Socialism and the Social Movement in the 19th Century

Chapter VIII: Lessons

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"+Polemos patêr pantôn.+"

War is the father of all things.

Can we draw lessons from this historical review of the social movement? I think we can, on many points; to show you what these lessons are will be my effort in this last lecture. Perhaps I may exert some influence upon the judgment of those who personally stand outside of the present social strife and desire to be merely passionless observers. And I shall be glad if, here and there among those actively engaged in the struggle, some shall be found who will recognise the justice of what I may say.

It seems to me that the first impression to be made upon anyone by quiet observation of the social movement must be that it is necessary and unavoidable. As a mountain torrent, after a thunder-storm, must dash down into the valley according to "iron, unchangeable law," so must the stream of social agitation pour itself onward. This is the first thing for us to understand, that something of great and historic importance is developing before our eyes; to recognise "that in all that happens and is accomplished in connection with this movement we are in the midst of a great process of world history which with elementary force takes hold of individuals and even nations, and concerning which it is as wrong short-sightedly to deny the fact as inadequately to struggle against it." (Lorenz von Stein.) Probably there are some who believe that the social movement is merely the malicious work of a few agitators, or that the social democracy has been "brought up by Bismarck," and the like; probably there are some who naturally are forced to the false idea that some medicine or charm can drive away this fatal poison out of the social body. What a delusion! What a lack of intelligence and insight as to the nature of all social history! If anything has resulted from my investigation I hope it is this--a recognition of the historic necessity of the social movement.

But we must advance to a further admission--that the modern social movement, at least in its main features, exists necessarily as it is. Among these main features I include the object that it sets before itself, the socialistic ideal; also the means which it chooses for the accomplishment of this ideal,--class strife. I have already attempted to show you why these points must be allowed as the necessary result of existing conditions.

Now shall we who do not stand in the ranks of those who struggle for the new social order, shall we who only tremble for the permanence of that which seems to us necessary for the upholding of our civilisation--shall we be greatly pained and troubled at the present condition of things as thus shown?

I think it hardly necessary to excite ourselves over the "dangers" of any socialistic order of society in the future. We who know that all social order is only the expression of specific economic relations can face what comes with indifference; so long as these arrangements of economic life are not given up, especially so long as the character of the persons involved, is not completely changed, no power on earth, no party--be it ever so revolutionary--can succeed in establishing a new social order for humanity. And if these conditions are at any time fulfilled--then will be the time to look further.

But it is not this socialistic ideal of the future that principally causes anxiety to so many men. It is rather the form in which this ideal is striven for; it is that word of terror, uttered by Philistines both male and female--class strife.

I must acknowledge that for me this idea has in it nothing at all terrible, rather the opposite. Is it really true that, even if strife rules throughout society, man must give up entirely the hope of a further and successful development of humanity? Is it really true that all culture, all the noblest acquirements of the race, are endangered by that strife?

First let me dispel the delusion that "class strife" is identical with civil war, with petroleum, dynamite, the stiletto, and the barricades. The forms of class strife are many. Every trade union, every social-democratic election, every strike, is a manifestation of this strife. And it seems to me that such internal struggle, such conflict of different interests and ideas, is not only without danger to our civilisation, but on the contrary will be the source of much that is desirable. I think that the old proverb is true as applied even to social strife, "+Polemos patêr pantôn.+" It is only through struggle that the most beautiful flowers of human existence bloom. It is only struggle that raises the great masses of the common people to a higher level of humanity. Whatever of culture is now forced upon the masses comes to them through struggle; the only warrant for the hope that they can be developed into new and higher forms of culture lies in the fact that they must rise through their efforts, that step by step they must fight for their rights. It is struggle alone that builds character and arouses enthusiasm, for nations as for classes. Let me remind you of a beautiful saying of Kant's, that expresses the same thought: "Thanks to nature for intolerance, for envious and emulous self-seeking, for the insatiable desire to have and to rule! Without this, all the desirable qualities of humanity would lie eternally undeveloped. Man wants peace, but Nature knows better what is necessary for him; she wants strife."

And why lose courage, as we see that even in social life struggle is the solution? To me this seems no reason for despair. I rejoice in this law of the history of the world; that is a happy view of life which makes struggle as the central point of existence.

But we should never forget that as conflict is the developer of what is good, so it may also be the disturber and destroyer of all civilisation. It does not lead only and by necessity to a higher life, it is not necessarily the beginning of a new culture: it can also betoken the end of the old, and of all, human existence.

For this reason I think that we should never lose sight of two great ideas in this strife.

First, all social struggle should be determinedly within legal bounds. Thus only can the sanctity of the idea of right remain uninjured. Without this we plunge into chaos. Man must struggle in the name of right against that which he considers wrong, upon the basis of existing right. Man must respect this right because it has become right, and passes for such; and he must not forget that our fathers struggled not less intensely for that right which to-day we hold, and have had in heart not less enthusiasm than their sons for the right of the future. Only thus can a man awaken and sustain faith in that which at some future time shall be right.

