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diff --git a/37290-8.txt b/37290-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9e5ed5 --- /dev/null +++ b/37290-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4943 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The life and teaching of Karl Marx, by M. Beer + +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: The life and teaching of Karl Marx + +Author: M. Beer + +Release Date: September 2, 2011 [EBook #37290] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE AND TEACHING OF KARL MARX *** + + + + +Produced by Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | + | been preserved. | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | + | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + _SOCIAL STUDIES SERIES_ + + (_VOLUME TWO_). + + THE LIFE AND TEACHING OF + KARL MARX + + + + +FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1921 + + +[_All rights reserved._] + + + + + THE + + LIFE AND TEACHING + + OF + + KARL MARX + + + BY + M. BEER + _Author of "A History of British Socialism"_ + + + TRANSLATED BY T.C. PARTINGTON + AND H.J. STENNING, AND REVISED + BY THE AUTHOR + + + NATIONAL LABOUR PRESS, LIMITED, + LONDON: 8/9, JOHNSON'S COURT, E.C. 4 + MANCHESTER: 30, BLACKFRIARS STREET + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION: + + I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MARX ix. + + II. THE WORK OF HEGEL xiii. + + + I. PARENTS AND FRIENDS: + + I. MARX'S APPRENTICESHIP 1 + + II. STUDENT 3 + + III. BEGINNINGS OF PUBLIC LIFE 11 + + + II. THE FORMATIVE PERIOD OF MARXISM: + + I. THE FRANCO-GERMAN YEAR BOOKS 15 + + II. FRIENDSHIP WITH FRIEDRICH ENGELS 19 + + III. CONTROVERSY WITH BAUER AND RUGE 21 + + IV. CONTROVERSY WITH PROUDHON 26 + + + III. YEARS OF AGITATION AND VARYING FORTUNES: + + I. THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT OF THE FORTIES 39 + + II. THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO 41 + + III. THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 48 + + IV. DAYS OF CLOUD AND SUNSHINE IN LONDON 51 + + V. THE INTERNATIONAL 54 + + VI. THE PARIS COMMUNE 59 + + VII. THE EVENING OF LIFE 60 + + + IV. THE MARXIAN SYSTEM: + + I. THE MATERIALIST CONCEPTION OF HISTORY 65 + + II. CLASSES, CLASS STRUGGLES AND CLASS-CONSCIOUSNESS 78 + + III. THE ROLE OF THE LABOUR MOVEMENT AND THE + PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP 84 + + IV. OUTLINES OF THE ECONOMIC DOCTRINES 93 + + + V. CONCLUSION 125 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MARX. + +Karl Marx belongs to the ranks of those philosophical and sociological +thinkers who throw potent thought-ferment into the world, and set in +motion the masses of mankind. They awaken slumbering doubts and +contradictions. They proclaim new modes of thought, new social forms. +Their systems may sooner or later become obsolete, and the ruthless +march of time may finally overthrow their intellectual edifice; +meanwhile, however, they stimulate into activity the minds of +countless men, inflame countless human hearts, imprinting on them +characteristics which are transmitted to coming generations. This is +the grandest and finest work to which any human being can be called. +Because these thinkers have lived and worked, their contemporaries and +successors think more clearly, feel more intensely, and are richer in +knowledge and self-consciousness. + +The history of philosophy and of social science is comprised in such +systems and generalisations. They are the index to the annals of +mankind. None of these systems is complete, none comprehends all human +motives and capacities, none exhausts all the forces and currents of +human society. They all express only fragmentary truths, which, +however, become effective and achieve success because they are shining +lights amidst the intellectual confusion of the generation which gives +them birth, bringing it to a consciousness of the questions of the +time, rendering its further development less difficult, and enabling +its strongest spirits to stand erect, with fixity of purpose, in +critical periods. + +Hegel expresses himself in a similar sense where he remarks: "When the +refutation of a philosophy is spoken of, this is usually meant in an +abstract negative (completely destructive) sense, so that the confuted +philosophy has no longer any validity whatever, and is set aside and +done with. If this be so, the study of the history of philosophy must +be regarded as a thoroughly depressing business, seeing that this +study teaches that every system of philosophy which has arisen in the +course of time has found its refutation. But if it is as good as +granted that every philosophy has been refuted, yet at the same time +it must be also asserted that no philosophy has been refuted, nor ever +can be refuted ... for every philosophical system is to be considered +as the presentation of a particular moment or a particular stage in +the evolutionary process of the idea. The history of philosophy ... is +not, in its totality, a gallery of the aberrations of the human +intellect, but is rather to be compared to a pantheon of deities." + + --("Hegel, Encyclopędia," vol. 1, section 86, note 2.) + +What Hegel says here about philosophy is true also of systems of +social science, and styles and forms in art. The displacement of one +system by another reflects the historical sequence of the various +stages of social evolution. The characteristic which is common to all +these systems is their vitality. + +In spite of their defects and difficulties there surges through them a +living spirit from the influence of which contemporaries cannot +escape. Opponents may put themselves to endless trouble to contradict +such systems, and show up their shortcomings and inconsistencies, and +yet, with all their pains, they do not succeed in attaining their +object; their logical sapping and mining, their passionate attacks +break against the vital spirit which the creative genius has breathed +into his work. The deep impression made on us by this vitality is one +of the main factors in the formation of our judgments upon scientific +and artistic achievements. Mere formal perfection and beauty through +which the life of the times does not throb can never create this +impression. + +Walter Scott, who was often reproached with defects and +inconsistencies in the construction of his novels, once made answer +with the following anecdote: A French sculptor, who had taken up his +abode in Rome, was fond of taking to the Capitol his artistically +inclined countrymen who were travelling in Italy, to show them the +equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, on which occasions he was at +pains to demonstrate that the horse was defectively modelled, and did +not meet the requirements of anatomy. After one of these criticisms a +visitor urged him to prove his case in a concrete form by constructing +a horse on correct artistic principles. The critic set to work, and +when, after the lapse of a year, his friends were again visiting Rome, +exhibited to them his horse. It was anatomically perfect. Proudly he +had it brought to the Capitol, in order to compare both productions +and so celebrate his triumph. Quite absorbed in his critical +comparison, the French sculptor after a while gave way to a burst of +genuine artistic feeling, which caused him pathetically to exclaim, +"_Et pourtant cette bźte-lą est vivante, et la mienne est morte!_" +(And yet that animal is alive, while mine is dead.) + +Quite a number of Marxian critics find themselves in the same position +as the hypercritical French sculptor. Their formal and logically +complete economic doctrines and systems of historical philosophy, +provided with pedantically correct details and definitions, remain +dead and ineffective. They do not put us into contact with the +relations of the time, whereas Marx has bequeathed both to the +educated and the uneducated, to his readers and to non-readers, a +multitude of ideas and expressions relating to social science, which +have become current throughout the whole world. + +In Petrograd and in Tokio, in Berlin and in London, in Paris and in +Pittsburg, people speak of capital and of the capitalist system, of +means of production and of the class struggle; of Reform and +Revolution; of the Proletariat and of Socialism. The extent of Marx's +influence is shown by the economic explanation of the world-war, which +is even accepted by the most decided opponents of the materialist +conception of history. A generation after Marx's death, the +sovereignty of Capital shrinks visibly, works' committees and shops' +stewards interfere with the productive processes, Socialists and +Labour men fill the Parliaments, working men and their representatives +rise to or take by storm the highest position of political power in +States and Empires. Many of their triumphs would scarcely have +received Marx's approval. His theory, white-hot with indomitable +passion, demanded that the new tables of the Law should be given to +men amidst thunder and lightning. But still the essential thing is +that the proletariat is loosening its bonds, even if it does not +burst them noisily asunder. We find ourselves in the first stages of +the evolution of Socialist society. Through whatever forms this +evolutionary process may pass in its logical development, this much is +certain, that only by active thought on the part of Socialists and by +the loyal co-operation of the workers can it be brought to its +perfection. + +We are already using Hegelian expressions, and must therefore pause +here to note briefly Hegel's contribution to the subject. Without a +knowledge of this, no one can be in a position to appreciate the +important factors in the life and influence of Marx, or even to +understand his first intellectual achievements during his student +years. + + +II. THE WORK OF HEGEL. + +Until towards the end of the eighteenth century, learned and +unlearned, philosophers and philistines, had some such general notions +as the following. The world has either been created, or it has existed +from eternity. It is either governed by a personal, supernatural god +or universal spirit, or it is kept going by nature, like some delicate +machine. It exists in accordance with eternal laws, and is perfect, +ordained to fulfil some design, and constant. The things and beings +which are found in it are divided into kinds, species and classes. All +is fixed, constant and eternal. Things and beings are contiguous in +space, and succeed one another in time, as they have done ever since +time was. It is the same with the incidents and events of the world +and of mankind. Such common proverbs as "There is nothing new under +the sun" and "History repeats itself" are but the popular expression +of this view. + +Correlative to this philosophy was Logic, or the science of the laws +of thinking (Greek logos--reason, word). It taught how men should use +their reason, how they should express themselves reasonably, how +concepts arise (in what manner, for example, the human understanding +arrived at the concepts stone, tree, animal, man, virtue, vice, etc.); +further, how such concepts are combined into judgments (propositions), +and finally, how conclusions are drawn from these judgments. This +logic exhibited the intellectual processes of the human mind. It was +founded by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384 to 322 B.C.), and +remained essentially unaltered until the beginning of the nineteenth +century, in the same way as our whole conception of the universe +remained unchanged. This science of human intellectual processes was +based on three original laws of thought, which best characterise it. +Just as an examining magistrate looks a prisoner in the face, and +identifies him, so that uncertainty and contradiction may be avoided, +so this logic began by establishing the identity of the conceptions +with which it was to operate. Consequently, it established as the +first law of thought the Principle of Identity, which runs as follows: +A = A, i.e., each thing, each being, is like itself; it possesses an +individuality of its own, peculiar to itself. To put it more clearly, +this principle affirms that the earth is the earth, a state is a +state, Capital is Capital, Socialism is Socialism. + +From this proceeds the second law of thought, the Principle of +Contradiction. A cannot be A and not--A. Or following our example +given above, the earth cannot be the earth and a ball of fire; a +State cannot be a State and an Anarchy; Capital cannot be Capital and +Poverty; Socialism cannot be Socialism and Individualism. Therefore +there must be no contradictions, for a thing which contradicts itself +is nonsense; where, however, this occurs either in actuality or in +thought, it is only an accidental exception to the rule, as it were, +or a passing and irregular phenomenon. + +From this law of thought follows directly the third, viz., the +Principle of the Excluded Middle. A thing is either A or non-A; there +is no middle term. Or, according to our example, the earth is either a +solid body, or, if it is not solid, it is no earth; there is no middle +term. The State is either monarchical, or, if it is not monarchical, +it is no State. Capitalism is either oppressive, or altogether not +Capitalism. Socialism is either revolutionary, or not Socialism at +all; there is no middle term. (Socialism is either reformist, or not +Socialism at all; there is no middle term.) + +With these three intellectual laws of identity, of contradiction, and +of the excluded middle, formal logic begins. + +It is at once apparent that this logic operates with rigid, constant, +unchanging, dogmatic conceptions, something like geometry, which deals +with definitely bounded spatial forms. Such was the rationale of the +old world-philosophy. + +By the beginning of the nineteenth century a new conception of the +world had begun to make its way. The world, as we see it, or get to +know it from books, was neither created, nor has it existed from time +immemorial, but has developed in the course of uncounted thousands of +years, and is still in process of development. It has traversed a +whole series of changes, transformations, and catastrophes. The earth +was a gaseous mass, then a ball of fire; the species and classes of +things and beings which exist on the earth have partly arisen by +gradual transition from one sort into another, and partly made their +appearance as a result of sudden changes. And in human history it is +the same as in nature; the form and significance of the family, of the +State, of production, of religion, of law, etc., are subjected to a +process of development. All things are in flux, in a state of +becoming, of arising and disappearing. There is nothing rigid, +constant, unchanging in the Cosmos. + +In view of the new conception, the old formal logic could no longer +satisfy the intellect; it could not adequately deal with things in a +state of evolution. In ever-increasing measure it became impossible +for the thinker to work with hard and fast conceptions. From the +beginning of the nineteenth century a new logic was sought, and it was +G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) who made a comprehensive and thoroughly +painstaking endeavour to formulate a new logic in accordance with the +universal process of evolution. This task appeared to him to be the +more urgent, as his whole philosophy aimed at bringing thought and +being, reason and the universe, into the closest connection and +agreement, dealing with them as inseparable from each other, regarding +them as identical, and representing the universe as the gradual +embodiment of Reason. "What is reasonable is real; what is real is +reasonable." The task of philosophy is to comprehend what is. Every +individual is the child of his time. Even philosophy is its time +grasped in thought. No individual can overleap his time. (Pref. to +Phil, of Law.) It is evident that, in his way, Hegel was no abstract +thinker, divorced from actuality, and speculating at large. Rather he +set himself to give material content to the abstract and purely ideal, +to make it concrete, in fact. The idea without reality, or reality +without the idea, seemed to him unthinkable. Accordingly his logic +could not deal merely with the laws of thought, but must at the same +time take account of the laws of cosmic evolution. Merely to play with +the forms of thought, and to fence with ideas, as the old logicians, +especially in the Middle Ages, were wont to do, seemed to him a +useless, abstract, unreal operation. He, therefore, created a science +of thinking, which formulated not only the laws of thought, but also +the laws of evolution, albeit, unfortunately, in a language which +offered immense difficulties to his readers. + +The essence of his logic is the dialectic. + +By dialectic the old Greeks understood the art of discourse and +rejoinder, the refutation of an opponent by the destruction of his +assertions and proofs, the bringing into relief of the contradictions +and antitheses. When examined closely, this art of discussion, in +spite of its contradictory and apparently negative (destructive) +intellectual work, is seen to be very useful, because, out of the +clash of opposing opinions, it brings forth the truth and stimulates +to deeper thought. Hegel seized hold of this expression, and named his +logical method after it. This is the dialectical method, or the manner +of conceiving the things and beings of the universe as in the process +of becoming, through the struggle of contradictory elements and their +resolution. With its aid, he brings to judgment the three original +laws of thought which have already been alluded to. The principle of +identity is an abstract, incomplete truth, for it separates a thing +from the variety of other things, and its relations to them. Everybody +will see this to be true. Let us take the proposition: the earth is +the earth. Whoever hears the first three words of this proposition +naturally expects that what is predicated of the earth should tell him +something which distinguishes the earth from other things. Instead of +this, he is offered an empty, hard and fast identity, the dead husk of +an idea. If the principle of identity is at best only an incomplete +truth, the principles of contradiction and of the excluded middle are +complete untruths. Far from making a thought nonsense, contradiction +is the very thing which unfolds and develops the thought, and hence, +too, the object which it expresses. It is precisely opposition, or +antithesis, which sets things in motion, which is the mainspring of +evolution, which calls forth and develops the latent forces and powers +of being. Had the earth as a fiery, gaseous mass remained in that +state, without the contradiction, that is, the cooling and +condensation, taking place, then no life would have appeared on it. +Had the State remained autocratic, and the contradictory principle, +middle-class freedom, been absent, then the life of the State would +have become rigid, and the bloom of culture rendered impossible. Had +Capitalism remained without its proletarian contradiction, then it +would have reverted to an industrial feudalism. It is the +contradiction, or the antithesis, which brings into being the whole +kingdom of the potentialities and gifts of nature and of humanity. +Only when the contradictory begins to reveal itself does evolution to +a higher plane of thought and existence begin. It is obvious that we +are not concerned here with logical contradictions, which usually +arise from unclear thinking or from confusion in the presentation of +facts; Hegel, and after him Marx, dealt rather with real +contradictions, with antitheses and conflicts, as they arise of +themselves in the process of evolution of things and conditions. + +The thing or the being, against which the contradiction operates, was +called by Hegel the Positive, and the contradiction, the antagonistic +element, or the antithesis, he called the Negation. As may be seen +from our example, this negation is not mere annihilation, not a +resolution into nothing, but a clearing away and a building up at the +same time; a disappearance and a coming into existence; a movement to +a higher stage. Hegel says in this connection: "It has been hitherto +one of the rooted prejudices of logic and a commonly accepted belief +that the contradiction is not so essential or so inherent a +characteristic (in thought and existence) as the identity. Yet in +comparison with it the identity is, in truth, but the characteristic +of what is simply and directly perceived, of lifeless existence. The +contradiction, however, is the source of all movement and life; only +in so far as it contains a contradiction can anything have movement, +power, and effect." + +The part played by the contradiction, the antithesis, or the negation +very easily escapes a superficial observer. He sees, indeed, that the +world is filled with a variety of things, and that where anything is +there is also its opposite; e.g., existence--non-existence, +cold--heat, light--darkness, mildness--harshness, pleasure--pain, +joy--sorrow, riches--poverty, Capital--Labour, life--death, +virtue--vice, Idealism--Materialism, Romanticism--Classicism, etc., +but superficial thought does not realise that it is faced with a world +of contradictions and antitheses; it only knows that the world is full +of varied and manifold things. "Only active reason," says Hegel, +"reduced the mere multiplicity and diversity of phenomena to +antithesis. And only when pushed to this point do the manifold +phenomena become active and mutually stimulating, producing the state +of negation, which is the very heart-beat of progress and life." Only +through their differentiation and unfolding as opposing forces and +factors is further progress beyond the antithesis to a higher positive +stage made possible. "Where, however," continues Hegel, "the power to +develop the contradiction and bring it to a head is lacking, the thing +or the being is shattered on the contradiction."--(Hegel, "Science of +Logic," Pt. 1, Sec. 2, pp. 66, 69, 70.) + +This thought of Hegel's is of extraordinary importance for the +understanding of Marxism. It is the soul of the Marxian doctrine of +the class-struggle, nay, of the whole Marxian system. One may say that +Marx is always on the look-out for contradictions within the social +development, for wherever the contradiction (antithesis--class +struggle) shows itself, there begins, according to Marx-Hegel, the +progress to a higher plane.[1] + +We have now become familiar with two expressions of the dialectical +method, the positive and the negation. We have seen the first two +stages of the process of growth in thought and in reality. The process +is not yet complete. It still requires a third stage. This third step +Hegel called the Negation of the Negation. With the continued +operation of the negation, a new thing or being comes into existence. + +To revert to our examples: the complete cooling and condensation of +the earth's crust: the rise of the middle-class State: the victory of +the Proletariat: these things represent the suspension or the setting +aside of the Negation; the contradiction is thus resolved, and a new +stage in the process of evolution is reached. The expressions Positive +(or affirmation), Negation, and Negation of the Negation, are also +known as thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. + +In order to understand this more distinctly, and to visualise it, let +us consider an egg. It is something positive, but it contains a germ, +which, awakening to life, gradually consumes (i.e., negatives) the +contents of the egg. This negation is, however, no mere destruction +and annihilation; on the contrary, it results in the germ developing +into a living thing. The negation being complete, the chick breaks +through the egg shell. This represents the negation of the negation, +whereby there has arisen something organically higher than an egg. + +This mode of procedure in human thinking and in the operations of +nature and history Hegel called the dialectical method, or the +dialectical process. It is evident that the dialectic is at the same +time a method of investigation and a philosophy. Hegel outlines his +dialectic in the following words: + +"The only thing which is required for scientific progress, an +elementary principle for the understanding of which one should really +strive, is the recognition of the logical principle that the negative +is just as much a positive, or that the contradictory does not +resolve into nothing, into an abstract nothingness, but actually only +into the negation of a special content.... In so far as the resultant, +the negation, is a definite negation, it has a content. It is a new +conception, but a higher and richer conception than the preceding one; +for it has been enriched by the negation or antithesis of this; it +therefore contains it and more than contains it, being indeed the +synthetic unity of itself and its contrary. In this way the system of +concepts has to be formed--and is to be perfected by a continual and +purely intellectual process which is independent of outside +influences."--(Hegel, "Science of Logic" (German), Bk. I., +Introduction.) + +The dialectical process completes itself not only by gradual +transitions, but also by leaps. Hegel remarks: + +"It has been said that there are no sudden leaps in nature, and it is +a common notion that things have their origin through gradual increase +or decrease. But there is also such a thing as sudden transformation +from quantity into quality. For example, water does not become +gradually hard on cooling, becoming first pulpy and ultimately +attaining the rigidity of ice, but turns hard at once. If the +temperature be lowered to a certain degree, the water is suddenly +changed into ice, i.e., the quantity--the number of degrees of +temperature--is transformed into quality--a change in the nature of +the thing."--("Logic" (German), Pt. 1, Sec. 1, p. 464, Ed. 1841.) + +Marx handled this method with unsurpassed mastery; with its aid he +formulated the laws of the evolution of Socialism. In his earliest +works, "The Holy Family" (1844) and the "Poverty of Philosophy" +(1847), written when he was formulating his materialist conception of +history, as also in his "Capital," it is with the dialectic of Hegel +that he investigates these laws. + +"Proletariat and Riches (later Marx would have said Capital) are +antitheses. As such they constitute a whole; both are manifestations +of the world of private property. The question to be considered is the +specific position which both occupy in the antithesis. To describe +them as two sides of a whole is not a sufficient explanation. Private +property as private property, as riches, is compelled to preserve its +own existence, and along with it that of its antithesis, the +Proletariat. Private property satisfied in itself is the positive side +of the antithesis. The Proletariat, on the other hand, is obliged, as +Proletariat, to abolish itself, and along with it private property, +its conditioned antithesis, which makes it the Proletariat. It is a +negative side of the antithesis, the internal source of unrest, the +disintegrated and disintegrating Proletariat.... Within the +antithesis, therefore, the owner of private property is the +conservative, and the proletarian is the destructive party. From the +former proceeds the action of maintaining the antithesis, from the +latter the action of destroying it. From the point of view of its +national, economic movement, private property is, of course, +continually being driven towards its own dissolution, but only by an +unconscious development which is independent of it, and which exists +against its will, and is limited by the nature of things; only, that +is, by creating the Proletariat as proletariat, poverty conscious of +its own physical and spiritual poverty, and demoralised humanity +conscious of its own demoralisation and consequently striving against +it. + +"The Proletariat fulfils the judgment which private property by the +creation of the Proletariat suspends over itself, just as it fulfils +the judgment which wage-labour suspends over itself in creating alien +riches and its own condemnation. If the Proletariat triumphs, it does +not thereby become the absolute side of society, for it triumphs only +by abolishing itself and its opposite. In this way both the +Proletariat and its conditioned opposite, private property, are done +away with."