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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36272-8.txt b/36272-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..234ff2a --- /dev/null +++ b/36272-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,883 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Some Objections To Socialism, by Charles Bradlaugh + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Some Objections To Socialism + From "The Atheistic Platform", Twelve Lectures + +Author: Charles Bradlaugh + +Release Date: May 29, 2011 [EBook #36272] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM. + +From "The Atheistic Platform", Twelve Lectures + +By Charles Bradlaugh. + + +London: Freethought Publishing Company + +63, Fleet Street, E.C. + +1884 + + + +SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM + +The great evils connected with and resulting from poverty--evils which +are so prominent and so terrible in old countries, and especially in +populous cities--have, in our own land compelled the attention, and +excited the sympathy, of persons in every rank of society. Many remedies +have been suggested and attempted, and from time to time, during the +present century, there have been men who, believing that the abolition +of individual private property would cure the misery abounding, have +advocated Socialism. Some pure-hearted and well-meaning men and women, +as Robert Owen, Abram Combe, and Frances Wright, have spent large +fortunes, and devoted much of their lives in the essay to test their +theories by experiments. As communities, none of these attempts have +been permanently successful, though they have doubtless, by encouraging +and suggesting co-operative effort in England, done something to modify +the fierceness of the life struggle, in which too often the strongest +and most unscrupulous succeeded by destroying his weaker brother. Some +Socialistic associations in the United States,* as the Shakers and +the Oneida community, have been held together in limited numbers as +religious societies, but only even apparently successful, while the +numbers of each community remained comparatively few. Some communities +have for many years bravely endured the burden of debt, penury, and +discomfort, to be loyal to the memory of their founder, as in the case +at Icaria of the followers of Cabet. But in none of these was the sense +of private property entirely lost; the numbers were relatively so small +that all increase of comfort was appreciable, and in nearly all the +communities there was option of the withdrawal of the individual, and +with him of a proportion of the property he had helped to create or +increase. + + * Particulars of all existing Socialistic communities in the + United States are given in the works of Mr. Hinds and Mr. + Nordhoff. + +During the past generation, Socialistic theory has been specially +urged in Germany, and the Socialist leaders there have acquired greater +influence because of the poverty of the people, and because too of the +cruel persecution to which Social Reformers, as well as Socialists, have +been subjected by Prince Bismarck's despotic government. + +A difficulty arising from the repressive measures resorted to in +Germany has been that German emigrants to the United States and to +Great Britain, speak and write as if precisely the same wrongs had to be +assailed in the lands of their adoption as in the land of their birth. + +Very recently in England--and largely at the instance of +foreigners--there has been a revival of Socialist propaganda, though +only on a small scale compared with fifty years ago, by persons claiming +to be "Scientific Socialists," who declare that such Socialists +as Robert Owen and his friends were Utopian in thinking that any +communities could be successfully founded while ordinary society exists. +These Scientific Socialists--mostly middle-class men--declare their +intense hatred of the _bourgeoisie_, and affirm that the Social State +they desire to create can only be established on the ruins of the +present society, by a revolution which they say must come in any event, +but which they strive to accelerate. These Scientific Socialists deny +that they ought to be required to propound any social scheme, and they +contemptuously refuse to discuss any of the details connected with the +future of the new Social State, to make way for which the present is +to be cleared away. Most of the points touched on in this lecture were +raised in the discussion on Socialism between myself and Mr. Hyndman +recently held in St. James's Hall. Others of the questions have been +raised in my articles in _Our Corner_, and in the reply there by Mr. +Joynes. + +The Socialists of the Democratic Federation say that "Socialism is an +endeavor to substitute an organised co-operation for existence" for +the present strife, but they refuse to be precise as to the method +or character of the organisation, or the lines upon which it is to be +carried out. Their reason is, probably, that they have not even made the +slightest effort to frame any plan, but would be content to try first to +destroy all existing government. I suggest that this want and avoidance +of foresight is, in the honest, folly, and in the wise, criminality. +They mix up some desirable objects which are not all Socialistic +with others that are not necessarily Socialistic, and add to these +declarations which are either so vague as to be meaningless, or else in +the highest degree Socialistic and revolutionary. + +Whilst Mr. Hyndman, one of the prominent members of the Democratic +Federation, thus speaks of Socialism as endeavoring "to substitute an +organised co-operation," Mr. E. Belfort Bax, another prominent member +and co-signatory of the manifesto, emphatically says, "no 'scientific' +socialist pretends to have any 'scheme' or detailed plan of +organisation." When organisation can be spoken of as possible without +any scheme or detailed plan, it shows that words are used without regard +to serious meaning. + +These Socialists declare that there must be "organisation of +agricultural and industrial armies under State control," and that the +exchange of all production must be controlled by the workers; but they +decline to explain how this control is to be exercised, and on what +principles. We agree that there are often too many concerned in the +distribution of the necessaries of life, and that the cost to the +consumer is often outrageously augmented; but we suggest that this may +be reformed gradually and in detail by individual effort through local +societies, and that it ought not to be any part of the work of the +State. We point to the fact that there are now in Great Britain--all +established during the present reign--nearly one thousand distributive +co-operative societies, with more than half a million members, with over +seventeen and three-quarter millions of pounds of yearly sales, with two +and a half millions of stock-in-trade, with five and a quarter millions +of working capital, and dividing one and a half millions of annual +profit; and that these societies, each keeping its own property, +still further co-operate with one another to reduce loss in exchange by +havings a wholesale co-operative society in England, with sales in +1882 exceeding three and a half millions sterling, and another similar +wholesale society in Scotland, with transactions in the same year +to nearly one million sterling. We say the way to render the cost of +exchange of products less onerous to the laborer is by the extension and +perfection of this organisation of co-operative distribution, and that +this may be and is being done successfully and usefully, ameliorating +gradually the condition and developing the self-reliance of the +individual workers who take part in such co-operative stores, and thus +inciting and inducing other individuals to join the societies already +founded, or to establish others, and so educating individual after +individual to better habits of exchange. We say that this is more +useful than to denounce as idlers and robbers "the shopkeepers and their +hangers on," as is done by the present teachers of Socialism. We object +that the organisation of all industry under State control must paralyse +industrial energy and discourage and neutralise individual effort. + +The Socialists claim that there shall be "collective ownership of land, +capital, machinery and credit by the complete ownership of the people," +and yet they object that they are misrepresented when told that +they want to take the private economies of millions of industrious +wage-earners in this kingdom for the benefit of those who may have +neither been thrifty nor industrious. The truth is that, if language +is to have any meaning, the definitions must stand given by me and +unchallenged by my opponent in the St. James's Hall debate, viz.: (1) +"Socialism denies all individual private property, and affirms that +society, organised as the state, should own all wealth, direct all +labor, and compel the equal distribution of all produce." (2) "A +Socialistic State would be a State in which everything would be held +in common, in which the labor of each individual would be directed +and controlled by the State, to which would belong all results of such +labor." The realisation of a Socialistic State in this country would, as +I then urged, require (1) a physical force revolution, in which all the +present property owners unwilling to surrender their private properties +to the common fund would be forcibly dispossessed. This revolution would +be in the highest degree difficult, if not impossible, for property +holders are the enormous majority. + +Mr. Joynes, in an article published in _Our Corner_, does challenge my +definition, and says that the immediate aim of Socialism "is not the +abolition of private property, but its establishment by means of the +emancipation of labor on the only sound basis. It is private capital +we attack, the power to hire laborers at starvation wages, and not +the independent enjoyment of the fruits of labor by the individual who +produces them." And he refers me to a paragraph previously dealt with +by me as an illustration of contradictory statement, in which he and his +cosignatories write: "Do any say we attack private property? We deny it. +We only attack that private property for a few thousand loiterers and +slave-drivers, which renders all property in the fruits of their own +labor impossible for millions. We challenge that private property which +renders poverty at once a necessity and a crime." But surely this +flatly contradicts the declaration by Mr. Hyndman in the debate, of +"the collective ownership of land, capital, machinery, and credit." I +am afraid that Mr. Joynes has in his mind some other unexplained meaning +for the words "capital" and "property." To me it seems impossible that +if everything be owned collectively, anything can be owned individually, +separately, and privately. + +Mr. Joynes, however, apparently concedes that it is true that the +private property of "a few thousand loiterers and slave-drivers" +is attacked. Though he does not in his reply explain who these "few +thousand" are, I find in "The Summary of the Principles of Socialism," +signed by Mr. Joynes, that they are "the capitalist class, the factory +owners, the farmers, the bankers, the brokers, the shopkeepers, and +their hangers-on, the landlords." But these make much more than a "few +thousand." The census returns for England and Wales alone show under the +headings professional classes, 647,075; commercial classes, 980,128 (and +these do not include the ordinary shopkeepers); farmers and graziers, +249,907; and unoccupied males over twenty, 182,282. Add to these +proportional figures for Scotland and Ireland, and it is at once seen +how misleading it is to speak of these as a "few thousand." Mr. Joynes +disapproves