to  enjoy  more  of  the  comforts  of  life.  The  sober- 
minded  workers  observe  this  great  city  increadng  in  population  at  a  tre- 
mendous rate,  and  their  own  quarters  are  becoming  more  cramped  every 
month.  Thousands  of  foreign  laborers  are  pouring  through  Ellis  Island 
each  week  and  many  more  are  coming  in  from  surrounding  cities  and  towns, 
many  of  whom  are  attracted  by  stories  of  high  wages  and  boundless  oppor- 
tunities to  make  fortunes.  Naturally  rents  are  steadily  going  upward,  as 
wen  as  prices  of  food  products,  and  those  who  are  luclrr  enough  to  receive 
$2.50  to  $4  per  day  find  that  there  is  nothing  left  in  their  pc^etbooks  at 
the  end  of  Ihe  month,  although  they  may  have  exercised  the  greatest  care 
in  expending  their  wages.  The  highest  paid  workers  usually  live  in  apart- 
ments of  six  to  eight  rooms,  for  which  they  pay  $18  to  $40  per  month.  Then 
they  must  add  car  fare,  insurance,  union  dues  and  other  necessary  expenses. 
Clothing  is  high  and  food  products  can  almost  be  seen  advancing  in  price, 
especially  where  they  must  be  purchased  at  retail  and  in  dribleto.  Such  a 
tMng  as  a  worker  owning  his  home  here  and  stocking  his  cellar  with  potatoes, 
vegetables,  meats,  etc,  is  not  even  to  be  dreamed  of.  About  6  per  cent 
of  the  capitalists  of  the  city  own  the  whole  of  Manhattan  Island,  and  they 
can  tax  the  balance  of  the  people  almost  what  they  choose.  The  labor- 
ing class  leads  a  hand  to  mouth  existence  and  the  wolf  of  hunger  and  poverty 
is  always  at  the  door.  As  these  facts  dawn  upon  the  intellects  of  the  work- 
ers who  are  capable  of  thinking  they  begin  to  wonder  what  all  their  shout- 
ing for  Tammany  and  Piatt  has  amounted  to,  and  when  they  contrast 


182  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIBW 

their  own  conditionB  with  those  of  the  political  boodleni  whom  ther  haye 
supported  their  disgust  tends  to  lead  them  into  new  channels  of  thought 
and  action.  Hence,  the  near  future  belongs  to  Socialism  in  New  York,  and 
it  is  a  reasonable  prediction  to  maJce  that  the  Socialists  of  the  metropolis 
will  elect  city  councilmen  and  members  of  the  State  Legislature  inside  of 
two  years.  The  old  party  politicians  are  keeping  an  anxious  eye  upon  the 
growing  new  party,  and  not  the  least  important  work  of  the  Socialists  from 
now  on  will  be  to  successfully  meet  the  schemes  and  methods  of  the  wire- 
pullers and  machine-builders  who  have  been  in  control  of  goTemmental 
affairs  so  long  and  used  that  power  to  create  an  arrogant,  pbitoeratie  privi- 
leged dass  on  one  side  and  to  hold  an  army  of  wage-slaves  in  subjeetion  on 
the  other. 


NoTB. — Comrade  Hayes  has  agreed  to  write  regularly  for  the  Beview 
while  on  his  trip  to  Europe  as  fraternal  delegate  from  the  American  Federa^ 
tion  of  Labor  to  the  English  Trade  Union  Congress. — ^EnrroB. 


SOCIALISM  ABROAD 


Bulgaria* 

The  Ninth  National  Congress  of  the  BiUgarian  Socialists  showed  a  steady 
growth  of  Sodalism  in  that  country.  The  membership  has  grown  from 
2,180  in  1902  to  2,507  due-paying  members  in  serenly-three  organizations  in 
1903.  An  interesting  phase  of  the  report  is  the  one  relating  to  the  education 
of  the  party  membership.  This  shows  that  110  had  receiyed  unirenity  in* 
struetion,  545  intermediate  school  training,  1,785  had  passed  the  primary 
grade,  while  only  seventeen  were  wholly  without  scholastic  training. 

The  party  received  13,815  votes  at  the  legislative  elections  of  1900; 
13,283  in  1901,  and  20,307  in  1902,  when  seven  Socialist  deputies  were 
elected. 

The  party  has  organized  popular  schools  for  adults  in  many  cities  and 
villages.  Dnxinff  the  past  year  these  have  been  attended  by  410  regular 
students,  of  which  29  were  women  and  196  were  members  of  the  par^. 
The  income  of  our  party  during  the  past  year  was  over  $1,500.  Over  30,- 
000  copies  of  an  annual  ^'almanach''  were  circulated  during  the  same 
period.       | 

The  omnipresent  question  of  ''opportunism"  occupied  a  large  portion 
of  the  time  of  the  convention.  One  faction  of  the  party,  led  l^  Si^zoif, 
denied  the  ezistence  of  the  class  struggle  and  were  calling  for  a  union  of 
all  classes  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing  some  immediate  reforms.  This 
faction,  like  Bernstein  at  Lubeck  and  Millerand  at  Bordeaux,  sought  to 
avoid  ctiscussion  by  the  Ck>ngress  and  declared  that  no  "questions  of  princi- 
ple" were  involved,  but  only  "personal  quarrels  between  leaders."  Never- 
theless the  Congress  took  up  the  subject.  Towards  the  end  of  the  debate 
three  tendencies  appeared.  One^  led  by  Markovsky,  demanded  that  the 
I>ar^  take  the  most  radical  steps  to  dear  itself  of  all  suspidon  of^  oppor- 
tunism. The  second  wished  the  Congress  committed  to  the  opportunist  po- 
sition. The  third  wished  simply  to  place  the  party  on  record  as  opposed  to 
opportunism,  while  leaving  the  individual  members  free  to  act  as  they  wished. 
The  last  tendency  prevailed  and  a  resolution  was  adopted  which  denounced 
opportunism  and  reafSrmed  the  proletarian  character  of  the  party. 

Hungary. 

The  Natioual  Conffress  of  Hungarian  Socialists,  which  has  recentiy  been 
hddy  contained  274  ddegates.  repreeentinff  165  communes.  The  Servian  and 
Bonmanian  nationalities,  which  were  wholly  unrepresented  at  previous  con- 
gresses, sent  a  number  of  ddegates  to  this  la^t  gathering.  Another  inter- 
esting feature  was  the  large  representation  from  the  agricultural  districts. 

Inuring  the  past  year  the  party  has  been  carrying  on  an  active  campaign 
for  universal  suffrage,  and  a  petition  to  this  end  received  more  than  170,- 

183 


l: 


184  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIAIilST  BEVIBW 

000  signatures.  Great  aetiTity  in  propaganda  work  has  been  displayed.. 
Pablio  meetings  with  immense  audiences,  reaching  at  times. to  between  15,- 
000  and  20,000  persons,  have  been  hdd.  The  press  has  grown  until  there 
are  nine  Socialist  periodicals.  Several  of  the  prox>aganda  pamphlets  in  the 
Hungarian  language  reached  a  circulation  of  between  10,000  and  25,000 
copies,  whUe  some  of  those  in  the  Servian  language  reached  over  6,000  circu- 
lation, which  is  much  more  than  is  usually  attained  hj  the  bourgeois 
pamphlets  in  that  language.  ; 

■  The  Arheiter  Zeitung,  of  Vienna,  tells  of  a  celebration  bj  the  Hungarian 
Socialists  of  the  enactment  oi  a  law  of  which  they  had  secured  the  passage 
abolishing  all  Sunday  labor  in  all  mercantile  pursuits  in  Budapest,  and 
providing  that  mercantile  establishments  in  the  other  portions  of  Hungary 
could  only  be  open  after  10  A.  M.  This  is  the  result  of  a  three  years'  asi- 
tation,  in  which  130,000  leaflets  were  circulated,  a  large  number  of  pubHe 
meetings  held  and  many  of  the  Socialists  suffered  imprisonment  for  taking 
part  in  the  movement 

The  Neues  Pester  Journal  gives  another  view  of  the  Socialist  activity  in 
Hungary  in  a  news  item  descnbin?  a  Socialist  meeting,  at  which  over  ten 
thousand  persons  were  present,  which  was  held  on  the  21st  of  June.  The 
account  has  the  following  suggestive  conclusion:  "The  meeting,  which 
had  continued  for  over  two  hours,  concluded.  The  Socialists  disponed  with 
absolute  order  and  the  police  found  no  reason  to  interfere.*' 


Qermany. 

The  more  the  election  statistics  are  studied  the  more  reasons  the  Social- 
ists find  for  gratification,  and  the  other  parties  for  dismay  and  anger.  The 
Beiohs-Aneeiger  has  just  discovered  that  not  only  did  tiie  SodaBsts  gain 
from  nearly  all  the  other  parties,  but  it  succeeded  in  doing  what  has  been 
for  several  years  considered  impossible — rousing  the  great  non-voting  mass 
to  take  an  interest  in  political  affairs.  This  paper  publishes  the  fofiowing 
table^  showing  the  increasing  percentage  of  the  whole  voting  population 
which  is  supporting  the  Socialists: 

Per  cent  Per  cent 

Tear.  qualified  voters,    actual  voters. 

1874 4.0  6.7 

1877....; 5.5  9.1 

1878 4.8  7JS 

1881 8.4  6.1 

1884 5.9  9.7 

1887 7.8  10.1 

1890 18.9  19.6 

1893 16.8  23.2 

1898 18.4  27JI 

1903 24.1  81.7 

Vorwaerts  has  recently  secured  and  published  a  secret  circular  Issued 
by  an  organization  formed  to  abolish  universal  suffrage,  which  gives  an 
interesting  picture  of  the  panic  which  the  approach  of  Socialist  victory  is 
produdnff  among  the  capitalists  of  Germany.  A  letter  which  accompanies 
the  cireuar  (the  first  edition  of  which  is  said  to  have  been  1,000,000 
copies)  calls  upon  the  capitalists  of  Germany  to  raise  a  fund  for  the  pur- 
pose of  fighting  equal  suffrage.  This  letter  has  as  its  opening  sentence  a 
quotation  from  Joubert  to  the  effect  that  "Politics  is  tiie  art  of  leading 
the  masses,  not  whither  they  would,  but  where  they  should  go."  The  eireu* 
lar  proposes  a  sort  of  graduated  suffrage  modeled  on  the  Belgian  pUuL  giv- 
ing additional  votes  to  employers  of  labor  and  graduates  of  universities. 


SOCIALISM  ABEOAD.  185 

The  emperor  has  given  utterance  to  the  rery  Delphic  obeenration  th&t 
"The  Social  Demoerai^  is  a  phenomenon  whose  development  must  be 
awaited;  it  is  not  necessary  at  this  time  to  deal  with  it.''  Just  what  this 
means  every  one  is  at  liberty  to  imagine  for  himself. 

The  articles  in  the  capitalist  papers  are  about  equaUy  divided  between 
those  declaring  that  the  Social  Democracy  has  changed  its  character,  and 
is  now  nothing  but  a  liberal  party  that  will  soon  die,  and  thoie  deelaring 
that  the  Sodu  Democnu^  is  about  to  precipitate  a  violent  revolution  and 
propoaes  to  overturn  every  social  institution.  Sometimes  both  kinds  of  arti* 
cles  appear  in  the  same  paper,  and  it  is  hard  to  teU  which  is  the  most 
amusing. 

These  same  papers  are  amusinff  themselves  in  debating  with  great 
gravity  the  question  which  Edouard  Bernstein  raised  as  to  whether  the 
Socialists  should  accept  the  position  of  second  vice-president  of  the  Beichs- 
tag.  The  Freisinnig^  Zeiiung  declares  that  under  no  condition  would  the 
majority  permit  Singer  to  take  this  place.  Indeed,  this  seems  to  be  the 
general  position.  One  cannot  but  feel  that  this  is  a  high  tribute  to  Com- 
rade Singer,  (hi  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  something  to  cause  Bern- 
stein to  blush  that  all  agree  that  he  would  be  especially  acceptable  to  the 
capitalist  class  of  Germany. 

Italy« 

The  divergent  tendencies  within  the  Socialist  Party  have  at  last  led  to 
open  division.  Led  by  Turati,  the  Socialist  Federation  of  Milan  has  left 
the  party.  ,The  VorwaerU  correspondent  declares 'that  the  dif^ute  seems 
to  be  largely  personal,  although  the  seceders  represent  the  opportunist  wing. 
The  branch  of  the  party  located  in  Bome  has  demanded  the  expulsion  of 
Turati  and  his  followers  from  the  party,  as  there  was  some  doubt  as  to 
whether  the  withdrawal  of  the  organization  from  a£91iation  with  the  cen- 
tral authority  really  placed  its  members  outside  the  party.  In  order  to 
arouse  as  little  antagonism  as  possible  Enrico  Ferri,  the  editor  of  Avanti, 
has  declared  hip  intention  to  keep  the  controversy  out  of  that  paper,  except 
through  the  publication  of  such  news  items  regarding  it  as  may  be  rendered 
necessary. 


The  Place  of  Industries  in  Elementary  Education.  Katherine  Elizabeth 
Dopp.    The  University  of  Chicago  Press.    Cloth.  .  208  pp.    $1.25. 

j  Socialists  have  frequently  pointed  out  that  the  most  modem  pedagogy  is 
simply  adapting  the  philosophy  of  Socialism  (generally  unconsciously  so 
far  as  the  vniters  in  this  field  are  concerned)  to  education.  This  book  is 
an  excellent  illustration  of  this  fact.  With  a  few  tmimportant  eaEceptions 
it  is  simply  an  exposition  and  application  of  well-known  principles  of  Social- 
ist philosophy.  The  principle  of  economic  determinism  constitutes  the 
whole  foundation  of  the  work^  and  is  thus  stated  in  the  introduction:  ''From 
the  remotest  to  the  most  recent  times,  in  the  simplest  as  well  as  in  the  most 
highly  organized  societies,  industry  has  been  a  dominant  force  in  the  up- 
bidldlng  and  maintaining  of  social  structures."  The  outline  and  object 
is  stated  to  be  ''  an  attempt  to  bring  together  from  the  domain  of  education 
on  the  one  hand,  and  of  anthropology,  sociology  and  history  on  the  other, 
ideas  that  will  mutually  reinforce  each  other.  ...  In  order  to  secure  a 
basis  for  th^  work  it  has  seemed  best  to  consider,  on  the  one  hana,  the  sev- 
eral stages  of  industrial  development  in  the  race  with  reference  to  the  edu- 
cational significance  of  each,  and,  on  the  other,  the  successive  periods  in 
the  development  of  the  child.  In  the  consideration  of  an  industrial  epoch 
an  attempt  is  made  to  discover  (1)  some  of  the  more  important  interactions 
that  take  place  between  nuw  and  his  natural  and  social  environments;  (2) 
how  these  result  in  different  forms  of  industry,  and  (3)  how  forms  of  in- 
dustry  influence  the  sodal  organization  of  people  and  the  devdopment  of 
the  sciences  and  arts.  The  attempt  is  also  made  to  show  that  there  is  more 
than  an  accidental  relation  between  the  technique  represented  in  the  tool 
and  the  intellectual,  moral  and  social  condition  of  the  people."  The  second 
chaptw  consists  of  a  survey  of  industrial  epochs,  largely  foimded  on  Carl 
Bficher's  "Industrial  Evolution."  The  third,  on  <<  The  Origins  of  the  Atti- 
tudes that  Underlie  Industry,"  is  an  examination  of  the  psychical  effects  of 
these  stages  as  seen  in  the  mental  QUikeup  of  the  present  chUd.  Each  stage 
through  which  the  race  has  passed  has  left  its  impress  upon  mankind  in  ti^e 
form  of  inherited  mental  traits  and  attitudes.  In  obedience  to  the  well- 
known  law  that  the  individual  in  his  growth  reproduces  the  history  of  the 
race  from  which  he  sprang,  or,  to  express  it  in  technical  terms,  that  onto- 
genetic and  philogenetie  development  are  parallel,  it  f oUows  that  the  edu- 
cation of  the  child  should  be  adapted  to  tne  various  social  stages  through 
which,  so  to  speak,  the  child  is  passing  in  his  development.  The  fourth 
chapter  deals  with  "Practical  Applications"  of  these  principles,  and,  al- 
though of  greatest  value  to  the  teacher,  need  not  concern  us  here. 

While  almost  the  entire  attitude  of  the  book  is  Socialistic,  yet  the  author 
seems  to  be  whoUy  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  she  is  covering  ground  that 
has  often  been  treated  before,  and  it  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that  there 
are  no  references  to  the  work  of  Socialist  writers  on  the  subjects  treated. 
As  usual  also,  the  most  important  phase  of  her  subject,  and  one  which  would 

186 


BOOK  BEVIEWS.  187 

modify  many  of  her  positions;  is  untouched.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
eiass  struggle.  She  does  not  see  that  this  constitutes  an  insurmountable 
obstacle  to  adoption  of  the  methods  of  education  which  she  advocates.  It 
is  Mife  to  say  that  were  the  schools  of  any  city  to  adopt  the  principles 
here  laid  down  capitalism  in  that  locality  would  soon  he  doomed.  Just 
imagine  a  capitalist-controlled  school  system  basing  its  whole  method  of  in- 
struction on  the  materialistic  interpretation  of  history,  where  slavery  was 
treated  from  the  point  of  view  giveii  in  the  following  quotations  from  this 
work: 

<<The  advantages  of  agriculture  as  a  means  of  furnishing  an  abundant 
supply  of  food  from  a  smiall  area  soon  became  apparent.  Man's  labor  ac- 
quired a  value  hitherto  unknown.  Captives  in  war  were  now  too  valuable  to 
put  to  death.  They  were  enslaved  and  compelled  to  carry  on  agriculture 
under  the  supervision  of  their  conquerors. 

•  •  •  ••  •  •  » 

''In  the  early  stages  of  slavery  there  was  little  difference  between  the 
position  of  master  and  slave.  Both  did  the  same  kind  of  work.  With  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  slaves  and  in  the  property  of  the  master  it  became 
necessary  to  organize  the  slave  labor  in  gangs  with  overseers.  Labor  thus 
became  compulsosy,  and  disgrace  was  attached  to  the  unfortunate  members 
of  society  who  became  the  victims  of  a  stronger  power.  Society  was  cleft 
in  twain,  and  the  chasm  has  not  yet  been  completely  bridged.  From. this 
time  labor  became  distasteful  to  the  leisure  class,  not  so  much  on  its  own 
account,  as  because  of  its  association  with  an  inferior  class  and  with  do- 
mesticated animals.  ...  It  became  irksome  to  the  slave  because  the 
problem  was  external  to  his  own  interests  and  needs.  He  was  no  longer 
free  to  choose  his  problems  or  to  control  the  conditions  under  which  he 
carried  on  his  work.  .  .  .  Succeeding  stages  of  culture  have  tended  to 
perpetuate  the  distinctions  between  the  leisure  and  the  industrial  classes 
first  drawn  in  the  pastoral  and  agricultural  stages.  Labor,  which  at  first 
was  a  free  manifestation  of  the  whole  beins  and  the  part  of  each  member 
of  society,  came  to  be  a  forced  expression  of  muscular  movement  of  certain 
members  of  society.  ' 

•  *•••••• 

''Industry,  enriched  by  the  contributions  of  science,  becomes  more  and 
more  complex.  The  end  becomes  farther  and  farther  removed.  The  worker, 
no  longer  able  to  perceive  the  whole  process  of  production,  has  need  of  a 
greater  consciousness  of  collective  life  than  ever  before.  His  activity  is  no 
longer  a  personal  occupation  that  brings  him  honor  as  in  the  period  of  house- 
industry,  nor  a  civic  function,  the  actions  and  interactions  of  which  are 
within  the  range  of  his  perception,  as  in  the  period  of  handicraft  labor,  but 
a  social  function  in  a  national  if  not  a  cosmopolitan  society. 

"The  industrial  development  that  has  advanced  from  being  a  function 
of  the  household  to  that  of  the  city,  and  finally  to  that  of  the  nation  and 
nations  of  the  earth,  needs  to  be  paralleled  by  an  enlargement  of  sodial  con- 
sciousness from  the  personal,  through  the  municipal,  to  such  a  conscious- 
ness as  recognizes  the  brotherhood  of  all  men."  / 

Just  how  she  expects  this  to  be  done  it  is  necessary  to  say  the  author 
does  not  state.  This  defect  in  the  line  of  thought  the  Socialist  supplies. 
Bemembering  this  fact,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  book  is  really  a 
eootribution  to  So^cialist  as  well  as  educational  literature.^  It  is  one 
which  every  Socialist  who  is  interested  in  education,  and  all  Socialists  should 
be  so  interested,  should  read.  Those  who  are  engaged  in  municipal  work 
especially  i^ould  make  themselves  familiar  with  its  contents,  for  in  few 
fidds  can  Socialists  accomplish  more  when  elected  to  municipal  offices  than 
in  the  field  of  education. 


PUBLISHERS'  DEPARTMENT 


HOW  WE  PUBLISH  SOCIALIST  BOOKS  .iTi 


The  last  four  pages  of  the  August 
number  of  the  International  Socialist 
Beview  contain  a  condensed  alphabeti- 
cal list  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  books, 
most  of  which  have  been  published  with- 
in the  last  four  years  by  the  co-operative 
Snblishing  house  of  Charles  H.  Kerr 
I  Gompanv.  Averaging  the  small  books 
with  the  large  ones,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  this  list  represents  an  investment 
of  about  $100  for  each  title,  or  about 
$15,000.00. 

All  this  has  been  done  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  when  in  the  spring  of 
1899  we  began  the  publication  of  the 
literature  of  scientific  socialism,  we  were 
without  cash  capital  (as  we  are  still) 
and  were  carrying  a  heavy  load  of  debt. 
Meanwhile  no  one  has  made  any  large 
subscription  of  capital,  and  while  we 
have  sold  great  quantities  of  socialist 
literature,  it  has  been  at  prices  barelv 
covering  the  cost  of  printing  and  hand- 
ling, and  yet  we  have  doubled  several 
times  over  the  supply  of  socialist  litera- 
ture available  for  propaganda  in  Amer- 
ica.   How  has  it  been  donef 

The  answer  is  in  the  fact  that  our 
co-operative  plan  for  supplying  books 
to  stockholders  at  cost  has  been  en- 
thusiasticiJly  accepted  by  the  socialist 
party  of  ibnerica,  not  by  any  of&cial 
vot&  which  would  be  unnecessary  and 
unaavisable,  but  by  the  separate  action 
of  about  one  hundred  socialist  locals  and 
six  hundred  individual  socialists,  who 
have  each  subscribed  ten  dollars  to  the 
capital  stock  of  our  company,  for  the 
double  purpose  of  aiding  us  to  circulate 
the  literature  of  international  socialism, 
and  of  securing  their  own  supplies  of 
this  literature  at  cost. 

We  can  not  publish  a  list  of  these 
stockholders,  for  the  reason  that  many 
of  them  are  so  situated  that  th^  might 
lose  their  jobs  or  otherwise  suffer  in- 
jury if  their  connection  with  the  Social- 


ist Party  became  public  We  therefore 
publish  merely  the  places  where  the 
stockholders  are  located.  Boldface  in- 
dicates that  the  local  of  the  town  thus 
distinguished  is  itself   a  stockholder. 

LOCATION  OP  STOCKHOUDBEIS. 

ALABAMA  —  Branchville,  Falrhope, 
Phenlx. 

ALASKA— Valdez. 

ARIZONA — Blsbee,  Chloride.  Flagstaff, 
Hillside,  Jerome  (two),  Phoenix,  Saf- 
ford,  Tucson. 

ARKANSAS— Hot  Springs,  Little  Rock. 

CALIFORNIA — Alameda,  Benlcla,  Ber- 
keley, CedarviUe,  Clarksburg,  Colusa, 
Crockett,  Dixon,  Dos  Falos,  Dunsmuir, 
EJureka,  Glen  BUen.  Goleta,  Grass 
Valley,  Hayden  Hill,  Haywards,  Healds- 
burg,  Hemet,  Lemoore,  Los  Angeles 
(eight),  Morgan  Hill.  Oakland  (two), 
Oxnard,  Petaluma,  Red  Bluff.  Redlands, 
Redondo,  Rio  Vista,  Riverside  (two), 
Sacramento,  San  Bernardino,  San  Diego, 
(three),  San  Francisco  (four),  San 
Jose,  San  Marcos,  Santa  Ana,  Santa 
Barbara,  Qespe,  Sawtelle,  South  Berke- 
ley, Tulare,  Vallejo.  Westminster. 

COLORADO — Buena  Vista,  Colorado  City, 
Conrad,  Cripple  Creek,  Denver  (eight), 
Gunnison,  LeadvilLe  (two),  Newcajstle, 
Ordway,  Sterling,  Telluride. 

CONNBSCTICrUT  —  Berlin,  Bridgeport 

(two),  Gildersleeve,  Hartford,  New 
Haven  (two),  Reynolds  Bridge,  Water- 
bury. 

DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA— Georgetown, 
Washington  (six). 

FLORIDA— Gilmore,  Key  West,  Kissim- 
mee,  Miami,  Milton,  Pensacola,  St. 
Augustine  (two),  Tampa  (two).  West 
Palm  Beach. 

GEORGIA — ^Fitzgerald,  Macon,  Ruskin. 

IDAHO — ^Boise,  Burke,  Garnet,  Mullan, 
Moscow,  Noble,  Pocatello,  Wallace. 

ILLINOIS — Canton,  CaseyviUe,  Chicago, 
(forty-five),  Chicago  Heights,  Dwight. 
Elgin,  Bvanston,  Galesburg,  Qlen  Car- 
bon, Glen  Ellyn  (two),  Grossdale,  Bllo- 
golis,  Jacksonville,  Kankakee,  Kelths- 
urg.  Lake  Forest,  Leclalr,  McNabb. 
Melrose  Park  (two).  Middle  Grove,  Oak 
Park,  Pana,  Peotone,  Quincy,  Rock- 
ford,  Secor,  Steger,  Streator,  Wlnnetka, 
Woodbum. 

INDIANA — ^Anderson.  Andrews,  BoonviUe, 
Brazil.    Butler,     Bvansville,   Greenfield, 


188 


PUBLISHERS'   DEPARTMENT 


189 


Greensbur?,  Greensfork,  Huntington, 
Indianapolis  (two).  Marlon  (two),  Peru, 
South  Bond,  Whiting. 

INDIAN  TERRITORY— Krebs. 

IOWA— Ames,  Avery.  Cedar  Rapids  (two). 
Clartnda,  Davenport  (three),  Decorah, 
Des  Molnea  (two),  Dubuque.  Indepen- 
dence, Lenox,  Little  Rock,  l.ogan^ 
Lyons,  Muscatine,  Ryan,  St.  Ansgar, 
Shelby,  SIgoumey,  Sioux  City,  Van 
Home  (two). 

KANSAS— Abilene,  Belolt,  CHay  Center. 
Darlow,  Enon,  Fuller.  Galena,  Geuda 
Springs,  Glrard,  Herington.  Hillsboro. 
Kansas  City  (three).  La  Cygne.  Lyons, 
Mulberry,  Oketo,  Osage  City,  Rosedale, 
Tppeka. 

KENTUCICY— Augusta,  Covington.  Louls- 
▼flle  (four),  Newport,  Science  Hill, 
Spottsville. 

LOUISIANA— New  Orleana. 

MAINE— Bath,  Intervale,  Lewlston^  Port- 
land. 

MARYLAND— Baltimore  (two). 

MASSACHUSETTS— Boston  (five).  Brigh- 
ton, Chelsea,  Clinton.  Dorchester  (two). 
East  Boston,  Everett,  Fall  River,  Haver- 
hill, Lawrence,  Lynn  (two).  Newton 
(two),  Northboro^  Plymouth.  Springfield 
(two),  State  Farm;  Taunton,  Vineyard 
Haven,  Ware,  West  Fitchburg.  West 
Newbury.  Worcester. 

MICHIGAN— Adrian.  AUegan,  Battle 
Creek  (three),  Benton  Harbor  (two). 
Detroit  (two),  Eaton.  Rapids.  Flint, 
Ithaca,  Kalamazoo  (two).  Laurium. 
Grand  Ledge.  Grand  Rapids,  Holly, 
Ludington.  Manistee.  Saginaw,  St. 
Charles.  St  Clair,  YpsUanti. 

MINNESOTA — ^Ada,  Austin,  Crookston, 
Fergus  Falls,  Holdingford.  Hubbard, 
Lindstrom,  Minneapolis  (five).  Monte- 
video, Noble  (Local  Angus),  St.  An- 
thony Park,  St.  Paul  (two),  Tracy. 
Two  Harbors,  Ullman,  WlUmar,  Zum- 
brota. 

MISSISSIPPI— Jackson. 

MISSOURI — Bevler,  Kansas  CMty  (three). 
New  Madrid,  Paris.  Pleasant  Hill.  St. 
Joseph,  St.  Louis  (nine).  West  Plains. 

MONTANA— Aldrldge.  Anaconda.  Bill- 
ings, Bozeman,  Butte  (six),  Chico,  Fort 
Logan.  Great  Palls,  Helena,  Lewiston. 
Livingston.  Monarch.  Pony. 

NEBRASKA— Blair.  Columbus.  Fairfield. 
Grand  Island,  Leavitt.  Lincoln.  Omaha 
(two),  Simeon.  South  Omaha.  Thureton. 

NEW  HAMPSHIRB— Chesham,  Concord, 
Contoocook.  Dover,  Manchester  (two). 

NEW  JERSEY — Arlington  (three).  East 
Orange,  Camden,  .Moorestown.  Newark, 
Paterson.  Trenton,  Woodbine. 

NEW   MifiXiCO— Albuquerque,  Roswell. 

NEW  YORK — ^Albany.  Arkport,  Auburn, 
Bloomingbuixh,  Brooklyn  (three),  Buf- 
falo. Catsklll,  Cold  Spring.  Kenwood. 
Mount  Vernon.  New  Rochelle,  New 
York  (twenty-six).  Northport,  Peekskill, 
Port  Jervls.  Port  Richmond.  Rhine- 
beck,  Richfield  Springs.  Rochester 
(three).  8chenectady,  Yonkers. 

NORTH  CAROLINA— Asheville,  CTherry- 
\      ville. 

NORTH  DAKOTA— ChalTee,  Devil's  Lake, 
L  FarsTO  (two).  Guelph,  Mayville,  Milton, 
■    Tagus.  Valley  City.  I 


OHIO— Ashtabula,   Burton   City,    Canton, 
Cincinnati    (four),      Cleveland      (four), 
Conneaut,   Coming,    Crestline,    Dayton, 
Fostoria,     Hamilton,     Latty,     Martin's 
Ferry,  Masslllon,  M^smard,  Mechanlcs- 
burg,     Sandusky,     Springfield,     Toledo 
(five),  Youngstown,  Zanesvllla. 
OKLAHOMA— Bedford,  Carmen,     Cereal. 
Geary,  Quthrle  (two).  Kingfisher,  Lacey. 
Medford  (two),  Nardin,  Oklahoma  City, 
Shawnee. 
OREGON— Albany,     Baker     City,     Echo, 
Eugene,    Medford,    Oregon   City.    Port- 
land (three).  Shaw.  Vale,  Vemonla. 
PENNSYLVANIA— AUegheny   (two),   Al- 
lentown,     Braddock.   Brownsville,   East 
Pittsburg,      Erie      (two),     Hughesville, 
Leechburg.  Lehlghton,  Newcastle  (two), 
Philadelphia    (eight),    Pittsbura    (four), 
Reading  (two). Renfrew.  Rodl,  Rowenna, 
Russell.  Springchurch,  Titusville.  Wilkes 
Barre,  York. 
JIHODE  ISLAND-Provldence  (two). 
SOUTH  DAKOTA— Aberdeen.  8loux  Falls. 
TENNESSEE— Knoxville     (three),  Nash- 
ville   (two),    Et  Elmo  (Local  Chatta- 
nooga). 
TEXAS — ^Bonham,    Dallas,    Fort    Worth, 
(Gonzales.  Houston,  Palestine.  San  An- 
tonio, Toyah,  TumersvUle. 
UTAH— Logan,  Murray.  Ogden.  Park  City, 

Plateau,   Salt  Lake  City,   Sunshine. 
VERMONT— Burlington. 
VIRGINIA— Newport  News.  Richmond. 
WASHINGTON    —    Arlington,      Ballard, 
Bremerton.   Centralia.   Charleston,  Edi- 
son,     Fairhaven,      Hoqulam,     Lynden, 
^    Olympia,  Port  Angeles,  Puyallup, .  Red- 
JQ    raond,  Ritzville.  Seattle  (three).  Silvana, 
«■    Snoqualmle.   Spokane  (three) »  Sprague. 
W    Stanwood.   Tacoma,  WatervUle.   Yelm. 
WEST  VIRGINIA— Dallison,     McMechen. 

Pennsboro. 
WISCONSIN— Deer  Park,  EIroy,  Madison 
(two),    Marinette.      Milwaukee    (four). 
Two      Rivers,      Wausau,      Whitewater 
(two). 
WYOMIN(3 — Cheyenne,    Laramie      (two), 

Rock  Springs.  Sheridan,   Lusk. 
BRITISH  COLUMBIA— Nanaimo.  Phoenix 
Revelstoke,   Slocan    (two),     Vancouver. 
Victoria. 
MANITOBA— Winnipeg  (two). 
^  ONTARIO—ApplehiU.     Collingwood.  Dub- 
'Mk    lin.  Malton,  Mlndemoya,  Simcoe,  Kaga- 
W    wong. 

CUBA — La  Gloria  (two). 
i  ENGLAND—Salford. 
9  NEWFOUNDLAND— St  Johns. 
J  SCOTLAND— Paisley. 

V  DECrBASBD  OR  ADDRESS  UNKNOWN. 
4|    sixteen. 

Special  Prices  on  Lilerelure  to 
StocRholdere 

International  Socialist  Review. — Single 
^copies,   5c  each,   renewal  of  stockhold- 
er's own  snbscription,  60c,  renewals  for- 
>  warded  for  others,  90c.       Subscription 
post  cards,  each   good  for  the  B&view 
one  year  to     a  new  name,  will  be  sold 
to  stockholders  at  25c  each  until  Dec 
.31,  1903,  after  which  they  will  be  50o 
[each.    These    cards   are   not    good   for 


'*F 


190 


INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 


Chicago  or  foreign  Bubscriptions  with- 
out the  paymeiit  of  20c  additional  for 
postage. 

Madden  libraij. — One  cent  a  copy, 
50c  a  hundred  by  mail;  $4.00  a  thou- 
sand by  express  at  purchaser's  ex- 
pense. 

Pocket  library  of  Socialism,  2  cents  a 
copy  on  all  orders  for  less  than  a  hun- 
dred; $1.00  a  hundred  by  mail;  $8.00  a 
thousand  by  express  at  purchaser's  ex- 


All  other  paper  covered  books  pub- 
lished by  us. — ^Fif  ty  per  cent  discount  if 
we  prepay  postage  or  expressage;  sixty 
per  cent  discount  if  purchaser  pays  ex- 
pressage. For  exampley  a  ten  cent  book 
is  '6c  if  prepaid  by  us,  otherwise  4c;  a 
twenty-five  cent  book  12%c  if  prepaid 
by  us,  otherwise  10c;  etc 

Cloth  bound  books. — Forty  per  cent 
discount  if  sent  by  mail  or  express  at 
our  expense;  fifty  per  cent  discount  if 
jBent  by  express  at  the  expense  of  pur- 
chaser. 

These  discounts « apply  only  to  books 

Eublished  or  importea  by  ourselves,  and 
icluded  in  our  catalogue.  We  do  not 
solicit  orders  for  books  of  other  pub- 
lishers, though  as  a  matter  of  accom- 
modation we  endeavor  to  obtain  them 
for  our  stockholders  when  the  full  ad- 
vertised price  is  sent  with  order.  All 
book  orders  should  be  accompanied  by 
cash,  except  that  when  stockholders  pre- 
fer, th^  may  make  a  deposit  with  us 
and  order  books  against  It  from  time 
to  time,  thus  saving  the  trpuble  and 
expense  of  obtaining  many  small  postal 
orders. 

A  Dollar  a  Month  Pays  for  dtock 

W^^ere  possible,  it  is  of  course  less 
trouble  on  both  sides  to  pay  the  full 
ten  dollars  for  stock  at  tiie  time  of  sub- 
scribing. But  our  offer  of  books  at  eost 
to  stockholders  is  made  for  the  tatefit 
of  just  the  ones  who  are  not  likely  to 
have  ten  dollars  to  spar»  Hf  one  time, 
and  we  have  therefore  JifreToped  a  sys- 
tem hr  which  we  tM  receive  a  stock 
subscription  if  a«Mttpanied  by  one  dol- 
lar, the  rest  of  the  money  to  be  paid 
in  nine  nidtftldy  installments  of  one 
dollar  ea^  A  subscriber  who  has  paid 
his  fint'  dollar  will  be  entitled  to  all 
privlfagW  of  a  stockholder  except  vot- 
iikgf  p^yvided  he  keeps  up  his  payments 
at  the  end  of  each  month  as  agreed. 

No  dividends  are  guaranteed,  and 
while  the  question  of  declaring  dividends 


in  future  will  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
stockholders  to  decide,  it  is  not  likely 
that  any  will  be  declared,  since  the 
amount  coming  to  each  stockholder  would 
in  any  case  be  trifling,  and  it  will  prob- 
ably be  thought  preferable  to  use  the 
earnings  of  the  company  to  increase 
the  variety^  and  reduce  the  prices  of 
socialist  literature,  after  the  debt  is 
paid  oif. 

Four  years  ago,  the  company  was 
heavily  indebted  to  printers,  binders  and 
paper  dealers,  and  its  notas,  discounted 
by  these  creditors  in  Chicago  banks, 
and  maturing  at  f reauent  intemls.  were 
a  constant  source  of  anxietr,  while  the 
rate  of  interest  paid  was  high.  Today, 
little  debt  remains  except  niat  to  our 
own  stoddiolders,  and  most  of  it  is  at 
five  per  cent  interest,  while  the  few 
loans  at  a  higher  rate  can  be  taken  up 
as  soon  as  the  capital  is  available. 

The  present  capitalization  of  the 
company  is  limited  to  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars. We  shall  soon,  however,  ask  our 
stockholders  to  vote  on  a  proposition  for 
increasing  it  to  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars.  ThiB  will  enable  us  to  extend 
the  privileges  of  stockholders  to  fifteen 
hundred  more  socialist  locals  and  indi- 
viduals, and  we  shall  offer  the  stock  only 
in  single  shares. 

This  co-operative  publishing  company 
with  its  seven  hundred  stocluiolders  al- 
ready comes  far  nearer  to  being  under 
the  control  of  the  Socialist  Party  of 
America  than  any  other  publishing  house, 
and  the  new  issue  of  stock  win  be  offered 
only  to  socialists,  and  only  one  ■&■■«  tm 
each.  Special  ^orta  wV  be  made  to 
secure  subecriptloar  fi'om  the  locals  of 
the  Socialist  Arty,  since  thus  the  profit 
on  boelir  Sbid  by  the  company  at  cost 
KoM  1^  the  stockholder  at  retail  will  go 
dbrectly  to  the  benefit  of  the  party,  and 
every  party  member  will  have  an  added 
motive  for  pushing  the  sale  of  literature. 

The  wide  distribution  of  the  stock  over 
the  whole  country  will  ensure  against  the 
control  of  the  publishing  house  falling 
into  the  hands  of  any  local  clique  with 
factional  ends  to  serve.  The  present 
directors,  Charles  H.  Kerr,  A.  M.  Si- 
mons and  Marcus  Bitch,  will  remain  in 
charge  of  the  affairs  of  the  company 
only  BO  long  as  they  satisfy  the  stock- 
holders that  they  are  using  the  resources 
of  the  company  to  th«  best  of  their 
ability  for  circulating  the  literature  of 
International  socialism,  and  when  any 
of  them  become  for  any  reason  unable 


PUBLISHEB8'   DEPABTMENT 


191 


to  discharge  the  duties  of  directors, 
their  places  will  be  filled  by  socialists 
commandiTig  the  confidence  of  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  party. 

Is  your  Local  already  a  stockholder? 
If  no^  biinff  the  matter  up  at  yonr  next 
meeting  and  get  action  taken. 

Are  ffou  a  stockholderf  If  not,  send 
on  the  ten  dollars  that  will  pay  for  a 
share^  or  the  dollar  for  the  first  monthly 
payment,  and  have  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  that  you  are  a  part  of  the  co- 
operative company  that  is  keeping  the 
morement  supplied  with  the  literature 
of  clearHsut,  saentifie  socialism. 

And  if  you  are  a  stockholder^  make 
sure  that  the  priyilege  conferred  by 
your  stock  certificate,  of  buying  litera- 
ture at  cost,  is  utilued.  If  you  have 
no  time  to  sell  books,  perhaps  there  is 
another  socialist  near  you  who  has  the 
time  but  has  not  the  money  to  pay  for 
the  stock  or  even  for  the  books.  Tou 
can  buy  the  books  for  him  and  let  him 
pay  for  them  as  fast  as  sold,  and  you 
will  thus  both  be  helping  in  the  most 
efitectiTe  propaganda.  For  it  can  not 
be  repeated  too  often  that  to  get  a 
non-socialist  to  pay  his  own  money  for 
a  socialist  book  is  ten  times  as  effective 
aa  to  give  him  a  book.  What  you  give 
him  he  will  look  askance  at,  wondering 
what  your  motive  is  in  offering  it  to 
Idm.  What  he  buys  he  is  going  to  read, 
so  as  to  get  his  money's  worth. 

AH  this  has  been  addressed  to  those 
who  can  help  only  with  small  sums. 
We  can  use  large  sums  also,  but  not  on 
A  plan  that  will  give  a  controlling  inter- 
est to  the  laige  investor.  If  you  have 
money  from  which  under  capitalistic 
conditions  you  need  to  draw  an  income 
while  you  live,  and  would  like  the  money 
to  be  used  ultimately  for  the  spread  of 
socialism,  we  can  give  good  security  for 
the  carrying  out  of  a  contract  that  will 
ensure  you  a  life  income  of  six  per  cent  J 
on  whatever  money  you  invest  with  us.* 


Walt  Whitman's  WorKa 

Whitman  lived  and  died  before  eco- 
nomic conditions  were  ripe  for  an  Amer- 
ican socialist  movement.  Yet  Whitman 
is  distinctively  the  poet  of  American  so- 
cialism. He  foresaw  the  coming  social 
change  and  r^oiced  in  it.  He  accepted 
the  socialist  zoundation-thought  of  his- 
torical materialism,  and  upon  it  built  up 
a  nobler  creed  than  theologians  ever 
dreamed  of.  His  writings  to-day  are  a 
powerful  inspiration  for  those  who  are 
in  the  thick  of  the  fight  for  the  coining 
revolution. 

No  edition  of  Whitman  has  thus  far 
been  easily  accessible  to  socialists.  Our 
co-operative  company  has  therefore 
brought  out  a  handsome  library  edition, 
about  350  large  pages,  printed  in  dear 
type  on  extra  paper,  and  substantially 
bound  in  cloth,  with  gold  lettering  on 
the  back.  Our  retail  price  is  75c,  post- 
age included,  to  stockholders,  45c  by 
nmil  or  37 %c  by  express  at  purchaser's 
expense.  The  best  introduction  to  the 
poet's  writings  is  the  study  l^  Mila 
Tupper  Maynard  entitled  "Walt  Whit- 
man," price  $1.00,  with  usual  discounts 
to  stocUiolders. 

dociallsm  and   the  Organised 
Labor  Movement 

A  booklet  by  May  Wood  Simons  bear- 
ing this  title  will  be  issued  about  the 
middle  of  September  as  number  89  of 
thQ  Pocket  Library  of  Socialism.  It 
traces  the  historical  growth  of  the  trade 
union  movement,  and  shows  the  inevita- 
ble tendency  of  the  trade  unions  toward 
political  action  through  the  Socialist 
Farty.  Advance  orders,  to  be  filled  on 
publication,  should  be  sent  in  at  once, 
since  this  booklet  will  be  one  that  will 
be  of  unusual  interest  to  union  men 
everywhere,  and  it  will  be  one  of  the 
most  effective  socialist  propaganda  pam- 
phlets ever  issued.    Address 


Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company,  Publishers 

56  Fifth  ATenue.' Chicago 


102 


INTEBNATIONAIi    SOCIAUST     BEVIEW 


THE.  RE,AL  FACTS  ABOUT  KUSKIN 
UNIVERSITY 


So  many  conflicting  rumors  haye  been 
circulated  regarding  the  paat,  present  and 
future  of  Ruakin  Untyersity,  that  I  belleye 
the  Soclaliata  of  the  United  States  would 
like  an  Impartial  statement  of  the  facts  in 
the  case.  Bj  way  of  preface  I  desire  to 
explain  that  I  am  In  no  way  connected  with 
the  management  of  the  unlyerslty,  while  I 
have  had  the  best  of  facilities  for  personal 
obserratlon  of  1(8  work  and  acquaintance 
with  its  oflicers  and 'students,  since  my  resi- 
dence Is  at  Glen  Ellyn,  where  it  is  located, 
and  I  am  financial  secretary  of  Local  Glen 
Ellyn  of  the  Socialist  Party,  the  member- 
ship of  which  consists  largely  of  Buskin 
studentsi 

While  the  Buskin  College  was  operated 
at  Trenton,  Mo.,  Walter  Vrooman  was  Its 
chief  financial  support.  His  connection  with 
the  institution  was  definitely  ended  at 
least  three  months  ago.  Socialists  can 
hardly  be  blamed  for  looking  askance  at 
Bulikin  while  Vrooman  was  a  director.  He 
la  a  generous,  whole-souled  fellow  with  the 
greatest  enthusiasm  for  Socialism  as  he 
understands  it ;  but  he  is  hopelessly  erratic, 
and  he  refuses  to  work  inside  the  Socialist 
Party,  because  he  wants  to  be  dictator  in 
whateyer  Is  doing.  He  Is  out  now  and  it 
is  needless  to  discuss  him  further. 

Buskin  Uniyersity  is  an  amalgamation  of 
yarious  schools,  among  which  are  Buskin 
College,  which  remoyed  from  Trenton  un- 
der the  direction  of  George  McA.  Miller, 
and  the  Chicago  Law  School,  at  the  head 
of  which  was  J.  J.  Tobias.  This  Tobias 
became  the  chancellor  of  the  uniyersity,  in 
duurge  of  its  Chicago  ofllce  in  the  Schiller 
building,  while  Miller,  with  the  tiUe  of 
Dean,  was  in  actual  charge  of  the  class 
work  at  Glen  Ellyn. 

An  essential  part  of  the  Uniyersity  work 
whidi  had  been  agreed  upon  by  all  parties 
concerned  before  the  consolidation  was  that 
economics  and  sociology  should  be  taught 
by  Socialists,  from  the  Socialist  point  of 
ylew,  not,  howeyer,  excluding  their  presen- 
tation from  the  capitalist  point  of  ylew 
also  If  found  desirable.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  the  only  course  on  these  subjects  In 
the  spring  term  of  1003  was  a  course  of 
lectures  on  Socialism  by  May  Wood  Simons: 
I  had  the  prlyilege  of  listening  to  most  of 
her  lectures  and  found  them  Instructiye 
and  stimulating  in  a  high  degree.  They 
were  attended  by  a  large  propqrttoi)  of  the 


students,  and  had  a  marked  effect  in  dear^ 
ing  their  ideas. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  spring  term  Chan- 
cellor Tobias  evidently  became  alarmed  at 
the  growing  prominence  of  the  Sodalist 
thought  in  the  Uniyersity,  and  resolyed  to 
check  it  if  possible.  He  gaye  out  interylewB 
and  newspaper  letters  falsely  asserting 
that  a  small  group  of  students  was  alone 
responsible  for  any  Socialist  tendency  on 
the  part  of  the  Uniyersity,  and  he  under- 
took from  that  time  to  get  rid  of  Sodalist 
students  and  also  of  Dean  Miller. 

An  animated  though  not  noisy  contest 
ensued  for  the  control  of  the  Glen  Ellyn 
property  and  I  am  happy  to  announce  that 
Miller  has  won  out  and  that  under  his  di- 
rection scientific  Socialism  will  be  taught 
at  Buskin  by  A.  M.  Simons,  May  Wood 
Simons,  and  probably  soon  by  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Socialist  Party.  Miller  himself 
ttm  sot  thus  far  been  a  party  member,  al- 
though he  votes  the  Sodalist  ticket,  bnt 
the  logic  of  events  is  bringing  him  to  na 
Irresistibly.  When  he  comes  into  the  party 
organization  it  will  be  to  stay.  I  have 
known  him  for  years  and  know  that  he  Is 
a  man  to  tie  to. 

Buskin  College  may  continue  to  affiliate 
with  the  various  Chicago  schools  that  with 
It  made  up  Buskin  University,  but  it  will 
have  its  own  board  of  trustees,  and  Its 
own  local  government,  so  that  there  wlil 
in  future  be  no  Interference  with  Its  estab- 
Uehed  policy  of  teaching  the  truth  on  soda! 
problems.  It  Is  the  purpose  of  the  eollege 
to  furnish  Its  students  with  employment, 
for  a  suffldent  portion  of  thdr  time  to 
enable  them  to  earn  their  board  and  room 
rent.  Courses,  both  resident  and  corre- 
spondence, will  be  given  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Simons  as  originally  announced  In  history, 
economics  and  sociology.  I  can  unhesitat- 
ingly commend  the  school  as  one  to  which 
Socialist  parents  can  send  their  sons  and 
dauilitera  from  fourteen  years  up,  with  the 
assurance  that  their  minds  will  not  be  per- 
verted by'  the  capitalistic  atmosphere  such 
as  surrounds  most  colleges.  It  is  also  the 
best  possible  place  for  a  young  worklngman 
who  desires  to  get  a  broad  educatliHEi  while 
earning  his  own  living.  «  ^  .._. 

It  appears  that  inquiries  from  Sodalists 
addressed  to  Buskin  University  have  been 
deliberately  neglected  by  Tobias,  who  re- 
ceived the  mail.  To  ensure  getting  a 
prompt  answer  address  Inquiries  personaUy 
to  Geo.  McA.  Miller,  Glen  Ellyn,  IlL  The 
ffl}}  term  opens  September  16. 

Crablss  H.  Kmtft. 


I        SOCIALIST 
I  PARTY  BUTTONS 

^  rT*\UER£  is  some  demand  for  a  better  button  than  has 

il  '  heretofore  been  offered,  and  we  have  arranged 
"^  for  the  manufacture  of  a  really  handsome  lapel 
button,  enamel  and  gold  plate,  designed  In  accordance 
wkh  the  national  referendum  of  the  Socialist  Party. 
w  s  Price  30  cents;  to  stockholders  20  centSy  postpaid. 
^  We  still  have  our  celluloid  button,  the  handsomest  and 

^  most  tasteful  of  any  on  the  market     Price  5  cents  each, 

S  30  cents  a  dozen;  to  stockholders  20  cents  a  dozen  or 

^  I1.50  a  hundred. 


S  CHARLES   H.    KERR  &  COMPANY 

^  (CO-OPBRATIVB) 

2  56  FIFTH  AVENUE,  CHICAGO 

^  lii  tft  lit  ife  1 


^<s^cJJ:^i«i=Ji: 


Ig^R  You  Will  Find 


♦♦♦♦♦♦»♦»■»»♦♦»»♦»♦♦♦♦♦♦♦» 

"THE  WORKER"! 

BEST  SOOMUST  WECRkV 
BRIMFUL  OF  IRTCREST 

It  Is  FiMibod  Exdwlvaly  in  Uio  hi- 
liftilottNlNflciiiieiais;  tt  Standi 
•ir  Tmo  and  Lsyal  TradM  UalMiiM 

SrtfT  WmMagaaii  BbovM  8alw«rfb« 
to  tt,— 60  eentB  per  rMur;  25  ewiM  for 
i  montht;  U  eeoto  lor  9  auiotki. 

BAICPLB  COFI£8  FBSSt 

THE  WORKER 

lS4WilUam6t,19*T^ 


CO    YEARS' 
EXP£A»CNCE 


TRADt  Mauks 

OCStGfft 

AnTOTitt  t^a&tng  aatot^h  And  dftirrkpTlon  iu4T 

■^ fip^- 


f  ef Jtl  n  n  I  ft  pre  J  h  a  t>lT  pJtttjjitableL    Con » m  u  b  I  e»- 
i]<m0  flthctu  (Silk Eld enttAl.  lUH060W<ui  t'At«[U« 

lent  frt**  Otrtfftt  oirAn —  " " ^ 


€tTt\ck]j  Aio^rLAin  our  opinioT 
InFCTJtlnn  ift        " 
ll'infi  fltPlctU 
Bent  frM,  0[ 


n[rtf  tt  aff«zicr  for  BwatrlntHtAtiu. 
L&kvn   lEroudb  Munn  &  Co.  r«oclT« 
l»k  vltlioaL  euTffd,  tn  tb« 

$<k«tific  JUncricati. 


RUSKM 

J^       ■  ■  MPjdilita  fw  work  to  this  tun.  Tmtioa 


lodcittg  #C«0»    IMMtHal   itadoatc 
ttodilid  tw  work  to  this  tuM.  Tmtioa 


Ji: 


MwrMt.  OMAoeCod  tar  A.  S.  Md  lUy  Wood  SioMnt.  Only  «ol] 
i«  Aaorioo  milh  iadoilriol  dMutnont.  ofltnnff  oootmi 
8o«ialiaH«M«bth]rSMlali0ltL  BoiMiM*  tlMiOW;  «Mpus  11«^ 
•arts;  ytoloNMOo  woodJoAd  loko  Ottd  MiMffmi  •prla|o;thh1 

UWOOlalBOtMftOMChl  ~ 


MOO  woniUsod  loko  ood  MiBOffBi  •prlanrthhty* 
ftoMChl«M»Otpols.PkUtonibMiml^  Kti, 


High  Grade  Sewing  Machine 

At  the  Price  of  an  bif erior  Article. 

I  guarantee  this  maddne  for  25  yeafs  against  «ny  defept,  and 
to  be  as  good  and  sew  as  well  as  any  madrine  ever  sold  in  America.^ 

The  cabinet  work  is  of  finely  finished  and  highly  poUshed 
golden  oak,  inlaid  ornamentations.  Self  threading  thronghont* 
full  and  complete  outfit  of  the  vefy  best  attachments;  extra  large 
size  head  and  high  arm. 


The  main  balance  wheel  runs  on  ball  bearings.  An  extremely 
handsome  machine  throughout.     Btiilt  like  a  watch. 

I  give  30  da3rs  trial.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  if  you  are  not 
fully  satisfirf  with  it  in  every  way,  ship  it  back  to  me  and  I  wIU 
refund  every  cent  paid  for  it  with  freight  charges.  Send  a  stamp 
for  my  catalog  giving  full  description  of  it;   also  of  i  ,000  watches. 

A.  B.  CONKLIN 


t  X  81  SOUTH  CLARK  5TRBEt, 


CHICAQO,  ILL. 


Cb<  inKf Biional 


A  Monthly  ioonial  of  Inteniatioiial  Socialist  Ttiooi:lit 
Uoi;  iu.  Ociober  i,  mi.  Bo^  !• 

CONTENTS 

New  T«ctte.r.^........«.. ».../....... ''Varzvaerts'' 

The  CUw  Stftfcsfle  in  Gteat  Brhain Max  S,  Hayes 

Socialism  in  Jfapan........ ••.  5^.  /.  Katayama 

Tlie  RefetcndcMn  Movement  and  tile  So^ 

fittyvcment  in  ^America "Mor^isf' 

(^  Tlie  Italian  Socialist  Cons^test. Silvio  Origo 

W'antcd  a  Constitution - William  Harrison  RiUy 

To    Socialism    (Poem) Edwin  Arnold  Brenholts 

The  Lc^al  Fiction  of  Equality Clarence  Meily 

The  National  Organizing  Work William  Mailly  ^ 

Present    Aspect   of   Political   Socialism   in 

England * S.  G.  Hobson 

The  Fcfit  Cfiminal .- - John  Murray^  Jr. 

DEPARTMENTS. 
"  ^  /       EDFTORIAL—Tfae  Crisis  in  Trade  Unions. 
Socialism  Abroad.  Book  Reviews. 

Publishers^  Department.  ^.  -' 

PUBLISHED    BY 

CHARLES  K    KERR   &    COMPANY 

BBSSBitlNCOllPOJlATKD   ON   THE   CO*OPEKATIVE,^LAN  SBBSSl 

56    FIFTH    AVENUE,    CHXCAGO,    U.    S.    A. 


The  International  Socialist  Review 

BEYOTED  T9  THE  STUDY  AID)  USCDSSIOH  OF  THE  ntOBLERS  WOUm 
TO  THE   GROWTH  OF   THE  IRfERHATI(»lAL   SOOAUST  KOYEBERT 

EDITED  BT  A.  H.  SIROHS 


FOREIGR  OOKtESMMirTS: 
ENGLAKIV^H.  H.  Htvdxak.  Waltxb  Gbaxtb,  Sabotkl  HoBiOjr, 

H.  QUSLCHy  J.  KfXB  HABDdR.  J.  R.  HOQOJTALD.  F&ANCE— PAITIi 
LAVABOUIi  JBAir  JAUBS8,  JXAIT  liOirQUIT.       BELGUTM-^ElOKt 

VA]nNE»vSLD%  HsiTBi  Lafohtaikb,  £mix.v  Yikok,  Mmb.  Lauua 
Yavdsevslds.  DENHABK— Db.  i^rarAT  Bakq.  OEBMAKT— 
Kael  KAPTBJpr.  ITALY— De.  AunuiiDao  Sobuv^  Fbov.  Sv- 
uoo  FxBBi.    SWEDEN— Amcur  AJinnsov.    JJlPAlf— T.Mveai. 


OobtrflmkloMmidlioifted«K»aUphaMioCB<>aiaIiseftlia«8hft»ftnd  U^  srobl«ms  of  modaitt 


maaiMeiipl 


, *  is  oopyrightad  for  HbB  ^rofeoelioo  of  our  ooatribaton. ,^^ . 

oome  to  oofff  from  ow  editofUl  detMrtmeate  provided  endU  is  giveo.  PoniMoB  will  alwv*  be 
giTsa  to  rmodnos  ooatribatod  artiolss,  prorided  tlko  «atIior  raisas  no  objoetion. 

The  sabaeriptigii  jpnos  is  $L09  per  yomr,  pursbW  in  adTsnoa,  postage  ffoe  to  tmt  addrass  wltma 
tlia  postal  imioik.  iMftoial  oottmimioatioQS  sEoald  ba  addresBad  to  A.  K. jDi(>»a,l6  Fifth  Aveotts, 
Chioago;  bosiaasa  ooauMUiUatioBs  to  Gbabum  H.  Sbbb  A  OoMfAMt,  56  Fiflh  Afetea,  Chieago. 


i( 


FZFTT    OEWTS    A    yEAR 


Or^all     Interesting!     Indispensable! 

This  im  tho  ▼ardlct  of  %11  who  r«a4  Ik* 

LABOR    UMIOM 
JOgRMAL. 

PisblUh«4  wooktr  hr  th«  Amoiicftitk  LAbor  UbIob 

A  U|L  briglll,  handsoBO,  Labor-Sooialist  waakly  papar.  Bight  pages  of 
BsiiiBtilo>  ssisattfealass  oonsetoos  dlsevsaloo  of  the  giaat  «MKions  of 
TiUl  iniafost  totto  working  elass. 

dVBSCRIBB   NOWI 


AIEKICAH  UBOR  VSm  JOUKRAU  Box  1067,  Biftte,  MoAtm 


FIFTY    GEITTS    A    TEAR 


*^  OCT  191?'^3  J 


gfctett 


TM  INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST    REVIEW 


VOL.  IV 


OCTOBER*  1903 


NO.  4 


New  Tactics. 

OUR  opponents  are  once  again  pricking  up  their  long  ears. 
Quite  in  keeping  with  our  usual  custom,  we  have  started 
an  animated  discussion  just  in  time  for  our  Dresden  con- 
vention, and  are  carrying  it  on  with  our  habitual  spirited 
frankness.  We  are  once  again  exchanging  blows,  and  our  enemies 
are  anxiously  watching  to  see  whether  that  giant,  the  Socialist 
Party,  will  at  last  fall  to  pieces  now,  whether  we  will  ourselves 
accomplish  that  which  neither  the  hatred  nor  the  cunning,  neither 
the  persecutions  nor  the  temptations,  of  the  enemies  have  been 
able  to  consummate.  Of  course,  the  hopes  of  our  enemies  are  in 
vain.  But  the  question  suggests  itself:  ''Is  it  necessary  and 
appropriate  to  give  rise  to  such  hopes?"  A  man  whom  we  all 
honor  and  esteem  (comrade  Bebel)  has  recently  published  in 
the  Vorwaerts  the  angry  words  that  "the  time  of  hushing  and 
mutual  farce  playing  in  the  party  is  over."  We,  and  with  us 
probably  the  majority  of  the  comrades,  have  asked  ourselves 
with  surprise,  on  reading  these  words:  "How  now?  Those 
passionate  discussions  of  the  past  years  that  shrank  from  strong 
expression  and  adjusted  the  internal  differences  in  the  party  in 
the  broadest  daylight,  were  they  nothing  but  hushing  and  farce 
playing?"  In  a  certain  sense  we,  too,  a&iit  that  we  play  a  little 
at  farce  comedy  in  the  party  and  that  we  should  make  an  end 
of  it.  We  love  to  treat  one  another  as  adversaries,  when  we 
know  full  well  that  we  are  united  for  life  and  death  by  the  same 
ideals,  the  same  struggles,  the  same  conviction  and  the  feeling  that 
our  immortal  soul  is  our  immortal  cause.  We  are  a  community 
bound  together  by.  a  thousand  indestructible  ties — and  yet  we 
are  so  fond  of  creating  the  impression  that  the  party  consists  of 
irreconcilable  elements.    At  the  same  time,  it  is  a  proof  of  our 


A  reply  of  "Vorwfterts," 
dated  Press. 


August  80,  1908,  which  escaped  the  Amerioan  Asso- 


194  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW 

Strength  that  we  alone  dare  to  express  openly  what  would  disrupt  ^ 

every  other  party. 

If  our  party  education  is  still  lacking  in  perfection  here  or 
there,  it  is  in  the  matter  of  party  discussions.  We  are  wont  to 
rail  impatiently  at  the  theoreticians,  although  we  are  very  proud  * 

of  the  theoretical  fundament  of  our  party.    And  yet  we  show  a    • 
surprisingly  small  power  of  resistance  against  theoretical  discus- 
sions which  are  not  due  to  any  internal  necessity.     The  thing 
then  g^ows  like  an  avalanche,  and  in  a  short  while  it  seems  as  if  ! 

we  had  nothing  better  to  do  than  to  talk  of  the  most  indifferent  I 

matters,  simply  because  it  has  pleased  some  theorizer  to  call 
attention  to  them.  As  it  is  only  human  to  show  personal  likes  and 
dislikes  on  such  an  occasion,  when  impulsive  misgivings  and  the 
natural  desire  to  carry  a  point  enter  into  the. question,  the  dis- 
cussion often  assumes  an  asperity  which  would  only  be  justified, 
if  vital  principles  of  the  party  were  at  stake.  A  whimsical  notion 
thus  becomes  a  great  principle  or  a  terrible  symptom  of  danger- 
ous undercurrents.  The  popular,  but  not  very  useful,  game  of 
playing  tag  with  the  terms  "principle"  and  "tactics"  is  diligently 
practiced.  The  worst  of  it  is  that  in  so  doing  we  are  wasting 
the  time  that  might  better  be  employed  in  the  solution  of  weightief 
problems.  Every  one  has  the  right  in  our  party  to  get  rid  of  his 
foolish  notions  by  putting  them  into  the  party  press  and  airing 
them  in  party  meetings,  and  he  must  not  be  deprived  of  this 
human  right,  even  if  it  serves  as  the  only  means  of  earning 
a  reputation  in  the  bourgeois  ranks,  or  even  of  gaining  the 
halo  of  a  statesman  and  a  smart  and  independent  thinker.  It 
might  be  desirable  in  such  cases  that  many  party  editors  should 
show  a  greater  sense  of  responsibility  by  estimating  in  advance 
the  probable  effect  of  some  literary  notions  and  making  use  of 
their  editorial  duty  of  being  the  cool  counsellors  of  hotheaded 
correspondents. 

There  is  no  justification  for  speaking  in  this  new  discussion 
of  the  **good  old  tactics"  or  prophesying  the  coming  of  a  "new" 
tactics.  The  Socialist  Party  has  rather  arrived  at  a  perfectly 
clear  conception  of  the  only  possible  tactics,  especially  during 
recent  years,  after  a  generatior^  of  hard  struggles.  There  is 
neither  an  old,  nor  a  new  tactics.     We  have  only  THE  tactics.  | 

The  tactics  which  the  German   Socialist  Party  is  following  i 

did  not  fall  from  the  clouds,  but  have  been  gradually  acquired.  It  | 

is  not  a  sign  of  deep  thought  to  refer  to  tactical  problems  with 
the  more  confusing  than  enlightening  terms  of  radicalism  and  - 
opportunism,  marxism  and  revisionism,  of  whatever  may  be  the 
names  of  intellectual  sluggers.  Thh  fundamental  principle  of  the 
tactics  of  the  German  Socialist  Party  is  unalterable:  it  is  the 
independent  political  action  of  the  revolutionary  proletariat  result- 
ing from  the  class  struggle.    But  there  have  always  been  differ- 


^fiW  TACttCS  19« 

ences  of  opinion  about  the  correct  application  of  this  principle, 
until  the  Socialist  activity  of  recent  years  has  clarified  and  unined 
our  ideas  on  this  point.  The  tactical  problem  lies  solely  in  the 
connection  of  fundamental  principles  with  the  requirements  of  the 
practical  pohtics  of  the  day,  of  tJie  situation  to  t>e  dealt  with  for 
the  time  Deing. 

This  problem  was  also  given  for  the  bourgeois  parties,  but 
they  have  not  succeeded  in  solving  it.  The  pseudo-democratic 
liberahsm  started  out  by  sacrificing  all  considerations  of  actual 
politics  to  the  fundamental  principles.  Its  tactics  became  a  mere 
ftollow  demonstrative  abstinence,  which,  e.  g.,  led  the  liberalism 
of  the  fifties  to  yield  to  the  new  junker  aristocracy  that  owed  its 
I  existence  to  violations  of  the  law.    But  this  same  liberalism  ended 

by  abandoning  all  fundamental  principles  and  giving  itself  up 
to  the  shortsighted  anarchism  of  ephemeral  politics.  Jr'olitics  be- 
came a  business  with  them. 

Difficult  as  it  is  for  the  bourgeois  parties  to  harmonize  prin- 
ciple and  practical  politics,  the  difficulties  increase  still  more  for 
the  Socialist  Party  in  the  same  measure  in  which  our  funda- 
mental demands  assume  the  dimensions  of  a  granite  structure 
encompassing  and  transforming  the  world,  a  structure  from 
^which  not  a  single  stone  can  be  broken  and  which  towers  above 
the  bourgeois  reform  ideas,  confined  by  their  national  and  tem- 
poral limits,  and  representing  only  a  loose  collection  of  suggestions 
lor  reform. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  Socialist  Party  could  not  solve 
in  a  single  day  this  thorny  problem  of  establishing  internal  unity 
between  principle  and  practical  politics,  and  that  without  contra- 
diction and  friction.  There  were  vacilations  and  mistakes,  we 
felt  our  way  and  experimented,  until  finally  the  problem  was 
admirably  solved,  ripening  in  the  course  of  historical  develop- 
ment. 

At  the  end  of  the  sixties,  the  participation  of  the  Socialist 
Party  in -the  reichstag's  elections  was  still  a  moot  question.  And 
when  we  finally  took  part,  unwillingly  enough,  we  thought  that 
it  was  irreconcilable  with  our  demonstrative  agitation  to  make 
laws  together  with  the  bourgeois  parties,  to  join,  e.  g.,  in  the 
/  demand  f9r  industrial  legislation,    iiut  this  sterile  attitude,  while 

:{  resolved  upon,  was  never  carried  out.     The  Socialist  mind  was 

ly  much  too  eager  to  work  and  did  not  permit  itself  to  be  crowded 

'^  out  of  the  daily  work  of  society.     We  have  only  to  recall  the 

memory  of  the  heated  struggle  over  our  tactics  in  the  second 
balloting,  the  resolution  of  the  national  convention  forbidding 
Socialists-  to  vote  for  the  radical  candidates,  and  the  opposition 
to  the  participation  of  our  reichstag's  representatives  in  the  con- 
vention of  seniors.  In  1885,  a  resolution  was  adopted  in  Frank- 
fort, reminding  our  representatives  that  their  practical  work  in 
the  legislatures  had  very  little  value,  and  that  their  agitatory 


196  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW  ^ 

work  was  most  essential.  The  fight  about  the  advisability  of 
participating  in  the  elections  for  the  city  councils  was  especially 
animated.  In  a  great  mass  meeting  at  Berlin  the  most  embittered 
struggle  took  place.  One  comrade  said:  "We  don't  want  any 
half-way  work.  Anyway,  it  is  a  violation  of  the  Socialist  pro- 
gram to  take  part  openly  in  a  class  election."  An  advocate  of 
participation  declared  that  those  who  opposed  them  were  police 
spies.     The  following  resolution  was  finally  adopted: 

'^Whereas,  The  expenditure  of  intellectual  and  material 
strength  in  the  participation  in  the  municipal  elections 
stands  in  no  proportion  to  the  benefits  to  be  derived  there- 
therefrom;  and 

"Whereas,  Experience  has  sufficiently  shown  that  the 
conquest  of  a  few  seats  in  the  city  council  does  not  assist 
the  rising  development  of  the  working  class,  while  it  opens 
the  door  to  unscrupulous  office  hunters  and  authority  grab- 
bers, 

"Resolved,  That  we  decline  to  take  part  in  the  municipal 
elections." 
That  was  an  example  of  the  "good  old  tactics,"  even  if  the 
resolution  was  declared  unfortunate  after  more  deliberate  con- 
sideration. 

The  last  great  tactical  struggle  arose  over  the  question  of 
participating  in  the  landtag's  elections.  In  1893,  it  was  decided 
not  to  take  part  in  them,  especially  because  "it  is  contrary  to  the 
established  principles  of  the  party  to  compromise  with  our  ene- 
mies during  elections,  as  this  inevitably  leads  to  demoralization, 
and  to  schisms  and  dissensions  in  our  own  ranks."  But  it  was 
recommended  to  carry  on  an  active  propaganda  for  universal, 
equal,  direct,  and  secret  ballots  in  the  landtag's  elections.  One 
of  the  speakers  declared :  "Compromises  are  treason ;  they  sac- 
rifice the  principles  of  the  party."  Nobody  declared  in  favor  of 
participation  at  that  time.  The  resolution  may  have  been  quite 
correct  at  that  moment,  but  its  justification  was  incorrect.  For 
in  a  matter  of  compromise,  everything  depends  on  the  question 
who  is  the  leader.  For  a  small  party,  compromises  easily  become 
dangerous,  and  make  it  subject  to  its  enemies.  But  if  that  same 
party  has  grown  strong  and  takes  the  leadership  so  that  it  can 
make  its  own  conditions,  then  there  is  no  longer  any  danger,  and 
it  would  be  suicide  to  abstain  from  political  action,  even  under 
the  most  unfavorable  election  laws.  In  this  way  a  resolution 
which  may  have  been  all  right  in  1893  becomes  a  grievous  error 
in  the  course  of  time.  Today,  there  is  hardly  any  difference  of 
opinion  as  far  as  participation  in  the  elections  is  concerned, 
and  they  are  now  considered  as  the  best  means  of  starting  a  live 
agitation. 

With  the  settlement  of  the  question  of  the  participation  in 
the  landtag's  elections,  the  last  tactical  question  has  been  solved. 


NEW  TACnC?S  IV! 

TEere  is  no  other  possible  question  of  tactics  on  this  field.  For 
participation  in  a  bourgeois  government  is  out  of  the  question 
in  Germany.  We  have  established  complete  harmony  between 
principle  and  political  tactics.  We  have  learned  the  art  of  g^rasp- 
ing  every  advantage  for  the  proletariat,  without  sacrificing  one 
particle  of  our  fundamental  principles.  We  are  working  in  every 
field,  penetrating  into  all  institutions,  but  we  do  not  think  for  a 
moment  of  trading  or  sacrificing  the  birthright  of  our  democratic 
and  Socialist  demands  for  the  sake  of  momentary  advantages. 
This  is  THE  clear  and  conscious  tactics  of  the  Socialist  Party, 
which  is  not  the  "good  old''  one,  neither  does  it  require  any 
revision. 

It  seems  almost  as  if  it  was  due  to  the  overconfidence  in  our 
sense  of  unity  that  has  prompted  some  subtle  party  writer  to 
place  the  question  of  the  vice-presidency  on  the  order  of  business 
of  our  public  discussions.  Whoever  has  read  the  above  historical 
reminiscences  will  not  wonder  at  the  fact  that  this  paltry  apology 
for  a  problem  has  again  assumed  the  dimensions  of  a  "symptom" 
or  even  of  a  "principle." 

Now,  it  is  perfectly  plain  that  this  question  of  the  vice-presi- 
dency does  not  belong  to  that  class  of  important  discussions 
which  we  have  formerly  had  in  the  party.  It  is  simply  a  notion. 
It  is  not  a  question  for  the  Socialist  Party  at  all,  but  at  best 
a  question  of  parliamentarian  self-respect  for  the  bourgeois  par- 
ties. For  apart  from  the  question  of  going  to  court,  the  matter  is 
entirely  indifferent  to  us  as  far  as  practical  consequences  are  con- 
cerned. 

Then,  too,  the  bourgeois  parties  do  not  intend  to  satisfy  our 
claim.  True,  in  1895,  after  the  presidential  strike  of  the  con- 
servative-national parties  in  consequence  of  the  refusal  of  the 
reichstag  to  honor  Bismarck,  we  were  offered  the  second  vice- 
presidency.  But  we  declined  the  questionable  honor  right  in  the 
initial  stages  of  the  proceedings.  Today,  the  center  party  has 
become  the  ruling  party,  and  does  not  pay  any  attention  to  par- 
liamentarian justice.  They  deny  our  claim  for  very  specious 
reasons,  even  though  they  weaken  the  bourgeois  parliament  in  so 
doing. 

Nevertheless,  we  m^ke  our  claim  simply  because  we  do  not 
give  up  any  right  to  which  we  are  entitled.  We  do  not  expect 
to  gain  any  advantages  by  this  action.    On  the  contrary :   Careful 

•  observers  of  the  tariff  fight  have  long  ago  arrived  at  the  conclusion 
that  a   Socialist   vice-president  would   be   rather   harmful    than 

I  otherwise  to  us  in  critical  situations,  and  that  it  would  be  much 
i  better  for  us,  if  decent  bourgeois  representatives,  who  are  mindful 

*  of  their  duties  of  president  under  all  circumstances,  were  to  hold 
that  office.  A  few  comrades  who  unfortunately  are  endowed 
with  diplomatic  gifts,  think  otherwise  about  those  advantages.  It 
may  be  admitted  that  this  is  a  mistake,  but  it  certainly  is  not 


198  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW 

a  crime,  much  less  a  reason  for  a  great  party  action  with  all  its 
concomitant  "symptoms,  principles,  opportunisms  and  radicalism." 

There  is  so  little  to  be  said  about  this  very  simple  and  quite 
unimportant  question  of  the  vice-presidency,  that  it  is  almost  like 
a  fairy  tale  that  so  much  could  have  been  said  about  it.  And  if 
a  few  party  leaders  have  had  some  very  wholesome  tilts  over 
this  question,  there  is  no  reason  for  complaint.  For  really,  the 
fate  of  the  party  does  not  dei3end  so  much  on  fhe  opinions  of  the 
leaders,  whose  principal  functions  are  those  of  counselors,  edu^ 
cators,  trustees,  and  experts.  The  hopes  and  the  dangers  are 
vested  in  the  masses.  As  long  as  this  bold,  idealistic,  far-seeing, 
and  yet  calm  spirit  lives  in  the  Socialist  Party,  conceiving  of  the 
whole  field  of  economics  and  politics  as  an  inseparable  unit,  just 
so  long  will  the  party  remain  strong  and  invincible,  and  we  need 
not  fear  the  only  real  danger,  viz.,  that  the  party  might  fall  a 
victim  to  the  disease  of  a  short-sighted  policy  of  special  interests. 
Whether  this  or  that  leader  speaks  or  writes  one  thing  or  another 
makes  very  little  diflFerence,  compared  to  the  great  possibilities 
of  our  development.  These  fateful  developments  are  npt  decided 
by  literary  notions.  Everyone  has  simply  to  do  his  utmost  toward 
a  strong  forward  movement  of  the  spirit  of  the  masses,  by  which 
the  intimate  union  between  principle  and  practical  politics  was 
accomplished. 

We  should  not  have  felt  the  desire  to  once  more  touch  on 
these  tactical  discussions,  which  no  one  can  compel  us  to  regard 
as  of  any  importance.  We  should  count  them  among  the  cus- 
tomary summer  discussions,  that  do  no  harm  and  serve  no  useful 
purpose.  But  the  present  political  situation  suggests  to  us  the 
apprehension  that  an  essential  part  of  the  Dresden  convention 
might  be  wasted  in  useless  internal  discussions.  That  conven- 
tion should  be  devoted  entirely  to  matters  of  prime  importance. 
It  should  sharpen  the  steel  against  all  the  enemies  that  sur- 
round us.' 

Never,  perhaps,  has  the  Socialist  Party  stood  at  the  eve  of 
such  tremendous  developments  as  those  that  confront  us  now. 
Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.  Our  victory  has  made  a  deeper 
impression  on  the  ruling  classes  and  on  the  leading  circles,  than 
they  show  outwardly.  There  is  something  stewing  and  brew- 
ing. It  is  apparent  that  the  center  party  intends  to  become  the 
savior  of  the  state.  If  the  Prussian  schools  are  delivered  into 
the  control  of  that  party,  then  it  is  willing  to  lend  its  hand  to 
any  rascality  of  the  government. 

Under  these  conditions,  the  Socialist  Party  has  no  time  to 
fritter  away  on  such  discussions  as  have  been  going  on  recently. 
We  have  only  one  duty :  To  reflect  in  what  manner,  under  what 
forms,  we  can  use  our  three  million  votes  in  the  interest  of  thd 
proletariat,  of  the  German  people,  and  of  the  future. 

Translated  by  Ernest  Untermann, 


The  Qass  Struggle  in  Great  Britain. 

THE  world's  great  and  ancient  metropolis  looks  like  the 
pictures  one  sees  in  books,  from  the  first  reader  to  the 
latest  magazine,  and  so  the  weary  pilgrim  does  not  feel 
very  strange  after  he  lands.  However,  you  at  once  miss 
that  headlong  rush  and  rattle-de-bang  noise  seen  and  heard  in  New 
York  and  Chicago.  The  Englishman  don't  seem  to  be  in  a  very 
great  hurry — even  the  stage-coach  horses  take  their  time  as  they 
plod  along  through  the  narrow  streets. 

In  an  American  industrial  center  we  find  the  working  class 
hurrying  to  the  shops  and  factories  at  seven  in  the  morning. 
Here  an  hour  later  is  considered  early.  The  nine-hour  day  is 
pretty  generally  observed,  and  especially  the  Saturday  half-holi- 
day. The  well-organized  trades  only  work  eight  hours  a  day. 
Wages,  of  course,  are  not  as  high  as  in  the  United  States.  Neither 
are  the  living  expenses.  On  the  whole,  the  English  workingman 
lives  as  well,  but  hardly  any  better,  than  the  American  toiler. 
Judging  from  appearances,  the  Britishers  wear  as  good  clothes, 
live  in  as  good  houses,  eat  as  well  and  are  as  strong  and  healthy, 
and  have  as  many  sports  and  amusements  as  the  so-called  Yanks. 
All  of  which  goes  to  prove  tliat  the  socialist  philosophy  is  correct 
— ^that  the  capitalists  of  any  nation  allow  their  workers  only  suf- 
ficient to  keep  body  and  soul  together  and  to  propagate  another 
generation  of  toilers ;  that  the  workers  are  compelled  to  wage  a 
class  struggle  to  maintain  what  they  have  gained  in  the  shape  of 
higher  wages  and  shorter  hours,  and  that  onlv  in  proportion  as 
they  become  educated  and  fight  for  increased  advantages  do  they 
secure  better  conditions. 

Great  Britain,  as  we  in  America  have  learned  in  a  general  way, 
is  busily  occupied  in  extending  the  functions  of  municipal  gov- 
ernments— they  call  it  mimicipal  socialism.  Even  the  most  re- 
actionary Tories  do  not  seem  to  have  the  horror  of  the  word  so- 
cialism that  is  formed  among  some  of  the  poorest  workingmen  in 
the  States.  In  fact,  many  of  the  Tories  seriously  regard  them- 
selves as  the  guardians  of  the  common  people,  and  they  take  a 
sort  of  paternalistic  interest  in  those  who  produce  wealth  for 
them.  For  the  profits  that  are  turned  over  to  them  they  appear 
to  feel  that  they  have  some  obligations  to  meet. 

Hence  we  find  that  in  nearly  all  of  the  principal  cities  the 
street  railway  systems  are  owned  and  operated  by  the  municipali- 
ties. They  also  furnish  light  and  power  and  are  pushing  the  ex- 
periment of  razing  the  slums  and  erecting  decent  habitations, 
which  are  rented  to  the  workers.  Baths,  wash  houses,  milk 
depots,  markets,  libraries,  and  many  other  useful  institutions  are 
being  established,  and  while  those  popular  or  populistic  reforms 
do  not  affect  the  capitalistic  system  materially,  yet  unconsciously 

199 


200  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW 

the  bourgeoise  is  treading  upon  dangerous  ground.  Labor's  ap- 
petite for  this  sort  of  thing  is  being  sharpened,  and,  irrespective 
as  to  whether  or  not  the  taxes  of  Ae  capitalists  are  being  some- 
what lowered,  and  whether  exploitation  is  being  shifted  from 
individual  employers  to  the  municipality  controlled  by  their  poli- 
ticians, the  fact  remains  that  these  experiments  are  being  carried 
on,  and  successfully,  too;  and  as,  stated  above,  the  workers  are 
becoming  familiar  with  the  former  bugaboo  of  socialism,  and 
there  are  plenty  of  signs  that  ifidicate  that  in  a  very  short  time 
labor  will  take  control  of  these  municipal  works  and  conduct  them 
in  its  own  interests,  paying  no  attention  to  the  taxation  detail. 

This  view  of  the  situation  is  being  taken  by  the  leading  trade 
unionists  of  the  country.  Upward  .of  $1,500,000,000  of  property 
has  been  municipalized  in  Great  Britain,  and  the  work  is  going 
forward  at  an  accelerated  rate,  and  the  unionists  mgke  no  secret 
of  their  intentions  of  securing  control  of  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment for  the  purpose  of  conducting  public  affairs  in  the  interest 
of  the  people  who  produce  the  wesJth  instead  of  a  few  property- 
owners,  who  are  everlastingly  growling  about  taxes. 

Great  progress  has  been  made  among  the  workers  of  this 
country  toward  entering  the  political  field  with  a  united  front 
The  unions  and  socialist  parties  have  formed  an  agreement  to 
work  together  for  the  election  of  members  to  Parliament,  there 
to  compose  a  distinct  labor  group.  At  present  there  are  fourteen 
labor  men  in  Parliament,  and  it  is  expected  that  at  the  next  gen- 
eral election,  which  is  likely  to  be  ordered  soon,  that  number  will 
be  doubled  at  least.  Over  a  million  members  of  trade  unions 
are  now  assessing  themselves  for  the  purpose  of  creating  cam- 
paign funds,  and  every  week  adds  to  the  number.  They  arc 
really  in  earnest,  judging  from  the  statements  of  their  officials 
and  newspapers,  -and,  as  it  is  estimated  that  fuUy  one-third  of  the 
workers  in  the  trades  are  organized,  it  can  be  seen  that  labor  is 
bound  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  next  contest  for  seats  in 
Parliament. 

The  causes  that  produced  this  unexpected  activity  are  many. 
In  the  first  place  the  workers  of  Great  Britain,  like  those  of  every 
country,  are  becoming  more  highly  educated.  Then,  again, 
there  has  been  quite  a  long  period  of  hard  times  over  here,  and 
the  insecurity  of  work  has  made  the  laboring  people  quite  dis- 
contented with  the  old  political  parties.  The  South  African  war 
has  increased  their  burdens  in  certain  directions,  while  the  em- 
ployers, besides  introducing  labor-saving  machinery,  are  also  in- 
clined to  force  upon  them  new  schemes  to  drive  them  to  increased 
production.  The  fact  that  the  government  passed  a  bill  that  will 
extend  a  measure  of  home  rule  to  Ireland,  which  will  make  it 
possible  for  the  Irish  peasant  to  own  land  in  twenty-one  years, 
while  the  British  workers  will  remain  at  the  mercy  of  their  aris- 
tocratic landlords,  is  causing  much  discussion.    But  probably  thef 


CLASS  STBUaOLE  IN  GEBAT  BRITAIN  201 

most  important  question  that  the  tmionists  are  discussing,  and  the 
one  that  has  opened  their  eyes  to  the  necessity  of  using  their  polit- 
ical power,  is  the  Taff-Vale  decision  and  the  hostile  acts  that  have 
resulted  therefrom.  It  will  be  recalled  that  the  railway  workers 
were  mulcted  out  of  a  sum  of  $114,000  about  a  year  ago,  as  dam- 
ages for  striking  and  picketing.  This  decision  fell  like  a  bomb 
in  the  camp  of  the  trade  unions.  It  opened  the  way  for  a  general 
assault  upon  the  treasuries  of  the  organization,  and  the  employers 
have  not  been  slow  to  take  advantage  of  the  situation.  At  this 
writing  there  are  two  more  cases  being  fought  in  the  courts. 
The  miners  of  South  Wales  had  enforced  a  system  of  "stop 
days";  that  is,  they  ceased  work  on  certain  days  to  prevent  the 
accumulation  of  a  great  surplus  of  coal,  reasoning  that  the  oper- 
ators would  use  such  surplus  to  enforce  a  reduction  of  wages. 
The  men  argued  that  they  were  wholly  within  their  rights,  be- 
cause the  employers  had  the  power  to,  and,  indeed,  did,  close 
down  when  it  suited  them.  But  the  masters  objected  to  the  men 
taking  the  initiative,  and  brought  suit  for  damages.  The  bosses 
claim  they  have  suffered  losses  amounting  to  no  less  than  $350,- 
000  owing  to  the  enforcement  of  the  "stop  day"  system.  The 
Court  of  Appeals  has  already  decided  in  favor  of  the  bosses,  and 
the  union  carried  the  case  to  the  House  of  Lx>rds,  the  supreme 
court  of  the  land.  In  view  of  the  interpretation  of  law  in  the 
Taff-Vale  case,  there  seems  to  be  little  hope  for  the  miners,  as 
the  "law  lords"  are  not  likely  to  reverse  themselves.  I  am  in- 
formed that  the  cost  of  this  case  will  amount  to  $250,000,  and  if 
it  goes  against  the  Welsh  miners  it  will  bankrupt  them.  The 
Yorkshire  mine  owners  have  also  filed  suits  against  the  men  of 
Cadeby  and  Deneby,  and  they  place  their  damages  at  no  less  than 
$620,000,  which,  with  the  costs,  will  bring  the  sum  at  stake  close 
to  a  million  dollars. 

It  can  be  taken  for  granted  that  this  condition  has  aroused 
organized  labor  of  Great  Britain  as  nothing  else  ever  did.  The 
men  see  their  years  of  saving  and  self-denial  dissipated  at  one  fell 
swoop.  For  years,  in  sunshine  and  in  storm,  they  have  placed 
their  dependence  in  their  unions,  and  now  to  have  their  only  prop 
knocked  out  from  under  them  is  a  severe  blow,  indeed. 

The  employers  of  Great  Britain  are  also  combining  quite  rap- 
idly, and  some  of  their  syndicates  are  being  merged  with  Amer- 
ican trusts,  thus  assuring  them  of  the  abolition  of  cut-throat  com- 
petition. No  doubt  within  a  couple  of  years  this  country  will  be 
in  control  of  trusts  as  absolutely  as  are  the  people  of  the  United 
States. 

All  of  these  questions  will  come  up  for  discssion  at  the  British 
Trade  Union  Congress  at  Leicester  next  week,  and  the  indications 
are  that  the  organized  workers  will  take  a  long  step  forward  to 
secure  their  emancipation  from  the  wage-slavery  of  modem  capi- 
talism. Max  S.  Hayes. 


Socialism  in  Japan. 

IT  IS  NOW  over  two  years  since  I  wrote  you  about  socialism 
in  Japan.  During  those  years  Japanese  socialists  have  had 
varied  experiences,  but  on  the  whole  we  have  gained  a  firmer 
ground  for  socialism  than  two  years  ago.  Socialism  in  Ja- 
pan is  now  a  recognized  social  force,  much  hated  and  feared  by 
capitalists  and  the  capitalistic  government.  Nowadays  socialists' 
speeches  are  always  interfered  with  and  stopped  short.  Their 
freedom  is  trampled  down  in  gjoss  violation  of  the  laws  and  con- 
stitution. Our  police  authority  and  courts  are  all  deadly  against 
the  socialists.  The  old  time-worn  press  law  is  strictly  enforced 
upon  our  publications.  Within  three  months  our  organ,  The  So- 
cialist, was  condemned  and  two  numbers  confiscated  and  the  editor 
fined.  For  what  reasons?  It  only  published  a  translation  of  a 
poem,  "International  Liberty,"  in  the  one  and  a  short  article  on* 
socialism  in  the  other. 

We  started  on  a  socialist  agitation  tour  some  seven  weeks  ago, 
during  which  we  visited  ten  prefectures  and  fourteen  cities  and 
towns.  We  held  nineteen  meetings  in  these  places,  and  over  half 
of  the  speakers  were  either  interfered  with  or  stopped  and  could 
not  complete  their  speeches.  In  some  cities  our  meetings  were 
stopped  at  the  very  beginning.  In  one  instance  before  the  meet- 
ing was  begim  the  police  stepped  in  and  dispersed  the  peaceful 
citizens  who  were  present  at  the  place  of  meeting.  They  were 
driven  out  of  the  hall  by  force  in  a  most  barbarous  manner,  vio- 
lating the  personal  liberty  guaranteed  by  the  constitution.  We 
are  utterly  powerless  under  these  injustices,  for  laws  and  courts 
are  all  against  us.  The  administration  court  to  which  we  can  ap- 
peal in  such  a  case  of  injustice  will  never  give  a  verdict  for  us, 
but  invariably  sustains  the  official  acts. 

Just  now  I  am  with  only  two  young  men,  Messrs.  Nishikawa 
and  Matsugaki,  working  for  the  cause  of  socialism  by  giving  all 
our  time  and  energy  and  money.  It  is  a  very  feeble  attempt  for 
the  cause  of  socialism,  but  so  much  is  the  all  we  can  do.  There 
are  a  few  able  writers  and  speakers  among  socialists,  but  it  is  a 
sad  fact  that  they  cannot  give  their  best  time  and  energy  to  this 
cause,  for  they  are  all  engaged  in  some  profession,  generally 
journalism  or  education.  We  feel  that  we  ought  to  be  doing 
more,  but  we  socialists  are  few  and  poor  and  cannot  do  much. 
This  trip  of  ours  gave  a  light  on  our  future,  for  the  authorities 
seem  determined  to  crush  socialism  and  stop  its  spread  by  police 
force  and  oppression.    We  will  fight  out  our  cause  at  any  cost. 

While  the  horizon  of  socialism  seems  so  sad  and  gloomy,  we 
are  nevertheless  increasing  in  number  and  power  everywhere.  We 
have  gained  many  adherents  in  those  cities  in  which  we  held  our 

20S 


SOCIAIJSM  IN  JAPAN  208 

socialist  meetings.  Tliese  timely  sown  seeds  of  socialism  will 
grow  on  the  fertile  ground  of  oppression,  degradation  and  cor- 
ruption caused  by  the  capitalistic  injustices  and  cruelties. 

We  found  everywhere  evils  of  capitalism.  In  the  Navy  Yard 
at  Kose  men  are  compelled  to  work  thirty-six  hours  in  one  stretch 
and  sometimes  two  full  days  and  nights,  or  forty-eight  hours  in 
one  stretch.  Among  the  collieries  in  Kinshiu  there  are  men, 
women  and  children  of  all  ages  working  twelve  hours  in  a  deep 
coal  pit.  These  coal  pits  have  a  depth  of  2,000  feet,  are  dirty  and 
unhealthy,  without  any  protection  for  limbs  of  miners.  Some- 
times a  mother  with  a  child  of  two  or  three  months  goes  down 
the  pit  to  help  the  husband  miners  by  carrying  coals.  During 
these  twelve  hours  the  child  is  left  in  the  dark  wet  hole  to  breathe 
foul  air.  It  is  said  that  out  of  7,000  miners  some  800  persons 
were  killed  last  year  in  one  colliery  having  seven  pits  or  an  aver- 
age of  two  and  one-half  persons  killed  every  day  through  the  year. 
But  none  of  these  atrocious  crimes  committed  by  the  colliery 
owner  Mitsuit  are  condemned  by  the  press  or  law. 

Tokyo,  Japan,  August  24th,  1903.  5.  /.  Katayama. 


1"^  The  Referendum  Movement  and  the  Socialist 

^V  Movement  in  America. 

^ '  .  ^  M  ^  HE  socialists  of  this  country  were  the  first  to  call  public  at- 
^:.  I  .  tention  to  the  referendum.  As  early  as  1889,  the  Socialist 
C-;  ,  JL  Labor  party  embodied  in  its  national  platform  a  referen- 
ITj,  V  dum  plank.  It  soon  gained  popularity  with  all  reformers, 
^; '  and  was  in  1900  forced  into  the  national  platform  of  the  Demo- 
1^^  cratic  party.  Persistent  agitation  by  the  advocates  of  Direct  Leg- 
¥  .  islation  has  in  many  places  compelled  the  Republican  party  as  well 
|f';:  to  declare  for  the  principle  of  the  Referendum  and  the  Initiative, 
^V  so  that  at  present  the  demand  for  it  may  be  said  to  have  spread 
%  '  beyond  party  lines.  Singularly  enough,  the  Socialists  have  scarce- 
ly., ly  taken  part,  as  an  organized  body,  in  the  agitation  which  owes 
t^  to  them  its  origin.  This  remark  is  not  made  in  a  spirit  of  fault- 
|j7  ^  finding,  for  the  writer  is  himself  but  a  recent  convert  to  the  cause 
^:K  of  Direct  Legislation,  and  bears  his  individual  share  of  responsi- 
%,■  bility  for  the  lukewarmness  of  the  Socialists  towards  this  move- 
y\  ment ;  he  believes,  however,  that  the  facts  which  have  convinced 
S/!;;  him  may  convince  others  that  the  Referendum  and  Initiative  open 
^^  to  the  Socialist  parties  a  new  and  fruitful  field  for  independent 
]r';\  political  action,  without  imperiling  the  integrity  of  the  party  or  its 
}y  uncompromising  political  attitude  and  without  in  any  way  inter- 
fering with  other  forms  of  political  action. 

Let  us  first  see  what  has  been  accomplished  by  the  movement 

;  »  for  Direct  Legislation.    In  South  Dakota,  the  Legislature,  a  ma- 

>     *  jority  of  whom  were  Populists,  Silver  Republicans  and  Dem- 

.;  ocrats  (fusionists),  submitted,  in  1897,  to  the  voters  of  the  state 

: ;  the  question  of  adopting  the  Referendum  and  the  Initiative.   Most 

^'  of  the  Republicans  in  the  legislature  voted  in  favor  of  the  reform. 

At  the  next  election,  1898,  the  voters  adopted  the  system.     In 

1899,  the  Republican  party,  which  then  had  a  majority  in  each 

^./  House,  enacted  a  statute  to  put  it  into  operation.    The  new  act 

^,'  confers  on  the  voters  the  veto  power  on  any  bill  which  has  not 

f;^,  received  a  two-thirds  majority  in  the  legislature.     No  such  bill 

^  may  become  a  law  until  the  voters  have  had  90  days  to  examine 

[g  V  .  it  and,  if  found  objectionable,  to  file  a  petition  signed  by  five  per 

'f'  cent  of  the  voters  and  demanding  that  the  bill  be  submitted  to  a 

?.r  referendum  at  the  next  election.    The  voters  may  likewise  initiate 

^  '      .        legislation  by  filing  a  petition  embodying  a  bill  to  be  voted  upon 

f^\  at  the  next  election. 

^i  In  Oregon,  a  constitutional  amendment  giving  expression  to 

^•:  the  same  principles  was  proposed  in  1898,  and  adopted  by  a  Re- 
publican legislature;  under  the  Oregon  constitution,  an  amend- 

^.  ment  must  be  passed  by  two  successive  legislatures  and  ratified  by 
a  popular  vote.    In  1900  all  parties  pledged  their  support  to  the 

aL^  204 


SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT  IN  AMEBICA  205 

measure;  the  Republicans  again  had  a  majority  in  the  legislature; 
the  amendment  passed  the  legislature  and  was  submitted  to  the 
people,  who  in  1902  adopted  it  by  a  vote  of  11  to  i.  An  act 
carrying  this,  amendment  into  effect  was  passed  by  the  legis- 
lature in  February,  1903. 

In  Colorado  a  constitutional  amendment  was  adopted  at  the 
November  election  of  1902,  providing  for  the  amendment  of  the 
municipal  charter  of  Denver  by  the  Initiative  and  Referendum. 
Five  per  cent  of  the  voters  of  the  city  and  county  of  Denver  may 
initiate  any  municipal  ordinance  or  charter  amendment  and  the 
proposition  must  be  submitted  to  a  popular  vote  at  the  next  gen- 
eral election. 

In  Los  Angeles,  at  the  municipal  election  held  December  i, 
1902,  a  Direct  Legislation  amendment  to  the  city  charter  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  12,846  to  1,942  (6  to  i).  The  amendment 
was  ratified  by  the  legislature  on  January  25,  1903.  The  amend- 
ment enables  five  per  cent  of  the  voters  to  initiate  city  ordinances 
at  every  regular  municipal  election. 

In  many  other  states  the  enactment  of  similar  laws  cannot  be 
delayed  very  long.  In  Utah  the  Referendum  and  the  Initiative 
have  become  a  part  of  the  constitution,  but  the  constitution  has 
been  nullified  by  the  legislature,  which  has  so  far  refused  to  enact 
a  statute  to  carry  the  principle  into  operation.  Still  such  an 
anomalous  condition  cannot  continue  forever. 

In  Illinois  the  legislature  in  1901  enacted  a  law  for  the  sub- 
mission of  questions  of  public  policy  to  a  popular  vote  upon  the 
petition  of  10  per  cent  of  the  voters  in  the  state,  or  25  per  cent 
in  a  municipality.  Under  that  law  a  referendum  was  taken  in 
the  next  spring  municipal  election  (1902)  in  Chicago,  upon  the 
question  of  public  ownership  of  street  railways  and  lighting  plants 
and.  resulted  in  a  large  majority  for  that  pVinciple.  At  the  fall 
election  of  1902  Direct  Legislation  agitators  secured  more  than 
the  requisite  number  of  signatures  to  a  ''proposal  question  of 
public  policy"  in  favor  of  a  constitutional  amendment  embodying 
the  Referendum  and  Initiative.  The  proposal  was  submitted  to 
the  voters  of  the  state  and  received  428,000  affirmative  votes 
against  87,000  in  the  negative.  As  this  expression  of  popular 
opinion  is  as  yet  not  mandatory  upon  the  legislature,  a  bill  in 
favor  of  a  Direct  Legislation  amendment  to  the  constitution  was 
voted  down  at  the  last  session  of  the  legislature.  Yet,  in  this 
country  public  opinion  is  the  court  of  last  resort,  and  there  is 
little  room  for  doubt  that  ultimately  the  Solons  at  Springfield 
will  have  to  yield  to  the  popular  will. 

In  Missouri  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  was  adopted 
March  11,  1903,  which  provides  for  the  Initiative  and  Referen- 
dum upon  a  petition  signed  by  from  lo  to  20  per  cent  of  the 
voters  of  each  congressional  district.  The  amendment  is  to  be 
voted  upon  in  the  November  election  of  next  y^^^.    Th^  p^;'. 


"T 


I 


W^ 


t;. 


206 


INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW 


>f^.- 


centage  is  unreasonably  high  and  the  law  is  so  framed  as  to 
make  it  inoperative;  yet  in  Chicago  the  requisite  number  of 
signers  to  the  municipal  ownership  petition  was  as  high  as  25  per 
cent  of  all  voters,  and  yet  the  requisite  number  of  signatures  was 
secured. 

In  Nevada,  a  Direct  Legislation  amendment  passed  the  legis- 
lature March  12,  1903,  and  now  awaits  the  vote  of  the  people  at 
the  coming  election.  In  Massachusetts  a  Direct  Legislation  bill 
was  passed  by  the  House  of  Representatives  on  May  5,  1903.  In 
Idaho  and  Washington  similar  amendments  received  a  majority 
in  the  legislature,  but  the  vote  in  each  case  was  short  of  the  two- 
thirds  required  by  the  constitution ;  it  is  now  only  a  question  of 
winning  over  a  few  votes,  and  continued  public  agitation  will 
ultimately  accomplish  that  result. 

On  the  whole,  the  results  are  encouraging,  especially  because 
they  have  been  accomplished  without  lobbying,  but-  by  the  pres- 
sure of  public  opinion.  The  persistent  agitation  of  labor  organ- 
izations and  other  non-political  bodies  forced  the  politicians  to 
action,  for  fear  lest  the  other  party  might  gain  votes  by  the 
advocacy  of  the  popular  demand. 

With  every  Socialist  party  worker  the  question  will  arise, 
What  particular  benefit  will  accrue  to  the  Socialist  party  from 
the  Referendum  and  Initiative,  that  it  should  expend  its  energy 
in  agitating  for  a  reform  which  is  likely  to  come  through  the 
efforts  of  others  ?  In  an  article  addressed  to  Socialist  readers  it 
would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  dilate  upon  the  justice  of  the  prin- 
ciple itself,  for  it  has  been  for  a  long  time  in  practical  operation 
in  party  affairs ;  the  question  need  here  only  be  treated  upon  the 
ground  of  expediency. 

Up  to  this  day  political  action  by  Socialist  parties  in  this 
country  has  been  confined  to  nominating  candidates  and  election- 
eering; in  but  a  few  cases  this  agitation  resulted  in  the  election 
of  Socialist  candidates.  Surely,  if  immediate  success  at  the  polls 
were  the  sole  object  of  the  Socialist  parties,  as  it  is  with  other, 
parties,  the  results  would  not  justify  the  energy  expended.  So- 
cialist nominations  are  made  because,  it  is  thought,  first,  that 
they  offer  an  opportunity  for  Socialist  agitation,  and  second, 
that  they  enable  us  to  gauge  the  Socialist  sentiment  abroad  in  the 
country.  It  is  also  believed  that  the  gradual  growth  of  the  vote 
from  one  election  to  another  advances  the  day  of  ultimate  Socialist 
victory  at  the  polls. 

For  any  one  of  these  purposes  the  Referendum  and  Initiative 
offer  invaluable  opportunities  to  the  Socialist  party. 

The  platform  of  the  Socialist  (formerly  Social-Democratic) 
party  consists  of  a  declaration  of  general  principles  and  a  num- 
i^er  of  "immediate  demands,"  whose  enactment  into  law  is  urged 
pending  the  final  triumph  of  the  Socialist  party.  A  great  deal  of 
opposition  has  beien  developed  within  the  party  to  thfege  ''imme- 


SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA  207 

diate  demands."  It  is  argued  that  the  Socialist  party  upon  gain- 
ing control  of  the  political  machinery,  will  be  in  a  position  to 
carry  out  the  full  programme  of  Socialism,  so  these  "immediate 
demands"  would  be  superfluous;  prior  to  that  day,  however, 
these  demands  could  not  be  enacted  in  any  other  way  except  by 
a  non-Socialistic  party,  which  is  considered  undesirable. 

These  objections  are  removed  by  the  Initiative  and  Referen- 
dum. In  South  Dakota  the  Socialist  party  is  today  in  a  position 
to  formulate  all  its  ^'immediate  demands"  into  bills,  circulate 
petitions  in  support  of  them,  and  if  5  per  cent  of  the  voters  are 
thus  enlisted  the  bills  must  be  submitted  to  the  vote  of  the  people 
of  the  state  of  South  Dakota.  In  this  manner  any  of  these  de-' 
mands  could  be  enacted  into  law  over  the  heads  of  old-party 
politicians,  full  credit  accruing  to  the  Socialist  party  initiating 
the  desired  legislation. 

In  Los  Angeles  the  Socialist  party  need  no  longer  wait  for 
the  election  of  its  candidates  on  the  city  ticket,  in  order  to  make 
its  voice  heard  in  municipal  affairs.  There  were  about  30,000 
votes  cast  in  Los  Angeles  at  the  last  election;  i,5<y)  signatures 
are  sufficient  to  initiate  municipal  legislation.  The  vote  for  Debs 
in  1900  was  995 ;  thus  it  is  easily  seen  that  the  Socialist  party 
would  have  no  difficulty  in  securing  a  sufficient  number  of  signa- 
tures to  a  bill  embodying  into  law  any  of  the  propositions  of  the 
Socialist  municipal  platform. 

The  same  is  true  of  Denver,  where  there  are  about  40,000 
voters ;  the  requisite  2,000  signatures  to  an  Initiative  proposition 
for  a  municipal  ordinance  or  charter  amendment  could  be  secured 
among  the  Socialist  voters  themselves. 

In  Illinois  where  the  law  authorizes  the  submission  of  broad 
questions  of  public  policy  to  a  popular  vote,  the  Socialists  might, 
if  they  thought  it  expedient,  submit  today  the  question,  Shall 
all  means  of  production  and  distribution  be  owned  and  operated 
by  the  people?  Or  they  might  embody  the  same  principle  in  a 
number  of  concrete  propositions  relating,  e.  g.,  to  the  stockyards, 
the  packing  houses,  the  coal  mines,  etc.,  and  thus  gradually  edu- 
cate the  public  mind  in  the  principles  of  Socialism. 

That  this  must  prove  a  powerful  means  of  Socialist  agita- 
tion is  undeniable.  The  ante-election  agitation  continues  at  best 
for  one  or  two  months,,  whereas  the  circulation  of  petitions  will 
require  active  work  all  year  around.  More  than  that,  it  will 
make  every  Socialist  from  a  mere  sympathizer  an  active  agitator. 
The  Socialist  vote  at  the  last  election  stood  abmit  280,000, 
whereas  the  aggregate  membership  of  both  Socialist  parties 
hardlv  reached  20,000.  That  leaves  260,000  men  who  express 
their  belief  in  Socialism  by  casting  a  Socialist  vote  once  in  365 
days.  If  it  became  necessary,  however,  to  collect  a  vast  number 
of  signatures  to  a  Socialistic  petition,  each  one  of  them  would  be 
coWstitut'eti  a  committee  of  one  to  circulate  it  among  his  friends 


208  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIAUST  BBVIBW 

and  neighbors;  questions  would  be  asked,  and  every  Socialist, 
who  may  not  have  the  abilities  of  a  public  speaker,  would  have 
the  opportunity  of  presenting  the  principles  of  Socialism  in  an 
informal  talk  to  his  acquaintances.  A  vast  number  of  people 
could  be  approached  in  that  way,  who  are  not  reached  by  Socialist 
meetings  or  by  the  Socialist  press.  The  benefits  of  such  an  edu- 
cationjJ  campaign  cannot  be  overestimated.  If  the  Socialist 
party  should  meet  with-  sufficient  support  to  have  any  of  its 
propositions  submitted  to  a  Referendum,  it  would  bring  the  prin- 
ciples of  Socialism  directly  before  the  whole  people,  something 
which  cannot  be  accomplished  by  any  other  available  method  of 
political  agitation. 

Let  us  next  consider  the  second  argument  in  favor  of  cam- 
paigning, viz.,  that  it  serves  as  an  index  of  the  strength  of  Social- 
ism. While  it  is  so  as  far  as  it  goes,  it  does  not  go  far  enough. 
It  has  not  been  possible  to  muster  the  full  strength  of  Socialism 
in  any  election.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  head  of  the 
Socialist  ticket,  as  a  rule,  falls  behind  his  running  mates.  Should 
the  number  of  straight  votes  alone  cast  for  the  full  Socialist  ticket 
be  considered  as  the  truly  Socialist  vote,  which  means  the  lowest 
vote  cast  for  any  candidate  on  the  ticket,  even  then  it  is  a  fact 
that  the  number  of  such  votes  is  liable  to  decline  at  a  presidential 
or  gubernatorial,  or  mayoralty  election ;  numerous  examples  could 
be  cited  to  prove  it.  Should  these  fluctuations  of  the  Socialist 
vote  be  interpreted  as  reflecting  temporary  changes  in  the  Socialist 
sentiment?  Not  at  all.  It  merely  shows  that  even  among  those 
voters  who  identify  themselves  with  Socialism  as  far  as  voting 
the  Socialist  ticket,  there  are  some  who  still  take  an  interest  in 
the  political  issues  or  candidates  brought  forward  by  other  parties. 
There  are  many  more  who  profess  to  be  Socialists,  yet  for  one 
reason  or  another  do  not  vote  the  Socialist  ticket  at  all.  In  1896 
some  people  considering  themselves  Socialists  were  so  impressed 
with  the  impending  danger  to  the  interests  of  the  working  class 
from  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  that  they  cast  their  votes  for 
McKinley.  In  1900  the  issue  of  Imperialism  gave  many  votes  to 
Bryan  which  might  otherwise  have  gone  to  I>bs. 

In  European  countries  the  system  of  reballoting  enables  the 
Socialist  voter  to  cast  his  first  vote  for  the  Socialist  candidates  and 
the  second  for  one  of  the  two  candidates  who  have  a  chance  of 
election;  thus  his  first  vote  is  a  vote  for  his  principles  and  his 
second  vote  a  vote  upon  the  issues  of  the  day.  In  this  country 
there^  is  but  one  chance  to  vote,  and  it  is  the  vote  for  Socialist 
principles  that  suffers  by  it.  And  what  is  more  serious,  under 
our  system  of  elections,  the  further  orogress  of  Socialist  agitation 
and  spread  of  Socialist  sentiment  are  apt  to  accrue  to  the  benefit 
of  scheming  politicians.  The  declarations  of  the  New  York  State 
convention  of  the  Democratic  party  in  favor  of  nationalization  of 
the  anthracite  coal  mines  was  avowedly  ^  bicj  for  the  Socialist 


SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT  IN  AMEBICA  209 

or  radical  vote.  The  election  returns  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
Hill  plank  accomplished  its  purpose  with  many  voters,  who  might 
otherwise  have  swelled  the  Socialist  column. 

The  marked  feature  of  the  election  of  1902  was  the  growth 
of  the  Socialist  vote,  which  more  than  doubled  in  the  United 
States  since  the  last  presidential  election.  In  New  York,  how- 
ever, which  is  the  veteran  state  of  Socialist  agitation  and  could 
in  all  previous  elections  boast  of  a  larger  Socialist  vote  than  any 
other  state,  the  vote  for  the  Social  Democratic  party  increased 
only  by  82  per  cent  as  against  132  per  cent  throughout  the  United 
States,  the  vote  for  the  S.  L.  P.  increased  only  by  25  per  ceht 
as  against  59  per  cent  throughout  the  United  States,  and  the 
aggregate  vote  for  both  Socialist  parties  increased  only  by  54 
per  cent  as  against  113  per  cent  throughout  the  United  States. 

The  election  returns  for  the  state  of  New  York  show  that  the 
total  gubernatorial  vote  in  1902  fell  10  per  cent  short  of  the 
popular  vote  for  president  in  1900;  the  Socialist  parties  were  the 
only  ones  that  showed  actual  gains.  If,  however,  Greater  New 
York  is  segregated  from  the  rest  of  the  state,  we  observe  that 
the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor  in  1902  gained  11,000 
votes  as  compared  with  the  gubernatorial  candidate  in  1900, 
whereas  Governor  Odell  lost  68,000  votes.  As  the  percentage  of 
stay-at-homes  in  Greater  New  York  is  shown  by  the  election 
returns  to  have  been  the  same  as  ui>-state,  and  there  is  no  reason 
why  in  New  York  City  there  should  have  been  a  greater  per- 
centage of  stay-at-homes  among  the  Republicans  than  among  the 
Democrats,  it  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  there  must  have  been 
large  defections  from  the  Republican  to  the  Democratic  camp 
beside  the  actual  increase  of  11,000  votes.  Now  the  Democrats 
whom  the  silver  ajo^itation  had  driven  into  the  Republican  ranks 
in  1896,  returned  into  the  fold  in  1900,  when  McKinley  gained 
only  2,000  votes  as  against  127,000  gained  by  Bryan.  The 
Democratic  gains  in  1902  must  therefore  have  come  from  other 
sources ;  this  may  account  for  the  comparatively  low  increase  of 
the  Socialist  vote  in  New  York.  Many  a  voter  who  is  in  sympathy 
with  the  Socialist  movement,  must  have  reasoned  that  the  Social- 
ist party  could  not  win,  while  the  Democratic  could ;  thus  a  vote 
for  the  Democratic  party  appeared  to  him  under  the  circumstances 
as  a  vote  for  the  nationalization  of  the  anthracite  coal  mines. 

The  Initiative  and  Referendum  will  serve  in  this  country  the 
same  end  as  the  system  of  reballoting  in  Europe.  It  will  enable 
every  voter  to  vote  for  his  principles,  even  though  he  may  be 
anxious  to  vote  for  the  "winning  man."  Moreover,  it  will  effect- 
ively protect  the  Socialist  party  from  any  attempt  of  the  old  parties 
to  "steal  its  thunder,"  for  it  will  always  be  the  Socialist  party 
who  will  first  initiate  all  Socialistic  bills.  Thus  it  is  only  the 
Initiative  and  Referendum  that  can  bring  out  the  full  R^T^ngth 


^7^ 


210 


INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIEW 


r'. 


pr.  -»   - 


M^ 


of  the  Socialist  sentiment  and  record  it  to  the  credit  of  the  Social- 
ist party. 

This  leads  us  to  the  third  proposition,  viz.,  that  the.  growth  of 
the  Socialist  party  vote  speeds  on  the  ultimate  victory  of  the 
Socialist  party.  It  is  obvious  that  the  rate  of  progress  in  this 
respect  is  dependent  upon  the  strength  of  the  Socialist  sentiment 
in  the  nation ;  anything  that  gives  additional  force  to  the  Socialist 
movement  is  bound  to  result  m  an  increased  vote  for  the  Socialist 
party.  Therefore,  the  agitation  for  Socialism  through  the  Initia- 
,  tive  and  Referendum  must  hasten  the  victory  of  the  Socialist  party. 
Moreover,  when  it  becomes  possible  for  the  voters  to  enact  laws 
and  frame  policies  independently  of  Congress  and  legislatures,  the 
argument  in  favor  of  voting  for  the  ''winning  candidate,"  "the 
best  man,"  or  *'the  lesser  of  two  evils,"  must  be  considerably 
weakened.  Suppose,  every  opponent  of  Imperialism  had  the 
opportunity  to  vote  directly  for  the  Initiative  bill,  "Be  it  enacted 
by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  that  the  President  of  the 
United  States  be  and  he  is  hereby  insructed  forthwith  to  withdraw 
all  military  forces  from  the  Philippines  and  to  relinquish  the 
Philippine  Islands  to  an  independent  government  to  be  freely 
elected  by  the  sovereign  people  of  the  Philippine  Islands" — what 
justification  w^ould  there  have  been  for  any  believer  in  Socialist 
principles  to  vote  for  Bryan,  as  a  rebuke  to  Imperialism  ?  A  vote 
for  Anti-Imp)eriaUsm  could  then  have  been  combined  with  a  vote 
for  Debs.  This  would  have  added  to  the  Socialist  column  many 
a  vote  from  among  those  who  were  not  convinced  by  the  Socialist 
argument  that  the  issue  of  Imperialism  or  anti-Imperialism  did 
not  concern  the  working  class. 

There  is  still  more  to  be  said.  Today  the  Socialist  has  very 
little  to  say  in  the  current  affairs  of  the  day.  If  there  is  a  piece 
of  vicious  legislation  pending,  he  can  merely  denounce  it  in  mass- 
meetings  or  in  his  own  press.  With  the  Optional  Referendum 
as  in  South  Dakota,  or  Los  Angeles,  the  Socialist  party  would 
constitute  itself  a  permanent  vigilance  committee  that  would 
promptly  call  a  popular  veto  on  every  bill  which  is  hostile  to  the 
interests  of  the  working  class.  This  would  infuse  new  vigor  into 
the  Socialist  party  and  bring  it  into  closer  touch  with  the  people 
in  their  work-a-day  interests. 

Nor  would  it  in  any  way  conflict  with  the  uncompromising 
attitude  of  the  Socialist  party  towards  other  political  parties. 
The  agitation  for  the  Referendum  and  the  Initiative  need  not 
involve  the  Socialist  party  into  alliances  of  anv  sort  with  any 
other  political  party;  the  Socialist  party  has  its  own  natural 
sphere  of  influence  in  the  trade  unions,  which  have  in  the  past 
been  the  most  active  element  in  the  campaign  for  Direct  Legis- 
lation. 

It  was  natural  for  Massachusetts  to  take  the  lead.  A  petition 
in  favor  of  the  Referendum  eiidbrs'e^  by  570  traflfe  unions  o!  the 


SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA  ^      211 

state  and  bearing  the  signatures  of  more  than  50,000  voters  was 
'  presented  to  the  General  Court  by  tlie  Socialist  Representative 
James  Carey;  the  effect  of  this  agitation  can  be  gauged  by  the 
vote  in  the  House  on  the  Direct  Legislation  bill,  which  was  155 
for  and  only  22  against  the  bill.  In  Massachusetts,  as  elsewhere, 
ihe  politicians  have  tlieir  cars  close  to  the  ground. 

In  closing  tlie  writer  wishes  to  be  understood  that  it  is  not  his 
intention  to  jecommend  the  Referendum  and  the  Initiative  as  a 
substitute  for  the  present  form  of  political  agitation,  but  as  an 
additional  weaix)n  in  the  fight  for  Socialism. 

Marxist. 


../ 


Italian  Socialist  Convention. 

THE  first  annual  Convention  of  the  "Federazione  Social- 
ista  Italiana"  took  place  on  September  6-7,  in  West  Ho- 
boken,  N.  J.  There  were  33  delegates  present,  represent- 
ing some  30  Locals  and  eight  different  states. 
The  convention  was  opened  amid  great  enthusiasm  by  G.  M. 
Serrati,  editor  of  "II  Proletario" — the  Italian  Socialist  daily — 
who  called  the  delegates  to  order  and  made  some  appropriate 
introductory  remarks.  It  was  voted  by  acclamation  to  send  a  con- 
gratulatory cablegram  to  Comrade  Enrico  Ferri  in  Rome,  for  his 
noble  fight  against  the  "grafters"  in  the  Navy  department.  This 
also  meant  that  the  convention  was  with  him,  and  stood  for  an  un- 
compromising political  attitude. 

Aside  from  the  minor  work  of  the  Federation's  affairs,  the 
most  important  questions  for  the  Convention  to  discuss  were  the 
following : 

First— The  Party  Press. 
Second — The  Co-operative  Stores  Movement. 
Third — Establishment  of  an  Immigration  Bureau. 
Fourth — Attitude  of  the  Federation  towards  the  trades  unions. 
Fifth — Attitude  of  the  Federation  towards  the  two  Socialist 
Parties,  the  S.  L.  P.  and  the  S.  P. 

Only  one  out  of  the  thirty-three  delegates  is  in  favor  of  dis- 
continuing the  publication  of  the  daily  paper.  Thirty-two  dele- 
gates want  the  paper  to  be  continued  at  all  costs,  even  to  the  ex- 
tent of  having  each  Local. pledge  a  monthly  contribution  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  publication.  A  true  spirit  of  Socialism  and  of 
noble  self-denial  was  shown  by  the  delegates  during  this  discus- 
sion, in  which  the  comrades  stated  their  willingness  to  share  their 
scanty  wages  for  the  enlightenment  of  their  fellow-men. 

An  able  report  was  submitted  by  G.  Lavagnini  of  Northfield, 
Vt.,  on  the  establishment  of  Co-operative  stores,  demonstrating 
their  efficiency  as  an  auxiliary  to  the  Socialist  movement,  and 
showing  their  successful  operation  amongst  the  Italian  Socialists 
of  Vermont. 

It  was  the  sense  of  the  convention  that  the  comrades  should 
encourage  and  work  for  such  movements  in  all  places  where  local 
conditions  were  favorable,  especially  in  small  cities,  where  large 
department  stores  did  not  exist. 

The  advisability  of  establishing  an  Immigration  Bureau  was 
then  discussed,  and  the  advantages  that  might  accrue  to  the  immi- 
grant were  plainly  stated.  The  padrone,  the  banker  and  many 
other  colonial  sharks,  made  an  easy  prey  of  the  poor  and  simple 
Italians  migrating  to  these  shores,  defrauding  them  and  selling 
them  like  chattels  to  the  contractors.    Tlie  Bureau  would  protect 

212 


ITAMAN  eOCIAUBT  CONVENTION  213 

them,  assist  them  and  put  them  on  their  guard.  It  was  voted 
that  it  should  be  left  to  the  Executive  Committee  to  take  the 
preliminary  steps  for  the  establishment  of  such  a  bureau. 

It  being  impossible  to  discuss  the  trades  unions  without  in- 
volving party  tactics,  a  discussion  on  the  same  was  then  started. 

As  might  be  supposed,  this  brought  about  a  warm  debate,  and 
is  seemed  for  a  time  that  the  S.  L.  P.  comrades  were  going  to 
sway  the  Convention.  A  report  was  submitted  by  Dellavia,  full 
of  the  false  and  time  worn  out  vilifications  against  the  Socialist 
party,  and,  in  order  to  prejudice  the  delegates  against  our  party, 
the  same  report  had  been  printed  and  distributed  some  time  before 
the  Convention.  Comrade  G.  M.  Serrati,  however,  repUed  to  the 
false  accusation,  and  showed  that  while  it  might  be  true  that  in 
some  instances  the  Socialist  Party  had  been  slack  and  of  a  too 
broad  spirit,  the  majority  of  its  members  were  good  uncompro- 
mising Socialists,  doing  excellent  work  in  all  states  of  the  Union, 
in  many  of  which  the  S.  L.  P.  did  not  exist  at  all.  **In  the 
S.  L.  P.  press,"  he  said,  "I  see  nothing  but  insults  against  other 
Socialists ;  in  the  S.  P.  press  I  see  nothing  but  Socialism.  I  am 
in  favor  of  a  union  between  the  two  parties,  but  cannot  countenance 
the  conduct  of  the  S.  L.  P.**  He  then  read  a  communication  of 
the  International  Socialist  Bureau,  informing  him  that  the  only 
Socialist  Party  recognized  there  at  present  was  the  Socialist 
Party. 

Comrades  Ecaterinara  of  Newark,  N.  J.,  and  G.  Lavagnini  of 
Vermont  also  spoke  in  favor  of  the  S.  P.,  stating  that  it  was  the 
only  party  working  for  Socialism  in  their  respective  localities. 

A  number  of  resolutions  were  introduced,  and  one  of  Com. 
Serrati,  to  the  effect  that.  While  the  Federation  was  on  general 
principles,  with  the  S,  L.  P,,  it  was  optional  for  comrades  in 
places  where  there  was  no  S.  L.  P.,  to  vote  for  the  uncompromis- 
ing candidates  of  the  other  Socialist  Party. 

An  official  delegate  from  the  S.  L.  P.  was  then  given  the  floor 
to  make  his  pronimciamento  on  the  resolution.  He  said  he  was 
not  in  favor  of  it.  If  the  Italian  Socialists  favored  the  S.  L.  P., 
they  must  either  be  entirely  with  the  S.  L.  P.  or  against  it.  His 
Party  would  not  stand  for  any  half-way  policy.  He  hoped  the 
Italian  comrades  would  open  their  eyes. 

The  answer  of  the  Convention  to  this  complimentary  remark, 
was  another  resolution: 

To  sever  all  connections  and  alliances  with  the  S.  L.  P,,  and 
constitute  themselves  into  an  independent  organisa:tion,  which 
was  then  put  to  vote  and  carried,  19  for,  and  15  against. 

The  Trades-Unions  question  then  naturally  resolved  itself, 
and  the  Convention  voted  to  follow  the  tactics  as  laid  down  at 
the  International  Congress,  which  are  those  of  the  Socialist  Party. 

Several  minor  matters  were  then  transacted :  the  election  of  a 
new  Executive  Committee,  and  the  appointment  of  Local  New- 


m  : 


sSv- 


INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIBW 


ark  to  receive  all  complaints.  The  issuing  of  two  dollar  shares, 
to  cover  a  mortgage  on  the  Socialist  Block  of  Barre,  Vt.,  was 
authorized.  The  resignation  of  G.  M.  Serrati  as  editor  of  II 
Proletario  was  unwillingly,  received.  The  Convention  adjourned 
at  8 :45  p.  m.  with  three  cheers  for  International  Socialism. 

While  the  constitution  of  the  Federation  did  not  allow  the 
delegates  of  the  Socialist  Party  to  be  officially  recognized,  com- 
rades Solomon,  De  Luca  and  the  writer  were  present  and  made 
many  friends  amongst  the  delegates,  eventually  furnishing  them 
with  useful  information  which  had  a  decided  bearing  on  their  most 
important  vote. 

On  the  whole,  the  Convention  was  a  credit  to  the  Italian  com- 
rades. Party  and  personal  feelings  were  all  made  subordinate 
to  the  Socialist  movement.  A  sincere  and  intense  desire  to  pro- 
mote the  cause  of  Socialism  dominated  all  their  actions,  and  when 
the  vote  to  break  away  from  DeLeon  was  announced,  a  voice  w^as 
heard  to  say:  "There  are  neither  victors  nor  vanquished  here, 
we  are  all  comrades !'' 


Springfield,  Mass. 


Silvio  Origo. 


H.;-' 


f.V..- 


%:■■■ 


>1- 


Wanted — A  Constitution. 

ABOUT  25  years  ago  Governor  Plaisted,  of  Maine,  said  in 
an  address :  "Thirty  years  ago  in  our  country,  a  pauper 
was  as  scarce  as  a  prince,  and  so  was  a  million- 
aire. Now  we  have  thousands  of  millionaires  and 
they  own,  as  their  private  property,  much  more  than  is  owned  by 
all  the  rest  of  the  people.  The  time  is  rapidly  approaching  when — 
unless  there  is  an  economic  revolution — ^the  only  people  in  these 
states  will  be  millionaires,  their  hirelings,  and  paupers." 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  the  economic  revolution  will  take 
place.  Hitherto,  the  "middle  classes''  have  been  our  most  active  ' 
opponents,  but  the  syndicates  will  drive  most  of  them  into  our 
ranks.  One  after  another  each  business  will  be  syndicated — ^gro- 
eery,  dry-goods,  clothing,  furniture,  hardware,  baking,  building, 
bookselling,  printing ;  all  manufacturing,  fishing  and  mining;  the 
farmer  wiU  have  to  sell  his  produce  to  the  syndicates,  and  even  the 
•doctors  and  lawyers  will  be  unable  to  compete  successfully  with 
the  syndicate  agents. 

State  and  national  collectivism  will  certainly  be  forced  upon 
us  by  the  syndicate  collectivism.  Ten  thousand  millionaires  can- 
not subjugate  all  the  rest  of  the  people — who  will  not  long  endure 
a  government  by  millionaires  for  the  benefit  of  millionaires. 

In  preparation  for  "a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,"  we  ought  to  be  learning  how  to  govern,  so 
that,  when  the  time  comes,  we  may  begin  without  confusion  and 
serious  blundering. 

When  a  captain  asks  people  to  accompany  him  on  a  voyage, 
he  not  only  tells  them  what  port  he  is  bound  for,  but  tells  them 
which  way  he  is  going,  and  at  what  ports  he  will  call  by  the  way, 
and  he  has  a  well-defined  chart  of  his  course.  It  is  time  for  us 
to  have  our  chart — our  Constitution  of  the  Commonwealth. 
(Nearly  thirty  years  ago,  I  drafted  the  form  of  such  a  Constitu- 
tion— a  form  that  might  now  be  of  some  use  as  an  aid  in  the  fram- 
ing of  a  less  imperfect  one.) 

We  have  some  very  good  general  maxims  for  our  guidance : 
"No  rights  without  duties ;  no  duties  without  rights,"  From  each 
according  to  his  ability,  to  each  according  to  his  needs."  To  those 
I  would  add,  No  authority  without  responsibility,  no  responsibil- 
ity witliout  authority.  No  money  to  waste  time  over.  And  I 
would  add  Kipling's  great  lines:  "None  shall  work  for  money 
and  none  shall  work  for  fame,  but  all  for  the  joy  of  the  working." 

The  systems  known  as  the  Referendum,  the  Initiative,  and  the 
Imperative  Mandate  are  essential  for  true  republicanism.  The 
people's  organizations  are,  to  some  extent,  already    using  them. 

215 


r 


216  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEfVIEW 

But  we  have  yet  to  decide  how,  in  the  Socialist  future,  we  shall 
govern  each  separate  trade  and  locality;  whether  the  State  or 
Nation  shall  have  control  of  the  railroads,  etc.,  the  authority  of 
the  State  over  children,  and  many  other  problems. 

For  the  satisfaction  of  the  many  thousands  of  people  who 
are  inclined  towards  Socialism,  we  should,  as  soon  as  possible, 
formulate  our  proposed  Constitution.  If  honestly  and  wisely 
formulated,  it  will  cause  a  few  people  to  leave  our  ranks,  but  for 
each  one  that  leaves  a  score  wjU  rally  under  our  banner. 

Lunenberg,  Mass.  Wm.  Harrison  Riley, 


R 


To  Socialism. 

EVILED  defender  and  upholder  of  the  rights  of  Man ; 
Unfaltering  asserter  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Man ; 
Unflinching  facer  of  those  future  years  so  filled  with 
frowns  of  free-born  men,  no  longer  free  who*love 
thee  not — • 

Endue  me  with  thy  poise. 

Provider  of  perpetual  peace  that  stills  pale,  haggard  Competi- 
tion's call  to  war, 

Sole  selfless  Savior  of  the  race  from  all-enslaving  Greed; 

Unconscious  Christian  crying  Christ's  commands  aloud,  still  nailed 
upon  the  cross  as  He — 

Endue  me  with  thy  peace. 

Impartial  pupil  of  imperial  Right  that  places  plenty  in  the  hands 

of  each  and  all ; 
Stern  slayer  of  the  sullen  soul  will  not  surrender  stolen,  selfish 

•     joys; 
All-patient  lover  of  the  poor,  still  paid  with  penal  name  by  por- 
tionless participants  of  pauper's  lot  and  fare — 
Grant  me  to  love  as  thou. 

Forecaster  of  a  future  filled  with  faithful  work  performed  with 

joy  by  all ; 
Denouncer  of  these  dotage-days  that  doom  and  damn  both  rich  and 

poor; 
Courageous,  calm  Compatriot  calling  "Come"  to  rich  and  poor 

alike — 

Grant  me  to  echo  "Come." 

Aspiring,  some  would  strike  all  chains  from  willing  and  unwill- 
ing slaves. 
Aspiring  to  thy  poise,  thy  peace,  thy  love  unbounded  free  and  all 
despite  of  hate,  thy  call — ^to  even  echo  it — one  heard  thee 
say, 

"Let  be! 
I  am  the  solvent  sets  all  free. 
Bring  them  to  me." 

Aspiring  sends  this  song  from  one  whose  bondage  was  dissolved 
by  thy  embrace,  in  gratitude  this  day. 

O  Thou  incessant  and  unstinting  Sower  of  the  life-bought  seed 
with  wide-flung  hand  in  ev'ry  clime, 

God  speed,  God  speed,  and  SPEED. 

— Edwin  Arnold  BrenhoUz. 

217 


I- 


I 


•The  Leg;il  Fiction  of  Equality. 

"There   are   no  classes   In  America.      I  hate  the   name!*'      Judge   George 
Gray,  quoted  In  the  "Outlook"  of  July  4.  1903. 

N  order  to  a  true  understanding  of  that  much  misunder- 
stood assertion  of  the  Declaration  of   Independence,   that 
all   men   are   born    free   and   equal,    the  economic    signifi- 
cance   of    the    American    Revolution    must    be    borne    in 
tji;  ^  mini    The  chain  of  revolutions,  of  which  that  in  America  formed 

a  highly  characteristic  link,  whereby  the  bourgeoisie  broke  the 
JK  power  of  the  noblesse,  was  everywhere  marked  by  an  insistence 

feV:-  on  the  worth  and   safred  liberty  of  the  individual,  untrammeled  by 

^V.  any  advantage  arising  to  others  from  birth  into  a  heritage  of 

Wl'  descendable   class   privilege.      As   hereditary   privilege   was   the 

ft^'  •;       .  essence  of  the  aristocratic  status,  its  denial  by  the  militant  bour- 
^  .  geoisie  was  a  matter  of  course.    This,  then,  is  all  that  was  meant 

Iff'  by  the  assertion  of  freedom  and  equality,  namely,  the  repudiation 

Ef.  of  the  legally  recognized  prestige  of  birth;  and  it  would  have 

^y  saved  much  misconception  if  the  principle  had  been  expressed  in 

1^;  negative  form. 

^M  There  is  something  very  attractive,  even  to  us  moderns,  in  the 

aspect  pf  the  young,  idealistic,  revolutionary  bourgeoisie,  flushed 

with  its  victory  over  ancient  and  hallowed  wrong,  declaring  that 

all   men  are   born   (note  the  word)    equal,   and   proceeding  to 

embody  this  rejection  of  inheritable  ascendency  in  its  constitu- 

i-  ^  tions,  customs  and  laws.    But  from  this  to  the  doctrine  that  all 

men  shall  remain  forever  after  birth  equal  before  the  law,  is 

evidently  a  step  in  advance ;  yet  one  which,  in  the  then  condition 

;•; .  of  American  society,  seemed  but  the  necessary  corollary  of  the 

C;. . ,  first,  or,  perhaps,  but  another  phase  of  the  principle  itself.     For 

■  .^  at  that  time,  if  we  exclude  the  professional  class  which  has  never 

been  inspired  by  a  distinct  economic  interest,  and  the  slaves  who 

^  were  not  recognized  as  human,  but  one  class  existed  in  America 

f:  — the  middle  class.     Modern  manufacture,  with  its  splitting  of 

'^v  the  middle  class  into  capitalists  and  wage-workers,  was  as  yet 

^  unknown.    The  business  of  the  country  was  agriculture ;  and  the 

:i  efFect  of  unoccupied  land  in  preventing  the  formation  of  a  distinct 

{J\  class  of  wage  laborers  has  already  been  pointed  out  in  this  maga- 

f  zine.*     No  injustice,  therefore,  resulted   from  the  extension  of 

'  the  principle  so  as  to  exclude  from  legal  cognizance  not  only  the 

f./  accident  of  birth,  but  all  the  accidents  and  vicissitudes  of  life 

.V  as  well. 

^v  How  the  principle,  as  thus  broadened,  has  been  preserved  and 

?V  consecrated  in  our  jurisprudence,  with  the  hearty  approval  of 


•"The  Economic  Organization  of  Society,"    International    Socialist    R«- 
viBW  for  July  1,  1903,  p.  12. 

218 


LEGAL  FICTION  OP  EQUALITY  819 

bourgeois  sentiment,  through  the  application  of  the  m^iydm  stare 
decisis,  or  how  necessary  to  an  orderly  system  of  laws  conformity 
to  precedent  is,  it  is  not  the  present  purpose  to  discuss.  It  is 
enough  that  at  the  present  day,  while  at  least  four  major  classes 
(speaking  from  an  economic  standpoint)  appear  in  American 
society,  with  the  germs  and  buddings  of  still  further  divisions, 
the  courts  still  uniformly  refuse,  in  deference  to  this  legal  fiction 
of  equality,  to  see  the  facts  before  their  eyes. 

A  distinction  of  class  differs  from  that  of  caste  in  that  the 
latter  is  hereditary  and  can- never  be  escaped  by  the  individual, 
while  the  former  depends  upon  any  incident  or  feature  common 
to  a  group,  which  may  be  very  transitory,  so  that  the  membership 
of  a  class  may  shift  continuously.  The  basis  of  economic  class 
distinction  is  the  manner  of  securing  a  livelihood.  Of  the  four 
classes  referred  to,  naming  them  in  the  order  of  their  prestige 
and  political  importance,  the  capitalists  derive  their  living,  witli- 
out  labor,  from  the  three  sources  of  rent,  interest  and  profit,  the 
latter  usually  assuming  the  concrete  form  of  dividends.  In 
practice,  however,  many  capitalists  still  perform  certain  labor  of 
oversight  and  direction  in-  their  businesses,  thus  occupying  a 
position  midway  between  the  capitalistic  and  middle  classes.  The 
professional  class  differs  from  the  capitalistic  in  that  its  income 
is  derived  from  actual  labor,  while  it  differs  from  the  wage- 
workers  both  in  the  quality  of  its  services,  its  scale  of  living, 
which  approximates  the  capitalistic,  and  in  having  for  its  em- 
ployer the  public  at  lare:e.  Thef  middle  class  covers  those  whose 
living  is  derived  from  labor  for  the  public  performed  with  their 
own  capital,  and  includes  farmers  owning  and  working  their  own 
farms,  small  storekeepers,  the  cross-roads  blacksmith  who  owns 
his  own  shop,  etc.,  etc..  This  class  is  oldest  of  all  except  the 
professional,  and  furnishes,  in  our  modern  life,  constant  acces- 
sions to  all  the  others,  becoming,  through  this  depletiq^,  a  dis- 
appearing class.  Remembering  the  days  of  its  past  glory,  it  is 
politically  reactionary,  and  the  political  interests  of  the  smaller 
capitalists  sometimes  lead  to  their  affiliation  with  it.  Lastly 
come  the  wage-workers,  laborers  working  with  the  capital  of 
others,  the  subjects  of  capitalistic  exploitation,  it  being  their  un- 
remunerated  toil  which  enables  the  capitalists  to  live  without  toil. 
It  is  a  peculiar  characteristic  of  this  class,  and  one  which  the 
reader  is  asked  to  treasure  in  mind  during  the  remainder  of  this 
article,  that  it  lives  from  hand  to  mouth,  the  wage  of  one  day 
barely  sufficing  for  the  necessities  of  the  next  as  determined  by 
its  scale  of  living,  so  that  anv  cessation  of  employment  spells 
deprivation  of  the  means  of  life.  Nor  are  the  members  of  this 
class  enabled  to  practice  to  any  considerable  extent  the  bourgeois 
virtue  of  saving,  and  even  where  they  have  done  so,  their  scanty 
hordes  are  quickly  exhausted  when .  drawn  on  for  subsistence. 
Continuous  employment,  therefore,  becomes  for  them  the  sine 


ft 


INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 


qua  non  of  continued  existence,  and  this  sinister  dependence  con- 
stitutes the  fetters  of  that  status  frequently  referred  to  as  wage 
slavery. 
^f     •  Evidently  it  must  be  pleasing  to  capitalists,  in  their  legal  con- 

flicts with  members  of  other  classes,  to  have  any  class  advantage 
f^'^  accruing  to  them  ignored  by  the  courts,  and  that  there  is  such 

J'  advantage  will  be  readily  conceded  by  those  of  their  opponents 

^ >  who  have  felt  the  embarrassment  of  the  unequal  contest.     It  is 

V' ,  in  suits  between  capitalists  and  wage  earners,  however,  that  the 

j^:;  discrepancy  in  position  is  most  manifest.     The  employee  comes 

I]  into  legal  conflict  with  the  employer  chiefly,  if  not  almost  wholly, 

t:  in  two  varieties  of  actions — those  for  personal  injuries,  and  strike 

litigation.  As  to  the  latter,  the  law  involved  is  still  in  too 
nebulous  a  state  to  permit  of  instructive  generalization.  It  is  in 
actions  brought  by  the  employee  for  personal  injuries  occasioned 
by  the  employers'  negligence,  the  law  of  which  has  been  developed 
^>'''"  contemporaneously  with  the  capitalistic  system  itself,  that  we 

^v.^  may  particularly  note  the  malign  influence  of  the  legal  fiction  of 

?;"    *  equality.     When  the  wage-worker  is  maimed  or  killed  through 

^/  his  master's  negligence,  and  his  labor  power  thus  impaired  or 

*•  cut  oflF  altogether,  with  a  corresponding  reduction  in  or  termina- 

:  tion  of  ability  to  earn  a  livelihod,  his  claiim,  or  that  of  his  family, 

•against  his  master  for  reimbursement,  might  seem  to  the  tm- 
initiated  layman  peculiarly  meritorious.  It  shall  be  our  business 
to  notice  some  of  the  judge-made  rules  of  law  indicative  of  the 
attitude  of  the  courts  thereto.  *5\nd  first,  as  to  the  measure  of 
care  required  of  the  master. 

In  his  'vlrork  on  Master's  Liability,  Mr.  Bailey,  after  sum- 
marizing the  duties  of  the  master  as  those  of  furnishing  reason- 
ably safe  appliances,  a  reasonably  safe  place  to  work,  and  the 
employment  of  a  sufficient  number  of  competent  associates,  adds 
(p.  3),  "Jn  the  performance  of  these  duties,  the  master  is  bound  to 
the  exercise  of  reasonable  and  ordinary  care,  and  such  only." 
Later  he  quotes  (p.  24)  with  approval  from  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Pennsylvania:  *"Absolute  safety  is  unattainable,  and  em- 
ployers are  not  insurers.  They  are  liable  for  the  consequences, 
not  of  danger,  but  of  negligence;  and  the  unbending  test  of 
^,  negligence  in  methods,  machinery  and  appliances  is  the  ordinary 

•    ,  usage  of  the  business." 

:  Passing  by  the  principle,  which  is  itself  a  luminous  comment 

*/  on  the  spirit  of  capitalism,  that  human  life  and  limb  are  the  sub- 

^.  jects  of  only, ordinary  care,  let  us  scrutinize  the  "unbending  test" 

of  that  care,  "the  ordinary  usage  of  the  business."  There  is  no 
question  of  the  rule.  It  has  been  iterated  and  reiterated  until 
a  crticism  of  it  seems  almost  pathetic  in  its  futility.  And  yet 
whose  province  is  it  to  fix  "the  ordinary  usage  of  the  business"? 
That  of  the  employers.    Any  attempt  of  the  workers  to  do  so  is 

•TIt«8  V.  Railroad  Co..  136  Va.  618;  20  Atl.  617. 


LEGAL  FICTION  OF  EQUALITY  221 

quickly  resented  as  an  unwarranted  impertinence.  The  master 
erects  his  factory  with  a  minimum  allotment  qf  space,  air  and 
light.  He  places  cogs  and  belts  and  rollers  where  he  will,  and 
the  workers  are  then  invited  to  enter.  Now,  the  only  possible 
justification  for  this  "unbending  test"  of  negligence,  is  that  they 
may  refuse  to  do  so.  In  other  words,  that  the  wage-earners  may 
reject  undesirable  or  hazardous  employment,  thus  forcing  a  voice 
in  the  establishment  of  "the  ordinary  usage  of  the  business."  But 
as  we  have  seen  this  is  precisely  what  they  cannot  do.  Enter 
they  must,  constrained  by  the  imperious  necessity  which  binds 
them  in  their  status.  Only  when  some  single  employer  has  ex- 
ceeded the  average  disregard  of  human  safety,  may  some  of  the 
more  temerous  refuse  to  work  for  him. 

Thus  the  employers  as  a  class  establish  the  customary  condi- 
tions of  employment,  sanctify  by  usage  its  dangers  and  disoxn- 
forts  and  so  fix  the  standards  of  their  own  liability.  They  are 
made  judges  of  their  o\vn  cause;  and  what  any  particular  em- 
ployer is  held  for,  is  not  negligence,  but  more  than  average 
negligence.  Then  too,  as  the  employer  has  no  property  interest 
in  the  bodies  of  his  employees,  unless  he  is  actuated  by  motives 
of  humanity  or  unless  better  conditions  or  safer  appliances  will 
also  increase  the  output,  there  is  no  incentive  for  improvement. 
A  need  do  no  more  than  B,  nor  B  than  A.  Old  abuses  of  employ- 
ment may  continue  eternally,  carefully  safeguarded  by  this  rule 
of  law.  By  this  rule  the  courts  have  resigned  their  function  of 
arbitrators  between  the  parties,  and  contentedly  accept  the  meas- 
ure of  responsibility  prearranged  by  the  defendant  himself. 
That  this  is  the  practical  effect  of  the  rule  is  evidenced  by  the  leg- 
islative effort  to  supply,  as  by  factory  and  mine  inspection  laws, 
an  impartial  tribunal;  or,  as  in  the  case  of  the  act  of  Congress 
requiring  safety  brakes  on  cars  used  in  interstate  traffic,  a  meas- 
ure of  reliability  in  the  law  itself.  It  is,  however,  due  to  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  to  say  that,  latterly,  some  doubt  as  to  the 
justice  of  the  rule  seems  to  have  occured  to  that  eminent  tribunal. 
It  says  :*  "Ordinary  care  on  the  part  of  a  railroad  company  im- 
plies, as  between  it  and  its  employees,  not  simply  that  degree  of 
diligence  which  is  customary  among  those  intrusted  with  the  man- 
agement of  railroad  property,  but  such  as,  having  respect  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  particular  service,  ought  reasonably  to  be  ob- 
served. It  is  such  care  as,  in  view  of  the  consequences  that  m^ 
result  from  negligence  on  the  part  of  the  employer,  is  fairly  com- 
mensurated  with  the  perils  and  dangers  likely  to  be  encountered." 
But  Mr.  Bailey  believes  (p.  ii)  that  the  court  afterwards  receded 
from  this,  one  would  think  fairly  tenable,  position. 

But  when  even  by  these  low  standards,  the  master's  negligence 
in  a  given  instance  has  been  proven,  the  injured  servant's  case 

•Wabaah  By.  Co.  v.  McDaniels,  107,  U.  S.  454 ;  2  Sup.  Ct.  932. 


S22  INTEBNATlONAIi  SOCIALIST  BBVIEW 

is  by  no  means  won.  Defenses  peculiar  to  this  class  of  actions  still 
remain  open  to  the  former,  among  the  most  favorite  being  the 
doctrine  of  ''assumed  risk."  Mr.  Bailey's  explanation  of  this  doc- 
trine (Master^s  Liability,  p.  145)  is  so  naive  an  expression  of  cap- 
italistic sentiment,  as  to  merit  quotation  at  length: 

**  It  is  to  be  observed  that  persons  and  companies,  and  especially 
corporations,  whose  interests  are  large  and  business  complex  in 
character,  and  who  necessarily  have  to  intrust  the  management, 
and  performance  of  their  business  to  officers,  agents,  and  servants, 
do  not  always  adopt  such  a  method  of  conductmg  their  business  as 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  duty  as  measured  by  the  standard 
herein  before  stated  and  discussed.  There  are  many  classes  of 
business,  such  as  the  operation  of  large  factories  and  the  manage- 
ment and  operation  of  railroads,  which  are  ,  attended 
.with  great  risks  and  perils,  and  the  utmost,  or 
even  ordinary  prudence,  is  not  exercised,  either 
in  the  manner  of  constructing  their  structures,  providing  machin- 
ery and  appliances,  or  in  their  operation.  If  the  strict  rule  of  duty 
in  these  respects  was  always  required,  then  it  would  be  that  many, 
if  not  most,  of  the  enterprises  of  such  character,  which  add  so 
much  to  the  convenience  and  material  prosperity  of  the  people, 
would  have  to  be  abandoned.  Therefore  it  has  come  to  be  well 
settled  tliat  the  master  may  conduct  his  business  in  his  own  way, 
although  another  method  might  be  less  hazardous;  and  the  ser- 
vant takes  the  risk  of  the  more  hazardous  method,  as  well,  if  he 
knows  the  danger  attending  the  business  in  the  manner  in  which 
it  is  carried  on.  Hence,  if  the  servant  knowing  the  hazards  of 
his  employment  as  the  business  is  conducted,  is  injured  while  em- 
ployed in  such  business,  he  cannot  maintain  an  action  against  the 
employer  because  he  may  be  able  to  show  there  was  a  safer  mode 
in  which  the  business  might  have  been  carried  on,  and  that,  had 
it  been  conducted  in  that  manner,  he  would  not  have  been  injured. 
Therefore  the  liability  of  a  master  to  respond  to  his  servant  in 
damages  for  an  injury  received  in  the  scope  of  his  employment 
does  not  necessarily  follow  upon  proof  made  that  such  injury 
was  the  result  of  the  failure  of  the  master  to  fully  observe  his  duty 
as  such,  when  measured  by  the  standard  of  duty  required,  and 
governed  by  the  principles  stated  in  the  preceding  chapters,  for  the 
very  plain  reason  that  he  may  not  owe  his  servant  such  duty  or 
to  such  a  degree.  Such  standard  is  tliat  which  is  required  and 
must  be  observed  where  the  servant  has  no  knowledge,  actual  or 
presumed,  of  the  master*s  peculiar  method  of  business,  the  situa- 
tion of  his  premises,  the  character  of  his  machinery,"  etc.,  etc. 

Later  Mr.  Bailey  (p.  170)  thus  formulates  the  rule:  "The 
servant  assumes  the  hazard  of  dangerous  methods,  as  well  as  the 
use  of  defective  tools  or  machinery,  when,  after  employment,  he 
learns  of  the  defects,  but  voluntarily  continues  in  the  employment 

^American  RolllDg  Mill  Co.  v.  Hulllnger,  07  N.  E.  086. 


LEGAL  nCTION  OF  EQUALITY  223 

without  objection."  The  Supreme  Court  of  Indiana,  in  a  very 
late  case*  in  which  it  frustrated,  by  reasoning  unique  in  judicial 
annals,  a  bungling  legislative  atteppt  to  get  rid  of  the  doctrine, 
thus  carefully  defines  it :  "Notwithstanding  the  duties  the  master 
owes  the  servant  *  *  *  ^  yet,  if  it  appears  that  the  latter 
had  assumed  the  risk,  there  is  no  liability  for  negligence.  This 
is  but  an  application  of  the  maxim  'Volenti  non  fit  injuria'  (One 
who  consents  cannot  be  injured)  which  states  a  principle  of  very 
broad  application  in  the  law.  The  master  may  not  have  per- 
formed the  duty  required  of  him,  but  if  the  servant  knows  that 
such  duty  has  not  been  performed,  and  appreciates  the  extent  of 
the  risk  he  thereby  runs,  or  should  have  loiown  and  appreciated 
the  same,  he  ordinarily  assumes  the  risk,  and  this  absolves  the 
master  from  liability  for  his  resulting  injury/' 

That  the  servant  is  himself  duly  careful,  that  he  has  justifi- 
ably forgotten  the  defect  or  danger,  that  he  is  threatened  with 
discharge  if  he  does  not  accept  the  hazard  prepared  for  him, 
have  alike  been  held  not  to  relieve  him  from  assuming  the  risk 
of  his  master's  admitted  negligence.  If  he  calls  the  master's 
attention  to  the  defect  or  danger,  and  secures  a  promise  to  repair 
or  obviate  it  at  a  definite  time,  this  promise  may,  if  he  continues 
at  work  in  reliance  thereon,  relieve  him  from  assuming  the  risk, 
provided  the  danger  is  not  too  great,  until  it  becomes  apparent 
that  the  master  does  not  intend  to  fulfill  the  promise,  when  the 
risk  is  again  assumed. 

In  all  the  cases  where  the  doctrine  of  assumed  risk  is  applied, 
it  is  frankly  and  explicitly  placed  on  the  ground  that  the  wage 
worker  is  the  equal  in  all  respects  of  the  capitalist,  that  he  occupies 
an  equally  advantageous  position  and  enjoys  the  same  independ- 
ence of  action,  that  he  is  at  liberty  to  contract  for  such  employ- 
ment as  he  pleases,  and  to  abandon  it  at  will.  Hence  is  exacted 
the  price  of  this  flattering  liberty,  that  by  accepting  any  given 
employment  he  assumes  all  dangers  his  master  has  culpably  placed 
in  his  pathway,  of  which  he  knows  or  should  kiiow;  and  if  the 
danger  arises  after  employment,  his  continuance  therein  is  visited 
by  the  same  consequence.  That  all  this  is  in  full  accord  with  the 
Jegal  fiction  of  equality,  and  is  likewise  at  profoundest  variance 
with  the  facts,  needs  no  argument  to  show.  The  judges  who  thus 
lightly  remit  the  wage  earner  to  a  forfeiture  of  his  employment, 
with  the  alternative  of  inability  to  recover  for  injuries  incurred 
therein,  have,  as  members  of  a  different  economic  class,  never 
known  the  worry  of  a  *'lost  job,"  the  bitter  anxiety  of  being  ''out 
of  work,"  or  the  humiliation  of  looking  for  employment.  Judicial 
obliviousness  to  the  shackles  of  economic  necessity  binding  the 
laborer  to  his  task,  here  works,  probably,  the  crudest  injustice 
ever  perpetrated  by  the  courts  upon  the  helpless  in  the  name  of 
liberty. 


INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIEW 

.  Another  defense,  of  peculiar  inequality,  made  in  this  class  of 
actions  is  known  as  the  "fellow  servant  doctrine." 

It  is  a  principle  so  old  that  its  origin  is  lost  in  the  mists  of 
antiquity,  that  the  master  is  responsible  for  an  injury  caused  by 
the  negligence  of  the  servant  while  acting  within  the  scope  of  his 
employment.  This  principle,  known  as  the  doctrine  of  respondeat 
superior,  had  an  unquestioned  place  and  uniform  application  both 
in  English  and  American  law  till  1837,  when  the  case  of  Priestly 
V.  Fowler  (3  Mees.  &  W.  i)  was  decided  in  England.  In  that 
case  a  servant  sued  his  master  for  a  broken  thigh  caused  by  the 
overloading  and  breaking  of  the  master's  van.  The  court  in  re- 
^j-:-  fusing  him  relief,  said :    **If  the  master  be  held  liable  to  the  servant 

^  ;  in  this  action,  the  principle  of  that  liability  will  be  found  to  carry 

W  ■  /        us  to  an  alarming  extent.     *    *     *     if  the  owner  of  the  carriage 
^i  is  responsible  for  the  sufficiency  of  his  carriage  to  his  servant,  he 

2^  is  responsible  for  the  negligence  of  his  coachmaker,  or  his  hamess- 

W:-\  maker,  or  his  coachman.      *     *     *    Xhe  master,  for  example, 

i^;  J  would  be  liable  to  the  servant  for  the  negligence  of  the  chamber- 

J  i*^*  '  maid,  for  putting  him  into  a  damp  bed ;  for  3iat  of  the  upholsterer 

^-J,  for  sending  in  a  crazy  bedstead,  whereby  he  was  made  to  fall  down 

If'  while  asleep  and  injure  himself;  for  the  negligence  of  the  cook  in 

&^:  not  properly  cleaning  the  copper  vessels  used  in  the  kitchen ;  of  the 

^-v  ^  butcher  in  supplying  the  family  with  meat  of  a  quality  injurious 

^i  to  health;  of  the  builder  for  a  defect  in  the  foundation  of  the 

^'\  house,  whereby  it  fell  and  injured  both  the  master  and  the  servant 

S*-/  '  by  the  ruins.    The  inconvenience,  not  to  say  the  absurdity,  of  these 

t.  consequences,  afford  a  sufficient  argument  against  the  application 

\^\  of  this  principle   (the  doctrine  of  respondeat  superior)   to  the 

I^V  present  case."    Thus  an  immemorial  principle,  so  far  as  it  would 

v^:  have  protected  the  wage-earner,  was  disposed  of  by  ridicule  rather 

^:V  than  argument,  and  that  ridicule  not  only  of  a  poor  quality,  but 

I .  showing  a  very  stupid  failure  to  distinguish  between  a  fellow 

J  servant  and  one  from  whom  the  master  purchased  goods. 

^^    '  Four  years  later,  the  Court  of  Errors  of  South  Carolina* 

|;  reached  the  same  conclusion,  basing  it  upon  a  wholly  fanciful  and 

^^,  fictitious  "joint  undertaking"  by  all  the  servants  to  work  for  their 

%,  master. 

jT^  A  year  later  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts!  annqunced 

^ :  the  fellow  servant  rule,  placing  it  squarely  on  the  basis  of  assumed 

tv"'  risk,  and  in  1850,  the  English  courts  J  did  the  same,  sa)dng,  "The 

9!  principle  is,  that  a  servant  when  he  engages  to  serve  a  master 

^.  undertakes,  as  between  himself  and  his  master,  to  run  all  the 

K\  ordinary  risks  of  the  service,  and  this  includes  the  risk  of  negli- 

?4  gence  upon  the  part  of  a  fellow  servant  when  he  is  acting  in  the 

% .  discharge  of  his  duty  as  a  servant  of  him  who  is  the  common 

master  of  both."     The  Massachusetts  case  has  become  the  leading 
|J  ,  one  on  the  subject  in  the  United  States,  and  the  fellow  servant 

doctrine  may  fairly  be  taken  to  be,  in  the  view  of  the  courts,  but 


i 


U-: 


LEGAL  FICTION  OP  EQUALITY  225 

a  phase  or  special  application  of  the  doctrine  of  assumed  risk, 
already  discussed. 

The  rule  itself  is  thus  formulated  by  Mr.  McKinney  in  his 
work  on  Fellow  Servants,  p.  i8:  Where  a  master  uses  due  dili- 
gence in  the  selection  of  competent  and  trusty  servants,  and 
lumishes  them  with  suitaWe  means  to  perform  the  service  in  which 
he  employs  them,  he  is  not  answerable  to  one  of  them  for  an 
injury  received  by  him  in  consequence  of  the  carelessness  of  an- 
other, while  both  are  engaged  in  the  same  service." 

The  extreme  harshness  and  hardship  of  this  rule  when  practi- 
cally applied,  has  led  some  courts,  notably  that  of  Ohio,  to  dis- 
tinguish between  fellow  servants  and  "vice-principals,"  and  other 
courts  to  require  that,  if  the  rule  is  to  operate,  the  servants  shall  be 
personally  associated.  It  is  now  very  generally  modified  by  stat- 
ute far  enough  to  exclude  railroad  employees  from  its  scope. 

In  conclusion,  therefore,  we  may  say  that  there  are  classes  in 
America,  and  that  the  judicial  pharisaism  which  refuses  to  recog- 
nize the  fact  has  wrought  cruel  deception  and  bitter  injustice. 
Flattered  by  meretricious  assurances  of  equality,  the  working- 
man  has  exerted  himself  to  preserve  the  existing  order  of  things, 
while  his  sole  asset,  his  ability  to  labor,  has  been  made  the  play- 
thing of  judicial  subserviency  to  capitalism.  But  does  the  work- 
ing-man feel  agg^eved  by  this  attitude  of  the  courts  toward  him  ? 
(he  may  not,  tor  his  patience  is  one  of  the  most  curious  social 
phenomena  of  our  time) — ^the  remedy  lies  with  himself.  This 
same  doctrine  of  equality  which  has  been  thus  adroitly  used  to  his 
undoing,  has  placed  in  his  hands  the  ballot,  the  law  making  power, 
before  even  which  courts  must  bow.  Not  one  of  the  judicial  doc- 
trines here  criticised  but  may  be  abrogated  by  half  a  dozen  lines 
of  properly  drafted  legislation.  No  constitutional  sanction  hedges 
them  about,  no  vested  right  can  be  worked  in  their  defense.  All 
that  is  needed  is  that  the  wage  earner  shall  cease  to  vote  for  candi- 
dates of  old  parties  which  are  but  the  political  expression  of 
various  capitalistic  and  middle-class  interests,  and  cast  an  intelli- 
gent ballot  in  his  own  behalf.  No  workingman  can  doubt  that 
a  socialist  legislature  or  socialist  court  would  sweep  away  this 
entire  fabric  of  subtle  injustice  with  the  rapidity  of  an  aveng- 
ing besom.  Does  he  want  to  be  rid  of  it?  That  is  the  only 
question. 

Clarence  Meily, 

^Murray  y.  South  Carolina  R.  Coo..  1  McMuIlan  385 ;  36  Am.  Dec.  268. 
tFarwell  y.  Boston  &  Worcester  R.  Corp.,  4  Mete.  49. 

iHutchinfion  v.  Nork,  New  Castle  &  Berwick  R.  Co.,  5  Exch.  343  ;  10  L.  J. 
Ezch.  206. 


The  National  Organizing  Work. 

THE  contribution  of  one  thousand  dollars  by  Comrade  J. 
A.  Wayland  of  the  Appeal  to  Reason  to  the  National 
Organizing  Fund  comes  in  good  season.  It  comes  at  a 
time  when  most  needed  and  when  it  can  be  put  to  the 
best  uses  for  the  Socialist  Party,  which  is  the  concrete  expres- 
sion of  the  Socialist  movement  in  America. 

While  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  organizing  work 
carried  on  by  the  National  Socialist  Party  during  tiie  past  eight 
months  has  exceeded  that  performed  in  any  similar  length  of 
time  before,  yet  even  this  was  not  all  that  was  needed  or  de- 
sired to  be  done.  It  is  simple  enough  to  inaugurate  a  work  of 
this  kind;  the  great  difficulty  comes  in  contiuing  it  after  it  has 
begun.  It  was  quite  impossible  to  satisfy  all  sections  requiring 
or  asking  for  organizers  at  once  and  the  same  time.  The  num- 
ber of  organizers  employed  was  not  sufficient  to  go  around,  the 
territory  to  be  covered  too  large,  and  the  resources  of  the  national 
office  too  limited.  For  these  reasons  many  comrades  have  been 
disappointed,  and  in  some  cases  impatience  has  been  manifested 
at  being  "neglected"  when  the  national  office  was  doing  the  best 
it  could.  The  Quorum  and  National  Committee  are  more  than 
anxious  to  promote  the  organizing  work,  but  they  could  not  do  it 
under  the  circumstances,  however  much  they  desired  to. 

But  the  Appeal  to  Reason  donation,  while  not  altogether  solv- 
ing the  problem,  makes  the  way  easier.  Upon  its  receipt  the  Na- 
tional Secretary  submitted  to  the  Quorum  propositions  which  he 
has  long  had  in  mind,  for  extending  the  organizing  capacity  into 
territory  heretofore  untouched.  These  propositions  have  been 
approved  by  the  Quorum,  and  their  successful  fulfilment  will 
depend  upon  the  comrades  in  the  sections  receiving  the  benefit,  as 
well  as  upon  the  party  at  large. 

In  brief,  the  propositions  may  be  outlined  as  follows: 

That  Comrade  F.  E.  Seeds  of  Kentucky,  if  available,  be  ap- 
pointed national  organizer  for  the  states  of  Maryland,  West  Vir- 
ginia and  North  Carolina.'  Comrade  Seeds  has  had  much  experi- 
ence as  a  party  agitator  and  organizer  and  is  highly  recom- 
mended to  the  National  Office. 

That  J.  W.  Bennett  of  Iowa,  be  appointed  national  organizer. 
for  the  states  of  North  and  South  Dakota.  Comrade  Beimett  was 
recommended  by  National  Committeeman  Work  some  time  ago, 
but  no  opportunity  was  presented  to  use  his  services. 

That  P.  J.  Hyland  of  Nebraska,  if  available,  be  appointed  na- 
tional organizer  for  Wyoming,  and  should  circumstances  permit, 
for  Utah.  Comrade  Hyland  is  a  fine  out-door  speaker,  and  all 
around  hard  worker. 


r 


NATIONAL   OEGANIZINQ  WOBK      f  227 

That  changes  be  made  in  routes  arranged  for  organizers  al- 
ready in  the  field  as  follows:  Bigelow  to  go  from  Kansas  to 
Arkansas,  and  then  take  Goebel's  place  in  the  Indian  and  Okla- 
homa Territories,  instead  of  going  on  through  Alabama  and 
Georgia  to  Florida.  Goebel  will  be  confined  to  Texas  and 
Louisiana  until  December.  Ray  will  take  Bigelow's  place  in 
Georgia  and  Florida,  touching  zdso  South  Carolina  on  the  way. 
Alabama  has  already  received  some  valuable  attention  from  the 
national  office,  but  will  be  cared  for  later  on.  McKee  will  re- 
main in  Arizona  until  November,  and  then  probably  enter  Ne- 
vada. Wilkins  will  work  in  Washington,  Montana,  Idaho  and 
Oregon.  In  the  East  John  W.  Brown  and  John  Spargo  will 
work  in  Rhode  Island  between  now  and  November,  assisting  in 
the  state  campaign.  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  will  receive 
attention  about  December.  Delaware  will  be  cared  for  as  opppr- 
timity  presents.  In  states  not  named  either  financial  assistance 
has  been  already  rendered  by  the  National  Committee,  or  ar- 
rangements have  been  made  by  the  states  themselves  to  support 
organizers.  The  Quorum  has  also  voted  to  place  an  Italian  Or- 
ganizer in  the  field  in  the  person  of  Silvio  Origo,  and  he  will 
make  an  interstate  tour. 

In  the  meantime  Comrade  Ben  Hanford  will  be  continuing  his 
successful  lecture  tour,  which  will  carry  him  to  the  Pacific  Coast 
and  back  through  the  Northwestern  States.  Other  lecture  tours 
will  also  be  arranged.  • 

A  study  of  these  plans  will  show  that  within  the  next  six 
months  every  state  and  territory  will  have  received  visits  from 
national  organizers  or  will  be  supporting  organizers  of  their  own. 
Comrades  must  bear  in  mind  that  every  place  cannot  be  visited 
AT  ONCE.  The  national  office  cannot  assume  financial  respon- 
sibility for  any  more  organizers  than  it  can  afford  to  support.  It 
is  most  important  that  the  party  be  kept  out  of  debt.  But  every 
place  will  finally  be  visited,  if  the  comrades  will  but  realize  the 
immensity  of  the  task  we  have  undertaken  and  be  patient  with  us. 

In  this  connection  it  is  in  order  to  point  out  that  while  the 
national  organizing  fund  has  reached  $i,ooo  in  round  figures 
(apart  from  the  Appeal  donation)  yet  this  sum  has  not  nearly 
covered  the  amount  expended  by  the  national  office  for  organiz- 
ing during  the  seven  months  past.  IF  IT  HAD  NOT  BEEN 
FOR  DUES  RECEIVED,  the  work  could  not  have  gone  on  as 
it  has.  The  organizing  fund  has  only  assisted  in  starting  the 
work,  and  without  the  revenue  for  dues  it  could  not  have  been 
continued. 

Besides,  the  running  expenses  of  the  office  are  steadily  on  the 
increase.  Supplies  are  being  furnished  to  affiliated  organizations 
merely  at  cost,  organizers  have  to  be  kept  supplied,  the  leaflets 
"Why  Socialists  Pay  Dues"  and  "How  to  Organize"  are  sent 
out  free,  and  this  means  that  printing  bills  must  be  constantly 


.•«*':'■■' 


1 


E-^"'  228  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW 

^>  met.    An  additional  number  of  organizers  will  naturally  involve 

additional  expense  of  all  kinds. 

The  office  force  is  working  night  and  day  in  order  to  keep  up, 
•but  improvements  in  the  method  of  conducting  business  are  con- 
stantly needed.  The  National  Secretary  is  arranging  to  fit  out 
the  office  in  thorough  manner,  so  that  the  business  can  finally  be 
,  run  systematically  and  economically.  This  would  have  been  done 
before,  but  some  of  the  old  debts  are  still  unpaid,  although  the 
next  three  months  will  certainly  see  them  wiped  out  for  good. 

All  this  should  impress  party  members  with  the  necessity  of, 
first,  paying  dues  promptly,  and,  second,  subscribing  what  they 
can  to  the  National  organizing  fund.  Don't  think  that  Comrade 
Wayland's  donation  has  equipped  us  completely  for  the  work  of 
organization.  IT  HAS  ONLY  GIVEN  US  A  SPLENDID 
j/  OPPORTUNITY  to  become  equipped,  through  organization, 

for  the  great  battle  of  next  year  and  the  greater  ones  to  follow. 
Coin  cards  for  donations  to  the  organizing  fund  will  be  furnished 
upon  application  by  the  National  Secretary. 
|i^'       •  The  objective  point  to  be  aimed  at  at  present  is  to  get  every 

^,y  state  into  such  a  condition  that  it  can  support  either  one  orga- 

f]:'  nizer,  or  more,  for  itself.    To  accomplish  this  the  National  Com- 

tKV  mittee  should  be  left  free  to  carry  out  its  plans  through  its  rep- 

f^^  .  resentatives,  and  locals  and  states  should  render  all  the  assistance 

^i"  possible  and  practice  self  dependence  and  self  reliance  at  the 

it;.  '  same  time.     Do  not  expect  too  much  from  the  National  Office. 

fr  Especially  does  this  advice  apply  to  the  tendency  to  look  to  the 

i;  National  Committee  for  financial  assistance  for  one  purpose  or 

another.    All  the  money  within  reach  is  needed  for  conducting  the 
r  organizing  and  lecture  work. 

^^  Finally,  let  every  party  member  keep  in  good  standing  by  pay- 

f'  ing  dues,  promptly  and  regularly  and  determine  to  gain  at  least 

^{  one  new  member  every  month.    By  doing  this  the  most  effective 

i  and  surest  method  will  be  used  to  solidify  and  knit  together  the 

V  ^  revolutionary  forces  rapidly  developing  in  America  into  compact 

organization  prepared  to  enter  the  national  campaign  of  1904  to 

wage  a  conflict  against  capitalism  which  will  result  in  making  the 

Socialist  Party  the  second  political  party  in  importance  in  this 

r  country  and  the  leader  of  the  international  Socialist  movement 

for  working-class  emancipation  throughout  the  world. 

William  Mctilly, 

'/  National  Secretary, 

Socialist  Party. 


r 


The  Present  Aspect  of  Political  Socialism  in  England. 

MORALLY  and  intellectually  Socialism  is  on  the  march; 
politically  it  hobbles  along,  lamely  if  gamely.  I  for  one 
cannot  conceal  from  myself  a  sense  of  anxiety  and  fore- 
boding. This  sense  of  disquietude  has  reference  only  . 
to  the  comparatively  restricted  area  of  politics.  It  seems  to  me 
that  it  is  time  for  Socialism  to  examine  the  situation.  In  a  sen- 
tence, my  fear  is  that  unless  in  the  near  future  we  can  bring 
about  Socialist  consolidation,  we  may  find  political  socialism  effec- 
tively sidetracked  for  a  decade  or  more.  The  purpose  of  this  ar- 
ticle is  to  attract  attention  to  certain  political  tendencies  dangerous 
to  our  movement  and  to  make  one  or  two  practical  proposals 
for  Clarion  readers  to  consider  and  amend. 

These  tendencies  affect  Socialist  organizations  externally  and 
internally.  The  first  category  expresses  itself  in  the  present  fiscal 
agitation  which  is  bringing  in  its  train  Liberal  concentration.  The 
second  covers  the  present  organization  of  the  various  Socialist 
bodies,  their  relatipn  to  each  other  and  their  joint  relation  to  the 
Labor  Representation  Committee.  It  is  obvious  that  what  affects 
us  externally  must  have  vital  relation  to  the  inward  arrangements 
of  the  Socialist  groups. 

It  is  now  evident  that  Liberalism  has  nothing  to  say  to  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  new  protectionism  beyond  the  blank  negative.  We 
all  agree  that  the  Chamberlain  scheme  is  heretical  and  futile. 
Liberalism  sees  its  chance  and  already  a  silent  message  speeds  its 
course  through  the  constituencies  that,  at  all  hazards  and  at 
whatever  cost,  the  principles  of  Free  Trade  must  be  asserted.  In 
plain  English  this  means  vote  for  Liberalism.  But  a  blank  nega- 
tive is  poor  fare  for  empty  bellies.  The  Liberalists  are  vehemently 
asserting  that  never  has  Great  Britain  been  so  prosperous  and  that 
if  we  revert  to  the  discussion  of  food  (or  of  imported  manufac- 
tured goods)  we  make  life  unendurable  for  30  per  cent  of  the 
population  now  living  on  the  verge  of  poverty.  A  country  is 
strangely  prosperous  with  30  per  cent  of  its  population  poverty 
stricken.      It   is   precisely  this  large  proportion   of   under-paid,  i 

under-fed,  ill-educated  fellowmen  and  women  which  most  deeply  j 

concern  Socialist  propaganda.    When,  therefore,  the  Socialist  asks  ^. 

the  Liberal  what  are  his  constructive  proposals  in  regard  to  this  i 

the  "least  of  our  brethren"  the  Liberal  replies  "Wait,  we  must  .] 

first  defeat  Chamberlain."     For  two  generations  this  has  been  | 

the  Liberal  answer  to  this  question.     A  question  which  now,  « 

thank  heaven,  is  stern  and  insistent.    "Wait,  we  must  beat  Salis-  jj 

bury."    "Wait,  we  must  turn  out  the  ineffable  Balfour."    "Wait,  •"! 

we  must  unseat  arrogant  Toryism."     It  is  a  wearisome  mono-  i 

chord,  wait,  wait,  wait.    We  search  in  vain  through  the  speeches  3 

229. 


230  INTEENATIONAIi  SOCIALIST  BEfVIEW 

of  Rosebery,  Campbell-Bannerman,  Asquith,  Spencer,  Grey  and 
John  Morley  for  the  slightest  indication  of  any  sense  of  the  real 
meaning  of  the  poverty  question.  From  the  Socialist  point  of 
view,  Liberalism  is  as  barren  as  the  Sahara.  When,  therefore, 
because  Chamberlain  made  a  foolish  proposal,  I  am  asked  to  vote 
Liberal  and  wait  for  a  more  convenient  season  for  social  reform, 
I  respectfully  decline.    I  shall  vote  Socialist  or  not  at  all. 

It  is  at  this  point  my  troubles  begin.  Has  Socialism  anything 
to  say  to  these  immediate  political  problems,  and  does  it  possess 
the  requisite  political  machinery  to  impress  itself  upon  the  elec- 
torate? On  the  first  point  I  affirm  that  it  is  Socialism  and  only 
Socialism  that  has  any  constructive  alternative  to  the  shadowy 
Chamberlain  project;  on  the  second  point  I  affirm  that  it  is  now 
practicable  to  construct  the  necessary  political  machinery  if  So- 
cialists will  but  attend  to  their  own  affairs. 

Alas,  there  is  the  rub.  Can  we  really  contend  that  Socialism 
asserts  its  distinctive  message  in  the  tumult  and  clamor  of  present 
politics  ?  Is  there  not  an  immediate,  urgent  danger  that  the  move- 
ment towards  concentration  on  a  Free  Trade  basis  may  sub- 
merge and  nullify  the  Socialist  propaganda  of  the  past  ten  years  ? 
Does  it  look  well  for  Socialist  unity  to  see  prominent  Socialist 
platform  men  voicing  indiscriminate  Free  Trade  economics  ?  It  is 
necessary  to  remember  that  negative  criticism  spells  Liberal 
revival ;  constructive  alternatives  spell  Socialist  consolidation.  The 
Liberals  must  ultimately  fail  and  deservedly  so  unless  they  are 
prepared  with  legislation  that  controls  and  humanizes  our 
so-called  industrial  system ;  if  the  Socialists  follow  in  the  wake  of 
the  Liberal  flock  of  downy  negations  they  will  inevitably  share 
in  the  discredit. 

In  contrast  with  Liberalism's  barren  creed  now  let  us  see  what 
Socialism  has  to  say  to  the  dominant  political  question  of  the 
hour.  We  are  told  that  effectively  to  link  up  the  colonies  to  the 
mother  co^untry  we  must  tax  food,  food  in  general,  bread  in  par- 
ticular. Observe  that  the  end  in  ciew  is  closer  colonial  connec- 
tion ;  a  means  to  that  end  is  tailation  of  foodstuffs.  This  strikes 
at  the  very  roots  of  political  Socialism.  We  have  something  very 
definite  to  say  on  both  points.  I  wilPtake  the  second  point  first. 
The  Socialist  reply  to  Chamberlain  is  surely  as  constructive  and 
explicit  as  the  Liberal  reply  is  negative  and  irrelevant.  "Tax 
bread?  No,  thank  you,''  says  Socialism;  "but  we  will  make  it." 
Here  follows  the  obvious  argument  in  regard  to  municipal  baker- 
ies, butcheries,  and  what  not.  Does  the  Liberal  agree  to  it?  Not 
in  the  least.  He  is  as  much  committed  to  capitalistic  production 
as  the  Tory,  perhaps  more  so.  Let  the  Socialist  never  weary  in 
presenting  his  own  constructive  alternative  to  the  Chamberlain 
proposal  to  tax  bread  and  I  do  not  fear  the  result.  To  the  large 
issues  involved  in  fiscal  imperialism  not  much  need  be  said.  Again, 


THE  PEESENT  ASPECT  OF  POLITICAL  SOCIALISM       231 

because  of  fundamental  differences  in  principle,  Socialism  and 
Liberalism  cannot  camp  together.  To  begin  with,  the  Liberals 
are  hopelessly  divided.  Rosebery  and  Asquith  are  Imperial- 
ists ;  they  are  committed  to  an  arrogant  military  imperialism;  they 
are  in  part  responsible  for  the  present  fiscal  proposals.  They  rep- 
resent one  school  of  imperialism.  Campb^U-Bannerman,  Har- 
court  and  John  Morley  are  strenuously  opposed  to  this  type  of  Lib- 
eralism; they  are  the  Old  Guard  Manchester,  laisser  alter .  The 
Socialist  has  neither  part  nor  lot  with  either  faction.  Again  it  is 
the  Socialist  who  offers  a  constructive  alternative  to  Chamber- 
lain's fiscal  levitation.  We  are  glad  enough  to  bring  the  colonies 
nearer  to  us  provided  no  sound  economic  laws  are  contravened. 
We  are  glad  to  bring  all  countries  nearer  to  us.  If  events  so 
shape  themselves  that  the  centripetal  movement  first  affects  the 
colonies,  why  then  we  will  take  the  occasion  by  the  hand.  But 
how  ?  Obviously  by  seeking  to  control  sea-transit.  It  is  the  ship- 
ping ring  and  the  adverse  freight  rate  that  keep  our  colonies  such 
a  hopeless  distance  from  us.  To  imperialize  (I  dislike  the  word, 
but  there  is  no  other)  those  shipping  lines  that  connect  us  with 
our  colonies;  to  reorganize  freight  rates  on  a  reasonable  basis; 
to  preclude  all  preferential  rates;  to  control  the  railway  system, 
as  we  would  control  the  mercantile  marine;  to  resuscitate  our 
canals — all  this  is  in  the  difect  line  of  Socialist  economics  and 
can  only  consistently  be  advocated  by  Socialists. 

Nor  must  we  forget  that  any  constructive  system,  partial  or 
complete,  appreciates  rent  far  beyond  the  extent  of  impost.  You 
cannot  dodge  rent.  Have  the  Liberalists  anything  to  say  on  the 
land  question?    You  can  cut  the  silence  with  a  knife. 

These  then  are  the  very  political  elements  in  which  Socialists 
should  positively  revel.  To  make  bread  rather  than  to  tax  it ;  to 
control  transit,  both  land  and  sea;  to  drive  home  the  thousand 
morals  of  the  land  question ;  all  this  is  fruitful  Socialist  politics. 
Are  we  doing  it?  A  prominent  American  Socialist  asked  me  the 
other  day  if  the  British  Socialists  had  met  to  consider  these  urgent 
questions.  What  answer  had  I  not  to  make  ashamed?  The  truth 
is  we  are  meekly  following  the  lead  of  the  Daily  News. 

To  understand  the  secret  of  Socialist  political  impotence  we 
must  look  inward  as  well  as  outward.    Inward  into  what? 

Certainly  not  into  the  Socialist  Party,  because  there  isn't  one. 

There  are  a  number  of  Socialist  groups,  the  I.  L.  P.,  S.  D.  F., 
Fabian  and  some  isolated  local  organizations.  They  are  all  des- 
perately busy  upon  their  own  concerns ;  the  result  is  that  the  lar- 
ger and  more  prominent  interests  of  Socialism  are  regarded  with 
Olympian  indifference.  I  have  never  believed  that  Socialist  con- 
centration, to^  say  nothing  of  unity,  would  come  from  the  inside 
of  the  Socialist  movement.  There  are  too  many  temperamental 
clashings  to  nurse  any  such  hope.  Outside,  pressure,  the 
menace  of  political  extinction,  must  soon  compel  definite  steps 


^^ 


p. 


5A' 


r 

ft . 


INTKRNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 


towards  consolidation.  If  the  present  Socialist  leaders  do  not 
realize  this,  then  they  must  be  sent  about  their  business.  Our 
circumstances  are  becoming  too  exigent  to  consider  the  present 
susceptibilities. 

The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  define  our  attitude  towards  the  Labor 
Representation  Committee.  Owing  to  the  chairman's  fatuous 
ruling  at  the  York  Conference  the  I.  L.  P.  has  solemnly  declared 
that  the  only  possible  basis  of  Socialist  unity  is  in  affiliation 
with  the  L.  R.  C,  an  avowedly  non-Socialist  organization.  Now 
this  simply  would  not  do;  it  is  too  ridiculous.  Four  of  the  five 
L.  R.  C.  members  of  parliament  are  hard-shell  Liberals.  But  to 
be  distinctively  Socialist  in  no  sense  precludes  a  cordial  working 
arrangement  with  the  trade  unions.  One  of  the  greatest  advan- 
tages of  the  Consolidated  Socialist  party  is  that  it  can  be  oppor- 
tunist without  sacrifice  of  principle  or  misconception.  As 
things  are-  now  the  I.  L.  P.  is  affiliated  with  the  L.  R.  C,  whilst 
the  S.  D.  F.  is  not.  This  creates  misconception  and  tends  to  irri- 
tation. I  do  not  think  that  as  yet  there  has  been  any  sacrifice  of 
principle  on  the  part  of  the  I.  L.  P.,  but  it  has  gone  perilously 
near  the  margin.  Mr.  Keir  Hardie  has  now  admitted  (Labor 
Leader,  August  8)  that  in  the  affiliation,  the  members  of  the  I. 
L.  P.  deliberately  ran  the  risk  of  merging  their  Socialism  in 
vague  and  indefinable  laborism.  Personally  I  feel  strongly  that 
no  such  risk  should  have  been  run.  Nor  do  I  think  it  was  in  the 
least  necessary. 

The  Taff  Vale  judgment  meant  the  entrance  of  trade  unionism 
into  active  politics.  It  tore  aside  all  conventional  coverings  and 
laid  bare  that  remorseless  class  struggle,  the  existence  of  which 
Mr.  Bruce  Glasier  complacently  denies.  The  trade  unions  saw 
that  in  this  struggle  they  must  fight  politically  as  well  as  in- 
dustrially. And  in  the  fight  it  was  the  duty  and  the  pleasure  of 
all  Socialists  to  co-operate.  But  whilst  the  Socialist  seeks  to  end 
this  class  struggle  by  abolishing  private  capitalism,  the  trade 
unionist  as  yet  accepts  the  present  economic  system,  seeking  ever 
to  better  his  condition.  At  the  moment  he  wants  to  reconstruct 
trade  unionism  at  the  breaches  made  by  judges.  I  believe  that 
the  Liberals  will  amend  the  trade  union  law  if  they  be  returned  to 
power.  Supposing  this  to  be  the  case,  it  is  clear  to  my  mind 
that  the  trade  unions  must  finally  split.  Some  will  support  liber- 
alism out  of  gratitude ;  others  will  realize  the  economic  situation 
and  gradually  approach  the  Socialists.  If  the  trade  union  move- 
ment towards  Socialism  is  to  make  itself  felt,  there  must  be  a 
strong  Socialist  party  to  welcome  such  an  army  of  recruits.  By 
all  means  let  us  help  the  trade  unions — we  must  do  so  or  we  belie 
our  principles;  but  we  must  establish  a  truer  equipoise  in  the 
labor  army  by  consolidating  and  unifying  our  Socialist  forces. 

How  is  this  to  be  done?  Not  easily,  I  grant.  Yet  there  is 
nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  to  divide  us.    The  I.  L.  P.  occupies 


THE  PBESENT  ASPECT  OP  POLITICAL  SOCIALISM        233 

a  fairly  strong  strategic  position  because  it  has  one  leg  in  the 
trade  union  camp  and  the  other  in  the  Socialist  camp.  But  there 
are  dangers.  Let  it  beware  lest  it  be  torn  asunder.  Whatever 
tends  to  strengthen  Socialism  must  in  the  nature  of  things  materi- 
ally strengthen  our  influences  amongst  the  trade  unions.  The 
I.  L.  P.  Leaders  would  be  immeasurably  stronger  equipped  if  they 
voiced  the  sentiments  of  a  united  Socialist  party.  I  frankly  con- 
fess that  why  they  stubbornly  refuse  passes  my  comprehension. 
The  S.  D.  F.  by  its  rigid  adherence  to  Socialist  doctrine  pure  and 
undefiled  has  bred  great  qualities  in  its  members — qualities 
that  have  their  inevitable  defects.  When  I  hear  a  body  of  S.  D. 
F.-ers  spontaneously  break  into  the  song,  "We'll  keep  the  old  flag 
flying  yet/'  I  feel  a  crick  in  my  throat,  but  my  emotions  are 
^  mixed.  There  is  now  ample  evidence  that  the  S.  D.  F.  is  ready 
to  fall  into  the  line  of  one  Socialist  party.  Their  knowledge  of 
European  Socialism  urges  them  towards  organic  unity.  None 
the  less  Socialist  unity  will  not  come  in  a  day. 

I  venture  to  make  two  proposals,  both  of  which  would  involve 
a  step  in  advance.  Let  the  conferences  of  Socialists  be  only  to 
consider  our  attitude  towards  the  Chamberlain  scheme.  The 
series  of  resolutions  embracing  communal  production  of  food  com- 
modities, transit,  and.  the  land  question  would,  I  believe,  give 
a  unified  purpose  to  political  Socialism.  The  executives  of  the 
L  L.  P.,  the  Fabian  Society,  might  take  the  business  in  hand. 

My  second  proposal  is  of  a  more  delicate  character.  It  re- 
lates to  the  I.  L.  P.  and  S.  D.  F.  only.  Next  year  both  parties 
hold  their  annual  conference  in  different  parts  of  the  country; 
but  no  arrangements  have  yet  been  made  for  1905.  I  suggest 
that  in  1904  both  conferences  decide  to  meet  in  the  same  town 
and  at  the  same  time  in  1905.  Let  each  organization  discuss  its 
own  affairs  at  its  morning  session;  let  there  be  joint  sessions 
each  afternoon  to  discuss  national  politics  and,  if  possible,  accept 
definite  resolutions.  If  this  be  done— it  is  quite  feasible  and  com- 
mits us  to  nothing — the  next  step  toward  party  unity  will  not  be 
long  delayed. 

For  national  reasons;  for  sectional  purposes;  to  defeat  the 
menace  of  political  extinction ;  to  secure  discipline ;  to  co-ordinate 
our  all-too-scanty  intellectual  resources;  to  face  the  actual  facts 
and  mould  politial  situations;  to  do  these  things  needs  Socialist 
consolidation.  The  time  is  ripe  for  Socialists  of  all  complexions 
frankly  to  discuss  the  actual  bearing  of  recent  events  uix>n  our 
political  efficiency.  To  conclude,  consolidated  Socialism  spells 
enhanced  political  strength;  desiccated  Socialism  means  the  im- 
potent preaching  of  those  principles  crudely  expressed. 

— S.  G.  Hobson  in  London  Clarion, 


1 


The  Ferri  Criminal. 

A  MAN  in  a  public  library,  nowadays,  must  awaken  to  the 
fact  that  criminals  are  being  studied  as  they  never  were 
before.    And  if  this  observing  person  happens  to  be  a 
Socialist,  he  will  be  pleased  to  see  that  Ferri's  book, 
"Criminal  Sociology,"  is  considered  a  standard  work,  to  be  given 
the  same  honors  and  shelf  as  Lombroso,  Joly  and  others. 

With  scientists  who  are  not  conscious  of  a  class  struggle,  a 
discussion  on  criminology  can  have  but  little  attraction  for  the 
Socialist — for  it  would  lack  that  fundamental  unity  of  opinion 
which"  is  necessary  to  right  conclusions.  But  with  Comrade 
Ferri — a.  class  conscious  Socialist — ^there  should  be  no  such  stumb- 
ling block,  and  we  can  at  least  be  sure  of  a  starting  point  of 
agreement — ^however  much  we  may  disagree  with  some  of  his 
deductions. 

In  the  English  translation!  of  his  work,  edited  by  Douglas 
Morrison,  Ferri  states :  "Our  task  is  to  show  that  the  basis  of 
every  theory  concerning  the  self-defense  of  the  community  against 
evildoers  must  be  the  observation  of  the  individual  and  of  society 
in  their  criminal  activity.  In  one  word,  our  task  is  to  construct 
a  criminal  sociology."  (Preface  xvi.)  And  again:  "The  sci- 
ence of  criminal  statistics  is  to  criminal  sociology  what  histology 
is  to  biology,  for  it  exhibits,  in  the  conditions  of  the  individual 
elements  of  the  collectve  organism,  the  factors  of  a  crime  as  a 
social  phenomenon.  And  that  not  only  for  scientific  inductions, 
but  also  for  practical  and  legislative  purposes;  for,  as  Lord 
Brougham  said  at  the  London  Statistical  Congress  in  i860, 
'Criminal  statistics  are  for  the  legislator  what  the  chart  and  com- 
pass are  for  the  navigator.'  " 

From  all  this  it  must  be  plain  that  Ferri  considers  the  study 
of  criminology,  for  all  practical  purposes,  to  be  the  study  of  an 
exact  science.  But  is  it?  Is  the  fountainhead  of  all  the  interest- 
ing conclusions  arrived  at  by  criminologists  a  well  of  truth?  I' 
refer  to  their  tables  of  statistics  in  particular,  and  their  subjects  of 
study  in  general. 

If  criminology  is  a  branch  of  natural  history,  then  nature 
must  have  so  marked,  assorted  and  labeled  certain  men  that  wise 
professors  can  place  them  in  their  proper  jars  after  a  careful  an- 
alyzation.  To  bear  thi§  theory  out,  Ferri  would  have  us  study  the 
skull,  the  brain,  the  vital  organs,  the  mental  constitution,  and  the 
personal  characteristics  of  the  criminal.  Even  the  climate,  the 
nature  of  the  soil,  the  relative  length  of  day  and  night,  the  seasons, 
the  average  temperature,  meteoric  conditions  and  agricultural 

2SA 


THE  FEKBI  CRIMINAL  '285 

pursuits,  all,  we  are  told,  are  physical  factors  which  assist  in  the 
determination  of  the  criminal. 

If  it  was  from  these  natural  sources  alone  that  Ferri  had 
constructed  his  criminal,  our  criticism  would  never  have  been 
born ;  but  from  what  collection  of  "criminals"  does  he  observe  and 
deduce  the  natural  history  of  crime?  From  a  collection  carefully 
gotten  together  by  the  capitalist  class. 

In  prisons,  controlled  by  the  capitalists,  Ferri  makes  scientific 
observations  upon  a  class  of  men,  women  and  children  who  have 
been  put  there  for  breaking  capitalist  law.  And  upon  what 
human  action  has  not  capitalist  law  placed  its  ban? — always  ex- 
cepting the  sacred  right  of  accumulating  private  property.  Has 
it  not  been  said,  but  a  few  years  ago,  that  men  should  burn  if 
they  were  Protestants,  die  if  they  were  Catholics,  be  whipped 
naked  if  they  were  Quakers  ?  And  today,  does  it  not  convict  the 
Jew  and  the  Seventh  Day  Adventist  who  fail  to  bow  down  to  a 
Christian  Sabbath?  Under  what  law  are  more  men  made  crimi- 
nals than  under  any  other?  Under  that  of  vagrancy.  This  law 
practically  allows  the  arrest  and  conviction  of  any  one  who  is 
without  money  and  without  work.  Under  this  law  a  man,  "with- 
out visible  means  of  support,"  can  be  convicted  of  a  crime  for 
sleeping  in  a  vacant  lot  (without  having  obtained  permission  of 
the  owner),  or  for  refusing  to  work  when  work  is  offered  (the 
possible  smallness  of  the  wage  offered  not  being  taken  into  con- 
sideration by  the  law).  These  "crimes,"  and  other  offenses  of 
like  import,  bring  men  to  jail — there  to  be  measured,  analyzed, 
classified  and  labeled  by  the  professor  of  criminology.  We  appeal 
to  common  sense ! — is  this  tlie  way  to  study  natural  history  ?  If  a 
goat,  a  pig,  a  chicken  and  a  cow  were  all  locked  in  a  barn  together, 
would  the  natural  history  student  compare  their  eyes,  weigh  their 
brains,  study  their  skins  and  come  to  a  conclusion  that  their  na- 
tures had  brought  them  thus  to  a  common  center,  constituting  a 
class  by  themselves  ?  What  sort  of  a  composite  photograph  would 
be  evolved  from  the  blending  of  this  group  of  animal  life  ?  Any- 
thing natural? 

What  is  a  criminal?  According  to  Ferri  he  must  be  a  man 
convicted  of  a  crime.  What  is  a  crime?  Something  that  capi- 
talist legislators  say  is  wrong.  Think  of  that! — think  of  the 
mob  of  pot-house  politicians  that  yearly  pile  up  laws  in  the  various 
state  capitals,  being  nature's  classifiers  of  human  life !  See  them ! 
— the  big  thieves  making  laws  to  protect  society  against  the  little 
thieves !  And  upon  the  findings  of  these  lawmakers  Ferri  bases  his 
scientific  conclusions.  Here  in  California  we  have  a  law  making 
it  criminal  to  print  an  article  in  the  newspaper  without  having  the 
writer's  name  signed  to  it — this  applies  to  editors  and  and  all — or 
to  print  a  caricature.  To  be  sure,  this  law  is  a  dead  letter,  other- 
wise Ferri's  table  of  measurements  of  criminals'  heads  would 
have  expanded  to  a  degree. 


I'. 
I: 

^4y 


I 
f. 

f  V 


INTEBNATIONAIi  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 


But  let  no  one  think  that  we  would  prove  all  good  men  in  jail 
and  the  bad  ones  out.  Undoubtedly  there  are  brutes  who  find 
their  way  to  jail,  but  does  the  common  jail-herd  signify  a  natural 
selection  of  human  life? — a  natural  partition  of  those  beings  who 
are. a  menace  to  society?  No.  It  is  a  capitalist  selection  of  sub- 
jects that  Ferri  is  studying.  Let  him  look  to  his  figures,  his 
measurements,  and  his  tables,  and  he  will  find  that  a  threat  against 
the  private  ownership  of  the  necessities  of  life  to  be  the  greatest 
crime  on  the  calendar,  and  the  basic  reason  for  the  existence  of 
a  "criminal  class." 

Not  only  are  the  laws  made  by  the  property  holders  preju- 
diced against  the  property  less,  but  even  the  juries  are  drawn  from 
this  same  class.  In  this  state  no  one  may  sit  upon  a  jury  w^ho  is 
not  upon  the  assessment  roll.  And  through  this  sieve  of  justice 
Ferri  expects  to  see  the  wheat  separated  from  the  chaff — the  evil- 
doers from  the  righteous. 

The  law  of  averages  is  not  a  thing  to  play  with.  Rightly  used, 
its  deductions  are  unquestionable,  as,  for  instance,  the  mortuary 
tables  of  a  life  insurance  company,  which  shows  the  average 
length  of  life  to  a  fair  certainty.  But  what  must  we  think  of  a 
scientific  conclusion  drawn  from  such  tables  of  statistics  as  these 
prison  records?  And  harder  yet  of  comprehension,  how  can  a 
Socialist  of  international  reputation  accept  evidence  from  the  capi- 
talist class  upon  a  matter  of  such  vital  importance?  Why,  the 
very  existence  of  the  capitalists  depend  upon  their  providing  that 
these  records  are  a  scientific  compilation  of  examinations  of  the 
evildoers  of  society.  Are  they?  Are  vagrants,  who  constitute 
one  of  the  largest  fractions  of  the  imprisoned,  a  class  that  threat- 
ens the  existence  of  society?  These  vagrants  are  on  strike — 
without  the  organization  of  a  trade  union,  to  be  sure,  but  yet  on 
strike  against  too  much  work  for  too  little  pay.  Will  Ferri  assert 
that  these  men  are  a  menace  to  society,  under  present  conditions, 
because  they  do  not  work  for  capitalists?  Would  he  have  us 
believe  that  if  more  men  went  to  work  for  capitalism  the  world 
would  be  better  off?  Well  do  the  capitalists  know  that  they  must 
prove  every  man  a  "criminar*  who  does  not  work,  night  and  day, 
to  increase  the  private  ownership  of  wealth — and  hence  their 
laws,  their  prisons,  and  their  records — ^all  strictly  ''scientific." 

The  men  who  should  study  these  records  need  not  stop  to 
measure  heads — it  will  be  enough  if  they  but  count  noses.  For 
if  a  poor  man  becomes  a  criminal  through  his  poverty — ^as  the 
vagrancy  laws  assert— ^rime  is  certainly  on  the  increase,  and  Pro- 
fessor Ferri  has  come  to  at  least  one  correct  conclusion. 

That  a  study  of  the  imprisoned  may  result  in  the  unearthing 
of  much  valuable  data  as  to  lunacy,  mental  irresponsibility,  and 
a  great  variety  of  mono-manias,  there  can  be  no  question,  but, 
aside  from  this,  that  criminologists  can  arrive  at  scientific  con- 
clusions as  to  who  constitute  the  nSitural  criminal  (those  who 


THE  FEREI  CRIMINAL  237 

i  are  a  menace  to  society)  we  deny.    "But,"  say  our  criminologists, 

^  "we've  measured  the  skulls  of  all  tlie  thieves  and  murderers  and 

found  them  to  be  abnormal."  Are  you  sure  you  have?  \\1iy 
the  capitalists  only  catch  the  little  thieves  and  murderers — who 
are  not  in  the  trust — and  the  lack  of  wit  of  this  small  fry  proves 
absolutely  nothing  except  that  they  were  weak-minded  enough 
to  be  caught.  Have  you  the  measurements  of  Xtro's  skull, 
''  Napcleon's  skull,  or  tliat  of  General  Kitchener?    None  of  these 

I  men,  to  be  sure,  ever  bathed  their  own  hands  in  their  victims' 

I  blood,  but  neither  does  a  poisoner.    Of  course  this  line  of  argu- 

ment will  only  hold  good  with  a  socialist-criminologist  (Heaven 
save  the   mark),   for  the  orthodox  professors  probably  believe 
in  the  divine  right  of  these  normal  murderers.    And  then,  again, 
f  why  should  we  heap  all  the  resix)nsibility  onto  the  generals  in 

the  field?  There  is  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  and  Joseph  Chaml>cr- 
lain,  both  of  whom  were  quite  ready  to  wipe  out  men,  women 
and  children  with  any  weapon  that  came  to  their  hands.  For  a 
strictly  scientific  conclusion  it  would  seem  as  if  Ferri  must  yet 
examine  a  number  of  heads. 

Now  we  can  see  our  opponents  in  this  argument  ready  to  take 
a  parting  and  deadly  shot  at  us:    "How  do  you  account,"  they 
ask,  "for  the  number  of  recidivists,  the  habitual  criminals  ?    Is  it 
,  not  proof  that  this  is  naturally  a  criminal  class?"  *  To  be  sure, 

I  this  question  looks  like  a  poser,  but  after  all  these  "criminals" 

are  affected  by  the  laws  of  competition.  They,  too,  are  living 
as  they  can,  not  as  they  would.  A  man  is  not  necessarily  insane 
who  returns,  again  and  again,  to  a  place  where  he  is  treated  like  a 
dog.  Day  laborers  are  continually  doing  this  without  crimin- 
ologists'  labeling  them  as  crazy.  These  unfortunate  pick-and- 
shovel  men  know  only  the  tricks  of  their  trade  and,  every  time 
they  hunt  a  job,  find  only  one  avenue  open  to  them.  Why  even 
the  professors  of  criminology  themselves,  if  the  world  should  wake 
up  and  see  the  joke  of  their  calculations,  would  probably  con- 
tinue to^  recidivate  and  insist  that  their  mode  of  getting  a  living 
was  legitimate.  You  can't  teach  an  old  dog  new  tricks,  he  will, 
quite  naturally  and  normally,  recidivate. 

Who  has  not  heard  of  the  many  heart-rending  attempts  of 
"criminals"  to  make  an  "honest"  living  after  they  have  once  served 
time?  Hounded  by  the  police,  who  know  that  these  men  can 
always  be  arrested,  innocent  or  guilty,  when  they  need  a  victim  to 
fit  the  crime,  boycotted  by  the  "respectable"  citizen  and  mer- 
chants of  the  community,  is  it  surprising  that  they  return,  again 
and  again,  to  the  one  trade  that  they  know,  to  fill  their  stom- 
achs? This  relapse  does  not  necessarily  show  a  diseased  indi- 
vidual, but  it  does  show  a  diseased  community  of  capitalist-ridden 
fools,  who  are  willing  to  starve  amidst  plenty  and  hunt  for 
"criminal's"  among  chicken  thieves  and  vagrants. 

John  Murray,  Jr. 


"^ 


EDITORIAL 


Crisis  in  Trade  Unions. 

The  last  few  months  has  seen  an  attack  upon  union  labor  along  the 
whole  International  fighting  line.  How  the  Taff  Yale  decision  of  England 
establishing  the  principle  that  all  unions  are  liable  for  any  damages  in- 
curred to  their  masters  through  a  strike  has  been  accepted  and  extended 
throughout  that  country  is  well  told  by  Comrade  Max  S.  Hayes  elsewhere  in 
this  number.  The  Employers'  Alliance  in  America,  notwithstanding  the  in- 
sane ravings  of  their  spokesman,  D.  M.  Parry,  is  evidently  preparing  for  a 
desperate  fight.  The  general  strike  in  Holland  precipitated  by  the  capi- 
talists with  International  assistance,  has  given  the  labor  movement  some- 
thing of  a  set  back  there,  while  a  general  reaction  seems  to  have  extended 
through  the  Australian  colonies  following  the  crushing  of  the  railroad 
unions.    All  this  shows  how  widespread  the  battle  has  become. 

Very  appropriately,  however,  the  center  of  the  firing  line  seems  to  be  in 
the  United  States,  where,  as  usual,  the  class  struggle  is  waging  fiercer  than 
anywhere  else.  The  last  two  months  have  seen  a  series  of  concerted  moves 
which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  American  capitalists  were  making  a 
last  desperate  stand  against  the  attempt  of  labor  to  improve  its  con- 
dition, and  were  determined  to  crush  all  attempts  at  co-operative  resistance. 
Roosevelt,  who  but  a  short  time  ago  was  posing  as  the  good  angel  of  the 
coal  miners,  now  announces  in  the  Miller  case  the  principle  of  the  "open 
shop,"  a  principle  absolutely  incompatible  with  successful  trades  unionism. 
If  trade  unionist  and  scab  must  work  side  by  side  sharing  all  the  benefits, 
while  the  unionist  alone  bears  the  burdens  of  the  struggle  for  better  con- 
ditions, the  constant  incentive  to  slip  from  the  burden -bearing  into  the 
purely  benefit-receiving  class  will  disrupt  any  union.  This  will  be  specially 
true  when  we  add  to  the  other  burdens  which  the  unionist  must  bear  the 
inevitable  discrimination  of  the  employer.  All  union  leaders  have  recognized 
these  facts,  and  the  hardest  battles  ever  waged  by  trade  unions  in  this 
country  have  been  In  defense  of  the  principle  of  the  closed  shop.  The 
employers  have  recognized  this  as  a  strategic  point,  and  are  bending  their 
energies  to  carry  their  point.  The  marble  workers  have  just  heen  locked 
out  by  their  employers  who  have  announced  their  determination  to  open 

238 


EDITORIAL  839 

up  only  when  the  .union  men  shall  consent  to  associate  and  work  with  their 
most  deadly  enemies. 

More  serious  than  any  of  these  is  the  movement  in  this  coimtry  to  take 
advantage  of  the  Taff  Yale  decision.  The  most  important  application  of 
this  which  also  involves  the  extension  of  the  principle  as  explained  by  the 
English  courts  is  seen  in  the  suit  by  D.  Loewe  &  Co.,  of  Danbury,Connecti- 
cut,  against  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  and  the  United  Hatters  of 
North  America.  This  suit  is  for  $350,000  damage  and  involves  the  entire 
question  of  the  right  of  boycott  or  even  of  the  use  of  the  union  label  as 
a  method  of  discriminating  against  scab  goods. 

Another  suit  involving  something  of  the  same  principle  is  that  started  by 
John  M.  Stiles,  of  Chicago,  against  practically  all  the  building  trade  unions, 
and  demanding  damages  for  over  $50,000,  because  of  injuries  claimed  to  have 
been  inflicted  upon  the  complainant  through  strikes,  and  the  Chicago  Candy- 
makers '  Union  has  also  been  sued  by  its  employers  for  $20,000  on  similar 
ground. 

There  are  numerous  other  suits,  but  these  are  sufficient  to  show  how  wide- 
spread the  movement  has  become.  A  publication  which  comes  to  us  from 
Vienna  as  the  ''central  organ  of  the  Austrian  employers,"  appeals  to  the 
employers  of  Austria  to  stand  together  with  the  employers  of  the  whole 
world  in  a  struggle  against  the  trade  union  and  Socialist  movement.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  this  holds  up  as  a  model  the  English  trade  unions, 
of  which  it  says:  "They  do  not  fight  against  the  social  order,  nor  against 
capital  On  the  contrary  they  have  always  completely  surrendered  their 
whole  skill,  intellectual  ability  and  well-fed  bodily  strength  to  the  capitalists. 
They  said  to  themselves,  if  we  wish  to  eat  more  beef  steak  and  drink  more 
porter  and  whiskey,  or  if  we  wish  to  have  more  days  for  music  or  sport,  then 
we  must  devote  our  whole  intellectual  and  physical  energy  to  the  factories 
and  workshops  in  which  we  labor  in  order  to  turn  out  the  very  best  possible 
products."  But  it  is  complained  that  the  English  trade  unions  are  no 
longer  maintaining  this  disposition,  but  are  following  the  terrible  example 
of  their  continental  brothers  and  are  going,  into  politics.  The  situa- 
tion in  every  country  in  the  world  is  reviewed,  and  they  cite  with 
admiration  the  work  of  the  Employers'  Association  in  crushing  the 
strike  of  the  Chicago  hotel  and  restaurant  employes,  the  building  trades 
in  New  York,  and  the  spinners  in  Lowell,  and  praise  the  work  of  the 
employers  in  Denver  in  fighting  trade  unions,  from  which  it  would  seem  that 
there  was  a  conscious  organized  co-operation  between  the  employers  of  the 
world  to  fight  the  trade  union  movement,  and  especially  when  it  becomes 
Socijfib'sric,  As  the  quotation  shows,  they  have  little  fear  of  the  ''pure  and 
simple." 

The  question  of  the  immediate  outcome  is  one  which  it  is  impossible  to 
answer  at  the  present  time.  Of  the  ultimate  outcome  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
The  working  class  is  not  going  to  be  crushed.  Whether  unionism  in  its 
present  form,  however,  can  withstand  the  struggle  is  another  question. 
It  18  certain  that  if  the  leaders  pendst  in  their  ignorant  and  reactionary 
opposition  to  all  intelligent  use  of  political  power,  the  union  will  suffer  at 


m- 


240 


INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW 


o;>'  ^ 


ir- 


St:, 


least  a  temporary  defeat.  There  seems  to  be  a  tendency,  on  the  part  of  the 
executive  council  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  to  temporize  with  the 
matter  even  to  the  extent  of  neglecting  the  direct  instructions  of  the  rank 
and  file.  The  political  plums  that  have  been  gathered  by  Sargent,  Sovereign, 
Powderly,  Madden,  Clark  and  others  have  evidently  caused  a  hunger  and 
thirst  for  more  political  pap.  Hence  it  is  that  we  see  the  executive  com- 
mittee hesitating  whether  it  shall  dare  to  take  a  stand  against  Roosevelt 
on  the  *'open  shop,"  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  with  on©  or  two 
exceptions  every  trade  union  in  the  country  is,  and  always  must  be, 
opposed  to  the  idea  of  union  and  scab  working  together.  In  case  these 
loaders  refuse  to  respond  to  the  new  demands  that  are  being  made  upon 
them  it  is  pretty  safe  to  say  that  the  movement  towards  industrialism 
and  independent  political  action  will  so  gain  in  strength  that  the  present 
political  leaders  will  find,  themselves  out  of  a  job. 

Never,  perhaps,  in  the  face  of  a  great  crisis  have  representatives  of  the 
workers  shown  themselves  so  contemptible  as  has  the  Executive  Council  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  at  the  present  time.  According  to 
the  press  reports  it  was  John  Mitchell  who  led  the  opposition  to  any  criticism 
of  Boosevelt.  It  would  seem  that  the  association  with  the  ''great  men"  of 
capitalism  had  had  rather  a  bad  effect  on  Mitchell's  head,  and  that  he  was 
now  showing  himself,  if  not  directly  treacherous,  at  least  hopelessly  in- 
capable of  grasping  the  situation.  If  the  rank  and  file  of  the  trade  unions 
of  America  do  not  administer  a  rebuke  to  such  tactics  it  will  indicate  that 
their  appetite  for  oppression  has  not  yet  been  exhausted. 

Just  aa  we  go  to  press  comes  the  news  of  the  formation  of  the 
Central  Employers'  Association  in  Chicago,  including  capitalists  through- 
out the  entire  country.  The  following  from  the  Chicago  Journal  tells 
the  inspiration  which  led  to  the  formation  of  this  institution: 

"The  spectre  of  socialism  has  at  last  begun  to  frighten  American 
employers, 

"Promoters  of  the  new  Central  Employers'  Association,  which  is 
being  formed  by  organizations  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  ad- 
mitted this  today,  at  a  conference  in  Frederick  W.  Job 's  ofiice. 

"  'If  it  were  not  for  the  growth  of  socialism,'  said  A.  C.  Davis, 
assistant  secretary  of  the  National  Manufacturers'  Association,  'this 
association  might  not  have  been  thought  of.  The  policy  of  not  opposing 
the  movement  has  failed.  We  intend  to  fight  socialism  as  well  as 
the  illegal  methods  and  objects  of  union  labor.' 

"  'Socialism  is  the  coming  question,'  declared  A.  C.  Marshall,  of  the 
Dayton  (Ohio)  Employers'  Association.  'There  is  an  undercurrent  of 
socialism  in  all  labor  unions  and  this  is  the  great  danger  of  the  present 
time.  Far  greater  than  mere  unionism.  The  Catholic  Church  has  been 
the  first  to  recognize  this.    Something  must  be  done  to  check  the  tide.'. . 

"Secretary  Job,  of  the  Chicago  Employers'  Association,  agreed  with 
the  speakers,  and  J.  C.  Craig,  president  of  the  Citizens'  Alliance,  of 
Denver,  Colo.,  told  of  the  conditions  in  his  home  state: 

"  'Labor  organizations  in  Colorado,'  he  said,  'are  openly  socialistic. 
The  Western  Federation  of  Miners,  or,  as  I  should  call  it,  "The  Wertern 


£.  1-  i:^  -z^ 


•^  1      '      \ 


»>^    ^ 


J.  :Tr-.«i  «r  -...  t^u  i   ^.  .     .-j- :    i  ^  .     -.-^     ■      •    — 

"Lli^   M«.«^    r-^in       In    "L^»»     I -^  LT    •.      s      '^    '     ."^     .V        .■!    -s.   •:•       ti' •  ■       ^ 

*.*.*  -%jiL*!r>-Li   Ff^-i-aia    iif  LA":«:r-  I   r^c»^-£   j»*  %   :\*ri   ^v'3».  *,\^    .    » 

Fii^^^i  ix  '?"n'iL:_2r  *•..*  ^'tl■:T■  I  .z  *if  ATi''..tT  V,"**  ."">  .**  **''     ^ 
lie  w^*-f:-" 


T-at  G.ZL-.'ir:  -m-l. 


<  --.^^vl  17  :*c  r.  Ar.rx?  >,xV*'' 


of  his  r««c-=:=^*r  liti :c  Ij  Fiifi  m  =^A£  siv-^u'si  5*ervi?  t^*  axxaVou  ?^^  w,'^u 
beraof  the  re-ieraiirs  yt  LaI  :r  :.-  th^*  Tie*^«i:;y  ot  s^.w'*'*^'"*  ^'^'*-  ^"^^^^^ 
some  oce  who  reallv  re^r-jniz*?  the  isterest?  v^f  ?>.o  >»o:K\u^  o*;*vx 


The  Situation  in  Nebraska. 


A  eommunieation  has  just  boen  8<»ut  out  by  tl\o  Sl«t«^  tj\»on\ui  \\\ 
Nebrafiilui  discussing  the  situation  in  that  State*  Tho  oonuu\n\lo«tiou,  uh  \% 
whole,  is  too  long  for  our  columns,  and  wo  have  n\n«lo  it  ft  not»r»viU  v\>1»* 
not  to  publish  communications  of  so  puvoly  n  f notional  olunnolor  «•  tM" 
seems  to  be,  yet  there  are  many  thinffH  in  it  whifh  we  bolUnr  mo  «»f  \\\\\>o\\ 
ance  to  the  members  at  large,  and  that  juwtioo  to  Mjo  Ni'binnkn  Oi>mrtt«t«»« 


M2  CTTESKATIOKAL  80GIAI«raT  BETIEW 

nqaasm  fboold  be  pabfished.  It  i^pean  tbmt  ifce  Soeafiflt  MPfUMi  im 
K^mdot  bad  a  most  naaaToiy  origiiiy  being  stertod  bj  a  bodj  of  giaftaa  !■ 
ps^  cf  tbe  BepobHean  partf .  Aa  soon,  bowerery  aa  it  began  to  bave  aaj- 
Uuag  of  a  worfciog  ebua  membership  these  men  were  driren  ooL  Umbj  of 
them,  howerer,  are  adl!  eoneemed  in  the  organixation  of  the  ''OmaHa  80- 
«ialiat  Propaganda  Chib,"  eoneeming  whieh  there  has  been  ao  nmch  dia- 
enarion  in  the  Socialist  press.  It  was  this  organization/  under  whose  ans- 
piees  l>>0rades  Mills  andHagertj  spoke.  Tbe  regular  Socialist  local  pro- 
tests that  it  ioTited  speakers  representing  all  phases  of  the  recognized  So- 
cialist morenient  and  that,  therefore,  there  was  no  reason  for  the  existence 
of  sneh  a  propaganda  club,  and  that  its  influence  in  the  morement  is  pnreVj 
disruptive.  It  appears  that  several  comrades  have  come  from  other  States 
into  Nebraska  and  engaged  in  propaganda  work  witiiont  consulting  the 
part/  organization.  It  is  complained  that  sach  work  tends  to  disorganize 
the  movement,  and  accordinglj  the  State  quomm  calls  for  action  bjr  the 
national  committee  to  prevent  further  action  along  this  line. 

The  communication  is  signed  by  the  following:  Parker  8.  Condit,  chair- 
man; O.  W.  Wray,  B.  McCaffrey,  P.  X  Hyland,  J.  Alfred  LaBilkt,  J.  P. 
Boe,  State  Secretary. 


SOCIALISM    ABROAD 


The  International  Socialist  Bureau  at  Brussels  has  published  a  call  to  the 
party  organizations  of  all  countries  inviting  participation  in  the  coming 
International  Congress  which  takes  place  at  Amsterdam  August  14-20,  1904. 
The  different  parties  are  requested  to  bring  the  matter  up  before  their 
coming  congresses  or  conventions.  The  subject  for  discussion  as  far  as 
determined  on  are  as  follows: 

1.  The  Beport  of  Secretary. 

2.  The  Beport  of  Nationalities. 

3.  General  Fundamentals  of  Socialist  Politics. 

4.  General  Strike.  ^  • 

5.  Labor  Unions  and  Politics. 

6.  Trusts  and  the  Unemployed. 

7.  International  Arbitration. 

8.  Emigration  and  Immigration. 

This  order  of  business  is  still  provisional,  the  divisions  of  the  party  have 
the  right  to  suggest  further  points,  but  these  should  all  be  sent  in  before 
the  1st  of  next  December. 

The  various  Socialist  parties  and  the  central  organizations  of  Trades 
Unions  are  request^  to  send  to  the  Secretary  previous  to  December  31,  re- 
ports of  their  activity  since  the  last  congress  of  1900.  The  address  of  the 
Secretary  is  No.  63  Bue  Heyvaert,  Brussels,  Belgium. 


Germany 

Once  more  the  revisionists  have  pushed  themselves  into  public  atten- 
tion, and  in  a  most  tpifortunate  manner,  on  the  question  of  whether  the 
Social  Democratic  Party  should  seek  to  have  one  of  its  members  elected  to 
the  Vice-Presidency  of  the  Beichstag.  As  this  is  treated  quite  fully  else- 
where in  this  number  little  need  be  said  about  it  here.  The  whole  question 
is  also  discussed  in  an  article  by  August  Bebel,  of  about  10,000  words 
length,  in  the  Neue  Zeit  for  September  5.  In  this  article  the  whole  Bem- 
steinian  position  is  gone  over  and  its  weakness  and  dangers  exposed  in  a 
most  thorough  manner.  In  his  original  article  which  started  the  trouble 
Belmstein  declared  that  thie  Prussian  constitution  w^as  a  democratically 
adopted  document.  Bebel  declares  that  this  statement  would  have  made  old 
Bismarck  hold  his  sides  with  laughter  and  refers  Bernstein  to  an  article 
by  his  uncle^  Aaron  Bernstein,  written  at  ffc^time  of  the  adoption  of  the 
eonstitution  in  which  he  says  of  that  document  that  it  "is  such  an  unfor- 
tunate, crazy,  foolish,  garbled  document  that  its  equal  cannot  be  found  in 
the  whole  history  of  law  making. ' '  In  his  desperate  attempt  to  defend  his 
position  Bernstein  had  stated  that  the  attendance  at  court  of  a  Social 
Democrat  wonld  be  an  indication  that  the  emperor  waB.forxied  to  bow  before 
tt©  revolationary  Socialist  movement..  This  at  once  angered  his  bourgeois 

943 


W  '  244  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW 

£-.  ,  adversaries,  and  they  sat  upon  him  with  only  a  little  less  vehemence  than 

^  \  the  Socialists.    Bebel,  with  masterly  logic  and  sarcaam,  exposes  the  ridicu- 

jL'  .  lousness  of  the  whole  question  in  that  the  moment  a  Socialist  Vice-President 

jt^  should  attempt  to  do  anything  of  importance  for  Socialism,  or  should  even 

1^,^^  neglect  to  call  for  a  ** Hurrah*'   for  the  emperor  when  he  entered  the 

jp '  chamber,  he  would  be  deposed  and  the  whole  farce  would  be  played  out.    He 

^*  •      shower  how  in  this  discussion  the  opportunists  have  completely  reversed  many 

of  their  former  positions,  so  that  VoUmar,  for  example,  now  declares  that 
the  form  of  the  state  is  of  no  importance,  offering  this  as  an  excuse  for 
his  advocacy  of  the  court  visit  and  consequent  crawling  before  the  em- 
peror. Bebel  contrasts  the  autocratic  tyrannical  attitude  of  the  German 
government  with  other  governments  of  Europe,  points  out  the  repression  of 
^^  the  rights  of  free  speech,  assembly  and  press,  and  then  asks  if  it  is  because 

ffi^'.  of  these  especial  features  that  a  Social  Democratic  should  **  Kotow  to  the 

v^  /  emperor."    Some  of  the  Opportunists^  have  even  dared  to  suggest  that  if 

|^^\  Singer  was  not  acceptable  to  the  capitalist  majority  that  some  other  com- 

f>,  rade  be  chosen,  thus  showing  a  willingness  to  let  the  enemy  even  select  the 

representatives  of  the  Socialists. 

On  the  whole,  the  result  of  this  latest  expression  of  Bernsteinism  has 
been  to  give  the  Opportunists  such  a  rebuke  as  they  have  never  before  re- 
ceived. , 
ly                           The  result  at  the  Dresden  congress  is  familiar^to  most  of  our  readers. 
Jft'                      In  a  masterly  speech  of  over  four  hours  Bebel  completely  demolished  the 
■^'j '  ,                  lOpportunist  position.    Vollmar  contented  himself  with  a  personal  attack  on 
^J                       OBebel,  alleging  that  he  wished  to  become  the  dictator  of  his  party.     A 
*;[  ,                     resolution  was  adopted  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote  re-affirming  the  revo- 
'\['                      lutionary  position  of  the  party  and  denouncing  the  idea  of  electing  a 
r-;                       Vice-President  to  the  Reichstag,  or  in  any  other  way  compromising  Socialist 
■'  ;                        principles.    A  full  report  of  the  proceedings  will  appear  in  our  next  issue. 
^^                             The  report  of  the  party  officials  to  the  Dresden  Congress  has  just  been 
*'  -                      issued  a.^  a  pupplement  to   VarwaertSf  and  is  a  most  interesting  and  in- 
^                         stnietive  document.     The  long  list  of  dead  to  whom  honor  is  paid  in  the 
(»p^"^°ff  V^S^  brings  to  the  mind  at  once  the  fact  that  the  party  has  now 
•*V                      rf^iclied  an  age  where  the  first  generation  of  veterans  are  being  mustered 
^'                       out  by  death.    The  police  outrages  of  the  past  year  are  enumerated,  and  in 
■                          the  stories  of  meetings  violently  dispersed,  offices  searched  and  comrades 
t> ,                        imprisoned  we  gain  a  glimpse  of  the  difficulties  under  which  the  propa- 
lif\.                      gandist  of  Socialism  in  Germany  must  struggle.     The  total  fines  regis- 
J  ,                       tered  during  the  year  for  Socialist  activity  amount  to  16,707  marks,  while 
p^                       the  total  of  sentences  to  imprisonment  amount  to  fourteen  years  in  the 
^•'                       penitentiary  and  thirty-six  years,  five  months  and  six  weeks  jail  confinement. 
Every  year  the  participation  in  the  minor  elections  increases  until  now 
candidates  are  nominated  for  most  of  the  municipal  and  minor  legislative 
'                          bodies.     Conseqi^ntly  the  number  of  socialists  elected  to  these  bodies  is 
rapidly  increasing.  The  Social  Democratic  fraction  in  the  Berlin  council  has 
appointed  a  committee  to  organize  the  municipal  officers  in  the  province  of 
Brandenburg  into  a  body  for  the  purpose  of  evolving  a  municipal  program. 
^                         They  have  also  taken  some  steps  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  all  the 
municipal  officers  in  Pnissia,  but  the  general  council  of  the  Prussian  wing 
of  the  party  deferred  action  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  whole  matter  of  a 
^                         general  municipal  program  was  to  be  considered  at  the  Dresden  Congress. 
The  report  on  the  work  done  during  the  campaign  is  of  especial  interest, 
as  giving  some  view  of  the  causes  of  the  tremendous  progress  made  at  the 
last  election.    The  balance  sheet  of  the  party  shows  that  635,053.58  marks 
(nearly  $160,000)  were  handled  during  the  year,  and  that  at  the  close  of  the 
campaign  28,102.84  marks  remained  on  hand.    The  principal  campaign  doc- 
ument was  the  manifesto  issued  by  the  Reichstag  fraction  (a  translation  of 
which  has  already  appeared  in  this  department)   of  which  632,80Q  copies 
were  circulated.  '  A  campaign  handbook  for  the  benefit  of  speakers  and 


SOCIALISM  ABROAD  245 

workers  was  published  and  4,500  copies  circulated.  Large  aa  these  figures 
are,  they  are  probably  smaller  than  would  be  circulated  in  a  national  cam- 
paign in  the  United  States  with  a  much  smaller  membership  and  vote.  In 
the  circulation  of  periodicals  also  the  comparison  is  decidedly  favorable  to 
US.  Vorwaerts,  to  be  sure,  heads  the  list  with  a  daily  circulation  of  78,500, 
but  the  Neue  Zeit  falls  far  behind  the  International  Socialist  Review, 
having  only  .3,850  circulation,  while  there  are  no  weekly  or  monthly  propa- 
ganda papers  with  anything  near  the  circulation  of  some  American  Socialist 
papers.  Der  Wahre  Jacoh,  a  comic  illustrated  weekly,  brought  a  profit  to 
the  party  of  24,666  marks,  which  more  than  offset  the  loss  on  Die  Neue 
Zeit  and  Gleichheit,  The  latter  publication  is  designed  especially  for  cir- 
culation among  women  and  issued  special  editions  of  7,000  each  during  the 
campaign,  and  has  a  regular  circulation  of  1,500  copies.  V,orwa€rts  brought 
in  a  profit  of  72,338.65  marks,  of  which  31,286.58  marks  were  used  to  meet 
deficits  on  other  papers. 

From  the  National  Zeitung,  of  Berlin,  we  learn  that  the  trade  unionsr 
affiliateti  with  the  Social  Democratic  Party  have  increased  in  membership 
from  677,510  in  1901,  to  733,206  at  the  present  time.  In  1893  they  had  only 
223,540  members  and  there  was  little  increase  until  1897.  Since  that  year, 
however,  the  growth  lias  been  steady  and  rapid.  These  Social  Democratic 
unions  include  at  least  14.42  per  cent  of  all  the  workers  engaged  in  the 
branches  represented.  In  some 'of  the  bettor  organized  trades  practically 
all  the  laborers  are  included. 


•  Italy 

Some  time  ago  Enrico  Ferri,  as  editor  of  the  Avanti,  published  an  ex- 
posure of  the  corruption  existing  in  the  Navy  Department.  In  this  article 
he  showed,  among  other  things,  that  the  common  soldiers  and  sailors  had 
been  left  to  suffer  with  insufficient  food  and  no  pay  because  the  money  in- 
tended for  this  purpose  had  been  pocketed  by  the  commanding  officers. 
The  article  forced  the  resignation  of  the  Minister  of  the  Navy,  and  was 
followed  by  a  suit  for  libel  against  Ferri  as  responsible  editor  for  the 
Avanii.  The  suit  has  just  come  to  trial,  and  the  thirty-five  complainants 
who  appeared  in  icourt  were  informed  that  since  the  article  referred  only 
to  a  ** system  of  corruption  in  the  Navy  Department"  and  mentioned  no 
names,  there  was  no  official  reason  for  believing  that  the  thirty-five  com- 
plainants represented  the  navy,  or  were  a  part  of  the  system  of  corruption, 
consequently  the  case  was  dismissed. 

This  outcome  of  the  case  was  wholly  unexpected  and  undesired  by  Ferri, 
as  he  had  come  into  court  wholly  prepared  to  prove  his  charges.  Doubtless 
it  was  a  knowledge  of  this  fact  that  led  to  the  dismissal  of  the  case. 

The  split  in  the  Socialist  Party  in-  Italy  seems  to  be  rather  widening 
than  otherwise.  A  weekly  paper  entitled  II  Socialisti  has  been  started  by 
the  reform  wing  in  Rome  with  Bissoloti,  Gassola  and  Monomi  as  editors. 
These  men  were  the  previous  editors  of  Avanti,  who  were  displaced  when 
the  party  disavowed  their  reform  tactics.  They  announce  their  intention, 
however,  of  not  taking  part  in  the  internal  fight,  but  confining  themselves 
to  propaganda  work, 

Norway 

There  'will  be  five  Social  Democrats  in  the  new  Storthing.  The 
total  Social  Democratic  vote  at  the  election  of  September  3  was  14,046 
in  those  dtiea  from  which  returns  have  already  been  received.  In  the 
previous  Storthing  election  in  1900  there  were  only  7,013  Social  Democratic 


I'- 

^  ■ 


246 


INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW 


votes.  The  Vorwaerts  report  states  tbat  it  is  probable  that  with  the 
elections  that  are  yet  to  be  held  that  the  present  number  of  votes  wiil  be 
doubled. 

Later  information  states  that  25^000  Socialist  votes  were  given  at  the 
last  general  election  in  Norway  for  the  Storthing.  As  a  comparison  it 
may  be  observed  that  there  are  at  present  ten  Socisdists  in  the  Folkthing  in 
Denmark  and  four  Socialist  members  of  the  Bikstog  in  Sweden. 


fe' 


Russia 

In  spite  of  the  close  censorship,  rumbles  of  the  tremendous  class  struggle 
which  is  taking  place  in  the  heart  of  this  great  empire  reaches  the  out- 
side world.  The  press  reports  state  that  over  25,000  men  have  been  out  on 
strike  in  the  neighborhood  of  Odessa  during  the  past  few  weeks,  and  the 
usual  scenes  of  military  abuse,  the  atrocities  of  the  Cossacks  and  the 
wholesale  imprisonment  of  workers  have  taken  place.  It  is  significant  that 
in  one  case  where  the  troops  were  ordered  to  fire  upon  the  str&ers  the  lieu- 
tenant stepped  forward  and  told  his  men  tfiat  they  were  laborers  like  those 
upon  whom  they  were  called  upon  to  shoot,  and  advised  them  not  to  fire.  It 
is  needless  to  say  that  this  officer  was  at  once  shot,  and  it  is  said  that  the 
Czar  showed  more  than  ordinary  haste  in  signing  the  order  for  his  execution. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Bussiau  comrades  may  find  some  way  of  leUing 
the  outside  world  know  the  name  of  this  martyr  to  the  cause  of  Socialism, 
that  it  may  be  enrolled  with  the  already  long  list  of  those  who  have  given  up 
their  lives  to  the  cause. 

It  is  extremely  significant  that  one  of  the  directors  of  the  police  depart- 
ment in  Odessa,  in  the  course  of  his  statements  to  the  strikers,  declaring  that 
there  should  be  no  concessions  made  to  them,  advises  them  to  read  the 
works  of  Edward  Bernstein,  whom  he  asserts  to  be  '*an  undoubted  true 
friend  of  the  laboring  class." 

Bernstein  declares  in  a  letter  to  Vorwaerts  that  only  a  portion  of  his 
Voravsscisung  was  allowed  to  pass  the  Eussian  censor,  and  that  all  refer- 
ence to  Socialism  was  cut  out  in  this  portion. 

The  special  correspondent  of  L* Action  (Paris)  reports  that  the 
revolutionary  activity  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cracow  has  just  reached 
a  height  never  before  known.  The  soldiers  have  received  orders  to  be 
particularly  severe  in  suppressing  all  extension  of  the  revolutionary  prop- 
aganda, and  all  correspondence  coming  from  this  region  is  subjected  to  a 
most  severe  censorship.  Nevertheless  the  revolution  proceeds  rapidly,  in 
spite  of  the  bloody  path  which  it  leaves  behind  it.  There  has  scarcely 
a  day  passed  for  some  time  in  the  industrial  centers  that  the  Cossacks 
have  not  killed  from  250  to  300  workers.  The  movement  in  the  vicinity 
of  Cracow  is  directed  by  the  students  of  the  University,  who  go  into  the 
neighboring  villages,  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  in  order  to  preach  revolt. 
The  principal  revolutionary  centers  are  Cracow,  Odessa,  Kief,  Batoun  and 
Bakou.  In  the  little  villages  the  situation  is  particularly  serious.  On 
the  3d  of  last  July  16,000  workers  had  gone  on  a  strike,  all  business 
connected  with  the  refining  and  shipping  of  petrolum,  of  which  Bakou 
is  the  center,  was  suspended,  the  trains  ceased  to  run  and  the  electric 
lights,  which  were  used  for  lighting  the  city,  were  unable  to  be  oper- 
ated. The  entire  country  was  at  once  filled  with  the  military,  but  at  the 
last  report  industry  was  still  very  much  disturbed  while  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  is  spreading  to  other  localities. 


SOCIALISM  ABBOAB  247 

Finland 

The  Fiimisli  Workers'  Party,  as  the  Socialist  Party  of  Finland  is 
eaUed,  held  its  convention  Augnst  17-20  in  Forssa,  a  small  industrial  city. 
Forty  branches  sent  delegates.  The  party  has  59  branches  and  about 
10,000  members. 

The  government  district  secretary  and  several  gendarmes  and  police- 
men watched  over  the  meeting. 

The  convention  unanimously  adopted  a  party  platform,  of  which  the 
following  is  a  condensation:  The  Socialist  Party  of  Finland,  like  the 
Socialist  Parties  in  other  countries,  strives  to  liberate  the  whole  people 
from  the  fetters  of  economic  dependence  and  from  political  and  mental 
subjection.  Among  the  party's  immediate  demands  are  universal  equal 
suffrage  for  all  Finnish  men  and  women  who  have  reached  the  age  of 
21,  in  municipal  and  national  elections;  one  house  of  parliament;  com- 
plete liberty  of  association,  assemblage,  speech,  and  the  press;  com- 
pulsory education,  free  instruction  in  aU  educational  institutions. 

A  municipal  program,  similar  to  that  in  other  countries,  was  adopted. 

A  suffrage  resolution  was  passed:  ''The  party  declares  the  struggle 
for  suffrage  begun  and  appeals  to  the  workers  and  just  persons  of  the 
higher  classes  to  take  part  energetically  in  the  conflict.  If  all  other 
means 'fail  a  general  strike  will  be  declared  to  obtain  universal  suffrage." 

The  convention  discussed  the  question  of  co-operation.  There  are 
from  40  to  50  co-operatives  who  members  are  nearly  all  workers.  A 
resolution  was  passed  that  as  the  workers  support  the  co-operatives  the 
co-operatives  should  also  support  the  Labor  Party. 

An  agrarian  program,  including  collective  ownership  of  land,  was 
adopted. 

The  following  demands  were  made:  An  effective  law  protecting  women, 
the  election  of  women  factory  inspectors,  old  age  government  pensions 
going  into  effect  at  the  age  of  55,  prevention  of  disoccupation  by  estab- 
lishing the  eight-hour  day  insurance  against  disoccupation,  a  minimum 
limit  of  wages,  state  and  municipal  public  works  for  the  unemployed, 
agricultural  colonies,  etc. 

The  next  convention  will  be  held  in  August,  1905. 

Edward  Walgas,  of  Helsingf ors,  and  J.  K.  Kari,  of  Abo,  were  elected 
delegates  to  the  International  Socialist  Bureau  in  Brussels.  The  party 
executive  committee  consists  of  nineteen  members,  seven  of  whom  live 
in  Abo.  The  party  headquarters  are  in  Abo.  The  president  of  the 
party  is  T.  Tainio;  Seth  Heikkilae  is  vice  president,  and  J.  K.  Kari 
is  secretary  and  treasurer. — ^Berlin  *  *  Vorwaerts. " 


Servia 

La  Fetite-  Bepuhlique  announces  the  formation  of  a  Socialist  Party  in 
Servia.  The  dispatch  states  that  this  has  been  impossible  hitherto,  but  that 
the  new  king  offers  no  opposition.  Five  hundred  persons  were  present  at 
the  first  meeting  and  arrangements  were  made  for  the  drawing  up  of  a  plat- 
form and  plan  of  organization  of  the  party.  Later  Associated  Press  re- 
ports state  that  an  election  held  for  the  Skupshtina  (the  legislative  cham- 
ber) on  September  22,  resulted  in  the  election  of  65  ''extreme  radicals," 
78  radicals,  15  liberals  and  2  Socialists. 


:  .:;tt'!^ 


^ 


248  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALISt  EEVIEW 

Denmark 

The  progress  of  Socialisin  in  Denmark  is  steady  and  continuous.  The 
telegraphic  dispatches  announce  that  at  the  munici^  election  just  held 
in  Copenhagen  the  Socialists  were  victorious,  in  spite  of  a  coalition  of 
all  other  parties.  The  following,  taken  from  an  article  by  J.  Arthur  Fal- 
lows, in  the  J.  L.  P.  News  tells  the  story  of  the  rejection  of  all  com- 
promise tactics  by  the  Danish  Socialists  and  their  appearance  as  a 
wholly  independent  body: 

**In  Denmark  there  is  one  compact  centralized  Socialist  party,  whicn 
contains  most  of  the  members  of  the  working  classes  in  the  large  towns, 
who  are  also  almost  invariably  members  of  Trades  Unions.  The  work- 
ingmen  buy  and  read  the  daily  Socialist  papers,  especially  the  Social 
Democrat.  They  meet  at  the  Socialist  clubs  on  week  nights,  and  on 
Sundays  at  suburban  restaurants,  where  they  hold  open-air  meetings 
in  the  summer  and  indoors  in  the  winter.  In  the  City  Council  of  tht$ 
capital,  Copenhagen,*  there  are  now  19  Socialists,  out  of  a  total  member- 
ship of  42.  Elections  cost  very  little,  and  the  candidates  do  not  have 
to  pay  a  single  penny  thereon.  The  elected  members  meet  weekly.  As 
in  England,  the  subjects  discussed  include  housing,  tramways,  wagesy 
early  closing  of  shops,  and  so  forth.  In  the  Danish  City  Councils  there 
are  four  oScial  mayors,  who  are  salaried  heads  of  executive  depart- 
ments, and  hold  office  for  life.  A  year  ago  the  Socialist  party  managed 
to  elect  members  of  their  organization  as  mayor  and  deputy-mayor. 
This  led  to  a  great  agitation  among  the  bourgeoiseie,  who  coalesced  in 
"The  Anti-Socialist  party,"  and  won  several  seats  from  the  Socialists. 

''The  last  Socialist  congress  marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
Danish  Socisdist  movement,  because  of  its  decision  to  put  an  end  to  the 
partial  alliance  with  the  Liberals  which  had  previously  been  in  effect. 
This  alliance  was  formed  at  the  time  when  both  the  Liberals  and  the 
Socialists,  as  minority  and  opposition  parties,  were  arrayed  against  an 
extremely  arbitrary  Conservative  government,  which  was  determined 
to  hold  on  to  power  after  it  had  lost  its  majority  in  the  Folkething. 
Two  years  ago  the  government  was  compelled  to  yield,  and  a  Liberal 
ministry  was  formed,  and  the  Socialists  in  the  Folkething  gave  their 
support  to  this  ministry  in  consideration  of  its  promise  of  considerable 
reforms — ^reduction  of  the  war  budget,  an  extensive  program  of  amelio- 
rative labor  legislation,  extension  of  manhood  suffrage  to  local  elections 
(for  in  Denmark,  as  in  most  European  countries,  the  suffrage  is  much 
more  restricted  in  municipal  and  communal  than  in  national  elections), 
and  other  progressive  measures. 

''Instead,  however,  of  carrying  out  this  program,  the  Liberal  gov- 
ernment began  at  once  to  follow  the  example  of  the  Conservative  min- 
istry that  had  preceded  it,  completely  disregarding  its  pledges,  effected 
a  rapprochement  with  the  Conservative  majority  in  the  upper  house  to 
carry  out  its  reactionary  plans  in  defiance  of  the  opposition  in  the 
popular  branch. 

"In  consequence  of  this  experience  the  party  congress  unanimously 
voted  to  dissolve  the  alliance  and  to  treat  the  Liberals  on  the .  same 
terms  with  the  Conservatives,  as  political  enemies.  On  this  line  the 
recent  election  was  fought  and  a  noteworthy  advance  made  for  Social 
Democracy.  In  the  manifesto  announcing  this  change  of  policy  the  party 
declared:  'We  do  not  regret  having  aided  the  left  to  get  into  power. 
We  foresaw  that  after  the  victory  of  the  majority'  (that  is,  the  Liberal- 
Socialist  coalition)  'a  new  conflict  would  arise  within  that  majority,  al- 
though we  did  not  expect  that  it  would  rise  so  quickly  or  in  such  a  severe 
form.'  " 


:.:.  SOCIALISM  ABBOAD  249 

England  ' 

The  article  by  Comrade  Hobson,  published  elsewhere  in  this  issue, 
gives  a  very  good  view  of  the  present  Socialist  situation  in  England. 
OTt  a  few  words  of  explanation  regarding  some  things  not  touched  upon 
oy  him  yffiw  aggja^  j^^  clearing  up  the  matter.  It  is  now  evident  that  a 
■raniamentary  election  cannot  be  long  postponed  and  the  Socialists  are 
H  \r^^  their  nominations  for  this  election.  The  S.  D.  F.  has  placed 
■tt.  M.  Hyndman  in  nomination  for  the  district  of  Burnley  and  the  most 
strenuous  efforts  are  being  made  to  elect  him.  There  is  every  prospect  of 
success  and  it  will  be  a  disgrace  to  the  laboring  men  of  England  should 
ne  fail.  There  is  perhaps  no  other  man  in  the  whole  international  So- 
cialist movement  who  could  do  more  in  a  legislative  body  than  Comrade 
5*y^dman  could  do  in  the  House  of  Parliament.  He  has  been  recognized 
P^  y^^rs  as  one  of  the  ablest  students  of  English  political  affairs.  He 
8  a  splendid  speaker,  a  man  of  undoubted  integrity  and  devotion  to  the 
working  class. 

■*'"®  general'  situation  iln  England,  however,  cannot  be  said  to  be 
jjT^^^'^ging.  The  Labor  Bepre^ntation  Conference,  about  which  we 
unf^  .^^  much,  because  it  has  nearly  a  million  and  a  half  of  trade 
jyo^^^^^  supporting  it  with  regular  contributions  for  political  pur- 
Soe^^i-^*'  after  all,  not  a  Socialist  body.  Whether  it  will  evolve  into  a 
"pQ^^  \  oj*ganization  or  not,  remains  to  be  seen.  The  Social  Democratic 
be^if^^*^^^  ^^  withdrawn  from  the  Labor  Bepreaentation  Conference, 

tjcajaso  of  its  refusal  to  stand  upon  a  Socialist  platform. 
Have  K  ^®°^^"  wlio  liave  been  elected  by  the  L.  B.  C.  to  Parliament 
avow  S^Q°*^.  °^®ans,  all  been  Socialists.  Some  of  them  have  openly  dis- 
«^fiilia.f  ®?ciali8m  after  election;  others  show  much  more  willingness  to 
fact  f^  4^^*^  *^®  Liberals  than  with  the  Socialists,  notwithstanding  the 
politic  1      *^-^  ^^®  thing  upon  which  the  L.  B.  C.  rests  is  independent 


British  Columbia 


ttiemb^^^?         Press  dispatches  announce  that  two,  and  perhaps   three, 
eialista  a  if ^®  ^®®^  elected  from  Birtish  Columbia.     This  gives  the   So- 
liamenta       ^^'^^^  ^*  power  in  the  legislative  bodies,  and  under  a   r*a.r- 
bu4inea»^  government  this  means  that  it  will  be  impossible  to  cona\aet. 
ai^^.^-.        >    ^nd,    consGniiAnflv    o    now   AlAr>finn    will   have   to   be    orc1*^«^--...i 


shortlv       in!^  '    consequently,   a  new   election   will   have   to   be    ordeTreC 
America-n   T^S'^^th  of  Socialism  in  Canada  has  been  remarkable.     T'kie 
ber<*   a^«!      -Liabor  Union  is  very  strong  in  British  Columbia  and  its   txi^t« 
»   are,  almost  without  exception,  Socialists.  ^' 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


A  Political  History  of  SlaTery,  by  William  Henry  Smith;  E.  P.  Pat- 
nam's  Sons.    Clotb,  2  vols.,  806pp.;  $4.50. 

The  majority  of  the  histories  of  slavery  in  America  were  Written  by 
participants  in  the  strnggle,  lacked  historical  xalne  and  were  tinged  with 
extreme  partisanship.  The  present  work,  to  some  degree^  avoids  the  first 
of  these  oef eets,  bnt  with  regard  to  the  second  point,  the  bias  is  almost  as 
evident  in  this  as  in  any  of  the  contemporaneous  works. 

The  f  andamental  proposition  of  the  work  is  that  the  Sepubliean  par^ 
conld  do  no  wrong.  Once,  however,  having  recognized  this  position,  it  is 
easy  for  the  reader  to  make  allowance,  and  the  anthor  has  certainly  brought 
together  muct  new  material  and  co-ordinated  it  in  better  form  than  in 
any  preceding  history.  The  most  distinctive  feature  about  the  work  is  the 
scanty  recognition  which  is  given  to  the  early  abolitionists  of  the  Garrison- 
Phillips  type,  and  the  much  greater  importance  assigned  to  western  fac- 
tors. There  is  no  doubt  but  what  this  is  the  trend  at  the  present  time^  and 
that  it  is  justifiable.  There  is  little  recognition  of  the  economic  factors 
that  lay  back  of  the  great  movement  he  is  describing,  and  almost  no  notice 
of  the  divergent  interests  of  the  economic  classes  which  were  struggling  for 
mastery.  He  does  bring  out  much  plainer  than  ever  before  the  fact  that  the 
war  was  not  waged  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  He  repeatedly  calls  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  the  Republican  party  was  not  abolitionist.  He 
shows  how  during  the  war  the  seaboard  states,  which  were  largely  com- 
mercial, desired  above  everything,  to  secure  a  compromise  with  the  South. 

The  chapter  on  "Prox>osed  Concessions"  is  perhaps  the  one  which  is 
most  valuable  on  this  point.  Here,  it  is  shown  that  the  Bepublican  sena- 
tors were  all  willing,  even  after  the  Southern  States  had  seceded,  to  adopt 
a  constitutional  amendment  "prohibiting  congress  from  abolishing  or  in- 
terfering with  slavery  in  the  States."  And  an  amendment  was  actually 
passed  through  congress  to  this  effect.  Finally,  after  the  battle  of  Bull 
Bun,  a  resolution  was  introduced  into  Congress  declaring  "that  this  war  is 

r  ot  waged for  any  purpose  of  overthrowing  or    interfering 

wita  the  rights  or  established  institutions  of  those  States."  "In  the  House 
there  were  only  two  votes  in  the  negative;  in  the  Senate  there  were  four 
votes  against  it  cast  by  dis-unionists. " 

In  the  chapter  treating  of  the  re-arrangement  of  affairs  after  the  war, 
it  is  pointed  out  quite  clearly  how  capital  gathered  into  great  aggregations, 
owinjr  in  the  abnormal  conditions  of  government  contracts  and  the  high 
tariff  made  necessary  by  the  war. 

It  would  be  very  easy  to  go  through  the  book  and  point  out  any  num- 
ber of  places  where  the  author  had  refused  to  see  any  truth  that  did  not 
"ord  with  the  accepted  codes  of  capitalist  ethics.     But  until  the  class 

•ji'6  of  our  present  social  thought  has  been  transformed,  these  defects 
be  common  to  all  books  of  this  character. 

[ionn  Credit  in  Modem  Business,  by  Thorstein  B.  Veblen.    Beprinted 

250 


BOOK  EE VIEWS  251 

from  Vol.  TV.,  of  the  Decennial  Publications  of  the  Univereitj  of  Chica- 
go.   Folio,  paper,  22pp. 

