CONSERVATIVE  SOCIALISTS.

87

OÍ  which  should  have  legal  force.  The  distribution  of  wealth
would  thus  be  regulated,  no  more,  as  nowadays,  by  the  rude
conflict  of  interests,  that  is  to  say,'  in  reality  by  the  law
of  the  strongest,  but  as  in  the  ancient  corporations,  by  a
principle  of  justice.  Of  course  it  is  not  proposed  to  re-establish
the  trade  guilds,  with  their  monopolies  and  restrictions,  but  to
subject  the  whole  economic  world  to  an  industrial  bureaucracy,
and  to  a  collection  of  tribunals,  which  would  be  new  organs  of
law.  This  system  is  clearly  inspired  by  a  love  of  justice,  only
It  would  be  very  difficult  of  application  in  the  existing  economic
world.
Professor  Huber  is  dead,  but  Councillor  Wagener  still  lives,
and  has  even  become  a  most  influential  personage  ;  for,  it  is
said,  the  Imperial  Chancellor  gladly  consults  him  in  economic
matters.*

^  This  is  what  President  Gerlach  wrote  in  reply  to  Councillor
\\  agener,  who  must  not  be  confounded  with  another  wellnown
  Economist,  Adolf  Wagner,  the  eminent  professor  of  the
University  of  Berlin  :  “Nothing  can  arrest  this  potent  solvent
which  we  see  at  work  under  our  eyes  and  which  is  sweeping
away  all  ancient  institutions.  The  trade  guilds  of  olden  times
cannot  be  re-established,  but  the  labour  question  really
consists  in  discovering  an  industrial  organization  which  shall
guarantee,  as  of  old,  the  rights  of  the  labourer,  who  is  at