of my "small army of statistics." I object that he and his +friends never examine or verify the figures on which they found their +allegations. Mr. Joynes says that it is not private property, the fruits +of labor, that is attacked by the Socialists, but "private capital, the +power to hire laborers." Does that mean that £30 saved by an artisan +would not be attacked so long as he kept it useless, but that if he +deposited it with a banker who used it in industrial enterprise, or if +he invested it in railway shares, it would be forfeited? If an artisan +may, out of the fruits of his labor, buy for £3 and keep as his own +a silver watch, why is the £3 to be confiscated when it gets into the +hands of the Cheapside or Corn-hill watch dealer? + +A property owner is not only a Rothschild, a Baring, or an Overstone, he +is that person who has anything whatever beyond that which is necessary +for actual existence at the moment. Thus, all savings however moderate; +all household furniture, books, indeed everything but the simplest +clothing are property, and the property owners belong to all classes. +The wage-earning classes, being largely property owners, viz., not only +by their household goods, but by their investments, building societies, +their small deposits in savings banks, their periodical payments to +their trade societies and friendly societies, they would naturally +and wisely defend these against confiscation. If the physical force +revolution were possible, because of the desperate energy of those +owning nothing, its success would be achieved with serious immediate +crime, and would be attended with consequent social mischief and +terrible demoralisation extending over a long period. + +Mr. Hyndman has written that "force, or fear of force, is, +unfortunately, the only reasoning which can appeal to a dominant estate, +or will ever induce them to surrender any portion of their property." I +read these words to him in the debate, and he made no reply to them. I +object that a Socialistic State to be realised by force can only be so +realised after a period of civil war shocking to contemplate, and one in +which the wisest would go near madness. + +But a Socialistic State, even if achieved, could not be maintained +without a second (mental) revolution, in which the present ideas and +forms of expression concerning property would have to be effaced, +and the habit of life (resulting from long-continued teachings and +long-enduring traditions) would have to be broken. The words "my house," +"my coat," "my horse," "my watch," "my book," are all affirmations of +private property which would have to be unlearned. The whole current of +human thought would have to be changed. + +In a Socialistic State there would be no inducement to thrift, no +encouragement to individual saving, no protection for individual +accumulation, no check upon, no discouragement to waste. + +Nor, if such a Socialistic State be established, is it easy to conceive +how free expression of individual opinion, either by press or platform, +can be preserved and maintained. All means of publicity will belong +to, and be controlled by, the State. But what will this mean? Will a +Socialistic government furnish halls to its adversaries, print books for +its opponents, organise costly journals for those who are hostile to it? +If not, there must come utter stagnation of opinion. + +And what could the organisation and controlling of all labor by the +State mean? In what could it end? By whom, and in what manner, would the +selection of each individual for the pursuit, profession, or handicraft +for which he was fittest be determined? + +I object that the Socialistic advocates exaggerate and distort real +evils, and thus do mischief to those who are seeking to effect social +reforms. For example, they declare that the whole of the land of +the country is held by "a handful of marauders," who ought to be +dispossessed, and when told that there are 852,438 persons owning on +an average less than one fifth of an acre each, holding probably in +the neighborhood of towns, and that more than half a million of these +persons are members of building societies, paying for their small +properties out of their wage-earnings, they only say: "Do you suppose +those who hold building allotments will be dispossessed?" But if they +are not dispossessed, if their private property is left to them, then +"collective ownership" must have a new meaning. Pressed with the fact +that there are 205,358 owning on an average fifteen acres each, they +make no other answer. Yet this 1,037,896, representing with their +families more than four millions of human beings, are clearly not a +"handful," nor is there any evidence offered that they are "marauders." +My complaint is that the possibility of early Land Law Reform is injured +and retarded by such rashness. It is an undoubted evil that in this +crowded kingdom so few as 2,238 persons should own 39,924,232 acres of +land, and that the enormous holdings should be inadequately taxed, but +we need the influence of the one million small landowners to enable +us legally to reform and modify those obnoxious land laws which have +facilitated the accumulation of such vast estates in so few hands. In +the debate with myself, Mr. Hyndman spoke very contemptuously of the +"small ownerships" and "paltry building allotments," yet he ought to +know that the holders of these houses are law-abiding, peace-promoting +citizens, who are encouraged by these slight possessions, which give +promise of comfort in life, to strive so that the comfort shall be +extended and secured. + +A sample of the wild and extraordinary exaggeration indulged in by +the Democratic Federation may be found on p. 48 of the "Summary of the +Principles of Socialism," where it is gravely declared that the "idlers +who eat enormously and produce not at all form the majority of the +population," and this may be fairly contrasted with another statement +by the same persons that the present conditions of labor have "brought +luxury for the few, misery and degradation for the many." If the latter +be accurate, the former must be a perversion. + +The Socialists say that there are a few thousand persons who own the +National Debt, and they recommend its extinction; usually leaving it +in doubt as to whether this is to be by wholesale or by partial +repudiation. When reminded that there are an enormous number of small +depositors (at least 4,500,000 accounts in one year) owning through the +ordinary savings banks £45,403,569, and through the Post Office Sayings +Bank, £36,194,495, they neither explain the allegation as to the few +thousands, nor do they condescend to offer the slightest explanation as +to how any savings have been possible if all the wealth created by labor +has been "devoured only by the rich and their hangers-on." Repudiation +of the National Debt would ruin the whole of these. The Socialist leader +says that the small ownership of land and these small savings do not +really benefit the working classes, for that in times of depression the +savings are soon used up. That may often be true, but if there were no +savings then it must be starvation, pauperism, or crime; at least the +saving mitigates the suffering. When told that there are 2,300,000 +members of friendly societies, who must represent at least 9,000,000 +of the inhabitants of this country, and that these, amongst other +investments, have £1,397,730 in the National Debt, we are answered that +these are mere details. On this point I think Mr. Joynes a little fails +in candor. He takes one set of my figures, and says "the share of each +individual is on the average a little more than £3 3s., and the dividend +which annually accrues to each of these propertied persons is slightly +over 2s. It does not require a very high standard of intelligence to +enable a man to perceive that Socialists who intend to deprive him of +these 2s., and at the same time to secure him the full value of his +work, are proposing not to diminish his income, but to raise it in a +very high degree." Let me first say that the friendly society represents +to each artisan investor, not the 2s. per year, but his possible sick +money, gratuity on disablement, allowance whilst unemployed, etc.; +next, that here Mr. Joynes does in this actually admit an attack on +the private property of the laborer, and does propose to take away the +accumulated "fruits of labor" from the independent enjoyment of the +individual who earned it. And the working-man's house? and his savings +in the savings-bank, or in the co-operative store? Are these to be taken +too? If not, why not? and if yes, of how much of the fruits of his labor +is the laborer to be left by the Socialists in "independent +enjoyment"? When pressed that the confiscation of the railways "without +compensation," would bankrupt every life assurance company, and thus +destroy the provision made for hundreds of thousands of families, +because in addition to about' £5,262,000 in the Funds, and about +£75,000,000 invested on mortgages of houses and land, the life insurance +companies are extensive holders of railway securities--the advocates +of Socialism only condescend to say: "Who are the shareholders in the +railways? Do they ever do any good in the world? They are simply using +the labor of the dead in order to get the labor of the living." But +is this true? The shareholders originally found the means to plan, +legalise, and construct the railway, to buy the land, to pay the laborer +day by day his wage, whilst yet the railway could bring no profit, to +buy the materials for the permanent way, to purchase and maintain the +rolling stock. Many hundreds of shareholders in unsuccessful lines have +never received back one farthing of what they paid to the laborer. No +laborer worked on those unsuccessful lines without wage. Some railway +shareholders have got too much, but there are thousands of comparatively +poor shareholders who are to be ruined by the seizure of their shares +without compensation. It is not at all true that railway shareholders +use "the labor of the dead in order to get the labor of the living." On +the contrary, during the last few years the tendency on lines like the +Midland, has been to afford the widest facilities, and the greatest +possible comfort consistent with cheapness, to working-folk travelling +for need or pleasure. That all railway managers are not equally +far-seeing is true, that much more might be done in this direction is +certain, that some managing directors are over-greedy is clear, but that +the change has been for the better during the past twenty years +none would deny who had any regard for truth. That railway porters, +pointsmen, guards, firemen, and drivers are, as Mr. Joynes well urges, +often badly paid, and nearly always overworked, is true, but making the +railways State property would not necessarily improve this. The Post +Office is controlled by the State for the State, and the letter-carriers +and sorters are as a body disgracefully remunerated. + +Mr. Joynes complains that I have not met the question of the "surplus +value" of labor, which he says "is the keystone of the Socialistic +argument." He does not explain upon what basis the alleged surplus +value is calculated, but shelters himself behind a vague, and I submit +incorrect, reference to a declaration by Mr. Hoyle, the well-known +earnest temperance advocate. Mr. Joynes says that in one and +a-half hours the laborer earns enough for subsistence. Mr. Hoyle's +often-repeated declaration is in substance to the effect, that if the +whole drink traffic of the country were abolished, and neither wines, +beers, nor spirits drunk by any of the industrial classes, then that the +working men could earn enough for comfort in very much less time than +they now do. Mr. Joynes here entirely overlooks the substance of Mr. +Hoyle's declaration, which