It  ia  altvays  difficult  in  Professor  Yeblen's  work  to  determine  in  just 
how  far  he  is  poking  fun  at  the  orthodox  political  economist.  He  announces 
in  regard  to  this  study  that  "the  subject  of  this  inquiry  is  the  resort  to 
credit  as  an  expedient  in  the  quest  of  profits. ' '  He  shows  that  competition 
forces  every  capitalist  to  increase  the  size  of  the  business  turnover  by 
th3  use  of  as  great  credit  as  possible.  This  was  originally  done  by  loans 
and  current  bills.  When  these  could  not  be  met  they  were  said  to  be  "ex- 
cessive." If  these  cases  included  a  large  number  of  firms,  the  resulting 
liquidation  became  a  crisis. 

Professor  Veblen  points  out  that  the  only  canon  of  judgment  to  de- 
teimine  whether  credit  was  "excessive"  was  whether  the  debtor  became 
bankrupt  or  not. 

With  modern  corporations  this  credit  extension  is  pushed  to  its  fullest 
limit  at  the  time  of  the  organization  of  the  company,  instead  of  being  a 
process  draWn  out  through  many  years.  Or,  as  he  puts  it,  to  be  "carried 
out  th(»Toughly  it  places  virtually  the  entire  capital,  comprising  the  whole 
of  the  material  equipment,  on  a  credit  basis.  Stock  being  issued  by  the 
use  of  funds,  such  funds  as  may  be  needed  to  pay  for  printing,  a  road  will 
be  built,  or  an  industrial  plant  established,  by  the  use  of  funds  draws  from 
the  sale  of  bonds;  preferred  stock  or  similar  debentures  will  then  be  is- 
sued, commonly  of  various  denominations,  to  the  full  amount  that  the 
property  will  bear,  and  not  infrequently  somewhat  in  excess  of  what  the 
property  will  bear."    [Italics  ours.] 

One  cannot  but  think  that  Professor  Veblen  must  have  smiled  when  he 
wrote  such  a  paragraph  as  this:  "In  the  ideal  case,  where  a  corporation 
is  fii:anced  with  due  perspicacity,  there  will  be  but  an  inappreciable  pro- 
portion of  tho  market  value  of  the  company's  good  will  left  nncovered  by 
debontured. ' ' 

In  a  note  he  caFts  some  rather  suggestive  remarks  at  '  *  the  student  who 
harks  back  to  archaic  methods  for  a  norm  of  what  capitalism  should  be." 
He  shows  that  once  a  corporation  is  financed  by  this  method,  it  is  easy  to 
clear  out  the  holders  of  "excessive  credit"  and  in  this  way  the  trust 
maker  is  in  some  respects  a  substitute  for  a  commercial  crisis. 

The  whole  essay,  however,  is  certainly  the  most  keen  analysis  of 
modern  trudt  financiering  that  has  ever  been  published,  and  will  repay  read- 
ing to  any  student  of  this  phase  of  industry. 

Studies  in  the  Evolution  of  Industrial  Society.  By  Eichard  T.  Ely. 
The  Macmillan  Co.    Citizens'  Library,     pp.  497.     $1.25. 

In  this  work  we  have  for  the  first  time  set  forth  something  approach- 
ing a  social  system  by  an  opponent,  although  almost  a  friendly  one,  of 
socialism.  In  the  first  part,  which  consists  of  a  general  survey,  the  author 
shows  how  the  idea  of  evolution  in  society  has  arisen,  and  traces  the  stages 
through  which  society  has  passed .  in  much  tho  same  manner  that  the 
socialist  does.  He  gives  much  valuable  statistical  material  concerning  pres- 
ent conditions  and  the  recent  tendency  of  industrial  evolution. 

The  second  part,  which  deals  with  some  special  problems  of  industrial 
evolution,  is  a  series  of  essays  on  various  subjects.  The  author  states  his 
problem  on  page  270  to  be  "  what  can  we  accomplish  in  order  to  ameliorate 
the  condition  of  the  masses  without  departure  from  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  existing  social  order. '  *  And  it  is  plain  to  be  seen  through- 
out the  whole  book  that  the  spectre  of  socialism  is  ever  before  him,  and  that 
he  is  constantly  asking  himself  "what  shall  we  do  to  be  saved f" 

He  admits  that  the  foresight  of  Marx  and  Engels  concerning  the  in- 
dustrial evolution  was  almost  marvellously  prophetical,  and  that  we  are 
approaching  the  fulfillment  of  the  final  stages  of  that  prophecy.  He  thinks 
it  still  possible  to  mtdntain  the  competitive  system  and  so  patch  up  things 


252  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

as  to  make  conditions  endurable  without  disturbing  'Hhe  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  the  existing  social  order/'  yet  somehow  the  work  fails  to  carry 
conviction. 

No  one  can  deny  the  scholarly  character  of  most  of  its  pages,  and  it  is 
in  our  opinion  one  of.  the  most  valuable  contributions  to  social  thought  that 
has  been  produced  in  many  years.  At  the  same  time  whenever  the  subject 
of  socialism  is  approached  the  treatment  is  most  unsatisfactory.  This  is  not 
because  he  does  not  agree  with  the  socialist^  but  because  ho  seems  to  con- 
stantly avoid  coming  to  an  open  issue. 

There  is  a  section  entitled  ' '  economic  classes, ' '  to  which  we  turned  with 
the  expectation  of  finding  a  fair  statement  of  the  socialist  theory  of  tho 
class  struggle  with  the  refuta|;ion,  or  at  least  the  attempted  refutation, 
of  that  position.  We  do  find  the  well  known  quotation  from  the  Communist 
Manifesto  beginning  with  '/the  history  of  all  hitherto  existing  society  is 
the  history  of  class  struggles,*'  but  having  thus  given  the  statement  we 
look  in  vain  for  any  comment.  On  the  contiary,  we  find  that  the  great 
social  classification  of  the  Manifesto  is  given  as  if  it  were  simply  one  of 
several  equally  important  classifications  that  might  be  made,  and  the  author 
oven  places  as  apparently  co-ordinate  with  it,  the  statement  that  *  *  we  may 
divide  the  workers  according  to  their  kind  of  occupation,"  and  then  follow 
a  few  commonplaces  such  as  **The  effects  of  classes  are  both  good  and 
evil."   ' 

There  is  no  recognition  of  the  tremendous  social  significance  of  the 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Manifesto  as  quoted,  if  they  are  true,  or  any 
attempt  to  refute  them  if  the  author  considers  them  false. 

The  same  feeling  of  unfairness  arisea  in  the  treatment  of  economic 
detei-minism.  Here  the  statement  is  made  that  the  socialist  exaggerates 
the  importance  of  the  economic  factor,  and  an  example  of  such  exaggeration 
is  given  by  a  quotation  from  an  article  by  May  Wood  Simons  which  ap- 
peared in  the  International  Socialist  Review.  Unfortunately,  however, 
the  example,  which  is  instanced  as  an  exaggeration,  is  almost  identical  in 
statement  with  the  position  of  Prof.  Seligman,  who  is  quoted  in  the  same 
note  as  having  stated  the  theory  in  so  mild  a  form  that  "it  is  difficult  to 
see  why  the  doctrine  should  have  roused  so  much  discussion."  (See  Selig- 
man's  ** Economic  Interpretation  of  History,"  p.  9.)  But  no  attempt  is 
made  to  support  this  opinion  of'  socialist  exaggeration,  notwithstanding 
thut  this  is  the  most  crucial  point  in  the  whole  discussion. 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  instances  of  this,  but  we  will  give  only  one 
more,  and  that  because  it  applies  to  the  criticism  of  an  article  by  the  re- 
viewer. In  his  discussion  of  the  contrast  between  socialism  and  social  reform 
he  quotes  an  article  written  by  the  editor  of  this  Review  on  **  Special 
Privileges,"  which,  if  correct,  is  a  refutation  of  the  whole  position  on  which 
the  book  rests.  When  we  saw  this  we  expected  at  once  that  some  attempt 
would  be  made  to  overthrow  the  arguments  there  made.  On  the  contrary 
Dr.  Ely  contents  himself  simply  by  stating  that  he  believes  to  the  con- 
trary, but  offers  no  reasons  for  that  belief. 

It  is  such  quotations  as  the  following,  however,  that  make  the  socialist 
smile :  *  *  If  there  is  to  be  a  new  social  order  there  is  every  indication  that 
it  wUl  be  socialism. "  "  If  we  let  things  alone  we  shall  have  an  evolution 
much  like  that  which  the  great  socialists  Marx  and  Engels  predicted. ' ' 

The  whole  first  part  of  the  book  is  filled  with  proofs  of  the  fact  that 
society  is  evolving,  and  that  new  social  orders  are  continually  succeeding 
to  the  old,  and  therefore  we  may  be  sure  that  there  will  be  a  new  social 
order.  In  the  second  place  there  is  a  vast  body  of  workingmen  who  are  not 
only  not  going  to  "let  things  alone,"  but  are  going  to  assist  them  in 
moving  toward  "an  evolution  like  that  which  Marx  and  Engels  predicted." 


Wliat  to  Bead  on  Socialism. 

A  booklet  bearing  this  title  and  containing  brief  descriptions  of  tlie 
standard  books  on  Socialism  was  published  from  this  office  last  year,  and 
fifty  thousand  copies  have  been  circulated.  The  growth  of  our  publishing 
house  and  the  number  of  new  books  in  preparation  have  now  made  the 
booklet  out  of  date,  and  no  more  copies  will  be  printed.  Its  place  will 
be  taken  by  a  larger  book  under  the  same  title.  It  will  be  of  36  pages, 
the  size  of  the  International  Socialist  Review,  and  will  contain  portraits 
of  Marx,  Engels,  Liebknecht,  Vandervelde,  Whitman,  Carpenter,  Blateh- 
ford,  Simons,  and  other  writers.  There  will  be  an  introductory  essay  by 
Charles  H.  Kerr  on  **The  Central  Thing  in  Socialism,"  explaining  in  as 
simple  language  as  possible  the  principle  of  Historical  Materialism,  as 
developed  by  Marx,  Engels  and  Iiabriola,  which  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  scientific  socialism.  The  body  of  the  book  is  taken  up  with  descrip- 
tions of  all  the  best  books  on  Socialism  which  are  available-  for  American 
readers,  with  quotations  from  many  of  the  more  important  works.  It 
will  be  printed  on  fine  book  paper,  with  cover  of  white  enamel,  equal  in 
appearance  to  a  ten-cent  book,  but  it  will  be  sold  for  one  cent  a  copy 
or  $1.00  a  hundred,  postpaid,  or  fifty  cents  a  hundred  by  express  at  pur- 
chaser's expense.  This  is  less  than  cost,  and  on  this  book  there  will  be 
no  reduction  to  stockholders. 

CAPITAL,  BY  KABL  MABX. 

A  nosr  importation  of  the  London  edition  of  Marx's  Capital  has  just 
been  releived,  and  it  is  selling  so  rapidly  that  it  will  be  nearly  ex- 
hausted by  the  time  this  issue  of  the  Review  ia  in  the  hands  of  its 
readers.  A  large  order  has  been  placed,  and  we  shall  soon  be  in  a  position 
to  supply  the  book  as  rapidly  as  it  is  called  for.  The  phenomenal  sale 
of  ** Capital"  is  a  good  index  to  the  growth  of  the  Socialist  movement 
in  the  United  States. 

A  non-Socialist  publishing  house  in  New  York  has  inserted  in  some 
Socialist  papers  a  misleading  advertisement  of  a  cheap  reprint  of  *  *  Capi- 
tal." The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  the  London  edition  contains  847 
octavo  pages  of  clear,  open  type,  and  was  printed  from  plates  which  were 
revised  and  corrected  with  the  minutest  care,  under  the  sui)ervision  of 
Frederick  Engels  himself.  The  New  York  edition  is  a  hasty  reprint  from 
the  London  edition,  and  it  is  crowded  into  less  than  600  pages,  the  lines 
being  close  together,  and  thus  much  harder  on  the  eyes.  The  inferior 
edition  sells  for  $1.75,  while  ours  sells  for  $2.00  at  retail,  $1.20  to  our 
stockholders,  if  mailed,  and  $1.00  to  stockholders  if  sent  by  express  at 
ezpenae  of  purchaser, 

258 


254 


INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 


A  HEW  EDITION  OF  "THE  AMEBICAK  FABMES. 

Tho  Aincrican  Farmer,  by  A.  M.  Simons,  is  a  pioneer  work  in  an  nn- 
touchcd  field,  the  application  of  the  principles  of  Socialism  to  the  social 
aaJ  political  questions  affecting  the  farmers  of  the  United  States.  The 
first  c'lition  of  two  thousand  copies  appeared  a  little  over  a  year  ago 
and  is  e.'chausted.  The  author  has  been  studying  the  subject  constantly 
during  the  past  year,  and  has  brought  so  much  more  material  to  light 
that  it  has  seemed  best  to  rewrite  the  entire  book  instead  of  printing 
au  edition  from  the  old  plates.  Nearly  every  chapter  will  be  found  in  the 
new  oditLon  to  be  materially  improved,  and  so  much  so  that  those  who 
have  read  the  first  edition  will  find  it  necessary  to  read  the  second,  if 
thay  wish  to  keep  up  with  the  subject.  Ready  about  November  10;  cloth, 
50  Rents, 

LAB^IOLA'S  OBEAT  BOOK. 

"Esaaya  on  the  Materialistic  Conception  of  History,"  by  Professor 
Lflbriola,  of  the  University  of  Rome,  is  recognized  by  European  socialists 
as  the  most  important  work  which  has  appeared  since  Capital.  Charles 
H,  Kerr  has  completed  a  translation  of  this  book,  which  will  be  ready 
about  Dec.  1.  It  will  contain  about  300  pages,  will  be  handsomely  printed 
and  bouu^l;  and  will  sell  for  $1.00,  with  the  usual  discounts  to  stockhold- 
ers.    A<]v:ince  orders  are  solicited. 

THE  POCKET  IJBBABY  OF  SOCIALISM. 

"The  Capitalists'  Union  or  Labor  Unions,  Which!"  is  a  new  booklet 
of  33  pages,  prepared  under  the  authority  of  Union  7386,  American  Fede- 
ration of  Labor,  for  aflUiated  unions.  It  is  No.  40  of  the  Pocket  Library 
of  Social  isra,  but  the  word  Socialism  is  purposely  left  off  the  front  page, 
for  the  reason  that  the  booklet  is  addressed  to  the  union  man  who  is  not 
li  Soeiatist,  and  who  is  probably  prejudiced .  against  Socialism,  and  tho 
idea  Is  to  interest  in  him  certain  well-understood  facts  that  concern  his 
immediate  interests,  before  leading  up  to  the  subject  of  socialism.  The 
principles  of  Socialism  are  set  forth,  ably,  clearly  and  uncompromisingly, 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  booklet. 

**Th6  Socialist  Party,"  No.  33  of  the  Pocket  Library,  has  been  re- 
issued in  an  improved  form.  The  descriptions  of  socialist  literature  are 
omitted,  since  they  are  given  more  completely  in  the  new  book  *'What 
to  Read  on  Socialism."  Their  place  is  supplied  by  a  complete  directory 
of  the  socialist  locals  of  the  United  States  with  their  secretaries.  The 
compilation  of  this  list  involved  great  labor  and  expense,  and  was  only 
made  pof^^ible  by  the  co-operation  of  the  national  and  state  secretaries. 
The  price  bas  been  left  at  the  low  uniform  figure  charged  for  any  issue  or 
for  assorted  issues  of  the  Pocket  Library  of  Socialism;  five  cents  singly, 
Bix  for  twenty-five  cents,  fourteen  for  fifty  cents,  thirty  for  a  dollar,  $1.33 
for  the  (complete  set  of  thirty  numbers.  To  stockholders,  two  cents  a 
copy  for  any  number  less  than  a  hundred,  one  dollar  a  hundred,  by  mail 
or  express,  prepaid;  eight  dollars  a  thousand  by  express  at  the  expense 
of  the  purchaser. 

ALL  BUT  DELAWABE  AND  NEVADA. 

We  received  a  stock  subscription  in  September  from  the  Socialist 
Party  local  at  Columbia,  South  Carolina.  We  now  have  a  stockholder  in 
every  state  of  the  union,  except  Delaware  and  Nevada,  also  in  every 
territory,  besides  several  provinces  of  Canada  and  several  foreign  coun- 
tries, including  England,  Scotland,  Mexico  and  Cuba.  Less  than  two 
hundred  shares  remain  for  sale,  and  it  will  soon  be  necessary  to  take  a 
Tote  of  the  stoekholders  authorizing  the  issue  of  additional  stock.    No 


FUBIilSHEB'S  DEPABTMENT  88S 

one  will  hereafter  be  requested  to  subscribe  for  more  than  a  single  share, 
sinee  it  is  desired  to  keep  the  future  control  of  this  co-operative  publish- 
ing  company  in  the  hands  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Socialist  Party,  and 
not  of  any  individual  or  small  group  of  individuals. 

BBMOVAIi  TO  IiABOEB  QUABTEBS. 

The  office  of  our  company  since  1895  has  been  on  the  fourth  floor  of 
the  Garden  City  block,  56  Fifth  avenue.  The  recent  growth  of  our  work 
bas  crowded  our  rooms  to  overflowing^  and  we  have  now  taken  the  lease 
of  suite  504-505  on  the  fifth  floor  of  the  same  building,  giving  us  double 
our  former  space.  This  will  enable  us  to  display  our  literature  in  much 
better  shape  for  the  convenience  of  comrades  visiting  us.  Our  post-office 
address  will  be  as  before,  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company,  Publishers,  66 
Fifth  Avenue,  Chicago. 


•lya 


A  SOCIALIST  CLASSIC 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  FAMILY, 

Private  Property  and  the  State 


By  FREDERICK  ENQELS. 

Translated  by  Ernst  Untermann. 

There  are  a  few  books  the  reading  of  which  constitutes  a 
necessary  foundation  to  an  understanding  of  Socialism.  One 
of  these  is  Engels'  **Origin  of  the  Family."  Hitherto  this  has 
not  been  accessible  in  English,  although  it  has  long  been 
translated  into  almost  every  other  European  language.       f 

)  It  deals  with  fundamentals  and  traces  the  growth  of  those 
social  institutions  which  are  to  the  student  of  society  what 
elements  are  to  the  chemist.  Yet  it  is  written  in  plain  language 
easily  understandable  without  the  knowledge  of  any  technical 
vocabulary. 

It  starts  with  the  beginnings  of  human  life  and  traces  the 
institution  of  the  family,  of  private  property  and  the  state  from 
their  first  rude  origins  to  their  present  forms,  showing  the 
great  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  response  to  economic 
transformations. 

As  a  study  in  Socialist  philosophy  of  institutions,  as  a 
storehouse  of  information  on  fundamental  points,  there  is  no 
book  of  anything  near  the  same  size  that  can  begin  to  rival  it. 


CLOTH.  218  PAGES.  50  CENTS  PCSTPAID. 


Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company^  Publishers, 

56  Fifth  Avenue,  Chicago. 


^Ar  %Atf  -Ar  ite  ^At  ^Ar  >At 


( ?h  >te  >ii  ?>»  ffe  rtK  rt^>li  ?^ 


SOCIALIST 
PARTY  BUTTONS 

THERE  I»  some  demand  for  a  tetter  buttoo  thao  has  . 
heretofore  been  offered,  and  we  have  arranged 
for  the  mamttactttfe  of  a  really  handsome  lapel 
button,  enamel  and  gold  plate,  designed  in  accordance 
with  Ae  national  rejRKrendnm  of  th«  Socialist  Party. 
Price  30  cents;  to  stockholders  20  cent»,  postpaid.' 
-  We  still  have  onr  celluloid  button,  tht  handsomest  and 
most  tasteful  of  any  on  the  market  Price  5  cents  each, 
30  cents  a  doaen;  to  stockholders  20  cents  a  dozen  or 
^.50  a  hundred. 

CHARLES   H.    KERR   &   COMPANY 

(CO-OFSItAtlTE) 

56  FIFTH  AVENUE,  CHICAGO 


pi^m^^fm^^-mit^^ 


n  You  Will  Find 


rVTHE  WORKER"! 

V    USr  SOCIALIST  WEEKLY 
BiriMFUL  or  iNTEREST 


#  II  Is  PsirifShed  Exotiisively  bi  Hie  In* 

:  I  Isrsst  of  the  Workina  Class;  It  SUinds 

;  ;  for  True  and  Loyal  Trades  UnlOBism 

;  ;  and  tlio  Intsmis  of  iho  toilers 

'   Bvory  Wdvklo|:iiitti  Shotild  SolMwrlbe 
to  lt.-^«)  tenia  p«r  rear;  26  een^s  lor 
;  \     0  montbft;  16  eeats  for  3  xnoDtha. 

^  8AJCPLE  COPIBS  FREE  I 

THE  WORKER 

184  William  St,  N»  Y- 


THE   WIND  TRUST 

EDWARD  EVBRETT  HALE,  in  his  forcible 
IntroductioBi  to  "ThO  Wind  Trust,"  the  great 
economic  satire  of  the  present  time,  writes:  Do 
not  give  away  a  birthright.  I  thinlc  this  interest- 
ing story  will  open  the  eytts  of  readers  to  the  dan- 
gers of  soch  laTishjenerosity  by  the  People  to  great 

corporations.  ••Tlie  Wind  Trust:  A  Pos- 
sible Prophecy,"  by  JOHN   snyder 

Handsomely  printed.  Ton  Cents.  Jas.  H  ' 
Wirr  Co.,  publishers,  79  Milk  Street,  Boston.  " 

JIIWITtofiElDonSOCIAUSI 

▲  book  of  tblrtTr«lx  Iftr^  P<«eB,  desoriblnc  the  tUn. 
dard  irorka  on  sociallnn  In  sacli  a  way  tbat  the  atndeat 
can  readUyiad^e  whatU  to  bo  learaod  from  eaOh.  An 
Introdnotory  eaMy  by  CharlOB  H.  JCoit  on  •'The  Cen^ 
twmt  Thing  isa  SMtolfMSt,"  adda  ^  thoYalno  Of 
the  book  for  new  oon^erta  or  Inanlrera.  Handsoma^ 
printed  on  Ann  book j>aper  with  portrait*  of  Marx, 
Snffott,  Uebknecht,  Vandor^elde,  Carpentar,  Whit- 
1,  Blatchf ord,  Btpons  and  other  writora.    —  "  ■ 


for  oaly  ONE  OEKT  a  oopy  t  tl^OO  a  hundred.  . 
GBAIUUn  H.  KIBE  A  CO. »  robe.*  M  lUlh  An^  OOCAm. 


RUSKIN  yii!:ii^i^'ss::ir'Jis^ 

llWIlllllodciBK  0S,SO.  InduftriU  StadMita 
j^       ■  ■  mdHtod  for  work  to  tbto  turn.  Tottiea 

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^^^^S    CONTENTS 

The  Negro  in  the  CIabs  Struggle. £.  V.  Debs 

The  Negro  or  th^  Race  Problem.  ..;.•...  Z>r.  /I.  T.  Cusner 

Socialism  and  the  Negro  Problem. Clarence  Meily 

Dresden  Qonference. 

The  Socialist  Ideal. Paul  Lafargue 

Congress  of  French  Socialists. 

Materialism,  and  Socialism , .  • . Charles  H.  Chase 

The  Class  Struggle  in  Australia Andrew  N.  Anderson 

DEPARTMENTS. 

EDITORIAL— Some   Current  Events. 

Socialism  Abroad.  '  Book  Reviews. 

Tlie  World  of  Labor.  Publisher^'  Department. 


PUBLI  SHED   BY 


CHASLES  H.    KERR   &   COMPAlir? 

aSBB^N  INCORPOKATCD   ON   THE   CO<OPERATIV£   PLAN  M^S^g 

56    FIFTH    AVENUE,    CHICAGO,    U.    S.    A. 


The  International  Socialist  Review 

DEVOTED  TO  THE  STUDT  AND  DISCUSSION  OF  THE  HtOBLERS  IRODEinr 
TO   THE   GROWTH   OF   THE  UTTERHATIOHAL   SOOAUST  HOVEHEHT 

EWTJED  BY  A*  H.  SIHONS 


F0REK9  OQRRfiSraDERTS: 

ENGLAND— H.  M.  HY2n>HA]r,  Walibsb  CbaiTe,  Sakusl  Homov, 
H.  Qnsix^  J.  KaiB  Habdis.  J.  B.  MoDokald.  PBANGE— PAcrb 
Lafabgub,  Jsam*  Jauebs,  j  jsak  Ix>kqi7BT.      BELGIUM—EKiue 

VAJrOBBYBLDlEy  HSlf BJ  LAFOKTAINB,  EMILS  YlKCKf  MVB.  LaU^ 

Vandeeveldb.  DENMARK'-Db.  Gobtav  Bang.  GERMANY— 
Kabl  Kaxtcbey.  ITALY— Db.  Aubsbandbo  Sohiavi,  Pbov.  Ek- 
Bioo  Fbbbi.    SWEDEN— AiraoN  ANDBBaolT.     JAPAN— T.WCuBAi. 

'  .      •         - 

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Btraed  as  editorial  endotsemant  of  the  positiona  in  any  pablished  oommanioation.  No  rejeeted 
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HISTORY  OF  SOCIALISM 
W  THE  UNITED  STATES 

dY  MORRIS  HILLQUIT. 

00KTAJN8: 
'  \,  A  complete  account  of  the  Socialist 
mpyement  in  this  country  from  the  be^nning 
of  the  latt  century  up  to  the  pioent  day,  in- 
cluding Utopian,  Chriitian,  Fabian  and  Modem 
SocialiuD. 

a.  An  account  of  tlie  Free  Soil,'  Labor 
Refonft,  Anarchist,  Single  Tax,  Populist,  Na-. 
tionalist  and  other  Refpjrm  Moyemeots  in  the 
United  States.  • 

3«  An  account  of  the  evolution  of  the 
present  ttethodt  and  policies  of  the  Sodalist  Party. 

4.  .  A  comparative  study  of  the  social  philo- 
sophies of  all  American  schools  of  social  reform. 

5.  An  analysis  of  the  present  conditions 
and  tefidencica  of  the  future  deyelopment  of  the 
Socialist  movement  in  the  United  States. 

371  pages,  full  index,  doth  liound;  price 
ji.50,  postage  17c.  Discount  to  agents  and 
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SPECIAL  OFFER.— Upon  recdpt  of  ^1.00  (and 
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rade'* for  one  year. 


FROi  HEyOLUTlON  TO 
REyOLUTIOK 

^    BY  GCaRGE  D,  iHCRRON. 

-  This  article  appeared  in  a  recent  issue  of 
The  Comradx.  In  it  the.  well  known  author 
points  out  the  dangers  against  which  the  Sodsl- 
1st  movement  of  this  county  has  to  guard. 
Every  Socialist  should  read  it. 

The  CoMKADi  is  the  most  desirable  Socialist 
publication  in  the  country.  It  contains  iftuch 
that  is  valuable  to  the  student  of  Socialism. 
It  is  instru^ve  and  entertaining  rea<{fng.  Price, 
Ten  Cents  a  copy,  or  One  Dollar  a^year. 
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of  Tax  Revixw,  we  ofier  to  send  upon  recdpt 
of  25  cents  four  different  issues,  indudiiig  the 
above  mentioned  article  by  George  D.  Herroa, 
artd  cQptsininff  more  than  a  hundred  pages  of 
excellent  readmg.  matter  -on  Socialism,  and' 
about  a  hundred  beautiful  Hlustrations,  fine  half 
tone  portraits  and  cartoons,  some  of  which  are 
of  full  page  ^xe  and  printed  in  colors.  Those 
who  SuUcribe.now  for  a  year  will  roSeive  free  a 
fine  engraving  oS  Karl  Marx,  size  15^1 5tnche8. 
.Please  mention  the  ''Review.'* 


COMRADE  CO-OPERATIVE  CO., 


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NEW  YORK,    ^'  " 


N.  Y. 


./  1  ^. 


"*.l3f?.     -•■ 


N 


•■/ 


Til  INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST    REVIEW 


VOL.  IV 


NOVEMBER^  1903 


NO.  5 


The  Negro  in  the  Class  Struggle 

It  so  happens  that  I  write  upon  the  negro  question,  in  compli- 
ance with  the  request  of  the  editor  of  the  International  Soclalt 
1ST  Review,  in  the  state  of  Louisiana,  where  the  race  prejudice  is 
as  strong  and  the  feeling  against  the  ''nigger"  as  bitter  and  re- 
lentless as  when  Lincoln's  proclamation  of  emancipation  lashed 
the  waning  confederacy  into  fury  and  incited  the  final  and  desper- 
ate attempts  to  burst  the  bonds  tnat  held  the  southern  states  in  the 
federal  union.  Indeed,  so  thoroughly  is  the  south  permeated  with 
the  malign  spirit  of  race  hatred  that  even  socialists  are  to  be 
found,  and  by  no  means  rarely,  who  either  share  directly  in  the 
race  hostility  against  the  negro,  or  avoid  the  issue,  or  apologize 
for  the  social  obliteration  of  the  color  line  in  the  class  struggle. 

The  white  man  in  the  south  declares  that  "the  nigger  is  aU  right 
in  his  place'' ;  that  is,  as  menial,  servant  and  slave.  If  he  dare  hdd 
up  his  head,  feel  the  thrill  of  manhood  in  his  veins  and  nurse  the 
hope  that  some  day  may  bring  deliverance;  if  in  his  brain  the 
thought  of  freedom  dawns  and  in  his  heart  the  aspiration  to  rise 
above  the  animal  plane  and  propensities  of  his  sires,  he  must  be 
made  to  realize  that  notwithstanding  the  white  man  is  civilized  (  ?) 
the  black  man  is  a  ''nigger"  still  and  must  so  remain  as  long  as 
planets  wheel  in  space. 

But  while  the  white  man  is  considerate  enough  to  tolerate  the 
negro  "in  his  place,"  the  remotest  suggestion  at  social  recognition 
arouses  all  the  pent  up  wrath  of  his  Anglo-Saxon  civilization ;  and 
my  observation  is  that  the  less  real  ground  there  is  for  such  indig- 
nant assertion  of  self-superiority,  the  more  passionately  it  is  pro- 
claimed. 

At  Yoakum,  Texas,  a  few  days  ago,  leaving  the  depot  with  two 
grips  in  my  hands,  I  passed  four  or  five  bearers  of  the  white  man's 
burden  perched  on  a  railing  and  decorating  their  environment 

S67 


258  LNTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

with  tobacco  juice.  One  of  them,  addressmg  me,  said:  "There's 
a  nigger  that'll  carry  your  grips."  A  second  one  added :  "That's 
what  he's  here  for,"  and  the  third  chimed  in  with  'That's  right, 
by  God."  Here  was  a  savory  bouquet  of  white  superiority.  One 
glance  was  sufficient  to  satisfy  me  that  they  represented  all  there 
is  of  justification  for  the  implacable  hatred  of  the  negro  race. 
They  were  ignorant,  lazy,  unclean,  totally  void  of  ambition,  them- 
selves the  foul  product  of  the  capitalist  system  and  held  in  lowest 
contempt  by  the  master  class,  yet  esteeming  themselves  immeas- 
urably above  the  cleanest,  most  intelligent  and  self-respecting 
negro,  having  by  reflex  absorbed  the  "nigger"  hatred  of  their 
masters. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  industrial  supremacy  of  the  south  before 
the  war  would  not  have  been  possible  without  the  negro,  and  the 
south  of  today  would  totally  collapse  without  his  later.  Cotton 
culture  has  been  and  is  the  great  staple  and  it  will  not  be  denied 
that  the  fineness  and  superiority  of  the  fibre  that  makes  the  export 
of  the  southern  states  the  greatest  in  the  world  is  due  in  larg« 
measure  to  the  genius  of  the  negroes  charged  with  its  cultivation. 

The  whole  world  is  under  obligation  to  the  negro,  and  that  the 
white  heel  is  still  upon  the  black  neck  is  simply  proof  that  the 
world  is  not  yet  civilized. 

The  history  of  the  negro  in  the  United  States  is  a  history  of 
crime  without  a  parallel. 

Why  should  the  white  man  hate  him?  Because  he  stole  him 
from  his  native  land  and  for  two  centuries  and  a  half  robbed  him 
of  the  fruit  of  his  labor,  kept  hira  in  beastly  ignorance  and  sub- 
jected him  to  the  brutal  domination  of  the  lash  ?  Because,  he  tore 
the  black  child  from  the  breast  of  its  mother  and  ravished  the  black 
man's  daughter  before  her  father's  eyes? 

There  are  thousands  of  negroes  who  bear  testimony  in  their 
whitening  skins  that  men  who  so  furiously  resent  the  suggestion 
of  "social  equality"  are  far  less  sensitive  in  respect  to  the  sexual 
equality  of  the  races. 

But  of  all  the  senseless  agitation  in  capitalist  society,  that  in  re- 
spect to  "social  equality"  takes  the  palm.  The  very  instant  it  is 
mentioned  the  old  aristocratic  plantation  owner's  shrill  cry  about 
the  "buck  nigger"  marrying  the  "fair  young  daughter"  of  his  mas- 
ter is  heard  from  the  tomb  and  echoed  and  re-echoed  across  the 
spaces  and  repeated  by  the  "white  trash"  in  proud  vindication  of 
their  social  superiority. 

Social  equality,  forsooth !  Is  the  black  man  pressing  his  claims 
for  social  recognition  upon  his  white  burden  bearer?  Is  there  any 
reason  why  he  should?  Is  the  white  man's  social  recognition  of 
his  own  white  brother  such  as  to  excite  the  negro's  ambition  to 
covet  the  noble  prize?    Has  the  negro  any  greater  desire,  or  is 


THE  NBGEO  IN  THE  GLASS  STRUGGLE  259 

there  any  reason  why  he  should  have,  for  social  intercourse  with 
the  white  man  than  the  white  man  has  for  social  relations  with 
the  negro?  This  phase  of  the  negro  question  is  pure  fraud  and 
serves  to  mask  the  real  -issue,  which  is  not  social  equality^  but 

ECONOMIC  FREEDOM. 

There  never  was  any  social  inferiority  that  was  not  the  shrivelled 
fruit  of  economic  inequality. 

The  negro,  given  economic  freedom,  will  not  ask  the  white 
man  any  social  favors ;  and  the  burning  question  of  ''social  equal- 
ity*' will  disappear  like  mist  before  the  sunrise. 

I  have  said  and  say  again  that,  properly  speaking,  there  is  no 
negro  question  outside  of  the  labor  question — the  working  class 
struggle.  Our  position  as  socialists  and  as  a  party  is  perfectly 
plain.  We  have  simply  to  say :  ''The  class  struggle  is  colorless." 
The  capitalists,  white,  black  and  other  shades,  are  on  one  side  and 
the  workers,  white,  black  and  all  other  colors,  on  the  other  side. 

When  Marx  said:  "Workingmen  of  all  countries  unite,"  he 
gave  concrete  expression  to  the  socialist  philosophy  of  the  class 
struggle;  unlike  the  framers  of  the  declaration  of  independence 
who  announced  that  "all  men  are  created  equal"  and  then  basely 
repudiated  their  own  doctrine,  Marx  issued  the  call  to  all  the 
workers  of  the  globe,  regardless  of  race,  sex,  creed  or  any  other 
condition  whatsoever. 

As  a  socialist  party  we  receive  the  negro  and  all  other  races 
upon  absolutely  equal  terms.  We  are  the  party  of  the  working 
class,  the  whole  working  class,  and  we  will  not  suffer  ourselves 
to  be  divided  by  any  specious  appeal  to  race  prejudice ;  and  if  we 
should  be  coaxed  or  driven  from  the  straight  road  we  will  be  lost 
in  the  wilderness  and  ought  to  perish  there,  for  we  shall  no  longer 
be  a  socialist  party. 

Let  the  capitalist  press  and  capitalist  "public  opinicfn"  indulge 
themselves  in  alternate  flattery  and  abuse  of  the  negro;  we  as  so- 
cialists will  receive  him  in  our  party,  treat  him  in  our  counsels 
and  stand  by  him  all  around  the  same  as  if  his  skin  were  white  in- 
stead of  black;  and  this  we  do,  not  from  any  considerations  of 
sentiment,  but  because  it  accords  with  the  philosophy  of  socialism, 
the  genius  of  the  class  struggle,  and  is  eternally  right  and  bound 
to  triumph  in  the  end. 

With  the  "nigger"  question,  the  "race  war"*  from  the  capitalist 
viewpoint  we  have  nothing  to  do.  In  capitalism  the  negro  ques- 
tion is  a  grave  one  and  will  grow  more  threatening  as  the  con- 
tradictions and  complications  of  capitalist  society  multiply,  but 
this  need  not  worry-  us.  Let  them  settle  the  negro  question  in 
their  way,  if  they  can.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  for 
that  is  their  fight.  We  have  simply  to  open  the  eyes  of  as  many 
negroes  as  we  can  and  bring  them  into  the  socialist  movement 


260  ,     INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEYIEW 

to  do  battle  for  emancipation  from  wage  slavery,  and  when  the 
wen-king  class  have  triumphed  in  the  class  struggle  and  stand 
forth  economic  as  well  as  political  free  men,  the  race  problem 
will  forever  disappear.  ^ 

Socialists  should  with  pride  proclaim  their  sympathy  with  and 
itsliy  to  the  black  race,  and  if  any  there  be  who  hesitate  to  avow 
themselves  in  the  face  of  ignorant  and  unreasoning  prejudice, 
they  lack  the  true  spirit  of  the  slavery-destroying  revolutionary 
movement. 

The  voice  of  socialism  must  be  as  inspiring  music  to  the  ears 
of  those  in  bondage,  especially  the  weak  black  brethren,  doubly 
enslaved,  who  are  bowed  to  the  earth  and  groan  in  despair  be- 
neath the  burden  of  the  centuries. 

For  myself,  my  heart  goes  to  the  negro  and  I  make  no  apology 
to  any  white  man  for  it.  In  fact,  when  I  see  the  poor,  brutalizwi, 
outraged  black  victim,  I  feel  a  burning  sense  of  guilt  for  his  in- 
tellectual poverty  and  moral  debasement  that  makes  me  blush  for 
the  tmspeakable  crimes  committed  by  my  own  race. 

In  closing,  permit  me  to  express  the  hope  that  the  next  con- 
vention may  repeal  the  resolutions  on  the  negro  question.  The 
negro  does  not  need  them  and  they  serve  to  increase  rather  than 
diminish  the  necessity  for  explanation. 

We  have  nothing  special  to  offer  the  negro,  and  we  cannot 
make  separate  appeals  to  all  the  races. 

The  Socialist  party  is  the  party  of  the  working  class,  regard- 
less of  color — ^the  whole  working  class  of  the  whole  world. 

Eugene  V.  Debs. 


The  Negro  or  the  Race  Problem 

MEMPHIS,  TENN.,  SEPT.  i6.— From  the  standpoint  of 
Southern  interest  the  forthcoming  session  of  Congress 
probably  will  be  the  most  memorable. 

"Senator  Edward  W.  Carmack,  in  the  next  Con- 
gress will  introduce  a  bill  in  the  Senate  for  the  repeal  of  the  fif- 
teenth amendment,  which  provides  that  there  shall  be  no  discrim- 
ination against  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  because  of  color, 
religion  or  previous  condition  of  servitude.  Senator  Carmack 
would  eliminate  the  enfranchised  negroes  as  a  political  factor.  This 
bill  of  Senator  Carmack's  will  be  supported  by  every  Southern 
Representative  in  Congress. 

.  "Senator  Carmack  will  not  introduce  his  bill  in  the  hope  of 
getting  it  passed,  but  for  the  purpose  of  precipitating  discussion. 
Senator  Carmack  favors  the  separation  of  the  races  and  the  ulti- 
mate deportation  of  the  negro  from  this  country." 

The  above  appeared  in  the  Jacksonville  (Fla.)  Metropolis 
September  i6,  1903  (and  that  which  follows  below).  John  T. 
Graves  formerly  published  a  paper  in  Jacksonville.  He  contended 
lately  for  the  right  of  the  Socialists  to  free  speech  in  Atlanta  when 
Comrade  Fitts  was  arrested. 

"That  mantle  of  Mr.  Graves  is  full  of  rhythmic  rhapsodies, 
but  as  a  temple  his  head  is  a  cymbal.  The  negro  is  now  and  has 
for  years  been  as  essentially  a  part  of  our  Southland  as  is  the  sun- 
shine. Every  well-informed  man  knows  that  the  negro  is  the 
prime  motive  power  that  has  increased  the  cotton  crop  of  the 
South  from  the  4,000,000  bales  of  "before  the  war" — slave-made 
product — to  the  present  12,000,000  bales  per  annum — Freedmen- 
made  cotton  output.  We  know,  too,  that  in  the  phosphate  mines 
and  turpentine  farms,  as  a  worker,  the  negro  stands  unequaled, 
sublime  and  alone.  We  know,  too,  that  when  it  comes  to  tfie 
clearing  of  hammocks  with  the  grubbing  and  planting  of  them 
to  orange  trees  on  any  big  scale,  the  negro  does  it  all.  For  the 
cutting  out  of  the  right  of  way,  the  grading,  making  of  cross-ties 
and  the  laying  on  of  the  rails,  we  all  use  the  negro.  We  all  know 
that  90  per  cent  of  his  wages  finally  goes  into  the  coffers  of  the 
white  man.  For,  if  he  spends  it  on  his  first  love,  the  "skin  game," 
the  gambler  who  wins  it  spends  it  on  "his  woman,"  and  the  dress- 
maker and  hackman  get  it.  For  every  article  of  his  food  he  de- 
pends on  the  white  man's  commissary.  For  his  booze  he  patronizes 
the  white  man's  bar,  and  he  will  buy  the  "boss* "  old  cast-ofF 
clothes,  and  wear  them  with  as  much  pride  and  grace  as  a  bear 
wears  his  own  hide." — ^Albertus  Vogt,  Rosebank,  Fla. 

261 


262  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

The  writer  of  this  paper  has  been  cautioned  by  prominent  So- 
cialists of  Florida  to  "go  slowly  with  this  problem,  as  the  people 
of  this  State — ^and  the  Southland  generally — consider  any  effort 
to  elevate  the  negro  to  equal  civil,  political  and  economic  rights 
with  the  white  race  as  wrong/' 

In  their  minds  he  is  a  "Dam  Nigger,"  and  must  remain  so. 

Physicians,  as  a  rule,  make  no  distinction  as  to  race  or  color. 
All  are  patients.  The  National  Socialist  Constitution  recognizes 
no  distinction  of  color  in  the  wage-slave,  and  regard  both  as  be- 
ing equally  the  victims  of  the  exploiting  capitalists.  Yet  of  the  two 
races,  the  negro  is  the  most  class-conscious. 

Now,  in  view  of  the  fact  of  the  passage  of  the  militia  bill  of 
the  last  Congress,  it  will  be  as  well  for  us  Socialists  that  we  do 
what  we  can  to  consolidate  the  entire  working  class  of  wage-slaves 
as  a  united  whole  against  the  persistent  inroads  of  capitalism. 
The  negroes  are  already  looking  with  interest  and  sympathy  on 
our  movement  for  the  emancipation  of  the  workers  of  the  world 
from  the  thralls  of  capitalists.  They  receive  our  advances  with 
a  welcome,  recognizing — as  they  freely  do — that  we  are  the  ad- 
vanced race,  and  therefore  should  be  the  leaders  in  the  "irre- 
pressible conflict."  Tliey  hold  with  Abraham  Lincoln  "that  class 
laws" — under  which  they  -now  labor — "placing  capital  above  labor, 
are  more  dangerous"  (to  them)  "at  this  hour  than  chattel  slavery." 
''Labor  is  prior  to  and  above  capital  and  desen^es  a  much  higher 
consideration.''  (Abraham  Lincoln.)  The  trades  unions  in  the 
South  recognize  the  necessity  of  taking  the  colored  laborer  into 
their  unions :  For  were  they  not,  the  colored  men  would  be  found 
successful  competitors  against  organized  labor. 

Now,  shall  we  who  are  outside  the  unions  repudiate  the  negro 
laborer  as  a  working  factor  in  our  industrial  fight  with  capital  ? 

The  negro,  since  the  war,  has  degenerated  both  physically 
and  morally. 

Is  this  degeneracy  to  go  on?  Physically,  in  the  past,  he  has 
been  found  a  worthy  model  for  an  Apollo  Belvidere. 

Morally,  what  a  difference  between  the  pious  negro  slave  of 
war  times  and  the  great  filler  of  jails  and  chain-gangs!  Again  I 
say,  "Can  we  afford  to  let  this  go  on?  Will  the  shotgun,  the 
rope  and  the  stake  improve  the  race?  Does  it  deter  them  from 
crime  ?  The  other  day  a  negro  rapist  about  to  be  hanged  for  his 
crime  said,  "It  is  worth  dying  for"  I  Can  we  say  with  Cain  "Am 
I  my  brother's  keeper"?. 

Carlyle  in  his  "Past  and  Present"  says :  "A  poor  Irish  widow, 
Her  husband  having  died  in  one  of  the  lanes  of  Edinburgh,  went 
forth  with  her  three  children,  bare  of  all  resources,  to  solicit  help 
from  the  charitable  establishments  of  that  city.  At  this  charitable 
establishment  and  then  at  that  she  was  refused;  referred  from 


THE  NEGBO  OB  BACE  PBOBLEM  263 

one  to  the  other,  helped  by  none ;  till  she  had  exhausted  them  all ; 
till  her  strength  and  her  heart  failed  her :  she  sank  down  in  typhus 
fever;  died,  and  infected  her  lane  with  fever,  so  that  'seventeen 
other  persons'  died  of  fever  there  in  consequence." 

The  humane  physician  asks  thereupon,  as  with  a  heart  too  full 
for  speaking,  Would  it  not.  have  been  economy  to  help  this  poor 
widow  ?  She  took  typhus  fever,  and  killed  seventeen  of  you ! — ■ 
Very  curious.  The  forlorn  Irish  widow  applies  to  her  fellow- 
creatures,  as  if  saying,  "Behold,  I  am  sinking,  bare  of  help:  ye 
must  help  me!  I  am  your  sister,  bone  of  your  bone;  one  God 
made  us;  ye  must  help  me!"  They  answer,  "No:  impossible: 
thou  art  no  sister  of  ours."  But  she  proves  her  sisterhood;  her 
typhus  fever  kills  them;  they  actually  were  her  brothers  though 
denying  it !  Again.  Two  members  of  a  family  residing  in  Fifth 
avenue.  New  York,  died  of  typhus  fever,  directly  traced  to  a 
handsome  silk  wrap.  This  wrap  was  made  bya  poor  widow  living 
in  a  garret,  where  her  child  was  dying  of  this  disease.  The 
mother,  on  the  child  complaining  of  cold,  threw  the  wrap  over  it. 

The  intimate  relationship  of  all  classes  of  society,  and  their 
constant  intercommunication  one  with  the  other,  makes  it  impossi- 
ble for  one  class  to  hold  down  in  degradation — or  even  ignore 
such  degradation — ^an  inferior  class.  "From  1870  to  1880  the 
negro  population  increased  nearly  36  per  cent;  from  1880  to  1890 
the  increase  was  only  a  little  over  13  per  cent.  This  is  about  one- 
half  the  rate  of  increase  among  the  whites."  For  the  year  1895, 
when  82  white  deaths  from  consumption  occurred  in  the  city  of 
Nashville,  there  ought  to  have  been  only  49  colored,  whereas  there 
really  were  218,  or  nearly  four  and  one-half  times  as  many  as  there 
ought  to  have  been. 

It  is  an  occasion  of  serious  alarm  when  37  per  cent  of  the  whole 
people  are  responsible  for  72  per  cent  of  the  deaths  from  con- 
sumption. 

Deaths  among  colored  people  from  pulmonary  diseases  seem 
to  be  on  the  increase  throughout  the  South.  During  the  period 
1882-1885,  the  excess  of  colored  deaths  (over  white)  for  the  city 
of  Memphis  was  90.80  per  cent.  For  the  period  of  1891-1895,  the 
excess  had  risen  to  over  137  per  cent.  For  the  period  1886 — 1890 
the  excess  of  colored  deaths  from  consumption  and  pneumonia 
for  the  city  of  Atlanta  was  139  per  cent.  For  the  period  1891-1896 
it  has  risen  to  nearly  166  per  cent."  Before  the  war  this  disease 
was  virtually  unknown  among  the  slaves. 

These  constitutional  diseases  which  are  responsible  for  this 
unusual  mortality  are  to  be  traced  largely  to  immorality,  mal- 
nutrition and  unsanitary  environment.  According  to  Hoffman, 
over  25  per  cent  of  the  negro  children  born  in  Washington  City 
are  admittedly  illegitimate.    This  will  more  than  hold  good  far- 


264  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIAUST  SEYIEW 

ther  South.  The  negro  does  not  desire  to  mix  with  the  white  race. 
This  was  aptly  expressed  in  the  writer's  presence  at  a  barbecue, 
where  we  organized  a  colored  local.  An  old  negro  patriarch  re- 
marked in  the  course  of  a  general  conversation :  "The  negro  does 
not  desire  a  bedroom  in  Uie  white  man's  house,  or  to  sit  at  his 
table."  It  is  our  experience  that  it  is  the  white  man  who  is  the 
father  of  the  mulatto,  while  the  black  man  largely  fills  the  roll 
of  the  rapist.  Which  is  the  most  frequent  I  leave  my  readers  to 
judge. 

Expediency  has  been  the  death-blow  to  the  Democratic  party. 

Born  to  the  glorious  heritage  of  Democracy  left  by  Thomas 
Jefferson,  it  is  now  dead  to  everything  democratic  but  the  name. 
We  Socialists  cannot  afford  to  barter  principle  for  expediency. 
We  must  be  true  to  the  democratic  idea:  "Equal  rights  to  all 
and  special  privileges  to  none."  We  will  be  forced,  by  the  logic 
of  events,  to  act  in  accord  with  the  following  motto:  "Working- 
men,  Unite ;  You  Have  Nothing  to  Lose  but  Your  Chains :  You 
Have  a  World  to  Gain." 

In  the  coming  industrial  fight,  all  workingmen  will  have  to  be 
a  unit.  Already  the  capitalists  are  becoming  a  unit  in  their  fight 
with  the  unions,  who  will  be  worsted  until  their  members,  both 
white  and  black,  take  to  the  ballot-box  unitedly  and  claim  victory 
as  theirs  by  the  inauguration  of  the  "Co-C)perative  Common- 
wealth." 

The  great  problem  of  the  ages,  "Wliat  to  do  with  the  surplus," 
must  be  solved  once,  and  for  all  time  by  making  consumption 
keep  pace  with  production  and  producing  for  use  only.  Over- 
production in  the  past  was  partially  met  by  the  luxurious  consump- 
tion of  the  few  rich,  together  with  wonderful  works  of  art,  osten- 
tation and  public  utility.  But  since  the  great  advances  in  the  arts 
and  sciences,  together  with  the  great  development  of  machinery, 
and,  further,  the  great  production  required  for  profit,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  meet  the  problems  on  other  lines  than  the  restriction  of  pro- 
duction for  use  only. 

A.  T.  CUZNER. 


Socialism  and  the  Negro  Problem 

AGAIN  and  again  it  seems  necessary  to  reiterate  that  so- 
cialism is  merely  an  economic  reform,  and  affects  only 
indirectly  and  incidentally  questions  of  a  political,  social 
and  ethical  character.  For  the  problem  of  race  prejudice, 
as  for  those  of  intemperance  and  the  "social  evil,"  depending 
largely  on  individual  culture  for  solution,  socialism  is  no  specific. 
By  furnishing  an  improved  environment  it  may  facilitate  indi- 
vidual culture  and  so  become  an  important  factor  in  the  working 
out  of  the  answers  which  the  future  holds  concealed,  but  were 
socialism  realized  to-morrow  these  questions,  sinister  and  ominous 
as  ever,  would  still  confront  the  American  people. 

The  prejudice  against  the  colored  man  in  America  has  two 
causes;  the  first  sectional  and  no  longer  operative,  though  its 
effects  persist;  the  second  universal,  active,  and  of  economic 
origin.  The  first  of  these  is  the  quondam  status  of  the  negro  as 
a  slave,  and  of  his  white  associate  as  master.  Slavery  has  ceased 
to  exist,  and  before  the  law  all  races  are  equal,  yet  the  reluctance 
of  the  dominant  class  to  receive  on  terms  of  equality  that  class 
which  it  so  recently  held  in  bonds,  and  which,  in  the  main,  has  not 
yet  emerged  from  its  degradation,  is  as  natural  as  it  is  unchristian. 
Here  time,  bringing  with  it  the  culture  of  the  individual,  alone 
can  aid.  And  the  culture  needed  is  not  merely  that  of  the  colored 
man,  but  of  the  white  man  also.  The  white  man  must  learn  that, 
real  as  his  feeling  of  repulsion  for  his  black  brother  may  be,  it  is 
a  base  and  ignoble  thing,  an  occasion  not  of  pride  but  of  shame,  a 
blemish  in  his  character  not  to  be  fostered  but  to  be  eradicated. 
It  is  essential  to  the  continued  prestige  of  the  white  man  that  he 
should  learn  this.  Bitter  as  oppression  is  to  the  individual,  it  is 
a  most  powerful  stimulus  to  a  race;  and  every  act  of  injustice, 
every  denial  of  recognition  duly  earned,  but  brings  nearer  that 
much  dreaded  day  of  negro  domination, — ^brings  it  nearer  because 
it  justifies  it.  The  negjo's  lessons,  if  not  more  difficult,  are  multi- 
farious, among  the  first  being  that  no  legal  ipse  dixit  can  confer 
on  him  a  standing  or  secure  for  him  a  consideration  he  has  not 
as  an  individual  fully  earned  and  wholly  merited.  Even  then  he 
must  accustom  himself  to  denial,  while  still  asserting  with  courage 
and  persistence  the  justness  of  his  claims. 

Obviously  with  2l\  this  socialism  has  nothing  whatever  to  do. 
It  cannot  compel  one  man  to  admit  another  to  his  house,  seat  him 
at  his  table,  or  marry  him  to  his  daughter.  Nor  can  it  on  the  other 
hand,  curb  that  pragmatic  spirit  which  leads  one  man,  afflicted 
with  a  race  prejudice,  to  impose  it  by  law  or  social  convention  on 

2S5 


?66  iXTERXATIONAIi  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

his  fellows.  Matters  of  this  sort  are  ethical,  and  may  become 
political,  but  they  are  certainly  not  econcxnic. 

The  second  occasion  of  prejudice  against  the  negro  operates 
in  the  breast  of  the  white  wage-earner,  and  arises  f rc«n  the  pres- 
ence of  the  colored  man  as  a  competitor  in  the  field  of  labor.  A 
glance  at  the  conduct  of  mobs.  North  and  South,  when  bent  on 
negro  punishment,  will  serve  to  differentiate  this  from  thfe  cause 
first  mentioned.  In  the  South  the  mob,  composite  in  character, 
captures  and  murders  a  single  victim  and  disperses  peaceably,  the 
negro  community,  if  nonresistant,  suffering  comparatively  slight 
perturbation.  In  the  North  the  mob,  made  up  almost  invariably 
from  the  proletariat,  using  the  punishment  of  some  particular 
criminal  as  an  excuse,  hastens  cm  to  a  general  persecution  and  race 
war,  assaults  the  worker's  natural  enemy,  the  militia,  and  oc- 
casionally, as  in  the  case  of  the  recent  Evansville  riot,  receives  the 
quasi  endorsement  of  labor  papers  and  organizations.  Under  capi- 
talism, with  the  surfeit  of  labor  which  it  engenders,  each  additional 
competitor  in  the  labor  market,  constrained  by  necessity  to  offer 
his  labor  power  for  the  bare  price  of  sustenance,  tends  to  enforce 
the  Ricardian  law  of  wages,  and  becomes  an  embarrassment  and 
menace  to  every  other  laborer.  This  is  particularly  true  in  the 
case  of  the  negro,  whose  scale  of  living  is  generally  lower  than  that 
of  the  white.  As  he  can,  and  will,  work  for  less  wages,  so  pro- 
portionately is  the  animosity  of  his  white  fellow-worker  kindled 
against  him ;  and  it  is  more  unfortunate  than  strange  if,  schooled 
in  a  system  which  has  for  its  key-note  fratricidal  strife,  the  white 
laborer  resorts  to  violence  to  rid  himself  of  a  competition  threaten- 
ing his  own  livelihood.  Here  the  ameliorating  effect  of  socialism 
is  immediately  apparent.  When  co-operation  amongst  laborers  is 
substituted  for  competition,  and  the  consequence  of  added  numbers 
is  merely  to  shorten  the  hours  of  toil  for  all,  without  any  decrease 
of  compensation  to  any,  the  colored  laborer  will  be  welcomed  as  a 
brother,  not  reviled  as  a  "scab;"  will  be  hailed  as  a  fortunate  ac- 
cession to  the  armies  of  industry,  not  dreaded  as  a  club  ready  to 
the  hand  of  the  employer  to  coerce  refractory  employes.  And  it 
may  be  remarked  that  the  ready  sympathy  of  the  "better  classes" 
(capitalistic  employer)  for  the  negro  when  mob  violence  is 
afoot,  is  not  wholly  devoid  of  a  suspicion  of  self  interest.  But  here, 
as  in  other  instances  ,the  manifest  remedy  for  the  white  worker  is 
not  to  terrorize  and  murder  his  more  unfortunate  fellow  laborer, 
but  to  vote  for  his  own  class  interest  at  the  polls. 

Lastly,  what  should  be  the  attitude  of  the  socialist  to  the  negro 
problem  ?  And  here  there  must  be  no  doubt,  or  cavil,  or  temporiz- 
ing, or  subterfuge  or  uncertainty.  For  very  shame,  the  ethics  of 
socialism  dare  not  be  inferior  to  those  of  the  boiu-geoisie  which 
socialism  supplants ;  and  the  bourgeoisie  having  in  its  victory  over 
the  noblesse  overthrown  all  distinction  of  birth,  socialism  dare  not 


SOCIALISM  AND  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  267 

revive  it.  Absolute  economic  equality  for  white  and  black,  cover- 
ing perfect  uniformity  not  only  in  opportunities  for  labor,  but  also 
in  all  those  public  services,  such  as  education,  transportation  (in- 
cluding, let  it  be  added,  hotel  accommodations),  entertainment, 
etc.,  which  may  be  collectively  rendered,  together  with  complete 
recognition  of  political  rights,  must  be  insisted  on  more  strenuously 
by  the  socialist  than  eyer  they  could  have  been  by  any  abolitionist 
agitator.  No  "segregation  of  races,"  or  other  claptrap  "solution," 
can  be  entertained  for  a  moment.  The  drawing  of  invidious  caste 
distinctions  must  be  left  to  the  private  individual  alone,  in  his  pri- 
vate affairs.  There  is  another  and  stronger  reason  for  this  attitude 
than  the  incentive  to  preserve  the  good  gained  by  the  bourgeois 
revolution.  The  historic  mission  of  the  working  class  is  to  destroy 
in  its  supremacy  all  classes,  and  to  blend  humanity  into  one  homo- 
geneous, fraternal  whole.  If  now,  socialism,  which  is  the  economic 
victory  of  the  working  class,  countenances  and  preserves  a  distinc- 
tion of  race,  that  is,  a  caste  distinction,  so  far  from  accomplishing 
a  final  triumph  and  perfecting  human  solidarity,  it  will  be  but  a 
partial  success,  nursing  further  injustice  and  further  revolt.  And 
how  can  socialism,  the  champion  of  the  proletariat,  which  by  clas- 
sic inclusion  embraces  not  merely  the  workers,  but  the  criminals, 
and  all  the  despised  and  rejected  of  earth,  recognize  any  distinc- 
tion oi  race,  or  color,  or  birth,  or  faith  amongst  its  children?  To 
ask  the  question  should  be  to  answer  it. 

Clarence  Meily. 


Dresden  Conference 

NO  gathering  of  the  socialists  for  many  years  has  been  of 
as  great  importance  as  the  recent  Dresden  Congress  of 
the  German  Social  Democracy.  For  several  years  the 
capitalist  press  has  been  filled  with  stories  of  the  decreas- 
ing revolutionary  character  of  the  German  socialist  movement. 
So  continuously  and  emphatically  has  this  report  been  spread, 
not  only  by  the  capitalist  press,  but  by  some  persons  who  claim 
to  be  socialists,  that  the  idea  had  become  quite  generally  accepted 
diat  success  had  brought  demoralization  to  the  great  German 
socialist  movement. 

It  may  be  worth  while  before  proceeding  to  a  description  of 
the  Dresden  Congress  to  give  a  brief  review  of  the  growth  of  the 
opportunist  movement  in  the  Socialist  party.  This  movement 
centers  around  Edward  Bernstein,  who  was  editor  of  the  official 
organ  of  the  German  socialist  party  during  the  time  of  the 
"Laws  of  Exception."  When  those  laws  were  repealed,  he 
remained  in  England  and  fell  largely  under  the  influence  of  the 
Fabian  sentimentalists.  Soon  he  began  to  drift  away  from  the 
old  standards.  His  works  were  filled  with  apologies  for  capital- 
ism and  criticisms  of  the  socialist  doctrine,  while  his  practical 
activity  tended  to  give  aid  and  comfort  to  the  English  liberal 
party  much  more  than  to  the  socialist  organizations.  His  theoret- 
ical development  culminated  in  his  "Voraussetzung  des  Social- 
ismus,"  which  was  hailed  by  capitalist  readers  as  the  gfreatest  work 
on  socialism  ever  published,  and  was  welcomed  with  glad  ac- 
claim throughout  Europe  and  America.  When  examined,  how- 
ever, there  is  practically  nothing  in  it  that  has  not  been  set  forth 
by  bourgeois  critics  of  socialism  many  times  before.  Common- 
place facts  are  repeated  in  a  most  bombastic  manner  as  if  they 
had  just  been  discovered.  Capitalist  statistics  are  used  with  little 
attempt  at  discrimination  or  investigation  as  to  their  reliability. 
Sweeping  generalizations  are  made  only  to  be  modified  or  denied 
on  subsequent  pages. 

Shortly  after  the  publication  of  this  work  Bernstein  returned 
to  Germany.  On  the  strength  of  his  services  to  the  party  in 
former  days  he  was  elected  to  the  Reichstag.  Meanwhile  he 
continued  his  attack  on  the  policy  of  the  party  and  soon  gath- 
ered about  him  a  little  clique  of  worshippers  of  whom  VoUmar 
was  the  most  prominent.  Vollmar  comes  from  the  south  of  Ger- 
many and  reflects  in  his  political  ideas  and  actions  the  low  stage 
of  industrial  development  prevailing  in  that  portion  of  Ger- 
many. 


DBESDEK  CONFEBENCB  200 

Meanwhile  practical  opportunism  had  found  expression  in 
other  countries,  notably  in  France  and  Italy.  In  France  this  led 
to  an  open  split  in  the  party,  and  now  promises  to  leave  Mil- 
lerand  and  Jaures  high  an3  dry  in  the  bourgeois  ranks  with  no 
connection  whatever  with  the  socialist  movement,  while  the  work- 
ers move  on  in  a  clear-cut  revolutionary  movement. 

In  Italy  also  "Bemsteinism"  has  been  receiving  some  rather 
hard  blows,  and  Turati,  who  represents  this  wing  of  the  Socialist 
movement,  has  been  practically  forced  out  of  the  party  and  the  - 
great  Socialist  daily,  Avanti,  has  been  taken  from  the  control  of  ^ 
Sie  opportunist  faction  and  given  into  the  editorial  direction  of 
Enrico  Ferri,  who  has  always  stood  for  the  most  uncompromis- 
ing revolutionary  attitude. 

The  latest  manifestation  of  opportunism  in  Germany  was  the 
"Vice-Presidential"  question,  which  has  been  discussed  in  these  col- 
umns, and  it  was  round  this  question  that  the  fiercest  storm  raged 
at  the  Dresden  Congress. 

The  first  day  of  the  Convention,  however,  was  taken  up  with 
another  and  somewhat  analogous  question,  that  of  editorial  work 
by  socialists  on  capitalist  papers.  This  question  owed  its  promi- 
nence largely  to  the  fact  that  several  of  the  socialists  had  been 
working  with  a  radical  bourgeois  paper.  Die  Zukunft.  These 
comrades  had  used  this  paper  and  other  similar  ones  for  the  pur- 
pose of  publishing  criticisms  of  the  Socialist  party  policy  and 
members.  The  Convention  decided  by  an  almost  unanimous 
vote  that  any  person  affiliated  with  a  capitalist  paper  should  not 
be  allowed  to  hold  any  position  of  trust  within  the  party.  In  this 
debate  there  was  much  severe  criticism  of  the  so-called  "intel- 
lectuals." Comrade  Quark,  a  delegate  from  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main,  saying:  "When  the  entrance  of  a  Social  Democrat  into 
the  party  is  signaled  with  the  publication  of  long  articles  on 
'How  I  Became  a  Socialist'  and  other  biographical  matter,  his 
case  is  plain  to  me  from  the  beginning.  The  collegian  who  comes 
to  us  should  first  quietly  place  himself  in  the  rank  and  file  and 
fight  for  a  time  in  the  most  humble  positions."  * 

Comrade  Bebel  also  declared:  "The  developments  of  the 
last  few  years  have  compelled  me  to  say,  look  close  at  every  party 
member,  but  look  twice  or  three  times  at  the  "Academics"  and  the 
intellectuals.  I  say  this  notwithstanding  I  am  myself  a  gradu- 
aited  "Academic"  and  have  always  taken  their  part.  We  need  the 
intelligence  of  the  intellectuals.  Fortunate  circumstances  have 
given  them  the  scientific  training  which,  when  they  are  interested 
and  truly  in  harmony  with  the  party,  enables  them  to  perform 
such  distinctive  services  for  the  party.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  is  danger  in  this  very  fact.  I  do  not  accuse  these  c6llegians 
of  dishonesty  or  of  any  intention  to  injure  the  party.  Not  at  all. 
But  jil^  because  they  are  collegians  and  men  and  wonfen  of  greater 


270  INTERNATIO-NAL  S0CIAU8T  REVIBW 

energy  and  in  a  certain  sense  of  greater  intelligence  and  deeper 
interest,  they  have  to  be  doubly  and  trebly  careful  that  in  all  their 
acts  and  deeds  they  are  always  upon  the  right  road,  to  inform 
themselves  concerning  the  proletariat,  as  to  what  the  masses  think, 
how  they  feel,  and  what  they  wish,  and  these  masses  know  better 
than  the  collegians  about  those  matters  with  which  the  struggle 
of  the  proletariat  is  concerned." 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  debate  that  the  bitter  attack  wa§ 
made  upon  Comrade  Mehring  by  Comrade  Braun,  which  finally 
resulted  in  the  resignation  of  Mehring  from  all  active  editorial 
work  in  the  party.  This  resignation  is  universally  regretted. 
The  attack  was  made  by  Braun  in  an  effort  to  show  that  Mehring 
was  guilty  of  all  the  things  of  which  he  (Braun)  was  charged, 
in  that  Mehring  had  been  actively  engaged  as  a  contributor  on 
some  capitalist  papers.  In  thus  attempting  to  hide  behind  Meh- 
ring's  shoulders  Braun  only  succeeded  in  bringing  a  condemna- 
tion upon  both,  even  though  all  felt  it  was  largely  undeserved  in 
Mehring's  case. 

An  effort  had  been  made  by  certain  party  official ^  to  suppress 
the  discussion  and  the  Vomuerts  had  even  refused  articles  by 
Bebel  on  the  subject.  Bebel  was  determined,  however,  to  insist 
on  the  fullest  discussion  and  declared  that  it  was  time  to  be  done 
with  the  farce  of  pretending  that  there  was  really  no  disagree- 
ment within  the  party.  Bebel's  speech  on  the  subject  was  prob- 
ably the  most  thorough  review  of  the  entire  opportunist  position 
ever  attempted  in  a  public  speech,  taking  him  nearly  six  hours 
to  deliver.  After  a  review  of  the  general  situation  following  the 
election,  in  which  he  showed  that  the  present  was  of  all  times  the 
most  inopportune  in  which  to  take  any  conciliatory  attitude 
toward  the  enemy,  he  proceeded  to  discussion  of  the  principles 
involved.  The  following  quotations  give  some  idea  of  the  ex- 
haustive character  of  his  discussion  and  his  masterly  overthrow 
of  the  entire  opportunist  position.    He  says : 

"The  question  now  arises  as  to  whether  we  shall  change  our 
previous  tactics?  *When  should  a  party  change  its  tactics?  That 
no  tactics  are  eternal  is  self-evident.  Liebkbecht  said  once  in  his 
drastic  manner:  'If  necessary,  I  will  change  my  tactics  24  times 
in  24  hours.'  While  an  extreme  statement,  it  was  very  correctly 
expressed.  The  tactics  of  every  party  must  correspond  with 
the  foundations  upon  which  the  party  is  built,  and  if  I  must 
actually  change  my  tactics  24  times  in  24  hours,  nevertheless 
they  must  during  none  of  these  24  times  be  in  contradict' ion  with 
the  fundamentals  of  the  party.  (That's  right.)  That  is  the  de- 
ciding point.  Can  any  one  claim  today  that  our  tactics  are  in 
conflict  with  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  party.  On  this 
point  only  the  party  itself  and  the  outcome  of  facts  decide.  Now 
it  so  happens  that  the  development  of  the  party  up  to  the  present 


DRESDEN  CONFEEENCE.  271 

time  has  been  such  that  we  have  not  the  slightest  occasion  to 
change  our  hitherto  victorious  and  time- tested  tactics.  (Vigor- 
our  applause.) 

"Again,  a  change  in  tactics  may  be  rendered  necessary  be- 
cause they  have  proven  false  or  unsatisfactory.  But  nothing 
of  the  kind  has  occurred.  To  be  sure,  there  is  something  in  the 
fact  that  we  have  grown,  that  we  have  more  representatives,  and 
therefore  we  must,  in  a  certain  sense,  change  our  tactics,  but  by 
no  means  in  the  sense  that  we  hesitate  or  draw  back.  No.  Just 
because  this  great  body  of  voters  have  given  us  their  endorsement 
on  the  basis  of  our  previous  tactics  and  positiwi,  we  must  go 
forward  in  a  more  energetic,  uncompromising  and  clear-cut  man- 
ner than  hitherto.    (Tremendous  applause.) 

"Nevertheless  there  are  people  in  our  ranks — and  some  of 
these  are  among  those  whom  we  have  been  accustomed  to  call 
revisionists — -who  since  the  last  election  have  demanded  that  we 
undertake  a  most  comprehensive  parliamentary  activity  in  the 
nature  of  the  introduction  of  bills,  plans  of  legislation,  etc. 
Therefore,  I  must  give  a  few  words  to  the  destruction  of  these 
illusions.  As  a  general  thing  it  is  not  practical  for  the  party 
to  develop  broad  plans  of  legislation  and  work  for  them  through 
the  Reichstag,  for  this  is  a  gigantic  task.  I  remember  once 
how  we  fixed  up  a  job  for  our  good  old  Liebknecht  with  such 
a  legislative  plan.  It  was  in  the  Saxon  Landtag  work.  We  had 
rejected  the  mining  law  and  demanded  a  change.  The  minister 
said  that  the  government  recognized  the  necessity  of  changes, 
but  that  this  required  time,  investigations,  suggestions  and  stu- 
dies. Then  it  was  that  our  old  comrade,  like  the  hussar  that  he 
always  was,  broke  out  and  said,  'Why,  I  can  do  it  in  five  min- 
utes.' The  word  was  spoken,  and  I  said  to  myself,  now  we  are 
in  for  it  (merriment.).  Naturally,  the  minister  was  sharp 
enough  to  say:  *If  the  Social  Democrats  can  do  it  so  quickly, 
then  we  will  let  them  do  it.'  We  had  to  do  it,  for  we  had  no  one 
but  ourselves  to  blame.  I  assure  you  I  toiled  and  sweat  for  four- 
teen days  and  nights  to  complete  the  plan. 

"I  remember  also  our  great  plan  of  the  law  for  the  protection 
of  labor,  and  I  wish  to  tell  you  something  about  it.  In  the  eyes 
of  many  of  our  opponents,  and  even  a  large  portion  of  our  own 
members,  I  belong  to  those  people  who  take  no  part  in  any  practi- 
cal activity.  Even  during  the  last  few  weeks  I  have  been  desig- 
nated as  a  rider  of  principles  who  always  comes  forward  with 
fine  phrases  and  negatives  everything.  Now  with  a  short  inter- 
ruption I  have  been  a  member  of  the  Reichstag  for  the  last  36 
years,  and  there  is  no  single  person  amongst  us  that  has  initiated 
more  acts  and  worked  out  more  plans  of  laws  than  I  have,  the 
man  of  negation.  Our  scheme  of  legislation  for  the  protection 
of  laborers  is  given  great  praise  in  Herkner's  book  on  the  labor 


272  mTEBKATIONAIi  SOdALIST  BEVIEW 

question.  When  we  first  brought  out  this  scheme  the  press  of 
Nauman  and  Gerlach  were  so  filed  with  praise  that  they  declared 
that  the  Rdchstag  would  ado|>t  it  "en  bloc/'  Yes,  noble  sirs  (the 
speaker  moticms  toward  the  press  table  where  Nauman  and  von 
Gerlach  are  sitting).  Did  you  know  then  who  had  worked  out 
this  first  scheme?  It  was  I,  the  man  of  negation.  (More  merri- 
ment.) To  bring  in  legislative  schemes  is  very  beautiful,  but  it 
is  not  so  easy  to  work  them  out  We  must  leave  this  to  other 
people  who  are  appdnted  and  paid  for  it.  You,  Mr.  Privy  0)un- 
cillors,  yourselves  have  the  material,  the  knowledge  of  facts  and 
the  possibility  of  preparing  such  propositions.  We  worked  in 
parliament  until  we  were  overworked.  Do  you  really  think  that 
even  now,  when  we  are  8i  men  strong,  that  we  can  compel  the 
majority  to  adopt  the  proposals  which  we  initiate?  Singer  and 
I  have  worked  in  vain  in  the  Senior  convent  to  make  clear  to  the 
members  that  parliament  is  there  for  something  else  than  the 
adoption  of  governmental  proposals.  We  have  preached  to 
deaf  ears.  I  can  tell  you  that  we  cannot  initiate  any  more  prop- 
ositions. 

"No.  The  decisive  thing  is  that  the  whole  system  of  legisla- 
tion in  the  German  empire  and  in  all  of  the  other  parliaments  of 
the  world  is  so  incompetent  and  unsatisfactory  and  incomplete 
that  when  a  law  is  established  today,  by  tomorrow  everybody 
says  that  it  must  be  changed.  (That's  right.)  We  can  no  longer 
enact  great  fundamental  laws  because  a  majority  can  no  longer 
be  obtained  for  such  laws.  The  assertion  which  Savigny  made 
over  a  hundred  years  ago  that  our  time  had  no  need  of  legisla- 
tion holds  also  for  today.  But  why  is  this?  Because  the  class 
antagonisms  become  ever  greater,  so  that  one  can  make  only 
'half  laws'  because  whole  ones  are  impossible.  Let  me  give  you 
an  example  of  this.  Over  a  hundred  years  ago  the  Code  Napo- 
leon,  the  legislative  work  of  bourgeois  France,  arose.  The  Code 
Napoleon  was  the  work  of  the  Revolution,  of  a  glorious  time 
such  as  bourgeois  society  has  not  experienced  since  then.  The 
greatest  minds  of  that  time  labored  on  this  work — ^that  meant 
something  at  that  time — ^and  it  was  formulated  to  meet  the  neces- 
sities of  bourgeois  society.  That  work  was  made  at  a  single 
cast  and  it  stands  even  to  the  present  day  in  France.  Now  I 
want  to  ask  Frohme  and  Stadthagen,  who  have  co-operated  with 
the  session  on  the  bourgeois  law  lK>ok,  if  it  is  not  true  that  we  have 
had  this  bourgeois  law  book  for  only  three  years  and  already 
every  nook  and  corner  has  developed  obscurities  and  contradic- 
tions. 

"Take  again  the  factory  acts.  What  has  not  happened  to 
the  factory  act  during  30  years?  In  1869  the  factory  act  was  a 
complete  satisfactory  work.  Then  came  the  new  developments 
and  to'day  it  is  a  miserably  patched  up  thing  full  of  ccAitfadic- 


DBESDEN  CONFERENCE  873 

ticms.  There  is  no  call  for  legislation  at  the  present  time.  It  is 
no  longer  possible  to  make  complete  laws.  Is  all  the  expendi- 
ture of  labor,  time  and  money  which  is  spent  in  your  parliament 
treadmill  worth  while?  I  have  often  asked  myself  that,  but  be 
sure  I  am  altogether  too  aggressive  to  continue  long  of  this  opin- 
ion. I  said  to  myself,  such  thoughts  help  nothing,  we  must  cut 
and  hew  our  way  through.  Man  does  what  man  can,  but  one 
does  not  necessarily  deceive  himself  concerning  the  situation. 

"I  explain  all  this  to  you  in  order  that  you  will  not  think  that 
because  we  are  now  8i  men,  therefore  we  can  root  out  parlia- 
mentary growths.  In  one  of  the  books  that  is  distributed  here 
is  a  description  of  the  congress  of  1871,  more  than  32  years  ago, 
in  which  the  ten-hour  day  was  demanded,  and  then  I  was  alone. 
At  the  same  time  the  so-called  Social  conference  met  in  Eisenach 
and  also  declared  themselves  for  the  ten-hour  day.  Indeed  Ru- 
dolirfi  Meyer  has  I  believe  proven  that  Bismarck  at  that  time 
gave  his  word  to  work  out  a  plan  of  a  law  for  a  ten-hour  day  of 
labor.  (Hear,  hear.)  The  plan  was  to  include  a  ten-hour  day  of 
labor  for  the  cities,  and  eight  hours  in  the  country  during  the 
winter,  ten  hours  in  the  spring  and  fall,  and  twelve  hours  in 
summer.  Thirty  years  have  gone  over  the  country  and  what  of 
today?  I  am  certainly  a  confirmed  adherent  of  the  eight-hour 
day.  There  is  no  one  in  this  hall  that  is  more  convinced  of  its 
necessity  than  I.  But,  I  have  often  said  openly  that  if  we  could 
only  achieve  a  ten-hour  day  at  present  we  would  die  with  joy. 
Let  us  have  done  with  illusions  in  whatever  field.  (Unrest.) 
Oh,  that  will  not  hurt  you  seriously.  On  the  contrary,  it  can  only 
help  you. 

"This  then  is  our  situation.  We  will  remain,  as  we  have  be- 
fore, in  a  certain  isolation  and  in  the  sharpest  opposition.  That 
does  not  necessarily  exclude  the  accepting  of  concessions  when  we 
can  secure  them  and  when  they  appear  worth  the  trouble  to  us. 
To  be  sure  we  have  often  differed  over  the  value  of  these  conces- 
sions. Indeed  that  was  the  whole  difference.  The  right  wing  of 
the  Socialist  fraction  in  the  Reichstag — to  use  this  expression — 
sought  to  secure  even  the  smallest  concessions  which,  according 
to  my  ideas,  were  wholly  insignificant.  I  have  said  to  myself: 
why  should  I  vote  for  these  concessions  which  we  will  receive 
whether  we  vote  for  them  or  not?  What  is  it  to  me  that  I  should 
vote  for  these  concessions  which  are  certainly  parliamentary  com- 
promises. Once  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  a  valuable 
concession  was  involved,  then  we  have  voted  for  it. 

"So  there  were  struggles  in  the  fraction,  and  I  can  tell  you 
^  openly  that  at  the  next  session  such  struggles  will  not  be  dimin- 
'  ished,  but  increased.    It  is  easily  possible  that  what  I  designate 
as  the  right  wing  of  the  fraction  can  win  out  in  the  new  Reich- 
stag, and  therefore  I  consider  it  necessary  that  you  thoroughly 


274  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW 

understand  the  situation,  and  so  to  speak,  write  out  the  tactics 
for  the  fraction  (applause)  at  least  as  far  as  is  possible.  It  is 
naturally  inconceivable  that  the  Convention  should  definitely  de- 
termine the  attitude  of  the  fraction.  The  Gxivention  can  only 
offer  directions  and  sketch  out  the  road  of  march.  If  you  do 
that,  then  the  fraction  must  march  in  that  whether  they  will  or 

not 

"The  party  must  become  clear  on  this  matter  and  the  stand- 
point that  we  take  must  be  as  clear  and  transparent  as  crystal 
glass,  so  that  no  opportunity  will  be  given  to  our  opponents  to 
say  that  the  result  of  the  wonderful  victory  is  that  the  Social 
Democrats  go  as  all  bourgeois  parties  have  gone  hitherto;  when 
they  reach  a  certain  height  then  they  disintegrate,  surrender  their 
fundamentals,  and  all  is  over  with  them.     (That's  right.) 


"Since  the  great  debate  in  Erfurt  twelve  years  ago  I  have 
swallowed  so  much  from  Vollmar  and  been  so  often  angry,  and 
then  again  reconciled  to  reach  out  the  hand  for  the  purpose  of 
bridging  over  the  antagonisms,  that  I  have  at  last  said  to  myself, 
things  shall  go  this  way  no  longer,  and  now  we  must  fuially 
make  things  clear,  and  clean  off  the  slate,  and  at  this  time  strike 
at  our  antagonisms  as  fundamentally  as  possible.  (Unrest) 
The  foundation  of  the  whole  new  "revisionist*'  movement  is,  as 
is  well  known,  Bernstein's  book,  which,  to  his  good  fortune,  was 
written  v/hile  he  was  in  London.  For,  as  soon  as  he  was  given 
the  opportunity  to  return  to  Germany,  which  I  was  glad  to  grant 
him  from  my  heart  (I  have  myself  as  far  as  possible  contributed 
thereto), — since  he  has  been  practically  occupied  in  Germany  he 
has,  according  to  my  conviction  not  gained  followers  but  rather  lost 
many  (That's  right)  and  this,  not  simply  among  the  radicals, 
but  among  his  friends  the  revisionists,  and  indeed  among  these 
the  most.  What  has  not  been  said  during  the  last  few  days  of 
him  who  was  once  greeted  by  his  friends  as  a  Messiah  and  of 
whom  was  expected  the  preaching  of  a  new  evangel,  a  new  belief 
and  new  tactics.  Now  they  are  all  shouting,  'Stone  him !  Stone 
him!' -not  because  he  has  taken  back  a  single  word  of  tliat  which 
he  has  said,  but  because,  according  to  their  ideas  he  was  so  un- 
skilful, or  so  frank  in  speaking  out.  It  is  for  this  that  he  has  been 
so  sharply  blamed,  so  that  many  have  said,  if  this  goes  much  fur- 
ther he  must  be  put  out  of  the  party.  None  of  us  have  said  this 
as  yet,  but  it  has  been  said  to  Bernstein  by  those  who,  until  a  short 
time  ago,  were  reckoned  among  his  followers.  Bernstein  has 
grown  to  become  a  sort  of  enfant  terrible.  Because  his  views, 
however,  were  already  discredited  in  wide  circles  of  the  party, 
no  very  great  significance  was  laid  upon  his  first  suggestion  that 
we  choose  a  Vice-president  who  would  b^  compelled  by  the  cus- 


DEESDEN  CONPEBBNCE  275 

torn  of  the  Reichstag  to  make  the  ordinary  visit  to  court.  In 
fact  I  was  much  !ess  embittered  that  the  question  was  raised  at 
all,  than  that  it  was  set  forth  in  such  a  public  manner,  because  I 
said  to  myself:  could  Bernstein  do  anything  inore  foolish  from 
his  own  standpoint  than  at  the  very  moment  when  the  greatest 
rejoicing  over  the  result  of  the  election  was  prevailing  through- 
out the  party,  and  where  the  whole  party  with  the  exception  of  a 
disappearing  minority  had  reached  the  conviction  that  now  was 
the  opportunity  to  take  advantage  of  this  victory  and  go  forward 
to  a  sharper  and  more  thorough  attach  by  virtue  of  the  strength 
of  the  great  principles  and  the  accomplishments  of  our  previous 
tasks, — that  he  should  come  forward  at  this  moment  with  the 
Vice-presidential  question  and  declare  that  'even  if  we  have  to 
go  to  court  we  dare  not  deny  ourselves,'  and  that  at  a  moment 
when  the  news  from  Breslau  and  Essen  (long  and  vigorous  ap- 
plause) still  burned  before  the  eyes  of  the  Social  Democratic 
Party.  At  a  moment  that  more  than  showed  to  every  one  who 
cc^ld  think  even  a  little  what  had  been  prepared  for  us  from  above, 
at  that  moment  when  we  were  saying  to  each  other,  now  we  will 
have  to  do  with  a  representative  of  the  ruling  powers  who  has 
so  often  announced  to  us  that  in  the  last  analysis  *the  army  is  still 
there  to  shoot  against  father  and  mother/  (Long  and  renewed 
applause.)  Did  Bernstein  really  believe  that  all  this  had  gone 
out  of  the  heads  of  the  German  proletariat?  (Loud  applause.) 
Did  he  believe  that  there  was  a  single  one  of  us  in  doubt  that 
the  tremendous  power  which  this  man  commanded  on  water  and 
on  land  would  one  day  be  set  in  motion  if  he  believed  that  the 
time  had  come  to  lead  it  against  us?  Whoever  does  not  see  all 
that,  whoever  docs  not  know  all  that,  should  cease  to  play  at 
politics.  (Long  and  continued  applause.)  Bernstein  had  in  my 
estimation  shown  a  significant  lack  of  foresight,  and  as  far  as  I 
could  observe  no  great  portion  of  the  party  members  considered 
it  worth  while  to  use  any  heavy  weapons  against  him  To  be 
sure  I  was  roused  that  such  a  great  moment  should  be  disturbed 
by  this  trivial  proposal. 

"I  will  tell  you  this,  that  even  if  a  great  portion  of  the  party 
press  and  that  portion  which  is  not  ordinarily  opposed  to  me  on 
tactical  questions  blames  me,  on  th«  other  hand,  I  can  give  you 
written  proof  of  the  fact,  that  as  long  as  I  have  been  active  in 
the  party,  and  you  know  there  have  been  some  fierce  struggles  in 
the  party,  I  have  never  received  so  many  endorsements  from 
the  ranks  of  the  party  comrades  as  at  the  present  time.  Our 
comrades  rejoice  when  the  right  word  comes  at  the  right  time. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  Never  has  it  happened  to  me  to  re- 
ceive so  many  letters  of  endorsement  as  at  the  present  time  from 
the  masses  of  the  party  comrades,  and  also  from  Switzerland, 
Austria,  Belgium  and  England.     From  the  German  comrades, 


276  INTBBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIBW 

however,  not  from  the  others.     They  are  all  rejoicing  that  we 
have  at  last  billed  the  cat.    (Loud  applause.) 

♦  *****♦ 

"When  it  became  apparent  that  nine-tenths  of  the  party  dis- 
approved of  VoUmar's  tactics,  and  that  it  was  by  no  means  a 
question  of  an  extension  of  power  but  a  little  insignificant  dis- 
cussion of  formalities,  then  there  came  from  all  sides  a  demand 
that  the  Convention  should  not  occupy  itself  therewith.  Now,  if 
we  were  living  behind  a  Chinese  wall  then  the  question  would 
be  wholly  different.  But,  we  are  not.  The  whole  world,  we  may 
say  with  a  certain  pride,  is  looking  at  us,  and  every  movement 
in  our  ranks  is  closely  followed  by  all  Germany.  On  the  other 
side  all  of  those  who  during  tlie  last  twelve  years  have  brought 
this  disagreement  to  the  front  at  least  every  two  years,  and 
annually  during  the  last  five  years,  were  praised  by  the  bourgeois 
press  and  painted  as  great  statesmen  with  a  wide  outlook.  They 
will,  in  this  manner,  as  I  have  already  said,  praise  them  out  of 
the  party.  This  has  already  taken  place  to  a  degree  that  I  must 
say  has  many  times  disgusted  me.  (Applause.)  Certainly  those 
praised  have  not  been  responsible  for  this,  but  if  such  a  thing 
should  happen  to  me — it  can  not  happen  to  me  and  I  am  glad  of 
it — ^and  so  long  as  I  can  breathe  and  write  and  speak  out,  it  shall 
not  be  otherwise.  I  will  always  be  the  deadly  enemy  of  this 
bourgeois  society  and  this  social  order  as  long  as  I  live  and  I 
wish  to  exist  only  in  order  to  bury  its  conditions  of  existence  and 
to  abolish  it  if  I  can.    (Loud  applause.) 

"I  wish  the  comrades  to  be  informed  on  everytliing  and  if 
this  had  been  done  things  would  not  have  reached  the  pass  in  the 
party  that,  unfortunately,  they  have  now  attained,  for  the  party 
comrades  would  have  come  together  and  said  'Hold  on,  this  can 
not  go  further.  We  see  that  what  you  are  saying  is  exploited 
in  the  opposition  press  and  how  you  are  misunderstood,  and  this 
must  not  continue.' 

4t  ♦  «  «  «  ♦  4t 

"They  think  the  more  modest  we  are  the  easier  we  shall  con- 
quer. I  say,  the  more  modest  we  are  the  less  we  will  get.  (Ap- 
plause.) Marx  says  in  Capital,  'It  is  not  possible  to  leap  over  an 
essential  stage  of  development,  but  its  duration  may  be  shortened.* 
There  has  been  no  greater  practical  politician  than  that  Marx  who 
is  so  much  slandered  in  our  own  ranks.  A  stage  of  evolution 
cannot  be  leaped  over,  but  it  may  be  shortened.  Our  whole 
activity  proceeds  from  the  point  of  view  of  shortening  the  stages 
of  evolution  which  lead  to  the  socialist  society.  (Great  applause.) 
With  the  revisionists,  however,  things  are  turned  completely 
round.  'Do  not  be  so  rash  nor  e^ger ;'  those  are  not  their  words 
but  the  sense.    'The  masses  are  not  yet  ready,  how  can  ybu  flatter 


BBESDSN  OONFEBENCE  277 

yourselves.'     They  tell  us  the  masses  are  not   in   a  position 
to  use  the  governmental  power  if  it  should  come  to  us.    Never 
I  mind  breaking  your  heads  about  that.    You  know  little  of  the 

'  intelligence  there  is  upon  our  side  if  you  are  really  in  accord  with 

the  masses.    (Very  true.)    What  have  not  the  laborers  performed 
in  the  unionsi  in  the  mutual  benefit  associations,  in  industrial 
I  lines  and  in  parliaments?    Especially,  what  have  not  been  the 

I  accomplishments  of  those  men  who  have  come  from  the  prole- 

tariat in  parliament?  I  do  not  speak  of  the  collegians.  How 
well  these  men  filled  their  places  during  the  last  spring  and  sum- 
mer upon  the  tariff  commission.  I  think  you  honestly  could  have 
expected  that  our  men  would  be  placed  there,  but  that  they  would 
fulfill  their  duties  in  such  a  satisfactory  manner  has  filled  me  with 
amazement.  .  .  .  What  do  you  know  of  the  intelligence  in 
labor  circles?  You  have  no  conception  of  it.  (Very  good.)  In 
every  great  popular  movement  intellects  come  from  beneath  of 
which  no  man  has  thought.  For  there  has  never  been  a  great 
cultural  movement  of  which  it  is  more  true  that  it  has  produced 
its  own  men  than  of  the  socialist  movement.  (Loud  applause.) 
If  the  condition  should  arise  tomorrow  which  should  throw  our 
opponents  from  their  positions  and  place  us  therein,  you  need 
have  no  worry  but  what  we  would  know  what  to  do.  (Ap- 
plause.) But  this  petty -point  of  view,  this  small  heartedness, 
this  cowardice,  this  everlasting  diplomacy  and  compromise! 
(Great  merriment  and  applause.)  Naturally,  all  the  diplomatic 
genius  is  on  the  side  of  our  revisionists,  all  diplomatic  history  is 
on  their  side.  Their  genius  for  statesmanship  is  visible  a  thou- 
sand meters  away  and  their  statesmanlike  features  are  noticeable 
from  afar.  In  spite  of  all  this,  I  say  to  you  that  the  riders  of 
principles,  the  people  who  more  than  ever  represent  the  old  ideal 
revolutionary  standpoint  of  the  party,  these  are  no  diplomats,  no 
statesmen,  nor  do  they  wish  to  be;  but  I  say  to  you,  when  one 
begins  to  write  of  himself  as  a  statesman  he  is  one  no  longer. 
(Cries  of  "Very  good"  and  great  merriment.) 


"This  smoothing  out,  this  bridging  over  of  the  antagonisms 
between  proletariat  and  bourgeois  society,  that  is  the  object  of 
the  men  who  call  themselves  revisionists.  (Loud  applause.)  It 
is  always  and  forever  the  old  struggle,  here  Left,  there  Right,  and 
between,  the  swamp.  These  are  the  elements  that  never  know 
what  they  wish,  that  never  say  what  they  wish.  These  are  the 
ones  who  first  listen  and  look  to  find  where  the  majority  is  and 
then  go  there.  We  have  this  same  sort  in  our. own  party.  (Re- 
newed applause.)  Many  of  them  have  been  brought  to  light  by 
this  discussion.  This,  comrades,  must  be  denounced.  (Cry,  'De- 
nounced?')    Yes,  I  say  'denounced,'  in  order  that  the  comrades 


278  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

may  know  what  sort  of  people  they  are.  The  man  who  openly 
takes  some  standpoint  from  which  I  can  tell  where  I  am  and 
with  what  I  have  to  battle  and  whether  he  conquers  or  I  is  not  so 
much  to  be  feared,  but  the  miserable  element  that  always  hides 
and  avoids  every  clear  expression  and  is  always  saying,  *We  are 
all  united,  we  are  all  brothers,'  this  is  the  worst.  (Loud  ap- 
plause.) This  I  fight  the  most.  (Tumultuous  applause.)  If 
there  is  any  doubt  as  to  whether  this  view  is  correct,  I  find  my 
best  reasons  for  it  in  the  attitude  of  our  enemies.  They  are  for 
me  the  best  barometers.  I  ask  then  if  the  revisionist  movement . 
has  not  been  encouraged  and  praised  in  every  possible  manner, 
by  the  capitalists,  and  if  they  have  not  morally  sup- 
ported it  as  far  as  they  can?  The  Frankfurter  Zeitungis, 
so  to  say,  the  organ  of  the  revisionists,  and  the  same 
could  well  nigh  be  said  of  Naumann's  Hilfe,  As  poor, 
an  opinion  as  I  have  of  Herr  Naumann  and  as  little  as  I 
believe  that  he  has  a  wide  political  outlook,  in  relation  to  the 
tactics  that  he  has  adopted  toward  us  he  was  generally  skilful. 
(Shout,  *Yet  he  has  had  no  results;  yet  he  accomplished  noth- 
ing.') Certainly  he  accomplished  nothing.  Do  you  think,  com- 
rades, that  I  believe  that  revisionism  will  accomplish  anything  in 
our  party?  (Loud  applause.)  No,  comrades,  it  has  had  no  re- 
sults, save  that  it  has  brought  disgrace  to  the  party.  (Shout, 
That's  right.')  It  divides  our  strength  and  it  restricts  our  devel- 
opment, it  compels  disagreements  and  reciprocal  attacks  where 
the  opposite  should  prevail.  (Very  true.)  Numerous  comrades 
are  also  led  astray.  That  these  people  have  fought  honestly  I  have 
no  doubt.  I  have  said  the  same  in  regard  to  our  collegians  who 
generally  have  forgotten  all  too  soon  what  they  have  learned  as 
Social  Democrats,  until  they  all  more  or  less  believe  that  they  are 
actually  born  leaders  of  the  proletariat,  until  finally  more  than  one 
of  them  believes  the  proletariat  should  be  brought  to  think  that 
he  does  it  an  honor  to  represent  it.  (Very  true.)  There  is  no 
evil  intention,  no  absolute  betrayal,  but  it  is  an  injury  to  the  party. 
Alongside  of  the  collegians  comes  that  other  portion  of  the  revi- 
sionists, the  previous  proletarians  who  have  risen  to  higher  posi- 
tions in  life,  people  who  have  had  a  certain  break  in  their  lives. 
We  need  only  to  apply  the  materialistic  conception  of  history  and 
you  can  solve  the  riddle.  That  which  holds  true  of  our  oppo- 
nents holds  true  for  us  also.  And  thus  is  bom  the  belief  that  one 
has  statesmanlike  blood  and  is  a  diplomatic  genius.  This  belief 
in  connection  with  the  intercourse  with  people  of  the  other  side, 
gradually  leads  to  the  position  which  I  have  today  pointed  out. 
So  it  is  that  so-called  proletarians  are  found  therein.  Certainly 
they  are  the  unscientific  and  unskilful  who  but  follow  a  man  to 
whom  they  believe  themselves  personally  bound.  But,  if  it  were 
once  possible  to  set  forth  what  the  actual  proletariat  of  the  party 


DRESDEN  CONFERENCE  279 

thinks  of  revisionism,  the  revisionists  would  have  a  beautifully 
fine  general  staff  but  the  army  behind  them  would  have  disap- 
pear^.   (Loud  applause.) 

"But  because  revisionism  since  the  last  election  (I  practice  no 
deception,  I  conceal  nothing)  has  had  a  considerable  strengthen- 
ing in  the  Reichstag;  because  I  know  that  people  will  seek  to 
shake  the  proletarians  in  their  convictions;  and  because  I  know 
that  this,  as  it  always  has,  will  lead  to  continuous  struggles  and 
friction  of  the  most  unfortunate  form,  I  have  said,  *but  now  the 
Convention  shall  finally  decide  for  the  representatives  of  the 
party  what  shall  be  their  standpoint  and  firmly  fix  the  future  tac- 
tics of  the  fractictti.'  (Applause.)  I  have  already  said  in  my 
first  statement,  'I  know  that  we  have  had  sharp  contests  over 
tactics  in  the  fraction  and  I  know  also  that  in  the  last  instance 
that  if  the  party  was  to  speak  these  questions  would  be  decided 
otherwise  than  they  are  in  the  fraction.  (True,  true.)  Therefore 
we  will  more  than  ever  call  upon  the  party  for  decisions  concern- 
ing the  tactics  of  the  fraction.'  From  this  point  of  view  I  have 
presented  the  resolution  with  the  amendment  which  I  read  at 
the  beginning.  From  this  point  of  view  I  ask  you  to  observe 
this  resolution  and  judge  it,  and  if  you  believe  that  the  resolu- 
tion expresses  what  should  be  expressed,  then  vote  for  it  with  an 
overwhelming  majority.  (Shout,  'unanimously.')  And  I  am  con- 
vinced that  if  this  rule  of  conduct  is  given  us,  and  if  the  other 
measures  are  grasped  as  they  should  be  in  order  to  spread  clear- 
ness, truth  and  knowledge,  then  am  I  convinced  that  the  party 
will  go  forward  in  its  broad,  victorious  course,  and  fulfill  its  his- 
.  torical  mission  in  the  most  glorious  manner."  (Tumultuous  and 
continuous  applause.) 

After  various  other  speakers,  including  Kautsky,  Vollmar  and 
Auer  had   addressed   the   Convention,   Edward    Bernstein   pro-  j 
ceeded  to  set  forth  his  position.    As  with  Bebel's,  it  is  impossible 
to  publish  the  whole  of  Bernstein's  speech,  but  the  substance  is  ' 
given  herewith: 

"I  shall  not  hesitate  from  the  beginning  to  declare  that  I  am 
a  revisionist.  (Bravo.)  Indeed  I  will  even  go  further  and  admit 
that  I  am  a  Bersteinian.  (Great  merriment.) 
.  "What  is  revisionism  ?  It  was  not  I  who  created  the  word.  It 
was  Schonlank  who  in  1894  while  speaking  in  France  declared 
the  necessity  of  a  revision  of  socialist  ideas.  I  have  never  spoken 
of  the  revision  of  socialism,  but  have  dealt  with  a 
list  of  questions  under  '  the  title  of  'problems  of  so- 
cialism.' What  does  revisionism  seek  to  do?  If  all 
of  the  people  who  at  one  time  or  another  have  had 
opinions  differing  from  the  great  majority  of  the  party  comrades 
on  practical  or  theoretical  questions  were  to  be  designated  revi- 
sionists we  would  have  a  large  body  in  which  wholly  different 


280  INTBBNAtlONAL  SOCIALI&T  REVIEW 

views  would  be  represented.  The  critical  minds  axe  always  much 
harder  to  bring  together  than  the  dc^;matic  minds.  In  the  time 
of  the  Reformation  the  Catholic  Church  held  together  while  the 
Protestant  movement  was  split  up  into  numerous  little  movements 
which  indeed  constituted  its  temporary  weakness.  So  it  is  no 
wonder  that  the  so-called  main  revisionists  disagree  on  different 
points.  I  have  never  had  any  illusions  on  this  point.  I  have  never 
imagined  that  the  theoreticians  would  agree  at  all  points  with 
VoUmar,  Auer^  or  Heine.  Even  while  I  was  in  England  I  have 
declared  that  these  men  were  independent  politicians,  men  of 
practical  experience,  and  were  not  responsible  for  me,  nor  I  for 
them.  So  it  is  no  disavowment,  no  kick  that  I  have  received 
from  them.     (Hear,  hear.) 

"I  recognize  so  little  tiie  existence  of  revisionist  party  ccxn- 
rades  that  on  various  occasions  I  have  shown  that  these  men 
were  no  nearer  to  me  than  our  party  comrades.  Auer  is  a  dear 
comrade  to  me,  but  he  stands  no  closer  to  me  than  August  Bebel. 
When  I  went  to  Switzerland  this  summer  I  visited  Bebel  in  Kiiss- 
nacht,  and  also  Vollmar  in  Munich.  We  are  not  here  concerned 
with  personal  relations,  but  it  is  false  to  think  that  a  uniform 
revisionist  faction  exists  which  conspires  against  the  whole 
party.  (That's  right.)  There  are  only  a  number  of  people  who 
take  an  heterodox  attitude  towards  the  views  expressed  in  the 
official  scientific  organ  of  the  party,  the  Neue  Zeit.  If,  however, 
a  declaration  of  war  is  issued,  as  was  just  now  done  by  Bebel, 
then  it  is  self  evident  that  we  will  find  ourselves  together  in  order 
to  defend  the  right  of  freedom  of  thought.  (That  is  right.) 
Then  when  this  occasion  has  passed  by,  each  one  will  go  his  own 
way  and  work  in  the  ranks  of  the  party.  (Many  shouts  of  "that's 
right") 

"To  my  mind  the  task  of  revision  lies  in  the  sphere  of  theory, 
and  not  of  practice,  and  certainly  theory  owes  much  more  to  the 
practical  movement  than  the  movement  to  theory.  Kautsky  asserts 
that  the  revisionists  question  the  party  programme.  No,  that  is 
not  correct.  The  revisionists  in  the  first  place  in  no  way  question 
the  second  portion  of  the  programme,  including  all  of  the  political 
and  economic  demands.  You  cannot  show  me  a  sentence  of  these 
-demands  which  I  question.  Therefore,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that 
the  danger  to  the  party  which  our  work  threatens  is  not  very 
great.  I  also  question  in  no  way  the  last  sentence  of  the  theoretical 
portion  of  our  programme.  What  does  need  revision  are  the 
first  five  paragraphs  and  part  of  the  sixth.  Therein  lies  the  task 
of  revisionism,  as  it  appears  to  me  as  a  theoretical  worker.  What 
revision  is  necessary  in  practice,  can  only  be  discovered  through 
practical  experience. 

"I  deny  entirely  that  the  vice-presidential  question  has  an)rthing 
whatever  to  do  with  my  theoretical  views.    It  is  always  made  to 


DBESDBN  CONFERENCE  281 

appear  as  if  I  were  continually  sitting  and  watching  to  see  if  I 
could  not  find  some  place  in  our  programme  to  revise.  That  is  not 
the  case.  And  it  is  especially  true  that  my  proposition  in  regard 
to  the  vice-presidential  question  sprang  out  of  no  hypercriticism, 
but  was  the  result  of  practical  consideration.  If  it  was  ever  true 
of  any  proposition,  it  was  of  this  one  that  it  was  the  product  of 
practical  experience  which  I  gathered  last  winter  in  the  Reichstag. 
You  may  think  what  you  will,  but  I  came  to  this  conclusion  as  the 
result  of  the  battle  over  the  tariflF  bill.  Call  to  mind  the  various 
stages  of  the  tariff  question,  and  especially  that  which  was  called 
the  uprising  {Umsturtz)  in  the  Reichstag,  and  we  must  not  de- 
ceive ourselves  that  what  we  had  then  experienced  in  the  Reich- 
stag was  really  a  defeat — a  defeat  which  was  brought  upon  us 
through  the  use  of  brutal  force.  (Bebel,  "it  was  a  moral  vic- 
tory.") To  be  sure  it  was  a  moral  victory,  but  in  fact  a  defeat. 
If  Kautsky  drew  the  conclusion  from  such  events  as  that  of  the 
tariff  that  the  form  of  the  political  struggle  is  not  growing  milder, 
but  rather  sharper,  then  that  is  surely  a  peculiar  manner  of  treat- 
ing the  question  of  the  development  of  class  antagonisms.  The 
question  was  not,  how  could  we  fight  in  Parliament,  or  in  the 
election,  but  whether  we  would  not  have  to  go  upon  the  street 
and  fight  out  the  battle  in  blood,  or  if  we  could  fight  with  other 
means.  That  the  antagonisms  are  growing  sharper  I  have  never 
denied.    *    *    * 

"As  a  consequence  of  the  result  of  so  many  popular  movements 
the  ruling  class  by  no  means  presents  a  solid  front.  Kautsky  has 
spoken  again  today  of  the  increasing  sharpness  of  class  antagon- 
isms and  of  the  increasing  hatred  of  the  possessing  class  by  the 
proletariat  and  of  the  increasing  persecution  by  the  bourgeoisie. 
In  my  opinion  it  is  one  of  the  main  mistakes  of  Comrade  Kautsky 
that  he  always  deals  with  such  fallacious  ideas  (Bebel,  "No,  no.") 
Yes,  cejtainly.  And  when  one  holds  this  formula  his  deductions 
are  of  iron  logic  and  with  no  escape.  Everything  else  is  false 
and  I  am  in  every  way  an  incurable  confusionist.  (Great  laugh- 
ter and  shouts  of  "that's  right.")  Is  the  hypothesis  of  Kautsky 
correct?  Are  the  governing  classes  a  unit  as  opposed  to  the 
proletariat?  Do  all  portions  of  the  possessing  classes  stahd  in 
equal  antagonism  to  the  Social  Democracy?  (Shout,  "sure.") 
Then  you  have  struck  yourself  in  the  face  at  the  last  election 
where  we  made  a  distinction  between  our  opponents.  Look 
once  honestly  at  evolution.  Great  industries  in  Germany  are 
united  under  the  domination  of  trusts  in  order  to  terrorize  other 
industries  and  the  laboring  class.  Against  these  trusts  a  great 
opposition  exists  today  and  at  this  point  the  antagonisms  between 
the  bourgeois  classes  are  extraordinarily  far  reaching.  The  ques- 
tion continually  arises,  how  does  the  labor  party  stand  in  regard 
to  these  questions?    And  at  the  decisive  moment  it  is  easily  con- 


282  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIBW 

ceivable  that  the  bourgeois  parties  will  be  split  on  these  ques- 
tions. 

''Through  what  have  we  gained  the  greater  part  of  our  vic- 
tories in  our  wage  struggles  in  the  unions?  Because  it  is  often 
impossible  for  the  different  employers  to  combine,  since  a  univer- 
sal lock-out  of  the  workers  in  the  whole  country  is  not  possible 
for  any  length  of  time.  The  employers  see  that  it  is  impossible  to 
continue  to  shut  the  laborers  out,  and  that  they  have  diverse  in- 
terests among  themselves.  I  can  illustrate  this  with  concrete  ex- 
amples. The  number  of  those  among  the  possessing  class,  who 
from  material  grounds  have  an  interest  in  securing  the  favor  of 
the  laborers,  is  continually  growing.  In  my  first  address,  after  my 
return  from  England  to  Berlin,  I  have  spoken  about  the  way  in 
which  the  saloonkeepers  with  which  Social  Democrats  generally 
associated  were  gradually  accepting  the  idea  of  Social  Democ- 
racy (Laughter.)  Laugh  if  you  wish,  but  in  that  assembly  there 
was  no  laughter.  (Applause.)  And  this  holds  true,' not  only  of 
the  saloonkeepers  but  also  of  the  great  brewers  (Laughter,  shout 
of  "horrible.")  But  you  will  remember  how,  not  long  ago,  after 
the  Vonvaerts  had  published  the  history  of  the  campaign  against 
suffrage,  how  a  large  number  of  brewers  on  their  own  initiative 
came  forward  to  declare  that  they  knew  nothing  of  this  (Shout, 
**in  order  to  improve  their  business.")  Yes,  to  be  sure;  that 
they  did  not  come  because  of  ideal  grounds  is  evident.  But  it  is 
to  their  interest  to  be  in  good  favor  with  the  laboring  class.  It  is 
indeed  self-evident  that  the  more  the  laboring  class  grows,  the 
greater  becomes  the  significance  of  laborers  as  consumers,  and 
consequently  the  greater  the  interest  of  the  employer  to  raise  the 
consuming  power  of  the  workers.  You  cannot  deny  this,  and 
the  result  is  not  alone  that  these  people  look  favorably  upon  the 
efforts  of  the  laborers  to  improve  their  condition,  but  that  they 
will  occasionally  strongly  support  them.  We  have  also  among 
bourgeois  parties  the  antagonisms  between  free  traders  and  pro- 
tectionists, between  the  great  commercial  cities  and  the  agrarians. 
Just  because  the  interests  of  the  possessing  class  are  so  antagonis- 
tic, and  because  it  happens  that  one  class  is  opposed  to  the  other 
class,  and  under  certain  circumstances  can  increase  the  strength 
of  the  Social  Democracy,  is  the  reason  why  reaction  is  so  extraor- 
dinarily hard  and  the  unity  of  reaction  so  very  hard  to  maintain. 
It  is  not  correct  to  always  deal  only  with  such  simple  ideas  as 
bourgeoisie  and  reaction.  We  must  clearly  understand  that  the  rul- 
ing classes  have  different  interests,  and  that  under  certain  circum- 
stances we  can  use  these  differences  for  our  purposes.  *  *  * 
After  1878  Marx  and  Engels  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  So- 
cialist Law^  of  Exception  had  one  advantage  in  that  it  would  cure 
the  German  Social  Democracy  of  parliamentarianism.  Those 
who   followed   the   actual   development,   however,   saw  that  the 


DBESDBN  GONFEBENGE  283 

opposite  has  resulted.  The  Social  Democratic  fraction  of  the 
Reichstag  were  far  more  parliamentarian  at  the  time  of  the  repeal 
of  the  Socialist  law  than  on  its  enactment.     *    *     * 

"If  we  permit  our  parliamentary  fraction  to  adopt  a  purely 
protesting  attitude,  the  result  would  at  once  appear  that  many 
have  feared,  that  the  unions  would  continually  grow  nearer  to  the 
bourgeois  parties.  Tliat  this  has  not  occurred  is  due  to  the  par- 
liamentary activity  of  our  party.  We  have,  therefore,  become 
no  less  radical,  but  only  more  firm.  If  radicalism  actually  consists 
in  big  words  and  extreme  demands  and  ideas,  then,  this  con- 
ception was  correct,  and  the  child  is  more  radical  than  the  man 
because  he  cries  for  the  moon.  (Very  true.)  Man  does  not 
reach  after  the  moon,  but  he  constantly  brings  the  elements  more 
and  more  to  his  service,  and  in  the  same  way  the  increasing  labor 
movement  compels  us  ever  more  and  more  to  reject  illusions, 
and  to  use  the  necessities  of  present  society  as  much  as  possible 
for  our  purposes.  Let  us  lay  all  declamations  to  one  side  and  ac- 
cept parliamentarism  for  what  it  is,  namely,  a  really  great  power, 
a  great  factor  in  our  universal  political  life.  For  these  reasons  I 
have  made  my  suggestion  and  still  maintain  it. 

"On  the  question  of  freedom  of  thought  I  agree  much  more 
with  Kautsky  than  in  other  directions.  A  fighting  political  party 
is  no  economic  congress,  and  doubt  and  questioning  must  have 
some  bounds.  This  we  can  demand  of  comrades.  But  where 
are  these  bounds?  Not  in  the  views  of  probable  development. 
Here  the  most  complete  freedom  of  opinion  must  rule.  The 
boundaries  consist  in  the  fundamentals  which  are  placed  in  the 
party  programme,  and  these  fundamentals  have  never  been  denied 
by  me  at  any  time.  On  the  contrary  I  have  always  maintained 
them  with  energy.     *     *     * 

"For  all  these  reasons  I  cannot  support  the  resolution.  It 
contradicts  my  convictions  and  I  do  not  consider  it  especially 
clever.     *     *     * 

"We  have  an  electoral  battle  behind  us  in  which  we  all  stood 
together.  Where  was  there  a  revisionist  who  did  not  do  his  whole 
duty  and  fight  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  others.  We  have 
gained  a  victory.  Shall  we  celebrate  this  victory  by  throwing 
out  and  abusing  one  portion  of  our  ranks  so  that  they  must  go 
away  with  angry  hearts  from  this  congress.  Withdraw  this  reso- 
lution. (Laughter).  I  know  you  will  not  do  it,  but  I  am  con- 
vinced that  it  would  be  for  the  best  if  you  would.  Reject  this 
resolution  in  order  that  we  may  go  from  this  convention  as  com- 
rades in  battle  who  fight  in  common  for  a  great  and  common 
cause."     (Loud  applause,  clapping  of  hands  and  hissing.) 

The  Convention  adopted  by  a  vote  of  288  to  11  a  resolution 
condemning  the  revisionist  movement  of  which  the  following  is 
the  portion  referring  to  general  tactics: 


284  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIBW 

"The  Convention  rejects  in  the  most  decisive  manner  the  re- 
visionist efforts  to  change  our  hitherto  tested  and  victory-crowned 
tactics,  resting  upon  the  class  struggle,  by  substituting  for  the 
conquest  of  political  power  through  the  overthrow  of  our  oppo- 
nents, a  policy  of  conciliation  with  the  existing  order  of  things. 
The  result  of  such  revisionist  tactics  would  be  that  a  party  that 
works  for  the  most  rapid  possible  transformation  of  the  existing 
bourgeois  society  into  the  Socialist  society,  and  which  in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word  is  revolutionary,  would  be  changed  into  a  party 
which  would  occupy  itself  with  the  reformation  of  bourgeois  so- 
ciety. Accordingly  the  conference  is  opposed  to  the  revisionist 
movement  now  existing  in  the  party,  and  is  of  the  conviction 
that  the  class  antagonisms  do  not  decrease  but  rather  grow 
sharper  and  clearer,  and  the  party  refuses  the  responsibility  for 
the  political  and  economic  conditions  resting  upon  the  capitalist 
manner  of  production,  and  accordingly  it  refuses  all  endorsement 
of  means  that  tend  to  maintain  the  ruling  class  in  power." 

The  effect  of  this  decision  has  been  most  far  reaching  in 
'strengthening  the  revolutionary  wing  of  the  Socialist  movement 
I  throughout  the  world.  AzMvts  had  expressed  himself  in  Le 
'  Petite  Reptiblique^  previous  to  the  conference,  to  the  effect  that 
while  it  would  be  too  much  to  expect  a  victory  for  the  revisionist 
wing  at  Dresden,  nevertheless  that  movement  would  undoubtedly 
show  great  strength,  and  victory  might  be  looked  for  at  an  early 
day.  \  We  have  not  seen  what  he  thought  after  the  Conference, 
butTeel  quite  sure  that  his  opinion  must  have  been  changed. 

One  of  the  best  evidences  of  the  wisdom  of  the  German  So- 
cialists is  seen  by  the  attitude  taken  by  the  capitalist  press.  They 
published  columns  of  editorials  expressing  their  disapproval  of  the 
decision  of  the  Conference  and  declaring  that  it  was  fatal  to  the 
success  of  Socialism,  and  expressing  warm  sympathy  with  Bern- 
stein and  VoUmar. 

Kautsky  says  in  a  review  of  the  proceedings  published  in  the 
Neue  Zeit  that  "what  is  needed  is  clearness.  And  to  a  high  de- 
gree clearness  was  brought  about  at  Dresden."  Again  he  points 
out  what  has  been  called  attention  to  elsewhere,  but  is  worthy  of 
still  further  emphasis,  that  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  Confer- 
ence it  became  clear  that  revisionism  "had  no  roots  in  the  masses 
of  the  party,  and  it  had  only  officers  and  no  troops,  that  its  repre- 
sentation in  the  press  and  in  representative  bodies  was  relatively 
much  greater  than  its  hold  upon  the  masses." 

And  he  expresses  what  is  undoubtedly  a  fact  when  he  says: 
"This  German  revolution  is,  however,  by  no  means  insignificant. 
Its  significance  reaches  far  beyond  German  boundaries  and  creates 
a  proper  prelude  to  the  Amsterdam  Congress,  where,  unless 
the  prevailing  order  of  business  is  changed,  the  question  of  tactics 


BBESDBN  GONFEBEI^CE  285 

wUl  be  once  more  taken  up.    Jaures  had  expected,  with  the  help 
of  his  German  friends,  to  gfain  a  victory  there. 

"For  Germany,  however,  the  declarations  and  votes  of  Dresden 
have  buried  the  theoretical  revisionism  as  a  political  factor.  To 
be  sure  thrconvictrdns"  of  individual  members  are  not  changed  by 
votes,  and  just  as  little  can  the  resolution  of  the  Conference 
prove  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the  teaching,  but  its  political 
strength  is  taken  away.  When  once  practical  revisionism  is  re- 
jected we  may  perhaps  now  and  then  have  an  opportunity  to  oc- 
cupy ourselves  with  criticising  some  form  or  another  of  the  re- 
visionist literature,  but  we  can  be  quite  sure  that  theoretical 
revisionism  will  play  no  important  role  in  the  future  political 
battles  of  Germany." 

— Translations  and  Comments  by  A,  M,  Simons. 


The  Socialist  Ideal 

OUR  COMRADES  in  Germany  were  discussing  some  time 
since  the  question  of  whether  Socialism  is  a  science. 
Socialism  is  not  and  cannot  be  a  science  for  the  simple 
reason  that  it  is  a  part  of  the  class  struggle,  and  must 
disappear  when  its  work  is  accomplished  after  the  abolition  of 
the  classes  which  gave  birth  to  it;  but  the  end  which  it  pursues 
is  scientific. 

Guizot,  who  had  a  vague  idea  of  the  theory  of  the  'class  struggle 
— himself  a  product  of  the  Revolution,  which  was  a  dramatic 
struggle  between  classes — said  with  good  reason  that  a  class  can- 
not emancipate  itself  until  it  possesses  the  qualities  requisite  for 
taking  the  leadership  of  society ;  now  one  of  these  qualities  is  to 
have  a  more  or  less  definite  conception  of  the  social  order  which 
it  proposes  to  substitute  for  that  which  is  oppressing  it.  This 
conception  cannot  but  be  a  social  ideal,  or,  to  employ  a  scientific 
word,  a  social  hypothesis ;  but  an  hypothesis,  as  well  in  the  natural 
sciences  as  in  social  science,  may  be  Utopian  or  scientific. 

Socialism,  because  it  is  a  political  party  of  the  oppressed  class, 
has  therefore  an  ideal.  It  groups  and  organizes  the  efforts  of  the 
individuals  who  wish  to  build  on  the  ruins  of  capitalist  society, 
based  upon  individual  property,  an  ideal  or  hypothetical  society 
based  upon  common  property  in  the  means  of  production. 

Only  through  the  class  struggle  can  modern  socialism  realize 
its  social  ideal,  which  possesses  the  qualities  demanded  of  any 
hypothesis  that  claims  a  scientific  character.  The  fact  of  choosing 
a  scientific  goal,  and  of  trying  to  reach  it  only  through  the  class 
struggle,  distinguishes  it  from-  the  Socialism  of  1848,  which 
was  pursuing  through  the  reconciliation  of  classes  a  social  ideal 
which  could  not  but  be  Utopian  considering  the  historic  moment 
in  which  it  was  conceived.  Socialism  has  thus  evolved  from 
Utopia  into  science.  Engels  has  traced  the  main  lines  of  this  evo- 
lution in  his  memorable  pamphlet,  "Socialism,  Utopian  and  Scien- 
tific." It  is  the  same  with  all  sciences,  which  begin  with  Utopia 
to  arrive  at  positive  knowledge ;  this  course  is  imposed  by  the  very 
nature  of  the  human  mind. 

Man  progresses -in  social  life  as  in  intellectual  life,  only  by 
starting  from  the  known  and  traveling  toward  the  imknown,  and 
that  unknown  must  be  represented  by  the  imagination ;  that  imag- 
inary conception  of  the  unknown,  which  cannot  but  be  hypothet- 
ical, is  one  of  the  most  powerful  incentives  to  action,  it  is  the  very 
condition  of  every  forward  step.  It  is  natural  that  men  like 
Bernstein  in  Germany  and  Jaures  in  France  should  seek  to  domes- 
ticate Socialism  and  to  put  it  in  tow  of  liber^ism,  accusing  it  of 

286 


THE  SOCIALIST  IDEAL  287 

hypnotising  its  soldiers  with  an  ideal  of  the  year  3000,  which  makes 
them  live  in  .the  expectation  of  a  Messianic  "catastrophe"  and  re- 
ject the  immediate  advantages  ot  an  understanding  and  co-opera- 
tion with  bourgeois  parties  ,and  which  blinds  them  to  their  shock- 
ing errors  regarding  the  concentration  of  wealth,  the  disappear- 
ance of  small  industry  and  the  middle  class,  the  increase  of  class 
antagonisms,  the  spreading  and  intensification  of  the  misery  of 
the  working  class,  etc.  These  errors  may  have  been  plausible 
hypotheses  before  1848,  but  since  then  events  have  shown  their 
falsity.  This  unfortunate  ideal  prevents  them  from  descending 
from  the  revolutionary  heights  to  accept  the  responsibilities  of 
power  and  of  setting  aside  the  cause  6f  labor  to  devote  themselves 
entirely  tongue  and  pen,  to  the  rehabilitation  of  a  millionaire 
leader ;  it  obliges  them  to  oppose  all  exterior  policies  and  acts,  to 
vote  not  a  cent  nor  a  soldier  for  colonial  expeditions,  which  carry 
labor,  Christianity,  syphilis  and  the  alcoholism  of  civilization  to 
the  barbaric  tribes.  The  neo-methodists  of  the  ancient  and  out- 
worn gospel  of  the  brotherhood  of  classes  advise  the  socialists  to 
suppress  their  ideal,  or,  since  it  unfortunately  captivates  the  masses 
of  the  people,  to  speak  of  it  without  caring  for  it,  as  Jaures  does, 
that  they  may  consecrate  themselves  to  practical  necessities,  to  the 
vast  plans  of  agricultural  and  industrial  co-operation,  to  popular 
universities,  etc. 

The  dilletantes  of  politics,  these  practical  groundlings  of  oppor- 
tunism, nevertheless  hold  themselves  up  for  transcendent  idealists 
and  march  with  their  eyes  fixed  upon  the  stars,  because  they  sub- 
stitute for  ideas  a  brilliant  orchestra  of  sonorous  words  and  eternal 
principles. 

These  bourgeois  idealists  edge  their  way  in  everywhere ;  after 
the  Revolution  of  1789  they  rebuked  the  scientists  for  their  hypo- 
theses and  their  theories ;  according  to  them  science  should  have 
stopped  with  the  study  of  facts  in  themselves  without  dreaming  of 
uniting  them  into  a  general  system.  "What  is  the  use  of  cutting 
stones  without  putting  up  a  building,"  replied  Geoflfroy-Saint- 
Hilaire,  the  genial  disciple  of  Lamarck,  who  lived  to  see  the  ex- 
tinction of  his  theory  on  the  continuity  of  species,  which,  only 
thirty  years  after  his  death,  was  to  take  on  a  new  birth  with  Dar- 
win. They  are  still  reproaching  the  physiologists  for  wasting 
their  time  in  elaborating  hypotheses  which  last  on  an  average 
only  three  years  and  which  cannot  explain  what  takes  place  in  a 
muscle  which  contracts  and  in  a  brain  which  thinks.  They 
grumble  against  the  hypotheses  of  the  physicists,  who  do  not 
know  thie  real  nature  of  elasticity,  of  electrical  conductivity,  or 
even  what  happens  when  a  particle  of  sugar  is  dissolved.  They 
would  like  to  prohibit  scientists  from  any  speculation  because  it 
is  disastrous  and  may  lead  into  error.  But  the  latter  protest  and 
declare  that  imagination  is  one  of  the  first  and  most  indispensable 


288  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIAIilST  EBVIBW 

faculties  of  the  scientist,  and  that  the  hypotheses  to  which  they 
give  birth,  even  though  they  be  erroneous  and  able  to  survive 
only  three  years,  are  nevertheless  the  necessary  condition  of  all 
scientific  progress. 

If  the  communist  ideal  were  an  h)rpothesis  undemonstrable  and 
false  it  would  still  be  a  propelling  force  of  social  progress,  but  such 
is  not  the  case. 

The  hypothesis  in  science,  as  in  the  social  field,  is  the  more  un- 
demonstrable and  susceptible, of  error  in  proportion  as  the  data 
contributing  to  its  elaboration  are  less  numerous  and  more  uncer- 
tain. Greek  science,  which  had  to  furnish  a  conception  of  the 
world  when  the  data  regarding  the  phenomena  of  nature  were  of 
the  most  rudimentary,  was  obliged  to  resort  to  hypotheses  which 
for  boldness  and  intuitive  accuracy  are  marvels  of  history  and  of 
thought ;  after  having  admitted,  according  to  the  vulgar  opinion, 
that  the  earth  was  flat,  and  that  the  temple  of  Delphi  was  situated 
at  its  center,  they  put  forth  the  hypothesis  of  its  spherical  form, 
then  undemonstrable. 

Socialism,  which  dates  from  the  first  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  started,  like  Greek  science,  from  hypotheses  the  more 
erroneous,  and  from  an  ideal  the  more  Utopian,  in  that  the  social 
world  which  it  proposed  to  transform  was  less  known;  and  at 
that  epoch  could  not  be  known  for  the  excellent  reason  that  it 
was  in  course  of  formation. 

The  machine  operated  by  steam  was  beginning  to  edge  into  in- 
dustry where  the  tool,  managed  by  the  artisan,  was  moved  by 
human  power,  and  in  some  rare  circumstances  by  animals,  wind 
or  waterfalls.  The  Socialist  thinkers,  as  Engels  observes,  were 
then  obliged  to  draw  from  their  own  brain  the  social  ideal  which  - 
they  could  not  extract  from  the  tumultuous  economic  environment 
in  full  course  of  transformation.  They  grasped  again,  infusing  new 
life  into  it,  the  communist  ideal  which  has  slumbered  in  tfie  mind 
of  man  since  he  emerged  from  the  communism  of  primitive  society 
which  the  poetic  Greek  mythology  calls  the  golden  age  and  which 
has  awakened  to  shine  here  and  there  with  a  glorious  splendor 
at  great  epochs  of  social  upheaval.  They  sought,  then,  to  estab- 
lish* communism,  not  because  the  economic  environment  was 
ready  for  its  introduction,  but  because  men  were  miserable,  be- 
cause the  laws  of  justice  and  equality  were  violated,  because  the 
precepts  of  the  Christ  could  not  be  followed  in  their  purity.  The 
communistic  ideal,  not  springing  from  economic  reality,  was  then 
but  an  unconscious  reminiscence  of  a  prehistoric  past,  and  came 
only  from  idealistic  notions  upon  a  justice,  an  equality  and  a  gospel 
law  no  less  idealistic;  it  is  then  idealistic  in  the  second  degree,  and 
consequently  Utopian. 

The  Socialists  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  who 
rekindled  the  communist  ideal,  had  the  rare  merit  of  giving  it  a 


THE  SOCIAUST  IDEAL  289 

consistency  less  idealistic.  They  spoke  little  of  the  Christian 
religion,  of  justice  and  of  equality ;  Robert  Owen  laid  the  respon- 
sibilities of  social  evils  upon  the  family,  property  and  religion; 
Giarles  Fourier  criticises  the  ideas  of  justice  and  morality  intro- 
duced by  the  bourgeois  Revolution  of  '89  with  inoHnparable  ani- 
mation and  irony.  They  did  not  weep  over  the  misery  of  the 
poor,  but  left  that  for  Victor  Hugo  and  the  charlatans  of  roman- 
ticism. They  preached  the  social  problem  from  its  realistic  side, 
the  only  side  from  which  it  can  be  solved.  They  used  their  talents 
to  prove  that  a  social  organization  of  production  would  succeed  in 
satisfying  the  desires  of  all  without  reducing  the  share  of  any, 
not  even  that  of  the  privileged  capitalist  class.  Meanwhile  the 
recent  application  of  steam  and  machinery  demanded  also  a  new 
organization  of  labor,  and  this  was  the  constant  concern  of  the 
industrial  bourgeoisie.  The  socialists  were  thus  punsuine  the  same 
end  as  the  industrials ;  bourgeois  and  socialists  might  consequently 
come  to  an  understandng.  We  therefore  find  in  the  socialist  sects 
of  that  epoch  industrials,  engineers  and  financiers  who  in  the 
second  half  of  the  century  cast  away  their  sympathy  for  the  work- 
ers and  occupied  an  important  place  in  capitalist  society. 

The  socialism  of  that  epoch  could  not  under  these  conditions 
be  anything  else  than  pacific ;  instead  of  entering  on  the  struggle 
with  the  capitalists,  the  socialists  thought  only  of  converting  them 
to  their  system  of  social  reform  from  which  they  were  to  be  the 
first  to  benefit.  They  proclaimed  the  association  of  capital,  intel- 
ligence and  labor,  the  interests  of  which,  according  to  them,  were 
identical ;  they  preached  a  mutual  understanding  l^tween  the  em- 
ployer and  the  employed,  between  the  exploiter  and  the  exploited ; 
they  know  no  class  struggle ;  they  condemned  strikes  and  all  polit- 
ical agitation,  especially  if  it  were  revolutionary ;  they  desired  order 
in  the  street  and  harmony  in  the  work-shop.  They  demanded, 
finally,  nothing  more  than  was  desired  by  the  hew  industrial  bour- 
geoisie. 

They  foresaw  that  industry,  strengthened  by  the  motive  power 
of  steam,  machinery  and  the  concentration  of  the  instruments  of 
labor,  would  have  a  colossal  producing  power,  and  they  had  the 
simplicity  to  believe  that  the  capitalists  would  content  themselves 
with  taking  only  a  reasonable  part  of  the  wealth  thus  created,  and 
would  leave  to  their  co-operators,  the  manual  and  intellectual 
laborers,  a  portion  sufiicient  to  enable  them  to  live  in  comfort. 
This  socialism  was  marvellously  ag^reeable  to  capital,  since  it 
promised  an  increase  of  wealth  and  advised  an  understanding 
between  the  laborer  and  the  employer.  It  recruited  the  great  ma- 
jority of  its  adepts  in  the  educational  hotbeds  of  the  bourgeoisie. 
It  was  Utopian,  therefore  it  was  the  socialism  of  the  intellectuals. 

But  precisely  because  it  was  Utopian,  the  laborers,  in  constant 
antagonism  with  their  employers  on  questions  of  labor  and  hours, 


290  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIBW 

looked  on  it  with  suspicion.  They  could  understand  noting  of 
this  socialism  which  condemned  strikes  and  political  action  and 
which  assumed  to  harmonize  the  interests  of  capital  and  labor,  of 
the  exploiter  and  exploited.  They  kept  aloof  from  the  socialists 
and  gave  all  their  sympathies  to  the  bourgeois  republicans,  be- 
cause they  were  revolutionary.  They  joined  their  secret  societies 
and  climbed  with  them  upon  the  barricades  to  make  riots  and 
political  revolutions. 

Marx  and  Engels  took  socialism  at  the  point  to  which  the  g^reat 
Utopians  had  brought  it,  but  instead  of  torturing  their  brains  to 
invent  out  of  whole  cloth  the  organization  of  labor  and  of 
production,  they  studied  that  which  was  already  created  by  the 
very  necessities  of  the  new  mechanical  industry  which  had  arrived 
at  a  degree  of  development  sufficient  to  permit  its  power  and  its 
tendency  to  be  apparent.  Its  productivity  was  so  enormous,  as 
Fourier  and  Saint  Simon  had  foreseen,  that  it  was  capable  of  pro- 
viding abundantly  for  the  normal  needs  of  all  the  members  of 
society.  This  was  the  first  time  in  history  that  such  a  productive 
power  had  been  observed,  and  it  was  because  capitalist  production 
could  satisfy  all  needs,  and  for  that  reason  alone,  that  it  is  possible 
to  reintroduce  communism,  that  is  to  say  the  equal  participation 
of  all  in  social  wealth,  and  the  free  and  complete  development  of 
the  physical,  intellectual  and  moral  faculties.  Communism  is  no 
longer  a  Utopia  but  a  possibility. 

Machinery  replaces  the  individualistic  production  of  the  small 
industry,  but  the  communistic  production  of  the  capitalistic  fac- 
tory and  property  in  the  means  of  labor  has  remained  individual, 
as  in  the  time  of  the  small  industry.  There  is  then  a  contradiction 
between  the  individualistic  mode  of  possession  and  the  communist 
mode  of  production  and  this  contradiction  translates  itself  into 
the  antagonism  between  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist  employer. 
The  producers,  who  form  the  immense  majority  of  the  nation,  no 
longer  possess  the  instruments  of  .labor,  the  possession  of  which  is 
centralized  into  the  idle  hands  of  a  decreasing  minority.  The  so- 
cial problem  imposed  by  mechanical  production  will  be  solved,  as 
the  social  problems  imposed  by  preceding  modes  of  production 
have  been  solved,  by  precipitating  the  evolution  begun  by  eco- 
nomic force,  by  finishing  the  expropriation  of  the  individual  in  the 
means  of  production,  by  giving  to  the  communistic  mode  of  pro- 
duction the  communistic  mode  of  possession  which  it  demands. 

The  communism  of  contemporary  socialists  no  longer  proceeds, 
like  that  of  former  times,  from  the  cerebral  lucubrations  of  gifted 
thinkers ;  it  proceeds  from  economic  reality,  it  is  the  final  goal  of 
the  economic  forces  which,  without  any  attention  on  the  part  of 
the  capitalists  and  their  intellectuals,  have  fashioned  the  com- 
munistic mold  of  a  new  society,  the  coming  of  whidi  we  only  have 
to  hasten.    Communism,  then,  is  no  longer  a  Utopian  hypothesis ;  it 


THE  SOCIALIST  IDEAL  291 

is  a  scientific  ideal.  It  may  be  added  that  never  has  the  economic 
structure  of  any  society  b^n  better  and  more  completely  analyzed 
than  capitalist  society,  and  that  never  was  a  social  ideal  concdved 
with  such  numerous  and  positive  data  as  the  communist  idea  of 
modern  socialism. 

Although  it  is  the  economic  forces  which  fashion  men  at  their 
pleasure  and  spur  them  to  action,  and  although  these  constitute 
the  mysterious  force  determining  the  great  currents  of  history 
which  the  Christians  attribute  to  God,  and  the  free-thinking 
bourgeois  assign  to  Progress,  to  Ovilization,  to  the  Immortal 
Principles  and  other  similar  manitous,  worthy  of  savage  tribes, 
they  are  nevertheless  the  product  of  human  activity.  Man,  who 
created  them  and  brought  them  into  the  world,  has  thus  far  let 
himself  be  guided  by  them ;  yet  now  that  he  has  understood  tlieir 
nature  and  gasped  their  tendency,  he  can  act  upon  their  evolution. 
The  socialists  who  are  accused  of  being  stricken  by  Oriental 
fatalism  and  of  relying  upon  the  good  pleasure  of  economic  forces 
to  bring  to  light  the  communist  society  instead  of  crossing  their 
arms  like  the  fakirs  of  official  Economics,  and  of  bending  the 
knee  before  its  fundamental  dogma,  laissez  fcdre,  laissez  parser, 
propose  on  the  contrary  to  subdue  them,  as  the  blind  forces  of 
nature  have  been  subdued,  and  force  them  to  do  good  to  men  in- 
stead of  leaving  them  to  work  misery  to  the  toilers  of  civilization. 
They  do  not  wait  for  their  ideal  to  fall  from  heaven  as  the  Chris- 
tians hope  for  the  grace  of  God,  and  the  capitalists  for  wealth ; 
they  prepare,  on  the  contrary,  to  realize  it,  not  by  appealing  to  the 
intelligence  of  the  capitalist  class  and  to  its  sentiments  of  justice 
and  humanity,  but  by  fighting  it,  by  expropriating  it  from  its 
political  power,  which  protects  its  economic  despotism. 

Socialism,  because  it  possesses  a  social  ideal,  has  in  conse- 
quence a  criticism  of  its  own.  Every  class  which  struggles  for  its 
enfranchisement  seeks  to  realize  a  social  ideal,  in  complete  oppo- 
sition with  that  of  the  ruling  class.  The  struggle  is  waged  at  first 
in  the  ideological  world  before  the  physical  shock  of  the  revolu- 
tionary battle.  It  thus  begins  the  criticism  of  the  ideas  of  the 
society  which  must  be  revolted  against,  for  "the  ideas  of  the  ruling 
class  are  the  ideas  of  society,"  or  these  ideas  are  the  intellectual 
reflection  of  its  material  interests. 

Thus,  as  the  wealth  of  the  ruling  class  is  produced  by  slave 
labor,  so  religion,  ethics,  philosophy  and  literature  agree  in  author- 
izing slavery.  The  ugly  God  of  the  Jews  and  Christianity  strikes 
with  his  curse  the  progeny  of  Ham,  that  it  may  furnish  slaves. 
Aristotle,  the  encyclopedic  thinker  of  Greek  philosophy,  declares 
that  slaves  are  predestined  by  nature  and  that  no  rights  exist  for 
them,  for  there  can  be  no  rights  except  between  equals.  Euripides 
infuses  into  his  tragedies  the  doctrine  of  servile  morality ;  St. 
Paul,  St.  Augustine  and  the  Church  teach  to  slaves  submission  to 


292  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

their  earthly  masters  that  they  may  deserve  the  favor  of  their 
heavenly  master;  Christian  civilization  introduces  slavery  into 
America  and  maintains  it  there  until  economic  phenomena  prove 
that  slave  labor  is  a  method  of  exploitation  more  costly  and  less 
profitable  than  free  labor. 

At  the  epoch  when  the  Greco-Roman  civilization  was  dissolv- 
ing, when  the  labor  of  artisans  and  free  workers  began  to  be  sub- 
stituted for  slave  labor,  pagan  religion,  philosophy  and  literature 
decided  to  recognize  in  them  certain  rights.  The  same  Euripides 
who  advised  the  slave  to  lose  his  personality  in  that  of  the  master 
does  not  wish  him  to  be  despised.  "There  is  nothing  shameful  in 
slavery  but  the  name,'*  says  the  pedagogue  in  Ion,  "the  slave, 
moreover,  is  not  inferior  to  the  free  man  when  he  has  a  noble 
heart."  The  mysteries  of  Eleusis  and  of  Orphism,  like  Christian- 
ity, which  continues  their  work,  admit  slaves  among  their  initiated 
and  promises  them  liberty,  equality  and  happiness  after  death. 

The  dominating  class  of  the  Middle  Ages  being  military,  the 
Christian  religion  and  social  ethics  condemned  lending  money  at 
interest,  and  covered  the  lender  with  infamy ;  to  take  interest  for 
money  loaned  was  then  something  so  ignominious  that  the  Jewish 
race,  obliged  to  specialize  itself  in  the  trade  of  money,  still  bears 
the  shame  of  it.  But  to-day,  now  that  the  Christians  have  become 
Jews,  and  the  ruling  class  lives  on  the  interest  of  its  capital,  the 
trade  of  the  lender  at  interest  is  the  most  honorable,  the  most  de- 
sirable, the  most  exclusive. 

The  oppressed  class,  although  the  ideology  of  the  oppressing 
class  is  imposed  upon  it,  nevertheless  elaborates  religious,  ethical 
and  political  ideas  corresponding  to  its  condition  of  life ;  vague  and 
secret  at  first,  they  gain  in  precision  and  force  in  proportion  as 
the  oppressed  class  takes  definite  form  and  acquires  the  con- 
sciousness of  its  social  utility  and  of  its  strength ;  and  the  hour 
of  its  emancipation  is  near"  when  its  conception  of  nature  and  of 
society  opposes  itself  openly  and  boldly  to  that  of  the  ruling  class. 

The  economic  conditions  in  which  the  bourgeois  moves  and 
develops  make  of  it  a  class  essentially  religious.  Christianity  is  its 
work  and  will  last  as  long  as  this  class  shall  rule  society.  Seven 
or  eight  centuries  before  Christ,  when  the  bourgeoisie  had  its 
birth  in  the  commercial  and  industrial  cities  of  the  Mediterranean 
basin,  we  may  observe  the  elaboration  of  a  new  religion ;  the  gods 
of  paganism  created  by  warrior  tribes  could  not  be  suited  to  a 
class  consecrated  to  the  production  and  sale  of  merchandise.  Mys- 
terious cults  (the  mysteries  of  the  Cabiri,  of  Demeter,  of  Dionysus, 
etc.)  bring  the  revival  of  the  religious  traditions  of  the  prehistoric 
matriarchical  period,  the  idea  of  a  soul  and  its  existence  after 
death  revive ;  tihe  idea  of  posthumous  punishments  and  rewards  to 
compensate  for  acts  of  social  injustice  are  introduced,  etc.  These 
religious  elements,  combined  with  the  spiritual  data  of  Greek 


THE  SOCIALIST   IDEAL  3»3 

philosophy,  contribute  to  form  Christianity,  the  religion,  par  ex- 
cellence, of  societies  which  have  for  their  foundation  property  be- 
longing to  the  individual  and  the  class  which  enrich  themselves  by 
the  exploitation  of  wage  labor.  For  fifteen  centuries  all  the  move- 
ments of  the  bourgeoisie,  either  for  organization,  or  for  self- 
emancipation,  or  for  the  acquisition  of  power  have  been  accom- 
panied and  complicated  by  religious  crises ;  but  always  Christianity 
more  or  less  modified  remains  the  religion  of  society.  The  revolu- 
tionists of  1789,  who  in  the  ardor  of  the  struggle  promised  them- 
selves to  de-Christianize  France,  were  eager  when  the  bourgeoisie 
were  victorious  to  raise  again  the  altars  they  had  overthrown  and 
to  reintroduce  the  cult  that  they  had  proscribed. 

The  economic  environment  which  produces  the  proletariat 
relieves  it  on  the  contrary  from  every  idea  of  sentiment.  There  is 
not  seen  either  in  Europe  nor  in  America  among  the  laboring 
masses  of  the  great  industries  any  anxiety  to  elaborate  a  religion  to 
replace  Christianity,  nor  any  desire  to  reform  it.  The  economic 
and  political  organizations  of  the  working  class  are  completely 
disinterested  as  to  any  doctrinal  discussion  of  religious  and  spir- 
itual dogmas,  although  they  combat  the  priests  of  all  cults  because 
they  are  the  lackeys  of  the  capitalist  class. 

The  victory  of  the  proletariat  will  deliver  humanity  from  the 
nightmare  of  religion.  The  belief  in  superior  beings  to  explain 
the  natural  world  and  the  social  inequalities,  and  to  prolong  the 
dominion  of  the  ruling  class,  and  the  belief  in  the  posthumous  ex- 
istence of  the  soul  to  recompense  the  inequalities  of  fate  will  have 
no  more  justification  when  once  man,  who  has  already  grasped 
the  general  causes  of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  shall  live  in  a 
communist  society  from  whence  shall  have  disappeared  the  in- 
equalities and  the  injustice  of  capitalistic  society. 

The  militant  socialists,  following  the  example  of  the  encyclo- 
pedists of  the  eighteenth  century,  have  to  make  a  merciless  criti- 
cism of  the  economic,  political,  historical,  philosophical,  moral 
and  religious  ideas  of  the  capitalist  class  in  order  to  prepare  in 
all  spherds  of  thought  the  triumph  of  the  new  ideology  which  the 
proletariat  brings  into  the  world.  Paul  Lafargue. 

{Translated  hy  Charles  H.  Kerr,) 


Congress  of  French  Socialists 

THE  congress  held  seven  sessions,  two  each  on  Sunday, 
September  27,  and  Tuesday,  September  29,  and  three 
on  Monday  the  28th,  when  there  was  a  night  ses- 
sion. 

A  report  on  the  general  activity  of  the  party  was  read  by  the 
Secretary  for  Internal  Affairs,  Louis  IXibreuilh.  In  the  course 
of  this  report  he  stated  that  the  Parti  Socialiste  Francais  already 
includes  three-fourths  of  the  organized  Socialists  of  France. 
In  a  large  number  of  the  provinces  it  is  carrying  on  a  systematic 
activity.  In  not  a  single  place  is  it  declining.  On  the  contrary, 
in  most  of  the  provinces  it  is  making  a  rapid  gain  and  it  will 
soon  include  all  the  intelligent  workers  for  revolutionary  So- 
cialism. 

The  interest  of  the  convention  centered  largely  upon  the 
question  of  closer  organization  of  the  allied  socialist  forces.  The 
committee  appointed  to  elaborate  plans  looking  to  this  end  pre- 
sented three  reports.  The  second  of  these  offered  by  Paul  La- 
f  argue  dealt  with  the  question  of  putting  an  end  to  the  provisional 
arrangement  adopted  at  the  conference  of  Ivery,  and  continued 
by  the  congress  at  Commentry.  This  arrangement  gave  to  the 
old  organizations  the  duty  of  distributing  membership  cards. 
All  the  delegates  who  took  the  floor  demanded  in  the  name  of 
their  respective  organizations  that  this  should  be  done  away  with, 
and  complete  unity  be  realized.  This  present  congress  offered 
the  one  occasion  when  the  members  could  meet  together  in  the 
capacity  of  delegates  from  the  old  national  organizations  which 
had  been  continued  in  existence  by  the  compact  of  Ivery.  These 
organizations  were  of  course  the  only  ones  which  could  authorize 
their  own  obliteration. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  Vaillant,  in  the  name  of  the  Central 
Revolutionary  Committee,  offered  a  resolution  affirming  the 
unanimous  desire  of  the  Parti  Socialiste  Revolutionnaire  to 
realize  a  complete  and  indistinguishable  unity  with  the  comrades 
of  the  other  org^izations,  indicating,  moreover,,  the  conditions 
under  which  he  considered  that  this  unity  morally  and  materially 
established  in  form  as  well  as  in  fact  might  become  the  absolute 
law  and  duty  for  all.    His  resolution  reads  as  follows: 

The  Central  Revolutionary  Committee  at  its  regular  meeting 
held  June  16,  1903,  under  the  presidency  of  Comrade  Calnels, 
adopted  unanimously  the  following  proposition  offered  by  Com- 
rade Vaillant: 

The  Central  Revolutionary  Committee  accepts,  but  only  on 

294 


(X>NGfiES8  OF  F&fiNOH  SOdALISTS  295 

the  following  conditions,  the  abolition  of  the  temporary  arrange- 
ments of  the  compact  of  Ivery.  That  is  to  say,  the  abolition  of 
the  national  organization  of  the  Parti  Ouvrier  Francais,  Parti  So- 
cialiste  Revolutionnaire  and  Alliance  Communiste,  which,  with  the 
concurrent  local  federation,  constituted  the  Parti  Socialiste  de 
France. 

These  conditions  are: 

.One,  absolute  regard  for  the  compact  of  Ivery  guaranteed 
by  applying  a  preliminary  investigation  to  every  motion  for 
modifying  it  from  any  source  whatever. 

Two,  the  suppression  of  all  titles  and  names,  of  all  designa- 
tions and  emblems  of  all  inscriptions  and,  in  fact,  of  all  signs  of 
any  kind  which  might  recall,  as  if  existing,  the  old  organizations, 
P.  S.  R.,  P.  O.  F.,  and  A.  C 

Three,  only  the  names  and  inscriptions  of  the  Parti  Socialiste 
de  France  are  allowed  dating  from  the  day  when  by  the  abolition 
of  the  temporary  arrangements  of  the  compact  of  Ivery  the 
old  organizations  shall  have  been  merged  in  the  P.  S.  de  F.  There 
was  likewise  a  unanimous  decision  to  establish  unreserved  unity 
on  the  part  of  the  delegates  who  had  received  their  credentials 
from  the  adherence  of  the  Parti  Ouvrier  Francais.  And  all 
agreed  in  aflBrming  that  not  only  had  the  P.  O.  F.  exercised  no 
functions  as  a  national  organization  since  the  congress  of  Com- 
mentary, but  that  every  public  action  performed  by  its  federations, 
sections  and  groups  in  the  various  regions,  had  been  in  the 
name  and  under  the  title  of  the  Parti  Socialiste  de  France. 

The  complete  unity  which  they  were  commissioned  to  bring 
about  naturally  meant  for  them  the  disappearance  of  the  national 
organization  of  the  Parti  Ouvrier  Francais,  and  therefore  of  the 
initials  P.  O.  F.  even  as  a  sub-title.  The  representatives  of  the 
Alliance  Communiste  also  declared  that  they  had  come  with  a 
view  to  bringing  about  complete  unification. 

The  committee  upon  a  legislative  and  municipal  program  for 
the  party  presented  the  following  report,  which  was  adopted 
unanimously.  Upon  a  motion  by  Vaillant  the  title  of  the  pro- 
gram was  changed  so  as  to  read  henceforth : 

"Program  of  Immediate  Demands." 

POLITICAL  SECTION. 

Article  i.  Abolition  of  all  laws  limiting  for  working  men  the 
liberties  of  the  press,  of  meeting  and  of  association.  Abolition 
of  all  restrictions  effecting  directly  or  indirectly  the  international 
association  of  the  workingmen. 

Art.  2.  Civil  and  political  equality  for  all  members  of  the  so- 
cial body. 

Art.  3.    Separation  of  church  and  state.    Abolition  of  appro- 


296  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW 

priations  for  public  worship.  Restoration  to  the  nation  of  the 
property  of  the  churches  and  of  the  so-called  mort-main  property 
real  and  personal  belonging  to  religious  congregations,  including 
all  industrial  and  commercial  appendages  operated  by  these  con- 
gregations. 

,  Art.  4.    General  arming  of  the  people.    Suppression  of  stand- 
ing armies  and  their  transformation  into  national  militia. 

Art.  5.  Measures  securing  secret  voting  and  the  free  exercise 
of  the  right  of  suiBfrage. 

Art.  6.  The  municipality  to  be  supreme  over  its  administra- 
tion, its  finances  and  its  police. 

Art.  7.    Remuneration  for  all  elective  functions. 

ECONOMIC  SECTION. 

Art.  8.  Abolition  of  the  taxes  which  weigh  most  heavily  on 
the  producer  and  the  poor.  Uniform  and  progressive  taxation 
upon  incomes  above  3,000  francs. 

Art.  9.  Abolition  of  inheritance  on  collateral  lines.  Limita- 
tion of  inheritance  on  the  direct  line  to  the  profit  of  the  nation  or 
the  municipality. 

Art.  10.    Abolition  of  the  public  debt. 

Art.  II.  Resumption  by  the  nation  of  the  public  properties 
granted  to  private  parties  (banks,  railroads,  mines,  etc.),  and 
delivery  of  their  management  to  the  laborers,  under  the  control 
of  the  nation. 

Art.  12.  General  scientific  and  professional  education  guar- 
anteed to  all  children,  their  support  being  at  the  expense  of 
society  represented  by  the  municipality  and  by  the  State. 

Art.  13.  Legal  limitation  of  the  labor-day  for  adults  to  eight 
hours. 

Art.  14.  Prohibition  of  the  employment  of  children  under  14 
years.  Limitation  of  the  labor-day  of  children  between  14  and  18 
to  half  the  legal  labor-day  for  adults. 

Art.  15.  Legal  prohibition  of  requiring  labor  more  than  six 
days  out  of  seven. 

Art.  16.  Prohibition  of  night  labor  for  children  less  than  18 
and  for  women. 

Art.  17.  Prohibition  of  requiring  labor  from  women  six 
weeks  before  and  six  weeks  after  the  birth  of  a  child. 

Art.  18.  Prohibition  of  labor  in  houses  of  refuge  and  orphan 
asylums,  etc.  Reorganization  of  labor  in  prisons  so  as  not  to 
compete  with  private  labor. 

Art.  19.    Prohibition  of  piece  work  of  every  description. 

Art.  20.  Legal  minimum  for  wages  fixed  annually  according 
to  the  local  cost  of  living  by  delegates  of  laborers  and  employees, 
or  by  the  unions. 


CONGBESS  OF  FBENGH  SOCIALISTS  297 

Art.  21.  Equal  wages  for  equal  wcwk  to  laborers  of  both 
sexes. 

Art.  22.  Legal  prohibition  against  employers  hiring  foreign 
laborers  at  wages  below  those  paid  to  French  laborers. 

Art.  23.  Abolition  of  fines  and  of  any  deduction  from  wages 
or  salaries.  Prohibition  of  payment  in  goods  or  checks.  Aboli- 
tion of  company  stores. 

Art.  24.  Abolition- of  employment  agencies.  Legal  prohibi- 
tion of  pass-books  for  adults. 

Art.  25.  Direct  participation  on  the  part  of  laborers  in  the 
fixing  of  all  the  regulations  of  factories,  shops,  stares  or  offices. 

Art.  26.  Inspection  of  labor  entrusted  to  laborers,  and  em- 
ployees chosen  as  delegates  empowered  to  look  after  the  execu- 
tion of  labor  legislation. 

Art.  27.  Revision  of  the  Arbitration  laws  to  assure  more 
guarantees  to  the  laborers. 

Art.  28.  Extension  to  all  classes  of  workers,  laborers,  and 
employees,  in  manufactures,  mines,  transportation,  commerce, 
agriculture,  municipal  and  state  works  of  all  labor  legislation,  es- 
pecially the  arrangements  concerning  conditions  of  labor,  arbitra- 
tion, accidents,  etc. 

Art.  29.  Compulsory  and  immediate  compensation  at  the 
expense  of  employers  for  damages  in  all  cases  of  accidents  with- 
out distinction  of  position  or  trade. 

Art,  30.  Direct  and  exclusive  control  by  the  laborers  and  em- 
ployees of  the  labor  funds  for  mutual  assistance,  sick  benefits 
and  insurance.  Absolute  prohibition  of  any  interference  on  the 
part  of  employers. 

Art.  31.  Relief  at  the  expense  of  employers  and  society  for 
all  those  whom  age,  infirmities  or  sickness  have  made  unable  to 
supply  the  needs  of  their  existence. 

MUNICIPAL  SECTION. 

Art.  32.  Suppression  of  the  octrois  with  absolute  liberty 
left  to  the  municipalities  to  establish  taxes  to  replace  them,  and 
with  participation  in  the  revenues  of  the  State. 

Art.  33.  Exemption  from  all  personal  taxes  for  small  tenants 
to  be  obtained  by  a  progressive  tax  on  tenants  of  a  higher  grade. 

Art.  34.  Taxes  upon  buildings  not  rented  and  upon  ground 
not  built  upon. 

Art.  35.  Free  text  books  and  school  supplies.  Establishment 
of  school  restaurants,  providing  a  gratuitous  meal  for  the  pupils 
between  the  morning  and  afternoon  sessions.  Distribution  of 
clothing  and  shoes.     Establishment  of  municipal  libraries. 

Art.  36.  Introduction  into  bureaus  of  public  works  and  into 
municipal  contracts  of  clauses  establishing  stated  conditions  of 


298  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

labor.  (Eight-hour  day;  minimum  wage;  prohibition  of  piece 
work;  healthful  and  safe  conditions  for  the  workers.) 

Art.  37.  Establishment  of  labor  exchanges  in  municipalities 
where  several  labor  unions  exist.  The  direction  and  administra- 
tion of  these  to  be  entrusted  exclusively  to  the  unions.  In  de- 
fault of  unions  and  labor  exchanges  free  employment  bureaus 
to  be  maintained  by  the  municipalities. 

Art.  38.  Remuneration  for  workingmen  arbitrators  at  a  rate 
assuring  them  independence  of  employers. 

Art  39.  Municipal  hygienic  service  and  sanitary  inspection. 
Compulsory  sanitary  repairs  at  the  cost  of  the  owners  of  lodgings 
found  unhealthful.  Establishment  of  free  public  washhouses 
and  shower  baths. 

Art.  40.  Free  medical  attendance.  Municipal  pharmacies 
furnishing  medicine  at  cost. 

Art.  41.  Establishment  of  free  sanitariums,  maternity  hos- 
pitals and  dispensaries,  belonging  to  the  municipality,  or  a  group 
of  municipalities. 

Art.  42.  Outdoor  relief  and  establishment  of  municipal  and 
inter-municipal  homes  for  children,  the  aged  and  those  disabled 
by  labor. 

Art.  43.  Relief  in  the  way  of  food  for  every  workingman 
traveling  or  without  fixed  residence  in  search  of  employment. 
Establishment  of  free  lodging  houses. 

Art.  44.    Legal  advice  free. 

Art.  45.  Publication  of  an  official  municipal  bulletin  or  regu- 
lar placarding  of  decisions  taken  by  the  municipal  council. 

AGRICULTURAL  PROGRAM. 

On.  recommendation  of  the  committee  the  congress  decided  to 
refer  to  the  central  council : 

1.  The  preparation  of  a  plan  for  an  agricultural  program 
which  was  to  be  adopted  after  consultation  between  the  federa- 
tions. 

2.  The  publication  of  a  pamphlet  commenting  on  the  arti- 
cFes  in  the  program  of  immediate  demands. 

The  central  council  was  also  instructed  as  proposed  by  La- 
gardelle  and  Deslinieres  to  prepare  before  the  next  municipal 
elections  a  declaration  of  principles  to  precede  the  program  of 
reforms  of  the  party.  Finally  on  a  proposition  by  Laudier  and 
Compere-Morel  representing  the  federations  of  the  Cher  and 
Oise  the  following  resolution  was  adopted. 

AGRICULTURAL  MACHINERY. 

The  second  national  congress  of  the  socialist  party  of  France 

(U.  S.  R,)  in  assembly  at  Reims  September  27,  28,  29,  1903, 

In  view  of  the  ever  increasing  concentration  of  landed  prop- 


G0NGBE68  OF  FRENCH  S0GIALI8T8  299 

erty  in  the  hands  of  a  capitalist  minority  which  brings  into  agri- 
cultural communities  the  same  degree  of  exploitation  that  pre- 
vails in  industrial  communities,  and. 

In  view  of  the  introduction  of  machinery  in  agricultural 
labor,  which  intensifies  more  and  more  the  struggle  for  employ- 
ment and  causes  the  machine  (which  under  the  socialist  system 
would  be  a  source  of  benefit  and  happiness  for  the  farm  laborers 
by  relieving  them  from  the  severe  fatigue  of  the  work  of  har- 
vesting) to  be  under  the  capitalist  system  a  source  of  poverty, 
trouble  and  privation  through  the  competition  which  it  brings 
about  among  country  laborers; 

Declares  that  there  is  need  for  the  party  to  carry  <mi  an  active 
propaganda  in  the  country  districts  in  favor  of  the  limitation  of 
the  labor-day,  for  the  relief  of  those  out  of  work,  and  in  favor 
of  the  establishment  of  a  minimqm  wage,  awaiting  the  time 
when  the  economic  and  political  organizations  of  the  forces  of 
labor  for  the  expropriation  of  the  possessing  class  and  the  bene- 
fit of  the  dispossessed  class,  in  landed  property  as  well  as  in 
agricultural  machinery,  may  permit  it  to  use  the  means  of  pro- 
duction in  common  for  the  greatest  good  of  all. 

EDUCATION. 

The  report  drawn  up  by  Lafargue  states  in  the  first  place 
that  the  question  may  be  reduced  to  primary  education,  since 
secondary  and  higher  education  are  inevitably  closed  to  the  chil- 
dren of  proletarians.  The  congress  agreed  with  him.  Lafargue's 
project  is  developed  in  the  following  resolution: 

Whereas,  the  children  of  the  laborers,  given  up  to  the  ex- 
ploitation of  employers  from  the  tenderest  age,  receive  only 
primary  instruction  and  do  not  profit  at  an  adult  age  from 
the  scientific  information  which  might  permit  them  to  emanci- 
pate themselves  from  the  religious  falsehoods  with  which  they 
are  poisoned, 

The  second  congress  of  the  socialist  party  of  France  declares 
that,  first  and  foremost,  primary  instruction  should  be  taken 
away  from  the  congregations  and  the  ministers  of  all  religions. 

Whereas,  the  laborers,  despoiled  by  the  capitalists  of  the  so- 
cial wealtti  which  they  alone  have  to  produce,  and  receiving  only 
enough  to  live  upon  in  trouble  and  poverty,  cannot  defray  the 
necessary  expenses  for  the  education  and  support  of  their  chil- 
dren, and 

Whereas,  the  laborers  provide  the  revenue  of  the  state  directly 
through  the  taxes  which  tiiey  pay  and  indirectly  by  the  taxes 
which  the  capitalists  pay  with  the  money  stolen  from  them ; 

The  second  congress  of  the  socialist  party  of  France  declares 
that  the  state  should  be  compelled  to  give  gratuitously  primary 
instruction  to  the  children  of  the  laborers,  and  procure  for  them 


300  INTERNATIONAL  SCX3IALIST  EEVIEW 

gratuitously  school  supplies,  clothing,  food  and  other  necessary 
articles. 

Whereas,  the  state,  which  is  the  exploiter  of  wage  labor  and 
which  shares  with  the  capitalists  the  thefts  which  they  commit 
daily  upon  the  wage  laborer,  gives  only  an  education  corrupted 
by  bourgeois  ideas  of  property,  justice,  legality,  the  rights  of 
man,  patriotism,  glory,  military  honor,  savings,  liberty  to  work, 
etc.,  and, 

Whereas,  these  bourgeois  ideas,  which  are  no  less  dangerous 
than  the  outgrown  dogmas  of  religion,  are  taught  in  the  primary 
schools  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  prepare  the  laborers  from 
childhood  to  submit  to  the  yoke  of  capital,- to  live  in  -privation 
by  the  side  of  the  increasing  wealth  which  they  produce,  and  to 
accept  without  rebelling  the  inequalities  and  iniquities  of  so- 
ciety. 

The  second  congress  of  the  socialist  party  of  France  de- 
mands that  the  mothers  and  fathers  of  the  children  attending^ 
the  municipal  schools  constituted  into  an  electoral  body,  elect, 
in  each  municipality,  women  and  men  to  form  school  boards 
charged  to  look  after  the  hygienic  conditions  of  their  children 
and  the  distribution  of  food,  and  clothing,  and  to  control  the  in- 
struction which  is  given  them,  as  well  as  the  books  which  are 
put  into  their  hands. 

Neither  the  state  officials  nor  officers  and  ministers  of  any 
organized  religion  shall  be  allowed  under  any  pretext  to  hold 
a  place  on  the  school  boards. 

A  discussion  ensued  on  this  proposition,  participated  in  by 
Vaillant,  Constans,  Galmot,  Roussel,  Myrens,  Landrin,  Roland, 
Lagardelle,  Rappaport,  Guesde  and  Ghesquiere.  It  was  unani- 
mously agreed  that  while  the  preamble  of  Lafargue's  plan  was 
to  be  endorsed  completely,  his  conclusions  leave  much  room  for 
discussion  and  it  will  be  better  for  the  present  to  leave  the 
question  for  the  study  of  the  party. 

On  motion  by  Vaillant  it  was  decided  that  the  party  should 
ask  the  international  congress  to  declare  itself  upon  the  "revi- 
{  sionist"  tendencies,  by  whatever  name  they  may  be  called,  by  pre- 
/  senting  a  resolution  similar  to  that  adopted  by  the  German  Social 
I  Democracy  at  the  congress  of  Dresden, — Trcmslated  from  Le 
^  Socialiste  by  CharUs  H.  Kerr, 


r" 


Materialism  and  Its;  Relations  to  Propagandism  of 

Socialism 

I  HAVE  been  a  reader  of  The  Review  since  its  beginning, 
with  the  exception  of  the  numbers  of  the  first  half  of 
1903,  and,  in  the  main,  especially  as  far  as  has  to  do  with 
the  doctrines  of  socialism,  I  can  indorse  what  has  appeared 
in  its  columns.  It  is  a  power  which  is  opening  the  eyes  of  the 
thinking  class  of  the  American  public.  Nevertheless  I  cannot  but 
deplore  the  efforts  of  sc»ne  of  its  writers  to  build  evolution  and 
socialism  upon  materialism  as  its  philosophic  basis.  This  posi- 
tion in  i^ilosophy  I  must  criticise  as  untenable  and  destructive 
of  all  tendency  to  reform.  Instead  of  being  a  stable  structure 
it  is  an  inverted  pyramid,  whose  only  foundation  is  its  apex, 
and  which  the  slightest  breath  of  reason  topples  over. 

First  let  us  consider  the  objection  to  materialism  from  the 
view  point  of  the  propagandism  of  reforms.  Materialism  is 
determinism  pure  and  simple.  No  old  time  straight-jacket  Pres- 
byterian could  be  more  rigid  in  his  predestinarianism  than  are 
the  inevitable  conclusions  of  materialism.  Everything  flows  in  a 
determined  stream  whose  sources  are  the  "fortuitous  concourse 
and  clash  of  atoms."  Mind  is  a  function  of  matter,  the  same 
as  sound,  heat,  light,  and  electricity.  The  brain  is  a  mechanism 
which  gives  off  thought,  consciousness,  and  will  as  a  tea-kettle 
gives  off  steam.  The  kind,  quantity  and  direction  of  these 
products  are  wholly  determined  by  the  motor  forces  included  in 
the  atoms  themselves,  and  the  concourses  and  clashes  fortuitously 
determined  by  their  several  environments.  In  the  individual 
there  is  no  self-determining  power ;  he  is  merely  a  molecule  car- 
ried on  and  on  by  the  irresistible  force  of  gravity  and  the  direc- 
tion-determining enclosure  of  the  stream's  banks. 

With  such  a  philosophy  it  is  folly  for  an  individual  to  put 
forth  an  effort  to  will,  and  much  more  to  act.  With  such  a 
philosophy  as  our  guide  to  truth  no  person  can  in  the  slightest 
degree  change  the  flow  of  events,  nor  can  he  be  in  the  slightest 
degfree  held  responsible  for  his  acts.  Materialism  carries  within 
itself  the  seeds  of  its  own  destruction.  The  ancients  placed  the 
world  on  a  turtle's  back,  but  what  the  turtle  rested  on  was  an- 
swered by  the  agnostic  "I  don't  know."  Materialism  bases  the 
world  on  the  atom;  but  how  the  atom  has  and  exercises  its 
wonderful  and  Godlike  power  is  answered  by  the  agnostic  "I 
don't  know." 

It  has  been  a  hackneyed  custom  of  some  philosophers  to  brand 
certain  kinds  of  reasoning  as  metaphysical,  and  in  such  a  man- 
am 


802  INTBBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW 

ner  do  they  speak  as  to  convey  the  conclusion  concealed  in 
their  contemptuous  epithet,  that  metaphysics  and  metaphysical 
reasoning  are  obsolete  relics  of  the  middle  ages,  and  that  no  well 
informed  man  of  the  present  time  will  attempt  to  lead  through 
tortuous  windings  of  a  reasoning  which  begins  nowhere  and 
ends  in  the  same  place. 

Allow  me  to  say  here  without  fear  of  controversy  that  there 
can  be  no  philosophy  without  a  metaphysical  basis;  and  the 
philosophy  which  ignores  metaphysics  has  no  foundation — no 
commanding  power  to  give  it  credence. 

All  philosophies  may  be  classified  under  three  general  heads — 
materialism,  dualism,  and  idealism.  Though  under  each  head 
are  a  multitude  of  variations,  each  class  has  certain  distinctive 
doctrines. 

Materialism  holds  that  the  atom,  or  whatever  it  may  term 
the  ultimate  portion  of  the  world  which  affects  our  senses,  has 
the  potency  of  all  things  and  all  phenomena,  both  physical  and 
mental,  which  we  see  about  us.  Everything  is  reduced  to  a  push 
and  a  pull  of  this  ultimate  entity  of  matter — ^nay,  that  is  not  the 
last  analysis;  for  in  strictness  we  cannot  conceive  a  pull — every- 
thing must  be  reduced  to  a  push  of  material  atoms  against  each 
other.  The  various  phenomena  of  gravity,  molecular  attrac- 
tions and  repulsions,  sound,  heat,  light,  and  electricity,  sensation, 
perception,  consciousness,  thought,  and  will,  all  require  a  foun- 
dation— a,  rational  explanation;  but  at  each  step  the  philosopher 
can  only  assume  that  it  is  so,  and  attribute  the  phenomena  to  the 
mysterious  and  wonderful  properties  of  matter.  In  this  upward 
march  to  the  higher  realms  of  thought  the  materialistic  philoso- 
pher continues  to  endow  matter  and  the  atom  with  attributes  and 
powers  adequate  to  explain  the  phenomena  which  he  discusses 
until  his  matter  and  atoms  arise  to  the  dignity  and  power  of 
Godl    His  explanations  are  all  irrational  assumptions. 

Dualism  is  for  the  most  part  the  philosophy  of  religionists 
in  all  ages  of  the  world,  though  there  is  no  necessary  relation 
between  religion  and  dualism.  It  is  also  the  philosophy  of  the 
common  sense  of  mankind.  This  fact  doubtless  has  for  its 
reason  the  other  fact  that  it  is  much  easier  to  attribute  the  two 
utterly  different  orders  of  phenomena  C mental  and  physical) 
to  two  entirely  different  orders  of  reality  (spirit  and  matter), 
than  to  attribute  all  phenomena  to  one  kind  of  reality — ^the 
explanation  attempted  by  both  materialistc  monists  and  idealistic 
monists. 

Ehialism  assumes  a  world  of  matter  and  a  world  of  spirit, 
both  of  an  entirely  different  order  of  existence;  that  in  the 
organism  the  two  orders  of  existence  are  mysteriously  united, 
allowing  the  spiritual  to  reach  over  into,  as  it  were,  and  con- 
trol the  material;  that  each  order  of  existence  is  independent  in 


MATEBIALISM  AND  SOCIALISM  308 

its  essence  from  the  other.  While  the  assumptions  of  dualism 
are  rational  and  cannot  be  disproved — at  least  with  mathematical 
certainty — it  must  call  to  its  aid  many  agnostic  "I-don't-knows," 
and  fails  to  explain  what  seems  more  simple  and  rationally  ex- 
plained by  idealistic  monism. 

In  idealism  we  find  the  most  impregnable  position  in  philos- 
ophy. We  cannot  conceive  how  a  push  can  become  gravitation, 
molecular  attractions  and  repulsions,  sound,  heat,  light,  electric- 
ity, sensation,  thought,  consciousness,  and  will.  Each  transition 
involves  an  inconceivable  leap  from  a  physical  entity  to  an  idea — 
a  transformation  from  a  physical  order  to  one  to  which  we- can- 
not conceive,  that  the  physical  has  any  relation  whatever.  Yet 
if  we  start  with  consciousness — ^that  which  says  "I  am  the  being 
that  has  these  thoughts,  and  will,  and  know,  and  act" — ^we  are 
driven  to  the  conclusion  that  all  our  knowledge  is  mental.  Every 
sensation,  perception,  thought — ^the  whole  realm  of  knowledge 
is  mental.  What  we  are  wont  to  call  physical  phenomena  are 
those  streams  which  seem  to  reach  us  from  without  ourself — 
without  the  limiting  area  of  our  sensorium — streams  of  phenom- 
ena which  seem  to  be  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  beyond  our 
reach  and  control.  If  all  phenomena  have  a  mental  reality  be- 
hind them,  as  we  know  to  be  the  case  with  our  own  sensations, 
thoughts  and  wills,  then  can  all  be  rationally  explained.  Every 
sa-called  atom  of  matter  is  what  we  may  term  a  mental  monad 
with  a  mentality  and  will  pertaining  to,  itself.  There  may  be 
other  existences  than  mental;  but  we  have  no  way  of  proving 
or  disproving  this  hypothesis.  To  assume  that  all  nature  is 
thought,  consciousness,  and  will  is  the  only  hypothesis  by  which 
to  explain  satisfactorily  the  phenomena  of  nature.  It  is  the  only 
rational  foundation  for  evolution  and  therefore  of  economics. 
Determinism  has  no  place  in  philosophy  except  as  one  mental 
existence  limits  another.  Freedom  of  will  between  limits  is 
everywhere,  though  in  man  "the  limits  of  freedom  are  most 
widely  separated,  allowing  the  widest  swing  of  mentality.  In 
the  atom  of  what  we  term  inert  matter  there  are  the  narrowest 
limits  of  freedom,  yet  we  have  no  right  to  say  that  the  ultimate 
mental  unit  has  no  freedom,  else  it  would  be  defacto  inert  and 
the  world  would  be  dead  and  without  life  and  no  motion. 

So  broad  a  subject  allows  but  the  touching  of  its  salient  points 
in  a  short  magazine  article,  yet  I  hope  this  will  be  enough  to  in- 
duce more  critical  thinking  on  the  ^rt  of  your  materialistic  con- 
tributors. Chas.  H.  Chase. 
Agricultural  College,  Mich.,  Sept.  4,  1903. 


The  Class  Struggle  in  Australia 

CLASS  warfare  has  at  length  been  declared  in  Australia 
by  the  capitalists  themselves.  The  employers  of  the 
three  eastern  states  arc  tmited  in  an  Employers'  Fed- 
eration, and  in  each  of  these  states  are  preparing  to  raise 
a  larg>e  fighting  fund  to  down  labor  at  the  forthcoming  Federal 
elections.  The  secretary  of  this  organization  says  'The  Employ- 
ers' Federation  makes  no  secret  of  its  intentions.  It  will  adopt 
an  aggressive  attitude  towards  Socialist-Labor  legislation.  The 
object  of  the  defense  fund  is  to  assist  present  political  organi- 
zations in  banding  together  in  opposition  to  the  Socialist-Labor 
party.  We  make  it  clear  that  we  have  no  objection  to  legitimate 
unions  (i.  e.  bogus  unions  of  the  Machine  Shearers'  Union  type). 
Our  object  is  purely  to  encourage  the  investment  of  capital,  and 
consequently  die  employment  of  labor  and  the  develofmient  of 
the  natural  resources  of  the  state."  One  would  think  that  this 
declaration  on  the  part  of  the  employers  would  force  the  Labor 
Party  to  come  out  as  a  straight-out  Socialist  Party.  But  no; 
they  simply  ignore  this  accusation  of  being  socialistic,  for  they 
feel  by  no  means  guilty^  Their  cry  at  the  forthcoming  Federal 
elections  will  protebly  be  "A  White  Australia,"  and  "support 
the  party  that  helped  to  abolish  the  duties  on  tea  and  kerosene." 
Indeed  die  Brisbane  Political  Labor  Q>uncil  has  issued  an  appeal 
to  labor  sympathizers  which  contains  the  following:  "You  who 
believe  in  A  White  Australia,  in  adult  suffrage,  in  conciliation 
and  compulsory  arbitration,  in  equal  pay  for  equal  work  and  in 
the  adjustment  of  taxation,  are  urged  to  organized 

A  new  and  uncertain  factor  in  Federal  politics  will  be  the 
presence  of  women  voters.  In  New  South  Wales  and  Victoria 
they  are  rapidly  organizing  themselves  in  Women's  Political 
Organizations.  Attempts  are  being  made  by  The  Womanfs 
Sphere  (the  only  woman's  paper  in  Australia),  to  prevent  the 
women  from  allying  themselves  with  any  political  party. 

In  Queensland,  however,  they  have  organized  along  party 
lines  and  at  the  formation  of  a  women's  workers'  political  or- 
ganization the  class  warfare  w^s  fearlessly  insisted  on.  It  is  to 
be  feared  that  the  labor  politicians  who  are  assisting  the  women 
to  organize  will  be  able  to  keep  this  jarring  note  in  the  back- 
ground. Australian  labor  politicians  seem  to  imagine  that  they 
can  abolish  class-warfare  by  conciliation  and  arbitration  bills. 

The  following  is  the  "Labor  Platform"  as  adopted  at  "Com- 
monwealth Labor  Conference,"  Sydney,  December,  1902. 

904 


THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE  IK  AUSTRALIA.  306 

FIGHTING  PLATFORM. 

I.  Maintenance  of  a  White  Australia.  2.  Compulsory  Arbi- 
tration. 3.  Old  Age  Pensions.  4.  Nationalization  of  Monopolies. 
5.  Citizen  Defense  Force.  6.  Restriction  of  Public  Borrowing. 
7.  Navigation  Laws. 

GENERAL  PLATFORM. 

1.  Maintenance  of  a  White  Australia. 

2.  Compulsory  Arbitration  to  settle  industrial  disputes,  with 
provision  for  the  exclusion  of  the  legal  profession. 

3.  Old  Age  Pensions. 

4.  Nationalization  of  Monopolies. 

5.  Gtizen  Military  Force  and  Australian-owned  Navy. 

6.  Restriction  of  Public  Borrowing. 

7.  Navigation  Laws  to  provide  (a)  for  the  protection  of 
Australian  shipping  against  unfair  competition;  (&)  registration 
of  all  vessels  engaged  in  the  coastal  trade;  (c)  the  efficient  man- 
ning of  vessels;  (d)  the  proper  supply  of  life-saving  and  other 
equipment;  (e)  the  regulation  of  hours  and  conditions  of  work; 
(/)  proper  accommodation  for  passengers  and  seamen;  (g) 
proper  loading  gear  and  inspection  of  same. 

8.  Commonwealth  Bank  of  Deposit  and  Issue  and  Life 
and  Fire  Insurance  Department,  the  management  of  each  to  be 
free  from  political  influence. 

9.  Federal  Patent  Law,  providing  for  simplifying  and  cheap- 
ening the  registration  of  patents. 

10.  Uniform  industrial  legislation;  amendment  of  Constitu- 
tion to  provide  for  same. 

CONDITIONS  OF  CANDIDATURE. 

1.  That  all  candidates  for  the  Federal  Parliament  shall  sign 
the  following  pledge;  I  hereby  pledge  myself  not  to  oppose  the 
candidate  selected  by  the  recognized  political  Labor  organization, 
and  if  elected,  to  do  my  utmost  to  carry  out  the  principles  em- 
bodied in  the  Federal  Labor  Platform  and  on  all  questions  af- 
fecting the  Platform  to  vote  as  a  majority  of  the  Parliamentary 
Party  may  decide  at  a  duly  constituted  caucus  meeting. 

2.  That  subject  to  the  acceptance  of  the  Federal  Platform 
and  Pledge,  each  State  shall  control  the  selection  of  its  candi- 
dates for  the  Federal  Parliament. 

3.  That  all  Labor  candidates  shall  have  a  free  hand  on  the 
fiscal  question. 

4.  That  no  member  of  the  Federal  Labor  Party  shall  accept 
office  in  the  Federal  Government  except  with  the  consent  of  a 
duly  constituted  caucus  of  the  Party^ 

Andrew  N.  Anderson. 


1 


EDITORIAL 


Some  Current  Events 

The  expected  appears  to  be  happening.  The  crest  of  the  industrial 
wave  has  passed  and  the  depression  which  socialists  have  been  prophesying 
is  evidently  at  hand.  Notwithstanding  all  the  talk  about  trust  organiza- 
tion, etc.,  there  seems  little  reason  to  believe  that  the  approaching  crisis 
will  differ  in  any  great  essentials  from  the  preceding  ones.  There  may 
not  be  exactly  the  same  phenomena  in  the  financial  world,  bankruptcies 
will  probably  be  even  more  closely  confined  to  the  small  capitalists  than 
in  1894,  and  it  is  possible  concerted  support  of  banking  institutions  may 
prevent  any  large  number  of  these  from  going  through  the  bankruptcy 
courts.  Yet  all  this  is  but  the  superficial  side  of  the  crisis.  To  be  sure 
it  is  the  portion  to  which  the  capitalist  press  and  writers  on  trusts  pay 
the  most  attention  because  it  is  the  phase  which  concerns  their  class  the 
closest.  But  after  all  these  things  are  but  a  part  of  the  machinery  of 
exploitation,  and  however  they  may  vary  in  their  action,  the  result  is 
practically  the  same.  This  result  is  a  glutted  market,  an  army,  of  un- 
employed, and  suffering  and  misery  among  the  workers. 

Frederick  Engels  pointed  out  many  years  ago  that  since  steel  came 
to  be  a  fundamental  in  modem  industry,  it  was  always  the  steel  trade 
which  first  reflected  industrial  conditions.  The  reason  for  this  is  ap- 
parent on  slight  consideration.  The  great  instruments  of  production,  the 
rails,  and  the  cars  and  locomotives  that  roll  over  them,  the  frames  and 
trusses  for  bridges  and  sky  scrapers,  the  machines  in  the  factories,  all 
these  are  made  from  steeL  In  each  upward  swing  of  the  industrial 
pendulum  there  comes  a  time  when  the  individual  capitalist  decides  that 
his  plant  has  been  enlarged  as  far  as  his  resources  will  permit,  or  his 
view  of  the  market  makes  him  think  advisable.  Then,  while  his  orders 
may  still  be  large  for  consumption  goods,  he  ceases  to  invest  in  additions 
to  his  plant.  At  once  the  laborers  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  pro- 
ductive articles  are  thrown  out  of  employment.  This  greatly  disar- 
ranges the  calculations  of  the  purchaser  of  consumption  goods  by  tre- 
mendously and  suddenly  reducing  the  market  for  such  goods  in  propor- 
tion to  the  employes  who  have  oeen  thrown  out.  This  is  the  stage  we 
have  reached  at  the  present  moment.  Thousands  of  men  have  been  dis- 
charged in  the  iron  and  coal  mines  and  tens  of  thousand  in  the  steel  and 

906 


BDITOBIAL  307 

iron  works.  The  second  stage  will  follow  fast.  Here  the  purchaser  of 
consomption  goods  still  depends  upon  his  old  market  as  reflected  in  the 
orders  which  have  been  sent  in  by  wholesalers,  and  even  by  retailers,  be- 
fore the  slackening  of  work  in  the  field  of  production  goods  had  taken 
place.  But  the  slackening  of  demand  will  be  at  once  reflected  in  a  with- 
drawal of  orders  and  in  a  decrease  of  new  orders.  This,  however,  always 
takes  place  much  slower  than  the  rate  of  production,  so  that  jobbers, 
wholesalers  and  retailers  And  their  stores  and  warehouses  loaded  to  over- 
flowing with  the  goods  which  have,  so  to  speak,  backed  up  on  them  from 
the  rising  tide  of  bankruptcy  and  distress.  The  result  is  a  sudden  col- 
lapse and  this  in  spite  of  all  the  trusts  can  do. 

Some  of  the  trust  flnanders  have  been  profiting  themselves  in  this 
time  of  falling  prices  and  crashing  industries  by  methods  which,  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  little  capitalist,  are  several  degrees  worse  than  high- 
way robbery.  A  tremendous  howl  is  going  up  in  the  press  which  reflects 
the  interest  of  these  small  investors  over  the  way  in  which  Schwab  and 
Morgan  unloaded  nearly  ten  million  dollars '  worth  of  wind  on  to  the 
community,  and  incidentally  disproved  the  existence  of  honor  among 
thieves  by  forcing  even  their  fellow  pirates  to  agree  not  to  begin  their 
excursions  until  the  chiefs  had  practically  swept  the  industrial  seas  of  all 
profitable  craft. 

All  of  this  is  having  its  effect  on  the  contest  between  employer  and 
employed.  The  larger  capitalists  are  welcoming  a  period  of  depression  for 
the  double  reason  that  it  will  enable  them  to  at  once  clear  the  field  of 
troublesome  competitors  and  give  them  a  powerful  weapon  in  the  army 
of  the  unemployed  with  which  to  crush  the  resistance  of  their  employes. 

In  the  face  of  these  conditions  employers  are  paying  little  attention 
to  the  ridiculous  farce  of  the  Civic  Federation.  This  organization  held  a 
meeting  during  the  past  month  in  Chicago,  which  discounted  anything  on 
the  boards  of  the  variety  theater  in  the  way  of  farce  comedy.  An  editor 
on  one  of  the  city  dailies  who  attended  one  of  the  sessions  that  was  held 
expressed  the  situation  in  a  most  striking  manner.  He  said  that  the  whole 
scene  suggested  to  him  a  cartoon  in  which  Hanna,  Gompers,  Easley, 
Mitchell  Sb  Company  were  promenading  round  a  circle  marked  socialism, 
and  continually  leaping  to  one  side  lest  they  might,  in  some  way,  come  in 
contact  with  the  thing  that  was  frightening  all  of  them. 

Since  few  of  the  laborers  have  shown  any  great  eagerness  to  follow 
the  stool  pigeons  caught  by  the  Civic  Federation,  and  also  because 
of  the  fact  noted  above  that  changing  industrial  conditions  will  probably 
add  to  the  strength  of  the  employers  in  the  struggle  with  the  trade 
unions,  most  of  the  capitalists  show  much  more  interest  in  the  Employers ' 
Association,  which  is  just  beginning  its  sessions  as  we  write  these  lines. 
This  organization,  as  was  pointed  out  in  these  columns  last  month,  makes 
no  secret  of  its  aims,  but  openly  declares  its  intention  of  crushing  the 
trade  unions,  and  especially  of  ail  socialist  agencies  in  the  trade  unions. 

Such  an  association  will  be  of  sufficient  strength  to  make  good  its 
claim  to  represent  combined  capitalist  class  interest  and  as  such  will  have 


1 


308  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIBW 

at  its  di^osal  the  govemmental  machinery,  inclading,  of  course,  the 
police  and  militia.  That  they  will  use  these  forces  nithlessly,  19  shown 
by  the  history  of  the  past  ten  years,  and  receives  special  confirmation 
from  the  recent  events  in  Colorado. 

The  inevitable  result  of  these  contending  forces  will  be  the  trans- 
ference of  the  fight  to  the  political  field.  Here  we  come  to  a  point  where 
socialists  are  directly  and  immediately  concerned.  Up  to  this  point-  the 
movements  have  been  beyond  the  control  of  any  set  of  persons  and  least  of 
all  the  laborers.  When  the  question  arises,  however,  as  to  the  struggle 
in  the  political  field,  how  the  forces  shall  be  aligned  and  the  battle 
fought,  it  is  the  special  mission  of  socialism  to  see  that  the  struggle  on 
the  part  of  the  workers  shall  be  no  longer  carried  on  unconsciously,  but 
shall  be  guided  by  an  intelligent  recognition  of  working  class  interests. 

The  task  being  thus  set  for  us,  it  is  fitting  that  we  glance  for  a 
moment  at  the  forces  involved  in  the  political  field.  As  yet,  the  radical 
democracy  shows  little  signs  of  crystallization.  Hearst  has  opened  head- 
quarters for  his  presidential  boom,  but  as  yet  the  boom  itself  has  failed 
to  appear.  What  elffect  the  crisis  may  have  in  this  direction  it  is  hard 
to  tell.  The  efforts  of  the  Civic  Federation  to  retain  the  laborers  in  the 
old  party  organizations  will  fail  when  the  class  struggle  becomes  suffi- 
ciently sharp  to  pierce  through  the  covering  of  sentimentality  that  they 
are  spreading  over  it.  If  the  socialists  have  a  sufficiently  strong  organization 
to  grasp  the  direction  and  control  of  the  revolt  which  will  arise  as  a  result 
of  the  industrial  depression  of  the  next  few  years,  or  even  months,  then 
the  day  of  the  final  struggle  between  capitalism  and  socialism  is  not  far 
away.  Their  ability  to  do  this  depends  almost  exclusively  upon  the 
strength  and  cohesiveness  of  their  party  organization.  Every  energy  must 
and  should  be  exerted  towards  increasing  the  membership  and  perfect- 
ing the  machinery  of  organization.  Any  talk  of  splits  or  fusions  at  this 
time  is  criminal;  incidentally,  it  is  also  very  idiotic,  since  either  of  the 
wings  which  have  shown  a  tendency  to  sprout  from  the  main  socialist 
body  contain  so  few  numbers,  that  if  they  should  secede^  their  movement 
would  not  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  "bolt,"  but  would  much  more  re- 
semble a  "carpet  tack." 

The  coming  National  campaign  is  going  to  demand  concentrated  in- 
telligent energy  on  a  national  scale,  and  anything  that  will  tend  to  hinder 
this  should  be  promptly  suppressed. 


SOCIALISM    ABROAD 


Argentine  Republic 

Ave  LallemaAt  writes  as  follows  in  the  Neue  Zeit  concerning  the 
movement  in  Argentine  Bepublic.  The  fifth  congress  of  the  Argentine 
Socialist  Party  met  in  Buenos  Ayres  on  the  seventh  and  eighth  of  July, 
1903.  It  was  composed  of  49  representatives  from  30  organizations  hav- 
ing a  total  membership  of  1736,  of  which  only  840  possessed  the  rights 
of  citizenship.  The  party  officials  for  eleven  years  have  been  practically 
the  same  comrades,  mainly  Bourgeoise  ideaologists  who  kept  up  a  very 
strongly  centralized  organization  completely  corresponding  to  the  old 
Spanish  traditions.  They  complain  of  a  lack  of  diffpipline  in  the  party, 
especially  in  struggles  with  the  very  numerous  anarchistic  elements  who 
preach  the  general  strike  which  it  is  claimed  has  greatly  injured  the  party. 

The  great  majority  of  the  Argentine  laboring  class  have  permitted 
themselves  to  be  driven  to  anarchism  through  their  hatred  of  the  despotic- 
ally governed  state  and  have  rejected  the  political  tactics  advocated  by 
the  socialists,  which,  to  be  sure,  can  only  be  of  a  purely  pla tonic  character 
since  a  government  according  to  popular  election  is  absolutely  non- 
exigent.  All  opposition  even  of  the  most  mild  character  to  the  govern- 
ment is  suppressed  by  force  and  its  adherents  scattered.  The  union  move- 
ment is  wholly  under  anarchistic  influence.  Only  on  the  first  of  May  the 
anarchists  and  the  socialists  meet  together.  This  almost  always  leads  to 
fights  which  naturally  do  not  better  things.  The  weekly  organ  of  the 
party  has  a  circulation  of  25,000  copies  and  is  strictly  controlled  by  the 
central  authority. 

The  congress  adopted  after  great  discussion  a  long  new  party  pro- 
gram with  a  so-called  minimal  program  to  which  every  half  way  liberal 
and  radical  party  can  subscribe  with  good  grace.  Among  others  there  arc 
anti-elerical  planks  since  the  party  officials  believe  that  they  can  best 
meet  the  attacks  of  the  church  with  a  decisive  anti-religious  program. 
They  are  unwilling  to  let  religion  be  a  private  aifair  and  seek  to  pledge 
the  members  to  strong  anti-church  tactics.  Some  articles  of  the  program 
take  tbe  small  farmer  directly  undej  the  wing  of  the  party  and  demands 
complete  freedom  from  taxation  for  him  and  the  enactment  of  duties  for 
his  amelioration,  instruction  for  agricultural  labor  with  relation  to  pro- 
tection of  the  health,  etc.  This  agrarian  portion  of  the  program  is  de- 
cidedly weak  and  shows  little  knowledge  of  agrarian  conations.  Of 
actual  socialist  demands  and  principles  the  program  contains  absolutely 
nothing,  and  they  were  also  wholly  lacking  in  the  proceeding,  and  the 
party  organ  shows  very  little  socialist  tendency. 

909 


310  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

England 

Amid  the  general  confusion  reigning  in  political  matters  in  Ehiglaiid 
the  socialists  are  sounding  the  one  clear  note.  It  is  now  evident  that  a 
general  election  cannot  be  postponed  beyond  next  spring  and  the  social- 
ists are  everywhere  preparing  to  run  candidates  for  Parl&unent.  The  fol- 
lowing, taken  from  the  Labor  Leader,  the  organ  of  the  Independent  Labor 
Party  shows  something  of  the  way  in  which  our  English  comrades  are 
meeting  the  old  question  of  free  trade  and  protection  which  did  valiant 
service  as  a  "red  herring"  during  so  many  years  in  America. 

''The  'Socialist  reply  to  Chamberlain's  Qlasgow  speech'  was  brought 
off  in  the  St  Andrew 's  Halls,  Glasgow,  last  Friday  night,  and  a  magnifi- 
cent reply  it  veas.  The  great  hall  vras  packed  from  floor  to  ceiling — ^with 
working  men  and  working  women.  There  was  not  a  duke  or  a  marquis 
in  the  building — or  if  there  were  they  were  incog.  The  chairman  was  Mr. 
W.  C.  Anderson,  ex-chairman  of  the  I.L.P.  in  Glasgow,  and  the  speaker 
was  Mr.  H.  M.  Hyndman.  The  Clarion  Choir  rendered  good  service.  Mr. 
Hyndman  asked  the  people  not  to  be  gulled  with  this  l^gos  agitation  on 
fiscal  matters.  Neither  in  free  trade  nor  in  protection  was  a  remedy 
to  be  found  for  the  social  ills  of  the  country.  Yet  the  workers  must 
not  neglect  the  agitation,  for  there  was  a  possibility  of  Chamberlain  win- 
ning. Mr.  Hyndman  gave  some  interesting  figures  as  showing  how  work- 
men in  America  fared  under  protection.  In  1850  67%  per  cent  of  the 
produce  was  paid  in  wages;  in  1880  the  percentage  had  dropped  to  36,  and 
in  1902  only  12  per  cent  of  the  wealth  produced  went  to  wages.  The 
rest  went  into  the  pockets  of  the  heads  of  the  trusts,  of  the  mortgage- 
holders,  the  railroad  and  other  robbers.  While  the  skiUed  workers  earned 
higher  wages  than  in  this  country,  there  were  worse  slums  in  some  of 
the  cities  than  even  in  Glasgow.  In  Germany,  it  was  the  same.  In  the 
mines  in  France  tuberculosis  was  growing  at  an  alarming  rate.  What 
the  people  wanted  was  protection  for  themselves  ahd  their  children  from 
the  rapacity  of  the  landlord  and  the  capitalist.  Two  generations  of 
free  trade  had  produced  12,000,000  of  people  just  outside  the  starva- 
tion area  and  a  lessened  physique  all  over.  He  wished  the  people  to  rise 
in  their  might  and  demand  better  g?>vernment  than  these  incapables  gave 
them.  They  were  at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  but  it  was  the  parting 
between  plunder  and  enjoyment,  between  the  people  and  the  plutocrats, 
between  the  masses  and  the  classes.  Mr.  Hyndman  then  urged  the  neces- 
sity and  possibility  of  a  great  scheme  of  nationalization." 


Germany 

The  National  So«ial  Party,  a  party  which  was  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  turning  the  revolutionary  energies  of  the  German  proletariat  away  i&om 
the  SocisJ  Democratic  Party,  has  finally  disappeared.  At  its  Convention, 
held  in  Gottlngen,  the  29th  and  30th  of  August,  the  founder  of  the  party, 
Friedrich  Naimiann,  declared  that  it  was  no  longer  possible  for  them 
to  exist  in  competition  with  the  Social  Democracy,  and  the  majority  of 
the  members  will  probably  go  at  once  into  the  ranks  of  the  Social  Dance- 
racy.  ^        

Italy 

The  threat  of  the  Italian  socialists  to  publicly  show  their  disapproval 
of  the  Czar  in  case  of  his  visit  to  Italy,  compelled  him  to  avoid  all  public 
places  and  to  practically  remain  in  hiding  while  in  Italy.  The  National 
Zeitwng  declares  that  this  constitutes  a  great  triumph  for  Ferri,  and  that 
thereby  "the  radical  wing  of  the  Italian  Social  Democracy  has  gained 
the  upper  hand."     As  was  pointed  out  some  time  ago  the  reviiioniflt 


SOCIALISM  ABBOAD  311 

movement  in  Italy  was  reaOj  overtbrown  some  time  back,  but  this  recent 
move  has  further  strengthened  the  revolutionary  position.  The  revisionist 
wing  had  opposed  aU  unfriendly  demonstration.  But  when  it  was  pointed 
out  that  this  strong  Bussian  government  had  demanded  the  extradition  of 
the  Bussian  Socialists  who  happened  to  be  in  residence  in  Naples  as  a 
price  of  Bussian  friendship,  then  the  socialists  were  well  nigh  unanimous 
in  their  determination  to  publicly  express  their  disapproval  of  Bussian 
tyranny. 

According  to  the  last  party  "Bulletin,"  the  Socialist  Party  of  Italy 
now  has  1,136  branches  and  39,192  dues  paying  members.  Of  the  69 
Italian  provinces,  Gosenza  is  the  only  one  which  has  no  Socialist  organi- 
zation. Beggio  Emilia,  the  province  of  the  "apostle  of  Socialinn," 
Camillo  Prampolini,  M.  P.,  takes  the  lead,  with  100  branches  and  3,948 
members.  The  province  of  Bome  has  19  branches  and  853  dues  paying 
members.  Many  Socialists  are  not  enrolled  in  the  party.  In  the  past 
parliamentary  elections,  held  in  1900,  the  Socialists  received  215,841  votes. 
There  are  now  31  Socialists  in  the  Parliament  of  Italy. 


Russia 


The  VoUes  Tribune  of  Vienna  brings  further  information  of  the  unrest 
in  Southwestern  Bussia.  It  seems  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  move- 
ment there  was  little  coherence  or  organization.  Indeed,  it  was  said  that 
thousands  struck  simply  "because  all  were  striking,"  and  it  was  felt 
necessary  to  make  a  sort  of  elemental  uprising  as  a  general  protest  against 
tyranny.  Further  events  are  described  as  follows :  "  Meetings  then  began 
to  be  held,  speakers  appeared  with  various  positions.  Those  who  were 
organized,  placed  political  freedom  as  their  principal  demand:  some  others 
would  not  listen  to  any  political  propositions,  but  confined  themselves 
to  economic  demands.  Meanwhile,  all  industry  was  at  a  standstill,  rail- 
road trains  ceased  to  move,  bread  and  meat  trebled  in  price.  This  led  to 
the  third  phase;  the  military  was  brought  into  action.  A  remarkable 
feature  was  seen  in  this  that  everywhere  the  soldiers  acted  with  great 
reluctance.  Many  times  they  fired  into  the  air,  and  some  officers  ordered 
their  men  to  refuse  to  shoot.  Then  the  Cossacks  appeared  upon  the 
scene  and  were  turned  loose  in  their  customary  brutal  manner,  for  which 
work  they  were  richly  rewarded;  in  one  case  directly  from  the  manager 
of  the  street  railways  (Leode  by  name),  who  is  said  to  have  distributed 
20,000  roubles  among  them  in  order  to  break  the  strike.  Numbers  of  the 
laborers  were  shot  and  others  wounded  until  at  last  the  military  attained 
the  upper  hand,  and  after  several  days,  labor  was  again  taken  up. 

"At  first,  it  would  appear  as  if  this  labor  movement  had  been  of  no 
result,  and  that  there  had  even  been  a  loss  in  moral  energy.  A  closer 
examination,  however,  shows  the  other  side.  The  outrages  by  which  the 
laborers  were  driven  back  under  the  old  yoke  cannot  but  result  in  fur- 
ther uprisings  against  the  employers.  And  no  one  can  tell  at  what  time 
the  storm  which  is  now  threatening  throughout  Bussia  will  break  loose,  or 
what  the  result  will  be  when  the  next  outbreak  comes.  But  conditions 
will  be  much  different  and  that  is  the  greatest  gain  of  the  battle.  The 
unorganized  have  seen  that  they  have  nothing  to  expect  from  the  gov- 
ernment but  Cossack  whips  and  bullets,  and,  furthermore,  that  under 
the  present  Bussian  conditions  a  labor  movement  on  purely  economic  foun- 
dations is  impossible.  Now  that  their  hopes  of  favorable  action  by  the 
government  have  disappeared,  they  will  constitute  the  most  favorable 
possible  ground  for  Socialist  propaganda  and  can  be  drawn  into  an  or- 
ganization and  be  better  prepared  for  the  next  battle.  Meanwhile,  th% 
government  is  helpless  before  this  growing  movement;  its  strongest  sup- 
port, the  anny,  begins  to  give  way,  and  frightened,  it  seeks  only  to 
cover  up  its  terror  by  new  outrages. 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


London. — ^As  has  been  explained  in  the  Bsvisw  before,  the  British 
trade  union  movement  is  in  fairly  good  shape,  but  the  new  issae  that 
has  arisen,  namely,  the  decision  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  Taff  Yale 
railway  case,  that  labor  organizations  are  responsible  for  any  damages  ^that 
may  be  sustained  by  employers  because  of  strikes  and  boycotts,  will  test 
the  unions  as  nothing  has  before.  In  fact,  the  very  life  of  organized 
labor  in  Great  Britain  is  at  stake.  The  result  is  that,  whereas  half  a 
dozen  years  ago  the  great  majority  of  unionists  refused  to  listen  to 
the  proposition  of  taking  political  action  along  class  lines,  now  they 
are  falling  all  over  each  other  to  get  into  the  political  arena  in  the  en- 
deavor to  secure  legislation  to  protect  their  funds,  for  be  it  known  the 
thrifty  and  saving  Englishmen  have  many  millions  of  dollars  in  their 
treasuries  which  are  now  at  the  mercy  of  the  capitalists  if  th^  strike, 
picket  and  boycott. 

This  haste  to  take  political  action  has  produced  a  new  species  of 
misleader,  who  pleads  with  his  fellows  to  use  temperate  language,  take  what 
you  can  get,  one  step  at  a  time,  etc.  He  is  a  hyphenated  critter  called  a 
Liberal-Labor  leader.  The  Liberal  party  is  in  England  what  the  Democratic 
party  is  in  America,  a  conglomeration  of  antagonistic  elements  promising 
all  things  to  all  men  and  never  accomplishing  anything  except  to  betray  the 
working  classes  to  their  capitalist  masters  whenever  the  opportunity  offers. 
Some  of  the  British  unionists  now  have  the  scent  of  success  in  their 
nostrils  if  they  engage  in  fusion  deals  with  the  Liberal  procuress,  and 
hence  their  definition  of  independent  political  action  is  to  throw  the 
labor  vote  to  ' '  the  party  most  favorable  to  our  views, ' '  etc. 

But  while  some  of  the  unionists  can  be  tricked  back  into  the  old  ruts 
by  this  policy,  not  all  can,  and  the  most  intelligent  among  tiiem  are  join- 
ing the  Independent  Labor  party  and  the  Social  Democratic  Federation 
or  standing  pat  with  the  new  Labor  Bepresentation  organization,  strictly 
independent  of  the  old  parties.  The  I.  L.  P.  and  S.  D.  F.  are  bound  to 
grow,  because  of  the  new  conditions  that  have  arisen.  I  find  that  there 
is  really  not  much  difference  between  these  two  parties.  "While  it  is  largely 
a  matter  of  policy,  the  dividing  line  is  somewhat  imaginary  and  many 
of  the  rank  and  file  belong  to  both  organizations  and  work  together  in 
spreading  propaganda.  No  matter  from  what  viewpoint  the  situation 
is  approached,  it  is  a  dead  certainty  that  Socialism  is  growing  rapidly 
in  Great  Britain. 

Paris. — In  France  the  unions  and  co-operative  societies  work  in  har- 
mony with  the  Socialist  parties,  although  the  latter  are  at  odds  over  the 
question  of  supporting  the  MiUerand-Jaures  tactics  of  upholding  the  Be- 
publican  capitalist  government  against  the  attacks  of  the  Monarchial-Na- 
tionalist  combine.  The  unions  have  abopt  700,000  members  and  are  taking 
the  lead  in  federating  the  trades  of  all  Europe  with  considerable  success. 

812 


THE  WOBLD  OF  LABOB  313 

They  are  also  anxious  to  arrange  faarmoniona  relations  with  the  workers 
of  the  United  States. 

From  what  I  am  able  to  learn,  there  are  quite  a  few  anarchists 
in  the  labor  organizations,  and  they  are  using  eyery  scheme  possible  to 
discourage  the  unions  from  supporting  the  Socialist  parties.  At  the  present 
time  they  are  making  a  great  hullabaloo  about  the  differences  of  opinion 
between  the  Socialists  who  look  to  Jauree  for  leadership  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Guesde  on  the  other,  and  they  are  also  pleased  at  the  manner  in 
which  the  Socialists  have  become  entangled  in  the  dapitaHst  government's 
crusade  against  religious  orders.  The  anarchists  hope  that  the  bitterness 
between  the  Socialist  factions  will  increase,  so  that  the  unionists  will  with- 
draw their  support  and  play  in  the  anarchist  yard.  Just  what  the  outcome 
will  be  is  problematical.  Probably  the  rank  and  file  will  rise  one  of  these 
fine  days  and  bump  the  swollen  heads  of  all  their  leaders  and  adopt  a  newer 
and  better  policy  than  to  pull  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire  for  capitalist 
goyemments. 

Brussels. — The  unions,  co-operative  societies  and  the  Socialist  party 
of  Belgium  are  three  branches  of  labor  activity  that  are  in  perfect  harmony. 
A  union  man  who  is  not  a  Socialist  is  regarded  as  something  of  a  freak 
in  Belgium,  Some  of  the  trades  are  nearly  completely  organized  and 
during  the  past  three  years  wages  have  been  boosted  as  high  as  50  per 
cent  in  many  of  the  trades,  while  hours  of  labor  have  also  been  reduced. 
The  co-operatives  are  spreaaing  all  over  the  country  and  cutting  deep  into 
the  businees  of  capitalists.  In. Brussels,  for  example,  the  co-operatives 
have  fixed  the  price  of  bread,  having  forced  a  reduction  of  50  per  cent 
with  their  bakeries,  and  at  the  same  time  the  employes  receive  higher 
wages  and  work  shorter  time  than  in  capitalist  bakeries.  The  co-operatives 
are  also  aiming  to  dictate  prices  of  coal,  meats,  clothing,  etc. 

The  SociiSist  party  of  Belgium  is  in  excellent  shape.  There  is  not 
the  least  sign  of  dissensions  or  jealousies  among  the  leaders.  Besides 
holding  35  seats  in  Parliament,  they  also  control  700  municipal  councilmen 
and  have  a  clear  majority  in  60  places,  mostly  rural  localities,  however^ 
that  have  little  power.  The  Belgians  are  pushing  educational  work  hard 
at  present,  and  it  would  not  be  surprising  if  they  were  the  first  to  secure 
control  of  the  governing  powers. 

Hamburg. — We  were  lucky  in  reaching  Germany  just  after  the  Dresden 
congress  and  could  study  the  effects  of  that  meeting.  For  weeks  we  have 
read  in  European  newspapers  that  a  terrible  crash  would  occur  in  the 
Socialist  party  of  Germany  when  the  Dresden  congress  met.  We  kept  our 
ears  to  the  ground,  but  heard  no  sounds  of  deadly  combat  and  the  dis- 
ruption of  the  Socialist  movement.  All  the  calanutous  predictions  were, 
after  all,  merely  editorial  gas.  All  the  coddling  of  Mr.  Bernstein  on  the 
part  of  the  capitalist  press  simply  had  the  effect  of  more  thoroughly  solidi- 
fying the  party  under  the  leaaership  of  Bebel  and  making  a  temporizing 
policy  impossible. 

Now  the  capitalist  press  is  changing  its  tune.  While  postponing  the 
schism  for  another  year,  ior  the  very  good  reason  that  the  Socialist  party 
was  never  more  thoroughly  united  and  refused  to  split  itself,  the  capitalist 
'  press  is  not  willing  to  take  any  further  chances  with  the  *  *  Socialist  specter  *  * 
and  a  howl  is  going  up  to  change  the  ballot  law  and  restrict  the  fran- 
ehise.  Capitalism  feels  that  it  has  been  driven  into  the  last  ditch,  and  in 
its  desperation  it  is  willing  to  go  to  any  length  to  maintain  its  privilege 
of  driving  labor  and  dividing  its  product  to  suit  itself. 

As  for  adopting  the  Bernstein  reform  policy,  that  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. The  Socialist  party  of  Germany  will  remain  true  to  its  traditions — 
revolutionary  to  the  core.  And  there  can  be  no  split,  because  nobody  would 
follow  Bernstein  out  of  the  party.     The   few  who  sympathize  with  his 


314  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

views  are  "academics,"  lawyers,  editors  and  other  professionals  who 
seldom  come  into  contact  with  the  practical  questions,  the  hard,  cold  facts 
that  stare  the  workers  in  the  face. 

Of  course,  in  Germany  the  unions  and  co-operatiYe  societies  are 
almost  aa  a  whole,  thoroughly  committed  to  the  Socialist  program.  Both  of 
these  branches  of  the  labor  movement  are  steadily  growing  in  numbers 
and  financial  resources.  The  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches,  fearing 
that  their  communicants  might  become  Socialists  if  they  join  the  recognized 
trade  unions,  have  started  to  organize  unions  of  their  own.  The  Socialists 
are  good-natured  about  it  and  wish  the  good  Christians  every  luck.  At  the 
same  time  they  are  giving  long  odds  that  when  the  workingmen  of  the 
church  unions  bump  up  against  the  good  Christian  capitalists  the  same  old 
class  struggle  will  ensue.  "And  then,"  say  the  Socialists,  "the  church 
unions  will  come  to  us,  as  they  already  did  in  a  number  of  instances." 
Then,  again  our  old  friend.  Emperor  Wilhelm,  threatens  to  start  a  '  *  loyal ' ' 
labor  organization,  as  well  as  a  labor  paper,  and  become  the  editor  oi  the 
same.  So  it  will  be  observed  that  our  German  brethren  have  plenty  of 
fuTiny  things  to  amuse  them  between  steins. 


1 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


The  Call  of  the  Wild.    Jack  London.     The  Macmillan  Company.     Cloth. 

231  pp.    $1.50. 

We  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that,  considered  simply  as  a  storj 
this  book  will  rank  among  the  great  books  of  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury. As  an  animal  story  it  easily  beats  Kipling  in  his  own  field.  '  It 
is  the  story  of  ''Buck/'  a  dog,  who,  raised  the  pampered  pet  of  a  Cali- 
fornia ranch,  is  stolen  and  sold  to  the  Klondike.  He  meets  his  master 
in  the  dog  tamer  who  takes  him  in  hand  and  he  learns  the  terrible  power 
of  the  club.  This  prepares  him  for  the  'Maw  of  club  and  fang''  that 
rules  throughout  the  Northland.  He  discovers  that  to  slip,  to  give  way,  to 
fall,  is  to  die.  He  learns  the  tricks  of  the  trade,  and  fits  himself  into 
the  environment  until  he  is  better  suited  to  it  than  those  whc^  were  born 
into  it.  He  finds  his  way  to  the  leadership  of  the  team  of  dogs  and 
then  adding  to  the  characteristics  gained  from  the  new  environment  the 
experience  and  memories  retained  from  the  old,  he  becomes  a  dog  of 
fame.  He  suffers  in  the  hands  of  incompetent  and  cruel  drivers  to  fall 
at  last  into  the  hands  of  one  with  whom  he  formed  a  companionship  that 
was  akin  to  hiunan  friendship  on  both  sides.  Buck  returns  from  a  long 
hunt  to  find  his  master  killed  by  the  Indians.  He  attacks  these  and  for 
.  the  first  time  kills  the  master  of  animals,  ' '  he  had  killed  man,  the  noblest 
game  of  all  and  he  had  killed  it  in  the  face  of  the. law  of  club  and  fang." 
And  here  he  is  left,  having  become  the  Evil  Spirit  of  a  certain  valley  which 
he  rules  at  the  head  of  his  pack. 

You  do  not  need  to  search  for  social  philosophy  in  it  unless  you  want 
to.  But;  if  you  do,  it  is  one  of  the  most  accurate  studies  of  "reversion 
to  type"  that  has  ever  been  published.  And  here  and  there  throughout 
the  work  one  catches  glimpses  that  tell  us  that  the  author  is  a  Socialist. 

The  Souls  of  Black  Folk.    By  Professor  W.  E.  D.  Du  Bois.     McClurg  & 
Co.    Chicago.    Cloth.    265  pp.    $1.20. 

In  the  eyes  of  capitalism  Booker  T.  Washington  is  idealized  as  the 
leader  of  the  negro  race  in  America*  There  is  no  question  whatever 
but  what  he  may  represent  a  social  stage  through  which  the  negro  must 
pass  before  he  can  enter  into  that  heritage  of  capitalism  which  it  is  the 
business  of  socialism  to  realize.  Nevertheless  we  cannot  feel  but  when 
the  history  of  the  black  race  is  written,  the  author  of  "The  Souls  of 
Black  Folk"  will  rank  infinitely  above  the  instrument  of  capitalism  who 
is  perfecting  black  wage  slaves  at  Tuskegee. 

It  would  be  hard  to  imagine  two  minds  more  diametrically  opposed 
than  those  of  Du  Bois  and  Washington.  Du  Bois  is  poetical,  fanciful,  he 
sees  visions  and  builds  castles.  Washington  is  practical,  mechanical,  he 
glorifies  the  dollar  and  gains  endowments  for  his  college.  It  was  impossible 
that  two  such  men  should  not  come  into  conflict,  and  we  find  one  of 
the  principal  essays  in  this  work  devoted  to  '  *  Mr.  Washington  and  Others, ' ' 

S15 


316  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIBW 

in  which  in  a  quiet^  non-controversial  manner  the  weakneeses  of  Mr. 
Washington's  movement  are  pointed  out. 

But  after  all  it  is  rather  as  a  series  of  vivid  pictures  that  the  essays 
appeal  to  one  than  for  the  philosophy  which  they  contain.  On  the  ques- 
tion of  intermarriage  which  is  always  flung  at  the  defenders  of  negro 
inquality  a  most  striking  answer  is  found  on  page  106:  "When  you  cry. 
Deliver  us  from  the  vision  of  intermarriage,  they  answer  that  legal  mar- 
riase  is  inflnitely  better  than  systematic  concubinage  and  prostitution. 
Ana  if  in  just  fury  you  accuse  their  vagabonds  of  violating  women,  they 
also  in  fury  quite  as  just  may  reply:  The  rape  which  you  gentlemen  have 
done  against  helpless  black  women  in  defiance  of  your  own  laws  is  written 
on  the  foreheads  of  two  million  mulattoes,  and  written  in  ineffaceable 
blood.  And  finally,  when  you  fasten  crime  upon  the  race  as  its  peculiar 
trait,  they  answer  that  slavery  was  the  arch-crime,  and  lynching  and 
lawlessness  its  twin  abortion;  that  color  and  race  are  not  crimes,  and 
yet  they  it  is  which  in  this  land  receives  most  unceasing  condemnation, 
North,  East,  South  and  West." 

In  his  essay  '  *  Of  the  Sons  of  Master  and  Man ' '  he  shows  much  of  an 
appreciation  of  the  economic  causes  which  underlie  the  present  social  rela- 
tions in  the  South,  but  has  not  seemed  to  grasp  the  possibility  of  evolu- 
tion into  a  better  social  stage. 

Although  now  and  then  there  are  portions  that  seem  somewhat  over- 
drawn in  style,  yet,  on  the  whole,  there  is  such  tremendous  strength  that 
it  covers  up  an  occasional  excess  of  adjectives.  Tou  realize  that  he  is 
tremendously  in  earnest,  that  he  has  really  pulled  aside  the  veil  that  divides 
the  races  to  let  one  see  the  inmost  souls  of  black  folk. 

Political  Ideas  of  Modern  Japan.    Karl  K.  Eawakami.    University  Press. 
•  Iowa  City,  Iowa. 

This  is  the  first  appearance  in  the  English  language  of  anything 
approaching  a  political  history  of  Japan*  There  is  a  very  good  survey 
of  the  origin  and  development  of  political  situations  including  a  short 
sketch  of  the  geographical  situation  and  industrial  development.  The 
various  stages  of  social  and  political  evolution  through  which  Japan  has 
passed  during  the  last  half  century  are  described,  and  one  gains  an  iiea 
of  how  much  it  is  possible  to  shorten  social  stages  when  the  necessary  in* 
fluencefl  to  that  end  exist. 

In  the  chapter  on  "The  Growth  of  Social  Democratic  Ideas"  it  is 
pointed  out  how  "the  pity,  generosity,  mercifulness  and  above  all  self- 
sacrifice  which  have  descended  from  the  knighthood  of  olden  Japan  are 
constantly  giving  way  to  the  greed  of  gain  and  the  aspiration  for  wealth. ' ' 
As  a  consequence  he  tells  us  that  "envy,  enmity,  discontent  on  the  paA 
of  the  poor;  and  vanity,  extravagance,  luxury  and  debauchery  on  the  side 
of  the  rich;  these  are  but  the  symptoms  of  the  great  social  conflict  which 
Vv&ll  surely  arise  in  Japan  in  the  near  future. ' ' 

•  ••••• 

"Under  such  circumstances  it  is  simply  as  a  matter  of  course  that 
Social  Democracy  is  now  preached  in  Japan  where  industrial  tranquillity  had 
prevailed  only  a  decade  ago." 

The  history  of  the  attempt  to  organize  a  Social  Democratic  Party  and 
its  suppression  by  the  State  is  told  and  the  platform  of  the  suppressed 
party  is  given.  His  treatment  is  somewhat  unsatisfactory  on  ttas  point, 
especially  when  one  remembers  that  the  author  has  been  actively  engaged 
in  the  socialist  work  in  this  country  as  a  member  of  the  Socialist  Party, 
in  that  he  seems  to  proceed  almost  entirely  from  the  idealistic  point  of 
view.  Throughout  the  work  he  attempts  to  account  for  the  ideas  which 
have  arised  in  Japan  by  the  importation  of  theoretical  works  written 
by  Europeans.     The  work  as  a  whole  would  have  been  much  more  satis- 


r"^ 


BOOK  REVIEWS  317 

factory  had  he  shown  more  completely  how  the  industrial  conditions  made 
inevitable  the  adoption  of  those  ideas  whenever  Japanese  society  reached 
the  stages  in  which  similar  ideas  prevailed  in  Europe.  However,  it  is 
rather  ungrateful  to  criticize  when  he  has  really  put  before  us  a  work 
which  was  so  much  needed  and  which  contains  so  much  of  vahie. 

Le  Byndiealisme  Anglais,    Besume  historique  from  1799*1902  by  F.  Fagnot. 
Published  by  Societe  Nonvelle.    Paris.   Pax)er.  116  pp.  Half  franc. 

We  have  here  a  most  excellent  summary  of  the  English  trade  union 
movement.  The  opening  chapter  on  the  situation  of  the  unions  in  January, 
1902,  is  a  condensed  tabulation  of  facts  concerning  the  membership,  re- 
sources and  activities  of  the  unions.  Then  follows  a  historical  survey 
which  is  a  model  of  condensed  information.  For  those  of  our  readers  who 
read  French  this  little  handbook  will  prove  of  great  value  as  giving  in 
compact  form  a  great  mass  of  information  eonceming  the  trade  union 
movement  of  England.  We.  only  wish  that  a  simik^  work  might  be 
written  on  American  trade  unions. 

The  usual  bunch  of  propaganda  pamphlets  has  appeared  during  the 
month.  One  which  was  published  some  little  time  ago,  but  which  we 
have  neglected  to  notice  until  the  present  time  is  N.  A.  Bichardson's 
"Methods  of  Acquiring  National  Possession  of  Our  Industries,"  at  least 
has  this  in  its  favor,  that  it  does  not  simply  seek  to  repeat  the  entire  philoso- 
phy of  Socialism,  but  deals  with  spedfle  points.  We  may  not  entirely 
agree  with  his  solution,  but  it  probably  is  as  good  a  statement  as  has 
been  published,  and  is  a  beginning  along  a  line  of  pamphlets  which  will 
be  worth  while.    Published  by  the  Appeal  to  Beason,  5  cents. 

The  same  publishers  issue  at  the  same  price  a  conventional  propaganda 
pamphlet  by  H.  P.  Moyer  on  the  "A  B  0  of  Socialism."  The  Comrade 
issues  a  pamphlet  by  Ben  Hanford  ''On  What  Workingmen's  Votes  Can 
Bo. "  It  is  a  very  effective  piece  of  propaganda  material.  It  is  published 
in  imitation  of  the  well  known  Pocket  Library  of  Socifdlism  and  sells  for  5 
cents. 

"The  Wind  Trust,"  by  John  Snyder,  with  an  introduction  by  Ed- 
ward Everett  Hale,  is  published  by  James  H.  West  &  Co.,  79  Milk  street, 
Boston,  and  s^ls  at  10  cents.  It  is  a  rather  clever  satire  on  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  trust  movement  should  it  be  extended  to  the  atmosphere. 

Social  Ethics  is  the  title  of  a  little  magazine  issued  by  Granville  Low- 
ther  at  Wichita,  Kan.,  which  contains  some  very  good  little  articles, 
although  so  far  as  it  has  tou&hed  on  ethics  up  to  the  present  time  it  has 
been  anything  but  socialist  in  its  philosophy. 


PUBLISHERS'   DEPARTMENT 


THE   GBOWTH   OF  OUB   PUBLISHING   HOUSE. 

In  the  spring  of  1899  the  co-operative  publishing  house  of  Charles 
H.  Kerr  &  Company  published  its  first  socialist  party  pamphlet,  ''Woman 
and  the  Social  Problem,"  and  made  its  first  appeal  for  the  co-operation 
of  the  socialists  of  America  in  the  work  of  circulating  the  literature  of  in- 
ternational socialism.  Since  then  it  has  grown  with  the  growth  of  the 
American  socialist  movement,  slowly  but  steadily,  and  unless  all  signs 
fail  the  movement  and  the  publisldng  house  which  serves  it  are  both 
entering  on  a  period  of  more  rapid  growth. 

The  offices  on  the  fourth  floor  of  the  building  at  56  Fifth  avenue  have 
long  been  overcrowded,  and  on  the  first  of  October  we  secured  quarters 
double  the  size  on  the  fifth  floor  of  the  ftame  building.  Here  we  shall 
have  room  to  welcome  the  comrades  from  Chicago  or  from  a  distance,  and 
shall  be  able  to  supply  properly  the  ever  increasing  demand  for  books 
of  scientific  socialism. 

Another  sign  of  growth  which  will  be  apparent  even  to  the  comrades 
who  are  unable  to  come  to  Chicago  to  visit  us  is  in  the  new  and  enlarged 
edition  of  ''What  to  Bead  on  Socialism."  This  is  practically  a  new  pub- 
lication, but  we  have  kept  the  title  formerly  used  for  a  little  booklet 
because  this  title  fits  equally  well  the  contents  of  the  larger  book.  This 
contains  a  brief  introductory  chapter  on  "The  Central  Thing  in  So- 
cialism," which  may  possibly  be  of  some  service  in  clearing  the  ideas  of 
those  who  have  heretofore  come  in  contact  with  imitations  of  socialism 
rather  than  socialism  itself.  But  the  body  of  the  book  is  taken  up  with 
full  and  clear  descriptions  of  the  best  socialist  books  by  the  ablest 
writers  of  America  and  Europe.  It  is  printed  on  paper  of  extra  quality, 
and  contains  thirty-six  largo  pages,  including  portraits  of  Marx,  Engels,- 
Liebknecht,  Yandervelde,  Whitman,  Carpenter,  Blatchford,  Simons  and 
other  vnriters.  A  copy  will  be  mailed  free  to  any  reader  of  the  Beview 
who  requests  it.  Extra  copies  for  propaganda  use  will  be  supplied  in  any 
quantity,  large  or  small,  at  the  uniform  rate  of  one  dollar  a  hundred 
where  we  prepay  charges  or  fifty  cents  a  hundred  when  sent  at  the  ex- 
])on8e  of  purchaser.  These  figures  are  far  below  the  actual  cost,  and  no 
discount  from  them  can  be  made  to  our  stockholders. 

THE  SALE  OF  AN  APPETITE. 

The  name  of  Paul  Lafargue  will  be  recalled  with  pleasure  by  every 
regular  reader  of  the  Beview  as  the  author  of  some  of  the  ablest  books 
and  articles  that  have'  ever  appeared  on  the  erabject  of  socialism.  New 
readers  will  get  some  idea  of  his  power  as  a  writer  from  the  article  en- 
titled "The  Socialist  Ideal,"  which  appears  in  this  issue.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  Lafargue,  now  well  along  in  years,  is  the  son-in-law  of 
Karl  Marx,  and  is  still  one  of  the  most  active  socialists  in  France. 

A  gooa  many  years  ago  Lafargue  wrote  a  remarkable  story,  entitled 
"Un  Appetit  Vendu,"  "The  Sale  of  an  Appetite,"  which  had  a  wide 

SIS 


PUBLISHBBS'  DEPABTMBNT  319 

circulation  in  at  least  two  langoagee  on  the  continent  of  Enrope,  but  has 
never,  to  our  knowledge,  been  offered  to  English-speaMng  readers. 

This  story  has  now  been  translated  by  Charles  H.  Kerr,  and  iUus- 
trated  by  the  talented  young  "New  Thought"  artist,  Dorothy  Deene. 
The  story  tells  of  a  young  peasant  who  had  vainly  sought  work  in  Paris^ 
and  was  standing,  at  the  point  of  starvation,  eagerly  looking  into  the 
window  of  a  fashionable  restaurant  of  Paris.  He  is  approached  by  a 
corpulent  capitalist,  who  takes  him  inside,  gives  him  the  most  luxurious 
of  dinners,  and  then  proposes  a  five-year  contract  by  which  the  young 
man  is  to  do  the  capitalist's  digesting  in  return  for  a  monthly  salary  of 
two  thousand  francs,  payable  in  advance.  The  offer  is  gladly  accepted, 
but  the  carrying  out  of  the  contract  was  intolerable,  and  the  young  man 
begged  to  be  released.  The  old  notary  who  had  witnessed  his  contract  told 
him  that  release  was  imposeible,  but  by  way  of  consolation  said: 

**You  complain  because  you  have  been  reduced  to  becoming  nothing 
but  a  digestive  apparatus,  but  all  who  earn  their  living  by  working  are 
lodged  at  the  same  sign.  They  obtain  their  means  of  existence  only  by 
confining  themselves  to  being  nothing  but  an  organ  functioning  to  the 
profit  of  another;  the  mechanic  is  the  arm  which  forges,  taps,  hammers, 
planes,  digs,  weaves ;  the  singer  is  the  larynx  which  vocalizes,  warbles,  spins 
out  notes ;  the  engineer  is  the  brain  which  calculates,  which  arranges  plans ; 
the  prostitute  is  the  sexual  organ  which  gives  out  venereal  pleasure.  Do 
you  imagine  that  the  clerks  in  my  office  use  their  intelligence,  or  that  they 
reflect  when  they  are  copying  papers f  Oh,  but  they  don't;  thinking  is  not 
their  business;  t^ey  are  nothing  but  fingers  which  scribble.  They  per- 
form in  my  offices  for  ten  or  twelve  hours  this  work  which  is  far  from  ex- 
hilarating, which  gives  them  headaches,  stomach  disorders  and  hemorrhoids, 
and  at  evening  they  carry  home  writing  to  finish,  that  they  may  earn  a 
few  cents  to  pay  their  landlord.  Console  yourself,  my  dear  sir,  these 
young  people  suffer  as  well  as  you,  and  not  one  of  them  has  the  satisfac- 
tion of  saying  that  he  I'eceives  per  year  the  sum  that  you  draw  fof  a 
single  month  of  digestive  labor.*' 

This  quotation  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  moral  of  the  story,  but 
no  idea  of  its  charm  and  its  humor.  To  appreciate  these  you  must  read 
the  whole  book.  Dorothy  Deene's  pictures  are  surprisingly  good.  They 
have  an  individuality  all  thdr  own,  and  at  the  same  time  they  interpret 
the  story  most  admirably.  The  .book  will  be  daintily  bound  in  cloth  with 
a  unique  design,  and  will  make  an  ideal  Christmas  gift  for  a  non-socialist 
friend  who  needs  waking  up,  or  for  a  socialist  who  would  enjoy  one  of 
the  cleverest  satires  on  capitalism  ever  written.  The  retail  price  will  be 
fifty  cents;  the  price  to  stockholders  thirty  cent^?,  including  transporta- 
tion charges,  or  twenty-five  cents  if  sent  at  purchaser's  expense. 

Our  printers  are  now  at  work  on  Charles  H.  Kerr's  translation  of 
Labriola's  "Essays  on  the  Materialistic  Conception  of  History."  This 
is  one  of  the  most  important  socialist  works  ever  published,  and  no 
American  student  of  sociology,  whether  a  socialist  or  an  opponent  of  so- 
cialism, can  afford  to  miss  reading  it.  Historical  materialism  is  the 
essential  principle  underlying  the  whole  of  our  socialist  philosophy,  but  it 
has  never  hitherto  been  adequately  developed  in  any  book  accessible  to 
Englidi-speaking  readers,  and  this  book  will  prove  invaluable  in  clearing 
the  ideas  of  our  writers  and  speakers. 

It  will  be  handsomely  printed,  substantially  bound  in  cloth,  and  will 
contain  about  300  pages.  The  retail  price  will  be  one  dollar,  with  the 
usual  discounts  to  stockholders  in  our  co-operative  company. 

GOLD-PLATED   PABTY  BUTTONS. 
Our  newly  designed  party  emblem  in  gold  plate  and  enamel  is  prov- 
ing exceedingly  popular.    The  retail  price  will  hereafter  be  25  cents;  the 
price  to  stockholders  20  cents,  postage  included. 


.320  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW 

MARX'S  "CAPITAL." 

We  are  glad  to  announce  that  a  plentiful  supply  of  the  latest  London 
edition  has  been  arranged  for^  so  that  we  can  at  last  count  on  being  in  a 
position  to  fill  all  our  orders  promptly.  This  edition  contains  847  large 
pages,  is  handsomely  printed  and  bound,  and  retails  for  two  dollars, 
while  our  net  price  to  stockholders  is  far  below  the  price  charged  for  the 
inferior,  non-union  reprint. 

NEW  EDITION  OF  "THE  AMERICAN  FARMER." 

This  book  by  A.  M.  Simons,  published  in  February,  1902,  has  been 
endorsed  by  the  best  critics  of  America  and  Europe,  socialist  and  anti- 
socialist,  as  "the  largest  contribution  yet  given  to  the  agrarian  literature 
of  this  country,"  to  quote  the  words  of  the  Chicago  Tribune.  The  first 
edition  having  been  exhaustted  the  author  thought  best  to  rewrite  the  en- 
tire work,  for  reasons  explained  in  the  preface  to  the  second  edition,  which 
we  quote: 

*  *  When  a  little  over  a  year  ago  the  first  edition  of  this  book  was  pub- 
lished, practically  no  interest  was  taken  in  Socialism  by  American  farm- 
ers or  in  American  farmers  by  SocialistB.  Today  few  will  deny  that  the 
farmer  question  is  arousing  more  interest  than  any  other  with  which  the 
Socialists  are  concerned,  while  Socialism  is  growing  with  great  rapidity 
among  the  farmers.  I  would  be  more  than  human  if  I  did  not  take  to 
myself  some  credit  for  this  change  of  conditions,  but  fundamentally  that 
change  is  due  far  more  to  economic  developments,  whose  traces  were  only 
just  appearing  one  year  ago,  but  which  have  now  grown  to  be  important 
factors  in  our  social  life. 

"Owing  to  the  many  changes  that  have  occurred  in  the  past  year, 
I  thought  it  best  to  rewrite  the  whole  work,  rather  than  add  an  appendix 
or  explanatory  chapter.  The  first  part  of  the  book  has  naturally  been 
changed  but  little,  since  history  is  not  altered  by  the  march  of  events. 
The  second  book,  however,  has  been  wholly  rewritten,  expanded  and 
changed  to  conform  to  the  new  material  which  has  since  appeared,  par- 
ticularly the  census  of  1900  and  the  report  of  the  Industrial  Commission. 
The  chapter  on  "Concentration,"  which,  to  my  mind,  is  the  most  im- 
portant in  the  whole  book,  has  been  most  completely  changed.  Neverthe- 
less, I  do  not  find  that  this  new  material  has  made  necessary  any 
change  in  the  conclusions  at  which  I  arrived  in  the  first  edition.  On 
the  contrary,  social  evolution  has  broughC  many  new  proofs  of  the  positions 
there  taken, 

"Two  things  are  now  evident,  first,  that  the  small  farm  owner  is  a 
permanent  factor  in  the  agricultural  life  of  America,  and  that  he  forms 
the  largest  uniform  division  of  the  producing  class.  Second,  and  as  a 
consequence  of  this,  that  any  movement  which  seeks  to  work  either  with 
or  for  the  producing  class,  roust  take  cognizance  of  him.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  two  equally  important  considerations;  first,  that  large  as 
is  this  division,  it  is  not  large  enough  to  protect  itself  against  the  en- 
croachments of  the  exploiting  class  of  America.  And,  furthermore,  that 
its  isolation  and  disorganization  make  it  impossible  for  it  to  take  the 
initiative  in  any  national  social  movement.  Second,  and  again  as  a  cor- 
ollary of  the  first,  if  it  is  to  successfully  meet  the  encroachments  of  the 
exploiting  class,  it  must  do  it  through  co-operation  with  the  better  or- 
ganized and  more  homogeneous  body  of  the  working  class  composed  of 
urban  wa^eworkers.  This  is  the  line  of  evolution  which  is  now  taking 
place,  and  which  is  destined  to  grow  as  time  passes." 

The  price  of  the  book,  in  cloth  binding,  uniform  with  the  Standard 
Socialist  Series,  of  which  this  is  the  third  volume,  is  fifty  cents,  with 
the  usual  discount  to  stockholders.  Full  particulars  regarding  subscrip- 
tions to  the  stock  of  our  co-operative  company  vnU  be  sent  upon  request. 
Address,  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company,  56  Fifth  avenue,  Chicago. 


SOCIALIST        * 
PARTY  BUTTONS 


THERE  18  80in«  demand  for  a  better  button  than  has 
heretofore  been  offered,  and  we  have  arranged 
for  the  mannfactare  of  a  really. handsome  lapel 
'   '    button,  enamel  and.j^ld  plate,  designed  in  accordance 
^  with  the  national  feferendnm  of  the  Socialist  Party/ 
Price  30  cents;  to  stockholders  20  cents,  postpaid. 

We  atill  have  ottrcetlnloid  bntton,  the  handsomest  and 
most  tastefttl  of  any  on  the  market  Price  5  cents  each, 
25  c^nts  a  dozen;  to.  stockholders  20  cents  a  dozen  or 
ji.50  a  httttdred. 

CHARLES   H.    KERR   &  COMPANY 

(COOPERATIVE) 

j6  FIFTH  AVENUE,  CHICAGO 


i^?Mm^iHh^3H{ii■i^':i^3^ 


gn  You  Will  find 


i* 


::  ic 


THE  WORKER 

BEST  SOCIiatST  WEEKLY 
BftlMFUL  OF  INTEREST 


It  Is  Publislied  Exclusively  hi  the  In- 
lomtoftho  Working  Class;  It  Stands 
for  True  and  Loyal  TriHlos  Unionism 
and  the  Interests  of  the  Toilers 

Er«ry  WorMngpn^n  Sbonld  SnlMWrib^ 
to  it.— fiO  cents  p«r  year;  25  eeat^  tor 
■A  montbB:  16  e^ts  tor  8  months. 

SAHFLS  C0PIS3  PRl^S  I 

THE  WORKER 

184  William  St,  N.  Y. 


»»«-»»»»* 


CORRESPONDENCE 
COURSES 

....OF 

RUSKIN  COLLEGE 


FOIVIttCAXr  SCOKOKT  by  May  Wooi> 
Simons.  An  histotkjnl  comparatiye  stndy 
oi  ecoaomios  examined  alid  critioized 
from  the  sociallfit  point  of  view,  with  the 
socialist  theories  of  Wealth^  Bentf  In-r 
tere^  and  Wages  folly  explained . 

AX9RI0AN  KCOVOICIC  SI8TO&T 
by  A.  M.  Simons.  Traces  the  indastrlal 
derelopment  of  the  XT.  S.,  shows  how 
•oonomlc  conditions  have  affected  politi- 
cal and,  social  institntions  and  how  pre- 
sent capitalism  and  social  classes  arose* 

SOCXAIrISM  by  May  Wood  Simons.  A 
history  of  socialist  theories  and  their 
api^cation  to  present  problems.  The 
economics  of  ^arx.  Socialism  and  the 
State,  Bdaoation,  Organized  Labor, 
Science,  Ethics  and  Art,  and  History  of 
tlie  modern  Socialist  movement. ' 

Tt^nty  lectures  on  each  snbject  with  se- 
qnired  readings^-,  preparation  of  papers 
and  individual  instraction.  For  terms 
and  fnrtbe;  inform  ation  address : 

RU8E1K  COI^I^BOB> 


YOUR  CHOICE, 
FOR  $1.25 

Each  diain  is  12  iocfaes  lonip  highly  f inished^  £old  filled,  sruaranteed 
to  wear  Jive  yean*  All  except  No*  6  is  gold  soldered  links*  I  will  poii- 
tively  give  a  new  chain  in  exchansfe  for  one  that  is  not  satisfactory  kaiie 
of  five  years.  Sells  everywhere  for  $2«50  with  a  /'staff ed''  e^iarantce  of 
ten  years*  Can  furnish  you  anythinfif  made  in  tibe  chain  li|ie  at  a  saving 
of  from  25  to  100  per  cent 

5end  Stamp  for  1,000  Watch  Bargains  lor  Holiday  Presents. 


I 


A.  B.  GONKLIN, 

SI  do.  ClarK  Street.        -        -        CHICAGO,  ILL. 

)\  Fountain  Pen  offer  wtaich  appeared  in  fast  montli^s  Review,  Is 

)^  extended  until  Decemiier  1st.    Don't  miss  it. 


tU  inurnatf^nal 


A  lootlily  Joornal  «f  hteniatio&  $Qd2^'^&oa|ht 
m.  TO*  December  i,  w».  Do.  6. 

^^    CONTE^NTS 

Shall  We  Revise  Our  Program  Backward    oi 

-  Forward ...,..,. Ernst  Vntermann 

Sodaliun  and  the  Storthsne  Ekctions  in  Hqtw^lj  Jakob  Vidnes 

The  Inconsistency  of  Morris...  <;.... .."Cetttrisf* 

Sodaltst  and  Labor  News  from  Australia. . . . .  AndrevtfM.  Anderson 
The  Socialist:  the  Ideal  Peace  and  Arbitration  ;  ^j 

Man Edwin  A.  Brenholz 

Hilquit's  ''History  of  American  Socialism.". ,  A.  M.  Simons 

The  Reli^on  of  a  Resistance. Peter  E.  Burrowes 

Socialism  and  Anarchist  Communism A.  F,  Dii^un 

Equal  Distribution    Charles  F.  Purdy 


:  DEPARTMENTS. 

EDITORIAl^— Trade  Unions  Not  Political  Parties. 
Socialism  Abroad.  Book  Reviews* 

World  of  Labor.  ,,.  Publishers*  Department*  - 


PUBLISHED    BY 


CHAIU[.ES  K    KERR   &    COMPANY 

M  INCOKyORAT^O    ON   THE    CO*OPERATIVC    PLAN 


56    FIFTH    AVENUE,    CHICAGO,    0.    S.    A. 


The  International  Socialist  Review 

-  I»E?Ot£D  TO  THE  STOKr  AIO)  inSC^ 

TO  THE   GROWTH  OF   THE   DfTERHATIOIfAL   SOOAUST  iMfYHDarr 

EDITED  BY  A*  HvSIHONS 


'i 


FOROGR  C0R8£SP01IDBI7$:  . 

ENGLAND— H.  M.  Hykdmak,  WaiiTkb  CftlmEy  SAinjUL  Hobson, 
H.  Qotum,  J.  KsiBr  Habdib.  J.  B.  McDokalix  FRANOB^PAUXi. 
LiURAMUS,  JsAJr  jAnms,  JBAH  LeifaUBT.  BELOIGnil— Emilb 
Yakqebysldiv  fixsrm  liAVOHTAiKKyEHJLBYivcK:,  MvB.  Lalla 
YAifDKBVYLDB.-   I>fiN]i|AEK— Pb.  GueTTAy  Bahto.    GERMANY— 

KABL  KaUISKT.     ITALY— Bb.  ALE88ANDB0  SOHlAfl.  PBOF.  EK* 

moo  Fbbri.    SWEDEN-^-AKTon  AVDSBSav.    JAPAN— T.ilnBAi, 


Ooolrfbaiioiu  are  solicited 
■  itioa.    ~       " 


cupon  ill  phaieaior  Scnjalist  thoaffbt,  and  «ll  ttfoblems  of  niodefn 

No  alter&vioiis  are  made  in  aooepted  manaMr Ipt,  but  ibe  right  of  editoriU 


flOtrfal orgaoitetL .      ._^ -^   , , ^-^-, 

eomiiMii^  is  always  rttflemKir  ^rheabasnoeofiitiebooiniikeiit,  howeVwr/ ir  to 
skAied  as  editorial  endorsemeet^  the  positions  In  any  0abUshed  ooaiiii«niL. 
manoaoripl  wiUte  retac'hed  oniess  a4io6mi>anied  by  stanips  for  return  postage. 


in  no  .tray 

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THE  eOMIAlie  CO^ORERAmi  CO., 


II  Oetptr  Si|S«f,ii.Y. 


TM  INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST    REVIEW 


VOL.  IV 


DECEMBER,  1903 


NO.  6 


Shall  We  Revise  Our  Program  Forward  or  Back- 
ward? 

THE  stately  stream  of  the  revolutionary  socialist  movement 
of  the  world  is  accompanied  by  little  side  currents  and 
backilows,  like  all  great  streams.  One  of  the  most  notable 
of  the  counter-currents  in  the  socialist  movement  is  the 
tendency  toward  so-called  revisionism  or  opportunism.  The  his- 
torian who  attempts  to  classify  the  tendencies  expressed  by  these 
two  terms  will  find  it  difficult  to  group  them  all  together  under 
one  head.  But  broadly  speaking,  one  ftiight  call  revisionists  those 
who  frame  the  theory  of  this  side  current  of  socialist  thought,  and 
opportunists  those  who  seek  to  apply  the  new  theory  in  practical 
party  work  and  in  parliament.  The  principal  characteristic  of  this 
tendency  is  not  that  it  revises  the  Marxian  doctrine,  for  no  one  is 
more  diligently  engaged  in  applying  the  keen  blade  of  critique  to 
this  doctrine  than  the  revolutionary  Marxians  themselves.  Its 
principal  mark  of  distinction  is  that  it  revises  the  Marxian  doctrine 
in  a  direction  which  brings  it  into  conflict  with  the  revolutionary 
element.  It  finds  fault  with  the  course  of  the  great  revolutionary 
main  current  and  seeks  to  divert  it  into  side  diannels.  In  order 
to  clearly  understand  in  what  respect  this  new  philosophy  differs 
from  the  original  Marxian  philosophy,  it  will  be  necessary  to  state 
the  fundamental  theses  of  the  two. 

The  Marxian  philosophy  declares  that  the  economic  foundation 
of  society  determines  the  form  of  human  activity  and  thought; 
that  the  history  of  all  human  societies  since  the  introduction  of 
the  principle  of  private  property  has  beert  a  history  of  dass  strug- 
gles, waged  for  economic  and  political  supremacy;  that  in  present 
capitalist  society,  there  are  three  distinct  economic  classes:  the 
capitalist  class  who  are  in  control  of  the  essential  means  of  pro- 
duction, the  working  class  who  are  proletarian  in  character,  being 

881 


322  THE   INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   EEVIEW. 

in  possession  of  no  other  means  of  existence  but  their  labor  power, 
which  can  only  be  applied  by  its  sale  to  the  capitalist  class,  and 
the  middle  class  who  are  partly  capitalist,  partly  proletarian  in 
character;  that  the  majority  of  the  middle  dass  are  being  reduced, 
by  .the  process  of  capitalist  production,  to  the  ranlS  of  the 
economically  lowest  class,  the  working  class;  that  the  capitalist 
minority  of  the  middle  class  and  the  capitalists  are  becoming  less 
and  less  essential  in  production  compared  to  the  working  class; 
that  the  ever  more  intensified  economic  antagonism  between  the 
capitalist  class  and  the  working  class,  and  the  laws  of  capitalist 
production  itself,  make  the  downfall  of  the  capitalist  system 
economically  inevitable  and  produce  a  corresponding  intensifica- 
tion of  the  political  class  struggle  between  the  two  contending 
forces ;  that  this  class  struggle  will  end  in  the  victory  of  the  wcwk- 
ing  class ;  and  that  this  class  will  inaugurate  a  system  of  collective 
production  based  on  economic  and  political  equalities  which  ex- 
clude the  existence  of  all  classes  but  one,,  the  working  dass. 

The  fundamental  theses  of  revisionism  are  not  formulated  so 
concisely,  but  they  may  be  stated  in  substance  as  follows,  taking  as 
their  basis  Eduard  Bernstein's  work,  "Die  Varaussetsungen  des 
Sosialismus:"  That  the  Marxian  conception  of  historical  material- 
ism is  formulated  too  dogmatically ;  that  the  Marxian  conception 
of  the  class  struggle  still  contains  some  of  the  "dangerous  elements 
of  Blanquism"  and  is  too  catastrophic ;  that  the  economic  inevita- 
bility of  the  collapse  of  capitalism  cannot  be  fully  demonstrated ; 
that  the  middle  class  does  not  disappear  from  society,  but  simply 
changes  its  character;  that  the  class  antagonisms  do  not  become 
more  intense,  but  milder.  The  final  aim  of  the  historical  mission 
of  the  working  class  is  not  denied  by  revisionist  philosophy,  but  re- 
cedes almost  out  of  sight  before  the  present  day  activity  of  tfie  so- 
cialist movement,  as  they  would  have  it. 

The  purpose  of  this  article  doc^  not  require  a  further  analysis 
of  these  fundamental  theses  as  to  their  soundness.  I  am  simply 
stating  the  conditions,  not  analyzing  their  theoretical  origin.  I  am 
comparing  what  others  have  formulated,  not  seeking  to  justify  the 
scientific  claims  of  one  side  or  the  other.  I  can  therefore  proceed 
to  state  that  the  Marxian  philosophy  has  given  rise  to  tactics  which 
follow  the  so-called  revolutionary  method;  tactics  which  aim  to 
keep  step  in  the  uncompromising  political  evolution  of  the  work- 
ing class  with  the  economic  evolution  of  the  capitalist  system  and 
to  accompany  the  intensification  of  the  ecdnomic  class  struggle  by 
an  intensification  of  the  political  class  struggle.  It  does  not  pre- 
tend to  cure  the  evils  of  capitalist  sodety  by  the  old  method  of 
s3niiptomatic  treatment,  but  by  the  abolition  of  the  causes  of  the 
evil.  The  revisionist  theory,  on  the  other  hand,  has  created  a  tac- 
tic which  is  so  free  from  the  "dangerous  elements  of  Blanquism" 
that  it  has  a  decided  affinity  for  the  Utopian  attempts  of  Proudhon 
to  emancipate  the  working  class  by  the  help  of  the  capitalist  dass 


SHALL  WE  BEVISE  OUR  PBOGBAMf  3f23 

or  for  the  abandoned  Lassallean  standpoint  of  securing  the  aid  of 
the  capitalist  state  for  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the 
working  class.  The  revolutionary  method  keeps  the  class  lines 
constantly  and  clearly  in  view ;  the  revisionist  method  blurs  or  even 
obliterates  them. 

