WERNER SOMBART

Professor in the University of Breslau

With a Chronicle of the Social Movement 1750-1896

"Je ne propose rien, je ne suppose rien; j'expose"

TRANSLATED BY ANSON P. ATTERBURY Pastor of the Park Presbyterian Church New York

WITH INTRODUCTION BY JOHN B. CLARK Professor of Political Economy Columbia University

G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK LONDON 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND The Knickerbocker Press 1898

Copyright, 1898 by G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

TO THE OTHER AND BETTER MEMBER OF THE COMMUNISTIC SOCIETY TO WHICH WE BELONG THIS TRANSLATION IS INSCRIBED

PREFACE, BY THE TRANSLATORToC

While rambling through quaint old Nuremberg, last summer, I was driven for shelter from rain into a bookshop. In a conversation with the genial proprietor, he called my attention to a book, lately published, that had already made a deep impression upon the world of German readers. A reading and re-reading of the little book convinced me that English readers, as well, will be glad to follow Professor Sombart in his comprehensive and suggestive review of Socialism.

Thanks are due to the learned German professor, whose name appears on the title-page, for his courtesy in this matter; also to his German publisher. I would also express obligation to my friend, Professor Sigmon M. Stern, with whom I have consulted freely on some difficult points of translation. The Introduction by Professor John B. Clark, of Columbia University, will be appreciated, I know, by the reader as well as by myself.

A.P.A.

April, 1898.

INTRODUCTORY NOTEToC

The reader of this work will miss something which he has been accustomed to find in books on Socialism. Professor Sombart has not given us synopses of the theories of St. Simon, Proudhon, Marx, Owen, and others. His work marks the coming of a period in which socialism is to be studied, rather than the speculations of socialists. Theories and plans no longer constitute the movement. There are still schools of socialistic thought; but there is something actually taking place in the industrial world that is the important part of the socialistic movement. Reality is the essence of it.

The structure of the world of industry is changing. Great establishments are exterminating small ones, and are forming federations with each other. Machinery is producing nearly every kind of goods, and there is no longer a place in the world for such a middle class as was represented by the master workman, with his slowly learned handicraft and his modest shop. These facts construed in a certain way are the material of socialism. If we see in them the dawn of an era of state industry that shall sweep competition and competitors out of the field, we are evolutionary socialists.

We may need a doctrinal basis for our view of the evolution that is going on; and we may find it in the works of Marx and others; but already we have ceased to have an absorbing interest in the contrasts and the resemblances that their several theories present. We have something to study that is more directly important than doctrinal history.

In Professor Sombart's study, Owenism, indeed, has an important place, since the striking element in it is something that the present movement has completely put away, namely, utopianism. No one now thinks, as did Owen, that merely perceiving the beauty of the socialistic ideal is enough to make men fashion society after that pattern. No one thinks that society can be arbitrarily shaped after any pattern. Marxism, in practice, means realism and a reliance on evolution, however little the wilder utterances of Marx himself may suggest that fact. Internationalism is also a trait of this modern movement; but it is not of the kind that is represented by the International Working-Men's Association. It is a natural affiliation of men of all nations having common ends to gain.

The relation of a thinker to a practical movement cannot lose its importance. It is this connection that Professor Sombart gives us, and his work is an early representative of the coming type of books on Socialism. It treats of realities, and of thought that connects itself with realities. It treats, indeed, of a purposeful movement to assist evolution, and to help to put the world into the shape that socialistic theorists have defined. Here lies the importance of the study of theory.

Professor Sombart's work contains little that is directly controversial; but it gives the impression that the purpose of the socialists is based on a fallacy, that it is not, in reality, in harmony with evolution, and that it will not prevail. It may be added that the style of the work is worthy of the thought that it expresses, and that the English translation is worthy of the original. The book will take its place among the more valuable of the works on Socialism that have thus far appeared.

John B. Clark, Columbia University, New York.

PREFACEToC

What is here published was originally delivered in the form of lectures, in the Fall of 1896, in Zurich, before miscellaneous but in general appreciative and inspiring audiences. The approval which they received, and the earnestly expressed wish of many hearers that the addresses might appear in print, have finally overcome a not inconsiderable reluctance on my part, felt by all in like position. The lectures are in many places enlarged; indeed, largely put into new form—changed from extemporaneous utterance into the more formal style proper for the written word. But their character remains, especially the restricted setting into which a great mass of material had to be compressed. This is done intentionally, since what I would offer to a larger public through this book is a brief, pointed, well-defined view of "Socialism and the Social Movement in the Nineteenth Century."

W.S.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Translator's Preface v

Introductory Note by Professor John B. Clark viii

Author's Preface ix

CHAPTER

I. Whence and Whither 1

Class struggle—Kant—The meaning of the social movement—Essential elements in every social movement—Characterisation of the social movement—Conditions under which the working class lives—Russian peasants—Irish "rack-rent" tenants—Uncertainty of existence—The Japanese—The Kurd—Hegel—The ground of revolutionary passions in the modern proletariat—Time environment of the modern social movement—"Revolutionism."

