282  THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.
Schmoller  advocates  a  system  of  corporations  of  working
men  that  many  of  the  others  attack.  Two  points,  however,  are
to  be  found  in  the  programmes  of  all  :  first,  the  increased  intervention ­
  of  the  law  or  of  the  State  in  the  economic  world  ;
secondly,  the  intellectual  and  material  elevation  of  the  labouring ­
  classes.  “When  men  of  science,”  Held  truly  remarks,
“  concern  themselves  warmly  and  in  an  entirely  disinterested
way  with  the  good  of  the  labourers,  ought  not  their  action  to  be
taken  in  good  part,  especially  in  the  face  of  the  indifference  or
even  hostility  of  public  opinion?  It  is  too  common  for  the
privileged  classes  to  consider  the  labourers  as  born  to  serve
them,  and  to  nourish  in  their  hearts  the  sentiments  of  the
Brahmin  towards  the  Pariah.  From  want  of  thought  and  from
never  trying  to  look  at  the  matter  from  the  labourer’s  standpoint, ­
  employers  are  apt  to  be  hard  and  unjust.  Have  we  not
done  a  useful  thing  in  showing  that  there  is  nothing  immoral
nor  revolutionary  in  the  desire  of  the  labourers  to  get  an  increase
of  wages  and  a  diminution  of  the  working  hours  ?  ”
At  the  opening  of  the  session  of  October,  1882,  Professor
Nasse,  an  Economist  whose  learning  and  moderation  are
recognized  throughout  the  scientific  world,  sums  up  the  work
of  the  new  school  in  the  following  terms  :—“  Ten  years  have
passed  away  since  the  ‘Association  for  Social  Politics’  assembled
for  the  first  time  at  Eisenach,  in  order  to  devote  itself  to  the
study  of  the  social  question.  Its  object  was  to  oppose  the
tendencies  which  had  theretofore  prevailed,  in  the  press  and  in
public  opinion,  on  economic  subjects.  The  formation  of  our
Association  was  a  protest  against  that  narrow  individualism
which  thinks  that  the  most  difficult  problems  of  economic
legislation  may  be  solved  by  simply  invoking  the  most  complete
freedom  of  action  to  individual  interests,  and  which  ignores  the
mission  of  moral  culture  incumbent  on  the  State  in  the  region
of  Political  Economy.  The  Association  was  specially  directed
against  that  optimism  which  shuts  its  eyes  to  the  urgent  necessity
of  examining  this  formidable  problem  known  as  the  social  question. ­
  It  was  an  appeal  and  a  warning  which  issued  from  the
juridical  and  moral  conscience  of  almost  all  Germany,  and  which,
I  think  I  may  safely  assert,  has  completely  modified  the  ten-