The  salient  points  of  the  Marxian  and  of  the  revisionist  tactics 
are  supposed  to  be  summarized  in  the  following  resolution,  which 
was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  288  against  11  at  the  Dresden  convention 
of  the  German  Social  Democracy,  September,  1903:  "The  con- 
vention repudiates  emphatically  the  revisionist  attempts  to  change 
ovar  present  tried  and  victorious  tactics  in  such  a  way  that  the  con- 
quest of  the  political  power  by  a  defeat  of  the  capitalists  would 
be  replaced  by  a  policy  of  conciliation  with  the  present  order  of 
things.  The  consequence  of  such  a  policy  would  be  that  our  party, 
instead  of  being  a  movement  aiming  to  revolutionize  the  present 
capitalist  society,  would  be  transformed  into  a  movement  which 
would  be  content  to  reform  the  present  society.  The  conventicm 
furthermore  condemns  the  attempt  of  glossing  over,  in  the  interest 
of  a  gradual  approach  to  the  capitalist  parties,  the  ever  increasing 
class  antagonisms.  The  convention  instructs  its  representatives  in 
the  reichs^  to  use  the  greater  power  acquired  by  an  increase  in 
the  number  of  mandates  and  of  the  mass  of  socialist  voters  in  the 
interest  of  the  proletariat  as  provided  by  our  platform,  to  work 
energetically  for  the  extension  and  security  of  the  political  liber- 
ties and  equal  rights  of  all,  and  to  carry  on  a  still  more  aggressive 
campaign  against  militarism,  against  an  increase  of  the  navy, 
against  colonial  expansion,  against  imperial  world  politics,  and 
against  wrong,  oppression,  and  exploitation  of  every  kind." 

The  discussion  of  the  resolution  at  the  Dresden  convention  re- 
produced, in  a  more  pronounced  form,  the  phenomena  which  had 
appeared  in  the  wake  of  Bernstein's  above  named  work.  Bern- 
stein strenuously  denied  that  it  was  his  intention,  or  even  a  logical 
conclusion  from  his  standpoint,  to  abandon  the  ground  of  the 
class  struggle.  He  held  that  the  resolution  did  not  represent  his 
case  fairly  and  therefore  voted  against  it.  Most  of  his  followers 
also  claimed  that  they  were  not  revisionists  in  the  sense  defined  by 
the  resolution,  and  that,  since  it  did  not  fit  their  case,  they  could 
very  well  vote  for  it.  And  so  they  did.  This  lack  of  unity  on  the 
part  of  the  revisionists  was  also  shown  in  their  theoretical  discus- 
sions. In  the  literary  discussions,  Bernstein  often  found  himself 
compelled  to  deny  that  the  conclusions  of  socalled  Bemsteinians 
could  be  derived  from  his  criticism  of  the  Marxian  doctrine.  And 
whenever  revisionism  was  pressed  for  a  concise  definition  of  its 
position,  the  majority  of  Bernstein's  followers  forsook  him.  The 
same  lack  of  unity  is  also  shown  by  the  practical  opportunists. 
While  tfie  German  opportunists  claim  to  be  in  full  harmony  with 
the  Marxian  program  and  method,  the  Italian  and  French  oppor- 
tunists have  formulated  a  socialist  program  of  their  own,  and 


324  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   EEVIEW. 

drawn  the  very  conclusions  which  Bernstein  repudiates.  And 
while  the  German  opportunists,  in  spite  of  their  lack  of  harmony 
in  theory  and  practice,  have  expressed  themselves  in  favor  of  the 
unity  of  the  party,  the  French  and  Italian  opportunists  have  estab- 
lished harmony  between  theory  and  practice  by  divorcing  them- 
selves from  the  revolutionary  method,  forming  distinct  opportunist 
parties,  and  going  to  the  full  length  of  the  practical  consequences 
of  such  a  step.  The  revolutionary  Marxians  are  a  unit  on  the 
fundamentals  enumerated  above  and  on  the  revolutionary  method. 

But  apart  from  these  differences  between  revisionists  and  op- 
portunists, there  are  other  differences  between  revisionist-oppor- 
tunists and  revolutionary  socialists  that  complicate  the  situation 
still  more.  These  differences  seem  to  be  mainly  traceable  to  certain 
misunderstandings,  which  are  expressed  in  the  charge  that  the 
revolutionary  element  rejects  all  present  day  work  for  palliatives 
and  is  working  intentionally  toward  a  catastrophe,  and  on  the 
other  hand  that  the  revisionists  are  undermining  the  independent 
existence  of  the  party  by  neglecting  the  class  lines.  Neither  of 
these  charges  can  be  logically  connected  with  the  theoretical  and 
practical  position  of  the  two  camps.  The  revolutionaries  cannot 
be  blamed  for  any  catastrophes  that  may  follow  in  the  course  of 
social  evolution,  because  there  is  no  fundamental  distinction  be- 
tween evolution  and  revolution,  such  as  some  revisionists  affect. 
The  Marxian  philosophy  defines  revolution  as  a  certain  stage  of 
evolution.  Hence  catastrophes  lie  in  the  very  dialectic  of  capitalist 
development.  We  do  not  seek  these  conflicts  willfully.  We  are 
born  into  the  midst  of  them.  Between  the  choice  of  meeting  a 
catastrophe  by  preparing  for  it  or  meeting  it  unprepared,  the  revo- 
lutionary socialists  prefer  the  former  alternative.  Therefore  tiiey 
endeavor  to  organize  the  working  class  in  harmony  with  this 
process  of  evolution  and  work  consciously  toward  the  stage  where 
the  economic  revolution  will  be  accompanied  by  the  political  revo- 
lution of  the  proletariat.  Whether  this  will  bring  on  a  catastrophe 
will  depend  in  the  last  analysis  on  the  capitalist  class,  not  on  the 
working  class. 

On  the  other  side,  the  revisionists  seem  to  have  a  secret  horror 
of  the  idea  of  a  final  climax  between  the  contending  forces  in  the 
class  struggle.  And  the  revisionist  theory  of  the  decrease  in  the 
intensity  of  the  class  antagonisms  furnishes  the  scientific  basis  for 
this  view.  Nevertheless,  this  policy  cannot  evade  the  final  catas- 
trophe any  more  than  the  Marxian  tactics  can.  It  only  leaves  the 
proletariat  unprepared  for  it. 

As  for  the  charge  that  revisionist  tactics  must  necessarily  and 
logically  lead  to  a  dissolution  of  the  party  or  of  the  party  dis- 
cipline, this  is  founded  on  the  similar  misapprehension  of  the  facts 
as  the  charge  of  catastrophic  intentions.  The  German  and  Belgian 
Socialist  movement  has  not  suffered  in  unity  and  discipline, 
in    spite    of    its    tactical    differences,    while    the    Italian     and 


SHATJi  WE  BEYISE  OUB  PBOGBAMf  325 

French  Socialist  movement  has.  Hence  there  must  be  some 
deeper  cause  to  escplain  these  results;  they  cannot  be  traced  to 
the  theory  of  revisionism  itself.  Kautsky  sees  a  step  toward  the 
solution  of  the  problem  in  the  distinction  between  theoretical  re- 
visionists and  practical  opportunists.  Of  course,  there  is  such  a 
dictinction^  and  I  have  made  it  in  the  introduction  of  this  article. 
But  the  same  distinction  can  also  be  made  between  theoretical  and 
practical  Marxians,  That  is  a  perfectly  legitimate  and  rational 
distinction,  but  it  explains  nothing  as  to  the  fundamental  differ- 
ences between  Marxians  and  revisionists.  The  theory  is  simply 
the  mental  workshop  for  the  socialist  politician,  be  he  revolution- 
ary or  revisionist.    The  trouble  must  be  sought  deeper. 

In  my  opinion,  the  cause  of  the  tactical  differences  between 
the  revolutionary  main  current  and  the  revisionist  counter  cur- 
rent is  found  in  the  fact  that  no  socialist  program  has  so  far  made 
a  clear  distinction  between  the  class  struggle  in  the  electoral  bat- 
tle and  the  class  struggle  in  parliament.  And  yet  there  is  a  very 
marked  distinction  between  the  two.  It  is  the  fundamental  dif- 
ference between  the  maximum  program  and  the  minimum  pro- 
gram, between  the  fundamental  socialist  platform  and  the  im- 
mediate demands.  While  in  our  electoral  campaigns  we  are  dis- 
tinguishing ourselves  from  all  other  parties  by  the  maximum  pro- 
gram whidi  can  only  be  realized  by  the  revolutionary  method  and 
by  a  majority  of  the  voters  of  a  nation,  we  are  forced,  while  rep- 
resenting a  minority  party  in  parliament,  to  confine  ourselves  to 
the  minimum  progftim,  which  is  essentially  non-revolutionary  and 
symptomatic  in  character.  This  minimum  program  offers  little 
opportunity  for  the  employment  of  the  revolutionary  method,  but 
lends  itself  much  better  to  the  opportunist  method.  The  Dresden 
resolution  has  not  solved  this  contradiction.  It  starts  out  with 
a  ringingf  declaration  in  favor  of  the  revolutionary  method,  but 
ends  with  a  weak  program  which  that  method  shall  realize  at  pres- 
ent. The  resolution  is,  therefore,  unable  to  give  either  the 
Marxians  or  the  revisionists  their  just  dues. 

The  distinction  between  the  maximum  program  and  the  mini- 
mum program  is  plainly  that  the  one  is  our  real  platform,  while 
the  minimum  program  is  nothing  but  a  set  of  instructions  given 
to  our  representatives  in  parliament  for  their  guidance  in  parlia- 
mentarian action.  To  the  fact  that  the  Communist  Manifesto,  in 
1848,  has  not  made  this  distinction,  and  that  the  first  German  So- 
cialist platform  did  not  correct  this  mistake,  is  due,  in  my  opinion, 
the  whole  trouble  which  the  revisionist  ideas  have  caused.  From 
this  contradiction  between  the  revolutionary  method  and  the  op- 
portunist immediate  demands  spring  all  the  difficulties  between 
Marxians  and  Bemsteinians  in  Germany,  Guesdists  and  Jauresists 
in  France,  Ferrians  and  Turatians  in  Italy.  The  authors  of  the 
Communist  Manifesto  had  at  least  a  good  reason  for  attaching  an 
opportunist  program  to  their  revolutionary  manifesto;  and  the 


326  THE   INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BEVIEW. 

same  reason,  that  of  compromising  with  heterogeneous  elements, 
was  still  active  in  the  formulation  of  the  Gotha  program  of  the 
German  Socialist  Party  in  1875.  But  the  Erfurt  prc^am  of  that 
party,  in  1891,  was  no  longer  subject  to  such  considerations  of 
expediency.  On  the  contrary,  every  consideration  of  that  period 
was  in  favor  of  separating  the  campaign  platform  from  the  work- 
ing program  of  the  elected  representatives. 

There  is  a  very  logical  reason  for  this  diflferentiation  of  our 
campaign  platform  from  the  parliamentarian  program.  The  cam- 
paign platform  is  the  basis  on  which  the  whole  body  of  socialist 
voters  is  moving  in  elections  as  distinguished  from  all  other 
voters.  But  the  program  for  parliamentarian  action  outlined  by 
the  immediate  demands  is  only  the  basis  for  the  movement  of  our 
representatives.  These  representatives  get  into  of&ce  only  because 
the  whole  body  of  Socialist  voters  is  moving  on  a  platform  which 
draws  a  sharp  class  line  between  socialist  and  capitalist  voters. 
But  after  they  have  been  elected,  it  devolves  upon  them  to  carry 
out  the  instructions  embodied  for  their  guidance  in  the  immediate 
demands.  The  whole  body  of  socialist  voters  cannot  take  any 
direct  part  in  the  realization  of  the  immediate  demands.  They 
must  be  realized  by  the  representatives  alone. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  demands  outlined  in  our  straight  so- 
cialist platform  cannot  be  realized  while  we  are  a  minority  party. 
They  require  not  only  the  action  of  our  representatives,  but  the 
active  participation  of  the  majority  of  the  nation.  In  this  they 
differ  from,  the  immediate  demands,  which  may  be  enacted  into 
laws  without  the  active  participation  of  the  voters.  But  when  we 
become  a  majority  party,  parliament  as  an  independent  law  mak- 
ing body  ceases  to  exist,  and  the  power  of  legislation  passes  into 
the  hands  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  socialist  majority,  who  set 
about  inaugurating  the  co-operative  commonwealth. 

It  is  clear  that  this  fundamental  difference  between  the  mini- 
mum and  the  maximum  program,  between  the  action  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  party  and  of  the  whole  party,  should  be  plainly 
expressed  by  a  separation  of  the  one  from  (he  other.  Nothing 
should  go  into  otu*  campaign  platforms  but  the  typical  socialist  de- 
mands. And  the  immediate  demands  should  be  published  in  the 
form  of  a  handbook  for  our  representatives,  to  be  used  by  them 
in  their  parliamentarian  work,  and  by  our  agitators  for  propa- 
ganda purposes.  Such  a  separation  in  no  way  interferes  with 
the  present  day  activity  of  our  representatives,  but  rather  paves 
the  way  for  a  more  elaborate  immediate  program.  And  at  the 
same  time  such  a  separation  of  the  fundamental  platform  from 
the  opportunist  program  removes  all  possibility  for  any  election 
compromises  that  might  endanger  our  separate  existence  as  a 
partv.  It  leaves  no  room  for  any  opportunism  in  election  cam- 
paigns, and  that  is  the  only  dangerous  opportunism.  Opportun- 
ism in  parliament  is  powerless  to  hurt  the  stability  of  the  move- 


SHALL  WE  BEYISE  OUB  PB0GBAM9  827 

ment^  because  the  party  membership,  and  in  a  wider  sense  the 
mass  of  the  socialist  voters,  have  it  in  their  hands  to  elect  can- 
didates that  will  not  compromise,  even  in  parliament.  And  since 
we  have  put  the  principles  of  direct  legislation  in  practice  in  our 
party  affairs  the  rank  and  file  of  the  socialist  movement  is  alone 
to  blame  if  it  places  opportunists  into  responsible  positions. 

The  further  consequences  of  the  separation  of  our  principles 
from  present  day  opportunism  are  still  more  significant.  This 
step  will  make  that  possible  whidi  the  Communist  Manifesto  was 
unable  to  accomplish:  It  will  make  the  adoption  of  a  uniform 
international  socialist  program  a  possibility. 

We  are  fond  of  boasting  of  our  international  character.  We 
proudly  pcrint  to  the  fact  that  the  class-K:onscious  working  men 
of  the  world  have  already  solved  for  themselves  what  all  the 
sentimental  capitalist  philosophers  were  imable  to  accomplish — 
the  question  of  international  peace.  But  as  yet  we  have  not  mani- 
fested our  international  solidarity  by  anything  but  international 
ccMigresses  and  an  international  socialist  bureau.  We  have  neg- 
lected to  do  that  by  which  all  parties  document  their  solidarity. 
We  have  not  demonstrated  to  the  working  classes  and  to  the  capi- 
talist classes  of  the  world  that  we  are  international  because  we  are 
all  standing  on  a  uniform  international  program.  But  if  we  can 
meet  at  the  same  international  congress  and  elect  delegates  to  the 
same  international  bureau,  why  not  have  first  of  all  an  interna- 
tional program? 

The  Ofloly  thing  that  has  prevented  the  adoption  of  such  a 
program  is  precisely  the  immediate  demand  tail,  which  had  to  be 
adapted  to  local  conditions.  With  the  separation  of  the  minimum 
program  from  the  maximum  program  there  is  no  longer  any  rea- 
son why  we  should  not  adopt  the  same  program  in  all  countries 
of  the  globe. 

I  will  not  urge  the  adoption  of  such  a  program  for  any  oppor- 
tunist reasons.  I  will  not  point  to  the  fact  that  the  existence 
of  a  multitude  of  socialist  programs  has  not  only  made  it  possi- 
ble for  the  capitalists  of  one  nation  to  claim  that  the  socialists 
of  another  nation  were  not  socialists  at  all,  but  also  enabled  the 
capitalists  of  certain  nations  to  play  one  socialist  party  against 
the  other  socialist  party  of  the  same  country.  I  will  not  mention 
the  fact  that  a  uniform  program  would  force  the  Jauresists  in 
France,  the  Independent  Labor  Party  in  England,  the  Socialist 
Labor  Party  in  the  United  States,  to  show  their  true  colors  and 
to  either  unite  with  those  who  are  willing  to  adopt  this  uniform 
program  or  to  stay  outside  and  confess  that  they  are  either 
anarchists  or  reformers.  I  will  not  base  my  appeal  for  a  uniform 
international  program  on  such  and  similar  reasons,  i  am  content 
to  claim  that  a  uniform  program  for  all  socialist  parties  of  the 
world  is  a  logical  and  matter-of-course  demand.  . 

I  shall  not  presume  to  formulate  such  a  program.    There  is 


828  THE   INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   EEVIEW. 

not  the  slightest  doubt  that  our  various  delegates  at  the  next  inter- 
national convention  in  Amsterdam  will  easily  give  us  a  program 
diat  will  be  acceptable  to  every  sincere  and  class-conscious  social- 
ist And  I  am  satisfied  to  leave  it  to  the  rank  and  file  of  all  social- 
ist parties  whether  their  delegates  shall  be  instructed  to  work 
for  the  adoption  of  such  a  program  or  not  A  united  action  of  all 
revolutionary  socialists  in  the  world  is  sooner  or  later  indispensa- 
ble. Let  us  furnish  to  the  world  the  unmistakable  proof  that  we 
are  one  and  the  same  International  Socialist  Party. 

Ernest  Untermann. 


1 


Socialism  and  the  Storthing  Elections  In  Norway. 

i€r  I  ^HERE  is  no  room  for  socialism  in  Norway."  We  hear 
I  this  assertion  continually  whenever  anyone  begins  to  talk 
J.  of  the  outlook  of  sociahst  politics  in  our  little  fatherland. 
"We  have  a  Paradise  of  freedom  on  earth.  The  Consti- 
tution of  1814  placed  the  internal  government  of  the  kingdom 
absolutely  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  in  1821  the  nobility  was 
abolished,  in  1837  ^^al  autonomy  for  municipalities  was  intro- 
duced. Here  there  are  no  class  distinctions,  all  are  equal."  Then 
we  are  further  referred  to  the  fact  that  witfi  the  extension  of 
parliamentary  government  in  1884,  so  great  reforms  were  car- 
ried through  that  the  lower  classes  of  the  people  have  no  longer 
any  reason  for  dissatisfaction.  Trial  by  jury  was  introduced  in 
1887;  ^^  1889  t'^c  ^^w  educational  law  was  adopted  providing 
for  compulsory  instruction  for  all  children,  while  at  the  same  time 
the  oversight  of  the  school  was  placed  completely  in  the  hands  of 
the  parents,,  and  in  1892  the  factory  inspection  law  and  the  law 
referring  to  accidents  to  workingmen  were  enacted ;  in  1898  uni- 
versal suffrage  in  State  and  municipality  was  introduced,  and  in 
1900  municipal  suffrap;e  was  extended  to  women.  With  such 
things  as  these  before  the  eyes  it  is  asserted  that  there  is  no  longef 
room  for  any  far-reaching  radicalism.  The  results  of  the  last 
year,  however,  show  that  this  is  an  error.  Many  great  demo- 
cratic journeys  on  the  road  of  legislation  have  already  been  made. 
But  much  more  still  remains  to  be  done.  And  this  shows  that 
there  still  exists  a  very  good  field  for  socialism. 

The  labor  movement  in  Norway  dates  from  the  year  1848. 
At  that  time  a  young  student,  Markus  Thrane,  seized  by  the 
ideas  of  that  year  of  revolution,  arose  and  made  himself  the 
spokesman  of  the  interests  of  the  laboring  class.  He  founded 
many  labor  unions,  advanced  the  demand  for  universal  suffrage 
and  worked  for  social  democratic  ideas.  The  poet,  Henrik  Werge- 
land,  one  of  the  greatest  intellects  that  Norway  has  ever  brought 
forth,  was  in  a  certain  sense  the  forerunner  of  Thrane.  But 
he  was  much  limited  by  his  Chauvinism  and  did  not  dream  of 
making  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  people  a  class  movement, 
although  he  was  a  firm  comrade  in  the  struggle  against  capi- 
talistic and  official  power.  Markus  Thrane  found^  a  move- 
ment based  on  the  class  struggle.  But  this  could  not  be  endured 
in  "the  free  and  popularly  governed  Norway."  The  spokesman 
of  the  laborers,  because  of  his  socialistic  activity,  was  sentenced 
again  and  again  to  imprisonment.  This  destroyed  his  health, 
and  he  was   soon   obliged  to  give  up  his  work,   and   during 


330  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BEVIEW. 

the  years  from  1850  to  i860  the  labor  movement  wholly  disap- 
peared. The  single  party  that  represented  freedom  of  thought 
was  the  so-called  "farmer  party'*  with  Udand  as  representative 
in  the  Storthing  and  later  Johann  Sverdrup  as  leader/  By  the 
help  of  the  Thraniten  (Social  Democrats)  tiie  latter  was  elected 
to  the  Storthing  in  1851.  The  great  question  which  was  then 
upon  the  programme  was  the  lieutenant  Governorship  and  the 
position  of  the  Council  (during  his  residence  in  Sweden  the 
king  had  a  lieutenant  governor  in  Norway).  This  office  was 
abolished  at  the  end  of  1873  and  in  1884  the  Council  was  granted 
admission  to  the  Storthing.  The  government,  which  wished  that 
the  king  should  exercise  an  absolute  veto  (Mi  this  law,  was  over- 
thrown by  the  imperial  court.  This  important  decision  gave  rise 
to  the  most  intense  party  struggles.  In  the  midst  of  this  the 
union  movement  and  social  democracy  re-appeared.  In  1872  the 
first  trade  union  was  founded,  and  in  1883  the  first  social  demo- 
cratic paper  in  Norway  "Unsere  Arbeit"  was  called  into  life  by 
Christian  H.  Knudsen.  In  1844,  the  first  political  labor  union  in 
Christiana  with  a  purely  socialist  programme  was  fotmded,  and 
in  1877,  the  Norwegian  labor  party  held  a  congress  in  Arendal. 
This  party  was  made  up  from  social  democratic  and  radical  labor 
unions.  Because  of  the  participation  of  liberal  elements  the  pro- 
gramme was  formulated  along  radical-liberal  lines,  but  by  the 
year  1888  this  was  changed  in  the  direction  of  social  democracy. 
In  the  beginning  the  tactics  of  the  labor  party  were  di- 
rected towards  supporting  the  radical  left,  which  had  become  so 
strong  in  the  discussion  of  this  Council  question  that  it  had  a 
majority  of  more  than  two-thirds  in  the  Storthing.  The  time 
had  now  come  for  the  laborers  to  push  through  the  demands  which 
the  Left  had  placed  upon  their  programme,  for  example,  trial 
by  juryj  school  reform  and  universal  suffrage.  Simultaneously, 
however,  the  labor  party  was  carrying  on  its  propaganda  for  spe- 
cial labor  demands. 

The  democracy  suffered  at  this  time  a  great  disillusion,  in 
that  its  greatest  and  most  victorious  leader,  Johann  Sverdrup, 
who  had  become  a  Minister  of  State  in  1884,  betrayed  his  trust 
on  the  question  of  suffrage,  and  declared  that  "Norway  cannot 
be  governed  with  universal  suffrage."  Owing  to  this  and  the 
question  of  union  with  Sweden,  the  Left  was  split.  The  con- 
servative part  drew  near  to  the  Right,  and  the  radical  wing 
proceeded  with  its  democratic  policy.  JcJiann  Sverdrup  was  ex- 
pelled and  Rektor  Johannes  Steen  became  the  leader  of  the  radi- 
cals. 

The  conditions  of  the  union  between  Norway  and  Sweden 
have  always  been  a  source  of  dispute,  not  only  between  the  two 
countries,  but  also  between  the  two  parties  of  the  Right  and 
Left  in  Norway.    As  a  result  of  the  outcome  of  the  struggle  over 


SOCIALISM  AND  THE  STOBTHING  ELECTIONS.  331 

the  governorship,  the  condition  had  been  reached  where  Norway 
and  Sweden  carried  on  all  external  relations  in  common  and  had 
a  common  consular  service.  The  Left  demanded  that  Norway 
should  have  its  own  ministry  for  external  affairs  and  its  own 
consular  service,  while  the  Right  wished  to  maintain  the  unity. 
The  struggle  about  this  led  to  violent  uprisings  in  the  united  gov- 
ernments. In  order  to  meet  these  uprisings,  the  Socialists  in 
1892  demanded  the  dissolution  of  the  union;  for  they  reasoned 
correctly  that  the  unsatisfactory  condition  of  the  relations  of 
union  was  the  cause  of  these  disturbances.  The  larger  portion 
of  the  Left  agreed  with  this  proposition.  To  be  sure,  tfie  Social- 
ists laid  no  great  importance  upon  it.  They  supported  the  Left 
because  of  the  social  policy  which  it  followed.  It  is  a  very 
peculiar  fact  that  the  radical  Left  during  the  years  round  1890, 
in  many  respects,  followed  a  purely  socialist  policy.  The  leaflets 
and  pamphlets  of  the  Left  contained  many  violent  attacks  on  pri- 
vate property  and  capitalism.  The  Left  placed  universal  suf- 
frage upon  its  programme,  together  with  the  eight-hour  day,  the 
protection  of  the  right  of  coalition,  universal  popular  insurance, 
etc.  But  when  it  came  to  working  with  the  outspoken  Socialists, 
the  Left  refused  to  act.  Socialism  appeared  to  the  farmers  as  a 
sort  of  specter  that  sought  to  drive  them  out  of  house  and  home. 
Nothing  remained  for  the  Socialists,  therefore,  who  were  in  a 
despairing  minority,  but  to  vote  with  the  Left.  In  1897  for 
the  first  time  the  Socialists  of  Christiana  voted  for  their  own 
ticket.  But  even  upon  this  ticket,  undoubtedly  on  account  of 
the  conditions  of  suffrage,  there  were  a  number  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Left.  After  the  election  of  1897  the  Left 
had  a  great  majority.  Shortly  afteryards  universal  suffrage  was 
granted  to  all  men  over  twenty-five. 

Meanwhile  reactionary  tendencies  began  to  appear  in  the  ranks 
of  the  Left.  After  the  election  of  1891  the  insurance  of  labor- 
ers against  accidents  was  proposed  and  the  question  of  universal 
popular  insurance  was  agitated.  The  elections  of  1894  gave  the 
Left  only  a  narrow  majority,  but  shortly  afterwards  a  shortened 
labor  time  of  53  hours  a  week  was  introduced  into  the  govern- 
mental workshops,  and  the  promise  given  that  the  eight-hour 
day  would  be  introduced.  But  the  law  for  the  protection  of 
the  right  of  coalition  was  always  postponed.  In  1897  there  was 
only  a  single  vote  lacking  for  the  adoption  of  a  satisfactory  propo- 
sition. During  the  years  1898  and  1899  ^^  country  was  visited 
with  a  severe  commercial  and  industrial  crisis,  which  brought 
suffering  and  destruction  throughout  the  country.  The  people 
cried  out,  and  the  Left,  which  was  principally  composed  of  farm 
owners,  younger  capitalists,  speculators,  etc.,  began  to  be  fright- 
ened at  its  own  social  policy.     It  would  not  listen  to  anything 


332  THE   INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BEVIEW. 

further  about  great  social  reforms.  Everything  must  now  pro- 
ceed circumspectly  and  step  by  step.  However,  the  Left  was 
able,  in  the  election  of  1900,  to  hold  the  country  on  the  question 
of  union,  so  that  it  obtained  a  two-thirds  majority.  Then,  for 
tbe  first  time,  there  arose  a  strong  opposition  within  the  Left. 
This,  however,  was  not  radical,  but,  on  the  contrary,  reactionary 
and  in  the  highest  degree  antagonistic  to  laborers.  This  opposi- 
tion so  gained  the  upper  hand  that  the  Left  no  longer  dared  to 
take  up  the  eight-hour  day.  Popular  insurance  was  left  un- 
touched, and  when  the  law  proposing  the  protection  of  the  right 
of  coalition  was  laid  before  the  Storthing  (April  and  May,  1903), 
twenty-four  members  of  the  Left  voted  for  the  imprisonment 
clause  proposed  by  the  leader  of  the  Right.  Fortunately,  this 
incomplete  legislation  was  rejected  by  the  Lagthing. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  Socialists  saw  that  independent 
parliamentary  tactics  were  a  necessity.  The  treachery  of  the 
Left  had  brought  about,  in  addition,  great  discontent  with  the 
party,  even  in  its  own  ranks.  The  labor  party,  which  since  the 
beginning  of  the  90's  had  been  sailing  under  a  purely  socialist 
flag,  began  to  receive  recruits  rapidly.  At  its  foundation  it  had 
only  about  100  members,  while  in  the  year  1903  it  had  13,500. 
It  was  now  large  enough  to  stand  upon  its  own  feet.  The  sit- 
uation had,  however,  essentially  changed  since  the  last  election. 
The  Left  had  since  1894  begun  a  violent  struggle  with  Sweden. 
The  consequent  disturbances  were,  after  the  elections  of  1897  and 
1900,  pushed  still  further  under  the  regime  of  the  minister  of 
war,  Stang.  The  expenditures  for  the  navy  arose  at  one  time  so 
high  that  they  amounted  to  twenty-five  million  kronen  in  a  total 
budget  of  one  hundred  million.  In  many  circles  of  the  Left  a 
war  against  Sweden  was  even  discussed.  But  simultaneously 
a  peaceable  solution  of  the  consular  question  arose  out  of  the 
negotiations  which  the  government  of  the  Left  was  carrying  on 
with  Sweden.  These  negotiations  led  to  an  agreement  that 
the  Swedish  and  Norwegian  governments  should  each  have  its 
own  consular  service,  and  that  the  relation  of  the  consular  service 
to  external  politics  should  be  determined  by  a  uniform  law,  "a 
regulation  law,"  subject  to  the  endorsement  of  both  governments. 
The  Conventions  of  the  Right,  of  the  Left  and  of  the  Social- 
ists expressed  their  approval  of  this  outcome.  Nevertheless,  there 
arose  a  strong  opposition  within  the  Left.  The  fanatical  disturb- 
ers, of  whom  Stang  and  Konow  were  at  the  head,  declared  that 
the  regulation  law  bound  Norway  in  relation  to  her  external 
policy.  They  wished,  therefore,  if  we  could  not  at  once  obtain 
our  own  consular  service,  "to  take  matters  into  our  own  hands" 
and  force  things  through,  even  if  this  led  to  war  with  Sweden. 
As  a  result  of  these  acts  the  position  of  the  Left  became  very 


SOCIAUSM  AND  THE  STOBTHING  ELECTIONS.  533 

contradictory.  This  furpished  good  material  for  the  agitation 
of  the  Right  against  the  Left,  in  the  same  way  that  the  factional 
disturbances  of  the  Left,  together  with  its  unsatisfactory  social 
and  political  position,  furnished  the  Social  Democrats  good 
weapons  against  their  former  political  associates. 

The  Left  had  sunk  into  a  caricature  of  a  party.  Before  the 
present  elections  it  struck  out  the  great  social  political  demands 
from  its  programme.  The  law  for  the  protection  of  the  right 
of  coalition,  the  law  of  popular  insurance,  and  for  a  shortened 
labor  time,  all  were  struck  out  of  the  programme.  The  Right  and 
the  labor  party  accepted  as  the  fundamental  position  of  their 
programme  direct  suffrage.  The  Storthing's  elections  are  indi- 
rect. The  qualified  voters  choose  electors  (one  for  each  loo 
voters  in  the  country  and  one  for  each  50  in  the  cities) ;  these 
meet  and  choose  the  representatives  of  the  Storthing.  The  Left 
wished,  however,  direct  voting  only  in  the  cities,  not  in  the  coun- 
try. The  policy  of  union  was  the  only  point  where  the  party 
sought  to  maintain  its  old  position.  The  Right  captured  the 
voters  for  the  present  by  a  "liberal"  programme.  It  surrendered 
its  opposition  to  separate  consular  systems,  promised  the  pen- 
sioning of  officials,  etc.  But  as  a  new  point  of  its  programme  it 
announced  "Rattle  against  all  socialist  projects  and  the  protec- 
tion of  private  property." 

Socialism  alone  in  this  election  represented  freedom  of  thought 
and  progress.  Its  electoral  programme  in  its  essential  demands 
was  that  of  the  German  Social  Democracy,  to  which  were  added  a 
number  of  special  demands,  the  repeal*  of  unjust  laws  and  the 
likci  And  this  programme  gave  to  the  Socialists  of  Norway  a 
result  they  had  not  dared  to  hope.  The  Left  received  a  most 
pitiful  overthrow.  The  question  of  union  was  no  longer  a  cause 
of  division.  There  was  practical  agreement  on  this  point.  The 
present  election  for  the  first  time  in  our  country  turned  on 
questions  of  social  policy.  The  Right  laid  the  emphasis  in  its 
agitation  upon  the  battle  against  socialism,  and  the  Socialists 
directed  themselves  mainly  against  the  disturbances  and  the  social 
reaction.  The  election  gave  the  most  gratifying  result,  and  the 
Socialists  created  for  themselves  at  last  a  firm  position.  For  the 
first  time  avowed  Socialists  were  elected  to  the  Storthing.  To  be 
sure  there  were  only  four,  but  when  one  remembers  the  insig- 
nificant number  of  votes  cast  by  the  party  in  1897,  then  this 
number  is  not  to  be  considered  small.  At  that  time  the  party 
received  only  947  votes.  The  result  of  the  elections  of  the  last 
two  years  are  as  follows : 

1900.  Socialists.      Left.  Right.  Democrats. 

Country  districts   1,187  93»S50  68,074        4,076 

aty  districts 6,253  29,116  27,759         

Total    7,440        122,666         95i833        4,076 


334  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCOALIST   REVIEW. 

In  1900  76  Storthing  representatives  were  won  by  the  Left, 
and  38  by  the  Right,  but  the  Socialists  elected  none.  The  result 
at  the  next  election  is  somewhat  different : 

1903.  Socialists.      Left.  Right.  Democrats. 

Country  districts   10,130  66,675,         69,000        6,174 

City  districts 14*649  -        22,705  334IO        


Total    24,779         89,380        102,410       6,174 

In  1903  the  Socialists  elected  four  Storthing  representatives, 
the  Right  63  and  the  Left  50  (the  number  of  representatives 
has  been  increased  by  three  since  1000).  The  Socialists  gained 
complete  control  of  only  one  electoral  district,  namely  that  of 
Tromso  in  the  North,  which  sends  three  representatives  to  the 
Storthing.  This  is  all  the  more  remarkable  in  that  in  1900  there 
were  no  social  democratic  votes  from  this  district.  The  Tromso 
district  was  hitherto  indisputably  the  possession  of  the  Left. 
The  victory  is,  aside  from  the  peculiar  social  conditions  among 
the  population,  due  essentially  to  Comrade  Dr.  Alfred  Eriksen, 
pastor  in  Karlso.  He  worked  tirelessly  as  organizer,  speaker 
and  editor.  His  paper,  "Das  Nordlicht,"  was  like  a  flaming  torch. 
At  the  last  election  in  this  district  the  Socialists  had  4,128  votes 
against  1,804  oi  the  Right  and  Left  combined.  Eriksen  is  one 
of  the  three  representatives  to  the  Storthing  from  this  district. 
The  fourth  representative  of  the  Socialists  comes  from  the  three 
cities  of  Tromso,  Bodo  and  Narvik  in  the  north.  Narvik  was 
made  a  new  electoral  district  in  1900.  The  Socialists  were  really 
victorious  only  in  Narvik,  at  the  direct  election;  the  Left  was 
victorious  in  the  two  other  cities,  and  therefore  had  the  ma- 
jority; for  Tromso  and  Bodo  had  together  many  more  voters 
than  Narvik.  But  the  electors  from  Bodo  were  angry  at  those 
from  Tromso  because  the  latter  had  always  succeeded  in  having 
the  representative  to  the  Storthing  elected  from  their  dty.  They 
imited  with  the  socialist  electors  from  Narvik  and  chose  Com- 
rade K.  J.  Berge  from  Narvik  as  representative  to  the  Storthing. 
Berge  is  a  very  able  and  widely  traveled  man.  He  is  a  Cath- 
olic, but  his  electors  are  Lutherans.  He  edits  the  paper  "Frem- 
over"  (Forward)  in  Narvik.  There  will  be  still  a  fifth  So- 
cialist sitting  in  the  Storthing.  Egede-Nissen,  the  representative 
from  Hammerfest,  Vardo  and  Vadso  (all  in  the  extreme  north 
of  Norway),  is  in  complete  accord  with  the  programme  of  the 
Socialists.  But  he  did  not  declare  himself  as  a  Socialist  and  was 
elected  from  the  Left.  His  electors,  however,  were  fully  aware 
of  his  socialist  attitude. 

The  Democrats  are  a  radical-liberal  labor  organization. 
Their  votes  were  divided  at  the  present  election  in  two  districts, 


SOCIALISM  AND  THE  STOBTHING  ELECTIONS.  335 

Hedttttarken  and  Christiana,  where  they  brought  about  the  elec- 
tion to  the  Storthing  of  the  state's  attorney,  Gastberg,  and  the^ 
teacher,  Myrvang,  as  radical  socials.  Many  of  their  supporters 
were  SodaJists. 

The  statistics  given  above  are  not  absolutely  correct,  for 
the  official  tables  have  not  yet  been  published.  But  they  do 
give  a  correct  picture  of  the  electoral  situation.  In  relation  to 
the  Soda]  Democracy,  however,  they  do  not  show  the  full  result 
which  has  been  obtained.  In  a  few  dties  the  Socialists  and  the 
Left  fused  and  voted  the  same  ticket,  so  that  it  is  impossible 
to  distinguish  the  votes  of  these  two  parties.  Many  of  the 
democratic  laborers  in  the  districts  of  Hedemarken  and  Qiris- 
tiana  were  also  Socialists.  We  have  reason  to  believe  that  our 
total  vote  in  the  whole  country  is  in  the  neighborhood  of  30,000. 
A  conservative  paper  estimated  our  vote  at  27,000. 

The  outlook  for  further  and  greater  results  for  the  Social- 
ists is  of  the  best.  The  Left  has  shown  its  incapability  of  ful- 
filling its  social  tasks;  the  Right  uses  as  its  rallying  cry  ''battle 
against  all  Socialist  Projects,"  and  whoever  wishes  to  assist 
the  progress  of  social  or  political  reform  in  this  country  can  do 
nothing  else  than  enter  the  ranks  of  the  Socialists.  The  social- 
ist labor  organizations  go  steadily  forward.  The  whole  number 
of  industrial  laborers  in  the  country  reaches  nearly  80,000.  Of 
these  about  16,000  are  organized  in  unions. 

The  Socialists  have  partidpated  with  good  results  in  the 
munidpal  elections.  As  yet,  however,  they  have  not  attained 
an  absolute  majority  in  any  munidpality.  But  since  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  proportional  representation  exists,  it  has  been 
possible  to  elect  a  number  of  party  comrades  in  the  municipal 
governments.  Since  1900  those  women  who  had  reached  their 
25th  year  and  paid  taxes  upon  an  income  of  300  kronen  in  the 
country  and  400  kronen  in  the  cities,  or  who  were  married  to 
a  man  who  paid  taxes,  have  also  had  the  right  of  suffrage  in 
municipal  elections.  At  the  municipal  election  of  1901  48  per 
cent  of  the  qualified  voters  among  tfie  women  in  the  cities  and 
9.4  per  cent  in  the  country,  have  exercised  their  rights  of  suf- 
frage. A  total  of  98  women  have  been  elected  to  positions  in 
municipal  governments.  In  1901  the  Socialists  elected  a  total  of 
147  munidpal  officers.  We  are  certain  to  double  the  number 
during  the  next  year. 

In  the  countiy  socialism  is  rapidly  winning  ground  among  the 
small  farmers  and  fishermen.  During  the  last  few  years  a 
strong  socialist  movement  has  developed  among  these  classes. 
This  devdopment  proceeds  particularly  fast  in  the  North.  If  it 
continues  to  advance  as  rapidly  as  at  present,  the  famous  Land 
of  the  Midnight  Sun  will  soon  have  only  socialist  representa- 


THE  INTBENATIONAIi  80CIAUST   EEVIBW. 

tives  in  the  Storthing  and  only  Socialists  in  municipal  govern- 
ments. The  agitation  in  Norway  finds  its  greatest  obstacle  in 
the  great  distances  to  be  traversed  and  the  difficulty  of  com- 
munication,  together  with  the  scanty  population.  In  this  wide- 
spread country  there  are  only  2,200,000  people  and  only  seven  to 
the  square  kilometer.  But  even  these  obstacles  are  giving  way 
before  the  conquering  hosts  of  socialism.  The  present  accom- 
plishments are  great  and  the  future  belongs  to  us  even  in  Norway. 

Jakob  Vidnes,  in  the  Neue  Zeit 
Trcmslated  by  A.  M.  Simons, 


I 


The  Inconsistency  of  Morris. 

OF  THE  thirty-dght  numbers  of  the  I.  S.  R.  published,  fully 
one-half  contain  the  name  of  Wm.  Morris ;  it  has  come  to 
such  a  pass  in  the  Socialist  world  that  his  name  is  synony- 
mous with  the  highest  and  best  in  art,  and  ere  one  dare 
express  an  opinion  on  art,  he  must  first  approach  the  shrine  of 
Morris,  kneel  reverently,  count  his  beads,  mumble  a  few  glorias, 
and  in  payment  receive  that  inspiration  which  is  due  all  hero- 
worshipers. 

"\\nio  is  this  Socialist  that  he  should  take  up  so  much  room 
in  our  art?'^  some  one  once  said  of  him.  Is  it  not  time  that 
we  Socialists  paraphrase  that  sentence  by  asking,  "Who  is  this 
artist  that  he  should  take  up  so  much  room  in  our  Socialism"? 

Of  Morris  the  man,  poet,  artist,  scholar  or  craftsman  there 
can  be  but  one  word  spoken,  but  as  a  Socialist  it  seems  as  thous[h 
he  lacked  much.  His  idealism  especially  fitted  him  for  the 
Fabian  school  of  dreamers,  but  wholly  incapacitated  him  for  the 
more  earthy  Marxism.  His  analysis  of  existing  economic  con- 
ditions and  their  historic  relations  to  other  economic  periods  was 
so  unscientific  that  he  became  reactionary.  His  sentimental  soul 
revolted  at  the  manner  in  which  commercialism  was  affecting  art, 
and  lacking  the  foresight  to  fight  through  the  evil  (as  evolu- 
tionary Marxism  would  have  taught  him  to  do),  he  turned  his 
back  on  the  present  and  future  and  sought  consolation  in  the 
companionship  of  the  superstition-soaked  priests  of  the  era  of 
mental  ossification.  The  history  of  the  world's  art  furnishes  no 
similar  case  of  such  apostacy,  no  parallel  for  such  mental  coward- 
ice. There  never  was  a  period  in  the  world's  history  but  there 
were  those  contemporaneously  who  recognized  its  imperfections 
mateiial  and  intellectual;  but  the  world's  benefactors,  the  pro- 
moters of  progress,  have  always  been  those  pioneers  who,  refus- 
ing to  submit  to  their  environment  or  to  superimposed  authority, 
have  gone  forth  and  broke  new  ground  to  stand  upon,  have  fought 
the  world's  evils,  not  by  flying  back  from  them  nor  around  them, 
but  through  them ;  Morris  sought  the  feathered  bed  of  a  bygone 
age  and  with  the  assistance  of  the  emotionalists  and  faddists  of 
the  time  he  won — for  a  day. 

The  beauty  of  idealism  reached  its  manhood  in  the  Greek 
scriptures,  its  senility  and  decay  in  the  ecclesiastical  mysticism  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  cure  for  the  evil  was  naturalism.  This 
was  the  work  of  the  renaissance.  And  when  naturalism  had  run 
the  entire  gamut,  even  to  the  coarseness  and  brutality  of  the 
Dutch  School,  art  did  not  fly  back  to  idealism,  but  through  the 
evil  of  Romanticism,  that  bastard  child  of  idealism  and  naturj^lism, 

3S7 


1 


338  THE   INTBENATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BBVIKW. 

neither  of  heaven  nor  earth,  but  hanging  in  the  mid-air.    Thank 
God,  it  died  soon !    What  now  ?    Back  to  idealism  ?    No. 

Idealism  was  the  only  art  that  could  live  "bowed  under  a 
weight  of  authority" ;  naturalism  was  the  revolt,  that,  not  know- 
ing what  to  do  with  its  freedom,  flew  to  the  other  extreme. 
Romanticism  was  the  recoil,  the  child  ashamed  of  the  excesses 
of  its  parents,  seeking  to  condone  their  crimes  by  combining  in 
itself  their  virtues.  It  failed,  it  went  to  seed  in  the  melodra- 
matic, the  emotional,  the  sentimental. 

The  history  of  art  is  the  history  of  democracy.  Idealism  was 
for  the  intellectuals  alone.  Naturalism  was  for  the  thick-headed 
grande  bourgoisie.  Romanticism  with  its  sickly  sentimentality 
was  better  adapted  for  the  then-rising  thin-headed  petite  bour- 
geoisie, the  empty-headed  sanscoulottehajij  as  yet,  no  art;  all  the 
existing  phases  of  art  transcended  his  wisdom,  sufficient  for  him 
was  a  full  belly  and  a  place  to  lay  his  head.  The  tendency  of  art 
in  all  of  its  successive  changes  was  to  adapt  itself  to  ever  larger 
audiences.    Tolstoi  to  the  contrary. 

And  now  art  must  be  brought  downi  to  the  sanscoulotte.  But 
how  ?  His  nature  must  be  taken  into  consideration ;  he  must  be 
approached  from  the  physiological  rather  than  the  psychological 
side.  "And  thus  it  was  tfiat  ethics  dropped  from  art  and  esthetics 
took  its  place."  The  technical  school  was  born.  And  with  its 
perfection  democracy  will  have  achieved  a  complete  triumph  in 
art.    The  fourth  estate  will  have  an  art 

♦If  the  history  of  art  is  the  history  of  democracy,  it  is  like- 
wise the  history  of  evolution,  and  the  finger  that  traces  philosophy 
traces  art. 

With  the  breaking  up  of  the  feudal  system  and  the  conse- 
quent breaking  up  of  the  old  transcendental  and  ideological  sys- 
tems of  philosophy,  necessarily  came  the  shattering  of  all  of  those 
forms  and  institutions  built  upon  the  old  economic  and  philo- 
sophical systems.  The  base  of  philosophy  was  shifted  from  meta- 
physical conjectures  to  scientifico-materialistic  deductions, — ^from 
the  abstract  to  the  concrete, — from  the  ethereal  realms  of  other- 
worldliness  to  the  altogether  too  matter-of-fact  this-worldliness, 
and  consequently  the  problems  of  'how  to  worm  your  wav  into  a 
blissful  heaven  the  other  side  of  the  moon,'  'how  best  to  float 
around  in  the  thin  aether  of  an  imaginary  Arcadia'  or  Tk>w  best 
to  attain  to  a  thrice  threefold  condition  of  sanctimonious  sancti- 


*The  difference  between  opportnnlsm  and  impoBsIbleism  In  sodalism,  and 
La  Marck  and  Welsman  In  biology,  however  important  they  may  seem  to  na  in 
this  age,  will  be  considered  Inrignlflcant  to  the  historian  flye  hondred  yean 
hence,  who  will  consider  as  important  only  what  both  opportunism  and  impossi- 
bleism  held  In  common  against  its  common  enemy,  the  capitalist  system,— or 
what  both  Lamarck  and  welsman  held  in  common  against  their  common  enemy, 
the  theological  conception  of  genesis.  In  like  manner  I  have  risked  the  ana- 
thema's of  the  so-called  conservatiye  historians  of  art  by  making  broader  or 
more  general  divisions  of  art.  based  upon  economic  determinism,  and  utterly 
Ignoring  the  pedantic  definitions  and  scholastic  classifications  of  tha  petty 
schools  and  cults,  reactionary  or  otherwisa. 


THE  INCONSISTENCY  OF   MOEBIS,  339 

moniousness,"  gave  way  to  the  very  earthly  problems  of  "how  tu 
get  enough  to  eat"  and  "how  to  adjust  your  relations  with  your 
fellowman";  and  from  Bacon's  "Novum  Organum"  we  slide 
swiftly  down  from  the  clouds  and  land  with  a  thump  against 
"First  Principles,"  "Origin  of  Species"  and  "Capital."  Religion 
and  art  were  the  first  to  feel  the  effects  of  the  revolution. 

Idealism  was  the  dominating  principle  of  art  so  long  as  the 
economic  and  philosophical  conditions  warranted  of  it,  and  when 
they  changed  art  changed  with  them,  hence  naturalism.  But  the 
new  economic  condition  was  as  yet  too  unsettled  for  the  new 
materialistic  philosophy  to  find  a  firm  base  for  itself,  and  so  art 
speedily  deserted  it  without  having  even  so  much  as  tasted  the 
real  fruits  of  naturalism  (the  Dutch  went  farthest,  but  mistook 
coarseness  and  deformity  for  naturalism),  but  having  previously 
deserted  idealism  it  found  itself  without  a  home — hanging  in  mid- 
air, hence  romanticism. 

But  now  we  have  got  our  new  economic  system  settled,  it  is 
no  longer  an  experiment,  but  a  fact;  and  now  Spencer,  Darwin 
and  Marx  will  adjust  a  philosophy  to  it ;  the  last  vestige  of  ideal- 
ism will  be  driven  from  philosophy  and  it  will  be  placed  on  a 
purely  materialistic  basis.  Now  art,  you  may  come  down  out  of 
the  mid-air ;  you  need  not  be  afraid !  Here  is  a  firm  foundation 
for  you.  And  art  came  down  and  adapted  itself  to  the  new  con- 
ditions. 

Beauty  of  idea  gave  way  to  beauty  of  form,  objective  expres- 
sion gave  way  to  subjective  impression,  and  suggestion  was  sub- 
stituted as  a  makeshift  for  idealism.  And  then  came  the  technical 
school,  the  extreme  left  of  the  new  art.  Moral  import,  goodness, 
righteousness,  truth,  perfection  and  all  of  the  concomitant  ad- 
juncts of  ethics  are  swept  aside  to  make  room  for  form.  Ethics 
is  dethroned — esthetics  is  crowned  king.  Art  has  become  ultra- 
material;  realism  is  naturalism  placed  on  a  firm,  scientifico-ma- 
terialistic  basis ;  beauty  is  looked  upon  as  a  physiological  sensation. 

To  be  explicit :  Certain  lines  perpendicular,  horizontal,  diago- 
nal, straight  or  curved — certain  masses  of  light  and  shade — certain 
colors,  hues  and  tints  are  so  arranged  geometrically  or  chromat- 
ically that  the  impression  received  by  the  brain  is  agreeable  (har- 
monious) ;  add  a  dash  of  suggestion  and  take.  You  don't  like 
it?  No?  Well,  what  else  did  you  expect  in  this  materialistic 
age?  But  the  subject-matter?  Oh,  let  that  shift  for  itself.  And 
the  moral  import?  Please  don't  bother  us  with  such  questions; 
sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof.  We  are  too  busy  with 
the  physical  construction  of  our  picture,  poem  or  song. 

Let  the  aristocracy  of  intelligence  with  their  fools  paradise  of 
idealism  sneer  at  our  esthetics — ^no  mean  thing,  this  technical 
school,  even  if  only  as  a  stepping-stone.  Time  will  tell.  Evo- 
lution does  not  work  purposelessly. 

And  this  is  the  technical  school  or  esthetic  art.    The  creature 


340  THE   INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

of  its  environment,  the  product  of  time,  the  art  of  the  proletariat, 
upon  which  Morris  turned  his  back  at  a  time  when  this  art  and 
the  people  who  needed  this  art  required  his  services  the  most,  de- 
serted them  to  attempt  to  resuscitate  an  art  which  they  could  not 
appreciate  and  which  could  not  of  its  very  nature  be  resuscitated 
even  if  it  could  be  appreciated,  for  "it  was  not  of  its  time" ;  de- 
serted them  to — sell  them  fifty-dollar  books  and  thousand-dollar 
tapestries  and  unwittingly  create  a  cult  of  middle-class  dilettantes 
who  to-day  are  socialism's  worst  enemies.  The  act  was  foolhardy ; 
time  is  proving  it  so. 

But  if  his  antagonism  to  the  technical  school  was  foolhardy, 
his  hatred  of  the  machine  was  doubly  so.  Inconsistent  Morris, 
what  had  the  poor  machine  done  to  incur  your  enmity?  In  two 
short  centuries  it  had  transformed  the  dull,  illiterate,  wooden- 
saboted  peasant  into  the  urban  wage-worker  and  surrounded  him 
with  at  least  a  modicum  of  comfort,  given  him  at  least  a  smatter- 
ing of  education  and  arl. 

The  cheap  printed  calico,  the  bargain-counter  tapestries,  the 
gaudy-ficnired  carpets  and  the  crude  attempts  to  realize  beauty  in 
3ie  machine-made  furniture,  this  was  the  blackboard  class  of 
the  proletariat  in  art,  truly  better  than  the  thatched  roof  and 
mud  fioor  of  the  medieval  peasant.  Again  he  deserted  them,  im- 
bued with  his  reactionary  ideas. 

How  are  we  to  account  for  the  inconsistency  in  this  man,  who, 
believing  himself  progressive,  became  reactionary,  who,  laboring 
in  the  interests  of  the  working-classes,  allowed  his  left  hand  to 
work  adversely?  That  he  became  a  victim  of  the  predominant 
emotionalism  can  be  the  only  rational  answer. 

It  was  just  at  this  period  that  tlie  evils  of  commercialism  were 
at  their  worst  and  beginning  to  manifest  themselves  to  the  world 
in  general. 

The  shockingly  revolting  condition  of  the  laborers  in  the  fac- 
tory, the  mine,  etc.,  was  cr3ring  out  its  indictment  against  society, 
witfi  nothing  (  not  considering  as  worthy  of  mention  the  fashion- 
able parlor-economists)  to  answer  back  but  the  novels  of  Dickens, 
Hugo  and  Sue,  fog-end  of  the  romanticism  so  gloriously  brought 
to  perfection  by  Byron,  Goethe,  Schilling  and  Scott — ^remnants 
soaked  in  emotionalism. 

The  voices  of  Darwin,  Spencer  and  Marx  had  not  yet  been 
heard,  but  so  soon  as  "The  Origin  of  Species,"  "First  Principles" 
and  "Capital"  were  written,*  the  old-fashioned  revival  as  a  means 
of  combating  the  encroachment  of  materialism  must  give  way  to 
a  higher  criticism  and  St.  George  Mivart;  a  literature  of  sighs 
and  tears  must  give  way  to  a  literature  of  investigation,  analysis 

While  It  l8  true  that  theee  three  contribntloiui  to  modern  materlalinn  were 
gtven  to  the  world  abont  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  they  did  not  sift  down 
to  the  pnblic,  I.  e.,  become  subjects  of  popular  reading  and  olscnsslon,  nntil  the 
mld-seyentles  or  early  eighties. 


THE  INCONSISTENCY   OP  MORRIS.  341 

and  action ;  in  the  social  science  charity  and  pity  must  give  way  to 
the  class  struggle  and  political  activity;  and  an  art  tainted  with 
commercialism  and  the  prevalent  emotionalism  must  give  way  to 
—God  save  the  mark  I — a  second-hand  art,  revamped  by  the  firm 
of  "Morris,  Rossetti  &  Co." 

Every  revolution  in  every  branch  of  himian  endeavor  brings 
with  it,  in  its  transition  stage,  a  series  of  eccentric  excesses  from 
which  the  weak-minded  recoil  and  which  causes  all  but  the  stron- 
gest-minded to  denounce  the  entire  revolution.  Morris  looked 
upon  the  excesses  of  the  transition  period  and  fiew  to  a  monas- 
tery. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  modem  technical  school  (as  applied 
to  the  graphic  art)  relies  solely  upon  an  appeal  to  tfie  esthetic 
sense,  and  consequently  seeks  only  the  physical  construction  of  a 
picture,still,the  future  historian  will  hold,  say  for  example,  Aubrey 
Beardsley  (line)  and  Qaude  Monet  (color)  as  the  excesses 
rather  thiui  the  spirit  of  the  revolution.  The  technical  school  has 
come  to  stay  until  it  shall  have  served  its  historical  mission  and 
solved  the  problems  allotted  to  it ;  and  then,  if  the  world  wishes 
to  return  to  idealism,  it  will  return  in  a  body  and  not  be  dragged 
back  to  please  the  whim  of  one  man  or  a  petty  cult. 

Let  the  failure  of  pre-Raphaelitism  and  the  triumph  of  the 
technical  school  serve  as  a  warning  that  evolution  is  not  to  be 
thwarted  by  emotional  fancy  nor  sentimental  obstinacy. 

Or,  perchance  Morris  believed  as  the  author  of  "The  Revolt  of 
the  Artist"  that  "art  is  threatened  with  sterilization"  because  "free- 
dom of  expression  is  smothering  true  individuality  and  is  causing 
an  increasing  glorification  of  technique."  God,  Father  in  heaven ! 
And  this  "from  a  Socialist.  Go  to,  man.  There  never  will  be  an 
art  in  this  world  until  the  last  vestige  of  artistic  authority  is  lifted 
from  the  shoulders  of  the  individual.  Until  then  we  will  simply 
have  schools.* 

As  with  art,  so  with  the  machine.  Morris  simply  looked  on 
the  transition  stage,  the  crude,  shabby  product  of  the  primitive 
machine,  unlike  the  more  artistic  product  of  to-day,  only  a  quarter 


*The  fact  tbat  this  Is  a  jonmal  devoted  to  the  diactiMioii  of  socialism  and 
not  art,  alone  deters  me  from  entering  at  length  upon  this,  what  I  consider  to 
be,  the  most  Important  question  In  art  at  the  present  time. 

"But  is  it  legitimate  art?"  said  a  friend  of  mine  (and  a  sodallst  at  that) 
to  whom  I  was  showing  some  prints  that  I  intended  submitting  to  the  fourth 
Chicago  Photographic  Salon.  Is  it  legitimate?  Or,  in  other  words,  does  some- 
body permit  you  to  do  this  and  call  it  art?  Does  some  great  functionary, 
judge,  jury,  clique  or  9o7iool  kindly  condescend  to  hand  down  an  approval  that 
will  make  it  true  art.  whether  It  Is  or  not? 

"To  what  9ohoot  of  art  do  you  belong?'*  said  my  friend  a  few  minutes 
later.  There  you  have  it,  substitute  "orthodox"  for  '^legitimate"  and  "creed" 
for  "school,"  and  you  can  smell  the  bui-ning  flesh  of  the — but  no,  flye  hundred 
years  of  ciTllIzatlon  have  substituted  a  more  refined  (but  none  the  less  effective) 
censarstUp  for  the  more  brutal  inquisition.     . 

Judges,  judges,  and  ever  judges,  until  every  vestige  of  real  art  is  drummed 
out  of  the  heads  of  the  novice,  and  sMpldly  he  takes  his  place  in  the  procession 
— creating  things  according  to  somebody  else's  standard  of  heauiy,  not  Ms  own. 


342  THE   INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   EEVIEW. 

of  a  century  later.  And  what  will  the  future  of  the  machine  be? 
Let  us  anticipate: 

Machinery  is  of  three  kinds:  (i)  To  accomplish  that  which 
man  by  virtue  of  physical  deficiencies  (absence  or  limitation  of 
certain  natural  organs  or  functions)  cannot  accomplish  unaided; 
to  this  class  of  machinery  belongs  the  microscope;  telescope, 
spectroscope,  etc.  (2)  To  create  artificially  certain  natural  con- 
ditions (or  to  create  artificial  conditions  or  objects),  beneficial 
to  the  material  welfare  of  man  (light,  heat,  imitations  and  substi- 
tutions) ;  to  this  class  of  machinery  belongs  electric  and  gas- 
lighting  apparatus,  ice-making  machinery,  etc.  (3)  To  acc(Mn- 
plish  thjit  which  man  unaided  (save  by  primitive  tools)  may  ac- 
complish, but  to  accomplish  that  something  more  rapidly,  with 
less  expenditure  of  energy,  ».  e,,  more  economically.  It  is  with  the 
two  last  divisions  of  machinery  that  socialism  concerns  itself 
mostly. 

Primitive  man  found  the  sickle  the  most  convenient  tool  with 
which  to  gamer  his  wheat,  but  the  scythe  by  virtue  of  its  longer 
blade  must  needs  drive  the  sickle  out  of  the  fidd.  Next  the  "cradle" 
manifested  itself  as  a  greater  saver  of  labor,  followed  by  the 
mowing  machine,  still  more  economical  than  any  of  its  prede- 
cessors. Up  to  this  point  the  function  of  the  tool  or  machine  was 
to  perform  one  operation,  to  cut  down  the  wheat,  a  performance 
which  may  be  best  characterized  as  repetitiou  or  duplication.  But 
mark  you  now  what  occurs :  The  reaper  cuts  the  wheat  and  lays 
the  sheaf  ready  to  bind;  the  self-binder  cuts,  binds  and  dis- 
charges sheaf  all  bound. 

TTien  comes  the  combined  harvester  and  thresher  driven  by 
steam  or  gasoline  which  moves  across  the  field  with  30-foot  strokes 
of  its  sickle  and  gathers  the  grain  heads,  elevates  them  to  the 
cylinder,  or  separator  which  threshes,  cleans  and  sacks  the  grain 
ready  to  send  to  the  miller. 

And  what  is  true  of  the  machinery  for  the  harvesting  of  wheat 
is  true  of  all  machinery ;  the  more  primitive  the  machine  the  more 
is  it  confined  to  one  single,  simple  operation  (duplication),  and 
the  greater  must  be  the  expenditure  of  human  energy  and  care  in 
connection  with  it.  The  more  modern  the  machine,  the  greater  the 
number  of  its  performances  (variation)  and  the  less  the  expendi- 
ture of  human  energy,  as  witness  the  linotype,  corn-shredder, 
husker,  automatic  screw-making  machinery,  etc. 

To  sum  up:  Primitive  machinery — duplication,  plus  much 
labor ;  modern  machinery — ^variation,  plus  little  labor. 

And  is  this  the  end  ?  Come,  let  us  be  optimistic.  Heretofore 
the  product-varying  machinery  consisted  simply  in  the  combina- 
tion (in  obedience  to  the  predominant  law  of  concentration,  I 
presume)  of  several  correlated  machines  (e.  g.,  cutting  the  paper, 
printing  on  both  sides,  pasting,  folding,  etc.),  more  or  less  auto- 
matically adjusted;  and  consequently  the  variation  of  product  is 


r 


THE  INCONSISTENCY   OP  MORRIS.  343 

not  in  its  last  analysis  so  much  of  a  variation  after  all,  but  radier 
a  manifold  duplication.  But  the  ultimate  goal  of  invention  is 
machinery  that  will  permit  of  a  true  variation  of  product,  of  a 
greater  suppleness  in  the  hands  of  man  and  a  greater  obedience  to 
his  will;  nor  is  this  a  Utopian  dream,  but  a  cold,  scientific  fact. 
This  wUl  be  the  third  stage  of  machinery  invention,  and  the 
twentieth  century  is  already  anticipating  it. 

Machinery  will  more  and  more  vary  its  product  until — ^where 
will  it  all  end?  Who  knows?  Not  I.  But  there  is  one  thing  I  do 
know,  and  which  Morris  seems  not  to  have  known;  viz.:  Machine 
ery,  like  everything  else,  is  subject  to  the  law  of  evolution. 

Centrist. 


Australian  Labor  and  SocialistlNcws. 

THE  heart  of  the  political  opportunist  in  Queensland 
is  made  glad.  The  old  corrupt  government  is  over- 
thrown and  a  coalition  government  is  formed  in 
which  two  of  the  members  of  the  Labor  Party 
hold  seats.  The  new  government  has  a  following  of  42 
in  a  house  of  72,  and  of  these  23  are  members  of  the  Labor  Party. 
The  policy  of  permeation  will  now  bear  fruit.  Already  signs  are 
not  wanting  of  its  beneficial  effects  1  On  taking  oflSce  the  new 
premier  announced  that  no  extreme  or  controversial  legislation 
would  be  introduced.  The  ex-leader  of  the  Labor  Party,  who 
is  one  of  the  new  ministers,  in  the  face  of  this  says :  "I  believe 
that  it  is  quite  possible  to  be  loyal  to  the  premier  and  the  col- 
leagues I  have  now  elected  to  work  with,  and.  at  the  same  time 
be  true  to  my  old  principles.  In  the  meantime  I  would  ask  the 
men  and  women  of  Queensland  who  have  so  long  and  so  earnestly 
worked  for  reforms  we  so  much  desire,  to  accept  my  assurance 
that  it  is  the  sincere  belief  that  the  quickest  and  surest  way  to 
get  these  reforms  is  by  the  new  departure  made  that  has  caused 
the  Parliamentary  Labor  Party  and  myself  to  adopt  that  course." 
Another  member  of  the  Labor  Party,  who  has  lately  been  raised 
to  the  dignity  of  chairman  of  committees,  said  recently  that  the 
Labor  Party  were  prepared  to  go  slow  and  not  expect  too  much 
from  the  present  government.  He  rejoiced  in  the  fact  that  the 
Morgan  government  had  come  to  stay.  The  same  individual  an- 
nounced that  the  Labor  Party  was  not  a  class  party.  It  has 
long  been  evident  that  such  is  the  case,  but  this  is,  I  think,  the 
first  occasion  on  which  a  member  of  the  party  has  ventured  to 
express  it  in  public.  The  majority  of  labor  organizations  through- 
out the  state  heartily  endorse  the  policy  adopted,  although  even 
the  most  sanguine  of  them  expect  nothing  more  than  electoral 
reform.  At  present  a  system  of  plural  voting  is  in  force,  the 
owners  of  landed  property  having  a  vote  in  every  electorate  in 
which  he  owns  land.  An  electoral,. reform  bill  has  been-promised 
by  the  premier,  which  will  abolisli  plural  voting  and  extend  the 
franchise  to  women,  but  it  is  not  to  be  introduced  till  next  session. 
The  action  of  the  Labor  Party  in  forming  the  coalition  is  only 
the  logical  outcome  of  their  departure  from  the  propaganda  of 
their  early  days.  If  they  had  kept  alive  the  agitation  in  the  coun- 
try for  electoral  reform,  the  plural  vote  would  already  have  been 
abolished  and  the  franchise  extended.  But  no  I  The  conducting 
of  a  revolutionary  agitation  was  in  complete  variance  to  the 
policy  of  the  vote-catching  practical  politician.  It  is  now  only 
a  matter  of  time  before  the  Labor  Party  are  completely  absorbed 
by  the  liberal  element  in  the  new  government.     This  will  clear 

8U 


AUSTRAUAK  UkBOB  AND  SOCIALIST  NKWa  $45 

the  way  for  an  avowedlv  socialist  party,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  result  of  the  faihue  of  oar  presient  practical  labor  politi- 
cians win  be  the  fcnnation  of  a  rcTolutioaary  socialist  party, 
whose  aim  will  not  be  to  reform  the  capitalistic  system  out  of 
existence. 

Practical  poKtics  in  New  South  Wales  has  also  shown  how 
little  is  to  be  gained  from  Aese  measures.  The  most  short-sight- 
ed of  all  of  these  is  the  demand  for  compulsory  conciliation  and 
arbitration.  In  N.  S.  W.  the  conciliation  and  arbitration  act  has 
enabled  a  bc^s  union  to  be  registered,  the  Machine  Shearers' 
Union.  This  union  has  already  caused  a  reduction  in  the  wages 
of  shearers  and  bush  workers  and  the  Australian  Workers'  Union 
have  been  compelled  to  accept  the  reduced  rates.  A  drcnlar  has 
been  issued  to  members  in  which  agreement  to  this  reduction  is 
recommended.  This  circular  contains  the  following:  "Your 
patience  has  been  sorely  tried,  we  know.  The  arbitration  act  that 
promised  you  peace,  has  brought  you  war.*'  Instead  of  seeing  the 
utter  folly  of  obtaining  a  remedy  through  the  arbitration  courts 
they  are  demanding  more  arbitration.  ''A  Federal  ArbitraticHi 
Act/'  they  say,  "wSU  almost  certainly  be  passed  this  session  and 
this  will  enable  us  to  have  our  differences  settled,  not  for  N.  S. 
W.  only,  but  for  each  of  the  states  covered  by  our  Union.  Profit- 
ing by  the  N.  S.  W.  experiences,  the  Federal  Parliament  can  be 
depended  upon  to  see  that  no  bogus  union  shall  hold  up  its  head, 
and  that  the  important  powers  entrusted  to  the  Registi^ar  shall 
be  placed  in  capable  hands/'  When  we  hear  of  the  likdihood 
of  a  capitalistic  government  going  out  of  its  way  to  procure  jus- 
tice for  the  workers,  we  may  wdl  question  whether  lack  of  in- 
sight and  reasoning  capacity  do  not  go  hand  in  hand  with  the 
mania  for  practical  reforms. 

Mr.  Sven  Trier,  a  Danish  socialist,  who  recently  visited  New 
Zealand,  says  with  regard  to  the  arbitration  act:  "With  regard 
to  this,  one  thing  is  unrefutable,  and  that  is  that  now  one  union 
has  much  less  interest  in  the  welfare  of  another  than  before  the 
act  came  into  force,  each  union  only  working  to  get  one  penny 
more  for  their  people  per  hour!  And  the  result  is  that  the 
political  interest  of  the  working  class  is  getting  smaller  and  small- 
er; their  broader  view  of  the  o]>pressed  classes'  demands  have 
changed  to  a  narrow  union  self-interest. 

A  Trade  Monopolies  Prevention  Bill  was  introduced  into  the 
New  Zealand  parliament  to  prohibit  the  growth  of  monopolies. 
This  is  a  direct  consequence  of  the  middle-class  nature  of  the 
government.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  this  bill  if  passed,  can 
stem  the  tide  of  economic  development,  but  it  serves  to  show  what 
is  the  controlling  power  in  New  Zealand. 

Andrew  M.  Anderson. 


The  Socialist;  the  Ideal  Peace  and  Arbitration  Man. 

♦TO  ARBITRATION. 

Blest  Arbitration,  boundless  boon  to  man. 
Significant  assumer  of  the  soul  in  all. 
Appropriate  partner  in  the  Peace-man's  work, 
Declarer  of  the  day  when  War  shall  cease — 
Hail,  hail  thy  universal  sway ! 

Democracy's  defense  against  all  deathly  deeds. 
Base  Battle's  bearer  to  unbottomed  grave. 
Sincere  saluter  of  contestants  with  the  kiss  of  peace, 
AU-uncorrupted,  calm,  convincer  in  despite  of  purchased  courts — 
Hail,  hail  thy  universal  sway  I 

Announced  in  notes  of  joy  that  jubilantly  praise  Almighty  God 

at  end  of  war. 
Embodied  in  the  ballot  cast  that  bears  behest  of  ours, 
Revealed  in  revolutions  swords  rebelled  against — 
Thou  art,  O  Arbitration,  bom  of  Love  and  Peace,  th'  acclaimed 

compatriot  of  every  cause  that  cries : 
"Come  let  us  reason — not  resort  to  force." 

Conspirator  that  hast  conspired  to  strangle  strife; 

Well-wisher  of  the  world,  most  wise,  that  daily  waits  to  deal 

cursed  war  a  death-blow,  to  his  face; 
Adviser  of  the  down-trod:     "Dare  demand,  and  I  will  speak 

the  doom; 
Beguiler  of  the  brute  to  plead  where  brutes  are  evermore  brought 

low—" 
Hail,  hail  thy  universal  sway! 

Conceived  by  Love  incarnate  close  at  hand. 
Brought  forth  for  this :  To  furnish  Peace  a  realm  and  race  com- 
plete and  fit, 
Endowed  with  daring  to  demand  the  earth  as  thine, 
Enthroned  in  hearts,  whose  homage  hastes  where  Justice  stands — 
Thou  art,  O  Arbitration,  born  of  Love  and  Peace ! 
I^ss  loved  than  War  by  lisping  lass  unschooled  by  life, 
Less  loved  than  War  by  wanton,  warriors  waste  their  pay  and 

manhood  on. 
Less  loved  than  War  by  world  that  wounds  its  Christ  to  death — 

•Published  In  "The  Peacemaker"and  "The  Advocate  of  Peace,"  October,  1903. 

846 


THE  SOCIALIST  THE  ABBITRATION  MAN.  U7 

But  thou,  O  Arbitration,  born  of  Peace  and  Love,  art  now,  hast 
been,  and  evermore  shalt  be  th'  acclaimed  compatriot  of 
each  cause  that  cries  * 
"COME  LET  US 'reason— NOT  RESORT  TO 
FORCE." 

The  preceding  poems*  were  sent  out  by  the  author  many 
months  ago.  Without  any  concert  of  action  on  the  part  of  the 
editors  both  poems  were  published  in  the  October  issue  of  sev- 
eral periodicals.  This  simultaneous  publication  called  the  author's 
attention  anew  to  the  work  and  occasions  in  him  the  following 
thoughts : 

Would  it  have  been  possible  to  have  secured  the  publication 
of  "To  Socialism*'  in  a  Peace  journal,  and  would  any  Socialist 
journal  have  been  inclined  to  give  publicity  to  "To  Arbitration?" 

The  answer  to  the  first  query  is  undoubtedly  No ;  and  to  the 
second.  It  might  have  been  possible,  but  was  not  probable. 

Now,  why? 

It  is  true  that  in  a  recent  discussion  with  Mr.  Love,  of  "The 
Peacemaker,"  Dr.  Gibbs  successfully  demonstrated  that  there  is 
an  irreconcilable  difference  between  the  arbitration  principles 
as  embodied  in  the  eleven  cardinal  principles  of  the  "Peace 
Union"  and  Socialism;  and  it  is  equally  true  that  there  is  now 
an  established  and  growing  feeling  of  contempt  for  the  results 
of  arbitration  as  b^ween  Capital  and  Labor  in  the  minds  of 
many  socialists;  and  in  order  to  sift  this  matter  to  the  bottom 
I  have  thought  it  wise  to  set  forth,  confront  and  consider  certain 
facts. 

First:  The  "eleven  cardinal  principles"  are,  so  far  as  I  am 
informed,  merely  the  setting  forth  of  the  mode  of  operation  of 
a  particular  peace-society  towards  securing  the  acceptance  of 
arbitration  by  parties  in  dispute  together  with  the  reasons  which 
prompt  their  author  and  some  of  the  members  of  the  society  to 
take  action  in  the  case  and  a  statement  of  the  foundation  on 
which  they  believe  the  principle  of  arbitration  to  be  based.  They 
are  in  no  sense  a  final  embodiment  of  the  principle  of  arbitra- 
tion, and  a  great  wrong  has  been  done  the  cause  of  arbitration 
by  founding  those  "cardinal  principles"  on  the  assumed  righteous- 
ness and  unchangeableness  of  capitalism.  An  equally  great  wrong 
has  been  done  and  is  being  done  by  confusing  in  the  minds  of 
the  workers  the  unsatisfactory  results  of  arbitration  in  many 
cases  as  applied  under  capitalism  with  the  abstract  principle  of 
arbitration.  For,  just  as  in  voicing  the  thought  "To  Socialism" 
there  was  never  an  intention  in  the  mind  of  the  poet  of  endorsing 


*Tlie  Wicond  poem  to  which  reference  Is  made  Is  the  one  entitled  "T6  Social- 
ism," pabllshed  In  the  October  number  of  the  International  Socialist  Review. — Ed. 


348  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BEVIEW. 

everything  that  might  possibly  travel  under  that  loved  name,  so 
in  the  case  of  "To  Arbitration"  the  principle  in  its  perfect  appli- 
cation to  the  needs  of  mankind  under  a  just  system,  certainly  not 
under  capitalism,  was  held  consistently  in  view. 

Just  as  under  the  grossly  inequitable  system  now  in  vogue 
neither  Christianity  nor  Socialism  should  be  asked  to  produce 
their  legitimate  results,  so  neither  can  Arbitration — ^nor  should 
satisfactory  results  now  be  expected.  In  order  to  secure  even 
approximately  satisfactory  results,  arbitrators  of  an  unprejudiced 
and  disinterested  quality  are  imperative — ^these  can  never  be  se- 
cured under  a  system  where  the  present  inequalities  of  wealth  and 
station  are  recognized  as  not  only  legal  but  just. 

Therefore  the  Socialist  should  keep  in  mind  that  in  con- 
demning and  renouncing  the  application  of  arbitration  to  present 
day  disputes  he  must  not  so  condemn  or  renounce  the  principle 
of  arbitration  itself;  for  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  arbi- 
tration, if  put  in  practice  under  Socialism,  would  bring  about 
ideal  decisions — just  and  humane  and  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases 
perfectly  satisfactory  to  all  parties ;  and  the  Socialist  of  tihe  future 
is  going  to  need  this  ideal  method  of  settling  disputes  which  will 
inevitably  arise  so  long  as  human  beings  fall  somewhat  short 
of  the  hypothetical  angel  estate. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Peaceman  is  making  a  monstrous  and 
fatal  mistake  when  he  bases  or  attempts  to  base  an  ideally  just 
system  on  an  altogether  unjust,  outworn,  and  about-to-be  dis- 
carded system.  His  attempt  to  make  it  bring  about  anything 
like  permanent  results  under  capitalism  has  never  been  satisfac- 
torily accomplished  until  he  secured  the  acquiescence  of  power- 
ful nations  to  the  plan — in  other  words  backed  its  decisions  by 
force.  And  force,  next  to  fear,  is  the  lowest  appeal  that  can 
be  made  to  a  reasoning  being,  such  as  is  pre-supposed  by  arbi- 
tration. This  founding  of  the  principle  on  anything  less  or  lower 
than  the  conception  of  Socialism,  and  the  making  the  acceptance 
of  the  cardinal  principles  as  enunciated  a  sine  qua  non  of  good  and 
regular  standing  as  a  Peaceman,  whether  done  officially  or  in 
the  mind  of  the  member  at  large,  is  fatal  to  the  progress  of 
the  peace  cause. 

Second :  No  class  of  people,  as  a  class,  have  more  steadfastly 
and  consistently  demanded  the  overthrow  of  militarism  than  have 
the  Socialists;  and  yet  the  average  Peaceman  looks  with  dis- 
trust on  the  Socialist,  who  is  the  ideal  Peaceman  and  arbitrator ; 
for  only  imder  Socialism,  where  equality  of  wealth  and  station 
can  be  secured,  is  it  possible  to  bring  about  permanent  world- 
peace  or  secure  disinterested  arbitrators. 

In  looking  for  the  cause  of  this  distrust  we  find  that  it  arises 
because  few,  if  any.  Socialists  have  totally  discarded  and  dis- 


THE  SOCIALIST  THE  ARBITRATION  MAN.  349 

avowed  the  right  to  resort  to  the  arbitrament  of  war  in  the  final 
event.  That  this  should  be  a  matter  of  disagreement  between 
the  two  bodies  is  strange  indeed;  for  we  find  only  a  scattering 
handful  of  the  avowed  Peace  people  of  the  world  who  are  able 
or  willing  to  endorse  Tolstoy's  extreme  position,  which  enables 
him  to  state  truthfully  that  he  would  not  resist  evil  even  though 
it  took  the  shape  of  the  rape  or  murder  of  his  own  daughter 
in  his  sight.  So  far  from  endorsing  such  a  position  except  by 
silence  concerning  it  there  may  be  observed  the  names  of  many 
prominent  officials  of  peace  organizations  on  the  roll  of  the  League 
of  Peace  of  England,  an  organization  which  avowedly  stands  for 
the  right  of  resistance  for  home  defense,  and  its  secretary  is  a 
member  of  many  other  Peace  Societies ;  and  in  this  country  few 
indeed  are  the  members  of  our  Peace  organizations  who  are  not 
proud  of  the  record  of  some  member  or  members  of  their  families 
who  gave  up  their  lives  on  the  field  of  battle  either  in  the  cause 
of  Independence  or  in  the  late  Civil  War — ^where  men  were  de- 
luded into  thinking  they  were  fighting  for  the  freedom  and  en- 
franchisement of  the  chattel  slaves.  Now,  this  primal  right 
of  ultimate  resistance  to  the  death  for  one's  loved  or  for  a  prin- 
ciple is  no  more  strenuously  asserted  by  the  Socialist  than  by  the 
average  Peaceman,  could  we  but  secure  an  open  expression  of 
opinion  from  him.  The  Socialist  is  opposed  to  militarism  and  to 
all  war,  appealing  as  he  daily  does  to  the  reason  of  the  people  for 
a  decision  in  his,  and  their  own,  favor.  He  continually  thereby 
acts  as  an  advocate  in  a  great  Arbitration  Coiut,  whose  judge 
and  jyry,  plaintiff  and  defendant  are  identical  (not  an  ideal  court 
by  any  means) ;  still  he  pleads  with  them  to  render  their  decision 
at  the  ballot  box,  peaceably,  and  not  on  the  field  of  battle,  where 
blood  is  inevitably  shed,  lives  lost  and  irreconcilable  hatreds  en- 
gendered. Nevertheless,  tjie  ballot  is  and  necessarily  must  be 
his  only  weapon  or  means  of  defense — but  only  in  the  present; 
for  he  must  not  ultimately  stand  passively  by  and  see  the  means  of 
the  advancement  of  the  race  t^en  by  trickery  from  the  hands 
of  the  workers — as  is  now  being  done  in  numberless  cases  and 
by  methods  so  utterly  beyond  the  reach  of  all  present  laws  as  to 
make  him  glance  thankfully  in  thought  to  the  fact  that  he  has 
at  the  last  always  in  his  own  power  the  right  and  ability  to  resist 
by  force  this  gradual  reduction  of  his  fellows  to  the  slave  condi- 
tion. 

Docs  this  thought  and  this  gladness  concerning  it,  render 
him  less  available  as  a  sincere  Peace  advocate  today?  If  it  shall 
be  decided  that  it  renders  him  entirely  unavailable  let  all  So- 
cialists, as  well  as  all  non-socialist  members  of  Peace  societies 
who  honestly  find  in  themselves  this  same  "thought  and  gladness 
(though  inevitably  coupled  with  great  sadness  that  such  a  thought 


350  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

need  ever  arise),  sever  connection  with  all  societies  whose  con- 
stitutions, by-laws  or  cardinal  principles  make  a  resort  to  war 
under  any  and  all  circumstances  a  fundamental  part  of  the  things 
they  disavow  and  in  which  they  disbelieve.  And  where  will  the 
Peace  organizations  be? 

This  much  seems  clear :  So  long  as  we  are  compelled  to  live 
under  capitalism  no  such  hard  and  fast  line  can  be  drawn  by 
the  societies;  though  indeed  it  has  been  drawn  once  and  for  all 
for  them  by  the  government  in  the  infamous  "Dick"  law — ^as 
the  societies  will  discover  whenever  the  law  is  put  in  operation. 
That  would  leave  only  absolute  non-resistants  in  the  societies. 
Now,  the  most  earnest  and  strenuous  upholder  of  the  Tolstoyan 
position  in  America  today — a  man  I  delight  to  honor,  but  from 
whom  in  this  I  hopelessly  disagree— openly  avows  that  for  his 
part  the  living  completely  up  to  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  is 
not  in  him;  for  which  I  the  more  honor  him.  And  even  Tol- 
stoy falls  far  short  of  a  literal  obedience  to  the  commands  of 
that  master  he  has  selected  as  his  ideal.  He  has  elected  perfect 
obedience  to  non-resistance  of  evil  and  partial  obedience  to  "Sell 
all  that  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor.^'  True,  he  lives  some- 
what like  a  poor  man;  but  until  he  has  utterly  divested  himself 
both  of  titles  and  possessions  he  is  not  a  poor  man  and  can  never 
feel  as  a  poor  man  feels.  The  essence  of  poverty  is  the  uncer- 
tainty as  to  the  morrow's  bread — ^and  this  no  man  situated  like 
Count  Tolstoy  ever  has  felt  or  can  feel.  Moreover,  Tolstoy's 
non-resistance  is  definitely  confined  to  resistance  by  act;  for  a 
more  strenuous  resistance  by  voice  and  pen  to  evil  of  every  form, 
than  his  this  world  has  never  seen  or  heard. 

Why  then  draw  the  line  sharply  in  this  other  matter?  Tolstoy 
is  recognized  the  world  over  as  honestly  believing  in  Christ  and 
as  putting  in  practice  Christ's  doctrines  so  far  as  may  be,  and  so 
far  as  his  sight  is  clear,  under  the  system  >yhich  he  by  the  fact 
of  birth  is  constrained  to  endure.  So,  and  fully  as  much  so,  the 
Socialist  is  a  true  and  earnest  Peaceman.  He  eschews  war  and 
the  warlike  just  so  far  as  the  day  and  hour  permit.  He  believes 
whole-heartedly  in  the  principle  of  arbitration  and  appeals  to  its 
court  for  decisions  often  even  when  no  possibility  exists  of  secur- 
ing such  arbitrators  as  the  principle  demands.  He  daily  submits 
his  whole  case  to  the  whole  court — and  reserves  only  the  right  of 
ultimately  enforcing  the  decision  which  he  confidently  expects 
that  whole  court  in  the  near  future  to  render  in  favor  of  his  con- 
tention. For  the  present  he  peaceably  submits  to  all  adverse  de- 
cisions, and  proposes  to  continue  so  doing.  But  already  are 
clearly  heard  the  voice  of  some  of  the  defendants  threatening 
not  only  to  ignore  an  adverse  verdict,  but  to  resist  to  the  death  its 
enforcement.    For  this  cause,  and  for  this  alone,  the  Socialist  is 


r" 


THE  B0CIAIJ8T  THE  AEBITRATION  MAN.  S51 

constrained  to  keep  the  possibility  of  an  appeal  to  arms  as  his 
reserved  right  He  will  not  be  the  man  to  break  the  peace ;  the 
peace  will  already  have  been  irretrievably  broken  by  the  rich 
when,  if  ever,  the  Socialist  defends  and  enforces  the  decision 
rendered  in  his  favor  by  the  ballots  of  the  people. 

It  may  be  said  that  no  attempt  has  yet  been  made  herein  to 
logically  demonstrate  the  justice  of  the  claim  that  the  Socialist 
is  the  ideal  Peaceman  and  arbitrator.  In  the  mind  of  the  writer 
no  odier  proof  is  needed  than  the  writing  and  publication  of  the 
two  poems  which  serve  as  a  text  for  these  thoughts.  Each  is 
the  sincere  outspeaking  of  a  Socialist  mind.  But  to  others  more 
may  be  necessary. 

Socialism  is  admitted  to  be  an  embodiment  of  ideal  justice  and 
the  securing  for  the  whole  people  of  ideal  conditions  of  life.  Even 
its  most  bitter  enemies  and  opponents  dare  bring  nothing  against 
it  to  a  reasonably  unprejudiced  mind  except  that  it  is  "too  good 
to  be  true"  and  "will  not  work."  That  it  will  not  work  under 
capitalism,  or  an)rwhere  in  its  neighborhood,  is  readily  and  gladly 
admitted.  While  the  Christianity  of  those  theologians  who  con- 
cur in  the  statement  that  "Christianity  is  a  system  of  belief,  not  a 
life"  has  measurably  succeeded  in  fulfilling  all  expectations  they 
had  any  warrant  for  entertaining,  genuine  Christianity  as  taught 
by  the  founder  has  pathetically  failed  under  these  same  capitalist 
conditions,  to  actualize  its  central  doctrine:  Loving  Brotherhood 
and  Oneness.  So  will  every  other  even  approximately  just  sys- 
tem. Light  and  darkness  are  mutually  destructive  each  to  each. 
One  must  inevitably  give  place  to  the  other. 

But  the  Socialist,  even  under  these  adverse  conditions,  is  the 
ideal  man  of  whom  we  spoke. 

First :  Because  at  the  same  moment  that  he  detests  war  and 
discards  it  as  much  as  any  man  except,  possibly,  the  extreme 
non-resistant,  he  frankly  faces  the  possibility  of  the  day  of  phy- 
sical conflict..  He  devoutly  hopes  that  that  day  may  never  dawn, 
but  he  is  subject  to  no  delusions  concerning  the  fact  that  if  the 
conflict  which  he  is  now  confining  to  the  mental  sphere  can  possi- 
bly be  forced  by  the  capitalist  into. the  physical  one  it  will  be 
taken  there  and  there  fought  out.  For  his  delusions  as  to  the 
himianity  of  capitalism  were  dispelled  long  since.  This  freedom 
from  delusions  on  that  subject  is  all  in  his  favor.  He  does  not 
call  present-day  conditions  "peace"  simply  because  only  back- 
ward peoples  or  barbarian  races  are  now  being  legally  slaugh- 
tered, or  because  few  or  many  "boundary  disputes"  and  such  like 
matters  of  controversy  between  great  nations  (who  have  discov- 
ered that  war  is  too  costly,  as  waged  between  themselves)  have 
been  temporarily  or  even  permanently  settled  by  arbitration.  The 
warman  and  his  master,  the  capitalist,  are  well  aware  that  of  all 


352  THE   INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BEVIEW. 

peace^oving  people  the  Socialist  is  most  clear  eyed  as  to  their 
plans  for  the  present  and  future — and  if  anything  can  restrain 
them  in  the  attempt  to  carry  out  those  plans,  that  fact  will. 

Second :  He  is  even  more  the  id^  Peaceman  because  he  is 
ever  actively  a  resistant,  chronically  in  revolt  against  the  evils  that 
afflict  hiunanity — ^but  ever  with  the  hope  of  a  better  day  and  of 
ultimate  victory  before  him.  For  observe  that  in  order  to  achieve 
the  things  for  which  our  ideal  stands  we  must  in  all  cases  be 
buoyed  up  by  hope  of  ultimate  attainment  We  must  be  optim- 
ists. Pessimism,  as  to  the  present,  is  perfectly,  permissible:  The 
present  could  scarce  be  worse  and  be  endurable.  But  as  to  the 
ultimate  result  of  our  struggle,  as  to  the  future  of  the  race,  as  to 
the  inherent  nobility  of  human  nature,  we  must  be  optimists  of 
the  most  strenuous  kind.  We  must  believe  it  and  continuously 
live  in  hope  of  it  till  our  faces  shine  with  the  light  shed  by 
the  faith-foreseen  oncoming  day.  Herein  is  strength;  herein  is 
victory!  Realize  this,  and  then  observe  that  the  non-resistant's 
foremost  man,  as  a  result  of  a  lifetime  of  thought  and  endeavor 
in  the  non-resistant  direction,  lands  in  the  blackest  pessimism  ever 
voiced  to  the  world  or  harbored  in  the  heart  and  ^ain  of  a  man 
who  consented  to  survive  the  present  hour.  He  thinks  and  says 
that  the  hope  of  the  race  is  to  "let  it  die  out."  He  would  create 
a  double-distilled  inferno  in  the  interim  on  earth  by  leaving  the 
begetting  of  children  to  those  he  considers  as  less  elevated  bodily, 
mentally  and  spiritually  than  himself.  All  really  well-intentioned 
people,  according  to  him,  should  unite  to  let  the  race  die  out 
That,  indeed,  in  its  ultimate  is  peace — the  peace  of  the  grave. 

Compare  with  that  the  ideal  ever  present  in  the  mind  of  the 
Socialist;  a  world  more  full  of  happy  men,  women  and  children 
than  it  has  ever  been  with  miserable  ones.  Realize  that  the  So- 
cialist of  today  is  a  man  on  fire  with  enthusiasm,  filled  with  love 
for  his  fellow  man,  hating  only  the  monstrous  system  which  con- 
demns him  to  live  the  very  inequality  he  hates  and  detests,  and 
there  should  be  no  difficulty  in  deciding  between  the'  two  poles  of 
thought  (there  is  no  real  workable  middle  position).  There 
should  be  instant  decision  that  the  sincere,  disinterested  Socialist 
is  and  ever  will  be  the  ideal  Peace  and  Arbitration  Man. 

Edwin  Arnold  Brenholz. 


Hilquit's  ^'History  of  Socialism  in  America/'* 

NOTHING  offers  a  greater  proof  of  the  permanent  position 
which  has  been  attained  by  Socialism  in  the  United  States 
than  the  character  of  the  literature  which  it  is  producing. 
It  is  a  trite  but  true  saying  to  apply  to  such  work  as  Com- 
rade Hilquit  has  produced  that  it  marks  an  epoch  in  the  socialist 
movement  in  America.  It  does  this  in  a  double  sense ;  it  records  the 
ccxnpletion  of  the  preparatory  stage  in  American'  Socialism  and 
it  presents  to  us  the  most  scholarly  and  pretentious  volunie 
that  has  yet  appeared  by  an  American  Socialist  on  the  Ameri- 
can Socialist  movement.  Almost  one-half  of  the  book  is  given 
up  to  the  discussion  of  "Utopian  Socialism  and  Communistic 
Experiments."  Indeed  it  seems  that  rather  too  much  space  is 
given  to  this  feature.  This  is  for  two  reasons;  primarily,  be- 
cause they  are  by  no  means  as  important  in  the  development  of 
socialism  as  this  extended  treatment  would  indicate,  and,  second, 
because  this  phase  of  the  subject  has  been  adequately  treated 
in  other  volumes.  The  classification  which  he  makes  of  these 
communities  into  Sectarian,  Owenite,  Fourieristic  and  Icarian,  is 
the  best  division  of  the  subject  that  we  have  yet  noticed.  Here 
and  there  we  run  across  interesting  little  items  which  have  been 
ordinarily  overlooked  by  previous  writers,  such  as  the  fact  that 
a  son  of  Robert  Owen  was  twice  a  member  of  Congress  and 
drafted  the  Act  establishing  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

The  summary  of  the  cause  of  the  failure  of  these  communities 
he  states  as  follows :  "But  the  times  of  the  Robinson  Crusoes,  in- 
dividual or  social,  have  passed.  The  industrial  development  of 
the  last  centuries  has  created  a  great  economic  interdependence 
between  man  and  man,  and  nation  and  nation,  and  has  made 
humanity  practically  one  organic  body.  In  fact,  all  the  marvel- 
ous achievements  of  our  present  civilization  are  due  to  the  con- 
scious or  unconscious  operation  of  the  workers  in  the  field  and 
mines,  on  the  railroads  and  steamships,  in  the  factories  and  labora- 
tories the  world  over;  the  individual  member  of  society  derives 
his  power  solely  from  participation  in  this  great  co-opera- 
tive labor  or  its  results,  and  no  man  or  group  of  men  can  separate 
himjself  or  themselves  from  it  without  relapsing  into  barbarism. 

"This  indivisibility  of  Ae  social  organism  was  the  rock  upon 
which  all  communistic  experiments  foundered.  They  could  not 
possibly  create  a  society  all-sufficient  in  itself;  they  were  forced 
into  constant  dealings  with  the  outside  world,  and  were  sub- 

*For  sale  by  Tbe  Comrade  Publirfiliig  Co.    |1.50. 

853 


954  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   EEYIEW. 

jected  to  the  laws  of  the  co-operative  system  both  as  producers 
and  consumers.  Those  of  them  who  learned  to  swim  with  the 
stream,  like  the  religious  communities,  adopted  by  degrees  all 
features  of  competitive  industry,  and  prospered,  while  those  who 
remained  true  to  their  Utopian  ideal  perished." 

It  is  in  his  treatment  of  the  modern  movement  that  we  find  the 
matter  of  greatest  value.  This  portion  of  the  work  indicates 
an  extensive  investigation  into  original  sources,  and  preserves  for 
us  much  matter  that  would  have  been  very  difficult  to  assemble 
in  future  years  when  the  generation  that  was  concerned  in  these 
events  had  entirely  passed  away.  He  finds  practically  no  con- 
nection between  the  communistic  settlements  and  modem  social- 
ism save  that  here  and  there  individuals  were  concerned  in  both 
movements.  The  first  real  movement  that  is  entitled  to  rank 
as  forming  a  link  in  the  evolution  of  the  present  American  So- 
cialist movement  is  the  work  of  William  Weitling,  whose  activity 
during  the  years  1849-50  aroused  considerable  interest.  The 
German  Turners  and  an  organization  in  New  York  called  the 
Communist  Qub,  which  had  an  ephemeral  existence,  were  the 
only  other  important  manifestations  of  the  Socialist  idea  in  the 
years  prior  to  the  Civil  War.  This  great  struggle  practically 
wiped  out  all  movements  not  directly  concerned  in  the  struggle 
between  the  North  and  the  South,  and  there  was  little  sign  of 
reviving;  activity  until  the  advent  of  "The  International  Work- 
ingmen  s  Association."  The  history  of  this  organization  has 
often  been  told,  and  yet  there  are  so  few  accounts  of  it  accessible 
that  the  rather  full  description  given  in  the  present  volume  is 
acceptable.  It  really  had  but  little  influence  in  America  and 
would  be  of  little  importance  in  the  history  of  the  American 
movement  save  for  the  fact  that  it  came  to  America  to  die, 
being  removed  to  New  York  in  1872  in  order  to  place  it  outside 
the  influence  of  Bakounin  and  his  anarchist  followers.  What 
influence  was  manifested  by  the  International  in  America  was 
largely  through  the  National  Labor  Union,  which  reached  con- 
siderable strength  in  the  years  1867  and  1868. 

Not  the  least  of  the  valuable  things  about  Comrade  Hilquit's 
work  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  he  has  rescued  from  oblivion 
many  names  which  now  sound  utterly  strange  to  American  So- 
cialists, but  who  played  their  part  in  building  up  the  movement 
of  which  we  are  now  so  proud.  One  of  these,  William  H. 
Sylvis,  was  the  heart  and  soul  of  the  National  Labor  Union, 
and  at  his  death  in  1869  the  organization  disappeared,  although  it 
lived  long  enough  to  send  a  delegate  to  the  Basle  Convention 
of  the  International.  The  National  Labor  Union  was  not  directly 
affiliated  with  the  International,  and  most  of  the  sections  of  the 
latter  organization  were  composed  of  Germans,  although  it  finally 
became  cursed  with  an  unnatural  prosperity  which  drew  to  it 
"reformers  of  all  shades*'  and,  as  is  inevitably  the  case  with  sud* 


«HI8TQBY  OF  AMBBICAN  SOdAUSM.''  865 

a  growth  in  a  socialist  movement,  brought  about  its  downfall, 
not,  however,  until  it  had  organized  some  remarkable  labor 
demonstrations  and  left  its  impress  on  the  thought  of  the  period. 
It  finally  died  on  July  15,  1876,  only  to  be  revived  again  with 
greater  strength  and  with  a  form  adjusted  to  the  infinitely  wider 
field  and  duty  that  lay  before  it  in  the  new  International  Socialist 
organization  which  still  remains. 

The  next  phase  of  the  movement  to  occupy  the  field  was 
"The  Social  Democratic  Working  Men's  Party  of  North  Amer- 
ica," which  was  formally  organized  on  the  4th  day  of  July, 
1874,  by  several  sections  of  the  International,  which  had 
withdrawn  from  the  organization  earlier  in  the  year  in  January, 
with  some  local  labor  organizations  of  New  York  and  Williams- 
burg, Newark  and  Philadelphia.  This  greatly  grew  in  strength 
and  in  1877  changed  the  name  to  "Socialist  Labor  Party  of 
North  America."  This  organization  sprang  into  life  in  the  midst 
of  the  most  wide-spread  industrial  disturbances  this  cotmtry  had 
witnessed  up  to  that  time  and  received  a  tremendous  impetus  from 
the  suiferings  and  disorder  of  the  time.  "The  many  labor  trou- 
bles and  the  general  condition  of  popular  destitution  of  the 
period  had  made  the  minds  of  the  working  class  more  receptive 
to  the  teachings  of  socialism  than  ever  before,  and  the  socialists 
sought  to  take  advantage  of  the  situation  by  every  means  at  their 
command.  In  all  great  industrial  centers  demonstrations  were 
arranged,  proclamations  were  issued,  street-comer  meetings  were 
held,  and  some  of  the  most  eloquent  speakers  of  the  party — 
McGuire,  Parsons,  Savary,  and  many  others — ^undertook  extend- 
ed and  systematic  lecture  tours  through  the  country.  Socialist 
newspapers  appeared  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States  and  in 
many  languages.  Between  1876  and  1877  no  less  than  twenty- 
four  newspapers,  directly  or  indirectly  supporting  the  party, 
were  established."  This  movement  disappeared  with  the  coming 
of  the  capitalist  prosperity  of  the  early  8o's.  With  the  coming 
of  the  hard  times  of  the  late  8o*s  the  oppressed  workers  turned 
again  to  socialism,  but  once  more  the  movement  was  destined 
to  confusion  and  finally  to  end  in  one  of  the  most  tragic  episodes 
in  the  entire  history  of  the  working  class.  It  became  involved 
on  the  anarchist  movement  and  well  nigh  disappeared  when 
the  Haymarket  tragedy  and  the  execution  of  the  anarchists  took 
place  in  Chicago. 

.  Once,  again,  the  movement  was  slowly  built  up  from  the 
bottom,  but  each  time  the  builders  worked  more  in  accord  with 
scientific  principles  and  amid  an  environment  more  susceptible 
to  permanent  growth  of  socialism.  There  were  times  of  con- 
fusion with  the  Greenbackers,  Populists  and  the  Henry  George 
movement ;  there  were  dark  days  of  intrigue  and  a  few  instances 
of  betrayal.  But  through  it  all,  socialism  was  growing.  The 
Knights  of  Labor  movement  gave  it  a  great  impetus,  only  to 


n 


S66  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIAUST  IfcEVIEW. 

be  lost  when  that  organization  fell  into  disrepute.  Out  of  the 
contact  with  the  Knights  of  Labor,  to  some  degree  at  least,  sprang 
the  fatal  trade  union  tactics  of  the  S.  L.  P.,  which  was  to  end 
in  the  disruption  of  that  organization  and  the  founding  of  the 
present  socialist  party.  Here  the  history  practically  stops,  and 
perhaps  it  is  as  well,  for  matters  since  have  scarcely  sufficiently 
receded  into  the  perspective  of  history  to  enable  an  impartial  ac- 
count to  be  written. 

The  work  is  one  which  must  compel  the  attention  of  every 
student  of  American  social  life,  and  will  form  an  essential  part 
of  any  collection  of  socialist  books.  Nevertheless,  there  are 
portions  which  are  somewhat  unsatisfactory.  The  treatment 
of  American  economic  development  is  the  most  prominent  of 
these.  There  seems  to  be  almost  no  conception  of  the  industrial 
history  of  America  as  differentiated  from  that  of  other  countries. 
Wherever  this  subject  is  treated  the  whole  United  States  is  dis- 
cussed as  if  it  were  a  unit,  whereas,  at  any  time  during  the 
periods  covered  by  the  book  there  were  great  sectional  differences, 
and  these  differences  were  really  the  main  factors  in  the  peculiar 
political  development  of  America.  One  is  surprised  to  see  a 
socialist  book  repeating  the  nonsense  about  the  disastrous  com- 
petition of  the  "bonanza  farms"  of  the  west  with  the  ordinary 
American  farmer,  when  it  is  now  known  that  these  bonanza 
farms  were  absolutely  helpless  in  the  competition  with  the  ordi- 
nary American  farmer,  and  were  subsequently  competed  out  of 
existence. 

In  the  same  way  there  is  a  decided  localism  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  struggle  with  the  S.  L.  P.  where  he  declares  that: 
"The  insurgents  were  practically  confined  to  the  City  of  New 
York,  while  the  sections  in  the  country  knew  little  about  the 
merits  of  the  controversy."  This  will  be  somewhat  surprising  to 
the  comrades  throughout  the  country  who  were  plunged  into  that 
fight  often  with  fully  as  great  energy  and  intelligence  as  those  of 
New  York.  We  have  already  criticised  the  space  which  is  given 
to  the  colony  feature,  but  this  is  more  striking  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  communistic  character  of  frontier  life  which  has  been 
present  in  some  portion  of  the  country  throughout  the  history 
of  the  United  States  is  completely  overlooked. 

There  is  also  a  strong  tendency  to  exaggerate  the  importance 
of  the  Greenback  and  other  reform  movements  in  comparison 
with  the  Populist  as  contributing  to  the  growth  of  socialist 
thought.  No  mention  is  made  of  the  planks  in  the  Populist  plat- 
form which  were  very  much  nearer  socialism  than  those  to  be 
found  in  the  Greenback  party,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
those  which  the  socialists  were  able  to  drag  in  when  they  were 
admitted  to  the  Greenback  conventions. 

A,  M.  SIMONS. 


The  Religion  of  Resistance. 

IT  IS  our  way  to  laugh  with  the  laugh  of  the  superiorly  pitiful 
at  the  backwardness  of  the  ancients  who  inferred  that  slaves 
and  women  had  no  souls.  But  Hke  most  of  our  moral  derision 
this  laugh  of  ours  has  no  account  behind  it — ^it  is  only  a  laugh 
which  does  not  understand. 

Morality  is  an  entirely  social  relation ;  that  goes  on  the  face  of 
it.  A  man  cannot  be  moral  alone.  Religion  is  some  larger  con- 
sideration than  that  of  immediate  punishment  which  induces 
people  to  be  moral.  Whatever  else  religion  may  have  to  say  about 
heaven  and  souls  she  uses  these  as  accessories  of  the  mundane 
morals  she  happens  to  be  teaching.  Only  a  few  fanatics  who  do 
not  know  why  respectable  people  went  to  the  trouble  of  making 
tHem  religious  in  their  youth  have  the  audacity  to  separate  religion 
from  morals.  Any  church  openly  declaring  such  divorce  would  be 
forced  out  of  business  at  once,  and  this  they  all  perfectly  well 
understand,  though  they  may  not  understand  true  morality.  Some 
ancients  and  moslems  say  that  slaves  have  no  souls.  But  we  as 
Christians  always  make  very  much  of  the  slave's  soul  because  wc 
want  to  make  so  very  much  more  out  of  the  body. 

I  suppose  that  there  can  be  pio  real  moral  nexus  between  slaves 
and  masters  and  that  religion  in  supplying  an  unreal  one  for  a 
purpose  has  at  least  saved  the  ancient  human  families  from  utterly 
destroying  one  another — saved  us  out  of  those  periods  of  brutality 
and  ignorance  for  the  time  when  religion  shall  have  better  func- 
tions than  to  invent  fables  to  hold  the  slaves  and  keep  the  masters 
fat. 

A  moral  code  can  only  have  force  and  meaning  between  men 
in  equality.  The  ten  commandments  were  compiled  for  the  use 
of  people  who  were  pretty  well  to  do.  "Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy 
neighbor's  ox"  was  addressed  to  a  man  who  had  an  ox  of  his 
own.  No  such  commandments  were  ever  addressed  to  destitution. 
It  has  no  place  in  a  slave  system  where  force  or  fear  only  save  the 
master's  ox.  There  is  no  slave,  destitute  or  deprived  man  but 
must  desire  that  absent  thing,  which,  being  out  of  his  posses- 
sion, makes  him  what  he  is ;  and  none  but  such  as  are  resolved  to 
have  and  keep  him  a-less-than-man  would  seek  to  take  from  him 
that  sacred  desire. 

A  community  that  is  so  organized  that  slavery,  black  or  white, 
constitutes  its  essential  requirement  must  therefore  have  some 
men  in  it  that  are  less  than  men — ^men  without  souls.  In  free  com- 
petitive wage  slavery  we  require  the  largest  part  of  our  population 
to  be  thus  deprived  or  destitute  in  order  to  keep  them  in  the  slave 
ranks.    Our  system  requires,  indeed,  that  the  largest  part  of  the 

867 


188  THB  INTERNATIONAL  SOdALIST  BEVIEW. 

population  shall  be  less  than  men,  and  therefore  outside  the  moral 
relation  and  having  no  soul,  or  only  its  germ. 

Great  numerical  communities  must  he  held  together  by  force, 
by  habit,  by  delusion  or  by  the  moral  consideration — ^that  is  true 
religion.  Force  can  only  end  itself  and  society  sooner  or  later. 
Habit  can  only  last  up  to  its  equivalent  of  physical  necessity.  De- 
lusion works  until  several  of  them  begin  to  compete  and  no 
longer,  and  there  is  really  left  for  society  in  the  end  no  other 
bond  than  that  of  the  moral  consideration.  Now  equality  of  con- 
ditions alone  can  provide  the  atmosphere  for  that  moral  considera- 
tion. 

If  the  master  classes  of  the  world  possess  the  soul  life  then 
it  must  be  evident  that  slaves  cannot  possess  it  (or  other  depend- 
ents) except  on  the  assumption  that  the  soul  life  of  religion  is  not 
moral  at  all.  In  which  case  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  the 
master  classes  should  be  religious  except  as  devotees  of  a  war  god 
fighting  against  the  slaves.  The  assumption  of  a  common  soul- 
nature  in  all  mankind  and  a  common  God  involves  equality  of 
condition  and  they  who  work  to-day  for  the  increases  of  capital- 
istic property  in  mankind's  machinery  or  means  of  living  are 
utterly  irreconcilable  with  either.  Now,  I  regard  socialism  as  the 
restitution  of  every  man's  right  to  spiritual  life  (including  slaves, 
women  and  other  dependents),  and  that  this  restitution  must  be 
preceded  by  a  declaration  of  resistance. 

The  religion  of  resistance  is  not  the  religion  of  repression  to 
be  smuggled  into  the  mind  of  the  repressed  by  hireling  priests. 
Resistance  is  the  antithesis  of  invasion — ^the  invaders  therefore 
will  not  hire  the  master's  priests  to  teach  us  the  religion  of  re- 
sistance. We  must  learn  and  practice  this  religion  ourselves 
amidst  our  own  circumstances  and  against  all  things  that  make 
for  inequality  of  condition,  and  all  that  teaching:  that  opposes  re- 
sistance. Every  human  being  possesses  racial  intelligence  or  the 
capacity  for  it  who  possesses  a  mind ;  and  that  racial  intelligence 
in  operation  is  the  soul  of  man.  It  is  not  mind  as  an  absorbent  of 
statements  or  dogmas,  but  mind  as  the  knower  of  what  to  do  that 
gives  us  our  first  cheque  on  the  bank  of  the  spiritual  life.  The 
free  mind  observing  and  acquainting  itself  with  its  helps  and 
hindrances  is  the  mind  of  the  human  soul  which  now  calls  for  the 
religion  of  resistance. 

When  a  thing  is  to  be  resisted  one  of  three  events  must  take 
place.  The  resistance  must  go,  the  thing  resisted  must  go,  or  the 
resister  must  go.  Some  actual  evil  greater  than  the  evil  resisted 
(or  the  menace  of  it)  must  stop  the  resister  and  his  resistance. 
Force  therefore,  as  a  fact  or  as  a  delusion,  confronts  resistance  and 
nothing  more.  Whatsoever  fosters  this  delusion  or  strengthens 
that  force  is  the  thing  to  be  resisted  if  the  evil  is  to  be  overcome. 
To  maintain  the  power  of  resistance  is  therefore  the  first  religious 
duty  of  tiie  man  who  seeks  the  spiritual  life.    Every  man  should 


THE  BSUQION  OF  BESI8TANCB.  359 

repudiate  that  condition  which  for  himself  and  his  fellows,  resists 
resistance  to  evil  with  the  menace  that  it  shall  be  followed  with  a 
greater  evil  than  the  one  complained  of.  To  reduce  delusions  to 
facts  is  the  first  step  of  the  man  struggling  with  his  own  and 
social  wrones.  Is  there  a  greater  wron^  to  punish  one  ?  Is  there 
a  majority  of  people  really  kept  in  bondage  by  the  force  of  a  mi- 
nority? There  is  not.  No  such  force  exists  upon  tlie  earth.  It 
is  a  delusion.  To  strip  that  delusion  down  to  fact  we  have  but 
to  cease  our  contributions  to  the  overcredited  forceful  class.  The 
capitalists  of  America  have  no  force  at  all  with  which  to  dominate 
the  majority — only  that  which  out  of  its  own  delusions  the  ma- 
jority concedes.  Withdraw  those  concessions  the  force  vanishes 
and  the  workers  are  free.  We  therefore  at  an  early  stage  in  this 
crusade  for  the  restoration  of  free  religion  resist  the  misuse  of 
our  own  force  against  ourselves  by  correcting  our  own  delusion 
that  any  minority  can  maintain  a  wrong.  If  change  is  the  father, 
resistance  is  sjirely  the  mother  of  life.  No  word  in  the  languages 
of  men  is  so  sahie,  so  noble  as  this  word  "resistance."  It  is  man's 
life  at  the  outposts  defending  itself  from  that  brutal  principle  of 
assault,  the  strenuous  life —  the  aggressive  disease  of  aristocracy. 
In  the  energy  of  resistance  we  have  infolded  all  the  active  be- 
ginnings of  morality  and  the  spiritual  life  of  collective  man.  In  it 
is  the  philosophy  of  democracy ;  it  is  a  new  volume  begun  every 
day,  and  its  first  chapter  is  a  chapter  of  wrongs  considered  and 
assailed ;  and  its  last  chapter  will  be  one  of  wrongs  overcome. 

The  ideal  of  co-operation  is  far,  very  far,  ahead  of  present 
moral  development.  The  sentiment  having  positive  force  in  it  to 
marshal  and  hold  men  together,  to  make  great  things  and  to  gently 
bind  nations  together  is  a  social  subconscious  force  operating 
upon  tfie  individual  life,  but  upon  which  the  individual  life 
cannot  as  an  agent  act  or  operate,  though  he  may  operate  himself 
into  it.  There  is  a  hidden,  indefinable  social  potency ;  the  central 
force  of  man's  history  as  a  citisen,  the  soul  of  the  race,  con- 
cerning which  only  one  thing  I  will  here  affirm.  It  is  a  divine 
(that  is,  a  whole  human)  dynamic,  responding  to,  rewarding  and 
strengthening  the  active  courage  of  the  man  of  resistance.  Be- 
ginning with  the  body  physically  and  locally,  resisting  the  dis- 
agreeable effects  separately  coming  upon  it  from  other  things, 
then  proceeding  to  the  resistance  offered  by  the  same  body,  as  a 
whole  person,  to  those  effects ;  then  advancing  as  a  mind  to  the 
immediate  cause  of  those  effects  and  resisting  them  in  large; 
then  clothing  this  mental  defense  with  the  bodies  of  many  per- 
sonalities in  combined  resistance,  just  as  the  aversion  to  a  single 
disagreeable  effect  was  previously  clothed  with  the  powers  of  tfie 
whole  personality.  Beginning  as  an  oppugnance  to  the  series  of 
assaults  upon  the  physical  life,  of  which  we  are  admonished  by 
tfie  disagreeable  effects  of  some  things  upon  us,  we  move  from 
these  ulterior  things,  involuntarily,  as  it  were,  by  coil  or  spiral 


S60  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW, 

movements,  towards  the  Central  Human.  From  resisting  simple 
hurts  directly  to  the  avoidance  or  removal  of  simple  hurts  menac- 
ing us  we  move  from  animal  to  man.  We  have  made  mind  matters 
of  our  physical  hurts;  we  look  behind  them  to  deal  with  their 
causes;  we  begin  ahead  of  them  to  deal  with  them  before  they 
come.  We  pass  them  from  ulterior  to  inner  circles  for  treatment. 
Our  hurts  have  become  evils  to  be  considered  in  the  inner  execu- 
tive chamber  of  the  mind  that  they  may  from  thence  the  more 
eifectually  be  smitten  back  by  the  physical  hand,  if  necessary,  at 
the  outposts  of  resistance.  Now  henceforth  more  of  the  life  of  the 
resisting  man  is  spent  on  the  mental  circles  than  where  the  hand 
is  uplifted — z,  year  to  think,  a  moment  to  strike.  Man's  mind 
is  more  of  a  collective  mind  in  proportion  to  its  being  a  mind  re- 
sisting; for  as  he  continues  to  resist  he  continues  to  learn  that 
rarely  and  still  more  rarely  is  a  man  called  upon  to  resist  alone. 
Wholesomeness  of  resistance  is  soon  manifested  as  wholeness  of 
resistance,  and  thus  the  defender  becomes  conscious  of  wrongs 
as  interferences  by  strenuous  and  unruly  property-persons  with  the 
general  life,  resisting  which  he  knows  to  be  the  one  way  left  of 
saving  the  God  thought  until  that  time  when  men  will  know 
what  to  do  with  it.  When  we  have  done  smitting  God  will  begin 
to  build.  Let  us  leave  the  ruder  hurts  and  elementary  evils  of 
the  past  far  behind  us  and  go  on  to  attack  our  collective  wrongs 
and  so  hasten  that  day. 

Evolution  has  been  the  history  of  the  development  of  man  as 
an  animal  forming  and  an  animal  feeding.  Biologically  and  eco- 
nomically, evolution  describes  the  process  by  which  the  physical 
individual  has  thus  far  developed  and  survived.  But  swooped  in 
together  by  modern  economic  forces  each  man  is  now  so  lost  in 
many  men  that  evolution  can  no  longer  find  him  alone,  or  one 
line.  He  has  retired  to  involution,  and  if  evolution  will  remain 
in  the  business  of  an  expounder  of  progress  she  must  follow 
him  in  as  a  social  intellect  from  this  point  of  resistance  to  whole- 
ness of  mind. 

The  tx)lar  activity  of  the  religion  of  resistance  is  power  from 
all  to  each ;  it  is  that  which  takes  place  between  the  vital  affluence 
of  the  Center  Human  and  the  single  emptiness  of  each  remote 
resistant.  It  is  a  social  endowment  falling  upon  the  heart  and 
head  of  that  uttermost  man  who  resists  wrong.  It  is  the  divinity 
of  the  whole  human  life  drawn  off  as  the  negative  drains  the  posi- 
tive cloud  of  electricity.  But,  again,  the  Collective  Human  draws 
back  from  each  resistant  that  which  it  gave,  plus  the  new  experi- 
ence, to  be  returned  again  on  call  to  the  next  resister's  demand, 
plus  whatever  new  experience  has  passed  in  and  which  the  new 
resister  is  able  to  employ — a  flux  and  reflux  between  man  fighting 
and  God  helping. 

To  kick  a  vicious  dog  away  from  one's  legs,  to  drive  it  away 
from  the  school  house,  is  a  more  religious  act  than  to  invade 


THE  BMilGION  OF  BESISTANCE.  861 

Qiina  with  guns  having  crucifix  triggers.  The  Chinaman  in- 
vaded is  on  the  resister's  side  on  the  religious  side  of  the  ques- 
tion, while  the  invader  is  on  that  of  the  mad  dog.  But,  alas,  since 
the  American  man  with  the  cross  gun  nor  the  Chinaman  with  his 
primitive  walls  are  neither  the  invader  nor  the  resistant,  but  only, 
in  both  cases,  the  mere  instruments  and  slaves  to  the  real  foes  be- 
hind them — ^the  controlling  aristocrats  of  two  nations,  the  rulers 
of  slaves.  The  first  thing  for  the  human  race  everywhere  to  do 
in  all  Chinas  and  Americas  is  to  resist  slavery  ere  we  come  to  that 
age  of  responsibility  which  shall  usher  it  to  involution.  Broadly 
tfien  all  men  are  called  upon  everywhere  to  resist  the  private  con- 
trcrf  of  social  activities.  Before  we  can  have  the  spiritual  we  must 
either  throw  away  our  chains  or  be  engaged  in  breaking  them. 

Throughout  all  previous  resistances  to  the  disagreeable  and 
hurtful  we  were  only  preserving  ourselves  alive  to  fight  this  good 
fight  of  private  courage  that  wins  us  social  growth. 

Another  circle  of  resistance  is  the  opposing  of  that  which 
promotes  personal  contests  and  differentation.  We  will  also  be 
found  opposing  that  which  stimulates  without  promoting  the 
singleness  of  life,  false  Catholicisms  and  false  publicisms.  And 
also  that  which  promotes  the  fallacy  that  res  publica  can  flourish 
at  the  cost  of  any  persons.  And  that  which  prevents  the  will  of 
man  from  being  as  linked  together  and  mutual  as  the  machineries 
of  production.  And  that  which  prevents  the  minds  of  men  from 
being  as  world-fluent  as  the  wares  of  the  merchants.  And  that 
whidi  prevents  the  organization  of  labor  from  stretching  as  widely 
as  the  hide  of  labor  is  stretched  to  be  sweated.  And  that  which 
blinds  us  to  the  world-values  of  our  own  small  wrongs  and  the 
divinity  of  our  first  resisting.  And  that  which  prevents  us  from 
seing  that  between  capital  and  labor  there  is  being  played  or 
fought  out  the  drama  of  sin  versus  holiness.  And  that  which 
hinders  the  outflowing  of  every  man's  mind  into  world  connec- 
tions. And  that  which  steals  away  our  leisure  and  burdens  with 
misinformation  and  fraud  our  spare  hours  of  thinking.  And  that 
which  removes  our  objects  of  interest  and  resistance  from  the 
present  time  and  place  to  later  on.  And  that  which  lifts  dogma 
above  deed.  And  that  which  alienates  the  social  forces  of  labor, 
law  and  wealth  from  community  to  persons.  And  that  which 
diminishes  private  courage  by  the  overshadows  of  a  profound 
and  mighty  past  and  future.  And  that  which  overburdens  the 
private  mind  or  body  beyond  what  it  is  able  to  bear.  And  that 
which  exaggerates  the  personal  responsibility  while  disarming  the 
person.  And  that  which  places  us  under  law  rather  than  in  life. 
And  that  which  substitutes  self's  view  of  society  for  the  social 
view  of  self.  And  that  which  presents  ideals  to  suffering  men 
as  magnets  to  draw  them  from  their  evils  or  their  evils  from 
them.     When  truly  the  ideal  should  be  a  sword  with  which,  in 


364  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

public-school  instruction  of  to-day),  hut ifistruction  in  the  public 
ivay.  They  are  good,  better  or  best  in  proportion  as  they  happen 
to  be  caskets  of  public  truth. 

Here  is  no  room  for  chastizing  the  child  or  the  ineffective 
adult  by  this  last.  Only  if  I  had  a  heart  for  chastising  a  child 
I  would  surely  select  for  the  whip  that  one  that  sensed  itself  to 
be  better  than  the  others. 

Of  all  the  odious  and  sickening  things  under  the  sun,  remove 
me  far  from  that  man  or  child  from  whose  lips  proceed  the  stench 
of  his  own  single  righteousness.  This  is  the  dry  rot  of  all  false 
religions,  that  they  are  but  differentiators — manufacturers  of 
saints  and  sinners.  Such  religions,  one  and  all,  and  all  such  affec- 
tions, are  evils  to  be  strenuously  resisted  by  the  spirit  of  democ- 
racy. 

They  only  have  no  God  who  feel  themselves  to  be  always 
under  the  necessity  of  holding  him  in  their  consciousness.  They 
only  have  a  god  who  knows  of  a  constitution  of  things  upon 
which  they  can  lay  working  hands.  The  wrongs  of  society  and  of 
persons  afford  such  a  constitution  of  things  to  every  man.  Re- 
sistance to  capitalisrri  and  all  its  attendants  affords  the  most 
welcome  and  fruitful  field  for  developing  divinity  in  the  lives  of 
men.  Peter  E.  Burrowes. 


1 


Socialism,  or  Anarchist  Communism. 

IN  THE  many  good  articles  that  appear  in  the  iNXERNATiONAf. 
Socialist  Review,  by  the  many  different  writers,  and  varied 
conditions  of  thought,  an  occasional  confused  idea  must  in- 
evitably creep  in.  The  tendency  of  the  times  is  toward  con- 
fusion of  thought.  This  modern  Babel  is  the  result  of  the  clash 
of  class  interest,  the  clash  between  those  of  the  working  class,  who 
thoroughly  understand  their  class  interest,  and  the  capitalist  class 
in  its  entirety,  who  realize  that  their  class  interests  are  being  at- 
tacked as  a  class,  and  not  as  individuals. 

The  capitalist  class  did  not  pay  much  attention  to  any  attack 
during  the  period  that  the  individual  was  attacked  along  political 
lines,  but  as  quickly  as  the  change  was  made  by  the  Socialist,  and 
their  interest  as  an  entire  class  was  attacked,  they  immediately 
secured  the  service  of  all  kinds  of  intellectual  prostitutes  to  confuse 
the  minds  of  the  workers,  whom  they  have  been  and  hope  to  con- 
tinue fleecing,  through  the  aid  of  the  aforesaid  intellectual  prosti- 
tutes. 

Is  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  the  capitalists  and  their  cohorts,  the 
politicians,  have  been  successful  in  pulling  the  wool  of  confusion 
through  the  lines  of  thought  laid  down  by  many  writers.  In  the 
September  Review  Comrade  Raphael  Buck  seems  to  have  bucked 
up  against  an  anarchist  communist — in  other  words,  a  sadly  con- 
fused confusionist.  He  seems  to  have  imbibed  some  of  this  confu- 
sion, much  in  the  same  way  that  many  people  imbibe  religion — 
that  is,  without  question  or  investigation — when  he  says,  ''An- 
archist communism  is  the  best  and  highest  stage  of  political  and 
economic  progress";  even  if  he  does  mention  how  foolish  it 
would  be  to  advocate  it  at  the  present  day.  Anarchism  simply 
means  individualistic  chaos ;  communism  is  simoly  the  economics 
of  the  heap  as  advocated  by  Kropotkin  and  Elisc  Rcclus.  and  it 
is  because  the  Socialist  objects  to  producing  wealth  and  luxury 
for  loafers  that  he  advocates  Socialism  as  it  was  express^id  by 
Marx  and  Engels,  and  it  is  for  the  same  reason  the  Socialist  at- 
tacks_  both  anarchism  and  communism.  Communism  is  an  old 
Utopian  idea,  take  it  in  any  light  you  look  at  it;  and  as  far  as 
anarchist  communism  is  concerned,  it  cannot  exist  any  more  than 
hot  ice  or  cold  fire  can  exist. 

Kropotkin  in  the  advocation  of  his  theory  says  that  "anarchist 
communism  means  a  free  society  voluntarily  organized  by  its 
members."  Any  form  of  organization  must  necessarily  be  a 
form  of  government,  voluntarily  or  not ;  therefore,  there  can  be 
no  such  thing  as  anarchist  communism ;  it  is  a  misnomer. 

I  am  curious  to  know  if  Comrade  Buck  would  stand  for  the 

865 


866  THE  INTBRNATIONAL  S^CHLALIST   W5VIBW. 

sublime  teachings  of  anarchism,  as  taught  by  Bakotmin  and  Jeaa 
Grave,  and  in  order  to  save  Comrade  Buck  valuable  time  I  will 
give  a  sample  of  the  sublime  teachings  of  those  two  wortiiies 
below : 

"All  reasonings  about  the  future  are  criminal,  because  they 
hinder  destruction  pure  and  simple,  and  fetter  the  progress  of  the 
revolution. — Bakounin. 

Of  course  Bakounin  forgets  to  mention  those  two  companies  of 
militia  by  which  that  great  and  grand  revolution  at  Lyons  was 
broken  up. 

Jean  Grave  in  his  book,  "Moribund  Society  and  Anarchy,"  dis- 
cussing tyrannical  employers  during  times  of  strike,  says:  "Let 
us  suppose  one  of  the  like  executed  in  some  corner,  with  a  placard 
posted  explaining  that  he  has  been  killed  as  an  exploiter.  In 
such  a  case  there  is  no  being  mistaken  as  to  the  reason  prompting 
the  authors  of  the  deeds,  and  we  may  be  assured  that  they 
will  be  applauded  by  the  whole  laboring  world,  such  are  intelli- 
gent deeds:  which  shows  that  actions  should  always  follow  a 
guiding  principle."  But,  as  the  guiding  principle  in  this  case  is 
the  natural  seeking  for  the  revenge  of  the  savage,  further  com- 
ment on  that  sublime  idea  is  unnecessary. 

Benjamin  Tucker,  of  Boston,  says  the  theory  of  anarchism  is 
based  on  the  individual;  also,  anarchism  is  the  doctrine  that  all 
the  affairs  of  men  should  be  managed  by  individuals  or  by  volun- 
tary associations,  and  that  the  state  should  be  abolished.  Here 
again  we  find  that  association  of  some  kind  is  necessary  to  carry 
on  the  necessary  work  of  man,  and  this  is  an  admission,  even  by 
the  leader  of  those  that  boast  of  their  individualism,  and  means 
that  some  form  of  government  is  an  absolute  necessity. 

This  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  we  (Socialists)  will  need 
the  vast  paraphernalia  that  is  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
present  bourgeois  form,  as  there  will  be  no  wage  slaves  to  repress 
in  the  manner  the  present  ruling  class  are  doing  in  Colorado,  the 
classes  being  wiped  out,  and  all  having  an  equal  opportunity. 

.  This  is,  I  believe,  the  only  way  out  of  the  matter  for  Comrade 
Buck,  to  let  him  obtain  copies  of  the  past  and  present  authors  on 
anarchistic  literature,  read  them  through,  study  them,  then  com- 
pare them  with  the  authors  of  Socialist  literature.  He  will  then 
note  one  fact,  that  each  disagrees  with  the  other  in  most  every- 
thing ;  but  all  agree  in  the  commuity  idea,  some  in  competition  and 
others  in  ownership  of  all  by  all,  without  the  taking  into  considera- 
tion the  propensity  to  laziness  on  the  part  of  some. 

A.  F.  DUGAN. 


Equal  Distribution. 

COMRADE  BUCK  in  the  article  entitled  "Ascending 
Stages  of  Socialism"  voices  the  theory  of  the  aristocratic 
antagonists  to  Socialism. 

That  equal  distribution  of  social  product  would  tend  to 
carelessness  in  production;  that  the  high  rate  of  remuneration 
attending  equal  distribution  would  simply  institute  an  era  of  brute 
gratifications,  in  which  an  inordinate  sexualism  would  play  an 
important  part,  thus  increasing  the  population  beyond  the  limits 
of  subsistence ;  that  equal  distribution  would  establish  a  premium 
for  slothfulness,  and  he  predicts  dire  disasters  as  a  consequence 
upon  the  inauguration  of  equal  distribution — namely,  a  constantly 
decreasing  product  and  a  constantly  increasing  population :  all  of 
his  statements,  forecasts  and  arguments  concerning  the  future  of 
the  Co-operative  Commonwealth  might  simply  be  dismissed  as  so 
many  surmises,  non-debatable,  because  non-provable. 

But  when  he  ignores  the  true  concept  of  distribution,  the 
biological  basis  of  equal  distribution,  and  Marx's  concept  of  labor 
and  value,  then  he  invites  open  discussion. 

He  clings  to  the  capitalistic  idea  of  wages,  remuneration,  labor 
tokens,  and  speaks  about  "Ensuring  to  each  individual  neither 
more  nor  less  than  the  full  value  of  his  indimdual  product."  Also 
"Out  of  which  product  he  would  have  to  provide  for  his  own 
needs  and  the  needs  of  his  dependents." 

In  another  place,  "Each  individual  being  obliged  out  of  his  own 
earnings,  which  are  proportionate  to  his  exertions,  to  provide  for 
his  own  needs,  and  for  the  needs  of  his  family." 

Marx  demonstrated  that  use  commodities  have  only  a  use 
value,  and  that  exchange  value  was  a  capitalistic  fetish,  as  ex- 
change value  is  resolved  under  capitalistic  production  into  money. 

Tliat  this  transformation  of  use  value  into  money  reduces 
labor  power  to  the  status  of  a  marketable  commodity. 

These  conditions  would  disappear  with  the  passing  of  capital- 
ism into  co-operation. 

Marx  further  demonstrated  that  the  social  product  is  the 
result  of  social  labor,  abstract  human  labor,  and  as  such  can  have 
no  longer  an  absolute  computable,  individualistic  value. 

For  instance,  what  is  the  full  value  of  a  ditch  digger's  product? 
And  what  is  the  full  value  of  a  thousand  ditch  diggers'  product, 
working  with  pick  and  shovel,  compared  to  a  thousand  diggers' 
product  working  with  the  new  steam  ditch-digging  machines  ? 

And  when  we  talk  of  the  time-price  of  production,  we  invaria- 
bly compute  the  time  value  of  the  production  of  social  necessi- 
ties.   It  is  otherwise  impossible  to  find  the  time  value  of  the 


368  THE   INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

fidl  product  of  the  ditch-digger's  hour,  the  piano  teacher's,  the 
doctor's,  the  stoker's,  engineer's,  etc.,  hour. 

There  is  no  other  way  of  computing  the  full  product  of  these 
classes  except  by  an  equal  share  in  the  socially  necessary  use-com- 
modities. Therefore  there  can  be  no  unequal  remuneration,  paid 
in  money,  or  labor  tokens,  based  upon  the  ratio  of  the  individual's 
intense  or  lax  exertions. 

So  much  for  the  first  two  accusations.  The  biological  basis 
of  scientific  socialism  is  the  law  of  the  greatest  evolution  of  organ- 
isms and  species  under  the  most  favorable  environment.  Now,  if 
we  are  to  have  a  substratum,  a  proletariat,  in  the  Co-operative 
Commonwealth,  lax,  indigent,  slothful  and  badly  paid  in  conse- 
quence; having  a  too  numerous  progeny,  and  being  obliged  to 
support  this  family  out  of  their  meager  wages,  I  do  not  see  how 
it  could  be  a  conducive  environment  to  physical,  mental,  moral  or 
esthetic  development.  The  burjden  of  consequences  for  the  father's 
inefficiency  would  fall  then,  as  now,  upon  innocent  shoulders,  the 
shoulders  of  helpless  mothers  and  children.  One  might  as  well 
urge  the  retention  in  solitary  confinement  of  the  thief,  burglar 
and  forger,  after  the  establishment  of  the  Co-operative  Common- 
wealth. If  any  need  the  best  of  environment  to  rehumanize  them 
and  raise  theni  to  the  evolutionary  plane  of  their  fellows,  it  is  the 
present  substratum  of  the  working  class,  and  the  outcasts. 

An  environment  which  keeps  them  down,  acts  as  a  drag  to 
the  evolutionary  progress  of  the  whole  race.  Therefore  this  sub- 
stratum need  an  equal  share  of  the  use-commodities,  and  a  consid- 
erably greater  share  of  education,  music,  refining  surrounding  and 
intercourse,  than  would  Comrade  Buck  or  Comrades  Simons,  or 
Herron. 

Then,  if  we  perpetuate  the  proletariat  by  the  system  of  unequal 
remuneration,  we  will  always  be  threatened  by  revolution  of  the 
proletariat.  But  this  is  what  Comrade  Buck  wants,  because  he  is 
not  a  Socialist,  but  an  Anarchist  (Communist?).  Refer  to  pages 
i6i  and  162.    Therefore  he  foresees  three  stages  of  Socialism. 

First,  unequal  remuneration  Socialism.  Second,  Bellamy's 
military  Communism.  Third,  Anarchist  Communism,  Johann 
Most's.  So  he  hopes  that  the  repression  of  unequal  remuneration 
will  force  a  second  revolution,  and  the  restrictions  of  military 
Communism  a  third  revolt,  and  then  perfection  will  be  attainable. 

But  he  places  this  thousands  of  years  in  the  future,  so  that  it 
can  only  concern  us  in  the  immediate  present  to  get  all  we  can 
while  we  are  at  it,  and  we  can  only  get  that  through  equal  distri- 
bution of  the  total  social  product. 

He  speaks  on  page  158  about  the  effort  necessary  to  oyerccwne 
natural  inertia,  and  speaks  of  the  stimulus  of  reward  proportioned 
to  the  energy  expended  to  obtain  this  reward  as  being  necessary  to 
overcome  the  aforementioned  natural  inertia.    This  is  the  capital- 


EQUAL  DI8TBIBUTI0N.  360 

istic  argument  of  incentive,  always  brought  forward  to  show  that 
under  Socialism  there  would  be  no  incentive  to  improve,  create  and 
invent. 

As  though  the  incentive  of  an  equal  share  in  the  nation's 
total  social  product  of  music,  art,  commodities,  etc.,  were  not 
incentive  enough  for  the  starving,  expropriated  proletaire ! 

Again,  tiie  editor  takes  exception  to  his  statement  that  eco- 
nomic well-being  is  noted  by  an  increased  birth  rate.  Statistics  at 
present  prove  the  exact  opposite. 

Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  under  a  system  of  equal  distribution, 
that  all  women  would  have  offspring  every  eighteen  months  dur- 
ing the  normal  period  of  their  child-bearing  life? 

Comrade  Buck  had  best  ask  the  Socialist  women  of  the  world, 
or  of  the  United  States,  whether  such  is  their  intention. 

I  think  their  reply  would  startle  him.  They  would  answer  to 
a  woman  that,  as  they  expected  to  be  free  economically,  they  also 
expected  to  have  something  better  to  occupy  their  time  than  mere- 
ly gratifying  masculine  scortatory  passion  and  having  an  un- 
numbered progeny. 

A  closer  knowledge  of  women,  and  of  the  proletariat,  might 
show  Comrade  Buck  that  there  were  more  things  than  were 
dreamt  of  in  his  philosophy. 

As  a  colossal  monument  of  the  peculiar  imaginings  of  a  pessi- 
mist philosophy,  his  article  is  a  wonder.  Viewed  in  the  light  of 
practical  mathematical  demonstration  it  is  but  the  baseless  fabric 
of  a  dream.  Abstract  labor  creates  the  total  social  product.  Ab- 
stract labor  must  own  the  total  social  product. 

The  abstract  labor  of  one  individual  out  of  many  millions  has 
no  peculiar  relative  value  that  is  greater  or  less  than  each  of  the 
other  millions. 

The  abstract  labor  of  one  individual  is  therefore  relatively 
equal  in  value  to  each  of  the  other  millions. 

Therefore  each  individual  is  entitled  to  an  equal  share,  when 
HE  WORKS,  of  the  total  social  product. 

Therefore  the  Socialist  proposes  time  checks,  having  a  pur- 
chasing power  designated  by  their  fractional  numerator  of  the 
total  necessary  labor  time  to  produce  the  total  labor  product. 
Translated  into  present  parlance,  twenty-five  million  laborers  labor 
seventy-five  million  hours  per  diem  for  two  hundred  days  per 
annum  to  create  the  total  necessary  social  product. 

We  will  suppose,  then,  that  •ne  hour's  time  check  will  equal 
the  present  purchasing  power  of  one  dollar  (though  an  hour's 
time  check  will  probably  be  worth  more  than  a  dollar  is  now).  If 
a  given  individual,  for  any  reason  whatever,  real  or  fictitious,  will 
only  work  one  hour  a  day  for  one  hundred  days,  he  will  only  have 
time  checks  to  the  amount  of  one  hundred  dollars.  So  here  is 
your  Utopia  of  unequal  remuneration  for  X\k  slothful  and  indus-. 
trious. 


370  THE  INTBENATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

But  if  the  said  individual  can  only  work  one  hour  for  one  hun- 
dred days,  he  shall  be  entitled  to  the  full  inc(Hne  of  three  hours  for 
two  hundred  days'  necessary  social  labor,  or  six  hundred  dollars. 

So  it  becomes  evident  that,  notwithstanding  the  principle  of 
equal  distribution  will  prevail  in  making  every  hour's  time  check 
for  whatever  labor  performed,  equal  in  purchasing  value  to  every 
other's  hour's  time  check  in  all  the  varied  industries  of  the  nation, 
yet  it  operates  to  prevent  equal  distribution  where  unmerited. 
Otherwise  it  will  operate  according  to  the  law  of  the  parable — 
at  least  for  a  long  time — of  always  tending  toward  equal  distribu- 
tion yet  not  reaching  it. 

This  seems  at  present  to  be  the  only  just  method  of  distribu- 
tion, and  one  that  seems  to  meet  with  the  approval  of  all  classes, 
especially  those  who  are  terribly  concerned  about  the  class  of 
people  who  won't  work. 

"What  are  you  Socialists  going  to  do  with  the  fellows  who 
won't  work?** 

This  is  a  question  I  have  had  to  answer  probably  one  million 
times  in  twenty-five  years.  Yet  I  have  always  found  that  the  time 
check  theory  satisfied  these  questioners,  who  thought  that  Social- 
ism and  Communism  are  one  and  the  same  thing.  And  as  the  time 
check  system  leaves  the  quantity  of  each  individual's  product,  or 
the  intensity  of  his  exertion  uncoerced,  it  naturally  becomes  an 
incentive  to  overcome  natural  inertia,  and  a  stimulus  to  attain  in* 
creased  productiveness,  and  an  equal  distribution. 

For  if  the  aforementioned  25,000,000  will  but  work,  each  one 
of  them  and  altogether,  the  average  necessary  labor  time,  then 
each  and  every  one  of  them  will  have  an  equal  amount  of  time 
checks,  which  will  mean  equal  distribution  of  their  total  product. 

ChAS.  F.  PtniDY. 


EDITORIAL 


*  Trade  Unions],Not  Political  Parties. 

It  is  a  fact  of  'whieli  Socialists  continually  lose  sight  tliat  the  trade 
union  and  a  political  party  have  two  distinct,  though  closely  allied,  fields 
of  activity.  For  this  reason,  Socialist  resolutions  by  trade  unions  are  of 
little  more  effect  than  would  be  strike  orders  by  Socialist  parties.  We 
say  now,  as  we  said  last  year,  that  the  passage  or  the  defeat  of  a  Socialist 
resolution  by  the  annual  convention  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
is  of  no  importance  except  as  a  means  of  advertising  and  to  a  very  trifling 
extent  as  measuring  the  growth  of  Socialist  sentiment  among  the  rank  and 
file.  For  reasons  pointed  out  by  Comrade  Hayes,  elsewhere  in  this  number, 
it  is  really  of  less  importance  on  this  last  point  than  is  ordinarily  thought. 

Everywhere  this  confusion  of  function  of  the  two  phases  of  the  class 
struggle  finds  expression  in  Socialist  speeches  and  papers.  Yet  every 
attempt  of  the  union  to  usurp  the  political  field  has  been  as  fatal  as  have 
been  the  occasional  corresponding  attempts  of  political  parties  to  invade 
the  tlnion  field  through  the  organissatlon  of  "federal  unions"  for  purposes 
of  political  propaganda.  If  the  union  can  perform  the  work  of  political 
action,  then,  what  need  have  we  for  a  Socialist  Party  f  The  fact  that 
when  the  union  itself  attempts  to  enter  the  political  field  by  the  adoption 
of  socialist  resolutions,  or  even  incorporatee  sections  of  the  socialist  plat- 
forms into  its  constitution,  it  does  not  have  any  great  effect  on  the  political 
outlook,  has  been  shown  time  and  again.  Perhaps  it  received  its  most 
striking  confirmation  at  the  last  election  when  the  A.  L.  IT.  membership  in 
Colorado  seem  to  have  voted  almost  unanimously  for  Populist  candidates, 
since  the  socialist  vote  of  the  state  can  almost  be  accounted  for  without 
the  votes  of  the  A.  L.  TJ. 

There  has  been  very  little  connection  between  the  passage  of  socialist 
resolutions,  or  the  capture  of  socialist  central  bodies  in  any  state  or 
municipality,  and  the  progress  of  the  socialist  vote.  Indeed  there  has  been 
even  less  than  would  naturally  be  expected,  since  some  cities  in  which  the 
central  labor  body  is  practically  controlled  by  socialists  and  where  the 
official  organ  of  the  trade  union  is  a  socialist  propaganda  paper,  the 
progress  of  the  party  seems  slowest.  We  do  not  claim  to  say  that  this  is 
cause  and  effect.  Indeed,  we  believe  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  the 
reverse  is  true,  and  that  when  trade  union  affairs  are  in  the  control  of 
men  who  have  the  wider  outlook  upon  the  class  struggle  which  socialism 
gives,  the  result  will  be  beneficial  both  to  the  trade  union  and  to  the 
socialist  movement.  It  is  of  the  greatest  importance,  however,  that  any 
such  capture  should  be  preceded  by  the  conversion  of  a  majority  of  the 
rank  and  file  in  the  trade  union  field.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  socialism  cannot 
depend  upon  the  conversion  of  leaders.  The  control  of  the  leader  without 
the  backing  of  the  rank  and  file  would  be  rather  disastrous  than  etherwise. 

It  must  always  be  remembered  that  the  trade  umion  membership,  for 


872  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW, 

Tarious  reaaons,  is  most  susceptible  to  socialist  propaganda.  They  are 
men  who  have  at  least  resognized  the  existence  of  the  class  struggle  on  tihe 
economic  field  and,  as  has  been  pointed  out  by  many  socialSt  writers, 
this  struggle  continually  leads  them  into  the  corresponding  political  struggle. 
But  so  long  as  the  ruling  thought  of  society  comes  from  capitalist  sources, 
the  action  of  trade  unions  in  the  political  field  may  or  may  not  be  a  clear 
reflection  of  woridng  class  interests.  These  points  have  been  so  frequently 
covered  in  socialist  literature  that  they  need  not  detain  us  longer,  and  th^e 
is  still  another  point  to  be  considered  at  this  time. 

The  Socialist  Party  has  now  grown  to  a  point  where  its  friendship  is 
of  value,  and  it  is  easily  possible  that  we  shall  ere  long  see  trade  unions 
seeking  Socialist  Party  endorsement  as  often  as  the  reverse.  This  endorse- 
ment once  given  may  easily  be  made  use  of  in  a  manner  which  will  be 
injurious  to  the  socialist  movement.  It  may  involve  the  Socialist  Party  in 
trade  union  controversies  which  have  no  relation  to  the  real  task  bf  social- 
ism. The  fakir  may  invade  socialist  trade  unions  as  well  as  pure  and  simple 
unions,  although  there  is  no  doubt  but  what  we  will  have  a  much  more 
thorny  road  to  travel  in  a  union  whose  members  have  once  begun  to  grasp 
the  fundamental  principles  of  socialism. 


It  has  been  one  of  the  principal  aims  of  this  magazine,  as  we  have 
frequently  said,  to  publish  studies  of  American  industrial  conditions.  We 
are  now  glad  to  announce  that  during  the  next  year  we  will  undertake 
what  we  believe  to  be  one  of  the  most  valuable  studies  of  this  sort  yet 
published.  Mrs.  May  Wood  Simons  and  A.  M.  Simons  are  preparing 
a  study  of  concentration  of  industry  and  the  trust  movement  which  will 
appear  during  the  coming  year.  We  believe  that  a  stage  has  been  reached 
in  this  movement  that  enables  it  to  be  treated  with  much  more  completeness 
than  was  the  case  even  a  few  months  ago. 

The  study  will  begin  with  a  theoretical  discussion  of  concentration  in 
industry,  consolidation  being  considered  as  an  historic  stage  in  capitalism. 
The  conditions  of  concentration,  such  as  an  enlarged  circle  of  the  market, 
perfected  factory  system,  developed  banking  facilities,  corporate  organi- 
zation of  industry,  etc.,  will  be  pointed  out.  The  various  stages  in  concen- 
tration with  their  logical  connection  and  the  economics  of  the  trust  as 
given  both  by  capitalist  and  socialist  writers  will  be  discussed.  This  will 
form  an  introduction  to  the  work,  the  main  portion  of  which  will  be 
devoted  to  an  historic  study  of  concentration  in  this  country. 

The  condition  of  industry  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  will  be  taken 
up  and  the  conditions  considered  which  made  possible  the  growth  of  great 
capitalist  industries.  The  gradual  development  of  concentration  from  one 
industry  to  another,  the  part  played  by  certain  great  basic  industries  in 
the  general  consolidation,  the  effect  of  the  panics  of  1873  and  1894,  and 
other  historic  features  in  this  evolution  will  be  some  of  the  points  covered. 

Then  will  follow  a  survey  of  the  recent  movements  in  concentration, 
closing  with  a  study  of  further  evolution  and  probable  results.  Throughout 
the  work  special  emphasis  will  be  laid  on  the  effect  of  these  great  industrial 
movements  on  the  laboring  class,  particularly  on  the  trade  union  and  the 
wage  bargain.  The  manner  in  which  the  industrial  classes  which  were 
developed  by  these  movements  have  expressed  themselves  in  political  parties 
will  be  given  thorough  consideration.  We  believe  that  such  a  study  will 
be  found  to  be  of  special  value  during  a  campaign  year  and  will  present 
a  grea^  amount  of  material  for  the  use  of  socialist  workers. 


SOCIALISM    ABROAD 


Austria. 

THe  National  Conyention  of  the  Social  Democratic  Labor  Party  of 
Austria  met  at  Yienna  on  November  9.  The  seBsions  were  held  in  the 
Arbeiterheim  (labor  home),  which  belongs  to  the  Social  Democratic  organ- 
ization of  the  Tenth  district  of  Vienna.  The  hall  seats  2,000  and  is 
elaborately  decorated  with  socialist  mottoes  and  portraits  of  the  great 
socialist  workers.  One  hundred  and  forty  delegates  were  present,  of  whom 
74  were  German,  39  Bohemian,  15  Poles,  6  Ruthenians.  3  Italians  and  3 
Slavs.    Eight  of  these  delegates  were  m^embers  of  the  Beichsrath. 

The  report  of  the  party  organization  declared  that  during  the  last 
two  years  great  advances  had  been  made.  This  is  shown  by  the  different 
elections  that  have  been  held  which  have  everywhere  given  considerable 
increase  of  votes.  The  union  movement  has  also  grown  in  the  most  satis- 
factory manner.  The  report  also  describes  the  massacres  of  laborers 
which  have  taken  place  during  times  of  strike,  in  which  many  laborers 
were  killed  and  wounded. 

The  del^ate  from  Dalmatia  reported  the  founding  of  a  Socialist  Party 
in  that  country,  the  holding  of  numerous  meetings,  and  the  establishment 
of  various  local  organizations.  The  efforts  at  agitation  were  met  with  the 
most  brutal  suppression  on  the  part  of  the  government. 

The  report  of  the  parliamentary  fraction  told  of  the  work  which  had 
been  done  in  legislative  bodies.  The  action  of  the  fraction  in  working 
for  a  reduction  of  the  period  of  military  service  from  three  years  to  two 
was  attacked  by  several  members  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  compromise 
with  militarism,  but  nevertheless  the  report  was  unanimously  adopted. 

The  question  of  a  general  strike,  which  is  of  special  importance  to  the 
Austrian  movement  since  they  have  still  to  gain  universal  suffrage,  was 
discussed  at  some  length.  The  general  opinion  seemed  to  be  very  well 
voiced  by  Dr.  Adler  when  he  said  that  **if  the  political  conditions  are 
ready,  and  if  the  masses  of  the  laborers  are  so  disposed,  and  the  necessary 
organization  exists,  then  we  are  ready  to  do  what  we  can  in  regard  to  a 
general  strike;  when  and  how  we  shall  act  remains  to  be  seen.  But  until 
that  time  I  am  satisfied  that  the  Convention  must  reject  a  general  strike." 

On  the  subject  of  the  International  Congtesa  Dr.  Adler  said  that  the 
Austrian  Socialists  were  little  interested  in  the  discussion  between  the 
revisionists  and  the  revolutionists  since  these  questions  had  never  risen  in 
Austria. 

A  report  on  the  co-operative  movement  stated  that  there  existed  at 
the  present  time  in  Austria  170  co-operative  organizations  with  53,000 
members  and  a  capital  of  17,000,000  kronen.  Some  of  the  delegates 
attacked  the  idea  of  associatbig  the  co-operative  movement  with  the 
socialist  movement,  declaring  that  while  no  one  could  deny  that  the  labor 
moyement  might  be  benefited  by  co-operatives  it  was  also  true  that  is  could 

879 


374  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

be  injured,  since  cheapening  prices  might  easily  tend  to  a  lower  standard 
of  life.  Furthermore  the  desire  for  dividends  aroused  the  "beast  of  pri- 
vate property''  in  the  membership  and  tended  to  weaken  the  revolutionary 
attitude  of  the  working  classes. 

The  Woman 'd  Social  Democratic  organization  met  at  the  same  time 
in  the  same  city  as  did  the  Socialist  Convention.  There  were  sixty  dele- 
gates present  representing  thirty  organizations  in  Vienna,  and  nineteen 
from  the  provinces.  It  was  reported  that  the  organization  of  trade  anions 
among  the  women  was  proceeding  rapidly  and  that  at  the  present  time 
there  were  11,000  women  in  the  Austrian  trade  unions.  A  resolution  that 
all  women  should  work  with  the  political  organization  of  the  Socialists  and 
assist  in  all  political  activity  was  adopted  unanimously.  It  was  also  decided 
ta  urge  upon  the  Socialist  parties  of  the  world  the  necessity  of  giving 
more  prominence  to  the  demand  for  woman  suffrage. 


Bohemia. 

The  first  National  Congress  of  the  Bohemian  Social  Democratic  party 
was  held  on  the  28th  and  29th  of  last  June  at  Prague,  with  fifty-eight  of 
the  Vertrauen8manner  of  the  party,  four  members  of  the  executive  commit- 
tee and  seven  members  of  the  National  Council  of  Bohemia.  The  confer- 
ence occupied  itself  with  the  discussion  of  the  means  of  propaganda.  Dur- 
ing the  last  two  years  808  political  meetings  have  been  held  to  advocate 
universal  suffrage  for  the  Landtag,  insurance  for  the  aged  and  the  sick, 
to  fight  militarism,  alcoholism  and  the  tariff.  At  the  last  election  to  the 
Landtag  the  party  had  candidates  in  fifty-one  electoral  districts. 


England. 

The  protection  proposals  of  Chamberlain  seem  to  have  furnished  to 
some  degree  at  least  the  jar  which  Comrade  Hyndman  has  so  long  told 
us  was  necessary  to  rouse  the  working  class  spirit  of  England.  For  the 
first  time  it  looks  as  though  there  was  really  going  to  be  a  real  vital  social- 
ist movement  along  revolutionary  lines  in  that  country.  With  apparently 
all  his  old-time  vigor  Comrade  Hyndman  is  carrying  on  a  lecture  tour  that 
is  stirring  England  as  no  socialist  activity  has  ever  stirred  it  before. 
Everywhere  we  hear  of  the  largest  halls  crowded  to  overflowing  to  listen 
to  him.  At  the  same  time  the  I.  L.  P.  seems  to  be  drifting  nearer  and 
nearer  to  liberalism. 


Italy. 


After  the  recent  Cabinet  crisis  in  Italy,  it  was  generally  believed  that 
the  new  Cabinet  could  not  be  formed  without  the  assistance  of  the  Social- 
ists, and  the  Ministry  undertook  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  Turati  and 
Bissoloti  as  to  the  terms  upon  which  one  of  them  would  enter  the  Cabinet. 
These  men,  of  course,  had  no  authority  whatever  to  speak  for  the  Socialist 
Party,  but  owing  to  their  well  known  revisionist  tendencies  they  were  se- 
lected by  the  capitalist  government.  Fortunately,  in  spite  of  their  revi- 
sionist attitude,  they  refused  to  enter  except  upon  certain  conditions.  These 
conditions,  which  were  in  the  nature  of  certain  labor  laws,  the  goverament 
refused  to  accede  to.  The  revolutionary  soeialists  were  of  course  opposed 
to  the  whole  proposition  and  had  n  part  in  this  dickering  and  were  rerj 


SOCIAUBM  ABBOAD.  875 

glad  when  the  whole  matter  fell  through,  thus  saving  Italy  the  trouble  of 
a  Millerand  ease. 

Ferri,  through  Avanti,  continues  his  attack  on  the  government.  He 
exposed  such  a  state  of  corruption  in  connection  with  the  Minister  of 
Marine  Bettolo  that  the  latter,  after  first  vainlj  seeking  to  deny  the  allega- 
tionSy  finally  admitted  their  truth  by  resigning,  and  is  now  pushing  a  libel 
suit  against  FerrL  At  the  first  meeting  of  the  court  Vorw(ierts  states, 
*  *  that  the  streets  were  filled  with  militia  and  police  in  order  to  prevent  any 
popular  demonstration  by  the  working  class  in  favor  of  Ferri. ' ' 

Some  time  ago  he  showed  up  the  dishonesty  of  the  minister  of  finance, 
who  first  denied  all  the  accusations,  and,  supported  by  the  capitalist  press, 
has  proposed  to  bring  suit.  But  when  Ferri  pressed  the  charges  home, 
and  brought  evidence  of  the  truth  of  his  accusations,  the  minister  committed 
suicide,  &us  tacitly  admitting  his  guilt. 

The  uncompromising  attacks  on  capitalist  officials  seem  to  be  getting 
Ferri  into  trouble  in  various  ways,  as  the  item  from  the  Vorwaerts  shows: 

''BoMX,  Nov.  14. — ^At  noon  today,  as  Comrade  Ferri  was  returning  from 
the  editoiial  office  of  the  Avanti,  he  was  met  at  the  door  of  his  house  by 
a  young  man  who  introduced  himself  as  the  son  of  Senator  Bouz,  publisher 
of  the  Trxbuna,  and  demanded  that  Ferri  cease  his  attacks  on  his  (Bouz's) 
father.  Naturally  Ferri  replied  that  no  threats  would  prevent  him  from 
fulfilling  his  duty  as  journalist,  whereupon  with  a  mass  of  abuse  young 
Boux  threw  himself  upon  Ferri  and  sought  to  strike  him.  With  a  well 
aimed  blow  upon  the  nose  Ferri  stretched  out  his  assailant,  who,  however, 
recovered  himself  and  again  attacked  Ferri.  But  some  laborers  came  run- 
ning up  and  held  the  rash  youth  while  Ferri  quietly  walked  to  his  house. 
Such  outrages  as  these  are  the  natural  results  of  the  campaign  of  some 
of  the  'organs  of  the  established  order'  who  have  taken  as  their  motto, 
'Against  the  Socialists  nothing  will  avail  but  force.'  In  this  case  even 
force  seems  not  to  have  helped.  Avanti  will  continue  to  do  its  duty  and 
young  Bouz  can  spend  the  next  fortnight  in  curing  his  nose."' 

The  Socialist  Club  at  Mantua  has  come  to  the  conclusion  chat  the 
revisionists  have  departed  so  far  from  Socialist  principles  that  a  parting 
of  the  ways  is  necessary  and  advise  a  division  of  the  party.  It  also  criti- 
cises the  revolutionary  wing  as  being  ultra  extreme. 


Japan. 

Becent  events  in  Japan  continue  to  duplicate  the  history  of  Socialism 
in  other  countries.  We  learn  that  two  men  have  been  driven  from  one 
of  the  dailx  papers  because  they  were  socialists,  and  of  the  formation  of 
two  new  Socialist  Clubs,  one  at  Waseda  College  and  another  in  the  city  of 
Wakayama. 

The  editor  of  ''The  Socialist,"  Comrade  Katayama,  is  on  trial  for 
the  publication  and  distribution  of  socialist  literature^  and  the  Japanese 
government  seems  to  be  determined  to  try  the  same  tactics  that  have  bden 
tried  by  the  opponents  of  socialism  in  every  other  country. 

A  book  of  poems  entitled  "A  Collection  of  Poems  of  Socialism,"  writ- 
ten by  Kwagai  Kodama,  has  also  been  confiscated  by  the  government. 
"The  Socialist"  says:  "Will  these  petty  persecutions  stop  the  growth 
of  socialism  in  Japan?  Far  from  it.  Socialism  is  now  studied  more  and 
more  in  every  rank  of  society.  We  hear  many  talk  of  socialism  and  find 
believers  in  it  among  primary  school  teachers.  Come,  persecution  and 
oppression!     Socialism  will  grow  like  spring  grasses  under  snow." 


1 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


Boston. — The  convention  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  that 
has  just  closed  will  not  go  thundering  down  the  corridors  of  time  as 
epoch-making.  In  that,  this  year's  gathering  of  labor  legislators  was 
'way  below  the  standard,  and  but  for  the  debate  on  socialism,  which 
occupied  a  day,  the  session  would  have  been  almost  without  interest. 

To  begin  with  the  officers'  reports,  they  showed  a  very  good  increase 
in  membership  and  considerable  progress  in  the  matter  of  raising  wages 
and  shortening  the  hours  of  labor.  It  should  be  noted  right  here  that 
there  has  been  a  tendency  in  recent  years  on  the  part  of  Federation 
officials  to  usurp  to  themselyes  the  credit  for  the  gains  that  have  been 
made  in  union  memberships  and  wages  increased  and  hours  of  labor 
reduced,  when  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  Washington  office  has  had  little 
or  nothing  to  do  with  the  concessions  secured.  The  campaigns  of  organi- 
zation are  not  directed  from  Washington,  nor  the  battles  t&t  are  fought 
upon  the  industrial  field.  These  moves  are  made  at  the  direction  of  and 
by  national  and  local  unions.  It  is  the  obscure  and  voluntary  local 
organizers  who  do  the  upbuilding  and  make  the  sacrifices;  it  is  the  local 
union  business  agents  and  organization  committees  who  bring  in  the  new 
members,  who  midLO  demands  for  better  conditions  and  strike  and  boycott, 
and,  after  they  have  won  their  hard  fought  battles,  some  of  our  national 
officials  swell  out  with  pride,  gather  at  their  annual  mutual  admiration 
feast  and  claim  all  the  credit  as  being  due  to  "our  policies."  And  the 
worst  of  it  is  that  many  of  the  rank  and  file  believe  and  applaud  them 
for  what  the  members  themselves  have  done.  The  Tabor  movement  can 
be  likened  to  military  operations,  when  those  who  do 'the  fighting  are  for- 
gotten and  the  generals  who  6it  in  their  tents  in  the  rear  of  the  army 
receive  all  the  credit,  with  this  difference  that  in  labor  circles  the  rank 
and  file  and  non-commissioned  officers  initiate  all  the  movea  to  be  made, 
while  in  military  affairs  such  is  not  the  case.  The  trade  union  movement 
is  approaching  the  danger  point  ol  losing  its  democracy  and  establishing 
a  bureaucracy. 

This  unwelcome  fact  becomes  apparent  when  one  considers  how  guard- 
edly many  of  the  delegates  from  national  unions  discussed  general  questions 
and  how  they  hesitated  to  take  a  firm  stand  upon  propositions  that  were 
unpopular,  though  correct  in  principle.  They  seemed  to  fear  that  they 
might  offend  some  one,  and  that  their  acts  might  case  temporary  disad- 
vantages. Several  delegates  dreaded  the  consequences  of  criticising  our 
capituistic  brethren  or  going  on  record  against  the  profit  system  for 
fear  that  sach  actions  might  make  it  difficult  to  secure  concessions  from 
employers.  Others  become  quite  alarmed  at  the  timely  suggestion  that 
a  note  of  warning  be  sounded  to  organized  labor  that  a  period  of  industrial 
depression  was  approaching,  holding  that  such  an  honest 'Statement  of  fact 
would  prove  injurious. 

Coming  down  to  trade  union  politics,  the  discussion  upon  socialism 
revealed  a  curious  condition  of  affairs.     Scores  of  delegates  declared  em- 

876 


THE  WOELD  OP  LABOB.  377 

phaticaHy  in  private  conversation  that  they  were  just  as  sood  socialists  as 
the  next  man,  bnt  to  vote  for  a  resolution  this  year  womd  be  bad  policy 
because  they  were  interested  in  jurisdiction  controversies^  and  to  maJLO 
a  stand  now  would  prove  hurtful  to  them,  and,  then,  anyhow,  the  rank 
and  file  of  their  members,  they  asserted,  were  not  socialists.  In  fact,  I 
could  name  half  a  dozen  delegates  who  deliberately  voted  contrary  to  the 
action  of  the  conventions  of  their  national  unions  in  order  to  gain  support, 
or  at  least  ward  off  criticism,  in  their  jurisdiction  grievances. 

The  debate  upon  socialism  early  in  the  discussion  showed  plainly  that 
the  conservatives  were  determined  to  make  amends  for  the  criticisms 
that  had  been  heaped  .upon  the  trade  unions  since  the  New  Orleans  con- 
vention of  a  year  aeo  by  the  Parrys  and  Hannas.  As  in  former  years, 
the  socialists  confined  themselves  strictly  to  a  discussion  of  facts,  showing 
the  developments  in  industry  and  present  conditions  in  our  social  system, 
and  pointed  out  the  necessity  of  political  unity  to  meet  the  attacks  of 
combined  capital.  They  dwelt  upon  the  president's  report  to  the  effect 
that  not  only  were  no  advantages  secured  from  congress  and  the  state 
legislatures,  but  labor's  opponents  were  actually  making  steady  encroach- 
ments upon  our  liberties — that  labor  bills  were  strangled,  labor  laws 
declared  unconstitutional,  the  boycott  outlawed,  the  blacklist  legalized, 
government  by  injunction  made  permanent,  police  and  militia  continuously 
employed  against  the  workers,  and,  finally,  the  damage  suit  was  being' 
utilized  to  confiscate  treasuries  and  smash  unions.  But  all  appeals  were 
in  vain.  One  might  as  well  have  directed  his  words  at  so  many  statues 
in  marble  for  all  the  impression  they  made.  Not  that  alone,  but  those 
who  preached  political  and  industrial  unity  of  the  working  class  were 
denounced  more  severely  than  if  they  were  Parryized  trade  union  wreckers. 
President  Gompers,  who  always  reserves  to  himself  the  right  to  close  the 
debate,  was  especially  harsh.  Like  nearly  all  of  those  who  speak  from  the 
conservative  side,  his  whole  speech  was  composed  of  personalities  and 
appeals  to  prejudices.  Advocates  of  socialism,  he  declared,  were  not  good 
trade  unionists,  although  some  of  them  pernaps  made  as  many  and  more 
sacrifices  than  he  ever  did  or  ever  will.  He  charged  that  the  socialists 
were  conspiring  to  "capture"  the  trade  union  movement  and  seemed  to 
think  that  they  had  no  right  in  the  organizations,  while,  as  is  well  known, 
if  they  do  not  join  they  are  roundly  condemned  for  standing  aloof.  In 
a  word,  the  speeches  opposing  socialism  were  such  as  could  be  endorsed  by 
all  class-conscious  capitalists.  I  am  willing  to  wager  something  that  the 
Washington  officials  will  not  publish  a  verbatim  report  of  the  socialist 
debate,  despite  the  fact  that  an  official  stenographer  was  employed  to  copy 
the  proceedingSL 

Unquestionably  the  bulk  of  the  Socialist  Party  is  composed  of  trade 
unionitrts,  but  that  does  not  mean  that  a  majority  of  the  members  of 
organized  labor  are  socialists.  It  is,  therefore,  useless  to  expect  that  con- 
verts can  be  made  of  the  officials,  and  every  socialist  ought  to  bend  his 
energies  to  gain  adherents  for  his  cause  among  the  rank  and  file.  When 
the  latter  begin  to  move  in  earnest  there  will  be  some  lively  sidestepping 
done  by  the  "leaders.''  And  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  some  of  the 
gentlemen  who  are  now  surfeited  with  power,  and  who  are  absolutely  mer- 
ciless in  their  unfair  attacks  upon  those  who  have  the  manhood  to  plead 
for  the  abolition  of  capitalism  and  its  wage  slave  system,  will  find  that 
those  whom  they  trust  most  as  loyal  followers  will  be  the  first  to  turn 
on  them.  History  has  a  habit  of  repeating  itself,  and  so  far  as  the 
adherents  of  socialism  in  the  trade  unions  are  concerned  they  are  perfectly 
willing  to  submit  their  ease  to  the  historians  of  the  labor  movement,  to 
the  despoiled  workers  of  today  and  the  emancipated  toilers  of  the  morrow. 

While  the  charge  that  the  socialists  were  making  an  organized  attempt 
to  "capture"  the  trade  unions  is  without-  foundation,  for  the  very  good 
reason  that  emch  a  scheme  would  be  of  no  benefit  where  the  majority  are 


378  THE   INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BEVIEW. 

opposed  to  their  principles,  there  were  nearly  twice  as  many  advocates 
of  socialism  in  the  Boston  convention  as  were  present  in  New  Orleans, 
which  is  a  prettj  safe  indication  that  the  tide  of  socialism  is  steadily 
rising  and  that  within  the  next  few  years  those  who  stand  for  political  as 
well  as  industrial  progress  will  increase  in  numbers  very  materially. 

When  the  trade  unions  become  pretty  thoroughly  socialistic,  then  the 
socialists  will  undoubtedly  take  control,  and  then  there  will  be  no  danger 
of  reaction.  Under  present  circumstances  it  would  be  suicidal  to  attempt 
to  place  a  socuilist  in  the  presidential  position.  Let  the  triumphant  oppo- 
sition control  the  situation  and  use  its  power  while  it  is  in  the  enjoyment 
thereof.  It  is  immaterial  to  us  whether  a  Gompers,  Duncan  or  dark  horse 
is  elected  president  of  the  Federation  just  at  present,  and  the  rumors  of 
plots  and  conspiracies  during  the  year  to  effect  changes  merely  afford 
amusement  for  the  time  being.  There  are  no  disappointments  among  the 
radical  element.  As  one  of  the  conservatives  naively  remarked:  ''They 
have  the  arguments,  but  we  have  the  votes." 

Little  or  no  progress  was  made  in  adjusting  the  many  jurisdiction  con- 
troversies that  are  dearly  the  outcome  of  changing  methods  of  production 
and  distribution,  but  which  the  exponents  of  narrow  craft  organizations, 
or  autonomists,,  seem  unable  to  comprehend.  Quite  likely  the  struggle 
between  some  of  the  national  unions  will  continue  during  the  year  as 
formerly,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  their  capitalistic  masters,  who  are 
organizing  trusts  and  associations.  Probably  on  this  question,  as  that 
of  political  action,  there  will  soon  come  a  revolution  of  thought  that  will 
serve  to  solidify  the  movement  more  compactly  than  ever  and  place  it 
upon  the  right  road  to'  accomplish  its  mission,  namely,  to  play  its  part 
in  overthrowing  capitalism  and  establishing  a  co-operative  commonwealth. 


1 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


The  One  Woman.     Thomaa  Dixon,  Jr.     Doubledaj,  Page  &  Co.     Glotli, 

350  pp.     $1.50. 

Another  sign  of  the  growing  strength  of  socialism  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  the  literuj  hacks  are  beginning  to  write  anti-socialist  books.  This 
particular  volume  is  in  many  ways  an  example  of  the  effect  of  capitalism  in 
the  world  of  letters.  It  is  written  on  the  ''penny  dreadful"  style,  with 
characters  that  are  caricatures  and,  if  dramatized,  would  delight  the  crowd 
who  throng  to  the  melodramas  with  ''plenty  of  killin'."  So  far  as 
socialism  is  concerned  we  can  simply  give  the  author  the  old  alternative  of 
the  fool  or  the  knave.  There  is  nothing  in  the  book  that  shows  that  he 
knows  anything  about  socialism  excepting  a  few  haphazard  quotations  which 
have  no  essential  connection  with  socialist  philosophy.  We  have  had  this 
sort  of  novel  treating  of  almost  every  other  subject,  and  it  was  inevitable 
that  sooner  or  later  some  searcher  after  sensational  themes  should  light  upon 
socialism.  When  he  had  ^'discovered"  this  new  theme,  the  next  question 
was,  on  which  side  was  the  great  majority  of  readers,  and  from  the  literary 
style  of  the  book  there  was  but  one  answer  to  this  question.  It  was  upon 
the  side  of  the  defenders  of  capitalism,  so,  of  course,  he  took  that  side. 
The  ghoulishness  characteristic  of  the  modem  reporter  in  search  of  a  sen- 
sation is  hisL  He  has  hung  his  story  on  the  actions  of  two  prominent 
socialists  and  has  felt  the  more  safe  in  so  doing  since  their  well  known 
non-resistent  principles  protected  him  from  a  libel  suit.  Yet  taking  his 
distorted  facts  as  a  basis  he  is  still  unable  to  make  any  strong  case  against 
socialism.  After  howling  and  shrieking  through  some  250  pages  about 
the  way  in  which  socialism  destroys  the  family,  he  finally  has  his  one  great 
knight  errant  of  the  established  order  and  defender  of  that  sacred  institu- 
tion sneak  into  another  man's  house  and  win  the  affections  of  his  wife, 
for  which  he  is  killed  by  the  free-love  socialist  (f)  husband.  The  first  wife 
of  the  socialist  (t)  then  comes  to  the  rescue,  intercedes  with  the  governor 
and  obtains  a  pardon. 

Some  of  his  choice  criticisms  of  socialism  are  as  follows:  "Socialism 
takes  the  temper  out  of  the  steel  fibre  of  character;  it  makes  a  man  feeble." 
And  this  in  the  face  of  the  countless  martyrs  who  have  died  in  the  name 
of  socialism  the  world  over,  of  a  Liebknecht  and  Bebel  who  have  turned 
aside  from  the  richest  rewards  of  capitalism  to  accept  imprisonment  and 
ostracism  through  half  a  lifetime,  or  a  Marx  writing  out  the  fundamentals 
of  soeialism  wiQi  a  child  lying  unburied,  for  lack  of  funds,  which  but  the 
slightest  waving  to  the  side  of  the  enemy  would  have  secured.  And  all  this 
from  an  intellectual  spineless  prostitute,  who  will  write  a  book  like  ''The 
One  Woman." 

After  praising  the  man  who  is  elected  as  governor,  and  denouncing 
file  rule  of  the  mob,  he  proceeds  to  a  glorification  of  Tammany,  and  the 
Tammany  mob,  which  out-demagogues  anything  to  be  found  outside  of  the 

S79 


380  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BBVIEW. 

actual  facts  of  Tammany  politics.    Verily,  socialism  need  have  no  fear  of 
such  weaponsL 

Mazzini:     the    Prophet    of    the    Keligion    of    Humanity.     By    Louis    J. 

Rosenberg.     Cloth,  uncut  pages,  86  pp.     50  cents:     Charlee 

H.  Kerr  &  Co. 

Of  all  the  characters  who  arose  out  of  the  confused  revolutionary  move- 
ment of  the  40  's  in  Europe,  Mazzini  was  certainly  the  most  picturesque  and 
in  many  ways  one  of  the  most  typical.  He  fell  far  short  of  ever  compre- 
hending the  revolutionary  socialist  point  of  view,  and,  indeed,  must  be 
looked  upon  largely  as  a  middle  class  reformer. 

As  a  writer,  he  has  had  few  equals,  and  he  must  always  remain  one 
of  those  characters  whom  it  is  necessary  to  know  if  we  are  to  gain  a 
thorough  understanding  of  the  conditions  from  which  sprang  the  Interna- 
tional Socialist  movement. 

This  little  volume,  finely  printed  with  wide  margins,  on  heavy  paper, 
is  perhaps  as  convenient  a  summary  of  his  teachings  and  survey  of  his  life 
as  could  be  prepared.  It  is  written  by  an  ardent  admirer  who  overlooks 
all  defects,  although  the  following  summing  up  gives  a  hint  of  his  weak- 


' '  Like  most  prophets,  Mazzini  was  not  practical,  and  like  most  prophets, 
he  was  somewhat  obstinate.  He  believed  his  ideas  were  the  most  correct, 
and  was  ready  to  pay  with  his  life  for  them.  Like  most  prophets,  he  was 
very  conscious  of  his  mission,  and  like  most  prophets,  he  believed  himself 
to  stand  at  the  head  of  his  age.  But  again,  like  most  prophets^  he  does  it 
in  so  innocent,  earnest  and  sincere  a  manner,  that  we  cannot  charge  him 
with  ambition." 

The  work  is  divided  into  three  books,  the  life,  a  survey  of  his  teachings, 
and  his  greatest  address,  the  one  entitled  "To  the  Young  Men  of  Italy." 

Tolstoi  and  His  Message.     Ernest  Howard   Crosby:     Funk   &  Waguails. 
Cloth,  93  pp.     50  cents. 

Here  we  have  in  condensed  handy  form  a  sketch  of  Tolstoi's  life  and 
a  summary  of  his  more  important  doctrines  from  the  pen  of  his  foremost 
American  follower.  Mr.  Crosby  is  not,  however,  a  blind  follower,  but 
sometimes  criticises,  and  quite  sharply,  his  master.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  the 
work  of  that  of  a  disciple.  Perhaps  it  is  better  so,  for  only  a  disciple  can 
interpret  Tolstoi  in  patience. 

The  work  is  written  in  the  easy,  enlivening  style  that  is  characteristic 
of  all  Mr.  Crosby's  works.  The  chapter  which  he  offers  on  Christian 
teaching  and  practice  is  an  endeavor  to  show  that  in  the  case  of  the 
Quakers,  the  Moravians  and  some  others,  the  principles  of  non-resistanee 
worked  well  in  practice.  His  story  of  the  Moravian  massacre,  however, 
is  not  exactly  in  accord  with  the  statements  of  other  historians,  as  the 
common  report  is  that  the  non-resistant  Moravians  allowed  themselves  to 
become  a  shield  behind  which  their  more  savage  neighbors  committed  ail 
sorts  of  atrocities  upon  the  American  pioneers.  And  this  would  seem  to 
be  the  common  and  probable  outcome  of  any  attempt  to  carry  on  doctrines 
of  non-resistance  today. 

There  is  no  denying  the  fact,  however,  that  Tolstoi  is  one  of  the  great 
figures  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  this  little  book  is  certainly  the 
handiest  way  to  get  an  idea  of  his  teachings  for  those  yho  are  too  busy 
or  too  indolent  to  read  the  voluminous  works  of  Tolstoi  himself. 


BOOK  BEVnSlWS.  881 

The  Monarch  Billionaire.     Morrison  I.  Swift:     J.  S.  Ogilvie  Publishing 
Company.    Cloth,  317  pp.    $1.00. 

There  have  been  countless  attempts  to  write  ' '  the  Socialist  novel,  * '  but 
none  have  yet  been  written  that  deserve  that  title,  and  the  present  volume 
falls  behind  some  of  those  which  have  already  been  issued.  It  has  some 
defects  that  are  common  to  such  attempts.  After  the  first  fifty  pages  the 
author  forgets  about  his  plot  and  sets  all  his  characters  to  making  long 
speeches.  The  auhor  has  at  times  a  short,  trenchant  style,  and  the  work 
contains  many  quotable  things.  For  instance,  he  has  his  typical  capitalist 
say  ''if  10,000  men  had  nothing  to  eat  and  the  hoarders  of  the  food 
supply  should  beckon  one  of  them  and  feed  him,  the  rest  of  the  starved 
crowd  would  exclaim  'we  are  all  fed  and  now  we  belong  to  the  eating 
class.'  "  Some  of  the  long  speeches  are  very  good  and  others  indifferent. 
The  author  is  still  caught  in  the^idealistic  method  of  thought  and  makes  his 
socialist  seeker  declare  that  "there  is  no  science  of  history  or  economic 
evolution;  there  are  no  fixed  laws  of  industrial  growth;  the  controlling 
force  is  in  the  men  of  the  time^  and  what  they  may  do  is  uncertain ;  it  rests 
with  their  intelligence  and  degree  of  will." 

One  great  defect  of  the  book,  which  can.  but  doom  it  to  oblivion,  is 
that  it  is  dull,  notwithstanding  the  occasional  flashes  of  brilliancy.  It 
might  have  had  some  influence  had  the  author  openly  set  it  forth  as  an 
economic  treatise,  since  then  those  who  are  interested  in  technical  economics 
would  have  been  willing  to  overcome  its  dullness.  .But  sent  forth  as  a 
novel  it  must  fail  to  arouse  any  great  attention. 

Kevolutionary  Essays  in  Socialist  Faith  and  Fancy.     Peter  E.  Burrowes: 
The  Comrade  Publishing  Company.     Cloth,  320  pp.    $1.25. 

This  is  a  book  from  which  to  quote,  a  work  to  be  read  in  sections,  and 
not  as  a  whole.  It  is  too  condensed,  too  epigrammatic  for  continuous 
reading.  You  can  open  it  almost  anywhere  and  find  something  that,  if  you 
were  an  exchange  editor  on  a  socialist  paper,  you  would  mark  with  a  blue 
pencil  for  reproduction.  We  predict  that  for  years  and  years  to  come 
this  will  prove  a  storehouse  for  the  socialist  paragraphers. 

It  is  hard  to  say  which  of  the  essays  are  the  best.  All  are  good. 
Many  of  them  have  appeared  in  different  socialist  publications,  including 
the  International  Socialist  Beview.  Those  of  our  readers  who  have 
read  those  that  have  so  appeared  will  want  to  read  the  rest.  It  is  a 
good  book  to  take  along  with  you  on  a  vacation. 

Two  new  issues  of  the  well  known  Pocket  Library  of  Socialism  attract 
our  attention.  These  are:  ''Socialism  and  the  Organized  Labor  Move- 
ment," by  May  Wood  Simons,  and  "The  Capitalist's  Union  or  Labor 
Unions:  Which  I"  published  by  Union  7386,  A.  F.  of  L.,  for  the  affiliated 
unions,  and  are  sold  by  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.  at  5  cents  each.  Of  the 
first,  Eugene  V.  Bebs  says:  "It  is  clear,  logical,  unanswerable.  The 
simplest  mind  can  grasp  the  argument  and  its  conclusions  are  inevitable. 
If  the  average  Trs^e  Unionist  who,  in  his  ignorance,  has  his  face  set 
against  socialism  would  but  read  this  brief  economic  studv  with  open 
mind,  he  could  not  escape  the  logic  of  socialism. ' '  The  secona  is  a  geneial 
survey  of  the  conditions  that  confront  organized  labor  at  the  present  time, 
and  show  how  these  conditions  will  compel  the  unions  to  take  i>oliticaI 
action  along  the  line  of  socialism. 


i 


PUBLISHERS'   DEPARTMENT 


A  $50,000  SOCIALIST  PUBLISHING  HOUSE. 

The  regular  annual  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  Charles  H.  Kerr  & 
Co.  will  be  held  at  the  company's  office,  56  Fifth  ayenue,  Chicago,  on 
January  15,  1904,  at  2  p.  m.  At  that  meeting  a  proposition  will  be  voted 
upon  to  increase  the  authorized  capital  stock  of  the  company  from  $10,000 
to  $50,000,  by  authorizing  the  issue  of  4,000  additional  shares  of  stock  at 
$10  each.  An  official  announcement  of  this  will  be  made  through  the 
Chicago  Socialist,  and  through  circulars  mailed  to  the  present  stoddioldera, 
but  in  this  department  of  the  Beyiew  some  further  details  will  not  be  out 
of  place. 

And,  first  of  all,  the  announcement  does  not  mean  that  the  eo-operative 
company  is  sellijig  out  to  any  capitalist  or  any  group  of  capitalists.  On 
the  contrary,  the  ownership  of  the  company  is  more  firmly  vested  in  the 
Socialist  Party  than  ever  before,  and  the  effect  of  the  proposed  revision 
of  the  charter  will  be  in  the  course  of  a  comparatively  short  time  to  place 
it  in  a  position  where  its  future  will  be  secure,  irrespective  of  the  life  or 
death  of  any  individual. 

Of  the  thousand  shares  authorized  by  our  present  charter,  the  greatest 
number  held  by  any  individual  is  a  little  over  a  hundred  still  standing 
in  the  name  of  Charles  H.  Kerr,  and  one  or  more  of  these  are  being 
transferred  nearly  every  day  to  single  holders.  They  would  last  only  a 
few  weeks  more,  at  the  present  rate  of  stock  subscriptions,  and  that  is 
why  an  amended  charter  is  necessary. 

The  meaning  of  all  this  is  that  our  co-operative  plan  for  supplying 
socialist  books  at  cost  has  passed  the  stage  of  experiment.  It  has  proved 
a  complete  success.  It  has  placed  the  management  of  the  company  in  a 
position  where  we  can  afford  to  consider,  regarding  a  proposed  publication, 
not  whether  it  is  "popular"  enough  to  appeal  to  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
ignorant,  but  whether  it  is  an  able  presentation  of  international  socialism. 
We  have  now  seven  hundred  and  fifty  stockholders  with  whom  we  are  in 
regular  communication,  and  we  are  thus  able  to  find  an  immediate  sale 
for  any  new  socialist  book  that  is  worth  reading,  while  we  can  safely 
let  alone  such  books  as  we  believe  are  not  worth  reading. 

So  much  has  been  done,  but  much  more  remains  to  be  done.  In  our 
urgent  need  for  providing  the  standard  books  of  international  socialism, 
we  have  been  obliged  to  use  capital  lent  us  by  comrades  who  may  soon 
need  it  again,  and  we  have  also  to  some  extent  utilized  our  credit  with 
banks  and  printers.  To  put  the  future  safety  of  the  company  beyond 
doubt,  several  thousand  dollars  in  stock  ought  to  be  subscribed  at  once, 
in  oraer  that  the  business  may  be  put  upon  a  strictly  cash  basis  and  kept 
there. 

We  do  not  ask  any  one  to  subscribe  for  more  than  one  share^  for  we 
believe  it  is  beet  to  keep  the  control  as  widely  scattered  among  the 
socialists  of  America  as  possible.  This  company  is  already  more  directly 
controlled  by  the  Socialist  ~Party  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole  than 
any  other  publishing  house,  and  every  share  subscribed  from  now  on  will 

83 


PtJBUSHEBS'  BEPABTMENT.  383 

make  it  leas  and  less  possible  for  any  individnal  in  any  future  sitnation 
that  may  ever  arise  to  nse  the  resources  of  this  publishing  house  in  any 
other  way  than  to  promote  the  cause  of  international  socialism.  Are 
you  a  stockholder?  If  not,  send  on  $10  for  a  share,  or  if  that  is  more 
money  than  the  capitalists  allow  you  to  have  at  one  time,  then  do  as  most 
of  our  stockholders  have  done,  pay  a  dollar  a  month  for  ten  months.  Tou 
can  buy  books  at  cost  as  soon  as  you  have  paid  your  first  dollar. 

BOOKS  FOR  THE  CHRISTMAS  SEASON. 

The  Sale  of  an  Appetite,  by  Paul  Lafargue,  translated  by  Charles  H. 
Kerr  and  illustrated  by  Dorothy  Deene,  is  fully  described  on  page  319 
of  last  month's  Review.  It  is  a  thoroughly  charming  story  and  is  printed 
in  luxurious  holiday  style,  not  the  economical  style  which  we  are  forced  to 
use  in  our  strictly  propaganda  literature,  where'  the  main  point  is  to  give 
as  many  pages  of  socialism  as  can  possibly  be  afforded  for  each  penny. 
**The  Sale  of  an  Appetite"  is  pretty  enough  to  give  to  a  laborer  who 
imagines  himself  to  be  a  capitalist,  and  it  may  start  him  to  thinking 
before  he  knows  the  risk  he  is  running.  Try  being  a  socialist  Santa  Clans, 
and  watch  the  results.    Price,  50  cents. 

Essays  on  the  Materialistic  Conception  of  History.  By  Antonio  Labri- 
ola,  professor  in  the  University  of  Rome.  Translated  from  the  latest  Paris 
edition  by  Charles  H.  Kerr.  The  publication  of  this  book,  announced  for 
November,  has  been  tmavoidably  delayed  in  the  printing,  but  the  electrotype 
plates  are  completed  and  on  the  press  as  this  issue  of  the  Review  is  mailed, 
and  all  orders  for  the  book  will  be  filled  before  the  holidays.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  Labriola's  Essays  is  the  most  important  socialist  book 
which  has  appeared  since  Marx's  Capital.  It  is  a  necessary  supplement  to 
the  Communist  Manifesto,  explaining  in  detail  the  ideas  which  the  Manifesto 
states  in  a  form  so  condensed  as  to  be  too  difficult  for  the  ordinary  reader. 
We  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  the  new  book  is  itself  easy  reading.  On 
the  contrary,  it  demands  careful  study,  but  it  will  well  repay  all  the  study 
that  is  put  on  it.  No  socialist  writer  or  speaker  can  afford  to  remain 
ignorant  of  Labriola's  Essays,  and  every  student  who  desires  really  to 
understand  the  subject  of  socialism  will  find  this  book  absolutely  indis- 
pensable.    Price,  $1. 

Poetical  Works  of  Wait  Whitman.  With  introduction  by  John  Bur- 
roughs. Although  Whitman  wrote  before  there  was  an  American  socialist 
movement,  he  is  distinctively  the  poet  of  American  socialism,  and  his 
poenu9  wiU  prove  a  delight  and  an  inspiration  to  American  socialists.  We 
have  arranged  with  a  leading  New  York  publisher  to  print  for  us  a  special 
edition  of  Whitman,  359  pages,  in  handsome  and  substantial  cloth  binding, 
which  we  are  enabled  to  offer  at  75  cents,  with  our  usual  discount  to 
stockholders. 

Walt  Whitman:  The  Poet  of  the  Wider  Selfhood.  By  Mila  Tupper 
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1.  Karl  Marx:  Memoirs  of  Wilhelm  Liebknecht,  translated  by  Ernetft 
Untermanii. 

2.  Gollectivutm  and  Industrial  Evolution.  By  Emile  Vandervelde^  trans- 
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and  May  Wood  Simons. 

7.  Socialism,  Utopian  and  Scientific  By  Frederick  Engels.  Trans- 
lated by  Edward  AveUng,  D.  Sc. 

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I        SOCIALIST 
I  PARTY  BUTTONS 

■^~        '^     Anpm&HB  is  soiae  demand  for  a  better  buttoa  th^n  bas 
^    -  I        hefetofore  :beeo  ofTered,  and  we  bave  arraaged 

t.     ■*"       fbrtbe  IlUau^ct^reofflI:e^di7' handsome  lapel 
button^  eni^el  and  gold  plate,  designed  in  accordance  . 
^  with  the  national  referendmn  of  thr  Socialist  Partj. 

%  .     Fricc  25  cents;  to  stockholders  ao  cents,  postpaid. 

^  We  still  have  our  celluloid  bntton,  the  handsomest  and 

■^  :'        *  most  tasteful  of  ftny  on  the  market    Price  5  cents  each, 

tz^  cents  a  dozenf  to  stockholders  ao  cents  a  dozen,  or: 
^    fl.SO  a  hnndred. 

CHARLES   H.    KERR  &  COMPANY 

.  (CO-OFlRATiyB)  . 

56  FlFTft  AVENUE,  CHICAGO 


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6d    YEARS' 
EXPERIENCE 


1MDE  Marks 
Copyrights  Ac 

Anyone  sending  a  sketcb  and  desortptkm  may- 
qnlokly  asoeruin  one  opinion  free  w netber  an' 
Invenuon  Is  probaWy  jmtentaWa  ^€on»mnn1<sa. 
tloDs  strictly  confldentCSnlMNtrBOOK  on  Patenta 
sent  free.  Oldest  ageney  fbrsecortaapatenfs. 
nte  taken  tbronah  JCnnn  A  Co.  leoelya 
nettoe,  wHtaeat  obarge.  In  tne 

Scientific  jritterKan. 

A,  baodsomely  fliBsCrmted  weekly.  I<snrest.«l|i 
onlatiqn  of  anyfolentUle|oamaL  Terms.  I^» 
year:. four  tfoottibtL  aoid braO  newsdeaier^ 


year:  fotir«ootn 

Mm 


I 


i  lontiity  Josrual  of  Ififemalloiial  Socialist  thooght 
Ooi.  TO.  jaHMnr  I,  W4,  no.  7. 

^l^^j    CONTENTS 

RuuUnired  Ameitca !:*k^p ;4ir>/.^^* ,- . . * *yf,  M*  Simons 

The  Ncjro  uid  Hii  Nemesis , , .  r^^.T-TT.  ^ . . .  f .  r.  Debs 

Aoothef  Red  Spot  on  the  Sodilist  Map G.  tVeston  IVrigley 

Sodaliitim  the  Pnsiiifttt  Landtigr  Elcetionz Ertiest  Untermann 

'^      LooWn ar PoFWAfd .j,..„^,.J,  Ladoff     ^" 

Hotorr  of  Germui  Trade  Unjooi zA/bert  Thomas 


P  • 


DlE^ARTHiSNTS. 
EDITORfiML— Qfctti  Pdaici     : 

The  K^Mti  t^  Latoc  PttblisIief<Dcpaftdaent 


PVBLI9H£D  BY 


CHABLES  H.    KERR   &   COUPANT 

aHBBimMCOlirORATtD   ON  TElK.  C<M^BKAT1V&  PLAN  BSSaB 

56   FIFTH    AVENUEi    CfllCAGO,    U.    S.    A. 


The  International  Socialist  Review 

])i^(niD  TO  THE  STimT  A1«D  nSdJSSION  OF  THE  n(OIL^ 

TO   TQE   GKOWTH  OF   THE  HVTERHATIOIIAL   SOCIALIST  lOTEnKT 

EMTED  BY  A-  M.  SIBOHS 


FOtEM  CQSfiiSraiDBn'S: 

£NGLAH]>-H.  M.  HTKnkJur,  Waltsb  Crjuix^  Samuxl  Howdx^^. 
H.  QusLOR,  J.  Kjbib  HAftpn,  J.  B.  HoDoHAU).    FBAKCfi— FaHz.. 
Lajtabgob,  JsAl^  JAtnns^  Jxah  Lqhouxt.     BELGnTM^Smui 
VAiTDBBTaifDSy  Hunu  LAimrrAin  Eiiiss  yurax,  JCifs.  Laijjl 
▼amdkbtsldb.    DEKICARK— I>b.  Guvtat  Baho.    QEBMAHY— 

KABt»KAimKY.      ITALT-^BBk  AlJWUHDBO  SCfilAVI,  PBOV.  EV- 

miooFKBBL    BWEDEN-^iiirTOV  AJIPSB80W.    JAPAN— T.HumAL 

OontfilmilaQt  «ra  nlteitad  noon  aU  phaif8«t>C  Soeialist  ibooglit.  a^  all  pioUtmt  of 'ttbdan 
•dotal  Off  anlMtio^-  Ho  altaniUottt  an  made  ia  aaeepM  manaienp4,  ho*  tha  rkrlit  oi  adilorial 
figiamani  if  alwajs  rasatfd.  The  absaaoe  ot  tnoh  nommew^  howevar,  U  to  ba  ui  no  tiay  oon- 
ilraad  at  aditanlat  eMlotaen«ii  of  tho  poaitiaiia  in  ai^  imbDihed  «>a«»tml0a»m.  No  taSealad 
aan^otipl  iri&  ba  za^nad  oalaaa  aoooapooiad  bf  sUaipa  toi  ratura  poftwa. 

ThiM  magaiina  la  oopjrigbted  f6p  Iho  pv^ytaoMoa  of  our  oo^tribiitpri.  0«bar  pavwi  tva  v«3^ 
aaaM  io  aopy  f!lnm  our  aditorial  dapartoiaatp  profidad  oradii  U«ivea.  Permiasion ^inll  alwaya  be 
ctfao  to  taorodiioa  ooatribated  artlalait  proTidad  tiM  avthor  raiias  no  obiaetibii. 

"^  ^loaisftUttparraar,  payablainadvanoa,ppa^«afraotoaQyaddMMiritkia 


loQjpirioa  isftun  par  wMt^  payabia  in  advanoa,  poaUga  frao  to  any  ac       . 

Kdiiorlal  oommnnioationa^aakl  ba  addraawdto  aTm.  QaaniMjiwiiat  kw^tam, 
I  oeBiaaaioBtlons  to  CsaeiiM  H.  Kms  A  Govfavt,  86  Fifth  Avanoa.  ^iaa«p^ 


**  The  Sociaiish  of  this  cwntry  kmve  a  fMtri'oe  tnasure  in  Tke  Comfa4e. 
Thtn  h  nothing  to  di$titutivt  in  SoctaJist  peritJ/egl  /iuraturo  eithgr  in  tkis 
country  or  in  Burojf>*^  as  The  Comrade,^* ^SociAh  Democratic  Hskald. 

A  Socialist  Libiary  Worth  Having  and  Pitser^ 
is  a  Bound  Voiume  of  Tlie  CcMnrade 

Bound  volmxieA  of  The  Comrade  oi  tiie  fiist  and  eeoond  ^ear  are  now  ready.  Sadi 
IB  bound  in  haaidsome  cloth  ooveis,  sftamped  with  Walter  Ofane's  beantifol  deefign  in 
colors.  The  -carefully  prepared  index  enablea  the  reader  to  find  any  of  the  literjry  or 
piotorial  oontents  at  an  instant.  The  bonnd  Tolnmee  of  The  Oomnrae  are  eqnal  in  sree 
and  appearanoe.     £ach  oontainB : 

m  Pages  of  Delishthil  and  Initnictive  Reading. 
300  Bcaotiful  lUastratkuig,  Portraits  and  Cartoons. 

It  is  a  book  that  is  worth  far  mere  than  we  ask  for  i^,  and  tiiat  will  beoome  eTen 
more  valuable  in  lutoxe  years. 

FtUbe,  per  Yolame,  $2.00,  to  ahardioldets  of  The  Comrade  Co-Operative  Com- 
pany, $1.20;  p<«itage,  30  cents  extra. 

The  subeeription  price  bf  The  Comrade  is  $l«00  a  year,  to  shareholders,  50  cents. 
Ten  monthly  payments  of  50  cents  each  seoore  a  share/ «nd  en^tle  yon  to  fliisr)diolder 
ratesXrom  the  time  the  first  installment  reaches  ns. 

tNE  WKHK  CO-OPEBATIVE  COMFAITirr  -  li  CMpw  SfMlt,  %  Y. 


'^i.  .A  :^i^.£^..z : 


■•'l    !.>'.    . 


>"^  18 'c 


TSI   INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST    REVIEW 


VOL.  IV 


JANUARY,  1904 


NO.  7 


Russianizing  America. 

IN  SPITE  of  the  organized  system  of  suppression  of  news 
and  distortion,  known  as  the  Associated  Press;  in  spite 
of  the  conspiracy  of  silence  among  those  great  makers  of 
public  opinion,  the  capitalist  journals  of  America,  enough 
facts  have  leaked  through  to  show  that  the  condition  of  affairs 
now  existing  in  the  mining  camps  of  Colorado  openly  and  defi- 
nitely gives  the  lie  to  the  claim  that  either  national  or  state  gov- 
ernments within  the  United  States  guarantee  any  rights  whatever 
to  any  class  of  citizens  unless  those  citizens  have  sufficient  eco- 
nomic power  to  maintain  those  rights — unless,  in  short,  they 
belong  to  the  ruling  class  of  capitalists.  That  the  declarations 
of  military  law  and  accompanying  outrages  at  Telluride,  Victor 
and  Cripple  Creek  are  but  part  of  a  general  movement  by  the  capi- 
talist class  of  America  to  crush  out  all  political  and  economic 
resistance  on  the  part  of  the  working  class  is  plain  to  any  one 
who  chooses  to  look  at  the  evidence  presented. 

The  following  quotation  from  the  Associated  Press  report 
of  the  meeting  of  tiie  National  Employers'  Association  held  in 
CFiicago  October  i,  1903,  gives  the  beginning  of  the  plot: 

"Blows  at  the  Western  labor  organizations  are  to  be  struck 
repeatedly,  and  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  is  to -be  invited 
by  the  employers  to  step  into  the  movement.  Socialism,  accord- 
ing to  the  claim  of  the  Western  employers,  completely  controls 
the  Western  labor  movement,  which  is  practically  in  the  grip  of 
the  American  Labor  Union  and  the  Western  Association  of 
Miners. 

J.  C.  Craig,  secretary  of  the  Citizens'  Alliance  of  Denver,  who 
attended  the  employers'  conference  at  the  Auditorium  Tuesday, 
said  yesterday:  "The  American  Labor  Union  and  the  Western 
Miners  must  go.  Both  organizations  have  reached  the  point 
where  they  are  dangerous  to  the  community  at  large.    They  are 

385 


886  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

lawless  aggregations,  teeming  with  Socialists  and  Anarchists. 
They  do  no  good  to  labor  and  have  an  astounding  record  of  crime 
and  murder.  Samuel  Gompers,  president  of  the  American  Fed- 
eration of  Labor,  I  regard  as  a  comparatively  ccMiservative  man, 
and  the  employers  of  tihe  West  would  be  glad  to  see  him  succeed 
in  extending  the  control  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
throughout  the  West.  If  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
would  put  its  organizers  in  the  territory  controlled  by  the  Amer- 
ican Labor  Union  today  it  would  reap  a  harvest  in  a  remarkably 
short  time.  The  manufacturers  who  will  join  in  this  movement 
of  employers  will  assist  in  clarifying  the  dangerous  Western  sit- 
uation, and  I  believe  that  the  time  is  not  far  away  when  the 
American  Labor  Union  and  the  Western  Association  of  Miners 
will  be  wiped  out  of  existence." 

Whether  Samuel  Gompers  is  actually  a  partner  in  this  nefari- 
ous work  or  not  there  is  no  evidence  to  prove.  That  he  is  lending 
it  at  least  his  tacit  support  is  shown  by  the  cowardly  silence  of 
the  American  Federationist  concerning  the  present  outrages  in 
Colorado. 

The  plan  of  action  here  laid  down  once  understood,  all  sub- 
sequent actions  are  easy  of  comprehension  and  form  but  part  of 
one  continuous,  nefarious  plot.  In  1902  the  people  of  the  State 
of  Colorado,  in  a  referendum  vote,  declared  by  a  majority  of 
40,000  for  a  constitutional  amendment  providing  for  an  eight- 
hour  work  day  in  the  mines.  Unfortunately  they  neglected  to 
elect  any  but  capitalist  officials  to  office  and  these  officials  prompt- 
ly refused  to  take  any  notice  of  the  referendum.  Incidently,  this 
should  help  to  teach  something  to  the  "initiative-and-referendum- 
first"  bunch  of  reformers,  as  showing  the  uselessness  of  any  such 
action  not  backed  up  by  a  class  conscious  Socialist  party  strong 
enough  to  carry  through  any  demands  not  in  accord  with  the 
interests  of  the  capitalist  class. 

The  miners  becoming  convinced  of  the  impossibility  of  secur- 
ing any  assistance  from  capitalist  legislative  bodies,  went  on 
strike  to  secure  what  the  supposed  sovereign  power  of  the  state 
had  declared  was  legally  theirs,  and  in  so  doing  offered  the  excuse 
for  action  for  which  the  Employers'  Association  had  been  waiting. 
This  strike  took  place  in  the  mines  surrounding  Cripple  Creek 
and  Telluride.  No  evidence  whatever  has  been  put  forth  to  show 
that  any  violence  accompanied  this  strike.  No  one  was  injured, 
no  property  destroyed.  Nevertheless,  troops  were  at  once  rushed 
to  the  scene.  Governor  Peabody  has  since  admitted  that  these 
troops  are  in  the  direct  pay  of  the  Mine  Owners'  Association; 
that  IS  to  say,  he  has  turned  the  militia  over  to  a  branch  of  the 
National  Employers'  Association  to  be  used  by  them  as  their 
private  police  force.  This  is  not  all,  more  direct  action  was  de- 
manded, so -it  was  that  members  of  the  "Citizens'  Alliance,"  as 


RUSSIANIZED  AMEBIGA.  8S7 

the  local  branch  of  the  Employers'  Association  is  called,  were  di- 
rectly enlisted  in  the  militia  as  the  following  dispatch  will  show : 
"Victor,  Colo.,  Dec.  9. — Brig.-Gen.  F.  M.  Reardon,  retired, 
postmaster  of  Victor,  has  received  orders  from  Governor  Peabody 
to  muster  in  a  new  company  of  the  Colorado  National  Guard  at 
the  armory  here  tomorrow  night.  This  company  will  be  known 
as  Company  L,  Second  Regiment,  C.  N.  G.,  and  will  be  com- 
posed exclusively  of  members  of  the  Victor  Citizens'  Alliance. 
Eighty  men  have  signed  the  muster  roll.  Harry  T.  Moore,  presi- 
dent of  the  Victor  Gtizens'  Alliance,  will  be  captain  of  the  new 
company;  A.  A.  RoUestone,  cashier  of  the  Bank  of  Victor,  will 
be  first  lieutenant,  and  J.  C.  Cole,  secretary  of  the  Citizens'  Alli- 
ance, will  be  second  lieutenant." 

Then  that  no  link  might  be  lacking  to  connect  the  whole  ma- 
chinery of  government  with  this  infamous  work,  the  War  De- 
partment of  the  national  government,  acting,  it  is  said,  under 
direct  personal  instructions  from  Roosevelt,  supplied  these  militia 
companies  with  the  latest  improved  Krag-Jorgensen  rifles,  manu- 
factured at  the  United  States  arsenals,  and  accompanied  them 
with  a  plentiful  supply  of  the  new  "riot  cartridges,"  designed 
for  the  especial  purpose  of  shooting  unarmed,  unresisting  men. 

Finally,  after  the  militiamen  had  done  the  dirty  work  of 
capitalism,  had  sold  their  manhood,  and  betrayed  their  class  to 
help  rivet  the  fetters  still  firmer  upon  their  fellow-workmen,  they 
were  thrown  aside  by  their  masters  with  the  same  brutal  reck- 
lessness that  everywhere  marks  the  treatment  of  the  wage  slave. 

The  Rocky  Mountain  News  of  December  11  has  the  following 
in  reference  to  a  company  of  soldiers  who  have  been  ordered 
from  the  Cripple  Creek  district  and  are  in  an  armory  on  the  out- 
skirts of  Denver : 

"Thirty  men,  the  remnants  of  the  once  proud  Company  L, 
First  Regiment  of  the  National  Guard,  State  of  Colorado,  are 
out  at  the  Berkeley  Armory,  near  Elitch's  Gardens,  almost  totally 
without  food,  with  only  such  fuel  as  they  can  skirmish  up  around 
the  country,  and  without  bedding  or  sufficient  blankets. 

"These  men  have  been  at  the  armory  since  Saturday  night 
waiting.  They  claim  that  the  State  owes  them  an  average  of 
$50  each  in  pay  for  their  services.  Since  their  arrival  in  Denver 
the  men  have  been  furnished  nothing  whatever  by  the  State  or 
anybody  connected  with  the  military  department  of  the  State. 
*  *  *  Yesterday  the  boys  saw  starvation  staring  them  in 
the  face.  *  *  *  Many  of  them  are  young  boys.  *  *  * 
Most  of  them  have  pawned  their  citizen's  clothes  and  now  have 
nothing  to  wear  but  their  uniforms." 

We  are  not,  however,  so  much  concerned  with  the  fate  of 
these  hired  murderers  as  with  that  of  the  miners  whom  they 
were  hired  to  kill. 


388  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCTALIST  BBVIEW. 

Having  turned  over  the  regularly  organized  militia  to  the 
mine-owners  and  organized  the  heelers  and  hangers-on  of  the 
local  capitalists  for  the  purposes  of  murder  under  the  authority 
of  the  State,  it  only  remained  to  arm  and  turn  loose  those  dupes 
and  tools  of  the  employers  who  were  too  disreputable  for  mili- 
tary discipline  and  arm  them  with  authority  to  carry  on  a  guer- 
rilla warfare  upon  unarmed  strikers.  This  was  accomplished 
by  the  issuance  of  an  order  by  the  military  authorities  of  Cripple 
Creek  commanding  all  citizens  to  turn  in  any  firearms  they 
might  possess.  The  houses  of  the  miners  were  visited  by 
searching  parties  who  confiscated  any  firearms  not  previously 
surrendered.  Permits  were  then  issued  by  the  thousands  to  the 
thugs  of  the  Mine  Owners'  Association  permitting  them  to  carry 
firearms.  In  other  words,  the  union  miners  were  first  disarmed 
and  rendered  helpless  and  then  turned  over  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  any  gang  of  thugs,  scabs,  "bad  men"  and  "gun  fighters"  who 
might  be  designated  by  the  Mine  Owners'  Association.  Lest 
there  might  even  then  be  some  misunderstanding  about  the  fact 
that  it  was  a  labor  union  and  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners 
especially  that  was  being  attacked,  the  Mine  Owners'  Association 
ordered  all  its  members  to  compel  their  employes  to  surrender 
their  cards  in  that  organization,  as  the  following  Associated 
Press  item  will  show: 

"Florence,  Colo.,  Dec.  lo. — ^J.  M.  Hower,  Jr.,  manager  of  the 
Dorcas  Mining  and  Milling  Company,  received  yesterday  from 
the  Mine  Owners'  Association  of  Cripple  Creek  a  letter  to  the 
effect  that  he  must  discharge  every  employe  who  would  not  sever 
his  membership  with  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners,  and  that 
in  future  he  was  to  employ  no  man  who  was  a  member  of  that 
organization.  If  he  did  so  he  would  not  be  allowed  to  treat  any 
ore  which  could  be  controlled  and  diverted  elsewhere  by  the 
association.  Mr.  Hower  refused  to  comply  and  will  leave  for  the 
district  in  the  morning.  When  the  trouble  with  the  mills  in 
Colorado  City  started  Mr.  Hower,  who  had  always  been  friendly 
to  the  Mill  and  Smeltermen's  Union,  made  an  agreement  with 
his  men  by  which  he  has  been  able  to  work  his  property  almost 
steadily.  He  has  never  had  a  labor  trouble  of  any  kind  and  his 
relations  with  his  employes  have  always  been  of  the  most  friendly 
nature. 

"J.  Q.  McDonald,  general  manager  of  the  mills  of  the  United 
States  Reduction  &  Refining  Company  at  Florence,  stated  in  an 
interview  today  that  the  Union  mill  would  be  started  under  full 
operation  the  first  of  the  year,  but  that  no  member  of  the  Western 
Federation  of  Miners  would  be  employed ;  that  the  company  had 
no  local  organization  of  their  employes,  but  would  not  tolerate 
membership  in  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners." 

In   the  territory   under  military  law,   outrages   which  still 


BUSSIANIZED  AMERICA.  889 

further  demonstrated  this  point  occurred.  Fifty  of  the  miners 
who  were  out  on  a  strike  at  Telluride,  were  arrested  in  their  homes 
on  charge  of  vagrancy,  thrown  into  the  "bull-pen/'  as  the  military 
stockade  is  called,  denied  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  and  were  fined  various  sums,  which  they  were  compelled 
to  work  out  with  ball  and  chain,  under  military  guard,  on  the 
streets.  They  were  all  informed,  however,  that  if  they  would 
either  leave  the  city  or  go  to  work  as  scabs  the  fines  would  be 
remitted.  President  Moyer,  of  the  Western  Federation  of 
Miners,  has  been  ordered  out  of  the  strike  region  under  pain 
of  arrest,  although  no  disorder  whatever  has  been  urged  against 
him  and  no  charge  save  the  holding  of  an  official  position  in  a 
trade  union. 

At  Victor,  Colo.,  on  Sunday,  the  22d  of  November,  while  the 
president  of  the  local  union  of  the  W.  F.  M.,  who  had  died  dur- 
ing the  strike,  was  being  buried,  the  funeral  procession  was 
stopped  by  the  militia  and  twelve  men  were  taken  from  the  car- 
riages in  which  they  were  riding  with  their  families  and  thrown 
into  the  "bull-pen."  This,  of  course,  without  any  warrant  being 
issued,  any  charges  preferred  or  any  hope  of  a  trial  to  determine 
guilt  or  innocence. 

Since  practically  the  entire  mining  population  of  the  West 
is  included  within  the  membership  of  the  W.  F.  M.  the  usual 
talk  about  "peaceable  men  anxious  to  enjoy  their  God-given 
right  to  work,"  and  being  debarred  of  that  right  through  union 
tyranny,  was  hardly  suitable  to  the  occasion.  Indeed,  it  being 
manifestly  impossible  to  obtain  scabs  through  the  ordinary 
methods  the  most  high-handed  means  were  adopted  for  this 
purpose.  Men  were  shipped  by  employment  agencies  under 
various  pretexts  to  Joplin,  Mo.,  under  promise  of  work  in  the 
zinc  and  lead  mines  of  that  locality.  On  arriving  there  they 
found  no  laborers  were  wanted,  but  they  were  then  told  that 
miners  were  wanted  in  Colorado.  Not  only  was  nothing  said  to 
them  about  the  fact  that  a  strike  was  on  but  all  possible  means 
were  taken  to  keep  that  fact  from  becoming  known.  In  some 
cases  at  least  these  men  were  locked  in  the  cars  with  armed 
guards  to  prevent  their  escape  en  route.  On  arrival  at  the  scene 
of  the  strike  they  were  locked  up  in  the  stockades  inclosing  the 
mines  and  compelled  to  work  as  scabs,  whether  they  wished  or 
not.  If  they  succeeded  in  escaping  the  armed  guards  that  sur- 
round the  mines  they  were  promptly  arrested  as  "vagrants"  and 
given  the  ball  and  chain,  with  the  alternative  of  going  back  to 
scab  or  leaving  the  place. 

The  next  step  was  to  prevent  the  laborers  of  the  United 
States  from  gaining  a  knowledge  of  the  situation,  consequently 
press  censorship  was  established.  For  the  first  time  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  United  States  a  newspaper,  The  Victor  Record,  ap- 
peared with  what  has  long  become  familiar  to  the  readers  of 


390  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOdAUST  REVIEW. 

Russian  papers,  a  blank  space  where  the  leading  editorial  ordinar- 
ily appeared.  The  Cripple  Creek  Times,  of  December  20,  con- 
tains a  notice  that  the  military  authorities  have  notified  it  that  no 
official  statement  of  the  district  union  of  the  Western  Federation 
of  Miners  can  be  published  by  that  paper  hereafter.  Meanwhile 
the  strike  goes  on.  The  Western  Federation  of  Miners  has  es- 
tablished co-operative  stores  for  the  relief  of  its  members.  Threats 
have  already  been  made  that  these  will  be  seized  and  their  prop- 
erty confiscated.  One  thing  is  certain,  the  union  workers  of  this 
locality  are  engaged  in  the  most  desperate  fight  for  liberty  and 
elementary  justice  that  has  ever  yet  been  waged  on  this  continent. 
If  they  are  crushed,  those  officials  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  or  their 
secret  assistants  who  have  contributed  to  that  end,  will  have  a 
chance  to  learn  something  of  the  gratitude  of  the  capitalist,  since 
the  next  step  will  inevitably  be  to  transfer  the  same  methods  to 
the  eastern  states  and  the  eastern  unions.  The  Western  Federa- 
tion of  Miners  is  an  avowed  Socialist  organization  and  it  is  tm- 
doubtedly  this  which  has  added  to  the  ferocity  of  the  employers' 
attack.  They  are  now  seeking  for  help  to  continue  this  fight  and 
that  request  should  meet  with  a  ready  response  from  every  trade 
unionist  and  every  Socialist,  and  certainly  from  every  Socialist 
Trade  Unionist  throughout  the  country. 

Funds  for  the  support  of  the  strike  should  be  addressed  to 
William  D.  Haywood,  625  Mining  Exchange  building,  Denver, 
Colo.  A.  M,  Simons. 

[The  following  from  the  Chicago  Record-Herald,  coming  just 
as  we  go  to  press,  gives  a  vivid  view  of  present  condition :] 

"Cbipplb  Cbebk,  Colo.j  Jan.  4. — ^Thomas  Evans,  a  miner,  and  his  wife  and 
yonng  daughter  have  l>een  arrested  and  placed  in  the  *bull  pen'  by  the  military 
authorities  for  Jeering  at  soldiers  and  nonunion  miners. 

**Tbllubidb,  Colo.^  Jan.  4. — Twenty-six  men  arrested  here  by  the  military 
authorities,  including  former  Attorney-General  Eugene  Engley.  counsel  for 
the  Tellurlde  Miners^  Union ;  Guy  E.  Miller,  president  of  the  union,  and  J.  C. 
Williams,  vice  president  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners,  were  placed  on 
board  a  north-bound  train  today  and  taken  beyond  the  boundaries  of  San 
Miguel  county  under  miliiary  guard.  They  will  not  be  allowed  to  return  to 
this  district  while  martial  law  is  in  effect 

"Under  the  proclamation  issued  by  Governor  F'eabody  declaring  San  Miguel 
county  to  be  In  a  state  of  insurrection,  and  giving  the  military  full  power. 
Major  Zeph  T.  Hill,  commander  of  the  military  at  Tellurlde.  has  established 
a  strict  press  censorship  and  taken  control  of  both  the  telegraph  and  telephone 
lines/' 


The  Negro  and  His  Nemesis. 

SINCE  the  appearance  of  my  article  on  "The  Negro  in  the 
Class  Struggle"  in  the  November  Review  I  have  received 
the  following  anonymous  letter: 

Elgin,  m.,  November  25,  1903. 
Mr.  Debs: 

Sir,  I  am  a  constant  reiader  of  the  International  Socialist  Beview. 
I  have  analyzed  your  last  article  on  the  Negro  question  with  appre- 
hension and  fear.  You  say  that  the  South  is  permeated  with  the  race 
prejudice  of  the  Negro  more  than  the  North.  I  say  it  is  not  so.  When 
it  comes  right  down  to  a  test,  the  North  is  more  fierce  in  the  race  preju- 
dice of  the  Negro  than  the  South  ever  has  been  or  ever  will  be.  I  tell 
you,  you  will  jeopardize  the  best  interests  of  the  Socialist  Party  if  you 
insist  on  political  equality  of  the  Negro.  For  that  will  not  only  mean 
political  equality  but  also  social  equality  eventually.  I  do  not  believe 
you  realize  what  that  means.  You  get  social  and  political  equality  for 
the  Negro,  then  let  him  come  and  ask  the  hand  of  your  daughter  in 
marriage,  "For  that  seems  to  be  the  height  of  his  ambition,"  and  we 
will  see  whether  you  still  have  a  hankering  for  social  and  political  equal- 
ity for  the  Negro.  For  1  tell  you,  the  Negro  will  not  be  satisfied  with 
equality  with  reservation.  It  is  impossible  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the 
African  to  live  on  equal  terms.  You  try  it,  and  he  will  pull  you  down  to 
his  level.  Mr.  Lincoln,  himself,  said,  that ' '  There  is  a  physical  difference 
between  the  white  and  the  black  races,  which  I  believe  will  forever  for- 
bid them  living  together  on  terms  of  social  and  political  equality."  If 
the  Socialist  leaders  stoop  to  this  method  to  gain  votes,  then  their  policy 
and  doctrine  is  as  rotten  and  degraded  as  that  of  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  parties,  and  1  tell  you,  if  the  resolutions  are  adopted  to  give 
the  African  equality  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  you  will  lose  more  votes  than 
you  now  think.  I  for  my  part  shall  do  all  I  can  to  make  you  lose  as 
many  as  possible  and  there  will  be  others.  For  don't  you  know  that  just 
a  little  sour  dough  will  spoil  the  whole  batch  of  bread.  You  will  do  the 
Negro  a  greater  favor  by  leaving  him  where  he  is.  You  elevate  and 
educate  him,  and  you  will  make  his  position  impossible  in  the  U.  S.  A. 
Mr.  Debs,  if  you  have  any  doubts  on  this  subject,  I  beg  you  for  human- 
ity's sake  to  reUd  Mr.  Thomas  Dixon's  "The  Leopard's  Spots"  and  I 
hope  that  all  others  who  have  voiced  your  sentiments  heretofore,  will  do 
the  same. 

I  assure  you,  I  shall  watch  the  International  Socialist  Bevdbw  with 
the  most  intense  hope  of  a  reply  after  you  have  read  Mr.  Thomas  Dix- 
on's message  to  humanity.    Bespectfully  yours. 

So  far  a  staunch  member  of  the  Socialist  Party. 

The  writer,  who  subscribes  himself  "A  staunch  member  of  the 
Socialist  Party"  is  the  only  member  of  that  kind  I  have  ever 
heard  of  who  fears  to  sign  his  name  to,  and  accept  responsibility 
for  what  he  writes.  The  really  "staunch"  Socialist  attacks  in  the 
open— he  does  not  shoot  from  ambush. 

The  anonymous  writer,  as  a  rule,  ought  to  be  ignored,  since  he 
is  unwilling  to  face  those  he  accuses,  while  he  may  be  a  sneak 
or  coward,  traitor  or  spy,  in  the  role  of  a  "staunch  Socialist," 

S91 


392  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW. 

whose  base  design  it  is  to  divide  and  disrupt  the  movenienL  For 
reasons  which  will  appear  later,  this  communication  is  made  an 
exception  and  will  be  treated  as  if  from  a  known  party  member 
in  good  standing. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  of  what  branch  our  critic 
is  a  member  and  how  long  he  has  been,  and  how  he  happened  to 
become  a  "staunch  member  of  the  Socialist  party/'  That  he  is 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  philosophy  of  Socialism  may  not  be  to 
his  discredit,  but  that  a  "staunch  member"  has  not  even  read 
the  platform  of  his  party  not  only  admits  of  no  excuse,  but  takes 
the  "staunchness"  all  out  of  him,  punctures  and  discredits  his 
foolish  and  fanatical  criticism  and  leaves  him  naked  and  exposed 
to  ridicule  and  contempt 

The  Elgin  writer  has  all  the  eminent  and  well  recognized  quali- 
fications necessary  to  oppose  negro  equality.  His  criticism  and 
the  spirit  that  prompts  it  harmonize  delightfully  with  his  assumed 
superiority. 

That  he  may  understand  that  he  claims  to  be  a  "staunch  mem- 
ber" of  a  party  he  knows  nothing  about  I  here  incorporate  the 
"Negro  Resolutions"  adopted  by  our  last  national  convention, 
which  constitute  a  vital  part  of  the  national  platform  of  the  So- 
cialist party  and  clearly  defined  its  attitude  toward  the  negro : 

KBaBO  BBSOLUnON. 

Whereas,  The  negroes  of  the  United  States,  because  of  their  long 
training  in  slavery  uid  but  recent  emancipation  therefrom,  occupy  a 
peculiar  position  in  the  working  class  and  in  society  at  large; 

Whereas,  The  capitalist  class  seeks  to  preserve  this  peculiar  con- 
dition, and  to  foster  and  increase  color  prejudice  and  race  hatred  be- 
tween the  white  worker  and  the  black,  so  as  to  make  their  social  and 
economic  interests  to  appear  to  be  separate  and  antagonistic,  in  order 
that  the  workers  of  both  races  may  thereby  be  more  -easily  and  com- 
pletely exploited; 

Whereas,  Both  the  old  political  parties  and  educational  and  re- 
ligious institutions  alike  betray  the  negro  in  his  present  helpless  strug- 
gle against  disfranchisement  and  violence,  in  order  to  receive  the  econo- 
mic favors  of  the  capitalist  class.  Be  it,  therefore, 

Besolved,  That  we^  the  Socialists  of  America,  in  national  conven- 
tion assembled,  do  hereby  assure  our  n^^o  fellow  worker  of  our  sympa- 
thy with  him  in  his  subjection  to  lawlessness  and  oppression,  and  sJso 
assure  him  of  the  f ellow&ip  of  the  workers  who  suffer  from  the  lawless- 
ness and  exploitation  of  capital  in  every  nation  or  tribe  of  the  world.  Be 
it  further 

Besolved,  That  we  declare  to  the  negro  worker  the  identity  of  his 
interests  and  struggles  with  the  interests  and  struggles  of  the  workers  of 
aU  lands,  without  regard  to  race  or  color  or  sectional  lines;  that  the 
causes  which  have  miule  him  the  victim  of  social  and  political  inequality 
are  the  effects  of  the  long  exploitation  of  his  labor  power;  that  all  sociid 
\^  and  race  prejudices  spring  from  the  ancient  economic  causes  which  still 

endure,  to  the  misery  of  the  whole  human  family,  that  the  only  line  of 
division  which  exists  in  fact  is  that  between  the  producers  and  the 
owners  of  the  world — ^between  capitalism  and  labor.  And  be  it  further 

Besolved,   That  we,  the  American  Socialist  Party,  invite  the  negro 


t- 


r^ 


THE  NEGEO  AND  HIS  NEMESIS.  393 

to  membea-ship  and  fellowship  with  us  in  the  world  movement  for  eeono- 
mio  emaneipation  by  which  equal  liberty  and  opportunity  shall  be  secured 
to  every  man  and  fraternity  become  the  order  of  the  world. 

But  even  without  this  specific  declaration,  the  position  of  the 
the  party  is  so  clear  that  no  member  and  no  other  person  of  ordi- 
nary intelligence  can  fail  to  comprehend  it. 

The  Socialist  party  is  the  congealed,  tangible  expression  of 
the  Socialist  movement,  and  the  Socialist  movement  is  based  upon 
the  modern  class  struggle  in  which  all  workers  of  all  countries, 
regardless  of  race,  nationality,  creed  or  sex,  are  called  upon  to 
unite  against  the  capitalist  class,  their  common  exploiter  and  op- 
pressor. In  this  great  class  struggle  the  economic  equality  of  all 
workers  is  a  foregone  conclusion,  and  he  who  does  not  recognize 
and  subscribe  to  it  as  one  of  the  basic  principles  of  the  Socialist 
philosophy  is  not  a  Socialist,  and  if  a  party  member  must  have 
been  admitted  through,  misunderstanding  or  false  pretense,  and 
should  be  speedily  set  adrift,  that  he  may  return  to  the  capital- 
ist parties  with  their  social  and  economic  strata  from  the  "white 
trash"  and  "buck  nigger"  down  to  the  syphilitic  snob  and  harlot 
heiress  who  barters  virtue  for  title  in  the  matrimonial  market. 

I  did  not  say  that  the  race  prejudice  in  the  South  was  more  in- 
tense than  in  the  North.  No  such  comparison  was  made  and  my 
critic's  denial  is  therefore  unnecessary  upon  this  point.  Whether 
the  prejudice  of  the  South  differs  from  that  of  the  North  is  quite 
another  question  and  entirely  aside  from  the  one  at  issue,  nor  is  it 
of  sufficient  interest  to  consider  at  this  time. 

The  Elgin  writer  says  that  we  shall  "jeopardize  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  Socialist  party"  if  we  insist  upon  the  political  equal- 
ity of  the  Negro.  I  say  that  the  Socialist  party  would  be  false 
to  its  historic  mission,  violate  the  fundamental  principles  of  So- 
■  dalism,  deny  its  philosophy  and  repudiate  its  own  teachings  if, 
on  account  of  race  considerations,  it  sought  to  exclude  any  human 
being  from  political  equality  and  economic  freedom.  Then,  in- 
deed, would  it  not  only  "jeopardize"  its  best  interests,  but  forfeit 
its  very  life,  for  it  would  soon  be  scorned  and  deserted  as  a  thing 
unclean,  leaving  but  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  honest  men. 

Political  equality  is  to  be  denied  the  negro,  according  to  this 
writer,  because  it  would  lead  to  social  equality,  and  this  would  be 
terrible — especially  for  those  "white"  men  who  are  already  mar- 
ried to  negro  women  and  those  "white"  women  who  have  long 
since  picked  the  "buck  nigger"  in  preference  to  the  "white  trash" 
whose  social  superiority  they  were  unable  to  distinguish  or  appre- 
ciate. 

Of  course  the  negro  will  "not  be  satisfied  with  equality  with 
reservation."    Why  should  he  be?    Would  you? 

Suppose  you  change  places  with  the  negro  just  a  year,  then 
let  us  hear  from  you — "with  reservation." 


394  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEVV. 

What  now  follows  it  is  difficult  to  consider  with  patience: 
"You  get  social  and  political  equality  for  the  negro,  then  let  him 
come  and  ask  the  hand  oi  your  daughter  in  marriage." 

In  the  first  place  you  don't  get  equality  for  the  negro — you 
haven't  got  it  yourself.  In  the  present  Social  scale  there  is  no  dif- 
ference between  you  and  the  negro — you  are  on  the  same  level  in 
the  labor  market,  and  the  capitalist  whose  agent  buys  your  labor 
power  don't  know  and  don't  care  if  you  are  white  or  black,  for 
he  deals  with  you  simply  as  labor  power,  and  is  uninterested  save 
as  to  the  quality  and  quantity  you  can  supply.  He  cares  no  more 
about  the  color  of  your  hide  than  does  Armour  about  that  of  the 
steers  he  buys  in  the  cattle  market. 

In  the  next  place  the  negro  will  fight  for  his  own  policcal 
and  economic  equality.  He  will  take  his  place  in  the  Socialist 
party  with  the  workers  of  all  colors  and  all  countries,  and  all  of 
them  will  unite  in  the  fight  to  destroy  the  capitalist  system  th?it 
now  makes  common  slaves  of  them  all. 

Foolish  and  vain  indeed  is  the  workingman  who  makes  the 
color  of  his  skin  the  stepping-stone  to  his  imaginary  superiority. 
The  trouble  is  with  his  head,  and  if  he  can  get  that  right  he  will 
find  that  what  ails  him  is  not  superiority  but  inferiority,  and  that 
he,  as  well  as  the  negro  he  despises,  is  the  victim  of  wage-slavery, 
which  robs  him  of  what  he  produces  and  keeps  both  him  and  the 
negro  tied  down  to  the  dead  level  of  ignorance  and  degradation. 

As  for  "the  negro  asking  the  hand  of  your  daughter  in  mar- 
riage," that  is  so  silly  and  senseless  that  the  writer  is  probably 
after  all  justified  in  withholding  his  name.  How  about  the  daugh- 
ter asking  the  hand  of  the  negro  in  marriage?  Don't  you  know 
that  this  is  happening  every  day  ?  Then,  according  to  your  logic, 
the  inferiority  and  degeneracy  of  the  white  race  is  established  and 
the  negro  ought  to  rise  in  solemn  protest  against  political  equal- 
ity, lest  the  white  man  ask  the  hand  of  his  daughter  in  marriage. 

"It  is  impossible,"  continues  our  critic,  "for  the  Anglo-Saxon 
and  the  African  to  live  upon  equal  terms.  You  try  it  and  he 
will  pull  you  down  to  his  level,"  Our  critic  must  have  tried 
something  that  had  a  downward  pull,  for  surely  that  is  his  pres- 
ent tendency. 

The  fact  is  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  and 
the  African  to  live  on  unequal  terms.  A  hundred  years  of  Ameri- 
can history  culminating  in  the  Gvil  War  proves  that.  Does  our 
correspondent  want  a  repetition  of  the  barbarous  experiment  ? 

How  does  the  Anglo-Saxon  get  along  with  the  Anglo-Saxon 
— ^leaving  the  negro  entirely  out  of  the  question?  Do  they  bill 
and  coo  and  love  and  caress  each  other?  Is  the  Anglo-Saxon 
capitalist  so  devoted  to  his  Anglo-Saxon  wage-slave  that  he  shares 
his  burden  and  makes  him  the  equal  partner  of  his  wealth  and 


THE  NEGBO  AND  HIS  NEMESIS.  *  395 

joy?  Are  they  not  as  widely  separated  as  the  earth  and  sky,  and 
do  they  not  fight  each  other  to  the  death?  Does  not  the  white 
capitalist  look  down  with  contempt  upon  the  white  wage-slave? 
And  don't  you  know  that  the  plutocrat  would  feel  himself  pretty 
nearly,  if  not  quite  as  outrageously  insulted  to  have  his  Anglo- 
Saxon  wage  slave  ask  the  hand  of  his  daughter  in  marriage  as 
if  that  slave  were  black  instead  of  white? 

Why  are  you  not  afraid  that  some  Anglo-Saxon  engine-wiper 
on  the  New  York  Central  will  ask  the  hand  of  Vanderbilt's  daugh- 
ter in  marriage? 

What  social  distinction  is  there  between  a  white  and  a  black 
deck-hand  on  a  Mississippi  steamboat?  Is  it  visible  even  with 
the  aid  of  a  microscope?  They  are  both  slaves,  work  side  by 
side,  sometimes  a  bunch  of  black  slaves  under  a  white  "boss"  and 
at  other  times  a  herd  of  white  slaves  under  a  black  "boss."  Not 
infrequently  you  have  to  take  a  second  look  to  tell  them  apart — 
but  all  are  slaves  and  all  are  humans  and  all  are  robbed  by  their 
"superior"  white  brother  who  attends  church,  is  an  alleged  fol- 
lower of  Jesus  Christ  and  has  a  horror  of  "social  equality."  To 
him  "a  slave  is  a  slave  for  a'  that" — when  he  bargains  for  labor 
power  he  is  not  generally  toncerned  about  the  color  of  the  pack- 
age, but  if  he  is,  it  is  to  give  the  black  preference  because  it  can 
be  bought  at  a  lower  price  in  the  labor  market,  in  which  equality 
always  prevails — ^the  equality  of  intellectual  and  social  debase- 
ment   To  paraphrase  Wordsworth: 

"A  wage-slave  by  the  river's  brim 
A  simple  wage-slave  is  to  him 
And  he  is  nothing  more." 

The  man  who  seeks  to  arouse  race  prejudice  among  working- 
men  is  not  their  friend.  He  who  advises  the  white  wage-worker 
to  look  down  upon  the  black  wage-worker  is  the  enemy  of  both. 

The  capitalist  has  some  excuse  for  despising  the  slave — he 
lives  out  of  his  labor,  out  of  his  life,  and  cannot  escape  his  sense 
of  guilt,  and  so  he  looks  with  contempt  upon  his  victim. 

You  can  forgiVe  the  man  who  robs  you,  but  you  can't  forgive 
the  man  you  rob — in  his  haggard  features  you  read  your  indict- 
ment and  this  makes  his  face  so  repulsive  that  you  must  keep  it 
under  your  heels  where  you  cannot  see  it. 

One  need  not  experiment  with  "sour  dough"  nor  waste  any 
time  on  "sour"  literature  turned  into  "Leopard  Spots"  to  arrive 
at  sound  conclusions  upon  these  points,  and  the  true  Socialist  de- 
lights not  only  in  taking  his  position  and  speaking  out,  but  in 
inviting  and  accepting  without  complaint  all  the  consequences 
of  his  convictions,  be  Siey  what  they  may. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  noble  man,  but  he  was  not  an  aboli- 


1 


896  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW. 

tionist,  and  what  he  said  in  reference  to  the  negro  was  with  due 
regard  to  his  circumscribed  environs,  and,  for  the  time,  was 
doubtless  the  quintessence  of  wisdom,  but  he  was  not  an  orade 
who  spoke  for  all  coming  ages,  and  we  are  not  bound  by  what 
he  thought  prudent  to  say  in  a  totally  different  situation  half  a 
century  ago. 

The  Socialist  platform  has  not  a  word  in  reference  to  "social 
equality."  It  declares  in  favor  of  political  and  economic  equality, 
and  only  he  who  denies  this  to  any  other  human  being  is  unfit  for 
it. 

Socialism  will  give  all  men  economic  freedom,  equal  oppor- 
tunity to  work,  and  the  full  product  of  their  labor.  Their  "social" 
relations  they  will  be  free  to  regulate  to  suit  themselves.  Like 
religion,  this  will  be  an  individual  matter  and  our  Elgin  negro- 
hater  can  consider  himself  just  as  "superior"  as  he  chooses,  con- 
fine his  social  attentions  exclusively  to  white  folks,  and  enjoy 
his  leisure  time  in  hunting  down  the  black  spectre  who  is  bent  on 
asking  his  daughter's  hand  in  marriage. 

What  warrant  has  he  to  say  that,  the  height  of  the  n^ro's 
ambition  is  to  marry  a  white  woman  ?  No  more  than  a  neg^o  has 
to  say  that  the  height  of  a  white  woman's  ambition  is  to  marry 
a  negro.  The  number  of  such  cases  is  about  equally  divided  and 
it  is  so  infinitesimally  small  that  any  one  who  can  see  danger 
to  society  in  it  ought  to  have  his  visual  organs  treated  for  progress- 
sive  exaggeration. 

The  normal  negro  has  ambition  to  rise.  This  is  to  his  credit 
and  ought  to  be  encouraged.  He  is  not  asking,  nor  does  he  need, 
the  white  man's  social  favors.  He  can  regulate  his  personal  asso- 
ciations with  entire  satisfaction  to  himself,  without  Anglo-Saxon 
concessions. 

Socialism  will  strike  the  economic  fetters  from  his  body  and 
he  himself  will  do  the  rest. 

Suppose  another  race  as  much  "superior"  to  the  white  as  the 
white  is  to  the  black  should  drop  from  the  skies.  Would  our  Illi- 
nois correspondent  at  once  fall  upon  his  knees  and  acknowledge 
his  everlasting  inferiority,  or  would  he  seek  to  overcome  it  and 
rise  to  the  higher  plane  of  his  superiors? 

The  negro,  like  the  white  man,  is  subject  to  the  laws  of  physi- 
cal, mental  and  moral  development.  But  in  his  case  these  laws 
have  been  suspended.  Spcialism  simply  proposes  that  the  negro 
shall  have  full  opportunity  to  develop  his  mind  and  soul,  and  this 
will  in  time  emacipate  the  race  from  animalism,  so  repulsive  to 
those  especially  whose  fortunes  are  built  up  out  of  it. 

The  African  is  here  and  to  stay.  How  came  he  to  our  shores  ? 
Ask  your  grandfathers,  Mr.  Anonymous,  and  if  they  will  tdl  the 
truth  you  will  or  should  blush  for  their  crimes. 


THE  NEGBO  AND  HIS  NEMESIS.  397 

The  black  man  was  stolen  from  his  native  land,  from  his  wife 
and  child,  brought  to  these  shores  and  made  a  slave.  He  was 
chained  and  whipped  and  robbed  by  his  "white  superior/'  while 
the  son  of  his  "superior"  raped  the  black  child  before  his  eyes. 
For  centuries  he  was  kept  in  ignorance  and  debased  and  debauched 
by  the  white  man's  law. 

The  rape-fierid?    Horrible! 

Whence  came  he  I  Not  by  chance.  He  can  be  accounted  for. 
Trace  him  to  his  source  and  you  will  find  an  Anglo-Saxon  at  the 
other  end.  There  are  no  rape-maniacs  in  Africa.  They  are  the 
spawn  of  civilized  lust. 

Anglo-Saxon  civilization  is  reaping  and  will  continue  to  reap 
what  it  has  sown. 

For  myself,  I  want  no  advantage  over  my  fellow  man  and  if 
he  is  weaker  than  I,  all  the  more  is  it  my  duty  to  help  him. 

Nor  shall  my  door  or  my  heart  be  ever  closed  against  any  hu- 
man being  on  account  of  the  color  of  his  skin. 

Eugene  V.  Debs. 


1 


Another  Red  Spot  on  the  Socialist  Map* 

MARVELOUS  as  has  been  the  growth  of  the  Socialist 
party  vote  in  many  of  the  United  States,  the  most  west- 
em  province  in  Canada,  British  Columbia,  has  by  its 
recent  election  campaign,  taken  a  foremost  place  in  the 
American  class  struggle  which  has  for  its  goal  the  capturing  of 
the  powers  of  government  by  the  working  class,  and  through  the 
intelligent  use  of  that  power  abolishing  the  wage-system  and  es- 
tablishing collective  ownership  of  the  means  of  life,  production 
being  for  use  instead  of  for  profit. 

The  Socialist  party  of  British  Columbia  was  organized  in  1901. 
Previous  to  that  time  there  had  been  branches  of  the  Canadian 
Socialist  League  and  other  Socialist  clubs  in  existence. 

The  convention  of  1901  united  the  various  bodies  upon  a  po- 
litical platform  of  a  "reform"  character — ^there  being  nearly  a 
score  of  "immediate  demands"  enumerated.  In  1902  several  rev- 
olutionary Socialist  bodies  were  formed,  but  upon  the  Socialist 
party  convention  deciding  to  discard  its  "reform"  policy  and  stand 
clear  for  "revolutionary"  Socialism  all  Socialist  organizations 
(with  the  exception  of  one  S.  L.  P.  section)  united  and  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  party  began.  The  platform  of  the  S.  P.  of  B.  C. 
is  probably  the  shortest  and  most  uncompromising  statement  of 
the  principles  of  revolutionary  socialism  that  has  ever  been  draft- 
ed in  any  country. 

In  1900  a  Socialist  candidate  for  the  Legislature  secured  684 
votes  in  Vancouver  City  and  in  1902  another  cast  a  vote  of  156 
in  North  Nanaimo.  On  October  3,  1903,  a  general  election  took 
place  to  choose  42  members  of  the  B.  C.  Legislature.  In  the  old 
Legislature  there  had  been  a  labor  member,  I.  N.  Hawthom- 
thwaite,  of  Nanaimo,  who  had  joined  the  Socialist  Party  and  he, 
with  ten  others  (one  being  an  S.  L.  P.)  were  nominated  as  candi- 
dates. 

To  prevent  the  working  class  from  securing  representation  in 
the  halls  of  legislation  the  capitalist  class  adopts  various  schemes. 
In  the  United  States  one  of  the  plans  is  the  requirement  of  peti- 
tions for  a  place  upon  the  ballot.  Once  having  nominated  a  stare 
ticket,  however,  every  voter  in  the  state  has  an  opportunity  of 
voting  for  the  candidates  for  state  officers.  In  Canada  all  gov- 
ernors, judges,  etc.,  are  appointed  by  the  kingf  s  minions,  and  there 
being  no  state  officers  to  elect,  voters  can  only  vote  for  the  candi- 
dates in  their  own  legislative  district.    This  prevents  a  vote  of 

893 


ANOTHEB  BED  BPOl^  ON  THE  SOCIALIST  MAP.  899 

the  entire  province  being  taken  unless  the  Socialist  party  has  can- 
didates in  every  district.  And  in  elections  for  the  Canadian  par^ 
liament  and  B.  C.  Legislature  a  deposit  of  $200  is  required  from 
each  candidate,  this  being  lost  if  one-half  the  vote  of  the  w'nring 
candidate  is  not  secured.  In  municipal  elections  labor  is  disquali- 
fied by  property  qualification  laws  in  electing  mayor  and  alder- 
men. 

Massachusetts,  with  39,065  votes,  cast  9.9  per  cent  of  the  total 
vote  in  1902.  Montana,  3,131  votes  or  5.7  per  cent;  Washington, 
5,573  votes  or  5.6  per  cent,  and  Colorado,  8,994  votes  or  4.8  per 
cent.  The  percentages  of  the  socialist  votes  in  the  various  states 
in  the  1903  elections  are  not  yet  compiled,  but  the  following  fig- 
ures show  that  British  Columbia,  for  a  time  at  least,  hiolds  the 
proud  position  of  leading  the  socialist  movement  in  America. 

There  are  34  electoral  districts  in  B.  C,  electing  42  members. 
Vancouver  City  elects  5  members,  each  voter  having  5  votes. 
Victoria  City  elects  4,  each  voter  being  able  to  vote  for  i,  2,  3 
or  4  candidates.  Cariboo  elects  2  members  and  voters  have  a 
dotible  franchise.  In  the  recent  contest  the  Conservatives  nom- 
inated 41  candidates;  Liberals,  40;  Socialist  party,  10;  Labor 
party,  4,  and  Socialist  Labor  party,  i.  In  two  districts  there  was 
no  election — Conservatives  and  Liberals  each  securing  a  member 
by  acclamation,  the  districts  being  small  and  without  socialist  or- 
ganization. In  one  district  the  Liberals  withdrew  from  the  field 
and  assisted  the  Labor  party  in  defeating  the  Conservatives.  Two 
Liberals,  two  Socialists  and  one  Socialist  Labor  party  candidate 
lost  their  $200  deposits. 

The  following  table  shows  the  total  votes  cast  for  the  various 
parties,  the  S.  L.  P.  vote  (284)  being  counted  as  socialist : 

Party.  Vote.                          Per  Cent. 

Conservative    26,286 46.3 

Liberal   21,316 37.5 

Socialist    5,091 8.9 

Labor    4,121 7.3 

But  as  the  above  table  includes  all  the  plural  votes  cast  in  Van- 
couver, Victoria  and  Cariboo,  it  is  manifestly  unfair.  For  in- 
stance, the  Liberal  and  Conservative  voters  having  4  or  5  votes 
would  divide  them  between  4  or  5  candidates,  while  socialists 
would  vote  only  for -the  socialists  and  not  use  their  other  votes. 
While  there  were  many  voters  who  split  their  ballots  by  voting 
for  several  capitalists  and  one  socialist  and,  consequently,  every 
voter  who  voted  for  socialism  cannot  be  counted  a  socialist,  the 
following  table  counting  only  the  highest  votes  for  each  party  in 
each  district  comes  as  near  as  possible  to  a  fair  test  of  party 
strength: 


iOO  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

Party,  Districts.  Votes.  Per  Cent, 

Conservative    33 12,670 43 

Liberal    32 11,211 38 

Socialist    9 3,852 13 

Lat>or    2 1,724 6 

These  figures  cover  the  whole  province  although,  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  the  election  deposit  law  disfranchised  socialist  voters 
in  25  districts.  Thus  a  more  favorable  showing  is  made  by  only 
counting  the  highest  votes  in  the  9  districts  where  socialist  voters 
had  an  opportunity  of  exercising  their  franchise.  Here  are  the 
figures  for  these  9  districts,  together  with  the  percentages  : 

District.  Con.  Lib.  Soc.  Labor. 

Femie  311 316 225 

Grand  Forks 355 175 233 

Greenwood    181 241 231 

Kaslo   289 250 166 

Nanaimo    325 294 486  (elected) 

Newcastle    217 214 289  (elected) 

Revelstoke    248 221 185 

Victoria   1,39(5 1,860 699 

Vancouver 2,650 1,547 1,338 1,355 

Highest  votes  in  9  districts : 

Per  Cent. 

Conservatives    S>972 37. 

Liberals    5,ii8 31.6 

Socialists    3*852 24. 

Labor    i  ,35 5 8.4 

The  Legislature  now  stands  22  Conservatives,  17  Liberals,  2 
Socialists  (J.  H.  Hawthornwaite,  Nanaimo,  and  Parker  Wil- 
liams, Newcastle),  and  i  Labor.  According  to  percentage  of 
total  vote  cast  it  should  be  19  Conservatives,  16  Liberals,  4  Social- 
ists and  3  Labor.  Five  old  party  men  were  elected  by  less  than 
200  votes,  although  it  will  be  seen  by  the  above  figures  that  the 
lowest  Socialist  vote  was  166  and  the  highest  1,338.  Thirteen 
were  elected  by  between  200  and  300  votes,  five  by  between  300 
and  400,  seven  by  between  400  and  500,  and  only  ten  by  over  500 
votes.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  with  only  about  40,000  vot- 
ing citizens  of  British  Columbia,  and  with  32  of  the  42  members 
elected  by  less  than  500  votes,  the  Socialist  party  has  only  one  or 
two  more  election  campaigns  to  go  through  before  it  secures  con- 
trol of  the  powers  of  government.  The  great  work  now  is  edu- 
cation and  organization  and  in  these  two  fields  the  party  is  well 
equipped,  it  practically  owning  the  Western  Qarion,  Vancouver,  a 
weekly  paper,  and  having  in  E.  T.  Kingsley,  Nanaimo,  a  splendid 


ANOTHEB  BED  SPOT  ON  THE  SOCIALIST  MAP.  401 

organizer,  who,  being  a  member  of  the  S.  L.  P.  for  many  years, 
is  thoroughly  grounded  in  the  principles  of  revolutionary  social- 
ism. 

Socialists  as  a  rule  belong  to  the  propertyless  class  and  are, 
therefore,  practically  disqualified  from  participating  in  municipal 
elections,  except  for  the  local  school  boards,  for  which  every  voter, 
regardless  of  property  ownership,  is  eligible.  In  thi«  field  there  is 
a  splendid  opportunity  for  activity  and  educational  propaganda  as 
is  shown  by  the  following  figures  of  party  votes  in  towns  in  the 
various  districts,  in  most  instances  the  places  named  being  regu- 
larly organized  into  self-governing  municipalities : 

Vote. 
Town.  Socialist.       Conservative.      Liberal. 

