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THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DA  Y.
The  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  this  reasoning  is  that  the
working  men  of  one  country,  in  order  to  resist  a  lowering
of  wages,  must  enter  into  an  understanding  with  those  of  other
opposition  must  be  made,  and  if  it  takes  place  in  a  foreign
country,  then  in  that  foreign  country  resistance  must  be
organized.  It  is  therefore  easy  to  see  how  the  cosmopolitan
character  of  capital,  the  facility  of  transport  and  exchange,  and
the  identity  of  manufacturing  processes  naturally  lead  to  an
international  association  of  working  men.
Another  circumstance  of  a  more  special  character  led  in  the
same  direction.  Sometimes  English  employers,  when  their
workmen  refused  the  conditions  offered  to  them  and  went  out
on  strike,  imported  foreign  workmen—Germans,  Belgians,  or
Danes—who  were  ready  to  take  less  wages.  They  even
threatened  to  introduce  Chinese  coolies,  who,  subsisting  on
rice  can  live  in  comfort  on  sixpence  a  day.  How  were  the
workmen  to  escape  from  this  competition  imported  from  without ­
  >  Obviously,  by  forming  an  understanding  with  foreign
workmen,  by  proving  to  them  that  the  interests  of  all  labourers
are  mutually  dependent,  and  by  inducing  them  accordingly  to
refuse  any  offers  that  employers  of  another  country  might  make
to  them.  Clearly  the  International  grew,  at  the  outset,  on
economical  ground  and  under  the  influence  of  the  new  conditions ­
  of  modern  industry.
This  is  proved  beyond  question  by  the  fact  that  the  International ­
  came  into  being  immediately  after  the  holding  of  the
International  Exhibition  at  London,  in  1862.  At  least  it  was
then  that  it  took  bodily  shape,  for  the  idea,  m  its  theoretical
form,  dates  from  much  earlier.  In  1847  there  was  held  m
London  an  assembly  of  German  Communists  under  the  di^c
tion  of  Karl  Marx  and  Friedrich  Engels,  who  had  just  published
his  book  on  the  condition  of  working  men  in  England,
manifesto  was  printed  in  several  languages.  The  programme
adopted  may  be  summarized  as  follows  ;  Abolition  of  private
property  ;  centralization  of  credit  in  the  hands  of  the  State  y
means  of  a  national  bank  ;  agricultural  operations  on  a  large
scale  to  be  carried  on  according  to  a  scientific  plan,  and  industry