Full text : The Socialism of to-day

THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

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all  nations  will  form  only  one  single  family.  Capital  and
labour  will  pass  indifferently  from  one  country  to  another
in  search  of  the  best  remuneration.  Already  many  English
people,  taking  the  lead  of  other  nations,  look  upon  the  whole
globe  as  their  country,  and  pass  the  summer  in  the  Alps,  the
winter  at  Nice,  or  Cairo,  or  Madeira,  choosing  the  best  climate
and  the  pleasantest  places.  There  is  no  illusion  about  it.
We  are  drawing  towards  cosmopolitanism.  Patriotism  is
everywhere  becoming  less  exclusive  and  consequently  less
intense.  How  many  people  are  now  ready  to  say.  Ubi  bene^
ibipatria!  But  if,  in  this  respect,  the  International  is  inspired
by  the  present  economic  movement,  and  if  it  execrates  war
between  nations,  we  must  not  forget  that  it  substitutes  the
universal  strife  of  labour  against  capital.  The  enemy  is  no
longer  the  foreigner,  but  the  employer,  the  factory  lord.*
This  is  the  reason  why  these  brotherly  effusions,  that  one
would  imagine  were  borrowed  from  the  speeches,  suffused
with  Christianity,  of  the  Peace  Congresses,  are  often  accompanied ­
  by  language  of  rage  and  hate  which  calls  to  mind
the  death-chaunt  of  cannibals.
What  was  the  part  taken  by  the  International  in  the  revolution ­
  of  the  18th  of  March  ?  M.  de  Molinari,  who  watched  from
near  at  hand  the  Socialist  movement  at  Paris,  affirms  that  the
association,  as  such,  took  no  part  in  it,t  and  all  known  facts
•  To  quote  one  extract  in  illustration  of  this  phase  of  thought  :
“Fatherland,  a  phrase,  a  folly!  Humanity,  a  fact,  a  truth.  Invented
by  priests  and  kings,  like  the  mythical  God,  the  fatherland  has  only
served  for  penning  up  human  cattle  within  separate  enclosures,  where
they  may  be  shorn  and  bled  under  the  very  hands  of  their  masters,  for
the  greater  profit  of  these  latter  and  in  the  name  of  the  unclean  fetish.
“  To-day  we  have  had  enough  of  it.  Nations  are  brothers.  Kings
and  their  hangers-on  are  the  sole  enemies.  Enough  of  bloodshed,  enough
of  imbecility.  Nations,  countries  are  no  longer  more  than  words.  France
is  dead.  Humanity  takes  her  place.  The  Utopia  of  Anacharsis  Clootz  is
becoming  a  reality.  Nationality,  the  result  of  birth,  is  an  evil.  Let  it
perish.  To  be  born  in  this  place  or  that,  the  result  of  pure  chance,  decides
whether  we  are  to  be  friends  or  enemies.  Let  us  repudiate  this  stupid
lottery  of  which  we  have  hitherto  been  the  dupes.  Our  country  is  everywhere, ­
  where  we  can  live  and  work  in  freedom.  Peoples,  workers,  the
light  is  spreading.  Open  your  eyes  I  Down  with  the  Despots  !  Away
with  Tyrants!  France  is  dead.  Long  live  humanity!”  (Jules  Noslag,
alias  Ruffier,  in  the  Rh'olution  politique  et  soríale,  i6th  April,  1871.)
t  Le  Mouvement  socialiste  et  les  réunions  publiques,  by  M.  de  Molinari,
            
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