Nanaimo    486  325  294 

Ladysmith   208  187  171 

Noithfield    46  9  16 

Revelstoke   107  18  12 

Camborne    18  39  38 

Ferguson   66  53  8 

Trout  Lake 17  35  37 

Fernie    85  180  157 

Michel    57  19  36 

Coal  Creek   44  14  10 

Greenwood    132  95  104 

Boundary  Falls   44  15  37 

Phoenix 161  74  31 

The  victory  in  British  Columbia  has  given  inspiration  to  the 
socialists  in  all  parts  of  Canada.  In  Winnipeg,  Manitoba,  where 
the  Socialist  Party  fused  with  the  labor  unions  in  the  Legislative 
elections  last  June,  they  are  again  treading  on  dangerous  grouild, 
their  aldermanic  nominee  having  written  the  "Labor  Representa- 
tion League"  stating  that  all  "true  socialists"  would  support  labor 
candidates  if  they  demanded  the  full  product  of  their  toil.  In 
Ontario,  however,  a  proposed  fusion  with  the  labor  unions  has 
been  turned  down  almost  unanimously  and  a  strong  pledge,  with 
an  anti-fusion  clause  adopted.  They  have  also  taken  a  clear 
stand  as  revolutionary  socialists  and  resolved  to  nominate  a  num- 
ber of  candidates  for  the  Canadian  Parliament.  Even  priest-rid- 
den Quebec  and  far-off  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland  will  soon 
start  the  socialist  snowball  rolling  down  the  mountain  side  to  vic- 
tory in  the  valleys  beneath. 

Canada  must,  therefore,  be  reckoned  with  as  a  red  spot  on  the 
socialist  map  of  the  world.  In  May,  1902,  the  following  vote  was 
polled  for  socialism  in  11  districts  in  Ontario: 


1 


402  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  KEVIEW. 

SOCIALIST  PARTY. 

H.  G.  Wilshire,  West  Elgin 4^5 

S.  Carter,  S.  Wellington 413 

J.  Simpson,  E.  Toronto 265 

J.  A.  Kelly,  W.  Toronto 265 

J.   McMillan,   Manitoulin 241 

S.  Corner,  S.  Toronto % 163 

Margaret  Haile,  N.  Toronto ; 81 

Total 1,963 

SOCIALIST  LABOR  PARTY. 

Gordon,  W.  Hamilton 375 

Rhoadhouse,  E.  Hamilton. 197 

James,  S.  Toronto 100 

Hazelgrove,  London   97 

Wellwood,  W.  Toronto 84 

Kemp,  E.  Toronto 71 

Wade,  E.  Middlesex 24 

Tripp,  N.  Toronto 23 

Total '971 

The  combined  vote  of  both  parties  in  Canada  is,  therefore, 
as  follows: 

Socialist  Party,  Ontario,  1902 r J1963 

Socialist  Party,  British  Columbia,  1903 4,807 

Total 6,770 

Socialist  Labor  Party,  Ontario,  1902 971 

Socialist  Labor  Party,  British  Columbia,  1903 284 

Total. 1,25s 

Total  Socialist  vote  in  Canada 8,025 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  platform  of  the  Socialist  Party 
of  British  Columbia  and  its  briefness  may  allow  its  addition  to 
this  record  of  the  victories  won  since  its  adoption.  It  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

We,  the  Socialist  party  of  British  Columbia,  in  convention 
assembled,  affirm  our  allegiance  to  and  support  the  principles  and 
program  of  the  international  revolutionary  working  class. 

Labor  produces  all  wealth  and  to  labor  it  should  justly  belong. 
To  the  owner  of  the  means  of  wealth  production  belongs  the 
product  of  labor.  The  capitalist  system  is  based  upon  private  or 
capitalist  owner^p  of  the  means  of  wealth  production,  therefore 


ANOTHEB  BED  SPOT  OK  THE  SOCIALIST  MAP.  408 

all  the  products  of  labor  belong  to  the  capitalist.  The  capitalist 
is  master;  the  workman  is  slave. 

So  long  as  the  capitalists  remain  in  possession  of  the  reins  of 
government  all  the  powers  of  the  state  will  be  used  to  protect  and 
defend  their  property  rights  in  the  means  of  wealth  production 
and  their  control  of  the  product  of  labor. 

The  capitalist  system  gives  to  the  capitalist  an  ever-swelling 
stream  of  profits;  and  to  the  worker  an  ever-increasing  measure 
of  misery  and  degradation. 

The  interests  of  the  working  class  lie  in  the  direction  of  setting 
itself  free  from  capitalist  exploitation  by  the  abolition  of  the  wage 
system.  To  accomplish  this  necessitates  the  transformation  of 
capitalist  property  in  the  means  of  wealth  production  into  col- 
lective or  working  class  property. 

The  irrepressible  conflict  of  interests  between  the  capitalist  and 
the  worker  is  rapidly  culminating  in  a  struggle  for  possession  of 
the  powers  of  government,  the  capitalist  to  hold;  the  worker  to 
secure  it  by  political  action.    This  is  the  class  struggle. 

Therefore,  we  call  upon  all  wage-earners  to  organize  under 
the  banner  of  the  Socialist  party  of  British  Columbia,  with  the 
object  of  conquering  the  public  powers  for  the  purpose  of  setting 
up  and  enforcing  the  economic  program  of  the  working  class,  as 
follows : 

1.  The  transformation  as  rapidly  as  possible  of  capitalist  prop- 
erty in  the  means  of  wealth  production  (natural  resources,  fac- 
tories, mills,  railways,  etc.)  into  the  collective  property  of  the 
working  class. 

2.  Thorough  and  democratic  organization  and  management  of 
industry  by  the  workers. 

3.  The  establishment,  as  speedily  as  possible,  of  production 
for  use  in  lieu  of  production  for  profit. 

4.  The  Socialist  party,  when  in  office,  shall  always  and  every- 
where, until  the  present  system  is  utterly  abolished,  make  the 
answer  to  this  question  its  guiding  rule  of  conduct:  Will  this 
legislation  advance  the  interests  of  the  working  class  and  aid  the 
workers  in  their  class  struggle  against  capitalism?  If  it  will, 
the  Socialist  party  is  for  it;  if  it  will  not,  the  Socialist  party  is 
absolutely  opposed  to  it. 

5.  In  accordance  with  this  principle  the.  Socialist  party  pledges 
itself  to  conduct  all  the  public  affairs  placed  in  its  hands  in  such 
manner  as  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  working  class  alone. 

G.  Weston  Wrigley. 


n 


Socialists  in  the  Prussian  Landtag  Elections. 

NOVEMBER,  1903,  marks  a  new  stage  in  the  elections 
for  the  lower  house  of  the  Prussian  parliament  (land- 
tag). For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Prussia,  the 
class-conscious  proletariat  of  this  dominating  state  in 
the  German  empire  made  a  general  assault  on  this  stronghold  of 
feudal  reaction.  The  significance  of  this  historical  event  will  be 
appreciated  when  the  genesis^  and  constitution  of  the  present 
Prussian  election  system  are  understood. 

Voters  under  this  system  are  divided  into  citizens  of  the  first, 
second  and  third  class,  according  to  the  rate  of  direct  taxes  paid 
by  them.  The  members  of  the  first  and  second  class  are  so  out- 
rageously favored  by  the  privilege  of  plural  votes  that  they  wield 
a  political  influence  ridiculously  out  of  proportion  to  their  numeri- 
cal strength  and  importance.  The  working  class,  who  form  the 
bulk  of  the  third  class,  are  practically  disfranchised  by  this  sys- 
tem. Vorwdrts  well  describes  it  as  a  device  for  discouraging 
voting. 

The  system  is  the  product  of  the  confusion  following  the 
revolutionary  movement  of  1848,  by  which  the  German  bour- 
geoisie strove  to  overthrow  the  rule  of  the  feudal  nobility.  It 
was  designed  to  be  at  the  same  time  anti-socialist  and  anti-feudal, 
to  suit  the  requirements  of  capitalist  development.  But  when  it 
was  tested  in  the  elections,  it  failed  to  accomplish  the  object  of  the 
bourgeoisie  and  helped  the  feudal  nobility  back  info  the  saddle, 
at  least  for  the  time  being.  And  when  this  three-class  system 
finally  began  to  favor  the  capitalist  class  and  make  a  feudal  ma- 
jority in  the  landtag  impossible,  Bismarck  resorted  to  universal 
suffrage  in  the  reidhstag's  elections  as  a  means  of  playing  the 
working  class  against  the  capitalist  class,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
feudal  agrarians. 

The  three-class  election  system  is  not  only  grossly  unjust  to 
the  working  class,  but  also  full  of  intricacies  and  surrounded  by 
petty  rules,  all  of  which  fall  most  heavily  on  the  voters  of  the 
third  class.  First  of  all,  each  voter  must  answer  a  roll  call  and 
announce  his  choice  openly.  This  results  in  a  corruption  of  public 
morality  and  a  degradation  of  manhood,  by  preventing  all  gov- 
ernment employees  from  voting  for  Socialist  candidates,  on  pen- 
alty of  dismissal.  It  also  leads  to  the  discharge  of  many 
a  class-conscious  worker.  Furthermore,  representatives  for  the 
landtag  are  not  elected  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people,  but  by  a 
body  of  electors.  Tlie  voters  only  elect  these  electors.  Each  party 
nominates  two  electors  for  each  district,  and  the  voters  must 
vote  for  both  of  them  together.    An  absolute  majority  is  neces- 

404 


SOCIAUSTS  IN  THE  PRUSSIAN  LANDTAG  ELECTIONS.    405 

sary  for  the  election  of  the  electors  as  well  as  of  the  representa- 
tives. In  case  of  an  equality  of  votes,  lots  are  drawn.  Now  it 
may  happen  that  none  of  the  contending  parties  receives  an  abso- 
lute majority  of  the  votes  in  the  first  contest.  In  that  case  the 
voting  must  be  repeated  until  an  absolute  majority  or  a  draw 
results.  But  all  the  voters  of  each  class  must  stay  at  the  polling 
place  until  an  election  is  secured,  no  matter  how  long  it  may  take, 
on  pain  of  having  their  vote  cancelled.  Many  of  the  polling 
places  are  too  small  to  admit  all  of  the  voters  of  the  third  class. 
These  must  stay  outside  in  the  cold,  rain  or  snow,  and  await  their 
turn  in  the  roll  call.  When  it  is  considered  that  it  took  23  hours 
in  certain  localities  to  decide  the  contest,  the  reader  will  get  an 
approximate  idea  of  the  endurance  required  on  the  part  of  the 
voters.  Protests  against  such  abuses  must  not  be  filed,  other- 
wise the  election  of  the  protesting  district  may  be  declared  illegal. 

Another  disadvantage  for  the  proletariat  is  the  apportion- 
ment of  the  representatives,  which  favors  the  rural  districts, 
where  the  agrarians  carry  things  with  a  high  hand,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  city  population.  And  every  effort  is  made  to  revise 
the  apportionment  in  such  a  way  that  the  reactionaries  may  have 
a  still  greater  advantage.  One  clerical  organ,  for  instance,  pro- 
posed to  let  the  two  rural  districts  around  Berlin,  known  as  Tel- 
tow  and  Beeskow-Storkow,  with  a  total  poulation  of  312,799, 
elect  three  representatives,  while  the  suburbs  of  Berlin,  the  cities 
of  Charlottenburg,  Schoeneberg  and  Rixdorf,  with  a  total  popula- 
tion of  375,  777,  were  to  be  granted  only  one  representative,  or  at 
best  two. 

Besides,  the  police  department  of  all  cities  above  10,000  in- 
habitants is  not  controlled  by  the  city  administration,  but  by  the 
state  authorities.  That  the  police  terrorizes  Socialist  voters  to  the 
utmost,  goes  without  saying.  Even  if  a  municipality  is  in  con- 
trol of  the  Socialists,  they  are  powerless  against  this  terrorism. 
It  may  not  be  amiss,  in  this  connection,  to  mention  that  the 
franchise  in  municipal  elections  is  likewise  conditioned  on  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  taxes,  and  the  plural  voting  system  in  municipal 
elections  is  similar  to  that  in  the  landtag's  elections,  with  public 
voting  and  all  intricacies.  But  the  municipal  representatives  so 
elected  are  not  in  control  of  municipal  affairs.  They  elect  a 
mayor  and  a  sort  of  a  municipal  senate,  who  have  exclusive 
charge  of  very  important  matters  and  whose  consent  is  required 
for  any  measure  which  the  municipal  representatives  may  demand 
The  mayor  and  senate  of  cities  with  more  than  10,000  inhabi- 
tants cannot,  however,  take  office  until  the  king,  or  the  minister 
of  the  interior,  have  sanctioned  their  election.  And  the  munici- 
pal representatives  must  continue  to  elect  another  mayor  and  an- 
other senate,  until  they  succeed  in  choosing  men  whom  the  gov- 
ernment finds  acceptable.     If  no  satisfactory  choice  is  made  in 


406  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW. 

the  second  election,  then  the  provincial  governor  appoints  men 
who  manage  the  municipal  affairs  at  the  expense  of  the  city, 
until  the  municipal  representatives  have  elected  the  men  whom 
the  government  accepts.  Take  furthermore  into  account  that 
most  of  the  policemen  are  former  "loyal"  soldiers,  and  .that  the 
higher  election  officials  are  also  appointed  by  the  government,  and 
you  will  agree  that  even  a  thoroughly  Socialist  municipality 
has  nothing  to  congratulate  itself  on  in  either  municipal  or 
landtag  elections.  The  statement  recently  made  in  many  Ameri- 
can capitalist  and  Socialist  papers  that  Berlin  is  in  the  control  of 
Socialists  would,  therefore,  require  considerable  modification, 
even  if  it  were  true  that  the  majority  of  the  municipal  represen- 
tatives are  Socialists.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  recent  munici- 
pal elections  in  Berlin  only  increased  the  number  of  Socialist 
municipal  councillors  from  28  to  33,  which  is  not  yet  a  majority. 
At  any  rate,  even  the  absolute  control  of  the  municipal  council 
would  be  of  little  use  to  the  Socialists  in  the  landtag's  elections. 
From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  readily  understood  why  there 
has  always  been  a  strong  sentiment  in  the  ranks  of  the  German 
Socialist  Party  against  any  participation  in  the  landtag's  elec- 
tions. While  in  some  of  the  South  German  states  there  was  a 
possibility  of  success  that  was  worth  taking  advantage  of,  Prus- 
sia was  so  well  fortified  against  the  rising  proletariat  that  any 
attempt  to  dislodge  the  reaction  there  seemed  absolutely  hope- 
less. And  so  the  comrades  in  the  southern  states  had  already 
some  representatives  in  local  parliaments,  while  the  Prussian 
comrades  were  forced  to  remain  inactive.  But  the  growing 
strength  of  the  Socialist  Party  in  Prussia  awakened  the  desire 
for  an  assault  on  the  three-class  election  system. 

^  In  1888  Max  Schippel  first  suggested  the  idea  of  a  public 
protest  against  this  system,  but  nothing  was  done.  In  1893, 
shortly  before  the  landtag's  elections,  Edward  Bernstein,  who 
then  lived  in  London,  suggested  a  participation  of  the  Socialists 
in  those  elections.  But  the  national  convention  of  the  party,  held 
at  Cologne  in  September,  1903,  declined  any  participation.  A 
resolution  demanding  an  energetic  agitation  for  universal  and 
direct  suffrage,  like  that  in  use  for  reichstag's  elections,  was 
adopted  at  the  same  time.  The  national  convention  of  Ham- 
burg, 1S97,  revoked  the  Cologne  resolution  and  left  the  question 
of  the  participation  in  the  Prussian  landtag's  election*  open,  and 
the  Stuttgart  convention,  in  1898,  left  it  to  the  various  local 
organizations  to  decide  for  themselves.  In  three  places — Breslau, 
Linden  and  Altona — the  comrades  took  part  in  the  landtag's  elec- 
tions and  pressed  hard  on  the  capitalist  parties,  without,  however, 
obtaining  any  tangible  results,  mainly  because  the  radical  bour- 
geois parties  proved  too  reactionary  to  support  a  Socialist  against 
a   Conservative  or  other  capitalist  candidate.    The  reichstag's 


SOCIALISTS  IN  THE  PRUSSIAN  LANDTAG  ELECTIONS.    407 

elections  of  1898  had  shown  that  there  were  47  Prussian  land- 
tag's district  in  which  Socialists  and  Radicals  together  had  an 
absolute  majority.  It  seemed  likely  that  some  of  these  districts 
might  be  wrested  from  the  reactionaries. 

In  1900,  therefore,  the  Mayence  convention  of  the  Socialist 
Party  decided  to  make  the  experiment.  It  was  agreed  to  nom- 
inate Sociah'st  electors  wherever  there  seemed  a  possibility  of 
success,  and  to  leave  it  to  the  discretion  of  the  local  organiza- 
ticMis  how  to  instruct  the  electors.  That  the  Socialists  would 
succeed  in  electing  any  representatives  was  anticipated  by  very 
few  comrades.  It  was,  however,  confidently  expected  by  some 
that  a  goodly  number  of  mandates  might  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  Liberals  and  Radicals  if  they  would  agree  to  support  the  So- 
cialist candidates  where  the  Socialist  Party  was  strong  enough 
to  make  itself  felt. 

The  result  of  the  landtag's  elections  has  shown  that  even  this 
hope  was  futile.  The  Radicals,  rather  than  support  a  Socialist, 
left  the  field  to  the  blackest  reaction  and  the  Socialists  felt  justi- 
fied, under  the  circumstances,  in  refusing  to  support  Radical 
candidates  where  the  Socialist  vote  would  have  decided  the 
election  against  the  reaction.  So  the  complexion  of  the  land- 
tag is  practically  unchanged.  One  million  six  hundred  thou- 
sand Prussian  Socialists  have  not  one  representative  in  the  land- 
tag. 

No  official  report  of  the  total  Socialist  vote  has  appeared  so 
far.  But  some  of  the  local  results  show  that  the  Socialists  dis- 
played a  surprising  strength.  In  Berlin  I,  for  instance,  out  of 
1.209  electors,  the  Socialists  elected  185,  the  Radicals  850,  the 
Conservatives  174;  in  Berlin  II,  out  of  1,427  electors,  498  were 
Socialists,  834  Radicals,  9  Conservatives;  in  Berlin  III,  out  of 
2,761  electors,  919  were  Socialists,  1,189  Radicals,  222  Conser- 
vatives; in  Berlin  IV,  of  1,525  electors,  488  were  Socialists,  867 
Radicals  and  29  Conservatives.  In  Rixdorf,  all  the  118  electors 
of  the  third  class  and  72  out  of  125  of  the  second  class  were 
Socialists.  Yet  these  figures  do  not  give  any  accurate  idea  of 
the  numerical  stren^h  of  the  parties,  on  account  of  the  plural 
vote.  In  Berlin  IV,  for  instance,  the  Socialists  cast  21,689 
votes  and  elected  only  488  electors,  while  the  Radicals,  with  1,653 
votes,  elected  867  electors  and  the  Conservatives,  with  27  votes, 
elected  29  electors. 

Nevertheless,  the  Socialists  have  no  reason  to  feel  discouraged. 
They  did  not  expect  to  capture,  any  mandates.  They  simply  de- 
sired to  hold  up  to  scorn  the  three-class  election  system  and  to 
agitate  for  universal,  equal,  direct  and  secret  suffrage.  This 
they  accomplished  splendidly.  Besides,  they  received  a  valuable 
political  training  and  mastered  the  intricacies  of  the  system  so 
quickly  that  they  frequently  beat  the  capitalist  politicians  at  their 


408  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

own  game.  The  participation  of  the  Socialists  also  had  a  stimu- 
lating effect  on  the  voters  of  the  other  parties,  forcing  them  to 
fulfill  their  civic  duties  in  greater  numbers  than  ever  before. 

The  opinions  of  the  German  comrades  as  to  the  practical  re- 
sults of  this  experiment  are  widely  divergent.  But  a  calmer  and 
soberer  view  of  the  situation  will  probably  soon  incline  the  ma- 
jority toward  the  following  summing  up  of  Vorwdrts:"The  valu- 
able result  of  this  election  does  not  so  much  consist*  in  the  fact 
that  we  have  almost  penetrated  to  the  threshold  of  victory  in 
such  localities  as  Berlin  III,  Linden  and  Altona.  Nor  is  it 
found  in  the  surprising  progress  made  in  other  districts.  The 
abundant  harvest  of  our  hard  labors  is  represented  by  the  spread 
of  enlightenment,  the  increased  consciousness  of  the  utter  shame 
of  the  Prussian  misery.  .  .  .  The  brave  fight  of  our  com- 
rades is  not  lost.  This  election  will  blaze  the  wrong  into  the 
soul  of  the  working  class.  The  consciousness  of  this  in- 
justice will  never  fade.  The  Socialist  workingmen  have  declared 
war  to  the  knife  against  Prussian  class  rule." 

Ernest  Untermann. 


Congratulation  * 

We  have  struggled  through  the  ages   'gainst  the  ignorance  of  iiight 

Till  at  last  the  dawn  is  rising  a  millenium  of  light. 

Priests  have  filled  the  Earth  with  terror  and  the  horror  of  the  tomb, 

Adding  festering  damnations  and  the  hells  of  woe  and  gloom; 

Painting  ecstasies  celestial  for  each  passing  silent  wraith, 

Man's  reward  for  creed  acceptance  by  the  credulous  in  faith, 

Teaching  only  from  tiie  level  human  feebleness  attains^ 

But  persuading  ev'ry  acolyte  the  priest  alone  has  brains; 

They  have   forged   for   our    acceptance   something   quite  beyond    control, 

And  have  named  that  airy  nothing  a  deceitful,  '* human  soul.'' 

Now  fair  Science  lights  her  torches,  torches  man  alone  can  trust. 

Showing  everlasting  ** principles "  in  every  grain  of  dust; 

These  explain  each  act  and  atom  with  their  uncreated  laws, 

Neither  ending  nor  beginning,  nor  an  antecedent  cause. 

Force  and  matter  through  the  spaces  are  the  sole  eternal  things. 

From  the  mote  within  the  sunbeam  unto  Saturn's  mighty  rings. 

It  is  one  eternal  sparkle,  just  a  jubilee  of  joy — 

Just  a  universe  of  action  Nought  could  make  no*^  Aught  destroy! 

Death  is  momentary  darkness  while  the  light  is  life  again — 

And  that  "Soul"  shall  pass  forever  from  the  memories  of  men  I 

ISiAO  A.  POOTm 

*There  can  be  no  law  created  to  govern  that  which  arts  In  obedience  to  Its 
own  Inherent  principles — that  which  is  Itself  complete,  being  in  itself  both  cause 
and  effect,  as  when  iron  and  oxygen,  obeying  their  Inherent  principles,  join 
and  became  what?  Neither  oxygen  nor  iron,  but  hematite — so  remaining  until 
that  oxygen  obeys  the  other  superior  attraction  of  carbon  under  heat  and 
sets  the  iron  free  for  other  combinations.  So  force  and  matter  are  forever  break- 
ing up  combinations  to  construct  new  ones,  Life  and  Death  forever  succeeding 
eaCh  other.  This  they  have  done  and  will  do  through  past  and  coming,  so 
called  eternities. 


Looking  Forward. 

(A  letter  from  the  Strangeland  "Capitalia/') 

LATE  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  ****,  I  entered  the  harbor 
of  the  city  of  No- Work,  the  famous  metropolis  of  the 
strange  land  Capitalia. 

The  first  object  which  greeted  my  gaze  was  a  colossal 
statue  of  a  golden  calf.  Floating  about  it  was  a  great  banner 
adorned  with  black  stripes  on  a  blue  ground. 

However,  what  impressed  me  most  was  the  peculiar  motto  at- 
tached to  the  national  emblem  of  Capitalia :  "In  Gold  We  Trust." 
To  me  it  seemed  an  atrocious  blasphemy. 

After  landing  safely,  I  arrived,  as  all  strangers  do  who  visit 
Capitalia,  at  a  dismal,  dreary,  inhospitable  place,  and  entered  a 
dingy  building,  bearing  the  queer- name  Cattle  Guardian. 

Here  I  encountered  a  venerable  old  man,  the  Commissioner 
of  Immigration  of  the  State  of  Capitalia. 

"Do  you  speak  our  language,  the  language  of  'Capitalia'?" 
was  his  first  question. 

My  aflSrmative  reply  in  fluent  Capitalian  idiom  pleasantly  sur- 
prised the  officer. 

"What  object  in  view  have  you  in  our  country  ?  Our  laws  for- 
bid categorically  immigration  from  foreign  lands." 

"It  is  not  my  intention  to  settle  in  your  remarkable  country 
permanently.  My  only  object  consists  in  the  study  of  your  politi- 
cal, social-economic  and  other  state  institutions,  whose  fame  filled 
the  entire  world  with  awe  and  admiration,"  replied  I  to  the  com- 
missioner's inquiry. 

I  then  made  an  attempt  to  get  from  the  officer  some  informa- 
tion concerning  the  strange  things  I  had  seen  in  the  harbor  of 
the  city  of  No- Work ;  the  golden  calf  statue,  the  strange  banner 
with  stripes  and  no  stars,  the  blasphemous  motto  "In  Gold  We 
Trust,"  and  about  the  queer  name  "Cattle  Guardian."  The  Com- 
missioner glanced  at  me  with  a  quizzical  smile  and  said,  somewhat 
hesitatingly. 

"I  ought  not  to  give  you  any  information  whatever  concern- 
ing our  country  and  its  institutions  before  you  are  examined  by 
the  Committee  of  Eternal  Vigilance,  and  admitted  into  our  do-- 
mains  as  a  temporary  visitor.    However,  you  made  a  favorable 
impression  upon  me  and  I  will  make  an  exception  in  your  case. 

"Many,  many  centuries  ago  the  country  bearing  now  the  proud 
name  'Capitalia'  was  a  howling  wilderness  sparsely  settled  by  bar- 
baric tribes  called  'Naives.' 

409 


1 


410  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

;  "A  few  peculiar  people  came  over  from  across  the  ocean  in 
order  to  enjoy  what  they  pleased  to  call  'Religious  Freedom/  I 

-dare  say  they  had  all  the  religious  freedom  they  wanted  among 
the  Naives,  but  mighty  little  to  eat.  The  first  inunigrants  were 
earnest,  sturdy  people  and  soon  improved  their  opprortunities  with 
marvelous  success.  This  success  attracted  other  earnest  and  sturdy 
people  from  across  the  ocean  and  the  colonies  flourished  in  a  short 
time.  The  colonists  from  across  the  ocean  were  what  were  called 
at  that  time  pious  Christians  and  civilized  people.  They  wanted 
religious  freedom  for  themselves.  At  the  same  time  they  insisted 
upon  civilizing  and  christianizing  the  barbaric  and  pagan  Naives. 
The  protests  of  the  Naives  against  their  involuntary  Christianiza- 
tion  and  civilization  by  the  colonists  from  across  the  ocean  proved 
of  na  avail.  However,  Christianity  and  civilization  somehow  did 
not  agree  with  the  barbaric  aborigines  and  they  soon  died  out,  leav- 
ing the  entire  country  to  the  newcomers.  When  the  colonists  ar- 
rived from  across  the  ocean  their  only  desire  was  to  secure  relig- 
ious freedom.  As  years  passed  by  and  the  colonists  prospered  noth- 
ing short  of  political  independence  from  their  mother  country 
could  satisfy  them.  They  fought  for  their  political  independence 
and  conquered  it.  More  and  more  sturdy  and  earnest  immigrants 
came  over  from  across  the  ocean  and  helped  to  develop  the  nat- 
ural resources  of  the  country  to  unprecedented  proportions.  Soon 
a  few  crafty  and  unscrupulous  people  managed  to  appropriate  the 
lion's  share  of  the  wealth  of  the  nation.  There  arose  a  sharp  line 
of  demarcation  between  the  few  immensely  rich  exploiters  of  hu- 
man toil  called  'Capitalists'  and  the  broad  masses  of  the  exploited 
t(>iling  proletarians. 

"-  "All  the  means  of  production  and  distribution  were  monopo- 
lized by  the  parasitic  class  of  Capitalists,  while  the  producers 
were  reduced  to  a  state  of  abject  poverty  and  dependence.  Polit- 
ical and  religious  freedom  turned  into  a  snare  and  delusion  as 
soon  as  industrial  servitude  put  its  iron  grip  on  the  broad  masses 
of  the  people.  An  era  of  general  dissatisfaction  and  unrest  en- 
sued. Wise  and  well-meaning  people  advised  the  capture  of  the 
power  of  the  state  by  the  intelligent  use  of  the  ballot  and  the 
iiiauguration  of  the  Co-operative  Commonwealth  in  si  peaceful 
way. "  Wise  and  well  meaning  people  claimed  that  the  intelligent 
vtse  6f  the  ballot  by  the  proletarians  would  lead  to  the  abolition  of 
poverty,  class  rule  and  exploitation  of  men  by  men.  Alas!  The 
prdfetarians  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  their  true  friends  and  followed 
theladvices  of  false  prophets,  so-called  professional  labor  leaders, 
who  were  hired  by  the  Capitalists  to  mislead  the  proletarians. 
The  false  prophets  who  were  in  the  business  for  profits  tried  to 
keep  the  proletarians  out  of  politics.  For  a  short  while  so-called 
trade  unions  kept  the  encroachment  of  Capital  upon  labor  par- 


X 


LOOKING  POBWAED.  411 

tially  in  check  by  the  means  of  strikes  and  boycotts.  However, 
the  Capitalists  gradually  organized  themselves  into  one  gigantic 
anti-trade-union  combine  and  with  the  political  power  in  their 
hands  actually  disfranchised  all  those  who  were  compelled  to 
work  for  a  living.  A  great  uprising  of  the  common  people,  so- 
called,  against  the  ruling  class  followed.  However,  it  proved  to 
be  too  late  for  the  exploited  classes.  The  proletariat  was  thor- 
oughly demoralized  and  divided.  One  part  of  the  common  peo- 
ple was  educated  and  trained  by  the  ruling  class  in  the  art  of 
wholesale  murder  called  war  under  the  name  of  'The  Army.'  The 
other  part  was  unarmed  and  defenseless.  The  Capitalists  ordered 
'the  Army'  to  murder  'the  internal  enemy'  in  the  interests  of  *pubr 
lie  safety.'  The  fratricidal  butchery  resulted -in  favor  of  the 
ruling  class.  The  industrial  revolution  was  drowned  in  torrents 
of  proletarian  blood  and  the  bullet  killed  the  ballot.  Since  that 
time  our  country  appropriated  the  name  'Capitalia;'  removed  the 
stars  from  the  national  emblem  and  replaced  the  statue  of  Liberty 
by  the  statue  of  the  Golden  Calf.  Since  that  time  we  trust  in  Gold 
instead  of  in  God,  and  exclude  foreigners  from  our  country.  We 
make  exceptions  in  the  cases  of  a  few  savants  like  you,  who  come 
to  study  our  institutions.  The  name  'Cattle  Guardian'  symbolizes 
our  contempt  toward  foreigners  in  general." 

I  thanked  the  Commissioner  for  his  courtesy  and  was  conducted 
by  him  through  narrow,  well-lighted  tunnels  into  the  very  heart 
of  the  city  of  No- Work.  Here  the  officer  turned  me  over  to  the 
Committee  of  Eternal  Vigilance  and  then  departed. 

I  was  subjected  to  a  most  rigid  and  searching  examination  as 
to  the  state  of  my  mind,  convictions,  beliefs  and  sympathies.  My 
brief  talk  with  the  Commissioner  put  me  on  the  right  track  in  re- 
spect to  the  spirit  of  the  culture  and  civilization  of  Capitalia. 

Here  follow  some  of  the  questions  put  to  me  by  the  Committee 
of  Eternal  Vigilance  and  the  answers  I  gave.    As  you  will  readily  , 
see,  there  seemed  to  be  little  system  in  the  sequence  of  the  ques-' 
tions  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  this  lack  of  system  was  in- 
tentional on  the  part  of  the  examiners  in  order  to  catch  me  in 
inconsistencies. 

Question — ^What  is  the  main  object  of  human  life  on  earth? 

Answer — Success.    Nothing  succeeds  like  success.  , 

Q. — ^What  do  you  mean  by  success?  ,  J^- 

A, — For  the  ruling  class  success  means:  The  accumulation 
of  as  much  material  wealth  as  possible  and  the  highest  enjoyment 
of  Irfc  imaginable.  For  the  lower  classes  success  means:  The 
creation  of  as  much  wealth  as  possible  for  the  valiant  possessors 
of  the  valuable  and  satisfaction  with  the  barest  necessities  of 
animal  life  for  themselves  as  a  reward  for  incessant  labor. 

Q. — ^What  is  religion? 


X 


412  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

A. — Religion  is  an  institution,  by  the  means  of  which  the  un- 
reasoning masses  of  humanity  are  hypnotized  into  cheerful  sub- 
mission to  the  ruling  class. 

Q. — Define  the  terms  "right**  and  "wrong." 

A. — Right  and  wrong  are  only  the  attributes  of  power  and 
weakness — respectively.  The  strong  are  always  right,  the  weak 
always  wrong.    Might  is  Right.    Weakness  is  Wrong. 

Q. — ^What  do  you  understand  under  the  term  State? 

A. — -The  State  is  an  institution,  by  means  of  which  one  part 
of  the  common  people  compels  the  other  part  of  the  common  peo- 
ple to  submit  to  the  will  of  the  ruling  class. 

Q. — ^What  is  the  diflference  between  an  unlimited  monarchy 
and  a  republic? 

A. — ^Under  given  economic  conditions  the  diflference  is  more 
imaginary  than  real.  In  a  monarchy  the  people  know  that  they 
are  slaves  and  the  ruling  class  does  not  pretend  to  represent  the 
people.  In  a  republic  the  unthinking  masses  imagine  themselves 
to  be  free  and  the  ruling  class  tries  to  keep  up  that  illusion. 

Q. — ^What  is  the  object  of  science? 

A. — ^To  increase  and  perpetuate  the  power  of  the  ruling  class 
over  the  common  people. 

Q.— What  is  the  object  of  Art? 

A. — ^To  enhance  the  enjoyment  of  life  by  the  rich  and  power- 
ful. 

Q. — ^What  is  conscience? 

A. — ^A  prejudice  characteristic  of  the  civilization  preceding  the 
enlightened  era  of  Capitalian  civilization — b,  relic  of  barbarity. 

Q. — Does  the  end  justify, the  means? 

A. — Most  assuredly  in  case  the  end  sought  for  is  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  strong  and  cunning  and  against  the  interests  of  the 
weak  and  simple-minded. 

Q. — What  ought  to  be  the  normal  relation  between  man  and 
man? 

A. — The  same  as  between  animals  of  the  same  species.  The 
strong  ought  to  associate  with  the  strong  and  preach  to  the  weak 
individualistic  or  anarchistic  ideas  according  to  the  old  and  well 
tried  maxim:    "Divide  and  rule."  (Divide  et  impera.) 

Q. — ^What  is  the  standard  of  human  value? 

A. — ^The  bank  account.  He  who  possesses  no  bank  account  is 
of  course  below  consideration.  The  value  of  those  having  bank 
accounts  increases  in  direct  geometrical  ratio  with  the  increase  of 
the  account.  In  other  words,  a  man  having  a  bank  account  of 
two  million  dollars  has  four  times  the  value  of  one  who  possesses 
only  one  million. 

Q. — Is  there  any  difference  between  those  who  possess  no 
value  whatever  ? 


LOOKING  FOBWABD.  413 

A. — ^Yes,  those  who  are  contented  with  their  lot  are  harmless, 
while  those  who  are  dissatisfied  are  dangerous. 

Q. — ^What  is  morality? 

A.— The  ruling  class  cannot  be  immoral  as  it  can  do  no  wrong. 
A  man  who  has  to  earn  a  living  may  be  either  moral  or  immoral 
according  to  his  conduct  toward  the  ruling  class.  If  a  working 
man  is  industrious,  temperate,  obedient  to  his  superiors,  he 
must  be  considered  as  moral.  However,  if  he  is  lazy,  shiftless,  in- 
temperate and  stubborn  he  may  be  termed  immoral.  The  ruling 
class  always  determines  the  rules  of  conduct,  the  ethical  standard 
for  the  lower  classes. 

Q. — ^What  would  you  consider  an  ideal  state  of  society? 

A. — ^An  ideal  state  of  society  would  demand  the  existence  of 
three  distinct  classes.  The  highest  class  would  have  no  useful  task 
to  perform,  no  duties,  no  obligations  toward  society.  This  class 
would  only  enjoy  life  to  its  fullest  capacity,  would  live  like  the 
gods  of  ancient  Greece.  The  lowest  class  would  be  composed  of 
individuals  of  unlimited  capacity  for  work  with  no  desire  except 
of  the  most  necessary  functions  of  life.  The  highest  ambition  of 
the  lowest  class  would  consist  in  making  the  life  of  the  highest 
class  as  easy  and  pleasant  as  possible. 

Q. — Do  you  consider  the  realization  of  such  an  ideal  of  a 
working  class  possible? 

A. — ^Yes,  by  means  of  careful  sexual  artificial  selection  and 
systematic  training  from  childhood.  This,  as  well  as  all  social 
functions  demanding  high  intellectual  attainments,  will  be  in  the 
hands  of  a  middle  class  of  highly  specialized  brain-workers. . 

Q. — ^What  is  charity? 

A. — Charity  is  a  cheap  substitute  for  justice  and  a  very  con- 
venient institution  for  the  ruling  class.  It  furnishes  the  oppor- 
tunity for  keeping  the  lower  classes  in  a  proper  state  of  depend- 
ence, humility  and  demoralization.  Besides  this  it  saves  them 
the  annoyance  of  professional  beggary.  Organized  charity  allows 
beggars  to  be  treated  like  criminals,  without  appearing  heartless. 
Qiarity  helps  the  benevolent  rich  in  winning  the  confidence  of  the 
worthy  poor,  by  throwing  them  a  few  crumbs  from  the  overladen 
table. 

Q. — ^What  is  the  distinction  between  the  "worthy"  and  "un- 
worthy" poor? 

A. — ^The  reserve  army  of  unemployed  is  necessary  in  order 
to  keep  in  check  the  employed  workingmen.  Charity  helps  to  keep 
this  reserve  army  on  the  brink  of  semi-starvation  and  in  constant 
readiness  to  break  a  strike  or  destroy  a  trade 'union.  Those  poor 
who  are  so  far  demoralized  as  to  be  entirely  unreliable  in  case  of 
such  an  emergency  we  class  as  "unworthy"  of  charitable  support. 


414  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

Tramps,  for  instance,  are  "unworthy"  poor.     We  cannot  turn 
them  into  profit. 

Most  of  my  replies  were  declared  satisfactory  by  the  Q>mmit- 
tee  of  Eternal  Vigilance.  Before  I  was  admitted  into  the  interior 
of  Capitalia  I  had  to  undergo  another  ordeal.  I  had  to  pass  an 
examination  by  means  of  a  mind-reading  apparatus.  It  was  a 
very  ingenious  and  delicate  instrument,  recording  automatically, 
in  tfie  shape  of  a  curve,  the  vibration  of  the  thought  waves  of  the 
human  brain.  The  appearance  of  the  apparatus,  with  the  helm 
adjusted  to  the  human  head  and  a  net  of  electric  wires,  seemed 
to  me  formidable  enough.  What  concerned  me  most  was  the  ap- 
prehension that  the  real  state  of  my  mind  would  be  revealed  by 
the  instrument  and  close  for  me  forever  the  gates  of  Capitalia. 

I  was  as  nervous  when  the  helm  of  the  apparatus  was  adjusted 
to  my  head  as  if  I  were  going  to  be  electrocuted.  In  consequence 
of  this  nervousness  my  mind  at  that  moment  was  a  perfect  blank 
and  the  instrument  recorded  a  straight  line,  signifying  something 
very  near  a  zero  of  thought  wave  motion. 

"This  is  the  best  record  we  had  for  years,"  explained  the  chief 
of  the  committee  to  me,  benevolently. 

Before  I  was  admitted  to  Capitalia,  I  had  to  prove  my  re- 
spectability by  depositing  a  sum  of  at  least  one  million  dollars  in 
Capitalian  coin  with  the  treasurer  of  the  committee.  This  did 
not  trouble  me  much.  It  just  happened  that  I  had  about  two  and 
a  half  million  dollars  in  my  pocketbook  and  made  the  deposition 
of  the  required  sum.  This  unostentatious  display  of  substantial 
respectability  produced  a  magical  effect  on  the  members  of  the 
committee.  Every  one  of  them  shook  my  hand  cordially  and  in- 
vited me  to  dine. 

I  was  supplied  with  a  special  guide  and  allowed  to  stay  wher- 
ever I  pleased  and  do  whatever  I  might  choose  within  the  borders 
of  Capitalia. 

What  1  have  seen,  heard  and  learned  there  I  shall  reveal  in  my 
future  correspondence.  Yours  respectfully, 

I.  Ladoff. 


History  of  German  Trade  Unionism.* 

CHAPTER  FIRST.— BEGINNINGS. 
(1848-1868.) 

EVEN  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  Germany  was 
principally  an  agricultural  nation.  Mere  than  two-thirds 
of  the  population  lived  in  the  country ;  in  Prussia  at  least 
three-fourths.  Agricultural  products  formed  the  greater 
part  of  the  exports. 

In  urban  industry,  the  small  business,  the  artisanship  of  the 
Middle  Ages  still  existed,  with  its  guild  organization.  Prussia, 
Bavaria,  Wurtemberg  had  established,  it  is  true,  a  very  limited 
industrial  liberty,  and  Westphalia  lived  under  the  French  law. 
Everywhere  else  the  old  regime,  with  its  spirit,  remained.  In 
1850  the  locksmiths  and  carpenters  of  Frankfort  were  still  quar- 
reling over  their  respective  privileges,  just  as  in  the  fifteenth 
century. 

The  laborers  within  the  workshops  no  longer  had  any  hope 
of  becoming  masters.  It  was  becoming  more  and  more  difficult 
for  them  to  maintain  even  their  standard  of  life  as  laborers.  The 
associations  of  apprentices,  that  counterpoise  which  was  every 
day  more  necessary  to  the  ever  more  exclusive  guilds,  were  for- 
bidden and  hunted  out.  (Resolution  of  the  Diet  Dec.  3,  1840.) 
All  that  remained  were  a  few  societies  for  assistance  in  sickness 
or  traveling.  The  right  of  coalition  did  not  exist  (law  of  1845 
in  Prussia  and  of  1847  in  Hanover).  Strikers  were  rebels.  The 
laborers  who  lived  with  their  masters  and  under  their  surveillance 
were  driven  out  of  the  city  by  the  police  when  the  masters  dis- 
charged them  and  were  still  struggling  for  the  right  "to  have  a 
key  to  the  house."  A  very  few  of  them  were  affiliated  with  the 
little  communist  groups  of  Weitling. 

Such  was  Germany  in  1840,  "below  the  level  of  history,"  as 
Marx  has  said.  All  that  could  be  said  was  that  the  establish- 
ment of  the  customs'  union,  the  first  railroads  and  the  increasing 
population  were  quietly  preparing  its  industrial  destiny,  and  that 

•The  serlefl  of  articles,  of  which  this  Is  the  first,  are  a  translation  of  "Le 
Byndiea1i»me  AUemand"  by  Albert  Thomas,  which  Is  one  of  a  series  of  booklets 
issued  by  the  8oci6t4  Nouvelle  de  lAbrarie  ei  d'EdiHon  of  Paris.  My  partlcalar 
reason  for  translating  It  Is  to  be  found  In  the  fact  that  there  Is  not  as  yet  In 
the  English  language  any  work  giving  a  brief  yet  comprehenslye  survey  of  the 
German  trade  nnton  movement. 

None  of  the  German  works  which  have  come  within  my  observation  are  as 
compact  and  satisfactory  In  ihelr  treatment  as  this  work.  It  Is  of  especial 
Interest  to  American  socialists  at  this  time  when  the  trade  union  movement 
Is  occupying  so  much  attention.  Very  many  of  the  same  problems  that  are  now 
occupying  nie  minds  of  American  socialists  were  discussed  some  years  ago  in 
Germany  and  settled  satisfactorily,  and  their  experience  should  throw  great 
light  on  the  analagous  problems  in  this  country.  The  whole  book  will  appear 
in  three  Installments,  of  which  this  Is  the  first. — Tbanslatos. 

415 


416  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEV^. 

a  few  great  industries  had  begun  what  was  felt  to  be  a  crushing 
competition  with  the  artisans.  Two  regions  alone  were  pushing 
forward  into  the  future :  Saxony  and  Silesia,  upon  the  one  side, 
with  their  exploitation  of  the  workers  in  their  homes,  and  the 
Westphalian-Rhine  country  on  the  other,  where  factories  were 
beginning  to  appear.  Here  and  there  capitalism  was  rising  and 
with  it  a  proletariat — an  unarmed,  miserable  proletariat,  as  is 
always  the  case  in  the  period  of  the  genesis  of  capitalism,  and 
moved  by  hunger  ^lone  to  wild  fruitless  uprisings.  It  was  dur- 
ing one  of  these  in  June,  1844  that  the  weavers  of  Peterwaldan 
plundered  the  house  of  the  Zwanzigers,  their  "executioners." 

Suddenly  the  French  revolution  of  1848  broke  out.  We  can- 
not here  relate  the  political  and  national  movement  which  fol- 
lowed in  Germany,  nor  the  vicissitudes  of  these  revolutions.  But 
the  workers  played  their  role  in  those  days  and  their  political 
activity  tended  to  become  transformed  into  a  movement  for  social 
•emancipation. 

The  congress  of  artisans,  which  met  at  Hamburg  on  the  2d 
of  June,  184S,  and  which  attempted  to  revive  the  guilds  as  the 
only  remedy  for  capitalist  competition,  was  opposed  by  a  congress 
of  laborers  (gesellen).  And  if  the  latter  were  not  able  to  com- 
pletely divest  themselves  of  the  mediaeval  guild  thought,  at  least 
their  idea  of  a  guild  comprising  all  the  workshops  and  recogniz- 
ing equal  rights  to  all  producers,  however  vague  it  might  have 
been,  was  new. 

The  first  important  step  in  the  history  of  trade  unionism  was 
the  formation  of  the  League  of  Laborers,  by  Stephan  Bom,  a 
typesetter,  educated  in  the  Marxist  group  of  Brussels.  Bom  at- 
tempted in  Berlin,  after  the  days  of  March,  to  form  an  organiza- 
tion of  the  working  class.  He  founded  a  political  organization 
whose  end  was  the  capture  of  power  in  the  State,  but  this  organi- 
zation had  a  trade  union  foundation.  Unions  were  established 
in  each  locality  for  each  industry ;  their*  delegates  organized  to 
represent  local  labor  and  the  general  assembly  of  delegates  met  to 
represent  the  working  class  before  the  authorities.  This  new 
organization  was  established  throughout  a  large  part  of  Germany, 
in  Leipsic,  Hamburg,  Heidelberg  and  Nuremberg,  with  a  total 
of  250  unions.  Its  political  activity  was  remarkable.  What  prin- 
cipally interests  us  is  that  through  its  journal  "The  Brotherhood" 
(Die  Verbruederimg)  and  by  direct  assistance  it  supported  num- 
erous struggles  for  better  wages.  Some  federated  unions  even 
resulted  from  these  stmggles,  for  instance,  among  the  cigar- 
makers. 

Finally,  about  the  same  time  that  the  Arbeiterbund  was 
formed  (June,  1848)  the  printers  founded  a  National  associa- 
tion. To  be  sure,  this  included,  according  to  tradition,  both  labor- 
ers and  masters,  the  first  enthusiastically,  the  latter  under  com- 


HISTORY  OP  GEBMAN  TRADE  UNIONS.  417 

pulsion.  But  like  the  modem  union  it  proposed  to  stop  the  hard- 
ships due  to  the  substitution  of  the  machine  for  the  nand  press, 
which  had  thrown  out  the  workers,  and  it  established  definite 
rules  for  arbitration,  the  payment  of  wages  and  apprenticeship. 
The  brutal  reaction  of  the  years  that  followed  1850  easily 
swept  all  this  away.  It  was  impossible  for  labor  organizations  to 
become  deeply  rooted  in  the  poor  soil  offered  by  the  stage  of  in- 
dustry then  existing.  What  is  worthy  of  note  is  that  the  idea 
and  plan  of  total  emancipation  had  arisen  in  the  minds  of  some 
workers  to  await  the  economic  moment  when  trade  unions  might 
be  established  and  live.  The  workers  of  1848  were  conscious 
proletaires  and  it  was  this  consciousness  which  forced  them  to 
unite  in  trade  organizations,  even  before  the  great  industry  had 
made  them  feel  the  necessity  of  societies  for  defense.  Here  they 
differ  profoundly  from  the  English  trade  unions,  and  this  feature 
stamps  the  whole  Grerman  movement  from  its  first  appearance, 
whatever  form  it  takes. 


Years  of  political  reaction  followed. 

The  liberal  ambitions  of  the  bourgeoisie  were  destroyed  and 
sidetracked.  Economic  activities  absorbed  all  its  energies.  Capi- 
tal came  out  of  hiding;  corporations,  founded  at  first  by  tiie 
banks,  multiplied.  From  1846  to  1861  the  importance  of  spin- 
ning doubled;  the  number  of  mechanical  workshops  in  weaving 
quadrupled.  An  equal  progress  took  place  in  the  metallurgic 
industiy.  Railroads  grew  from  469  kilometers  in  1840  to 
11,088  in  i860,  and  this  development  continued  with  only  a  little 
less  rapidity  until  1870. 

Under  this  impulse  the  old  social  forms  began  to  burst.  From 
i860  to  1866  all  the  German  States  which  still  maintained  the 
old  guild  organizations,  one  by  one  established  freedom,  and  the 
industrial  cede  of  the  North  German  Federation  in  1869  con- 
firmed this  revolution.  On  the  other  hand,  the  law  forbidding 
coalition  was  repealed  and  the  right  to  strike  recognized.  It  was 
in  Saxony  that  this  important  event  was  first  accomplished 
(law  of  1861)  ;  then  in  Prussia  in  1865,  and  in  the  North  German 
Federation  in  1867.  Here  the  .workers  themselves  had  struggled 
to  secure  recognition  of  their  right  and  had  forced  liberal  depu- 
ties to  give  it  to  them. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  revolutions  that  the  growing  pro- 
letariat became  conscious  of  its  needs.  We  shall  soon  have  to 
notice  its  political  activity,  and  it  will  subordinate  to  this  action 
even  its  economic  efforts.  But  here  it  is  only  worth  while  to  note 
the  existence  of  this  effort  during  the  years  1866  to  1868. 

From  1865  strikes  were  very  numerous.  These  were  for  the 
increase  of  wages,  decrease  of  the  hours  of  labor,  and  the  sup- 
pression of  the  old  guild  fetters.     In  the  spring  of  1865  the 


418  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIBW. 

Strike  of  the  typesetters  of  Leipsic  attracted  attention.  During 
the  same  year  wage  struggles  disturbed  nearly  all  the  trades 
of  Hamburg.  During  1866  and  1867  the  political  crisis,  due  to 
tfie  Austro-Prussian  war,  temporarily  retarded  this  movement. 
But  the  "Intemationar'  again  attracted  public  attention  by  tak- 
ing a  prominent  part  in  the  strike  of  the  Parisian  bronze  workers, 
which  had  a  triumphant  end.  In  1868  the  movement,  as  a  whole, 
revived. 

These  strikes  rendered  organization  necessary,  and  the  labor- 
ers drew  together  ever3rwhere,  especially  in  local  unions.  The 
monographs,  which  began  to  be  written  on  union  development  in 
diflFerent  trades  and  different  cities,  revealed  little  by  little  the 
intensity  of  this  first  movement  It  was  confused  enough  without 
doubt,  since  much  of  the  old  guild  spirit  often  arose,  but  the 
features  of  modem  unionism  were  slowly  appearing.  Even 
central  unions  were  founded;  that  of  the  cigarmakers  in  1865, 
of  the  printers  in  1866,  and  the  tailors  in  1867.  These  scat- 
tered and  ephemeral,  but  definite  efforts  at  organizaticm  filled  all 
that  long  early  period  in  the  history  of  German  unionism,  dur- 
ing which  the  English  trade  unions  were  being  conceived  and 
established.  Because  these  facts  have  been  overlooked  it  has 
been  erroneously  stated  that  the  German  unions  were  bom  one 
beautiful  aftemoon  out  of  the  political  turmoil  of  1868. 

*    ♦    ♦ 

The  birth  of  the  great  industry  had  forced  the  workers  to 
found  unions.  These  diflfered  from  the  English  unions  of  the 
eighteenth  century  in  that  they  did  not  confine  themselves  to  at- 
tempts to  defend  their  wages  against  the  effects  of  free  competition. 
The  more  intelligent  of  the  proletarians  of  that  time,  that  is  to  say. 
those  who  founded  the  unions,  had  already  come  to  understand 
through  their  educational  societies,  or  the  communist  groups,  not 
only  the  evils  but  also  the  fundamental  injustice  of  the  capitalist 
regime.  They  desired  to  free  themselves  and  it  was  principally 
in  political  action  that  they  sought  to  accomplish  this  end. 

In  iSffi  the  German  workers,  so  far  as  the  political  field  was 
concerned,  were  divided  into  two  great  groups;  on  the  one  side 
the  old  LassalHan  party,  the  General  Association  of  German 
Workers,  founded  in  1863  and  at  this  time  directed  bv  Schweitzer : 
one  the  other  hand,  those  workers  beloneing  to  the  Prog^ressiveist 
party,  forming  the  Union  of  Laborers'  Educational  Societies.  But 
dissensions  began  to  appear  here  also.  The  turner,  Bebel,  was 
beg^nningr  to  leara  that  the  doctrines  of  Schulze  Delitsch  did  not 
completely  satisfy  the  aspirations  of  the  workers. 

From  1865  to  1869  frequent  discussions  upon  commercial 
freedom  and  the  right  to  coalition  occupied  public  attention; 
struggles  concerning  wages  and  union  development  absorbed  the 
two  parties.    At  first  it  was  the  Lasallians  who  had  founded  a 


HISTOBY  OP  GEBMAN  TRADE  UNIONS.  419 

few  of  the  first  trade  organizations.  Fritsche,  among  others, 
had  organized  the  cigami^ers.  But  up  to  1867  the  officials  of 
the  party  held,  in  agreement  with  the  Lassallian  doctrines,  that 
strikes  were  useless  and  that  nothing  availed  save  to  awake  here 
and  there  the  class  consciousness  of  the  proletariat.  Some  suc- 
cessful struggles,  however,  and  a  strong  labor  movement  in  Ber- 
lin modified  Schweizer's  opinion  at  the  beginning  of  1868.  He 
was  then  brought  to  tMnk  that  strikes  freed  the  workers  from 
the  guardianship  of  the  police-state  and  of  capital,  and  that  they 
were  the  necessary  prelude  of  a  strong  Socialist  movement 
within  the  masses,  and  that  for  this  reason  they  ought  to  be 
systematically  carried  on.  Thus,  at  the  beginning  the  idea  arose 
within  the  ranks  of  the  Socialists  that  union  organizations  ought 
only  to  sustain  and  reinforce  the  political  organization. 

The  Liberals,  in  their  turn,  had  at  first  taken  a  false  road. 
Schulze  and  his  friends  thought  that  the  trade  character  of  the 
English  trade  unions  was  only  a  survival  of  the  past,  and  that 
modem  groups  ought  to  include  laborers  of  all  trades.  It  was 
the  trade  movement  of  1868  which  deceived  them  also.  Dr.  Max 
Hirsch  went  to  England  to  study  trade  union  methods  on  the 
spot. 

About  August,  1868,  things  came  to  a  crisis.  In  the  first 
place  there  were  the  articles  of  Max  Hirsch  on  trade  unions  in 
the  Volks  Zeitung  of  the  7th,  nth  and  12th  of  August.  Whether 
they  hastened  the  decision  of  Schweitzer  or  not  it  is  impossible 
to  say.  But  it  cannot  be  said  that  they  formulated  the  union 
question  for  him.  ' 

On  the  23d  of  August  the  Lassallian  party  held  its  general 
convention  at  Hamburg.  Fritsche,  after  having  explained  die 
attitude  of  the  party  toward  strikes,  wished  to  instruct  the  pres- 
dent  of  the  convention  to  call  a  general  congress  for  the  pur- 
pose of  establishing  unions.  The  assemblage  ot>posed  him. 
Fritsche  and  Schweitzer  declared  that  they  would  call  the  congress 
on  their  own  account  as  delegates.  After  a  lively  discusion  the 
assemblage  gave  its  consent.  On  the  ist  of  September  they  issued 
a  call.  They  called  attention  to  the  rifiiht  of  coalition  recently 
sranted  and  the  necessity  of  organization  for  effective^  strikes. 
They  described  the  irresistible  force  of  an  organization  that 
stopped  work  simultaneously  throughout  an  entire  industrv.  They 
called  upon  the  workers  of  each  trade  to  unite  in  the  unions  for 
battle. 

The  success  of  this  manifesto  was  tremendous.  Numerous 
meetings  discussed  the  project  and  organizations  were  founded. 

Simultaneously,  on  the  5th  of  September,  the  fifth  congress  of 
the  Union  of  Workers*  Educational  Societies,  under  influence  of 
Liebknecht  and  Bebel,  broke  with  the  Liberal  party  and  adopted 
tEe  progczmatt  of  the  International  by  a  vote  of  69  to  46.    They 


420  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

rejected  the  proposition  of  the  democrat  Sonnemann  to  call  upon 
the  State  to  establish  institutions  for  workingmen's  insurance. 
They  decided  that  the  trade  unions  were  alone  able  to  establish 
these,  and  that  the  workers  ought  to  organize  centralized  inter- 
national unions. 

Events  were  pressing  upon  the  Liberals;  the  congress  of 
Schweitzer  was  to  meet  again  on  September  26.  Max  Hirsch 
returned  in  haste  from  England.  From  the  21st  to  the  23d  the 
Liberal  party,  supported  mainly  by  the  machinists  of  Berlin,  at- 
tempted to  arouse  the  working  class  against  Schweitzer  and  place 
in  opposition  to  his  project  "that  of  a  healthy  organization  of 
laborers  according  to  the  English  model,"  created  by  the  laborers, 
not  "handed  down  from  above/' 

On  the  26th  the  Congress  met  again  under  the  presidency  of 
Schweitzer.  There  were  '206  delegates  present,  representing 
142,008  laborers  from  no  cities,  besides  some  which  were  sent 
by  unions  already  organized.  These  figures  are  sufficient  to  show 
the  depth  of  the  movement  among  the  German  masses.  The  ap- 
pearance of  Hirsch  at  the  congress  precipitated  a  violent  tumult. 
A  resolution  of  exclusion  was  voted  against  those  who  came  "in 
the  interest  of  the  capitalists  to  sow  war  and  disorder  in  Ae  midst 
of  the  laborers."  He  was  thrown  out  of  the  door.  The  plans  of 
Schweitzer  were  then  adopted.  He  had  in  advance  divided  the 
trades  into  32  groups  (Arbeiterschaften),  industrial  unions,  as  it 
were,  of  which  ten  were  formed  before  the  meeting  dissolved. 
This  was  a  grave  defect.  By  the  division  thus  formed  he  antag- 
onized the  spontaneous  movement  towards  unionization  in  eadi 
trade.  These  great  unions  were  to  form  a  league  of  German 
unions  planned  by  Schweitzer,  trade  unions  having  the 
three  members. 

On  the  27th  of  September  Hirsch,  who  was  excluded  from  the 
congress,  had  rallied  the  Liberal  workers  of  Berlin.  A  meeting 
held  on  the  28th  and  presided  over  by  the  printer  Franz  Duncker, 
a  deputy,  decided  to  establish  the  pure  and  simple  English  sys- 
tem, and  placed  in  opposition  to  the  class  struggle,  industrial 
unions  lanned  by  Schweitzer,  trade  unions  having^  the  harmony 
of  labor  and  capital  and  a  prospective  physical  ameliora- 
tion of  the  future  of  the  workers  as  the  foundation  of  their 
activity.  Hirsch  cleverly  formed  a  commission  of  seventy  mem- 
bers of  Berlin  industries,  who  were  charged  with  working  out 
a  plan  of  organization.  After  the  publication  of  this  plan,  on  the 
1st  of  November,  1868,  a  central  commission  took  up  an  active 
propaganda  throughout  'Germany  for  the  founding  of  these 
unions.  A  knowledge  of  these  details  is  indispensable  for  a  clear 
understanding  of  that  which  is  to  follow.  The  German  unions 
were  not  bom  of  the  political  struggles  of  September,  1868.  A 
vigfonms  effort  at  organization  had  existed  for  several  years  be- 


HISTOBY  OF  GERMAN  TBADE  UNIONS.  421 

fore.  It  changed  under  the  influence  of  political  ideas,  but  it  is 
necessary  to  understand  the  nature  of  these  ideas  and  of  these 
changes. 

W^  have  already  noted  the  error  in  the  idea  which  led 
Schweitzer  to  centralize  each  and  all  trades  in  a  league  of  unions. 
There  was  plenty  of  laughter  for  the  little  groups  of  four  and 
five  Marxists  who  in  a  village  of  Saxony  or  Westphalia  bravely 
called  themselves  an  intematipnal  union  of  weavers  or  of  tailors, 
and  everybody  has  repeated  the  liberal  praise  which  Hirsch  mer- 
ited because  of  his  sane  ideas. 

To  be  sure  the  Liberals  cheerfully  took  up  their  struggle 
against  fortune.  When  they  commenced  their  union  propaganda 
they  had  behind  them  only  four  or  five  hundred  laborers  in  Berlin 
and  Dantzig.  The  masses  turned  towards  Schweitzer,  Bebel  and 
Liebknecht,  towards  those  who  advocated  an  organization  of  the 
entire  proletariat  Thenceforth  the  character  of  the  movement 
of  1868  showed  its  true  nature.  It  was  not  the  individual  ideas 
of  a  few  politicians  which  then  misled  the  German  workers.  The 
proletarians,  already  preoccupied  with  the  idea  of  total  eman- 
cipation, instinctively  attempted  to  create  at  the  very  beginning 
the  vast  single  organization  which  they  felt  to  be  necessary. 

The  English  trade  unions,  too,  in  spite  of  their  strength,  in 
spite  of  an  experience  which  the  German  groups  of  1868  had 
not  had,  have  experienced  a  similar  movement  in  their  history 
when  about  1830  the  English  workers  awoke  to  political  life. 
The  movement  of  the  Grand  National  Consolidated  Trade  Union, 
founded  under  the  influence  of  Owen  in  January,  1834,  makes  in- 
telligible the  mistakes  of  September,  1868,  in  Germany. 

At  the  dose  of  this  year  the  German  unions,  only  just  bom 
or  in  process  of  birth,  found  themselves  divided  into  three  great 
rival  groups,  dominated  by  certain  political  prejudices. 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  BARREN  PERI(»>. — 1868-I878. 

During  the  first  of  these  years  competition  had  its  advantages. 
Outlines  were  complete;  it  now  remained  to  fill  it.  The  propa- 
^ndists  set  themselves  to  work.  The  Central  Commission,  pre- 
sided over  by  Hirsch,  founded  strong  local  unions  in  Berlin, 
Dantzig  and  Magdeburg,  which  it  began  to  unite  into  industrial 
unions  extending  throughout  Germany.  By  Pentecost  in  1869 
there  were  eight  of  these,  composed  of  two  hundred  local  groups. 
The  congress  which  was  then  held  at  Berlin  gathered  these 
together  in  one  Union  (Verband  der  deutschen  Gewerkvereine.) 
A  central  council  composed  of  the  representatives  of  the  various 
unions  was  to  control  this  central  union.  A  Councillor  (f^er* 
bandsanwalt)  was  to  assist  it.     Hirsch,  who  at  that  time  was 


422  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVDEW. 

elected  to  this  position,  still  fills  it.  A  journal  {Der  Gewerk- 
verein)  was  issued*  By  the  end  of  1869  the  vadon  had  30,000 
members.  Their  principles  may  be  summarized  as  follows :  Peace 
and  the  longest  possible  agreements  with  the  employers;  they 
and  their  councillor  have  maintained  these  up  to  the  present  day. 

During  the  same  time  Schweitzer  also  made  a  great  effort,  and 
within  one  year  his  league  of  unions  included  more  than  35>ooo 
members.  It  also  had  a  journal,  The  New  Social  Democrat,  and 
had  conducted  a  great  struggle  for  better  wages  in  the  building 
industry  of  Berlin. 

The  Marxists  also  had  not  forgotten  the  resolutions  of  Sep- 
tember, 1868,  and  the  weavers  followed  the  example  of  tne 
printers,  and  in  March,  1869,  formed  a  tmion.  The  woodwork- 
ers, the  metallurgists  and  the  shoemakers  held  international  con- 
gresses. At  the  Socialist  Party  Congress  of  Eisenach,  August  7 
and  9,  1869,  York,  a  woodworker  from  Harbourg,  submitted  a 
complete  plan  of  organization  and  declared  that  unions  should  be 
created  by  the  working  class  and  not  imposed  upon  them  by  a 
dictator. 

Swiftly  and  surely  this  movement  diminished  in  strength.  Ger- 
man industry  had  not  reached  the  point  where  it  could  give  rise 
to  a  strong  union  movement.  As  long  as  the  workers  were  not 
yet  gathered  together  in  battalions  in  the  great  workshops  the 
union  spirit  could  develop  only  with  great  difficulty.  At  this  time 
the  small  business  and  domestic  production  stiU  dominated  in 
Germany.  In  other  and  more  direct  ways  circumstances  were 
unfavorable.  To  be  sure,  the  years  1869  and  1870  were  filled 
with  strikes,  a  few  successful  and  many  vigorously  conducted. 
But,  in  these  struggles  the  poorly  equipped  unions,  without  re- 
sources, could  accomplish  little.  Even  the  Hirsch-Duncker  unions, 
those  "apostles  of  harmony,"  became  involved  in  one  of  the  worst 
of  tjiese  class  struggles,  when  7,000  Silesian  miners  in  Walden- 
bourg  went  out  for  eight  weekes,  only  to  be  at  last  compelled  to 
bend  their  necks  anew  beneath  the  yoke  of  a  patriarchal  tyranny. 
It  was  during  this  struggle  that  the  employers  locked  up  the 
fountains  from  which  the  strikers'  families  were  accustomed  to 
draw  water. 

It  seemed  at  this  time  (during  the  latter  part  of  1869  and 
1870)  that  the  German  laboring  class,  which  a  year  previously  had 
shown  such  a  clear  insight,  now  drew  back  discouraged.  The 
Hirsch-Dunckers,  decimated  by  defeat,  devoted  themselves  almost 
exclusively  to  their  benefit  features.  Nearly  every  one  of  the 
Gewerkvereine  organized  their  sick  benefit  funds  and  a  general 
disability  fund  was  established  by  July  i,  1869. 

In  both  wings  of  the  Socialists  there  was  confusion  of  ideas. 
In  the  beginning  of  January,  1870,  Schweitzer,  undoubtedly  hop- 
ing to  secure  more  financial  aid  in  time  of  strike,  and  perhaps 


mSTOBY  OF  GEBMAN  TBADB  UNIONS.  423 

also  for  political  reasons,  propose  a  dissolution  of  all  the  sep- 
arate trade  unions  and  the  merging  of  their  members  into  a 
"General  Union  of  Assistance*'  of  German  laborers.  A  minority 
energetically  opposed  him.  Many  advised  him  to  go  slowly  "in 
order  not  to  rouse  the  old  guild  prejudices  which  the  workers 
still  retain."  Thus  the  Lassallians  repeated  in  their  turn  the  old 
error  of  Schulze. 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  the  Congress  of  Stuttgart,  held  in 
June,  1870,  showed  that  the  same  ideas  existed  in  the  ranks  of 
the  Marxists.  Even  there  the  question  of  using  the  General  So- 
ciety for  Laborer/  Insurance  into  a  general  fund  for  the  sick 
was  spoken  ot  To  the  honor  of  the  party  it  must  be  told  that 
York  defended  the  trade  organizations  and  gave  a  good  exposition 
of  their  function.  But  his  better  understanding  in  this  respect 
did  not  prevent  him  from  falling  into  another  error,  that  of  recom- 
mending the  establishment  of  protective  associations. 

The  Franco-German  war  completed  the  collapse.  The  Hirsch- 
Duncker  membership  fell  to  6,000  members,  and  on  the  25th  of 
May,  1871,  the  Union  for  Mutual  Assistance  of  the  Lasallians 
had  only  4,257  left,  though  there  had  been  more  than  20,000 
members  the  year  before.  The  Eisenacher  statistics,  although 
lacking,  would  but  have  aggravated  this  showing.  The  passage 
of  two  years  had  left  only  this  remnant  as  the  result  of  the 
enthusiastic  wave  of  organization  of  1868. 

«        *       .♦ 

In  the  very  midst  of  this  hopeless  depression,  the  working 
class  were  caught  by  the  sudden  burst  of  capitalist  prosperity  of 
1871  and  1872.  Every  one  is  familiar  with  the  boom  of  capitalist 
industry  which  seized  upon  Germany  when  the  torrent  of  mil- 
lions was  poured  in  by  the  French  indemnity.  From  185 1  to  July, 
1870,  295  corporations,  with  a  capital  of  $575,000,000,  were 
formed.  From  July,  1870,  to  1874,  857  were  organized  with  a 
capital  $826,000,000.  iXiring  sudi  a  period  of  hitherto  un- 
equalled upward  sweep  in  prices,  and  rents,  strikes  and  unicms 
were  certain  to  increase.  Nevertheless,  German  unions  grew  but 
slowly  during  1871  and  1874. 

Although  during  these  "years  of  beginnings"  and  of  great 
industrial  activity  the  German  unions  were  frequently  compelled 
to  take  part  in  strikes,  they  seldom  accomplished  much.  The 
8^000  organized  machinists  of  Chemnitz  in  November,  1871,  die 
3,000  metal  workers  in  Nuremburg,  the  16,000  miners  in  the 
^dley  of  the  Ruhr,  and  many  others,  injured  themselves  in  bold 
attempts,  which  brought  no  other  results  than  blacklists,  counter 
organizations  and  leg^  persecutions. 

Above  all,  this  prosperity,  which  brought  only  oppression  to 
the  working  class,  was  of  too  short  duration  to  permit  even  of 
that  organization  which  springs  up  in  the  midst  of  battle.    Finally, 


424  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW. 

in  1873  and  1874,  a  crisis  put  an  end  to  this  prosperous  period. 
The  country  was  plunged  into  misery.  The  Idw  tariflF  permitted 
English  iron  and  French  metals  to  swamp  the  German  market 
until  blast  furnaces  were  extinguished  en  tndsse.  Even  in  1890 
Germany  had  scarcely  recovered  its  industrial  equilibrium,  and 
acquired  the  elements  for  a  steady  healthful  industrial  develop- 
ment. Naturally  the  union  movement  could  scarcely  be  expected 
to  revive  during  such  a  time. 

In  the  second  place  the  unions  suffered  during  these  early 
stages  from  their  precarious  legal  condition.  Since  some  phases 
of  this  condition  remain  unchanged  even  at  the  present  time  they 
may  be  definitely  stated  now  once  for  all. 

Paragraph  152  of  the  industrial  Code  of  1869  declared  abol- 
ished "all  prohibitions  and  penal  regulations  against  artisans,  in- 
dustrial laborers,  apprentices  or  factory  workers  concerning  meet- 
ings and  unions,  having  as  their  object  the  attainment  of  better 
conditions  of  wages  and  work  and  especially  in  relation  to  the 
means  of  suspending  labor."  And  the  same  paragraph  declared 
that  any  member  of  an  organization  had  the  right  to  withdraw 
whenever  he  wished.  The  enumeration  contained  in  the  first 
paragraph  could  be  extended  to  other  wageworkers  only  when 
endorsed  by  special  legislation.  For  domestic  workers,  for  exam- 
ple, shipbuilders  and  agricultural  workers  (Prussian  law  of  1854), 
this  right  is  not  yet  recognized. 

But  there  were  still  many  restrictions.  Paragraph  153  pun- 
ished with  a  maximum  of  three  months'  imprisonment  the  use  of 
corporal  restraint,  threats,  outrages  or  boycotting,  to  force 
any  one  or  seeking  to  force  any  one  into  the  unions  designated 
by  paragraph  151,  or  to  prevent  them  from  withdrawing  from 
such  unions. 

Given  a  complaisant  police  and  judges  (and  they  were  not 
lacking  in  these  matters),  and  the  celebrated  saying  of  Brentano 
is  justified,  where  he  summed  up  the  German  law  concerning 
trade  unions  as  follows:  "Art.  i.  The  right  of  coalition  is  recog- 
nized in  (Sermany.    Art.  2.    The  exercise  of  this  right  is  a  crime." 

The  right  of  trade  organization,  the  indispensable  corollary  of 
any  such  law,  is  even  yet  not  assured  to  the  German  worker.  There 
is  nowhere  in  Germany  a  law  comparable  to  the  French  law  of 
1884.  The  unions  are  subject  to  the  general  legislation  on  asso- 
ciations. Now,  since  this  legislation  is  nowhere  defined  in  an 
imperial  law,  they  are  subject  to  the  special  laws  of  association 
of  each  state  and  most  of  these  laws  date  from  the  reactionary 
period  of  1850. 

In  just  what  condition  a  union  finds  itself  in  regard  to  these 
laws  may  be  shown  by  the  example  of  Prussia.  In  Prussia  the 
unions  have  been  considered,  according  to  the  circumstances,  as : 
first,  societies  concerned  with  public  affairs;  second,  political  so- 


HISTORY  OF  GEBMAN  TRADE  UNIONS.  425 

cieties;  third,  insurance  companies.  The  following  are  the  speci- 
fications of  the  laws  of  1850  to  1853  in  each  of  these  three  cases: 
In  the  first  case  the  rules  and  list  of  members  must  be  deposited 
with  the  police,  and  the  police,  whenever  occasion  demanded, 
gave  these  to  the  employers.  In  the  second  case  (that  of  political 
societies)  two  very  onerous  conditions  are  put  upon  the  union 
movement  which  have  only  been  removed  in  very  late  years 
(1899-1900) ;  they  are  forbidden  to  admit  women  to  their  mem- 
bership or  to  unite  with  other  societies.  But  what  constitutes  a 
political  society?  The  courts  have  never  agreed  on  this  point.  The 
police,  armed  with  their  contradictory  decisions,  have  solved  the 
question  very  simply.    A  suspected  union  is  a  political  society. 

In  the  third  case  of  an  insurance  society  (and  a  sick  benefit 
fund  is  enough  to  classify  a  union  as  such)  it  is  necessary  to  ob- 
tain the  authorization  of  the  government. 

In  all  three  cases  it  is  the  police  or  the  administration  which 
decides  upon  the  rights  of  the  laborers  to  associate.  Careful  con- 
sideration then  becomes  very  necessary. 

Now  the  acts  of  the  workers  who  have  organized  proves  that 
they  did  not  consider  matters  carefully.  Aside  from  the  Hirsch- 
Dunckers  the  unions  have  generally  fallen  victims  to  the  chicanery 
of  the  police  as  soon  as  they  were  bom.  Motteler  showed  the 
unions  of  Saxony  in  1872  how  with  a  little  cleverness  it  was  pos- 
sible to  bring  them  under  some  of  the  paragraphs  of  the  law. 
The  proceedings  in  Prussia  were  much  the  sam^.  When  in  1874, 
in  the  Tessendorf  era,  the  Prussian  government  began  to  drive 
out  the  socialists,  many  of  the  unions,  especially  the  Lassallians, 
were  dissolved.  It  was  then  that  Hasenclever,  the  successor  of 
Schweitzer,  decided  to  suppress  the  mutual  benefit  association, 
which  was  making  little  progress. 

Finally,  as^  if  all  the  difficulties  must  accumulate  during  these 
bad  years,  political  discussion  divided  the  economic  organizations. 
He  must  be  well  informed,  indeed,  who  would  state  exactly  the 
diflFerent  attitudes  of  the  Lasallians  and  the  Marxists  towards 
the  union  movement.  Both  sides  were  very  vague  and  very 
changeable.^  Formulas  abounded,  which  it  is  necessary  to  care- 
fully examine  if  they  are  to  be  understood.  At  one  time  the 
Lasallians  had  a  very  famous  one.  The  unions,  they  said,  are 
an  evil,  but  an  evil  which  it  is  necessary  to  encourage,  lest  they 
be  taken  advantage  of  by  the  progressivists  or  the  Eisenachers. 
This  much  is  certSiin,  that  both,  even  when  they  recognized  the 
existence  of  the  organizations,  attempted  to  utilize  for  their  own 
propaganda  the  union  aspirations  which  steadily  persisted  in 
manifesting  themselves.  Even  up  to  1875  this  was  still  a  great 
cause  of  disorder. 

Under  the  influences  of  these  difficulties  and  deceptions  a  new 
tendency  appeared  of  considerable  importance.     The   German 


426  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SCXJIALIST  BEVJLEW. 

workers  sought  for  immediate  advantages  in  their  organizadons. 
The  great  national  federations  had  done  nothing;  the  vague 
union  of  Schweitzer  had  collapsed;  the  strcxtig  local  unions  of 
the  gfreat  cities  were  sending  away  money  and  making  sacrifices 
that  appeared  to  them  profitless. 

They  concluded  it  would  be  better  to  carefully  watch  their 
pennies  even  of  the  three  hundred  dues  payers  with  a  well  guarded 
treasury  than  of  ten  thousand  scattered  throughout  Germany 
with  no  possible  control.  There  was  a  further  advantage  that 
the  law  of  association  no  longer  applied.  Having  no  definite 
external  connections,  it  was  possible  when  occasion  demanded 
to  vigorously  engage  in  political  activity.  The  localists  preached 
isolation  with  success  and  the  organizations  were  split  and  the 
union  spirit  shriveled  up. 

*        *        ♦ 

In  the  midst  of  this  disorder  there  were  some  far-sighted  indi- 
viduals. In  both  the  Lasallian  and  Marxist  parties  tfiere  were 
men  who  dreamed  of  an  organization,  independent  of  political 
parties,  but  devoted  to  the  struggle  for  the  amelioration  of  the 
lot  of  the  workers ;  of  an  organization  by  trades  but  with  a  central 
control  capable  of  simultaneously  co-ordinating  its  efforts ;  of  an 
organization  prepared  to  strike,  but  furnishing  the  other  services 
of  insurance  and  employment  agencies,  and  thus  offering  imme- 
diate advantages.  There  were  many  phrases  which  sound  familiar 
today.  In  1873  ^^^  president  of  the  printers  union  said :  "Offi- 
cially we  belong  to  no  party,  but  at  heart  we  belong  to  the  So- 
cialist party.'*  During  the  same  year  the  articles  of  Carl  Hill- 
man,  a  typesetter,  in  tiie  Volkstaai,  pointed  out  the  necessity  of 
separatii^  the  two  movements,  and  showed  the  exact  role  thence- 
forth reserved  to  the  unions.  Finally,  and  most  important  of  all, 
the  woodworker  York,  who  had  become  the  secretary  of  the 
Eisenach  party,  true  forerunner  of  the  modem  movement,  actu- 
ally set  about  creating  a  purely  economic  organization  centralized 
like  the  political  party,  but  independent  of  it. 

He  attained  but  very  small  results.  At  the  two  congresses 
which  he  called,  at  Urfurt  in  1872  and  Magdebourg  in  1874,  tfie 
fear  of  a  dictator  and  the  already  powerful  localist  tendency 
forced  him  to  alter  his  centralizing  plans.  At  his  premature  death 
in  January,  1875,  he  had  been  able  to  organize  only  a  nominal 
union  and  that  powerless  and  useless. 

Slowly,  however,  from  1875  to  1878,  it  became  evident  that 
the  movement  had  gained  an  assured  place  and  was  beginning  to 
grow.  Even  if  the  ideas  of  York  had  not  always  been  exS^y 
understood  or  adequately  appreciated,  many  of  the  laborers  at 
least  felt  with  him  the  necessity  of  the  union.  They  had  respond- 
ed to  the  number  of  11,358  to  his  appeal  at  Urfurt  Then  came 
the  union  of  the  two  Socialist  parties  at  Gotha  in  1875,  brought 


mSTOBY  OF  GEBliAN  TBADE  UNIONS.  427 

aboat  by  the  attack  upon  them  and  the  trials  which  they  both  had 
undergone.  A  conference  was  held  after  the  congress  at  which 
the  del^;ates  from  the  unions  of  both  factions  also  decided  ta 
unite  by  trades.  This  union  was  accomplished  in  many  places 
and  even  where  it  was  not  accomplished  the  discussions  led,  never- 
theless, to  mutual  acquaintance,  esteem  and  aid.  But  many  con- 
tinued to  wish  something  still  more,  and  from  1875  to  1878  the 
question  of  the  central  organization  occupied  attention.  At  the 
second  convention  of  Gotha  in  1878  a  complete  plan  was  elab- 
orated for  submission  to  the  congress.  On  the  other  hand,  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  the  Hirsch-Dunckers,  more  attention  was 
paid  to  the  work  of  establishing  strong  benefit  features  appro- 
priate to  each  group.  This  mtethod  met  with  success.  It  was 
almost  wholly  due  to  the  sick  and  disabled  benefit  funds  that  the 
Hirsch-Duncker  membership  increased  from  6,000  in  1870  to  19,- 
000  in  1872  and  22,000  in  1874.  The  Socialist  unions  also  set  to 
work,  and  in  spite  of  the  difficulties  of  a  crisis  period  and  in 
spite  of  police  annoyances,  they  founded  their  benefit  funds. 

From  this  point  of  view  the  law  of  April,  1876,  was  an  impor- 
tant event  It  stands  as  a  point  of  departure  for  modern  working- 
men's  insurance  in  Germany.  This  legislation  was  of  importance 
to  the  unions  whose  beneifit  features  attracted  and  held  their 
membership.  It  is  certain,  for  example,  that  a  large  part  of  the 
strength  of  the  English  trade  unions  is  due  to  their  benefit  fea- 
tures. According  to  the  industrial  code  of  1869  the  local  authori- 
ties could  compel  the  laborers  to  joint  a  benefit  association ;  but 
if  they  belonged  to  a  free  legal  association  (that  is,  one  approved 
by  the  state),  they  were  excused  from  belonging  to  a  compulsory 
association.  Did  this  apply  to  the  benefit  associations  of  the  free 
union?  On  this  point  the  courts  and  administrative  authorities 
disagreed.  This  question  was  of  paramount  importance  to  the 
unions,  especially  to  the  Hirsch-Dunckers.  The  law  of  April  8, 
1876,  accorded  to  their  benefit  funds  the  right  of  acquiring  as 
''registered  funds"  iudicial  personality,  but  it  required  in  this 
case  that  the  administration  of  the  funds  be  separated  from"  that 
of  the  union.  This  regulation  might  have  injured  the  latter  by 
destro3ring  their  unity  of  action ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  adminis- 
trations were  generally  the  same  in  both  oi^fanizations,  and  their 
development  met  few  obstacles  except  in  industrial  conditions. 

A  few  statistics  will  give  a  sufficiently  exact  idea  of  the  extent 
of  tfie  movement  during  1877  and  i87iB.  The  Hirsch-Duncker 
unions,  with  49,055  members,  twenty-five  central  unions,  and  five 
local  unions  had  increased  from  357  in  1874  to  365.  On  the  other 
side,  the  work  by  Geib,  of  Hamburg,  enumerates  thirty  socialist 
unions,  with  49,055  members,  twenty-five  central  unions  ,and  five 
local  societies.  Including  the  hatters,  who  had  not  responded, 
he  would  have  counted  twenty-six  unions  with  50,000  members; 


428  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIEW. 

eighteen  of  these  unions,  with  22,145  members,  paid  monthly  does 
of  10  cents  a  member,  and  eight  others,  including  two-fifths  of 
the  united  organizations  paid  at  least  15  cents.  The  principal 
expenses  were  assistance  in  case  of  strikes,  traveling  expenses  (in 
seventeen  unions)  and  death  benefits.  Then,  in  the  second  place, 
came  the  expenses  for  unemployment,  sickness,  disability  and  the 
expenditures  for  the  press,  amounting  to  sixteen  journals.  The 
most  powerful  unions  were  those  of  the  printers  and  carpenters, 
who  included  between  them  more  than  half  of  all  the  members; 
then  came  the  tobacco  workers,  the  oldest  union,  and  finally  the 
mass  of  young  unions,  all  dating  from  the  fusion  of  1875  and 
1876.  The  figures  gathered  by  Geib  showed  an  excess  of  re- 
ceipts of  $i,6a>  a  month,  of  which  the  largest  sum,  $740,  came 
from  the  printers. 

Sixteen  benefit  funds  had  been  founded  and  the  statisti- 
cian declared  that  with  skill  and  perseverance  these  funds  were 
destined  to  become  "the  supporting  columns  of  the  union  move- 
ment." The  difficulties  were  undoubtedly  great.  During  the 
bad  condition  of  industry  it  was  impossible  to  raise  the  dues  and 
the  lowering  of  traveling  expenses  could  not  be  considered. 

These  were  small  results.  Counting  the  Hirsch-Dunckers 
along  with  the  others,  after  nine  years  of  effort  upon  3,000,000 
German  workers  only  75,000  were  organized,  or  about  2^  per 
cent  But  when  the  vicissitudes  of  industry,  the  legal  difficulties 
and  trickery  of  the  police,  internal  dissension  and  mistakes  are  re* 
called,  the  German  laborers  could  look  upon  their  work  with  hope. 

Then  it  was  that  a  great  tempest  swept  over  them. 

Albert  Thomas. 

Translated  by  A.  M.  Simons. 

(To  be  continued.  ) 


EDITORIAL 


Circus  Politics. 

Brag  and  bluster  are  often  said  to  be  peenliarlj  American  charaeteris- 
tie&  A  little  doeer  inveetigation  shows  them  really  to  be  capitalistic  traits ; 
and  since  capitalism  is  more  highlj  developed  here  than  anywhere  else  in 
the  world  these  features  are  most  strikingly  manifested  here. 

Oapitalism  prodncs  goods  to  $eU.  The  selling,  and  not  the  making  or 
the  using  being  the  main  object^  adTertising  becomes  more  important  than 
craftsmanship,  or  knowledge  of  human  needs.  The  consequence  is  that  very 
fittle  attention  is  paid  to  the  character  of  the  goods  to  be  ddivered  and 
very  much  to  the  manner  of  getting  rid  of  them.  Sometimes,  indeed,  con- 
fidence men  of  different  kinds,  from  gold  brick  and  green  goods  dealers  to 
trust  promoters,  push  this  idea  to  its  logical  conclusion,  and  sell  nothing  but 
the  advertising. 

Unfortunately,  this  same  tendency  seems  to  have  inyaded  the  socialist 
movement.  The  idea  is  abroad  that  if  you  only  shout  loud  enough  and 
use  plenty  of  printer's  ink  and  smooth  phrases,  you  are  preaching  socialism. 
Consequently,  we  have  the  phenomena  of  schools,  correspondence  and  other- 
wise^ for  the  special  purpose  of  developing  socialist  agitators  "whUe  yon 
wait."  No  idea  of  fundamentals  is  necessary,  no  deep  study  into  social 
relations  and  laws  of  social  development,  no  thorough  examination  of  the 
industrial  facts  around  us  is  required.  Just  commit  to  memory  a  parcel 
of  phrases  to  use  in  case  of  ^'questions  from  the  audience,''  then  rehearse 
"the  speech  of  1904"  and  you  are  ready  to  go  out  and  advertise  your 
goods. 

These  half-taught  students  of  poorly  informed  teachers  have  naturally 
no  genuine  goods  to  sell  But  they  have  learned  the  great  American  les- 
son of  advertising.  And  from  soap-box  and  van  and  halls  their  little  piece 
is  repeated.  Then  borrowing  a  leaf  from  that  incarnation  of  the  same 
methods  in  the  realm  of  religion,  the  Salvation  Army,  they  see  to  it  that 
the  ox  is  not  muzded,  although  he  has  been  treading  nothing  but  chaff. 
The  meeting  is  followed  by  a  ^stem  of  begging  which  reminds  one  of 
the  ''five  cents  more  to  make  a  dollar"  cry  that  accompanies  the  street 
comer  methods  of  the  aforesaid  religious  propagandists.  The  whole  thing 
is  naturally  disgusting  to  any  intelligent  workingman  who  simply  sees 
''another  set  of  grafters"  turned  loose  upon  him,  whom  he  is  unable  to 
distinguish  from  many  others  who  have  preyed  upon  him  in  the  past    If 


480  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEYIBW. 

these  blind  leaders  of  the  blind  do  not  fall  together  into  the  diteh  of  con- 
fusiony  it  ^nll  simplj  be  because  they  are  already  wallowing  there. 

To  a  eonaiderable  degree  the  same  tendency  has  invaded  onr  litoatnre 
and  we  have  examples  of  papers  where  nearly  all  the  energy  and  brains 
connected  with  the  publication  are  expended  in  <<hnstling  for  sabe"  and 
working  up  an  ''army"  while  the  contents  of  the  paper  are  left  to  hustle 
for  themselves^  until  they  degenerate  into  meaningless  platitudes  and  ridie- 
nloQsly  exaggerated  and  ill-digested  ''statistics."  It  is  the  old  etory  of 
the  steamboat  whistle  so  large  it  took  all  the  steam  away  from  the  engine 
to  blow  it  Perhaps  the  big  whistle  may  be  neoessaiy  to  attract  attention 
amid  the  commercial  uproar  of  capitalism.  But  if  so  let  us  add  to  the  boiler 
capacity  by  better  training  of  our  editors,  writers  and  speakers,  and  to 
push  the  figure  a  little  further,  this  cannot  be  done  by  turning  tiie  whole 
affair  into  a  "hot  air"  plant  and  making  even  the  education  itself  a  shaiiL 

It  is  unfortunate  that  in  a  way  socialism  lends  itself  to  this  sort  of 
work.  like  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  or  indeed  any  other  great  philosophi- 
cal interpretation  of  f aets^  a  few  phrases  are  certain  to  be  seized  upon  by 
those  who  are  too  laxy  to  make  the  effort  necessary  to  grasp  fundamentals. 
These  phrases  torn  from  their  context  and  separated  from  the  facts  on 
which  they  are  based,  are  misapplied  and  misunderstood  until  the  result 
is  one  of  those  pseudo-sciences  which  always  spring  up  alongside  of  every 
true  science.  With  no  subject  is  thorough  study  more  necessary  than  with 
socialism.  The  facts  with  which  it  deals  are  so  complex,  the  problems 
which  it  solves  so  interrehited,  the  literature  of  the  subject  so  extensive 
and  the  forces  which  it  must  meet  so  powerful,  that  no  one  who  attempts 
to  teach  it  shoiild  neglect  to  avail  himself  of  all  possible  opportunities 
to  gain  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  subject.  In  the  field  of  social 
phenomena  personal  observation,  on  which  so  mudi  stress  is  often  laid 
by  the  half -baked  philosopher,  is  much  worse  than  useless.  The  number  of 
facts  which  come  within  the  field  of  observation  of  any  one  individual  are 
so  small  in  proportion  to  the  great  mass  of  which  they  are  but  a  part, 
that  any  general  conclusions  based  on  those  facts  stand  almost  exactly 
the  chance  of  infinity  to  one  of  being  erroneous. 

At  the  same  time,  we  would  be  the  very  last  to  claim  that  a  literary  edu- 
cation alone,  especially  if  obtained  in  one  of  the  great  capitalist  univer- 
sities, is  in  itself  sufficient  to  prepare  a  man  to  speak  with  authority  on 
socialism.  No  one  can  have  a  greater  contempt  for  the  college  diploma 
than  we  have^  for  we  have  seen  how  frequently  it  is  but  a  certificate  of 
misinformation  and  a  testimonial  that  the  owner  was  so  thoroughly  im- 
pregnated with  capitalist  psychology  as  to  be  absolutely  incapable  of  ever 
understanding  any  philosophy  not  based  on  that  psychology.  All  too  fre- 
quently, we  have  seen  men  of  whom  we  have  had  the  greatest  hopes  that 
they  might  become  active  workers  in  the  cause  of  the  proletariat,  become 
absolutely  confused  l^  university  instruction.  The  experience  of  the  So- 
cialist I^urfy  an  over  the  world  with  "intellectuals"  but  confirms  this 
point  of  view.  What  is  demanded  is  not  "intellectual"  leaders  of  the 
proletariat,  but  educated  proletarian  teachers,  workers  and  speakers.  Here 
again  we  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  going  to  the  other  extreme  and 


EDITOBIAK  4S1 

oondemning  at  wholesale  the  eapitalifltieally  educated  IntellectnaL  Of 
thifly  however,  enough  has  been  said  elsewhere,  so  that  a  mere  note  of 
the  exception  will  suffice.  Neither  do  we  wish  to  be  understood  in  an/  way 
as  condemning  the  ''soap-box  orator.''  We  have  filled  that  position  too 
often  ourselyes  and  expect  to  do  so  too  frequently  in  the  future  to  deny 
it  an  important  share  in  the  work  of  socialist  propaganda.  So  long  as 
the  socialist  movement  is  a  proletarian  movement,  and  it  never  can  be 
anything  else,  because  when  it  loses  its  proletarian  character,  it  ceases  to 
be  socialist,  just  so  long  we  must  use  the  open  air  for  halls  and  call  upon 
our  audiences  to  help  pay  for  the  propaganda  which  we  are  making  in 
their  interest 

What  is  demanded  is  that  those  who  fill  these  places  should  add  to  the 
instinctive  revolt  which  membership  in  the  working  class  has  aroused  in 
them,  an  intelligent  consciousness  of  the  reasons  for  that  revolt  which  ar(> 
furnished  by  the  literature  of  socialism.  This  is  asking  no  more  than  is 
possible  to  any  man  who  can  read  the  English  language  and  is  not  too 
lazy  to  use  his  brains.  He  cannot  do  it  in  a  minute,  however,  nor  in  three 
months,  and  especially  if,  during  those  three  months,  he  ignores  the  fun- 
damental claflsics  and  contents  himself  with  popularizations  of  those 
writers,  which  may  be  all  right  as  an  introduction  to  socialism,  but  are 
wholly  incapable  of  training  any  one  as  a  speaker  or  interpreter  of  so- 
cialist thought 

Let  us  by  all  means  retain  the  ''soap-box"  as  a  forum  for  socialist 
agitation,  and  give  it  even  greater  value  in  the  future  than  it  has  had  in 
the  past  by  seeing  to  it  that  it  does  not  become  an  auction  block,  from 
which  fakirs  can  hawk  sodalistie  "green  goods." 

One  of  the  worst  features  of  this  whole  matter  is  that  the  socialist 
movement  as  a  whole,  and  the  Socialist  Party  in  particular,  must  bear 
the  responsibility  for  those  who  often  only  serve  to  make  the  philosophy 
of  sodalism  ridiculous.  The  problem  of  the  "free  lance  speaker"  seems 
to  be  peculiar  to  the  United  States.  In  no  other  country  in  the  world,  so 
far  as  we  know,  is  there  any  considerable  body  of  men  who  demand  the 
right  to  speak  in  the  name  of  and  for  the  Socialist  Party,  but  over  whom 
that  party  has  no  control.  Such  a  condition  is  abnormal  and  must  not 
continue.  Some  arrangement  must  be  found  at  the  next  National  Con- 
vention, if  not  sooner,  by  which  the  speakers  for  socialism,  at  least  so  far 
as  th^  speak  for  paorty  organizations,  shall  be  directly  under  the  control 
of  State  and  National  organizations.  The  situation  which  has  recently 
been  presented  in  some  states  of  men  going  into  a  State  in  the  name  of 
sodalism  and  the  Socialist  Pftrty  to  assist  forces  which  are  disrupting 
that  party,  cannot  continue.  Any  talk  about  freedom  of  speech  is  pure 
daptrap.  The  majority  of  the  party  must  decide  through  their  regularly 
organised  channels  who  shall  represent  them  in  presenting  their  doctrines 
to  the  public,  at  least  so  f ar  a«  they  are  presented  under  the  auspices 
of  party  organizations.  The  withdrawal  of  such  endorsement  from  any 
person,  does  not  in  any  way  prevent  him  from  talking  whatever  he  pleases. 
It  does  not  even  prevent  him  from  labeling  his  talk  socialism,  but  it  does 
free  the  Socialist  Party  from  responsbUity  for  him  and  his  actions. 


432  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW. 

Two  things  then  are  necessary  if  we  are  to  rid  the  movement  of  '^circiis 
politics"  in  the  field  of  speaking:  First,  demand  that  before  a  man  goes 
out  as  a  representative  of  the  Socialist  Party  he  shall  have  taken  the  pains 
to  familiarize  himself  with  the  classics  of  socialism,  so  that  he  shall,  at 
least,  not  be  ignorant.  In  the  second  place,  for  all  locals  to  refuse  to 
accept  as  a  speaker  any  one  not  authorized  by  the  State  organization. 
This  latter  will,  of  course,  include  keeping  watch  of  the  State  organiza- 
tion to  see  that  it  does  not  abuse  this  power.  It  will  also  include,  as  a 
corollary,  the  education  of  the  membership  in  each  State  up  to  the  point' 
where  tkey  can  distinguish  between  genuine  and  spurious  socialism,  for  the 
responsibility  for  agitation  will  tben  be  placed  where  it  belongs  in  a 
socialist  organization — with  the  rank  and  file  of  the  membership. 


A  Correction. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Intsbnational  Socialist  Bevhw. 

Through  an  unfortunate  typographical  error  I  am  made  to  say  in  the 
article  entitled,  "Ascending  Stage  of  Socialism,"  which  appeared  in  the 
September  number  of  the  Beview,  that ''Anarchist  Communism  18  •  •  • 
the  best  and  highest  stage  of  political  and  economic  progress."  A  writer 
in  the  December  number  of  the  Bevisw  rather  indignantly  takes  me  to  task 
for  this  and  demands  to  know  how  I  can,  as  a  socialist,  make  such  a 
statement.  Under  the  circumstances  I  trust  that  you  will  grant  me  the 
space  to  explain  that  for  the  word  ''beet"  my  MS.  read  "last."  Thus, 
"Anarchist  Communism  is  the  last  and  highest  stage  of  political  and  eco- 
nomic progress."  Fraternally, 

Baphaxl  Buck. 


Our  Next  Issue. 

The  February  number  will  contain  an  article  by  Jean  Longuet,  on  "The 
Idealism  of  Marxism,"  that  is  bound  to  attract  interest  throughout  the 
whole  international  socialist  movement.  Andrew  M.  Anderson,  whose 
recent  withdrawal  from  the  Labor  Party  of  Australia  and  announcement 
of  his  determination  to  uphold  the  dass  struggle  position  is  stirring  the 
political  circles  of  that  country,  contributes  an  article  on  "The  Backward- 
ness of  Socialism  in  Australia,"  which  contains  more  condensed  informa- 
tion on  conditions  in  that  countiy  than  anything  hitherto  published.  The 
second  installment  of  "The  History  of  German  Trade  Unionism"  will 
cover  the  period  of  the  "laws  of  exception,"  a  period  always  of  intense 
interest.  The  articles  by  Hitch  on  "Becent  Developments  in  Corporation 
Law"  and  Edgar  on  the  Negro  Problem,  crowded  out  of  this  issue,  will 
also  appear.  These  are  but  a  few  of  the  things  already  assured  that  will 
make  this  number  of  exceptional  interest  and  value. 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


Just  what  has  been  gained  by  the  A.  F.  of  L.  officials  in  withdrawing 
the  charter  from  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  En^eers  is  difftcult  to  ex- 
plaiiu  The  society  is  a  truly  international  organization,  having  local  un- 
ions in  America,  Surope,  Australia  and  South  Africa,  It  has  about  100,- 
000  members  and  close  to  $2,000,000  in  the  treasury.  The  Federation  of- 
ficials claim  the  A.  S.  of  £.,  which  includes  machinists,  blacksmiths,  pat- 
ternmakers and  kindred  craftsmen,  is  an  industrial  and  dual  orp^anization, 
and  that  it  comes  in  conflict  with  the  national  unions  of  machinists^  pat- 
ternmakers and  blacknniths.  But  probably  if  the  truth  is  known  there 
were  other  reasons  why  the  A.  S.  of  £.  was  expelled.  When  General  Sec- 
retary Qeorge  Barnes,  whose  headquarters  are  in  London,  visited  this  coun- 
try about  a  year  ago  he  had  an  interview  with  President  Qompers  relative 
to  the  withdrawal  of  the  charter.  According  to  Mr.  Barnes'  statement 
before  the  Brooklyn  branch  of  the  society  shortly  after,  Mr.  Gompers  did 
not  appear  to  fear  much  trouble  on  the  score  of  probable  jurisdiction 
clashes  between  the  unions,  but  objected  to  the  '^  socialistic  tendencies"  in 
the  A.  S.  of  E.  and  to  the  ''rasping  tongue"  of  its  American  organizer, 
Mr.  Isaac  Cowen.  Duriuff  the  past  year  Mr.  Barnes'  statement  has  been 
passed  along  the  line  in  the  A.  S.  of  £.,  with  the  result  that  considerable 
feeiUng  has  been  aroused  and  renewed  efforts  have  been  put  forth  to  in- 
crease the  membership.  Despite  the  fact  that  the  dues  in  the  society  are 
about  as  heavy  in  one  week  as  are  paid  into  other  unions  in  a  month, 
owing  to  the  elaborate  beneficial  system  that  obtains,  the  gain  in  new  mem- 
bers in  the  United  States  has  been  nearlj^  fifty  per  cent,  which  is  con- 
sidered a  fine  showing  for  a  high-dues  organization,  and  one,  especially,  that 
loses  few  of  its  members  during  industrial  depressions  when  low-dues  un- 
ions become  more  or  less  demoralized.  Now  comes  the  sequeL  By  a 
referendum  vote  of  fully  five  to  one  the  Amalgamated  Socie^  of  £n|;i- 
neers  has  decided  to  join  the  American  Labor  Union  this  month,  and  its 
officers  frankly  admit  that  they  will  advance  the  interests  of  the  western 
federation  wherever  possible  in  the  east.  They  confidently  assert  that 
there  are  several  national  unions  connected  with  the  A.  F.  of  L.  that  may 
secede  and  join  the  A.  L.  U.  in  the  very  near  future.  One  of  those  is  the 
United  Metal  Workers'  Union,  which  is  being  plucked  to  pieces  by  half 
a  dozen  other  nationals,  and  whose  charter  is  to  be  revoked  by  the  A.  F. 
of  L.  The  United  Brewery  Workers  declare  they  will  not  be  dismembered 
by  yielding  jurisdiction  over  engineers  and  firemen  in  brewery  plants,  and 
it  is  believed  if  their  charter  is  withdrawn  next  month  they  will  join 
the  A.  L.  U.  The  United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  are  also  declaring 
with  emphasis  that  they  will  not  surrender  jurisdiction  over  mill  workers 
to  the  Amalgamated  Woodworkers,  and  influential  members  freely  predict 
that  if  A.  F.  of  L.  officials  force  the  issue,  into  the  A.  L.  U.  they  will  ffo. 
Then  there  are  the  Carriageworkers,  who  are  called  upon  to  give  up  tiie 
painters  in  their  union,  and  if  they  obey  the  command  th^  will  lose  a  large 
part  of  their  membership.    Later  on,  officers  declare^  the  woodworkers, 

488 


434  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW. 

blacksmiths  and  other  erafts  would  demand  some  of  their  members,  and 
so  the  organization  would  be  killed.  Officers  of  the  bakers  say  they  will 
not  yield  jurisdiction  over  bakery  wagon  drivers  to  the  teamsters,  in 
accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  ''autonomists"  in  control  of  the  A.  F. 
of  L.,  and  there  are  several  other  national  unions  that  would  probably  cut 
loose  if  extreme  methods  are  resorted  to  to  force  them  to  yield  jurisdiction 
over  members  they  now  claim.  In  this  connection  it  is  worth  noting  that . 
while  the  ''autonomists'.'  seemed  to  have  control  of  the  Boston  convention, 
and  the  carpenters,  brewenu  carriageworkers,  bakers  and  several  other 
organizations  were  given  their  orders,  President  Mitchell  announced,  upon 
the  floor,  that  under  no  circumstances  would  the  miners  yield  jurisdiction 
over  ennneers,  firemen,  teamsters,  or  any  other  workers  in  or  about  the 
mines.  It  is  probably  unnecessary  to  add  that  Mr.  Gompers  and  his  fol* 
lowers  did  not  attempt  to  force  the  miners  to  live  up  to  the  same  condi- 
tions as  the  "sociiuistic"  brewers.  Perhaps  the  "autonomists"  have 
decided  that  it  is  a  good  scheme  to  first  hreak  the  backs  of  some  of  the 
smaller  organizations  before  ripping  the  miners  to  pieces.  There  is  no  use 
denying  it,  a  crisis  is  rapidly  approaching,  and  the  very  people  who  have 
been  loudest  in  denouncing  the  formation  of  the  American  Labor  Union 
are  doing  the  most  to  strengthen  that  organization.  History  teaches  one 
long,  monotonous  lesson  that  where  a  reign  of  tyranny  begins  there  is  no 
limit  to  its  scop^  and  it  looks  as  though  industrialism,  which  "E^>ells 
socialism,"  is  to  be  wiped  out — that  socialists,  who  "think"  they  are 
trade  unionists,  are  to  be  told  in  so  many  words  that  they  are  not  wanted 
in  the  A.  F.  of  L.  And  no  doubt  our  famous  leader  (f)  will  also  soon 
begin  to  tell  us  who  the  "dismptionists"  are! 

In  writing  to  a  friend  in  the  West,  President  Gompers,  of  the  A.  F.  of  L., 
in  speaking  of  the  debate  on  socialism  in  the  Boston  convention,  says  that 
"the  emphatic  disavowal  and  repudiation  of  any  connection  with  them" 
(the  socialists)  has  not  only  encouraged  the  workers  everywhere,  but  such 
action  has  also  "lar^ly  disarmed  our  opponents  and  cliurified  the  air  of 
the  prejudice  of  public  opinion  which  was  leveled  against  us  last  year,  and 
it  voll  undoubtedly  take  away  much  of  the  sting  of  antagonism  directed 
against  our  movement  by  Mr.  Parry  and  those  who  follow  him."  It  should 
be  stated  that  in  the  Boston  debate  the  anti-socialists  played  hard  upon 
the  alleged  fkct  that  the  close  vote  upon  socialism  in  the  New  Orleans 
convention,  a  year  ago,  had  aroused  unnecessary  antagonism  of  capitalists 
and  had  increaised  the  difficulties  of  officials  to  secure  agreements  for  higher 
wages,  shorter  hours  and  other  concessions.  But  no  sooner  was  sociaHsm 
repudiated  when  our  fellow  workers  everywhere  are  encouraged,  the  capi- 
t^sts  are  largely  disarmed  and  even  Parry's  sting  of  antagonism  is  with- 
drawn. If  the  spirits  of  our  feUow  workers  were  droo^inpr  because  their 
leaders  in  the  convention  of  1902  voted  in  fbvor  of  socialistic  resolutions 
the  reports  of  tiieir  national  officers  to  the  A.  F.  of  L.  did  not  indicate 
that  much,  for  Mr.  Gompers  pointed  with  pride,  in  his  annual  address,  to 
the  great  increase  in  membership  and  the  concessions  that  were  Von  in  the 
reductions  of  hours  of  labor  and  increases  of  wages.  In  fact,  the  year  that 
elapsed  between  the  New  Orleans  and  Boston  conventions  was  the  most 
prosperous  in  the  history  of  American  trades  unionism,  despite  "the  preju- 
dice of  public  opinion"  and  capitalism's  "sting  of  antagonism."  But  no 
sooner  are  the  socialists,  who  "think"  th^  are  trade  unionists,  "repu- 
diated," our  fellow  workers  "encouraged,"  and  our  opponents  "largely 
disarmed,"  when  our  dear  capitalistic  brethren  prove  to  their  apologists 
and  defenders  in  the  trade  union  movement  that  their  disarmament  is  much 
like  that  of  Bussia's,  after  an  international  peace  pow-wow.  All  the 
plutocratic  newspapers,  of  course^  are  greatly  pleased  at  the  "smadiing 
of  socialism"  in  tiie  Boston  convention  and  many  axe  the  encomiums  of 
praise  that  are  heaped  upon  Brother  Gompers — compliments  that  cost  noth- 
ing and  that  may  be  compared  to  the  fleeting  zephyrs  of  an  Indian  sum- 


THE  WOBIiD  OF  LABOR.  485 

Bkfir  whieh  pieeede  a  ehilling  frost  or  a  howling  blizzard.  Evea  while  oar 
■odaliBt-smashiiig  president  is  penning  his  lines  of  exnltation.  Parry  on- 
sheaths  his  tms^  ''stinger''  and  jars  our  nerres  with  this  statement: 
"The  A«  F.  of  Lk  voted  down  the  Bocialism  that  aims  for  peace  through 
Bieans  of  the  ballot^  bat  it  did  not  vote  down  the  socialism  that  President 
fiompers  stands  for — mob  force  socialism.  It  is  this  mob  force  sodaUsm 
that  we  have  to  combat  as  moch  as  the  other."  Nor  are  the  great  cap- 
tains of  indastrjr  reassared.  In  fact,  having  been  serred  with  notice  that 
the  sodatists  and  their  political  policies  (except  the  old  begging  bosiness) 
were  repadiated.  that  they  had  nothing  to  fear  from  an  organized  attack 
apon  their  privileges  and  exploitation  at  the  ballot  box,  and  that  the  work- 
ers woold  remain  docile  and  sabmissive  and  continue  to  support  the  parties 
of  Mark  Hanna  and  Grover  Cleveland,  the  other  leaders  of  the  Civic  Federa- 
tion, when  the  aforesaid  captains  are  seized  with  a  veritable  craze  to  ham- 
mer down  wages,  conduct  ''open  shops,"  force  strikes  and  lay  off  thou- 
sands of  men.  Hardly  was  the  Boston  convention  adjourned  when  it  is 
definitely  decided  that  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  textile  workers.  North 
and  South,  must  accept  a  10  per  cent  cut  in  wages  and  many  are  laid  off; 
150,000  iron  and  steel  workers  are  compelled  to  accept:  reductions  of  wages 
ranging  from  5  to  50  per  cent;  the  Parry  people  meet  and  outline  plans  to 
attack  labor,  politically  and  industrially;  the  building  contractors  of  the 
leading  cities  meet  in  Chicago,  form  a  national  organization  and  declare 
their  intention  of  enforcing  the  "open  shop;"  the  oituminous  coal  opera- 
tors hold  a  secret  conference  in  Cleveland  and  agree  to  demand  that  200,- 
000  miners  accept  a  20  per  cent  reduction;  prominent  vessel  owners  an- 
nounce that  over  100,000  marine  workers  must  acc^t  lower  wages  the  com- 
ing season;  the  war  of  extermination  is  pushed  against  the  bridge  and 
structural  iron  workers,  tailors  and  type  founders;  thousands  of  railway 
workers  have  their  wages  reduced,  and  other  thousands  are  laid  off  indef- 
initely; rumors  come  of  an  attack  upon  the  machinists  all  along  the  line; 
local  strikes  and  lockouts  are  bitterly  contested  in  aU  of  the  principal 
industrial  centers,  and  there  seems  to  be  a  regular  mania  growing  to  lay 
off  myriads  of  workers  everywhere.  Doubtless  President  Gompers  and  his 
followers  will  now  accuse  the  socialists  of  being  pleased  with  this  condi- 
tion of  affairs,  but  that  position  is  absolutely  untenable  and  false^  for  the 
reason  that  socialists  are^  tmf ortunately,  compelled  to  suffer  as  much  and, 
in  some  cases  more^  than  the  great  mass  of  working  people.  The  socialists 
are  not  responsible  for  the  industrial  depression,  the  reduction  of  wages, 
tiie  disemployment  of  men  and  women,  and  the  increase  of  labor's  tor- 
dens,  bat  the  capitalists  are^  and  their  defenders  and  apologists  in  the 
trade  union  movement,  and  there  were  some  in  the  Boston  convention  who 
are  not  entirely  blamelesB,  either.  The  intelligent  thinking  trade  unionists 
of  this  country  will  compare  the  conditions  that  "encouraged"  them  after 
the  New  Orleans  and  Boston  conventions  and  place  the  responsibility  where 
it  belongs.  There  wiU  be  plenty  of  time  in  which  to  think  during  the 
next  ten  months* 

Several  months  ago  the  International  Association  of  Machinists,  com- 
posed of  man  who  are  rapidly  gaining  a  clear  understanding  of  social  con- 
ditions, sent  out  for  a  referendum  vote  of  their  membership  on  three  qaes- 
tionsL  First  propositirai  was  whether  the  membership  Indorsed  industeials 
as  ^posed  to  autonomous  organization.  Second,  wh^her  they  favored  the 
A«  F.  of  L.  indorsing  sodaiism,  and  lastly,  whether  it  was  desiraUe  that 
the  present  ineombent,  Mr.  Gompers,  should  remain  president  of  tiie  A.  F. 
of  L.  The  retoms  have  been  published  in  the  Machinists'  Mionthly  Joor- 
nal  for  December,  and  this  ia  how  they  read:  For  industrial  organization, 
4.544  votes;  against,  1,050;  majority  in  favor,  2,895.  That  the  A.  F.  .of 
L.  shall  indorse  socialism:  For,  4,403;  against,  1,963;  majority,  2,440. 
Whether  Gompers  shall  retain  office:  For,  2,705;  against,  8,603;  ma- 
jority against,  898.    These  returns  came  in  before  November  9,  the  day 


486  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  B£VI£W. 

the  A.  F.  of  L.  Boston  convention  met,  and  now  some  of  the  locals  want 
to  know  why  thar  delegates  paid  no  attention  to  the  instructions  they  re- 
cdved  through  the  referendum. :  At  their  last  national  convention  the 
machinists  adopted  a  socialistic  declaration,  and  their  officers  pleaded  that 
the  matter  of  instructing  them  be  sent  to  referendum.  Not  only  did  they 
vote  against  socialism,  but  one  of  their  number  renominated  Gompers. 
They  lULewise  voted  against  industrialism,  and  yet  they  are  now  trying  to 
absorb  the  allied  metal  mechanics.  There  wUl  be  some  warm  times  in 
the  I.  A.  of  M.  in  the  near  future. 

The  "sting  of  antagonism"  in  the  capitalist  class  doesn't  seem  to  be 
withdrawn  in  the  least,  in  spite  of  the  assurances  of  organized  labor's 
greatest  leader,  Samuel  Qompers.  The  Citizens'  Industrial  Association  of 
America,  of  which  the  irrepressible  Parry  is  the  head^  continues  to  grow 
in  size  and  influence.  At  present  upward  of  two  hundred  local,  state  and 
national  associations  are  affiliated  with  this  capitalistic  federation,  and  the 
country  is  being  thoroughly  organized,  according  to  their  newspapers  and 
riding  delegates.  The  shibboleth  of  the  association  seems  to  be,  "Down 
with  organized  labor  in  any  form  and  long  live  scabisml"  The  C.  L  A. 
bosses  have  given  notice  that  they  intend  to  not  only  attack  trade  unions 
and  wipe  out  boycotts^  the  sympathy  strike,  etc.,  but  they  intend  to  enter 
politics  and  kUl  the  union  label  laws,  eight-hour  bills  and  any  other  mea- 
sures that  may  have  benefited  the  trade  unions.  They  are  also  encourag- 
ing assaults  upon  union  treasuries  through  the  courts.  At  the  present  writ- 
ing damage  suits,  aggregating  nearly  a  million  dollars,  have  been  filed 
against  organized  ]alx>r  in  the  various  states,  and  every  dedsion  so  far  has 
favored  the  capitalistic  conspirators.  Up  to  the  present  no  hint  has  come 
from  labor's  (Diosen  leaders  as  to  how  the  attacks  are  to  be  met.  Quite 
likely,  after  the  horse  in  stolen,  there  will  be  a  loud  outcry  to  lock  the 
bam  door,  but  the  robber  will  be  allowed  to  wander  at  large.  The  so- 
cialists have  their  own  views  relating  to  these  burning  questions,  but  just 
at  present  the  socialists  and  their  "speculations"  are  highly  unpopular 
among  labor 's  great  officials,  and  the  latter  cannot  complain  of  not  having 
full  swing  to  put  their  plans  in  operation,  if  they  have  any.  Let  us  hope 
that  the  salaries  of  none  of  our  very  conservative  leaders  will  be  endan- 
gered by  garnishees  or  withheld  if  treasuries  are  confiscated  by  the  capi- 
talists and  their  courts. 


Belgium. 


In  a  recent  article  in  Le  Mowv&ment  SodaUite  on  ''The  Present  Situation 
of  the  Farii  Ovwrier  Beige/'  Emile  Yanderrelde  points  ont  that  the  reac- 
tion which  f oUowed  the  nnsatiafaetory  reeolt  of  the  general  strike  in  April, 
1902y  has  now  passed  away  and  that  the  Socialists  have  resomed  their  pre- 
vious rate  of  increase.  Already  the  movement  for  universal  suffrage  is,  on 
the  whole,  under  way  and  this  time  is  moving  with  even  greater  momentum 
than  before^  The  co-operatives  are  growing  at  a  more  rapid  rate  tlum  at 
any  time  in  their  previous  history,  and  to  quote  directly  from  the  above 
article:  "For  the  first  time  the  Belgian  Socialist  co-operators  in  place  of 
attacking  the  small  capitalists  are  able  to  attack  the  great  industry." 

"The  daily  circulation  of  Socialist  papers  is  now  in  excess  of  100,000 
for  a  total  population  of  6,000,000.  Since  the  beginning  of  1903  the 
Co-operative  (Terminal  located  in  Brussels  is  centralising  all  leaflet  propa- 
ganda. It  prints  publications  in  Socialist  printing  houses,  established  in 
various  localities  of  the  country,  and  particularly  in  the  central  printing 
houses  which  constitutes  one  of  the  most  successful  of  the  recent  Socialist 
activities  in  Ghent.  Nearly  every  fortnight  a  new  pamphlet  is  issued  with 
a  dreulation  varying  from  10,000  to  100,000,  and  its  distribution  is  assured 
through  the  secretaries  of  the  district  federations  and  the  newspapers  of 
the  party.    •    •    • 

"There  is  no  locality  of  any  importance  without  its  Maison  du  PeupU, 
Bveiywhere  we  see  arisinff  groups  of  studento,  popular  universities,  laborers' 
libraries,  and  when  the  diay  of  universal  suffrage  shall  come  it  wiU  find  a 
dass-eonscious,  organized,  clear-cut  Socialist  proletariat  ready  to  take  full 
possession  of  the  political  powers  and  knowing  how  to  use  them  for  its 
own  advantage  when  it  shall  have  gained  that  victory  for  which  it  has 
fought  BO  hard  and  waited  so  long." 

The  capitalist  press  of  America  have  been  rejoicing  over  an  alleged 
Socialist  reverse  in  the  Belgian  municipal  elections  held  October  18,  vnd 
those  puppy  dogs  of  the  Socialist  press  which  have  recently  ai^>eared  in 
charge  of  renegade  Socialists  in  Massachusetts  have  been  yelping  in  concert 
at  their  master's  bidding. 

When  the  facts  are  examined,  however,  it  is  discovered  that  this,  like 
most  Soeialist  reverses,  is  of  such  a  character  that  a  few  more  would 
abolish  the  capitalist  rulers  of  Belgium.  Quoting  from  Jules  Destree  in 
Le  Mowo&ment  Socidliite:  "It  is  necessary  first  to  explain  the  outlandish 
complication  of  our  Communal  electoral  regulations  which  are  wholly  dif- 
ferent from  those  prevailing  in  legislative  elections.  An  elector  must  be 
80  years  of  age,  a  long  residence  is  demanded,  and  three  and  even  four 
votes  are  given  to  certain  classes  of  electors.  Proportional  representation 
is  utilised  but  only  in  case  no  party  has  obtained  an  absolute  majority. 
There  are  secondiury  counselors  in  the  great  industrial  eentersL  some  of 
whom  are  chosen  by  the  employers,  and  some  by  the  workers.    Anally  the 

487 


438  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOdALIBT  EBYDBW. 

eleetions  are  conducted  on  the  basb  of  electoral  lists  prepared  a  long  time 
in  adyance  and  whose  fairness  is  not  always  absohiteu  Then  every  attempt 
is  made  to  push  local  issnes  to  the  front  and  make  the  elections  appareotiy 
non-partisBn.'' 

Victor  Ernest,  in  the  same  publication,  has  an  article  on  ''Statistics  and 
BesnltSy"  in  which  he  sajs: 

"When  we  come  to  closely  examine  the  results,  it  is  apparent  that  the 
Socialist  Party  has  increased  to  a  considerable  decree  its  already  numerous 
body  of  municipal  of^cials  and  its  electoral  power.  It  has  penetrated  into 
a  luge  number  of  new  municipal  councils,  and  especially  in  the  agrienltara] 
regions.  It  becomes  apparent  that  in  the  Flemish  agricultural  regions 
where  hitherto  the  working  class  have  reigned  supreme,  they  have  today 
received  a  check  and  Socialists  have  been  elated.  It  is  a  curious  thing  that 
we  have  received  our  only  important  setbacks  in  industrial  regions. 

"It  appears  that  the  reason  for  this  is  to  be  found  principally  in  the 
interference  of  the  employers.  Seldom  has  intimidation  been  so  open.  In 
some  communes  the  officers  of  the  factories  have  been  deserted  during  the 
week  preceding  the  election.  The  clerks  and  the  small  bosses  have  been  turned 
into  electioneering  agents.  Threats  of  discharge  have  been  made  to  social- 
ist workers,  or  those  who  are  suspected  of  being  such.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
find  the  reason  for  this  interference.  Socialist  administrators  instead  of 
increasing  the  taxes  paid  by  the  great  body  of  consumers  have  substituted 
industrial  taxes,  or  have  increased  those  already  existing.  This  is  an  im- 
portant move  for  the  factories,  coal  mines,  etc  In  one  year,  for  example^ 
in  the  single  district  of  Gharteroi,  the  annual  product  of  industrial  taxes 
has  reach^  225,000  francs,  or  double  its  previous  amounts. 

"The  elections  of  the  18th  of  October  have  constituted  a  striking  man- 
ifestation of  the  strength  of  our  party.  It  took  part  in  the  electoral  strug- 
gle and  presented  candidates  in  more  than  800  municipalities.  In  1895  it 
took  part  in  only  507  municipal  elections. ' ' 

Summinff  up  the  results  of  the  elections,  it  is  seen  that  whereas  four 
years  ago  tiie  party  found  itself  with  480  members  in  not  less  than  200 
different  councUs,  this  year  there  are  1,247  socialist  councilmen  sleeted  in 
368  different  dty  coundls. 


Scrvia. 


The  Socialist  Party  in  Servia  took  part  in  the  elections  for  the  first 
time  a  few  months  ago  and  received  2,548  votes.  Since  the  party  was  only 
organized  for  a  few  weeks  this  is  considered  a  very  saturfaetory  result. 
The  larger  part  of  the  vote  was  obtained  in  the  city  of  Belgrade.  Only 
a  very  umited  suffrage  prevails;  at  least  150,000  citizens  being  disfran- 
chised b^  their  inability  to  pay  the  poll  tax  which  is  required  for  suffrage. 
One  Socialist  was  elected  to  parliament.  An  active  struggle  is  being  carried 
on  for  complete  universal  siiffrage. 


Sweden. 

The  foDowing  item  is  taken  from  Miss  Agnes  Wakefield's  bulletin  to 
the  National  Headquarters  of  the  Socialist  Pai^: 

In  Eskilstnnay  Sweden,  October  15,  in  spite  of  the  unjust  aystem  of 
municipal  suffrage  which  gives  a  rich  citizen  100  votes  or  lesa^  the  So- 
cialist candidate.  Comrade  C.  A.  Flodin,  orffanizer  of  the  Iron  and  Metsl 
Workers'  Federation,  was  elected  city  councflman.  He  received  8,218  votes 
from  906  persons,  the  opposing  candidate  who  dune  nearest  to  him  had 
4,602  votes  from  104  persons,  and  a  third  candidate  got  2,892  votes  from 
62  persons. 


SOOIAUSM  ABBOAD.  489 

The  Sodalkt  press  of  Sweden  gains  constantly  in  eirenlation.  * 'Social' 
D&mohraten,**  which  is  published  in  Stockholm,  now  has  15,000  subscribers: 
"Afffetet/'  in  liAlmS;  12,000,  and  ''Ny  Tid,"  in  GKteborg,  6,000;  there 
three  papers  are  dailj.  The  foUowing  five  papers  are  issued  three  times 
a  week:  '^SmaXlandt  FoOehlad"  in  Joenkoeping,  with  4,000  subscribers; 
"Aurora^"  in  Ystad,  with  4,000;  ' ' Arhetarehladet,"  in  Gefle,  with 
8,600;  ''Oerebrokwriren,'*  with  3,000,  and  ''Landshrana  Kwrvren^"  with 
1,800  subscribers.  The  foUowing  three  papers  are  issued  twice  a  week: 
"Nffa  SamMUet,'*  in  Sundsvall,  with  3,000  subscribers;  "Ljf9eha  KuH- 
ren,'*  with  2,500,  and  "Arhetar&n,"  in  Motala,  with  2,000  subscribers.  A 
weekly  paper,  " Folkbladet,"  with  a  circulation  of  5,400  copies  is  pub- 
lished in  Stockholm.  The  12  Socialist  papers  already  named  have  62,000 
subscribers  in  aH  Besides  ihese^  the  young  Sodalist  organizations  pub- 
lish two  pexio^ea^BfJ^Orand"  and  "Fram,"  each  having  a  circulation  of 
3,000  copies.  The  Christmas  issue  of  the  Socialist  paper  "JtafaoJOan"  has 
a  circulation  of  45,000  copies  and  the  humorous  paper  "Karhaasen"  is 
published  weekly  with  a  circulation  of  15,000  copies. 


Switzerland 

The  Socialists  of  Switzerland  held  their  convention  on  October  30.  The 
confused  nature  of  the  Swiss  movement  was  shown  once  more  in  the  fact 
that  while  a  general  resolution  in  favor  of  universal  peace  was  adopted 
the  Sodalist  members  of  the  legislative  bodies  were  authorized  to  vote  for 
a  military  budget  and  the  congress  admitted  "that  it  may  be  necessary 
to  employ  troops  to  do  police  service  in  case  of  strikes  and  boycotts. "  The 
majority  of  the  SodaliiBt  papers  of  Europe  criticised  the  Swiss  comrades 
very  strongly  for  this  action. 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


Trust  Finance.    A  Study  of  the  GenesiB,  Organization  and  Management  of 
Industrial  Combinations.    By  Edwin  Sherwood  Meade.    D.  Appleton  ft 
Co.     (Cloth,  387  pp.,  $1.25.) 

We  have  no  hesitancy  in  saying  that  this  is  by  far  the  most  valuable 
work  that  has  yet  appeared  on  the  trust  question.  It  expounds  fewer  theo- 
ries and  sets  forth  more  new  facts  and  original  points  of  view  than  any 
previous  work.  The  essential  thing  about  the  trust  is  its  method  of  or- 
ganization as  distinguished  from  other  industrial  businesses.  A  study  of 
the  trust  then  should  be  prima rUy  a  study  in  "high  finance,"  yet  the  great 
majority  of  writers  on  this  subject  have  given  this  phase  but  little  at- 
tention. Three  brief  introductory  chapters  give  an  historical  survey  from 
* '  The  Regime  of  Competition  * '  through  the  *  *  pool ' '  and  * '  other  temporary 
forms  of  consolidation"  to  the  ''holding  company"  organized  under  the 
corporation  act  of  1889  of  the  state  of  New  Jersey.  "Under  the  provi- 
sions of  this  act, ' '  the  author  informs  us,  "a  body  of  men  may  form  a  cor- 
poration under  the  laws  of  New  Jersey  which,  among  other  manifold  privi- 
leges, may  purchase  and  own  the  stocks,  or  other  property  of  any  corpora- 
tion engaged  in  any  kind  of  business  in  any  state.  *  *  *  For  momentous 
consequences  this  statute  of  New  Jersey  is  hardly  to  be  equaled  in  the  annals 
of  legislation.  Sixteen  sovereign  states  had  passed  searching  and  stringent 
laws  in  prohibition  of  any  attempt  to  restrict  competition;  laws  whose  de- 
tailed minuteness  of  specification  could  hardly  be  improved  upon;  which 
had  been  proved  effective  against  the  only  permanent  form  of  competitioii 
regulation  yet  attempted,  and  which  undoubtedly  represented  the  convic- 
tion of  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States — a  conviction  finding 
more  general  and  authoritative  expression  in  the  Sherman  anti-trust  law, 
and  strengthened  by  the  anti-monopoly  provisions  of  the  common  law;  a 
well  nigh  unanimous '  sentiment  opposed  to  any  form  of  trust  or  pool,  and 
the  little  state  of  New  Jersey,  containing  two  per  cent  of  the  population 
and  one  and  three-tenths  per  cent  of  the  wealth  of  the  United  States,  by 
the  simple  act  of  amending  its  corporation  law,  nullified  the  anti-trust 
laws  of  every  state  which  had  passed  them. ' ' 

The  legal  foundation  having  been  laid  "the  time  was  ripe  for  the  uni- 
versal application  of  the  trust  principle  to  manufacturing  industries.  On 
the  one  hand  the  manufacturer  was  weary  of  competition  and  anxious  either 
to  combine  or  sell.  On  the  other  hand  stood  the  public,  deeply  impressed 
with  the  profits  of  the  trust  and  anxious  to  buy  the  shares  of  industrial 
combinations  if  opportunity  were  given.  Into  this  situation  stepped  the 
promoter,  to  whom  a  more  promising  opportunity  to  sell  stocks  had  never 
been  presented. ' '  The  true  industrial  function  of  the  promoter  in  the  field 
of  industrial  finance  is  then  described,  first  in  relation  to  the  original  own- 
ers of  the  property  which  it  is  proposed  to  combine,  second  as  an  organizer 
and  correlator  of  these  various  industries,  and  then,  most  importent  of 
all,  in  a  capitalist  society,  as  a  seller  of  the  "goods"  thus  created,  to  wit, 
the  stocks  and  bonds  of  the  new  consolidated  corporation.    As  a  conse- 

m 


BOOK  B£yi£WS.  441 

qaenee  the  two  chapters  on  ''The  Sale  of  the  Stock"  are  among  the  most 
interesting  in  the  oook.  Two  daeses  of  possible  purchasers  are  in  the 
field  whom  he  designates  as  "investors"  and  ''speculators,"  respeetiTdj, 
although  the  latter  term  is  something  of  a  euphemism  for  what  in  the 
slang  of  Wall  street  would  be  called  a  "lamb,"  and  of  the  Bowefy  an 
"easy  mark."  The  question  arises  as  to  which  of  these  classes  are  the 
more  probable  buyers  of  the  trust  stock.  This  leads  to  an  analysis  of  in- 
dustry and  a  classification  into  "investment"  and  "speculative"  enter- 
prisea  This  classification  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  things  to  be  found 
in  the  book^  and  while  the  author  discusses  it  at  consideralSe  length  there 
are  two  important  and  fundamental  phases  of  the  subject  that  he  largely 
overlooks.  He  does  not  seem  to  see  (save  in  a  few  points),  first^  thai  ^ese 
are  to  a  large  degree  but  names  for  historical  stages  through  which  a  larse 
portion  of  incorporated  industries  have  passed,  so  that  the  very  railroads^ 
for  example,  which  he  instances  as  typical  "investment"  industries  were  as 
highly  speculative  as  any  trusts  discussed  by  him;  and  second,  that  the  clas- 
sification is  also,  and  fundamentally,  based  on  the  source  from  which  the 
owners  of  the  securities  (the  great  capitalists)  expect  to  draw  their  in- 
comes, i.  e.,  in  the  case  of  "speculative"  securities  these  incomes  come 
from  exploiting,  by  more  or  less  of  swindling  methods,  the  little  capitalists, 
while  in  the  case  of  "investment"  securities,  the  dividends  come  from  the 
"surplus  value"  exploited  from  the  wage  laborers  in  the  industries.  Never- 
theless, while  criticising  the  author  for  not  carrying  out  more  fully  the 
corrolaries  of  his  classification,  yet  we  have  need  to  thank  him  for  making 
it  as  clearly  as  he  has.  His  examination  of  the  trust  stocks  shows  thaf 
they  belong  in  the  "speculative"  class,  since  the  probability  of  an  imme- 
diate return  from  "surplus  value"  of  wage  slaves  (of  course  he  uses  no 
such  phrases)  suficient  to  pay  dividends  on  the  amount  and  class  of  se- 
curities which  are  offered  to  the  public  is  altogether  too  uncertain  to  tempt 
those  accustomed  to  dealing  in  stocks  and  bonda  A  most  interesUnff  study 
in  popular  psychology  is  then  given,  showing  how  the  "speculative"  spirit 
is  roused,  fostered  and  spread  among  the  class  of  hopcnl  for  purchasers. 
"The  speculator  is  by  instinct  a  promoter.  He  is  zealous  in  advocacy  of 
this  project  to  which  he  has  conmutted  his  money.  He  urges  upon  his 
friends  the  merits  of  the  new  scheme.  His  enthusiasm  is  infectious.  Others 
are  drawn  into  the  net  by  his  representations,  and  tbey  in  turn  compass  sea 
and  land  to  make  one  proselyte.  In  this  way  the  wave  of  speculation  is  set 
going  and  sweeps  through  lUl  classes  of  society,  turning  the  accumulations 
of  years  of  effort  into  the  treasuries  of  the  new  companies." 

The  remainder  of  the  work  is  largely  given  up  to  a  discussion  of  the 
internal  details  of  financing  individual  trusts,  and  while  this  portion  con- 
tains some  of  the  most  valuable  portions  of  the  book  the  facts  and  theories 
stated  are  too  detailed  to  permit  of  any  satisfactory  summing  up  in  the 
space  of  a  book  review.  Unfortunately  the  author  has  not  sufficiently  es- 
caped from  the  conventional  small  capitalist  idea  that  concentration  and 
monopoly  is  something  abnormal  and  pathological  to  prevent  him  from 
tacking  on  two  chapters  at  the  end  discussing  "remedies."  Tet  even 
here  his  treatment  has  none  of  the  hysterical  Utopian  stuff  that  is  usually 
found  at  the  end  of  books  on  trusts.  He  largely  concerns  himself  with  the 
necessity  of  placing  trust  securities  on  an  "investment"  basis  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  sxnall  investor,  who  will  thereby,  if  history  is  any  guide,  be  sim- 
ply assisted  in  saving  up  money  for  the  next  generation  of  "promoters"  to 
tiJ^e  away  from  him. 

The  Yellow  Van.    By  Bichard  Whiteing.    The  Century  Company.    Cloth, 
400  pp.,  $1.50. 

The  reader  of  this  book  will  find  himself  continually  comparing  it  with 
the  author's  previous  work,  "Number  Mve  John  Street,"  to  which  it  is  in 
many  ways  a  companion  volume^  since  Mr.  Whiteing  aims  in  this  later  work 


142  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOGIAIJST  BEYISW. 

to  do  for  the  country  what  his  earlier  novel  did  for  the  dty.  It  is  a 
stady  of  Bodal  conditions,  relations  and  moTements  in  a  ^ical  Bngttsh 
conntrj  district  The  Duke  of  Allonby;  who  mles  over  a  great  estate^  mar- 
ries an  American  ''school  mam,"  and  sha^ filled  with  philanthropic  ideas, 
sets  about  trying  to  help  ''her  people.''  JSverywhere  her  efforts  ndsearry 
and  she  finds  herself  helpless  in  the  midst  of  the  social  conyentions  ana 
economic  antagonisms  of  which  she  is  a  part.  The  picture  drawn  of  the 
abject  misery  and  servility  of  the  laboring  population  on  the  great  estate 
and  the  way  in  which  that  misery  and  serviH^  forms  an  intmal  part  of 
the  whole  economic  organization  is  a  strong  and  vivid  one.  ''The  Yellow 
Van"  is  the  traveling  home  of  some  social^  agitators,  but  it  really  plays 
such  an  unimportant  part  in  the  story  as  to  scarcely  justify  the  prominenoe 
it  gains  by  being  taken  as  the  title  of  the  book.  Among  the  incidental 
points  which  serve  to  give  completeness  to  the  picture  is  the  way  in  which 
the  "American  invasion"  is  depicted  as  pushing  aside  the  native  capitaUst 
and  crowding  out  the  old  landed  nobility.  As  a  whole  the  book  covers  a 
phase  of  contemporary  life  hitherto  neglected,  and  it  must  be  read  by  any- 
one  who  wishes  a  vivid  picture  of  English  rural  society,  and  that  largely 
from  the  Socialist  point  of  view.  As  a  novel  the  characters  are  strongly 
drawn  and  well  worked  out.  The  plot  moves  a  little  slowly  at  times,  but 
interest  never  lags. 

The  Sale  of  an  Appetite.    By  Paul  La  Farsue.    Translated  by  Charles  H. 

Kerr.    Published  by  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.    Cloth,  57  pp.,  50  cents. 

One  scarce  knows  which  feature  of  this  book  to  choose  as  the  central  one 
for  a  review — ^its  keen  satirical  argument  for  socialism,  M  literary  com- 
position or  the  mechanical  excellence  with  which  it  is  printed,  bound  and 
illustrated.  It  is  the  story  of  a  poor,  starving  wretch  who  was  standing 
one  evening  outside  a  restaurant  looking  in  at  the  delicacies  displayed  in  the 
window,  and  the  picture  which  the  artist,  Dorothy  Dean,  who  iUustrates  the 
book,  has  made  of  this  scene  will  haunt  you  for  hours  after  you  have  laid 
the  book  aside.  While  this  vision  of  plenty  is  adding  to  the  torments  of  , 
his  hungry  stomach  he  is  approached  by  a  bloated  and  dyspeptic  ci^italist, 
who  proposes  to  buy  his  appetite  for  2,000  francs  a  month.  The  bargain  is 
struck  and  Emile  Destouches,  as  the  hero  is  called,  takes  up  the  work  of 
digesting  the  gluttonous  meals  which  the  purchased  appetite  enables  the 
capitalist  to  consume.  For  a  time  he  congratulates  himself  on  his  good 
fortune,  but  soon  his  task  palls  on  him,  then  becomes  a  terrible  burden, 
which  he  seeks  to  escape,  but  the  attorney  who  has  drawn  the  contract 
rebukes  him  as  follows:  "You  complain  because  you  have  become  redueed 
to  nothing  but  a  digestive  apparatus;  but  all  who  earn  their  living  by  work- 
ing are  lodged  at  the  same  sign.  *  •  •  Imprint  this  trul£  on  your 
memory:  the  poor  man  no  longer  exists  for  himself  in  our  civilized  socie- 
ties, but  for  the  capitalist,  who  sets  him  to  work  at  his  fancy  or  according 
to  his  needs,  with  such  or  such  of  his  organs."  Many  will  read  this  who 
would  draw  back  from  prejudice  before  an  ordinary  propaganda  book  or 
shirk  the  labor  reading  a  treatise  on  economics. 

Two  more  volumes  from  the  Soci^tfi  NouveUe  de  libraire  et  d 'Edition 
come  this  month,  both  of  whi£li  are  of  great  value  to  the  socialist  move- 
ment. The  first  consists  of  an  extract  from  the  works  of  Proudhon  with 
a  short  biographical  sketch  and  portrait,  consisting  of  100  pages,  and  selling 
at  half  a  franc.  Another,  a  similar  compilation  from  the  works  of  Fonzieri 
is  200  pages  in  length,  and  sells  at  one  franc  Both  are  compiled  by 
Hubert  Bourgin,  and  for  those  of  our  readers  who  are  familiar  wi1& 
French  they  will  form  an  excellent  and  handy  means  of  obtaining  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  works  of  these  great  forerunners  of  socialisnu 

The  steady  outpour  of  propaganda  pamphlets  continues.  Some  of  those 
which  are  significant  as  skewing  interesting  tendencies  in  the  soelalist  move- 


BOOK  BEYISWS.  iiS 

meat  are  noticed.  Two  on  the  Ikrmer  question  show  the  growth  of  this 
phase  of  soeialism.  William  G.  Green  writes  on  ''Some  Seasons  Why 
Farmera  Should  Be  Socialists^"  published  by  the  Appeal  to  Beason,  12  pp., 
5  oenis.  This  is  a  direct  appeal  to  the  fanners  to  join  the  Socialist  Party, 
and  should  do  good  work  in  the  immediate  field  of  propaganda. 

K  A.  Byme^  of  Corsicana,  Texas,  is  the  author  and  publisher  of  an- 
other pamphlet  on  the  same  subject,  entitled  ''A  Famker's  Qlimpse  into 
Utopia,"  which  will  be  interesting  as  showing  how  the  influence  of  present 
environment  affects  a  person's  ideas  of  a  future  society.  We  feel  that  yery 
few  persons  will  agree  with  him  as  to  the  conditions  under  future  society, 
but  the  views  are  at  least  interesting. 

The  Socialist  Co-operative  Publishing  Association  publishes  at  5  cents 
<<Che  Ck)sa  e  il  Socialismo,"  by  Silvio  Origo.  This  is  interesting  as  i^ow- 
ing  the  demand  for  pamphlets  in  the  Italian  language.  The  pamphlet  itself 
is  written  on  the  conventional  style  of  which  we  have  so  many  in  the  ihig- 
lish  language  that  have  done  such  good  service  in  propaganda  work.  It 
begins  with  a  survey  of  historical  evolution,  followed  by  an  analysis  of 
capitalism,  the  movement  of  concentration,  the  class  struggle,  and  the  so- 
cialist solution  of  the  questions  arising  from  this  evolution  and  a  special 
plea  for  the  Socialist  Party. 

"Political  Presidents  and  Socialists,"  by  Celia  B.  Whitehead,  pub- 
lished by  ''The  Alliance^"  Denver,  Colo.,  55  pp.,  10  cents,  is  a  very  good 
example  of  the  result  of  a  very  slight  understanding  of  socialism.  The 
writer  has  evidently  obtained  a  few  ideas  of  Utopian  Socialism  and  seems 
to  think  that  the  cause  of  sodaUsm  would  be  somewhat  advanced  by  "mov- 
ing to  abolish"  the  office  of  president  and  refusing  to  make  nominations  for 
that  position. 

"Socialism  Is  Coming,"  written  and  published  by  T.  J.  Crump.  Meri- 
dian, Mississippi,  67  pp.,  10  cents,  derives  its  main  interest  from  the  locality 
in  which  it  is  written  and  published  as  showing  a  waking  up  of  the  South. 
There  is  littie  new  in  the  book  and  we  feel  like  saying  of  that,  as  of  a 
great  many  others,  that  had  the  author  waited  another  year  before  writing 
it  and  spent  his  leisure  during  that  time  in  gaining  a  thorough  under- 
standing of  socialism,  he  would  really  have  accomplished  much  more  than 
by  publishing  at  once. 

"Panics,  a  Social  Analysis,"  by  John  Mackenzie  Spokane,  Wash.,  39 
pp.,  10  cents,  is  a  fairly  good  statement  of  the  socialist  doctrine  of  panics, 
but  offers  littie  new.  It  is  valuable^  however,  as  showing  a  tendency  on 
the  part  of  socialist  writers  to  take  some  spedfle  subject  for  discussion  in- 
stead of  seeking  to  cover  the  entire  field  of  socialist  philosophy  in  every 
pamphlet. 

Books  Received  to  be  Reviewed  Later. 

American  History  and  Its  Geographic  Conditions.  By  Ellen  Churchill 
Semple.    Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.    Cloth,  466  pp.,  $3. 

Geographic  Influences  in  American  History.  By  Albert  Perry  Brigham. 
The  Chautauqua  Press.    CLoth,  285  pp.,  $1.25. 

The  Inside  History  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company.  By  James  H. 
Bridge.    Aldine  Book  Company.    Cloth,  369  pp.,  $2. 

Life  of  Albert  B.  Parsons.  By  Lucy  E.  Parsons.  Published  by  the 
author.    Cloth,  310  pp.,  $1.50. 

The  Psychology  of  Child  Development.  By  Irving  King.  University 
of  Chicago  Press.    Cloth,  265  pp.,  $1. 


Ui  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

Organized  Labor.  B7  John  Mitchell.  American  Book  ft  Bihle  Houm. 
Glotiiy  436  pp.,  $2. 

Znrechnimgsffthigkeit  oder  ZweckmSUssigkeit.  By  Dr.  M.  Briehta.  Franz 
Deatieke:    Leipdg.    Paper,  129  pp. 

Nouveau  Programme  de  Sociologie.  B7  Eugene  de  Bobertj.  Feliz  Al- 
can:     Paris.    Paper,  268  pp.,  5  franca. 

Le  Peuple  BoL  By  Th.  Darel.  Felix  Alcan:  Paris.  Paper,  188  pp., 
3  francs  .50. 

The  Organization  and  Control  of  Industrial  Corporations.  Bj  Frank  E. 
Horack.    C.  P.  Taylor:     Philadelphia.    Paper,  207  pp.,  25  cents. 

Die  Positive  Kriminalistische  Schule  in  Italien.  By  Enrico  Ferri.  Trans- 
lated from  the  Italian  by  E.  MQller-Boder.  Neuer  Frankfurter  Yerlag. 
Paper,  64  pp.,  1.20  mark. 

Histoire  d'une  Trahison.  By  Urban  Gohier.  Society  Parisienne.  Pa- 
per, 242  pp. 

The  Travels  of  John  Wryland.  Anonymous.  Equitable  Publishing  Cob- 
pany.    Cloth,  236  pp. 


SPECIAL  MEETING  OF  STOCKHOLDEBS. 

In  last  month's  International  Socialist  Bsvnrw  it  was  announcerl 
that  the  question  of  increasing  the  authorized  capital  stock  of  the  eo- 
operative  publishing  house  of  Charles  H.  Kerr  ft  Co.  from  ten  thousand  to 
fifty  thousand  dollars  would  be  voted  upon  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
stockholders  to  be  held  January  15.  Since  the  announcement  was  made, 
however,  our  attention  has  been  called  to  the  fkct  that  the  Illinois  statute 
governing  the  increase  of  the  capital  stock  of  a  company  is  so  worded  as 
to  leave  some  doubt  whether  the  action  can  be  taken  le^Uy  at  a  regular 
meeting.  To  save  any  possible  danger  of  legal  complications  it  has,  there- 
fore, ^n  thought  best  to  call  a  special  meeting  to  be  held  on  February 
4  for  the  transaction  of  this  business.  As  no  opposition  from  any  one 
to  the  proposed  increase  has  appeared  up  to  the  time  of  going  to  press, 
and  as  most  of  the  stockholders  have  already  sent  on  their  proxies  to  be 
voted  in  favor  of  the  plan,  it  may  safely  be  assumed  that  it  will  be 
adopted  on  the  fourth  day  of  February. 

But  the  mere  authorizing  of  the  stock  adds  nothing  whatever  to  the 
strength  of  the  company  nor  to  its  possibilities  for  effective  work.-  The 
new  shares  that  will  have  been  authorized  are  yet  to  be  eubseribed,  and 
the  numl>nr  of  them  that  will  be  subscribed  during  the^year  1904  depends 
mainly  on  the  readers  of  the  International  Socialist  Revixw. 

We  shall  not  take  space  here  to  explain  the  plan  of  organization  of 
the  company,  nor  the  terms  on  which  stock  is  sold.  Mort  of  our  readers 
are  already  familiar  with  these,  and  new  readers  will  find  them  fully  ex- 
plained on  pages  30  to  32  of  ''What  to  Bead  on  Socialism,''  a  eopy  of 
which  will  be  mailed  to  any  one  requesting  it. 

WHY  SOCIALISTS  SHOULD  ST7BS0RIBB  FOB  STOCK. 

We  have  already  given  reasons  why  any  socialist  local  or  individual 
can  get  more  of  the  best  socialist  literature  for  circulation  by  taking  ad- 
vantage of  our  co-operative  plan  than  can  be  obtain^  for  the  same  money 
in  any  other  way.  We  wish  this  month  to  point  out  how  important  the 
work  of  this  company  is  to  the  socialist  movement,  and  how  desirable 
it  is  that  it  should  be  strengthened  by  subscriptions  to  its  capital  stock. 

The  object  of  this  company  is  to  circulate  the  literature  of  international 
socialism,  the  literature  that  will  make  not  merely  socialist  voters  but 
intelligent  socialists.  It  is  a  rather  easy  but  not  a  very  useful  thing  to 
stir  up  a  local  excitement  in  behalf  of  socialism  and  to  jwU  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  vote  at  a  single  election.  The  trouble  is  that  at  the  next 
election  one  of  the  old  parties  may  put  up  a  ''good  man"  who  is  a 
"friend  of  labor,"  and  the  votes  so  easily  gained  are  as  easily  lost.  Tf 
votes  are  all  we  want,  then  no  literature  is  needed,  but  the  flbnalest  ap- 
peals to  the  emotions,  with  rose-colored  pictures  of  what  "ffovemment 
ownership"  and  the  referendum  have  accomplished  in  badkward  countiies 
beyond  the  circle  of  capitalism. 

But  the  real  contest  is  not  far  away.  Socialists  will  soon  be  obliged 
all  over  the  United  States,  as  already  in  Massachusetts,  to  defend  their 
position  against  the  ablest  and  the  most  unscrupulous  attacks  that  the 
agents  of  capitalism  can  devise.    The  votes  of  those  who  do  not  nnder- 

446 


446  INTERNATIONAL  SOdALIBT  REVIEW 

dtland  socialism  will  be  won  back  irom  ns,  and  the  argnmantB  of  tlkoie  who 
talk  sodaHsm  without  understanding  it  will  be  used  against  ns  bj  able 
opponents. 

There  is  only  one  way  to  meet  this  situation,  and  that  is  hy  drcolatiiig 
literature  that  will  make  intelligent  socialists,  who  can  give  good  reasons 
for  their  enthusiasm,  and  who  can  not  be  diverted  from  their  purpose  by 
any  side  issues  whatever. 

Now,  it  happens  that  such  literature  requires  study  and  application, 
and  that  the  average  laborer  under  capitalism  prefers  re&ding  matter  that 
requires  Uttle  mental  effort.  Now,  from  a  ''business"  point  of  view,  the 
profitableness  of  any  given  publishing  venture  depends  on  the  number  of 
copies  that  can  be  sold  at  a  given  price  with  a  given  amount  of  advertis- 
ing. So,  if  the  publication  of  socialist  books  is  to  be  left  wholly  to  pri- 
vate initiative,  the  tendency  will  be  to  the  circulation  of  such  works  as 
"Civilization  Civilized"  and  "Looking  Backward"  rather  than  ''Social- 
ism Utopian  and  Scientific"  and  "The  Social  Revolution." 

Some  may  agree  with  what  has  been  said  up  to  this  point,  but  urge  that 
the  publishing  ought  to  be  done  by  the  party  organization,  so  tmit  the 
"profit"  could  go  into  the  treasury  of  the  party  nstead  of  to  "individ- 
uals." This  view,  however,  is  usually  expressed  by  those  who  know  noth- 
ing whatever  of  the  conditions  under  which  books  are  published,  and  who 
imagine  that  the  publication  of  every  book  is  profitable,  whereas  the  faet  is 
that  every  publishing  house,  socialist  or  capitalist,  loses  on  more  than  half 
its  books,  and  has  to  make  up  this  loss  from  the  profits  on  the  raeeessfol 
ones.  Moreover,  to  carry  on  such  an  enterprise  successfully  requires  spe- 
cial training  that  can,  not  be  extemporized  on  demand,  and  a  eommittee 
chosen  by  the  usual  party  methods  to  carry  on  a  spediQ  work  of  this  Und 
would  almost  certainly  have  a  deficit  rather  than  a  surplus  to  report  at 
the  end  of  each  year. 

Moreover,  to  publish  the  standard  works  of  socialism  requires  not  a 
little  capital,  but  a  great  deal  of  it.  '  Our  co-operative  company  has  made 
a  small  beginning  in  this  needed  work,  and  the  cost  has  been  over  twenty 
thousand  dollars.  This  investment,  together  with  the  organization  that 
has  been  developed,  puts  our  company  in  a  position  where  every  dollar 
of  new  capital  can  be  used  more  effectively  in  the  spread  of  socialist  lit- 
erature than  it  could  be  possibly  used  through  any  other  channetfa.' 

To  obtain  an  idea  of  what  our  co-operative  publishing  house  has  already 
accomplished  in  the  way  of  circulating  the  genuine  literature  of  socialism, 
it  is  only  necessary  to  compare  our  latest  catalogue  with  that  of  any  other 
American  socialist  publisher,  or  even  with  our  own  catalogue  of  thre6 
years  ago.  To  realize  what  we  have  done  in  cheapening  the  cost  to  buyem 
of  the  best  socialist  books,  compare  our  prices  with  the  prices  charged 
by  capitalist  publishing  houses  for  books  on  economics  and  sociology.  7^ 
will  be  found  that  our  retail  prices  are  from  a  half  to  a.  third  lower,  while 
to  our  co-operative  stockholders  we  allow  a  discount  of  one-half  from  our 
retail  prices.  Sometimes  the  difference  is  even  greater.  Compare^  for 
example,  Seligman's  "Economic  Interpretation  of  History,"  166  pages,  pub- 
lished by  Macmillan  &  Co.  at  $1.50,  with  Simons'  "The  American  limner,'' 
214  pages,  doth  binding,  published  bv  our  co-operative  house  at  fifty  eents, 
with  the  special  rate  to  our  stockholders  of  thirty  cents,  mailed,  or  twenty- 
five  cents  when  sent  at  the  expense  of  the  purchaser.  This  book  is  one  of 
the  Standard  Socialist  Series,  eight  volumes  of  which  have  thus  far  been 
published,  uniform  in  style  and  price.  Ladoff's  "American  Pauperism," 
money  for  the  publication  of  which  is  now  being  raised,  wiD  be  a  notable 
addition  to  this  series,  and  we  aim  to  add  new  volumes  by  the  strongest 
socialist  writers  of  Europe  and  America,  as  fast  as  the  necessary  capital 
can  be  raised. 

Equally  important  with  the  publication  of  new  books  is  the  work  of 
introducing  the  literature  of  socialism  to  new  readers,  egpedaHj  to  those 


% 


'  PXTBLISHEB8'  DBPABTMBNT  447 

whose  attention  has  been  arrested  by  propaganda  leaflets  and  newspapers, 
and  who  are  ready  for  more  solid  reading  on  the  sabject.  To  reach  such 
readers  we  propose,  as  soon  as  the  necessary  capital  can  be  secured,  to 
advertise  eztensiyely  in  socialist  propaganda  weddies.  Such  advertising 
does  not  immediately  pay  for  itself  in  direct  sales,  but  it  gradually  enlarges 
the  circle  of  our  readers,  and  makes  it  easier  to  find  a  sale  for  each  new 
socialist  book  that  is  issued  from  time  to  time. 

STIUj  LOWSR  FBIOBS  in  fUTUJUL 

We  have  already  shown  that  our  present  prices  are  far  lower  than  thf; 
^  prices  made  by  capitalist  publishing  houses  on  sociological  works.    Some 

comrades^  unfamiliar  with  the  process  of  book  publishing,  are  inclined 
to  complain  because  our  prices  are  still  higher  than  those  made  on  non- 
copyrighted novels,  such  as  are  sold  by  the  hundred  thousand.  They  do 
I  not  TfShie  that  the  cost  of  each  copy  of  a  book  is  inversely  proportioned 

til  the  number  of  copies  that  can  be  marketed. 

For  example,  "Essays  on  the  Materialistic  Conception  of  History,'* 
246  pages,  is  a  book  which  a  capitalist  publishing  house  would  probably  is- 
sue at  $1.50,  if,  indeed,  it  could  be  induced  to  publish  so  "dangerous"  a 
work  at  all,  which  is  not  probable.  We  publish  it  at  $1,  with  a  special 
discount  to  our  stockholders  of  forty  per  cent  where  we  pay  postage  or 
fifty  per  cent  where  the  book  is  sent  at  purchaser's  expense.  But  it  is 
impossible  to  deny  that  a  book  of  more  pages,  entitled  "Her  Fatal  Se- 
cret; or,  the  TiUain  Stm  Pursued  Her'' — we  may  not  be  quoting  the  title 
quite  accurately — can  be  purdiased  at  almost  any  book  store  for  consid- 
erably less  money.  One  reason  for  this  is  that  the  electrotype  plates  of 
each  of  the  two  books  cost  about  two  hundred  dollars,  but  this  expense  on 
Labriola's  essays  is  divided  among  only  one  thousand  books,  making  twenty 
cents  for  each,  while  in  the  case  of  "Her  Fatal  Secret"  the  same  cost  is 
divided  among  a  hundred  thousand  books,  making  a  fifth  of  a  cent  for  each. 
When  there  are  enough  socialists  to  buy  our  literature  in  editions  of  a 
hundred  thousand,  they  will  get  their  books  far  cheaper.  MeanwhUe  ev- 
ery nev^  subscription  for  a  share  of  stock  from  a  buyer  of  socialist  bookn. 
and  especially  from  a  local  of  the  Socalist  Party,  will  bring  us  so  much 
the  nearer  to  the  point  where  socialist  books  can  be  sold  at  lower  figures; 
first,  by  increasing  the  nnmber  of  the  customers  we  can  count  upon ;  second. 
by  providing  capital  enough  so  that  we  can  print  a  yearns  supply  of  each 
title  at  one  time,  thus  getting  lower  prices  on  the  printing  than  would  be 
made  on  smaller  editions,  and  third,  by  relieving  us  of  having  to  pay  inter- 
est on  borrowed  capital,  and  thus  to  that  extent  reducing  the  cost  of  doing 
business. 

NOT  FOR  PBIYATI  PBOITT. 

No  dividends  to  stockholders  have  been  declared,  and  while  it  is  within 
the  power  of  a  majority  of  the  stockholders  to  vote  dividends  in  future, 
^  such  action  is  extremely  unlikely,  since  it  would  be  in  opposition  to  the 

almost  unanimous  wish  of  the  790  socialists  who  are  now  stockholden.  The 
largest  salaries  ptdd  any  one  are  seventy-five  dollars  a  month  each  to  A.  M. 
Simons  and  Charles  H.  Kerr.  After  providing  for  the  ordinary  runniner 
expenses,  every  dollar  received,  either  from  the  sale  of  stock,  the  mie  of 
books,  or  from  subscriptions  to  the  International  Socialist  Beview^  will 
be  used  to  pay  off  the  debt  and  to  increase  the  variety  of  socialisf  Htera- 
ture  published  and  to  push  its  circulation. 

Are  you  a  stockholderf  If  not,  send  on  ten  dollars  for  a  share,  an>1 
help  the  work  along.  If  you  are,  see  that  you  use  your  privilege  of  buying 
socialist  books  at  cost,  and  cover  your  neighborhood  with  the  kind  of  so- 
cialist literature  that  makes  intelligent  socialists.  But  ahio  help  us  to 
find  the  four  thousand  new  stockholders  that  are  needed  to  ensure  the 
complete  success  of  our  co-operative  publishing  house. 


4 


[oratory 


ITS  REQUIREMENTS 
AND  ITS  REWARDS 


BY  JOHN  P.  ALTGELD 

There  have  been  many  books  written  on  the  subject  o£  oratory,  but  few  o£  them 
haye  been  written  by  orators. 

John  P.  AUgeld,  £x-Goyemor  o£  Illinois,  was  one  of  the  greatest  orators  in  the 
United  States. 

Just  before  his  death  he  wrote  his  famous  book  on  oratory,  and  we  are  not  ex- 
aggerating when  we  say  that  it  is  the  greatest  book  on  the  subject  ever  written. 

Upon  its  appearance  it  received  instant  recognition  by  the  press,  the  pnlpit  and 
the  public;  it  has  run  rapidly  through  three  large  editions  and  is  now  in  its  fourth. 

Oratory  is  not  a  lost  art  by  any  means,  and  the  signs  of  the  times  point«.to  a 
greater  need  for  orators  than  the  world  ever  knew.  The  greatest  orators  have  always 
been  on  the  side  of  oppressed  humanity,  and  when  were  the  common  people  greater 
slaves  in  the  midst  of  such  wonderful  prosperity  as  at  present? 

The  following  list  of  chapters  will  give  something  of  an  idea  of  the  variety  of 
subjects  trsRted:  Knowledge;  Language;  Arrangement;  Delivery — ^Action;  Gesture; 
Voice,  Articulation;  Writing  of  Speeches;  Message  to  Audience;  Newspapers;  Break- 
fast-Table Audience;  Literary  Excellence;  Demosthenes;  Utilitarian  Talk;  Abste- 
miousness; Hospitality;  Hand-shaking;  Clothes;  Censorship  of  Speeches;  Lawyers; 
Great  Subject — Pettifogging;  Justice,  Not  Expediency;  Rewards;  Is  Oratory  Dying? 
Democracy;  Oratory  Develops  Oratory;  Repetition;  Pericles;  Conclusion. 

It  would  take  many  pages  to  quote  all  the  complimentary  notices  that  were  printed 
by  some  of  the  greatest  papers  throughout  the  United  States  regarding  this  wonderful 
little  book,  but  we  quote  herewith  a  few  brief  extracts  culled  at  random  therefrom. 
The  New  York  Journal  thought  the  book  of  such  importance  that  it  printed  a  full  page 
article,  quoting  from  the  book.    Many  others  papers  gave  it  a  column  or  more. 

READ  WHAT  A  FEW  HAVE  TO  SAY  i 


"The  tone  thrott£hoat  to  hisb  and  the  advice 
tempetate  and  lonnd." — Chicago  THdum. 

*'ln  afanoat  eyery  nuui*i  life  there  cornea  a  time 
when  he  not  only  wlahea  that  he  could  apeak,  but 
^N^en  he  ahould  be  able  to  apeak  clearly  and  forcibly 
In  public  The  great  majority  of  the  Iaw3rera  and 
miniatera  have  no  ahadowof  an  ideaaa  to  public 
apoJcinff-^RThich  ia  a  crime  against  the  public. 
Theae  men  need  Governor  Altgeld'a  bodk.  It  should 
be  used  as  a  text  and  hand-book  in  every  achool  in 
which  any  attempt  to  made  to  teach  public  speak- 
ing."— Helena  {Momi,)  Independent. 

"The  book  will  be  found  a  practical  volume  for 
all  public  apeakera."— &»tf«/iA^  American, 

'"The  reader  nay  have  no  Inclination  whatever 
toward  public  apealdngt  but  the  peruaal  of  this 
addresa  will  inspire  him  to  jrreater  elegance  in  hto 
daily  oonveiaation."— 7V  Philadelphta  Press. 

"He  writea  briefly  and  tersely,  facta  which  every 
student  should  underftand."-CAM»^0  Inter  Ocean, 

**Booka  on  oratory  are  as  plentiful  as  autumn 
leavea  and  oftUnarily  about  as  dry,  but  this  is  some- 
thing absolutely  unique  in  ita  way."— Afuf/aM</ 
Methodist^  NashviUe,  Tenn.  jj 

The  book  is  a  handsomely  printed  square  18mo  volume,  bound  in  vellum  de  luxe 
with  silver  lettering  and  will  make  a  beautiful  book  for  any  one's  library. 
Sent  postpaid  to  any  address  for  50  cents. 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY,  56  Fifth  Avenue,  CHICAGO. 


^Us  to  one  of  the  brightest,  saneat,  noUeat 
utterances  of  the  season,  not  alone  from  Ita  Inapiia- 
tion  for  oratory,  but  as  well  for  ita  effect  upon  all 
literary,  profeasional  or  ethical  effort.  It  can  be 
read  in  an  hour  or  two,  and  yet  one  will  spend  houxa 
of  many  days  upon  it  before  be  lasrs  it  aside.  It  to  a 
better  book  for  a  teacher'a  reading  circle  than  hooka 
that  are  often  there;  indeed,  it  ought,  aooner  or  later, 
to  be  in  a  teacher's  reading  coune,**— Journal  o/ 
Education^  Boston, 

'*It  would  be  hard  to  And  anywhere  dae  a  volume 
which  can  be  so  useful  to  intending  speakers  under 
modem  condiUons  aa  thto."— -ffar(/brrf  (Coun,) 
TYmes, 

"John  P.  Altgeld  to  known  aa  a  speaker  of  great 
ability  and  from  hto  services  on  the  bench,  hto  po- 
litical speeches  and  knowledge  of  thejeffect  of  dif- 
ferent styles  of  oratory,  no  one  is  better  fitted  to 
publish  a  book  on  that  aubject  than  be,  and  his 
opinions  will  be  listened  to  with  respect.  Young 
speakers  will  find  the  book  of  much  serrlce  to 
lhtau"—Buj0'alo  Times. 

**The  person  who  opens  thto  book  with  the  eicpec- 
tation  of  finding  the  same  old  hackneyed  exerctoea* 
for  voice  and  gesture,  with  mechanical  Instructioos 
for  proper  ^delivery,'  will  be  agreeably  disap- 
pointed."—•2>m/xM  Herald, 


yv^oint 


Sdmetbing  Entirely  New 

BvETT  SodaHlt  wUl  TTant  lo  we»T  my  nr*  Soctalitt  Caihlpni 
Waich.  Nothm);  like  ii  anywhere.  Emblcrfl  br<idiifuJ  Kaod 
«n£TKV"ed  op  luui  of  c^ue,  la  shqwp  in  the  cut.  I'hr  picture 
hawtver^  flou  net  do  the  watch  jaitice. 

I  have  a  Lar^f  stock  of  these  nxid  cAit  Bupplf  nit  ordtrft  ^^ 
there  u^iiinjt  tobea  ro^h  lmi  them,  and  yoD  had  bettrr 
*^fautTY'    if   you  want  lo   cet    one  of    the  firei   lot, 
I  abo  n3X*c  tfold  pUtcd  Socuill^it  Butmtut.CDjnneled 
lOcoIorL  at  £S  cents  ucfa^f^JS  per  doEPn^ 
Rudihc  following  descripi  ion  carefully. 
Thecs&e  11  ^laranteed  3U  yean  by  a  rvli' 
abJe  manufurturc,    buclted    by  my  pt:tvtrtAl 
gnaFsnttCj  ia  open  fafe,  scrcpr  back  and  b4zel 

T  JEWEL  IUm?1KN  HIOVEHOlT 

IB  JEWE  WALTHJUH  MBVOmrT        - 

IT  JEwa  imilOiS  MOVEMOI? 

IT  Jiwa  uunsTiD  u«in  «*  mnum 

IJltT  MOVEMENT        -        -        -  IB.OO 

Hunting  case  f^.OO  APfe  than  own.  SE 
Tear.lO,  op^n  facefS  00  nwre  ihao  30  year. 
Solid  iaJvcr  case  niitli  patent  dust  proof,  sif'tng 
rinf  caK  same  pncfl  a4  SO  year  fjoM  filled. 

Yf}\i  pay  your  Ideal  jeweler  aO?i  mora  for 
eounMri  watched 

*'If  it'a  fmm  Cotik1tii*i  it  is  jpflod'', 

SendilampioTCataJogof  1,000  watcb  bar- 
SaioA,  also  pocket  catalog. 

A  3i   «i  ft^  CLARfC  ■rncrr,  ghicago,  ill. 


«io.oci 

11. DO 
14.00 


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i;"tHE  WORKER" 

•EST  SOCIALIST  WEEKLY 
MIMFOL  OF  lETCEEsr 


* 


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terHI  •(  the  WorkinsClatt;  U  Stands 
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to  |t.— 00  eentt^p^r  T^ar;  25  fut$  tor 
6  OMmtlias  16  een^  for  5  nidnUis. 

SAMPtE  OOPiBS  nSS.! 

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SOCIALIST  STICKERS 

We  will  tnail  two  hnndrad  of  thtm,  25  eaoh  of 
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-   S6  rifth  Ave*,  Chicago 

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eorfectHtlM  Mdalzat.  Order  fiU«dd*frac«liracUB««kl«t 

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it «ardi.  W#  hav*  cati  o(  «mbr«iB«Jpr all ••cJemi. 

B€»i8TBK  rr«.  A  Hi.  eo<.  9Err.im.  lmju.  m. 


60    YEARS' 
EXPERIENCE 


10Q 


.  ...^^.j  takea  tfermichliaBo'ST: 
•]»eda(«4i<^  witlioiitcliarge,  ttl  tSa 


'  A  TMBdsomaljr  fltnatratad  weeUr*   I^^KOft  tfv 
oulatton  of  any  aeiantlflo  jotfrnaL    Tonna^fi^ 

Sir:  four  Bumtitaafl.  BoldbyallttewMflalart 


B^ANTONN  JUBRIOLAr'Pr(^€ssorlntheUiniversify(^Ao^ 
TrAsUJte4  t^om  the  tMest  P^lHs  Edition  iy  Chsaks  IL  Kerr^       -'<  ^ 
Cloth,  2^6  Facwt       :       r     i      :       Prl«,  $1.00    : 

i^  not  too  much  to  $ay  that  tjiis  hook  is  the  nusl  fas^portaat 

coattfttttiod  to  the  tttenttKte  of  htenutio&al  socialism  since 

Mvx's^' Capital''   The  first  part,  ^^In  Hemoiy  of  the  Man- 

li^csto/'  is  a  clear^  concise  an4  ordinal  stndy  of  the  historical 

[/ causes  whidi  made  possible  tiie  writing  and  ptihfisidng  of 

&e  Commtmist  manifesto  in  1348^  as  well  as  jQie  eccnomfe 

condttionis  which  made  tiie  spread  of  its  ideas  sbw  for  ^  first 

^KTcaty-five  years  and  extremely  fapid  thereaft^*    '&is  essay  wifi 

» serve  to  make  the  Gommtmist  Manifesto  readily  toteffigihie  to  twoxtieth 

ceaftiry  readers  who  could  oot  otherwise  understand  it  without  (fohig 

an  immense  amount  of  idstorical  readhig«. 

The  second  and  longer  portion^f  the  book  consists  of  an  essay 
entitled  ''Historical  Materialism/^:  Ibis  is4heJbrief  and  convenient 
name  given  by  FredeHd  Engds  to  tiie  central  principle  <tf  socialism 
which  is  so  conci^dy  stated  hi tik  Communist  Blantftstorand  .whidiis 
also  stated  to  an  extremdy  c<ttdensed  1^ 
and  Sdentific/^  Both  of  these  ckssic  statements  ^  the  J^rtocipk 
are  from  their  very  brevity  aiid  frma  the  fax-readung  conseqtiences 
of  the  principle^  extremely  difficult  for  tte  qntratoed  r$ader«  ^  Ibt 
world  of  human  r^tlohs  to  whidi  the  principle  of  historical  male* 
riafism  is  to  beappfied  is  so  complex  that  the  path  is  M  ^  pitfafis 
for  the  begtonert  and  nothk^  is  easier  than  to  nu^  the  principle 
Tidicukms  to  the  eyes  of  our  totdided  converts  hy  lack  <tf  judgment  in 
its  apirfiation«  u,  tiiis  essay  Labriola  has  explatoed  histc^cal  ma- 
teriaOsffl  withafulhess  of  defadl  and  a  wealth  of  i&fstration  tiiat 
will  give  every  student  who  masters  his  woik  an  todispensabk  equip- 
mat  lor  grappltog  Witii  the  concrete  questions  tbat  wHI  come  up  for. 
MaHon  to  these  transition  years  from  apttafism  to  sociafism« 


CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS       56  Fifth  Ave.        CHICAGO 


A  loflthly  Joarnal  of  Ifltemational  SodaSsTTIioiight 


901. 1U. 


Tebniarf  i,  i 


i  -^  IJ 


iiia^ 


00.8. 


M 


CONTENTS 


MaivlMi  Meafitotv . . .EmUe  yandtnelde 

fUee  Pki^u^ee. ....... ..^ .^..... ^OseatEigar 

&>ci>fanvfai  AtistMlU. ............  c ...  .^. ..  ,,.,Atpirew  h4:  tAnderspn 

**yht  Aaicffc»fl  Fatiacf **. ...  ^ ...;.......... .  IsaderLadoff  \ 

"HMoFf  <rf  Gcfauuk  tuit  Uoioos— Cont£a«e<).  ^ .  /^/frM'/  Thomas' 

'■'  ' -J-  "■  ■  : .    '  '•  " "   ■■•■.-       ■  :•.  ■   ^  1 


J 


DEl^ARTMENTS. 

EDITORIAL    Tlie  Yellow  KM  in  Polhkt. 
Sochititm  Abroad  Book  Rerkvt 

The  WorM  of  Labor  rVbUibefi^  Departmcat 


PUBLI SHED  BY 


CHARLES  H.    KERR   &    COMPANT 

■gBBBSt  INCORPOXATKD.  ON   TBE   CO-OPEICATIVEi   PI,AN  aMMB 

56    FlfXH  .AVENUE,    CHICAGO,    U.    S.    A. 


Copyrtfllktt  bir  Chaiftct  H«  Kan  ar  CqmiMinr 


the  International  Socialist  Review 

devoted;  TO  THE  STtlDT  AND  l»Sa6SI(»V  OF  TBE  nUMEHS  IMDEItT 
TO   THE   GROWTHOF   THE   INTERHATIORAL   SOOALBT   HOVEHEWr 

PITED  BY  k.  VL.  SIMONS 


FQREI^  GQBltESroniN59TS» 

KNQLA17J>-H.  H  BrmuAMi  Wai^ybb  Craks,  Sakuiel  HoBSoir, 

H.  QUIUTB,  X  EXIB  HABDlBy  J.  B.  MoDOJfALD:     FKAKCS-^PAULJ 

;  LAarAftoQs,  Jxak  Jausxb,  JsAir  LosButr.      BEtX^IUM— Exilb   ' 
Yajkdsbvxu>x,  Hskbi  Laiontaikb,  EMII.B  Yikok,  Mxb.  Lalla 
YAiTDSByjBLDS.    DENKARK-^Db.  QestAT  Bako.    &EBMANT— 

KABL  &ADTBKY.      ITALY^DB.  AUKSANDBO  SdHtAYL  PBOF.  EN- 

Uoo  FBBBX.    SWEDEN— AjdQV  AiKDBBdoK.    JFAPAN*-XJ4!inux    , 

Ocmliibiailoiit  m  aoU^lted  amii  all.pha«^  o?  Socialist  thboght,  and  all'  profaleiiia  of  modarn 
aoodal oriraniBAfcion.  No  altoratioaa are  made iaaeoeptad  xaanosoript,  biil  |aa  rufat  of  editorial 
eommeatia  always TMerred.  The ateanoe  of ^auolkooi&meQt,  however,,  is  lo  be  in  no  wtkj  ooa- 
jtnied  a^  editorial  endersemeiii  of  the  positions  in  any  pabliahed  oommwiioatioa;  No  vejecitod 
mannsoript  will  be  retnmed  unless  acoompaaied  by  stamps  for  retora  pottage. 

Tliis  magasloe  is  oopfrichted  for  ibe  protection  of  oar  contributors.  Olher  papon  nc*  ^nl- 
oome  to  eopy  f rots. oar  editorial  departaants  provided  credit  is  jBrlven .  Pemiasioa  will  Always  ba 
given  to  renrodaeeoontributed  artiolea,  provided  the  author  raises  no  objeotion, 

c  The  sabserlptlon  price  is  II.QD  per  year,  payable  in  advance,  postage  free  to  amar  address  wifthliL 
the  postal  union.  Bdltorlal  communieationa  should  be  addressed  to  A.  M.  SiMOioit  S6  Fifth  Avenua, 
Ghioagu;  business  ooBunbnioatloiife  to  CBAJKLin  H.  Kaaa  A  Ck)MEyAtrr,  S6  Fifth  Avenue*  Chisago. 


"  TAe  Socia/istt.  oftHs  cwHtty  ka^e  a  fosai^e  tressurt  in'  The  CfHtfade, 
Thtrt  h  nothing  so  distincti'vi  in  SociaJis/  periodical  Jiierature  iuth4i  in  this 
country  or  in  Strope,  as  The  GTwrtf^/'— Social  Dbmocaatic  Herau^. 

A  Socialist  Libraiy  Worth  Having  and  Preserving 
is  a  Bound  Volmne  of  The  Coinrade 

<  '  .  '  ■  -     .  '  -  .  ' 

Bonlid  volumes  of  The  Comrade  of  the  first  and  seoond  year  are  now  ready.    Each 
ifl  bound  in  handsome  cloth  covers,  stamped  with  Walter  Crane^s  beautifnl  design  in" 
colo^.     The  careftiUy  prepared  index  enables  the  reader  to  find  any  of -the  literary  or 
pictorial  contents  at  an  instant.    The  bound  volames  of  The  Oomrade  are  eqtlal  in  si^e 
.  and  appearance.     Each  oon  tains : 

288  Pages  of  Deli$:htful  and  Instructive  Reading. 
30(>  Beautiful  IlL-strations,  Portraits  and  Cartoons. 

It  is  a  book  tliat  is  worth  far  more  than  we  ask  fot  it,  and  that  will. beoome 'even 
more  valuable  in  future  years,  .  , 

Price,  nor  volume,  $2.00,  to  shai-eholders  of  The  Comrade  Oo-Open^ti ?e. Com- 
pany, $t. 20;  postage,  30  cents  extra. 

The  subscription  prioe  of  The  Comrade  is  $1.00«  year,  ioshateholders,  50  cents* 
Ten  monthly  payments  of  50  cents  each  secure  a  share,  and  entitle  yon  to  sbaretiold^ 
lata  fiiom  the  time  the  fiJBt  installment  n«^ 

TIE  COMRADE  GO-OPERAtlVE  COMPANY,  •  II  Gvopir  Sqnrt,  R.  Y. 


I. .:— »v\  &i.i'^L 


TSi   INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST    REVIEW 


VOL.  IV 


FEBRUARY,  1904 


NO.  8 


Marxian  Idealism. 

IT  is  told  of  Marx  that  once  when  he  found  himself  among  a 
group  of  French  Socialists  one  of  them  asked  of  him,  "To 
what  school  would  you  belong  if  you  lived  in  France?" 
"I  do  not  know,"  was  the  reply ;  "but  in  any  case  I  would 
not  be  a  Marxist." 

We  give  the  story  for  what  it  is  worth,  but  true  or  false,  it 
characterizes  very  vividly  the  transformation  or  rather  the  de- 
formation undergone  by  Marxism  in  passing  the  frontier  and 
undergoing  the  dangerous  trial  of  translations,  resumes,  and  lit- 
erary or  oratorical  adaptations. 

The  same  thing  has  happened  to  Darwin  and  in  a  certain  way 
to  all  great  initiators.  From  the  mass  of  penetrating  observations 
and  careful,  yet  daring  deductions  their  popularizers  and  the  pub- 
lic after  them,  have  retained  only  fag-ends  of  phrases  and  frag- 
ments of  ideas. 

Darwin  carried  on  his  investigations  during  nearly  half  a  cen- 
tury. He  wrote  "The  Origin  of  Species''  and  "The  Descent  of 
Man."  He  revolutionized  the  natural  sciences,  and  through  the 
natural  sciences  our  conception  of  the  universe;  but  for  the  im- 
mense majority  his  doctrine  reduces  itself  to  two  things :  "Man  is 
descended  from  the  monkey" — ^since  the  Darwinian  hypothesis  in- 
cludes a  common  ancestor  for  man:  "the  struggle  for  life  is  a 
factor  of  progress,"  which  is  used  to  justify  the  crushing  of  the 
feeble  by  the  strong,  although  Darwin  repeatedly  insisted  upon 
the  advantages  of  association  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 

Karl  Marx  gave  such  a  masterly  exposition  of  the  socialist 
thought  that  he  temporarily  eclipsed  his  more  illustrious  prede- 
cessors. He  created  a  new  politic.  He  transformed  historical 
methods.  He  set  forth  a  definite  critique  of  the  capitalist  regime. 
After  such  an  effort  what  was  there  left  for  the  great  mass  of 
pamphleteers  apd  journalists?    A  few  formulas  such  as  "Labor  is 


450  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

the  source  of  all  value,"  "The  class  struggle  determines  the  course 
of  history,"  or  better  still,  "The  mode  of  production  of  material 
existence  determines  in  a  general  way  tlie  social,  political  and  in- 
tellectual process  of  life." 

Note  that  these  quotations  are  not  incorrect,  but  they  are 
separated  from  ^heir  context.  They  have  been  given  an  absolute 
value  and  they  have  been  abstracted  from  the  corollaries  or  the 
modifications  that  originally  accompanied  them.  So  it  has  hap- 
pened that  through  a  series  of  impoverishments  and  condensations 
we  have  nothing  left  but  a  scheme,  a  skeleton  of  a  doctrine  which 
bears  very  little  resemblance  to  the  real  doctrine  of  Marx. 

For  many  people,  for  example,  the  materialistic  conception  of 
history,  that  corner  stone  of  Marxism,  denies  any  efficacy  to  the 
ideal.  Morality,  law,  religion  or  philosophy  are  epiphenomena, 
reflections,  with  neither  warmth  nor  strength,  the  products  or  sub- 
products  of  economic  activity.  As  for  socialism  it  is  nothing 
more  than  a  process  of  dispossession  of  the  capitalists.  It  should 
have  nothing  to  do  with  any  problem  that  does  not  concern  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth. 
Those  who  seek  to  extend  it  to  embrace  other  questions  such  as 
ethical  progress,  anti-clericalism  or  governmental  institutions  are 
dreamers  and  followers  of  side  issues.  What  do  we  care  about 
Dreyfus  or  Mercier,  a  Ministry  or  the  Congregations,  Republic  or 
Monarchy :  "get  ready  for  the  social  revolution,  everything  else 
will  come  with  that." 

It  is  imnecessary  to  say  that  from  this  point  of  view  historical 
materialism  offers  small  welcome  to  those  who  come  to  socialism 
or  are  drawn  towards  it  by  sentimental  reasons.  Our  friend  Paul 
La  f argue,  who  loves  nothing  so  much  as  terrifying  the  timid  by 
exaggerated  paradoxes,  has  lately  stated  in  a  very  beautiful  man- 
ner that  Justice,  Liberty,  Fraternity,  Progress  are  false  Gods, 
manufactured  by  the  Bourgeoisie  as  a  substitute  for  the  Qiristian 
Gods  in  order  to  maintain  the  slavery  of  the  people.* 

They  continue  to  think  that  ideas  are  forces,  that  justice  is  not 
a  word,  that  law,  politics  and  religion  may  perhaps  find  their  final 
explanation  in  the  "Underlying  economic  factor,"  but  do  not  ex- 
ercise any  considerable  influence  upon  social  evolution.  In  fact, 
if  Marxism  denied  this  influence,  if  it  assumed,  as  is  too  often 
taught,  to  reduce  the  social  question  to  a  stomach  question,  and 
to  imprison  socialism  within  the  field  of  material  interests,  it 
would  be  the  worse  from  Marxism.  The  socialist  conscience 
would  never  submit  to  such  a  contraction  of  its  ideal.  It  would 
never  consent  to  deliver  over  the  whole  domain  of  spiritual  activity 
to  the  old  religions  and  philosophies. 

But  let  us  hasten  to  say  that  those  who  thus  interpret  the  doc- 


(1)  See  for  exAmpIes  Lemrftte'ii 
J  nit  Ai  1608,  paces  50  tf  tffi 


Idtolltme  et  maMrlallitne  in  t^Br^  VouvtlUt 


MARXIAN  IDEALISM.  461 

trine  of  Marx  only  show  that  they  understand  it  very  poorly.  It 
is  a  case  of  repeating  the  statement  of  Laubardamont.  Show  me 
a  line  of  a  man's  hand  and  I  will  find  enough  in  it  to  hang  him. 

In  as  complex  a  work  as  those  of  Marx  and  Renan,  nothing  is 
easier  than  to  pick  out  certain  texts  for  the  purpose  of  making 
their  authors  say  nearly  anything  that  is  desired.  But  it  is  the 
entire  work  in  its  genesis  and  its  development  which  must  be 
studied  if  we  are  to  understand  the  real  thought  of  the  author. 

If  this  simply  honest  method  is  applied  to  the  intellectual 
products  of  Marx  it  becomes  easy  to  explain  the  wholly  apparent 
harshness  of  his  materialism ;  the  systematic  affectation  of  never 
having  recourse  to  sentimental  arguments  in  a  work  which  is 
from  beginning  to  end  a  sharp  and  burning  appeal  to  the  senti- 
ment of  justice.  All  this  is  plainly  only  a  very  natural  reaction 
against  the  habits  of  thought  and  language  which  prevailed 
around  him. 

Let  us  return  in  mind  to  the  years  which  immediately  preceded 
the  revolution  of  1848.  Sentimentalism  reigned  supreme.  Utopian 
socialism  stood  opposed  to  bourgeois  idealism.  Social  philosophy, 
according  to  the  words  of  the  Communist  Manifesto,  "concealed 
its  lack  of  ideas  under  a  robe  of  speculative  cobwebs  embroidered 
with  flowers  of  rhetoric  and  steeped  in  the  dew  of  sickly  senti- 
ment." In  Germany  the  Hegelian  Right  was  sunk  in  complete 
mysticism.  In  France  and  England  nearly  all  the  followers  of 
Fourier,  St.  Simon  and  Owen  were  exhausting  themselves  in 
fanciful  appeals  to  the  good  will  of  the  bourgeoisie  rather  than 
work  with  the  laborers.  In  short  the  majority  of  the  socialists, 
like  the  great  majority  of  their  adversaries,  agreed  in  making 
confession  to  a  sort  of  sociological  spiritualism.  Ideas  according 
to  them  moved  in  a  higher  plane  under  the  cover  of  meagre  sug- 
gestions of  material  interest,  but  in  a  state  of  what  was  thought  to 
be  absolute  independence  of  the  objective  conditions  of  social 
life. 

It  is  at  this  moment  that  Marx  appeared  in  an  environment 
created  by  a  gfroup  of  numerous  forerunners. 

Replying  to  Proudhon,  who  had  sought  to  create  "la  Philoso- 
phie  de  la  Misere,"  he  published  "la  Misere  de  la  Philosophie/' 
Stating  definitely  a  conception  the  germ  of  which  is  to  be  found 
in  many  of  his  previous  works,  he  wrote  that  celebrated  passage 
which  reappeared  continuously  in  his  work  as  a  leit  motiv,  the 
theme  that  economic  necessity  dominates  all  the  spiritual  life  of 
humanity.  "Social  relations  are  closely  united  to  the  productive 
forces.  In  acquiring  new  productive  forces,  men  change  their 
mode  of  production.  In  changing  the  mode  of  production,  the 
manner  of  gaining  their  livelihood,  they  change  all  their  social 
relations.  The  hand  mill  gave  a  society  with  the  lord  of  the 
manor;  the  steam  mill,  a  society  witfi  industrial  capitalists.    The 


452  THE  INTBBNATIONAL  SOCIAIilST  BBVIBW.  "    '  " 

same  men  who  establish  social  relations  in  conformity  with  their 
system  of  material  production,  also  bring  forth  the  principles,  the 
ideas,  the  categories,  conformable  to  their  social  relations.  Thus, 
these  ideas,  these  categories  are  just  as  Ifttle  eternal  as  the  rela- 
tions they  express.    They  are  historic  and  transitory  products."  ^ 

Such  in  a  condensed  form,  but  substantially  correct  as  far  as 
it  goes,  is  the  main  idea  of  Marxism.  Is  it  necessary  for  us  to  em- 
phasize the  revolutionary  import  of  this  point  of  view  ? 

This  idea  is  that  in  the  order  of  social  things  progress  gives 
way  to  the  unchanging,  realism  supplants  ideology.  According  to 
the  very  words  of  Marx,  the  dialectic  of  Hegel  which  went  on  its 
head  is  set  upon  its  feet.  History  ceases  to  be  literature  or  meta- 
physics. Capitalism  no  longer  appears  as  a  definite  regime,  but 
as  an  historic  product  which  bears  within  itself  a  new  regime. 
Socialism  escapes  the  makers  of  systems  to  enter  definitely  into 
the  scientific  phase.  Certainly  it  becomes  the  socialists  even  less 
than  any  one  else  to  attribute  to  a  single  man  the  merit  of  this 
salutary  revolution.  This  would  be  to  devote  to  his  profit,  as  indi- 
vidual property,  a  collective  product. 

We  may  leave  to  the  St.  Simonians,  if  any  remain,  the  re- 
ligion of  a  new  Messiah.  We  know  that  the  materialistic  concep- 
tion of  history  does  not  belong  exclusively  to  Marx,  any  more 
than  evolution  to  Darwin,  or  the  "Essay  on  the  Wealth  of  Na- 
tions" to  Adam  Smith.  And  we  know  also — ^it  is  the  old  story  of 
Christopher  Columbus'  egg — ^that  many  of  the  Marxist  ideas  ap- 
pear so  self-evident  to-day  that  all  originality  is  denied  to  those 
who  first  brought  them  to  light.  Everybody  now  talks  historic 
materialism  just  as  M.  Jourdain  talked  prose. 

When  the  coal  beds  were  discovered  in  the  Campino  Lim- 
bourgeoise,  the  bishop  of  Liege  concluded  that  socialism  would 
soon  be  born  in  that  region. 

When  the  English  made  war  on  the  Transvaal  in  order  to 
maintain  the  right  of  the  Uitlanders  no  one  doubted  that  the  in- 
dividual interests  of  the  proprietors  of  the  gold  mines  and  the 
commercial  interests  of  the  Empire  constituted  the  true  motives  of 
their  intervention. 

Even  those  who  fight  most  fiercely  the  theories  of  Marx  rec- 
ognize the  necessity  of  economic  interpretations  of  history. 

"Historic  materialism,"  writes  Professor  Masaryk,  "or  better 
expressed,  the  more  exact  appreciation  of  the  importance  of  the 
economic  factors  and  the  reduction  to  their  true  value  of  ideologi- 
cal influences  upon  the  life  and  development  of  society  must, 
henceforth,  make  a  part  of  the  undisputed  inheritance  of  sociolo- 
gy, history  and  politics."* 

(1)  Ll  Man — ^Mis^re  de  la  Pbilosoplile.  Reponse  ft  la  PhlloBopbie  de  la  Miaftre, 
de  M.  Prondhon,  1847—pase  ISl  de  I^It  Olard  at  Briftre,  Paris.  1890. 

(2)  Maaaryk — ^EMe  phlloaopliiacUeii  and  aoclologtsd^n  Gmndlitsen  den  Mars- 
lanma.    FmT*  167,  Wlan-BIroiiagaii,  1S9Q. 


MABZIAN  IDEALIBHi.  468 

But  if  the  adversaries  of  Marx  finally  accept  the  fundamentals 
of  his  thesis,  it  is  only  to  speak  with  all  the  more  bad  humor  of 
the  Marxian  exclusiveness  and  to  hurl  the  double  reproach  upon 
historic  materialism  of  ignoring  the  importance  of  the  natural 
agents  which  determine  the  economic  organization  of  society,  and 
of  denying,  on  the  other  hand,  the  very  apparent  influence  of  the 
moral  and  intellectual  factors. 

The  folly  of  these  reproaches  has  been  shown  many  times.  We 
think,  nevertheless,  that  it  may  be  useful  to  again  review  them 
since  we  see  them  continuously  repeated  by  the  pens  of  anti- 
socialist  writers. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  very  necessary  for  us  to  recognize  that 
the  economic  structure  of  society  is  not  a  primitive  fact;  that  it 
is  the  result  of  the  relations  that  have  risen  between  the  popula- 
tion and  its  environment.  That,  as  a  consequence,  it  is  necessary 
to  take  account  in  the  explanation  of  social  phenomena  of  race, 
climate,  natural  productivity  of  the  soil,  and  geographic  situation. 

All  this  is  evident,  but  where  do  we  find  that  such  premises 
have  been  denied  by  the  founders  of  historic  materialism  ? 

If  it  is  necessary  to  quote  texts  in  order  to  prove  the  contrary, 
we  might  cite  among  others  the  characteristic  passage  in  the  third 
volume  of  Capital.  After  having  called  attention  to  the  de- 
pendence and  subordination  of  political  forms  to  their  economic 
base,  Marx  adds :  "This  does  not  mean  that  the  same  economic 
base,  at  least  in  its  essential  features,  may  not  present  in  reality 
the  most  infinite  variations,  due  to  innumerable  economic  circum- 
stances and  natural  conditions,  relations  of  races,  historic  in- 
fluences, &c.,  variations  which  can  be  understood  only  by  an 
analysis  of  the  existing  circumstances."  ^ 

It  is  therefore  incorrect  to  attribute  to  historic  materialism  the 
absurd  pretension  of  explaining  the  economic  structure  of  society 
without  taking  account  of  the  natural  circumstances  which  de- 
termine that  structure. 

Marx  and  Engels  did  not  need  the  light  of  M.  Fouillee  or  M. 
Masaryk  to  enable  them  to  see  that  the  negroes  scattered  through 
the  forests  of  equatorial  Africa  would  necessarily  have  a  different 
political  and  social  economy  from  that  of  the  Aryans  inhabiting 
the  islands  of  the  Aegean  Sea,  or  the  Semites  living  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Yellow  river.  But  while  they  realized  the  tremendous 
importance  of  natural  environment  and  racial  characteristics  from 
the  static  point  of  view,  they  insisted,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
from  the  dynamic  point  of  view,  their  importance  was  nil. 

In  reality,  according  to  them,  it  is  not  the  spontaneous  varia- 
tions in  natural  conditions  which  produce  the  continuous  modi- 
fications of  the  social  structure.  Climate,  race,  geographical  situa- 

(1)  Harx — ^Dfui  Kapital  III.,  pa«e  326.  Hambourg-Melssner,  1894.  Traduc. 
iTraac,  page  887.    Paris,  Oirard  et  Bii^re,  1902. 


404  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIEW. 

tion  and  fertility  of  the  soil  are  in  themselves  but  passive  elements 
and  unvarying  factors ;  the  only  active  element,  the  revolutionary 
factor  par  excellence  is  human  industry,  economic  conditions,  the 
changes  which  take  place  in  the  method  of  production  of  the 
necessities  of  life. 

If  the  climate  of  France  is  no  longer  identical  with  what  it 
was  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  it  is  because  changes  in  methods  of 
cultivation  have  modified  the  water  supply,  or  distribution  of  for- 
ests. If  the  ethnical  characteristics  of  the  population  have  under- 
gone great  alterations  since  the  Roman  epoch,  it  is  because  the 
essentials  of  the  social  order  have  provoked  a  barbarian  invasion. 
If  the  basin  of  the  Mediterranean  is  no  longer  the  center  of  civil- 
ization, it  is  because  the  development  of  the  means  of  transporta- 
tion have  displaced  the  old  commercial  routes.  If  natural  re- 
sources are  to-day  capable  of  satisfying  infinitely  more  needs,  it 
is  because  science  and  art  have  found  methods  of  utilizing  them, 
and  so  far  as  the  products  of  the  soil  are  concerned,  of  increasing 
them.  In  short,  nature  does  not  change  of  itself — it  is  man  who 
clianges  nature. 

Such  is  the  thesis.  It  certainly  contains  a  large  amount  of 
truth.  Nevertheless,  we  cannot  accept  it  without  making  certain 
reservations. 

To  be  sure,  instances  may  be  cited  where  changes  produced  in 
the  social  structure  depend  exclusively  on  spontaneous  variations 
in  natural  conditions.  The  industrial  and  commercial  decadence 
of  Bruges,  for  example,  cannot  be  explained  without  taking  into 
consideration  the  circumstances  which  brought  aboult  the  filling  up 
of  the  Zwijn  and  deprived  the  citizens  of  Bruges  of  their  com- 
munication with  the  ocean. 

To  take  a  still  more  general  example  it  is  not  possible  to  write 
sociology  without  investigating  the  influences  of  the  progress 
achieved  by  the  population  in  all  manifestations  of  social  life.  * 

Let  us  observe,  however,  that  progress  in  a  rudimentary  state 
of  culture  and  industry  is  inflexibly  confined  within  narrow  limits. 
That,  on  the  other  hand,  the  spontaneous  variations  of  physical 
environment  may  generally  be  considered  as  secondary  factors  in 
regard  to  the  artificial  variations  resulting  from  the  work  of  man. 

Taking  these  things  as  a  whole,  and  the  conditions  of  en- 
vironment alone  during  the  short  duration  of  an  historic  period,  it 
is  certainly  human  activity  which  contributes  most  efficiently  to 
modify  the  face  of  the  globe.  And  naturally  its  incessant  trans- 
formations are  not  confined  to  natural  conditions.  It  constitutes 
the  principal  motive  force  of  history;  it  determines  primarily 
political  and  religious  revolutions.  But  it  does  not  follow,  and  the 
Marxists  in  no  way  claim  that  intellectual  and  moral  factors  play 
no  role  in  social  evolution. 

Nevertheless,^  this  opinion  is  continually  ascribed  to  them. 


MARXIAN  IDEALISM.  455 

During  last  year,  for  example,  at  the  French  Philosophical  So- 
ciety, Halevey  maintained  in  opposition  to  Sorel  that  the  reaction 
of  ^e  spiritual  upon  the  material,  of  the  ideal  upon  the  real  is  an 
impossibility  according  to  Marx;  that  the  essential  of  historic 
materialism  is  just  the  affirmation  of  this  impossibility.^ 

It  should  always  be  recognized  that,  in  order  to  interpret  Marx- 
ism  in  this  manner,  it  is  necessary  to  refer  not  alone  to  the  writ- 
ings of  Frederick  Engels,  but  to  those  of  Marx  himself,  and  this 
where  the  latter  instead  of  speaking  as  part  of  a  systematic 
philosophy,  was  writing  off  hand  as  chief  journalist  of  a  party. 

As  for  us,  we  do  not  admit  the  justice  of  such  necessarily  arbi- 
trary quotations  from  a  work  every  part  of  which  is  reciprocally 
complementary  and  explanatory.  Moreover,  it  is  not  alone  in  the 
political  pamphlets,  or  in  the  circulars  of  the  International,  that 
Marx  attaches  great  importance  to  the  action  of  ideas.  His  thesis 
on  Feuerbach,  written  at  Brussels  in  1845,  also  states  very  clearly 
that  philosophy  ought  not  be  confined  to  the  contemplation  of 
things,  without  also  being  the  means  of  acting  upon  things.' 

On  the  other  hand,  we  can  only  understand  Marxism  by  taking 
account  of  the  alterations  in  its  interpretation  and  developments 
that  have  been  given  it  in  perfect  accord  with  Marx  by  his  intel- 
lectual Siamese  Twin,  Frederic  Engels.  Indeed,  the  letters  writ- 
ten in  1890-95  are  known  in  which  Engels  declares  in  express 
terms  that  the  "political,  juridical,  philosophical  and  religious  evo- 
lutions have  for  a  base  economic  evolution,  but  that  5iey  react 
upon  each  other  and  upon  the  economic  base."  We  think,  then, 
that  we  are  right  in  concluding  that  when  the  Hegelian  dialectic 
was  set  upon  its  feet,  Marxism  did  not  cut  off  its  head. 

Moreover,  may  it  not  be  claimed  that  in  their  effort  to  react 
against  the  excessive  contrary  tendency  the  founders  of  historic  ' 
materialism  have  undervalued  the  importance  of  the  ideological 
factors?' 
.  But  in  our  opinion  it  is  more  correct  to  say  that  they  have  only 
understated,  because  notwithstanding  appearances,  their  entire 
work  is  animated  with  the  powerful  breath  of  idealism. 

In  order  to  criticise  capitalism,  they  have  recourse  to  the 
most  abstract  forms  of  logic,  but  in  the  last  analysis  this  logic  is 
founded  upon  a  postulate  of  the  moral  order:  justice  demands 
that  each  laborer  receive  the  entire  product  of  his  labor. 

(1)  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  Francalse  de  Philosophie,  Mai,  1902.  LIbr.  Colin, 
Paris. 

(2)  Bngels — Lndwlg  B^euerbacb  nnd  der  Anfgang  de  Klassischen  deutschen 
phlloeopbie  mit  Anhang.  Karl  Marx  tiber  Feuerbach  Tom  Jahr,  1S46.  Stutt- 
gart: Dteti,  1908. 

fiDgela-— FeuerbacSi,  Tbe  Roots  of  the  Socialist  Ihilosophy.  Tr.  by  Austin 
Lewis.    Charles  H.  Kerr  ft  Company,  Chicago,  190S. 

<8)  "In  our  replies  to  our  adversaries  In  proof  of  the  essential  principle 
(tlie  economic  aide)  which  was  denied  by  them,  we  have  not  always  nad  the 
time,  the  facility  and  the  opportunity  of  dwelling  sufficiently  upon  the  other 
factors  which  participate  in  the  reciprocal  action.'*    Fr.  Engels. 

Letters  of  1^,  puhliriied  In  the  BoctaUtUBChe  Akademiker,  October,  1895. 


456  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

To  secure  the  triumph  of  socialism,  they  reckon  upon  the  ac- 
tion of  economic  forces,  but  they  reckon  equally  upon  the  action 
of  motal  and  intellectual  forces.  The  whole  Communist  Mani- 
festo is  an  urgent  appeal  to  the  conscience  of  the  proletariat,  its 
energy,  its  initiative,  and  its  sentiment  of  solidarity. 

Furthermore,  and  this  point  cannot  be  insisted  upon  too 
strongly,  the  action  of  the  economic  forces  themselves  necessarily 
presuppose  the  continued  intervention  of  the  human  mind. 

It  is  said,  and  it  is  right  to  say  it,  that  the  construction  of  a 
railroad,  the  establishment  of  a  factory,  the  discovery  of  a  coal 
bed,  the  invention  of  a  new  machine  influence,  politics  or  religion, 
much  more  than  any  writings  or  speeches.  But  what  are  inven- 
tions, discoveries,  or  technic^  revolutions  but  the  result  of  intel- 
ligence working  on  matter? 

"Historic  materialism,"  says  Karl  Kautsky,  "far  from  denying 
the  motive  power  of  the  human  mind  in  society,  only  gives  a  spe- 
cial explanation  different  from  previous  explanations  of  the  action 
of  this  force.  Mind  directs  society  not  as  the  master  of  economic 
conditions  but  as  their  servant.  It  is  they  that  dictate  to-day  the 
problems  that  it  must  solve,  and  they  furnish  the  means  for  the 
solution.  The  immediate  end  that  the  human  mind  follows  in 
solving  these  problems  may  be  an  end  foreseen  and  desired. 
But  each  of  the  solutions  must  have  consequences  which  it  cannot 
foresee,  and  which  frequently  run  counter  to  these  expectations.* 

We  would  like  to  he  able  to  quote  more  fully  from  the  com- 
plete and  interesting  study  from  which  we  borrow  this  passage. 

This  would  be  the  best  means  of  showing  the  injustice  of 
the  reproaches  which  are  ordinarily  laid  to  those  who  are  called, 
very  incorrectly,  the  orthodox  Marxists.  Like  Marx  himself,  these 
people  are  reacting  from  their  defense  against  the  mystics.  For 
them,  as  for  everybody,  an  act  of  production  or  exchange  is 
necessarily  a  psycho-physical  act.  An  economic  organism,  the 
same  as  any  other  social  structure,  is  a  creation  of  intelligence 
brought  in  contact  with  reality.  This  which  they  call,  improperly 
by  the  way,  historic  maferialism,  might  as  well  be  called  ideal- 
ism, since  they  admit  that  every  social  phenomenon  is  at  the 
same  time  an  intellectual  phenomenon.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say, 
however,  that  this  Marxist  idealism  is  essentially  different  frcMn 
that  idealism  which  is  ordinarily  expressed  by  the  word. 

Instead  of  seeing  in  Politics,  Morals,  Religion  and  Philoso- 
phy, formations  which  are  totally  or  partially  independent  of  the 
economic  environment,  it  declares,  on  the  contrary,  that  the 
economic  structure  of  society  is  the  actual  basis  by  means  of 
which  all  the  superstructure  of  religious,  philosophical  or  other 

(1)    Kautsky— Was  will  und  kann  die  Materialistiscbe  Geschidlitaafafisuiig 
lelBten?    Neue  Zelt.  1896-1897,  page  231. 


MABXIAN  IDEALISM.  457 

institutions  for  each  determined  period,  in  the  last  instance,  find 
their  explanation.^ 

And  here  it  appears  to  us  that  we  may  express  doubts,  state 
reserves,  or  at  least  insert  interrc^tion  points.  Certainly  we 
recognize  fully  the  preponderance  of  economic  phenomena  which 
are  at  the  same  time  the  most  simple  and  the  most  general. 
Prima  vivere  deinde  pkilosopharu  We  have  always  recognized 
the  revolutionary  influence  of  industrial  transformations; 
Auguste  Comte  himself  insisted  upon  this  point  in  the  sixth 
volume  of  his  Positive  Philosophy.  Finally,  we  admit  the  im- 
possibility of  a  rational  interpretation  of  the  history  of  law, 
morality  or  of  religions,  without  taking  count  of  the  changes 
occurring  in  the  methods  of  production  of  the  material  life. 

But  is  it  necessary  to  go  farther;  is  it  necessary  to  admit,  as 
Marx  has  done,  or  at  least  appears  to  do  at  certain  times,  that 
the  mode  of  production  of  material  life  is  the  determining  cause 
of  the  social,  political  and  spiritual  processus  of  life?  Like  the 
conception  which  tends  to  see  in  the  ideologies  only  the  simple 
products,  direct  or  indirect,  of  economic  conditions,  it  is  ex- 
posed to  the  same  difficulties  as  philosophic  materialism  which 
declares  that  matter  creates  man,  and  that  the  brain  secretes 
thought  as  the  liver  secretes  bile. 

It  is  true  that  we  cannot  conceive  the  nature  of  pure  mind ; 
we  cannot  separate  thought  from  the  material  substratum.  But 
instead  of  seeking  to  prove  either  an  essential  difference  or  a 
relation  of  cause  and  effect  between  mind  and  matter,  monism 
considers  the  one  and  the  other  as  two  aspects  of  a  single  sub- 
stance. In  the  same  way  we  do  not  think  that  the  morality, 
philosophy  and  religion  of  an  epoch  are  independent  of  the 
economic  conditions  present  or  past.  We  cannot  disentangle 
the  social-psychic  from  the  social-physic.  But  because  the  evo- 
lution of  ideas  is  indissoluhly  united  to  material  evolution,  it 
does  not  follow  that  one  is  the  cause  of  the  other. 

To  speak  plainly  we  can  scarcely  understand  what  is  meant 
when  people  say,  as  they  sometimes  do,  that  the  symphonies  of 
Beethoven  or  Mozart,  the  metaphysics  of  Kant  or  Spinoza,  the 
religion  of  Mohammed  or  Christ  are  products  of  the  social  en- 
vironmept  amid  which  they  were  bom.  This  is  much  the  same 
as  if  we  were  to  say  that  the  plants  are  products  of  the  soil  be- 
cause their  seeds  require  soil  for  germination.  In  the  same 
way  that  plants  could  not  grow  without  the  sun,  so  the  works  of 
art,  religion  or  philosophy  would  not  exist  without  the  economic 
structure,  without  social  conditions  which  render  their  appearance 
possible ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that  they  would  not  exist  without 
the  human  mind. 


(1)    Engels — ^Herrn  Eugen  Duehring's  UmwElzung  der  WIssenscbaft,   p.   12. 
Stuttgart,  Diets,  1894. 


1 


458  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIAIilST  EBVIEW. 

As  a  consequence,  unless  we  are  to  fall  into  absurdities,  it  is . 
necessary  to  say  that  ideologies  are  the  product,  not  of  the 
economic  environment,  but  of  the  relations  which  arise  between 
the  human  mind  and  the  economic  environment.  Even  this  last 
expression  appears  to  us  to  be  too  narrow.  The  diversity  of 
economic  or  social  conditions — ^this  terrestrial  germ  of  religions 
or  philosophies — ^may  furnish  an  explanation  of  the  differences 
which  they  present,  but  it  does  not  give  us  the  reason  of  their 
resemblance,  of  their  general  common  ideas.  Whatever  may 
actually  be  the  economic  structure  of  a  society,  whether  it  is 
composed  of  Chaldean  shepherds  or  20th  century  proletarians, 
man  is  led  by  the  force  of  events  to  seek  solutions,  or  to  receive 
solutions  ready  made,  for  a  series  of  problems  having  no  direct 
relation  with  the  modes  of  production  of  material  life:  such, 
for  example,  as  the  existence  or  non-existence  of  God ;  free  will 
or  determinism,  the  mortality  or  immortality  of  the  individual 
soul.  And  physical  or  religious  conceptions  also  are  themselves 
the  reflections,  or  rather  the  representations  of  idealizations  of 
complete  reality,  not  simply  of  economic  reality. 

But  if  their  permanent  characteristics  correspond  to  the 
unchanging  in  nature,  then  the  history  of  their  variations,  or  of 
their  details,  is  only  possible  when  we  study  at  the  same  time  the 
details  which  exist  and  the  transformations  which  are  produced 
in  the  social  economy. 

What  is  true  of  the  history  of  religions,  or  philosophies,  is 
still  more  true  of  the  history  of  law  or  political  institutions. 

Historic  materialism — since  it  is  necessary  to  use  this  name 
sanctified  by  custom^ — ^appears  to  us  then  primarily  as  a  method, 
as  a  means,  of  explaining  the  superficial  manifestations  of  the 
collective  life  by  the  less  evident  but  more  effective  phenomena 
which  arise  in  the  economic  sub-soil  of  society. 

When  a  historic  event  is  studied  that  which  is  apparent  are 
the  avowed  motives  proclaimed  by  the  principles. 

Thus  when  the  United  States  declared  war  with  Spain,  it 
was  done,  we  are  told,  in  order  to  assist  the  Cuban  revolution- 
ists, and  to  secure  the  independence  of  the  Colonies  which  were 
scandalously  exploited  by  the  Home  Government,  and  to  grant 
assistance  to  the  reconcentrados  who  were  being  starved  by  Gen- 
eral Weyler. 

And  to  be  sure  these  liberal  and  humanitarian  reasons  were 
not  without  effect  in  impressing  public  opinion,  rousing  alle- 
giance and  exciting  enthusiasm ;  but  if  we  are  .to  know  the  other 

(1)  Benedetto  Croce  says  correctly,  as  we  think,  "•  •  •  I  resret  that  the 
word  materialism  has  been  chosen,  since  It  has  no  speciflc  jnsdflcatlon  and 
glYes  rise  to  so  many  misunderstandings  which-  are  made  use  of  by  Its  adTsr- 
saries.  So  far  as  history  is  concerned,  I  prefer  the  name  'realistic  conceirtion 
of  history,'  which  better  indicates  its  character  of  opposition  to  all  teleologies, 
and  to  all  metaphysics  in  the  domain  of  history.  Materlallsme  de  rHlstotie  et 
Economie  Marxlste,  trad.  par.  A.  Bonnet,  Paris.  Qlrard  et  Brl6re,  1001. 


MABXTAN  IDEALISM,  409 

motives  of  the  war — ^those  which  the  people  interested  would 
scarcely  avow — ^those  which  on  the  contraxy  they  took  the  great- 
est pains  to  conceal — ^it  is  indispensable  to  have  recourse  to  the 
materialistic  interpretation  of  history;  it  is  in  tfie  economic  un- 
dercurrent, beneath  the  triple  layer  of  moral,  political  or  re- 
ligious protestations  that  careful  investigation  ends  by  these  dis- 
coveries: that  American  capitalists  have  long  sought  the  con- 
quest of  Cuba ;  they  have  between  thirty  and  fifty  million  dollars 
invested  in  the  sugar  refineries:  insurrections  were  always  in 
progress;  commercial  relations  suflfered  from  these  insurrec- 
tions ;  the  intolerable  fiscal  policy  of  Spain  hindered  trade ;  the 
United  States  in  the  midst  of  a  crisis  due  to  over-production, 
was  compelled  at  any  cost  to  extend  its  market  and  secure  a 
footing  in  the  extreme  Orient  and  establish  itself  in  the  Pacific ; 
and  for  the  success  of  this  imperialist  conception  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  Spanish  colonies  was  essential.  Hence  we  have 
"Vive  Cuba  libre,"  "Down  upon  the  monks  in  the  Philippines." 

To  overlook  these  concealed  motives  would  be  to  ignore  the 
prime  importance  of  economic  phenomena  in  social  life  and 
would  be  either  for  the  historian,  or  statesman,  to  condemn  one's 
self  to  a  radical  misunderstanding  of  social  evolution. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  may  repeat  that  a  no  less  danger- 
ous misunderstanding  arises  from  an  exclusive  attention  to  con- 
cealed motives  and  trying  to  explain  everything  by  the  direct 
action  of  economic  causes,  while  rejecting  the  influence  of  the 
ideas  and  sentiments,  and  of  the  political,  moral  or  religious  in- 
fluences on  the  progress  of  events. 

It  is  by  taking  this  false  point  of  view  that  certain  socialists, 
wrongly  calling  themselves  Marxists,  despise  or  even  condemn 
certain  forms  of  activity  which  may  render  valuable  service  to  the 
proletariat. 

Some,  like  C.  Comelissen,  who  is  a  disciple  of  Marx  and 
Bakuni^e  at  the  same  time,  do  not  wish  to  consider  political  ac- 
tion at  all  and  place  all  their  hopes  in  the  autonomous  organiza- 
tion of  the  working  class.* 

Others  profess  the  most  complete  contempt  for  all  moral  ac- 
tion. Under  the  excuse,  for  example,  that  alcoholism  has 
economic  causes,  they  obstinately  refuse  to  do  what  is  possible 
within  the  present  society  to  check  this  scourge.  Others 
finally  see  in  the  struggle  against  the  Church  only  a  simple  de- 
rivative and  declare  that  the  religious  question  must  be  solved  by 
the  social  revolution  and  that  it  is  wholly  useless,  even  hurtful, 
to  occupy  ourselves  with  it  at^  present. 

But  these  various  opinions  which,  as  we  believe,  rest  upon 

(1)  B«er--Die  Verelnlgten  Btaaten  Im  Jabre.  1898.  Neue  Zeit,  1808-1809, 
page  676-708. 

(9)  C.  Cornellflieii — Bn  mardhe  vera  la  »Qoiete  nouvelle, 


460  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

a  theoretical  error,  find  less  and  less  approval  among  the  work- 
ing class. 

Everywhere,  indeed,  and  notably  in  England,  pure  and  sim- 
ple trade  unionism  is  on  the  decline.  The  working  class  see  the 
advantages  which  the  possession  of  the  public  powers  give  to  the 
bourgeoisie  and  strive  to  conquer  those  powers. 

On  the  other  hand,  moral  questions  hitherto  neglected,  now 
appear  upon  the  programmes  of  all  socialist  congresses;  in  Bel- 
gium, in  Switzerland,  in  Austria,  thanks  to  the  work  of  Marx- 
ists, such  as  Otto  Lange  or  Victor  Adler,  the  Socialist  Anti- 
alcohoUc  propaganda  is  beginning  to  pass  beyond  the  stage  of 
wordy  resolutions  and  platonic  affirmations.  Perhaps  the  ob- 
jection will  be  raised  that  our  German  comrades  still  smile,  with 
their  very  large  smile,  when  one  speaks  to  them  of  the  struggle 
against  alcohol;  but  we  might  reply  that  these  same  indulgent 
and  superior  smiles  formerly  welcomed  us  when  we  praised  the 
benefits  of  socialist  co-operation. 

As  to  the  religious  question  we  have  only  to  consider  the 
actual  political  situation  of  Europe  in  order  to  convince  our- 
selves that  the  immense  majority  of  labor  parties  are  inclined  to 
exaggerate  rather  than  underestimate  the  very  real  importance 
of  the  struggle  against  clericalism. 

Moreover,  the  conscious  socialists  will  have  failed  in  their 
most  elementary  duty  if,  by  a  con*tinuous  return  to  tlieir  funda- 
mental prmciples,  they  do  not  utilize  all  their  energ)^  to  retain 
or  to  restore  the  proletariat  to  the  basis  of  the  class  struggle. 

Such  is  primarily  the  practical  import  of  the  celebrated 
declaration  inscribed  in  the  program  of  the  social-democracy  by 
the  congress  at  Erfurt:  "Erklarung  der  Religion  cur  Privat- 
sacks," 

Religion  is  a  private  affair;  that  expresses  the  fact  that  so- 
cialism as  a  political  party  appeals  to  all  laborers  to  struggle 
against  capitalism  without  paying  any  attention  to  the  philo- 
sophical or  religious  opinions  that  they  may  profess;  that  ex- 
presses the  fact  also  that  in  societies  where  antagonisms  of  faiths 
reflects  the  antagonisms  of. material  interests,  the  separation  of 
the  Church  and  the  State  and  tlie  secularization  of  all  public  ser- 
vices appears  to  be  the  only  generally  acceptable  solution.  With 
this  interpretation  and  to  this  degree  we  fully  agree  with  the 
Erfurt  formula.  It  signifies,  taken  as  a  whole,  freedom  of  con- 
science and  independence  of  the  civil  power. 

But  it  is  necessary  to  observe  that  this  formula  contains 
grave  defects;  it  leads  to  equivocations;  it  is  full  of  misunder- 
standings. It  may  be  understood  and  many  have  so  understood 
it  as  limiting  socialism  to  political  and  economic  questions  alone : 
"Let  us  concern  ourselves  with  the  things  of  earth ;  leave  heaven 
to  angels  and  the  monks." 

Those  who  speak  in  tliis  manner  do  not  appreciate  the  pro- 


MARXIAN  IDEALISM.  461 

fouad  reaction  exercised  upon  social  physics  by  religious  meta- 
physics. As  we  have  said,  religions  are  both  cosmologies  and 
sociologies.  Catholicism,  for  example,  does  not  confine  itself 
to  offering  an  explanation  of  the  world.  It  does  not  treat  of 
faith  alone,  but  also  of  morals.  In  the  name  of  a  revelation,  in 
which  the  majority  of  the  wealthy  no  longer  believe,  it  seeks  to 
impose  a  social  morality,  whose  precepts  are  in  direct  antagon- 
ism with  the  temporal  interests  of  the  poor.  The  day  that  this 
double  proof  is  made,  and  the  poor  understand  that  the  rich  do 
not  believe  because  such  belief  is  scientifically  impossible  for 
them,  and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  they  conceal  their  incredulity 
because  they  are  interested  in  the  credulity  of  others,  that  day 
the  hour  of  Catholicism  will  have  sounded.  But  it  must  not  he 
forgotten  that  we  can  only  destroy  when  we  replace.  If  the 
overthrow  of  the  old  faith  is  to  be  complete,  socialism  must  raise 
itself  above  the  ground  of  immediate  concerns. 

It  is  necessary  that  to  that  conception  of  the  Church  which 
embraces  the  entire  man,  socialism  oppose  a  no  less  integral  con- 
ception of  law,  morals,  society  and  of  the  world.  And  to  carry 
such  a  work  to  a  successful  end  no  effort  should  be  spared  to 
cement  that  fruitful  alliance  of  the  thinkers  and  the  proletarians 
which  Marx  announced  in  these  words  in  the  Annates  Franco- 
Prussian  of  1844 :  "The  movement  of  emancipation  has  philoso- 
phy for  its  head,  the  proletariat  for  its  heart.  The  ideal  of 
philosophy  cannot  be  realized  without  the  uplifting  of  the  pro- 
letariat. The  proletariat  cannot  rise  without  the  realization  of 
the  philosophical  ideal.  But  when  all  the  internal  conditions  of 
this  moment  have  been  fulfilled  we  expect  to  announce  the  resur- 
rection of  Germany  by  the  crowing  of  the  Gallic  cock."  Nearly 
sixty  years  have  passed  since  these  lines  were  written.  A  long 
time  was  necessary,  much  longer  than  Marx  thought,  before  his 
prediction  began  to  be  fiulfilled. 

The  19th  century  was  at  the  same  time  the  century  of  the 
workers  and  the  century  of  the  scientists.  But,  even  in  these 
last  years  science  and  democracy  tended  separately  towards  the 
same  end,  like  the  waters  of  those  rivers  which  flow  together 
without  mixing.  Henceforth,  however,  this  union  is  made  or  is 
on  the  point  of  being  made. 

Such  institutions  as  the  Universite  Nouvelle,  the  Universite 
^populaire,  and  the  University  extension  work  form  contacts  and 
facilitate  the  union.  The  scientists  go  to  the  people,  the  people 
go  to  the  scientists.  Little  by  little  the  distrust  disappears.  The 
obstacles  are  being  removed.  Theory  and  practice  are  being 
reconciled.  In  the  dawn  of  the  20th  century  the  Gallic  cock  is 
making  himself  heard.  On  the  other  side  of  the  Rhine  the  work- 
ers are  rising  and  throughout  the  whole  world  mens'  voices  re- 
peat tiie  words  of  Marx:  "Workers  of  the  world,  unite!'* 

Translated  by  A.  M.  Simons.  Emile  Vandervelde. 


A  Study  of  Race  Prejudice. 

THE  skillful  physician,  seeking  to  make  a  cure,  studies  the 
causes  of  the  disease.  The  Socialist  party  of  the  South  is 
up  against  the  problem  of  race  prejudice.  Everything 
which  sheds  light  on  the  morbid  history  of  that  problem 
— that  diseased  condition  of  the  popular  mind — for  which  Social- 
ism must  find  a  solution,  or  remedy,  is  of  value.  I  read  with  in- 
terest the  three  articles  on  the  subject  in  the  November  issue  of 
the  Revibw^  but  it  seemed  to  me  that  there  was  a  very  important 
feature  of  the  case  which  was  not  fully  considered. 

It  would  take  too  much. space  to  sketch  what  the  South  suf- 
fered in  the  Era  of  Reconstruction.  Had  the  spirit  of  forgiveness 
shown  at  Appomattox  ruled  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  there  would 
be  np  race  prejudice  today.  That  is  almost  a  truism  in  the  South. 
But  the  poor,  ignorant,  power-intoxicated  negro,  so  late  a  slave« 
now  empowered  to  legislate  for  his  late  masters,  and  fully  ex- 
ploited by  the  carpet  baggers, 

"Cut  such  fantastic  tricks  before  high  Heaven 
As  made  the  angels  weep.** 

Finally,  the  prostrate  South  was  roused  to  action  and,  by  a 
determined  ^flFort,  accompanied  by  much  bloodshed  and  intimida- 
tion of  the  negro  vote,  threw  off  the  hated  domination  of  the 
Negro  and  the  Carpetbagger.  Her  prosperity  dates  from  that 
hour  of  agonized,  determined  struggle.  Aiding,  morally,  in  the 
supreme  effort  then  made  was  that  quite  a  large  body  of  inrnii- 
grants  from  the  North  who,  to  this  day,  vote  for  Democratic 
State  and  municipal  tickets  and  give  their  suffrages  to  the  Re- 
publican Presidential  ticket.  More  Southern  voters  were  children 
then,  but  they  imbibed  the  bitterness  of  the  hour  from  their  pa- 
rents. 

Today  the  negroes  feel,  as  one  expressed  it  in  a  public  meet- 
ing in  this  city  (Jacksonville,  Fla.),  that  they  have  paid  off  their 
debt  to  the  Republican  party.  Yet  the  Democratic  party,  not 
needing  their  votes,  does  not  woo  them.  It  would,  with  many  a  • 
wry  face,  perhaps,  if  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  do  so.  They 
have,  as  a  race,  almost  retired  from  politicaJ  activity,  here  in 
Florida.  They  gained  nothing  by  that  activity  in  the  days  of 
Reconstruction ;  except  the  increased  ill-will  of  their  former  mas- 
ters. They  dimly  perceive  this  now.  They  were  exploited  by  the 
Republicans  as  the  capitalists  exploit  them  now. 

The  Southerners  seem  to  have,  in  a  large  measure,  forgiven 

488 


A  STUDY  OF  BAC£  PBEJUDICE.  463 

those  carpetbaggers  who  remained  among  them;  but,  it  may  be 
unconsciously,  tiity  still  cherish  animosity  toward  the  poor  in- 
struments of  the  oppression  of  those  days.  Yet  the  haUtual  at- 
titude of  the  better  class  of  Southern  men  toward  the  negro  is 
indulgent— except  in  politics.  It  is  human  nature  to  be  unfor- 
giving to  those  who  have  been  made  use  of  to  our  injury  while 
condoning  the  oflEense  of  the  real  injurer. 

My  friend.  Dr.  Cuzner,  speaks  of  the  degeneracy  of  the  ne- 
gro. Said  a  former  slave  to  me,  one  day,  while  watching  a  gang 
of  n^roes  I  was  overseeing,  "This  younger  generation  of  negroes 
is  thoroughly  bad,  they  throng  the  police  courts.  You  very  sel- 
dom hear  of  an  old  slave  being  arrested.  The  negro  was  better  off 
under  slavery.  It  wasn't  for  his  benefit,  anyhow,  that  he  was  set 
free.  The  negro  would  not  be  a  menace  to  good  order  at  any  . 
time,  except  by  petty  offenses,  if  white  men  would  leave  him 
alone.  "When  you  hear  of  negroes  rioting,  you'll  find  some  white 
inan  egging  them  on  if  you  look  deep  enough.  Why,  do  you  sup- 
pose these  black  men  would  follow  me  if  I  tried  to  lead  them  into 
some  devilment?  Not  for  a  minute.  They'd  say,  *G'way  from 
here,  nigger.'  They  won't  even  deal  at  stores  kept  by  men  of  their 
race,  if  Uiere  is  one  kept  by  a  white  man  almost  as  near.  And 
white  men  can  lead  'em  every  time." 

Here  is  the  opinion  of  a  tolerably  well  educated  ex-slave  on 
his  own  race.  Rather  pessimistic,  but  based  on  a  closer  view  than 
a  white  man  can  get  Here  are  exposed  to  view  the  roots  of  that 
contempt  which,  grafted  into  hereditary  hatred,  produces  that 
foul  growth  race  prejudice.  A  man  of  full  moral  status  should 
be  able  to  hold  his  head  well  above  the  reach  of  either.  Yet  men  . 
of  Northern  birth  will  express  race  prejudice,  unconscious  of  the 
source  of  the  infection. 

Other  elements,  such  as  labor  competition,  etc.,  have  weight, 
but  my  observation,  confirmed  by  that  of  others,  inclines  me  to 
the  view  here  expressed. 

There  should  be  no  difficulty  in  organizing  negro  locals,  and 
he  will  work  best  in  organizations  of  his  own;  despite  his  ten- 
dency to  follow  white  leadership.  He  has  a  turn  for  organization, 
as  his  many  benevolent  societies  ("The  Seven  Stars  of  Consolida- 
tion," "Heroines  of  Jericho,"  "Knights  of  Archery,"  and  others 
of  outlandish  name)  show.  Probably  a  love  for  regalia  and  rit- 
ual have  much  to  do  with  this.  Colored  workingmen  seem  to  be 
easily  united  in  trades  unions  of  their  own  color  and  are,  appar- 
ently, as  loyal  to  their  unions  as  their  white  brethren. 

But  they  are  not  to  be  moved  by  the  same  arguments,  in  the 
same  degree  as  the  whites,  it  seems  to  me.  It  takes  so  little 
wealth  to  satisfy  the  average  Southern  negro.  He  is  easily  con- 
tented   But  he  feels  his  poUtical  isolation  strongly  and  could  with 


464  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

little  dfficulty  be  won  over  to  join  the  Socialist  party  if  he  could 
be  made  to  feel  that  the  party  did  not  aim  at  his  political  exploita- 
tion, merely  to  desert  him  in  the  end,  as  he  claims  the  Republican 
party  has  done.  This  indicates  the  direction  his  education  in  So* 
cialism  must  takfe  when  it  is  begun.  Once  he  understands  the 
mission  of  the  party,  the  ends  and  purposes  of  the  movement,  he 
will  lose  this  childish  distrust,  of  course. 

The  negro  is  conscious  enough  of  race  antagonism — he  is 
constantly  meeting  with  it.  It  is  more  difficult  to  arouse  him  to 
the  feeling  that  he  and  the  white  workingman  have  one  common 
interest  and  that  great  enough  to  swallow  up  any  other  based  on 
race  or  color,  if  all  workers  would  but  study  the  actual  relations 
in  which  they  stand  to  the  employing  class. 

More  might  be  said  of  the  characteristics  of  the  negro,  his 
emotional  nature,  his  slim  powers  of  reasoning,  his  imitativeness, 
his  childlikeness  (speaking  of  the  race  and  not  of  individuals), 
but  this  is  a  study  of  the  mental  attitude  of  the  average  white 
man  toward  him,  not  of  his  race. 

Once  the  Southerner  becomes  a  thoroughly  class-conscious 
Socialist  his  race  prejudice  drops  from  him.  He  perceives  in  his 
black  brother  another  victim  of  capitalist  exploitation;  one  who 
has  a  common  interest  with  him  in  the  struggle  for  the  supremacy 
of  the  working  class  and  that  to  leave  him  out  in  the  cold  would 
be  an  act  of  supreme  folly ;  nay,  will  be  impossible  when  the  day 
for  the  reconstruction  of  society  on  a  basis  of  true  civilization 
comes.  Some  favor  the  segregation  of  the  black  race,  but  they 
will  see  in  time  that  the  proposition  is  impracticable  and  illogical. 

But  race  prejudice  must  be  counted  on  in  trying  to  extend  the 
Socialist  propaganda  among  those  whites  who  are  not  yet 
fully  class-conscious,  and  especially  among  those  ignorant  ones 
Comrade  Debs  describes,  when  it  is  made  plain  to  thein  that 
Socialism  knows  no  racial  limitations. 

The  conviction  here  expressed,  that  the  feeling  engendered 
by  Reconstruction  has  much  more  to  do  with  race  prejudice  than 
the  mere  fact  that  the  negro  was  once  a  chattel,  has  forced  itself 
on  my  mind  during  some  years  of  residence  in  the  far  South. 
To  fully  appreciate  the  intensity  of  the  resentment  felt  by  the 
exploited  whites  in  that  period,  one  must  live  in  the  South  awhile 
and  talk  over  those  dark  days  with  white  men  who  suffered  and 
who  took  part  in  the  final  overthrow  of  negro  domination.  And 
some  pf  these,  to  do  them  justice,  recognize  that  the  negro  tools 
of  the  carpetbaggers  were  victims,  in  that  day,  of  the  ambition 
and  greed  of  the  men  who  used  them,  as  they  are  today  of  their 
their  employers  and  the  many  usurers  who  fatten  off  them. 

How  to  overcome  this  race  prejudice  is  a  problem  to  which  I 


A  STtJBY  OF  BACE  PBEJTJDICB.  465 

am  not  prepared  to  offer  a  solution.  There  seems  to  be  no  neces- 
sity of  forcing  an  issue.  It  will  come  soon  enough,  and  then  our 
speakers  must  be  prepared  to  meet  it  and  meet  it  frankly  and 
courageously.  My  object  in  this  paper  is  merely  to  present  the 
situation  as  clearly  as  I  am  able  as  it  appears  to  a  dispassionate 
observer,  and  to  offer  some  considerations  to  those  who  are  bet- 
ter able  to  think  out  a  solution.  Oscar  Edgar. 


""{ 


The  Backwardness  of  Socialism  in  Australia. 

AN  active,  vigorous  and  intelligent  proletariat  is  the  first 
requisite  for  a  socialist  movement.  Such  a  class  does  not 
as  yet  exist  in  Australia,  The  reason  why  all  move- 
ments here  have  been  simply  reform  movements  can 
thus  be  readily  understood.  Economic  conditions  were  not  ripe 
for  the  formation  of  a  class-conscious  revolutionary  party  and  it 
may  even  now  be  doubted  whether  industrial  development  is 
sufficiently  advanced  for  the  successful  formation  of  an 
avowedly  socialist  political  party. 

I  have  thought  it  necessary  for  the  thorough  imderstanding 
of  the  position  taken  up,  that  a  sketch  of  the  economic  develop- 
ment of  Australia  be  given. 

Australia  was  first  settled  in  1788  as  a  penal  settlement. 
This  early  settlement  is  perhaps  as  good  an  example  of  state- 
socialism  as  history  affords.  Coghlan  &  Ewing  in  their  book 
"The  Prop^ess  of  Australasia  in  the  Century,"  p.  310,  say: 
"The  spirit  of  the  Government  was  that  of  paternal  interfer- 
ence in  every  concern  of  social  life.  For  the  individual,  es- 
pecially the  laborer,  everything  was  regulated.  The  Governor 
fixed  the  price  and  determined  the  quality  of  the  provisions 
consumed  in  the  settlement;  he  made  grants  of  land,  and,  in 
order  to  beautify  his  metropolis,  required  those  who  received 
grants  within  its  boundaries  to  build  substantial  and  handsome 
houses  thereon;  he  erected  markets,  and  framed  by-laws  for 
their  governance;  he  served  out  lands,  cattle  and  provisions  to 
his  subjects  like  a  tradesman  purveying  general  merchandise." 
The  convicts  suM)lied  the  labor;  they  raised  the  crops,  formed 
the  roads,  built  the  dwellings  and  in  return  received  their  food 
and  the  lash.  Free  immigrants  were  at  first  discouraged  from 
settling  in  the  colony.  The  Government  was  thus  the  sole  em- 
ployer of  labor.  Very  soon,  however,  some  of  the  military  of- 
ficers sought  labor  and  they  were  supplied  with  a  number  of 
prisoners  (the  Government  carrying  their  paternalism  so  far 
as  to  provide  these  laborers  with  food  and  clothing).  When  the 
sentences  of  some  of  the  convicts  expired  there  existed  a  class 
of  free  laborers  whose  numbers  were  augmented  by  retired  sol- 
diers and  a  few  free  immigrants  who  fotmd  their  way  to  the 
colony.  To  provide  regulations  for  this  class  a  set  of  rules  as 
stringent  as  the  English  Statute  of  Laborers  was  adopted.  The 
governors  for  some  time  did  not  consider  persons  possessing 
less  than  £250  eligible  for  grants  of  land.  When  this  disqualifi- 
cation was  removed  most  of  the  free  laborers  then  obtained 

466 


SOOlAliISM  IN  AUSTBALIA.  4tr 

grants  of  land  and  a  cry  arose  for  additional  labor.  To  meet 
this  cry  in  183 1  a  minimum  price  of  5  shillings  an  acre  was 
charged  for  the  land  and  the  money  thus  raised  was  exclusively 
devoted  to  the  purpose  of  supplying  cheap  free  labor  by  means 
of  immigration.  The  convicts  still  continued  to  be  farmed  out 
but  the  settlers  complained  of  the  inefficiency  of  this  bond  labor. 
The  system  of  state-aided  immigration  was  not  successful  in 
supplying  free  labor,  as  the  cheapness  of  land  defeated  its  pur- 
pose. A. colonist  named  Wakefield,  in  a  book  published  in 
1829,  complains  bitterly  of  the  hardships  of  the  man  of  leisure 
in  &e  colonies.  "You  cannot  long  have  free  servants  in  this 
country,"  he  writes,  "for,  if  a  free  man  arrives  in  the  colony, 
though  he  may  for  a  short  time  work  for  you  as  a  servant,  yet 
he  is  sure  to  save  a  little  money,  and  as  land  is  here  so  exces- 
sively cheap,  he  at  once  becomes  a  landed  proprietor.  Thus, 
the  colony  is  an  excellent  place  for  the  poor  man,  but  it  is  a 
wretched  abode  for  the  man  of  means  and  culture"  (because 
of  the  impossibility  of  living  by  exploitation).  Wakefield  pro- 
posed to  found  in  Australia  another  colony  which  should  be  bet- 
ter adapted  "to  those  who  had  fortunes  sufficient  to  maintain 
them  and  yet  desired  to  emigrate.  His  scheme  for  effecting 
this  comprised  the  fbdng  of  a  high  price  for  the  land.  South 
Australia  was  founded  under  this  scheme;  there  the  price  of 
land  was  fixed  at  £1  an  acre.  This  scheme,  of  course,  ended 
in  dismal  failure;  but  the  advocates  of  the  Wakefield  scheme 
were  powerful  enough  in  1843  to  have  the  price  of  land  through- 
out Australia  raised  to  £1  an  acre. 

The  system  of  state-aided  immigration  was  recklessly  pur- 
sued but  the  squatters  and  the  farmers  were  unable  to  provide 
work  for  all  the  labor  thus  procured.  The  raising  of  the  price 
of  land  and  the  oversupply  of  cheap  labor  made  the  farmer 
and  the  squatter  economically  the  predominant  factor.  Gwi- 
ditions  now  existed  which  were  creating  a  class  of  wage-work- 
ers who  were  entirely  dependent  on  the  squatter  and  the  farmer 
for  a  livelihood.  The  lot  of  the  worker  was  becoming  so  bad 
that  time-expired  convicts  were  paying  their  own  passage  to 
England  at  the  same  time  that  free  laborers  were  being  helped 
here.  As  yet,  however,  there  was  but  little  industrial  develop- 
ment. Sheep  and  cattle-breeding,  farming  and  timber-getting 
were  the  mam  occupations.  In  1848,  the  industrial  class  num- 
bered altogether  1,800  hands;  there  were  479  industrial  estab- 
lishments, of  which  223  were  flour  mills,  62  tanneries  and  51 
breweries. 

The  discovery  of  gold  at  Bathurst  and  Ballarat  in  1851  post- 
poned for  a  while  the  economic  dependence  of  the  Australian 
worker.    Marvelous  tales  of   rich   finds   of   gold   reached  the  J 
coastal  settlem^ts;  everyone  who  could,  set  out  with  the  ideajj 


468  THE  INTBBNATIONAL  SOGULIST  BBVIBW. 

of  making  his  fortune.  Every  branch  of  industry  quickly  be- 
came undermanned  and  some  industries  had  to  be  altogether 
abandoned.  Wages  increased  enormously  but  even  then  work- 
men could  not  be  found.  The  wages  in  shilliags  for  a  few 
trades  are  given  just  prior  to  the  gold-rush  and  when  it  was 
at  its  height.* 

1831,  1854, 

Bricklayers   6s.  od.        25s.  to  30s. 

Blacksmiths    6s.  8d.        20s.  to  25s. 

Carpenters    6s.  5d.         15s.  to  20s. 

Stovemakers 6s.  od.         14s.  to  22s. 

The  squatters  became  so  alarmed  at  the  scarcity  of  labor 
that  they  asked  the  Government  to  proclaim  martial  law  and  to 
prohibit  all  gold-digging  in  order  that  the  industrial  pursuits 
of  the  country  should  not  be  interfered  with.  As  a  partial  con- 
cession to  the  squatters  a  license  fee  of  30  shillings  a  month  was 
required  from  a  person  before  he  was  allowed  to  seek  for  gold. 
The  economic  center  of  gravity,  however,  had  now  shifted.  In 
1853,  £4,500,000  of  gold  was  obtained  and  the  gold-diggers 
held  the  key  of  the  situation.  The  "squatocracy"  of  Victoria 
failed  to  realize  this  and  at  the  instigation  of  this  class  the  dig- 
gers' fee  in  that  state  was  raised  to  £3  a  month.  The  opposition 
to  the  imposition  of  this  fee  was  so  violent  that  a  return  was 
quickly  made  to  the  original  sum.  Even  this  in  turn  was,  after 
the  Eureka  stockade,  abolished  and  a  yearly  fee  of  20  shillings 
charged  for  a  miner's  right. 

This  epoch  was  a  very  important  one  in  the  history  of  Aus- 
tralia and  it  has  had  lasting  effects  on  the  Australian  workman. 
In  1 861  the  land  laws  were  altered  so  as  to  allow  the  free  se- 
lection of  land  and  a  system  of  deferred  payments  was  intro- 
duced. This  period  of  gold-rushes  fostered  a  spirit  of  independ- 
ence amongst  the  miners  for,  as  most  of  the  gold  was  alluvial  or 
obtained  at  a  slight  depth  below  the  surface,  this  class  was  not 
dependent  on  the  caprices  of  a  capitalist  class.  During  this 
period  the  workers  were  enabled  to  obtain  a  larger  number  of 
the  comforts  of  life  than  formerly  fell  to  their  lot.  This  fact 
has  had  a  permanent  effect  in  raising  the  standard  of  living  of  the 
workers. 

The  tales  of  fabulous  riches  to  be  acquired  with  little  exer- 
tion brought  a  great  influx  of  population  to  Australia.     Num- 
bers of  these  persons,  unable  to  endure  the  hardships  of  a  dig-  / 
ger's  life,  returned  to  the  coastal  towns  and  in    1858    large ''^ 
numbers  of  unemployed  existed  both  in  Melbourne  and  Sydney. 
Although  the  land-laws  were  altered  with  the  avowed  purpose 

•These  flgnres  are  taken  from  "The  Progreas  of  Anstralaala  In  the  Century," 
IV.  867. 


SOCIALISM  IN  AUSTRALIA.  469 

of  giving  facilities  for  all  persons  to  go  on  the  land,  it  affected 
the  unemployed  but  little.  A  series  of  bad  seasons  followed  the 
aheration  of  the  land-laws  and  made  it  impossible  for  the  non- 
capitalist  farmer  to  succeed.  Floods  and  droughts,  alternated 
with  vexatious  regularity  during  this  period.  The  flocks  and 
herds  of  the  squatters  were  visited  with  disease.  Wages  fell 
with  a  jump.  In  1864,  carpenters'  wages  ranged  from  8s.  to  9s ; 
smiths',  wheelwrights'  and  bricklayers'  from  9s.  to  los.  and  ma- 
sons were  paid  los. 
/"  Railway  communication  proceeded  very  slowly;  only  1,135 
miles  were  open  for  traffic  in  1871.  This  was  due,  in  part,  to 
the  difficulty  ihe  colonial  treasurers  had  in  obtaining  money  and 
also  to  the  fact  that  the  initial  cost  of  construction  was  very 
great  owing  to  the  coastal  range  having  to  be  crossed.  This 
latter  fact  explains  why  private  companies  were  not  anxious  to 
build  railways. 

In  1872  there  was  a  revival  in  mining;  communication  was 
being  extended  by  means  of  railways,  bridges  and  roads.  Agri- 
culture expanded  and  cattle  and  sheep  breeding  prospered.  All 
the  available  labor  was  employed;  the  unemployed  disappeared 
and  wages  rose  while  provisions  remained  cheap,  A  vigorous 
immigration  policy  was  pursued  in  order  to  keep  the  labor  mar- 
ket supplied  with  material.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  carpen- 
ters' wages  rose  to  lis.,  bricklayers'  to  12s.  6d.,  stone-masons'  to 
IIS.  6d.  and  laborers'  and  navies'  to  8s.  The  public  works  j 
absorbed  a  large  amouiA  of  labor  and  in  1885  New  South_Wal^s  ^'^ 
alone  spent  £5,242,807  on  public  works.  An  extensive  system 
of  public  borrowing  grew  up  and  was  necessitated  by  the  fact 
that  the  states  reserved  to  themselves  the  right  to  construct  rail- 
ways and  similar  undertakings.  Private  enterprise  was  not,  at 
that  time,  anxious  to  construct  railways  as  immediate  profits 
were  unlikely.  The  state  imdertook  the  work  and  as  a  result 
the  public  debt  of  Australia  increased  from  £30,139,880  in  1871 
to  £155,177,773  in  1891.  The  interest  on  this  amount  seems  a 
fairly  high  figure  to  pay  for  this  measure  of  state  socialism. 
A  great  boom  was  on;  everything  bore  an  inflated  value. 
Speculation  was  rife  and  the  gambling  spirit  vainly  imagined  it 
was  creating  wealth. 

From  1886  the  tide  began  to  turn;  the  unemployed  again 
made  themselves  prominent  and  wages  began  to  fall.  The 
change  was  gradual  but  certain ;  public  borrowing  ceased.  Pub- 
lic works  were  stopped  and  in  1891  there  was  a  great  decline 
in  the  wages  of  unskilled  labor.  In  1893  the  inevitable  crisis 
occurred  and  an  all  round  fall  in  wages  was  the  result.  In 
189s,  another  drop  in  wages  took  place;  the  skilled  workman 
receiving  22  per  cent  less  than  the  wages  of  1892  and  unskilled 
labor  \'j\  per  cent  less. 

When  wages  began  to  fall  in  1886,  the  trades-unions  made 


470  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIEW. 

vigorous  efforts  to  arrest  this  tendency.  The  Newcastle  miners 
struck  in  1886  and  1887;  the  year  1890  is  memorable  as  the 
year  of  the  great  shearers*  strike  and  the  seamen's  strike,  while 
the  miners  of  Broken  Hill  were  engaged  in  industrial  warfare 
in  1892.  The  failure  of  these  strikes  taught  the  workers  that, 
no  matter  how  well  organized  labor  is,  it  is  powerless  against 
organized  capital.  The  recognition  of  this  fact  led  to  the  form- 
ation of  a  parliamentary  labor  party  who  should  aim  at  secur- 
ing for  the  wage-earner  a  better  return  for  his  labor. '  In  New 
South  Wales  the  Labor  Party  contested  the  elections  of  1891 
and  obtained  35  seats,  v  Their  manifesto  contained  electoraL  re-^ 
form,  a  land  tax,  an  eight-hour  day,  a  factory  act  and  other  simi- 
lar demands.  Labor  then  entered  an  era  of  "^'practical  polities'' ; 
socialism  was  rigidly  excluded  from  the  platform  and  the  move- 
ment was  thus  rendered  meaningless.  It  was  eminently  a  class- 
movement  but  any  class-condousness  which  existed  then  has 
been  successfully  stifled  by  the  leaders.  In  Queensland,  how- 
ever, about  the  same  time,  originated  a  movement  which  was 
both  revolutionary  and  class-conscious.  It  was  built  up  dhiefly 
on  sentimentalism  and  depended  very  little  on  economic  knowl- 
edge. The  reorganization  of  society  was  to  be  commenced  at 
\  once  and  pursued  uninterruptedly  until  social  justice  is  fully  se- 
)  cured  to  each  and  every  citizen.  It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered 
at  that  a  Labor  Party,  which  was  called  into  being  by  the  senti- 
mentalism of  the  early  nineties,  and  was  led  by  men  entirely  ig- 
norant of  the  nature  of  the  capitalist  state,  should  have  grad- 
ually degenerated  into  a  mere  reform  party  whose  main  desire 
is  to  attain  office.  In  th^  July  number  of  The  Social-Demo- 
crat of  London  Comrade  Eyre  deals  more  fully  with  the  labor 
movements  of  Australia  and  clearly  points  out  their  utter  fu- 
tility. 
-  The  reason  for  these  failures  is,  without  a  doubt,  the  absence 
^^i  a  large  industrial  proletariat.  In  1895  there  were  but  8,247 
manufacturing  establishments  with  133,631  hands.  Since  then 
more  attention  has  been  given  to  manufacture  and  in  1901  there 
were  10,559  manufacturing  establishments  with  193,037  hands. 
The  following  figures  (taken  from  Coghlan's  "Seven  Colo- 
nies of  Australasia")  will  give  some  idea  of  the  state  of  econom- 
ic development  existing  here  in  1901,  The  figures  here  given, 
as  elsewhere  in  this  article,  are  exclusive  of  New  Zealand : 
Class  of  Industry —  Amount  of  Production. 