is, in effect, that the working men do now +receive, and then spend wastefully, what would keep them. I have always +contended that in nearly every department of industry labor has been +insufficiently paid, in some cases horribly paid, and I have claimed +for the laborer higher wages, and tried to help to teach him, through +trades' unions and otherwise, how to get these higher wages; but if Mr. +Joynes and his friends mean anything, wages are to disappear altogether, +and the State is to apportion to each a sort of equal subsistence, +without regard to the skill or industry of the individual laborer, +so that the skilled engineer, the unskilled hod-carrier, the street +sweeper, the ploughman, and the physician, would each, in the +Socialistic State, have neither less nor more than the other. + +The Socialists say "the laborers on the average replace the value of +their wages for the capitalist class in the first few hours of their +day's work; the exchange value of the goods produced in the remaining +hours of the day's work constitutes so much embodied labor which is +unpaid; and this unpaid labor so embodied in articles of utility, the +capitalist class, the factory owners, the farmers, the bankers, the +brokers, the shopkeepers, and their hangers-on, the landlords, divide +amongst themselves in the shape of profits, interests, discounts, +commissions, rent, etc." But without the capitalist where would be +the workshop, the plant, or the raw material? It would be better if +in co-operative production workmen would be their own capitalists, but +surely the owner of capital is entitled to some reward? If not how is he +to be persuaded to put it into fixed capital as factory and plant? +Why should he beforehand purchase raw material on which labor may be +employed, subsist labor while so employed, and take the risk of loss as +well as profit in exchanging the article produced? And why is not the +farmer to be sustained by the laborers if that farmer grows the food the +laborer requires? Why should not the shopkeeper be rewarded for bringing +ready to the laborer articles which would be otherwise in the highest +degree difficult to procure? If the laborer procured his own raw +material, fashioned it into an exchangeable commodity, and then went +and exchanged it, there are many to whom the raw material would be +inaccessible, and more who would lose much of the profits of their +labor in fruitless efforts to exchange. The vague declarations by the +Socialist that production and exchange are to be organised are +delusive without clear statement of the methods and principles of +the organisation. Robert Owen is called "Utopian" by these Democratic +Federation Socialists, but at least he did try to reduce to practice his +theories of production and exchange. The Democratic Federation say that +"surplus value" is produced by "labor applied to natural objects under +the control of the capitalist class." I object that but for capital, +fixed and circulating, there are many natural objects which would be +utterly inaccessible to labor; many more which could only be reached +and dealt with on a very limited scale. That but for capital the laborer +would often be unable to exist until the object had exchangeable +value, or until some one was found with an equivalent article ready to +exchange, and I submit that the banker, the shopkeeper, the broker may +and do facilitate the progress of labor, and would and could not do so +without the incentive of profit. + +We agree that "wage" is often much too low, and we urge the workers in +each trade to join the unions already existing, and to form new unions, +so that the combined knowledge and protection of the general body of +workers as to the demand for, and value of, the labor, may be at +the service of the weakest and most ignorant. We would advocate the +establishment of labor bureaux, as in Massachusetts, so that careful and +reliable statistics of the value of labor and cost of life may be +easily accessible. We would urge the more thorough experiment on, and +establishment of, cooperative productive societies in every branch of +manufacture, so that the laborers furnishing their own capital and their +own industry, may not only increase the profit result of labor to the +laborer, but also afford at least a reasonable indication as to the +possible profit realised by capitalists engaged in the same industries. +We would increase wage (if not in amount, at any rate in its purchasing +power), by diminishing the national and local expenditure, and thus also +decreasing the cost of the necessaries of life. We would try to shift +the pressing burden of taxation more on to land, and to the very large +accumulation of wealth. + +We contend that he or she who lives by the sale of labor should, with +the purchase money, be able to buy life, not only for the worker, but +for those for whom that worker is fairly bread-winner. And life means +not only healthy food, reasonable clothing, cleanly, healthy shelter, +education for the children until they are so sufficiently grown that +labor shall not mean the crippling of after life--but also leisure. +Leisure for some enjoyment, leisure for some stroll in the green fields, +leisure for some look into the galleries of paintings and sculpture, +leisure for some listening to the singer, the actor, the teacher; +leisure that the sunshine of beauty may now and then gild the dull round +of work-a-day life; and we assert that in any country where the price of +honest earnest industry will not buy this, then that if there are any in +that country who are very wealthy, there is social wrong to be reformed. +But this is the distinction between those with whom I stand and the +Socialists. + +We want reform, gradual, sure, and helpful. They ask for revolution, +and know not its morrow. Revolution may be the only remedy in a country +where there is no free press, no free speech, no association of workers, +no representative institutions, and where the limits of despotic outrage +are only marked by the personal fear of the despot. But in a country +like our own, where the political power is gradually passing into the +hands of the whole people, where, if the press is not entirely free +it is in advance of almost every European country, and every shade of +opinion may find its exponent, here revolution which required physical +force to effect it would be a blunder as well as a crime. Here, where +our workmen can organise and meet, we can claim reforms and win them. +The wage-winners of Durham and Northumberland, under the guidance of +able and earnest leaders, have won many ameliorations during the past +twenty years. Each year the workers' Parliament meets in Trades Union +Congress, to discuss and plan more complete success, and to note the +gains of the year. Every twelve months, in the Co-operative Congresses, +working men and women delegates gather together to consult and advise. +Each annual period shows some progress, some advantage secured, and +though there is much sore evil yet, much misery yet, much crime yet, +much--far too much--poverty yet, to-day's progress from yesterday shows +day-gleam for the people's morrow. + + +Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, at 63, Fleet Street, +London, E.O.--1884. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Some Objections To Socialism, by Charles Bradlaugh + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM *** + +***** This file should be named 36272-8.txt or 36272-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/2/7/36272/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/36272-8.zip b/36272-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd923d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/36272-8.zip diff --git a/36272-h.zip b/36272-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..167665e --- /dev/null +++ b/36272-h.zip diff --git a/36272-h/36272-h.htm b/36272-h/36272-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef13768 --- /dev/null +++ b/36272-h/36272-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,956 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Some Objections to Socialism by Charles Bradlaugh. + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +Project Gutenberg's Some Objections To Socialism, by Charles Bradlaugh + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Some Objections To Socialism + From "The Atheistic Platform", Twelve Lectures + +Author: Charles Bradlaugh + +Release Date: May 29, 2011 [EBook #36272] +Last Updated: January 26, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM. + </h1> + <h3> + From "The Atheistic Platform", Twelve Lectures + </h3> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Charles Bradlaugh. + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h4> + London: Freethought Publishing Company <br /> 63, Fleet Street, E.C. <br /><br /> + 1884 + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM + </h1> + <p> + The great evils connected with and resulting from poverty—evils + which are so prominent and so terrible in old countries, and especially in + populous cities—have, in our own land compelled the attention, and + excited the sympathy, of persons in every rank of society. Many remedies + have been suggested and attempted, and from time to time, during the + present century, there have been men who, believing that the abolition of + individual private property would cure the misery abounding, have + advocated Socialism. Some pure-hearted and well-meaning men and women, as + Robert Owen, Abram Combe, and Frances Wright, have spent large fortunes, + and devoted much of their lives in the essay to test their theories by + experiments. As communities, none of these attempts have been permanently + successful, though they have doubtless, by encouraging and suggesting + co-operative effort in England, done something to modify the fierceness of + the life struggle, in which too often the strongest and most unscrupulous + succeeded by destroying his weaker brother. Some Socialistic associations + in the United States,* as the Shakers and the Oneida community, have been + held together in limited numbers as religious societies, but only even + apparently successful, while the numbers of each community remained + comparatively few. Some communities have for many years bravely endured + the burden of debt, penury, and discomfort, to be loyal to the memory of + their founder, as in the case at Icaria of the followers of Cabet. But in + none of these was the sense of private property entirely lost; the numbers + were relatively so small that all increase of comfort was appreciable, and + in nearly all the communities there was option of the withdrawal of the + individual, and with him of a proportion of the property he had helped to + create or increase. