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THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

tion  on  the  part  of  authority.  This  point  of  view  was  further
developed  with  great  force  by  Adolf  Wagner,  professor  at  the
University  of  Berlin,  in  his  famous  address  on  the  Social
Question,*  *  *  §  in  an  article  on  private  property,  and  in  his
“Financial  Science.”f  Furthermore,  A.  Rosier,  professor  at
Rostock,  in  his  critical  works  on  the  fundamental  principles  of
Adam  Smith  ;  Brentano,  professor  at  the  University  of  Breslau,
and  now  of  Strasburg,  in  his  fine  book  on  the  Working  Men's
Guilds  of  our  epoch  ;  $  Held,  professor  at  Bonn  and  afterwards ­
  at  Berlin,  in  his  article  on  the  present  conflict  of
principles  in  Political  Economy  ;  §  and  Engel,  the  eminent
director  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  at  Berlin,  in  an  article  written
in  1867  on  the  contract  of  hiring  labour,  have  all  admitted
that  the  notion  of  what  is  just  and  fair  should  preside  over  and
influence  free  contract  I  am  citing  only  the  principal  works
which  prepared  the  way  for  the  new  school.  Afterwards,  when
these  doctrines  became  the  subjects  of  polemics,  numerous
publications  appeared  on  both  sides.
The  idea  of  gathering  together  the  partisans  of  the  new
Economic  School  in  an  annual  congress  emanated,  it  is  said,
from  Roscher.  The  session  of  1872  at  Eisenach  was  a  great
success,  and  excited  considerable  attention.  Besides  the  professors ­
  already  named,  the  following  were  to  be  seen  there  ;—■
Nasse  of  Bonn,  Gneist  of  Berlin,  Knapp  of  Leipzig,  Conrad
of  Halle,  Hildebrand  of  Jena,  Holtzendorf  of  Berlin,  now  of
Munich,  Knies  of  Heidelberg,  Neumann  of  Basel,  now  of
Tübingen,  and,  in  addition,  a  large  number  of  deputies,  statesmen, ­
  higher  officials,  proprietors,  and  eminent  men.  Professor
Schmoller,  in  his  opening  address,  freely  admitted  that  there
was,  in  our  times,  a  social  question.  “  The  marked  division
of  classes  in  the  midst  of  existing  society,”  he  said,  “  the  open
war  between  masters  and  workmen,  between  owners  and  proletarians, ­
  and  the  danger,  still  distant  but  threatening  the
future,  of  a  social  revolution,  have  for  some  years  caused
*  Die  Soziale  Frage,  1872.
+  Kau'sehe  Lehrbuch  der  Finanzauissenschaft,  1870.
j  Arbeite:-gilden  der  Gegenwart,  1871.
§  Gegenwärtige  Principienstreit  in  der  Nationaloekonomie.