i6o

THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

On  the  question  of  machines,  the  discussions  were  somewhat ­
  confused.  The  delegates  could  not,  like  ignorant
labourers,  condemn  the  use  of  the  improved  machines  that  discoveries ­
  of  sciences  were  placing  at  the  service  of  industry.
On  the  contrary,  they  prided  themselves  on  having  no  other
religion  than  that  of  science.  To  proscribe  machines  logically
involves  breaking  up  the  plough,  the  shuttle,  the  spade—in  a
word,  all  tools,  and  returning  to  the  age  of  stone.  Nobody
called  for  the  suppression  of  machines  ;  but  the  majority  of  the
congress  appeared  to  be  convinced  that  the  employment  of
machines  diminishes  the  demand  for  labour,  and  consequently
reduces  wages,  though  all  the  facts  hitherto  ascertained  prove
the  contrary.  Finally,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted  :—
“  That  it  was  only  by  co-operative  societies  and  a  system  of
mutual  credit  that  the  producers  could  become  themselves  the
owners  of  machines  ;  meanwhile,  as  matters  were,  working  men,
constituted  into  societies  of  resistance,  might  interfere  with
advantage  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  machines,  without
certain  guarantees  and  compensations  to  the  labourer.”
The  principal  end  aimed  at  by  the  International  appears
clearly  in  the  debate  on  the  question  of  strikes.  Graglia,  the
delegate  from  Geneva,  showed  that  the  masons’  strike  had  succeeded ­
  because  the  employers  believed  that  considerable  funds
had  been  sent  from  England,  France,  and  Belgium.  Working
men  in  every  countiy  should,  he  said,  combine  in  sections  and
form  provident  funds,  which  might  on  occasion  become  defence
funds.  In  every  town  groups  should  be  formed,  and  should
be  all  united  by  an  international  tie,  and  the  whole  labouring
class  should  come  to  the  aid  of  those  who  resist,  “  in  order  to
defend  the  rights  of  labour.”  In  this  way  there  would  be  no
more  strikes,  for  employers,  convinced  beforehand  that  they
should  have  to  give  way,  would  yield  before  there  was  any
need  of  having  recourse  to  strikes.  Such  was  the  original  idea
of  the  International,  but  the  later  adherents  considered  it
narrow  and  mean.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  idea  of  the  English
trades  unions,  which,  accepting  wages  as  a  fact,  simply
endeavoured  to  raise  them  as  high  as  possible.  According,
however,  to  the  continental  Internationalists,  the  object  to  aim