Socialism As It Is

W >> William English Walling >> Socialism As It Is

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45

The Socialist indictment is not that unemployment, irregularity of
employment, or any other social evil is increasing absolutely, or that
it is beyond the reach of capitalist reform; but that _the share of the
constantly increasing total of wealth and prosperity that goes to the
laborers is constantly growing less_.

A few minutes later in the same speech, Mr. Berger indorsed pure "State
Socialism." Legislation, he said, that does not tend to _an increased
measure of control on the part of society as a whole_ is not in line
with the trend of economic evolution and cannot last. This formulates
capitalistic collectivism with absolute distinctness. What it demands is
not a new order, but more order. What it opposes is not so much the rule
of capitalists, as the disorder of capitalism--which capitalists
themselves are effectively remedying. It is not only our present
government that is capitalistic but our present society, also. Increased
control over industry, over legislation and government, on the part of
the present society _as a whole_, would be but a step toward the
achievement of _State capitalism_. The purpose of Socialism is to
overcome and eliminate the power of capitalism whether in society or in
government, and not to establish it more firmly. Increased control by
society as a whole, far from being a Socialist principle, is not
necessarily even radical or progressive. In fact _the most far-seeing
conservatives_ to-day demand it, for "_control by society as a whole_"
means, for the present, _control by society_ as it is.

Finally, in reply to questions asked on the floor of Congress after this
same speech, Mr. Berger said: "Any interference by the government with
the rights of private property is Socialistic in tendency," that is,
that every step in collectivism is a step in Socialism. Yet this demand
for the restriction of the rights of private property by a conservative
government is the identical principle advocated by progressives who will
have nothing to do with Socialism. (See Part I, Chapter III.)

Mr. Berger and the large minority of Socialist Party members that vote
with him in Party Congresses and referendums may be said to represent a
combination of trade unionism of the conservative kind, and "State
Socialism," together with opportunistic methods more or less in
contradiction with the usual tactics of the international movement.
These methods and the indiscriminate support of conservative unionism
have been repeatedly rejected by the Socialists in this country. But
very many Socialists who repudiate all compromise and will have nothing
of Australian or British Labor Party tactics in the United States are in
entire accord with Mr. Berger on "State Socialist" reform. It is thus a
modified form of "State Socialism" and not Laborism that now confronts
the organization and creates its greatest problem.

Mr. Charles Edward Russell, for example, says that "we are not striving
for ourselves alone, but for our children," that "our aim is not merely
for one country, but for all the world," that "we stand here immutably
resolved against the whole of capitalism."[165] And Mr. Russell will
hear nothing either of compromise or of a Labor Party. But when we come
to examine the only question of practical moment, how his ideal is to be
applied, we are astounded to read that, "every time a government
acquires a railroad, it practices Socialism."[166]

Mr. Russell points out that "almost all the railroads in the world,
outside of the United States, are now owned by government," yet in his
latest book, "Business," he refers to Prussia, Japan, Mexico [under
Diaz], and other countries as having boldly purchased railways and coal
mines when they desired them _for the common good_.[167] Mr. Russell
here seems to overlook the fact that the history of Russia, Japan,
Mexico, and Prussia has shown that there is an intermediate stage
between our status and government "for the Common Good," a stage during
which the capitalist class, having gained a more firm control over
government than ever, intrusts it (with the opposition of but a few of
the largest capitalists) with some of the most important business
functions.

Yet Mr. Russell himself admits, by implication, that government by
Business "properly informed and broadly enlightened" might continue for
a considerable period, and therefore directs his shafts largely against
Business Government "as at present conducted," and he realizes fully
that the most needed _reforms_, even when they directly benefit the
workingmen, are equally or still more to the benefit of Business:--

"In the first place, if the masses of people become too much
impoverished, the national stamina is destroyed, which would be
exceedingly bad for Business in case Business should plunge us into
war. In the second place, since poverty produces a steady decline
in physical and mental capacity, if it goes too far, there is a
lack of hands to do the work of Business and a lack of healthy
stomachs to consume some of its most important products.