Agriculture ^£23,835,000 

Pastoral  27,150,000 

Dairying,  poultry  raising  and  bee  farming 9,740,000 

Mining 22,016,000 

Forestry  and   fisheries 2,772/xx> 

Manufactories 27,191,000 

Total  production , iii2,yo^fx^ 


SOCIALISM  IN  AUSTBAUA.  471 

Although  Victoria  was  the  first  state  to  display  activity  in 
manufacture,  New  South  Wales  has,  of  late  years,  made  the  most 
progress  in  this  direction.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  during  the 
ten  years  (1891-1901)  in  New  South  Wales  labor's  share  in  the 
value  added  during  the  process  of  manufacture  has  decreased 
from  52  per  cent  to  49  per  cent.  In  that  state  there  has  been  an 
increase  of  69.05  per  cent  in  the  value  of  the  material  used;  in 
the  value  of  tiie  fuel  15.08  per  cent;  in  the  value  of  wages  15.69 
per  cent  and  in  the  value  added  during  the  process  of  manufac- 
ture there  has  been  an  increase  of  22.9  per  cent.  The  value  of 
profits,  interests  and  rents  has  thus  increased  30.7  per  cent.  The 
exact  figures  as  given  by  Coghlan  may  prove  interesting. 

1891.  IpOJ. 

Value  of  materials  treated £  8,172,383  £13,815,000 

Value  of  fuel  used 43i»543  496,615 

Value  of  wages  paid . ., 4,272,704  4,943,079 

Value  of  total  output 1  16,807,132  24,393471 

Value  added  during  process  of  manu- 
facture     , 8,203,206  io,o8i',756 

From  this  it  can  be  seen  that  capital's  share  increased  from 
^3»930»S02  in  1891  to  £5*138,677  in  1901. 

These  figures  point  to  a  development  in  the  manufactures  of 
New  South  Wales  which  is  due  to  the  more  extensive  use  of  ma- 
chinery and  the  employment  of  machinery  of  a  better  class. 

The  figures  for  Australia  as  a  whole  are  given  for  1901,  al- 
though the  data  appears  to  be  insufficient. 

Materials  treated , £35,888,000 

Fuel  used 1,177,000 

Wages  paid 14,706,000 

Profits,  rent,  insurance,  etc 12485,000 

Total  value. £64,256,000 

This  would  give  the  rate  of  surplus  value  for  Australia  as  a 
whole  at  85  per  cent,  but  it  is  very  probable  that  a  great  increase 
will  take  place  shortly.  The  inter-state  tariffs  have  had  something 
to  do  with  hampering  the  extension  of  manufacture.  The  advent 
of  federation  has  broken  down  these  barriers  and  manufacturing 
firms  are  beginning  to  concentrate  in  the  most  suitable  places. 

The  division  of  the  bread-winners  of  Australia  into  the  three 
classes  of  employers,  those  engaged  on  their  own  account  and 
other  workers  (i.  e.,  employes)  is  instructive. 


472  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

Tlie  following  figures  refer  to  the  year  1891  (the  figures  for 
1901  on  this  point  not  being  obtainable).  These  figures  are  ex- 
clusive of  Queensland: 

.  Class —  Male.        Female.     Total. 

Employers  1 16,205  •       7,283     123488 

Engaged  on  their  own  account 127,929  .    32,698     160,627 

Other  workers 1 693,124  - 183,568    876,692 

Of  late  years  the  great  mad  rush  for  wealtli  has  abandoned 
the  speculative  mania  for  the  moi^t  steady  and  certain  method  of 
developing  the  resources  of  the  country.  Australia  can  already 
boast  of  big  undertakings.  The  Coolgardie  Water  Supply  Scheme 
is  one  of  the  largest  ventures  of  its  kind.  Water  is  brought  to 
Coolgardie  from  a  reservoir  on  tlie  Helena  River  (325  miles  dis- 
tant) and  a  daily  supply  of  5,000,000  gallons  of  fresh  water  is  in- 
sured; Schemes  of  a  similar  nature  are  necessities  in  a  dry  and 
riverlcss  territory  like  the  interior  of  Australia.  Colossal  pumps 
with  a  capacity  of  1 14,000  gallons  per  hour  are  now  manufactured 
in  Melbourne.  There  were  1,263  Ferrier's  lever  wool-presses 
made  and  disposed  of  in  Australia  during  1901.  Worthington 
pumps,  new  dry  air  ammonia  refrigerating  machinery  and  patent 
steel  windmills  are  now  being  manufactured  locally. 

The  opening  up  of  the  coal  and  iron  deposits  of  Australia  will 
.^ive  a  great  impetus  to  local  manufacture.  For  some  time  past  it 
lias  been  known  that  workable  iron  ore  in  large  quantities  exists 
in  close  proximity  to  coal  deposits.  It  has  been  alleged  that  pig- 
iron  can  be  produced  much  more  cheaply  here  than  in  America 
or  England.  Federal  legislation  is  intending  to  aid  the  develop- 
ment of  the  iron  industry  either  by  granting  bonuses  to  private 
producers  or  by  encouraging  the  states  to  work  them  on  their  own 
initiative.  Attempts  are  also  being  made  to  introduce  the  manu- 
facture of  rubber  and  the  growing  of  cotton  into  Queensland. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  tliat  the  near  future  holds  great  possibili- 
ties of  rapid  economic  development.  Tliese  changes  will  be  the 
means  of  forming  a  proletariat  who  will  become  the  backbone  of 
the  Australian  revolutionary  movement 

The  waste  of  competition  has  already  been  recognized  and  the 
effects  of  this  evil  have  been  minimized  by  combination  and  con- 
centration. The  coastal  steamship  companies  have  entered  into 
an  agreement  not  to  cut  the  fares  and  freights.  The  Traders' 
Association  of  Brisbane  are  making  an  effort  to  prevent  traders 
from  selling  below  cost  price.  The  timber  merchants  are  com- 
bining to  regulate  the  price  of  timber. 

The  process  of  concentration  is  noticeable  in  Queensland  sugar 
mills : 


SOOIAIISM  m  AUBTKAUA. 


4T8 


Tear. 

Nombef  of 
MUm. 

Tons  of  Socar 
prodoMMf. 

Gallons  of  Molas- 

1884-1S85 

166 

32,010 

804,613 

1885-1886 

166 

59,225 

1,784,266 

1886-1887 

100 

56,859 

1,510,308 

1899-1900 

58 

123,289 

3,092,571 

1900-1901 

58 

92,554 

3,534,832 

1901-1902 

52 

120,858 

3,679,952 

(These  figures  are  taken  from  the  Year  Book  of  Australia, 
1903;  the  sugar  season  begins  about  July.*)  The  meat  industry 
also  would  seem  to  have  eliminated  competition  from  the  trade. 
The  Queensland  Meat  Export  &  Agency  Company,  Limited,  dur- 
ing the  year  ending  30th  November,  1902,  made  a  net  profit  of 
£60425  on  a  paid-up  capital  of  £109,519. 

Hitherto  the  strength  of  the  labor  movement  in  Australia  has 
been  drawn  from  the  pastoral  workers  and  the  miners.  From  this 
latter  class  no  support  of  revolutionary  socialism  can  yet  be  ex- 
pected. The  existence  of  alluvial  deposits  of  easily  workable  reefs 
give  the  gold  digger  a  sort  of  semi-independence.  His  chief  de- 
sire is  to  obtain  the  right  to  mine  on  private  pr<q)erty.  Shallow 
reefs  and  alluvial  deposits  are  beginning  to  disappear  and  the 
miners,  like  the  other  classes,  are  now  being  forced  into  the  posi- 
tion of  economic  dependents.  In  order  to  ensure  employment  for 
his  class,  he  is  demanding  that  the  partial  closing  down  of  mines, 
under  the  exemption  clauses  of  the  mining  acts,  be  reduced  to  a 
minimum.  (A  certain  number  of  men  must  be  employed  by  the 
holder  of  a  mining  lease ;  the  number  varies  according  to  the  ex- 
tent of  the  lease.  It  is,  however,  very  easy  to  obtain  exemption 
from  these  labor  conditions.) 

The  shearer,  who,  being  confined  to  the  interior,  is  denied  the 
few  attractions  of  his  town  brothers,  is  demanding  better  accom- 
modation while  shearing  and  a  little  extra  pay.  The  shop  assist- 
ants are  anxious  for  a  shorter  working  day.  The  laborers  in  our 
sugar  districts,  dreading  vmemployment,  are  anxious  to  prevent 
the  employment  of  colored  labor.  Each  section  has  some  one  "im- 
mediate demand"  in  which  the  other  sections  are  not  directly  in- 
terested. Compulsory  conciliation  and  arbitration — ^the  most 
short-sighted  demand  of  all — receives  the  support  of  all  sections, 
and  there  is  every  reason  to  imagine  that  it  will  be  granted  by 
the  next  Federal  parliament  as  well  as  by  the  individual  states  who 
have  not  yet  granted  it.  Nowhere  is  there  an  earnest  demand  for  a 
real  change  of  conditions.'  We  Ang:lo-Saxons  are  too  wise  for 
that;  we  must  have  something  practical.  As  a  result  of  this  the 
Queensland  labor  platform  has  been  modified  into  a  contrivance 

*The  sugar  year  thus  starts  lo  July  and  ends  In  the  following  June. 


474  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

for  catching  votes  quickly^  The  Labor  Party,  now  allied  with  a 
number  of  farmers'  representatives,  are  showing  great  anxiety  to 
erect  storage  sheds  for  wheat  and  to  buy  surplus  products  (as 
cape-gooseberries  and  pineapples)  and  to  find  a  market  for  them. 
Some  of  our  friends  see  in  these  measures  a  great  victory  for 
socialism. 

Labor  members  of  parliament,  who,  in  the  early  years  of  the 
movement,  thought  it  necessary  to  devote  themselves  largely  to 
propaganda  work,  have  now  become  too  respectable  to  perform 
the  duties  of  an  agitator.  They  are  not  now  a  propagandist  party 
(a  direct  result  of  the  mania  for  practical  politics),  but  are  a 
mere  political  party  whose  avowed  object  is  to  get  into  power. 
Such  an  object  has  of  course  naturally  led  to  compromise  and  a 
sacrifice  of  principles.  Indeed,  the  guiding  principle  of  most  of 
them  is  looking  after  their  own  interests.  The  real  object  of  the 
world-wide  labor  movement  is  never  alluded  to  except  in  obscure 
places  and  in  vague  terms. 

Within  the  last  few  years  there  have  sprung  up  in  all  the  state 
}  capitals  (except  Tasmania)  socialist  parties  who  have  endeavored 
!  to  permeate  the  Labor  Party  with  socialistic  ideals.  With  the  ex- 
j  ception  of  the  two  Sydney  organizations,  these  organizations  are  . 
!  essentially  Fabian  and  are  founded  chiefly  on  sentimentalism.  > 
They  are  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  idea  of  gradually  extending 
the  coUectivist  pridple. 

The  idea  seeins  tohe  prevalent  that,  with  the  aid  of  legislation, 
economic  development  can  be  so  guided  and  directed  that  the  mis- 
ery and  suffering  attendant  on  intense  development  will  be  avoid- 
ed. A  large  amount  of  time  and  energy  is  wasted  in  trying  to 
hamper  and  restrict  economic  development*  Utopianism  exists  to 
a  large  extent  and  a  great  deal  of  faith  is  placed  on  co-operative 
colonies. 

Hitherto,  then,  the  nature  of  the  class-warfare  has  been  ob- 
scured both  by  the  lack  of  economic  development  and  by  the  la- 
bor movement  itself.  The  prevalence  of  floods  and  droughts  has 
also  done  much  in  this  direction.  The  sight  of  the  bleached  bones 
of  cattle  and  sheep  done  to  death  by  the  parched  and  arid  state 
of  tlie  coimtry  has  led  the  worker  to  imagine  that  he  was  engaged 
in  a  struggle  with  nature. 

The  nature  of  the  class-struggle  is,  however,  being  more  clear- 
ly seen  and  signs  are  not  wanting  that  Australia  will  shortly  add  a 
strong  and  powerful  phalanx  to  the  international  armv  who  are 
marching  to  world-conquest. 

Andrew  M.  Anderson. 


'*Thc  American  Farmer."* 

BUILDERS  need  building  material,  and  it  is  certainly  a 
socially-useful  occupation  to  make  bricks,  shape  stones, 
prepare  mortar,  etc.,  etc.  But  the  work  of  ^he  architect, 
who  combines  the  bricks,  stones,  etc.,  into  the  shape  of 
a  noble  edifice,  is  of  a  higher  degree  of  social  usefulness  than 
mere  brick  making,  stone  cutting,  etc. 

In  the  dominion  of  thought  and  knowledge  there  are  hosts 
of  useful  workers  who  diligently  engage  themselves  in  ascertain- 
ing, collecting,  stating  and  classifying  facts,  observing  phenomena, 
experimenting — in  short,  in  preparing  the  building  material,  the 
bricks,  stones  and  mortar  for  the  noble  edifice  of  Philosophy  and 
Science. 

Now  and  then  a  thinker  and  scientist  with  an  architectonic 
mind  rearranges,  shifts  and  recombines  the  raw  materials  of 
thought  and  knowledge  of  his  age  into  a  great  system,  into  a 
grand  artistic  whole  and  creates  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
development  of  the  human  mind. 

Ordinary  workers  in  the  field  of  science,  as  a  rule,  are  apt  to 
short-sightedness,  to  exaggeration  of  the  importance  of  some 
small  special  branch  of  knowledge  and  to  undervaluation  of  gen- 
eral, broad  and  deep,  truly  philosophic  conceptions. 

Thinkers  and  scientists  of  the  architectonic  mind-type  usually 
meet  with  the  most  violent  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  ordinary 
workers  of  professional  science.  It  takes  a  long  time  till  the 
broad  generalizations  of  a  master-mind  are  accepted  by  the  rank 
and  file  of  professional  scientists  and  the  general  public.  How- 
ever, the  struggle  against  the  acceptance  and  recognition  ot  a 
grand  idea  is  preferable  to  its  misconception  and  dogmatization 
by  uncritical  minds  of  adherers. 

Rodbertus,  Marx  and  Lassalle  were  the  architectonic  master- 
minds who  shifted,  rearranged  and  recombined  the  raw  materials 
of  social-economic  thought  and  knowledge  of  their  age  into  a 
great  system  of  constructive  and  critical  modem  Socialism,  into 
a  grand  philosophy  of  human  life,  and  created  an  epoch  in  the  his- 
tory of  tfie  development  of  the  human  mind.  The  ideas  and  ideals 
of  these  master-minds  met  with  the  most  violent  opposition  on  the 
part  of  the  professional  scientists,  the  so-called  vulgar  economists 
and  sociologists  of  the  Spencerian  school.  This  opposition  is  still 
very  strong  because  it  is  backed  up  by  the  exclusive  interests  of 
the  ruling  middle  class.    However,  this  struggle  against  the  ac- 

*The  American  Farmer,  by  A.  M.  Simona,  editor  of  the  International  Socialist 
Rerlew,  Chieago.     Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co. 

476 


476  THE  INTERNATIONAL  800IALIST  BBVUSW. 

ceptance  and  recognition  of  the  grand  idea  of  evolutionary  social- 
ism seems  to  us  preferable  to  its  misconception  and  dogmatization 
by  the  uncritical  minds  of  the  avowed  followers  of  Marx's  and 
Lassalle's  teachings.  Where  there  is  life  there  is  strife  between 
conflicting  interests,  or  rather  between  the  representatives  of  con- 
flicting interests;  and  where  there  is  a  struggle  there  is  hope  to 
win  and  conquer.  But  the  dogmatization  of  an  idea  (or  a  cycle  of 
ideas)  is  identical  with  the  ossification  of  living  tissue,  with  petri- 
fication, with  spiritual  death.  Soon  after  the  death  of  Lassalle 
and  Marx  the  Socialist  movement  somehow  lost  the  vivifying 
vigor  of  critical  thinking.  This  was  a  time  when  the  mental 
equipment  of  a  Socialist  of  the  rank  and  file  consisted  in  a  few  ill 
(if  at  all)  digested  and  parrot-like  repeated  shibboleths  arid  max- 
ims, borrowed  on  credit  from  some  of  the  fathers  and  prominent 
leaders  of  the  movement.  These  shibboleths  and  maxims  were  re- 
garded somewhat  in  the  same  light  as  texts  of  the  Bible  by 
church  people.  For  doubt,  criticism  and  original  thought  there 
did  not  seem  to  be  any  demand  among  socialists.  Orthodoxy  and 
dogmatism  of  the  most  rigid  pattern  were  considered  as  essential 
qualities  of  a  true  socialist.  Anybody  who  dared  to  think  for  him- 
self and  have  his  own  ideas  was  considered  either  a  fool  or  a 
knave,  or,  more  frequently,  a  fool  and  knave  at  once.  Intolerance 
and  heresy-hunting  were  the  natural  consequences  of  narrowness 
of  mind.  Some  of  these  old-time  Socialists  were,  to  use  the  pic- 
turesque slang  of  David  Harum,  "so  narrer  in  their  views  tfiat 
fourteen  of  'em  e'n  sit,  side  an'  side,  in  a  buggy."  It  was  the 
golden  age  of  self-appointed  small  imitators  of  the  great  Lassalle, 
of  Socialistic  popes,  of  innumerable  arrogant  and  ignorant  bosses 
who  tried  to  run  the  whole  thing,  while  the  rank  and  file  said 
"Yes"  and  "Amen"  to  any  antique  capers  of  their  "scientific"  lead- 
ers. Under  such  conditions  the  Socialist  movement,  instead  of 
progressing,  spreading  and  deepening,  was  moving  backward, 
getting  more  and  more  shallow,  was  arousing  more  prejudices 
against  its  doctrines.  It  was  a  time  of  petty  personal  quarrels 
and  mutual  abuse  in  choicest  billingsgate  among  jealous  so-called 
"leaders,"  a  time  of  useless  hair-splitting  and  flagrant  sec- 
tarianism. 

Fortunately  this  transitional  period  is  rapidly  passing  away 
and  rational,  truly  philosophical  evolutionary  Socialism  is  broad- 
ening and  deepening  with  every  day,  sending  its  roots  into  the 
national  soil,  and  spreading  its  vigorous  branches  beyond  the 
limits  of  one  small  class. 

The  old-time  Socialists  refused  to  take  interest  in  the  fate  of 
the  man  with  the  hoe,  the  farmer.  The  narrow  mind  of  fanatics 
always  moves  in  abstractions  and  ignores  life  and  its  lessons. 
To  the  orthodox  socialist  a  proletarian  is  not  essentially  a  living 
human  being  ca))able  of  reasoning,  feeling  and  acting,  but  a  cer- 


"THE  AMBfilCAN  FABMBB.''  477 

tain  economic  category.  The  farmer  was  not  considered  as  be- 
longing to  that  category  once  he  even  only  nominally  owned  a 
patch  of  arid  soil  and  a  few  implements  not  worth  more  than 
scrap-iron.  To  try  to  take  the  farmer  into  the  Socialist  move- 
ment would  be  a  mortal  sin  against  the  fetish  of  "class-conscious- 
ness." 

In  view  of  these  facts  and  considerations  the  appearance  of  a 
book  like  the  "American  Farmer"  from  the  authoritative  pen  of 
the  editor  of  the  International  Socialist  Review,  Mr.  A.  M. 
Simons,  ought  to  be  hailed  with  delight  by  all  those  who  value 
human  life  and  its  interests  higher  than  dead  dog^mas  and  irra- 
tional creeds.  The  book  is  written  in  the  fluent  style  of  a  profes- 
sional journalist,  its  language  is  singularly  free  from  the  hack- 
neyed pseudo-scientific  brogue  peculiar  to  the  literary  hash  pre- 
pared in  certain  socialistic  kitchens,  where  cheapness  is  the  main 
consideration  and  quality  does  not  count.  Mr.  A.  M.  Simons  suc- 
ceeded in  digesting  a  great  deal  of  original  investigation  into  a 
handy  volume,  representing  at  once  a  lucid  and  comprehensive 
treatise  of  the  subject. 

The  book  is  divided  into  three  parts  and  sixteen  separate  chap- 
ters. The  first  part  of  the  book  is  devoted  to  the  history  of  the 
development  of  the  class  of  farmers  in  the  New  England  States, 
in  the  South,  in  the  middle  and  far  West,  and  in  the  arid  belt. 

The  second  book  discusses  with  considerable  erudition  agri- 
cultural economics.  The  movement  toward  the  city;  the  modern 
farmer;  the  transformation  of  agriculture;  the  concentration  of 
agriculture,  and  the  farmer  and  the  wage-worker  are  the  main 
topics  treated  in  that  part  of  the  book.  The  last  part  argues  about 
the  coming  change,  about  the  line  of  future  evolution,  the  Socialist 
movement,  Socialism  and  the  farmer,  and  steps  towards  the  rea- 
lization of  the  ideal  state  of  society. 

This  enumeration  of  the  subjects  treated  in  the  book  may 
give  an  idea  about  the  scope  of  Mr.  A.  M.  Simons'  work. 

The  author  displays  a  great  deal  of  wisdom  in  the  guarded 
conclusions  he  arrived  at.  The  main  points  of  these  conclusions 
are  the  following: 

I.  The  small  farmer  is  a  permanent  factor  in  the  agricultural 
life  of  the  United  States  of  America  and  forms  the  largest  uni- 
form division  of  the  producing  class. 

II.  Any  movement  which  seeks  to  work  either  with  or  for 
the  producing  class  must  take  cognizance  of  the  farmer  class. 

III.  The  isolation  and  disorganization  of  the  class  of  farm- 
ers makes  it  impossible  for  it  to  take  the  initiative  in  any  national 
social-economic  movement. 

IV.  In  order  to  sucdessfully  meet  the  encroachment  of  the 
exploiting  class,  the  class  of  farmers  must  do  it  through  CQ-Pperch 


478  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

Hon  with  the  better  organised  and  more  homogeneous  body  of  the 
working  class  composed  of  urban  wage  workers. 

The  last  conclusion  is  the  key  of  the  reviewed  treatise  and 
logically  follows  from  the  first  two  conclusions. 

"It  is  only  through  a  close  political  union  of  the  entire  laboring 
class  upon  a  programme  in  accord  with  social  evolution  that  any- 
thing lasting  and  effective  can  be  done  to  better  the  condition  of 
the  workers  either  of  farm  or  factory.  Until  this  fact  is  realized 
both  are  destined  to  remain  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  servi- 
tude to  those  who  are  the  industrial  and  political  rulers  of  present 
society,"  says  Mr.  A.  M.  Simons  on  page  214  of  his  new  book. 
"If  this  book  shall  have  added  even  the  slightest  degree  to  the 
formation  of  such  a  political  union  and  ultimate  emancipation  it 
will  have  accomplished  its  purpose,"  are  the  closing  words  of  the 
work  (ib  idem). 

"The  manner  of  exploitation  of  the  industrial  wage-worker  of 
the  mines  and  factory  and  that  of  the  farmer  is  practically  the 
same.  Both  stand  as  a  class  opposed  to  the  exploiting  class, 
neither  owns  the  essentials  of  production  which  are  necessary  to 
the  class  of  producers.  Under  these  conditions  their  position  is 
shoulder  to  shoulder  in  a  common  battle  for  a  common  freedom. 
The  farmer  must  enter  the  political  battle  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  laborer,  not  of  the  capitalist.  In  the  two  great  armies  into 
which  modern  society  is  divided  his  place  is  with  the  creators  of 
wealth  in  mine  and  shop  and  factory"  (p.  138). 

"These  quotations  will  suffice  to  show  the  general  trend  of  the 
book,  representing  an  eloquent  and  convincing  plea  for  united  po- 
litical action  on  the  part  of  all  producers  against  the  parasitic 
classes  of  society. 

Some  definitions  used  by  the  author  deserve  especial  attention. 
For  instance,  the  definition  of  concentration  reads  as  follows : 

"A  movement  tending  to  give  a  continually  diminishing  min- 
ority of  the  persons  engaged  in  any  industry  a  constantly  increas- 
ing control  over  the  essentials  and  a  continually  increasing  share 
of  the  total  value  of  the  returns  of  the  industry." 

We  would  take  exception  to  the  analogy  between  human  so- 
ciety and  a  jelly-fish.  Spencer  and  his  school  have  a  distinct  pur- 
pose in  view,  when  advancing  the  organic  theory  of  society. 
They  want  to  intimate  that  social  growth  and  development  is  a 
purely  organic,  unconscious  and  slow  process.  This  theory  is 
eminently  in  the  interest  of  the  conservative  ruling  classes  of  so- 
ciety. Socialism  is  conscious  social  evolution.  The  middle  class 
sociologists  preach  that  society  ought  to  be  left  alone  to  work  out 
its  salvation  in  aeons  of  time  necessary  for  natural  organic  devel- 
opment. Spencer  approaches  society  from  the  static  point  of  view. 
Socialist  thinkers  approach  society  from  the  dynamic  point  of 
view  and  insist  on  stimulating  and  accelerating  social  develop- 


<<THB  AMEBIGAN  FABMEB."  479 

ment  by  the  infusion  of  consciousness  into  the  social  life  and  ac- 
tivity. If  the  organic  theory  is  true  Socialists  are  only  wasting 
their  energies  when  trying  to  propagate  their  ideas  and  ideals. 
Fortunately  the  middle-class  theory  of  society  cannot  stand  the 
test  of  logic  and  scientific  criticism  and  Socialists  would  do  well 
to  avoid  tihe  organic  analogies^  which  are  wrong  and  confusing  to 
the  extreme. 

Summing  up  the  impression  produced  by  the  "American 
Farmer'^  we  feel  like  recommending  it  to  every  thoughtful  student 
of  society.  We  hope  that  this  work  will  be  followed  up  by  a 
series  of  similar  treatises,  which  throw  more  light  on  real  social- 
economic  problems  than  a  dozen  of  dogmatic  articles  on  "class- 
struggle"  and  similar  hackneyed  subjects.  We  may  conclude 
with  Goethe's  immortal  lines:  Grau  ist  alle  Theorie,  grun  sind 
des  Lebens  Zweige.  We  socialists  need  most  actual  knowledge  of 
existing  social-economic  conditions.  The  official  reports  issued 
periodically  by  the  various  departments  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  inadequate  and  unreliable  as  they  may  be  in  some 
respects,  contain  an  inexhaustible  mine  of  useful  information 
about  the  existing  social-economic  conditions.  Socialist  writers 
need  only  to  arrange  and  combine  the  raw  material  of  official  sta- 
tistics in  the  light  of  modern  science  and  philosophy  in  order  to 
produce  the  most  effective  means  of  propaganda  of  the  ideas  and 
ideals  of  conscious  social  evolution  or  socialism. 

IsADOR  Ladoff. 


A  History  of  German  Trade  Unions. 

/  (Continued  from  January  issue.) 

CHAPTER  III. 

1878-1895. 

TRIALS  AND  PREPARATIONS. 

ON  the  nth  of  May,  1878,  Hoedel,  and  on  the  2d  of  June, 
Noebeling,  two  cranks,  shot  at  the  old  Emperor.  Bis- 
marck declared  that  these  fools  were  Socialists,  and 
ended  by  securing  from  the  Reichstag,  especially  elected 
for  this  purpose,  the  laws  of  exception  against  the  Socialists.  To 
tlie  police  were  given  the  task  of  muzzling  the  press,  dissolving 
organizations  and  suppressing  the  right  of  assemblage  (October 
21).  The  propagandists  were  expelled  and  the  great  cities  put 
in  a  state  of  siege.  The  capitalists  even  took  a  hand  in  this  work : 
the  employers  compelled  their  laborers  to  sign  a  refutation  of  all 
subversive  ideas  and  drove  the  suspects  out  of  the  shop. 

This  alone  would  have  been  enough  to  ruifl  the  unions.  Their 
most  active  members  were  removed,  banished,  or  imprisoned. 
But  the  law  went  even  further.  The  police  had  the  duty  of  for- 
bidding associations  of  all  kinds  whidi  by  social-democratic,  so- 
cialist or  communistic  methods  sought  to  overthrow  the  state  and 
present  society.  They  did  not  fail  to  act.  Between  the  23rd  of 
October  and  the  31st  of  December,  1878,  sixteen  of  the  twenty- 
five  unions  listed  by  Geib  were  dissolved.  The  others  were 
threatened,  and  some,  like  the  printers,  suppressed  themselves. 
Only  four  seem  to  have  lived  until  1883. 

During  this  white  terror  even  the  Hirsch-Duncker  unions  were 
anxious.  They  had  carefully  protected  themselves  against  the 
invasion  of  the  Socialists  by  passing,  in  1876,  the  famous  resolu- 
tion by  which  each  new  member  was  required  to  take  an  oath 
that  he  did  not  belong  to  the  Social-Democratic  party.  Many 
times  their  councillor  was  involved  in  troubles  with  the  authorities, 
and  their  circulars  constantly  enjoined  prudence.  It  was  said  that 
Bismarck  intended  to  crush  out  all  organization  of  the  laborers. 

He  might  as  well  have  attempted  to  annihilate  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  capitalist  industry.  The  formidable  machine  of  the  Prus- 
sian police  was  able  in  three  years  to  reduce  the  Socialist  vote 
by  100,000;  It  harassed  political  propaganda  for  ten  years.  Against 
those  who  were  compelled  bv  necessity  to  defend  their  daily  bread, 
it  accomplished  almost  nothing.    From  ^88o  on,  when  the  ecch 

4M 


J   1 


HISTOBY   OF   GERMAN   TRADE  UNIONS.  481 


nomic  situation  became  a  little  better,  in  spite  of  everything,  the 
laboring  class  began  again  its  work  of  trade  organization. 

The  laws  had  scarcely  been  promulgated  and  the  societies  dis- 
solved when  the  laborers  began  once  more  to  unite.  This  was 
first  done  as  subscribers  to  the  same  journals ;  little  trade  leaflets, 
without  politics,  which  began  to  arise.  By  the  end  of  1878  the 
trade  journal  of  the  shoemakers  reappeared.  In  1879  that  of 
the  woodworkers,  and  of  the  carpenters  at  Hamburg,  and  the 
tobacco  workers  of  Leipsic,  etc.,  were  revived.  These  journals 
were  a  means  of  awakening  and  of  union.  In  case  of  strike  they 
received  the  funds  and  pointed  out  the  opportunities  for  employ- 
ment. They  were  even  able  with  some  caution  to  discuss  the 
laws — ^at  least,  all  those  of  interest  to  the  working  class.  The 
spirit  of  solidarity  was  maintained,  and  the  ranks  remained  un- 
broken. 

The  free  benefit  associations,  founded  under  the  law  of  1876, 
furnished  another  opportunity  which  was  not  neglected.  Some 
of  the  central  organizations  of  the  sick  and  death  benefit  associa- 
tions founded  by  the  Socialists  had  been  dissolved,  but,  because 
they  were  according  to  the  law  itself,  independent  of  the  unions, 
others  continued  to  exist.  And  the  propagandists  continued  to 
push  out  among  the  workers. 

Some  of  these  in  the  beginning  at  the  time  of  the  worst  op- 
pression were  very  bold.  Under  the  disguise  of  benefit  funds  they 
re^A^ganized  their  unions.  The  printers  were  the  first  to  do  this, 
but  tfieir  attitude  of  neutrality  and  the  slightly  aggressive  attitude 
towards  the  Socialist  leaders  was  not  sufficient  to  reassure  the 
government,  and  they  were  compelled  to  dissolve  in  order  to  save 
their  funds.  In  November,  1878,  they  founded  a  Society  of 
Mutual  Assistance,  and,  as  the  Saxon  authorities  refused  their 
authorization,  they  located  their  headquarters  at  Stuttgart.  The 
hatters,  who  were  dissolved  in  1879,  cautiously  followed  their  ex- 
ample, and  established  in  May,  1880,  as  a  sub-division  of  their 
Central  Sick  and  Death  Benefit  Fund,  a  society  for  mutual  as- 
sistance, which  was  nothing  more  than  a  trade  union.  With  the 
same  prudence,  as  the  result  of  a  strike  in  Berlin,  the  wood- 
carvers  of  Germany  formed  a  society  for  mutual  assistance,  which 
flourished  in  spite  of  the  authorities,  who  were  urged  on  by  the 
rival  Hifsch-Dimcker  union.  Thus  it  came  about  that  during  the 
two  years  of  the  most  brutal  and  thorough  application  of  the 
Socialist  laws,  labor  organizations  were  well  maintained. 

In  1880  German  industry,  which  had  languished  since  the 
crisis  of  1874,  revived;  only  about  forty  corporations  had  been 
founded  each  year  during  this  period.  In  1880  there  was  a  sud- 
den increase  to  ninety-seven,  with  a  capitalization  of  $21,850,000; 
in  1881,  III,  with  $47,310,000.  The  natural  consequence  followed 
— a  widespread  strike  movement.    The  woodworkers  of  Germany 


482  THE  INTBENATIONAL  SOCIAUST  REVIEW. 

led  the  first  of  these,  a  rather  unimportant  one,  in  the  spring  of 
1880.  The  close  of  tiiis  same  year  saw  the  revival  of  the  isolated 
trade  organizations. 

Moreover,  the  political  situation  now  favored  a  revival  of 
organization.  Bismarck  had  reported  that  force  alone  was  not 
sufficient  to  detach  people  from  the  agitators  in  whom  they  had 
trusted ;  the  working  class  loyalty  which  he  desired  to  obtain  failed 
to  materialize.  The  policy  of  the  lash  gave  way  to  that  of  sugar- 
plums. Violence  was  replaced  with  corruption.  Bismarck  de- 
clared that  in  order  to  cure  the  ills  of  society  "it  is  necessary  to 
better  the  conditions  of  the  laborers  by  bona  fide  gifts."  There- 
upon came  the  famous  imperial  message  of  Novem&r  17, 1881,  in 
which  the  Prussian  government  recognized  the  right  of  the  work- 
ers to  have  work  when  capable,  the  right  to  care  when  sick,  the 
right  to  bread  when  aged  or  infirm.  Again  the  celebrated  insur- 
ance legislation  against  sickness  in  June,  1883;  accident  in  July, 
1884;  disability  and  old  age  in  June,  1889,  constituted  an  admin- 
istrative work  inaugurated,  without  doubt,  wholly  for  political 
reasons,  but  which  constituted,  nevertheless,  a  revolutionary  step 
for  the  trade  union  and  socialist  movement. 

Even  in  this  hour  of  first  solemn  declarations  wholly  unlooked- 
for  results  began  to  appear  in  the  shape  of  a  free  labor  movement 
in  full  publicity.  This  could  not  occur  without  some  outside  ini- 
tiative, and  these  laws  furnished  this  in  a  most  remarkable  manner. 
Bismarck  needed  at  least  a  semblance  of  working  class  collabo- 
ration with  which  to  pl&y>  s^nd  he  was  using  all  his  arts  to  gain 
the  masses.  Pastor  Stocker,  the  old  Court  preacher,  who  had 
started  the  Christian  Socialist  movement  in  1877,  bolder  and  freer 
in  every  way  than  the  busy  politician,  was  just  as  certainly  follow- 
ing the  same  plan  of  conciliation,  when  in  1881  he  attempted  to 
create  a  certain  sort  of  public  opinion  within  the  working  class. 

But  it  so  happened  that  on  the  day  on  which  Bismarck  had 
expected  to  receive  from  the  lips  of  the  workers  their  complaints 
and  their  vows  of  allegiance,  he  found  his  invitation  accepted  by 
the  Berlin  gilder,  Ewald.  In  March,  1882,  Bismarck  had  called 
together  the  heads  of  the  trade  associations  of  Berlin,  and  a  com- 
mittee of  seven  members  was  appointed  on  which  it  was  skill- 
fully arranged  to  have  two  Christian  Socialists.  Then,  in  order 
to  discuss  the  address  of  the  Chancellor,  numerous  meetings  were 
held,  which  were  generally  confused  and  enthusiastic,  but  where 
tlie  Christian  Socialist  speakers  were  followed  by  those  old  So- 
cialist leaders,  Hasenclever  and  Frohme.  This  idyllic  condition 
lasted  for  some  months,  during  the  first  part  of  1^3,  and  while 
Stocker's  project  of  compulsory  unions  was  being  discussed.  But 
the  workers  showed  no  desire  to  be  controlled  with  military  dis- 
cipline, according  to  their  pass-books*  (livret).    They  said  as 

*German  laborers  are  required  to  carry  a  book  endorsed  by  their  last  em- 
ployer and  the  police,  g\r\ng  yarlons  items  of  personal  Information. 


^  HISTOBY  OF  GEBMAN  TBAJ>B  UNIONa  483 

much  in  these  new  assemblages,  where  Stocker  was  finally  hooted, 
and  when  Ewald  praised  Lassalle  as  the  only  friend  of  the  work- 
ers.   Then  the  police  interfered ;  Ewald  was  condemned. 

But  important  results  had  already  been  accomplished.  The 
government  was  henceforth  unable  to  so  openly  confuse  Socialism 
and  unionism.  Moreover,  the  trade  organizations  began  to  grow. 
In  Berlin  alone  eighteen  responded  to  tfie  first  call  of  Ewald;  and 
now,  by  the  middle  of  1883,  these  had  increased  to  fifty.  The 
first  impulse  had  been  given  and  the  movement  continued  un- 
checked. 

♦        ♦        41 

During  this  renaissance  diverse  tendencies  were  manifested. 
This  was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  working  class  were  com- 
pelled to  make  use  of  many  different  methods  in  order  to  group 
themselves  anew,  and  it  was  also  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  five 
years  of  oppression  had  not  sufficed  to  completely  efface  the  diver- 
gencies and  to  unify  the  various  ideas  concerning  the  union  move- 
ment. Finally,  it  may  be  generally  stated,  that  those  who  suffered 
in  the  conflict  between  immediate  interests  and  political  con- 
victions necessarily  hesitated.  In  consequence  the  unions^  were 
made  to  serve  either  the  interests  or  the  convictions,  according  to 
circumstances. 

In  the  first  place,  as  a  result  of  some  provisions  of  the  law, 
the  benefit  funds  developed  immensely.  The  law  of  1883  on  in- 
surance against  sickness  recognized  the  benefit  side  of  the  unions 
and  exempted  their  members  from  the  compulsory  insurance  law. 
The  union  benefit  funds  had  several  advantages  over  the  com- 
pulsory ones  established  by  law ;  they  had  the  right  to  self-govern- 
ment without  official  interventiorf ;  they  furnished  relief  directly 
in  cash  and  did  not  require  the  acceptance  of  the  services  of  any 
partictilar  physician;  they  were  better  organized  nationally,  thus 
assuring  assistance  to  their  members  wherever  they  might  be, 
and  as  a  consequence  the  laborers  joined  them  en  masse.  At 
one  congress  of  these  benefit  associations  (mostly  Socialists),  held 
at  Gera  in  1886,  there  were  419,159  members  represented,  of 
whom  249,741  belonged  to  twenty-six  central  associations.  The 
woodworkers  alone  had  72,000  members,  and  the  metal  workers 
32,842.  But  this  situation  helped  the  Hirsch-Duncker  unions 
also,  who  had  otherwise  grown  slowly  with  their  anti-socialist 
tactics.  They  confined  their  activity  to  institutions  for  mutual 
benefit.  In  addition  to  their  sick  benefit  fund,  they  gradually 
introduced,  after  1879,  aid  for  the  unemployed.  All  this  attracted 
members,  and  between  1878  and  1885  they  grew  from  16,500 
members  to  51,000. 

But  while  these  funds  offered  immediate  and  definite  ad- 
vantages and  assisted  in  drawing  the  workers  together,  they  were 


484  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIEW. 

still  far  from  satisfactory  to  those  who  had  the  most  full  and 
clear  comprehension  of  the  union  movement.  In  order  to  keep  up 
benefit  funds  with  their  high  dues,  good  wages  are  necessary; 
these  can  be  obtained  only  through  strikes,  and  successful  strikes, 
and  for  successful  strikes  fighting  organizations  are  necessary. 
But  what  is  a  strike  but  a  class  struggle  ?  And,  although  accord- 
ing to  the  Socialist  law,  the  German  Code  by  its  provision  of 
the  right  of  coalition  still  recognized  legal  defense  as  a  right,  the 
police  were  authorized  to  arm  themselves  in  advance  for  all  such 
combats. 

The  workers  resorted  to  loose  organizations.  In  many  cities 
when  there  was  a  strike  a  general  assembly  of  the  trade  was 
called,  which  voted  the  strike  and  appointed  a  committee  to  direct 
it.  This  differed  from  the  union  in  that  it  was  a  temporary  or- 
ganization, continuing  only  during  the  strike.  Sometimes,  how- 
ever, in  order  to  close  up  matters  and  dispose  of  any  money 
which  remained,  committees  continued  to  exist  after  the  struggle 
was  over.  Naturally,  the  idea  soon  arose  of  permanent  com- 
mittees, to  which  the  general  assemblages  would  give  repeated 
authority  for  definite  purposes.  From  city  to  city,  as  occasions 
arose,  these  committees  were  able  to  extend.  Finally  Kressler, 
an  architect,  studied  out  a  complete  plan  of  organization  founded 
on  these  customs. 

This  was,  so  to  speak,  the  new  form  in  which  reappeared  the 
old  localist  spirit  and  the  political  circumstances  gave  it  this  time 
a  remarkable  strength.  The  Socialist  party  being  forcibly  dis- 
organized, its  propagandists  exiled,  or  imprisoned,  its  meetings 
forbidden,  the  unions,  only  half  tolerated  by  the  government,  ap- 
peared as  suitable  organizations  for  the  extension  of  the  Socialist 
idea,  and  among  the  unions,  these  floating  organizations  espe- 
cially, without  a  fixed  treasury,  with  no  permanent  connection 
with  each  other,  took  up  the  political  battle,  like  true  guerrillas 
of  the  social  struggle.  At  Berlin,  in  Saxony,  the  great  Socialist 
center,  these  organizations  multiplied,  and  even  co-operated  to 
some  degree  by  means  of  confidential  agents  ( Vertrauensmanner) . 
The  unions  actually  became,  as  Schweitzer  had  wished  in  1868, 
the  Socialist  school  of  the  laboring  class.  Nothing  is  really  more 
educative  than  a  well-conducted,  well-explained  wage  struggle. 
This  is  why  Liebknecht  in  1884  preached  the  necessity  of  lalx)r- 
ers  belonging  to  the  unions,  and  the  necessity  of  neutrality  to  the 
unions. 

But,  in  order  to  thus  take  part  in  the  struggle  and  .in  order 
to  influence  legislation — in  short,  in  order  to  act  politically — ^it 
became  necessary  to  turn  over  the  immediate  benefits  of  organiza- 
tion to  insurance  societies  and  to  renounce  the  advantage  of  a 
fixed  treasury  in  case  of  strike;  since,  as  we  have  seen,  the  po- 


HTSTOBY  OF  GERMAN   TRADE  UNIONS.  485 

litical  societies  did  not  have  the  right  of  federation.  Some  re- 
signed themselves  regretfully  to  dispersed  activity.  But,  in  spite 
of  continuous  betrayal  and  the  enormous  difficulty  of  maintain- 
ing a  national  union  under  the  existing  regime  which  should  be 
well  prepared  for  strikes  and  for  assistance,  nevertheless,  when 
once  it  was  decided  that  this  vvas  the  proper  road,  they  set  them- 
selves to  work. 

Under  various  forms,  the  printers,  carpenters  and  wood- 
carvers  had  already  formed  national  unions,  but  they  lived  a  very 
subdued  life,  in  half  concealment. 

In  1883,  under  the  cover  of  the  mummeries  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  such  as  banners,  miHtary  music,  "Hoch,  the  Emperor," 
etc.,  the  carpenter  Marzian,  a  well-known  agitator,  succeeded  for 
the  first  time  in  forming  a  union  of  his  trade.  His  position  was 
false ;  the  members  of  the  union  were  mostly  Socialists ;  the  firm 
purpose  of  Marzian  to  dispense  with  all  agitation,  avoid  strikes 
and  devote  all  energies  to  "practical  duties"  destroyed  the  hopes 
that  had  been  secretly  held,  and  led  to  quarrels  and  the  overthrow 
of  the  founder. 

Then  it  was  that  one  bravely  dared  and  attempted 
something  more ;  as  the  result  of  the  strike  at  Stuttgart,  the  well- 
known  propagandist  and  avowed  Socialist,  Kloss,  without  at- 
tempting to  conceal  his  object,  organized  a  true  union  for  striking 
and  mutual  assistance ;  that  of  the  woodworkers  at  Noel  in  1883. 
He  conceded  much  independence  to  local  groups,  but  for  the 
whole  organization  there  was  a  central  union  having  definite  au- 
thority and  with  its  treasury  supported  by  dues.  Statistics  of  the 
labor  market,  traveling  assistance,  employment  agencies,  in  short, 
all  the  instruments  required  for  the  union  struggle,  were  fully 
created. 

In  spite  of  embarrassments  of  all  sorts,  through  which  the 
untiring  energy  of  Kloss  was  maintained,  the  union  continued 
to  live.  This  great  union  established  without  fear  of  the  anti- 
Socialist  laws,  paying  no  attention  to  the  conditions  imposed  by 
the  laws  of  association,  and  nevertheless  tolerated  by  the  Wur- 
temberg  police,  was  a  splendid  example.  To  those  who  ex- 
pressed their  fears  Kloss  replied  that  legally  his  position  was 
strong;  the  right  of  coalition  was  unassailable,  and  so  also,  as  a 
consequence,  was  a  union  founded  upon  that  right.  Kloss  was 
right.  Here  was  the  weak  point.  The  Imperial  Government  could 
not  very  well  be  always  proclaiming  its  solicitude  for  the  workers 
and  at  the  same  time  suppressing  their  most  vital  right.  It  at- 
tempted this,  however,  in  1886." 

♦  3K  ♦ 

Towards  the  end  of  1885  there  came  a  sudden  acceleration  in 
economic  development.  This  was  characteristic  of  the  years  from 
1880  to  1890 — a  general  industrial  stagnation  with  here  and  there 


486  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIBW. 

some  transient  flashes  of  prosperity.  This  time  the  long,  obsti- 
nate and  energetically  conducted  strikes  which  broke  out  thor- 
oughly demonstrated  the  progress  of  organization  and  uniqp 
spirit.  A  clear  class-consciousness  on  the  part  of  the  capitalist 
denounced  the  Socialist  influence,  and  the  police  estimated  that 
more  than  100,000  of  the  organized  workers  in  the  unions  had 
this  tendency.  The  strikes  seemed  to  them  to  be  a  menace  to 
society. 

Then  it  was  that  the  Pommeranian  Puttkamer,  whom  Bis- 
marck had  called  to  the  control  of  internal  affairs,  pointed  out 
the  duties  of  the  police  in  his  decrees  of  April  11,  1886.  He 
showed  how  it  was  possible  to  distinguish  between  an  economic 
strike  and  a  revolutionary  strike,  between  an  authorized  strike  and 
a  Socialist  strike ;  the  latter  must  be  punished  at  once  as  soon  as 
it  could  be  identified  as  such.  The  method  was  not  new;  the 
judges  of  Louis  Philippe  had  formerly  distinguished  in  the  same 
manner  republican  strikes  and  ordinary  strikes.  But  the  French 
had  at  least  not  pretended  to  grant  the  right  of  coalition. 

It  might  be  well  to  say  here  just  wliat  it  was  that  they 
sought  to  suppress ;  in  the  majority  of  the  strikes.  Socialists  were 
active,  and  llie  expressions  against  the  capitalists  were  frequent 
and  sharp.  But  tiie  decree  stopped  nothing;  it  is  even  possible 
that  it  did  good ;  but  the  police  took  to  their  credit  tihe  inevitable 
failure  of  a  few  strikes. 

From  every  point  of  view,  chicanery,  persecutions,  and  dis- 
couraging annoyances  rendered  this  period  almost  unenduraUe. 
It  was  during  this  time  that  all  the  paragraphs  of  the  laws  of 
association  were  used  against  the  unions;  against  the  great  unions 
the  laws  concerning  political  societies  were  invoked,  while  the 
local  unions  were  prosecuted  as  insurance  societies. 

Even  the  benefit  funds  did  not  escape  persecution.  As  their 
competition  began  to  be  felt  by  the  governmental  associations, 
these  latter  entered  upon  a  campaign  of  legal  processes  against 
them  founded  upon  an  ambiguous  paragraph  in  the  law  of  1883, 
and  during  the  years  1887  to  1890  the  judges  generally  decided  in 
favor  of  the  official  societies. 

Such  measures  as  these  were  scarcely  calculated  to  assist  in 
the  organization  of  the  workers.  Election  after  election  the  So- 
cialist vote  increased.  In  1884  it  was  550,000;  in  1887,  763,000; 
in  1890,  1427,000.  AU  obstacles  helped  to  rouse  the  spirit  of 
solidarity,  and  in  1889,  when  prosperity  unexpectedly  returned, 
strikes  again  broke  out-€ver)rwhere. 

One  strike  in  particular,  that  of  the  miners,  had  a  tremendous 
and  far-reaching  effect.  In  this  trade,  which  was  still  deeply 
religious,  and  which,  owing  to  an  old  system  of  benefit  funds 
(Knappschaffen),  was  subject  to  a  sort  of  guardianship  by  the 
employers  of  the  state,  the  strike  grew  to  enormous  proportions 


HiarOBY  OF  GERMAN  TBADB  UNIONS.  487 

with  the  formidable  rapidity  accompanying  the  primitive  uprising 
of  an  oppressed  people.  The  "politicians"  were  hdpless.  The 
purely  economic  demands  were  for  an  increase  of  from  15  to  25 
per  cent  in  wages  and  an  eight-hour  day.  By  the  14th  of  Mav 
100,000  miners  were  on  strike  in  Westphalia.  In  the  other  val- 
leys, those  of  the  Saar,  of  Saxony  and  Silesia,  the  comrades 
stopped  work  by  the  thousand  as  individuals. 

It  was  the  young  Emperor  William  II.  who  finally  stopped  the 
strike.  On  the  advice  of  Hinzpeter,  his  old  teacher,  he  received 
the  delegates  of  the  laborers.  He  told  tliem  of  his  hatred  of  the 
social  democracy,  but  assured  them  of  his  desire  to  render  justice 
to  every  one.  He  obtained  some  concessions  from  the  employers, 
and  work  began  again.  The  Westphalian  miners  thanked  the 
Emperor,  and  then  founded  a  union  which  was  soon  dominated  by 
Socialist  ideas. 

It  now  became  evident  that  neither  brutality  nor  trickery  were 
effective  against  the  labor  movement.  A  new  policy  was  there- 
fore necessary.  Even  during  the  life  of  Frederick  III.,  Herrforth 
had  replaced  Puttkammer,  and  was  showing  himself  more  tol- 
erant towards  the  unions.  By  his  February  decree  William  II. 
formulated  the  new  policy  ot  the  state.  This  included  the  de- 
velopment of  insurance  and  factory  legislation,  to  which  Bis- 
marck had  set  the  most  narrow  limits,  and  "the  right  of  laborers 
to  legal  equality  before  the  law."  In  March,  1890,  the  anti- 
Socialist  law  was  not  renewed.    The  time  of  trial  had  passed. 

«        ♦        ♦ 

What  were  some  of  the  results  of  twelve  years  of  Bismarckian 
policy?  The  party  he  sought  to  crush  had  grown  and  acquired 
solidarity  and  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  by  the  struggle.  The  unions 
he  had  hoped  to  annihilate  as  the  altars  of  the  revolution  were 
reorganized  more  numerous  than  ever  before,  and  with  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  laws  and  tactical  skill  necessary  to  baffle  all  the  numer- 
ous tricks  of  the  police.  The  50,000  workers  organized  in  So- 
cialist unions  in  1878  had  increased  to  350,000  in  1890.  Forty- 
one  union  journals,  with  201,000  subscribers,  had  replaced  the 
fourteen  publications  suppressed  in  1878. 

The  Hirsch-Duncker  unions  had  also  grown  alongside  the 
Socialists.  They  had  increased  from  16,500  members  in  1878 
to  63,000  in  1891,  but  when  it  is  remembered  that  their  mutual 
assistance  features  had  been  added  during  this  time,  and  that 
thev  had  enjoyed  uninterrupted  peace  during  these  twelve  years 
of  msecurity  for  all  others,  the  result  seems  very  small. 
.  There  was  one  thing,  at  least,  that  Bismarck  had  finally  ob- 
tained, and  that  was  the  henceforth  indissoluble  union  in  the 
minds  of  the  majority  of  the  workers  of  all  effort  for  labor  and 
the  idea  of  Socialism.  Bismarck  had  finally  brought  to  a  realiza- 
tion the  old  Schweitzerian  idea  of  1868.    Persecution  had  finally 


488  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

united  political  and  union  activity,  and  in  1890  they  found  them- 
selves firmly  connected,  even  identified. 


This  complete  amalgamation,  however,  was  not  without  dan- 
ger for  the  growth  of  the  union  movement.  During  the  existence 
of  the  laws  of  exception  the  unions  had  become  the  essential 
means  of  propaganda  and  association.  Under  the  pretext  of 
labor  legislation,  they  began  to  take  part  in  political  affairs.  In 
1890  it  once  more  became  possible  for  the  Socialists  to  have  a 
political  life  and  form  political  societies.  But  according  to  the  law 
of  association,  political  societies  were  not  permitted  to  federate 
or  unite  with  each  other. 

But  economic  necessities,  assistance  during  strike  and  the 
mutual  benefit  institutions,  rendered  some  sort  of  union  between 
the  various  societies  absolutely  essential.  This,  then,  was  the 
problem,  a  problem  of  organization :  was  it  better  to  form  great 
centralized  unions  and  give  up  political  activity,  or  to  remain 
isolated,  holding  no  communication  even  with  the  party  except 
through  confidential  agents  {Vertrauensmanne) ,  and  thereby 
give  up  the  assured  advantages  of  a  central  union  ?  • 

This  question  roused  once  more  the  old  opposition  between 
Localists  and  Centralists:  one  side  wished  to  continue  the  So- 
cialist propaganda;  the  others,  also  confirmed  Socialists  and  de- 
voted members  of  the  political  party,  looked  upon  the  unions 
only  as  a  means  of  developing  the  economic  power,  and  the 
capacity  for  resistance  (Wtderstandsfahigkeit)  of  the  prole- 
tariat. It  is  to  the  honor  of  the  German  working  class  that  from 
the  time  of  York  to  the  present  members  of  the  General  Commit- 
tee, under  all  circumstances,  there  have  always  been  militants  who 
have  held  clear  and  proper  ideas  of  the  relation  between  trade 
union  work  and  political  activity.  From  1890  to  1896,  in  the 
midst  of  an  economic  crisis  and  in  spite  of  fierce  opposition,  they 
victoriously  defended  their  position,  and  thereby  decided  the 
future  of  German  unionism. 

Indeed,  the  unions  had  scarcely  felt  the  first  breath  of  free- 
dom before  some  of  them  were  planning  to  join  their  forces  in 
a  central  organization.  A  conference  of  seventy-seven  union 
presidents  and  secretaries,  held  at  Berlin  November  16,  1890, 
established  a  general  commission,  located  at  Hamburg,  having 
the  duty  of  calling  a  congress  and  preparing  a  plan  of  central 
organization,  and  meanwhile  defending  the  right  of  coalition, 
supporting  the  isolated  orgjinizations  in  their  struggle  and  ex- 
tending the  system  of  organization  among  the  poorer  trades  and 
into  the  more  backward  portions  of  the  country.  A  tax,  which 
was  poorly  paid,  of  one  pfennig  per  quarter,  was  inadequate  to 
permit  the  complete  fulfillment  of  these  great  duties,  and  in  order 


!  HISTOBY  OF  GERMAN  TBADB  UNIONS.  489 

to  sustain  a  strike  of  the  tobacco  workers  of  Hamburg  it  be- 
came necessary  to  borrow  nearly  $25,000. 

The  first  congress  of  German  unions  was  held  at  Halberstadt 
on  March  14,  1892.  Two  hundred  and  eight  delegates  were  pres- 
ent, representing  303,519  laborers  Kloss,  the  founder  of  the 
woodworkers'  union,  and  Legien,  a  Hamburg  turner,  presided. 

Here  it  was  that  the  quarrel  broke  out  when  the  committee 
submitted  its  plan  of  organization.  It  proposed  to  take  the 
unions,  now  separated  according  to  trade,  and  group  them  into 
great  branch  organizations,  as  seemed  best  adapted  to  propaganda 
and  union  activity.  In  response  to  some  of  the  centralists,  who 
wished  to  economize  the  cost  of  administration  and  to  go  even 
further  and  form  vast  industrial  unions,  Legien  replied  that  in 
the  present  state  of  industry,  with  the  enormous  differences  ex- 
isting between  the  branches,  this  organization  by  branches  was 
all  that  was  possible.  Those  irreconcilable  opponents,  the  local- 
ists,  denounced  the  esprit  de  corps  of  the  great  unions  and,  in- 
sisting upon  the  economic  helplessness  of  the  proletariat,  opposed 
all  centralization  as  impeding  political  action.  After  a  lively 
discussion  the  resolution  offered  by  the  workers  in  wood  was 
adopted,  by  a  vote  of  148  to  37,  with  1 1  non- voting,  agreeing  to 
the  centralization  by  branches,  but  recommending  that  in  those 
industries  where  it  was  possible  agreements  should  be  formed 
between  the  various  branches.  Within  this  organization  the  local 
societies  were  only  intermediaries.  The  direction  of  strikes  and 
the  benefit  funds  were  controlled  by  the  Central  Union,  which 
thus  became  the  real  union. 

The  congress  invited  the  local  societies  to  affiliate  with  the 
centralized  unions.  These  protested  and  withdrew,  thus  creating 
a  split  in  the  Socialist  union  movement,  but  they  onstituted  only 
an  insignificant  minority.  The  general  committee  was  retained, 
but  it  no  longer  conducted  strikes.  It  retained  as  its  duties,  first, 
propaganda  for  organization  of  the  workers;  second,  gathering 
the  necessary  statistics  for  union  activity;  third,  investigating 
statistics  on  strikes;  fourth,  the  publication  of  a  journal;  fifth, 
international  relations. 

Under  the  diretion  of  Legien,  who  was  unanimously  elected 
president,  it  set  itself  painfully  to  work.  Conditions  were  un- 
favorable. The  industrial  boom  of  1889  ^^^  once  more  proved 
to  be  only  temporary.  This  period  of  depression  and  moderate 
activity  continued  up  to  1895.  The  unions,  hindered  by  the  large 
number  of  unemployed,  frequently  persecuted  by  the  police, 
living  always  in  the  same  legal  insecurity  (Hirsch,  indeed,  had 
not  yet  succeeded  in  securing  for  them  a  civil  personality — ^in 
1892-3),  and  finally  hindered  in  their  propaganda  by  the  localists, 
paid  their  dues  poorly  and  responded  poorly  as  to  statistics,  but 
showed  themselves  all  the  more  exacting.    The  agitation  under- 


490  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEYIEW. 

taken  in  eastern  Prussia  seemed  without  success.  From  1891  to 
1893,  as  a  result  of  some  losses  sustained  in  the  miners'  union, 
the  union  movement  appeared  to  be  even  decreasing.  In  1891 
there  were  277,659  members  affiliated  with  the  central  unions; 
in  1892,  237,094;  in  1893,  223,530. 

While  tiie  political  party  still  continued  to  grow  until  i803 
it  increased  by  359,000  votes,  it  was  still  a  question  whether  the 
union  movement  really  had  any  future  in  Germany.  Bebel 
thought  not  in  1893;  at  the  congress  of  Cologne  he  attempted 
to  show  the  helplessness  of  these  societies  in  opposition  to  a 
Krupp  or  a  Stumm  and  how  legislation,  such  as  that  on  insur- 
ance, for  example,  tended  to  limit  their  field  of  activity  in  com- 
parison with  that  of  English  trade  unions. 

One  question  especially  occupied  the  minds  of  the  militants. 
"  Since  the  establishment  of  the  General  G>mmittee  the  efforts 
of  the  unions  no  longer  foimd  their  only  means  of  unity  in  the 
great  totality  of  the  &)cialist  party.  The  General  Committee  now 
formed  the  central  body  of  the  unions.  Even  within  the  party 
the  unions  had  formed  a  new  autonomous  organization,  and 
while,  without  doubt,  this  was  not  conducted  with  the  idea  of  a 
revolutionary  union  movement  in  opposition  to  parliamentarism, 
and  while  the  Vungen"  who  about  1891  developed  this  position, 
never  received  any  special  support  in  the  great  unions,  neverthe- 
less, this  dualism  of  management,  composed  of  a  party  committee 
and  a  union  commission,  very  soon  complicated  by  the  divergen- 
cies and  personal  quarrels  between  Legien  and  Auer  was  already 
very  disquieting.  The  fact  is  that  the  whole  spirit  of  German 
Socialism  may  be  summed  up  in  one  word,  organization. 

At  the  congress  of  Cologne  the  quarrel  broke  out.  Bebel 
accused  certain  laborers  who  had  sent  a  delegate  to  a  congress  of 
bourgeois  economists  of  having  "gone  to  (>nossa."  Neverthe- 
less, the  party  affirmed  its  sympathy  with  the  unions,  but  the 
commission  was  discredited.  This  gave  rise  to  a  movement 
of  disaffection  and  defiance  in  the  union  world,  and  fierce  at- 
tacks constantly  followed.  It  was  necessary  that  such  a  condi- 
tion be  ended  as  soon  as  possible. 

This  was  the  laborious  work  of  the  congress  held  at  Berlin 
March  4,  1896.  One  hundred  and  thirty-nine  delegates  were 
there  present,  representing  271,141  members.  Legien  as  the 
spokesman  of  the  commission  defended  its  work.  He  dropped 
the  old  quarrels,  and  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  what  was 
said  about  the  indefiniteness  of  his  plans  explained  the  difficul- 
ties of  his  work.  His  enemies  had  gone  so  far  as  to  demand  the 
suppression  of  this  costly  organ  of  administration,  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  simple  correspondent.  During  six  sessions  the 
struggle  was  warm.  Finally  a  committee  was  appointed  with 
the  printer  Doblin  as  secretary,  and  the  resolution  that  it  pre- 


HISTOBY  OP  GERMAN  TBADB  UNIONS.  491 

sented,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  details,  was  adopted.  The 
commission  remained,  but  its  income  was  reduced  from  five  to 
three  pfennig  per  member  quarterly.  It  was  refused  the  right 
to  form  an  independent  strike  ftmd,  and  another  committee  was 
established  alongside  of  it  composed  of  delegates  from  the  gov- 
erning boards  of  the  unions  having  the  duty  of  keei^ng  trac^  of 
its  work. 

It  continued  to  live,  and  its  existence  proved  precisely  that 
the  great  majority  of  Socialist  unions  had  decided  to  carry  on 
alongside  of,  and.  apart  from,  their  political  activity,  the  work 
which  properly  belonged  to  them — that  properly  constituted  their 
work — ^the  preservation  and  development  within  the  present  so- 
ciety of  proletarian  strength.  This  was  henceforth  possible. 
Their  organization  was  assured,  and  it  began  to  be  unanimously 
accepted  by  all.  Most  important  of  all,  after  these  years  of  trial 
and  internal  preparation,  they  had  the  necessary  men.  A  union 
i  personnelle  had  been  formed  of  tried  and  true  minds,  business  men 

'  of  the  proletariat  who  joined  to  financial  and  tactical  skill,  firm 

devotion  and  energetic  hopefulness.  Of  these,  we  may  notice 
among  others  Legien,  the  president  of  the  General  Commission, 
Von  Elm  of  Hamburg,  Martin  Secitz  of  Nuremburg;  Timm, 
at  present  in  Munich,  Doblin,  typesetter,  and  Otto  Hue,  a  miner, 
all  fighters  from  the  beginning. 

When  German  industry  suddenly  leaped  forward,  the  unions 
were  ready. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  UPWARD  FLIGHT. 

1895—1903. 

In  1895  money  flowed  into  the  German  banks.  Industries 
more  and  more  concentrated,  had  perfected  their  technical  equip- 
ment. Reserved  forces  of  men  and  money  were  at  hand.  The 
slightest  start  sufficed  to  set  things  in  motion.  It  was  the  appli- 
cation of  electricity  which  gave  this  start.  Motive  force,  illumi- 
nation, tramways  multipled  in  every  city;  then  came  the  fac- 
\  tories  for  their  construction;  finally,  in  order  to  supply  these, 

metal  working  and  mining  also  prospered.  Corporations  were 
once  more  seeking  for  capital;  161  were  founded  In  1895;  182 
in  1896;  254  in  1^7;  329  in  1898;  364  in  1899,  and  261  in  1900. 
Thanks  to  these  the  great  industry  was  able  to  expand  its  ener- 
gies. 

Then  it  was  that  within  the  working  masses,  increased  and 
consolidated,  the  union  organizations  grew  rapidly  in  number 
and  in  power.  The  Hirsch-Duncker  unions  passed  from  70,000 
members  in  1895  to  80,000  in  1897,  and  the  centralized  unions 
(Socisdist),  whidi  for  four  years  had  oscillated  between  237,000 


492  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

in  1892  to  246,000  members  in  1804,  passed  from  259,175  in 
1895,  to  329,230  in  1896,  and  to  4^2,359  in  1897. 

Finally,  that  portion  of  the  working  class  txipulation  which 
had  not  yet  been  reached  by  the  idea  of  freedom,  experienced  the 
practical  necessity  of  trade  organization.  The  political  narties 
which  included  these  classes  in  their  clientele,  such  as  the  Chris- 
tian Social  and  Catholic  Center  party,  commenced  as  a  counter 
movement  to  concern  themselves  with  these  matters. 

♦        ♦        * 

During  the  years  from  1894  to  1897  the  first*  Christian  unions 
were  founded  and  the  rapidity  of  their  development  was  aston- 
ishing. 

To  be  sure  they  had  their  origin  in  a  movement  which  was 
already  old.  In  the  first  period  of  capitalism,  amid  a  backward 
proletariat,  the  clergy  inevitably  exercise  an  influence.  At  this 
time  the  belief  still  rules  that  charity  can  alleviate  or  even  cure 
the  strange  social  evils  that  are  manifesting  themselves,  and 
those  who  preach  charity  receive  attention.  The  hopes  of  the 
laborers,  who  were  organized,  directed  and  restrained  by  the 
clergy,  served  then  to  reinforce  these  clerical  philanthropies. 
More  especially,  in  this  Germany  of  the  middle  of  the  19th  cen- 
tury, still  so  profoundly  bound  to  medieval  life,  the  old  tradition, 
which  placed  mutual  associations  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Church,  lasted  for  a  long  time.  Accordingly,  the  movement  of 
social  Christianity  which  commenced  in  i860  with  the  work  of 
Bishop  Ketteler,  of  Mayence,  a  contemporary  of  Lassalle,  and 
which  manifested  itself  in  Bavaria,  in  Westphalia,  and  in  the 
Rhine  country  of  Prussia,  by  the  founding  of  important  Catholic 
Labor  Societies,  has  since  the  initiative  of  Stocker  in  1877,  ^md 
those  of  the  miner  Fischer  in  1882,  at  Gelsenkirchen  found  an 
imitation  in  the  Lutheran  world.  The  Popular  Association  for 
German  Catholics  and  the  General  Union  of  Evangelical  Labor- 
ers' Societies  of  Germany  include,  even  to-day,  nearly  300,000 
workers. 

Now,  about  1891  and  1892  the  workers  in  these  societies  per- 
ceived that  it  was  not  sufficient  "to  awake  and  develop  among 
their  co-religionists  the  Evangelical  or  Catholic  sentiment"  in 
order  to  better  their  condition.  They  often  saw  in  their  various 
trades  the  influence  exercised  by  the  unions  of  the  detested  so- 
cialists and  the  indispensable  value  of  trade  organizations  became 
evident  to  them. 

In  1891  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Catholic  Laborers'  Societies, 
Dr.  Oberdorffer,  in  order  to  meet  this  need,  proposed  the  creation 
of  trade  sections  (Fachabteilungen)  within  the  societies.  Dr. 
Hitze,  another  leader,  placed  this  idea  in  the  by-laws,  and  in  1894 
the  General  Assemblage  of  the  Presidents  of  Catholic  Workers' 
Societies  at  Wurtzbourg  adopted  them.    These  sections  had  for 


niSTOBY  OF  GERMAN   TRADE  ITNIONS.  498 

their  objects  trade  education,  knowledge  of  labor  legislation,  and 
"finally  an  appeal  to  the  employers,  authorities,  and  government 
for  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  workers."  The  strike 
was  even  contemplated  as  a  last  resort. 

The  idea  had  little  success;  very  few  sections  were  founded. 
If  trade  action  was  necessary,  should  it  be  limited  to  those  faith- 
ful to  a  certain  Church?  Strong,  numerous  societies  were  neces- 
sary. But  could  they  unite  with  the  unbelieving  liberals,  or  with 
the  socialists,  those  organizers  of  the  class  struggle  ?  No,  certain- 
ly not.  Nothing  was  left  then  but  a  union  of  Christians,  of  those 
who  believed  in  God,  in  the  present  society,  and  who  agreed  in 
hating  the  "fatherlandless  socialists."  But  the  leaders  still  hesi- 
tated about  preaching  even  such  a  union. 

It  was  the  initiative  of  the  workers  which  decided  and  the 
leaders  followed.  In  1894,  when  six  delegates  of  a  Socialist 
Union  had  claimed  to  represent  all  the  miners  of  the  valley  of 
the  Ruhr  at  an  International  Congress  held  in  Berlin,  a  great  pro- 
testing movement  included  unanimously  all  the  non-socialists. 
Catholic  or  evangelical.  On  Oct.  28,  1894,  under  the  name  of  the 
Ubion  of  the  Christian  miners  of  Dortmund,  there  was  formed  at 
Essen  the  first  Christian  union.  It  had  a  clearly  trade  character ; 
it  declared  that  if  necessary  it  would  not  reject  the  strike  as  a 
means  of  carrying  through  its  otherwise  moderate  demands. 

So  it  was  that  the  question  of  faith  became  of  secondary  im- 
portance. The  two  confessions  no  longer  sought  to  use  the  trade 
unions  as  a  means  of  propaganda.  They  wished  to  "suppress  the 
old  quarrels."  Henceforth  they  had  only  one  object,  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  workers  from  socialist  propaganda,  and  to  keep  them 
under  their  control.  Since  trade  activity  alone,  of  a  purely  labor- 
ing class  character,  without  external  control,  might  perhaps  lead 
to  an  understanding  with  the  socialists,  representatives  of  the  two 
Churches  undertook  to  conduct  the  movement  together.  The 
formula  has  been  frequently  repeated  in  their  brochures  and  their 
congresses  "the  word  Christian  signifies  anti-socialist." 

These  two  parties  had  seen  correctly  and  it  was  time.  Such 
was  the  need  of  organization  that  the  example  once  given  was 
immediately  followed.  In  1894  at  Treves  the  railroad  workers,  in 
189s  the  brick-4nakers  of  Lippe,  in  1896  the  textile  workers  of 
Bavaria,  in  1897  the  miners  and  metallurgists  of  Bonn  and  the 
textile  workers  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  founded  Christian  unions. 
All  proclaimed  their  fidelity  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Empire,  their 
opposition  to  socialism  and  their  conciliatory  intentions. 

This  was  all  in  vain  at  least  so  far  as  it  concerned  the  employ- 
ers. Strikes,  like  those  of  the  miners  at  Presberg,  in  1898  demon- 
strated their  repugnance  to  treating  with  their  employers,  even  if 
they  were  Christians. 


494  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIEW. 

Socialists  or  Christians,  indeed,  made  little  diflference  to  the 
employers.  But  during  these  years  of  great  undertakings  this 
new  increase  in  labor  organizations  disquieted  and  annoyed  them. 

By  the  publication  of  the  message  of  February,  1890,  Bueck, 
a  representative  of  the  industrials,  had  already  declared  that  the 
German  employers  would  never  meet  as  equals  the  delegates  from 
labor  organizations.  Alfred  Krupp  at  the  same  time  proclaimed 
that  he  would  be  master  in  his  own  workshop  ''like  a  lord  within 
his  domain." 

Now  during  these  years  of  prosperity,  agreements  as  to  price, 
cartels,  and  trusts,  so  numerous  in  Germany,  came  to  reinforce 
this  patriarchal,  authoritarian  spirit.  To  the  labor  organizations 
were  opposed  employers'  organizations  which  were  all  the 
stronger  because  competition  henceforth  compelled  all  the  pro- 
ducers in  the  same  industry  to  stand  together.  The  idea  of  utiliz- 
ing this  new  power  to  harass  the  working  class  naturally  occurred 
to  the  minds  of  the  most  irreconcilable  of  the  employers.  The 
threat  of  a  systematic  lockout  was  held  over  the  German  pro- 
letariat. 

That  which  made  this  of  still  more  importance  was  that  in 
1897,  owing  to  the  influence  of  a  g^eat  capitalist.  Baron  von 
Stumm,  these  ideas  obtained  favor  in  high  places.  This  was  the 
time  when  German  production  commenced  to  disturb  England  and 
America.  German  pride  saw  itself  master  of  the  world.  The  im- 
perialist dream  began  to  haunt  the  brain  of  the  Emperor.  Capi- 
talist surplus  value  was  an  essential  thing  for  patriotism;  the 
striking  workers  became  traitors  to  the  National  cause.  English 
industry,  Stumm  declared,  is  suffering  from  trade  unionism. 
German  industry  is  strong  only  because  of  the  discipline  which 
still  reigns  within  it.  For  the  glory  of  Germany  it  is  necessary 
that  discipline  be  maintained  within  the  army  of  labor. 

The  unions  experienced  a  final  attack. 

On  the  17th  of  June,  1879,  Wilhelm  II  declared  that  it  was 
necessary  to  suppress  all  attempts  at  uprisings  and  to  punish  with 
the  most  severe  punishment  any  laborer  who  should  prevent  his 
fellow  laborers  who  wished  to  work  from  working. 

On  the  6th  of  September  the  Emperor  announced  that  he 
would  protect  the  National  labor  and  that  the  law  which  solemnly 
promised  liberty  to  those  who  wished  to  work  would  soon  be  pro- 
posed, and  that  this  law  would  send  to  the  penitentiary  "whoever 
should  prevent  a  German  laborer  from  performing  his  work." 

(To  be  Continued.) 


EDITORIAL 


The  Yellow  Kid  in  Politics. 

Gapitalism  generally  appears  to  the  working  clan  as  a  tremendous 
tragedy,  bnt  at  times  it  takes  on  many  of  the  aspects  of  ap^ra  houffe.  This 
is  particularly  true  in  the  field  of  polities.  While  the  whole  exploiting  sys- 
tem rests  on  decqstion,  yet  it  is  in  politics  that  the  veil  is  the  thinnest  and 
consequently  the  paint  and  gewgaws  most  lavish. 

In  the  presidential  boom  of  W.  B.  Hearst  there  are  all  the  features  of  a 
first-class  farce,  with,  as  usual  in  present  society,  many  of  the  elements 
of  a  possible  tragedy.  He  is,  in  a  way,  the  very  apotheosis  of  all  that  is 
grotesque  in  capitalism.  The  goods  he  has  for  sale  are  mostly  composed 
of  his  own  personality,  and  he  leaps  into  the  public  market  utilizing  to 
the  fullest  extent  the  knowledge  which  he  possesses  of  advertising.  like 
a  true  capitalist^  he  hires  even  his  thinking,  speaking  and  writing  done  for 


If  Boosevdt  with  his  preaching  of  smug  capitalist  morality,  his  bom- 
bastio  but  genuine  strenuousness,  his  thoroughly  trained  but  capitalistically 
molded  intellect,  his  fearless  and  probably  sincere  defense  of  vested 
tyranny,  and  his  generally  blind  worship  of  all  the  gods  of  bourgeois 
dvilixation,  represents  the  best  that  monopolized  wealth  can  produce,  then 
Hearst  represents  all  that  is  most  contemptible  in  that  same  social  organi- 
sation. Hearst  babbles  of  the  same  morality,  or  at  least  his  hired  writers 
do,  while  the  rottenness  of  his  private  life  is  notorious.  He  seeks  by 
diligent  booming  of  his  own  personality  to  convey  the  same  impression  of 
strenuousness  without  even  the  slight  danger  that  comes  from  shooting 
Spaniards  in  the  back,  and  while  he  seeks  to  pose  as  a  champion  of  the 
oppressed,  and  rails,  by  proxy,  at  social  evils,  he  maintains  his  position  as  a 
beneficiary  of  all  those  evils  and  takes  care  never  to  strike  at  a  vital  spot. 

A  eontest  between  the  two  would  be  a  glorious  spectacular  end  to  the 
long  tragical  farce  of  bourgeois  civilization. 

The  old  line  politicians,  who  recognize  that  a  certain  amount  of  reepeet 
and  reverence  for  an  institution  assists  in  maintaining  its  permanence^ 
have  always  preitended  that  the  presidency  and  presidential  elections  were 
hedged  about  with  a  sort  of  divinity  that  protected  them  ttom  being 
reckoned  among  the  commodities  in  wldch  traden  of  the  maiicet  trafficked. 
Of  coQxse^  those  who  stand  beUnd  the  scenes  to  pull  the  wires  that  more  the 

m 


496  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

puppets  upon  the  stage  know  that  all  this  is  a  farce,  that  these  elections 
are  but  the  business  affairs  of  the  ruling  class,  and  that  the  battle  of 
ballots  is,  while  the  workers  remain  unconscious  of  their  true  interests,  but 
a  part  of  the  stage  trappings  by  which  the  machinery  is  concealed. 

Hearst  in  his  clown-like  antics  has  pulled  down  a  lot  of  these  trappings, 
and  threatens  to  give  the  whole  game  away.  Not  for  the  benefit  of  the  audi- 
ence, although  he  screams  that  this  is  his  motive;  not  for  the  purpose  of 
abolishing  the  commodity  character  of  the  transaction,  either;  on  the 
contrary,  he  simply  seeks  to  supplant  private  sale  by  public  auction  that 
he  may  make  a  better  bargain.  He  holds  his  assets  in  his  hand,  and  has 
already  shouted  a  first  bid  of  a  two  million  dollar  contribution  to  the 
campaign  fund  to  be  paid  on  delivery  of  the  goods. 

But  he  cannot  hope  to  be  chosen  as  a  satisfactory  actor  until  he  has 
demonstrated  his  ability  to  amuse  the  audience.  He  needs  popularity. 
This  also  can  be  purchased.  A  number  of  newspapers  and  a  press  bureau 
to  work  up  public  opinion,  with  an  army  of  paid  organizers  to  manufacture 
enthusiasm  and  create  a  '^ popular  demand,"  will  supply  this  deficiency. 
All  this  is  good  business  and  testifies  to  Mr.  Hearst's  ability  to  analyze 
the  capitalist  system — or  to  hire  the  right  man  to  analyze  it  for  him. 

A  part  of  the  make-up  for  a  presidential  candidate  is  a  set  of  princi- 
ples. Here,  too,  Hearst  easily  leaves  all  his  competitors  far  in  the  rear. 
Applying  up-to-date  capitalist  methods,  he  syndicates  the  preparation  and 
publication  of  his  principles,  and  with  his  organized  staff  of  clever  writers 
easily  out-competes  the  individual  efforts  of  other  candidates.  He  delivers 
most  eloquent  speeches  (in  print)  at  places  w^here  ''other  engagements'' 
prevent  him  from  being  physically  present.  His  name  is  signed  to  re- 
sounding editorials,  pleading  all  kinds  of  causes,  but  no  one  ever  saw  him 
writing  any  of  these,  although  his  photograph,  taken  in  the  attitude  of 
thinking  these  great  thoughts,  has  been  published  several  times. 

Realizing  with  true  mercantile  insight  the  necessity  of  a  varied  line  of 
goods,  he  has  a  set  of  principles  to  suit  all  kinds  of  customers.  He  is  for 
the  destruction  of  *'crinUnal  trusts,"  but  in  favor  of  "legitimate  com- 
binations." He  proves  that  he  is  a  democrat  by  the  fact  that  he  has 
supported  both  Bryan  and  Cleveland  on  diametrically  opposite  platforms. 
He  is  a  municipal  reformer  in  Chicago,  a  Tammany  man  in  New  York, 
while  he  trains  with  the  labor  party  in  San  Francisco.  His  long  suit,  how- 
ever, is  his  friendship  for  union  labor,  although  even  here  he  keeps  a  strong 
line  out  to  windward  by  repeatedly  affirming  his  belief  in  the  conservation 
of  business  interests.  His  friendship  for  union  labor  is  shown  largely  in 
the  number  of  broken-down  fakirs  that  he  keeps  upon  his  pay  rolls. 

His  able  editors,  especially  Albert  Brisbane,  who  heads  the  staff  and 
who  bears  a  name  that  should  have  remained  honorable  in  the  history  of 
social  movements,  have  told  him  of  the  rising  tide  of  socialist  thought 
that  is  sweeping  over  the  capitalist  world,  and  that  this  movement  is  an 
integral  part  of  industrial  evolution  and  is  certain  of  victory.  At  once 
Mr.  Hearst  concludes  that  he  will  hitch  his  chariot  on  behind,  far  enough 
behind  to  be  out  of  danger,  but  sufficiently  close  so  that  he  hopes  it  can 


EDITORIAL.  49r 

bear  him  on  to  power.  He  has  caught  that  portion  of  the  socialist  philos- 
ophy which  declares  that  labor  shall  be  triumphant,  and,  mixing  with  it  just 
enough  of  a  muddled  collectivism  to  make  the  counterfeit  easier  to  pass,  he 
seeks  to  pose  as  the  great  labor  candidate.  In  this  connection  he  loudly 
champions  labor  in  general,  but  keeps  away  from  particular  instances  of 
injustice. 

So  it  is  that  with  all  of  his  extensive  news  staff  there  are  several  things 
that  seem  to  have  escaped  his  attention.  At  one  time  he  saw  something 
of  child  labor  in  the  South,  and  then  it  occurred  to  him  that  Southern 
democratic  politicians  had  something  to  do  with  nominating  the  president 
for  the  Democratic  party,  and  since  then  he  has  been  content  to  let  the 
children  suffer  without  his  sympathy.  If  we  are  to  believe  him,  he  pre- 
vented a  Kisehineff  massacre,  and  is  the  special  protector  of  the  Filipinos. 
He  howls  praises  of  universal  suffrage  up  North  and  advises  negro  dis- 
franchisement down  South.  He  can  gain  the  slightest  details  of  a  Russian 
massacre,  even  if  he  has  to  send  special  correspondents  to  the  spot,  but  up  to 
the  present  time  he  has  heard  nothing  of  the  military  outrages  in  Colorado. 
At  first  sight  this  would  seem  just  the  sort  of  thing  that  he  would  revel  in. 
It  is  certainly  sensational  enough.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
and  of  Colorado  have  been  used  as  a  football;  union  laborers  and  their 
families  have  been  driven  from  their  homes,  the  militia  used  as  a  private 
police  force,  and  all  this  by  an  organization  whose  avowed  object  is  to 
crush  those  for  whom  Mr.  Hearst  professes  his  love,  the  trade  unions. 
Nevertheless,  Colorado  might  as  well  have  been— and,  indeed,  far  better,  so 
far  as  the  Hearst  news  gathering  force  is  concerned— located  on  an  island 
in  the  midst  of  the  Pacific,  with  all  communications  cut  off.  Of  course,  the 
fact  that  Mr.  Hearst  is  a  heavy  stockholder  in  silver  mines,  in  which  mem- 
bers of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners  are  working,  and  that  those 
miners  are  actually  taking  his  advice  and  voting  for  their  own  interests 
as  a  class,  may  have  helped  to  blind  the  eyes  of  his  reporters,  especially 
as  these  votes  promise  to  be  given  to  the  Socialist  party. 

In  spite  of  all  his  ability  as  an  advertiser  and  an  exploiter  of  other 
men's  intellects,  Hearst  would  be  of  little  importance  were  it  not  for  his 
value  as  the  ''circus"  portion  of  the  ''bread  and  circus"  programme 
upon  which  much  of  the  support  of  capitalism  depends.  It  is  probable 
that  even  his  extraordinary  energies  at  blowing  his  own  horn  would  have 
failed  to  attract  attention,  had  it  not  been  that  something  of  his  character 
was  needed  just  at  this  time  by  the  ruling  class  of  America.  If  this 
"yellow  kid"  can  be  dangled  before  the  eyes  of  the  American  working 
class  for  a  few  years,  it  will  serve  to  attract  their  attention  from  other 
matters  whose  consideration  might  prove  dangerous  to  their  masters.  So 
it  is  that  we  begin  to  see  some  of  the  Wall  street  journals  looking  with 
half  favor  upon  the  Hearst  candidacy  and  items  are  now  going  the  rounds 
of  that  portion  of  the  press  where  such  items  will  do  the  most  good  to 
the  effect  that  Hearst  is  a  "safe"  candidate,  and  that  "business  interests" 
would  not  be  hindered  by  his  success.  It  is  always  dangerous  to  impute 
too  great  a  comprehension  of  social  phenomena  and  too  thorough  a  class 


498  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIBW. 

conBcionsnees  to  the  repreeentatiYes  of  capitalism.  But  it  would  require  no 
more  intelligence  than  is  possessed  by  the  average  capitalist  journalist  to 
reason  out  that  with  a  coming  industrial  depression  it  might  not  be  a  bad 
idea  to  foist  Hearst  to  the  front  and  then  label  him  ''socialism"  and  de- 
clare that  he  was  responsible  for  the  hard  times  that  accompanied  his 
prominence,  and  it  is  this  fact  alone  which  makes  his  boom  anything  of  a 
serious  matter. 

Even,  in  view  of  all  these  considerations,  we  still  adhere  to  the  belief 
expressed  some  months  ago  that  the  Hearst  boom  will  fail  to  materialiM. 
But  it  .is  well  to  be  forewarned  from  all  points,  and  if  this  bubble  is  to 
be  pricked  and  the  true  inwardness  of  the  matter  to  be  shown  up,  it  must 
be  done  by  the  only  ones  who  have  no  interests  to  conserve  by  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  capitalist  domination  which  that  boom  can  but  help  to 
prolong.  Henc^  it  is  well  worth  the  while  of  the  socialists  to  devote  a  little 
space  to  it  just  at  this  time  by  pointing  out  to  the  worker  the  farcical 
character  of  the  whole  matter. 


Owing  to  a  combination  of  errors  we  were  led  to  believe  that  the  MSS. 
on  Marxian  Idealism  was  written  by  Jean  Longuet,  but  a  note  from  Com- 
rade Longuet  informs  us  that  its  author  is  Comrade  Emile  Yandervelde, 
and  it  is  so  credited  in  this  issue.  We  feel  that,  while  we  cannot  agree 
with  many  of  the  positions  taken,  it  is  one  of  the  most  scholarly  presenta- 
tions of  this  phase  of  Socialism  ever  published. 


SOCIALISM    ABROAD 


Australia. 

The  following  from  our  special  correspondent,  Andrew  M.  Anderson,  is 
interesting  in  view  of  the  fact  that  some  Socialist  papers  have  been  haibng 
the  election  of  fifteen  ''labor"  members  in  Australia  as  a  Socialist  yictory: 

The  first  parliament  of  the  Australian  Gonmionwealth  has  now  been 
dissolved  and  the  work  of  fooling  the  Australian  people  is  now  b^g  car- 
ried on  merrily  by  candidates  of  various  kinds. 

The  two  ^eat  parties  in  the  first  Federal  Parliament  were  the  Protec- 
tionists and  Free-Traders.  These  parties  were  almost  numerically  equsJ, 
but  the  Labor  party,  holding  the  balance  of  power,  gave  a  general  support 
to  the  Protectionists,  who  were  thus  enabled  to  control  the  legieJation. 
The  tariff  bill  occupied  a  very  large  portion  of  the  time  of  the  parlia- 
ment^ and  a  tariff  of  a  somewhat  protective  nature  was  evolved.  The 
Labor  party  gave  the  government  liberal  support  on  this  question,  with 
but  two  exceptions.  SeSing,  however,  an  opportunity  of  making  a  bid  for 
popularity  they  comuineu  with  the  free-traders  and  abolished  the  duties 
on  tea  and  kerosene^ 

Adult  suffrage  has  been  obtained.  An  immigration  restriction  bill  and 
a  South  Sea  le^nders'  bill  (for  the  purpose  of  abolishing  Kanaka  labor 
on  sugar  plantations)  have  been  passed.  In  the  Federal  public  service 
bill  a  minimum  wage-clause  has  been  inserted,  giving  all  federal  employees 
over  21  a  salary  of  at  least  £jl20  per  annum.  By  the  same  act,  the  rate 
of  pay  given  to  females  is  m^de  equal  to  that  paid  to  male  employees. 
By  the  postal  act  mail  boats  are  prohibited  from  employing  colored  labor. 

For  all  of  these  pieces  of  legislation  the  Labor  party  claims  chief 
credit,  but  it  is  very  probable  that  most,  if  not  all,  of  these  measures 
would  have  become  law  even  if  there  had  been  no  Labor  party  in  the 
parliament.  The  Australian  citizen  has  a  taste  for  pseudo-democratic  meas- 
ures and  institutions,  and  these  measures  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the 
reward  of  the  agitation  which  existed  in  the  country  during  the  '90s,  and 
which  created  the  Labor  party  itself.  In  proof  of  this  contention,  it  may 
be  pointed  out  that  the  Federal  Constitution  necessitated  the  granting  of 
aduH  suffrage.  This  constitution  was  drawn  up  by  a  convention  at  which 
labor  had  not  a  single  representative.  It  Ib  the  movement  in  the  country 
rather  than  the  faction  in  the  house  which  has  accomplished  the  above 
results.  It  is  true  that  all  of  these  questions  found  a  |Hace  in  the  Labor 
program.  The  Federal  government,  anxious  to  gain  support  and  seeing 
that  no  vital  principle  was  involved,  have  allowed  the  Labor  party  to 
believe  that  it  has  coerced  them  into  granting  these  reforms. 

A  Federal  High  Court  has  been  established  very  similar  in  constitution 
to  the  American  one,  and  no  opposition  was  offered  to  it  I7  the  Labor 

m 


500  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

Most  of  these  measures  have  been  referred  to  as  ''socialistic  legisla- 
tion," both  by  laborites  and  their  opponents.  Indeed,  the  candidates  en- 
dorsed by  the  Employers'  Federation  (of  the  Eastern  states)  have  boldly 
announced  their  opposition  to  *  *  socialistic  legislation.  *  *  Their  speeches  are 
full  of  references  to  socialism,  but  the  labor  candidates  are  generally 
content  to  refer  to  it  as  a  bogey  got  up  to  frighten  electors.  A  few  of 
the  labor  candidates,  indeed,  have  said  they  are  Socialists,  but  they  man- 
age to  drop  the  subject  there.  Some  of  them  even  venture  to  say  that 
their  opponents  are  socialistic  when  it  suits  them.  The  most  lengthy  and 
pronounced  reference  to  socialism  yet  made  by  a  Labor  candidate  was 
full  of  reference  to  the  postoffice  and  the  extension  of  public  ownership. 
One  cannot  help  wondering  why  the  Federal  High  Ck>urt  is  not  quoted  as 
an  instalment  of  socialism.  No  word  of  the  class  struggle  anywhere 
escapes  from  the  lips  of  labor  candidates.  At  present  the  philosopher's 
stone,  which  is  going  to  transform  the  worker's  economic  slavery  into 
independence,  ig  compulsory  conciliation  and  arbitration.  In  New  South 
Wales  the  Labor  candidate  for  the  senate,  speaking  on  this  all-absorbing 
theme,  said  that  in  New  South  Wales  "it  had  proved  a  greater  boon  to  the 
fair  employer  than  to  any  other  class." 

The  Federal  Labor  leader  has  not  a  word  to  say  on  Socialism  in  his 
address  to  his  electors.  He  has  already  announced  himself  as  a  hearty 
supporter  of  Chamberlain's  preferential  tariff  scheme.  Several  other 
members  of  the  party  have  also  expressed  their  sympathy  with  it.  The 
following  extract  from  a  speech  by  a  Tasmanian  Labor  candidate  is  inter- 
esting, affording  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  Labor  party  has  simply  become 
a  vote-catching  machine. 

''He  had  worked  for  three  hours  to  induce  his  party  to  keep  the  duty 
on  potatoes,  and  if  the  farmers  would  support  him  he  would  fight  to  have 
that  duty  retained;  but  if  he  got  no  support  from  the  farmers,  and  was 
elected  by  the  miners,  who  were  free-traders,  he  warned  the  farmers  that 
he  would  vote  to  have  the  duty  taken  off." 

Labor  members  have,  in  fact,  become  professional  politicians,  and  are 
unwilling  to  allow  their  own  interests  to  be  sacrificed  in  any  way.  At 
present  they  are  striving  to  raise  the  salary  of  Federal  representatives 
and  senators  from  £400  to  £500  per  annum. 

In  New  South  Wales  alone  have  we  class-conscious  Socialist  candidates. 
There  the  Australian  Socialist  League  are  putting  forward  three  candi- 
dates for  the  senate.  It  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  their  efforts  wUl 
be  crowned  with  success,  but  the  conducting  of  the  campaign  will  be  excel- 
lent propaganda  Work  and  will  serve  to  show  the  straight-out  Socialist  vote 
of  New  South  Wales. 


France. 

There  seems  to  be  considerable  disruption  in  the  Opportunist  wing  of 
the  French  Socialist  party.  Millerand  recently  voted  against  a  proposition 
for  universal  disarmament,  and  as  a  consequence  was  expelled  from  the 
party.  Just  how  much  this  really  means,  it  is  hard  to  tell.  Le  Socialiaie, 
the  organ  of  the  revolutionary  Socialists,  declares  that  it  is  simply  an 
effort  to  make  Millerand  a  scapegoat  upon  which  can  be  unloaded  all  the 
sins  of  the  Jaures  faction  after  which  he  can  be  driven  out,  while  the  party 
will  really  remain  as  opportunist  as  ever.  Jaures  has  left  La  Petite 
Bepublique  and  has  founded  another  paper.  The  Tw/entieth  Century.  Ge- 
rault-Bichard  remains  with  the  old  paper.  Jaures  gives  as  an  excuse  that 
the  financial  management  of  the  paper  was  engaging  in  all  kinds  of  speea- 
lations  of  which  he  did  not  approve. 


SOCIALISM  ABROAD.  501 

Italy. 

Since  Ferri  has  taken  charge  of  the  Avanii  it  haa  doubled  its  circula- 
tion soTeral  times,  and  now  issues  55,000  copies  daily.  It  has  added  several 
men  to  its  editorial  staff  and  is  about  to  inaugurate  extensive  mechanical 
improvements  which  wiU  enable  it  to  meet  its  increased  demands. 

The  Ubel  suit  against  Ferri  by  the  former  Minister  of  Marine,  Bettolo, ' 
lias  proved  a  great  opportunity  for  the  Socialists  to  expose  the  general 
rottenness  of  the  government.  Ferri  has  already  much  more  than  made 
good  the  truth  of  the  charges  for  which  the  suit  was  originally  brought. 


Japan. 


Sen  Katayama,  the  editor  of  The  Sodalist,  is  at  present  in  Texas, 
having  arrived  in  this  country  a  few  weeks  ago.  He  proposes  to  spend 
some  time  in  the  Southwestern  states  in  an  endeavor  to  organize  the 
Japanese  into  the  Socialist  party. 

The  Socialists  of  Japan  held  a  meeting  on  October  8,  in  which  a  resolu- 
tion was  adopted  opposing  ahy  war  between  Japan  and  Bussia,  and  de- 
claring their  adherence  to  the  principles  of  universal  peace. 


Russia. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  principal  workers  in  the  Socialist  move- 
ment in  Bussia  have  been  sent  to  Siberia,  their  activity  still  continues,  as 
the  following  extract  from  a  secret  official  circular,  which  has  recently 
been  sent  to  the  police  officials  of  Siberia,  shows:  "We  have  informa- 
tion that  the  political  exiles  are  still  in  direct  communication  with  the 
laborers  and  with  the  members  of  the  revolutionary  committees,  and  are 
thereby  enabled  to  actively  participate  in  their  illegal  activity.  In  this 
manner  the  exiling  of  the  persons  to  Sibeva  fails  of  accomplishing  its  pur- 
pose. This  matter  must  be  brought  to  the  attention  of  all  the  police  in 
order  that  such  persons  may  be  more  closely  observed,  and  in  all  places 
where  political  exiles  are  located,  police  supervision  must  be  made  more 
strict  and  daily  reports  sent  in  concerning  all  political  exiles.  Where  a 
suspicion  arises  that  such  people  are  still  active  in  revolutionary  circles,  or 
have  relations  with  them,  unexpected  searches  of  their  domiciles  by  the 
police  should  at  once  be  undertaken.  The  houses  of  the  exiles  should  be 
visited  as  often  as  possible  by  the  police  and  their  whole  correspondence 
must  be  thoroughly  investigated." 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


Senator  M.  A.  Hanna,  boss  of  the  Bepoblican  party  and  president,  of 
the  National  Civie  Federation,  has  made  a  statement  several  times  during 
the  past  month  that  is  quite  surprising,  coming,  as  it  does,  from  such  a 
source.  In  an  interview  with  Mr.  Frauk  Carpenter,  the  well-known  jour- 
nalist and  syndicate  writer,  Senator  Hanna,  in  reply  to  the  question,  "If 
labor  and  capital  are  to  combine,  will  not  the  public  be  ground  between 
the  upper  and  nether  mill  stones  of  high  wages  and  high  prices!"  replied 
as  follows:  "The  public  I  What  is  the  pubUcf  In  our  country  it  is  made 
up  of  capitalists  and  laborers.  With  the  exception  of  a  very  few,  every  - 
man  in  the  United  States  is  an  employer  or  an  employe.  We  are  all 
workingmen.  Some  of  us  work  with  our  brains  and  others  with  our  hands, 
and  the  employers,  as  a  rule,  work  the  hardest."  The  salient  point  in 
this  frank  statement  is  that  Hanna  is  further  advanced  than  some  work- 
ingmen and  union  officials,  who  actually  believe,  or  at  least  pretend  to, 
that  there  is  a  third  party,  or  separate  class,  called  "the  public."  In  the 
February  number  of  the  National  Magazine,  published  at  Boston,  Senator 
Hanna  again  declares,  in  an  article  contributed  to  that  journal:  "It  is 
often  asked  what  is  to  become  of  the  non-organized  consumer  if  an 
a^licable  alliance  is  made  between  labor  and  capital  f  But  every  man  be- 
longs either  to  the  one  or  the  other  group ;  for  that  matter,  he  is  likely  to 
belong  to  both."  Probably  now  that  their  prophet  has  admitted  that 
the  contentions  of  the  Socialists  are  correct — ^viz.,  that  there  are  no  other 
factors  in  social  production  except  labor  and  capital,  and  that  the  mys- 
terious third  party,  "the  public,"  has  been  harped  about  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  obscure  the  class  struggle,  some  so-called  labor  leaders  will 
also  change  their  views.  Quite  likely,  too,  the  capitalists  and  laborites  of 
the  Civic  Federation,  under  the  leadership  of  Messrs.  Hanna  and  Gompers, 
will  also  be  consistent  and  dump  Grover  Cleveland,  Archbishop  Ireland, 
Bishop  Potter  and  other  capitalists  or  their  sympathizers  from  that  organ- 
ization. Despite  the  fact  that  Senator  Hanna  has  made  the  above  im- 
portant admission  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  his  scheme  to  make  organized 
labor  and  capital  "partners,"  and  to  check  the  spread  of  Socialism  among 
the  workers,  his  bold  declaration  is  a  distinct  gain  toward  dissipating  some 
heavy  clouds  of  confusion,  and  the  Socialists  can  be  ever  so  much  obUged 
to  him. 

Industrially  the  outlook  has  not  improved  very  much  during  the  past 
month,  and  if  anything  the  class  struggle  between  the  organized  forces 
of  labor  and  capital  is  becoming  more  intensified.  Undoubtedly  some  of 
our  friends  who  are  still  singing  the  song  of  "harmony,"  though  in  a 
weak  voice,  will  accuse  the  "wicked"  Socialists  of  being  pleased  with 
the  situation.  But  that  peevish  position  does  not  change  the  conditions,  for 
which  not  the  Socialists,  but  their  opponents  alone,  are  responsible. 
Facts  are  stubborn  things  and  will  not  down,  no  matter  how  much  ill- 
temper  is  displayed.     As  if  by  magic,  wage  increases  and  movements  to 

502 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOB.  503 

shorten  houra  have  almost  ceased,  and  organized  labor  is  now  on  tiie  de- 
fensivoy  fighting  to  hold  what  it  has  gained  during  the  past  few  years  by 
hard  straggles. 

It  will  be  reeaUed  that  folly  a  hundred  thousand  textile  workers  of 
New  England  were  eompclled  to  accept  a  redaction  of  10  per  cent  in  their 
already  scant  wages  in  order  to  cheapen  production  and  stimulate  oon- 
somption.  But  it  seems  that  this  wonderful  scheme  of  capitalistic  econ- 
omy does  not  seem  to  solve  the  problem,  and  so  the  bosses  of  New  England 
and  the  South  have  selected  a  committee  to  work  out  a  plan  to  close  some 
or  all  mills  from  time  to  time  in  order  to  "restrict  the  output"  and  main- 
tain prices.  Thus  the  poor  wagenalayes  of  the  textile  mills  are  to  haye 
their  meager  earnings  still  further  reduced,  and  just  how  the  destruction 
of  tMr  purchasing  power  will  help  matters  the  bosses  don't  pretend  to 
say.  And  they  don't  care  as  long  as  their  profits  are  forthcominff,  eyen 
though  they  are  coined  out  of  the  muscle  and  bone  of  half -staryed  men, 
women  and  children. 

The  iron  and  steel  workers  have  accepted  their  reductions,  ranging 
from  5  to  40  per  cent,  and  it  is  calculated  that  the  hard-worked  magnates 
(Senator  Hanna  says  most  capitalists  work  harder  than  laboring  men) 
will  ''economize"  $40,000,000  to  $50,000,000  a  year  in  wages  alone.  But 
the  Morgan-Bockefeller  crowd  in  the  United  Btates  Steel  Corporation  is 
going  to  clean  up  a  bit  of  spending  money  besides  the  direct  wage  cut, 
and  the  same  workers  who  were  flim-flamed  with  a  watered  stock  scheme 
last  year  will  be  required  to  take  another  chance  "to  get  rich  quick." 
Secretary  Trimble  of  the  trust  has  announced  that  sto^  will  again  be 
sold  to  employes — ^this  time  at  $55  per  share.  Last  year  some  28,000  men 
purchased  about  40,000  shares  of  stock,  with  the  expectation  of  becoming 
petite  Morgans,  and  incidentally  to  hold  their  jobs.  They  paid  $82.50  per 
share,  but  the  price  dropped  to  $49.75,  a  loss  of  $32.75  a  share*  or  a 
total  of  $1,310,000  was  shorn  from  the  bleating  lambs.  Now,  since  these 
same  workers  haye  stood  for  wages  redactions  and  insured  diWdends  for 
the.  fat  men  at  the  top  of  the  heap,  the  price  has  advanced  to  about  $57 
per  share.  Of  course,  some  of  those  workers  with  capitalistic  minds  will 
be  sure  to  nibble  at  the  bait  again— it  means  that  their  jobs  will  be  safer 
than  those  of  the  men  who  refuse  to  be  robbed  in  such  a  barefaced  maimer. 
Protection  has  been  a  great  thing  for  those  iron  and  steel  workers.  They 
have  had  a  nice  dose  of  piling  up  hundreds  of  million  dollars  for  the 
Camegies  and  Fricks,  and  now  they  are  going  to  do  the  same  good  turn  for 
the  BockefeUers  and  Morgans. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  recently  issued  several  barrels  of 
statistics,  which,  sifted  down  to  an  intelligible  basis,  show  that  as  a  whole 
wages  daring  the  good  times  last  year  were  but  a  few  pennies  higher  than 
in  the  panicky  year  of  1896,  when  gold-bug  parades  were  organized  by  such 
gentlemen  as  Chief  Sargent,  or  the  firemen,  to  shout  for  "prosperity," 
and  likewise  help  the  manipulators  into  offtce.  The  commission's  report 
also  shows  that  the  earnings  of  the  railways  have  increased  $34,000,000,  and 
that  freight  rates  have  been  advanced  by  concerted  action  and  competition 
eliminate.  '  *  No  assurance  of  a  decline  in  rates  is  apparent, ' '  says  the  report, 
"and  there  ii^*  no  way  the  advances  can  be  prevented."  Tet  these  mag- 
nates, who  have  advanced  freight  rates,  increased  their  profits  and  kill^ 
competition,  are  now  busily  chopping  down  wages  and  laying  off  men. 
Daily  papers  in  Chicago  and  other  railway  centers  announce  that  thousands 
of  men  have  been  laid  off  during  the  last  few  months,  and  that  many  more 
will  follow.  On  the  other  hand  railroad  men  throughout  the  country  com- 
plain that  the  tendency  of  the  raUways  is  to  put  constantly  increasing 
tasks  upon  them.  Engines  are  built  larger  and  heavier  every  year  and  are 
now  drawing  twice  the  number  of  cars  they  were  a  few  years  ago,  but  the 


504  THE  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  KEVIEW. 

same  number  of  employes  are  allowed  to  the  train.  Still  another  cause  of 
complaint  is  the  recent  order  of  the  postmaster  general,  which  will  have 
the  effect  of  making  every  train  in  the  United  States  a  mail  carrier  and  as 
such  will  be  under  the  protection  of  the  government.  The  railroaders  claim 
that' the  order  is  unjust^  and  they  will  use  every  effort  to  defeat  any  bill 
providing  for  the  appropriation  of  funds  to  pay  train  baggagemen  in  addi- 
tion to  their  wages  from  the  railroad  companies  for  the  lumdling  of  pack- 
ages of  paper  mail,  which  is  the  purpose  of  the  order.  ''There  is  no  ques- 
tion  but  that  this  innovation,^'  says  the  official  journal  of  the  trainmen, 
''was  the  inspiration  of  the  railway  managers  rather  than  the  postoffice 
department. ' ' 

At  this  writing  the  miners  are  sparring  with  the  operators  of  the  bi- 
tuminous coal  fields  to  ward  off  the  long  threatened  reduction  of  wages.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  predict  what  the  outcome  will  be.  One  miners'  dele- 
gate put  the  situation  in  a  nutshell:  "The  operators  want  more  money,  and 
if  they  don't  get  it  in  the  shape  of  a  wage  reduction  it  will  come  in  some 
other  way,  such  as  raising  prices  of  supplies,  rents,  etc.,  or  laying  off 
men  and  holding  up  prices."  Quite  a  number  of  men  are  out  resisting 
cuts  in  Pennsylvania,  West  Virginia,  Colorado,  Utah  and  one  or  two 
other  states,  and  the  drain  has  become  so  heavy  on  the  national  treas- 
ury that  the  convention  last  month  was  forced  to  increase  the  per 
capita  tax.  In  the  anthracite  field  the  impression  is  growing  among 
the  men  daily  that  Boosevelt's  strike  commission,  which  brought  the 
"open  shop"  into  prominence  by  refusing  to  recommend  that  tiie  coal 
barons  recognize  and  treat  with  the  union,  was  a  big  bunco  scheme. 
The  miners  claim  that  the  Pennsylvania  Bailroad  Company  and  other 
concerns  in  the  combine  have  blacklisted  some  of  the  hardest  workers 
in  the  cause  of  unionism,  and  that  their  Saturday  half-holiday  and 
shorter  workday  advantages  are  b^ing  brazenly  violated.  In  their  des- 
peration the  men  in  the  Schuylkill  region  appealed  to  the  commission 
to  prevent  the  constant  invasion  of  their  rights,  and  in  a  lengthy  de- 
cision Carroll  D.  Wright,  the  umpire  (and  "workLngman's  friend"), 
not  only  threw  thefn  a  stone,  but  he  actually  went  out  of  his  way  to 
assure  the  Baers  that  the  conditions  existing  before  the  strike  had 
been  unchanged  by  the  commission,  but  that  the  barons  could  make 
whatever  "voluntary  agreements"  they  pleased  with  their  employes. 
Says  Mr.  Wright:  "At  the  expense  of  repetition,  but  in  order  that 
there  may  be  no  misunderstanding,  let  me  recapitulate  the  situation: 
The  anthracite  coal  strike  commission  did  not  reduce  the  hours  of 
labor  of  company  men  from  sixty  to  fifty-four  per  week,  nor  from  any 
other  number  of  hours  to  any  number,  as  insisted  in  the  grievance; 
nor  did  it  prohibit  the  parties  to  the  submission  making  any  voluntary 
agreement  for  their  mutual  benefit,  or  perpetuate,  or  repeal  any  custom 
existing  prior  to  the  strike  not  especially  made  the  subject  of  award.  This 
interpretation,  it  seems  to  the  umpire,  leaves  the  parties  just  where  they 
were  at  the  time  of  the  strike,  and  just  where  the  award  of  the  commission 
left  them — at  perfect  liberty  to  ^  the  hours  per  day  or  per  week  by  volun- 
tary action.  The  commission  did  not,  nor  can  the  umpire  now,  interfere 
with  that  liberty."  Now  comes  a  sequel  to  this  wholesale  exploitation. 
It  is  estimated  by  the  daily  press  that  the  tide-water  valuation  of  the  total 
output  of  anthracite  coal  last  year  was  $273,000,000,  of  which  sum  "$73,- 
000,000  was  paid  in  wages  to  the  mine  workers. ' '  Labor  being  the  largest 
cost  in  production,  it  looks  as  though  Baer  and  his  co-conspirators  "divided 
up"  the  largest  portion  of  the  $200,000,000  that  was  left  among  them- 
selves. "You  can't  cram  your  socialism  down  our  throats!"  said  some 
of  the  very  conservative  delegates  at  the  recent  convention  in  so  many 
words.     No;  you  can  lead  a  horse  to  the  trough,  but  he  don't  have  to 


THE  WOELD  OF  LABOR.  505 

drink.  Surely,  if  the  miners  like  Baerism  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  them 
from  receiving  their  fill. 

In  the  building  trades  there  are  mutterings  of  coming  storms  in  many 
places  when  the  season  opens  next  month.  The  bosses  are  organizing  and 
*  are  not  hiding  their  hostility  to  unionism.  The  structural  ironworkers  are 
still  engaged  in  battle  with  the  Iron  League,  which  has  been  strengthened 
by  the  affiliation  of  the  Fuller  Construction  Company,  and  other  branches 
are  becoming  uneasy  at  the  outlook.  The  Parry  crowd  is  also  busy,  claim- 
ing that  over  200  local  alliances  and  3,000  firms  are  affiliated  with  their 
association.  Damage  suits  are  coming  thick  and  fast.  Small  sums  of 
$10,000  to  $25,000  don't  seem  to  satisfy  some  of  the  bosses.  Out  in 
Calaveras  county,  California,  the  miners  are  asked  to  pay  $250,000  to 
their  masters  as  damages;  in  San  Francisco  a  horseshoeing  boss  wants 
$100,000  from  the  union,  and  the  hatters  are  asked  to  pay  upward  of 
$300,000  to  a  boycotted  manufacturer.  Suits  for  smaller  sums  are  pend- 
ing in  every  industrial  center  in  the  country. 

Meanwhile  Hannahs  agitation  in  favor  of  union  labor  becoming  an 
''ally"  of  capital  is  becoming  a  leading  issue  among  the  organized  work- 
ers, and  there  will  be  some  warm  discussions  between  his  adherents  and 
opponents  in  the  unions.  Of  course,  if  it  is  true,  as  Senator  Hanna  claims, 
that  labor  and  capital  are  brothers,  there  shouldn't  be  much  trouble  in 
the  happy  household,  for  no  matter  if  wages  are  reduced  the  money  re- 
mains in  the  family  anyhow.  And  then  if  labor  is  laid  off  the  capitalists 
will  probably  have  to  go  to  work  to  support  themselves. 


Organized  Labor.     By  John  Mitchell.     Cloth,  436  pp.     $1.75.     American 
Book  &  Bible  House,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Few  men  have  had  a  greater  opportunity  to  make  a  valuable  contribution 
to  the  literature  of  the  labor  moToment  and  thereby  directly  assiBt  the 
cause  of  organized  labor  than  has  John  Mitchell.  His  prominence  in  the 
anthracite  coal  strike  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  reach  the  ear  of  a  larger 
audience  than  any  other  man  in  the  trade  union  movement  of  America.  He 
had  had  sufficient  experience  to  have  gathered  many  valuable  fftcts  and 
he  might  well  have  written  a  work  whidi  would  have  been  truly  worth 
while.  He  could  not  have  written  a  phUosophic  discussion  on  the  trade 
unions,  for  his  every  public  utterance  shows  him  to  lack  the  knowledge 
and  the  training  necessary  to  do  this,  and  that  he  has  a  most  imperfect 
knowledge  of  social  relations  in  generaL  But  he  could  have  described  the 
growth  of  the  trade  union  movement  in  America  as  he  had  seen  it.  He 
could  have  told,  as  but  few  men,  the  story  of  the  struggle  of  the  coal 
miners  of  America,  since  he  has  been  a  jMirt  of  that  struggle  for  many 
years,  and  no  portion  of  the  field  of  labor  would  have  furnished  a  more 
interesting  story.  His  experience  as  a  trade  union  leader  would  have  en- 
abled him  to  have  given  a  valuable  exposition  of  purely  trade  union 
tactics,  of  the  means  bv  which  strikes  are  won  and  lost  ,and  orgaxiizations 
maintained  at  a  high  degree  of  efficiency.  In  the  field  of  collective  bar- 
gaining, especially,  he  could  have  told  of  the  growth  and  present  operation 
of  the  system  now  in  vogue  in  the  bituminous  mines  which  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  known  anywhere  in  the  world.  All  of  these  things  he 
might  have  done,  but  none  of  them  he  did,  though  some  of  them  he  attempt- 
ed. On  trade  union  tactics  and  collective  bargaining  he  quotes  almost  liter- 
ally from  the  Webbs,  and  on  other  points  his  treatment  is  most  fragmentary 
and  unsatisfactory.  Instead  he  secured  the  assistance  of  a  Ph.  D.,  who 
simply  brought  in  a  little  scholasticism,  and,  apparently,  no  knowledge 
of  economics  since  the  work  is  full  of  sJmost  childlike  errors  in  politi<Sil 
economy. 

He  then  attempts  to  discuss  the  philosophy  of  trade  unionism,  and  in 
some  fifty  chapters  he  covers  a  great  amount  of  territory  very  poorly. 
Nearly  aU  the  reviewers  have  quoted  his  recognition  of  the  permanence  of 
the  classes  of  capitalists  and  laborers  together  with  his  statement  that 
there  is  no  necessary  antagonism  between  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist 
Hence,  we  can  pass  these  by  without  again  pointing  out  the  contradictioBf 
and  errors. 

Even  on  Uttle  details  of  the  union  movement  with  which  he  should  be 
specially  familiar,  there  are  errors.  As,  for  example^  where  he  deelares, 
page  76,  "there  is  no  affiliation,  however,  of  American  international  ubIodb 
with  organizations  in  Europe^"  notwithstanding  the  weU-known  examples  of 
the  '^ Amalgamated"  carpenters   and  engineers.     He   throws  out  puffs 

506 


BOOK  BEYIBWa  507 

for  the  Givie  Federation,  and  dedares  that  the  attitude  of  the  pnion 
towards  militia  ''should  be  and  almost  invariably  is  one  of  tolerance,  if 
not  of  friendliness." 

His  treatment  of  Socialism  is  scarcely  worthy  of  notice.  He  evidently 
feels  that  he  somehow  does  a  smart  thing  in  always  coupling  together  the 
Socialist  and  the  Prohibtion  party  whenever  it  is  necessary  to  mention 
either,  as  if  they  were  equally  representative  of  the  labor  movement  in 
politics. 

On  the  whole^  the  work  adds  little  to  John  Mitchell's  reputation,  and 
must  soon  be  supplanted  in  all  its  features  by  more  satisfactory  treatises. 
Here,  as  at  many  other  points,  Mitchell  has  fallen  far  short  of  meeting 
the  opportunity  which  was  offered. 

American  History  and  Its  Geographic  Conditions.    Ellen  Churchill  Semple. 
Houghton,  MifSin  &  Co.     Cloth,  466  pp.     $3.00. 

'This  work  is  pre-eminently  for  the  student.  The  writer  has  had  a 
quite  deep  insight  into  sociological  factors,  although,  as  was  almost  in- 
evitable, considering  the  point  of  view  from  which  the  subject  was  ap- 
proached, she  exaggerates  the  importance  of  the  geographic  factor  and  oc- 
casionally confuses  economic,  ethnical  and  geographic  factors,  as  in  her 
explanation  of  the  persistency  of  chattel  slavery  on  pages  280-281. 

The  method  is  principally  chronological.  In  the  first  chapter  on  "The 
Atlantic  States  of  Europe,  the  Discoverers  and  Colonizers  of  America," 
she  points  out  many  geographical  factors  hitherto  overlooked,  which  as- 
sisted in  determining  the  location  of  settlements  in  the  American  colonies. 
There  is  a  tendency  throughout  the  work  to  overestimate  the  importance 
of  rivers  in  which  she  seems  to  follow  some  of  the  European  writers  on 
economic  geography. 

The  chapter  on  "The  Westward  Movement  in  Belation  to  the  Physio- 
graphie  Features  of  the  Appalachian  Syston"  is  especiaUy  good  as  low- 
ing how  the  location  of  the  various  passes  through  the  Appalachians  de- 
termined the  location  of  settlements  in  the  interior.  A  discussion  of  the 
Trans-Allegheny  settlements  shows  how  the  industrial  condition  here  re- 
peated the  stage  attained  by  the  colonies  prior  to  the  revolution,  and  how, 
as  a  consequence,  a  similar  separative  tendency  devdoped. 

The  social  effects  of  mechanical  inventions  are  not  overlooked  as  the 
author  points  out  the  remarkable  effect  which  the  invention  of  the  steam- 
boat had  upon  the  development  of  the  Western  country.  "In  1818  ^ve 
steamboats  were  built  at  Pittsburg;  one  at  Wheeling;  four  at  Cincinnati, 
and  four  at  Louisville,  or  fourteen  in  all."  *  *  *  In  1834  there  were 
on  the  Western  rivers  230  steamboats,  with  an  aggregate  tonnage  of  39,000, 
and  in  1842  there  were  450  boats,  messuring  90,000  tons." 

The  effect  of  the  Erie  canal  was  even  more  important  as  shown  by  the 
following  quotation:  "The  Erie  canal  fixed  the  destiny  of  New  York  CSty, 
forced  it  rapidly  to  prominence  as  the  national  port  of  entry,  and  as  the 
center  of  our  export  trade.  It  shifted  the  great  trans- Allegheny  route  away 
from  the  Potomac,  out  of  the  belt  of  the  slaveholding  agricultural  South 
to  the  free,  industrial  North,  and  placed  it  at  the  back  door  of  New  Eng- 
land, whence  poured  westward  a  tide  of  Puritan  emigrants,  infusing  ele- 
ments of  vigorous  conscience  and  energy  into  all  the  northern  zone  of 
states  from  the  Genesee  river  to  the  Missouri  and  Minnesota.  The  prairie 
lands  which  these  new  westerners  cultivated  were,  l^  means  of  the  lakes 
and  the  Erie  canal,  made  tributary  to  the  growing  metropolis  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Hudson.  New  York  became  now  commercially,  as  formerly  it  had 
been  in  a  military  sense,  the  keystone  of  the  Atlantic  shore  arch.  Balti- 
more, Philadelphia,  and  Boston  lost  much  of  their  importance^  and  did 


-)08  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

not  regain  it  even  in  part  until  railroads  enabled  them  to  re-establish 
interior  connections." 

She  follows  the  geographic  movements  of  a  few  industries,  particularly 
the  slaughtering  and  meat  packing:  ''The  industry  arose  in  Cincinnati  in 
1818,  and  had  its  chief  center  there  till  1861-62,  but  numerous  packing 
establishments  sprang  up  in  Columbus,  Chillicothe,  Circleville,  and  Hamil- 
ton, all  of  which  were  located  on  the  Ohio  canals;  in  several  towps  along 
the  Ohio,  notably  Louisville,  along  the  Wabash,  Illinois  and  Mississippi 
rivers;  and  in  Chicago,  where  the  industry  began  to  develop  in  earnest 
only  sifter  1850.  In  1862  the  center  migrated  westward  from  Cincinnati 
to  Chicago,  where  it  has  remained  ever  since,  though  the  most  striking 
industrial  specialization  is  found  beyond  on  the  Missouri." 

Unfortunately  this  feature  is  confined  to  very  few  industries,  whereas 
it  might  have  been  extended  to  all  industries  and  constituted  the  most  val- 
uable portion  of  the  book. 

The  work  is  quite  well  equipped  with  maps,  although  one  would  have 
preferred  even  more  than  are  given,  and,  in  some  cases,  specially  constructed 
maps  would  have  been  preferable  to  tiiose  which  are  taken  dirctly  from 
the  United  States  census  and  which  are  really  intended  to  illustrate  some- 
thing aside  from  the  matter  in  the  text.  Each  picture  is  followed  by  a 
short  bibliography,  which  is  a  very  valuable  feature.  However,  one  is 
surprisd  to  fiid  many  things  which  certainly  belong  to  such  a  bibliography 
omitted.  There  is  no  mention  of  Thwaite's  works  on  the  fur  trade  or  the 
Ohio  river,  and  indeed  the  fur  trade  is  given  much  less  prominence  than 
it  deserves  in  the  early  history  of  the  country.  No  reference  is  made  to 
the  works  of  Brooks  Adams,  or  to  the  quite  extensive  literature  on  the 
Cumberland  road,  although  these  works  cover  much  the  same  matter  that  is 
treated  in  the  text. 

Geographic  Influences  in  American  History.     By  Albert  Perry  Brigham. 
The- Chautauqua  Press.     Cloth,  285  pp.     $1.25. 

In  this  popularly  written  work  of  convenient  size  and  simple  style 
we  have  a  handbook  of  a  subject  concerning  which  there  is  little  popular 
knowledge.  The  treatment  is  largely  geological,  and,  indeed,  it  is  a  ques- 
tion if  too  much  emphasis  is  not  laid  on  this  point  of  view.  The  list  of 
chapters  gives  a  very  good  summary  of  the  work.  They  are:  (I)  The 
Eastern  Gateway  of  the  United  States.  (II)  Shore-Line  and  Hilltop  in 
New  England.  (Ill)  The  Appalachian  Barrier.  (lY)  The  Great  Lakes 
and  American  Conunerce.  (V)  The  Prairie  Country.  (VI)  Cotton,  Rice 
and  Cane.  (VH)  The  Civil  War.  (VIH)  Where  Little  Rain  Falls.  (IX) 
Mountain,  Mine  and  Forest. 

He  deals  much  with  soil  characteristics,  showing  their  influence  on 
agriculture  and  industrial  life.  Perhaps  the  sharpest  criticism  that  could 
be  made  of  the  book  is  an  almost  complete  lack  of  maps,  something  which 
is  absolutely  essential  to  such  a  work.  This  is,  to  some  degree,  made  up 
by  a  lavish  use  of  illustrations. 

He  sees  a  great  future  for  the  territory  surrounding  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  new  South.  For  the  student  who  has  little  time  for  study  and 
wishes  a  concise  summary  this  volume  is  extremely  satisfactory. 


PUBLISHERS^   DEPARTMENT 


More  Capital  for  the  Publishing  House. 

On  February  4  the  stockholders  of  the  co-operative  publishing  house  of 
Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company,  by  the  necessary  two-thirds  vote,  authorized 
the  issue  of  four  thousand  additional  shares  of  stock  at  ten  dollars  each, 
thus  increasing  the  authorized  capital  stock  from  ten  thousand  to  fifty 
thousand  dollars. 

On  pages  445-447  of  the  Review  for  January,  we  have  given  some  rea- 
sons why  those  who  desire  to  strengttfen  the  socialist  movement  of  the 
United  States  should  subscribe  for  stock. 

We  shall  not  waste  space  by  repeating  these  reasons.  We  wish  this 
month  to  call  attention  to  the  actual  \&ork  that  has  been  accomplished 
by  our  co-operative  company  in  making  the  best  literature  of  international 
socialism  accessible  to  the  working  people  of  America. 

The  Pocket  Library  of  Socialism,  of  which  the  first  number  was  issued 
in  1899,  has  proved  one  of  the  most  effective  means  of  propaganda  ever 
devised.  It  is  a  series  of  booklets,  each  containing  32  pages,  with  a  red 
transparent  cover,  just  the  right  size  to  carry  conveniently  in  the  pocket 
or  to  mail  in  an  ordinary  business  envelope,  and  light  enough  so  that  a 
copy  can  be  mailed  with  a  letter  of  one  or  two  sheets  without  requiring 
an  extra  postage  stamp.  Forty  numbers  are  now  in  print,  and  number  41, 
**The  Socialist  Catechism,"  by  Charles  E.  Cline,  is  in  press.  These 
booklets  retail  for  five  cents  each,  while  stockholders  can  buy  copies  at  a 
dollar  a  hundred,  transportation  included,  or  eight  dollars  a  thousand 
where  the  purchaser  pays  expressage.  MJEiny  socialist  locals  find  this 
profit  of  four  cents  a  copy  an  important  help  toward  paying  hall  rent,  and 
traveling  lecturers  and  organizers  find  that  it  helps  pay  traveling  ex- 
penses. On  the  other  hand,  the  booklets  are  so  tastefully  designed  that, 
while  they  are  printed  on  inexpensive  paper,  they  sell  readily  at  five  cents 
to  any  who  are  interested  in  socialism  at  all,  and  they  are  far  more  likely 
to  be  read  than  cheap  looking  tracts,  such  as  are  usually  given  away.  It 
can  not  be  emphasized  too  often  that  if  the  working  people  want  literature 
that  is  written  in  their  own  interest  they  must  expect  to  pay  for  it,  since 
capitalists  will  naturally  prefer  to  circulate  literature  of  a  different  tend- 
ency. _       .    ,   '.'1  jyi 

509 


510  THE  INTBBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW. 

Other  paper  covered  books  have  been  issued  by  this  publishing  house 
at  frequent  intervals,  from  liebknecht's  "Socialism,  What  it  is  and  What 
it  Seeks  to  Accomplish,"  now  in  its  eleventh  thousand,  down  to  the  Turner 
Hall  Debate  on  Socialism  vs.  Single  tax,  just  published  at  25  cents. 
These  paper  covered  books  are  supplied  to  stockholders  at  a  discount  of 
one-half  when  we  paj  postage,  or  at  a  discount  of  sixty  per  cent  when 
sent  at  purchaser's  expense. 

The  Standard  Socialist  Series  is  perhaps  the  most  notable  example 
fit  what  the  co-operation  of  eight  hundred  socialists  in  book-publishing  has 
accomplished,  and  it  affords  some  suggestion  of  what  the  co-operation  of 
four  thousand  more  would  do.  It  is  a  series  of  socialist  books  of  perma- 
nent value^  well  printed  and  substantially  bound  in  cloth,  uniform  in 
style,  so  as  to  be  an  acceptable  addition  to  any  library.  They  are,  with 
scarcely  an  exception,  books  that  are  worth  studying  as  well  as  reading, 
and  they  demand  something  more  than  average  intelligence  on  the  part 
of  the  reader.  Now  as  we  pointetd  out  in  this  department  of  the  Bkview 
last  month,  a  publishing  house  operated  for  profit  would  either  let  such 
books  alone  entirely,  or  it  would  publish  them  at  high  prices,  in  most  cases 
probably  $1.50  a  volume.  We  have  published  them  to  retail  to  any  one  at 
fifty  cents,  and  supply  our  stockholders  at  thirty  cents  by  mail  or  twenty- 
five  cents  when  transportation  charges  are  paid  by  the  purchaser.  In 
other  words,  our  stockholders  are  getting,  for  the  price  of  ordinary  pamph- 
lets, books  that  would  otherwise  cost  them  several  times  as  much,  if  they 
could  be  had  at  all,  and  in  a  form  fit  to  read,  to  lend  and  to  preserve. 
The  books  thus  far  issued  in  this  series  are  as  follows: 

1.  Karl  MSarx:  Biographical  Memoirs,  by  Wilhelm  Liebknecht,  trans- 
lated by  Ernest  TJntermann. 

2.  Collectivism  and  Industrial  Evolution,  by  Emile  Vandervelde,  trans- 
lated by  Charles  H.  Kerr. 

3.  The  American  Farmer,  by  A.  M.  Simons. 

4.  Last  Days  of  the  Bnsldn  Co-operative  Association,  by  Isaac  Broome. 

5.  The  Origin  of  the  Family,  Private  Property  and  the  State,  by 
Frederick  Engels,  translated  by  Ernest  Untermann. 

6.  The  Social  Bevolution,  by  Karl  Kautsky,  translated  by  A.  M.  and 
May  Wood  Simons. 

7.  Socialism,  Utopian  and  Scientific,  by  Frederick  Engels,  translated 
by  Edward  Aveling. 

8.  Feuerbach:  The  Boots  of  the  Socialist  Philosophy,  by  Frederick 
Engels,  translated  by  Austin  Lewis. 

A  ninth  volume,  ''American  Pauperism  and  the  Abolition  of  Poverty," 
by  Isador  Ladoff,  is  now  in  press  and  will  be  issued  some  time  in  Febru- 
ary. These  nine  books  alone  represent  an  investment  of  about  three 
thousand  dollars,  and  not  one  of  these  books  would  probably  have  been 
accessible  to  American  Socialists  if  it  had  not  been  for  this  co-operative 
company. 

Of  more  expensive  books  on  socialism  we  have  published  only  a  few,  as 
we  believe  that  low-priced  books  are  what  the  movement  most  needs  at 
the  present  time.    We  have  lately,  however,  at  a  heavy  outlay  and  con- 


PUBLISHBB'S  DBPABTMENT.  611 

siderable  risk,  brought  out  a  translation  of  the  remarkable  woriL  hj 
Labriola  entitled  ''EBsayB  on  the  Katerialistie  (inception  of  History." 
This  book  is  bound  to  be  of  inestimable  value  to  the  socialist  moTement 
of  America  in  promoting  clear  thinking,  and  in  putting  a  stop  to  the  sense- 
less way  of  using  a  few  sets  of  phrases  as  a  substitute  for  ideas;,  in  apply- 
ing the  socialist  philosophy.  This  book,  which  would  cost  $1.50  if  pub- 
lished on  "business  principles,"  is  supplied  to  our  stockholders  at  fifty 
cents  by  express  or  sixty  cents  by  mail,  our  price  to  others  being  $1.00. 

The  Social  Science  Series,  issued  by  a  London  publisher,  consists  of 
about  a  hundred  volumes,  one  in  five  of  which  are  of  the  utmost  value  to 
socialist  students,  while  the  rest  are  of  doubtful  and  varying  degrees  of 
utility.  We  have  arranged  to  import  a  supply  of  twenty  titles  in  this  series, 
including  those  most  necessary  for  socialists,  and  offer  them  at  the  same 
discounts  as  our  other  cloth  books,  making  the  net  price  to  stockholders 
75  cents  on  double  numbers  like  Loria's  "Economic  Foundations  of 
Society,"  and  sixty  cents  on  single  numbers  like  Marx's  "Bevolution  and 
Oounter-Bevolution, "  postage  included. 

One  other  notable  service  has  been  rendered  to  our  co-operators  within 
the  last  year,  in  that  we  have  provided  the  best  edition  of  Marx's  "Capi- 
tal" for  them  at  the  net  price  of  a  dollar  (postage  twenty  cents  if  mailed) 
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The  consequence  has  been  that  the  sale  of  Marx's  great  work  in  the  United 
States  has  been  more  than  doubled. 

BENEFIT  FBOM   THE  BTABT. 

L  Our  first  stockholders  put  in  their  money  on  faith,  with  the  expecta- 

1^  lion  that  the  company  would  in  time  provide  the  books  they  wanted.    Now 

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I  credit,  and  to  incur  an  interest-bearing  debt.     To  pay  this  interest  re- 

quires several  hundred  dollars  this  year  that  might  otherwise  be  used  in 
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^  prices.    The  urgent  thing  now  is  to  get  enough  stock  subscribed  to  put  the 

business  squarely  on  a  cash  basis,  where  no  interest  will  have  to  be  paid  to 
any  one.    It  will  be  an  easy  palter  then  to  expand  the  work  of  the  company 
in  whatever  way  seems  most  beneficial  to  the  socialist  movement. 
>  There  are  undoubtedly  hundreds  of  socialists  who  are  intending  to  sub- 

[^  scribe  for  stock  in  this  publishing  house,  but  are  waiting  for  a  more  con- 

venient time.  To  all  such  we  wish  to  say  that  just  now,  with  a  presidential 
campaign  a  few  weeks  ahead,  is  the  time  when  the  need  of  more  capital  is 
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the  International  Socialist  Review  one  year  to  a  new  name. 

A   LETTER    FROM   LABRIOLA. 

The  following  interesting  letter  has  just  been  received  by  Charles  H. 
Kerr,  from  Prof.  Labriola,  of  the  University  of  Rome,  whose  "Essays  on 
the  Materialistic  Interpretation  of  History,"  recently  translated  into  Eng- 
lish for  the  first  time,  are  doing  so  much  to  stimulate  clear  thinking  among 
American  Socialists  today.  The  readers  of  the  Bxvnw  will  leani  witli  deep 
regret  of  Comrade  Labriola's  serious  condition,  and  will  join  in  the  hope 
that  he  may  soon  be  enabled  to  resume  his  active  work. 

"Dear  Comrade:  I  hasten  to  thank  you  for  the  volume  containing 
two  of  my  Essays,  as  well  as  for  the  very  interesting  catalogue  and  your 
pleasant  letter  of  the  7th  inst.  I  shall  read  your  translation  attentively 
and  shall  not  fail  to  note  anything  which  may  appear  inexact.  I  will  ad- 
vise you  of  any  such  points  in  the  event  of  a  new  edition  which  I  hope 
may  be  required  soon. 

''As  you  will  see,  the  second  French  edition  of  the  Essays  contains  a 
third,  wldch  is  a  polemic  against  Masaryk.  Now,  in  case  you  find  it  ad- 
visable to  translate  also  my  volume  'Socialism  and  Philosophy,'  I  should 
think  you  might  add  to  it  this  polemic  against  Mlasaryk  as  Chapter  XII, 
that  is  to  say,  before  the  Appendix.  It  seems  to  me  that  my  little  volume 
'Socialism  and  Philosophy'  might  be  specially  adapted  to  the  American 
public  on  account  of  its  lighter  style.  In  the  event  that  you  decide  upon 
this  translation  I  would  ask  you  to  advise  me  in  time  since  I  ought  to 
point  out  to  you  some  little  corrections  required  to  make  the  text  corre- 
spond with  the  second  Italian  edition. 

' '  Later  when  I  am  more  settled  I  will  write  you  regarding  the  problem 
of  propaganda  which  you  have  suggested  to  me.  At  present  I  am  in  a 
very  sad  state.  For  a  year  and  a  half  I  have  been  suffering  with  a  throat 
trouble  and  have  been  obliged  to  undergo  tracheotomy.  By  reason  of 
different  complications  I  have  been  unable  to  speak  for  some  months,  and 
just  at  present,  I  am  unable  to  take  other  than  liquid  food.  My  life  is  cut 
off.  I  was  giving  three  courses  at  the  University,  my  whole  life  was  taken 
up  with  conversation,  dispute  and  propaganda.  Now  I  feel  as  if  I  were 
separated  from  the  world.  You  can  thus  imagine  my  delight  at  seeing  your 
translation.  It  seems  that  while  I  can  no  longer  speak  at  Rome,  you  have 
made  it  possible  for  me  to  speak  at  Chicago. 

' '  Accept,  dear  comrade,  my  unbounded  thanks. 

^  Yours, 

Antonio  Labriola. 
Rome,  Jan.  20,  1904." 

Regarding  the  suggestion  of  publishing  Comrade  Labriola's  later  work, 
"Socialism  and  Philosophy,"  the  translator,  who  is  also  manager  of  the 
co-operative  publishing  house,  desires  to  announce  that  he  will  make  a 
start  at  the  undertaking  at  once.  The  date  when  the  book  can  appear  will 
depend  mainly  upon  the  way  in  which  the  socialists  of  America  respond 
to  our  appeal  for  stock  subscriptions. 


!i 


f: 


IRUSKIN  COLtEGE 


,  FOXrXirxCAtr  HCOI^-jUT  hf  MAT  WooD 
SiMOKS.   Aq  historical  eompftrati^  study   : 
of  eoonomios  «»zainl)Md  and  oritiof aed  from    ; 

i     the  socialist  point  of  tiew»^  with   tha  . ; 
•eodalist  theonea  of  Weakh,  Bent,  Inter- 

*  eet  and  Wages  fully  ^iplained. 
▲MBRZCAK  HCOVOMZC  HZ9TORT 
byA.  H.  SucOMa.  Traces  tbe  industrial 
development  of  the  U.  8.,  ^owa  how 
eeoifoniic  conditions  haye  affected  politi- 
cal and  soeial  institution^^  and  how  prea> 
ent  capitalism  and  sooial  classes  arose.  . 
•OCIAXrtSli  hjf  MA.T  Wooi>  Simons.  A 
history  of  sooiauet  theories  and  their  ap- 
plieatwB  to  present  problems.  The  eco- 
nomics of  Marx,  Socialism  and  the  State, 
Bducation.  Organised  Xiabor.  Science, 
Ethics  and  Art,  snd  History  or  the  mod- 
ern  Socialist  moToment. 
The  same  oofirses  are  gpiYSix  in  residence  a» 
often  as  there  are  elasses  re<iuiriug  them. 
Besident  students  in  this  department  may. 
carry  rMular  coUeffB  work  at  the  same 
timeandeam  their  Doard  and  room  rent 
in  the  coUege  industries  the  same  as 
students  iniotner  departments. 

i  Twenty  lectures  on  each  subject  with  reoulred 
readlogB,  pteperatlons  of  papers  and  IndlTld- 
uai  instructtonr  For  terms  and  farther  inior- 
Boatlon  address: 


RtrsKiK  coi;];rSas 


GXrHV^XrX^Tir,, 


IWf. 


»wwpww»»w»  >•■■»>»»>•»  »<»»»»ii<>w*<y»p*f  »»»»»*** 


Ir  Ydi  W;it  Find 


if- 
if 


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JUST  PUBLtSHEDI 

VSXBATm  XKPOST  OF  TlTB  OBBAT 
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John  Z.  White,  representing  tbeSinileTax, 
and  Sinest  UntarnUinn,  Seymonr  Stedman 
and  A.  M.  Simoni,  who  8|>olte  for  Social- 
ism.  The  debate  was  held  before  an  en- 
thusiastio  aadtenoe^nmberlng  2,000  peojp^e, 
and  lasted  for  three  hours  and  a  half. 
Srerv  Word  was  taken  down  in  snort  hand 
by^W.  B.  MoDermnt*  one  of  the  best  court 
reporters .  in  the  United  States,  and  the 
proofs  have  been  revised  to  the  safiaf action 
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The  debate  u  handsomely  printed  in  ]BJg^ 
type  on  book  paper  of  extra  quality,  and 
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CHARLES  N.  KERR  ft  COKPANY 

CO-ORCRATIVe 
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m  TO. 


mttb  h  im. 


no.  9i! 


C  O  NT  E,  N  T  S 


Japaqiesc  Sodalisti  asi4  the  War 5^n  Katayama 

Pflcacnt  State  of  Cofporation  Law Marcus  Hitch 

Tfie.railwAttkee Election. E.  H.  Thomas 

Labor  on  the  bthmu^  of  Tehuantepec ........  Isaac  Peterson 

The  Elections  in  Australia : Andrew  M.  Anderson 

German  Trade  Unions  (c<>ncl«ded)  » Albert  Thomas 

Labriola  on  the  Marxian  Conception  of  History  Ernest  Untermann  * 

Gomment  hf  the  Translator  of  Labriola Charles  H.  Kerr 

How  to  Get  the  CorOperative  Commonwealth  IVm.  Johnson 


DEPARTMBNTISI. 

EDrrC^EUAL—Sufirgcstions  for  the  Convention 
Socialism  Abroad  Book  Reviews 

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PUBLISHED  BY 


CHARLES  H.    KERR   &    COMPANY 

gaSBSSi  INC0RP011ATE,D  ON   THE   CO-OPEKATIVE;   PLAN  mm^mgm 

56    FIFTH    AVENUE,    CHICAGO,    U.    S.    A. 


Copyright,  19<H  by  Charles  H,  Kerr  At  Companr      . 


The  International  Socialist  Review 

PEVOTED  TO  THE  5TUDT  AKD  DISCDSSKW  iff  THE  PROBLEMS  IWCIDEirf 
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**  Tit  Socialists  oftJUj  country  Aavt «  poutive  trtasurt  in  t^t  Oamt^, 
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A  Socialist  Library  Worth  Having  and  Preserving 
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odlon.  Hie  carefiilly  piepared  index  enWea  the  reader  to  find  any  ol  the  literary  or 
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and  appearance.     Eaoh  oontains : 

288  Pages  of  Delightful  and  Instructive  Reading. 
300  Beautiful  Illttstrations,  Portraits  and  Cartoons. 

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Wtt^^SLmmAm^' .  y ?  r 


f  MAR  141904  *^ 


TM   INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST    REVIEW 


VOL.  IV 


MARCH.  1904 


NO.  9 


Attitude  of  Japanese  Socialists  Toward  Present  War. 

THE  attitude  taken  by  the  Japanese  Socialists  toward  the  pres- 
ent war  with  Russia  has  been  clearly  and  well  defined 
from  the  very  beginning.  They  were  and  still  are  against 
war,  not  only  with  Russia,  but  with  all  other  nations.  It 
was  perhaps  the  very  first  time  in  the  history  of  Japan  that  such  an 
anti-war  cry  was  raised  in  the  land  of  the  Samurai  and  New 
Japan.  But  it  is  a  fact  that  Japanese  Socialists  boldly  and  loudly 
raised  their  voice  against  the  war. 

Some  of  the  comrades  employed  on  one  of  the  largest  dailies 
in  the  city  of  Tokio  made  this  a  point  of  honor  and  left  their 
editorial  position  for  that  very  cause.  Since  then  I  am  glad  to 
say  that  these  two  comrades,  with  the  aid  of  some  other  Socialists, 
have  started  a  weekly  by  themselves,  through  which  they  have  been 
speaking  against  the  war  and  in  favor  of  the  Universal  peace 
that  shall  reign  under  the  supremacy  of  Socialism.  And,  more- 
over, this  little,  but  ably  edited  weekly,  promises  to  be  a  great 
success.  It  shows  that  Socialists  have  been  voicing  the  true  senti- 
ments of  Socialism.  They  have  been,  moreover,  holding  anti-war 
meetings  in  and  about  the  city  of  Tokio.  I  am  informed  that 
they  have  been  very  successful  in  this  movement.  An  admission 
fee  of  five  cents  has  furnished  a  sufficient  income  to  carry  on 
the  work.  They  have  to  pay  for  the  small  hall  each  time  and 
for  advertisements.  It  shows  that  Socialists  have,  gained  a  foot- 
hold with  the  public  large  enou^  to  support  such  a  movement  as 
this.  The  very  first  meeting  of  the  kind,  hdd  at  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Hall,  Tokio,  was  well  attended  and  was  a  great  success.  There 
were  some  representatives  of  the  war  party  who  tried  to  disturb 
the  meeting,  but  failed  entirely.  At  this  success  of  theirs  the 
press  as  well  as  the  public  were  astonished.     It  was  thought  that 

518 


514  THE  INTBENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

the  Socialists  would  never  dare  to  hold  such  a  meeting  at  such  a 
time,  because  the  war  fever  is  at  such  a  height. 

I  am  sure  that  their  attitude  on  the  question  is  still  the  same 
as  it  was  when  I  left  the  country,  though  Japan  has  entered  into 
war.  The  Socialists  will  hold  the  same  position  as  thos^  of  Ger- 
many during  the  Fraiico-Prussian  war.  This  sentiment  was 
voiced  many  a  time  at  their  late  meetings  and  approved  by  all  the 
Socialists  of  Japan. 

As  to  the  probable  eflFect  of  this  war  on  the  wakening  class-con- 
sciousness of  Japanese  laborers,  I  can  say  this  much  with  a  greater 
certainty  that  working  classes  will  realize  more  clearly  the  gjeat 
evils  of  war  than  ever  before.  Many  of  them  knew  by  their 
late  experiences  in  the  Chino- Japanese  war  that  the  war  benefited 
them  practically  nothing.  It  is  true  that  as  a  result  of  the  late 
wars  Japan's  industry  has  grown,  but  all  the  same  their  living  be- 
came much  harder  than  before  the  war.  Japan  got  a  large  indem- 
nity from  China,  but  this  did  not  benefit  the  workers.  They  have 
to  produce  much  more  to  support  the  increase  of  the  army  and 
navy  than  they  did  before.  I  heard  last  summer  from  many  work- 
ers in  the  country  that  they  do  not  like  the  war  at  all,  for  the  war 
will  immediately  raise  the  price  of  rice,  while  wages  will  not  be 
raised  so  soon,  at  least  not  for  those  who  are  not  directly  con- 
nected with  war.  They  know  very  well  that  in  the  late  wars 
with  China  the  workers  fought  the  battles  but  the  medals  and 
rewards  of  the  victory  went  to  those  who  did  not  fight. 

Now  these  are  the  reasons  of  mine  against  the  war  and  sup- 
ported by  my  comrades  as  well  as  by  laborers. 

1.  Laborers  alone  work  for  the  preparation  of  the  army  and 
navy  and  are  ever  supporting  them.  The  largest  majority  of  the 
Japanese  soldiers  are  of  the  working  classes. 

2.  In  the  war  laborers  will  be  killed  and  suffer  the  most. 

3.  After  the  war  they  must  work  to  pay  the  expenses  of  war 
and  possibly  for  the  increase  of  army  and  navy. 

4.  Japanese  workingmen  will  fight  with  Russian  workingmen 
who  are  in  no  way  their  enemy. 

Now  the  war  is  going  on  in  a  brutal  manner.  I  am  opposed 
to  this  war,  but  as  a  Japanese  I  do  not  wish  Japan  to  be 
beaten  by  Russia  who  in  the  past  treated  the  Jews  as  she  has  in 
Kishineff,  and  is  still  dealing  with  Fins  in  the  most  brutal 
fashion,  and  moreover  she  has  shot  down  many  laborers  during 
strikes !  And  above  all  I  wish  that  the  war  may  end  as  soon  as 
possible,  and  I  strongly  desire  that  the  working  classes  of  the 
two  countries  may  realize  the  true  outcome  of  the  war,  and  unite 
together  to  oppose  the  capitalist  governments  that  are  the  cause 
of  all  the  wars. 

Sen  Katayama. 


The  Present  State  of  Corporation  Law. 

THE  proceedings  of  the  American  Bar  Association  at  its 
annual  convention  in  August,  1903,  have  already  been  dis- 
cussed in  the  Socialist  press.  TTiey  throw  considerable 
light  on  recent  developments  in  law.  While  this  conven- 
tion was  in  session  there  was  going  through  the  press  the  fifth 
edition  of  a  standard  law  work  which  has  since  appeared  and 
which  shows  still  more  clearly  the  drift  of  things  in  the  legal 
world.  We  refer  to  "A  Treatise  on  the  Law  of  Corporations," 
by  William  W.  Cook,  LL.D.,  of  the  New  York  bar.  The  preface 
to  this  work  is  good  propaganda  material  for  socialists.  It  is  a 
peculiarity  of  the  Socialist  movement  that  it  does  not  have  to 
rely  on  its  own  literature  alone.  It  is  able  to  absorb  and  utilize 
many  works,  the  true  bearing  of  which  was  unknown  to  the 
authors  themselves.  Such  are  tfie  works  of  Darwin,  Spencer, 
Lewis  H.  Morgan,  Lester  F.  Ward  and  others.  Such  is  the  work 
of  Mr.  Cook  on  Cbrporations.  Mr.  Cook  comes  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  lawyers  rule  the  country.  Superficially  this  is  true  and 
it  reminds  us  of  the  position  taken  by  Ferdinand  Lassalle  in  his 
"System  of  Acquired  Rights."  But  the  Socialist  only  needs  to 
add  that  the  corporations,  *.  e.,  organized  profit-breeding  wealth, 
rules  the  lawyers,  and  the  whole  situation  becomes  intelligible. 

Mr.  Cook  mlay  not  be  familiar  with  the  term  "economic  de- 
terminism," and  in  making  a  political  speech  would  probably  com- 
bat that  theory.  But  in  speaking  to  his  brother  lawyers  the  truth 
comes  out;  "The  laws  of  trade  are  stronger  than  the  laws  of 
men." 

Formerly  the  most  important  branch  of  jurisprudence  was 
the  law  of  real  estate,  conveyancing  and  wills.  Then  with  the 
expansion  of  world  commerce  commercial  law  grew  in  importance, 
embracing  mercantile  contracts,  negotiable  instruments,  mort- 
gages, partnerships,  etc.,  and  the  up-to-date  lawyer  was  a  com- 
mercial lawyer  with  individual  merchant  princes  for  his  clients. 
That  day  has  also  passed.  Corporation  law,  says  Mr.  Cook,  is 
now  more  important  than  all  other  branches  of  law  combined. 
The  great  lawyer  of  today  is  the  corporation  lawyer  who  has  no 
clients  but  who  is  the  permanent  salaried  counsel  of  vast  indus- 
trial trusts  and  railroad  combines.  He  presides  over  a  "law  de- 
partment." His  duty  is  not  only  to  know  the  law  as  made,  but 
also  to  make  the  law  as  ordered.  We  quote  from  Mr.  Cook's 
preface: 

"The  most  striking  feature  of  corporation  law,  during  the  past 

415 


516  THE  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  KBVIBW. 

five  years,  has  been  the  creation  and  development  of  a  new  mode 
of  combination  and  consolidation.  It  is  known  as  the  plan  of 
''community  of  interest,"  which  means  the  recognition  by  parties, 
controlling  competing  corporations,  that  there  is  more  money  to 
be  made  by  co-operation  than  by  destructive  competition.  Later 
a  further  development  of  the  idea  took  place.  Owing  to  the  un- 
certainty of  life  and  of  the  fortunes  of  individuals,  and  the  dan- 
ger of  the  control  passing  into  incompetent  or  hostile  hands,  cor- 
poratians  were  organized  to  hold  a  majority  of  the  stock  of  vari- 
ous competing  corporations.  Frequently,  also,  these  latter  cor- 
porations, so  controlled,  were  used  to  purchase  the  stock  of  still 
other  corporations.  This  plan  seemed  to  render  practicable  that 
which  otherwise  was  impracticable,  on  account  of  a  legal  consoli- 
dation being  impossible,  by  reason  of  statutes  or  of  objecting 
minority  stockholders.  These  great  corporations,  holding  a  ma- 
jority of  the  stock  of  many  other  corporations,  are  the  latest  de- 
velopment of  the  consolidating  tendency  of  the  age.  The  United 
States  Steel  Corporation  and  the  International  Mercantile  Marine 
Company  are  notable  instances. 

"A  great  hue  and  cry  was  raised  both  in  England  and  America 
against  these  stockholding  corporations.  In  the  United  States, 
on  a  bill  in  equity,  filed  by  the  Attorney  General,  the  Circuit  Court 
of  the  United  States  held  that  the  Northern  Securities  Company 
had  illegally  and  in  violation  of  the  Anti-Trust  Act  of  Congress 
in  1890  acquired  a  majority  of  the  stock  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  and  the  Great  Northern  Railroad  Company, 
two  competing  trans-continental  lines.  The  court  accordingly 
put  an  end  to  the  career  of  that  company  and  made  clear  that  that 
particular  mode  of  establishing  a  'community  of  interest,'  be- 
tween competing  corporations,  would  not  be  tolerated  by  the  law. 
No  attack  has  been  made,  however,  on  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation,  or  the  International  Mercantile  Marine  Corporation, 
or  the  various  railroad  corporations  which,  during  the  past  five 
years,  have  acquired  stock  in  other  railroad  corporations.  And  it 
is  unlikely  that  any  such  attack  will  be  made.  The  Northern  Se- 
curities Company  case  probably  marks  the  limit  to  which  the 
government  cares  to  go,  and  also  marks  the  limit  which  financiers 
are  warned  not  to  approach. 

"In  England  the  government  itself  investigated  the  legal,  com- 
mercial and  international  effects  of  allowing  an  American  cor- 
poration to  own  a  majority  of  the  stock  of  English  corporations, 
owning  English  steamboats,  receiving  English  subsidies,  on  Eng- 
lish-built boats,  manned  by  English  crews,  and  flying  the  English 
flag.  The  opposition,  however,  was  of  no  avail.  And,  in  fact, 
the  whole  economic  history  of  England  shows  the  irresistible  ten- 
dency of  the  times.    For  more  than  thirty  years  Parliament  legis- 


THE  PBE8ENT  STATE  OF  COEPOEATION  LAW.  517 

lated  against  the  consolidation  of  railroads.  This  legislation  proved 
to  be  utterly  futile,  and  in  1872  a  parliamentary  committee  made 
an  elaborate  and  exhaustive  report  on  the  subject,  and  said,  among 
other  things,  that  consolidation  *had  not  brought  with  it  the  evils 
that  were  anticipated,  but  that,  in  any  event,  long  and  varied  ex- 
perience had  fully  demonstrated  the  fact  that,  while  Parliament 
might  hinder  and  thwart  it,  it  could  not  prevent  it/ 

"The  consolidations  of  railroads,  which  took  place  in  America 
from  1865  to  1873,  seem  to  have  been  insignificant  as  compared 
with  the  consolidations  of  the  year  1900.  Great  trunk  lines  were 
swallowed  up  by  other  trunk  lines.  This  was  done,  for  the  most 
part,  by  one  railroad  purchasing  the  stock  of  the  other,  instead  of 
purchasing  its  tangible  property.  The  result  was  that  practically 
all  of  the  eastern  railroads  passed  under  the  control  of  the  two 
great  eastern  systems,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  the  New 
York  Central  Railroad ;  the  western  railroads,  for  the  most  part, 
passed  under  the  control  of  the  three  great  systems,  the  Great 
Northern  and  Northern  Pacific  Railroads,  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road and  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Railroad,  while  in 
the  South  the  Southern  Railroad  practically  controls  the  situation. 
This  process  of  consolidation  demonstrated  the  truth  of  George 
Stephenson's  saying,  that  'where  combination  is  possible,  competi- 
tion is  impossible.' 

"So  also  as  to  other  classes  of  American  corporations.  Early 
in  the  year  1899  the  whole  industrial  world  of  America,  with  an 
outburst  of  prosperity,  underwent  a  remarkable  change.  Consoli- 
dations of  manufacturing  institutions  took  place  on  a  colossal 
scale,  and  industrial  corporations,  having  a  capitalization  greater 
than  that  of  the  great  trunk  railroads,  sprang  into  existence.  These 
Vast  manufacturing  corporations  were  denounced  by  the  politic- 
ians as  'trusts*  and  illegal  combinations  in  restraint  of  trade.  Stat- 
utes were  enacted  against  them  and  suits  started  to  forfeit  their 
charters.  All  this,  however,  availed  nothing.  The  laws  of  trade 
were  stronger  than  the  laws  of  men.  Moreover,  these  consoli- 
dated manufacturing  concerns  have  enabled  America  to  invade  the 
markets  of  the  world.  The  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century 
witnessed  the  formation  of  the  greatest  corporation  that  ever  ex- 
isted, the  United  States  Steel  Corporation.  With  a  capitalization 
of  nearly  one  and  a  half  billion  dollars,  it  controls  the  steel  prod- 
uct of  the  United  States ;  has  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
employes ;  a  pay-roll  of  over  one  hundred  millions  dollars  a  year, 
and  is  the  owner  of  mines,  steamship  lines,  railroads,  iron  plants 
and  steel  rolling  mills.  No  one  knows  how  much  of  the  $90,000,- 
000,000  of  wealth  of  the  United  States,  in  the  year  1900,  was 
represented  by  industrial  and  railroad  consolidations. 

"Consolidation  is  the  spirit  of  the  age,  moving  on  resistlessly, 


518  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCOAUST  BEVIBW. 

regardless  of  human  laws  and  hostile  public  sentiment.  Vast  cor- 
porations have  taken  charge  of  the  industries  of  the  country  and 
are  destroying  the  old  order  of  things,  and  the  legal  profession 
has  been  profoundly  affected  by  these  great  industrial  changes. 
Wealth  has  become  concentrated  in  corporations,  and  the  Ameri- 
can corporation  lawyer  of  today  is  called  upon  to  aid  in  the  man- 
agement of  these  powerful  forces.  Counsel  work  is  becoming 
more  important  than  court  work — ^avoiding  litigation  a  higher  test 
of  efficiency  than  success  in  litigation.  »  Business  judgment  and 
foresight  are  required  of  counsel,  as  well  as  legal  skill  and  learn- 
ing. Commercial  interests  have  become  too  vast  to  be  managed 
without  legal  advice,  and  too  important  to  be  hazarded  in  litiga- 
tion. A  broader  field  today  invokes  the  foresight,  mental  alert- 
ness and  resourcefulness  of  the  lawyer.  Colossal  enterprises  now 
call  for  a  leadership  and  capacity  which  twenty  years  ago  would 
have  been  considered  beyond  the  province  of  the  lawyer  and  the 
law. 

"Leadership  in  the  counsel  room  is  necessary,  if  the  lawyer 
is  to  maintain  the  supremacy  he  has  exercised  in  American  gov- 
ernment for  a  hundred  years.  His  pre-eminence  in  that  field  has 
l>een  remarkable.  Twenty-one  of  the  twenty-five  Presidents  of  the 
United  States  were  lawyers ;  thirty-two  of  the  thirty-three  Secre- 
taries of  State ;  all  the  Attorneys  General ;  all  the  Judges  and  two- 
thirds  of  the  members  of  Congress.  And  yet  there  are  but  eighty 
thousand  lawyers  for  the  eighty  millions  of  American  people. 
Never  before  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  so  small  a  class  gov- 
erned so  great  and  intelligent  a  people.  The  lawyers  rule  because 
they  have  the  capacity  to  rule. 

"It  is  fitting  that  such  men  should  control  the  creation  and 
development  of  corporation  law,  which  is  today  more  important 
than  all  the  other  branches  of  law  combined." 

Thus,  Mr.  Cook,  attention  should  be  called  to  the  fact  that 
the  most  vital  questions  which  the  lawyer  has  to  decide  are  not 
those  arising  out  of  the  transaction  of  the  business  in  which  the 
corporation  is  engaged,  but  those  questions  arising  out  of  the  re- 
lations between  the  corporation  and  the  public,  or  between  it  and 
the  municipality,  state  or  national  government.  In  short  it  is  a 
case  of  the  corporation  against  the  state.  On  one  hand  the  politi- 
cal influence  of  the  so-called  "common  people"  has  greatly  di- 
minished and  the  encroachment  of  the  corporation  on  the  state  has 
been  steady  and  successful,  with  only  a  few  temporary  checks; 
on  the  other  hand  there  is  a  growing  tendency  towards  "state  in- 
terference," either  by  way  of  public  control  over  corporations  or 
by  direct  public  ownership.  As  a  result  of  these  two  influences 
the  relations  of  the  corporations  and  the  public  authorities  are 
constantly  becoming  more  intimate  and  complicated.    When  these 


THE  PBBSENT  STATE  OF  COKPORATION  LAW.  519 

two  forces  come  into  conflict  both  of  course  engage  corporation 
lawyers.  The  public  body  relies  upon  a  trust  lawyer  to  fight  the 
trusts,  and  how  gently  and  considerately  this  fight  is  conducted 
can  be  seen  in  the  case  of  the  present  Attorney  General  of  the 
United  States. 

The  street  railway  question  in  Chicago  also  furnishes  a  good 
illustration.  The  Record-Herald  of  November  13,  1903,  contained 
the  following  news  item : 

"Prominent  eastern  lawyers  who  have  been  asked  to  represent 
the  city  in  an  aggressive  legal  fight  regarding  traction  issues  are 
David  Bennett  Hill,  Richard  Olney  and  John  G.  Carlisle.  Alder- 
man William  Mavor  of  the  transportation  committee  was  author- 
ity for  this  statement  yesterday. 

"Negotiations  with  these  attorneys  have  been  carried  on  by 
letter  by  Corporation  Counsel  Tolman. 

"We  want  to  begin  an  aggressive  fight,"  said  Alderman  Ma- 
vor yesterday.  "We  want  to  see  the  city  make  a  few  offensive 
moves  instead  of  resting  upon  the  defensive.  We  want  an  at- 
torney of  national  reputation  who  can  direct  such  a  fight. 

"It  is  understood  that  the  reason  impelling  the  city  authorities 
to  search  for  a  lawyer  outside  of  Chicago  is  the  fact  that  mosit 
of  the  city's  corporation  attorneys  are  concerned  in  one  way  or 
another  with  the  traction  interests." 

The  fact  is  that  there  is  nothing  to  litigate  about.  The  trac- 
tion companies  are  now  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  the  city  coun- 
cil, their  franchises  having  expired.  It  is  a  simple  case  of  stand 
and  deliver.  The  council  can  impose  any  terms  it  pleases  and  the 
companies  must  accept  them  or  go  out  of  business.  But  the  coun- 
cil is  afraid  to  use  its  power.  It  is  easier  to  fool  the  voting  con- 
stituency than  to  fly  in  the  face  of  organized  wealth.  It  wants  a 
lawyer  who  will  help  give  its  case  away.  Now,  there  are  over 
4,500  lawyers  in  Chicago  who  have  ability  enough  to  give  away 
the  city's  rights,  if  paid  to  do  so.  But  there  are  certain  proprie- 
ties to  be  oteerved  which  distinguish  respectable  business  like  this 
from  vulgar  grafting,  such  for  instance  as  getting  fraudulent 
judgments  against  the  city  in  sidewalk  damage  cases.  The  trac- 
tion companies'  aldermen  want  the  city  to  get  a  lawyer  of  national 
reputation  who  can  do  the  job  with  becoming  dignity  and  while 
giving  the  case  away  call  it  a  splendid  triumph  for  the  people. 

Marcus  Hitch. 


The  Milwaukee  Election. 

THE  approaching  municipal  election  in  Milwaukee  becomes 
interesting  from  a  study  of  the  growth  of  the  Socialist  vote 
in  that  city.  This  growth  has  been  both  gradual  and  steady, 
as  may  be  seen  from  the  following  table  of  the  vote  of 
the  Social  Democratic  Party    (Socialist  Party)    in  the  city  of 
Milwaukee  for  the  last  five  years : 

Increase.       Per  cent. 

1898   City  Election 2,430 

1900  Cfty  Election 2,685  155  6.37 

1900  State  Election 4,667  2,062  82.86 

1902  City  Election 8,453  3,786  81.12 

1902  State  Election 10,460  2,007  23.79 

It  is  noticeable  that  there  is  no  ebb  and  flow  in  this  vote, 
but  rather  a  steady  forward  current.  It  should  also  be  ob- 
served that  in  all  elections  the  vote  for  the  various  candidates 
has  been  remarkably  uniform.  The  highest  vote  has  ex- 
ceeded the  lowest  by  less  than  two  hundred  votes,  except  in 
the  state  election  of  1902,  in  which  the  Social  Democratic 
candidate  for  governor  ran  about  twelve  hundred  votes  be- 
hind the  rest  of  the  ticket.  The  lowest  vote  is  given  in  the 
foregoing  table. 

The  growth  in  the  vote,  in  fact,  is  almost  an  exact  meas- 
ure, of  the  amount  of  work  which  has  been  put  into  the  Social- 
ist propaganda  for  each  interval  between  elections,  and  this 
propaganda  has  been  carried  on  mainly  by  the  distribution  of 
literature.  For  some  reason,  there  is  a  lack  of  orators  in  the 
Milwaukee  movement.  This  has  proved  a  decided  blessing 
in  disguise,  thus  compelling  the  party  to  rely  on  the  surer 
basis  of  the  written  rather  than  the  spoken  word.  It  has  been  a 
costly  kind  of  propaganda,  but  in  the  long  run  it  has  proved 
by  far  the  most  reliable.  This  spring,  it  is  true,  the  best 
Socialist  speakers  in  the  country  in  English,  and  some  in 
German,  Polish  and  Bohemian,  have  been  engaged  to  take 
a  hand  in  the  Milwaukee  campaign,  but  this  is  the  first  elec- 
tion in  which  oral  propaganda  has  been  made  a  prominent 
feature.  Nor  does  this  mean  that  the  Milwaukee  Social 
Democrats  have  abandoned  their  policy  of  literary  propagaftda. 
On  the  contrary.  Socialist  literature  in  large  quantities  and 
in  five  languages  is  now  being  circulated  in  Milwaukee  from 
house  to  house,  and  its  distribution  is  an  important  object  at 
all  public  meetings. 

Another  reason  for  the  success  of  the  Milwaukee  move- 
ment is  its  proletarian  character.     The  members  of  the  or- 

620 


Tttil  MlLWAtJKfiE  fiL£C*ION.  tel 

ganization  are  working-men  almost  to  a  man,  and  there  is  no 
large  city  in  the  United  States  where  the  Socialist  movement 
is  so  overwhelmingly  trades  unionist.  To  this  fact  may  be'  at- 
tributed the  remarkable  absence  of  the  trades  Union  "fakir," 
the  Socialist  element  having  almost  entirely  eliminated  this 
undesirable  factor.  The  fakir  that  occasionally  makes  his 
appearance  here  usually  comes  from  some  other  town  and  very 
soon  leaves  us.  The  Trades  Council  of  Milwaukee  is  more 
radically  Socialist  than  any  other  central  labor  body  of  any 
considerable  size  in  America. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  "rich  poverty"  of  lawyers  and  other 
professional  men  among  the  Milwaukee  Social  Democrats. 
Indeed,  the  leaders,  as  well  as  the  rank  and  file,  are  strictly 
class-conscious  in  the  best  sense  of  that  much  abused  word. 

These,  then,  are  the  reasons  for  the  growth  of  the  party  in 
Milwaukee.  These  are  the  conditions  under  which  it  is  en- 
tering upon  the  municipal  campaign  of  1904.  We  do  not  ex- 
pect nor  do  we  desire  that  the  coming  election  will  indicate 
any  sudden  flare  of  enthusiasm  which  may  die  out  like  a 
straw-fire.  Nor  do  we  wish  any  astonishing  increase  in  the 
Social  Democratic  vote  which  would  melt  away  in  some  fu- 
ture election.  But  we  do  hope  and  expect  that  the  returns 
on  the  6th  of  April  will  mark  a  growth  in  proportion  to  the 
ratio  of  past  years,  and  which  will  correspond  with  almost 
mathematical  accuracy  to  the  amount  of  labor  expended  and 
to  the  time  and  funds  sacrificed  for  the  Socialist  propaganda 
by  the  comrades  of  Milwaukee. 

Nevertheless,  the  resistance  against  them  in  this  election 
will  be  more  decided  than  ever  before.  The  Republican  Na- 
tional Committee,  it  is  said,  has  appropriated  $50,000  for  the 
"suppression  of  Socialism,"  half  of  which  was  to  be  used  in 
Massachusetts  and  the  other  half  in  Wisconsin,  these  being 
considered  the  two  storm  centers  of  Socialist  propaganda. 
Father  Sherman  is  also  being  toured  through  the  principal 
cities  of  Wisconsin,  to  excite  the  prejudices  of  the  ignorant 
against  the  wicked  Social  Democrats,  who  want  to  abolish 
"the  names  of  father,  mother,  brother  and  sister,"  as  he  claims. 
What  IS  of  far  more  importance  is  the  fact  that  Republicans 
and  Democrats  are  apparently  combining  forces  to  defeat  the 
Social  Democrats.  The  Merchants  and  Manufacturers'  As- 
sociation, consisting  mostly  of  Republicans,  has  petitioned 
Mayor  Rose  (Democrat)  to  run  again  for  mayor.  In  view  of 
the  fact  that  only  three  months  ago  these  very  men  presided 
at  an  indignation  meeting  at  which  the  name  of  Rose  was 
hissed,  this  attitude  of  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of 
Milwaukee  is  significant.  In  those  wards  where  the  Social 
Democrats  are  likely  to  elect  aldermen,  the  Democrats  and 


522  THE  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

Republicans  have  signified  their  intention  either  to  combine 
on  one  ticket,  or  else  to  place  only  one  ticket  against  us  in 
the  field.  It  is  because  of  this  unusual  combination  that  the 
Milwaukee  Social  Democrats  are  making  unusual  efiForts  and 
securing  the  services  of  so  many  outside  speakers.  This 
is,  moreover,  the  first  campaign  in  which  we  have  ever  made 
an  appeal  for  funds  from  Socialists  throughout  the  country. 
We  believe,  however,  that  we  are  now  justified  in  doing 
this  under  the  present  circumstances.  We  have  no  fear  that 
our  vote  will  decrease  this  year.  But  to  keep  up  the  same 
ratio  of  progress  in  the  face  of  such  a  strong  combination 
against  us  would  be  indeed  a  triumph  for  the  Socialist  Party 
of  America.  E.  H.  Thomas. 


Labor  Conditions  on  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec. 

THE  man  who  does  the  work  on  the  great  plantations 
on  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  in  the  Republic  of 
Mexico,  has  a  hard  time  of  it.     Under  the  capitalist 
system   of   production,    the   workingman    everywhere 
finds  his  cup  of  woe  full  to  overflowing,  but  the  workingman 
on  the  isthmus  is  compelled,  it  seems  to  me,  to  take  in  his  a 
double  portion  of  bitterness. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  has 
remained  a  comparatively  undeveloped  region.  Large  tracts 
of  it  have  been  held  by  Spanish  estates  since  the  conquest. 
Little  has  been  done  by  the  owners  of  these  estates  in  the  way 
of  developing  their  resources.  The  Spaniards  have  been  con- 
tent with  the  profits  derived  from  the  mahogany  and  other 
valuable  timber  of  the  forests,  from  tapping  the  wild  rubber 
tree,  from  the  banana  and  the  sugar  cane  and  the  herds  of 
cattle.  The  "Mozo,"  as  the  native  Indian  is  called,  although 
he  worked  for  his  landlord,  lived  a  tolerable  existence'  under 
these  conditions.  His  own  wants  were  few,  as  were  also  those 
of  his  master,  and  were  easily  supplied.  The  labor  was  sel- 
dom very  arduous  and  the  hours  were  not  long.  When  the 
day's  task  was  d9ne  he  returned  to  his  family  and  he  was 
happy. 

But  during  the  last  ten  years  all  this  has  been  changed. 
The  omnivorous  and  omnipresent  American,  keen  on  the  scent 
leading  to  commercial  advantage,  has  invaded  this  region. 
He  discovered  that  the  isthmus  river  bottoms  could  produce 
as  much  sugar  per  acre  as  the  lava  beds  of  Hawaii,  that  the 
hillsides  would  grow  coffee  and  rubber  equal  to  any  in  the 
world,  that  corn,  cacao,  bananas  and  the  pineapple  would 
thrive,  and  he  has  purchased  the  great  Spanish  estates  and  has 
cut  them  up  into  "plantatioiis"  of  from  one  thousand  acres 
to  ten  thousand  acres  each. 

''American  moaey"  is  "developing"  these  plantations;  so 
say  the  "promoters."  But  speaking  more  accurately,  it  is 
Mozo  muscle.  The  native  workingman  receives  from  thirty 
to  forty  cents  (Mexican)  a  day,  which  is  from  thirteen  to  fif- 
teen cents  a  day  in  our  money.  But  the  workingman  docs 
not  always  draw  all  that  he  earns,  as  he  gets  his  supplies  at 
the  plantation  store,  either  for  cash  or  on  credit,  and  then 
he  is  also  subjected  to  fines  of  one  sort  or  another.  A  planta- 
tion mjinager  told  the  writer  that  he  had  just  recently  fined 
two  of  his  men  two  dollars  each  for  chewing  cane  stalks. 

52S 


524  THE  INTEltNADlONAli  SOCTAtJBt  EfiVlEW. 

Whether  sucking  juice  from  the  cane  is  one  of  the  more  hein- 
ous offenses  for  wliich  men  are  fined  on  this  plantation,  the 
man  did  not  state.  A  little  sweet  sap  to  slake  their  thirst, 
perhaps,  or  possibly,  to  piece  out  a  scanty  breakfast,  cost  these 
men  a  week's  work.  And  yet  this  man  seemed  to  be  among 
the  most  humane  and  tender-hearted  of  the  managers  one 
meets  upon  the  isthmus.  He  is  past  sixty  years  of  age,  an 
ex-banker,  and  until  recently  was  a  resident  of  Minnesota. 

And  the  Mozo  is  no  slouch  of  a  worker.  The  tropical  heat 
of  the  days  and  the  chilling  cold  of  the  nights  do  not  affect 
him.  With  his  machete  he  can  do  a  wonderful  amount  of 
brush  work  in  a  day,  either  in  clearing  the  jungle,  or  in  clear- 
ing the  coffee  and  rubber  plantations  of  weeds.  And  with 
the  ax  in  clearing  the  forest  of  its  monster  trees  he  is  more 
than  the  northern  woodsman's  equal. 

Work  begins  at  dawn  and  lasts  till  dark.  The  men  are  told 
off  in  gangs  of  fifteen  or  twenty  under  a  foreman,  who  is  armed 
with  a  six-shooter  and  a  machete.  The  men  have  to  be  watched 
closely  or  they  will  run  away,  but  woe  unto  the  man  who 
makes  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  escape.  A  machete  is  likely 
to  crack  his  skull.  At  night  the  men  are  herded  in  a  large 
bamboo  bunk-house,  which  is  closely  strimg  with  barbed  wire, 
and  an  armed  watchman  stands  guard  at  the  door  all  night,  to 
see  that  no  one  gets  away.  In  this  way  the  men  are  retained 
until  their  period  of  contract  expires,  usually  three  or  six 
months.  A  new  contract  is  then  entered  into,  he  returns  to 
his  home,  or  goes  to  another  plantation. 

Many  of  these  Mexican  workingmen  come  from  the  cities, 
where  they  have  become  involved  in  debt  to  an  employment 
agent.  The  employment  agent  gathers  up  twenty-five  or  fifty  of 
his  debtors  and  contracts  their  labor-power  to  the  plantation  man- 
ager. Here  on  the  plantation  the  Mozo  works  out  his  original 
debt  with  the  interest  thereon,  his  railroad  fare,  which  was 
advanced  by  the  plantation  manager,  and,  presumably,  a  fair 
profit  also  to  the  employment  agent  for  the  transaction. 

You  may  think  that  the  Mozo  would  object  to  this  kind 
of  treatment.  Well,  he  does,  and  about  as  effectually  as  the 
Cripple  Creek  miners  have,  objected  to  equally  as  outrageous 
treatment.  But  the  laws  of  Mexico,  like  the  laws  of  Colorado, 
are  made  by  the  capitalists,  for  the  capitalist's  interest,  and 
are  enforced  against  the  workingman  at  the  point  of  the 
capitalist  bayonet.  In  Mexico,  as  in  Colorado,  it  is  supposed 
■  that  the  workingman  helps  elect,  those  whom  he  would  have 
rule  over  him,  but  in  Mexico,  as  in  Colorado,  the  workingman 
still  votes  as  the  capitalist  tells  him  to.  And  he  gets  what  he 
votes  for  in  both  places. 

Mexico  is  a  republic  only  in  name.    In  reality  it  is  a  mil- 


LABOB  CONDITIONS  ON  THE  ISTHMUS  OF  TBHUANTBPEC.  525 

itary  despotism.  To  be  sure,  the  despot  is  a  very  benevolent 
one,  as  despots  go.  President  Diaz  has  safeguarded  the  rights 
of  the  people  well  in  many  ways  against  the  insidious  en- 
croachments of  capital.  In  some  respects  he  has  done  much* 
better  than  our  own  high  officials.  Still  there  is  no  real  liberty 
in  Mexico  for  the  workingman,  any  more  than  there  is  in  the 
United  States. 

There  are  signs,  however,  which  show  that  the  working- 
man  in  Mexico  is  beginning  to  think  a  little  and  to  act  in 
his  own  interest.  On  the  isthmus  he  is  becoming  more  inde- 
pendent, harder  to  handle,  and  the  plantation  managers  are 
beginning  to  look  to  Japan  and  China  for  men.  One  or  two 
shiploads  of  Chinamen  have  already  arrived  at  the  isthmus, 
and  more  are  on  the  way  to  take  the  places  of  the  native 
Mexican.  This  importation  will  not  prove  so  disastrous  to  the 
Mexican  workingman  in  lowering  wages  and  the  standard  of 
living,  as  the  free  importation  of  Chinese  into  the  United 
States  would  prove  the  American  workingman's  undoing.  The 
Mexican  has  few  wants,  easily  supplied,  and  his  wages  are 
so  low  that  the  Chinaman  is  not  likely  to  underbid  him.  It 
would  appear  that  the  Mexican  workingman  would  rsTther 
welcome  the  Chinaman  in  coming  to  relieve  him  of  the  task 
of  clearing  the  isthmus  of  the  impenetrable  jungle. 

Isaac  Peterson. 


The  Elections  in  Australia. 

THE  federal  elections  have  taken  place  and  the  Labor  Party 
has  greatly  increased  its  representation.     In  the  sena- 
torial elections  for  Queensland,  Western  Australia  and 
South  Australia  the  Labor  Party  swept  the  polls.    The 
position  of  parties  in  the  Senate  is  now  as  follows : 

Ministerial    (protectionists) 8 

Opposition  (free-traders) 14 

Labor   14 

In  the  House  of  Representatives  the  parties  stand  as  follows : 

Ministerial   26 

Opposition   27 

Labor   1 22 

The  most  interesting  feature  of  the  elections  for  socialists 
was  the  running  of  three  socialist  candidates  for  the  Senate  in 
New  South  Wales.  These  candidates  stood  for  clear-cut,  non- 
compromising  revolutionary  socialism  and  their  appeal  to  the 
class-consciousness  of  the  workers  was  in  marked  contrast  to  the 
electioneering  appeals  of  the  Labor  Party,  with  whom,  of  course, 
they  came  into  direct  conflict. 

The  socialist  votes  were: 

Thomson   '. 25,976 

Moroney 25,924 

Drake    17,870 

Drake's  vote  of  17,000  may  be  taken  as  something  near  the 
solid  socialist  vote.  The  lead  of  8,000  which  the  other  two  can- 
didates obtained  is  due  to  sympathy  votes  given  by  the  support* 
ers  of  the  Labor  Party,  who  in  N.  S,  W.  only  nominated  the  one 
candidate  for  the  Senate.  (This  single  Labor  candidate  relied 
on  the  protectionist  vote  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  pro- 
tectionist trio.  Neither  he  nor  any  of  the  protectionists,  however, 
were  returned.) 

At  the  first  federal  election  which  took  place  three  years 
ago  the  Australian  Socialist  League  ran  the  full  ticket  for  the  Sen- 
ate, with  the  following  result : 

Neill,  5,952;  Thomson,  5,823;  Holland,  4»77i ;  Moroney, 
4,257;  Melling,  3,495;  Morrish,  3,109. 

The  solid  socialist  vote  could  not  then  have  been  more 
than  3,000.  Taking  into  account  the  fact  that  women  had  no 
vote  at  that  election,  the  socialist  strength  of  N.  S.  W.  in  1900 
may  be  regarded  as  below  6,000.    This  increase  from  6,000 

526 


THE  ELECTIONS  IN  AUSTRALIA.  527 

to  I7,cxx)  must  be  regarded  as  exceedingly  encouraging  when 
it  is  recollected  that  there  is  only  one  socialist  papg*  (a  week- 
ly) in  the  state,  and  that  the  workers  are  intoxicated  with 
the  practical-politics  elixir. 

Matters  politicar~are  at  present  very  interesting — for  poli- 
ticians. The  people  are  likely  to  be  fooled  as  usual.  Political 
intrigue  is  at  present  busy,  and  alliances  of  all  sorts  and  de- 
scriptions are  hinted  at.  The  alliances  of  the  Labor  Party 
with  the  Protectionists,  of  the  Labor  Party  with  the  Free- 
traders, of  the  Protectionists  with  the  Free-traders,  and  of 
the  Labor  Party  with  Kingston  (one  of  the  most  radical  of 
the  protectionist  section)  are  freely  spoken  of.  The  last  men- 
tioned one  would  be  the  most  popular  among  labor  supporters 
for  Kingston  has  always  been  an  advocate  of  adult  suffrage, 
white  Australia  and  compulsory  conciliation  and  arbitration. 
(During  the  last  parliament  he  gained  great  applause  by  re- 
signing his  position  as  minister  because  his  co-ministers  re- 
fused to  make  provision  in  the  federal  arbitration  bill  for  the 
application  of  its  provisions  to  seamen.) 

It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  Kingston  has  a  follow- 
ing large  enough  to  place  him  in  power,  even  with  the  help  of 
the  Labor  Party.  The  most  probable  arrangement  would 
seem  to  be  a  coalition  between  protectionists  and  free-traders ; 
this  seems  exceedingly  probable,  as  large  numbers  of  both 
sections  during  the  elections  declared  for  fiscal  peace.  The 
greatest  bar  to  this  alliance  is  the  personal  ambition  of  G.  H. 
Reid  (the  free-trade  leader).  This  would  practically  bring 
about  a  temporary  alliance  at  least  between  Kingston  and 
the  Labor  Party. 

This  rearrangement  of  parties  will  most  likely  take  place 
over  the  discussion  of  the  conciliation  and  arbitration  bill, 
which  will  come  up  for  discussion  early  in  the  session. 

Federal  Labor  Leader  Watson,  with  an  eye,  perchance,  on 
probable  political  development,  in  a  recent  speech  said  he 
thought  that  the  Labor  Party  was  quite  as  anxious  as  others 
to  prove  the  efficiency  of  each  successive  step,  and  it  would 
be  useless  to  attempt  to  go  too  far  ahead  of  the  people. 
Therefore,  in  the  interests  of  permanent  reform,  it  was  de- 
sirable to  progress  steadily.  Regarding  the  charge  of  social- 
ism, he  admitted  a  trend  in  that  direction,  but  this  was  only 
in  regard  to  the  great  services  which  were  likely  to  result  in- 
juriously to  the  community  if  left  in  private  hands. 

Turley,  the  labor  senator  who  topped  the  poll  in  Queens- 
land, declared  at  the  declaration  of  the  poll  that  the  first  duty 
of  Queensland  senators  was  to  see  that  Brisbane  was  made  a 
port  of  call  for  the  mail  steamers.     (For  some  time  past  the 


528  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW. 

Queensland  bourgeoisie  have  been  agitating  for  this  in  order 
that  they  may  be  able  to  export  their  products  at  a  reduced 
cost  and  at  regular  intervals.)  The  absence  of  class-con- 
sciousness and  the  desire  to  serve  the  interests  of  the  little 
bourgeoisie  are  general  features  of  the  Labor  Party's  policy 
and  points  to  the  fact  that  it  is  fast  becoming  a  middle-class 
party. 

A  crisis  has  occurred  in  compulsory  arbitration  in  N.  S.  W. 
In  some  of  the  Newcastle  collieries  the  employers  decided  to 
reduce  the  hewing  rate.  The  men  appealed  to  the  Arbitration 
Court,  which  gave. an  award  in  favor  of  the  employers,  re- 
ducing the  hewing  rate  from  2s  3id  to  is  pd  per  ton.  The  men 
refused  to  accc5>t  the  award  of  the  court,  in  spite  of  the  advice 
of  the  union  officials  and  the  workers'  representative  in  the 
court,  Sam  Smith.    The  latter  said: 

"It  was  just  as  incumbent  on  the  miners  to  give  the  cus- 
tomary notice  when  an  award  did  not  suit  them  as  it  would 
be  for  a  mine  owner  to  give  them  notice,  when  the  award  was 
in  their  favor,  if  he  wished  to  close  his  colliery  down.  As  it 
was,  the  men  in  question  neither  obeyed  the  law  of  the  land 
nor  the  rules  of  their  union.  The  only  clear  course  for  the 
whole  of  the  men  concerned  was  to  resume  work,  and,  if  the 
terms  did  not  suit  them,  to  give  14  days'  notice,  and  then  to 
seek  work  elsewhere.  If  they  wanted  to  see  the  act  or  their 
own  organization  continue  they  must  treat  the  owners  and 
their  officers  fairly  and  loyally." 

The  employers  contemplated  proceeding  against  the  union, 
but  as  the  union  officials  advised  the  men  to  return  to  work, 
this  course  had  to  be  abandoned  and  the  union  funds  are  safe. 
The  coal  magnates  then  threatened  to  proceed  against  the  men 
individually  under  one  of  the  clauses  of  the  arbitration  act,  but 
for  the  present  this  course  also  has  been  abandoned. 
These  colliers  at  any  rate  have  learned  that  the  Arbitration 
Court  is  not  conducted  for  their  benefit,  although  the  union 
world  of  Nl  S.  W.  looks  askance  at  their  action.  The  Sydney 
Worker,  the  official  labor  paper  of  the  state,  asserts  that  "they 
will  under  all  the  circumstances  be  utterly  debarred  alike  from 
receiving  public  support,  from  that  of  their  co-workers  in 
other  collieries  and  from  that  of  unions  embraced  by  the  Syd- 
ney Labor  Council." 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  the  mines  of  Newcastle  ma- 
chines are  to  be  introduced.  Perhaps  then  a  larger  number  of 
the  colliers  may  be  brought  to  see  that  the  class  struggle  is 
not  the  figment  of  a  diseased  brain. 

Another  matter  of  great  significance  to  trades  unionists  is 
receiving  some  attention  in  N.  S.  W.    A  writer  in  a  recent 


THE  ELECTIONS  IN  AUSTBALTA.  529 

number  of  the  Waterside  Workers'  Gazette  says  that  "the 
membership  (of  a  union)  should  be  restricted  to  that  actu- 
ally required;  if  necessary,  this  could  be  mutually  arranged 
between  employer  and  employe."  Also  "that  the  men  seek- 
ing admission  should  either  be  men  who  already  had  experi- 
ence or  else  young  men  physically  capable  of  doing  anything 
that  the  trade  demanded.  If  these  suggestions  were  adopted 
the  union  would,  ere  long,  be  one  which  offered  genuine  ad- 
vantage to  its  members." 

The  introduction  of  this  old  guild  idea  is  not  likely  to  in- 
crease the  effectiveness  of  trades  unionism  as  a  weapon  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  working  class.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
the  idea  is  spreading  that  unionism  has  outlived  its  useful- 
ness. Andrew  M.  Anderson. 


A  History  of  German  Trade   Unions. 

(Coneludod  from  February  isgne.) 

ON  the  nth  of  December  a  confidential  circular  from 
Count  Posadowsky  was  sent  out  consulting  the  allied 
governments  upon  this  subject.  In  January,  1898,  Vor- 
waerts  published  this  circular  and  gave  the  alarm.  A 
lively  discussion  followed  in  the  Reichstag  between  Stumm 
and  the  representatives  of  the  three  phases  of  the  political- 
union  movement :  Legien  and  von  Elm,  Roesicke,  the  Liberal, 
Lieber  and  Hitze,  of  the  Centre.  And  the  Reichstag  showed 
itself  sympathetic  with  the  efforts  of  the  laborers. 

At  the  same  time,  all  the  union  organizaticwis  protested  with  all 
their  strength.  The  general  Commission  undertook  an  enormous 
agitation  extending  throughout  Germany.  More  than  three  mil- 
lion and  a  half  of  leaflets  were  scattered  throughout  the  whole 
country.  It  held  large  numbers  of  meetings,  it  addressed  a  long 
memoir  upon  the  right  to  strike  to  the  Reidistag. 

The  government,  however,  persisted  in  presenting  its  plan 
of  a  law.  The  Reichstag  did  not  even  do  it  the  honor  to  send  it 
to  a  committee.    (Nov.  20,  1899.) 

This  time,  this  was  the  end. 

A  later  revelation  showed  how  much  of  a  class  fight  this  was : 
Count  Posadowsky,  secretary  of  internal  aflfairs,  had  solicited  and 
received  from  the  Central  Union  of  German  manufacturers,  cele- 
brated as  being  the  union  of  all  the  extremists,  15,000  francs  to 
support  his  proposed  law. 

Since  then  the  unions  have  no  longer  been  directly  disturbed. 
Their  juridical  position,  it  is  true,  still  remains  precarious;  since 
1895  all  the  efforts  of  their  friends  or  representatives  to  secure 
recognition  of  legal  standing  for  them  by  simple  registration  have 
been  regularly  defeated  by  the  opposition  of  the  Prussian  govern- 
ment. Even  according  to  the  Civil  Code  of  1900,  since  the  tribu- 
nal charged  with  registering  the  documents  by  which  the  associa- 
tions obtained  their  legal  standing  may  oppose  its  veto,  if  an  as- 
sociation is  a  social  or  political  one — the  unions  are  still  at  the 
mercy  of  the  authorities. 

The  most  interesting  thing  in  their  recent  history  is  the  fact 
that  by  their  ever  increasing  numbers,  by  the  development  of  their 
works  of  insurance,  by  the  ever  increasing  part  which  they  take  in 
the  applications  and  the  development  of  social  legislation,  they 
have  become  during  these  last  years  one  of  the  essential  organs 
of  German  industrial  production.  A  despotic  government  may 
for  a  long  time  yet  refuse  them  a  legal  standing,  it  may  hamper 

590 


GEBMAN  TRADE  UNIONS.  531 

their  propaganda,  but  it  no  longer  dare  attempt  to  annihilate  them 
withoqt  at  the  same  time  disorganizing  German  production  and 
even  more  without  disorganizing  its  own  services. 

We  have  now  to  describe  how  this  great  power  has  been  ac- 
quired. 

♦  4<  * 

This  increasing  strengtli  was  primarily  due  to  a  con- 
tinuous increase  of  union  organizations.  While  the  out- 
grown decrepit  Hirsch-Duncker  organizations  responded 
but  feebly  to  the  shocks  of  political  and  industrial  life  (growing 
from  86,000  in  1899  to  91,000  in  1900),  the  young  Christian 
organizations  and  the  vigorous  Socialist  unions  attained  a 
progress  during  these  last  years  comparable  to  that  of  the 
English  unions  after  1850.  At  the  time  of  their  first  congress 
at  Mayence  in  1899,  there  were  23  Qiristian  unions  with 
102,590  members.  By  1900  they  claimed  a  membership  of 
161,517.  On  the  other  hand,  the  socialist  unions  passed  from 
493,742  in  1898  to  580,473  in  1899  and  to  680427  in  1900. 

During  this  same  period  the  various  groups  perfected  their 
organization.  Those  who  had  not  previously  seen  its  necessity 
now  adopted  the  centralized  form,  whose  efficiency  the  socialist 
unions  had  already  demonstrated.  The  Christian  unions 
founded  a  Central  Committee  at  Mayence  in  1899  charged  with 
the  same  functions  as  the  General  Commission,  i.  e.,  propa- 
ganda and  gathering  statistics,  publishing  a  journal  and  rep- 
resenting the  common  interests.  The  localists  themselves  in 
1897  established  a  business  commission,  held  a  congress  and 
founded  a  central  union  in  1901.  Finally,  in  1899  and  1902  at 
Frankfort  and  Stuttgart,  the  two  congresses  of  the  unions  be- 
longing to  the  General  Commission  defined  the  respective 
functions  of  the  Central  unions  and  the  federations,  that  is  to 
say,  of  the  local  groups,  which  correspond  quite  closely  to 
the  French  Bourses  des  travail. 

The  unions  developed  their  resources  and  their  internal 
strength  most  strikingly.  Even  until  within  these  last  years 
the  prejudice  still  prevailed  that  dues  ought  to  remain  small 
in  order  to  gain  a  large  membership.  It  was  forgotten 
that  it  was  equally  necessary  to  retain  the  members,  and  that 
this  could  only  be  done  when  they  were  assured  evident  ad- 
vantages, and  these  could  not  be  obtained  without  great  re- 
sources. Little  by  little  the  dues  were  voted  higher  and 
higher.  In  1891,  out  of  thirty-six  of  the  centralized  unions, 
fourteen  paid  fortnightly  dues  of  less  than  15  pfennigs,  and 
twenty  less  than  20  pfennigs.  In  1902,  out  of  sixty  unions 
one  alone  paid  dues  of  less  than  15  pfennigs;  only  six  paid 
less  than  20  pfennigs. 

Another  manifest  proof  of  the  increasing  vitality  of  the 


532  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW, 

unions  is  the  establishment  of  special  functionaries  such  as 
union  secretaries,  secretaries  of  federations,  labor  secretaries 
and  treasurers  whose  work  becomes  more  and  more  extensive 
and  more  and  more  appreciated,  calling  for  higher  and  higher 
compensation.  The  congresses  of  the  centralized  unions  of 
1899  and  1902  were  occupied  with  discussions  concerning  these 
officials.  The  congress  of  Frankfort  directed  the  General  Com- 
mission of  laborers  to  organize  mutual  institutions  permitting 
the  unions  to  insure  their  officers  the  payment  of  a  pension  on 
retirement.  The  congress  of  Stuttgart  decided  to  form  a 
mutual  assistance  fund  which  has  now  been  established. 

Thanks  to  the  development  of  these  organizations  and  to 
this  increase  of  resources  the  unions  have  succeeded  during 
the  last  years  in  entering  upon-  their  task  in  all  its  fullness. 

In  the  first  place  this  task  has  come  to  be  better  under- 
stood. 

Whether  they  recognize  the  existence  of  the  class  struggle 
and  deliberately  make  it  the  fundamental  principle  of  their 
activity,  as  do  the  socialist  unions,  or  whether  they  deny  it 
like  the  Hirsch-Duncker  unions,  or  whether  while  recognizing 
it  they  hope  to  soften  it  as  do  the  Christians,  they  all  propose 
to-day  as  their  object  the  material  and  moral  improvement  of 
the  condition  of  the  worker  within  the  existing  society  by 
exercising  an  influence  upon  the  conditions  of  labor.  Better 
conditions  of  labor,  higher  wages,  shorter  hours — ^this  is  the 
immediate  end  for  all,  and  a  vigorous,  educated  and  wealthv 
proletariat  (the  socialist  adds  for  the  purpose  of  the  future 
struggle  of  emancipation),  this,  for  all  alike,  was  the  final  aim. 

But  how  were  these  results  to  be  attained  ? 

Hirsch  said,  by  agreements  with  the  employers.  But  the 
socialist  replied  by  asking  if  such  agreements  were  possible 
without  common  principles  of  law.  And  can  a  legal  regime 
exist  which  shall  be  truly  common,  for  does  not  all  law  lead 
to  the  oppression  of  the  wage- worker?  In  the  wage  system 
war  is  permanent,  is  only  temporarily  abolished  by  ephemeral 
truces.  The  Hirsch-Dunckers  and  the  Christians  are  also 
compelled  to  participate  in  this  war.  As  for  the  socialists  it 
was  as  a  war  measure  that  they  founded  unions  in  the  first  place. 
But,  even  if  methodical  and  regulated,  war  is  always  war  be- 
tween classes  as  between  nations.  But  let  us  have  no  un- 
necessary wars  hereafter,  there  will  be  enough  necessary  ones  in 
the  social  world. 

In  order  to  reduce  the  number  of  strikes,  strong  unions  are 
necessary  which  are  capable  of  obtaining  by  the  very  fact  of 
their  strength  advantageous  agreements,  and  capable  of  en- 
forcing them.  Indeed,  during  these  last  years  the  unions  have 
frequently  been   able  by  a  simple  understanding  to  lessen 


Strikes.  Most  important  of  all,  agreements  as  to  wages  have 
begun  to  be  concluded  between  unions  of  laborers  and  unions 
of  employers. 

In  1873  the  printers,  already  powerful,  concluded  the  first 
of  these,  which  remained  in  force  for  eighteen  years.  In  1891, 
when  it  was  to  be  renewed,  the  employers  refused  to  grant 
the  nine-hour  day,  and  a  strike  was  declared  which  ruined  the 
federation.  Ajfter  it  had  been  re-organized  more  strongly  in 
1896,  it  obtained  a  new  agreement  binding  the  unions  and  the 
employers'  organization  for  five  years,  and  granting  the  reduc- 
tion of  a  half  hour  in  the  working  day  and  an  increase  of  50 
pfennigs  a  week. 

The  printers'  union  belonged  to  the  General  Commission. 
An  important  question  was  raised.  Had  not  the  union  ignored 
the  class  struggle  by  establishing  a  rate  of  wages  in  agree- 
ment with  the  employers?  Some  of  the  members  of  the  Typo- 
graphical Union  accused  the  committee  of  accepting  with 
Hirsch  the  idea  of  a  harmony  of  interests.  Gasch,  the  editor 
of  the  union  journal,  founded  a  rival  union.  The  question 
was  taken  before  the  congress  of  socialist  unions  in  1899. 
Doblin,  the  president  of  the  central  organization,  pointed  out 
that  a  struggle  was  not  necessarily  for  the  sake  of  the  struggle 
itself,  and  that  it  was  not  the  business  of  labor  organizations 
,to  artificially  aggravate  class  antagonism,  but  to  obtain  prac- 
tical results.  The  congress  almost  unanimously  agreed  that 
the  agreements  as  to  wages  were  a  recognition  by  the  employ- 
ers of  the  equal  rights  of  the  laborers  in  the  fixing  of  the 
conditions  of  labor,  and  that  it  was  advisable  to  endeavor  to 
establish  such  agreements  wherever  the  employers'  organiza- 
tions were  strong  and  guaranteed  their  execution.  The 
masons'  union  in  1899  followed  the  example  of  the  printers 
and  several  others  have  since  done  the  same.  The  unions 
have  accepted  this  new  tactic,  which  is  better  adapted  to  their 
increasing  strength  and  suited  to  render  their  direct  action 
more  effective. 

For  a  long  time,  and  for  the  great  majority  of  the  German 
unions,  ancl  especially  for  the  socialist  unions,  this  direct 
action  by  a  strike,  or  by  pressure  exercised  upon  the  employ- 
ers, was  almost  the  only  method  utilized.  It  was  sometimes 
sustained  by  some  other  institutions,  iifdispensable  for  fight- 
ing, such  as  a  trade  journal,  and  assistance  to  militants  sub- 
jected to  legal  persecution.  The  unions,  were  continuously  at 
the  mercy  of  the  police.  They  were  persecuted  as  insurance 
institutions  whenever  they  happened  to  have  a  few  cents  in 
their  treasury,  until  they  scarcely  dared  to  accumulate  the 
necessary  capital  for  the  work  of  mutual  relief.  Moreover 
the  efficiency  of  these  institutions  for  union  activity  was  not 


534  THE  INTEBNATIONAIi  SOdAUST  BEVIEW. 

clearly  apparent.  The  Hirsch-Dunckers,  which  had  practiced 
them  from  the  beginning,  had  made  of  them  only  purely  insti- 
tutions for  mutual  relief. 

But  during  these  last  years  the  unions  were  beginning  to  con- 
sider whether  if  these  works  were  well  conducted,  they 
might  not  exercise  c.  certain  influence  upon  the  labor  market. 
Traveling  relief,  assistance  in  case  of  idleness  and  in  finding 
employment  for  the  members  have  been  recognized  as  appro- 
priate weapons  with  which  to  sustain  or  supplement  the  direct 
struggle.  In  many  of  the  unions  the  resistance  to  their  estab- 
lishment was  very  sharp.  It  was  claimed  that  to  establish 
relief  funds  was  practically  to  surrender  completely  to  jcon- 
ditions  of  present  society,  to  abandon  all  struggle,  and  like 
the  liberals,  seek  only  to  relieve  here  and  there  individual  suf- 
fering. It  was  argued  that  it  was  the  function  of  the  State  to 
insure  labor  and  guarantee  the  laboring  class  against  need, 
and  that  therefore  the  unions  ought  not  to  change  themselves 
into  societies  for  mutual  assistance,  and  thereby  relieve  the 
State  of  its  duties. 

To  those  who  in  the  Berlin  Congress  of  1896  presented 
these  arguments,  others  like  Segitz  replied  that  a  union  was 
strong  only  when  it  had  a  numerous  and  stable  fighting  force, 
and  that  only  through  relief  funds  could  members  be  retained 
and  that  it  had  been  shown  that  through  assistance  for  travel- 
ing and  for  the  employed  it  was  possible  to  favorably  affect 
the  conditions  of  wages  and  work.  The  traveling  fee  relieved 
the  market  and  permitted  the  more  mobile  of  the  laborers 
to  go  away  to  seek  elsewhere  for  employment;  assistance  to 
the  unemployed  permitted  them  to  wait  without  contributing 
by  their  despairing  bids  to  the  decrease  of  wages.  The  Con- 
gress endorsed  the  latter  position,  and  advised  the  unions  to 
establish,  whenever  possible,  relief  for  the  unemployed. 

This  advice  has  been  followed.  In  1877  there  were  still 
but  fourteen  unions  that  gave  relief  to  those  out  of  work ;  in 
1901  there  were  twenty-one  of  these,  and  in  1902,  twenty-six. 
In  the  same  year,  forty-one  out  of  sixty  organizations  gave 
traveling  assistance  to  their  members.  In  the  Christian 
unions  these  useful  institutions  are  still  without  any  great 
importance.  The  Hirsch-Dunckers  had  possessed  them  all 
since  1895. 

Among  the  services  furnished  by  the  unions  must  be  included 
the  laborer's  hotels.  These  are  open  to  all,  to  non-unionists  as 
well  as  to  unionists  (In  order  to  permit  the  second  to  gain  the 
first),  and  assure  to  the  laborer  arriving  in  a  great  city  comfort- 
able accommodations  at  a  moderate  price.  Sometimes  these  are 
private  enterprises  controlled  by  local  federation,  and  sometimes 
the  property  of  the  federation  itself. 


GERMAN  TRADE  UNIONS.  535 

Here  it  is  that  the  local  federations  enter  upon  the  scene. 
If  there  is  a  central  union  supplied  with  ample  resources  it 
takes  up  the  work  of  furnishing^  assistance  to  the  unemployed 
and  in  traveling,  or  again  of  gathering  the  general  statistics  of 
the  labor  market  iu  each  trade,  and  k  is  necessary  for  the  local 
union  to  interest  itself  every  day  in  the  work  of  securing  em- 
ployment, adjusting  relations  with  the  authorities,  and  all 
other  local  matters  connected  more  or  less  with  the  defense 
of  wages.  By  itself,  the  little  group  of  loo  or  200  members  of 
a  single  trades  union,  in  a  moderate  sized  village,  is  scarcely 
able  to  accomplish  this  task  which  every  day  grows  more 
complex. 

Soon,  the  unions  of  the  same  village  feel  the  necessity  of 
uniting  in  order  to  supply  their  members  with  all  these  desired 
services.  In  his  original  form  of  organization  Hirsch  had 
decided  that  local  federations  should  be  founded,  to  which  the 
unions  of  the  same  city  would  be  compelled  to  apply.  After 
1892,  this  federation  was  no  longer  obligatory,  but  the  local 
federations  have  continued  developing  themselves  until  there 
were  128  in  1902. 

But  it  is  principally  the  federation  of  socialist  unions 
which  through  the  development  of  the  life  of  central  unions 
have  taken  a  remarkable  extension  during  recent  years.  Three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  federations,  including  4,742  organiza- 
tions, with  614,722  members,  have  replied  to  the  inquiry  of  the 
General  Commission  in  1902.  Of  these  federations  103  have 
a  bureau  of  information,  seventy-seven  possess  a  meeting 
hall ;  twenty-nine  a  central  hotel ;  160  arrange  for  a  hotel  with 
a  restaurant  keeper  subject  to  their  control ;  nineteen  already 
have  their  "Home  for  the  Unions,"  where  all  these  special  ser- 
vices together  with  the  offices  of  the  various  unions,  hotels, 
restaurants,  halls  for  meetings  and  festivals,  libraries  and  lec- 
ture halls  are  gathered  together. 

In  1900  the  Berlin  proletariat  dedicated  a  vast  and  sub- 
stantial laboring  palace  whose  facade  of  red  brick  serves  to 
enliven  the  monotonous  greyness  of  the  eastern  quarter. 
Thus,  little  by  little,  this  well-rounded  system  of  institutions 
is  completed,  which  serves  the  laborers  in  defending  their 
wages.  ^ 

*        «        * 

But  by  a  natural  logic,  the  continuously  increasing  assist- 
ance which  was  g^ven  to  the  workers  by  these  various  institu- 
tions led  them  more  and  more  to  have  recourse  to  the  union 
for  all  the  difficulties  of  their  daily  life.  If  the  worker  sees 
only  his  wages  and  if  it  is  the  union  which  guarantees  them 
to  him,  why  should  he  not  appeal  to  his  organization  in  one 
form  or  another  whenever  his  ability  to  work  is  menaced? 


§36  TfiE  INTfifiNATIONAL  SOOlALlS*  BEVIBW. 

The  union  activity  continued  to  extend.  The  health 
fulness  of  the  workshop,  protection  against  accidents,  assist- 
ance in  sickness  and  injury,  even  the  questions  of  housing 
and  trade  instruction,  have  inevitably  been  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  societies.  But,  here  they  found  themselves 
injured  by  activity  of  another  sort,  that  of  the  State. 

Since  the  wholly  political  initiative  of  Prince  Bismarck 
in  1881,  labor  legislation,  even  in  spite  of  his  intentions,  has 
developed.  The  gaps  in  the  first  insurance  institutions  have 
been  filled  by  successive  new  acts.  Protection  of  labor  is  on 
the  way  to  being  established.  Women  and  children  are  bet- 
ter and  better  protected.  Germany  already  boasts  of  being 
the  country,  par  excellence,  of  social  politics. 

Now  this  governmental  activity  has  at  first  thwarted  the 
development  of  the  unions.  It  has  frequently  been  repeated 
that  the  reason  why  the  German  unions  did  not  develop  like 
the  English  was  because  of  the  competition  of  the  State, 
which  prevented  them  from  creating  powerful  benefit  funds. 
The  Hirsch-Duncker  unions,  which  in  1869  established  a  cen- 
tral fund  for  the  disabled,  were  forced  to  go  into  bankruptcy 
after  the  establishment  of  imperial  insurance  in  1889.  The 
strongest  of  their  unions,  that  di  the  machinists,  which  cre- 
ated a  similar  institution,  was  compelled  also  to  give  it  up 
in  1893.  Even  among  the  socialists  the  printers  alone,  at  the 
present  time,  distribute  a  very  slight  relief  in  case  of  dis- 
ability. As  to  sick  benefits,  the  new  act  of  1892  having 
permitted  the  free  funds  to  remain,  the  Hirsch-Dunckers  col- 
lected theirs  into  one  central  Union,  and  have  been  able  to 
maintain  it.  In  1900,  they  distributed  1,061,625  francs.  In 
the  socialist  unions  the  recent  development  of  works  of  assist- 
ance seems  to  have  been  somewhat  stimulated  by  the  creation 
of  these  institutions  of  relief.  In  1901  ten  unions,  and  in  1902 
eighteen  distributed  relief,  and  during  this  last  year  this 
amounted  to  992,347  francs.  But  a  careful  consideration 
shows  that  all  this  amounts  to  but  very  little  more  than  a 
supplemental  relief.  Competition  with  the  State  being  really 
impossible,  the  effort  of  the  unions  to  aid  their  members 
must  be  turned  in  other  directions.  It  is  just  here  that  they 
have  shown  a  marvelous  flexibility. 

The  German  social  legislation  is  essentially  anti-demo- 
cratic. Employers,  proprietors,  ofiicials,  bureaucrats  all  have 
a  share  in  the  application  of  the  measures  in  favor  of  the 
workers.  The  workers  alone  have  no  part,  or  a  ridiculously 
small  one.  The  consequence  is  that  these  laws  which  it  is 
pretended  were  made  in  their  interest  are  not  always  applied, 
or  are  applied  against  them.  A  strong  organization  of  the 
employing  class  and  the  complicity  of  the  authorities  is  sufB- 


GEBMAN  TRADE  UNIONS.  537 

cient  to  insure  this  result.  Both  of  these  are  met  with  in 
Germany  more  than  elsewhere. 

Confronted  with  these  institutions  the  workers,  while  they 
are  still  feebly  organized,  have  only  one  resource.  They  have 
no  more  to  do  with  these  institutions  than  they  can  help. 
They  renounce  the  benefits  that  the  law  may  offer  them  and 
avoid  their  application. 

The  German  unions  have  in  the  beginning  taken  this  atti- 
tude, and  while  the  consciousness  of  class  antagonisms  some- 
times incited  them  to  take  it,  it  is  necessary  to  recognize  that 
it  was  frequently  forced  upon  them  by  events^  Factory  in- 
spectors were  first  created  in  1878,  then  increased  in  numbers 
in  1891,  but  the  inspectors  plainly  took  the  side  of  the  em- 
ployers in  their  annual  reports,  and  spies  denounced  the 
workers  who  complained.  Employment  bureaus  have  been 
established  by  the  municipalities  since  1893.  But  the  munici- 
palities gave  their  administration  over  to  hostile  employes, 
and  the  State  sought  for  means  to  destroy  the  employment 
bureaus  and  prevent  strikes.  The  accident  and  insurance  law 
promised  the  worker  who  had  become  incapacitated  two-thirds 
of  his  wages,  but  the  associated  employers  by  judicial  trickery 
deprived  him  of  this  indemnity.  This  explains  the  hostile 
attitude,  and  also  the  radical  resolutions  such  as  those  of  the 
congress  of  Berlin,  which  warned  the  unions  against  all  em- 
ployment bureaus  whose  administration  was  not  confined  ex- 
clusively to  them. 

But  a  time  came  when  the  vigorous  growth  of  the  societies 
and  some  happy  attempts  on  their  part  showed  the  influence 
that  they  were  able  to  exert.  In  South  Germany  in  the  duchy 
of  Baden  and  of  Wurtemberg*  the  factory  inspectors  were 
brought  in  touch  with  the  workers.  In  the  Grand  Duchy  of 
Weimer  Vertrauensmanner  have  been  accepted  by  the  gov- 
ernment as  advisers  of  the  inspectors,  and  elsewhere  "com- 
plaint committees"  have  been  established.  Even  in  relation 
to  the  employment  bureaus,  in  several  of  the  South  German 
States  mixed  bureaus,  administered  by  the  employers  and  the 
laborers,  have  been  able  to  satisfy  the  latter. 

Little  by  little,  led  on  by  this  first  experience,  the  unions 
have  given  up  their  policy  of  abstention.  Becoming  conscious 
of  their  strength  and  convinced  that  co-operation  in  the  appli- 
cation of  the  laws  did  not  diminish  their  vigor  in  struggling, 
they  have  not  feared  to  participate  in  all  the  work  of  the 
State.  They  have  become  convinced  that  they  alone  are  able 
to  assure  to  the  disabled  worker  all  the  benefits  of  which 
delusive  legislation  too  often  found  ways  to  deprive  him  after 
it  had  been  promised  him.    And  step  by  step  they  have  begun 


538  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIBW. 

to  sweep  away  all  the  institutions  of  a  conservative  Bismarck- 
ian  socialism. 

In  spite  of  the  old  prejudices  (hatred  of  the  State  among 
the  Liberals,  suspicion  among  the  Socialists),  in  spite  of  the 
frequently  recognized  ignorance  of  the  inspectors,  insuffi- 
ciency of  the  entire  service  organized  by  each  State  and  not 
by  an  imperial  law,  in  spite  of  the  hostility  of  the  Berlin  gov- 
ernment, the  unions  have  continued  to  participate  more  and 
more  in  factory  inspection.  Following  the  decisions  of  Frank- 
fort in  1899,  the  socialist  federations  have  established  com- 
missions having  the  duty  of  presenting  complaints  and  thus 
freeing  the  worker  from  undergoing  persecution  by  the  em- 
ployer. One  hundred  and  thirty-one  such  commissions  ex- 
isted in  1902.  The  central  unions,  local  groups  and  secretaries 
are  compelled  to  maintain  continuous  relations  with  the  in- 
spectors and  to  assist  them  in  their  investigations. 

Since  the  reconsideration  of  the  decision  of  Berlin  in  1896 
the  same  congress  of  Frankfort  after  having  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  in  principle  the  placing  of  laborers  belonged 
by  right  to  their  organizations,  it  was  recognized  that 
experience  showed  it  might  be  advantageous  for  the  unions  in 
certain  trades  to  take  part  in  the  administration  of  municipal 
employment  bureaus.  It  also  regulated  the  committees  under 
which  this  co-operation  might  take  place. 

Before  long  the  whole  system  of  labor  insurance  will  be 
invaded  by  union  activity.  These  systems  of  insurance  indeed 
constitute  appropriate  means  for  the  protection  and  develop- 
ment of  the  strength  of  the  proletariat.  Now  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  unions  in  fulfilling  their  essential  role  to  utilize  all  these 
means,  and  in  pursuance  of  this  idea  they  have  set  to  work. 
In  the  administration  of  the  various  forms  of  insurance  some 
subordinate  places  have  been  reserved  to  the  representatives 
of  the  laborers.  These  are  not  neglected.  Competent  com- 
rades, members  of  the  unions,  experts  in  labor  legislation  and 
ardent  defenders  of  proletarian  rights  are  installed  therein. 
The  independent  (socialist)  unions  at  Frankfort  in  1899,  and 
the  Christian  union  at  Crefeld  in  1901  have  decided  to  intro- 
duce as  many  as  possible  of  their  members  into  these  insurance 
offices.  In  1899  and  1901  the  General  Commission  through 
brochures  and  circulars  directed  the  election  of  laborers  as 
assistants  to  the  bureaus,  the  co-operative  tribunals  and  to  the 
imperial  offices.  In  all  these  instances  the  rights  of  the  labor- 
ers will  be  henceforth  defended. 

But  all  of  these  laws  are  complicated.  Their  jurisprudence 
is  enormous  and  the  defects  are  innumerable  by  which  the 
meager  sums  due  to  the  proletarians  are  sharply  returned 
to  the  employers'  or  State  fund.    Sick  and  discouraged,  with- 


GERMAN  TRADE  UNIONS.  539 

out  protection  a^inst  the  solicitations  or  the  advice  of  such 
or  such  ones,  incapable  of  paying  a  compjetent  attorney,  what 
can  these  creditors  do?  If,  upon  the  testimony  of  a  physician 
in  his  employ,  an  employer's  insurance  association  gives  him 
only  an  insignificant  indemnity,  how  can  the  worker,  the 
victim  of  an  accident,  go  from  trial  to  trial,  even  to  the  Im- 
perial Court  of  last  resort,  and  how  will  he  make  up  a  record, 
or  obtain  a  representative  to  support  his  cause  at  Berlin? 

It  is  in  order  to  respond  to  these  needs  that  the  labor 
secretariats  have  been  conceived  and  founded  by  the  socialist 
unions. 

The  first  was  in  Nuremburg  in  1894.  It  proposed  to  give 
oral  counsel  in  matters  of  arbitration  and  insurance,  protection 
of  workers  and  inspection  of  labor,  and  above  all  to  supply  the 
defects  of  the  special  bureaus  or  editors  of  journals  who  al- 
ready fulfilled  this  role.  When  written  matter  was  necessary 
the  Secretary  corrected  it.  He  assumes  the  systematic  con- 
duct of  laborers  suits.  The  institution  was  a  great  success. 
In  189s  and  1896  the  number  of  consultations  grew  to  841 1 ; 
in  1897  a  new  Secretariat  was  founded  at  Stuttgart;  in  1898 
five  others,  then  nine  iti  1899;  eleven  in  1900,  six  in  1901  and 
five  in  IQ02;  thirty-two  exist  to-day,  four  having  failed  to 
live.  This  is  a  heavy  burden  indeed  for  the  federations  which 
founded  them.  During  the  last  year,  1902,  195,679  persons 
have  sought  the  advice  of  the  forty-one  Secretaries  (three  at 
Nuremburg  and  Hamburg,  two  at  Munich  and  Frankfort). 

Quite  recently  the  Congress  of  Stuttgart  has  completed 
this  work.  The  labor  secretaries  were  well  able  to  maintain 
the  causes  of  their  clients  in  the  legal  tribunals  of  arbitration, 
but  in  Berlin  before  the  Imperial  insurance  office  this  was 
impracticable.  On  the  sugeestion  of  the  labor  secretary  of 
Munich,  the  unions  decided  to  found  a  central  Secretariat 
charged  with  the  conduct  of  the  appeals  of  the  union  workers 
to  the  Imperial  office  and  all  defense  of  their  causes.  He  has 
entered  upon  his  duty  since  April  i,  1903.  He  will  have 
charge  of  the  direction  of  the  election  of  labor  representatives. 
Eighteen  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty  francs  have  been 
voted  for  his  annual  expenses. 

Thus  throughout  the  whole  hierarchy  of  their  administra- 
tions the  Imperial  systems  of  insurance  are  being  slowly  in- 
vaded by  labor  organizations.  Some  day,  without  doubt,  they 
will  resurrect  them,  and  the  gigantic  tree  with  numerous  dry 
limbs,  as  the  German  sta}:isticians  are  so  pleased  to  present 
them,  will  then  finally  bear  its  fruit. 

Of  all  the  social  institutions  there  are  none  which  seem 
to  remain  outside  of  union  activity.  In  order  to  draw  j^ll  pos- 
sible   advantages    from    the    arbitration    councils    {Gewerbege- 


640  THE  INTBBNATIONAL  SOCTIALIST  EEVIBW. 

Hchte)  the  Gteneral  Commission  has  aided  in  the  efforts  of 
organization  of  the  laboring  judges.  And  even  those  new  cor- 
porations, the  Innungen  established  by  a  law  springing  from 
the  reactionary  spirit  of  1897,  serve  as  means  of  activity  of 
the  organized  working  class.  In  1902  in  order  to  unite  the 
resistance  against  a  project  of  the  "strike  clause"  which  has 
diminshed  the  efficiency  of  agreements  in  the  decisions,  the 
General  Commission  has  placed  itself  in  direct  connection  with 
the  labor  committees  (Gessellenausschusse)  of  the  guild  organ- 
izations. Even  in  this  field,  so  little  in  accord  with  modem 
conditions  of  labor,  the  work  of  the  labor  organizations  has 
crept  in. 

In  consequence  of  this  more  extended  activity  the  deficien- 
cies and  the  views  of  these  laws  have  become  better  understood 
and  more  sharply  manifested,  and  the  desire  to  ameliorate 
them  has  naturally  become  more  active. 

For  the  transformation  of  factory  inspection,  for  the  re- 
form of  the  insurance  system,  for  the  changes  in  these  insti- 
tutions through  the  administrative  work  of  the  laborers,  the 
unions  have  multiplied  their  petitions  to  the  Reichstag  or  to 
the  various  assemblies.  It  was  a  publication  of  the  unions 
which  led  to  the  debates  in  March,  1903,  in  that  imposine: 
congress  of  sick  benefit  associations  which  the  news  of  a  pro- 
posed law  disadvantageous  to  them  had  suddenly  resurrected. 
By  the  clearness  of  their  demands  and  the  ability  of  their 
representatives  the  unions  to-day  exercise  an  influence  in  the 
very  working  out  of  social  laws. 

This  immense  work  has  brought  about  profound  changes 
in  the  unions  themselves. 

This  was  first  evident  in  their  relations  to  political  parties. 
It  has  been  frequently  said  that  the  unions  have  tended  more 
and  more  to  withdraw  from  political  life  in  order  to  give  their 
whole  attention  to  their  economic  activity.  This  is  false  be- 
cause impossible.  By  the  very  conditions  that  have  developed 
them  the  German  unions  are  forced  to  remain  in  constant  close 
relation  with  the  political  parties ;  indeed,  it  was  only  through 
them  that  the  unions  were  able  to  obtain  the  legislative  re- 
forms of  which  they  had  need.  But  while,  in  the  beginning, 
the  unions  found  themselves  closely  subordinated  to  the  politi- 
cal parties,  to-day  it  is  parties  that  are  becoming  more  and 
more  subject  to  union  influence.  This  constitutes  a  profound 
revolution,  at  least  so  far  as  the  method  of  looking  at  things 
is  concerned.  "If  the  members  of  the  centralized  Unions" 
declared  Legien,  "belong  to  the  Social  Democratic  Party,  it 
is  because  that  is  the  only  party  that  energetically  supports 
their  demands."  "If  another  should  arise  that  would  do  the 
same,"  he  added  at  Frankfort,  "we  should  be  perfectly  ready 


QEBMAN  TBADE  UNIONa  641 

to  enter  into  relations  with  it."  This  assuredly  may  be  of 
great  importance  as  affecting  party  tactics.  If  the  congress 
of  Social  Democrats  at  .Munich,  for  example,  in  1902,  felt 
the  necessity  of  finally  formulating  a  clear  program  on  the 
question  of  insurance,  was  it  not  just  because  of  union  pres- 
sure? It  must  be  remembered  on  the  other  hand,  that  at  the 
last  elections  of  June,  1903,  there  were  a  number  of  well  known 
trade-union  leaders  among  the  eighty-one  members  elected 
to  the  Reichstag.  It  was  the  correspondent  of  the  General 
Commission  who,  on  July  4th,  announced  the  labor  policy 
which  the  party  was  to  follow. 

But  it  is  not  alone  in  this  direct  strength  that  the  devel- 
opment of  their  influence  has  been  of  value  to  the  unions.  At 
the  present  time  they  receive  other  and  more  direct  ad- 
vantages. 

Their  continuous  intervention  in  the  application  of  the 
laws  has  given  back  to  them  the  power  for  propaganda  and 
solidarity,  of  which  the  imperial  insurance  system  had  at  first 
deprived  them.  The  secretariats,  for  example,  have  given  their 
advice  freely  to  non-unionists  as  well  as  to  unionists ;  and  as 
a  consequence  the  former  have  been  gained  for  the  organiza- 
tion. As  to  the  solidarity  and  the  stability  of  their  member- 
ship, in  default  of  the  benefit  features,  this  is  secured  hence- 
forth by  the  manifold  services  that  the  union  renders  to  its 
members.  From  1900  to  1902  German  industry  languished: 
enthusiastic  enterprise  had  carried  the  producers  too  far;  in 
short,  a  crisis  was  produced.  Now,  during  this  crisis  when 
the  trade  unions  were  compelled  to  meet  heavy  expenses,  they 
did  not  lose  the  greater  part  of  their  membership  as  had  been 
the  case  formerly,  during  the  years  1870  and  1880,  and  again 
from  1880  to  1890.  In  spite  of  the  immense  burden  which  the 
insurance  against  unemployment  imposed  upon  some  of  them, 
in  spite  of  the  strict  obligation  for  the  remainder  of  the 
members  to  pay  their  dues  promptly,  after  a  slight  depression 
in  1901,  the  unions  began  again  to  progress. 

Finally,  and  most  important  of  all,  the  work  of  these  last 
years  conquered  a  new  position  for  them  in  the  Empire.  Willy 
nilly,  in  just  the  degree  that  social  legislation  developed  their 
complex  services,  the  government  was  forced  to  have  recourse 
to  their  collaboration.  If  it  really  desired  exact  information 
from  Its  inspectors  concerning  the  operation  of  the  laws  it 
was  necessary  to  tolerate  their  connection  with  the  laborers. 
When  it  recognized  the  necessity  of  accurate  statistics  of  the 
labor  market,  it  was  necessary  to  enter  into  communication 
with  the  general  Unions  who  supplied  it  with  reports  upon 
their  trades.  When  in  1903  the  Division  of  Labor  Statistics 
of  the  Imperial  Statistical  Office  was  confronted  with  this 


642  THE  INTBBNATIONAL  SOdAMST  BEVJLUW. 

necessity,  it  was  compelled  to  enter  into  relations  with  the 
General  Q>mmission.  And  even. if  the  government  should 
some  day  decide  to  establish  that,  insurance  against  unem- 
ployment, which  the  recent  crisis  has  shown  to  be  more  and 
more  indispensable,  it  cannot  do  it  without  the  assistance  of 
the  unions.  Still  better,  there  exist  to-day  for  the  application 
of  these  laws,  organs  established  by  the  initiative  of  the 
workers,  and  which  the  government,  in  turn,  must  protect  and 
henceforth  maintain  under  penalty  of  destroying  its  own  work 
of  social  protection.  The  labor  Secretariat  of  Beuthen,  in 
Silesia,  having  been  recognized  by  the  authorities  of  that 
city  as  an  industrial  enterprise,  and  condemned  for  having 
neglected  to  juake  a  report  to  three  inquiries  of  the  Minister 
of  the  Interior,  re-establishes  the  true  character  of  this  insti- 
tution. And  finally,  it  is  a  fact  of  no  small  importance  that 
representatives  from  two  Ministries,  that  of  the  Empire  and 
of  Wurtemberg,  were  present  at  the  Congress  of  Stuttgart, 
in  1902. 

Count  Posadowsky  may,  if  he  wishes,  distinguish  between 
the  peaceful  and  the  fighting  activity  of  the  unions,  between 
their  co-operation  in  legislative  work  and  direct  defense  of 
wages.  The  labor  organizations  themselves  do  not  make  this 
distinction.  It  is  as  a  part  of  the  same  work,  unified  and 
clearly  defined,  the  protection  and  increase  of  proletarian 
strength,  that  they  conduct  strikes,  conclude  agreements,  or 
participate  in  the  works  of  social  politics.  It  is  by  the  same 
methodical  and  determined  action,  with  the  same  strong 
solidarity  and  devotion,  that  they  have  secured  higher*  wages, 
and  that  they  have  forced  themselves  upon  a  reactionary  and 
despotic  empire. 

Finally,  it  is  just  because  of  these  things  that  the  Grerman 
unions  furnish  such  an  excellent  pattern.  Because  they  have 
so  accurately  comprehended  their  work,  and  outlined  it 
with  such  precision,  and  because  they  have  not  hesitated  to 
collect  from  the  whDle  field  of  social  activity  whatever  might 
serve  their  purpose.  From  the  day  when  their  organizations 
became  strong  and  cohere;it  they  have  never  hesitated ;  with 
confidence  in  the  strength  of  the  union  spirit,  and  that  spirit 
of  ambition  and  of  struggle  that  sustains  them,  they  have 
never  hesitated  when  necessary  to  participate  in  the  socialism 
of  an  authoritative  and  bureaucratic  state.  And  by  this  act 
of  confidence,  confidence  in  their  own  strength,  they  have  been 
able  to  accomplish  their  whole  task ;  and  their  hopes  and  their 
desires,  far  from  being  weakened,  have  been  reinforced  and 
strengthened. 

More  than  by  their  stubborn  and  continuous  renewal  pf 
the  work  of  organization  which  has  been  constantly  hindered 


GERMAN  TRADE  UNIONS.  643 

and  opposed,  more  than  by  their  obstinate  struggle  against 
capitalist  hatred  and  governmental  oppression,  it  is  because 
of  these  daring  and  wise  practices  that  the  German  unions 
have  earned  admiration. 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE  PRESENT  CONDITION— 1902-3. 

At  the  end  of  igo2  the  forces  of  the  German  trade  union 
movement  were  as  follows : 

Compari- 
son with 
Name  of  Union.  Membership.        1901. 

Hirsch-Duncker 102,851  +  6,086 

Christian  unions 84,652  —       15 

Independent  Christian  unions .,105,248  +14,836 

Independent  unions  56,595  +  6,994 

Central  unions  (Socialist) 733,206  +55*696 

Local  unions  ." 10,090  +     730 

Total 1,092,642  +84)327 

The  industrial  census  of  1895  showed  that  there  were  six 
million  laborers  in  Germany;  according  to  these  statistics,  which 
we  must  use  until  1905,  between  16  and  17  per  cent  of  the  Ger- 
man laborers  are  organized.  This  is  a  respectable  army,  but  as 
we  know,  its  battalions  are  divided.  It  is  necessary  to  know 
their  respective  strength. 

Only  two  of  the  Hirsch-Duncker  unions  are  of  any  importance: 
that  of  the  machinists  with  40,288  members  and  of  the  factory 
workers  with  21,190,  who*  thus  have  between  them  two-thirds  of 
all  the  members.  The  other  organizations  are  comparatively  in- 
significant :  the  miners'  union,  for  example,  has  only  501  members 
in  all  Germany.  Finally,  they,  have  secured  100,000  members  in 
35  years,  which  for  these  well-organized  unions  which  are  pro- 
vided with  all  forms  of  insurance  and  who  have  from  an  early 
perio(](  enjoyed  uninterrupted  peace,  is  a  very  small  result.  It  is 
a  movement  without  a  future.  Liberals  indeed  are  few,  and  grow 
less  and  less  numerous  within  the  working  class ;  and  those  who 
are  indifferent  and  who  desire  most  of  all  immediate  advantages 
will  go  henceforth  into  the  centralized  unions  which  are  ever  stron- 
ger and  richer.  Their  financial  showing  offers  little  encourage- 
ment. In  spite  of  6,000  new  members  in  1902  their  expenses 
have  exceeded  their  receipts  by  70,885  francs. 

In  the  second  place  the  Christian  unions,  at  least  those  that 
belong  to  the  general  union  and  who  have  shown  so  remarkable 
a  development  about  1900,  no  longer  grow,  but  are  decreasing. 


546  THE  INTBBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

increase  the  price  of  food,  and  thereby  reduces  the  vigor  of  the 
laborers.  In  one  and  the  same  town  sometimes  the  struggle  for 
wages  has  drawn  the  societies  together.  Four  independent 
unions  and  one  Hirsch-Duncker  have  entered  into  federations 
where  they  are  regularly  brought  in  contact  with  the  socialists 
of  the  centralized  unions  and  those  of  the.  local  organizations. 

But  however  helpful  these  more  or  less  permanent  unions  may 
be  for  particular  purposes,  they  cannot  fulfill  the  hopes  of  those 
who  wish  to  extend  the  eifficifency  of  union  activity  to  its  maxi- 
mum. The  central  unions  have  demonstrated  that  complete  fu- 
sion without  restriction  is  what  is  necessary.  But  in  what  form 
will  this  be?  Would  not  the  stronger,  more  coherent,  numerous 
and  wealthier  organization  dominate  the  others  ?  And  what  guar- 
anty has  it  then  to  offer  to  the  members  of  the  old  organiza- 
tions? The  centralized  unions  are  today  the  strongest  and  this 
question  is  therefore  the  one  that  is  presented  to  them.  It  has 
necessarily  become  with  them  a  question  of  their  neutrality. 

They  have  always  undoubtedly  been  neutral  since  their  founda- 
tion. Ulnlike  the  localists,  in  order  to  be  able  to  federate,  and 
later  still  after  1900,  in  order  to  include  women  in  all  the  States, 
they  hav€  given  up  political  activity.  They  have  been  neutral 
in  still  another  manner,  since  :they  do  not  require  any  political  or 
religious  declaration  of  their  members.  They  have  never  required 
that  these  should  declare  themselves  anti-liberal  or  anti-chris- 
tian. 

But  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  they  were  animated  by  the 
socialist  spirit,  that  they  were  in  constant  communication  with 
the  socialist  party,  and  that  they  participated  in  the  entire  life 
of  the  Social  Democracy.  Socialist  deputies  presided  at  their 
festivals,  assisted  in  their  propaganda,  supported  their  demands, 
and  among  these  deputies  are  many  such  as  Legien  and  von  Elm 
who  were  also  trade  union  leaders.  Moreover,  Im  this  connection 
seemed  to  contract  the  growth  of  the  unions?  Was  it  not  rather 
the  socialist  thought  which  forced  the  laborers  to  organize?  Have 
not  all  the  bourgeois  parties  shown  a  fierce  hostility  lo  these 
organizations  for  defense?  How  is  it  possible  for  the  unions  to 
misunderstand  the  tireless  -devotion  to  tiie  cause  of  the  unions  of 
the  socialist  faction  of  the  Reichstag?  In  opposition  to  the  liberal 
decay,  the  Socialist  party  has  gained  every  five  years  thousands 
and  thousands  of  votes.  In  opposition  to  the  Hirsch-Ehincker, 
the  economic  organization,  like  the  party,  is  gaining  little  by  little 
the  entire  proletariat. 

About  1898  the  formidable  ^owth  of  the  Christian  unions 
showed  that  the  laboring  population  was  capable  of  trade  organi- 
zation, outside  of  the  great  unions,  in  opposition  to  socisdism. 
And  this  was  at  a  time  when  the  assured  benefits  of  centraliza- 
tion were  apparent  to  every  eye.    Whatever  might  be  the  methods 


GERMAN  TBADE  UNIONS.  547 

of  Christian  propaganda,  the  fact  was  very  disquieting.  The 
miners'  union  disrupted,  and  even  reduced  by  this  propaganda, 
was  the  first  to  speak  of  neutralizing  the  union  movement.  With- 
in the  unions  and  within  the  Socialist  party  a  great  debate  is 
going  on.  The  union  leaders  supported  at  this  time  by  Bebel  have 
declared  themselves  partisans  of  neutrality.  It  was  Bebel  who  in 
a  celebrated  speech  in  1900  in  the  trade  union  building  of  Berlin 
declared  that  ''politics  ought  to  be  driven  out  of  the  unions" :  that 
the  union  movement  was  not  Social  Democratic  but  a  movement 
of  the  proletarian  class.  And  the  ardent  faith  of  Bebel  in  the 
inevitable  success  of  socialist  propaganda  removed  the  fear  which 
inevitably  presented  itself  to  every  mind  of  a  possible  division 
which  might  one  day  arise  between  the  Socialist  party  and  an- 
other proletarian  party.  The  same  confidence  animated  von  Elm, 
when  he  still  further  defined  the  attitude  of  the  two  organizations, 
distinguishing  the  politics  of  labor  interests,  which  belonged  to  ^e 
unions,  from  the  party  politics,  and  he  showed  how  the  union  con- 
ventions set  fortii  by  their  declarations  the  complaints  and  the 
wishes  of  all  the.  organized  workers  of  Germany,  of  which  the 
party  would  finally  have  to  take  count.  Indeed,  it  was  recalled 
how  in  the  debates  it  was  the  socialist  fraction  of  the  Reichstag 
which  several  times  supported,  during  the  last  session,  the  petitions 
of  the  Christian  workers  which  had  been  neglected  by  the  Centre. 

For  a  long  time  yet  to  come  the  close  personal  connection  be- 
tween the  unions  and  the  Socialist  party,  together  with  the  accu- 
mulated prejudice  of  thirty  years  of  oppositions  and  quarrels  will 
force  the  German  unions  to  confine  themselves  to  simple  under- 
standings and  loose  federations. 

But  it  seems  to  us  that  in  the  near  future  the  true  solution  will 
be  found  in  a  compromise  between  the  anti-parliamentarian  union, 
and  parliamentarianism  restricted  to  a  narrow  representation  of 
union  interests,  guaranteeing  its  special  field  to  union  activity  with- 
out, however,  separating  it  from  the  infinitely  greater  work  of  total 
emancipation.  And  once  more  it  is  through  the  clear  conception 
of  their  true  work  and  by  the  tenacity  of  tiieir  daily  devotion  that 
the  German  unions  have  worked  ©ut  this  solution. 

Albert  Thomas. 

Translated  from  the  French  by  A.  M.  Simons. 


Labriola  on  the  Marxian  Conception  K>f  History. 

THE  announcement  that  Labriola's  "Essays  on  the 
Materialistc  Conception  of  History"  would  soon 
be  made  accessible  to  readers  of  English  was 
greeted  with  vivid  approval  from  all  quarters  of  the 
American  Socialist  world.  No  one  has  graduated  in 
scientific  Socialism,  until  he  is.  at  home  in  the  Marx- 
ian conception  of  history  and  has  acquired  the  habit"  of 
analyzing  the  complex  forms  of  human  activity  under  bour- 
geois society  from  this  standpoint.  And  a  movement  so 
earnest  and  eager  to  be  in  line  with  the  advanced  knowledge 
of  European  Socialists  as  the  American  is,  realized  the  full  im- 
portance of  a  firm  grasp  on  the  essence  of  socialist  philosophy. 
Even  if  the  fame  of  the  brilliant  author  of  those  essays  had 
not  long  preceded  his  book,  the  fact  that  it  dwelt  with  the  ma- 
terialistic conception  of  history  would  have  been  sufficient  to 
assure  it  of  a  warm  reception.  So  it  was  a  gratifying  sign 
of  the  strong  life  of  our  American  movement,  that  an  army  of 
impatient  students  delved  into  the  rich  mine  of  Labriola^s 
work,  as  soon  as  it  appeared  in  Comrade  Kerr's  translation. 

The  materialistic  conception  of  history  has  never  yet  been 
clearly  elaborated  in  all  its  important  aspects,  and  Labriola's 
work  is  only  an  incomplete  contribution  toward  this  end.  It 
still  remains  a  moot  question  what  should  be  the  specific 
domain  of  this  historical  method.  The  form  in  which  Marx 
first  stated  it,  and  in  which  he  as  well  as  Engels  applied  it, 
left  much  room  for  further  investigation  and  more  precise 
definition.  They  themselves  have  often  emphasized  this.  It 
is  a  legacy  bequeathed  to  the  modern  Socialist,  which  will  fur- 
nish almost  unlimited  scope  for  pioneer  work  to  a  multitude 
of  socialist  thinkers.  But  the  reader  of  Labriola's  essays  will 
at  least  get  the  impression  that  there  is  more  to  the  Marxian 
conception  of  history  than  the  glib  repetition  of  the  first  Marx- 
ian formula  conveys. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  Labriola  has  made  a  giant  effort 
to  cover  the  whole  field  which  is  involved  in  the  discus- 
sion of  the  Marxian  historical  method.  With  painstaking 
patience  he  advances  from  analysis  to  analysis,  covering  in 
a  series  of  penetrating  essays  the  whole  process  of  history 
and  opening  up  a  variety  of  outlooks  that  leave  us  wondering 
at  the  immense  sweep  of  the  Marxian  method  of  investigation. 
If  Labriola  has  not  succeeded  in  unraveling  all  the  mysterious 
threads  of  history  and  in  assigning  to  the  various  scientific  dis- 

648 


LABBIOLA  ON  THE  MARXIAN  CONCEPTION  OF  HISTORY.  549 

ciplines  their  precise  field,  it  is  mainly  because  the  human 
intellect  is  as  yet  hampered  by  too  many  unknown  factors, 
and  because  even  a  monograph  would  find  it  difficult  to  draw 
the  exact  line  where  history  merges  into  physics,  or  into 
psychology,  or  into  chemistry,  or  into  biology.  Man,  whose 
conscious  or  unconscious  action  has  fashioned  the  complex 
structure  of  social  organization,  and  who  has  thus  created  an 
environment  of  his  own  more  or  less  conscious  making,  is 
nevertheless  also  under  the  constant  influence  of  the  natural 
environment,  which  he  has  not  created,  but  which  he  is  ever 
striving  to  control.  And  we  shall  not  succeed  in  explaining 
history  in  all  its  interactions,  until  we  shall  have  succeeded 
in  explaining  man  to  himself.  This  is  one  of  the  lessons 
which  Labriola  indirectly  teaches. 

But  he  also  gives  some  positive  lessons.  Particularly  in 
warning  us  not  to  fall  into  the  error  of  the  vulgar  historians 
and  of  the  thoughtless  who  interpret  the  Marxian  conception 
of  history  too  narrowly,  or  who  attempt  to  transform  it  into 
»a  meaningless  formula,  he  is  fulfilling  the  mission  which 
Marx  himself  has  often  assigned  to  socialist  thought,  viz., 
that  of  being  a  scientific  method  of  investigation  which  is 
not  alone  objective  toward  the  phenomena  it  investigates,  but 
also  never  forgets  to  be  objective  towards  itself.  The  reader 
who  has  worked  his  way  through  these  essays  will  never 
again  say  that  "economic  conditions  determine  all  human  ideas 
or  institutions,"  without  at  the  same  time  pointing  out  how 
he  wishes  to  be  understood.  And  he  will  find  himself  stimu- 
lated to  investigate  the  vast  field  of  historical  materialism  for 
further  knowledge. 

But  while  I  fully  acknowledge  the  merits  of  Labriola's 
work,  I  cannot  be  blind  to  its  shortcomings.  The  book  would, 
in  my  opinion,  have  gained  materially  in  strength,  if  its  author 
had  chosen  a  less  academic  and  more  popular  form  of  expres- 
sion. In  its  present  form,  the  work  will  hardly  be  able  to 
penetrate  into  the  masses.  It  is  even  doubtful  if  the  student 
who  is  not  accustomed  to  critical  reading,  will  gain  a  very 
clear  conception  of  the  scope  of  historical  materialism  by  the 
perusal  of  this  book.  The  formation  of  a  clear  insight  into 
the  subject  is  rendered  still  more  difficult  by  the  mistakes  of 
the  author,  who  himself  occasionally  forgets  to  follow  the  ad- 
vice which  he  gives  to  others.  This  must  be  pointed  out, 
not  only  to  anticipate  our  bourgeois  critics,  but  also  to  advise 
the  student  to  closely  analyze  the  statements  of  the  author, 
before  adopting  them  as  a  basis  for  further  study. 

In*  his  first  essay,  on  the  "Communist  Manifesto,"  Labriola 
says,  on  page  ii,  that  "there  are  no  historical  experiences  but 
those  that  history  makes  itself."     Leaving  aside  the  fact  that 


550  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

this  is  a  rather  indistinct  statement,  we  pass  on  to  read  that 
'*it  is  as  impossible  to  foresee  them  as  to  plan  them  before- 
hand or  make  them  to  order."  This  is  only  partially  true, 
and  at  any  rate  contradicts  many  other  statements  made  in 
the  same  essay.  For  instance,  we  read  on  page  lo,  that  the 
present  social  form  is  "showing  by  its  present  necessity  the  in- 
evitability" of  the  triumph  of  Socialism.  And  on  page  13, 
that  Marx  and  Engels  had  "anticipated  the  events  which  have 
occurred,"  and  that  critical  communism  "had  an  eye  only  to 
the  future."  And  on  page  14,  Labriola  calls  the  Communist 
Manifesto  a  "funeral  oration"  on  the  departure  ■  of  a  bour- 

geoisie which  was  just  on  the  upward  grade  of  its  career  when 
the  Manifesto  was  written.  Again,  as  a  proof  that  we  can 
foresee  historical  experiences,  we  read  on  page  16  that  the 
Manifesto  "predicts  the  final  result  of  the  class  struggle." 
And  on  page  17,  Labriola  says  that  there  is  a  friction  in  pres- 
ent society,  and  asks  whether  it  "will  end  by  breaking  and 
dissolving  it."  He  answers  himself  on  page  18,  that  the 
modern  proletariat  is  "the  positive  force  whose  necessarily  rev- 
olutionary action  must  find  in  communism  its  necessary  out- 
come." In  short,  he  admits  that  we  can  look  into  the  future 
and  predict  historical  events. 

Incidentally  I  must  remark,  that  the  statement  on  page  11, 
declaring  that  "none  of  these  parties  feels  the  dictatorship 
of  the  proletariat  so  near  that  it  experiences  the  need  or  the 
desire  or  even  the  temptation  to  examine  anew  and  pass  judg- 
ment upon  the  measures  proposed  in  the  Manifesto,"  was  true 
when  the  author  wrote  it,  but  does  no  longer  apply  to  the 
American  Socialist  Party,  for  we  have  questioned  the  sound- 
ness of  retaining  the  so-called  immediate  demands  as  a  part  of 
our  national  platform.  True,  we  have  done  so,  not  because 
we  feel  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  impending,  but  main- 
ly on  grounds  of  scientific  logic. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  his  second  essay,  on  historical  ma- 
terialism, Labriola  takes  up  the  question  of  terms  and  scores 
what  he  calls,  on  page  95,  "that  vice  of  minds  educated  by  lit- 
erary methods  alone  which  is  ordinarily  called  verbalism,*' 
Now  verbalism,  as  commonly  understood,  is  the  habit 
of  clinging  to  words,  rather  -than  examining  the  thing  for 
which  the  word  is  but  a  label.  Of  course,  this  can  apply  only 
to  moot  points,  where  the  discussion  is  compelled  to  operate 
with  terms  that  have  not  been  universally  accepted  as  the 
only  correct  ones.  But  in  such  a  discussion  there  is  another 
"vice"  fully  as  bad  as  this  sort  of  verbalism,  namely  that  of 
using  terms  not  universally  accepted  without  justifying  them. 
This  is  but  another,  and  more  subtle  form  of  verbalism,  be- 
cause it  attempts  to  make  the  word  stand  for  the  thing  itself. 


LABEIOLA  ON  THE  MARXIAN  CONCEPTION  OF  HISTORY.     551 

Such  a  practice  is  only  admissible  where  the  word  has  come  to 
stand,  by  common  consent,  for  but  one  thing.  But  if  it  were 
admissible  in  the  field  under  discussion,  where  the  terminology 
is  not  yet  stable,  then  the  rebuke  to  the  verbalists  would  not 
be  sound.  Yet  Labriola  is  a  subtle  verbalist  of  this  kind,  who 
censures  the  common  verbalists. 

No  science  can  get  along  without  clearly  defined  terms. 
We  caQnot  learn  the  nature  of  a  thing  by  examining  its  label. 
That  is  the  method  of  common  verbalism.  But  neither  are  we 
contributing  to  a  clearer  understanding  of  a  partially  known 
thing,  when  we  omit  to  justify  the  choice  of  our  label.  That 
is  what  Labriola  has  done.  In  asking  him  for  a  sharp  defini- 
tion of  his  terms,  I  am  not  concerned  with  the  terms  them- 
selves, but  with  the  things  which  his  terms  are  supposed  to 
label.  Labriola  cannot  escape  from  this  criticism  by  hiding 
behind  a  criticism  of  the  common  verbalists.  But  apart  from 
this,  other  reasons  compel  us  to  insist  on  clear  definitions. 
First,  human  language,  and  especially  technical  language,  is 
seldom  precise  enough  to  express  any  exact  meaning  by  a 
mere  term.  Secondly,  socialist  thought  can  only  connect  itself 
with  the  intellectual  stock  in  trade  of  its  time  and  give  its 
own  precise  meaning  to  the  terms  it  uses.  The  socialist  writer 
who  introduces  new  technical  terms  without  defining  them, 
does  not  only  render  the  study  of  the  subject  more  difficult  for 
the  inexperienced  student,  but  also  offers  new  opportunities 
for  the  common  verbalist  to  confuse  matters. 

On  these  grounds,  many  of  us  might  feel  inclined  to  ask 
Labriola  why  he  prefers  to  call  "historical  materialism"  what 
some  of  us  think  would  be  better  designated  by  "economic 
determinism"  or  by  "Marxian  conception  of  history,"  terms 
which  we  might  well  justify  without  being  classed  among  the 
common  verbalists.  And  still  more  might  some  of  the  com- 
rades object  to  the  unjustified  return,  on  the  part  of  the  trans- 
lators, to  such  Latin  terms  as  processus,  camplexus,  plexus 
and  nexm.  That  is  a  revival  of  the  "exclusive"  practices  of 
old-time  science,  not  a  step  toward  a  proletarian  terminology. 
Suitable  modern  terms  might  well  have  been  found  for  them 
in  French  and  English. 