[2] + +The dialectical method is again described in a few sentences on pages +420-421 of the third volume of "Capital" (German), where we read: "In +so far as the labour process operates merely between man and nature, +its simple elements are common to every form of its social +development. But any given historical form of this process further +develops its material foundations and its social forms. When it has +attained a certain degree of maturity the given historical form is +cast off and makes room for a higher one. That the moment of such a +crisis has arrived is shown as soon as there is a deepening and +widening of the contradiction and antithesis between the conditions of +distribution, and consequently also the existing historical form of +the conditions of production corresponding to them, on the one hand, +and the forces of production, productive capacity, and the state of +evolution of its agents, on the other. There then arises a conflict +between the material development of production and its corresponding +social form." + +But the Hegelian dialectic appears most strikingly in the famous +twenty-fourth chapter (sec. 7) of the first volume of "Capital" +(German), where the evolution of capitalism from small middle-class +ownership through all phases up to the Socialist revolution is +comprehensively outlined in bold strokes: "The capitalist method of +appropriation, which springs from the capitalist method of production, +and therefore capitalist private property, is the first negation of +individual private property based on one's own labour. But capitalist +production begets with the inevitableness of a natural process its own +negation. It is the negation of the negation." Here we have the three +stages: the thesis--private property; the antithesis--capitalism; the +synthesis--common ownership. + +Of critical social writers outside Germany it was Proudhon, in +particular, who, in his works "What is Property?" and "Economic +Contradictions, or the Philosophy of Poverty" (1840, 1846), attempted +to use the Hegelian dialectic. The fact that he gave his chief book +the title "Economic Contradictions" shows that Proudhon was largely +preoccupied with Hegel. Nevertheless, he did not get below the +surface; he used the Hegelian formulę quite mechanically, and lacked +the conception of an immanent process of development (the +forward-impelling force within the social organism). + +If we look at the dialectical method as here presented, Hegel might be +taken for a materialist thinker. Such a notion would be erroneous. For +Hegel is an idealist: the origin and essence of the process of growth +is to be sought, according to him, not in material forces, but in the +logical idea, reason, the universal spirit, the absolute, or--in its +religious expression--God. Before He created the world He is to be +regarded as an Idea, containing within itself all forms of being, +which it develops dialectically. The idea creates for itself a +material embodiment; it first expresses itself in the objects of +inorganic nature; then in plants, organisms wherein life awakens; then +in animals, in which the Idea attains to the twilight of reason; +finally, in men, where reason rises into mind and achieves +self-consciousness and freedom. As self-conscious mind it expresses +itself in the history of peoples, in religion, art and philosophy, in +human institutions, in the family and in law, until it realises itself +in the State as its latest and highest object. + +According to Hegel, then, the universal Idea develops into Godhead in +proportion as the material world rises from the inorganic to the +organic, and, finally, to man. In the mental part of man, the Idea +arrives at self-consciousness and freedom and becomes God. In his +cosmology, Hegel is a direct descendant of the German mystics, +Sebastion Franck and Jacob Boehme. He was in a much higher degree +German than any of the German philosophers since Leibnitz. + +The strangest thing, however, is that Germanism, Protestantism, and +the Prussian State appeared to Hegel as the highest expression of the +universal mind. Particularly the Prussian State as it existed before +March, 1848, with its repudiation of all middle-class reforms and +liberalism (of any kind), and its basis of strong governmental force. + +There is little purpose in trying to acquire a logical conception of +Hegelian cosmology. It is not only idealist, but, as we said, +mystical; it is as inconceivable to human reason as the biblical; it +is irrational, and lies beyond the sphere of reason. Making the +universe arise out of pure reason, out of the logical idea, developing +through the dialectical process with a consciousness of freedom, it +yet concludes in unreason and an obstinate determinism. In Liberalism +Hegel saw only a simple negation, a purely destructive factor, which +disintegrates the State and resolves it into individuals, thus +depriving it of all cohesion and organising strength. He blamed +Parliamentarism for demanding "that everything should take place +through their (the individuals) expressed power and consent. The will +of the many overturns the Ministry, and what was the Opposition now +takes control, but, so far as it is the Government, the latter finds +the many against it. Thus agitation and unrest continue. This +collision, this knot, this problem, is what confronts history, a +problem which it must resolve at some future time." One would have +thought that it was precisely Parliamentarism, with its unrest and +agitation, its antitheses and antagonisms, which would have had a +special attraction for Hegel, but nevertheless he turned aside from +it. How is this to be explained? + +Hegel's relation to the Prussian State is to be accounted for by his +strong patriotic sentiments. His disposition inclined him strongly to +nationalism in politics. In his early manhood he witnessed the +complete dissolution of the German Empire, and deeply bewailed the +wretchedness of German conditions. He wrote: "Germany is no longer a +State; even the wars which Germany waged have not ended in a +particularly honourable manner for her. Burgundy, Alsace, Lorraine +have been torn away. The Peace of Westphalia has often been alluded to +as Germany's Palladium, although by it the complete dismemberment of +Germany has only been established more thoroughly than before. The +Germans have been grateful to Richelieu, who destroyed their power." +On the other hand, the achievements of Prussia in the Seven Years' +War, and in the War of Liberation against the French, awoke in him the +hope that it was this State which could save Germany. To this thought +he gave eloquent and enthusiastic expression in his address at the +opening of his Berlin lectures in October, 1818, and also in his +lecture on Frederick the Great. Hegel therefore rejected everything +which seemed to him to spell a weakening of the Prussia State power. +The dialectician was overcome by national feelings. + +However, Hegel's place in the history of thought rests, not on his +explanations of the creation of the world, nor on his German +nationalist politics, but upon the dialectical method. In exploring, +by means of this method, the wide expanse of human knowledge, he +scattered an astonishing abundance of materialistic and strictly +scientific observations and suggestions, and inspired his pupils and +readers with a living conception of history, of the development of +mankind to self-consciousness and freedom, thus rendering them capable +of pushing their studies further, and emancipating themselves from all +mysticism. As an example of the materialist tendency of his +philosophy, the following references will serve. His "Philosophy of +History" contains a whole chapter upon the geographical foundations of +universal history. In this chapter he expresses himself--quite +contrary to his deification of the State--as follows: "A real State +and a real central government only arise when the distinction of +classes is already given, when Riches and Poverty have become very +great, and such conditions have arisen that a great multitude can no +longer satisfy their needs in the way to which they have been +accustomed." Or take his explanation of the founding of colonies by +the Greeks. + +"This projecting of colonies, particularly in the period after the +Trojan War until Cyrus, is here a peculiar phenomenon, which may thus +be explained: in the individual towns the people had the governing +power in their hands, in that they decided the affairs of State in the +last resort. In consequence of the long peace, population and +development greatly increased, and quickly brought about the +accumulation of great riches, which is always accompanied by the +phenomenon of great distress and poverty. Industry, in our sense, did +not exist at that time, and the land was speedily monopolised. +Nevertheless, a section of the poorer classes would not allow +themselves to be depressed to the poverty line, for each man felt +himself to be a free citizen. The sole resource, therefore, was +colonisation." + +Or even the following passage, which conceives the philosophical +system merely as the result and reflection of the accomplished facts +of existence, and therefore rejects all painting of Utopias: "Besides, +philosophy comes always too late to say a word as to how the world +ought to be. As an idea of the universe, it only arises in the period +after reality has completed its formative process and attained its +final shape. What this conception teaches is necessarily demonstrated +by history, namely, that the ideal appears over against the real only +after the consummation of reality, that the ideal reconstructs the +same world, comprehended in the substance of reality, in the form of +an intellectual realm. A form of life has become old when philosophy +paints its grey on grey, and with grey on grey it cannot be +rejuvenated but only recognised. The owl of Minerva begins its flight +only with the falling twilight."--Preface to the "Philosophy of Law." + +No materialist could have said this better: the owl--the symbol of +wisdom--only begins her flight in the evening, after the busy +activities of the world are over. Thus we have first the universe, and +then thought; first existence, and then consciousness. + +Hegel himself was therefore an example of his own teaching that +contradictory elements are to be found side by side. His mind +contained both idealism and realism, but he did not bring them by a +process of reasoning to the point of acute contradiction in order to +reach a higher plane of thought. And as he regarded it as the task of +philosophy to recognise the principle of things, and to follow it out +systematically and logically throughout the whole vast domain of +reality, and as further, owing to his mystical bent, he asserted the +idea to be the ultimate reality, he remained a consistent Idealist. + +The Conservatism of Hegel, who was the philosophical representative of +the Prussian State, was, however, sadly incompatible with the +awakening consciousness of the German middle class, which, in spite of +its economic weakness, aspired to a freer State constitution, and +greater liberty of action. These aspirations were already somewhat +more strongly developed in the larger towns and industrial centres of +Prussia and the other German States. The Young Hegelians[3] championed +this middle-class awakening in the philosophical sphere, just as +"Young Germany" (Heine, Boerne, etc.) did in the province of +literature. + +Just at the time when Marx was still at the university the Young +Hegelians took up the fight against the conservative section of +Hegel's disciples and the Christian Romanticism of Prussia. The +antagonism between the old and the new school made itself felt both in +religious philosophy and political literature, but both tendencies +were seldom combined in the same persons. David Strauss subjected the +Gospels to a candid criticism; Feuerbach investigated the nature of +Christianity and of religion generally, and in this department +inverted Hegel's Idealism to Materialism; Bruno Bauer trained his +heavy historical and philosophical artillery on the traditional dogmas +concerning the rise of Christianity. Politically, however, they +remained at the stage of the freedom of the individual: that is, they +were merely moderate Liberals. Nevertheless, there were also less +prominent Young Hegelians who were at that time in the Liberal left +wing as regards their political opinions, such as Arnold Ruge. + +None of the Young Hegelians had, however, used the dialectical method +to develop still further the teaching of the Master. Karl Marx, the +youngest of the Hegelians, first brought it to a higher stage in +social science. He was no longer known to Hegel, who might otherwise +have died with a more contented or perhaps even still more perturbed +mind. Heinrich Heine, who belonged to the Hegelians in the thirties +and forties, relates the following anecdote, which if not true yet +excellently illustrates the extraordinary difficulties of the Master's +doctrines:-- + +As Hegel lay dying, his disciples, who had gathered round him, seeing +the furrows deepen on the Master's care-worn countenance, inquired the +cause of his grief, and tried to comfort him by reminding him of the +large number of admiring disciples and followers he would leave +behind. Breathing with difficulty, he replied: "None of my disciples +has understood me; only Michelet has understood me, and," he added +with a sigh, "even he has misunderstood me." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] In one of the later chapters the reader will find the series of +contradictions discovered by Marx in the evolution of capitalism. Sec. +IV., "Outlines of the Economic Doctrine." Chapter 8, "Economic +Contradictions." + +[2] Marx, in "The Holy Family" (1844), reprinted by Mehring in the +"Collected Works or Literary Remains of Marx and Engels," vol. II., p. +132. + +[3] After the death of Hegel differences of opinion arose among his +disciples, chiefly with respect to his doctrines of the Deity, +immortality and the personality of Christ. One section, the so-called +"Right Wing," inclined to orthodoxy on these questions. In opposition +to them stood the "Young Hegelians," the progressive "Left Wing." To +this section belonged Arnold Ruge, Bruno Bauer, Feuerbach, and +Strauss, author of the "Life of Jesus." + + + + +The Life and Teaching of Karl Marx + + + + +I. + +PARENTS AND FRIENDS. + + +I. MARX'S APPRENTICESHIP. + +Karl Heinrich Marx first saw the light of day in Treves on May 5, +1818. His father, an enlightened, fine feeling, and philanthropic Jew, +was a Jurist who had slowly risen from the humble circumstances of a +German Rabbi family and acquired a respectable practice, but who never +learnt the art of making money. His mother was a Dutchwoman, and came +of a Rabbi family called Pressburg, which, as the name indicates, had +emigrated from Pressburg, in Hungary, to Holland, in the seventeenth +century. She spoke German very imperfectly. Marx has handed on to us +one of her sayings, "If Karl made a lot of Capital, instead of writing +a lot about Capital, it would have been much better." The Marxes had +several children, of whom Karl alone showed special mental gifts. + +In the year 1824 the family embraced Christianity. The baptism of Jews +was at that time no longer a rarity. The enlightenment of the last +half of the eighteenth century had undermined the dogmatic beliefs of +many cultured Jews, and the succeeding period of German Christian +Romanticism brought a strengthening and idealising of Christianity and +of national feeling, from which, for practical just as much as for +spiritual reasons, the Jews who had renounced their own religion could +not escape. They were completely assimilated, felt and thought like +the rest of their Christian and German fellow-citizens. Marx's father +felt himself to be a good Prussian, and once recommended his son to +compose an ode, in the grand style, on Napoleon's downfall and +Prussia's victory. Karl did not, in truth, follow his father's advice, +but from that time of Christian enthusiasm and German patriotic +sentiment until his life's end, there remained with him an anti-Jewish +prejudice; the Jew was generally to him either a usurer or a cadger. + +Karl was sent to the grammar school in his native town, leaving with a +highly creditable record. The school was, however, not the only place +where he developed his mind. During his school years he used to +frequent the house of the Government Privy Councillor, L. von +Westphalen, a highly cultured Prussian official, whose favourite poets +were Homer and Shakespeare, and who followed attentively the +intellectual tendencies of his time. Although he had already reached +advanced age, he liked to converse with the precocious youth, and to +influence his mental growth. Marx honoured him as a fatherly friend +"who welcomes every progressive movement with the enthusiasm and sober +judgment of a lover of truth, and who is a living proof that Idealism +is no imagination, but the truth."--(Dedication of Marx's doctor +thesis.) + +After quitting the public school, Marx went to the University of Bonn, +in order to study jurisprudence, according to his father's wishes. +After a year of the merry life of a student, he removed in the autumn +of 1836 to Berlin University, the centre of culture and truth, as +Hegel had called it in his Inaugural Lecture (1818). Before his +departure for Berlin, he had become secretly engaged to Jenny Von +Westphalen, the daughter of his fatherly friend, a woman distinguished +alike for beauty, culture, and strength of character. + + +II. STUDENT. + +In Berlin, Marx threw himself into the study of Philosophy, +Jurisprudence, History, Geography, Literature, the History of Art, +etc. He had a Faust-like thirst for truth, and his appetite for work +was insatiable; in these matters only superlatives can be used to +describe, Marx. In one of his poems dating, from this period, he says +of himself: + + "Ne'er can I perform in calmness + What has seized my soul with might, + But must strive and struggle onward + In a ceaseless, restless flight. + + All divine, enhancing graces + Would I make of life a part; + Penetrate the realms of science, + Grasp the joys of Song and Art." + +Giving up all social intercourse, he worked night and day, making +abstracts of what he read, translating from Greek and Latin, working +at philosophical systems, setting down a considerable number of his +own thoughts, and drafting outlines of philosophy or jurisprudence, as +well as writing three volumes of poems. The year 1837 marks one of the +critical periods of Marx's intellectual development; it was a time of +vacillation and ferment and of internal struggle, at the end of which +he found refuge in the Hegelian dialectics. In so doing he turned his +back on the abstract idealism of Kant and Fichte, and made the first +step towards reality; and indeed at that time Marx firmly believed +that Hegel actually stood for reality. In a somewhat lengthy letter +dated November 10, 1837, a truly human document, Marx gives his father +an account of his intense activity during that remarkable period, +comprising his first two terms at the University of Berlin, when he +was still so very young: + + "DEAR FATHER, + + "There are times which are landmarks in our lives; and they not + only mark off a phase that has passed, but, at the same time, + point out clearly our new direction. At such turning points we + feel impelled to make a critical survey of the past and the + present, so as to attain to a clear knowledge of our actual + position. Nay, mankind itself, as all history shows, loves to + indulge in this retrospection and contemplation, and thereby + often appears to be going backward or standing still, when after + all it has only thrown itself back in its armchair, the better + to apprehend itself, to grasp its own doings, and to penetrate + into the workings of the spirit. + + "The individual, however, becomes lyrical at such times; for + every metamorphosis is in part an elegy on the past and in part + the prologue of a great new poem that is striving for permanent + expression in a chaos of resplendent but fleeting colours. Be + that as it may, we would fain set up a monument to our past + experiences that they may regain in memory the significance + which they have lost in the active affairs of life: and what + more fitting way can we find of doing that than by bringing them + and laying them before the hearts of our parents! + + "And so now, when I take stock of the year which I have just + spent here, and in so doing answer your very welcome letter from + Ems, let me consider my position, in the same way as I look on + life altogether, as the embodiment of a spiritual force that + seeks expression in every direction: in science, in art, and in + one's own personality.... On my arrival in Berlin I broke off + all my former connections, paid visits rarely and unwillingly, + and sought to bury myself in science and art.... In accordance + with my ideas at the time, poetry must of necessity be my first + concern, or at least the most agreeable of my pursuits, and the + one for which I most cared; but, as might be expected from my + disposition and the whole trend of my development, it was purely + idealistic. Next I had to study jurisprudence, and above all I + felt a strong impulse to grapple with philosophy. Both studies, + however, were so interwoven that on the one hand I worked + through the Jurist's Heineccius and Thibaut and the Sources + docilely and quite uncritically, translating, for instance, the + first two books of the Pandects of Justinian, while on the other + hand I attempted to evolve a philosophy of law in the sphere of + jurisprudence. By way of introduction I laid down a few + metaphysical principles, and carried this unfortunate work as + far as Public Rights, in all about 300 sheets. + + "In this, however, more than in anything else, the conflict + between what is and what ought to be, which is peculiar to + Idealism, made itself disagreeably prominent. In the first place + there was what I had so graciously christened the Metaphysics of + Law, i.e., first principles, reflections, definitions, standing + aloof from all established jurisprudence and from every actual + form of legal practice. Then the unscientific form of + mathematical dogmatism in which there is so much beating about + the bush, so much diffuse argumentation without any fruitful + development or vital creation, hindered me from the outset from + arriving at the Truth. A triangle may be constructed and + reasoned about by the mathematician; it is a mere spatial + concept and does not of itself undergo any further evolution; it + must be brought in conjunction with something else, when it + requires other properties, and thus by placing the same thing in + various relationships we are enabled to deduce new relationships + and new truths. Whereas in the concrete expression of the mental + life as we have it in Law, in the State, in Nature, and in the + whole of philosophy, the object of our study must be considered + in its development.... The individual's reason must proceed with + its self-contradiction until it discovers its own unity." + +In this we perceive the first trace of the Hegelian dialectic in Marx. +We see rigid geometrical forms contrasted with the continually +evolving organism, with social forms and human institutions. Marx had +put up a stout resistance against the influence of the Hegelian +philosophy; nay, he had even hated it and had made mighty efforts to +cling faithfully to his idealism, but in the end he, too, must fall +under the spell of the idea of evolution, in the form which it then +assumed in Hegelian speculation in Germany. + +Marx then goes on to speak of his legal studies as well as of his +poems, and thus continues: + + "As a result of these various activities I passed many sleepless + nights during my first term, engaged in many battles, and had to + endure much mental and physical excitement; and at the end of it + all I found myself not very much better off, having in the + meanwhile neglected nature, art and society, and spurned + pleasure: such, indeed, was the comment which my body seemed to + make. My doctor advised me to try the country, and so, having + for the first time passed through the whole length of the city, + I found myself before the gate on the Stralau Road.... From the + idealism which I had cherished so long I fell to seeking the + ideal in reality itself. Whereas before the gods had dwelt above + the earth, they had now become its very centre. + + "I had read fragments of Hegel's philosophy, the strange, rugged + melody of which had not pleased me. Once again I wished to dive + into the depths of the sea, this time with the resolute + intention of finding a spiritual nature just as essential, + concrete, and perfect as the physical, and instead of indulging + in intellectual gymnastics, bringing up pure pearls into the + sunlight. + + "I wrote about 24 sheets of a dialogue entitled 'Cleantes or on + the Source and Inevitable Development of Philosophy.' In this, + art and science, which had hitherto been kept asunder, were to + some extent blended, and bold adventurer that I was, I even set + about the task of evolving a philosophical, dialectical + exposition of the nature of the Deity as it is manifested in a + pure concept, in religion, in nature, and in history. My last + thesis was the beginning of the Hegelian system; and this work, + in course of which I had to make some acquaintance with science, + Schelling and history, and which had occasioned me an infinite + amount of hard thinking, delivers me like a faithless siren into + the hands of the enemy.... + + "Upset by Jenny's illness and by the fruitlessness and utter + failure of my intellectual labours, and torn with vexation at + having to make into my idol a view which I had hated, I fell + ill, as I have already told you in a previous letter. On my + recovery I burnt all my poems and material for projected short + stories in the vain belief that I could give all that up; and, + to be sure, so far I have not given cause to gainsay it. + + "During my illness I had made acquaintance with Hegel from + beginning to end, as also with most of his disciples. Through + frequent meetings with friends in Stralau I got an introduction + into a Graduates' Club, in which were a number of professors and + Dr. Rutenberg, the closest of my Berlin friends. In the + discussions that took place many conflicting views were put + forward, and more and more securely did I get involved in the + meshes of the new philosophy which I had sought to escape; but + everything articulate in me was put to silence, a veritable + ironical rage fell upon me, as well it might after so much + negation."--("Neue Zeit," 16th year, Vol. I., No. 1.) + +His father was anything but pleased with this letter. He reproached +Karl with the aimless and discursive way in which he worked. He had +expected that these Berlin studies would lead to something more than +breeding monstrosities and destroying them again. He believed that +Karl would, before everything else, have considered his future career, +that he would have devoted all his attention to the lectures in his +course, that he would have cultivated the acquaintance of people in +authority, that he would have been economical, and that he would have +avoided all philosophical extravagances. He refers him to the example +of his fellow students who attend their lectures regularly and have an +eye to their future: + + "Indeed these young men sleep quite peacefully except when they + now and then devote the whole or part of a night to pleasure, + whereas my clever and gifted son Karl passes wretched sleepless + nights, wearying body and mind with cheerless study, forbearing + all pleasures with the sole object of applying himself to + abstruse studies: but what he builds to-day he destroys again + to-morrow, and in the end he finds that he has destroyed what he + already had, without having gained anything from other people. + At last the body begins to ail and the mind gets confused, + whilst these ordinary folks steal along in easy marches, and + attain their goal if not better at least more comfortably than + those who contemn youthful pleasures and undermine their health + in order to snatch at the ghost of erudition, which they could + probably have exorcised more successfully in an hour spent in + the society of competent men--with social enjoyment into the + bargain!" + +In spite of his unbounded love for his father, Marx could not deviate +from the path which he had chosen. Those deeper natures who, after +having lost their religious beliefs, have the good fortune to attain +to a philosophical or scientific conception of the universe, do not +easily shrink from a conflict between filial affection and loyalty to +new convictions. Nor was Marx allured by the prospects of a +distinguished official career. Indeed his fighting temperament would +never have admitted of that. He wrote the lines: + + Therefore let us, all things daring, + Never from our task recede; + Never sink in sullen silence, + Paralysed in will and deed. + + Let us not in base subjection + Brood away our fearful life, + When with deed and aspiration + We might enter in the strife. + +His stay in Stralau had the most beneficial effects on his health. He +worked strenuously at his newly-acquired philosophical convictions, +and for this his relations with the members of the Graduates' Club +stood him in good stead, more especially his acquaintance with Bruno +Bauer, a lecturer in theology, and Friedrich Köppen, a master in a +grammar school, who in spite of difference of age and position treated +him as an equal. Marx gave up all thought of an official career, and +looked forward to obtaining a lectureship in some university or +other. His father reconciled himself to the new studies and strivings +of his son; he was, however, not destined to rejoice at Karl's +subsequent achievements. After a short illness he died in May, 1838, +at the age of fifty-six. + +Marx then gave up altogether the study of jurisprudence, and worked +all the more assiduously at the perfecting of his philosophical +knowledge, preparing himself for his degree examination in order--at +the instigation of Bruno Bauer--to get himself admitted as quickly as +possible as lecturer in philosophy at the University of Bonn. Bauer +himself expected to be made Professor of Theology in Bonn after having +served as lecturer in Berlin from 1834 to 1839 and in Bonn during the +year 1840. Marx wrote a thesis on the Natural Philosophies of +Democritus and Epicurus, and in 1841 the degree of Doctor of +Philosophy was conferred on him at Jena. He then went over to his +friend Bauer in Bonn, where he thought to begin his career as +lecturer. Meanwhile his hopes had disappeared. Prussian universities +were at that time no places for free inquirers. It was not even +possible for Bauer to obtain a professorship; still less could Marx, +who was much more violent in the expression of his opinions, reckon on +an academic career. His only way out of this blind alley was +free-lance journalism, and for this an opportunity soon presented +itself. + + +III. BEGINNINGS OF PUBLIC LIFE. + +Marx made his entry into public life with a thorough philosophical +training and with an irrestrainable impulse to enter into the +struggle for the spiritual freedom of Germany. By spiritual freedom he +understood first and foremost freedom in religion and liberalism in +politics. He was, too, perfectly clear as to the instrument to be +used: it was criticism. The positive and rigid having become +ineffectual and unreasonable, is to fall before the weapon of +criticism and so make room for a living stream of thought and being, +or as Marx himself expressed it in 1844, "to make the petrified +conditions dance by singing to them their own tune." Their own tune +is, of course, the dialectic. Criticism, generally speaking, was the +weapon of the Young Hegelians. Criticism is negation, sweeping away +existing conditions and prevailing dogmas to make a clear path for +life. Not the setting up of new principles or new dogmas, but the +clearing away of the old dogmas is the task of the Young Hegelians. +For if dialectic be rightly understood, criticism or negation is the +best positive work. Criticism finds expression, above all, in +polemics, in the literal meaning of waging war--ruthless war--against +the unreal for the purpose of shaking up one's contemporaries. + +After Marx had given up all hope of an academic career, the only field +of labour that remained open to him was, as we have already said, that +of journalism. His material circumstances compelled him, moreover, to +consider the question of an independent livelihood. Just about this +time the Liberals in the Rhine provinces took up a scheme for the +foundation of a newspaper, the object of which was to prepare the way +for conditions of greater freedom. The necessary money was soon +procured. Significantly enough, Young Hegelians were kept in view for +editors and contributors. On the first of January, 1842, the first +number of the _Rheinische Zeitung_ was published at Cologne. The +editor was Dr. Rutenberg, who had formed an intimate friendship with +Marx at the time the latter was attending the University of Berlin; +and so Marx, then in Bonn, was also invited to contribute. He accepted +the invitation, and his essays brought him to the notice of Arnold +Ruge, who likewise invited him to take part in his literary +undertakings in conjunction with Feuerbach, Bauer, Moses Hess, and +others. Marx's essays were greatly appreciated, too, by the readers of +the _Rheinische Zeitung_, so that in October, 1842, on the retirement +of Rutenberg, he was called to the editorial chair of that journal. In +his new position he had to deal with a series of economic and +political questions which, no doubt, with a less conscientious editor +would have occasioned little hard thinking, but which for Marx showed +the need of a thorough study of political economy and Socialism. In +October, 1842, a congress of French and German intellectuals was held +in Strasburg, and amongst other things French Socialist theories were +discussed. Likewise in the Rhine provinces arose questions concerning +landed property and taxes, which had to be dealt with from the +editorial chair, questions which were not to be answered by a purely +philosophical knowledge. Besides, the censorship made the way hard for +a paper conducted with such critical acumen, and did not allow the +editor to fulfil his real mission. In the preface to "The Critique of +Political Economy" (1859) Marx gives a short sketch of his editorial +life: + +"As editor of the _Rheinische Zeitung_, in 1842 and 1843 I came up, +for the first time, against the difficulty of having to take part in +the controversy over so-called material interests. The proceedings of +the Diet of the Rhine provinces with regard to wood stealing and +parcelling out of landed property, and their action towards the +farmers of the Moselle districts, and lastly debates on Free Trade and +Protection, gave the first stimulus to my investigation of economic +questions. On the other hand, an echo of French Socialism and +Communism, feebly philosophical in tone, had at that time made itself +heard in the columns of the _Rheinische Zeitung_. I declared myself +against superficiality, confessing, however, at the same time that the +studies I had made so far did not allow me to venture any judgment of +my own on the significance of the French tendencies. I readily took +advantage of the illusion cherished by the directors of the +_Rheinische Zeitung_, who believed they could reverse the death +sentence passed on that journal as a result of weak management, in +order to withdraw from the public platform into my study." + +And so the intellectual need which he felt of studying economics and +Socialism, as well as his thirst for free, unfettered activity, +resulted in Marx's retirement from his post as editor, although he was +about to enter upon married life and had to make provision for his own +household. But he was from the beginning determined to subordinate his +material existence to his spiritual aspirations. + + + + +II. + +THE FORMATIVE PERIOD OF MARXISM. + + +I. THE FRANCO-GERMAN YEAR BOOKS. + +Between the years 1843 and 1844 we have the second and probably