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. 301 universe. That is a lie. The time has come for us to declare that it is a lie by word and deed. I see no way but associating for work instead of for strikes.” “ It is my belief,” said Kingsley, “ that not self-interest but self-sacrifice is the only law upon which human society can be grounded with any hope of prosperity and permanence.” They differed from Socialists generally in that they did not look to the State for the regeneration of the social system. Maurice, indeed, had a theory that the State could not be communistic, but was “by nature and law conservative of individual rights and individual possessions,” and that it was only by accident, as it were, and by going out of its own more peculiar sphere, that it was compelled to recognize another principle, as in the case of the factory children ; while the Church, on the other hand, was “ communistic in principle, and conservative of property and individual rights only by accident, bound to recognize them, but not as its own special work,” In the union of Church and State, accordingly, Maurice saw the true fusion of the principles of communism and of property. It is true that Kingsley publicly called himself a Chartist, and in one of his letters, written under the famous pseudonym of “ Parson Lot,” said that his only quarrel with the Charter was that it did not go far enough in reform ; but he immediately explained his meaning by adding that the mistake the Chartists made was in fancying that legislative reform was social reform, and that men’s hearts could be changed by Act of Parliament. At the time, he was, perhaps, prepared to grant all the points of the Charter, but neither then nor afterwards was it to political action that either he or any of those who worked with him looked for the salvation of the labourers. They sought no State-aid for their co-operative societies, but merely a fair field. Even private individuals could do little. They might “boycott” the slop-shops which adopted the “sweating system ; ” they might encourage the growth of associations and deal exclusively with them ; the rich might even provide healthy workshops at a low, fair rent ; but, in the main, the workers must fight their own battle, aided only by “ Him whose everlasting Fatherhood is the sole ground of all human brotherhood.”

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