But  while  Labriola  operates  with  his  own  terminology 
without  justifying  it,  he  quibbles  through  long  pages  over 
such  terms  as  logic  of  events  and  historical  factors,  which  not 
only  bourgeois  but  also  socialist  writers  are  employing,  and 
for  which  they  no  doubt  can  offer  as  good  reasons  as  he  would 
for  his  terms. 

Again,  while  he  is  very  severe  on  the  common  verbalists, 
he  makes  no  attempt  to  give  his  readers  a  taste  of  the  essence 
of  such  terms  as  matter,  mind,  psychology,  imagination,  soul, 


J 


552  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW. 

the  role  of  which  must  be  defined  in  attempting  to  elaborate 
the  materiaHst  conception  of  history.  When  he  repeats  the 
statement  of  Marx,  on  page  113,  that  "it  is  not  the  forms  of 
consciousness  which  determine  the  human  bein^f,  but 
it  is  the  manner  of  being  which  determines  conscious- 
ness," and  elaborates  it  into  the  declaration,  on  page 
121,  that  "the  discovery  of  these  (social)  instruments  is  at 
once  the  cause  and  the  effect  of  these  conditions  and  of  those 
forms  of  the  inner  life,  to  which,  isolating  them  by  psycholog- 
ical abstraction,  we  give  the  name  of  imagination,  intellect, 
reason,  thought,  etc.,"  he  leaves  us  in  the  mazes  of  a  mean- 
ingless and  unintelligible  jumble  of  words.  The  point  which 
must  be  clearly  stated  when  attempting  to  define  the  role  of 
human  brain  activity  in  the  Marxian  conception  of  history,  is 
this:  The  materialist  conception  of  history  is  not  scientific- 
ally demonstrated,  until  we  prove  the  materialist  cofuoeption 
of  thought.  The  sentence  of  Labriola  quoted  by  me  can  hardly 
be  regarded  as  an  emphasis  on  this  point. 

Equally  hazy  is  Labriola  in  his  treatnient  of  the  relation 
of  natural  science,  and  especially  of  Darwinism,  to  Socialism. 
He  cautions  us,  for  instance,  not  to  make  of  the  materialist 
conception  of  history  a  "derivative  of  Darwinism"  (page  19), 
but  at  the  same  time  admits,  on  page  150,  that  "the  different 
disciplines  which  are  considered  as  isolated  and  independent 
in  the  hypotheses  of  the  concurrent  factors  in  the  formation 
of  history,  both  by  reason  of  the  degree  of  development  which 
they  have  reached,  the  materials  which  they  have  gathered, 
and  the  methods  which  they  have  elaborated,  have  today  be- 
come indispensable  for  us."  And  he  quotes  with  approval 
"the  analogy  affirmed  by  Engels  between  the  discovery  of 
historical  materialism  and  that  of  the  conservation  of  energy." 
But  although  he  warns  us  thus,  and  quotes  the  above  illustra- 
tion of  a  permissible  analogy,  he  himself  carries  the  analogy 
too  far  by  declaring,  on  page  35,  that  "the  death  of  a  social 
form  like  that  which  comes  from  natural  death  in  any  other 
branch  of  science  becomes  a  physiological  case/' 

Nevertheless,  the  book  is  very  suggestive.  Its  shortcom- 
ings, instead  of  discouraging  the  socialist  thinkers,  should  rather 
stimulate  them  to  a  deeper  penetration  of  the  problems  of  the 
Marxian  conception  of  history.  Ernest  Untermann. 


Comment  by  the  Translator  of  Labriola. 

IT  IS  a  matter  for  the  deepest  regret  that  the  interesting  points 
raised  by  G>mrade  Untermann  can  never  be  discussed  by  the 
one  writer  most  competent  to  throw  light  upon  themi — Com- 
rade Labriola.  .  Since  that  is  no  longer  possible,  I  desire  to 
comment  briefly  on  a  few  of  Comrade  Untermann's  criticisms. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  inconsistency  pointed  out  in  the  pass- 
age extending  from  the  tenth  to  seventeenth  page  is  more  apparent 
than  real.  Evidently  the  author  merely  meant  to  say  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  forecast  the  course  of  events  in  their  minor  details, 
and  that  on  this  account  it  is  in  the  nature  of  things  impracticable 
to  draw  up  a  definite  and  concrete  working  program  which  will 
be  of  value  fi.fty  years  after  it  is  written.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  socialist  philosophy  dcJes  afford  a  basis* for  predicting  the  gen- 
eral tread  of  the  development  of  society,  and  none  of  the  sentences 
quoted  seem  to  me  to  imply  more  than  this. 

I  cannot  agree  with  Comrade  Uhtermann  in  saying  that  the  vice 
of  verbalism  *'can  apply  only  to  moot  points,  where  the  discus- 
sion is  compelled  to  operate  with  terms  that  have  not  been  uni- 
versally accepted."  On  the  contrary,  I  believe  that  verbalism,  in 
the  sense  Labriola  uses  the  word,  stands  for  a  widespread  mental 
habit — a  habit  almost  inevitably  acquired  imder  current  educa- 
tional systems  by  those  whose  training  has  been  literary  rather 
than  scientific.  Verbalism,  as  Labriola  uses  the  word,  and  as  it 
is  ordinarily  used,  so  far  as  I  know,  means  simply  the  centering 
of  attention  and  effort  upon  words  rather  than  upon  the  facts  that 
the  words  stand  for.  The  verbalist  would,  for  example,  if  called 
on  to  explain  a  passage  in  the  Hebrew  or  Christian  scriptures,  con- 
fine himself  to  a  critical  examination  of  the  words  contained  in 
the  text,  whereas  the  scientific  student  would  search  for  outside 
information  which  might  help  to  make  clear  what  real  things  or 
events  were  in  the  mind  of  the  writer. 

It  seems  to  me  that  Comrade  Untermann,  in  appropriating  the 
words  verbalist  and  verbalism  to  an  entirely  different  use,  is  afford- 
ing a  most  conspicuous  example  of  the  offence  with  which  he 
charges  Labriola. 

Nor  do  I  believe  the  charge  will  hold.  Comrade  Untermann 
may  prefer  some  other  phrase  to  "historical  materialism,"  but  that 
is  the  phrase  used  by  Engels  in  "Socialism  Utopian  and  Scien- 
tific," and  Vandervelde,  who  also  objects  to  the  phrase,  admits 
that  it  has  become  current,  and  uses  it  constantly  in  his  article 
published  in  the  February  issue  of  the  Review. 

As  to  the  criticism  on  the  use  of  Latin  terms,  the  fault,  if  it  is 

558 


564  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

a  fault,  is  mine,  and  not  Labriola's.  The  most  important  case 
is  that  of  the  word  processus,  which  recurs  constantly  throughout 
the  book.  In  adopting  the  word,  I  followed  the  French  version, 
in  which  it  is  used  rather  than  the  corresponding  French  word, 
although  a  modern  word  was  used  in  the  original  Italian.  Now 
the  French  translator  was  evidently  right  in  his  choice  of  a  word, 
since  the  French  word  of  corresponding  form  means  a  "process" 
in  the  sense  of  a  law-suit,  and  would  have  been  wholly  misleading 
to  the  reader.  In  the  first  draft  of  my  own  translation,  I  actually 
used  the  word  "process,"  but  in  my  final  revision  I  adopted  the 
word  ^'processus"  for  fear  of  obscuring  the  sense.  The  word 
"process"  as  usually  understood  implies  a  definite  operation  for 
accomplishing  some  concrete  piece  of  work.  But  Labriola,  in  using 
the  word  I  have  called  processus,  evidently  means  the  sum-total 
of  the  operations  of  various  forces  which  modify  humanity  or  a 
definite  group  of  human  beings.  I  dislike  the  needless  use  of 
Latin  phrases,  but  I  think  that  the  use  of  the  Latin  word  here  is 
less  puzzling  to  the  reader  than  the  use  of  the  misleading  English 
word. 

Nothing  is  easier  than  to  quote  a  highly  condensed  sentence 
on  a  difficult  subject,  taking  it  out  of  its  context,  and  call  it  a  mean- 
ingless and  unintelligible  jumble  of  words.  But  I  believe  the 
careful  reader  will  find  that  Labriola  has  given  us  a  highly  sugges- 
tive thought  in  the  derided  paragraph  on  page  121.  Theologians 
and  phrenologists  talk  of  imagination,  intellect,  reason,  thought 
and  a  host  of  subordinate  "faculties"  as  if  they  were  distinct  en- 
tities divinely  created.  But  what  is  the  rational  way  to  regard 
them  ?  Labriola  tells  us  that  they  are  the  result  of  the  increasing 
complexity  of  human  life,  resulting  from  the  invention  and  use 
of  constantly  improving  tools.  These  forms  of  the  inner  life  are 
at  once  the  effect  and  the  cause  of  the  discovery  of  the  improved 
instruments,  since  every  discovery  calls  for  relatively  more  intelli- 
gence and  less  brute  force  in  the  productive  processes  by  which 
men  get  their  bread,  and  on  the  other  hand,  every  increase  in  in- 
telligence makes  greater  discoveries  possible. 

I  am  forced  to  admit  that  our  author's  treatment  of  the  rela- 
tion of  historical  materialism  to  biology  is  the  least  satisfactory 
part  of  his  work.  But  we  have  to  specialize  in  these  days,  and 
Labriola's  specialty  was  history,  not  biology.  Comrade  Unter- 
mann  is  a  trained  biologist,  and  we  are  looking  eagerly  for  his 
completion  of  a  study  of  the  relation  of  brain  to  mind  which  will 
supply  a  needed  link  in  the  continuity  of  socialist  thought. 

Meanwhile,  with  our  regret  for  the  untimely  end  of  Labriola's 
life-work,  we  have  a  right  to  rejoice  over  the  important  task  he 
has  accomplished  in  clarifying  for  the  socialists  of  all  countries 
the   fundamental  conception  of  historical  materialism. 

Charles  H.  Kerr. 


How  to  Get  the  Co-Opcrativc  Commonwealth. 

THE  Socialist  worthy  the  name  wants  Socialism  to  come 
in  his  or  her  time  and  welcomes  any  means  to  bring 
it  about. 

You  must  be  filled  with  an  intense  desire  for  it;  a 
desire  that  brooks  no  obstacles.  It  is  of  no  use  to  wait  for 
**economic  conditions."  Economic  conditions  alone  will  not  bring 
it  in  a  hundred  thousand  years.  The  task  of  the  Socialist  is  to 
present  a  definite  brain  picture  of  what  is  wanted  to  as  many 
workers  as  possible,  the  only  people  that  can  bring  Socialism 
about,  and  fill  them  with  an  overwhelming  desire  to  have  the  con- 
ception materialized. 

This  will  seem  like  rank  heresy  to  many  and  I  hear  cries  of 
Utopian  1  But  here  is  an  illustration.  About  a  year  and  a  half 
ago  I  started  to  build  a  boat  and  had  the  frame  set  up  when 
something  occurred  that  made  me  disgusted  with  things  in  gen- 
eral (not  with  the  boat)  and  I  lost  all  interest  and  have  not  done 
anything  on  it  since. 

I  have  the  material,  tools,  a  place  to  build,  the  ability  and  the 
time — all  the  material  conditions  are  there — but  my  desire  is  prac- 
tically nil  and  the  boat  remains  unbuilt. 

Another  thing;  we  want  Socialism  in  order  that  we  may  be- 
come the  better  men  and  women,  but  we  must  exercise  some  man- 
hood and  womanhood  in  order  to  get  it  and  there  is  nothing  that 
will  so  arouse  in  you  a  proper  pride  and  dignity,  making  you 
assert  your  manhood  and  womanhood,  refusing  to  be  a  slave,  as 
reading  and  absorbing  Whitman. 

Begpin  in  a  small  way  to  refuse  indignities  from  your  foreman, 
superintendent,  anyone!  You  will  not  lose  your  job,  and  if  you 
skould  you  will  not  starve;  by  thinking  you  will  and  slinking 
about  like  a  cur  you  invite  starvation.    Quit  it  I 

Brace  up  and  take  a  stand ! 

Men  and  women  are  needed  to  build  the  Co-operative  Com- 
monwealth. 

Be  one  of  them.  Wm.  Johnson. 


555 


EDITORIAL 


Some  Suggestions  for  the  Convention. 

It  is  a  matter  of  course  that  the  National  Convention  of  the  Socialiat 
Party  which  is  to  meet  at  Chicago  on  the  first  of  next  May  will  be  the 
most  important  gathering  for  tlie  Socialists  of  America  that  has  ever 
been  held.  It  will  only  be  exceeded  in  importance  by  the  next  one,  and 
that  by  the  next  until  the  powers  of  government  shall  finally  be  captured 
by  the  intelligently  and  constructively  revolutionary  working  class  of 
America.  There  will  be  an  overwhelming  amount  of  work  to  be  done  at 
that  convention  and  if  at  is  to  be  well  done  it  is  necessary  that  every  bit 
of  energy  be  utilized  in  the  best  possible  manner.  Hence  every  eflfort 
should  be  made  to  have  all  matters  thoroughly  discussed  and  understood, 
not  only  by  the  delegates,  but  by  the  entire  membership,  before  the  con- 
vention meets.  There  will  still  be  much  time  wasted  over  trivial  matters, 
which  will  in  turn  require  important  ones  to  be  hurried  through  with 
scant  consideration  in  the  closing  hours.  There  will  be  comrades  who 
will  insist  on  making  propaganda  speeches  to  the  assembled  delegates,  and 
who  will  seize  every  opportunity  to  go  on  record  as  to  the  genuineness 
of  their  class-consciousness  and  proletarian  character,  even  though  by  bo 
doing  they  hinder  the  work  of  making  more  clas8-conscious  socialists  and 
'  thereby  help  to  perpetuate  proletarian  slavery.  Committees  will  work 
all  night,  and  then  struggle  all  day  to  explain  what  they  did  the  night 
before.  All  these  things  are  inevitable  accompaniments  of  a  convention 
in  which  work  is  actually  done,  in  contrast  to  those  of  the  capitalist 
parties  which  only  meet  to  ratify  the  orders  of  their  masters. 

^  But  much  time  can  be  saved  if  the  party  press  will  open  their  columns 
at  once  for  a  full  discussion  of  the  matters  which  will  probably  occupy 
the  time  of  the  convention  and  if  the  comrades  will  make  use  of  the 
pages  of  that  press  for  such  discussion.  If  it  were  once  understood  that 
such  articles  really  have  much  more  effect  than  speeches  made  upon  the 
floor  of  the  convention  comrades  would  probably  be  more  anxious  to  take 
advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  express  their  opinions  to  the  vastly 
greater  audience  of  the  party  press,  rather  than  to  the  few  delegates 
who  will  be  assembled  in  Chicago  next  May. 

One  of  the  questions  which  will  be  sure  to  come  before  the  convention 

556 


EDITORIAL  557 

will  be  the  revision  of  the  constitution  to  accord  with  the  increased '  and 
altered  duties  that  have  devolved  upon  the  party  organization.  There 
is  manifestly  too  great  and  justifiable  dissatisfaction  with  the  present 
organization  of  the  National  Committee  to  permit  its  continuance-  un- 
changed. The  system  of  plural  voting  is  too  unfair  to  be  maintained, 
while  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  membership  will  never  consent  to 
the  even  more  dangerous  and  unfair  condition  that  existed  prior  to  the 
introduction  of  the  present  isystem,  under  which  a  mere  handful  of  the' 
least  experienced  and  tested  portion  of  the  membership  could  control 
the  whole  party. 

Some  means  must  also  be  found  for  the  regulation  and  control  of 
socialist  agitation  in  the  lecture  field.  We  are  getting  too  close  to  the 
time  when  we  will  be  brought  into  the  midst  of  the  fight  of  capitalist 
politics,  with  all  that  implies,  to  permit  any  "free  lance"  who  cliooses 
to  implicate  the  party  in  his  vagaries,  or  perhaps*  trickery.  Whatever 
plan  is  adopted  for  the  control  of  speakers  should  also  include  some 
method  of  obtaining  complete  reports  from  them  and  also  a  certain  stand- 
ard of  requirements  in  the  way  of  study  of  socialist  classics  for  those 
who  enter  the  field  in  the  future. 

The  question  of  platform  will  occupy  much  of  the  time  of  the  con- 
vention. There  will  be  those  who  will  insist  upon  the  sufficiency  of 
a  simple  categorical  declaration  of  some  of  the  principles  of  Socialism. 
There  will  be  others  who  will  wish  to  include  as  a  part  of  our  platform 
a  long  string  of  reforms  as  "immediate  demands."  Indeed,  it  is  probable 
that  around  this  question  will  wage  the  fiercest  fight  of  the  convention. 
This  is  somewhat  unfortunate,  and  also  somewhat  ridiculous,  as  the  ques- 
tion is  really  of  decidedly  minor  importance.  It  is  especially  unfortunate 
that  the  attitude  of  a  party  member  on  this  question  has  been  construed 
into  a  sort  of  test  of  orthodoxy,  and  many  a  comrade  whose  knowledge 
of  Socialism  is  decidedly  scant,  still  points  with  pride  to  the  fact  that 
is  against  all  "immediate  demands"  as  sure  proof  of  his  scientific  equip- 
ment in  socialist  doctrine.  Our  opinion  has  been  stated  on  this  point  so 
often  that  we  shall  not  repeat  it  here,  although  we  shall  probably  have 
something  to  say  on  this  in  our  next  issue.  Suffice  to  say  now  that  we 
believe  everything  else  aside  from  the  declaration  for  the  capture  of  the 
powers  of  government  by  the  working-class  to  be  of  such  minor  importance, 
that  we  are  convinced  all.  else  should  appear  in  the  form  of  an  inde- 
pendent declaration  of  measures  to  be  supported  by  socialists  wTio  may 
chance  to  be  elected  to  office,  while  a  majority  of  the  governmental  powers 
remain  in  capitalist  hands,  and  as  such  should  not  be  considered  as  a  part 
of  Socialism.  ^ 

There  are  several  things  that  seem  to  us  of  much  more  real  importance 
for  the  work  of  the  Socialist  Party  at  the  present  stage  than  some  of  the 
things  which  will  probably  occupy  the  majority  of  the  attention  of  the 
convention.  In  the  first  place,  about  the  only  offices  of  any  importance 
which  we  are  apt  to  capture  during  the  next  two  or  three  years  wril  be 
municipal  offices.    Hence  there  is  the  greatest  need  for  some  guide  for  the 


558  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEYIEW. 

inteHigent  action  of  such  officers.  This  does  not  mean  thai  we  should 
'iiavc  a  national  municipal  platform.  Such  a  thing  would  be  manlfestlj 
absurd  here,  although  the  Guesdists  of  France,  who  are  generally  con- 
eidered  to  have  the  most  extremely  revoluticniary  position  of  any  Socialist 
party  in  the  world,  have  always  had  such  a  platform.  Wbat  Is  needed, 
however,  is  rather  a  source  of  general  information.  It  seems  to  us  that 
this  could  be  best  obtained  by  the  establishment  of  a  municipal  secretary 
located  in  the  national  office,  with  a  municipal  committee;,  composed  of 
all  Socialists  elected  to  municipdl  office,  and  such  other  persons  as  the 
Parfy  might  from  time  to  time  appoint;  this  committee  to  have  only  con- 
sulting and  advisory  powers. 

The  question  of  our  relation  to  the  farmers  and  the  n^j^roes  will  also 
come  up.  Whether  it  is  advisable  to  bave  any  special  declaration  with 
regard  to  either  of  these  classes  or  not,  it  is  hard  to  say.  At  any  rate 
it  might  be  well  to  arrange  for  investigation  of  these  subjects,  and  tbus 
obtain  a  more  intelligent  knowledge  concerning  them  than  exists  at  the 
present  time.  We  do  not  believe  that  special  resolutions  for  any  classes  of 
people  are  advisable,  but  there  should  be  some  uniformity  of  attitude 
toward  these  problems,  and  the  convention  may  well  consider  how  this 
uniformity  can  be  best  attained. 

It  wiU  have  to  be  determined  whether  our  present  resolution  really 
expresses  the  present  attitude  of  the  party  toward  trade-unions,  and  also 
whether  the  Socialist  Party  as  a  whole  looks  with  favor  upon  tbe  efforts 
which  are  frequently  made  to  secure  the  adoption  of  resolutions  by  trade 
union  conventions  endorsing  the  Party.  Also  what  shall  be  the  attitude 
toward  unions  that  have  adopted  such  resolutions?  Shall  it  differ  from 
our  attitude  toward  the  avowed  "pure  and  simplers"? 

There  are  some  things  which  can  be  at  least  informally  discussed 
during  the  convention  period,  which  perhaps  may  not  properly  come 
before  the  cx>nvention.  One  of  these  which,  in  our  opinion,  however,  is 
of  sufficient  importance  to  justify  the  attention  of  the  convention  in 
an  official  manner,  is  the  co-ordination  and  publication  of  socialist  matter. 
The  Socialist  press  has  now  reached  sufficient  size  to  render  advisable  the 
formation  of  some  sort  of  "news  association"  or  "syndicate"  for  the  pur- 
pose of  regularly  furnishing  matter.  By  charging  a  very  low  rate  for 
each  paper  a  sufficient  income  could  be  obtained  to  permit  the  payment 
of  news-gatherers  and  writers  where  necessary.  Many  socialists  have 
already  considered  this  matter  and  it  would  seem  possible  that  some 
informal  meetings  held  prior  to,  or  between  the  sessiong  of  the  con- 
vention, might  evolve  something  definite,  which  would  be  of  greatest  value 
to  the  Socialist  movemenl^  of  this  country.  ^ 

This  matter  will  be  especially  pertinent  at  this  convention  bince  it 
will  certainly  be  necessary  to  organize  some  sort  of  literature  committee 
for  the  presidential  campaign  and  it  will  be  easily  possible  to  keep  this 
idea  in  mind,  so  that  at  the  close  of  the  campaign  this  committee  may 
be  rendered  permanent  and  take  up  these  other  duties. 

If  any  of  the  above  suggestions  are  carried  out  it  will  require  con- 


EDITOBIAL.  559 

siderable  change  in  the  character,  and  addition  in  amount  of  the  work 
of  the  national  ofiSce.  The  question  m&j  be  suggested  if  it  is  not  well 
to  definitely  recognize  the  need  of  some  such  changes  and  to  prepare  for 
them.  The  membership  should  reach  at  least  50,000  within  the  coming 
year.  This  will  mean  a  monthly  income  of  $2,500.  At  the  same  time,  as 
the  yaiious  states  become  better  organized  the  need  of  national  organ- 
izers drawing  a  salary  from  the  national  office  will  grow  rather  less  than 
greater.  At  least  jt  should  do  so,  if  the  state  organizations  are  not  to 
become  merely  superfluous  institutions.  Under  these  conditions  the  na- 
tional office  should  become  the  great  center  of  information  and  co-ordi- 
nation. It  should  carry  on  investigations,  and  disseminate  the  results 
of  such  information  as  it  may  secure  to  the  party  press,  ajid  local  organ- 
izations. It  should  be  capable  of  concentrating  the  strength  of  the 
national  party  upon  any  locality  where  the  membership  should  decide 
such  emphasis  was  necessary. 

This  leads  to  another  point  which  may  well  come  before  the  conven- 
tion, and  that  is  the  desirability  and  advisability  of  holding  a  national 
convention  for  purposes  of  diBcusdon  at  closer  intervals  than  four  years. 
The  "off-year"  meeting  need  have  no  official  power  except  to  send  matters 
to  a  referendum,  and  hence  could  work  no  disadvantage  to  those  localities 
unable  to  send  delegates.  It  might  be  modeled  rather  after  the  yearly 
conventioms  of  scientists,  teachers,  etc.,  than  of  political  bodies,  admitting 
to  its  privil^es  all  party  members  and  (Tonfining  its  work  to  discussion 
of  party  polici^. 

These  are  some  of  the  things  that  the  meeting  next  May  will  probably 
discuss,  with  peitiaps  several  others  as  yet  unforeseen.  Their  decision 
will  be  fraught  with  good  or  evil  for  the  future  of  Socialism.  In  order 
that  they  may  be  decided  as  intelligently  and  as  democratically  as  pos- 
fiible  we  are  going  to  do  all  in  our  power  to  have  them  thoroughly  under- 
stood by  the  entire  party  membership.  To  do  this  we  shall  make  our 
April  number  a  "Convention  Number."  We  have  asked  for  contributions 
on  these  subjects  from  a  large  number  of  party  comrades  and  hereby 
extend  the  invitation  to  any  of  our  readers  who  may  not  have  received 
a  personal  communication.  Confine  your  opinions  to  one  thousand  words 
if  possible,  ad  we  shall  have  more  than  we  can  publish  in  our  space  and 
will  therefore  select  the  shortest  and  most  pointed.  They  must  all  bo 
at  the  office  by  March  20  at  the  latest  and  the  sooner  they  arrive  tho 
better. 


SOCIALISM    ABROAD 


The  International  Socialist  Bureau. 

The  International  Socialist  Bureau  met  on  Sunday,  February  6,  at 
the  Maison  du  Peuple  of  Brussels.  Ck>mrade  Edouard  Vaillant  repre- 
sented the  Socialist  party  of  France. 

Action  was  taken  in  the  way  of  preparation  for  the  International 
Congress,  the  date  of  which  will  soon  be  fixed. 

The  Interparliamentary  Socialist  Commission  is  to  be  called  together 
principally  for  the  purpose  of  examining  the  question  of  legislation  touch- 
ing foreign  laborers   proposed  in  various  countries. 

On  motion  of  Comrade  Cambier,  representing  the  Argentine  Republic, 
the  following  resolution  was  axiopted: 

The  International  Socialist  Bureau  protests  energetically  against  the 
expulsion  of  any  one  from  any  country  as  a  punishment  for  his  opinions: 
it  denounces  in  particular  the  conduct  of  the  Argentine  government  which 
is  taking  advantage  of  an  accidental  law,  called  law  of  residence,  to  expel 
the  foreign  socialists  in  a  body. 

The  delegates  of  several  nations  presented  and  secui^d  the  acceptance 
of  a  resolution  reading  as  follows: 

The  International  Socialist  Bureau  protests  energetically  against  the 
persecutions  on  the  part  of  the  police  and  the  government  to  which  the 
Russian  socialists  in  Germany  are  victims; 

It  condenms  severely  the  policy  of  humiliating  servitude  which  de- 
grades Germany  to  the  role  of  an  instrument  for  Russian  despotism; 

It  congratulates  the  German  and  Italian  socialists  upon  their  success- 
ful intervention  in  favor  of  the  Russian  comrades  persecuted  by  czarism; 
It  calls  upon  the  socialist  parties  of  all  countries  to  grasp  every  occa- 
sion to  ct>mbat  the  influence  of  czarism,  which  is  endeavoring  to  extend 
itself  more  and  more  through  western  countries  and  constitutes  a  per- 
manent danger  for  democracy  and  civilization. 

8JNGER, 

KAUTSKY, 

ROSA   LUXEMBURG, 

PI^EKHANOFF, 

ADLER, 

E.  VANDERVELDE. 

The  present  situation  in  Europe  has  moreover  led  the  Bureau  to  adopt 
this  declaration  prepared  by  Comrade  Vaillant: 

The  Bureau: 

In  the  event  that  through  the  crime  of  the  governments  and  of  capi- 
talism, war  should  break  out  between  Russia  and  Japan, 

Invites  the  Socialists  of  all  countries  and  particularly  the  socialist 
parties  of  France,  England  and  Germany,  to  struggle  with  all  their  courage 
and  with  their  combined  efforts  to  oppose  every  extension  of  the  war,  and 

500 


SOCIAUSM  ABROAD.  561 

to  make  their  respective  countries,  instead  of  participating  in  it,  endeavor 
to  re-establish  and  to  maintain  peace. 

Finally  the  provisional  programme  for  the  Amsterdam  Congress  was 
arranged  as  follows: 

1.  International  regulations  for  the  Socialist  party.    Resolutions  con- 
cerning the  tactics  of  the  party.      (Socialist  Party  of  France.) 

2.  Colonial  politics   (Hyndman  and  Van-Kol). 

3.  Emigration  and  immigration  (Argentine  Republic). 

4.  Creneral  strike  (Socialist  Party  of  France). 

5.  Social  politics  and  workingmen's  insurance    (the  eight-hour  day). 

6.  Trusts  and  lack  of  employment   (United  States). 

7.  Various  questions. 


Belgium. 

Tlie  socialists  are  making  a  great  effort  to  secure  the  introduction  of 
universal  education.  At  the  present  time  the  schools  are  extremely  poor 
and  are  controlled  entirely  by  the  Church.  Vandervelde  has  recently  made 
a  speech  in  the  Chamber  which  has  attracted  attention,  not  only  Jn 
Belgium,  but  throughout  Europe.  He  showed  the  large  number  of  illiter- 
ates which  existed  and  compared  them  with  the  statistics  of  criminality, 
showing  the  close  connection  between  crime  and  lack  of  education.  Thir- 
teen per  cent  of  the  Belgian  recruits  to  the  army  can  neither  read  nor 
write.  Forty-five  per  cent  can  read  and  write  and  have  a  slight  knowledge 
of  arithmetic,  and  only  12  per  cent  have  had  any  higher  instruction.  In 
the  country  nearly  all  the  ciiildren  are  compelled  to  leave  school  at  eleven 
or  twelve  years  of  age  and  what  little  they  have  learned  is  soon  forgotten, 
and  they  go  to  increase  the  number  of  illiterates.  Langendonk,  another 
socialist  member,  demanded  the  introduction  of  school  restaurants  to  fur- 
nish free  meals  for  the  school  children.  The  leader  of  the  clericals. 
Woeste,  attempted  to  reply,  but  his  speech  consisted  simply  of  a  song  of 
praise  of  the  clerical  schools.  He  finally  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag,  how- 
ever, and  revealed  the  true  cause  of  his  position  when  he  declared  that 
in  (jrermany  compulsory  education  had  led  to  socialism,  and  that  in 
FYance  there  had  been  more  Rtrikes  since  education  had  been  bettered 
thi^  in  Belgium. 


France. 

The  situation  in  France  remains  somewhat  confused.  The  Local  to 
which  Millerand  belongs  has  upheld  him  and  has,  in  turn,  been  expelled 
from  the  party. 

Jaures  was  defeated  for  re-election  as  vice-president  of  the  Chamber, 
and  this  has  resulted  in  a  division  of  the  forces  of  the  Left. 

The  body  which  is  ordinarily  referred  to  in  English  as  radical  socialist 
and  which  is  more  properly  designated  as  Socialistic  radical  ha&  been 
defeated  and  sixty-five  members  are  now  forming  a  group  by  themselves 
with  much  more  of  a  tendency  to  support  clearly  socialist  measures 
than  hitherto. 

The  following  from  Edouard  Vaillant  shows  the  attitude  of  the  French 
Socialists  in  regard  to  the  Russian  alliance.  Such  an  expression  of  opinion 
means  more  from  Vaillant  than  perhaps  from  any  other  man,  because  he 
knows  very  well  what  insurrection  means.  It  may  be  well  to  remember 
in  this  month  when  we  celebrate  the  Commune  that  he  is  one  of  the  three 


562  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW. 

or  four  men  still  living  who  belonged  to  that  little  group  of  men  who 
composed  the  governing  committee  of  the  Commune.  He  is  today  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Chamber  of  I>eputies. 

BEBELLION  PBEFERABLB  TO  WAR. 

The  newspapers  abound  in  information  of  a  tranquil izing  and  pacific 
character:  M.  Delcass^  has  said  this  to  M.  Cochin,  and  he  has  bald  that 
to  M.  Pressensd,  and  he  will,  if  necessary,  say  the  same  things  again  to 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  case  it  should  Beem  to  be  disturbed  and  to 
require  that  soporific.  But  the  same  newspapers,  full  of  their  devotion 
to  the  Czar,  are  working  up  public  opinion  to  sustain  a  possible  inter- 
vention in  his  behalf. 

We  would  gladly  hope,  even  yet,  that  the  government  might  find  some 
way  to  cut  our  country  loose  from  any  rash  or  criminally  imbecile  engage- 
ment intb  which  it  may  have  brought  itself.  The  fact  is,  however,  that  the 
evidence  is  complete  of  a  mortal  danger  for  civilization  and  for  ourselves 
in  the  monstrous  alliance  between  the  French  republic  and  the  autocracy 
of  the  dar. 

We  ought  therefore  to  prepare  ourselves  for  everything,  even  the  folly 
and  crime  of  our  ministry  and  Parliament.  The  patriotism  of  which  they 
boast  aa  if  it  were  their  exclusive  possession  should  suffice  to  preserve 
us.  But  if  their  weakening  intelligence  and  decision  should  leave  us  to 
drift  into  war,  this  danger  must  be  faced  by  us.  And  we  can  do  this, 
if  we  will. 

Whatever  else  a  European  war  may  mean,  it  means  this:  militarism 
founding  its  empire  through  murder  and  bloodshed  in  France,  drained  of 
its  blood,  ruined,  brought  under  the  rule  of  a  monarch,  isolated  among 
the  hostile  nations  of  England,  Germany  and  Italy.  It  means  civilization 
set  back,  the  proletarian  revolution  deferred,  reaction  and  capitalism 
triumphant. 

That  shall  not  be,  it  must  not  be. 

The  greatness  of  socialism  is  that  in  its  action,  whatever  its  motive 
may  be,  it  sums  up  everything  that  it  proposes  for  itself,  and  that  its 
action  against  war  is  one  and  the  same  with  its  action  for  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  proletariat. 

Therefore,  we  must  not  hesitate,  and  henceforth  we  must  recognize  what 
we  may  have  to  do.  And  if  the  international  and  national  proletariat 
appealed  to  by  us  does  not  respond  sufficiently,  and  does  not  suceeed 
through  its  general  strike  in  defending  itself,  in  defending  its  life,  its 
demands,  its  emancipation,  then  our  duty  to  act,  and  to  shrink  from 
nothing  to  save  it,  to  face  the  danger,  to  avoid  war,  would  be  nil  the 
greater.  There  is  no  blessing  superior  to  peace,  to  international  peace. 
There  Is  nothing  which  is  not  preferable  to  war. 

Better  rebellion  than  war.  EDOUARD  VAILLANT. 


Italy. 

Italian  and  International  Socialism  have  suffered  a  severe  Toss.  An- 
tonio Labriola  died  in  Rome  on  February  2,  from  the  consequences  of 
a  tracheotomy  to  which  he  had  been  compelled  to  submit  He  was  62 
years  old.    One  of  our  sharpest  and  clearest  thinkers  has  thus  departed. 

He  was  no  agitator.  He  kept  aloof  from  practical  politics,  although 
he  possessed  a  great  underslninding  for  it.  He  remained  all  his  life  what 
he  was  at  the  banning  of  his  scientific  career:  a  critical  philosopher  and 
historian.  His  first  works  were  of  a  purely  philosophical  hature.  They 
dealt  with  the  doctrine  of  Soctates  (1871),  free  will  (1873),  morals  and 


SOCIALISM  ABROAD.  563 

rdigiqn  (1875),  historical  in8tructi<m  (1876),  and  problema  of  the 
philosophy  of  history    (1887). 

Alter  that  his  thought  entered  new  fields.  He  came  to  Marxian  sociaU 
isnif  not  by  way  of  philanthropy,  nor  on  the  road  of  political  rebellion, 
»ut  Marxism  was  for  him  rather  the  completion  of  his  philosophy. 

Of  the  works  which  he  now  published,  the  most  important  are  his  three 
essays  on  the  materialist  conception  of  history.  The  first  of  these,  en- 
titled, ''In  Memory  of  the  Conununist  Manifesto,"  appeared  in  1895,  the 
second,  on  "Historical  Materialism,"  in  1896,  and  the  third,  on  "Socialib'in 
and  Philosophy,"  in  1898.  These  works  have  since  been  published  in 
many  editions,  and  were  also  translated  into  French. , 

They  belong  to  the  best  creations  in  the  international  Marxian  litera- 
ture and  have  exerted  an  especially  clarifying  influence  on  the  thought  of 
the  Italian  socialists.  If  Italian  socialism  arose  superior  to  the  confusion 
of  Mazzinism,  Bakounism,  and  Baatiatism,  in  which  it  was  submerged 
only  two  decades  ago,  this  is  due  in  a  large  measure  to  Labriola's  writ- 
ings. And  it  is  above  all  thanks  to  him  that  there  are  any  Marxian  social- 
ists in  Italy  today. 

He  exerted  his  influence  not  alone  by  writing,  but  also  by  speaking,  by 
his  lectures  at  the  university  of  Rome,  of  which  he  was  a  professor,  and 
where  he  daringly  and  frankly  taught  Socialism. 

Both  the  Italian  and  the  international  Socialist  movement  owe  a  debt 
of  gratitude  to  Labriola.  They  will  both  honor  his  memory  as  that  of  a 
great  thinker  and  a  true  man. — VortDoerta. 

A  short  notice  in  Vonoaerta  states  that  Ferri  has  been  condemned  to 
fourteen  months  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  14,116  lire.  This  is,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  he  has  so  thoroughly  proved  his  charges  against  Bettolo 
that  the  latter  has  been  practically  driven  out  of  public  life.  It  seems 
to  have  been  a  case  of  the  "greater  the  truth  the  greater  the  libel.'' 


Russia. 

The  Russian  Social  Democracy  was  created  in  1898  upon  the  initiative 
of  some  local  organizations  which  had  been  formed  in  the  great  industrial 
I  centers  during  the  years  1895  and  1897.     But  the  party  existed  only  in 

!       ^  name  and  the  only  trace  it  has  left  to  us  of  this  first  congress  is  a  mani- 

festo containing  an  expression  of  its  aspirations.    Since  then  the  number 
of  local  organizations  has  increased  considerably  and  the  liberal  movement 
I  of  the  country  has  taken  on  new  vigor,  but  the  local  committees  remained 

'  isolated  without  common  direction  or  programme.     This  division  of  the 

^  strength  of  the  party  could  not  last  without  greatly  injuring  the  political 

and  economic  struggle. 

The  committee  of  organization  which  had  the  task  of  preparing  for 
the  second  congress — and  one  knows  how  difficult  such  a  task  is  in  Russia — 
took  the  greatest  care  to  secure  a  representation  of  all  the  organizations 
of  the  party.  The  list  as  it  is  completed  is  composed  of  fourteen  commit- 
tees, three  federations,  one  league  of  the  laborers,  two  committees  of  the 
I  Bund,  the  administration  of  Iskra  (the  Star),  the  groups  for  the  freeing 

of  labor  and  of  the  laborers  of  the  south,  and  two  organizations  of  Russian 
social  democrats  abroad  who  sent  their  delegates  to  assist  the  revolutionary 
proletariat  of  Ruflflsia. 

The  first  work  of  the  convention  was  to  examine  the  programme  pre- 
pared by  the  editorial  staff  of  Iskra,    This  programme,  which  was  adopted 
by  the  congress,  contains  a  series  of  propositions  such  as  are  found  in  all 
Marxist  programmes,  stating  the  contradictions  of  the  capitalist  society, 
1  the  tasks  which  belong  to  the  socialist  party,  and  lastly  the  dominion  of 

'  the  proletariat  and  socialization  of  the  means  of  production  and  distribu- 


564  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

tion.  This  is  followed  by  a  minimum  programme  enumerating  the  economic 
reforms  which  are  necessary  to  be  obtained  at  the  present  time  luuler  the 
capitalist  iregime.  This  portion  is  also  to  be  found  in  all  the  platforms  of 
the  socialist  parties.  But,  there  is  somethinp^  in  our  platform  which  is 
found  in  no  other  socialist  platform,  and  this  is  the  following  passage: 
"In  Russia,  where  capitalist  production  already  occupies  a  dominant  place, 
there  still  remain  numerous  vestiges  of  our  old  r^ime  which  was  based 
upon  the  servitude  of  the  laboring  masses  attached  to  tbe  proprietorship 
of  the  feudal  domains,  to  the  State,  or  to  its  officials.  These  remnants 
greatly  hinder  the  economic  progress  of  the  country  and  the  free  operation 
of  the  strength  of  the  proletariat.  They  also  favor  the  maintenance  of 
the  most  Wbarous  methods  of  exploitation  among  the  millions  of  peasants 
by  the  State  and  the  possessing  classes,  and  they  maintain  in  obscurity 
and  slavery  the  entire  people.  Ctorism  is  the  most  important  of  all  these 
survivals  and  the  most  powerful  protector  of  all  this  barbarity.  Hostile 
by  its  nature  to  every  social  and  liberating  movement,  it  is  necessarily 
the  most  violent  enemy  of  all  aspirations  of  the  proletariat.  Therefore 
the  social  democratic  laboring  party  of  Russia  must  struggle  in  the  first 
place  for  the  abolition  of  the  czarist  autocracy  and  its  replacement  by 
a  democratic  republic. 

According  to  the  Constitution  adopted  by  the  party  the  base  of  the  orgai> 
Ization  is  to  be  found  in  local  committees  whose  duties  consist  in  directing 
the  agitation  in  their  respective  districts.  The  direction  of  affairs  of 
general  interest  belongs  to  a  central  committee,  while  the  control  of  the 
attitude  of  the  party  in  questions  of  principle  is  left  with  the  editorial 
staff  of  the  central  organ.  The  supreme  governing  body  of  the  party  is 
the  congress,  which  meets  every  two  years. 

The  congress  has  adopted  the  journal  lakra  as  central  organ  of  the 
party  and  in  this  manner  has  declared  its  agreement  with  the  tendencies 
of  this  journal.  B.  G.,  in  L\ivenir  Social. 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


Whatever  differences  of  opinion  may  have  existed  between  the*  workers 
of  the  East  and  the  West  regarding  jurisdiction,  political  action  and  simi- 
lar questions  have  been  almost  completely  obliterated  by  the  heroic  battle 
of  the  miners  in  the  Rooky  Mountain  regions.  The  fact  is  there  never,  was 
much  enmity  among  the  rank  and  file  of  those  sections.  As  usual,  the 
leaders,  so-called,  were  responsible  for  whatever  antagonisms  may  have 
existed.  But  the  splendid,  class-conscious  spirit  in  which  the  western  men 
have  fought  against  combined  capitalism  and  its  governmental  puppets  has 
aroused  the  admiration  of  the  organized  workers  all  over  the  land,  and 
just  now  they  are  collecting  funds  to  assist  the  strikers  to  continue  their 
battle  until  it  haa  been  won.  That  they  will  win  seems  almost  certain. 
Governor  Peabody  has  eaUed  the  militia  from  the  field  and  sent  an  open  let- 
ter to  the  combine!  mine  operators  advising  them  to  settle  with  the  unionists. 
Peabody  has  damage  suits  aggregating  $1,200,000  filed  against  him,  while 
his  masters,  the  operators,  have  spent  many  more  millions  to  defeat  the 
workers,  and  the  cost  to  the  State  has  been  enormous.  To  show  the  vil- 
lainous conduct  of  those  in  control  of  the  political  power  it  is  well  worth 
quoting  the  specific  charges  made  against  them  by  the  Colorado  trade 
unionists  and  Socialists,  which  have  not  been  and  cannot  be  controverted, 
and  every  organized  worker  who  reads  the  following  oiight  to  consider  it 
his  or  her  duty  to  raise  every  dollar  possible  to  assist  the  brave  and 
hardy  western  strikers  to  gain  the  victory  for  which  they  have  so  nobly 
fought.  The  cause  of  the  ^rike  and  the  detailed  actions  of  the  authorities 
as  charged  in  public  assemblages  are: 

•*First — The  people  of  Colorado  at  the  general  election  of  1902  adopted 
an  amiendment  to  the  State  constitution  l^  40,000  majority  empowering 
the  legislature  to  enact  a  law  making  eight  hours  a  legal  day's  work  in 
mines,  mills  and  smelters. 

"Second — The  Republican  and  Democratic  parties  elected  representatives 
and  senators  on  platforms  pledging  them  to  the  enactment  of  an  eight-hour 
law,  so  that  the  whole  legislature,  except  the  holdover  senators,  were 
pledged  to  that  measure,  as  were  also  the  executive  officers  of  the  State 
Government. 

''Third — ^The  Legislature,  which  convened  in  January,  1903,  absolutely 
disregarded  the  pledges  made  in  the  platforms  on  which  the  members 
were  elected  and  at  the  dictation  of  the  mine  and  smelter  owners  refused 
to  enact  an  eight-hour  law. 

"Fourth — The  Governor,  elected  also  on  a  platform  pledging  the  people 
an  eight-hour  law,  when  calling  an  extra  session  of  the  Legislature  to  pro- 
vide for  the  salaries  of  the  State  officials,  refused  to  include  the  considera- 
tion of  an  eight-hour  law  in  his  call  for  said  extra  session. 

"Fifth — As  a  result  of  this  wanton  and  criminal  disregard  of  solemn 
pledges  voluntarily  made  by  the  legislative  and  executive  branches  of  the 
State  Government^  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners  declared  a  strike, 

5« 


\ 


566  t;ie  international  socialist  review. 

first  at  Ck)lorado  City  and  later  in  the  Telluride  and  Cripple  Creek  dis- 
tricts, for  the  purpose  of  securing  an  eight-hour  working  day. 

"Sixth — ^Hie  strikes  so  declared  were  peaceful  and  orderly,  and  the  com- 
munities effected  were  as  free  from  rioting  and  other  disorderly  mani- 
festations as  they  were  before  the  strikes  were  declared.  This  has  been 
repeatedly  testified  to  by  the  sherifi's  and  other  civil  officers  of  the  counties 
in  whose  territory  the  strikes  were  being  enforced. 

"Seventh — ^In  the  face  of  these  facts.  Gov.  James  H.  Peabody,  at  the 
request — not  of  the  sheriffs  or  civil  officers  of  the  counties  affected — but 
of  the  owners  of  mines  and  smelters,  sent  the  State  militia  to  Colorado 
City,  and  afterward  to  Cripple  Creek  and  Telluride,  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  breaking  the  strikes,  and  not  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  law 
and  order. 

"Eighth — The  militia,  sent  into  those  counties  against  the  protest  of 
the  civil  officers  under  the  general  direction  of  the  Governor  and  his 
adjutant  general,  Sherman  Bell,  have  trampled  upon  the  rights  guaranteed 
to  citizens  by  the  constitution  of  the  State  of  Colorado  and  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States  in  a  most  relentless  and  defiant  manner,  as  herein- 
after specified. 

"First — ^They  have  arrested  citizens  without  warrant  or  oth^r  process 
of  law. 

"Second — ^Thcy  have  iucarcerated  citizens  in  military  prisons  reekinj? 
with  filth  and  vermin  and  so  crowded  and  ill-ventilated  as  to  almost  rival 
the  infamous  'black  hole'  of  Calcutta. 

"Third — ^They  have  defied  the  officers  of  the  civil  courts,  refusing  to 
accept  service  of  processes  issued  against  them  by  courts  of  competent 
jurisdiction. 

"Fourth— They  have  denied  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  by  refusing  to 
bring  prisoners  into  court  when  ordered  to  do  so  by  the  officers  of  the  court. 

"Fifth — They  have  invaded  the  courts  during  their  sessions  with  bodies 
of  armed  men,  to  terrify  the  judges  and  officers  of  the  said  courts  and 
prevent  them  from  rendering  judgment  in  accord  with  the  law  and  the  evi- 
dence. 

* '  Sixth — They  have  deprived  the  people  of  Teller  county  of  the  right  to 
bear  arms,  and  they  have,  without  warrant,  invaded  the  sanctity  of  homes 
of  the  people,  by  unlawfully  entering  said  homes  in  their  search  for  arms. 

"Seventh — They  have  suppressed  a  free  press  by  instituting  a  militaiy 
censorship  over  the  newspapers  published  in  the  strike  districts. 

"Eighth — ^They  have  invaded  the  business  places  of  well-known  citizens 
and  have  shot  them  down  for  defending  their  property. 

"Ninth — ^They  have  arrested  peaceful  and  law-abiding  citizens,  without 
warrant,  as  vagrants,  and  have  imprisoned  them,  put  them  to  work  as  con- 
victs on  the  rock-pile,  or  deported  them  from  their  homes,  solely  because 
they  refused  to  go  to  work  as  strike-breakers. 

"Tenth — ^They  have  conunitted  all  these  and  other  outrages  upon  citi- 
zens of  Colorado,  in  defiance  of  the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  state  and 
of  the  United  Stieites,  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  labor  unions. 

"Eleventh — ^They  have  usurped  this  authority  and  established  a  military 
despotism  in  Colorado,  in  the  interest  of  the  capitalist  class,  using  the 
military  power  of  the  state  to  advance  the  financial  and  commercial  in- 
terests of  the  said  capitalist  class,  and  to  crush  organized  labor." 

With  the  ending  of  the  scale  year  in  the  iron  and  steel  industry,  on 
June  30,  there  will  be  inaugurated  one  of  the  greatest  struggles  between  or- 
ganized labor  and  capital  that  this  country  has  known  in  recent  years. 
Shortly  after  tne  Boston  convention  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  the  writer  was  in- 
formed by  a  prominent  manufacturer  in  Cleveland  that  he  had  learned 
that  the  iron  and  steel  masters  were  determined  to  wipe  out  every  vestige 
of  unionism  in  their  plants  and  that  they  had  carefully  laid  their  plans 


THE  WOELD  OF  LABOR.  567 

to  begin  the  onslaught  the  coming  summer.  Expressing  some  doubta  that 
war  would  be  declared  because  of  the  pending  Presidential  campaign,  my 
informant  declared  substantially:  "The  United  States  Steel  Corporation 
is  coming  under  new  management.  The  Rockefeller  and  Frick  interests 
are  becoming  dominant,  and  everybody  knows  they  are  antagonistic  to 
union  labor  upon  general  principles.  They  do  not  fear  political  results, 
either.  They  care  very  little  whether  or  not  Roosevelt  is  defeated,  as  they 
are  satisfied  that  the  Democrats,  having  been  'reorganized,'  will  nominate  a 
'safe'  man,  like  Cleveland  or  Olney,  and  their  interests >  will  be  fully  pro- 
tected." This  statement  is  now  verified  by  a  report  from  Pittsburg,  which 
says,  among  other  things: 

"It  is  known  among  employes  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation 
that  with  the  ending  of  the  scale  year  next  June  30,  the  concern  will  re- 
fuse in  the  future  to  deal  with  organized  labor.  This  plan  has  received 
the  endorsement  of  the  steel  corporation  directors.  H.  C.  Frick,  who  has 
assumed  control  since  the  absence  of  Charles  M.  Schwab  and  Mr.  Morgan, 
is  credited  with  the  plan. 

"The  present  year  has  been  selected  because  of  the  continued  dullness 
in  the  domestic  steel  trade.  Preparations  for  the  fight  have  been  going  on 
since  the  beginning  of  the  year.  Wherever  it  is  possible  for  the  steel 
corporation  to  make  material  and  stock,  to  be  supplied  to  the  market  dur- 
ing the  fight  against  unionism,  it  is  being  done. 

"Officers  of  the  Amalgamated  Association  are  aware  of  what  is  coming. 
The  granting  of  concessions  in  wages  in  the  pending  fight  they  know  will 
not  benefit  them,  as  Mr.  Frick  and  the  Rockefellers  will  not  deal  with 
labor  unions. 

"As  a  result  of  the  impending  strike,  the  American  Tin  and  Sheet  Com- 
pany is^  opeititing  more  than  two  hundred  tin  plate  mills  day  and  night. 
Scarcely  any  of  the  production  is  being  sold.  It  is  being  piled  in  ware- 
houses in  Pittsburg,  New  Castle,  Sharon,  Pa.;  Anderson,  Flwood,  and  Gas 
City,  Ind.,  and  Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  and  a  few  other  points.  At  New  Castle, 
after  filling  the  warehouses,  the  storage  houses  of  the  American  Steel  and 
Wire  Company  are  being  filled  with  plate.  The  output  of  tin  plates  is  about 
225,000  boxes  each  week.  Very  little  of  this  is  being  sold.  A  boom  in  tin 
plates  is  not  anticipated.  A  dealer  was  questioned  as  to  the  demand  and 
the  possible  resumption.  He  said  that  the  steel  corporation  was  making 
more  tin  plate  and  had  enough  stocked  away  to  shut  down  their  plants  for 
three  months,  and' supply  their  trade.  The  independent  tin  plate  manu- 
facturers are  not  operating,  as  there  is  no  demand.  The  steel  corporation 
has  about  eighty-eight  of  its  mills  closed  down  for  repairs  and  for  other 
reasons,  but  preparations  are  being  made  to  start  some  of  these  in  addi- 
tion to  those  in  operation. 

"Members  of  the  Amalgamated  Association  are  exceedingly  interested 
in  the  coming  battle.  They  are  watching  with  concern  the  filling  of  the 
warehouses.  Last  year  they  offered  to  accept  a  reduction  of  25  per  cent 
for  work  done  on  export  tin  plates.  The  stock  was  made  up,  but  was  not 
exported. 

"There  are  only  four  non-imion  tin  plate  plants  operated  by  the  steel 
corporation.  These  are  being  run  at  a  lower  wage  rate  than  the  union 
plants,  the  reduction  having  been  made  the  first  of  the  year.  The  em- 
ployes of  the  Demmler  plant  at  McKeesport  refused  to  accept  the  cut, 
but  finally  returned  to  work.  The  four  non-union  plants  could  not  force 
the  remaining  union  workingmen  into  line  for  a  reduction  or  a  disorganiza- 
tion, hence  the  fact  that  a  stock  of  plates  to  carry  the  tin  plate  company 
over  six  or  seven  months  is  expected  to  starve  the  tin  plate  workers  out 
and  cx>mpel  them  to  return  to  work  as  non-unionists." 

It  is  not  improbable  that  other  organizations  will  be  drawn  Into  this 
struggle  in  self-defense  for  the  reason  that  if  the  Amalgamated  Associa- 


1 


568  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

tion  is  wiped  out  the  Frick-Rockefdier  policy  will  surely  spread  to  other 
trades.  Indeed,  the  molders  and  machinists  of  Pennsylvania  have  obtained 
information  that  the  employers'  associations  have  practically  decided  to 
begin  a  campaign  for  the  '*open  shop."  The  Allis-Chalmers  Company  has 
announced  that  unions  would  not  be  recognized  with  the  expiration  of 
present  scales,  and  the  Westinghouse  bosses  are  compelling  employes  to 
sign  individual  agreements,  llie  blast  furnace  workers  are  also  to  be 
forced  to  give  up  their  unions.  Besides  these  impending  labor  battles  the 
Parry  machine  and  independent  associations  and  alliances  in  various  parts 
of  the  country  are  almost  daily  declaring  against  "union  domination."  The 
building  trades  contractors  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  recently  held  a 
conference,  and,  after  congratulating  President  Roosevelt  for  beginning  the 
"open  shop"  movement  in  the  government  printing  office  in  Washington, 
adopted  plans  to  destroy  the  trade  unions  and  blacklist  workingmen  who 
went  on  strike.  The  cement  workers  of  New  Jersey  have  been  given  notice 
that  they  must  recognise  the  sacredness  of  the  "open  shop,"  the  shingle 
weavers  of  the  west  are  fighting  the  same  principle,  as  are  also  the  thou- 
sands of  glove  workers  in  Fulton  county.  New  York.  Hie  carriage  and 
wagon  workers  of  Chicago,  the  metal  polishers  in  the  same  city,  and 
machinists  and  other  unionists  in  Fox  River  valley  are  engaged  In  strug- 
gles to  save  their  organizations.  In  Montana  the  lines  have  been  sharply 
drawn  between  the  unions  and  the  employers'  alliances,  and  blacklisting 
and  boycotting  is  being  carried  into  every  business.  The  Michigan  State 
Federation  has  issued  a  special  circular  letter  calling  attention  to  the 
activity  of  the  organized  Ix^ses  in  that  state,  and  in  Detroit  the  capitalists 
in  the  manufacturing  and  building  industries  declare  openly,  that  the 
trade  unions  will  be  recognized  no  longer.  Boiler  manufacturers  along 
'  the  lakes  are  preparing  for  a  fight. 

In  the  building  trades  in  New  York  the  new  arbitration  scheme  has 
proven  unsatisfactory  to  both  sides  and  a  fight  all  along  the  line  may 
start  almost  any  day,  while  the  Philadelphia  contractors  have  given  notice 
that  the  first  sympathetic  strike  inaugurated  will  be  the  signal  for  a 
general  lockout.  In  Pittsburg  the  sympathetic  strike  of  the  building 
workers  to  aid  the  plumbers  has  been  lost,  while  the  national  strike  of 
the  bridge  and  structural  iron  workers  against  the  "open  shop"  policy 
of  the  Iron  League  and  Fuller  Company  is  still  in  progress.  The  flint 
glass  workers  have  ordered  a  national  strike.  The  Pacific  Express  Com- 
pany has  begun  a  war  of  extermination  in  that  line  of  business  by  giving 
notice  to  employes  that  to  join  a  union  will  be  considered  tantamount  to 
resigning  from  the  service.  Many  local  strikes  and  lockouts  are  also  being 
waged,  and  there  is  eveiy  indication  that  the  number  will  be  increased 
with  the  approach  of  spring.  It  begins  to  look  as  though  the  class  strug- 
gle will  become  plainer  from  day  to  day,  and  be  fought  with  greater  deter- 
mination by  both  sides  than  ever  before.  The  final  result  will  "not  be  hard 
to  predict.  Labor  will  naturally  attempt  to  strengthen  its  position  through 
political  action.  The  present  rapid  gTO^^th  of  the  Socialist  party  proves 
that  much. 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


The  Inside  History  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company.  By  James  Howard 
Brid^.     The  Aldine  Book  Company.     Cloth,  360  pp.,  $2.00. 

This  is  a  popular  edition  of  a  work  which  was  circulated  in  de  luxe 
form  a  few  months  ago,  and  attracted  very  much  attention  in  the  press 
at  that  time.  It  is  tacitly  understood  that  the  work  was  written  at  the 
instance  of  H.  C.  Frick  as  revenge  for  the  eort  of  Carnegie  to  crowd 
Frick  out  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company.  As  a  consequence,  there  is 
a  large  amount  of  material  published  which  would  otherwise  never  have 
seen  the  light. 

While  the  author  writes  from  a  distinctively  capitalist  point  of  view, 
nevertheless  the  thieves  have  fallen  out  enough  so  that  "honest  men"  may 
learn  many  things  that  they  would  otherwise  never  have  known. 

The  following,  for  example,  from  the  preface  adndts  something  socialists 
have  always  alleged,  but  which  popular  writers  ordinarily  deny:  "The 
conventional  history  of  the  concern,  based  on  benevolent  aphorisms  and 
platitudinous  maxims  about  thrift,  industry,  genius,  and  super-commercial 
morality,  has  been  written  a  hundred  times,  and  will  probably  be  written 
again  and  again. 

"The  Carnegie  Steel  Company,  as  will  be  seen  from  this  narrative,  is 
not  the  creation  of  any  man»  nor  indeed  of  any  set  of  men.  It  is  a 
natural  evolution;  and  the  conditions  of  its  growth  are  of  the  same 
general  character  as  tho&e  of  the  *  flower  in  the  crannied  wall.'  Andrew- 
Carnegie  has  somewhere  said,  in  effect:  'Take  away  all  our  money,  our 
great  works,  ore  mines,  and  coke  ovens,  but  leave  our  organization,  and 
in  four  years  I  shall  have  re-established  myself.'  He  might  have  gone 
a  step  further  and  eliminated  himself  and  his  organization;  and  in  less 
than  four  years  the  steel  industry  would  have  recovered  from  the  loss. 
This  is  not  the  popular  conception  of  industrial  evolution,  which  demands 
captains,  corporals,  and  other  heroes;  but  it  accords  with  evolutionary 
conceptions  in  general." 

Considered  as  the  tracing  of  the  greatest  and  most  fundamental  of  . 
industries,  the  work  is  by  no  means  an  unimportant  contribution  to  in- 
dustrial history.  The  first  forge  from  which  this  great  industry  arose 
was  erected  by  the  Kloman  brothers  in  1868.  In  1859  Henry  Phipp«, 
who  has  remained  with  the  firm  until  the  present  time,  took  an  interest. 
Carnegie  did  not  enter  the  business  until  1865,  by  which  time  it  had 
become  of  considerable  importance. 

In  this  connection,  it  is  worth  while  to  note  the  importance  of  the 
Civil  War  in  building  up  this  industry,  as  it  did  hundreds  of  others: 
"Then  the  War  broke  out  and  axles  which  had  been  selling  for  2  cents 
jumped  to  12  cents  a  pound,  and  when  it  came  to  filling  government 
orders  for  parts  of  gun  carriages,  there  was  no  limit  to  prices  for  quick 
delivery." 

In  1867  the  firm  took  a  hand  in  importing  contract  laborers  for  the 

580 


570  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

purpose  of  breaking  up  the  first  signb  of  a  trade  union.  The  first  con- 
solidation of  rival  mills  took  place  in  1865,  and  in  1867  one  of  the  im- 
ported German  laborers  invented  a  machine  of  which  the  writer  says: 
"It  was  worth  millions  of  dollars  to  the  firm  that  imported  him  to  take 
the  place  of  a  striker.  As  for  Zimmer  himself  his  reward  was  a  well- 
paid  position  as  foreman  of  the  mill  he  erected  and  of  its  improved  suc- 
cessors." 

In  1876  the  first  steel  rails  were  made  in  America,  although  Bessemer 
steel  had  been  manufactured  for  some  little  time  before  that,  and  at 
once  the  whole  iron  and  steel  industry  received  a  tremendous  impetus.  The 
Homestead  Steel  Works  was  first  incorporated  in  1879  and  was  acquired 
by  the  Carnegie  Company  in  1883.  Iron  and  steel  began  to  be  of  im- 
portance in  architecture  with  the  building  of  skyscrapers  in  the  late 
'80s,  and  this  gave  another  impetus  to  the  growth  of  the  industry.  The 
beginning  of  the  open  hearth  process  in  1886  was  another  upward  step 
and  the  consolidation  through  the  infiuence  of  H.  C.  Frick  in  1892 
brought  the  industry  down  to  something  near  its  preisent  form. 

llie  story  of  the  consolidation  of  ore  properties,  steamship  and  rail- 
road lines,  and  the  final  combination  of  all  in  the  United  States  Steel 
Company,  has  been  told  so  fully  that  the  author  is  unable  to  add  little 
to  the  popular  knowledge  on  this  subject,  save  in  pointing  out  some  of 
the  details  of  the  fight  between  Frick  and  Carnegie. 

Some  of  the  methods  of  exploitation  which  were  used  by  the  Carnegie 
companies  are  interesting.  Many  times  we  are  told  about  the  racing  of 
the  furnaces  which,  was  kept  up  by  the  sending  of  a  new  broom  to  the 
furnace  which  had  made  the  best  record  during  the  month,  forcing 
superintendents  and  men  to  almost  superhuman  exertions. 

The  real  object  of  the  book,  however,  is  to  show  how  little  a  part 
Andrew  Carnegie  really  had  in  building  up  the  industry,  and  this  is 
shown  beyond  a  doubt.  Over  and  over  again  evidence  is  brought  for- 
ward to  prove  that  Carnegie's  usual  method  of  acquiring  wealth  was  to 
inveigle  his  partners  into  signing  a  contract  which  would  enable  him 
to  swindle  them  out  of  what  they  had  placed  in  the  firm,  or  at  least 
to  make  use  of  their  money  and  their  abilities  until  the  industry  had 
grown  to  a  point  where  they  were  beginning  to  expect  great  returns,  and 
then  crowd'  them  out. 

The  author  takes  particular  delight  in  showing  how  utterly  falde 
are  Carnegie's  claims  of  having  been  the  inventor  or  introducer  of  iron 
bridges  and  the  Bessemer  steel  industry  into  America.  So  far  as  the 
relation  of  laborers  to  the  industry  is  concerned,  the  writer  maintains 
a  strictly  capitalist  point  of  view. 

He  does  expose,  with  abundance  of  proof,  the  hypocritical  attitude 
of  Carnegie,  who  while  secretly  giving  orders  to  fight  the  trade  unions 
in  all  possible  ways,  was  publishing  hypocritical  articles  on  the  text, 
"Thou  Shalt  not  take  thy  brother's  job." 

^  One  cut  in  the  work  gives  the  impression  that  perhaps  the  artist 
might  have  had  a  strong  sense  of  the  humorous,  or  else  some  trade  union 
S3rmpathie8.  The  picture  is  supposed  to  show  a  scab  Shooting  a  striker 
"in  self-defense,"  but  the  illustration  shows  the  scab  shooting  an  unarmed 
man  in  the  back.    Probably  this  is  truer  to  fact  than  the  text. 

The  work  is  filled  with  information  on  the  wonderful  productive 
power  of  modem  machinery  and  the  consequent  enormous  profits  to  the 
owners  of  the  industry. 

The  Psychology  of  Child  Development.  By  Irving  King,  with  an 
introduction  by  John  Dewey.  The  University  of  Chicago  Press.  Cloth, 
266  pp.,  $1.00. 

liiis  work  approaches  the  study  of  child  development  from  the  stand- 
point of  modem  psychology.     It  points  out  that  few  things  have   been 


BOOK  REVIEWS.  571 

more  detrimental  than  the  attitude  of  the  old  "faculty"  psychology  which 
assumed  that  the  child  is  possessed  of  oertain  distinct  mental  faculties 
or  powers  that  not  only  develop  hut  also  function  independently. 

In  opposition  to  this  is  set  the  position  that  the  early  experience  of 
the  child  is  of  an  undifferentiated  character,  that  the  so-called  kinids  of 
mental  "powers"  and  activities  are  differentiated  from  ^the  ori^nal 
general  consciousness  and  further  that  the  differentiation  has  arisen  to 
meet  the  child's  demand  for  greater  and  more  complex  activity.  This 
introduces  the  question  of  the  relation  of  stimulus,  and  it  is  shown  that 
the  necessity  of  controlling  a  stimulus  forms  the  essential  basis  for  all 
mental  differentiation. 

Child  psychology,  it  is  held,  should  be  approached  from  the  functional 
point  of  view  and  its  aim  should  be  the  examination  of  the  child's  experi- 
ence and  the  determining  of  how  and  why  the  various  mental  functions 
arise.  Ihie  emphasis  is  laid  upon  bodily  activity  as  the  starting  point 
in  the  study  of  the  infant. 

The  former  experience  of  an  individual,  in  the  case  of  both  an  adult 
and  a  child,  is  of  fundamental  importance  in  determining  what  Interpre- 
tation will  be  made  of  a  given  object.  In  considering  the  child  with  his 
relatively  limited  experience  this  fact  must  be  taken  into  account  in 
deciding  what  meaning  any  new  experience  will  have  to  him. 

After  tracing  the  differentiation  of  experience  and  the  process  of  its 
growth  and  enrichment,  the  subjects  of  inhibition,  imitation,  etc.,  arc 
more  particularly  dwelt  on.  In  discussing  inhibition  it  is  shown  that  an 
act  is  not  checked  by  any  mysterious  force  or  "fiat,'^  but  that  this  is  only 
accomplished  through  a  change  of  situation  enabling  a  new  act  to  appear 
and  displace  the  old.  This  position  is  different  from  and  far  more  logical 
than  that  of  Preyer  and  various  other  students  of  child  psychology. 

The  book  then  discusses  the  relation  of  this  standpoint  to  the  work 
of  the  teacher.  It  changes  the  teacher's  interest  from  the  question  of 
**By  what  process  is  knowledge  acquired?"  to  "Under  what  circumstances 
do  these  processes  begin  to  act  and  what  office  do  they  perform  m  the 
development  and  elaboration  of  experience?"  The  emphasis  is  put  upon 
experience  as  a  whole,  its  evolution  and  its  relation  to  the  necessities 
of  action. 

This  work  is  of  much  value  to  the  student  of  psychology  and  to  every 
teacher.  It  defines  educational  psychology  as  a  social  psychology  and  is 
representative  of  the  tendency  to  base  educational  theory  upon  social 
conditions.  It  does  not  claim  to  present  new  material,  but  it  is  rather  a 
new  interpretation  of  well  known  facts  concerning  the  child.      M.  W.  S. 

The  Organization  and  Control  of  Industrial  Corporations.  By  Frank 
Edward  Horack.  Published  by  C.  F.  Taylor,  1520  Chestnut  St.,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa.    Paper,  207  pp.,  26  cents. 

Thia  work  consists  largely  of  a  compilation  of  matter  from  various 
sources  irelating  to  methods  of  control  of  corporations  and  particularly 
of  the  great  industrial  organizations  such  as  have  appeared  during  the 
last  few  years.  It  is  filled  with  a  great  mass  of  facts  as  to  the  legislation 
of  the  various  states  and  of  the  national  government.  It  is  thoroughly 
indexed  and  has  a  fairly  elaborate  bibliograpny,  although  this  is  very  much 
inferior  to  the  bibliography  accompanying  the  report  of  the  Industrial 
Commission  which  the  author  had  at  his  disposal,  had  he  made  use  of 
it  Throughout  the  work  the  orthodox  position  is  taken  that  concentration 
is  a  pathological  condition  for  which  remedies  must  be  studied  and  he 
suggests  many  of  these.  The  portion  on  publicity  tells  what  efforts  have 
been  made  in  this  direction  by  different  legislative  bodies  both  In  this 
countiy  and  in  England,  France  and  Germany.  For  any  one  who  wishes 
to  understand  the  legal  aspects  of  trusts  and  who  wishes  to  find  his  in- 


572  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW. 

formation  stated  in  a  popular  manner,  this  is  by  far  the  beet  work  in 
existence. 

Die  positive  kriminalistische  Schule  in  Italien.  By  Enrico  Fenri. 
Paper',  64  pp.,  1.20  M.  Ttanslated  from  the  Italian  by  £.  Mailer-R5der. 
Neuer  Frankfurter  Verlag. 

This  little  work,  which  consists  of  three  lectures  by  Ferri  before  some 
Geneva  students,  is  an  extremely  ysiluable  study.  The  first  lecture  takes 
up  the  historical  evolution  of  the  positive  school  of  criminology  of  Italy 
and  describes  the  steps  that  have  been  taken  by  different  writers  in  suc- 
cession. The  last  two  lectures  explain  in  a  condensed  form  the  theories 
of  that  school. 

This  school  of  criminology  is  contrasted  with  the  classic  school  which 
represents  the  ordinary  position  held  by  judges  and  the  populace  in 
general  throughout  the  capitalist  world.  The  keynote  of  the  distinction 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  classic  school  considers  criminology  simply  with 
regard  to  the  relation  between  the  crime  and  legislatian,  while  the  new 
positive  school  looks  rather  upon  the  relation  between  the  criminal  and 
society.  The  criminal  is  treated  as  a  product  of  anthropological,  physical 
and  social  factors.  These  are  analyzed  to  show  the  causes  that  brought 
about  the  commission  of  the  crime.  The  criminal  is  then  studied  with 
relation  to  the  best  manner  of  treating  him  for  his  personal  benefit  and 
social  utilization.  Society  is  examined  to  determine  in  how  far  the  social 
regulations  are  responsible  for  criminal  actions  and  how  these  can  be 
altered. 

It  is  hoped  that  a  translation  of  this  may  be  made  into  fhiglish  at 
an  early  day  as  it  would  be  of  great  value  for  socialist  propaganda  and 
educational  purposes. 

Social ismc  de  Gouvernement  et  Social isnie  Revolutionnaire.  By  Charles 
Rappoport.  Paper,  69  pp.,  10  cents.  Published  by  Parti  Ouvrier  Francais, 
7  Rue  Rodier,  Paris. 

We  have  read  a  great  many  controversial  pamphlets  on  the  Millerand 
situation,  but  it  seems  to  us  that  this  one  is  of  very  exceptional  value. 
It  not  only  sets  forth  the  issues  which  are  in  dispute  in  a  very  clear 
and  concise  manner,  but  it  does  what  very  few  such  pamphlets  are  able 
to  dp,  it  at  the  same  time  presents  much  that  is  of  value  to  socialist 
philosophy. 

We  shall  probably  at  some  later  day  translate  a  portion  of  it  which 
is  especially  apropos  to  conditions  in  America. 

The  Decline  of  British  Industry;  its  Cause  and  Remedy.  By  T.  H. 
Rothstein.     Twentieth  Century  Press.     London.     Paper,  76  pp.,  6d. 

No  more  thorough  exposure  of  the  incapacity  of  a  ruling  class  to  per- 
form its  function  could  be  given  than  is  set  forth  in  this  pamphlet  con- 
cerning the  British  capitalist.  The  utter  stupidity  and  antiquated  char- 
acter of  the  conduct  of  British  industry  is  explained  at  length.  It  shows 
that  decline  of  British  industry  so  far  from  being  due  to  the  hostile  tariffs 
of  other  countries,  or  the  free  trade  of  England,  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  English  capitalist  class  has  outgrown  its  usefulness. 


PUBLISHERS'   DEPARTMENT 


NATIONAL   CONVENTION   OF    THE   SOCIALIST    PARTY. 

The  April  number  of  the  International  Sociaust  Bevibw  will  be  a 
' '  Conyention  Number, ' '  devoted  almoBt  exclusively  to  the  discussion  of  sub- 
jects that  will  probably  come  before  the  national  convention.  In  this  way 
it  is  hoped  that  a  better  understanding  may  be  had  of  these  questions,  not 
only  among  the  delegates,  but  throughout  the  party  membership.  At  the 
same  time  the  work  of  the  convention  can  be  expedited,  and  time  economized 
by  such  previous  discussion. 

Letters  have  been  sent  to  Comrades  Debs,  Wanhope,  Will,  Slobodin, 
Mailly,  Massey^  Titus,  Stedman,  Bicker,  Hillquit,  Wilshire,  Berger,  Unter- 
mann,  Dobbs,  Dalton,  Hoehn  and  others,  asking  them  to  prepare  a  short 
article  covering  the  points  raised  by  the  following  questions,  which  include 
all  the  more  important  subjects  that  will  occupy  the  attention  of  the 
convention : 

1.  What  changes  do  you  think  are  necessary  in  the  party  organization? 

2.  What,  if  any,  action  should  be  taken  towards  setting  forth  a  work- 
ing program  for  such  members  as  may  be  elected  to  office  within  a  capitalist 
government?  Should  such  a  program  be  attached  to  the  platform,  embodied 
in  a  separate  and  explanatory  document,  or  entirely  omitted? 

3.  Have  you  any  suggestion  as  to  methods  of  controlling  those  who 
represent  the  Socialist  Party  on  the  public  platform? 

4.  What  action,  if  any,  should  be  taken  towards  securing  uniformity 
of  action  by  Socialists  elected  to  municipal  positions? 

5.  Should  there  be  any  special  expression  of  our  attitude  towards  the 
farmers  or  negroes?    If  so,  what? 

6.  Should  the  present  '* trade  union  resolution"  stand?  If  not,  how 
should  it  be  changed? 

This  number  of  the  Bevisw  will  not  only  be  of  value  as  an  exhaustive 
discussion  of  Socialist  problems,  but  it  will  be  of  especial  importance  to 
the  party  membership  just  at  this  time.  As  a  help  in  understanding  the 
questions  to  be  settled  at  the  convention  it  will  be  invaluable.  For  any  lo- 
cal intending  to  instruct  its  delegates  this  number  will  be  almost  a  necessity 
for  intelligent  action.  It  will  give  a  forecast  of  the  arguments  that  will 
be  offered,  the  differences  that  will  arise,  and  the  ideas  that  will  be  pre- 
sented.   For  the  comrades  who  cannot  attend  the  convention,  but  who  wish 

578 


674  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIBW. 

to  make  their  influence  felt  through  the  party  press  or  hj  consultation  with 
their  delegates  it  will  be  indispensable.  It  will  be  out  nearly  a  month  be- 
fore the  convention,  thus  permitting  time  for  action  of  any  kind  thought 
desirable,  and  enabling  the  influence  of  the  entire  rank  and  flle  to  be 
clearly  felt,  something  the  importance  of  which  every  Socialist  will  under- 
stand. 

Every  local  should  order  enough  to  supply  each  one  of  its  members. 
Every  one  will  want  it. 

Price  10  cents  a  copy;  to  locals  that  are  not  stockholders,  7  cents  a 
copy;  to  stockholders,  5  cents  a  copy.  These  prices  include  postage  and 
are  for  cash  with  order.  We  can  not  afford  to  print  more  copies  than  are 
paid  for. 

THE  SOCIALIZATION  OF  HUMANITY. 

Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.,  56  Fifth  avenue,  Chicago,  announce  for  early 
publication  a  philosophical  work  by  Charles  Kendall  FrankUu)  entitled: 
''The  Socialization  of  Humanity";  an  Analysis  and  Synthesis  of  Nature, 
Life,  Mind  and  Society  through  the  Law  of  Repetition.  A  System  of  Monis- 
tic Philosophy.  To  quote  the  flrst  sentence  of  the  preface,  ''The  object  of 
this  investigation  is  to  trace  physical,  organic  and  social  phenomena  to  their 
sources  in  order  to  discover  their  laws,  so  that  the  subsequent  expenditure 
of  energy  in  nature,  life,  mind  and  society  may  be  determined  for  human 
welfare."  This  is  what  the  book  attempts,  and  in  a  large  measure  ac- 
complishes. 

The  author  shows  in  plain,  simple  language  that  all  nature  is  passing 
through  a  process  in  the  expenditure  of  energy  along  the  line  of  least  re- 
sistance; that  following  the  Law  of  Repetition,  there  are  four  forms  of  this 
great  Law  of  Motion  developed :  First,  as  in  physical  nature,  where  the  line 
of  least  resistance  is  determined  by  blind  conflict;  second,  as  in  organic 
nature,  where  it  is  determined  by  instincts  and  ideas;  third,  as  in  the  in- 
dividual man  or  woman,  where  it  is  determined  by  the  moral  sense;  and 
fourth,  as  in  society,  where  it  is  determined  by  the  social  sense;  that  each 
of  these  methods  of  the  expenditure  of  energy  is  a  new  law  of  motion  which 
is  a  more  economical  method  of  expending  energy  than  the  other  preceding 
it,  and  that  the  perfect  economic  expenditure  of  all  energy  can  only  be  at- 
tained by  the  socialisation  of  the  race,  an  end  to  which  the  universal  proeess 
in  the  expenditure  of  energy  in  nature  tends,  and  which  will  ultimately  and 
inevitably  be  attained  by  the  factors  now  at  work. 

In  morality  the  work  shows  the  inadequacy  of  Christianity  as  a  race- 
religion  and  establishes  in  its  place  the  religion  of  morality,  which  is  de- 
stined to  last  80  long  as  the  race  exists.  In  philosophy  it  shows  that  here- 
tofore we  have  understood  things  only  allegorically;  that  the  great  idea  of 
Qod  is  only  a  symbol  for  the  race;  that  all  our  hopes,  aspirations  and  long- 
ings for  a  wider,  deeper,  fuller  and  purer  life  are  to  be  realized  here  on 
earth  in  the  socialization  of  humanity,  with  the  perfect  expenditure  of  all 
energy,  and  not  in  a  dream-life  beyond  the  grave.  It  suggests  a  solution 
of  the  ultimate  metaphysical  problem  of  knowledge  by  tracing  the  origks 


PUBIilSHEE'S  DEPABTMENT.  676 

of  mind  from  inorganic  nature,  showing  that  external  energies  produce  the 
sensefly  that  the  senses  produce  the  intdlect^  that  the  intellect  is  onlj  a  de- 
veloped form  of  the  external  energies  producing  it  and  is  identical  with 
them;  that  man  is  only  a  developed  form  of  all  the  energies  of  nature  and 
thus  knows  the  ultimate  nature  of  things  by  identifying  them  with  his  owu 
being.  It  traces  the  kinship  of  chemism,  will,  love  and  religion,  showing 
that  one  is  a  developed  form  of  the  other  with  similar  functions,  resulting 
in  similar  phenomena;  and  that  a  continuity  in  all  nature  is  thus  estab- 
lished. It  shows  that  plants  and  animals,  the  differences  of  the  sexes,  the 
functions  of  order  and  progress  in  society  are  due  to  a  division  of  labor 
in  the  blind  expenditure  of  energy  in  nature  and  society.  It  shows  that 
capitalism  is  only  one  of  many  forms  of  producing  property  which  hu- 
manity has  adopted  while  passing  through  its  evolution  from  primitive 
d^nocraqr  to  social  democracy,  and  that  individualism  will  inevitably  be 
supplanted  hy  the  socialism  of  the  race,  which  will  result  in  the  perfect  ex- 
penditure of  all  energy  through  verifiable,  public,  corporate  knowledge.  It 
reconciles  religion  with  science,  freedom  with  necessity,  responsibility  with 
autonomy,  and  eliminates  all  of  the  heartrending  contradictions  of  theology 
in  its  monistic  explanation  of  good  and  eviL 

The  publishers  present  this  work  to  their  readers  as  an  exposition  and 
development  of  the  general  theory  of  evolution  rather  than  of  historical 
materialism,  which,  however,  the  author  accepts  by  implication,  if  he  is  not 
rigorously  consistent  in  applying  it. 

The  writer 's  style  is  eloquent,  his  absolute  sincerity  is  manifest,  and  his 
book  will  be  of  immense  service  to  those  who  have  realized  the  inadequacy 
of  conventional  religion  and  philosophy  to  explain  the  facts  of  life,  and 
who  wish  to  examine  vital  questions  from  the  viewpoint  of  modem  sdenee. 

The  work  is  complete  in  one  large  octavo  volume  of  600  pages,  printed 
und  bound  by  union  labor.  The  paper  is  of  extra  quality,  and  the  binding 
tasteful  and  substantiaL  The  price,  including  prepayment  of  expressage 
to  any  address,  vnll  be  $2.00;  to  stockholders,  $1.20,  by  mail  or  express,' 
prepaid;  $1.00  by  express  at  purchaser's  expense. 

AM§EEICAN  PAUPBEISM  AND  THE  ABOLITION  OF  POVEBTY. 

This  important  work  by  Isador  Ladofl  will  be  ready  for  delivery  within 
a  few  days  after  this  issue  of  the  Bevhew  reaches  its  readers.  It  is  at  once 
an  educational  and  a  propaganda  work;  it  will  be  found  to  contain  new 
and  important  information  such  as  will  be  welcomed  by  the  best  informed 
writers  and  speakers  on  socialism,  while  on  the  other  hand  his  charming 
literary  style  and  forcible  exposure  of  the  crimes  of  capitalism  will  cause 
the  book  to  be  read  with  intense  interest  by  those  who  have  never  before 
opened  a  socialist  book.  One  feature  in  particular  will  be  welcomed  by 
thousands  of  tenders.  Comrade  Ladofl  has  with  great  labor  and  marked 
ability  analyzed  the  figures  of  the  census  of  1900,  in  a  way  to  bring  out 
the  information  buried  there  as  to  how  the  American  laborer  Is  robbed 
of  the  fruits  of  his  toil. 

''American  Pauperism"  is  the  ninth  volume  in  the  Standard  Socialist 


576  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

Series,  and  although  it  contains  240  pages,  more  than  any  previous  volume 
in  tiie  seriesy  it  is  sold  at  the  same  low  prices;  50  cents  bj  mail  to  any 
address,  30  cents  by  mail  to  a  stockholder  of  Charles  H.  Kerr  Sc  Co.,  25 
cents  to  a  stockholder  when  sent  by  express  at  purchaser's  expense. 

THE  PASSING  OF  CAPITALISM. 

Tliis  ea/liest  book  by  Comrade  Ladoff  attracted  wide  attention  among 
the  socialists  of  America  at  the  time  of  its  first  appearance,  and '  while 
the  author's  views  on  some  topics  were  sharply  challenged,  all  agreed  in 
comYnending  his  brilliant  literary  style.  We  have  concluded  an  arrange- 
ment with  the  Standard  Publishing  Company,  who  brought  out  the  book,  by 
which  we  shall  hereafter  be  enabled  to  offer  it  to  our  stockholders  at  the 
same  discounts  as  if  published  by  ourselves.  The  retail  price,  in  cloth 
binding,  is  50  cents. 

OBJECTORS  TO  SOCIALISM  ANSWERED. 

This  a  new  propaganda  pamphlet,  by  Charles  C.  Hitchcock,  just  pub- 
lished by  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.  A  considerable  number  of  the  most 
common  arguments  against  socialism  are  taken  up  in  detail,  and  answered 
in  a  very  satisfactory  fashion.  The  book  is  weU  printed  in  large  type  on 
extra  paper,  and  makes  32  pages  of  a  size  considerably  larger  than  the 
Pocket  Library  of  Socialism.  The  retail  price  is  five  cents,  but  the  lowest 
price  to  stockholders  is  $2.50  a  hundred  by  mail,  or  $2.00  a  hundred  by 
express.  •   |    ril-|1| 


RUSKIN  COLLEGE 


POXrXTICAtr  BCOHOXT  by  Ma:!  Wood 
SmoNS.  An  hUtorieal  comparatiTe  stady 
of  oeonooiies^zaniinod  and  cxiUciaed  fSrom   ; 
the  flooiaUst  point  of  Tiaw,    with   the  ^ 
socialist  theoriea  of  Wealth,  Bent,  Inter- 
ett  and  Wages  fnlljr  explained. 

AMSaXCAV  BCON#XIC  BXSfTOHT 
by  A.  M.  SiMoVB.  Traces  the  indnstrial 
derelopment  of  the  U.  8.^  shows  how 
eeonomic  oonditions  have  afleeted  politi- 
oal  and  social  Institations  and  how  pres- 
ent capitalism  and  social  classes  arose. 

SOCZAX;f8K  bj  May  Wood  Sihons.  A 
histoiT  of  socialist  theories  and  their  ap- 
plication to  present  problems.  The  eco- 
nomies of  Marx,  Socialism  and  the  State, 
Bancatioo,  Orcrani»^  Labor.  Science, 
BthiCB  and  Art,  and  History  of  the  mod- 
em Socialist  movement. 

The  same  oonrses  axe  given  in  residence  as 
often  as  there  are  classes  retiniriug  them. 
Besident  sto^ents  in  tliis  department  may 
carry  regnlar  coUeM  work  at  the  same 
time  ana  earn  their  Doard  and  room  rent 
in  the  oollefle  industries  the  same  as 
stodents  in  other  departments. 

Twenty  leotores  on  each  snbjeet  with  reonlred 
readhij^  preparations  of  papers  and  Individ- 
nai  InstmeUon.  For  terms  and  farther  Infor- 
mation address: 

RUSKIK  COXrl^SOS 


XXrXr. 


>W  »>■  »1  WW  »»»■'■•■  P*»*»>»>W*WW»»W*»"»f 


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and  A.  M,  Simons,  who  spoke  for  Social- 
ism. The  debate  was  held  before  an  en- 
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and  lasted  for  three  hours  and  a  half. 
Bverr  word  was  taken  down  in  short  hand 
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proofs  have  been  rcTised  to  the  safiaf aetlon 
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GAYLORD  WILSHIRE,  Editor 


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CONTENTS 


A  Sodal  OpportunitT George  D.  Herron 

A  Mimldpal  SocUlbl  Omgrot  in  Franoc L-Avenir  Social 

AnnifAl  R^oft  of  the  Natioiul  SccfcUry  of  tlic 
SocUUst  Party 

Sympotkiin  of  Ptofalcttt  Awahins:  the  National  Coa- 

Tcntkm  of  the  Socialist  Party  of  America 

Charles  L.  Breckon,  William  Carpenter^    Theodore  Curtis, 
William  S.  Dalton,     Charles  Dobbs,  Charles  Heydrick, 

G.  A^  Hoehn,  Joseph  Horton,  Peter  Johnson, 

Williem  Mailly,         A.  W.  Richer,  Henry  L.  Slobodin, 

Seymour  Stedman,    Carl  D.  Thompson,    Hermon  F.  Titus, 
Ernest  Untermann,    Jos.  Wanhope.  H.  B.  Weaver, 

Thomas  Elmer  WUl,  Gaylord  WUshire. 

Some  General  Soegestiofis Jo.  H.  Baxter 

John  Hagel,    Corwin  Lesley,     A.  L.  Purdy,    £.  L.  Rigg. 


DEPARTIIBNTS. 

EDITORIAL— The  National  ConTcntion 

The  World  of  Labor  Pa btidiers^  Department 


PUBLISHED  BY 


CHARLES  H.    "KEBR  &   COMPAITT 

aHBBBINCOHrORATKD  QH^  THB  e<M>rKllATIVK  FLAN  BBBI^B 

56   FIFTH    AVENUE,    CHICAGO,    U.    S.    A. 


The  Interoational  Socialist  Review 

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EDITED  BT  A.  H.  SIIORS 


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A    CYCLONE, 

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die  bombardment  of  fobaciiptioiit  that  tlie  oomiadet 
have  started  ance  we  adopted  onr  new  name  and  dreia. 

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VOL.  IV 


APRIL,  1904 


NO.  lo 


The  Social  Opportunity. 

CRISIS  is  but  another  name  for  opportunity.  Every  crisis 
is  a  weighing  in  the  balance  of  the  race,  the  nation,  or 
individual.     It  is  the  time  when  we  pass  on  into  some- 
thing greater  than  we  were,  or  else  fall  back  into  some- 
thing less.    A  crisis  never  leaves  us  where  it  finds  us.    It  is  al- 
ways a  judgment  day,  binding  us  to  lower  or  to  higher  life. 

Today,  in  the  industrial  crisis  for  which  we  wait,  a  judgment 
of  the  world  draws  near.  And  it  is  the  most  significant  and  fate- 
ful judgment  before  which  the  human  race  has  stood.  It  will 
define  and  determine  the  human  future  as  no  other  crisis  has  ever 
done.  In  truth,  we  may  say  that  this  is  the  first  time  that 
the  world  as  a  whole  has  come  to  judgment.  There  have  been 
crises  of  empires,  states,  religious  and  civilizations.  Not  once 
nor  twice  only  have  prophets  come  proclaiming  the  end  of  the 
world;  and  not  once  nor  twice  only  has  the  world  come  to  an 
end.  The  break-up  of  the  Roman  Empire,  with  the  obscuring 
and  disintegration  of  Greek  culture  and  the  volcanic  breaking 
forth  of  a  fresh  and  primal  world  in  the  form  of  the  barbarian 
hordes,  is  the  nearest  approach  to  an  analogy  for  what  awaits 
us.  The  rejection  of  the  unfit  Roman  world,  and  the  creation 
of  a  new  world  out  of  the  Slavic  and  Teutonic  deluge,  was 
certainly  a  judgment  of  the  human  race.  Still,  we  have  had 
nothing  so  universal  or  determinative  as  the  industrial  crisis 
will  prove  to  be ;  nothing  so  weighted  with  the  weal  or  woe  of 
the  whole  human  family;  nothing  so  decisive  or  creative  of 
the  channel  in  which  human  history  shall  run  for  a  long  time 
to  come.  It  is  the  first  time  that  mankind  has  been  sum- 
moned to  anything  like  a  choice  concerning  its  own  destiny. 
It  is  the  first  time  that  the  human  factor,  the  factor  of  the 
social  will,  the  factor  of  conscious  selection  or  intelligent  elec- 
tion, has  entered  into  the  determining  of  the  world's  life  and 

577 


578  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    BEVIEW. 

arrangements.  It  is  the  first  time  that  man  has  had  the  op- 
portunity for  even  rudely  attempting  to  make  his  own  world. 
It  is  the  first  time  that  the  human  will  has,  or  may,  become  a 
directive  force  in  evolution — supplanting  evolution  with  life 
that  has  become  conscious  of  itself. 

All  this  is  because  the  world  is  more  directly  organized  by 
its  mode  of  production  and  distribution  than  ever  before.  The 
present  world-organization  is  not  political  or  military,  as  was 
the  case  with  the  Roman  world,  but  economic  and  financial.  Kings 
and  parliaments,  presidents  and  congresses,  courts  and  legisla- 
tures, are  now  but  mere  puppets  in  the  hands  of  the  owners  or 
controllers  of  the  sources  of  profit.  Never  before  has  the  world 
been  so  universally  organized  by  a  single  economic  mode  or 
system.  Even  the  peoples  of  Asia  and  Africa,  who  have  not  yet 
gone  through  the  factory  stage  of  civilization,  are  yet  so  in- 
volved in  it  that  they  will  be  changed  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  by  the  collapse  of  the  industrial  system. 

It  requires  no  peculiar  gift  of  prophecy  to  foretell  the  doom 
of  capitalism.  Its  inevitable  collapse  is  a  commonplace  topic  of 
conversation.  The  present  mode  of  production  and  distribution, 
the  organization  of  the  world  for  the  making  of  profit,  the 
capitalist  way  of  getting  the  world's  work  done,  is  incompetent 
to  very  much  longer  administer  the  world's  processes.  The 
sources  of  profit  are  being  rapidly  centralized,  congested  and 
exploited  to  exhaustion.  The  financial  world  of  today  is  but 
the  drama  of  the  Titanic  struggle  between  the  great  capitalist 
forces  for  the  control  of  the  diminishing  sources  of  profit.  When 
the  time  comes  that  there  are  no  longer  any  profits  for  capital- 
ists to  feed  upon,  as  soon  come  it  will,  and  when  thus  the  labor- 
power  of  the  world  is  workless  and  breadless  because  capital  can 
no  longer  profitably  employ  it,  then  the  collapse  and  chaos  of 
capitalism  will  be  at  hand.  Then  the  end  of  the  present  world 
will  have  come.  The  capitalist  class  is  terribly  conscious  of  this, 
and  only  hopes  to  put  oflF  the  deluge  for  another  generation. 
It  is  no  longer  a  question  of  the  inevitability  of  this  universal 
judgment  day:  it  is  merely  a  question  of  when  it  will  come,  or 
iiow  long  It  can  be  put  off,  or  how  to  prepare  for  it. 

What  kind  of  a  new  world  will  emerge  from  the  ruins  and 
red  dust  of  the  old  ?  What  sort  of  a  human  future,  what  world- 
prospect  or  social  horizon,  can  be  predicted  for  the  human  family 
when  it  awakes  from  the  night  and  nightmare  of  the  capitalist 
system. 

The  Socialist  is  the  onlv  man  who  can  determine  the  answer 
to  this  world-question.  What  the  human  world  will  be,  after 
the  capitalist  collapse,  will  depend  upon  the  quality  as  well  as  the 
quantity  of  the  Socialist  movement  before  the  collapse  shall 
arrive.  The  Socialist  has  in  his  hands  the  onlv  pattern  by  which 
we  can  at  last  have  a  society  in  which   wealth  and  opportunity. 


THE    SOCIAL    OPPORTUNITY.  679 

love  and  beauty,  truth  and  freedom,  may  be  common  to  all  men. 
He  has  in  his  han^s  the  collective  power  by  which  man  may  con- 
sciously and  deliberately  make  his  own  world.  And  because 
he  has  the  pattern  and  the  power,  his,  therefore,  is  the  responsi- 
bility. The  capitalist  crisis  is  the  world-opportunity  of  the  So- 
cialist movement.  As  I  have  said,  crisis  spells  opportunity.  And 
opportunity  means  responsibility  for  achieving  the  highest  that 
the  opportunity  affords.  It  is,  therefore,  the  Socialist  move- 
ment that  must  stand  in  the  capitalist  day  of  judgment.  It  is 
the  Socialist  movement  alone  which  can  decide  whether  the  world 
shall  go  back  into  the  melting  pot,  to  be  formed  anew  only  after 
a  long  period  of  universal  darkness  and  suffering,  or  whether 
the  fall  of  the  capitalist  industrial  system  shall  but  disclose  the 
outlines  of  a  co-operative  and  happier  world. 

There  has  never  been  such  a  stupendous  and  significant  mo- 
ment in  human  history  as  that  which  the  world  is  now  approach- 
ing. There  has  never  been  such  responsibility  in  human  hands  as 
that  which  the  Socialist  holds  in  his.  The  destiny  of  the  world 
for  generations  to  come  trembles  on  the  word  and  the  ballot,  the 
character  and  the  fidelity,  of  the  obscurest  proletaire. 

I  for  one  am  not  at  all  of  those  who  hold  that  Socialism  is 
inevitable  merely  because  the  collapse  of  capitalism  is  inevitable. 
Because  an  old  world  breaks  up,  it  does  not  at  all  follow  that 
a  better  world  shall  immediately  tiake  its  place.  The  progress  of 
the  world  has  been  by  no  means  a  steady  ascent.  The  human 
race  has  had  periods  of  collapse,  of  darkness  and  lost  cultures, 
of  extinguished  civilizations.  There  are  things  in  the  past  that 
the  present  might  vainly  strive  to  understand  or  achieve.  Human 
progress  has  been  spiral  rather  than  a  continuous  ascent.  It 
is  possible  that  we  might  have  a  period  of  despotism  and  dark- 
ness, with  the  obscuring  of  all  that  is  hopeful  and  good,  follpwing 
upon  the  chaos  and  disorder  of  the  capitalist  crisis.  There  are 
many  signs  of  this  possibilitv.  Among  these  are  the  subsidization 
of  all  the  sources  of  intelligence,  such  as  the  newspapers,  the 
schools,  the  universities,  the  churches  and  political  platforms. 
The  servility  and  utter  prostitution  of  the  human  intellect;  the 
jaunty  puerility  and  brainlessness  of  university  instruction;  the 
sheer  bnitality  and  silliness  of  pulpit  preaching,  and  its  compe- 
tition with  "yellow*'  journalism  in  vulgarity  and  sensationalism : 
the  journalism  of  the  world  organized  as  a  system  of  universal 
misinformation — all  of  this  betokens  ill  preparation  for  the  nearing 
judgment  day.  Then  a  body  politic  like  ours,  that  has  become  so 
accustomed  to  corruption  in  its  administrative  and  legislative  of- 
fices that  this  corruption  is  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course;  a 
body  politic  that  is  so  accustomed  to  public  shame  that  it  has 
lost  the  sense  of  shame;  a  body  politic  from  which  government 
by  corruption  and  for  private  interests  need  no  longer  conceal 
itself — -this  too  betokens  ill  to  the  human  future.    And  the  back- 


580  THE    INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

dcx)r  incoming  of  a  vassal  middle-class,  formed  anew  from  the 
independent  middle-class  that  was  driven  from  the  industrial 
front  door  by  the  capitalist  lords — this  increases  our  common 
submission  and  prostration  before  enthroned  private  wealth.  And 
then,  saddest  and  most  foreboding  of  all,  is  the  misleading  of 
labor  by  its  most  authorized  leaders ;  the  corruption  of  the  more 
highly  organized  trades  by  capitalist  financial  and  political  influ- 
ences. The  fact  that  probably  Mr.  Hanna  had,  and  Mr.  Hearst 
has,  more  influence  with  the  organized  labor  of  today  than  Eugene 
V.  Debs — ^this  certainly  should  cause  us  to  pause  in  our  assump- 
tion that  SociaHsm  is  inevitable  because  of  the  inevitabiUty  of  the 
collapse  of  capitalism. 

Socialism  will  come  upon  the  ruins  of  capitalism  only  if  the 
Socialist  has  come.  The  co-operative  world  will  arrive  when  the 
co-operative  hands  of  the  working  class  shall  bring  it  in.  We 
shall  have  economic  freedom  only  when  we  are  worthy  and  brave 
enough  to  take  it.  We  shall  have  the  good  and  the  free  world, 
fit  for  a  risen  humanity  to  live  in,  only  if  the  Socialist  movement 
shall  be  prepared  to  go  into  the  capitalist  crisis  as  the  better 
world's  creator.  We  shall  have,  after  capitalism,  just  the  kind 
of  a  world  that  we  are  pure  and  strong  enough  to  make.  It  is 
therefore  time  that  the  Socialist  movement  look  to  itself,  to  its 
own  coherency  and  quality,  and  see  what  manner  of  movement  it 
be;  see  whether  it  may  stand  in  the  nearing  judgment  day,  and 
prove  mighty  to  make  the  new  world  wherein  dwelleth  oppor- 
tunity and  abundance  of  life  for  every  man. 

II. 

It  is  high  time  that  the  Socialist  movement  shall  pass  be- 
yond the  factional  or  personal  stage  of  its  growth.  Let  us  ad- 
mit that  parties  within  parties,  factions  and  mere  personal  fol- 
lowing^, are  incidental  and  inevitable  to  the  beginnings  and 
development  of  any  great  movement.  But  with  this  admis- 
sion, let  us  discern  and  affirm  that  their  continuation  will  pre- 
vent any  movement  from  becoming  great  or  worthy  to  com- 
mand human  destinv.  The  moment  any  man  understands  the 
significance  and  responsibility  of  the  Socialist  movement,  that 
moment  he  ceases  to  be  a  member  of  a  faction  or  a  mere  dis- 
putant. Self-seeking  and  personal  ambition  have  no  place  in 
true  service  or  greatness.  They  belong  only  to  narrowness 
and  ignorance,  to  the  jungle  and  the  menagerie,  or  to  the 
barn-yard  cackle.  They  are  limitations  of  mind  due  to  our 
animal  inheritance.  No  man  is  free  to  serve  until  he  has 
passed  beyond  them.  No  man  understands  the  real  outcome 
and  blossom  of  Socialism  until  he  has  emerged  from  the  degra- 
dation and  pettiness  of  personal  self-seeking.  When  the  human 
world  comes,  Napoleon  will  be  no  more  than  the  forgotten 
wolf  that  howled  in  the  night.     For.  as  man's  humanity  de- 


THE    SOCIAL    OPPORTUNITY.  581 

velops,  as  he  becomes  truly  individualized,  his  interests  and 
outlooks  become  so  universal  in  their  character  that  he  cannot 
endure  a  joy  that  is  not  a  contribution  to  the  common  good 
of  the  whole. 

Now  to  the  measure  that  we  become  true  to  the  Socialist 
hope  for  the  world,  to  that  measure  we  pass  beyond  personal 
and  factional  disputes  and  interests;  to  that  measure  we  be- 
come worthy  of  its  mission,  of  its  high  calling  to  emancipate 
mankind.  The  closer  we  examine  the  causes  of  most  of  our 
factional  troubles,,  the  more  we  will  find  them  to  be  personal 
self-seekings,  masquerading  as  principle.  Men  unconsciously 
seize  upon  some  fragment  of  a  truth  or  principle,  and  make  it 
a  platform  upon  which  to  exalt  themselves.  Personal  ambi- 
tion is  essential  treason  anyhow,  and  the  self-seeker  will  al- 
ways unconsciously  or  consciously  lead  or  direct  a  movement 
Of  faction  in  the  interests  of  his  self-seeking.  And  it  is  time 
we  understood  this  self-seeking  origin  and  nature  of  nearly 
all  of  our  factional  troubles,  and  that  we  outgrow  them  by 
relating  ourselves  to  the  larger  outlook  and  opportunity  of 
the  Socialist  movement.  It  is  time  that  we  put  away  these 
childish  things,  in  order  to  seize  upon  greater  things  that 
are  unused  in  our  hands. 

It  is  not  leadership,  but  fellowship  that  the  .world  needs; 
not  the  leader,  or  the  hero,  or  the  prophet ;  but  the  companion, 
the  friend,  the  comrade.  The  really  dangerous-  man  of  any 
generation  is  the  one  who  renders  himself  indispensable  to  it. 
He  who  renders  himself  indispensable  to  a  movement  is  the 
one  who  exhausts  rather  than  strengthens  it.  There  is  no 
treason  so  certain,  however  unconscious  it  be,  as  that  of 
seeking  to  make  a  great  movement  dependent  upon  one's  self. 

Unless  the  championship  of  a  cause  makes  for  nobility  and 
beauty  of  life,  unless  it  lifts  us  above  the  vulgarity  and  waste- 
fulness of  self-seeking,  unless  it  carries  us  beyond  the  sordid 
and  wretched  personal  ambitions  that  have  been  the  bane  of" 
every  historic  movement,  we  shall  make  ourselves  and  the 
Socialist  movement  unworthy  of  the  Socialist  ideal  and  oppor- 
tunity. I     '     ♦•vifllf 

Our  factions  are  a  part  of  our  capitalist  inheritance.  They 
are  survivals  of  the  animal  mind  of  capitalism.  They  are  the 
persistence  of  the  competitive  spirit  that  has  produced  the 
capitalist  monster. 

For  capitalism  is  but  the  survival  of  the  animal  in  man; 
the  survival  of  the  predatory  world  of  the  jungle.  Our  pres- 
ent industrial  world  is  due  to  the  fact  that  we  have  not  yet 
become  'human ;  that  we  are  still  beasts  of  prey,  fighting  with 
each  other  for  our  bread.  Those  of  us  who  possess  are  but 
the  Hon,  or  the  tiger,  or  the  wolf,  with  paw  upon  our  prey. 
We  are  still  cannibals,  by  economic  indirection ;  still  peeping 


382  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

from  the  forest  of  our  primal  experience ;  still  waiting  to  be 
evolved  into  the  human.  When  the  world  of  man  is  really 
created  out  of  its  present  raw  and  unorganized  material,  when 
we  really  blossom  into  the  human  from  the  animal,  then  we 
shall  not  have  a  world  like  ours — a  world  with  resources  for 
the  abundant  and  ennobling  support  of  countless  billions  of 
human  beings,  and  yet  the  theater  of  an  economic  strife  that 
blights  and  starves  the  most  of  a  population  that  is  but  a  mere 
handful  compared  to  what  it  might  be.  This  destructive  capi- 
talist mind  or  system  is  but  the  persistence  of  the  wild  beast 
mind  and  temper.  And  to  the  measure  that  the  socialist  is  led 
by  self-seeking  or  factional  interest,  to  that  measure  he  per- 
petuates the  capitalist  or  animal  state  of  mind  that  he  has 
come  to  destroy;  to  that  measure  he  hinders  the  day  of  the 
yet  unborn  humanity,  whose  mind  shall  be  love  or  fellowship. 

Besides,  we  may  make  sure  that  we  can  render  no  better 
service  to  the  possessing  class  than  to  be  at  odds  among  our- 
selves as  Socialists.  We  must  expect  that,  as  the  movement 
develops,  the  emissaries  of  capitalism  will  be  busy  amongst 
us,  wearing  the  disguise  of  ardent  socialists,  in  order  to  create 
strife  and  helplessness  in  the  Socialist  movement.  Capitalism 
will  have  no  better  servants  than  the  strife-makers  in  the  So- 
cialist organization. 

And  when  inevitable  differences  of  opinion  as  to  methods 
or  tactics  arise,  we  can  discuss  these  matters,  and  arrive  at  co- 
ordinations and  conclusions  without  becoming  personal;  with- 
out seeking  to  impugn  the  faithfulness  of  character  of  those 
who  differ  with  us.  In  these  matters,  the  Socialist  should  be  a 
gentleman,  and  set  a  higher  standard  of  political  controversy 
than  the  capitalist  parties  of  the  existing  order  present.  For 
instance,  some  of  us  very  decidedly  differed  with  Mr.  Debs, 
three  years  ago,  on  questions  of  party  organization  and  tactics. 
Yet  who  of  us  ever  thought  of  questioning  Mr.  Debs'  magnifi- 
cent and  unequaled  service  in  the  cause  of  labor,  or  his  unim- 
peachable fidelity  to  that  cause?  I  do  not  think  that,  in  any 
of  that  well-forgotten  controversy,  I  ever  heard  his  most  bitter 
opponent  question  Mr.  Debs  the  man.  Here  was  a  question 
that  was  not  fundamentally  personal,  but  one  that  had  to  do 
with  the  basis  and  development  of  the  American  Socialist 
movement.  We  got  through  with  that  controversy  badly 
sometimes,  but  happily  at  last,  and  learned  some  lessons  in  the 
ethics  of  discussion  that  we  shall  not  have  to  learn  over  again. 

Then,  too,  factions  among  ourselves  prevent  us  from  seiz- 
ing upon  the  opportunities  that  are  presented  to  us  by  the 
daily  political  and  industrial  event;  prevent  us  from  rightly 
exploiting  the  current  social,  and  political,  and  financial  phc- 


THE    SOCIAL    OPPOBTUMITY.  583 

nomena  as  interpretations  and  justifications  of  our  Socialist 
philosophy. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  a  movement,  as  well  as  an  indi- 
vidualy  must  learn  how  to  find  life  through  losing  it ;  and  it  is 
only  as  the  Socialist  movement  shall  turn  from  personal  con- 
flicts within  itself  to  the  larger  opportunities  presented  by  the 
economic  and  political  development  of  society,  that  we  shall 
really  get  rid  of  our  factions.  We  are  released  from  sordid 
and  petty  interests  by  relating  ourselves  to  interests  that  are 
great  and  universal.  Just  as  the  individual  becomes  as  great 
as  the  thing  to  which  he  relates  himself,  so  the  Socialist  move- 
ment will  become  as  great  as  the  life-interests,  as  wide  as  the 
human  prospect,  that  it  takes  in  and  stands  for. 

III. 

There  is  no  one  so  well  prepared  as  the  Socialist  to  inter- 
pret current  events.  The  daily  history  of  the  nation  and  the 
world  ought  to  be  the  Socialist's  university.  Every  event, 
from  the  Philippine  war  to  the  Chicago  theater  fire,  from  the 
revision  of  our  public  school  system  to  the  latest  historical 
novel,  ought  to  be  seized  upon  as  a  platform  upon  which  the 
Socialist  should  stand  and  speak  his  interpretative  message. 
He  should  show  what  each  event  or  development  means  in 
the  light  of  the  economic  law  of  history,  and  in  the  light  of 
the  Socialist  hope  for  a  world  of  fellowship. 

For  instance,  there  has  been  much  ignorant  and  fruitless 
discussion  on  so-called  "imperialism''  this  last  five  or  six  years, 
in  both  England  and  America.  The  Socialist  has  been  the  only 
one  who  could  interpret  these  present  day  wars  of  conquest,  these 
mere  picnics  of  loot  and  murder,  as  modes  or  phases  of  economic 
competition.  They  are  but  the  necessity  of  the  growth  of  capi- 
talism. When  the  people  of  a  nation  become  too  poor  to  buy 
the  things  which  they  make  with  their  own  hands,  the  owners 
of  the  sources  of  profit  must  seek  new  markets  and  cheaper  labor. 
That  is  why  England  is  in  Africa  and  Asia;  why  the  United 
States  is  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  why  we  are  reaching  out 
grasping  hands  to  the  islands  and  peoples  of  South  America.  We 
are  expanding  in  order  that  our  capital  may  have  the  contract 
labor,  or  the  disgfuised  slave  system,  that  we  now  have  in  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  that  we  may  unload  upon  exploited  peoples  our 
surplus  products.  And,  of  course,  every  child  employed  in  the 
cotton  mills  of  Egypt  or  India  tends  to  lower  the  wage  and 
intensify  the  struggle  of  every  girl  in  the  New  England  cotton 
mill  and  of  every  child  in  the  cotton  mills  of  the  south.  And 
every  slave  that  works  in  the  contract  system  of  "our  colonies" 
makes  the  struggle  of  labor  in  the  United  States  so  much  the 
harder,  and  the  lowering  of  the  wage  to  the  Asiatic  level  a  cer- 
tain tendency.  As  Socialists  we  could  have  shown  the  whole 
genius  and  capitalist  nature  of  the  passion  of  the  nations  for 


584  TUE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

expansion ;  could  have  made  clear  that  imperialism,  or  benevolent 
assimilation,  is  but  a  mere  commercial  and  speculative  develop- 
ment. But  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  we  have  availed  ourselves, 
as  Socialists,  of  the  opportunity  presented  to  us  by  the  imperial- 
istic development.  We  could  have  made  much  more  pedagogic 
use  of  it  than  we  have.  Our  tendency  has  been  to  ignore  it  as 
a  matter  that  concerned  only  the  capitalist  parties.  So  far  as 
the  immediate  issue  of  it  was  concerned,  that  was  true;  but  it 
is  not  true  that  we  should  have  ignored  the  discussion ;  for  it  was 
our  rightful  platform,  one  of  our  supreme  opportunities  for 
showing  the  economic  nature  of  the  question,  and  of  showing 
how  its  political  aspects  were  a  mere  deceit  and  a  humbug. 

We  should  also  have  availed  ourselves  of  the  opportunity 
for  showing  the  universal  solidarity  of  labor-conditions;  of 
showing  how,  in  the  capitalist  organization  of  the  world,  the 
whole  labor  body  of  the  world  must  inevitably  be  dragged 
down  to  labor's  lowest  condition;  of  showing  how  universal 
is  the  labor  problem,  and  how  universal  and  world-redemptive 
must  be  its  solution. 

Again,  there  was  a  phase  of  the  discussion  of  the  coal 
strike,  which  we  failed  to  interpret,  and  by  which  many  of  the 
Socialist  speakers  and  journals  were  led  into  false  positions 
and  concessions.  The  Hearst  newspapers  and  the  clergy  took 
up  the  cry  of  "public  rights"  as  being  superior  to  the  rights 
of  either  party  in  the  struggle.  This  proposition  was  an- 
nounced with  great  pomp  and  solemnity  by  politicians  and 
doctors  of  divinity,  who  imagined  themselves  to  be  putting 
on  a  bold  moral  front.  Many  Socialist  speakers  and  journals 
fell  into  something  very  near  the  same  proposition.  The 
whole  discussion  was  made  to  pivot  upon  the  rights  of  the 
public,  or  of  society,  as  superior  to  the  rights  of  the  contend- 
ing classes  of  society.  It  was  held  that  the  right  of  "the  pub- 
lic" to  coal  was  greater  than  the  right  of  the  capitalist  to  his 
profits,  or  the  right  of  the  miner  to  better  hours  and  conditions 
of  labor.  But  the  whole  proposition  was  a  fundamental  lie, 
based  upon  an  obsolete  and  fallacious  philosophy.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  "the  public"  had  absolutely  no  rights  at  all  in  the 
matter,  because  "the  public"  had  failed  to  do  right.  The  so- 
called  rights  of  "the  public"  do  not,  and  cannot,  extend  be- 
yond the  measure  to  which  "the  public"  does  right  to  the 
humblest  member  of  society.  A  society  that  consents  that 
those  who  dig  its  fuel  and  climate  from  the  earth  shall  labor 
under  conditions  of  danger  and  exhaustion ;  a  society  that  con- 
sents that  those  of  its  members  upon  whom  it  depends  for 
light  and  heat  shall  be  beaten  into  submission,  to  long  labor- 
hours  and  low  wages ;  a  society  that  does  not  accept  the  re- 
sponsibility for  seeing  that  every  one  of  its  members  shall 


THE    SOCIAL    OPPORTUNITY.  685 

have  the  full  equivalent  of  the  whole  product  of  his  labors — such 
a  society,  such  a  public,  deserves  to  freeze  and  starve,  and  to  suf- 
fer all  the  consequences  of  its  own  ignorance,  cowardice  and 
irresponsibility.  Such  a  public  has  no  rights  which  any 
righteous  man  is  bound  to  respect.  A  society  or  a  public  has  a 
right  to  demand  from  each  of  its  members  only  that  measure 
of  justice  and  service  which  it  gives.  If  a  public  evades  re- 
sponsibility for  economic  and  social  justice  for  each  of  its 
members,  then  the  members  of  such  a  society  are. absolved 
from  responsibility  for  its  comfort.  The  right  of  the  miners 
to  win  their  struggle  was  infinitely  superior  to  any  so-called 
public  rights,  and  it  was  only  the  fundamental  immorality  in 
which  our  society  is  grounded  that  tolerated  any  other  propo- 
sition. Public  rights  cannot  outrun  social  righteousness.  In- 
dividual responsibility  for  society  can  go  no  further  than  so- 
ciety's responsibility  for  the  whole  well-being  of  the  indi- 
vidual. The  process  of  reasoning  that  pivots  itself  upon  the 
so-called  theory  of  public  rights  is  utterly  misleading  and 
treasonable.  If  we  have  a  public  mind  or  conscience  that  will 
not  awaken  to  its  responsibility  for  making  wealth  and  oppor- 
tunity common  to  each  of  its  members,  then  such  a  society 
ought  to  be  frozen  and  starved  into  enlightenment  and  re- 
sponsibility. It  is  time  we  had  a  thorough  clearing  up  of  this 
matter  of  so-called  public  rights  as  against  the  rights  of  the 
organized  worker  in  the  struggle  for  the  betterment  of  his 
condition.  If  Mr.  Mitchell  had  but  had  the  discernment  and 
moral  nerve  to  have  held  out  a  little  longer,  if  Mr.  Mitchell 
had  not  allowed  Mr.  Morgan  and  his  associates  to  enable  Mr. 
Roosevelt  and  other  quacks  to  make  political  capital  for  them- 
selves out  of  the  suffering  of  the  miners,  the  so-called  public 
might  have  been  taught  some  such  lesson  as  this  before  the 
strike  was  settled.  Sooner  or  later,  this  "dear  public"  will 
have  to  learn  its  lesson — ^the  lesson  that  it  has  no  rights  be- 
yond the  righteousness  and  fullness  of  life  w^hich  it  extends  to 
its  every  member.    And  the  Socialist  is  the  man  to  teach  it. 

.IV. 

Another  matter  of  great  pertinence  and  importance  is  the 
gradual  readjustment  of  our  public  school  system  in  accord- 
ance with  the  capitalist  mind  and  psychology.  We  have  con- 
ventionally looked  upon  our  public  school  as  the  kindergarten 
and  safeguard  of  our  liberties.  America  inherited  the  best  re- 
sults of  the  philosophy  that  worked  for  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. It  was  only  in  America  that  the  ideals  of  Rousseau  and 
the  Revolution  were  partially  realized.  It  was  here  that  the 
right  to  a  free  look  at  life  was  asserted  by  Paine,  Jefferson  and 
Franklin ;  here,  that  a  secular  public  life  was  made  possible ; 


580  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

here,  that  the  development  of  a  free  public  school  tended  to 
the  preservation  and  increase  of  the  idea  of  a  free  life.  If  the 
propertied  classes  had  foreseen  the  results  of  the  public 
schools,  if  the  now  developed  capitalist  brain  could  go  behind 
the  gifts  of  the  revolutionists  and  philosophers  of  France  to 
America,  there  would  be  no  separation  of  church  and  state, 
and  there  would  be  no  free  public  school.  More  than  one 
capitalist  writer  or  lawyer  has,  within  the  past  three  or  four 
years,  denounced  the  public  school  system  as  a  menace  to  the 
existing  propertied  order  of  things.  And  rapidly  is  our  public 
school  instruction  being  subtly  perverted  into  interests  of  the 
possessing  class.  On  the  economic  side,  this  achievement  is 
simple  enough,  for  the  whole  public  school  system  of  the 
United  States  has  practically  become  the  private  property  of 
a  single  school-book  trust,  which  employs  gangs  of  ruffians 
to  go  up  and  down  the  land  to  brow-beat  and  intimidate  public 
school  teachers ;  to  blacklist  and  throw  out  of  employment  any 
who  stand  against  the  trust ;  to  corrupt  legislatures,  and  town, 
county  and  city  school  boards.  This  school-book  trust  is  not 
only  organizing  the  American  public  school  system  for  its 
private  profit,  but  decides  what  kind  of  history,  what  kind  of 
elementary  economics  or  social  science,  what  kind  of  literary 
classics,  shall  be  taught.  It  is  interesting  and  easy  to  trace 
the  trade-marks  of  capitalism  all  through  our  present  public 
school  instruction ;  to  point  out  the  subtle  yet  sure  perversions 
of  fact  and  of  history;  to  record  omissions  of  things  once 
taught  in  the  schools,  and  the  addition  of  things  not  previously 
taught.  We  may  also  note  the  introduction  of  the  military 
spirit  and  ideal  into  the  public  school;  the  instruction  in  and 
insistence  upon  the  child's  reverence  for  patriotism — patriot- 
ism, the  superstition  which  our  masters  impose  upon  us,  in 
order  to  keep  the  workers  of  the  world  divided  against  each 
other;  patriotism,  which  has  come  to  be  little  more  than  crime 
with  the  flag  over  it. 

But  most  insidious  of  all  is  the  changed  motive  of  public 
school  education  that  has  come  by  the  direction  of  capitalism. 
Under  the  guise  of  technical  or  industrial  education,  we  are 
having  the  gradual  elimination  of  those  smatterings  of  litera- 
ture and  history  which  make  for  crude  and  yet  potential  ideal- 
isms, and  for  inspirations  of  the  child,  and  the  substitution 
therefor  of  an  instruction  and  training  which  shall  fit  the 
child  to  be  an  improved  wage-slave.  Coming  as  an  educa- 
tional reform,  the  so-called  industrial  training  will  have  as  its 
result  the  converting  of  the  child  into  an  improved  capitalist 
machine.  The  boy,  and  even  the  girl,  will  issue  from  the 
school  with  the  psychology,  as  well  as  the  training,  that  will  fit 


THE   SOCIAL    OPPOBTUNITY.  687 

him  or  her  to  become  an  improved  and  even  enthusiastic  pro- 
ducer of  profit  for  the  profit-makers.  The  end  will  be  to  de- 
stroy what  imagination  capitalism  has  left  to  the  youth,  and 
to  combat  organized  labor  with  a  prepared  and  trained  unor- 
ganized labor  to  take  its  place.  This  will  be  the  result,  and 
It  is  often  the  consclbus  motive,  of  most  of  our  so-called  edu- 
cational reforms. 

Now  the  Socialist  is  the  only  man  who  can  deal  with  the 
problems  of  modem  education  from  the  viewpoint  of  democ- 
racy, or  with  reference  to  the  well-being  and  future  of  the 
worker.  In  England,  this  has  been  done  by  members  of  the 
Fabian  Society,  as  well  as  most  ably  by  the  members  of  the 
Social  Democratic  Federation. 

What  Mr.  Hyndman  has  done  so  magnificently  and  com- 
prehensively for  India,  and  what  Mr.  Simons  has  in  like  man- 
ner done  for  Socialism  in  his  treatment  of  the  problem  of  the 
American  farmer,  may  be  repeated  in  every  field  of  current 
discussion.  No  matter  how  incidental  to  capitalist  develop- 
ment a  current  problem  may  be,  nor  how  its  importance  to  the 
capitalist  mind  may  be  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  importance 
to  the  socialist  mind,  each  problem  presents  an  opportunity 
and  a  platform  for  Socialist  education  and  propaganda. 


It  is  the  Socialist  who  must  explain,  both  to  the  public 
and  to  the  trade  unions,  the  real  significance  of  trade  unionism 
and  its  development.  The  more  far-seeing  capitalists  are  los- 
ing no  time  in  giving  their  own  interpretation  of  trade  union 
development  to  organized  labor,  while  Mr.  Parry  and  his  or- 
ganization, as  well  as  like  organizations,  are  internationally 
concerting  for  its  extermination.  But  the  shrewder  Mr. 
Hanna,  and  the  more  comprehensive  type  of  capitalist  mind, 
have  sought  the  direction  of  trade  unionism;  while  political  ad- 
venturers of  the  type  of  Mr.  Hearst  and  Mr.  Roosevelt — ^the 
latter  being  much  the  more  far-seeing  of  the  two — ^will  accept 
the  trade  union  for  personal  political  ends.  But  it  is  Mr  .Hanna's 
idea,  and  the  highly  organized  capitalist  interests,  that  will 
succeed.  They  represent  the  necessity  of  capitalist  adaptation. 
They  know  better,  or  will  learn  better,  than  to  undertake  the 
destruction  of  the  trade  union;  and  they  are  not  interested 
in  mere  political  adventure.  They  are  only  interested  in  seiz- 
ing upon,  and  adapting  themselves  to,  inevitable  social  de- 
velopments in  order  to  use  them  for  continued  capitalist  ex- 
ploitation. They  are  prepared  to  use  the  trade  union  exactly 
as  they  use  the  various  national  governments  or  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  I  have  already  said  that  Mr.  Hanna  and 
Mr,   Gompers  had    more  influence   with  organized   labor  than 


588  THE    INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    EEVIBW. 

Mr.  Debs.  And  through  Mr.  Hanna  and  Mr.  Gompers,  as  well 
as  through  the  good  Mr.  Mitchell,  Mr.  Morgan  or  Mr.  Rocke- 
feller can  become  the  directive  force  in  trade  union  develop- 
ment. Thus  we  have  not  only  the  danger,  but  already  the  be- 
ginnings, of  an  alliance  between  combinations  of  capital  and 
some  of  the  more  highly  organized  trades  for  the  sharing  of 
the  profits  to  public  exploitation. 

Now  the  only  man  who  can  meet,  or  possibly  match,  the 
capitalist,  in  educating  and  directing  trade  unionism,  is  the  so- 
cialist. He  alone  knows  what  trade  unionism  means ;  knows 
its  relation  to  the  industrial  development  of  the  past  and  of 
the  future.  Only  the  Socialist  can  point  out  the  benefits  and 
.  the  dangers  of  trade  unionism  to  the  worker. 

On  the  one  side,  it  is  the  trade  unionist  who  is  on  the  fir- 
ing line  of  the  class  struggle.  He  it  is  who  has  blocked  the 
wheels  of  the  capitalist  machine ;  he  it  is  who  has  prevented 
the  unchecked  development  of  capitalist  increase ;  he  it  is  who 
has  prevented  the  whole  labor  body  of  the  world  from  being 
kept  forever  at  the  point  of  mere  hunger  wages ;  he  it  is  who 
has  taught  the  workers  of  the  world  the  lesson  of  solidarity, 
and  delivered  them  from  that  wretched  and  unthinking  com- 
petition with  each  other  which  kept  them  at  the  mercy  of  cap- 
italism ;  he  it  is  who  has  prepared  the  way  for  the  co-operative 
commonwealth.  Oti  the  other  hand,  trade  unionism  is  by  no 
means  the  solution  of  the  worker's  problem,  nor  is  it  the  goal 
of  the  labor-struggle.  It  is  merely  a  capitalist  line  of  defense 
within  the  capitalist  system.  Its  existence  and  its  struggles 
are  necessitated  only  by  the  existence  and  predatory  nature 
of  capitalism. 

It  is  the  Socialist  who  should  point  out  the  ethics  of  the 
sympathetic  strike,  and  especially  of  the  almost  desperate 
opposition  of  organized  to  unorganized  labor,  when  the  latter 
would  supplant  the  former  in  the  jobs  that  are  vacated  during 
the  strike.  The  organized  worker  is  really  fighting  the  battles 
of  the  unorganized.  His  instinct  is  truer  in  this  respect  than 
the  intelligence  of  either  worker  or  capitalist.  The  unorgan- 
ized worker  who  take^  the  job  of  the  trade  union  striker  does 
not  see  that  he  is  committing  economic  as  well  as  moral  sui- 
cide. The  primal  thing  upon  which  the  continuous  develop- 
ment of  capitalism  depends  is  that  of  having  a  large  army  of 
unorganized  and  defenseless  workers  to  throw  into  competi- 
tion with  labor  that  is  organized  and  defensive.  The  whole 
pressure  of  capitalism  is  towards  forcing  the  average  of  work- 
ers to  the  level  of  the  lowest-paid  and  worst-conditioned 
worker.  The  unorganized  worker  who  takes  his  fellow-work- 
er's job  is  capitalism's  best  ally  in  the  perpetual  degradation 
of  the  whole  labor-body.     He  enforces  and   re-enforces   the 


THE    SOCIAL    OPPOETUNITY.  589 

tendency  of  the  working  world  to  descend  to  the  level  of  its 
lowest  paid  and  lowest  conditioned;  while  the  striking  and 
organized  worker  is  struggling  to  lift  up  the  unorganized  and 
defenseless  labor;  lift  up  the  common  labor  to  the  level  of 
labor's  best  conditioned.  The  striker  is  struggling,  not  only 
for  himself  and  his  fellow-strikers,  but  for  the  very  economic 
and  moral  life. of  the  "scab"  whom  capitalism  uses  to  defeat 
the  striker.  Organized  labor  has  an  instinct  that  far  out- 
reaches  its  intelligence,  and  that  far  outreaches  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  preaching  and  teaching  class, — the  instinct  that 
the  workers  of  the  world  are  bound  up  together  in  one  com- 
mon destiny ;  that  their  battle  for  the  future  is  one ;  and  that 
there  is  no  possible  safety  or  extrication  for  any  worker  unless 
all  the  workers  of  the  world  are  extricated  and  saved  from 
capitalism  together.  The  familiar  assertion  of  the  right  of 
the  individual  worker  to  take  his  striking  fellow-worker's 
place,  to  work  when  and  where  he  pleases,  is  founded  upon  a 
frightfully  destructive  and  unthinking  falsehood.  The  position 
is  essentially  immoral  and  is  indeed  an  unapprehended  form  of 
race  suicide.  And  it  is  for  the  Socialist  to  point  out  both  the 
economics  and  the  ethics  of  the  strike,  to  the  capitalist  as  well 
as  to  the  labor  mind. 

Labor  will  enter  politics,  in  one  fashion  or  another,  in 
spite  of  the  capitalism  represented  by  Mr.  Hanna  or  Mr.  Gom- 
pers.  If  the  Socialist  movement  does  not  command  the  atten- 
tion and  support  of  the  organized  workers  of  the  nation,  then 
we  must  expect  a  national  independent  labor  movement  that 
shall  become  the  mere  field  of  political  exploitation.  It  is  upon 
this  that  Mr.  Hearst  has  his  eye,  and  probably  Mr.  Roosevelt 
as  well,  to  say  nothing  of  Mr.  Bryan ;  and  in  the  end,  capital- 
ism will  ask  nothing  better.  For  the  independent  labor  party 
will  be  the  gain  of  ambitious  and  discredited  politicians,  the 
negotiater  of  compromises  with  capitalism,  and  the  bearer  of 
disappointment,  disaster  and  darkness,  unless  the  Socialist  move- 
ment should  be  the  directing  soul  of  that  party. 

We  have  reached  that  point  where  there  is  no  possible  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  labor  save  in  the  common  labor  of  the 
world  taking  over  to  itself  its  whole  product,  as  well  as  all  pro- 
ductive resources  and  machinery.  A  system  which  is  the  or- 
ganization of  a  fundamental  lie  and  injustice  cannot  be  so  re- 
formed or  improved  or  conditioned  as  to  make  the  lie  and  in- 
justice tolerable  or  secure.  The  public  ownership  of  the  post- 
office,  of  the  railways,  or  of  public  utilities,  under  the  capitalist 
order  and  government  of  things,  will  only  serve  to  perpetuate 
the  wrong  and  wretchedness  of  the  system.  Public  owner- 
ship under  capitalism  is  merely  an  extension  of  capitalist 
ownership.  The  United  States  postal  service,  for  instance,  is 
administered  primarily  for  the  profit  of  the  railway  corpora- 


590  THE   INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    RfiVIEW. 

tions,  and  less  and  less  for  the  service  of  the  people.  We 
cannot  have  socialistic  reforms  or  conditions  without  having 
the  whole  of  Socialism.  Until  the  workers  shall  become  a 
clearly  defined  Socialist  movement,  standing  for  and  moving 
toward  the  unqualified  co-operative  commonwealtfi,  while  at  tiie 
same  understanding  and  procuring  their  immediate  interests,  they 
will  only  play  into  the  hands  of  their  exploiters,  and  be  led  by 
their  betrayers. 

It  is  the  Socialist  who  must  point  this  out  in  the  right 
way.  He  is  not  to  do  this  by  seeking  to  commit  trade  union 
bodies  to  the  principles  of  Socialism.  Resolution  or  com- 
mitments of  this  sort  accomplish  very  little  good.  Nor  is  he 
to  do  it  by  taking  a  servile  attitude  towards  organized  labor, 
nor  by  meddling  with  the  details  or  the  machinery  of  the 
trade  unions.  Not  by  trying  to  commit  Socialism  to  trade 
.  unionism,  nor  trade  unionism  to  Socialism,  will  the  Socialist 
end  be  accomplished.  It  is  better  to  leave  the  trade  unions 
to  do  their  distinctive  work,  as  the  workers'  defense  against 
the  encroachments  of  capitalism,  as  the  economic  develop- 
ment of  the  worker  against  the  economic  development  of  the 
capitalist,  giving  unqualified  support  and  sympathy  to  the 
struggles  of  the  organized  worker  to  sustain  himself  in  his 
economic  sphere.  But  let  the  Socialist  also  so  build  up  the 
character  and  harmony  and  strength  of  the  Socialist  move- 
ment as  a  political  force,  that  it  shall  command  the  respect 
and  confidence  of  the  worker,  irrespective  of  his  trade  or  his 
union  obligations.  It  is  urgent  that  we  so  keep  in  mind  the 
difference  between  the  two  developments  that  neither  shall 
cripple  the  other.  The  Socialist  movement,  as  a  political 
development  of  the  workers  for  their  economic  emancipation, 
is  one  thing;  the  trade  union  development,  as  an  economic 
defense  of  the  workers  within  the  capitalist  system,  is  another 
thing.  Let  us  not  interfere  with  the  internal  affairs  of  the 
trade  unions,  or  seek  to  have  them  become  distinctively 
political  bodies  in  themselves,  any  more  than  we  would  seek 
to  make  a  distinctive  political  body  in  itself  of  a  church,  or 
a  public  school  or  a  lawyer's  office.  But  let  us  attend  to  the 
harmonious  and  commanding  development  of  the  Socialist 
political  movement  as  the  channel  and  power  by  which  labor  is 
to  come  to  its  emancipation  and  its  commonwealth.  At  the 
same  time  let  us  give  every  economic  and  moral  assistance  to 
every  labor  struggle  or  strike ;  not  make  these  an  opportunity  for 
propaganda  or  party  exploitation,  but  as  Socialists  helping  the 
workers  to  the  one  end  of  victory  in  the  strike  or  struggle.  In 
this  sense,  the  Socialist  party  must  know  how  to  lose  itself  in 
order  to  find  itself. 

Under  all  circumstances,  Socialism  will  have  to  accomplish 
its  mission  through  co-operation  with  the  experience  ot  the 


THE   SOCIAL    OPPORTUNITY.  591 

working  class;  through  the  daily  needs  and  facts,  the  strug- 
gles and  recurring  crises,  that  are  developing  labor's  solidar- 
ity. Politically  empowered  labor  will  make  blunders,  with- 
out doubt ;  it  will  be  tyrannical  at  times,  and  often  misled ;  but 
this  is  but  a  result  of  the  varied  forms  of  slavery  in  whicji 
it  has  been  trained.  The  workers  of  the  world  must  have 
experience  in  freedom  before  they  can  learn  the  processes  by 
which  freedom  is  to  bring  forth  its  world-harmony.  Besides, 
they  who  produce  what  the  world  lives  upon  have  a  right 
to  achieve  tfieir  emancipation  for  themselves  in  their  own  way; 
and  we  who  live  upon  their  labor  must  be  content  to  work 
with  that  way.  It  is  better  that  they  should  make  their  way 
to  freedom  through  blunder  on  blunder,  than  that  some  unreal 
freedom  should  be  handed  down  to.  them.  We  must  there- 
fore make  sure,  when  we  as  Socialists  come  to  the  working 
class,  that  we  come  as  the  servants  of  its  own  struggle  for 
emancipation;  and  make  doubly  sure  that  we  do  not  come 
seeking  to  use  its  struggles  for  the  accomplishment  of  am- 
bitious ends  of  our  own. 

V. 
The  Socialist  movement  must  come  speaking  the  language 
of  the  people,  the  familiar  accents  of  the  daily  life,  and  not 
come  in  the  mere  language  of  economic  dogma.  We  have 
become  almost  as  prone  as  the  priests  to  rehearse  traditional 
phrases,  very  often  not  knowing  the  meaning  of  the  phrases 
we  use.  Instead  of  dealing  with  the  facts  and  conditions 
before  our  eyes,  in  the  language  of  the  common  life,  we  re- 
peat abstract  propositions  that  neither  capitalist  nor  working- 
man  understands.  We  give  the  impression  that  Socialism  is 
a  social  theory  to  be  imposed  instead  of  an  explanation  of 
society  and  its  struggles.  No  matter  how  profound  our  phil- 
osophy or  propositions,  we  must  state  them  in  the  terms  and 
words  that  the  people  use  in  work  and  business  if  we  expect 
the  people  to  understand  us.  The  effect  or  authority  of  a 
statement  is  not  to  be  measured  by  the  pretentiousness  of 
its  wording.  The  social  revolution  will  not  come  through 
the  constant  reiteration  and  re-translation  of  the  doctrines  of 
Marx.  It  is  not  to  come  by  declaring  from  lecture-room,  or 
street  corner,  or  propaganda  tract,  that  there  is  but  one  social 
revolution,  and  that  Marx  is  its  prophet.  Nobody  tried  harder 
to  make  clear  the  need  of  adaptation  in  Socialist  effort  and 
phraseology  than  Engels.  And  it  is  adaptation  we  must  learn 
— learn  to  set  forth  the  principles  and  facts  of  Socialism  in  a 
very  human  language.  It  is,  indeed,  rather  remarkable  that 
we  who  have  insisted  that  Socialism  must  come  as  a  working 
class  movement,  should  go  to  the  working  class  with  a  lan- 
guage that  IS  academic ;  and  that  we  should  train  the  working- 


592  THE    INTERNATIONx\L    SOCrALIST-  REVIEW. 

man  to  attempt  to  reach  his  fellow-workers  through  an  aca- 
demic phrasing,  through  a  Socialist  orthodoxy,  that  is  really 
meaningless  to  the  educated  classes  themselves.  Socialism 
is  not  coming  as  an  orthodoxy,  but  as  a  breaking  forth  of 
%  fresh  life  upon  the  world.  It  is  the  break  of  human  spring- 
time, after  the  long  winter  of  human  slavery.  Its  language 
must  be  as  fresh,  as  sweet  to  human  hearts  and  hopes,  as  the 
first  words  of  the  child,  or  the  first  bloom  of  the  lilac  or  the 
rose. 

One  result  of  this  persistence  in  a  language  that  is  aca- 
demic, has  been  the  fatal  assumption  of  the  inevitability  of 
Socialism,  which  I  deplored  in  the  beginning  of  this  paper. 
We  have  dethroned  the  other  work!  Super-God  of  the  churches, 
merely  to  enthrone  a  god  of  economic  development  in  his 
place,  and  to  rely  upon  this  god  of  economic  development  to 
achieve  for  us  what  we  must  achieve  for  ourselves.  The 
whole  fatality  of  human  history  is  this  waiting  of  man  for 
something  to  do  for  him  that  which  he  only  can  do  Ifor  him- 
self. It  matters  not  whether  it  be  a  god,  or  a  so-called  nat- 
ural law,  or  an  economic  development,  or  a  ruling  class,  or 
or  what  it  be — so  long  as  man  depends  on  some- 
.  thing  outside  of  himself  to  bear  him  to  liberty  and  social 
perfection,  or  to  bring  liberty  and  social  perfection  to  him,  he 
will  continue  his  way  through  failure  and  disappointment. 
Freedom  can  never  be  handed  down  to  man  by  some  invisible 
power  in  nature,  or  in  the  heavens,  or  in  economic  develop- 
ment, any  more  than  it  can  be  handed  down  by  one  class 
unto  another  class.  A  freedom  achieved  for  man,  even  by 
natural  forces  or  economic  law,  a  freedom  achieved  in  any 
way  independent  of  man's  cooperative  choice,  would  result 
in  paralysis  and  decadence.  The  opportunity  of  nature,  the 
underlying  motive  of  Socialism,  is  the  creation  of  a  social 
will  in  the  common  life  that  shall  direct  evolution  toward 
a  humanly  elected  destiny. 

To  this  end,  must  our  American  movement  translate  its 
eflforts  and  appeals  into  the  terms  of  American  life  and  ex- 
perience. This  principle  of  adaptation  requires  no  compro- 
mise in  the  fundamentals  of  Socialist  philosophy.  It  merely 
requires  that  we  speak  a  language,  that  we  work  with  means, 
which  the  country  we  live  in  may  understand.  Our  American 
development  and  experience  have  been  very  diffrent  from 
the  experience  of  the  European  nations.  Our  American  habit 
of  mind  is  very  diflferent  from  that  of  Europe.  I  am  by  no 
means  saying  that  our  habit  of  mind  is  more  desirable  than 
that  of  Europe ;  I  am  merely  saying  that  if  we  are  to  change 
the  American  mind  into  a   Socialist  mind,  we  must  appeal 


THE    SOC^IAT.    OPPORTUNITY.  593 

to  mental  states  that  actually  exist  in  the  American,  and 
make  our  Socialism  intelligible  to  his  way  of  looking  at  things. 
For  instance,  American  institutions  and  history  pivot  upon 
the  idea  of  individual  liberty.  However  false  we  have  been 
to  the  idea,  however  hypocritical  or  servile  we  may  have  be- 
come before  private  wealth,  it  is  still  true  that  our  political 
and  industrial  experience  has  been  that  of  the  glorified  and 
independent  individuality.  Now  Socialism  should  come  to 
American  life  as  the  real  and  ransomed  individualism.  We 
should  present  Socialism  as  the  co-operation  of  all  men  for 
the  individual  liberty  of  each  man.  We  should  send  forth 
the  Socialist  as  the  herald  and  defender  of  the  American  lib- 
erty which  has  been  so  betrayed  by  capitalist  politics  and 
teachings.  We  should  seize  the  sentiment  and  dynamic  which 
imperialism  has  thrown  away.  We  should  come  proclaim- 
ing the  Socialist  movement  as  the  savior  of  our  lost  liber- 
ties. We  should  set  forth  economic  co-operation  as  a  means 
to  the  end  of  complete  individual  liberty  for  all  men. 

VII.  ♦ 

As  Socialists,  we  need  to  give  more  attention  to  ques- 
tions of  efficiency.  Martin  Luther  used  to  declare  that  the 
devil  had  all  the  good  music  and  the  Christians  all  that  was 
not  fit  to  sing ;  and  it  sometimes  seems  that  capitalism  has  all 
the  efficiency  of  administration,  and  the  Socialist  movement 
ajl  the  inefficiency  and  bungling.  If  we  are  to  present  a  co- 
herent and  conquering  front  before  organized  capitalism,  we 
must  learn  how  to  so  Jtiake  use  of  our  forces  that  the  right 
man  will  be  given  the  right  work  to  do.  It  is  not  enough 
for  a  man  to  ostentatiously  proclaim  himself  a  Socialist,  in 
order  to  give  him  the  adminstration  of  the  party,  or  the  editor- 
ship of  a  newspaper.  Some  things  are  necessary  to  the  power 
and  success  of  the  Socialist  movement  besides  merely  being  a 
Socialist.  The  success  of  the  movement  depends  upon  the 
efficiency  of  organization  and  administration,  as  well  as  upon 
subscription  to  Socialist  doctrines.  We  shall  never  get  any- 
where through  misplaced  responsibility,  misdirected  activity 
and  badly  organized  public  meetings.  We  must  learn  how  to 
find  a  work  for  each  comrade,  that  is  true ;  but  we  must  learn 
some  sense  in  giving  the  work  of  administration  to  men  who 
have  been  fitted  by  some  sort  of  experience  and  training  to 
do  it.  The  wonder  is  that  the  Socialist  movement  grows  so 
rapidly  with  so  much  bad  management.  We  must  learn  from 
capitalism  to  put  a  premium  upon  efficiency ;  learn  to  give  the 
various  posts  of  service  to  men  who  are  fitted  to  efficiently 
fill  them. 

For  instance,  if  a  speaker  is  sent  for  to  come  some  hun- 
dreds of  miles  to  speak  at  a  mass  meeting,  it  is  not  good  sense 


594  THE   INTEBNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    BEVIBW. 

or  efficient  propaganda  to  have  him  preceded  by  some  half 
dozen  local  speakers,  so  that  when  he  arises  to  speak  it  is 
to  a  jaded  and  impatient  audience,  which  he  must  keqp  until 
nearly  midnight  if  he  is  to  deliver  his  message.  And  the 
familiar  plea  that  this  must  be  done  in  order  to  be  democratic, 
and  to  avoid  personal  jealousies,  is  a  wretched  reflection  upon 
the  comrades  themselves.  Democracy  does  not  consist  in  the 
equal  balancing  of  utterly  petty  and  puerile  jealousies.  I 
cannot  for  a  moment  believe  that  such  jealousies  exist,  nor 
can  I  think  that  any  number  of  comrades  have  so  stupid  a 
notion  of  democracy.  If  I  did,  I  should  despair  of  what 
would  happen  if  Socialism  should  come  into  power. 

And,  in  every  sort  of  a  way,  inefficient  and  disintegrating 
management,  or  rather  hopeless  mismanagement,  has  marked 
so  much  of  our  Socialist  effort,  that  it  is  time  we  began  to 
learn  that  the  success  of  our  movement  depends  upon  effi- 
ciency of  method  and  ors^anization,  as  well  as  upon  noise  or 
soundness  of  economic  doctrine. 

VIII. 

The  Socialist  can  no  longer  neglect  what  we  might  call 
the  ethical  or  spiritual  appeal.  Our  healthy  distrust  of  mere 
sentimentalism,  our  certain  knowledge  of  the  disasters  of 
Utopianism,  has  led  us  too  far  from  the  flaming  altar  at  the 
heart  of  our  Socialist  movement.  That  altar  is  the  sense  of 
justice  in  the  common  life.  It  is  to  this  sense  of  justice  we 
must  appeal,  if  we  are  to  evoke  the  cleansing  revolutionary 
flame  that  is  to  purify  the  world.  It  is  upon  the  burning  and 
obvious  righteousness  of  our  cause  that  we  must  depend  for 
its  power  to  conquer.  The  Socialist  movement  must  have  a 
spirit  as  well  as  a  body;  it  must  have  a  soul  inside  of  its 
economics.  It  must  take  the  place  of  the  old  religions  in  its 
power  to  command  the  exalting  faith  and  devotion  of  the  peo- 
ple. Socialism  may  translate  into  life,  into  world-creating 
energy,  that  aspiration  and  idealism  which  religions  have  ab- 
sorbed and  robbed  the  world  of.  The  instinct  of  justice,  the 
yearning  for  a  universal  well-being,  the  desire  for  social  per- 
fection, is  deep  in  the  life  of  the  common  man.  It  is  for 
the  Socialist  to  draw  upon  this  human  fund  of  spiritual  in- 
stinct and  turn  it  to  account.  We  must  show  that  the  eco- 
nomic basis  of  Socialism  is  also  the  sole  ground  of  spiritual 
liberation  and  fellowship;  the  soil  out  of  which  ransomed 
love  must  grow  and  blossom  in  the  life  of  man. 

Our  movement  is  founded  upon  the  question  of  bread,  it  is 
true,  but  not  because  we  hold  that  man  lives  by  bread  alone. 
It  is  that  until  the  bread  question  is  solved,  through  the  free 
and  equal  access  of  all  men  to  the  means  of  life,  every  other 
question  is  but  a  part  of  the  grand  evasion,  a  part  of  the 


THE    SOCIAL    OPPORTUNITY.  595 

universal  impudence,  of  the  world's  teachers.  It  means  that 
until  all  men  have  free  and  abundant  bread,  no  man  may  be- 
gin to  fully  and  freely  live.  The  quality  of  our  economic 
distribution  is  the  true  measure  of  our  spiritual  quality. 
Elquality  and  abundance  of  bread  are  the  test  and  source  of 
brotherhood  and  real  spirituality.  The  Socialist  affirms  that 
the  question  of  bread,  the  question  of  economic  freedom  and 
justice,  is  the  most  commanding  spiritual  task  to  which  man 
has  ever  been  summoned.  Socialism  is  the  spiritualization 
of  the  world.  It  comes  as  the  first  actual  program  for  the 
liberation  of  the  human  spirit.  For  to  own  another's  bread, 
is  to  own  his  soul.  They  who  own  the  sources  and  tools  of 
production  and  distribution,  who  own  the  things  upon,  which 
the  people  depend,  are  the  substantial  owners  of  the  world's 
thoughts,  its  laws,  its  social  affections.  To  try  to  make  a 
good  world,  while  ignoring  the  economic  basis  of  life,  is  but 
to  be  a  hypocrite  and  a  trifler.  The  way  in  which  the  world 
gets  its  work  done,  the  manner  and  ratio  of  distributing  the 
products  of  that  work,  the  equality  or  inequality  of  bread 
and  opportunity,  are  the  real  and  only  indices  of  the  world's 
spiritual  or  ethical  quality.  We  must  show  that  our  eco- 
nomic philosophy  is  the  first  actual  demand  that  has  ever 
been  made  upon  man  for  a  practical  and  common  righteous- 
ness. We  must  show  to  the  people,  who  have  so  long  ac- 
cepted what  is  as  sacredly  right,  that  the  present  kinds  of 
righteousness  are  founded  upon  brute  force,  upon  sheer  eco- 
nomic might;  that  what  is,  is  might,  not  right.  We  must 
show  that,  up  to  the  present  time,  all  that  the  world  has 
called  right  has  been  founded  in  might,  and  show  how  the 
hid  and  almost  unuttered  common  might  must  be  changed  into 
a  righteousness  of  an  altogether  new  kind.  We  must  pro- 
claim that  it  is  not  right  that  the  few  are  degraded  by  their 
over-much,  and  the  many  wasted  and  blighted  by  the  wretch- 
ed little  which  they  have  won  by  anxiety  and  struggle;  that 
it  is  not  right  that  some  people  should  own  the  things  upon 
which  all  people  depend ;  that  there  can  be  no  basis  for  right 
living  in  a  society  that  is  the  arena  of  economic  competition 
and  inequality. 

No  one  but  the  Socialist  is  in  a  position  which  gives  him 
any  right  to  appeal  to  the  sense  of  right.  No  one  but  the 
Socialist  can  lay  the  basis  and  prepare  the  human  soil  for  a 
righteousness  that  shall  be  real.  It  is  therefore  urgent  that 
we  should  not  neglect,  much  less  scorn,  the  appeal  which 
i3  ours,  and  only  ours,  to  the  sense  of  righteousness  in  the 
people.  It  is  ours  to  feed  the  altar  fire  at  the  heart  of  the 
Socialist  movement  until  the  purified  world  shall  walk  in  the 
light  of  it. 


596  THE   INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

IX. 

Is  the  human  world  great  enough  to  match  the  greatness 
uf  its  approaching  opportunity?  Does  the  spiritual  fund  that 
the  centuries  have  accumulated  bulk  large  enough  to  carry 
us  through  the  door  into  the  new  world  which  the  crisis  of 
capitalism  will  open?  Will  mankind  go  back  into  the  melt- 
ing-pot, into  new  dark  ages,  and  history  enter  another  cycle 
of  suffering  and  preparation?  Or  shall  we  enter  the  world 
of  co-operative  labor,  of  the  fellowship  that  shall  bear  us  be- 
yond our  sordid  good  and  evil,  of  the  ransomed  love  that 
shall  make  each  human  life  a  world-ecstacy  ? 

I^  is  the  Socialist  only  who  can  answer  this  question ;  and 
no  such  question  has  ever  been  placed  before  man;  no  such 
test  or  trial  of  human  worth  has  ever  weighed  the  quality 
of  men.  It  is  the  question  which  is  to  weigh  the  worth  of 
the  Socialist  movement.  If  we  have  the  power  to  be  demo- 
cratic, without  being  factional  and  petty;  if  we  have  the 
power  to  be  mobile  and  fluid  in  our  politics,  without  evasion 
or  compromise;  if  we  seek  the  triumph  of  the  Socialist  move- 
ment, and  not  merely  the  triumph  of  a  political  party  in  the 
name  of  Socialisni;  if  we  have  power  to  forget  ourselves  in 
the  hope  of  the  good  that  is  to  come  to  the  whole;  if  our 
effort  is  toward  the  creation  of  power  in  the  people  and  not 
the  gaining  of  power  over  the  people;  if  the  Socialist  move- 
ment shall  present  to  the  world  an  altogether  new  and  nobler 
quality  of  man; — ^then  may  we  become  the  creators  of  the 
new  world  wherein  dwelleth  the  justice  of  love,  and  its 
ujiiversal  liberty.  George  D.  Herron. 


A  Municipal  Socialist  Congxess  in  France. 

A  MUNICIPAL  Socialist  Congress  was  held  in  January, 
at  Paris,  presided  over  by  Comrade  Fourniere.  Six 
hundred  and  fifteen  municipalities  were  represented  by 
seventy-five  delegates. 
The  work  had  been  divided  among  six  committees  as  fol- 
lows : 

1.  Committee  on  municipal  program. 

2.  Committee  on  municipal  relief. 

3t     Committee  on  municipal  administration. 

4.  Committee  on  the  workfng  out  of  a  typical  municipal 
budget. 

5.  Committee  on  the  abolition  of  octrois. 

6.  Committee  on  various  propositions. 

The  discussions  were  very  interesting;  unfortunately  owing 
to  lack  of  space  we  can  only  sum  them  up  and  indicate  the  reso- 
lutions that  were  adopted. 

THE  QUESTION  OF  THE  OCTROIS.* 

Through  its  chairman  the  committee  declared  that  the  sup- 
pression of  the  octrois  is  desirable,  but  that  it  will  not  be  com- 
pletely obtained  without  the  establishment  of  a  system  emanci- 
pating the  proletarians  and  establishing  a  tax  on  income  and  in- 
heritances. It  is  necessary  to  solve  the  question  according  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  workers  and  to  the  local  circumstances. 

Comrade  Bounet  asked  that  in  the  Socialist  program  the 
suppression  of  the  octrois  be  clearly  indicated.  The  octrois  are 
no  longer  retained  by  any  European  nations  except  France  and 
Italy.  He  disagreed  with  the  chairman  and  held  that  the  means 
of  suppressing  the  octrois  should  be  put  at  the  disposal  of  the 
municipalities,  and  that  to  this  end  we  should  demand  of  the 
government  a  system  of  taxes  permitting  the  municipalities  to 
carry  on  their  activity  while  taking  the  burden  off  the  laborers. 

It  was  voted  to  refer  back  the  report  to  the  committee. 

THE  QUESTION  OF  HYGIENE. 

Henri  Turot  presented  his  report  on  laborers'  dwellings.  This 
question  needs  to  be  solved,  and  at  Paris  it  seems  to  be  near  a 
solution.  A  committee  thve  has  the  matter  in  charge.  It  is 
necessary  to  encourage  private  initiative,  and  it  is  also  necessary 
that  the  municipality  take  the  initiative. 

*The  octroi  ia  a  tax  levied  by  a  mnnieipal  gOTernment  on  articles,  particalarly  food, 
brought  into  the  city.  It  is^  thus  an  indirect  tax  which  bears  most  heavily  on  the  poor, 
—Translator. 

5»7 


598  THE    INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

He  explained  the  Charaay  plan,  which  can  be  realized  by  a 
loan  secured  upon  the  rents  to  be  received.  But  Charnay  wished 
the  tenants  to  profit  by  a  reduction  of  rent  even  to  the  point  of 
gratuity.  The  committee  thought,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  rent 
ought  to  afford  a  surplus  for  the  construction  of  new  houses, 
and  it  modified  the  Charnay  plan  in  that  direction.  It  adopted 
the  following  resolution: 

The  congress  invites  the  Socialists  elected  to  municipal  of- 
fices to  study  carefully  the  question  of  inexpensive  dwellings  for 
laborers. 

Without  opposing  the  encouragement  of  private  initiative  on 
the  part  of  the  municipalities,  it  expresses  the  wish  that  the  cities 
themselves  resolve  to  devote  at  least  part  of  their  resources  to 
the  building  of  laborers*  dwellings,  and  that  they  make  a  study 
of  financial  measures  which  may  result  in  prompt  solutions. ' 

Finally  the  congress  resolved  that  the  Socialists  elected  to 
parliament  ought  to  endeavor  to  secure  the  modification  of  such 
laws  as  might  throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  these  attempts  on 
the  part  of  the  municipalities. 

*  The  report  of  the  committee  was  unanimously  adopted  with 
the  addition  of  the  words,  "Immediate  reduction  in  the  rate  of 
rents,"   from   Charnay's  proposition. 

A  certain  number  of  propos^tioas  p'^esented  by  Parrasols, 
mayor  of  Sainte-Florine,  relative  tt5  the  approaching  congrc^ss 
and  to  the  establishment  of  a  national  federation  of  Socialist 
municipal  councilmen  and  of  a  federal  bureau  of  judicial  and 
administrative  information,  were  adopted,  as  well  as  a  proposi- 
.  tion  of  Eh".  Bertrand  asking  that  the  new  streets  of  large  cities 
be  planted  with  trees. 

MUNICIPAL  RELIEF. 

Rene  Bounet,  chairman  of  the  committee,  held  that  the  pres- 
ent relief  is  only  a  mockery,  and  he  formulated,  as  follows,  the 
things  desired  by  the  committee: 

1.  Relief  to  infants. 

2.  Relief  to  children  from  3  to  13  years  (school  restau- 
rants). 

3.  Relief  to  the  aged  and  those  disabled  from  work;  hospi- 
tal service  at  home. 

4.  Distribution  of  temporary  relief  for  those  out  of  work 
or  ill,  under  the  care  of  mutual  relief  bureaus. 

5.  Organization  of  medical  reliej  by  the  establishment  of 
dispensaries  for  temporary  hospital  service,  with  the  free  supply 
of  urgently  needed  medicines;  medical  visits  at  home  and  hospi- 
tal treatment  in  serious  cases. 

6.  Finally,  immediate  secularization  of  all  hospitals. 

Orry  thoup^ht  it  best  to  strike  out  the  paragraph  referring: 


A    MUNICIPAL    SOCIALIST    CONGRESS    IN    PRANCE,       590 

to  assistance  to  those  out  of  work,  which  in  his  opinion  ouglit 
to  be  assured  by  the  unions  and  labor  exchanges. 

Bounet  opposed  Orry's  amendment  and  expressed  the  opinion 
that  the  assistance  of  the  state  is  still  too  far  from  realization, 
while  the  assistance  of  the  municipalities  can  be  determined 
upon  tomorrow  by  the  Socialist  municipal  councils. 

Foumiere  was  also  of  tihe  opinion  that  relief  to  those  out 
of  woric  should  not  be  included  in  the  municipal  budget.  The 
municipality  in  certain  cases  will  not  be  able  to  meet  its  obli- 
gations. Relief  of  this  kind  degrades  the  workers  to  the  level 
of  beggars. 

Tessier  supported  Orry's  proposition  but  preferred  that  the 
municipal  councils  assist  the  unions  for  a  special  out-of-work 
fund,  but  Comrade  Bourdet  observed  that  the  prefect  would  not 
authorize  this  disposition  of  municipal  funds. 

The  report  of  the  committee  was  adopted  unanimously. 

HYGIENE  OF  DWELLINGS. 

On  this  complex  question  Colly  apologized  for  offering  only 
a  few  ideas.  He  reminded  the  congress  of  what  had  been  de- 
cided in  i8g8  at  the  congress  of  Fumay.  The  law  on  public 
sanitation  demanded  by  that  congress  was  voted  in  July,  1902, 
but  all  know  with  what  difficulty  laws  of  this  sort  are  often  ap- 
plied. The  mayors  have  the  right  and  even  the  duty  to  take 
measures  intended  to  assure  hygienic  conditions  and  public 
health.  This  is  accordingly  a  law  which  attacks  the  famous 
principle  of  the  inviolability  of  property. 

The  committee  therefore  considers  that  the  mayors  ought  to 
use  all  the  rights  conferred  upon  them  by  the  law  of  July,  1902. 

The  question  of  water  especially  has  great  importance.  The 
law  of  1902  imposes  upon  all  municipalities  the  duty  of  supply- 
ing water  fit  for  drinking.  The  prefects  are  instructed  to  watch 
over  the  execution  of  these  regulations  and  are  given  the  neces- 
sary power.  That  is  a  fortunate  provision  of  the  law,  since  it 
permits  the  Socialist  minorities  to  insist  on  the  law  being  re- 
spected bv  the  reactionaries,  who  care  little  for  the  health  of 
tlie  working  people. 

In  the  country  the  residents  often  have  little  care  for  the 
matter  of  hygiene ;  the  water  supply,  the  sewage  and  the  dwell- 
ings are  often  very  defective.  The  law  ought  to  permit  the 
compulsory  cleaning  of  certain  houses. 

Tt  is  a  sad  thing,  said  Colly,  poetically,  to  see  on  the  slopes 
of  our  laughing  hills,  villages  making:  blotches  like  a  blotch  of 
mud  on  the  petal  of  a  rose :  fortunately  the  purity  of  the  breeze 
serves  as  an  antiseptic  for  our  peasants. 

I  declare,  he  added,  that  onlv  in  the  Republican  party  and 
ospeciallv  the  Socialist  party,  do  we  find  any  concern  for  the  pnlilic 


1 


600  THE    INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

health.  We  have  seen  this  at  Paris  on  the  subject  of  the  vote 
on  the  sanitary  regulations  elaborated  by  Navarre,  which  was 
rejected  by  the  nationalist  majority,  but  which  the  committee 
of  the  department  of  hygiene  afterwards  voted  in  its  entirety. 
Dr.  Bertrand  explained  that  in  the  schools,  not  enough 
care  is  taken  regarding  questions  of  hygiene,  and  that 
washstands  and  shower-baths  ought  to  be  in  all  the  schools. 
If  hygienic  regulations  are  to  be  well  applied  it  is  necessary  to 
establish  a  bureau  of  public  health,  it  is  necessary  to  unify  these 
services.  The  respect  for  private  property  is  also  a  great  ob- 
stacle to  sanitary  measures.  Private  property,  in  certain  cases, 
is  not  only  fatal  to  those  who  enjoy  it,  it  is  still  more  so  to  those 
who  live  near  it  if  it  is  contaminated.  It  is  also  necessary  to 
provide  for  the  education  of  the  people  in  hygiene,  and  the  only 
way  to  arrive  at  this  is  by  giving  hygiene  a  very  prominent 
place  in  school  programs. 

PUBLIC  SERVICES. 

Charnay  offered  a  resolution  on  this'  subject  which  was  op- 
posed by  Brousse  and  Camelle.  Brousse  said  that  on  the  day 
when  public  services  should  be  made  free  for  the  laborers  it  would 
certainly  be  necessary  to  look  elsewhere  for  means  to  pay  the 
cost  of  operation  of  the  free  services.  Certainly,  if  the  tax  on 
real  estate  were  increased  we  should  see  the  proprietors  shifting 
the  charge  upon  the  tenants.  If  gas  were  supplied  at  cost  we 
should  be  in  danger  of  seeing  an  injury  to  such  public  services 
as  instruction  and  relief,  which  are  of  a  more  immediate  and 
more  general  necessity.  There  are  free  public  services  which 
we  ought  to  enlarge  constantly  and  others  which  we  ought  to 
establish,  but  we  must  at  the  same  time  assure  ourselves  of 
public  services  that  shall  be  of  advantage  to  the  finances  of  the 
municipality. 

Camelle  proposed  to  decide  that  the  price  of  gas  for  Paris 
should  be,  for  example,  fifteen  or  twenty  centimes  as  a  general 
rule,  and  that  below  a  certain  rate  of  rent  this  price  should  be 
lowered  in  a  proportion  to  be  fixed  upon.  In  the  same  way,  at 
the  hours  when  the  labor  day  begins  and  ends,  there  are  street 
railways  which  reduce  their  rates ;  why  should  we  wish  to  share 
the  advantage  with  tlie  rich,  especially  if  it  is  a  public  service? 
It  is  necessary  to  increase  the  charges  on  the  bourgeoisie  for  the 
advantage  of  the  laborers. 

Charnay  wished  to  have  it  stated  bv  the  congress  that  the 
profit  made  on  public  services  is  an  indirect  tax.  The  adjust- 
ment of  the  scale  of  prices  for  gas,  as  well  as  for  transportation, 
ought  to  be  managed  in  such  a  way  as  to  cost  the  community 
nothing.  It  is  the  consumers  themselves  who  ought  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  this  management.     To  transform  an  enterprise  into 


A    MUNICIPAL    SOCIALIST    CONGRESS    IN    FRANCE.       601 

a  public  service,  is  not  to  make  a  present  to  the  consumers,  since 
this  service  requires  no  new  sacrifice  on  tlie  part  of  the  com- 
munity. 

At' Paris  as  regards  the  transportation  service  wlien  it  shall 
be  scheduled,  the  city  will  make  a  profit  of  at  least  five  centimes. 
It  is  the  poor  who  use  it  the  most,  consequently  they  are  the 
ones  who  will  be  hit,  it  is  an  indirect  tax.  You  have  the  right 
to  make  it,  but  it  ought  to  be  avowed  frankly,  with  the  asser- 
tion that  indirect  taxes  are  less  burdensome  to  the  working  class 
than  direct  taxes. 

Daveau,  of  Ivr}-,  spoke  to  the  same  effect  as  Brousse  and 
said  that*  the  taxes  on  proprietors  really  fall  upon  the  tenants; 
to  guard  against  this  it  will  be  necessary  to  prevent  the  pro- 
prietors from  raising  rents,  but  the  law  does  not  authorize  us 
to  fix  this  limit. 

Colly  cited  the  example  of  the  Metropolitan,  where  the  estab- 
lishment of  two  classes  of  travelers  hits  the  luxurious  and  is 
really  an  actual  tax  on  the  rich. 

The  presiding  officer,  Blondel,  thought  there  was  a  misunder- 
standing. Charnay  does  not  ask  that  we  immediately  give  up 
all  profits  from  public  services.  As  for  the  matter  of  water  and 
education,  those  who  have  no  property  are  not  obliged  to  pay 
anything,  and  if  lighting  is  considered  as  a  luxury  it  is  pre- 
cisely because  a  high  price  is  charged  for  it;  as  soon  as  the 
municipalities  themselves  furnish  gas  or  electric  lighting,  what 
today  is  a  luxury  will  be  tomorrow  something  to  be  used  by 
everyone.  Charnay  is  speaking  more  for  the  future  than  for  the 
present.  Have  you  the  right  to  levy  an  indirect  tax  on  those 
who  have  no  property?  You  are  drawing  from  the  pockets  of 
those  who  possess  nothing,  to  put  into  the  pocket  of  all,  the  rich 
as  well  as  the  poor.  You  ought  to  put  the  means  of  transporta- 
tion at  cost  to  everyone,  and  you  have  no  right  to  levy  any  sort 
of  indirect  tax. 

Charnay  then  modified  his  proposition  to  read  as  follows : 

Whereas,  The  tax  levied  on  public  services  over  and  above 
the  cost  price,  for  the  benefit  of  the  municipality,  is  an  actual 
indirect  tax  bearing  upon  all  the  laborers. 

Resolved,  That  public  services  be  organized  in  such  a  way 
that  their  benefits  be  assured  at  cost  to  all  laborers. 

Comrade  Brousse  read  a  resolution  which  was  merely  a  sum- 
mary of  his  remarks.  This  resolution  was  adopted  and  that  of 
Charnay  was  rejected. 

THE  MUNICIPAL   PROGRAM. 

The  following  project  was  adopted: 
I.     On  the  political  side: 

Mlimicipal  autonomy  for  all  acts  relating  to  the  community. 


002  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

Extension  of  the  recognized  right  of   municipalities  to  es- 
tablish inter-municipal  unions. 
Right  to  apply  the  referendum. 
Legal  provisions  for  salaries  to  municipal  cuuncilmen. 

II.  On  the  economic  side : 

Municipalization  of  public  services  pertaining  to  the  com- 
munity, as  transportation,  lighting,  water-supply,  etc. 

Limitation  to  eight  hours  of  the  work-day  of  all  municipal 
employes  and  laborers,  weekly  rest-day,  minimum  wage  fixed 
on  the  basis  established  by  the  labor  unions  of  the  district. 

.  Introduction  into  contracts  for  public  works  of  clauses  im- 
posing these  conditions;  prohibition  of  truck  store  system. 

Appointment  by  municipalities,  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
labor  unions,  of  inspectors  whose  duty  should  be  to  supervise 
the  enforcement  of  the  prescribed  conditions  of  labor  in  all  pub- 
lic works,  whether  operated  by  the  nmnicipalities  themselves  or 
by  contracts  with  private  parties. 

Provision  to  be  made,  by  payments  to  the  national  pension 
fund,  for  pensions  to  municipal  laborers  and  those  employed  on 
municipal  contracts. 

Improvement  of  the  special  conditions  accorded  by  the  muni- 
cipalities to  the  Socialist  co-operativeS  of  production. 

Suppression  of  private  employment  bureaus  and  establish- 
ment of  free  municipal  employment  bureaus  under  the  control 
of  the  labor  exchanges  of  labor  unions. 

Municipal  aid  to  the  labor  exchanges,  labor  unions  and  out- 
of-work  benefit  funds,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  members. 

III.  On  the  financial  side: 

Suppression  of  the  octrois  and  their  replacement  by  taxes  or 
duties  not  burdening  the  laborers  in  any  way. 

Exemption  from  personal  property  tax  for  families  paying 
small  rents. 

A  municipal  system  of  fire  insurance. 

Establishment  of  a  municipal  tax  on  transfers  of  lands  and 
buildings  proportional  to  the  surplus  value  acquired  by  these 
lands  and  buildings  over  and  above  the  labor  cost  of  construc- 
tion. 

IV.  Public  •  education : 

Free  and  secular  instruction  in  all  grades,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  professional  schools. 

Establishment  of  school  restaurants,  distribution  of  clothing, 
reform  schools  and  boarding  schools. 

Provision  for  instruction  in  hygiene  and  the  establishment 
of  baths  in  the  schools. 

School  supplies  to  be  furnished  free. 

Municipal  aid  to  secular  higher  ecfcication  (libraries,  socie- 
ties for  study  and  of  graduate  pupils,  popular  universities,  etc.) 

V.  Public  relief: 


A    MUNICIPAL    SOCIALIST    CONGKESS    IN    FRANCE.       603 

Distribution  to  those  in  need  (the  aged,  women,  children,  the 
sick,  the  disabled,  laborers  out  of  work)  of  food,  clothing  and 
fuel  at  their  homes. 

Secularization  of  all  lodging  houses  and  hospitals. 

Medical  seryice  and  medicines  tree  to  those  in  need. 

The  aged  and  orphans  to  be  cared  for  in  families  ratlier  Ihan 
in  hospitals. 

Temporary  relief  by  payment  of  rent  in  cases  of  need,  and 
the  establishment  of  municipal  lodging  houses  and  storage  ware- 
houses for  household  goods. 

The  establishment  of  municipal  day-nurseries  and  homes  for 
children  whose  parents  are  temporarily  absent,  in  hospitals,  etc. 

Establishment  of  relief  for  destitute  mothers  and  children  in 
proportion  to  the  need. 
VI.    Public  hygiene  and  dwellings: 

Construction  by  the  municipalities  of  healthful  and  low- 
priced  dwellings. 

The  broadening  of  narrow  streets. 

Supervision  of  lodgings,  work-shops,  water-supply  and  iood 
sold  in  the  market. 

No  building  permits  to  be  issued  to  proprietors  not  conform- 
ing to  hygienic  regulations. 

Suppression  of  the  police  des  moeurs  (equivalent  to  a  police 
service  for  the  "suppression  of  vice,"  evidently  the  abuses  inci- 
dent to  this  are  the  same  in  France  as  in  America. — Translator.) 

The  various  articles  of  this  prc^am  were  adopted  as  well  as 
a  number  of  resolutions. 

Orry  proposed  to  appoint  a  committee  instructed  to  organize 
a  federation  of  Socialist  municipalities.  This  proposition  was 
adopted,  as  well  as  a  plan  of  the  same  author,  to  condense  the 
work  of  the  congress  into  a  pamphlet  and  to  make  an  appeal 
to  the  Socialist  municipalities  to  cover  the  expenses  of  publica- 
tion as  well  as  those  of  the  congress.  This  pamphlet  should  be 
ready  before  the  elections  and  should  be  sent  to  all  candidates 
requesting  it. 

The  next  meeting  of  the  congress  is  fixed  for  1905,  to  be 
held  in  the  department  of  the  Seine. 

Translated  from  UAvenir  Social  by  Charles  H.  Kerr. 


Annual  Report  of  the  National  Secretary  of  the 
Socialist  Party. 

From  January  i,  1903,  to  December  31,  1903. 

Omaha,  Neb.,  Jan.  i,  1904. 
To  the  National  Committee,  Socialist  Party: 

Comrades — -I  herewith  submit  my  report  as  National  Secre- 
tary covering  the  period  from  January  i,  1903,  to  December  31, 
1903,  inclusive. 

The  month  of  January,  1903,  was  included  in  former  Secre- 
tary Greenbaum's  term  of  office,  and  in  the  interval  between  then 
and  my  assumption  of  office  on  February  10,  National  Commit- 
teeman Samuel  Lovett,  of  South  Dakota,  was  in  charge  as  Acting 
Secretary. 

STATE    AND   TERRITORIAL   ORGANIZATIONS. 

There  are  now  thirty-three  state  and  territorial  organizations 
affiliated  with  the  national  party.  These  are  Alabama,  Arkansas, 
Arizona,  California,  Colorado,  Connecticut,  Florida,  Idaho,  Illi- 
nois, Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Kentucky,  Maine,  Massachusetts, 
Michigan,  Minnesota,  Missouri,  Montana,  Nebraska,  New  Hamp- 
shire, New  Jersey,  New  York,  North  E>akota,  Ohio,  Oklahoma, 
Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  South  Dakota,  Texas,  Vermont,  Wash- 
ington, West  Virginia  and  Wisconsin. 

Alabama,  Arkansas,  Arizona,  Vermont  and  West  Virginia 
were  chartered  during  the  year. 

The  Utah  organization  was  declared  not  in  good  standing 
and  its  charter  revoked  by  the  National  Committee  on  November 
10  for  non-payment  of  dues  from  July,  1902. 

LOCAL  ORGANIZATIONS. 

During  the  year  loi  new  locals  were  chartered  direct  by  the 
national  office  in  unorganized  states  and  territories  distributed  as 
follows:  Alabama,  10;  Arkansas,  14;  Arizona,  5;  Delaware,  i; 
Georgia,  6;  Indian  Territory,  12;  Louisiana,  10;  Maryland,  3; 
Mississippi,  i ;  Nevada,  i ;  North  Carolina,  6 ;  Rhode  Island,  i ; 
South  Carolina,  2 ;  Tennessee,  8 ;  Utah,  i ;  Virginia,  4 ;  West 
Virginia,  9;  Wyoming,  6,  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  i. 

The  thirty-three  locals  chartered  in  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Ari- 
zona, Louisiana  and  West  Virginia  have  since  been  merged  into 
the  state  organizations  formed  in  those  states.  During  the  quar- 
ter ending  December  31,  fifty-three  locals  paid  dues  to  the  na- 
tional office. 

FINANCIAL. 

The  total  receipts  of  the  national  office  from  all  sources  during 

604 


ANNUAL   REPOBT   OF  NATIONAL   SBCBETABY,  605 

the  year  were  $14,240.99,  with  expenditures  of  $14,072.55,  leav- 
ing a  balance  of  $168.44. 

The  receipts  show  that  $9,946.06  was  for  national  dues,  of 
which  amount  $9,223.61  came  from  state  and  territorial  organi- 
zations, and  $722.45  from  locals  and  members-at-large  in  unor- 
ganized states  and  territories. 

The  average  payment  for  each  month  of  the  year  was,  there- 
fore, upon  15,373  members  in  the  organized  states  and  territories 
and  upon  602  in  the  remainder,  or  an  average  of  15,975  members 
for  each  month  of  the  year.  The  average  payment  per  month 
during  1902  was  upon  10,000  members. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  members  for  whom 
dues  were  paid  during  the  respective  months  of  the  year : 

January   I4»223     July 17,296 

February  ii>939     August   *  17,014 

March    14,565      September    I4,559 

April    16,458     October  20,556 

May  12,246     November 17,404 

June 1 1,472     December    • 24,048 

There  is  now  due  the  national  office  from  the  various  organi- 
zations, $1,417.09,  for  due  stamps  and  supplies.  While  some 
of  these  accounts  are  for  stamps  obtained  on  credit  for  use 
during  the  current  month,  yet  at  least  $1,200  of  the  indebtedness 
extends  over  a  period  of  several  months,  and  in  some  cases  for 
the  entire  year. 

If  the  actual  amount  collected  for  dues  by  a  number  of  state 
secretaries  during  the  year  had  been  remitted  to  the  national 
office  the  average  membership  per  month  would  have  shown  an 
increase  equal  to  that  amount.  It  is  but  fair  to  assume  that  the 
actual  number  of  members  affiliated  with  the  national  organiza- 
tion at  this  time  is  not  less  than  23,000. 

NATIONAL   ORGANIZING    FUND. 

The  call  for  contributions  to  the  National  Organizing  I^^und 
realized  $2,509.51.  Of  this  amount,  $620  was  contributed  direct 
for  organizing  purposes  to  various  state  organizations.  The  re- 
mainder, $1,889.51,  was  expended  through  the  national  lecturers 
and  organizers,  with  the  addition  of  $1,277.63  received  for  dues, 
making  a  total  of  $3,687.14. 

The  grand  total  expended  by  the  national  office  alone  for 
organizing  during  the  year  was  therefore  $3,796.34,  exclusive 
of  postage,  telegrams  and  expressage. 

This  sum,  however,  does  not  cover  the  entire  amount  used 
for  agitation  and  organization  purposes;  $4,732.65  \Yas  collected 
direct  by  the  lecturers  and  organizers  themselves  through  lecture 
fees,  collections  and  donations,  making  a  total  during  the  year  of 

$8,528.99.  WiT.LTAM   MatLLY. 


Symposium  on  Convention. 


For  Clear  Cut  Constitution  and  Platform. 

EDITOR  Review :  Below  will  be  found  an  expression  of 
opinion  regarding  answers  to  queries  made.  I  answer  in 
the  order  named  and  by  number  to  save  space: 

First — ^A!  growing  movement  must  always  be  elastic 
enough  to  fit  itself  to  the  needs  that  development  demands.  The 
Constitution  of  the  Socialist  Party,  good  today,  might  be  almost 
worthless  tomorrow.  We  are  now  crippled  witih  an  ambiguously 
worded  constitution,  and  it  needs  a  thorough  revision  that  will 
bring  our  party  machinery  in  harmony  with  the  ever-changing 
conditions.  Lack  of  clearness  or  specific  declaration  has  com- 
pelled many  needless  referendums  and  much  waste  of  good  en- 
ergy. Our  national  secretary  should  have  behind  him  a  constitu- 
tion for  guidance  of  his  work  so  clear  and  clean-cut  as  to  remove 
the  last  vestige  of  doubt.  Such  changes  are  needed  as  will  tend 
to  produce  this  result. 

Second — ^A  most  important  question.  We  should  have  most 
clear  and  definite  party  pronouncements  governing  our  candi- 
dates and  controlling  their  actions,  but  it  should  be  a  strictly 
private  affair  within  our  party,  and  not  for  means  of  public  pro- 
paganda. A  man  nominated  on  the  Socialist  party  ticket  should 
know  that  the  party  is  bigger  than  the  man  and  that  it  means  to 
control  him..  He  should  know  in  clear  terms  and  in  what  man- 
ner the  control  would  apply,  and  if  it  meets  with  his  disapproval, 
then  he  can.  refuse  to  be  a  candidate. 

Such  a  "program"  should  be  separate  from  platform  pro- 
nouncements and  should  be  private  for  the  guidance  of  our  party 
members  and  not  to  invite  the  vote  of  half-baked  reformers  nnd 
sun-burnt  Hearstites,  who  later  must  learn  they  have  purchased 
a  gold  brick.  All  that  can  be  accomplished  under  capitalism  i?: 
almost  nU,  The  world  is  not  going  to  be  revolutionized  by  reso- 
lutions or  the  proletariat  brought  to  a  state  of  class-consciousness 
of  the  class  struggle  by  wordv  mouthings  of  what  we  will  do  if 
our  candidates  are  elected,  when  we  know  beforehand  we  can 
do  none  of  these  things.  To  the  public  the  Socialist  party  can 
have  but  one  program :  •  The  capture  of  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment bv  the  hitherto  oppressed  working  class,  that  it  may  come 
to  the  full  and  complete  ownership  of  the  tool  of  production— cap- 
ital. To  gfet  votes  on  any  other  proposition  is  to  invite  reaction. 
For  the  Socialist  party  to  start  out  making  glittering  ante-election 
promises  is  to  make  of  itself  a  joke.    Hearsts  and  middle-class 

006 


SYMPOSIUM   ON   CONVENTION.  607 

democracy  (?)  have  possession  of  a  more  complete  encyclopaedia 
of  adjectives,  and  they  have  nothing  to  lose  but  their  reputations 
(now  worthless),  and  many  rich  government  offices  to  gain. 
We  have  but  one  aim,  the  Social  Revolution,  and  we  must  avoid 
the  reactionary.  If  a  man  would  come  to  our  party  ballot-box 
today  because  we  promise  much,  he  wot#d  go  to  the  other  fellow 
tomorrow  because  he  promised  more.  It  is  only  the  class-con- 
scious, rock-ribbed,  dyed-in-the-wool  proletariat  that  is  worth 
anything  to  Socialism — the  man  who  is  once  a  Socialist,  always 
a  Socialist ;  not  for  office  or  power,  nor  for  personal  aggrandize- 
ment; not  for  satisfying  of  personal  ambition,  but  because  of 
the  recognition  of  the  class-struggle,  and  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  he  cannot  be  free  until  all  are  free,  and  that  he  who 
would  be  free  must  strike  the  first  blow. 

The  "Art  of  Politics"  and  municipal  program,  ward  physi- 
cians, etc.,  and  so  on,  seems  one  and  the  same  thing.  We  want 
behind  every  Socialist  ballot  a  Socialist,  and  we  better  be  forty 
years  in  the  wilderness  making  real  Socialists  than  to  suffer  de- 
feat at  the  critical  hour  when  we  come  to  cross  the  River  Jordan 
(kill  capitalism)  and  enter  Caanan  land  (the  co-operative  com- 
monwealth) to  find  only  that  it  has  been  the  back-door  to  hell — 
and  reaction. 

Mien  will  only  come  to  a  realization  of  the  class  struggle  as 
the  competitive  warfare  shall  press  harder  and  harder  upon  them. 
Better  one  hundred  suffer  and  die  today  to  bring  revolution  and 
life  to  the  whole  class  than  that  failure  follow  tomorrow  on  to- 
day's mushroom  growth,  and  appeals  to  the  voter  on  a  lot  of 
empty  promises  that  can  never  be  fulfilled  and  which  would  sap 
the  energy  of  the  revolutionary  government  to  try  to  carry  out. 

It  will  take  quite  as  much  energfy  to  persuade  a  capitalist 
voting  mule  to  vote  a  "program"  55ocialist  ballot  as  it  will  to 
make  a  revolutionary  one.  In  the  first  he  blow^s  with  the 
wind,  and  will  be  gone  tomorrow.  In  the  second,  the  work  is 
complete,  and  he  has  learned  the  real  underlying  directing 
forces  of  social  life. 

Third — Every  propaganda  center  should  have  a  "propa- 
ganda committee"  of  well-informed,  well-balanced  Socialists, 
whose  duty  it  should  be  to  see  and  know  that  each  nublic 
speaker  (or  writer)  should  be  competent  to  teach;  effective 
in  manner,  and  of  enough  gentlemanly  (or  womanly)  char- 
acter to  cfuarantee  respectable  and  proper  treatment  to  the 
public.  This  committee  should  have  also  discretionary  power 
to  aid  in  harmonizing  public  declarations  on  fundamental  lines, 
so  that  the  whole  voice  of  the  propaganda  would  ring  true  to 
our  revolutionary  program. 

Fourth — Partly  answered  above.  The  party  in  annual  con- 
vention might  with  propriety  pass  resolutions  of  direction  or 


60S  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

suggestion  to  party  speakers,  and  on  matters  of  great  import- 
ance give  clear  and  emphatic  utterance  to  the  position  of  the 
party  thereto.  The  combined  membership  of  the  party  should 
be  and  is  wiser  than  the  individual. 

Fifth — They  (the  farmers)  belong  to  the  exploited  class  of 
producers,  and  all  that  is  needed  is  the  defining  of  our  philoso- 
phy in  terms  that  can^e  comprehended  by  them.  They  are 
a  larger  voting  factor  than  the  purely  industrial  worker,  and 
.if  we  appeal  to  the  latter  to  help  him  "see"  much  greater  is 
the  need  that  we  point  the  "way  of  escape"  fOr  the  farmer. 
What  folly  to  everlastingly  "program"  for  the  city  industrial- 
ist and  forget  the  agrarian  "wage"  worker.  He  must  be  shown 
wherein  and  "how"  Socialism  will  benefit  him,  and  we  need 
to  enlarge  our  vocabulary  to  the  extent  of  remembering  that 
there  are  vastly  greater  things  "than  heretofore  have  been 
told"  in  our  philosophy  respecting  the  farmer.  Socialism  can- 
not be  a  factor  at  the  polls  until  the  farmer  makes  it  so.  The 
common  platform  of  exploitation  is  broad  enough  and  strong 
enough  to  hold  all — farmer  and  city  worker,  trade  unionist 
and  scab,  Jew  and  Gentile,  negro  and  Italian,  Irishman  and 
German,  and  many  of  these  are  "from  Missouri,"  and  it  is  up 
to  our  Revolutionary  Party  to  "show"  them  where  their  in- 
terests lie.    We  cannot  and  must  not  beg  the  question. 

Sixth — (Yes,  but  in  mentioning  one'  class  we  must  not  for- 
get "there  are  others."  (See  No.  5.)  The  organization  on  the 
industrial  field  for  an  alleviation  of  present  needs  is  a  splen- 
did place  in  which  to  work  out  "immediate  demands."  Then 
organization  on  the  political  field,  as  expressed  by  the  Socialist 
Party,  is  the  place  to  get  busy  in  "real"  work.  If  the  Union 
is  a  place  where  the  worker  may  have  something  to  say  re- 
garding wages,  hours  and  conditions  of  his  labor,  then  the 
Socialist  Party  movement  is  the  place  where  this  same  worker 
may  find  it  possible  to  have  all  to  say  about  the  product  of  his 
toil. 

"Workingmen  of  the  world,  unite  (at  the  ballot  box)  ;  you 
have  nothing  to  lose  but  your  chains  (of  slavery  to  a  job)  and 
a  world  to  gain."  Charles  L.  Breckon. 


The  Farmer  A  Worker. 

THERE  is  no  need  of  any  special  expression  of 
4he  Socialist  Party  toward  the  farmers.  It  is 
only  necessary  that  it  be  recognized  that  the 
farmer  is  a  worker — ^not  a  wagei  worker,  but 
still  a  worker.  And  it  is  necessary,  absolutely  necessary, 
that  it  be  recognized  that  Socialism  does  not  appeal  to  the  farmer 
from  the  same  point  of  view  as  it  does  to  the  wage  worker.  The 
fundamental  point  of  difference  between  the  farmer  and  wage 
worker  is  that  the  farmer  is  indirectly  exploited,  while  the  wage 
worker  is  directly  exploited.  Also  that  while  the  wage  worker 
has  a  personal  representative  of  the  competitive  systems  before 
him  in  the  person,  firm  or  corporation  that  he  works  for,  the 
farmer  has  not.  It  is  easy  to  arouse  a  personal  feeling  against 
the  firm  or  corporation  and  then  transfer  it  against  the  system 
while  with  the  farmer  it  must  be  aroused  against  the  system 
direct,  which  is  very  much  harder.  The  farmer  is  beginning  to 
see  that  the  competitive  system  is  wrong  and  he  is  trying  to  right 
it,  as  witness  the  Populist  reform  planks,  free  silver,  etc.  He 
does  not  see  clearly  yet,  but  perhaps  as  clearly  as  the  average 
wage  worker,  and  he  is  willing  to  learn,  if  Socialism  is  rightly 
presented  to  him. 

The  Socialist  Party  has  thus  far  failed  in  presenting  Socialism 
to  the  farmer,  in  that  it  has  not  done  it  in  a  way  to  touch  his 
point  of  view.  The  speakers  and  writers  of  the  Socialist  Party 
have  so  far  been  mainly  wage  workers,  union  wage  workers  at 
that,  and  they  have  talked  and  written  as  they  would  to  wage 
workers.  Now  the  farmer  is  interested  in  shop  regulation; 
unions,  scabs,  etc.,  just  as  he  is  in  a  flood  in  South  America,  or 
a  famine  in  India;  he  sympathizes  but  he  does  not  understand. 
The  main  point  that  should  be  emphasized  to  farmers,  but  which 
is  seldom  touched,  is  the  need  of  organization.  The  average 
union  speaker  has  become  so  accustomed  to  organization  that  he 
fails  to  understand  that  the  farmers  does  not  see  the  need  of  it. 
To  him  It  has  become  second  nature,  and  he  takes  it  for  granted 
that  everyone  else  understands  it  also.  The  farmer,  on  the  other 
hand,  by  his  work,  habits  and  education  is  taught  that  organiza- 
tion is  not  necessary,  that  what  each  man  is  depends  on  himself 
alone. 

The  farmer  starts  a  piece  of  work  and  carries  it  through  by 
himself  from  start  to  finish.  By  so  doing  he  misses  the  object 
lesson  that  the  wage  worker  has  always  before  him :  he  does  not 
have  to  depend  on  his  fellow  worker. 

609 


610  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

In  short,  it  is  necessary  only  that  the  farmer  be  shown,  not 
that  there  is  something  wrong  in  the  present  workings  of  the 
competitive  system,  but  that  the  system  itself  is  wrong,  and  that 
it  must  be  destro)red  to  do  away  .with  his  troubles.  He  must 
he  shown  that  an  organization,  such  as  the  Socialist  Party  offers, 
is  necessary  to  destroy  the  system.  Show  him  this,  and  you 
have  a  clear,  class-conscious  Socialist  who  will  stand  bjt  his  fel- 
low workers,  both  in  the  field  or  the  shop,  to  the  end,  come  what 
will. — William  Carpenter,  Socialist  and  Farmer,  Tulare,  Cali- 
fornia. 


A  Referendum  on  the  Platform. 

THE  following  referendum,  even  if  it  does  not  reach  its 
final  stage  before  the  meeting  of  the  National  Conven- 
tion, may  serve  to  direct  attention  to  these  specific  issues 
and  obtain  a  more  complete  expression  of  opinion  than 
is  possible  through  the  action  of  the  convention: 

Whereas,  The  outcome  of  the  Social  Revolution  now  in  progress,  depends 
largely  on  the  unity  of  purpose  and  concontration  of  effort  of  the  Socialist 
forces,  to  be  'secured  only  by  the  avoidance  of  pre^'arications  and  aide  issues, 
which  breed  dissensions  and  complications,  and  hamper  and  dwarf  Socialist 
activity  and  ideals,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  principles  of  scientific  and  revolutionary  Socialism 
stand  as  the  basis  of  union  and  test  of  loyalty  to  the  Cause  in  the  Nation, 
leaving  to  individual  opinion  and  belief  matters  not  set  forth,  in  this 
politico-economic  program,  and  to  the  several  states  such  rights  of  adapta- 
tion of  these  principles  that  shall  preserve  strictly  the  revolutionary  aim 
and  character  of  the  movement,  and  guard  against  fusion  or  compromise 
or  alliance  with,  or  endorsement  of,  any  outside  organization,  whatever  its 
name  or  pretensions,  and 

Resolved,  That,  in  keeping  with  the  position  thus  defined,  we  call  for 
the  omission  of  the  'Immediate  Demands"  from  the  Party's  National  Plat- 
form, and  the  rescinding  of  the  "Trades  Union  Resolutions"  appended  there- 
to; and  that  such  action  shall  not  be  construed  as  implying  any  hostility 
to  the  Trades  Unions,  but  as  designed  rather  to  relieve  the  Party  and  the 
Unions  from  the  embarrassment  and  injustice  of  the  confusion  of  the  aims 
and  methods  of  the  two  movements,  while  leaving  the  Unions,  or  to  agitata 
among  them  as  they  see  fit. 

The  experiences  of  Socialist  history  certainly  teach  the  need 
of  unity  in  essentials. 

In  the  first  place,  it  will  be  generally  admitted,  that  all  mat- 
ters not  specifically  set  forth  in  the  party's  platform  should  be 
left  to  individual  opinion  and  belief;  questions,  for  instance,  of 
a  strictly  social,  religious  or  philosophical  import,  though  it 
may  be  true  that  in  the  last  analysis  the  movement  derives  its 
higher  sanction  and  deeper  inspiration  fromi  these  social  do- 
mains of  man's  thought  and  life.  The  diflFerences  in  tempera- 
ment and  training  among  Socialists  require  the  largest  freedom 
in  the  methods  of  argument  and  style  of  delivery  of  writers 
and  speakers,  as  long  as  they  hold  to  the  main  thesis.  The  doc- 
trine of  economic  determination  certainly  is  true,  and  of  vast 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION.  611 

importance  in  the  Socialist  scheme,  but  it  mttf  take  the  form  of 
the  narrowest  of  dogmas,  cutting  the  mind  off  from  those  springs 
of  power  in  the  paths  of  the  air,  the  regions  of  sentiment  and 
imagination. 

Whatever  tlie  serviceableness  of  the  "immediate  demands" 
mtay  be,  their  value,  even  from  the  practical  standpoint,  is  un- 
certain and  variable,  while  they  clash  theoretically  with  some 
of  the  main  contenti(Mis  of  Socialists ;  but,  being  allowed  a  place 
in  the  party's  National  Platform,  they  are  made  to  partake  of  the 
supreme  dignity  and  emphasis  of  basic  principles,  despite  the 
cautionary  words  that  accompany  them.  These '"demands"  are 
easily  confused  with  fundamentals  by  the  unwary,  the  unthink- 
ing and  the  designing,  both  inside  and  outside  of  our  ranks. 
And  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Democratic  and  Union  Labor 
parties  claim  to  stand  for  all  that  is  practicable  in  Socialism,  when 
they  can  swallow  the  "demiands"  with  but  a  slight  change  of 
phraseology.  And  as  the  "practical"  politician  works  his  way 
to  the  fore  with  the  growth  of  the  party,  the  "demands"  will  be 
looked  upon  as  the  via  sacra  of  the  movement  (if  they  are  not 
already  felt  by  some  to  be  its  very  backbone),  and  its  scientific 
and  revolutionary  aspects  will  appear  as  wraitfis  from  the  land 
of  dreams.  Faithfulness  to  principle,  however,  does  not  mean 
the  neglect  of  opportunity  and  scorn  of  the  practical,  of  means 
fitted  to  present  need  and  exigency,  as  long  as  a  true  valuation 
is  placed  on  these  attempts  at  graduated  measure  which  circum- 
stances invite  or  compel,  and  the  shallows  of  the  coast-line  are 
not  mistaken  for  the  deep  soundings  of  the  outer  sea.  But  this 
species  of  effort,  along  empirical  lines,  may  be  left  to  the  several 
states,  under  a  regulation  policy  determined  by  the  party  in 
National  Convention  and  applied  through  a  National  Bureau. 

The  relation  of  the  party  toward  the  trade  unions  given  in 
the  two  sets  of  "resolutions,"  made  so  conspicuous  in  the  i>arty 
press,  is  indefinite  in  the  last  degree,  and,  after  so  many  attempts 
of  this  kind  by  experts  in  the  business,  the  question  is  raised 
whether  it  is  not  time  the  experiment  be  made  of  a  total  abstention 
from  all  official  pronunciamentos  of  this  sort.  These  "resolutions" 
admit  of  a  double  interpretation  that  gives  license  to  faction  and 
the  upper  hand  always  to  the  ultra-trade  unionist.  Such  experi- 
ences as  those  with  the  St.  Louis  Local  Quorumi  and  the  Boston 
Convention  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  furnish  proof  as  strong  as  an)rthing 
short  of  a  supernatural  manifestation,  of  the  need  of  a  radical 
change  in  the  party's  trade-union  policy.  And  this  change  of  atti- 
tude need  not  be  from  one  of  friendliness  to  one  of  antagonism, 
like  that  of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party,  by  any  means.  There 
is  far  less  overlapping  of  the  interests  of  the  two  movements  in 
this  than  in  foreign  countries.  Here  we  have  an  immense 
territory,  a  mixture  of  races,  equal  suffrage  and  state  govern- 
ments, and  a  more  advanced  stage  of  industrial  development.    It 


612  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

needs  not  be  denied  that  the  strike,  boycott  and  label  are  some- 
thing of  a  necessity  in  American  life,  but  it  does  seem  the  very 
height  of  folly  to  seek  to  weld  these  methods  to  those  of  a  revo- 
lutionary Socialist  party,  whose  aim  is  the  conquest  of  political 
power  by  means  of  the  ballot,  of  the  intelligent  use  of  the  rights 
of  citizenship.  And  there  are  good  grounds  for  believing  that 
Socialists  would  have  far  more  influence  in  trade  union  bodies 
if  they  did  not  come  with  a  commission  to  capture  them  for  the 
cause.  And  what  do  these  convention  "resolutions"  favoring  So- 
cialism amount  to,  anyway?  What  fruits  have  they  borne  in 
Colorado,  where  the  American  Labor  Union  indorsed  Socialism 
in  the  ivtost  express  terms?  The  trade  union  constituency  is  a 
parti-colored  mass,  politically  speaking,  and  of  many  nationali* 
ties  and  all  degrees  of  intelligence ;  and  there  may  be  more  un- 
wisdom in  lugging  politics  into  the  union,  no  matter  whose  brand 
it  is,  than  in  trying  to  keep  it  out.  Theodore  Curtis. 


An  Official  Working  Program  Separate  from 
Platform. 

NO  changes  can  be  made  in  the  matter  of  party  organiza- 
tion, in  my  opinion,  which  would  be  of  special  advantage 
at  this  time.  Any  change  would  be  either  in  the  direction 
of  less  or  ntore  autonomy  of  the  different  states.  The 
present  plan  works  well. 

There  should  be  an  official  working  program  adopted  for  the 
guidance  of  members  elected  to  office.  It  should  be  separate 
from  the  platform,  deal-  only  with  questions  of  paramount  im- 
portance to  the  working  class  under  capitalism;  define  the  So- 
cialist position  clearly  on  these  questions,  and  leave  minor  ques- 
tions and  details  untouched.  This  should  be  an  official  propa- 
ganda document  for  campaigns  and  for  inducing  workmen  to 
join  the  party. 

If  a  speaker  violates  or  denies  the  principles  we  stand  for,  give 
the  matter  the  fullest  publicity  and  leave  the  rest  to  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  mlembership. 

Uniformity  in  different  cities  on  paramount  issues  will  be 
secured  by  the  working  program.  Uniformity  on  minor  questions 
may  not  be  desirable. 

As  to  the  farmers  and  negro  employer  of  labor,  no.  As  to  the 
negro  wage  slave,  yes.  We  should  make  it  strong  enough  to 
drive  every  "nigger  hater"  out  of  the  Socialist  Party. 

The  resolution  should  be  changed  to  read  "The  trade-union 
movement  and  Socialist  political  movement,  etc.,"  substituting 
the  word  "Socialist"  for  "independent/'  Wm.  S.  Dalton. 


The  Farmer  and  the  Negro. 

AMONG  other  questions  the  Editor  of  the  International 
Socialist  Review  asks  me:  ^'Should  there  be  (by  the 
National  Convention)  any  special  expression  of  our  at- 
titude toward  the  farmers  and  negroes?"  In  the  first 
place  it  might  be  pointed  out  that  our  attitude  toward  the  farmers 
and  the  negroes  must  be. determined  by  entirely  different  consid- 
erations. When  considering  the  farmers  we  consider  a  clearly 
defined  economic  question.  Their  numerical  strength  makes 
them  a  factor  to  be  reckoned  with  in  every  plan  looking  toward 
the  capture  of  the  powers  of  government.  They  are  devoted 
to  the  perpetuation  of  a  republican  form  of  goveriiment  which 
in  the  present  state  of  industry,  can  only  be  secured  by  the  tri- 
umph of  the  principles  for  which  the  Socialist  party  stands. 
They  are  good  fighters  and  they  have  felt  the  sting  of  capitalist 
arrc^ance  and  the  lash  of  capitalist  despotism.  We  want  them 
and  will  welcome  them  if  they  come  to  fight  with  us,  but  I  would 
oppose  any  special  appeal  to  them  which  should  involve  any 
equivocation  or  concealment  of  the  essentially  proletarian  charac- 
ter of  the  Socialist  movement.  Years  ago  the  Omaha  platform  of 
the  Populists  declared  that  the  interests  of  urban  and  rural  la- 
bor are  the  same,  but  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  this  was  more 
the  expression  of  some  Populist  politician's  desire  to  capture  the 
urban  laborer's  vote  rather  than  an  evidence  of  Populist  knowl- 
edge of  the  character  and  condition  of  the  proletariat.  The 
farmer  and  the  proletarian  are  alike  in  that  both  are  the  victims 
of  capitalist  greed,  and  that  is  a  bond  of  comradeship.  This  bond 
is  being  recognized  but  its  strength  depends  on  the  clearness 
with  which  our  farmer  comrades  perceive  that  freedom  lies  in 
progress  toward  industrial  democracy.  We  cannot  and  should 
not  forget  that  the  peculiar  economic  status  of  the  farmer  makes 
him  prone  to  regard  favorably  reactionary  measures  or  some 
forms  of  State  Socialism  which  promise  relief  to  him  but  hold 
-  out  nothing  for  the  working  class.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt, 
however,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  farmers  are  able  to  appre- 
ciate the  Socialist  position  and  to  realize  the  hopelessness  of  any 
real  improvement  in  their  condition  under  Capitalism.  We  want 
to  reach  this  element,  but  I  oppose  embodying  the  appeal  in  our 
platform. 

In  my  opinion,  the  Negro  Resolution  adopted  by  the  In- 
dianapolis convention  in  1901  was  a  mistake.  Not  that  we  should 
shut  the  door  in  the  face  of  the  black  man,  but  that  the  resolu- 
tion was  characterized  by  a  sentimental — ^not  to  say  hysterical — 
spirit.     In  effect  it  was  an  invitation  to  the  "brother  in  black" 

613 


614  TUE    INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    EEVIBW. 

to  come  to  our  arms  and  receive  a  fraternal  kiss.  The  negro, 
when  he  is  intelligent  enough  to  catch  a  glimmer  of  what  Social- 
ists are  driving  at,  will  come  to  us  without  a  sentimental  appeal. 
If  he  lacks  intelligence  he  will  misunderstand  the  appeal  if  he 
hears  it  and  class  it  with  the  endearing  call  of  the  carpetbagger. 
As  a  race  the  negro  worker  of  the  South  lacks  the  brain  and 
the  backbone  necessary  to  make  a  Socialist.  To  make  his  case 
a  special  case  is  folly  because  he  will  return  less  dividends  on 
the  energy  spent  in  converting  him  than  probably  any  other 
worker  on  earth.  Some  of  our  comrades  find  great  difficulty 
in  keeping  down  their  effervescing  love  for  the  black  man,  but 
common  sense  and  not  effervescence  should  characterize  our  party 
policies,  and  common  sense  can't  endorse  any  special  attempt  to 
capture  the  negro.  We  are  appealing  to  wage  workers,  and  it  is 
no  particular  concern  of  ours  whether  the  wage  worker  is  brown- 
eyed  or  blue-eyed,  black  or  white.  We  deprecate  race  distinctions 
and  then  proceed  to  emphasize  them  by  assuming  that  the  race 
of  the  worker  endows  him  with  some  peculiar  status.  Let  us 
not  make  the  mistake  of  mortgaging  the  future  to  make  good  our 
predictions  concerning  conditions  under  the  Co-operative  Com- 
monwealth. It  may  be  that  our  fair-skinned  women  will  be 
Desdemonas  and  prefer  Othellos  for  mates,  and  the  fair-skinned 
men  may  emulate  Solomon  and  take  to  Sheban  spouses.  Then 
agfain  it  may  not  be  so.    You  never  can  tell. 

Charles  Dobbs. 


Develop  Press  and  Literature. 

I    FAVOR  the  elimiination  of  all  "immediate  demands"  and 
the  formulation  of  a  "guide"  or  program  for  officials  elect- 
ed by  our  votes,  as  suggested  recently  by  Comrade  Unter- 
mann  in  a  Review  article. 
I  would  ignore  the  trades  unions  as  such  and  stand  the  polit- 
ical movement  on  its  own  bottom.    The  negro  and  farmer  propo- 
sitions are  of  an  entirely  different  character ;  we  state  their  posi- 
tion under  capitalism,  not  our  "attitude"  toward  them. 

I  would  abolish  the  "local  quorum,"  repose  more  confidence 
and  power  in  the  national  secretary,  and  require  action  by  entire 
committee  if  indicated  by  the  character  of  the  matter  in  hand,  or 
demanded  by  a  certain  number  of  the  national  committee. 

I  would  abolish  plural  voting  and  give  the  states  proportional 
representation  in  the  national  committee  if  something  is  required 
to  prevent  ill-advised  action  by  immature  members  from  "new" 
states  or  territories,  which  I  miuch  doubt.  Certainly  we  are  just* 
about  as  liable  to  have  such  representation  from  any  of  the 
"older"  states. 


SYMPOSIUM  ON   CONVENTION.  615 

The  upbuilding  of  the  party  press  will  be  the  speediest  and 
surest  method  of  regulatinjg  the  "agitator"  question,  and  probably 
the  only  practical  or  efifective  method.  With  the  movement  in  its 
present  condition  and  a  crying  demand  for  soap-boxers  from 
every  section,  any  volunteer  will  be  hailed  with  acclaim;  when 
the  movement  g^ows  larger  the  field  will  attract  grafters  and 
fakirs,  who  will  imagine  it  to  afford  an  easy  living.  In  either 
event,  no  effective  control  can  be  exercised ;  the  best  that  can  be 
done  will  be  to  "repudiate"  and  "protest";  as  the  movement  be- 
comies  clear  the  locals  will  do  that  effectually  themselves. 

In  my  opinion,  the  main  thing  for  Socialists  to  concentrate 
their  energies  upon  is  the  creation  and  establishment  of  a  pow- 
erful press  and  the  distribution  of  scientific  literature,  such,  for 
example,  as  that  issued  by  oiu-  own  co-operative  publishing  house, 
known  as  the  Chas.  H.  Kerr  &  Co.  Of  only  less  importance 
is  the  organization  of  the  party.  The  two  should  be  inseparably 
connected,  and,  if  so,  no  concern  need  be  felt  regarding  the 
"control"  of  agitators;  false  or  Utopian  propaganda  cannot  exist, 
much  less  flourish,  where  clear  literature  is  sown. 

"Whether  the  Socialist  Party  as  a  whole  looks  with  favor 
upon  the  efforts  which  are  frequently  made  to  secure  the  adop- 
tion of  resolutions  by  trade-union  conventions  endorsing  the 
party"  or  not  is  immaterial.  Such  efforts  will  be  made  regard- 
less of  any  action  or  declaration  of  the  party,  and  the  fact  that 
they  are  so  made  is  conclusive  that  the  party  "as  a  whole"  has 
no  "look"  in  the  matter,  and  it  should  have  none.  Any  conven- 
tion declaration  would  only  be  cited  by  our  opponents  to  prevent 
agitation — which  is  all  such  efforts  amount  to  in  any  event — and 
agitation  is  as  essential  to  our  growth  as  air  or  water  is  to  plants. 
Let  the  party  stand  as  a  party,  and  concern  itself  not  with  things 
with  which  it  should  have  no  concern.        Charles  Heydrick. 


The  Trade  Union  Movement. 

THE  resolution  adopted  by  the  National  Convention  at 
Indianapolis,  July,  1901,  defining  the  attitude  of  the  So- 
cialist party  towards  the  trade  union  movement  must 
stand.  It  is  in  line  with  the  sound  policy  of  the  Interna- 
tional Social  Democracy.  Experience  has  demonstrated  its  cor- 
rectness. The  supplementary  resolutions  adopted  at  the  National 
Committee  meeting  in  January,  1903,  are  a  compromise  with  a 
wrong  policy,  a  compromise  with  the  very  tactics  that  have  proven 
so  detrimental  to  the  entire  Socialist  and  trade  union  movement 
in  past  years. 

Theoretically,  on  paper,  our  party  policy  is  correct.     Practi- 
cally, in  our  every  day's  struggles,  many  of  our  leading  coni- 


616  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    BEVIBW. 

rades  are  violating  the  fundamental  policy  of  our  party.  They 
are  violating  the  time-tried  policy  of  our  international  Socialist 
movement.  Their  work  is  unsocialistic,  because  by  their  very 
action  they  wish  to  create  the  impression  among  the  rank  and  file 
that  they  (i.e.,  these  leading  comrades)  were  destined  to  build 
a  Solomon's  temple  of  New  Trade  Unionism  over  night.  These 
comrades — and  Comrade  Eugene  V.  Debs  is  one  of  them — com- 
mit the  same  blunder  as  Samuel  Gompers,  John  Mitchell  and 
other  union  leaders  of  the  anti- Socialist  variety.  President  Gom- 
pers says:  "We^  we,  we  have  built  up  this  great  trades  union 
movement !" 

Some  of  our  Socialist  leaders  have  the  same  delusive  idea  as 
Gompers  and  Mitchell.  While  they  may  not  frankly  express  it, 
yet  they  think  like  this:  "We,  we,  we  are  the  leading  spirits 
possessed  of  the  god-given  power  to  create  and  build  up  a  New 
Trade  Unionism — ^a  Socialist  unionism!" 

These  friends  of  ours  don't  realize  their  unsocialistic  position 
on  this  important  question.  We  may  find  an  opportunity  to  say 
more  on  this  subject  at  some  other  time. 

In  1896  the  International  Socialist  Congress  was  held  in  Lon- 
don, England.  That  was  at  the  time  when  Prof.  De  Leon's  and 
Hugo  \^gt's  Socialist  Trades  and  Labor  Alliance  was  in  full 
bloom.  Said  International  Socialist  Congress  put  itself  on  record 
on  the  trade  union  question  as  follows : 

resolution. 

"The  trade  union  struggle  of  the  wage  workers  is  indispensa- 
ble, in  order  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  Capitalism  and  to 
improve  the  conditions  of  Labor  under  the  present  system.  With- 
out trade  unions  no  fair  wages  and  no  shorter  hours  of  labor. 
However,  this  economic  struggle  only  lessens  the  exploitation,  but 
does  not  aTx)lish  it.  The  exploitation  of  labor  will  cease  when 
society  takes  possession  of  the  means  of  production.  This  is 
conditioned  on  the  creation  of  a  system  of  legislative  measures. 
To  fully  carry  out  these  measures  the  working  class  must  be- 
come the  deciding  political  power.  However,  the  working  class 
will  only  become  such  a  political  power  in  the  same  ratio  as  its 
organization,  the  trade  union,  grows.  By  the  very  organization 
into  trade  unions  the  working  class  becomes  a  political  factor. 

"The  organization  of  the  working  class  is  incomplete  and  in- 
sufficient so  long  as  it  is  only  political. 

"But  the  economic  (trade  union)  struggle  also  requires  the 
political  activity  of  the  working  class.  Very  often  the  working- 
men  have  to  assert  and  permanently  secure  by  their  political 
power  what  they  have  wrung  from  their  exploiters  in  the  free 
economic  struggle.  In  other  cases  the  legislative  gains  make 
economic  conflicts  by  trade  union  action  superfluous.     The  in- 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION.  617 

ternational  co-operation  of  the  working  class  on  trade  union 
lines,  especially  in  regard  to  labor  legislation,  becomes  more 
necessary  in  the  same  degree  as  the  economic  relations  of  the 
capitalistic  world's  market  and  the  conflicts  of  the  national  indus- 
tries develop. 

"In  accordance  with  the  decisions  of  the  International  Social- 
ist Congresses  in  Brussels  and  Zurich  this  congress  declares  that 
the  organization  of  trades  unions  is  an  absolute  neessity  in  the 
struggle  of  emancipation  of  the  working  class  and  we  consider 
it  as  the  duty  of  all  wage  workers  who  aim  at  the  emancipation 
of  labor  from  capitalist  wage  slavery  to  join  the  union  of  their 
respective  trade. 

*'The  trades  unions,  in  order  to  do  effective  work,  shall  be 
nationally  organised  and  the  splitting  up  of  the  elements  in  sep- 
arate organisations  is  to  be  condemned.  Political  differences 
of  opinion  shall  not  be  a  cause  for  dividing  or  splitting  up  the 
forces  in  the  economic  struggle,  but  the  poletarian  class  struggle 
makes  it.  the  duty  for  the  labor  organizations  to  educate  their 
members  in  Socialist  principles." 

Our  Indianapolis  resolution  is  in  full  accord  with  the  above 
resolution  of  the  London  International  Socialist  Congress.  The 
only  amendment  we  might  make  would  be  to  add :  "IXfferences 
of  political  opinions  shall  not  be  a  cause  for  dividing  or  splitting 
up  the  forces  in  the  economic  struggle  of  the  trade  union  move- 
ment." 

Differences  of  political  opinions  and  a  spirit  of  resentment 
were  instrumental  in  giving  birth  to  De  Leon's  Socialist  Trades 
and  Labor  Alliance. 

Differences  of  political  opinions  and  a  spirit  of  resentment 
were  also  instrumental  in  giving  birth  to  a  similar  organization 
in  Denver,  Colo.,  a  little  over  a  year  ago.  Both  "creations"  were 
not  the  necessary  result  of  economic  conditions,  but  the  work  of 
a  few  men  who  were  anxious  to  get  back  at  Gompers  and 
other  "leaders."     Socialist  resolutions  cannot  hide  these  facts. 


Shall  we  ask  the  trade  unions  to  indorse  the  Socialist  Party? 

No,  decidedly  no.  We  should  never  ask  any  union  to  indorse 
the  Socialist  Party.  The  American  Labor  Union  convention  in- 
dorsed the  Socialist  Party.  Many  Socialists  throughout  the 
country  acted  as  if  the  Socialist  Co-operative  Commonwealth 
would  be  inaugurated  in  November,  1904,  with  headquarters 
somewhere  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Since  then  we  have  had  an 
election  in  Colorado.  You  know  the  result.  The  Fr-enchman 
would  call  it  "Un  blamage  pour  le  Socudismer 

As  Socialist  members  of  the  trade  union  movement  we  must 
insist  that  the  unions  come  down  to  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  labor  movement : 


618  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    BEVIBW. 

1.  Labor  creates  all  values. 

2.  Labor  is  entitled  to  all  it  creates. 

3.  Labor  must  devise  ways  and  means  to  get  into  possession 
of  its  full  products. 

These  questions  must  and  will  be  discussed  in  the  trade  union 
movement.  Nieither  Sam  Gompers  nor  anyone  else  can  prevent 
it.  These  are  trade  union  questions.  Socialism  gives  the  solu- 
tion to  all  of  them.  The  very  moment  these  points  become  clear 
in  the  minds  of  the  union  men  we  have  gained  our  point.  Social- 
ism then  becomes  the  philosophy  of  the  union  movement. 

At  the  Boston  convention  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  the  Socialists 
did  not  ask  for  the  indorsement  of  the  Socialist  Party.  They 
asked  for  the  discussion  and  indorsement  of  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  the  union  movement  and  for  the  discussion  and  indorse- 
ment of  ways  and  means  to  realize  these  principles.  They  did  not 
ask  the  A.  F.  of  L.  convention  to  reorganize  into  a  political  party, 
but  to  remind  the  millions  of  union  men  throughout  this  coun- 
try of  their  most  sacred  duty  as  wage  workers  and  citizens  and 
to  co-operate  politically  on  the  same  independent  working  class 
lines  as  pointed  out  by  the  Socialist  Party. 

St.  Louis,  March  19,  1904.  G.  A.  Hoehn. 


The  May  Convention. 

I  submit  the  following  suggestions  for  the  consideration  of 
the  delegates : 

As  every  officer  of  the  party  is  subject  to  removal  by  refer- 
endum, let  the  term  of  the  members  of  the  national  committee  be 
four  years.  Abolish  the  quorum.  Let  the  members  of  the  na- 
tional committee  select  an  executive  committee  of  nine  from  its 
members.  Vacancies  to  be  filled  by  national  committee.  New  mem- 
ber of  executive  committee  not  necessarily  selected  from  state  of 
preceding  member. 

Abolish  the  local  quorum.  It  is  useless  and  might  become 
dangerous. 

Increase  salary  of  national  secretary  to  twelve  hundred  dollars 
a  year. 

Abolish  state  autonomy.  Highly  centralized  organic  union  is 
the  spirit  of  social  progress — of  Socialism.  Federation  is  liberal- 
istic,  anarchistic,  capitalistic. 

The  headquarters  shall  be  located  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana, 
until  changed  by  referendum. 

The  best  control  and  regulation  of  Socialist  agitators  in  the 
lecture  field  is  the  party  press,  and  the  rapidly  increasing  intelli- 
^nce  of  the  proletariat.  Official  interference,  unless  impera- 
tively demanded,  does  not  commend  itself  to  me  at  present.    These 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION.  619 

conclusions  are  sustained  by  a  very  limited  experience  as  lecturer 
and  as  listener.  Other  comrades'  opinions  and  reasonings  might 
cause  me  to  change  my  present  opinion. 

Don't  like  the  municipal  committee  idea.  As  our  first  power, 
and  therefore  first  conflict  with  the  established  political  order,  will 
be  municipal,  I  agree  with  Comrade  Simons  that  our  municipal 
policy  is  the  largest  immediate  practical  question  that  confronts 
us.  I  think  our  municipal  policy  should  be  included  in  our  plat- 
forms, stated  as  broadly  as  will  give  it  any  meaning.  I  emphat- 
ically do  not  mean  that  it  should  contain  any  demands,  immediate 
or  remote,  but  a  statement  of  the  Socialist  policy  when  it  has 
obtained  municipal  powers. 

Municipal  plank  suggested: 

The  Socialist  party  when  in  control  of  municipal  government 
under  capitalism,  will  give  all  municipal  offices  and  positions  to 
nrembers  of  the  party;  and  will  increase  the  number  of  these 
offices  and  positions  as  rapidly  and  largely  as  possible.  It  will 
abolish  the  contract  system ;  do  its  own  exploiting  directly ;  rigidly 
enforce  the  eight-hour  law  and  pay  the  highest  market  wages. 
It  will  raise  the  largest  possible  revenue  by  the  present  and  im- 
proved systems  of  taxation,  and  will  expend  the  same  in  such 
manner  as  may  most  largely  and  directly  benefit  the  working 
class.  It  will  acquire  and  develop  all  actual  and  potential  "public 
utilities,"  and  will  sell  their  products  at  the  cost  of  their  pro- 
duction. All  of  these  things  can,  as  is  well  known,  be  lawfully 
done  under  the  present  system,  and  will  be  done  whenever  the 
working  class  elects  Socialist  municipal  administrations. 

No  special  resolution  should  be  devoted  to  either  the  farmers 
or  negroes.  The  farmers  are  not  an  economic  class,  but  a  tech- 
nical industrial  group.  The  negroes  are  not  an  economic,  but  an 
ethnic  or  racial  group.  The  negro  resolution  adopted  at  Indian- 
apolis should  certainlv  be  repealed.  If  any  resolution  on  the  negro 
question  is  ever  to  be  adopted  it  should  not  be  done  until  the 
subject  has  been  fully  explained  and  discussed  by  Socialists,  for 
the  purpose  of  discovering  the  right  Socialist  tactic.  As  is  well 
known,  this  has  never  been  done.  A  wrong  tactic  adopted  now 
on  this  question  may  be  so  enormously  detrimental  to  our  cause 
that  I  pray  you  comrades  let  it  await  full  and  free  discussion. 
Leave  the  question  alone  until  we  get  to  it. 

I  think  the  trade  unions  resolutions  should  be  abolished  and 
nothing  further  said  on  the  subject  by  this  convention.  This 
conclusion  is  not  only  the  result  of  the  application  of  the  scientific 
method  to  the  subject,  but  is,  I  think,  verified  by  the  facts  of 
our  own  experience.  I  am  unalterably  opposed  to  including  the 
present  or  any  other  "immediate  demands"  in  this  or  any  other 
Socialist  platform.    The  sufficient  reasons  for  this  conclusion  will, 


620  THE   INTEBNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

I  am  sure,  be  fully  and  ably  presented  by  other  comrades  in  these 
articles  and  on  the  floor  of  the  convention. 

The  suggestion  of  the  editor  of  this  review,  that  we  have  an 
annual  meeting  of  the  members  for  the  discussion  of  party  poli- 
cies, is  heartily  approved.  The  value  of  such  meetings  cannot 
be  overestimated.  I  suggest  next  September  as  the  time,  Qn- 
cinnati  as  the  place,  and  The  Rrst  Annual  Congress  of  the  Amer- 
ican Socialists  as  the  name  for  the  first  meeting. 

Joseph  Horton. 

Nashville,  Tenn. 


The  Dues  System. 

IN  my  humble  judgment  the  dues  system  of  revenue  should  be 
eliminated  from  practice  by  Socialists. 
We  Socialists  of  Utah  have  been  considerably  worried 
and  blocked  in  our  work  because  of  dues.  The  well-settled 
portions  of  the  east  naturally  benefit  from  the  national  organiza- 
tion. The  mountainous  region  of  the  west  is  one  of  magnificent 
distances  and  national  organizers  could  not  economically  get 
along.  So  Socialism  developed  through  local  literature,  agents 
and  organizers.  I  believe  the  rapid  increase  of  Socialism  in  the 
west  is  partly  due  to  the  greater  intelligence,  zeal  and  sacrifice 
of  westerners  who  are  familiar  with  campaigns  over  stage  routes 
and  mountain  passes.  Since  the  national  organization  cannot 
spend  much  money  to  advantage  in  the  west,  why  should  not 
the  western  comrades  spend  some  money  at  home  before  sending 
dues  east? 

TTie  dues  system  is  conducive  to  a  private  snap  for  incapable 
officers  of  the  party.  Had  the  revenue  instead  been  derived  from 
voluntary  contributions,  the  incapable  officers  would  have  quickly 
been  forced  to  resign  and  better  officers  taken  the  places  and 
quickly  restored  the  good  will  of  Socialists. 

The  dues  system  separates  the  propaganda  movement  from 
the  party  organization.  When  for  any  cause  comrades  have  not 
funds  enough  to  pay  dues  and  till  the  local  field  at  the  same  time 
they  have  to  neglect  one  thing  or  the  other.  If  they  send  too 
much  dues  away,  they  neglect  the  local  propaganda  work  and 
the  national  organization  is  loser  after  all,  because  represented  by 
a  few  members  who  fail  to  propagate  in  the  locality. 

The  dues  system  makes  it  necessary  to  keep  more  books  and 
to  keep  account  with  members  in  arrears.  A  voluntary  system 
would  be  better. 

The  dues  system  is  too  expensive.  Tt  separates  the  family, 
since  all  persons  added  to  membership  from  a  family  means  an 
extra  expense  to  the  household. 


SYMPOSIUM   ON   CONVENTION.  621 

When  a  local  in  an  ''unorganized  state"  pays  ten  cents  national 
dues,  the  local  dues  can  be  no  less  than  twenty-five  cents,  be- 
cause supplies  and  hall  rent  are  to  be  provided  for.  If  in  addi- 
tion local  propaganda  has  to  be  done  from  receipts  of  dues  alone, 
it  is  clear  that  local  dues  must  be  fifty  cents  per  month.  How 
can  all  members  of  a  family  then  attend  as  members  of  the  party? 
How  can  a  local  keep  the  incapable  in  good  standing? 

It  may  be  said  that  the  dues  system  is  all  right,  since  it  places 

control  in  the  hands  of  experienced  Socialists.    This  necessity  is 

passing  away,  because  of  the  greater  than  ever  diffused  knowledge 

of  Socialistic  principles.    But,  did  we  ever  hear  of  beginners  being 

,  anything  but  welcome  in  the  party  ? 

The  dues  system  keeps  the  timid  and  loosely  connected  from 
holding  membership.  They  might,  if  allowed  to  be  members  for 
a  penny,  gradually  become  more  Socialistic,  and,  seeing  the  needs 
of  the  party,  increase  their  support.  Who  shall  judge  if  a  good 
Socialist  may  not  have  good  private  reason  for  not  financially 
supporting  the  movement  one  year  or  more?  Sometimes  a  local* 
is  lapsed  as  a  paying  organization  of  the  party.  If  such  a  local 
cannot  afford  to  pay  the  full  amount  of  dues,  you  might  see  them 
give  a  little  less  if  voluntary,  and  something  would  be  got  out 
of  it. 

The  advocates  of  dues  system  want  to  imitate  trade  unions. 
They  ought  to  know  that  union  and  lodge  membership  is  a  luxury 
to  many  poor  Socialists.  Many  Socialists  hold  lodge  member- 
ships and  cannot  double  their  outlays.  The  scope  of  the  Socialist 
party  is  not  so  expensive  and  we  do  not.  want  to  compete  in  the 
field  of  those  organizations. 

I  think  most  of  the  Socialists  will  do  something  when  en- 
lightened. Any  person  out  of  cash  should  look  upon  a  dollar  a 
month  for  the  cause  of  labor's  sinking  fund  as  one  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life.  When  pay  day  comes  labor's  debt  should  be  paid 
along  with  the  grocery  bills. 

If  the  Socialist  philosophy  is  not  attractive  as  a  voluntary 
proposition,  a  close  corporation  will  not  make  it  so.  I  think  I  am 
well  within  reasonable  bounds  when  I  say  that  nine-tenths  of 
the  propaganda  for  Socialism  has  been  accomplished  without 
a  dues  system,  so  that  the  extreme  authoritarians  have  little  in- 
deed to  boast  of  after  all. 

The  greatest  curse  of  a  top-heavy  movement  is  the  loss  of  in- 
dividuality. If  nine-tenths  of  the  money  is  spent  locally,  it  means 
that  local  comrades  get  self  culture.  Reverse  and  give  the  big- 
gest portion  to  national  headquarters  and  you  will  see  nothing 
but  local  nonentities.  ,  Surely  we  do  not  want  to  imitate  the 
pure  and  simplers  who  send  dues  promptly,  but  have  nothing 
of  locally  diffused  intelligence  to  show  for  their  money.  Too 
bad  for  the  vanity  of  the  leaders  that  they  cannot  have  all  our 


622  THE   INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

money  and  know  the  local  needs  some  thousand  miles  away 
as  well  as  local  comrades!  Too  bad  that  they  cannot  "control" 
"the  propaganda''  which  is  growing  over  the  heads  of  small  in- 
tellectual barriers! 

*        «        ♦ 

Another  close  corporation  method  is  the  law  of  expulsion  of 
members.  It  seems  too  bad.  If  a  member  cannot  be  con- 
trolled in  the  organization,  how  is  he  getting  better  on  the  out- 
side. I  suppose  they  cannot  be  chased  off  the  earth,  even  if 
the  party  wins.  Would  it  not  be  better,  in  case  of  individual 
inconsistency,  that  a  committee  issue  a  public  proclamation  to 
read  something  as  follows:  ''Comrade  Nonentity  is  a  member 
of  the  Socialist  organization  and  yet  going  astray  by  professing 
to  believe  Socialism  and  aiding  Democrats  and  Republicans  at 
the  same  time.  The  comrade  mentioned  is  a  candidate  on  the 
mixed  ticket  and  you  are  hereby  cautioned  to  vote  for  the  straight 
Socialist  candidate  in  opposition  to  fusion."    Fraternally  yours, 

Peter  Johnson. 

Murray,  Utah. 


Suggestions  for  Organization. 

IN  contributing  my  share  to  this  symposium,  I  shall  leave  the 
questions  of  platform  and  party  policy  to  other  comrades 
and  confine  myself  to  suggestions  concerning  the  govern- 
ment of  the  party  organization. 

The  Socialist  Party  must  be  more  than  a  mtere  political  ma- 
chine ;  it  must  be  so  managed  and  controlled  that  the  highest  de- 
gree of  democracy  consistent  with  efficiency  as  the  directing  force 
of  Socialist  activity  must  be  attained.  More  and  more  we  must 
provide  for  a  decentralization  of  authority  and  the  concentration 
rf  the  forces  of  agitation  and  education.  The  national  headquar- 
ters should  be  the  nerve  center  of  Socialist  activity,  the  clearing 
bouse  through  which  the  different  state  organizations  can  be 
kept  in  close  touch  and  sympathy  with  each  other,  thus  ensuring 
an  objective  point  at  which  the  organized  Socialist  forces  can 
converge  and  act  unitedly. 

The  chief  problem  before  us,  then,  as  an  organized  body,  is 
how  to  combine  democracy  in  managemtent,  efficiency  in  action 
and  economy  in  labor  and  expense  so  that  the  best  and  most 
permanent  results  can  be  attained. 

The  existing  political  system  requires  that  state  autonomy 
must  necessarily  continue  to  be  the  basis  of  organization,  but  its 
boundaries  and  limitations  must  be  more  definitely  prescribed. 
There  has  been  a  tendency  toward  exclusiveness,  to  place  tHe 
interests  of  a  single  state  organization  above  those  of  the  party 


SYAiPOSIUM   ON   CONVENTION.  623 

at  large,  a  tendency  as  injurious  as  the  other  extrenfie  of  concen- 
trating authority  over  the  mlembership  in  a  central  committee. 
One  carries  state  autonomy  to  the  extreme  and  makes  toward 
anarchy,  the  other  denies  democracy  and  makes  toward  abso- 
lutism. Both  are  dangerous  and  can  only  result  in  dry  rot  Our 
national  organization  must  be  fluid  enotigh  to  invite  or  encourage 
neither  one  nor  the  other. 

Under  the  present  constitution  there  is  danger  from  both.  The 
national  officials  may  become  aware,  through  the  position  they 
hold,  that  the  officials  of  a  state  organization  are,  unknown  to 
the  membership,  either  neglecting  their  duties  or  perverting  their 
powers  to  the  injury  of  the  party  in  that  state,  or  the  entire 
country,  and  yet  the  national  officers  are  powerless  to  act.  Pro- 
vision should  be  made  for  action  in  such  cases,  although  such 
action  should  not  be  arbitrary  or  authoritative,  but  merely  along 
the  lines  of  suggestion,  information  or  investigation,  leaving  final 
action  to  the  membership  of  the  state  itself. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  constitutional  preventive  against 
the  representatives  or  members  of  one  state  organization  inter- 
fering with  or  usurping  the  duties  and  rights  of  other  state  organ- 
izations and  their  members.  The  activities  of  state  officials  should 
be  confined  to  their  own  states,  except  where  agreement  is  spe- 
cifically made  with  other  state  organizations.  The  qualifications 
for  obtaining  and  holding  membership  in  all  states  should  be 
made  as  uniform  as  possible,  so  that  nuembers  should  enjoy  the 
same  rights  and  privileges  everywhere.  A  national  party  refer- 
endum could  then  be  taken  with  more  certainty  that  the  will  of 
the  actual  dues-paying  membership  would  be  expressed.  A  sys- 
tem of  transferring  membership  from  one  state  to  another  should 
also  be  adopted. 

The  basis  of  representation  upon  the  National  Committee, 
should  that  body  be  retained,  must  be  set  forth  clearly  and  ex- 
plicity.  The  duties  of  the  committee  and  the  relation  of  the  Na- 
tional Secretary  to  the  committee  should  be  more  definitely  out- 
lined. The  present  method  of  transacting  business  is  cumber- 
some and  causes  unnecessary  work  and  friction.  The  relations 
of  the  National  Secretary  and  the  National  Committee  should  be 
so  adjusted  that  his  work  can  be  simplified  and  his  time  devoted 
mostly  to  the  development  and  necessities  of  the  organization.  He 
should  be  chosen  by  referendum  of  the  party  membership,  and 
not  be  responsible  to  a  committee  for  his  election.  Certain  quali- 
fications should  attach  to  the  selection  of  national  committeemen. 

Precautions  should  be  taken  against  the  abuse- or  misuse  of 
the  referendum.  The  growth  of  the  organization  makes  it  neces- 
sary that  the  power  to  initiate  should  be  restricted,  and  that  prop- 
ositions be  limited  in  length.  A  law  should  be  in  force  a  given 
period  before  another  law  upon  the  same  subject  can  be  sub- 
mitted to  a  referendum. 


624  THE    INTEBNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    HEVIEW. 

The  present  system  of  routing  interstate  lecturers  and  organ- 
izers loses  its  effectiveness  through  lack  of  definite  agreement  or 
understanding  between  the  national  headquarters  and  the  various 
state  organizations  upon  the  method  of  arranging  dates  with 
locals.  A  uniform  system  should  be  agreed  upon,  which  will 
permit  of  the  best  results  at  a  minimum  expenditure  of  labor,  time 
and  money. 

It  is  essential  that  the  mtembership  be  kept  fully  informed  upon 
the  actions  of  party  officials  and  party  affairs  generally.  The 
space  in  our  press  is  too  limited  to  admit  of  publishing  all  this 
information,  which  is  of  more  or  less  importance.  I  believe  the 
time  has  come  when  a  monthly  bulletin  can  be  issued  in  printed 
form,  this  bulletin  to  be  devoid  of  editorial  matter  and  devoted 
entirely  to  financial.  National  Committee,  organizers'  and  other 
reports,  and  the  numerous  details  of  party  activity.  This  bulletin 
could  be  printed  in  quantities  sufficient  to  reach  every  miember. 

With  the  further  development  and  growth  of  the  different 
state  organizations  there  will  gradually  be  less  need  of  national 
organizers,  but  the  present  method  of  selecting  these  is  not 
satisfactory.  Certain  qualifications  should  be  required  of  appli- 
cants, such  as  length  of  party  service,  experience,  kncJwledge 
of  Socialism  and  details  of  organization,  etc. 

In  order  to  avoid  the  recurrence  of  the  danger  of  having  state 
organizations  formed  where  geographical  or  other  conditions  are 
unfavorable  to  their  effective  or  permanent  existence,  the  mem- 
bership in  any  unorganized  state  should  reach  a  certain  number 
before  the  movement  for  a  state  organization  be  initiated. 

Definite  steps  will  have  to  be  taken  by  the  convention  regard- 
ing the  organization  of  the  foreign-speaking  workers  into  the 
party.  The  question  whether  these  can  be  more  effectively  united 
into  separate  autonomous  federations  affiliated  with  the  national 
organization,  or  into  party  locals  and  branches  direct,  will  prob- 
ably be  presented,  and  as  it  is  necessary  that  these  workers  be 
brought  into  line  with  the  party  this  question  may  be  one  of  the 
most  important  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  convention.  We  should 
be  able  to  reach  some  agreement  with  the  active  foreign-speaking 
comrades  by  which  their  services  can  be  utilized  with  satisfaction 
to  themselves  and  benefit  to  the  party  organzation. 

William  Mailly. 


Farmers  and  Socialism. 

FOR  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  American  Socialist 
movement,  its  national  convention  will  be  fairly  repre- 
sentative of  the  various  elements  which  make  up  the 
exploited  class  of  our  population.  Every  state  and  terri- 
tory in  the  union  has  now  one  or  more  locals  paying  dues  to  the, 
national,  state  or  territorial  organizations.  This  will  assure  us 
a  convention  made  up  of  delegates  from  shop,  mine,  office,  fac- 
tory and  farm,  and  at  least  would  seem  to  carry  with  it  the 
assurance  that  our  declaration  of  principles  and  purposes  will 
be  broad  enough  to  cover  the  whole  industrial  class.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  there  will  be  diflferences  of  opinion,  sharp 
antagonisms,  discussions  galore,  and  that  out  of  it  all  will  come 
a  clearer  statement  of  the  position  of  the  party  on  the  questions 
which  confront  us.  I  do  not  care  to  discuss  all  of  the  proposi- 
tions submitted,  and  will  confine  my  opinion  to  one  or  two.  Being 
a  farmer,  the  attitude  of  the  convention  toward  my  wing  of 
the  industrial  class  appeals  to  me  more  strongly  than  anydiing 
else.  I  shall  favor  with  earnestness  such  a  definition  of  our  posi- 
tion as  will  include  the  farmer  in  our  program.  He  belongs  to 
and  is  a  part  of  the  working  class,  but  he  is  not  a  proletarian, 
and  the  word  by  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  can  be  made  to 
include  him.  We  are  not,  however,  dealing  with  dictionaries, 
but  with  capitalism,  and  the  capitalist  process  includes  the  farmer 
in  its  list  of  victims,  and  has  directed  as  much  of  its  attention 
to  his  exploitation  as  to  the  strictly  wage  working  class.  The 
method  is  different,  but  the  process  is  none  the  less  complete. 
On  the  broad  ground  of  revolutionary  principles,  the  con- 
quest of  political  power  by  the  working  class  through  a  political 
party  built  along  class  lines,  with  which  to  abolish  the  capitalist 
system  and  establish  the  co-operative  commonwealth,  we  have 
a  declaration  sufficient  to  include  the  exploited  of  farm  or  factory. 
If  we  are  to  stop  here,  we  need  nothing  more  in  the  way  of 
defining  our  attitude  toward  the  trade  unionist,  the  negro,  or 
the  farmer.  Such  a  declaration  is  all  inclusive,  and  in  the  early 
period  of  the  movement  nothing  more  was  needed.  We  have, 
however,  passed  the  first  stage  of  our  growth,  and  have  reached 
the  point 'where  the  Utopian  must  come  down  out  of  the  skies 
and  the  "predestination"  Socialist  face  immediate  details.  We 
are  beginning  to  capture  municipalities,  and  this  brings  up  the 
question  of  what  may  a  Socialist  administration  do  in  a  city  or 
town  whose  citizens  are  limited  in  what  they  may  or  may  not 
do  by  the  state  legislatures?  Usually  these  governmental  sub- 
divisions are  limited  by  charters,  differing  in  the  several  states 


626  THE    INTEKNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    BBVIEW. 

and  territories.  Questions  of  municipal  ownership  of  light,  gas, 
water,  abolition  of  the  contract  system,  hours  of  labor,  conduct 
of  schools,  taxation,  etc,  etc.,  confront  a  Socialist  mtmidpal  ad- 
ministration, and  in  my  judgment  should  not  enter  into  or 
become  a  part  of  a  National  Socialist  platform,  but  should  be 
left  to  a  municipal  committee,  whose  fimction  shall  be  to  exam- 
ine the  laws  of  the  different  states  and  territories,  determine  what 
it  is  possible  to  do,  and  thus  outline  a  working  program  for 
something  like  uniform  action.  When  Socialist  administrations 
assume  control  of  cities  and  towns  they  become  employers  of 
labor,  and  here  we  touch  the  question  of  union  and  nonunion 
labor,  what  use  we  will  make  of  police  powers  in  strikes,  with  all 
of  which  we  must  deal.  As  we  enter  the  southern  field  we  meet 
the  race  question,  and  are  thus  compelled  to  define  our  attitude 
toward  the  negro.  In  like  manner,  as  we  invade  the  rural 
districts  we  are  confronted  with  the  "farmer  question,"  and  we 
are  just  as  surely  compelled  to  define  ourselves  here  as  with 
the  other.  I  can  add  to  the  discussion  on  the  subject  only  by 
giving  my  own  personal  views,  which  I  submit.  I  hold  that  the 
farmer  is  being  left  in  possession  of  the  soil  by  the  capitalist  class 
because  he  can  be  more  exploited  as  owner  or  occupant  than  as 
direct  wage  employe.  Each  farmer  produces  in  competition  with 
every  other  farmer,  and  the  capitalist  class  are  thus  able  to  keep 
prices  at  the  point  where  they  return  but  a  scant  wage  to  the 
producer  for  his  year's  work.  This  reduction  of  the  farmer  to 
the  wage  basis  is  accomplished  through  the  capitalist  ownership 
of  the  machinery  of  finishing  the  production  and  distribution 
of  the  farmer's  commodities.  As  a  class  the  farmers  can  get 
no  relief  till  this  entire  machinery  is  transferred  from  private 
to  public  operation,  and  as  this  machinery  includes  the  railroads, 
packing  houses,  cotton  and  woolen  mills,  etc.,  etc.,  it  follows 
that  at  the  point  where  the  wage  workers  want  to  take  over  this 
machinery  to  be  publicly  owned  and  democratically  managed 
the  farmer  is  equally  interested,  and  the  two  interests  unite. 
Nlpw  this  applies  to  the  farmers  as  a  class,  whether  they  be 
tenants  or  owners.  All  that  I  have  written  on  this  question  has 
been  along  the  line  of  endeavoring  to  interest  the  farmer  in  the 
struggle  of  the  wage  worker,  assuring  him  that  only  through  the 
emancipation  of  the  wage  worker  can  he — the  farmer — ^hope  for 
any  relief  whatever.  The  rural  population  may  be  divided  into 
wage  workers  (farm  hands),  tenants,  mortgaged  farmers  and 
farm  owners,  large  and  small.  I  doubt  if  there  will  ever  be 
an  industrial  organization  of  farm  hands,  for  their  ranks  are 
thinning.  Rent  is  the  most  popular  and  profitable  means  of 
exploitation  on  the  farm,  and  it  is  possible,  I  believe  probable,  that 
the  tenants  will  ultimately  organize  against  landlordism,  for  the 
latter  is  increasing  rapidly.  The  present  tendency  of  landlordism 
is  not  toward  enlarginjr  the  unit  of  the  farm,  but  toward  subdi- 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION.  627 

vision.  When  the  industrial  struggle  of  the  tenant  conies  against 
the  landlord  master,  and  it  will  soon  be  here,  we  will  find  material 
for  the  rural  local  in  abundance.  Again,  however,  must  the 
poor  tenant  wait  for  state  and  national  success  of  the  Socialist 
party  before  his  condition  can  be  relieved,  and  it  is  very  doubtful 
if  any  relief  can  be  reached  short  of  the  complete  overthrow  of 
capitalism.  With  Socialist  success  in  a  township  or  county  will 
come  the  administration  of  public  work,  but  it  is  of  small  import- 
ance. With  success  in  capturing  a  state  will  come  some  benefit, 
through  public  ownership  of  telephones,  electric  railroads  and 
similar  utilities,  but  again  these  things  belong  with  the  states, 
and  ought  not  to  be  placed  in  a  national  declaration.  In  my  judg- 
ment all  that  the  National  Convention  oug^ht  to  do  on  the  farmer 
question  is  to  include  the  farmer  in  the  definition  of  the  working 
dass,  and  that  is  all  we  farmers  will  at  present  ask.  We  cer- 
tainly do  not  want  a  farmer's  program  for  national  action,  for  we 
have  none  to  offer.  Just  hang  out  the  "latch  string"  to  us,, 
make  us  welcome,  and  we  will  be  content  to  rally  round  the  pro- 
letarian standard.  A.  W.  Ricker.     . 


Times  Bring  Change. 

TIMES  bring  change.  This  startling  and  sage  thought 
occurs  to  me  whenever  I  think  of  the  recent  mutations 
in  the  ideas  about  social  uniformity  and  variety. 

There  was  a  time,  and  that  not  very  long  ago,  when 
it  was  a  common  belief  among  the  Socialists  that  the  real  struggle 
between  capitalism  and  Socialism  will  be  for  the  control  of  the 
powers  of  the  state  vested  in  the  federal  government.  And  since 
we.  Socialists,  never  doubt  that  victory  will  be  ours  and  that 
we  will  finally  capture  the  federal  government,  it  was  to  our 
strategical  advantage  to  localize  and  centralize  the  powers  of 
state  in  the  federal  government  to  the  highest  degree.  Added  to 
this  may  be  the  theory  which  persists  at  this  day  among  Socialists 
that  higher  social  organization  means  more  tmiformity  and  cen- 
tralization. For  this  reason  we  took  at  a  discount  mere  state 
offices  and  viewed  with  contemptuous  condescension  the  municipal 
functions  and  emoluments.  The  pretensions  to  sovereignty  of  the 
state  and  even  the  home  rule  aspirations  of  the  municipalities 
were  scouted  as  sentimental  and  reactionary.  Were  the  powers 
of  government  to  be  stored  away  in  all  sorts  of  out  of  the  way, 
obscure  comers  of  the  land,  where  we  would  have  to  seardi 
for  them  with  compass  and  candle?  The  idea  of  scattering  the 
governmental  functions  all  over  the  country  among  the  vast 
number  of  microscopic  corporate  bodies  made  us  shrug  our  shoul- 
ders with  impatience.  Were  we  expected  to  currycomb  the  coun- 
try for  the  pitiable  dribbles  of  state  power  vested  in  capitalistic 


628  THJ3   INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    BEVIBW. 

village,  towns  and  burgs?  Our  own  plan  of  rounding  up  the 
whole  job  lot  of  the  powers  of  government  in  one  big,  federal 
heap  was,  certainly,  the  more  scientific  and  in  keeping  with  our 
theories ;  at  least  we  thought  so. 

But  the  very  first  lessons  in  practical  politics  made  the  So- 
cialists veer  and  tack.  It  is  now  safe  to  conclude  that  the  So- 
cialists will  face  about  on  this  point.  We  are  now  agreed  that 
the  control  of  the  federal  government  is  a  much  more  remote 
possibility  for  the  Socialists  than  the  control  of  a  state  or  some 
municipalities.  The  Socialists  may  shortly  capture  many  a  mu- 
nicipality and  even,  some  states.  But  the  capitalists,  entrenched 
in  the  federal  government,  will  continually  make  inroads  into 
the  powers  secured  by  the  Socialists.  No  doubt,  as  the  munici- 
palities will,  one  after  another,  come  under  the  control  of  the 
Socialists,  the  state  governments  will  curtail  their  powers  and 
functions,  and  as  the  state  governments  will  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  Socialists,  the  federal  government  will  arrogate  to  itself 
many  of  the  powers  which  are  now  considered  as  peculiarly 
within  the  province  of  the  state  governments.  Hence  it  may  be 
safely  assumed  that  the  Socialist  party  will  be  compelled  by  the 
force  of  events  to  become  a  party  of  state  rights  and  home  rule. 
The  tendency  to  augment  the  powers  of  the  state  government  to 
the  detriment  of  the  municipality  and  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment to  the  abridgment  of  the  state  rights  is  very  pronounced 
even  now.  The  functions  of  the  New  York  Board  of  Aldermen  is 
rapidly  being  reduced  to  issuing  boot-blacking  and  fruit  stand 
licenses.  An  assmblyman  from  the  backwoods  seated  in  Albany 
has  more  to  say  about  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  New 
York  city  than  an  alderman  especially  elected  to  look  after  these 
affairs.  It  is  everywhere  likewise,  in  a  greater  or  smaller  degree. 
They  are  agitating  now  for  the  enactment  of  a  national  corpora- 
tion law,  national  insurance  law,  national  divorce  law  and  so  on. 
They  argue  that  what  the  country  needs  now  is  uniformity  in  its 
legislation.  This  after  having  poured  out  vials  of  wrath  on  the 
poor  Socialists  for  the  alleged  Socialist  plan  of  introducing  every- 
where uniform  social  regulation.  There  were  not  a  few  Socialist- 
killers  who  argued  themselves  into  the  belief  that  uniformity  of 
social  regulations  is  a  peculiarly  Socialist  doctrine  and  thereupon 
discovered  that  variety  is  the  gpice  of  life  and  the  very  breath 
in  the  nostrils  of  civilization.  The  Socialists  were  roundly  de- 
nounced by  these  variety-mongers  as  so  many  barbarians,  who 
would  attempt  to  cut  all  things  after  one  pattern. 

There  were  also  quite  a  number  of  Socialists  who  accepted  uni- 
formity as  a  Socialist  doctrine,  but  argued  that  uniformity  is  the 
essence  of  social  harmony. 

Now  we  are  going  to  change  places  on  this  question  with 
our  friends,  the  capitalists,  as  they  do  in  a  game  of  preference. 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION.  629 

The  capitalists  are  evier  oftener  discovering  that  the  variety 
in  the  municipal  enactments  and  state  laws  results  in  anarchy.  Let 
times  bring  change.  Variety,  once  the  necessary  ingredient  of 
social  progress,  means  now  anarchy.  The  capitalists  will  not 
permit  anarchy  to  grow  rampant.  Hence  uniformity  of  social 
regulations  and  centralization  of  legislation  will  ensue.  The 
Socialists,  in  virtue  of  their  political  position,  will  offer  stubborn 
resistance  to  this  regimentation  of  society.  To  a  superficial  ob- 
server the  position  may  appear  anomalous.  But  it  is  only  as  it 
should  be.  Dying  social  forms  must  grow  rigid  and  petrified. 
The  new  social  forms  will  be  as  changeable,  protean  and  all-con- 
taining as  is  nature  itself.  Henry  L.  Slobodin. 


