268
THE SOC/AL/SM OE TO-DAY.
in order to live on the fruit of their toil \ the modern man
attains the same result by paying them wages.
Inasmuch as, at different stages of civilization, men have
different wants, different motives, and different methods
for the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth,
It follows that economic problems do not admit of these
general and à priori solutions which economic science is called
upon to supply, and which it has too often ventured to offer.
The question must always be examined relatively to a given
country, and thus it is necessary to summon statistics and
history in aid of Political Economy, Hence the historical
and realistic " method, as the Katheder-Socialisten call it, that
is to say, a method founded on facts.* Similarly in politics,
It IS generally admitted that the question is, not to discover ari
ideal constitution suitable to man in the abstract, but the forms
of government most in harmony with the traditions, the lights,
the temperament, and the wants of this or that particular
country.
According to the Katheder-Socialistcn, it is a further mistake
to allege, as Bastiat has done in his “ Harmonies of Political
Economy,” that the general order results from the free play of
personal interests, and that consequently the mere removal of
all fetters will suffice to distribute welfare in proportion to the
efforts of each individual. Personal interest leads men to
iniquity and spoliation ; it must, therefore, be restrained and
not given free scope : and this is the proper mission, in the
first place, of morality, and then of the State, as the organ of
justice.
True, if men were perfect and desired only what is right,
liberty of itself would secure the reign of order ; but, taking men
as they are, their unrestrained self-interests lead to antagonism,
not to harmony. I'he employer wishes for a fall in wages, the
workman for a rise. The landowner endeavours to raise the
rent, the farmer to get it reduced. Everywhere the strongest
* Although in h ranee no new school of economics has been formed as
1? h-ngland, and Italy, yet many writers adopt the historical and
realistic method with a soundness of learning and a wealth of knowledge
unsurpassed. It will suffice to mention the works of MM, Léonce de
Lavergne, Wolowski, Victor Bonnet, and Paul Leroy-Beaulieu,
