The Socialism of to-day

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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6o THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. lodging with innocent amusement for a half or a third of wha they earn per day. It follows that they would enjoy greater ease and comfort than their comrades in the same category, that they would acquire better habits, would lay up a small capital, and thus would not be in such haste to throw themselves into the miseries of a too early marriage. In drawing nearer to the middle classes, they would acquire their instincts of order and prudence. As those Economists have seen who have best analyzed this difficult problem. Mill in England and Joseph Gamier in France, it all comes back to the question whether it is want or plenty which urges on the increase of population. If greater comfort leads necessarily to a corresponding increase in the number of labourers, then there is no salvation. The “ iron law ” will act in all its rigour. The minimum of sub sistence will be the eternal destiny of the greater number. For, as Mill puts it, you may adopt institutions, the most favourable to the labourer; you may devise whatever division you please of wealth and products, the time will come when the earth will be no longer able to support all those upon it. If, on the contrary, the acquisition of property, and the greater degree of comfort resulting therefrom, retard marriages and diminish the number of births, then it may be affirmed that the measures taken in favour of the labouring classes will end in the permanent improvement of their condition, and will the good results of which I can closely observe, obtained the medal of honour at the Universal Exhibition of Vienna in 1873. For i fr. 50 c. a day, the labourer can have two breakfasts, a dinner, and a supper ; he gets his lodging, heating, and lighting, and has his washing done for him. In the hotel he has a café, a reading-room, and a casino where there is music, and where the evenings may be spent. He can take whatever meal he likes at a separate table, there being no common board. The labourer thus preserves a complete independence, and is in no wise treated as if in barracks. The collier gets from four to five francs for a day of eight hours, even more if trade is brisk. Thus he has two-thirds of his wages at his disposal for his accessory needs. He is consequently not reduced to the minimum necessary for existence. See Philanthropie sociale à I Expo sition de Vienne, hy Léon d’Andrimont. [As to “the Familistère at Guise,” see a lecture by M. Godin, translated into English by Mr. E. V. Neale, and issued as a pamphlet by the Central Co-operative Board, M anchester.—Tr.]

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