"For these reasons, a Government for Profits, like ours, incurs
certain deadly perils, _unless it be properly informed and broadly
enlightened_.

"Something of the truth of this has already been perceived by the
astute gentlemen that steer the fortunes of the Standard Oil
Company, a concern that in many respects may be considered the
foremost present type of Business in Government. One of the rules
of the Standard Oil Company is to pay good wages to its employees,
and to see that they are comfortable and contented. As a result of
this policy the Standard Oil Company is seldom bothered with
strikes, and most of its workers have no connection with labor
unions, do not listen to muck-rakers and other vile breeders of
social discontent, and are quite satisfied with their little round
of duties and their secure prospects in life....

"Unless Business recognizes quite fully the wisdom of similar
arrangements for its employees, Business Government (_as at present
conducted_) will in the end fall of its own weight."[168] (My
italics.)

Surely nobody has given more convincing arguments than Mr. Russell
himself why Business Government should go in for government ownership
and measures to increase the efficiency of labor. Surely no further
reasons should be needed to prove that when a government purchases a
railroad to-day, it does not practice Socialism. Yet the reverse is
sustained by a growing number of members of the Socialist Party (though
not by a growing proportion of the Party), which indicates that the
Socialism of Bebel, Liebknecht, Kautsky, Guesde, Lafargue, and the
International Socialist Congresses is at present by no means as firmly
rooted in this country as it is on the Continent of Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

[144] _Journal of Political Economy_, October, 1911.

[145] In her "American Socialism of the Present Day" (p. 252) Miss
Hughan _denies that there are many varieties of American Socialism_, and
says that the assertion that there are is justified only the many shades
of _tactical policy_ to be found in the Party, "founded usually on
corresponding gradations of emphasis upon the idea of catastrophe."

I do not contend that there are _many_ varieties of Socialism within the
Party either here or in other countries, but I have pointed out that
there are _several_ and that _their differences are profound, if not
irreconcilable_. It is precisely because they are founded on differences
in tactics, _i.e. on real instead of theoretical_ grounds that they are
of such importance, for as long as present conditions continue, they are
likely to lead farther and farther apart, while new conditions may only
serve to bring new differences.

[146] Eugene V. Debs in the _International Socialist Review_ (Chicago),
Jan. 1, 1911.

[147] The _Social-Democratic Herald_ (Milwaukee), Oct. 12, 1901.

[148] The _Social-Democratic Herald_, Feb. 22, 1902.

[149] The _Social-Democratic Herald_, May 28, 1904.

[150] _Press Despatch_, Aug. 26, 1911.

[151] _New York Journal_, April 22, 1910.

[152] _Social-Democratic Herald_, Vol. XII, No. 12.

[153] _Social-Democratic Herald_, Vol. XII, No. 12.

[154] _Social-Democratic Herald_, Vol. XII, March 24, 1906.

[155] The following account is taken from the Garment Workers'
Bulletin:--

"Recently the hod carriers in San Francisco presented a petition to
their employers for increased pay and pressed for its consideration.
This gave the members of the National Association of Manufacturers the
opportunity they longed for to open war in San Francisco, and they
promptly availed themselves of it. The petition was refused, of course,
and two large lime manufacturers in the city took a hand. The
contractors resolved on heroic measures, and work was stopped on some
sixty buildings to 'bring labor to its senses.' Then Mayor McCarthy came
into the controversy. He called his board of public workers together and
remarked: 'I see all the contractors are tying up work because of the
hod carriers' request. Better notify these fellows to at once clear all
streets of building material before these structures and to move away
those elevated walks and everything else from the streets.' The board so
ordered. Then Mr. McCarthy said: 'Notice that those lime fellows are
taking quite an interest in starting trouble. Guess we had better notify
them that their temporary permits for railroad spurs to their plants are
no longer in force.' And due notice went forth. The result was that the
trouble with the hod carriers was settled in a week, and the
contemplated industrial war in the city was indefinitely postponed...."

[156] The _Bridgeport Socialist_, Oct. 29, 1911.

[157] The _New York Times_, Oct. 20, 1911.

