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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CONSER VA TIVE SOCIALISTS. 91 a great net-work of iron roads is one of the most complicated of industrial enterprises. It requires special knowledge, not only for the maintenance of the line, but also for the choice and construction of the rolling-stock. It needs administrative capacity to organize the staff of officials, and get them to work together, as well as sound commercial judgment to regulate the scale of charges. In a word, all those qualities must be combined which go to make up at once the manufacturer and the merchant Consequently, if the State is to undertake this i duty, which is one of the most difficult to be found in the whole sphere of industry, it might, ã fortiori, be intrusted with the working of the mines of Saarbrück or of the Harz Mountains, 1 the cultivation of lands, as in the case of the State farms, and, ■ in fact, the production of all the principle articles of commerce, ; whether in the shape of raw materials or manufactured goods. There is no reason for stopping short anywhere in this direction. 1 he only logical conclusion is, that we should place every industry under the direct control of the State, which is, in fact, the ideal of the extreme Socialist. Latterly, Prince Bismarck’s socialistic tendencies have become still more marked, and he now chooses his advisers in economic matters from the extreme left of the Katheder-socialisten (“ Socialists of the Chair”). In the spring of 1877, during his solitude at Varzin, it is said that he employed himself in pro foundly studying social questions. One cannot help admiring the resolution of this statesman, who, in the midst of the painful preoccupations of a foreign policy so full of difficulties, devotes months and years to the search of means for the amelioration of the condition of the labouring classes. I know no more decisive proof of the actual importance of the problem. Be sides his private secretary, Herr Lothar Bücher, the Chancellor has several times consulted Herr Adolf Wagner, Professor in the University of Berlin, whose theory of property is funda mentally the same as that of Rodbertus and Dr. Schæffle, former minister in Austria, whose recent work, the “ Quintes sence of Socialism,” places him in the ranks of Socialists. We all know that, as a result of his meditations and conversations, i'rince Bismarck presented to the Prussian Parliament a pro-

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