THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY.
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general ideas of a very elevated character, and sometimes most
just ; but, upon the ground of concrete reforms, the two groups
appear equally confused and impracticable. Herr Meyer asks
that heavy taxes should be imposed upon all profits from trade
and banking. He calls for the re-establishment of the laws
against usury ; he would even limit the interest payable upon
all capital not worked by its owner. He appears not to see
that in thus limiting the free scope of industry, he would hurt
the interests of the landed proprietors which he desires to
protect He also wishes that the functions of the State should
be vastly extended.
The State, according to him, should first of all oblige all
manufacturers to build houses for their men. It should itself
house all its employés. It should pay its own men well, in
order that this rate of wages should be forced, so to speak,
upon individuals, and it should regulate the length of the
working day in proportion to the difficulty and fatigue of the
work. The acquisition of property by those who now possess
none should in every way be facilitated. As M. Thiers said,
upon every acre owned by a peasant will be found a gun ready
to defend property. Each trade should be obliged to have a
superannuation and a relief fund, and the employer should be
bound to contribute a share equal to the united contributions
of all his workmen. There should, finally, be a “ council of
experts,” to reconcile differences arising between masters and
men, and a court of arbitration to decide disputes not settled
by means of compromise. Some of these measures are good ;
but others are impossible of execution, such as the restriction
of the interest of capital employed in banking and trade.
Taken as a whole, the programme appears mean, especially
side by side with the recital of motives which precede it.
This is not to be wondered at ; for it is far easier to point to
the ideal to be attained, than to indicate the means of reaching
it.