the +most important critical period in the intellectual development of +Marx. In 1837 he had become a disciple of Hegel, into whose philosophy +he penetrated deeper and deeper during the two years which ensued. +Between 1843 and 1844 he became a Socialist, and in the following two +years he laid the foundations of those social and historical doctrines +associated with his name. Of the way he came to be a Socialist and by +what studies he was led to Socialism, we know nothing. All that can be +said is that in the summer of 1848 he must have pursued the reading of +French Socialist literature just as assiduously as he did the study of +Hegel in 1837. In his letters to Arnold Ruge, written about 1843, and +printed in the Franco-German Year Books, we find a few passages which +bear witness to his sudden turnover. In a letter from Cologne (May, +1843) he remarks: "This system of acquisition and commercialism, of +possession and of the exploitation of mankind, is leading even more +swiftly than the increase of population to a breach within the present +society, which the old system cannot heal, because indeed it has not +the power either to heal or create, but only to exist and enjoy." + +That is still in the sentimental vein, and anything but dialectical +criticism. In the following few months, however, he made surprisingly +rapid progress towards the fundamental ideas of that conception of +history and society, which later on came to be known as Marxism, and +which he almost built up into a complete system during those restless +years of exuberant creative activity, 1845-46. In a letter from +Kreuznach, dated September, 1843, he shows already an acquaintance +with Fourier, Proudhon, Cabet, Weitling, etc., and sees his task not +in the setting up of Utopias but in the criticism of political and +social conditions, "in interpreting the struggles and aspirations of +the age." And by the winter of 1843 he has already advanced so much as +to be able to write the introduction to the criticism of Hegel's +"Philosophy of Law," which is one of the boldest and most brilliant of +his essays. He deals with the question of a German revolution, and +asks which is the class that could bring about the liberation of +Germany. His answer is that the positive conditions for the German +revolution and liberation are to be sought "in the formation of a +class in chains, a class which finds itself in bourgeois society, but +which is not of it, of an order which shall break up all orders. The +product of this dissolution of society reduced to a special order is +the proletariat. The proletariat arises in Germany only with the +beginning of the industrial movement; for it is not poverty resulting +from natural circumstances but poverty artificially created, not the +masses who are held down by the weight of the social system but the +multitude arising from the acute break-up of society--especially of +the middle class--which gives rise to the proletariat. When the +proletariat proclaims the dissolution of the existing order of things, +it is merely announcing the secret of its own existence, for it is in +itself the virtual dissolution of this order of things. When the +proletariat desires the negation of private property, it is merely +elevating to a general principle of society what it already +involuntarily embodies in itself as the negative product of society." + +Marx wrote this in Paris, whither he had removed with his young wife +in October, 1843, in order to take up the editorship of the +Franco-German Year Books founded by Arnold Ruge. In a letter addressed +to Ruge from Kreuznach in September, 1843, Marx summed up the program +of this periodical as follows: "If the shaping of the future and its +final reconstruction is not our business, yet it is all the more +evident what we have to accomplish with our joint efforts, I mean the +fearless criticism of all existing institutions--fearless in the sense +that it does not flinch either from its logical consequences or from +the conflict with the powers that be. I am therefore not with those +who would have us set up the standard of dogmatism; far from it; we +should rather try to give what help we can to those who are involved +in dogma, so that they may realise the implications of their own +principles. So, for example, Communism as taught by Cabet, Dezamy, +Weitling, and others is a dogmatic abstraction.... Moreover, we want +to work upon our contemporaries, and particularly on our German +contemporaries. The question is: How is that to be done? Two factors +cannot be ignored. In the first place religion, in the second place +politics, are the two things which claim most attention in the Germany +of to-day.... As far as everyday life is concerned, the political +State, even where it has not been consciously perfected through +Socialist demands, exactly fulfils, in all its modern forms, the +demands of reason. Nor does it stop there. It presupposes reason +everywhere as having been realised. But in so doing it lands itself +everywhere in the contradiction between its ideal purpose and its real +achievements. Out of this conflict, therefore, of the political State +with itself social truth is evolved." + +Without a doubt, the Hegelian conception of the State as the +embodiment of reason and morality did not accord well with the +constitution and the working of the actual State. And Marx goes on to +remark that in its history the political State is the expression of +the struggles, the needs, and the realities of society. It is not +true, then, as the French and English Utopians have thought, that the +treatment of political questions is beneath the dignity of Socialists. +Rather is it work of this kind which leads into party conflict and +away from the abstract theory. "We do not then proclaim to the world +in doctrinaire fashion any new principle: 'This is the truth, bow down +before it!' We do not say: 'Refrain from strife, it is foolishness!' +We only make clear to men for what they are really struggling, and to +the consciousness of this they must come whether they will or not." + +That is conceived in a thoroughly dialectical vein. The thinker +propounds no fresh problems, brings forward no abstract dogmas, but +awakens an understanding for the growth of the future out of the past, +inspiring the political and social warriors with the consciousness of +their own action. + + +II. FRIENDSHIP WITH FRIEDRICH ENGELS. + +Of the Franco-German Year Books only one number appeared (Spring, +1844). Alongside Marx's contributions (an Introduction to the +criticism of Hegel's "Philosophy of Jurisprudence" and a review of +Bauer's book on the Jewish Question) the volume contains a +comprehensive treatise, "Outlines for a Criticism of Political +Economy," from the pen of Friedrich Engels (born in Barmen, 1820; died +in London, 1895), who was then living in Manchester. In September, +1844, Engels went to visit Marx in Paris. This visit was the beginning +of the lifelong intimate friendship between the two men, who without a +close collaboration would not have achieved what they did. + +Marx was a highly-gifted theorist, a master in the realm of thought, +but he was quite unpractical in the affairs of everyday life. Had he +enjoyed a regular income throughout life, he would probably have +attained his end even without the help of Engels. On the other hand, +Engels was an exceedingly able, energetic, and highly-cultured man, +eminently practical and successful in everything he undertook, but not +endowed with that speculative temperament which surmounts intellectual +crises and opens out new horizons. But for his intellectual +association with Marx he would, in all probability, have remained +little more than a Moses Hess. Marx was never a Utopian; the complete +saturation of his mind with Hegelian dialectics made him immune to all +eternal truths and final social forms. On the contrary, up to 1844 +Engels was a Utopian--until Marx explained to him the meaning of +political and social conflicts, the basis and the motive force, the +statics and dynamics of the history of civilised mankind. Engels' +"Criticism of Political Economy" is a very noteworthy performance for +a youth of twenty-three engaged in commerce, but it does not rise +above the level of the writings of Owen, Fourier, and Proudhon. +Engels' contributions to Owen's "New Moral World" (1843-44) are indeed +more philosophical than the other articles by Owenites, but as far as +matter goes, there is no perceptible difference between them. "The +System of Economic Contradictions," on which Proudhon was working when +Engels published his "Outlines," is couched, as far as the critical +side is concerned, in the same strain of thought as we find in Engels. +Both sought to expose the contradictions of the middle-class economic +system, not in order to discover in them the source of the progress of +society, but to condemn them in the name of justice. Whereas the +Owenites considered their system as perfect, Proudhon and Engels had, +independently of one another, striven to free themselves from the +Socialist Utopias. Proudhon became a peaceful Anarchist and found +salvation in the scheme of autonomous economic groups, which should +carry on an exchange of labour equivalents with one another. Engels, +on the other hand, found a solution of his difficulties in Marx, whom +he rewarded with a lifelong friendship and devotion, which proved to +be Marx's salvation. Without Engels' literary and financial help, +Marx, with his unpractical, helpless, and, at the same time, proud and +uncompromising disposition, would most probably have perished in +exile. + + +III. CONTROVERSIES WITH BAUER AND RUGE. + +After the Franco-German Year Books had been discontinued, Marx, +recognising the importance of economics, studied English and French +systems of political economy with still greater zeal than before, and +continued his studies in Socialism and history with remarkable +steadiness of purpose. No longer now did he show signs of hesitation +or wavering; he knew exactly what he wanted. He had left behind him +that period of ideological speculation when he was still a disciple of +Hegel, and he was impelled, as in the autumn of 1837, to envisage, +from his new standpoint, the past and the future. He takes such a +survey in "The Holy Family," which had its genesis in the autumn of +1844, and to which Engels also furnished a slight contribution. It is +a settling of accounts with his former friend and master, Bruno Bauer, +and his brother Edgar, who had not been able to break away from Hegel. +The aim of the book was to force the Young Hegelians into the path of +social criticism, to urge them forward and prevent them from falling +into stereotyped and abstract ways of thinking. It is not easy +reading. In it Marx has compressed the knowledge he then had of +philosophy, history, economics, and Socialism in concentrated and +sharply-cut form. Besides the excellent sketch of English and French +materialism, which among other things discloses in a few short but +pregnant sentences the connection between this and English and French +Socialism, "The Holy Family" contains the germs of the materialistic +conception of history as well as the first attempt to give a social +revolutionary interpretation to the class struggle between Capital and +Labour. In the Introduction to the present book a quotation from "The +Holy Family" has been given. Speaking against Bauer's conception of +history, Marx says: "Or can he believe that he has arrived even at the +beginning of a knowledge of historical reality so long as he excludes +science and industry from the historical movements? Or does he really +think that he can understand any period without having studied, for +example, the industries of that period, the immediate means of +production of life itself?... In the same way as he separated thought +from the senses, the soul from the body, and himself from the world, +so he separates history from science and industry, and he does not see +the birthplace of history in coarse, material production upon earth +but in the nebulous constructions in the heavens."--("Posthumous +Works," Vol. II., pp. 259-60.) + +Bruno Bauer, who believed in the world-swaying might of the idea, but +would not concede that the masses had any power whatever, wrote: "All +the great movements of history up to this time were therefore doomed +to failure and could not have lasting success, because the masses had +taken an interest in them and inspired them--or they must come to a +lamentable conclusion because the underlying idea was of such a nature +that a superficial apprehension of it must suffice, that is to say, it +must reckon on the approval of the masses." + +Marx's answer to this was that "the great historical movements had +been always determined by mass interests, and only in so far as they +represented these interests could the ideas prevail in these +movements; otherwise the ideas might indeed stir up enthusiasm, but +they could not achieve any results. The idea always fell into +disrepute in so far as it differed from the interest. On the other +hand, it is easy to understand that, when it makes its first +appearance on the world-stage, every mass interest working itself out +in history far exceeds, as an idea or in its presentation, its actual +limits and identifies itself purely and simply with the interest of +humanity. Thus the idea of the French Revolution not only took hold of +the middle classes, in whose interest it manifested itself in great +movements, but it also aroused enthusiasm in the labouring masses, for +whose conditions of existence it could do nothing. As history has +shown, then, ideas have only had effective results in so far as they +corresponded to class interests. The enthusiasm, to which such ideas +gave birth, arose from the illusion that these ideas signified the +liberation of mankind in general."--("Posthumous Works," Vol. II., pp. +181-3.) + +In August, 1844, Marx published under the title "Marginal Notes" in +the Paris _Vorwärts_ a lengthy polemic against Ruge, which is a +defence of Socialism and revolution and takes the part of the German +proletariat against Ruge. "As regards the stage of culture or the +capacity for culture of the German workers, let me refer to Weitling's +clever writings, which in their theoretical aspect often surpass those +of Proudhon, however much they may fall behind them in execution. +Where would the middle classes, their scholars and philosophers +included, be able to show a work like Weitling's 'Guarantees of Peace +and Concord' bearing on the question of emancipation? If one compares +the insipid, spiritless mediocrity of German political literature with +this unconstrained and brilliant literary début of the German workers, +if one compares these gigantic baby shoes of the proletariat with the +dwarfishness of the worn-out political shoes of the German middle +classes, one can only prophesy an athletic stature for the German +Cinderella. One must admit that the German proletariat is the +philosopher of the European proletariat, just as the English +proletariat is its political economist and the French proletariat its +politician. One must admit that Germany is destined to play just as +classic a rōle in the social revolution as it is incompetent to play +one in the political. For, as the impotence of the German middle +classes is the political impotence of Germany, so the capacity of the +German proletariat--even leaving out of account German philosophy--is +the social capacity of Germany." + +At that time (1844) Marx had already begun to mix among the German +working classes resident in Paris, who clung to the various Socialist +and Anarchist doctrines which then held sway, and he sought to +influence them according to his own ideas. With Heine, too, who at +that time was coquetting with Communism, he carried on a sprightly and +not unfruitful intercourse. He likewise came into frequent contact +with Proudhon, whom he endeavoured to make familiar with Hegelian +philosophy. Already in his first work, "What is Property?" (1840) +Proudhon had played with Hegelian formulę, and Marx probably believed +that he could win him over to Socialism. Proudhon, who, like the +German Weitling, sprang from the proletariat, ushered in his activity +as a social theorist with the above-mentioned work, which had a +stimulating effect on Marx and on German Socialists in general, all +the more so as Proudhon manifested some acquaintance with classical +German philosophy. In this book ("What is Property?" German edition, +1844, p. 289) he sums up the whole matter as follows: "Expressing this +according to the Hegelian formula, I should say that Communism, the +first kind, the first determination of social life, is the first link +in social evolution, the _thesis_; property is the antagonistic +principle, the _antithesis_; if only we can get the third factor, the +_synthesis_, the question is solved. This synthesis comes about only +through the cancelling of the thesis by the antithesis; one must +therefore in the last instance examine its characteristics, discard +what is anti-social, and in the union of the remaining two is then +seen the real kind of human social life." + +That was indeed a superficial conception of Hegelian dialectics, for +what Proudhon wanted to find was not a synthesis but a combination; +still for a French working man it was a smart performance to have +manipulated German philosophical formulę, and would justify the most +sanguine hopes. Marx did not want to let this opportunity slip, and in +"debates both late and long" he discussed Hegelian philosophy with +Proudhon.--(Marx: "The Poverty of Philosophy," German edition, +Stuttgart, 1885, p. 29.) + +In the midst of this activity, however, Marx and other German +contributors to the Paris _Vorwärts_ were expelled from France in +January, 1845, at the instigation of the Prussian Government. Marx +packed up his traps and left for Brussels, where he lived, with short +interruptions, until the outbreak of the European Revolution in +February, 1848. During his sojourn in Brussels his time was occupied +mainly with economic studies, for which Engels placed his library of +works on political economy at his disposal. Marx embodied the result +of these studies in the criticism directed against Proudhon in his +"Misčre de la Philosophie" (Poverty of Philosophy), published in 1847. + + +IV. CONTROVERSY WITH PROUDHON. + +Marx's "Misčre de la Philosophie" indicates the culmination of the +fist phase of his creative work. In this critical review he makes his +position clear with respect not only to Proudhon but to Utopian +Socialism in general. It marks also the turning point in the studies +of Marx: English political economy occupied henceforth the place which +German philosophy had held. The anti-Proudhon controversy is therefore +worthy of a fuller treatment. + +Pierre Joseph Proudhon (b. 1809 in Besanēon, d. 1865 in Paris) was one +of the most gifted and most distinguished of social philosophers which +the modern proletariat has produced. He was originally a compositor, +like his similarly minded English contemporary, John Francis Bray, the +author of "Labour's Wrongs," published in 1839, but he had a much +greater inclination for study and a more fruitful literary talent. He +managed to acquire, self-taught, a knowledge of the classical +languages, of mathematics and of science, read assiduously but +indiscriminately works on economics, philosophy, and history, and +applied himself to social criticism. It is rare for a working man in +the West of Europe to feel impelled to make an acquaintance with Kant, +Hegel, and Feuerbach as Proudhon did through French translations and +through intercourse with German scholars in Paris. He possessed the +noble ambition of blending French sprightliness with German +thoroughness. But self-instruction failed to give him that +intellectual training which is more valuable than knowledge, and which +alone gives the power to order and to utilise the information +acquired, as well as to submit one's own work to self-criticism. The +value of a systematic education does not consist in the main in the +acquisition of knowledge but in the training of our intellectual +faculties as instruments of inquiry and apprehension, of methodical +thinking and of sound judgment, to enable us to find our bearings more +easily in the chaos of phenomena, experiences, and ideas. A +self-taught man may no doubt attain to this degree of culture, but +only if his first attempts at independent creative work are submitted +to a strict but kindly criticism, which makes him discipline his +thoughts. This was not the case with Proudhon; he lacked mental +self-discipline. His first work, "What is Property?" (1840) brought +him immediate recognition and strengthened him in his high opinion of +his knowledge and his powers, even to the point of making him +conceited. When, for example, the French historian, Michelet, +disapproved of his dictum, "Property is robbery," Proudhon replied, +"Not twice in a thousand years does one come across a pronouncement +like that."--("Economic Contradictions," Leipzig, 1847. Vol. II., p. +301.) And yet the idea is as old as Communism itself. Besides all +this, the vivacity and exuberance of language for which Proudhon was +noted easily blinded him to the shortcomings of his intellectual +culture. Thus it often happened that he rediscovered ideas of his +predecessors and published them to the world with naļve pride. Through +page after page of argument he holds the reader in expectation of the +explanation, which he is about to give, of the nature of value, which +he rightly characterises as the "corner-stone of political economy." +At last he will disclose the secret: "It is time to make ourselves +acquainted with this power. This power ... is _labour_." His main +work, "The System of Economic Contradictions," swarms with +philosophical formulę and expressions like thesis, antithesis, +antinomies, synthesis, dialectics, induction, syllogisms, etc., as +also with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew etymologies; it often wanders into +irrelevant theological and philosophical digressions and side issues, +not so much with the intention of parading the author's knowledge as +from his lack of intellectual discipline and insufficient command of +his material. The work in question was to combine German philosophy +with French and English political economy, and its author believed +that it would secure for him before everything else the admiration of +the German Socialists, especially of Marx. He drew the latter's +attention to it by letter, and awaited his "rigorous criticism." The +criticism came in "Misčre de la Philosophie" (Brussels, 1847), but it +could no longer fulfil its purpose, as the fundamental difference +between the two men had already widened to a gulf that could not be +bridged. Marx had almost completed his materialistic, logical, and +revolutionary Socialism, Proudhon had laid the foundations of his +peaceful Anarchism with its federative economic basis. With his +searching analysis, his systematised knowledge, and his great +indignation at the presumptuous attacks on every Socialist school and +leader, Marx sat in judgment upon Proudhon, exposing him as a +dilettante in philosophy and economics, and at the same time +sketching in outline his own conception of history and economics. + +Marx's verdict is damning, yet one cannot but acknowledge that +Proudhon, in spite of his obvious insufficiency, had endeavoured, +honestly and zealously, to extricate himself from Capitalism as well +as from Utopianism, and to outline a scheme for an economic order, in +which men, such as he had found them, might lead a free, industrious, +and righteous life. The task which Proudhon had set himself was the +same as that which engaged the attention of Marx, the criticism of +political economy and of the sentimental Utopian Socialism. That is +the key-note of Proudhon's system, and it is sounded in almost every +chapter. He lacked, however, the requisite knowledge and the +historical sense which alone could have made him equal to his task. +The whole of his criticism consists virtually in the complaint that +riches and poverty accumulate side by side, and that the economic +categories--use value, exchange value, division of labour, +competition, monopoly, machinery, property, ground rent, credit, tax, +etc.--manifest contradictions. Proudhon's special problem was the +following: "The workers of any country produce yearly goods to the +value, let us say, of 20 milliards. But if the workers, as consumers, +wish to buy back these goods they have to pay 25 milliards. The +workers are thus cheated out of a fifth. That is a terrible +contradiction."--("What is Property?" Chap. IV.; "Economic +Contradictions," Vol. I., pp. 292-93.) This statement of the problem +shows that Proudhon had no inkling of the essential features of the +question of value, in spite of the fact that he cites Adam Smith, +David Ricardo, etc., whom he must therefore have read. Had he really +understood these economists and taken up his critical attitude towards +them from the standpoint of justice, he would have stated the problem +somewhat as follows: "The workers of any country produce yearly goods +to the value, say, of 20 milliards. For their work, however, they +receive as wages a quantity of goods of the value of only 10 or 12 +milliards. Is that just?" Only this way of stating the question could +possibly have revealed to him the nature of wages, of value, of +profit, of capital and its contradictions. Proudhon sees the +perpetration of fraud or robbery in the sphere of exchange and not in +that of production, and he does not ask himself how, if labour +produces goods to the value of only 20 milliards, they can be +exchanged at a value of 25 milliards, and what is responsible for the +increase of five milliards. The other contradictions which he brings +forward are not indeed new, but they are ingeniously treated. For +example: the essence of exchange-value is labour, which creates +wealth; but the more the wealth produced, the less becomes its +exchange-value. Or this: the division of labour is, according to +Smith, one of the most effective means of increasing wealth, but the +further the division of labour proceeds the lower sinks the workman, +being reduced to the level of an unintelligent automaton engaged in +the performance of a fractional operation. The same thing holds good +for machinery. So, too, competition stimulates effort, but brings much +misery in its train by leading to adulteration, sharp practices, and +strife between man and man. Further, taxation should be proportional +to riches, in reality it is proportional to poverty. Or again, private +ownership of land ought to increase productivity; in practice it +deprives the farmer of the land. In this way he runs to earth the +contradictions in political economy, and so we find everywhere the +words thesis and anti-thesis or antinomies (contradictions between two +well-established propositions). And out of this contradiction springs +poverty. The solution or the synthesis is the creation of an economic +order which shall preserve the good elements in this category and +eliminate the bad ones, and so satisfy the demands of justice. And +that is what Socialism cannot do. "For the economic order is based +upon calculations of an inexorable justice and not upon those angelic +sentiments of brotherhood, sacrifice, and love which so many +well-meaning Socialists of the present time are endeavouring to awake +in the people. It is useless for them to preach, after the example of +Jesus Christ, the necessity for sacrifice, and to set an example of it +in their own lives: selfishness is stronger than they and can only be +restrained by rigid justice and immutable economic law. Humanitarian +enthusiasm may cause upheavals which are conducive to the progress of +civilisation, but such emotional crises, like the fluctuations in +value, simply result in the establishing of law and order on a more +rigid and more restricted basis. Nature or the Deity planted mistrust +in our hearts, having no faith in the love of man for his fellow men; +and though I say it to the shame of the human conscience (for our +hypocrisy must be confronted with it sooner or later), every +disclosure which science has made to us concerning the designs of +providence with respect to the progress of society points to a deeply +rooted hatred of mankind on God's part."--("System of Economic +Contradictions or the Philosophy of Poverty," Vol. I., p. 107.) Just +as severely does he denounce the institution of Trade Unionism and +its methods of warfare, together with State politics, as indeed the +working of class organisation and of the State generally. The only way +to realise social justice is to create a society of producers who +exchange their goods among one another according to their equivalents +in labour and carry on work in adequate relationship to the production +of wealth, or, to put it clearly, to establish an order where supply +and demand balance one another. + +Marx's answer to the "Philosophy of Poverty" is indicated at once by +the title "The Poverty of Philosophy." He deals first of all with the +economic details of Proudhon's work, and proves with documentary +evidence that the theses and antitheses it contains partly spring from +a half-understood reading of English and French political economists, +and in part have been taken direct from the English Communists. Marx +already displays in this section an extensive knowledge of economic +literature. Then he confronts Proudhon's philosophical and social +theories with his own deductions and gives many positive results. +Marx's main object was to induce the Socialists to give up their +Utopianism and think in terms of realism, and to regard social and +economic _categories_ in their historical setting: + +"Economic _categories_ are only the theoretical expressions, ideal +conceptions of the conditions of production obtaining in society.... +Proudhon has grasped well enough that men manufacture cloth, linen, +etc., under certain conditions of production. But what he has not +grasped is that these social conditions themselves are just as much +human products as cloth, linen, etc. Social conditions are intimately +bound up with productive power. With the acquisition of new productive +power men change their methods of production, and with the change in +the methods of production, in the manner of obtaining a livelihood, +they change their social conditions. The hand-mill gives rise to a +society with feudal lords, the steam-mill to a society with industrial +capitalists. But the same men who shape the social conditions in +conformity with the material means of production, shape also the +principles, the ideas, the _categories_ in conformity with their +social conditions. Consequently these ideas, these _categories_, are +just as little eternal as are the conditions to which they give +expression. They are the transitory and changing products of history. +We are living in the midst of a continuous movement of growth in +productive power, of destruction of existing social conditions, of +formation of ideas."