Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/540

LEFT SOCIALISM 476 SOCIALISM wherein workers were to establish iso- lated colonies and produce and enjoy collectively. Fourierism made some im- pression in this country, and was taken up actively by Horace Greeley and Albert Brisbane in the forties. The communist colonies resulting from their preachings and writings form a whole phase of the early history of Socialism in this coun- try, though they, too, met nothing but failure. This is what is generally known as the Utopian stage of Socialism, in which idealists sought to jump immediately to idealistic conditions, merely by organiz- ing society on their principles. This was followed by what modern Socialists call scientific, or evolutionary, Socialism, which they declare has its basis in the laws of social evolution. The founder of this more elaborate scheme of social betterment was Karl Marx, who was born of Jewish parents, in Treves, Prussia, in 1818, and had the advantages of a first class education, studying at Jena, Bonn and Berlin. As a result of the revolutionary disturbances in Germany, in 1848, he was expelled from Prussia and settled in London, where he made a meagre living as Lon- don correspondent for Greeley's New York "Tribune." For several years he studied political economy and kindred subjects in the British Museum Library. The result of his long labor was a volu- minous work, "Capital," which he pub- lished in German, in 1867. This work is the Bible of a large proportion of present-day Socialists. Marx, however, had already published his ideas on Socialism, in collaboration with Frederich Engels ; together, in 1848, they had issued what is considered by their many followers the most important piece of literature in the history of So- cialism, the "Communist Manifesto." Though only in the form of a short pam- phlet, probably no other piece of litera- ture, except the Bible, has been more frequently quoted. Nor has any other writing, except the Bible, been more va- riously interpreted. Three theoretical propositions constitute the fundamental basis of the "Communist Manifesto." They are: the materialist conception of history; the class struggle; and the theory of surplus value. The first implies that all history, that is, the activities of all nations, has been dictated by economic conditions. The second im- plies that through all history there have always been two classes antagonistic toward each other; the master class, liv- ing parasitically on the second class, which is made up of the workers, the producers. This class struggle, under the capitalist system, centers about surplus value, which the master class extracts from the working class at the point of production. The workers are compelled to work with tools owned by the capi- talist class. For this work they receive merely enough wages to subsist, while the surplus value of their labor is ap- propriated by the capitalist class. The higher the degree of perfection in ma- chinery and large-scale factory organiza- tion, the bigger becomes this margin, and the more powerful becomes the capitalist class. Correspondingly the pressure on the working class grows, until it becomes intolerable, and the latter rises in revolu- tion and overthrows the master class. Marx, Engels and their disciples were not interested in politics, in the form of political parties. This was natural, since at that time the suffrage was very much restricted in European countries. The change would not be brought about by politics, but by an intensification of the class struggle. Agitation should be car- ried on to create "class consciousness" among the workers. The intensification of the misery of the workers would be an ally of the agitators. Finally, when class consciousness had become a quality of a large majority of the workers, they would rise in revolution, overthrow the master class and seize political power, which would bring about the "dictatorship of the proletariat." Once in power, the pro- letariat would organize industry on a col- lective basis, all members of society would have to become workers, and class rule would give place to pure Socialism, or Communism. This is the program of the purely Marxian Socialists. These are the principles on which was founded the International Workingmen's Associa- tion, in Paris, in 1864, and which a few years later was removed to New York in a moribund condition, there to be un- obtrusively interred. For the Marxian program did not work out according to schedule. Trade unions improved the conditions of the workers. Legislation, backed by so-called capitalist parties, also improved their conditions. Suffrage was widened, and the political parties bid for the support of the working classes. All this tended to impede the development of "class consciousness" and of its final climax, the social revolution. Finally the rank and file of the socialist organizations began to insist on participation in politics. They wanted candidates elected to office, especially rep- resentatives sent to the legislative bodies. The staunchest of the Marxians fought this tendency, some to the present day. These have been known as the "impossi- bilists," or "direct actionists." The majority, however, succumbed to the prospects of political party power.