[158] _New Yorker Volkszeitung_, Dec. 9, 1911.

[159] _New York Evening Post_, Nov. 13, 1911.

[160] _Collier's Weekly_, Dec. 9, 1911.

[161] _Saturday Evening Post_, Nov. 18, 1911.

[162] The _Outlook_, Aug. 26, 1911.

[163] The _New York Call_, Aug. 14, 1911.

[164] W. R. Shier in the _New York Call_, Aug. 16, 1911.

[165] Speech at Carnegie Hall, New York, Oct. 15, 1910.

[166] _Hampton's Magazine_, January, 1911.

[167] "Business," p. 290.

[168] "Business," p. 114.

CHAPTER V

REFORM BY MENACE OF REVOLUTION

An American Socialist author expresses the opinion of many Socialists
when he says of the movement: "It strives by all efforts in its power to
increase its vote at the ballot box. It believes that by this increase
the attainment of its goal is brought ever nearer, and also that _the
menace of this increasing vote_ induces the capitalist class to grant
concessions in the hope of preventing further increases. _It criticizes
non-Socialist efforts at reform as comparatively barren of positive
benefit_ and as tending, on the whole, to insure the dominance of the
capitalist class and to continue the grave social evils now
prevalent."[169] (My italics.)

Because non-Socialist reforms tend to prolong the domination of the
capitalist class, which no Socialist doubts, it is asserted that they
are also comparatively barren of positive benefit. And if, from time to
time and in contradiction to this view, changes are bought about by
non-Socialist governments which undeniably do very much improve the
condition of the working people, it is reasoned that this was done by
the _menace_ either of a Socialist revolution or of a Socialist
electoral majority.

"A _Socialist_ reform must be in the nature of a working-class
conquest," says Mr. Hillquit in his "Socialism in Theory and
Practice"--expressing this very widespread Socialist opinion. He says
that reforms inaugurated by small farmers, manufacturers, or traders,
cause an "arrest of development or even a return to conditions of past
ages, while the reforms of the more educated classes if less reactionary
are not of a more efficient type."

"The task of developing and extending factory legislation falls entirely
on the organized workmen," according to this view, because the dominant
classes have no interest in developing it, while the evils of the slums
and of the employment of women and children in industry can be cured
only by Socialism. Such reforms as can be obtained in this direction,
though they are not considered by Mr. Hillquit "as the beginnings or
installments of a Socialist system," he holds are to be obtained only
with Socialist aid. In other words, while capitalism is not altogether
unable or unwilling to benefit the working people, it can do little, and
even this little is due to the presence of the Socialists.

Another example of the "reformist's" view may be seen in the editorials
of Mr. Berger, in the _Social-Democratic Herald_, of Milwaukee, where he
says that the Social-Democrats never fail to declare that with all the
social reforms, good and worthy of support as they may be, conditions
_cannot be permanently improved_. That is to say, present-day reforms
are not only of secondary importance, but that they are of merely
temporary effect.

"There is nothing more to hope from the property-holding classes."

"The bourgeois reformers are constantly getting less progressive and
allying themselves more and more with the reactionaries."

"It is impossible that the capitalists should accomplish any important
reform."

"With all social reform, short of Socialism itself, conditions cannot be
permanently improved."

These and many similar expressions are either quotations from well-known
Socialist authors or phrases in common use. Many French and German
Socialists have even called the whole "State Socialist" program
"social-demagogy." As none of the reforms proposed by the capitalists
are sufficient to balance the counteracting forces and to carry society
along their direction, Socialists sometimes mistakenly feel that
_nothing whatever of benefit_ can come to the workers from capitalist
government. As the capitalists' reforms all tend "to insure the
dominance of the capitalist class," it is denied that they can cure any
of the grave social evils now prevalent, and it is even asserted that
they are reactionary.