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Particulars of all existing Socialistic communities in the + United States are given in the works of Mr. Hinds and Mr. + Nordhoff. +</pre> + <p> + During the past generation, Socialistic theory has been specially urged in + Germany, and the Socialist leaders there have acquired greater influence + because of the poverty of the people, and because too of the cruel + persecution to which Social Reformers, as well as Socialists, have been + subjected by Prince Bismarck's despotic government. + </p> + <p> + A difficulty arising from the repressive measures resorted to in Germany + has been that German emigrants to the United States and to Great Britain, + speak and write as if precisely the same wrongs had to be assailed in the + lands of their adoption as in the land of their birth. + </p> + <p> + Very recently in England—and largely at the instance of foreigners—there + has been a revival of Socialist propaganda, though only on a small scale + compared with fifty years ago, by persons claiming to be "Scientific + Socialists," who declare that such Socialists as Robert Owen and his + friends were Utopian in thinking that any communities could be + successfully founded while ordinary society exists. These Scientific + Socialists—mostly middle-class men—declare their intense + hatred of the <i>bourgeoisie</i>, and affirm that the Social State they + desire to create can only be established on the ruins of the present + society, by a revolution which they say must come in any event, but which + they strive to accelerate. These Scientific Socialists deny that they + ought to be required to propound any social scheme, and they + contemptuously refuse to discuss any of the details connected with the + future of the new Social State, to make way for which the present is to be + cleared away. Most of the points touched on in this lecture were raised in + the discussion on Socialism between myself and Mr. Hyndman recently held + in St. James's Hall. Others of the questions have been raised in my + articles in <i>Our Corner</i>, and in the reply there by Mr. Joynes. + </p> + <p> + The Socialists of the Democratic Federation say that "Socialism is an + endeavor to substitute an organised co-operation for existence" for the + present strife, but they refuse to be precise as to the method or + character of the organisation, or the lines upon which it is to be carried + out. Their reason is, probably, that they have not even made the slightest + effort to frame any plan, but would be content to try first to destroy all + existing government. I suggest that this want and avoidance of foresight + is, in the honest, folly, and in the wise, criminality. They mix up some + desirable objects which are not all Socialistic with others that are not + necessarily Socialistic, and add to these declarations which are either so + vague as to be meaningless, or else in the highest degree Socialistic and + revolutionary. + </p> + <p> + Whilst Mr. Hyndman, one of the prominent members of the Democratic + Federation, thus speaks of Socialism as endeavoring "to substitute an + organised co-operation," Mr. E. Belfort Bax, another prominent member and + co-signatory of the manifesto, emphatically says, "no 'scientific' + socialist pretends to have any 'scheme' or detailed plan of organisation." + When organisation can be spoken of as possible without any scheme or + detailed plan, it shows that words are used without regard to serious + meaning. + </p> + <p> + These Socialists declare that there must be "organisation of agricultural + and industrial armies under State control," and that the exchange of all + production must be controlled by the workers; but they decline to explain + how this control is to be exercised, and on what principles. We agree that + there are often too many concerned in the distribution of the necessaries + of life, and that the cost to the consumer is often outrageously + augmented; but we suggest that this may be reformed gradually and in + detail by individual effort through local societies, and that it ought not + to be any part of the work of the State. We point to the fact that there + are now in Great Britain—all established during the present reign—nearly + one thousand distributive co-operative societies, with more than half a + million members, with over seventeen and three-quarter millions of pounds + of yearly sales, with two and a half millions of stock-in-trade, with five + and a quarter millions of working capital, and dividing one and a half + millions of annual profit; and that these societies, each keeping its own + property, still further co-operate with one another to reduce loss in + exchange by havings a wholesale co-operative society in England, with + sales in 1882 exceeding three and a half millions sterling, and another + similar wholesale society in Scotland, with transactions in the same year + to nearly one million sterling. We say the way to render the cost of + exchange of products less onerous to the laborer is by the extension and + perfection of this organisation of co-operative distribution, and that + this may be and is being done successfully and usefully, ameliorating + gradually the condition and developing the self-reliance of the individual + workers who take part in such co-operative stores, and thus inciting and + inducing other individuals to join the societies already founded, or to + establish others, and so educating individual after individual to better + habits of exchange. We say that this is more useful than to denounce as + idlers and robbers "the shopkeepers and their hangers on," as is done by + the present teachers of Socialism. We object that the organisation of all + industry under State control must paralyse industrial energy and + discourage and neutralise individual effort. + </p> + <p> + The Socialists claim that there shall be "collective ownership of land, + capital, machinery and credit by the complete ownership of the people," + and yet they object that they are misrepresented when told that they want + to take the private economies of millions of industrious wage-earners in + this kingdom for the benefit of those who may have neither been thrifty + nor industrious. The truth is that, if language is to have any meaning, + the definitions must stand given by me and unchallenged by my opponent in + the St. James's Hall debate, viz.: (1) "Socialism denies all individual + private property, and affirms that society, organised as the state, should + own all wealth, direct all labor, and compel the equal distribution of all + produce." (2) "A Socialistic State would be a State in which everything + would be held in common, in which the labor of each individual would be + directed and controlled by the State, to which would belong all results of + such labor." The realisation of a Socialistic State in this country would, + as I then urged, require (1) a physical force revolution, in which all the + present property owners unwilling to surrender their private properties to + the common fund would be forcibly dispossessed. This revolution would be + in the highest degree difficult, if not impossible, for property holders + are the enormous majority. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Joynes, in an article published in <i>Our Corner</i>, does challenge + my definition, and says that the immediate aim of Socialism "is not the + abolition of private property, but its establishment by means of the + emancipation of labor on the only sound basis. It is private capital we + attack, the power to hire laborers at starvation wages, and not the + independent enjoyment of the fruits of labor by the individual who + produces them." And he refers me to a paragraph previously dealt with by + me as an illustration of contradictory statement, in which he and his + cosignatories write: "Do any say we attack private property? We deny it. + We only attack that private property for a few thousand loiterers and + slave-drivers, which renders all property in the fruits of their own labor + impossible for millions. We challenge that private property which renders + poverty at once a necessity and a crime." But surely this flatly + contradicts the declaration by Mr. Hyndman in the debate, of "the + collective ownership of land, capital, machinery, and credit." I am afraid + that Mr. Joynes has in his mind some other unexplained meaning for the + words "capital" and "property." To me it seems impossible that if + everything be owned collectively, anything can be owned individually, + separately, and privately. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Joynes, however, apparently concedes that it is true that the private + property of "a few thousand loiterers and slave-drivers" is attacked. + Though he does not in his reply explain who these "few thousand" are, I + find in "The Summary of the Principles of Socialism," signed by Mr. + Joynes, that they are "the capitalist class, the factory owners, the + farmers, the bankers, the brokers, the shopkeepers, and their hangers-on, + the landlords." But these make much more than a "few thousand." The census + returns for England and Wales alone show under the headings professional + classes, 647,075; commercial classes, 980,128 (and these do not include + the ordinary shopkeepers); farmers and graziers, 249,907; and unoccupied + males over twenty, 182,282. Add to these proportional figures for Scotland + and Ireland, and it is at once seen how misleading it is to speak of these + as a "few thousand." Mr. Joynes disapproves of my "small army of + statistics." I object that he and his friends never examine or verify the + figures on which they found their allegations. Mr. Joynes says that it is + not private property, the fruits of labor, that is attacked by the + Socialists, but "private capital, the power to hire laborers." Does that + mean that £30 saved by an artisan would not be attacked so long as he kept + it useless, but that if he deposited it with a banker who used it in + industrial enterprise, or if he invested it in railway shares, it would be + forfeited? If an artisan may, out of the fruits of his labor, buy for £3 + and keep as his own a silver watch, why is the £3 to be confiscated when + it gets into the hands of the Cheapside or Corn-hill watch dealer? + </p> + <p> + A property owner is not only a Rothschild, a Baring, or an Overstone, he + is that person who has anything whatever beyond that which is necessary + for actual existence at the moment. Thus, all savings however moderate; + all household furniture, books, indeed everything but the simplest + clothing are property, and the property owners belong to all classes. The + wage-earning classes, being largely property owners, viz., not only by + their household goods, but by their investments, building societies, their + small deposits in savings banks, their periodical payments to their trade + societies and friendly societies, they would naturally and wisely defend + these against confiscation. If the physical force revolution were + possible, because of the desperate energy of those owning nothing, its + success would be achieved with serious immediate crime, and would be + attended with consequent social mischief and terrible demoralisation + extending over a long period. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Hyndman has written that "force, or fear of force, is, unfortunately, + the only reasoning which can appeal to a dominant estate, or will ever + induce them to surrender any portion of their property." I read these + words to him in the debate, and he made no reply to them. I object that a + Socialistic State to be realised by force can only be so realised after a + period of civil war shocking to contemplate, and one in which the wisest + would go near madness. + </p> + <p> + But a Socialistic State, even if achieved, could not be maintained without + a second (mental) revolution, in which the present ideas and forms of + expression concerning property would have to be effaced, and the habit of + life (resulting from long-continued teachings and long-enduring + traditions) would have to be broken. The words "my house," "my coat," "my + horse," "my watch," "my book," are all affirmations of private property + which would have to be unlearned. The whole current of human thought would + have to be changed. + </p> + <p> + In a Socialistic State there would be no inducement to thrift, no + encouragement to individual saving, no protection for individual + accumulation, no check upon, no discouragement to waste. + </p> + <p> + Nor, if such a Socialistic State be established, is it easy to conceive + how free expression of individual opinion, either by press or platform, + can be preserved and maintained. All means of publicity will belong to, + and be controlled by, the State. But what will this mean? Will a + Socialistic government furnish halls to its adversaries, print books for + its opponents, organise costly journals for those who are hostile to it? + If not, there must come utter stagnation of opinion. + </p> + <p> + And what could the organisation and controlling of all labor by the State + mean? In what could it end? By whom, and in what manner, would the + selection of each individual for the pursuit, profession, or handicraft + for which he was fittest be determined? + </p> + <p> + I object that the Socialistic advocates exaggerate and distort real evils, + and thus do mischief to those who are seeking to effect social reforms. + For example, they declare that the whole of the land of the country is + held by "a handful of marauders," who ought to be dispossessed, and when + told that there are 852,438 persons owning on an average less than one + fifth of an acre each, holding probably in the neighborhood of towns, and + that more than half a million of these persons are members of building + societies, paying for their small properties out of their wage-earnings, + they only say: "Do you suppose those who hold building allotments will be + dispossessed?" But if they are not dispossessed, if their private property + is left to them, then "collective ownership" must have a new meaning. + Pressed with the fact that there are 205,358 owning on an average fifteen + acres each, they make no other answer. Yet this 1,037,896, representing + with their families more than four millions of human beings, are clearly + not a "handful," nor is there any evidence offered that they are + "marauders." My complaint is that the possibility of early Land Law Reform + is injured and retarded by such rashness. It is an undoubted evil that in + this crowded kingdom so few as 2,238 persons should own 39,924,232 acres + of land, and that the enormous holdings should be inadequately taxed, but + we need the influence of the one million small landowners to enable us + legally to reform and modify those obnoxious land laws which have + facilitated the accumulation of such vast estates in so few hands. In the + debate with myself, Mr. Hyndman spoke very contemptuously of the "small + ownerships" and "paltry building allotments," yet he ought to know that + the holders of these houses are law-abiding, peace-promoting citizens, who + are encouraged by these slight possessions, which give promise of comfort + in life, to strive so that the comfort shall be extended and secured. + </p> + <p> + A sample of the wild and extraordinary exaggeration indulged in by the + Democratic Federation may be found on p. 48 of the "Summary of the + Principles of Socialism," where it is gravely declared that the "idlers + who eat enormously and produce not at all form the majority of the + population," and this may be fairly contrasted with another statement by + the same persons that the present conditions of labor have "brought luxury + for the few, misery and degradation for the many." If the latter be + accurate, the former must be a perversion. + </p> + <p> + The Socialists say that there are a few thousand persons who own the + National Debt, and they recommend its extinction; usually leaving it in + doubt as to whether this is to be by wholesale or by partial repudiation. + When reminded that there are an enormous number of small depositors (at + least 4,500,000 accounts in one year) owning through the ordinary savings + banks £45,403,569, and through the Post Office Sayings Bank, £36,194,495, + they neither explain the allegation as to the few thousands, nor do they + condescend to offer the slightest explanation as to how any savings have + been possible if all the wealth created by labor has been "devoured only + by the rich and their hangers-on." Repudiation of the National Debt would + ruin the whole of these. The Socialist leader says that the small + ownership of land and these small savings do not really benefit the + working classes, for that in times of depression the savings are soon used + up. That may often be true, but if there were no savings then it must be + starvation, pauperism, or crime; at least the saving mitigates the + suffering. When told that there are 2,300,000 members of friendly + societies, who must represent at least 9,000,000 of the inhabitants of + this country, and that these, amongst other investments, have £1,397,730 + in the National Debt, we are answered that these are mere details. On this + point I think Mr. Joynes a little fails in candor. He takes one set of my + figures, and says "the share of each individual is on the average a little + more than £3 3s., and the dividend which annually accrues to each of these + propertied persons is slightly over 2s. It does not require a very high + standard of intelligence to enable a man to perceive that Socialists who + intend to deprive him of these 2s., and at the same time to secure him the + full value of his work, are proposing not to diminish his income, but to + raise it in a very high degree." Let me first say that the friendly + society represents to each artisan investor, not the 2s. per year, but his + possible sick money, gratuity on disablement, allowance whilst unemployed, + etc.; next, that here Mr. Joynes does in this actually admit an attack on + the private property of the laborer, and does propose to take away the + accumulated "fruits of labor" from the independent enjoyment of the + individual who earned it. And the working-man's house? and his savings in + the savings-bank, or in the co-operative store? Are these to be taken too? + If not, why not? and if yes, of how much of the fruits of his labor is the + laborer to be left by the Socialists in "independent enjoyment"? When + pressed that the confiscation of the railways "without compensation," + would bankrupt every life assurance company, and thus destroy the + provision made for hundreds of thousands of families, because in addition + to about' £5,262,000 in the Funds, and about £75,000,000 invested on + mortgages of houses and land, the life insurance companies are extensive + holders of railway securities—the advocates of Socialism only + condescend to say: "Who are the shareholders in the railways? Do they ever + do any good in the world? They are simply using the labor of the dead in + order to get the labor of the living." But is this true? The shareholders + originally found the means to plan, legalise, and construct the railway, + to buy the land, to pay the laborer day by day his wage, whilst yet the + railway could bring no profit, to buy the materials for the permanent way, + to purchase and maintain the rolling stock. Many hundreds of shareholders + in unsuccessful lines have never received back one farthing of what they + paid to the laborer. No laborer worked on those unsuccessful lines without + wage. Some railway shareholders have got too much, but there are thousands + of comparatively poor shareholders who are to be ruined by the seizure of + their shares without compensation. It is not at all true that railway + shareholders use "the labor of the dead in order to get the labor of the + living." On the contrary, during the last few years the tendency on lines + like the Midland, has been to afford the widest facilities, and the + greatest possible comfort consistent with cheapness, to working-folk + travelling for need or pleasure. That all railway managers are not equally + far-seeing is true, that much more might be done in this direction is + certain, that some managing directors are over-greedy is clear, but that + the change has been for the better during the past twenty years none would + deny who had any regard for truth. That railway porters, pointsmen, + guards, firemen, and drivers are, as Mr. Joynes well urges, often badly + paid, and nearly always overworked, is true, but making the railways State + property would not necessarily improve this. The Post Office is controlled + by the State for the State, and the letter-carriers and sorters are as a + body disgracefully remunerated. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Joynes complains that I have not met the question of the "surplus + value" of labor, which he says "is the keystone of the Socialistic + argument." He does not explain upon what basis the alleged surplus value + is calculated, but shelters himself behind a vague, and I submit + incorrect, reference to a declaration by Mr. Hoyle, the well-known earnest + temperance advocate. Mr. Joynes says that in one and a-half hours the + laborer earns enough for subsistence. Mr. Hoyle's often-repeated + declaration is in substance to the effect, that if the whole drink traffic + of the country were abolished, and neither wines, beers, nor spirits drunk + by any of the industrial classes, then that the working men could earn + enough for comfort in very much less time than they now do. Mr. Joynes + here entirely overlooks the substance of Mr. Hoyle's declaration, which + is, in effect, that the working men do now receive, and then spend + wastefully, what would keep them. I have always contended that in nearly + every department of industry labor has been insufficiently paid, in some + cases horribly paid, and I have claimed for the laborer higher wages, and + tried to help to teach him, through trades' unions and otherwise, how to + get these higher wages; but if Mr. Joynes and his friends mean anything, + wages are to disappear altogether, and the State is to apportion to each a + sort of equal subsistence, without regard to the skill or industry of the + individual laborer, so that the skilled engineer, the unskilled + hod-carrier, the street sweeper, the ploughman, and the physician, would + each, in the Socialistic State, have neither less nor more than the other. + </p> + <p> + The Socialists say "the laborers on the average replace the value of their + wages for the capitalist class in the first few hours of their day's work; + the exchange value of the goods produced in the remaining hours of the + day's work constitutes so much embodied labor which is unpaid; and this + unpaid labor so embodied in articles of utility, the capitalist class, the + factory owners, the farmers, the bankers, the brokers, the shopkeepers, + and their hangers-on, the landlords, divide amongst themselves in the + shape of profits, interests, discounts, commissions, rent, etc." But + without the capitalist where would be the workshop, the plant, or the raw + material? It would be better if in co-operative production workmen would + be their own capitalists, but surely the owner of capital is entitled to + some reward? If not how is he to be persuaded to put it into fixed capital + as factory and plant? Why should he beforehand purchase raw material on + which labor may be employed, subsist labor while so employed, and take the + risk of loss as well as profit in exchanging the article produced? And why + is not the farmer to be sustained by the laborers if that farmer grows the + food the laborer requires? Why should not the shopkeeper be rewarded for + bringing ready to the laborer articles which would be otherwise in the + highest degree difficult to procure? If the laborer procured his own raw + material, fashioned it into an exchangeable commodity, and then went and + exchanged it, there are many to whom the raw material would be + inaccessible, and more who would lose much of the profits of their labor + in fruitless efforts to exchange. The vague declarations by the Socialist + that production and exchange are to be organised are delusive without + clear statement of the methods and principles of the organisation. Robert + Owen is called "Utopian" by these Democratic Federation Socialists, but at + least he did try to reduce to practice his theories of production and + exchange. The Democratic Federation say that "surplus value" is produced + by "labor applied to natural objects under the control of the capitalist + class." I object that but for capital, fixed and circulating, there are + many natural objects which would be utterly inaccessible