--("Poverty of Philosophy," Stuttgart, 1885, pp. +100-101.) + +Here it should, above all, be noticed that Marx ascribes to +industrialism a powerful revolutionary effect, and that he +characterises the different forms of society by their different +methods of labour. Or, as he says later in "Capital," "not _what_ is +produced, but _how_ it is produced distinguishes the various forms of +society." What he means to say, then, is that ideas and systems are +limited by their time, that they are conditioned by the prevailing +means of production. To understand them one must study the times which +have preceded them, as well as investigate the ideas and systems +themselves, and find out whether new forms have not arisen which stand +in contradiction or in contrast to the old one. Or, as Marx says: + +"Feudalism, too, had its proletariat--the villeinage--which contains +all the germs of the middle class. Feudal production, too, had two +contradictory elements which are likewise characterised as the 'good' +and 'bad' sides of feudalism without regard to the fact that it is +always the 'bad' side which triumphs ultimately over the 'good' side. +It is the bad side which calls into being the movement which makes +history, in that it brings the struggle to a head. If, at the time of +the supremacy of feudalism, the economists, in their enthusiasm for +knightly virtues, for the beautiful harmony between rights and duties, +for the patriarchal life of the towns, for the flourishing home +industries in the country, for the development of industry organised +in corporations, companies and guilds, in a word, for everything which +forms the finer side of feudalism, had set themselves the problem of +eliminating everything which could throw a shadow on this +picture--serfdom, privileges, anarchy--where would it all have ended? +They would have destroyed every element which called forth strife, +they would have nipped in the bud the development of the middle class. +They would have set themselves the absurd problem of blotting out +history. + +"When the middle class had come to the top, neither the good nor the +bad side of feudalism come into question. The productive forces, which +had been developed under feudalism through its agency, fell to its +control. All old economic forms, the legal relations between private +individuals, which corresponded to them, the political order, which +was the official expression of the old society, were shattered." + +"Those Socialists and social revolutionaries who regard the hardships +and struggles of society as an absolute evil and plan the +construction of a society comprised solely of good elements, have not +grasped the meaning of the history of mankind. They think abstractly. +They misjudge both the past and the present. + +"Hence to form a correct judgment of production under feudalism one +must consider it a method of production based upon contradiction. One +must show how wealth was produced within this contradiction, how +productive power developed contemporaneously with the antagonism of +classes, how one of these classes, the bad side, the social evil, +constantly increased until the material conditions for its liberation +were fully ripe. + +"Does that not show clearly enough that the means of production, the +conditions under which productive power is developed, are anything but +eternal laws, that they rather correspond to a definite stage in the +evolution of mankind and of its productive power, and that a variation +in the productive power of mankind necessarily brings about a +variation in its conditions of production? + +"The middle class begins with a proletariat, which in its turn is +itself a remnant of the feudal proletariat. In the course of its +historical development the middle class necessarily develops its +contradictory character, which on its first appearance is more or less +veiled, existing only in a latent form. In proportion as the middle +class develops, there develops in its bosom a new proletariat, a +modern proletariat; and a struggle arises between the proletarian +class and the middle class, a struggle which, before being felt, +observed, estimated, understood, acknowledged, and finally openly +proclaimed on both sides, issues in the meanwhile only in partial and +transitory conflicts and acts of destruction." + +In a special chapter Marx shows the necessity and the historical +significance of the Trade Unions, which in spite of all the +apprehensions and warnings of Utopians and Economists the workers have +gone on establishing and perfecting, in order to be able to withstand +the domination of capital. That means the gathering together of the +divided interests and activities of the workers in a vast class +movement, standing in opposition to the middle class; which, however, +does not exclude the possibility of conflicting interests within the +classes themselves, though these shall be put aside as soon as class +is brought against class: + +"From day to day it becomes clearer then that the conditions of +production, among which the middle class moves, have not a simple, +uniform character but one which involves conflicting elements; that the +same conditions which produce wealth produce also poverty; that the same +conditions which tend to the development of productive power develop +also the power of repression; that these conditions only create +bourgeois wealth, i.e., the wealth of the middle class, at the cost of +the continued destruction of the wealth of individual members of this +class and the creation of an ever-increasing proletariat."--("Poverty of +Philosophy," 1885, pp. 116-118, 177 sq.) + +This antithetical character of capitalist society has for its effect +that the political economists, who are the philosophers of the +existing order, lose their bearings, while the Socialists, who are the +philosophers of the proletariat, look round for means to relieve the +distress. They condemn class struggles,[4] build Utopias and plan +schemes of salvation, whereas the only real solution, because it is +the only one which arises from the actual conditions, must be to +further the organisation of the oppressed class and make it conscious +of the objects of its struggles. For out of these struggles the new +society will arise, and that, of course, can only happen when +productive power has reached a high stage of development. Or as Marx +himself proceeds: + +"An oppressed class is a vital condition of any society founded upon +class antagonism. The liberation of the oppressed class necessarily +includes, therefore, the creation of a new society. In order that the +oppressed class may be able to free itself, a stage must be reached in +which the already acquired powers of production and the prevailing +social institutions can no longer exist side by side. Of all the +instruments of production, the greatest productive force is the +revolutionary class itself. The organisation of the revolutionary +elements as a class presupposes the existence in perfected form of all +the productive forces that could in any way be developed in the bosom +of the old society. Does this mean that after the collapse of the old +order of society there will be a new class domination culminating in a +new political power? The condition of the emancipation of the working +class is the abolition of all classes, as the condition of the +emancipation of the third estate, of the middle class, was the +abolition of all the three estates. The working class will, in the +course of its evolution, replace the old middle-class society by an +association excluding classes and their antagonism, and there will no +longer be any real political power,[5] because it is just this +political power which is the official expression of class antagonism +within the community. + +"Meanwhile the antagonism between proletariat and bourgeoisie is a +struggle of class against class, a struggle which, when brought to its +highest expression, means a complete revolution. And can one indeed be +surprised that a society founded upon class antagonism should, at its +final dissolution, issue in brutal conflict and collision of man +against man? Let it not be said that the social movement excludes the +political. There never was a political movement which was not at the +same time a social movement. + +"Only in an order of things where there are no classes and no class +antagonism will social evolution cease to be political revolution. +Until then the last word of social science on the eve of every general +reconstruction of society must ever be: 'Fight or die; bloody war or +annihilation. Thus are we confronted with the inexorable +question.'--(George Sand)." + +With this battle-cry "The Poverty of Philosophy" comes to a close. It +is the prologue to the "Communist Manifesto," which in itself is but a +popular version of the positive doctrines developed in the controversy +against Proudhon. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] The Socialists of those times were the Owenites and the +Fourierists, who condemned all class struggles, Trade Unionist +strikes, and Labour politics. + +[5] Marx means the State. + + + + +III. + +YEARS OF AGITATION AND VARYING FORTUNES. + + +I. THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT OF THE FORTIES. + +Marx was a revolutionary not only in the sense that he was the +representative of a new conception of society and the founder of a +theory of a new economic order, but also in the popular sense of +advocating the use of force, in which connection he looked to the +first years of the French Revolution as a model. He had a keen ear for +the revolutionary rumblings in the depths of the populace. The years +during which the elements of his new conception of society were +accumulating in his mind and shaping themselves into a system were +involved in a revolutionary atmosphere. In 1842 England witnessed the +first strike on a large scale, which threatened to extend into a +general strike and bore a political revolutionary character. In 1843 +and 1844 the idea of the impending revolution was widely spread in +England. Insurrections broke out among the Silesian weavers in 1844. +In 1845 and 1846 Socialism spread rapidly on all sides in Germany, and +Socialist periodicals appeared in the industrial centres. France +swarmed with Socialist systems, Socialist novels and newspaper +articles. The spectre of Communism was abroad in Europe. The +convention of the United Assembly by Frederick William IV. at the +beginning of February, 1847, was looked upon as the harbinger of the +German Revolution. The connection between these phenomena could not +escape acute intellects. Hand in hand with the extension of industry +and the rapid construction of railways and telegraphs came +alternations of economic prosperity and crisis, poverty grew, and the +workers fought with ever-increasing bitterness against the iron law of +wages and against the scanty pay, which hardly allowed the proletariat +to eke out a bare subsistence. The cry in England was: "More +factories, more poverty," but at the same time: "The greater the +political rights of the masses, the surer becomes emancipation." +Whoever lived in England and France during these years and had +dealings with Socialism could not help feeling that political and +social revolutions were on the march. + +Already in his first letter to Ruge, written from Holland in March, +1843, Marx deals with the coming revolution, and foresees, to the +astonishment of Ruge, who refused to believe it, that the Government +of Frederick William IV. was drifting towards a revolution. At that +time Marx had hardly begun his studies in Socialism; and the further +he advanced in these studies, elaborating his social dialectics and +evolving the ideas of the class struggle, the more inevitably was he +driven to the conclusion that the proletarian revolution, the seizure +of political power by the proletariat, was the indispensable +preliminary to the triumph of Communism. + +Utopian Socialism stood outside the State and attempted to set up a +Socialist Commonwealth apart from the State and behind the back of the +State. Utopianism, with its moral and religious motives and medięval +Communist traditions, was pervaded with that spirit of contempt for +the State which was characteristic of the Catholic Church during the +period of its splendour. Moreover Marx, who recognised all practical +forms of power, even if he did not always estimate them at their true +value, saw in the State an executive power which it was a question of +overturning and using as an extremely powerful instrument in the +social revolution. As a result of his excursions into politics and +French and English Socialism, Marx gave up Hegel's overstrained idea +of the State and accepted the view current in Western European thought +of the time; but he interpreted the State in the sense of the doctrine +of the class struggle as the executive council of the ruling and +possessing classes. + +The impressions, the ideas, the experiences and the modes of thinking +which took root in the mind of Marx during the evolution of the +fundamental principles of his sociological and historical system +dominated the whole of his life's work. + +Marxism is quite a natural growth of the revolutionary soil of the +first half of the nineteenth century. Marx completes the social +revolutionary doctrines of that time, of which he is, as it were, the +executor. All his thoughts and sentiments are deeply rooted in it; +they have nothing specifically Jewish about them. I know of no Jewish +philosopher, sociologist, or poet who had so little of the Jewish +character as had Marx. + + +II. THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO. + +As in Paris, so too in Brussels, Marx frequented the society of German +working men in order to instruct them by lectures and by conversation. +He was loyally seconded by Engels, who had more time and more money +to devote to this task, and who worked for the new doctrine in Paris, +Cologne, Elberfeld and other towns. Since 1836 the German working men +living abroad had been organised in the League of the Just, which from +1840 had its head-quarters in London. The individual groups were kept +in touch with one another by means of Communist correspondence +committees. The Paris and Brussels groups drew the attention of the +London Committee to Marx, and in January, 1847, Joseph Moll, one of +its members, was commissioned to go to Brussels and obtain information +about Marx.--("Mehring's Introduction to the Reprint of the Cologne +Communist Proceedings," published by _Vorwärts_, Berlin, 1914, pp. +10-11.) The result was the transformation of the League of the Just +into the League of Communists, which held its first Congress in London +in the summer of 1847, Engels and Wilhelm Wolff (Lupus) being among +those present as delegates. At the second Congress, held in London +towards the end of November and beginning of December, 1847, Marx also +appeared, and together with Engels was commissioned to prepare a new +program. The new program is the Communist Manifesto. Engels had come +from Paris, Marx from Brussels. Before leaving Paris, Engels wrote a +letter to Marx, dated November 24, in which he speaks as follows on +the subject of the Manifesto: + + "Just think over the confession of faith a little. I believe it + will be best if we leave out the form of catechism and entitle + the thing 'The Communist Manifesto.' And then, as more or less + of it will consist in historical narrative, the present form is + quite unsuitable. I am bringing along the manuscript which I + have written; it is a plain narrative, but is badly put + together, and has been done in a frightful hurry. I begin, 'What + is Communism?' and then straight away with the proletariat--the + history of its origin, difference from earlier workers, + development of the antagonism of the proletariat and the middle + class, crises, conclusions, with all kinds of secondary + considerations thrown in, and lastly party politics of the + Communists, as much as is good for the public to + know."--("Correspondence of Marx and Engels," Vol. I., p. 84.) + +Engels' draft of the Communist Manifesto has been edited by Eduard +Bernstein.--("Grundsätze des Kommunismus," published by _Vorwärts_, +1914.) A comparison of this draft with the actual "Communist +Manifesto" makes evident the full extent of Marx's intellectual +superiority to Engels. The Communist Manifesto contains four main +groups of ideas: (1) The history of the evolution of the middle class, +its character, its positive and negative achievement--modern +capitalism and the rise of the proletariat. (2) Theoretical +conceptions and conclusions--the doctrine of the class struggle and +the rōle of the proletariat. (3) Practical application--revolutionary +action by the Communists. (4) Criticism of other Socialist schools. +The last section has long ago lost all practical interest, so that we +need only deal with the first three sections. + +(1) The middle class developed in the bosom of feudal society, in the +medięval industrial towns. With the geographical discoveries of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries its sphere of activity was +extended; it revolutionised the methods of industry, agriculture and +communication; it broke through the medięval economic and political +bonds; it overthrew feudalism, the guilds, the little self-governing +regions, absolute monarchy, and established modern industry with its +accelerated and concentrated production, middle-class franchise, the +national State, and, at the same time, international trade. It was the +middle class which first showed what human activity can accomplish. +"It has achieved greater miracles than the construction of Egyptian +pyramids, Roman aqueducts, or Gothic cathedrals, it has carried out +greater movements than the migration of peoples or the crusades.... +Although it is scarcely a century since it came to be the dominating +class, the middle class has created more powerful and more gigantic +forces of production than all past generations put together." The +subjugation of natural forces, machinery, the application of chemistry +to industry and to agriculture, steamships, railways, electric +telegraphs, the clearing of whole continents, making the rivers +navigable, the conjuring forth of whole peoples out of the ground: +that is the positive achievement of the middle class. Now for the +negative: it created the proletariat, immeasurable, uncontrollable, +anarchical economic conditions, periodical crises--poverty and famine +in consequence of over-production and a glut of wealth, over-driving +and reckless exploitation of the workers, whose labour is bought in +exchange for the minimum quantity of the necessaries of life. These +facts show that the forces of production are more extensive and more +powerful than is demanded by the conditions under which they are +operative: the economic system can produce and deliver more goods than +society can use under the existing laws concerning property, i.e., the +distribution and the effective demand fall short of the manufacture +and the supply. The material forces of production press upon the +limits imposed upon them by the laws of private property. This +happens, too, because the working class must reduce its consumption of +goods to a minimum in consequence of the existing laws of property, +which give to capital the right of distribution. All these conditions +taken together, the positive as well as the negative ones, make +possible and give rise to the struggles of the workers against the +middle class--and so the productive agents rise in rebellion. These +struggles lead to the organisation of the workers in trade unions, to +the awakening of class consciousness, and, as a result, to the +formation of the political labour party. + +(2) The movements within middle-class society, as well as in feudal +and ancient society, where freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, +baron and serf, guild-master and journeyman, capitalist and working +man stood and stand in constant antagonism to one another, prove that +the whole history of mankind since the rise of private ownership is +the history of class struggles, and that in these class struggles, +carried on now openly, now under the surface, either new forms of +society and of ownership, new economic systems arise or else end with +the common destruction of the two classes. The antagonistic classes +are supporters of conflicting economic interests, systems of ownership +and ideals of culture. The craftsman and tradesman of the towns, the +burgher, fought against the feudal lord and knight for individual +property, for freedom of industry and trade, for freedom to dispose of +personal property and for the national State. With the triumphal +progress of the middle class private property fell into fewer and +fewer hands. The proletarians are without property, they have no share +in the wealth of their country; on the other hand, the production of +capital becomes more and more a matter of common co-operation, and +capital becomes a joint product. The proletariat can, accordingly, no +longer fight for individual ownership but for the socially conducted +utilisation of the means of production belonging to the community and +of the goods produced. The middle class has therefore created in the +proletariat a social class which must have as its object to do away +with the middle class system of ownership and to set up the +proletarian system of common ownership. + +(3) In this struggle of the working classes the Communists are +therefore the pioneers of the movement. They are at once the +philosophers and the self-sacrificing champions of the proletariat +awakened into class consciousness. "The Communists are not a special +party in contradistinction to the other Labour parties. They have no +interests apart from the interests of the whole proletariat. They set +up no special principles according to which they wish to mould the +proletarian movement." The Communists lay stress on the common +interests of the whole proletariat and of the collective movement. +Their aim is the organisation of the proletariat into a class, the +overthrow of middle-class domination, and the conquest of political +power by the proletariat. They support everywhere "any revolutionary +movement against the existing social and political conditions. In all +these movements they emphasise the question of property, in whatever +state of evolution it may appear, as the foundation of the movement. +And finally the Communists work everywhere for the union and agreement +of democratic parties[6] of all nationalities. The Communists disdain +to conceal their views and intentions. They declare openly that their +ends can only be attained by the forcible overthrow of every obtaining +order of society. Let the ruling classes tremble before a Communist +revolution; the workers have nothing to lose by it but their chains. +They have the world to win. Workers of every land, unite!" + +From the standpoint of social philosophy, the Manifesto, a document +reflecting its time, is almost perfect. Strong emotion and +extraordinary intellectual power are united in it. Years of study of +one of the boldest and most fertile minds are here welded together in +the glowing heat of one of the most active of intellectual workshops. +But the work is not free from logical flaws. In the passages we have +quoted the part played in history by the middle class is extolled by +Marx; yet in the last few lines of the very same section he declares +that "the middle class is the unwitting and inert instrument of +industrial progress," and still more scathing is his criticism in the +second section, where the middle class is accused of indolence. "It +has been objected that, if private property were done away with, all +activity would cease and a general laziness set in. According to that, +middle-class society would have been ruined by idleness long ago; for +those of its members who work gain nothing, and those who gain do not +work." That is as much as to say that the middle class is lazy and +does not work, and yet the Manifesto says that the middle class has +achieved more marvellous works than Egypt, Rome, and the Middle Ages, +and that, in its reign of power of scarcely a hundred years, it has +created more powerful and more gigantic forces of production than all +past generations put together. How can a class which does not work +produce more marvellous works than the whole ancient and medięval +world? + +Marx frees himself later from this inconsistency by ascribing surplus +value solely to the operation of the variable part of capital +(wage-labour)--a doctrine which he develops with iron logic in his +principal work, "Capital." + + +III. THE REVOLUTION OF 1848. + +The ink had hardly dried on the Communist Manifesto when the February +Revolution broke out. The crowing of the Gallic cock soon awoke an +echo in the various German States, whilst in Brussels the democrats +were attacked and ill-treated by the mob. One of the victims of this +attack was Karl Marx, who was, moreover, banished shortly afterwards +by the Belgian Government. This action, however, did not cause him any +embarrassment, as he was ready in any case to proceed to Paris, +whither the Provisional Government of the French Republic had already +invited him in the following terms: + + "Paris, March 1, 1848. + + "BRAVE AND FAITHFUL MARX, + + "The soil of the French Republic is a place of refuge for all + friends of freedom. Tyranny has banished you; France, the free, + opens to you her gates--to you and to all who fight for the holy + cause, the fraternal cause of every people. In this sense shall + every officer of the French Government understand his duty. + _Salut et Fraternité._ + + FERDINAND FLOCON, + Member of the Provisional Government." + +The stay in Paris was, however, of short duration. Marx and Engels +gathered together the members of the League of Communists and procured +them the means for returning to Germany to take part in the German +revolution. They themselves travelled to the Rhineland and succeeded +in getting the establishment of the newspaper planned in Cologne into +their hands. On the first of June, 1848, the _Neue Rheinische Zeitung_ +appeared for the first time. It goes without saying that the editor +was Karl Marx, and among his collaborators were Engels, Freiligrath, +Wilhelm Wolff, and Georg Weerth. Occasionally, too, Lassalle sent +contributions. It is but rarely given to a daily paper to have such an +editorial staff. In the third volume of his "Collected Papers of Marx +and Engels," Franz Mehring gives a selection of the articles which +appeared in this journal. They are still worth reading. Here are a few +examples. After the fall of Vienna he wrote an article concluding with +the following words: "With the victory of the 'Red Republic' in Paris +the armies from the inmost recesses of every land will be vomited +forth upon the boundaries and over them, and the real strength of the +combatants will clearly appear. Then we shall remember June and +October, and we too shall cry, 'Woe to the vanquished!' The fruitless +butcheries which have occurred since those June and October days ... +will convince the peoples that there is only one means of shortening, +simplifying, and concentrating the torturing death agonies of +society--only one means--revolutionary terrorism."--(_Neue Rheinische +Zeitung_, November 6, 1848.) + +Or take, for example, this passage from the last article of the paper, +when on May 18, 1849, it succumbed to the "craft and cunning of the +dirty West Kalmucks" (i.e., the Prussians). + +"In taking leave of our readers we remind them of the words in our +first January number: 'Revolutionary upheaval of the French working +class, general war--that is the index for the year 1849. And already +in the east a revolutionary army comprised of warriors of all +nationalities stands confronting the old Europe represented by and in +league with the Russian army, already from Paris looms the Red +Republic.'" + +In reading these extracts one has only to substitute Russia for France +and Moscow for Paris and we get at one of the sources of Lenin's and +Trotsky's revolutionary policy. The articles written by Marx in 1848 +and 1849 have supplied the Bolsheviks their tactics. + +The censorship, Press lawsuits, and the decline of the revolution +severed the life threads of the paper after scarcely a year of its +existence. Marx sacrificed everything he had in money and +valuables--in all, 7,000 thalers--in order to satisfy creditors and to +pay the contributors and printers. Then he travelled to Paris, where +he witnessed not the triumph of the Red Republic but that of the +counter-revolution. In July, 1849, he was banished by the French +Government to the boggy country of Morbihan, in Brittany; he +preferred, however, to go over to London, where he remained to the end +of his life. + + +IV. DAYS OF CLOUD AND SUNSHINE IN LONDON. + +Marx lived for more than a generation in London. Half of this time was +spent in a wearying struggle for existence, which, however, did not +prevent him from collecting and systematising a vast amount of +material for his life-work, "Capital," nor from taking a decisive part +in the Labour movement as soon as the opportunity presented itself, as +it did on the founding of the International. The first decade was +particularly trying. A letter written on May 20, 1851, by Marx's wife +to Weydemeyer, in America, gives an affecting picture of their poverty +during these first years of exile.--("Neue Zeit," 25th year, Vol. II., +pp. 18-21.) + +The attempt to continue the _Neue Rheinische Zeitung_ under the title +_Neue Rheinische Revue_ had only the negative result of swallowing up +Marx's last resources. How poor Marx then was can be judged from the +fact that he had to send his last coat to the pawnshop in order that +he might buy paper for his pamphlet on the Cologne Communist trial +(towards the end of 1852). On top of all this, lamentable differences +sprang up among the German exiles, who, deceived in their +revolutionary illusions, overwhelmed one another with recriminations; +an echo of these conflicts is heard in the pamphlet "Herr Vogt" +(1860). Marx's only regular source of income in the years 1851-60 was +his earnings as correspondent of the _New York Tribune_, which paid +him at the rate of a sovereign per article, and this hardly covered +his rent and the cost of newspapers and postage. Yet his articles were +veritable essays, the fruit of researches which cost him a good deal +of time. And in the midst of this penury the idea of writing a +Socialistic criticism of political economy burnt within him. One might +almost say that since 1845 this idea had allowed him no peace. +Freiligrath's lines are, as it were, stamped upon him: + + In the clouds his goal he planted; + In the dust had he to live, + Bare existence daily granted. + Cramped, hemmed in on every side, + Pinched by poverty and urged + By want, he, of all denied, + By necessity was scourged. + +Only in the sixties did his fortunes improve. Small family +inheritances, Wilhelm Wolff's legacy of over £800, and Engels' more +plentiful and regular help, which from 1869 onward amounted to about +£350 annually, enabled Marx to write his "Capital," the first volume +of which, as is well known, is dedicated to Wilhelm Wolff. + +To these relatively happy times belong Paul Lafargue's +reminiscences--("Neue Zeit," 9th year, Vol. I., pp. 10-17, 37-42)--of +his intercourse with the Marx family. In particular he depicts the +personality of the author of "Capital." In the bosom of his family and +among the circle of his friends on Sunday evenings Marx was a genial +companion, full of wit and humour. "His dark black eyes sparkled with +mirth and with a playful irony whenever he heard a witty remark or a +prompt repartee." He was a tender, indulgent father, who never +asserted the parental authority. His wife was his helper and companion +in the truest sense of the word. She was four years older than he, and +notwithstanding her aristocratic connections and in spite of the great +hardships and persecutions which for years she had to suffer by the +side of her husband, she never regretted having taken the step which +linked her destiny with that of Marx. She possessed a cheerful, bright +disposition and an unfailing tact, easily winning the esteem of every +one of her husband's acquaintances, friends, and followers. "Heinrich +Heine, the relentless satirist, feared Marx's scorn; but he cherished +the greatest admiration for the keen, sensitive mind of Marx's wife. +Marx esteemed so highly the intelligence and the critical sense of his +wife that he told me in 1866 he had submitted all his manuscripts to +her and that he set a high value upon her judgment." Six children were +born to the Marxes, four girls and two boys, of whom only three of the +girls grew up--Jenny, who married Charles Longuet; Laura, who became +the wife of Paul Lafargue; and the unhappy but highly-gifted Eleanor, +who spent 14 sad years of her life by the side of Dr. Edward Aveling. + +The sixties were undoubtedly the happiest years of Marx's life, and +seemed to promise an abundant harvest in his later life. But his +health soon began to fail, and did not allow him to complete his work. +The most productive years of Marx's life were between 1837 and 1847 +and between 1857 and 1871. All his valuable work falls within these +years: the "Poverty of Philosophy," the Communist Manifesto, his +activity in the International, "Capital," the Civil War in France (the +Commune). + + +V. THE INTERNATIONAL. + +The economic studies necessitated by his book "Capital" led Marx into +the study of the social history of England during the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries, and gave him an insight into the working-class +movements of those times such as but few scholars, English or foreign, +have acquired. He became familiar with the modes of thought and +expression of the working-class revolutionary movements, and +especially of the Chartist movement, with the surviving leaders and +adherents of which he was personally acquainted. Always eager to +obtain knowledge of the actual working-class movement and to take part +in it, he watched the activities of the English working class, which +in the fifties was mainly occupied with purely trade unionist +questions, being, politically, still in the Liberal camp. A change +seemed imminent, however, about the beginning of the sixties. The +London Labour leaders began to think about a Parliamentary reform +movement, about starting a campaign for universal suffrage, which was +an old Chartist demand. Likewise they manifested an interest in the +fate of Poland and in other international questions concerning +liberty. + +At the International Exhibition held in London in 1862, the Labour +leaders made the acquaintance of a deputation of French working men, +with whom they afterwards carried on a correspondence. In 1863 and +1864, in the course of this correspondence, the idea of founding an +international union of workers was mooted; and in the fourth week of +September, 1864, this idea was carried into effect. Labour delegates +from Paris and London held a conference in London from the 25th to the +28th of September, and the event was celebrated by a public gathering +in St. Martin's Hall on the evening of the 28th. Marx received an +invitation to this meeting in order that the German workers might be +represented there. This conference and meeting resulted in the +formation of the International Working Men's Association. Committees +and sub-committees were elected to draw up a declaration of principles +and outline the constitution. One of Mazzini's followers and a +Frenchman submitted schemes which were handed over to Marx to be +elaborated by him. He consigned them to the waste-paper basket and +wrote the "Inaugural Address," giving a history of the English workers +since the year 1825, and deducing the necessary conclusions. The +declaration of principles is entirely the work of Marx, and it is by +no means a subtly and diplomatically conceived composition designed to +please English and French working men; it consists essentially of +Marxian ideas expressed in terms, however, which would appeal to +English working men of that time. "It was difficult," writes Marx to +Engels--("Correspondence," Vol. III., p. 191)--"so to arrange matters +that our view should appear in a form which would prove acceptable to +the working-class movement with its present outlook.... It needs time +before the reanimated movement will allow of the old boldness of +speech. One must go _fortiter in re, suaviter in modo_ (firmly +maintaining essential principles with a pleasant manner)." + +The Inaugural Address sums up the history of the English working class +from 1825 to 1864, and shows that from its struggles, as indeed from +modern social history in general, the following lessons may be learnt +by the proletariat: independent economic and political action by the +working class; the turning to account of reforms forced out of the +ruling classes by the proletariat; international co-operation of +workers in the Socialist revolution and against secret, militarist +diplomacy. + +Marx devoted a great deal of his time during the years 1865 to 1871 to +the International. Its progress awoke in him the greatest hopes. In +1867 he writes to Engels: "Things are moving. And in the next +revolution, which is perhaps nearer than it seems, we (i.e., you and +I) have this powerful machinery _in our hands_."