II. Concerning Utopian Socialism 19

Social literature, old and new—Adam Smith—David Ricardo—"Christian socialism"—Lamennais—Kingsley—"Ethical socialism"—Sismondi—Carlyle—"Philanthropic socialism"—Pierre Leroux—Grün—Hess—Anti-capitalistic literature—Adam Müller—Leopold von Haller—Capitalistic methods of production—Utopian socialists—St. Simon—Fourier—Owen.

III. The Antecedents of the Social Movement 37

Beginnings of the social movement carried on by the masses—Historic occurrences—Middle-class movements—French Revolution—Loi martiale—"Coalition Law"—Marat—The men of Montaigne—The Sans-culottes—Danton—Robespierre—Constitution of 1793—Droits de l'Homme—Insurrection of Babeuf—The first proletarian agitation—Elizabethan trade law—The Chartist movement—English type of working-men's movement—French type—German type—Variations of the social movement—English social development—Carlyle's teaching.

IV. The Development of National Peculiarities 62

Characterisation of the English working-men's movement—English industrial monopoly, 1850-1880—Alternation of power between Tories and Whigs—Value of legislation in favour of the working man—Temperament of the English working-man—Practical tendency of the old English trade-union—English "social peace"—French "revolutionism"—Factionism—Clubbism—Putschism—Proudhon—The bourgeoisie—Significance of the Reign of Terror—Difference between Roman type of the born revolutionist and the English working-man—Victor Hehn—French anarchism—Bakunin—The peculiarities of social agitation in Germany—Ferdinand Lassalle—Schulze-Delitzsch—The Lassalle movement.

V. Karl Marx 90

Birthplace, 1818—Parentage—Cosmopolitanism of the Marx family—At Bonn—Bruno Bauer—Driven from Prussia—From Paris—Finds rest in London—Death, 1883—Marxian theory of social agitation—Communistic Manifesto of Karl Marx and Frederic Engels—The theory of value—Marx's application of the evolution idea to the social movement—Ideal and material emancipation of the proletariat—Creation of class interest—Marxism as a social-political realism—Engels's Struggle of Classes in France.

VI. The Trend Towards Unity 121

The proletarian-socialistic character of the revolution of 1848—Internationalism—First attempt for international combination—The "International"—The "Inaugural Address"—Alliance Internationale de la Démocratie Sociale—Dissolution of the "International"—Internal and external unification of the proletariat—Lassalle's "Working-Men's Union"—Wilhelm Liebknecht—August Bebel—The Social-Democratic Working-Men's Party—The "Honourables"—The "Social-Democratic Party"—The "Gotha" programme—Gradual extension of the Marxian system—French trade-union agitation—Approach of the English working-men's movement to that of the Continental—The "minimum programme" of all social agitation—Centripetal and centrifugal tendency of the social agitation.

VII. Tendencies of the Present 142

Contradiction apparent in the great social movement—Sources from which contradictions spring—Political influence of the social movement—Revolutionism a manifestation of unripeness—Meaning of social evolution—Theoretical and practical social development—Confusion of "ideal" and "programme"—Relation of the proletariat to the demos—The social movement to be the representative of the highest form of economic life at every period of production upon the largest scale—The "agrarian question"—The Marxian theory of development only for the sphere of manufactures—Does not apply to agricultural development—Anti-religious nature of the proletarian movement—The grounds for this enmity to religion—The movement anti-ecclesiastical—Patriotism—Not the heritage of a particular class—Nationalism—Feeling of nationalism not shared by the proletariat—No reason in the essence of modern socialism for anti-nationalism—Asiatic development—Advancement of Japan—Attitude of America towards Asiatic development.

VIII. Lessons 169

Necessity of the social movement—Lorenz von Stein—"Class strife" not identical with civil war—Various forms of "class strife"—Struggle the solution in social life—Conflict not necessarily the beginning of a new culture—Can also betoken the end of the old—Social struggle should be determined within legal bounds—Must be carried on with proper weapons—English social agitation as a model.

Appendix. Chronicle of the Social Movement (1750-1896) 178

Notable inventions of modern machinery—"Machine Riots"—Petitions against machines and manufactories—Laws for the protection of machines—Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations"—Robert Owen's chief writing's—Fourier's first great book—Complete removal of Elizabethan trade restrictions—The "Savannah" arrives at Liverpool—Chief work of St. Simon—More liberal coalition law—Opening of the Manchester-Liverpool Railroad—Insurrection of the silk workers in Lyons—Beginning of specific legislation for working men—Founding of the German Zollverein—Beginnings of German national industry—Introduction of Rowland Hill's penny postage—Telegraph first applied to English railroads—German governmental regulations for the repression of the working-men's movement—Severe laws of Napoleon III. for the repression of all social agitation—First World's Exposition in London—Bismarck forces the general, equal, secret, and direct ballot—Liberal trade regulation for the German Empire—Rapid development of capitalism in Germany, especially after the war—Trade-union act (English) supplemented in 1875—Law concerning the socialists in Germany—Beginning of governmental working-men's association in Germany—Insurance for the sick, against accident, for the sick and aged, in Germany—Endorsement of a legal establishment of the eight-hour work-day by the Trade-Union Congress in Liverpool—International Working-Men's Protection Conference in Berlin—Third International Working-Men's Congress in Zurich, at which English trade-unions deliberate officially with the Continental socialists—Fourth International Working-Men's Congress in London.