to labor; many + more which could only be reached and dealt with on a very limited scale. + That but for capital the laborer would often be unable to exist until the + object had exchangeable value, or until some one was found with an + equivalent article ready to exchange, and I submit that the banker, the + shopkeeper, the broker may and do facilitate the progress of labor, and + would and could not do so without the incentive of profit. + </p> + <p> + We agree that "wage" is often much too low, and we urge the workers in + each trade to join the unions already existing, and to form new unions, so + that the combined knowledge and protection of the general body of workers + as to the demand for, and value of, the labor, may be at the service of + the weakest and most ignorant. We would advocate the establishment of + labor bureaux, as in Massachusetts, so that careful and reliable + statistics of the value of labor and cost of life may be easily + accessible. We would urge the more thorough experiment on, and + establishment of, cooperative productive societies in every branch of + manufacture, so that the laborers furnishing their own capital and their + own industry, may not only increase the profit result of labor to the + laborer, but also afford at least a reasonable indication as to the + possible profit realised by capitalists engaged in the same industries. We + would increase wage (if not in amount, at any rate in its purchasing + power), by diminishing the national and local expenditure, and thus also + decreasing the cost of the necessaries of life. We would try to shift the + pressing burden of taxation more on to land, and to the very large + accumulation of wealth. + </p> + <p> + We contend that he or she who lives by the sale of labor should, with the + purchase money, be able to buy life, not only for the worker, but for + those for whom that worker is fairly bread-winner. And life means not only + healthy food, reasonable clothing, cleanly, healthy shelter, education for + the children until they are so sufficiently grown that labor shall not + mean the crippling of after life—but also leisure. Leisure for some + enjoyment, leisure for some stroll in the green fields, leisure for some + look into the galleries of paintings and sculpture, leisure for some + listening to the singer, the actor, the teacher; leisure that the sunshine + of beauty may now and then gild the dull round of work-a-day life; and we + assert that in any country where the price of honest earnest industry will + not buy this, then that if there are any in that country who are very + wealthy, there is social wrong to be reformed. But this is the distinction + between those with whom I stand and the Socialists. + </p> + <p> + We want reform, gradual, sure, and helpful. They ask for revolution, and + know not its morrow. Revolution may be the only remedy in a country where + there is no free press, no free speech, no association of workers, no + representative institutions, and where the limits of despotic outrage are + only marked by the personal fear of the despot. But in a country like our + own, where the political power is gradually passing into the hands of the + whole people, where, if the press is not entirely free it is in advance of + almost every European country, and every shade of opinion may find its + exponent, here revolution which required physical force to effect it would + be a blunder as well as a crime. Here, where our workmen can organise and + meet, we can claim reforms and win them. The wage-winners of Durham and + Northumberland, under the guidance of able and earnest leaders, have won + many ameliorations during the past twenty years. Each year the workers' + Parliament meets in Trades Union Congress, to discuss and plan more + complete success, and to note the gains of the year. Every twelve months, + in the Co-operative Congresses, working men and women delegates gather + together to consult and advise. Each annual period shows some progress, + some advantage secured, and though there is much sore evil yet, much + misery yet, much crime yet, much—far too much—poverty yet, + to-day's progress from yesterday shows day-gleam for the people's morrow. + </p> + <p> + Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, at 63, Fleet Street, + London, E.O.—1884. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Some Objections To Socialism, by Charles Bradlaugh + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM *** + +***** This file should be named 36272-h.htm or 36272-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/2/7/36272/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Some Objections To Socialism + From "The Atheistic Platform", Twelve Lectures + +Author: Charles Bradlaugh + +Release Date: May 29, 2011 [EBook #36272] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM. + +From "The Atheistic Platform", Twelve Lectures + +By Charles Bradlaugh. + + +London: Freethought Publishing Company + +63, Fleet Street, E.C. + +1884 + + + +SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM + +The great evils connected with and resulting from poverty--evils which +are so prominent and so terrible in old countries, and especially in +populous cities--have, in our own land compelled the attention, and +excited the sympathy, of persons in every rank of society. Many remedies +have been suggested and attempted, and from time to time, during the +present century, there have been men who, believing that the abolition +of individual private property would cure the misery abounding, have +advocated Socialism. Some pure-hearted and well-meaning men and women, +as Robert Owen, Abram Combe, and Frances Wright, have spent large +fortunes, and devoted much of their lives in the essay to test their +theories by experiments. As communities, none of these attempts have +been permanently successful, though they have doubtless, by encouraging +and suggesting co-operative effort in England, done something to modify +the fierceness of the life struggle, in which too often the strongest +and most unscrupulous succeeded by destroying his weaker brother. Some +Socialistic associations in the United States,* as the Shakers and +the Oneida community, have been held together in limited numbers as +religious societies, but only even apparently successful, while the +numbers of each community remained comparatively few. Some communities +have for many years bravely endured the burden of debt, penury, and +discomfort, to be loyal to the memory of their founder, as in the case +at Icaria of the followers of Cabet. But in none of these was the sense +of private property entirely lost; the numbers were relatively so small +that all increase of comfort was appreciable, and in nearly all the +communities there was option of the withdrawal of the individual, and +with him of a proportion of the property he had helped to create or +increase. + + * Particulars of all existing Socialistic communities in the + United States are given in the works of Mr. Hinds and Mr. + Nordhoff. + +During the past generation, Socialistic theory has been specially +urged in Germany, and the Socialist leaders there have acquired greater +influence because of the poverty of the people, and because too of the +cruel persecution to which Social Reformers, as well as Socialists, have +been subjected by Prince Bismarck's despotic government. + +A difficulty arising from the repressive measures resorted to in +Germany has been that German emigrants to the United States and to +Great Britain, speak and write as if precisely the same wrongs had to be +assailed in the lands of their adoption as in the land of their birth. + +Very recently in England--and largely at the instance of +foreigners--there has been a revival of Socialist propaganda, though +only on a small scale compared with fifty years ago, by persons claiming +to be "Scientific Socialists," who declare that such Socialists +as Robert Owen and his friends were Utopian in thinking that any +communities could be successfully founded while ordinary society exists. +These Scientific Socialists--mostly middle-class men--declare their +intense hatred of the _bourgeoisie_, and affirm that the Social State +they desire to create can only be established on the ruins of the +present society, by a revolution which they say must come in any event, +but which they strive to accelerate. These Scientific Socialists deny +that they ought to be required to propound any social scheme, and they +contemptuously refuse to discuss any of the details connected with the +future of the new Social State, to make way for which the present is +to be cleared away. Most of the points touched on in this lecture were +raised in the discussion on Socialism between myself and Mr. Hyndman +recently held in St. James's Hall. Others of the questions have been +raised in my articles in _Our Corner_, and in the reply there by Mr. +Joynes. + +The Socialists of the Democratic Federation say that "Socialism is an +endeavor to substitute an organised co-operation for existence" for +the present strife, but they refuse to be precise as to the method +or character of the organisation, or the lines upon which it is to be +carried out. Their reason is, probably, that they have not even made the +slightest effort to frame any plan, but would be content to try first to +destroy all existing government. I suggest that this want and avoidance +of foresight is, in the honest, folly, and in the wise, criminality. +They mix up some desirable objects which are not all Socialistic +with others that are not necessarily Socialistic, and add to these +declarations which are either so vague as to be meaningless, or else in +the highest degree Socialistic and revolutionary. + +Whilst Mr. Hyndman, one of the prominent members of the Democratic +Federation, thus speaks of Socialism as endeavoring "to substitute an +organised co-operation," Mr. E. Belfort Bax, another prominent member +and co-signatory of the manifesto, emphatically says, "no 'scientific' +socialist pretends to have any 'scheme' or detailed plan of +organisation." When organisation can be spoken of as possible without +any scheme or detailed plan, it shows that words are used without regard +to serious meaning. + +These Socialists declare that there must be "organisation of +agricultural and industrial armies under State control," and that the +exchange of all production must be controlled by the workers; but they +decline to explain how this control is to be exercised, and on what +principles. We agree that there are often too many concerned in the +distribution of the necessaries of life, and that the cost to the +consumer is often outrageously augmented; but we suggest that this may +be reformed gradually and in detail by individual effort through local +societies, and that it ought not to be any part of the work of the +State. We point to the fact that there are now in Great Britain--all +established during the present reign--nearly one thousand distributive +co-operative societies, with more than half a million members, with over +seventeen and three-quarter millions of pounds of yearly sales, with two +and a half millions of stock-in-trade, with five and a quarter millions +of working capital, and dividing one and a half millions of annual +profit; and that these societies, each keeping its own property, +still further co-operate with one another to reduce loss in exchange by +havings a wholesale co-operative society in England, with sales in +1882 exceeding three and a half millions sterling, and another similar +wholesale society in Scotland, with transactions in the same year +to nearly one million sterling. We say the way to render the cost of +exchange of products less onerous to the laborer is by the extension and +perfection of this organisation of co-operative distribution, and that +this may be and is being done successfully and