"For how many years have we been telling the workingman, especially the
trade unionist," wrote the late Benjamin Hanford, on two successive
occasions Socialist candidate for Vice President of the United States
"that it was folly for him to beg in the halls of a capitalist
legislature and a capitalist Congress? Did we mean what we said? I did,
for one.... I not only believed it--I proved it." Obviously there are
many political measures, just as _there are many improvements in
industry and industrial organization_, that may be beneficial to the
workers as well as the capitalists, but it is also clear that such
changes will in most instances be brought about by the capitalists
themselves. _On the other hand, even where they have a group of
independent legislators of their own_, however large a minority it may
form, the Socialists can expect no concessions of political or economic
power until social revolution is at hand.

The municipal platform adopted by the Socialist Party in New York City
in 1909 also appealed to workingmen not to be deluded into the belief
"that the capitalists will permit any measures of real benefit to the
working class to be carried into effect by the municipality so long as
they remain in undisputed control of the State and federal government
and especially of the judiciary." This statement is slightly inaccurate.
The capitalists will allow the enactment of measures that benefit the
working class, provided those measures do not involve loss to the
capitalist class. Thus sanitation and education are of real benefit to
the workers, but, temporarily at least, they benefit the capitalist
class still more, by rendering the workers more efficient as wealth
producers.

The Socialist platforms of the various countries all recognize, to use
the language of that of the United States, that all the reforms indorsed
by the Socialists "are but a preparation of the workers to seize the
_whole_ power of government, in order that they may thereby lay hold of
the _whole_ system of industry and thus come to their rightful
inheritance." (Italics are mine.) This might be interpreted to mean that
through such reforms the Socialists are gaining control over parts of
industry and government. Marx took the opposite view; "the first step in
the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the
position of ruling power...." He left open no possibility of saying that
the Socialists thought that without overthrowing capitalism they could
seize a _part_ of the powers of government (though they were already
electing legislative minorities and subordinate officials in his day).

Sometimes there are still more ambiguous expressions in Socialist
platforms which even make it possible for social reformers who have
joined the movement to confess publicly that they use it exclusively for
reform purposes, and still to claim that they are Socialists (see
Professor Clark's advice in the following chapter). For example,
instead of heading such proposals as the nationalization of the
railroads and "trusts" and the State appropriation of ground rent
"reforms indorsed by Socialists," they have called such reforms, perhaps
inadvertently, "_Immediate Demands_," and the American platform has
referred to them as measures of relief which "we may be able to _force_
from capitalism." There can be no doubt that Marx and his chief
followers, on the contrary, saw that such reforms would come from the
capitalists without the necessity of any Socialist force or
demand--though this pressure might hasten their coming (see Part I,
Chapter VIII). They are viewed by him and an increasing number of
Socialists not as _concessions to Socialism forced from the capitalists,
but as developments of capitalism desired by the more progressive
capitalists and Socialists alike, but especially by the Socialists_
owing to their desire that State capitalism shall develop as rapidly as
possible--as a preliminary to Socialism,--and to the fact that the
working people suffer more than the capitalists at any delay in the
establishment even of this transitional state.

The platform of the American Party just quoted classes such reforms as
government relief for the unemployed, government loans for public work,
and collective ownership of the railways and trusts, as measures it may
be able "to force from capitalism," as "a preparation of the workers to
seize the whole power of government." But if the capitalists do enact
such reforms as these, not on the independent grounds I have indicated,
but out of fear of Socialism, as is here predicted, why should not the
process of coercing capitalism continue indefinitely until gradually all
power is taken away from them? Why should there be any special need to
"seize" the whole power, if the capitalists can be coerced even now,
while the government is still largely theirs?

