XIV

INTRODUCTION.

In  the  debate  which  took  place  on  the  23rd  May,  1878,
in  the  German  Parliament,  when  the  Anti-Socialist  Bill  was
introduced  by  the  Imperial  Government,  Deputy  Joerg,  one
of  the  most  distinguished  orators  of  Catholic  Germany,  very
justly  said,  “  A  movement  almost  imperceptible  at  its  outset
has  spread  with  unprecedented  rapidity.  This  extraordinary
development  of  Socialism  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  considering ­
  it  as  the  consequence  of  the  profound  modifications
which  have  taken  place  in  economic  and  social  conditions.
Yes,  modern  civilization  has  its  dark  side,  and  that  dark  side
is  Socialism.  It  will  not  disappear  so  long  as  civilization
continues  to  be  what  it  now  is.  Socialism  is  not  a  plague
peculiar  to  Germany.  It  has  taken  up  its  head-quarters  here,
and  has  received  in  our  country  its  philosophical  and  scientific
education,  but  it  is  to  be  met  with  everywhere,  it  is  a  universal
evil.”  England  alone  seemed  to  be  free  from  it  ;  but  the  extraordinary ­
  success  which  has  attended  the  schemes  for  the
nationalization  of  the  land,  and  the  publications  of  Mr.  Henry
George  and  Mr.  A.  R.  Wallace,  prove  that  this  immunity  is  a
thing  of  the  past.
What  is  Socialism  ?  I  have  never  met  with  either  a  clear
definition  or  even  precise  description  of  the  word.  Every  one
is  a  Socialist  in  somebody’s  eyes.  Since  his  agrarian  legislation
for  Ireland,  Mr.  Gladstone  is  considered  by  the  Irish  Conservatives ­
  as  a  Socialist  of  the  worst  type.  Prince  Bismarck,
the  friend  of  Lassalle  and  Schæffle,  the  author  of  the  terrible
proposal  for  establishing,  by  means  of  the  tobacco  monopoly,
a  superannuation  fund  for  invalid  workmen,  can  hardly  defend
himself  from  the  charge  of  being  a  Socialist;  and,  for  the  matter
of  that,  he  readily  avows  that  he  is  one.  The  statesmen  in
France,  who  recently  wished  all  the  railways  to  be  taken  up
and  worked  by  the  State,  were  assuredly  Socialists.  Finally,
since  the  famous  pamphlets  of  Bastiat,  every  out-and-out  freetrader ­
  and  every  rigid  economist  is  firmly  convinced  that
whoever  does  not  admit  the  wisdom  of  full  freedom  of  commerce ­
  is  infected  with  Socialism  and  Communism.  Proudhon,
far  from  wishing  to  strengthen  the  action  of  the  State,  called
for  its  abolition  under  the  name  of  “  Anarchy.”  Was  he  not.