This exhortation addresses itself in like manner to both parties in the struggle; to those who are now in power, not less than to those who are carrying on the social agitation. _Intra muros peccatur et extra!_ There is sin within, as without, the walls.

The same is true of a second demand, which must be developed in the name of culture and humanity within these struggling parties, if the social strife is not to be a war of extermination. It must be carried on with proper weapons, not with poisoned arrows. How greatly have both sides been to blame in this respect! How difficult it is to keep out of the battle on the one side bitterness, mendacity, malice; on the other side brutality, derision, violence! How readily does the one opponent charge dishonour or bad motive against the other! How repellent, how offensive, too often, is the tone in which opinion is expressed! Must that be? Is that necessary for energetic assertion of one's standpoint? Does a man think that he loses anything by conceding that his opponent is an honourable man and by assuming that truth and honour will control in the dealings of his adversary? I do not think so. The man who places himself really in the struggle, who sees that in all historic strife is the germ of whatever occurs, should be able easily to conduct this strife in a noble way, to respect his opponent as a man, and to attribute to him motives no less pure than his own.

Then is not the social struggle, according to this idea of it, as necessary as a thunder-storm in a heavy atmosphere? He who sees in the struggle something artificial, produced by bad men, may perhaps attribute to the creator of the disturbance bad motives for this knavery, for this frivolous and malicious upsetting of social rest. But he who understands that the struggle arises necessarily out of the constitution of social life, and that it is only a warfare between two great principles, each of which has been, and must be, constituted by a combination of objective circumstances--he who looks at differences of idea as to the world and life which arise from the fact of different standpoints and which are the necessary occasion of differences in conditions of life--this one will come to the conviction that even his opponent stands on much the same grounds as he himself; that not personal baseness, but the compelling force of fate, has placed him in a position such that he must be an opponent. Then will it be easy, I think, to respect the other man, to refrain from suspicion and contempt, to battle with him openly and honourably. Shall we extol the Geneva Convention, which humanised warfare, as a fruit of advanced culture; and yet within our kingdom, like barbarians, without any consideration for the opponent, fly one upon another with dishonourable weapons?

In this the development of English social agitation can serve as a model. It points out to us how men may conduct in social life a moral and civilised warfare. Even upon the Continent, I hope, will the more humane form of struggle reach acceptance, if only because it springs of necessity from a deeper conception of what class strife really is. So long as the battle rages legally and honourably, we need not worry about the future of our civilisation.

Schiller's lines show how undisturbed we may be at the social struggle:

"A full life is what I want,
And swinging and swaying, to and fro,
Upon the rising and falling waves of fortune.
For a man becomes stunted in quietness of life;
Idleness and rest are the grave of energy.

* * * * *

But war develops strength.
It raises all to a level above what is ordinary,
It even gives courage to the cowardly."

CHRONICLE OF THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT (1750-1896).

These tables contain the first attempt to make a synchronistic presentation of the most important dates in the modern social, that is, the proletarian, movement. We here specify these dates for the chief countries, England, France, Germany; and as well for the international activity of the working-men's movement. In addition, the most important occurrences in the development of capitalism and of social legislation, so far as they have relation of cause or effect with the social movement, are indicated in heavy type.

INDEX

"Agrarian question," The, 158

Agricultural development, The Marxian theory of development not
applicable to, 159

_Alliance Internationale de la Démocratic Sociale_, The, 128

Anarchism, French, 79

Anti-capitalistic literature, 23

Anti-ecclesiastical nature of the proletarian movement, 162

Anti-national tendency of the proletariat, 165

Anti-religious nature of the proletarian movement, 162

Asiatic development, 166

Assurance, Beginning of the German governmental working-men's, 191

Attitude of America towards Asiatic development, 167

Babeuf, The insurrection of, 46

Bakunin, Work in Spain and Italy of, 79

Ballot, Bismarck's general, equal, secret, and direct, 186

Bebel, August, 132

Bourgeoisie, The, 74

Capitalism, Rapid development in Germany of, 187

Capitalistic methods of production, 24

Carlyle, Thomas, 22

Characterisation of the social movement, 5

Chartist movement, The, 50

Christian socialism, 22

Class interest, Creation of, 108

Class strife, Various forms of, 172

Class struggle, 1

Clubbism, 73

Coalition law, More liberal, 180

"Coalition Law," The, 40

Combination, Rigorous prohibition of, 179

Communistic Manifesto of Marx and Engels, 93

Conditions under which the working class lives, 6

Constitution of 1793, The, 45

Danton, 45

_Droits de l'Homme_, 45

Eight-hour work-day, Endorsement by the Liverpool Trade-Union Congress
of an, 192

