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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SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. 291 excited less attention than might have been expected, and was a financial failure. Mr, George’s book, however, has been an undoubted success. Its author appears as the prophet of a new revelation. His calm assumption of infallibility, his brilliant bursts of eloquence, his keen sympathy for the poor, his religious fervour, and the very audacity of his proposal are exceedingly attractive to many minds. The book, too, is one which can be read by the people. They may not follow all Mr. George’s scientific or unscientific analyses, but they are touched by his moral enthusiasm and burning eloquence, and they can appreciate the apparent simplicity of his proposal. For he is not over-revolutionary. He does not propose, as the Socialists do, to overthrow the existing order of society. He is not, properly speaking, a Socialist at all. Who would not welcome his “ simple yet sove reign remedy ” if, as he says, it “ will raise wages, increase the earnings of capital, extirpate pauperism, abolish poverty, give remunerative employment to whoever wishes it, afford free scope to human powers, lessen crime, elevate morals, and taste, and intelligence, purify government, and carry civilization to yet nobler heights ” ? Mr. George proposes “to seek the law which associates poverty with progress, and increases want with advancing wealth.” Even in thus stating his problem, Mr. George begs an important question. Poverty persists indeed, but, according to all the best statistical authorities, it is diminishing. Mr. Giifen, for instance, the president of the Statistical Society, comparing the present time with fifty years ago, calculates that the workman now gets from fifty to one hundred per cent more money-wages for twenty per cent, less work,* while, with the exception of meat and house-rent, the main items in his expenditure have decreased. The inference that the working classes are much better off is, he says, “ fully supported by statistics showing a decline in the rate of mortality, an increase of the consumption of articles in general use, an improvement in general education, a diminution of crime and pauperism, a vast increase of the number of depositors in savings banks, and * See his Inaugural Address to the Statistical Society (1883).

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