Some "reformists" do not hesitate to answer frankly that there is indeed
no ground for expecting any revolutionary crisis. Mr. John Spargo feels
that reforms "will prove in their totality to be the Revolution itself,"
and that if the Socialists keep in sight this whole body of reforms,
which he calls the Revolution, "as the objective of every Reform," this
will sufficiently distinguish them from non-Socialist reformers. Mr.
Morris Hillquit also speaks for many other influential Socialists when
he insists that the Socialists differ from other Parties chiefly in that
they alone "see the clear connection and necessary interdependence"
between the various social evils. That there is no ground for any such
assertion is shown by the fact that the social evils discussed in the
capitalist press, and all the remedies which have any practical chance
of enactment, as is now generally perceived, are due to extreme poverty,
the lack of order in industry, and the need of government regulations,
guided by a desire to promote "efficiency," and to perfect the
_capitalist_ system. Non-Socialist reformers have already made long
strides toward improving the worst forms of poverty, without taking the
slightest step towards social democracy. These reforms are being
introduced more and more rapidly and are not likely to be checked until
what we now know as poverty and its accompanying evils are practically
abolished _by the capitalist class while promoting their own comfort and
security_. This, for example, is, as I have shown, the outspoken purpose
of Mr. Lloyd George and his capitalistic supporters in England.
Similarly, it is the outspoken purpose of the promoters of the present
"efficiency" movement among the business men of America. However the
material conditions of the working classes may be bettered by such
means, their personal liberty and political power may be so much
curtailed in the process as to make further progress by their own
associated efforts more difficult under "State Socialism" than it is
to-day.

The State platform of the Socialist Party of New York in 1910, while
seemingly self-contradictory in certain of its phrases, makes the
sharpest distinctions between Socialism and "State Socialist" reform.
Its criticism of reform parties is on the whole so vigorous and its
insistence on class struggle tactics so strong as to make it clear that
there is no expectation of reaching Socialism through reforms granted,
from whatever motive, by a non-Socialist majority. I have italicized
some significant phrases:--

"The two dominant political parties pretend to stand for all the
people; the so-called reform parties claim to speak for the good
people; the Socialist party frankly acknowledges that it is
concerned chiefly with the working people....

"The great fortunes of the wealthy come from the spoliation of the
poor. Large profits for the manufacturers mean starvation wages for
the workers; the princely revenues of the landlords are derived
from excessive rents of the tenants, and the billions of watered
stock and bonds crying for dividends and interest are a perpetual
mortgage upon the work and lives of the people of all generations
to come....

"_No political party can honestly serve all the people of the
state_--those who prey and those who toil; those who rob and those
who are robbed. _The parties as well as the voters of this state
must take their stand in the conflict of interests of the different
classes of society_--they must choose between the workers and their
despoilers.

"The Republican and Democratic Parties alike always have been the
tools of the dominating classes. They have been managed, supported,
and financed by the money powers of the State, and in turn they
have conducted the legislatures, courts, and executive offices of
the State as accessories to the business interests of those
classes.

"These vices of our government are not accidental, but are deeply
and firmly rooted in our industrial system. To maintain its
supremacy in this conflict the dominating class _must_ strive to
control our government and politics, and must influence and corrupt
our public officials.

"The two old parties _as well as the so-called reform parties of
the middle classes_, which spring up in New York politics from time
to time, all stand for the continuance of that system, hence they
are bound to perpetuate and to aggravate its inevitable evils...."

The New York Party had immediately before it the example of Mr. Hearst,
who has gone as far as the radicals of the old parties in Wisconsin, or
Kansas, Oklahoma, California, or Oregon in verbally indorsing radical
reform measures, and also of Mr. Roosevelt, who occasionally has gone
almost as far. Day after day the Hearst papers had sent out to their
millions of readers editorials which contain every element of Socialism
except its essence, the class struggle. The New York Party, like many in
other Socialist organizations, found itself _compelled by circumstances
to take a revolutionary stand_.

For when opportunistic reformers opposed to the Socialist movement go as
far as the Hearst papers in indorsing "State Socialist" reforms, what
hope would there be for Socialists to gain the public ear if they went
scarcely farther, either as regards the practical measures they propose
or the phrases they employ? If the "reformist" Socialists answer that
their _ultimate aim_ is to go farther, may they not be asked what
difference this makes in present-day affairs? And if they answer that
certain reforms must be forced through by Socialist threats, political
or revolutionary, will they not be told, first that it can be shown that
the whole "State Socialistic" reform program, if costly to many
individual capitalists, promises to prove _ultimately profitable_ to
the capitalist class, and second, that it is being carried out where
there is no present menace either of a Socialist revolution or even of a
more or less Socialistic political majority.