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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XXXIV INTRODUCTION. its ruins may arise a new world.” Thus would be propagated the Nihilists’ creed. If those who foment violent revolutions try to extirpate every religious sentiment, it is because they know that the best way of arousing a people is to take from them the hope of finding in another world the justice denied to them on earth. It is not that the workers are worse off than formerly. But, on the one hand, as capital constantly accumulates under the form of stocks, bonds, or interest, paid by municipality or state, the number of idle people rapidly increases, while, on the other hand, it is precisely as men leave the extremest misery behind them that they become most clamorous. As De Tocqueville so admirably expresses it, nations revolt, not when they are most oppressed, but, on the contrary, when the yoke which weighed them down begins to grow lighter. In speaking of the end of the eighteenth century, he says, “According as prosperity began to dawn in France, men’s minds appeared to become more unquiet and disturbed ; public discontent was sharpened * hatred of all ancient institutions went on increasing, until the nation was visibly on the verge of a revolution. One might almost say that the French found their condition all the more intolerable according as it became better. Such an opinion might cause astonishment were it not that history is filled with similar spectacles.” * Is not this an accurate picture of what is going on under our own eyes ? It was at one time imagined that the means of combating Socialism would be found in the teachings of Political Economy ; but, on the contrary, it is precisely this science which has furnished the Socialists of to-day with their most redoubtable weapons. Instead of rejecting the conclusions of Economists as was done by their predecessors, they accept them without reserve and make use of them to demonstrate that present social conditions are at variance with the principles of justice and right. Economists have proved that all value and all property are derived from labour ; it clearly follows, say the Socialists, that wealth should belong to those who by their labour created it, and that the entire value, that is to say the * L'Ancien Régime, ch. xv¡.

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