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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320 SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. education and partial maintenance paid for them, they would of course, on “ the bare subsistence ” principle, lose in wages. I, however, am inclined to think that Mr. Hyndman’s proposal might be temporarily adopted in the case of the very poor with a balance of advantage. The chief danger would be the weakening of the parents’ sense of responsibility for the proper bringing up of their children ; but, seeing how very weak this sense of responsibility, in the class in question, already is, and, under existing conditions, necessarily must be, I believe that the danger alluded to would be out-balanced by the great gain of having a new generation rising up amongst us better taught and better fed than their fathers, and having therefore a higher “ standard of comfort.” As to the eight hours normal working day, this is of course a perfectly legitimate object for working men to combine for, and it would no doubt be extremely beneficial if it did not result in driving trade from the country. To obviate this, the rule should be made an international one. Until that can be secured, a legislative remedy might be worse than the disease. It is unnecessary to examine the lemaining “ stepping stones.” Were the consummation ever so devoutly to be wished —which it is not—there is a preliminary question to be asked : Is the nation or are the workers prepared to usher in any new régime at the cost of wholesale plunder and rapine—plunder and rapine, too, not only of the rich and of the much-abused middle classes, but of hundreds of thousands—nay, millions— of the so-called “wage slaves” themselves? The working men who have invested their hard-won savings in Building Societies, in Savings Banks, in Friendly Societies of all kinds, or who have sums standing to their credit in the Co-operative Stores, will find themselves expropriated equally with the Rothschilds. The small proprietor, the tenant farmer who has invested capital in his holding, must go the way of the Duke of Westminster. Every one who has anything to lose must lose it, and be no better off under the new régime than if he had been an idle beggar all his days. To put it on no higher ground, will all these consent to the suggested confiscation ? Apart, however, from the great and indelible moral wrong,

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