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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INTRODUCTION. xxxviii and their food is more varied. Their diet has, however, become almost everywhere too exclusively vegetarian, because, the increase of animals fit for food not having kept pace with the increase of the population, meat has become too dear. We can no longer say of our working classes as Cæsar said of the Germans, “Their food mainly consists of milk, cheese, and meat” * What is, unfortunately, well founded among the grievances set forth by the Socialists, is that the condition of the labourers has not improved in proportion to the increase of production, that the share obtained by them in the unex ampled development of wealth during this century is too small. In support of this assertion I shall cite only three witnesses, whose evidence is unimpeachable and who belong to the country where capital has increased most rapidly. Mr. Glad stone said in the House of Commons on the 13th February, 1843, “ It is one of the most melancholy features in the social state of our country that a constant accumulation of wealth in the upper classes, and an increase of the luxuriousness of their habits and of their means of enjoyment” should be accom panied by “ a decrease in the consuming powers of the people, and an increase of the pressure of privation and distress” among the poorer classes. Professor Fawcett uses language to the same effect : “ Production has been stimulated beyond the expectations of the most sanguine, and supplies of food have been obtained from even the most distant countries in much greater quantities than could have been anticipated ; still, however, so far as the labourer is concerned, the age of golden plenty seems as remote as ever, and in the humble homes of the poor a not less constant war has to be waged against penury and want From the bitter disappointment thus engendered there has not unnaturally arisen a feeling of deep distrust of the fundamental principles on which society is based.” t Professor Cairnes speaks even more forcibly than Mr. Fawcett : “ The conclusion to which I am brought is this—that, unequal as is the distribution of wealth already in * De Bel. Gal. vi. 22. t “Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects,” by Henry and Millicent G. Fawcett {1872), p. 5.

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