--("Correspondence of +Marx and Engels," Vol. III., p. 406.) + +The International passed through three phases: from 1865 to 1867 the +followers of Proudhon held sway; from 1868 to 1870 Marxism was in the +ascendant; from 1871 to its collapse it was dominated and ultimately +broken up by the Bakunists. The followers of Proudhon, like those of +Bakunin, were against political action and in favour of the federative +economic form of social organisation, only the Bakunists were also +Communists, whereas the followers of Proudhon had an antipathy to +Communism. Both groups were in agreement with Marx only on the one +point--that he made economics the basis of the working-class movement. +Both groups, however, accused him of being dictatorial, of attempting +to concentrate the whole power of the International in his own hands. +Besides insurmountable theoretical differences, racial and national +prejudices crept into the International as disintegrating factors. The +Romance and Russian Anarchists looked upon Marx as a pan-German, and +conversely, some Marxians considered Bakunin a pan-Slav. Even as late +as 1914, in the first months of the war, Professor James Guillaume, +the last of the Bakunists, wrote a pamphlet entitled "Karl Marx, +Pangermaniste" (Paris). + +Michael Bakunin (b. 1814, near Twer, in Russia; d. 1876, in Berne) +lived and studied in Germany during the forties. In 1848 and 1849 he +took part in the revolution, was arrested, then handed over to Russia +and banished to Siberia, whence he escaped in 1856, afterwards living +in various countries of Western Europe. He was an indifferent +theorist, and contributed little to the enrichment of philosophical +Anarchism, but he distinguished himself by his immense revolutionary +activity and his capacity for sacrifice. The influence which he +exercised sprang from his character. He had been acquainted with the +Young Hegelians as well as with Marx, Engels, and Wilhelm Wolff since +the beginning of the forties. Until the end of 1868 he acknowledged +Marx as his intellectual leader, as is evident from the following +letter which he addressed to Marx: + + "123, Montbrillant, Geneva, + "December 22, 1868. + + "Serno has shown me the portion of your letter which concerns + me. You ask him whether I am still your friend. Yes, more than + ever, my dear Marx, for now I understand better than ever how + truly right you are when you advance along the high road of + economic revolution and invite us to follow, and when you set + those below us who stray into the side-tracks either of national + or exclusively political enterprises. I am now doing the same + thing that you have been doing for more than twenty years. Since + my solemn public leave-taking from the bourgeois of the Berne + Congress, I no longer know any other society, any other milieu, + than the world of the workers. Henceforth my country is the + 'International,' of which you are one of the most illustrious + founders. Yon see, my dear friend, that I am your disciple--and + I am proud of it. That will be enough to make clear my attitude + and my feelings toward you."--("Neue Zeit," 19th year, Vol. I., + p. 6.) + +Nevertheless, this discipleship did not hinder Bakunin from secretly +forming a separate organisation which contributed to the break-up of +the International. Moreover, the International was only a kind of +school for Socialist officers who had yet to create their armies, but +it proved even more successful than Marx himself could have expected. +The fundamental principles of Marxism ousted every other social +revolutionary system which had made itself prominent within the +working-class movement. + + +VI. THE PARIS COMMUNE. + +On September 1, 1870, a part of the French Army was defeated near +Sedan and compelled to capitulate on the following day. Among the +prisoners was Louis Bonaparte, the French Emperor. The Empire fell on +September 4, and France was proclaimed a Republic. On September 6 Marx +wrote to Engels: "The French section of the International travelled +from London to Paris in order to do foolish things in the name of the +International. They want to overthrow the Provisional Government and +set up a _Commune de Paris_."--("Correspondence," Vol. IV., p. 330). + +Although the Provisional Government of the newly-baked French Republic +was in no wise made up of friends of the democracy, Marx and Engels +expressed themselves _against_ any revolutionary action by the Paris +working class. In the second Address (or declaration) of the General +Council of the International, written on September 9, and composed by +Marx, the question is discussed as follows: + + "Thus the French working class finds itself placed in extremely + difficult circumstances. Any attempt to overthrow the new + Government, when the enemy is already knocking at the gates of + Paris, would be a hopeless piece of folly. The French workers + must do their duty as citizens; but they must not let themselves + be overcome by the national reminiscences of 1792.... They have + not to repeat the past but to build the future. Let them quietly + and with determination make the most of the republican freedom + granted to them, in order to carry out thoroughly the + organisation of their own class. That will give them new, + Herculean strength for the rebirth of France and for our common + task--the emancipation of the proletariat."--("Civil War in + France," Second Address.) + +Marx then urged the French workers not to do anything foolish, not to +set up a revolutionary Commune of Paris, but to make use of their +republican liberties to create proletarian organisations and to save +and discipline their forces for future tasks. Circumstances, however, +proved much stronger than any words of wisdom. Goaded by the +anti-democratic moves of the Government supporters, deeply humiliated +by the defeats of the French army, burning with patriotism and whipped +up into fury against the "capitulards," the Paris working men cast +Marx's words to the winds and rose in revolution on March 18, 1871, +proclaiming the Paris Commune. Paris was to be the capital of a +Socialist Republic. In seven weeks the Paris Revolution was +overthrown--and "Vae victis!" (Woe to the vanquished!) Marx afterwards +wrote the pamphlet on "The Civil War in France, 1871," which is one of +the most mature of his writings. He did not cut himself entirely +adrift from the revolutionaries--the Bolsheviks of that time--but +defended them with unsurpassable energy. It is the swan song of Marx +and of the first International. + + +VII. THE EVENING OF LIFE. + +During the last twelve years of his life Marx had to fight almost +uninterruptedly against various bodily ailments, all of which had +their origin in his chronic liver complaint and over-exertion. His +work, for which he had sacrificed, as he wrote to an American friend, +"health, happiness and family," remained unfinished. He devoted his +enforced leisure to making a study of American agriculture and of +rural conditions in Russia, for which purpose he learnt Russian; he +likewise occupied himself with studies of the Stock Exchange, banking, +geology, physiology, and higher mathematics. In 1875 he wrote his +"Criticism of the Gotha Program"--("Neue Zeit," 9th year, Vol. I., No. +18)--which contains some very important data as to Marx's attitude to +the State, to the revolutionary period of transition from Capitalism +to Socialism, and lastly to Socialist society itself. + +He went to Karlsbad for the purpose of recovering his health. In 1877 +and 1878 he was in some measure capable of carrying on his work, and +set about arranging his manuscripts and getting the second volume of +"Capital" ready for the press; it soon appeared, however, that his +capacity for work had gone. The decline in body and mind could no +longer be checked; even visits to French and Algerian watering-places +proved ineffective. It was just at this time that Marx began to find +recognition both in France and in England: Jules Guesde, Henry M. +Hyndman, Belfort Bax set about spreading Marxian doctrines, and +Marxian and anti-Marxian parties were formed. But the man to whom this +recognition had come was already a ruin. Bronchial catarrh, +inflammation of the lungs, spasmodic asthma, together with the loss of +his wife on December 2, 1881, and of his eldest daughter (Mme. +Longuet) in January, 1883, gave the finishing stroke to his enfeebled +body. On March 14, 1883, Marx breathed his last. Engels gives an +account of the last moments in a letter to his American friend Sorge, +dated March 15, 1883: + + "Yesterday, at half-past two in the afternoon, the best time for + visiting him, I went down to see him; everybody was in tears; it + looked as if the end had come. I made inquiries, trying to get + at the truth of the matter and to offer consolation. There had + been a slight hęmorrhage, but a sudden collapse had supervened. + Our good old Lena, who had tended him better than any mother + does her child, went up, came down. He was half asleep, she + said; I could go up. As we went in, he lay there, sleeping, + never to wake again. Pulse and breathing had ceased. In those + two minutes he had gone painlessly and peacefully to sleep.... + Mankind is less by a head, and indeed by the most important head + it had to-day. The working-class movement will pursue its + course, but its central point, to which French, Russians, + Americans, and Germans turned of their own accord in decisive + moments, always to receive that clear, unambiguous counsel which + genius and perfect mastery alone can give--is gone." + +On Saturday, March 17, he was buried in the Highgate Cemetery, London. +Among those who spoke at the graveside were Friedrich Engels and +Wilhelm Liebknecht. The former gave a brief account of his +revolutionary struggles, in which he said: + + "Just as Darwin discovered the law of the evolution of organic + nature, so Marx discovered the evolutionary law of human + history--the simple fact, hitherto hidden under ideological + overgrowths, that above all things men must eat, drink, dress, + and find shelter before they can give themselves to politics, + science, art, religion, or anything else, and that therefore the + production of the material necessaries of life and the + corresponding stage of economic evolution of a people or a + period provides the foundation upon which the national + institutions, legal systems, art, and even religious ideas of + the people in question have been built, and upon which, + therefore, their explanation must be based, a procedure the + reverse of that which has hitherto been adopted. Marx discovered + also the special law of motion for the modern capitalist mode of + production and for the middle-class society which it begets. + With the discovery of surplus value light was at once thrown + upon a subject, all the earlier investigations of which, whether + by middle-class economists or by Socialist critics, had been + gropings in the dark...." + +After him spoke Liebknecht, who had hastened from Germany to pay a +last tribute to his friend and master: + + "The dead one, whose loss we mourn, was great in his love and in + his hate. His hate sprang from his love. He had a great heart, + as he had a great intellect. He has raised social democracy from + a sect, from a school, to a party, which now already fights + unconquered, and in the end will win the victory." + +Engels, who outlived him by twelve years, edited the two last volumes +of "Capital," while Karl Kautsky, the disciple and successor of Engels +and the real disseminator of Marxian doctrines, edited the three +volumes of Marx's historical studies on surplus value. The latter work +is not far short of being a great history of political economy. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] By democratic parties were then understood working-class political +movements, such as Chartism, etc. + + + + +IV. + +THE MARXIAN SYSTEM. + + +I. THE MATERIALIST CONCEPTION OF HISTORY. + +As a guide to his studies from 1843-4 onwards, Marx used the +conception of history, or method of investigation, which--in +contradistinction to the idealist conception of history of Hegel--was +named materialistic. As its nature is dialectic--as it seeks to +conceive in thought the evolving antagonisms of the social process--it +is, like Hegel's dialectic, a conception of history and a method of +investigation at the same time. Nowhere did Marx work out his method +of investigation in a special and comprehensive form; the elements of +it are scattered throughout his writings, particularly in the +Communist Manifesto and in the "Poverty of Philosophy," and serve the +purpose of polemics or demonstration. Only in the preface to his book, +"On the Critique of Political Economy" (1859) did he devote two pages +to a sketch of his conception of history, but in phraseology which is +not always clear, sequential, or free from objection. It was the +intention of Marx to write a work on Logic, where he would certainly +have formulated clearly his materialistic dialectic. As, however, his +fundamental ideas on this subject are available, we are able to +extract the essentials of his position. + +A glance over human history suffices to teach us that from age to age +man has held to be true or false various opinions on rights, customs, +religion, the State, philosophy, land-holding, trade, industry, etc., +that he has had various economic arrangements, and forms of the State +and of society, and that he has gone through an endless series of +struggles and wars and migrations. How has this complicated variety of +human thought and action come about? Marx raises that question, which, +so far as he is concerned, does not aim in the first place at the +discovery of the origin of thought, of rights, of religion, of +society, of trade, etc.; these he takes to be historically given. He +is rather concerned to find out the causes, the impulses, or the +springs which produce the changes and revolutions of the essentials +and forms of the mental and social phenomena, or which create the +tendencies thereto. In a sentence: What interested Marx here was not +the _origin_, but the development and change of things--he is +searching for the dynamic law of history. + +Marx answered: The prime motive power of human society, which is +responsible for the changes of human consciousness and thought, or +which causes the various social institutions and conflicts to arise, +does not originate, in the first place, from thought, from the Idea, +from the world-reason or the world-spirit, but from the material +conditions of life. The basis of human history is therefore material. +The material conditions of life--that is, the manner in which men as +social beings, with the aid of environing nature, and of their own +in-dwelling physical and intellectual qualities, shape their material +life, provide for their sustenance, and produce, distribute and +exchange the necessary goods for the satisfaction of their needs. + +Of all categories of material conditions of existence, the most +important is production of the necessary means of life. And this is +determined by the nature of the productive forces. These are of two +kinds: inanimate and personal. The inanimate productive forces are: +soil, water, climate, raw materials, tools and machines. The personal +productive forces are: the labourers, the inventors, discoverers, +engineers, and finally, the qualities of the race--the inherited +capacities of specific groups of men, which facilitate work. + +The foremost place among the productive forces belongs to the manual +and mental labourers; they are the real creators of exchange-value in +capitalist society. The next place of importance is taken by modern +technology, which is an eminently revolutionising force in +society.--("Capital" (German), Vol. I., Chapters 1, 12, 13 and 14, +"Poverty of Philosophy" (German edition, 1885, pp. 100-101.)) + +So much for the conception "Productive Forces," which plays an +important part with Marx. We come now to the other equally important +notion, "Conditions of production." By this phrase Marx understands +the legal and State forms, ordinances and laws, as well as the +grouping of social classes and sections: thus, the social conditions +which regulate property and determine the reciprocal human relations +in which production is carried on. The conditions of production are +the work of men in society. Just as men produce various material goods +out of the materials and forces made available to them by Nature, so +they create out of the reactions of the productive forces upon the +mind definite social, political, and legal institutions, as well as +systems of religion, morals, and philosophy. + +"Men make their own history, but do not so spontaneously in conditions +chosen by them, but on the contrary, in conditions which they have +found ready to hand transmitted and given."--(Marx, "The Eighteenth +Brumaire," I.) + +That is to say, under the influence of productive work and its needs, +men build their form of society, their State, their religion, their +philosophy and science. The material production is the substructure or +the groundwork, while the corresponding political, religious, and +philosophical systems are the superstructure. And in such a manner +that the superstructure corresponds to the foundation, lends it +strength, and promotes its development. + +The foundation is material, and the superstructure is the psychical +reflex and effect. + +In broad outlines this conception may be illustrated somewhat as +follows: + +Primitive human groups lived under Communism and were organised +according to blood relationship. Their deities have the +characteristics of their natural environment, and reflect the physical +effects of this environment upon the primitive mental life of the +"savage"; their religion, their morality, and their laws promote the +communal life and the tribal discipline. Feudal society is based on +the possession of land by the nobles and on the industrial labour of +the corporations of the towns. The inherited religious ideas are soon +transformed in accordance with the dominant interests of these +historical periods (primitive Christianity became a State religion); +all religious, ethical, and philosophical ideas antagonistic to these +interests were fought and persecuted. The middle-class society, which +is based on personal property, is endeavouring to sweep away all +vestiges of communal and corporation rights, to set free the +individual, to mobilise labour and property, to abolish Feudalism and +the old Church and monasterial institutions, and to put in their place +the individual relation between man and God, or the personal +conscience (the Reformation), introducing individual rights as well; +it struggles against the independent sovereignty of the feudal +domains, and labours for a united national territory, which will +afford greater scope to trade and commerce; it supports Absolutism, so +long as the latter is in conflict with the feudal lords; and when, +afterwards, Absolutism is a hindrance to the development of +middle-class society, this also is fought and a constitutional +monarchy or a republic demanded. And all this takes place not because +certain human intelligences, by reason of more intense thought, or +enlightenment, or the call of a supernatural power, are primarily at +work, but as a consequence of the influence of the material basis, of +the economic foundation of society, upon the mind, which translates +and transforms these external realities into religious, juridical, and +philosophic conceptions: + +"It is not the consciousness of men which determines their existence, +but, on the contrary, their social existence determines their +consciousness."--(Marx, Preface to "Critique of Political Economy.") + +Man, even the most heroic, is not the sovereign maker and law-giver of +social life, but its executive; he only follows out the tendencies and +currents set up by the material foundation of society. Nevertheless, a +great deal depends upon the executive officials. If they possess +comprehensive knowledge, energetic natures, and outstanding +capacities, they are able, within the boundaries drawn for them, to +accomplish great things, and to accelerate the development. + +"Up to the present the philosophers have but interpreted the world; it +is, however, necessary to change it."--(Marx, "Theses to Feuerbach.") + +We have referred in various places to interests. We are not to +understand by this personal, but general social or class interests. +Marx is not of the opinion that everybody acts in accordance with his +personal welfare. This is not Marxian doctrine, but that of the +middle-class moral philosophers, like Helvetius (1715-1771) and Jeremy +Bentham (1748-1832), who regarded pleasure and pain of the individual +as the measure and motive of his actions and conduct. Marx is rather +of the opinion that men often, in the most important events of their +lives, act contrary to their personal interests, as in their feelings +and thoughts they identify themselves with that which they hold to be +the interests of the community or of their class. According to Marx, +individual interest generally plays a slight part in history. He is +preoccupied with the collective interest of social production. Only +the latter does he hold to be determining in the formation of the +intellectual superstructure. + +Up till now we have only spoken of various forms of production and +society, and their corresponding mental systems. But we do not yet +know why and how one form of production and society becomes obsolete +and gives place to another, that is, how and why revolutionary changes +are brought about. Or in other words: we have hitherto considered the +statics of society; we will now look at its dynamics. + +The revolutionary changes in society depend on two groups of +phenomena, which, although casually connected with each other, yet +work differently. One of these groups of phenomena is technical, and +consists in changes in the productive forces. The other group, which +is the effect of the first, is of a personal nature, and consists in +struggles between the social classes. Let us consider the first group +of causes. + +As the productive forces expand, through greater skill on the part of +the worker, through discoveries of new raw material and markets, +through the invention of new labour processes, tools and machines, and +through the better organisation of trade and exchange, so that the +material basis or the economic foundation of society is altered, then +the old conditions of production cease to promote the interests of +production. For the conditions of production: the former social +classes, the former laws, State institutions, and intellectual systems +were adapted to a state of the productive forces which is either in +process of disappearing, or no longer exists. The social and +intellectual superstructure no longer corresponds to the economic +foundation. The productive forces and the conditions of production +come into conflict with each other. + +This conflict between the new realty and the old form, this conflict +between new causes and the obsolete effects of bygone causes, begins +gradually to influence the thoughts of men. Men commence to feel that +they are confronted with a new external world, and that a new era has +been opened. + +Social divisions acquire a new significance: classes and sections +which were formerly despised gain in social and economic power; +classes which were formerly honoured decline. While this +transformation of the social foundation is proceeding, the old +religious, legal, philosophical, and political systems cling to their +inherited positions, and insist on remaining, although they are +obsolete and can no longer satisfy mental needs. For human thought is +conservative: it follows external events slowly, just as our eye +perceives the sun at a point which the sun has in reality already +passed, as the rays require several minutes of time in order to strike +our optic nerves. We may recall Hegel's fine metaphor: "The Owl of +Minerva begins its flight only when twilight gathers." However late, +it does begin. Great thinkers gradually arise, who explain the new +situation, and create new ideas and trains of thought which correspond +to the new situation. The human consciousness gives birth to anxious +doubts and questionings, and then new truths; leading to differences +of opinion, disputes, strifes, schisms, class struggles, and +revolutions. + +In the next chapter we will consider more closely the class struggle +between Labour and Capital. Meanwhile, we will look at the class +struggle generally. + +In primitive societies, where private property is yet unknown, or +still undeveloped, there are no class distinctions, no class +domination, and no class antagonisms. The chief, the medicine man, and +the judge regulate or supervise the observance of the customary +usages, religious ceremonies, and social arrangements. But as soon as +the old order is dissolved, and private property develops, in +consequence of trade with other peoples or through wars, there arise +classes of those who possess and those who do not. The possessing +class carries on the Government, makes laws, and creates +institutions, which chiefly serve the end of protecting the interests +of the possessing and ruling classes. The intellectual structure of +the class society likewise corresponds to the interests of those who +possess and rule. So long as these interests promote the common good +in some measure, so long as the old forms of production and the old +conditions of production are largely in harmony with each other, a +certain truce prevails between the classes. But should there set in +the above-mentioned opposition between the productive forces and the +conditions of production, the latter will cease to satisfy the +oppressed classes, and class conflicts will arise, which will either +result in legal compromises (reforms) or will end in the overthrow of +the society concerned, or will lead to a new set of conditions. +Ancient history (Hebrew, Greek, Roman) is full of these social +struggles; all the great reform laws of these peoples were attempts to +establish social peace, but the rich and the poor, the Patricians and +the Plebeians, the Slaves and Freemen, continued their struggles until +the downfall of the old world, which has bequeathed to us great +intellectual treasures as the fruit of these struggles. In the Middle +Ages social struggles between the feudal lords and the traders, +between nobles and peasants, were kindled. In more recent times the +middle classes fought Autocracy and Squirearchy, and at length the +proletariat was pitted against the bourgeoisie--class struggles which +led to rebellions and revolutions, and powerfully influenced the +intellectual life. + +From these historical antagonisms and struggles arose the intellectual +and political antagonisms, personified by the leaders of the social +groups and classes, of which world-history relates: opposing +religious and philosophical systems: Brahma and Buddha, Baal and +Jahveh, National God and Universal God, Heathendom and Christendom, +Catholicism and Protestantism, Materialism and Idealism, Realism and +Nominalism. However abstract or metaphysical, however remote from +actual life and material production they may appear to be, +nevertheless, in the last resort they are to be traced back through +many intermediate stages to changes in the economic foundation of the +society in question, to the contradiction between this foundation and +the conditions of production, as well as to the great struggles +between conflicting interests which spring therefrom. The ethical, +political, and politico-economic systems which strive with each other +for mastery, as well as national and world wars, are separated from +the real basis of society by a progressively smaller number of +intermediate stages: the questions of idealist or utilitarian ethics, +monarchy or republic, oligarchy or democracy, protection or free +trade, State regulation or free scope for the economic forces, +Socialism or private enterprise, etc., however lofty and humanitarian +may be the arguments and ideal motives which their champions may +adduce, are connected with the material foundation and the conditions +of production which have come into conflict with it. + +Marx and Engels have set forth this conception in the Communist +Manifesto, in popular form, as follows: + + "Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that man's ideas, + views, and conceptions, in one word, man's consciousness, + changes with every change in the conditions of his material + existence, in his social relations and in his social life? + + "What else does the history of ideas prove than that + intellectual production changes in character in proportion as + material production is changed. The ruling ideas of each age + have ever been the ideas of its ruling class. + + "When people speak of ideas that revolutionise society they do + but express the fact that within the old society the elements of + a new one have been created, and that the dissolution of the old + ideas keeps even pace with the dissolution of the old conditions + of existence. + + "When the ancient world was in its last throes the ancient + religions were overcome by Christianity. When Christian ideas + succumbed in the eighteenth century to rationalist ideas, feudal + society fought its death-battle with the then revolutionary + bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of + conscience merely gave expression to the sway of free + competition within the domain of knowledge." + +Now one step farther. When the conditions of production, the social +divisions into classes, and the laws of property become fetters to the +productive forces, when the conflict of interests condense themselves +into class struggles, then comes a period of social revolution. + + "With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense + superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In + considering such transformations the distinction should always + be made between the material transformation of the economic + conditions of production which can be determined with the + precision of natural science, and the legal, political, + religious, ęsthetic, or philosophic--in short, ideological forms + in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out. + Just as our opinion of an individual is not based on what he + thinks of himself, so we are not able to judge of such a period + of transformation by its own consciousness; on the contrary, + this consciousness must rather be explained from the + contradictions of material life, from the existing conflict + between the social forces of production and the conditions of + production."