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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202 THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. changed for the labour-notes and the labour-notes for them. This mechanism of exchange is ingenious. The larger co-opera tive stores in London give some idea of it, though they do not form an integral part of Collectivism. A more accurate con ception of the system would be gained by supposing that the “ Equitable Pioneers of Rochdale ” had been so successful that everything had passed into their hands—lands, houses, shops, factories, and working establishments of all kinds—and that all other districts had followed the example of Rochdale. Collectivism does not involve the complete abolition of hereditary succession ; but as all immovable property would belong to either State, Communes, or Corporations, and as every man would be obliged to live henceforth by the trade he exercised or by the function he fulfilled, it would follow that the power of accumulation would be very much reduced, and that the right of inheritance would be limited to movables. Dr. Schæffle seems almost to believe that such an ideal might be realized in the future ; at any rate, he points out clearly the condition of ultimate success. No Socialist reform, he says, can succeed which ignores the psychological fact on which the individualistic system at present rests, namely, that private interest is the great incentive to production. It is not by formal rules, nor by appeals to sentiments of duty and honour, that we can secure the care and zeal necessary for producing as much as possible at the lowest cost, without waste of time or material. The main difficulty lies in the efficient management of large industrial enterprises. It is through the want of good manage ment that so many co-operative societies have failed. Collec tivism assumes that bodies of working men are capable of carrying on collective industries with as much success as enter prises based on private property. Once they have given proof of this, the triumph of the new organization will only be a ques tion of time ; but so long as the labouring classes do not show themselves capable of doing without the guidance of masters, all attempts at hastening, by revolutionary means, the advent of the new order of things will only end in lamentable failure. Collectivism, also called by its advocates Communisme liber taire, has become the watchword of revolutionary Socialism

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