colspan="2">VIII. Lessons

Necessity of the social movement—Lorenz von Stein—"Class strife" not identical with civil war—Various forms of "class strife"—Struggle the solution in social life—Conflict not necessarily the beginning of a new culture—Can also betoken the end of the old—Social struggle should be determined within legal bounds—Must be carried on with proper weapons—English social agitation as a model.

Notable inventions of modern machinery—"Machine Riots"—Petitions against machines and manufactories—Laws for the protection of machines—Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations"—Robert Owen's chief writing's—Fourier's first great book—Complete removal of Elizabethan trade restrictions—The "Savannah" arrives at Liverpool—Chief work of St. Simon—More liberal coalition law—Opening of the Manchester-Liverpool Railroad—Insurrection of the silk workers in Lyons—Beginning of specific legislation for working men—Founding of the German Zollverein—Beginnings of German national industry—Introduction of Rowland Hill's penny postage—Telegraph first applied to English railroads—German governmental regulations for the repression of the working-men's movement—Severe laws of Napoleon III. for the repression of all social agitation—First World's Exposition in London—Bismarck forces the general, equal, secret, and direct ballot—Liberal trade regulation for the German Empire—Rapid development of capitalism in Germany, especially after the war—Trade-union act (English) supplemented in 1875—Law concerning the socialists in Germany—Beginning of governmental working-men's association in Germany—Insurance for the sick, against accident, for the sick and aged, in Germany—Endorsement of a legal establishment of the eight-hour work-day by the Trade-Union Congress in Liverpool—International Working-Men's Protection Conference in Berlin—Third International Working-Men's Congress in Zurich, at which English trade-unions deliberate officially with the Continental socialists—Fourth International Working-Men's Congress in London.

SOCIALISM AND THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT IN THE XIXTH CENTURY

CHAPTER IToC

WHENCE AND WHITHER

Goethe, Urworte.

When Karl Marx began a communistic manifesto with the well-known words, "The history of all society thus far is the history of class strife," he uttered, in my opinion, one of the greatest truths that fill our century. But he did not speak the whole truth. For it is not fully true that all history of society consists exclusively in struggle between classes. If we would put "world history" into a single phrase we shall be obliged, I think, to say that there is an antithesis around which the whole history of society turns, as around two poles: social and national—using the word national in the widest meaning. Humanity develops itself into communities, and then these communities fight and compete with each other; but always within the community the individual begins to strive for elevation over others, in order, as Kant once expressed it, to make distinction of rank among his fellows, whom he does not like, from whom, however, he cannot escape. So we see on the one side the exertion of the community for wealth, power, recognition; and on the other side the same exertion, by the individual, after power, wealth, honour. These, as it seems to me, are the two matters which in fact fill all history. For history begins as this antithesis unfolds itself. It is merely a figure of speech, and you must not be shocked by the harsh expression, as I say that human history is a fight either for food division, or for feeding-place, upon our earth. These are both great contradictions which constantly emerge, which invariably control mankind. We stand to-day at the conclusion of an historic period of great national pride, and in the midst of a period of great social contrasts; and the varying views, world-wide in their differences, which obtain day by day in different groups of men, all lead back, as it seems to me, to the alternative, "national or social."

Before I now proceed with my theme, "Socialism and the Social Movement in the Nineteenth Century,"—that is, to one member of this antithesis, the social,—I would first suggest the question: "What is a social movement?" I answer: By a social movement we understand the aggregate of all those endeavours of a social class which are directed to a rational overturning of an existing social order to suit the interests of this class. The essential elements in every social movement are these: First, an existing order in which a certain society lives, and particularly a social order which rests chiefly upon the manner of production and distribution of material goods as the necessary basis of human existence. This specific system of production and distribution is the point of issue for every social movement. Secondly, a social class which is discontented with the existing conditions. By a "social class" I understand a number of similarly interested persons, especially persons who are similarly interested in economic matters—the distinctive point; that is, of men who are interested in a specific system of production and distribution. We must, in understanding any social class, go back to this economic system; and we should not allow ourselves to be blinded or confused by the inbred notions of certain classes. These prepossessions, which frequently control, are only bulwarks of classes differing economically. And, thirdly, an aim which this class, discontented with the existing order of things, holds up to reach; an ideal, which presents compactly all that for which the society will agitate, and which finds its expression in the postulates, demands, programmes of this class. In general, where you can speak of a social movement you find a point of issue, the existing social order; a supporter of the movement, the social class; an aim, the ideal of the new society.

In what follows I shall attempt to give some points of view for an understanding of a specific—the modern—social movement. But what do we mean by the phrase "to understand a social movement"? This: to comprehend the social movement in its essential historic limitations, in its causal