--(Preface to "Critique of Political Economy.") + +The revolutionary period only closes when the social order that had +become full of contradictions liberates the productive forces and +strikes off their fetters, and creates new conditions of production +which correspond to them. The old society, which is doomed to +disappear, evolves the new conditions of existence before it sinks +into oblivion. The men who assist the progress of the new society +accordingly occupy themselves with problems which they are able to +solve, as the means thereto are given in the material development. +Such problems are set before them because, regarded from the +theoretical standpoint, they are the mental reflex of the +contradictions and revolutionary tendencies within society. + +Accordingly, the essence of the historical development of human +society has been so far the progressive dialectical unfolding and +perfection of the productive forces. + +"In broad outlines," says Marx, "we can designate the Asiatic, the +ancient, the feudal, and the modern bourgeois methods of production, +as so many epochs in the progress of the economic formation of +society. The bourgeois relations of production are the last +antagonistic form of the social process of production--antagonistic +not in the sense of individual antagonism, but of one arising from +conditions surrounding the life of individuals in society; at the same +time the productive forces developing in the womb of bourgeois society +create the material conditions for the solution of that antagonism. +This social formation constitutes, therefore, the closing chapter of +the prehistoric stage of human society." + +Prehistoric stage of human society! What significant words! The +capitalist economic order is the last phase of this stage, which is +written in streams of blood and tears of the dispossessed and +exploited, and to which is given the task of developing the productive +forces and liberating men from the material fetters, so that they may +enter into a life of mental culture. The materialist conception of +history, unethical and unidealist like all natural science, opens up +wide and elevating prospects. During thousands of years man struggled +on the physical plane to obtain release from the animal kingdom, and +was subjected to the discipline of unfeeling nature. After he had +emerged from the animal kingdom, man laboured for thousands of years +to lay the foundation of human society, a process which was performed +under the hunger whip of stern taskmasters, and which powerfully +stimulated the intellectual capacities of men, but only disclosed the +ideal of justice and humanity as a remote and inaccessible star. + +The materialist conception of history has shown itself to be a +fruitful method of historical investigation. Some aspects of this idea +were uttered both before and during Marx's lifetime. The revolution in +the positions of classes and the struggles which followed hard on the +English industrial revolution (1760-1825), and everywhere attended the +transition from an agrarian to an industrial State, were too palpable +to be overlooked. It was Marx who fused these ideas, with the aid of +the Hegelian dialectics made of them a method of investigation, and +pressed them into the service of Socialism and historical research. + + +II. CLASSES, CLASS STRUGGLES, AND CLASS-CONSCIOUSNESS. + +One of the most important contributions of Marx to the understanding +of historical processes is his conception of social classes and of +class struggles. Although, prior to Marx, there were historians and +politicians who pointed out the part played by social classes in +politics and in social convulsions, it was Marx who first grasped this +conception in its entire scope and significance, giving it precise +form, and making it an essential part of political and social thought. +He refers to the subject in the Communist Manifesto in the following +terms: + + "The Socialist and Communist systems properly so called, those + of St. Simon, Fourier, Owen, and others, spring into existence + in the early undeveloped period of the struggle between + proletariat and bourgeoisie. The founders of these systems see, + indeed, the class antagonisms, as well as the action of the + decomposing elements in the prevailing form of society. But the + proletariat, as yet in its infancy, offers to them the spectacle + of a class without any historical initiative or any independent + political movement." + +The classification of the various groups of society, or the division +of human society into classes, is as logical a process, that is, a +result attained by the operations of reason, as the division of +animals, plants, and minerals into various classes. A specific group +of social beings, which bear the stamp of common characteristics, is +put in a certain class by social science. This classification cannot +be made by purely empirical methods of immediate sensuous perceptions. +It cannot be determined from the appearance of modern men, whether +they are capitalists or workers. We must look for certain +scientifically established features which determine the social +classification of men. As we have just seen, Marx held economic facts +to be fundamental, and he contended that the economic characteristics +were valid for purposes of classification. In his view, the manner in +which a specific human group obtained its sustenance was the chief +characteristic. Men whose chief means of life are wages form the +working class. Men whose most important source of livelihood is the +ownership of capital (land, buildings, workshops, and raw material) +form the capitalist class. It is of little moment that a worker owns a +savings-bankbook, and draws interest or dividends from a co-operative +society, or that a capitalist personally supervises his undertaking, +or organises his business, so that his profits partly consist in wages +of superintendence or salary. The outstanding feature is that the +chief interest of the worker is concentrated on wages, whilst that of +the capitalist is directed on property. It goes without saying that +the social classes are not completely homogeneous. Like botanical and +zoological classes, they may be divided into kinds and species; the +working classes include well-paid hand and brain workers, as well as +sweated sections; but all the subdivisions of the social classes +possess the common outstanding quality of the same source of +livelihood, which is either personal labour or the possession of +capital. One class disposes only of labour-power, while the other +class owns the means of production. + +Between these two classes, says Marx, there are deep-seated, +unbridgeable antagonisms, which lead to a class struggle. The +antagonisms are primarily of an economic nature. The wage-earners, as +the owners of labour power, are constrained to sell this as dear as +possible, i.e., to obtain the highest possible wages, whereas the +owners of capital endeavour to buy such labour-power as cheap as +possible, i.e., to pay the least possible wages. This antagonism is +indeed fundamental, but, at first sight, does not touch the +intellectual sphere very deeply. On the surface, this antagonism is +only one as between buyer and seller, but in reality the distinction +is very great, as the seller of labour-power will quickly starve if he +does not market his commodity. The owner of the means of production is +therefore in a position to cause the seller of labour-power to starve, +if the latter does not accept the conditions which the capitalist +imposes. Ownership of capital reveals itself as a power that can +oppress the owner of labour-power. + +This antagonism leads to the formation of Trade Unions. It is also the +prime cause of the class struggle, but mere trade unionism is but its +incipient stage. It develops into a class struggle when the workers +recognise that their condition of subjection is not a temporary state, +but the result of the economic system of private capitalism, that the +subjection will last so long as this economic system exists, and that +the latter could be replaced by an economic order in which the means +of production belong to all the members of society. The wage-workers +only participate in the class struggle when they learn to think in a +Socialist sense, when hostility to the existing social order develops +out of the sporadic and unrelated wage struggle and actions of Trade +Unions, and when the proletariat, as an organised class, turns from +the preoccupations of the present to the tasks of the future, and +strives to change the basis of society from private property to common +property. The workers then become aware that there can be neither +freedom nor equality for them in the existing society, and that their +emancipation can only be attained through Socialism. The class +struggle may, however, stop short at the recognition of these facts. +The dialectical movement will be incomplete if the working class does +not take its fate into its own hands, and is not convinced that it has +the power to achieve its own emancipation, and therefore contents +itself with small social reforms, or relies on noble-minded and +benevolent men and heroic redeemers. This was actually the case in the +beginnings of the Socialist movement, when the workers saw in +Socialism the only way out, but were still too weak to take their fate +into their own hands. This was the period which Marx called Utopian, +when outstanding personalities spread Socialist ideas, and made +Socialist plans and experiments to free the labouring masses. As these +personalities knew the impotence of the masses, they turned to +philanthropists and humane rulers, and sought to convince them that +reason, justice, and the general welfare demanded that Socialism +should be introduced, and poverty, misery, and their consequences +abolished. This period of Utopian Socialism gave way before the +further development of industry, the progress of machine technique, +the centralisation and concentration of the means of production and +exchange, which brought with it an increase in the number, strength, +organisation, and class-consciousness of the working classes. It is +the centralisation of the means of production and exchange, in +particular, which renders it possible for the working class, by +paralysing industry and power stations, to cause the whole of society +to feel that living labour-power forms the soul of the economic life. + +At the same time Socialist investigators appear, who not only show the +reasonableness and justice of Socialism, but exhibit the proof that +the new economic order of Socialism is being prepared in the womb of +Capitalism, and that therefore the aspirations of the worker are in +harmony with the course of social development. + +In this wise, a science and an aspiring Socialist movement founded +upon reality develops from Utopian Socialism, and, conscious of class, +of power, and of aim, enters upon the decisive struggle with the +capitalist economic order. The class struggle acts as a lever of +social revolution. + +The original antagonism of the worker and capitalist over wages and +hours of labour becomes am impassionate struggle of two classes over +the question of the maintenance or transformation of the social and +economic system--one of which classes fights for the existing order of +private property and the other for the coming Socialistic system. +Great social class struggles inevitably become political struggles. +The immediate object of the struggle is the possession of the power of +the State, with the aid of which the capitalist class endeavours to +maintain its position, whilst the working class aims at the conquest +of the power of the State in order to accomplish its larger objects. + +The following chapter will show the direction taken by the Labour +movement. Here we will but briefly refer to the profound influence of +Marx's doctrine of the class struggle as exercised in political +thought. Prior to Marx, political thought and the struggles of +political parties seemed to revolve around ideas and great +personalities. Idealogy and hero-worship were prevalent. Now, +political thought, consciously or unconsciously, proceeds along class +and economic lines. This is equally true of historical investigations. +These new political and historical orientations are largely the result +of Marx's life-work. + +Rigidly conceived and applied, the Marxian doctrine of the +class-struggle may lead to ultra-revolutionary tactics of the +Socialist and Labour movement, to the system of Workers' Councils, and +Proletarian Dictatorship. If the emerging class and its struggle +constitutes the lever of social revolution and the impulse of the +dialectical social process, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is +justified, and in any case, democracy, which includes both the +capitalist and working class, cannot be the State form during the +transition period from private property to Socialism. Considered from +the economic standpoint, political democracy is generally impossible, +or only sham democracy so long as economic inequality exists. The +Communist Manifesto does not contain a single political democratic +reform. The conclusion can be drawn from Marx's idea, as a whole, that +in his estimation, the class stood higher than so-called democracy. +This is one of the sources of Bolshevism. + + +III. THE ROLE OF THE LABOUR MOVEMENT AND THE PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP. + +The Labour Party is the political expression of the whole Trade Union +movement so far as the latter formulates national demands, directed +towards the State and society generally. The Labour Party will +function the more effectively, and be able to accomplish its allotted +task, as its foundation--the Trade Union movement--becomes established +and strengthened, and the more comprehensive will be its effects. The +Trade Unions are not merely to be satisfied with the work of the +present, but are to become the focus and centre of gravity of the +proletarian aspirations which arise out of the social transformation +process, and are to work for the abolition of Capitalism. The most +effective lever for the achievement of this object is the conquest of +political power. With its aid the proletariat can consciously carry +out the transformation of a Capitalist into a Communist society. To +this transformation, there also corresponds a political transition +period, the state of which can be nothing else than a revolutionary +Dictatorship of the Proletariat.--(Marx, Letter to the German Social +Democracy, 1875, on their Gotha Programme.) + +Marx considered himself to be the real author of the idea of the +Dictatorship of the Proletariat. In a letter written by him, in 1852, +to his American friend, Weydemeyer, he declares: + + "As far as I am concerned, I can't claim to have discovered the + existence of classes in modern society or their strife against + one another. Middle-class historians long ago described the + evolution of the class struggles, and political economists + showed the economic physiology of the classes. I have added as a + new contribution the following propositions: (1) that the + existence of classes is bound up with certain phases of material + production; (2) that the class struggle leads necessarily to the + Dictatorship of the Proletariat; (3) that this dictatorship is + but the transition to the abolition of all classes and to the + creation of a society of free and equal."--("Neue Zeit," Vol. + XXV., second part, p. 164.) + +With the exception of the year 1870, Marx remained true to his +doctrine of Proletarian Dictatorship: he thought in 1875 as he did in +1847, when he sketched the groundwork of the Proletarian Dictatorship +in the Communist Manifesto: + + "The first step in the revolution by the working class is to + raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win + the battle of democracy. + + "The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by + degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all + instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of + the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase + the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible. + + "Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by + means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the + conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, + therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, + but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, + necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are + unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of + production." + +But suppose that it is not the revolutionary working class which first +attains to power in the revolution, but the democracy of the lower +middle class and the social reformists. In this case, Marx gives the +following advice: "Separate from it, and fight it." In the address to +the League of Communists in 1850 he said: + + "It may be taken for granted that in the bloody conflicts that + are coming, as in the case of previous ones, the courage, + resolution, and sacrifice of the workers will be the chief + factor in the attainment of victory. As hitherto, so in this + struggle, the mass of the lower middle class will maintain an + attitude of delay, irresolution, and inactivity as long as + possible, in order that, as soon as victory is assured, to + arrogate it to themselves and call on the workers to remain + quiet, return to work, avoid so-called excesses, and to exclude + the proletariat from the fruits of victory. It is not in the + power of the workers to hinder the lower middle classes from + doing this, but it is within their power to render their success + over the armed proletariat very difficult, to dictate to them + such conditions that from the beginning the rule of the + middle-class democrats is doomed to failure, and its later + substitution by the rule of the proletariat is considerably + facilitated. + + "The workers must, during the conflict and immediately + afterwards, as much as ever possible, oppose the compromises of + the middle class, and compel the democrats to execute their + present terrorist threats. They must aim at preventing the + subsiding of the revolutionary excitement immediately after the + victory. On the contrary, they must endeavour to maintain it as + long as possible. + + "Far from opposing so-called excesses, and making examples of + hated individuals or public buildings to which hateful + remembrances are attached, by sacrificing them to the popular + rage, such examples must not only be tolerated, but their + direction must even be taken in hand. During the struggle and + after the struggle, the workers must seize every opportunity to + present their own demands side by side with those of the + middle-class democrats. The workers must demand guarantees as + soon as the middle-class democrats propose to take the + government in hand. If necessary, these guarantees must be + exacted, and the new rulers must be compelled to make every + possible promise and concession, which is the surest way to + compromise them. The workers must size up the conditions in a + cool and dispassionate fashion, and manifest open distrust of + the new Government, in order to quench, as much as possible, the + ardour for the new order of things and the elation which follows + every successful street fight. Against the new official + Government, they must set up a revolutionary workers' + government, either in the form of local committees, communal + councils, or workers' clubs or workers' committees, so that the + democratic middle-class government not only immediately loses + its support amongst the working classes, but from the + commencement finds itself supervised and threatened by a + jurisdiction, behind which stands the entire mass of the working + class. In a word: from the first moment of victory the workers + must no longer level their distrust against the defeated + reactionary party, but direct it against their former allies, + who would seek to exploit the common victory for their own ends. + The workers must be armed and organised to enable them to + threaten energetic opposition to this party, whose treason to + the workers will commence in the first hour of victory. The + arming of the whole proletariat with rifles and ammunition must + be carried out at once, and steps taken to prevent the reviving + of the old militia, which would be directed against the workers. + But should this not be successful, the workers must endeavour to + organise themselves as an independent guard, choosing their own + chief and general staff, with orders to support not the State + power, but the councils formed by the workers. Where workers are + employed in State service, they must arm and organise in a + special corps, with a chief chosen by themselves, or form a part + of the Proletarian Guard. Under no pretext must they give up + their arms and equipment, and any attempt at disarmament must + be forcibly resisted. Destruction of the influence of the + middle-class democrats over the workers, immediate independent + and armed organisation of the workers, and the imposition of the + most irksome and compromising conditions possible upon the rule + of the bourgeois democracy, which is for the time + unavoidable.... We have noted that the Democrats come to power + in the next phase of the movement, and how they will be obliged + to impose measures of a more or less Socialistic nature. It will + be asked what contrary measures should be proposed by the + workers. Naturally, in the beginning of the movement the workers + cannot propose actual Communist measures, but they can (1) + compel the Democrats to attack the old social order from as many + sides as possible, disturb its regular course, and compromise + themselves, and concentrate in the hands of the State as much as + possible of the productive forces, means of transport, + factories, railways, etc. (2) When the Democrats propose + measures which are not revolutionary, but merely reformist, the + workers must press them to the point of turning such measures + into direct attacks on private property; thus, for example, if + the small middle class propose to purchase the railways and + factories the workers must demand that such railways and + factories, being the property of the reactionaries, shall be + simply confiscated by the State, without compensation. If the + Democrats propose a proportional tax, the workers must demand a + progressive tax; if the Democrats themselves declare for a + moderate progressive tax, the workers must insist on a tax so + steeply graduated as to cause the collapse of large fortunes; if + the Democrats demand the regulation of the State debt, the + workers must demand State bankruptcy. Thus the demands of the + workers must everywhere be directed against the concessions and + measures of the Democrats.... Further, the Democrats will either + work directly for a Federal Republic, or, at least, if they + cannot avoid the Republic one and indivisible, will seek to + paralyse it by granting the greatest possible independence to + the municipalities and provinces. The workers must set + themselves against this plan, not only to secure the one and + indivisible German Republic, but to concentrate as much power as + possible in the hands of the State. They need not be misled by + democratic platitudes about the freedom of the Communes, + self-determination, etc. Their battle-cry must be 'the + revolution in permanence.'" + +This Address of Marx, written in 1850, appears to be the guide of the +Bolsheviks and Spartacists. + +The working classes may, however, not expect their immediate +emancipation from their political victory. + + "In order to work out their own emancipation, and with it that + higher form of life which present-day society inevitably + opposes, the protracted struggle must pass through a whole + series of historical processes, in the course of which men and + circumstances alike will be changed. They have no ideal to + realise; they have only to set free the elements of the new + society, which have already developed in the womb of the + collapsing bourgeois society."--(Marx, "Civil War in France.") + +The means of production will gradually be socialised, production will +be placed on a co-operative basis, education will be combined with +productive work, in order to transform the members of society into +producers. So long as the transition period lasts the Communist +maxim, "From each according to his capacity, to each according to his +needs," cannot become operative. For this period is in every +respect--economic, social, and intellectual--still tainted with the +marks of the old society, and "rights cannot transcend the economic +structure of society, and the cultural development which it +determines."--(Criticism of Gotha Program.) To each will be given +according to his deeds. + +"Accordingly the individual producer will receive back what he gives +to society, after deductions for government, education, and other +social charges. He will give society his individual quota of labour. +For example: the social working day consists in the sum total of +individual working days; the individual labour time of the individual +producer is the part of the social working day which he contributes; +his share thereof. He will receive from society a certificate that he +has performed so much work (after deducting his work for social +funds), and with this certificate he will draw from the social +provision of articles of consumption as much as a similar quantity of +labour costs. The same quantity of labour as he will give to society +in one form he will receive back in another.... The right of producers +will be proportionate to the work they will perform: the equality will +consist in the application of the same measure: labour." + +Because performances will vary in accordance with unequal gifts and +degrees of diligence, an unequal distribution will actually take place +during the transition period. Only in a fully developed Communistic +society, after the distinction between intellectual and physical +labour has disappeared, when productive activity has become a first +need of life, when the all-round development of the individual and +the productive forces has been achieved, and all the springs of +co-operative riches flow abundantly; only then can the narrow +middle-class idea of rights be improved on, and the Communist +principle of equality be put into operation. + +Marx, who reasoned on strictly economic lines, and placed the +emancipation of the working class as the highest goal, to which all +other political and economic movements are subordinated, did not +mistake the economic, political, and historical rōle of the nation: +this is shown by the Communist Manifesto, where the creation of the +national State by the bourgeoisie is indicated. He mocked at the young +enthusiasts who thought they could brush aside the nation as an +obsolete prejudice, but, in spite of this, he considerably +under-estimated the unifying force of national feeling, considered +from a biological and cultural point of view. He divided civilised +mankind into antagonistic classes, and assumed that the economic +dividing lines would prove to be more effective than national and +political boundary lines. He was, therefore, through and through +international. Marx demanded that the national Labour Parties should +act internationally as soon as there was a possibility of the collapse +of the capitalist domination. He reproached the original Gotha program +with the fact that "it borrowed from middle-class Leagues of Peace and +Freedom the phrase of the international brotherhood of peoples, +whereas it was necessary to promote the international combination of +the working classes in a common struggle against the ruling classes +and their Governments." Marx had no confidence in the pacifism of the +bourgeoisie. + + +IV. OUTLINES OF THE ECONOMIC DOCTRINES. + + +1. _Capital._ + +As we already know, Marx became a Socialist in the year 1843. As a +believer in dialectics, he knew that Socialism can only be understood +by a knowledge of the movement operating in middle-class society and +its developing forces. His investigations in 1843-4 led to the result +that political economy forms the basis of bourgeois society. +Henceforth political economy became the chief department of his +studies. His comprehensive studies of French and English economists, +especially Sismondi and Ricardo, and the anti-capitalist literature of +England of the years 1820-40, which were connected with the Ricardian +theory of value, furnished him with a wealth of suggestions and +materials for the criticism of political economy, for the source and +origin and development and decline of capitalism, written from the +standpoint of the working class and the coming Socialistic society. +Such a work is "Capital." It consists of three volumes. Only the first +volume (1867) was carried through the press by Marx himself. The other +two volumes he only sketched, and they were completed and published by +Engels after Marx's death. + +The first volume deals with the origin and tendencies of large +industrial capital, with the immediate and simple process of commodity +production, so far as it concerns the relations between employer and +worker, the exploitation of the proletariat, wages and labour time, +and the influence of modern technique on the condition of the worker. +We see in the first volume the effect of the factory system in +creating capital. Its chief figure is the producing, suffering, +rebellious working class. In the second volume, the employer appears +on the market, sells his commodities, and sets the wheels of +production again in motion, so that commodities will continue to be +produced. In the third volume, the realisation process of the +undertakings of the capitalist class, or the movement of capital as a +whole is exhibited: cost of production, cost price, total gains and +their division into profit, interest and ground rent. The first volume +presents the greatest difficulties. The tremendous efforts of the +author to produce a masterpiece unnecessarily refined and sublimated +and overloaded with learning the doctrines of value and surplus value +until they attained the level of a philosophy, an example of Hegelian +logic. He played with his subject like an intellectual athlete. That +Marx could handle complicated