usefully, ameliorating +gradually the condition and developing the self-reliance of the +individual workers who take part in such co-operative stores, and thus +inciting and inducing other individuals to join the societies already +founded, or to establish others, and so educating individual after +individual to better habits of exchange. We say that this is more +useful than to denounce as idlers and robbers "the shopkeepers and their +hangers on," as is done by the present teachers of Socialism. We object +that the organisation of all industry under State control must paralyse +industrial energy and discourage and neutralise individual effort. + +The Socialists claim that there shall be "collective ownership of land, +capital, machinery and credit by the complete ownership of the people," +and yet they object that they are misrepresented when told that +they want to take the private economies of millions of industrious +wage-earners in this kingdom for the benefit of those who may have +neither been thrifty nor industrious. The truth is that, if language +is to have any meaning, the definitions must stand given by me and +unchallenged by my opponent in the St. James's Hall debate, viz.: (1) +"Socialism denies all individual private property, and affirms that +society, organised as the state, should own all wealth, direct all +labor, and compel the equal distribution of all produce." (2) "A +Socialistic State would be a State in which everything would be held +in common, in which the labor of each individual would be directed +and controlled by the State, to which would belong all results of such +labor." The realisation of a Socialistic State in this country would, as +I then urged, require (1) a physical force revolution, in which all the +present property owners unwilling to surrender their private properties +to the common fund would be forcibly dispossessed. This revolution would +be in the highest degree difficult, if not impossible, for property +holders are the enormous majority. + +Mr. Joynes, in an article published in _Our Corner_, does challenge my +definition, and says that the immediate aim of Socialism "is not the +abolition of private property, but its establishment by means of the +emancipation of labor on the only sound basis. It is private capital +we attack, the power to hire laborers at starvation wages, and not +the independent enjoyment of the fruits of labor by the individual who +produces them." And he refers me to a paragraph previously dealt with +by me as an illustration of contradictory statement, in which he and his +cosignatories write: "Do any say we attack private property? We deny it. +We only attack that private property for a few thousand loiterers and +slave-drivers, which renders all property in the fruits of their own +labor impossible for millions. We challenge that private property which +renders poverty at once a necessity and a crime." But surely this +flatly contradicts the declaration by Mr. Hyndman in the debate, of +"the collective ownership of land, capital, machinery, and credit." I +am afraid that Mr. Joynes has in his mind some other unexplained meaning +for the words "capital" and "property." To me it seems impossible that +if everything be owned collectively, anything can be owned individually, +separately, and privately. + +Mr. Joynes, however, apparently concedes that it is true that the +private property of "a few thousand loiterers and slave-drivers" +is attacked. Though he does not in his reply explain who these "few +thousand" are, I find in "The Summary of the Principles of Socialism," +signed by Mr. Joynes, that they are "the capitalist class, the factory +owners, the farmers, the bankers, the brokers, the shopkeepers, and +their hangers-on, the landlords." But these make much more than a "few +thousand." The census returns for England and Wales alone show under the +headings professional classes, 647,075; commercial classes, 980,128 (and +these do not include the ordinary shopkeepers); farmers and graziers, +249,907; and unoccupied males over twenty, 182,282. Add to these +proportional figures for Scotland and Ireland, and it is at once seen +how misleading it is to speak of these as a "few thousand." Mr. Joynes +disapproves of my "small army of statistics." I object that he and his +friends never examine or verify the figures on which they found their +allegations. Mr. Joynes says that it is not private property, the fruits +of labor, that is attacked by the Socialists, but "private capital, the +power to hire laborers." Does that mean that L30 saved by an artisan +would not be attacked so long as he kept it useless, but that if he +deposited it with a banker who used it in industrial enterprise, or if +he invested it in railway shares, it would be forfeited? If an artisan +may, out of the fruits of his labor, buy for L3 and keep as his own +a silver watch, why is the L3 to be confiscated when it gets into the +hands of the Cheapside or Corn-hill watch dealer? + +A property owner is not only a Rothschild, a Baring, or an Overstone, he +is that person who has anything whatever beyond that which is necessary +for actual existence at the moment. Thus, all savings however moderate; +all household furniture, books, indeed everything but the simplest +clothing are property, and the property owners belong to all classes. +The wage-earning classes, being largely property owners, viz., not only +by their household goods, but by their investments, building societies, +their small deposits in savings banks, their periodical payments to +their trade societies and friendly societies, they would naturally +and wisely defend these against confiscation. If the physical force +revolution were possible, because of the desperate energy of those +owning nothing, its success would be achieved with serious immediate +crime, and would be attended with consequent social mischief and +terrible demoralisation extending over a long period. + +Mr. Hyndman has written that "force, or fear of force, is, +unfortunately, the only reasoning which can appeal to a dominant estate, +or will ever induce them to surrender any portion of their property." I +read these words to him in the debate, and he made no reply to them. I +object that a Socialistic State to be realised by force can only be so +realised after a period of civil war shocking to contemplate, and one in +which the wisest would go near madness. + +But a Socialistic State, even if achieved, could not be maintained +without a second (mental) revolution, in which the present ideas and +forms of expression concerning property would have to be effaced, +and the habit of life (resulting from long-continued teachings and +long-enduring traditions) would have to be broken. The words "my house," +"my coat," "my horse," "my watch," "my book," are all affirmations of +private property which would have to be unlearned. The whole current of +human thought would have to be changed. + +In a Socialistic State there would be no inducement to thrift, no +encouragement to individual saving, no protection for individual +accumulation, no check upon, no discouragement to waste. + +Nor, if such a Socialistic State be established, is it easy to conceive +how free expression of individual opinion, either by press or platform, +can be preserved and maintained. All means of publicity will belong +to, and be controlled by, the State. But what will this mean? Will a +Socialistic government furnish halls to its adversaries, print books for +its opponents, organise costly journals for those who are hostile to it? +If not, there must come utter stagnation of opinion. + +And what could the organisation and controlling of all labor by the +State mean? In what could it end? By whom, and in what manner, would the +selection of each individual for the pursuit, profession, or handicraft +for which he was fittest be determined? + +I object that the Socialistic advocates exaggerate and distort real +evils, and thus do mischief to those who are seeking to effect social +reforms. For example, they declare that the whole of the land of +the country is held by "a handful of marauders," who ought to be +dispossessed, and when told that there are 852,438 persons owning on +an average less than one fifth of an acre each, holding probably in +the neighborhood of towns, and that more than half a million of these +persons are members of building societies, paying for their small +properties out of their wage-earnings, they only say: "Do you suppose +those who hold building allotments will be dispossessed?" But if they +are not dispossessed, if their private property is left to them, then +"collective ownership" must have a new meaning. Pressed with the fact +that there are 205,358 owning on an average fifteen acres each, they +make no other answer. Yet this 1,037,896, representing with their +families more than four millions of human beings, are clearly not a +"handful," nor is there any evidence offered that they are "marauders." +My complaint is that the possibility of early Land Law Reform is injured +and retarded by such rashness. It is an undoubted evil that in this +crowded kingdom so few as 2,238 persons should own 39,924,232 acres of +land, and that the enormous holdings should be inadequately taxed, but +we need the influence of the one million small landowners to enable +us legally to reform and modify those obnoxious land laws which have +facilitated the accumulation of such vast estates in so few hands. In +the debate with myself, Mr. Hyndman spoke very contemptuously of the +"small ownerships" and "paltry building allotments," yet he ought to +know that the holders of these houses are law-abiding, peace-promoting +citizens, who are encouraged by these slight possessions, which give +promise of comfort in life, to strive so that the comfort shall be +extended and secured. + +A sample of the wild and extraordinary exaggeration indulged in by +the Democratic Federation may be found on p. 48 of the "Summary of the +Principles of Socialism," where it is gravely declared that the "idlers +who eat enormously and produce not at all form the majority of the +population," and this may be fairly contrasted with another statement +by the same persons that the present conditions of labor have "brought +luxury for the few, misery and degradation for the many." If the latter +be accurate, the former must be a perversion. + +The Socialists say that there are a few thousand persons who own the +National Debt, and they recommend its extinction; usually leaving it +in doubt as to whether this is to be by wholesale or by partial +repudiation. When reminded that there are an enormous number of small +depositors (at least 4,500,000 accounts in one year) owning through the +ordinary savings banks L45,403,569, and through the Post Office Sayings +Bank, L36,194,495, they neither explain the allegation as to the few +thousands, nor do they condescend to offer the slightest explanation as +to how any savings have been possible if all the wealth created by labor +has been "devoured only by the rich and their hangers-on." Repudiation +of the National Debt would ruin the whole of these. The Socialist leader +says that the small ownership of land and these small savings do not +really benefit the working classes, for that in times of depression the +savings are soon used up. That may often be true, but if there were no +savings then it must be starvation, pauperism, or crime; at least the +saving mitigates the suffering. When told that there are 2,300,000 +members of friendly societies, who must represent at least 9,000,000 +of the inhabitants of this country, and that these, amongst other +investments, have L1,397,730 in the National Debt, we are answered that +these are mere details. On this point I think Mr. Joynes a little fails +in candor. He takes one set of my figures, and says "the share of each +individual is on the average a little more than L3 