Elizabethan trade law, 49

Elizabethan trade restriction, Complete removal of, 180

Engels's _Struggle of Classes in France_, 119

English industrial monopoly, 1850-1880, 64

English social development, 57

English "social peace", 69

English type of working-men's movement, 53

English working-men's movement, Characterisation of, 62

English working-men, The temperament of, 68

"Erfurt" programme, The, 134

Essential elements in every social movement, 3

Ethical socialism, 22

Evolution idea, Marx's application of, to the social movement, 100

Factionism, 73

Fourier, 32

Fourier, First great book of, 179

French "revolutionism", 53

French Revolution of 1789, The, 39

French trade-union agitation, 137

French type of working-men's movement, 53

German social agitation, Peculiarities of, 81

German type of working-men's movement, 53

"Gotha" programme, The, 133

Grün, 22

Hegel, 12

Hess, 22

"Honourables," The, 133

"Ideal" and "programme," Confusion of, 151

"Inaugural Address," The, 125

Insurance for the sick, against accident, for the aged, in Germany, 191

International combination, First attempt for, 123

Internationalism, 122

"International," The, 123

International Working-Men's Congress in London, Fourth, 194

International Working-Men's Congress in Zurich, Third, 193

International Working-Men's Protection Conference in Berlin, 193

Inventions of modern machinery, 178

Japanese, The, 11

Kant, 2

Kingsley, 22

Kurd, The, 11

Lamennais, 22

Lassalle, Ferdinand, 81

Lassalle movement, The, 87

Legislation for working men, Beginning of specific, 181

Legislation in favour of the working man, Value of, 68

Leroux, Pierre, 22

Liebknecht, Wilhelm, 132

_Loi martiale_, The, 40

Lyons, Insurrection of the silk weavers in, 180

"Machine Riots", 178

Machines and manufactories, Petitions against, 178

Machines, Laws for the protection of, 178

Manchester-Liverpool Railroad, Opening of the, 180

Manufactures, Marxian theory of development applies only to the sphere
of, 159

Marat, 43

Marxian system, Extension of the, 135

Marxian theory of social agitation, 93

Marxism, a social-political realism, 118

Marx, Karl, 91

Men of Montaigne, The, 44

Middle-class movements, 37

"Minimum programme" of all social agitation, The, 139

Müller, Adam, 23

Nationalism, 164

Owen, Robert, 25

Owen, Robert, Chief writings of, 179

Patriotism, 164

Penny postage, Institution of Rowland Hill's, 182

Philanthropic socialism, 22

Practical tendency of the old English trade-union, 68

Proletarian agitation, The first, 47

Proletarian movement, Anti-ecclesiastical nature of the, 162

Proletarian movement, Anti-religious nature of the, 160

Proletariat, Ideal and material emancipation of the, 103

Proletariat, The relation of the, to the _demos_, 155

Proudhon, 74

Putschism, 73

"Rack-rent" (Irish) tenants, 10

Reign of Terror, The significance of the, 75

Revolutionary passions in the modern proletariat, The ground of, 12

"Revolutionism", 16

Revolutionism, a manifestation of unripeness, 146

Revolutionist, English working-men contrasted with Roman type of, 76

Revolution of 1848, The proletarian-socialistic character of the, 121

Ricardo, David, 20

Robespierre, 45

Russian peasants, 10

Sans-culottes, The, 44

"Savannah," Arrival at Liverpool of the, 180

Schulze-Delitzsch, 85

Sismondi, 22

Smith, Adam, 32

Smith, Adam, "Wealth of Nations", 179

Social agitation, Centripetal and centrifugal tendency of the, 140

Social agitation, Severe laws of Napoleon III. for the repression of, 184

"Social-Democratic Party", 133

Social-Democratic Working-Men's Party, 133

Social development, Theoretical and practical, 149

Social evolution, The meaning of, 147

Socialists, German law concerning the, 189

Social literature, Old and new, 19

Social movement of the masses, Beginnings of the, 37

Social movement, Characterisation of the, 75

Social movement, Contradictions apparent in the, 142

Social movement, Meaning of the, 3

Social movement, The political influence of the, 145

Social struggle, Legal bounds of, 174

Social struggle, Proper weapons of, 175

St. Simon, 32

St. Simon, Chief work of, 180

Telegraph applied to English railroads, The, 182

Time environment of the modern social movement, 15

Tories and Whigs, Alternation of power between, 65

Trade regulation for the German Empire, Liberal, 187

Trade-union act (English) supplemented in 1875, 188

Unification of the proletariat, Internal and external, 131

Utopian socialists, 25

Value, Marx's theory of, 99

Variations of the social movement, 56

von Haller, Leopold, 23

Working class, Condition of life of the, 6

Working-men's assurance, Beginning of the German governmental, 191

Working-men's movement, German governmental regulations for the
repression of the, 184

"Working-Men's Union," The, 132

World's Exposition in London, Fourth, 185

Zollverein, Founding of the German, 181

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