economic questions in a clear, vigorous +manner is shown by the third volume, which is written just as it came +out of the author's head, and without the apparatus of learning +subsequently erected, without the crutches of notes and +polemico-philosophical excursions. + +To understand "Capital" it is necessary to bear in mind that (1) Marx +regarded the scientifically discovered principles as the real inner +being of things, practice he regarded as the superficial appearance of +things, capable of being apprehended empirically; for example, Value +is the theoretical expression, Price the empirical; Surplus Value is +the theoretical, and Profit the empirical expression; the appearances +apprehended by experience (Price and Profit) deviate indeed from +theory, but without the theory they cannot be understood; (2) he +looked at the capitalist economic system as being essentially free +from external hindrances and disturbances, free from invasions both +by the State and the proletariat: the Labour struggles of factory +protection laws of which Marx speaks in "Capital" serve rather to +perfect the productive forces than to restrict the exploiting +proclivities of sovereign capital. + + +2. _Value._ + +The life and motion of capitalistic society appears as an infinite net +of exchange operations, formed out of numerous entwined meshes. + +Through the medium of money, men continually exchange the most varied +commodities and services. A ceaseless buying and selling, an +uninterrupted series of exchanges of things, and labour power--this +constitutes the essential part of human relations in capitalistic +society. An economic map of these relations, graphically displayed, +would not be less confusing than an astronomical map which exhibited +the manifold and intersected orbits of the heavenly bodies. And yet +there must be some rule or law which operates in this seeming medley +of movements; for men do not work or exchange their goods by hazard, +like savages who give their entire lumps of gold or rough diamonds for +a necklace of glass pearls. The English and French economists in the +seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, amongst whom Petty +(1623-87), Quesnay (1694-1759), Adam Smith (1723-96), and Ricardo +(1772-1823) were the most original, sought for the laws which +regulated exchange operations, and their theories were designated by +Marx as classical bourgeois economy. Following up their +investigations, Marx declared: Every commodity, that is, every thing +or good produced under Capitalism and brought to the market possesses +a use value and an exchange value. + +The use value is the utility of the commodity to satisfy a physical or +mental need of its user: a commodity without use value is not +exchangeable or saleable. As use values, commodities are materially +different from each other; nobody will exchange a ton of wheat for a +ton of wheat of the same kind, but he will for clothes. + +In what measure will commodities exchange with one another? The +measure is the exchange value, and this consists in the trouble and +quantity of labour which the production of a commodity costs. Equal +quantities of labour are exchanged with each other on the market. As +exchange values, as the embodiment of human labour, commodities are +essentially equal to each other, only quantitatively are they +different, as different categories of commodities embody different +quantities of labour. It is obvious that the quantities of labour will +not be calculated according to the working methods of the individual +producers, but according to the prevailing social working methods. + +If, for example, hand-weaver A requires twenty hours for the +production of a piece of cloth, which in a modern factory will be +produced in five hours, the cloth of the hand-weaver does not +therefore possess four-fold exchange value. If hand-weaver A demands +of consumer B an equivalent of twenty working hours, B answers that a +similar piece of cloth can be produced in five hours, and therefore it +only represents an exchange value of five working hours. Thus, +according to Marx, the exchange value of a commodity consists in the +quantity of socially necessary labour power which its reproduction +would require. + +This quantity of labour is no constant factor. New inventions, +improvements in labour processes, increase in the productivity of +labour, etc., cause a diminution in the quantity of labour necessary +for the reproduction of a commodity; its exchange value, or expressed +in terms of money, its price, will therefore sink, provided that other +things (demand, medium of exchange) remain equal. + +Consequently, labour is the source of exchange value, and the latter +is the principle which regulates exchange operations. Exchange value +even measures the extent of the commodity wealth of society. Wealth +may increase in volume, but decrease in value, in so far as a less +quantity of socially necessary labour becomes necessary for its +reproduction. + +The more progressive a country is industrially and the higher the +level of its civilisation, the greater is its wealth, and the smaller +is the quantity of labour which must be expended on the creation of +wealth. In the practical Labour politics of our times, this is +expressed in higher wages and shorter working hours. + +It was said above that use value is a basic condition for the exchange +of the individual commodity. This does not exhaust the rōle of use +value. The quantity of use value of which society has need determines +the quantity of the exchange values to be created. If more commodities +are required than society requires, the superfluous commodities have +no exchange value, in spite of the labour that is expended on +them.--("Capital" (German), Vol. III., 1, pp. 175-176.) + +The complete realisation of exchange values or the social labour that +is performed depends, as is seen, on the adaptation of supply to +demand, and is a matter of organisation, of social direction. + +We have noticed that the Marxian theory of value is related to that of +the classical economists, but they are by no means the same thing. +Apart from some improvements and definitions which Marx made, they are +distinguished by the following conceptions: In the classical theory of +value, the capitalist who directs production and provides with his +capital the tools and raw materials of labour, markets the finished +commodity, and keeps going the processes of reproduction, appears as +the only creator of value: the wage worker is only one of his means of +production. In the Marxian theory of value, on the other hand, the +wage worker who transforms the raw materials into commodities, or +removes the raw materials to the place of production, appears as the +sole creator of value. Value is only created by the worker in +production, and in distribution connected therewith. + + +3. _Wages and Labour._ + +The worker appears to receive wages for his work. In reality he +receives wages as the equivalent for the labour power expended by him, +quite in accordance with the law of value, inasmuch as he receives by +way of exchange as much means of sustenance as is usual and customary +to replace the labour power he has expended, just as the working horse +receives as much oats and hay as are necessary to maintain it capable +of work. + +The capitalist and the worker exchange certain quantities of +commodities in proportions determined by economic laws (means of +subsistence against a quantity of the commodity, labour power, of +equal value, commodity for commodity, exchange value for exchange +value). + +As, therefore, the wages of labour signify a certain quantity of the +means of subsistence, so they increase even if their money form +remains unaltered with a fall in the price of the means of life, for +the worker is then in the position, with his unaltered wage, to buy a +greater quantity of the means of life. In the reverse case, if the +prices of the means of life rise, the wages of labour fall, even if +their money form remains the same as previously. This law of wages, +formulated by Ricardo, was accepted by Marx, but he did not content +himself with this acceptance. Ricardo regarded the capitalist world as +the only possible and reasonable one, at least at the time when he +wrote his "Principles," while Marx from the year 1843 adopted a +critical attitude towards it, and sought to negate it. Consequently, +he investigated further, and expressed himself somewhat as follows: + +The capitalist theoricians believed that the wages question was +disposed of when it was settled by the law of value. We know, however, +that every commodity possesses not only an exchange value, but also a +use value, and is bought for the sake of the latter. The use value of +the commodity labour power is distinguished in a very remarkable way +from the use value of all other commodities. + +The use or the employment of labour power creates exchange value, and +can create much more exchange value than itself possesses. + +The employer can make use of labour power so long that it not only +creates its own exchange value (the value of the means of +subsistence), but double this. To create the value of wages, the +worker needs five or six hours daily, but he is obliged to produce for +the capitalist during ten or twelve hours. If the worker were +independent he would only produce during one half of the working day +in order to receive his means of subsistence. This period of producing +Marx called "necessary labour." As he is dependent on the capitalist, +the worker must not only perform "necessary labour" but also surplus +labour: the worker can generally only find employment under the +conditions that, besides the time needed for himself, he also works a +definite number of hours for the capitalist without payment. Or, as +Marx says: "The fact that half a day's labour is necessary to keep the +labourer alive during the 24 hours, does not in any way prevent him +from working the whole day. Therefore, the value of labour power and +the value which labour creates in the labour process are two entirely +different magnitudes. And this difference in the two values was what +the capitalist had in view when he was purchasing labour power. The +circumstance that on the one hand the daily sustenance of labour power +costs only half a day's labour, while on the other hand the very same +labour power can work during a whole day; that consequently the value +which its use during one day creates is double what he pays for that +use, this circumstance is, without doubt, a piece of good luck for the +buyer, but by no means an injury to the seller." + +"No injury to the seller," which is quite correct from the standpoint +of Ricardo, but not from that of Marx. He often calls surplus value +"unpaid labour," and says, for example, "the capitalist appropriates +one half of every day's labour without payment." In other words, he +takes away something without return. This is a very distinct ethical +judgment. + +On the other hand, it is very important that in our consideration of +the wages question we have come up against the Marxian doctrine of +surplus value. For this doctrine is the cornerstone of the whole +economic system of Marx. + + +4. _Surplus Value._ + +We have already noted that Marx followed the classical economics in +his treatment of the theory of value, but improved the definition of +it, and brought it to bear on wages. In doing this he laid stress on +the conflict between Capital and Labour. + +The beginning of this dialectical process, so far as England was +concerned, was the work of the anti-capitalistic critics, who uttered +their protest about 1820, or three years after the appearance of +Ricardo's work. They declared, according to Ricardo, labour is the +source and the measure of value. And yet according to his opinion +labour is nothing and capital everything. + +This should be reversed: labour must be all, and capital nothing. This +literature was contemporaneous with the emergence of the English +revolutionary Labour movement, from which Chartism arose at a later +date. Piercy Ravenstone (1821) called capital a metaphysical (airy, +impalpable) entity. Hodgskin (1827) called it a fetish, whereas they +described labour as the economic reality. The expressions +surplus-product and surplus-value were already known to this +anti-capitalist school, with which Marx also connected himself when he +set to work to elaborate his criticism of political economy.[7] But +this literature supplied him with much less material for the +construction of the theory of surplus value than the formulation of +the theory of value of the classical economy. Besides, while the +English anti-capitalist critics, like Ravenstone, Gray, Hodgskin, and +J.F. Bray merely condemned surplus value as immoral and as the source +of all social wrongs, Marx used the theory of surplus value as the key +to unlock the mechanism of the capitalist system and to reveal its +workings, its tendencies, and its final destiny. This appears to be +the real difference between the English anti-capitalist critics and +Marx. In this matter he was obliged to perform most of the work +himself. The question he put was no longer "What is the substance of +wealth and how is it measured?" but "How is its growth and continual +accretions to be explained?" Capital is that portion of wealth which +is employed for the purpose of gain, of increase. Whence comes this +gain, this increase? The answer is as follows: + +All capital that is embarked on a productive undertaking consists of +two parts: one part is expended on the technical means of +production--on buildings, machines, tools, and raw materials, the +other on wages. The first part Marx calls Constant Capital (c), the +other part Variable Capital (v). The first is called constant, because +it only adds to the commodities just as much value as it loses in the +course of the productive process; it creates no fresh value: Marx also +calls it the passive portion. The outlay on wages is called variable +capital because it undergoes an alteration in the process of +production: it creates new additional value: Marx also called variable +capital the active portion, for it creates surplus value (s). + +This composition of capital of constant and variable parts Marx calls +its organic composition. He calls it average or normal composition +when the capital of a business is 80 per cent. constant and 20 per +cent. variable. If the constant part is higher, and the variable part +lower, he calls it capital of a high composition. + +Capital of under 80 per cent. constant portion and over 20 per cent. +variable portion he calls capital of a lower composition. And rightly, +because the higher the ladder of capitalist production is, the more +costly and extensive are the machinery and factory buildings and the +greater is the outlay on raw materials, whereas primitive businesses +employ less machinery, cheaper workshops, but a relatively greater +number of workers. The relation between (c) and (v) reveals at the +same time the stage to which production has developed. + +Thus, according to Marx, it is solely the variable capital which +creates surplus value, or, as it is commonly expressed, profit. We +have seen above, in the explanation of the nature of wages, why +variable capital creates more value than it is paid for by the +capitalist; the worker does indeed receive the exchange value of his +labour power, but the use value of the labour power functions, we have +assumed, twice as many hours as are necessary for its reproduction. +This surplus labour is embodied in surplus value. While the worker +receives, let us say, a daily wage of three shillings, for the +reproduction of which five hours of work suffice, his labour power +will be used for ten hours. These five hours of surplus labour appear +in the exchange value of the commodity, so that the value of the +commodity is composed of the transferred portion of the constant +capital, the outlay on wages, and the added surplus value. Immediately +before the production process only constant and variable capital +existed, or, in brief (c) and (v); after the completion of the +production process, the commodity embodies constant and variable +capital and also surplus value, or (c) and (v) and (s). This is the +actual value of the commodity, (c) or, shortly expressed, c + v + s. + +The relation between wages and surplus value, or between paid and +unpaid labour, or, shortly, s/v, Marx calls the rate of surplus value: +it expresses the degree of the exploitation of labour. + +If wages amount to three shillings, which can be produced in five +working hours, and if the worker works in the factory ten hours for +these wages, so that he creates exchange value to the amount of six +shillings, then the rate of surplus value is 100 per cent. The whole +of the surplus value which arises in this manner in the process of +production is called the mass of the surplus value, or shortly, m.s., +that is to say, the individual rate of surplus value multiplied by the +total number of workers engaged in an undertaking, or the total amount +of wages. + + +5. _Profit._ + +The mass of surplus value appears to the capitalist in the shape of +profit. Surplus value is a Marxian scientific term which exactly +expresses the principle of profit. Profit is a commercial expression +which describes surplus value as it appears in practical life as a +subject of experience, i.e., empirically. + +The distinction between the Marxian theoretical and the commercial +empirical conception is, however, not so simple: it arises from the +different conceptions of the influence of capital and labour in the +economic process. Let us explain it more distinctly. + +As is known, Marx divided the capital embarked in industrial +enterprise into two parts: into constant (technical means of +production) and variable (living labour power, wages). He assumed that +only the living labour power (wage labour) creates surplus value, +whilst the constant capital only adds its own value to the new +products. + +The capitalist divides his capital outlay otherwise: into fixed +(buildings and machines) and circulating (raw materials and wages) +capital. The fixed capital is only used up slowly and only passes +entirely into production during a series of years--let us say 15 +years: thus of a fixed capital of £75,000, £5,000 would each year be +consumed in the production of commodities, and written off in the +balance sheet. On the other hand, the circulating capital (raw +materials and wages) are wholly consumed in every period of +production, and must be renewed at the beginning of a new period of +production. + +Suppose an industrial undertaking about to be started requires a +capital expenditure of £105,000: £75,000 fixed capital (for buildings +and machinery), £20,000 for raw materials, £10,000 for wages. For +convenience sake, we will suppose that the period of production lasts +a year, and that the rate of surplus value amounts to 100 per cent., +that is, the labour power receives a payment of £10,000, and produces +a value of £20,000. At the end of the year, the capitalist reckons an +expenditure of £5,000 on account of fixed capital, and £30,000 of +circulating capital: the commodities produced cost, therefore, a net +outlay of £35,000. This is the cost price, without adding profit. +According to Marx, cost price signifies (c) and (v), therefore without +(s), (surplus value). + +But the capitalist knows that the manufactured commodities represent a +greater value than the cost price. According to Marx, the surplus +value amounts to £10,000 (as the variable capital of £10,000 creates +surplus value at the rate of 100 per cent.); but the capitalist adds +to the cost price a profit which includes the gains of the enterprise +and interest on the capital outlay. If the capitalist were alone in +the market, his profit might suck up the whole of the surplus value of +£10,000; but he has to reckon with competition and the state of the +market. The cost price, plus profit, is the production price as +established by the capitalist. But according to Marx, that is, in pure +theory, the production price is equal to the cost price, plus surplus +value. There is thus a quantitative distinction--a difference in the +amount of money--between the theoretical and practical production +price, as well as a qualitative distinction between the notions of the +capitalist and Marx respecting the source of profit. The capitalist +believes that profit is the result of the portion of capital which he +has put into the process of production, combined with his own +commercial ability. On the other hand, Marx asserts that the +capitalist can only extract a profit because the wage workers (the +living labour power) create a surplus value in the process of +production for which they receive no payment. + +We assumed that the surplus value amounted to 100 per cent. measured +with variable capital, and that £10,000 expended on wages produced +£20,000. The annual balance sheet, however, would show the percentage +of profit to the total outlay. Consequently, we must spread the +£10,000 surplus value over the £35,000 which have been expended. The +surplus value of an undertaking spread over the total capital (c) +Marx calls the rate of profit, or shortly, s/c = 10000/35000 = 28.58 +per cent. + +As a rule, the capitalist cannot sell under cost price without +becoming bankrupt, but he can quite easily sell under the production +price, and mostly does so. In the example already given, his rate of +profit amounts to over 28 per cent. According to the degree of +competition, or by reason of other circumstances which we will examine +in the next chapter, he can content himself with a rate of profit of +10, 15, or 20 per cent., which will serve him partly as an income and +partly be expended in the development of his enterprise. The 28 per +cent. profit generally forms a circle within which he fixes his +manufactured price. Under favourable circumstances he can add the +whole 28 per cent, to the price; under less favourable, only 20, 15, +or 10 per cent. Accordingly, several portions of surplus value remain +in the commodities which are not yet realised. What happens to them? +The remaining portions of profit or of surplus value fall to the large +or small traders who are interposed between producer and consumer, or +go in the form of interest to the banking institutions, in the event +of the capitalist operating with borrowed money. As the profit is only +realised in the process of circulation (in commerce and exchange) and +there divided amongst the various economic classes and sections, most +people believe that profit arises in commercial transactions. They do +not know that the price of a commodity can only be increased in trade +because its manufactured price was fixed below its price of production +or its value, that is, because the commodities contain surplus value +which is only gradually realised in the process of circulation. + +The social significance of this doctrine is far-reaching. If it is +correct, then all the social sections which are not engaged as manual +and brain workers in the process of production, or in the transport of +raw material, lead a parasitical life and consume the surplus value +which is squeezed by the capitalist class out of the proletariat and +appropriated without payment. + +Quite otherwise are capitalist ideas. According to them, profit is the +result both of the spirit of the enterprise and the ability of the +capitalist, added to that portion of the capital which is put into the +process of production: the machines and buildings and raw materials +which are used up, and the labour power, all of which are bought at +their proper exchange value. It is only fit and proper that the trader +and moneylender should receive a portion of the profit so created, for +they assist in realising the exchange value by bringing the +commodities to the consumer, and thus rendering possible the process +of production. + +Surplus value or profit? Labour or Capital? Behind this question lurks +the great class struggle of the modern social order. No wonder the +Marxian doctrine of value and surplus value was the occasion for an +extensive controversy, in which the famous problem of the average rate +of profit played a great part. + + +6. _The Average Rate of Profit._ + +According to Marx's doctrine of value and surplus value only variable +capital creates fresh value and surplus value. An industrial +undertaking of a lower organic composition, which thus employs much +variable capital and little constant capital, must consequently +create a greater surplus value or more profit than an industrial +undertaking of higher composition which may employ the same total +capital, but composed of greater constant and smaller variable +portions than the former. Let us take two industrial capitals of +£35,000 each. One expends £15,000 on the constant elements (machinery, +raw materials) and £20,000 on the variable element (wages of labour). +The other shows £20,000 constant part and £15,000 variable part. With +an equal rate of surplus value--100 per cent.--the first capital would +produce £20,000 surplus value (profit) and the other only £15,000 +profit. Experience shows, however, that equal amounts of capital--in +spite of temporary differences in profits--tend to produce equal +profits. From this, it would appear that it is actually the capital +expended and not the labour employed which determines the magnitude of +the surplus value (profit), that the concrete results of the +capitalist process of production do not confirm the Marxian theory of +value, that the facts directly contradict the theory. It was Marx +himself who drew attention to this problem. After he had constructed +his theory of surplus value in the form of a scientific law, he +continued: "This law clearly contradicts all experience based on +appearance. Everyone knows that a cotton spinner, who, reckoning the +percentage on the whole of his applied capital, employs much constant +capital and little variable capital, does not, on account of this, +pocket less profit or surplus value than a baker, who relatively sets +in motion much variable and little constant capital." + +How, then, can the equal rate of profit in the case of capitals of +different organic composition be harmonised with the theory of surplus +value? + +Marx concedes that equal capital sums whose organic parts are +unequally employed give an equal rate of profit, although the volumes +of surplus value created are different. Two capital sums of £50,000 +each, one of which, for example, represents £40,000 constant and +£10,000 variable capital, and with a rate of surplus value of 100 per +cent. gives £10,000 surplus value, while the other is composed of +£10,000 constant and £40,000 variable capital, and with an equal rate +of surplus value gives an amount of £40,000 surplus value, will +nevertheless yield an equal rate of profit, although theoretically +they would be unequal if the rate of surplus value directly determined +the rate of profit. In the first case, the rate of profit would amount +to 20 per cent. and in the second to 80 per cent. In reality both +undertakings yield an equal rate of profit. + +How is this explained, according to Marx? By means of competition, the +different rates of profit are levelled to a general rate of profit, +which is the average of all the various rates of profit. Thus the +capitalists do not realise the surplus value as it is created in any +particular factory, but in the form of average rate of profit as it is +produced by the operations of the total capital of society. The +average rate of profit may be lower or higher than the individual rate +of profit, for the "various capitalists," as Marx explains, "so far as +profits are concerned, are so many stockholders in a stock company in +which the shares of profits are uniformly divided for every 100 shares +of capital, so that profits differ in the case of the individual +capitalists only according to the amount of capital invested by each +of them in the social enterprise, according to his investment in +social production as a whole, according to his shares." + +While thus the individual rates of profit do not proportionately +coincide with the rates of surplus value, i.e., while the degree of +exploitation of the worker in the individual factory, and the volume +of surplus value thus individually created, do not directly determine +the individual rate of profit, it is the total mass of social surplus +value which is the source of the average rate of profit. If the mass +of the surplus value be large, the average rate of profit will also be +great. Marx says: "It is here just the same as with average rate of +interest which a usurer makes who lends out various portions of his +capital at different rates of interest. The level of his average rate +depends entirely on how much of his capital he has lent at each of the +different rates of interest." The higher the various individual rates +of interest, the higher will be the average rate of interest at which +his capital has been put out. + +The individual price of production signifies, therefore, cost price +plus the average rate of profit, and not plus surplus value: it does +not necessarily correspond with the total amount of the constant and +variable portions of capital employed in an individual enterprise, +plus the mass of the surplus value: the prices and magnitudes of value +of commodities are not manifestly equal, as Marx has often pointed +out. Of course, the total profits of the capitalist class coincide +with the total surplus value extracted from the working class, +provided, of course, that the supply of commodities corresponds with +the social needs. + +Thus the law of surplus value, in spite of all deviations and +refractions, holds good in the last resort. "In theory," observes +Marx, "it is assumed that the laws of the capitalist mode of +production develop freely. In reality, there is always only an +approximation." + +And the more capitalist production develops, the greater will be the +degree of approximation in particular cases, for the progress of +Capitalism signifies a continuous increase of constant capital, a more +mechanical character being given to industrial processes, and a +reduction of variable capital to the necessary minimum, so that the +differences in the organic composition of capitalist undertakings +become less, thus bringing the average rate of profit and the rate of +surplus value nearer to each other. + +This indirect and difficult method of realising profits involves the +fact that the capitalist does not distinctly observe the exploitation +of wage labour practised by him, but he believes that the profit is +owing to his own commercial ability. + +This difficult section of the outlines of the economic doctrines of +Marx can be most fitly concluded by quoting the comprehensive +observations of Marx himself upon this subject, which he gives at the +end of his book.