Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/718

 696 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL a cleparture unsanctioned in the first instance by the Union, where the cult of orthoclox Lassallism was still paramount. Lastly, a thircl ally appeareel on the fielcl in the shape of the (Marxistic) 'Social Democratic Labour Party,' anxious likewise to insure their share. With this organizing of tracles unions, the Social Democratic party in Germany ceasecl to content themselves with merely critizing the economic orcler of things ancl keeping only the final aim of their efforts in view, that icleal State of the Future. They perceivecl that the working masses were not to be permanently revolutionizecl by such methocls. They were now much more eager to interfere directly in practical life, making patent to working men what great advantages they would reap at oce by combining en masse according to their callings. Thus was the great food-problem withdrawn from the sphere of 'grey theory' into the midmost world of practice throbbing with life and energy. For the changed state of things in the future held out thus far by Socialist leaders to loyal believers was, if promised as finally sure, a matter of promise only. If now they were able by strikes and other mass-movements to achieve an actual curtailment of the working-day, support in illness, increase of wages and so forth, these payments on account would very considerably raise their credit. This volte-face is faithfully reflected by the official organ, .the Volks- staat, in the following passage, given verbatim, 'By far the greater number of working men have no fancy for attempting anything by way of politics. Besides, they are not easily aroused. They are most accessible to such points as increased wages, short hours, sick and travelling funds. This thoroughlly practical bent of the working-class must be turned to account by those, who know and have experienced that industrial organization is naturally and historically the chosen instrument for helping labour gradually to supremacy.' The following is a synopsis of the culminating utterances of the Volksstaat concerning the attitude of Social Democrats towards labour unions in different trades, and contains even at the present day the quintessence of the social politics of Communism with respect to the subject in question. Just as the gilds of the craftmasters in the Middle Ages were unconsciously the means by which the borgeoisie wasemancipated, so the trade-unionism of the day is to be as the means to the emancipation of the proletariate. The mass of have come to look with distrust on all pohtca_ partms, at whose hands they have often suffered ill-usa