The Socialism of to-day

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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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THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. 86 subject all industries to this strait-waistcoat, any nation would submit to it. Lassalle, replying to Gerlach, shows clearly how chimerical are these dreams of restoring the past. “ Given, he says, “ the organic force of the large industrial system, it is as impossible to arrest its course as to stop streams from flowing into a river and helping to swell it. But, just as we may possess ourselves of the force of the stream and take advantage of it, so we may utilize the very development of the large industrial system in order to reconstitute a middle class of working-men capitalists, as in the old corporations, though founded upon another basis. It is more in conformity with the philosophy of history to make use of the forces resulting from the natural evolution of civilization in order to attain our ends, than to attempt to put on the drag, which would moreover be quite useless.” The Gerlach group has been designated under the name of Zunftreaction—“reaction in favour of corporations. Two well-known writers, who defend the same general ideas, Pro fessor Huber and Councillor Wagener, separate themselves from Gerlach upon this point. If there is a social question, says Professor Huber, it is because wages are too often insufficient j and why is this ? Because the lowering in the price of manufactured articles, resulting from diminution in the cost of production, is always obtained by the reduction of wages. In point of fact this is far from correct It would be better, adds Huber, to arrive at the same result by a diminution of profits. It is not by virtue of any moral, rational, or economic law that one of the parties who joins in the production of wealth should always be sacrificed to the other. The remuneration of labour should not be fixed in an arbitrary manner, but by equity. Now equity demands that, when capital has received its interest, and labour its wages, the surplus profit should be divided between the two parties in proportion to their services. But who shall fix this share ? It could only be by a sort of jury of true men, in which masters and workmen should be equally represented, and the decisions

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