3s., and the dividend +which annually accrues to each of these propertied persons is slightly +over 2s. It does not require a very high standard of intelligence to +enable a man to perceive that Socialists who intend to deprive him of +these 2s., and at the same time to secure him the full value of his +work, are proposing not to diminish his income, but to raise it in a +very high degree." Let me first say that the friendly society represents +to each artisan investor, not the 2s. per year, but his possible sick +money, gratuity on disablement, allowance whilst unemployed, etc.; +next, that here Mr. Joynes does in this actually admit an attack on +the private property of the laborer, and does propose to take away the +accumulated "fruits of labor" from the independent enjoyment of the +individual who earned it. And the working-man's house? and his savings +in the savings-bank, or in the co-operative store? Are these to be taken +too? If not, why not? and if yes, of how much of the fruits of his labor +is the laborer to be left by the Socialists in "independent +enjoyment"? When pressed that the confiscation of the railways "without +compensation," would bankrupt every life assurance company, and thus +destroy the provision made for hundreds of thousands of families, +because in addition to about' L5,262,000 in the Funds, and about +L75,000,000 invested on mortgages of houses and land, the life insurance +companies are extensive holders of railway securities--the advocates +of Socialism only condescend to say: "Who are the shareholders in the +railways? Do they ever do any good in the world? They are simply using +the labor of the dead in order to get the labor of the living." But +is this true? The shareholders originally found the means to plan, +legalise, and construct the railway, to buy the land, to pay the laborer +day by day his wage, whilst yet the railway could bring no profit, to +buy the materials for the permanent way, to purchase and maintain the +rolling stock. Many hundreds of shareholders in unsuccessful lines have +never received back one farthing of what they paid to the laborer. No +laborer worked on those unsuccessful lines without wage. Some railway +shareholders have got too much, but there are thousands of comparatively +poor shareholders who are to be ruined by the seizure of their shares +without compensation. It is not at all true that railway shareholders +use "the labor of the dead in order to get the labor of the living." On +the contrary, during the last few years the tendency on lines like the +Midland, has been to afford the widest facilities, and the greatest +possible comfort consistent with cheapness, to working-folk travelling +for need or pleasure. That all railway managers are not equally +far-seeing is true, that much more might be done in this direction is +certain, that some managing directors are over-greedy is clear, but that +the change has been for the better during the past twenty years +none would deny who had any regard for truth. That railway porters, +pointsmen, guards, firemen, and drivers are, as Mr. Joynes well urges, +often badly paid, and nearly always overworked, is true, but making the +railways State property would not necessarily improve this. The Post +Office is controlled by the State for the State, and the letter-carriers +and sorters are as a body disgracefully remunerated. + +Mr. Joynes complains that I have not met the question of the "surplus +value" of labor, which he says "is the keystone of the Socialistic +argument." He does not explain upon what basis the alleged surplus +value is calculated, but shelters himself behind a vague, and I submit +incorrect, reference to a declaration by Mr. Hoyle, the well-known +earnest temperance advocate. Mr. Joynes says that in one and +a-half hours the laborer earns enough for subsistence. Mr. Hoyle's +often-repeated declaration is in substance to the effect, that if the +whole drink traffic of the country were abolished, and neither wines, +beers, nor spirits drunk by any of the industrial classes, then that the +working men could earn enough for comfort in very much less time than +they now do. Mr. Joynes here entirely overlooks the substance of Mr. +Hoyle's declaration, which is, in effect, that the working men do now +receive, and then spend wastefully, what would keep them. I have always +contended that in nearly every department of industry labor has been +insufficiently paid, in some cases horribly paid, and I have claimed +for the laborer higher wages, and tried to help to teach him, through +trades' unions and otherwise, how to get these higher wages; but if Mr. +Joynes and his friends mean anything, wages are to disappear altogether, +and the State is to apportion to each a sort of equal subsistence, +without regard to the skill or industry of the individual laborer, +so that the skilled engineer, the unskilled hod-carrier, the street +sweeper, the ploughman, and the physician, would each, in the +Socialistic State, have neither less nor more than the other. + +The Socialists say "the laborers on the average replace the value of +their wages for the capitalist class in the first few hours of their +day's work; the exchange value of the goods produced in the remaining +hours of the day's work constitutes so much embodied labor which is +unpaid; and this unpaid labor so embodied in articles of utility, the +capitalist class, the factory owners, the farmers, the bankers, the +brokers, the shopkeepers, and their hangers-on, the landlords, divide +amongst themselves in the shape of profits, interests, discounts, +commissions, rent, etc." But without the capitalist where would be +the workshop, the plant, or the raw material? It would be better if +in co-operative production workmen would be their own capitalists, but +surely the owner of capital is entitled to some reward? If not how is he +to be persuaded to put it into fixed capital as factory and plant? +Why should he beforehand purchase raw material on which labor may be +employed, subsist labor while so employed, and take the risk of loss as +well as profit in exchanging the article produced? And why is not the +farmer to be sustained by the laborers if that farmer grows the food the +laborer requires? Why should not the shopkeeper be rewarded for bringing +ready to the laborer articles which would be otherwise in the highest +degree difficult to procure? If the laborer procured his own raw +material, fashioned it into an exchangeable commodity, and then went +and exchanged it, there are many to whom the raw material would be +inaccessible, and more who would lose much of the profits of their +labor in fruitless efforts to exchange. The vague declarations by the +Socialist that production and exchange are to be organised are +delusive without clear statement of the methods and principles of +the organisation. Robert Owen is called "Utopian" by these Democratic +Federation Socialists, but at least he did try to reduce to practice his +theories of production and exchange. The Democratic Federation say that +"surplus value" is produced by "labor applied to natural objects under +the control of the capitalist class." I object that but for capital, +fixed and circulating, there are many natural objects which would be +utterly inaccessible to labor; many more which could only be reached +and dealt with on a very limited scale. That but for capital the laborer +would often be unable to exist until the object had exchangeable +value, or until some one was found with an equivalent article ready to +exchange, and I submit that the banker, the shopkeeper, the broker may +and do facilitate the progress of labor, and would and could not do so +without the incentive of profit. + +We agree that "wage" is often much too low, and we urge the workers in +each trade to join the unions already existing, and to form new unions, +so that the combined knowledge and protection of the general body of +workers as to the demand for, and value of, the labor, may be at +the service of the weakest and most ignorant. We would advocate the +establishment of labor bureaux, as in Massachusetts, so that careful and +reliable statistics of the value of labor and cost of life may be +easily accessible. We would urge the more thorough experiment on, and +establishment of, cooperative productive societies in every branch of +manufacture, so that the laborers furnishing their own capital and their +own industry, may not only increase the profit result of labor to the +laborer, but also afford at least a reasonable indication as to the +possible profit realised by capitalists engaged in the same industries. +We would increase wage (if not in amount, at any rate in its purchasing +power), by diminishing the national and local expenditure, and thus also +decreasing the cost of the necessaries of life. We would try to shift +the pressing burden of taxation more on to land, and to the very large +accumulation of wealth. + +We contend that he or she who lives by the sale of labor should, with +the purchase money, be able to buy life, not only for the worker, but +for those for whom that worker is fairly bread-winner. And life means +not only healthy food, reasonable clothing, cleanly, healthy shelter, +education for the children until they are so sufficiently grown that +labor shall not mean the crippling of after life--but also leisure. +Leisure for some enjoyment, leisure for some stroll in the green fields, +leisure for some look into the galleries of paintings and sculpture, +leisure for some listening to the singer, the actor, the teacher; +leisure that the sunshine of beauty may now and then gild the dull round +of work-a-day life; and we assert that in any country where the price of +honest earnest industry will not buy this, then that if there are any in +that country who are very wealthy, there is social wrong to be reformed. +But this is the distinction between those with whom I stand and the +Socialists. + +We want reform, gradual, sure, and helpful. They ask for revolution, +and know not its morrow. Revolution may be the only remedy in a country +where there is no free press, no free speech, no association of workers, +no representative institutions, and where the limits of despotic outrage +are only marked by the personal fear of the despot. But in a country +like our own, where the political power is gradually passing into the +hands of the whole people, where, if the press is not entirely free +it is in advance of almost every European country, and every shade of +opinion may find its exponent, here revolution which required physical +force to effect it would be a blunder as well as a crime. Here, where +our workmen can organise and meet, we can claim reforms and win them. +The wage-winners of Durham and Northumberland, under the guidance of +able and earnest leaders, have won many ameliorations during the past +twenty years. Each year the workers' Parliament meets in Trades Union +Congress, to discuss and plan more complete success, and to note the +gains of the year. Every twelve months, in the Co-operative Congresses, +working men and women delegates gather together to consult and advise. +Each annual period shows some progress, some advantage secured, and +though there is much sore evil yet, much misery yet, much crime yet, +much--far too much--poverty yet, to-day's progress from yesterday shows +day-gleam for the people's morrow. + + +Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, at 63, Fleet Street, +London, E.O.--1884. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Some Objections To Socialism, by Charles Bradlaugh + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME OBJECTIONS TO SOCIALISM *** + +***** This file should be named 36272.txt or 36272.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/2/7/36272/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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