--("Capital" (German), Vol. III., 2, pp. 355-6.) + +"In a capitalist society, this surplus value or this surplus product +(leaving aside accidental fluctuations in its distribution and +considering only the regulating law of these fluctuations) is divided +among the capitalists as a dividend in proportion to the percentage of +the total social capital held by each. In this shape the surplus value +appears as the average profit, which in its turn is separated into +profits of enterprise and interest, and which in this way may fall +into the hands of different kinds of capitalists. Just as the active +capitalist squeezes surplus labour, and with it surplus value in the +form of profit out of the worker, so the landlord in his turn squeezes +a portion of this surplus value from the capitalist in the shape of +rent. Hence when speaking of profit as that portion of surplus value +which falls to the share of capital, we mean average profit.... +Profits of capital (profits of enterprise plus interest) and ground +rent are merely particular constituents of surplus value.... If added +together, these parts form the sum of the social surplus value. A +large part of profits is immediately transformed into capital." In +this way, capital grows, or, as Marx says, accumulates. + + +7. _Surplus Value as Social Driving Force._ + +It has been said already that capital is that portion of wealth which +is devoted to the object of increasing wealth, of gain, the extraction +of profit or surplus value. This object dominates the capitalist +class; the desire for surplus value is the leading impulse and +principle motive of their activity. Goaded by this desire and +exclusively occupied with their special interests, this class +unconsciously and unintentionally develops the entire capitalist +system and leads it to ever higher and more comprehensive stages. + +Surplus value is thus the driving force of the history of modern +capitalist society. This principle is rigidly followed out by Marx in +his theoretical system, which aims at showing the rise and growth of +Capitalism. + +The capitalist is no scientific investigator: he is not clear himself +whether profit is created by a portion of the capital, or is the +result of personal productive forces, but he knows one thing--without +living labour power, without the wage worker, his whole capital +remains dead and does not increase; all the fixed capital and raw +materials are of no use to him so long as they are not set in motion +by living labour power and transformed into commodities. His efforts +are, therefore, primarily directed to making proper use of the living +labour power. Historically considered, little constant and relatively +much variable capital was employed in the primitive stage of the large +scale industry: there was as yet little machinery, and the chief thing +was the living labour power. The workers were not yet factory +proletarians in the modern sense, but artisans who had lost their +independent existence. + +The capitalist harnessed them and utilised their labour power and +special ability. Consequently, he strives to lengthen the working day, +in order that as many commodities and as much profit as possible may +be produced. + +If previously the wage worker had laboured ten hours, of which five +were devoted to the production of the value of his wages and five to +surplus value, he is now obliged to work for twelve hours, which +increases the period for surplus labour to seven hours. The surplus +value which is extracted through the lengthening of the working day is +called by Marx "absolute surplus value." + +Meanwhile, the capitalist learns by experience that if the workers are +so organised as to co-operate with one another, the productivity of +labour increases. From this arises the mode of labour which Marx calls +Co-operation, or a reorganisation of the workplace, which raises the +entire production of commodities to a higher level. The co-operation +of the workers in the process of production soon leads to the +discovery that, if the worker does not himself create the whole +product, but only a part thereof, he loses less time and becomes +quicker and more skilful in his work and produces more than +previously. This discovery leads to the "division of labour," which +indeed reduces the worker to the position of an automaton, or a living +machine, but considerably augments commodity wealth. Division of +labour again demands finer tools; mechanical problems arise to be +solved by mechanicians and engineers. This favours the progress of +mechanics. The growing commodity wealth, and the pressure to realise +it profitably, renders necessary more extensive markets; the need for +extension comes up against transport difficulties; transport problems +arise, to be solved by road and canal engineers. The increasing +variety of the labour process and the categories of commodities which +are produced results in new metallurgical, physical, and chemical +problems. Natural science flourishes. + +Meanwhile, things are not so peaceful in the places of manufacture. +The lengthening of labour the closer strain on their nerves and +muscles, as well as the arrangement of the work, cause the workers to +combine and struggle for improved conditions of labour. This struggle, +together with the progress of natural science, of technology, and the +expansion of markets, result in the discovery of machine technology, +of steam and electricity, the foundation of large-scale industry. + +The capitalist is impelled, on the one hand, to make himself as +independent as possible of living labour-power; on the other hand, to +increase the volume of his profits. The means thereto are offered him +by the new technical discoveries. Those workers who still possessed +some pride in handicraft, or as expropriated small peasants were not +able to submit to factory discipline, and showed themselves +rebellious, were partly replaced by the labour of women and children, +and partly curbed and made pliable. The labour time is repeatedly +lengthened, and the exploitation of the labour of women and children +assumes terrible proportions. The wage worker, who entered into the +manufacturing premises of the employer full of the pride of his +calling and often with his own tools, became then a small cog in a +gigantic, relentless piece of working machinery. + +In this extensive and hitherto unprecedented social transformation the +old forms of handicraft disappear: whole sections of society, which +are the representatives of the disappearing forms of handicraft, sink +into poverty, and augment the class of proletarians. The progress of +the industrial revolution extends also to agriculture: the greed for +surplus value (ground rent) leads to enclosure of common lands by the +great landlords, the independent yeomanry is decimated, the small +proprietor and small tenant are made proletarians. A transmutation of +social classes takes place; the urban population grows rapidly, the +country districts are depopulated: out of the revolutionary process +the outlines of two classes become more and more distinct: Capitalist +and Proletarian. + +Both the factory proletariat and the other social sections which adopt +a hostile attitude towards Capitalism react against the +health-destroying exploitation, and struggle for a normal working day. + +The working time is curtailed and bounds are set to the efforts of the +capitalist to lengthen the working day and obtain surplus value, but +soon the progress of machine technique compels the worker to labour +more intensely in the shorter working time: the accelerated movement +of the machine determines the pace and necessitates a sharper +straining of the nerves. Henceforth, the worker must compress into a +working hour as much effort as was previously expended in an hour and +a half. The surplus value which is extracted in this way Marx calls +"relative surplus value." The struggle of the workers to secure a +shorter working day is a powerful incentive to the manufacturers to +perfect their machinery, in order to increase the amount of relative +surplus value. The intensification of work or the creation of relative +surplus value is one of the most immediate effects and one of the most +striking features of advanced Capitalism. The understanding of this +new phase is a preliminary condition to the comprehension of the +Marxian system. In this matter, Marx goes considerably beyond the +anti-capitalist theoreticians who followed upon Ricardo. + +What happens when the capitalist observes that the extraction of +absolute surplus value comes up against an insurmountable obstacle? He +sets himself to fit up his enterprise with the newest and most costly +machinery, in order to supplant living labour-power and to work more +intensively the living labour-power which he employs. + +As, however, less living labour-power brings forth less exchange value +and less surplus value, he is obliged to multiply production, in order +to cover the fall in surplus value by a larger mass of commodities: if +the single commodity brings him less profit, he produces it in such +large quantities that the profit thereon is the same, or even greater, +than formerly. The more complicated machinery, the greater quantities +of raw materials consumed, and the relatively smaller amount of +labour-power signify obviously an alteration in the organic +composition of capital: the constant portion (machinery, raw +materials) preponderates more and more over the variable portion. If, +previously, the composition was 50 per cent. constant and 50 per cent. +variable, it becomes now something like 80 per cent.: 20 per cent. At +the same time, the initial capital is also increased greatly, as +machines and large quantities of raw and auxiliary materials demand +such increase of capital. If, for example, the initial capital +previously amounted to £100,000, divided into £50,000 constant and +£50,000 variable capital, it would now amount to £500,000, comprising +£400,000 constant and £100,000 variable. This organic composition +signifies: that relatively smaller masses of labour set in motion +large masses of technical means of production; labour is more +productive because more intense; the sum total of commodities is +increased; the profit on single articles is smaller, but the total +profit is greater; the reconversion of profits into capital proceeds +rapidly. + +The scale of production is more and more extended, and the amount of +initial outlay becomes ever greater, because only large capitals are +capable of creating relative surplus value in sufficient sums to +assure a profit on the enterprise and payment of interest, and thus +assist the accumulation of capital. + +The more extended scale of production is not possible to the less +powerful capitalist undertakings. They partly disappear and partly +combine in joint stock companies. The first alternative gives rise to +the concentration of the means of production in fewer hands, and the +second to the centralisation of the means of production. This is the +effect of the new organic composition of capital on the capitalist +class. + +The effect on the working class is not less profound. As long as the +hand-worker still played an important part in the works premises, as +long as the variable part was superior or equal to the constant part +in the organic composition of capital, as was the case prior to and at +the beginning of large-scale industry, the accumulation of capital +meant an increased demand for wage-labour. The position was changed as +Capitalism developed, in the manner just described. Although the mass +of capital grows, there is a relative decrease in the demand for +workers. For this growth of capital refers chiefly to the constant +part (machinery and raw materials), while there is a relative +shrinkage in the variable part; that means the worker is obliged to +consume a much greater quantity of raw material than formerly. + +And whereas the prices of commodities fall during the phase of the +high organic composition of capital, the period of necessary labour +(the hours needed for the reproduction of wages) becomes shorter, +while the period of surplus labour becomes longer. The great +industrial development therefore signifies for the worker: intensive +exploitation and relative over-population, a reserve army of +labour-power, which is absorbed by industry in times of prosperous +trade, and is speedily demobilised when the slump comes. In times of +good business the reserve army serves to check the wage demands of the +workers regularly employed, and in times of bad trade it serves to +depress wages. The outcome for the workers is as follows: + +"Within the capitalist system all methods for raising the social +productiveness of labour are brought about at the cost of the +individual labourer; all means for the development of production +transform themselves into means of domination over, and exploitation +of, the producers; they mutilate the labourer into a fragment of a +man, degrade him to the level of an appendage to a machine, destroy +every remnant of charm in his work, and turn it into a hated toil; +they estrange from him the intellectual potentialities of the +labour-process in the same proportion as science is incorporated in it +as an independent power; they distort the conditions under which he +works, subject him during the labour-process to a despotism the more +hateful for its meanness; they transform his life-time into +working-time, and drag his wife and child beneath the wheels of the +Juggernaut of Capital. But all methods for the production of surplus +value are at the same time methods of accumulation; and every +extension of accumulation becomes again a means for the development of +those methods. It follows, therefore, that in proportion as capital +accumulates, the lot of the labourer, be his payment high or low, must +grow worse. Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the +same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, +brutality, mental degradation at the opposite pole, i.e., on the side +of the class that produces its own product in the form of +capital."--("Capital" (German), Vol. I., pp. 660-1.) + +The result of the capitalist social order is the unfolding of the +productive forces, the efflorescence of science, the expansion of +material civilisation, the dividing of society into antagonistic +classes, the conferring of economic power on the few, and the +enslavement and degradation of the many. + + +8. _Economic Contradictions. Decay of Society and its Reconstruction._ + +As the ripening of the capitalist social order to its highest point +proceeds, its innate contradictions develop, and announce distinctly +the fact that Capitalism has outlived its usefulness, while new life, +a higher form of society, is emerging from its womb. The most +important contradictions are: + +The driving force of the capitalist is to obtain the largest measure +of surplus value or profit. The latest stage of Capitalism is, +however, marked by the fact of the high organic composition of +capital, which means that living labour-power, the source of surplus +value, has relatively decreased. The decrease of variable capital +signifies manifestly a lower rate of profit. Capitalism in normal +times exhibits a tendency towards a lowering of the rate of profit. +Therefore it gives rise to a phenomenon which contradicts the aim of +the endeavours of the capitalists. The capitalist strives to +accumulate capital, but as variable capital and the rate of profit +relatively decrease, a tendency towards the depreciation of capital is +revealed. The capitalist endeavours to counteract this tendency, and +to achieve his object by extending the scale of production, so that +the mass of commodities will compensate him for what he loses on them +singly. But while he furthers this object by resorting to a higher +organic composition of capital, he squeezes out the middleman, reduces +the numbers of workers in employment, and creates a relative +over-population, a reserve of those who are only employed +intermittently; there is a substantial shrinkage in the demand for +commodities, as the impoverished masses of the people have obviously +less purchasing power. The capitalist extends production, and at the +same time contracts the market. The upshot is over-production, +under-consumption--crisis: wasting of capital, restriction of +production, paralysis of the productive forces. And if Marx lived +to-day he would add: the developed economy of large-scale capitalism, +that is, the high organic composition of industrial capital, requires +enormous quantities of raw materials, which, in part, are only to be +had from tropical and sub-tropical countries, and also from eastern +Asia; the struggle for these sources of raw materials, and for access +to them, leads to wars in which capital sums of unprecedented amount +are destroyed. Since 1894 these wars over raw materials and trade +routes have broken out every few years. Economic crises and +imperialist wars; immeasurable destruction of capital and productive +forces. This is a consequence which stands in sharp contradiction to +the historical task of the economic order of Capitalism, and to the +immediate aims of the individual capitalists. + +Further, the capitalist tries from the beginning to create docile and +unresisting masses of workers, and yet unites and combines them by the +creation of large centres of production; the factories become centres +for the organisation of the workers, and for the welding of the +individual wills of the proletarians into a class will; they abolish +the scattered and antagonistic interests of single sections of the +workers, and consolidate them into a unified class interest. Finally, +the whole economic process, which began by resting on individualist +principles, has assumed a common character; thousands upon thousands +of hand and brain workers engage in production in economic +undertakings upon a single and uniform plan, with the aid of +productive implements which can only be used in common. + +The significance and tendency of these contradictions are sketched by +Marx in the great finale, which properly belongs to the concluding +chapter of the third volume: + +"As soon as this process of transformation has sufficiently decomposed +the old society from top to bottom, as soon as the labourers are +turned into proletarians, their means of labour into capital, as soon +as the capitalist means of production stands on its own feet, then the +further socialisation of labour and further transformation of the land +and other means of production into socially exploited, and therefore +common means of production, as well as the further expropriation of +private proprietors, takes a new form. That which is now to be +expropriated is no longer the labourer working for himself, but the +capitalist employing many labourers. This expropriation is +accomplished by the action of the immanent laws of capitalist +production itself, by the centralisation of capital. One capitalist +always kills many. Hand in hand with this centralisation, or this +expropriation of many capitalists by a few, develop on an +ever-extending scale the co-operative form of the labour process, the +conscious technical application of science, the methodical cultivation +of the soil, the transformation of the instruments of labour into +instruments of labour only usable in common, the economising of all +means of production by their use as the means of production of +combined, socialised labour, the entanglement of all peoples in the +net of the world market, and with this, the international character of +the capitalist regime. Along with the constantly diminishing number +of the magnates of capital, who usurp and monopolise all advantages of +this process of transformation, grows the mass of misery, oppression, +slavery, degradation, exploitation; but with this, too, grows the +revolt of the working class, a class always increasing in numbers, and +disciplined, united, organised by the very mechanism of the process of +capitalist production itself. The monopoly of capital becomes a fetter +on the mode of production, which has sprung up and flourished along +with it, and under it. Centralisation of the means of production and +socialisation of labour at last reach a point where they become +incompatible with their capitalist integument. This integument is +burst asunder. The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The +expropriators are expropriated."--("Capital," Vol. I. English edition, +chap. 84.) + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Compare M. Beer, "History of British Socialism," Vol, I., pp. +245-270. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +An appreciation of Marx can only be arrived at by adopting the Marxian +method. We must judge him in the same way as any other towering figure +in the realm of thought or of action. Marx was a child of his time, +and his system is a logical conception of certain economic and social +phenomena of his age, owing something to the pioneer work and thinking +of some of his predecessors. + +Two important events dominated his thinking: the French Revolution and +the English Industrial Revolution. Even apart from the statement of +Arnold Ruge that in 1843-44 Marx had collected a vast amount of +material for a history of the French National Convention, we know from +the work he did between 1844 and 1852 how profound was the influence +of the French Revolution on his intellectual life. Still deeper, +however, were the traces left upon his mind by the studies he made on +the economic transformation of England during the period 1700-1825. +Both events are obvious, catastrophic expressions of class movements +and class conflicts, in which the middle class, as the representative +of a higher economic order, gains the victory over autocratic forms of +feudal authority and oligarchic systems of organisation through State +regulation, in which, however, at the same time, a new class--the +working class--raises its head and begins to make a stand against the +victor. + +Marx was led to interpret these events in this way and to make them +the basis of his conception of history chiefly through the influence +of Hegel, Ricardo, and the English anti-capitalist school following +upon Ricardo. To the end of his life he clung to the opinion that +dialectic, as Hegel had formulated it, was indeed mystical but, when +materialistically conceived, contains the laws of the movement of +society. "The mystification which dialectic suffers in Hegel's hands +in no wise hinders him from presenting in a comprehensive and +intelligible manner its general processes."--(Preface to second German +edition of "Capital," 1873.) + +The splitting up of the concept into contradictories, and the +attainment of a higher positive through the negation of these +contradictories, that was what, to Marx's mind, constituted the +essence and the deepest meaning of the French Revolution and of the +English Industrial Revolution. Society, the positive, split up into +feudal and bourgeois, into two sharply divided contradictories, the +bourgeoisie appearing as the negation, to be supplanted by the +proletariat and so to make room for a Communist society, the higher +synthesis. + +What he got from Hegel in a mystical form found an economic expression +in Ricardo and the anti-capitalist school. Ricardo's writings, which +belong to the second decade of the nineteenth century and which +formulate, in the guise of a system of economics, the antagonisms and +the conflicts between industry and landed nobility, presented +themselves as a practical demonstration of the validity of dialectic. +The fundamental idea of Ricardo's system may be expressed as follows: + +Capital is the motive force of society and the creator of +civilisation, but the fruits of its activity are enjoyed not by +capital but by the landed nobility. That is the thesis; now for the +proof. The value of all commodities which can be made in any quantity +desired consists in the quantity of labour which is expended for the +purpose of producing them. The value is expressed in the costs of +production, the most important components of which are wages and +profit. Wages and profit stand in opposition to one another: if wages +rise, profit falls, and conversely. Wages consist in a definite +quantity of the necessaries of life, sufficient to keep the worker +effective. Wages must obviously rise whenever the cost of living +rises. The facts show that this is actually the case. The following +reasons make this clear. In consequence of the civilising effects of +capital, there is an increase in the opportunities for work and in +population, resulting in an increased demand for the necessaries of +life. Agriculture must be extended, but agricultural land is limited +and of varying quality. The extension of agriculture brings into use +the inferior kinds of land, which demand a greater amount of labour +for their cultivation. And as the amount of labour determines the +value of the commodity, the cost of living increases, and there is a +rapid rise in ground rents. The workers demand higher wages, whereby +the profits of the employers are diminished. But there is still +another circumstance to be taken into consideration. Whereas the +prices of agricultural products rise, those of industrial products +fall, since, in consequence of the invention of machinery and of the +superior division of labour, smaller quantities of labour are required +to produce manufactured goods. The result of the entire working of +capital for the civilised community is accordingly the reduction of +profits, the depreciation of capital, and the increase of wages. This +latter, however, is of no advantage to the workers, for food prices +rise higher and higher; on the contrary, the whole advantage falls to +the landed nobility, who do nothing for the furtherance of +civilisation, but who, through ground rents and protective tariffs, +receive everything. + +We have, then, in Ricardo a system of economic contradictions between +profit, wages, and rent, or between bourgeoisie, proletariat, and +nobility, in which the antagonism between bourgeoisie and proletariat +is still undeveloped. + +The year of the publication of Ricardo's "Principles" (1817) is the +year which witnessed the rise of English Socialism. In that year, +Robert Owen, in a public meeting in the City of London, declared +himself a Socialist. Three years later appeared the first criticisms +of Ricardo's political economy. In these it was argued that, according +to Ricardo, labour is the source of value, yet he considers capital as +the creative factor of society and the working class as a mere +appendage of capital. It must be the reverse; for the workers create +values together with the surplus products which are appropriated by +capital. In 1817, Robert Owen openly declares himself a Socialist; +four years later appears the anonymous letter to Lord John Russell; +Percy Ravenstone publishes his "Criticism of Capitalism," John Gray +his Lecture, and Hodgskin his pamphlet on the unproductive nature of +capital, in which he establishes the existence of a raging class +struggle. + +The deep impression which these writings made on Marx is clearly seen +in the second and third volumes of his "Theories on Surplus Value." +And he links on to them. He completed what Ricardo hinted at and what +the anti-capitalist school deduced from Ricardo. How Marx continued +and elaborated these deductions we haw already seen in Chapter 3, +"Outlines of Marx's Economics," and Chapter 7, "Surplus Value as the +Motive Force of Society," where capital is shown to be the mass of +surplus value of which the workers have been deprived. + +The deductions made by the English anti-capitalist school from Ricardo +signified, politically, the first awakenings of the English workers to +class-consciousness, to the struggle against capital. Just as +Ricardo's theory of value and rent was the battle-cry of capital +against the aristocracy--a battle-cry which created the free trade +movement and shattered the economic power of the landed nobility, so +the theory of value and surplus value was to become the battle-cry of +the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, the declaration of +independence, so to speak, of the working class. The English +proletariat lacked a philosopher who could work out the idea to its +logical conclusion, until Marx applied himself to the problem and +solved it, so far indeed as philosophical problems can be solved, by a +science which places itself at the disposal of a class movement. + +For it is impossible to set aside the view that Marx's theory of value +and surplus value has rather the significance of a political and +social slogan than of an economic truth. It is for Marx the basis of +the class struggle of the workers against the middle class, just as +Ricardo's theory of rent was the basis of the class struggle of the +bourgeoisie against the aristocracy, or as the doctrines of the social +contract and of the natural rights of man formed the basis of the +struggle of the middle classes against autocracy and divine right. +Such militant philosophies need not in themselves be true, only they +must accord with the sentiments of the struggling mass. It is with +such philosophical fictions that human history works. Marx's theory of +value explains neither the vast and unparalleled accumulation of +wealth nor the movement of prices during the last sixty years. Wealth, +measured in values, has, in the last few decades, increased by many +times the increase in living labour-power. In this connection the old +formula can be reversed: wealth increases in geometrical, living +labour-power in arithmetical progression. The greatest difficulty in +Marx is that the inventors and discoverers, the chemists and +physicists, the pioneers and organisers of industry and agriculture, +are not regarded by him as creators of surplus values. Thinkers, who +by chemical researches and discoveries double the productive capacity +of the soil and conjure forth values in millions from the waste +products of industry: physicists who place new sources of power and +new means of production at the disposal of mankind and multiply the +productivity of labour; organisers who co-ordinate the forces of +production and introduce new methods of working--all this creative and +directive work, demanding, as it often does, an infinite amount of +intensive intellectual effort, is not considered to increase the total +sum of exchange values of the nation. + +However, as far as the distribution of products is concerned, Marx's +theory is, generally speaking, correct; distribution is carried out +under the capitalist economic system not according to the amount of +productive work done, but in proportion to the outlay of capital and +the skill in commercial manoeuvring which obtains in the sphere of +circulation. + +Unique as an investigator of the laws of the proletarian movement, +eminent and even a great pioneer as a sociologist, Marx is, in respect +of economic theory, predominantly an agitator. His system, more than +any other system of Socialism or of political economy, is the +revolutionary expression of proletarian thought and feeling. His +doctrines of value, surplus value, the economic determination of +history, the evolution from Capitalism to Socialism, the political and +economic class struggle, will for long have the force of truth for the +masses and will continue to move them. + +Marx's heart must have been filled with joy and gladness when, out of +the elements of Hegel, Ricardo, and the English anti-capitalist +school, out of his studies of the French Revolution, of the English +Industrial Revolution, and of French and English Socialism there arose +a unified system whose destiny it was to lead mankind out of the +earth-bound history of the past into the new world wherein a spiritual +civilisation should fully blossom forth. Man is to quit the realm of +necessity and to enter into that of freedom, where he shall cease to +be a tool for the profit of others and shall rise to have a purpose of +his own, freely associating himself with his fellow men to work in the +service of all. + +"The realm of freedom, indeed, only begins there where work +conditioned by necessity and external utility ceases. According to the +nature of the thing, therefore, it lies beyond the sphere of actual +material production. Just as the savage must struggle with nature for +the satisfaction of his needs, for self-preservation and +self-reproduction, so too must the civilised man, whatever be the form +of society or the methods of production obtaining. Side by side with +his own evolution develops this constitutional necessity, because his +needs increase; but, at the same time, the forces of production which +satisfy these needs likewise increase. Freedom in this sphere can only +consist in this--that men in their social relationship, the associated +producers, should regulate this material exchange with Nature in a +rational manner and bring it under their united control, instead of +being governed by it as by some blind power; it should be carried on +with the minimum expenditure of energy and under conditions most +adapted to and most worthy of human nature. Yet it remains all the +same a realm of necessity. It is beyond this where that development of +human power, which may be called independent purpose, begins, the true +realm of freedom, which, however, can only flourish upon the basis of +that realm of necessity."--("Capital," Vol. III., 2, p. 355.) + + +The National Labour Press, Ltd., Manchester and London. 31258 + + * * * * * + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 37: FN4: Fouvierists replaced with Fourierists | + | Page 42: Wilhelm Wolf replaced with Wilhelm Wolff | + | Page 60: "That will give give them new" replaced with | + | "That will give them new" | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The life and teaching of Karl Marx, by M. 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