Two  Programs. 

TWO  reports  should  be  nfade  to  the  convention  from  the 
two  conunittees  created  by  the  Indianapolis  convention, 
one  on  a  municipal  program,  the  other  on  a  farmers' 
progTBxn. 

The  delegates  should  consider  both  propositions  as  much  as 
possible  before  the  convention  is  called  to  order,  for  the  reports 
of  the  committee  will  only  serve  as  a  basis  to  start  the  discussion 
of  the  respective  subjects. 

The  proletarian  character  of  the  American  cities,  although 
with  very  limited  authority,  furnish  an  opportunity  for  a  con- 
structive program,  vast,  far-reaching  and  comprehensive. 

In  line  wiSi  economic  evolution,  the  political  conquest  of  the 
working  class  will  first  take  place  within  the  cities.  A  third  of 
the  nation's  population  are  now  in  towns  of  over  8,000  inhab- 
itants, and  by  1920  there  will  be  (with  the  present  increase)  over 
10,000,000  more  population  in  the  cities  than  in  the  country.  The 
rapid  increase  of  the  Socialist  vote  throughout  the  country  at 
any  moment  may  place  us  in  possession  of  cities  of  more  than 
minor  importance,  with  all  the  grave  responsibilities  which  that 
would  entail.  The  first  administrations  of  Socialists  will  contrib- 
ute greatly  to  retard  or  enhance  the  party  strength  and  therefore 
are  of  extreme  importance.  We  may  analyze  capitalism,  academ- 
ically declare  what  we  propose,  but  to  constructively  assumfe  a 
tangible,  practical  position  is  quite  a  different  thing,  and  that 
such  a  constructive  policy  may  receive  the  full  and  intelligent 
support  of  the  party  membership,  necessitates  agitation  along 
lines  comparatively  new. 

The  impossibility  of  the  immediate  transformation  of  the 
small  privately  owned  farms  into  government  property  operated 
upon  a  vast  well-organized  scale  is  pretty  well  recognized  by  all 
comrades.    Intermediate  to  onr  ultimiatc  aim  the  Socialists  should 


630  THE    INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    BBVIBW. 

take  a  position  which  will  assist  the  farmer  proletcu-iat  (small 
landholder),  free  him  from  the  warehouse,  grain  elevator  and 
packing-house  exploiters,  and  a  program  should  be  adopted  ap- 
plicable to  the  necessities  of  farmers,  not  as  a  sop,  but  as  an 
essential  step  or  method  leading  by  the  most  direct  route  to  com- 
plete collectivism. 

In  my  judgmlent,  these  are  the  two  great  problems  of  our  party 
today,  and  a  proper  solution  will  result  in  a  coheisve  constructive 
tendency  in  the  Socialist  Party  and  movement  in  America. 

Seymour  Stedman. 


No  Official  National  Organizers  Wanted. 

AS  TO  the  matter  of  municipal  programs,  it  seems  to  me 
from  what  I  find  in  various  parts  of  the  country  that  the 
party  should  give  some  very  careful  attention  to  this 
matter.  In  many  places  I  find  the  comrades  puzzling 
over  this  matter,  not  knowing  what  to  do;  some  perplexed  by 
the  thought  that  we  cannot  do  an)rthing.  As  has  been  clearly 
shown  by  the  Socialists  in  European  municipalities,  there  are 
many  things  we  can  do.  The  work  of  the  committee  appointed 
by  the  Indianapolis  convention  on  suggested  lines  of  municipal 
activity  should  be  continued.  Their  report  should  be  revised 
carefully  and  sent  out  again.  Some  such  pamphlet  as  "Social- 
ists in  French  Municipalities,"  which  might  be  revised  and 
improved,  should  be  widely  distributed  as  a  matter  of  instruction 
to  our  comrades  who  are  eager  to  learn  on  these  lines. 

I  do  not  think  that  there  should  be  any  eflFort  to  force  the 
municipal  programs  into  uniformity.  But  I  do  feel  that  we  must 
go  before  the  people  of  the  cities  with  an  intelligent  working 
program.  A  mere  jumble  of  phrases,  dealing  in  generalities  and 
susceptible  of  various  and  ambigruous  interpretations,  will  not 
suffice.  We  must  be  able  to  present  some  kind  of  a  reasonable 
and  definite  working  program. 

(2)  As  to  Socialist  speakers,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  should 
give  them  the  utmost  freedom  possible.  I  think  the  way  to 
control  them  is  simply  not  to  engage  them  if  they  don't  talk 
Socialism.  And  I  cannot  see  the  need  of  anything  more  than 
that.  Official  censorship  and  unofficial  heresy  hunting  will  only 
make  trouble. 

The  official  endorsement,  and  official  pay  of  official  organ- 
izers, and  the  accumulation  of  a  fund  in  the  hands  of  the  central 
office,  as  we  have  it  now,  are  almost  certain  to  lead  to  dissatis- 
faction, possibly  to  favoritism,  or  the  suspicion  of  it.  These  are, 
perhaps,  necessary  evils,  but  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  they 
mifi^ht  be  minimized  by  turning  more  of  the  work  over  to  the 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CX)NVENTION.  631 

state  committees,  and  giving  the  states  a  larger  proportion  of 
the  dues  they  raise  to  be  expended  in  their  own  state. 

(3)  As  to  our  attitude  towards  farmers,  I  do  not  see  that 
anytyhine  more  is  needed  or  desirable  in  the  propaganda  work 
amoncf  the  agricultural  workers,  or  small  farmers,  than  a  rea- 
sonable interpretation  of  scientific  Socialism.  If  there  is  need 
of  something  to  make  a  reasonable  interpretation  more  general 
some  resolution  expressing  our  view  of  the  application  of  the 
privilege  of  economic  determinism  in  making  the  interests  of  the 
small  farmers  more  and  more  parallel  with  those  of  the  wage- 
earners  should  be  passed.  The  greatest  value  of  such  a  resolu- 
tion, perhaps,  would  be  in  clearing  the  mind€  of  our  workers  on 
the  matter.  I  certainly  would  not  favor  any  modification  of  our 
program  for  the  sake  of  attracting  farmers.  And  what  is  more,  I 
don't  see  that  it  is  needed.  Carl  D.  Thompson. 


Election  of  Socialists  Not  Desired  at  Present. 

WHAT  changes  do  you  think  are  necessary  in  the  party 
organization? 
Practically  none.  The  forms  of  organization  count 
little.  If  the  spirit  of  Socialism  is  present,  the  mere 
forms  will  adapt  themselves  to  the  needs  of  the  growing  body. 
As  we  need  changes,  they  will  be  demanded  and  made.  The 
great  thing  now  is  to  educate  the  wage  workers,  create  in  them 
an  intelligent  class  consciousness,  awake  them  to  action  and  then 
organization  will  follow. 

One  point  in  general  as  to  organization :  Whatever  changes 
are  made  should  be  in  the  direction  of  democracy  and  against  all 
centralization  of  power.  We  are  not  only  Socialists,  but  demo- 
cratic Socialists. 

For  this  reason,  a  central  party  organ  would  be  dangerous, 
placing  prestige  and  undue  influence  in  the  National  Committee 
or  National  Board  of  Control. 

For  this  reason,  also,  changes  are  to  be  commended  which 
will  safeguard  Referendum  votes,  and  explicitly  define  the  meth- 
ods of  taking  same.  Too  often  now  a  central  committee  is  able 
to  manipulate  the  party  will  as  expressed  in  the  Referendums. 
The  Socialist  Party  is  introducing  the  Referendum.  It  should 
introduce  it  right. 

What,  if  any,  action  should  be  taken  towards  setting  forth  a 
zvorking  progra$n  for  such  members  as  may  be  elected  to  office 
liithin  a  capitalist  government?  Should  such  a  program  be 
attached  to  the  platform,  embodied  in  a  separate  and  explanatory 
document,  or  entirely  o^nitted? 


632  THE  INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

We  are  not  in  immediate  danger  of  electing  such  officials,  ex- 
cept in  municipalities.  In  any  case,  it  is  more  important  that  such 
officials  be  well  grounded  in  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Socialist  economics  than  that  they  be  supplied  with  a  Procrustean 
bed  of  proper  things  to  do,  called  a  "working  program." 

"Whatever  is  to  the  interest  of  the  working  class,  that  I 
will  do,"  is  the  one  pledge  of  every  Socialist  nominee.  If  he  is 
not  intelligent  enough  to  decide  for  himself  what  is  to  the  inter- 
est of  his  class  in  any  given  conditions,  he  is  not  fit  to  be  a  Social- 
ist nominee. 

In  my  judgment,  it  is  better  that  we  do  not  win  elections,  even 
in  municipalities,  for  some  years  to  come.  The  majority  of  our 
membership  are  so  raw  in  the  Socialist  army  and  so  soaked  with 
capitalist  notions  of  politics  and  economics,  that  it  will  be  better 
for  us  to  pass  through  several  campaigns  of  education  before 
we  win  political  campaigns.  In  fact,  our  political  campaigns 
have  their  chief  function  for  the  present  as  means  of  education. 

Have  you  any  suggestion  as  to  the  methods  of  controlling  those 
who  represent  the  Socialist  Party  on  the  public  platform? 

Control  them  by  controlling  the  selection  of  them.  After  a 
speaker  is  selected,  he  must  be  given  freedom  of  expression.  Here, 
again,  it  is  all  important  that  the  fundamentals  be  understood. 
If  a  man  is  educated  in  the  principles  of  scientific  Socialism,  his 
utterances  will  need  no  control.  If  he  is  not,  no  methods  will 
control  him.    He  is  a  ship  without  a  rudder. 

I  can  suggest  no  better  way  of  selecting  speakers  than  the 
present.  Local  and  state  committees  must  decide  according  to 
their  best  judgment.  They  will  make  mistakes  and  correct  them. 
The  final  test  will  be  the  educated  instinct  of  the  comrade,  which 
will  not  long  tolerate  any  serious  departure  from  proletarian 
principles. 

What  action,  if  any,  should  he  taken  towards  securing  uni- 
formity of  action  by  Socialsts  elected  to  municipal  positionsf 

Let  our  Municipal  Committee's  report  be  published,  embracing 
a  full  discussion  of  this  matter.  This  will  serve  as  a  helpful 
stimulus  to  such  officials  toward  reaching  Socialist  decisions  on  all 
pending  questions.  But  no  "Rules  and  Regulations"  for  a 
Socialist  legislator  or  executive  when  occupying  a  capitalist  office ! 
If  the  comrades  are  so  deficient  in  judgment  as  to  select  and 
elect  a  "chump,"  they  and  the  party  ought  to  be  punished  by  his 
blunders,  and  so  learn  better. 

Should  there  he  any  special  expression  of  our  attitude  towards 
the  farmers  or  negroes?    If  so,  what? 

Yes,  something  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  negro  wage  slave  is  robbed  of  the  greater 
part  of  his  product,  the  same  as  the  white  wage  slave,  and  the 
Socialist  Party  is  his  only  hope  of  emancipation.    We  therefore 


SYMPOSIUM   ON   CONVENTION.  633 

welcome  the  negro  vote  as  we  do  the  vote  of  all/  wage  slaves, 
without  respect  to  color,  sex  or  nationality,  and  we  advocate  ac- 
tive propaganda  and  organization  among  the  negro  population 
of  the  United  States. 

FARMER  RESOLUTION. 

Resolved,  That  the  small  farmer  has  no  hope  of  deliverance 
from  his  present  hard  conditions  except  by  uniting  with  the  wage 
workers'  political  organization,  the  Socialist  Party.  The  small 
farmer  must  recognize  that  the  United  States  is  no  longer  an 
agricultural  but  a  manufacturing  country,  and  that  therefore  the 
dominant,  typical  class  is  the  class  of  wage  workers,  the  one 
class  that  must  save  society.  We  call  upon  the  small  farmers  to 
look  beyond  their  own  class,  to  recognize  the  supreme  class  strug- 
gle between  capital  and  wage  labor  and  to  join  hands  with  that 
class  which  alone  can  bring  freedom  from  all  economical  bondage. 

Should  the  present  ''trade  union  resolution"  stcmdf  If  not, 
how  should  it  be  changedt 

Yes,  with  an  additional  resolution,  somewhat  like  this: 

Resolved,  That  the  trade  unions  at  this  moment  stand  at  the 
parting  of  the  ways.  The  capitalist  class  is  making  supreme  ef- 
forts to  capture  them  by  spies  and  hired  leaders,  by  flattery  and 
negotiations,  by  insisting  on  the  common  interests  of  labor  and 
capital,  by  alarmist  appeals  against  Socialism  and  Socialist  agi- 
tators. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  strategic  moment  has  arrived  for  the 
Socialists  to  outmaneuver  these  capitalist  tactics  by  making  the 
most  strenuous  efforts  to  educate  the  trades  unions  in  Socialist 
economics.  We  therefore  reiterate  our  former  resolution  and 
call  upon  all  comrades  to  join  their  respective  unions  with  a  view 
to  saving  them  from  capitalist  control. 

We  urge  our  comrades  to  point  out  three  things  to  their  trades 
union  brothers,  (i)  That  the  great  combinations  of  capital  in 
'vast  industries,  embracing  many  trades,  make  it  impossible  for 
mere  trade  organizations  to  succeed  as  formerly  and  render  it 
necessary  for  unions  to  be  organized  along  industrial  rather  than 
trade  lines.  (2)  That  the  growing  power  of  concentrated  capital 
renders  even  the  best  organized  labor  unions  more  and  more  im- 
potent and  must  make  it  evident  that  only  by  united  action  on 
the  political  field  can  labor  achieve  any  permanent  benefit  for 
itself.  (3)  That  nothing  short  of  the  Socialist  program,  abol- 
ishing the  wage  system  itself,  will  be  of  any  use  as  a  political 
demand.  Hermon  F.  Titus, 

Editor  The  Socialist,  Seattle,  Wash. 


\ 


I 


More  Socialism  in  the  Platform,  More  Democracy 
in  the  Constitution. 

N  reply  to  the  invitation  of  the  International  Socialist 
Review^  I  take  the  liberty  to  state  my  personal  views  on 
some  matters  of  importance  for  our  national  convention. 

PARTY  organization. 

The  present  plural  vote  of  the  national  committeemen  is  as 
unfair  as  was  the  old  system  of  one  vote  for  each  national  com- 
mitteeman regardless  of  the  number  of  party  members  he  rep- 
resented. Under  the  old  system,  fifteen  party  members  in  Okla- 
homa had  as  much  influence  in  the  national  committee  as  fifteen 
himdred  party  members  in  New  York.  The  present  plural  vote 
remedies  this  defect.  But  it  at  the  same  time  introduces  a  new 
defect  which  is  fully  as  bad.  In  the  old  system,  the  minority 
did  not  count  at  all.  In  the  new  plural  system,  the  minority 
vote  is  included  in  the  representation  of  the  states,  but  it  is  cast 
against  the  minority:  Take  it,  for  instance,  that  Illinois  is  en- 
titled to  fourteen  votes  in  the  national  committee.  All  these 
fourteen  votes  are  cast  solidly  for  the  wishes  of  the  majority 
who  elected  the  national  committeeman ;  or,  if  he  is  not  instructed 
by  the  majority,  he  votes  on  the  question  under  consideration 
from  his  own  point  of  view.  In  either  case,  he  uses  the  votes 
of  a  certain  number  of  party  members  contrary  to  their  wishes. 
This  is  a  gross  injustice  and  must  be  remedied  without  delay. 

One  way  out  of  this  difficulty  would  be  to  elect  two  national 
committee  members  from  each  state  entitled  to  more  than  one 
vote,  one  to  be  elected  by  the  opportunist  element,  the  other  by  the 
revolutionary  element,  and  each  to  have  in  the  national  commit- 
tee a  number  of  votes  proportional  to  the  number  of  party  mem- 
bers who  elected  them.  I  mention  these  two  factions,  because 
nearly  all  questions  of  party  policy  are  approached  from  these  two 
standpoints,  and  they  would  furnish  the  simplest  and  most  per- 
manent line  of  division.  States  that  are  only  entitled  to  one 
vote  in  the  national  committee  could  not  make  use  of  this  ex- 
pedient, however.  There  would  also  be  the  difficulty  of  leaving 
still  other  elements  unrepresented  that  belong  neither  to  the  oppor- 
tunist nor  to  the  Marxian  element,  as,  for  instance,  the  impossi- 
bilist  element. 

Another  way  out  of  the  difficulty  would  be  to  abolish  the 
national  committee  and  national  quorum  entirely.  Personally, 
I  very  much  prefer  this  alternative.  In  my  opinion,  these  two 
bodies  have  been  more  ornamental  than  useful,  and  their  ex- 
penses might  have  been  used  to  good  effect  in  other  work.    All 

6S4 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION.  635 

important  questions  must  be  settled  by  referendum,  anyway, 
and  for  ordinary  routine  work,  the  national  secretary  and  the 
state  committees  form  a  sufficient  and  far  more  representative 
organization.  Let  us  dispense  with  all  superfluous  wheels  in 
our  party  machinery.  The  simpler  it  is,  the  better  it  will  ex- 
press the  will  of  the  rank  and  file.  Let  the  state  committees 
asstmie  the  duties  of  their  national  committeeman.  Let  the 
national  secretary  publish  his  quarterly  reports.  And  let  a 
national  convention  perform  the  services  of  the  naticmal  quorum 
and  at  the  same  time  assign  definite  subjects  to  certain  comrades, 
for  discussion  at  such  conventions,  and  we  shall  accomplish 
for  better  results  at  less  cost  to  the  national  office  than  we  do 
with  the  present  form  of  organization. 

PLATFORM. 

I  am  in  favor  of  a  scientifically  correct,  yet  clear  and  concise 
declaration  of  principles  in  place  of  the  present  platform. 
My  reasons  for  this  position  I  have  stated  in  detail  in  the  pam- 
phlet "The  Municipality  from  Capitalism  to  Socialism"  and  in  the 
article  "Shall  We  Revise  Our  Program  Forward  or  Backward  ?" 
in  the  December,  1903,  issue  of  the  International  Socialist 
Review.  No  immediate  demands,  no  special  resolutions  for 
trade  tmions,  farmers,  negroes,  etc.  The  text  of  this  declaration 
of  principles  can  be  so  worded  that  it  will  fully  cover  those  classes 
and  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  Socialist  Party  seeks  to  develop 
the  political  class  struggle  in  the  interest  of  all  proletarians  re- 
gardless of  race,  color,  creed  and  occupation,  whether  organized 
or  unorganized,  whether  in  the  store,  the  shop,  the  factory,  the 
mine,  the  field,  the  office,  the  school,  or  the  pulpit.  It  should  be 
urged  on  the  state  organizations  to  make  this  declaration  of  prin- 
ciples their  platform  also  in  state  and  municipal  campaigns,  in 
place  of  the  great  variety  of  present  platforms,  many  of  them 
fearfully  and  wonderfully  made.  And  if  the  next  international 
congress  should  agree  on  a  uniform  international  Socialist  plat- 
form, I  am  in  favor  of  adopting  that  platform  in  all  campaigns, 
whether  national,  state,  or  municipal. 

SUGGESTIONS   FOR    ACTIVITY    OF    SOCIALISTS    FOR    PUBUC    OFFICES. 

A  handbook  for  Socialists  in  public  offices,  making  detailed 
suggestions  for  uniformity  of  action  under  the  capitalist  sys- 
tem, is  indispensable.  Each  state  might  appoint  a  committee  for 
drawing  up  an  outline  for  the  work  of  Socialists  in  state  and 
municipal  offices,  and  the  national  convention  appoint  a  com- 
mittee to  draft  suggestions  for  Socialist  activity  in  Congress. 
The  committee  elected  by  the  national  convention  might  at  the 
same  time  act  as  editor  and  compiler  of  the  suggestions  made  by 
the  states.    This  handbook  vjpuld  form  the  basis  of  our  present- 


G36  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

day  activity  in  office,  be  a  guide  for  speakers,  and  serve  as  a 
propaganda  booklet.  With  the  increasing  experience  of  our  suc- 
cessful candidates,  the  contents  of  this  booklet  would  be  aug- 
mented by.  the  bills  introduced  by  us  and  by  summaries  of  the 
results  obtained  in  the  various  public  bodies. 

PRESS  BUREAU. 

I  favor  relieving  the  national  secretary  of  the  burden  of  press 
bulletins  and  press  reports.  This  work  can  be  done  to  great  ad- 
vantage by  a  Socialist  press  bureau  in  charge  of  a  competent 
editor.  This  bureau  should  receive  copies  of  all  correspondence 
passing  between  the  national  secretary  and  the  national  commit- 
tee and  quorum ;  or,  if  these  are  abolished,  between  the  national 
secretary  and  the  state  committees.  This  correspondence  should 
be  summarized  by  the  editor  of  the  press  bureau  for  publication 
in  the  Socialist  press.  The  press  bureau  should  also  collect 
material  for  an  official  history  of  the  American  Socialist  party,  and 
become  the  nucleus  for  such  official  publications  as  the  party  may 
wish  to  issue  from  time  to  time.  Finally,  this  press  bureau 
might  furnish  suitable  editorial  matter  and  patent  insides  to  the 
small  local  papers  which  the  comrades  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
may  succeed  in  enlisting  on  our  side.  This  bureau,  if  properly 
managed,  should  be  able  to  pay  for  itself  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years.  Last,  not  least,  this  press  bureau  should  accumulate  a 
party  library  and  archive  in  conection  with  the  collection  of  ma- 
terial for  a  party  history.  Twenty-five  cents  from  each  dues- 
paying  party  member  will  set  this  bureau  on  its  feet. 

Incidentally,  I  take  this  opportunity  to  remark,  that  a  per- 
manent Socialist  daily  is  a  pressing  necessity  for  the  American 
Socialist  movement.  This  should  be  a  regular  newspaper,  similar 
to  the  metropolitan  dailies,  and  edited  from  the  Socialist  point  of 
view,  with  a  department  for  party  news  and  a  page  on  scientific 
Socialism.  This  daily  should  find  its  way  into  every  Socialist 
home  in  the  United  States  and  form  one  of  the  strongest  propa- 
ganda means  at  our  command.  It  would  not  have  any  official 
character,  but  be  supported  by  the  individual  members,  who 
should  furnish  the  first  means  for  its  publication  and  form  a 
stock  .company  for  this  purpose.  If  each  of  the  present  dues-pay- 
ing members  of  the  party  would  at  once  devote  $2,  or  as  much 
as  he  or  she  can  spare,  to  this  purpose,  the  first  number  of  this 
daily  could  be  circulated  at  the  coming  national  convention. 

THE   CONTROL  OF   SPEAKERS. 

So  long  as  the  principle  of  state  and  local  autonomy  is  recog- 
nized, the  party  has  no  means  of  preventing  any  local  from  en- 
gaging any  free  lance  speaker  they  may  like.  But  the  national 
secretary  might  issue  speakers'  cards  to  those  who  place  them- 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION.  037 

selves  under  the  control  of  the  national  or  state  organizations,  and 
make  it  known  that  only  those  are  authorized  to  speak  in  the  name 
of  the  party  who  carry  such  a  card.  This  would  enable  the 
party  to  decline  all  responsibility  for  statements  on  Socialism 
made  by  free  lance  speakers.  Each  state  committee  might  act  as 
a  board  of  examination  for  applicants  for  speaker's  cards. 

Ernest  Untermann. 


An  Official  Guide  for  Candidates  Needed. 

OUESTION  NO.  I — ^The  party  organization  seems  to 
work  harmoniously  on  the  whole,  and  perhaps  should 
not  be  interefered  with.  The  only  thing  I  can  suggest 
is  that  the  machinery  should  be  simplified  wherever 
possible.  In  this  respect  I  would  suggest  that  the  body  known 
as  the  National  Quorum  should  be  investigated  for  the  pur- 
pose of  seeing  whether  it  cannot  be  dispensed  with.  It  seems 
to  me  that  the  National  Committee  and  the  National  Secretary 
arer  in  no  particular  need  of  such  an  intermediary.  I  confess 
that  I  am  by  no  means  an  expert  on  organization,  and  only 
suggest  this  for  the  reason  that  I  can  see  no  particular  use  for 
this  body,  though  I  readily  admit  that  I  may  be  mistaken. 

No.  2 — By  all  means  delach  all  "immediate  demands," 
municipal  programs,  working  programs,  etc.,  from  the  Na- 
tional Platform.  They  do  not  belong  there  and  are  a  source 
of  constant  confusion.  A  guide  or  manual  for  the  direction 
of  candidates  that  may  be  elected,  should  be  issued  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Party  in  pamphlet  form.  It  should  be  very 
carefully  prepared  by  the  best  intellects  in  the  party  and  sub- 
mitted to  the  membership.  It  would  be  well  also  to  set  forth 
that  it  is  subject  to  change  from  time  to  time  to  suit  new  con- 
ditions ;  that  it  is  in  no  sense  to  be  considered  as  bindinor  as  the 
platform,  but  more  in  the  nature  of  a  general  guide.  It  would 
be  manifestly  impossible  to  cover  every  point  and  provide  a 
course  of  action  for  every  case,  where  local  and  municipal  con- 
ditions differ,  and  the  knowledge  of  Socialism  possessed  by  the 
various  candidates  diverges  widely.  But  this  does  not  hinder 
the  Party  from  issuing  a  statement  in  general  terms  showing 
its  position  on  these  questions. 

No.  3 — For  National  Lecturers,  a  Board  of  Examiners  com- 
posed of  membership  of  National  Committee.  For  local  speak- 
ers a  similar  board  composed  of  the  City  Central  Committee  in 
places  where  there  are  more  than  one  local.  In  single  locals, 
the  local  itself.  The  examination  should  cover  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  Socialism  as  an  imperative  qualification 
of  the  applicant,  who  should  also  be  required  to  show  his  abil- 


038  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

ity  to  avoid  the  most  general  blunders  of  novices  on  the  street 
rostrum.  For  the  position  of  a  National  Lecturer,  the  test 
of  course  should  be  more  thorough  and  more  detailed.  Speak- 
ers who  merely  "introduce  the'  speaker"  may  be  exempt. 

No.'  4 — Same  as  No.  2.  On  general  grounds  I  should  say 
that  uniformity  in  this  respect  can  never  be  wholly  attained, 
but  every  effort  should  be  made  to  secure  as  much  of  it  as  is 
possible.  We  may,  I  think,  make  up  our  minds  to  a  constant 
though  diminishing  friction  on  this  point. 

No.  5 — ^The  Negro  Resolution  should  stand.  The  position 
of  the  party  towards  the  farmer  should  most  certainly  be  ex- 
plained and  publicly  stated.  It  is  of  great  importance  at  the 
present  juncture.  It  should  be  drafted  by  a  committee  care- 
fully sefected  for  knowledge  of  agricultural  economics  and 
clear  conception  of  the  trend  of  capitalist  development  and 
social  evolution,  and  then  submitted  to  the  membership.  The 
method  of  the  exploitation  of  the  farmer  through  the  owner- 
ship of  the  predominant  means  of  production  necessary  in 
farming,  in  the  hands  of  the  capitalist  class,  should  be  suc- 
cinctly stated,  as  a  central  feature  of  the  resolution.  The 
various  consequences  arising  from  this  should  be  mentioned, 
the  whole  leading  up  to  the  identity  of  interests  between  the 
farmer  and  wage  worker.  It  will  he  difficult  to  boil  this  down 
into  the  compass  of  a  resolution,  but  it  should  be  attempted, 
and  revised  or  improved  from  time  to  time  as  the  party 
knowledge  increases. 

No.  ^— The  "Trades  Union  Resolution"  needs  some  small 
changes  in  the  wording.  Cut  out  the  fulsome  adjective  regard- 
ing the  waging  of  the  class  struggle.  We  have  no  need  to* 
make  a  virtue  out  of  a  necessity.  In  the  clause,  "We  reco^ize 
that  trades  unions  are  by  historical  necessity,"  etc.,  substitute 
"were"  for  "are."  It  could  easily  be  contended  that  such  his- 
torical necessity  is  not  altogether  applicable  to  all  unions  that 
are  being  now  organized.  If  such  historical  necessity  holds 
good  today,  it  makes  ridiculous  the  statement  that  follows 
"that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  trades  unionist  to  realize"  another 
"necessity,"  that  of  "independent  political  action  on  Socialist 
Wnes.  Jos.  Wanhope, 


A  Proposed  Platform. 

THE  Socialist  Party,  in  National  Convention  assembled, 
reaffirms  its  adherence  to  the  principles  of  International 
Socialism,  and  declares  its  aim  to  be  the  organization  of 
the  working  class,  and  those  in  S3rrapathy  with  it,  into 
a  political  party,  with  the  object  of  conquering  the  powers  of 
government  and  using  them  to  inaugurate  the  Co-Operative  Com- 
monwealth, under  which  the  workers  will  receive  the  full  product 
of  their  toil. 

The  most  important  principles  embraced  in  the  program  of 
International  Socialism  are : 

1.  The  public  ownership  of  all  the  means  of  producing  and 
distributing  wealth. 

2.  The  democratic  control  of  the  same  by  means  of  the 
initiative  and  referendum,  proportional  representation,  and  the 
right  of  recall  of  representatives  by  their  constituents ;  and, 

3.  Equal  civil  and  political  rights  for  mfen  and  women. 

As  the  Co-Operative  Commonwealth  cannot  be  established  in 
a  day,  the  Socialist  Party,  on  coming  into  power,  will  immedi- 
ately take  the  following  steps,  which  will  finally  lead  to  its  com- 
plete establishment: 

1.  All  monopolies,  trusts  and  combines,  as  well  as  all  other 
institutions  conducted  for  the  personal  gain  of  the  owner  instead 
of  for  the  common  good,  will  be  taxed  and  the  funds  thus  ob- 
tained will  be  used  in  establishing  a  sytem  of  public  industries 
which  will  be  the  starting  point  of  the  great  "Public  Tnist," 
which  will  drive  private  business  to  the  wall  in  the  same  way 
and  by  somewhat  the  same  means  as  the  trust  is  driving  the  small 
business  man  to  the  wall. 

2.  State  and  national  insurance  for  the  working  people  in 
case  of  disability  or  non-employment  will  be  established,  to  pre- 
vent them  from  suffering  during  the  reconstruction  period. 

3.  State  and  municipal  aid  will  be  given  in  the  education 
of  all  children  up  to  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  as  the  Socialist 
Party  realizes  that  the  strength  of  any  nation  depends  on  the  edu- 
cation and  general  character  of  its  citizens. 

In  bringing  this  condition  of  affairs  to  pass  ,the  Socialist 
Party  will  establish  economic  equality,  by  abolishing  the  economic 
classes,  and  in  abolishing  classes  will  bring  to  an  end  the  terrible 
class  struggle  with  all  its  sufferings  and  starvation  of  the  workers, 
as  well  as  the  inconvenience  to  the  consumers. 

To  me  it  seems  that  a  platform  on  the  style  of  the  above  should 
be  adopted  and  that  a  manifesto,  explaining  it  very  briefly,  should 
be  prined  with  the  platform. 


640  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    BEVIEW. 

This  manifesto  should  explain  how  machinery  has  taken  the 
place  of  the  hand  tools  and  how  it  is  used  to  the  detriment  of 
the  workep.  It  should  point  out  to  the  farmer  how  he,  as  well 
as  the  wage-earner,  is  exploited  of  the  fruits  of  his  labor.  It 
should  point  out  to  the  negro  that  the  race  question  will  be  settled 
only  when  the  class  war  is  ended,  and  it  should  point  out  to 
the  unions  that,  though  they  benefit  the  working  class  to  a  great 
extent,  they  can  never  expect  to  lead  them  to  freedom  by  eco- 
nomic means  alone. 

This  would  leave  the  platform  in  a  simple  state  and  at  the 
same  time  the  people  would  be  given  an  idea  of  how  we  stand, 
thus  accomplishing  what  we  wish.        Fraternally, 
Chico,  Cal.  H.  B.  Weaver. 


Convention  Work. 

WE  ARE  probably  facing  a  break-up  in  the  old  parties. 
The  Populist  Party  is  disorganized  and  the  Demo- 
cratic Party  seems  to  be  in  the  throes  of  dissolution. 
Some   think   Roosevelt   will   split  the   Republican 
Party. 

In  any  event,  the  time  is  approaching  when  a  multitude  of 
American  voters,  rebellious  at  existing  economic  conditions, 
and  despairing  of  old  parties,  will  be  seeking  new  political 
alignment.  Many  of  these  will  investigate  the  claims  of  the 
Socialist  Party. 

THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE. 

These  voters  will  be  told  that  the  Socialist  movement  rests 
upon  the  class  struggle.  The  nature  of  the  struggle  must  then 
be  explained  to  them.    Who  are  struggling  and  why? 

The  opinion  exists  widely  that  the  under  dog  in  this  strug- 
gle is  the  wage  earner  exclusively,  and  that  the  Socialist  move- 
ment is  purely  a  wage  earner's  movement.  A  vast  army,  how- 
ever, of  those  already  discontented  and  those  rapidly  becom- 
ing so  are  not  wage  earners ;  they  are  tenants,  small  farmers, 
small  business  men  and  tradesmen,  commercial  travelers,  pro- 
fessional men,  etc. 

All  of  these  are  exploited.  Their  compensation  is  a  subsist- 
ence or  little  more  and  their  children  are  candidates  for  jobs. 

The  normal  political  home  of  all  these  is  the  Socialist  Party 
whose  "aim  is  to  organize  the  working  class  and  those  in  sym- 
pathy with  it  into  a  political  party  with  the  object  of  conquer- 
ing the  powers  of  government." 

The  Socialist  Party,  at  its  coming  national  convention, 
should  make  it  transparently  clear  that,  regardless  of  subor- 
dinate economic  struggles  between  groups  of  the  exploited 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION  641 

class — farmers  and  their  hands^  corner  grocers  and  their 
clerks,  even  husbands  and  their  wives-r-the  class  struggle  is 
that  between  the  myriad,  white,  black,  yellow  or  red,  who  do 
the  world's  work,  of  hand  or  brain,  in  overalls  or  store  clothes, 
in  furrow,  shop,  counting  room  or  wherever ;  and  the  handful 
who  intercept  the  fruits  and  accumulate  the  fortunes.  The 
Socialist  Party  should  leave  no  room  for  doubt  that  it  wants 
the  whole  of  the  exploited  producing  class  and  not  a  mere 
section  of  it. 

TERMINOLOGY. 

Second,  as  to  terminology.  Our  debt  of  gratitude  to  the 
mighty  warriors  for  freedom  who  have  battled  for  Socialism 
on  European  soil  can  never  be  paid ;  but,  were  they  with  us, 
they  would  be  the  first  to  tell  us  that  Americans  must  be 
reached  through  American  channels.  European  phrases  and 
modes  of  expression  should  be  cut  out  of  the  vocabulary  of 
American  Socialism  as  relentlessly  as  Greek,  Italian,  and  other 
foreign  phrases  were  cut  out  of  the  English  Department  of 
Harvard  University  half  a  generation  ago.  Unless  it  would 
sign  its  own  death  warrant.  Socialism  in  America  must  not 
even  remotely  suggest  that  it  is  an  importation.  Americans 
are  proudly  self-sufficient,  and  they  will  consciously  borrow 
their  politics  from  no  foreign  people  on  earth. 

''socialistic  slavery.'' 

Third,  as  to  "phalansteries,"  "bureaucracies,"  "industrial 
armies,"  "regimentation,"  etc. 

The  writer  was  kept  out  of  the  Socialist  movement  for 
years,  and  that  after  having  waded  through  shoals  of  litera- 
ture, because  he  believed  that  under  Socialism  every  compe- 
tent worker  would  be  obliged  to  work  for  the  public.  Let  us 
make  it  plain  that  we  contemplate  nothing  of  the  sort.  The 
producers  must  control,  exploitation  must  end,  toil  must  be 
rewarded,  idleness  punished  and  involuntary  poverty  abol- 
ished ;  the  millionaire  scum  at  the  top  and  the  tramp  dregs  at 
the  bottom  of  the  social  sea  must  disappear;  but  individual 
liberty  and  initiative,  so  long  as  they  avoid  forms  socially  or 
individually  hurtful,  will  be  enlarged  rather  than  diminished 
under  Socialism.  The  extent  to  which  Collectivism  is  to  be 
carried  will  be  determined  by  the  voters  as  we  go  along,  and 
the  individual's  option  to  work  for  the  public  or  in  some  other 
way*  will  be  guaranteed. 

THE  LAND  QUESTION. 

Fourth,  as  to  land.  Do  Socialists  want  all  the  land,  city 
and    country,    agricultural    and    mineral,    plain  and  mountain 


642  THE   INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST   EEVIBW. 

forest  and  grazing,  business  sites  and  residence  sites,  to  be 
publicly  owned  and  administered?  If  so,  when  do  they  expect 
to  see  this  program  carried  out? 

Yet  land  must  not  be  used  for  purposes  of  explotation. 

The  solution  is  simple.  All  land  the  public  want  they  will 
take  over  as  fast  as  they  want  it.  Land  left,  meanwhile,  in 
private  hands  will  be  subjected  to  the  ground-rent  tax.  That 
g^ves  the  public  time  to  consider  the  complexities  of  the  land 
question,  but  stops  the  stealing  on  every  square  inch,  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  from  lakes  to  gulf  and  throughout  the  isles  of 
the  sea. 

THE  MONEY  QUESTION. 

Fifth,  Socialist  silence  on  the  money  question  must  be 
broken  if  the  Socialists  are  to  control  America.  Let  us  take 
the  bull  by  the  horns  and  do  it  now.  We  must  have  a  medium 
of  exchange.  It  must  be  divested"  of  all  exploitive  features  and 
it  must  do  the  work.  Finally,  it  should  harmonize  with  Social- 
ist philosophy.  We  do  not  believe  in  making  new  systems. 
We  believe  in  taking  the  systems  which  evolution  has  made 
ready  to  our  hands  and  adapting  them  to  our  social  needs. 

The  national  banking  system  gives  us  the  machinery  al- 
most complete.  The  coming  central  bank  and  branch  banks 
will  round  it  out.  This  system  we  must  take  over  as  we  ex- 
pect to  take  over  the  other,  permanent  trusts ;  and  we  must 
utilize  it  for  the  public  good  rather  than  private  profit.  The 
volume  of  exchange  medium  we  will  regulate  to  meet  the 
needs  of  society. 

Whether  we  believe  in  bank  notes,  greenbacks  or  labor 
checks,  all  the  essential  requirements  of  either  system  are  in 
this  way  met. 

STEPS  TOWARD  THE  GOAL. 

Sixth  and  finally,  how  shall  we  attain  Socialism?  On  this 
point  there  seems  to  exist  much  crudity  of  thought.  Some 
Socialists  seem  still  to  scout  political  action ;  others,  nominally 
accepting  it,  fight  every  practical  political  proposal.  Can  it 
be  that  the  anarchism  which  Marx  combated  in  Europe  still 
lurks  in  the  Socialist  Party  of  America? 

Are  we  agreed  on  a  few  fundamentals  ? 

Socialism  must  be  established  by  political  action. 

It  cannot  be  established  in  spots;  it  must  be  universal  or 
non-existent. 

Yet  some  communities  may  be  far  in  advance  of  others: 
New  Zealand,  e.  g.,  distancing  Turkey. 

Socialism  can  be  established  nowhere  until  the  producing 
classes  secure  control. 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION.  643 

Nor  can  it  be  established  then  until  they  understand  what 
to  do  and  how  to  do  it. 

In  establishing  Socialism  in  the  U.  S.  national  measures 
must  be  enacted  in  the  NatiQU;  state  measures  by  the  state 
and  municipal  measures  by  the  municipality. 

Little  can  be  done  by  the  Nation  till  the  producers  control 
House,  Senate,  Presidency  and  Supreme  Court. 

The  producers  cannot  control  the  Senate  until  they  first 
control  a  considerable  group  of  states. 

But  when  the  Socialists  carry  a  state  the  Socialist  move- 
ment in  America  will  face  a  crisis.  The  Socialists  may  fail 
to  improve  their  opportunity.  If  so,  they  will  discredit  the 
movement  throughout  the  cotrutry  and,  perhaps,  retard  it 
many  years ;  or  they  may  rise  to  the  occasion  and  thus  give  to 
the  movement  a  mighty  impulse. 

The  American  state  is  autonomous.  In  purely  state  affairs 
it  is  theoretically,  and,  in  large  measure,  actually,  as  independ- 
ent  as  is  France  or  Holland. 

An  American  3tate  under  Socialist  control  could  go  far 
toward  establishing  the  co-operative  commonwealth  within 
its  borders.  It  could  put  into  practical  effect  almost  all  of  the 
"immediate  demands"  of  our  national  platform.  In  Kansas, 
e.  g.,  it  could  establish  popular  government,  including  initia- 
tive, referendum,  recall,  woman  suffrage  and  home  rule  for 
cities ;  provide  employment,  at  trade  union  hours,  wages  and 
conditions,  for  its  own  unemployed  if  not  for  others ;  establish 
public  industries  and  utilities,  including  electric  car  lines,  tele- 
phones, coal  mines,  oil  wells  and  refineries,  gas  wells,  salt 
wells,  and  agriculture  under  the  direction  of  its  agricultural 
college  and  experiment  station,  selling  the  products  to  its  own 
people  at  cost ;  it  could  enact  and  enforce  income,  inheritance, 
corporation  and  land-values  taxation,  insure  its  working  peo- 
ple -against  lack  of  employment,  sickness  and  want  in  old 
age,  and  provide  a  complete  educational  ladder  for  all  its 
children  from  kindergarten  to  doctorate  without  a  penny  of 
charge  to  the  individual.         r 

Socialists  would  thus  make  a  Socialist  administration  so 
popular  as  to  insure  its  continuance  and  thus,  in  time,  make 
the  state  a  Mecca  for  the  exploited  of  all  other  states  whom 
it  saw  fit  to  admit.  These  other  states,  to  hold  their  popula- 
tions, would  be  driven  to  follow  the  example  of  Kansas.  This, 
in  a  few  years,  would  insure  to  the  Socialists  the  U.  S.  Senate. 
Then  when  we  secured  the  Presidency  we  would  also  have 
both  houses  of  Congress.  Next,  by  a  law  reorganizing  the 
U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  we  would  obtain  control  of  that  body. 
Then,  without  stopping  for  "immediate  demands,"  we  could 
proceed  to  establish  Socialism  on  a  national  scale.     Finally, 


644  THE   INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    BEVIEW, 

as  Kansas  by  doing  its  duty  became  a  Mecca  for  the  ex- 
ploited of  the  U  S  the  U.  S.  itself,  would,  in  Srnrbeconira 
promised  land  for  the  exploited  of  the  world  and  thus  force 
the  world  to  follow  its  example. 

SocSnsm'^anH^J^'  '"  ?"^^  outline  the  path  to  international 
c^S  udon»l  h7v7  'r  P  '°  ^""^  ^'^^  American  tradition  and 
constitutional  habit.  Can  we  agree  on  this  program?  If  not 
can  some  one  suggest  a  better  one?  ^  ' 

p^^^j^t    A       ■       „    .  ..  Thomas  Elmer  Will. 

S^SwlT*^""     ^  ^'^^'^''  ^'"''*'^'  Socialist  Party 


A  Short  Platform  Wanted. 

YOURS  of  February  22nd  at  hand  and  would  say  that  in 
my  opinion  our  platforms  are  much  too  long  and  go  into 
far  too  many  details.  If  I  were  drawing  up  a  platform 
I  would  probably  limit  it  to  a  declaration  of  a  general 
demand  for  the  co-operative  commonwealth. 

Our  conventions  waste  hours  of  time  over  minor  points  in 
drawing  up  a  platform  and  ten  minutes  after  it  adjourns  every- 
body forgets  air  about  the  whole  matter  until  we  meet  again 
at  the  convention  the  following  year.  As  to  a  working  pro- 
gram for  such  members  as  may  be  elected  to  office  within  the 
Capitalist  government,  I  would  say  that  the  drawing  up  of 
any  such  program  is  so  very  difficult  as  it  must  meet  different 
cases  in  different  places  that  I  would  advise  nothing  of  the 
sort  be  done.  For  instance,  as  a  general  proposition  we  would 
say  that  no  franchise  for  a  street  railroad  should  be  given  to 
any  private  corporation,  but  that  it  should  be  held  by  the  city 
and  that  any  railroad  to  be  built  should  be  operated  and  owned 
by  tlie  city. 

In  some  places  this  might  be  modified  to  suit  public  senti-. 
ment  by  allowing  franchises  to  be  given  where  the  rate  of 
fare  would  be  fixed  at  three  cents  and  the  hours  of  labor  at 
eight  and  the  wages  of  employees  at  $3.00  a  day.  Such 
a  compromise  to  certain  Socialists  would  be  a  most  traitorous 
act  and  to  others  would  be  the  height  of  wisdom.  In  some 
western  cities  where  the  population  is  scarce  and  where  a  town 
might  not  be  able  to  build  a  railroad  at  all,  yet  there  is  a  great 
demand  from  all  classes  for  such  a  railroad,  if  a  Socialist  in 
office  should  oppose  the  giving  away  of  the  franchise  or  even 
of  the  imposing  of  any  such  restrictions  as  indicated  above 
which  would  prevent  the  building  of  the  railroad,  he  would 
te  denounced  by  every  one  as  an  enemy  of  the  community,  so 
I  say  it  is  hard  in  a  Capitalist  world  which  is  full  of  contradic* 
lions  for  an  elected  Socialist  to  follow  any  course  laid  down 


SYMPOSIUM  ON   CONVENTION.  645 

by  the  Socialist  convention  which  will  adequately  meet  every 
situation. 

It  is  well  known  that  I  am  not  in  any  sense  an  opportunist 
in  the  sense  that  I  would  favor  measures  which  tend  to  grad- 
ually bring  in  Socialism,  but  I  am  decidedly  an  opportunist 
when  it  comes  to  making  propaganda.  I  do  not  believe  in  So- 
cialists doing  anything  which  so  ostracises  them  from  the  com- 
munity in  which  they  live  that  {hey  ate  not  able  to  get  an 
audience.  I  believe  that  we  should  hav<  Socialism  at  once  and 
I  think  we  can  and  will  have  il  in  a  coi/iparetively  short  time. 
I  think  the  great  mission  of  th«  Socialist  i?  to  get  before  the 
public  and  let  them  know  what  we  want  and  why  we  are  going 
to  get  it.  Everything  which  prevent-s  the  Socialist  getting  the 
ear  of  the  public  is  so  tnttch  the  w>ise  for  Sociaii;sm. 

I  should  say  nothing  at  all  aa  to  the  farmei.  It  is  too 
complicated  a  problem.  I  think  the  farmer,  when  the  next 
depression  in  agriculture  comes,  is  going  to  be  very  ripe  for 
our  propaganda  as  he  will  be;  ripe  on  revolutionary  lines  and 
not  on  opportunist  lines. 

As  for  the  negro,  I  think  the  less  slush  and  slop  we  Social- 
ists indulge  in  about  our  red,  white,  black  and  yellow  brothers 
the  better.     Failthfully  yours.  Gaylord  Wilshire. 


Some  General  Suggestions. 

AN    EX-SLAVE    HOLDER    ON    THE    NEGRO    QUESTION. 

In  fulfillment  of  a  duiy  which  I  feel  I  owe  to  the  colored  race,  the 
Socialist  Party,  Comrade  Deba  and  Comrade  TJntermann,  I  add  my  hearty 
approTal  to  their  articles  as  given  in  the  International  Socialist  Review. 
To  me  it  seems  that  Comrade  Unteiinann's  suggestion  as  to  a  universal 
socialist  programme  will  prove  the  life  of  our  party  and  will  greatly 
facilitate  our  action. 

As  to  Debs,  he  voices  my  sentiment  on  the  negro  question  verbatim, 
and  I  have  reason  to  believe  tiiat  he  has  extracted  the  Tom  Dixon  rot  from 
the  head  of  the  ''staunch  socialist." 

I  speak  from  my  own  knowledge  of  our  negroes.  I  was  bom  inside  of 
the  same  enclosed  yard  that  they  were  born  in,  nursed  and  cared  for  by 
the  older  ones  while  a  helpless  kid;  fought  and  scratched  with  them  as 
we  grew  up,  until  the  law  of  man  (not  God's,  as  I  was  taught)  made  me 
their  cruel  master.  Then  I  proved  cruel,  and  I  beat  them  without  cause, 
believing  I  was  their  superior.  But  time  proved,  to  their  eternal  credit,  and 
to  my  eternal  disgrace,  and  to  the  eternal  shame  of  my  race,  that  the  negro 
was  our  superior. 

Now  for  facts  as  I  know  them.  I  left  a  colored  woman  with  my  wife 
to  protect  and  care  for  her  at  a  time  when  this  section  was  alternately 
occupied  by  one  amfy  and  then ,  the  other.  This  woman,  on  being  told 
that  some  white  women  had  been  insulted  by  a  soldier — ^this  very  ne^o 
woman — went  to  my  wife  with  a  huge  butcher  knife  in  her  hand,  saying 
to  £er:  ''Miss  Samantha,  if  any  man  dares  to  insult  you  while  Marse  Jo 
is  gone,  1 11  be  dumed  if  I  don 't  wash  my  hands  in  his  blood ;  I  don 't  care 


646  THE   INTEENATIONAL   SOCIALIST    BEVIEW. 

a  dam  whether  he  be  Beb  or  Yank. ' '  Show  me^  if.  you  can,  such  devotion 
among  the  white  race.  Mark  you,  I  was  then  away  from  home  fighting  to 
keep  her  and  her  race  in  this  miserable  state  of  bondage. 

Again,  in  the  year  1863,  my  brother  and  I  were  fed  by  a  man  that  onr 
father  had  raised  and  on  whose  back  we  had  placed  stripes.  This  very 
man,  Jerry,  risked  being  punished  to  bring  to  us  in  camp  food  such  as  we 
had  been  strangers  to  since  we  had  left  our  homes.  Think  of  this,  all  you 
nigger  haters!    Jerry  paid  us  in  kindness  for  our  cruelty. 

Again,  do  you  not  know  that  during  the  war,  if  the  negroes  had  been 
what  you  suppose  and  as  mean  as  I  acknowledge  I  was  at  that  time,  they 
would  have  taken  advantage  of  our  absence  and  could  have  massacred  every 
woman,  child  and  aged  man  in  the  thirteen  southern  states.  All,  all  was 
at  theiv  mercy.  Did  they  seek  retaliation  f  No.  But  to  my  certain  knowl- 
edge they  continued  to  protect  and  care  for  the  mistress  and  little  ones. 

Yes,  thank  God,  I,  like  Debs,  can  say  that  my  sympathy  and  praise 
goes  out  to  the  colored  man,  and  I  have  no  apology  to  make  to  any  living 
man  or  dead.  I  thank  God,  that,  if  I  knew  this  man  Jerry,  that  fed  my 
brothef  and  me,  was  still  living  that  I  would  willingly  walk  through  more 
mud  and  rain  to  shake  his  old  black  hand  than  all  the  Glevelands,  Boosevelts 
and  such  like  on  earth.  Mark  you,  this  man  Jerry  was  sold  a  short  time 
before  the  war  began,  and  at  the  time  he  was  doing  this  generous  act  of 
kindness  to  my  brother  and  me  he  was  owned  by  ez-Governor  Neel  S. 
Brown. 

I  am  determined  to  defend  the  colored  race's  political  and  economic 
rights  in  spite  of  all  the  "critics"  in  and  out  of  Hades.  As  to  their 
social  right,  I  will  say  that  I  would  by  far  rather  be  associated  with  a 
nigger  that  would  feed  me  than  with  a  white  man  that  would  starve  me. 

Tullahoma,  Tenn.  Jo.  H.  Baxter. 

NO  DUES. 

I  would  suggest  the  following  for  the  consideration  of  the  party:  Dis- 
continue the  stamp  system,  and  substitute  a  system  similar  to  the  one 
adopted  by  the  American  Labor  Union  recently;  that  is,  the  monthly  card 
system. 

For  instance,  the  national  secretary  would  have  printed  for  each  state,  a 
number  of  membership  cards,  being  numbered  consecutively.  These  would 
be  turned  over  to  the  state  secretaries,  who  would  be  held  responsible  for 
them;  they  in  turn  would  send  a  certain  number  to  the  local  secretaries, 
holding  them  responsible  for  these  cards. 

I  believe  that  the  collection  of  dues  would  be  easier  under  such  a  intern 
than  what  it  is  at  the  present  time;  it  of  course  would  also  be  a  greater 
expense. 

This  system  would  require  but  very  little  accounting. 

Fraternally,  John  Haoel. 

Oklahoma  City,  O.  T. 

SOME  RESOLUTIONS. 

I  favor^  the  removal  of  the  immediate  demands  from  our  platform,  and 
the  incorporation  of  all  demands  agreed  upon  in  a  set  of  resolutions. 

And  I  want  to  say,  too,  in  support  of  my  proffered  resolutions,  that 
the  first  will  place  our  party  in  an  impregnable  position  to  the  vicious 
assaults  by  the  church;  and  I  wish  I  might  urge  this  particularly,  because 
of  the  fact  that  our  convention  convenes  on  Sunday,  as  in  the  campaign 
we  could  then  point  out  that,  not  only  is  Jesus  the  Lord  of  the  SabbaSi, 
but  also  the  churches  make  a  regular  practice  of  holdins;  their  convention 
meetings  on  Sunday.  In  further  contention  for  the  propriety  of  this  resolu- 
tion, let  me  ask  that  we  turn  to  the  sixth  chapter  of  Matthew  and  read  the 
fifteen  concluding  verses  of  that  chapter,  and  we  will  find  that  these 
fifteen  verses  contain  not  only  the  law,  the  whole  law,  which  Jesus  laid 


SYMPOSIUM  ON  CONVENTION.  647 

down  on  which  to  found  his  kingdom,  but  we  And  that  these  verses  hold 
not  only  the  fundamental  basis  but  the  whole  policy  of  socialism;  because, 
when  the  fuU  sense  and  meaning  contained  therein  is  all  summed  up  in 
small  compass,  it  cannot  be  seen  otherwise  than  that  this  law  decrees  that 
all  mankind  were  not  only  created  equal  but  we  are  here  commanded  to 
remain,  permanently,  on  an  exactly  equal  basis  of  rights. 

The  second  reeolTe,  it  is  believed,  will  prove  a  most  excellent  vote 
getter,  and  will  be  undeniable  evidence  that  we  socialists  not  only  preach 
and  teach,  but  believe  and  want  to  practice  an  exact  equality  of  human 
rights.  m 

Besolved,  That  the  Sooialisti  Party  insists  upon  a  government  by  strict 
philosophy  of  Jesus."  That  ''socialism  is  the  enemy  of  capitalism," 
which  clearly  Jesus  also  was,  and  that  ''the  church,  both  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  in  its  support  of  modem  capitalism,  antagonizes  the  political 
program  of  the  working  class,  and  sets  itself  at  variance  with ' '  and  in  open 
hostility  to  Jesus  and  the  law  He  has  laid  down  on  which  to  found'  His 
kingdom;  and 

Besolved,  Shat  the  Socialist  Party  insists  upon  a  government  by  strict 
majority  rule;  therefore  we  demand  that  an  initiative  and  referendum  law 
be  enacted  in  such  form  as  to  make  the  will  and  wish  of  the  majority  as 
expressed  at  the  ballot  box  the  supreme  and  sovereign  law  and  court  of 
last  resort;  and 

Besolved,  That  the  Socialist  Party  regards  any  increase  in  the  present 
salary  of  the  president  of  the  United  States  as  uncalled  for  and  unjust, 
and  that  it  would  be  more  propitious  to  diminish  the  said  official's  salary 
to  $25,000  per  annum  rather  than  increase  the  same  at  all. 

Muscatine,  Iowa.  Corwin  Lesley. 

OONSTBUOnON,   NOT  DENUNCIATION    NEEDED. 

Comrades: — A  half  century  of  observation  and  experience  confirpis  the 
writer  in  the  opinion  that  the  platform  of  the  Socialist  party  should  be 
directed  to  tearing  down  the  opposition  and  building  up  a  better  system. 
Leave  out  all  or  as  much  reference  to  present  conditions  of  class  to  be  ben- 
efited as  possible. 

Every  intelligent  and  conscious  person  so  to  be  benefited  realizes  his 
condition  without  being  constantly  reminded  of  it. 

I  think  that  keeping  their  condition  before  them  in  the  platform  (I 
know  this  to  be  my  condition)  has  a  tendency  to  repel  rather  than  to  draw 
towards  the  movement.  I  do  not  like  to  have  my  misfortunes  paraded 
beifore  me  at  every  step.  I  prefer  to  look  hopefully  to  the  future.  I 
think  that  is  the  general  disposition.  Socialist  literature  should  be  devoted 
largely  to  contemplation  and  planning  for  the  socialist  government.  The 
hope  for  better  things  in  the  future  is  inherent  in  man.  It  prevents  self- 
destruction  many  times. 

It  does  not  seem  that  Socialism  should  indorse  or  meddle  with  any 
movement  or  organization,  whatever,  except  Socialism.  It  offends  some 
who  belong  to  the  Socialist  movement  otherwise.  There  are  many  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  movement  who  have  nothing  in  common  with  trades  union-  , 
ism.  Many  laudable  movements  have  been  spoiled  by  trying  to  ride  too 
many  horses,  seeking  to  straddle  too  many  mounts.  Socialism  wants  nothing 
else.  Leave  out  all  reference  to  trade  unionism.  It  is  not  Socialism.  But 
a  small  part  of  Socialists  are  trade  unionists.  Trade  unionism  is  all  right 
battling  with  present  conditions,  but  has  no  part  or  parcel  in  Socialism. 
I  inclose  structure  for  platform.  Fraternally, 

A.  L.  PURDT. 
WeUsville,  N.  Y. 

SOCIALISM   AND  BSLIOION. 

I  would  like  to  see  incorporated  in  the  next  platform  of  the  Socialist 
party  a  declaration  in  substance  as  follows:     "We  declare  religion  to  be 


648  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

a  private  matter/'  taking  our  stand  neither  for  or  against  any  religion, 
church  or  sect  whatsoever. 

I  believe  that  such  a  plank  should  be  inserted  for  the  following  reasons: 

First;  that  the  Socialist  party  is  an  economic  movement  and  not  re- 
ligious. 

Second,  that  the  party  has  enough  to  fight  in  capitalism  at  present. 

Third,  that  if  a  religion  or  church  be  wrong,  it  is  the  province  of 
infidelity,  atheism,  materialism,  etc.,  to  prove  it  so,  and  vice  versa  if  the 
latter  be  in  error,  it  is  for  the  former  to  furnish  the  proof,  and  in  neither 
case  is  it  the  work  of  a  political  or  economical  party. 

Fourth,  that  while  churchianity  (not  Christianity)  has  opposed  all  great 
social  evolutions,  yet  when  they  have  been  established  churchianity  has 
readily  adjusted  itself  thereto,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  will 
be  otherwise  in  regard  to  Socialism. 

Fifth,  that  if  we  mean  business  and  are  really  anxious  for  the  co- 
operative commonwealth,  we  will  gain  our  end  quicker  by  concentrating 
our  guns  on  capitalism  alone,  otherwise  we  will  not  only  make  another 
enemy  and  elicit  their  united  fire,  but  will  give  them  a  good  reason  for 
opposing  us,  and  thus  increase  their  morale. 

Sixth,  if  we  accept  battle  and  take  up  arms  against  churchianity  we 
will  not  only  gain  members  from  that  source  much  Sower  than  at  present, 
but  will  actually  lose  a  large  number  of  earnest  class-conscious  Socialists. 
I  know  this  from  positive  assertions. 

Seventh,  by  adopting  such  a  plank  we  wodld  not  lose  a  single  skeptic, 
nor  elicit  their  anti^gonism,  while  it  would  take  away  the  effective  thunder 
from  priest,  preacher  and  layman. 

Eighth,  such  action  would  be  perfectly  fair  to  all  parties  and  would 
permit  of  all  working  for  Socialism. 

Ninth,  such  action  is  called  for  both  from  utterances  from  the  pulpit 
and  by  a  large  class  of  Socialistic  writers,  who  invariably  take  particular 
pains  in  their  works  on  Socialism  to  attack  the  church,  or  fault,  ridicule  or 
snarl  at  its  teachings.  E.  L.  BiOG. 

Glenn's  Perry,  Idaho. 


EDITORIAL 


The  National  Convention. 

The  present  number  of  the  International  Socialist  Beview  is  one  of 
which  we  feel  that  the  Socialist  party  of  America  may  well  be  proud.  It 
constitutes  the  most  thorough  attempt  ever  made  by  any  political  party 
to  work  out  the  details  of  its  organization  and  policy  in  a  democratic 
manner.  The  large  number  of  contributions  represent  every  phase  of 
thought  that  will  appear  at  the  convention,  and  the  wide  circulation  which 
this  number  will  receive  makes  it  certain  that  these  opinions  will  have  great 
influence  in  determining  the  work  of  the  convention  and  the  future  policy 
of  Socialism  in  America. 

We  shall  not  attempt  to  consider  editorially  all  the  questions  that  have 
arisen  in  the  course  of  the  discussion.  It  would  appear  that  unfortunately 
one  of  the  principal  struggles  of  the  convention  will  be  over  the  question 
of  ''immediate  demands."  I  say  ** unfortunate "  because  of  the  ridiculous 
insignificance  of  this  question  compared  with  many  other  problems  concern- 
ing methods  of  propaganda  and  work  that  must  be  settled.  Our  opinion 
on  this,  which  coincides  with  that  of  several  of  the  contributors,  has  been 
often  expressed  before.  We  believe  that  some  sort  of  an  explanatory  docu- 
ment should  be  issued  for  the  guidance  of  such  officials  as  may  be  elected 
to  office  on  Socialist  tickets.  We  ioUl  elect  these  officers  during  the  next 
two  or  three  years,  whether  we  wish  to  or  not,  and  it  would  be  cowardly 
on  our  part  to  shirk  the  responsibility  for  such  election.  But  such  election 
does  not  give  the  individual  elected  any  great  amount  of  brains  in  excess 
of  those  he  had  before  election.  To  permit  him  to  use  his  own  judgment 
as  to  what  he  shall  do  is  to  adopt  the  very  unsocialistic  doctrine  that  he 
is  more  capable  of  formulatiiig  a  program  that  the  entire  party  member- 
ship, including  himself.  To  give  the  control  over  to  a  committee  is  only 
a  triflingly  less  undemocratic.  Either  method  would  be  much  more  danger- 
ous tftian  the>  adoption  of  a  similar  plan  in  our  party  administration  which 
would  give  to  the  national  secretary  or  to  the  national  committee  absolute 
power  unrestricted  by  any  constitution.  Such  a  plan  may  be  all  right  for 
democrats  and  republicans,  or  for  the  politicians  who  wish  to  practice  the 
same  tactics  within  the  Socialist  party.  But  for  those  who  believe  in  demo- 
cratic management  and  Socialist  principles,  such  methods  are  out  of  con- 
sideration.   At  the  same  time  we  have  no  use  for  any  attachment  to  our 

649 


660  THE   INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    BEVIBW. 

platform  which  will  enable  any  one  to  claim  that  any  change  within  capi- 
taliam  constitates  socialism,  or  any  part  of  socialism.  For  that  reason 
we  are  now,  as  we  were  at  the  time  when  there  were  no  more  than  half  a 
dozen  other  persons  with  us,  against  ''immediate  demands"  as  a  part 
of  our  platform. 

The  first  offices  which  we  will  capture  will  be  municipal  ones,  and, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  it  is  our  opinion  that  one  of  the  most  important 
things  for  a  national  convention  to  do  will  be  to  arrange  for  the  directing 
of  MUNICIPAL  affairs.  We  give  elsewhere  in  this  number  ^  summary  of  the 
work  done  by  a  convention  of  Socialist  municipal  councillors  in  France. 
This  is  done,  not  so  much  because  of  the  suggestion  for  a  municipal  pro- 
gram which  accompanies  the  report  (since  there  is  much  in  this  which  we 
oppose  and  little  of  it  suited  to  America),  as  simply  to  show  the  methods 
by  which  the  Socialists  of  that  country  are  working  out  their  plans 
for  municipal  administration. 

On  the  question  of  internal  organization  of  the  party  we  believe  that 
the  following  plan  meets  some  of  the  objections  which  have  been  urged 
against  our  present  method :  Let  each  state  elect  as  many  national  commit- 
teemen as  it  is  entitled  to  under  the  system  of  proportional  representation.  * 
These  committeemen  may,  or  may  not,  as  the  states  choose,  also  act  as  a 
state  conunittee.  Let  one  member  be  chosen  from  each  state  who  shall  act 
as  national  committeeman  when  it  is  necessary  to  hold  a  meeting  of  the 
committee  and  who  shall  have  but  one  vote.  Insert  a  provision  in  the  con- 
stitution that  on  the  demand  of  any  two  committeemen  at  a  meeting  of 
the  national  committee  any  action  taken  at  the  meeting  shall  be  referred  to 
a  referendum  of  the  entire  committee.  Since  90  per  cent  of  the  business 
is  done  by  referendum,  taken  by  mail,  it  makes  but  little  difference  whether 
there  be  45  or  500  members  on  the  committee.  This  is  one  alternative. 
The  other  is  to  abolish  the  local  quorum  and  national  conunittee  entirely 
and  substitute  the  various  state  committees  with  the  proviso  that  any 
action  of  the  national  secretary  may  be  caUed  in  question  and  a  referendum 
of  the  state  committees  initiated  by  any  state  so  desiring.  It  seems  to  us 
^hat  the  main  object  should  be  the  concentration  of  administration  and  the 
decentralization  of  authority.  Bearing  these  principles  in  view  the  details 
are  of  less  importance. 

Concerning  farmers,  negroes,  trade  unions,  etc.,  it  seems  to  us  that  the 
national  platform  should  simply  be  so  framed  as  to  include  all  the  producers 
of  wealth  whose  interests  are  in  accordance  with  that  of  the  modem  prole- 
tariat, and  if  this  is  done,  all  special  distinctions  may  be  left  out.  This 
applies  also  to  national,  race  or  sex  organizations.  The  national  organi- 
zation should  be  made  broad  enough  to  include  all  those  accepting  the 
program  and  principles  of  Socialism,  and  every  effort  to  divide  Socialists 
within  those  lines  should  be  frowned  upon.  The  organization  of  Italians, 
Poles,  Bohemians,  Germans,  negroes,  or  of  women  as  separate  organizations 
is  something  which  cannot  but  be  fraught  with  the  possibility  of  harm  and 
promises  but  little  good.  Surely  if  our  solidarity  cannot  be  expressed  in 
our  organization  it  never  can  remain  anything  but  a  dream. 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


After  months  of  negotiations  the  bitmninous  miners  have  voted  to 
accept  a  redaction  of  5^  per  cent  in  wages,  this  being  a  compromise  on 
the  demands  of  the  operators  from  a  12  per  cent  cut,  and,  therefore,  all 
danger  of  a  strike  in  the  soft  coal  fields  is  oyer.  That  the  rank  and  file 
were  opposed  to  accepting  a  decrease  iii  wages  and  only  voted  to  come  to 
the  operators'  terms  at  the  earnest  request  of  the  national  officers  is  gener- 
ally  understood.  In  the  address  to  the  members,  when  the  referendum 
vote  was  called  for,  they  were  informed  that  the  organization  was  in  no 
position  to  conduct  a  national  strike  under  present  industrial  conditions, 
and  that  to  throw  down  their  tools  and  fight  the  operators  at  this  time 
would  merely  invite  disaster  and  ruin.  During  the  joint  conventions  the 
miners'  officials  had  laid  especial  stress  upon  the  fact  that  the  operators 
are  receiving  a  higher  price  for  coal  than  ever  before,  and  this  fact,  as 
well  as  the  prevailing  high  living  rates,  did  not  warrant  a  decrease  in 
wages  at  this  time.  The  operators  were  further  given  to  understand  that 
a  cut  in  wages  meant  a  lessened  purchasing  power,  which  in  time  would 
result  in  overproduction,  industrial  stagnation  and  hard  times  and  misery. 
So,  with  or  without  a  strike,  we  are  in  for  a  season  of  economic  depression 
and  its  train  of  evils.  The  disadvantages  of  which  the  miners  complained 
before  agreeing  to  the  reduction  are  still  here.  The  living  rates  are  not 
only  not  decreasing,  but  actually  increasing,  and  the  plea  of  the  operators 
for  a  lower  wage  scale  in  order  that  they  might  be  enabled  to  sell  coal 
cheaper  and  stimulate  consumption  was  so  much  buncombe,  and  it  is 
questionable  whether  the  operators  will  lower  prices  and  the  miners  secure 
the  steady  work  which  they  have  been  promised  for  making  the  sacrifice. 
Incidentally  the  "fool  dinner  pail"  has  had  a  couple  more  holes  knocked 
into  it  despite  the  loyalty  of  the  vast  majority  of  miners  in  sticking  to  the 
old  parties,  and  the  lines  of  the  class  struggle  have  become  plainer.  "  I  do 
not  believe  there  is  an  irrepressible  con£ct  between  labor  and  capital," 
is  a  favorite  expression  of  John  Mitchell,  but  what  his  belief  may  be  and 
what  actually  is  don't  "jibe"  just  at  present,  although  the  miners'  officials 
and  the  operators  had  their  feet  under  the  same  table,  looked  each  other 
in  the  eye  and  had  a  heart  to  heart  talk.  Just  because  some  one  may  not 
believe  the  world  is  round  doesn't  follow  that  it  is  flat.  The  "irrepressible 
conflict"  was  here  before  Mitchell  was  born,  and  it  will  not  stand  still  or 
disappear  altogether  because  he  commands.  Whether  it  be  through  strikes 
and  boycotts,  or  conciliation  and  negotiation,  the  conflict  between  labor  and 
capital  for  higher  wages  on  the  one  hand  and  higher  profits  on  the  other 
is  irrepressible,  and  -mU.  so  continue  until  the  system,  the  cause,  is  removed 
by  labor  acquiring  control  of  the  governing  power  and  using  it  to  retain 
for  itself  the  we^th,  from  which  profits  and  capital  come,  produced  by 
labor.  While  the  miners  m^y  have  lost  in  the  industrial  struggle  they 
can  strike  to  good  advantage  at  the  ballot  box  this  fall  by  voting  with  the 
Socialist  party.  That  party  declares  that  the  miners  shall  have  as  a  "fair 
share ' '  of  the  wealthy  they  produce,  not  a  reduction  of  5%  per  cent  or  an 

651 


652  THE    INTERNATIONAL   SOCIALIST    EEVIEW. 

increase  of  10  or  20  per  cent,  but  all  the  wealth  they  produce  or  its 
equivalent. 

Since  the  miners  have  been  forced  to  accept  a  lower  wage  rate— although 
never  better  organized  than  at  present — ^many  union  officii,  as  well  as  the 
labor  press,  are  beginning  to  wonder  whether  unbridled  capitalism  will 
attempt  to  make  a  clean  sweep  and  compel  the  workers  in  other  branches 
of  industry  to  agree  to  a  reduction.  The  miners  are  engaged  in  the  in- 
dustry upon  which  all  others  rest;  they  are  the  foundation;  they  are  right 
down  in  nature's  storehouse.  Having  consented  to  work  for  less  wages, 
the  miners  opened  the  door  to  the  conquering  capitaHsts,  and  the  latter 
wiU  not  be  slow  in  taking  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  show  Brother 
Labor  how  to  do  ' '  business. ' '  Much  interest  is  taken  in  the  probable  action 
of  the  iron,  steel  and.  tin  plate  workers,  who  hold  their  annual  convention 
in  Cleveland  next  month.  As  has  been  stated  in  a  former  issue  of  the 
Beview,  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  has  given  notice  that  a  reduc- 
tion in  wages  will  be  enforced  when  the  present  i^ale  expires  this  summer, 
and  that  the  unions  will  no  longer  be  recognized,  but  the  open  shop  prin- 
ciple will  be  introduced  in  all  the  trust  plants.  The  iron  and  steel  workers, 
judging  from  the  discussion  among  the  rank  and  file,  are  not  inclined  to 
accept  the  new  terms  that  the  trust  magnates  are  aiming  to  dictate  without 
a  struggle,  and  it  is  a  question  whether  the  national  officers  will  be  able 
to  infiuence  the  men  to  make  the  concessions  demanded  as  easily  as  in  the 
miners'  case.  Indeed,  it  is  claimed  that  President  Shaffer  will  lose  his 
official  head  this  year  because  he  has  not  displayed  sufficient  firmness  in 
dealing  with  the  employers.  Just  who  will  be  his  successor  it  is  difficult 
to  determine,  as  there  are  a  number  of  candidates  in  the  race,  and  it  is 
even  rumored  that  Mahlon  Garland,  ex-president  of  the  amalgamated  asso- 
ciation, is  to  resign  his  political  job  and  again  go  to  the  head  of  the  organi- 
zation. Garland  would  be  the  candidate  cf  the  conservatives,  who  argue 
that  he  possesses  the  confidence  of  many  influential  iron  and  steel  mag- 
nates, and,  therefore,  would  be  able  to  gain  better  conditions  than  the 
trust  now  offers. 

In  this  connection  it  is  worth  noting  that  the  National  Civic  Federation 
has  again  come  into  the  public  eye.  That  aggregation  has  been  greatly 
strengthened  by  the  acquisition  of  the  brightest  particular  star  in  the  in- 
dustrial firmament.  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  will  fill  the  late  Senator  Hanna's 
shoes.  This  was  decided  upon  at  a  dinner  given  in  New  York  recently  by 
Mr.  Oscar  Straus  in  honor  of  the  iron  master,  and  the  dispatches  announced 
that  ** among  those  present"  were  James  Duncan,  W.  D.  Mahon,  Mahlon 
Garland  and  several  other  '  *  labor  leaders. ' '  No  capitalists  were  mentioned 
as  being  in  attendance — ^just  at  this  juncture  they  occupied  a  back  seat. 
The  fact  that  only  "labor  leaders"  were  named  as  feasting  with  Carnegie 
is  significant,  as  is  also  the  further  fact  that  Mr.  Theodore  Shaffer  an- 
nounced in  an  interview  that  he  would  not  sit  at  the  same  table  with  Mr. 
Mahlon  Garland.  The  latter  gentleman  does  not  represent  organized  labor 
at  present.  He  is  busy  ** keeping  politics  out  of  the  union"  and  playing 
the  game  himself,  and,  putting  two  and  two  together,  it  looks  as  though  we 
are  soon  to  witness  another  great  ''harmonizing"  act — a  regular  Damon 
and  Pythias  performance — ^in  which  the  suspected  heavy  villain,  Carnegie, 
wiU  turn  out  to  be  a  real  hero  and  rush  to  the  center  of  the  stage  and  save 
somebody  or  something.  For  several  weeks  before  the  New  York  dinner 
the  capitalistic  press  bureaus  were  busy  manufacturing  a  character  for  Mr. 
Carnegie.  It  was  explained  that  if  he  had  been  in  the  country  during  the 
Homestead  strike  that  struggle  would  never  have  proven  a  disaster  for 
the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  and  from  which 
they  have  never  recovered.  But  the  poor  man,  unfortunately,  was  hunting 
and  fishing  in  his  Scotch  preserves  by  day  and  dreaming  of  triumphant 
capitalism  in  Cluiiy  Castle  at  night.  There  is  no  record  that  the  telegraph 
and  cable  lines  were  all  broken,  and  that  he  could  not  send  a  message  to 


THE  WOBLD  OF  LABOB.  653 

his  wicked  partners,  Frick  ft  Co.  It  is  recorded,  however,  that  he  did  reply 
to  a  message  sent  to  Scotland  to  the  effect  that  he  would  not  interfere  in 
the  great  Homestead  strike,  and  from  that  daj  to  this  the  Carnegie  mills 
have  been  non-union  and  dicated  wages  in  the  iron  and  steel  industry. 
From  every  point  of  view  Carnegie  is  a  valuable  addition  to  the  Civic 
Federation.  He  has  so  much  money  that  he  is  compelled  to  give  it  away 
to  build  churches  and  libraries  for  fear  of  bein^  crushed  by  a  burden  of 
cares.  Therefore,  like  Senator  Hanna,  he  can  easily  pay  Secretary  Easley's 
salary  of  $10,000  a  year,  as  well  as  provide  sumptuous  offices  and  meet  the 
drain  of  a  private  pay  roll.  And  all  for  the  sake  of  harmony  and  the  glory 
of  labor,  Lord  bless  us  I  Let  us  hope  and  pray  that  Frick  and  Parry  wiU 
also  find  room  in  the  happy  family. 

The  various  national  associations  of  employers  and  citizens'  alliances 
continue  to  push  their  "-open  shop"  campaign  in  a  vigorous  manner.  The 
announcement  of  the  iron  and  steel  trust  tiiat  unions  will  no  longer  be 
recogized  has  lent  great  encouragement  to  the  Parryites,  as  also  the  declar- 
ations of  metal  trs^es  bosses  and  building  contractors  in  different  section^* 
of  the  country.  The  victory  of  the  marble  workers'  bosses  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  a  defeat  of  the  typefounders  by  their  employers  and  a  lockout 
of  the  lithographers  throughout  the  country.  In  Pittsburg  the  building 
trades  lost  their  fight  against  the  open  shop  policy,  and  struggles  are  on 
in  New  York,  Cincinnati  and  many  smaUer  places,  with  others  threatening. 
Very  properly  capitalists  are  giving  credit  to  President  Boosevelt  as  being 
*'the  father  of  the  open  shop."  The  contractors  of  New  York  and  Penn- 
sylvania and  in  some  parts  of  Ohio  and  Michigan  have  taken  official  cog- 
nizance of  this  fact  and  in  eulogistic  resolutions  the  president  is  praised 
for  having  enforced  the  open  shop  policy  in  the  government  printing  office 
in  the  decision  in  the  famous  .Miller  case.  Boosevelt 's  Anthracite  Strike 
Commission  also  decided  in  favor  of  that  principle,  and  United  States 
Ciabor  Conmiissioner  Wright  followed  the  precedent  in  rendering  awards  in 
cases  in  which  he  acted  as  umpire  in  the  anthracite  region.  While  Presi- 
dent Boosevelt  may  give  comfort  to  the  Parryites  and  pretend  to  stand 
for  ^'all  tlie  people,"  it  is  not  likely  that  the  thinking  trade  unionists  of 
this  country  will  disband  their  organizations  and  wax'  enthusiastic  over 
Teddy  and  hail  him  as  a  new  Savior.  The  unionists  will  continue  to  do 
business  at  the  old  stand,  come  what  will,  and  will  also  learn  to  use  their 
political  power  instead  of  voting  it  into  the  possession  of  their  opponents. 
The  lines  of  the  class  struggle  are  being  more  sharply  drawn  by  the  capi- 
talists and  their  politicians  this  year  than  ever  before,  and  there  may  be  a 
strike  at  the  ballot  box  next  November  that  will  be  heard  pretty  well  around 
the  word. 

The  Socialist  party  will  undoubtedly  be  the  only  party  that  will  go 
on  record  on  the  open  shop  proposition.  As  this  number  of  the  Review 
will  contain  a  symposium  rating  to  questions  that  wiJl  probably  come 
up  at  the  national  convention  on  the  first  of  next  month,  I  am  of  the 
opinion  that  the  declaration  regarding  trade  unions  should  be  reaffirmed, 
with  such  additions  that  will  make  plain  the  hypocrisy  of  the  open  shop 
agitation,  and  the  blame  for  its  widespread  publicity  should  be  placed  where 
it  belongs.  No  doubt  many  other  matters  of  interest  to  the  membership 
and  the  ^yorking  class  generally  will  be  discussed  and  acted  upon,  but  few 
are  more  important  at  this  ti^e  than  the  open  shop  issue.  The  life  of 
union  labor  is  largely  at  stake  in  this  struggle,  and  we  will  not  permit  the 
surrender  and  disruption  of  organizations,  industrial  or  political,  without 
a  fight  to  the  finish. 


PUBLISHERS'   DEPARTMENT 


A  SOCIAIJST  PUBUSHING  HOUSE. 

A  daintily  printed  booklet  bearing  this  title  has  just  been  published, 
and  a  copy  will  be  mailed  without  charge  to  any  one  asking  for  it.  It 
explains  in  full  detail  the  plan  of  organization  of  the  co-operative  pub- 
lishing house,  and  shows  the  personal  and  the  general  advantages  of  sub- 
scribing for  its  stock. 

The  publishing  house  is  the  property  of  830  Socialists,  none  of  whom 
draw  dividends,  but  all  whom  have  the  privilege  of  buying  an  increasing 
variety  of  books  at  cost  They  have  voted  to  extend  this  privilege  on  equal 
terms  to  4,000  more  Socialists.  The  one  important  thing  to  accomplish  now 
is  to  find  the  4,000  subscribers  to  buy  the  stock.  The  money  thus  raised 
will  put  the  work  of  the  publishing  house  on  a  basis  where  it  will  not  be 
dependent  on  the  life  of  any  one  individual,  but  will  grow  with  the  growth 
of  the  Socialist  movement. 

If  you  are  not  a  stockholder,  send  for  one  of  the  booklets  and  consider 
whether  you  cannot  subscribe  at  once.  If  you  are  a  stockholder,  send  us 
the  names  of  others  who  are  able  to  help  in  the  same  way. 

BACK  NUMBERS  OF  THE  BEVIEW— CLEARANCE  SALE. 

We  have  on  hand  a  limited  supply  of  back  numbers  of  the  Interna- 
tional l^oiALiST  Review,  including  a  few  of  every  issue  except  that  for 
September,  1900,  which  can  be  had  only  in  the  bound  volume.  Our  supply 
of  other  issues  is  very  unequal,  and  to  close  out  quickly  our  surplus  of 
those  of  which  we  have  the  most  we  will  send  to  any  address  three  copies, 
our  selection,  for  10  cents,  and  more  at  the  same  rate.  For  one  dollar 
we  will  maU  thirty  different  issues,  no  two  alike.  Larger  orders  will  have 
to  include  duplicates.  Please  notice  that  where  the  purchaser  specifies  par- 
ticular issues  the  price  will  be  10  cents  a  copy  or  $1  for  twelve  copies,  with 
a  discount  of  one-half  to  stockholders. 

THE  REVIEW  FOR  MAY. 

The  May  number  will  contain  a  full  report  of  the  work  of  the  convention 
of  the  Socialist  party  of  America,  including  the  platform,  the  resolutions 
adopted,  and  a  summary  of  the  most  interesting  discussions,  together  with 

654 


PUBUSHBRS'  DEPABTMBNT.  655 

brief  sketehes  of  the  personalities  of  the  candidates  of  the  party  for  presi- 
dent and  Tice-president.  This  number  will  thus  be  of  both  historical  and 
propaganda  value.  Orders  for  extra  copies  must  be  sent  in  at  once,  accom- 
panied hj  the  cash,  since  only  enough  copies  can  be  printed  to  supply  the 
probable  demand.  Price,  10  cents  a  copy;  to  locals  that  are  not  stock- 
holders, 7  cents;  to  stockholders,  5  cents. 

BOOKS  BY  DR.  HALPHIDE. 

While  our  co-operative  company  is  making  no  new  investment  in  the 
publication  of  any  but  Socialist  books,  its  managers  realize  that  most  So- 
cialists are  interested  in  books  of  a  general  scientific  character,  and  we 
therefore  welcome  the  opportunity  to  give  the  benefits  of  co-operation  on 
valuable  books  of  this  sort.  Such  an  opportunity  has  lately  offered  in  the  • 
case  of  two  books  by  Dr.  A.  C.  Halphide,  of  Chicago,  entitled  respectively 
"Mind  and  Body"  and  "The  Psychic  and  Psychism."  These  books  deal 
in  a  really  scientific  way,  from  a  materialist  viewpoint,  with  topics  which 
are  too  often  treated  with  a  mixture  of  quackery  and  hysterical  mysti- 
cism. "Mind  and  Body"  deals  with  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism,  and 
includes  simple,  scientific  directions  for  inducing  the  hypnotic  state,  which 
are  of  more  practical  value  than  the  widely  advertised  courses  of  instruc- 
tion for  whidh  large  sums  of  money  are  charged.  "The  Psychic  and 
Psychism"  deals  with  the  phenomena  of  clairvoyance,  and  offers  a  rational 
explanation  for  such  of  the  alleged  facts  as  are  not  pure  humbug.  Both 
books  are  well  worth  reading;  they  contain  facts  that  are  new  to  most  phy- 
sicians, while  they  are  written  in  a  style  intelligible  to  the  ordinary  reader. 
The  price  of  each  book  is  ojie  dollar,  postage  included,  while  our  stock- 
holders are  entitled  to  the  special  rate  of  sixty  cents  by  mail  or  fifty  cents 
by  express. 

AMERICAN  PAUPERISM  AND  THE  ABOLITION  OP  POVERTY. 

This  book,  by  Isador  Ladoff,  which  was  first  announced  some  months 
ago,  and  which  has  been  somewhat  delayed  in  the  printing,  is  now  ready. 
It  is  a  book  of  unusually  timely  value  for  the  campaign  of  1904,  considered 
both  as  an  educational  and  a  propaganda  work.  The  author  has  put  an 
immense  deal  of  labor  into  an  analysis  of  the  census  of  1900,  and  has 
brought  to  light  a  host  of  facts  such  as  the  capitalistic  manipulators  of 
census  figures  would  have  wished  to  keep  concealed.  The  book  constitutes 
one  of  the  most  powerful  arguments  for  the  support  of  the  Socialist  party 
of  Ameri<*A  that  has  yet  been  offered.  One  remark  in  passing  may  not  be 
out  of  place.  Comrade  Ladoff 's  earlier  work,  "The  Passing  of  Capital- 
ism," was  a  collection  of  detached  essays  on  various  topics,  some  of  which 
set  forth  the  so-called  Bernstein  or  opportunist  view.  The  position  of  the 
International  Socialist  Review  on  this  question  is  well  known,  and  we 
do  not  wish  to  reopen  the  discussion  here.  We  merely  wish  to  correct  a 
misapprehension  in  some  quarters  by  pointing  out  that  "American  Pauper- 
ism "  is  in  no  sense  an  opportunist  work,  but  deals  with  topics  on  which  all 
Socialists  are  agreed,  so  that  we  can  without  hesitation  recommend  it  for 


656  THE    INTERNATIONAL    SOCIALIST    REVIEW. 

propaganda  as  Well  as  for  study.  It  is  the  ninth  volame  in  the  Standard 
Socialist  Series,  and  is  the  largest  book  yet  printed  in  the  series,  contain- 
ing 246  pages.  Price,  '50  cents;  to  stockholders,  30  cents  by  mail  or  25 
cents  by  express. 

LOW  PRICED  PROPAGANDA  LEAFLETS. 

In  response  to  many  requests,  we  have  reprinted  five  popular  propaganda 
leaflets,  each  containing  four  pages,  the  right  size  to  slip  into  a  letter,  and 
offer  them  at  the  uniform  cost  price,  to  stockholders  and  non-stockholders 
alike,  of  60  cents  a  thousand  by  mail  and  30  cents  a  thousand  by  express 
at  purchaser's  expense.  The  titles  are  ''Labor  Politics"  and  ''Compensa- 
tion," by  A.  M.  Simons,  and  "Who  Are  the  Socialists!"  "Socialism  De- 
jfined  by  Socialists"  and  "Why  Join  the  Socialist  Party,"  by  Charles  H. 
Kerr.  Each  leaflet  bears  on  the  last  page  the  words  "Tou  are  invited  to 
a  Socialist  meeting  at ,"  with  a  blank  space  underneath  for  stamp- 
ing the  time  and  place  of  meeting.  For  tftie  convenience  of  comrades  who 
are  located  where  rubber  stamps  cannot  be  obtained  convenintly,  we  have 
made  an  arrangement  by  which  we  can  mail  a  two-line  stamp  and  inking 
pad  for  30  cents,  each  additional  line  of  printing  10  cents.  A  plan  of 
propaganda  which  has  proved  effective  is  to  get  permission  from  the  city 
authorities  to  hold  meetings  on  one  particular  corner  one  evening  each  week 
for  several  weeks.  Then  have  a  rubber  stamp  made  with  the  words 
"Comer  Main  and  State  Streets,  Saturday  Evening  at  Eight,"  or  whatever 
the  place  and  time  fixed  upon  may  be.  Then  order  a  thousand  each  of  the 
^Ye  leaflets,  and  distribute  one  kind  each  week  for  five  weeks,  of  course 
stamping  each  leaflet  before  it  is  put  out.  The  cash  outlay  of  this  experi- 
ment will  be  only  $1.80  besides  expressage,  and  it  will  almost  certainly 
make  a  success  of  the  series  of  open  air  meetings. 

A  sample  set  of  the  leaflets  will  be  mailed  for  a  2-cent  stamp,  or  a 
hundred  assorted  leaflets  for  10  cents.  Address  Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company 
(Co-operative),  56  Fifth  Avenue,  Chicago. 


»f  »»»»»»»' 


mm  COLLEGE 


WOWnCAJ,  9COVOMT  by  Mat  Wmd 
Saims.  An  historioal  oompAnitiTe  stodj 
of  eoonoaiies  examined  end  eritloifled  from 
the  toeielist  point  of  Tiew.  with  the 
eoeielist  theoriee  of  Wealth,  Bent,  Inter- 
eet  and  Wacee  folly  explained. 

AMBBTCAW  9C0V01tZC  HZMTOmT 
hjA.M.BtMOVS.  Traeee  the  indostrial 
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ent  eapitalltm  and  social  oliites  aroee. 

•OCZAXrlflM  Iw  Mat  Wood  Sxhons.  A 
hiatory  JfsociaUat  theoriee  and  their  ap- 
plieation  to  preeent  proUema.  ,The  eoo- 
nomice  of  Marx,  Socialism  and  the  State, 
Bdncation.  Organised  Labor.  Science, 
XthioB  and  Art,  and  History  of  the  mod- 
em Socialist  movement. 

Hie  same  conrses  are  given  in  residence  as 
often  as  there  are  classes  requiring  them. 
Besident  students  in  this  department  may 
carry  regular  college  work  at  the  same 
time  and  earn  their  ooard  and  room  rent 


in  the  college  indnstriee    _ 

students  in  other  departments. 

r  leetores  on  each  sob^ect  with  raqnired 
« preparations  of  papers  and  IndlTld* 
For  terms  and  farther  Infor- 


RUSKIN  COI^mOS 


xiri;. 


>wiw»wy>^  I 


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II  It  PuMWied  Exehitively  In  Um  In- 

lartit  of  IMWorklns  Class;  It  Stands 

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Jhd.  W,  i^di.  This  dabata  vfa^  betvaau 
LoaLi  r.  Puat,  H^arj  K.  IIqrTJiD>n  jiQ'i 
John  Z.  Whita^  rgprAseatiai?  tli<>8LDm]eTiiK, 
ftod  BraaH  UDtATmaun,  3«ymour  8tMmna 
and  A-  U.  SLmoas^  whi>  spuke  fur  SocIaI- 
ism .  Thft  dpbate  wii*  Unit]  twfora  &q  oa- 
thuiLa^tio  HiidL4nc«  narabftriuj^  2,000  i/«op1eH 
Aai-i  la!rit«il  for  thr^^  hoqr^  Hud  a  hftlf- 
Bven  word  whs  ta^ea  da^-a  in  ^hurt  hnnd 
by  W-  B.  McD^rirqt.  oas  of  thft  best  court 
n!>poriAtd  in  tba  Cnitod  l^tiit^?!^,  and  tho 
proofs  hare  be«D  rori^m*!  tr>  thu  aafuf«j(itlou 
of  ihodQbat«rv<>ab(vth  sidris. 

Ttiedabata  is  bandaomaly  printed  in  Lari^e 
trpo  on  bi^>k  [iftiH?r  of  eitra  iinnUty,  and 
eotitaina  fnlJ-ttajT^  portriLJta  of  KatI  HHrx> 
Henry  liaorffp.  nnd  the  6ix.  debaters.  The 
prJo*^.  iQoludiQff  po!5ta*^,  is  Z-^  cnnts  for  A 
Ain^lo  copy.  SI  -Ob  for  flfe  copiet;.  ar  $2.00  for 
twelTP  o<>i?if*^  S  took  bold '.^r^  iu  oar  oo- 
oiidratire  cooipan;  nre mititled  to  purchft^ 
copies  la  any  n^i^nU^y,  Ipirife  orsmnU,  at  the 
nuiform  rate  of  1^4  ceut=  If  we  pret^ajr  post- 
atfOi  or  toD  C0Qt6  if  wot  nt  parcha^^er^  ol- 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  ft  COMPANY 

co-or>CftATtve 

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**  At  written  of  br  Dr.  Noto  the  coaditiootare  traljr  sub- 
lime.*'—The  Dailf  SUMe. 

**  The  book  it  a  ivccett  in  its  war.  U  >•  sincere  an* 
convinciaf.  It  it  incenious  and  interettinc.  It  compare* 
favorably  with  aay  of  the  socialistic  works  and  Utopian 
schemes  this  country  has  produced."— Harlequin. 

Address  DR.  C.  NOTO,  124  No.  Rampart  St., 
New  Orleans,  La.  Copies  may  be  ordered  through- 
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Proceeding:*  ci  th.t  Convention. 


D8PARTiCBIIT8. 

^DITORIAL--TIm  Work  of  the  ConTcfttioo 
ThtWoM  of  Labor  -  Socialiacn  AbfjMid 

>  -     BookRevkw  PublhfiCf^ 0epartiiieat  ^ 


PUBLISHED  BY 


CHARLES  H.    KERR   &    COMPAinr 


INCORPORATE,D   ON   VBt.   CO^PBRATtVK   PI^N 


56    FIFTH   AVENUE,    CHICAGO,    U.    S.    A. 


The  InternatioDal  Socialist  Review 

BEV01ZD  to  THE  STUDY  ATO  WSOJSSm  ^f  TBI  ttmiMS  WCMSJ 
TO   TBE   6R0WTH   OF   TBE  HVTSUUTIORAI   SOOAUST  lOyEEfHT 

BMTED  BT  A.  !•  SIHOHS 


OOKSESramHTS: 


EKGLAND-^H.  M.  QTimiajr,  Waly«b  CteAJrs^  EAxubl  OMioM^, 
H.  QiTSLOB,''  J.  Saui  HABDI&  J.  R.  J|cd>oir A2J>.  FEAKCS-^avl 
hkr^MQVM^  JBAV  JAUKtt)  JSiJI  liOKCKrVT.     3EIiGIinc— SiD&ft 

TAirDSBTinai^  Hnru  LAyaRAUtB^  fiwxji  VnroK,  •.Hiol  Iuala 
YAXBUtStDS.  DEIffMAJKK^DH.  Gmrx^V  BavO.  GEBMAIinf-* 
EASb  KAmsRY.  ITALT-- Dft.  Aubbs^mtdbo  Sohiavl  1Pik>f.  £»w 
ucPoFttaL    BWEDEN^AsTOV  Aiflknaoir.    JXPAN— T.linAX. 


olM  apon  all  pbnat  ol  Socialist  fhoa^tt  and. all  probUms  <tf  i., 

,.      .r--      i'-— ?-.  -  ■^^'  ••    ttG  right ofadltorial 


aoeial  ona&iaatioa.    ^^kera^ona  ara  made  ia  aa0^1o4  mamuBrisi,  bat  t ^ 

•ooimMf  It  alwaya  Maarrad.  Thaabaaoaaortoehaoonaent.  Wmvar,  la  to  ba..ia  jao  warao^*- 
atraad  aaaOttoHal  andonattaat  of  tba  poaitioaa  In  -any  pabUabad  oaauaiiaicailiBa.   Ho.  rajdotad 
awgaanpt  wiH  ba  lataraad  atilaaa  aoaompanlad  by  <taa>pa  tor  fatara  yoataaa.   • 

TMa«wigaalTiaitaopyg|gbtadft«rtha»toteatton  ol  oat  aaatribatowv  ^  Othar  pm 

awnafa  aopf  Cpaa  ov  aqftori%l  dap^KtaantajproTldad  aradit la jglYaa.    Panaiaafofti 


alwaya'ba 


aaiaattooa  1o  GiuuM B.  Kaut A OcNfFAin, Mralh  Ataaae,  Gldaagi^  ; 


EXCaiENT!    TilS  IS  THE  VffiWCf 


-Enraie  V.  Deb&  Geo.  j!>.  Henoo,  £d^««id  CVupaatar,  Jem  Langnet, 

Enrieo  Ferri,  H«  Jii. -Hyndniiaii,  Had  Kimtiiky,  Jack  London  afudsumy 

-  other  w«il  known  SoolaliBtfl  bare  dedared  Tkx  Oombads  to  be  exoeUent, 

.  Tbe  Sociallsl  piMS  k  oontmnallr  reconu&ending.TBB  CoHSAi»»  polirting 

bnl  its  great  value  to  the  Socialist  movement,  ^nioninuds  of^eUQicribefa 

have  sent  n$  letters  expieenng  their  ^iipreciation.    The  CoMjftipiB  is  a  pnb- . 

.  Ucation  you  need,  no ;naiter  what  ^seyon  ax$  treading  now.    It  gives  jdn 

more  original,  insiniotive  artioles  on  Sociidism  than  any  other  publication. 

Ite  nnmerons  lUintrations,  portniits  and  cartoons  make  it  l^e  most  beaati* 

fnl  and  interesting  Socialist  njiagazine.  -  \       -  "^      . 

dntCtAL  HALF  PKJCE  OFPIUL  Hie  sabsoription  prica  of  Thx 
CoMBADB  is  One  Dollar  a  year,  bnt  to  all  who  will  send  ns  one  dollar  be-, 
fore  June  the  15th,  we  will  send  the  twelve  nnmbers  for  the  year  1904  and 
farther  twelve  diflerent  baok  nnmbMs.  If  yon  accept  this  special  offer  yoa- 
will  ffet'24  diflarent  nnmbers  of  The  Combadb,  containing  about  600  beaati* 
tol  iliustrationB  and  a  wealth  of  the  best  reading  matter.  ^    * 

Plaato  mentkm  tbe  R«Tiow  when  orderiag.  '    -^  -J 


COMHAOE  GQOPEfliiTIVE  €0.,  11  Cooper  S{}iiare.  H.  Y. 


i!$$!5«««5«i5!$«5«;5 


TM   INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST    REVIEW 


VOL.  IV 


MAY,  1904 


NO.  II 


Report  of  National  Secretary. 

COMRADES :    In  submitting  this  report  as  National  Sec- 
retary of  the  Socialist  Party,  I  shall  confine  myself  to 
those  questions  which  I  have  come  to  consider  as  essen- 
tial to  the  development  and  progress  of  the  party  organic 
zation,  believing  that  in  the  settlement  of  these  questions  is  bound 
up  the  future  of  the  movement  in  whose  interests  this  convention 
has  been  assembled. 

The  industrial  and  political  situation,  presenting  new  phases 
from  day  to  day,  will  continue  to  give  birth  to  problems  which 
will  demand  the  earnest  attention  of  all  Socialists,  and  our  ability 
to  meet  these  problems  and  successfully  dispose  of  them  will  de- 
pend more  than  all  else  upon  the  strength  and  compactness  of  the 
organization  representing  the  Socialist  movement  of  this  coun- 
try. More  than  ever  Socialists  must  realize  that  before  they  can 
expect  to  be  thought  capable  of  administering  and  directing  the 
affairs  of  this  or  any  other  nation,  they  must  first  prove  their  fit- 
ness for  the  task  by  displaying  the  ability  to  administer  and  direct 
the  affairs  of  a  political  organization  representing  the  interests  of 
the  working  class,  and  it  is  to  this  task  that  I  believe  their  best 
efforts  and  most  conscientious  endeavor  should  be  applied  for  some 
time  to  come.  In  short,  the  government  of  the  Socialist  Party 
organization  must  be  the  means  of  fitting  its  members  for  the 
larger  duties  and  greater  responsibility  that  the  future  holds  for 
them. 

I  desire  to  emphasize,  therefore,  the  necessity  of  our  members 
giving  increased  attention  to  the  methods  of  transacting  the  party 
business  in  their  respective  local,  state  and  national  organizatios. 
They  must  acquaint  themselves  thoroughly  with  all  the  executive 
and  administrative  details,  such  as  conducting  business  meetings 
and  correspondence,  keeping  accounts,  making  reports,  and  other 
duties  involved  in  the  general  government  of  the  party.  They 
should  post  themselves  as  far  as  possible  upon  the  detail  of  party 
activity  in  every  field  and  they  should  elect  as  their  officials  and 

657 


658  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

representatives  only  those  comrades  whose  fitness  especially  quali- 
fies them  for  these  positions.  More  important  still,  they  must 
continue  to  develop  the  spirit  of  self-confidence,  of  dependence 
upon  themselves,  of  faith  in  their  ability  through  their  own  fore- 
sight and  wisdom  to  settle  all  the  problems  and  overcome  all  the 
difficulties  which  lie  between  here  and  the  Co-operative  Common- 
wealth. 

Of  the  writing  of  books,  the  making  of  speeches,  and  the 
editing  and  publishing  of  papers,  there  is  no  end,  but  there  is  an 
appreciable  lack  of  application  to  the  executive  branches  of  our 
party  work.  However  important  the  literary  and  other  educa- 
tional features  of  the  movement  may  be,  yet  these  factors  will 
continue  to  be  more  or  less  barren  of  results  so  long  as  the  party 
organization  is  not  properly  equipped  to  take  full  advantage  of 
them.  Heretofore  (and  this  was  perhaps  unavoidable  in  the  early 
stages  of  the  movement)  the  greatest  amount  of  energy  has  been 
expended  upon  the  dissemination  of  literature  and  the  holding 
of  public  meetings,  regardless  of  the  methods  employed  or  of 
any  -direct  purpose  to  which  the  results  accruing  therefrom  were 
to  be  applied.  There  was  competition  instead  v  of  co-operation, 
and  a  consequent  waste  of  energy,  money  and  enthusiasm.  As 
one  result,  there  is  now  in  this  country  a  tremendous  amount  of 
Socialist  sentiment  of  which  we  cannot  take  advantage  because 
our  organization  is  not  yet  in  a  position  to  do  so.  From  this  time 
forward  we  should  try  to  adjust  the  mechanism  of  the  party  to 
secure  the  best  results  with  the  least  expenditure  of  effort  and 
money,  so  that  the  gathering  forces  of  Socialist  thought  and  senti- 
ment can  find  concrete  expression  at  the  ballot  box. 

Perhaps  no  other  task  to  which  a  Socialist  can  apply  himself 
offers  less  of  individual  glory  or  immediate  reward  than  that  of 
faithful  participation  in  and  unremitting  devotion  to  the  details 
of  party  organization,  but  this  very  fact  makes  it  all  the  more 
necessary  that  the  task  should  be  undertaken.  It  is  easy  and  con- 
venient to  let  things  run  themselves,  but  sooner  or  later  the  party 
members  pay  the  penalty  for  their  indffference  or  carelessness  by 
becoming  involved  in  disagreeable  situations  which  create  dis- 
couragement and  disgust,  but  which  could  have  been  well  avoided 
in  the  first  place.  The  lecturer  or  writer  will  always  flourish 
and  receive  his  proper  meed  of  public  reward  and  admiration. 
For  this  reason  these  positions  will  naturally  be  the  most  coveted 
and  the  persons  holding  them  will  continue  to  have  a  greater  per- 
sonal influence  through  their  association  directly  and  indirectly 
with  the  general  membership. 

For  example,  during  the  past  year  the  number  of  applications 
for  commissions  as  national  organizers  and  lecturers  has  far 
exceeded  the  actual  number  within  the  ability  of  the  national 
headquarters  to  employ  at  a  given  time.  The  comrades  filing 
these  applications  were  in  many  instances  new  and  inexperienced, 


BEPOBT  OF  NATIONAL  SECBETABY.  659 

but  filled  with  a  creditable  enthusiasm  to  be  of  service  to  the 
movement.  Several  others  were  from  comrades  of  more  experi- 
ence, but  displaying  a  singular  lack  of  comprehension  of  the 
scope  and  character  of  the  party  work.  A  majority  of  the  appli- 
cants desired  to  be  placed  at  work  at  once,  and  some  were  sb 
insistent  that  they  would  brook  no  delay  and  appeared  aggrieved 
when  their  wishes  could  not  be  gratified. 

It  did  not  seem  to  occur  to  these  comrades  that,  however 
worthy  their  motives  and  ambitions  might  be,  it  was  quite  impos- 
sible for  the  national  headquarters  to  utilize  all  the  available 
material  placed  at  its  disposal.  Nor  did  they  seem  to  realize  that 
there  were  other  ways  through  which  they  could  perform  valua- 
ble service  to  the  movement — ^ways  relatively  as  important  as 
those  sought  for,  although  offering  fewer  inducements  to  the 
enthusiast,  but  requiring  qualities  of  the  highest  possible  value  to 
the  cause  of  Socialism. 

The  comrade,  however,  who  assumes  the  burden  of  executive 
and  organizing  detail  must  be  prepared  to  accept  responsibilities 
which  are  comparatively  unknown  to  the  worker  in  other  fields. 
Such  a  comrade  must  be  possessed  of  patience  with  himself  and 
others.  He  must  exercise  caution,  fortitude  and  courage.  He 
must  be  impersonal  and  impartial.  He  must  be  prepared  to  ac- 
cept the  will  of  those  for  and  with  whom  he  works,  even  at  the 
temporary  sacrifice  of  his  own  opinions.  And,  above  all,  he  must 
expect  to  be  misunderstood  and  misrepresented  by  those  to  whom 
his  services  are  devoted. 

All  of  this  will  be  difficult  and  disagreeable  and  other  lines 
of  work  will  offer  greater  attractions,  but  none  will  bring  the  im- 
mediate and  permanent  benefit  to  the  Socialist  movement  faster 
than  this  one  will.  This  fact  in  itself  will  be  the  most  satisfying 
and  satisfactory  reward  that  can  come  to  any  Socialist.  If  the 
course  indicated  has  not  been  followed  more  generally  in  the  past 
it  is  not  because  the  will  to  serve  the  movement  has  been  lacking, 
but  because  the  relative  importance  of  this  special  phase  of  the 
party  work  has  not  been  recognized.  It  only  requires  such  recog- 
nition to  call  into  action  the  latent  executive  ability  which  now 
lies  dormant  in  the  membership  everywhere  and  upon  the  devel- 
opment and  exercise  of  which  the  future  success  of  our  movement 
greatly  depends. 

This  subject  has  also  another  phase  which  should  not  be 
overlooked.  If  the  Socialist  Party  differs  from  other  political 
organizations,  it  is  in  this:  that  the  membership  and  not  a  few 
leaders  control  and  direct  the  movement.  It  is  this  very  differ- 
ence which  constitutes  its  chief  strength  and  must  mak»  it  un- 
conquerable and  triimiphant  in  the  future.  The  organization 
must  be  democratic  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word  or  lose  its  iden- 
tity as  one  representing  the  working  class  movement  to  democra- 
tize the  world.    It  follows,  therefore,  that  only  in  the  encourage- 


060  THE  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIAIilST  KBVIEW. 

ment  and  development  of  self-government  within  the  organization 
can  the  spirit  and  practice  of  democracy  be  maintained  and  the 
movement  held  to  its  true  course.  Embodying  as  it  does  the  vital 
principles  which  make  for  the  liberation  of  mankind  from  all 
forms  of  industrial  and  ix>litical  despotism,  the  Socialist  Party 
must  announce,  through  its  own  actions,  democracy  as  a  fact  lim- 
ited only  by  those  restrictions  which  capitalist  conditions  impose 
upon  it. 

But  we  should  imderstand  that  a  democratic  movement  does 
not  imply  unrestricted  individualism,  as  some  comrades  seem  to 
believe.  True  democracy  involves  co-operation,  and  upon  our 
ability  to  co-operate  successfully  everything  depends.  And  co- 
operation in  turn  involves  adaptation  to  one  another ;  the  abiUty  to 
accept  the  will  of  the  majority,  wherever  and  whenever  expressed, 
as  our  individual  will,  until  such  time  as  our  individual  will  can  be 
expressed  by  the  majority.  And  this  again  in  turn  involves  faith 
in  the  movement  as  an  organized  force,  the  exercise  of  charity  to- 
ward each  other  and  of  the  prevalence  of  the  spirit  of  comrade- 
ship throughout  the  movement. 

Nowhere  perhaps  in  the  capitalist  world  will  it  be  more  diffi- 
cult to  organize  a  Socialist  movement  upon  purely  democratic 
lines  than  in  this  country,  where  the  spirit  of  individualism  has 
been  distorted  out  of  its  true  proportions  until  the  simplest  rules 
of  organization  are  condemned  even  by  some  Socialists  as  "bu- 
reaucratic." These  have  yet  to  learn  that  the  purest  and  highest 
individualism  is  that  whidi  can  subserve  itself  when  occasion  re- 
quires to  the  social  will  and  social  good.  The  real  bureaucracy  to 
fear  is  that  which  would  make  a  few  people  the  ungoverned  and 
ungovernable  authorities  and  dictators  of  the  movement.  There 
need  be  no  fear  of  any  kind  of  a  bureaucracy  so  long  as  the  party 
machinery  remains  in  the  hands  and  under  the  control  of  an  alert 
and  enlightened  membership. 

When  these  self-evident  propositions  become  more  generally 
recognized  and  accepted  by  Socialists  everywhere,  there  will  be 
fewer  locals  disband  after  a  short  and  precarious  existence,  and 
lapses  in  membership  will  become  less  frequent.  It  is  an  encour- 
aging sign  that  the  number  of  comrades  giving  their  attention  to 
this  subject  is  increasing,  and  with  a  still  greater  consideration 
we  can  confidently  expect  a  stronger  and  more  effective  organiza- 
tion with  which  to  conduct  the  struggle  with  the  rapidly  combin- 
ing forces  of  the  capitalist  enemy. 

THE  NATIONAL  CONSTITUTION. 

Thfi  present  conditicm  of  the  party  organization  is  generally 
satisfactory,  when  the  stage  of  its  progress  is  considered.  The 
form  of  organization  is  as  yet  practically  new,  and  difficulties  have 
been  presented  as  a  consequence  which,  with  a  revision  of  the  con- 
stitution and  the  development  of  the  organization,  should  gradu- 


!  EBPOET  OP  NATIONAL  SECEETAEY.  661 

ally  disappear.  The  present  constitution  was  a  hastily  prepared 
'  document,  and  it  was  natural  that  it  should  be  faulty  in  construc- 

tion, although  basically  correct. 

My  ideas  upon  the  character  that  the  organization  should  take 
have  been  expressed  elsewhere  as  follows :  "The  Socialist  Party 
must  be  more  than  a  mere  political  machine ;  it  must  be  so  man- 
aged and  controlled  that  the  highest  dgree  of  democracy  consistent 
with  efficiency  as  the  directing  force  of  Socialist  activity  must  be 
attained.  More  and  more  we  must  provide  for  a  decentralization 
of  authority  and  the  concentration  of  the  forces  of  agitation  and 
education.  The  national  headquarters  should  be  the  nerve  center 
of  Socialist  activity,  the  clearing  house  through  which  the  diifer- 
ent  state  organizations  can  be  kept  in  close  touch  and  sympathy 
with  each  other,  thus  ensuring  an  objective  point  at  which  the 
organized  Socialist  forces  can  converge  and  act  unitedly. 

The  chief  problem  before  us,  then,  as  an  organized  body,  is 
how  to  combine  democracy  in  management,  efficiency  in  action 
and  economy  in  labor  and  expense,  so  that  the  best  and  most  per- 
manent results  can  be  obtained. 

The  existing  political  system  requires  that  state  autonomy 
must  necessarily  continue  to  be  the  basis  of  organization,  but  its 
boundaries  and  limitations  must  be  more  definitely  prescribed. 
There  has  been  a  tendency  toward  exclusiveness,  to  place  the  in- 
terests of  a  single  state  organization  above  those  of  the  party  at 
large,  a  tendency  as  injurious  as  the  other  extreme  concentrating 
authority  over  the  membership  in  a  central  committee.  One  car- 
ries state  autonomy  to  the  extreme  and  makes  toward  anarchy; 
the  other  denies  democracy  to  the  extreme  and  makes  toward  abso- 
lutism. Both  are  dangerous  and  can  only  result  in  dry  rot.  Our 
national  organization  must  be  fluid  enough  to  invite  or  encourage 
neither  one  nor  the  other. 

Under  the  present  constitution  there  is  danger  from  both. 
The  national  officials  may  become  aware,  through  the  position 
they  hold,  that  the  officials  of  a  state  organization  are,  unknown 
to  the  membership,  either  neglecting  their  duties  or  perverting 
their  powers,  to  the  injury  of  the  party  in  that  state  or  the  entire 
country,  and  yet  the  national  officers  are  powerless  to  act.  Provi- 
sion should  be  made  for  action  in  such  cases,  although  such  action 
should  not  be  arbitrary  or  authoritative,  but  merely  along  the  lines 
of  suggestion,  information  or  investigation,  leaving  final  action 
to  the  membership  of  the  state  itself. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  constitutional  preventive  against 
representatives  or  members  of  one  state  organization  interfering 
with  or  usurping  the  duties  or  rights  of  other  state  organizations 
and  their  members,  or  the  duties  and  rights  of  the  national  organ- 
ization in  organized  states  and  territories.  The  activities  of  state 
officials  should  be  confined  to  their  own  states  where  their  respon- 
sibility lies,  except  when  agreement  is  specifically  made  either  with 


662  THE  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

Other  state  organizations  or  the  national  organization,  as  the  case 
may  be. 

There  should  also  be  constitutional  regulations  to  protect  the 
national  party  against  the  violation  of  the  principles  and  platform 
of  the  Socialist  Party  in  any  organized  state  or  territory. 

The  qualifications  for  membership  in  the  party  should  be  made 
as  uniform  as  possible  in  all  states  so  that  all  members  may  enjoy 
equal  privileges.  A  system  of  recognition  of  transference  of  mem- 
bership from  one  state  to  another  should  also  be  adopted. 

In  order  to  avoid  the  recurrence  of  having  state  organizations 
formed  where  geographical  or  other  conditions  are  unfavorable  to 
their  effective  or  permanent  existence,  the  membership  in  any  un- 
organizd  state  or  territory  should  reach  a  certain  number  before 
the  movement  for  a  state  organization  can  be  initiated.  Eager- 
ness to  establish  state  organizations  before  conditions  were  ripe 
for  them  has  resulted  disastrously  in  several  places  through  failure 
on  the  part  of  these  organizations  to  properly  maintain  themselves 
when  thrown  upon  their  own  resources.  TTie  national  office  can 
usually  take  better  ca,re  of  locals  in  unorganized  states  and  ter- 
ritories until  conditions  make  a  state  or  territorial  organization 
necessary  and  justifiable. 

THE   NATIONAL   COMMITTEE. 

The  present  form  of  the  national  committee  elected  from  the 
various  state  organizations  is  objectionable  and  should  be  abol- 
ished. The  principal  objection  lies  in  its  fostering  of  factional 
divisions  in  the  party.  The  national  committee  is  supposed  to  rep- 
resent the  entire  party  and  to  act  upon  matters  affecting  all  the 
states,  while  at  the  same  time  its  individual  members  are  only  re- 
sponsible for  their  action  to  the  respective  state  organizations 
which  elect  them,  so  that  the  party  has  absolutely  no  jurisdiction 
or  control  over  any  or  all  of  them.  Experience  has  also  already 
shown  that  it  is  impossible  to  devise  a  basis  of  representation  upon 
the  committee  which  will  permit  of  equal  representation  from  all 
the  states.  The  size  of  the  committee  makes  the  method  of  trans- 
acting business  cumbersonie,  exhausting  and  expensive. 

As  a  substitute  for  this  I  would  suggest  that  there  be  a  Na- 
tional Executive  Committee,  to  consist  of  seven  or  nine  members 
selected  by  referendum  of  the  party  at  large,  regardless  of  section, 
with  each  and  all  members  subject  to  recall.  This  would  give  the 
entire  party  membership  the  choice  of  its  administrative  body  and 
ensure  representation  to  the  locals  in  unorganized  states  and  ter- 
ritories which  have  now  no  voice  in  the  councils  of  the  party,  al- 
though contributing  financially  to  its  support.  The  National  Sec- 
retary should  be  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  National  Ex- 
ecutive Committee,  but  elected  by  referendum  of  the  party  mem- 
bership.   The  acts  of  the  committee  upon  all  matters  referred  to  it 


EEPOBT  OF  NATIONAL  SEGBBTABY.  663 

could  be  published  regularly  in  a  bulletin  issued  for  that  purpose 
and  furnished  to  every  party  member. 

THE  REFERENDUM. 

The  initiative  and  referendum  involves  a  principle  too  sacred 
and  valuable  to  be  used  lightly.  Recently  two  referendums  were 
taken  upon  the  same  subject  within  thirty  days  of  each  other,  and 
as  a  result  there  are  now  two  contradictory  clauses  in  the  present 
national  constitution.  The  provisions  for  initiating  referendums 
should  be  changed  to  conform  to  the  growth  of  the  organization 
and  propositions  should  be  limited  in  length.  A  law  should  be 
in  force  and  effect  at  least  ninety  days  before  another  law  upon 
the  same  subject  could  be  initiated  and  submitted  to  a  referendum. 

ORGANIZATION  AND  AGITATION. 

The  work  done  by  the  national  organizers  during  the  past  fif- 
teen months  has  been  productive  of  much  good  and  seems  to  have 
given  general  satisfaction.  The  expense  incurred  in  placing  and 
keeping  these  organizers  in  the  field  has  been  greater  than  will 
probably  be  the  case  in  the  future,  as  the  ground  covered  by  them 
was  mostly  new.  The  financial  support  given  them  has  been  en- 
couraging and  gratifying,  although  in  a  number  of  cases  the 
comrades  at  various  places  did  not  appear  to  realize  the  great 
responsibility  borne  by  the  national  headquarters  for  these  organ- 
izers. The  idea  seemed  to  prevail  that  because  the  organizers  trav- 
eled for  the  national  organization  there  was  no  need  of  rendering 
any  financial  assistance.  If  the  national  office  had  unlimited  re- 
sources at  its  command  this  belief  might  be  warranted,  but  the 
contrary  is  true,  so  that  this  word  upon  the  matter  may  not  be 
amiss. 

As  the  different  state  organizations  develop  they  will  be  able  to 
employ  their  own  organizers,  and  the  necessity  for  national  organ- 
izers will  become  lessened.  The  present  method  of  selecting  na- 
tional organizers  and  lecturers  could  be  improved  upon,  however, 
by  the  requirement  of  certain  qualifications  upon  the  part  of  appli- 
cants, such  as  length  of  party  service,  special  knowledge  of  Social- 
ism, and  the  details  of  organization,  etc. 

I  take  the  liberty  of  proposing  to  the  convention  the  creation 
of  the  office  of  General  Organizer.  The  activities  of  this  official 
would  not  be  restricted  to  any  section  and  his  services  would  be 
available  at  all  times  for  the  purpose  of  representing  the  national 
organization  whenever  occasion  would  require  personal  investiga- 
tion and  action.  There  has  been  need  of  such  an  official  several 
times  during  the  past  year,  and  it  is  my  opinion  that  sooner  or 
later  one  will  have  to  be  selected.  The  duties  of  this  official  would 
cover  a  wide  field  and  his  work  could  be  of  great  value  to  the 
party. 

Propositions  will  probably  be  made  at  this  convention  for  the 


664  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

formation  of  the  foreign-speaking  workers  into  separate  federa- 
tions to  be  affiliated  with  the  national  organization.  This  is  a  matter 
which  should  receive  your  careful  consideration,  as  it  is  necessary 
that  the  national  party  secure  the  active  co-operation  of  the  work- 
ers of  all  nationalities  in  the  movement  against  capitalism.  Whether 
it  would  be  better  to  have  federations  as  proposed,  or  to  have 
these  workers  organized  directly  into  locals  and  branches  of  the 
party,  is  a  new  question  which  the  convention  will  have  to  pass 
upon  in  some  specific  manner  so  that  a  definite  line  of  action  can 
be  pursued. 

NATIONAL  LECTURERS. 

Until  recently  the  condition  of  the  party  organization  made  it 
impossible  to  have  very  much  system  in  the  arranging  of  tours  for 
party  lecturers  who  had  formerly  usually  traveled  at  high  expense 
to  the  locals  and  oftentimes  at  great  inconvenience  and  hard- 
ship to  the  speakers  themselves.  To  remedy  this  I  have  attempted, 
in  accordance  with  instructions  from  the  National  Committee,  to 
formulate  a  definite  system  of  lecture  work  which  would  enable 
the  party  locals  to  engage  capable  lecturers  at  a  normal  expense, 
while  guaranteeing  these  lecturers  sufficient  remuneration  for  the 
labor  and  time  expended. 

While  this  work  has  been  fairly  successful,  yet  it  has  been 
attended  by  difficulties  only  to  be  appreciated  by  those  in  the  na- 
tional office  and  into  the  details  of  which  it  is  imnecessary  to  enter 
here.  Some  of  these  difficulties  could  be  obviated  by  the  adoption 
of  definite  rules  to  govern  the  routing  of  interstate  speakers  and 
which  rules  would  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  state  organizations 
within  their  respective  boundaries,  while  also  facilitating  the  gen- 
eral arrangement  of  engagements  with  the  locals. 

This  would  prevent  the  confusion  and  unnecessary  expense 
which  have  been  caused  by  state  organizations  assuming  the  work 
of  routing  lecturers  and  organizers  when  they  were  unable,  for 
various  reasons,  to  perform  the  work  properly.  The  blame  for 
this  state  of  affairs  has  been  mostly  directed  at  the  national  office, 
when  the  facts  are  .that  in  almost  every  case  the  routing  done  by 
the  latter  has  been  more  satisfactory  in  every  way.  With  the  facil- 
ities now  in  use,  speakers  and  organizers  can  be  routed  from  the 
national  headquarters  much  more  economically  than  otherwise. 
Especially  is  this  true  of  those  states  in  close  proximity  to  the  seat 
of  the  national  headquarters. 

The  effort  to  establish  a  lecture  system  such  as  I  have  outlined 
caused  the  circulation  of  a  report  that  I  was  attempting  to  form 
what  was  termed  a  "bureaucracy"  a  national  headquarters  for  the 
purpose  of  victimizing  certain  speakers  and  driving  them  from 
the  field.  I  take  this  opportunity,  the  first  presented  to  me,  to  state 
that  this  report  was  entirely  unwarranted ;  that  I  was  not  actuated 
by  personal  motives  of  any  kind ;  that  I  had  no  other  purpose  than 


EEPOET  OP  NATIONAL  SECEETAEY.  665 

the  coordination  of  the  party  forces  upon  a  scale  which  would 
guarantee  economy  and  better  results  in  the  future.  Regardless 
of  contrary  opinions,  a  system  for  handling  Socialist  speakers 
must  be  perfected  if  we  are  to  keep  step  with  the  forces  which  we 
recognize  and  proclaim  to  be  at  work  in  society. 

During  the  infancy  of  the  organized  movement,  when  pioneer 
work  was  the  rule  and  Socialists  Wfere  widely  scattered  and  iso- 
lated from  each  other,  the  question  of  control  of  speakers  did  not 
arise,  except  in  well-organized  sections  of  the  country.  But  since 
the  party  has  developed  into  a  national  organization  the  question 
has  arisen  and  provoked  discussion.  This  is  a  healthy  sign  and 
should  be  taken  as  an  indication  of  growth.  The  question  can 
only  be  settled  in  one  way,  and  that  way  is  the  one  in  harmony 
with  the  law  of  organization  and  co-ordination.  Those  who  as- 
sume to  speak  for  the  Socialist  Party  should  be  prepared  to  accept 
the  control  of  the  party.  If  the  Socialist  Party  is  to  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  them,  then  they  should  be  held  responsible  to  the 
party ;  the  local  workers  to  the  local  organizations,  the  state  work- 
ers to  the  state  organizations,  and  the  national  workers  to  he  na- 
tional organization.  The  question  of  remuneration  is  a  minor  one 
which  will  gradually  adjust  itself. 

SUPPLIES. 

Qianges  in  the  form  and  quality  of  organizing  and  other  sup- 
plies have  been  made  from  time  to  time  and  a  normal  price  charged 
in  order  to  bring  them  within  easy  reach  of  all  state  and  local  or- 
ganizations. Various  circumstances  have  prevented  us  from  fur- 
nishing locals  with  sets  of  books  for  officials,  although  the  forms 
for  these  books  have  been  ready  for  some  time.  If  ordered  in 
large  quantities  for  cash,  the  books  can  be  secured  at  a  nominal 
cost,  but  so  far  the  state  of  our  finances  would  not  warrant  the  in- 
currence of  this  expense.  A  set  of  books  for  state  secretaries  have 
also  been  devised  and  when  put  into  use  will  go  far  toward  sys- 
tematizing the  work  of  these  officials. 

BULLETINS  AND  REPORTS. 

The  issuance  of  weekly  bulletins  and  reports  chronicling  party 
affairs  and  activity  has  proven  of  such  value  that  steps  should  be 
taken  to  extend  the  service.  It  is  essential  that  the  membership  be 
fully  informed  upon  the  action  of  the  party  officials  and  party  af- 
fairs in  general.  The  space  in  the  Socialist  press  is  too  limited 
to  publish  all  of  this  information,  which  is  of  more  or  less  impor- 
tance. I  believe  a  month  bulletin  should  be  issued  in  printed  form 
devoid  of  editorial  matter  and  devoted  entirely  to  financial,  na- 
tional committee,  and  organizers'  reports,  and  other  details  of  an 
official  character.  The  bulletin  could  be  printed  in  quantities  suf- 
ficient to  reach  every  member.  This  would  not  prevent  the  con- 
tinued issuance  to  the  party  press  of  a  weekly  bulletin  reporting 
current  items  of  immediate  importance. 


666  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW. 

EXPENSES  OF  DELEGATES  TO  NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS. 

I  would  also  suggest  that  meaiis  be  provided  for  the  payment 
direct  through  the  national  organization  of  the  expenses  of  dele- 
gates to  the  national  conventions.  A  general  assessment  of  a 
nominal  sum  from  each  member  for  thfs  specific  purpose  and  levied 
before  the  convention  would,  undoubtedly  furnish  a  sufficient 
amount  to  cover  these  expenses,  thus  ensuring  representation 
from  all  the  states.  The  basis  of  representation  could  be  changed, 
but  a  more  general  attendance  would  be  secured.  The  adoption 
of  this  proposition  would  place  all  aspirants  for  election  as  dele- 
gates in  the  different  states  upon  the  same  footing  and  eliminate 
the  tendency  to  select  delegates  because  of  their  ability  to  defray 
their  own  expenses  to  and  from  the  conventions. 

THE  SOCIALIST  PRESS. 

The  Socialist  party  press  is  gaining  steadily  in  numbers  and 
influence,  and  wifli  its  further  development  will  become  a  most 
potent  factor  in  shaping  the  destinies  of  the  movement.  With- 
out doubt  the  genersd  literary  and  spiritual  quality  of  the  press  is 
improving  and  Socialists  are  rapidly  realizing  the  urgent  necessity 
for  a  press  than  can  fittingly  represent  the  Socialist  party.  The 
practice  of  beginning  the  publication  of  local  papers  before  the 
condition  of  the  movement  warrants  their  continuance  has  a  tend- 
ency to  detract  from  the  general  effectiveness  and  stability  of  pa- 
pers with  established  circulations,  besides  making  for  the  dissipa- 
tion of  the  limited  resources  of  the  comrades.  It  is  much  better 
to  increase  the  usefulness  of  papers  already  in  the  field  than  to 
embark  upon  undertakings  which  have  little  certainty  of  pro- 
longed existence. 

The  sentiment  for  an  official  organ  to  be  published  by  the 
national  organization^may  justify  me  in  stating  my  views  in  oppo- 
sition to  such  a  proposition.  I  believe  also  that  the  existence  of 
an  independent  press  free  of  party  control,  except  in  localities 
where  published,  is  one  of  the  strongest  safeguards  toward  pro- 
tecting and  preserving  the  party's  integrity  that  we  have  today. 
Such  a  press  provides  a  sure  medium  for  the  expression  of  indi- 
vidual opinion,  thus  guaranteeing  free  speech  and  criticism  and 
preventing  the  creation  of  the  censorship  which  has  hitherto 
almost  invariably  grown  out  of  the  placing  of  official  organs  in  the 
hands  of  party  officials.  In  this  field,  at  least,  we  can  afford  to 
have  competition,  and  the  survival  of  the  most  fit  will  depend  upon 
the  increased  knowledge  of  Socialism  and  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  Socialists  themselves. 

CONCLUSION. 

I  have  not  considered  it  necessary  to  repeat  what  has  already 
been  included  in  my  last  annual  report.  A  summary  of  the  finan- 
cial condition  of  the  national  office  is  herewith  appended.    If  the 


BBPOBT  OF  NATIONAL  SEGRBTABY.  66? 

showing  therein  made  seems  unfavorable,  the  comrades  will  bear 
in  mind  that  the  expense  recently  incurred  by  assisting  the  party 
in  Colorado  and  in  the  Milwaukee  municipal  campaign  has  been 
especially  heavy.  Economy  will  be  exercised  during  the  next  two 
months  with  the  expectation  that  the  national  campaign  will  be 
entered  upon  free  of  debt. 

I  take  pleasure  in  again  expressing  my  appreciation  of  the  co- 
operation rendered  me  in  my  work  as  your  National  Secretary  by 
the  assistants  in  the  national  office,  Comrades  W.  E.  Clark,  Chas. 
R.  Martin,  and  James  Qneal.  They  have  worked  capably  and 
faithfully  for  the  party's  interests,  and  this  slight  recognition, 
although  inadequate  to  the  proportion  of  their  services,  is  the  least 
that  is  due  them.  I  cordially  acknowledge  also  the  courtesy 
rendered  toward  the  national  office  by  the  national  committee  and 
quorum,  the  party  press,  the  national  organizers  and  lecturers,  and 
the  comrades  generally  throughout  the  country. 

To  you,  the  delegates  to  the  most  representative  Socialist  con- 
vention that  has  ever  met  on  this  continent,  I  convey  my  con- 
gratulations upon  the  progress  manifested  by  your  presence  here 
today.  The  further  advancement  of  the  Socialist  cause  in  America 
is  conditional  upon  the  character  of  your  deliberations  and  the  ac- 
tions arising  from  them.  Beginning  a  new  epoch  in  the  move- 
ment's history,  with  the  social  forces  that  make  for  change  work- 
ing in  complete  harmony  with  the  Socialist  philosophy,  with  the 
opportunities  for  hastening  the  oncoming  Social  Revolution  pre- 
senting themselves  on  every  side,  we  should  give  to  the  task  as- 
signed us  the  best  thought  and  devotion  of  which  we  are  capable, 
deeming  nothing  less  tl^n  that  worthy  of  the  cause  having  for  its 
realization  the  emancipation  of  the  working  class  of  the  world  and 
the  ultimate  freedom  and  happiness  of  all  mankind. 
Fraternally  submitted, 
William  Mailly,  National  Secretary. 

Chicago,  111.,  May  i,  1904. 


National  Platform. 

I. 

THE  Socialist  Party,  in  convention  assembled,  makes  its 
appeal  to  the  American  people  as  the  defender  and  pre- 
server of  the  idea  of  liberty  and  self-government,  in 
wliich  the  nation  was  born;  as  the  only  political  move- 
ment standing  for  the  program  and  principles  by  which  the  liberty 
of  the  individual  may  become  a  fact ;  as  the  only  political  organiza- 
tion that  is  democratic;  and  that  has  for  its  purpose  the  demo- 
cratizing of  the  whole  of  society. 

To  this  idea  of  liberty  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties 
are  equally  false.  They  alike  struggle  for  power  to  maintain  and 
profit  by  an  industrial  system  which  can  be  preserved  only  by  the 
complete  overthrow  of  such  liberties  as  we  already  have,  and  by 
the  still  further  enslavement  and  degradation  of  labor. 

Our  American  institutions  came  into  the  world  in  the  name  of 
freedom.  They  have  been  seized  upon  by  the  capitalist  class  as 
the  means  of  rooting  out  the  idea  of  freedom  from  among  the 
people.  Our  state  and  national  legislatures  have  become  the  mere 
agencies  of  great  propertied  interests.  These  interests  control  the 
appointments  and  decisions  of  the  judges  of  our  courts.  They 
have  come  into  what  is  practically  a  private  ownership  of  all  the 
functions  and  forces  of  government.  They  are  using  these  to  be- 
tray and  conquer  foreign  and  weaker  peoples,  in  order  to  estab- 
lish new  markets  for  the  surplus  goods  which  the  people  make,  but 
are  too  poor  to  buy.  They  are  gradually  so  invading  and  restrict- 
ing the  right  of  suffrage  as  to  take  away  unawares  the  right  of  the 
worker  to  a  vote  qr  voice  in  public  affairs.  By  enacting  new  and 
misinterpreting  old  laws,  they  are  preparing  to  attack  the  liberty 
of  the  individual  even  to  speak  or  think  for  himself,  or  for  the 
common  good. 

By  controlling  all  the  sources  of  social  revenue,  the  possessing 
class  is  able  to  silence  what  might  be  the  voice  of  protest  against 
the  passing  of  liberty  and  the  coming  of  tyranny.  It  completely 
controls  the  university  and  public  school,  the  pulpit  and  the  press, 
and  the  arts  and  literatures.  By  making  these  economically  de- 
pendent upon  itself,  it  has  brought  all  the  forms  of  public  teaching 
into  servile  submission  to  its  own  interests. 

Our  political  institutions  are  also  being  used  as  the  destroyers 
of  that  individual  property  upon  which  all  liberty  and  opportunity 
depend.  The  promise  of  economic  independence  to  each  man  was 
one  of  the  faiths  upon  which  our  institutions  were  founded.  But,- 
under  the  guise  of  defending  private  property,  capitalism  is  using 
our  political  institutions  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  vast  ma- 

668 


NATIONAL  PLATFORM.  $6^ 

;  jority  of  human  beings  ever  to  become  possessors  of  private  prop- 

erty in  the  means  of  life. 

Capitalism  is  the  enemy  and  destroyer  of  essential  private  prop- 
erty.   Its  development  is  through  the  legalized  confiscation  of  all 
th^t  the-labor  of  the  working  class  produces,  above  its  subsistence- 
f.  wage.     The  private    ownership    of    the    means  of  employment 

grounds  society  in  an  economic  slavery  which  renders  intellectual 
and  political  tyranny  inevitable. 

Socialism  comes  so  to  organize  industry  and  society  that 
every  individual  shall  be  secure  in  that  private  property  in  the 
means  of  life  upon  which  his  liberty  of  being,  thought  and  action 
depend.  It  comes  to  rescue  the  people  from  the  fast  increasing 
and  successful  assault  of  capitalism  upon  the  liberty  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

II. 

As  an  Atnerican  Socialist  Party,  we  pledge  our  fidelity  to  the 
principles  of  international  socialism,  as  embodied  in  the  united 
thought  and  action  of  the  Socialists  of  all  nations.  In  the  indus- 
trial development  already  accomplished,  the  interests  of  the  world's 
workers  are  separated  by  no  national  boundaries.  The  condition  of 
the  most  exploited  and  oppressed  workers,  in  the  most  remote 
places  of  the  earth,  inevitably  tends  to  drag  down  all  the  workers 
of  the  world  to  the  same  level.  The  tendency  of  the  competitive 
wage  system  is  to  make  labor's  lowest  condition  the  measure  or 
rule  of  its  universal  condition.  Industry  and  finance  q^e  no  longer 
national  but  international,  in  both  organization  and  results.  The 
chief  significance  of  national  boundaries,  and  of  the  so-called 
patriotisms  which  the  ruling  class  of  each  nation  is  seeking  to  re- 
vive, is  the  power  which  these  give  to  capitalism  to  keep  the  work- 
ers from  the  world  from  uniting,  and  to  throw  them  against  each 
other  in  the  struggles  of  contending  capitalist  interests  for  the  con- 
trol of  the  yet  unexploited  markets  of  the  world,  or  tfie  remaining 
sources  of  profit. 

The  Socialist  movement  therefore  is  a  world-movement.  It 
knows  of  no  conflicts  of  interest  between  the  workers  of  one  na- 
tion and  the  workers  of  another.  It  stands  for  the  freedom  of 
the  workers  of  all  nations ;  and,  in  so  standing,  it  makes  for  the 
full  freedom  of  all  humanity. 

III. 

The  socialist  movement  owes  its  birth  and  growth  to  that 
economic  development  or  world-process. which  is  rapidly  separat- 
ing a  working  or  producing  class  from  a  possessing  or  capitalist 
class.  The  class  that  produces  nothing  possesses  labor's  fruits, 
and  the  opportunities  and  enjoyments  these  fruits  afford,  while  the 
class  that  does  the  world's  real  work  has  increasing  economic  un- 
certainty, and  physical  and  intellectual  misery,  for  its  portion. 

The  fact  that  these  two  classes  have  not  yet  become  fully  con- 


670  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIBW. 

scious  of  their  distinction  from  each  other,  the  fact  that  the  lines 
of  division  and  interest  may  not  yet  be  clearly  drawn,  does  not 
cliange  the  fact  of  the  class  conflict. 

This  class  struggle  is  due  to  the  private  ownership  of  the  means 
of  employment,  or  the  tools  of  production.  Wherever  and  when- 
ever man  owned  his  own  land  and  tools,  and  by  them  produced 
only  the  things  which  he  used,  economic  independence  was  possi- 
ble. But  production,  or  the  making  of  goods,  has  long  ceased  to 
be  individual.  The  labor  of  scores^  or  even  thousands,  enters  into 
almost  every  article  produced.  Production  is  now  social  or  col- 
lective. Practically  ever>i:hing  is  made  or  done  by  many  men — 
sometimes  separated  by  seas  or  continents — ^working  together  for 
the  same  end.  But  this  co-operation  in  production  is  not  for  the 
direct  use  of  the  things  made  by  the  workers  who  make  them,  but 
for  the  profit  of  the  owners  of  the  tools  and  means  of  production ; 
and  to  this  is  due  the  present  division  of  society  into  two  classes ; 
and  from  it  have  sprung  all  the  miseries,  inharmonies  and  contra- 
dictions of  our  civilization. 

Between  these  two  classes  there  can  be  no  possible  compromise 
or  identity  of  interests,  any  more  than  there  can  be  peace  in  the 
midst  of  war,  or  light  in  the  midst  of  darkness.  A  society  based 
upon  this  class  division  carries  in  itself  the  seeds  of  its  own  de- 
struction. Such  a  society  is  founded  in  fundamental  injustice. 
There  can  be  no  possible  basis  for  social  peace,  for  individual  free- 
dom, for  mental  and  moral  harmony,  except  in  the  conscious  and 
complete  triumph  of  the  working  class  as  the  only  class  that  has 
the  right  or  power  to  be. 

IV. 

The  Socialist  program  is  not  a  theory  imposed  upon  society  for 
its  acceptance  or  rejection.  It  is  but  the  interpretation  of  what  is, 
sooner  or  later,  inevitable.  Capitalism  is  already  struggling  to  its 
destruction.  It  is  no  longer  competent  to  organize  or  administer 
the  work  of  the  world,  or  even  to  preserve  itself.  The  captains  of 
industry  are  appalled  at  their  own  inability  to  control  or  direct  the 
rapidly  socializing  forces  of  industry.  The  so-called  trust  is  but  a 
sign  and  form  of  the  developing  socialization  of  the  world's  work. 
The  universal  increase  of  the  uncertainty  of  employment,  the  uni- 
versal capitalist  determination  to  break  down  the  unity  of  labor 
in  the  trades  unions,  the  widespread  apprehensions  of  impending 
change,  reveal  that  the  institutions  of  capitalist  society  are  passing 
under  the  power  of  inhering  forces  that  will  soon  destroy  them. 

Into  the  midst  of  the  strain  and  crisis  of  civilization,  the  Social- 
ist movement  comes  as  the  only  conservative  force.  If 
the  world  is  to  be  saved  from  chaos,  from  universal  disorder  and 
misery,  it  must  be  by  the  union  of  the  workers  of  all  nations  in  the 
Socialist  movement.  The  Socialist  party  comes  with  the  only 
proposition  or  program  for  intelligently  and  deliberately  organizing 


NATIONAL  PLATFOKM.  671 

the  nation  for  the  common  good  of  all  its  citizens.  It  is  the  first 
time  that  the  mind  of  man  has  ever  been  directed  toward  the  con- 
scious organization  ot  soaety. 

Socialism  means  that  all  those  things  upon  which  the  people  in 
common  depend  shall  by  the  people  in  common  be  owned  and  ad- 
ministered. It  means  that  the  tools  of  employment  shall  belong 
to  their  creators  and  users;  that  all  production  shall  be  for  the 
direct  use  of  the  producers ;  that  the  making  of  goods  for  profit 
shall  come  to  an  end;  that  we  shall  all  be  workers  together;  and 
that  all  opportunities  shall  be  open  and  equal  to  all  men. 


To  the  end  that  the  workers  may  seize  every  possible  advantage 
that  may  strengthen  them  to  gain  complete  control  of  the  powers  of 
government,  and  thereby  the  sooner  establish*  the  co-operative 
commonwealth,  the  Socialist  Party  pledges  itself  to  watch  and 
work  in  both  the  economic  and  the  political  struggle  for  each  suc- 
cessive immediate  interest  of  the  working  class ;  for  shortened  days 
of  labor  and  increases  of  wages ;  for  the  insurance  of  the  workers 
against  accident,  sickness  and  lack  of  employment ;  for  pensions  for 
aged  and  exhausted  workers;  for  the  public  ownership  of  the 
means  of  transportation,  communication  and  exchange;  for  the 
graduated  taxation  of  incomes,  inheritances,  franchises  and  land 
values,  the  proceeds  to  be  applied  to  the  public  employment  and 
improvement  of  the  conditions  of  the  workers;  for  the  complete 
education  of  children,  and  their  freedom  from  the  workshop ;  for 
the  prevention  of  the  use  of  the  military  against  labor  in  the  set- 
tlement of  strikes;  for  the  free  administration  of  justice;  for  pop- 
ular government,  including  initiative,  referendum,  proportional 
representation^  equal  suflFrage  for  men  and  women 
and  municipal  home  rule,  and  the  recall  of  officers  by  their 
constituents ;  and  for  every  gain  or  advantage  for  the  workers  that 
may  be  wrested  from  the  capitalist  system,  and  that  may  relieve 
the  suffering  and  strengthen  the  hands  of  labor.  We  lay  upon 
every  man  elected  to  any  executive  or  legislative  office  the  first 
duty  of  striving  to  procure  whatever  is  for  the  workers'  most  im- 
mediate interest,  and  for  whatever  will  lessen  the  economic  and 
political  powers  of  the  capitalist,  and  increase  the  like  powers  of 
the  worker. 

But,  in  so  doing,  we  are  using  these  remedial  measures  as 
means  to  the  one  great  end  of  the  co-operative  commonwealth. 
Such  measures  of  relief  as  we  may  be  able  to  force  from  capitalism 
are  but  a  preparation  of  the  workers  to  seize  the  whole  powers  of 
government,  in  order  that  they  may  thereby  lay  hold  of  the  whole 
system  of  industry,  and  thus  come  into  their  rightful  inheritance. 

To  this  end  we  pledge  ourselves,  as  the  party  of  the  working 
class,  to  use  all  political  power,  as  fast  as  it  shall  be  entrusted  to 
us  by  our  fellow-workers,  both  for  their  immediate  interests  and 


672  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  S0C5IALIST  EBVIEW. 

for  their  tiltimate  and  complete  emancipation.  To  this  end  we  ap- 
peal to  all  the  workers  of  America ;  and  to  all  who  will  lend  their 
lives  to  the  service  of  the  workers  in  their  struggle  to  gain  their 
own,  and  to  all  who  will  nobly  and  disinterestedly  give  their  days 
and  energies  unto  the  workers'  cause,  to  cast  in  their  lot  and  faith 
with  the  Socialist  party.  Our  appeal  for  the  trust  and  suffrages 
of  our  fellow-workers  is  at  once  an  appeal  for  their  common  good 
and  freedom,  and  for  the  f reedomand  blossoming  of  our  common 
humanity.  In  pledging  ourselves,  and  those  we  represent,  to  be 
faithful  to  the  appeal  which  we  make,  we  believe  we  are  but  pre- 
paring the  soil  of  that  economic  freedom  from  which  will  spring 
the  freedom  of  the  whole  man. 

Gforge  D.  Hereon^  Chairman. 

G.  H.  Stroebell. 

M.   W.    WiLKINS. 

Thos.  E.  Will,  Secretary. 
Ben.  Hanford. 
Eugene  V.  Debs. 
Victor  L.  Berger. 
William  Mailly. 
H.  F.  Titus. 


The  National  Constitution. 

.  ARTICLE  I— NAME. 

Section  i.  The  name  of  this  organization  shall  be  the  Socialist 
Party,  except  in  states  where  a  different  name  has  or  may  become 
a  legal  requirement. 

ARTICLE  II— MEMBERSHIP. 

Sec.  I.  Every  person,  resident  of  the  United  States,  of  the 
age  of  1 8  years  and  upward,  without  distinction  of  sex,  race,  color 
or  creed,  who  has  severed  connection  with  all  other  political  parties 
and  who  subscribes  to  the  principles  of  the  party,  is  eligible  to 
membership.  Any  person  occupying  a  position,  honorary  or  re- 
munerative, by  the  gift  of  any  other  political  party  (civil  service 
positions  excepted)  shall  not  be  eligible  to  membership  in  tl;c 
Socialist  party. 

Sec.  2.  A  member  who  desires  to  transfer  his  membership 
from  a  local  in  one  state  to  a  local  in  another  state  may  do  so  upon 
the  presentation  of  his  card  showing  him  to  be  in  good  standing 
at  the  time  of  asking  for  such  transfer. 

ARTICLE  III— MANAGEMENT. 

Sec.  1.  The  affairs  of  the  Socialist  party  shall  be  administered 
by  a  national  committee,  its  officers  and  executive  committee,  the 
party  conventions,  and  the  general  votes  of  the  party. 

ARTICLE  IV— NATIONAL  COMMITTEE. 

Sec.  I.  Each  organized  state  or  territory  shall  be  represented 
on  the  national  committee  by  one  member  and  by  an  additional 
member  for  every  one  thousand  members  or  major  fraction 
thereof,  in  good  standing  m  the  party.  For  the  purpose  of  deter- 
mining the  representation  to  which  each  state  or  territory  is  en- 
titled, the  national  secretary  shall  compute  at  the  beginning  of 
each  year  the  average  dues  paying  membership  of  such  state  or 
territory  for  the  preceding  year. 

Sec.  2.  The  members  of  this  committee  shall  be  elected  by 
referendum  vote  of  and  from  the  membership  of  the  states  or  terri- 
tories which  they  respectively  represent.  Their  term  of  office 
shall  not  be  more  than  two  years. 

Sec.  3".  The  national  committee  shall  meet  in  regular  session 
in  all  even  numbered  years  when  no  national  conventions  of  the 
party  shall  take  place.  Special  meetings  shall  be  called  at  the 
request  of  a  majority  of  the  members  of  the  committee.  The  dates 
and  places  of  such  meetings  shall  be  determined  by  the  national 
committee. 

673 


674  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

Sec.  4.  Expenses  of  the  national  committeemen  in  attending 
meetings  shall  be  paid  from  the  national  treasury. 

Sec.  5.  Between  the  sessions  of  the  national  committee,  all  its 
business  shall  be  transacted  by  correspondence. 

Sec.  6.  The  national  committee  shall  adopt  its  own  rules  of 
procedure  not  inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this  constitution. 

ARTICLE  v.— DUTIES  AND  POWERS  OF  NATIONAL 

COMMITTEE. 

Sec,  I.  The  duties  of  this  committee  shall  be  to  represent  the 
party  in  all  national  and  international  affairs;  to  call  national 
nominating  conventions  and  special  conventions  decided  upon  by 
referendum  of  the  party ;  to  arrange  rules  and  order  of  business 
of  national  convention  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  convention ; 
to  make  reports  to  national  conventions ;  to  receive  and  pass  upon 
all  reports  and  actions  of  the  executive  committee. 

Sec.  2.  The  national  committee  shall  neither  publish  nor 
designate  any  official  organ. 

ARTICLE  VI.— EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 

Sec.  I.  The  executive  committee  of  the  national  committee 
shall  be  composed  of  seven  members  to  be  elected  by  the  national 
committee,  from  the  membership  of  the  party,  but  no  more  than 
three  members  of  the  said  committee  shall  be  elected  from  one 
state.  The  term  of  office  of  the  executive  committee  sfeall  be  one 
year. 

Sec.  2.  The  executive  committee  shall  meet  at  least  once  in 
three  months.  It  shall  supervise  and  direct  the  work  of  the  national 
secretary,  organize  unorganized  states  and  territories,  receive  semi- 
annual reports  from  the  state  committees,  receive  and  pass  upon 
the  reports  of  the  national  secretary,  and  transact  all  current  busi- 
ness of  the  national  office,  except  such  as  are  by  this  constitution 
or  by  the  rules  of  the  national  committee  expressly  reserved  for 
the  national  committee  or  the  general  vote  of  the  party. 

Sec  3.  The  executive  committee  shall  adopt  its  own  rules  of 
procedure  not  inconsistent  with  this  constitution  or  with  the  rules 
of  the  national  committee. 

Sec.  4.  The  executive  committee  shall  transmit  copies  of  the 
minutes  of  its  meetings  to  all  members  of  the  national  committee, 
and  all  its  acts  and  resolutions  shall  be  subject  to  the  revision  of 
the  national  committee. 

Sec  5.  Between  sessions  of  the  executive  committee  all  its 
business  shall  be  transacted  by  correspondence. 

ARTICLE  VII— NATIONAL  SECRETARY, 

Sec.  I.  The  national  secretary  shall  be  elected  by  the  national 
committee;  his  term  of  office  shall  be  one  year.     The  national 


NATIONAL  CONSTITUTION.  676 

secretary  shall  receive  as  compensation  the  sum  of  $1,500  annually. 

Sec.  2.  The  national  seo'etary  shall  have  charge  of  all  affairs 
of  the  national  office  subject  to  the  directions  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee, and  the  national  committee.  He  shall  receive  the  reports 
of  the  state  organizations  and  of  local  organizations  in  unorgan- 
ized states  and  territories.  He  shall  supervise  the  accounts  of  the 
national  office,  and  the  work  of  the  lecture  bureau,  the  literature 
bureau  and  such  other  departments  as  may  hereafter  be  established 
in  connection  with  the  national  office. 

Sec.  3.  The  national  secretary  shall  issue  to  all  party  organi- 
zations in  such  a  way  as  the  executive  committee  may  direct, 
monthly  bulletins  containing  a  report  on  the  financial  affairs  of 
the  party,  a  simimary  of  the  condition  and  the  membership  of  the 
several  state  and  territorial  organizations  of  the  principal  business 
transacted  by  his  office,  and  such  other  matters  pertaining  to  the 
organization  and  activity  of  the  party  as  may  be  of  general  interest 
to  the  membership.  Such  bulletins  shall  not  contain  editdrial 
comment. 

Sec.  4.  The  national  secretary  shall  be  empowered  to  secure 
such  help  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  proper  transaction  of  the 
business  of  his  office.  * 

Sec.  5.  The  national  secretary  and  members  of  the  executive 
committee  may  be  removed  from  office  at  any  time  by  a  majority 
vote  of  the  members  of  the  national  committee. 

ARTICLE  Vni— THE  LECTURE  BUREAU. 

Sec.  I.  There  shall  be  maintained  in  connection  with  the  na- 
tional office  a  lecture  bureau  for  the  purpose  of  arranging  tours 
for  lectures  on  the  propaganda  of  Socialism. 

Sec.  2.  The  lecture  bureau  shall  have  no  connection  with  the 
work  of  organization,  and  it  shall  have  the  right  to  make  arrange- 
ments for  die  lecturers  under  its  auspices  with  all  state  or  local 
organizations  of  the  party. 

Sec.  3.  The  national  committee  shall  establish  a  uniform  rate 
of  compensation  for  all  lecturers  and  organizers  working  under 
its  auspices. 

ARTICLE  IX— THE  LITERATURE  BUREAU. 

Sec  I.  The  national  committee  shall  also  maintain  in  the 
headquarters  of  the  party  a  department  for  the  dissemination  of 
Socialist  literature. 

Sec.  2.  The  literature  bureau  shall  keep  for  sale  to  the  local 
organizations  of  the  party  and  others  a  stock  of  Socialist  books, 
pamphlets  and  other  literature,  and  shall  have  the  right,  with  the 
approval  of  the  committee,  to  publish  works  on  Socialism  or  for 
the  purposes  of  Socialist  propaganda,  but  this  clause  shall  not 
be  construed  as  authorizing  the  bureau  to  publish  any  periodical. 


676  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOdALIST  BEVIEW. 

Sec.  3.  The  prcrfits  of  the  literature  bureau  shall  go  into  the 
general  funds  of  the  treasury. 

ARTICLE  X— CONVENTIONS. 

Sec.  I.  The  regular  national  conventions  of  the  party  shall 
be  held  in  all  years  in  which  elections  for  president  and  vice- 
president  of  the  United  States  are  to  be  held. 

Sec.  2.  Special  conventions  of  the  party  may  be  held  at  any 
time  if  decided  upon  by  a  general  vote  of  the  party  membership. 

Sec.  3.  The  dates  and  places  of  holding  such  regular  or 
special  conventions  shall  be  fixed  by  the  national  committee. 

Sec.  4.  The  basis  of  representation  in  any  national  convention 
shall  be  by  states,  each  state  and  territory  being  entitled  to  one 
delegate-at-large,  and  one  additional  delegate  for  every  200  mem- 
bers in  good  standing,  provided,  however,  that  no  delegate  shall 
be  considered  eligible  unless  he  or  she  is  a  resident  of  the  state 
from  which  the  credential  is  presented. 

Sec.  5.  The  railroad  fares  of  the  delegates  in  going  to  and 
coming  from  the  place  of  convention  shall  be  paid  from  the  na- 
tional treasury,  and  such  expense  shall  be  raised  by  a  per  capita 
assessment  on  the  entire  membership. 

ARTICLE  XI— REFERENDUM. 

Sec.  I.  Motions  to  amend  any  part  of  this  constitution,  as 
well  as  any  other  motions  or  resolutions  to  be  voted  upon  by  the 
entire  membership  of  the  party,  shall  be  submitted  by  the  national 
secretary  to  a  referendum  of  the  party  membership,  upon  the  re- 
quest of  twenty  locals  in  five  states  or  territories,  or  any  smaller 
number  of  such  organizations  having  a  membership  of  at  least 
2,000  in  the  aggregate. 

Sec.  2.  Whenever  a  request  for  a  referendum  shall  have  been 
made  as  above  provided,  the  national  secretary  shall  forthwith 
cause  the  same  to  be  published  in  the  party  press,  and  shall  allow 
such  question  to  stand  open  for  forty-five  days,  within  which 
time  amendments  may  be  offered  thereto  in  the  same  manner  in 
which  an  original  request  for  a  referendum  is  to  be  made,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  said  period  of  thirty  days,  the  origilnal  motion 
submitted  to  referendum,  together  with  all  and  any  amendments 
which  might  have  been  offered,  shall  be  submitted  to  the  vote  of 
the  party  members,  and  such  vote  shall  close  forty-five  days 
thereafter. 

Sec.  3.  All  propositions  or  other  matters  submitted  for  a 
referendum  of  the  party  shall  be  presented  without  preamble  or 
comment. 

ARTICLE  XII— STATE  ORGANIZATIONS. 


or 


Sec.  I.    The  formation  of  all  state  or  territorial  organizations 
the  reorganization  of  state  or  territorial  organizations  which 


[■ 


NATIONAL  CONSTITUTION.  677 

may  have  lapsed,  shall  be  under  the  direction  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee, and  in  conformity  with  the  rules  of  the  national  committee. 

Sec.  2.  No  state  or  territory  shall  be  organized  unless  it  has 
at  least  ten  locals  with  an  aggregate  membership  of  not  less 
than  lOO,  but  this  provision  shall  not  affect  the  rights  of  states 
and  territories  organized  prior  to  the  adoption  of  this  constitution. 

Sec.  3.  The  platform  of  the  Socialist  party  shall  be  the 
supreme  declaration  of  the  party,  and  all  state  and  municipal  plat- 
forms shall  conform  thereto,  and  no  state  or  local  organization 
shall  under  any  circumstances  fuse,  coijibine  or  compromise  with 
any  other  party  or  political  organization,  or  refrain  from  making 
nominations  in  order  to  further  the  interests  of  candidates  of  such 
party  or  organization;  nor  shall  any  candidate  of  the  Socialist 
party  accept  any  nomination  or  endorsement  from  any  other  party 
or  political  organization. 

Sec.  4.  In  states  and  territories  in  which  there  is  one  central 
organization  affiliated  with  the  party,  the  state  or  territorial  or- 
ganization shall  have  the  sole  jurisdiction  of  the  members  residing 
within  their  respective  territories,  and  the  sole  control  of  all  mat- 
ters pertaining  to  the  propaganda,  organization  and  financial  af- 
fairs within  such  state  or  territory ;  their  activity  shall  be  confined 
to  their  respective  organizations,  and  the  national  committee  and 
sub-committee  or  officers  thereof  shall  have  no  right  to  interfere 
in  such  matters  without  the  consent  of  the  respective  state  or  terri- 
torial organizations. 

Sec.  5.  The  state  committees  shall  make  monthly  reports  to 
the  national  secretary  concerning  their  membership,  financial  con- 
dition and  general  standing  of  the  party. 

Sec.  6.  The  state  committees  shall  pay  to  the  national  commit- 
tee every  month  a  sum  equal  to  5  cents  for  every  member  in  good 
standing  within  their  respective  territories. 

Sec.  7.  On  the  complaint  of  any  national  committeeman  or 
of  three  locals  in  any  state  of  any  act  on  the  part  of  such  state 
organization  in  violation  of  the  platform  or  constitution  of  this 
organization,  an  investigation  shall  be  undertaken,  acting  under 
rules  of  the  national  committee,  to  the  end  that  such  organization 
shall  be  brought  into  conformity. 

Sec.  8.  All  state  organizations  shall  provide  in  their  constitu- 
tions for  the  initiative,  referendum  and  imperative  mandate. 

ARTICLE  XIII— HEADQUARTERS. 
The  location  of  the  headquarters  of  the  party  shall  be  deter- 
mined by  the  national  committee. 

ARTICLE  XIV— AMENDMENTS. 
This  constitution  may  be  amended  by  a  national  convention 
or  by  a  referendum  of  the  party  in  the  manner  above  provided 


Report  of  the  Committee  on  State  and  Municipal 

Program, 

To  the  National  Convention  of  the  Socialist  Party,  assembled  in 
Chicago,  lU.,  May,  1904: 

Comrades :  Your  Committee  on  State  and  Mimicipal  Program 
beg  leave  to  submit  the  following  report : 

We  wish  first  of  all  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Convention  to 
the  fact  that  the  report  of  this  committee  is  unanimous^  This  is 
contrary  to  the  expectations  of  the  members  of  the  committee,  but 
is  the  apparently  natural  outcome  of  the  discussion  which  took 
place  in  the  sessions  of  the  committee. 

We  wish,  secondly,  to  express  the  opinion  of  the  committee  that 
nothing  in  this  report,  if  adopted  by  the  convention,  is  to  be  con- 
sidered as  otherwise  than  suggestive,  or  as  being  in  any  way 
mandatory  or  binding  upon  the  various  state  and  municipal  con- 
ventions ;  since  the  various  states  and  municipalities  have  their  own 
characteristic  economic  development  and  political  situation. 

In  view  of  the  difficulties  attending  the  work  of  those  elected 
to  public  office  to  represent  the  Socialist  party,  as  already  de- 
veloped in  the  experience  of  such  officials,  and  also  in  view  of  the 
problems  attending  the  proper  preparation  of  state  and  municipal 
platforms,  your  committee  have  adopted  the  following  resolutions, 
and  transmitted  a  copy  of  them  to  the  Committee  on  Constitution : 

Whereas,  the  Committee  on  State  and  Municipal  Program  re- 
gard it  as  essential  that  the  Socialist  Party  should  have  a  perma- 
nent Committee  on  State  and  Municipal  Affairs,  with  a  permanent 
secretary,  whose  office  shall  be  at  the  National  Headquarters. 

Therefore,  be  it  Resolved  that  we,  the  Committee  on  State  and 
Municipal  Program,  recommend  that  in  the  constitution  of  the 
party,  provision  should  be  made  for  the  organization  of  a  Commit- 
tee on  State  and  Municipal  Affairs,  with  a  permanent  secretary, 
whose  office  shall  be  at  the  National  Headquarters,  and  recommend 
that  the  following  provisions  become  a  part  of  the  constitution  of 
the  party : 

Section  A :  There  shall  be  elected  at  each  national  convention 
a  committee  of  nine  (9)  on  State  and  Municipal  Affairs. 

Section  B :  The  committee  shall  have  power  to  fill  vacancies 
occurring  among  its  members  during  the  interim  between  the 
meeting  of  the  national  conventions. 

Section  C :  The  object  of  the  committee  shall  be  that  of  an  ad- 
visory committee  to  suggest  lines  of  activity  to  local  and  state  offi- 
cers and  to  assist  them  in  securing  data  and  in  the  preparation  of 
resolutions,  ordinances,  bills  and  such  other  legal  measures  for  the 
carrying  out  of  the  Socialist  program  as  may  be  necessary,  and 

678 


KEPORT  OF  PROGBAM  COMMITTEE.  679 

also  to  advise  the  party,  where  it  may  desire,  in  the  preparation 
of  local  and  state  programs. 

Section  D:  The  Committee  on  State  and  Municipal  Affairs 
shall,  on  the  approval  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  National 
Committee,  at  such  times  as  may  be  deemed  advisable,  elect  a  per- 
manent secretary,  whose  office  shall  be  at  the  National  Headquar- 
ters, and  his  compensation  shall  be  fixed  by  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee of  the  National  Committee. 

Section  E:  The  expenses  of  the  Committee  on  State  and 
Municipal  Affairs  while  attending  its  meetings  shall  be  paid  from 
the  national  treasury. 

STATE  PROGRAM. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR   THE  ACTIVITY  OF   SOCIALIST   MEMBERS   OF   THE 
STATE  LEGISLATURES  WHILE  THE  SOCIALIST  PARTY  IS  A  MI- 
NORITY PARTY — ^PREAMBLE  FOR  STATE  PROGRAM. 

STATE  PROGRAM. 

The  principles  of  the  Socialist  platform  canned  be  carried  into 
full  effect  while  the  Socialist  party  is  a  minority  party.  The  work 
of  Socialist  members  of  the  state  legislatures  and  local  administra- 
tions under  present  circumstances  must  necessarily  be  confined  to 
efforts  for  the  realization  of  such  limited  measures  as  they  may  be 
able  to  wrest  from  the  capitalist  majority  for  the  benefit  of  and  in 
the  interests  of  the  working  class.  In  presenting  and  advocating 
such  measures  the  Socialist  members  of  the  state  legislatures  and 
of  local  administrations  must  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  they  are 
fighting  on  a  parliamentary  basis  the  class  struggle  which  brought 
into  existence  the  Socialist  movement  and  the  Socialist  party.  They 
must  defend  the  interests  of  the  working  class  against  the  en- 
croachments of  the  capitalist  class,  and  decline  in  their  parlia- 
mentary work  any  trading  with  capitalist  representatives  for  favor- 
able legislation.  Socialists  in  state  legislatures  and  local  adminis- 
trations may  well  be  guided  by  the  advice  of  the  permanent  Com- 
mittee on  State  and  Municipal  Program  provided  by  the  National 
Constitution  of  the  Socialist  party. 

The  following  suggestions  are  made  as  a  preliminary  basis  for 
the  activity  of  SodaUst  members  of  the  state  legislatures  and  local 
administrations,  with  the  understanding  that  they  are  not  manda- 
tory, binding,  or  anything  else  than  suggestive. 

PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

Freedom  of  speech  and  expression  of  opinion  by  teachers  and 
students. 

Free  text-books  for  teachers  and  pupils ;  uniform  text-books  on 
all  subjects  to  be  furnished  free  to  public  schools,  and  to  private 
schools  on  request. 


680  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

The  choice  of  text-books  to  be  left  to  a  committee  composed  of 
teachers  and  students  in  all  institutions  above  the  grade  of  high 
schools. 

In  history  and  economics,  the  proletarian  standpoint  to  receive 
equal  consideration  with  the  capitalist  standpoint. 

Compulsory  education  for  both  sexes  up  to  the  age  of  i8  years. 

Co-education  in  all  branches  of  science,  and  manual  training 
for  both  sexes  to  be  continued  through  all  grades. 

Adequate  provisions  for  harmonious  physical  culture  and  de- 
velopment through  a  systematic  course  of  gymnastics  and  open  air 
exercises,  a  minimum  time  for  such  exercises  to  be  made  a  require- 
ment for  students  of  both  sexes  throughout  all  grades. 

Extension  of  the  public  school  system  to  assure  equal  educa- 
tional opportunities  to  all  classes  in  all  branches  of  learning,  pub- 
lic supervision  of  all  educational  institutions  to  secure  an  equal 
educational  standard. 

STATE  MILITARY  LAW. 

The  repeal  of  all  militia  law  which  surrenders  the  power  of 
the  governor  over  the  militia  to  the  federal  authorities ;  and  mem- 
1>ers  of  the  state  militia  to  be  exempt  from  all  other  military  ser- 
vice. 

The  right  of  privates  of  the  state  militia  to  elect  their  offi- 
cers ;  and  state  militia  to  be  confined  within  state  limits. 

Federal  troops  to  be  prohibited  from  interfering  in  disputes 
between  capitalists  and  laborers. 

CITIES. 

The  autonomy  of  all  municii\alities  in  the  matter  of  the  own- 
ership and  operation  of  all  enterprises  vital  to  the  municipality  as 
such. 

PUBLIC  WORKS. 

For  the  purpose  of  employing  the  unemployed  and  educating 
citizens  in  co-operation,  the  state  to  inaugurate  a  system  of  good 
roads,  a  comprehensive  system  of  drainage,  forestry  and  irriga- 
tion, state  farms  in  connection  with  agricultural  experiment  sta- 
tions, and  to  build  homes  to  be  rented  at  a  price  not  exceeding  the 
cost  of  production  and  maintenance. 

The  contract  system  to  be  abolished  in  all  public  works  and 
such  work  to  be  done  by  the  state  directly. 

OLD  AGE  PENSIONS. 

AU  persons  above  the  age  of  60  to  be  exempt  from  labor,  and 
to  be  entitled  to  pensions  of  not  less  than  the  current  minimum 
wage. 

SICK  AND  DISABLED. 

Adequate  facilities  to  be  provided,  at  public  expense,  for  the 
care  and  maintenance  of  all  sick  and  disabled  persons." 


EEPORT  OF  PROGRAM  COMMITTEE.  681 

TAXATION. 

A  graduated  income  tax  and  graduated  inheritance  tax  to  be 
imposed,  such  revenue  to  be  used  solely  in  the  interest  of  the  work- 
ing class,  not  to  relieve  the  middle  class  of  taxation. 

LIQUOR  TRAFFIC. 

Public  control  of  the  entire  liquor  traffic. 

REGULATION  OF  CORPORATIONS. 

Railroads  and  all  other  corporations  operating  under  public 
franchises  to  be  placed  under  state  control  ,and  to  have  their  rates 
fixed  by  law. 

THE  COURTS. 

The  abolition  of  all  court  costs  and  sherilff's  fees  in  tlie  com- 
mencement of  suits,  and  the  abolition  of  all  costs  for  appealing 
cases  to  the  courts  of  last  resort. 

The  establishment  of  free  legal  departments. 

Sufficient  courts  to  secure  speedy  trials. 

PRISON  SYSTEM. 

1.  The  present  brutal  system  of  treating  criminal  persons  to 
be  replaced  by  a  system  of  pathological  treatment.  This  includes 
the  abolition  of  the  prison  contract  system,  death  penalties  and  iso- 
lated confinement,  and  the  substitution  therefor  of  sanitariums  in 
rural  localities  with  adequate  healthful  open-air  employment,  and 
treatment  corresponding  to  modem  scientific  psychological 
pathology. 

2.  A  juvenile  court  to  be  established.  No  child  under  i8  years 
to  be  considered  a  criminal,  nor  to  be  confined  with  older  criminals. 

SUFFRAGE. 

The  right  to  vote  not  to  be  contingent  upon  the  payment  of 
any  taxes,  either  in  money  or  public  labor. 

Women  to  have  equal  political  rights  with  men. 

Residence  qualifications  for  all  elections  not  to  exceed  sixty 
days. 

LABOR  LEGISLATION. 

An  eight-hour  day  and  a  minimum  wage,  uniform  for  both 
sexes. 

Free  state  employment  agencies. 

All  specific  laws  detrimental  to  the  working  class  to  be  re- 
pealed, such  as  conspiracy,  anti-boycott  and  anti-picketing  laws; 
and  the  abolition  of  the  injunction  as  a  means  of  breaking  strikes. 

Trial  by  jury^  in  all  cases  by  which  a  person  may  be  deprived  of 
liberty. 

INSPECTION. 

Public  inspection  of  all  factories  and  institutions  employing 
labor. 


682  THE  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIAUST  REVIEW. 

LAND. 

All  land  held  for  speculation,  and  all  land  not  occupied  or  used 
by  the  owner  to  be  subject  to  purchase  by  the  state  at  an  advance 
of  ID  per  cent  on  the  assessed  valuation,  as  fixed  by  the  owner. 

'  All  public  forest  and  mining  lands  to  be  developed  under  state 
direction  and  control  directly,  and  farm  lands  to  be  open  to  use 
with  public  assistance. 

DIRECT  LEGISLATION. 

The  initiative,  referendum  and  imperative  mandate  to  be  put 
into  operation. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THE  ACTIVITY  OF  LOCAL  SOCIALIST  ADMINISTRA- 
TIONS WHILE  THE  SOCIALIST  PARTY  IS  A  MINORITY  PARTY. — 

PREAMBLE  FOR   MUNICIPAL   PROGRAM. 

Socialist  representatives  in  municipal  administrations  should 
always  bear  clearly  in  mind  the  scientific  basis  of  the  Socialist 
Municipal  Program.  Under  capitalism  the  municipalization  of 
public  enterprises  has  been  compelled  in  the  interest  of  the  busi- 
ness man.  The  graft  of  a  few  has  come  to  interfere  with  the  graft 
of  the  remainder  of  the  business  world,  on  account  of  the  develop- 
ment of  machinery  vital  to  municipal  life.  There  has  followed  as  a 
result  of  this  what  might  be  called  municipal  capitalism,  which 
would  operate  these  publicly  owned  industries  for  the  purpose  of 
reducing  the  taxes  of  present  property  holders. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Socialism  will  operate  these  en- 
terprises in  one  of  the  three  following  ways : 

First.  All  service  absolutely  free  of  cost  to  the  public,  paid  for 
out  of  the  general  fund.  Instance,  the  roads  and  streets,  police  ser- 
vice, and  the  free  water  supply  of  New  Orleans. 

Second.  Service  at  cost  of  production.  Instance,  the  usual 
theory  of  water  supply,  and  of  the  United  States  Postoffice. 

Third.  Service  furnished  at  a  profit  to  the  municipality,  the 
profits  to  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  community.  In- 
stance, the  taking  of  water  works  profits  for  the  perfection  of  fire 
department  and  extension  of  parks,  bath  and  play-ground  systems. 

All  other  measures  are  to  be  considered  in  the  light  of  their 
bearing  upon  the  working  class  as  such.  Those  which  will  pre- 
pare the  working  people  for  their  part  in  the  class  struggle  by  in- 
crease of  intelligence,  strengthening  of  their  bodies,  securing  in- 
dependence or  certainty  of  livelihood  for  them,  are  to  be  considered 
as  so  many  weapons  making  for  their  victory.  On  the  other.hand, 
the  taking  away  from  the  capitalist  class  of  exclusive  privileges, 
making  the  courts  free  to  all  and  securing,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
limitation  of  those  powers  financial,  legal,  social  and  political  which 
have  accumulated  in  the  hands  of  the  capitalist  class  will  tend,  of 
course,  tb  make  the  victory  of  the  working  class  more  easy  at  every 
step. 


r 


BEPOBT  OF  PEOQEAM  COMMITTEE.  683 

PUPBLIC  EDUCATION. 
I. — Changes  in  Instruction, 

1.  Sufficient  kindergartens  for  all  children  of  proper  age. 

2.  Manual  training  (not  trade  schools)  in  all  grades. 

3.  General  introduction  of  idea  of  development  and  freedom 
in  education  with  close  connection  with  things,  according  to  prin- 
ciples of  modern  pedagogy. 

4.  Teaching  of  economics  and  history  with  evolution  of  in- 
dustry as  base. 

5.  Establishment  of  vacation  schools. 

6.  Adequate  night  schools  for  adults. 

7.  Instruction  of  children  as  to  child  labor  legislation  and 
rights  of  children  before  the  law. 

II. — Changes  Affecting  Teaching  Force 

1.  Adequate  number  of  teachers  (small  classes  in  all  schools). 

2.  Normal  school  training  required  as  minimum  qualification 
for  teaching. 

3.  Right  of  trial  for  teachers  before  dismissal. 

4.  Pensions  for  teachers  when  superannuated  or  disabled. 

III. — Care  of  Children. 

1.  Uniform  free  text-books  for  all  schools,  public  and  private, 
em  demand. 

2.  Free  meals  and  clothing. 

3.  Free  medical  service,  inspection  for  eyes,  ears,  mental  fac- 
ulties (for  educational  purposes),  and  for  contagion. 

IV. — Equipment. 

1.  Adequate  buildings,  numerous,  not  too  large. 

2.  Ample  play-grounds,  with  physical  instructor  in  charge. 

3.  Museums,  art  galleries,  libraries,  etc.,  enlarged  and  accessi- 
ble to  all  children  through  frequent  visits  accompanied  by  teachers. 

4.  Baths  and  gymnasiums  in  each  school. 

5.  All  school  buildings  open  evenings,  Sundays  and  holidays 
for  public  assemblages. 

MUNICIPAL  OWNERSHIP. 

2.  No  profits  to  be  used  for  reduction  of  taxation. 

3.  Pension  for  all  city  employes  when  sick  and  disabled. 

II. — Industries  Suggested  for  Ownership. 

1.  All  industries  dependent  on  franchises,  such  as  street  cars, 
electric  and  gas  lighting,  telephones,  etc. 

2.  Bakeries,  ice-houses,  coal  and  wood  yards,  department 
stores,  slaughter-houses  where  they  are  needed. 

I. — Principles  of  Management. 
I.    Reduction  of  hours  and  increase  of  wages  to  correspond 
with  improvements  in  production. 


684  THE  INTERNATIONAIi  SOCIALIST  BBVIBW. 

III. — Municipal  Autonomy. 

1.  Municipal  autonomy  for  the  ownership  and  operation  of  all 
enterprises  vital  to  the  municipality  as  such. 

2.  Issuance  of  bonds  for  this  purpose  up  to  50  per  cent  of 
the  assessed  valuation. 

3.  Issuance  of  debenture  bonds,  secured  by  plants  to  be  ac- 
quired or  built. 

WORKING  CLASS  GOVERNMENT. 

1.  Police  not  to  be  used  in  interest  of  employer  against 
strikers. 

2.  Free  legal  advice. 

3.  Abolition  of  fee  system  in  all  courts.  Trial  by  jury  with- 
out extra  expense. 

4.  Abolition  of  fines  as  alternative  to  imprisonment. 

5.  Establishment  of  Municipal  Labor  Bureau  for  investiga- 
tion, inspection  and  report  upon  conditions  of  labor. 

GENERAL  MEASURES   FOR  PUBLIC  RELIEF. 

1.  Establishment  of  useful  works  and  extension  of  public 
functions  to  give  work  to  unemployed. 

2.  Free  medical  service,  including  free  medicine. 

3.  Adequate  hospital  service  with  no  taint  of  charity. 

4.  Homes  for  aged  and  invalid. 

5.  Night  lodgings  for  men  out  of  employment  and  without 
homes. 

7.  Pensions  for  all  public  employes. 

8.  Free  public  crematory. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

1.  Inspection  of  food,  punishment  of  all  harmful  adultera- 
tion. 

2.  Public  disinfection  after  contagious  diseases. 

3.  Publicly  owned  and  administered  baths,  wash-houses,  clos- 
ets, laboratories,  drug  stores,  and  such  things  as  care  of  public 
health  demands. 

4.  Adequate  system  of  parks,  public  play-grounds  and  gym- 
nasiums. 

FACTORY  LEGISLATION. 

1.  Special  laws  for  protection  of  both  women  and  children  in 
both  mercantile  and  industrial  pursuits. 

2.  No  child  under  18  may  be  permitted  to  work  at  any  gain- 
ful occupation,  including  selling  papers,  blacking  shoes,  etc. 

HOUSING  QUESTION. 
I.    Strict  legislation  against  over-crowding,  provision  for  light 
and  ventilation  in  all  rooms. 


r^^'" 


EEPORT  OP  PROGRAM  COMMITTEE.  685 

2.  Building  of  municipal  apartments  to  rent  at  cost  of  care  of 
buildings  and  depreciation — ^no  return  for  ground  rent  to  be  de- 
manded. 

3.  Condemnation  and  destruction  by  the  city  of  all  tenements 
not  conforming  to  proper  standards  of  light,  ventilation  and  over- 
crowding. 

PUBLIC  EMPLOYMENT. 

I.    Direct  employment  by  the  city — ^abolition  of  contract  sys- 
tem. 
•    2.    Fixing  of  minimum  wage  not  lower  than  standard  trade 
union  rate. 

TAXATION. 

1.  Progressive  income  tax,  such  revenue  to  be  used  solely  in 
the  interests  of  the  working  class,  and  not  to  relieve  the  middle 
class  of  taxation. 

2.  Taxation  of  ground  rents. 

3.  Exemption  of  household  furniture  and  laborers'  homes  up 
to  $2,000.00. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

1.  Erection  of  "Labor  Temple"  by  municipality  as  head- 
quarters, meeting  place  and  educational  center  for  workers  of  the 
city. 

2.  Publication  of  a  municipal  bulletin,  containing  complete 
news  of  all  municipal  activity. 

E.  Untermakn,  Chairman. 

John  M.  Work,  Secretary. 

Comrades  Stedman  of  Illinois,  Gaynor  of  Wisconsin,  Rey- 
nolds of  Indiana,  Kraybill  of  Kansas,  Kelly  of  Massachusetts, 
and  Atkinson  of  New  York. 


List  of  Delegates. 

Alabama — F.  X.  Waldhorst 

Arkansas — ^Wells  Lefever,  Wni.  Penrose. 

California — ^J.  L.  Cobb,  P.  Deutzman,  Sam.  Robbins,  W.  W. 
Wilkins,  Paul  H.  Keller,  H.  M.  McKee,  J.  J.  Patton,  N.  A.  Rich- 
ardson, H.  B.  Weaver,  Bertha  Wilkins,  S.  Stitt  Wilson,  C.  W. 
Woodbey. 

Colorado — ^Wm.  Ash,  A.  H.  Floaten,  Ida  Crouch  Hazlet,  Guy 
E.  Miller,  R.  A.  Southworth. 

Connecticut — Cornelius  Mahony,  Eugene  Toomey. 

Idaho-'E.  B.  Ault 

Indian  Territory— W.  I.  Whitelatch. 

Illinois — B.  Berlyn,  Sam.  Block,  Chas.  L.  Breckon,  Jas.  H. 
Brower,  E.  E.  Carr,  John  Collins,  Wm.  Dalton,  D.  McEachem, 
A.  W.  Mance,  Theo.  Meyer,  Thos.  J.  Morgan,  J.  E.  Phelan,  D.  M. 
Smith,  Jas.  S.  Smith,  A.  M.  Simons,  S.  Stedman,  M.  H.  Taft,  E. 
Unterman. 

Indiana— Wm.  Barrett,  Eugene  V.  Debs,  A.  T.  Cridley,  Matt 
HoUenberger,  James  Oneal,  S.  M.  Reynolds. 

Iowa — ^John  W.  Bennett,  J.  J.  Jacobson,  Carrie  L.  Johnson, 
John  M.  Work. 

Kansas— W.  R.  Parks,  Mrs.  E.  G.  Cogswell,  Mrs.  Luella  R. 
Kraybill,  Water  T.  Mills,  W.  S.  Neal,  Thos.  E.  Will. 

Kentucky — ^Thos.  McGrady,  A.  L.  Nagel,  F.  L.  Robinson. 

Louisiana — ^Wilbur  Putnam. 

Maryland  and  Dfistrict  of  Columbia — Wm.  A.  Toole,  S.  L.  V. 
Young. 

Massachusetts — ^James  F.  Carey,  Herman  Brandt,  H.  A.  Gibbs, 
John  J.  Kelly,  J.  A.  Keown,  Geo.  E.  Littlefield,  Alex.  Hayman, 

A.  B.  Outram,  Dan.  A.  White. 

Michigan — ^Wm.  L.  Benessi,  C.  J.  Lamb,  Jas.  H.  McFarlan, 
John  A.  C.  Mienton,  Wm.  E.  Walter. 

Mississippi — Summer  W.  Rose. 

Minnesota— M.  A.  Brattland,  A.  N.  Gilbertson,  S.  M.  Holman, 
Nicholas  Klein,  Geo.  B.  Leonard,  Thos.  H.  Lucas,  Ed.  Bosky,  E. 

B.  Ford. 

Missouri— E.  T.  Behrens,  Wm.  M.  Brandt,  Fred  H.  Dihio,  W. 
L.  Garver,  G.  A.  Hoehn,  Carl  Knecht,  Caleb  Lipscomb,  T.  E.  Pal- 
mer, Geo.  H.  Turner,  Hugh  J.  Raible,  J.  H.  Rathbun. 

Montana-C.  C  McHugh,  W.  G.  O'Mally,  J.  H.  Walsh,  John 
J.Hirt 

Nebraska— P.  J.  Hyland,  W.  E.  Qark,  J.  W.  Hawkins,  Wm. 
Mailly. 

New  Hampshire — ^Jas.  S.  Murray. 

686 


LIST   OF   DELEGATES.  687 

New  Jersey — Peter  Burrows,  Wm.  Glanz,  Carl  Kronenburg, 
W.  L.  Oswald,  Charles  Ufert,  Jas.  M.  Reilly,  David  Rubinow, 
G.  H.  Strobell. 

New  York — ^Warren  Atkinson,  G.  P.  Bush,  Wm.  Butschcr, 
A.  P.  Byron  Curtis,  Chas.  Dobbs,  Wm.  Ehret,  P.  J.  Flanagan, 
Julius  Gerber,  Benj.  Hanford,  Geo.  D.  Herron,  Morris  Hillquit, 
Alexander  Jonas,  Algernon  Lee,  Gustave  Dressier,  Frank  Siever- 
man,  H.  L.  Slobodin,  John  Spargo,  Otto  Wegener,  H.  W.  Wess- 
ling,  A.  A.  Wayell,  H.  G.  Wilshire,  C.  P.  Hawley,  B.  J.  Riley. 

North  Dakota— S.  E.  Haight,  Tonnes  Thams. 

Ohio— Rjobt.  Bandlow,  C.  A.  Bickett,  D.  P.  Farrell,  Martin 
Goss,  Max  S.  Hayes,  W.  A.  Stanton,  W.  L.  Webster,  Julius  Zorn, 
C.  E.  Willey. 

Oklahoma — ^Roy  Hayes,  J.  V.  Kolachney,  A.  S.  Loudermilk,  A. 
W.  Renshaw,  J.  E.  Snyder. 

Oregon — Irene  M.  Smith. 

Pennsylvania — Hugh  Ayres,  J.  Mahlon  Barnes,  Geo.  W. 
Bacon,  Miss  Innes  Farbes,  Louis  Goaziou,  Chas.  Heydrick,  Frank 
Gagliardi,  James  Mauer,  Robert  Ringler. 

South  Dakota — Freeman  Knowles,  O.  C  Potter. 

Tennessee — Chas.  H.  Stockell. 

Texas — ^John  Kerrigan,  R.  O.  Langworthy,  E.  B.  Latham. 

Washington— O.  Lund,  Herman  F.  Titus. 

Wisconsin — ^H.  J.  Ammon,  Victor  L.  Berger,  J.  W.  Bom,  W. 
C.  Young,  W.  R.  Gaylord,  Jacob  Hunger,  F.  J.  Weber,  J.  M.  A. 
Spence,  Ira  Cross,  Richard  Eisner,  E.  H.  Thomas. 


Resolutions  Adopted. 

COLORADO  OUTRAGES. 

WHEIREAS,  The. Socialist  Party  is  the  political  organiza- 
tion of  tiie  working  class,  pledged  to  all  its  struggles 
and  working  ceaselessly  for  its  emancipation,  it  de- 
clares this  convention  against  the  brutality  of  capi- 
talistic rule  and  the  suppression  of  popular  rights  and  liberties 
which  attends  it ;  and  calls  upon  all  the  workers  of  the  country  to 
unite  with  it  in  the  struggle  for  the  overthrow  of  capitalist  domi- 
nation and  the  establishment  of  economic  equality  and  freedom. 

Time  after  time,  workers  have  been  imprisoned,  beaten  and 
murdered  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  were  struggling  for 
some  measure  of  that  comfort  and  decency  of  existence  to  which 
as  the  producers  of  wealth  they  are  entitled.  The  master  class 
has,  in  various  state  and  cities,  organized  citizens'  alliances,  man- 
ufacturers' associations,  anti-boycott  associations  and  the  like, 
which,  in  order  to  disrupt  and  crush  out  the  econcMnic  organiza- 
tions of  the  workers,  have  instituteji  a  reign  of  lawlessness  and 
tyranny,  and  assailed  all  the  fundamental  principles  and  most 
cherished  institutions  of  personal  and  collective  freedom.  By 
suborning  the  executive  and  judicial  powers  in  various  states 
they  have  infringed  upon  the  liberties  of  the  American  people. 

Under  their  baleful  influences,  in  direct  contravention  of  the 
letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  civil  authority  has  been 
made  subordinate  to  the  military  in  Pennsylvania,  Colorado  and 
elsewhere.  Freedom  of  the  press  and  the  right  of  public  assem- 
bly have  been  denied  in  many  states;  and  by  the  DSck  militia 
bill  liability  to  compulsory  military  service  has  been  imposed  upon 
every  male  citizen  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five 
and  that  merely  at  the  caprice  of  the  President. 

At  the  present  time  there  exists  in  Colorado  a  state  of  violent 
capitalist  anarchy  and  lawlessness  with  the  consent  and  under 
the  armed  protection  of  the  state  government.  Peaceable  citi- 
zens have  been  forcibly  deported  by  armed  bodies  of  lawbreakers, 
aided  and  abetted  by  military  usurpers  of  the  civil  powers;  in- 
voluntary servitude  has  been  imposed  by  injunctions  compelling 
citizens  to  work  under  conditions  distasteful  to  them.  Innocent 
and  law-abiding  citizens  have  been  arrested  without  warrant,  im- 
prisoned without  trial,  and  when  acquitted  by  decision  of  the  civil 
courts,  held  by  the  military  in  defiance  of  every  principle  of  civil 
authority  and  government;  and  the  right  of  habeas  corpus,  for 
centuries  cherished  as  a  safeguard  for  personal  liberty,  has  been 
unlawfully  suspended  with  the  result  that  in  a  so-called  "free 
state"  of  our  so-called  "free  republic"  there  exists  a  despotism 

688 


BBSOLUmONS  ADOPTED.  689 

greater  and  more  infamous  than  that  which  has  ever  character- 
ized Russian  autocracy. 

Now,  we  declare  these  conditions  in  Colorado  are  the  natural 
and  logical  results  of  the  prevailing  economic  system  which  per- 
mits the  private  ownership  of  the  means  of  the  common  life  and 
renders  the  wage  working  class  dependent  for.  life  itself  upon 
the  owners  of  the  means  of  production  and  distribution.  .  Between 
these  two  classes,  the  workers  and  the  masters  of  their  bread, 
there  exists  a  state  of  constant  warfare,  a  bitter  and  irrepressible 
class  conflict.  Labor,  organized  for  self-protection  and  to  secure 
better  conditions  of  life,  is  met  by  powerful  organizations  of  the 
master  class,  whose  supreme  power  lies  in  the  fact  that  all  the 
functions  of  government,  legislative,  judicial  and  executive,  have 
been  unwittingly  placed  in  their  hands  by  their  victims.  Con- 
trolling all  the  forces  of  government,  they  are  entrenched  in  a 
position  from  which  they  can  only  be  dislodged  by  political 
methods. 

Therefore  this  convention  of  the  Socialist  Party  reafiirms  this 
principle  of  the  International  Socialist  movement,  that  the  su- 
preme issue  is  the  conquest  by  the  working  class  of  all  the  powers 
of  government  and  the  use  of  those  powers  for  the  overthrow  of 
class  rule,  and  the  establishment  of  that  common  ownership  of 
the  means  of  the  common  life,  which  alone  can  free  individual 
and  collected  man. 

RUSSO-JAPANESE  WAR. 

Whereas,  The  conflicting  commercial  interests  of  the  ruling 
classes  in  Russia  and  Japan  have  induced  the  governments  of  those 
countries  to  bring  about  war  between  the  Russian  and  Japanese 
nations;  and 

Whereas,  The  working  people  of  Russia  and  Japan  have  no 
interest  in  waging  this  campaign  of  bloody  warfare,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  this  convention  of  the  Socialist  Party  of 
America  sends  greetings  of  Fraternity  and  Solidarity  to  the  work- 
ing people  of  Russia  and  Japan,  arid  condemns  the  Russo-Japanese 
war  as  a  crime  against  progress  and  civilization.  And  be  it  fur- 
ther 

Resolved,  That  we  appeal  to  the  wage  workers  of  Russia  and 
Japan  to  join  hands  with  the  International  Socialist  movement 
in  its  struggle  for  world-peace. 

SOCIALIST  PROPAGANDISTS. 

Whereas,  It  is  the  practice  of  some  lecturers  and  organizers  to 
engage  with  organizations  of  the  Socialist  Party,  at  an  indefinite 
compensation,  dependent  upon  their  success  in  collecting  funds 
or  selling  literature,  or  else  engaging  without  understanding  as 
to  compensation ;  and 


690  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

Whereas,  Under  such  conditions  the  ability  of  a  Comrade  to 
remain  in  the  field  depends  upon  circumstances  other  than  use- 
fulness in  the  propagation  of  clean-cut  Socialism :  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  this  convention  declares  itself  opposed  to 
speculative  methods  of  compensating  lecturers  and  organizers,  and 
in  favor  of  the  payment  of  a  definite  predetermined  salary  or  fee. 

speakers'    SALARIES. 

Whereas,  Exorbitant  salaries  or  fees  have  sometimes  been  paid 
to  speakers  and  organizers  for  their  services;  and, 

Whereas,  Such  practices  are  altogether  unwarranted  and  un- 
just in  a  proletarian  movement ;  therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  That  this  body  declares  itself  opposed  to  pa3dng 
speakers  or  other  workers  employed  by  the  party  exorbitant  fees 
or  salaries  placing  them  above  the  standard  of  the  working  class 
the  party  represents.    And  we 

Recommend,  That,  as  far  as  possible,  locals  of  the  Socialist 
Party  should  engage  their  speakers  and  organizers  through  the 
national  or  state  organizations,  thus  discouraging  the  abuses  aris- 
ing from  the  unsatisfactory  methods  at  present  pursued. 

Adopted  by  vote  of  65  to  51. 

NEW  YORK  DAILY  CALL. 

Whereas,  Daily  newspapers  which  shall  stand  as  the  uncom- 
promising champions  of  the  working  class  and  the  exponents  of 
the  principles  of  the  Socialist  Party  constitute  one  of  the  most 
urgent  needs  of  the  Socialist  movement  of  the  United  States,  and 

Whereas,  The  socialists  of  New  York  aimounce  that  they  will 
begin  the  publication  September  ist  of  the  New  York  Daily  Call, 
a  newspaper  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  Socialist  Party  and 
the  working  class. 

Resolved,  That  we,  the  delegates  of  the  National  Socialist 
Convention,  assembled  at  Chicago,  May  i,  1904,  do  hereby  cor- 
dially endorse  the  project  to  establish  the  New  York  Daily  Call 
and  we  call  upon  the  Socialists  of  the  United  States  to  render 
every  assistance  in  their  power  to  the  New  York  comrades  hav- 
ing the  enterprise  in  charge. 

TRADE  UNION  RESOLUTION. 

The  trade  and  labor  union  movement  is  a  natural  result  of 
the  capitalist  system  of  production  and  necessary  to  resist  the  en- 
croachments of  capitalism.  It  is  an  effort  to  protect  the  class 
interests  of  labor  under  the  capitalistic  system.  However,  this 
industrial  struggle  can  only  lessen  the  exploitation,  but  does  not 
abolish  it.  The  exploitation  of  labor  will  only  cease  when  the 
working  class  take  possession  of  the  means  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution and  establish  their  right  to  the  full  product  of  their 
labor.    To  fully  carry  out  these  measures  the  working  class  must 


r 


EESOLUTIONS  ADOPTED.  691 

consciously  become  the  dominant  political  power.  The  organiza- 
tion of  the  workers  will  not  be  complete  until  they  unite  on  the 
political  as  well  as  the  industrial  field  on  the  lines  of  the  claa* 
struggle. 

The  trade  union  struggle  requires  tlie  political  activity  of  the 
working  class.  The  workers  must  assist  and  permanently  secure 
by  their  political  power  what  they  have  wnmg  from  their  exploit* 
ers  in  th#  economic  struggle.  In  accordance  with  the  decisions  of 
the  International  Socialist  Congresses  in  Brussels,  Zurich  and 
London,  this  convention  reaffirms  the  declarations  that  the  trade 
and  labor  unions  are  a  necessity  in  the  struggle  to  aid  in  eman- 
cipating the  working  class,  and  we  consider  it  the  duty  of  all  wage 
workers  to  affiliate  with  this  movement. 

Political  differences  of  opinion  do  not  and  should  not  justify- 
the  division  of  the  forces  of  labor  in  the  industrial  movement.  The 
interests  of  the  working  class  make  it  imperative  that  the  labor 
organizations  equip  their  members  for  the  great  work  of  the  aboli- 
tion of  wage  slavery  by  educating  them  in  Socialist  principles. 
Adopted  on  roll  call  107  to  52. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  REPORT. 

Resolved,  That  we  declare  our  unalterable  opposition  to  the 
introduction  of  the  vicious  open-shop  system  in  governmental  in- 
3titutions,  national,  state,  or  municipal,  and  in  industrial  estab- 
lishments generally. 

Resolved,  That  this  convention  warns  the  organized  workers 
of  this  country  to  be  on  guard  against  the  attacks  upon  their  funds, 
individual  and  collective,  for  striking,  boycotting,  picketing,  etc. 

Resolved,  That  we  declare  in  favor  of  a  general  eight-hour 
law,  and  point  to  the  attitude  of  the  old  parties  upon  this  ques- 
tion, in  Congress,  in  Colorado,  and  various  other  states. 

Resolved,  That  all  the  sig^s  of  the  times  indicate  that 
the  capitalist  class  of  this  country  through  the  medium 
of  the  Democratic  and  Republican  parties,  are  seek- 
ing to  destroy  the  labor  movement  by  means  of  injimctions  against 
the  movement,  and  by  legislation  limiting  the  rights  of  organized 
labor. 

ResDlved,  This  vicious  work  can  only  be  prevented  by  united 
political  action  of  labor  on  the  lines  of  the  class  struggles. 

Riesolved,  That  we  call  upon  the  wage  workers  to  join  the 
Socialist  party  with  a  view  to  overthrowing  the  political  condition 
that  makes  it  possible  for  the  capitalist  class  to  use  the  political 
machinery  of  the  country  as  a  weapon  against  the  working  class. 


Debs*  Speech  of  Acceptance. 

I\J  the  councils  of  the  Socialist  Party  the  collective  will  is 
supreme.  (Applause.)  Personally  I  could  have  wished 
to  remain  in  the  ranks,  to  make  my  record,  humble 
though  it  might  be,  fighting  unnamed  and  unhonored 
side  by  side  with  my  comrades.  I  accept  your  nomination, 
not  because  of  any  honor  it  confers — ^because  in  the  Socialist 
movement  no  Comrade  can  be  honored  except  as  he  honors 
himself  by  his  fidelity  to  the  movement.  (Applause.)  I 
accept  your  nomination  because  of  the  confidence  it  implies,  be- 
cause of  the  duty  it  imposes.  I  cannot  but  wish  that  I  may  in  a 
reasonable  measure  meet  your  expectations ;  that  I  may  prove  my- 
self fit  and  worthy  to  bear  aloft  in  the  coming  strife  the  banner 
of  the  working  class  (applause)  ;  that  by  my  utterances  and  by  my 
conduct,  not  in  an  individual  capacity,  but  as  your  representative, 
I  may  prove  myself  worthy  to  bear  the  standard  of  the  only  party 
that  proposes  to  emancipate  my  class  from  the  thralldom  of  the 
ages.    (Applause.) 

It  is  my  honor  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  a  very  historic  con- 
vention, and  I  would  that  Karl  Marx  might  be  here  to-day  (ap- 
plause) ;  I  would  that  Lassalle  and  Engels,  the  men  who  long  be- 
fore the  movement  had  its  present  standing  wrought  and  sacrificed 
to  make  it  possible  for  me  to  stand  in  this  magnificent  presence — 
I  wish  it  were  possible  for  them  to  share  in  the  glories  of  this  oc- 
casion. We  are  on  the  eve  of  battle  to-day.  We  are  ready  for  the 
contest.  (Applause.)  We  are  eager  for  the  fray.  (Applause.) 
We  depart  from  here  with  the  endorsement  of  a  convention  that 
shall  challenge  undisputed  the  approval  of  the  working  class  of 
the  world.  (Applause.)  The  platform  upon  which  we  stand  is 
the  first  American  utterance  upon  the  subject  of  international  so- 
cialism. (Applause.)  Hitherto  we  have  repeated,  we  have  re- 
iterated, we  have  followed.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
American  movement  we  have  realized  the  American  expression  of 
that  movement.  There  is  not  a  line,  not  a  word  in  that  platform 
which  is  not  revolutionary,  which  is  not  clear,  which  does  not  state 
precisely  and  properly  the  position  of  the  Anierican  movement. 
We  leave  this  convention  standing  on  this  platform,  to  throw  down 
the  gauntlet  to  the  capitalist  enemy  (applause),  to  challenge  the 
capitalist  oppressor  to  do  battle  for  the  perpetuation  of  a  system 
that  keeps  in  chains  those  in  whose  name  we  meet  to-day.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

There  is  a  Republican  Party ;  the  dominant  capitalist  party  of 
this  time ;  the  party  that  has  its  representative  in  the  white  house ; 
the  party  that  dominates  both  branches  of  the  congress ;  the  party 
that  controls  the  supreme  court ;  the  party  that  absolutely  controls 


I>EBS'  SPEECH  OF  ACCEPTANCE.  693 


tEe  press ;  the  party  that  gives  inspiration  to  the  subsidized  pulpit ; 
the  party  that  controls  every  force  of  government ;  the  party  that 
is  absolutely  in  power  in  every  department  of  our  activity.  And 
as  a  necessary  result  we  find  that  corruption  is  rampant ;  that  the 
congress  of  the  United  States  dare  not  respond  to  the  demands  of 
the  people  to  open  the  sources  of  corruption  from  which  the  lava 
stream  flows  down  the  mountain  sides ;  that  they  adjourned  long 
before  the  hour  struck  for  adjournment  in  order  that  they  might 
postpone  the  inevitable.     (Applause.) 

There  is  a  Democratic  party — (A  Voice:  "Where?") — a  party 
that  has  not  stock  enough  left  to  proclaim  its  own  bankruptcy 
(laughter  and  applause) ;  an  expiring  party  that  stands  upon  the 
crumbling  foundations  of  a  dying  class;  a  party  that  is  torn 
by  dissension.;  a  party  that  cannot  unite;  a  party  that  is  looking 
backward  and  hoping  for  the  resurrection  of  the  men  who  gave 
it  inspiration  a  century  ago ;  a  party  that  is  appealing  to  the  ceme- 
teries of  the  past  (applause)  ;  a  party  that  is  trying  to  vitalize  itself 
by  its  ghosts,  by  its  corpses,  by  those  who  cannot  be  heard  in  their 
own  defense.  (Applause.)  Thomas  Jefferson  would  scorn  to 
enter  a  modern  Democratic  convention.  He  would  have  as  little 
business  there  as  Abraham  Lincoln  would  have  in  a  modern  Re- 
publican convention.  (Applause.)  If  they  were  living  to-day 
they  would  be  delegates  to  this  convention.  (Tremendous  ap- 
plause.) 

The  Socialist  Party  meets  these  two  parties  face  to  face,  with- 
out a  semblance  of  apology,  without  an  attempt  at  explanation, 
scorning  to  compromise,  it  throws  down  the  gage  of  battle  and  de- 
clares that  there  is  but  one  solution  of  what  is  called  the  labor 
question,  and  that  is  by  the  complete  overthrow  of  the  capitalist 
system.    (Applause. ) 

You  have  honored  me  in  the  magnitude  of  the  task  that  you 
have  imposed  upon  me,  far  beyond  the  power  of  my  weak  words 
to  express.  I  can  simply  say  that  obedient  to  your  call  I  respond. 
(Applause.)  Responsive  to  your  command  I  am  here.  I  shall 
serve  you  to  the  limit  of  my  capacity.  My  controlling  ambition 
shall  be  to  bear  the  standard  aloft  where  the  battle  waxes  thick- 
.  est.     (A'pplause.)     I  shall  not  hesitate  as  the  opportunity  comes 

[ "  to  me  to  voice  the  emancipating  gospel  of  the  Socialist  movement. 

i  I  shall  be  heard  in  the  coming  campaign  (applause)  as  often,  and 

as  decidedly,  and  as  emphatically,  as  revolutionarily  (applause), 
as  uncompromisingly  (applause)  as  my  ability,  my  strength  and 
my  fidelity  to  the  movement  will  allow.  I  invoke  no  aid  but  that 
which  springs  from  the  misery  of  my  class  (applause) ;  no  power 
that  does  not  spring  spontaneous  from  the  prostrate  body  of  the 
workers  of  the  world.  Above  all  other  things  I  realize  that  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  all  the  ages  there  is  a  working  class 
movement  ("Hear,  hear,"  and  applause) — perfectly  free  from  the 


694  THE  INTEBNATIONAI/  SOCIALraT  EETVIEW. 

sentimentality  of  those  who  riot  in  the  misery  of  the  class  who  are 
in  that  movement.  On  this  occasion  above  all  others,  my  ccwn- 
rades,  we  are  appealing  to  ourselves,  we  are  bestirring  ourselves, 
we  are  arousing  the  working  class,  the  class  that  through  all  of 
the  ages  has  been  oppressed,  crushed,  suflFered,  for  the  one  reason 
that  through  all  the  centuries  of  the  past  this  class  has  lacked  the 
consciousness  of  its  overmastering  power  that  shall  give  it  control 
and  make  it  master  of  the  world.  (Applause.)  This  class  is  just 
beginning  to  awaken  from  the  torpor  of  the  centuries  (applause), 
and  the  most  hopeful  sign  of  the  times  is  that  from  the  dull,  the 
dim  eye  of  the  man  who  is  in  this  class  there  goes  forth  for  the 
first  time  in  history  the  first  gleam  of  intelligence,  the  first  sign  of 
the  promise  that  he  is  waking  up,  and  that  he  is  becoming  con- 
scious of  his  power ;  and  when  he,  through  the  inspiration  of  the 
Socialist  movement,  shall  become  completely  conscious  of  that 
power,  he  will  overthrow  the  capitalist  system  and  bring  the 
emancipation  of  his  class.    (Great  applause.) 

To  consecrate  myself  to  my  small  part  of  this  great  work  .is  my 
supreme  ambition.  (Applause.)  I  can  hope  only  to  do  that  part 
which  is  expected  of  me  so  well  that  my  comrades,  when  the  final 
verdict  is  rendered,  will  say,  "He  was  not  a  candidate  for  Presi- 
dent ;  he  did  not  aspire  to  hold  office ;  he  did  not  try  to  associate 
his  name  with  the  passing  glories,  but  he  did  prove  himself  worthy 
to  be  a  member  of  the  Socialist  Party  (applause)  ;  he  proved  his 
right  to  a  place  in  the  International  Socialist  Movement  of  the 
World."  (Applause.)  If  when  this  little  work  shall  have  been 
completed  this  can  be  said  of  me,  my  acceptance  of  your  nomina- 
tion will  have  been  so  much  more  completely  made  than  I  could 
hope  to  frame  it  in  weak  words,  that  I  close  not  with  the  decided 
utterance,  but  with  the  wish  and  the  hope  and  the  ambition  that 
when  the  fight  has  been  fought,  when  the  task  you  have  imposed 
upon  me  has  been  performed  so  far  as  it  lies  in  the  power  of  an 
individual  to  perform  that  task,  that  my  acceptance  of  the  honor 
you  have  conferred  upon  me  will  have  been  made  and  that  your 
wisdom  and  your  judgment  will  have  been  vindicated  by  the 
membership  of  the  party  throughout  the  country. 

From  the  depths  of  my  heart  I  thank  you.  I  thank  you  and 
each  of  you,  and  through  you  I  thank  those  you  represent.  I  thank 
you  not  from  my  lips  merely.  I  thank  you  from  the  depths  of  a 
heart  that  is  responsive  to  your  consideration.  We  shall  meet 
again.  We  shall  meet  often,  and  when  we  meet  finally  we  shall 
meet  in  much  larger  numbers  to  ratify  the  coming  of  the  Socialist 
Republic.     (Great  and  prolonged  applause.) 


Hanford's  Speech  of  Acceptance. 

THE  Chairman :  The  Chair  will  take  the  liberty  of  appoint- 
ing Delegates  Carey  (Mass.),  Sieverman  (N.  Y.),  Barnes 
(Pa.),  Berlyn  (111.),  Oneal  (Ind.),  Hazlett  (Colo.)  and 
Richardson  (Cal.)  to  escort  Comrade  Hanford  to  the 
platform.     (  Applause. ) 

The  Committee  appointed  by  the  Chair  then  escorted  Comrade 
Hanford  to  the  platform,  where,  after  the  enthusiastic  applause 
which  greeted  him  had  subsided,  he  said : 

"Mr.  Chairman  and  Comrades:  You  notice  we  went  a  long 
ways  around  to  get  here.  (Laughter.)  I  have  noticed  that  So- 
cialists sometimes  do  go  a  long  ways  around  to  set  a  very  short 
distance,  but  just  so  we  get  there,  that  is  the  main  thing.  (Laughter 
and  applause.) 

"I  want  to  say  briefly  a  word  in  relation  to  Comrade  Debs,  that 
for  quite  a  long  time  past  myself  and  many  other  Comrades  have 
considered  with  each  other  and  in  an  entirely  informal  way  as  to 
who  would  in  all  probability  be  the  best  possible  choice  as  a  can- 
didate for  President,  and  while  none  of  these  comrades  that  I  have 
mentioned  was  considering  it  from  any  other  standpoint  than  the 
good  of  the  party,  every  one  of  them  was  unanimous  in  the 
opinion  that  Comrade  Diebs  would  be  the  best  possible  man  to 
nominate  for  President  at  this  time.    (Loud  applause.) 

"In  relation  to  myself  I  do  not  know  that  there  is  much  that 
I  can  say  more  than  this:  That  I  have  never  allowed  myself  to 
seek  anything  in  the  Socialist  movement  from  a  personal  stand- 
point, or,  for  that  matter,  in  any  other  movement,  but  at  the  same 
time  I  have  always  been  in  the  position  that  whenever  the  party 
told  me  to  do  something  I  always  did  it,  no  matter  whether  I  liked 
it  or  not.  (Loud  applause.)  Comrade  Titus  made  one  mistake 
about  me  in  placing  my  name  before  the  convention.  He  spoke  of 
my  having  made  sacrifices  for  the  Socialist  movement.  I  want  to 
say  this,  that  the  Socialist  movement  has  done  more  for  me  than  I 
can  ever  do  for  it  (Applause.)  I  do  not  know  that  I  exactly 
agree  with  the  philosophy  that  says  that  whom  the  Lord  loveth 
He  chasteneth,  but  I  do  believe  that  there  is  nothing  that  a  man 
can  do  in  the  world,  that  there  is  no  blessing  that  can  be  conferred 
upon  a  man  by  any  power  on  earth  which  will  be  of  the  immense 
benefit  to  him  throughout  his  whole  life  such  as  that  of  following 
the  conscientious  convictions  of  his  own  mind  in  matters  of  right 
and  wrong.  (Loud  applause.)  I  can  say  here  that  I  very  much 
doubt,  so  far  from  my  having  sacrificed  anything  for  the  Socialist 
movement,  I  very  much  doubt  if  I  would  have  been  alive  to-day 
had  it  not  been  for  the  Socialist  movement,  and  I  will  tell  you  why. 
As  a  man  in  my  trade  about  nineteen  years  ago  there  came  in  what 
we  call  the  linotype  typesetting  machine.  They  put  one  of  them 
in  a  printing  office  and  one  man  got  a  job  operating  it  and  he 
would  do  the  work  of  as  high  as  five  or  six  men  who  were  there 

eo5 


696  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIEW. 

before  this  machine  was  brought  in.  Well,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  just  about  the  time  that  typesetting  machine  was  entering 
the  printing  office  I  got  tangled  up  in  the  Socialist  movement. 
(Laughter.)  And  every  day  when  I  was  out  of  work,  when  I 
was  a  victim  of  any  enforced  idleness,  instead  of  going  to  the  gin 
mill  and  wasting  my  time  as  others  among  the  workingmen  had 
done,  instead  of  becoming  despondent  I  occupied  all  my  time  read- 
ing a  book  or  a  paper  or  making  a  socialist  speech  on  a  soap  box  or 
something  of  that  kind.  In  other  words,  what  was  despair  to 
other  people  was  the  star  of  hope  to  me.     (Loud  applause.) 

"Two  or  three  years  ago  I  went  down  in  the  coal  region  in " 
Pennsylvania  while  the  strike  was  going  on  there  and  I  spoke  three 
or  four  times,  and  wherever  I  went  all  it  needed  was  to  put  a  little 
placard  out,  leave  a  notice  on  a  telegraph  pole  for  two  hours,  and 
there,  as  though  they  had  sprung  out  of  the  ground,  were  i,ooo 
men  or  5,000  men  or  10,000  men,  and  I  can  say  that  they  heard  me 
gladly,  and  not  only  me,  but  other  comrades  who  were  with  me, 
and  they  did  so  because  the  men  knew  that  the  Socialist  Party 
was  in  sympathy  with  the  trades  unionists  as  against  the  capitalists 
in  their  scraps  with  the  capitalists.  (Applause.)  Now,  there  was 
another  party  that  would  like  to  have  sent  its  speakers  down  to 
tha  field,  but  they  would  not  have  been  favorably  received,  and 
that  was  the  Socialist  Labor  Party,  and  that  party  was  not  able  to 
send  speakers  there  just  because  of  its  attitude  against  the  trades 
union.  (Applause.)  Naw  you  think  it  is  terrible  when  trades 
unionists  make  mistakes,  but  good  Heavens,  I  would  like  to  know 
down  to  this  hour  almost,  when  we  have  ever  had  a  chance  to 
make  a  mistake  that  we  didn't  make  one.  (Laughter  and  applause.) 
They  have  troubles,  but  Lord,  look  at  the  troubles  we  have  had. 
(Laughter.)  And  they  are  like  us  again  in  this  further  respect: 
They  have  no  interest  in  perpetuating  their  mistakes  any  more 
than  we  have  in  perpetuating  ours,  and  if  they  are  wrong  to-day 
they  have  got  to  be  put  into  the  crucible  of  experience  so  that 
they  may  come  out  right. 

"Now,  Comrades,  you  have  the  greatest  privilege,  as  Comrade 
Titus  has  pointed  out,  that  any  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth  have 
ever  had  before.  No  previous  revolution  ever  had  it  in  its  power 
to  do  anything  more  than  liberate  a  certain  group  of  people  or 
a  little  nation  of  people,  but  this  movement  proposes  to  free 
every  man  and  every  woman  and  every  child  on  the  earth, 
wherever  they  may  be,  for  all  time.  (Loud  continued  ap- 
plause.). This  movement  is  not  only  worth  living  for,  but  it  is 
better  worth  dying  for  than  any  other  movement  in  the  world. 
(Loud  cheering  and  applause.)  To  bring  about  the  furtherance 
of  this  thing  I  say  to  you,  let  your  hearts  be  true  as  steel,  be  steeled 
to  the  very  back,  put  your  soul  and  your  heart  and  your  whole 
power  into  the  action,  and  we  will  have  socialism  in  our  time  and 
in  our  country."     (Long  continued  applause.) 


Proceedings  of  the  Convention. 

THE  National  Convention  of  the  Socialist  Party  of  the 
United  States  was  called  to  order  by  National  Secretary 
William  Mailly,  at  Brand's  Hall,  Chicago,  111.,  Sunday 
morning,  May  i,  1904.  The  official  call  of  the  conven- 
tion was  read,  and  Secretary  Mailly  announced  that  the  Socialist 
Party  of  Wisconsin  had  presented  a  silver  gavel  to  the  Socialist 
P^rty  for  use  during  the  convention.  Delegate  James  F.  Carey, 
of  Massachusetts,  was  elected  temporary  chairman.  Charles 
Dobbs,  of  New  York,  was  elected  temporary  secretary.  A  cre- 
dentials committee  was  then  elected  composed  of  Delegates  Garver, 
Hayes,  Kronenberg,  Titus,  Floaten,  Bistorius  and  Lee.  Commit- 
tee on  rules  was  composed  of  Work,  Slobodin,  Stedman,  Gaylord, 
Taft,  Penrose  and  Robbins.  At  the  second  session,  which  was 
called  to  order  at  2:45  P-  ^->  the  report  of  the  committee  on 
credentials  was  received  as  follows  : 
(List  of  delegates  is  given  elsewhere.) 

REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE  ON   CREDENTIALS. 

The  report  of  the  committee  on  credentials  being  then  called 
for,  Comrade  Lee,  chairman  of  the  committee,  prefaced  his  report 
with  the  following  remarks: 

"Your  committee  on  credentials  has  passed  upon  all  of  the 
regular  and  uncontested  credentials  presented  to  it.  I  will  first 
state  that  in  regard  to  the  decision  of  the  national  committee  that 
no  states  should  be  entitled  to  representation  which  were  in  arrears 
beyond  a  certain  time  in  the  payment  of  dues,  the  credential  com- 
mittee voted  not  to  consider  this  matter,  but  to  refer  it  back  to  the 
convention  without  recommendation. 

The  committee  heard  certain  contests.  There  was  a  protest 
brought  against  the  seat  of  J.  Stitt  Wilson  as  a  delegate  from 
California  upon  a  charge  presented  by  Delegate  Stanton,  of  Ohio, 
in  writing,  that  Comrade  Wilson  had  sent  a  congratulatory  tele- 
gram to  Mayor  Samuel  Jones,  of  Toledo,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
election,  and  that  this  was  such  a  violation  of  the  Socialistic  ethics 
as  should  debar  him  from  taking  part  in  the  deliberations  of  this 
convention.  Comrade  Wilson  appeared  before  the  committee  and 
made  the  statement  that  he  did  not  send  that  telegram ;  that  he  did 
not  authorize  its  sending;  that  he  did  not  have  anything  to  do  with 
it  or  know  anything  about  its  having  been  sent  until  a  considerable 
time  afterwards,  but  that  it  was  sent  by  Mr.  Nelson,  of  St.  Louis,- 
with  whom  he  had  been  in  conversation  before  that  time  in  regard 
to  this  and  other  matters ;  and  that  he  believed  that  Mr.  Nelson  act- 
ed in  good  faith  in  sending  it  and  using  his  (Wilson's)  name  along 
with  his  own.  But  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  did  not  authorize  it, 
did  not  know  of  it,  and  had  he  known  of  Mr.  Nelson's  intention  to 

687 


698  THE  INTBENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

sign  his  name  to  such  telegram  he  would  not  have  allowed  it.  Upon 
this  statement  of  Comrade  Wilson,  there  being  no  further  evi- 
dence or  statement  of  fact  upon  the  one  side  or  the  other,  the 
committee  unanimously  voted  to  seat  Comrade  Wilson  as  a  delegate 
from  California.  There  being  two  on  the  list  of  delegates  from 
California  who  are  not  present,  and  at  least  one  of  them,  Comrade 
Helfenstein,  we  are  sure  will  not  be  present,  the  committee  recom- 
mends that  both  Comrade  Wilson  and  Comrade  Wilkins  be  seated 
as  delegates,  and  ordered  the  delegates'  badges  be  issued  to  them. 
(Applause.) 

There  was  a  further  question  raised  in  regard  to  Comrade  Wil- 
son's seat  and  the  seat  of  Comrade  M.  W.  Wilkins  as  delegates 
from  California.  The  state  secretary  in  his  report  to  the  national 
secretary  had  included  J.  Stitt  Wilson  in  the  list  of  delegates  and 
had  included  M.  W.  Wilson  in  the  list  of  alternates.  He  had 
issued  regular  credentials  as  delegate  to  Comrade  Wilson,  and 
had  issued  credentials  as  delegate,  with  the  word  delegate  under- 
scored, in  writing  to  Comrade  Wilkins.  It  was  explained  that 
this  arose  out  of  a  certain  irregularity  and  conclusion  in  the  dis- 
tricting of  the  state,  the  delegates  there  being  elected  by  district. 
There  being  wo  on  the  list  of  delegates  from  California  who  are 
not  present,  and  at  least  one  of  them,.  Comrade  Helfenstein,  we 
are  sure  will  not  be  present,  the  committee  recommends  that  both 
Comrad  Wilson  and  Comrade-Wilkins  be  seated  as  delegates,  and 
ordered  the  delegates'  badges  be  issued  to  them.    (Applause.) 

In  two  or  three  cases  the  delegates  were  unable  to  present 
their  credentials  through  some  irregularity  of  the  mails,  their  cre- 
dentials not  having  reached  them  in  time.  In  those  cases  the 
committee,  having  sufficient  evidence,  as  they  deemed,  of  the  fact 
that  they  were  regularly  elected,  have  recommended  that  the  dele- 
gate be  seated,  and  if  it  is  the  pleasure  of  the  house  I  will  read 
the  list. 

In  regard  to  South  Dakota,  the  committee  decided  that  though 
that  state  was  by  its  membership  entitled  to  only  two  delegates,  yet 
it  had  no  authority  to  seat  more  delegates  from  any  state  than  the 
three,  and  the  committee  desire  that  Comrade  Levy,  of  South 
Dakota,  shall  be  admitted  as  the  third  delegate,  yet  it  understood 
it  had  no  authority  to  seat  more  delegates  from  any  state  than  the 
number  to  which  that  state  was  entitled  under  the  exact  terms  of 
the  call. 

The  committee  finds  it  necessary  to  hold  a  further  session  to 
consider  contests  and  irregularities,  and  it  was  voted  that  as  soon  as 
this  convention  has  disposed  of  the  present  report  of  the  commit- 
tee on  credentials  the  committee  will  then  hold  another  session  at 
once,  at  a  place  to  be  announced  from  this  platform,  and  any 
delegates  who  are  interested  in  any  cases  of  contests  and  will  come 
before  the  committee  may  attend  it  at  any  time. 


PBOCEEDINGS  OF  CONVENTION.  699 

The  convention  then  having  decided  who  should  be  delegates, 
proceeded  to  form  a  permanent  organization.  Comrade  Carey 
was  elected  as  permanent  chairman  for  the  day  and  Comrade 
Dbbbs  was  elected  secretary  and  Comrade  Cross,  of  Wisconsin, 
assistant  secretary.  Then  followed  a  long  discussion  on  smoking, 
which  was  finally  decided  by  a  rule  prohibiting  smoking  during 
sessions  of  the  convention. 

On  the  second  day  the  convention  was  called  tg  order  at  lo 
o'clock  Comrade  Hillquit  was  elected  chairman  for  the  day 
and  proceeded  at  once  to  consider  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee on  rules.  The  report  was  adopted  with  little  debate  until 
the  proposition  arose  to  appoint  a  committee  on  municipal  pro- 
gram. Then  a  long  debate  followed,  in  which  the  whole  question 
of  such  a  program  was  brought  up,  but  in  the  end  the  commit- 
tee's report  was  adopted.  It  was  decided  that  the  convention 
should  open  its  morning  sessions  at  9  o'clock  instead  of  10,  as 
suggested  by  the  committee  on  rules.  On  the  adoption  of  the 
rules  the  convention  adjourned. 

At  the  afternoon  sessipn  a  motion  to  amend  the  rules  so  that 
a  roll  call  could  be  had  when  asked  for  by  delegates  from  three 
different  states  was  offered.  This  was  voted  down,  however,  after 
considerable  discussion,  and  it  was  decided  that  only  a  majority 
could  demand  a  roll  call.  A  motion  was  then  made  to  elect  a 
committee  on  trade  unions  to  consist  of  nine  delegates,  and  this 
motion  brought  up  the  first  hard  fight  of  the  convention  and  one 
which  was  to  take  up  more  time  than  any  other,  although  the 
main  debate  did  not  come  now  and  the  committee  was  elected.  A 
committee  on  program,  consisting  of  Unterman,  Work,  Floaten, 
Gaylord,  Stedman,  Reynolds,  Berger,  Kraybill  and  Atkinson,  was 
then  elected.  The  convention  then  proceeded  to  the  election  of  the 
following  committee  on  constitution :  Hillquit,  of  New  York ; 
Barnes,  of  Pennsylvania;  Butscher,  of  New  York;  Bandlow,  of 
Ohio;  Slobodin,  of  New  York;  Stark,  of  Pennsylvania;  Berlyn, 
of  Illinois;  Mills,  of  Kansas,  and  Richardson,  of  California. 

The  ways  and  means  committee  having  the  following  member- 
ship, J.  L.  Cobb  (California),  Stockell  (Tennessee),  C  J.  Lamb 
(Michigan),  Guy  E.  Miller  (Colorado),  David  Rubinow  (New 
Jersey),  O.  Lund  (Washington),  John  Kerrigan  (Texas),  H.  J. 
Amman  (Wisconsin)  and  Hirt  (Montana),  was  then  elected.  The 
trade  union  committee  was  composed  as  follows : 

The  Chairman :  "Nominations  for  the  trades  union  committee 
is  next  in  order."    The  following  Were  elected : 

Carey,  of  Massachusetts;  Hayes,  of  Ohio;  Miller,  of  Colorado; 
Hoehn,  of  Missouri;  Collins,  of  Illinois;  Nagle,  of  Ohio;  Kruger, 
of  Wisconsin. 

In  order  to  give  the  committees  ample  time  to  work  no  session 
was  held  Tuesday  forenoon.  The  convention  was  called  to  order 


\ 


700  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

at  1 :30  and  Delegate  Richardson,  of  California,  was  elected 
chairman  of  the  day.  The  national  secretary  then  read  his  annual 
report,  which  is  given  elsewhere.  Then  came  the  report  of  the 
resolutions  committee.  Unfortunately  the  convention  had  given 
some  instructions  to  the  committee  which  were  interpreted  to 
mean  that  they  should  return  all  resolutions  committed  to  their 
consideration  with  some  sort  of  action.  This  required  them  to 
report  upon  some  rather  useless  resolutions,  which  took  up  the 
time  of  the  Convention.  At  the  night  session  the  report  of  the 
committee  on  constitution  was  received  and  it  was  then  decided 
to  print  the  same  before  discussions.  The  report  of  the  press  com- 
mittee then  was  called  for  and  was  read.  This  committee  re- 
ported against  a  resolution  received  from  Local  San  Francisco 
and  endorsed  by  several  other  locals  providing  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  daily  paper  under  the  control  of  the  party.  This  led  to 
a  considerable  discussion,  but  the  recommendation  of  the  com- 
mittee was  finally  concurred  in  by  an  overwhelming  vote  and  the 
convention  adjourned.  The  press  committee  also  had  the  follow- 
ing recommendation  which  was  endorsed  at  a  later  session. 

"We  would  recommend  for  the  consideration  of  the  convention 
the  proposition  of  establishing  a  bureau  under  the  control  of  the 
Nationsd  Office  of  the  Socialist  Party  for  the  purpose  of  furnish- 
ing plate  matter  on  Socialism,  such  matter  to  be  of  an  educational 
character  treating  Socialism  from  a  scientific  and  propaganda  point 
of  view,  and  not  entering  into  questions  of  party  tactics. 

There  are,  at  the  present  time,  a  large  number  of  papers  that 
are  willing  to  publish  Socialist  matter,  but  either  because  of  lack 
of  editorial  or  financial  ability  are  not  able  to  secure  the  same. 
In  many  places,  also,  Socialists  are  already  considering  the  de- 
sirability of  establishing  weekly  papers,  but  are  handicapped  by 
the  same  difficulties.  This  plan  will  assist  in  solving  this  prob- 
lem in  two  ways,  either  the  matter  can  be  purchased  for  an 
existing  paper,  or  if  it  is  decided  to  establish  a  paper  directly 
under  Socialist  control,  it  will  reduce  the  expenses  of  publication." 

The  greater  part  of  the  session  of  May  4th  was  taken  up  by  a 
discussion  of  the  constitution.  As  the  committee  reported  the 
first  section,  article  2  on  qualifications  for  membership  read  as 
follows : 

"Every  person,  resident  of  the  United  States,  of  the  age  of 
18  years  and  upward,  without  distinction  of  sex,  race,  color,  creed 
or  occupation,  who  subscribes  to  the  platform  and  declaration  of 
principles  of  the  party,  and  is  of  unobjectionable  personal  char- 
acter, shall  be  eligible  to  membership  in  the  party." 

This  was  amended  to  provide  that  only  those  who  had  severed 
their  connection  with  every  other  political  party  should  be  eligible 
to  membership.  This  led  to  considerable  of  a  debate  but  the 
amendment  was  finally  adopted  by  a  large  majority.     A  debate  also 


"  PROCEEDINGS  OF  CONVENTION.  701 

took  place  on  the  question  of  an  executive  committee,  but  the  sec- 
tion finally  stood  as  reported  by  the  committee.  The  next  ar- 
ticle on  which  there  was  considerable  discussion  was  the  ques- 
tion of  the  salary  of  the  national  secretary  but  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  committee  was  finally  carried.  On  Wednesday  even- 
ing the  report  of  the  resolutions  committee  was  taken  up  and  the 
resolutions  given  elsewhere  in  this  number  considered  and  the 
action  taken  there  noted.  The  report  of  the  committee  on  trade 
unions  was  read  at  this  meeting  and  the  debate  begun  which  was 
to  be  the  longest  of  the  session.  It  was  taken  up  again  on  Thurs- 
day morning  with  Comrade  Mailly  as  chairman.* 

The  previous  question  was  at  last  moved  and  a  roll-call  de- 
manded which  resulted  in  107  votes  for  the  resolution  and  52 
against.    The  report  of  the  committee  on  platform  was  then  read. 

At  the  close  of  the  reading  of  the  report  on  the  platform  every- 
body waited  for  the  terrific  battle  that  had  been  expected  through- 
out the  Convention.  To  the  surprise  of  everyone,  however,  no 
one  appeared  to  take  up  the  cudgels  for  or  against.  Comrade 
Taft  of  Illinois  rose  and  made  a  small  amendment,  but  there 
was  no  second  to  his  amendment,  and  it  was  lost.  The  question 
was  then  put  to  the  Convention  on  the  adoption  of  the  platform 
as  a  whole,  no  one  arose  to  speak,  and  it  was  put  to  a  vote  and 
carried  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  Indeed  there  were  almost 
no  objecting  voices  heard  and  no  one  called  for  a  division.  The 
next  instant  there  came  one  of  those  sudden  breakings  of  a  loner 
strain  which  takes  place  when  something  looked  forward  to,  half 
in  dread  and  half  in  hope,  has  passed  by  almost  unnoticed,  and 
the  Convention  burst  into  uproarious  laughter  and  applause. 

It  had  already  been  determined  by  previous  vote  that  nominees 
for  President  and  Vice-president  should  come  immediately  after 
the  adoption  of  the  platform.  Comrade  George  D.  Herron  then 
took  the  floor  and  made  the  following  speech,  nominating  Comrade 
Eugene  V.  Debs  for  President: 

NOMINATIONS. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  and  Comrades  of  the  convention,  in  rising 
to  make  what  I  believe  will  be  the  unanimous  nomination  of  this 
convention,  I  would  like  to  preface  that  nomination  with  a  state- 
ment of  what  has  come  to  me  in  watching  the  proceedings  of 
this  convention,  aiM  watching  the  general  development  of  the  So- 
cialist movement,  for  the  two  years  since  our  Indianapolis  con- 
vention. I  think  I  shall  go  away  from  this  convention  very  much 
of  an  optimist  concerning. the  future  of  the  working  class  of  Amer- 
ica. TTiere  are  greater  struggles  before  us,  or  before  especially 
those  of  you  who  are  in  the  ranks  of  labor,  than  perhaps  we 
know.     Here  in  America  the  conditions  of  labor  on  the  one  side, 

•The  debate  on  the  trade  anion  resolution  was  crowded  out  of  this  number, 
but  a  summary  will  appear  in  the  June  Issue. — Ep, 


\ 


702  THE  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW. 

and  of  capital  on  the  other  side,  are  intensifying  with,  a  rapidity 
and  sharpness  that  no  Socialistic  economist  would  have  prophesied 
twenty  or  thirty  years  ago.  More  than  in  any  other  nation  of 
the  world  the  lines  of  economic  conflict,  the  lines  of  definition 
between  the  working  class  and  the  capitalist  or  possessing  class^ 
are  being  clearly  drawn,  and  drawn  by  the  experience  of  the 
working  class  itself;  and  I  have  no  doubt,  although  this  is  not 
the  place  for  prophecy,  but  what  the  great  international  or  world 
catastrophe — ^if  it  is  to  be  a  catastrophe — of  the  capitalist  system 
will  be  precipitated  here  in  America.  (Applause.)  I  have  no 
doubt  but  what,  in  the  spread  of  the  commonwealth  of  labor 
around  the  world,  that  the  sun  of  that  co-operative  commonwealth 
will  rise  here  on  the  American  continent,  and  in  this  republic. 
(Applause.)  And  therefore  it  has  seemed  to  me  more  urgent 
than  anything  else  that  the  working  class  of  America  should 
become  conscious  not  only  of  its  struggle,  not  only  of  itself,  of 
its  class,  but  of  its  opportunity.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  we 
might  say  what  Marx  once  said  to  the  workers  in  the  International 
at  Brussels,  and  say  it  with  more  truth,  that  the  destinies  of  the 
workers  of  the  world,  for  perhaps  the  next  two  or  three  centuries 
to  come,  are  pivoted  upon  the  solidarity  and  the  intelligence  and 
the  character  of  the  organization  of  labor  here  in  America.  (Ap- 
plause.) And  it  has  seemed  to  me  therefore  important  that  here, 
above  almost  every  other  country,  the  working  class,  with  the 
pressure  of  the  struggle  upon  it,  and  with  the  preceding  advan- 
tages of  the  public  school  such  as  they  were — ^that  the  working 
class  here  in  America  is  better  prepared  than  perhaps  in  any  other 
nation  to  work  out  its  own  salvation  and  its  own  destiny.  For 
in  the  end  the  workers  of  the  world  will  never  be  free  until  tb^^- 
free  themselves  by  their  own  united  action.  (Applause.)  No 
matter  what  others  who  may  gladly  give  themselves  to  the  workers' 
strugrgle  may  do,  in  the  end  all  freedom  of  all  good  that  is  hand- 
ed down  by  one  class  unto  another  class  historically  has  proven 
delusive.  In  the  struggle  of  the  Paris  Commune,  in  the  struge^^^ 
of  the  Lollards  in  early  England,  with  their  ideals  of  a  certain 
sort  of  social  democracy,  and  in  all  history,  the  subject  peoples 
have  maintained  a  positive  gain  or  a  positive  freedom  wherever 
they  have  gained  that  freedom  for  themselves ;  and  whenever  they 
have  lost,  and  whenever  they  have  been  betrayed,  it  has  been  be- 
cause their  cause  was  committed  to  other  hapds  than  their  own. 
(Applause.) 

"Now,  I  say  that  the  proceedings  of  this  convention  and  the 
development  of  the  Socialist  movement  witliin  the  last  two  or  three 
years,  have  given  me  a  feeling  of  infinife  relief,  especially  since  I 
have  been  here.  I  feel  that  the  heart  and  the  brain  of  the  working 
class  are  sound.  I  feel  that  the  working  class  can  be  trusted  in 
America  to  work  out  its  own  destiny.     (Applause.)     I  feel  that 


I. 


PEOCBEDINGS  OF  CONVENTION.  70S 

it  will  keep  faith  with  its  opportunity  and  its  responsibility  for 
the  emancipation  of  the  workers  of  the  world.  I  am  sure  that,  in 
the  intensifying  struggle  that  will  bring  upon  us,  in  the  next  four 
or  five  years,  things  of  which  we  do  not  now  dream,  that  may 
try  men's  souls  and  bodies  and  faith,  try  the  whole  manhood  of 
men  as  possibly  men  were  never  tried  in  human  history — I  feel 
that  when  that  crisis  or  that  day  of  judgment  comes  the  working 
class  Socialist  movement  of  America  will  be  as  great  as  its  cause, 
and  that  it  will  rise  up  to  match  its  opportunity.     (Applause.) 

"Now,  there  is  no  man  in  America  who  more  surely  and  faith- 
fully incarnates  the  heart-ache  and  the  protest  and  lie  struggle 
of  labor  for  its  emancipation  or  more  surely  voices  that  struggle 
than  Eugene  V.  Debs.  (Great  applause.)  And,  Mr.  Chairman, 
and  Comrades  of  the  convention,  I  count  it  as  among  the  great 
joys  of  my  life — I  do  not  say  honors,  because  I  have  had  done 
with  them  long  ago  (applause) — I  count  it  among  the  great  joys 
and  opportunities  of  my  life  to  stand  before  you  to-day  and  nom- 
inate Eugene  V.  Etebs  as  the  candidate  of  the  Socialist  Party  of 
the  United  States  for  President  in  our  coming  national  campaign." 
(Prolonged  applause.) 

The  nomination  was  seconded  by  Comrade  Carey  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Wilkins  of  California.  Comrade  Hayes  of  Ohio 
moved  that  the  nominations  be  closed  and  that  Eugene  V.  Debs 
be  declared  the  nominee  of  the  Socialist  party  for  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  amid  loud  cheers,  this  vote  was  declared 
unanimously  carried. 

Comrade  Titus  of  Washington  then  made  the  following  speech 
nominating  Comrade  Hanford  of  New  York  for  Vice-president: 

"Some  of  our  capitalistic  critics  have  thought  that  we  were 
incapable,  but  there  is  one  thing  that  we  have  done ;  representing 
the  working  class,  we  have  worked  freely  together,  we  have  ex- 
pressed our  minds,  and  we  have  come  to  a  common  mind.  This 
is  the  only  place  where  such  freedom  is  possible  on  the  American 
continent  in  a  political  convention.  (Applause.)  We  have  made 
no  mistake  thus  far.  I  have  felt,  and  I  think  every  member 
here  feels  the  increasing  consciousness  of  membership  in  a  great 
movement  of  the  world.  I  think  we  began  to  thrill  with  the 
common  consciousness  of  a  common  destiny,  and  with  the  high- 
est mission  that  has  ever  been  committed  to  any  class  in  the  world 
— ^its  own  emancipation  and  the  emancipation  of  the  rest  of  hu- 
manity with  it.  (Applause.)  I  have  heard  it  mentioned  on  the 
floor  of  this  convention  and  before  that  some  man  or  men,  some 
choice  among  men  who  were  not  members  of  the  working  class 
should  be  made  to  be  placed  upon  our  ticket.  I  enter  a  most  em- 
phatic protest  against  any  name  upon  our  ticket  that  is  not  trulv 
representative  of  that  class  that  holds  the  destiny  of  the  world 
in  its  hands.     (Applause.)     We  are  in  a  formative  period.    Our 


704  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EEVIEW. 

party — I  had  almost  said  was  not  yet  fully  integrated.  I  believe 
it  would  be  a  mistake  to  say  that.  Perhaps  one  week  ago  we 
might  have  said  it  truly,  but  no  man  could  have  attended  this 
convention  without  becoming  convinced  that  this  is  a  party  thor- 
oughly integrated,  truly  unified.  It  can  not  be  destroyed,  tmless 
it  makes  some  stupendous  blunder.  (Applause.)  We  have  had 
a  working  man's  convention.  Every  issue  that  has  been  presented 
here  has  been  decided  in  the  interests  of  the  working  class.  We 
have  a  workingman's  platform,  and  we  have  a  working  man  at 
the  head  of  our  ticket  (applause),  and  I  propose  another  repre- 
sentative workingman  to  be  associated  with  Eugene  V.  Debs.  I 
propose  the  name  of  a  man  who  is  known  from  one  end  of  the 
Socialist  world  to  the  other;  who  has  long  been  associated  witfi 
the  triumphs  of  Socialism  and  the  struggles  of  Socialism;  who 
has  suffered  for  Socialism,  suffered  for  what  he  believes  to  be 
the  interests  of  his  own  class;  a  man  not  of  the  west,  to  whi 
I  belong,  but  a  man  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  I  hope  his  nomina- 
tion will  be  made  as  spontaneous  as  that  of  the  head  of  the  ticket 
I  present  the  name  of  Ben  Hanford,  of  New  York."  (Cheers 
and  continued  applause.) 

The  nomination  was  seconded  by  Etelegates  Berger  of  Wis- 
consin^ Hilquijtt  of  New  York,  Richardson  of  California  and 
Dilno  of  Missouri.  Delegate  Bandlow  then  said,  "in  behalf  of 
the  comrades  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  I  desire  to  move  that  Comrade 
Ben  Hanford  be  made  the  nominee  of  this  Convention  as  our 
candidate  for  Vice-president."  This  was  done  amid  loud  cheer- 
ing. Comrade  Hanford  was  then  escorted  to  the  chair  and  made 
the  speech  of  acceptance  which  is  given  elsewhere. 

Cbmrade  George  D.  Herron  then  made  a  report  as  Secretary 
for  the  United  States  of  the  International  Socialist  Bureau.  This 
report  is  also  given  elsewhere.  It  was  moved  and  carried  that 
this  report  be  accepted. 

The  Friday  session  was  marked  with  considerable  haste.  The 
Resolutions  Committee  reported  some  other  resolutions,  one  of 
these  which  called  for  special  effort  at  propaganda  among  the 
militia  was  rejected,  as  was  also  one  against  independent  propa- 
ganda associations  and  one  against  the  acceptance  of  editorial 
positions  on  capitalist  papers  by  Socialists.  The  supplemental  trade 
union  resolution,  which  is  published  elsewhere,  was  sent  to  the 
National  Committee  for  revision  and  submission  to  a  referen- 
dum. 

The  following  resolution  presented  by  Comrade  Titus  was 
adopted :  "No  candidates  shall  be  put  forward  by  the  Socialist 
party  who  have  not  been  members  of  the  party  for  a  continuous 
period  of  at  least  one  year,  provided  that  this  shall  not  apply  to 
Locals  which  have  been  in  existence  less  than  one  year." 

The  greater  part  of  this  session  was  given  up  to  the  discussion 
of  the  State  and  Municipal  programme.    It  was  finally  decided 


PBOCEEDINGS  OP  CONVENTION.  T05 

that  this  also  should  be  sent  to  the  National  Committee  for  re- 
vision and  submission  to  a  referendum. 

The  question  of  a  delegate  to  the  National  Congress  whidi 
had  come  up  on  Thursday  night  was  finally  settled  on  Fridav 
morning  by  the  election  of  Comrade  Untermann  as  delegate  and 
Comrade  Hillquit  as  alternate.  Credentials  were  also  given  to 
Comrade  Schluetter  and  the  executive  committee  was  authorized 
to  issue  credentials  to  other  comrades  who  might  be  going  to 
the  Congress  provided  the  number  of  such  credentials  did  not 
exceed  twenty. 

The  report  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  which  offered 
several  suggestions  for  the  raising  of  funds  was  then  received 
and  referred  to  the  Executive  Committee.  The  Executive  Com- 
mittee was  also  constituted  a  campaign  committee  with  power 
to  add  to  its  membership. 

With  various  resolutions  of  thanks  to  persons  who  had  con- 
tributed to  the  entertainment  and  comfort  of  the  Convention,  the 
adjourned.  

Interesting  Convention  Statistics. 

Thirty-six  states  and  territories  were  represented  in  the  national 
convention  by  183  delegates,  among  them  being  seven  women 
(from  6  different  states.)  All  delegates  in  attendance  did  not 
fill  out  blanks  on  back  part  of  duplicate  credentials.  From  those 
filled  out  the  following  facts  are  shown.  The  oldest  delegate  was 
70  years  of  age,  and  the  youngest  20  years — ^there  were  two  of 
latter  age.  The  average  age  was  between  39  and  40.  One  hun- 
dred and  twenty  were  natives  of  the  United  States.  Foreign 
countries  were  represented  as  follows:  Austria,  4;  Canada,  9; 
Denmark  i,;  England,  7;  France,  i;  Germany,  19;  Ireland,  2; 
Italy,  i;  Norway,  2;  Russia,  5;  Sweden,  i;  Switzerland,  2. 
Total  of  54.  The  occupations  were :  Architect,  i ;  bookkeepers, 
4;  brewery  workers,  i ;  butcher,  i ;  cabinet  maker,  i ;  carpenters, 
S ;  cigarmakers,  6 ;  clerks,  3 ;  confectioner,  i ;  cooper,  i ;  clergy- 
man, I ;  contractor,  3 ;  dentist,  i ;  editor,  20;  engineer,  i ;  electrical 
engineer,  i ;  farmers,  5 ;  foundryman,  i ;  groceryman,  i ;  hatter,  i ; 
hotel  keeper,  i ;  iron  and  steel  worker,  i ;  jeweler,  i ;  journalist 
and  writers,  4;  janitor,  i;  knitter,  i;  lecturer,  7;  lawyers,  15; 
merchants,  4;  molders,  5;  machinists,  4;  mail  carrier,  i;  music 
teachers,  i ;  miner,  i ;  manufacturer,  i ;  merchant  tailor,  i ;  news 
agent,  i;  organizers  and  agitators,  5;  physicians  and  surgeons, 
5;  porter,  i;  printers,  16;  paper  hanger,  i;  painters  and 
decorators,  2 ;  pharmacist,  i ;  proof  reader,  i ;  plumber,  i ;  pat- 
ternmaker, I ;  real  estate  agent,  i ;  store  manager,  i ;  salesmen, 
4 ;  students,  3 ;  sawmill  operator,  i ;  stove  workers,  3 ;  stone  mason, 
I ;  silk  weaver,  i ;  stenographer,  i ;  sheet  iron  worker,  i ;  teachers, 
7 ;  telegrapher,  i ;  tinner,  i ;  waiters,  3 ;  woodworkers,  2 ;  watch- 
maker, i;  watch  repairer,  i. 

Seventy-eight  delegates  were  members  of  trade  unions. 


EDITORIAL 


The  Work  of  the  Convention. 

In  spite  of  threatened  factional  quarrelS;  fierce  debates  and  even  hints 
of  disruption,  the  national  convention  which  has  just  passed  into  history 
will  probably  be  known  as  tbe  most  harmonious  ever  held  by  an  American 
Socialist  Party.  There  were  sharp  differences  of  opinion  which  found 
voice  in  debate,  sometimes  rather  acrimoniously,  but  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  delegates  worked  together  in  most  remarkable  harmony. 
There  would  probably  have  been  better  satisfaction  had  the  platform 
and  constitution  been  sent  to  a  referendum  vote  with  provision  for  con- 
sideration  of  the  latter  by  sections.  It  was  felt,  however,  by  tkoee  wlio 
opposed  this  action  that  there  was  such  pressing  need  of  a  working  organ- 
ization for  the  coming  campaign  that  some  details  of  democratic  control 
might  be  dispensed  with. 

When  we  consider  the  convention  work  as  a  whole,  three  ten- 
dencies are  observable.  In  the  first  place,  the  constitution  shows  a 
strong  tendency  towards  centralization  of  management.  The  national 
constitution  now  prescribes  the  qualification  for  membership  rather  than 
the  states.  The  executive  committee  owes  allegiance  only  secondarily  to 
the  states  as  such  and  may  be  selected  without  regard  to  state  boimdaries. 
A  national  lecture  bureau  and  national  literature  bureau  with  a  press  as- 
sociation also  under  the  control  of  the  national  committee  greatly  extend 
the  functions  of  the  national  office.  If  the  report  of  the  committee  on 
state  and  municipal  program  is  adopted  by  referendum  in  its  present  form 
still  another  function  will  be  added  to  the  national  office.  Delegates  to 
the  national  convention  will  henceforth  have  their  expenses  paid  by  the 
national  organization  instead  of  by  the  various  states.  The  salary  of  the 
national  secretary  has  been  increased  and  he  is  given  authority  to  publish 
a  monthly  bulletin  on  party  affairs.  It  is  more  difficult  to  initiate  a  ref-  - 
erendum  than  hitherto  and  all  these  things  go  to  show  that  we  are  now 
beginning  to  get  into  the  midst  of  a  fight  where  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  delegate  more  authority  to  a  central  organization  than  has  hitherto 
been  the  case.  There  are  dangers  in  this,  as  all  will  recognize,  yet  it  is 
believed  that  the  dangers  are  less  than  in  the  opposite  policy. 

706 


EDITORIAL.  TOT 

The  seeond  tendency  which  some  of  the  comrades  at  least  think  they 
saw  in  the  conventiion  was  a  movement  towards  the  ' '  Bight. ' '  This  was 
seen  in  the  inclnsion.  of  something  analogous  to  immediate  demands  in  ' 
the  body  of  the  platform,  and  in  some  of  the  discussions.  A  close  exam- 
ination, however,  seems  to  give  little  justification  for  this  conclusion,  since 
tihere  are  no  more  of  these  demands  than  in  the  previous  platforms,  and 
they  are  stated  even  more  guardedly.  As  for  the  convention  discussions, 
if  there  was  a  change  away  from  the  customary  revolutionary  point  of 
view,  it  wafl  largely  due  to  the  presence  in  the  convention  of  a  small  body 
of  impoeeibilists^  against  whose  actions  the  entire  convention  revolted. 
In  this  connection  it  was  also  alleged  that  there  was  a  tendency  to  with- 
draw from  the  rank  and  file,  which  found  its  expression  in  the  refusal  to 
submit  the  platform  to  tihe  referendum  and  to  make  the  referendum  on 
the  constitution  operative  by  sections  instead  of  as  a  whole.  In  reply  to 
this  it  may  be  said  that  no  convention  has  ever  submitted  the  platform 
to  a  referendum  owing  to  the  manifest  impossibility  of  intelligently  and 
consistently  working  out  a  platform  through  the  referendum. 

