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* SOCIAL CONTBACT. 286 SOCIALISM. rights. Each, therefore, entered into a contract with all by which he agreed to divest himself of the natural liberty of hindering his fellow men in their efforts to obtain the same right. The will of an inchoate sovereign person or collec- tion of per.sons was substituted for the individ- ual will of each. Only so nuich power was sur- rendered as was deemed to be necessary for the common good. The theory of the social compact as a means of accounting for the origin of existing institu- tions is now generally considered to be a legal fiction. The application of the theory as the starting point in the evolution of the State pre- supposes a highly developed State life, which is never consciously present in the minds of primi- tive individuals. Such a consciousness is at- tained onlj' by historical development. Anthro- pology has proved that the pre-social savages described lv the advocates of the social contract theory were totally incapable of conceiving the idea of contract as a means of State organiza- tion. Consult: Hobbes, Leviathan; Locke, Treatises ore Government ; and Rousseau, Contrat social, and for a critical appreciation of this remark- able essay, Morle.v, I'otisscau {London, 1873) ; also Fenton. Theory of the fiociril Compact (New York, 1891). SOCIAL DEBTOK CLASSES. A term that has come into use in the literature of pauperism and criminology, and to some extent in the litera- ture of social reform, to designate all of those elements in a modern population that either prey upon society or obtain from its bounty more than they give back in useful work. Not only criminals, paupers, and mendicants are in- cluded in the. social debtor classes, but also the non-self-supporting defectives and degenerates, and those relatively inefficient members of the wages class who are continually being thrown out of employment because of carelessness, in- difference, or other incapacity. Radical re- formers who insist that most of the misery of the defective and degenerate is caused by social injustice deny that the classes designated as social debtors are such in fact, and say that if the term has any meaning at all it can most appropriately be applied to the idle rich who live on accumulated property and render no definite service to the community. See Ch.^rities ; CHARiTy Oeganization Society ; Depexdent.s, Defectives, Delinquents; Degeneracy; Men- dicancy; Social Settlements; Sociologt; So- cialism. SOCIAL DEMOCEACY. See Socialism. SOCIAL INSECTS. See Insect. SOCIALISM (from social, from Lat. socialis, relating to com]ianionship. or association, from socius, companion, associate, from seqiii, to fol- low; connected with Lith. sekti, Gk. iircaSai, hepesihai, Skt. sac, to follow, and ultimately with Eng. see). As the term is now used, social- ism is an ideal economic system in which indus- try is carried on under social direction and for the benefit of society as a whole. It is contrasted with the competitive regime of existing society. The word socialism has lieen used to convey a variety of meanings, and is only gradually assum- ing a definite significance, as a result of the care- iul analysis of generations of socialistic think- ers and their critics. Moreover, the ideal or- ganization of socialism has to a great extent been inlluenccd by actual industrial changes. An earlier term by which socialism was known is communi.sm (ij.v. ). Efforts to distinguish communism from socialism cannot be said to have been successful. Sometimes communism is used to refer to the voluntary organization of small bodies of men who have common property, and who carry on production in common, sharing among themselves the fruits of their toil, as a rule, in such a way as to give each one an equal allotment of economic goods, but not of honors and consideration. In this sense commiuiism may be distinguished from socialism in that the latter implies a thor- oughgoing reconstruction of society through po- litical action, while the former calls upon men to separate themselves from general society, and to form communal societies for themselves. Socialism is sometimes called collectivism. Those who employ tliis term feel that their schemes of social reform are more likely to secure a hearing if called by some other name than socialism. For a time in the United States the term nationalism, introduced by Edward Bellamy in his book Looking Backiiard, was synonymous with socialism. The origin of the word socialism has been the subject of much discussion. It has been claimed that it was first used in 1840 by a French writer, Louis Reybaud. in his Etiulrs xiir les rcformn- teurs coniemporains ou socinlistes modcrnes. The word, however, was used in the early thir- ties in England, and the puldications of the fol- lowers of Robert Owen show that it had become current before 1840. John Spargo in the Com- rade of March, 1903, traces the word socialism back to 1833. In addition to the terms socialist and social- ism, we have the terms social democrat and social democracy very commonly used as synonymous. It was long supposed that these words Avcre of German origin. Imt at least as far back as 1838 they were coined by Bronterre O'Brien, an early socialist, who took part in the Chartist agita- tion. The words were used by O'Brien in oppo- sition to any aristocratic socialist schemes and in advocacy of democratic socialism. The constituent elements of socialism and its most essential characteristic must next be exam- ined. The lack of scientific accuracy in popular writings concerning socialism shows that this complex conce])t is not generally understood, al- though its formulation has lieconie clear and pre- cise enough, so that it should not be difficult to gi'asp its essential elements. Socialism implies, in the first place, a changed .attitude towards property. Our economic life is dominated at the present time by private property, and in all cases, even where public property is largest in amount, it appears as an exception to a general rule. The world's work is carried on imder the dominatioft of private property. Socialism means that this process is to be reversed and that the world's work will ultimately be dominated by public property. Acciunulated wealth is divided by modern econ- omists and socialists alike into productive goods and enjoyment goods. Productive goods, as the term suggests, signifies those kinds of wealth which are not used for immediate enjoyment, hut