The  third  tendency  was  the  most  satisfactory  of  all.  There  was  a 
general  feeling  that  the  time  had  come  for  ccmstructive  work,  and  tfiiis 
found  expression  in  the  creation  of  numerous  additional  functions  to  the 
national  office,  to  which  reference  has  been  made  above,  and  in  the  elab- 
oration  of  a  state  and  municipal  program  for  the  guidance  of  the  Social- 
ist officials  which  all  felt  would  be  elected  during  the  next  four  years. 
The  state  and  municipal  program  is  to  be  further  revised  by  the  national 
committee  and  submitted  to  the  referendum  section  by  section.  'Riis  was 
by  far  the  best  disposal  that  could  have  been  made  of  it,  since  this  will 
require  still  further  discussion  and  education,  and  these  are  the  things 
which  are  most  needed  just  at  this  time. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  things  about  the  whole  convettion  was 
the  rapid  growth  in  ability  to  work  "wWch  developed  during  its  sessions. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  eloquently  prophetic  of  the  power  of  the 
working  class  to  manage  their  own  affairs.  Few  of  the  delegates  were 
familiar  witli  the  work  of  deliberative  bodies  of  this  size,  and  during 
the  first  two  days  the  machinery  mov«d  rather  slowly,  but  by  the  third 
day  tftie  entire  aspect  of  affairs  had  changed,  and  from  that  time  on  few 
legislative  bodies  could  have  acted  with  more  efficiency  combined  with 
deliberative  democratic  consideration,  than  did  this  convention. 

This  growth  in  ability  t<>  transact  business  was  only  one  of  the  points 
in  which  the  convention  was  of  tremendous  educative  value  to  the  dele- 
gates themselves.  Indeed,  it  is  probable  that  one  of  the  very  best  results 
of  the  convention  was  its  educational  work  upon  the  delegates,  and 
through  the  delegates  upon  their  constituency.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no 
member  of  that  convention  will  go  home  without  having  suffered  some 
important  changes  in  his  intellectual  make-up.  He  will  have  learned 
lessons  of  toleration  and  will  have  gained  a  much  broader  and  more  intel- 
ligent comprehension  of  the  entire  Socialist  movement  than  he  could  have 
secured  in  many  months'  study. 


1 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


Despite  the  activity  during  the  past  few  years  to  build  up  iflie  trade 
unions  of  this  country  and  the  success  that  was  met  with  in  this  direction, 
despite  the  claims  of  President  Gompers  immediately  following  the  Boston 
convention  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.  that  by  voting  down  the  Socialistic  resolu- 
tions the  capitalists'  ''sting  of  antagonism''  had  been  withdrawn,  the 
facts  that  have  developed  in  tbe  organized  labor  movement  during  the 
last  few  months  stand  out  bold  and  plain  that  upward  of  a  million  work- 
ers have  been  forced  to  take  a  step  backward  so  far  as  the  question  of 
wages  is  concerned.  Beginning  with  the  capitalistic  attack  upon  the  tex- 
tile workers  last  fall,  when  a  general  reduction  of  10  per  cent  was  en- 
forced in  that  industry,  it  was  but  a  short  time  until  demands  were  made 
upon  the  miners,  the  iron  and  steel  workers,  marine  and  longshoremen, 
glassworkers  and  others  that  they  also  accept  decreases  in  wages,  and 
whereas^  a  year  ago,  following  the  New  Orleans  convention,  the  labor 
forces  everywhere,  spurred  on  by  the  revolutionary  sentiment  that  was 
manifest  in  that  historic  gathering — and  that  was  defeated  by  only  a 
narrow  margin  in  finding  expression  in  the  declaration  that  to  the  worker 
belongs  the  full  product  of  his  toil — demanded  and  secured  higher  wages 
and  better  conditions,  they  have  been  forced  from  an  aggressive  to  a  de- 
fensive position,  and  throughout  the  country  men  and  women  of  the  trade 
unions  are  engaged  in  resisting  the  open  shop  policy,  reductions  of  wages, 
lengthening  of  hours  and  generally  inferior  conditions.^  Never  in  the  his- 
tory of  their  trade  have  the  miners  been  better  organized  lAian  they  are 
to-day.  In  the  great  competitive  district  of  Illinois,  Indiana  and  Ohio 
there  are  no  mines  operated  by  non-union  men,  and  but  few  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, while  the  mines  of  West  Virginia  are  largely  controlled  by  the 
same  interests  that  dominate  in  the  states  named,  and  are  therefore  indi- 
rectly represented  in  the  joint  conferences.  While  it  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  the  West  Virginia  mines  are  used  as  a  convenient  club  to  keep 
the  unionists  in  dheck,  still  those  mines  are  unable  to  supply  but  a  small 
part  of  the  market,  and  even  their  product  could  be  quite  successfully 
boycotted  if  the  railway  and  marine  workers,  teamsters  and  others  enforced 
the  principles  of  trade  unionism.  If  the  miners  were  unable  to  withstand 
a  reduction  now,  what  of  the  future!  Are  periodical  advances  gained  by 
continuous  sacrifice  to  be  succeeded  by  reductions  again  and  again  f  Is 
it  to  be  a  never-ending  march  up  and  down  the  hill  of  capitalism!  The 
same  situation  applies  to  the  longshoremen.  They,  too,  are  almost  in  ab- 
solute control  of  the  lakes.  Without  their  labor  dipping  would  be  prac- 
tically paralyzed.  Yet  after  weeks  of  negotiations  the  latter  acquiesce 
to  a  7%  per  cent  reduction,  or  2  per  cent  more  than  the  miners.  The  iron 
and  steel  workers  are  still  more  unfortunate  and  accept  a  cut  of  18  per 
cent.  The  latter  are  not  as  well  organized  as  the  miners  and  longshore- 
men. In  years  past  they  relied  greatly  upon  the  politicians  and  their 
"protection,  prosperity  and  patriotism."    Their  primitive  tools  of  pro- 

706 


THE  WOELD  OF  LABOE.  709 

duction  developed  into  seientific  and  automatic  labor-saving  machinery, 
around  which  gathered  trustified  capitalism,  and  these  former  skilled  and 
higjh-priced  workers  are  now  practi<»Lll^  at  the  mercy  of  the  combines  and 
in  a  rather  sorry  plight.  .The  glaseworkers  are  quite  thoroughl]^  organ- 
ized, but  are  also  menaced  by  the  new  machinery,  and  are  accepting  cuts 
in  the  vain  hope  of  being  able  to  compete  with  iron  scabs.  Altogether,  the 
outlook  in  the  labor  world,  where  the  workers  in  the  principal  industries 
accept  lower  wages,  is  anything  but  a  cheerful  one,  especially  when  we 
know  that  the  living  expenses  are  not  decreasing  proportionately.  The 
cry  of  the  capitalists  has  been  that  they  wish  to  ''stimulate"  consump- 
tion by  inaugurating  a  lower  price  level — and  labor,  of  course,  is  to  stand 
the  expense-^and  thus  ward  off  an  industrial  stagnation,  or  at  least  post- 
pone it.  But  as  capitalistic  philosophy  is  fallacious  and  its  political 
economy  a  snare,  the  scheme  of  preventing  a  depression  is  quixotic  and 
doomed  to  failure,  although  capitalism's  profits  will  be  guaranteed  while 
labor  is,  as  usual,  victimized.  Tlieie  is  no  need  to  engage  in  abstract 
theorizing  to  establish  this  contention*  The  present  concution  in  the  tex- 
tile industry  proves  the  viciousness  of  the  capitalistic  policy.  When  the 
poorly-paid  weavers  were  notified  of  a  10  per  cent  cut  they  were  informed 
that  it  was  necessary  in  order  to  "stimulate  the  market'^  and  insure 
them  steady  employment.  But  now  thirty  mills  in  and  about  Fall  Eiver 
announce  that  but  three  or  four  days  will  be  worked  until  further  notice^ 
or  peAaps  shut  down  entirely  if  ' '  business  does  not  pick  up. ' '  It  appears 
that  the  market  is  overstocked,  and,  as  the  wages  of  the  workers  are 
bdng  shaved  off,  it  stands  to  reason  that  labor's  purchasing  power  is 
bound  to  lessen,  and  inatead  of  postponing  the  rainy  day  it  is  hastened. 
It  is  impossible  to  make  a  silken  purse  out  of  a  sow's  ear,  or  to  have  a 
decent  and  equitable  system  of  weath  production  where  the  many  are 
forced  to  toil  for  the  enrichment  of  a  few,  and  it  is  about  time  that  the 
great  mass  of  workers  awaken  to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  social  jus- 
tice cannot  be  obtained  by  accepting  the  doctrines  and  rules  of  the  cap- 
italist class  and  its  politicians  or  its  apologists  in  labor's  ranks.  It  is 
true,  and  always  will  be,  that  the  workers  are  entitled  to  the  full  product 
of  their  toil,  and  although  truth  may  be  continuaUy  crushed  to  earth  or 
dragged  upon  a  scaffold,  in  or  out  of  labor's  own  conventions,  it  will  tri- 
nmpb.  sooner  or  later.  And  those  who  antagonize  that  truth  in  order  to 
gain  the  applause  of  ihe  capitalist  class,  its  press  and  political  hirelings, 
are  bound  to  meet  with  bitter  disappointments  and  regrets.  The  vitality 
of  the  labor  movement  depends  upon  its  militancy — ^upon  its  persistency 
in  making  demands,  and  upon  its  readiness  to  struggle  for  better  conditions 
constantly,  industrially  and  politically.  No  one  will  deny  that  the  work-, 
ers  have  not  sacrificed  and  struggled  saficiently  upon  the  industrial  field 
to  deserve  better  treatment  than  they  are  receiving.  They  have  paid  dues 
and  assessments  together,  struck  and  boycotted  together,  and  liave  been 
blacklisted,  injunctioned,  fined  and  jailed,  and  yet  Sn  this  suffering  seems 

^  to  have  had  Uttle  effect  in  educating  them  to  strike  at  the  foundation 

'  head  of  oppression — to  acquire  possession  of  the  powers  of  government, 

the  law-making,  law-interpreting  and  law-enforcing  institutions,  and  turn 
the  legal  enactments,  the  judicial  decrees,  the  militiamen's  bayonets  and 
policemen's  club  in  the  other  direction — ^in  a  word,  little  or  no  effort  is 
being  made  collectively  by  organized  labor — aside  from  the  fi^t  of  the 
Socialist  Party — ^to  acquire  control  of  Uncle  Sam's  governing  machinery 

!  and  enforce  it  against  the  robber  capitalist  dass.    Indeed,  those  who  have 

the  hardihood  to  object  to  being  made  targets  of  by  capitalism's  pup- 
pets in  political  power  and  advocate  seizing  the  weapon  of  government  in 

I  self-defense  are  sneeringly  referred  to  as  being  not  *'good"  trade  union- 

ists by  the  alleged  ''leaders,"  although  the  latter,  when  not  hurling 

[  abuse  at  lAie  "radicals,"  are  busy  denouncing  the  outrages  of  the  courts, 

the  militia  and  police,  and  for  which  they  refuse  to  vote  and  condemn 


1 


710  THE  INTEENATIONAL  SOdAIilST  BEVTEIW. 

others  for  doing  so.  There  never  was  a  more  farcical  comedy  enacted  on 
or  off  the  stage  than  the  one  that  is  being  played  at  present.  No  wonder 
that  the  capitalists  laugh  and  ridibule  the  ''scarecrow  labor  vote."  .  The 
capitalists  are  perfectly  contented  as  long  as  they  are  left  in  possession 
of  Congress  and  tthe  state  legislatures,  the  courts  and  the  militia  and  po- 
lice. Why  shouldn't  they  bef  Their  chances  of  winning  in  struggles 
with  organized  labor  are  immensely  augmented — ^they  control  the  club 
and  labor  is  unarmed.  They  are  satisfied  to  have  the  contest  go  on  in 
just  that  manner  forever.  Of  course  the  capitalists  can  and  do  hold  out 
baits  of  favorable  legislation  in  order  to  forestall  possible  political  re- 
volts, but  this  raises  another  point. 

Everybody  knows  that  the  prices  of  necessities  of  life  have  steadily 
advanced  during  the  past  few  yeal'S.  All  the  financial  organs  say  so,  and 
every  one  who  makes  a  purchase  does  not  need  to  read  their  statistics  at 
that.  Anyhow,  the  organs  inform  us  tbat  prices  have  advanced  over  one- 
third  in  the  last  five  or  six  years.  True  to  their  class  interests,  the  cap- 
italists, large  and  small,  and  their  newspapers  are  busy  throwing  the 
blame  upon  the  unions.  But  the  fact  remains  that  wages  have  not  in- 
creased more  than  20  per  cent  at  the  outside;  the  general  average  is  per- 
haps nearer  Iftie  10  per  cent  mark.  Starting  with  those  ''Christian  men" 
headed  by  Baer,  a  perfect  tornado  of  abuse  has  been  heaped  upon  union 
labor  for  the  price  raise,  and,  of  course,  the  meat  trust,  or  hog  combine, 
flour  trust  and  other  trusts  down  to  the  meanist  little  capitalist  on  the 
other  side  of  the  country,  all  have  joined  in  the  hue  and  cry.  l^t  the 
fact  is,  the  capitalistic  pickpockets  began  the  "stop  tftiief "  howl  to  draw 
attention  away  from  their  own  plundering.  Mr.  Guy  Warfield,  for  ex- 
ample, made  an  investigation  of  the  antiiracite  situation  for  World's 
Work,  and  this  is  what  he  finds: 

' '  The  coal  that  would  have  been  mined  if  no  strike  had  occurred  was, 
according  to  the  anthracite  coal  strike  commission,  about  25,000,000  tons. 
Thus  the  miners  forfeited  about  $25,000,000  in  wage&  This  same  com- 
mission awarded  the  miners,  w!hen  they  settled  the  strike,  a  wage  increase 
which,  including  the  sliding  scale,  is  estimated  at  its  highest  to  be  18 
per  cent.  *  This  increases  the  present  wage  cost  of  mining  to  $1.18  and  the 
total  cost  of  mining  to  $2.18  per  ton,  the  costs  other  than  wages  amount- 
ing to  about  $1.  Before  the  strike  the  average  selling  price  of  coal  at 
tidewater  was  about  $3.60  per  ton.  A  year  later  tMs  price  averaged 
$4.90  per  ton.  At  $4.90  per  ton,  with  the  cost  of  production  $2.18,  the 
operators'  profits  to-day  may  be  estimated  at  $2.72.  At  $3.60  per  ton, 
witti  the  cost  of  production  at  $2,  their  profits  before  the  strike  were 
about  $1.60  per  ton,  or  about  $1.12  less  than  now.  Since  the  settlement  of 
the  strike  the  coal  companies  have  produced  more  than  70,000,000  tons  of 
coal,  whicch  have  been  distributed  in  the  market  for  something  in  excess 
of  $75,000,000  more  than  would  have  been  received  by  the  operators  at 
the  prices  prevailing  before  the  strike.  About  $7^,000,000  additional  for 
their  coal  as  a  direct  result  from  the  strike--tliis  is  the  financial  prize  of 
the  operators.  Arbitration  or  no  arbitration,  the  operator  has  realized 
tlhat  a  strike  enriches  him." 

In  plain  terms,  the  miners,  on  the  face  of  the  returns,  secured  an  in- 
crease of  18  per  cent,  while  the  "Christian  men"  cleaned  up  68  per  cent. 
The  fact  is  the  miners  were  benefited  very  little.  Their  rents  and  prices 
of  necessities  have  been  advanced,  many  liave  been  blacklisted  by  the 
barons  and  in  some  districts  their  shorter  workday  was  taken  from  them 
by  Roosevelt's  "open  shop"  commissioners.  Just  to  show  how  this  skin 
game  has  percolated  down  through  the  whole  capitalistic  family  I  append 
the  gist  of  a  report  that  was  made  by  a  committee  of  investigation  ap- 
pointed  by  the  San  Francisco  Labor  Council,  which  explains  how  the  little  - 
parasites  grabbed  for  profits  at  the  expense  of  union  labor.  The  commit- 
tee report  says  among  other  things: 


p-; 


THE  WOELD  OP  LABOR.  711 

'  ^  Th«  fruit  and  vegetable  stores  and  peddlers  have  raised  their  prices 
and  tell  their  customers  that  they  cannot  sell  at  lees,  as  these  are  union 
prices.  It  seems  they  have  an  association  that  fixes  prices — the  claim  of 
union  prices  is  misleading  and  is  charged  up  to  the  union  movement. 

**(§rpress  Lawn  Cemetery  sent  to  the  undertakers  a  revised  price  list 
that  covered  an  increase  of  50  to  100  per  cent,  and  stated  they  were 
obliged  to  make  the  change  on  account  of  the  demands  of 'the  union.  The 
fact  is  that  the  union  men  had  been  given  from  10  to  12  per  cent  increase 
in  wages. 

*'Soon  after  the  reed  and  rattan  workers  were  organized  the  furniture 
dealers  had  their  drummers  on  the  road  asking  more  money  for  their  wil- 
low ware,  saying  that  tbey  had  to  because  the  men  were  organized.  The 
union  had  not  made  any  demands  whatever. 

''The  Draymen's  Afeoeiation  granted  an  increase  of  75  cents  a  day 
to  their  drivers  and  charged  10  cents  per  ton  to  merchants  from  the 
wharves  to  the  warehouses,  hauling  50  or  more  tons  per  day,  and  making 
an  increase  in  their  revenue  from  each  team  of  $5  per  day.  When  asked 
to  explain  they  told  the  merchants  iihey  had  raised  prices  on  account  of 
the  raise  granted  the  Teamsters'  Union. 

' '  The  milk  drivers  secured  a  15  per  cent  raise  in  November,  1902,  and 
the  dairymen  increased  the  price  of  milk  66  per  cent  on  the  average. 
Restaurants  of  the  cheaper  class  have  advanced  their  help  on  an  average 
of  lo  per  cent,  and  the  price  of  meals  25  per  cent,  saying  nothing  of  the 
curtailing  of  the  quantity  and  quality  of  tbeir  meals. 

''Restaurants  of  the  higher  value  hav<e  increased  wages  and  conditions 
equal  to  11  per  cent  and  have  advanced  prices  30  to  40  per  cent.  River 
steamboats  increased  wages  to  the  men  $5  per  month,  equal  to  14%  per 
cent  increase,  and  gave  the  men  12  hour  shifts,  which  increased  their  help 
25  per  cent,  making  an  increased  cost  for  labor  of  39^4  per  cent.  They 
then  increased  freight  rates  from  50  to  300  per  cent,  besides  making  a 
charge  on  returned  empty  cases  equal  to  the  entire  pay  roll  of  labor 
aboard  (said  empty  cases  were  formerly  returned  free).  Information 
comes  to  us  from  a  variety  of  sources  that  many  merchants  in  order  to 
make  sales  at  good  prices  claim  that  they  have  to  charge  the  increased 
prices  asked  on  account  of  the  union,  when,  in  fact,  the  only  part  the 
unions  play  in  the  matter  is  that  they  increase  the  pay  of  labor.  These 
merchants  want  to  add  this  amount  to  tftieir  profits. ' ' 

These  palpable  filchings  ought  to  establish  the  necessity  of  collective 
ownership  if  nothing  else  does.  Every  time  any  part  of  the  labor  army 
strikes  and  gains  higher  wages  the  capitalistic  brood  raises  prices,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  production  is  constantly  cheapened  by  the  introduction  of 
labor-saving  machinery,  and  then  the  entire  labor  class  pays  the  differ- 
ence and  much  more. 


SOCIALISM    ABROAD 


England. 


The  Social  Democratic  Federation  and  the  Independent  Labor  Party 
have  each  held  their  annual  conference!  during  the  past  month.  The  Social 
Democratic  Federation  found  itself  somewhat  disturbed  by  a  few  European 
De  Leonites,  but  dealt  with  them  promptly.  By  an  almost  unanimous 
votei  they  were  expelled  from  the  organizations  and  their  actions  con- 
demned. 

A  resolution  was  adopted  denouncing  the  British  mission  to  Thibet 

On  the  subject  of  Municipal  ism  two  motions  and  two  amendments 
were  on  the  agenda  and  a  most  interesting  discussion  took  place.  Eventu- 
ally thd  Glasgow  amendment,  slightly  altered,  was  carried:  "That  this 
conference  is  of  opinion  that  Social-Democrats  should  support  all  forms 
of  municipal  entexprise  which  tend  to  substitute  socialization  for  private 
capitalism;  it  is  of  opinion,  further,  that  at  the  present  stage  of  eoonoouc 
development  municipalities  will  attain  the  best  results  by  giving  the 
best  hours,  wages  and  conditions  possible  to  their  employ es^  and  by  supplying 
such  utilities  as  can  be  charged  for  at  prices  which  cover  cost  of  production 
and  sinking  fund,  and  leave  a  surplus  to  be  devoted  to  further  extension; 
but  is  of  opinion  that  the  using  of  profits  to  reduce  rates  should  be 
avoided  as  far  as  possible." 

A  resolution  in  favor  of  unity  with  the  I.  L.  P.  was  passed  by  a  unani- 
mous .  vote. 

The  following  resolutions  werei  then  formally  proposed  and  agreed  to: 

THE  nSCAL  CONTBOVERSY. 

"That  this  conference,  recognizing  that  no  tinkering  with  fiscal  arrange- 
ments can  be  of  any  benefit  to  the  workers,  and  that  so-called  'fiscal  reform' 
is  brought  forward  as  a  mere  reid-herring  to  mislead  the  working  class, 
expresses  its  gratification  at  the  apparent  failure  of  the  recent  agitation, 
and  trusts  that  the  effect  will  be  to  strengthen  the  Socialist  movement 
as  the  only  means  for  the  emancipation  of  the  working  class." 

THE  ALIEN   QUESTION. 

"That  this  conference  emphatically  condemns  the  suggcssted  legislation 
against  alien  immigration,  more  especially  the  institution  of  prohibited 
areas,  passports,  and  police  supervision,  which  are  an  attack  on  the  ele- 
metitary  liberties  of  the  subject,  and  are  calculated  to  play  into  the  hands 
of  the  most  reactionary  powers.  This  conference  further  protests  against 
the  wholesale  discretion  as  to  the  admission,  exclusion  and  extradition  of 
alien  immigrants  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  homd  secretary  by  the  gov- 
ernment bill  just  introduced." 

712 


'1 


SOCIALISM  ABROAD.  713 

OHLNESB  LABOR. 

''That  this  conference  condemns  the  importation  of  Chinese  labor  into 
South  Africa  under  conditions  which  yirtually  amount  to  a  reconstitution 
of  chattel  slavery,  in  the  interests  of  international  capitalism,  and  will 
tend  to  the  d^rsdation  of  the  working  class  and  the  complication  of  coast- 
ing social  relations  and  class  antagonisms  by  race  difficulties." 

The  I.  L.  P.  convention,  while  adopting  resolutions  of  policy  very 
similar  to  thoise  of  the  S.  I>.  F.,  voted  down  a  proposal  of  unity  by  a 
vote  of  94  to  88.  In  the  meantime  the  I.  L.  P.  seems  to  have  considerable 
difficulty  in  maintaining  even  the  small  portion  of  Socialism  which  it 
sought  to  introduce  in  the  labor  represefntation  council. 


Italy. 

The  great  struggle  between  the  two  wings  of  the  Italian  Socialist  party 
came  to  a  climax  at  the  congress  held  at  Bologna,  April  9  to  14.  In  the 
opening  speech  Turati  declared  that  '^e  call  our  congress  a  Socialist  con- 
gress. This,  however,  is  not  true.  It  is  a  congress  of  various  groups." 
In  reply  to  this  Ferri  said  that  "Whoever  declares  that  we  have 
no  congress  of  Socialists  and  who  sees  only  a  battleground  of  two  parties 
certainly  has  lost  all  feeling  of  party  unity.  All  of  us  have  not  forgotten 
that  behind  those  of  us  who  wish  unity,  there  stands  an  Italian  proletariat 
who  knows  and  cares  nothing  for  theoretical  battles." 

The  final  vote  showed  that  424  sections,  with  16,304  votes,  supported 
Ferri's  position  of  anti-ministerialism,  while  377  sections,  with  14,844 
votes,  supported  the  ministerialist  position.  Ferri  reported  that  the  Avanti 
had  now  a  circulation  of  30,000  copies,  and  that  during  the  time  of  the 
prosecution  of  Ferri  by  Bettolo  it  had  on  some  days  reached  a  circulation 
of  76,000;  that  it  was  today  on  a  self-supporting  basis. 


Portugal. 

On  January  10,  1875,  there  was  a  meeting  of  the  "Association  of  March 
18th"  (ti^e  Commune  anniversary),  which  was  then  the  center  of  the  labor 
movement  of  Lisbon.  On  motion  of  Comrade  Azedo  Guecco,  the  Socialist 
Party  was  organized,  thus  carrying  out  what  had  been  projected  since 
1873,  in  accordance  with  the  deliberations  of  the  congress  of  the  Interna- 
tional Workingmen's  Association  held  at  The  Hague  in  1872.  The  pro- 
gram  prepared  by  Guecco  was  adopted.  Finally,  in  1877,  at  the  congress 
of  Lisbon,  the  first  one  organized  by  the  Portuguese  Socialists,  the  program 
was  adopted  unanimously  by  the  delgates  of  all  the  political  labor  associa- 
tions existing  at  that  time. 

After  four  years  of  vexatious  delays  the  organization  was  begun.  It 
was  still  necessary  to  overcome  many  difficulties  which  at  every  moment 
arose  across  the  path.  From  the  congress  at  Lisbon  to  that  of  Porto  all 
went  well.  The  associations  visibly  increased  in  strength.  But  after  a 
few  months  some  began  to  deliberate  in  secret  meetings  and  the  result 
was  that  at  the  congress  of  Lisbon,  in  1879,  it  was  necessary  to  start  the 
organization  of  the  Socialist  Party  over  again.  The  moment  was  unpro- 
piuous.  The  Republican  party  was  working  hard  to  gain  control,  and  to 
that  end  it  developed  a  powerful  current  against  the  Socialists.  In  1880 
the  two  parties  were  constantly  in  conflict,  so  that  the  congress  at  Lisbon 
in  1882  to<^  place  under  the  worst  possible  conditions.  This  relentless 
conflict  lasted  until  1885,  at  which  time  the  Socialist  Party  succeeded  in 
consolidating  and  developing  itself. 


714  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIAUST  BEVIBW. 

In  1884  a  group  of  "nev^*  elements  wete  fonned;  it  struggled  unsnc- 
eessfully  against  the  "old";  Guecco  was  obliged  to  give  up  the  struggle 
on  account  of  his  health  and  the  "new"  comrades  soon  withdrew,  dis- 
heartened by  the  indignities  they  had  to  undergo.  A  new  period  of  con- 
flicts opened  for  the  ^ialist  Party,  and  certain  important  results  ensued, 
among  others  the  disorganization  of  the  Republican  Party,  the  development 
of  the  Anarchist  forces,  the  baptism  of  the  dissolving  elements  to  which 
the  name  of  possibilities  was  given,  opposition  to  the  freedom  of  laborers, 
the  congress  at  Paris,  and  many  others.  After  this  difficult  period  the 
Socialist  Party  again  reasserted  its  activity  and  its  importance  at  the  time 
of  the  conference  of  Thomer,  in  1895.  But  this  revival  was  not  lasting. 
New  dissolving  elements,  imder  the  pretext  of  another  "mefthod,"  brought 
disunion  into  the  Socialist  organizations.  The  result  was  still  another 
standstill  in  the  organization  of  the  working  class  party. 

Years  passed  by.  In  1901  the  "Ck>nfusioniBts"  were  routed,  and  a  few 
months  later  the  conference  at  Co-imbre  gave  unity  and  energy  to  the 
Socialist  Party.  It  is  now  twenty-nine  years  that  the  party  has  existed 
in  this  country,  enduring  many  vexations^  struggling  against  numberless 
difficulties,  overcome  more  than  once  by  treason,  but  always  pressing  for- 
ward. It  has  to  struggle  against  the  thoughtlessness  which  is  a  character- 
istic of  the  Portuguese.  Time  will  bring  to  it  the  mental  discipline  which 
it  lacks,  and  the  necessary  firmness  in  action  and  harmony  throughout  the 
movement.  But  it  is  very  difficult  to  enlighten  the  brain  of  this  population 
which  has  slumbered  for  more  than  seven  centuries.  There  is  the  colossal 
task  to  be  realized  by  the  Socialist  Party. — From  I/Avenir  Social, 


BOOK  REVIEWS 


Socialism  the  Nation  of  Fatherless  Children.  David  Goldstcdn,  author. 
Edited  by  Martha  Moore  Avery,  Union  News  League,  Boston.  Paper,  374 
pp.    50  cents. 

This  work  has  geneflrally  been  passed  over  by  the  socialist  press  without 
notice.  The  reason  for  this  is  at  once  apparent  to  the  socialist  reader. 
The  arguments  are  so  palpably  fallacious  and  the  quotations  from  socialist 
authors  so  flagrantly  unfair  that  the  impression  which  it  leaves  upon  the 
socialist  reader  is  simply  that  no  one  of  any  intelligence  would  be  affected  by 
it.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  book  was  not  written  for 
people  of  intelligence.  The  book  is  intended  for  circulation  among  the 
ignorant  and  bigoted  followers  of  theological  leaders.  It  is  intended  to 
create  a  prejudice  in  their  minds  which  will  prevent  theto  from  reading 
and  reasoning  about  Socialist  literature.  That  it  might  have  an  effect 
among  such  people  there  is  no  doubt.  The!  whole  aim  and  object  of  the 
book  is  to  show  that  Socialists  are  endeavoring  to  introduce  a  state  of 
sexual  promiscuity. 

The  author  sets  himself  in  opposition  to  the  entire  scientific  curretit  o£ 
the  time,  denies  evolution,  denies  all  the  positions  by  which  modem  sci- 
ence has  placed  the  20th  century  ahead  of  the  18th,  and  the  Socialists  may 
well  be  grateful  to  him  in  that  he  shows  how  necessary  it  is  for  any  one 
who  would  oppose  Socialism  to  take  this  position  and  to  couple  Darwin  and 
Marx  in  common  condemnation.  There  is  a  peculiar  style  about  the  book 
which  suggests  to  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  Jesuitical  anti-Socialist 
writings  of  Europe,  that  other  hands  than  those  that  appear  upon  the 
title  page  have  had  something  to  do  with  its  preparation.  There  is  a 
peculiar  set  of  double  meanings  running  through  it  which  characterize 
all  the  European  writings  referred  to  above,  but  which  have  hitherto 
been  absent  from  the  anti-Socialist  writings  of  this  country. 

The  idea  is  carried  throughout  the  work  that  Socialism  is  hypocritical 
and  presents  two  faces,  one  to  the  public  for  propaganda  purposes,  the 
other  to  converts,  and  that  there  is  a  sort  of  inner  circle  wherein  thel 
"mysteries  of  Socialism"  are  taught  to  the  adepts.  To  this  inner  circle 
only  are  The  Communist  Manifesto  and  the  materialistic  interpretation  of 
history  known.  At  the  same  time  he  rather  drops  this  position  when,  in 
order  to  prove  the  orthodoxy  of  these  documents,  he  gives  pages  of  quota- 
tions from  Socialist  papers  urging  the  reading  of  these  same  esoteric 
books.  There  are  other  instances  of  this  double-faccdness  in  the  book.  He 
neither  affirms  nor  denies,  but  always  insinuates.  It  is  worth  while  that 
Socialists  should  somewhat  familiarize  themselves  with  this  sort  of  stuff, 
since  if  the  present  crusade  of  the  Catholic  church  continues,  it  is  probable 
that  more  books  of  a  similar  character  will  appear.  It  would  be  the 
easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  go  through  the  book  and  pick  out  ridiculous 
and  erroneous  statements^  but  this  would  by  no  means  have  any  effect  in 

715 


716  THE  INTEENATIONAL  SOCIATJRT  EEVIEW. 

counteracting  the  w^ork  of  tbe  book,  since  it  does  not  appeal  to  the  int^ect 
but  to^the  prejudice. 

It  18  interesting,  however,  to  see  an  author  who  is  seeking  to  pose  as 
the  friend  of  the  labor  unions  and  the  working  class  attacking  Socialism 
on  the  ground  that  "it  makes  its  propagan^L  among  those  men  who 
having  the  least  wealth  have  the  lesser  consciousness  of  citizenship." 

The  Life  and  Times  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  by  Thomas  E.  Watson.  D. 
Appleton  &  Company.     Cloth,  634  pp.    $2.50. 

The  dedication  of  this  book  is  something  which  strikes  one  as  either 
amusing  or  disgraceful,  according  to  his  frame  of  mind.  The  idea  of 
looking  upon  William  R.  Hearst  as  a  patron  of  letters  and  the  defender 
of  the  "weak  and  oppressed"  and  comparing  him  with  Jefferson  is  both 
ludicrous  and  disgusting. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  the  author  writes  as  a  partisan.  This 
view  is  not  in  itself  a  defect.  Most  writers  do  the  same,  but  Mr.  Watson 
is  honest  enough  to  avow  it  and  makes  no  attempt  to  disguise  it. 

The  work  shows  much  research  and  careful  examination  into  original 
sources.  Other  historians  and  biographers  of  Jefferson  are  scored  most 
roundly  if  they  do  not  happen  to  agree  with  Mr.  Watson.  In  justice  to 
the  author,  however,  it  must  be  said  that  in  at  least  a  majority  of  cases 
th^  Be^n  to  deserve  his  attacks. 

The  work  is  written  throughout  from  the  small  capitalist  point  of 
view  and  probably  reflects  quite  clearly  in  its  opinions  the  position  which 
Jefferson  occupi^.  It  is  disappointing  to  see  that  the  author  feels 
himself  compelled  to  bestow  lavish  praise  upon  the  lack  of  an  educational 
system  whidi  prevailed  in  the  South  in  colonial  timeb  and  upon  the 
institution  of  chattel  slavery. 

Much,  however,  that  has  been  overlooked  by  the  New  England  his- 
torians, who,  as  he  correctly  states,  has  done  most  of  the  writing  of 
American  history  and  done  ii  from  the  New  England  point  of  view,  is 
brought  out.  He  clearly  shows  the  ezLstence  of  class  antagonisms  in  colonial 
times  and  rescues  from  oblivion  some  of  those  who  stood  out  against  the 
tyranny  of  the  commercial  classes  of  the  sea  coast  in  early  times.  He 
also  brings  together  considerable  neglected  material  showing  the  economic 
causes  that  led  to  the  American  revolution  and  does,  what  lUmoet  no  other 
capitalist  historian  has  done,  in  that  he  shows  the  close  connection  be- 
tween Washington's  personal  interest  in  western  lands  and  his  revolutionary 
activity.  He  also  snows  how  when  the  revolution  had  been  fought  largely 
by  the  armies  composed  of  the  working  class  that  the  government  was 
constituted  in  the  interest  of  the  commerial  classes. 

His  antagonism  to  Hamilton,  which  is  of  the  most  virulent  sort,  has 
caused  him  to  mass  together  much  valuable  material  showing  Hamilton's 
close  affiliation  with  the  capitalist  class  and  the  methods  by  which  he 
constituted  a  government  of,  by,  and  for  that  class.  When  we  come  to 
consider  his  deification  of  Jefferson,  however,  the  Socialist  cannot  but 
disagree.  Jefferson  was  a  representative  of  the  southern  landed  aristocracy, 
and  while  it  is  probably  true  that  he  was  much  closer  to  the  genuinely 
democratic  point  of  view  than  Washington,  yet,  after  all,  the  interests  of 
his  class  demanded  the  overthrow  of  Hamilton,  and  this  could  only  be 
brought  about  by  arming  the  wage  slaves  of  the  northern  capitalist  with 
the  ballot  and  by  the  establishment  of  democratic  institutions.  At  the 
same  time  Jefferson's  class  in  the  South  were  saved  from  any  political 
action  of  the  working  class,  since  their  working  class  was  composed  of 
black  chattel  slaves. 

The  work  is  written  in  a  brilliant,  even  if  sometimes  bombastic,  literary 
style.  As  a  historical  document  it  cannot  be  overlooked  by  any  one  wish- 
ing to  familiarize  himself  with  this  period  of  American  hutory. 


PUBLISHERS'   DEPARTMENT 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

With  next  manth's  issue  the  fourth  year  of  the  International  Sociaust- 
Beview  will  be  completed.  Looked  on  from  any  other  point  of  view  than 
'  that  of  dollars  and  cents,  its  success  has  been  more  than  gratifying.  Finan- 
cially,  it  has  been  published  at  a  far  smaller  loss  than  any  other  socio- 
logical magazine  of  anything  tike  the  same  importance.  It  may  be  of  inter- 
est to  American  socialists  to  know  that  the  Neue  Zeit,  edited  by  Karl  Kaut- 
sky,  the  most  influential  socialist  periodical  in  Europe,  was  published  for 
twenty-one  years  at  a  loss,  and  last  year  for  the  first  time  paid  expenses. 
Wilshire's  Magaeine  in  a  single  year  expended  seventy-five  thousand  dollars 
in  excess  of  its  gross  receipts.  Our  deficit  on  the  International  Socialist 
Beview,  on  the  basis  of  its  present  circulation,  amounts  to  only  one  thou- 
sand dollars. 

But  this  comparatively  small  amount  is  as  serious  a  burden  to  our  co- 
operative company  with  its  limited  resources  as  a  much  larger  deficit  would 
be  to  others.  There  is  no  wealthy  capitalist  behind  the  International  So- 
cialist Beview.  Its  continued  existence  depends  on  the  sacrifices  of  the 
850  stockholders  of  the  co-operative  publishing  house  of  Charles  H.  Kerr  & 
Co.,  nearly  all  of  whom  are  laborers.  To  ensure  this  continued  existence,  two 
things  are  necessary.  One  is  to  raise  at  once  a  thousand  dollars  to  clear  off 
the  floating  debt  that  has  accumulated  from  the  loss  on  the  Beview  last 
year.  The  other  is  to  add  three  thousand  names  to  the  subscription  list  so 
that  there  shall  be  no  loss  next  year. 

On  April  14  we  sent  a  letter  to  all  the  stockholders  who  were  also 
Beview  subscribers,  explaining  the  situation  and  asking  for  suggestions. 
Among  many  prompt  and  encouraging  replies,  one  was  received  from  Bev. 
Thomas  C.  Hall  of  New  York  City,  which  we  quote  in  part: 

''Tour  letter  of  the  14th  is  at  hand,  and  I  hasten  to  respond.  I  am 
not  a  'Marxian  Socialist,'  but  take  a  warm,  although  somewhat  scientific 
and  perhaps  'cold  blooded'  relatively,  interest  in  Socialism.  This  interest 
is,  however,  such  that  I  would  be  gladly  of  some  assistance  to  the  Beview, 
which  I  would  be  deeply  sorry  to  see  stop.  I  cannot  easily  secure  sub- 
scribers, but  I  would  be  one  of  twenty  to  give  $50  in  two  installments  to 
cover  the  $1,000  deficit,  and  would  hope  to  do  the  same  next  year  if  that 
insured  another  lease  of  life. ' ' 

717 


718  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

On  the  same  day  that  this  letter  reached  us,  we  had  a  call  from  a  Chi- 
cago stockholder,  a  professional  man  who  cannot  allow  his  name  to  be  used 
for  the  good  reason  that  his  chance  to  earn  a  living  would  be  imperiled  if 
it  were  known  that  he  is  a  socialist.  Without  knowing  of  Mr.  Hall's  propo- 
sition, he  made  verbally  the  same  offer,  namely,  that  he  would  be  one  of 
twenty  to  give  $50  each  to  raise  $1,000  to  pay  off  the  floating  debt 
incurred  on  the  Review.  The  suggestion  seemed  practical,  and  we  at  once 
wrote  to  a  number, of  those  who  had  previously  shown  a  disposition  to  help. 
Only  a  few  replies  have  had  time  to  reach  us  up  to  the  date  of  going  to 
press,  but  we  can  definitely  announce  the  following  pledges  and  cash  contribu- 
tions toward  the  fund  of  a  thousand  dollars: 

Thomas  C.  Hall,  New  York $50.00 

Stockholder,  Illinois 50.00 

George  D.  Herron,  New  York 50.00 

W.,  lUinoifl  60.00 

Frank  Kostack,  Ohio 50.00 

Gaylord  Wilshire,  New  York 50.00 

Adam  L.  Nagel,  Kentucky 50.00 

C.  0.  Reynolds,  California 50.00 

C.  F.  Nesbit,  Washington,  D.O. 50.00 

Vernon  Handy,  Colorado 40.00 

Otto  M.  Hansen,  Illinois 20.00 

C.  Kessler,  Kansas 30.00 

M.  B.  Wesson,  Texas 10.00 

Mrs.  S.  D.  Whitney,  California 10.00 

J.  O.  Duckett,  California 10.00 

James  C.  Wood,  Illinois 10.00 

Dr.  H.  Gifford,  Nebraska 25.00 

Total  to  date $615.00 

Fart  of  the  subscriptions  are  contingent  upon  the  entire  amount  of  one 
thousand  dollars  being  raised,  and  it  is  therefore  doubly  important  that  all 
who  wish  the  Review  continued  should  write  at  once  what  they  are  willing 
to  do.  Two  of  the  men  whose  names  appear  in  this  list  are  farm  laborers, 
and  most  of  the  number  are  people  of  limited  means,  who  give  not  because 
they  can  easily  spare  the  money,  but  because  they  are  convinced  of  the 
supreme  importance  of  the  work. 

ST7BSGRIPTI0NS  TO  THE  REVIEW. 

To  find  new  subscribers  is  a  help  no  less  important  than  to  contribute 
cash.  One  of  our  stockholders,  Joseph  Weiss  of  New  York,  writes:  *'My 
proposition,  which  I  believe  both  to  be  feasible  and  to  meet  the  existing  con- 
ditions, as  well  as  to  permit  of  paying  a  fair  remuneration  for  your  most 
valuable  and  able  management,  would  be  to  raise  the  annual  Bubecription 
price  to  $2.50  for  outsiders  and  $1.25  to  stockholders,  which  certainly  would 
be  in  keeping  and  consistent  with  the  high  standard  of  socialist  literature; 
furthermore  I  do  not  hesitate  to  predict  that  the  present  subscribers  are  each 
and  every  one  willing  to  pay  the  justifiably  increased  price  for  this  sort  of 
magazine.  No  person  who  appredates  such  qualities  is  going  to  drop  it  or 
do  without  it  for  the  sake  of  a  mere  paltry  and  trifling  increase  in  the  price, 
which  means  so  much  to  the  management." 


r^ 


PUBLISHEBS'  DEPARTMENT.  719 

Other  comrades  have  suggested  that  the  price  be  made  one  dollar  to  all 
&like^  instead  of  fifty  cents  to  stockholders  as  at  present.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  the  adoption  of  either  of  these  plans  would  bring  some  present 
financial  relief.  We  do  not  intend  to  take  either  step,  however,  except  as  a 
last  resort,  for  we  are  convinced  that  a  willingness  to  read  and  study  the 
literature  of  real  scientific  socialism  does  not  necessarily  go  along  with  the 
ability  to  pay  high  prices.  The  service  which  the  Inteelnational  Socialist 
'BxnEW  is  rendering  to  the  socialist  movement  is  in  that  it  is  circulating  six 
thousand  copies  each  month  among  enthusiastic  socialists  who  want  to  know 
more  of  socialism,  and  is  thereby  helping  to  create  a  large  body  of  well- 
grounded  socialists  who  are  capable  of  explaining  socialism  to  others.  It 
would  be  easier  to  pay  expenses  with  2,000  subscribers  at  $2.50  or  4,000  sub- 
scribers at  $1  than  with  10,000  subscribers  at  fifty  cents,  but  to  reduce 
the  circulation  of  the  Eeview  would  impair  its  value  to  the  movement.  We 
shaU  therefore  avoid  an  increase  of  price  if  possible.  The  next  few  weeks 
will  show.  In  the  meantime  we  guarantee  that  every  subscriber  or  pur- 
chaser of  a  subscription  card  will  receive  full  value  for  his  money,  and  the 
best  way  to  make  sure  of  the  low  rate  being  continued  is  to  rush  in  the 
subscriptions. 

A  NEW  BOOK  BY  BOBEBT  BLATOHFOBO. 

We  have  just  published  the  first  American  edition  of  ''God  and  My 
Neighbor,"  by  Bobert  Blatchford,  editor  of  the  London  Clarion,  and  by  far 
the  most  popular  and  widely  read  of  any  writer  on  socialism  in  the  English 
language.  Blatchford 's  new  book  is  a  criticism  of  the  popular,  traditional, 
orthodox  theology,  and  it  is  a  criticism  so  rational  in  its  spirit  and  so  gentle 
in  its  phrasing  that  it  can  hardly  be  offensive  to  any  one.  Moreover,  the 
book  is  in  Blatchford 's  best  and  strongest  style,  and  will  command  the 
attention  of  any  one  who  begins  reading,  simply  from  the  admirable  literary 
quality  of  what  it  contains. 

It  is  of  course  agreed  that  the  Socialist  Party  takes  no  stand  on  the 
question  of  religion  or  theology,  but  leaves  such  matters  to  the  free  choice 
of  its  members.  Our  co-operative  publishing  house  has  published  books 
from  the  Christian  point  of  view,  and  will  doubtless  publish  more  of  them 
in  future.  This  book  of  Blatchford,  while  it  is  an  admirable  application 
of  historical  materialism  in  simple  style,  is  nevertheless  not  offered  as  a 
Socialist  book,  but  simply  as  a  book  that  is  worth  reading  by  anyone  inter- 
ested in  the  development  of  religious  ideas.  It  is  handsomely  printed  on 
paper  of  extra  quality.  The  price  in  cloth  binding  is  one  dollar  and  in 
paper  fifty  cents,  with  the  usual  discounts  to  stockholders. 

MORE  CAPITAL  NEEDED. 

In  the  February  number  of  the  International  SocLiLiST  Beview  we  an- 
nounced that  the  stockholders  had  voted  to  authorize  the  issue  of  four 
thousand  additional  shares  of  stock  at  ten  dollars  each.  These  are  grad- 
ually being  subscribed  by  Socialist  locals  and  individual  Socialists,  but 
most  of  the  subscribers  are  paying  in  monthly  instalments  of  one  dollar,  so 
that  no  great  amount  of  capital  has  yet  been  made  available  for  use.  ^e 
preidential  campaign  has  opened,  and  there  will  without  doubt  be  an  Im- 


720        ,       THE  INTEBNATIONAIi  SOOTATJST  EBVIEW. 

mense  demand  for  propaganda  literature.  Onr  capital  bas  not  been  and  is 
not  sufficient  to  enable  us  to  sapply  this  demand,  and  the  conseqaence  is 
that  we  have  been  obliged  to  utilize  our  credit  to  the  utmost  to  carry  the 
present  stock  of  books  and  pamphlets,  and  that  we  shall  not  be  able  to  in- 
crease the  supply  this  year  as  it  should  be  increased,  without  some  substan- 
tial additions  to  our  capital.  Ten  dollars  invested  now  in  a  share  of  our 
stock  win  do  an  important  service  to  the  cause  of  Socialism,  apart  from 
the  individual  benefit  to  the  person  or  the  local  making  the  investment.  We 
will  not  take  space  here  to  explain  this  benefit^  but  will  mail  to  anyone  upon 
request  a  copy  of  the  booklet  ''A  Socialist  Publishing  House,"  in  which  the 
co-operative  organization  of  the  company  is  fully  described.  There  are 
probably  several  hundred  readers  of  the  Intesnational  Socialist  Beview 
who  are  intending  to  take  stock  some  time.  We  wish  each  of  these  would 
realize  that  now  before  the  campaign  is  fairly  started  is  the  time  when  the 
money  is  most  needed. 

As  we  go  to  press  we  have  a  letter  from  Comrade  A.  A.  Heller  of  New 
York,  in  which  he  says:  ''If  you  were,  for  example,  to  issue  pamphlets, 
little  ea^  expositions  of  Socialism,  and  send  them  broadcast,  I  should  gladly 
join  you.  If  you  were  to  organize  a  system  of  mailing  literature  to  indi- 
viduads  or  clubs  or  associations,  where  it  would  most  be  appreciated,  at  a 
nominal  cost,  or  no  cost  at  all  if  necessary,  I  would  make  the  following 
proposition:  I  will  subscribe,  lend  or  give  $100,  if  you  can  raise  $900  more 
for  the  same  purpose.  In  fact,  I'd  be  willing  to  give  that  amount  for  any 
good  use,  provided  it  will  not  go  to  sink  more  mosey  for  an  ineffectual 
undertaking. ' ' 

Here  is  a  practical  suggestion  that  if  acted  on  will  immensely  increase 
the  efficiency  of  our  co-operative  company  during  the  presidential  cam- 
paign. To  secure  the  contribution  offered  by  Mr.  Heller,  it  is  necessary 
that  nine  hundred  dollars  more  be  contributed.  Many  small  sums  will  count 
as  well  as  a  few  large  ones,  and  one  comrade  who  has  lent  a  considerable 
amount  of  money  to  the  company  authorizes  us  to  say  that  for  every  dol- 
lar of  cash  contributed  during  1904,  either  to  the  Eeview  fund  started  by 
Mr.  HaU,  or  to  the  propaganda  fund  started  by  Mr.  Heller,  he  will  con- 
tribute a  dollar  from  the  debt  due  him.  Thus  every  dollar  contributed  this 
year  will  count  doubly  toward  putting  the  company  on  a  cash  basis,  where 
it  will  be  owned  absolutely  by  the  co-operative  shareholders,  with  no  claim 
against  it  from  any  individual.  This  will  make  the  future  of  the  company 
secure,  irrespective  of  the  life  of  any  one  man  or  any  few  men. 

Do  not  delay  action  in  the  matter.  If  you  are  not  yet  a  stockholder, 
make  yourself  one  by  sending  ten  dollars  for  a  share,  or.  if  that  is  not  pos- 
sible, then  a  dollar  or  more  as  first  payment  on  a  share.  If  you  are  a 
stockholder,  send  your  cash  contribution  or  pledge  toward  the  Beview  fund 
of  one  thousand  dollars  and  the  propaganda  fund  of  one  thousand  dollars. 
Bemember  that  every  dollar  you  send  this  year  takes  two  dollars  off  the 
liabilities  of  the  company.    Address 

Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company  (Co-operative), 

56  Fifth  Avenue,  Chicago. 


RUSKfN  COLLEGE 


^ 


,-H 


*M><aaa— ijM'NMO**'***'*! 


Mu^iTicAi/  seoimrr  by  mat  Wooi^ 

SiMOVS.  All  lUfrtosieid  eompaxaliTe  sttidy 
of»oooo«k»fwiiB»1.«ttd  driikofed  from 
^Uie  aotialtet  pofaU  of  tUw,  with  the 
ao(4«HBi  ibforlM^  WMlth,  Bani,  Interw 
est  «a,d  Wasw  faUjr  espUined.  , 

jjnmxeur  scoiroifzc  bmvoht 

bf  ▲.  |L  0moiff.  TnoM  the  iaduttrUi 
difv«kvauBi  of;4fa«  0.  S^ahowi  how 
^cOiirtmtejOMMfiliOM  havf  affaeted  pdliti- 
Mland  MMtf  idfliliifctes  sad  how  prM- 
e&l  mpitolistt  ftnd  ■OQifli  qlaases  «o«e. 


•oezAUSV  hgr  Hat  Wood  BixoNs.  A 
histon  of  «BoiaUsi  thidries  And  their  ap- 
pUsAftiOB  to  prMeni  proldem«.  ^The  ecc»* 
BOMkies  of  lC(m,H9odUiiiMi  and*  the  State, 
Sdvoatioiig  Organiaed  Labor,  Seieace, 
Bthki  aod  Art,  and  Hlctozy  of  the  mod* 
em  Soelaliat  moTemeat.    ~ 

fQie  aa&B^  eonrees  are^  tfi^n  in  feoidence  a» 
ofleoa*  there  Are  .WBfleereiinldiig  thnii.' 
BeBident  itndeotwJn  thie  department  may  [ 
carry  t^gaimr  ooUeM  work  at  the  game  ; 

'  dtuneanaeUB  their  ooara  and  room,  rent 
in 'the  ooUeire  indiutriee  the  same  as 
itndefitein  other  depaHmente. 


wenly  leetant  en  each  ^abjeot  with  reoolred 
tandlnn.  pxepentlona  of  pa{»era  and  Inmvid- 
■al  inaauedon.  Fvrterma  and  farther  I  nfor- 


matum  addretfa^ 


Xl4J^ 


■»T*»»ffi;>»»»»WMw»Wp<iw^T>f»>»»»»w»»K  ■»■»■»»» 


iiiiiiiiiiMi«i»»ii!nutt 
Tj^R  Yoii  Will  Find 


"THE  WORKER":; 

!  /.^csr  soeuiusT  WECKLV 

MIMFUL  or  INTEMST      - 


i  . 


t  '  tt  Is  PiMib«d  exefuilvsly  ki  the  tn^ 

;     leMslofaiB«ori(iiiiClMt;1l8(im«lt 

^     fir  TfM  Md  Uytl  Tradn  UnKmlsm 

indLlkt  MMili  tl  Km  Toltert 

Srecy  WoCfetaciuyi  Should  Snbadtbe 
to  te.^«40  denii  p^  yea:^:  2itmiffi  for 
6  monttuit  Vt  ««ptB  tar  Bmonf  ha.  -. 


THE  WORKER 


JUSTrPUBLISHEOri 

'/ vmAXm  VBVOXT  or  TKB  OSBAt 
^     DtBBAlS  0».    . 


»-sn 


At  Twelfth  Street  l>im«r  Hall,  Chiea«o^ 
Jan.  »L  1004.  ThU  debate  waa  betSSm 
Louis  F.  Poet,  fieary  H.  .HardlnM  and 
John  Z.  While,  repretenting  thefiii^ieTAk, 
and  B«n9*t  untermann,  Seymonr  Stedman 
and  A.  M.  aimont,  who  tpoke  <or  Soeialo 
iam/  The  debato  waa  held  befora  an  e»- 
thnaiastie  aodienqe  namberinf  t^  Deeple, 
and  latted  lor  three  hoara  and*  a  hall. 


STeij  word  wa»  taJosn  down  lai  abort  hand 
by  w.;i.  MeDenhqt,  ona^the  beeTeonrt 
reiNWtera  in  the  united  States,  and  the 


proofa  hava  been  ravlsed  to  the  aafialaeUoo 
of  the  debatere^on  both  tidea>^ 

Thendebate  is  handsomely  printed  Is  larg 
type. on  book  pa] 
odntafna  fnll-pag 
Henry  Georce.  an 


operatiie  €oms>any  are  entitled  t<ypnroha8e 
ooniea  In  any  qnantity*  lArara  Of  email,  at  the~ 
nnif  orm  rate  or  IZH  oente  if  we  prepay  post- 
age, or  ten  cents  if  sent  at  pnrohAser^  ex- 

Oil AilLES  IL  KEMt  ft  COHMIY 

COnOPCRATfVC 


DON*T  JAIL  TO  RKAD  the  beaattful  Soddbt 
Novel  just  yu.Uidied-**' 

THlt-mEAL  CITY 

abth  ixMnd,  .177  page*;  t^rlCO,  $1.00.  Some 
opinioot  firom  chf  CapitsHsePrm:  *    ' 

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A  Plioto|;itiph  of  the  Delegates  to  the 

National  Conveotion 

Of  the  Socialist  Party 


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56   FIFiPH   AVEKUE,    CHICA0OV   U.    S>    A,; 


The  InterDatioDal  Socialist  Review 

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TSi   INTERNATIONAL 
SOCIALIST    REVIEW 


VOL.  IV 


JUNE,  1904 


NO.  12 


#    -r  ^ 


Socialism  and  the  Socialist  Movement. 

SOCIALISM  is  a  word  having  two  distinct  buf  Telatcd  mean- 
ings ;  primarily,  it  is  used  as  the  name  of  a  certain  jrfiilosa-- 
phy  of  history  and  method  of  interpreting  and  analyzing 
social  phenomena.  In  the  second  place,  since  this  philoso- 
phy and  method  have  as  one  of  their  principal  conclusions  that 
society  is  evolving  towards  a  co-operative  social  stage  the  word  is 
used  to  designate  a  co-operative  social  organization  where  the 
means  for  the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth  are  the  col- 
lective property  of  the  working  class,  while  the  goods  which  are 
to  be  consumed  become  the  private  property  of  the  individual 
workers.  The  philosophy  of  socialism,  as  generally  accepted  by 
the  socialist  parties  of  tfie  world  at  the  present  time,  takes  as 
its  fundamental  hypothesis  what  has  been  variously  called,  the 
materialistic  interpretation  of  history,  historic  materialism,  or 
economic  determinism.  This  doctrine  is  stated  as  follows  in 
the  Communist  Manifesto: 

"In  every  historical  epoch  the  prevailing  mode  of  economic  produc- 
tion and  exchange,  and  the  social  organization  necessarily  following  from 
it,  form  the  basis  upon  which  is  built  up,  and  from  which  alone  can  be 
explained,  the  political  and  intellectual  history  of  that  epoch;  and  con- 
sequently the  whole  history  of  mankind  since  the  dissolution  of  primitive 
tribal  society,  holding  land  in  common  ownership  has  been  a  history  of 
class  struggles,  contests  between  exploiting  and  exploited,  ruling  and  op- 
pressed classes;  the  history  of  these  class  struggles  forms  a  series  of  evolu- 
tion; now*a-days,  a  stage  has  been  reached  where  the  exploited  and  op- 
pressed dass — ^the  proletariat — cannot  attain  its  emancipation  from  the 
sway  of  the  exploiting  and  ruling  class — the  bourgeoisie—without  at  the 

*This  article  was  prepared  for  the  EJncyclopedIa  Americana  published  by 
Americana  Co.  and  is  re-produced  here  with  their  permission.  The  proofs 
were  sent  to  several  European  comrades  for  correction,  and  have  been  pre- 
pared with  all  possible  care.  Several  alterations  have  been  made  since  the 
article  was  sent  to  the  Encyclopedia  from  information  received  too  late  for  in- 
clusion in  the  original  article.  This  is  specially  true  of  the  portions  treating 
of  France,  concerning  whidi  we  received  later  data  from  Comrade  Jean  Lon- 
guet  We  should  consider  it  a  favor  if  our  readers  would  notify  us  of  any 
errors  which  msy  still  remain,  as  it  is  probable  that  the  article  will  be  re- 
produced in  an  expanded  form  as  a  pamphlet 

m 


722  TflK   INTERNATIONAL  ?WX:lALIST   REVIEW. 

same  time,  and  once  and  for  all,  emancipating  society  at  large  from  all 
exploitation,  oppression,  class-distinction,  and  class-struggles." 

It  is  maintained  that  the  form  in  which  production  is  carried  on 
in  any  society  constitutes  the  fundamental  fact  which  determines 
all  other  social  institutions.  This  does  not  hold  that  each  economic 
era  begins  tabula  rasa  in  the  field  of  institutions.  Each  historical 
stage  inherits  its  institutions  from  the  previous  stage  and  it  can 
only  influence,  change  and  reconstruct  these  or  establish  new  ones 
alongside  of  them.  These  inherited  characteristics  include  custom?, 
laws,  ethical  standards,  public  opinion,  and  in  short  the  whole  so- 
cial psychology  and  system  of  social  institutions  which  has  been 
built  up  throughout  the  course  of  human  evolution.  The  analogy 
between  heredity  and  environment  in  biology  and  in  the  social  or- 
ganism is  here  very  close.  Since  the  appearance  of  the  institution 
of  private  property  in  the  instruments  by  which  wealth  is  pro- 
duced and  distributed,  society  has  necessarily  been  divided  into 
two  classes  according  as  their  members  own  or  do  not  own  thes^ 
essentials  for  the  production  of  wealth.  The  struggle  of  these 
classes  for  power  constitutes  a  large  portion  of  the  history  of  mod- 
ern times.  In  the  Middle  Ages  land  being  the  most  essential  in- 
strument for  the  production  of  wealth  the  landlords  were  the  rul- 
ing class  and  social  institutions  were  determined  by  them  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  interests.  When  the  great  transformation  of 
hand  tools  into  factory  machinery  took  place  at  the  close  of  the 
iSth  and  beginning  of  the  19th  century,  this  machinery  of  the 
modern  factory  became  the  most  essential  element  in  the  produc- 
tion of  wealth,  and  its  owners  became  the  ruling  class. 

Wlien  the  owners  of  industrial  capital  had  gained  their  vic- 
tory they  set  about  establishing  a  society  in  accordance  with  their 
interests.'  Since  the  accumulation  and  organization  of  capital  was 
the  most  essential  thing  at  this  historical  period  the  owners  of 
capital  formed  the  class  most  necessary  to  the  basic  industrial 
process.  Later  on  the  capitalist  class  laid  down  its  func- 
tion as  organizer  and  director  of  industry  and  became  simply  a 
share-holding  class.  Hired  wageworkers,  including  manual 
workers,  overseers,  bosses,  and  superintendents  perform  all  the 
essential  social  processes.  The  capitalist  class  having  handed  over 
its  function  to  the  working  class,  the  latter  becomes  not  only  the 
most  essential,  but  the  only  essential  class.  The  material  inter- 
ests of  this  class  involve  it  in  continuous  struggles  with  the  capi- 
talists. Sooner  or  later  this  struggle  is  transferred  to  the  politi- 
cal field  where  the  laboring  class  is  represented  by  the  Socialist 
Party,  having  as  its  object  the  capture  of  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment and  social  control  in  order  that  it  may  use  them  in  the  in- 
terest of  that  class. 

According  to  this  philosophy  the  social  dynamic  which  com- 
pels advance  is  the  continuous  improvement  of  the  processes  of 


SCVCIALISM   AND   SOCIAUST   MOVEMENT.  723 

production.  Every  new  invention  and  every  improvement  in  the 
organization  of  industry  starts  in  motion  a  series  of  influences 
which  do  not  cease  until  they  have  reached  and  affected  every  in- 
stitution within  the  society  of  which  they  form  the  industrial 
basis.  During  the  last  lOO  years  mechanical  improvements  have 
multiplied  many  fold  the  productive  power  of  each  individual 
worker.  But  tlie  army  of  xmemployed  prevent  the  price  of  labor 
power  as  a  whole  from  rising  much  above  the  point  necessary 
to  maintain  the  efficiency  of  the  wageworker  as  a  producer.  Con- 
sequently the  workers  who  use  these  improved  instruments  re- 
ceive but  a  small  fraction  of  the  greatly  multiplied  product.  They 
have  no  choice  under  the  present  system  but  to  accept  these  condi- 
tions. While  production  is  for  sale  in  the  competitive  market 
only  the  cheapest  can  continue  to  produce.  Hence,  if  the  work- 
ers are  to  produce,  and  they  cannot  live  without  producing,  since 
they  have  no  power  of  ownership  to  take  from  other  producers, 
they  must  gain  access  to  these  highly  perfected  tools.  Hence  tliey 
compete  with  one  another  for  the  privilege  of  using  them,  and 
of  selling  their  labor  to  the  owners  of  the  tools.  They  finally  accept 
a  wage-contract  by  which,  for  the  privilege  of  producing  tlieir 
own  wages  during  the  first  hour  or  two  of  work,  they  continue  at 
work  for  many  hours  more  producing  additional  surplus  value 
for  the  owner  of  the  means  of  production  which  they  use.  Im- 
provements in  production  often  take  other  than  mechanical  forms. 
The  modern  trust  is,  to  some  extent,  to  be  considered  as  such  an 
improvement.  Socialist  writers  pointed  out  over  a  half  century 
ago  the  self-destructive  character  of  competition.  It  was  then 
foreseen  that  one  of  the  inherent  characteristics  of  large  industry 
was  its  greater  economy  as  compared  with  smaller  ccMiipetitors. 
Consequently  the  large  industry  tended  to  eliminate  all  smaller 
competitors  within  the  circle  of  its  market.  Improvements  in 
transportation,  communication,  and  storage  rapidly  extended  the 
circle  of  the  market  to  national,  and  for  some  products,  at  least, 
to  international  dimensions.  When,  however,  there  are  sufficient 
plants  constructed  to  more  than  supply  any  circle  of  the  market 
and  competition  is  reduced  to  a  few  industrial  units^  the  wastes  of 
competition  and  the  destructiveness  of  competitive  war  become 
so  evident  that  combination  is  inevitable.  The  result  is  some  one 
of  the  various  forms  of  combination  by  which  competition  is 
stifled  and  monopoly  established. 

The  wage  workers  seek  political  victory  in  order  that  they 
may  impress  their  interests  upon  the  social  organism  and  thereby 
remove  the  evils  under  which  they  suffer  at  the  present  time.  Since 
most  of  the  evils  of  which  they  complain  spring  from  the  fact 
that  they  are  debarred  from  access  to  natural  resources  and  the 
instruments  for  the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth,  their 
first  demand  is  that  such  access  be  freely  granted.    But  free  ac- 


724  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIEW. 

cess  implies  legal  ownership  and  with  modem  concentrated  com- 
plex industry  this  ownership  cannot  be  individual  unless  all  the 
evils  of  the  present  system  are  retained.  Hence  we  have  a  demand 
for  collective  ownership. 

Thus  socialism  as  a  philosophy  is  mainly  an  analysis  of  capi- 
talism. As  an  ideal,  as  a  social  stage,  it  presupposes  the  capi- 
talist system,  since  it  alone  can  prepare  the  way  for  socialism. 
This  future  system,  or  ideal,  is  in  no  sense  of  the  word  a  scheme 
whose  adoption  is  asked  for  by  the  socialists.  It  is  simply  the 
next  logical  stage  in  social  evolution.  Socialists  do  not  attempt 
therefore  to  give  any  details  of  that  future  society  since  all  such 
details  will  1^  dependent  upon  the  decision  of  a  majority  of  the 
working  class  of  that  future  time,  and  upon  the  stage  of  indus- 
trial development  which  has  been  attained  when  socialism  is 
ushered  in.  Since  it  is  manifestly  impossible  to  foresee  either  of 
these  factors  at  the  present  time,  any  attempt  to  forecast  the  de- 
tails of  their  outcome  would  be  plainly  impossible. 

Socialists  maintain  that  the  coming  society  will  be  preferable 
to  the  present  one  especially  for  the  working  class.  With  a  col- 
lective democratically  managed  organization  of  industry  in  which 
natural  resources  and  the  mechanical  means  for  the  production 
and  distribution  of  wealth  have  their  ownership  vested  in  so- 
ciety and  where  production  is  for  the  direct  use  of  the  producers 
and  not  for  sale,  the  wtastes  of  the  present  system  will  be  largely 
abolished.  Among  these  wastes  which  will  be  abolished  are  ad- 
vertising, duplication  of  plants  and  power,  poor  utilization  of  me- 
chanical progress,  disadvantageous  geographical  location  of  in- 
dustries, etc.  Some  of  these  are  already  being  abolished  by  the 
trust  method  of  production.  But  at  the  present  time  the  saving 
accomplished  redounds  almost  wholly  to  the  benefit  of  the  few 
owners  of  the  trustified  industrv.  In  ad'lition  to  this  socialists 
maintain  that  much  greater  savings  would  be  made  under  social- 
ism by  the  utilization  in  productive  labor  of  the  energies  of  whole 
classes  of  the  population  from  whose  strength  and  ability  so- 
ciety, at  present,  derives  little  or  no  advantage.  This  would  be 
true,  for  example,  not  alone  of  the  present  army  of  the  unem- 
ployed amounting  in  the  United  States  to  between  one  and  three 
million,  according  to  industrial  conditions,  but  also  the  purely 
capitalist  class  whose  function  of  ownership  being  performed  col- 
lectively would  enable  the  members  of  that  class  to  directly  assist 
in  production.  By  far  the  larger  share  of  that  portion  of  the 
population  concerned  in  the  protection  of  individual  property 
rights  in  what  socialism  would  make  collective  property,  such  as 
lawyers,  judges,  police,  private  watchmen,  detectives,  and  the 
army  and  navy,  would  also  be  capable  of  utilization  in  the  pro- 
duction of  material  wealth. 

Socialists  also  claim  that  in  a  co-operative  society  the  sum 


SOCIALISM   AND   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT.  725 

total  of  human  happiness  would  be  immensely  increased  by  mak- 
mg  the  production  of  goods  in  itself  pleasurable.  Wlien  profit 
and  the  competitive  struggle  are  abolished  and  productive  ener- 
gies fully  utilized  there  wUl  be  a  possibility  of  that  leisurely  ar- 
tistic creative  activity  which  modem  psychology  and  pedagogy 
agree  is  capable  of  furnishing  the  most  intense  pleasure  and  val- 
uable educational  training  to  the  individual  wx>rker  while,  at  the " 
same  time,  producing  the  best  possible  goods  for  the  satisfaction 
of  human  needs.  It  is  this  phase  of  socialism  which  has  always 
attracted  artists  and  has  given  rise  to  the  now  extensive  arts  and 
crafts  movement.  It  is  easy  to  see  in  this  connection  that  social- 
ism would  oflfer  a  much  greater  field  for  the  development  of  indi- 
viduality than  is  possible  for  the  great  mass  of  the  people  to-day. 

The  theory  of  socialism  is  itself  a  product  of  evolution,  the 
ideal  appearing  long  before  the  philosophy  of  society  and  the 
scientific  analysis  of  social  relations  which  make  possible  the 
realization  of  that  ideal  were  worked  out  Ever  since  the  days  of 
Plato,  and  especially  since  the  writing  of  Sir  Thomas  More's 
Utopia,  men  have  dreamed  of  a  society  which  should  be  a  co- 
operative brotherhood.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  i8th  and 
first  half  of  the  19th  century  Utopian  socialism  reached  a  higli 
degree  of  development  and  found  numerous  illustrious  followers. 
Among  these  were  Fourier,  Babaeuf,  Saint  Simon,  and  Cabet  in 
Europe,  and  a  few  years  later  Greeley,  Dana,  and  Nathaniel  Haw- 
thorne in  America  would  be  largely  included  in  this  class.  Rob- 
ert Owen  marked  somewhat  of  an  advance  on  this  position.  While 
he  founded  colonies  and  pictured  Utopias,  he  also  set  forth  many 
ideas  that  have  since  become  a  part  of  modern  scientific  socialism. 
Lassalle,  Rodbertus,  and  Weitling  in  Germany,  Colins  and  De 
Paepe  in  Belgium  also  helped  to  some  degree  to  formulate  pres- 
ent socialist  philosophy  while  they  still  clung  to  much  of  Utopian- 
ism.  It  is  with  the  work  of  Karl  Marx  and  Frederic 
Engels,  however,  that  modern  socialism  began  to  definitely 
take  on  the  forms  by  which  it  is  known  to-day.  In  1845  Marx 
was  ordered  out  of  Paris  and  went  to  Brussels  where  he  was 
joined  by  Engels  and  where  they  founded  the  "German  Working- 
Men's  Association"  with  the  Deutsche  Brusseler  Zeitung  as 
its  organ.  It  was  while  here  that  they  became  members  of  the 
Communist  League  and  wrote  the  Communist  Manifesto,  to 
which  reference  was  previously  made. 

A  philosophical  and  a  political  goal  presupposes  an  organiza- 
tion for  propaganda  and  political  activity.  The  body  that  is  gen- 
«rally  lodced  upon  as  the  ancestor  of  the  present  world-wide  So- 
cialist organizations  is  "The  League  of  the  Just"  organized  in 
Paris  in  1836.  The  aims  of  this  organization  were,  however, 
very  indefinite  and  its  principal  significance  lies  in  its  transforma- 
tion in  1847  into  the  "Communist  League."     This  change  was 


726  THE  INTBKNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   BEVIEW. 

brought  about  through  the  influence  of  Marx  and  Engels.  While 
the  '*Communist  League"  exercised  considerable  influence  on  coii 
tinental  labor  movements  during  the  first  two  or  three  jiears  of 
its  existence,  yet  it  was  overwhelmed  in  the  reaction  which  fol- 
lowed the  revolutions  of  1848,  and  by  1853,  ^^  had  practically  dis- 
appeared. Its  great  contribution  to  socialism  lies  in  the  fafct  that* 
under  its  auspices  was  issued  a  document  that  for  far  reaching 
consequences  and  lasting  influence  must  be  considered  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  ever  written.  This  was  the  Communist  Mani- 
festo drawn  up  by  Marx  and  Engels  as  a  committee  of  the 
Communist  League  in  1848.  This  work  consists  of  a  summary  of 
the  philosophy  of  socialism  and  has  been  translated  into  almost 
every  known  language,  and  still  constitutes  the  most  generally  cit 
culated  work  on  socialism  in  existence.  New  editions  and  trans- 
lations appear  continually  throughout  the  world.  The  next  great 
step  was  the  organization  of  the  International  Working-Men's 
Association  at  Saint  Martin's  Hall,  London.  8  Sept.  1864. 
A  committee  appointed  by  this  meeting  and  composed  of  50  mem- 
bers representing  six  nationalities  presented  a  declaration  of  prin- 
xiples  which  was  written  by  Karl  Marx  and  which  was  unam- 
mously  accepted  by  the  organization.  Since  this  declaration  has 
formed  the  basis  of  almost  countless  socialist  platforms  in  differ- 
ent countries  since  that  time,  it  is  worth  reproducing : 

''In  conftderation  that  the  emancipation  of  the  working  class  must  be 
accomplished  by  the  working  class  itself,  that  the  struggle  for  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  working  class  does  not  signify  a  struggle  for  class  privileges 
and  monopolies,  but  for  equal  rights  and  duties,  and  the  abolition  of  class 
rule; 

That  the  economic  dependence  of  the  working  man  upon  the  owner 
of  the  tools  of  production,  the  sources  of  life,  forms  the  basis  of  every 
kind  of  servitude,  of  social  misery,  of  spiritual  degradation,  and  political 
dependence ; 

That,  therefore,  the  economic  emancipation  of  the  working  class  is 
the  great  end  to  which  every  political  movement  must  be  subordinated  as  a 
simple  auxiliary; 

That  all  exertions  which,  up  to  this  time,  have  been  directed 
toward  the  attainment  of  this  end  have  failed  on  account  of  the 
want  of  solidarity  between  the  various  branches  of  labor  in  every  land, 
and  by  reason  of  the  absence  of  a  brotherly  bond  of  unity  between  the 
working  claesses  of  different  countries; 

That  the  emancipation  of  labor  is  neither  a  local  nor  a  national,  but 
a  social  problem,  which  embraces  all  countries  in  which  modern  society  ex- 
ists, and  whose  solution  depends  upon  the  practical  and  theoretical  co- 
operation of  the  most  advanced  countries; 

That  the  present  awakening  of  the  working  class  in  the  industrial 
countries  of  Europe  gives  occasion  for  a  new  hope^  but  at  the  same  time 
contains  a  solemn  warning  not  to  fall  back  into  old  errors,  and  demands 
an  immediate  union  of  the  movements  not  yet  united; 

''The  First  International  Labor  Congress  declares  that  the  Interna- 
tional Working  Men's  Association,  and  all  societies  and  individualities  be- 
longing to  it,  recognize  truth,  right  and  morality  as  the  basis  of  their 
conduct  toward  one  another  and  their  fellow  men,  without  respect  to  color, 
creed,  or  nationality.     The  Congress  regards  it  as  the  duty  of  man  to  de- 


SOCIALISM   AND   SOCIALIST    MOVEiMENT.  727 

mand  the  rights  of  a  man  and  citizen,  not  only  for  himself,  but  for  every 
one  who  does  his  duty.    No  rights  without  duties ;  no  duties  without  rights. ' ' 

In  1845  Frederick  Engels  had  already  published  "The  Condi- 
tion of  the  Working  Classes  in  England  in  1844,"  which  was  the 
first  work  to  set  forth  the  materialistic  interpretation  of  history. 
In  1867  the  first  voliune  of  Marx's  ''Capital'  appeared  which  has 
ever  since  been  the  great  fundamental  text  book  of  socialism. 
About  1876  Engels  published  ^'Socialism  Utopian  and  Scientific/' 
another  work  almost  equally  important,  although  much  smaller  hi 
size.  These  works  gave  the  fundamental  principles  of  socialism 
to  the  world,  and  although  these  principles  have  been  enlarged 
and  applied  in  countless  directions  by  a  great  army  of  writers 
since  then,  they  have  with  very  trifling  exceptions  stood  the  test 
of  time  and  have  suffered  little  change. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  "Internationar'  anarchistic  forces 
under  the  leadership  of  Bakounin  threatened  to  gain  control,  and 
in  order  to  avoid  this  catastrophe  the  socialists,  who  were  still 
in  the  majority,  voted  to  remove  the  headquarters  of  the  organiza- 
tion from  London  to  New  York.  There  was  another  purpose  in 
this  also.  It  was  felt  by  Marx  and  others  that  since  the  doctrines 
of  socialism  had  been  included  in  various  National  working- 
men's  movements,  and  had  been  somewhat  systematized  by  the 
discussions  of  congress,  that  the  time  for  a  great  centralizes 
organization  was  past,  and  that  its  disappearance  would  be  the 
best  thing  possible.  This  ends  the  history  of  the  socialist  move- 
ment as  one  centralized  organization,  and  it  can  henceforth  be  best 
studied  in  its  various  national  manifestations. 

Germany, — Owing  to  the  fact  that  socialism  in  Germany  was 
to  some  extent,  in  advance  of  the  movement  in  other  countries 
its  history  is  largely  typical.  It  has  also  furnished  many  of  the 
foremost  writers  and  organizers  of  socialism  and  has,  numerically, 
always  been  in  the  front  rank  of  the  International  Socialist  organi- 
zation. For  these  various  reasons,  the  German  Socialist  move- 
ment must  occupy  considerable  space  in  any  discussion  of  socialism. 
On  the  theoretical  side  it  is  commonly  said  that  German  socialism 
goes  back  to  Fichte  and  Hegel  and  Kant  for  many  of  its  premises. 
But  the  fifst  writers  who  are  directly  linked  with  the  modern 
doctrines  of  socialism  in  Germany  are  Professor  Winkelblech, 
better  known  as  "Karl  Mario,"  Rodbertus  and  Weitling.  Mario 
developed  the  germs  of  the  idea  of  collectivism  and  Rodbertus 
of  surplus  value  and  the  doctrine  of  crises  as  due  to  over-pro- 
duction. But  neither  of  them  carried  their  ideas  to  a  sufficient 
perfection  to  have  in  any  way  entitled  them  to  recognition  had 
it  not  been  for  the  fact  that  owing  to  the  work  of  later  writers, 
and  economic  and  political  events,  these  ideas  became  of  so  great 
importance  as  to  lead  to  the  most  diligent  search  into  their  origins. 
Wilhelm  Weitling  is  much  more  closely  linked,  both  in  doctrines 


728  THE  INTEBNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

and  in  activity,  with  the  modern  movement  than  either  of  the 
others.  From  1830  to  1843  h^  was  active  as  a  writer  and  agitator 
in  Germany  and  Switzerland.  He  was  arrested  in  1843  ^ind 
imprisoned.  This  was  but  the  beginning  of  a  systematic  persecu- 
tion which  finally,  in  1849,  drove  him  to  the  United  States,  where 
we  shall  hear  from  him  again,  and  where  he  died  on  Jan,  25, 
1871.  Yet  after  all,  he  was  largely  a  dreamer  and  Utopian,  and 
it  is  Ferdinand  Lassalle  who  really  must  be  looked  upon  as  the 
founder  of  the  German  Socialist  movement,  even  though  little 
that  was  distinctly  Lassallean  in  doctrine  remains  in  the  German 
Social  Democracy  of  today.  Lasalle  was  born  at  Breslau  1 1  April, 
1825,  studied  first  at  the  Trade  School  at  Leipsic,  and  then  took 
up  philolc^y  and  philosophy  at  Breslau  and  Berlin,  where  he 
passed  his  examination  with  distinction.  The  stormy  times  of 
1848  drew  him  into  the  struggles  of  the  working  men  and  brought 
him  slightly  in  contact  with  Marx  and  Engels,  although  there  is 
little  evidence  that  he  was  influenced  by  them  at  this  time.  Lassalle 
did  little  in  the  way  of  active  agitation  until  1862.  He  published 
"The  System  of  Acquired  Rights,"  containing  many  socialistic 
ideas,  1861.  On  12  April,  1862,  he  delivered  before  an  Artisan's 
Association  in  Berlin  his  famous  lecture  on  the  labor  program 
(Arbeiterpragramm:  fiber  den  besonderen  Zusamfnenhang  der 
gegenwartigen  Geschichtsperiode  mit  der  Idee  des  Arbeiterstands). 
in  this  lecture  he  set  forth  many  of  the  ideas  that  have  since 
become  part  of  the  Socialist  philosophy.  The  published  copies 
of  this  lecture  were  at  once  seized  and  destroyed  by  the  police 
and  Lassalle  was  arrested.  At  his  trial  he  delivered,  as  his 
defense,  his  now  famous  speech  on  "Science  and  the  Working- 
men"  (Die  Wissenschaft  und  die  Arbeiter).  The  next  step 
was  taken  in  response  to  an  invitation  to  address  the  Leipsic 
Workingmen's  Association,  one  of  the  numerous  rather  indefi- 
nite labor  organizations  which  were  later  destined  to  become  of 
great  importance  in  the  German  Socialist  movement.  Lassalle 
sent  his  "Open  Reply  Letter."  In  this  he  set  forth  his  adher- 
ence to  the  Ricardian  theory  of  the  iron  law  of  wages.  He 
declared  that  the  only  solution  of  the  poverty  of  the  working  class 
was  the  organization  of  productive  associations  of  the  workers  for 
which  the  State  must  provide  the  necessary  capital.  To  secure  this 
end  he  declared  that  "the  working  classes  must  constitute  them- 
selves into  an  independent  political  party,  and  must  make  uni- 
versal, equal,  and  direct, suffrage  their  watchword.  The  repre- 
sentation of  the  working  classes  in  the  legislative  bodies  of  Ger- 
many— ^that  alone  can  satisfy  their  legitimate  interests  in  a 
political  sense."  On  19  May,  1863,  the  Congress  of  Wiorkmen 
at  Frankfurt-on-Main  adopted  Lassalle's  program,  and  four  days 
later  the  'TJniversal  German  Workingmen's  Association,"  which 
was  later  to  develop  into  the  German  Social  Democracy,  was 


SOCIALISM  AND   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT.     .  729 

founded.  Lassalle,  however,  was  destined  to  see  small  fruits 
from  his  work.  After  a  few  months  of  tireless,  energetic,  elo- 
quent agitation,  with  apparently  small  results,  he  was  drawn  jnto 
a  duel  on  a  purely  personal  matter,  was  fatally  wounded,  'and 
died  31  Aug.,  1864.  For  a  time  considerable  confusion  existed. 
The  International  Workingmen's  Association,  whose  organiza- 
tion at  London  in  1864  has  already  been  described,  began  to 
have  an  influence  in  Germany.  Wilhelm  Liebknecht  was  its 
principal  worker.  Many  of  the  principles  of  the  Marx- 
ian economics  which  had  been  accepted  by  the  International, 
were  opposed  to  the  doctrines  of  Lassalle.  This  was  particularly 
true  of  the  State-assisted  productive  associations.  In  1867  uni- 
versal suffrage  was  granted  for  the  North  German  Reichstag 
and  the  socialists  polled  between  30,000  and  40,000  votes,  electing 
six  memfeers,  among  whom  was  August  Bebel,  who  has  never 
ceased  since  then  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  German  socialism, 
and  who  had  been  converted  by  Liebknecht  to  the  Marxian  posi- 
tion and  the  support  of  the  International.  In  1869  at  Eisenach 
the  Marxian  wing  organized  the  SosicU  Demokraiischen  Arbeiter 
Partei.  For  the  next  few  years  the  strife  between  the  Eisenach- 
ers  and  the  Lassalleans  was  fierce.  This,  however,  did  not 
prevent  the  rapid  growth  of  Socialism,  and  in  1874  331,670  votes 
were  cast  for  the  Socialist  candidates.  Three  Lassalleans  and 
seven  Eisenachers,  including  BebeJ  and  Liebknecht,  both  of 
whom  were  in  prison  for  alleged  treasonable  utterances  during 
the  Franco-Prussian  war,  were  elected  to  the  Reichstag.  This 
great  success  brought  down  the  wrath  of  the  governing  powers, 
and  a  period  of  persecution  began,  the  first  effect  of  which  was 
to  close  up  the  breach  between  the  two  Socialist  parties  at  the 
Congress  of  Gotha  in  May,  1875.  This  union  was  followed  by 
a  rapid  increase  in  the  Socialist  vote,  which  by  1877  had  reached 
nearly  500,000.  Meanwhile  Bismarck  was  bending  every  energy 
to  force  repressive  measures  through  the  Reichstag.  It  is  proba- 
ble that  he  would  have  failed  in  this,  had  it  not  been  that  two 
insane  persons  attempted  to  assassinate  the  Emperor.  Bismarck 
at  once  declared  that  these  attacks  were  inspired  by  the  Socialists, 
although  there  was  never  the  slightest  evidence  to  justify  this 
assertion.  However,  he  at  once  dissolved  the  Reidistag,  and 
by  means  of  the  most  inflammatory  appeals  to  public  prejudice 
succeeded  in  getting  a  majority  subservient  to  his  purposes.  A 
law  was  forced  through  which  practically  outlawed  the  entire 
socialist  movement.  It  prohibited  the  formation  or  existence 
of  organizations  which  sought  by  Social  Democratic,  socialistic,  or 
anarchist  movements  to  subvert  the  present  State  and  social 
order.  Provision  was  also  made  that  where  even  these  very 
stringent  measures  were  ineffective,  any  city  could  be  declared 
in  a  "minor  stage  of  siege"  in  which  all  public  activity  was 


730  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

directly  controlled  by  the  police.  The  Socialists  at  once  de- 
termined upon  a  policy  of  "shamming  dead."  The  organ  of  the 
Socialist  Party  was  transferred  to  Switzerland,  and  from  there 
circulated  in  great  numbers  throughout  Germany.  The  only 
attempt  at  public  propaganda  within  Germany  was  through  tht: 
speeches  of  the  Socialist  members  in  the  Reichstag.  At  the 
first  election  taking  place  under  this  Reign  of  Terror  in  1881, 
It  appeared  as  if  the  policy  of  suppression  was  succeeding,  as 
the  Socialist  vote  fell  to  a  little  over  300,000.  From  that  time 
on,  however,  and  in  spite  of  oppression,  the  party  grew  by  leaps 
and  bounds,  until  in  1890  it  polled  1,427.298  votes.  It  being 
manifestly  impossible  to  consider  a  million  and  a  half  of  voters  as 
outlaws,  the  anti-socialist  law  was  allowed  to  lapse  in  March,  1890, 
and  Bismarck  was  dismissed  as  Minister.  From  that  time  to  the 
present  the  Socialist  movement  has  continued  to  grow. 

THIRTY   years'   GROWTH   OF  THE   SOCIAL   DEMOCRATIC   PARTY. 

Year.  Popular  Vote.  Members. 

1871    124,655                 2 

1874    351.952                 9 

1877 493,288  12 

1878    437,158                 9 

1881 311,961  12 

1884    549,990  24 

1887    ^ 763,128  II 

1890    1,427,298  35 

J893    1,876,738  44 

1898    2,113,073  56 

1903 3,008,000  81 

France. — The  French  Socialist  movement,  largely  because  of 
the  fact  that  France  was  the  country  in  which  Utopianism  reached 
its  highest  point,  and  because  also  of  the  rather  backward  eco- 
nomic conditions,  was  for  many  years  split  into  various  factions. 
In  December,  1899,  these  united,  but  only  for  a  short  time.  Mil- 
lerand  entered  Parliament  soon  after  unity  had  been  formed, 
and  it  was  generally  considered  that  such  action  on  his  part 
was  contrary  to  Socialist  principles,  and  a  split  followed.  In 
September,  1900.  the  Parti  Ouvrier  Francais,  of  which  Jules 
Guesde  and  Paul  Lafargue  were  the  most  prominent  members, 
withdrew  from  the  union.  In  1901  they  were  joined  by  the 
Blanquists,  having  Edouard  Vaillant  as  their  principal  leader. 
These  two  bodies  together  with  some  later  seceders,  organi2ed 
the  Parti  Socialist  de  France,  and  at  the  same  time  the  other 
faction  organized  as  the  Parti  Socialist  Francais.  This  party  has 
shown  a  tendency  to  further  division,  as  very  many  of  its  mem- 
bers are  opposed  to  the  opportunist  tactics  of  its  leaders.     The 


SOCIALISM   AND   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT.  731 

Socialist  parties  of  France  have  been  of  rather  recent  date.  The 
following  table  gives  their  vote  from  their  first  appearance  to  the 
present  time: 

Deputies. 

1887  47,000 

1889 120,000 

1893  440,000  32 

1898 790,000  38 

1900 880,000  47 

Belgium, — In  Belgium  there  is  but  one  Socialist  Party,  the 
Parti  Oiwrier  Beige,  which  was  founded  in  1885.  F^  several 
years  the  franchise  was  very  limited  and  the  Socialists  were  barred 
from  any  effective  political  action.  Accordingly  the  early  years 
of  the  party  were  given  up  to  agitation  in  favor  of  universal 
suffrage.  This  culminated  in  a  series  of  great  demonstrations 
and  finally  in  the  general  strike  in  1893,  which  resulted  in  the 
granting  of  universal  suffrage  to  all  males  over  the  age  of  25 
years.  This  was  much  qualified,  for  in  many  elections  there  is 
a  complex  system  of  plural  voting  by  which  those  possessing  prop- 
erty or  special  educational  qualifications  have  two  or  three  votes, 
while  the  propertyless  wage-workers  have  but  one.  Yet  at  the  first 
election  in  1894  the  Socialist  Party  polled  320,000  votes  and 
elected  28  deputies  out  of  152,  In  1900  this  was  increased  to 
463,000  votes  with  32  deputies  and  four  Senators.  The  principal 
characteristic  of  the  Belgian  Socialist  movement  is  the  peculiarly 
close  affiliation  of  the  three  jrfiases  of  the  working  class  movement, 
the  co-operative,  trade  union,  and  political  activity.  Practically 
every  trade  unionist  is  also  a  Socialist  and  a  member  of  some 
one  of  the  co-operative  organizations. 

Hollaftd. — The  Social  Demokratische  Arbeiderspartij  was  or- 
ganized in  1894.  For  some  little  time  the  anarchist  influences 
threatened  to  gain  control,  but  in  1900  the  anarchists,  with  their 
leader,  Dbmela  Niew'enhuis,  were  expelled  from  the  old  "Social- 
isten  Band/'  in  which  they  had  hitherto  been  dominant,  and  that 
organization  merged  with  the  Socialist  Party.  At  this  time  the 
daily  paper,  Recht  Voor  Allen,  which  had  been  founded  by  Niew- 
enhuis,  became  a  Socialist  journal.  The  elections  held  in  1901, 
in  which  the  Socialists  contested  10  districts,  resulted  in  the 
election  of  nine  socialists  to  the  Lower  House  with  a  total  Socialist 
vote  of  39,000. 

Detmurrk. — In  Denmark  the  Socialist  movement,  lik#  that  of 
Belgium,  is  closely  affiliated  with  the  trade  unions,  and  Denmark 
claims  to  be  the  most  thoroughly  organized  country  in  the  world, 
over  75  per  cent,  of  its  working  class,  including  ruraJ  laborers, 
being  included  in  the  unions.  They  also  have  a  very  strong  co- 
operative movement  in  connection  with  the  Socialist  movement. 


733  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW. 

The  following  table  gives  the  vote  since  the  formation  of  th« 

party : 

1872 268 

1876 1,076 

1881   1,689 

1884 6,806 

1887 8408 

1890 17,232 

1892 20,094 

1895 24,508 

1898 31.872 

1901  42,972 

1903 55479 

Italy. — During  the  time  that  tlie  German  Socialist  movement 
was  forming  and  the  International  was  carrying  the  doctrines 
of  Socialism  into  various  other  European  countries,  Italy  was 
still  ideologically  under  the  influence  of  the  bourgeois  liberalism 
of  Mazzini,  and  conspiratory  anarchism  as  represented  by  Bakou- 
nin.  When  these  two  movements  died  out,  all  activity  among 
the  laboring  classes  seem  to  disappear,  and  all  attempts 
at  socialist  agitation  were  brutally  repressed.  A  Socialist  Con- 
gress under  the  honorary  presidency  of  Garibaldi  was  held  at 
Rome  in  February,  1881.  The  socialism  here  set  forth,  however, 
was  still  very  indefinite,  the  principal  demand  being  for  universal 
suffrage.  In  1882,  in  response  to  an  energetic  agitation,  the  fran- 
chise was  somewhat  extended,  but  was  still  very  restricted. 
NeverthelesiH  the  Socialists  were  enabled  in  1883  to  contest  13 
districts  and  elect  two  deputies.  The  present  Socialist  party  was 
organized  at  Milan  in  1891  and  the  organization  perfected  at 
Genoa  in  1892.  The  first  election  in  which  it  participated  was 
in  1893,  when  27,000  votes  were  cast.  This  was  followed  by  a 
period  of  oppression  under  Crispi,  in  many  respects  analogous 
to  that  which  took  place  in  Germany  under  Bismarck.  One 
phase  of  this,  however,  was  somewhat  different.  Under  the 
pretence  of  revision  the  electoral  lists  were  so  tampered  with  as 
to  disfranchise  thousands  of  Socialist  voters,  some  of  whom  were 
even  oflSceholders,  and  whose  qualifications  had  never  been  chal- 
lenged. So  far  was  this  carried  that,  in  some  districts  which  were 
known  tojbe  dominantly  Socialist,  almost  the  entire  population 
was  disfranchised.  The  Crispi  ministry  was  wrecked  on  the 
Abyssinian  expedition,  and  his  successor,  Rudini,  somewhat  relaxed 
the  persecution.  Two  tendencies  are  apparent  in  the  Socialist 
movement  of  Italy,  as  in  several  other  countries.  The  orthodox 
Marxian  wing  has  as  its  principal  representative  Enrico  Fern, 
the  well-known  criminologist,  who  is  editor  of  Avanti.  The  leader 
of  the  Opportunist  group  is  Philippo  Turati.    One  of  the  remarka- 


SOCIALISM  AND  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT.  733 

ble  features  of  the  Italian  movement  has  been  the  hold  which 
it  has  gained  among  the  agricultural  workers.  This  is  due  un- 
doubtedly to  the  extremely  pitiable  condition  to  which  these 
workers  have  been  reduced.  The  following  table  gives  tfie  vote 
of  the  party,  with  the  members  of  Parliament  elected  since  i8g2 : 

189s  78,359  II 

1897 120,000  16 

1900 170,841  31 

Spain. — Spain  was  one  of  the  countries  in  which  the  influence 
of  the  International  was  strong.  At  a  Congress  held  in  Barcelcma 
in  June,  1870,  40,000  members  of  the  ^'International"  Were  repre- 
sented. Unfortunately,  the  anarchist  followers  of  Bakounin  gained 
considerable  influence  here,  as  in  Italy,  and  with  the  same  result 
that  the  revolutionary  movement  well  nigh  disappeared.  This,  in 
spite  of  the  activity  of  Paul  Lafargue,  the  son-in-law  of  Kan 
Marx,  to  whom  reference  was  made  in  the  discussion  of  the 
French  movement,  and  who  was  at  that  time  living  in  Spain.  In 
1882  the  present  Social  Deniocratic  Labor  Party  was  organized, 
and  since  then  has  taken  part  in  numerous  elections.  At  the 
latest  report  of  the  party  there  were  73  groups,  with  about  10,000 
members,  and  a  press  of  13  publications.  Pablo  Iglesias  is  the 
most  prominent  member  of  the  Spanish  Socialist  movement. 

The  following  table  shows  the  elections  in  which  the  party 
has  participated: 

1891   S,ooo 

1893  7,000 

1898  t 20,000 

1899  23,000 

1901   25,000 

Austria, — One  of  the  great  difficulties  which  has  confronted 
the  Socialist  organizations  of  Austria  has  been  the  diversity  of 
nationalities.  Socialists  have  always  insisted  on  discrediting  all 
National  antagonisms  and  jealousies,  and  as  such  have  run  counter 
to  the  strong  national  and  race  sentiments  tliat  exist  in  all  classes 
of  the  population.  A  branch  of  the  "International"  existed  in 
Austria  in  1867,  and  in  1869  these  organized  a  demonstration 
in  which  100,000  men  marched  to  the  palace  to  demand  universal 
and  direct  suifrage,  freedom  of  speech  and  association,  and  liberty 
of  the  press.  This  demonstration  was  met  with  profuse  promises, 
but  as  soon  as  it  was  disbanded,  its  leaders  were  imprisoned,  and 
a  period  of  brutal  repression  followed,  which  momentarily  anni- 
hilated the  entire  Socialist  movement.  The  present  party  .was 
organized  at  a  Congress  held  at  Vienna  in  1888,  and  is  closely 
united  to  a  strong  trade  union  movement.  Its  first  effort  was 
to  obtain  an  extension  of  the  suffrage,  and  it  was  finally  success- 


784  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BBVIBW. 

ful  in  gaining  a  sort  of  class  representation  by  which  the  nobility 
and  clergy  form  one  class,  the  great  capitalists  the  second,  the 
small  property  owners  the  third,  the  peasant  proprietors  the  fourth, 
and  finally  the  proletarian  wage-workers  were  made  a  fifth  class. 
Each  of  these  classes  elect  a  certain  ntxnber  of  representatives. 
This,  of  course,  means  that  one  man  in  the  first  and  second  class 
might  easily  outvote  several  thousand  in  the  fifth  class.  Never- 
theless at  the  first  election,  held  in  1897,  750,000  Socialist  votes 
were  cast  and  15  deputies  elected.  In  1900  the  second  election 
was  held,  in  which  wholesale  intimidation  and  threats  on  the  part 
of  the  governing  classes  resulted  in  the  reduction  of  the  Socialist 
vote  to  600,000,  and  their  representation  to  11  deputies.  A  co- 
operative movement  with  170  organizations,  including  53,000  mem- 
bers, and  with  a  capital  of  17,000,000  kronen,  is  affiliated  with 
the  Socialist  party. 

England, — ^Although  it  was  in  England  that  Marx  and  Lieb- 
knecht  wrote  many  of  the  classics  of  Socialism,  and  although 
England  has  been  looked  upon  as  the  classic  land  of  capital" 
ism,  still  Socialism  in  England  ranks  far  behind  the  movement 
of  other  countries  which  it  might  have  been  expected  to  surpass. 
This  has  received  many  explanations.  Perhaps  the  most  satisfactory 
of  these  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  domination  of  the  world 
market  enabled  English  capitalists  to  grant  small  favors  to  her 
laboring  class,  and  thus  prevent  any  broader  demands.  The  Social 
Democratic  Federation,  which  is  the  oldest  of  the  Socialist  bodies, 
was  organized  in  1879,  ^^ut  did  not  become  avowedly  Socialist 
until  1883.  The  Fabian  Society  was  organized  4  Jan.,  1884.  The 
Independent  Labor  Party  was  organized  in  Bradford  in  January, 
1893.  The  S.  D.  F.  represents  the  International  Marxian  stand- 
point; the  Independent  Labor  Party  more  of  the  Opportunist 
movement,  while  the  Fabian  Society  is  almost  purely  an  educa- 
tional organization.  A  recent  development  of  considerable  im- 
portance has  been  the  Labor  Representation  Committee.  This 
is  an  organization  for  the  purpose  of  securing  representation  of 
labor  in  Parliament.  In  the  beginning  all  three  Socialist  bodies 
were  affiliated,  but  later  the  S.  D.  F.  dropped  out  because  the 
Committee  refused  to  accei>t  the  Marxian  position.  This  body, 
which  is  now  largely  controlled  by  the  I.  L.  P.,  claims  the  adher- 
ence of  1,500,000  of  trade  unionists.  There  has  been  a  strong 
tendency,  however,  for  this  movement  to  grow  away  from  the 
Marxian  position,  and  many  candidates  have  been  supported  by 
it  who  did  not  accept  the  entire  socialist  platform.  It  is  difficult 
to  give  any  exact  figures  of  the  Socialist  vote  in  England, 
since  there  has  been  no  opportunity  to  test  their  strength  by  any 
general  Parliamentar>'  election.  It  is  commonly  estimated  to  be 
between  300,000  and  400,000. 


SOX:iALISM   AND   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT.  735 

Norway. — Capitalist  development  was  late  in  apf)earing  in 
Norway.  Political  attention  was  also  focused  largely  on  the 
question  of  the  union  between  Norway  and  Sweden,  so  that  it 
was  really  not  until  1900  that  the  Socialist  party  began  to  have 
an  independent  political  existence.  In  that  year  it  polled  7,440 
votes,  but  it  did  not  elect  any  representatives  to  the  Storthing. 
In  1903  this  was  increased  to  24,779,  and  four  representatives 
were  elected. 

Sweden, — Socialism  was  really  first  introduced  into  Sweden 
by  a  tailor  named  August  Palm,  who  had  studied  Socialism  in 
Germany.  He  established  a  paper  to  propagate  his  principles  in 
1881.  The  germs  of  an  organization  existed.  The  Socialist 
movement  is  in  close  co-operation  with  the  trade  unions,  and 
it  has  had  some  trouble  with  the  anarchists,  but  in  1891  it  drove 
these  out,  and  the  Marxian  movement  became  dominant.  There 
are  at  the  present  time  over  60,000  dues-paying  members,  but 
since  there  is  a  property  qualification  disfranchising  all  having 
an  income  of  less  than  800  kroners  a  year,  the  Socialist  vote  is 
very  small.  Nevertheless  they  have  succeeded  in  electing  one 
member  to  the  Riksdag.  In  municipal  elections  they  have 
succeeded  in  electing  several  members  to  municipal  positions. 
They  have  a  large  and  influential  press,  including  three  dailies, 
one  with  15,000,  one  with  12,000,  and  one  with  6,600  subscribers. 
They  are  endeavoring,  through  agitation  and  strikes,  to  secure 
universal  suffrage. 

Switserland. — Switzerland  has  long  been  a  refuge  for  exiled 
revolutionists.  It  was  one  of  the  strongholds  of  the  ''Interna- 
tional," and  Geneva  was  the  seat  of  several  congresses.  Never- 
theless the  party  did  not  take  part  in  elections  until  in  recent  years. 
The  following  gives  the  votes  at  the  various  elections  in  which 
they  have  participated: 

1890 13.500 

1893  29,822 

1896 36,468 

Russia. — The  Russian  Socialist  movement  is  of  necessity  secret. 
It  has  also  been  confused  in  the  past  with  purely  governmental 
reform  movements  upon  the  one  hand,  and  conspiratory  anarchist 
organizations  upon  the  other.  But  in  1898  *a  Socialist  Party  was 
organized  on  Marxian  principles,  with  an  extremely  active  secret 
propaganda,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Russian  conditions  are 
peculiarly  favorable  to  a  conspiratory  force  movement  and  the 
anarchist  philosophy,  the  result  here,  as  everywhere  else,  of  the 
appearance  of  a  Socialist  movement  has  been  the-  decline  of 
anarchist  activity.  The  initiative  for  the  party  comes  largely 
from  the  students  of  the  Russian  universities,  although  in  late 
years  there  have  been  extensive  movements  of  the  laborers  In 


786  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW. 

industrial  districts.  In  all  of  the  other  minor  European  nations 
Socialist  organizations  are  in  existence,  but  in  most  of  them 
they  are  rather  imimportant,  although  there  are  two  Socialist 
representatives  in  the  Servian  Legislative  Chamber.  The  Armen- 
ian Socialist  movement  is  quite  active,  and,  like  the  Polish,  has 
organizations  throughout  the  United  States  and  Europe,  which 
help  support  the  home  movement. 

Japan. — No  sooner  had  capitalism  reached  an  advanced  stage 
of  development  in  Japan  than  Socialist  activity  appeared.  This 
was  confined  to  agitation  by  lectures  and  pamphlets  until  1901, 
when  a  Socialist  Democratic  Party  was  founded,  which  was  at 
once  suppressed  by  the  government.  Nevertheless  there  is  now 
one  weekly  and  one  monthly  journal  de^roted  directly  to  Socialist 
propaganda,  while  several  other  papers  are  publishing  considerable 
Socialist  material  and  maintaining  a  favorable  attitude. 

South  America, — In  the  South  American  countries  there  is 
more  or  less  Socialist  activity  in  Brazil  and  the  Argentine  Repub- 
lic. In  the  latter  country  the  movement  has  reached  considerable 
proportions.  It  was  first  founded  in  1882  by  German  immigrants, 
and  in  1890  a  National  organization  was  effected  and  a  weekly 
paper  established.  By  April,  1894,  there  were  five  Socialist  groups, 
each  with  its  organ,  and  in  December  of  this  year  these  united 
in  a  Central  Committee.  At  the  present  time,  however,  the  vote 
is  insignificant.  The  official  statistics,  which  the  Socialists  claim 
are  incorrect,  only  record  204  votes  as  given  in  1902,  the  Socialists 
claiming  that  this  should  be  1,000.  On  March  13,  1904,  the 
Socialists  elected  Alfredo  Palacios  to  Parliament.  The  vote, 
however,  is.  not  yet  accessible  to  us. 

Even  in  China  word  has.  recently  come  of  the  translation  of 
the  works  of  Marx  and  Engels  into  Chinese,  and  the  statement 
is  made  by  one  of  the  prominent  Chinese  reformers  that  the  doc- 
trines of  Socialism  are  making  rapid  headway  in  that  country. 

United  States. — The  industrial  condition  of  the  United  States 
prevented  the  aj>pearance  of  any  strong  Socialist  movement  until 
within  comparatively  recent  years.  The  presence  of  an  ever- 
moving  frontier  led  to  a  social  stratification  by  geographic  stages 
which  was  constantly  changing,  and  which,  tiierefore,  prevented 
the  appearance  of  any  such  continuous  class  struggle  as  a  Social- 
ist lAilosophy  presupposes.  The  presence  of  free  land  and  the 
expanding 'market  meant  a  large  opportunity  for  individual  au- 
vancement,  both  from  the  ranks  of  laborers  to  capitalist  and  from 
small  capitalist  to  large  capitalist.  The  Socialist  movement  is 
peculiarly  a  product  of  the  industrial  proletariat,  and  while  the 
population  of  the  United  States  remained  largely  rural  such  a 
movement  could  gain  no  great  strength.  Again,  the  existence  of 
chattel  slavery  throughout  the  South,  prior  to  the  Civil  War, 
created  an  economic  contest  between  these  two  forms  of  industrial 


SOCIALISM  AND  SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT.  787 

organization  which  overshadowed  the  still  somewhat  indistinct 
contrast  between  laborers  and  capitalists.  But  though  these  in- 
dustrial conditions  prevented  the  growth  of  Socialism  in  the 
Eastern  sections,  they-  gave  the  greatest  encouragement  to  the 
growth  of  a  Utopian  Socialism,  and  so  it  came  about  that  for 
many  years  the  United  States  was  the  experimental  ground  on 
which  were  tested  the  various  theories  of  European  Utopians. 
These  movements  are  often  confounded  with  latter  day  Socialism. 
They  really  had  practically  no  connection,  save  that  both  have 
the  idea  of  collective  production.  But  the  collective  production 
of  the  colony  is  to  be  a  scheme  worked  out  in  our  present  society, 
while  the  collective  production  of  modern  Socialism  is  simply 
one  i^iase  of  the  coming  social  stage.  William  Weitling  came 
to  America  in  1849  ^^^  succeeded  in  organizing  something  of 
a  Socialist  movement  in  New  York  in  the  years  immediately 
following.  His  movement,  however,  was  of  short  duration,  as 
was  also  that  of  Joseph  Weydemeyer,  who  came  shortly  after 
him,  and  who  was  a  personal  friend  of  Marx  and  Engels.  The 
Civil  War  wiped  out  nearly  all  traces  of  both  of  these  move- 
ments. After  the  War  the  influence  of  the  "International"  ex- 
tended to  America.  This  influence  was  first  seen  in  the  National 
Labor  Union,  in  which  William  H.  Sylvis  was  the  most  promi- 
nent worker,  and  which  practically  disappeared  with  his  death 
in  1869.  During  the  next  three  years  numerous  sections  of  the 
"International"  were  organized  throughout  the  country,  and  on 
removal  of  the  "International"  to  this  country,  some  attempt  was 
made  to  revive  it,  but  its  last  convention  was  held  in  Philadelphia 
15  July,  1876,  and  this  convention  formally  dissolved  the  organi- 
zation. On  4  July,  1874,  the  Social  Democratic  Workingmen's 
Party  of  North  America  was  organized,  with  a  rather  indefinite 
Socialist  platform.  This  grew  in  strength  during  the  next  few 
years,  and  in  1877  the  name  was  changed  to  the  Socialist  Labor 
Party  of  North  America.  Following  the  extensive  labor  troubles 
of  1876  and  1877  this  party  grew  into  national  prominence,  and 
succeeded  in  electing  minor  officials  in  several  States.  But  it 
was  still  too  indefinite  to  protect  itself  from  anarchistic  influences 
which  crept  in,  and  which  nearly  wrecked  the  party,  until  finally 
those  influences  reached  their  climax  and  their  end  in  the  Hay- 
market  incident  in  Chicago.  The  work  of  organization  had  now 
to  be  practically  all  done  over  again.  In  September,  1887,  the 
Sixth  National  Convention  of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party,  held  at 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  took  up  the  work  of  reorganization.  The  Social- 
ist elements  in  the  labor  movement  were  still  rent  with  internal 
feuds,  but  by  1899  a  steady  upward  growth  began  to  be  seen. 
Meanwhile,  certain  other  movements  which  have  undoubtedly 
contributed  to  the  strength  of  Socialism  had  developed.  The 
Greenback  Party  and  the  Henry  George  movement  both  con- 


738  THE  INTERNATIONALr  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

tained  many  of  the  ideas  of  Socialism,  and  undoubtedly  proved 
a  means  by  which  many  were  led  to  adopt  the  Socialist  position. 
In  1892  the  Socialists  for  the  first  time  nominated  a  Presidential 
ticket,  consisting  of  Simon  Wing  of  Boston,  Mass.,  and  Charles 
H.  Matchett  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  The  following  table  shows  the 
growth  of  the  Socialist  movement  during  the  next  few  years : 

1892 21,512 

1893 25,666 

1894 30,120 

189s 341869 

1896 36,27s 

1897 55,550 

i8q8 82,204 

About  this  time  the  Socialist  Labor  Party  changed  its  attitude 
toward  the  trade  unions  and  established  the  Socialist  Trades  and 
I^bor  Alliance  as  a  rival  organization  to  the  existing  unions. 
But  this  at  once  led  to  an  animosity  both  within  and  without 
the  party,  and,  finally,  10  July,  1899,  a  split  starting  in  Section 
New  York  S.  L.  P.  rapidly  spread  throughout  the  country,  until 
a  large  majority  of  the  former  members  of  the  S.  L.  P.  had  left 
that  organization.  Meanwhile,  another  Socialist  Party  had  grown 
up  alongside  the  S.  L.  P.  Following  the  A.  R.  U.  strike  Eugene 
V.  Debs  declared  himself  a  Socialist,  and  organized  the  Social 
Democratic  Party.  This  quickly  drew  to  itself  a  large  number 
of  persons  who  had  objected  to  the  tactics  of  the  S.  L.  P.  Many 
of  these  were  persons  who  had  been  brought  to  an  interest  in 
Socialism  through  the  reading  of  Bellamy's  "Looking  Backward," 
which  had  a  tremendous  sale  during  the  late  '80s.  The  Social 
Democracy  was  first  organized  on  18  June,  1897,  at  a  convention 
in  Chicago.  At  this  time  it  still  retained  a  demand  for  coloniza- 
tion and  some  other  features  which  differentiated  it  from  the 
International  Marxian  movement.  On  7  June,  1898,  at  the  first 
National  Convention  of  the  Social  Democracy,  those  who  were 
opposed  to  these  principles  bolted  the  convention  and  organized 
the  Social  Democratic  Party  of  America.  This  party  had  a  very 
rapid  growth  in  several  States,  and  succeeded  in  electing  in  the 
fall  of  1899  two  representatives  to  the  Massachusetts  State  Legis- 
lature. After  considerable  trouble  and  delay,  a  union  was  effectea 
l>etween  the  Social  Democratic  Party  and  the  bolting  majority 
of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party  at  a  convention  held  in  Indianapolis 
29  July,  1901.  During  the  campaign  of  1900,  while  this  union 
was  not  completely  effected,  the  two  parties  supported  the  same 
candidates,  and  Eugene  V.  Debs  and  Job  Harriman  polled  a 
vote  of  97,730.  Meanwhile,  the  Socialist  Labor  Party  vote  had 
fallen  off  to  34,191.  At  the  unity  convention  of  Indianapolis  the 
name  Socialist  Party  was  chosen  for  the  united  party.     Since 


SOCIALISM   AND   SOCIALIST   MOVEMENT.  739 

that  time  this  party  has  been  growing  at  a  very  rapid  rate,  and 
at  the  present  writing  has  a  paid-up  membership  of  nearly  30,000. 
At  tlie  State  election  of  1902  the  total  vote  of  the  Socialist  Part}' 
reached  over  300,000.  Numerous  candidates  were  elected  to 
municipal  positions.  Although  the  old  International  disappeared 
in  1876,  quite  close  relations  have  been  continuously  kept  up 
between  the  various  Socialist  parties,  and  in  1889  the  first  of  a 
new  series  of  congresses  was  held  at  Paris.  This  was  followeu 
by  others,  as  follows :  Brussels,  1891 ;  Zurich,  1893 ;  Londpn, 
1896;  Paris,  1900;  and  the  next  is  to  be  held  at  Amsterdam  in 
1904.  At  the  Paris  Congress  an  International  Socialist  Com- 
mittee was  formed,  located  at  Brussels.  This  organization  differs 
from  the  old  International  in  that  it  is  simply  a  creature  of  the 
great  national  organizations  and  a  means  of  carrying  out  their 
common  ideas,  instead  of  being  a  great  directing  and  controlling 
force.  A.   M.   Simons. 


The  Japano- Russian  War — Its  Actual  Causes 
and  Probable  Effects. 

WHAT  is  it  all  about"? 
Ask  this  question  of  any  of  the  Russian  soldiers 
fighting  in  the  far  East  against  Japan,  and  you  will 
get  the  characteristic  reply: 

"Can't  tell ;  the  superiors  know  all  about  it.'' 

Address  the  identical  question  to  a  Japanese  sddier  and  you 
will  probably  receive  a  similar  answer. 

The  rank  and  file  of  the  Russian  and  Japanese  army  are  unso- 
phisticated children  of  the  people — ^peasants  or  city  laborers.  The 
Russian  soldiers  most  likely  before  the  beginning  of  the  war  were 
hardly  aware  of  the  existence  of  Japan,  just  as  the  Japanese  sol- 
diers probably  were  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  Russia.  There 
could  not  be  any  enmity  Between  the  Russian  and  Japanese  people. 

And  yet  torrents  of  human  blood  flow  in  the  Far  East,  and 
millions  of  dollars,  representing  untold  years  of  human  toil,  are 
wasted  in  the  costly  Japano-Russian  war. 

What  is  it  all  about? 

It  appears  obviously  that  Japan,  in  starting  the  war,  acted  in 
self-defense.  Indeed  Russia  is  a  dangerous  next-door  neighbor. 
The  actual  annexation  of  Manchuria  by  Russia  and  the  Czar's 
aggressive  policy  in  Corea  were  menacing  the  very  existence  of 
Japan  as  an  independent  state.  The  diplomatic  negotiations  con- 
cerning the  casus  belli  were  conducted  by  Russia  with  a  procras- 
tination that  confirmed  the  suspicions  of  Japan.  The  latter  is  cont- 
paratively  too  small  a  country  to  be  able  to  afford  taking  chances 
with  a  giant  adversary  like  Russia,  when  the  latter  is  fully 
equipped  for  war.  To  wait  till  Russia  would,  under  the  trans- 
parent cover  of  protracted  diplomatic  negotiations,  prepare  for 
striking  the  mortal  blow  would  be  suicidal  for  Japan. 

Russia  in  her  attitude  towards  Manchuria  and  Corea  followed 
its  traditional  policy  of  expansion,  its  "Drang  nach  O'sten." 

What  are  the  actual  motives  of  this  persistent  policy  of  expan- 
sion on  the  part  of  Russia? 

Reasoning  by  analogy  is  frequently  misleading,  due  to  the  hu- 
man inclination  to  presuppose  analogies  where  they  do  not  exist. 

England,  Germany,  France  and  lately  the  United  States  are 
pursuing  a  policy  of  expansion  or  imperialism. 

These  are  manufacturing  countries  in  which  the  ruling  class 
is  the  captains  of  industry,  the  owners  of  the  complete  mechanism 
of  production  and  transportation  of  commodities.  The  working 
classes  of  these  countries  do  not  receive  the  full  product  of  their 

7i0 


THE  JAPANO-BUSSIAN  WAB.  741 

toil  and  are  therefore  not  able  to  buy  all  the  goods  produced  by 
them.  With  the  increasing  perfection  of  the  tools  and  methods 
of  production  this  underconsumption  of  commodities  must  also  in- 
crease proportionately.  The  owners  of  the  tools  of  production,  in 
order  to  create  profit  for  themselves,  are  therefore  compelled  to 
look  for  new  markets  for  their  goods  or  ccMnmodities.  Expansion, 
imperialism,  is  consequently  a  policy  dictated  by  the  class  interests 
of  the  capitalists. 

It  is  therefore  natural  for  those  who  do  not  know  Russia  to 
conclude  that  the  Czar's  policy  of  expansion  is  dictated  by  indus- 
trial considerations.    However,  such  a  conclusion  is  erroneous. 

Russia  is  not  an  industrial,  but  almost  exclusively  an  agricul- 
tural country  with  a  very  sparsely  settled  population. 

In  spite  of  the  high  tariff  policy  recently  adopted  by  the  Rus- 
sian government,  its  manufacture  is  yet  in  its  infancy  and  cannot 
supply  the  inner  market.  There  is  no  powerful  middle  class  in 
Russia  as  yet. 

The  ruling  class  in  Russia  is  composed  of  officials  (chinovniks), 
oi  bureaucrats.  The  bureaucracy  is  interested  in  having  as  many 
"faithful  subjects"  as  it  can  get.  The  hundred  and  eighty  millions 
of  Russian  "subjects"  are  not  sufficient  for  the  chinovniks^  appe- 
tite. An  addition  of  twenty  millions  of  "subjects"  would  furnish 
a  new  field  for  exploitation  by  an  army  of  police  officers,  judges, 
revenue  inspectors  and  such  other  officials. 

The  expansion  of  Russia  means  the  expansion  of  the  power  of 
the  bureaucratic  class  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  the  degenerated 
gentry. 

Not  one  of  the  newly  acquired  territories  in  Asia  proved  to  be 
of  any  economic  value  to  the  national  treasury  of  Russia. 

The  Russian  people  has  nothing  to  gain  in  the  Japano-Rus- 
sian  war  and  a  great  deal  to  lose  in  money  and  blood. 

Prince  Peter  Krapotkin  said  in  T/ie  Speaker  "Looking 
now  upon  all  the  events,  I  cannot  but  say  that  it  was  a  misfortune 
for  the  Russian  nation  that  no  other  civilized  nation  had  taken 
possession  of  northern  Manchuria.  The  whole  history  of  that  part 
of  the  world  would  have  taken  another  turn,  if,  let  us  say,  the 
United  States  had  got  hold  of  this  territory.  The  colonization  of 
the  Ameer  and  that  railway  across  Manchuria  have  cost  immense- 
ly to  the  Russian  people;  but  this  territory  will  never  be  Russian." 
It  will  be  invaded  very  soon  by  Chinese,  Coreans,  and  Japanese 
settlers,  while  Russian  settlers  will  never  feel  at  home  in  that 
region  of  monsoons.  More  than  that.  Even  as  a  protection  against 
a  possible  march  of  the  yellow  race  against  Europe  Manchuria 
would  be  of  no  avail.  This  is  why,  before  the  present  war  broke 
out,  sa  many  Russians  advocated  that  the  Manchurian  railway,  or 
at  least  its  southern  portion  to  Port  Arthur,  should  be  sold  to 
China — 2l  solution  which  might  have  been  possible  then,  but  now, 


742  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOOIAUST  REVIEW. 

that  floods    of  blood  are  going  to  be  shed  this  would  be  impos- 
sible." 

That  Russia  will  never  be  allowed  to  take  possession  of  Corea 
by  England  and  the  United  States  is  a  foregone  conclusion. 

There  is  a  curious  similarity  between  the  present  Japano-Rus- 
sian  war  and  the  Crimean  war.  After  three  years  of  fruitless 
diplomatic  negotiations  the  Russian  ambassador  left  Constanti- 
nople on  May  21,  1858,  and  the  war  started  three  days  later.  Rus- 
sia was  unprepared  for  war. 

Silly  diplomats,  muddle-headed  generals  and  a  horde  of  in- 
capable civil  officials  instigated  and  conducted  the  war.  The  de- 
feat of  the  Russian  arms  proved  to  be  a  boon  to  the  Russian 
people.  Sebastopol  was  the  Waterloo  of  anti-reform  Rtissia. 
Nicholas  I  poisoned  himself  and  Alexander  II  inaugurated  an  era 
of  wide-reaching  reforms.  Should  the  Russian  government  meet 
with  another  Sebastopol,  history  may  yet  repeat  itself  and  Russia 
will  be  blessed  by  a  speedy  termination  of  the  Czar's  absolutism 
with  its  barbarity,  corruption  and  disgrace. 

The  loquacious  Emperor  of  Germany  called  contemptuously  the 
German  social-democrats  "fellows  without  a  fatherland"  {Voter- 
landslose  Gessellen).  Obviously  there  are  different  conceptions  of 
patriotism.  There  is  an  official  patriotism  embracing  the  interests 
of  the  ruling  parasitic  minority  and  there  is  a  genuine  patriotism 
manifesting  itself  in  sincere  devotion  to  the  true  interests  of  the 
toiling  broad  masses  of  the  people. 

Official  patriotism  is  the  last  refuge  of  parasitism  in  social  life 
and  leads  to  brutal  wholesale  and  retail  murder.  Enlightened  pa- 
triotism is  broader  than  geographical,  political  or  ethnical  lines  of 
demarkations ;  it  embraces  in  its  folds  all  humanity  and  leads  to 
peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  men. 

A  genuine,  enlightened  patriotism  is  expressed  by  the  Russian 
revolutionary  movement,  which  is  for  peace  with  Japan,  as  with 
all  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  against  the  bloody  hand  of  the  White 
Czar  greedily  grasping  evervthing  within  its  reach. 

IsADOR  Ladoff. 


Report  of  the  International  Bureau  by  the  Secretary 
for  the  United  States. 

Comrades  of  the  National  Convention  : 

The  International  Socialist  Bureau  was  formed  as  a  result  of 
the  Paris  convention  of  1900,  and  of  previous  conferences  between 
the  national  representatives  of  the  Socialist  movement  in  Europe. 

The  purpose  of  its  formation  was  to  constitute  an  international 
bureau,  through  which  the  Socialist  movement  of  the  various  na- 
tions of  the  world  might  communicate  with  each  other,  and  co- 
operate with  each  other  in  mutually  understood  programs  and,  so 
far  as  practicable,  in  united  action. 

Brussels  was  selected  as  the  seat  of  the  International  Bureau, 
and  semi-annual  meetings  have  been  held  since  the  bureau's  forma- 
tion. 

But  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  bureau  has  as  yet  accomplished 
much  beyond  keeping  itself  on  record,  or  beyond  the  rather  unim- 
portant discussions  of  details  that  have  occupied  its  semi-annual 
sessions.  Perhaps  its  most  significant  action  has  been  the  secur- 
ing of  concurrent  action  on  the  part  of  the  Socialist  members  of 
the  different  European  parliaments  concerning  the  war  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  Boers.  Resolutions  were  introduced  by  So- 
cialist members  into  the  national  legislative  bodies  at  Berlin,  Rome, 
Paris  and  Brussels,  that  created  no  little  discussion  and  considera- 
ble British  indignation  and  protest.  As  a  result  many  public  meet- 
ings of  protest  were  held  throughout  the  continent. 

While,  of  course,  the  resolutions  had  no  effect  upon  the  war 
or  its  outcome,  the  pedagogic  or  propaganda  result  was  very  val- 
uable. Some  discussion  has  also  been  occasioned  by  the  resolution 
passed  by  the  bureau  concerning  the  lynching  of  negroes  in  the 
Uinited  States.  I  feel  obliged,  however,  to  decline  personal  re- 
sponsibilities for  the  resolution  as  it  was  worded.  It  is  very  dif- 
ferent in  statement  and  substance,  and  is  much  more  extreme,  than 
the  report  which  I  sent  to  the  bureau  upon  the  subject. 

But,-  on  the  whole,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  the  International 
Socialist  Bureau  has  as  yet  been  at  all  equal  to  its  opportunities.  It 
it  not  worth  while  for  Socialist  men — all  of  them  over-worked  in 
their  own  national  movement — ^to  gather  together  from  the  ends  of 
the  earth  twice  a  year  to  hear  statistical  reports  and  minor  discus- 
sions. But  it  is  immeasurably  worth  while  that  the  International 
Socialist  movement  be  fused  into  one  great  dynamic  world-body ; 
that  the  Socialist  movement  of  all  nations  shall  act  together  as 
one  voice,  and  one  power,  in  every  great  question  in  every  nation ; 
that  it  shall  hold  and  be  the  balance  of  power  which  every  nation 
must  reckon  with.     The  poet's  dream  of  the  federation  of  the 

743 


744  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  BEVIBW. 

world  and  the  parliament  of  man^  is  germinal  in  the  International 
Socialist  Bureau,  and  it  is  only  by  the  recognition  of  this,  and 
by  a  larger  sense  of  the  bureau's  opportunities  and  significance, 
that  it  can  justify  and  develop  its  being. 

I  am  airaid  it  ill  becomes  the  membef  from  the  United  States 
to  speak  with  such  emphasis  concerning  the  possible  need  and  im- 
portance of  the  bureau,  as  the  Socialist  movement  of  this  coun- 
try has  taken  practically  no  interest  in  the  bureau's  existence,  and 
has  paid  nothing  towards  its  maintenance.  There  seems  to  be 
some  confusion  even  of  the  International  Socialist  Bureau,  which 
is,  in  theory,  in  perpetual  session,  with  the  International  Socialist 
Congress,  which  meets  upon  the  call  of  the  bureau,  and  is  a  con- 
vention, not  a  bureau,  and  which  meets  this  coming  August  in 
Amsterdam,  and  to  which  this  convention  should  elect  delegates. 

We  should  also  at  this  convention  adopt,  or  recommend,  some 
method  of  making  a  regular  annual  contribution  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  bureau.  All  that  has  been  paid  is  the  sum  of  15 1^ 
francs  in  1901,  and  that  was  by  a  private  individual  and  for  the 
Social  Democratic  Party,  before  the  present  unity  of  the  Socialist 
forces  had  been  accomplished. 

The  Socialist  movement  of  the  United  States  as  a  movement 
has  paid  nothing  at  all  in  the  four  years  since  the  bureau's  forma- 
tion. 

I  would  recommend  that  the  simi  of  1,000  francs,  or  $200.00, 
be  settled  upon  as  our  present  annual  contribution. 
Fraternally  submitted, 

(Signed)      George  D.  Hereon. 


Concentration  of  Wealth  in  the  United  States. 

CHAPTER  I. 
Introduction — ^Theoretical  Discussion, 

EVERY  investigation  or  treatment  of  a  subject,  if  it  is  to 
be  at  all  systematic,  must  be  carried  on  from  some 
certain  point  of  view,  and  be  conducted  according  to  a 
definite  method.  In  one  sense  it  is  the  point  of  view 
alone  which  serves  to  differentiate  the  various  branches  of  science, 
since  all  have  the  same  subject  matter,  the  material  universe.  It 
is  only  because  certain  portions  of  that  subject  matter  are  selected 
or  eliminated  and  approached  with  definite  ends  in  view  that 
the  sciences  differ  from  one  another. 

The  facts  concerning  industrial  concentration  have  been  pre- 
sented from  the  statistical  side,  from  the  financial  point  of  view, 
and  to  some  extent  with  reference  to  their  effect  on  other  social 
phenomena.  We  propose  to  take  a  somewhat  synthetic  view  of 
these  various  presentations,  mainly  with  reference  to  the  effect 
of  progressing  concentration  on  industrial,  political  and  social 
institutions  of  contemporary  society. 

Even  after  the  field  to  be  investigated  lias  been  determined 
upon  and  its  limits  defined,  another  consideration  arises  if  the 
phenomena  to  be  considered  are  sociological.  As  Senior  pointed 
out  many  years  ago,  no  one  is  interested  in  proving  that  two  and 
two  make  anything  else  but  four,  or  that  the  law  of  gravitation 
or  chemical  affinity  does  or  does  not  apply  in  certain  cases.  But 
in  the  field  of  social  affairs  large  classes  of  the  community  have 
a  very  gjeat  interest  in  the  truth  or  falsity  of  every  economic  law. 
This  is  especially  true  in  modern  society  with  its  sharp  division 
of  economic  classes  having  divergent  interests.  No  one  can  avoid 
being  influenced  by  the  prejudices  arising  from  his  individual 
and  class  interests.  He  may  be  unconscious  of  them,  or  he  may 
conceal  them  from  those  to  whom  he  speaks,  but  they  are  none 
the  less  there,  and  hence  it  is  far  better  that  he  frankly  recog- 
nize them  and  state  them,  for  his  own  and  the  reader's  guidance. 

Throughout  this  investigation  we  shall  write  from  the  point 
of  view  that  in  our  present  society  working-class  interests  are 
alone  worthy  of  consideration,  because  those  interests  include 
within  themselves  the  forces  which  are  making  for  social  prog- 
ress. 

Once  that  the  field  of  phenomena  has  been  determined  upon 
and  the  point  of  view  adopted,  there  remains  the  question  of 
the  method  of  treatment.    In  this  study  we  shall  follow  what  is 

746 


746  THE  INTERuNATlONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

coming  to  be  known  as  the  comparative,  historical,  evolutionary 
method.  That  is  to  say,  the  phenomena  discussed  will  be  treated 
in  their  chronological  order.  At  the  same  time  the  various  lines 
of  development  will  be  compared,  and  their  interrelation  pointed 
out.  It  will  be  taken  for  granted  that  each  event  evolves  from 
some  preceding  one  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  biological 
and  sociological  evolution.  The  industrial  development  will  be 
considered  as  the  fundamental  basis  upon  which  is  erected  the 
whole  social  and  political  superstructure.  Improvements  in  the 
methods  of  producing  and  distributing  goods  will  be  considered 
the  dynamic  of  industrial  evolution.  Mechanical  inventions  and 
more  effective  methods  of  industrial  and  financial  organization 
effect  changes  throughout  the  entire  social  organism  of  which 
they  are  a  part. 

The  various  discussions  dealing  with  the  trusts  may  be  broadly 
divided  into  two  classes,  according  as  they  approach  the  subject 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  capitalist  or  the  working  class. 
The  defender  of,  or  apologist  for,  capitalism  takes  for  granted 
the  permanence  of  present  class  rule  in  society,  based  upon  the 
private  ownership  of  the  instruments  for  the  production  and  distri- 
bution of  wealth.  These  writers  generally  agree  that  competi- 
tion constitutes  the  basis  and  essential  condition  of  industr\'.  Some 
attempt  to  modify  this  position,  and  to  make  certain  concessions 
to  Socialism.  The  fact  is,  however,  that  capitalism  depends  upon 
competition  to  select  those  men  fitted  to  its  environment.  Com- 
petition to  them  is  the  great  regulator,  and  is  disappearance  meano 
a  transformation  of  the  industrial  mechanism  based  on  exploitation. 
From  the  time  of  Adam  Smith  to  John  Stuart  Mill  and  his  fol- 
lowers of  the  present  day,  the  doctrine  of  Icdsses  faire  has  been 
tlie  only  one  that  has  been  wholly  consistent  with  the  capitalistic 
system. 

Concentration  appears  to  the  capitalist  writer  as  abnormal. 
He  attempts  to  show  that  it  is  confined  to  certain  industries.  By 
the  theory  of  "increasing,  diminishing  and  constamt  returns''  he 
classifies  the  movement  of  concentration  out  of  the  competitive 
system.  According  to  this  theory  there  are  only  a  few  special 
industries*  which  follow  the  law  of  "increasing  returns,"  that  is. 
in  which  the  cost  of  production  is  constantly  less,  and  the  profit 
therefore  constantly  larger  with  each  increase  in  the  number  of 
units  produced  in  a  single  industry. 

The  great  mass  of  industries,  says  the  economist  of  capitalism, 
are  to  be  found  obeying  the  law  of  constant  returns  according 
to  which  there  is  no  particular  advantage  favoring  the  large  in- 
dustry. The  great  basic  industry  of  agriculture  is  held  to  obey 
the  law  of  diminishing  returns,  according  to  which  the  smaller 
the  industrial  unit  the  cheaper  the  cost  of  production  per  unit 
of  product.    Having  laid  this  broad,  fallacious,  theoretical  founda- 


CONCENTKATION   OF   WEALTH   IN    U.  S.  747 

tion,  he  next  proceeds  to  find  reasons  why  there  are  any  indus- 
tries which  obey  the  law  of  increasing  returns,  and  which,  there- 
fore, tend  toward  monopoly.  It  is  daimed  that  only  those  indus- 
tries which  have  "special  privileges,"  such  as  franchises,  patents, 
trade  secrets,  limited  supply  of  raw  material,  etc.,  really  tend 
toward  monopoly.  Still,  in  pursuit  of  the  idea  that  concentra- 
tion is  an  abnormal  pathological  social  phenomena,  the  "remedies" 
for  this  condition  are  sought.  These  "remedies,"  as  a  general 
thing,  take  the  form  of  some  sort  of  restrictive  legislation,  limit- 
ing the  power  of  these  "special"  industries.  Of  late,  however, 
such  writers  have  taken  another  turn  and  seek  to  utilize  class- 
controlled  governments  as  a  means  of  owning  and  operating  such 
industries,  hoping  thereby  to  secure  the  profits  for  the  benefit 
of  the  whole  mass  of  competing  tax-paying  small  capitalists.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  this  method  is  in  strict  accord  with  straight 
capitalistic  economics,  as  it  still  seeks  to  maintain  a  class  of  small 
exploiters,  and  therewith  the  whole  competitive  system.  Whether 
this  would  be  the  result  or  not  we  will  not  attempt  to  discuss 
here. 

The  Socialist,  on  the  other  hand,  looks  upon  concentration  of 
industry  from  the  beginning  as  the  logical  outcome  of  competition, 
and  the  whole  process  is  considered  as  physiological  and  not  path- 
ological. Nevertheless,  most  of  the  socialist  writers  have  treated 
the  subject  in  a  decidedly  fragmentary  way.  The  earlier  writers, 
especially  Marx,  foresaw  that  "one  capitalist  devours  many,"  but 
what  they  did  not  and  could  not  foresee  was  the  possibility  of  the 
persistence  of  monopoly  throughout  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
industrial  field  during  the  existence  of  capitalism.  It  would  have 
required  more  than  human  foresight  to  have  done  so.  We  shall 
return  to  this  point  again.  The  socialist  then  looks  upon  concen- 
tration as  an  historic  stage  within  capitalism.  He  recognizes  the 
self -destructive  character  of  competition  and  its  inevitable  tendency 
towards  monopoly.  He  sees  that  combination  comes,  not  in  spite 
of  but  as  a  result  of  competition.  He  also  sees  in  the  concentra- 
tion of  industry  and  its  control  by  a  few  non-producers  evidence 
that  the  last  stages  of  capitalism  have  been  reached,  since  such  a 
condition  is  manifestly  one  of  unstable  equilibrium.  At  the  same 
time  his  interpretation  of  this  phenomena  leads  him  to  conclude 
that  the  next  stage  of  evolution  will  be  marked  by  co-operative 
ownership  of  the  essentials  of  production  and  distribution  of 
wealth. 

It  is  necessary  to  differentiate  the  methods  of  concentration. 
There  are  two  very  different  ways  in  which  the  agggregation  of 
capital  takes  place,  only  one  of  which  was  foreseen  by  the  earlier 
socialist  writers.  This  first  method  is  what  might  be  called  the 
method  of  accumulation  by  which  the  capitalist  adds  to  his  capital 
through  the  surplus  value  of  his  workers.    As  his  business  grows 


748  THE  l^^TERJ^ATIONAL  SOCIALIST   EEVIEW. 

larger  this  surplus  value  also  becomes  larger,  both  absolutely  and 
relatively.  He  can  produce  cheaper,  therefore  can  sell  cheaper 
and  compete  his  mdustiial  adversaries  out  of  existence.  This  proc- 
ess produces  what  may  be  called  the  "great  industry,"  which 
is  something  very  different  from  the  trust  or  monopoly.  Indeed, 
it  is  during  the  period  when  the  few  great  industries  occupy  the 
field  that  competition  is  most  fierce.  During  the  entire  period  of 
the  growth  by  accumulation,  there  is  no  diminution  in  the  fierce- 
ness of  the  competitive  struggle. 

This  condition  brings  about  another  form  of  concentration. 
Instead  of  one  industry  competing  the  others  out  of  existence 
by  a  gradual  growth  in  power  due  to  added  increments  of  surplus 
value,  the  owners  of  these  industries  decide  to  cease  fighting  each 
other  and  unite  and  divide  the  surplus  value  accruing  to  the  entire 
industry.  This  growth  by  aggregation  or  combination  is  some- 
thing peculiar  practically  to  the  last  decade  and  in  a  large  degree 
to  America,  There  is  little  sign  that  Marx  foresaw  this  phase  of 
the  movement,  at  least,  we  have  been  unable  to  find  anything  that 
could  be  considered  a  definite  foretelling  of  it.  This  movement 
must  stifle  all  competition  in  large  portions  of  the  industrial  field, 
and  cannot  but  have  important  effects  on  the  entire  economic  struc- 
ture of  a  society  built  upon  competition. 

Certain  conditions  are  essential  to  each  stage  of  concentrated 
industry.  These  conditions  like  concentration  itself  may  be  di- 
vided into  two  classes.  The  first  are  those  which  are  essential 
to  the  growth  of  the  great  industry ;  the  second,  those  which  pave 
the  way  to  the  combinations  of  the  great  industries  and  the  stifling 
of  competition.  As  preliminary  to  the  first  stage,  the  most  es- 
sential thing  is  a  perfected  factory  system.  The  factory  system 
has  been  so  often  described  by  Marx,  Hobson  and  a  host  of  other 
writers  that  a  mere  enumeration  of  its  principal  features  must 
suffice  here.  The  establishment  of  a  factory  system  presup- 
poses the  use  of  improved  machinery  for  production 
and  the  application  of  some  form  of  power  aside  from  the  physi- 
cal strengtii  of  men  in  the  operation  of  that  machinery.  It  de- 
mands a  division  of  labor  with  high  specialization  of  product  for 
each  individual  worker,  which  leads  inevitably  to  the  next  neces- 
sary stage,  an  aggregation  of  employes  into  industrial  armies 
witfi  overseers,  superintendents,  etc.,  and  implies  as  a  corollary 
the  training  of  workers  in  technical  schools  for  these  special  tasks. 

The  factory  system  implies  a  decrease  of  waste  through  the 
use  of  by-products,  purchases  on  a  large  scale,  uniformity  of  oper- 
ation, etc.  These  savings,  it  will  be  noted,  are  of  a  different  char- 
acter from  those  brought  about  by  the  second  stage  of  poncentra- 
tion — ^that  of  combination  of  previous  competing  industries. 

A  second  condition  of  the  growth  of  the  large  industry  is  a  wide 
circle  of  the  market,  that  is  to  say,  the  extent  of  territory  acces- 


CONCENTBATION   OF  WEALTH   IN   U.  S.  740 

sible  in  a  profitable  manner  to  the  seller  of  the  product  must  be 
very  great.  In  a  country  as  largfe  as  the  United  States,  there 
may  be  several  separate  circles  after  this  stage  has  been  attained. 
Within  each  such  circle  a  single  "great  industry"  reigns,  which 
interferes  but  little  with  those  occupying  other  circles.  Such  a  con- 
dition is  manifestly  one  of  unstable  equilibrium.  Soon  the  circles 
overlap;  then  they  merge  into  a  great  national  circle,  within  which 
competition  may  continue  for  some  time,  since  its  boundaries, 
being  to  a  considerable  degree  physical,  are  much  more  permanent 
than  those  of  the  previous  smaller  markets. 

This  implies  improved  transportation  facilities  and  the  possi- 
bility of  storage  and  preservation  of  the  product.  With  a  highly 
perishable  product,  the  risks  incurred  in  handling  a  great  stock 
has  hitherto  tended  to  keep  the  unit  of  production  smaller  than 
in  those  lines  where  storage  is  possible.  Whenever  methods  have 
been  discovered  by  which  a  hitherto  perishable  product  can  be 
stored  and  shipped  to  great  distances,  the  result  has  been  an  im- 
mediate and  great  increase  in  the  size  of  the  industrial  unit.  One 
of  the  most  stHking  examples  of  this  fact  is  to  be  found  in  the 
handling  of  meat  products. 

The  boundaries  of  the  market  must  remain  approximately  the 
same  for  a  long  enough  time  to  permit  the  larger  industry  to  out- 
compete  the  smaller  firms.  If  the  boundaries  of  the  market  are 
constantly  shifting,  and  particularly  if  they  are  continually  grow- 
ing larger,  new  opportunities  for  the  smaller  competitors  will  be 
always  appearing.  It  will  be  difficult  to  eliminate  the  new  and 
smaller  plants  which  will  continually  spring  up  on  the  margins 
of  the  expanding  market.  This  fact  is  of  especial  importance  in 
the  United  States.  So  long  as  there  was  a  manufacturing  frontier 
for  any  industry,  new  competitors  were  constantly  springing  up  in 
in  this  new  territory.  These  competitors  often  grew  with  the  terri- 
tory where  they  were  located  until  they  became  of  sufficient 
strength  to  hold  their  own  with  the  earlier  established  industries. 
It  was  only  when  an  intricate  and  comprehensive  railroad  system 
made  possible  a  uniform  market  throughout  the  United  States  and 
something  approaching  a  uniformity  of  industrial  development 
.was  reached  throughout  the  country  that  the  permanent  growth  of 
the  large  industry  was  assured. 

Another  condition  essential  to  any  great  growth  in  the  size 
of  the  industrial  unit  is  the  possibility  of  a  large  amount  of  sur- 
plus value.  This  is  really  a  consequence  of  a  perfected  factory 
system  and  the  large  circle  of  the  market  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made.  Until  the  margin  of  unpaid  labor  became 
great,  the  increment  of  growth  per  industrial  unit  was  still  so 
small  that  it  was  impossible  for  oite  industry  to  dominate  the  en- 
tire industrial  field  of  any  one  country.  When,  however,  the  pro- 
ductive power  per  individual  worker  was  increased  by  the  appli- 


750  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

cation  of  improved  machinery  and  modern  factory  methods  of  pro- 
duction and  distribution,  the  profits  of  capital  became  so  great  as 
to  permit  a  rapid  growth  in  th€  income  available  for  capitaliza- 
tion and  extension  of  the  plant. 

A  fourth  and  not  unimportant  condition  of  the  growth  of  the 
great  industry  was  the  introduction  of  the  corporate  form  of  or- 
ganization. The  corporation  furnishes  an  impersonal  legal  or- 
ganization, which  is  unaffected  by  tlie  vicissitudes  of  time,  is 
capable  of  indefinite  expansion  without  disturbance  of  its  internal 
relations,  and  most  important  of  all,  allows  a  combination  of  the 
capital  of  a  large  number  of  individuals  without  the  necessity  of 
reconciling  their  personal  differences.  It  also  permits  the  em- 
ployment of  an  organized  force  of  superintendents  and  managers 
of  industry.  Hitherto  managing  and  organizing  talent  could  only 
be  utilized  when  it  was  coupled  with  the  ownership  of  capital. 
Through  the  corporation  such  talent  can  be  utilized  for  the  capi- 
talist even  though  the  possessor  of  the  desired  talent  is  prop- 
ertyless. 

The  great  industry  was  a  natural  preparation  for  the  next  step, 
the  combination  of  several  industries  into  one  great  industrial  giant. 
This  second  stage  in  concentration  presents  not  simply  quantitative 
but  qualitative  differences.  The  conditions  which  gave  rise  to  it, 
as  well  as  the  methods  of  organization,  and  the  social  results  are 
in  many  ways  decidedly  different  from  the  preliminary  conditions, 
forms  of  organization,  and  social  effects  of  the  concentration 
of  industry  due  to  accumulation.  The  stage  just  prior  to  the 
union  of  competitive  firms  is  generally  marked  by  the  fierce  compe- 
tition of  a  few  large  firms.  This  competition  is  in  many  ways 
different  from  the  competition  which  prevails  previous 
to  this  stage.  Earlier  competition  was  looked  upon  as  something 
permanent,  as  a  steady  regulator.  The  competition  which  leads 
to  monopoly  is  a  fierce  struggle  for  final  mastery  and  not  for 
momentary  advantage.  Indeed,  it  is  generally  termed  in  the  popu- 
lar accounts  a  war,  or  a  battle,  rather  than  competition.  Combi- 
nation is  almost  always  preceded  by  an  overproduction  relative 
to  the  restricted  market  of  capitalism.  This  is  an  indication  that 
sufficient  plants  have  been  constructed  to  more  than  supply  the 
demand  within  the  circle  of  market  reached  by  these  plants. 

Another  absolutely  essential  preliminary  to  widespread  combi- 
nation is  the  development  in  a  very  perfect  manner  of  what  has 
been  designated  by  the  French  as  "haute  Unance'*  By  this  is 
meant  the  manipulation  and  organization  of  the  stock  market  as 
distinguished  from  the  managing>  of  industry.  The  class  of  men 
who  are  designated  as  "financiers,"  and  who  soon  come  to  have 
the  supreme  power  over  industry,  forms  a  wholly  different  class 
irom  the  industrial  capitalist.  The  expert  knowledge  required  of 
them  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  technical    operation  of  industry, 


f 


(ONCKNTIUTION    OF    WEALTH    IN   U.   S.  751 

or  even  with  the  organization  of  men,  methods  and  materials, 
:  111  only  with  the  buying  and  selling  of  the  securities  which  rep- 
resent ownership.  This  implies  a  highly  developed  banking  sys- 
tem and  widespread  extension,  of  credit,  the  establishment  and 
thorough  organization  of  stock  exchanges,  and,  in  short,  all  the 
paraphernalia  which  is  today  concerned  with  the  handling  of  in- 
dustrial paper.  The  final  flower  of  this  system  is  the  promoter. 
This  man  is  as  completely  divorced  from  industrial  operations  a* 
can  be  imagined  and,  indeed,  in  some  degree  stands  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  owners  of  stocks  and  bonds  and  the  ordinary  capi- 
talist as  these  capitalists  do  to  the  captains  of  industry — the  super- 
intendents and  managers. 

The  combination  of  industries  and  the  consequent  elimination 
of  competition  has  its  own  definite  effects  in  the  industrial  field 
distinct  from  those  brought  about  by  the  great,  but  still  competing, 
industry.  The  savings  which  it  accomplishes  and  which  are 
peculiar  to  its  form  of  organization  are  those  which  accompany 
and  are  inherent  in  competition.  These  savings  arise  from  the 
doing  away  with  duplications,  to  some  extent  of  advertising,  from 
effective  and  economic  localization  of  industries,  dismantlement  of 
less  productive  and  utilization  of  the  most  effective  plants,  the  com- 
bination of  related  patents,  trade  secrets,  methods  of  work,  etc. 

This  process  of  combination  is  in  itself  an  evolution,  conse- 
quently it  does  not  attain  its  perfected  form  all  at  once.  In  the 
beginning,  loose  alliances,  * 'gentlemen's  agreements,''  friendly  ar- 
rangements as  to  prices,  etc.,  are  formed.  These  being  relatively 
unstable  and  unsatisfactory  are  necessarily  temporary;  indeed, 
they  are  generally  little  more  than  the  first  preliminary  fencings 
by  which  the  relative  strength  of  the  combining  parties  is  deter- 
mined, and  are  constantly  broken,  in  order  that  questions  of  strength 
may  be  settled  by  an  appeal  to  the  competitive  battle.  Each  time, 
however,  that  this  battle  is  closed  by  an  agreement  the  articles  of 
combination  are  stronger  than  previously.  The  agreement  as  to 
price  is  succeeded  by  various  forms  of  pools  in  which  the  profits 
are  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  individuals  to  be  re-distributed  by 
joint  action.  This  form  of  organization,  which  still  permits  the 
withdrawal  of  any  member  who  either  feels  himself  aggrieved  or 
strong  enough  to  engage  in  the  industrial  battle,  is  also  temporar>' 
and  soon  gives  way  to  what  is  properly  known  as  the  trust  form 
in  which  the  first  step  is  taken  toward  depriying  the  individual 
owners  of  all  right  of  ownership  in  their  former 
plants.  Under  this  system  the  stock  in  the  var- 
ious combining  corporations  is  placed  in  the  hands 
of  trustees  who  then  vote  that  stock  as  a  whole  and  control  the 
business  as  a  unit.  Even  this  form  of  organization  was  not  found 
proof  against  the  legislative  attacks  of  the  small  capitalists  who 
still  remained  within  the  competitive  field  and  who  saw  their  mar- 


752  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

gin  of  profits  being  narrowed  by  the  formation  of  monopoly. 
Repeated  legal  attacks  taught  the  trust  organizers  the  weak  points 
in  this  earlier  form  of  organization,  and  finally  led  to  the  more 
perfect  form  which  now  generally  dominates.  This  consists  of  a 
purchasing  company  organized  in  some  State  having  very  flexible 
mcorporation  privileges  which  permit  the  purchase  of  the  stock 
of  other  corporations.  This  purchasing  corporation  then  buys  at 
least  a  majority  of  the  stock  in  each  of  the  companies  it  is  pro- 
posed to  consolidate.  The  directors  of  this  purchasing  corporation 
then  elect  themselves  the  directors  of  the  constituent  corporations 
and  amalgamation  is  complete.  Whether  further  steps  will  be 
necessary  or  not  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  it  seems  probable  that 
we  may  look  forward  to  a  final  stage  in  which  there  will  be  a 
complete  dissolution  of  the  constituent  companies  and  direct  pur- 
chase of  the  plants  by  the  single  consolidated  corporation.  Indeed, 
this  has  already  been  done  in  many  industries. 

Another  step  of  which  we  can  already  see  the  beginnings  is  to 
be  found  in  the  integration  of  great  allied  industries  as  distin- 
guished from  competing  industries.  We  see  signs  of  this  in  the 
miscellaneous  industries  owned  by  the  United  States  Steel  Com- 
pany and  by  many  railroads.  This  movement  has  already  fid- 
vanced  much  further  than  is  commonly  recognized. 

In  the  process  of  final  consolidation  two  stages  are  also  to  be 
distinguished.  These  stages  have  little  importance  industrially, 
but  much  financially  and  socially.  The  first  of  these  is  what  might 
be  called  the  speculative  stage.  In  this  the  promoter  and  finan- 
cier who  are  concerned  with  the  management  of  the  industry 
seek  to  get  their  main  income,  not  from  the  surplus  value  of  the 
workers  engaged  in  the  industry,  but  from  the  multitude  of  small 
capitalists  who  can  be  induced  to  purchase  shares.  This  is  the 
period  during  which  the  common  stock  is  unloaded  upon  the 
market  and  great  bonuses  are  received  by  underwriters  and  pro- 
moters. 

The  second  stage  is  what  may  be  called  the  investment  stage. 
By  this  time  the  water  has  been  squeezed  out  of  the  stock,  the 
smaller  stockholders  have  been  completely  exploited,  "the  shearing 
of  the  lambs"  has  been  finished,  and  the  really  great  source  of 
income  is  tapped — the  surplus  value  of  labor.  From  this  time  on 
dividends  come  without  break  from  the  exploitation  of  the  workers 
concerned  in  the  industry.  All  the  numerous  economies  due  to 
the  elimination  of  competition  as  well  as  those  common  to  the 
great  industry  in  general,  together  with  those  which  have  inhered 
in  the  factory  system  from  the  beginning,  are  all  made  to  flow  di- 
rectly into  the  hands  of  the  owners  of  the  stocks  and  bonds  of 
these  gigantic  instruments  of  industrial  exploitation. 

We  shall  find  the  whole  industrial  field  passing  through  these 
various  stages  in  a  fairly  regular  order.    Certain  great  basic  in- 


CONCENTRATION   OF   WEALTH   IN   U.  S.  753 

dustries  like  those  concerned  with  the  transportation  and  storage 
of  goods  are  the  first  to  enter  upon  this  line  of  evolution.  The 
railroads  of  this  country,  for  example,  passed  through  the  tirst 
competitive  stage,  then  through  the  amalgamation  of  connecting 
lines  into  great  industrial  units,  each  competing  in  fierce  rate  wars 
ending  in  pools,  combines,  and  even  closer  forms  of  organization 
imtil  the  present  practically  monopolistic  stage  has  been  attained. 
On  the  financial  side,  we  see  all  the  speculative  floating  of  watered 
stock,  the  shearing  of  the  smaller  investors,  the  reorganization  and 
final  readjustment  on  an  investment  basis  with  consequent  enor- 
mous dividends.  A  few  of  the  industrial  trusts  have  already 
finished  this  course  of  evolution.  Most  of  them,  however,  are 
still  at  some  of  the  earlier  stages. 

The  concentration  of  industry  has  had  the  most  widespread 
social  effect.  It  has  entirely  changed  the  relative  strength  and 
manner  of  fighting  of  the  capitalist  and  the  laborer,  is  reacting  upon 
the  organization  of  the  working  class  and  fundamentally  af- 
fecting all  the  problems  of  organized  labor.  It  has  had  an  im- 
portant and  distinctive  effect  upon  the  class-state  of  capitalism. 
New  duties  are  demanded  of  the  governmental  machinery,  new 
methods  of  bending  it  to  the  will  of  the  ruling  class  are  being 
utilized,  and  in  many  ways  the  forms  of  government  are  them- 
selves altered.  New  functions  are  created,  new  departments 
formed  and  old  ones  materially  changed.  Political  struggles 
which  so  far  as  the  dominating  parties  are  concerned  reflect  the 
conditions  of  the  capitalist  class  have  been  profoundly  affected 
by  these  new  industrial  phenomena. 

In  the  field  of  education,  philanthropy  and  the  minor  social 
institutions  the  effects  have  been  equally  far  reaching.  The  press, 
pulpit,  and  lecture  platform  have  felt  the  influence  of  these 
changes  in  the  industrial  basis  upon  which  they  stand.  It  will  be 
our  aim  to  analyze  and  explain  these  various  facts  as  they  appear 
during  the  progress  of  concentration  in  industry. 

May  Wood  Simons^    - 
A.  M.  Simons. 

(To  be  Continued.) 


•n 


Trade  Union  Debate. 

DELEGATE  GIBBS,  of  Massachusetts,  spoke  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  committee's  report,  but  stated  that  he  had 
resented  the  insinuation  that  those  who  are  opposed  to 
this  report  are  also  opposed  to  the  trade  union  move- 
ment "I  would  not  do  one  single  thing  to  lessen  or  weaken  the 
bonds  of  fraternal  union  which  exist  between  trades  unionism  and 
the  Socialist  movement.  I  speak  in  opposition  to  this  motion 
because  I  believe  the  time  is  coming  rapidly,  if  that  time 
is  not  already  here,  when  the  Socialist  movement  must  cease 
making  any  special  appeals  to  any  particular  part  of  the 
working  class,  and  must  recognize  the  fact  that  our  sole 
mission  is  to  the  whole  of  the  working  class.  It  is  perhaps 
unfortunate  that  I  am  obliged  to  speak  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  despised  professional.  It  is  true  that  I  am  obliged  to  wear 
a  longitudinal  crease  in  my  pants,  but  I  do  it  for  exactly  the 
.same  reason  that  some  of  you  fellows  are  obliged  to  wear  a 
horizontal  crease  in  your  overalls.  It  is  true  that  I  am  obliged  to 
wear  a  clean  shirt  for  exactly  the  same  reason  that  some  of  you 
fellows  are  obliged  to  wear  a  dirty  shirt.  It  is  true  that  I  am 
obliged  to  carry  around  a  professional  title  in  front  of  my  name 
for  exactly  the  same  reason  that  your  fellows  do  not  wear  a  title. 
But  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  when  my  grocer  sends  his  bill  he 
sometimes  makes  a  mistake  and  puts  the  'Dr.'  after  my  name 
instead  of  in  front.  I  am  not  proud  of  these  things,  however; 
these  are  simply  the  badges  of  my  servitude.  I  recognize  the 
fact,  in  other  words,  that  my  profession  has  been  reduced  to  the 
dead  level  of  the  wage  working  class.  I  despise  that  term,  for 
I  am  a  working  man  myself.  I  learned  the  A-B-Cs  of  Socialism 
standing  in  the  rag  room  of  a  paper  mill  at  ii  years  of  age, 
when  I  was  obliged  to  stand  upon  a  salt  box  to  reach  the  top  of 
the  table  that  I  worked  at,  and  I  have  been  perfectly  at  home 
upon  a  salt  box,  a  soap  box,  a  shoe  box,  or  any  other  old  kind 
of  a  box  ever  since.  In  other  words,  my  capitalist  friends  builded 
better  than  they  knew,  and  that  is  the  way  they  made  a  Socialist 
orator  out  of  me.  While  I  speak  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
orator  I  deplore  the  taunts  or  sneers  that  have  been  flung  at  us 
by  our  trade  union  friends.  I  will  not  fling  them  back.  They 
can't  hurt  me  with  that  brickbat,  because  I  wear  an  armor  of 
intense  loyalty  to  the  working  class  movement  which  cannot  be 
penetrated  by  any  such  mere  taunts  as  those.  When  the  work 
of  this  convention  shall  have  been  completed  we  will  both  stand 
together,  clasping  hands  together,  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder 
for  the  working  class  movement  of  the  world.  Following  the 
logic  of  arguments  that  have  been  made,  we  ought  to  indorse, 

754 


TRADE   UNION   DEBATE.  755 

for  instance,  organizations  of  the  farmers  and  of  the  doctors — 
because  if  this  convention  lasts  much  longer  some  of  us  will  need 
a  doctor.  We  ought  also  to  indorse  the  organization  of  ministers, 
because  they  will  be  needed  at  the  funeral  of  capitalism.  I  am 
opposed  to  this  motion  in  its  present  form.  I  believe  we  should 
maintain  our  friendly  and  sympathetic  attitude  towards  the  trade 
unions,  but  we  should  simply  from  this  time  on  'gang  our  own 
gait,'  hew  straight  to  the  line,  and  let  the  chips  fall  where  they 
may." 

Delegate  Hanford  of  New  York  then  spoke  as  follows : 

"With  the  single  exception  of  possi,bly  Comrade  Gaylord  of 
Wisconsin  I  do  not  think  that  the  speakers  have  dealt  at  all 
adequately  with  this  question.  We  seem  to  go  on  the  basis  that 
the  so-called  Socialist  Party  of  the  past  went  on  that  the  trade 
union  is  only  for  us  to  take  or  leave,  or  do  what  we  please  with 
it.  We  know  perfectly  well  that  the  Socialist  movement  is  not 
that  kind  of  a  movement.  We  go  out  and  tell  men  and  women 
that  you  have  got  to  come  to  Socialism  for  your  salvation,  but 
why  can't  we  understand  that  in  the  time  intervening  until  the 
day  when  Socialism  shall  come  to  pass  a  man  has  got  to  live  in 
order  to  establish  Socialism,  and  that  the  race  has  got  to  survive 
or  there  will  be  no  race  to  enjoy  Socialism.  (Applause.)  The 
trades  union  movement  deals  with  this  question  here  and  now. 
True  not  for  all,  but  for  as  many  as  it  can  and  it  is  going  to  con- 
tinue. You  can  read  the  history  of  the  last  hundred  years,  and 
I  can  tell  you  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  force  brought  to  bear 
by  the  trades  union  movement  in  resisting  the  encroachments  of 
organized  capitalism  there  would  have  been  no  working  class  to 
go  into  Socialism.  (Applause.)  Now,  let  us  recognize  that  as 
a  fundamental  fact,  and  I  doubt  if  anyone  here  can  dispute  it, 
and  I  know  that  it  cannot  be  disproved. 

"Now  let  us  see  what  the  Socialist  Party  in  this  country  did. 
Only  a  few  years  ago  they  adopted  and  put  in  resolutions  which 
were  unanimously  adopted,  substantially  the  remarks  which  were 
made  by  the  eloquent  comrade  of  Illinois  (Spears)  and  by  sev- 
eral other  comrades  here.  They  unanimously  adopted  a  proposi- 
tion like  this :  'This  bogus  trade  unionism  lies  impotent,  petrified, 
motionless,  holding  the  proletariat  at  the  mercy  of  the  capitalist 
class,"  and  so  on.  There  is  a  page  of  that  resolution,  and  then 
at  the  bottom  they  said,  'Let  the  Socialist  watchwords  every- 
where be  "Down  with  trade  unionism  pure  and  sim- 
ple," "Away  with  the  labor  fakirs,"  "Onward  with 
the  S.  T.  &  L.  A.  and  the  S.  L.  P." '  And  what  be- 
came of  the  men  that  passed  that  resolution?  (Cheers  and  ap- 
plause.) All  there  is  left  of  the  organization  that  composed  that 
resolution  is  this  little  old  red  book.     (Applause.) 

"This  question  of  trades  union  is  not  at  all  a  question  of  wheth- 


756  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIAUST   EEVIEW. 

er  you  like  or  dislike  it.  It  is  here,  and  don't  you  think  for  a 
minute  that  because  of  the  Lattimers  or  the  Hazletons  that  )'ou 
will  even  put  a  brake  on  the  wheel  of  progress  of  the  trades  union 
movement.  Their  very  defeats  will  make  them  stronger.  Their 
defeats  in  the  last  anal3rsis  will  be  found  victories.  Are  you  going 
out  on  the  stump  and  tell  these  trades  unions  that  because  some 
particular  organization  is  offered  by  a  labor  fakir  that  its  body 
is  composed  of  labor  fakirs?  If  you  do  that  will  you  be  allowed 
to  taUc  to  that  organization  on  the  line  of  educating  them  in  So- 
cialism? Not  on  your  life.  What  you  have  got  to  do  is  to  say 
this:  'You  know  the  truth  perfectly  well,  and  that  is,  that  in 
the  trade  union  men  may  be  corrupt,  officers  may  go  wrong,  but 
you  do  know  that  the  rank  and  file  will  not  consciously  go  wrong 
except  for  one  reascm,  and  that  is  lack  of  light  to  see  the  right/ 
When  you  have  said  that  then  you  can  put  the  light  before  them. 
They  have  got  to  make  mistakes,  but  the  organization  that  sur- 
vives to-day  even  though  wrong,  will  be  right  to-morrow  and 
still  survive."     (Applause.) 

This  discussion  ran  on  until  the  afternoon  session  of  the  fifth 
day  of  the  convention,  the  final  speech  being  made  by  Delegate 
Titus  of  Washington  who  spoke  as  follows : 

"I  have  been  listening  here  to  this  discussion  and  the  people 
who  are  opposed  to  this  trades  union  resolution  have  struck  me 
as  being  entirely  impracticable  in  their  arguments.  (Applause.) 
I  want  to  ask  you  what  would  happen  to  the  labor  class  if  there 
were  no  trade  unions?  (Applause.)  It  is  a  fact  that  under  pres- 
ent conditions,  under  capitalism  the  motto  must  be,  'Get  all  you 
can.'  (Applause.)  Now  I  want  to  disassociate  myself  entirely 
from  the  Tmpossibilists.'  (Applause.)  Not  that  I  disassociate 
myself  thereby  from  those  who  stand  for  the  strictest  Marxian 
program  but  I  believe  in  getting  what  you  can  under  present 
conditions  before  seeking  to  abolish  the  whole  thing. 

"Now  one  other  point  and  I  have  done.  The  main  reason 
for  our  going  in  with  the  labor  unions  is  not  to  make  them  polit- 
ical bodies,  we  don't  want  any  politics  in  labor  unions,  not  at 
all  (applause)  but  the  main  reason  for  going  into  labor  unions 
is  to  educate  tfiem  for  Socialism.  Right  now  when  Samuel  Gom- 
pers  is  in  league  with  the  Gvic  Federation  to  capture  some  two 
million  or  three  miUion  wage  workers  who  are  organized  for 
capitalistic  alliance,  to  work  for  capitalism,  in  alliance  with  it,  to 
defeat  the  rest  of  the  working  class  by  means  of  organized  labor 
when  capitalis  trying  to  capture  organized  labor,  let  us  bring 
a  counter  stroke.  The  most  strategic  move  for  us  to  take  is  to 
go  into  the  unions  as  individuals  and  educate  them  so  they  can- 
not be  captured  by  capital.  Nothing  but  the  education  of  the 
working  class  will  accomplish  that."     (Loud  applause.) 


Japanese  Socialists  and  the  War. 

RECCXINIZING  that  war  always  brings  with  it  general  mis- 
cry,  the  burdens  of  heavy  taxation,  moral  degradation 
and  the  supremacy  of  militarism,  the  Japanese  socialists 
have  stood  firmly  against  the  popular  clamor  for  war 
with  Russia,  and  done  their  best  to  point  out  that  all  Russian 
people  are  our  brothers  and  sisters,  with  whom  we  have  no  reason 
to  fight.  But  the  entire  Japanese  populace  was  intoxicated  by 
the  enthusiasm  of  so-called  patriotism.  Even  workingmen  did  not 
realize  what  a  deplorable  thing  war  was  for  them,  and  dreamed 
that  in  some  way  their  condition  might  be  bettered. 

While  the  nation,  however,  is  congratulating  itself  over  the 
naval  victories,  the  economic  effects  of  the  war  have  begun  to 
be  felt  on  all  sides  in  such  a  way  as  to  justify  the  socialist's  proph- 
ecies. The  families  whose  breadwinners  have  been  required  for 
the  army  are  suffering  for  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life.  The 
demand  for  goods  used  in  daily  life  has  already  fallen  off  in  many  . 
directions,  so  that  numerous  factories  are  closed  and  manufact- 
urers have  been  bankrupted.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  workmen 
have  been  thrown  out  of  work  and  are  only  living  through  the 
scanty  gifts  of  charity.  At  Nishidin,  a  district  of  the  city  of 
Kioto,  famous  for  its  silk  industries  among  foreigners,  tens  of 
thousands  of  unemployed  weavers  are  living  to-day  on  a  rice 
gruel  provided  by  rich  philanthropists.  Even  this  help  will 
soon  be  withheld  from  them  because  of  the  great  number  of  beg- 
gars, it  is  claimed,  such  a  feast  attracts.  The  poorest  quarters  of 
Tdcio  exhibit  the  most  deplorable  poverty  and  suicides  and  otiier 
crimes  are  increasing  day  by  day. 

To  be  sure  the  subscriptions  for  the  war  bonds  were  nearly 
four  times  as  great  as  were  needed,  until  the  whole  world  was 
astonished  at  the  ability  of  Japan  to  raise  money  at  home.  i3ut 
the  method  of  raising  this,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  was  largely  com- 
pulsory to  almost  the  same  degree  as  the  collection  of  taxes.  Tlic 
authorities  throughout  the  country  visited  every  house  to  per- 
suade the  communities  to  subscribe  toward  the  war  fund.  Those 
who  refused  to  accept  this  "official  order"  were  denounced  as  un- 
patriotic. A  peasant  living  in  a  village  near  Tokio  is  said  to  have 
been  forced  to  subscribe  200  yen  and  having  no  money  he  at- 
tempted to  secure  the  necessary  funds  by  robbery,  and  was  ar- 
rested. 

All  these  facts,  however,  are  not  pimply  overlooked  but  are 
definitely  concealed  by  the  press  corrupted  by  the  bribery  of  capi- 
talists and  bankers.  The  House  of  Representatives  was  also 
frightened  by  the  threat  of  government  coercion  and  became  a 

757 


758  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

very  faithful  servant  to  the  Cabinet  accepting,  in  its  entirety  the 
bill  proposing  to  increase  the  already  heavy  taxes  by  60  million 
yen. 

Indeed,  the  Japanese  government  really  represents  only  the 
capitalist  and  landlord.  The  securing  of  universal  equal  suffrage 
becomes,  therefore,  the  most  important  work  for  the  Japanese 
socialist  and  the  very  existence  of  the  Japanese  Socialist  Party 
depends  on  the  outcome  of  this  question.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, it  is  natural  that  the  Socialist  movement  should  meet 
with  violent  persecution.  When  the  Heimm  Skimbwn,  a  weekly 
socialist  paper  opposed  the  war  and  the  increasing  of  taxes,  all 
copies  of  that  issue  were  confiscated  by  the  police,  and  the  Tokio 
District  Court  of  Justice,  decreed  the  suppression  of  the  paper 
and  sentenced  Comrade  Sakai,  one  of  the  editors,  to  three  months 
imprisonment.  The  case  was  at  once  appealed  to  the  higher 
court  of  justice,  so  that  the  publication  of  the  paper  was  allowed 
to  continue  and  the  term  of  imprisonment  reduced  to  two  months. 
Comrade  Sakai  began  to  serve  the  sentence  on  April  21st  and 
at  the  time  of  writing  this  is  still  in  prison  at  Tokio. 

There  are  a  few  socialists  in  this  country  who  are  preaching 
socialism  to  the  workingmen  and  the  students.  They  formed  a 
Social  Democratic  party  on  May  20,  1901,  which  was  instantly 
suppressed  by  the  government  and  the  newspapers  that  published 
the  Manifesto  of  the  party  were  confiscated.  But  the  foolish  gov- 
ernmental policy  proved  to  be  the  best  means  of  waking  up  tlie 
people,  and  the  Socialist  Association,  which  has  since  been  form- 
ed, is  becoming  the  centre  of  the  labor  movement. 

At  present,  there  are  two  socialist  papers  in  Japan,  the  month- 
ly '*Social%sf'  and  the  weekly  "Heimin  Shimbm/'  the  former  is 
owned  by  Comrade  Katayama,  who  is  now  in  the  United  States 
seeking  to  organize  the  Japanese  immigrants  of  that  country.  The 
latter  is  published  by  the  several  members  of  the  Socialist  Asso- 
ciation to  which  the  present  editor  belongs  and  has  a  circula- 
tion of  about  S,ooo  copies. 

The  regular  meeting  of  the  Socialist  Association  is  held  at  the 
office  of  Heimin  Shimbun.  These  meetings  are  devoted  to  lec- 
tures and  debates.  Monthly  public  meetings  are  also  held  for  the 
promulgation  of  socialist  opinions  on  current  politics.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  all  of  these  meetings,  however,  are  under 
close  supervision  by  numerous  police  officers  and  secret  spies,  who 
have  authority  to  stop  the  speakers,  or  dissolve  the  meeting,  in 
accordance  with  an  obnoxious  law  entitled,  "a  law  for  preserv- 
ing public  peace.'' 

The  utterance  of  the  words,  "revolution,"  "democracy,"  "or- 
ganization" or  "strike"  by  any  of  the  speakers  is  a  penal  offense. 
In  this  respect  the  Japanese  government  is  certainly  fifty  years 
or  a  century  behind  the  governments  of  Western  Europe.    The 


JAPANESE  SOCIALISTS   AND   THE  WAR.  769 

ruling  power  of  Japan  is,  on  this  point  at  least,  no  less  barbarous 
than  that  of  Russia.  The  Czar  is  merely  the  head  of  the  religious 
organization  of  hi5  country,  but  the  Mikado  pretends  to  be  God 
himself.  Every  school  in  Japan  is  a  church  in  which  the  pic- 
ture of  the  Mikado  is  worshipped  and  the  religion  of  so-called 
"patriotism"  preached.  Some  socialists  insist  therefore  that  so- 
cial democracy  can  only  be  realized  through  the  downfall  of 
Mikadoism.  But  where  sovereign  power  has  rested  upon  a  single 
head  for  several  thousand  years  and  most  people  have  never  even 
dreamed  of  changing  the  present  dynasty,  it  is  alarming  to  the 
whole  country  to  attempt  to  introduce  democracy  even  in  the 
smallest  degree.  Consequently,  we  must  wait  patiently  for  the 
right  moment.  The  realization  of  our  idea  is  only  a  question  of 
time.  D.  Kotoku, 

Editor  of  Hciniin  Shimbun. 


Plans  for  a  Study  Class  in  Sociology. 

ONE  of  the  great  disadvantages  under  which  the  working 
class  labors  is  that  the  intellectual,  as  well  as  the  me- 
chanical and  physical  resources  of  society  have  been 
monopolized  by  the  ruling  class.  This  is  shown  not  so 
much  by  direct  muzzling  of  sources  of  instruction,  or  even  delib- 
erate distortion  of  fact  in  text  books,  although  both  of  these  play 
a  very  large  part,  but  still  more  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  education 
is  made  the  possession  of  a  small  cult.  Many  things  are  being 
done  in  our  Universities  today,  dominated  though  they  be  by 
capitalism,  that  are  thoroughly  revolutionary.  Nearly  all  of  the 
fruits  of  scientific  investigation  are  of  especial  value  to  the  work- 
ing class  in  their  struggles  for  better  conditions.  Yet  these  facts 
are  as  completely  unknown  to  the  great  mass  of  laborers  as  though 
they  never  existed.  They  are  generally  couched  in  scholastic 
verbiage  which  requires  special  training  to  interpret,  and  even 
if  the  workers  had  leisure  to  master  this  vocabulary,  it  would  still 
require  a  tremendous  waste  of  time  if  each  individual  were  com- 
pelled to  seek  out  the  facts  he  wanted  amid  the  bewildering  wealth 
of  printed  matter  which  in  turn  is  concealed  in  an  infinitely  greater 
mass  of  literary  chaff.  Hence,  the  need  of  some  sort  of  sys- 
tematic guidance  and  popularization.  Really,  this  guidance  and 
popularization  is  about  all  that  is  performed  by  the  instructor  in 
the  average  university. 

Socialists  have  long  felt  the  necessity  of  some  sort  of  an  in- 
stitution in  which  such  investigation  and  interpretation  could  be 
carried  on  with  the  direct  view  of  presenting  those  facts  of  spe- 
cial interest  to  the  producing  class.  It  is  manifestly  impossible  for 
the  socialist  at  the  present  stage  to  think  of  competing  with  the 
great  Universities  of  capitalism  in  many  lines.  But,  fortu- 
nately in  sociological  work,  it  is  possible  to  approximate  very 
closely  to  the  facilities  of  the  best  Universities  since  no  expensive 
plant  is  required  for  this  sort  of  work. 

The  work  of  education  for  those  who  are  to  fight  the  battles  of 
the  working  class  has  become  too  great  to  be  any  longer  carried 
on  without  division  of  labor.  The  socialists  of  other  countries 
have  recognized  this  and  in  the  "New  University"  of  Brussells 
and  the  "Free  Universities"  of  France  we  see  institutions  which 
have  been  formed  for  this  work.  In  no  country  in  the  world, 
however,  is  there  a  more  pressing  need  for  thorough  systematic 
educational  work  in  this  direction  than  in  America,  Economic 
development  has  created  a  widespread  discontent,  which,  while 
still  largely  unintelligent,  is  vaguely  reaching  out  toward  the 
socialist  movement.  Unless  this  discontent  can  be  met  and  as- 
similated, one  of  two  things  will  happen,  either  of  which  means 

760 


PLANS  FOR  STUDY  CLASS  IN  SOCIOLOGY.  761 

disaster  to  the  aims  of  Socialism — either  the  socialist  movement 
will  itself  be  overwhelmed  by  this  confused  discontent,  and  be 
lumcd  aside  from  the  path  of  intelligent  revolutionary  action,  or 
else  it  will  remain  apart  from  the  great  current  of  revolutionary 
thought,  and  degenerate  into  a  more  closed  sect,  while  the  actual 
proletarian  revolt  goes  on  without  it  perhaps  to  confusion  and  de- 
feat. 

In  view  of  these,  and  many  other  considerations  of  perhaps 
equal  importance  it  is  proposed  to  establish  in  Chicago  during 
the  coming  winter  an  institution  offering  an  opportunity  for  thor- 
ough, scholarly,  systematic  study  of  sociological  material,  and 
where  especial  emphasis  will  be  placed  upon  those  phases  of  the 
subject  which  are  of  interest  to  the  working  class  in  their  strug- 
gle for  freedom.  The  following  are  some  of  the  courses  of 
study  which  will  be  offered : 

American  Iiidustrial  History,  by  A.  M.  Simons,  four  days 
each  week.  Beginning  with  the  economic  causes  which  led  to 
the  discovery  of  America  this  course  will  proceed  to  trace  the 
industrial  development  in  colonial  times,  showing  the  diversity 
arising  in  the  various  colonies  from  physical  and  other  differ- 
ences. The  mechanical  advances  will  be  traced  which  gave  the 
people  of  America  an  ever-increasing  control  over  their  environ- 
ment, and  the  changes  in  industrial  organization  arising  from 
these  mechanical  advances.  Proceeding  from  this  the  whole  social 
organization  resting  thereon  will  be  analyzed,  showing  the  manner 
in  which  those  changes  sprang  from  the  economic  development. 
This  will  lead  to  an  examination  of  the  political  class  struggles, 
arising  from  the  conflicts  of  economic  classes  and  the  various  in- 
stitutions which  developed  out  of  these  conflicts.  Special  em- 
phasis will  be  laid  on  the  struggle  between  chattel  and  wage- 
slavery,  concentration  of  industry,  organized  labor  and  the  effect 
of  a  continuous  frontier  movement.  The  work  will  be  carried  on 
by  lectures,  with  frequent  examinations  and  each  student  will 
be  assisted  in  the  preparation  of  a  paper  requiring  a  thorough 
investigation  of  some  one  phase  of  the  subjects  covered. 

Political  Economy,  by  May  Wood  Simons.  The  comparative 
historical  method  will  be  used  in  this  course  throughout.  The 
various  economic  ideas  will  be  traced  historically  and  their  relation 
to  the  industrial  development  of  the  period  in  which  they  arose 
will  be  pointed  out.  Among  the  ideas  so  traced  will  be  those 
of  "Wealth,  Rent,  Interest,  Wages,  Profits  and  Value."  The 
ideas  of  the  various  writers  upon  these  subjects  will  be  compared 
with  each  other  and  with  the  socialist  doctrines  on  these  subjects. 
The  student  will  be  brought  in  touch  with  the  principal  English, 
German  and  Austrian  economists,  as  well  as  with  the  writings  of 
Patton,  Ely,  Commons,  Mead  and  other  American  political  econo- 
mists of  the  present  day.    Two  hours  each  week. 


762  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   RBVIEW. 

Socialism,  by  May  Wood  Simons.  Two  hours  each  week. 
This  course  will  presuppose  a  familiarity  with  the  leading  social- 
ist classics.  The  work  will  consist  in  a  study  of  the  development 
of  the  philosophy  of  socialism  first  by  the  Utopians  and  other  pre* 
Marxian  writers,  to  be  followed  by  a  short  survey  of  Marxian 
economics.  Special  emphasis  will  be  laid  upon  the  materialistic 
conception  of  history  and  the  theory  of  the  class  struggle  as  de- 
veloped by  various  writers  from  Marx  and  Engels  to  the  present 
time,  including  non-Socialists  as  well  as  Socialists  and  par- 
ticularly the  relation  of  the  philosophy  of  Socialism  to  Art,  Litera- 
ture, Science  and  Education.  The  course  will  close  with  an 
historical  survey  of  the  growth  of  the  Socialist  movement  in 
Europe  and  America. 

Biological  Sociology,  by  Ernest  Untermann.  Four  hours  a  week. 
Beginning  with  a  preliminary  survey  of  the  facts  of  biology,  the 
theory  of  evolution  is  traced  historically  and  the  contributions  made 
by  various  writers  pointed  out.  Having  developed  the  laws  of 
evolution  which  are  most  general  in  their  application,  the  subject 
of  comparative  animal  sociology  and  its  relation  to  human  society 
is  investigated.  This  leads  to  a  study  of  the  workings  of 
the  principles  of  sexual  and  natural  selection  and  of  heredity 
under  varying  economic  conditions  and  systems,  and  finally  to  an 
exhaustive  discussion  of  the  materialistic  conception  of  history  and 
its  relation  to  general  sociological  problems.  This  course  will  in- 
clude a  presentation  of  the  results  of  the  work  of  Darwin,  Huxley, 
Romanes,  Weisman,  Wallace,  Loeb  and  other  great  biological 
writers,  insofar  as  their  work  applies  to  sociology. 

Anthropology,  by  Professor  Jerome  H.  Raymond  of  the 
University  of  Chicago.  An  elementary  course  on  man  as  the 
unit  of  society,  and  on  the  evolution  of  society  and  social  institu- 
tions. The  general  purpose  of  the  course  is  to  point  out  how 
man  has  developed  into  his  present  social  state,  what  the  influ- 
ences were  which  caused  this  development,  and  how  these  influ- 
ences themselves  have  evolved.  The  general  subjects  discussed 
are:  first,  the  antiquity  of  man,  and  the  place  man  occupies  in 
nature;  second,  the  origin  and  early  development  of  institutions 
which  have  made  man  what  he  is,  and  upon  which  contemporary 
society  is  based,  such  as  language  and  writing,  the  arts  of  life 
and  pleasure,  religion  and  science,  mythology  and  history,  the 
family  and  social  structure.  Tylor's  "Anthropology"  will  be 
studied,  supplemented  by  lectures  and  assigned  readings. 

The  hours  and  details  of  this  course  cannot  be  given  at 
the  present  time  as  they  depend  somewhat  on  other  arrangements 
which  must  be  made.  These  five  courses  will  require  practically 
all  of  the  student's  time.  If  circumstances  permit  it  it  is  hoped 
to  add  still  other  courses  so  as  to  permit  a  choice  of  work  to  be 
.done. 


PIAN8  FOB  STUDY  CLASS  IN  SOCIOLCXJY.  763 

In  addition  to  the  day  work  of  the  school,  there  will  be  a 
series  of  evening  lectures  probably  occupying  at  least  three  even- 
ings per  week  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  employed  during 
the  day.  Among  the  lectures  which  have  already  been  provided 
for  in  this  department  will  be  a  series  of  twelve  by  Professor 
Jerome  H.  Raymond  on  "European  Capitals  and  their  Social  Sig- 
nificance." These  lectures  are  part  of  the  regular  Extension  work 
of  the  University  of  Chicago  and  have  been  given  by  Professor 
Raymond  in  various  cities  throughout  the  country,  and  have  been 
endorsed  by  all  who  have  heard  them.  They  offer  in  an  ex- 
tremely entertaining  manner  a  survey  of  the  various  social 
movements  in  Europe  with  special  emphasis  on  the  socialist  activ- 
ity.   They  are  profusely  illustrated  with  stereopticon  views. 

Professor  George  D.  Herron  will  also  give  a  course  of  lec- 
tures on  social  psychology  the  details  of  which  will  be  announced 
later. 

Mr.  James  Minnick  will  give  several  lectures  on  industrial 
history  illustrated  by  stereopticon  slides.  The  slides  are  used  to 
present  in  most  graphic  form  the  statistical  facts  of  industrial 
development,  and  also  to  illustrate  the  mechanical  advance  that 
has  been  made,  together  with  the  social  contrasts  of  present 
society. 

Professor  Oscar  L.  Triggs  has  also  agreed  to  deliver  a  series 
of  lectures  unless  circumstances,  now  unforeseen,  should  so 
occupy  his  time  as  to  render  it  impossible. 

It  is  hoped  that  arrangements  can  be  made  to  add  still 
further  to  the  teaching  force  and  facilities  of  the  school.  How- 
ever, it  will  be  the  policy  of  those  in  charge  to  use  the  greatest 
caution  in  announcements  and  to  promise  nothing  which  cannot 
be  absolutely  fulfilled.  The  further  extension  of  the  work  will, 
of  course  depend  upon  the  support  which  the  school  receives. 
Sufficient  is  now  in  hand  to  justify  the  announcement  of  work  as 
outlined  above.  Since  only  the  most  modest  salaries  will  be  paid 
to  those  engaged  in  the  work,  and  these  are  practically  assured, 
every  dollar  received  from  now  on  can  go  to  improving  the  char- 
acter of  the  work.  If  a  few  contributions  could  be  received,  it 
would  be  possible  to  add  some  things  in  the  way  of  equipment 
which  are  very  much  needed. 

Each  course  requires  a  large  amount  of  reading  and 
independent  investigation.  Indeed  it  is  now  generally 
recognized  that  in  sociological  work  the  best  university 
consists  of  an  adequate  collection  of  books  with  an  instructor 
capable  of  guiding  and  directing  the  work  of  the  student.  No  city 
in  the  country  has  better  library  facilities  for  this  sort  of  work  than 
Chicago.  The  John  Crerar  Library  makes  a  special  feature  of  works 
on  sociology.  Some  time  ago  it  purchased  the  "Ely  collection" 
of  books  on  this  subject,  comprising  one  of  the  most  complete 


TW  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIAUST  REVIEW. 

collections  of  Socialist  and  Trade  Union  publications  in  the  United 
States.  It  has  received  the  complete  collection  of  the  late  Henry 
D.  Lloyd,  which  he  had  spent  a  life  time  in  gathering  and  which 
covers  every  phase  of  the  labor  problem  and  the  question  of  monop- 
oly. More  recently^it  has  added  to  this  by  a  purchase  of  a  Europ- 
ean collection  of  about  30,000  volumes  bearing  on  these  same 
subjects,  giving  the  best  collection  of  works  on  Socialism  and 
the  labor  movement  to  be  found  in  America.  The  Newberry  Li- 
brary, The  Chicago  Public  Library  and  the  Library  of  the  Illi- 
nois Historical  Society,  are  all  especially  strong  in  American  His- 
tory, and  together  furnish  all  the  material  that  could  possibly  be 
used  in  such  courses  as  are  here  planned.  All  of  these  libraries 
are  absolutely  free  to  readers  and  can  be  freely  used  by  the  students 
taking  this  work.  In  addition  to  this  the  private  library  of  A.  M. 
and  May  Wood  Simons,  containing  a  very  complete  collection 
of  recent  American  and  European  works  on  Socialism,  including 
nearly  all  the  European  socialist  periodicals  of  value  to  the  stu- 
dent, will  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  those  taking  work  in  the 
school. 

Still  another  phase  of  the  work  will  consist  of  correspondence 
courses  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  cannot  attend  the  school.  These 
courses  will  aim  to  carry  the  benefits  of  the  work  to  the  homes  of 
the  students  in  so  far  as  this  is  possible. 

The  school  will  open  about  November  14,  1904,  and  continue 
for  twenty  weeks. 

The  whole  idea  of  the  work  will  be  that  of  co-operative  study 
for  truth  by  students  and  teachers  in  an  endeavor  to  discover 
and  utilize  those  facts  which  are  of  value  to  the  working  class  of 
the  United  States  and  of  the  world  in  their  effort  to  free  them- 
selves from  the  oppression  of  the  present  system  and  to  realize  the 
historical  mission  of  their  class. 
For  further  information  address : 

A.  M.  Simons, 
May  Wood  Simons. 

Melrose  Park,  111. 


Has  There  Been  a  Swing  to  the  Right? 

Since  the  Chicago  Convention  the  statement  has  been  heard  from  various 
quarters  that  the  results  of  the  deliberations  of  that  bodj  constituted  a 
movement  towards  the  "Right.'*  By  this  it  is  meant  that  there  was  a 
movement  toward  the  more  conservative,  opportunist  or  compromising  side. 
This  statement  is  heard  in  two  quarters.  In  the  first  place  it  is  alleged 
by  the  defeated  '  Umpossibilists "  as  an  explanation  of  their  hostility  to 
the  actions  of  the  Convention.  In  the  second  place  it  finds  expression  in  a 
somewhat  bombastic  circular  letter  which  has  been  sent  out  by  one  of  the 
advocates  of  opportunism.  When  the  letter  is  examined,  however,  it  is 
found  to  rest  upon  the  same  foundation  as  the  statement  previously  referred 
to  i.  e.  the  overthrow  of  impossibilism.  But  the  fact  is  that  this  latter 
tendency  has  never  held  any  prominent  position  in  American  or  International 
socialism  and  its  defeat  is  not  of  any  great  consequence.  This  tendency 
was  stronger  at  Chicago  than  at  any  previous  Convention,  and  this  fact 
would  at  first  seem  to  indicate  the  growing  strength  of  impossibilism.  But 
it  is  easy  to  show  that  its  importance  at  Chicago  was  due  to  a  series  of 
largely  accidental  circumstances  that  almost  certainly  can  never  simultane- 
ously occur  again.  But  impossibilism  has  never  constituted  the  "Left 
wing''  of  socialism,  it  is  something  wholly  outside  the  socialist  movement. 
There  is  not  a  line  of  literature  supporting  it  in  socialist  classics.  Its  only 
counterparts  outside  the  United  States  were  the  "Jungen"  of  a  generation 
ago  in  Germany  and  the  ludicrous  imitation  of  De  Leonism  which  calls 
itself  the  S.  L.  P.  of  Great  Britain.  In  view  of  this  fact  the  defeat  of 
impossibilism  was  simply  a  proof  of  the  vitality  of  socialism  and  of  its 
ability  to  rid  itself  of  external  disturbing  factors. 

If  we  take  the  question  of  inunediate  demands  as  a  test,  we  shall  find 
that  in  no  other  country  in  the  world  does  even  the  extreme  left  wing  of 
socialism  oppose  all  statements  whatever  of  immediate  activity,  and  in  the 
second  place,  these  demands  are  more  guardedly  and  lees  prominently  stated 
iu  the  present  than  in  any  previous  American  socialist  platform.  Prior  to 
the  Indianapolis  Convention,  no  Socialist  Party  Convention  had  ever 
seriously  considered  the  elimination  of  these  demands.  At  that  Convention 
the  minority  fought,  not  for  the  dropping  of  statements  concerning  the 
activity  of  socialists  who  might  be  elected  to  office,  but  for  the  elaboration 
of^  a  programme  for  the  guidance  of  such  officials  apart  from  the  platform. 

765 


786  THE  INTBENATIONAL  SOCIALIST  EBVIBW. 

It  might  be  ^ell  to  remind  some  of  those  who  have  aceueed  the  editor 
of  this  Review  of  having  moved  toward  opportunism  since  the  Indianapolis 
Convention  that  he  was  the  one  who  wrote  the  instmctions  to  the  Chicago 
delegation,  which  instructions  were  unanimously  adopted,  and  which  pro- 
vided for  the  adoption  of  such  a  programme,  and  also  that  he  was  the  mover 
of  the  resolution  for  the  appointment  of  a  conunittee  on  municipal 
programme;  that  this  committee  was  appointed  on  his  motion  at  the  Indian- 
apolis Convention  and  it  is  the  report  of  that  committee  which,  to  a  large 
degree,  forms  the  municipal  portion  of  the  programme  which  has  now  been 
sent  to  the  National  executive  committee  for  revision  and  submission  to  a 
referendum,  and  against  which  some  of  the  very  persons  who  then  supported 
that  motion  are  now  levelling  their  attacks.  Hence,  if  there  is  a  movement 
in  any  direction,  it  has  been  a  movement  on  the  part  of  the  impossibilists 
away  from  the  accepted  policy  of  the  party  and  of  the  International 
Socialist  movement.  The  adoption  of  such  a  programme  is  simply  an  indi- 
cation that  the  socialist  party  is  at  work.  It  is  a  recognition  of  the  existence 
of  definite  tasks  and  of  a  willingness  and  ability  systematically  to  under- 
take those  tasks.  To  have  adopted  any  other  policy  would  simply  liave  becu 
to  acknowledge  our  incompetency  and  cowardice.  How  true  this  is  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  impossibilists  of  Chicago,  who  rejected  the  programme 
because  it  would  not  be  revolutionary,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  form- 
ulate and  direct  a  revolutionary  policy  for  the  sodalist  member  of  the 
Common  Council  finally  evolved  as  the  one  ** immediate  demand''  of  most 
revolutionary  importance  that  this  Socialist  Councilman  should  introduce 
a  measure  to  appropriate  $50,000  for  the  benefit  of  the  sufferers  of  the 
Iroquois  fire. 

The  consideration  of  such  a  programme  as  is  to  be  submitted  to  the 
referendum  is  simply  an  indication  of  the  fact  that  the  socialist  party 
intends  to  control  its  officials  in  an  intelligent  democratic  manner.  The 
only  attempt  of  what  might  be  called  the  opportunist  wing,  to  make  itself 
directly  felt  in  the  Convention  was  when  some  of  the  members  of  that  wing 
held  a  caucus  to  determine  the  niako-up  of  Committees.  If  the  opportunist 
wing  is  to  be  judged  by  the  result  of  this  effort,  then,  that  influence  was 
slight  indeed,  for  the  Convention  not  only  broke  tlio  slate  to  fragments, 
but  publicly  rebuked  its  makers.  The  fact  is  that  the  Socialist  Party  of 
America  stands  in  the  most  intelligently  revolutionary  and  uncompromising 
position  of  any  socialist  party  in  the  world.  It  has  becu  forced  to  this 
position  by  economic  development.  It  lays  less  stress  on  palliatives  than 
any  other  party  of  importance  in  the  socialist  movement,  while,  at  the  same 
time,  it  has  cast  behind  it  all  TJtopianism  and  has  no  fear  of  declaring  it<i 
position  upon  any  question  with  which  the  workers  are  concerned. 


THE  WORLD  OF  LABOR 

By  Max  S.  Hayes. 


It  will  be  recalled  that  in  previous  numbers  of  the  Review  mention  of 
the  fact  was  made  that  the  capitalists  of  the  country,  having  established 
government  by  injunction  so  firmly  that  it  cannot  be  uprooted  except  through 
revolutionary  labor  class  politics,  as  outlined  in  the  platform  and  declara- 
tions adopted  by  the  Socialist  party  convention  in  Chicago  last  month,  are 
now  cultivating  a  fad  to  begin  damage  suits  against  trade  unions  and  mem- 
bers thereof  whenever  a  strike  occurs  and  loss  is  inflicted  by  picketing  and 
boycotting.  Ever  since  the  rendering  of  the  decision  in  Qreat  Britain  in  the 
celebrated  Taff  Yale  railway  case,  wherein  the  House  of  Lords,  the  highest 
court  in  the  land,  held  that  the  railway  employes  must  pay  the  company 
$125,000  as  damages  for  picketing  and  boycotting,  and  which  was  recently 
followed  by  still  another  decision  in  which  the  miners  of  the  Cadeby-Denaby 
district  were  called  upon  to  pay  their  masters  three-quarters  of  a  million 
dollars  for  ceasing  work — ever  since  the  Taff  Vale  incident — there  has 
developed  a  perfect  mania  among  the  employes  to  harass  orgnnized  labor 
in  the  courts  by  attacking  its  treasuries. 

It  will  also  be  remembered  that  about  a  year  ago  the  first  precedent 
was  established  in  the  United  States  when  the  machinists  of  Rutland,  Yt., 
were  mulcted  oat  of  $2,500  for  boycotting  an  unfair  concern,  and  no  sooner 
was  that  case  decided  when  similar  actions  were  filed  in  every  industrial 
center  of  the  land  by  capitalists  and  their  lawyers  who  scent  graft  from 
afar.  The  cases  have  been  coming  to  trial  rather  slowly,  and  consequently 
we  hardly  knew  *  *  where  we  are  at, ' '  but  during  the  pas£  month  or  so  history 
has  been  made  that  is  anything  but  satisfactory  and  foreshadows  many 
new  obstacles  and  discouragements  that  must  be  met,  not  by  theorizing 
and  speculating,  but  in  a  practical  manner — ^not  by  foolishly  begging  the 
capitalistic  enemy,  who  is  entrenched  behind  the  government  fortifica- 
tions, to  enact  laws  hostile  to  his  ovm  class  interests,  but  by  storming  his 
position  on  election  day  and  placing  the  majority,  the  working  class,  in 
power  to  enact,  interpret  and  enforce  laws.  That  is  doing  practical  work. 
The  lobbying  game  hieis  been  played  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  thousands 
of  dollars  have  been  spent  and  valuable  time  wasted,  and  all  to  gratify  the 
conceit  of  a  few  pompous  leaders  who  talk  and  talk  and  accomplish  nothing, 
except  to  gain  newspaper  notoriety. 

Here,  then,  are  the  latest  facts  relating  to  the  onslaughts  against 
unions  through  the  courts,  and  which  should  be  known  and  their  significance 
understood  by  every  man  and  woman  who  carries  a  card.  Says  a  New 
Orleans  dispatch: 

' '  John  B.  Honor  &  Co.,  stevedores,  secured  judgment  against  the  Long- 
shoremen's  Union  for  diunages  in  the  sum  of  $12,000  for  violation  of  con- 
tract. This  is  the  first  decision  of  the  kind  ever  given  in  the  far  South 
and  will  have  a  decisive  effect  on  other  labor  union  troubles  that  are 
pending. ' ' 

The  ''violation  of  contract,"  as  I  learn  from  another  source,  consisted 
of  the  expulsion  of  several  members  from  the  union,  who  were  simply  spies 

7«7 


76«  THE  INTERNATIONAL  80CIAU8T  REVIEW. 

for  Honor  &  Co.,  and  tbe  union  men  refused  to  woxk  with  than  and  went 
on  ftrike  when  the  companj  declined  to  dieeharge  them.  Still  another 
aecoont  aayi  that  while  Honor  So  Co,  were  seenring  damages  in  one  oonrt 
a  second  court  promulgated  a  decree  ordering  the  union  to  readmit  the 
expelled  members.  So  it  is  useless  to  deny  the  fact  that  the  courts  are  run- 
ning the  unions  pretty  much  as  they  please  in  New  Orleans. 

A  case  has  also  been  decided  at  New  Bmnewick,  N.  J.,  where  a  con- 
tracting Arm  secured  a  verdict  against  the  Bricklayers'  Union,  also  unin- 
corporated, for  $500  damages.  No  contract  is  alleged  to  have  been  broken. 
Tiie  eomplainant  simply  demanded  nominal  damages  because  of  a  boycott 
declared  against  it.  ft  seems  that  the  business  agent  of  the  union  was 
ordered  off  a  Job,  the  men  thereupon  ceased  work  and  placed  a  fine  of  $50 
on  tha  firm,  which  tbe  latter  refused  to  pay,  the  boycott  followed  and  the 
case  terminated  after  a  three  days'  legal  battle  in  the  manner  stated. 

Still  another  important  case  has  just  been  decided  at  Lawrence,  Mass., 
where  the  business  agent  of  tbe  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  Union  of  Haver 
bill  was  asw^HKod  .f  1,500  damages  because  they  secured  the  discharge  of  one 
Michael  T.  Berry,  who  refused  to  join  the  union  of  which  Jerry  E.  Done 
van,  the  defendant,  was  the  representative.  The  singular  thing  about  the 
ones  is  that  Donovan  had  made  a  contract  with  Goodrich  &  Co.  to  supply 
the  union  stamp  provided  the  plant  was  unionized,  but  Beriy  refused  to 
Join  the  organisation  and  was  discharged,  and  instead  of  suing  the  com- 
pany that  controlled  the  job  he  sued  the  union's  official.  The  court  ruled 
that  as  between  the  company  and  the  union  the  contract  was  binding,  but 
could  not  hold  when  the  rights  of  third  parties  were  involved.  In  other 
words,  the  court  adVises  a  business  concern  to  break  its  contract  when  made 
with  A  union  and  the  so-called  rights  of  a  non-union  or  scab  workman  are 
concerned,  so  that  one  can  hang  tbe  many.  This  case  was  appealed  by  the 
unionists,  the  lower  court  having  refused  to  grant  a  new  trial.  If  the 
upper  court  confirms  the  decision  every  capitalist  can  employ  a  spy  or  two 
and  prevent  the  thorough  unionizing  of  a  plant  indefinitely.  Moreover, 
if  these  domnge  suits  that  are  establishing  precedents  are  uniformly  suc- 
cessful, the  capitalists  are  given  power  to  frighten  and  split  off  such  mem- 
bers of  unions  who  have  a  few  dollars  in  bank  saved  for  a  rainy  day  or 
perhaps  own  a  little  home. 

But  vital  to  organized  labor  as  this  new  issue  really  is,  our  so-called 
lenders,  who  delight  to  boast  of  their  conservatism,  are  as  dlent  as  the 
tomb  on  the'  Question.  Quite  likely  when  they  come  out  of  their  trance 
they  will  timimy  suggest  to  the  rank  and  file  the  advisability  of  inaugu- 
rnung  a  new  campaign  of  petitioning  for  some  sort  of  relief  from  the 
legislative  bodies  in  control  of  the  enemy;  and  this  will  afford  the  politi- 
cians a  new  opportunity  to  pose  as  the  ' ' workingman 's  friend"  and  fiddle 
away  for  a  dozen  years  or  so  while  good  union  nioney  is  being  burnt  up. 
But  all  the  jockeying  and  dodging  of  the  question,  and  all  the  playing 
upon  ponderous  phraeee  from  now  on  until  kingdom  come,  will  not  relieve 
labor  from  the  injustice  and  tyranny  heaped  upon  it  until  labor  defends 
its  class  interests  politioally  as  well  as  industrially — until  labor  dignifies 
itself  and  gfives  substantial  evidence  of  having  the  self-respect  and  courage 
to  seize  control  of  the  machinery  of  government  and  rule  the  nation,  as  it 
has  a  perfect  right  to  do.  And  those  who  advise  against  such  a  policy, 
and  thus  declare  in  so  many  words  that  the  capitalists  should  remain  in 
power,  eould  do  the  latter  no  greater  favor  and  labor  no  greater  wrong. 
If  labor  is  not  fit  to  govern  then  it  is  not  fit  to  produce  the  nation's  wealth 
and  enjoy  the  ** life,  liberty  and  pursuit  of  happiness"  that  is  gnaranteed 
by  the  fundamental  principles  upon  which  this  republic  rests. 

The  **opon  shop"  battle  has  bwn  raging  all  along  the  line  during  the 
past  month.  Besides  the  great  struggle  in  Colorado,  which  has  been  waged 
many  months,  every  industrial  center  on  the  Pacific  Coast — San  Franeiseo, 
Baeraroento,  Ijos  Angeles  and  other  places— has  been  torn  up  with  strikes 


THE  WOELD  OF  LABOB.  769 

and  lockouts.  Along  the  entire  Santa  Fe  line  some  twelTe  thousand  machi- 
nists and  kindred  crafts  haye  been  forced  to  fight  for  the  life  of  organiza- 
tion ;  boot  and  shoe  workers  to  the  number  of  four  thousand  were  attacked 
in  Chicago;  six  thousand  carriage  workers  in  New  York  and  Ticinity  were 
forced  out;  tLiee  thousand  boilermakers  in  eastern  cities  were  compelled 
to  strike;  fiye  thousand  building  craftsmen  in  Philadelphia  struck  for  the 
right  to  organize,  and  in  Detroit  the  issue  is  the  same,  while  in  Cincinnati, 
St.  Louis,  Kansas  City,  New  Orleans,  Omaha,  Pittsburg,  Bochester  and 
scores  of  smaller  places  the  fight  is  on  and  every  trade  is  affected.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  National  Association  of  Manufacturers,  the  Citizens' 
Alliance,  the  National  Contractors'  Association,  the  Ketal  Trades  Associa- 
tion and  other  national  and  local  bodies  of  employers,  having  been  greatly 
encouraged  by  the  defeat  of  labor  bills  before  Congress  and  State  legisla- 
tures, by  the  smashiifg  of  labor  laws  in  the  courto  when  test  cases  were 
brought  to  trial,  and  by  being  granted  blanket  injunctions  whenever  and 
wherever  they  desired  them,  are  enthusiastically  pushing  the  work  of  organ- 
ization and  never  lose  an  opportunity  to  display  their  hostility  toward  the 
trade  unions.  The  J '  sting  of  antagonism '  *  that  Gompers  said  is  being 
"withdrawn"  because  he  and  his  followers  "smashed  socialism"  in  the 
Boston  A.  F.  of  K  convention,  seems  to  have  been  jabbed  in  deeper  than 
ever.  There  never  has  been  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  country  when  thero 
have  been  more  strikes  and  lockouts  and  covering  a  greater  area  than  at 
present,  and  the  outlook  for  the  near  future  is  anything  but  reassuring. 
While  the  wishes  of  the  leaders  may  father  their  thoughts,  and  while  they 
may  occupy  the  undignified  position  of  humbling  themselves  and  their  con- 
stituents before  unbridled  capitalism  in  the  hope  of  conciliating  it  by 
"squelching  the  radicals,"  the  latter  can  afford  to  smile  at  their  discom- 
fort and  give  them  a  free  hand  to  pursue  their  mistaken  policies  to  the 
finish.  But  one  thing  is  dead  certain,  and  that  is,  the  rank  and  file  are 
awakening  to  the  situation  more  rapidly  than  ever  before.  This  fact  is 
not  only  demonstrated  by  the  steady  gain  of  the  Socialist  party  member- 
ship and  the  increase  of  votes  in  local  elections,  but  by  the  healthy  views 
that  are  reflected  through  the  labor  press,  the  discussions  that  take  place 
in  meeting  rooms  and  ofiicial  organs,  and  the  general  satisfaction  that  is 
expressed  with  the  Socialist  party  platform  and  trade  union  declaration,  as 
well  as  the  nominees  of  the  Chicago  convention.  That  Debs  and  Hanford 
will  poll  a  magnificent  vote  among  the  organized  workers  is  now  being 
admitted  by  many  capitalistic  workers  and  newspapers,  who  realize  that 
labor  in  this  country,  like  the  toilers  of  Europe  and  Australia,  may  be 
imposed  upon  for  a  time,  but  is  bound  to  turn  when  the  limit  is  reached. 
The  organized  men  are  beginning  to  understand  that  the  grave  problem?^ 
confronting  them  now  cannot  be  solved  by  the  strike  and  boycott,  but  are 
political  in  their  nature  and  must  be  settled  at  the  ballot-box.  Instead  of 
stamping  out  socialism  every  attack  of  the  conservatives  arouses  more 
curiosity  to  know  something  about  it,  causes  investigation,  starts  discus- 
sions and  brings  in  recruits.  Therefore,  Socialists  can  afford  to  be  good- 
tempereci  at  this  stage  of  the  game.  Things  are  coming  their  way  quite 
as  rapidly  as  a  healthy  growth  warrant?s.  They  are  not  responsible  for 
the  capitalistic  assaults  upon  the  working  class,  nor  for  the  peculiar  per- 
formances of  certain  labor  leaders  (f),  but  they  are  in  the  fight  just  the 
same  and  bear  their  share  of  burdens,  including  ostracism  from  "good" 
society,  blacklisting  in  the  workshop  and  plenty  of  abuse  from  those  whom 
they  would  assist.  But,  as  stated,  Socialists  can  afford  to  be  patient  and 
cheerful.  You  know  what  Lincoln  said:  You  can  fool  some  of  the  people 
all  time,  all  the  people  some  of  the  time,  but  not  all  the  people  all  of  the 
time. 

There  has  been  little  done,  outside  of  talk,  to  straighten  out  the  juris- 
diction tangles  between  the  various  national  unions.  There  is  but  one 
instance  where  some  progress  has  been  made  during  the  past  month  to  bury 


"^ 


770  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

the  hatchet.  The  Amalgamated  Society  of  Engineers  and  the  International 
AsBociation  of  Machinists  arranged  for  a  working  agreement  that  is  fair  to 
both  sides,  and  which,  if  honestly  enforced,  will  do  much  toward  arranging 
a  federation  or  amalgamation  that  would  be  a  power  in  industry.  On  the 
other  hand  the  meat  cutters  and  butcher  workmen,  in  their  Cincinnati  con- 
vention, announced  that  they  intend  to  claim  jurisdiction  over  engineers, 
firemen  and  coopers  employed  in  packing  houses,  exactly  those  workers  that 
the  A.  F.  of  L.  officials  are  attempting  to  tear  away  from  the  brewers' 
union,  so  the  chances  are  good  for  another  controversy.  There  are  about 
a  doasen  national  metal  working  unions  that  are  all  in  a  snarl,  and  a  man- 
date has  gone  forth  from  Washington  that  there  is  to  be  a  conference  held 
between  all  those  trades  in  July,  the  A.  F.  of  L.  included,  and  any  one 
disregarding  the  call  to  send  two  representatives  to  the  conference,  or  any 
organization  not  abiding  by  the  decision  reached  at  the  conference,  the 
charter  of  that  union  stands,  revoked  without  further  delay.  A  warm  time 
is  expected. 

Here  is  an  item  from  a  Detroit  paper  that  gives  a  general  idea  of  the 
heroism  displayed  by  the  western  miners  in  their  battle  against  Rockefeller 
and  his  various  grades  of  hired  scoundrels:  "Three  union  miners,  Messrs. 
Hays,  Eake  and  Kane,  driven  out  of  Colorado  by  Peabody  and  his  militia, 
passed  through  Detroit  on  their  way  to  the  mines  of  Iowa.  They  had  been 
up  in  the  copper  mining  district  of  northern  Michigan,  but  had  failed  to 
get  employment.  Arriving  in  Detroit,  they  went  to  the  postoffice  and  bought 
a  money  order  for  $7.  This  they  sent  to  headquarters  to  aid  their  out- 
raged brothers  in  Colorado.  The  three  of  them  together  had  just  $11. 
Cheerfully  dividing  the  $4  remaining,  they  began  to  inquire  about  the 
departure  of  freigut  trains,  in  order  that  thej  might  take  a  box  car  to 
Iowa,  perfectly  willing  to  undergo  all  the  discomforts  of  this  style  of 
travel,  provided  they  could  assist  those  whom  they  had  left  behind." 

Just  to  show  how  the  textile  barons  are  exploiting  the  women  and 
children  whom  they  entice  into  their  factories,  I  quote  fiom  the  American 
Wool  Reporter,  a  capitalistic  paper  regarding  the  strike  in  the  Arling[ton 

he  gill-box  minders  are  all  girls  and  until  a 


mills  at  Lawrence,  Mass.:  „  ^     _  

month  ago  they  attended  two  gill  boxes  of  wool,  for  which  they  received 
$6.78  a  week.  One  mohair  box  was  considered  sufficient  for  a  girl  to  mind, 
and  she  received  $15  per  week.  The  week  before  the  notice  of  a  wage 
recTuction  was  posted  the  work  of  the  wool  gill-box  minders  was  increased  to 
three  boxes,  and  the  mohair  minder's  work  was  increased  to  two  boxes. 
The  physical  strain  entailed  by  extra  work  was  very  aeyerei  When  the 
gill-box  minders  learned  that  their  munificent  wages  were  to  be  reduced  to 
$5.84  per  week,  there  was  no  consultation  or  hesitation,  but  all  walked 
out." 


SOCIALISM    ABROAD 


Holland. 

The  tenth  congress  of  the  Social  Democratic  Labor  Party  of  Holland 
was  held  on  Easter  Sunday  at  the  hall  Musis  SoGrum,  in  Dordrecht.  The 
president,  Henri  Polak,  said  in  his  opening  address: 

"This  congress  will  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  important  and 
remarkable  ever  held  by  the  party.  It  proves  clearly  that  the  storms 
which  passed  over  ns  have  left  no  hurtful  consequences.  If  the  party  has 
actually  suffered  a  little,  it  has  quickly  regained  its  losses.  It  now  pos- 
sesses the  energy,  the  vitality,  and  the  perseverance,  which  are  the  charac- 
tristic  signs  of  the  working  class  movement.  We  have  done  everything 
that  a  party  like  ours  can  accomplish,  and  we  have  passed  happily  through 
the  critical  period.  Our  vote  and  our  political  influence  are  increasing; 
anarchism  is  disappearing  more  and  more,  even  from  the  trade  union  move- 
ment; our  party  is  strong  and  alive,  it  can  weather  the  severest  storms; 
although  it  is  small,  compared  with  some  of  its  sister  parties,  it  consti- 
tutes, nevertheless,  a  remarkable  battalion  in  the  great  international  army 
of  labor. '* 

Before  starting  upon  the  programme,  the  time  allotted  to  the  various 
committees  was  fixed  at  half  an  hour  each,  except  for  the  report  on  the 
customs  tariff  by  Troelstra,  to  which  an  hour  was  allotted.  The  speakers 
were  allowed  fifteen  minutes  the  first  time,  and  five  minutes  the  second  time. 

The  secretary  of  the  party  announced  that  85  groups  were  represented 
by  114  delegates. 

The  reports  on  the  activity  of  the  party  and  on  the  financial  situation, 
by  Van  Kuyhof,  were  adopted. 

Next,  the  questions  incident  to  parliamentary  action  were  discussed. 
First,  the  project  of  the  government  for  the  regulation  of  labor  contracts. 
Chairman  Tak,  of  the  committee,  formulated  a  fundamental  criticism  of  the 
project,  the  gravest  fault  of  which  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  contract 
for  labor  is  incorporated  in  the  civil  legislative  code  in  such  a  way  as  to 
give  the  impression  that  the  sale  or  rental  of  the  labor-commodity  is  in 
no  way  different  from  traffic  in  any  other  commodity  whatever.  All  the 
speakers  expressed  themselves  as  in  agreement  with  the  report,  and  no 
^pcial  resolution  was  adopted  on  this  question. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  report  of  the  parliamentary  delegation,  Van 
Kol,  at  the  desire  of  Section  1  of  Amsterdam,  explained  the  atBtude  taken 
by  him  in  the  debates  on  the  colonial  question,  and  notably  on  the  proposi- 
tion to  sell  a  part  of  the  East  Indian  possessions.  In  general,  the  dele- 
gates declared  themselves  in  agreement  with  the  position  taken  by  the  par- 
liamentary delegation  on  the  various  parliamentary  questions. 

A  long  discussion,  lasting  till  noon  the  second  day,  ensued  regarding 
the  party  organ,  Eet  VolJc.  Comrade  Tak  was  unanimously  elected  as 
editor. 

771 


772  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST  REVIEW. 

The  oongress  then  took  up  the  questioii  of  protection.  Comrade  Troel- 
stra  fnrnished  a  detailed  Tiew  of  the  development  of  free  trade  in  Englaad 
and  of  the  protectionist  system  in  Qermany,  and  he  then  commented  upon 
the  basic  position  of  the  social  democracy  on  this  onestion.  He  ended  his 
speech  hr  declaring  that  if  a  resolution  was  to  be  aaopted  on  this  question, 
he  would  propose  the  Bebel-Kautsky  resolution  of  the  German  congress  of 
1898.  The  speaker  expressed  his  opinion  on  the  proposed  law  of  the 
Netherlands  government  regarding  import  duties.  He  ended  thus:  ^'We 
shall  struggle  as  vigorously  as  possible  against  this  project,  but  in  our 
own  way.  We  have  never  been  dogmatic  free-traders.  So^  in  this  struggle 
we  shall  snatch  off  the  masks  of  the  Christian  or  non-Chnstian  shama,  and 
we  shall  convince  the  sm^  producers  that  their  interests  are  not  safe  with 
the  capitalists^  but  that  they  belong  with  us."  Without  formulating  any 
resolution  on  this  (question,  the  congress  declared  itself  in  agreement  with 
Troelstra's  declarations. 

The  question  of  the  general  strike  came  next  on  the  programme.  Com- 
rade Mrs.  Boland-Holst  made  a  report  on  the  question,  and  the  discussion 
was  continued  into  the  third  day.  The  following  resolution,  offered  by  the 
committee  of  the  party,  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  135  to  39: 

' '  YHiereas,  it  is  advisable  to  fix  the  position  to  be  taken  by  the  Social 
Democracy  of  Holland  concerning  the  general  strike; 

* '  Whereas,  the  condition  requisite  to  the  success  of  a  strike  on  a  large 
scale  is  a  strong  organization  and  a  voluntary  discipline  on  the  part  of  the 
working  class, 

''Whereas,  The  Congress  of  the  Social-Democratic  Labor  Party 
declares  the  absolute  general  strike,  in  the  sense  of  all  laborers  leaving  their 
work  at  a  given  moment,  to  be  impossible,  since  it  would  make  existence 
impossible  for  all,  the  proletariat  included;   and 

''Whereas,  tiie  emancipation  of  the  working  class  cannot  be  the 
result  of  so  sudden  an  outbreak  of  force;  and 

"Whereas,  flnaUy,  it  is  possible  that  a  strike  which  extends  over 
several  important  branches  of  industry  or  over  a  large  number  of  trades 
may  be  the  extreme  measure  required  to  introduce  important  economic 
changes,  or  for  self-defense  against  reactionary  attacks  on  the  rights  of 
the  laborers. 

"The  Congress  warns  the  laborers  not  to  let  themselves  be  carried 
away  by  the  propaganda  for  the  general  strike,  conducted  by  the  anarch- 
ists, to  remove  them  from  the  actual  daily  struggle  carried  on  by  the 
unions,  the  party  and  the  co-operatives; 

"And  it  caUs  on  them,  by  developing  their  organization,  to  fortify 
their  unity  and  their  strength  in  the  class  struggle,  since  if  the  strike 
for  a  political  end  may  some  day  seem  useful  and  necessary,  its  success 
will  depend  upon  this  strength  and  duty." 

Apart  from  this  resolution,  which  was  adopted  bv  a  large  majority, 
Section  IX  of  Amsterdam  proposed  another,  principally  defended  by 
Comrade  Villeghen.  It  was  substance  was  to  declare  the  Congress  to  be 
of  the  opinion  that  the  general  strike  could  have  no  place  among  the 
methods  of  struggle  of  the  proletariat.  The  resolution,  later  rejected  by 
Amsterdam  IX,  was  afterward  presented  to  the  Congress  by  Amsterdam 
Yly  but  withdrawn  after  the  adoption  of  the  resolution  proposed  by  the 
committee  of  the  party.  The  declaration  of  the  Congress  on  this  question 
is  of  especial  importance,  because  the  matter  will  come  up  for  discussion 
at  the  approaching  international  congress. 

Next  the  Congress  took  under  consideration  various  propositions  fbr 
reducing  the  subscription  price  of  Eet  Voile  and  for  establishing  a  party 
printing  house.  The  committee  of  the  party  was  instructed  to  bring  in 
a  report  on  the  possibility  of  establishing  a  printing  house. 


r 


SOCIALISM  ABBOAD.  778 

A  short  discussion  ensued  regarduiff  next  year's  election  for  the 
second  chamber  of  i>arliament.  It  waa  decided  to  entrust  the  oonsidera- 
tioii  of  this  question  to  the  committee. 

Several  local  sections  had  made  propositions  for  the  nomination  o€ 
paid  organizers.  These  wishes  could  not  be  realiaed  for  flnandal  reamns) 
and  the  question  was  referred'  back  to  the  committee. 

The  committee  nominated  Comrade  Loopuit  as  temporary  general 
organizer  for  the  party,  and  he  was  unanimously  confirmed  by  the  Congress. 

Nezty  a  few  more  questions  touching  the  press,  organization  and  con- 
stitution were  settled.  Comrade  Oudegeest  finally  recalled  in  a  few  words 
the  struggle  of  the  diamond  cutters,  and  remarked  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  entire  working  class  to  give  moral  and  financial  support  to  the  strikers. 

The  Congress  was  closed  by  the  singing  of  the  Socialists'  March. 
Many  items  in  the  programme  could  not  be  discussed  for  lack  of  time, 
among  others  the  proposed  law  regulating  the  sale  of  alcohol  and  the 
agraxian  Question,  which  were  pos^oned  to  the  next  Congress.  (Trans- 
lated for  the  Bxvncw  from  L'Avenir  Social) 


God  and  My  Neighbor.  By  Robert  Blatchford.  Chicago:  Charles  H. 
Kerr  &  Company.  Cloth,  213  pages,  $1.00;  paper,  50  cents. 
It  is  somewhat  of  a  relief  to  find  a  secularist  book  that  has  dropped 
some  of  the  old  shibboleths  and  is  to  some  degree  in  accord  with  modern 
scientific  and  sociological  thought.  Whether  we  agree  with  Blatchford 
or  not,  his  beautifully  simple  literary  style  and  fairness  of  attitude 
cannot  but  attract  the  reader.  Some  portions  of  the  work  arise  to 
heights  of  absolute  eloquence.  This  is  particularly  true  of  the  chapter 
entitled  "Ancient  Beligion  and  Modern  Science."  The  real  argument 
of  the  book  is  to  be  found  in  the  chapter  on  "Determinism."  Here 
we  find  the  dogma  of  free  will  met  and  overturned  without  any  of  the 
metaphysical  phraseology  with  which  this  subject  is  usually  associated. 
Here  he  points  out  how  little  man  can  really  be  held  responsible  for  his 
acts  and  how  useless  all  expressions  or  actions  founded  upon  the 
"blame"  of  the  individuals  are.  He  shows  that  the  proper  point  to 
attack  the  evils  that  express  themselves  in  individual  acts  is  to  be 
found  in  the  causes  that  lie  back  of  the  acts,  or,  as  he  concludes  the 
chapter,  "You  have  power  to  choose  then,  but  you  can  only  choose  as 
your  heredity  and  environment  compel  you  to  choose,  and  you  do  not 
select  your  own  heredity  or  your  own  environment."  Just  how  much 
of  a  relation  such  a  work  bears  to  Socialist  philosophy,  each  reader  must 
settle  for  himself.  The  Socialist  movement  as  such  makes  no  religious 
or  non-religious  test,  but  Socialists  draw  back  from  no  truth  no  matter 
what  that  truth  may  hit.  Neither,  on  the  other  hand  should  they, 
although  it  must  be  feared  they  sometimes  do,  accept  every  attack 
upon  existing  things  as  the  truth.  The  book  cannot  but  fail  to  widen 
the  horizon  of  any  man  reading  it,  whether  he  be  orthodox  or  infidel. 

Bisocialism;  the  Beign  of  the  Man  at  the  Margin.  By  Oliver  B. 
Trowbridge.  Moody  Publishing  Company.  Cloth,  427  pages,  $1.50. 
The  writer  of  this  claims  to  have  been  studying  political  economy  for 
nearly  thirty  years,  but  he  is  still  far  from  having  much  of  a  compre- 
hension of  either  capitalist  or  laboring-class  economics.  He  has  jumbled 
together  without  much  recognition  of  their  incongruities  the  opinions 
and  points  of  view  of  the  classical,  historical,  psychological.  Socialist 
and  Single  Tax  schools  of  political  economy.  He  swallows  all  the  old 
claaaical  axioms  of  the  Manchester  School  such  as  the  "Economic  man" 
and  the  sacredness  of  competition,  and  to  this  is  added  all  the  Jargon 
of  the  Anstrians,  without,  however,  seeming  to  have  very  thoroughly 
grasped  the  point  of  view  of  the  latter.  He  runs  every  principle  he 
attacks  into  the  ground.  This  is  especially  true  of  his  "marginal  man" 
theory.  He  is  evidently  all  unaware  of  the  criticism  of  this  theory  by 
the  modem  school  of  political  economy.  His  theory  of  competition 
involves  all  the  many  times  exploded  errors  of  the  scholastic  economists 
of  twenty-five  years  ago.  His  competitor  would  be  omnipotent, 
omiiiscient  and  omnipresent.     He  is  to  have  complete  knowledge  of  all 

774 


BOOK  REVIEWS.  775 

conditions  of  the  market  all  over  the  world  and  absolute  freedom  of 
choice  to  exercise  his  marvelous  intellectual  capacities.  His  definition 
of  labor  power  (page  39)  as  applying  only  to  *  *  irksomely ' '  exercised  energy 
shows  that  he  has  never  heard  of  the  pedogogical  and  psychological 
teachings  of  modern  science  in  regard  to  the  possibility  of  pleasurable 
constructive  work.  When  he  comes  to  talk  about  socialism  he  can 
hardly  be  expected  to  understand  it.  Perhaps  his  most  ludicrous  error 
is  when,  on  page  117,  he  makes  Marxian  economics  rest  upon  exploita- 
tion in  the  market.  Aa  everyone  who  has  even  glanced  at  Marx 
knows,  the  reverse  of  this  principle  is  the  fundamental  of  Marxian 
teachings.  It  would  be  an  easy  but  ungrateful  task  to  go  on  through 
the  book  pointing  out  its  ridiculous  errors  and  jumble  of  terms;  to  show 
for  example  how  he  creates  a  meaningless  terminology,  when  a  far 
better  one  exists.  How  (i>age  295)  he  swallows  the  old  fallacy  that 
capital  is  always  due  to  saving,  and  finally  how  his  Socialism,  which  he 
calls  "  omnisocialism ' '  is  a  pure  fiction  of  his  own  brain.  But  we 
have  only  given  this  attention  to  the  book  because  it  has  been  accepted 
as  the  one  gfeat  addition  to  Single  Tax  literature  since  the  time  of 
Henry  .George.  Every  one  will  agree  that  Single  Tax  literature  was 
sadly  in  need  of  additions,  but  the  present  work  is  scarcely  to  be  con- 
sidered seriously  by  students  of  political  economy,  whatever  may  be 
their  views. 

Four  new  propaganda  pamphlets  seem  especially  worthy  of  notice  this 
month.  *'The  Oonfessions  of  Capitalism,"  by  Allen  L.  Befnson,  published 
by  the  Social  Democratic  Herald,  at  5  cents,  contains  a  large  amount  of 
valuable  facts,  much  of  it  in  statistical  form,  and  is  written  in  an  easy 
journalistic  s^le  which  makes  it  especially  useful  for  propaganda  among 
working  men. 

"The  Social  Paradox"  is  an  address  delivered  before  the  Socialist  state 
conventi<m  at  Sioux  Falls^  S.  D.,  by  Freeman  Enowks,  candidate  for 
governor  of  South  Dakota,  and  is  for  sale  by  the  author  for  10  cents  at 
Deadwood,  S.  D. 

There  is  an  effort  in  this  to  utilize  American  industrial  facts,  but  the 
author  accepts  thd  capitalist  interpretation  of  the  Civil  War  to  the  effect 
that  that  war  was  waged  for  the  atx>Iition  of  slavery  and  that  it  was  simply 
a  moral  uprising  of  the  North.  Aside  from  this,  however,  the  pamphlet  is 
on  the  whole  very  strongly  written  and  should  be  of  gre'at  value  in  the 
South  Dakota  propaganda. 

"Socialism;  Its  Moral  Passion,  Intellectual  Power  and  Noble  Deeds," 
by  Frederick  Irons  Bamford,  is  sold  by  the  author  at  three  for  5  cents. 
Address  906  Broadway,  Oakland,  Cal.  This  consists  of  a  mass  of  quota- 
tions illiwtrating  the  points  named  in  the  title.  It  will  undoubtedly  have 
considerable  effect  with  those  who  approach  Socialism  from  the  sentimen- 
tal side. 


PUBLISHERS'   DEPARTMENT 


In  the  May  number  of  the  Beview  we  explained  the  necessity  of 
raising  a  fund  to  meet  the  deficit  of  a  thousand  dollars  caused  by  the 
loss  on  the  Beview  last  year.  We  go  to  press  so  much  earlier  this 
month  than  last  that  we  cannot  announce  the  completion  of  the  fund. 
It  now  stands  as  follows: 

Previously    acknowledged $615.00 

William  English  Walling,  New  York 50.00 

N.  0.  Nelpon,  Illinois 36.00 

Paul  E.  Green,  Montana 10.00 

Edwin  A.  Brenholz,  Texas 3.40 

P.  W.  Moore,  Illinois 5.07 

Total    $718.47 

We  have  also  to  announce  a  subscription  of  three  hundred  dollars  by 
Mrs.  Prestonia  Mann  Martin,  of  New  York,  to  the  propaganda  fund  of 
a  thousand  dollars  started  by  A.  A.  Holler  last  month.  This  makes  four 
hundred  dollars  thus  far  pledged. 

The  offer  briefly  stated  on  page  720  of  last  month's  Beview  still 
holds  good.  A  stockholder  to  whom  the  company  is  indebted  to  the 
amount  of  several  thousand  dollars  desires  to  state  that  for  every  sum 
donated  to  the  co-operative  company  during  the  year  1904  by  any  other 
person  or  persons,  he  will  contribute  an  equal  amount  from  the  balanea 
due  him.  Thus  every  contribution  made  this  year  will  count  double 
toward  putting  the  company  on  a  cash  basis.  The  name  of  the  person 
making  this  offer  will  not  be  published  at  present,  but  it  wiU  be  given 
to  any  stockholder  desiring  fuller  information. 

The  co-operative  company  is  owned  by  an  increasing  number  of 
Socialist  locals  and  individual  Socialists,  nearly  nine  hundred  as  this 
issue  goes  to  press,  and  if  the  present  debt  can  once  be  cleared  off,  the 
future  of  the  company  will  be  in  no  way  dependent  on  the  life  of  any 
individual,  but  it  will  continue  to  work  in  the  interest  of  the  Soeialist 
Party  of  America  as  long  as  the  stmggle  with  capitalism  eontinnes. 

Thit  amount  due  to  the  stockholder  referred  to  is  somewhat  in  ezoess 
of  tight  thouiuid  dollars,  and  he  will  contribute  the  entire  amoimt  to 
tho  company,  provided  that  others  contribute  amounts  sulBcient  to  make, 
up  an  equal  sum. 

Are  you  a  stockholder  f  If  so  you  are  an  equal  owner  of  the  co-oper- 
ative publishing  house,  and  if  you  join  in  the  effort  to  put  the  company 

776 


PUBLISHERS'  DEPARTMENT.  777 

out  of  debt,  you  will  share  in  the  benefit,  and  the  control  will  be  in 
your  hands.  Your  stock,  if  you  have  completed  your  payments  and 
received  your  certificate,  can  never  be  assessed,  but  in  view  of  the 
present  opoprtunity,  you  will  do  well  to  asseea  yourself  to  the  extent 
of  your  ability  to  pay,  since  by  so  doing  you  will  immensely  increase 
the  value  and  effectiveness  of  the  publishing  house  you  already  own. 

If  you  are  not  a  stockliolder,  why  not  become  one  nowf  You  tKII 
get  no  dividends,  but  you  will  get  the  privilege  of  buying  at  cost  all 
the  Socialist  literature  that  is  best  worth  reading.  The  first  stock- 
holders put  in  their  money  on  faith,  because  they  trusted  the  promise 
made  that  it  would  be  used  to  publish  the  Socialist  literature  needed. 
This  promise  has  been  kept,  and  each  new  stockholder  gets  the  benefit 
of  the  capital  subscribed  by  all  the  others. 

Ten  dollars  pays  for  a  share,  and  those  who  cannot  pay  the  whole 
sum  at  once  are  allowed  to  pay  at  the  rate  of  a  dollar  a  month,  and  to 
purchase  literature  at  stockholders'  rates  as  soon  as  the  first  dollar  has 
been  paid.  I\ill  particulars  regarding  the  organization  of  the  company 
are  given  in  the  booklet  entitled  ''A  Socialist  Publishing  House," 
which  will  be  mailed  to  any  one  requesting  it. 

The  Eqiablic  of  Plato. 

This  work,  written  in  the  fourth  century  before  the  Christian  era, 
is  the  earliest  and  also  the  best  of  all  the  Utopias,  of  all  the  books 
written  to  suggest  the  reconstruction  of  society  on  an  ideal  plan,  with- 
out any  full  recognition  of  the  obstinate  economic  forces  that  must  be 
reckoned  with  in  practice.  In  Plato's  work  can  be  found  most  of  the 
Utopian  theories  that  have  at  various  times  and  by  various  people  in 
later  ages  been  put  forward  as  original. 

Plato's  Republic  has  until  lately  been  the  property  of  the  leisure 
class.  Most  editions  of  it  have  been  in  the  original  Greek,  and  the 
English  versions  have  been  in  a  difiicult  style,  suitable  only  for  scholars, 
and  sold  at  high  prices. 

Prof.  Alexander  Kerr,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  is  now 
engaged  in  preparing  a  new  translation,  closely  foUowing  the  thought 
and  even  the  forme  of  expression  of  the  original,  yet  written  in  a 
strong  and  simple  English  style  that  is  easy  to  understand.  Plato's 
republic  is  divided  into  ten  books.  Three  of  these  have  previously 
appeared  in  Professor  Kerr's  translation,  and  the  fourth  has  just  been 
published.  The  price  is  fifteen  cents  for  each  part,  or  sixty  cents  for 
the  four  parts  that  have  thus  far  been  published,  with  the  usual 
discount  to  stockholders. 

ThB  Day  of  Judgment. 

The  article  by  George  B.  Herron  which  appeared  in  the  April 
number  of  the  Iktxrnational  Socialist  Review  has  been  revised  by  the 
author  and  has  just  been  published  in  handsome  book  form  under  the 
title,  "The  Day  of  Judgment.''  It  will  retail  at  ten  cents;  three 
copies  for  twenty -five  cents;  seven  copies  for  fifty  cents;  fifteen  copies 


778  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SOCIALIST   REVIEW. 

for  one  dollar;  a  hundred  copies  for  six  dollars.  Stockholders  in  our 
eo-operative  company  will  have  the  privilege  of  buying  eopies  in  any 
quantity,  large  or  small,  at  tve  cents  if  we  pay  postage  or  expressa^e, 
or  four  cents  if  sent  by  express  at  exi>enfle  of  purehaaer.  A  royalty  of 
one  cent  on  every  copy  sold  will  be  paid  to  the  national  eampaign 
fnnd  of  the  Socialist  Party.  The  author  'desires  no  profit  from  the 
sale  of  the  book,  and  has  directed  that  the  royalty  be  paid  in  this  way. 

American   Paoperini,    or  tbe   AbdUtton  of  POfWtj. 

Of  this  new  book  by  Isador  Lad  off,  Comrade  Wanhope  says  editorially 
in  the  Erie  People: 

When  the  National  Committee  of  the  Socialist  Party  decided  to  dis- 
pense with  the  compilation  of  a  campaign  book  for  1904,  they  perhaps 
may  have  had  some  intimation  of  the  preparation  of  the  present  work 
by  Comrade  Ladoff.  Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  no  more  valuable 
manual  for  the  Socialist  open-air  speaker  could  possibly  be  desired 
than  this  volume  on  "American  Pauperism."  As  an  indictment  of  the 
capitalist  system  of  production  and  distribution,  it  is  perhaps  the  most 
complete  and  convincing  that  has  yet  appeared. 

Several  years  have  eWdently  been  given  by  the  author  to  the  collect- 
ing, compiling,  and  comparison  of  statistical  tables  dealing  with  the 
poverty  that  manifests  itself  as  pauperism  in  city,  state  and  nation. 
Census  returns,  Charity  Bureau  reports,  factory  inspectors'  reports, 
reports  of  child  labor  committees  of  investigation,  of  State  Boards  of 
Charities,  and  every  official  source  possible  have  been  laid  under  con- 
tribution, the  result  being  a  presentation  in  cold,  hard  figures  of  the 
old  Sphinx  riddle  that  society  must  answer  or  perish — ^Why  does  pauper- 
ism increase  with  increasing  wealth  t 

The  author  states  the  fundamental  thought  of  his  book  in  the  words, 
"there  is  no  crime  but  parasitism." 

Five  chapters  of  the  work  are  given  up  to  statistics  bearing  on  the 
subject  of  poverty-  from  every  point  of  view,  and  are  presented  in  such 
a  clear  and  simple  manner  that  even  the  veriest  novice  in  statistical 
work  cannot  fail  to  comprehend  their  significance. 

The  concluding  chapter,  entitled  "The  Abolition  of  Poverty,"  is  a 
masterly  presentation  of  the  claims  of  Socialism  as  the  only  force  in 
society  capable  of  solving  the  problems  of  parasitism  and  its  concom- 
itant, pauperism.  Comrade  Ladoff 's  work  should  be  in  the  hands  of 
every  Socialist  who  has  decided  on  public  speaking  as  his  portion  of 
the  work  of  spreading  the  message  of  the  emancipation  of  the  working 
class,  as  the  information  placed  at  his  disposal  in  this  work  could  not 
be  gained  otherwise  without  great  trouble  and  research. 

"American  Pauperism"  is  the  latest  number  in  the  Standard  Socialist 
Series.  It  contains  230  pages,  and  is  published  at  fifty  cents,  with  the 
usual  discount  to  stockholders.  Neither  author  nor  publisher  will  realiae 
anything  on  the  book  until  two  thousand  copies  have  been  sold,  since  it 
is  a  much  larger  book  than  can  really  be  afforded  for  the  money.  No 
reader  of  the  Review  should  fail  to  send  for  a  copy. 


PUBLISHERS'  DEPARTMENT.  779 

Peter  E.  Burrowes'  ''Bevoltitionary  Essays." 
''God  is  human,  the  whole  human  race  is  God.  Socialism  is  the  way 
of  life."  This  is  the  motto  which  Comrade  Burrowes  has  placed  on 
the  title  page  of  his  delightful  volume.  It  contains  sixty  short  essays, 
making  320  pages.  We  hare  no  space  this  month  for  comment  on  it. 
The  book  was  published  some  months  ago  in  New  York.  Comrade 
Burrowes  attended  the  National  Convention  as  a  delegate  from  New 
Jersey,  and  while  in  Chicago  made  an  arrangement  with  our  company 
by  which  we  shall  hereafter  be  enabled  to  supply  his  book  to  our  stock- 
holders on  the  same  terms  as  if  it  wore  our  own  publication.  The  retail 
price  is  $1.25. 

Extra  Copies  of  the  Beview. 

The  leading  article  of  this  month's  Review  contains  an  array  of 
facts  and  figures  that  involve  an  immense  amount  of  labor,  and  that 
have  repeatedly  been  asked  for  by  speakers,  writers  and  propagandists. 
No  definite  plans  have  yet  been  made  for  publishing  the  article  in 
pamphlet  form,  but  several  hundred  extra  copies  have  been  printed,  and 
can  be  supplied  to  those  ordering  at  once.  Price  ten  cents,  to  locals 
seven  cents,  to  stockholders  five  cents,  postage  included.  A  few  more 
copies  of  the  May  number  containing  the  report  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  National  Convention  can  be  supplied  at  the  same  rates. 

*<Now  is  the  Time  to  Subscribe." 

The  fourth  volume  of  the  Review  closes  with  this  issue,  and  many 
subscriptions  expire  at  this  time.  We  have  been  advised  by  a  number 
of  our  stockholders  to  increase  the  subscription  price,  and  this  may  yet 
become  necessary,  but  for  the  present  it  will  remain  at  one  dollar,  with 
the  special  rate  of  fifty  cents  to  stockholders.  You  can  enable  us  to 
maintain  the  low  subscription  price  by  sending  in  enough  new  sub- 
scriptions to  pay  the  cost  of  printing.  The  national  campaign  is  on 
and  the  Review  will  be  simply  indispensable  to  every  Socialist  who 
desires  to  talk  and  write  in  a  way  to  make  new  converts.  Our  present 
monthly  edition  is  six  thousand  copies.  A  united  effort  should  double 
our  edition  before  election,  and  this  will  enable  us  to  continue  perma- 
nently at  the  low  rate.  Do  not  delay  writing  us,  but  do  what  you 
can   today.    Address 

Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company  (Co-operative), 

56  Fifth  Avenue,  Chicago. 


1 


God  and  My  Neighbor 

By  ROBERT  BLATCHFORD 


This  book,  by  the  author  of  "Merry  England"  (the  book  that 
has  had  the  largest  circulation  of  any  book  in  the  English 
language — considerably  over  3,000,000  copies),  is,  from  a  literary 
standpoint,  excellent. 

A  paragraph  will  describe  the  author's  purpose: 

''I  have  been  asked  why  I  have  opposed  Christianity.  I  have  several 
reasons,  which  shall  appear  in  due  course.    At  present  I  offer  one. 

"I  oppose  Christianity  because  it  is  not  true. 

''No  honest  men  will  ask  for  any  other  reason. 

''But  it  may  be  asked  why  I  say  that  Christianity  is  not  true;  ajid 
that  is  a  very  proper  question,  which  1  shall  do  my  best  to  answer/' 

The  book  abounds  with  evidence  on  the  subject  of  religion 
in  general  and  the  Christian  religion  in  particular,  which,  to 
say  the  least,  is  interesting  reading. 

Although  most  of  the  arguments  offered  are  not  new  to  Free 
Thinkers,  yet  Blatchford's  method  of  presenting  them  is  so  good 
and  the  temper  so  calm,  that  the  book  is  creating  a  great  sensa- 
tion in  England. 

The  following  extract  from  Mr.  Kerr*s  announcement  is  a 
sufficient  apology  for  the  appearance  of  the  book  by  a  Socialist 
publishing  house : 

"The  publishing  house  of  which  I  am  manager  is  composed  of  social- 
ists, but  it  has  no  official  connection  with  the  Socialist  Party  of  America. 
As  a  member  of  the  socialist  party,  I  recognize  the  right  of  every  other 
member  to  complete  liberty  of  opinion  in  matters  of  religion.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  many  of  our  members  are  Catholics,  and  many  are  orthodox 
Protestants.  Our  publishing  house  has  issued  a  number  of  books  written 
from  the  Christian  point  of  view,  and  may  issue  more  of  them  in  future. 
But  I  claim  for  myself  the  same  liberty  I  concede  to  others,  and  speaking 
for  myself  I  recommend  this  book  by  Bobert  Blatchford  as  one  of  the 
clearest,  sanest,  most  sympathetic  and  most  helpful  discussions  of  the  deep 
and  vital  problem  of  religion  that  it  has  ever  been  my  fortune  to  read." 

The  book  is  published  in  large  type  on  antique  paper  and 
handsomely  bound  in  cloth  at  one  dollar,  and  in  paper  at  50 
cents,  postage  included^  with  the  usual  discount  to  stocIdiolderB. 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

56   FIFTH  AVENUE     ::     ::     ::     CHICAGO 


ff»wx«>»yiw»i»w 


tht  standard  Socialist  Seriei 

.  THE  CLASSICS  Of  SOOAUSH  PUBLISHED 

GCK>PHRATIVBLY  AND  OFFERED  AT  COST 


kneefat.  Tcanalftuid  hf  B^  Untormann. 

2.  CoUedivism  and  hidttttritl 

Evolution.  SiirbV%\^^^ 
The  American  Farmer. 


6«  The  Soda!  Revohition. 

By  Karl  Kaoteky.    TrajMlation  l^  ▲. 
M.  and  May  Wood  Simonft. 

1.  Socialism,     Utopian     and 
Scientific. 

Bf  Frederiok  EtiMla.    Txanilated  by 
By  ▲.  M.  Simons-  Jn,  Bdwaid  Xwmkg. 

4  The  Last  Days  of  the  Rus-  ^  S. ,  Feuerbach;  the  Roots  of  the 
kin  Co-Operative  Association.      Sodalbt  Phifosopihy. 

B^  Ittao  BrooiQe.  -.-...«, 

5.   The  Origin  of  the  Famify, 
Private  Property  and  the  State. 

By  Fradarlok  Bn^elt.    Translatad  by 
Ernast  UntarmatuL 


By  Frederick  EnselsT    l^aoalated  by 
Anstiii  Ijewls. 

9.  American  PauperTsm   and 
the^bdlitfon  of  Poverty. 

By  laador  Itadoff. 


tfaete  books  are  handsomely  printed  on  good  paper  and  unUonnly  bound  in  cloth,  making  a 
rshelf.  Prtoe,flf&ceniaaT(d«ne«$4.60a8et.    •---•^ — ' 


handsome  se%  for  the  library  shelf«  Prtoe,  flf  &  cenls  a  ▼(dmne*  $4.60  a  set.  Stockholders  In  onr  oo- 
'  re  company  get  the  special  rate  of  »  cents  a  ▼oltune  when  sent  at  pnrcha8er*s  expense,  or 
.  when  charges  are  pMald.    Ten  dOUars  pays  for  ashareof  stock,  and  it  rpa^  be  paid  In 

monthly  ln8ta)n^a&  of  one  dollar  each,  with  the  priTilege  of  baying  boOl^  at  special  rates  while 


thl»  instalments  are  being  paid.    Address 


CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY.  56  Fifth  Avenue.  Chicago. 


?W«»$g$i»»8«»<»8$»gS««?»»»»«a$^i»$g*»8$a8W»$gig^^ 


*#s*i!*ai#«^;******=s#* 


J|^^|r  You  Will  Find 

*    *   *  T  f  T"*-  -*-  -r  -f  TF  TTTT TT  W  ~  T  "  T  ~~  *f* 

*  "THE  WORKER"  il 

^CSr  SOGMLIST  WEEKLY        \\ 


'  SIIIHFUL  or  IIITEREST 


^♦♦♦^^^^♦^^"^♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦^^^i 


It  It  Pubtbhed  Exdusivdy  b  the  In* 
terfsl  of  the  Working  Clats;  It  ftaadt 
Ik  Troe  and  Loyal  Tradn  Unionism 
■Id  tho  intomit  of  tfio  TollofS 

Sirer7W<ntl]|gmaa8bo«ild  Sabaerlbe 
to  it8^-60  eepta  per  yean  89  cants  for 
6  montlui  IS  eeota  for  8  moBtbs. 

8AHPLX  Can99  FBBIt 

THE  WORKER 

184Wliliaiii8t»H.T 


*••<■■■'•••>■••■•  ••••■<>*••••*■  *»«(f*'><fc*****»'»»*fi»« 


RUSKIN  COLLEGE 


FOXrXTtCAX  9COirOKT  by  Hat  Wood 
SzMOira.  An  historical  eomparatlTe  stndy 
of  eoonomies  examined  and  oritioisedirom 
the  socialist  point  of  Tlew,  with  tha 
socialist  theories  of  Wealth,  Bent,  latar- 
eet  and  Wages  folly  explained. 

▲mimicAir  bconoxi c  HutemT 

by  A.  IC.  SzMOira.  Traoei^  the  Indnitrial 
doTelopment  of  the  U.  S..  ahowa  how 
eoonomio  eonditlons  baYO  affected  poli^ 
oal  and  soeial  institittions  and  how  prea- 
ent  capitalism  and  social  dasfees  aroA* 

•OCZAI&TSIC.b/  Mat  Wood  Sotoiis.  Ac 
Idstdiyof  sociaUst  theories  and  their  ap-  < 
plication  to  present  problems.  The  eco*- 
:  fiomics  of  MArx,  So^alism  and  tha  State, 
Ednoation.  Organised  Labor.  8clenee<^ 
Bthics  and  Art,  and  History ^of  tha  mod* 
em  Socialist  moremeot* 

Thoaame  oonjses  are  glTcn  in 

often  as  tliere  are  dasseareqniring  .^ , 

Beaident  stndents  in  this  department  may! 
Carry  regular  ooUega  work  at  the  aam^ 
time  and  earn  their  ooaid  and  room  nnl| 
In  tha  coBnge  indOstries  the  aama 
•tndanta  ib  other  dapartmenta. 

Twenty  leetnree  on  each  sobieet  with  TacnjL 
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